#385 - Chris Shiflett On the Difference Between Touring Solo vs. with the Foo Fighters + FINALLY Sets An Internet Rumor Straight + Taking the Role as Frontman…and Did He Feel Unsafe Playing Punk Shows?

guy has done at all. I think we could have done two different episodes, one of him just talking about the music that he likes and creates, and one of him just talking about Food Fighters. I mean, it's funny to hear him talk about the difference in touring, like when he's by himself versus when he's with Food Fighters. Yeah, what are crazy difference? And how one of them is wildly rich and one of them is a solid artists, you know, still trying to make it, figure it out.

I really like Chris Shifflet. Um. I liked him more than I thought I would. Not that I didn't think I would like him, but usually when guys coming from l A or New York, they just feel a bit different. Even if not purposefully. I thought he was awesome, didn't he was really nice, just like chill walked in because you don't know he's he plays hundred, hundreds of thousands of people with food Fighters, like he's one of the

faces of food Fighters. So I thought I was super cool that he came over because he was playing a show in town at the Rhyme and with it, BlackBerry smoke got him. So he's got a song called Blacktop White Lines just came out here to the go ahead

you had that and he recorded it in Nashville. He wrote it with Jared Johnson of Catalect three and John Osborne and brothers Osborne, and so we talked about a lot of stuff including food Fighters, growing up in California, his family, and you know, just life as a dad and also as a rock star. So you can follow him on Instagram at shifty seventy one. Michael was your biggest takeaway from this interview? I love every time we talked about the punk rock stuff, like that's what I

knew him for, like before food Fighters. So you did not I didn't know if you knew him before or you learned that he was in those groups in the past. You know the band he was in no use for a name. I've seen them live before before, like after he left the band, but one of my favorite bands growing up. Really yeah, dang, you really were into it then? Yeah, it was awesome, Like food Fighters are one of my favorite bands of all time, so it was super cool.

Here he is Chris Shifflin. I'm just genuinely interested in, for example, you and your career, Like I have just been a fan of different things that you have done. So people come to my house when I'm really interested and we'll do an hour and then this gets put on in a lot of places. This lives as a podcast that does you know, seven figure streams. Then I put it on other shows. So the answer is, it's

a lot. And sometimes I I got I was at the doctor a little bit ago because I got a signis infection, which you know when you get something here or here and you have to even saying because you know you're doing your stuff now. It's like a ball player having a hurt ankle. Yeah. I don't think people realize how much like one year, because you know, I've historically been the guitar player in a band for most of my you know, adult play in life, and when

I'm out doing my own shows, even this week. I mean, I'm doing one show this week. I'm just coming out here to play at the rhyman Um and that's the only gig. But like, both my kids were sick this week and all week long leading into this, I was like, don't I know. I mean, that's the life that I live, is where I'm always worried I'm gonna get sick. Yeah, and I think it's where the germophobe part of me started. I you know, my I've come from a very humble upbringing and so I have to show up to work.

I always had to show up to work. So I was like, if I get sick, I can't work, and if I can't work, and I still deal with a lot of that now. But to answer the question, um, I'll like you and that's why you're here. Otherwise, you know, we didne at the studio for ten minutes and a thing.

But yeah, it's I probably do this. I do a sports show just audio wise, thirty hours of ont in a week, which gets to be a lot to why I don't lie that much because I can't remember right, or I would I would just do some I thought my forty five minute podcast than I do like once every you know, two weeks was felt like a lot. Well, it is, it is. You know. I'm like a marathon runner though, so you would train all the time. That's what you do. You go when you do it. You know.

For me, I was thinking about you when I was coming over here. Um. And my point was, I left the doctor a second ago, and um, I have nothing wrong with me, except like a week and a half ago, I had a sinus infection that had developed from a cold and I just couldn't get rid of this, like this last lingering cough thing it just stay stays for like a two months, right, And so I go and he says he had nothing wrong with you. It's just one of those where you're bronchial stuff is all ye inflamed.

