Luke Bryan | Club Random with Bill Maher

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher: Episode Featuring Luke Bryan Release Date: February 2, 2025

In this engaging episode of Club Random with Bill Maher, host Bill Maher sits down for an hour-long, one-on-one conversation with renowned country music star Luke Bryan. Filmed in the unique and undisclosed setting of Club Random, the discussion veers away from politics to explore a myriad of topics ranging from personal backgrounds and the music industry to hunting ethics and contemporary youth culture. The friendly banter and insightful exchanges provide listeners with a comprehensive look into both Maher's and Bryan's lives and perspectives.

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1. Beginnings and Personal Backgrounds

Luke Bryan's Journey to Nashville Luke Bryan opens up about his early aspirations and the pivotal moments that led him to pursue a career in music. At [04:01], Bryan recounts, “My business manager called me years ago, 2011, and one of his clients in town had a farm that was coming on the market.” This opportunity allowed Bryan to acquire a 150-acre farm near Nashville, symbolizing his commitment to both his music career and a stable personal life.

Bill Maher's Humorous Take Bill Maher humorously reflects on his own background, teasing Bryan about the rural setting: “Why can't I have a laundry detergent that smells of Spanish leather, Siberian pine, or Italian bergamot?” at [00:00]. This lighthearted exchange sets the tone for their relaxed and candid conversation.

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2. Navigating the Music Industry

Diverse Music Scenes: Nashville vs. Athens A significant portion of the conversation delves into the contrasting music scenes of Nashville and Athens. At [23:37], Bryan mentions, “The Athens music scene. We sold out the Georgia Theater for the first time,” highlighting Athens' reputation for fostering alternative and diverse music acts like R.E.M. and the B-52s. Maher contrasts this with Nashville’s more mainstream country music, emphasizing the different cultural vibes each city offers to artists.

Challenges of Breaking Through Both Maher and Bryan discuss the unpredictability and competitiveness of the music industry. At [10:13], Bryan shares his experiences performing in various venues and the thrill of connecting with diverse audiences. Maher adds, “I thought music is, you know, the muse is sitting on your shoulder, and sometimes he sits there for one hit,” reflecting on the elusive nature of sustained success in the music world.

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3. Personal Lives and Family Dynamics

Luke Bryan's Family Structure Bryan speaks fondly of his family, detailing his 18-year marriage and his role as a father to three boys: “We have our 16-year-old Bo and got a 14-year-old named Tate,” at [56:57]. He also touches on the responsibility he feels towards his nephew, who moved in at 13, emphasizing the importance of strong family bonds.

Bill Maher's Perspective Maher contrasts Bryan's family life with his own, candidly admitting, “I don't have kids,” at [57:01], and discusses the challenges of balancing personal life with a public career. This comparison underscores the different paths and personal choices each has made.

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4. Social and Ethical Commentary

Homelessness and Mental Health The conversation shifts to societal issues, particularly homelessness in Los Angeles versus Nashville. At [29:26], Bryan expresses his concern: “I just hate seeing homeless people struggling.” Both men explore potential solutions, debating the effectiveness of government interventions versus community-driven efforts.

Hunting Ethics and Meat Consumption A substantial segment is dedicated to hunting, with Bryan detailing his passion for elk hunting and sustainable meat consumption. At [60:57], he explains, “Man, we hunt. We get most of it in hamburger. We'll do burgers and then taco night and spaghetti night or Bolognese night.” Maher engages in a spirited debate about the ethics of hunting and factory farming, stating, “Agriculture in America is disgusting,” at [61:59]. They delve into the moral implications of animal treatment, the necessity of hunting for sustenance, and the environmental impact of industrial farming practices.

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5. Contemporary Youth Culture and Technology

Impact of Virtual Worlds on Youth Bryan and Maher discuss the growing immersion of young people in virtual environments like Fortnite. At [57:08], Bryan shares, “They are into that Fortnite,” highlighting concerns about screen time and the social development of teenagers. Maher adds, “Getting them out of their virtual world is becoming more and more of an impossible task,” emphasizing the challenges parents face in balancing technology use.

Digital Relationships and Social Media Influence The duo touches on the prevalence of digital relationships and the influence of social media algorithms on societal behavior. At [58:46], Maher remarks, “That's what algorithms thrive on? Hatred. Controversy. That's what gets more people clicking.” They critique how these platforms perpetuate divisive content over positive interactions, impacting both individual mental health and broader social cohesion.

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6. Music Collaborations and Artistic Influences

Diverse Musical Tastes Bill Maher and Luke Bryan explore their varied musical influences, ranging from classic rock to modern pop. Bryan reminisces about witnessing Taylor Swift’s rise, saying, “And so I saw her play for the first time. And she's got an angel costume on,” at [49:20]. Maher, on the other hand, discusses artists like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, noting their lyrical prowess and influence on contemporary music.

Collaborative Possibilities The conversation briefly touches on potential collaborations between different music genres. Maher jokes about blending country with heavy metal, “I mean, Jay-Z did rap with like he did 99 Problems with, I think, was it Rage against the Machine,” at [83:52], pondering the possibilities and challenges of crossing musical boundaries.

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7. Balancing Career and Personal Growth

Commitment to Craft Both Maher and Bryan emphasize the importance of dedication to their respective crafts. Bryan shares his approach to songwriting and performing, stating, “You just do your best to try to write a great song” at [75:12]. Maher reflects on his comedy career, acknowledging the hard work behind the laughs: “I'm just not a loser” at [92:11], highlighting the persistence required in their professions.

Overcoming Challenges They discuss the hurdles they've faced, such as difficult performances and industry setbacks. Maher recounts his early days as a comedian, performing in “small clubs… with sawdust on it,” at [76:07], while Bryan talks about navigating the pressures of fame and maintaining personal relationships amidst a demanding career.

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8. Closing Reflections and Mutual Respect

Shared Experiences and Mutual Admiration As the episode draws to a close, both hosts express mutual respect despite their differing careers and perspectives. At [93:40], Maher states, “We are all Americans and we're all…,” underscoring their shared nationality and underlying commonalities. Bryan adds, “Hell yeah, we are,” affirming their camaraderie.

Final Thoughts on Society and Progress Maher shares a hopeful outlook on societal progress, despite the challenges: “The arc goes bend more toward justice,” at [08:05]. Bryan echoes this sentiment, expressing optimism about the future: “I do think I have to live with the hope that we are getting better.”

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Notable Quotes

• Luke Bryan at [04:01]: “I found 100. It's about 150 acres about 20 minutes south of Nashville. Literally cow pastures where you guys all live.”
• Bill Maher at [08:05]: “As Obama used to say, the arc goes. It bends more toward justice.”
• Luke Bryan at [29:56]: “Somebody struggling. Somebody struggling.”
• Bill Maher at [61:59]: “Agriculture in America is disgusting.”
• Luke Bryan at [57:08]: “They're into that Fortnite.”
• Bill Maher at [58:46]: “Algorithms thrive on hatred. Controversy. That's what gets more people clicking.”
• Luke Bryan at [75:12]: “You just do your best to try to write a great song and, well, you actually try.”
• Bill Maher at [93:40]: “We are all Americans and we're all… We're living still in the real world. The younger generation is living in the virtual world.”
• Luke Bryan at [89:38]: “It was just so trippy to. I, I got into cycling and I cycled up a big hill that morning and stood out over the, the stadium looking down and shoot, I was like, damn, that's Dodger Stadium.”

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Conclusion

This episode of Club Random with Bill Maher offers a multifaceted exploration of Luke Bryan's life, career, and views on various societal issues. From the intricacies of the music industry and the ethics of hunting to the impacts of technology on youth and the importance of family, the conversation provides valuable insights into both speakers' worlds. Their candid exchanges and shared experiences highlight the complexities of balancing personal passions with broader social responsibilities, making for a compelling and thought-provoking listen.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Luke Bryan]

The first time, and I was like, that may be the biggest star I've ever seen.

[Bill Maher]

You knew right then, right then.

[Luke Bryan]

You.

[Bill Maher]

Get blood all over you. If you all over you and you.

[Luke Bryan]

Want that, that's just the way it is.

[Bill Maher]

Jesus. What a bunch of redneck club.

[Luke Bryan]

Random. I like this. Did you dress me or did I dress you?

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah. What a great pleasure to meet you.

[Luke Bryan]

Hey, great to see you.

[Bill Maher]

Music royalty in the house.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, well, royalty, royalties. Be careful with that one.

[Bill Maher]

Are you here for. Here for the Grammys or the fire?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, we. We're doing. We're typing Idol tomorrow.

[Bill Maher]

But are you involved in the Grammys this year? It's coming up in a minute, Right?

[Luke Bryan]

It's coming up and kind of missed out on some Grammy nominations through the years.

[Bill Maher]

Sweetheart, you're talking to the oldtime. I. I've had 40 nominations, and they would never give it to me. But about me.

[Luke Bryan]

Is it Susan L. Are you. Is it like, Susan Lushy? Is it. Is that references It's.

[Bill Maher]

It's not. I understand where it comes from.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh nice there.

[Bill Maher]

But.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, this.

[Bill Maher]

What could I cc.

[Luke Bryan]

I haven't drank yet today.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Because I'm on. I'm gonna do vodka grapefruit and you.

[Bill Maher]

Bring your own grapefruit. Good.

[Luke Bryan]

Somebody one of your people.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I'll taste that.

[Luke Bryan]

I'll try that one.

[Bill Maher]

I have a.

[Luke Bryan]

Do a little half shot.

[Bill Maher]

It sure. I have a specific grapefruit person on the staff who just handles grapefruit. That's what a baller I am. Luke.

[Luke Bryan]

Are you serious?

[Bill Maher]

No, of course you're kidding.

[Luke Bryan]

No, I do. Hell, I. I'll fix to say we're.

[Bill Maher]

What do you have like a big, big ass ranch, I'm guessing.

[Luke Bryan]

Bill, I really, really fortunate. I. Cheers.

[Bill Maher]

Don't be modest. Thank you for coming.

[Luke Bryan]

Thank you. Highly overpowered. But we'll. We'll fix. Fix that.

[Bill Maher]

But no, it's good.

[Luke Bryan]

So my business manager called me years ago, 2011 and one of his. One of his clients in town had a farm that was coming on the market. I had just started getting to where I was making a little money and could start thinking about a farm and a place to kind of settle. And we found 100. It's about 150 acres about 20 minutes south of Nashville. Literally cow pastures where you guys all live.

