Dustin Lynch
Appearances
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Well, I discovered a new style. I didn't see it was going to be a part of my world, but kind of stumbled into it at the end of last year. We started doing DJ sets, essentially mashups for Wind Nightlife out in Vegas. And we just announced that residency. I guess it's going well because they asked us to do a residency this year. I'm proud of that. Congratulations.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I was brand new to the scene and a couple songs out at the time and really never met Luke, but we were going on tour with him later that year. So I was excited to be down there with him and hopefully impress him. Kind of just try to do my thing and have fun and it seemed like it went well. So we got invited back the second year and then we really kind of started making it our own thing.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, we're the first country artist ever to get an offer. So we're doing... their big nightclub, their excess nightclub. And then we're also doing some encore beach shows, which is their daytime pool party. But it's straight up a DJ set. I'm singing live most of the show. Right. But it's a mash of dance music, hip hop, my hits. It's just a big blender of what I love partying to.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
How long did that set last? Right now we're at about 35 minutes, but we're gonna grow it into an easy hour, which is, it's easy to do. It's kind of hard to scratch it down. It's easier to extend it a little bit. So we'll probably do a full hour set. The way this format works, I don't really get a breath. So that's a tough go. the whole time. There's not a lot of, there's no storytelling really.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And so, you know, with our big shows, there's time in between songs to tell a story, introduce a song or let a guy take a solo. In this show, it's all me. So it's a high impact show, but I love it. So that's a new type of music that, I'm now starting to write and curate a record around. So that's one of the projects I'll be releasing this year, probably in July.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
But my main focus is gonna continue to be, I'm proud of being one of the top 10 most consumed artists last year on country radio. And I wanna continue that trend.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
congratulations thank you not a lot of artists who have that uh badge of uh honor i mean that's that's a very impressive number thank you yeah i i love um making music that stands the test of time that's always kind of been my goal since we put cowboys and angels out um is is making songs that stick around they're not just that that flash in the pan and um we've got mucky a handful of times at this point and i've had some songs that i think have stood the test time will continue to do so so that's my main focus i don't want to
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I don't want to let anything really steer me away from what I'm here to do, and that's make awesome country music. But these new projects that we're doing are fun. I think my nightlife, my EDM, EDM for the lack of better terms, I guess is what they're starting to brand it, is going to bring in a whole new audience all over the world because it's so accessible.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Maybe sometimes it's like, I don't know if I like country music. This is blended in a world that I know they love and sounds they're used to hearing with a little bit more of a storytelling type of lyric. And so that's gonna be fun too. And I think we're gonna touch a lot of new ears this year all over the world with this format that we're kind of making up right now.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Without a doubt, yeah, there's a lot of great lanes right now. We're seeing a lot of the more rootsy rock, Americana, those genres come in too, which is great. I love, I think there's room for all of it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
The pool party down there is kind of what is our claim to fame and has become one of the events that everybody talks about and looks forward to.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Did you know that that day? Sometimes. Not all the times. Sometimes I've got to go live with it. But there are certain days where it just feels special. Even from like, if there's a chorus melody or an idea of a chorus, if we start there, that's usually where we start is trying to get that chorus right. And then we can kind of piece our verses around it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
But if we get an idea and a good melody out front, I'm literally saying to myself, don't screw this up. Don't screw this up. We got a chance to make one great. So from that moment, it feels like.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I am. Yeah, I definitely am. But then once you have that moment, I've also had songs where I've had the don't screw this up. This is a smash feeling. And then I live with the song as I drive around town or whatever. And for whatever reason, it burns, and you don't find yourself going back to it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
i heard it was uh quite an entrance you made yeah yeah on your shoulder in the mariachi band that's right yeah so through the years i always told my team you know i want this to become some sort of a parade into our pool party because year by year we've got to make it bigger and better and bigger and better and so we've got just an incredible amount of talent that's there people shooting fire out you know dancers animals thrones everything we're spraying champagne all over everybody nobody lines up we kind of do a
