- 5 weeks ago
Before getting into their emotional, twelfth studio album, 'It’s A Dying Art,' which arrives everywhere on August 28, Little Big Town stepped into the strange and supernatural during a talk with Katie Neal.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00I want the mics on okay you want the mics yeah shows the mics on for the ghost stories okay
00:07you
00:08we could tell you some good ghost stories what kind of good like from touring or like no from
00:12recording in old videos hey we have to tell her about she wants us to really tell her about
00:19um ghost stories so yeah we had one of the best ones you we used to when we were recording
00:26with
00:26um wanker patrick out in franklin and back in the boondocks days yeah that era he bought this old
00:34house and it was on like it's on civil war probably like as a lot of things are here yeah
00:38like true
00:39civil war yeah but we we finally named we're actually telling her the um some ghost stories
00:47for real because i think i have a ghost on my ghost in this room my dog barks at like
00:53the corners of
00:54the room when he's here isn't it weird when your dog like stares at one corner we have a dog
00:57that
00:58does that please stop that um but yeah beulah we named the ghost in the studio yeah because lights
01:03would flicker sometimes people yeah like you'd be in the bathroom and hear people someone walk by the
01:08door and no one would be no one would be there we left the studio one night and the i
01:14was the last
01:14one out and then was that the last one out no i was the first one in you were the
01:20first one in for
01:21sure the faucets were on full blast and it was flooding down into the kitchen through the lights
01:27i'd left the studio last that night and there's a little bathroom upstairs in the office side of
01:32the studio and the i turned the light off faucets off shut the door carrying it said the next morning
01:39first thing and the lights are on in that bathroom faucets full blast well yeah and and it was
01:45flooding everything through the ceiling fan downstairs which is the bigger concern the
01:49most horrifying thing was that so the the kitchen there's philip was he's talking about like the
01:56living quarters the kitchen and then it stops and then the studio starts well gordon kennedy had been
02:03playing guitar the day before so his father played on pretty woman roy orbison that guitar was in the
02:10studio along with all of our records on what would have been two inch tape um analog like and all
02:18the
02:18records and things that wayne had done through the years so all i could think was like oh my gosh
02:23if water got into the studio um and i ran in there and it was like the water stopped right
02:30at the
02:30kitchen door i have and um and then i mean he had to redo like all the living quarters and
02:38stuff but
02:39fast forward on to someone that is like a ghost storian i don't know whatever um said that water
02:49is the way the ghosts communicate tears we were cutting a song called evangeline about an abused
02:59woman who i know it isn't it weird though like all the things that were going on so
03:07anyhow beulah we weren't we didn't ever think she wasn't our friend but um she was there yeah we think
03:15we might have captured her on a picture yeah there are weird pictures that oh my god when people came
03:21in to film things they had done like there was they told they told us about this because they came
03:27back and asked like yeah do y'all have weird things happening well they the done the set design and
03:31then they would take a picture to you know to check their set design and there was a kind of
03:37blurry
03:39figure and the other thing is that when they've slowed down the video and you couldn't you they said
03:48you couldn't see it until you went down to the one frame there was a face and then it was
03:53gone
03:53it gives me chills i know me too i don't we can't we won't have time to talk about it
03:58when you all
03:58leave here i need to come back for ghost stories no you need to when you leave here you need
04:01to
04:01listen to hardy tells this unbelievable ghost story he's really into all that no but like something
04:06real scary happened to him and it i honestly was like i've never really heard a ghost story that i
04:10was like that's terrifying and his is real really i can't wait to talk to him it's pretty creepy he
04:15did
04:15he told the whole thing like on a paranormal podcast but it is like it's worth the like i think
04:20it's
04:20like a 15 minute story but it is a crazy i think i heard that crazy ghost yeah it was
04:25like somebody
04:25like something was in his a-frame yeah cabin oh craziest but if you like ghost stories you will
04:30really like that all right well little big towns here and this is exactly what i thought we would be
04:33talking about today was ghosts can i interrupt if we're switching gears your bathroom i just had to
04:39go to the bathroom and it's adorable and i did something for the first time ever in the bathroom oh
04:45gosh
04:45i signed the guest book oh there is a guest book that's what you did room guest book and you
04:50get
