Jordan Davis joins us backstage at Audacy's Stars and Strings to talk about life, hunting, and music!
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MusicTranscript
00:00I don't know. I don't have any money. I got horses. He, but he doesn't do it. Like he
00:12does it. But yeah, he, he, I think we, I think we, I think we're rolling. I think, I think
00:19this is great because we said, I did say something to him one time about like, we were talking
00:24about, I think bucket list vacations or something.
00:26And I'm, and he, he was kind of like, ah, we've kind of, we've done it all. And I'm
00:31like, man, I don't warm out. If he was, I would've just got, you can do that. You can
00:37read. Yeah. Oh no, no. He's good at, he knows, he knows how to take it. I was just excited
00:42to talk about horses with him. Cause I like horses. So it's like the equivalent as we
00:46were to talk about hunting with you. Yeah. Like that's a good hot topic. Like we've talked
00:50to just about everybody. We do actually. That's the only thing we've been talking about it
00:55with a Parker or Raleigh here. I mean, we did, you could probably just sit here and
01:01Dylan and Dylan. Yeah. Cause he's, he loves, he loves a duck hunt as well. Doesn't he love
01:06all the hunting? Yeah. Oh, he liked, he liked deer too. Yeah. He was showing me, we were
01:12doing like switching photos of deers when we, when we landed at the airport. Who's got
01:16the first right off the bat. He's like, dude, check this guy out. He's like, look at this
01:21guy. He does have some big deer. We got that. Where do we, uh, we were talking about where
01:25the best hunts are and we are from Michigan and it's decent hunting, but I feel like the
01:31bigger bucks are down South obviously. Like where, where, so Indiana, where's your favorite,
01:37where's your favorite place to hunt if you're looking for the trophy, the trophy bucks.
01:41Yeah. Are you going to tell us Iowa, Iowa, Missouri. I felt like that should be something
01:45people keep secret. No, I was like, I would just grows. They grow huge deer. That's because
01:53of the corn. Probably so. Wow. Do you love corn? Yeah. They like carrots too. But hey,
01:59Michigan up there, duck hunt in Michigan is special. Have you been? Very underrated. Yeah.
02:03Very underrated. I know. Where have you been in Michigan? They all start in Canada. So
02:06like, Oh, and then they go right there. That annual season opens earlier. So do you have
02:11any, uh, recipes that you could share for? Yeah. Uh, it's called Coca-Cola duck. Wait,
02:17what's Coca-Cola duck? It's basically just like slow cook, like stew duck, but you actually
02:21use like Coca-Cola. So it's like a tomato paste, Coca-Cola, Worcestershire, like salt
02:28and pepper, garlic veggies. And you just cook it in a cast iron pot for like six hours falls
02:34off. It's almost like you would think that it was like pulled pork. Okay. So it's like,
02:39it's like the key to it, to it all. Which brings us to our next question. What's that?
02:46Oh,
02:47no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Donnie, Donnie, the pit master. That's what you heard
02:54me say. Master Donnie, man. I got legit Jordan Davis alter ego. Do they know? Nobody know.
03:05There was one couple, there was one, two girls that like figured it out. They like,
03:11which I don't know how every like, how is everybody not figuring it out? I feel like
03:14you're very distinctive. Yeah. Yeah. And like the, and to like, they had already gone through
03:18the checkpoint. So then Donnie was stopping them again, like checking. And then I like
03:23hit one guy up about his pizza. I was like, what you got there, man? He's like pizza pepperoni.
03:27He's like, yeah. I was like, how do you not like, how do you not look at this absurd looking
03:32dude with a dark beard, jet white hair and crazy hat. Yeah. Where, where, how deep does
03:40the character, um, building go for Donnie, the pit master? Like how deep did you go on
03:45planning with this person who this person is, where they're from? It was, it was, uh,
03:50I didn't go crazy backstory, but like, I definitely had a couple moves that I wanted to, I wanted
03:58to like, well, cause you know, he had like the flashlight thing. So it was like, like
04:02when people were walking up, you got to like give them a hit them with it. Like a feel
04:05good flash. Yeah. Even though the lights were all on, it kind of reminded me of a, you ever
04:09seen walk hard? Yes. It was very much like a Dewey Cox. Yeah. Kind of a Dewey Cox. When
04:15I think it was Jack white played Elvis and he's like, yeah, look out man. That's a, that's
04:20a, that's a karate chop man. I'll chop my head off man. What a great movie. Let's, let's,
04:27let's talk about, I ain't saying, I don't think that we have heard the backstory on
04:31this song yet. We haven't. No, no. We need to ask, where were you? What were you thinking?
