Jordan Davis joins us backstage at Audacy's Stars and Strings to talk about life, hunting, and music!
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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, right, right, right. So you're like right there that annual
02:09season opens earlier. So do you have any recipes that you could share for? Yeah. Uh, it's called
02:16a duck. Wait, what's basically just like slow cook, like stew duck, but you actually use
02:22like Coca-Cola. So it's like a tomato paste, Coca-Cola, Worcestershire, like salt and pepper,
02:28garlic veggies. And you just cook it in a cast iron pot for like six hours falls off.
02:34It's almost like you would think that it was like pulled pork. Okay. So it's like the key
02:41to it, to it all, which brings us to our next question.
02:44What's that? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh, Donnie, Donnie, the pitmaster. That's
02:54what you heard me say. So master Donnie, man, that guy's legit. The Jordan Davis alter ego
03:02kind of situation. Do they know that nobody knows? There was one couple, there was one,
03:08two girls that like figured it out. They like, which I don't know how every, like how is
03:12everybody not figuring it out? I feel like you're very distinctive. Yeah. Yeah. And like
03:17the, and two, like they had already gone through the checkpoint. So then Donnie was stopping
03:20them again, like checking. And then I like hit one guy up about his pizza. I was like,
03:24what you got there, man? He's like pizza pepperoni. He's like, yeah. I was like, how do you not
03:30like, how do you not look at this absurd looking dude with a dark beard, jet white hair and
03:37crazy hat. Yeah. Where, where, how deep does the character, um, building go for Donnie,
03:43the pitmaster? Like how deep did you go on planning with this person who this person
03:47is, where they're from? It was, it was, uh, I didn't go crazy backstory, but like, I definitely
03:54had a couple of moves that I wanted to, I wanted to like, cause you know, he had like
03:59the flashlight thing. So it was like, like when people were walking up, you gotta like
04:03give them a, like hit them with it. Like a feel good flash. Yeah. Yeah. Even though the
04:06lights were all on, it kind of reminded me of, uh, you ever seen walk hard? Yes. It was
04:11very much like a Dewey. Yeah. It was inspired. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of a Dewey couch when I think
04:15it was Jack white played Elvis and he's like, yeah, look out man. That's a, that's a, that's
04:21a karate chop man. I'll chop my head off man. What a great movie. Let's, let's, let's talk
04:27about, I ain't saying, I don't think that we have heard the backstory on this song yet.
04:33We haven't. No, we need to ask, where were you? What were you thinking? And what were
04:37you drinking when the song came to be? Okay. Uh, I was in Montana. I was in big sky. We,
04:43we did a writer's retreat up there. Uh, here's the best, you know, this is my first single
04:49that I'm not a writer on. And I didn't realize that I'm a writer on this one. And so we had
04:55six or seven writers come up the first day. Travis would was in the right, he was in a,
05:01it was me, my producer and Travis, one of the writers on the song. They're in a room.
05:05He plays me that course. He's like, Hey man, I've got this course. It sounds, it sounds
05:09like something you would write. Let me play it for you. Help me finish it. So he plays
05:13the whole course. And I was like, man, I like that. But I'd had this other really stupid
05:18idea that we ended up writing. I was like, man, I got this idea. It'd be really cool.
05:22And both of them were just like, all right, whatever. Fine. So we write this song that
05:25will never get heard. Never going to record it. What was the name of it? Uh, broke fences.
05:31I think it was or something like that. That's a good title. That's it. I mean, I said broken
05:34fences actually. No, sorry. That was a different, I can't even remember what the name of this
05:38song was, but anyway, he leaves and writes. I ain't saying in the cabin next to us. So
05:46we were doing like two rights a day. So morning, right? Afternoon, right? So another group
05:50of writers come in and we start writing and he's in the next room with Steve Moakler and
05:54Mark Coleman writing this writing. I ain't saying, and he's texting me and he's like,
05:58Hey man, we're writing this song anyway. Uh, will you come over and help us finish
06:02this bridge? And I was writing with Barry Dean and Laurie McKenna. Amazing song. And
06:07I was like, dude, leave me alone. I'm not leaving this right to come finish this song.
06:10And that was the song that right. So then we get done with the camp. He, we're all sitting
06:15around the fire last night. He's like, Hey, can I play you that? I ain't saying he plays
06:18it. And I was like, dude, that's a smash. He was like, I know. I'm trying to tell you
06:24about this thing. You're like, no, I'm writing over here. Right. And what you described,
06:27the word you use was stupid. So great. I'm sure there's, so we talk about this all the
06:32time though. Like when an artist writes a song, sometimes they think it's not great,
06:38but then it ends up being like the biggest song. Have you had any of those? Yeah, I've
06:42had, uh, I was, I think I was the second person that had, um, um, while we're the, uh, while
06:52things were the wild things are where the wild things are. Yeah. So my buddy Dave Turnbull
06:56was a writer on that, him and Randy Montana. And I think this, the day they finished it,
07:00he sent it to me. I was working on my first record and he sent me that song. And I was
07:04like, dude, I love this. And I put it on hold. I was trying to go in and record it. And we
07:08were all kind of like, I don't know, man, I don't know if we can sing about a guy dying
07:11right now. So it's odd that that song, the history of it, because it had been around
07:17for 10, 10 plus years. I think we heard church as a fan of it. Yeah. It was a long time.
