Speaker 1: I've been a part of sharing the story of NBC's
The Voice since twenty sixteen, but they've been scattered across
all the digital platforms. Now all of those conversations are
in one location. Aro dot net, a r r oe
dot net. Look for that voice, Mindy. I love this
picture of you with that guitar. That that is very classic.
I hope you're putting that on some sort of merch
so that you can sell the hell out of it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I wish I saw what picture
you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Well, it's you with an acoustic guitar. It might be
a hummingbird. And then and then you've got that microphone,
which to me is the connection to the soul of
anybody who was tapped into to experience it. Yes, and
it almost looks like you're a free spirit? Are you.
Speaker 2: Almost? I don't know what gave that away.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm definitely a free spirit. I've I've been a musician,
working musician for a really long time now, you know,
since I was fifteen years old, and I've always kind
of just marched to the beat of my own drum.
And I've never, I've never, I've been unapologetic about my
life choices and proud that I've never given up on
this dream for sure.
Speaker 1: Well you're in the right city for that, because I mean, heck,
what would happen if if Patsy Klein or Hank Williams
would have gone in there trying to sound like Charlie
Pride or something, I wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean for you to be there in
the first place. And I think that's the one thing
that a lot of people who've never been to Nashville
don't understand. It's not always about just singer songwriting what
it is. It's about a lifestyle that's going on inside Nashville.
Speaker 2: Truth.
Speaker 1: Yes, especially that traffic. Can we finally do something about
that traffic in Nashville?
Speaker 3: Just when you think they're doing something for it, it
just somehow gets a little bit worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they want people to stay longer.
Speaker 2: The right.
Speaker 1: Making that choice to even audition for NBC's The Voice
did that was Is that a moment where you had
to sit down with your creative self and say, I
need you to listen to me, I need you to
find focus. We're going to do this and you're going
to get on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't for me.
Speaker 3: It was a process of well, first of all, I
was recruited to be on the show by the casting company,
and as soon as I saw the email, I was like, oh,
this is spam, and I threw it in the spam,
you know, and I got another follow up email and
I realized it was the real deal. And yeah, there
was a there was a whole process of me saying,
you know what, I have to surrender to the.
Speaker 2: Process and just I'm going to do this.
Speaker 3: I'm going to sit down, I'm going to give them
what they need, and whatever happens happens.
Speaker 2: And here we are.
Speaker 3: I'm top four for Snoop Dogg. It's just at this
point in the game, it's just hard to believe it.
But I'm so so grateful.
Speaker 1: How did you move beyond that thinking that it wasn't spam,
because I mean, we get so many emails these days,
and I wish these PR companies would come up with
a better way to communicate, whether because we do we
instantly put somebody in the trash can.
Speaker 3: Well, I got the follow up email and I looked
up the person's name who was emailing, and I found
their LinkedIn, and I'm like, oh wait, this is actually real.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is amazing.
Speaker 3: And you know, I've had some friends on the show
being in Nashville, as you can imagine, I know musicians,
but I've had some friends that have been on the
show in the past, and they also were recruited. So
I knew that that was a thing. I just couldn't
believe it was a thing for me in the moment.
But like I said, following through with it was just
a process of like surrendering and seeing whatever happens happens, and.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3: You know. When I got that email and she's like,
all right, well let's start picking songs out, I'm like,
I'll believe this when I get my plane ticket. Ye
got my plane ticket. And the whole time going out there,
I'm just like, I'm doing this. I'm going on the voice.
Speaker 1: So were you like me? Though? You had other people
call them too, just to find out if they were legit,
because I mean, if something good comes in, I sit
there and say, I'll ask my wife Lee, please, can
you can you please call this person because I'm not
feeling it inside my gut.
Speaker 3: No, because I once I feel like, once I realized
it was legitimate, and I was so scared of the
confidentiality part of it.
Speaker 2: I was I just kept it all to myself and
was like, I can't tell anybody.
Speaker 3: But then once I realized it was real, and I
was like to my husband, I was like, get in here,
look at this email. What do you think about this?
And he was like, this is so amazing. You got
to go for it. But yeah, I was definitely very
skeptical at first.
Speaker 1: But how do you deal with that confidentiality? Because I
work for a movie promotions company and we're always signing
those pieces of paper. And I sat in my soul,
I'm going you want me to what? I can't even
keep Christmas presents away from people? You want me not
to talk about this?
