BOBBYCAST (now on Netflix) - Kaitlin Butts on “You Ain’t Gotta Die” Going Viral + Stage Vulnerability

Summary

The Bobby Bones Show – Bobbycast

Episode: Kaitlin Butts on “You Ain’t Gotta Die” Going Viral + Stage Vulnerability
Date: February 17, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Bobbycast features country singer-songwriter Kaitlin Butts in conversation with host Bobby Bones. The two discuss Kaitlin’s ascent after her song “You Ain’t Gotta Die” went viral, her unique background merging city and country influences, finding vulnerability onstage, and navigating viral fame in the age of social media. The episode also explores Kaitlin’s approach to covers, signing with Republic Records, her relationship with her husband (Cleto of Flatland Cavalry), and the nuances of Oklahoman versus Southern identity. As always, Bobby and Kaitlin pepper the interview with humor and candid personal stories.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Growing Up “City Girl-Country”

• Kaitlin’s upbringing was not traditionally country; she grew up in Tulsa and was involved in musical theater rather than a cowboy lifestyle.
  • Kaitlin: “I was in musical theater. Growing up in the middle of the city of Tulsa...it wasn’t until I was probably 23 or 24…that I felt I had that kind of life.” (03:38)
• Lighthearted anecdotes about adapting to rural life—like buying straw for donkeys from Hobby Lobby.
  • Kaitlin: “The only time I'd seen straw was, like, at Hobby Lobby, for arts and crafts.” (04:34)

2. Musical Influences and Early Inspirations

• Kaitlin’s first exposure to country was through 90s artists and powerful female songwriters such as Miranda Lambert, The Wreckers, Brandi Carlile, and Taylor Swift.
• Her guitar teacher emphasized the importance of quickly learning to play songs she loved, fostering her passion for performing.
  • Kaitlin: “I wanted...to perform in front of my family in the living room and just, like, play songs for them.” (09:41)

3. On Covering “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World

• Bobby notes the emotional resonance and new depth Kaitlin brought to the song.
  • Bobby: “I thought your version was wonderfully poignant. It felt different...capturing what the secret of that song is.” (13:07, 14:02)
• Kaitlin explains choosing the song during a period of increased attention—both positive and negative—after “You Ain’t Gotta Die” went viral.
  • Kaitlin: “I was getting this overwhelmingly huge amount of just negative attention...and I went to karaoke to make myself feel better…this girl started singing [‘The Middle’]…I just start, like, crying.” (14:18)
• She relates how slowing the song’s tempo and delivering it with intention helped her connect more authentically with audiences.
  • Kaitlin: “Playing it slow and being really intentional...making people hear the words, how I want them to be heard is just another way to hear it.” (17:54)

4. Viral Fame & Handling Negativity Online

• Both reflect on the harshness of internet criticism and the importance of psychological boundaries.
  • Kaitlin: “Never take advice from someone that you wouldn’t trade places with. All of these people, I would never trade places with them.” (18:37)
  • Bobby: “I now do not allow myself to look at any comments at all. Unless it's on a Tuesday. I just had to pick a day.” (20:04)
• They emphasize the universality of feeling not good enough and the healing power of vulnerability in music.
  • Kaitlin: “All of my music that I put out is...to make myself feel good...but it really is to...make people know that they're not alone.” (22:20)

5. The Viral Journey of “You Ain’t Gotta Die”

• Bobby and Kaitlin chart the TikTok rise of her breakout song, fueled by other artists’ posts and drama in the country music community.
  • Kaitlin: “You never want to make your own trend...but she [Avery Anna] was, like, making the trend, and it was spiking. Then Ella Langley did hers and that just blew it out of the...” (28:21)
• Experiencing the “viral moment” live was transformative:
  • Kaitlin: “Phones shot up. It was the first time I’d seen that for my own song...just like a wall of phones go up...screaming it.” (29:10)

6. Covers & The “Yeehaw Sessions”

• Discussing her new project—a collection of covers, including “Tulsa Time,” “Sin Wagon,” “Red Wine Supernova,” and more.
  • Kaitlin: “They're all songs that I'd wish that I'd written and that we just love to play live…(31:34)
• She addresses being perceived as a cover artist versus her own original songwriting.

7. Signing with Republic Records

• The decision was a result of her viral surge, but also years of groundwork and a desire for “firepower” for a female country artist.
  • Kaitlin: “For the first time, I really felt...I'm ready…And I feel really confident in whatever stage I'm in...” (33:49)
• Choosing a team where she could be her authentic self was the deciding factor.
  • Kaitlin: “I felt like my true self when I left...that's who I want to work with.” (36:41)

8. Marriage, Touring, and Nashville Life

• Kaitlin is married to Cleto Cordero of Flatland Cavalry, sharing the challenges of both being touring artists.
• Their marriage predated their move to Nashville; pandemic circumstances saw them living with family and then buying a house together.

9. Oklahoma vs. Southern Identity—Culture & Music

• The duo riff on Oklahoma’s blend of southern, midwestern, and native influences, debating whether it’s truly “the South.”
  • Kaitlin: “I do [consider it the South]. I know a lot of people don’t.” (53:23)
• List of favorite Oklahoma artists: Turnpike Troubadours, Ken Pomeroy, Parker Millsap, John Moreland, Reba, and others.

10. Personal Stories & Humor

• Bobby’s tales of being bullied for being a “smart, artsy kid.” Kaitlin’s multiple friend groups in high school.
• Banter about Oklahoma beaches, floating on rivers, Bobby’s dislike of getting wet, and their mutual pale complexions.
• Hilarious sidetracks on accidental drug offers, the only time Bobby was “high” (at the dentist), and being disappointed when coming down.

11. On Working Relationships, Authenticity, & Friendship

• Candid discussion about the complexities of boundaries between personal and professional life in music, and the hesitancy to share music demos for fear of transactional relationships.
  • Bobby: “As soon as somebody...would be sending it...I never listen to music from anybody ahead of time because I’m really scared that people only want to be my friend because I can do things for them.” (64:56)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The only time I'd seen straw was, like, at Hobby Lobby, for arts and crafts.” – Kaitlin Butts [04:34]
• “I feel like country music talked about where I was from, and alternative music talked about how I felt.” – Bobby Bones [12:36]
• “I needed to hear those words. And it was just such a moving moment for me...” – Kaitlin Butts, on hearing “The Middle” at karaoke and being inspired to cover it [14:18]
• “Never take advice from someone that you wouldn’t trade places with. And all of these people, I would never trade places with them.” – Kaitlin Butts [18:37]
• “You don’t get to choose your viral moment...but that song is me to my core...I’m so glad that that is the song that shot into outer space.” – Kaitlin Butts, on “You Ain’t Gotta Die” [29:46]
• “I felt like my true self when I left [the Republic meeting]...that’s who I want to work with.” – Kaitlin Butts [36:41]
• “If there's anyone that is a dad. Me and Bobby are in the market for new dads. Okay.” – Kaitlin Butts (joking about father figures) [52:12]

---

Key Segment Timestamps

• Growing Up City vs. Country: 02:03 – 06:19
• Musical Influences & Early Guitar: 08:02 – 09:41
• On The Wreckers & Michelle Branch: 10:00 – 12:36
• Covering “The Middle” & Song Vulnerability: 13:07 – 18:15
• Dealing with Negativity Online: 18:37 – 22:20
• The Viral Moment of “You Ain’t Gotta Die”: 28:21 – 29:46
• Yeehaw Sessions & Covers: 31:33 – 32:48
• Signing with Republic & Authenticity: 33:49 – 36:41
• Marriage, Moving, and Nashville: 42:11 – 44:17
• Oklahoma vs. Southern Identity: 53:23 – 54:33
• Personal Stories & Lighthearted Moments: Throughout, esp. 26:45 (bullying stories), 58:41 (Bob Ross/edibles banter), 60:05 (Bobby’s dentist “high”)

---

Tone and Atmosphere

A candid, sometimes self-deprecating, and conversational episode with a balance of heart, humor, and honesty. Both Bobby and Kaitlin are open about vulnerability and creative insecurities, while keeping the conversation lively and accessible for listeners.

---

For New Listeners

This episode provides both fans and newcomers with unique insight into Kaitlin Butts’s artistry, her humble journey, and relatable struggles with self-image and success. The light, humorous banter mixed with deep, authentic reflection makes this a rich listen for anyone interested in the stories behind country music’s emerging stars.

Transcript

[Kaitlyn Butts]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's an Olympics you'll never forget. Prime time in Milan. The moments.

[Bobby Bones]

Chloe Kim with the gold medal.

[Commercial Announcer]

Flex the stars.

[Bobby Bones]

Ilya Malinin. Out of this world.

[Commercial Announcer]

The spectacle from beautiful northern Italy with very special guests. Every night of the Olympics. Experience the world's biggest show, PrimeTime in Milan. Ton 8:7 Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Did you ever float there?

[Bobby Bones]

I don't float. I don't like having my. I never like to have my shirt off.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I don't float.

