Sue Bonzell:
This is Up N Country on 93.7 The Bull. It’s powered by V Livecast. I’m your host, Sue Bonzell. Let’s get this show started. He has written songs for Garth and Trisha, and been on stage with both of them. I am so excited that Mitch Rossell is here. Mitch, how’s it going?
Mitch Rossell:
It’s going good. How are you?
Sue Bonzell:
I’m fantastic. I mean, you’ve got quite a resume. We have a lot to talk about today. Tell me about connecting with Garth Brooks, I mean, the biggest thing in country music. You’re writing songs for him and Trisha. How did all of that come about?
Mitch Rossell:
It’s a crazy story. To put it into a nice little bow, I sent him an email. That’s how it all started.
Sue Bonzell:
Wow.
Mitch Rossell:
He was cutting songs for his first record back when he came back after his break. I got a hold of a pitch email and sent him four songs, and just told him who I was.
Sue Bonzell:
Wow. We’ve got this, Ask Me How I Know, number one song. That’s pretty exciting. All Day Long, that’s the duet with Blake Shelton. We know who he is.
Mitch Rossell:
Dive Bar. Dive Bar is-
Sue Bonzell:
Oh, that’s Dive Bar. Yes, yes, yes.
Mitch Rossell:
The duet with …
Sue Bonzell:
Oh, that’s Dive Bar. Dive Bar, that’s one. Then That’s What Cowboys Do.
Mitch Rossell:
Correct.
Sue Bonzell:
I mean, this is so cool. Now, I mean, what is that like? It just blows my mind. I’m just a little starstruck when I’m thinking, oh, my gosh. You’re working with Garth Brooks. Do you guys hang out and stuff?
Mitch Rossell:
Yeah, we do. We do. We play basketball a good bit and just go for walks on the farm. He’s always been there for me. He’s a really good man. He really is. He’s taken on a little bit of a father figure role for me. I lost my dad when I was a kid. God always has a funny way of bringing good men into your life to help mentor you, or whatever it is. He’s just been a great sounding board for life, in general. I’ve gone through a lot of different life changes over the past five to eight years, and he was always there for me every single time and always had great advice. We’ve become really close. He’s just someone I really admire and respect a lot outside of even the music thing, and then bring that in. The guy’s a legend. I mean, he’s the greatest, so pretty amazing.
Sue Bonzell:
It is. Now, you’ve got a new song, a duet with Trisha Yearwood, Ran Into You. I love this song. There’s one line in it that just struck me. It was, I ran from God when he got too close. I’m like, man, where did that come from?
Mitch Rossell:
I think I’m a runner naturally. When I start feeling that discomfort of someone getting a little too close, it’s not even voluntary, I just have always done it. It’s taken me a lot of years and a lot of self awareness, and just a lot of growing and hurting people, not meaning to. Just hurting people around me, not meaning to do it, and seeing that it was me that was the problem in a lot of that. I’ve grown up a lot. Still fight it, we all have those demons we got to fight, but when God’s trying to push you somewhere because he knows that’s where you need to be, I’m the first guy to stand up and go, “Well, but I want to go that way.” It’s definitely real for me. I try to write from a real place and that song’s definitely very real for me.
Sue Bonzell:
You do. Now, you have that song, 2020. I mean, that’s got multiple millions of views on YouTube. Tell me about writing that song, because that song, that’s about unity and bringing us together with everything that’s going on. Tell me about that song.
Mitch Rossell:
That song? Man, what a godsend that song was. I had the idea for it back in probably mid 2020, early 2020. I’d have to look in my voice memos to see exactly, but I had the idea. I knew it was really neat, but it was something that needed to be written the right way and written really well. I sat down with my buddy, Dave Turnbull. We write a lot of songs together and he’s a great songwriter. We started messing with some stuff and it just wasn’t coming out. We were having to fight a little too hard for it. I do believe you have to work hard and fight for great stuff. I’m definitely a digger when it comes to writing, but it was a little too hard, so we put it on the side for a minute.
