Drew Baldridge - The Big 615 Presents The StormeCast

0:00Hey, it's Stormy on the Big 615. Welcome back to the Stormycast. So our buddy Drew Baldrige stopped by our studio. We cut up with him and this word we use a lot called perspective. And I thought we got a brand new perspective on who Drew Baldrige is and who he's becoming and a purpose to his music and to who he is as a person. So if you want to learn more about Drew Baldrige, you came to the right place. This is the Stormycast. Well, it's Stormy on the Big 615 and I've got an outlaw, a rebel. I mean, when I think outlaw music, I think Drew Baldrige, how you doing, man? I love that. Great intro. It's great. You've been putting out hit after hit after hit. I mean, from somebody's daughter to tough people, deserve her, get me gone. And now you have rebel. Oh, man. This thing, it's beyond an anthem.

1:00And I think it's one of the most necessary anthems right now for this time. Man, well, thank you for saying that. This is everybody's always like, are you always going to constantly put a message in your song? And I was like, well, maybe. If that's what I'm known for, I'm glad to be known for that. And this is a song I've had. I wrote it probably almost two years ago now. And we started playing it live and just every time we played it live, it would get a standing innovation everywhere we played. It builds and builds and builds. And I think to just the message of it is so needed right now. And what I love about it, you know, it's not politically charged. It's as, you know, everything's politics these days. Everybody tries to make it. And it's so fun for me to see and comments that both sides are saying this song's for me. And that's what I want, you know, and I just, everybody's like, is it this way? It's that way. It's like, no, it's just about doing good. I was just, took the words right out of my mouth. It's pretty simple. Yeah, just, just do good things.

2:00And sometimes today, that's a rebel quality. If you watch the news all the time, we're constantly just putting up negative things. And for me, you know, the second verse talks about being a good husband, you know, walking away from temptation, being a good role model for your kids. And the first verse kind of talks about, you know, mug shots and all these things. And I just saw people getting arrested doing, and people putting mug shots on t-shirts and glorifying that. And that's just something I feel like we could use less of. We need to put something else on a t-shirt that is glorifying the good that somebody is doing. And that's what this song is for me. If the whole wide world wants to dance with the devil, I guess you could call me a rebel. That is such a great line. It is so good. Hey, by the way, not to go overly spiritual, but pretty sure Jesus was a rebel. The biggest. The biggest. And I talked to so many people about that all the time about, you know, our biggest rebel of all time. Jesus. Yeah. 100%. I mean, to the Pharisees and all that stuff when he came around, I mean, heated up on a cross

3:02because he was the biggest rebel of his time. Yeah. No kidding. And I think the rebels or wannabe rebels tied to your message of the song, I needed an anthem. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you saying that because I was nervous of putting this song out in the world, just like I was tough people because it was so real, so honest about, hey, is somebody going to want to hear this, you know, a thousand times on the radio? Um, I hope so because it is, it is a big message. And I just think what a perfect time for, for this concept to come out. And so many people would come up and meet greets at the end and say, nobody's talking to me like that. You know, I hear a lot of fluff and not, not there's anything wrong with backroad songs because I have a bunch of those that I'm going to put out on this record. But nobody's speaking to me the way that this song is right now. I saw it as kind of an anchor for boats that are kind of running a drift right now without a harbor, without a place to pull into. And this is, this is a, this is a bully to tie on to.

4:03Man, well, thank you for saying that. And I hope, you know, I hope the world feels that way. I hope country radio feels that way and everybody driving in their cars or listening on their phones wherever they're at. I hope when they hear that song, they can, you know, feel that anchor and feel that they're singing and feel like, hey, me going out and doing something good today, you know, maybe I should do that. Yeah, no kidding. We're here with the outlaw, the rebel, Drew Baldrige, love it. The three F's faith family farm. Yeah, man, that's what we stand for. And honestly, this album, you know, we've been putting that behind us when we've opened for Cody when we were out on tour with Bailey this last year. We put those three words behind us because I'm pretty sure that's what this next album is going to be called. And every song that we have on this project is pretty much going to go to those three words farm faith and family. And I grew up on a farm, obviously, if you grow up in a farm family, you're very close to your family and your faith. You have to be tied to both because you're out there working the fields with your family

