Why Today’s Hit Songs Don’t Become Classics

Can today’s biggest country hits become the classics people will still sing 50 years from now?

Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, and Neil Thrasher compare the music they grew up loving with the way songs are written, released, and consumed today. They discuss timeless records from John Denver, Glen Campbell, Elvis, Bryan Adams, Paul Rodgers, Hank Williams Jr., Van Halen, Def Leppard, and more—and ask whether modern listeners still have the attention span to absorb an entire song.

The guys also take you behind the scenes of Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan’s alternating stadium show, explain how songwriters actually make money, debate what NIL and the transfer portal have done to college football, and share another round of road stories involving airports, damaged guitars, an expensive missing bass, and a treadmill “earthquake.”


08:12 A bug, an open zipper and a live show
10:19 Rock the Country
12:26 How Jason Aldean protects his voice
13:43 Inside the Jason Aldean–Luke Bryan stadium show
16:23 Returning to the stage after surgery
17:53 The World Championship Donk Toss
20:48 The WNBA controversy
24:49 Has college football lost its identity?
29:26 Should the guys bring back football picks?
30:50 The music that shaped four hitmakers
35:00 The rock singers who got better with age
36:24 Rediscovering John Denver and Elvis
38:05 Will today’s songs become classics?
40:48 Do listeners still care about lyrics?
43:12 Do songwriters “sell” their songs?
46:28 The podcast’s million-follower dream
48:18 Tully’s increasingly short fuse
51:16 Air travel brings out the worst in everyone
56:05 Talking to strangers on airplanes
61:20 How to look unapproachable at the airport
64:04 Flying with expensive guitars
68:17 This week’s “Dipshitty”
68:27 UPS lost Tully’s custom bass
72:46 Kelley’s treadmill “earthquake”
77:13 Jason Aldean gets recognized on the golf course
79:23 Another disastrous flight
80:14 Stop throwing things at performers
82:47 The secret word

If you make it to the end, leave “DONK TOSS” in the comments.

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