Trace Adkins poses on a leather couch in all-black

Trace Adkins

Photo: KRISTIN BARLOWE

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Trace Adkins On His New Star-Studded Album 'The Way I Wanna Go,' Bantering With Blake Shelton & Celebrating 25 Years In Music

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Trace Adkins talks to GRAMMY.com about his epic new album, 'The Way I Wanna Go,' his return to touring, and what his career bucket list still holds
Jessica Nicholson
GRAMMYs
Aug 23, 2021 - 12:19 pm

When touring came to a halt in March 2020 due to COVID-19, Trace Adkins faced the most leisure time he's experienced since launching his career 25 years ago with his debut project Dreamin' Out Loud. Rather than taking it easy, he focused on a myriad of projects, including filming three movies and heading into the studio to create his 25-song album, The Way I Wanna Go, due out Aug. 27 via Verge Records.

"We started recording for the album in 2019. Then COVID came along last year and we just kept cutting [records] because there wasn't anything else to do," Adkins tells GRAMMY.com. "COVID has been horrible for everybody else. I feel guilty saying this, but for me, it was awesome. It was one of the most productive years of my life."

It wasn't just one of the most productive, but also one of his most collaborative years, too. The album features music with Adkins' country star pals including Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton as well as collaborations with Melissa Etheridge, Keb' Mo', Pitbull and Snoop Dogg; Stevie Wonder even contributes harmonica. It also features Adkins' signature, deep baritone at its finest.

"This is the first record that I've made that I wasn't gigging at the same time that I was making the record," Adkins says.

"In the past, I would come in off the road on a Sunday, rest a couple of days, then go to the studio. Doing this record, I was going in the studio with weeks of vocal rest. My producer, Mickey Jack Cones, who has been working with me for like 15 years, said, 'I've never heard your voice this strong. It's better than it's ever been.' I've never had an opportunity to make a record where my voice was rested. I think it shows in the vocals on this record, and it's probably the best record I've ever made. If it's the last record I ever make, then it was a good one to go out on."

GRAMMY.com caught up with the "Where the Country Girls At" singer about his epic new album, The Way I Wanna Go, his return to touring and what his career bucket list still holds.

You have a surprising range of collaborators on this album.

That was my producers, Mickey and Derek George, coming up with these ideas. Some of them, I thought, "That's crazy." Like, Snoop's not going to do a record with me. But they said, "Well, we're going to reach out to him and see," and these people said yes.

You collaborate with Melissa Etheridge on "Love Walks Through The Rain." Looking back over your discography, you've only recorded one other duet with a female artist on your albums—with Colbie Caillat. What drew you to working with Melissa?

It's hard for me to do duets with females because my voice is so low. It takes a particular kind of voice to blend with my voice, and Melissa's is perfect. I've never sang with a female that blended with my voice, the way her voice blends with mine. We felt this song lended itself to a duet. She recorded her vocal part and sent it to us and it just killed me, absolutely killed me. It was perfect.

"Memory to Memphis" features Keb' Mo' and harmonica from Stevie Wonder. How did that come about?

Keb' and I have known each other for years. I met him at an awards show one night, I can't even recall now which one it was. He told me that he was a fan of mine. I said, "I can't believe that. Wow. GRAMMY Award-winning Keb' Mo' likes my stuff."

That was a huge feather in my bonnet, so to speak. We've been threatening to record together for years—he lives here in Nashville. We finally got around to working together. This was the perfect song for Keb' to do, that Delta blues sounding kind of thing.

The Stevie Wonder thing happened just by accident. My attorney in New York represents Stevie. We sent him an advanced copy of the album, he heard that song and thought, "Oh wow, I'm going to play that for Stevie. I think he'd like the song." Stevie said he wanted to play harmonica on it, and of course, I loved that. I wish he would've sang on it, but he played harmonica and that was more than I could've ever asked for.

You co-wrote "If I Was a Woman," and brought in Blake Shelton to sing on it. This song previously appeared on the deluxe version of your album Proud To Be Here. You and Blake have a long history, with your previous collaboration "Hillbilly Bone" earning a GRAMMY nomination. 

Blake had to do it with me, because I would've beat him up if he wouldn't have done it. Somebody should have videoed that day we went to the studio together—I wish I had it for posterity's sake because we laughed so much. I can't even believe we actually got a good vocal on the song because we were laughing the whole way through it.

I wrote that song with him in mind. I wanted to do this duet with him, this back-and-forth kind of thing because that's what we're like in real life. We're always digging at each other. I talked to him on the phone this morning and that's just the way we relate to one another.

There's plenty of good-natured bantering throughout the song, but especially at the end.

That was all just off the cuff. We had to choose what kind of banter we put in there, because it was endless. Probably the stuff that is the funniest, we couldn't even put it on the record.

You have co-written some of your own hit songs, such as "There's a Girl in Texas" and "The Rest of Mine." You co-wrote two tracks on this album. What is your writing process like?