04:37And what were you drinking when the song came to be? Okay. Uh, I was in Montana. I was in
04:42big sky. We did a writer's retreat up there. Uh, here's the best, you know, this is my
04:48first single that I'm not a writer on and I didn't realize that I'm a writer on this
04:52one. And so we had six or seven writers come up the first day. Travis wood was in the right,
05:00he was in our, it was me, my producer and Travis, one of the writers on the song. They're
05:04in a room. He plays me that course. He's like, Hey man, I've got this course. It sounds,
05:08it sounds like something you would write. Let me play it for you. Help me finish it.
05:12So he plays the whole course. And I was like, man, I like that. But I'd had this other really
05:17stupid idea that we ended up writing. I was like, man, I got this idea. It'd be really
05:21cool. And both of them were just like, all right, whatever. Fine. So we write this song
05:25that will never get heard. Never going to record it. What was the name of it? Uh, broke
05:30fences. I think it was or something like that. That's a good title. That's it. I mean, yeah.
05:34Broken fences. Actually, no, sorry. That was a different, I can't even remember what the
05:37name of this song was. Okay. But anyway, he leaves and writes, I ain't saying in the cabin
05:44next to us. So we were doing like two rights a day. So morning, right? Afternoon, right?
05:49So another group of writers come in and we start writing and he's in the next room with
05:53Steve Moakler and Mark Coleman writing this right. And I ain't saying, and he's texting
05:58me and he's like, Hey man, we're writing this song anyway. Uh, will you come over and help
06:01us finish this bridge? And I was writing with Barry Dean and Lori McKenna, amazing song.
06:07And I was like, dude, leave me alone. I'm not leaving this right to come finish this
06:10song. And that was a song that, right. So then we get done with the camp. He, we're
06:15all sitting around the fire last night. He's like, Hey, can I play you that? I ain't saying
06:18he plays it. And I was like, dude, that's a smash. He's like, I know I'm trying to tell
06:24you about this thing. You're like, no, I'm writing over here. Right. And what you describe
06:26what you use, the word you use was stupid. So that's so great. I'm sure there's so we
06:32talk about this all the time though. Like when an artist writes a song, sometimes they
06:36think it's not great, but then it ends up being like the biggest song of their career.
06:41Have you had any of those? Yeah, I've had, uh, I was, I think I was the second person
06:46that had, um, um, while we're the, uh, while things where the wild things are, where the
06:53wild things are. Yeah. So my buddy, Dave Turnbull was a writer on that, him and Randy Montana.
06:58And I think this, the day they finished it, he sent it to me. I was working on my first
07:01record and he sent me that song and I was like, dude, I love this. And I put it on hold.
07:06I was trying to go in and record it. And we were all kind of like, I don't know, man,
07:09I don't know if we can sing about a guy dying right now. So it's odd that that song, the
07:15history of it, because it had been around for 10, dude, 10 plus years, I think we heard.
07:19Yeah. Yeah. I think Mary Church was a fan of it. Yeah. It was a long time. And you had
07:23it on hold? Everybody way bigger than me. But yeah, I think I was one of the first persons
07:26to do it. And then you're like, well, we just like, we were tail end of the record, you
07:30know, I just didn't think it fit where we were doing. It wasn't meant to be. It wasn't
07:34meant to be. Because they keep saying like the songs find their people. Yeah. You wait
07:37and now like you, I can't hear anybody but Luke Combs singing that song. Right. But yeah,
07:42that was one. It's just funny how the, how the, how the stars aligned. Jacob wrote, uh,
07:49Kane's Backseat Driver. He's got a new song coming out. Really? My brother's a writer
07:53on that one. So I've been listening to Backseat Driver for three years. That's crazy. And
07:57my brother's been like, dude, why don't you cut this song? And I was like, man, I don't
08:00know, dude, I just did the next thing, you know, like kind of a daughter song. And I
08:04was like, I don't want to do another one right now. And then, and then about three, four
08:10months ago, I went in and recorded some songs. I caught him. I was like, Hey, is Backseat
08:14Driver still open? He said, no, dude, Kane cut it. And now he's going to make it a huge
08:19song and I'm going to have another song that I could have sang. But, but it's like a, it's
08:23almost like a song battle. I know like secret song. I don't want to make it a battle in
08:27my brain for everybody. It's a competition. Yeah. It's not a competition. It's like a
08:31celebration. I would say so. Yeah. Oh, let's talk about a celebration. You got to do college
08:35game day on your, on your old stomping grounds, man. How epic was that for you? It was awesome.