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It's the songs that I find myself going back to, where I'll literally have an outburst in my truck and just fist pump.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, I just live with it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, I love being on the water. So a lot of my songs are tested on the water, on the boat. If we're out drinking or surfing or whatever it is. And that's where I can really, if I narrow it down to a group of songs, I'll sprinkle in some originals throughout our day with a group of friends, even strangers, of demos. I like me not to be singing them so people don't realize what it is.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And sometimes people will just ask about it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, what is that? Can we hear that again? What was that? Most of the time they don't, and that's fine. That's kind of my process of going, okay, because in the real world, people aren't gonna know who's singing it at first and they don't have to ask about it again. But if that happens organically, you have something special. And so that's been the moments where it seems like,
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
The cream rises to the top always. And songs just, for whatever reason, raise attention and raise their hand. And, and it's kind of undeniable what, what's going to be next level.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I'm completely involved in it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Um, I try to make sure that I'm not too involved as far as like, I love this. I love this. I love this. I don't care what y'all think. And we've had success. I think while we are where we are is I've got a group of people that aren't afraid to be honest about if I'm passionate about a song, but maybe a lyric's a little dull or it hits them a weird way. They speak up about it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It seems like if my certain group of folks, if we all agree on a song, we're excited about a song, we've had great success and a great batting average together. So I just gotta remember that. There's been a lot of songs where maybe I'm excited about it, but I can't get their interest up and vice versa. And you gotta bow out and go, okay, maybe this isn't for us.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I want everybody in my creative circle to be excited. And then once we get to that point, You give it out to the bigger group of listeners, which is my friends on the boat or even a bigger group of listeners. Whenever a record comes out, you let the market determine it. A big hit for us was Think About You, and that was a song that came out of the gate
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
knew i loved it i didn't realize what it was until the record came out boom straight at the top it went everybody's talking about it how do we get it oh my goodness here we've done it again right you don't see that coming that's kind of the that's the one you can't really you know you can know maybe you have a song that you think is going to be a hit and people want to hear but it's those moments where you go oh wait this is going to change the game for us oh wait this is going to change the set list like we're closing with this thing this year um those are the those are the ones that you can't i don't think really
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
If we could identify what that is, we'd have a lot more of them. A hundred percent.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
We usually try to do, you know, we're at a point now the crowds get bigger and the shows get bigger. So we only have so much market space we can go in. So it seems like about,
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
seven months out of the year eight months out of the year we can we can do a healthy tour in north america um you know i've got my my life goals of touring and internationally and i think with this new uh project i'm working on it's going to allow us to go tour some more markets a little bit more easier I think you hit one of your goals last year.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I mean- It is the dream. It goes back. That's a D special spot for me because one of my favorite bands in the world is Incubus.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And they taped a DVD there called Alive at Red Rocks. And whenever I was in my original band in high school-
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
those were the guys that were kind of popping off and that dvd came out and we played that dvd we dressed like them we tried you know we did everything like that and um and i always said from day one i'm gonna play red rocks and and um and i don't want to open for anyone there until i headline it so um yeah the goal the goal came and um you know it's it's it's just a special to invite the original band members out
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
like a mini Mardi Gras parade into the stage. And then we start the show, but it's a three hour set. It's a lot of fun. We try to do a theme every year. And this year's theme was getting nautical. So we played a bunch of yacht rock and had a good time with it. Yeah.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
to have them sit on stage and us play, you know, the original four guys. They're all great musicians.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, they still play in church. They play, like my guitar player will still go busk in the park. Oh, cool. So they all have different professions. One's an architect, one's an attorney, one's an art teacher, but they all are still playing music. Just not, you know, I guess for a full-time living, but they're all still great musicians and love it. And