[Bill Maher]

I'm surprised there's that much land still available since everybody seems to have the same fucking ranch with the cow pasture. Don't they butter up against each other? Isn't like Brad Paisley's cow is always coming on your.

[Luke Bryan]

Brad's got his farm in the holler and the holler. He's kind of in a holler. I'm in some. I'm in a cow pasture. I'll build up.

[Bill Maher]

I thought a holler. And the only thing I know about a holler is from the movie with. Where she played Loretta Lynn.

[Luke Bryan]

Right. A coal miner's daughter.

[Bill Maher]

Coal miner's daughter. Butcher holler.

[Luke Bryan]

Put your holler.

[Bill Maher]

I always thought a holler was like a ghetto in the country. Like. Like the. Like really a bad kind of poor area but country version.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, a holler. The best way to describe a holler is there's a. There's an old classic song that Brad actually. Brad Paisley actually re recorded called you'll never leave Harlan alive. And it's the. The. A famous line is the sun comes up about 10 in the morning and it goes down about 3 in the day. So a holler is your. You got two mountains. It's essentially an Appalachian valley. It's what?

[Bill Maher]

A gully.

[Luke Bryan]

A gully.

[Bill Maher]

A Glenn. A Glenn. Or is it. Well, you know, like from Glenn to Glenn. You know that from Danny Boy, right?

[Luke Bryan]

You know, Danny Boy don't know Danny.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, come on.

[Luke Bryan]

Is that a. So Danny Boy, everybody.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, Danny Boy.

[Luke Bryan]

Is that a musical?

[Bill Maher]

It's like the Irish anthem Danny Boy. I'm sure.

[Luke Bryan]

Hell, I'm redneck. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Everybody knows that no matter what color their neck is. Go back to your crew outl Danny on Idol and ask them about Danny Boy, and they'll all go and they'll all say, of course.

[Luke Bryan]

Is it a musical?

[Bill Maher]

Oh, Danny Boy? No, it's like. It. It's like the Irish traditional folk song. It's with bagpipes. It's awful.

[Luke Bryan]

But you have heard it.

[Bill Maher]

You've heard it. I'm. I'm not probably singing it well, but that, to me is what I feel like. I. Because, you know, I'm in Ireland, places like that. That's my heritage, you know, very similar in ways to Appalachia and, you know, very rural clannish. I mean, the southern part of the United States has sort of its character because it was founded and populated by Scots and Irish. Have you ever seen Gone with the Wind?

[Luke Bryan]

Certainly.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Scarlett O'Hara?

[Luke Bryan]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And her father has. Her father has the brogue.

[Luke Bryan]

Brian was an original. An O'Brien.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, is that right?

[Luke Bryan]

And they moved the. And my mother is. Is adopted. So what was funny is we never knew anything. I've always had dark complexion, and we always thought that I had maybe some Native American in me or something like that. But we. I'm. I'm 33% Scandinavian and about 20% Irish. So another. Yeah, 2%.

[Bill Maher]

2% what?

[Luke Bryan]

2% West West African.

[Bill Maher]

You are?

[Luke Bryan]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you had your thing done. You had your. Wow, 2%. Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that didn't come over in the Mayflower. That was a much worse ship. Yeah, we did some bad things. But, you know, the good thing is, as Obama used to say, the arc goes. Bends more toward justice. You know, we keep, I think, basically getting better. I mean, don't tell that to the kids because they, like, believe that.

[Luke Bryan]

I do think I have to live with the hope that we are getting better. I believe it. You. You sparking out over there.

[Bill Maher]

It's hysterical that these things. I say this every week, but how did they burn down half of Vietnam with these Zippo lighters? I just can never get. I get it at home. I put the lighter in the fluid, and then I get here and it never works.

[Luke Bryan]

Here you go.

[Bill Maher]

And I have. But I don't want that one. I want. I want it to look like this.

[Luke Bryan]

Cool.

[Bill Maher]

These look.

[Luke Bryan]

See, Bill, you can even do the cool Fl.

[Bill Maher]

Cool. I can't even do it with two hands.

[Luke Bryan]

It's not me.

[Bill Maher]

It's this fucking thing. I don't know why. I don't know what I'm doing. You got cigars doing wrong?

[Luke Bryan]

I may get a cigar.

[Bill Maher]

You can. I mean, I never understand what anyone sees in them, but if it makes you happy, I'll be more than happy to.

[Luke Bryan]

What is that?

[Bill Maher]

No, it's just. Just a little recreational. I don't know do it that much. I mean, I'm sure there are people who've sat right there who do it all day long, you know, but I never was that kind of guy. But for a special occasion with a special person, it's great to get to know you. You know, I have to be honest, growing up in New Jersey, you know, country music was just not on my radar. It's just not something we did. So I'm slowly catching up to it because, like, for so long, and it was my fault. I just wrote it off as, like. That's just a different kind of music that I don't. And then slowly I. You know, even starting, like back in the 90s with. I remember Brooks and Dunn, and then Obama used to play their only in America song, which I love. And I was like, wow, this is not my granddaddy's country. You know, it's a great electric.

[Luke Bryan]

It morphed into Americana with rock and roll. And I tell you, when I go play, when I'm in Jersey, when. When. When I'm up there in that part of. When I'm up there in that part of the world and I see part of the world. Well, that's it.

[Bill Maher]

Like we're Eskimos or something. It's New Jersey. We have a turnpike, Luke. We have a turnpike that you pay a toll on. Oh, we pay too many tolls.

[Luke Bryan]

So.

[Bill Maher]

Too high taxes.

[Luke Bryan]

The. The. And when I say that when you grow up in South Georgia and you start your music journey and then you arrive in New Jersey and people are screaming your music. It's one of the most proudest moments you could have as a musician because. And what was my term I use? Up. Up there or what Did I just say that you people. That.

[Bill Maher]

No, you. That part of the world.

[Luke Bryan]

That part of the world.

[Bill Maher]

That unexplored foreign land.

[Luke Bryan]

Mark, grab me a cigar out of my green bag. Please, if you get a minute done, sit here and let this man smoke alone.

[Bill Maher]

Club cigarettes. That's where I used to call it, because I thought they wouldn't let me do it.

[Luke Bryan]

But yes.

[Bill Maher]

So again, we've changed so much.

[Luke Bryan]

32 years old. 30. 32 years ago, reluctantly tried weed. And, man, it's been something that I never, never done a lot of, but I don't have those stigmas.

[Bill Maher]

How do you say reluctantly?

[Luke Bryan]

Because, man, I grew up in the Bible Belt where.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Luke Bryan]

It was, Bill. It was.

[Bill Maher]

Seriously, what does the Bible say about it? Because I don't remember anything.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I don't even know why they called it the Bible until somebody explained it to me, but I don't remember.

[Bill Maher]

Anything in the Sermon on the Mount. I remember things about, you know, the meek shall inherit the earth. And, you know, there were other very interesting. I mean, Jesus was quite the revolutionary philosopher. I don't remember anything about not sparking up, you know, that it would corrupt you or, you know, whatever they said later about it, that.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, it.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, devil's weed.

[Luke Bryan]

No, no, no, no. Gateway. Gateway.

[Bill Maher]

Well, actually, it's funny that's ironic because the gateway drug is actually beer, which is.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, you're. And your parents. Beer.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, the love that you country people have for beer is just something I've never, ever seen on this earth. I mean, that. The devotion to the singing about it, the encomiums.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, and I've. I've hit the subject.

[Bill Maher]

The fucking beer. I. I don't. I never understand that. That the amount of songs.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, it's, you know, beer is really ingrained in the culture. I mean, we. It's from the. From the football aspects of growing up in the south till sharing your first beer with your dad to. To sneaking your first beer, trying to buy your first beer, you know, with a fake id.

[Bill Maher]

Wait, so you. You drank it with your dad before you snuck it?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, you know, when we were kids, I think if we were on a. A hunting trip or a fishing trip as a kid, you. You'd have a beer. Well, you. You'd be. You'd go, dad, what does beer taste like? And your dad hands you a Budweiser and you taste it and spit it out of the boat. But. But. So I just think it's. It's a part of our. It's ingrained in our culture as. And it just. It's involved in. In when we play shows and honky tonks and the fabric of. I mean, heck, when you look at. There's a Tear in my beer. Hank. Hank Williams. And that was 60 years ago. So it's beers. Beers are pretty.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. No, it's almost liturgical. It's almost like an ointment, like a sacrament. There's something almost.

[Luke Bryan]

But did beer not mean that? Was it not.

[Bill Maher]

I think beer. I think beer's gross. I. I mean, I. I've drunk way too much liquor in my life. It wasn't beer. Like, beer is a poor man's liquor. It's. It's gassy. You need to drink a shitload of it to get high. You know, I don't like wine either. I think wine's another because they're both like 6 and 8 or 10% alcohol or something. This shit's like 90.

[Luke Bryan]

Get to the point.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. It's so funny, you guys. You like beer and moonshine.

[Luke Bryan]

Either 3% alcohol or 200, you're ingesting 3,000 calories, or you're blackout in 10 minutes.

[Bill Maher]

You know, Larry Flint used to give me moonshine. Larry Flint, Remember him?

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, yeah. Hustler guy.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Club random. I'm getting the random now. The random is right.

[Bill Maher]

Right. We try to live up to our name.

[Luke Bryan]

Well.

[Bill Maher]

But no, I never liked beer. I remember the. I think it was the first thing I ever drank because I have a memory of being, I don't know, 14 or something. And at night. At night with a bunch of other ne'er. Do. Well. Oh, we were a rough gang there in New Jersey. Oh, we grew up on the mean streets. Well, the mean circular driveways of Bergen County, New Jersey. No, we weren't rich at all, but it was, you know, like lower middle class. We had a little house, and so we went on the golf course and drank Rolling Rock beers. Rolling Rock. Did you have that in the sound?

[Luke Bryan]

We had Rolling Rock.

[Bill Maher]

They were called Green Grenades. They were like little bottles. And I remember now.

[Luke Bryan]

How old were y'all?

[Bill Maher]

Old enough that I threw up.

[Luke Bryan]

Threw it up.

[Bill Maher]

I threw. Yeah, I threw. Of course, your body rejects every drug you do at first because you shouldn't be doing it.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. My first beers were probably 15, 16. And then we would. Every now and then, we'd go get Old English, which was like a. A malt liquor beer.

[Bill Maher]

I remember one called Southern Comfort.

[Luke Bryan]

Southern Comfort.

[Bill Maher]

That sounds like it may have come from your neck of the woods.