Honestly, I've become such a lazy songwriter. I had a hand in a lot of songs on this record, but my name doesn't appear as a writer because I will get a hook or melody stuck in my head. Then I think, "Okay, whose wheelhouse is this in?" I've been in this town so long now and have so many world-class songwriter friends, like Monty Criswell, who wrote a lot on this record. I'll call him and go, "Okay man, here's the idea. Here's the melody and the groove." We're friends, we've known each other for decades. Then a couple of weeks later, I get the song and it feels like I wrote it.

I don't always enjoy the process of hammering out a song. I love when a song idea is so clear and so obvious, that it's finished in 30 minutes or an hour. I don't like those songs that take multiple meetings to hammer it out. I'm being honest in saying that, it's just not something that I enjoy too much anymore. But I love hanging out and going fishing with my writer friends—we write songs like that, too.

You have often released songs that honor military members and veterans, such as "Arlington" and "Still a Soldier." You do that on this project with "Empty Chair," about a group of military veterans who meet at a coffee shop. What do you recall about hearing that song for the first time?

It slayed me. You can just visualize the lyrics. It's one of those songs that you don't have to really have a video, because you can see it as you listen to the lyrics. Every small town in this country has, hopefully, that little diner—I know my hometown did—where those guys can meet every morning, have a cup of coffee and solve the world's problems. It's a beautiful song. I'm so fortunate that I got to cut that.

The title track, "The Way I Wanna Go," feels like an anthem of your life perspective.

It encompasses everything that I would want to say, if that was the last song that I ever recorded. I'm going to go out the way I want to go out. Nobody's going to show me to the door. Nobody's running me off. My fans aren't going to allow you to cancel me or run me off. They allow me the freedom to say what I want to say, and sing what I want to sing. That's a beautiful place to be.

You are slated to join Blake on his Friends and Heroes Tour this month.

We hope. I mean, the way things are getting now with COVID—they canceled shows in D.C. and Philadelphia, so I wouldn't be surprised if more happens, but who knows.

How are you and your team handling COVID precautions out on the road?

Fortunately, we haven't run into any problems in that respect. I don't worry about it. I'm still doing meet and greets. I don't even really think about it. I mean, if you think I'm irresponsible for conducting myself in that manner, oh well, that's just how I live my life. I'm not going to live in fear. I'm not going to worry about that stuff. You can be scared if you want to, but I'm not going to worry about it. It's been proven that I'm hard to kill.

In addition to making this album, you worked on three movies over the past year or so, including Apache Junction, which releases September 24.

I worked on Apache Junction and the day after I left the set in March 2020, they shut down production because of COVID. They didn't get to finish it for a while, that's why it took so long for that movie to get done. It was a Western and I'm pretty much relegated to playing cowboys or bikers.

You also played a music manager in 2018's I Can Only Imagine.

Yeah, every now and then I get to play something different. I did a shark movie a month or so ago. I'll look at the script and if it's something that I think I can do believably, I'll do it. With acting, I really get a kick out of it.

When people ask me why I do movies, I tell 'em it's because my favorite days in the music industry are still the days when I'm in the studio with these incredibly talented musicians, and we take this raw piece of material and hopefully turn it into something beautiful—that's what it's like to be on a movie set. You're surrounded by these incredibly talented people. Everybody there is bringing their creative best to the set. I'm going to keep doing it as long as somebody will let me.

Are there other types of music projects you still want to make?

I still want to do a crooner record. I want to do a gospel record. There's still a lot of projects I want to do.

What is your dream movie role?

A mute gunfighter that gets all the girls. I don't have to learn any lines.

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Chase Rice

Chase Rice

Photo: Jason Myers

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Chase Rice On His Brotherhood With Florida Georgia Line, Being Unafraid Of "Bro-Country" And Finishing 'The Album'

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Following a string of hits throughout the 2010s, country singer/songwriter Chase Rice has finally capped off his three-part 'The Album' project. And getting to the finish line meant embracing himself for who he is
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 4, 2021 - 4:11 pm

When people make the delineation between "real country" and "pop country," which clichés do they lob at the oft-maligned version? They might cite trucks, dogs and America—or the mere act of sitting around a firepit, quaffing brews and discussing the man upstairs. Enter Chase Rice, who does not care even a little bit about what the critics think—or subverting their expectations. 

For those opposed to such themes, one of his latest tunes is a provocation: "Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God, Amen." "The biggest thing for me with that is, that's my life. If you've got a problem with it, go listen to somebody else's music," Rice tells GRAMMY.com over Zoom from his Nashville home. "That's literally what I did over the last year: Sat around a fire and drank a piss-load of beer."

And if even the most ardent "real country" gatekeeper doesn't at least mumble the chorus under their breath for the rest of the day, they must not know a hook when they hear one.

"Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God, Amen." is part of the bluntly titled The Album, Rice's three-part smorgasbord that has trickled onto streaming services over the past year and change. (Part I arrived in January; Part II joined it mid-year.) The final third—nicknamed Part III—is out now and marks the completion of this boozy, earworm-filled triptych, which also boasts bangers like "Forever to Go" and "Down Home Runs Deep."