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I can see us like later in life, you know, when we're way out in our years having a regular gig down in Key West somewhere. Just chilling, playing.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, right. Playing some Jimmy Buffett. Yeah, do one night a month down there at whatever bar would be fun.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, it's, at this point,
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
it's how okay how do we how do we do something different you know because we've been around for 12 years how do we walk out on country thunder you know in arizona and go all right that's a competitive market absolutely how can we come out and give them something different we didn't give them last time um it starts early on in the rehearsal process and there's just some there's a magic about it i think it's what i fell in love with when i was 15 in my buddy's garage when we were trying to put our first show together there's that magic of
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
of just shedding it, feeling it. You've got to get in the garage and get your hands in the grease and then create an experience, an emotional experience and connection with your fans. You want to hit them a certain way out of the gate and then you want to bring them to a certain point.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And the ups and downs of that show, the ebb and flow of the show, and then creating those moments of interaction, you know, because... What I think people love about concerts and they'll never go away. It's the human experience and that human connection. Some of those conversations can lead people to certain places and then you hit them with this song and it means a little something different.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Or maybe they thought it was this, but it means that now. So yeah, it's just getting in there with the band guys. We're still old school. We still just get in there as a band. I've never really, and maybe I should try this to give us a new chapter, but I've never really had a music director or an art director I don't know come in and help design a show.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It's always just me and the band guys with our instruments.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, and myself and my band guys, everybody has their own path into country music. Mine, I feel like it's a pretty blue collar path of, we started in the bars. You know, we started in these college bars in Nashville. Then we got the frat scene going. And then we went to Broadway.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And that's it. I think that's why the shows we haven't tried to do, you know, the pool party, the pool situation, this nightlife show, I think all of those are just an accumulation of all the chops I've learned through the years in those bars, playing the bartender and one person up to a packed bar on Broadway or, you know, a packed frat house. It's still a lot of the same antics, you know?
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, there's certain gestures.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
at work right there are and but and there's also certain ones that we never grow out of um even if we haven't done a body shot off somebody since college it's still in style when you're 42 in vegas oh it is however old you are i think it's ageless but i love to pick on people so i love getting people up especially in those shows on stage and just making them you know taking them back to like
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
remember when you're a frat dude and you shotgun a beer? Like, hey, you're in Vegas for this conference right now, but tonight you're on my stage and we're running it back and you're singing Garth Brooks with me, let's go. And it's those types of moments I think that we create for our fans that are my favorites.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
pretty much the same spot, you know, touring and still chasing big hit songs. I would love to see this new project of what we're bringing out to Vegas continue to grow. We just came back, we were in Toronto last week with it. So it's catching on.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It is, yeah, yeah. We played biggest club in Miami and this popping club in Toronto. And like I said, I think in five years, I would like to see that kind of grow internationally and let us, really take our music to new markets and just have some fun because we're always gonna tour the hardcore country music fan with our country show. I'm single, I don't even have a pet. No wife, no kids, no pets.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
So it allows me in these months where we- The road is your wife. Yeah, where we've gotta rest, I can still travel the world and go experience amazing places. And if I get to play music along the way and pick up a bar tab, yeah, as we go, that's great. Oh man, that's fantastic.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It definitely does. I think personally. They endale grind. that's it but finding that balance um i think i've gotten better at blocking out a little me time i'm still all over the place having fun um you know doing events but i think you know personal goals for me is continue to be present in what I want out of life. And I think my search right now is, I have this incredible freedom.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I fell in love with singing and really had this want to at...