[Bobby Bones]

No, I don't float.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I'm Bobby Bones and I don't float.

[Bobby Bones]

All right, the guest will be Kaitlin Butts. Coming up. I'm a big fan of Caitlyn Butts. She has the song you Ain't got to die to be dead to me, and she put out a record called the Yeehaw Sessions. We talk about it, it's covers. But she did Jimmy Eat World, the Middle, which I thought was great. We get into all that. But just so you have some context about who you're listening to, she has the Roadrunner Tour 2.0 in Europe and the United States and tickets all [e-mail] K A I T L I N B u t t s.com Kaitlyn is spelled so many ways, which I've learned because that is my wife's name and everybody spells it wrong. There's with a K, there's with a C, there's with a Y, C. So Tulsa, Oklahoma native. And let's talk to her now. Super funny. Love her music. It is Kaitlyn Butts. Kaitlyn, good to see you.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Good to see you, too.

[Bobby Bones]

I gotta start by saying I never wear cowboy hats.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Looks good on you.

[Bobby Bones]

And this wasn't for you.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It wasn't.

[Bobby Bones]

Because I would have thought. Perfect timing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But I got a package from Landman today.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Ooh, that's perfect. You're not wearing it backwards. That's perfect. You did it.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, I'm from Arkansas, so, I mean, I wore cowboy hats a little bit as a kid.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But I grew up more white trash country than cowboy country.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

There's a distinct difference.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Truly, I didn't grow up either way, so I've definitely been on stage before and gotten off stage and been like, my hat is on backwards right now.

[Bobby Bones]

No way.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, it was like. It felt kind of funny on my head the whole time, but it's like I get ready in the dark half the time in my van, like, in between seats. I. That's why I have so many wardrobe malfunctions. I have. A lot of the way to get get ready is not always, like, in a green room with all the lights. It's normally in my van and putting my hat on backwards for a couple shows. I was just like, dude, you weren't.

[Bobby Bones]

A cowboy growing up.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I wasn't? No. I was in musical theater. Growing up in the middle of the city of Tulsa.

[Bobby Bones]

You sell it perfectly.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Thanks. I mean, so my background is, like, really different. But, yeah. What's weird is musical theater. I think I said this last time. It was so weaved into what I sang about. Even in musical theater, I was doing tap dances to join Johnny Cash or the Chicks or songs about murder, which is always a common theme. And, you know, country. And, I mean, I always was in country or, like, I was Mary Rogers and Will Rogers follies growing up or doing Andy, get your gun with a. With a rifle on my back. Like, I was always in country music. Get up. And I mean, being from Oklahoma, that's just, like, a part of the culture. But, no, I didn't grow up doing that. And it wasn't until I was probably 20, probably 23 or 24, my mom and I moved to Lone Grove, Oklahoma, and got 20 acres, and we got donkeys for aesthetic purposes. And that was, like, the only time that I've actually felt like I had that kind of life of. I mean, we were such city girls. We. Literally, the only time I'd ever seen a bale of hay, like, I get these. Delivered these donkeys from a guy that had a podcast at the time.

[Bobby Bones]

You got a donkey delivery from a guy with a podcast?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Yeah. I told him that I, like, the happiest part of my day going home was my mom and I would take this, like, road less traveled or the long way home so that we could go look at the donkeys. And they were just so cute to us. And he was like, do you want donkeys? And I said, I would kill for some donkeys. Oh, my gosh. And he was like, well, I'm trying to get rid of these two miniature donkeys. And so I named them Thelma and Louise. And what was crazy. So he dumped them at my house, and I had no idea how to take care of them. And the only place I had seen straw. This is so embarrassing. Every cow gonna be like, you dumb girl. The only time I'd seen straw was, like, at Hobby Lobby, like, for. Like, for arts and crafts.

[Bobby Bones]

I did work at Hobby Lobby for a long time, so I'm very Familiar with that straw? Yes.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. You know the little thing? I was like, this is. This will get him through the day until I know where to buy straw. And I called the guy and was like, hey, yeah, I got them some straw. I'm on my way home right now. But, like, where can I get, like, more? And he said, where did you buy the straw? I said, hobby Lobby. This is the only place that I've ever seen straw or hay.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And he was like, good God. So we bough. He dropped off. This big barrel is actually my car dealer that I called to ask for. That's so crazy. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So you got donkeys.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Definitely didn't grow up country, but I kind of morphed into it in my mid-20s and lived that country lifestyle a little bit more. But, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Did the donkeys live?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yes, they actually. So my mom moved out of that house. It was a lot to take care of after I had moved out. Taking care of 20 acres, it's just not something a woman, like, by herself can really manage. And so they can, but, you know, she just didn't want. And so she gave those donkeys. Thelma and Louise are at the cafeteria. She's a teacher, so she gave them to the. I think like a cafeteria lady or a janitor or something like that. But she's got kiddos and who love.

[Bobby Bones]

Them and they still alive.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, yeah, that Hobby lobby. That's funny.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's embarrassing. And first embarrassing story ever on Bobby Bones.

[Bobby Bones]

I see where that could be confused, though.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But you grew up in Oklahoma, so I would say your version of a city girl is still a little bit country.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, yeah. I mean.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, it's. I feel like at least the. The stories and the appreciation for the lifestyle is something that I've always looked to and wanted to be a part of. But, like, even, like Vince Gill or Willie Nelson, they never, like, claimed to be cowboys or live that life. But you really appreciate it and you look to it and you know, know that it's necessary in this world.

[Bobby Bones]

My Uncle Rick had a bunch of hogs and horses, and he lived on this, like, a side of him. He still does. Side of a hill mountain. In Arkansas we have mountains, but they're not real mountains. They don't even have names.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

They're mountains.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, they're kind of mountains. If you don't have a name, you're not really a mountain. But I'm from a town called Mountain Pine.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

And so on the side of this mountain, all the hogs lived. And on the top of the mountain where he lived, all the horses were. And so grew up trailer park poor for the most part, but not cowboy poor, except he was a cowboy. And that's the only time I felt like I could wear a cowboy hat because I had to slop his hogs when I was there. And I would ride his horses a lot when I was there. And I kind of stopped being a weekend cowboy. I was riding. Have you done much horse riding at all?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, some.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay. I've only done a minimal amount, but I used to ride his bare bag because they just existed, and I was a kid, so I would get on the horses. And I remember being a teenager and riding one of his horses, and it took me underneath the power line.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, yeah. It literally clothesline. I guess it wasn't a power line. It was a. It was a. It was a clothesline.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It literally clotheslined me off the horse.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Hang on.

[Bobby Bones]

What? Yeah. Power line would have been a whole different story. And so I have a. I have a real respect. And I thought, I cannot pull. I'm not tough enough to be a cowboy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I don't look like it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I look like Weezer meets a cowboy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, what an aesthetic, though, if I were to see you on the side of the road dressed like this on a horse in Fort Worth, Texas.

[Bobby Bones]

Cardigan, I believe it. Cowboy. He's.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

He's on brand for himself. I mean, you know, authentic to you.

[Bobby Bones]

When did you want to do music that wasn't theatrical music?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, it was around the time that Miranda Lambert, the records, Brandi Carlisle and Taylor Swift, they were all just like, all these women that I already. I just love their music and listen to it. But, I mean, I grew up listening to 90s country like most kids in Oklahoma, and whatever was on the radio. And so it was just girls that. After I'd seen the Wreckers play at Cane's Ballroom a long time ago, I was like, that is what I want to do. Because I loved. I love that their storytelling wasn't always super bright. It was about real life as they saw it. And I love, obviously, Taylor Swift. I love Miranda Lambert, and, like, that fire that she has, and I feel like I have that, too. Some, like, buried inside of me and needed to get it out somehow. And I had a really cool guitar player or guitar teacher who sat me down for my first lesson and was like. Knew my mom had kind of sidebar conversation with him. Was like, she needs quick gratification. So she, like, if she's gonna play guitar. Like, she needs to know something by the end, or else she's gonna, you know, don't teach her theory up front. She'll not be interested in that, which is so true. And so I. He asked me what my favorite song was right now, and I said, kerosene by Miranda Lambert. And he taught me that, like, the.

[Bobby Bones]

Lick at the beginning.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And I was like, okay, I feel like a rock star. This is the coolest thing ever. And so he showed me GCD and said, find all the Miranda Lambert songs that have GC and D it and Taylor Swift and all the girls that you like. You now will be able to play those songs if you get the rhythm right. And so that was my homework, was to print out all these ultimate guitar tabs and chords and just listen to them and sing them and try to play them.

[Bobby Bones]

How old are you then?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I was 15.

[Bobby Bones]

Did you become obsessed with learning the guitar?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, I mean, it was more just. I wanted. I love to perform in front of my family in the living room and just, like, play songs for them. And, yeah, I just love to play the song. It wasn't more like obsessed with learning how to be a shredder, but it was more about just performing and getting to sing because it feels good.

