BOBBYCAST - Will Anderson on Putting out a Book of Poems Written by His Late Wife + Bobby & Will Talk Politics: Why Education and Healthcare Should be Free + Origin of his Band Parachute and If They’ll Get Back Together + Difficulty of Dating Again af...

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bobbycast Episode 549 – Will Anderson (October 28, 2025)

Overview

In this deeply personal episode, Bobby Bones sits down with singer-songwriter Will Anderson, best known as the frontman of the band Parachute. The conversation explores Will’s transition to solo work after Parachute, the impact of his late wife’s passing, her newly published book of poetry, and candidly dives into politics, healthcare, education, and the realities of American society. With warmth, vulnerability, and insight, both host and guest offer thoughtful reflections on grief, creativity, social responsibility, and the evolving role of artists and public figures.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Years & The Parachute Journey (03:33–10:16)

• Origins of Parachute: Will recounts growing up in Charlottesville, VA, forming Parachute in high school with lifelong friends, and the influence of hometown heroes Dave Matthews Band (DMB).
  • “We would just study Dave Matthews Band and like, what did they do? ...That's basically what our blueprint was.” (05:56, Will Anderson)
• Musical Influences and Upbringing: Will discusses being the creative sibling in a high-achieving family; his parents insisted on college for stability, but fueled his passion for music.
  • “My sister is like a doctor of theology. She's like the smartest person I know...I was not. I was like the least smart person in my family.” (09:20, Will Anderson)

2. Education, Healthcare, and American Policy (11:11–22:26)

• The Value and Access of Education: Both Bobby and Will reflect on growing up without privilege, how society overemphasizes college, and why access to education is essential.
  • “I feel like one education should be free...healthcare and education should be free always. Like, we are in the richest country in the world...” (11:11, Bobby Bones)
• Healthcare as a Human Right: Will describes personal experiences with the U.S. medical system, debt, and how other countries prioritize people over profit.
  • “It’s almost criminal how the one commodity…People would…pay any price in health care for your child...To treat it like a normal capitalist commodity...it’s impossible, because we’re not thinking rationally when it comes to health care.” (13:09, Will Anderson)
• Cultural Contrasts: Both men compare U.S. policies to Europe and Canada, challenging the myth of poor care under "socialized medicine" and highlighting inefficiencies and injustices of the American system.
  • “I dated a girl from Canada…seeing how she would go to the doctor—yeah, sure, it’s not that big a deal. The moment something was serious, they got you in.” (16:01, Will Anderson)

3. The Politicization of Celebrity and Barriers to Public Service (22:00–39:47)

• Politics as the 'New Rock Star': The discussion expands into how political office now attracts those seeking attention, not necessarily service—and how elections are run like popularity contests.
  • “You want to be a rock star, go run for office. And the higher you go, the bigger the arena is.” (28:24, Bobby Bones)
• Money, Influence, and Disenfranchisement: Their insider talk about campaign fundraising exposes why sensible, caring people are pushed out of politics—and why bright, capable individuals like Bobby won’t run.
  • “90% of a candidate’s time is money. 5% is talking directly to the constituents… and then 5% is meeting with donors…” (31:45, Will Anderson)
• Cycle of Poverty and Real Solutions: Bobby outlines the critical social safety net: “If you don’t have food, nothing else matters because you can’t focus on anything else.”
  • “They said, we need you to think of more dynamic reasons that you want to run…They wanted something catchy in the moment." (36:24, Bobby Bones)
• Empathy Gap in Policy: Will and Bobby lament the lack of leaders with lived experience, specifically those who’ve faced hunger or poverty. Will points out the basic lack of empathy among many politicians.

4. Grief, Art, and Legacy: The Solo Album & Poetry Book (42:41–50:42)

• "How Little Love Is How Worth Everything": Will’s solo album is a deeply personal eulogy and tribute to his late wife, Courtney, who was a poet.
  • “Your wife’s voicemail in it…Oh, that got me.” (44:23, Bobby Bones)
  • “I wanted people to know Courtney on every level—not just her poetry...but just her and I on a daily level.” (45:58, Will Anderson)
• Compiling Courtney's Poetry: After Courtney’s sudden death, Will found and digitized her poetry, working with her peers to curate a posthumous collection.
  • “[Courtney] wanted to be...the middle ground between people who loved Instagram poetry but didn’t know how to get into the next phase of more serious poetry. She was right there in the middle of that.” (47:27, Will Anderson)
• Themes in Courtney’s Work: Her poems explore womanhood, girlhood, religion, and family—balancing depth and accessibility.

5. Creative Vulnerability and Performing Grief (53:12–59:20)

• On Playing and Recording Grief: Will and Bobby share how performing and writing about trauma requires a blend of vulnerability and detachment for the sake of the audience.
  • “I have to turn this on…it has to turn into performance mode for the message I’m trying to give. Otherwise I’m a bumbling mess.” (53:57, Bobby Bones)
• Public Healing: The emotional toll of performing these songs live is discussed—how it unexpectedly ‘threw’ Will the first time he played them for an audience.
  • “I had never played these songs for anybody. And I was thrown. Completely thrown off about how much it threw me off…It made me realize…when I’m playing shows, I need to be prepared.” (54:15, Will Anderson)

6. Life After Loss: Dating & Moving Forward (59:20–61:15)

• Will candidly discusses trying to date after Courtney’s death, the awkwardness, and how finding a kind, understanding person helped him heal while continuing his creative journey.
  • “I'm not woo woo at all, but... sometimes the universe puts people in your path that, you know, are meant to be there…It didn't work out, but...having somebody who understood...” (59:28, Will Anderson)

7. Music, Social Media, and Storytelling (61:15–67:20)

• Sharing Stories with the World: Will’s Monday Music Club (Willy J1234) is a passion project sharing “rad music stories” on social media.
  • Notable Story: The influence of Sister Rosetta Tharp (“godmother of rock and roll”) on Keith Richards, Elvis, and early rock history.
  • “She would crank the amp to 10 to overdrive the tubes...first distorted sound and absolutely wail.” (63:12, Will Anderson)
• The Frustrations of the Internet: Both commiserate over how their favorite, obscure or deep-dive content rarely “hits” compared to viral, more accessible posts.

8. Parachute Reunions, Current Shows, and the Future (71:18–end)

• Will Parachute Play Again?: Will is open to possible reunion shows but says none of the band want to tour extensively.
  • “We're going to re-release some vinyl…we'll play a couple of reunion shows for fun. But we're not going to get back in the scheme of…touring.” (71:37, Will Anderson)

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Notable Quotes & Highlights

• On Education & Healthcare:
  “Healthcare and education should be free always. Like, we are in the richest country in the world, and the fact that people have to choose food or medicine really pisses me off.”
  (11:15, Bobby Bones)

• On Grief and Sharing Art:
  “I knew I wanted to preserve it. It felt like a very, like, important little time capsule of the time before she passed.”
  (45:05, Will Anderson)

• On Empathy in Politics:
  “It comes down to empathy at that point…A lack of empathy and the ability to reason with looking from somebody else's perspective...I think is a huge problem.”
  (38:03, Will Anderson)

• On Audience, Art, and Social Media:
  “For something to move me, it's got to be new. I got to be pushing a boundary. …a lot of people aren’t at that boundary with you.”
  (70:01, John Mayer via Bobby Bones)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:33] — The Parachute story, Charlottesville, and DMB connections
• [11:11] — Education and healthcare should be free segment
• [22:00] — Politics as attention economy and celebrity
• [28:17] — Running for office as the “new” rock star
• [36:24] — How campaign messaging misses real issues
• [42:41] — Will’s solo record and late wife’s voicemail
• [45:58] — The poetry book and legacy of Courtney
• [53:12] — Grief, emotional performance, and recording the album
• [59:28] — Dating after loss
• [61:15] — Will’s Monday Music Club and music geek stories
• [71:18] — Parachute reunions and vinyl

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

The episode strikes a balance between earnest, hard-won vulnerability and joyful fascination with music, storytelling, and social activism. Will Anderson’s journey through loss, his commitment to preserving his wife’s legacy, and his continued creative output—both as a musician and passionate storyteller—are inspiring. Bobby brings his usual warmth, humor, and directness, resulting in a conversation rich in both empathy and insight—punctuated by sharp observations about the state of the American dream, music industry, and politics.

If you haven’t listened to the episode, expect heartfelt moments, inside stories on the making of Will’s new album and the poetry book, and thought-provoking discussion—rooted in lived experience—about the need for compassion and change in society.

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Connect with Will Anderson:

• Music and tour: [Will Anderson Music]
• Stories: [Willy J1234 / Monday Music Club]
• Courtney’s poetry book: Details on social accounts and at shows

Recommended For:
Fans of Parachute, indie songwriters, poetry lovers, social justice advocates, and anyone interested in candid conversations about grief, music, and how to make a difference in the world.

Transcript

[Will Anderson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Bobby Bones]

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[Jacob Goldstein]

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[Will Anderson]

I turned off news altogether.

[Bobby Bones]

I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.

[Will Anderson]

It feels like it's trying to divide people. We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little.

