“So go with it. Who cares what it is if it sounds good?” Wilder said.
And to my surprise, Ryan grinned and went with it.
That was the beginning of what ended up being “Mine All Mine.”
Mari
I really liked Wilder. He just seemed like someone who was excited about life. And that big mop of hair he had back then ... he was a sweetheart. There are a million examples I could give you. He organized a surprise birthday party for Ryan that summer, and we all went up to Big Sur. He remembered everyone’s coffee orders and favorite ice-cream flavors. He always had a joke ready when you needed it.
I remember thinking that Ryan and Wilder would make a cute couple. I kept waiting for it to happen, honestly.
But for some reason ... it ended up being Justin who caught Ryan’s eye after she and Evan Henderson broke up. I’m convinced she was rebounding. Justin came with us to Big Sur, because why not? Everyone was inviting their friends and family, it was a big group. Ben came too—although we’d started to have some arguments about how we hung out more with my friends than his. I made an effort to spend time with his buddies even though I didn’t have much in common with them—I really did. But there’s only so much discussion aboutWorld of Warcraftthat a girl can take.
We rented this lodge on Carmel Bay, and I swear, Ryan and Wilder had been sitting with their heads together talking in the back of the car the whole drive up. But when she said she was going for a walk down to the beach that evening and I said, “Ooh, with who?” she shrugged and said, “With Justin.”
I remember sort of frowning at her and being like, “Justin? Why?”
She got red. She said, “What do you mean? I invited him on the trip. It’s just ... nice to see him again. We’ve been catching up.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But a walk down to the beach sounds kind of ... romantic.”
Ryan made a face, but I could tell I’d hit on something. “It’s just Justin,” she said.
I took a chance and said, “From what I saw today, I thought you’d rather do something like that with Wilder.”
I thought I saw her flinch. She’d been open with me about all the other guys she’d been going around with, so I wasn’t sure why she was being so cagey now. It was like our roles had reversed.
“Of course not,” Ryan said. “He’s like a brother or something, I don’t know. Plus, I’m sort of his boss.”
I snorted. “Skip is his boss.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but we have to work together, and there’s a weird power dynamic, isn’t there? He’s just—he’s off-limits.”
“Does he know that?” I asked. “He planned this whole thing for you.”
“Of course,” she said again, and I could tell she was getting irritated with me. “He’s just a really nice guy.”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Well, have a nice moonlit walk with Justin, then.”
“Shut up,” she said. But she was trying not to grin.
Skip
I was never worried about Ryan’s new sound. Jas and I encouraged it, if I haven’t already made that crystal clear. There was one afternoon I walked past the studio lounge and heard this new, complex pop-bluegrass fusion. Ryan’s and Wilder’s voices came from inside, laughing and singing, and I just stood outside the door and smiled to myself.
That was it. That was what Ryan would be known for from here on out.
Of course there was chatter. I tried to shield her from that. We released three singles in early 2012 ahead of the full album: “Count Your Days,” “White Lace,” and “Angeline.” I remember I saw an old country buddy of mine at a happy hour in downtown LA, a very down-home Texan who was real into the old outlaw ballad days. No hate to him—I was too. That’s what got me into this career. But he said, “Another country producer turned pop, huh? Los Angeles will do that even to the best of us.”
I was like, “Man, what are you going on about?”
“Those singles ain’t country,” he said. “And I won’t be the only one to tell you that.”
I just laughed. “But are they good?” I said.
He grumbled something into his drink and didn’t have much to say back to me.
Mari
