SkiP HappEns Podcast
Balancing Dreams and Motherhood: Britnee Kellogg's Journey in Country Music
Britnee Kellogg, an emerging country artist from Phoenix, Arizona, shares her inspiring musical journey and personal challenges on this episode of Skip Happens. From being spellbound by a Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash concert at just six years old to making waves on American Idol, Britnee's story is nothing short of captivating. She candidly discusses the trials of balancing her burgeoning music career with motherhood, including the family court restrictions that impact her ability to relocate. Don't miss the heartfelt conversation about her latest single, "This Mess," and her excitement for the upcoming CMA Fest.
In a deeply emotional segment, Britnee opens up about turning her life experiences, including overcoming a tumultuous marriage and financial struggles, into empowering country music that resonates with women everywhere. The discussion highlights the supportive and vibrant Nashville country music community and the power of creating relatable, biographical content. This part of the episode shines a light on the often-overlooked emotional gaps in country music and underscores the importance of content that speaks to women facing life's complex challenges.
The episode also offers an intimate glimpse into Brittany's life as a performer, from the legendary Bluebird Cafe to larger stadiums. Brittany shares stories of camaraderie with fellow artists like Lee Brice and Randy Houser and the joys and complexities of managing her social media presence. We explore the evolving landscape of music promotion, Britnee's admiration for artists such as Zach Top and Mae Estes, and her recent spontaneous performance at a wedding. Tune in for a heartfelt chat filled with insights, camaraderie, and Britnee’s unwavering dedication to her craft and fans.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
Britnee Kellogg, an emerging country artist from Phoenix, Arizona, shares her inspiring musical journey and personal challenges on this episode of Skip Happens. From being spellbound by a Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash concert at just six years old to making waves on American Idol, Britnee's story is nothing short of captivating. She candidly discusses the trials of balancing her burgeoning music career with motherhood, including the family court restrictions that impact her ability to relocate. Don't miss the heartfelt conversation about her latest single, "This Mess," and her excitement for the upcoming CMA Fest.
In a deeply emotional segment, Britnee opens up about turning her life experiences, including overcoming a tumultuous marriage and financial struggles, into empowering country music that resonates with women everywhere. The discussion highlights the supportive and vibrant Nashville country music community and the power of creating relatable, biographical content. This part of the episode shines a light on the often-overlooked emotional gaps in country music and underscores the importance of content that speaks to women facing life's complex challenges.
The episode also offers an intimate glimpse into Brittany's life as a performer, from the legendary Bluebird Cafe to larger stadiums. Brittany shares stories of camaraderie with fellow artists like Lee Brice and Randy Houser and the joys and complexities of managing her social media presence. We explore the evolving landscape of music promotion, Britnee's admiration for artists such as Zach Top and Mae Estes, and her recent spontaneous performance at a wedding. Tune in for a heartfelt chat filled with insights, camaraderie, and Britnee’s unwavering dedication to her craft and fans.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
Here we go, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Skip Happens. My name is Skip Clark and I'm your host of Skip Happens. You know we always like to take time out and talk to a lot of the new artists, the independent artists, the artists that are making a difference, and tonight is no exception. I love this because, number one she's on the other side of the country. We'll talk about that here in a minute. Number two, I love the tat, by the way, on the back of you. Yeah, that, and well, she's getting on a plane tomorrow and heading to CMA Fest.
Speaker 1:But I want you all to say hi to Brittany Kellogg. Hello, brittany, how are you? I'm good. How are you? God, it's so good to see you. I've heard so much about you and now I finally get you on the podcast and your music is something we need to talk about. And while we're doing that, hang on a minute because I'm just going to play a little bit of the single that's out there, so I can't play the whole thing, because you know, if I do that, facebook and YouTube will go no.
Speaker 1:They'll yell at you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Here we go. This is britney kellogg on the skip happens podcast. Here we go but it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's filled milk on the kitchen floor. It's laundry on the bed. Two days ain't full, yet it's tangled and complicated. Sticky finger refrigerator leanings of the family ain't quite what we thought it'd be. Who'd have thought it'd be so sweet? Nowhere else around the beat, kissing in the kitchen with your arms around me. In this mess, this mess, hail Mary. Right from the start, pound away, feeling through the dark.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's a miracle we got this, but this mess, this mess and that is called this mess and I want you to know right off the top, I can relate because my house is always a mess. Same as this with the kids. You know what I mean. It's just one thing after another. So non-stop non-stop, is that? Uh? So tell us a little bit about you, brittany. First of all, where are you right now? Where are you?
Speaker 3:so I am hiding out. I have three kids and so I'm hiding out in our outdoors called a casita in Phoenix, Arizona. We moved here in June of last year, so we've been almost almost been here a year in. Washington state.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:How cool. Why? Why did you make the move to Phoenix and not nationally? That is a. That is a question I get a lot. So my two older boys are from my first marriage and, unfortunately, the way the courts work is if the other person doesn't agree for you to relocate, which he was very challenging in that capacity and would absolutely never have let me move to Nashville. It was in all of our paperwork, which is really sad actually paperwork, um, which is really sad actually um would never let me. So I could not move to Nashville unless I had like a legit, like reason, which me going to a judge and saying I want to be a country singer is not really like. They're gonna be like okay, no, um. So my husband, um, was relocated for work to.