5:08and you're praying over it, you know, the whole time. And so all the songs, we have some great farm songs on this record that fire me up and we have a lot of great faith songs that I'm going to even have some great collaborations on this project with some faith artists that I'm really excited about. That's correct. And also, you know, I'm getting ready to have a second little boy in April and family's a big part of my story. If anybody's followed me, she's somebody's daughters for my wife. I wrote it for her and my family's been such a part of my journey and believer in me and my little boy of, you know, seeing him every morning is such a part of my songs and hearing him speaking to my music too now and being a dad. So there's definitely going to be a lot of family songs on this. So I'm so excited for everybody to see the full spectrum of the album that will hopefully come out this summer. And I cannot wait and you're working on it today. Working on it today. Yeah, literally right after this, going to go sing, sing some vocals. Get my voice warmed up right now. That's cool. It's been a roller coaster for you, Drew Baldridge, through your entire career. We've had peaks and then it's like a little bit of valleys and then climb back up.

6:13And then most of it you did on your own. I mean, first independently funded artists to reach number one on media base. Crazy. Which is, it's, it's ever. Oh, well, I didn't know that when I started this journey, I probably wouldn't have started. I was just like hoping to get a top 40, you know, and you're so right. It has been such a journey stormy. I've known you for years. Yeah. Probably 10 years now. Good bad and ugly. And you've seen the valleys. You've seen the winds and, you know, get a record deal, lose it all, you know, come and hang out with you on multiple shows and, you know, had a long valley of losing a record deal in 2019 and not really resurfacing until 2024, five years. Let's toss COVID in there too. Yeah, COVID in there. And me just going and playing people's backyards and trying to survive and trying to pay bills. And pay for a ring, have a kid at that time and struggle and struggle and struggle and and have wrote, she's somebody's daughter for our wedding and saw this song and I believed

7:19in it. And I would go all around Nashville every label I went into and there was always this feeling of being like the, the kid that was already there and shunned, you know. Yeah. I call it the Ottoman in the living room. Yeah. It's something to walk around. Very much. Yeah. I was like, oh, we all know Drew. Yeah. He's been here for 10 years. He put out four songs to radio. None of them worked. And I don't blame them. Yeah. Honestly, because like if it was reversed and I was in their shoes of be like, this is a guy that had four shots, right? Yeah. And it didn't work out for him. And why would I invest my money in this career when I don't see the return of my money? Because we are in the music business as much as people don't want to say it is it. You have to make money to make people want to work with you and surround yourself as nice as a guy. You can't be all this stuff. I've learned that. And so I would go and have these meetings and they would be like, you're awesome. We see the song that's working. And then it would just kind of be the Nashville know. Like the no text back. You know, that's the Nashville know I've learned of like, hey, it was great meeting you

8:21and then no response. Crickets. Yeah. Crickets. And you're like, ah, he doesn't get it, you know. And so it got to the point where I was just like, well, if nobody else invests in me, I'm going to have to invest in myself to show them that this is. This is special. And I think for everybody out there that's listening, I, all these valleys, right, I learned so much in them. And I thank God for them now. Like, do you question them at the time? 100%. Dude, what are we doing? What are we doing? So many talks like that. You know, with tears in my eyes, so many talks like that of like, give me a sign to keep going and getting little signs along the way. But so many moments of almost quitting and, but now when, when I got our first number one and all that stuff, I looked back and I see why. There's a lot of looking bags. I wasn't ready. There was a lot of looking back and saying, man, if I didn't go through this, I wouldn't be able to do this as an independent artist. I wouldn't have had these relationships with radio. I wouldn't have understood how to market this song in this way. If I wouldn't have lost the, this dealer, lost the manager, I wouldn't have understood