04:51to get as detailed as you want on the page i did i was a lady i didn't get too
04:55detailed um but that
04:57was adorable the bathroom is so cute but then if you flip through there's a page that just says luke
05:03brian pooped here and my rule is that is a number one only bathroom so not surprising not surprising at
05:10all right well thank you so much kimberly for signing that of course of course i did a tour of
05:15the studio
05:15the other day and everyone was like you should show like what is written on each page of the bathroom
05:18book so maybe we will do that i said that you were my first oh well thank you so much
05:24happy we could
05:25be oh my god they're gonna kill me we gotta get this back on the track yeah sorry you guys
05:30have
05:30a new beautiful album coming out later this month it's a dying art and i was so fortunate i got
05:36to
05:36hear an advanced copy of this and it is just you know i'm like i'm biased because i love little
05:41big
05:41town so much and love you guys but i just thought it was such a beautiful record like i just
05:47in
05:47everything of it i feel like you can hear like just the years of you guys being together and the
05:53trust
05:53in this record maybe more so than other did you feel that yeah i mean definitely i think you know
05:59maturity comes um i want to stop getting mature yeah i know right i'm not maturing at least physically
06:08um yeah but yeah i'd love to have my 24 year old thighs back with my current brain yeah um
06:15yeah i think
06:16you can hear like the depth and the richness of of writing and being a band for 26 years and
06:23um gina did such a great job of capturing just the essence of every voice like we feel like you're
06:30immersed in the room on some of the songs and i i love that talk about naming it it's a
06:36dying art
06:37after that song it's a song on the record and i think we weren't sure what the title was going
06:43to be
06:43and then i i'm not sure who came up with it first but i think it was karen but just
06:47to call it that you
06:48know because we were talking about how you know with all that's going on and changing in music and
06:53ai and all that's you know what we really love is being human and making human connection with the
06:58band and the writers and the sounds and you know being human and the song is such a beautiful like
07:05love story of like what we have is a dying art but i also think that like in a way
07:08it speaks to the
07:09love story of this band yeah and that like what you guys have built over these years like i think
07:14about like you guys being together for 26 years like the number of groups and duos or bands that
07:19you have seen come and go or take a hiatus and you guys have always been so solid and like
07:25is there
07:25any one thing you feel like you can attribute that to i mean i know that it's relationships are much
07:30more
07:30complex than one thing perseverance yeah i mean and being committed to
07:37being students of the craft of music and storytelling and songwriting and singing and entertaining and
07:46never wanting never thinking that we knew it all or that we were better than anyone we just knew that
07:51we had our own unique perspective and that it was worthy of sharing so we just kept showing up even
08:00when people didn't invite us i love that what do you hope that people take away from the album or
08:08leave
08:09with after they listen to it maybe we could have it all probably sums up maybe the sentiment of the
08:15whole record that there's hope in the darkest of days you know and um you'll get up again and and
08:26it's
08:26about all the little journeys and the nooks and crannies of life i think the record really ebbs and
08:32flows well with that storytelling the joy and the the ease of something like you know oddly enough
08:39sucker for a sad song it's a feel-good track you know and and the sentiment of jet plane at
08:45the end
08:46of like i'll i'll go anywhere to get to you you know and would y'all say that yeah i
08:53think that was
08:53perfect i love that you said the nooks and crannies of life because it's sometimes like
08:57not the prettiest parts but the things that are like so true and raw and i feel like you guys
09:01always get me on like a love song or a breakup song and there's a couple on here but i
09:05will say
09:05like of all the themes that you covered i do still like keep coming back to hey there sunshine like
09:10we
09:10were talking this morning before you guys got here about the performance that you did at the acms and
09:14i just don't think that like there will ever be a live performance of that song that does not stop
09:18every single person in their tracks because it's so beautiful well we feel we feel that song we've
09:24all individually and collectively been through moments where you you almost don't think you're
09:30going to make it through but the hope in that song and that you know that song kind of encourages
09:36you along to just take that next step because the sun will rise again and and it will lift you
09:41up if
09:42you allow it to if you take that next step so i think it's going to be okay okay that
09:48one is
09:48another one of you guys's catalog that i just feel like i'm like if anybody else sang it it just