[Bobby Bones]

I love the Wreckers.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

They came and played a show with my band at the Ryman two years ago. It was the first time they'd been together in, like, 10 years, and so. And individually and together. And I was a massive Michelle Branch fan.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Back in the day.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Can I tell you something really cool?

[Bobby Bones]

I would love to hear it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

She liked my middle video on Instagram the other day, and I let out a scream in the middle of Hart's Cafe the other day by myself, because I'm such a huge fan of her and the records. That's, like, why I play guitar. And she's. That was a cool moment.

[Bobby Bones]

So you haven't met her yet?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I haven't, but I love her.

[Bobby Bones]

She's super cool.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I was worried that she wouldn't be because, you know, she became kind of reluctant, that reluctant star, after a while because she hit so hard so young. And then on her own accord a lot, she just kind of fell back and then came back and released a couple songs. And we were doing this big show for St. Jude. And I get. I don't take rejection well. I don't get angry, but I get. I get hurt.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, I take everything so personally.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I try not to. I've read the four agreements, like, 20 times. And one of the four agreements is take nothing personal in business.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But I still. I like. I have an affinity for her music because I loved it when I was younger. She spoke to me. The young girl. Yeah, my young girl.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Everyone's got a young girl inside of them.

[Bobby Bones]

And so I was nervous that they were going to say no, and they immediately said yes.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's awesome.

[Bobby Bones]

And Jessica flew down from. She lives in the Midwest, maybe St. Louis.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

And they came and did my show, my. My radio show, and then they came and played with us at the Ryman. And not only did we do Leave the Pieces, from which A plus, Michelle Branch was cool enough to do her songs, too. And it was. It was really, really great. And I thought for a minute that we're gonna do a record again, because I was really. Come on, guys.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

They kind of about it.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And then they. They haven't yet. I'm still holding on down.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I'm holding on for it. I mean, those. Those songs, I mean, even listening to them when I was a kid, it just opened me up to, like, Patty Griffin. I didn't know before I was really into this. I didn't realize how many artists, like, cover other songwriters, and it's not always their song. Like Miranda, you know, picks other people's songs and. But Patty Griffin was one that I was. Intro by the Wreckers. And that just opens up your whole world of, you know, like, those are the chick songs that I love. That's Patty Griffin. And, yeah, I love the records. I need them to make another album. But I will hang on to, you know, Leave the Pieces album with Rain and One More Girl. I covered One More Girl for the Sad Yeehaw sessions last time I did it. And I just love them.

[Bobby Bones]

The project you did with the Middle, and I've talked about the middle and I've played that song a lot on my radio show because I just think it's so good. I think the song itself is so good. But I thought your version was wonderfully poignant. And it felt different because that song by Jimmy Heat World, Listen, I was an alternative kid in the 90s. I was an alternative kid, and I was a country kid because country music talked about where I was from and alternative music talked about how I felt. Although I don't know if I was really that angry.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, But I relate to that a lot. I mean, I listened to a lot of emo music growing up in the alternative world. Avril Lavigne. I mean, everything. I mean, Red jumpsuit apparatus or even, like, Rob Zombie. Like, on that world. I felt, like, that kind of angst that they had, but I also had same with, like, country music. It's like, you relate in all kinds of ways. I feel like country has that angst too sometimes.

[Bobby Bones]

In Jimmy world, that song was so. That tempo, it was an upbeat song, so it didn't really ever translate to me what he was really saying until I started to read the lyrics. And I've talked about it so many times. This is way before you put it out. That I think a lot of people, because they just love the song and there's an electric guitar and the tempo is fast. That they probably just was, like, this fun song. Everybody just partying.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But it's. It's really a heartfelt song.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It really is.

[Bobby Bones]

And it's really like a. Like a motivating, you can do it type song.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so. And I'd have had many conversations about that, even doing music podcasts. And then when you did this song, like, I was affected by it. I was like, wow, this. This is kind of capturing what the secret of that song is.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Why did you do that song?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I'd been at Fran's karaoke night here in Nashville on Gallatin, and I was after you Ain't Gotta die went viral. I. I got lots of attention, which is I love attention. So I was taking it in. Lots of labels started sniffing around. I had lots of really cool opportunities. I had people singing my songs, and, like, more people listening to my music than ever before. I just saw this huge spike of attention, and at the same time, I was getting just, like, this overwhelmingly huge amount of just negative attention at the same time. And I'd never seen that level of just, like, critiques about my hair, body, face, personality in my talent. Am I not good enough? Like. And I don't typically, like, take in those comments and take them to heart, but once, about every 28 days or so, I start to become very fragile and frail and feel wonder, like, are they right about me? Am I. Am I not? Am I not good? Am I not? Am I ugly? Am I not talented? Like, am I not funny? I'm like, no, I know I'm funny, but, like, I. So it just kind of makes you check yourself. And I wasn't feeling very good one night and went to karaoke to make myself feel better, because that's what I, as a professional singer, do to make myself feel better is go to karaoke. And she started. A girl started singing the song, and it I love that dive bar so much. It's like, it's such an unassuming place, and. But this girl gets up there, and she's singing this song with, like, all of her passion, and, like, there's, like, maybe four people in the front doing their thing. And the lyrics come up on the screen, and I just start, like, crying because I was like, oh, my God. I needed to he. I didn't know what the song was about, like you said, but I needed to hear those words. And it was just such a moving moment for me to, like, see that. And so the next day, I looked at my manager. I was like, oh, my God, this song is, like, making me choke up. And the next day, I just pulled up the chords, because whenever I want to hear something again or just, like, I just wanted. Wanted to play it and see what it would sound like. And then I played it at soundcheck, and my band was just like, whoa. Like, that sounds so cool. I like how you, like, slowed it down, and they started playing it with me. And before you know it, we're playing it at our shows. And I'm just looking out into the crowd, like, realizing, like, these people, everybody needs to hear this, too. I feel like every show, I need to say it to myself. And so it just felt like one of those really cathartic songs that I need to sing for my own self, but then, like, look out to individual people. Like, that's a moment for me to just, like, like, really look into the eyes of people and let remind people that they're in the middle of this. Like, you know, no pun intended, but, like, this ride, am I going to let people that are negative, like, impact this huge moment that I've had with you Ain't Gotta Die, or this huge career moment? Let them, like, rain on the parade, and it's like, hell, no. I'm not gonna let some guy sitting behind a keyboard, you know, tell me that, you know, I'm not good enough or I don't deserve this, or I haven't worked hard enough for it, and. Or tell me that I'm ugly, because I know I'm not. But there's. But I think getting to that vulnerable point on stage and talking to people, because I feel like I talk about a lot of things, but just connecting with them and letting them know that, like, I'm not perfect and I never claim to be, but I struggle, too. And so connecting in that way on stage is something I want to do with that song. Like, every night feels so good.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. The first line of that song is, hey, don't write yourself off yet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I think a lot of the message. I'm not going to say lost. I think it's translated.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Different because of how fast and how electric and how, you know, rock that song is.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, it's freeing, too. I like the tempo of that, the bigness of it, because it's freeing. It kind of makes you want to thrash around. And maybe that's what they wanted. But playing it slow and being really intentional and, like, making people hear the words, how. How I want them to be heard is like, just another way to hear it.

[Bobby Bones]

I loved it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm jaded, so I don't love a lot of things. Like, I loved it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I also. I don't have a period and don't menstruate in about 28 days. About every 28 days. I feel the same way still.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, you have a wife. My husband gets sympathy pains or whatever he calls. Oh, my God, like, no, you're just emo right now.

[Bobby Bones]

I just am affected, too, by that.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I've been doing this a long time.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

There's no way you can't be human and not be affected by people critiquing you. Because, like, we are all trying our best ever, at every point. Like, we're just doing the best that we can with what we have. And, yeah, people are just terrible sometimes. But I. I think in that in those times, like, I really. Every time there's a negative person, I'm like. I click on their profile to, like, see who they are, if it's terrible, like, alarmingly terrible. And I have the best advice that I was ever. I saw on the Internet. I don't remember where, but it was like, never take advice from someone that you wouldn't trade places with. And that, like, stuck with me hard. And all of these people, I would never trade places with them. They are. They're sad people. And I think that then it kind of shifts your perspective of, like, I feel bad for this person. Like, I feel genuine sorrow for them. For them to get on the Internet and just, like, on some girl that they don't know me. They don't know how my whole past or that I don't think that I'm perfect either, or I just start to feel compassion for those people because they're sad people who. Who is busy and cool that is sitting there on the Internet.

[Bobby Bones]

That's right.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You're. You're bored. Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

You. The Internet. So first, what I do, because I have to manage and even boundary myself.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Or I spiral hard. Because we wouldn't have got into this business if we didn't have a screw loose.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And we're searching for affirmation. Like we're doing creative things and we need people to like them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

For different reasons. It could be success for personal. But I now do not allow myself to look at any comments at all. Unless it's on a Tuesday.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Why is it a Tuesday?