Then a few months later, it was December 2020, I was writing my buddy, Phil O’Donnell, we call him Phil Billy. He’s a great dude, written some great songs, big hits. We were throwing out ideas and I said, “Man, look, I’ve got this thing that Dave I started and we just put it on the back burner. If I’m going to write this thing it needs to be written now, because we’re running out of daylight here.” I told him the idea and told him some of the lines we had. He was like, “Dude, I love that.” He said, “Please, let’s write that.” I was like, “Cool. Let’s do it,” so we wrote the song. We wrote all the lyrics pretty much and finished the song out, and it was a totally different melody.
Totally different. It was in a minor key. It was just very different. Again, I always tell people, “I hold the pen.” That night, I felt like God just lightening bolted me and went, “Hey, you need to mess with this melody,” and I just completely changed it. I sent it to both those guys and said, “Hey, I hate to make these big changes unilaterally, but what do y’all think of this?” They both were like, “Man, this is great. It’s better.” We went and recorded it the next night, or I can’t even remember, it happened so fast, recorded, I think, the next night or that night on piano with Gordon Mote. I put it up on TikTok and the next morning it just started spiraling out of control, crazy numbers. It was a wild ride for sure.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s just one of the songs that came out of the pandemic. I’m assuming you wrote a lot of songs in the last two years. How many songs did you write while we’ve been going through all this stuff?
Mitch Rossell:
It’s funny actually, it’s the opposite for me.
Sue Bonzell:
Really?
Mitch Rossell:
Yeah. I was telling a buddy of mine yesterday, I met with a friend that I’ve known in town for years, we were catching up because we hadn’t seen each other in so long. He was giving me his pandemic breakdown and then I gave him mine. I was like, “Dude, I just couldn’t hardly write,” I think because I write so much about life and we weren’t really living a whole lot of life during the beginning of the pandemic. We were just all sitting around. There wasn’t much going on. It was just hard to be inspired by the stagnation, I guess.
Sue Bonzell:
It’s hard to write a song about Netflix.
Mitch Rossell:
Exactly. There’s only so many you can write about the show you’ve seen four times. It was tough for me. I mean, I wrote some, but it wasn’t a normal amount of writing for me. I think I struggled too with the Zoom thing because there’s an energy with human beings, with whatever you’re doing. Doesn’t matter what it is, but with songwriting, for me, that energy in the room with another human is just cool. It’s a cool dynamic that you can’t always get through a screen. It was tough for me.
Sue Bonzell:
You’re right. It’s the energy, especially in doing something creative like that, where you’re expected to be creative and to be open and let it flow. Man, when you just don’t have that energy, it’s a little bit harder to get it going.
Mitch Rossell:
Absolutely. Absolutely, 100%.
Sue Bonzell:
Do you have three boys?
Mitch Rossell:
I do, I have three boys.
Sue Bonzell:
How old are they?
Mitch Rossell:
Well, let’s see, my oldest will be six in April. My middle will be three in April. Then we have a five-month-old.
Sue Bonzell:
Oh, my goodness. Now, I think there’s a song that you sing with one of the boys. Is it … Go ahead.
Mitch Rossell:
Are you talking about the one about my dad and about my son? Is that the one you’re talking about?
Sue Bonzell:
I was thinking of a different one, but I want to hear about that.
Mitch Rossell:
The one I’m talking about is not out yet, but I have played it a couple of times live. Which song are you referring to?
Sue Bonzell:
I think I saw a video of Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.
Mitch Rossell:
That’s a classic in our house.
Sue Bonzell:
A classic, classic.
Mitch Rossell:
That’s a big classic in our house. That’s every night, multiple times sometimes.
Sue Bonzell:
I’ve seen some of your videos, your TikTok’s with your kids. I mean, they just are adorable. I know how important it is for you to be a dad to them, so what’s the biggest message you would want your boys to know from you?
Mitch Rossell:
Well, thank you for saying they’re adorable. I appreciate that. I agree with you. Wow. Gosh, that is tough, so many things. I would say be yourself and always try to do the next right thing, if I just had to make something quick in general.
Sue Bonzell:
I think the be yourself, the authenticity, I think that’s … Be who you’re going to be.
