Yeah.

And he said, you know, I know it's a special song to you and it should be because Lee, this is just a great song.

And I said, no, yes, absolutely.

Please do.

And then I had, you know, actually one of the bigger songs too was a song called Crazy Girl that Eli Youngman recorded.

And I actually got a tattoo on my arm because when you're a songwriter getting a song of the year, is kind of the pinnacle, you know, if you write a song of the year.

And it became a song of the year.

I'm sure you're a very proud husband and father.

So in this kind of a situation, what gets you up every day to do what you keep doing?

Honestly, man, I, I...

it, it's the same thing that it got me up in the first place.

I, I just still have a drive to connect with people with my music, and I have to.

So to do that, I gotta go, just like I thought when I was 10, I was like, "Well, I wanna do that.

I wanna, I wanna be a singer," when I heard on the radio.

I said, "Well, I guess to do that, I better learn..." 'Cause I thought, okay, when I heard George Strait, I thought he wrote the songs, played the songs, recorded all the songs, produced them, and sang them, right? That's what I assumed as a 10-year-old kid.

I gotta know about that.

tell me about this album I

mean it was such a process and like even like I mean it's been a three and a half year process you know and it started out with with with X amount of songs and they're all kind of like we get them done and had like other album titles like I was like oh this this record is going to be called you me and my guitar I was out on the road doing a tour like that and it kind of like me and like you out in the audience and my guitar we've been doing this all these years got a song on there called that's really special but then kind of got in all that and then got on the road we thought we were like gonna be done and have the record out like in june and then i got on the road with a couple of good buddies and we just happened to like get on this magic tear and we wrote eight songs and i cut seven of them i was like well i gotta put them on this record and so then while i was recording those songs I wrote a few more.

And so long story short, it went from like 17 songs that was just going to come out and it was going to be called, you know, uh, you, me, my guitar.

And then when we wrote all those songs, we were up all night and every, we'd be on the bus and we would like see the sun coming up.

And so this tireless idea came to go write this song called sunriser.

And, um, And then that just started to overcome what this whole record might encompass.

And then when it became, OK, we got 32 songs, we might need to make it like a double kind of an album, sort of how you want to call it.

god's talking to me right now

But what do you make of the song and of the accusations that this is just AI country?

I mean, the truth is, is I know Luke very well.

And he, those words and how, and his music that he likes to make, for the most part, you know, he's had a couple like serious songs, you know, that, you know, that were personal to him.

But for the most part, he truly, all he wants to do is have fun and hunt and fish like he's and like be in the outdoors and like that is truly what he is so for him to just go say it and keep it simple and i mean i wrote a song you know called absolutely nothing one time because my manager at one point had said one of my managers had said i mean why can't you just go write something right down the middle like you know like on the radio like i said you mean like just a song about absolutely nothing i said okay here you go i'll call you back in five minutes and i just wrote this song called absolutely nothing but then a buddy of mine recorded it and you know it got on an album so it's just fun and that's what luke does and i mean he look He writes those songs anytime he wants to.

He didn't have to go AI it.

I can promise you that.

He likes to just be simple.

What's the album about? How is it different from things you've done in the past, or is it the same message?

Yeah.

I mean, I didn't know anything.

And so I, I went into the, to the room and this, this guy walks in and he's my age and, uh, he pulled up in like a, I had my Ford Ranger right there, he had a little S10.

Chevy S10.

(laughs) And, uh, he comes in and he kind of was singing this real country stuff, you know.

And, uh, I remember he sang like a couple songs and Doug, Doug said, "All right, well, listen." (smacks lips) He said, "Man," he said, "you're really talented." He said, "I," he said, "But I gotta tell you," he said, "I just think, I think you," and he said, "I'm just, you know, being honest.

I think you just probably need to go, you go, go home back, back to Georgia and, like, play your, your circuit." And, like, he said, "You could be so successful there and just do that." He said, "I just," he said, "I just don't know that there's anything in this town for you," you know.

Yeah.