[Bobby Bones]

I just had to pick a day.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Just had one day.

[Bobby Bones]

I had to pick a day that allowed me to actually go over. And it's almost like when I would have a cheat day when I was super into fitness. If I didn't have a cheat day, I would think I'd always be on the edge. Like maybe I should just break down. But if I knew I had one coming, I could always get through the next day. Because Tuesday I'm gonna have freaking cupcakes. So I don't hit the replies on my Twitter. I don't look at comments in my Instagram unless it's on Tuesday. And then I'm just playing the odds because I've gotta be in a place too where I'm feeling sad or anxious or I've gotta feel a bit vulnerable anyway to be affected in that way. Normal me doesn't get affected by stuff. But if the world's. If that Venn diagram of all the things hits and it's right and I'm in it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. It. I don't like the version of me that I turn into because I get triggered and I fight and it's. It's ugly. I will. I'll kill people online. And so. But what you said.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You better be perfect if you're coming for me. Is all I gotta say.

[Bobby Bones]

I. I think that if what I say to myself is I'm not gonna listen to anybody. Like I'm not gonna take your critique if I wouldn't take your advice.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So it's. That's not worthy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

In. In affecting me positively. But also I do feel bad for them as well because I don't have one. I'm going to say well adjusted, balanced friend that gets on and trolls people.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so they. There is something missing from their life that makes them act this way and that them acting that way is just a symptom of the disease of something ain't going right for them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And they're taking it out on what they feel are people that do have things going right for them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Completely unprompted. It's just. It's crazy. Sometimes I'm like. I mean, my response will be cutthroat, but I will like, I. There's never a time that I would just, like, be mean. Even if I hated the person or disagreed. There's. That's such a waste of time to just sit there and type or just be ugly or. I don't know, it just, like, reflects who you are.

[Bobby Bones]

I love the song.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

All that to say, I'm not glad that all happened to you, but I benefited by them being mean to you on the Internet because I had a great song to listen to.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, I mean, like, literally everything, you know, has a reason. And I think that if something positive can come out of that, all that negativity and just people being hateful, this is just my response to all of that. And there's not anyone that I've ever known that hasn't been bullied or hasn't felt like they're enough. Like, so that was. The whole purpose, was like, this is for me. All of my music that I put out is like, to make myself feel good and get that, like, artistry out and because I feel uncomfortable whenever I hold it all in. But it really is to, like, let. To get it out there and make people know that they're not alone and feeling that way.

[Bobby Bones]

Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's an Olympics you'll never forget. Prime Time in Milan. The moments.

[Bobby Bones]

Chloe Kim with the gold medal.

[Commercial Announcer]

Flex the Stars.

[Bobby Bones]

Ilya Malinin. Out of this world.

[Commercial Announcer]

The spectacle from beautiful northern Italy with very special guests. Every night of the Olympics, experience the world's biggest show. Prime Time in Milan tonight. Eight, seven Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Bobby Bones]

And we're back on the Bobbycast. I was a weird kid because I was a creative kid. And when you're a creative kid, and luckily I was a smart kid, but I was at a. A bad school, so I wasn't cool. If you're like the art kid, the performing kid. And also I got really good grades. Like, yeah, I got the crap beat out of me for those reasons because there wasn't really a part of my school that allowed, accepted or promoted that. Yeah, you grew up in Oklahoma. I wouldn't. Again, I wouldn't say that's like the Mecca of Broadway. That's what a lot of Broadway stars aren't coming from Oklahoma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, Kristin Chenoweth is and love her.

[Bobby Bones]

Yes. So were you accepted, though, being a real artsy kid?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, I grew up, man. I had so many different friend groups. I had, like, friends that were in, like, the robotics class. I was on the pod.

[Bobby Bones]

You had a robotics class?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. I mean, I was at Tulsa Union. It was a really big, like, six football teams. Huge football teams. And, like, we won state, like, almost every year. And I was on the Palm squad. I was a part of. I didn't do theater within the school. I did it outside because it was like a bigger situation at Theater Arts. But I. I definitely had just different friends in different friend groups, so I definitely did not. And, like, because Union was such a, like, healthy place where theater kids were also pretty cool. I mean, they. They're nerdy in their own ways, but it wasn't like this, like, ugly thing.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, yeah, I was terribly nerdy. I was Danny Zuko in Greece.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

If they were making fun of me, I just didn't know about it.

[Bobby Bones]

I did. They let me know by fist.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Really?

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I really got told hang.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's awful.

[Bobby Bones]

I got my head stuck in a toilet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You got, like, old school bullied.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, but I'm also a little older school than you, if we're just saying.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

But I mean, that's like movie style bullying.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Like, I didn't think that that really, really, like, no one. I know that didn't happen.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, it happened. Yeah, it sucked. But now I got to be so funny because of it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, everything has made me funnier.

[Bobby Bones]

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Right?

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I got my head. I got picked up in the hallway and, oh, my God. Taken in. What I remember is, this is gross. They were taking me in. In our bathrooms. They didn't allow doors on the stalls because it was a bad school. And I say that I love my school. Like, I have pride for it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But bad. We took gang members kicked out of other schools into our school. So when I say bad, I don't mean, like, the people are bad. The environment wasn't good.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so there were no doors on the bathroom stalls. And so they were taking me to put my head in the toilet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

What happened in the girls stalls, too?

[Bobby Bones]

I didn't go in there. I don't know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, I know, but, like, what if y' all had to do something else in there?

[Bobby Bones]

No, that's really. You weren't allowed to. Because they would rather you have to poop with no door than you go behind the stall and be up to something. So they removed all the doors.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

My gosh. That is my worst nightmare.

[Bobby Bones]

So they were picking me up to put Me in. And I look and the toilet's full of pee. And so I'm fighting back and slapping the handle so it flushes. And as soon as. As it. I knew I wasn't going to win forever. But as soon as it totally flushed, I was like, all right, take me. And so they dumped me in. I went back to class with a wet head. And you can't. You also can't tell.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And then what does the teacher say when you walk in there with toilet head?

[Bobby Bones]

Well, I didn't say it was toilet head. I said I was fixing my hair, but I had water all on my shirt collar, too.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I think, dude, I think I would be such a snitch if that happened to me. I'm not that cool.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I didn't want it to happen again.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Dang.

[Bobby Bones]

But I. You know, not the best environment, but we had plays, and I was in all the plays, and so I was Danny Zuko. John Travolta's part in Grease.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Nice.

[Bobby Bones]

And I loved it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I just couldn't sing like I had everything else.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You had the charisma.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. You name it. And I C at best. And it had so much charisma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I don't think I've ever heard you sing.

[Bobby Bones]

You should check out a little something called Hobby Lobby Bobby, One of my better comedy songs.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Hobby Lobby. We've been talking about Hobby Lobby. Oh, my gosh. You know all about the straw.

[Bobby Bones]

So I wrote. Yeah. So I have a song called Hobby Lobby Bobby Bobby and I play in a musical comedy group, and I am the lead singer of that group, but it's mostly about the comedy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's why you like you Ain't gotta die is because the comedy.

[Bobby Bones]

I think I like the theater of it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

More than just a comedy of it. I like the theater. And I liked how non traditional it was in a very traditional space. I liked playing it. And I have a national radio show, obviously, but we don't play a lot of music on the show. It's mostly us talking for five hours. So we strategically have songs that we play. And I don't program the music, but I can spike music if I want. And so I would play your song and I would just see so many messages like, what is that? And I like that. I like. What is that for? If I'm doing something or if I'm playing something, I like that. That song hit like a freaking wrecking ball.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I think I saw it first on Ella Langley's TikTok. Is that what launched that whole song.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It was Avery first, and she start. Because we were on opera next stage, class of 2025 together. And so she just started making tiktoks to it. And I was like seeing a quit like an a. Just a reflection of a spike just everywhere. I was like, I need to play into this. This is gonna be. This could pop off in any kind of way or just feed into what she's doing. And because she was, like, making. You never want to make your own trend, but you as an artist kind of have to, like, encourage people. But she was, like, making the trend, and it was spiking. And then Ella did hers, and that just like, blew it out of the.

[Bobby Bones]

Water because all this. The finger quote stuff was happening. Yeah. All the disc. It was. It was Riley and Ella, and people were just wondering and, oh, I'm like.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Happily feed me into this whatever drama that is not even real or not. I don't know. Just. Just help me.

[Bobby Bones]

Do people sing that song really loud when you play it at shows?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my gosh. I. After that went viral, I went on tour with Wyatt Flores, and it was the loudest. And, like, opening shows and stuff. You don't always. People don't always know who you are. They're not singing back to you. And I knew whenever I got to that song, like, I was excited to see the. The reaction because people are talking. It's a social event. And when I got to that chorus, man, phones shot up. It was the first time that I'd seen that for my own. For my own song to just see just, like a wall of phones go up and just.