Mitch Rossell:
Amen. Find a way to get comfortable in your skin and don’t be afraid to be that person. I’m still working on that, big time.
Sue Bonzell:
I think we all are. I think we all are. I think we’re all a work in progress. Little baby steps, baby steps.
Mitch Rossell:
I want to raise my boys to be bold, and go out there and just put it out there.
Sue Bonzell:
Doubt something. Now, you gave out your text number. You were doing a promotion with your album, by the way, my best friend, she bought it and she’s like, “Oh, my God. I love this album. It’s so great.”
Mitch Rossell:
That’s great. Thank you. Tell her thank you.
Sue Bonzell:
You’ve got fans out here. It was really funny [inaudible 00:10:01] respond on these text messages. At one point I was thinking to myself, I saw something and I was like, oh, I should send Mitch a text message. I thought, what are you, a stalker? Like, you weirdo. He doesn’t know who you are. Have you had anybody stalking you since you’ve given out your text number?
Mitch Rossell:
No. I mean, there’s been a couple of strange texts where I unfortunately … This is just the reality of, I guess, being in this position of having some public awareness and, I guess, a fan base and all that. You’re always going to have a couple of the people who, I don’t know if it’s bad intentions, I don’t know if they just have some mental issues, I don’t know what it is, but they’ll say something and you just have to let it go. I have a real issue, I have a hard time not responding to everybody at least once. If you text me, chances are you’re going to at least get a response back. I can’t respond to everybody. I have 1,100 people texting on the app. I’d spend all day if I was going to respond to everybody, but I do try to respond to as many people as I can when I see them. There are some questionable things that come through sometimes where you just have to go, you know what? I’m going to let that one go. I just got to move on.
Sue Bonzell:
Well, I mean, I appreciate … You do such a great job with connecting with your fans in that way, and keeping them inclusive in what you’re doing. I just love that, so I appreciate you giving out your text line.
Mitch Rossell:
I appreciate you saying that. I do try, I do try. I feel like I fail all the time to get back as much as I should, but it’s nice to hear that. I appreciate it.
Sue Bonzell:
Plans for 2022? What’s going on in 2022, what’s happening?
Mitch Rossell:
Well, we’re definitely going to be releasing music, definitely working on a lot of content right now. I’ve cut a ton of songs and trying to create community more and more with my fans, especially the ones who really connect with what I do and really love what I do. I’m doing some really cool things right now, taking some steps to build a platform and a community that’s going to be really unique. We haven’t hard launched it yet. We’ve soft launched it, but we’re going to hard launch it pretty soon. Just trying to bring that community to where we can have a really cool relationship, and I can share stuff with them and they can share stuff with me and all that. Then on the more macro scale, just trying to continue to just chip away at my goals. Just trying to hopefully eventually be on radio, if I can get to that point. Then really just trying to reach my potential. That’s what I always think about and try to focus on. I’m not walking anybody else’s path, I’m walking mine. I’m trying to focus on that and just reach my potential in what God has planned for me.
Sue Bonzell:
Are you writing any songs for anyone else besides Garth and Trisha?
Mitch Rossell:
I don’t pitch a ton of songs. I like to keep them back because I’m pursuing the artist thing and I want to have plenty of songs that I love that I can have for my records. I do pitch sometimes, but it’s hard to get because there’s so many great songwriters in town and a lot of artists.
Sue Bonzell:
Well, yeah, but you’ve got the resume. You’ve got Garth and Trisha on the resume. I mean, come on.
Mitch Rossell:
It’s a pretty good couple of people to have on there, for sure. It helps. There’s no doubt about that.
Sue Bonzell:
Definitely. Well, when I have my guests on, I like to play a little game that we’re going to get to in just a minute, but if you’d be willing to play a song for us, that would be awesome.
Mitch Rossell:
I can do that. Let me grab a guitar. Is that all right?
Sue Bonzell:
He’s got a couple of guitars to select from.
