The duo had a conversation in March 2022 that changed everything.
Dan + Shay are opening up about a bump in their partnership. In a new YouTube video, the country duo, which is comprised of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, revealed that they nearly called it quits.
In 2021, Smyers and Mooney were at the top of their career. They won a GRAMMY Award and wrapped up their headlining The (Arena) Tour, but neither Smyers nor Mooney was happy.
"I was in the lowest low of my entire life," Smyers recalled. "Came off the road and I was like, 'Man, I f**king hate music. I'm ready to quit.'"
"I could feel the separation and I think there was little things between you and I that we never talked about and it was affecting everything, not just our band, our marriages, everything," Mooney, who's married to Hannah Billingsley, agreed. "I was in a really dark place."
The pair didn't speak for four months and nearly ended their band as they took the time to "to step back and just assess" where things stood, Smyers said.
"For me, we didn't ever take time to be able to appreciate winning a GRAMMY or all these things, because it was just happening so fast," Mooney said. "... I think about all those things that we did and all the decisions that I made, and of course I wish I would've been more present. I wish I would've hung out with you more. I was just in this very feeling sorry for myself place and not wanting to take responsibility for anything."
"I think that's a lot of the reason why I was unhappy during our arena tour. We built this thing up in our head and I was hanging so much of my happiness on the success of that arena tour. And even when it was successful, I got to that show and we would leave mad about something stupid," he continued. "It was because we put so much weight on that moment that when it was over, what a downer. Especially at that point. I was drinking a lot, so those highs became really high and the lows became really, really low."
Smyers, who's married to Abby Law, was going through a hard time too, as he shared, "You live life, things happen, life gets in the way, and I had no balance before. It was completely one-sided. I was ignoring my marriage, I was ignoring all my friends. I completely burnt myself out, entirely burnt myself out."
The duo eventually had a conversation in March 2022 that changed everything.
"We just weren't working on it. We let things get in the way. We let things fly out the window," Smyers said. "That moment when we sat down and just talked it out, I feel like was so healthy. That night changed it all."
"Changed everything," Mooney agreed. "I feel like that was such a big turning point. It was us saying to each other, 'Look, I'm willing to fight for this.'"
Through that conversation, Smyers told Mooney that he came to realize that "the thing that filled my cup the most was being in a room with you, making music together."
"We love this band. This has been our life. It matters, and it matters to people. We had a responsibility," Mooney noted, with Smyers adding, "We owed it to them. If we're going to keep going forever, let's get ourselves right, man. Let's have a gut check."
Now, Smyers said that he and Mooney have once again "found that joy" that they started their band with.
"It started at a very genuine place," he said. "You and I sat down with acoustic guitars. We wanted to hang out. It was like writing a song was just our hanging out."
"I can feel the closeness of our relationship and our friendship when I listen back to the music," Smyers noted. "We are by far, a million times, the closest we've ever been for so many reasons, but because we worked at it. That makes what we're doing now infinitely sustainable. I could do this the rest of my life with you."
As the pair, who will soon star on The Voice, prepares to release their next album, Mooney said the process of making it "completely changed our lives."
"I don't know where the destination is," he said. "I don't know where we're going, but the lessons we learn along way, it is the drive there, and I just think the accumulation of this journey has really taken us to this point, because it's changed our lives."
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