[Bobby Bones]

That's so cool.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Screaming it. It's so cool.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that so cool?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's so cool. And it feels so good that it's a. You don't get to choose your viral moment. You know, it could just have been me doing something cr. Crazy or stupid or a song that, you know, doesn't, like, reflect me as a human, I guess. I mean, that song is me to my core. It's country as all hell. There's fiddle on it. There's like. I mean, there's this message of standing up for yourself and writing off someone in your life that's toxic. Or there's this, like, Southern aspect to it, and I just. I'm so glad that that is the song that, like, shot into outer space.

[Bobby Bones]

I think that would be such a cool moment, the first time everybody knows your song.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, they might not know me, but they know that that blurb for me.

[Bobby Bones]

I was touring a bunch. I did A special. A comedy special. And CMT bought it. It was great and it was fun. And then I was like, I'm not on the road anymore. It was too much. I was working. Still am, working every day, doing all these podcasts, but I didn't want to tour anymore because I was exhausted. Because I would work five days and then be on the road three. That's eight days. But one of the days, I'd be doing both the show and I would be out, and there have been a couple times, and the Opry is always really cool if this happens, but where I would tell a joke and the people would laugh and then go into applause.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It's just like, you can't even just. It's not. It's like a drug. I've never even done a drug, but it's like. I think that's what. I think that's what heroin is.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Is this an opiate?

[Bobby Bones]

Yes. It's like your tingles inside of your body. I just feel like that's what it feel like. When everybody knows your song, everybody pulls out their phone to do that. On my show, I played your version of Tulsa Time Again. I'm not trying to just build you up here. It's awesome.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Thank you. Thanks.

[Bobby Bones]

I love that song anyway. The original, obviously. Keith Irwin recently. Yes.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so there's a lot to live up to with that.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I think you crushed it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Thank you. Thanks.

[Bobby Bones]

Why'd you record that one? Because it's Tulsa, and it made sense pretty much.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, they're all songs on the Yeehaw sessions. It had been songs that we'd played on the Roadrunner tour for probably the last year and a half or so. And those songs, we just have so much fun with. And I just every. We did Red Wine Supernova by Chapel Roan. We did. We did Tulsa Time. We did the Middle. We did Sinwagon by the Chicks. And they're all songs that I'd wish that I'd written and that we just love to play live. And I was like, we need to deliver this so that they can have, like, a portion, a piece of the Roadrunner tour to come home with. And those were the covers that we kind of rotated. And now people are asking if I'm a cover band. I'm like, no, I've got three albums of original songs.

[Bobby Bones]

But I think that would annoy me just a little bit. But I'd have to, like. I talked to myself about the earlier stuff, like.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

I gotta tell myself again, they don't. They don't get how I'm tape. Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's not for them. Yeah. But so I did Tulsa Time from Tulsa. Love Don Williams, love all of his music. And I just wanted again to, like, change the tempo too, to fit my vibe because I definitely sped it up and just wanted it to feel a little bit more fiery and band loves playing it. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

What happened? Did you talk to labels? Did you sign anywhere?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I signed with Republic Records.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a real thing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

One. That's a. That's a real label. That's not like someone's.

[Bobby Bones]

It's not Caitlin Butts, Inc.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's not someone's dad. I kind of know.

[Bobby Bones]

How did you decide who to sign with? Or Even now, because the environment is so different. You don't have to sign. It's definitely a different hustle if you don't.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Why?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I. I mean, it was. I think I needed more. I. I have such a great team, but we're very small. It's really just me and a couple people that run my. Run everything for me.

[Bobby Bones]

Me.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And I've done the smaller label thing and I think I just really wanted some fire. I really wanted to. I, as a country female artist, like, wanted some. Just wanted to give it a go. I'd never done it before, never been asked. And I had like, over a dozen labels reach out after you Ain't gotta die.

[Bobby Bones]

Wow. Did it feel weird to be wanted after?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, to be wanted. It didn't feel weird. It felt really awesome because. Because for the first time, I really felt. I used to think when I was like, 22 or 23, like, I'm ready, you know, like, put me on wherever. And I've been doing this for a long time and I. I truly feel like I'm ready for. You can put me anywhere. That's how I feel now. And I feel really confident. Confident in whatever stage I'm in or. Or like, not even in a musical setting, like talking in an interview. I feel pretty confident. Confident in who I am and what I have to say. Like, I know I can entertain. And so I feel really happy that it happened when it did because I truly feel for it. And so when it came to picking, I. It was really hard.

[Bobby Bones]

How did you know who was telling you what they wanted to tell you versus what you. The truth?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I. I think there it was hard. I mean, you can feel really giddy about people because they see something in you and you can kind of be dangled here or lots of flattery goes on and lots of great ideas too. I mean they're great teams. It. It just, it kind of felt I. There deciding factor. I mean a couple really. But I already knew Mary Catherine who. They just put her in charge of Nashville at Republic. And she signed Marcus King and, and others that I really love. And I've always had a good relationship with her and she saw. Sought me out just. And told everyone about me before she could even benefit from it. From probably like five, six years ago and was like, I'm obsessed with Caitlin Butts. And she showed me a text the day that we signed that. It was before she had any reason to care about what I was doing. She was, she had sent like several people. Caitlyn Butts is a star and she's going to be huge, huge one day. So that was really cool and just someone who I really believed in and the, the whole team, especially someone like Ro who's over there at Republic. I, I always try to determine how I feel about a person, no matter who it is, based off of how I act around them and I felt. Or like if I'm acting as my true authentic self, that's how I kind of determine my, my. What I think about them. If that makes sense. If I'm overinflating my ego or trying to convince them that I'm this person or I'm shrinking myself or being quiet or not saying the funny thing that comes to my head. I, I obviously feel a certain way about that person. And so after reflecting after those label meetings, I was like, I felt like I could say I. I felt like my true self when I left. Like I left being me and I didn't feel like I was trying to convince them that I was something or I was trying to, I don't know, be too humble or whatever. I felt like myself when I left and that's who I want to work with. And yeah, that's why I signed with them.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a good point. It's not just how they are.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It's how you are when you're with them. I think that's also in relationships.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, totally. I mean every relationship that I've ever had, had business or not, it's like that's something, a tool that I've found. Like, do I. Do I actually like this person? Why am I trying to convince them to like me? Like that's something that I've had to really reflect on just doing business with anyone or just not or just a relationship Wise too.

[Bobby Bones]

My wife's from Tulsa. Right. Near Tulsa.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I forget that that's so cool.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Her favorite movie's Oklahoma. I'd never seen it until now. Well, until she made me watch it. We did a thing where we watched. It was when we were dating. We've now been married for almost five years. But when we first started. And it was also because we dated for a bit, and then Covid hit and we moved in. And at first we were just gonna just stay with each other during COVID It'd be over in a couple weeks. It wasn't over in a couple weeks. Right.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so we would just watch movies. And so we did the thing where we watched each other's favorite movies. And I had her watch man on the Moon, which is about Andy Kaufman. Jim Carrey plays Andy Kaufman. He's like my favorite performer ever.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I think I've seen that.

[Bobby Bones]

It's amazing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And she had me watch Oklahoma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I didn't know some of those songs were from Oklahoma. For, you know. Oh, what a Beautiful Morning. Oh, what? I had no idea that was from Oklahoma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And. But also, there's so many references, like, in pop culture that come from.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You don't realize that.

[Bobby Bones]

That I never realized. I just knew them as they were and I thought it was good. The dream scene. They should cut that.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Aesthetically. Aesthetically, it could definitely be sped up. I agree.

[Bobby Bones]

Way too long. Always not a big dream scene, guy. Anyway. Because I feel like we're wasting time. I don't need to know your dreams. I don't even want to know my friend's dreams, much less people in a movie. I thought it's symbolism. Yeah. Yeah. A little too much. A little too heavy on the symbol.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Other than that, I thought it was pretty good.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because we don't like black and white stuff.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, It. Well, it's not black and white.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm colorblind. But is it not black and white?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I'm not that color of Oz.

[Bobby Bones]

Maybe.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Maybe you are colorblind.

[Bobby Bones]

It's. Is it not. No, the dream sequence is black and white.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, it's definitely not. It, like, goes.

[Bobby Bones]

Are you sure?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

There's a. There's a. There's a glimpse of it that might be black and white.

[Bobby Bones]

I know for a fact part of that thing is black and white. And I say for a fact, but I am also extremely colorblind, but not so colorblind. I can't see those colors.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's not.

[Bobby Bones]

There's not. No.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I've watched it one million times, Bobby.

[Bobby Bones]

I know. You're right.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Hold on, hold on.

[Bobby Bones]

Let me ask My wife. Let's see if she says maybe she just gave me a bad version. Yeah. I'm not seeing any black and white. Nothing. Not even in the dream sequence.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

The most colorful, like, scene in the whole thing.

[Bobby Bones]

Anyway. I still think it's stupid, the dream sequence. I did, like, the movie. And one of our friends, like, one of my closest friends is the singer Brett Eldridge, and he was in Oklahoma when he was in high school. Oh, cool. And he performs that at my wife's birthday every year.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, what a beautiful. Wait.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's awesome.