9:24how to get a new manager in the right way or a new agent. There's so many of those moments of also at that time, I was just making whatever radio would play, right? Like I was just searching and be like, oh, this is good enough. And it's like, no, I'm making music for people. You know, I played in their backyards. I saw what was reacting to them. I'm not thinking about Nashville. I mean, I love all these people here. But it's like, no, I'm thinking about people I'm making music for and I wouldn't have learned that in those valleys of where I was and where I'm going. But yes, so frustrating in them. So now looking back, I remind myself of why we had to go through that and I learned a lot. I, during just an interesting crossroads in my career, took some advice or went for some advice with the manager in town who's very well-known and I don't work with them. I just wanted his advice and he sat and listened to me for about an hour and I kept saying, man, it's frustrating. It's frustrating. I'm mad and blah, blah, blah and he goes, oh, I get it now.

10:25You're not mad or frustrated. You're butthurt. Yeah. And I went out. Yeah. That is so real because I've, I've said, and now it's really awesome because during this journey, I've been able to help some other artists along the way, which I didn't know at the time that that was even a thing. But so many independent artists have reached out to me and be like, how did you do it? Yeah. Like, let's talk through this. Like, you lost the deal. I'm in the same boat. You started all this stuff. Let's talk about it. It's been really fun for me. But one thing that I learned through this whole journey is so many people kept telling me that is like, man, you're not jaded. You're not coming in here, mad at us, like radio would tell me that is like, you're coming in here is just as excited as you were day one, you know, and, and you're not jaded and feeling that, you know, being butthurt and there's a lot, I've got to speak that to some other artists too. It's like, man, nobody wants to surround themselves with people that are coming in being butthurt all the time. In the nicest way of saying it of like, no, man, yeah, you're mad and you're frustrated

11:27but do something. A chip on your shoulder can be an anchor or it can be a gift. Yes. Do you probably witness both sides of the chip on the shoulder? Yes. I agree 100%. And for me, it was the drive. It made me want to go more. And sometimes, you know, there's moments where it almost makes you want to turn away. But that chip can be like, okay, like, I'll show you, like, just give me some time. I'll show you. I'm going to drive. I'm going to make this happen. Come on, doubters. Come on. Yeah, exactly. And there's a song on this record that we're going to put out that I'm really excited about that I wrote during that time of, you know, being with some doubters in my circle and being in a label meeting at the time and somebody saying something to me and went and wrote this whole song about, you know, not giving up and keeping that drive going. And for the doubters. Yeah. That's amazing. So when did you, at what age were you, you said, this is what I'm going to do for a living?

12:29Man, I moved here at 19, which is June, I'll be 15 years that I moved to Nashville. From Illinois. From Illinois. Yeah. And I started playing in, like, local bars at 16 and 17 and came down here, played Tootsies one time and was like, this is it. I'm quitting college, mom. And she was like, no, you're not. You're going to move down there and do it all online. So I moved down here the first year I did all my college online, which was so hard. But it was where I was called to go. You know, I had, at that time, I was 18 years old, graduate in high school, had some chances to go play college baseball and basketball. And I said, no, like, I just, there's something in Nashville that's calling me here. I played sports my whole life, like, let me get a guitar and come down here and start writing songs. And, you know, I came down here and I met so many friends that are still friends today. What would the Drew Baldrige of right now say to the 15 year old dreamer who moved to town? Or would you just let him fight it out?

13:32Man. That's a, that's a hard, but awesome question. Part of me wants to say so much, right? Like, the don't give up would be the most aspect, but we didn't. But I think, I think I would just say, stay your course. Buckle in. Buckle in. It's a journey. You know, and I had some people tell me along the way, this is a 10 year town, but not for me. This is going to be three years. And I'm sure every artist that moves here feels that way. But for me, it was my first number one was 13 year town. And so I think buckle in, but it's going to be very frustrating, but, you know, in the long run, a blessed life of music. Hi, I'm Kingston Bagpues. Some people say talk sports is possessed by the premier league, but that's just not cricket. We're also charmed by the Champions League, fanatical about the FA Cup, and rampantly