Now that The Album is done and Rice can dust off his hands, what's to come? Those would be the tunes Rice wrote during quarantine—and they promise to dig even deeper into his psyche. No matter what the results will be, though, know this: Rice will be himself, and not what anyone wishes he was.

GRAMMY.com caught up with Rice to discuss his long history with collaborators the Florida Georgia Line, sloughing off the "bro-country" conversation and what's next as gigs rev up again.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me how you teamed up with Florida Georgia Line. What's your history with those guys?

I grew up playing little league baseball and soccer with Brian [Kelley], so we grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, together. He's been a huge, huge part of my journey, to be honest.

I moved to Nashville and lived in a house with him and Tyler [Hubbard]. But even before I moved to Nashville, he was playing guitar; I learned to play guitar during that time. [I was] probably in high school. He moved to Nashville, and the first time I ever visited, he said, "Yeah, you're gonna meet my buddy Tyler later. We're kind of starting this duo called Florida Georgia Line." This is probably back in 2009. The first time I ever visited, though, we played around at a place called Hotel Indigo. I was in the middle, Tyler was at my right and Brian was at my left. That was the first time I was like, "Damn, y'all are dialed." I had never even sung into a microphone before, so I was the rookie. Then, I moved to Nashville in 2010, we wrote "Cruise" probably in 2011, and it was off to the races for me as a musician, me as a writer.

Then, we went our separate ways because we wrote a ton of songs together, but when that happened, it was just like, "Damn. They're flying." They skyrocketed. Then, I was left to go figure out who I was as a writer and how I could get better at writing songs without them, which was huge.

Ten years later, here we are, back together. It was kind of Brian's idea. He heard the song on Instagram and was like, "Hey man, this is badass. Let's go [do it] like the old days. Let's produce it together and just have some fun doing music again." [Then,] Brian texted me one night and was like, "Hey man, I'll tell you how we make this special." It [would be] a CRFGL collab. As soon as he said that, I was like, "Yep, perfect."

It's interesting how you guys took different trajectories. Before you came into your own, how did you know they had something special going musically?

I can tell you right away: That first time at Hotel Indigo, I was like, "Man, these guys are good." They had something special. They had a connection. They worked well together. Their voices were great together. But the songs they were writing were them. Whether they were hits or not back then, they were them. They owned who they were.

The day we wrote "Cruise," I remember Brian being like, "Man, we were writing for meals all the time." On the day we wrote that, I was like, "Man, this is huge for FGL. I'm telling you." He believed in it more than anybody. At that point, they had Joey Moi, who kind of grabbed ahold of them a little bit. All I knew was that he was the producer for Nickelback. I was like, "Damn. That's big!"

Joey really brought that song to life—Joey's and Tyler's voices together. So when that happened, I remember one day, he came home from tour. They were kind of the opening band on everything. They were out there working it. I said, "Do you think we're actually going to have a No. 1 off this thing?" He was like, "Ah, dude. It's just a matter of how long it's going to be No. 1."

It seems like you have that quality in your music too. You're not afraid to be yourself.

I think the biggest thing for me was once they went and did their thing, that was when I had to figure out what my thing was. "Who am I? What the hell am I going to sing about?" And that was when my voice really started homing in. That led all the way up to 2017, when "Eyes on You" happened. That was the beginning of me figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do. It took me that long!

I was like: I don't care! I don't care what people say about my music anymore. Because I'm looking out and that's what matters. People out there at the shows, screaming the songs back to me. That's what matters. Because there was a whole movement of people hating bro-country, whatever you want to call it. I was just like, "Man, I'm not being sucked into that anymore." Around 2017, I was like: I'm going to what I want to do, come hell or high water. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. At least I was myself.

That's continued into the album. That's continued into "Drinkin' Beer, Talkin' God" and "Lonely if You Are." Even on Pt. III, it's got a song called "The Nights" on it that's completely different than "If I Didn't Have You." They're completely different things, but they're both me. That's where I'm at. I'm just really enjoying making my own music.

Do you consider yourself to have a little bit of EDM in your sound?

Yeah, I mean, s**t, I go back in the day to Foo Fighters, Green Day, all the way to Eminem, Blink-182. So many different influences. Also, I have Garth Brooks, George Strait, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney. I've got a lot of different noises in my head of what I want to do, and that's the hardest part about albums when you're an artist like that: You've got to figure out what makes the album, what puts it together and [which] your songs you're willing to move forward with.

Obviously, those artists are so different, but I think what binds them is big hooks and big melodies. That "walloping a ball out of the park" feeling. I feel that quality in your music.

That depends on who I'm writing with. I wrote a song two days ago with Rhett Akins and Chris LaCorte. Freaking huge melodies. Anthems. Holy s**t. I'm going to sing the hell out of this. Then, I've got three songs that I sat right here and wrote with just me and an acoustic guitar, and those are completely different. So, that's part of the challenge: Piecing those [together] and putting them on a record. But if it's my voice and it's me singing a song and making sure that I believe it, then it all comes together and it's OK.

Going back to "bro-country": It seems kind of like you're taking those tropes and bending them to your will. Somebody might sniff at that music and be like, "Oh, it's just about beer and God." And you're like, 'That's exactly what it's about."