[Luke Bryan]

We used to do Southern Southern Comfort and lemonade.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. That's his. That's like.

[Luke Bryan]

Did you ever do Bartles and James? Fuzzy Navels?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Luke Bryan]

You remember those things?

[Bill Maher]

I remember Bartles and James, but I'M not even sure. Was that liquor? Wine, corn.

[Luke Bryan]

It was like the, the first smearing off ice. It was 10 years before smearing off Smirnoff Ice or Zimas. You remember Zimas?

[Bill Maher]

Vaguely, yeah. Now there was that terrible period when you're first drinking and you don't have a drink, you know, you see, so.

[Luke Bryan]

You gotta sample em. You just drink anything and narrow down to what? You don't throw up.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it's just not good not to have a drink. You know, James Bond had a drink, right? Vodka, shaken, not stirred. You know, there was no. That's a man you don't want to be. Like Planter's Punch, whatever fucking thing you want.

[Luke Bryan]

And the football players are endorsed. I mean, it's hard not to start, you know.

[Bill Maher]

I know, but it's like that's what you expect from a young girl, you know? What are you drinking? I don't know. Okay. You know, just they. You don't want to be there with liquor.

[Luke Bryan]

You want to know and then listen, Be glad you probably didn't do the Jaeger.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I did. I used to.

[Luke Bryan]

Did you do Jaeger bombs?

[Bill Maher]

I remember doing. Oh my God, I can't even believe I did this to myself. I remember drinking. When I did finally get a drink, it was Jack Daniel, right. For like 25 years. They sent me a plot of land, like just a one foot plot.

[Luke Bryan]

Right, right.

[Bill Maher]

That's how much Jack Daniels I was apparently consuming. And I remember drinking all night at like a Playboy mansion party and then like at three in the morning, starting with the Jagermeister. I mean, how could my body have taken that?

[Luke Bryan]

Bill, I didn't realize you. I didn't realize all this drinking was going on and.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that was certainly wasn't every night, but.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, yeah, but I get it. But Jaeger bombs were. Oh, I mean, and then, and then.

[Bill Maher]

So terrible the word. You know what?

[Luke Bryan]

And then. So my college drink, very interesting. Crown and water as a, as a 20. I didn't get to college till I was 21. Well, I'd gotten a two year degree from a small junior college and then transferred, so I was 21.

[Bill Maher]

What did you think you were going to be?

[Luke Bryan]

Man, I didn't think I'd be this.

[Bill Maher]

No, see, I did.

[Luke Bryan]

Did you?

[Bill Maher]

I thought you would be exactly this. No, I thought I would. I knew I was going to be a comedian when I was like 8 years old.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I knew I loved being on stage and I knew I loved performing and singing, but I think I just, I knew that I had to, to do college too. That was really ingrained in me.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, me too.

[Luke Bryan]

So I wasn't, you know, I21.

[Bill Maher]

What was your backup plan?

[Luke Bryan]

My backup plan would have been, you know, after, after I left college, I was playing in bars and at different colleges all through the south east. And man, it was fun as we load up on the weekends and we'd, we'd go build one market, we'd go try to do Valdosta, Georgia and then Statesboro and then kind of my hometown and then we try to start doing Athens and we, we play all these shows in Athens, Georgia and if you could get in the damn at music scene.

[Bill Maher]

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[Luke Bryan]

The Athens music scene. We sold out the Georgia Theater for the first time.

[Bill Maher]

Athens. I. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think of Athens as alternative. I mean, Athens is REM.

[Luke Bryan]

No doubt. No doubt. And B52s.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

And. But listen, I mean, I think of.

[Bill Maher]

Athens as sort of the alternative to Nashville's more mainstream.

[Luke Bryan]

It totally is. And there's such amazing music coming out of, you know, coming out of Athens. But, Bill, you gotta make in Georgia.

[Bill Maher]

How about making they all. That's more my era. Like, they turned out a lot of, like, what came out of Brothers. Allman Brothers.

[Luke Bryan]

Jesus.

[Bill Maher]

Leonard Skynyrd. Where's that from?

[Luke Bryan]

Leonard Skynyrd was. They're from Jacksonville.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah, that's right. Same thing.

[Luke Bryan]

Make it so. Man. You know, making. You got James Brown.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, right.

[Luke Bryan]

You got Stacks Records.

[Bill Maher]

Is that from.

[Luke Bryan]

Is that Capricorn Records? Guy named Phil Warren.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, where was Stacks?

[Luke Bryan]

Maybe Stacks was Memphis.

[Bill Maher]

Memphis. Memphis. Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

So. But yeah, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

And then Elvis, Sun Records. That's, you know, that's.

[Luke Bryan]

That's.

[Bill Maher]

That's Memphis.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, you know, and God, there's so many complexities in all that southern music. But, but, you know, when I. When I. When I started headlining the Georgia theater in Athens in such a. Such what you Said Athens was a real diverse town. Yeah, certainly. And. And for me to go in there.

[Bill Maher]

And probably way more politically liberal than.

[Luke Bryan]

Nashville, than your standard Southern university, or was leaning that way at the time.

[Bill Maher]

For example, I bet in the last election Nashville voted. You know, it's a city, it's blue, so it's not going to be like. But I bet you considering how Trump. How well Trump did in places he hadn't done that well in the first time around, I bet you Nashville was maybe 50, 50 Trump for her, whereas Athens, I bet you was 70% for Kamala Harris. Just politically, I think that's where they are right now.

[Luke Bryan]

I. I think Athens may have tilted back a little a few years ago, but I couldn't argue with you on that. And. And I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, the south is diverse. I mean, I played Huntsville, Alabama, you know, which is where NASA is, Right. Yeah. I mean, that was. That crowd was almost too liberal for me.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. And. And Huntsville's one of the fastest growing.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

If they're probably the number one fastest growing city in North America or even suddenly. Suddenly in the South. But Huntsville's on fire.

[Bill Maher]

But Huntsville is on fire.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, on fire. Yeah. I know with.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, we're not that sensitive about it.

[Luke Bryan]

Lord, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

No, we are not on fire today.

[Luke Bryan]

But the. Huntsville is a great town.

[Bill Maher]

Why? Because they're pouring a lot of money into NASA or maybe the space program, I think.

[Luke Bryan]

The space program program, I think.

[Bill Maher]

But it's just a lot of smart tech people there.

[Luke Bryan]

Because space program pulled a melting pot of smart people from, yes. All walks of life.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, I guess 30, 40 years ago, when the space program maybe was really rocking in Huntsville, that pulled all the smartest people right from India.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, it pulled everybody to Huntsville. Well, they're getting pulled there for their brains and all that. But then 40 years later, those. Those ethnic, you know, different cultures.

[Bill Maher]

I think that ass.

[Luke Bryan]

Little spot.

[Bill Maher]

I think that mixture is great.

[Luke Bryan]

Me, too. It's amazing.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, eggheads, they should be in fucking Alabama, you know, just because the people are generally nicer. I mean, look, if we get onto political issues, are we going to have arguments about some things? Yeah, we are. But, you know, I keep preaching, you can't hate people who disagree with you, except about the most absolute outrageous things. But you can't hate them. If they like Trump, you can hate Trump. I get that. I'm not a big fan, but you can't hate them for who they like. So, like, I think it's very good when those type of people who normally would be at Stanford or some other stifling place with a equally obnoxious sort of wokeness that's uber, uber, uber on the left, get down to a real place and talk to real people and you'll see that they're not monsters. And actually, in a lot of ways, they're just more fun to hang out with. They're looser, they're not uptight. You can make jokes.

[Luke Bryan]

God.

[Bill Maher]

They're not looking around the room to see who's the bigger name, you know, There's a lot to recommend.

[Luke Bryan]

It sounds amazing. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I wouldn't live there. No, I'm not kidding. But I really do like it. And I could. There are places I could live, but I, you know, now I. I look with all the. Even with the fire. I've been here 42 years, bro. I'm dug in.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. And, you know, I. I came from Georgia and then, you know, Georgia brought me, obviously, out here with American Idol.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. It's not horrible out here, is it, man?

[Luke Bryan]

It's amazing.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it really is really that horrible to go to the Tower Bar for dinner?

[Luke Bryan]

No, it's. It's not bad at all. And what I really. I go back home to Georgia and even friends in Tennessee and they're like, man, how crazy is it out there in la? And I'm like, man, it's not that crazy. There's just good restaurants and.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the people are crazy, but they're show people. And show people, they're just not.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, What I. What I can't handle, man, is just. I just hate seeing homeless people struggling, man. It. It's when I, When I didn't grow up seeing homeless people, and because it was like, in the south, churches would help. Churches would come together and help.

[Bill Maher]

Sure.

[Luke Bryan]

Somebody struggling.

[Bill Maher]

That's the kind of thing churches do. I never denied it. I mean, I'm an atheist. I don't deny it.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, but churches would keep people. Yeah, keep. Keep people going. And then you, as a Southern boys, you come out of la and I'm like, how can we fix this?

[Bill Maher]

It is my dream that every homeless person in LA has their own holler. No, but I think we can.

[Luke Bryan]

You're. You could fill a holler up.

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Luke Bryan]

With homeless people out here. And I hate that because, like, there's.

[Bill Maher]

No homeless in Nashville.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, there. There are. There are, and it's a problem.

[Bill Maher]

And what is, what is Nashville's solution, man?

[Luke Bryan]

I think they're trying to figure it Out. So that's what we're trying to figure it out. And man, every, you know, every. Every crosswalk, I mean, every red light stuff, there's a homeless person sitting there.

[Bill Maher]

And how many acres do you have on your farm?

[Luke Bryan]

150.

[Bill Maher]

And you can't fit any homeless there, Bill. No, I'm with you.

[Luke Bryan]

That was amazing. That was amazing. And so wrong to do that to me as.

[Bill Maher]

Hey, I've got a lot of land here too.

[Luke Bryan]

This stalker's got five acres up here.

[Bill Maher]

No, I don't have five acres up here, but I got a nice little holler. And you know what? I'd love to invite all the homeless, but I'm not going to do it either. And neither would anybody. I understand. No one is. Don't ever shame me for not being as good a person as you. And don't pretend that you wouldn't be inviting a potential nightmare in your life that also probably wouldn't even benefit them. That's not the answer that we have the homeless into our private residences. The answer is that government, as you said, should figure this out. And the fact that they can't is ridiculous. I know why we can't here. Because everything is a bureaucratic nightmare with too much red tape and regulations. If I was king, I would just make a giant. Or many if I guess you need that many, you know, shelters, barracks. I'm sorry if you have to live in barracks, but it's better than living on the street. And they do that. And they say they don't want to live there. There's no security. Get some. How much did it to put a fucking guard on every aisle of the barracks and make sure nobody is robbing each other. Have doctors compared to like putting them up in hotel rooms. That's what they do. They come.