[Bobby Bones]

And there's a whole beginning part of it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. There's a bright golden haze on the meadow.

[Bobby Bones]

That's it. That's a bright golden hay. That's awesome.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. And so he does that every year at her birthday.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And give me any song. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

What's the second most famous song in that. That movie?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I would say Oklahoma. Where the wind comes Sweeping down the plains.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Did you know that at the end, I always tell my wife they all moved to Arkansas to get a better life.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That is so not true.

[Bobby Bones]

Where do you think they're moving at the end? You tell me. Because it's not said they're moving to.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Claremore or Kansas City. They want to go to Kansas City.

[Bobby Bones]

I think it's Arkansas.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I went to Kansas City on Friday. They're. They're, like, going up to the big city.

[Bobby Bones]

I think it's Arkansas.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, agree to disagree.

[Bobby Bones]

Did you ever go to Arkansas?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No. Anything for nothing.

[Bobby Bones]

You didn't go to the mall in Fort Smith or anything?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, and I've been begged to tour there. And I just. I've never. I don't think I've ever played a show in Arkansas. Maybe once.

[Bobby Bones]

Maybe not Fayetteville or Little Rock.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I don't think I have. I have. I don't know. I don't know where I've been.

[Bobby Bones]

You weren't Oklahoma. You weren't in Oklahoma. Top. Like a top.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

He is top. He's the top. I can tell.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay, I'm here. I'm here. I'm on my feet right now.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Did I just fluster Bobby Bones?

[Bobby Bones]

No. There's about four. Four jokes. And I decided to pull all four of them back and just live in it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, just live in it.

[Bobby Bones]

So when are you releasing new Kaitlin Butts music?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I have written now four songs for the next album. And the goal is. And labels, like, now would be a great time if you have the songs. And obviously that. That's what labels want.

[Bobby Bones]

And have you recorded Them or just written them?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I've. Yeah, they're just, like, in my brain at this point. I need to go write. That's my whole assignment. But as soon as possible. As soon as I can.

[Bobby Bones]

Can the Bobby cast. We'll be right back.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's an Olympics you'll never forget. Prime time in Milan. The moments.

[Bobby Bones]

Lily Kim with the gold medal.

[Commercial Announcer]

Flex the stars.

[Bobby Bones]

Ilia Malinin. Out of this world.

[Commercial Announcer]

The spectacle from beautiful northern Italy with very special guests every night of the Omega Experience, the world's biggest show. Prime time in Milan tonight, 8, 7 Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Bobby Bones]

This is the Bobby cast. Your husband's also in a band?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, I think so.

[Bobby Bones]

How's that going?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's going good.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Which part? The husband or the band part?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

All of it.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. I mean, they do really well.

[Bobby Bones]

They do. Do you want to talk about that? I don't want to make it about that. Of course your husband is.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, He's a Cloudo Cordero of flatline Cavalry.

[Bobby Bones]

And they're doing pretty good.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you guys get to see each other?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

We do sometimes.

[Bobby Bones]

Is it like a Tuesday? Wednesday. Those are the days you see each other.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's like Sunday through Wednesday sometimes. But, I mean, sometimes I'm off and he's not off, or vice versa, or we'll meet each other. Like, we've had airport dates before where he's going out of Austin and I'm coming in and I've got to go somewhere else. And we just have always made it work that way. Definitely not easy, and it's definitely not fun sometimes.

[Bobby Bones]

How long have you guys been married?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Five years, but together 10.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, wow. You were together five years before you got married?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

That's quite the long.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

What's up, buddy?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I know.

[Bobby Bones]

Pooper. Get off the pot. That's what I say.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, I. I think it was. I don't know. It really was. That is a long, you know, time to date. I mean. But the thing is, like, I. I look back in our dating, and he was already sending me rings, like, to. That he wanted to buy, like, six months into it. And so it was never like a. I don't know. It just didn't feel like we were. We were in different areas of our. I mean, he lived in Lubbock at the time. I lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma. And then we moved together.

[Bobby Bones]

Neither of you lived here?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I. I live. I moved here in 29. I. I tr. Started. So I was traveling here probably starting in 2016 when we started dating. I'd come here once every month or so or every couple of months, and we were just both kind of doing our own thing. And then in 2018, 2019, I moved here. I left. We had moved in together into Fort Worth. And then I was like, you tour. I have a publishing deal in Nashville. I'm gonna go rent, go get a couple roommates and. And live in Nashville. You can stay in Fort Worth. And. And then Covid happened, and then we both moved into my mother's house in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and then moved back here in 2021 and bought a house. House.

[Bobby Bones]

How do you like it here?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I love it. Like, I. I'm trying to convince everyone that I know to move here. My mom's going to retire at the end of this year and come.

[Bobby Bones]

Terrible. How about we keep them out?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

But there's so many cool Okies that I'm maybe. Okay, here's the thing. We need less, like, maybe west coast and more, like actual, like, Okies maybe.

[Bobby Bones]

Fair enough.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Favorite Oklahoma band ever Band ever Turnpike Troubadours.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, with those guys, they came and played my Ryman show too, and it was super fun. My wife is a massive fan of them because she's from right near Tahlequah, which is where they're all from. And they were so surprised they even knew how to say that town's name. And I'm like, say it. We go to the pizza place there. I think Carrie used to work at the pizza place in Tahlequah. Carrie Underwood.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Did you ever float there?

[Bobby Bones]

I don't float. I don't like to have my. I never like to have my shirt off.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I don't float.

[Bobby Bones]

No, I don't float.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I'm Bobby Bones, and I don't float.

[Bobby Bones]

Thank you. This message paid for by Bobby Bones.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You should.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm not a big floater. Not a big water guy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You got the perfect hat to float right now.

[Bobby Bones]

I just got the hat from Landman, though, so if I would have had it previously, maybe. I don't like to get wet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Just generally by Bones doesn't like to.

[Bobby Bones]

Get wet unless there's, like, soap. I don't really see the need to get wet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, you can float. You don't have to be wet. You can just be in a tube that doesn't. That floats and drinks in it.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay, two things. One, I've never had drink of alcohol.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You are pale, so you could.

[Bobby Bones]

That was not needed.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I was in the middle of, like, telling you why, and you Took a shot.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

So I'm a redhead. I am more pale than you.

[Bobby Bones]

But you have red hair.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Which would make sense. I don't even like the beach.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Something's wrong with you.

[Bobby Bones]

I. We didn't have a beach in Arkansas, and we never went on vacation.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Why would. Why would anyone from Oklahoma be like, I'm gonna go where there's not a beach beach? We have plenty of beaches in Oklahoma.

[Bobby Bones]

No, those aren't beaches.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

They're such beaches.

[Bobby Bones]

Those are called creeks.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Lake Eufaula.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I've been. We stayed at Christmas on Lake Eufaula.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Really?

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. We went and got a house and all, because all of our family's from Oklahoma, so we went and stayed there. I'm very much.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You're kind of Okie.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, a little bit. And my wife's a massive Oklahoma football fan, and I'm obviously a massive Arkansas fan, and you guys are way better than us, and it's so annoying.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, I'm sure. Does she like. Oh, you're osu.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, you.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay. Aho.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. That's why she likes this. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. So she's very Oklahoman. We did buy a house in Arkansas, though.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Which was right on the line. Okay. So Turnpike. She got me into that. I was way late, so I'm not cool by any means when it comes to that, but I'm a big fan. Now. I just don't say that a lot because I'm not a OG Big fan, and I feel like people will question. I can't say. Well, I only started liking them two years ago, even their music from, you know, a decade ago. And those guys, when I was talking to them, they felt a bit surprised that they had kind of popped off doing the same exact thing. Like, they didn't change.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, no.

[Bobby Bones]

They just took a break.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Those boys will not change.

[Bobby Bones]

They came back and they just kept going, and it was like, how are we here? We haven't done anything different. And all of a sudden, we're getting. You know, we're playing these way bigger shows and new parts of America. It was super cool. Really love those guys.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Give me another Oklahoma artist, man.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I love so. Man, there's so many.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I know. Reba.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I literally might have to. I mean, Reba, don't go to your phone.

[Bobby Bones]

This is from Hard Only God, because I can do. I'll do Arkansas, Johnny Cash.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Can I tell you, like, artists that are not, like, kind of. That are new, that, like, you might.

[Bobby Bones]

There are no rules. You're not gonna lose the game. I'M not taking your scholarship.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I love a girl named Ken Pomeroy. She's one of my good friends and I took her on tour last year and she's really, really talented and she' folky and Americana, but she, her voice is, like unmatched and she's so good. I love Parker Millsap. I love John Moreland. I love. Oh, my God.

[Bobby Bones]

I love these All Oklahoma people.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, these are all. I love Camille Harp. I love Kirsten White.