14:32rabid about rugby, Formula One, and boxing. Talk sports, the brashest, boldest, best-sunker in sports opinion anywhere in the known universe, live from London, England, Europe, I'm Tune-In. The Rebel Drew Baldrige is here. That's the title of his new song, and it's such an anthem. I mean, I feel like I need to wake up to that song every morning and get you going. Yeah. Reset, re-plug. I love it. Cup of coffee and crank up Rebel. It'll change your day. I promise you. Speaking of changing days and people, the tough people foundation is still rocking. Yeah. I'm able to help some families, which has been really, really awesome, and we kind of centered this around people during struggle times in their life, and we've now helped two families with Kid's Fight and Cancer, and we hope to do some more in the future, and that is something that we just started after seeing this song hit so many people of Kid's

15:33Fight and Cancer. People losing their homes to tornadoes or hurricanes and cops and veterans, and so many people are struggling in our world right now, and this has been a little bit of a light during that journey. It's cool. I'm so glad you guys started it. I mean, it's great. Thanks, man. Helping people, it's not that hard. Hey, man. If it makes you a Rebel, that's right. Yeah. And we've even talked a little bit about trying to start some stuff on our socials about Rebel for kindness, and we haven't even started it yet, but just make something around Rebels and where people, hey, go out and do good, and we want to highlight you, and that's great. That's great. Rebel of the day, Rebel of the week, you know, something of like that that we've discussed as a team of getting people to go out and do good, you know, and instead of maybe just taking your phone out and video and somebody fighting in the street, no, take your phone out and video somebody doing something awesome. I think that's fantastic. Yeah. If you need some help, let me know. All right. All right. My content guys stand over there.

16:33Like, we need to get on this. Riley's hanging out in the corner. He's ready to go. He's like, oh, God. Oh, more work. More work. The messages in your music we touched on a little bit earlier, they're great for your audience. They're great for what do you hear for yourself in the music that you're creating? Do you use these messages in your own life when you look in the mirror all the time? I mean, she's somebody's daughter was a message for me. I mean, I have it before the song was even a hit. I engraved it on the inside of my ring, on my wedding ring to always remember that. I mean, we're tempted a lot out here on the road and it's not, you know, it's out in front of everybody. This is not, you know, something that I'm just making up. So it's a reminder that song is to me always time to be a great husband and be a great dad. And I think for tough people, I wrote that song when it was the hardest time of my music career. My songwriter, buddy, Adam Sanders, brought that idea and he was like, true, this is, I feel like you're living this right now.

17:33He had the hook that he brought in was hard times make tough people and Jordan Walker was in the room. He said, why would you say hard? Why wouldn't you just say tough times make tough people? That sounds so much better. He's like, yeah, it does. But it was what I was living. And so that song helps every time I sing that song every night, I get goosebumps because I, that chorus is what I've lived through of not giving up, you know, this tough time made me who I'm just what we were talking about a little, little while ago, going through the valley and learning a lot about yourself. And, but when you get out of it, you look back and you're like, man, I'm tougher now. I'm stronger because of what I went through. And so that song is a message for me and Rebel, the same thing. I wrote that at a time where I felt like I was, since I've moved to Nashville, I've never really been a drinker. I'm not a part of your. I always felt like I was, you came to the wrong tone. I know. I know. But I love country music and I love being out in the woods and I love growing up on the farm. But for me, I always felt like there was some artists that I was running around with in the beginning that I would go open up for and I wouldn't be asked to hang out again

18:36because I wasn't on the bus drinking and I wasn't the party animal. Which is fine. Because you're a Rebel. And, but it made me always feel different, you know, and it finally, that song for me was like, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay to be different. It's okay to be the Rebel in that situation that I didn't want to do that. And so that song has another meaning, different meaning for me than just, you know, going out and doing good and being kindness, but also standing up for what you believe in and it's fine to be you. And let's go to a younger generation that is facing the toughest times a younger generation could go through. And they're probably going to need these messages more than just about any demographic between social media, between the challenges of everything that society is throwing at them right now. It's the most stressful anxiety-ridden demo I've ever seen. Yeah. Somebody was telling me this. I can't remember. It was a speaker, something. Maybe it was a guy at church and there was a whole room, auditorium full of kids and they were speaker at it.