[Luke Bryan]

Mental health people come through there.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, they do it on a ad hoc basis. They've had. They usually do this in third world countries because America is now often a third world country in some ways. They have these big events for like three days where they'll put up a big tent in some place where there's extreme poverty. And you can do this in Ethiopia, but I've also seen it done in Appalachia and they have a big tent and people from the area know who cannot get their teeth looked at or eyeglasses. They come in and it's like. It's like a Renaissance fair, except you're getting your fucking tooth pulled. That is killing you. I don't know why that can't be a Semi permanent version of that.

[Luke Bryan]

I agree with that.

[Bill Maher]

You're the one who should have to answer that.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, no, man, I agree with you. Like, get them somewhere. Just get them somewhere where they're not out there hurting in the street.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's gotta be just like of all the answers that we could come up with for this. I feel like bottom of the barrel is stay on the street, which seems to be, you know, like, that's the ultra woke position is like, don't disturb them. It's like messing with a endangered species that's in its natural habitat and we can't. So don't. That's the mental approach to it seems to be wrong. And by the way, it wasn't what liberals believed 20 years ago. I used to do that show called Comic Relief. Do you remember that on hc? Certainly that. Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, and we are. The whole point of it was, let's.

[Luke Bryan]

Get these people in my damn base. I mean, y'all were weaved into what I learned comedy as a kid.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Luke Bryan]

Hell, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

What did you watch as a kid? What was on like. Like you were a kid in the 90s, man.

[Luke Bryan]

I was a kid when Thriller came out.

[Bill Maher]

80S.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. When Thriller came out.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Yeah, that was early 80s, yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, I was born in 76.

[Bill Maher]

Thriller.

[Luke Bryan]

Thriller. Oh, my God, what a. What a moment.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Thriller was. We Bill. We would, you know, Thriller came out and we would rush home from school and we knew at certain increments MTV was going to play the Thriller video.

[Bill Maher]

Is that right?

[Luke Bryan]

And we watched it every time. And then we watched Footloose.

[Bill Maher]

So you thought. So Michael Jackson was.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, my God. When. When my family members would have, you know, a bunch of people come in the house, my dad and my mother and my brother and my sister, they would make me dance like Michael Jackson in front of strangers. And.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, see, I'm always trying to prosecute this argument that America is just much more complicated than the two sides who were always screaming at each other, would allow. It's just like, it's these things that, you know, you might not suspect. I had this special that's running now. And then I talk about J.D. vance's grandmother who told him when he was 8 years old and thought he might be gay because he only had boyfriends. And she says to him, you know, do you like to suck dicks? Do you want to suck dicks? And he said, J.D. vance's grandmother said that.

[Luke Bryan]

Said that to him.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, because he was saying, am I gay? Grandma. And she said, do you want to suck dicks? And he said no. And she said, then you're not gay, but even if you did, God would still love you.

[Luke Bryan]

J.D. vance told you that?

[Bill Maher]

No, no, it's in his book.

[Luke Bryan]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

Hillbilly elegy, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I've heard the.

[Bill Maher]

And the point is, like, I've heard.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, the movie getting around that he wrote it, but I hadn't had a chance to sit down and watch it.

[Bill Maher]

And Ron Howard made it into a movie, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Was Amy Adams.

[Bill Maher]

I haven't seen either. I just read the part about the dicks.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I got you.

[Bill Maher]

But I just think, you know, coming from his grandmother who was saying something, born In Kentucky in 1933, America is just not, not as easily pigeonholed as they would want to make it. And see, I know this because I've traveled this country, man, on the road for, for over 40 years, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Everybody's got their differences and.

[Bill Maher]

But. But they're basically the same.

[Luke Bryan]

You damn right they are. You know, and you know what they don't want to do? I mean, they want to come to great music. They want to see all kinds of great music, from rap to country to dam. They just want to come out and spend their hard earned money and they want their tax dollars to look like it's helping the country.

[Bill Maher]

And also, I gotta say, don't you agree? I totally agree.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, man, I've looked at the. From when I moved to Nashville and made zero to what I make now. And I paid a ton of taxes. And man, I just want to see it. I just want to be able to go. That's my damn tack. Tax dollars working right there. That's helping people and making the. Making the country a better place. But I've never, I've yet to see.

[Bill Maher]

Buddy, I live in a state with 13% tax on every year and I just had to endure a fire that would have happened anyway, but could have been handled a lot better. But my 13% was not used wisely.

[Luke Bryan]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

Don't you see it do well, Yes, I do. Gosh, that's what I'm saying is I do. But you know, we just are in this place where people are locked into these. They're brainwashed on both sides. Like a certain percentage of them. I can't get through to them. I can't get through to the ones who are supposedly on my team. I mean, I've said to people right in that chair, you know, like, we voted for the same person. It's just that you are. Why she lost because.

[Luke Bryan]

Well. And you know, shoot, I don't. I don't know. It was. It's been a crazy. You know, you look from the. It's just been a crazy political time in. In my life.

[Bill Maher]

It's. It's only getting crazier. And yet, you know, I just will not sit there and stand for America sucks. And you know, like a lot of. A lot of what you see and it just comes from rank ignorance. I mean, they're just so ignorant, they have no idea what anywhere else in the world is actually like. They just know this is the worst place and that we're irredeemable and racist from the beginning. And that will never change. Even though it's changed immeasurably, all that kind of stuff. That's what they know. But, you know, I'm just always amazed at. With what all we're dragging behind us. Not just the over bureaucracy and the taxes that don't go to the right things, but, you know, like really kind of losing democracy now and how somehow. Somehow the economy is all based on two things. Cryptocurrency and rich men paying women on the Internet to do something while they masturbate. That's the entire. And yet we keep going. America. It's like my dog Chico, he should be 17. He should be dead. He's out there barking at nothing right now. He just. I do and I love America.

[Luke Bryan]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

Just keep going.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, it's hard to make a place like this go, though.

[Bill Maher]

It's. We're irrepressible, though. Like, we can't.

[Luke Bryan]

Man, I was thinking about that a couple days ago and you're like, man, it's hard to keep the. The different people in this country. It's hard to keep them in check with all their little. With all their little spots from the south and the Northeast and in the Midwest and what the Midwest claims they're great at, like basketball or something. And then you get the south say, I mean, just from sports and culture and all that. And then you throw music and music.

[Bill Maher]

Look at all the crossover between rap, R B now with music. I mean, Beyonce having the big country, right? I mean, who's the Shaboozi? You see that?

[Luke Bryan]

Hell yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, but that comes from you liking Michael Jackson when you were six.

[Luke Bryan]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

And that's what. But that's what this country. This country made that.

[Bill Maher]

Hey, where's my butler?

[Luke Bryan]

No, this country made. Made all that happen. We fought our. We fought. We're fighting all the time as a country, but damn, we made our way through it.

[Bill Maher]

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[Luke Bryan]

Payment required equivalent to $15 per month new customers on first 3 month plan only taxes and fees, extra speed slower above 40 GB on unlimited. See mintmobile.com for details. And here we are.

[Bill Maher]

And there really are people who just want to gin up the bad side. And I got Look, I've been a living making fun of this country for 31 years on television. I get it and I haven't stopped doing it. But I like to keep it in perspective so you know when I hear about what a racist, misogynist patriarchy we live in. How do you even leave the house? You know, I'm like. I'm traveling all over the country, have. I'm just waiting for one dirty look from one black person. Just a dirty look.

[Luke Bryan]

It ain't gonna happen.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it might happen, but, like, I just never see, like, in real life. I don't see, like, some. Maybe they're the greatest actors in the world. I don't think that's what it is. I think just like, we're people. I'm here doing a job, you're doing your job. We're respecting each other. We're. Hey, bro, how you doing? I just don't see this hatred that they want. Some people just seem to want to always be stoking it.

[Luke Bryan]

I hate that.

[Bill Maher]

I do, too. And it happens on both sides, you.

[Luke Bryan]

Know, I wish you wouldn't.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's because, you know, everyone's on social media, and you know what algorithms thrive on? Hatred. Controversy. That's what gets more people clicking. Love does not get you clicking.

[Luke Bryan]

You bring up. You know, when you think about, I mean, Shaboozy and.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

And then you think about, I mean, hell, Beyonce's. And she's probably the greatest singer in our lifetime actress. I mean, she's one of the best singer and performer and of all time, in my opinion, she's certainly the most successful. Gosh, she's so successful. And then you look at. I mean, gosh. I mean, I remember seeing Destiny's Child and just wondering and seeing Beyonce, and I was like, that's one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever seen in my life. And then she sings like that and goes on to have this career, and then it's just. That's me.

[Bill Maher]

But so, I mean, Taylor Swift.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, I was about to say that Taylor Swift's year. No, she. What she did is incredible. Bill.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I don't really get either one of their musics, but that's me, you know, I'm 69 years old. I don't have to.

[Luke Bryan]

This ain't for you.

[Bill Maher]

Well. Well, some of. Sometimes some stuff that's younger is definitely for me. I do. Because it sounds to me more like the kind of stuff, you know, the Weeknd is for me, with his hits. Anyway.

[Luke Bryan]

Great.

[Bill Maher]

Like, it sounds like something that could have been a hit in the 70s or even the late 60s when I first started to listen to music. You know, it's just got that feel. And then. And then, like, you know, Nikki Glaser was here and she's like, you know, she's the biggest jealous whip fan. She's went to the show 18 times.

[Luke Bryan]

Unbelievable. And then. But her personality would, you would think because she's such a great dominating female personality. Her personality, you think she would not like Taylor Swift. And then you find out she's like gone to her show 18 times. Right. Did you have Nikki peg to be like a Taylor Swift?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, because I know Nikki for a long time.

[Luke Bryan]

I did.

[Bill Maher]

Oh yeah. And well, Taylor Swift must be doing some Vulcan mind meld to the whim. There must be some estrogen laden sort of vibe that's some evil ray. Not evil. It's not evil. It's not evil, but it is a ray. Okay? It is a ray. You know, one thing that's going out to all women and, and they. So it makes them think that this music is. It's not terrible music. I just don't get it that it's like why it, why it has been elevated to this level when it seems to me fairly run of the mill. I mean, again, not bad. Listen, but I watched Nikki said, you gotta watch. You'll catch up on her whole oeuvre. Watch the concert film. And I did all 19 hours of it. And you know, I was really struggling because I always want to like everything. Like I'm just a customer. I have no musical ability. I'm just the young man in the 22nd.