[NBC News Anchor]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News, reporting for America.

[Bobby Bones]

Welcome to episode 549 with Will Anderson, who is the lead singer of a band I used to really like called Parachute. They're no longer together. He is a solo artist. And not only does he have music out now that's new, he has published a poetry book from his late wife who died tragically, and we talk about that a bit. So he's got a debut solo album called How Little Love Is How Worth Everything. And it's basically a eulogy for his late wife. And she was a poet. And so we talk about a lot of music and we talk about his wife and poetry. We talk about health care. We talk about a lot of things I didn't really expect. I also really enjoyed how this podcast started. I like to talk about things where it's just like me and somebody else talking about something instead of just going through, like, the chronicle events of their life, which we get to eventually anyway. But I really like this. I like Will a Lot. Again, I've been a fan of his music for a long time. He's got some shows coming up in November. These are intimate shows where he also reads poems from his wife's poetry book. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Charlottesville, Chicago. Will Anderson Music, if you want to get tickets to that. And also you can see the book over there, too. He's got two Instagram accounts. Like, his main account is Will Anderson Music, but the one that I like is Monday Music Club with Willy J, where he just talks about famous music stories and we talk about that. So that's a lot to say. I really enjoyed this podcast. I really enjoyed the hour plus I spent with Will, and maybe this is the first time you're hearing of him, so enjoy. Will Anderson. Will, good to meet you, man. I've been a fan for a long time.

[Will Anderson]

Thank you, man. I've. I've. Obviously, you're a legend, but the. You know, I have a lot of friends who know you as well, so this is nice to finally get a chance to connect.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, I don't know if that's good or bad, because you didn't say, I have a lot of friends that say nice things about you. You said, I have a lot of friends that have.

[Will Anderson]

They all love you. Let's put it that way. Let's put it that way. Nothing but good things to say.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I became a fan, obviously, which probably most people did a parachute days.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Throwback, man. It was.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that throwback?

[Will Anderson]

To me? It feels like it. I don't think it is. It's not that crazy. We. We finished in 2019, so it feels like. But just thinking back to the early days when we were in high school, you know, it's like. It's so funny now. Like, the other guys still live in our hometown, so when I go back, like, our old guitarist lives across the street from my parents, so he and I. And I just remember, like, skateboarding out front with him. And it's just. It's a weird vibe, but it's good. It's like everybody's still friends, which is nice, but it's just funny to think back, like, riding in the van after class in high school, like, going to a show in D.C. or something like that.

[Bobby Bones]

Are they Charlottesville?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah. Charlottesville Homo. Dave Matthews Band.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I'm familiar.

[Will Anderson]

My.

[Bobby Bones]

My manager who owns my management company lives Corin Capshaw.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Still lives in Charlottesville.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

He played that theater a couple times, and he was like, come play the theater out Here. And I like Charlottesville. Do you ever get back?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. I go back all the time. My parents are still there. My sister lives there now, so it's like, you know, and Corn was a legend like, we used to, you know. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Corn. We say Dave.

[Will Anderson]

I.

[Bobby Bones]

Corn put Dave.

[Will Anderson]

So. So we in high school signed with. Or in college signed with Red Light. So we were.

[Bobby Bones]

That's who I am with now.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. We were with them forever. And Corn was very kind to us, but you know how he is. He's like, very, like, nice job, guys. You know.

[Bobby Bones]

You did a great job.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I'd always try to bum a ride on his private jet, but it never worked out. So we were always. But he was always very n and got us on Dave shows and, you know, got us into place.

[Bobby Bones]

That's that story of how. And I think Corum was very instrumental. But I'm a, I'm a Dave fan.

[Will Anderson]

Me, too.

[Bobby Bones]

And I would, I'd imagine because not only you musically and your sensibilities, and I think you can hear a bit of that.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, for sure.

[Bobby Bones]

I want to insult you by saying you can hear it if you don't feel like you can hear it.

[Will Anderson]

No, no, no, no, no. I, I, I freely admit, Dave was probably my number one. He's the reason we wanted to be a band when we were younger.

[Bobby Bones]

So. So the idea that you just recorded shows and sent them out for free and, like, just had people record. Genius.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, dude. He was. And to think back, like, you know, talking to some people I know who were, like, around during the time he was, like, coming up, hearing the, the crazy stories about him playing, you know, the tiny club and packing it out and the way they would just do that every week. It was really like, we. That's basically what our blueprint was, was like, all right, we got to start selling out shows in, in our hometown of Charlottesville, and then Red Light will notice us or whoever will notice. Yeah. And it worked. Like, that's how. That's how it happened. But it was all because we would just study Dave Matthews Band and, like, what did they do? That's what we want to do. We were way worse musicians. Like, we were terrible. But we still took their blueprint and made it our own.

[Bobby Bones]

When Corn tells us, because I've been with corn, like, 10 years now, but when he tells the story about Dave, it was, you know, Corn had a couple bars.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And that he was like.

[Will Anderson]

He was like the guy in our hometown. He was like, the dude, like, you know, like the local kind of like. Yeah, consigliere. Like, he was like, owned a bunch, you know, he was like the. The hustler.

[Bobby Bones]

So you guys all went to high school together?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. Went to middle school together, too, so.

[Bobby Bones]

Really?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, the. Our drummer was my first friend when I moved to Virginia, so. And he and our keyboard players. Moms were college roommates, so like, they like our brothers, basically.

[Bobby Bones]

Was that a California to Virginia move?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So my parents are from LA and went to UCLA and then met there and then up to Sacramento and then over to Virginia.

[Bobby Bones]

So was that a culture change at all for you? I feel like Sacramento is not la. I've been to Sacramento a bunch.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Northern. Northern California does its own thing, for sure. I think I was too young to really, like, notice, but I just remember the humidity was the first thing I noticed. I was like, this is not good.

[Bobby Bones]

Were you a musical kid?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, I. I was obsessed with music in general, but I played piano growing up, and then, like, anybody who was a musician, I just wanted to talk to, you know, like, if a guy played a guitar or something, I was like, what? You know, tell me more. And then there was a swim coach of mine who was in a band, and it was like, he was the coolest dude in the world. So your dad.

[Bobby Bones]

Doctor.

[Will Anderson]

Doctor, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Professor.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So with that. That's a job where you get a paycheck.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I mean, there's stability.

[Will Anderson]

I know it's. I fantasize about that sometimes. It's like.

[Bobby Bones]

And what you're doing is the opposite of anything creative. It's the opposite of stability.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, for sure.

[Bobby Bones]

What does your dad say to you when it's, hey, I want to do music?

[Will Anderson]

He was. I mean, I think, as my. I think my parents were like, as long as you finish college, you're good. You can do whatever you want, you know? And I don't know why they had that in their head. This is also, like, early 2000s, when that was still.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, you had to.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. It was like, that was the thing. And for them, it was like, as long as I did that, they were cool with whatever. So my mom was very nice. She let us practice for an hour a day after high school.

[Bobby Bones]

Like the band.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So we'd skate for an hour, and then for an hour, she'd let us play music. And then we had to stop. And thinking back, like, that was an, you know, an act of God because it was just. We were so bad. But with her, it was. She just. I think she liked music a lot too. Like, my parents were both big fans of music and concerts and going to live shows and listening to records and stuff. So to get to, you know, I think they were just stoked to have a kid who was, who was into it, and I think they thought it was fun. And, you know, the rest of my siblings weren't really into music or anything like that. Like, one's a doctor, one's a computer programmer. They just had their own.

[Bobby Bones]

And that. That would be kind of where I would think everybody would fall.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was like, my sister. My sister is like a doctor of theology. She's like the smartest person I know, and my brothers are too. I was not. I was like the least smart person in my family. So I think my. My path was not to be a doctor or a professor or something. Something like that.

[Bobby Bones]

It's interesting because I feel the same and I. I don't want to put words in your mouth when you said, you know, back then, college, it used to be you had to go to college.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, it really was.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't feel that way anymore. And I was the first person in my family to graduate high school, much less college.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Exactly.

[Bobby Bones]

And I don't think that that's the case. I think for some, it's awesome.

[Will Anderson]

Totally.

[Bobby Bones]

And it shows that you have the ability to start and finish something. And for some, it even shows that you have learned a specific set of skills. I have so many friends that finished. They went to college and they have their degree in diploma and they needed that certificate to show they could finish it. But there are a lot of other friends where they openly admit, like, I'm in debt.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I didn't really learn anything 100%.

[Will Anderson]

With me, it was, you know, I majored in music, so it was actually really helpful for what I ended up doing for me personally, you know, and my parents were. Again, as long as you finish, you're good. I think it was just like a safety net thing where it was like, in their mind, it was like, college degree equals job if all else fails. And they're probably right on some level. But, yeah, now it's funny, like, as I meet younger kids in the music industry or whatever, like, a lot of them never went. And that's, you know, I. At this point, I don't even know if I'd recommend going, you know, same. It's. It's wild. It's like, do you really need it? Certain people, like you said, if you're pursuing Certain things like my brother's a pediatrician and, you know, he had to do a lot of school, and that makes sense. But for someone like my other brother John, who is a computer programmer, you know, and he works. He's a CTO of a startup. And like, he. He learned all that on his own. He had. It had nothing to do with the school. You know, he learned a lot of history, which he can spout off, but I don't necessarily know if it was the best thing for him.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I feel like one education should be free. This is just me.

