Behind the Scenes with Dustin Lynch at the New York State Fair

Transcript

Backstage with Dustin Lynch

Speaker 1 0:00

All I gotta do is plug this in . I was gonna say it's got a stick in there . Yeah , it does . It's just , you know , usb-c or a computer . It's an expensive toy . Yeah , all right , here we are . Are we ready ? Coming to you in three , two , one . Hi everybody , it is Skip Clark . I am , of course , you know that at the Great New York State Fair , but I'm in a very special spot . I am backstage in a beautiful camper , by the way , and it's pretty cool . We've got a whole bunch of people here . I'm going to start this over , but I'll edit it . Coming to you in 3 , 2 , 1 . Hi everybody , it is Skip Clark . I am live at the great New York State Fair and we are backstage because , guess who's in town tonight ? It's the one and only Dustin Lynch . And Dustin , thanks for making the trip to the fair . Absolutely , it's great to be back . We've missed Syracuse . Yeah , when was the ? Do you recall last time you were here ?

Speaker 2 1:01

I remember well , we were near here . I forget the town . We were in , verona verona yep turning stone yep , exactly casino before that we were in uh god , we had an incredible arena show up here too . I remember the next day calling my book an agent going , hey , we need to , we need to come back to syracuse there do you know if you're at the amphitheater ?

Speaker 1 1:22

um , you're very close to the amphitheater here at the fairgrounds . It's like right across the highway . It's on the other side . Awesome , you may have been , I don't know . All these shows are starting to run together . I have a very important question . First of all , how many cowboy hats do you own ?

Speaker 2 1:37

Oh , I've probably got 30-ish at the house right now and they just keep coming in the mail . Interesting enough , though , I wear a resist all and they stopped making my hat in 2012 . So they've been specially making them for me since then , and I just got news this year that that's going to discontinue .

Cowboy Hats and Big Teeth

Speaker 2 1:58

So whatever , however , they make them , whatever mold or form they use has gone bad , and there was only one that they had left in mexico and it went bad . So I've got to go to resist on and design a new hat this year , dude you got to change that .

Speaker 1 2:12

You got to get those hats out again . I know , you know you walked out . You got the uh , you know the trucker hat on or the baseball cap on and you walked over and they're like oh , there's dustin , I go . Nice that dustin , he doesn't have a cowboy . Yeah , I gotta disappear without that . Yeah I know I know it's cool . It's cool , by the way . You got huge teeth thank you .

Speaker 2 2:27

Yes , um , I know that and it's it's . It's probably mom's fault .

Speaker 1 2:33

Everybody knows , you know you know , dude , the reason I asked you was , uh , meryl , one of our uh promotions , uh queens , over here she said you know she loves you , by the way , and the shows , and we we've been talking about this show for some time , but man , he's got big teeth . Yeah , I go . Okay , I didn't know , I'm about to go use them on a steak out there . I know now throwing her under the bus , now is this ? Well , this is what we do , this is what we . Let's talk about you a little bit . Your latest project , what's going on with ?

Speaker 2 3:07

that , yeah , I had a great week of writing this past . I'm writing songs pretty much every day . I'm home in Nashville and writing for the new country record , also putting some dance music out , which that's been a fun journey . This year I didn't see it coming , so a really creative spot for me right now .

New Music and Tonight's Show

Speaker 1 3:24

I love that and I would imagine we got some of that new music coming to radio here pretty quick Without a doubt . I mean , as I look , you know , from our friends at BBR Broken Bow , it's like yeah .

Speaker 2 3:34

Yeah , it's coming , it's coming . I'm working away at it and really excited We'll play some new stuff tonight . I was going to ask if you're going to play some of the new stuff as well as , of course , all the big hits . We will , yeah , we'll play all the hits and then this show , this set list . We're actually going to dip back and play some stuff off the very first album that I don't think we ever played .

Speaker 1 3:55

So it's going to be a fun night , a little throwback night . So how do you open up ? How do you open up tonight ? What's the song you're go back to , back to back , all Dustin .

Speaker 2 4:02

Lynch all the time . Yeah , I'd like to get out there and hit them hard right away and get the journey started . Is there one song that your fans yell the loudest for at every show . Gosh , probably Tonight I Would Think About you is way up there .

Speaker 1 4:15

That one and Small Town Boy , oh I love that , I love that , and you know it's pretty cool out there right now .

Speaker 2 4:28

You're in upstate new york , dude , are you really ? Yeah , I see everybody in hoodies . I'm I'm gonna be in short sleeves tonight . Of course I'm jumping around .

Speaker 1 4:31

So , no , that's right , you don't feel it as much as you know , we're standing there right , right , exactly . I think it's only going to be like around 60 and it's going to drop down as your show gets underway . But uh , yeah , it's unusual . Usually it's state fair time . We're in the middle 80s to 90 , and humid as as anything can be , so I'm glad it's pretty cool what's ?

Speaker 1 4:45

uh , the dustin lynch song you'd crank up with the windows down . Let's say I'm driving through the through town here on the major highway , what song would you recommend that I crank ? That you crank up a dustin lynch tune .

