This week on The Morse Code Podcast, I sat down with Nashville artist Paul McDonald — someone I’ve known in the periphery for years, but never really talked with until now. We cover a lot of ground in this one, but the big arc is this: what happens after everything falls apart… and how you find your way back.

Paul had it all — record deals, red carpets, the kind of fast success most musicians only hope for. But after his marriage ended and the spotlight faded, he found himself broke, aimless, and bummed out on the whole machine. The hustle stopped making sense. So he did something not a lot of people have the guts to do: he burned it down and started over.

We talk about that unraveling and the slow rebuild that followed — how sobriety, stillness, and solo songwriting helped him reconnect to music as something sacred again. It feels like he’s not chasing anymore. He’s just… doing the work.

There’s a lot here for anyone trying to walk the line between ambition and authenticity — especially those of us who’ve been at it a while. Paul’s story is a reminder that sometimes the best thing that can happen is to lose the script you were trying to follow.

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Also in this episode: Paul performs “Rosemarie” live in the studio, accompanied by Mike Miz on guitar and Joel Parks on keys. Don’t miss it. Any of it.

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