Tony Scott: 0:13

Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a behind-the-curtain look at the entertainment industry, with insights you can't pay for and stories you've never heard. Now here's your host, Jay Franze.

Jay Franze: 0:41

And we are coming at you live. I am Jay Franze and this is your source for the latest news, reviews and interviews. So if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any questions, please head over to jayfranze. com. All right folks, tonight we have a very special guest with us. I said it, I will say it again we have a very special guest. We have a country music recording artist hailing from the great state of South Carolina. We have Dalton Hicks. Dalton, sir, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I am fantastic. I'm looking forward to this tonight. So why don't we just jump right in? Sounds good. How long has it been since you started playing?

Dalton Hicks: 1:24

I picked up the guitar when I was about 17 years old and I just started messing around with it. I usually try and say to people that I started then, but I really didn't. I started really actually playing shows when I was about 19. Alright, yes, sir.

Jay Franze: 1:39

What inspired you to pick up a guitar in the first place?

Dalton Hicks: 1:43

Oh, so me and my grandma, my great-grandma. She passed away and she was always big into the piano, into church and everything that, what. That's really what it's inspired me to get in. I started on piano and then I went to the guitar and then I just started singing and I love it and that's what I want to do in life.

Jay Franze: 2:03

So how did she influence?

Dalton Hicks: 2:05

you earlier in my life and she practically almost raised me. Uh, it's the one person I could really talk to through my whole life and everything. And it was hard when she passed away, but I'm trying to make her happy and I think I'm doing pretty good doing it through music.

Jay Franze: 2:23

I'm sure she's looking down, thinking you are as well. So she passes away early in your career. What was the challenge you faced with that?

Dalton Hicks: 2:34

It was hard. It was hard and it took a little toll on me. It kind of put me through the wringer a little bit, but you know I keep pushing through.

Jay Franze: 2:47

So did she encourage you to not only pursue the dream, but become a recording artist.

Dalton Hicks: 2:56

Not really she encourage you to not only pursue the dream but become a recording artist. Not really she. It wasn't really. It wasn't really her pushing me to become an artist or anything. It's just she inspired me to get into music because she always had a love for music. She had a piano in her house and the whole whole time I was alive, so we always sat there and played together and I learned songs to come over there and try to impress her. Did she teach you at all? Uh, yeah, she taught me. She taught me the piano. Definitely not everything. I'm not the best on the piano. It's just where I started from right.

Jay Franze: 3:29

Did you take lessons outside of her?

Dalton Hicks: 3:32

I did. One time I think it was in middle school I did piano lessons for a little bit and I had one recital and that was pretty much the end of the piano. Yeah.

Jay Franze: 3:45

No, I can understand that. I took piano all the way through college and I swear to you, I still can't play anything. Yeah, I mean, I remember I played Journeys Faithfully as my graduation piece, so somehow I made it through that, but I couldn't play it for you today if I tried, but it's all right. It's a great instrument to learn theory on, though. So I mean, how are you at theory?

Dalton Hicks: 4:06

Oh yeah, I'm not that great at all.

Jay Franze: 4:09

All right, so you play by ear then. Yes, yes, sir, I do See I'm the other way, so I can understand the theory behind it, all the math behind everything but I. I cannot play by ear for anything, so you play piano and you said you also play guitar.

Dalton Hicks: 4:25

Yes, sir.

Jay Franze: 4:25

At what point did you pick up the guitar?

Dalton Hicks: 4:28

Uh, 17. Like I said, I dabbled in the piano. It wasn't like a main thing for me, it wasn't a priority at the time, and I fell away from it. And then my dad got me my first guitar it was an electric guitar when I was really young. I never really did anything with it until I was about 17. And I learned the national anthem. That's going to be pretty cool to learn though. Yeah, so I was in there showing my dad. I had an electric guitar, turned up the speaker and was just jamming it.

Jay Franze: 5:03

So which do you find easier to play?

Dalton Hicks: 5:06

Definitely guitar now.

Jay Franze: 5:07

Really. See, I try playing guitar. I was never good at it. I picked one up, I still have it today, and I just not good. Bass guitar I feel comfortable with, but acoustic or an electric guitar, no, yeah. And piano I might not be good, but I understand it. It's just getting my fingers to actually do what they're supposed to do. Yeah, that's all right, though. So at what point do you sit down and say, okay, I'm going to start writing songs?

