Darryl Worley on Patriotism, Music, and the Meaning of Freedom

>> No, I didn't know that. >> So it has, it has its place. >> Yeah. >> And I think when we overlook that, that we're messing up too. So, I would say we didn't have any choice.

It wasn't really like that. We wanted to be like them. >> Yeah. >> Like our people that we looked up to and revered.

“And, and that's how most of us turned out.”

>> Not all of us. >> Yeah. >> But most of us, well, we're thrilled to be here in Nashville, and so I'd be singing here tonight. Hey, I'm just saying you'll be able to have a podcast.

What, what, what's your, how people find your podcast? >> It's called Sounds Like Life with Dera Warley. >> And, I mean, it's really easy to find. You can YouTube it. That's where we tell most people to go nowadays.

We were concentrating on Facebook. And, look, like we would build the numbers faster, but we found out that was kind of a little bit of a forest. >> Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so.

This is American Potential. >> Welcome, American Potential podcast. I'm your host, David from. So, we're coming from Nashville, Tennessee. Celebrating with Americans for Prosperity.

America's 250th birthday. It's just such a joy. We've been at a number of these all over the country. We're going to keep going. But, we can't go to Nashville without talking to a

bona fide country music star. We're joined by one here today. So, I'm so thrilled to talk to Dera Warley. Dera Warley. Dera, Dera had a hit that spent seven weeks at the top of the

Billboard list. So, that's another country star. I don't know what it is. >> It's Dera. >> He's also a podcaster.

He's performing here tonight. I'm so excited to have you. Thanks for joining us. >> Thank you very much. That's absolutely wonderful.

Timing worked out perfectly. I appreciate the comments about heavy forgotten. That was man talk about one that got out of our hands. And we didn't even really know. Really didn't know what to do with it.

>> Well, I'm sure a lot of listeners have having their head.

“I mean, as soon as I read, you know, have you forgotten?”

Bam. I hear it in my head. And it's just a huge song the time.

And I'm sure it was a pretty amazing experience for you.

To go through that. But it can tell us a story about how you wrote that. >> And the work came from. >> So, they came to me the year after 9/11 in 2002. I wanted to know if I would go overseas to Afghanistan, entertain our troops in the war zone.

And that was my first trip to the war zone to do that. We went in December, which is, you know, I'm concerned the best time to go because that's when the men and women are really struggling. >> Yes. >> Miss some people from back home and their families.

It was a pretty long and intense trip. We hit Afghanistan. We went up to Uzbekistan on our way home where they call it K2 up there. And then back to the U.S. Some pretty incredible experiences on that journey.

You know, I think the biggest thing my takeaway was we got to do something for these people.

Because, you know, not only had we lost a lot of people in 9/11, we saw what our first responders were made of that day.

>> Yeah. >> You go overseas to Afghanistan, see the troops in action. And, you know, I grew up in the military family. I've had people, my relatives deployed my whole life. And I thought I knew all about it.

You don't know anything about the war zone until you go to it. And so, on my return, I just was really had a burning desire to. I was very inspired from what I had seen and experienced. And I just want to do something for those people I just mentioned. And our military and I didn't have to be a song.

I mean, I told my buddies, you know, we're sitting around talking. I said, it could be a barbecue or a big pot of stew under the bridge and feed the homeless veterans. I don't care what it is. We just want to do something that will stand a test of time. And where those people look at us and say they wouldn't have done that if they didn't care.

“And that's how heavy forgotten came to be.”

>> Well, it's certainly struck a chord, right? >> Yeah. >> You know, it's going to be say, one of the taglines that we say at the end of this show. Every single time is, you know, it is about freedom and liberty and don't take it for granted. >> Right. And yeah, that's what it's all about.

>> Clearly people who are deployed aren't taking it for granted. But I do think like, you know, your message in the song is a little bit.

You know, like, hey, let's let's have a reminder, like let's not take it for a second.

>> We did that on purpose, you know, we, we kind of walked that jagged line. We didn't, we didn't want to run anybody away, but we knew right away that people got it. And you know, it was, it was in very simple straightforward language.

>> Right. >> And we were very blessed. I was playing this, this veterans day tribute show at the Raman auditorium. >> Yeah. >> It was the grand opening, but they were having it at the Raman.

>> And you're dropping some legendary names now.

>> We had literally finished the song like two days before this, and the band members had never even heard it.