09:53it
09:53wouldn't be the same and i think that is so much in the like the delivery that you guys have
09:58like
09:58with the harmonies and like when i think i'm like no one could sing girl crush the way that you
10:01sing
10:01girl crush like everyone can do a cover but like no one can and the same thing with hey there
10:05sunshine
10:06like it just again i could go on and on i love this thank you yes of course um there
10:12are several
10:12collabs on this album you got ashley monroe jason isbell and i want to talk about the song that you
10:18karen wrote with kelsey ballerini that's on here and kelsey's feature talk about closing time
10:23closing time um we were actually writing for patterns at the time i wondered if which which round
10:30of writing kelsey and i were talking about this yesterday that i was thinking it was it just sounds so
10:36bougie but the bahamas run but no no no it was the other one but it was another one um
10:41we were in
10:41like the east tennessee mountains and and she i don't know who i don't know if it was her jj
10:48um had
10:50that idea but you know you cannot tease hillary lindsey with a 6-8 good time of a waltz she's
10:57gonna
10:57sing a melody and um yeah it was like supposed to be just this sexy number about you know being
11:04at the
11:05bar and not caring and letting go a little bit um and then we've we've been friends with kelsey for
11:12so
11:12long and just adore her she's a real true friend and um so we were spending time with her and
11:21just
11:22talking about the record and we asked her if she would sing on it um and she was like yeah
11:27i will
11:28um and so she came down and got in the studio with us and gina and elisa um and just
11:35started
11:36layering she has a very um a very cool like thing about her voice where she can layer it and
11:42stack it
11:43and stack it and layer it and it's just like has this really cool sound that the fans might not
11:47even
11:47know is like a kelsey thing but it is a thing you know um and instead of her just always
11:54singing
11:54with us she kind of pops off and then there's these little stacks of little kelseys maybe kelseys
12:01yeah like if there was a band of a band of kelseys like there's a little town band yeah and
12:05we left
12:06them like that instead of like well we should sing those harmonies with you it's just like this gorgeous
12:10little stack of kelseys over here and and it interweaves in and out and then we sing together and
12:16yeah i'm so proud of it and i think the fans are really gonna love it i think they are
12:21too i was
12:22telling you this karen but i was kelsey and i were shopping in new york and she was like i
12:25just got
12:26a mix of this song we have to go stand and listen to it so we were standing in new
12:29york outside of
12:29like a secondhand clothing store like listening to the phone and i was like oh my god it's so
12:34good i was just like i will always think of that stand in there like one of those i love
12:38that really
12:38fun memories talk about what other songs from the album that aren't out yet that we've not got to
12:43hear as like a graph track are you each maybe most excited for everyone to hear i really want people
12:48to hear coming around it's coming around it's got the just grit and that kind of the the our roots
12:56really kind of like akin to boondocks yeah i loved the thing that you guys did on social we were
13:01like
13:01if you like this you'll like this because i felt that at different points and listening to it
13:05i saw somebody say well if i like pontoon what's gonna happen because we didn't say
13:10i mean i guess crickets has i was just like crickets is like yeah crickets is that like
13:16fun realm of things that you guys do for me like pontoon wine beer whiskey like there's always one on
13:21there that you're like this is fun yeah we gotta have some levity um i think the idea yeah to
13:27that song that song wrecks me right every time that lyric i'm a little worried about how many divorces
13:34might happen after people hear the idea because it is continually rise after but you know what i
13:40mean but it is such a just like beautiful and heartbreaking but such a true song yes i mean
13:47that lyric yeah you don't love me you love the idea of me um yeah and we shot the video
13:55last night
13:56it's gonna be a doozy i think really how many songs so far have videos
14:04i know it's like you gotta shoot content now for every single thing oh my word like yeah we did
14:09sucker we did hey there we did we can have it all we did coming around coming around gosh yeah
14:15um well i can't wait to see all these you guys this is so fun i know it is fun
14:20i also wanted to
14:21talk about because i haven't seen you guys since this came out but you guys got to do a collaboration
14:24with keith urban on his yacht rock album and i just loved what you guys did with magnet and steel
14:29thank you how fun is that when when they said keith urban made a yacht rock album i like laughed
14:34and
14:34they're like we're dead serious it is one of my favorite records of this year i know i love it
14:39i