Dalton Hicks: 5:42

I'd say the first time I really got into it was right before my first release of uh. It was actually there was a prior release to it's not out anymore because I deleted it. It was just. It was way back in the day and I just had to go. It's called uh thinking about the future and I was the first song I ever wrote and uh, yeah, we recorded it and put it out and it's just, it's crazy I still got the recording and uh, it's just crazy how much my voice has matured since then. That's why I mainly put it out, because I was squeaking.

Jay Franze: 6:19

So did you write it by yourself.

Dalton Hicks: 6:21

Yeah, yes, sir, every song that I have out right now and every song that I'm currently working on, I've been writing by myself. It's hard for me to write with others, I think, because I just myself, I. It's hard for me to write with others, I think, because I, just when I start writing a song, when I get an idea, I just go with it and I see where it takes me. If I need to change something up, I change it up as I go, but I don't know, it's just, it's different for me. It's hard. Yeah, maybe some help would would be awesome, but I've never done it.

Jay Franze: 6:48

I'm never going to ask you if you've tried. It's a different experience. By all means writing with somebody else. Usually one person comes with an idea that they throw on the table, and then the the team could be two, three people sit down and kind of hash their way through it. I don't know, I like both ways, but I'm like you most of the time, I'd rather write by myself. To me those songs are personal. It always starts with a lyric to me. So, when you start, are you starting with lyrics or music first?

Dalton Hicks: 7:23

The last one that is going to be releasing soon is I actually started writing with acoustic, but usually I try and come up with a chorus first, or I come up with a song title and try and base the whole song off my song title.

Jay Franze: 7:40

So it starts lyrics first then.

Dalton Hicks: 7:42

Yeah, lyrics yes.

Jay Franze: 7:44

And then you start playing some chord changes behind it. Are you then crafting a melody and creating words based around that melody, or is the melody coming from the lyrics that you've chosen?

Dalton Hicks: 7:57

It's usually coming from the lyrics that I've chosen. Like when I write and when I put something down, I already kind of have it pictured in my head. That's what I write off a little bit.

Jay Franze: 8:07

So when you sit down to write, can you tell us what that process is like?

Dalton Hicks: 8:16

I get me a song title and, like I've said, we started right now I think of something to write about. I come up with a song title and try and get a uh chorus to start with, but sometimes my chorus is changing to the first verse. Get out my notes on my phone and, uh, just start to start thinking. And then once I get that first verse or first chorus line, that's when I pick up a guitar and I try to see like which way it could go better fast, slow so when you sit down to write, do you have anything special that you do as far as setting up a room?

Jay Franze: 8:51

do you sit down in a writer's room?

Dalton Hicks: 8:54

Yeah, I just I write on the fly. Yeah, I never really made a designated spot to write in.

Jay Franze: 9:01

That's kind of more of the way I would do it. I don't feel like I have any one place that I would like to sit down or anything I would do to make myself comfortable. I just get hit with an idea, Usually if I'm driving something hits me and it's like, okay, I could work with this. Yes, sir.

Dalton Hicks: 9:23

So do you have, like, any influences that inspire you? Usually it all comes from my heart, you know, like my past and just everything. Through that, I've written my first song, goodbye kiss. I wrote uh, it was actually for 9, 11 and all the american heroes out there just giving that last goodbye kiss before they go off and not knowing if they're coming back home. That was the whole inspiration on that how tough was that to write oh, it was.

Dalton Hicks: 9:50

it was very tough. I really want to get it remade and remastered, because I was that was back in 2019 when I recorded that, but I love the song so much I just wanted to keep it out there so people could hear it.

Jay Franze: 10:01

Writing about a subject like that's got to be tough.

Dalton Hicks: 10:03

Yeah, we'll see.

Jay Franze: 10:04

So I asked you about influences when it came to writing. Do you have any artists that you look up to?

Dalton Hicks: 10:12

that you look up to. I've always looked up to Thomas Rhett as an artist because I just love his personal life, his family life. He's doing what he loves, but at the same time he's always there with his family. That's how I want to be.

Jay Franze: 10:26

So how does that affect how you approach yourself as an artist?

Dalton Hicks: 10:32

Music definitely is my passion and my career goal, but at the same time I want to have a family. I want to do all those things as well, but I'm going to pursue music as hard as I can.

