The Interviews

Chely Wright

Interview by Darren O'Neill

I know we don’t always prequel our interviews with artists, but this is one of those occasions where I think something needs to be said beforehand. I have to admit that going into this interview I was about as big of Chely Wright fan that you could find. For the past few months I had been helping Chuck Walter, her fan club president, do some small things on her website, and we started talking on a pretty regular basis about the website, about music, and pretty much life in general.

Chuck has been a supporter of the Women of Country site for a while, and he was instrumental in setting up this interview with Chely. We need to thank him for that. His love and excitement for Chely and her music was contagious, and he made me want to do even more to spread the word and help the cause if you will. About 3 weeks ago, I was in the midst of a very long week, as a lot of you know I am Martina McBride’s webmaster, and I was going through about a 60 hour week in getting Martina’s new web site ready to launch with her Greatest Hits album. It was at the beginning of that week that Chuck told me that he and Chely were unhappy with the way their current website had come out, and he was going to go and try to get one of their previous webmasters to come back and at least piece the site together for the launch of Chely’s brand new CD (which as luck would have it was launched one short week after Martina’s).

Well, I was going to have none of that happening; I wanted to re-design the site for him, and for Chely. Chuck pointed out to me that I was already a little busy, and I told him, if he gave me until the album’s release date to launch the site, I’d have a full week, and we would pull it off. I don’t think he believed me, but he went along with the plan anyway, and as promised Chely’s new web site was launched, on the day prior to her CD being released (yeah, we had a good 4 hours to spare!). It was a week even busier than the week before, starting from scratch on a brand new site. It was seven days of nothing but Chely from morning to night. Ok, I admit it, I watched the NASCAR race on Sunday, so I did take 4 hours off that week, but that was pretty much it.

But like I said, Chuck’s enthusiasm is contagious, even over the Internet, and it was truly a labor of love to get the site done. There are a lot of artists out there, and Chely is one of them, that I feel deserve to be heard, that for one reason or another have not gotten the recognition that they deserve. I was in disbelief that Chely had never had a top ten album up until this point. Well, I’m sitting here right now with a big old grin today, because Chely has debuted at # 4 on the country charts this week, which is truly a step in the right direction.

So, while I want to thank Chely for putting out some great music, and for taking the time to talk with us, I also want to publicly thank Chuck Walter, for reminding me that sometimes the bottom line doesn’t have a dollar figure on it, and reminding me that one person can make a big difference.

I guess what I’m saying, in my own longwinded way, is I’m probably not the most non-biased person that could have interviewed Chely Wright. I’m proud to consider myself a longtime fan, and a somewhat new member of “Team Chely” (if they’ll have me)! But, even as biased as I am towards Chely I learned a lot from the time that we talked. She’s as down to earth as anyone I have ever met. She surrounds herself with some of the best people around, including her fans. And, she has a cute little puppy named Miss Minnie that hates the FedEx man!

On to the interview:

Your brand new album Never Love You Enough was just released last week. It contains twelve new songs and is an excellent disc!

Oh gosh, thanks, I love it! I’m excited!

It takes such a long time for an album to reach the store shelves, is that the most nerve-wracking time for you, waiting for an album to be released?

Typically that is the most nerve-wracking time, but actually the making of this record was pretty stressful because it was done over a seventeen-month period. So, once I got through it, and finished it, and decided on all the songs and all the different producers and made all the changes that we made I was so ready to turn it in. I was so confident about it, it just really felt that it was a good collection of songs that were recorded the right way. So, I didn’t have the anxiety in that little interim that I usually have. I waited longer, certainly, to release a record. This is only a few months from ending it to getting it in the stores. On my first record I think I had to wait like six months, and that’s pretty difficult.

How many songs did you go through, do you have any idea, to get the twelve tracks on the album?

I’ll bet several thousand.

Wow!

Yeah, between myself and the A&R people and the different producers I worked with.

The first single was also called “Never Love You Enough” it’s a song that’s a mixture of country with a little bit of pop and a little bit of rock, especially the cool little guitar solo in there.

Yeah, kind of Beatles-ish, huh?

Definitely! What was it that attracted you to that song?

The first time I heard it, I think I’m always drawn to the music first, the melody and the chord progression, and then upon the second and third listen I realized that I loved what the song said. It was saying all of these grand things like “I could kiss you in the rain forever,” I could do all of these amazing impossible things and it still wouldn’t be enough to show you how much I love you. That married to that cool melody with so much tension in it, I felt on the edge of my seat every time I heard the demo tape of it. So we just tried to go in and kind of recreate that emotion just with some cooler sounds and some different vocals, layering things, different pads.