Speaker 3: Ah, and trust me. Before I left for filming here
in Nashville, I had residencies, meaning regular gigs, and I
would say six out of seven days a week. So
it was really hard when I was gearing up to
leave for the shows to not say anything anybody because
everyone's going to be like, where did she go?
Speaker 2: So she just vanished into thin air.
Speaker 3: But it was something that I thought about, like, Okay, listen,
if I say anything, it can ruin somebody else's chance
of having their moment, you know. So I just kept
telling myself like, Okay, this isn't about me. This is
about all of the people who signed up to do
this show, and I'm not going to leak anything.
Speaker 1: See. I love that about you, Mindy, because it's not
about you, And I would love to see the research
on the people that when you come on that screen,
how their lives personally change, because you're adding something to
our lives by you being on that show, and then
we only get it one song at a time. Really,
are you kidding me? I want more of Mindy Miller.
Speaker 2: Well you can get.
Speaker 3: More if you if you look me up on the
social media platforms. I've been going at this for a
really long time. You know. This is a career that
I've been pursuing since I was fifteen years old. So
there's lots of stuff floating around, and then some new
stuff that you can stream online on you know, Spotify,
Apple Music.
Speaker 2: And all of that. But I appreciate you saying that
that you want more because I've got more coming.
Speaker 1: Well, what was it like for you at such an
early age to step inside that recording studio, because you
know how parents are and friends are when you say
I'm going to go record some music in a studio. Okay,
Well is that someone's bedroom that they've got a cassette deck?
What's going on here? But I mean it was the
real deal for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know not to not to spend
too much time on this, but you know, I got
really sick when I was a teenager and I had
to end up dropping out of school because they said
I'd have to repeat it and I was like, I'm
not I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2: I'm going to finish school. So I homes school. I
got it done early.
Speaker 3: And when I was really sick in the hospital, you know,
like almost you know, you know, if I didn't catch
what was going on, I could have died from it.
My folks they saw that and they were kind of like,
you can do whatever you want. You know, that changes
your whole perspective. They're like, we almost lost you.
Speaker 2: You can do whatever you want to do.
Speaker 3: And I had a really great group of musicians in
my band that were like more like older brothers, that
were so protective that I swear my parents never worried
about a thing They were like, they're taking care of her,
they're protecting her. But there were definitely nights when I
would come home from the studio two or three in
the morning and they would just be like, what.
Speaker 2: What is this life my daughter's living.
Speaker 3: But they were so supportive and understanding, and they knew
my passion for performing. They knew that it was a
calling for me from a young age, and so I
wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 1: You know this.
Speaker 2: I do believe all of the good things that happen.
Speaker 3: All of the bad things, they all happen for a reason,
and they all happen in their own time, and I
feel like it is my time right now.
Speaker 1: So when you're coming home at two, three o'clock in
the morning and they're asking where have you been? Did
you did you give them the raspy voice. I was
in there singing, Oh my god, you have no idea.
Speaker 2: That's all I was doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, yeah, I mean it was I kept in
you know, I'd keep in touch with them, but I
mean it was I felt like it was something they
got you too. But after a while, it was just like, yep,
there's Mandy coming home at two or three in the
morning after a gig.
Speaker 1: But that's the way it is. I mean, because I mean,
my wife and I will still sit here and joke
around about those days where we would stop at like
a Denny's restaurant at four o'clock in the morning and
fall asleep after we ordered breakfast that early in the
morning because we were out performing all night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a hard it's a hard lifestyle for sure.
Speaker 2: But you know what will we do with that waffle
house and Denny's?
Speaker 1: I mean, please do not move. There's more with Mindy
Miller from NBC's The Voice coming up next NBC's The Voice.
We are back with Mindy Miller. One of the things
that you have put focus on when it comes to
growing through your music journey is the fact that you
do bluegrass. Now, I'm here in Carolina, I know what
it's like to be up there in those Appalachian mountains
with authentic bluegrass. Do you take a tour and listen
to everybody's different styles, because Dolly Parton will tell you.
She said that bluegrass is how people got their news,
that was their newspaper.