Jay Franze: 10:43

Well, I mentioned at the beginning that you're still fairly new in your career and you mentioned that you started at around 17 and then really came to life at 19. How do you feel things have changed from that point till now?

Dalton Hicks: 11:00

my voice has matured and I I can't lie. I know I'm just not sitting here talking about my voice or anything, but it's changed a lot and I've just so much feedback from you, from fans and everywhere we play. It's been awesome and up to releasing my last song, it really did. I didn't put any money towards it in promoting or anything and it did very awesome. It's coming up on like 400,000 streams, which is super impressive. Yeah, yes, sir, I'm shocked, I'm shocked.

Jay Franze: 11:32

Exactly how does it make you feel when you get that many people listening to your stuff?

Dalton Hicks: 11:36

It feels awesome. It really does. I I was not expecting it. You know I I didn't even put out a pre-save or anything. I just went into the studio. I posted a few times before I released it. I think one TikTok video blew up and boom, I put it out there and it started doing amazing.

Jay Franze: 11:57

So do you enjoy social media?

Dalton Hicks: 12:00

It's harder for me. I'm not the best cameraman, I hate recording myself and all that, but I'm getting more and more used to it. My manager and her team are definitely getting on my butt about getting more active on it and going live and all that stuff.

Jay Franze: 12:19

All right, so let's dive into that a little bit. What are you doing to build your audience in the world of social media?

Dalton Hicks: 12:29

I'm trying to motivate. That's what my songs right now are just inspiring people to get up and if they're living a hard life, if they've been through a hard life, is to get up and just keep on pushing. You know that's what I'm doing. A lot of people have doubted me in the past and my last song the name of it is I'm still here. I just wanted to tell everybody that I'm still here and I feel like a lot of people can relate to that so you say, to inspire people that are going through hard times and living a hard life.

Jay Franze: 13:00

What has affected you that you're trying to overcome?

Dalton Hicks: 13:06

Just life in the past. I moved out of my parents and my family right after high school and I don't have the best relationship with my mom. But I live in Carolina, my mom lives in Georgia and so I don't know. It's just. There's all sorts of stuff, personal stuff, you know, and everybody has their moments where they're in the gutter. But I want to be the person to bring the moments out of the gutter. You know I want to. I want to inspire people to get out of the gutter and have a happy life.

Jay Franze: 13:44

I can understand that for sure. I mean everybody has challenges. So the relationship with your mother, what kind of challenges that put on your career?

Dalton Hicks: 13:54

Oh, it really doesn't. She's supportive as ever, and, uh, we definitely talk a good bit, but it's just not. It's not what I really expected. It's just, it's different.

Jay Franze: 14:08

Is there a father in the picture?

Dalton Hicks: 14:12

Yeah, my dad. He lives right down the road from me.

Jay Franze: 14:14

What's the relationship like there?

Dalton Hicks: 14:16

It's good, more of the party life, kind of we're always doing something on the weekends. We go into the mud hole, go into the drag strip pool halls you know that's nice.

Jay Franze: 14:28

So you're at a point where you're friends with your father.

Dalton Hicks: 14:32

Oh yeah, definitely I work for my dad.

Jay Franze: 14:35

I used to work for my father, but I never got to that point of necessarily being friends and hanging out because my father passed away young. He passed away at 47 and I was in my early 20s when I was going through that and working for him. So I guess that would probably be one of the challenges I had to overcome.

Dalton Hicks: 14:53

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that.

Jay Franze: 14:54

Oh, it's been a long time now, buddy, I'm old, but yeah, I mean, we all go through some sort of challenge like that, but it's good to hear that you're you've got that kind of relationship with your father. It's one of those things I wish I would have had yes, sir so how does your father feel? You know you're friends with him at this point. How does he feel about the career you're pursuing?

Dalton Hicks: 15:16

he loves it, he, uh, he brags to all his friends about it every time, like we have a big old get together or anything he's like bring the guitar, bring the guitar, does he? Go to any of your shows oh yeah, he comes to everyone, he can earlier you mentioned you had a manager, so who's your manager? Don and uh with burning down, burning ground entertainment so how did that come about? So I got a call one day and actually it was a message on Instagram from somebody and her.

Jay Franze: 15:50

So somebody on her team sought you out on Instagram and decided to reach out.

