Trisha Yearwood Jokes That She Gave Matthew McConaughey His Big Break in Her ‘Walkaway Joe’ Video

Matthew McConaughey scored his first film role in 1993’s Dazed and Confused, but before that, he played the titular character in the 1992 video for Trisha Yearwood‘s hit single, “Walkaway Joe.” “I want to thank you because I’ve never had the chance to publicly thank yo u … for being in the video for ‘Walkaway Joe,’” Yearwood told McConaughey on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week during an episode Yearwood was guest-hosting with husband Garth Brooks. “It’s been almost 25, 30 years ago now!”

“Over 30 years and we’re finally — Yes, I remember this very well,” McConaughey replied before Yearwood joked, “I always tell everybody that this was one of your first things that you did and that I basically gave you a career and now you’re way more famous than me.” She also asked the actor, “But do you have any memory of doing that? Because we were not in the same place. You were in Austin and I was in Nashville.”

McConaughey replied, “I remember I was wearing a pager at the time, because I remember I was in school at the University of Texas and anytime that pager would go off, and they’d say, ‘Can you get to San Antonio and audition for this beer commercial or this music video?’ I’d bam! Out of class. I’m out of here, trying it out. Well, I was about 0 for 18, and then I got the pager came on to come try out for this video, and I got that one.”

The video’s storyline features McConaughey as the titular “Walkaway Joe,” who sweeps a girl off her feet before leaving her in a motel room. “I remember we spent a day — you know, they used to tell stories in the videos, much different than they do now,” McConaughey told Yearwood. “It’s a little story, the Walkaway Joe, they meet. It’s a great day. They go swimming. They hang out. They run hand in hand. They end up back at a ‘motel,’ not a hotel. Everything went well, and all of a sudden old Walkaway Joe just slips on out the door. He’s the wrong kind of guy.”

Yearwood laughed, “I feel like we should do this video again maybe at some point.” Earlier this year, McConaughey discussed the video during a brief appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show and revealed that he had not yet met Yearwood in person. Ahead of McConaughey’s visit to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Yearwood joked on Instagram that she would “finally get to confront my Walkaway Joe! Tune in for the cold hard truth!”