Five years ago.

And he had just moved to town.

And, uh, a buddy of ours, a mutual friend, uh, said, "You know, Jim's here," and we reached out, and we actually went to ...

I have some property there.

And we picked you up in the bus, and we went fishing at my land.

I c- I grilled out, we cooked, had dinner, we talked, we laughed, had a great evening, and we hit it off from there.

Mm.

I think there, there's great golf everywhere, but it, the, the experience the people have and the experience you have with the people when you do that, those are the clubs that are my favorite clubs.

How was your relationship and friction with the label throughout the, throughout your career?

Horrible.

Yeah, horrible.

But I mean, it, it became-- It got good because they, I, I, um, when I started, I was, Centers Like Me was our first album, and it, this was a time that females dominated the genre.

And we were very non that and with our music, and it didn't go great.

And they got to a point where they were, they were about to drop me.

We put out the Carolina album, and they were trying to steer, and I was at that time in a desperation way for a couple songs letting them steer a little bit 'cause I was about to lose my record deal.

Mm-hmm

Tell us, did you think your speech would receive the kind of attention it's been receiving?

No, Wolf, I didn't think about that.

I mean, the moment, I have such respect and admiration as a born and bred Tar Heel for the university and the administration there and just being a North Carolinian.

I really was just thinking about the moment and being in that stadium and being in that environment and being with kids of that age.

in a tumultuous time in their life where the way I grew up is not the way that they grew up.

And for me, it's interesting to look at now with what's happened with it, but I'll admit it was a creative approach to get the message out there, but the message is a foundational message that has been around for many generations.

It was faith, it was family, it was spouse, it was community, it was ambition, resilience, and individuality.

Tell us more about crafting this address and how your own life experiences help shape it.

Somebody sent you that interview.

It's-- I've not seen that since it, it happened.

I had played Friday, and the shooting was on a Sunday, and that following Tuesday, I was playing the Grand Ole Opry.

Somebody sent me that right after the, the, the shooting had happened, and it was such a, um...

Something broke in me when, when that happened.

On stage was always this place that, for all my life, that I could go, and whatever was happening in my personal life or anything, I could go on stage, and I had that moment of communion, um, with the fans, and, and the spirit moves, and we give it to each other back and forth, and that was safe for me.

And it never occurred to me that there could be any way for that to not be safe.

What, what about that?

false what's the truth

um i came to town um was different with what music I was writing.

And early on, it wasn't great.

You know, you come to town and you learn what real, I mean, I say this to all young artists, is you can't imagine, and a lot of people dog now a lot of the songwriting thing and say, well, it's Nashville songwriters.

Nashville songwriters are the best in the world.

I mean, they are the greatest craftsmen in the world.

And it took me a minute to come to town.

hear the song Devil Went Down to Georgia?

So how did you arrive at this sound when you were thinking about this album?

So, I'm al- I'm always looking at, at least for me, is, um, I've always tried to challenge our, our fans.

And we've done this many times in our career.

And to me, as an artist, it's my job when you make an album that you're not just making another album that could have been tied onto something else.

I want, I want some jarring moments.

I want some things that make 'em go, "Whoa, I didn't think we were heading there." But I think that's, as an artist, that's your job.

If you're making albums and you care about progression, and you care about, "This is what I want," um, I always kind of go back to, uh, an incredible opportunity to hang an album on the wall of, of music, country music, rock, whatever.

(laughs)