And so they put me on this little machine and you're like, it's like you're smoking a clear pipe of health and like foam steams coming out of it. And he says, you're gonna be a little like light headed and jittery when you leave this, and I'm like, I'm all right, I left it just legitterious crap. So I'm pretty sure that was my point here. Hey, so let's go first. It's super cool to have you here. Just sink. I'll geek out on that part for a minute. Just

super cool to have you here. UM been a big food fighter guy, well always like my whole life, and so I've known and when you become a big fan, you start to not be a fan of just the songs or just the lead singer, but how the different entities came in and developed. And so I'm very familiar with your story and super cool you're doing your thing now, and I would definitely wanta talk about the fulfillment there

and just the life that you've lived. And as I was kind of getting ready for this and thinking about you were coming, I spent the last week in California. I went over and hosted some um red carpet stuff for the Emmys and just some whatever, and I lost track of what day it was, meaning was that Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday? And I live in a space where I've got to know what day it is all the time because I'm on the air Monday through Friday,

and I'm touring and traveling. I don't know, but I wonder the lifestyle that you have lived, traveling so much, did days even matter for the most part, you know? I mean I think that there was a time, maybe when I was younger, when I just didn't pay attention that much to what day of the week was. And

did a Wednesday matter versus a Friday? Well, it matters when you're you know when it when you're in a band and and um, and you gotta play on a Tuesday night somewhere, you know, those are always like the weaker gigs, you know. And I'm thinking more like before I was in the food fight, like when I was I was in a bank called Nicks for name, and um, yeah, so you pay attention to that sense. But I think, like, uh, having kids, and I'm and my kids are pretty grown now,

so it's been a long time. But that that made me turn back into like a Monday, you know, paying attention to to Monday through Friday little bit more. In that sense. It was tough for me because I live on such a regimented I have to, like, I mean, I'm pretty regimented to I mean, to be honest, like in order to do like because like I got a lot of a lot of balls down there at all all the time. So my life is pretty compartmentalized, and it kind of has to be. You know, I gotta like,

I gotta be. I gotta be dad first thing in the morning, I gotta get my kids off to school, and then I gotta get Then I have like a few hours where I can sort of do the stuff that I need to do for me. A big calendar guy. Yeah, oh yeah, like everything in Oh yeah, I know, a dent or I just you know, asked shame my manager. I forget entirely and then he's called me, like, dude,

you get on that interview or what. Um yeah, no, like you know, especially if if we're in the middle of like food fighters stuff, you know, then that's gonna take up. That's that's a big that's like your whole life, you know. So you're trying to fit these things sort of in the margins here and there side. Now, I I gotta be. It always drives me nuts when I'm

dealing with people who are like living living loose. You know that that aren't fairing attention that I'm talking to you musicians, yeah, really mean creatives, Yeah, you know what I mean, where you're like, dude, I got like forty five minutes right now, like, we gotta go. It's been hard because I do a lot of different things, and none of them great. I do a lot of things

pretty well. But Ryan Seacrest, who I became friends with that worked on American Idol for four seasons, working with the contestants on picking songs, how to sing, that kind of stuff. I was on camera for four years there working with them, and he said to me once, he said, hey, look, people have to learn to respect your calendar. I was like, what does that mean. He goes, if you say you gotta go at four, you leave it for and they'll

never again question it. And so I then because I was gonna ask you how you're juggling this, because I do want to get and have a lot of things that to talk about about your new project. But I was like, damn, that's pretty good. Like it's president, we have a meeting. I gotta go at three. I'm gonna show up on time, and then I gotta go at three. Okay, sorry,

I gotta go, and they'll never question you again. Now, when you got a lot of money, like Ryan, I think it's a little easier to walk out of that, but I thought it was great advice and with what you're doing now, and can I Mike, we have a clip of black top white lines please. So you wrote this song with two of my friends, which is pretty freaking cool, right on? Yeah, John too. I mean those are like my dudes. I love them, and when I hear you, they are great dudes, like just as humans,

the best great musicians. And I gotta say Jaren was like really knocked out, knocked it out of the park producing this record. Well that's what I was going to ask about the production of it because when I hear this, because I'm big Catalect three, Like, I grew up in the South, so I grew up being kind of forced and then eventually loved like real Southern rock but also soul um southern rock, the tone, guitar tone a bit, and when I hear this, I can deaf only here