[Luke Bryan]

All right, listen, do you know why Taylor Swift is that big? Tell me, man. When she first started, it was right when social media, where you could talk to your fans.

[Bill Maher]

Well, 2009 was the smartphone and that was her first year maybe.

[Luke Bryan]

So I think, well, Taylor Swift. So I was going to. I was going on a radio tour for my first single and Heartbreak Hotel. No.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that's Elvis. You remind me.

[Luke Bryan]

Hey, I will.

[Bill Maher]

You remind me.

[Luke Bryan]

I'll take the compliment.

[Bill Maher]

It is a compliment.

[Luke Bryan]

So I got, I get to. I have to fly out and meet a radio station up in the north, up in the northwest. And. First time I'd ever been to the northwest and it was just beautiful, just gorgeous. The two, you know, the two volcanic mountains in the background. My ass was fired up to be up there in the northwest. Well, I go to this little nightclub. It's. It's Halloween night.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Bryan]

And my song, my first single, all My Friends say, had not come out on the radio, but I just went to go see a concert and Taylor Swift was on this, on this Halloween night, she was on this radio show and I Had just heard the song Tim McGraw for the first time. And it was interesting to me when I heard that song. And I remember thinking, song called Tim McGraw. She wrote a song called Tim McGraw.

[Bill Maher]

How confusing to someone like me who's just learning about country music. There's a song by a country star called Another Country Star, but go ahead. Okay. Tim McGraw.

[Luke Bryan]

So she, like, moves like Jagger. Totally. It was related to Tim, and, man, she crushed it with that song.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Luke Bryan]

And so I'm standing there, that bar in the radio station brings her out, and I see her play for the first time. And she's got an angel costume on with little butterfly wings and her little sparkly guitar and, like, a little halo. And I'm sitting there watching this girl sing, and, man, I was like, that. That may be the biggest star I've ever seen.

[Bill Maher]

You knew right then.

[Luke Bryan]

Right then because. Because she just had it, right? I mean, she had the outfit.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, she does put on a great show. You know, I feel bad every time Taylor Swift comes up. I have to, like, be honest about. I don't quite get the music. Although I like Sparks Fly.

[Luke Bryan]

Hell, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You do that one. I do.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, she got you on that one.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, she did.

[Luke Bryan]

So that's all it takes.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's not all it takes because obviously I've heard the other ones and didn't get it.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, God. We'll listen to.

[Bill Maher]

There was one I liked in the concert.

[Luke Bryan]

What, other than Sparks Fly?

[Bill Maher]

Because you already liked that something all. All those years ago or all. I don't know. I forget. I only. It was. It was pretty good. But really, I mean, there's a lot of singing on a roof with moss that I got.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, listen, so she. When she. Right after I saw her in that Halloween show, you know, the world on the street was. She was out there talking to all her fans on socials. Nobody ever did it more than her. No, I mean, she earned every. She worked her butt off and earned those fans.

[Bill Maher]

Right. Well, and here's to her butt. But I just want to say, like. And this is a backhand.

[Luke Bryan]

Am I rambling? Am I?

[Bill Maher]

No, you are not. Well, first of all, this show is about rambling, so it couldn't be bad. But, like, this sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I admire her. Yeah. The music either works or it doesn't. But as a human, I have great admiration because to be that far up in the stratosphere and not be doing anything stupid, being still a good role model, basically. You know, she's had a Bunch of boyfriends.

[Luke Bryan]

Boyfriends. Yeah. When you're. What is she, 30? And people are like 35. Boyfriends are the worst.

[Bill Maher]

You can say, excuse me, girlfriend. She's 35.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. But the only thing people could say about her. She's had boyfriend.

[Bill Maher]

No, exactly.

[Luke Bryan]

Then she goes and lands Travis Kelsey.

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all.

[Luke Bryan]

And then it's like, oh, my God.

[Bill Maher]

I don't want to. I want to go back to this. But I did this once, I think on my show, and it's pretty funny. I'm only being facetious. But like, all these boyfriends and like to be that famous where we actually could name. I could name. I don't even. I'm not even a fan. And I can name all her boyfriends. Okay. There was John Mayer and the English actor and the other English actor. And then there was, you know, I could go down the list.

[Luke Bryan]

How do you.

[Bill Maher]

Gyllenhaal? Because. Because she's that ubiquitous.

[Luke Bryan]

You're. You just named that.

[Bill Maher]

But my.

[Luke Bryan]

You're. You just named. You couldn't name two of her songs. But you know.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly. That says a lot.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, you just. I don't know. All the boyfriends. You just rambled off.

[Bill Maher]

None of them are black. I'm just gonna say. I'm just gonna say. Couldn't we. Shouldn't we really, in this day and age, have one in there? I mean. And then she goes to the NFL, which is 80 black, and finds a white guy. I mean, you don't even look that hard. I mean, for God's sakes. Especially on defense. All right, that's again, facetious. But no, I mean, I think about this.

[Luke Bryan]

She's this. She's with Travis. Kelsey.

[Bill Maher]

She's so wild.

[Luke Bryan]

Which is crazy.

[Bill Maher]

First of all, that's going to end.

[Luke Bryan]

But then they're tattooing.

[Bill Maher]

That's going to end.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, I don't know. I don't.

[Bill Maher]

You want to make a bet?

[Luke Bryan]

I don't want to make a bet, but what's funny is since there's tabloids like Taylor and Travis, Kelce's mom not agree. And I'm like, what are we doing?

[Bill Maher]

I want to go on record as saying, and this is not a knock on either one of them. I think they're both fine people, but that relationship is going to end like Rihanna's husband asap and Rocky. No, but. But look, Travis is not the keeper. He's just not. I mean, he's not yet ready to be house trained. He's not. And he's going to be coming off Another Super Bowl.

[Luke Bryan]

I'm not getting into any of that.

[Bill Maher]

Of course you shouldn't. But I'm just telling you, he's you 20 years ago with more liquor in him. I mean, it's just, you know, think about what you were 20 years ago. Right.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, is that.

[Bill Maher]

Are you married?

[Luke Bryan]

Yes, I am.

[Bill Maher]

How long?

[Luke Bryan]

18 years. Just.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. 18 years of marriage.

[Bill Maher]

That's just.

[Luke Bryan]

It's amazing. We celebrated. Well, hell, we just celebrated it in December. And.

[Bill Maher]

Hey, so how did you know she was the one?

[Luke Bryan]

Man, I just walked into, you know, she walked into a bar and there she was and it was just like that one right there.

[Bill Maher]

That's so interesting.

[Luke Bryan]

And then it was a college bar. A college bar that, that, you know, that if my brother doesn't pass away, I never go to that college. And then.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, if you lost your brother.

[Luke Bryan]

Right, I lost my brother. And then that sent me down this path. And then I meet Caroline and we kind of date on and off through college, but it wasn't time. And we kind of broke up at the end of college. And then it was five and a half years till we got back together. And man, that. Five and a half years, I went to Nashville and got my career going. I did all kind of crazy shit, you know, drinking. Like I said, I told you, I started college drinking Crown and water. Who the hell is 21? And just. Well, that's all they drink. Crown and Water.

[Bill Maher]

Are you kidding me? I had Daryl hall of hauling oats here.

[Luke Bryan]

What are them? What the hell they drink?

[Bill Maher]

Well, they don't drink anything together because they're suing each other.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, God, they need to get over that too.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, they put out some great records.

[Luke Bryan]

Dude, every time I party, I listen to you make my dreams come true.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Luke Bryan]

It's the greatest.

[Bill Maher]

No, they. They were.

[Luke Bryan]

We ought to rock. We ought to play that damn song. But I asked at the end, production careers, which is shortly after, which is.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, about 9:30. No, we're fine. But.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, but you make my.

[Bill Maher]

But I said to him, like, how did. Because like back in the day, I mean, he was a real matinee idol looking guy and you know, plus that falsetto and the voice and.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I said, how does a rock star, you know, with all the women throwing themselves at you? I mean, how do you resist? And he said, said it's impossible.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Poor guy, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, man, you know, hauling oats and heck. So anyway, just me and my wife, we with got, you know, three kids at home with us. And so circling back to that it's, it's just been an amazing ride with my family and my life. My dad, my nephew came to live with us when he was 13 and he's now 23.

[Bill Maher]

Nephew.

[Luke Bryan]

Nephew Teal. But he was, he was my sister's son.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that's beautiful.

[Luke Bryan]

And beautiful. And then I got. We got our 16 year old Bo and got a 14 year old named Tate. So three boys and then.

[Bill Maher]

Those are rough ages. 16 and 14, I'm guessing. I don't have kids. It's.

[Luke Bryan]

It's pretty amazing though. You know, they're.

[Bill Maher]

But aren't they too into the viral. I mean the virtual world?

[Luke Bryan]

They are. You know what's crazy and Fortnite, man. Fortnite.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Jesus.

[Bill Maher]

I wouldn't know it if I tripped over it, but I certainly have heard a lot about it and I vaguely know. I certainly know it's not real. It's something they're playing, man.

[Luke Bryan]

Right, dude. But these kids love it. I know my son for Christmas, you know, gets the whole new like processor to process the speed of this damn thing for Christmas. It's got all these light up fans on the back and he gets set of headphones, a new keyboard and a mouse and he looks like a. He's on a turntable and they're, they're talking to their friends on headsets and talking shit and cussing. But see, and then I have to go in there and I mean, they're into that fortnight.

[Bill Maher]

Getting them out of their virtual world is becoming more and more of an impossible task. I mean, this is the same thing that's going on in their sex lives. Because look at the success of OnlyFans. I mean, OnlyFans is a bunch of guys who must know in some part of their brain that this girl that they're paying is not really their girlfriend. Not even the person who's actually texting back to them that's some fat guy in the Philippines. And they don't seem to care. They would rather do that than have a real girlfriend or do whatever it takes to get a real girlfriend. I feel this is not going to come out well.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, you know, we just. I don't. I don't know what those guys are up to. But, you know, you just got to teach your dang kids to go try to be funny in class and work hard and study and keep your. I don't know, do you do things.

[Bill Maher]

With them in the outdoors? I mean, things.