[Will Anderson]

Okay. Don't get me started.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I feel like healthcare and education should be free always. Like, we are in the richest country in the world, and the fact that people have to choose food or medicine really pisses me off.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because that happens a lot.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Second, a lot of people don't get an education that could need an education because education costs money. And there are a lot of people that we culture to think you have to get an education when you don't, so.

[Will Anderson]

And it's also like, why? Why, How. How can you. How can you predicate things like, you know, a steady job with a steady income and benefits with health care, like you said, require them to go into debt that can't be forgiven. Basically, it's one of the few debts that are, you know, student loan debt is insane. And I know this because my late wife went to grad school and we were paying off her student. You know, we were lucky enough that we were able to pay it off, But I knew it firsthand what kind of debt you can go into for that. But if you predicate it on them getting a job, and then you say, like, to get a job, you have to go into debt to do it, but then to get it to get health care, you have to have a job. It's like this whole cycle of. Anyway, I could go forever.

[Bobby Bones]

No. And I would love to hear it forever. Because I spend a lot of my life thinking about this, and I don't want to go into politics as a choice, but I feel like I come from a place with experiences from a place that actually are relatable to real life humans again. I was a food stamp kid.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Where are you from originally?

[Bobby Bones]

Small town in Arkansas called mountain pine.

[Will Anderson]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

700 people. We had a sawmill. It get closed. It was closed down. So the disarray.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. That's like my mom, she was from a place called Woodruff, South Carolina. Yeah. Similar vibes.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. And, you know, it is ingrained in us that you're not a success unless you go to college. And I feel like the culture of that message should be. There are certain things that going to college is great for.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And if you want to go, it should be paid for.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But not everybody should have the pressure to feel like if you don't go, that you are not a success 100%. And I. And so, yeah, I spent a lot of time just.

[Will Anderson]

No.

[Bobby Bones]

And cycling that.

[Will Anderson]

It's funny, my dad being a doctor, you know, his, his perspective on things and my brother Charles is. I mean, it's. It's almost criminal how the one, the one commodity, the one thing that, that people would. Essentially, the way he puts it, is this. There's no price you wouldn't pay in health care for your child, for your mother, for your sister, for your brother to save them or to get them healthy or whatever. So to treat it like a normal capitalistic commodity where you're saying, like, oh, there should be a price on this. There's a limit to what you're doing. I, I understand doctors needing to be paid. I also understand that there are expenses that come with it. But to then say, like, we're going to treat this like any other free economy where it's. It's the market sets the price and all that stuff, it's impossible because we're not thinking rationally when it comes to healthcare. Same goes with education. If you're telling everybody the only way you can get a job and be successful is to get an education, people aren't sitting there weighing the pros and cons of going. They're just saying, like, oh, I need to go do this debt and whatever be damned. You know, for us as Americans, it's crazy also to talk to our European friends who, you know, all that stuff is just. It's just the way that their values and everything that they think about on a daily basis is completely reset in a different way. It's like. It's like shifting the entire perspective this way just by making those things free. So, again, I could go about this forever, but I don't need to. I'll get too worked up.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, and I think for me, having seen people go into complete. And I want like a second debt, even a bankruptcy, 100% because they got sick.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

That should not happen in our country ever.

[Will Anderson]

It shouldn't happen anywhere. No, it should.

[Bobby Bones]

And it doesn't happen in other places.

[Will Anderson]

It doesn't with.

[Bobby Bones]

We'll call it socialized medicine.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And for someone to break a leg, we're not even going to say a cancer, but for someone to break a leg and have 20, 30, $40,000 in medical bills that they have to pay because they don't have insurance.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because they. And then we just root this all the way back to what we're talking about. Oh, yeah. Like, I feel. I don't know how we got started on this, but, yeah, I would do. I would do hours because.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, no, no.

[Bobby Bones]

This is what I think about a lot.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, and my. Yeah. And. And again, coming from a family that has a couple, you know, people in medicine and a couple others that, you know, I've, I've had plenty of medical issues that have required a trip to the ER and stuff. And you look at that, and I'm lucky enough to be able to pay for it. But the panic that sets in when you see that number and you're like, oh, my. Even with insurance or with Obamacare, whatever it is, you know, it's, It's. Yeah, it's wild. It's something that I think is inherently. And I think the issue is that Americans don't realize how easy it would be to have that. You know, it wouldn't take much. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I think we hear the propagandized version of the stories of, well, if you get a cold, you have to wait 11 hours in a hospital in Canada. That ain't really how it works.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, my, my. So I dated a girl from Canada and being in Toronto and seeing how she would go to the doctor, it's, you know. Yeah. There are times when something not very serious. You're like, hey, can you come in tomorrow? She's like, yeah, sure. Of course, you know, it's not that big a deal. But the moment something was serious, it was. They got you in. You know, it just was. It's. It's not rationed at all. It's just like, prioritized, you know, and people are, I guess, impatient or something. But it doesn't make any sense. When you, when you weigh the cost benefit analysis of waiting a day for, you're saying like, oh, I have a weird rash. Which makes sense. You can probably last a day without doing that versus saying like, oh, my appendix burst. Then I think it doesn't. You know, I guess it's an American mindset of like, I want what I have right now and I want, I want it if I'm going to pay for it. I want it now with my text. But it's crazy because it would be cheaper just to have socialized medicine. Medicine.

[Bobby Bones]

I feel like the micro macro version of it, too, is going to the emergency room for us now, where if it is something bad, you get in right then. And if it's not, if it's a broken foot, you may have to wait three hours.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because you're not going to die.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I feel like that's the very small version.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Of what other countries that have socialized medicine deal with. You go in and it's not so bad. Hey. Tomorrow.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Wednesday. We know what it is. It's not documented.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And if it gets worse, we already know. We have step one.

[Will Anderson]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

But if it's bad, you're in and we go. One of the things. My wife is pregnant. I've never had a kid before.

[Will Anderson]

Congratulations.

[Bobby Bones]

Thank you very much.

[Will Anderson]

She's very, very exciting.

[Bobby Bones]

We. Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

How about. It is.

[Will Anderson]

It is until you think. Start thinking about the hospital. You know, you're sitting there.

[Bobby Bones]

So that's where it starts to hit me, is that we. I have great insurance and frankly, I have a lot of money now.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I did not.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. And so I have this terrible new sense of guilt for the fact that we can go to all of these appointments. We can go early, we can go medium. We can go. And. And it's nothing to me because. But then I think of all the people that do not have the access.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And it. I feel terribly guilty about it because.

[Will Anderson]

You think that comes from growing up where.

[Bobby Bones]

It absolutely does.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It absolutely. Because we. I didn't go to the doctor. I never went to the dentist till my twenties. Didn't go to the doctor at all. Once I went. I had fallen off a house, rupture my spleen.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, my God.

[Bobby Bones]

And. And that's exactly what it was. But we didn't go forever. And they were like, oh, you're about to die.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. It took it till. You wait three days and then you're like, all right, this is not getting any better.

[Bobby Bones]

Almost drowned internally in my own blood. Because you didn't go to the doctor because you knew it could set your whole life back.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's it.

[Bobby Bones]

And so with her being pregnant now and us going to the doctor, I have this great one. There is a. A sense of guilt, but there's also, like, this realization, a re. Realization of most people don't have access to this. And it sucks. It. Piss. It. It pisses me off even.

[Will Anderson]

I know.

[Bobby Bones]

And that's the kind of thing that makes me want to do something greater because I do things. I give money, whatever La la. But it's like do something greater to try to fundamentally change it.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Oh yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Something that's so fundamentally broken and it's.

[Will Anderson]

So, it's in a country like we're in. It is, it's almost criminal to have anybody doing what, you know, what you're scared of somebody like we were talking about with somebody not being able to like. My sister lived in Sweden with her husband and her family for seven years and when she got pregnant, she had complications during her pregnancy, had to stay in the hospital for a couple days. And I remember it was, you know, 200 extra dollars to have to, for those two extra days. And they, they called, they brought her husband back in the room and like had him sign papers saying it was okay to pay an extra $200, you know, for something like that. And I was sitting there thinking like, two extra days in the hospital in.

[Bobby Bones]

The United States, it's 60 grand easily.

[Will Anderson]

But you talk to, again, you talk to my dad who's a doctor who gets paid by this, you know, and he works for a university hospital. So this isn't like a for profit sort of thing. I mean, it is in its own way, but even he is, is talking about exactly what you're talking about. Like, it's, there's a fundamental change that has to happen and it's a matter of how you do it, you know, and, and what's, what's wild is people, you know, even a public option in terms of just saying like, okay, you can have free, but to be able to, you can upgrade and have like your own personal private insurance like they do in the UK or something. You know, it's, it's not that crazy to think about in terms of the gdp, in terms of how much we spend on defense spending. It's, there's a lot that could go into it that I think people don't even. Like, you wouldn't even notice if you took 2% of the defense budget and put that towards healthcare. You wouldn't even, you wouldn't notice, you wouldn't care.