Speaker 2 4:55

Come on , okay , let's see , I don't know , I think I would probably play , play riding roads , probably what I'd go with .

Speaker 1 5:02

I love that , because that would go together with it . Yeah , exactly , so tell me a little bit about a day in the life of Dustin

Life in Nashville and Hunting

Speaker 1 5:09

Lynch . You live in Nashville . Where are you from originally ?

Speaker 2 5:12

Just south of Nashville , tell them I'm in Tennessee . Okay , a day in the life for me is wake up in the morning and live the dream . So right now it is legit . Pretty much every day I'm home , I'm trying to figure out how to get in the studio , how to record , how to write and also rest , you know , when we're off the road , take some time to myself and get outdoors . So Nothing too special , nothing too crazy . I don't have any kids running around the house , so I kind of just get to make it Pretty quiet . Yeah , I get to make the day up as I go .

Speaker 1 5:38

That's cool . You say you live in Nashville , but you don't have to tell me where exactly . But what part of town do you live in ?

Speaker 2 5:43

Yeah , I'm actually on the water up north of town , oh , really , yeah , we've got a trail cams out , we're starting to see what bucks are around and I just love to bow hunt , I love to archery hunt deer . So , um , getting to go out to idaho this year on an elk hunt in a few weeks and then , uh , elk , then it'll be , yeah , that'll be tennessee most of the fall . That's a big ass , deer yeah , it is .

Speaker 1 6:19

I'm just not . I can't even imagine trying to drag something like that out of the woods . Takes a lot of trips . It does . Yeah , imagine you have a four-wheeler . You just kind of pull it sometimes . Yeah , we try to get that close . I love that . So when you do your songwriting , where do you get your creativity ? Is it tell us ? Tell me , I know these are questions a lot of people do ask you , but we don't get to talk to you that often yeah , I mean honestly I just pull from real life situations .

Speaker 2 6:41

Either I'm going through or close friends are going through . Um , and right now I'm just riding this uh , really unique creative wave that that started in las vegas when we started doing dj sets out there at the win and , um , I'm getting to write just some really cool music that and collaborate with new songwriters and producers that I never thought I would get to do . Um , and I think that's really helping my country writing too , because it's allowing me to open up creatively and try new things , even like vocal delivery stuff . I'm doing that is not traditional for country , but I think getting to exercise that one or two times a week allows me to go in and write some different kind of country music too .

Speaker 1 7:19

You know we love country , obviously , but country isn't really what country used to be . Yeah , you know everything is evolving . With

Country Music's Evolution and Collaborations

Speaker 1 7:26

time we go through changes . Now we have all these collaborations coming out . For example , Post Malone and everybody and their brother are doing that . Everybody's hooking up with somebody to put something out . Is there somebody that you would like to collaborate with that you haven't .

Speaker 2 7:40

Yes , absolutely . I mean Post would be awesome . I've got to do one with him now that you mentioned him , Hang on , hang on , Hold on a minute .

Speaker 1 7:44

I won that bet today . I said he's going to say Post . Yeah , we'll manifest that .

Speaker 2 7:50

I think I'd like to do a song with luke bryan . You know , because we had so much fun together on the road through the years , I think we found the right song to be fun to do with him . Uh , blake shelton would be cool to do on with .

Speaker 1 7:59

So yeah , I've got him out there a lot of fun . You're quite the part of your , and all those guys that you've mentioned are those that like to go out and have a good time . Oh yeah , absolutely so . I can only imagine if and when that happens , that collaboration happens , it's going to be just a pretty crazy wild feel-good song . It should be a decent video set to be at for sure you probably wouldn't be able to do it in one shot .

Speaker 2 8:19

I don't think you would be able to .

Speaker 1 8:21

So what's your favorite food ? I know they're cooking steak out here for you .

Speaker 2 8:24

That's it . I'm really just a meat and potatoes guy . If I'm close to the coast I'll get some great seafood , but most of the time I'm eating steak chicken . King of the grill .

Speaker 1 8:34

Meat and potatoes . That's it . How do you like it ? Medium rare ?

Speaker 2 8:37

No , I'll go probably medium , medium well tonight .

Speaker 1 8:39

Oh well .

Speaker 2 8:40

Yeah .

Speaker 1 8:40

Doesn't that kind of take the flavor out of the steak ? Depends on what cut you got , yeah . How about venison , love venison ? Yeah , do you do the stew ?

Speaker 2 8:50

I haven't done the stew , I'm just simple . So I'm just doing the backstraps and grilling what about the roast there's any sort of roast in any of that . I'm giving that away .

Speaker 1 8:59

Really , you don't the roast , you don't , no , you give that to somebody .

Speaker 2 9:02

It's tough to cook a roast for one dude , you know , so I've got to .