07:23Everybody way bigger than me. But yeah, I think I was one of the first persons. And
07:27then you're like, well, we just like, we're tail end of the record. You know, I just didn't
07:31think it fit where we were doing. And obviously it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't meant to
07:34be. So obviously the songs find their people. Yeah. You wait. And now like you, I can't
07:39hear anybody but Luke Combs singing that song. Right. But yeah, that was one. It's just funny
07:43how the, how the, my brother's got the stars aligned. Jacob wrote, uh, Kane's the backseat
07:50driver. He's got a new song. Really? My brother's a writer on that one. So I've been listening
07:54to backseat driver for three years. That's great. And my brother's been like, dude, why
07:58don't you cut this song? And I was like, man, I don't know, dude, I just did the next thing,
08:01you know, like kind of a daughter song. And I was like, I don't want to do another one
08:06right now. And then, and then about three, four months ago, I went in and recorded some
08:12songs. I caught him. I was like, Hey, is backseat driver still open? He's like, no, dude, can't
08:15cut it. And he's going to make it a huge song. And I'm going to have another song that
08:21I could have sang, but, but it's like a, it's almost like a song battle. I know like secret
08:26song. I don't want to make it a battle in my brain for everybody. Competition. Yeah.
08:30So there's no competition. It's like a celebration. I would say so. Yeah. Oh, let's talk about
08:34a celebration. You got to do college game day on your own, your old stomping grounds,
08:38man. How epic was that for you? It was awesome. Awesome. Uh, yeah. I wanted to be the guest
08:43picker. I get it. Livvy Dunn and Paul Skeens were way more famous than I am, but yeah,
08:49just the fact that I was able to sing a song at it. Uh, I got to meet coach Saban, you
08:53know, got to meet coach Kelly. The game didn't quite go the way that I wanted it to go. But
08:58uh, yeah, man, it'd be back on campus, be back home. It was, it was, it was like, has
09:02everything changed? Like when you go around and you're like, I don't remember that. Or
09:05I do remember this. It was actually like a little more. Yeah. Like I was shocked at how
09:10much, uh, but it was so cool. Like we were driving there to go play and I was like passing
09:14like my old like biology building that I used. It was pretty sick. Yeah. That's so cool.
09:19I'm wondering where you got that, that sweet LSU satin jacket that you were wearing. Mitchell
09:23Ness, man. That place is amazing. I got a couple of their hats. They all do all the,
09:28like the vintage classic type of stuff. That jacket was sick though. And it was so hot.
09:33God, it was hot, but it looked good. Yeah. What did you buy it or was it gifted to you?
09:37Oh no, I got it. Yeah. I don't know if I bought it. I probably bought it, but it's,
09:41I still have it. Have you, have you paid for it? I think I bought it at some point.
09:46Yeah. I mean, sometimes like Mitchell Ness, I would just send me an invoice.
09:51Sometimes like you go and do that stuff and they're like, Hey, we got you a jersey or we
09:55got you a jacket. 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. Um, 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 a tire. Is there anything or any artists that you feel
10:18or you remember that it's just iconic based on what they wore? Like kind of a lot of people
10:24have like a uniform almost. Yeah. And what would your uniform be? Like if we were to encase one of
10:29your show clothes? Probably, I don't know, probably a Jean, Jean shirt. I wear a lot of
10:35Jean shirts. It's okay. Denims. I like the Canadian tuxedo. I'm not wearing jeans today,
10:40which is kind of weird. We're all, we are all on the same page. We all got the denim today. We're
10:45feeling it. Yeah. What's the, what's the, about you walking through the, walking around here?
10:49The what? The Prince outfit. I mean, I mean, yeah, Prince right. The, my floor is easy top.
10:55I mean, that's pretty iconic. Like those beers are pretty awesome. What did I see? Um,
11:01Oh, I saw this was crazy. I did not know this. I know you're a Tom Petty fan. Yeah.
11:05I saw there's a, there was a mural of Tom Petty on the wall and it said that he saw Elvis when he
11:11was 11 years old. No way. And he said that he realized and decided that day that he was going
11:18to devote his life to rock and roll. 11 year old Tom Petty. I read that and I'm like, how have we
11:24never, it's insane. When did, when do you, he did a good job. What were you thinking at 11? Yeah.
11:3011. I don't even, what was I getting ready to go get my braces? I definitely wasn't seeing
11:37the greatest rock and roll of all time. And then saying, I'm going to become the greatest.
11:43Do you remember when you realized that this is what you're going to do for a living though? Or
11:47when the dream 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,
11:59being like, man, that's pretty cool. And like starting to write songs. I remember being at
12:04Eric Church concert in Baton Rouge. He's still playing like little clubs, uh, where I was like,
12:09man, that was special. Like, you know, it just felt awesome. Um, and then I remember
12:17a Tuesday night 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 to go
12:25to bed to wake up at 5am to go work for an environmental company. And I was like, all right,
12:29this is, I'm putting my two weeks in tomorrow. And I was moving to Nashville. So that was kind
12:34of when it, when it started. Best decision ever. And it's going to be a special night here at Stars
12:39and Strings. Jordan Davis is here with us. Appreciate you, man. Thank you.