[Bobby Bones]

And you said the perfect thing there. Because when people make the argument because it is such a polarized. Because it is created. Polarized. Yeah, it's either one or the other. Whenever they argue.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, it's.

[Bobby Bones]

So you want to remove the defense budget?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

That's why we are superior.

[Will Anderson]

And then like, it's either you're going to be safe or you won't be.

[NBC News Anchor]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, when, when you could do 1.8%, 3.7%, 4. And it would change so many lives, everything. But I think the problem, you know, one of the problems with the version of the country that we're in now is there's no room for evolution. It must be a revolution or nothing at all.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because evolving takes time. And time doesn't allow a politician to show that, that they've created the growth because it is such a slow moving thing. And if they can't show it, they're not going to get reelected. And the only job is to get reelected.

[Will Anderson]

And when you're, when you're a House representative getting reelected every two years, you're calling fundraisers every day you're sitting there, you know, basically every six months you have a referendum on yourself. It's like you have to show progress in some form or another, or else it's. Yeah. Anyway, I, I could go off about the concept, just.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, me too. And I don't. And I think six years is a long time to be in.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

The only good thing about six years with the Senate is you can actually have something develop a little slower.

[Will Anderson]

You can take your time, you can do it. But I think there's a good middle ground. I think there should be age limits.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, for sure.

[Will Anderson]

We could, again, we could talk.

[Bobby Bones]

My problem with age. Let's do that for a second. I didn't realize you're a super bright guy. I figured you were because listening to your lyrics, I got. No, no, I got lots of music stuff here to talk about. But the age thing to me is wild because if we're going to have one on the underside, you just naturally should have one on the older side.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Let's say you can't be president of 35. Okay, well, let's cap it out at 75. Whatever the number is, let's just make it.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah, just do it.

[Bobby Bones]

Because we're as a voting public, stupid.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, beyond.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'm not even talking about just one elected official like you. You're seeing now them float just famous people's names for House, for Senate, just to see how they poll just because they're famous. And if they poll enough, they, they run them and win with no understanding or background in anything that would determine if they make a quality decision with their job.

[Will Anderson]

No. And also, I think, you know, in an attention economy with, yeah, celebrity culture being what it is, I think you have really bright people who are, I think, in office right now, but I also think you have really, it's just kind of people who have found their lane in Terms of saying, like, this is my chance to be. I think obviously, you drink from the, the cup of power, you're obviously gonna be intoxicated. But I also think that, you know, what a lot of people don't realize about a lot of political types. And I know this because my wife, my late wife grew up in D.C. she went to high school with a lot of people who are now either in politics or on, you know, TV or, you know, she just, it's just, you know, that Washington kind of area is very that. And she was like, you don't understand these, These were all theater nerds who wanted to be stars, and they realized that this was their ticket in. And looking now you say, like, oh, that makes so much sense to me. Because if you're somebody like me who enjoys being, you know, the center of attention, whatever, I'm an extrovert. You can call it what you want. I, like, I found my lane in music. I happen to have, you know, modicum of talent that allowed me to do that. I love social media stuff, so I have a social media pages that do well. But if you're a guy who's just a failed theater kid, but all of a sudden you get attention by saying these incendiary things or figuring out like, oh, like, if I run for office and I. You say these things, I'll get elected, and then I suddenly have attention. I get to be on TV and all that stuff. Like, I get why that would be. Oh, you're saying, like, oh, I found it. You start to believe your own hype. You start to understand how it works, and you start to say, like, oh, I, I, I found my lane that I've always wanted since I was younger and especially with, you know, again, the media types who are in the political scene and a lot of the right wing sort of. And left wing too. Like, it's this idea of being sort of this un, this unrealized dream for attention inside of sort of being the, the star in a way, you know, And I think for them to find their lane in politics or in media, whatever it is, it's really done us a disservice as just regular Americans, because now we're sitting here having to listen to these people who are so excited to be getting attention, they realize, like, oh, there's a cycle. I do it too. Don't get me wrong. When I find something that works on TikTok, if I tell a music story in a certain way and it works and people respond to it, like, I'm gonna do More like that, you know, And I think what they found here is, is, is just this. Yeah, this ability to realize this unrealized dream that they've had since they were, you know, whatever in high school. And they are these nerdy theater kids saying like, I wanted to be a star. I wasn't able to in this lane, but this is my chance to be in front of people, to be in front of a camera. And, and in a way that I think is like you were saying. It's just if you're a politician and you don't really care about the people that you're representing, your constituents, what incentive do you have at this point to care about them? You know, you don't really. It's just as long as you get enough attention, as long as you make, you know, you raise enough money and as long as you're in a safe district, you're going to be reelected. Doesn't really matter. So there's very few like, checks in terms of somebody's attention being for the right reason. It's okay to like attention. But I think if you're going into office saying like you were saying, I just got to get reelected every two years, they're never going to have any sort of incentive to think about people, to think about like, how do I change things to make their lives better. They don't want to change anything. They want to keep it the way it is, you know. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

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[Jacob Goldstein]

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[Will Anderson]

I turned off news altogether.

[Bobby Bones]

I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.

[Will Anderson]

It feels like it's trying to divide people. We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little.

[NBC News Anchor]

NBC news brings. Brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC news reporting for America.

[Will Anderson]

And we're back on the Bobby cast.

[Bobby Bones]

Whenever I talk about running for office.

[Will Anderson]

Which you should, by the way.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, there's a whole story to that, but it's. It's. That's how to be a rock star now, it's totally. That's this version of, you want to be a rock star, Go run for office. And the higher you go, the bigger the arena is.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I mean, you want. You want to be a state senator.

[Will Anderson]

Cool.

[Bobby Bones]

You're playing a little small.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

You want to be a. In the senate. It's freaking Madison square garden.

[Will Anderson]

It is. Yeah. It's remarkable how similar it is to. Is sort of the, you know, everything kind of funnels down until you get to the big stars up top. The Taylor Swifts, the weeknds, the whoever, the Ed Sheerans and to. And in politics, too, it's. Yeah. Everything kind of funnels up. You're a local hero. You're suddenly a state hero. You're suddenly like, you know.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, it's the same.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. It really is.

[Bobby Bones]

Driving the van at the beginning, you're gathering grassroots support. So I had a flirtation with running for governor of Arkansas a few years ago, and the reason was like, I care, but I don't need the adulation.

[Will Anderson]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

Because I get it.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah. You already have your own land.

[Bobby Bones]

And not like that. I understand it. Like, I get the adulation.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, if I want to go and tour doing stand up, I can sell out of theater relatively easy.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I can do my radio show for millions of people. I have podcasts that do well, so I can get that. So I don't need that to do that job.

[Will Anderson]

Totally.

[Bobby Bones]

And that is what a lot of that job is. And so that part, it wasn't a turn off, but I didn't need to leave this to get that. And I find that so many people were. That was a big reason they were pursuing it, which is.

[Will Anderson]

That's it. That's it for them. Yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so I had. They're basically headhunter companies that when they find somebody that they think would resonate, they approach them and say, would you consider running for A, B or C, state senate, senate, house? For me, it was a governor.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

They said, would you consider running for governor? Because you have a story that a lot of people in your state relate to.

[Will Anderson]

Grew up.

[Bobby Bones]

I didn't have a dad, mom was a drug addict, died in her 40s.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, bootstrapped it, whatever that means.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And you've kept the same consistent message. And I don't have any skeletons. Like, I've written full books. My life's all out there.

[Will Anderson]

Anything out there, there's no secrets anybody's gonna find. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Any skeleton's a public skeleton.

[Will Anderson]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

And so it felt good to be asked that. Like, I'm not gonna lie.

[Will Anderson]

Like, there's.

[Bobby Bones]

There's a sense of somebody going, I like you.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, there's a. There's a real positive feeling with that. And so I would. My just general curiosity was, what do you do? Like, except for going out and talking in these campaigns, like, what do you do all day as you're running? Like, oh, you get on the phone, you just ask for money all the time.

[Will Anderson]

All the time.

[Bobby Bones]

I was like, wait, so like on Mondays. No.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It's like every free minute you have.

[Will Anderson]

You'Re calling, you're dying. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'm like, okay, so I'm going asking for money for all these people. Well, they're giving me this money, and I know what the answer is probably going to be, but I'm like, what? So they're giving me this money.

[Will Anderson]

So what?

[Bobby Bones]

What do we do? I owe them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Depending on how much they give you.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

There's basically a ledger, and you keep the ledger.

[Will Anderson]

And these people you remember and they'll remind you.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so. And I knew. I knew that. We knew that. We all know that. But until you're actually told that by.

[Will Anderson]

Somebody, it is, it is. It is remarkable.

[Bobby Bones]

Completely different.