Speaker 3:Arizona and I was like, okay, well, I'm getting away from you know that, which I truthfully like never wanted to take my kids away from their dad, like it's their dad and they have a great relationship with him. There was just for a while a lot of turmoil and that was really hard on everybody, but we're closer to nashville now. I'm now like a two hour non-stop flight and I was like a six hour situation having to take red eyes. So I am very happy with the situation and it's beautiful west you got southwest, right in phoenix, that's.
Speaker 1:that's their headquarters and, and the way I know that is, I have a couple of buddies that actually fly for Southwest and they moved from here to Phoenix.
Speaker 3:Phoenix is great, yeah, and we're a little north, so we're like on the way to Flagstaff, sedona. We're only two hours from Sedona, so it's a little cooler up north.
Speaker 1:I love it. Do you go to spring training? I know there's spring training games in Phoenix.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my husband's a big volleyball fan, so we love seeing the spring training. It's super fun Awesome.
Speaker 2:It's over now.
Speaker 1:We're a big baseball family, as you can see. I got my baseballs right here. That's cool. Let's talk about your music, though. How long have you been doing it?
Speaker 3:Oh gosh. So when I was six years old, I went to a Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash concert.
Speaker 3:And I instantly fell in love and have been doing it ever since my mom started me in singing lessons pretty short after that and I mean, it was like one of those things where I was like I literally looked at my grandma and I was like I'm not going to school tomorrow, just so you know, like this is my forever. And so ever since then I've just been. I started in fairs and talent shows and back in 2011-2012 I was on American Idol and that's kind of really what propelled my career to more than just like. I sang in a dance and show band for 10 years. That was a 12-piece band. It was so much fun, but American Idol is really what got me into music professionally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's been so many independents that I've spoken to that have either been on the Voice or American Idol or America's Got Talent. I mean, we can go on and on with those shows, but they do propel you to a new level, whether you win or lose it doesn't matter. You're still getting the visibility and people know who you are.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And sometimes it's even better For me personally.
Speaker 2:The contracts are pretty wild on those shows, and so for me it's a blessing to make it to the top 40, get the exposure and have the experience.
Speaker 3:It really helped me to kind of see the top 40, get the exposure and have the experience. It really helped me to kind of see the political side of the business too In those experiences. And it was just an. It was an amazing experience.
Speaker 1:No, I laugh because you're not the only one that said the political side and it you know, it's, you know it's let's. You're very talented and you and everybody else that I've talked to, and you love what you do and you have a passion for what you do. But, just like any other job, there are certain politics involved and it just you know, whether it's me working in radio or you working in the industry as an artist, it's like there's certain politics and you just it just sucks it does suck.
Speaker 3:I think too, like you know, there's such a big lens around female artists and I will say like I get it because there isn't a market. You know, like females don't want to go watch a girl rapes around on stage, they want to see a hot young guy with a mullet like yeah, and tight pants, I get it, I know it doesn't make it any easier, and so that's why I guess, like I my like platform is a little bit different and it's not.
Speaker 3:I'm not like targeting the, the morgan long fans, necessarily so tell me about your platform a little bit yeah, uh.
Speaker 3:So I'm a mom of three and I um, I've been through it, I've been through a lot of mom for many, many years, and was in a pretty like tumultuous marriage, a lot of infidelity, and, um, I just really want to like that people can relate to their own personal stories and it's not, um, you know that, your typical like bro truck with a beer, which I'm I'm here for that I blast it in my car, but I think there's just a not a space for a mom to turn on a song that makes her cry but also empowers her. You know, like I think I, when I was going through a hard time, I had to listen to christian music, because country music I couldn't even listen to it. It was all love songs or, like you know, the I met a girl songs and it was just hard to listen to, and so I really wanted to create, you know, kind of a platform that moms, women and whoever like can go to to feel a little less alone in what they're going through.
Speaker 1:Right, you know I will. The way I look at it is you doing what you're doing. You have lived life. There's a lot of good, there's a lot of bad and a lot of great stories come out of that and people either whether it's me, or maybe there's somebody else somewhere else and I'm sure there is and they're gonna go, when they hear, like I heard that song, the mess, I'm thinking that's me, that's my yes. But you know, I realize there's more to the song than that. But still I can relate because, like you, I I've been through, you know, a couple of relationships.
Speaker 1:I, I mean, I'm not afraid to talk about it. I mean, that was my past. Was I an angel? No, um, we all learned from it, exactly, exactly, uh. But I love seeing you and I love seeing the smile on your face and I know that you're making something of your life. You are doing it. You're not letting things bother you. You're going to take the bad and you're going to make something good out of that. What's that saying? You make, um, lemonade out of lemons, or something like that.
Speaker 3:I don't know I put. I just put it in my tequila. That's what I did?
Speaker 1:I actually just had water, but I actually thought about grabbing a cold beer, but I said no, no, no, I gotta set the good impression. But uh, yeah. So you've got your first album coming out too, right I do.
Speaker 3:It's so interesting. You know I'm much older in the industry. It's so funny. I'm like getting ready for cma fest and I'm like packing my chin strap and packing like my teeth whitener and I'm like imagining what is what is like Megan Maroney packing for CMA Fest? Certainly not all of the old lady stuff, but I really wanted to release a full-length album. Being independent, it's obviously insanely expensive to do it right, and so it did take me quite a while to be able to do it, and I'm really proud of this record. It's really like a biographical album of me.
Speaker 1:How many tracks Brittany?
Speaker 3:12 tracks.