19:36And he was like, how many people have dealt with the death of a grandparent and how many people have dealt with this in your life, a heartbreak or a love and, you know, half the room wouldn't raise their hand. And they said, how many people have dealt with anxiety and depression and the whole place went up. And I'm hoping we have some songs in this album that can really highlight that. And really make them feel seen because I can't imagine being a 13 year old girl right now. And they're sitting in their bedroom every night scrolling through Instagram crying, crying, looking at the most perfect people running apps through their face. All of these artists being as glamorous and as best looking as they can and spending thousands of dollars on clothes and a stylist to look special. And that's great. And I think that's great for artists and I get that and wanting to look different and standing out. But there's people and little girls and boys in their bedroom that aren't jacked, you know, that are trying to hit the gym and maybe they, you know, they're just built different.

20:37And so I can't imagine going through that because we got a phone when I was 16 and it didn't have all this. And so I already compared myself enough to boys the town over that were better than I was or something or I thought they were. And our business, even artists, you're comparing all the time every day. It's open up your phone and see it on Instagram and you have the highlights of, I remember 20, 25, everybody did it end of the year highlight and I did one and I felt horrible because I was just like, I've been so many years of watching highlights of my artists friends that I love dearly that I wish I was them, that I wish I was in their shoes. And I just did a whole, I did a whole other post and was just like, hey, this is for all those that didn't have a great year, like it's real life. That's what we're in. It's a struggle all the time and all those moments are just little glimpses but behind the

21:37door, there's everybody struggling, everybody's going through something tough, has some sort of story. And sorry to go down that whole round. No, that was great. But it is, it is real and that's what I love about messages and songs and, you know, our album is not going to be a full song of just, the full album of just messages. There's going to be a lot of fun stuff and love and, and a whole journey of that. But there are a lot of big, big moments in this album, I think. When you see the faces in a crowd and you see tears going down their faces or you see a connection to some of your music and as you go into the studio now preparing for a new album, do you feel a little bit of weight of responsibility to them? I do. I feel a lot of responsibility and, um, I want, um, I want to, um, I want to, um, I want these are conversations that I have with my team every day of, you know, like, hey, yeah, you have to eat somebody's daughter, but you're so much more than that. And I was like, yeah, but five million of my followers on social media are there because of she's somebody's daughter. They're girls that need to feel their worth, their dads that are feeling their little

22:39girl. They're, their moms that don't have a husband that are raising their daughter by themselves. I mean, we could go on and on about that. So I always try to tell them, I'm like, hey, the deserve hers, you know, like, oh, that's another, that's another ballot in that vein. I was like, yeah, but this is what they need. This is what, you know, somebody needs to speak to them. It's not just all about looking at hot and going out sitting in a truck and all those things. They're great. Or like going out drinking whiskey and having a fun night. It's like, you need to know, I want to speak into people's lives and, and raise them up a little more. And so we have a, a couple songs on here that are really, are really doing that. But I feel the pressure, because I see everybody comments all the time of like, you always bring us something from the heart, you, every time I listen to your music, I feel something. And, and so this album, I've made it a very big priority to say, I'm not putting it out if I don't feel it. If it doesn't move me, music's made to be moved. If that's joy, if that's sadness, if that's reminiscent, whatever it is, it has to

23:41make move me in a way that I feel an emotion enough to send it out in the world. And also the people that are coming up after shows every night saying, unloading onto me of like, you know, I lost my dad and she's somebody's daughter's how I cope or my little girl has cancer and she didn't make it, you know, and feeling that weight is a lot. But I feel like God put me here to write those songs for these people. Maybe they needed to talk about it. And so I do feel a lot of pressure and some people are like, oh, like I said, another message is like, yeah, that's, I'm fine with that. Brent Smith from the rock band Shine Down came in here. And if you listen to the messages in his songs, he's pretty much tough love. It's not lifting you up and saying, you're great and you're wonderful and you're, it's kind of a slap in the face at times at tough love and the server is a little bit about that. And I think if you're a guy and you're listening to it, and if you feel guilty after