“But it's three cores, man. It's not anything complicated, and I said, I think the peak fisher,”

the man that was running the operate at the time, I said, I think he'd go crazy if he heard this. And my manager really didn't want me to do it, he was pushing for us not to do it. And I took the band up into our little dressing room, played him the song one time through. Everybody made a few notes, went and talked to Pete and Pete said, well, I would like to hear it before. So we went back up to the dressing room, played it for him, it went fine.

And I said, we're doing it tonight, played it on the show, he immediately came out. He chased us off stage and said, well, you come back tomorrow and I don't Saturday night. That's the TV night and do this song again. And I said, hey, I've never been asked to do the Raman two dides in a row. We'll be here, and that was the TV portion.

>> Wow. >> It took off.

>> And what kind of feedback did you get from people?

>> It was insane. I mean, over the weekend, you know, blew the firewalls out of everybody's record label, couldn't get online and management company was shut down because we had so many responses to it over the weekend. It just, you know, we couldn't handle it. And there was a lot of different talk, people were going crazy over the song.

Record labels say, maybe it's just a knee jerk reaction, you know, maybe it may be gone by Wednesday. >> No, it wasn't.

“>> It was like, okay, if you want to take that chance, but anyway, it took five weeks to go to the number one spot and stay there for seven.”

>> That's fabulous. >> It's a true blessing and has taken us all over the world numerous times. I have been everywhere to entertain troops. >> Yeah. >> And I mean everywhere.

>> And that's awesome that you do that. >> It's a, it's a really big part of what I do and who we are. And, you know, like I said, I came from a military family. Almost everyone has served and this gave me an opportunity to serve in a kind of a different way just to give back to them. >> Yeah.

>> It's been really special. >> Do you have any thoughts? You know, we're celebrating America's birthday here. >> Yes, sure. >> That's true.

>> That's true. >> That's true. >> Definitely.

“You've been all over the world, you know, seeing a number of different things.”

Certainly reflections you have being American kind of seeing troops overseas, but also seeing other countries. Is that, give you any reflections about America? >> I tell people every day. I mean, constantly, if you have any doubt about the fact that you live in the greatest place in the whole wide world, take off and go some other places.

And I mean, any other place for as I'm concerned, and I've been a lot of them. You know, beautiful places, you know, cities in Japan, Paris, France. But none of it is, man, they look to us. They follow what we do. You know, the rest of the world gets aggravated with things that happen here in the United States,

because it affects their lives directly. There's no place like this. There's just no place like home, man. And I'm telling you, all you gotta do is go ramble around a little bit and you'll find it out for yourself. Even the best of the best where I've been.

And I love Norway. There's other places I could tell you that I love. But I mean, it just doesn't compare. Nothing compares to this. And our freedom people want to say, oh, yeah, yeah.

And kind of, if you don't think that we have lots of freedom, travel, go see. Yeah, we really do, man. So I want you a little bit how you got into country music. And just what that journey's been like. And then also like the country music industry's got a bigger and but very different than it's been.

You've seen some change in that. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Indeed, I have. Well, for me, I, so I have background in biology and chemistry. I was going to go to head school.

And I took a year off because I was just just fried from all the undergrad stuff. And I didn't take any grip courses.

So, but I had always had a band playing somewhere since I was like 15 or 16 years old.

I mean, on top of the fact that it was a whole lot of fun.

I just loved music. And that was a family thing on both sides. And so in that time, I was off and just pedaling with other, you know, this little dinky jobs or whatever, I started pitching songs that I had written. Yeah.

And I got action on them real fast as far as publishing companies say. And man, these are good. You know, who did you write them with? I've never co-written. I just wrote them by myself.

And they're like, really? So I got to publish and deal pretty quick down in muscle shows. I chose not to come to Nashville right away. Yeah.

“And I think it was a good decision because I wasn't ready for Nashville.”

But down in muscle shows, things moved a little slower. They were willing to take me under their wing and help me learn the craft of demo and songs and writing songs and production and all that stuff. And then I made the move to Nashville. And when I got here, man, things happened that quick.

And that's great. It was by no means an overnight. It was probably more like a 25 year overnight success. But like I said, the move to Nashville at the right time was the right thing to do. So then the late 90s?

I moved up about 94. Yeah. See, man, you see Nashville goes through some transitions. So the whole thing, man. I mean, I think we went from the greatest time of country music,

which was the late 80s early 90s to the most abstract and bizarre time for me. I mean, I'm not, I'm not bashing it because it's stayed healthy and strong through it all. But certainly a lot of change and a lot of infusion from a genre as an all kind.

All kinds of stuff that I really, I never thought that would happen.

Yeah. And it has happened in the past also. It cycles. But it's never happened to this extent. And I thought, man, country music, the one that I'm talking about is gone forever.