some of that jarring production influence. Well, that riff, the riff in the main riff of this on that boodle that is Jared all day on. He came into because we were gonna get together, right and we're doing it over zoom because it's like during the lockdown or whatever, and and before we jumped on there, he was like, hey man, you know it's a cool with John Osborne joints like yeah, of course, um John find nervously waiting like okay, man, just let me know if he lets

me into this, it's cool. Does not probably, But I was stuked. Yeah. I was like, you know, made it made it that much better and um, but Jarren brought that riff into it, you know what I mean, And then we kind of wrote the song around that. Mike, we hit that again. So when you're putting out and you're the face, now that's you, just I mean it is, that's you. Now, it's just your name, it's yours. No band, by the way, I mean, do you have a band?

But it's you? Yeah, you know. And I'll tell you the reason why I didn't do that for a very long time. Um, when like when I was a little younger, intentionally even stuff that was basically like a solo project, Like I had a band called Jackson United that was, you know, legitimately a band here and there, but with a bunch of different lineups. And then I was when I first started doing some kind of more like Americana

flavored stuff. Um, I had a band called Chris Shifflett and the Dead Peasants, and I just found like every time I would go to make a record, every time I would go to do some shows, it would always be different people because you can't really keep a full time band together. When you're in a full time band, you know what I mean, it just doesn't work. Uma salary just to hang and yeah that's that that that

ain't an option. Um. But yeah, so I finally just kind of like, you know, like grudgingly just make it my own name, you know what I mean. Like, but but it's interesting because with each record and then with each like tour, like you know, groups of shows video, you do have these moments of like you know, like the group of musicians that played on my new record, it's consistent for the most part, all the way through,

you know, all ten songs. There's a little bit of change here and there, um, and all those cats make a massive impact. So it's like you just it's like it's like having this little mini band relationship for a couple of sessions, you know. Yeah. And I guess my point was saying, it's just you as okay, Dead Peasants, It's still you I mean a lot of artists. Tom Petty had the Heartbreakers. We could go through all the people who had great bands with them as well. But

this sound that you're making is just you. This is just your sound. Now. Jack White can do and we can go through all the different versions that he does, but and they all have slightly have a different sound. It could be Jack, but this is just you. And so you have to decide who your presentation of you by yourself, what that set, what the phone is that? Do you think about that? Are you just like man,

let's just make some music and see what happens. I mean, I think about it a little bit like one of the first conversations we had when I asked Jared if you would produce um produce this record was was we had the conversation about like kind of pushing me into an unknown territory or you know, sort of sonic territory. That was that was maybe a little uncomfortable or something I hadn't done before. And like this first song was

definitely definite. We definitely went there. What sonically because it sounds so natural because I know those guys that I know you, but what sonically to you, I don't want to use the word hesitant. But what sonically to you made you kind of weighed in a little slower because you weren't that a custom? Is that the is it the tone? Is it that the Yeah, it's just maybe an overall gloss on the whole thing or so, I don't know, you know what I mean. It's it's probably

more in my head than anybody else likes. It's funny because as a musician you tend to just overthink everything. I know I do. I always do um and overthink how it's going to be receiving all that sort of stuff. So um, and the song is not out yet, so I guess we'll find out pretty soon by the time said when says it'll be okay, cool cool um yeah.

So uh, but you know, the response so far in the little snippets that I put up, like, there hasn't been one comment on my Instagram that's like this sounds like a radical departure for you, you you know what I mean. So I think that's stuff that like we think about more than anybody else. I think most people just listen to music. They just take it as it comes, you know,

Do I like this or do I not? Does this make me want to dances and making me happy does make me say, I don't think most people sit there and think about production elements and all that kind of you know, that that that maybe the musicians think about in the difference between this type of you know what roots the Americana sound is versus a slicker, more kind of like you know, radio friendly, you know, all that kind of stuff. I just don't think people the average

listener just doesn't care. And they don't. And when you said gloss, I don't you know this is me and you I've heard that song a bunch. I don't really hear gloss as as that's not either a compliment or it's not it's nothing except I don't hear gloss. I just hear like a like a pivot, a slight pivot that feels like the narratives a little more honest, interesting, And again that's just there's no real definition of art. But it feels like like your your narrative feels a

little grittier. And I don't hear gloss at all. Well, that's that's good to hear. Maybe gloss was the wrong word, but like I mean, but you know, like, um, I do think that this record, when you kind of add it all up, it's got like and I feel like

like an edge closer. This maybe with every solo record I do, which is more and more kind of all of my musical influences represented the big ones at least, you know, the Stones and whatever Bad Religion or Jawbreaker or something mixed with you know, Merl Haggard and Bucko, and you like, it's kind of all in the in there. Give her the Eagles is easy, top whatever it is, you know, it's just kind of it's all in there.