[Will Anderson]

I have friends who, you know, are campaign managers for Canada for a lot of great candidates across the country from college. You know, a couple of my good friends who I was in acapella group with, they run these Amazing candidates. But it's, it's, it's crazy talking to them about it because they'll say the exact same thing. They'll say 90% of a candidate's time is. Is money. 5% of it is talking directly to the constituents or whatever, making speeches and that kind of thing. And then 5% of it is meeting with donors, you know, and you sit there and use.

[Bobby Bones]

Which is more asking for money.

[Will Anderson]

Exactly. Essentially, it's a different way.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

And he was saying that for him, obviously, like, the benefits outweigh it because he gets to, you know, he's running people for the right reasons. He's actually believes in these candidates that he's talking to and that he's working for. But in the end, you know, if you're someone like you who's got a lot going on and you're sitting there saying, like, why would I give up all the rest of this?

[Bobby Bones]

Exactly.

[Will Anderson]

In order to ask people for money all day, you know, and that just seems. Again, the incentives for people running for office now are so skewed from what they were even 30 years ago, even 20 years ago, before the Internet. But it's really a thing. It's such a different idea of what it takes to be a politician now that it takes people like you, who would probably be a great candidate, you know, who probably would do more for the people of Arkansas than Sarah Huckabee Sanders is doing right now. If you think about. Yeah. How many people like you have decided, no way, I'm never going to do that. Like, that makes no sense. Because of decisions like Citizens United, because of things like campaign finance law on the state level. Like, like, just think about how many amazing people are no longer running for office and never did in the first place, and how many great people who are probably the more, you know, the people who are in it for the right reasons now. How many of those people are now quitting because. Yeah. All this money that's flowing in in a way that, like you said, isn't just money flowing in for the sake of money. This is stuff that's obviously, like, going to have a return when they.

[Bobby Bones]

It's into their intentional money. 100%, it is intentional.

[Will Anderson]

But why wouldn't you do that as a company? You know, like, that's what I'm saying.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm not even hating on the intentional money because if I had the money and I had an intent.

[Will Anderson]

The. Why. Yeah, why? It makes sense the way the system set up now. It's like, you can't necessarily fault Somebody for being like, yeah, like I can, I can, I can buy my way into whatever decision I need to buy my way into. And, and the K Street lobbying stuff in D.C. that my friends work for, like, don't even get me started on that because that alone is as corrupt as it gets without being, without being illegal. Officially corrupt. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Okay. One final point, because I'm so. I rarely get to talk about this with who I think appreciates it. I think it's extremely hard to be sensible and caring and be a politician because when sensibility is the enemy because it doesn't get clicks or views or cares.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

In, in real life and in homes, it gets cares because it actually affects people. But sensibility is the enemy of attention. Secondly, whenever I was in my four month session of, of, of being approached to would you want to do this?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And to be honest, the reason they approached me was Sarah Huckaby Sanders was running and their message to me was, we need a, quote, rock star to run against a rock star because she's only famous, she's never been in political office. They're like, we need somebody.

[Will Anderson]

She was literally the press secretary.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

She was, in front of the camera.

[Bobby Bones]

Was a media person, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She was like, we, we need somebody that can match that.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so the difference was like my career was crushing at the time. And so I said, okay. They said, what's important to you? And I said two things. I said with me growing up like I did, there is a cycle. There's a reason that poor people can't get out of the cycle because they can't eat. And if you can't eat, you can't think. And if you can't think, you can't get out. And that's the most basic. If you don't have food, nothing else matters. So it's food insecurity and it's education that those are the only two ways to break the cycle because everything else can come in and that's all great help. And that's, that's some salt and pepper on top. But yeah, that's, that's not the meal.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And so to have the entree has to be, if you're going to fix things, is you have got to have food.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

There are so many people where I come from, even myself and parts of my life when I didn't have three meals a day. And if you don't have that, nothing else matters because you can't focus on anything else. Yeah. So I said it's food insecurity and it's education. And that's two things that aren't going to be a revolution. That's evolutionary type stuff. That's going to take a while.

[Will Anderson]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

And they said, we need you to think of more dynamic reasons that you want to run.

[Will Anderson]

Is that because you think that they wanted something catchy in the moment?

[Bobby Bones]

Exactly what it was. There needed to be that firework that went off. Everybody, look at this.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

This is why you vote for this guy. Because if I'm going, man, if people don't eat, they can't. No, no, it's not sexy.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And inevitably that's what turned me off to it, because the things that I cared about, that I think most people care about aren't the things that get you elected. And I feel like in the private sector, I can actually do more, oh, 100 then in that area.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And if you think about, you know, someone like Second Harvest here in Nashville who do amazing work, who literally are, are saving lives, it's like, I rarely get mad, but when I saw that they were losing funding for food banks because of Doge or whatever you want to say was cutting it off, I, I, I, for the. One of the few. I mean, I get mad a lot, don't get me wrong, but way too much. It was, it was physically because I've done, I've done stuff for them. I've done fundraising stuff. Like, it's, it's not much, but, you know, like, like, I do what I can and volunteered and, and they've been just, they've done, again, amazing work in Middle Tennessee. And, and to see, to see people saying that that was, oh, inefficient spending or whatever you want to call it, it just made me, you know, it's one of those things where you just get so mad because you're like, you're so out of touch with what really would change lives in a way that you're talking about, like, actually make people's lives inherently better on a real visceral level. It's like, oh, you're so out of touch. You don't even realize, like, the most basic of this.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, you're so out of touch. You don't know. People are hungry.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. Literally, they can't fathom it.

[Bobby Bones]

They been hungry.

[Will Anderson]

You must think.

[Bobby Bones]

People cannot be hungry.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, they really can't. And it's like kids in school lunches, it's the same thing. It's like, my kid always has a lunch. Why can't they just Have a lunch. It's, they just do not understand. There's, I mean, it comes down to empathy at that point, you're saying, you know, a lack of empathy and the ability to reason with looking from somebody else's perspective, I think is a huge problem on certain levels. But I, I, I think especially on the political level, because so many of those politicians are not people like you who grew up poor, who grew up with food insecurity, or grew up with parents who didn't know how they're gonna provide for their kids. It's unbelievable how out of touch they are, you know, and even someone like me who didn't grow up poor, who had a family, who, whose dad was a doctor and was always able to put food on the table, like, I know people in my daily life that weren't able to do that. And, or at the very least, you can look from someone's perspective and say, like, oh my God, like, I'm gonna try to imagine what that would be. Like, that'd be, I can't even imagine it at this point, you know, and so I just think that there's this huge disconnect. And again, I wish someone like you would have run. I wish some people, more people like you would run. But again, the incentives are set up so that, A, the attention economy, B, the way that money's taken over politics, I just don't think there's any way for your average person, even who's wealthy and well off and who could fund their own campaign, whatever, who's in it for the right reasons, would want to go do it. Like, why on earth would you want to give up everything that you've done to go fight this battle for something that you don't necessarily believe? You know, it's like you can do way more on your own in the private sector or whatever you want to say, like through charity stuff or anything. But it's just such a shame. It really does make me it just. And, and if you talk to anybody who works in Washington, a lot of the times, they'll say, like, you know, it just is the way it is. And that's what sucks.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, the way it is is what I agree. And I got personally cut PBS funding too.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, dude, I, I golly, I could. Again, it's somebody who's never not had cable, who. That's the only channel they got to grow up on. Who on Saturday mornings, that was what we watched, you know, like, that was, that was it. And, and I guess when you're, yeah. Anyway, I could I could talk about it.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, that's a whole other podcast, the Bobby Cast.

[Will Anderson]

We'll be right back.

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[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive. And when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at O D O o dot com. That's O D O O dot com.

[Will Anderson]

I turned off news altogether.

[Bobby Bones]

I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.

[Will Anderson]

It feels like it's trying to divide people. We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little.

[NBC News Anchor]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News, reporting for America.

[Will Anderson]

This is the Bobby cast.

[Bobby Bones]

So I. I'm a Parachute fan.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So to me, it. You're not new in my music world.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I was listening. Since I knew you're coming in. I spent a little more time with the new record.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Which I call because I know no titles. Meaning the red one. Because it's red.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine.

[Bobby Bones]

And everything's Weezer to me.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Blue album, Everything the same way. Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

So the red one that is why I chose the. The primary colors. Because of Weezer, really. Yeah. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, the singles were all different colors.

[Will Anderson]

Exactly. Yeah. But it was like I just needed. I like, distinct sort of a color thing.

[Bobby Bones]

It was really. Because we. There.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

All right, cool.

[Will Anderson]

I know my first concert ever was. My first concert I went to on my own was Weezer in Philadelphia at tla.

[Bobby Bones]

A massive Weezer guy. That's why I wear my glasses like this.

[Will Anderson]

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. That Blue album was one of the first albums I ever like. No Skips album. No Doubt was the first album I ever bought. Blue albums on the. Very shortly thereafter, like Tragic Kingdom. Tragic Kingdom was the first album.

[Bobby Bones]

Was that the first one?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. So. And they were like Northern, you know, they were Southern California. They were just California, like la. No Doubt and Cake, you know, all those kind of.