08:42Awesome. Yeah. I wanted to be the guest picker. I get it. Libby Dunn and Paul Skeens were
08:46way more famous than I am, but yeah, just the fact that I was able to sing a song at
08:51it. I got to meet coach Saban, you know, got to meet coach Kelly. The game didn't quite
08:55go the way that I wanted it to go, but yeah, man, it'd be back on campus, be back home.
09:02It was, it was, it was, everything changed. Like when you go around, you're like, I don't
09:05remember that. Or I do remember this. It was actually like a little more. Yeah. Like
09:09I was shocked at how much, uh, but it was so cool. Like we were driving there to go
09:13play and I was like passing like my old like biology building that I used to, it was pretty
09:18sick. Yeah. That's so cool. I'm wondering where you got that, that sweet LSU satin jacket
09:22that you were wearing. Mitchell Ness, man. That place is amazing. I got a couple of their
09:26hats. They all do all the, like the vintage classic type of stuff. That jacket was sick
09:31though. And it was so hot. God, it was hot, but it looked good. Yeah. What did you buy
09:36it? Or was it gifted to you? Oh no, I got it. Yeah. I don't know if I bought it. I probably
09:40bought it, but it's, I still have it. Have you, have you paid for it? I bought it at
09:46some point. I mean, sometimes like Mitchell Ness, I would just send me an invoice. Sometimes
09:51like you go and do that stuff and they're like, Hey, we got you a Jersey or we got you
09:56a Jack. I got it. I got a sick Jersey. I got the jacket. They gave me some awesome golf
10:00shoes. Uh, got to hang my buddy McAfee. He's a freaking wild man. Yeah. Uh, it was fun.
10:06It was a great day. Have you, uh, so we're here at the hard rock in Hollywood, Florida
10:10and you walk around talking about attire. Is there anything or any artists that you
10:17feel or you remember that it's just iconic based on what they wore? Like kind of a lot
10:24of people have like a uniform almost. Yeah. And what would your uniform be? Like if we
10:28were to encase one of your show clothes, probably, I don't know, probably a jean, jean
10:34shirt. I wear a lot of jean shirts. It's okay. Denims and like the Canadian tuxedo. I'm
10:39not wearing jeans today, which is kind of weird. We're all, we are all on the same page.
10:44I got the denim today. We're feeling it. Yeah. What's the, what's the, about you walking
10:47through the walking around here? The what? The Prince outfit. I mean, I mean, yeah, Prince
10:53right. The, my floor is easy top. I mean, that's pretty iconic. Like those beers are
10:58pretty awesome. What did I see? Um, Oh, I saw, this was crazy. I did not know this.
11:03I know you're a Tom Petty fan. I saw there's a, there was a mural of Tom Petty on the wall
11:08and it said that he saw Elvis when he was 11 years old and he said that he realized
11:15and decided that day that he was going to devote his life to rock and roll. 11 year
11:22old Tom Petty. I read that. I'm like, how have we never, it's insane. When did, when
11:26do you, he did a good job. What were you thinking at 11? Yeah. 11. I don't even, what was I
11:32getting ready to go get my braces? I definitely wasn't seeing the greatest rock and roll of
11:38all time and then saying, I'm going to become the greatest rock and roll. Do you remember
11:44when you realize that this is what you're going to do for a living though? Or when the
11:48dream started for you? How old you were? Um, I remember, so my uncle was a songwriter.
11:56I remember seeing him at Thanksgiving, like playing songs that he'd written, being like,
12:00man, that's pretty cool. And like starting to write songs. I remember being at Eric Church
12:05concert in Baton Rouge. He's still playing like little clubs, um, where I was like, man,
12:09that was special. Like, you know, it just felt awesome. Um, and then I remember a Tuesday
12:17night in Baton Rouge, my brother called me, he had already moved to Nashville and he was
12:20like, Hey, I'm going to see a writer's round at the listening room. And I was like having
12:25to go to bed to wake up at 5am to go work for an environmental company. And I was like,
12:29all right, this is, I'm putting my two weeks in tomorrow. And I was moving to Nashville.
12:33So that was kind of when it, when it started. Best decision ever. And it's going to be a
12:38special night here at Stars and Strings. Jordan Davis is here with us. Appreciate you,
12:42man. Thank you.