You ever have be so influenced? And I'm not And this is not the same thing as because I'm a comedy and I definitely don't still jokes on purpose, But there are times when I write things that are similar to other people because we have like minded sensibilities and age.

So this is not that type of question, but it's do you ever feel like you're so influenced by an era of the Eagles and you've written this song and you're like, man, I just hear like seventies Eagles so much that I can't stop hearing the Eagles from the seventies, not specifically a song, but like you were so encapsulated by whatever that motivation was when you wrote that song that you're like, man, this might be a little too

much Molly Crewe. Yeah, I mean, I guess, but like I kind of seem feel like it's usually the opposite. It's the thing that you think, you're like, Wow, it's a little close to the bone, you know, like maybe maybe that's you know, a little too much borrowing, a little too much influenced. Is like then other people hear it totally differently, you know, because I think that's a big I think that is a big part of music.

I think we're all borrowing from the people that we grew up listening to or whatever, or even just the current stuff, and but then you put it through your filter and it becomes this this different thing. You like being the front guy, You like singing. I do like singing. Let me ask it again. You love singing? You know, I can't. I came a singing late, you know, versus

playing guitar. I mean I would, I it's it's it's it's an interesting question because it's something that slowly I've gotten more and more comfortable doing, and even in writing, used to sort of view writing the lyrics and stuff is almost kind of an afterthought and and whereas that's more like front and center to me now as when

I'm when I'm writing. But um, yeah, I mean I I would love to someday be able to sing with as much ease and sort of like, um, I don't know, just the kind of like not even thinking about a thing that I feel like I do with guitar playing. I don't think I'm there as a singer, you know what I mean. I still gotta like work at it, but I like it and I enjoy it, and it's fun,

you know that. And it's fun to like to even just playing live, like to see what kind of works and doesn't work, and putting a show together and and

and putting us interacting with the crowd. You know, it's that weird thing that like he it's hard to even put your finger on, you know, sometimes you just feel like you're so connected to the crowd, and sometimes you feel like there's this wall between you and you know what I mean, And and it's trying to like, you know, sometimes after shows like oh did that feels so good tonight? You know wh I was why I was that spark there with everybody in and at the bar or whatever,

you know what I mean. And have you found a difference and exactly that the cinement you're making there? Have you found a difference in being the front guy and technically how your stage is set up? Meaning if I do comedy music, I can't wear ears because I have to hear laughs. Right, if I'm doing just music music and we're part I have to wear ears so I can hear. And so there are for different reasons monitors versus.

Have you found that being that guy up front now technically you maybe you've had to rethink how the stage is set up or how it's technically coming to you. Well, I am a recent in ears convert, so you were you haven't wear ears forever? No, I was earplugs for a long time, but I'm just sort of recently started, especially with ear plugs with sound. You're saying, well, like like those moldy places, no with no sound, which is which is the worst thing for a guitar play. It

tikes out all the high end. It's annoying, but you can still here, Oh you can still hear. Yeah, But it's like you know those moldy ear plugs that they're little ear Okay, you gotta talk, take it down for me level. I'm done with this. So I wear ears to do my radio show because it's also visual. But you can't see they're not they're not the molded ears, but they're plugs. But I can hear everything. Now you're saying,