Speaker 3: Mm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good way. That's it. I love
that quote.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, bluegrass is you are from the being
from the Carolina, It's like it's really known for having
a good bluegrass community. It's not as widely known about Washington,
DC area bluegrass community. I mean, it's such a crazy
pool of talent up there, and some of some of
our really great bluegrass musicians came from the DC area,
and I was fortunate to grow up around some of them.
You know, the great Eddie Stubbs who's retired now, but
you working in radio, you might know Eddie Stubbs, who
is like the voice of Nashville.
Speaker 2: You know, he just retired a few years ago. He's
from my hometown.
Speaker 3: And how he was a fiddle player in a bluegrass
band called the Johnson Mountain Boys.
Speaker 2: And I was a super fan when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: You know, we would go to the concerts and I
would I would get you know, my CD signed and
super fan.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I love listening to all bluegrass.
Speaker 3: I love you know, people from Kentucky will say that
their bluegrass is the only good blue grass people.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a very.
Speaker 3: Man it's such a skilled genre that like I hardly
can even call myself a bluegrass musician because it's kind
of like scary once you put yourself out there. It's
like there are so many incredible instrumentalists, songwriters within that
that arena. And I think my favorite country artists are
the ones who start off as bluegrass musicians and then
they go to country like Zach Top's a great example
of that.
Speaker 2: It's just a it's just a different soul that comes
from bluegrass.
Speaker 3: I know it doesn't seem like people don't always when
they think of bluegrass, the first thing they don't think
is soulfulness. But the soulfulness, the storytelling and the like
grit that that comes from that genre.
Speaker 2: It's like the stuff that when you hear it.
Speaker 3: But that's why when you hear it, it makes all
the hair on your body stand up, because there is
such a soul that lives in it.
Speaker 1: So true. No, you're absolutely right, because I mean when
you when you study the history of Vince Gil, Ricky Skaggs,
and even Alabama with Dixie Land Delight, when they bring
in that that that bluegrass kind of a vibe to it,
you you can tell it changes him. And I believe
that even when they speak and they walk through the
world today, it's because of that bluegrass that they are
so connected to the people because it is the people's music.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. M yeah there And gosh, you just listed off
my favorites.
Speaker 1: So have you Have you learned how to clog yet?
Speaker 2: No, I have not.
Speaker 3: But it's funny you bring this up because at my show,
I do a Friday night show when I'm in town
at a very iconic venue in town called the Nashville Palace,
and every Friday night we have one of the best
Appalachian buck dancers named Tommy Jackson come to my shows.
Speaker 2: He's he is.
Speaker 3: He has a dance company called the Rocky Top Review,
but he trained the square dancers on the Opry. He
has trained like all the kids, all the buck dancers
through the generations, and he comes to my shows every
night and the Silver Fox he is.
Speaker 2: He still gets up there. We play the fastest Rocky Top.
Speaker 3: We can give him well without falling off the rails.
And I mean, there's videos on my social media you
just have to go watch. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: People don't realize around the rest of the country that
these bluegrass performers are traveling across the Southeast all weekend.
It starts on a Thursday and goes all the way through,
because I mean they go from one night to the
next club, to the next club to the next club,
because wherever the stage is, they want to be able
to perform their bluegrass.
Speaker 3: Yep. Yes, absolutely wow, And thankfully we still have the
legendary station in here in Nashville that is just this
sweet little music venue that's nestled in between a bunch
of high rises and it's still staying the same. It's
still the traditional bluegrass and country in there.
Speaker 2: So thank goodness we still have that here in town.
Speaker 1: So now, when you do your performances on Friday, are
you pretty much like over there in Black Mountain or
even Ashville, North Carolina, where if you have a party
like that, you've got to have sweet potato pie and
sweet tea.
Speaker 2: Well, I love both of those things.
Speaker 1: It's a Southern tradition, man. I mean, if you're gonna
go out and listen to some bluegrass, you better have
that sweet potato pie right now.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, absolutely, yeah, that's that's uh.
Speaker 3: You know, the the bluegrass community is a really small,
tight knit one, and going to bluegrass festivals or even
like the Bluegrass Music Awards here in Nashville, it's so
great to watch that that community come together and and
and uh, there's there's a really great core of musicians
right now. Especially Vince Gill has them working for him.
