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Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Classic Replay-Singer Songwriter Craig Morgan on music therapy and the healing power of music
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Matt Rogers
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Craig Morgan
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- [03:18]
Craig Morgan
Music Saved Me As a writer, as an artist, we must provide the lyric and the melody and the marriage of those two in such a way that we create images and we do that from our own perspectives. But as an artist and as a writer especially, I can tell you, I try to write things that I think that the majority of our fan base can in some way attach themselves to something within that song.
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Lynne Hoffman
I'm Lynne Hoffman and welcome to another edition of our Music Saved Me podcast. The podcast where we explore the healing power of music. Now, if you like this podcast, thank you and please check out our companion podcast, Taking a Walk, hosted by Buzz Night, which is available everywhere. You get your podcast now. Today I am joining joined by a great singer songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, Craig Morgan. Now get this. Craig has a huge audience of fans reaching far and wide and over the years has earned 2.5 billion. Yes, with a b billion streams of his music, over 25 songs on the Billboard charts, 250 appearances at the Grand Ole Opry, and on top of all that, valiantly served our country as a 17 year veteran of the army and Army Reserve. And recently, goosebumps reenlisted as an Army Reserve soldier. Wow. I couldn't even believe that when I heard it. And if you think I'm done, no I'm not. Because he's still busy. In addition to his military and music career, he has also found time to become a best selling author, a noted outdoorsman, an actor and TV personality. In fact, I just saw him in a big morning show performing the title track off his most recent EP called American Soundtrack, which is now stuck in my head. I can't stop singing it. Craig Morgan, welcome to Music Save Me. It is a true honor to have you here on the show today.
- [05:08]
Craig Morgan
I'm honored to be here. Thank you.
- [05:10]
Lynne Hoffman
Thank you. I can't get that song out of my head. It is so good. It is the soundtrack to my entire life.
- [05:16]
Craig Morgan
Oh, that's wonderful. That's what we all, as songwriters in particular, but as artists also, we strive to achieve that. That thing where when you hear that song once or twice, it's forever in your head, or at least part of it, or something about it is in your head.
- [05:36]
Lynne Hoffman
It's there. Ooh, American soundtrack. My husband's like, all right, enough. Can I start off by asking you first, how has music played a role in helping you navigate the challenges that come across life sometimes?
- [05:55]
Craig Morgan
Well, I would say primarily it's my livelihood. I mean, so our livelihood, for me, my family, has depended on me achieving and maintaining a certain level of success in the business, if for no other reason, just for the financial standing. But, I mean, it's opened up the doors. As you alluded to some of the other things that I've done. I don't think that I would have been able to get into some of the spots, acting and doing some of the things had it not been for the music. So, yeah, I mean, it's. That's. That's. I would say that's the primary. I'm not like a lot of folks. I will tell you this. I truly appreciate, respect, love, and understand the impact music has on people's lives. And I will tell you some stories that I have been told about my music. But for me, it's an occupation. It's what I do. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy playing. It doesn't mean that I don't get something out of it. It doesn't mean that I don't find it calming or sometimes. Or sometimes the opposite. But. But. But for me, it is an occupation. It's what I do. You know, it's. Again, I truly respect and appreciate the impact. But for me, it's. I will say this. It ain't my therapy. My therapy is. My therapy is a tractor or. Or being in the woods or, you know, any place that I can get a little closer to God. And the music does that as well.
- [07:32]
Lynne Hoffman
Sure does.
- [07:33]
Craig Morgan
There's moments in my music where I feel like I've strengthened my relationship. But, yeah, that's. I mean, if that's. I don't know how other. You know, I'm always careful about how I attempt to be careful about how I word this, because I would never want anyone, especially my fans, to think that I don't appreciate what. What I've been blessed with and in and around this music. But I can't lie and say that it is my therapy, my personal therapy. I have dear friends, and they tell me that's Their therapy is listening to music. I probably listen to music less than any of my friends at all.
- [08:11]
Lynne Hoffman
That's interesting, but I understand it. My background is in music. It's radio. But it's interesting how very rarely I listen to the radio. Not saying that, you know, but when you're busy doing the work, you don't really have time, do you?
- [08:27]
Craig Morgan
No, that's it. And when I am, when I do have some time off, if I'm not writing that, which is my only avenue outside of the entertainment world and traveling and touring and all the other things that I'm doing to maintain some sense of relevance in the business, I'm doing something else. And it doesn't include music. Very rarely. Even like when we go to Alaska and we have our place and our business up there, unless we have friends or a group that's there visiting that's willing to listen to music, we're not listening to music. When I drive around in my car, I'm not listening to music. As a songwriter, there's two reasons. One, just because, as you alluded to it said, it's what we do. So I just don't do it when I'm not doing it professionally. But two, I'm usually listening to podcasts and stuff like that.
- [09:14]
Lynne Hoffman
Oh, really? Tell me, what podcasts have you been listening to lately?
- [09:19]
Craig Morgan
I really enjoy Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn. I also listen to Catholic Answers Live. I love that program. It's one of my favorites. To listen to anything where people are thinking.