[Bobby Bones]

You just name it. Cousins. Now, like all of a sudden they're just falling out like a water.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Feel like cousins. I love Samantha Crane's music. I love. Oh, my God. I, I love Wink Burcham's music. I love. Oh, my God, John Calvin. There's just so many talented people there that like live and exist there and, and there's so much talent in Oklahoma. And I, I was kind of like the person that was put there or like, even like Cody Canada. Damn. Cody Canada. I love Cody Canada.

[Bobby Bones]

Which. Not the first ccr.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, the second. Yeah, the second one.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you know the first?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I, I, I've got to say I do.

[Bobby Bones]

You know the first ccr.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I love Cody.

[Bobby Bones]

You know the first CC pcr. The Credence Clear Water Revival.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the. Before you choose me or four accuse me, take a look at yourself. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Why are you singing that?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Because that's ccr.

[Bobby Bones]

You see right behind you. John Fogarty. It's my friends.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Damn.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Thanks for being impressed.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's cool.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. That's his real signature.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

He's got some big lips.

[Bobby Bones]

He's older now. I think his lips have shrank.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Good for him. Lots of girls would kill for those lips.

[Bobby Bones]

He can still go. He's like 80. Is he 80, Mike? He can still sing like crazy. I was worried because anybody 80, I feel like I'm gonna break. It's like a baby. An 80 year old or a baby. I feel like I'm gonna break him. And he came in and definitely. But man, he has a lot of energy and still really great singer. Well, I'm glad you came over. I'm glad we got to do this.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Me too. Thank you for asking me.

[Bobby Bones]

Are you, are you happy?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Most days. Every 28 days, though. Just pray. Pray for me.

[Bobby Bones]

Same. I've been doing sympathy pains. I tell my wife I get her sympathy pain. She's pregnant.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And you're like. And she's like, please. Oh, brother.

[Bobby Bones]

Here.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

She's like, you're gonna piss me off, cuz. I'll go, oh, I Don't feel very good. My back hurts. And she one, she doesn't want to.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Hear that she's pregnant.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Can I tell you a tip that I saw on Tik Tok to come behind?

[Bobby Bones]

I didn't say yes. I didn't say yes, you did. I'm just looking. I'm deciding if I want to hear it or not. Hold on.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You said.

[Bobby Bones]

I said nothing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

My wife is pregnant.

[Bobby Bones]

But then you said, can I tell you a tip? And I did not respond yes.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, I don't care.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay, go ahead.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

So come up behind her. How pregnant is she?

[Bobby Bones]

Very.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay, so come up behind her and like, lift the belly.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm already elbowed in the face.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, no, it's gonna relieve the weight of it. So you pull up her belly and just give her the relief.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm telling you, if I surprise her by grabbing her belly from the back, she's going to elbow me in the face.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You're her husband. You should.

[Bobby Bones]

Which is why she'll elbow me in the face.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You should just let her. And then, then she'll ease into it. Tell her that I told you to do do it or Tik Tok did.

[Bobby Bones]

A Tik Tok tip from Caitlyn Butts that I should come up behind you when you're not looking and grab your belly.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Just lift it like to relieve pressure. Do you not touch your wife less now than he doesn't touch his wife? Doesn't like to get wet.

[Bobby Bones]

Far less. Yeah, she's very pregnant.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Nice.

[Bobby Bones]

We're going to have a kid.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

How excited? Exciting.

[Bobby Bones]

Crazy. Not crazy.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Do you know if it's a boy or girl?

[Bobby Bones]

We don't know yet.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my God. Are you waiting.

[Bobby Bones]

Actually, you wanna know the truth? Yeah, we do know. I just say that because my wife will say because she has no problem.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

With. I don't mind awkward. I like awkward. But I don't want to have to make the conversation continue longer than I want.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So people like, you know what it is and I'll go, nah, we're just waiting to find out.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Then. You're about to do that to me.

[Bobby Bones]

I was. Yeah. But I know what it is. We're just not telling anybody.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Or we've told like a, you know, we've told a select few people. And if I said this. Well, we've only told like 10% of our friends, and those are the friends we like the most. And you don't make that 10%.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You shouldn't say that.

[Bobby Bones]

Right then there's a whole different feeling about the whole conversation. So we do know. We're just not telling some people.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

The Internet and Netflix.

[Bobby Bones]

Mm. Yeah, that's it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I get that.

[Bobby Bones]

But, yeah, it's pretty crazy. I didn't have a dad, so, like, I have weirdness about that part.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

If there's anyone that is a dad. Me and Bobby are in the market for new dads. Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

We are. I'm. I'm. I'm too old. I'm good. You should still like a dad for you out there. She'd still like a dad. My dad's alive.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Preferably one with a boat.

[Bobby Bones]

Is your dad alive? Your real dad?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, but he's dead to me.

[Bobby Bones]

No, I know. I know. That's why. But he is alive because my real dad. Dad is alive.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't call him my dad, but he's dead to me too.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. In the market. If anyone has a boat, I'll just take it.

[Bobby Bones]

Did you ever have a stepdad?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No.

[Bobby Bones]

I had a stepdad for a while. He was awesome.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay, that's good. That's sweet. I had a papa who felt like.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that a grandpa?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that your biological grandpa?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, no. So it was my. He would be so pretty. My mom's dad passed when she was 21. And then my papa and grandma, their spouses were both simultaneously passing away in the hospital at the same time, and they became close.

[Bobby Bones]

Wow.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And then got married afterwards.

[Bobby Bones]

Wow.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And so that was my pawpaw that I. You know, I never knew anything else.

[Bobby Bones]

A couple final questions. Do you consider Oklahoma the South?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I do. I know a lot of people don't.

[Bobby Bones]

But if you go there, my wife doesn't.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's crazy. I mean, you gotta go to Southern Oklahoma maybe to see some south, but it is south. To me. It's wild.

[Bobby Bones]

There's definitely parts where it feels like Arkansas, but also, there's such a strong Native American presence there.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And she's also, like, we weren't the Confederacy. Like, we didn't lose the war.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, that's true. But I guess. But I wouldn't determine the south as, like, the Confederacy. I would just be, like, Southern people.

[Bobby Bones]

But either, though, because I'll try any way to lump her in with us.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. That's how. But I feel like, as an ident, like, that is something that Oklahoma, like, struggles with is, like, the. The identity of what it is. And. But it's, like, everything.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, Midwest.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, it's every. It's everything.

[Bobby Bones]

Not s. Southern. It's not even really in the Southern part of America.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

That handle, though, that you guys have. Some bad stuff used to happen there. Yeah, the Panhandle.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Everywhere.

[Bobby Bones]

It was like.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That stuff happens everywhere.

[Bobby Bones]

No, but this was like. There were no rules. No laws. Yeah, it was like international waters. You just go to the panhandle and do whatever you, you want. Get wet, be a top. There were no rules.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

There are no rules. Did you know that Oklahoma is the most, like, diverse, like, terrain in, like, the states? We have a desert, we have lakes, we have mountains.

[Bobby Bones]

Oklahoma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. And there's like a. It's a place called the Little Sahara. We've got so many different. We've got lakes, mountains.

[Bobby Bones]

You listed two rivers you ran out.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Of, like, sand dunes. I mean, does Texas have, like, actual sand dunes?

[Bobby Bones]

I don't know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I don't think so.

[Bobby Bones]

Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's an Olympics you'll never forget. Prime time in Milan. The moments.

[Bobby Bones]

Chloe Kim with the gold medal.

[Commercial Announcer]

The flex the stars.

[Bobby Bones]

Ilia Malinin. Out of this world.

[Commercial Announcer]

The spectacle from beautiful northern Italy with very special guests. Every night of the Olympics. Experience the world's biggest show. Prime time in Milan tonight. Eight, seven Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Bobby Bones]

And we're back, back on the Bobbycast. Do you like Texas?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, it's fine, right? It's great. It's huge. I, Yeah, I love Texas. I like, I like touring there because they are the most enthusiastic, like, Lee country people ever. They love. They have an identity that's the. They, you know a Texan because they.

[Bobby Bones]

Will let you know that identity. They have beer named after them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

They do.

[Bobby Bones]

They have music named after them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. I feel like Oklahoma gets a little jealous of that, but because we're just not. We're not Midwest. We don't make tater tot cats casseroles, but we make casseroles, but there's lots of stuff. Charlie's Chicken. Oh, my God. Don't get me.

[Bobby Bones]

People don't even know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I know.

[Bobby Bones]

I spent a lot of time in Oklahoma. And they're like, what's your favorite part? Charlie's Chicken.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That is it.

[Bobby Bones]

If you.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Have you sparked a whole childhood memory. Well, and I can taste that.

[Bobby Bones]

There aren't other Charlie's Chickens. There's none here. None but Charlie's Chicken. A plus in Oklahoma.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Let me go. Two more questions. When you were in junior high, what'd you want to be when you were grew up?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I, I had different careers that I, I wanted to be. I always loved performing. It was truly the only thing that I, I'M like, so naturally just good at and love doing. Like, it's something that is cathartic in me. I wanted to be a party planner because that seemed fun. I wanted to be an interior designer. I like to decorate my spaces. I thought I was going to go to college for that, but I got a really small scholarship to a music school in. In Oklahoma City. ACM at uco that kind of.