14:39listen to it all the time the whole record it's so good and i'm we're such huge yacht rock fans
14:44like
14:44and keith urban fans and keith urban fans so that was a no-brainer when he asked us and all
14:49those
14:50harmonies are it's just fun to sing yeah i love that song so much it was great to be reminded
14:56yeah right well it's so funny all those songs i like see the titles i'm like i don't know that
15:00song and then i'm like i know every word to every song on this album and i don't know where
15:04it was living in my brain when he called me um we were in california and he called and he
15:10he was like
15:11i would love it if you guys would do magnet and steel and i was like he goes you know
15:15that one
15:15and i was like uh yeah do i and he goes you do trust me you you know it and
15:22you do i just i don't
15:23know why i wasn't thinking of the title but um yeah very signature iconic harmonies and melody
15:29he really really did you guys are playing tons of shows into the fall talk about like what you're
15:34excited about especially with like having new music out yeah i'm excited about getting on this tour and
15:41playing a hopefully most of these songs i was like you're looking at karen like it's karen like
15:51yeah you know it's always fun to take new music out on the road and um to see people already
15:59singing
15:59your lyrics and things like that it's all but i'm i just love this record so much and want to
16:07put it in this space that we're we're playing in these iconic theaters and i think it could be
16:13really special the package we put together with all of that oh i'm excited to see it i love you
16:18guys in the theater i've told you this before like my favorite concert of all time is you guys at
16:22carnegie hall like it was just a once in a lifetime like i think about that the band coming down
16:28with
16:28the horns in the middle of the aisles playing wine beer whiskey and i'm like that was just an
16:32unbelievable experience so magical and it was like the album release eve you played the nightfall
16:38top to bottom yeah yeah super fan over here but yes that was that was so i'm so glad you're
16:43there
16:43that was a really special night yeah i just think that it was special because it was immersive you
16:52know and so visual and um the sound in there and what an iconic building and just with all of
16:58our
16:58friends and family and so yeah we're just gonna do that 30 times yeah exactly i can't wait and then
17:05you guys are actually doing you know speaking of iconic venues you guys are doing three nights of
17:08christmas shows at the ryman which very much looking forward to that i know it's august and
17:14we're like not in a christmas headspace yet but like that's gonna be so magical yes we love the
17:20ramen we've we've done so many special memorable things at the ramen over our whole career and um i love
17:27that every time we're there we we make something special of it as far as our production goes and stuff
17:34like that so yeah the christmas shows last year were it was so fun to be able to play that
17:40record
17:40and i mean we we couldn't wait to book it again yeah we gotta we gotta keep doing that that's
17:48gonna
17:48be so much speaking of acoustics i mean that place is just unbelievable it's the one place that i tell
17:53everyone all the time i'm like you don't want to sit in the front row of the ryman i'm like
17:56you want
17:56to sit in the front row of the balcony at the ryman like that is where it's like the one
18:01venue where
18:01you're like i don't want to you shouldn't sit front row you know not that you won't you'll have
18:04an amazing experience if you do but yeah there's something about being up in that balcony that i
18:08just know that's so special beautiful in there there is something i want to talk to you guys about
18:12briefly because you were at the wedding this summer what are you talking about i know right well and
18:19i don't i don't you don't say anything you don't want to but i do want to tell you i
18:21talked about
18:21this on the air and i told karen this i loved like this was one of my favorite things about
18:25that you
18:25guys all rode together i was like it was probably going to prom and they all got you like ride
18:30together in a car and i was like because he was watching all these people like arrive by themselves
18:33and you guys all showed up that this is like one big crew and i was like this just makes
18:37my
18:37little country music heart so happy we had a blast we had a blast maren dj'd the whole way yes
18:43um so fun yeah yeah i'm so glad we did it that way too it really was a lot of
18:48fun hanging
18:50yeah we what a fun night there yeah timmy does not want to talk about so many memories
18:59no i completely understand so many good memories you'll have to ask sometime but um i think maren
19:07and miranda traded shoes on accident at the end of the night i can't imagine that they wear the same
19:12size do they they don't they wear much different sizes but i think it's because none of us had shoes
19:18on at the end like dance which is a sign of a great wedding is it which i think i
19:23if i had
19:23been in attendance at i would have been like there's no way i can take my shoes off at this