Speaker 1 9:09

Yeah , but that's when you have all the buddies over man . So how do you feel about the state of country music right now ? I love it . It's you , you know I correct me if I'm wrong , because doing what you do and doing what I do , we hear there's a lot of like . I mentioned post and and we now have Morgan who's got every other song pretty much on the radio . It's a Morgan Wallen song , but that whole it's such a huge crossover now it doesn't Does anybody really , at least in my opinion , I don't think they do . I know Misty's listening to this , but everybody like our listeners , they could be top 40 . They're rhythmic and then they'll turn over and listen to you on country .

Speaker 2 9:46

Yeah , I think it's a really cool spot we're in right now and having the success of Morgan and Luke Holmes and Post worldwide globally on the global charts is really cool . I and Luke Holmes and Post worldwide globally on the global charts it's really cool . I think it's turned on a lot of new ears and eyes to the genre and I think we're in a really healthy spot and there's room for everybody .

Speaker 1 10:03

There is and you're proving that .

Speaker 2 10:04

Yeah , there's guys exactly , and we've been blessed to have songs that lean a little bit more traditional country and then some that really push the envelope and we've got young artists doing all of it .

Speaker 1 10:16

So it , uh , we've got young artists doing all of it , so , uh , it's really fun time . Yeah , it's cool . So you talked about the dj sets at the win in vegas . Tell me a little bit more about that being the dj set . How does all that work ?

Speaker 2 10:23

yeah , so I , I just stumbled

From Country to Vegas DJ Residency

Speaker 2 10:25

into it . I had a buddy that , um , it was . He asked me to come play an after party for pbr world finals . Um , we had . I sang the song . We filmed the video for the opening broadcast for for pbr bull , bull riding . So , it was .

Speaker 2 10:38

it was kind of a natural fit to go do that , and I didn't want to just sing karaoke at the wind because it's not like the right vibe for excess , um , but I had five weeks so I put a show together of all of my country hits , but re-imagined . So , um , we went in and produced like uh , kind of just electronic country , you know builds and drops and all that stuff , and I thought it would be one night ever I'd get to play XS and that was it . So I was excited and the next day after we played the phone started ringing . Wow , yeah , I guess word had got out that what we had done really worked . It felt like connected for the win . The next week we were in Miami , then we were in Toronto , then we were back to the win in Vegas and after the second performance they asked if we'd be residents this year . Wow , dude , we're just wrapping up our first residency out there . If you'd have told me I'd have a residency at the Wynn , playing DJ sets at Excelsior .

Speaker 1 11:34

I know that's crazy , it's pretty wild . It is pretty wild . And to have a residency , I mean , how cool is that ? Number one it's great .

Speaker 2 11:42

I've always loved Las Vegas and it's a unique residency with the nightlife because it's not a bunch of days in a row so we're in in there . You know , one day a month , two days a month , so you get to pop in for a night , enjoy what Vegas has to offer and then get out . You know , it's not like you're stuck in the same routine , so it's a really fun time .

Speaker 1 12:01

All right if you're not listening to country . If I was to get into your truck , I assume you drive a truck . Yeah , okay , what do you got silverado , I do yeah okay , I guessed it right there you go me too . Uh , no , actually at the colorado now . But downsize a little bit , but um , what would be on your playlist ? Not country , what else ?

Speaker 2 12:17

would . Yeah , um , I'm , I live in the world right now because I'm doing it . Um , I'm really out there looking around , searching around in the edm world , so there's a lot of different sub-genres of that , so I'm picking around there . It depends on the day of the week , like if I'm coming off the road , I love to just chill out and not think about country hits , so I'm definitely not going to be scanning those . That's usually a Monday , tuesday morning type . That's when you've got to go to work . Well , that's when I start thinking about country music again . Yeah , like , on a Sunday , I'm definitely not going to be ripping . You know , because we were playing Thursday , friday , saturday , so I don't know . I'd probably , if you jumped in with me Sunday afternoon , I'd probably play Rufus DeSalle or something like that .

Speaker 1 13:00

So you didn't take the bus here today .

Speaker 2 13:07

I see your bus out there , but you flew in this morning . Yeah , the buses came up early um earlier in the week and everybody flew up and met them , uh , last night .

Speaker 1 13:10

But you're taking them out of here today yeah we'll head to vermont from here . You sleep on the bus , and what is that ? Life on a tour bus like ?

Speaker 2 13:18

it's a lot of fun . I tried to have

Life on the Road

Speaker 2 13:20

my own bus and I missed the band dudes um , so we downsized , I went back and I just love it's . You know it's a band of brothers out here . So we downsized , I went back and I just love it's . You know it's a band of brothers out here , so we're just watching movies having fun .

Speaker 1 13:30

I love it . Dustin Lynch , you know what . Thanks for taking some time to hang with us today . So good to see you . I cannot wait to see the show . I'll be doing the presents up there tonight and bring you out on stage . I would assume it'll be a what we call in the business the soft opening but either way and I'm excited to be here , I'm excited to see you , excited to say hello , thank you , and I can't wait to hear some of the new music as well . Dustin , thanks for being here .

Speaker 2 13:51

Yes , sir , thank you .