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I'm doing all these fun things. I'm embracing those things right now. At some point, I'm probably gonna get tired of embracing all those things, cause it'll become normal. And then it's what's next. And it's being open to what's next. Maybe it is finally settling down with, my forever plus one.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I'm just constantly asking myself, am I giving myself enough personal time in my love life to find someone? Or am I saying yes to too many fun things to where I'm not really, I'm not putting an effort into going and meeting somebody. So I don't know, I think just to answer your question, just continue to be open and receive and be present and whatever the universe brings me, be okay with that.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
age eight and um so you know i started singing in church and then school choir and chorus and stuff and then i got really into acapella music and was in an acapella quartet and one of my buddies that was in that group's dad was like why don't you learn how to play some instruments and actually be a band so like well that sounds cool i tried to start learning guitar giving it up for
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And never lose the fun of it. I think, you know, I look up to my big brothers in the genre right now that have been doing a lot longer than I have, and they're still playing a bunch of shows a year, and they don't have to. And so I think, you know, if we keep the shows fun, if we keep touring... just enough to where we're great, but we're not getting burnout.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And we're giving our fans what they deserve. I think that's the balance I'm looking for. I don't know exactly what that number shows is, but I think as we go, we'll find it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And you got Kenny Chesney, better than ever. Here's another one. Those are the guys, you know, as a little kid, it's like they kind of really started blowing up and doing the stadiums together. And to have those two that you mentioned right there in great shape, still touring around and having fun on stage and loving, you know, the chase of the next song and the next show.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It's so inspiring, man, to get to be their age and that shape doing it at that level. That's my goal. I'm glad to have them in front of me.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
dirt bikes and whatever else was fun at the time. When he said that, I was like, all right, I'll pick the guitar back up. I started learning and at the age of 15, was playing my first gig with some of those guys. It was like the butterflies and then overcoming those and seeing people sing along and dance. Our first show was for a senior picnic.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
We're the younger high school kids playing for the seniors. That was a way to feel better about yourself in those tough high school years. We were all dating, you know, above us in class, which is unheard of. Oh yeah, absolutely. We started dating older girls and that becomes addicting, you know, the attention becomes addicting. That's what happens when you know how to play guitar.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I don't want to let anything really steer me away from what I'm here to do, and that's make awesome country music.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
That's it, yeah, and learning those songs and yeah, so the beginning for us was kind of just playing every chance we could at whatever fundraiser there was or tailgate or we kind of had a rotation, a steady gig down at the pavilion at our park that's next to the high school football field that we would play at.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
and the dream was to get to nashville and you know continue to grow that high school band went at separate ways everybody went to different colleges the guitar player myself um kind of we were thinking we were headed to middle tennessee state he ended up going and not lasting even a whole whole freshman year he screwed it up i got a call to play golf
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
at uh david lipscomb here in nashville and i got that scholarship and i couldn't turn it down it was it was pretty much going to pay for um you know college and uh got me to nashville which was my dream so that's really what got me to nashville and started i was already playing shows and music but and writing my own original music but um that's what got me to nashville and really got me in the scene so were you writing when you were when you were in your high school band
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
we were fantastic yeah we were writing it it was it's an interesting i know there's like kind of a pop rockish right um pop punk type of thing that we were doing all those guys hated country music i loved it so they would give me like one country song to play a night you know i could cover an alan jackson song they they kind of got to choose the song but um they would give me one of those and when i got to nashville it was all about the bluebird cafe and trying to figure out how to get on lower broadway and play those bars
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
That was it. We had come up in high school and played it before. We didn't open mic up there. But, you know, the Bluebird was like my first stop. It's right down the street from Lipscomb. So it was very easy to get to. As a kid from a small town, I'd never really been outside of my town and into the big city. So it was scary to like...