The biggest thing for me with that is, that's my life. If you've got a problem with it, go listen to somebody else's music. That's literally what I did over the last year: Sat around a fire and drank a piss-load of beer. It wasn't just God; we had conversations about everything. About my buddy's kids, about life, about our pasts, about our struggles, about what we're excited about.

And God's a big part of that. God's a big part of my life. Not because I'm this guy who's going to preach to people, who's got his s**t together. God's a part of my life because I'm f**ked up. That's a lot of the conversations I had with buddies last year, and beers were involved. When alcohol's involved, the truth tends to come out, for whatever reason.

I'm going to sing about what's in my life, and that's been even more solidified through the last year. Living life normally again for the first time in 10 years. That's why I'm real excited about Pt. III, but I'm also real excited about what's coming next. That's going to be the songs I wrote mostly during quarantine.

It sounds like you're going to go even deeper, more introspective than before.

It's going to have some dark stuff. It's also got a lot of positive stuff. It's not close to done. I'm figuring it out. I'm not trying to write anymore. You walk in at 11:00 and leave at 4. It's like: Man, I'm tired of that. I'm never going to do that again, really. When I'm home during the week, when I'm touring, I'm going to chill. I'm going to relax. I'm going to golf.

And then, when it's time to home in and write a record—which is what I'm going to do; I think we're going to Montana for about four days to write—it's all we're doing. We're going to fish; if we don't write a song that day, whatever. We're going to get ideas, piece them together, and by the time we leave that retreat, we're going to have exactly what we need.

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Ingrid Andress

Ingrid Andress

Photo: Jess Williams

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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Ingrid Andress On Finding Her Sound—And Breaking Country Norms With It

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Following the release of her 2020 debut album, 'Lady Like,' rising country star Ingrid Andress, who is up for three GRAMMYs this month, explains why having her breakout year during a pandemic worked out for her
Taylor Weatherby
GRAMMYs
Mar 1, 2021 - 9:49 am

Despite the abundant darkness of 2020, Ingrid Andress had the biggest year of her life. Along with honors like inclusion on Forbes 30 Under 30 and big-time TV performances, including "Colbert" and "Today," the 29-year-old singer/songwriter celebrated a country radio No. 1 with the heartfelt breakup ballad "More Hearts Than Mine" and the release of her debut album, Lady Like. Both the single and the album earned Andress her first-ever GRAMMY nominations, for Best Country Song and Best Country Album, respectively, as well as a coveted Best New Artist nod, at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards show. (Ahead of GRAMMY night, Andress will participate in the Recording Academy's inaugural "Women In The Mix" virtual celebration on International Women's Day, Monday, March 8.)

Andress has already achieved so much, she's joked about retiring before she even turns 30. "Honestly, I do think I've peaked," Andress says with a laugh. "I've accomplished all the things that I've wanted to do, so it's kind of like, 'Should I get into the restaurant business? What is next for me?'"

Though she has been working on her cooking skills while in quarantine, Andress' success thus far proves that she's too good at songwriting to give it up just yet. Even before she had hits of her own, the singer/songwriter co-penned cuts for pop stars like Charli XCX, Fletcher and Bebe Rexha and landed in the studio with Alicia Keys and Sam Hunt. And as the only country act in the Best New Artist category this year, Andress has made a name for herself as an artist, too.

Ingrid Andress gave GRAMMY.com a call to talk about her beginnings, her transition from behind the scenes to center stage, and her hope for a female-driven future. (Don't worry, Ingrid fans: Her retirement isn't part of it).

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee :Ingrid Andress

How does it feel to be the only country artist in the Best New Artist category?

I still feel like that was an accident. [Laughs.] It's sort of a mindf--k because I'm still so new—like, new new—nobody knows who I am because I haven't been able to tour or anything. I feel honored that I am doing something that represents Nashville. 

I'm glad that I get to represent a part of country music that maybe people don't necessarily think of when they think of country—you know, a lot of people think of it as like, beer and trucks. I'm glad that people realize that I don't have to sing about beer and trucks for people to like it.

Although "More Hearts Than Mine" was released in 2019, last year felt like you established that you weren't going to be a one-hit-wonder with the release of your album Lady Like. What was it like to have your breakout year happen in a time when you could hardly even be face-to-face with people?

I'm probably one of the only people I know who can be like, "2020 was my year." But I feel like it might have been for the better. There's just so much hype that goes with all that celebration, and to me, it's about the music and how people are connecting to it. Last year was more about that authentic connection to the music. It was cool to hear people's stories of how they hear their own lives in whatever I was saying.

Your mom was a piano teacher, so I assume that's how you got started with it. But what ultimately made it feel like your instrument?

It was a love-hate relationship at the beginning. But when you live with your piano teacher, you don't have a choice. We made a deal where if I got to a certain level of piano, then I'd get to pick whatever instrument I wanted. 

Naturally, I picked drums because I was going through a punk and metal phase. I was like, "I just want to bang on some s--t." I got more into [playing] piano in high school. I was homeschooled for the majority of my education, so high school was confusing. Piano felt like therapy. It was just a great outlet emotionally.

