We're in this spectacular home with things I've never seen before.
>> [LAUGH] >> So what was
the inspiration behind this home?
>> Well, I call this the house that music built.
And so for me,
all the people in Nashville throughout the years that have given me chances.
Whether it would have been a record deal, or a publishing deal, or some big
songwriter would take an appointment with me, or something like that.
I thought, you know what, if I could build a house anywhere,
I'd want to build it right in the middle of Nashville.
So everyday when I look out and see Nashville, it's inspiring to me.
And I know who's out there, and
I know that that town really built what we're sitting in right now.
There's a lot of people that write a lot of great music and
that are great singers that don't ever really achieve big success.
Because for whatever reason, it didn't work out for them, and for
me it worked out.
So I like to be able to look right back at the place that built it.
>> And I know how meaningful that is for you because you didn't come from this.
>> Right, yeah, I mean I grew up in the panhandle of Texas.
Amarillo, Texas is where I grew up, and you know it's tornado alley.
It's flat, it's dusty, it's cow town.
There's some great people that live out there,
that's some of the most hardworking Americans you're gonna find.
But my Dad's a preacher and that was his passion in life.
And he wasn't gonna get rich being a preacher.
So I watched my dad do everything from sell cars to give guitar lessons.
He was a night watchmen at Amarillo National Bank.
He did more jobs, I mean, he was working 100 hours a week.
And so we didn't go without anything, but there wasn't a lot of excess either.
But one thing my dad always taught us, he said, listen,
nobody can limit how hard you can work.
That is within your control, how hard you work.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And the old phrase about the harder you work, the luckier you get,
you hear about that.
And I just think that I've been surrounded by a lot of people that have given me
chances and that also worked really hard when I worked really hard.
And man, just fortunate and blessed to be sitting in a place like this.
>> And very different looking, I mean, you told me you grew up in a double trailer.
>> Double wide.
>> A double wide trailer, so explain that.
>> Double wide, so a regular trailer's single wide, and ours was double wide.
So four kids, and my mom and dad.
Just because you don't have a lot doesn't mean you still shouldn't take care of it.
You can have an older car, but keep it shiny.
That's kinda the way I grew up.
And so now you're sitting in this big crazy thing, Mt Richmore here.
And we let other people use it all the time.
I mean, I've had friends of mine get married here.
We do lots and lots of charity events, St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital is a huge one.
We do two to three events a year just for them in this room.
And to me, that backs up the old bible verse of, to whom much is given,
much is required.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And so, I try to keep up with those requirements.
I, hopefully, can overdo those requirements, as I think everybody should.
>> Your parents must be so proud of you.
>> I think they're kinda still in shock about the whole thing because I started
out in a band called Lone Star, right out of high school, 18 years old.
And I didn't go to college, that didn't go over real well at the time.
>> [LAUGH] >> But I knew what I wanted to do and
I just had this feeling that that's what I'm supposed to do.
I'm supposed to do what I'm still doing right now.
And thank goodness family, and friends, and people around me said,
come on John, you can do it.
Man, I remember the first time I played the Grand Ole Opry, I was 19,
20 years old.
Man, I walked out and my dad was there, my grandparents were there.
You could just see the look on their face like, what is going on man?
>> [LAUGH] >> Just can't believe it, and
even to this day, with all the things that have happened,
I'm still continually blown away by things that happen.
>> You talk a lot about your dad, and
he's really the impetus to how the guitar started.
>> Right. >> You were five years old right?
>> Yeah, yeah my dad, he was in a small church.
So he really didn't have budgets to pay a song leader and a this, and a that, or
musicians, or anything.
So my dad's a great singer, he was actually a vocal major in college.
Got this big, booming, baritone verging on tenor kind of voice, and played guitar.
And so I would watch him stand behind the pulpit at the church and
pull out his guitar and
sing I'll Fly Away, or Amazing Grace, or The Old Rugged Cross, or whatever.
And I would watch all these people sing along to my dad, and
watch that interaction happen.
And it was just such a powerful thing to see that.
So at five years old he gave me my first little guitar and
let me sit behind the pulpit on this little, kind of like a little bench.
And I'd sit there and play along with all his songs.
And I would tag along with him when he would give guitar lessons.