Definitely it’s a very unique sounding song. The video broke every record in the book pretty much by going #1 for 50 straight days. What was that like for you?

It was amazing to watch it happen! The MWL show is almost brand new. At the time the video came out it had been on a month, maybe two months. Then our video came out, and I think it entered the countdown on the first day I think like at nine, then went to three, and then it went to number one and it just sat there. You know, it’s fan voted, it’s people who e-mail in and pick their favorite and I have to thank my fan club members and my friends who aren’t fan club members that did it. I think it was the right video at the right time I guess! It was fun to tune into that show and I’d watch it. I’d be on the road and I’d tune in to watch it and I could tell that Lance was wanting something else to be number one because I guess it was getting a little boring for him, but I said I’ll take it! I like that!

It’s a pretty neat deal when they have to pull the video from the voting to get it off the charts!

Yeah, I guess so. I think they should have just said it couldn’t be number one again, I’d still like to see it on there. It was fun to see every day.

You actually had a hand in writing 5 of the songs off of the new CD.

Yeah, I wrote or co-wrote 5 of the songs. For every album I try to write, and just sometimes I don’t feel I’ve written the right songs and I don’t put them on there. This album was spread out over such a long period of time a few of mine found their way on there.

The one song “One Night In Las Vegas” you wrote with Brad Paisley. It’s definitely one of the strongest ballads on the album, and it was one of the two or three songs from your recent concerts that totally floored me.

Oh cool, that’s so fun to do live even though people really haven’t heard it yet. It’s the way, musically, that it’s set up it really fosters listening. For the crowd to listen and hear the words, and we tried to make the record that way as well because we wanted the lyric to be the main point of the record, and for the music to just kind of hold it up. It’s just so cool to look out in the audience to get certain lines like “then your dad got sick, I’ve never seen you so scared, we almost didn’t make it through the year,” it’s neat to see a husband or a wife reach over and grab the others hand. It’s pretty telling, you can look out on the faces of people and tell who’s been through a lot. And even the people in the brand new relationships, you know like young couples, they look like they’re dating or whatever, I think they enjoy it but they’re not sure why. You know, maybe they’re thinking about their parents or something but they give a little hug or a little nudge to their partner, and it’s fun to watch that. That’s what a real relationship in my mind, and in Brad’s mind when we wrote that we were really kind of referring to the good relationships that we knew about and being realistic about it. It’s not all like the soap operas; it’s not all champagne for breakfast and romance every night. But we really tried to refer to the real relationships that we knew and it’s just a matter of you get up, you go to work, you come home tired and somebody in your family dies and the one weekend you have off in the month you have to drive eight hours to a funeral. That’s just the way life deals the hand, and maybe just the one little day in the mountains together, or just once nice meal together can do wonders.

That’s why I love that song, it’s a “love will prevail” song, but it’s from a very down to earth, real place.

Yes, absolutely.

The other song “Wouldn’t It Be Cool” that you wrote with Roxie Dean, it’s a very cool song musically, and the lyrics kind of hit you in a very unique way where you kind of sneak in the fact that there is a broken relationship in there.

I know, isn’t it cool! (laughs) But it never says anything bad about the guy. It is not even really talking to him, but if he happens to hear the song, and hear me say “wouldn’t it be cool if I could catch you at a restaurant with her” you know “wouldn’t it be cool if I was strong enough to muster up the nerve,” she doesn’t really actually do it. She doesn’t walk up to them at a restaurant and go “you’re with a no good man.” She doesn’t do it, but she does go “wouldn’t it be cool if I COULD do that.”

Just thinking about it.

Yeah, just thinking about it. And, “wouldn’t it be cool if I could do long division in my head” you know, just all these things going through her head, thinking “that’d be sweet!” We had so much fun writing that, we just laughed our butts off the whole day.

It is really a fun song, and the melody gets stuck in your head for a long time. There’s a song on the record that you have a solo writing credit on called “Deep Down Low” which I think is one of the strongest songs on the CD. It makes a really cool point about how being down is important because it makes a normal day seem that much better.

That’s exactly it.

Was there a particular place that song came from, or was it a combination of things?