And as we speak, it's making a comeback. So is it? I love to hear that because no, no, it's coming back. You all, all you 80s and 90s guys were like, my fair. That was my sweet spot.

I was, I remember one summer working.

“I remember when I discovered, because I grew up in New Jersey.”

Not always, you know, I wasn't really that in the country. And then I was in college. I was working on a farm actually as if you believe it as like a maintenance guy. Which, I don't know how I got that job by myself. And I just started listening to music.

I needed something to listen to. And it was country. And I was like, this is it. And it was just in that time. What was it?

This would have been 94. Oh, wow. You were listening in a good time. I was. I know.

It's right about the time that I've made my move permanently to Nashville. Where, you know, I had to let go some gigs that I was playing down home. I'm about my farm and we were back there now. It was about two and a half hours southwest of here. So couldn't drive back and forth.

Yeah. And it was literally in my contract at the publishing company that I had to move to town. Makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah.

Makes sense. So, well, we're so excited that you're playing here at the Mercs 250 Bashar having. What are, you know, what do you think about it?

“Like, are you, what do you think about doing the event?”

And what made you want to do it? Oh, well, uh, Matt, my book and ages said we had an opportunity to do this. And I said, well, he knows me. Anything that has something to do with America, especially for its celebration. I mean, so yeah, I thought it would, would be fun.

And it would be right down my alley, uh, you know. Uh, I'm a, I'm a true patriot, man. And so I think this is a big deal for us to be celebrating 250. I do. So, you know, I think that the celebrating like what you nights is as a country. I think it's such a great opportunity.

This is what we're doing. You know, like, our founding document laid out some truths for us that, you know, we would be wise to remember and celebrate. So just stay pretty close, too. Yeah.

So like, when you started to like come of age and formulate your own opinions about, you know, society and politics and everything like, what, what, what helped for, like, shape you. Man, I'm gonna tell you, look, I just saw my boots. Allegiance, I saw them. I, I was very, very blessed.

I grew up in the midst of a bunch of World War II heroes. Yeah. And then Korea and Vietnam, you know. And so patriotism was not an option. Like, my, our, our great grandfather would line us all up.

The, the grandkids and great grandkids. And we would walk out in front of him.

There's always this big huge flag right in the corner.

Obviously we had one flying outside.

And, and we had to learn to pledge of allegiance when we were little tots, you know. And we'd have to stand in front of John, and, and say the pledge of allegiance. And it would be, and then we could go out in the yard and play. But it, he'd make us do it all the time.

“And, and so those kinds of things that I think back on,”

and my dad was a, a pastor, Methodist Minister. My mother was a youth leader. You know, I think the Christian faith and the values that that were, I think some 16 to 25 of the founding fathers were ordained ministers. No, I didn't know that.

So it has, it has its place.

Yeah. And, and I think when, when we overlook that, that were, we're messing up too. So, uh, I would say we didn't have any choice. It wasn't really like that. We wanted to be like them.

Yeah. Like, like, like our, the people that we looked up to and, and, and revered.

“And, and that's how most of us turned out.”

Not all of us. Yeah. But most of us.

Well, we're thrilled to be here in Nashville.

I'm so glad you'll be singing here tonight. Hey, I'm just, you know, usually we have a podcast. What, what's your, uh, how people find your podcast? It's called Sounds Like Life with Darrell Warley and I mean, it's really easy to find. You can YouTube it.

Uh, that's where we tell most people to go nowadays. We were concentrating on, uh, Facebook. And it looked like we would build the numbers faster. But we found out that was kind of a, a little bit of a farce. And, and so we just went back to the old YouTube and it's growing like crazy, man.

Good for you. Yeah. Glad. Yeah. Well, if you're not, you're interested to talk to you.

People wouldn't listen otherwise.

“You got something to say, and that's what matters.”

You know, we have a good time on there. And we, we talk about everything from, from, from our Christian faith, music to, to outdoors fishing hunting and you name it. And, and I have some people from all different, you know, walks of life come on and Great.

We're, we're enjoying it. We just shot about six new episodes. So nice. We got to work worse. Why'd open, man?

Well, there are, I really appreciate you joining us. Thank you. God, cast here. I'm so glad you're here. I'm looking forward to hearing you sing tonight. And I'll be the one cheering loud.

App regiated, man. Thank you very much. Folks, if you liked this episode, please subscribe to our channels or follow us or and like us on social media at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Remember, freedom and liberty are easily taken for granted.

Don't take it for granted. Go out there and defend liberty for you. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to American Potential. You may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and

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