[Bobby Bones]

Dude. I'm. The thing about Cake, I'm a massive Cake fan. And to see him sing now. Have you seen him lately?

[Will Anderson]

No.

[Bobby Bones]

It's like Santa Claus.

[Will Anderson]

Really.

[Bobby Bones]

It's crazy. Sounds the same. But the weird thing about. And because it's not happening with us, but it's happening with other people. They're getting older.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

With us, we're lucky. We haven't gotten a day older in 20 years.

[Will Anderson]

That's what I'll tell myself.

[Bobby Bones]

But everybody's getting older. I was spending some time listening to the new record.

[Will Anderson]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

And I have for a bit.

[Will Anderson]

I.

[Bobby Bones]

And I. I know. And we were talking about before you came in, like, I understand what the record's about.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I won't call it a concept album, but definitely a record for a reason.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I'd say intentional Fair.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. For sure.

[Bobby Bones]

Your wife's voicemail in it. Oh, that got me.

[Will Anderson]

Thank you, man. I. I mean, so she. So. So I met my wife when I was in college, and she was, you know, I think she was 18, 19 at the time. I was 21.

[Jacob Goldstein]

And.

[Will Anderson]

My favorite thing was just talking to her, like, listening to her. I loved her voice. I love the way it sounded. And that voicemail I found about three months after she passed away. So she passed away November 2022. And I didn't even, you know, I was in such a catatonic state after that that I didn't really think about, like, preserving stuff or, you know, like, oh, I need to, like, wrap up her memories in a bow and, like, make sure that I have them for future use. But that voicemail was something that I stumbled on about three months after she passed away in My, like, deleted folder, you know, or whatever. Like, it was like it was hidden in some way or I'd saved it in a voice note or something like that. I don't exactly remember. And I found it and I. I played it and I just remember listening to it over and over again, like crying. It was just. It was. And so I knew I wanted to preserve it. It felt like a very, like, important little time capsule of. Of the time before she passed. And it was something that I didn't. You know, I wasn't going into it being like, I'm gonna make everybody cry with this voicemail because I didn't think anybody, you know, I thought it'd be like, oh, this is a nice gesture. But I had a bunch of people. Yeah. Say the same thing. It was like that hearing her voice just sort of talking about nothing was sort of the.

[Bobby Bones]

It humanized it more than an already extremely human. Human story that I was listening to.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, I love that. And I think. I think that's probably part of why I did it too, is just sort of like wanting people to know Courtney on every level. You know, not just her poetry, which, you know, the book that's coming out or her talking about, you know, reading her poetry or the songs that I'm singing about her. But yeah, just kind of her and I on a daily level of just like loving to get a phone call from her about something. She texted me, you know, it just seems. Yeah, it seemed like the level of the story that I got to see every day that about her and how wonderful it was to get to live with her and be married to her and all that stuff.

[Bobby Bones]

Talk about the book.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So she was. So Courtney was the best poet. So Courtney was a poetry. A professional poet, I guess you could call it. She wrote books and she taught at Belmont and before that she taught at Lipscomb and she was a Stegner Fellow out at Stanford University, which is basically like winning a Grammy. She was much bigger in the poetry world. So she started writing poetry when we were in college at the University of Virginia. And then, yeah, she went to Columbia and got her mfa, wrote poetry in New York City for forever. And then when we were married, she wrote it as well. And she put out one book when she was in right after grad school. But the thing about poetry is it's such a long tail career. Unlike music, where you just kind of the first 10 years and you're going and then you're kind of as you get older with poetry, it's the opposite. It's you slowly build up your work, and then as you get older, you usually get more famous and you get more recognition. And for her, she never got that chance. So this book was really my way of basically trying to help make her dream of being a poet that has a legacy and that, you know, I just wanted people to remember her for what she loved doing, which was writing poetry. And this book was basically like, all her poems that I had found after she passed away, I digitized them all, found the stuff on her computer, and then sent it off to a couple friends of hers who are professional poets as well and teach at usc. And they put together this book, and they basically said, like, this is what we think it should be. And we took it to a couple presses and found a great publisher. And it really is. Yeah, it's poetry. I think there are two types of poetry. There's academic poetry, which is really opaque, hard to understand, what you and I probably think of when we think of snobby poetry. Then there's Instagram poetry, which I'm sure you've seen is, like, you know, very accessible, very simple, very easy to grasp very quickly. And I think there's obviously, like, poetry goes both ways. I think it's a lot of great stuff with both of those. Courtney wanted to be, and we always talked about this, the middle ground between people who loved Instagram poetry but didn't know how to get into the next phase of more serious poetry. She was right there in the middle of that. She had such layered poetry that it was like, you can jump in on the surface level here. And the more you read this, the more you'll understand. It was respected by academics, but it was also super accessible to people like me who don't read poetry, who don't like poetry, who I frankly like, can't stand it. But her stuff, it's like, oh, this is making me feel something. I don't know exactly why yet, but the more I read it, the more I can figure out how she did things and the more layers and the more meaning that come behind it. And she was just truly like, I mean it, like the best poet that I knew. And I think a lot of her friends would, you know, especially after she passed away. I didn't know her reputation amongst poets her age, but it was kind of like, yeah, she was the best of us, you know, what did she write.

[Bobby Bones]

About and why did she write about it?

[Will Anderson]

She wrote about a lot, about being a woman, a lot about girlhood and what that comes with. So, you know, being A sister. She was one of four girls in her family. She grew up Catholic. So it was a lot about religion and wrestling with sort of what that means in a society that doesn't necessarily, you know, believe in those tenets in a way that I think, you know, she just, she just struggled with empathy, with sympathy, with understanding what that, you know, and, and how that rubs up against religion sometimes. She also just, yeah. Wrote about what it means to be a woman. Wrote about it what it means to be a daughter. And, and for her I think that was really important because growing up that informed her life a lot. She was homeschooled, she was, you know, she was a ballerina. So she was just always around her sisters who were one was a professional ballerina. She could have gone professional, but she hurt her leg. Like all they did was hang out with each other. So it was a lot of just wrestling with what family means, what religion means, what being in a big city like New York City meant for her. Because that was the first time she lived in a place that was super diverse and super exciting and you know, for her it was just such a magical place that for a lot of her poems also revolved around that. So it was just a lot of wrestling with. Yeah, what it means to be a woman in today's society and society including religion and places like New York City.

[Bobby Bones]

So what's the status of the book?

[Will Anderson]

So the book is out now. We're in the middle of promoting it right now and it's, it's just awesome. It's fun to see the reception it's getting and, and people kind of discovering our poems on TikTok and you know, like through interviews and all that stuff. It's, it's great to see them discovering what I've already known. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

[Annabe Sponsor]

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[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at O D O o dot com. That's O D O O dot com.

[Will Anderson]

I turned off news altogether.

[Bobby Bones]

I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait.

[Will Anderson]

It feels like it's trying to divide people. We got clear facts. Maybe we could calm down a little.

[NBC News Anchor]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America.

[Will Anderson]

And we're back on the Bobby Castle.

[Bobby Bones]

Whenever I wrote my first book, I had to write a bunch of stories that made me uncomfortable when I wrote them because it brought up a lot of.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, I can imagine.

[Bobby Bones]

Difficult things, right?

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And then I would talk about them, and I almost had to separate myself from the reality of it.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Talking about it.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah. It's like disassociate almost. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Would have to.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I was thinking about that whenever I was listening to your music. Do you play these songs?

[Will Anderson]

Not yet.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay. That was my question.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because there's. It. Both are going to hit. Like there were. There would be times where I was talking about something and I would cry and there would be times where it was like, I want to. And I hope this doesn't sound bad. I want this performance to be so good that it affects the people. But it's a performance.

[Will Anderson]

But I have to turn this on. Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

It has to turn into performance mode for the message that I'm trying to give.

[Will Anderson]

It sounds callous almost. It does. It sounds like you're not emotional. It's like. No, I just have to.

[Bobby Bones]

I have to.

[Will Anderson]

To get through it.

[Bobby Bones]

Yes.

[Will Anderson]

To.

[Bobby Bones]

And to be able to emote the message I want received.

[Will Anderson]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

Otherwise I'm a bumbling, mumbling mess.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. And you really have to. So the first time I played a song in front of people was I was doing an interview and, you know, the Office came in to watch. Like, you know, a lot of radio stations do. This is with a newspaper. But I came in and I thought I was just playing to the camera like I do at home in front of. For TikTok, and 20 people probably came in to watch. And I had never played these songs for anybody. And I was thrown. Completely thrown off about how much it threw me off. You know, I was like, what? Like, I've never. I've never had that sort of reaction singing songs. It made me realize, oh, when I'm playing shows, I need to be prepared. I need to be ready. Because it's a different ball game when it's these kind of songs where you're saying, you know, I just didn't. I just didn't realize how emotional I was gonna get or how much it would throw me off afterward. I think, too, I had a really funky day after that because it was. Oh, man, these songs mean a lot more to me in the moment, and I just have to figure out how to separate myself from that or be able to be prepared for that and be, like, ready for the reaction I'm gonna have singing them and. And seeing people's reaction to it, too, because I think that was also. Another thing was I'd never played them for people and had them, you know, they were crying, and I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I've never had anybody do that at a show of ours. Even Parachute, you know, we had sad songs, but not like that.