You know, I’d been thinking about that, and I do always try to live my life that way. I’m a Scorpio, and who knows if there is any validity to it, but I’m very emotional. I have high highs and low lows. Typically, I’m always up and happy, but when I do get a little funky I don’t try to go cheer myself up. I don’t call a friend and say “come over and take me somewhere and cheer me up.” I really kind of revel in it. I like to put on sad music, and I like to go over to my piano and play the saddest song I can think of or try to write a really sad song. Because it’s sometimes so cathartic to just cry. I’ve really always kind of welcomed that. That way when you come back up, like it says in the song “touch the bottom of the pool, ain’t it strange and don’t you wonder, how when you come back up it always feels so cool.” It is such a refreshing feeling even if you wake up one day, and it’s just an average day. Maybe it’s raining, and you do have to work, that can still be an amazing experience and an amazing gift. Especially in light of everything that has happened since September 11th on, I’ve had a lot of people who’ve had the advance album or whatever call me and say wow, that was kind of foresight to put that record on there, and of course that was not what I was thinking, but it’s a song that hopefully if you get it like I meant for you to get it that you really look at every day as a gift.

So the reason I did go ahead and write the song was because I was talking to one of my girlfriends on the phone a few years ago in fact, and she said “what’s wrong with you” and I said “oh nothing, I’m just kind of funky and as soon as we hang up I’m going to put on some sad Keith Whitley and cry” and she said “oh, I do that too.” And, I couldn’t believe anybody else did that. So, I said “no way?!” and she said “oh yeah, I just like to get way down in it.” And, so as soon as I hung up the phone I stayed up all night and wrote that song.

One of the other songs, you mentioned September 11th, that really fit in with that was the song “What If We Fly”…

Oh, yeah.

It’s definitely a song about a relationship, but I noticed when looking at the lyrics they could be interpreted in different ways. And, Chuck, your fan club president told me that you were recently doing a concert in the Washington DC area when that same thing hit you on stage.

Yeah, we’ve been doing it, as you know, in the show for a while. I love that song, I love what it says from a relationship standpoint. I could enter into every relationship and go “well, my other relationships have failed so why even bother?” But, it’s like “yeah, chances are this won’t work out, but what if it does?” And, I liked the faith in that song. Also, musically, it feels very churchy to me. When we did that show in DC ten days after the attacks, the band started the intro and I actually looked down at a couple of the fans that were on the front row and said I hope I make it though this because it really hit me right then what the song meant to me at THAT moment. It was like, we are at the most difficult time that we’ve ever seen in our nations history. Things are bad, there are still bodies laying at the bottom of the World Trade Center 7 floors below, that is very bad, but there are still some positives coming out of it. That’s what the song meant to me right then. And, to be in Washington DC, or outside of town doing that show on that day… Later that night we drove right by the Pentagon and saw where the jetliner had flown right into it. Just being there that day really drove it home that it wasn’t a bombing in Libya, it wasn’t a bombing in Egypt, it was at our nation’s capital. The nation that is the most important in the world as far as civil liberties is concerned. It just made me feel so happy just doing my little job of singing my little country songs. It made me feel very appreciative.

I think the thing a lot of people don’t realize is how much music can really have a healing effect, so it’s kind of cool to be a part of that too.

Absolutely.

My favorite track on the CD has got to be “Jezebel” it has such a great attitude to the song, I’d lay money down that it is going to be a big number one hit.

You would?

Yes!

Good! I’m counting on you Darren, I’m going to hold you to it!

I read that you asked the writers, one of whom used to be your piano player and bandleader, for something different. What was your reaction when you first heard that song?

Well, when he brought it to me, it was the day after they wrote it. They said “what can we write for you” and I said “something weird and freaky that nobody else would record.” So, he came to my house the next day because he and I were going to write and I said “what did you write for me” and he was like “aww, nothing, it’s weird.” I said, “let me hear it”, he said, “no it’s just a bad little work tape of it, I don’t know.” So I talked him into playing it, and he got the guitar and played along with it and was singing. I said, “I love it!” It was so raw at the time I had a chance to kind of put my two cents in and asked if they could move this around here and put this here and change this here. They were great; they completely obliged me in all of that. I wanted to feel so great about it before I took it into the label because I knew at that point in the record it had to be something great. So, I took it to them and they all loved it, and Paul Worley and I made what I believe to be a very cool record on it.