Mitch Rossell:
This is a song I wrote for my wife. We had only been dating a few months at the time, but I was really inspired because I was in a new relationship, and wrote this song and just made it up. Then it’s crazy, it’s like it became our life. It’s really cool just to look back, it seems prophetic. It’s really weird. It goes like this. I’ve never seen Venice, or slow danced under Paris lights. Never stood by the pyramids, or hiked up the Great Divide. I’ve never been to Times Square to celebrate the New Year and I’ve never seen Willie Nelson live, and if I never get to, that’s all right. Because I’ve seen you with your hair down in your bare feet dancing around the living room, spilling wine on your dress. I’ve seen you on a bench seat in a tank top and your blue jeans, getting your lipstick on my neck, so if all I do is live in this small town with you and never leave, I’ve seen all I need to see.
I’ve never seen Ireland and those green hills that roll for miles. My guess is that they’ve got nothing on your green eyes. I’ve never seen Niagara Falls, or stood inside the prison walls where Cash recorded live. Some may say I’m missing out, but that’s a lie. Because I’ve seen you when your song’s on and you’re singing words that are all wrong, and you swear to me that that’s how it goes. I’ve seen you when tears fall because the episode that you just saw felt like more than just a show, so if all I do is live in this small town with you and never leave, I’ve seen all I need to see. I’ve seen you with your hair down in your bare feet dancing around the living room, spilling wine on your dress. I’ve seen you on a bench seat in a tank top and your blue jeans, getting your lipstick on my neck, so if all I do is live in this small town with you and never leave, that’d be fine with me, because I’ve seen all I need to see.
Sue Bonzell:
Yes. Oh, that was beautiful. Thank you so much for playing that. I love that song. I’ve heard that song. I’ve heard it on Spotify. That’s one of my favorites.
Mitch Rossell:
Thank you.
Sue Bonzell:
Thank you for performing that one. It has such a heartfelt message as well, so I love that.
Mitch Rossell:
Thank you. I really appreciate it. I’m glad you dig it.
Sue Bonzell:
I do. I do. You ready to play a game?
Mitch Rossell:
I think so, I hope I am.
Sue Bonzell:
It’s not a musical game. Don’t worry. We’re just going to do something fun. It’s not really a game. We’re going to play a round of firsts. You ready? Here we go. What was your first car?
Mitch Rossell:
A 1996 Pontiac Firebird.
Sue Bonzell:
Oh, the Firebird. Nice.
Mitch Rossell:
That’s right. A little redneck, but that’s all right.
Sue Bonzell:
Did your friends make fun of you or anything with their big trucks?
Mitch Rossell:
No. No, it was considered pretty cool, I guess. I was into muscle cars. I was just really into muscle cars, just anything muscle car. I couldn’t afford a real muscle car, so I had to get a newer cheap V6 version of one.
Sue Bonzell:
Firebird, that’s pretty hot.
Mitch Rossell:
Not bad. Not bad. It’s not bad.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s a pretty impressive first car, I mean, really.
Mitch Rossell:
Not bad. Not bad.
Sue Bonzell:
Not bad. First tattoo?
Mitch Rossell:
I’ve got a bird right here that I got for my dad. I think I was 24, 25, somewhere around there.
Sue Bonzell:
How many more after that?
Mitch Rossell:
Well, I added onto that an arm piece. Then I’ve got over here and then I’ve got two here. I think that’s it.
Sue Bonzell:
Nice, good. I love it. It’s a personal question, but people want to know.
Mitch Rossell:
I mean, these have been seen in probably pictures if I have tank top, but I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that showed these. Not that they’re bad, they’ve just never been seen.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s cool. Now we know about Mitch’s tattoos. Let’s see. First car accident? Have you been in one of those?
Mitch Rossell:
I consider an accident a full on. I’ve had a couple of bumps, you know what I mean? Little things, I guess. Well, no. I don’t know how I forgot about this, in a month and a half period, no joke, I had only been in Nashville for a year or two at the time, I got rear ended twice on the interstate in a traffic jam.
Sue Bonzell:
Really? Oh, man.
Mitch Rossell:
One of the times the car freaking took off and just basically left the scene. That was pretty crappy. Then the other time they didn’t, but it was within 60 days of each other. It was crazy.
Sue Bonzell:
Wow. Well, you got that out of your system then.