[Luke Bryan]

Do I. Yeah, that's all we do.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, what about the Fortnite?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, that's how I get them away from that. Oh, I mean, man, I've taken my kids on. We go on every hunting and fishing trip together.

[Bill Maher]

And so that's good. You still murder innocent creatures with your. With your. With family members, thank God. That's right. Prediction lives.

[Luke Bryan]

It. It lives with our family. And man, we have a lot.

[Bill Maher]

So what do you hunt?

[Luke Bryan]

Man, we hunt.

[Bill Maher]

Do you eat what you hunt?

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, you know, we. We certainly do. And.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, like I said, so then I approve.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, man. But it's not like. Well, what's, you know, Bill, we. We go on an annual elk hunt with my. Me and my three boys, and we kill a couple elk a year and we get it processed at some elk dude out in.

[Bill Maher]

You got an elk man?

[Luke Bryan]

You got an elk processor?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I got an elk man.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, listen.

[Bill Maher]

Processes my elk.

[Luke Bryan]

So listen. Then I'm at my farm one day and I see this huge refrigerator truck pull up to my farm. And I'm like, what in the hell is this? It's a giant truck. And I run up there to the side of it and I said, man, why are you here? He goes, you Mr. Brian? And I said, yeah. He goes, I'm delivering your help me. And I'm like, I didn't. I never knew. That's how it got to my farm. It just always showed up in our refrigerator in the garage and. But I met the guy that delivers it. Well, turns out this dudes has a business where he picks up everybody's wild game that they go. That they go do and. Oh, totally. So am I blowing your mind with this?

[Bill Maher]

I'm listening.

[Luke Bryan]

He picks up his. It blew my mind. This guy's job is to take his refrigerator truck, pick everybody's game up and deliver it to their house. And man, we, you know, we eat. We eat all of our elk every year.

[Bill Maher]

I had a girlfriend in the late 80s, early 90s, and her father was military and, you know, he was a hunter. And I remember spending time there and eating a lot of elk.

[Luke Bryan]

What'd you think about it?

[Bill Maher]

I thought, you know, if you're going to the fucking supermarket and buying a package of meat, you're. No, you know, let's not kid each each other. Either you're eating meat or you're not. And yeah, if. If you're gonna eat it, it's probably even better if you kill it yourself. They don't process it. You know, it's not like animals don't kill each other. That's always been my moral justification. I just don't Believe in torturing animals until we kill them.

[Luke Bryan]

Man, I don't think you need to torture them, but they do.

[Bill Maher]

That's what factory farming is. Torturing pigs and chickens and cows until it's just like.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, you know, there's a lot of gray area and all that. I mean, I would.

[Bill Maher]

Agriculture in America is disgusting.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, they gotta. They gotta work on it, I think.

[Bill Maher]

So they gotta work harder.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, they do and don't.

[Bill Maher]

They don't care. It's profit. Why you have friends in the pig industry?

[Luke Bryan]

Man, I got friends everywhere.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, well, you should tell them I.

[Luke Bryan]

Got friends in the pig industry.

[Bill Maher]

Well, tell them to put a crowbar in their wallet and pry out $10 million and they won't live any worse if they don't fucking torture the pigs before. Because pigs are very smart. They know what's happening.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I do know. I know people in the pig industry, and I'll take that info in. Listen, you didn't think you were getting.

[Bill Maher]

Confronted on that on this episode of 60 Minutes, did you?

[Luke Bryan]

No, I. I think that's what it's all about here. Here in your side. My thoughts on. Like I said, with elk stuff. I. It just.

[Bill Maher]

Elk is lean, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Very lean. And all of the stuff of wild game and. And, you know, cattle and all that. And like I said, I'm not even this guy that.

[Bill Maher]

How do you eat your elk? Do you.

[Luke Bryan]

Man, we. We get most of it in hamburger.

[Bill Maher]

So you make it like a burger out of it.

[Luke Bryan]

We'll do burgers and then taco night and spaghetti night or Bolognese night. Oh, man, we don't ever buy ground beef anymore.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Luke Bryan]

And it's pretty. But like I said, I mean, when.

[Bill Maher]

You go out there to murder the elk, what is it?

[Luke Bryan]

I love it.

[Bill Maher]

So you're there with your boys, man, but you all got a gun and.

[Luke Bryan]

We got a boat. You see, bow hunter hunting.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really? Is that true?

[Luke Bryan]

100%.

[Bill Maher]

Why? Because it makes it more of a sport. Because the animal is like, I respect you. Before he got goes.

[Luke Bryan]

Here's the deal, man. When you. When you have these, you know, elk or a herd animal.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, if you go up to elk herd and you have a gun, it's. It's not. It's not hard at all to shoot an elk.

[Bill Maher]

It's unfair.

[Luke Bryan]

It. I wouldn't say it's unfair.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, please.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, listen, I mean, we, as humans, we have the knowledge to make hunting unfair, you know?

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's unfair to begin with, first of all. Oh, it's to Call it a sport. It's a sport. If a sport was the case where one team didn't even know the game was going on and the other team.

[Luke Bryan]

Had a look, they do.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, the other team knows the game's going on. They don't know a guy's in there with a. With a rifle.

[Luke Bryan]

But look, they see you and they run off and. Man.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that's true.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that's true. So.

[Luke Bryan]

But the kids do that. The kids have failure. Failures in hunting. That. That's the big thing about hunting. I mean, they can figure out. They can figure out a. You know, the codes. Hell, there's cheat codes. And they can go figure out what if you just.

[Bill Maher]

If you shoot at the. With your arrow, you shoot at the elk, but you just nick his ear like Trump, man, at the assassination, you know, and just. And so it's like if you nick.

[Luke Bryan]

An elk in the air, it don't even know that. Might as well have been a mosquito bite to them where. Because, I mean, they're a tough animal.

[Bill Maher]

But it's tough if you just wing it and it's got the arrow in it and it runs off, because then it's got to live with the arrow. It gets home, the wife is.

[Luke Bryan]

Man, let me tell you what happened, dude, you can. You can. You can hit an elk. Not properly. And that elks fine.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, look.

[Luke Bryan]

No, he'll. They're so tough. I mean, and then the. The beauty of bow hunting and all that is when. When it comes together perfectly and the elk doesn't suffer, the elk runs 20 yards, and then at that point, you've got to pack the elk off the mountain.

[Bill Maher]

Okay? So you.

[Luke Bryan]

So, Bill, check this out, okay? You go through all that. Well, then the work, you know, you have. You've hiked eight miles a day for four days. You shoot an elk, he dies right there. Clean. Your light, perfect shot. Then you got to pack that damn thing five miles off the mountain.

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean, pack it?

[Luke Bryan]

You've got to quarter it up in the field.

[Bill Maher]

Quarter it up, quarter it up. Cut it.

[Luke Bryan]

Cut it up.

[Bill Maher]

Cut it into quarters.

[Luke Bryan]

Cut it into quarters.

[Bill Maher]

What do you use for that? Knives And Ben Solomon's bone saw?

[Luke Bryan]

No, you know, you just get real sharp blades and you carve the animal.

[Bill Maher]

Right through the ribs.

[Luke Bryan]

And every other man, you don't. You go along the ribs for the back strap. You quarter out. You do leave the ribs and the carcass, the neck, but your shoulders from here, your back straps, your tenderloins. And then all the what do you.

[Bill Maher]

Do with the head?

[Luke Bryan]

The. Whoever killed it totes the head out. That's the heaviest part.

[Bill Maher]

What do you put it in, like a hat box?

[Luke Bryan]

No, you total on your shoulders.

[Bill Maher]

The head.

[Luke Bryan]

The head.

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean? Toted on you? What do you put it in?

[Luke Bryan]

No, you.

[Bill Maher]

You get blood all over you. If you.

[Luke Bryan]

All over you.

[Bill Maher]

And you want that.

[Luke Bryan]

That's just the way it is.

[Bill Maher]

Jesus, what a bunch of redneck. And I mean that in a good way, but. Wow.

[Luke Bryan]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

You want the blood all over you?

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, I wouldn't say you want it, but it's just.

[Bill Maher]

I got an important hunting question. You see the elk? Okay. You're there with your boys, right? You all got your bows ready? Does one guy. Do you decide. One guy takes the shot or do you all empty your clip like the LA Police department? No, really. Does one guy take the shot or do you all take the shot at the same time?

[Luke Bryan]

Man, what. What we have.

[Bill Maher]

I'm asking.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, with us, we. You know, like I said, my nephew, the first year, he. It was. It was his turn. And not everybody gets an elk every year.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I see. It's his turn.

[Luke Bryan]

What's that?

[Bill Maher]

It's his turn. You said it. You go by turns. He said it was his turn to shoot the elk.

[Luke Bryan]

My nephews.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, sir. Yeah, so, like, now he got that one. Next year it's your turn. Or one of the other boys.

[Luke Bryan]

Yes, sir.

[Bill Maher]

Well, again, I can't judge it because I eat meat. What? I'm telling you, I don't judge it. I only judge torturing animals, not killing them. They kill each other. You know, to me, that's a moral position. I know my friends at PETA, and I'm a board member and I. Yeah, great. Yeah, I know they don't agree. They're vegetarians. But. But look, the science, frankly, is just not out on that. There's no real evidence that we shouldn't be eating meat as human creatures. You know, our ancestors did it and.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I mean, you know, I think there's so much. There's so much stuff out there. I think people just do what they gotta do to survive in their different environments. And.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it's also an economic issue. Poor people eat at McDonald's for a reason, because it fills you up, it tastes great, kills you eventually. But, you know, people are thinking about the end of the month, not the end of their life, you know, and. But no, I don't. I'm. Look, I always loved playing the Red States because I would get a crowd that was hip, smart, but didn't have that fucking woke stick up there ass, you know.

[Luke Bryan]

And you felt that, though, in some.

[Bill Maher]

Cities, you know, it, it got better in recent years, even in like woke places like San Francisco, because the crowd understood that I was going to give them what we agree on, which is we're not conservatives, but we don't just pretend that woke nonsense. Is it nonsense? And they want to hear that. I mean, Trump is changing America in the last two days, like overnight. And look, I don't agree with a lot of the stuff, but the leftists, they invited this by overreaching on the other side, he's getting rid of all dei. Well, they went too far the other way. They put DEI everywhere. They left the border open. Like, you look at the chart for like this president, like Clinton and Obama and Bush, Trump, it changed very little. And then Biden, of course, they're gonna like, overreact to that. You know, they invited it on themselves. So, yeah, I mean, in recent years, it's been great because I get that crowd. But yeah, there were times when I was in, in San Francisco, I hate to pick on them, but there are places that are very wokey, thinking, God, I wish I was in Alabama. Because that crowd laughs but they don't have. They're not pretentious, you know, they're basically liberal, but they don't. They're not too politically correct. And comedy is not politically correct. Yeah, I mean, or else it's not comedy. You know what I mean?