Dalton Hicks: 15:56

Yep and we set up a call and I really liked what I heard and it's been very good so far. Her and team have been putting a lot into my brain that I had no idea existed.

Jay Franze: 16:06

Well, a couple of things there. First of all, how impressive is it that you're? You know at the early stages and somebody like that reaches out to you Cause that's a heavy weight at this point, right, yeah, so how did that make you feel it's?

Dalton Hicks: 16:19

huge and I don't know I'm. I'm just blessed Every time something big or small, happens to me. I love it. Every one step closer to reaching my goals and reaching my career that I want to have is just awesome.

Jay Franze: 16:34

Well, that's a big one. Yeah, it's a huge one, but you said that they are teaching you things that you didn't know. Can you give us some examples of what those might be?

Dalton Hicks: 16:44

Just really all the legal stuff and all the paperwork, the fine lines and all that so far.

Jay Franze: 16:49

The business side of things? Is this something that you thought about before you met with these people?

Dalton Hicks: 16:55

Not at all. I had no idea. Yeah, I had BMI and everything like that. I had no idea anything about it.

Jay Franze: 17:02

Yeah, for those who don't know, bmi is the performing rights organization that you sign up with in order to collect your royalties. Usually do that with a publishing company, so you were playing shows. How were you getting the shows before you met up with this manager?

Dalton Hicks: 17:18

I actually have a full band and we every weekend for like a year and a half we were we were booked out playing shows. We opened up for Jared Neiman what was that like? That was cool. That was cool.

Jay Franze: 17:33

How did you get the gig?

Dalton Hicks: 17:36

Do you know Lenny Cooper? Oh yeah, he sings Mud Digger with Colt Ford. Yes, sir, okay, yeah, so he owns the Skyline Club and he really likes our band. He's actually the one that took us up to Nashville and got us in at the Omni Before they tore it down.

Jay Franze: 17:56

Yeah, that's so sad, that's horrible. Yeah, they tore that place down.

Dalton Hicks: 18:00

Yeah. So we all went up there and took a trip and we actually have a song out with the whole band. My band's called Southerly Proper. The song's called New Way. We have a music video and everything. It's really cool.

Jay Franze: 18:15

You went into Omni. That's an iconic studio in Nashville that's no longer there.

Dalton Hicks: 18:23

What was the experience there like? It was awesome. Nobody in the band I have never experienced anything like it records on the ball. This is everything they've done. And then the musicians that uh, the musicians got that got hired to play on the track were, like, some of the coolest people that played, that have played on tracks for some of the biggest names, and it's just, it was crazy, it was very crazy do you remember any of them?

Dalton Hicks: 18:47

I don't remember the names. I was in there focused, so my band members didn't. They didn't get to play, so they were the ones really talking and I was just in there focused and talking to bill mcdermott. Did he produce it?

Jay Franze: 19:00

yeah, bill produced it. So he selected the musicians, brought those people in and did that.

Jay Franze: 19:05

It's typically the way it works in Nashville and it's unfortunate when you have a band of your own that they don't get to play on the record. But that's very, very common practice. I mean known musicians. I mean Tim McGraw had to fight for years to get his live band to be able to perform on a record. They wouldn't let him do it. So I mean, when I say it's common practice, I mean it truly is common practice. So now that you have a management company behind you, how do you anticipate the recording processes to go in the future?

Dalton Hicks: 19:36

I'm not really sure.

Jay Franze: 19:39

Do you think that it's going to change?

Dalton Hicks: 19:42

Oh yeah, I definitely think it's going to change for the good.

Jay Franze: 19:46

Let's talk about that for a minute too. Not just the recording process, but the writing process, the pre-production, before you even go in the studio. Do you think that they're going to want you to write with writers?

Dalton Hicks: 19:57

Oh yeah, They've already sent two my way, and it hasn't really gone far. It hasn't gone far, but yeah, it's new to me and I'm working myself in. But I've been really trying hard to get stuff out there and do what they ask of me.

Jay Franze: 20:18

Well, it's a big deal. I mean, that is the way Nashville works. They work in writing teams and they have writers that come in and help support artists by taking their ideas and turning them into something polished, a finished product yes, the one you are.

Jay Franze: 20:42

They're going to want you to write with teams that can produce a you know, very well polished song and then take that a step further by putting you into a studio with a producer that's going to be able to take that to the final stages. So is that something you're excited about? I?