And when I was seven years old he gave me his guitar.
Because the little guitar I had was a kid guitar and he had an actual,
really good guitar.
Seven years old my Christmas present was his guitar to me.
>> Was that the best gift you have ever
been- >> Still is.
>> Yeah. >> It's downstairs in an important place.
But that's the kind of thing I think that a parent can do for their kid is,
he couldn't afford to go buy some big fancy guitar when I was seven years old,
but he had a nice guitar.
And he was willing to give his guitar to his seven year old son.
>> Right. >> Because he saw something in me that he
wanted to support that.
What a gesture, I just don't know how you beat that.
>> I'd also read that you used the guitar when you were having a tough
time as a kid.
>> Yeah, so the guitar, for me was a way I could get away from
anything crazy going on, kinda lock the bedroom door.
And just what I would do is back then, you have a jam box, and
with a casette deck in it.
>> [LAUGH] >> And I would listen to the top 40
countdown and hit record, this I guess the first pirating of music.
You're a little kid and you're recording the top 40, and then for the next week I
would play those songs, I would try to learn every single song on the top 40.
I loved playing the guitar so much that the worst punishment you could give me was
to lock my guitar in the closet.
[LAUGH] >> That was the worst,
I'd much rather have a spanking, or anything else, but
don't take away my guitar.
>> Don't take away.
>> It's just always been that way with me and music.
>> You mentioned Kenny lives right down the road.
>> Yeah, Kenny lives right over the hill.
>> [LAUGH] >> As we say in Tennessee.
>> Is there a guitar pool there?
>> No, but Kenny has a full blown recording studio in his house.
So being a duo, it's funny how that always works out, that I have something
he doesn't have, and he has something I don't have, and they work together.
So we record all of our records at Kenny's house.
And then we come over to this house and we play them live on the stage.
Is that not great?
>> You have it figured out.
>> That's right, we didn't try to figure it out, it just worked out like that.
So, yeah, Kenny and I are constantly writing and touring.
2017's been the biggest year of touring for us in over a decade.
Like Big and Rich has got a, it's like an uptick,
it's crazy what's going on right now.
>> How grateful are you for all of this?
>> Honestly, I mean, when I've been gone a few days working and I come home,
I pull up and I go, what in the?
>> [LAUGH] >> What have I done?
>> [LAUGH] But it's almost mind blowing, honestly.
It's beyond anything I ever thought was possible.
And I don't guess I ever set out to do something mind blowing,
I just want to set out and do things important.
And to me, yeah, this place, it's crazy, but it gets a lot of things done.
I could tell you, for instance, St. Jude kids that have been in this exact room,
and I have seen how much money we have raised in here that go towards that.
Those are things that are bigger than yourself.
And it just so happens this place is so fun and cool that a lot of people wanna
come here and shove a lot of energy into projects like St. Jude.
>> I love the ring.
>> Thank you. >> So the ring your wearing says what?
>> That is a Muzic Mafia ring, that is one of nine.
So early on, before we had a record deal with Big and Rich, or anything like that,
there was a big group of us that were kind of the misfits in the music industry.
You had Big Kenny, and you had me, who I'd been through a couple
of records deals already and they didn't really work out.
You had Cowboy Troy, the big black rapping cowboy from Dallas,
Texas, you had Gretchen Wilson, who was a bartender at the time,
who's now sold nine million records, The Redneck Woman.
All these characters hanging out and we jokingly called ourselves,
we're the Muzic Mafia, right, we're the music family.
And after 72 Tuesdays in a row of doing Muzic Mafia jams in downtown Nashville,
everybody had signed a major record deal, everybody.
>> Wow.
>> Everybody in the whole group.
>> Wow.
>> And the whole premise of Muzic Mafia was music without prejudice.
So you'd have one guy who's an R&B guy, another guy who's a bluegrass guy,
a rapper, a country boy, a southern rock guy.
And the town would say to you, the industry would say to you,
well you have to play this club and you have to play that club,
cuz that's where your people hang out, and that's where your people hang out.
And we said no, I don't think so, we're all gonna play music together.
And if you listen to Big and Rich music, you will hear all those influences melded
together in what is now the Big and Rich sound, and that all came from Muzic Mafia.