[Luke Bryan]

My grandfather was a Southern Democrat. I mean, she. That was just what he was all.

[Bill Maher]

Democrats used to be. I mean, also there's used to be.

[Luke Bryan]

Democrat and Kennedy changed that. And, you know, I remember it was just, you know, that was a thing. And then growing up in a Republican household, I mean, it was. But man, you know, it just. I don't know. In the south, we just. I don't think we really care that much. I mean, we don't want to wake up, right? We just want to wake up.

[Bill Maher]

And first of all, people have to understand politics mostly comes out of like your personality and where you were born and raised. You know, it's just deeper than just, we're the good people and anyone who thinks differently isn't. It's just not that simple. It's just so annoying, that attitude. And I live amongst it because this is the epicenter of it, Hollywood, that terrible attitude. But yeah, most people just, first of all, they don't want to think about it at all. When Biden got elected, that was really, his big pledge was, if you elect me, you don't have to start. You don't have to keep thinking about Donald Trump and all this stuff. Of course, that was a pipe dream because Trump never went away and then he won the election again. So we never stopped thinking about it. But most people, they would like to stop thinking about politics because it doesn't really, in their view, affect their lives. Government can help their lives. They usually don't recognize when it does. They very well note when it doesn't. But basically, would they even know who was president? A lot of the times. Many times in many households not. And they want to just get back to that, you know, And I can't blame them. I can't blame them. It's too on people's minds. They put it in their social media, they put it in what they, they write on Facebook. And so we're always, like, fighting each other.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, like making. And we, you know, like, we don't have to, we can just talk about murdering animals, which I'm not against. If you eat them.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, and like I said about what we were saying, man, it's hard to get everybody together on the same stuff in this country. And then, and, and it just takes time and it takes work and.

[Bill Maher]

So what's it like playing la, man? Where do you, where do you play here?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I played Hollywood Bowl.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that's a big arena.

[Luke Bryan]

Several times.

[Bill Maher]

That's great.

[Luke Bryan]

I played, I played the Dodgers Stadium.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's, which was Dodger Stadium. Wow.

[Luke Bryan]

Dodger Stadium. I mean, so that, that goes back to what I tell you with, you know, New Jersey, and I mean, thinking New Jersey and then coming out here and playing Dodger Stadium, I was like, it was just so, just so trippy to. I, I, I, I got into cycling and I cycled up a big hill that morning and stood out over the, the stadium looking down and shoot, I was like, damn, that's Dodger Stadium.

[Bill Maher]

And I mean, anytime, Anytime you're playing a place whose last name is Stadium.

[Luke Bryan]

You did well, man. It's so good.

[Bill Maher]

It all came out in the wash for you. Gosh, do you ever, like, worry, like. Because I always feel like music is, you know, the muse is sitting on your shoulder, and sometimes he sits there for one hit. You've heard that term, one hit? One.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And sometimes, like, you, and, you know, not just you, but, but, you know, he's there for a while, but you just have to worry, like, is the next one gonna come? Because it's not something you can control completely.

[Luke Bryan]

No, I mean, you just do your best to try to write a. Write a great song and, well, you actually try.

[Bill Maher]

You don't wait for it to come.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I do. I do that also. I take songs. I love the songwriting community in Nashville and the fact that, you know, they could send songs to me and. And so I love. I love trying to record, you know, a little bit of Nashville's what their songwriting community has. But so, yeah, it's. You know, you wake up every day trying to make great music, and sometimes you just.

[Bill Maher]

Cause it's a fickle industry.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, it's tough.

[Bill Maher]

And you can't. Right.

[Luke Bryan]

And you know, with kids on idle, man, they're up there singing in front of us, and we try to get them to this level and that level, but, man, they got to go to work after that or it just doesn't work. Yeah. I mean, look at what you worked as a comedian. And then look at when you do, you do a funny one. Funny joke? What, on TikTok? And then you're a funny comedian. But you. You did. You did a million bad ones.

[Bill Maher]

I did. I had my version of playing those rock and roll bars that you played. Played.

[Luke Bryan]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I played a million small clubs. I played bars, which is not even a place a comedian should be. I played with no stage, standing on a floor with sawdust on it, you know, I mean. Oh, yeah. But, you know, you had it. I had it. It's the best thing in the world that could have.

[Luke Bryan]

So good. And I had fun the whole way. I've never not had fun.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it. I think it's. It was more fun for you than me. It's less fun for a comedian in that stage.

[Luke Bryan]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I think music, even if you're in a little shitty place, first of all, girls still come for you. It's a comedian. You're just a loser. And very often they're, you know, they're just not listening or, you know, in that stage. Yes. You're just. It's a sacrificial lamb kind of a thing.

[Luke Bryan]

God, you spent how many years having to not.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, not that many in that really.

[Luke Bryan]

You learn.

[Bill Maher]

It just.

[Luke Bryan]

That's the only way you can learn.

[Bill Maher]

Softens you.

[Luke Bryan]

It's the only way you can learn.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, man, I had. I mean, you had bad shows.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

And no one was videoing them. Jesus, could you imagine if they'd have videoed them, those bad ones?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, well, I. That's one reason I'm. I got off the road this just now, because, I mean, among other reasons, like, I don't trust the crowd anymore. Everyone is just out there to get a scalp. You know, they tell them to turn the phones off now. You could collect the phone. Some people do that. But I really don't want to do that to the audience. Most of them, I feel like it would be an insult. I feel like my audience are my friends. They could be my friends. They think like me. It's just not something you would get from just a random sampling of the people out there. So I don't want to insult them like that.

[Luke Bryan]

But.

[Bill Maher]

But, you know, every once in a while or somebody who's directly hostile to you can film your show, take things out of context. And also, you're pushing boundaries. You know, he crossed the line. Yeah. That's my job, to cross the line. And how do I know where the line is sometimes until I cross it? You should thank me for crossing the line and every comedian who does it.

[Luke Bryan]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

But I don't.

[Luke Bryan]

You have to cross the line. You do.

[Bill Maher]

Look at Johnny Cash. I.

[Luke Bryan]

He was. That's what he had to do.

[Bill Maher]

I crossed. No, I walked.

[Luke Bryan]

I walked the line. But, man. God, you look hard.

[Bill Maher]

Have you ever seen Walk Hard?

[Luke Bryan]

You know, I've. I never.

[Bill Maher]

It is the funniest. You.

[Luke Bryan]

You.

[Bill Maher]

If you haven't seen it or saw it once, watch it.

[Luke Bryan]

Was it John C. Reilly?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, that's probably his only movie I haven't watched. From top to bottom.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you have to. It's about your industry. It's about the music. It's hysterical.

[Luke Bryan]

I've seen cl.

[Bill Maher]

It's Judd Apatow. It's fantastic. Oh, you gotta watch it. It's a scream. You know, he's Johnny Cash at the beginning.

[Luke Bryan]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And then. But then they take it into the 60s. So he meets the Beatles. He goes through his Dylan phase, his Bob Dylan phase, which is very apropos. Now with. Have you seen the Dylan movie?

[Luke Bryan]

I hadn't seen it yet. I wanna see it.

[Bill Maher]

Me too.

[Luke Bryan]

I love the previews. Have really looked good. It's out now, though, right?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Are you a Dylan fan?

[Luke Bryan]

You know, in my household, we didn't. You know, I just heard Dylan kind of on the Peripheral. I didn't really. I just never really got a chance to listen to him. And. And through the years, I. I wouldn't say I was a. You know, I wouldn't say that. That I was a big Dylan fan. But. But, God, when you look at, you know, when, like, the band. It didn't he write Take a load off Annie. I think he wrote that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that is a band song. That's called the Wa.

[Luke Bryan]

The white. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, did Dylan write that? He wrote so many songs, sometimes where you'd think, oh, wow. Dylan wrote that because it wasn't a hit for him, you know.

[Luke Bryan]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, sometimes he was well served, I think, by somebody else singing his song because, like, you know, he had a. I don't. You know, they make fun of his singing voice. It was certainly unique. It's obviously, like, beyond charismatic because he's Bob Dylan. So if he didn't hit every note perfectly, but he's actually, you know, he does hit. It's not like he sings clams. He sings in his own very distinctive way.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, but I. I never. I thought I liked his voice.

[Bill Maher]

I thought. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's certainly not Robert Goulet.

[Luke Bryan]

Not everybody can be and not everybody can be.

[Bill Maher]

Not everybody should be.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, when you look at, you know, Paul Simon through the years, I mean, love him. Gosh. Oh, so.

[Bill Maher]

So that's somebody who, like.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I'm listening to a crazy Paul Simon fan, but I am.

[Bill Maher]

I'm a crazy Paul Simon fan, but.

[Luke Bryan]

I know enough that, man, what a.

[Bill Maher]

Career he built and what both lyrically and music like. Like, very few people write lyrics, I think, that stand up as poetry without the music. He is one of them.

[Luke Bryan]

Totally. I mean, when you think about Paul Simon and I mean, what.

[Bill Maher]

Well, sound like LeBron James now.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I was going back to Dylan and Simon and then, you know, those guys that. James Taylor. Who? James Taylor. His. These guys are not like. They're just not like. They're not like a Robert Plant type singer. No, Robert Plant was, you know, no one. I mean, he was just the greatest. Well, then you look, you know, but Paul Simon and. And singers like that could make it. Then Robert Bland could do that. It's just funny how everybody can find their little niche. As long as you've got something that's your niche and you've set yourself.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I've heard a lot of collabs. I've never heard, like, heavy metal in country. That seems one that's sort of elusive. Like, I can't imagine, like, Robert Plant, you know, doing something with you.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, he and Alison Krause did some stuff together.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's jazz. She's jazz.

[Luke Bryan]

She's bluegrass. She is in. In her core. Yeah, well, maybe.

[Bill Maher]

But. But Robert Plant in later years was less Led Zeppelin. Y. When they were like, da, da, da Da da. You know that they hit an E chord and the world was shaking. You know, I mean, that Led Zeppelin, that's when I was in college. I mean, I, I, you know, the, the country rap thing works.