You know John Metter, he's like my favorite vocalist. He
was in a bluegrass band call it Authentic Unlimited, and
Vince Skill hired him. Now he plays in his band
with Vins on the Opera almost every night.
Speaker 2: You know, It's it's phenomenal. But like they've been kind
of taking me under their wing.
Speaker 3: And I've been getting to hang out with a lot
of the bluegrassers and kind of feeling, kind of feeling
like my roots here in Nashville are just you know,
showing even more like my roots that I brought here.
Speaker 2: I just I love the community here in town.
Speaker 1: Are we going to start seeing you at things like
meurl Fest and Wilkesboro because I mean that is like
bluegrass having right there when it comes to music during
the spring months.
Speaker 2: Well, that would be great. I would love to perform
at meural Fest. That would be That'd be a dream.
So yeah, let's let's get I'm gonna get on it.
Speaker 1: Well, because it's just so weird how Meuralfest has become
such a global thing. People are coming from all over
the place Ireland and you're going to Oh, that's right,
I guess Irish music in a way it's bluegrass.
Speaker 3: Funny you say that because I was checking my Spotify stats.
You know, I have finally got the nerve to open
it up and see how little streams I had. But no,
the my songs are to My songs have the highest
streams in Ireland. And we have a lot of friends
that come from Ireland to Nashville to watch music and
I'm constantly, you know, connecting with them here.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Irish are our.
Speaker 3: Friends in Ireland are great supporters of country and bluegrass.
Speaker 1: So are you Are you thinking about merchandise yet, because
when you do go on tour, you're gonna have to
have some merch because that's how people, you know, they
kind of save that kind of stuff forever and ever
and ever. Are you thinking along those lines yet?
Speaker 3: Oh? Of course, merk is like one of the most
helpful supplemental things for touring musicians. And like anybody, any
listeners who are music fans listening to this, like, we
love you and are so thankful when you buy merch
because merch sometimes those two t shirts you just sold
at a show? Is the gas money to get to
the next one? Like, It's genuinely just like a great thing.
But I have a couple t shirts. At the end
of this week, my website's going to be launching with
the new merch store that you know has been being updated.
And trucker hats are like a big thing for me.
I wear trucker hats constantly, so it was only natural
we have a cool trucker hat coming.
Speaker 1: Wow, once again, are you a free spirit? Look at
you with that trucker hat on that totally says that
you're a free spirit.
Speaker 3: I'm just living, you know, I have in my own
little imagination I'm a long haul truck driver.
Speaker 1: Just you know, did you ever do that? Because I mean,
look at Red Soulvine back in the nineteen seventies. He
actually went out there on those trucks.
Speaker 3: Man, you did, And that's something that before I had,
you know, kids, I was like, what if to my husband.
I was like, because he plays pedal steel guitar for
me and we tore together, and I was just like,
what if we became truck drivers and just like made
our tours based off of our trucking routes like we
were totally talking about at one point, but then you remember,
like what you mentioned earlier, the traffic and coupling in
my road rage.
Speaker 2: I just don't think it's idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then you tour the country and you say, Okay,
we're gonna stop in this town for like two weeks
because this is true crime country and we're gonna sit here,
We're gonna solve this crime, and then go on to
the next performance.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, that's that's hilarious. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you, Mindy?
Because I want them to know your journey and to
experience all of you, not just what we're seeing on
NBC's The Voice.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for for that. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I am pretty darn active on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook,
and if you search Mindy Miller music you can find me.
I have music on streaming on all the streaming platforms
and lots more to come real soon. And you know
my social media, it's it's a great way to keep
up with with me, especially going into the new year.
Speaker 2: I have a whole new video series.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be launching. Wow, that's going to include traveling
and I'm next year. People keep asking what's your plan
for next year, and that for me is to be
on the road as much as possible. I'm trying to
find a way to bring my family with me because
it is a way of life for my family, and
I kind of just want to take take it on
the road altogether as a family next year. That's the
big goal, you know, especially while my son is small
enough to be willing to be in like a bus
with us or a camper. That's that's I want to
I want to reach as many folks around the around
the country and around the world next year as possible.
Speaker 2: That's my goal.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Well, please come back to this show anytime, especially if
you come here and you play at Coyote Joe's. I
want to talk to you face to face.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. I would love that. I'm going to
write Kyote Joe's down right now.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you you as well. It's great to talk
to you.