Jim Collins | Kenny Chesney & The Good Stuff! | Interview SEGMENT | The Boston Chris Podcast

You mentioned something else too that I'd love to chat about is the fact that like Gretchen had, I think nine of the 12 songs on that record were co-written or written solely by her. There were three songs on the record that were not at all, and I just mentioned those three, including yours. Talk about, I mean, is that something you think about when a known songwriter artist is cutting your songs instead of one of their own? It has to be very flattering, right? Oh, it is. Kenny Chesney. I mean, I've written with Kenny and he is a really good songwriter. Incredible. Yeah. But the smart thing about Kenny is if I have a better song than his, he'll cut mine. You know, he wants the best song for the fans. You know, he wants his fans to get the best songs. And so if I happen to write one that's better than his or one that fits the album better than his, he'll cut mine. And so, you know, I've been really lucky with Kenny, you know. But these days, it's kind of, it's one of the reasons I don't chase it like I used to. It's gotten to where all the artists have to do what they call 360 deals now, where the record label gets a piece of everything, including publishing. And so nowadays they encourage, whether they have the ability or not, they want them to be a writer on the song, you know. And that's something that's changed lately, right? Where an artist is forced to be a co-writer with a veteran songwriter on the song. Yeah. Yeah. And so I wound up, I'm basically kind of a hard gun in the room, just kind of, you know, and I'm not complaining about it. I mean, I'm happy to do it. It's fun. It's a challenge. But I would rather have a seasoned songwriter in the room with me writing a great song as opposed to being in a room with an artist that doesn't write songs all the time and, you know, just kind of have to see if it works or not, you know. But I have a better chance with David Lee Murphy or Matresa, you know, writing a great song as opposed to, you know, some artists that they just signed, you know. But that's just the way the business is these days, you know. It's gotten where you almost have to, in order to get a song on a record, you almost have to write it with the artist these days, you know. Now, there are, you know, Damn Straight, I just had a number one on Scotty McCreary a year or so ago, two years ago. And he did not write that one. That was me and Trent Thomason. And, you know, it made it onto the record. And it was the only outside song on the whole record. The only one. Yeah, that means a lot, I imagine, man. And let's talk about the good stuff, because you just mentioned Kenny Chesney. This was a seven or eight week number one for you, which I feel like is like the holy grail of songwriting, right? When you have a multi-week number one. Yeah, it tied the record for most weeks at number one at the time. Since then, Live Like You Were Dying, I think, wound up beating it. But for that period... Speaking of Craig Wiseman, right? Yeah, speaking of Craig, yeah. But yeah, the good stuff was, it was Song of the Year 2001 or 2002, maybe. Song of the Year. It was just a huge, huge song. I feel like this was a huge transition for Kenny Chesney as an artist, too. Because prior to that, he was really doing a lot of the partying kind of, you know, type of song. To be honest with you, he would tell you, he didn't want to record the good stuff. Yeah. He really didn't. It didn't fit his vibe at the time. And then it just kind of shifted for him. I wrote the good stuff kind of out of... I was in a weird spot, too. I had just had a couple, you know, she thinks my tracks are sexy, you know, a couple of things out that were kind of ditties. You know, She Said Yes by Chad Brock, which I wrote with Chad. And it was one of those things where he had certain lines he wanted to keep and that I really would have loved to change, but he wanted them. And so he's the artist. But it wound up being, it was a number one song. But I had had a couple of ditties in a row, and I felt like I was in danger of getting labeled as a ditty writer, you know, just a, you know, just shallow kind of thing. And so I wanted to prove to people that I knew how to write a real song. And so we wrote The Good Stuff. And based on a true story, there was a security guy at the building where Craig and I wrote songs named Rusty Martin. And I showed up to write, I had called Craig the night before we wrote The Good Stuff. And I told him, I said, I've got this song idea called The Good Stuff. And originally, the idea was kind of was thinking about my wife and I, when we first got married, we didn't have any money, we, you know, but, you know, we ate pizza on the floor because we didn't have any furniture and all this kind of stuff. But I looked back on it. And that was The Good Stuff, you know, because, you know, I mean, we had each other, that's all we needed, you know, and that was The Good Stuff looking back. And so I told Craig that idea. And so the next day, I show up and Rusty Martin, the security guy in the building was there. And everybody knew Rusty, he was just a sweet guy. And, and he had shaved his head, you know, like, you know, and I'm kind of I think I call him Mr. Clean or something like that. Hey, Rusty, I like your new haircut, you know, we start bullshitting. And then I find out that his wife had just had cancer. And he had shaved his head because she lost her hair. And he was, you know, in support of her. And, but he, we talked for the longest time. And he was telling all these really awesome stories about them and her and, and their family. And, and he said, you know what, Jim, he said, she taught me as much about dying as she did live. You know, because she died with such grace. And, and, and then all of a sudden, when Craig showed up, we went upstairs, I told Craig about that conversation. And all of a sudden, the good stuff had a whole different meaning. Yeah. And so we wrote the song kind of based on what, you know, Rusty's story. And, and so I remember when we did, we recorded it on, we wrote it on a Friday. And I had a recording session. I used to, this is how I eat up with songwriting. I was, I did my demos on the weekends. So I wouldn't miss any writing days. So we started writing about 1030 in the morning when the good stuff, we didn't take a lunch break, nothing. And we wrote till I think it was about eight o'clock that night, we had to get security to let us out of the building, we got locked in. Because, but we didn't take a lunch break or anything. I remember walking out of there, shaking. Yeah. Oh, man, low blood sugar. And so we recorded it on Saturday. And pitched it to Kenny on Monday. And they cut it on Tuesday. Wow. But he did not he did not want to cut it. And so he said, same thing you said, you know, all my fans, they like the up rocking stuff. Yeah, they want to party they want to get down. And Joe galani, the head of RCA at the time to his credit, he said, Kenny, sounds like you've already got those fans. How about we go get some other Yeah, see, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. And if you notice his his catalog shifted that way afterwards. There was a lot like he had some Bill Anderson cuts and Oh, yeah. Oh, great. Yeah. And you know, like, just some incredibly vulnerable songs came from after the good stuff. Yeah, there goes my life. Yeah, I've done a lot of things different. Bill Anderson. Yeah. Yeah. So I wonder if the good stuff kind of helped that for him like shifting that, that that well, I think so and kind of made him you know, he became more of a more well rounded artists. I think so. And it might have helped his writing to perhaps who knows, right? Well, I mean, one thing about Kenny, he picks great song. Yes. I mean, yeah, he picks great song. I mean, there's a there's an art and a talent to that. Absolutely. There is. Yeah. I mean, George Strait has made a life out of it, right? Like, now mind you, George has some of the best songwriters on the planet at his disposal, right? But