- [09:33]
Lynne Hoffman
Yeah, what you're thinking. It's amazing because people really don't talk about what they listen to for podcasts, and it's interesting to find out, you know, and they also don't go on each other's shows, which I think is crazy. I think we should all be, you know, talking to each other.
- [09:49]
Craig Morgan
Absolutely. Absolutely.
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Lynne Hoffman
You know, it's funny, right? When we get on this zoom call, and I think there's a plane doing acrobats outside the studio, I don't know if you can hear it or not. It's like zooming around in circles because you don't use music, as you just said, as a form of therapy for yourself. Can you. Do you know what it is about the music? Is it the writing or the arrangement of the words? The words themselves or the actual performance and being a part of the entire thing. What do you think it is about that. That people can. It can be therapeutic for people listening? I mean, do you have any idea?
- [10:29]
Craig Morgan
I mean, I have my own perspectives, my own take on it, I believe it's a combination of a lot of things, but primarily what I've learned, and I think what American soundtrack, not the song, but this project in general has shown me, is that it's not necessarily the song as much as it is that moment in your life when that song happens to be playing.
- [10:54]
Lynne Hoffman
Interesting.
- [10:55]
Craig Morgan
So you might be in a very low place in your life, and you hear a song and it lifts you up. You will forever remember that moment because of that song, and you will forever remember that song because of that moment. So they marry together. But there's no question, as a writer, as an artist, we must provide the lyric and the melody and the marriage of those two in such a way that we create images, and we do that from our own perspectives. But as an artist and as a writer especially, I can tell you, I try to write things that I think that the majority of our fan base can in some way attach themselves to something within that song. When you think about blue collar prayer, there's a line that says, under her loose clothes, little junior starting to show. I think that every pregnant woman out there will relate to that line. And I'm talking about a farmer in that song. I'm talking about a soldier. I'm talking about different perspectives but having the same thing of prayer. So that again, when writing, I try to write towards and for the majority of our listening audience because my wife and her family don't buy my records.
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Lynne Hoffman
That is not surprising to me at all. You know, you do what you do, she does what she does, and, you know, it's actually probably better that way.
- [12:27]
Craig Morgan
It is, yeah. I've been married to my wife now for 30. Oh, gosh, 36 years. 37.
- [12:35]
Lynne Hoffman
Great. Oh, did you just hear 37 years?
- [12:39]
Craig Morgan
Yeah. And in that 37 years, I bet she hasn't been to a dozen or more shows. Just. I mean, we have our life. And like I said earlier, you know, music is my occupation. It's not who I am. That's what I do.
- [12:54]
Lynne Hoffman
It's so true. You're right. When I think about it, my husband and I have been together almost 30 years, and he's never once come to a television taping or he didn't. Never ever. We just actually had the conversation about it recently. But there's something to that.
- [13:11]
Craig Morgan
Yeah. I'm trying to get her to go with me on tour this weekend just to spend the weekend with me out on the road, Mainly because I wanted to see the show that Blake and trace and Dina and I are doing. I want her to see that. But our livelihood is. Again, it's my livelihood. It's not who I am. It dictates and has impacted a large part of who I am, but it's not me as a whole. And I don't know. Again, I can't speak on every artist's behalf. I love music. I love what it does. And like I said, I'll tell you some stories about. Some stories I've been told about what my songs have meant to people, and I love that.
- [13:50]
Lynne Hoffman
That was my next question was, what's the reaction when you get that affirmation that what you wrote was connecting with your audience?
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Craig Morgan
I'm going to start with a story I was told a long time ago. I had a soldier. We were in Washington State playing the state fair that year. It's a big state fair. And afterwards I decided I was releasing an album. So I decided I was going to do autographs afterwards. So I went out there to sign out. There's this huge line of people, and I thought, lord, man, I may never get through with this. And over to the side, there was a young man amputee standing there. And I said, hey, you can come on up. You don't need to stand. He said, no, I want to wait till the end. I got a story. And I'm like, bro, this may be a while. And he said, I don't mind. So we got him a chair, and he sat there four hours later. He sat there for four hours to tell me this story. He said, I just wanted you to know that your music saved my life. I said, buddy, it ain't me or my music. That's God. But I'm grateful that he used my music. And he said, well, I just got to tell you the story. He said, first time, I was in Iraq, and I was driving down the road and I was listening to a song that you had written called Paradise. It was my very first single, country radio. He said, I didn't know who you were. And this was many years after that song had been released. And someone gave him the cd, I guess. He said, we were driving down the road and the CD started skipping or something on his little portable CD players. He said he bent down to try to fix it, and a sniper shot through the window and missed him. And I said, well, bro, that definitely wasn't me. That was a God thing. And he said, but that was the first time. He said, the second time, I was sitting at my house, and he said everything had piled up and I was done. And he said, I Can remember having the pistol and I was going to put it in my mouth and a song came on the radio called Almost Home. And he said, I didn't do it. He said twice. Your music saved my life. I'll never forget that story as long as I live. That's, you know, and it's. I know that God uses that and I'm grateful and I'm just, I'm humbled and to be a part of anything that God's doing. Wow. And I tried to make it clear to that young man that, hey, that wasn't me, man. But I am thankful for the story. And, and, and it just changed me.