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Even when you got your own car and you're in college, you'd be like, I don't know where to drive in Nashville. It's very intimidating. The Bluebird was right there by me, and it felt safe. So I would go over there and hang out and really just try to learn the craft. It was in between the songs what I fell in love with, those stories the songwriters would say about, this is what inspired this song.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Even if I hadn't lived those things, it inspired me to think about, okay, what am I living right now? What could I write about? And then try to go home and and starting a song was easy, finishing a song was tough, and that was kind of the training that I needed to really get through and just those repetitions and still do. I think as songwriters, you always gotta sharpen the pen.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It is. You know, they've done a great job at preserving what it was and kind of keeping it the same. And those traditions alive, I think that keeps it special. And that's why it's going to continue to be around for us.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Lots of hard years of being told no. I graduated college. At that time, I'd already started kind of growing my cover band business in the frat scene and sorority scene. And then that would turn into wedding receptions. And so we were traveling all over the Southeast playing those. I was making some good money in college, getting paid to go party at frat houses. It's like the best gig ever.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
um and girls girls girls that's right and um so i knew that that was a good living but how do i get my original music you know better and to a level where people will pay attention on Music Row and give me a chance. I started knocking on doors and went to BMI because it seemed like the thing to do. Once you meet this person, they turn around to that person and start connecting the dots.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Then I started writing a little bit more original music and performing that in my frat shows. um in the greek life shows and uh out of nowhere i got a cold call from from a guy and he left me a voicemail i was i was at a day job at the time and um it was a manager of an artist that i recognized on this new label called big machine and valerie records and um
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
within two weeks i had a meeting in there and um they told me they're like you're not leaving this office to you we've got to offer you some sort of deal we're big fans behind that yep and john loba yeah great and that was that was flooring to me i didn't think that was going to happen at all so that kind of put me in a tailspin of like oh my god it's finally happening right just kind of like in the blink of an eye here we go and so i you know you go through all those deals and everything and john is who actually signed me and he ended up leaving that that label
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
So I lost my champion. And I got to sit on the shelf for a couple years over there trying to figure out what to do. So you went over to Broken Bow at that point. Finally, John got me out of the Big Machine deal and I went to Broken Bow. And we'd already had Cowboys and Angels written and I couldn't get anybody excited about it over at Big Machine. But once I got to Broken Bow, they loved it.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And we kind of went in and started finishing out that first album around Cowboys and Angels being the anchor song. And yeah, like you said, it went out and we put that song out and it really did.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
uh amazing things i didn't know how big it was or what it was doing at the time because i'd never done it but now that i know a little bit about the you know the struggles of the chart and the you know impact of a song has that song had and still has incredible impact it's still one of my most streamed songs to date
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, it's still a monster for us. It's still the song that people bring up the most in meet and greet. I think the song that couples come to see us play and they're counting down the minutes so they can have their dance together. It's been a song that's become a part of so many people's wedding day. and anniversaries or whatever brought them together. And yeah, that's special.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Not every song can be that. For us, it's Cowboys and Angels. That's fantastic.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, really just finding my own voice. I think the first album was, I can literally remember driving to the studio going, how do I sing these songs? I'd recorded a lot of songs at that point, but it was demos. And I think the added pressure of- Did you have any cuts on that second record? Yes, yeah. Great. Just added pressure of this is an album, this means more.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
You still should just go in and be you and sing and deliver the emotion, how you feel it. Yeah, the second album was one where, It was me trying to figure out, okay, how much do I put my foot down and make it me versus listening to outside influence, you know, in the building. Who produced that record? It was between Brett Beavers. He started, he did the first album.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And then we brought in some, we brought in Mickey Jack Cones as well. The sound between the first record and the second album had started to shift a little bit in our genre. And so we were trying to find a good mix of sound. even some of the technology of how we were recording and mixing all the way down to the writing rooms.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
On our first record, we put in some drum loops and we're scared to death people would get mad at us. By the second record, it was how everybody was writing songs. Everyone was doing it that way.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
so you know we're kind of trying to find that but at the same time me really learning about how to be a better communicator in the studio but also in these meetings where we're the anr meetings where we're picking the music and i want to sing about this i don't want to sing about that well we think you should do this and it's like yeah but you're not singing it every night i am and just the push and pull of of that relationship um that that happens and um