After getting your start writing for other artists, what made you decide to pursue being an artist yourself?

There was a song that I wrote that was very personal to me. I didn't want anybody to have it, but I still had to give it away. When I started writing about my personal feelings, it became harder to picture somebody else singing them. 

So I thought, "You know what, if I don't want to give these away, I probably need to sing them and put them out myself." I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I also didn't think I was [fit for it] because many of the artists I worked with didn't know what they wanted to say. It came out of the natural progression of me finding what I wanted to write about.

Read: Get Lost In The Best Country Song Nominees | 2021 GRAMMYs

So how did you find your sound after that?

I think it was going back and forth between Nashville and LA to write. I've been doing that for five years now. The writing process is so different for each city—writing country music in Nashville, you're all sitting in a room with guitars and talking about lyrics and how to set up the song. Whereas in LA, you go in, there's a track playing, it's on a loop, and you just have to sing melodies over it. 

Nobody's talking about lyrics. My sound came from learning how to combine those two things. I would write songs that would straddle the line, and people would say, "We can't pitch it to a country artist, but it also has smart storyteller lyrics. And it's not poppy enough for pop."

So the songs just sort of created their lane that nobody could cut except for me.

You're part of a groundbreaking GRAMMY year for women in country, as the Best Country Album category—which includes Lady Like—is all projects from solo women or female-fronted groups for the first time. Has it felt like there's been a shift in the way women are supported and recognized in the genre?

It's still kind of slow, but the female turnout in the GRAMMY [categories] this year was such a breath of fresh air. Then you look at country radio, and it's white dudes. It brought me a lot of joy to see the contrast and how opposite it is to what country radio is doing right now. But to see all these women validated for their great work is a huge statement. Even if it's not on the radio, it's still acknowledged as a beautiful piece of art.

I feel like there's sort of a female movement and confident, feminine energy happening in every genre right now. Do you think that, too?

For sure. I hope more women start saying how they feel about things because chances are, we're all going to relate to it. Even if it's something that people feel is controversial, I'm like, please bring it on. The more controversy, the better. We've evolved so much, and I feel like it's our jobs as creatives to pull the mirror up to what's happening in society. It's going to happen eventually, so we might as well start coming out and being honest about how we feel. 

You hold true to that on Lady Like, and now you're being rewarded for it.

I'm just here to write about my feelings and hope people feel the same way. Especially in this past year, when everything was so divided and chaotic, I feel like the response to my music was a nice reminder that we all could come together by listening to music that is relatable to all of us.

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Dan + Shay pose backstage with their GRAMMY at 2020 GRAMMY Awards show

Dan + Shay at 2020 GRAMMYs

Photo: Rachel Luna/FilmMagic/Getty Images

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Dan + Shay On Bringing 'Good Things' With New Album, Tour Plans & Why Lizzo Is Their Dream Collaborator

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Superstar country duo Dan + Shay discuss how their worldwide success and pop collaborators impacted their fourth album 'Good Things'
Taylor Weatherby
GRAMMYs
Aug 26, 2021 - 12:39 pm

This time last year, Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney—better known as Dan + Shay—were holed up in Smyer's unfinished home studio, where mattresses leaned up against the walls and Mooney held up pillows to track vocals for what would become their fourth studio album, Good Things. A year later, the LP became the first country album to ever be certified gold by the RIAA the week it was released, following its Aug. 13 arrival.

That juxtaposition is an anecdotal portrayal of the country stars' story: A hard-working duo composed of a brilliant vocalist (Mooney) and mastermind producer (Smyers), whose DIY approach has made them one of the genre's biggest acts of the moment. Though they've been signed to Warner Music Nashville since the beginning of their career in 2012, Dan + Shay have built a loyal fan base by managing their own social accounts, connecting with fans by actively responding to comments and sharing satirical takes on their songs.

Combining those efforts with infectious melodies and heartfelt lyrics, the pair became a household name in 2018 with their nostalgic ballad "Tequila," which was followed by wedding song "Speechless"—both of which won Dan + Shay a GRAMMY for Best Country Duo Group Performance (in 2019 and 2020, respectively). And in 2019, they struck gold—ahem, quadruple platinum—again with the romantic, Justin Bieber-assisted smash "10,000 Hours," yet another GRAMMY winner for the duo.

Riding high on those hits, Dan + Shay kicked off their headlining arena tour just before COVID-19 struck stateside in March 2020. With the world hitting pause, there was a silver lining for the country stars: plenty of time to record a new album. The 12-track Good Things is a mix of Dan + Shay's uplifting pop-leaning tunes and trademark emotive ballads. Mooney insists that whether happy or sad, every song encompasses the album's title.

"I think a lot of the best things in our lives come from the darkest places, whether that be a breakup, or whatever it is," Mooney says. "We hope that through this crazy year that we've had, we'll come out on the other side of this with a lot of good things, even though we've all been through a lot. That's how we grow as people, we learn things, and we move on."