19:26wedding but but i love to hear that it was a no shoes wedding but i saw miranda's stylist on
19:31the
19:31plane going home the next day and she's like did you have a good time i was like it was
19:36so much fun
19:36and i said did you and she goes yeah but miranda ended up with a size five heel and hers
19:44are size nine and they're gone and i go no no no no i can tell you what happened because
19:50i handed the
19:51heels to maren oh no and but nobody put their shoes on so they didn't so they didn't realize yeah
19:58but
19:59the great shoe mystery it's been solved solved solved would you tell the story behind a couple of
20:06these for me and we'll start with girl crush karen and i were writing with the love junkies
20:13liz rose hillary lindsey and laurie mckenna one day several years ago and um we were just talking
20:20about what we were going to write that day and karen said have y'all played it have y'all
20:25written
20:25anything lately that you love and so liz said well yeah we wrote something but you you you won't want
20:33it but we'll play it for you so she played girl crush for us on a little jam box and
20:40we were like
20:41oh yes we do want that don't you play that for kari underwood or anybody else in this town is
20:47that
20:47a little trick she tries like you're not gonna want to do this she swears she didn't she wasn't doing
20:53that but i think she just thought it was too provocative a lyric like that we wouldn't cut it
20:58you know what's so funny is that my producer danielle has lived in australia the last 20 years
21:02and she has never heard that song and i played it for her this morning and i got to watch
21:06her
21:06experience that song for the first time and she was like oh my god i was like i like i
21:11don't know
21:11you know what i mean it was really i was like i can't wait to watch you listen to this
21:15like
21:16such a great but like it's such a beautiful just like heartbreaking song but and when that song
21:22happens live you know the fans don't know what song is coming next and when that the beginning
21:28of that song starts it is so much fun in a crowd to just watch the crowd instantly it's like
21:34name that
21:34tune in half of a note and they know it uh story behind pontoon pontoon is a funny one because
21:43it
21:44it it was a song that okay miranda had a song called fine tune yes on a record and i
21:52wasn't it
21:53that frank liddell walked by and said did y'all write a song about pontoon isn't that the story
22:01and something like that and they're they're like natalie and luke and barry that's interesting yeah
22:06so then they the writers that wrote fine tune with miranda ended up writing pontoon on their own
22:12stop it i know and the little ditty we totally forgot about it was an email pitch that song and
22:21you know sometimes things just get away from you but for whatever reason one morning i just remembered
22:29that title being in and i was like i have to go back and see you're like what was that
22:35yeah a song
22:37about a pontoon could be thank goodness you did and then when i listened to it i was like
22:42that is really hooky in a crazy kind of way and so we played it again and played it for
22:50everybody and
22:52we're like there's something in there so yeah and then when we got in the studio and
22:57cut the track and then um we're you know looking for something really quirky
23:01and jed hughes was on mando and came up with that little
23:08like that was the first thing that he was like can j i think jay was like can we find
23:12something
23:13something kind of weird and that was the first thing he played and we're like yeah like that
23:17that will do thank you sir thank you jed uh day drinking next oh um we were probably day drinking
23:25we definitely were day drinking yeah with troy verges and barry dean and and then i was super
23:32hoarse could we we had been on the road and i don't know why but i was just so raspy
23:38like you
23:38can't hear it now can you all the time all the time um but i had sang i whistled the
23:45melody
23:45because i couldn't sing it and then then we were like oh that's kind of cool that's kind of cool
23:50maybe we should have a whistle hook yeah and these two are like we'll do it master whistlers
23:57do it for her i mean i've always did a butterfly just land on my shoulder like snow white like
24:06she was like flittering like cinderella speaking to all the animals and now of course she is
24:10we all have butterflies on our shoulders yeah now i have chickens and they love for me to whistle
24:14oh really i started out with the but now i like whistle more to them and they just come
24:23i would like to watch whatever tv channel this is on yeah kimberly and her chickens we have a feed
24:28kimberly whistling to her chickens you should see this is your moment of vision this is like when
24:32there's a baby that is a little fussy and she starts doing that in their ear and they're just like
24:38you know they just melt that is an incredible talent like to do that little thing with babies
24:44kimberly that's so precious but try to do a cricket for crickets
24:53what excuse me kimberly