Speaker 1:Excellent, so you're getting on a plane tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you're heading to Nashville and it's CMA Fest. It's a crazy week out there. You've been before, I would assume have you been I have.
Speaker 3:So I actually played the first time last year. I was literally only there for 24 hours, because you know life um, and this year I'm there for five days and my schedule is like jam-packed and I know that it's like nuts everywhere it's great. I always tell people when they're like what's the best time of year to go to Nashville? And I always tell them CMA Fest. It's wild. You can't see that many country artists in one place ever no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Have you been to uh the country radio seminar?
Speaker 3:I have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, were you there like just a few months ago.
Speaker 3:I was not. Okay, I was not, but I have been there three times. Yeah, I used to have a manager that lived in Portland. She's no longer my manager, but we used to go every year and I love it. It's so much fun.
Speaker 1:It's a good way to network with a lot of radio people and just make friends. You never know who you're going to meet. You never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 3:I was at the Pickle Jar. I was like there's literally famous people right here.
Speaker 1:Gotta love Nashville. It's awesome. We do that every year, we, we go and, um, you know, I've I've been going for well over 20 years. But, uh, now they come up with the ping pong tournament. The last few years and I know just recently it was jelly roll and oh my gosh. I can go on and just a a long list of stars, and it's just just, you know, everybody just there in their sweats and doing whatever and having a good time. But here again, it's a great way to meet people and network and you know, and you're in such a good format that people care, people really care in the country format.
Speaker 3:I love it. They do it's been. You know people always ask like, oh, you're from the Pacific Northwest. How they do it's been you know, it's.
Speaker 3:People always ask like oh, you're from the Pacific Northwest, how did you get into country music? And I'm like, well, Johnny and June, like that's an easy way to get into the country industry. But I just always listen to country music growing up and it's just like it's such a different world and I think that's why so many pop artists are putting country music out. Like you said, country school again. I think people are really realizing how amazing and beautiful this space is and I'm totally here for it.
Speaker 1:I love it yeah, so you're a fan like beyonce doing her thing?
Speaker 3:I think it's cool. Like my thing is like people get so upset and I think people feel so um, that's what I'm looking for. They feel like they own country music like the fans. They're like right, right, this music like the fans.
Speaker 3:They're like this is mine. You can't come in and take what's mine and it's like, but then don't listen to it. I mean, I know it's on the radio all the time, so you kind of have to if you listen to the radio. But I think it's great to hear different perspectives of different people from all walks of life. I heard that Gene Gunnelly might be putting out a country album.
Speaker 1:You got Post Malone, you got Posty doing his thing.
Speaker 3:I love it. I'm here for it. I think it's really cool and, at the end of the day, it's art, and I think it's. You know you look at Taylor Swift, who was in country for how long and then, when she moved, to pop everybody was like she's going to be. You know she's going to fall on her face. Yeah, exactly A hundred percent. People make the art.
Speaker 1:You are so right and the way I feel about that from a radio person's perspective is I think it's great for the format. There's certain people like you, you know people that listen and they'll argue with me about it, but I'm going to tell you I think, like Beyonce making that, you know, putting out that song and kind of doing a little bit on the country side, I think it brings new people to the format because beyonce's fans are going to jump over and listen to what we're doing on country radio now. They may like it, they may not like it, but if they like it now we've got some new listeners exactly I look at it, it's.
Speaker 1:It can't hurt us. It can only expand the format 100. I think it's great that's what I'm saying, baby, that's what I'm thinking of my guns absolutely that's my story and I'm sticking to it that's right, exactly so. You're heading out to nashville, you get to play, you're going to be playing at cma fest and where.
Speaker 3:Friday I'm a good molecule stage at 1055 AM and then Saturday I'll be at the BMI block party at 115.
Speaker 1:AM. Are you going to be up that early?
Speaker 3:I mean, I have an interview. This is like ouch, I have an interview at 815 AM on Thursday, and when it came across it's with WSM.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, don't turn that down.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, don't turn that down. I will wake up and be there 30 minutes early.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I may not have all my makeup on, but I will be there. I gotta make this happen. You don't need to worry about all that. It's not like, you know, being on camera here. So anyways, you don't have anything to worry about anyways. But that's awesome. You know, you've probably done the radio thing before. I'm sure you've made, you've done.
Speaker 3:Have you done a radio tour and you get up at the crack of dawn and you go into morning shows and you got to be, uh, the happiest person in the world and sing your song and sound perfect you're totally like making an impression, and not just your music but your personality as well, and that's like there's something to be said about that, like I think you know, of course you know like that, at the end of the day, is really why people want to play your music, is how you show up, and I think it's super important.
Speaker 1:No, the first impression means a lot, and I can tell you that from being a programmer. No, the first impression means a lot, and I can tell you that from being a programmer. Uh, you know the radio tours, and now we do a lot of this. This is my uh-oh. She disappeared. But what I was going to say is, now that we're doing this, is the fact that, uh, you know, actually coming into the radio station doesn't really happen like it used to. It does happen, happen on occasion, but not always. And hopefully Brittany will pop back in here. She's in Phoenix. Can you believe that? Phoenix, arizona. Now we've had people on Skip Happens from Australia, california. We get a few, but a lot of those. You may think that they make Nashville home, but the reality is they do not, but yet they travel to Nashville quite often. So so, waiting to see if britney pops back in here, I'm sure she will, I don't know, it's that long distance connection. There's a crow on the line. Here she comes, there she is. There's so weird. I was.