Dalton Hicks: 20:58

am very excited for it.

Jay Franze: 21:01

Yeah, what are you looking forward to the most? What are you?

Dalton Hicks: 21:05

looking forward to the most. Really, just, I don't know. I've been loving it so far. Just learning everything that they've been bringing my way has been really cool, and just learning how much I didn't know has been really cool. But I'm ready to start. I'm ready to start getting out there and we're really going to start pushing this new song that is going to be releasing soon. The pre-order just came out today so you can pre-save it and everything, so that's cool.

Jay Franze: 21:33

That is pretty cool. Are they going to have you put a focus on social media?

Dalton Hicks: 21:43

it's really hard, like I was posting maybe like one or two times every two weeks on social media and that's not. I cannot be doing that. If I want to actually pursue this, yeah, if I want to grow, and so that I guess that's kind of deflated, probably stuff that could have been maybe bigger, I guess, but uh, what are you gonna do to overcome that? I'm gonna start pushing myself hard and uh, we, I actually just moved into a new apartment last wednesday, this past wednesday and uh, I got my whole little setup here. I'm gonna start. I got my guitars, I'm ready to hang on the wall and everything. I'm ready to start buckling down after work and half of it was, I just didn't want to be a nuisance to anybody that was in the house with me singing or doing tick tocks and now that I have my own place, it's uh, it's going, it's going pretty good.

Jay Franze: 22:39

It's got to be tough the first few times you try to do a tick tock on your own and you're talking to a blank screen and you're trying to. It can't be easy, I'm sure I don't typically get on there and just talk to a screen. I have to have somebody like you to talk to and we have a conversation. My daughter, no problem. She talks to the screen all day long, but it kills me.

Dalton Hicks: 23:02

We had one year and a half ago. We went live me and my band mate we just went live. It was I've never went live and actually blown up before, but this live I'm talking about at the end of. We were on it for like six hours and there was like over 400 000 viewers in the tiktok live. There was beer at feet. We were just sitting there cutting up singing songs and it was awesome.

Jay Franze: 23:27

That's funny.

Dalton Hicks: 23:28

Do you?

Jay Franze: 23:28

look forward to the fact that now you can focus on the craft and not the business.

Dalton Hicks: 23:32

Yeah, yes, sir, I do.

Jay Franze: 23:35

All right. So you said you played a lot of shows and you were going strong for a year. What do you remember most about that time?

Dalton Hicks: 23:44

It was a fun time. It was very fun. Tell us about that. We played at the Fennec in Alabama. So from South Carolina we go to Alabama, stay a night and then we drive all the way to Folly Island, I think, in Charleston and we play a show there. And that was an adventure. That was a very big adventure.

Jay Franze: 24:07

All right, we say you go from one show to the other. What vehicle are we traveling in? How much are we driving in one stretch? I mean, tell us more about that.

Dalton Hicks: 24:16

One or two people and then equipment and then probably like three or four cars.

Jay Franze: 24:22

So actual cars, yeah, cars, not like three or four cars. So actual cars, yeah cars, not vans, not buses. You're driving in cars.

Dalton Hicks: 24:29

Yes, sir, yeah.

Jay Franze: 24:30

Who does the driving?

Dalton Hicks: 24:32

It just depends. Everybody in the band is not everybody's a good driver.

Jay Franze: 24:39

Do you like driving?

Dalton Hicks: 24:41

Yeah, I love driving actually.

Jay Franze: 24:43

See, I would drive the entire way yeah, that's, that's how I am, yeah what do you do when you're driving? Is there music playing? Is there radio?

Dalton Hicks: 24:53

uh, yeah, yeah, definitely gotta have something going on, or I'm gonna be falling asleep, so yeah, what do you listen to?

Jay Franze: 25:01

What's the choice?

Dalton Hicks: 25:11

Some songs that we listen to on the rides up. There are songs that we want to learn and that we need to get the band acquainted with as we're on the way up there. One more time, like lyric-wise and everything, and talk about stuff like that on our rides. But other than that, just some hype music or some positive music, you know, just to get us in the mood?

Jay Franze: 25:28

does it stay within the genre? No uh, all right. So what's the wildest thing outside the genre?

Dalton Hicks: 25:36

I mean we'd be, we'd be bumping, cruising down the street. You know, just listen to whatever uh, my uh photographer and she kind of she's helped me with a little bit of management back in the day. Her name's hayley. She always has the best vibe ever, so I'm always in the car with her and we always going down the street bumping nice.