Mitch Rossell:
Thankfully, I’ve never been in anything too, too serious. Hopefully, it stays that way.
Sue Bonzell:
Yes, exactly. Well, good energy around that.
Mitch Rossell:
Amen.
Sue Bonzell:
When was your very first onstage concert, onstage performance?
Mitch Rossell:
Oh, gosh. It would’ve probably been at a festival. It was, I think, either the Strawberry Festival or, I think, a thing called Down Home Days, back near where I grew up. I think it was one of those two, first time I ever played on stage.
Sue Bonzell:
How old were you?
Mitch Rossell:
I was probably 20, something like that. 19, 20, somewhere in there.
Sue Bonzell:
How was the first performance?
Mitch Rossell:
From my perspective it was probably great, but in reality it was probably absolutely horrible. That’s the reality.
Sue Bonzell:
No, you know what? I doubt it because, honestly, the way that I look at it, even for people who are new to it and everything, you got to have the guts, man. I give kudos to anybody who goes and gets on a stage and plays for people. You got guts.
Mitch Rossell:
I get that. It did take me a while to get comfortable. I mean, even then I wasn’t comfortable, but you just do it anyways. You know that the more you do it, the better you’re going to get.
Sue Bonzell:
I was going to say, it’s just like anything else. You just get in the groove. The first couple ones, you look back and you go, oh, my God. That was horrible. Now you’re like, nope. I’m better, and I keep getting better.
Mitch Rossell:
We were all scared to death when our mom or dad dropped us off at school that first day. I mean, I don’t really know many people that weren’t scared, at least nervous a little bit, but then you figure it out. It’s just like anything else.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s what we’re doing. We’re figuring it out, for sure.
Mitch Rossell:
That’s right. That’s right.
Sue Bonzell:
What was your first job?
Mitch Rossell:
First job? I was picking up golf balls at a driving range down the road from my house. I was driving the little golf cart.
Sue Bonzell:
Did you drive the cart?
Mitch Rossell:
I did.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s fun, and so do you golf also?
Mitch Rossell:
I do. That’s my biggest hobby, for sure.
Sue Bonzell:
There you go.
Mitch Rossell:
I’m an avid golfer.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s what you’re doing when you’re not doing music?
Mitch Rossell:
Oh, absolutely. Well, when I’m not wrangling these kids and doing something with my wife or whatever. I try to play as much as I can. The wall next to me here, I built a golf simulator in that room. That was my one gift to myself. I didn’t buy any cars. I’m not a real extravagant dude. I didn’t go on any trips. I didn’t do anything like that. I bought a launch monitor that I had been wanting for so long when I had my first hit.
Sue Bonzell:
I love that. That is perfect. I mean, the kids, are they interested? I mean, not the little, little one.
Mitch Rossell:
My five-year-old, let’s just say he’s very gifted. Very gifted. It’s been really fun. Some of my fans are aware. I’ve posted a few videos. I really am wary because I don’t want to … I could probably create him his own page and there’s no telling how many views he would get, but also I don’t want to put that pressure on him this young for me. I’m not knocking anybody who does. That’s everybody’s choice, but for me, I want to give him a chance. I would love for him to play and chase it, but I don’t want him to feel like that’s what he has to do.
Sue Bonzell:
Keep it fun. Keep it fun, because that’s what it should be.
Mitch Rossell:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Sue Bonzell:
Should be fun.
Mitch Rossell:
Amen.
Sue Bonzell:
First kiss? What was her name and how old were you?
Mitch Rossell:
First kiss? Her name was Amanda and I was, gosh, 13? I think 13? 12 or 13, something like that.
Sue Bonzell:
Did you have a very long relationship?
Mitch Rossell:
Oh, really long. It was at least a month, I mean.
Sue Bonzell:
Hey, that’s pretty good at 13. I mean, come on.
Mitch Rossell:
That’s not bad. That’s not bad.
Sue Bonzell:
I mean, there’s plenty of adults that can’t even do that.
Mitch Rossell:
It was a little skating rink magic that night.
Sue Bonzell:
Oh, at the skating rink even. I love it.
Mitch Rossell:
Couldn’t draw it up any better than that.