Speaker 3:I was there the whole time. I could hear everything you were saying. My face was still showing. I don't know what happened I see you, though.
Speaker 1:I see you now, okay, okay. Yeah, here we are. Yeah, no, I kind of carried it. I don't know, I'm just rambling, but I was like I'm here, I can see you, you um. Do you get back to your hometown at all?
Speaker 3:Or do you just kind of do your own thing? Percentage of my tours are still there, so I'm there quite a bit great.
Speaker 3:I enjoy it yeah, but now you know, like you've already done this a couple of times, but heading to Nashville and you're hoping to, you know let's take it to the next level and I mean, I'm there, I spend, I would say, about 40% of my time in Nashville and I it was really important to me when I started traveling to Nashville to make sure that I'm not just showing up there and then leaving and taking what Nashville has to offer like if I could move there I would be there in a heartbeat. So it's always been really important to me to like build a community there and, you know, just show face to, so that it's a respect thing, like it's definitely a must be present to one kind of situation in Nashville, and I just always really wanted to make sure that I was yeah, exactly what.
Speaker 1:what about your songwriting? Do you write all your own music?
Speaker 3:90 percent of my songs I write. There are two songs on the album that I did not write and that was total happenstance where one of the situations I was at the Bluebird Cafe playing around and my friend her name's Tori Tuye played a song Hell in a Handbag is the name of it and I was like what is this song? I need it right now. It was just one of those moments where it was like I know I didn't write this, but I don't care, I love it so much I want to record it. And then Autumn McIntyre, the producer, reba McIntyre's niece, reached out to me like a week before the album, before before the album, before we were going to start recording, and she was like I have a song that just got dropped from. It was on hold for like two years and she's like perfect for the album and it's a song called Love Thy Neighbor and it's also a song that went viral multiple times on TikTok for me and was just such a fun song. So I would say 90% of my music I write. But if a song comes across the table and I mean they're there for a reason, right, like we have amazing songwriters um all over and we want to make sure that their songs get heard too, so if a song comes across my lap that I'm obsessed with, I'm absolutely going to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how was the Bluebird? I mean you've played there. Obviously you just said that, but have you played there more than once and is it very nerve wracking?
Speaker 3:I have played there more than once. I actually love playing there more than I love playing like big stadiums. I feel like it's just so much more intimate and I don't. Big stadiums don't make me nervous, it's more of like you know, I feel like in a little room you really can just connect more, and for me it was magical. I loved it.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. I can see that, and I understand where you're coming from, exactly what you do. Talk about the big stadiums, though let's talk about some of the people that you've toured with. Yeah, give us some names. Come on, throw some names out there.
Speaker 3:Kane Brown, blake Shelton. Yeah, I'm very John Hardy, mostly dudes, but so fun. Lee Bryce, I will say, is probably one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Lee is a great guy.
Speaker 3:Him and Randy Houser. It's funny. I know they're very, very close friends, but they are two of the artists that I've played with that were the kindest and actually stood side stage and watched my shows. And Lee Bryce I played a show with him, I don't know, a couple of months before. We did this festival together and we're at the festival across this field and walking with a brown bag of who knows what and he's like Brittany Kell, like from across the field and I was like that's really cool. He remembered my name or even took the time to like carry something there.
Speaker 1:That means something. You know what else means. Something is the fact that I don't know how recent these numbers that I got off the website, but 446,000 on Facebook, 187,000 on Insta, you got 1.3 million on TikTok, I'm sure I don't know how recent those numbers are. That's pretty recent. Yeah, that's huge, brittany, that's huge Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of work. I, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:I know it's a lot of work and, that being said, you do it all by yourself or do you have a team that works on your socials?
Speaker 3:My socials is all me, 100% me all by myself and it's definitely.
Speaker 3:I actually recently was looking into hiring like a social media manager but not I don't want to get rid of my commenting quite yet. Like I go through and I respond to all the comments. Yeah, and I actually every morning I wake up early, I sit with my coffee and I respond to comments for two straight hours. It's just like something that I do every day. It's really important to respond to the fans. Like they take the time to comment on my stuff. I should take the time to comment back, but when I like like people, I'll have a venue go. Hey, your show's in two weeks and it's not on your website and I'm like that's like. Really, what I need help with is like my email list. Updating my website, like stuff is just where I'm really bad at it.
Speaker 1:You know the socials is one thing. You know, responding to Facebook, TikTok, insta or any of those, that's one thing. And you say you get up and you do that, but actually to keep the website up to date, that that's a lot of work and there's going to be a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. And you got graphics and you got this and you got that. You know it's just, and if something goes wrong, you mess something up in the backend, then you got to call somebody. It's just a pain in the ass.
Speaker 1:but that's why yeah, that's why somebody should be doing it. But so I totally get that and it's. I would think it's that personal connection that you make with your, with your fans, or even new fans. You know somebody is going to discover you on TikTok and it's like, oh my God, I love this. Brittany Kellogg, this is awesome. You know, and look at what. How many people has that happened? To Think about that?
Speaker 3:Pretty wild it's. I'm really grateful and you know it's funny, we kind it kind of goes back to the like male versus female. I mean you look at people, males specifically that have gone viral twice and are being signed and blown up, and you have a Bailey Zimmerman who's like I just never really wanted this. I just posted a video and I'm famous, you know. And it's like I've been viral so many times, and here we are.
