[MUSIC]
Joining me today on Takenawak Nashville is country artist and songwriter Craig Campbell.
“Craig has had hits such as out of my head, outskirts of heaven, keep them kisses come in”
and one of my favorites tomorrow tonight. March is colorectal cancer awareness month, and Craig is an advocate for this cancer, starting the Kenny Campbell Foundation to honor his father, who lost his battle with colorectal cancer at age 36. Craig's latest single drink for that is out now, and he is here to talk about his latest
endeavors. This is an eye-heart podcast. Guarantee the human. On the Steena Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience and redemption.
On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail talk about addiction, transformation in the power of second chances.
The entire season 2 is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversations with the
guest like Tiffany Attich, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic, and I'll just prove I'm a died. Listen to the Steena Show on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own
rules. Segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like Tiffany in another world. Was he a businessman, a criminal, a hero? Charlie wasn't an example, a pal, they had to crush him.
Charlie's place, from Atlas Obsgera and visit mortal Beach. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Taken a Walk Nashville, with your host singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson. Greg, thank you so much for being with me on Taken a Walk Nashville today.
We have a lot to discuss, but I first want to start our conversation by talking about you are non-profit organization, the Kenny Campbell Foundation. Now this foundation honors your father, who lost his battle with colorectal cancer at age 36, and it raises money for research hospitals and doctors that focus on finding a cure and preventative measures for colorectal cancer.
Now for listeners who don't know, March is colorectal cancer awareness month, and it really means a lot to me to shine a light on this. I also lost my mother to colorectal cancer in 2022, and it was recently announced that colorectal cancer is officially the leading cause of cancer related death among men and women under age 50.
Now, Craig, along with your foundation, you also host an annual celebrity cornhound challenge in Nashville.
You've raised over a million dollars through your foundation and this event, and you also
hosted a benefit concert at the Rimon Auditorium last July, raising over $10,000. So there is no doubt your dad would be so proud of you and all that you have accomplished.
“What does it mean to you to shine a light on colorectal cancer awareness?”
Well, one of the biggest pushes for me to do everything I came with and for colorectal cancer is when I was 11 years old, that my dad died with colorectal cancer. I had 11 years old, I thought he was an old man, and when I became an adult, and started thinking about having a family, I realized that my dad was very, very young, in fact. And I'm like, okay, well, what took my dad away from me and the more information that
I gathered on colorectal cancer, I realized that if my dad would have had the knowledge about colorectal cancer that we have now, or even then, there's a good chance that he would still be here. He could have prevented it because colorectal cancer is the most preventable cancer that there is.
The main reason I got, and I started doing work towards raising money for colorectal cancer is because I didn't want my girls growing up without me. And I'm like, you know what, whatever knowledge I have about colorectal cancer, and whatever
“platform I have to help raise money to spread that word, that's what I'm going to do.”
And that's just kind of how it all started, and that's the reason I keep doing what I'm doing. Yeah, I love that.
And I think that's a great point that there hasn't always been a lot of resources
or funding for this cancer, like other cancers, and you know, when my mom was diagnosed with the cancer she got misdiagnosed with asthma, so the earlier people can get diagnosed,
We could save a lot of life.
So I love what you're doing with your foundation. Do you have a date set yet for this year's cork old challenge, which benefits it? My cork old tournament is every, see if we do it during family fast, but we do it the Tuesday before seeing my fast. So I'm not 100% what sure what the date is this year.
I think it's June 4th, maybe June 5th somewhere in that range, but it's the Tuesday before CMA fast. And that works out for us because we're able to, I can call my, a lot of my artist friends and say, "Hey, I'm having my cork old tournament, would you like to be, would you like to be a participant in my tournament, help me raise money for a color to cancer?"
And you know, CMA fast, most of us are in town already, so it's easier for them to commit.
“So that's, that's why we have it during CMA fast.”
And so if people are in town for CMA fast, can they purchase tickets to this event to support the cause? Oh, yes. So you can buy ticket to the event this year, we're having it at 6th in P-Body.
This year, our third year having at 6th in P-Body, they're gray partners, also known as eHall
Brewery. So yeah, you can, you can purchase tickets. I don't know if we have a ticket link yet, or if those tickets are available yet. But in the closer we get, for sure, you can, you can purchase tickets through my website. Perfect.
Yeah, that's a great location and the heart of downtown Nashville for that. You also have a new single that just dropped on February 20th called Drink for That. I love the production on this song. This is your latest solo single since missing you. What's the inspiration behind this song?
So I'm unfortunate to become friends with a guy named Anthony Smith who was an amazing artist in his own right, but he's transitioned and he's just been writing songs and he sent me this song years ago.
And I've always just went back to it.
