Feels Like Home - Commentary

Welcome to Big Machine Radio
And the Tyler Rich "Two Thousand Miles" album release special

Hey there, I'm Becca and Tyler is here with me
We're going to talk about every song on the album and play every song on the album
Maybe tell you some things you didn't know
So first of all, Tyler, hello and thank you for being here
What's up, Becca? How are you doing?
I'm wonderful, but I have to imagine that you are doing fantastic

And I want to talk about this album "Two Thousand Miles"
I know that you say this is the distance between L.A. and Nashville
Because your wife lives in L.A., she's an actress
You live in Nashville, because you're pursuing country music
And so that's what it represents

But what I want to know, you have 11 songs on this album
And I know some of them have been out before
Some are a little older, some are brand-new
So, tell me about the period of getting this album together
Picking these particular songs, and what made them the right ones
To complete your debut album puzzle, so to speak

You know, it starts from four years ago when I first met my now wife
And the stories of adrenaline and take it or leave it of trying to court her
And um, just the little things of trying to fall back in love again
To falling in love to so many different topics
And there's so many different feelings that

If I was going to name my album "Two Thousand Miles" because
It is the distance between Nashville and L.A. of our two houses
And that mileage of going back and forth between my love
Between my marriage and my career all that time
I feel like the songs on that album should tell that story, the best it can
And that's hundred percent what this does

Well, I think you nailed it with all of these songs
And I want to go ahead and start playing them
The first song on the album is "Feels Like Home"
I love this song, it feels so good
And so I want to know what inspired this song
There are so many great visuals in it
Tell me about writing "Feels Like Home"

So, "Feels Like Home" is one of my favorite songs I've ever written
Not only because of the way it makes me feel when I hear it
But the way I've seen it make other people feel
And the way it's made people dance and love on each other and-
I'm super, super Irish, it's always been in my heritage, I did the DNA test type thing
I'm like over 70% Irish, and I had never been to Ireland
And I was on-, it was mine and Sabina's first big trip together
We've been together for a few months, and it was in the summer we went to Italy
We went to Barcelona and these beautiful beaches, and then we ended it in Ireland
And Dublin in the middle of the summer was rainy, overcast and Sabina was like, "Oh no"

And her "oh no" in my mind was this is incredible, I love everything about this
I love overcasts, I love clouds, I love rain
And I felt this really innate feeling of home
Something I'd never truly felt before landing in a new place
And as soon as we went into that first pub, it was packed
It was like five o'clock, and it was packed, and people were dancing
And beard mugs were flying in the air, and people were-
I think they call it river dancing in Ireland, I'm not sure
I hope they do, and it's not just an American term, but they were river dancing
On the friggin' stage

And Sabina's already on stage dancing with strangers
And I wrote down all these thoughts, and these little lyric ideas
Like dance with the stranger that you'd like to know, you know
'Cause like a certain song could come on, don't stop believing, or friends in low places
And it doesn't matter what dive bar, you're at in America

If that song comes on, you're screaming the words with a stranger
You know, you're dancing with people you don't know and
Everybody becomes a family because of certain songs and
That song is about all of the people and places
Unfamiliar, that can feel so familiar that they feel like home
No matter how far away from home you actually are

I always laugh whenever Neil Diamond and "Sweet Caroline" comes on
And the way everybody freaks out
Hundred percent, yeah
So I wanna know, "Feels Like Home", where do you feel most at home?
Where do you find the most peace? What location? What place?

Usually by the water, you put me anywhere near a beach
If there's sand, if I can hear waves crashing, I'm at like the ultimate peace in my heart
I grew up in California as you know, but where I grew up in California
You know, we're still a couple hours from the beach
We're very inland or in the valley, but the beach was always such a thing
You know, the beach was weekends and the beach can be a lake
You know, we grew up next to Lake Tahoe, we grew up next to Clear Lake
And all these places, beautiful places in Northern California that
Water has always been known to be peaceful and it is to me a thousand percent
If my toes are in the sand, I'm a happy man

That rhymed
Well, one thing I did want to ask before we play the song
The very last line of "Feels Like Home", you says
"So love who you love and smoke what you smoke if it feels like home"
And I, I thought that was an interesting line
I love the sentiment, but
Tell me about choosing to make that the final statement of this song
And what you wanted people to take from that

Yeah, that was a line we weren't sure when we wrote it
We're like, we're gonna throw this at the end of the song
We're not, you know, I don't know if the label's gonna love it
We don't know if we're gonna be able to keep this line in it
Because it can mean a million things and it does
You know, love who you love, that is very literal to, anybody you want
Regardless of your sex, your gender, what it is

"Love who you love and smoke what you smoke"
I mean, as long as it's legal where you're at, smoke what you smoke
And it just means be the truest version of yourself around the people you love
And your friends because if it feels like home
You should be able to do whatever the hell you want

Absolutely
Well, I say let's go ahead and play it
This is track one of Tyler Rich's new album on Big Machine Radio
It's "Feels Like Home"