It is, it’s very unique, but it’s another one of those songs with a very universal appeal to it. Everybody has been on one side of that situation at one time or another.

Right, and then the music just makes you want to stomp your feet or slap your grandma, I don’t know! It makes you want to do SOMETHING.

It definitely has a little more of a classic country vibe to it too.

Yeah, and that’s what I loved about it too. Not only did I love the grassiness of the music, but I loved the fact that it really did feel like a throwback to a Loretta Lynn song in it’s lyrical content. It’s, you know, “Fist City” or “You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man” part three.

Right! A lot of people don’t realize you actually had a songwriting deal before you had a record deal when you came to Nashville. How do you normally write songs, do you have a set routine as far as whether you write a lyric or a melody first? Or, do you have a favorite instrument to write on?

Well, I go back and forth between writing on my piano or my guitar typically. And, some days if I have a writing appointment, which really isn’t as sterile as it sounds. People sometimes say “what a weird way to be creative” it’s really not, sometimes you do have to lock yourself away in an office with a co-writer and turn the phones off, and turn the palm pilot off and sit and talk for a while and something usually will happen. I enjoy co-writes, but only with a few people though, unless I really dig the person I don’t want to spend time in a room with them, it’s not that comfortable for me. But, people like Gary Burr, Roxie Dean, or Brad, they’re my fun writers. But, I have to say the most fun, gratifying way to write is, it happens for me a lot of times in the mornings here at my house, I may get up at 7:30 and have my coffee, and take Minnie out, then she takes a nap and I go over to the piano or grab my guitar and if something comes out… The morning is so fresh, and you’re getting the gift of music and it just puts me in such a great mood all day long when I’m writing a song.

That’s cool. I think you’re a little more of a traditionalist at heart than most artists around right now, how does that effect the music you put out, and what is your take on the argument that country is too pop right now?

Well, that’s a good question, and I think I’m very much a traditionalist but I think it’s really important to know about tradition so that you can grow and continue to evolve the music that you are deciding to make. My records are a bit more contemporary than they used to be, but if one will remember when I made my very first album Woman in the Moon I was like 22 years old, so my main exposure of music had been what I had grown up on in Kansas. You have to remember I’ve had another eight years of not just country music exposure, but exposure to all different kinds of music. Nashville is not just country music city, it’s music city. In traveling all over the world and experiencing different cultures and different experiences as not just an artist, but as a person, I’ve kind of grown a little bit in what I want to sing about, more mature topics. But, I’ve also learned a lot about my voice, and about things I can do, and like to do with it. Different instrumentation and things like that. So maybe that’s why my sound has become a little more pop. But, this argument that country is not country anymore is not a new argument. I always refer back to the sixties, and late fifties when Buck and Merle were coming out. Believe me, people were pounding their fists in anger that that wasn’t country music because it wasn’t as country as Ferlin Husky, Farron Young and Webb Pierce. So, the evolution of country music is the law of entropy, everything changes, it’s just going to keep going. And also with technological advances things are going to sound slicker. And then occasionally, you’re going to have a sound that becomes popular that’s maybe a throwback like the Mavericks, or Randy Travis, or the Dixie Chicks, they started using instruments again that no one was using, but their production, their records still pop, and really still sounded competitive in the pop market as well.

Exactly, every once and a while the music reinvents itself. What artists were your biggest influences growing up?

I’d definitely say people like Buck and Loretta. I really loved Conway Twitty, Emmylou. Gosh!

There are a lot of them!

Yeah, I had a lot of influences, you know? Hank Williams Sr., I never really say him but those are the songs that my mom and dad would sit around more than anybody. My mom really taught me how to love songwriters, I think I had an unbalanced knowledge as an eight year old of Harlan Howard and Bobby Braddock and Whitey Schafer. She really thought Hank was a poet, as many people did, so those were a lot of the songs that I heard.

That’s cool. What are the last 3 to 5 CD’s that you’ve purchased, or that have gone through your CD player?

Oh gosh, right now I have in Patty Loveless’ Mountain Soul, Brad’s Part II and, it’s a three CD changer, and I have my new album in there. Is that narcissistic? (laughs)

Well, you have to listen to yourself, as long as you aren’t critiquing it as you’re listening!

No, just listening for fun! You have to get away from it sometimes and go back to it and listen. Before I put that in yesterday, while I was working out, I had in Allison Krauss’ new album.

I definitely have to ask you about Team Chely.