24:42hearing that song, you need to step it up, you know, honestly, and, and a little bit of that, you know, all of this, all these songs are a little bit message for myself, you know, there's, there's moments of note and that song where I listen to it. And I'm like, I could be a better, I could, I could be better. I could be better. And, and I think the bridge kind of says that and that song from me, you can do better boy, you know, and, and I think what's so, what I love about those songs is it's, it's not out pointing fingers. It's about trying to, when I look at my son, you know, now two sons coming in April, or they can be like, man, my dad, he wrote those songs about, you know, being good to, to women. And I want, I want to do what my dad did. And he don't have to be perfect right now, but if you're pointed in the right direction, it's a lot better than the alternative. Yeah, and, and like we're humans, right? I mean, this is a journey of struggle of, you know, hypocrites. I mean, if you're a Christian or however you believe, you, you can say one thing and you

25:45can fall the next day. And, and so it is hard to remember that as, you know, I'm on this journey and putting out music and somebody's came up to me and it's like, Rebel, where you better live it. You know, and that is a lot of weight that, you know, yeah, you did that to yourself. I did that to myself, but also that's kind of a good thing. Yeah, you know, for me, accountability, accountability held accountable and, but we're humans and we're going to fall and hoping that that doesn't happen. But everybody, we're not, we're not built to be perfect. And so if you're, you know, struggling out there, we, we all, we all do it. Do me a favor, keep your face off a mug of, of a t-shirt with your mug shot. That's my goal. I hope not to do that. That would not be very good. True, Baldrige, the song is called Rebel and he is a true outlaw because in a world where we're surrounded by negativity, this is a, this is a little lighthouse to guide you along. It's really beautiful. I love what you're doing. I love the direction. Now you're surrounded by a big major label now. You're not on your island anymore.

26:46Not on my island. Got a team, which we talked about before the interview. We don't have to get into the weeds on that, but it's a little bit of a whiplash when you're so used to being so isolated and doing it on your own and carrying the backpack yourself. You suddenly have to share the gear around and oh goodness. Yeah. I mean, having so many opinions and all those things where before it was like, I put it up. If it fails, it's on me, you know, and, and it also comes with a lot of weight, more weight that I felt, I feel weight from the, from the fans and all that to put out great music. It was recording and for this record and I was in the studio and I looked around and I had this whole band that was in there recording. I had a producer. I had two or three people from my label had two or three publishers. I had three managers behind me. I had two or three band members. I had my content guy in there and I had to leave because I was so overwhelmed of, before

27:48if it failed, it was just me. Yeah. Hey, that sucks. But when. You feel responsible. I feel responsible for their investment in you. Yes. A lot of responsibility and, you know, there's, you know, we just talked about Riley sitting in the corner over here. It's like, I'm responsible for him, you know, in a way and I want to win for him. And I saw when we won, was she somebody's daughter, how it raised all ships, high tide, you know, and my, my band leader, Devin, who's been playing bass for me for 12 years, stuck with me through all the crap. And then, you know, him pulling me aside and saying, we did it, you know, and how many people told me I was crazy for staying with you, but look, I'm here, you know, and that meant more to me almost than the number one did because like, I got to win with my buddies. And so like, I feel a lot of weight of everybody around you because you want, you want to do so good for, for them too. I see a book in your future. Oh, man, I'm working on children's book, maybe, but I know about a book book.

28:49We'll see. I'd read it. Hey, I thank you, buddy. Thank you. It's good. The Rebel Drew Baldrige. That was The Stormy Cast with Stormy Warren. The Stormy Warren Show on the Big 615. Monday through Friday, listen with your connected device on Tune In.