GRAMMY.com caught up with Smyers and Mooney on the heels of the album's release to discuss their worldwide impact, tour re-igniting, and the chart-topping superstars they hope to collaborate with next.

You declared in a tweet that Good Things is your best album yet. What makes this feel like your best?

Smyers: We felt like our self-titled album was kind of the moment where things really connected on a different level. We had "Tequila" and "Speechless," and we've been trying to build on where they took our career. We feel like we owe it to everybody who have gotten us where we are—our fans, our team, everyone around us—to keep pushing ourselves, raising the bar.

I guess it made us put some unnecessary pressure on ourselves. Every time we were in the writing room, it's like, "Alright, I got this idea," "Well, is it as good as 'Tequila'?"

The blessing in disguise is we had a year and a half off of the road. We tried to make the most of an unfortunate situation. We camped out in [my home studio] and dug in. We pulled songs that we wrote three years ago, and songs that we wrote six months ago. We tried to pick the best material that we possibly could, and I feel like we really tapped in.

We tried everything. "What if we did it two BPMs faster?" "What if we did it in this key?" "What if we stripped it back?" By the time we wrapped up the project, it was like, "This is the best foot we can possibly put forward."

We put ourselves out there with that tweet, so there was a lot of pressure when the album came out, because our fans went into it thinking that. But we feel confident about it. We're so proud of every song front to back. 

The first single from Good Things, "10,000 Hours," seemed to follow up the success of "Tequila" and "Speechless" in a huge way.

Smyers: Yeah, that song exposed our music to a whole new fan base. It was crazy to have that song be such a big hit and not really even get to play it live. We've finally got back on the road and are able to feel the energy, impact, and weight of that song.

Mooney: We haven't gotten to meet BTS, but we did have one of the guys [Jungkook] cover "10,000 Hours" which was so cool. Seeing those things proves how music is so universal, and shows the power of music that a country song written in Nashville could be then sung all over the world. It's a very unifying feeling, especially in the times that we're going through right now.

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Do you feel like the response to that kind of set the tone for the rest of the album?

Smyers: Sonically, that kind of was the step in the direction that the rest of the album went. The overall aesthetics of the song—it was all about the vocals, and that was kind of the feature of the production. I feel like we really leaned into that for the rest of the album. There are so many vocals on this album, it's insane. I mean, hundreds, thousands of layers. And it feels cohesive. That song was written and recorded a long time ago, and we listened to it in sequence with the album, and it makes sense with everything else on there.

Along with Justin Bieber, you also co-wrote with Julia Michaels, Shawn Mendes and Tayla Parx on this project. You've always had a pop sensibility, but did working with pop artists have an impact on your process?

Mooney: Every experience that you have as an artist definitely impacts your craft, in a good way. We always try to be sponges in the way that we create. We've had a lot of people in the pop world be fans of what we've been doing since our first record—not just "10,000 Hours," "Tequila" or "Speechless." We got to meet Ed Sheeran very early on. It was such a cool thing to be able to watch how they work and be able to implement some of those styles into what we do. It definitely opened the door for a lot of different possible collaborations in the future.

I think it's good for the genre. It expands those walls a little bit, and sets the bar higher for everybody. The people who have come before us, like the Taylor Swifts, who have really pushed the boundaries, it's been good for everybody and made a way for people like us and the Sam Hunts of the world. It's just a really fun thing to be a part of.

Are there any other pop acts you're hoping you can collaborate with next?

Smyers: An Ariana Grande thing would be really cool. I nerd out on her social media when she posts videos in the studio, stacking harmonies. Her vocal technique and control is just unreal.

I feel like us and Lizzo could do something really cool. I remember hearing "Truth Hurts" for the first time. I was on a treadmill in Vegas at the ACMs, and it stopped me in my tracks. When that piano came in and she came in at the top, I had to get off the treadmill and text everyone I know. I'm just so blown away by her talent, her conviction, her authenticity. It would be a really fun one.

Mooney: We played a music festival with her after that song became massive, and Dan and I snuck out to front of house and we were raging. Absolutely raging to that song. And then she can just play the flute, and you're like, "Where did that even come from?" She's unbelievably talented. That's a very solid one. I would like to see a Dan + Shay/Lizzo [track].

Smyers: We're manifesting that. Putting it out there.

One thing that surprised me about Good Things is that half of the record is songs about breakups or relationships that aren't good for you, like "Irresponsible." As two happily married men, what inspires those kinds of songs, and how do you channel those emotions when writing them?

Mooney: It's funny, my wife and I, and I know that [Dan's wife] Abby does too, we love sad songs. When I think back on some of the toughest times in my life, the songs that really got me through were always really sad songs. There's something about that grieving process that is really beautiful.

The songs and the content don't necessarily represent where we are in our current lives, but that's the beauty of being an artist — being able to step into that role, and kind of be that storyteller for other people. It was interesting, though, putting together this project being in a happy place singing super depressing songs. [Laughs.]

Is there a song or two from this album that feel the most Dan + Shay to you?