[Luke Bryan]

Hell yeah, it does.

[Bill Maher]

But I'm not sure about country heavy metal.

[Luke Bryan]

It might, I'm trying to think.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, Jay Z did, did rap with like he did 99. Problems with, I think, was it Rage against the Machine, somebody like that, that was kind of heavy metal. But I could see why rap and heavy metal can go together. Country, I don't know.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, I'm gonna go through my mind. But I bet, gosh, there's been some, there's been some CMT crossover stuff.

[Bill Maher]

There's so much more collabing than when I was a kid. When I was a kid, you know, Tommy James and the Shondells, like they.

[Luke Bryan]

All tried to kill each other.

[Bill Maher]

What?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I mean, back in those days of music, man, and those, those artists didn't like, I mean, they were out hunting. I mean, they were out working to be better than the other. I mean, it was, it was cutthroat. It was. Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it was, I don't know about cutthroat, but it was competitive, very competitive. And there was no like, you know, hey, the fifth Dimension, why don't you come on my record, like off, I'm doing my own record. We get on your record. But now, like, nobody puts out a record, old man.

[Luke Bryan]

Man, there's a lot of them and I, Yeah, there's a lot of collabs out there, but people love it. People just love it.

[Bill Maher]

You do it.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, what about Dolly Parton? I hadn't done anything with Dolly.

[Bill Maher]

Why? It's an insult to you?

[Luke Bryan]

Well, I wouldn't say that.

[Bill Maher]

I would. Why, why wouldn't you collab with Dolly Parton? She, she's.

[Luke Bryan]

It just hadn't happened. I mean, I've, I've met, I've seen Dolly in concert, man. She's, you know, I, I just hit. It hadn't happened yet, but it might happen after the, after, you know. Bill, you're, you adamant about it?

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely, I am adamant. So I'm a one issue candidate. Luke has to do a collab with Dolly Part. Well, who, who is your favorite collab that you ever worked with when you did a collab?

[Luke Bryan]

Gosh, I don't know. You know, early on I did a collab with fgl Florida Georgia Line, and it was a fun call. This is how we roll it Was really fun. I've got a.

[Bill Maher]

Can I suggest a few people?

[Luke Bryan]

What's that?

[Bill Maher]

May I suggest a few people?

[Luke Bryan]

Who's that?

[Bill Maher]

Stilly Dan.

[Luke Bryan]

Whoa. Oh, you're really.

[Bill Maher]

In the ears.

[Luke Bryan]

Is it? Yeah, reeling in the ears.

[Bill Maher]

So good.

[Luke Bryan]

It's great, right? Okay.

[Bill Maher]

Well, the guitar solo in there, I mean, it's a. That was a two man group. One of them's gone, so, you know.

[Luke Bryan]

I think I can get in there with him.

[Bill Maher]

Steve Miller Band. Come on. What? You know, classic. Oh, what's their song?

[Luke Bryan]

The Joker.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. Come on. There's a little country in that song.

[Luke Bryan]

It. I mean, totally.

[Bill Maher]

You really draw your inspiration from a really wide range.

[Luke Bryan]

And yeah, never asked to, didn't even mean to. It was just. That's whatever my sisters and her friends and man, whatever they listen to.

[Bill Maher]

But I mean, you seem to be the product of all that. That whole range of the. Of the American songbook.

[Luke Bryan]

Hell, I remember, you know, Prince.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

When Prince had that damn album where he had the jeans cut out of his. His ass cheeks. I was like.

[Bill Maher]

I was like, I don't remember that one.

[Luke Bryan]

I think that was a picture.

[Bill Maher]

I don't remember it, Mike. Maybe you imagined that somebody sent it.

[Luke Bryan]

To reference it right now. But I was like, is this crazy?

[Bill Maher]

I used to have a poster of him around.

[Luke Bryan]

Prince was damn crazy.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Luke Bryan]

What an animal.

[Bill Maher]

Prince. I mean, very few people have wettoned pussies like prince. At 5 foot 2, 5 foot 2 and very.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, gangster.

[Bill Maher]

I know, Very gangster. I mean, five foot two. Trust me. I knew women who knew him. I knew women who talked about him and that 5 foot 2. You know, for all the women who are on, you know, whatever the dating site is where they're like, well, you know, Tinder. I wouldn't go out with a guy who wasn't six foot tall. Yeah, you would. I know one. You would. He was the pussy whisperer, that Prince. He really was. And then he got into, you know, he was a big fan of my first show, Politically Incorrect, the sign is behind you'd. And he used to talk about it, like publicly. It was a show with four guests. And he would. I was told he would. This is after he became a very serious Jehovah Witness. I think it was with something. He was very, very religious and he would bring like four strippers back from the club and they thought it was going to be an orgy. And he'd just do an episode of Politically Incorrect with them and they'd talk about Jesus. Yeah, yeah. So little tidbit for you. I don't know if that's true, but that somebody who knew him told him. But I know he really. Yeah, he became. Well, he definitely became super religious. Religious.

[Luke Bryan]

I didn't know that.

[Bill Maher]

Right. And the God was fentanyl. Unfortunately. No, that's, that's, that's not too soon. No, he was very, you know, he became, you know, had some very interesting theories about history.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah. But gone too soon.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, Whitney, Geez.

[Bill Maher]

But so many. I mean, how many rock stars, Whitney Houston, fall into drugs? And I always want to just get one of them to say to ask rock star. You're given so much just by being a rock star. You know this. You have so much. Why then need, like, this level of drugs that's going to kill you, man.

[Luke Bryan]

I hate that.

[Bill Maher]

It's just. And it happens so many times. Like, I just want to say to them, you don't have to be doing that well to do the amount of drugs you're doing, that's enough to kill you. You could probably do it like, maybe 400 grand a year. You could probably buy enough coke and liquor and fentanyl or whatever with that salary to kill yourself. And you're making way more than that. And you're still, you know, I don't know what their. What is this sorrow that they're dampening down? Sorrow? And I'm sure there is. I mean, I don't doubt that people have their own pain, no matter how much it looks from the outside, like everything's great, but you just have to explain to me, okay, everything actually is great.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you have so much. What the problem? What is the problem? Why are we doing the drugs? Why do we need to forget? Forget? I want to remember this life. And I even have it, man.

[Luke Bryan]

I want to remember it.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Luke Bryan]

I mean, well, you seem like you.

[Bill Maher]

Have your head on very straight.

[Luke Bryan]

I hope so. You know. Yeah, it's a.

[Bill Maher]

Who's your, like, kitchen cabinet friends who you could just, like, lay it all out with?

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, man, I got a great friend group I've got.

[Bill Maher]

You must have some of them. Must be your peers. Because, like, the only people who really understand you on a certain level are not your high school friends.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

They're the people who also play stadiums.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah, well, my thing, my high school. I got some high school friends that are like, they're just so tight. And one of them, he and I are in some businesses together that are doing really well and just so thankful of that. And then I've got, man, I Got high school friends and a little group of college friends that, you know, we try to get together.

[Bill Maher]

Or your peers. My peers that you, you know, can like.

[Luke Bryan]

I would say my peers in, in country are probably very early on. Dirks Bentley was a, A very dear, you know, a peer of mine, but.

[Bill Maher]

He'S not as big as you. Well, so you, you have to like have people who understand what your life is. Nobody like that.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Shelton or somebody like that. Somebody who understands what your life.

[Luke Bryan]

Oh, man. Me and Blake, we have a good time together.

[Bill Maher]

I told you. I know it.

[Luke Bryan]

You and Blake, we have a good time together.

[Bill Maher]

What do you do?

[Luke Bryan]

But me and Dirk's beer and murder animals.

[Bill Maher]

Let me guess, I'm not again.

[Luke Bryan]

I feel like I've walked into the Bill Maher trap of doom.

[Bill Maher]

I love it. I love that we're different.

[Luke Bryan]

Me too.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, and it. We're not even that different, man. I tell you, we're not that different. We do slightly different versions of the same.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, we're, you know, man, I think, I think we're all Americans and we're all.

[Bill Maher]

Well, the main difference is that is more generational. We're living still in the real world.

[Luke Bryan]

We're all.

[Bill Maher]

The younger generation is living in the virtual world world. That's going to be the main difference.

[Luke Bryan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Whether your girlfriend is an AI app on your phone or whether you're actually, you know, the other way. The old let's call it. Call it women. Classic. Well, anyway.

[Luke Bryan]

God, you know, but it's a lot to handle and control and the, the beauty of it is you get to fight your fight and not your fight. You get to tell you through comedy and you get to tell yourself through satirical. I mean, you go after it and you take your lumps.

[Bill Maher]

We're both so lucky, right?

[Luke Bryan]

Hell yeah, we are.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, we could have been, you know, not that other jobs are bad or horrible or boring, but a lot of jobs are. Are bad, horrible and boring. And we don't even have jobs. We have careers. Some people have careers and some people have jobs. I've had plenty of jobs when I was young and I didn't like them because they were fucking jobs. If you have a career as opposed to a job, you are lucky.

[Luke Bryan]

Very.

[Bill Maher]

And that's what we got.

[Luke Bryan]

Well, there's a lot of hard working people out there that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, and we work.

[Luke Bryan]

What do they want?

[Bill Maher]

They just want to be worked hard too. Don't take that away from me. Just because I enjoy it doesn't matter. And I still work hard at it. And I bet you you do too. How often are you like in the studio?

[Luke Bryan]

You know, I bet a lot. We're in studio. Quite a ride a lot. You know, we, we have.

[Bill Maher]

You have a thing at your house.

[Luke Bryan]

Where you thing at the house. Guys drive out piano, guitar, amps and man, we, we, you know, we ride out there and it's fun. You know, we. Right.

[Bill Maher]

So you have an in home studio.

[Luke Bryan]

I've got a room in my house that I've got, you know, my pianos and stuff like that.

[Bill Maher]

Are they sitting on actual bales of hay or do you.

[Luke Bryan]

Or do you have, you know, the donkeys come up?

[Bill Maher]

Do you have furniture?

[Luke Bryan]

The donkeys come up. You know, the dam. We serve our freshly slaughtered eggs and chicken.

[Bill Maher]

And I understand the Uber driver is a tractor. All right, I'm going to release you back into the wild to murder more animals. Oh, listen, I'm going to go back to work on my show. Thank you. Such a pleasure. I hope it's not the last time Club Random. I'm a. I'm a Pat Rack.

[Luke Bryan]

You know, I. Oh, listen to Stapleton, Clark Randall.