Page 19 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2021

CL: What was it like performing with Gwen Stefani,
Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins at Highway 50 Drive in
Parmalee?

MT: It was cool. It was a pre-recorded thing we did. It was
when they were just getting the pandemic thing going and
we were like, ‘How do we do shows?’ And this opportunity
came up, it was cool! We went to see it. We recorded and
filmed in the neighbor’s barn outback, which was cool (it was
an actual drive-in) and broadcast to 300 different drive-ins
across the country. We played with Blake and Trace. They
used to be on our record label and might still be. We know
all those guys, but I really wanted to meet Gwen, though.
Come on…that would be cool!

CL: So, for any of the single ladies out there’re, are you
guys single or are you married?

MT: I am the last single guy in the band.

CL: ‘Just the Way’ was written in just a couple hours,
used in many videos on TikTok, and collaborated on
with Blanco Brown. What inspired this song?

MT: That was in L.A. a couple years ago…2018, I think,
December. I had a day off and called some of my buddies
out there. I will be honest with you…my buddy came in and
he had this title and this chorus melody laid out and I flipped
out when I heard it! I think it was one of those forced things.
I give him credit for handing me this wonderful idea. When I
heard it, I just lit up! And I think that is what each songwriter
hopes and prays for. It just rolled off and we had several
versions of the song just going back and forth, trying to get
it right. It had been a couple years since we had a radio hit
when we wrote the song. We were playing to all the people
in our camp, we went back to our producer, and he said, ‘He
liked it, just something was not right.’ So, he said, ‘Well, let’s
fix it. #hy don’t we get Blanco on it?’ And I said, ‘Alright.’ I
met Blanco at NAMM show or CMA Fest or something. But
he was talking to the top two dudes at the label and I wanted
to know who he was. I introduced myself to him and we
exchanged numbers. At the time, Blanco did not have any
music and I did not know what he did. Blanco came up to
Nashville to the house and we started hanging out and really
hit it off. We also came from the same musical background.
He started singing, and I was like, ‘Oh, man…okay.’ Blanco
started playing all these cool songs with hand movements
and I liked it; a lot of soul. About almost a year later ‘Git Up’
by Blanco Brown came out of nowhere and it changed
everything. And I was like, ‘Oh, man, look at this!’ Long story
short… we called him up, he said yes. we drove down to
Atlanta…we got him to sing on a song. They sent the song
to the label, and the song made top ten the week of this
interview. From almost not having a record deal or pretty
much nothing happening, to one song. One song can
change a band’s life.