Speaker 1:Here we are, I know, and I'm seeing new artists come across my desk almost every day. You know I'm getting something and they've got so many streams. They're doing this, they're doing that. It's just crazy and how all that is evolving and it's pretty much changing the landscape of of the format a little bit. I, I, I, I don't think it's bad. As we talked about before with, you know, some of the other music, some of the other artists coming into the format. I don't think it's bad at all. It's just there's so many out there though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's. I definitely I had a tech talk meeting the other day cause I was like I TikTok meeting the other day because I was like I used to post something and I used to know, okay, this song always goes viral and I would post it and within an hour it would have a million views. And now I like, asked him like what is going on? Like I had a video on Instagram do almost 100,000 views and it had 1900 on TikTok and I just said, like what's happening? And she's like it's just so oversaturated.
Speaker 1:Really yeah, no, that's probably true. Yeah, I didn't think of that, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy. You see the difference in those numbers and you kind of scratch your head and go what the hell's going on? I?
Speaker 3:don't get this Weird. I'm like, whatever you just keep posting, throwing it at the wall. I hope it sticks.
Speaker 1:Now you said before we went on that you did some videos today.
Speaker 3:Was that for, like TikTok, or was that for your socials? It was for socials. So I do some brand collaborations as well, and so I have one that I'm working on for CMA Fest with the Good Molecules Skin Care. They're going to be at CMA Fest passing out free skin care, so I was filming one of those, and then my kids and I did a Hawaiian shaved ice campaign today, so we made shaved ice and swam in the pool. It was great.
Speaker 1:I love it Now. Can I ask how old?
Speaker 3:It takes a long time.
Speaker 1:I know I can't even imagine, I don't think I'd be able to do it. But can I ask how old are the kids?
Speaker 3:They're six, 14 and 16.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the four who helped you with the shaved ice today.
Speaker 3:All three of them, but my 14 year old is like a major Swifty and he actually has his own Instagram for Taylor Swift with like 16,000 followers or something.
Speaker 1:I don't blame him, okay.
Speaker 3:Wild. And then my 16 year old is on the spectrum. He could care less about any of that, but he like is involved. My six year old is a total camera, little love, and he loves it too. But my 14 year old helps a lot with the filming.
Speaker 1:I love it. I have a 23 year old son, zach, who's down syndrome, and he just, he's all about just, uh, you know he's, he's the love of our life and uh, you know he loves what I do here when I do this. We do a podcast called Zach attack with dad and it's just, it's, it's crazy. I mean, if you explore skip happens on YouTube, you'll see Zach attack with dad. If you, I'm gonna go if you want to get a smile. So you know, just, if you explore, skip Happens on.
Speaker 3:YouTube, you'll see Zach.
Speaker 1:Attack with Dad. I'm going to go find it. If you want to get a smile, you know, just need something to pick you up, and I know we all have those days Just go there.
Speaker 3:There is nothing. My son is pretty high functioning but he's definitely very autistic. But there is. Dawn's kiddos are literally the most incredible human beings 100%. I feel like God was like. I'm just going to give you every good quality that a person can have. Here you go, Because they're so incredible.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get off the subject of music and I don't want people to think that all I talk about is my son. I'll get all over this, but, um, us having a conversation here, now that we know each other a little bit, uh, my wife and I, she, we got. I went through a lot in the beginning, which I told you, and then I found my. You know, nancy, my wife and we were a little bit older and we were trying. She wanted to have kids. She never had kids. We kept trying and kept trying. Nothing was working. It was fun trying, but nothing was working. And but, um, then all of a sudden she got pregnant, she miscarried and then she got pregnant again and we're so happy.
Speaker 1:But then we go to the doctors and, because we're older, she was, what do they call somebody that higher care? It's not just High risk, yeah, high risk, I guess. So we go there and they said you know what we're going to? Just, we're going to do tests. We just, you know, need your permission. Oh yeah, yep, and come to find out we were having a Down syndrome baby. Yep, and come to find out we were having a Down syndrome baby, and it was just.
Speaker 1:You know they give you the option saying all right, you know, and I don't know what you believe in. I can only assume. I can just already tell by looking at you. But there are so many people that don't want to deal with it. They'd say no. And the doctor, you know they only have so much time to do whatever they need to do. I know time changing now in this world about all that, but I remember that that day, that doctor, we were in his office and he sat down with us and he said okay, skip a. Nancy, we need to know. I need to know. We can't wait any longer. What are you going to do? And both my wife and I looked at each other, bawling our eyes out, and we just said you know, doc, god has given us a child. This is our son.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's going to have a great life. And he just smiled from ear to ear and said do you realize how many people would not want to deal with that? That I go through, you know. He went on and on and then you know Zach is 23 now and he's got a job. He's a big baseball fan. He's never a moment in my house. It's. It's crazy. He's all hugs, all jokes, all just it's it's fricking nuts in a good way, awesome.
Speaker 3:So all right, no, I love it. I actually I've never really felt like that before, but it's just.
Speaker 1:You know, it's yeah, and I have three grown daughters and I've got eight grandkids. So because of that, but that's all from, I call it my previous life, if you know what I mean and I'm sure you do. I get it Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wrote a song for my autistic son because he is called King of Legoland and you might relate to it a little bit if you listen to it. It's just I really again wanted people to kind of get insight into kiddos that are a little bit different. I think it's so easy to see a kid or adult for that matter that's a little bit different than them and they're very quick to assume. I posted a video of him on TikTok that went very viral of him at.