Every time I'm thinking about recording music, I always, this song just always comes back and it shows it. It pops it tight up. It's like, hey, I'm a hit song and I said, finally I just, I couldn't resist it anymore, so I recorded it and it turned out so good that I thought this has to be, this has to
be released in some fashion and, and so now's the time and, and I'm excited about it. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was just, it was, it was a great country song and I'm just excited for everybody to hear it. Yeah, it's definitely a fun song. Where did you record it?
So I cut this song up as a very heel and just out the Nashville little studio community at a place called Station West and used some really great musicians and then my secret weapon, Bart Bush, you know, he did all the mixing and engineering and vocal capturing and all that. So he did a great job mixing this song and it's, it's pretty far.
“Yeah, I think so too and listeners can stream drink for that on all listening platforms.”
You can also find a drink for that at your award-winning coffee shop or restaurant and music venue. It looks like you have the merch on now for Grindstone Cowboy, yeah, I love it.
It's in the Eagleville, Tennessee and you just open to second location and Shelbyville, Tennessee
about an hour outside of Nashville and this is great for people driving through these towns. What made you and your life want to open these restaurants and put them in these specific towns? Well, we live in Eagleville. So that was the main reason we decided to put one here in Eagleville and when we opened
it, we didn't realize that it would take off like it did. So we knew there was no competition like as far as coffee was concerned and within a good 20 minutes of Eagleville. So we thought at the very least that our drive-thru would be fine. But as soon as we opened we realized that Grindstone Cowboy was way more than that and so
it just took off. Nice. Yeah, I love that these communities have music venue and restaurant now because sometimes it's too much of a hike to drive into Nashville to go to a show and you have live music at your restaurants, right?
Yeah, we have a lot of music pretty much every Saturday and then occasionally we'll have like a ticket event somewhere or like either on Wednesday or Thursday night. Very cool. Yeah, I hope everyone will check out Grindstone Cowboy. I know I'll be checking it out soon.
Craig, you've been in Nashville since 2002.
“Did you expect Nashville to become such a booming city over the last two decades?”
You know, honestly, I thought it was a booming city when I got here and honestly, I think
With COVID kind of changed everything as far as a lot lower Broadway and but ...
always been like a big city, but it's also been like a small town feel of a big city.
“Especially when the music business is like music business, everybody knows everybody”
and everybody's pulling through each other and so even though it's like a metropolitan city, it's still got a small town feel to it, like on the music business side of things. But like a lower Broadway is it's chaotic these days. I don't cry out there very much, but it's definitely not like it would when I first got to.
Yeah, it's definitely Nashville's down a lower Broadway, but you know, I agree, you know, if you're hanging out in Nashville and not specifically on Broadway, it still has that small town feel just running into people, you know, which, which I love, it's definitely kept that charm about it. Yeah.
So you've been doing some shows and touring this year, where can we find you for upcoming shows this year? You know, I keep most of my shows updated on my website, but we also, if just people
follow me on social media, we always try to keep people updated on what's current, what's
happening and shows coming up. So yeah, you can just follow me on social media and you'll see pretty much everything is going on. Great. Yeah, we'll definitely check you out there. And my last question for you, Craig, is something I always love to ask my guest. Since we are on taking a walk Nashville, do
“you have a favorite place you like to take a walk in Nashville?”
Oh, never done. I've never taken a walk in Nashville ever except, you know, walk into the streets of Lower Broadway. So those, I mean, I guess if you consider that a walk, it's pretty cool to be able to walk from from Fifth Avenue down to Second Avenue and just check out all the bars and on both sides of the street and even, you know, even just a couple of blocks, whatever you can walk and go see the country music hall of fame. So I mean,
that just the Lower Broadway area, the Soboro, like, it's a good place to take a Nashville walk. Yeah, there's a lot in that short radius. And I'm sure you do a lot of walking in Eagleville. I think there's a lot of good hiking out there. People want to take a short drive outside of Nashville. There is for sure. Absolutely. Well, Craig, thank you so much
for being on taking a walk Nashville today. Listeners can donate and check out your events with the Kenny Campbell Foundation. You're upcoming tour dates and you're new single drink for that on your website. Thank you again. Thank you, appreciate you. Thanks for listening to Take In A Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our other shows produced by Buzz night media productions. Comedy saved me and music saved me,
hosted by Lynn Hoffman and Take In A Walk, hosted by yours truly Buzz night. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and are part of the iHeard Podcast Network. On the scene of show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail talk about addiction, transformation in the power of second chances,
the entire season two is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversations with
guests like Tiffany Attich, Johnny Knoxville, and more. When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules. Segregation in the day, integration
“at night. It was like separate in another world. Was he a businessman, a criminal, a hero?”
Charlie wasn't an example, a pound. They had to crush him. Charlie's place, from Atlas Obscura and Visit Mirtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