[Bobby Bones]

So what about recording them?

[Will Anderson]

That was different, though, because I was. You know, I did it at my home studio. Like, everybody here in Nashville, Tennessee, has a home studio, and. And I spent, you know, a year basically on my own recording them. And I had friends come in and play some stuff if I needed help playing stuff or singing or whatever. But for the most part, it was just me. And. And it was really such a cathartic process that I. I wasn't sitting there thinking it was emotional, for sure, but it was emotional in an internal way. That was so. You know, I didn't think that I was somebody who processed stuff through writing songs. I thought that was so corny when people would say that, but here I am, like, definitely. That's how I work. So working especially on the lyrics was a really. I almost dreaded it because I knew what I was going to have to dive into. But after you finish it, it's like, I have organized thoughts now. Like, I can. I could figure out what. I was feeling a lot better through the lyrics and through the structure of a song than I could just sort of sitting around avoiding thinking about it all. So it actually really helped. And I also think that recording them by myself, it just felt like something I had to do, which again, I've never really had before in my musical career where it was this sort of drive to be like, this has to be finished. I have to do these songs and I just. I don't care if they come out or not. You know, in the big scheme of things, I didn't necessarily think they would see the light of day because I didn't really have a platform and parachute was done. And yeah, I really just thought like. Like, it was just weird. It was a weird feeling of like, I just have to do this. I'm not thinking about the end game with all this at this point.

[Bobby Bones]

Is there a different relationship with the recorded versions, with time?

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah. I. To me, it's a time capsule. And I think the weirdest thing putting them out is the delay. People are hearing them now, especially on places like TikTok and stuff where I'm getting comments and messages being like, are you okay? Is everything like, if you need someone to talk to these strangers who are so kind about it. But I have to remember. And I felt bad. I was almost like, no, I'm okay. Like, what do you mean? And I'm realizing like, oh, they're on a two year delay here, or a year and a half delay. Whatever it is from when I wrote that song and the way I was feeling then, they're feeling that now. I've moved to the next phase of my life and I'm in a different place emotionally than I was. So looking back and hearing those songs, I. I can remember where I was when I wrote it and what it felt like, but I'm at a totally different place. So it is a little bit of a dichotomy with those and especially with seeing people's reaction to it now, it kind of feels like, like, oh, yeah, I have to remember that. I have to remember how I felt in that moment versus being like, what are you talking about? Like, no, those are just songs. They weren't just songs at that point. You know, those were really big moments for me to finish a song like that. Every time I finished it, it felt like again, it felt like the next step in my grief journey, I guess.

[Colgate Sponsor]

You could call it.

[Bobby Bones]

We were talking about before you came into the. The tour you're doing.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And it's. You're playing and reading poetry.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So we're gonna do yeah, it's like a poetry book reading kind of thing.

[Bobby Bones]

Explain the show.

[Will Anderson]

It's gonna be cool. It's gonna be. So we have, you know, essentially, we're gonna play the new album acoustic, play some old Parachute songs. But, yeah, we're gonna have some special guests come and read some of Courtney's poems, and I'm gonna talk about them in a way that. The way I talk through them in my own head when I read them, and just sort of like figuring out with the audience sort of Courtney's journey through poetry by way of these poems. So for her, you know, I want this to be a celebration of her and her life and our story. And again, like, her poetry was such a big part of her life that it would feel weird just to do an acoustic version and just sort of sell the book or something. So, yeah, we have. We have special guests coming to read the poems. Then we're going to talk about the poems and. But not talk about them in a weird way. It's coming from somebody who doesn't like poetry. So it's kind of, hey, this is. This is what you should look out for when you hear this poem. And. And I think it'll be cool to sort of see her process, talk about how these poems work and then more importantly, just like, yeah, celebrate her life in a way that I think she would have been really excited to do if she had been here when we're publishing that book.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, I was reading a story, and it was you talking about dating somebody after your wife had died, and that just feel. All of that feels awkward.

[Will Anderson]

It is, yeah. And I think, you know, we were talking about earlier that she lived in Canada, and I think it was really lucky for me to meet her at the time I did, you know, after everything that happened. And she was such a amazing person to me during that time to have kind of by her side. I think sometimes I'm not woo woo at all, but I do think the universe sometimes puts people in your path that, you know, are meant to be there, and it didn't work out. But the one. You know, the wonderful thing was just like having somebody who understood.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Me being.

[Will Anderson]

Married at some point and the loss of that and also being excited about this new relationship, like, you know, being able to hold those two things in the same. I had a hard time doing it. To be somebody who's in a relationship with somebody having to do that, that's even harder. And it was. Yeah, it feels like it should be more awkward, but I think when you have Somebody who was so gracious and kind and understanding of the situation I was in. And also like, you know, what comes with that, the trauma and the reactions I had and that kind of thing. Like, it was a real blessing to have somebody like that in your corner, especially making the album and being able to, you know, finishing the album, especially when they were around, it just. It just felt. Felt really. I still look back on it, I feel really lucky to have met them. And it was also a good learning experience for me being like, okay, there's. There's still a lot you got, you know, before the next relationship that I think I need to work on with myself and understanding. There's a lot of stuff that comes with a loss like that. You know, it's just. It was not something I expected or was looking for at all. It wasn't like I was like, all right, I'm on the dating scene now. It really was a. A very fortuitous meeting of somebody and it just sort of fell into it where it was like, this makes the most sense right now for me.

[Bobby Bones]

How much of your life is music now? What else do you do?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, so I. It's. I'm like half and half between social media and music stuff. So with both, you know, so I have a social media page, Willy J1234, which is. We call it the Monday Music Club, which is basically just me telling rad music stories that you hear in the studio or kind of what people talk about when we're hanging out. Music to musician or, you know, you go into a radio station, you hear somebody tell a cool story about somebody came in, and then. Yeah, the other half is the music side. So it's. It's really exciting. The social media bug kind of allows me to geek out about music still. So it's. It's a really great way to. And I get to work with cool brands and, you know, it sounds so lame, but it is cool, like to get to. To do stuff with. With brands and make money from it and get to be. Get to make geeking out about music part of my job. And then the other half is getting to make music. So working with artists in town, film and TV stuff, and then obviously my own music as well.

[Bobby Bones]

Can you give me a story?

[Will Anderson]

A story?

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So. Dude. So there were. Okay, so there was a guitarist. Have you ever heard of the godmother of rock and roll? Name is sister Rosetta Thorpe. She was the coolest music figure I've ever, like, ever, Ever read about. Ever heard about in my life, she was born in, you know, she was born in the Jim Crow south. So she came up in the gospel community. So she was basically played guitar. She learned how to play guitar at six years old. And she was this little six year old prodigy. She would go around playing guitars in churches. Her mom was a singer. They eventually moved to Chicago, start working in the jazz scene. And then finally she ends up. She married this preacher, divorced him because he was abused. Like she was the coolest. Anyway, she moves to New York City. She starts cranking up her amp to 10, basically these tube amps that everyone was playing, but it was all jazz music at that point. These hollow body guitars. She was up on stage with the red sg, which is a solid body guitar, so it sounds more distorted. And she would have these guitar battles at Apollo Theater where she would beat every single male guitarist in the New York City area. And she would do it to entertain people because it was such a novelty act to have a woman up there ripping. And the way she would do it is she would crank the amp to 10 to overdrive the tubes in the amp to give the first distorted sound and absolutely whale. And there's videos on YouTube you can watch that are unbelievable of her absolutely shredding. She eventually falls a little bit out of favor. She was actually a lesbian and so she was in a relationship with a woman. Obviously you can't really, you know, be open about that kind of thing. But she was just a really interesting character. She was the first person to ever go number one on the secular charts with a gospel song. She eventually goes over to the UK to do a tour, kind of like a Hail Mary of sorts. She was sitting there on a train station playing a show. Because there weren't many venues in Manchester, UK that really could hold that many people. So other people on the other side of the train station. You can watch the show on YouTube. Her on the other side, she's playing. Guess who's in the audience. The Rolling Stones. And to this day, those guys and the who. Sorry, a couple guys from the who. They say that Sister Rosetta Tharp is one of their greatest influences of all time. So if you talk to. Who am I thinking of here?

[Bobby Bones]

Mick Jagger? Keith Richards?

[Will Anderson]

Keith Richards, Sorry, if you talk to Keith Richards, he'll still say Elvis Presley says, I rip my vocal sound off. Sister Rosetta Tharp, like everybody and their mother, Eric Clapton, the Byrds, like guys who. Anybody who played electric guitar, basically in the 60s and 70s, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, all those guys saw Sister Rosetta Tharp live at the Manchester train station and say, like, that directly influenced how they wanted to play blues and rock guitar.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a great story.

[Will Anderson]

She's awesome.

[Bobby Bones]

And that's all on Willy J. 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff like that. So it's. It's very, like, short. Minute. Minute and a half stories like that.