- [16:10]
Lynne Hoffman
What was his reaction when you, you know, with your response?
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Craig Morgan
Oh, we both cried. I ain't going. I'm gonna be honest. We both sat there and cried. You know, here's what it is.
- [16:19]
Lynne Hoffman
That's such a beautiful. Why do you. What, what do you think it is that makes music such a powerful tool for emotional healing?
- [16:26]
Craig Morgan
Well, again, I think it's the combination and the marriage of the melody and the lyric. There have been a lot of studies in the music world and in, in the medical world concerning music, talking about how a melody can influence the whatever in your brain that controls your emotions.
- [16:49]
Lynne Hoffman
Interesting.
- [16:50]
Craig Morgan
Yeah, there's a lot of great. I work with an organization, I got a buddy that started, works with a group called Guitars for Vets. And it's just absolutely amazing. These guys that have PTSD or contemplating suicide or any of these things, when they put a guitar in their hand and they go through a full 12 week program, learn how to play and how when they get to that spot where they're really contemplating doing something, when they put a guitar in the hand, they're able to release that and it changes their energy. It's just fascinating. Again, I think it's a combination of the melody, the lyric, and again, that point in their life where something's happening and they either hear a song or in the case of guitarist for events, they start playing and making up something that does it. But ultimately it's God and music is just one of the many tools that I believe he uses.
- [17:49]
Lynne Hoffman
I couldn't agree more. What advice would you give to someone who's looking to use music as a way to cope with personal challenges?
- [17:57]
Craig Morgan
Oh, experiment, use it. Listen, don't look for it to be a heal all, end all. Oh, everything's wonderful. Because here's the deal. Here's what I've learned too. Life is. We're full of suffering. It's going to happen The Bible's very clear. So don't expect life to be fun and grand and easy all the time. You can't live that way, because if you do, you're constantly going to be disappointed and hurt and broken. But knowing that there's light at the end and accepting that a certain level of suffering will lead to healing will make it easier. And music can do that. Music can calm that. I do believe that.
- [18:36]
Lynne Hoffman
Do you find in your conversations with other writers and performers, you know, that they don't quite understand where you're coming from in terms of that? Because so many do use music as a therapy for themselves, and it's why they even started writing to begin with. I mean, so there's so many different levels of creating music.
- [18:57]
Craig Morgan
Oh, absolutely. I've had these conversations, yes, for sure. I know artists, some of which are very close friends, that literally say they don't know what they would do in and with their life if they were not in the music world. And, I mean, I don't tell them that. That's sad, but I think it's a little sad. I really do. I've talked to musicians that if they. I've got a close friend that once told me that if he couldn't play, he would probably kill himself. And that just kills me. It broke my heart to think that you rely so much on one thing, that your entire being, your entire presence depends on that. I think it's imperative. When I talk to soldiers who are struggling, I tell them, you need to diversify, keep busy, maintain some sense of mental acuteness. I always use this analogy. Physically, a body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. The same applies to your physical, spiritual, everything else in your life, you have to keep it occupied. I'm not a big reader. My wife can read two or three books a day, and she reads every day, every morning, every evening. But I am a listener to books, podcasts, different things, so I'm always keeping my mind occupied. Be creative, whether it be writing a song, whittling a spoon, do something that causes your brain to think. Think and be creative. And music can do that, too. When you're trying to write a song or trying to play a guitar or trying to play a piano, your creative juices are flowing, and I think that flows into your entire energy and even into your spiritual life.
- [20:44]
Lynne Hoffman
Some very wise words of wisdom from a man who knows. Craig Morgan, thank you sincerely for your service to our country. I don't think many people have done what you are doing, and. And it's pretty amazing. And also thank you for your tremendous gift of the music that you continue to put out while you're doing all of these other things. It's just amazing. And thank you for sharing some of your story on music. Saved me. It's just been. I could talk to you for another hour. Your energy is so amazing and I just want to steal a little bit for the day for myself and for people listening. So maybe you'll come back.
- [21:22]
Craig Morgan
I will for sure. It's an absolute honor. Thank you.
- [21:24]
Lynne Hoffman
Oh my God. Thank you. And have fun with Blake and Trace and everybody on tour. This year is going to be a big one for you.
- [21:31]
Craig Morgan
Well, if we don't, you'll read about it.
- [21:34]
Lynne Hoffman
I'm sure I will.
- [21:35]
Craig Morgan
I've almost fallen. Like the first three shows, I almost fell on the stage. I was tripping over everything. It was terrible.
- [21:41]
Lynne Hoffman
Oh Jesus.
- [21:41]
Craig Morgan
But awesome and funny at the same time.
- [21:43]
Lynne Hoffman
Another reason to go.
- [21:45]
Craig Morgan
Yeah.
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Lynne Hoffman
Will Craig fall?
- [21:46]
Craig Morgan
You never know.
- [21:49]
Lynne Hoffman
Thank you so much.
- [21:50]
Craig Morgan
Thank you.
- [21:54]
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Craig Morgan
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Craig Morgan
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Craig Morgan
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