Speaker 3:Legoland, and the comments are just horrifying. You know, like, why does he run like that? What is he doing with his hands? Um, and so I really wanted to shed light on, like, what kiddos that are different maybe deal with um and for caden he, when he builds legos, he goes his own little world where, like, no one can hurt him yep, and it's um, it's just a really beautiful, like it's beautiful being a parent to a kiddo with differences. It truly is.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful for doing that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:That's just oh my God Whew Okay.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:You know, we have this, I have my teary moments with him all the time Today.
Speaker 2:I'm also teary.
Speaker 1:He's struggling in summer school and I'm like, ugh, oh, don't even go through the school thing. We, we fought with the school. We did all that. You know. You just got to do what's right for your child and nobody knows better than mom.
Speaker 3:Nope.
Speaker 1:And don't mess with mom. I was the you know we. I know we're off the subject here, but it's a podcast so we can chit chat a little bit. But there were times he's he graduated back in 2019, but there were times that we would get a call from the school, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So we have to go to the school. It's like you people don't get it. You people, you put them in time out alone, you put them in whatever you know. You can't do that, you don't understand it's so hard it's I?
Speaker 3:I emailed his teacher today and I was like here's 25 assignments he has to retake geometry during summer because he failed his first semester. But he's like I have to have the teacher unlock 25 assignments from the last week because he just goes through it and doesn't think and then he gets like 6% or whatever. But I'm grateful, you know, we do have a great team at his school. But it's the same thing where it's like well, he, you know, he plays on his iPad during class the whole time and I'm like you give him an iPad, like you're giving an autistic kid with ADHD and iPad that has the internet and expecting him to do his schoolwork.
Speaker 1:Right, it's not going to work. You just don't want to deal with it. You want to keep him busy so you can go and do other things when they should not be doing. That. Yeah, they need your attention and they need to learn to take anybody else, two more, you go, mom. I love it, I love it.
Speaker 2:So God bless you.
Speaker 1:God bless you for being who you are and what you're doing.
Speaker 3:You too.
Speaker 1:You know, once we had zach, realized that it changed our lives, but it changed it for the better, and I'm sure the same thing with you, um, but it's, it's a tough road. I forgot what I was going to say, but yeah, it's, it's a challenge. Oh, I was gonna. You were talking about people in the comments and all that. When we had zach, so many people were like we're so sorry. You know, is there anything we can do? Is there this? It's like what are you talking about? This is Zach is fine. Zach is fine. He's our son. He's beautiful. Yeah, maybe he won't learn as quick as other kids, but you know what it other kids, but you know what it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It's beautiful. They're the coolest kids.
Speaker 1:They're so cool he was, uh real quickly, because we're such a baseball family and, uh, we're big, we used to house some of the triple a players. That's the one level below the majors, and then a lot went on to play the majors and here in syracuse we have the mets, and so we're one level below the New York Mets. We're the Syracuse Mets and in 2019, I'm going to brag he was the Mets fan of the year in 2019. He's got a plaque at the stadium, he's got all that, and everybody in the stadium knows him, everybody's hey Zach, hey Zach, hey Zach. And plus, that's where he works now. He works at the stadium in the press box.
Speaker 1:He hayzack and plus he. That's where he works now. He works at the stadium in the press box, he does the scoreboard, he does the walk-ups, he does the lineups for the pa announcer, which I do that once in a while. So it's just so cool to go in and sit there if I'm working the pa, to see the notes he left me. And you know it does, it does and I bring them. I said you know I'm not throwing these in the trash, this is pretty awesome, so I bring it home. All right, let's get back to Brittany Kellogg.
Speaker 1:How can we I?
Speaker 3:love it. I'm here for it.
Speaker 1:So, if you want to, you want people to know about you. What would you tell them? Why would you tell them to listen to your music?
Speaker 3:You know, I think it's just a different. I don't want to say style of music, it's country music. But if you love 90s country, if you love the storytelling part of country music and kind of miss that in today's music, I think you should give my music a listen. Specifically if you're a parent or in a relationship or have just been through a lot in your life and have come out on the other side a little bit stronger, I think, um, you will definitely relate to my music bam.
Speaker 1:I love it now website if somebody wanted to get a hold of your music. I know you're on all the socials, but somebody everything, literally everything.
Speaker 3:Thank goodness my dad was very smart. Pre-american idol, like. Okay, before before the show comes out, everything has to be britney kellogg, like, because people are going to take your handle. So I, everything is under britney kellogg. My website is britneykelloggcom all my social. Spotify it Amazon. All of it is just at Brittany Cutlock.
Speaker 1:Smart of your dad to do that was very smart, yes.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:That makes it nice. It's awesome. You talk about 90s country. Have you?
Speaker 3:listened to like Zach Topp. He is one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:I love him Do you know May Estes then I don't know if I know.
Speaker 3:You have to listen to her. She is a female version of Zach Todd.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:She just signed to Big Machine Mae Estes M-A-E-E-S-T-E-S. I love that I'm promoting one of my favorites. She's literally one of the most incredible. She sounds like 90s country. She literally sounds like a female version of Zach. He's incredible and I'm so happy that he's doing as well as he is, because we need that Like he's like a little Alan Jackson and we need that back.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what you know, that's it, that's his style, and that, from program, is perspective. A lot of that is coming back around.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 1:And Zach. I think he's in the top 20 now, if I'm not mistaken. I don't know, I was reading something today. He's climbing the chart, so pretty good the King of Country song. Yes, oh, the King of Country is Ryan Larkins. No, what?