[Bobby Bones]

To do what? To sing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

To sing. Vocal performance.

[Bobby Bones]

Dang, that's cool.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. I got my associate's degree. It was like the School of Rock, but I was, like, the only country person doing anything country there because the Flaming Lips manager was the CE is the CEO of the school there. And so it was so rock and roll themed and. But I was like the country girl there from Tulsa.

[Bobby Bones]

Did you think you would do country music? Was that ever a part of your.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Not. Not when I was little, but 15. Like, I wanted to play guitar and sing, and I love. I knew. I loved to do that. But the great thing about what I do now is I kind of do a lot of those things. Like, I party plan. I, like, create events that. And curate them. And I interior decorate for, like, my set and stuff like that. I just get to be creative. I knew I wanted to be creative. I knew I wanted to be in an environment that was fun. And this is like, kind of all of those things into. Into one.

[Bobby Bones]

Can you draw?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Hell, no, I can't draw.

[Bobby Bones]

Really? I would have thought you could.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I can. I can.

[Bobby Bones]

You paint.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I can make lots of collages on my iPad and tell graphic designers what to. I have lots of vision, but I know I can't. Can I paint? I mean, I can. It's not. It's not good. I can do a. I could do a sky colors.

[Bobby Bones]

A sky?

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, I just do blue. Could do that.

[Bobby Bones]

Do clouds on it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I could. My. One of my things I want to.

[Bobby Bones]

Do during the summer, doing a sky. That's the one thing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I'm telling you, I can't. That's all. That's the extent of it. I could do. I really want to do, like, the Bob Ross thing where you, like, eat an edible and. And then you watch Bob Ross and try to do his, like, his paintings.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that called the Bob Ross thing? I thought you were gonna say the Bob Ross thing. Paint. I didn't know it was. Get high and watch him and then try to paint that.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's my Bob Ross thing. I don't know if that's a universal thing, but it's my Thing that I wanna do. I wanna eat some edibles.

[Bobby Bones]

It feels like you could do that anytime.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, some howdy delta 9 ones that are legal in Tennessee. And have you heard of Howdy, by the way? Howdy. Do you do edibles? Edible blaze? No. You can't say no. You're a father. He's a father.

[Bobby Bones]

No, no, no. I've done nothing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Nothing.

[Bobby Bones]

I've not. I've never had a drink of alcohol. I've never had a drug. I've never done any. I'm as straight edge as you can be.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my gosh. I. I feel pretty straight edged. Like I've never been offered, like hard drugs before in my life. And I don't know what.

[Bobby Bones]

I want to do stuff.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my God.

[Bobby Bones]

So I'm not anti the stuff. I just have. I've never.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Bobby Bones wants to do stuff.

[Bobby Bones]

We have so many graphics from this. We can just put up. Bobby Bones doesn't want to be.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my God.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. No, I've never. The only time I've ever been high and is one of the greatest moments of my life in the dentist chair, I got sick.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It was when the opera. They all clapped at your joke.

[Bobby Bones]

And you're like, yep, that is one. That's heroin.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I. I got so messed up in the dentist chair. Dentist chair.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Did you love it?

[Bobby Bones]

It was. I understood love for the first time.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

You're laughing, but I really. I got so high off the laughing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Gas that you saw Jesus. Like Noah Cyrus says, I was floating.

[Bobby Bones]

This is not a joke. I was floating. Everything around me was black. Excep, the occasional star. And I remember thinking to myself, whoa, life is all about relationships.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I had this moment of clarity. I was so fulfilled. I was so happy. I couldn't feel my lips.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's the whole point.

[Bobby Bones]

And I came out of it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And you did a milkshake afterwards.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't remember. I think my wife had to drive me home because it was obviously an intense surgery.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Intense for you.

[Bobby Bones]

But I remember coming to and being disappointed. I was coming to.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, man.

[Bobby Bones]

They were playing music on the. I felt that on a little speaker beside the dental chair. And the music start. I started to hear the music through space.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I slowly started crackling away from my space. And the music kept getting. I could tell what the song was. It was. I think it was Lifehouse.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Wow.

[Bobby Bones]

And then I came out of my. It was the great, greatest experience.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

So your experience with dental juice is. My experience with like mushrooms or weed.

[Bobby Bones]

And it's your Thursday Night.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I, I really, I, I don't do it very often because if I do it too often, it definitely, like, kind of makes me in a lower head space. I don't, I don't drink very often. I, I, I have never done anything hard in that way.

[Bobby Bones]

I'd love to do hard drugs.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

You. I mean, I know some people that.

[Bobby Bones]

I would love to. I would just, I'd be the best at it. I try.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Feel offended that he tried to win. You want to try to win?

[Bobby Bones]

I would try to be the best. I would try to.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

That's scary. But, like, do you ever feel, if you haven't been offered them, do you feel, like, a little bit offended? Because I feel a little offended. Like, I'm like, what is it about me? Is it a good thing that I haven't been offered hard drugs before? I've been offered weed a lot. So you think if you're Candida Jar the other day at the merch table, I'm like, jesus Christ. I know we're in California, but put this down.

[Bobby Bones]

So in your mind, the cooler you are, the harder the drugs you get offered.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I maybe, I don't know. I'm sure. I think it's a vibe that I put off. I think that maybe I'm.

[Bobby Bones]

Your vibe, to me, would be a little whiskey, a little weed.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Well, or like, cocktail. I'm like a gin person. But, like, I, maybe they, maybe I am, like, too hyper. And they're like, they don't. She doesn't need any more uppers.

[Bobby Bones]

No uppers.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. We need her down horizontal, preferably, and shut up.

[Bobby Bones]

And then they're like, People talk about heroin, though. Seems like it'd be the greatest.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I mean, I've heard that black tar heroin is the greatest. Or meth. You know, it's really great, you know, and then it's really, really not. Caitlyn Butts meth is the greatest, but really, really not. Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, I'm a fan. I really am. I'm a fan.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Oh, my God.

[Bobby Bones]

Thank you. You're super talented. I think more so than talented. I think you work extremely hard. I think that's very evident by how long you've been doing what you're doing. And it's really cool to watch it grow now.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

So I, I'm a genuine fan. I hope you know that. I'm not just.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

No, I feel that, and I really, really do appreciate it. I can't tell you how many years it's. My mom and I, after our first interview, and I'M like, calling her on the way home and stuff. She's like, isn't it so crazy that someone that we've watched for so long and, like, I knew that. That they're, like, liking you and seeking you out. And it's kind of across the board with a lot of people who I'm working with now and who I call friends, like Elizabeth Cook or Angelina Presley or even Miranda Lambert, texted me the other day, found my number through John Randall, and, like, sought me out. And it's like, all these people that I've watched and looked up to for a long time, like yourself, and just been, you know, hoping that one day, like, our paths cross in a natural, organic way where I'm not, like, a fan or, like, trying to get in your seat. Like, it's so cool that you've come across this in a really cool way, in an organic way, and you love it.

[Bobby Bones]

I know you've never been, like, pursuing.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Me, Bobby Bones, but it just feels so good. It feels so good to be wanted. And thank you for, like, blasting my music everywhere. I really like it. It makes a difference. And I can see an actual spike every time that you say anything, so thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, whenever you have the news, new stuff, let me know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

Can't wait to hear.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

I'll, like, send you a work tape from my phone.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I know that's a nice thing to say, but I would never listen to it.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Why?

[Bobby Bones]

Because then I wouldn't think that our version of friendship that we have is real. Because as soon as somebody. Because you would be sending it. This is my mind. This is the last thing I'm gonna say.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

I never listen to music from.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

And this is my last question from any.

[Bobby Bones]

Anybody ahead of time. Because I'm really scared that people only want to be my friend because I can do things for them.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah, that and what a. What an awful feeling that is. And I hate that I. I feel that way sometimes. And I'm not even in any kind of, like, power position, but, like, I've felt that way. Even being, like, Cleo's wife sometimes it just feels. You really start to wonder things like that. And. And I think it sucks. Like, I've. I've felt this weird thing about, like, even paying, like, my friends to work with me. And it's such a weird dynamic. And you wonder, like, are they being nice to me because I pay them or, you know, there's such. There's so many weird dynamics.

[Bobby Bones]

I say that as all my friends work for me now. I know but I've hired all my friends.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

It's a weird feeling. It is a weird feeling as a. As a person doing it. And you just hope that the dynamic doesn't get weird or anything like that.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't know.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Know. But I. I understand, Shirley, but, yeah. I just know that it's all. It's all authentic and.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, thank you for coming.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And don't call me shortly. All right, there she is. Kaitlyn Butts, everybody. Thanks for listening to a Bobbycast production.

[Kaitlyn Butts]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.