24:58that is sounds like a frog
24:59but okay see look at jimmy jimmy and kimberly they're they like to play the game whose country
25:07you're gonna try to get better than me no is that a cricket that's a bullfrog
25:15okay the cricket sounds like the reason why this started too is that um fred the drummer yes the
25:21the drummer fred um he did the cricket noise on the record crickets at the year at the end
25:27and that cricket noise is actually him it's his mouth that's hilarious but it's not and he does
25:33it like with the back of his throat i can't even attempt that no i can do it to the
25:38front of the
25:39face right now so intense i'm so enjoying that oh he did it with his teeth right yes
25:45but you have to have a certain way you do your cat purr do your cat purr
25:54oh there you go
25:57it's that oh with a whistle he told me
26:03i don't know what that was maybe a peacock i think we've got to get kimberly on america's got
26:07talent like like stupid human tricks is that what jimmy fallon used to do please tell me the next time
26:11you guys do fallon this is what 26 years of being a band brings you exactly jimmy's got
26:17probably the loudest whistle i've ever heard it don't do it no it's it's a ranch whistle like you
26:23need to call the
26:27that's great kimberly's like i spend a lot of time with chickens i can tell you that is authentic
26:33katie i'm sorry
26:36let's do our own version of old mcdonald let's do our own new version of old mcdonald that's gonna be
26:42our next biggest hit honestly they're doing kids about country right now there we go are they really
26:46yeah i know well i just saw kids bop did uh russell dickerson's uh happened to me happened to me
26:51kids bop just didn't happen to me well kids bop call us we were thinking um we've always thought
26:55because i'm a tomato and i'm really good for you instead of tornado we tried to pitch that on
27:02sesame street i'm surprised that didn't get they didn't they didn't take that they probably wanted
27:07their own ideas yeah copyrights that would have been yeah no that's where you get a little bit
27:12stuck on that stuff oh my god i love that all right last one before we have to wrap up
27:15will you
27:16tell the story behind better man and i think philip you're the one that has to tell that right
27:19i got an email the one tom philip got an email one day and i checked my email and it
27:25was she was
27:26like i just uh this certain person yes her name is tay everybody knows her name tay swifty she was
27:32like you're not talking about the wedding you can talk about the song she was like i hear your
27:36harmonies on this guy you you guys would just slay this but i don't know where you're at you know
27:42i don't think she said slay i don't know i can't remember everything i was i was in shock like
27:46and then i listened to the song and it was incredible and i played it for you guys in the
27:51dressing room i think um and you you all three were like oh my god that's a huge hit and
27:58then
27:58we got to record it and play it worth noting she doesn't do that for really anybody else so that
28:03is
28:04the hardest the hardest thing was like once you hear her sing something yeah yeah it's so hers
28:11that you're trying to like how do you just think how do you how do you make it your own
28:19um and that was a real kicker yeah it took us took us a while but it was fun to
28:24play it for um
28:26in the studio and yeah that's amazing yeah that reminds me of like blessing on it right yeah exactly
28:31that reminds me though of like what everyone says when they used to hear demos with stapleton singing
28:35on it like darius is like no i passed on songs absolutely not yeah yeah like can't do that
28:41can't you want to sing it but then you realize oh i can't have you i have not talked to
28:47him
28:48to confirm this but someone has told me that he sang the demo of it's five o'clock somewhere
28:52oh and i would do just about anything to hear that wouldn't let's see dig it up i know i'm
28:58like
28:58i very rarely get time with chris but if i do that is like on the top of my list
29:02to ask him
29:03because he's not a writer on it so he just sang i used to sing demos yeah like so did
29:09i yeah what
29:09what famous demos are you on that are out there wow we sing it because i don't know people realize
29:15that's one in songs so there could be one of them yeah but i don't think people realize that like
29:19that's a way to make some like quick cash when you like first move to town is like sing demos
29:22for
29:23people i think i actually sang some demos for michael mcdonald did you really there you go
29:27which if his voice his voice is he's got a little laryngitis but normally he does a
29:34perfect michael mcdonald
29:35kimberly's like we're all doing impressions and philip's not getting out of this either
29:38and honestly because i think i sounded too much like michael that
29:42i could have done that bro yeah it wasn't helpful
29:47oh my gosh thank you guys so much for coming in this was such a delight and so much fun
29:51and i really
29:52i love this record it's so beautiful thank you so much for everyone to hear it thank you guys
29:57you
Comments