Smyers: I would say a quintessential Dan + Shay song on this album would be "Give Into You"—the dark, brooding, emotional, nostalgic piano ballad kind of thing. That's something we've done since our first album, and what we always gravitate towards. If you left it up to us, we would have every song be a dark piano ballad. [Laughs.]

On the other side of the spectrum, I would say "One Direction." It's reminiscent of why people fell in love with Dan + Shay—a story, narrative lyric that's super heartfelt and emotional, but walls of harmonies in the chorus.

Mooney: Another would be the song "You." I feel like if you could sum up Dan + Shay, we've had so many wedding songs. We've already been seeing a lot of people using "You" as their wedding song. We got to play it live the other day, and it has a special groove to it that kind of gets you in the vibe. It's definitely gonna be a big wedding song for us.

Dan + Shay: The Wedding Song Guys.

Mooney: It's hilarious, people have used "Tequila" for their wedding. Don't ask me where that fits in. There was a girl who said she was using "Tequila" as her first dance. This is not a lie, this happened recently. I was like, "Have you heard the song?"

Like you mentioned, you've had a chance to start playing shows again. You were one of the acts who started their tour before the pandemic. Are there any major changes you've made as a result of the downtime you've had to think about the show?

Smyers: We feel really good about the tour that we put together last year. It was the most work we've ever put into anything. We did get to do three shows, which was amazing. I feel like, had we done months and months of preparation and rehearsals and then not gotten to do it, we would have been wondering, "Yo, is this any good?" We got three in, and everything really worked, so we were like, "Cool, we know we can do this."

Now comes the question of [if] all the songs that we played in the set a year and a half ago were in there for a reason. They were either fan favorites, they were good live, we had cool content, or they made sense transitionally. But now we've got a whole new album of material.

Selfishly, we want to play the whole new album and add that much time to the set—which we honestly might. We don't want to cut anything, really. The new songs, for some reason, just sound and feel better live than anything we've done before. So I think we will play a good majority of the new music and we'll find ways to integrate them into the flow of the set.

Shay, are you ever nervous about hitting your power notes on stage?

Mooney: It is a nerve-wracking thing, especially these first couple shows back. But I've been doing a lot of singing — singing to my kids, and we've been in the studio — so I wasn't nervous about that. What I was nervous about is the in-between moments. I haven't been on a stage in so long, so I think I'm probably more nervous about what I'm doing with my hands and how I'm moving. I've got the singing part down. Those high notes, I know that they're gonna be there. And if they're not, then I'll just fake like my mic broke.

You can just bust out the moves from your "Lying" and "Steal My Love" videos.

Mooney: No lie, I think that helps so much with these upcoming shows. I was like, "Dude, we're dancers." I mean, we're horrible dancers, but it still kind of helps with your swagger on stage, because that was something that I felt like I completely lost. Maybe I still look very dumb, but at least I'm doing it with confidence.

Can you guys believe it hasn't even been 10 years since you've known each other, let alone accomplished everything you have already?

Mooney: It's honestly crazy. I think about it all the time. In some ways, it feels like it was yesterday, and in a lot of ways, it feels like it's been 30 years doing this. It's incredible to have those moments and milestones together. We always say, doing this together has been so special because the lows are not near as low, and the highs are even higher.

This last year has especially made us even more appreciative of all the things we've gotten to do. And we've had the time to actually look back, reflect, and be thankful for those things that we never quite got the chance to take the moment to be like, "This is incredible." We are very blessed and thankful guys right now.

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Brooke Eden

Brooke Eden

Photo: Ford Fairchild

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Brooke Eden On Advancing LGBTQ+ Visibility In Country Music & Why She's "Got No Choice" But To Be Herself

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Country singer/songwriter Brooke Eden once faced an impossible choice: Her relationship or her career. Her empowering single, "Got No Choice," puts that false binary to bed
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 28, 2021 - 1:41 pm

Brooke Eden once stared down the barrel of a heart-wrenching decision: Her livelihood or the love of her life. The singer/songwriter's chosen mode of expression was country music, a genre stuggling with LGBTQ+ inclusivity. And the love of her life, radio promoter Hilary Hoover, happened to be of the same sex. As somebody in Eden's circle informed her, she couldn't have both.

"I don't like to [name them] because I don't even want to give them the time of day for that," Eden tells GRAMMY.com over Zoom with an edge to her voice, "but it was a member of my team who's no longer on my team. He straight-up, to our faces, said, 'If you want to have a career, you have to keep your relationship a secret.'" This quandary stressed out the singer so badly that her physical health declined and she developed ulcers. Then, she threw up her hands and announced she's "Got No Choice."

That's the title—and part of the ascendant hook—of Eden's latest single, which acts as a rebuttal to that bad-faith imperative. In the video, Eden jet-sets around with Hoover by her side, accompanied by the infectious tune. "But the sound of my name rollin' off your tongue/ Couldn't sound sweeter from anyone," goes the pre-chorus. "This heart wants no one else and I can't help myself."

"I realized if I was ever going to put out music again, I would need to be completely authentic and myself in order to do it right," Eden says of the period leading up to "Got No Choice." Now, with perhaps her signature song under her belt and a full itinerary as gigs fire up again, Eden has proven this unnamed naysayer wrong—and shown how sweet it is to have it both ways.