They’re amazing. Do they not amaze you, honestly?

Yes, they do!

Did you see how much money they raised (for the Red Cross Disaster Relief)?

Yes, in a week or so about eleven thousand dollars.

Yeah!

I know they’ve also raised a lot of money for your charity, Reading, Writing and Rhythm. Do you have a clue on where this “Team Chely” actually came from?

I forgot exactly when that started, it had to be about two years or so ago that they dubbed themselves that. But, I know that I played at Vince’s charity basketball game he does every year, and they all showed up with jerseys on, and on the back it said “Team Chely” and I just thought “Oh! Cute they had shirts for the basketball game!” I didn’t realize that that was this new thing they were going to call themselves. I thought it was super cute, and I came home and told Chuck and he said “oh yeah, they’ve been Team Chely for a while!” I am so proud that they represent me in some way. Because, I don’t know if you’ve gotten to talk to some of these people, but I’ve said this many a time, if I weren’t a celebrity and they were just normal people that I would see, I would probably be friends with most of them. There are a core group of about fifty people that are so active, and I don’t even have to say “let’s go raise money for the Red Cross,” I just got the e-mail that said “hey, guess what, this is what we’re doing” and I’m like OK! They are really neat people. They are very compassionate. It’s a rare day if you ever go on my web site and see anyone with Team Chely saying anything negative about another artist. That’s what I’m most proud of. You know if you visit other people’s web sites the fans are so loyal in their approach that they want their artist to do so well, which I think is a beautiful thing, but sometimes they cross the line and start saying bad things about other people. I’ve never been about that, and I’m so glad that the people on my team aren’t that way either.

Right, it’s not a competition.

No, it’s like how can you compare artists anyway? It’s like comparing an impressionist painting with a classical painting. You can’t. If anyone were to ever try to compare Martina McBride and Reba McEntire, I don’t know how you could line them up to compare them, they are so vastly different.

Everyone tries at one time or another, but everyone does their own thing, and that’s what you have to look at.

Right, I have so much respect for other artists that do this. I’m often asked, people say “who’s not very nice” or “who’s not very good.” I figure, honestly, if anyone gets to this level to where they’re making a record, whether they’ve worked as hard as I have or harder than I have it doesn’t matter. If you’re doing this job, you’re working your butt off. This is a hard job, and if you get to make a record it’s because you love music probably, and it’s because you’re probably a pretty decent singer and writer and artist. I know the dedication that comes with this, so I just have an inherent respect for anyone who does this.

You have a great band out on the road with you.

I do, don’t I? And, they’re cute too, right?

If you say so!

Come on, what did your wife think?

I don’t know, I didn’t ask! (laughs)

Ok…

How did that crew get put together, is that something you just hold auditions for?

You know, it’s been a slow, over the years process. Preston has been with me since my first record, he’s my drummer. And, several of the guys have been with me upwards of a few years. Who is our newest guy? Our newest guy would be Victor, and he’s been with us over a year. I like to find people and keep them if they want to stay. They’ve all certainly been offered gigs that are with other artists more successful than me, and I appreciate the fact that they believe in me and that they stay. And, I also think that it’s a real comfortable environment for them to work. There is no guessing game with me, I don’t change the rules mid-tour, I don’t ask them to follow rules that I don’t follow. We’re actually a pretty low key bunch of people. It’s not a party bus, we have a non-drinking, non-smoking bus. We’ve got people who get up at 6 in the morning, and we watch the news and play cards, and we talk. We have a lot of really good talks on that bus. For the most part, we’re all believers in God and that makes it a very comfortable way to live. There is just kind of a bottom line there. It’s certainly not a prerequisite to be a spiritual person on our bus, I’ve just found that those are the people who come to this gig and those are the people who stay. It makes me proud. We don’t have to change our behavior at any time, like when a wife comes out to ride the bus, or a girlfriend. When a radio person comes on, we don’t have to clean up our mouths and clean up the beer bottles! It’s just what it is, and it’s a real respectful group, and it’s a true pleasure to tour with those guys!

I am sure that would make things a heck of a lot easier in the long run.

Oh yeah, I’ve been out there long enough. My bus in the early days, I said ok if you guys want to drink you can drink, and nobody every got crazy and got drunk or anything. But, you know if you have a couple of beers after the show, and you’re listening to the show tape up in the front you turn it up a little louder, and a little louder. Then you talk a little louder, meanwhile I’m back in my bunk or Rusty Pence is back in his bunk trying to sleep. It just makes for a real, clean, conducive good smelling bus, conducive to sleep, we like that!