Sue Bonzell:
There’s a song in there somewhere.
Mitch Rossell:
Epic fairytale.
Sue Bonzell:
First time you ever drank a beer?
Mitch Rossell:
A beer? A beer was-
Sue Bonzell:
How about a beverage, an alcoholic beverage?
Mitch Rossell:
A beverage was like, ugh. Well, I guess technically … This is a funny story. You’re going to like this one. When I was a kid, I would go see my dad every other weekend. We were really, really close, but my dad had nothing. No money. We lived in a tiny, tiny town in east Tennessee. The cost of living was nothing and we still couldn’t hardly afford to even live there. He just never had much, but one night I came and I was with him that weekend. We didn’t even have money for Coke, so we drank water. You drank water because that’s all we had. I came in the living room and him and my … Technically she was my grandmother-in-law, but she was like a second mom to me. They owned a business together and they lived in an apartment. They had a couple bedroom apartment just to split rent.
I came in and they had this dark liquid in their glass. I was like, “What the heck? I can’t believe y’all are drinking some Coke without me.” I was pissed. My dad, he didn’t even blink. He already saw the opportunity here to completely just get a huge kick out of this. He was like, “Oh, well, do you want a sip?” I was like, “Well, yeah.” I went over and took a sip, and it was a red wine. I about puked. I mean, back then it was so disgusting. It was probably cheap, cheap, cheap red wine too. They just started dying laughing. That was the first time I ever actually took a sip of something. I was probably seven or eight. He just thought it was hilarious, and looking back it was hilarious.
Sue Bonzell:
I’m sure it was.
Mitch Rossell:
That was the first time. Then probably 13 or 14, I had just a mixed drink just randomly, but I was never a big drinker. Even through college, I barely drank at all. I mean, I’d go out and hang with buddies, but I was an introvert. I liked to hang out just with my buddies. I didn’t care to go party and all that stuff.
Sue Bonzell:
Well, do you drink wine at all now, or did that ruin it?
Mitch Rossell:
I hated it for the longest time. My wife has slowly won me over. I mean, I’m still a whiskey guy. If I’m going to make something once a week or something, I’ll mix up one of my bourbons and some ginger ale or something like that, but I do like some red wine. It is good now.
Sue Bonzell:
Good, we got the skinny.
Mitch Rossell:
I wasn’t scarred for life. I wasn’t scarred for life.
Sue Bonzell:
It’s a good story though, because you think about, especially as parents, where you’re like … Well, your kids are still a little bit young, but you mess with them a little bit and it’s kind of fun.
Mitch Rossell:
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Sue Bonzell:
You’ve got to have fun with them.
Mitch Rossell:
Absolutely. If anything, he probably deterred me from drinking as a kid. Because you go through late middle and high school, you’re going to have an opportunity at some point. I probably was thinking, I ain’t trying that crap. I’ve been down this road before.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s funny that you say that, because I’m thinking about my mother back in the day. She quit a long time ago, but she was a smoker when we were much younger. I said, “Well, what is that like?” She said, “Do you want to try it?” I said, “Sure,” and never, ever again.
Mitch Rossell:
There’s something to that. I mean, obviously we don’t want to go tell the cops that we’re doing this but, I mean, there’s something to it. If you get a bad experience and correlate it with whatever it is you don’t want them doing too young, not a bad idea. He might have knew what he was doing all along.
Sue Bonzell:
I love that. Well, this has been so much fun. I’m excited for all of your big plans in 2022. Everybody needs to follow Mitch on socials. We can just find you on just Mitch Rossell?
Mitch Rossell:
That’s right.
Sue Bonzell:
Well, thank you so much. We’ll look forward to all of the fun stuff in 2022.
Mitch Rossell:
Thank you, Sue. I appreciate the time.
Sue Bonzell:
Thanks for tuning in to Up N Country, where we have new episodes every Tuesday. Be sure to visit UpNCountry.com for all of the episodes and information about our VIP club, where you’re going to get exclusive backstage access. If you’re on Instagram or TikTok, make sure to follow me, Sue Bonzell. I’ll see you next week.
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