Speaker 3:is Zach's song.
Speaker 1:The song on the radio Sounds Like the Radio Sounds.
Speaker 3:Like the Radio Sounds like a damn good time.
Speaker 1:I love that song. You should collaborate with him. Do it together.
Speaker 3:That'd be super fun. I love Ryan too, though. That's a great song.
Speaker 1:Ryan's great. We had him here for a show and I really enjoyed hanging with him. Yeah, that's really cool. Is there anybody else that you're digging when it comes to music artists?
Speaker 3:Oh man, jome Estes, let me. I know I love the new Terry Clark album.
Speaker 1:Really big.
Speaker 3:You don't like it no, I haven't listened.
Speaker 1:I haven't listened and I should. I'm a fan of terry clark, I just really haven't. Everything else, all her old songs.
Speaker 3:It's her old stuff, but with collaboration um so she just released um I'm making note of it the the name of the song, but she released one with Laney Wilson that just came out on Friday and it's great. It's so great. It's like just a new kind of vibe for old stuff, but with newer artists. It's really cool.
Speaker 1:I like that, I like that idea, when they do that, especially some of the established artists, and they kind of give it a new sound, but not really a new sound, it's just yeah you know, you know the song. When you hear it it's maybe a little bit different, but to hear some other voices on it, it's pretty cool really I'm trying to think if there's anybody else that I'm loving right now.
Speaker 1:Obviously, obviously out there, I know. I just I always ask. You know, it's fine, because if somebody was to ask me, I'd be going um, um, all of them I love do you know who Farron Rachel's is?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's really good.
Speaker 1:I've heard her name, yes.
Speaker 3:He's really really good. Taylor Austin Dye is really great.
Speaker 1:These are the artists that need to be heard more.
Speaker 3:Totally. They're so good. Oh my God, kaylee, hold on. Kaylee Bishop, have you heard of her?
Speaker 1:That I have not.
Speaker 3:Okay, she was on the Voice.
Speaker 1:All right, go ahead.
Speaker 3:She was on the voice for a while and a long time ago okay her voice will literally take you to another place. I can't even. She just released a song called seven. You should look it up, haley Bishop. Um, her song's called Seven and basically the premise of the song is she was married for seven years and it took seven minutes to divorce him. Like in the room with the attorney, like in the attorney's office, took seven minutes to send paperwork.
Speaker 3:And her voice, it's just. It gives me goosebumps even thinking about it. It's haunting. She's voice is one of the best voices I've ever heard in my entire life. It's wild. She definitely needs more credit. She's insanely talented.
Speaker 1:I love it. I will definitely be looking that up. Sweet. So what time is your flight tomorrow?
Speaker 3:Not till 1.45.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're lucky. I didn't know if you got an early flight.
Speaker 3:I haven't started packing yet.
Speaker 2:Girl look at you.
Speaker 1:You take a backpack, you throw underwear, socks, maybe some jeans. Oh wait, a minute, that's for a guy, never mind.
Speaker 3:I'm a girl that's always overweight, so I always do the sky cap at the like entrance of the airport so that because they don't weigh my bags, I don't tell everybody your trick.
Speaker 1:You're only going for five days.
Speaker 3:No, I know, I know you have to like have performance outfits, and then I have to have interview outfits, and then I have to have casual outfits.
Speaker 1:I know, I know I'm teasing you. I get that, but for my radio guy we can just go with jeans and socks and a couple of t-shirts, maybe a pair of shorts, sneakers. You know we're good to go. Some deodorant.
Speaker 3:I have to bring all my skincare and that stuff is heavy you stuff is heavy.
Speaker 1:You're not that old and I'm not even going to go there, but you look very beautiful. So it just you know, you've, you know you've got the name, you've got the whole package. Your music sounds great. You're spending time on happens, which means a lot. We definitely need to hear more from Brittany Kellogg. I know you're out there, you're doing your thing, but you need, you know, we need to do more. And you talk about females being on the air. I'm one of those that I would like more females on the air. I would like. I don't want to hear. You know, I don't mean this in a bad way, but you know we're always seeing Carrie comes out with a song, Boom. It's like an automatic ad. You got Miranda Lambert. Now she's out with Wranglers, with a new Republic. I think she's on the Republic label label Boom. Now that's on the radio, but it's always it's, you know. And Laney, I love Laney, love Laney to death. Oh my God she's, I'd love her, but still, you know, there's only like what Carrie, laney, miranda. I'm trying.
Speaker 3:Carly Pierce.
Speaker 1:Carly Carly. Carly Pierce Love Carly Pierce too, I love her too and I love her sound.
Speaker 3:Obviously I love her sound because she's more 90s country Sounding too. Yeah, but I agree with you, it's you know. They can release a song and it instantly goes To top 10 or whatever.
Speaker 1:Just like we have with the guys, because now we have Zimmerman's, we have the Zach tops We've got you know, zach, brian, we've got you know. It just keeps going. Post Malone's Now the hottest song in the country is I had some help. So I mean, and you got Morgan Wallen, who's doing he's collaborating with so many different people Jelly rolls, anything wrong.
Speaker 3:No, no, you're right. You're right. Never mind doing uh, he's collaborating with so many different people jelly rolls, anything wrong?
Speaker 1:no, let's have throat. No, you're right. You're right, never mind, I actually posted a video.