Jay Franze: 25:57

What do you enjoy most about being on stage?

Dalton Hicks: 26:01

the feeling, the uh, the feeling of just seeing my songs being sung back to me from people that I haven't even, I've never seen their face or anything. It's just incredible. How does it make you feel? It just makes me smile up there. I'm just like yeah so it's more excitement yeah, yes, sir all right.

Jay Franze: 26:22

Do you have any performances that stand out to you from that time?

Dalton Hicks: 26:27

We had a very, very eventful Halloween show one time and it was awesome.

Jay Franze: 26:33

And what made that eventful?

Dalton Hicks: 26:35

We were just all dressed up on stage and we're up there having fun and it was slam-packed and everybody was dressed up and it was just I don't know. I think that was probably one of the best nights that our band ever had together and got dressed up before everybody was just cutting up. You know, painting faces I was. I painted my, my uh bass guitarist's mohawk red and everything else yeah, what did you dress up as? I was a lumberjack fitting there you go.

Jay Franze: 27:07

All right, you mentioned haley a couple times. You think haley would end up becoming a road manager possibly.

Dalton Hicks: 27:14

Yeah, I definitely see that happening. She's a. She's an art. She's an art teacher. Actually, he's an art teacher actually Every flyer that I have, day by day, the song she made my cover art, my cover art for day by day. She made my cover art for I'm Still here and she does everything. Anything I could ask for she could. Even if she didn't know how to do it, she'd get it done for me.

Jay Franze: 27:39

Of course, that's what the good ones do yeah, so it sounds like a good thing. It also sounds like somebody who might be able to help you with the social media.

Dalton Hicks: 27:46

Yeah, definitely. Also, I live with my girlfriend so she's been helping me a lot, recording me and everything, so I'm not actually sitting there holding the camera.

Jay Franze: 28:00

So you're turning your girlfriend into an engineer.

Dalton Hicks: 28:02

Yeah, kind of. Instead of me holding the camera and everything, I'd just be sitting there. But it's hard. It's hard with my girlfriend because we're always laughing at each other Does your girlfriend have a name. Yeah, Reagan.

Jay Franze: 28:13

Reagan. All right, we've got to make sure you use her name here, for sure, all right. So what does Reagan think about all of this?

Dalton Hicks: 28:23

She loves it. I mean, she's here to, she supports me. How long have you been with Reagan?

Jay Franze: 28:29

We're coming up on a year One year so she's been there for a lot of the performing. Does she go with you to all the shows?

Dalton Hicks: 28:38

Every once she can, she's there. Yeah, yes, sir, she loves it.

Jay Franze: 28:42

All right. How does she feel about the girls falling all over you?

Dalton Hicks: 28:47

I mean not the best, but she knows where she stands and she knows it.

Jay Franze: 28:54

You let her know that she's number one, right? Oh yeah, always, or the only. We should say, not just number one. I tell my wife she's number one, but you know. Then we wonder who two and three are. That's fine, all right. So when you're performing these shows, do you ever think about capturing that moment to build your social media following?

Dalton Hicks: 29:17

yeah, I have. Uh, I have a few good videos of shows and everything, if that's what you're talking about getting videos of it.

Jay Franze: 29:26

Well, yes, of course, but I'm thinking like to take the moment especially when you have the opportunity to open up for a larger audience or a larger band artist that has a larger audience to take the time to let that audience know that you have a social presence. A lot of people get so excited they get up on stage and they perform. Then, when they're done, they walk off stage, never once asking for that audience to connect with you. So I'm kind of curious have you done any of that in the past and, if not, is that something you plan on doing in the future?

Dalton Hicks: 30:00

Yeah, I haven't. I haven't played the biggest shows ever. You know, like it's usually just bars, so we play a show and then we get off stage and we go drink with everybody. You know, it's really not turned into something that I don't socialize. I socialize very well and that's what I love to do, so I can sit there after a show and talk to a fan just drinking a cold beer for 30 minutes If I want to. I love it. That's awesome.

Jay Franze: 30:28

All right. So what do you hope the fans take away from your music?