Read on for an interview with Eden about increasing LGBTQ+ representation in country music, how external pressures tested her relationship and why recent strides are just the beginning for a fairer, more equitable Nashville.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What can you tell me about the intersection of the LGBTQ+ community and country music, historically speaking?

Historically speaking, there's not much [chuckles]. There's not much of an intersection. Now, things are changing. This whole genre of music is changing right now. It's so cool to be part of that change and watch it happen as we're living in it. Inclusivity for not only the LGBTQ community—me and T.J. Osborne, for example—but also different cultures and colors of skin. 

Mickey Guyton is one of my best friends and she's finally getting the recognition she deserves. The only thing that was holding her back was that she was a Black woman.

What's up with the ingrained homophobia and racism in Nashville?

I think that there's ingrained homophobia and racism in our country as a whole. I think so much of that has to do with organized religion and the ways they've talked about homosexual behavior. I think it's very sad that people hide their homophobia and bigotry behind the Bible. It's so backward.

But I think so much of it—especially in the country music genre—is that so many people that are listening to country music are from very small towns and sometimes have never left that small town. It's not a city or even a suburb where you can live your life and be who you are. It's sometimes very closed-minded, just because they haven't ever seen representation and visibility of great people and artists who just so happen to be in the LGBTQ community.

I just think that the more representation and visibility we have marking the pop culture of America, the more of these small-town listeners will realize that our love looks like their love and that you should never judge someone by the color of their skin. That's still so mind-boggling to me.

Can you talk about some of the challenges you've faced due to your sexual orientation?

Some of the challenges are just that I'm a female in general. For a long time, it was hard to be played on country radio just being a girl, which is so crazy because, in the '90s, I grew up singing along to Shania Twain and Faith Hill and Martina McBride and the Chicks. All of these incredible female artists.

And then, for 10 years, we've pretty much had Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert. And if you were a female other than those three trying to knock on the door, you just weren't going to get answered. You weren't going to get let in. But that's also changing.

Basically, it started at the beginning of our relationship, when Hilary and I met five and a half years ago. We immediately faced pushback and them saying, "Basically, you can have a career in country music or you can be in a relationship, but you can't have both."

That's one of the reasons I wrote "Got No Choice," because I, first of all, thought that was a made-up rule. Who made up that rule? Second of all, I knew that not loving her was not a choice for me. That was my person and I was going to continue to be in a relationship no matter what the rest of my life looked like.

Brooke Eden

Brooke Eden. Photo: Ford Fairchild

Was this something you heard abstractly, as though you were taking the temperature of the culture? Or did someone literally tell you that?

They told me. I don't like to [name them], because I don't even want to give them the time of day for that, but it was a member of my team who's no longer on my team. He straight-up, to our faces, said, "If you want to have a career, you have to keep your relationship a secret." There were no ifs, ands or buts about that.

Did you ever have a moment of doubt where you thought "He must be right"?

Oh, yeah. For sure. There were definitely times that I was like, "How are these two parts of me ever going to coexist?" I didn't know if it would ever happen. There were years and years of figuring out how to navigate this, knowing that Hilary was my person and also knowing that I had spent my whole entire life working toward this career, toward being an artist. It was very difficult.

It was so unhealthy to continue to live my life disingenuously. I had no authenticity. I had no integrity. I was living two completely different lives—one at home in our close circle of friends and family and one on the road where I never spoke of the love of my life. It's just a very unhealthy way to live.

At some point, I was going through so much mental and emotional turmoil that I got ulcers from bottling things up and not dealing with my situation. My doctor made me get off the road because of how unhealthy my body was. That was a big wake-up call for me.

It was this moment where I realized if I was ever going to put out music again, I would need to be completely authentic and myself in order to do it right.

I want to get Hilary's read on this. How did she feel throughout this ordeal?

I think she's just so grateful that we're finally on the other side of this. There were so many times when we were going through the hard parts of this that we just held each other and sobbed. We were like, "Are we ruining each other's lives?"

Hilary was out when I met her, I put her back into the closet and then she's being told every single day that she's ruining my career. We were so happy and so in love, but the outside world was putting so much pressure on our relationship. I think we've been through so much that just being on this side is so wonderful. 

She's the best human on the planet if you ask me, and she always has wanted to be a voice for the LGBTQ+ community. She's so supportive and such a big part of everything.

It seems like LGBTQ+ representation in country music will be a continuous process without a clear finish line. That said, what's the next step, in your mind?

I think it's just at the beginning. We've just cracked the surface. T.J. Osborne coming out was awesome because he's already at such a level of success. [But] they're still not playing Mickey Guyton on the radio. Still. After her GRAMMY nomination, they're still not playing Mickey on the radio. [Editor's note: In March 2021, Billboard reported Guyton's "Black Like Me" was sent to Adult Contemporary stations. after her GRAMMY performance.]

None of my songs have gone to radio yet, as we're just getting started. But hopefully [we'll experience] the inclusion of everybody on country radio—and not just white dudes singing about white girls.

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