[Bobby Bones]

What was the first video that hit hard then that made you think, oh, I can do this.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So I initially did comedy things at the start of, you know, I would just make fun of songs. And then a couple of those went viral. So I was like, okay, this is, like, building. And then I did one about Toto. So they were Africa. Yeah, they were session musicians in LA and they played on. In 1981, they played on Thriller and then won the Grammy for Album of the Year for the album that Toto. For that Africa was on. So they had the best year in pop music history. I said. And that was a video that, like, started going. And it was like, oh, I can do this now. This is great. You know, this is what I really want to do.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you ever get frustrated when you have one that you think, man, this is an awesome story?

[Will Anderson]

Beyond.

[Bobby Bones]

And then it does 1100 views.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, my gosh.

[Bobby Bones]

It pisses me off, man.

[Will Anderson]

Beyond. It is. It is. I've gotten to the point now where it's kind of like the name of the game. And you're like, maybe at another point you can repost it and it'll do fine. But it is funny things that I think will kill. Don't do anything. And then stuff that I'm like, this isn't gonna do anything. All of a sudden, go. And you're like, oh, okay, I'll take that.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, we.

[Will Anderson]

I.

[Bobby Bones]

Last week, I went down to Austin. I did a theater with Lionel Richie.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Who's like, the girl.

[Will Anderson]

Unbelievable. I was literally talking about the other day with my mom. She was. She saw an interview with him that she sent me about his experience putting out solo music versus putting out music with a group. And it was so wise that I was just, like. It like, literally calmed me down that day. I was like, all right, this is great. But anyway, sorry.

[Bobby Bones]

No, I loaded up, like, a really cool clip about him writing hello.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'll put up the most random. Like, I'm talking about Benign.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Will Anderson]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Nothing. And it's like, 800,000 1.2 million. I'm like, yeah. I put up this thing about Lionel writing hello. And it was just such a random.

[Will Anderson]

Which to Me is the coolest thing in the world. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And. And he's like, honestly, it was my producer coming in and going, hello. And he said that. And he goes like, that's funny. Melody should write that. So he's telling the story of one of the most famous songs of all time. And, like, it did nothing.

[Will Anderson]

And that's what you and I would die to hear.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, my God. I couldn't. I was like, no, no. I wanted to talk to everybody who swiped past it somehow. Get, like, a line into them. I go like, you don't know what you swipe past.

[Will Anderson]

Like, trust me on this.

[Bobby Bones]

This is the music history that you're missing here.

[Will Anderson]

Exactly.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I really have.

[Will Anderson]

And. And the thing is, like. Like, again, stuff that resonate with us as people have been around musicians and stuff sometimes just doesn't work with, you know, people who have no idea. And they're just. Or it could just be like the opening sentence wasn't good enough or whatever it is. But.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Or just the algorithm 100 didn't want a generic white guy.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Making it that day.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. For some of us, it's very. Yeah. It.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm the generic white guy, by the way, not Lionel, in case you're confused by the whole thing. It was me. I'm the generic white guy.

[Will Anderson]

Lionel can do anything at any time, any place, and I would watch it.

[Bobby Bones]

So I. I, you know, was doing some social media videos, and again, one of my accounts is like, this show.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And it's super cool because in the past, like, few months, Ringo Starr has been over here. Yeah. John Fogarty's been over here. We did Dolly, we did Lionel Richie. And I'm just like, oh, man, I'm gonna make a million dollars.

[Will Anderson]

Just from the cliffs.

[Bobby Bones]

Just from the cliffs.

[Will Anderson]

YouTube shorts, here I come.

[Bobby Bones]

Yes.

[Will Anderson]

Let's go.

[Bobby Bones]

And they do fine.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'm like, you guys, you suck. Everybody.

[Will Anderson]

Everybody.

[Bobby Bones]

You suck.

[Will Anderson]

The greatest day of my life. Talking to Ringo Starr would be just another day on the Internet.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, I was talking to John Mayer once. He's one of my favorite all times, like, solo artists, probably. John. John Mayer, Ben Folds. Like those, dude.

[Will Anderson]

Me too. Those are my two. Ben Folds is the reason I write songs. He's it. And John Mayer is the reason I wanted to, like, officially was like, when I was 15 and heard room for Squares, I was like, that's it. That's all I ever want to do.

[Bobby Bones]

John Mayer was the first writer to me ever wrote as me.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

If that makes Sense.

[Will Anderson]

No, that record changed my life. I was in the back. I remember where I was. I was in the back of my girlfriend in High School, 15 years old, coming back from the lake. We had gone to the lake with her family for the day, and her older sister was like, you gotta hear this guy. She was down at Athens at University of Georgia, and she played the Room for Squares, like initial Room for Squares before he, you know, on Aware Records or whatever. And same thing changed my life completely. Like, that was it. That was. That was Game Over.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, that, like inside he says Ben.

[Will Anderson]

Folds is the reason he writes the way he does. Which again, the through line makes sense.

[Bobby Bones]

So you know him and Clay from Zach Brown Band. They were the duo.

[Will Anderson]

I know.

[Bobby Bones]

Which is crazy to me.

[Will Anderson]

I know.

[Bobby Bones]

So I was talking with John Mayer once and because we had a very brief relationship of being friends. We're not. Not friends anymore.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But there was a season where if I was in la, he'd be like, hey, yeah, come by or I'll come by or, you know, he. But he came by kind of a last minute thing. He came in in the morning in Nashville and I was doing my radio show and he was like, hey, I want to come by. And I'm like, cool. So he came in and the interview is up, but it was very last minute, which is fine by me because I'm a big fan and I like John. Hard to talk to because he's very cerebral. Very cerebral. But I was like, hey, what? Like, what works? What doesn't work? Like, what do you not like doing? He goes, you know what, what works the most that people resonate with is the stuff that I think doesn't matter. He was talking about waiting on the world to change. He was like, that song is just kind of like a down the middle throwaway.

[Will Anderson]

Really.

[Bobby Bones]

And he said that is the song that people, like, feel like speaks to them. He said, for something. This is his words. I'll paraphrase. For something to move me. It's got to be new. I got to be pushing a boundary.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

He's like, a lot of people aren't at that boundary with you.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, that's so interesting.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, you're with. You're with you in that boundary because you're trying to find it, but other people aren't with you at that boundary.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, they're catching up. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

So it's you right in your most middle space.

[Will Anderson]

That's so funny.

[Bobby Bones]

And I thought that was. I still think about that because there are times where I Do something. And I'm like, oh, for me, like this is awesome. Not that the quality of it's awesome, but like where I got and how I created it or how I felt.

[Will Anderson]

But everything every now and then, like for him, Continuum, I think was him pushing the boundaries of what pop music and blues music could be together and finding it in the same equilibrium as the audience.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, yeah. And the Venn diagram of that, all three of those things, audience, blues, pop, all just were one circle.

[Will Anderson]

It was, it worked out perfectly. And then there's times on the Internet when you and I post a video, whatever it is, and that the Venn diagram matches up perfectly of what interests us, the story and the audience at that point.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, but sometimes the circles, like farther from each other.

[Will Anderson]

They're literally solar system. Exactly.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, look, I'm a, I'm a big fan, so it was, it was super cool for you to come over. You still play the parachute stuff?

[Will Anderson]

Yeah. So we'll be, we'll be playing them at the shows.

[Bobby Bones]

And you do play like.

[Will Anderson]

Oh yeah, dude, I, I, I love those songs, man. Like, I'm not one of those people who will never get back together. We're not going to be like those kind of emo bands now who are cash grabbing and running around, you know, which is great. I, more power to them.

[Bobby Bones]

But we all have said the word never.

[Will Anderson]

Here's what I'm saying. We will, we're gonna, we're gonna re release some vinyl, some records that never got to be on vinyl. And I'm sure we'll play a couple of reunion shows for fun. But we're not going to get back in the scheme of like, we were aware that like, we don't want to tour. Like none of us want to tour together, you know, I, everybody has their own thing going, which is really cool and it'd be fun to play together again like once or twice. But other than that, I don't think any of us have any desire to get back in the van and get.

[Bobby Bones]

On the road because there was a, I don't know if you've heard of them, but there was a man called Hootie and the Blowfish who said the same thing.

[Will Anderson]

And it came back. And you know what?

[Bobby Bones]

It came back around.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, exactly.

[Bobby Bones]

And we'll put all the information down the notes we were talking about the poetry book and your tour. We'll put all that down.

[Will Anderson]

That sounds great.

[Bobby Bones]

And everybody's. He's got your Will Anderson music.

[Will Anderson]

Will Anderson music. And then Willie J1234. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I need to go check out Willie J1.

[Will Anderson]

Yeah, do it, man.

[Bobby Bones]

That's up my alley.

[Will Anderson]

We'll do it.

[Bobby Bones]

Maybe I give it some likes. Help the algorithm, you know. Please. Good to meet you, man.

[Will Anderson]

You too. Thank you again for having me. Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.

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[Will Anderson]

This is Alec Murdoch.

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[Will Anderson]

Don'T want to believe it.

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[Bobby Bones]

This is an iHeart podcast.