Dalton Hicks: 30:32

Just to get inspired and, uh, really just know that. I don't know. I said it a couple of times on a tick tock I just don't want to be another country singer. I want to have my own style and I want to bring my own life into my music and, uh, I want to inspire people through my life and the words that I put into these songs. What is it you?

Jay Franze: 30:55

think is going to make you different.

Dalton Hicks: 31:01

I think my attitude towards this and, uh, really just, I thrive to not only be the best, but be the best person that I can be when trying to be the best. So I just want people to really take away from my music that I'm trying to make a difference in the world, other than just talking about girls and trucks and all that stuff no, no trucks, no dogs yeah, I mean maybe, maybe along down the line.

Dalton Hicks: 31:29

I mean a song I gotta uh. Actually I met. The song uh me and my band are working on is uh, it's really cool. It's coming together a lot. It's not about girls, but it's about living, living for the weekend there. There you go.

Jay Franze: 31:42

Have you ever thought about collaborating with other artists?

Dalton Hicks: 31:46

I have. I'd be honored to. That would be awesome.

Jay Franze: 31:50

Who do you think would be a good fit?

Dalton Hicks: 31:53

To start with I say I want to do something with Jelly Roll or something like that.

Jay Franze: 32:00

Why Jelly Roll?

Dalton Hicks: 32:03

It kind of has the same topic of what I'm trying to put out, that backstory.

Jay Franze: 32:10

Yes, sir all right, no, I can see it. So no, shoot for the stars. There's no reason why he couldn't do that. He collaborates with just about anybody, so it'd be good. That's probably a good one. What about like a jason aldean?

Dalton Hicks: 32:23

I mean I'd be off the chain, so yeah.

Jay Franze: 32:26

All right, hey Jason, if you're listening, give us a call. We'll set that up, We'll take care of it. He listens all the time, so we'll take care of that for you. All right, hell yeah, hell yeah, we'll give it a shot. What the hell? So when we talk about the business now that you have a manager, do you put any sort of thought or consideration into how to brand yourself.

Dalton Hicks: 32:52

They've actually been really just on my butt about how to brand myself and everything like that, but I'm not really sure. I really don't know.

Jay Franze: 33:04

Well, if we think about it, if we break it down into what the simplicity of what branding is, it's just your reputation. So, when somebody thinks of you, what do you want them to think of?

Dalton Hicks: 33:16

Good music and a strong and motivated personality, I guess.

Jay Franze: 33:24

I can see it, sir, Absolutely Well. I mean, I know you're early in your career, but if you could fast forward a little bit, what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?

Dalton Hicks: 33:36

A strong one. I want to leave music behind, but I'd rather just have my personality and people look up to me and everything I. I'm trying to be the best man I can be. You know, just live a live, a life. I mean, it's we all. We can't live perfect lives, but I just want to let people know that and just try and motivate as best I can do you think that's gonna make you a good role model?

Jay Franze: 34:02

Do you see yourself as a role model?

Dalton Hicks: 34:04

I do I do yes, sir. Do you have people who are looking up to you. Now I have a few that ask me a lot of questions, you know, and I try and help them. The best I can Does that make you feel good.

Jay Franze: 34:20

Yeah, it does. I can only imagine, buddy, all right. Well, we do this thing here we call Unsung Heroes, where we take a moment to shine the light on somebody who works behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Do you have anybody you'd like to shine a little light on?

Dalton Hicks: 34:36

Definitely my grandma.

Jay Franze: 34:38

What was your grandmother's name?

Dalton Hicks: 34:40

Olga.

Jay Franze: 34:41

Olga okay.

Dalton Hicks: 34:43

Grandma Olga, there you go. Yeah, I mean yeah she's Strong names.

Jay Franze: 34:50

My grandmother was Asunta. Oh, nice we called her Sue, but yeah, Susie but. Asunta was the name.

Dalton Hicks: 34:58

Yeah and yeah she really she helped me get through a lot. Yeah, she really helped me get through a lot.

Jay Franze: 35:07

That's awesome. Well, we have done it. We have reached the top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. If you have not, like we say, tell two. You can reach out to both of us over at jayfranze. com, where we will be happy to keep this conversation going. Dalton sir, I cannot thank you enough for joining us tonight. I truly do appreciate it and, on that note, have a good night.

Tony Scott: 35:33

Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show. Make sure you visit us at jayfranze. com. Follow, connect and say hello. Music, Music, Music. Follow, connect and say hello.