Labor Day is coming up, and we’re gearing up for the holiday weekend with a collection of work-and-career-inspired stories from you favorite country singers…

  Chris Young shares that it takes a lot of work by a lot of people to make a song work. (:21)
“There’s just so many layers to everybody’s job. Even in the music industry…from artist, to producer, to writer, to player, to everybody in every facet in a label. There’s so many moving parts that create all this stuff, and to get it right all at once on one song is so incredibly hard, but it’s so incredibly rewarding”

  Kenny Chesney talks about the difference in working in different types of venues. (:48)
“It’s two different animals, playing a smaller venue and playing a football stadium. It took me awhile to mentally prepare myself to do my job in a football stadium. It took me awhile to mentally cover the room, if that’s what you want to call it (laughs), you know, because I was so used to playing…you know, when I first started, it was me and a guitar, a tip jar, and then I went on the road with Alabama, and then I went on the road with some of these acts, and all of a sudden, I was in an arena, and I had to get used to that. And then, all of a sudden, I was doin’ it myself, and then we went from the arenas into the amphitheatres into the stadiums, and it’s just…it’s just a different animal. But it’s something that, when it’s magic, it’s great. When you can make a football stadium feel like a club, there’s no better feeling than that.”

  Kane Brown talks about his hard work paying off. (:20)
“It is a dream come true and honestly, I’m still the same person, I haven’t changed at all. I get to help out my family more when I need help, I don’t have to hope that I have $1.67 in my count to get a chicken sandwich like I used to use. It’s still the same life you just know you got more things going for you, I guess, if that makes sense.”

  Tyler Farr’s dad has always been a hard workin’ man back in Tyler’s native Missouri. (:21)
“He’s owned a Mexican restaurant, a family-owned restaurant, for 20 years, that my grandma started years ago. He, you know, was a black angus farmer — cattle farmer — when I was younger, and ran that restaurant, so he’s always kind of been one of them guys that had his hands full.”

  Tyler Farr recalls getting his career start at Nashville’s fabled Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. (:34)
“I moved here, got a job workin’ the door at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, one of the most famous honky-tonks in Nashville. They gave me a chance to sing if someone didn’t show up, and it was all said and done, and I did a good job at it. I mean, I was like, ‘Man, I can do this,’ you know? At first, I would stand up there, you know, just kinda, you know, like George Strait, but you can’t do that, unless you’re George Strait. (laughs) So, I had to learn the art of entertaining, and after doin’ it and playin’ the honky-tonks from 10 to 2am every night — probably took about five years off of my life — but after doing that, it was…best thing for me. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

  Miranda Lambert sees her job as helping people forget their worries for a while. (:25)
“People don’t want to think about it. That’s what entertainment is for. You don’t go to a movie because you want to sit there through the whole thing and think about everything horrible in your life. You go so you can get your mind off of it. And I think people come to concerts because they want to cut loose for two hours of their life and drink a beer and listen to music and just be out of the problems, because they have to deal with that seven days a week. And my job is to try to make people have fun and not think about that stuff.”

  Jake Owen talks about the business side of being a touring performer. (:56)
“It’s a business, and in order to have a successful business, it all starts from the top. Kenny Chesney, I mean, he is a musician, he’s an artist — he is also a great businessman. And in order to keep great employees, you have to know how to treat your employees, and Kenny doesn’t I don’t think makes anyone feel like his employees are employees. He makes ‘em feel like they’re friends, but yet he has a great way of being a boss, you know, and no one just gets up and goes to work to intentionally make their boss’s day worse. Everybody in my crew — and I know everywhere else out there on the road – people wake up every day with the same goal in mind: Let’s get out here, let’s do the job, let’s make the people happy, and go forth from there. So, a lot of people think that touring is just a backstage party they can’t wait to get passes to, but it’s a business, and in order to have a successful business, you have to be smart and diligent about the way you run that.”

  Maren Morris says looks back on hard work it took to get her career where she is now. (:39)
“Yeah, I definitely remember a few mental breakdowns along the way…like, in a bar, where no one showed up for our show. (laugh) And wondering, ‘Can I do this? Am I suppose to be doing this?’ and thank God I moved to Nashville and learned so much. I feel like I got so much under my belt with just the writing rooms and the writers that I’ve gotten to work with over the past few years. I feel like it gave that confidence, and…yeah, looking back I’m so glad I went through the struggles and the highs and the lows because it makes me so much more appreciative of what’s happening now.”

  Brad Paisley recalls his go-to source of relaxation in the beginning of his career. (:49)
“I can remember the first writing deal I had when I was livin’ in a little condo in Nashville. I didn’t have two dimes to scrape together, but I had a friend with a bass boat. It was about a 16-footer. It was enough for two guys to go out on the lake. And we would meet up every day that was nice and save up, buy any kind of tackle we could afford, and just head up to the…either the Cumberland River or Percy Priest, and…really, it was an interesting time in my life. I had these huge dreams. I really wanted to be a country music singer. But at the same time, it was a great lesson in making the most of…really, I had nothing; I had no family here, I had no girlfriend at the time, for sure, as much as I was trying. But it was the release for me. I would work all the time, write songs all the time, and then I’d go to the river.”

  Matthew from Old Dominion never takes the people who show up to their shows for granted. (:54)
“I am still, because we toured for so long, I still wonder if anyone is going to come to the show (laughs). Its still hard to wrap your head around. We played in Delaware and it was a big field with a huge outdoor stage and you know there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people. We’ve played a lot of those but we’ve been the band that plays the little side stage or whatever and its hard to wrap your head around the fact that that’s no, you are headlining the show and these people are coming to see you. So every show is still a surprise to me and the guys actually make fun of me sometimes because I’m always like, ‘is there anyone here’ and they’re like ‘ yes man, there’s going to be a lot of people here’ (Laughs) But we still have that sense that we want to prove ourselves to them and we want to make them come back and we want to make them feel like they get what they paid for or more than they paid for.”