How do you keep it fun going basically doing the same thing night after night?

You know, I’m a creature of habit. I grew up in a home that was very military like. I come from a military family, and I like structure. So, having the same day over and over for me, I take comfort in that. I get up at whatever time, 7:30 or so, I have breakfast, I come back and do my phone calls, I do soundcheck if I can, I come back, start getting ready, go do the show, do the meet and greets, and the VIP stuff afterwards. That’s kind of my day, and I enjoy that structure. And, certainly there are days when it’s crazy and I’ve got to go and hop a plane and fly to Boston for the day, and fly back and meet the band or whatever. Those are the things that keep it exciting. The little wild card days as I call them. The a-typical day. And I really enjoy that. And again, it’s all about the people you travel with. There are times when the band and I get into the hotel at maybe 2 in the morning, and we know we’ve got a 4 AM lobby call to take two flights to get to the west coast, only to hop in a runner van to go plug our instruments in and do a show. You get tired that way, and some people can get cranky, but this is such a good group, we all know we’re tired, we all know some people can handle fatigue better than others and we’re respectful of that. I don’t know, when you feel like you’re in it together I guess it makes it feel like you’re kind of doing battle together. It’s kind of fun.

One last thing, I have to mention your fanclub. Chuck Walter, your fan club president does such a great job.

I know, isn’t he amazing?

I am always amazed about what he can pull off in the time allotted.

I have to tell you, I don’t know what kinds of relationships that other people have with their fan club presidents, but he is one of my very best friends. I probably talk to him like ten times a day. It’s so weird to me that I have a best friend in New York. You know, usually you want your best friend to be someone that you live by, that way you can hop over and see them. We talk about so many things, we don’t just talk about the website and the fan club. Although, we do obsess about that, and have so much fun with that. But, he is just a really, I really believe he was angel sent to me by God. I really believe that. We’ve laughed over the years and talked about how weird it was that we met, and how much we’ve come to depend on each other as friends. I certainly depend on him for a lot of things regarding my career, and the charity thing that we do. On that day, on September 11th, when I couldn’t get a hold of him, I was in the Calgary airport. I was boarding an American Airlines jet when the word came down about the attacks, and I grabbed my cell phone and kept trying to call his office. I couldn’t get him, and I had tears in my eyes just freaking out thinking I don’t know what I’ll do if something has happened to Chuck. And, once I was able to find him, it was a huge weight lifted off of me. He is one of the most amazing people that I know, and just to have my life blessed with his friendship… He’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had.

And, that definitely does come through on the quality of the fan club, and I think that trickles down to the fans. But, the first thing that happened to me that morning of September 11th, I was off so I woke up a little later than normal, and once I saw what was going on, I ran over to the computer and he was on-line at the point so I knew right away that he was ok.

I’ll bet I got a hundred e-mails and phone calls from people asking “is Chuck OK?” Everyone knows I have a connection with Wall Street, because Chuck is there and I have friends that work with him, Ann Marie, and all them that work there that I talk to on a daily basis. I talk to all of those folks, and I’ve continued to talk to them and they’re changed. When they pick up the phone, you can hear it. You can tell that Chuck is a very loved and respected person, not just by my fan club, and my web site people, but my record label. The head of my record label Bruce Hinton, I guess it was a couple of days ago, he heard someone at the office talking to Chuck and he said “tell Chuck we’re really glad he’s ok” and “tell Chuck we were worried about him on the 11th.” I don’t know of anyone else’s fan club president that is so well known, and respected, and connected as he is!

And, another thing about Chuck, like we were talking about the fan club, never being negative, we’re NEVER that way. If there’s a record that is beating mine up the chart, we always say “hey, that’s good for them, that’s great!” Because, I had a record once that did better than other people, and I got some great phone calls from those people saying “hey, congratulations, that’s great for you!” and I just like the way that feels. I like to, again, anyone that’s doing this job deserves to have some success, because it is a hard job. So, when I see somebody doing something well, it’s great. Chuck will say I want to send some flowers to this artist from you and me, is that ok. And, I’m always like yeah, let’s do it! So, he’s a positive guy and he sets a good tone for our fans to see as well.

Well Chely, thanks for your time, and for giving us an interview!

Thanks Darren!