Speaker 3:I posted a funny perspective from the chair's perspective um I'm gonna last night last night it's from the chair like yeah it was like I literally say he just yeeted me off the deck. It's really funny. People were very up in arms. Like this is mean I'm like. I literally love morgan. This is no shame.
Speaker 1:That's why I came from the perspective of the chair and not like a different perspective, because I'm like listen 100, yeah, listen, britney, don't go throwing chairs off a rooftop bar.
Speaker 3:Okay, no, I can't, I can't, I can't. I'm too old to be out that late anyways. Oh, stop with the age thing, it doesn't matter, I'm sorry I keep saying that, but like I just mean like the days of like being out till 3am are over.
Speaker 1:I go to bed at 11.
Speaker 3:My best friends and I went to Vegas for my 40th this last weekend Memorial Day weekend and we were in bed by 11 PM, but we were up at like eight, and then it's like 11.
Speaker 1:And that o'clock's rolling around and you're on the couch going all right, all right.
Speaker 1:Eventually. It's 11 o'clock, the news comes on. It's time to go to bed. I know I hear you, brittany Kellogg. You're wonderful. You are blessed in so many different ways. You got the music plus your family life. I just really appreciate you and I'm glad you opened up a little bit about that, because it's, I mean, that's what we do here on Skip Happen. So we and I told you before we went on that we would just have a conversation and and have some fun and find out about each other, and it's just that's what I love about doing this and hopefully you know I'm in nashville quite often, so hopefully I get a chance to, you know, somehow meet you somewhere, or you know I got friends out there now, so wait a minute, where are you playing? Again, because I'm going to tell them okay.
Speaker 3:So I'm playing friday at the good molecule stage at 10.50 am and then Saturday I'm at the BMI Block Party at 1.50 pm, and that's in the Ryman Plaza.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, bmi Block, the Block Party sounds fun.
Speaker 3:So fun, is it? Who are your favorite radio guys across the nation?
Speaker 1:My favorite radio guys. I love B-Dub. Do you know B-Dub, b-dub and I are so I'm from Portland Oregon.
Speaker 1:So B-Dub and I are like buddies. Yeah, b-dub and I, you gotta Look if you see B-Dub and I know he's gonna be there you say, hey, I talked to Skip, him and I. We talk all the time and we talk podcasting, we talk about equipment you know the stuff that people don't see and, uh, he does nights on our radio station. I just brought him on board to do evening seven to midnight and just, you know he does such a great job. We hung out at crs. Uh, it's. Oh, you got to tell them. Skip Clark said hello.
Speaker 2:Seriously, I will.
Speaker 1:Promise me you won't forget.
Speaker 3:I swear, I promise.
Speaker 1:Okay, what about TC. About who.
Speaker 3:TC Cotter. Do you know him Spokane?
Speaker 1:I do not know him. Nope, nope, fitz is a friend.
Speaker 3:I never met Fitz.
Speaker 1:Do you know Kenny J? I'll go for a while. He's now a consultant but he does a lot of radio stuff. Yeah, meg Stevens with iHeart.
Speaker 3:What about Jason Pullman?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I know who he is. I can't say that.
Speaker 3:I just played his wedding. What? Yeah, I guess you gotta do who he is. I can't say that, you know, I just played his wedding.
Speaker 1:What, yeah, you're doing wedding? I guess you gotta do so how did you what? Because he, just because of the relationship, he just kind of went yeah, it was actually really funny.
Speaker 3:So he um reached out and was like my fiance loves your music, I would love to have you just come and like sit in on a couple songs with the band. And I was like perfect, got my flight to dallas because it was in dallas. And um, then, like two weeks before the wedding, he calls me and his fiance is on the phone and she's like super stressed, upset. The band that they were, that they had hired to play the wedding, basically sent in a set list and they were like just like it just wasn't going to work out. They just were not, like it wasn't what they were expecting and it was a big bummer, but they were just hoping that, of course me, I'm like I can totally save the day Like my band, we'll just play whatever without even like my band.
Speaker 3:You know, whatever I was, I was in a 12 piece band for 10 years, so like I was just thinking like I got this. Um, so we basically were a wedding band for a night and it was so fun. We played like bruno mars and miley cyrus and it was a huge party and we had so much fun. It was a great time play.
Speaker 1:Play Uptown Funk.
Speaker 3:We did not, but I love I used to sing that with my 12 piece band.
Speaker 1:There, you go.
Speaker 3:We did Marry Me.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, bruno Mars, marry you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then Flowers so fun.
Speaker 1:Wow, look at that. So you got memories of doing a wedding.
Speaker 3:I do. I'm going gonna text b-dub as soon as I get off the phone please text b-dub, and I'm sure I'll hear from him too.
Speaker 1:So that's cool. Promise me you will, because I think that's going to be. Uh. Britney kellogg, thanks for coming on skip happens tonight. It's been great with you and for those of you watching this, or whenever you watch it, it's going to be posted. It's on skip happens. Of course, we live right now, but the video will always be up. Make sure you subscribe to Skip Happens. We have great artists on. For example, tonight it was Britney Love her to death, and this is how we met right here. So it's cool how we met. And make sure you check out the music, make sure you buy the music, make sure you support the artists. That's what I'm asking. So please do that. Brittany Kellogg, that is a name you need to remember. Make sure you write it down and say I got to check this stuff out. Once you check that out, you're not going to go anywhere else. It's pretty cool. So, brittany, stay right there.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us tonight, love you.