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I love making music that stands the test of time. That's always kind of been my goal since we put Cowboys and Angels out, is making songs that stick around. They're not just that flash in the pan. We've gotten lucky a handful of times at this point. I've had some songs that I think have stood the test of time and will continue to do so. So that's my main focus.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It was a lot of fun. I think we ended up really finding the next chapter of sound through that process and things really started opening and we started really, I think, streaking our number ones together. The live show energy really swelled with that record and we landed a giant tour with Luke Bryan off of that album too.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It was Garth Brooks.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, I love the intensity and how much fun, not only Garth is having, you know, he's got you in the palm of his hand, but his band members. I always remember watching those shows and, you know, when Garth's way out here on the thrust, maybe his band's over here.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And even the guitar player, the fiddle player, they're captivating and they've got you and you're watching them and they're smiling at you and they're pointing at you. And I just love a very interactive show. And my hero is George Strait, but not a great interacting show. It's kind of, they do their thing and they play the music. The songs kind of speak for themselves with George Strait. They do.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
It's a magical moment, but there's not a lot of movement from that microphone, but the songs do the speaking. But that's also part of the mystique and the fun of that set. Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, best of both worlds. The George Strait songs and melodies with the Garth Brooks antics on stage. And that's my perfect amount of music for me.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Well, you've achieved that.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, a lot of momentum right now.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Yeah, that was our 10th year for this festival called Crash Mount Playa. And it's something that has just kind of snowballed into one of our favorite weeks of the year. Luke Bryan is, I guess, the prez of it all down there. But we started, we were the first band ever to go on stage at that festival 10 years ago. And just kind of, Went down there and was having fun.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
This is the biggest gap I've had of not touring. It seems like we've always kind of- Now you did New Year's Eve.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
international audience watching yeah um yeah so i got to host for my second year in a row times square yes and the ball dropped there with cbs and it is it's a huge stage i've always loved um hosting you know i've had experience on the carpets um and i've got to host some radio shows and um I don't know, it's something that's a new challenge for me, but also I love the banter in between songs.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
I love working a crowd and just bringing some life and energy to an audience. And that's what that is for me. I got asked to do it. Cody Allen actually is who recommended me or requested me for ringing in 2024. And went up there and had a good time. And I was nervous because I hadn't been on a stage like that. I hadn't worked with...
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
the top of the top pros on a, I mean, I've done a bunch of interviews, but usually I'm kind of letting them lead the show. This time around, we're on equal playing field and I'm kind of having to pull my own weight whenever the camera turns on down to the second. But this year, I got to go back up. Cody was back in Nashville, but Lonnie and I ran it back out in Times Square.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
And it just feels natural to me. it's fun bringing an audience from all over the world into hey we're right here on the sidewalk with all these fans it's a very interactive experience but just bringing that excitement of this is a dream come true to be in times square watching this ball drop um with all this energy and trying to bring that into the homes of everybody
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
is just something I love doing. And we get to reflect too on your year and hopefully give people some hope in the new year. So that's how we kick the year off. But now I have this gap I've never had before. I usually ride into touring, and this year we're not really touring until April and really getting after it in May and June. So I've got a bit of a gap here of,
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
Time that I thought I was going to vacation on. We were joking earlier. I was talking to my agent. I was like, what do people do when they don't tour? I've never had a break. And he's like, man, go live a little bit. But it seems like I'm living a lot. I'm focusing on writing songs and recording music right now. We're going to put out a few different projects this year.
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
is our plan who you writing with right now um you know a lot of my same crew yep you know a lot of guys and girls that are hall of famers are going to be hall of famers but the fun part is identifying the new blood that's kind of graduating into um the level we need it and those guys and girls and and and that's cool because you know when it seems like two albums ago it was kind of my group was kind of the the crew that had just started bubbling and popping and now
On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer
From Backroom Bars to Broadway with Dustin Lynch
You got to recognize, okay, we're getting on up in our years and we need to bring in some new young energy and follow a little bit of their inspiration and their lead. So I'm doing that. And that's a fun process, identifying some new talent to bring in and following their lead melodically and really how they phrase their melodies is what I pay attention to the most.