I'm talking to straight ear plug. Why would you plug your ears to save my because I spent so do you know how many years I spent in little garage? I hear you hear the symbols right here, Like I remember I went to go get my hearing jacked, like probably fifteen years ago, and uh, it's not too long after we first started having kids and the doctors freaking me out. He's like, yeah, you don't care now, but you know when you're my age and you can't hear

your grandchildren or you know, you're gonna care. And I was like, get me the thickest ear plugs I possible, but no now, and now I use any ears. You know like what you're talking about, And for God, that's the greatest thing ever for for singing it your sounds like and you don't blow your voice, don't blow your voice sounds. It just sounds like you're singing in your head. You know it's the best, So okay, you gotta help me out on because I was never really comfortable with

with with loud monitors on stage. And how do you hear the the base are you? Are you just running like a metronome and you're I mean, what are you doing if you're playing with ear plugs? I'm not getting I'm dumb right now, Chris. You know what you're doing. You're overcompensating and just turning your amp up. That's what you're doing. So it probably amounts to the same thing. Okay, so you can still hear, well, you get there's the fancy mold of ones that have like little different caps

where you can bring it down ten dB. But but in the plugs that you're wearing, well, the ones that used to wear Yeah, yeah, I never even heard of that. Yeah, you started playing guitar. What age do you feel like? You're someone who music came to I don't think there's a such thing as easy, but more naturally? Did you understand it quicker? Um? I wouldn't say that. I think, um, I was lucky that I grew up in a family of musicians. You know, both my older brothers played and

played really well, and we're like really good. By the time I ever picked up a guitar, which was probably a little daunting, and I was a terrible student. It wasn't really like a guitar student. I would just never really practice what I was supposed to practice and all that sort of thing um and like, you know, this was like the early nineteen eighties, so and I was

listening to people like in Babe Almstein and stuff. So I would I remember, like everyone would talk about, oh, you have to take classical guitar lessons because that's what Vay did or that's what Julie john Roth did, all these guys that we all looked up to. And so I was a little kid and I would go take classical guitar and I could not figure out how that connected to like the Ozzy Osbourne records. I was like, it just didn't make any sense, and so I just

wouldn't play it, you know. And it wasn't until it wasn't until I started playing in bands in high school. That's when I started. When it started to when I started get like, you know, more fluid, But what's classical guitar I know classical piano, but what do you learn at a classical guitar lesson? I didn't learn anything. Okay, what are you supposed to learn? Do you learn? Like, are you supposed to learn how to read music? I

could never really do. And like you know, it's a lot of finger style, you know, like you know beautiful. It's almost like almost like a level of discipline that I just I wasn't recognizing in the heavy metal music that I was listening to. I couldn't figure out how that became that, and I just wanted it to be that. You know, as you have two brothers that are both playing guitar, how come you gting get stuck with the bass? Usually they Yeah, my brother Scott, my first my brother

Mike started playing guitar. Then my brother Scott started playing bass, so he was like a he got it, ok he did, But he also just you know, took my brother Mike's guitar and figured out how to play that thing better than than all the rest of us, you know, so he kind of did it. All you get drums, you're handsOn. If they just give you drums, all, yeah, Well I'll tell you because my older brothers were guitar and based respectively.

My first choice was piano. I was gonna be a keyboardist, and then my mom even bought me a piano, and then I never I didn't take those lessons either, So it just eventually I just had to pick up the guitar. It just had to be that, you know, that was that was the air. It seemed like the guitar player in in all those bands was always the person that I was drawn to. Born and raised in California, like beach California, Yeah, Santa Barbara, like surf California. I mean

I actually came to surfing kind of late. You know, we're a relative to a lot of other people. But um, but I mean I grew up at the beach anyway, so skateboarding and what a book you I'm a little embarrassed to admit that when I was a kid, I was a boogie boarder. It's a sponger, is that the thing on your knees, not not not on your knees, but like, you know, the more a boogie you know. I just I grew up in Arkansas, so I don't have any I don't even like the beach because I

don't get it. It's only because I was never around it, like my friends who grew up either going on vacation to beaches or they love it, and I'm like, I don't, what do I do? I just sit there. Yeah, that's eventually you pick up a surfboard and then it opens up that whole tarn a c L. Yeah, i'n't even skiing because I'm afraid to go tearing a c L at this point. Yeah, I'm tearing everything that's it could happen. That is, it's dangerous you are. And then there's the sharks. Yeah,

that doesn't scare me. I've done shows on that geo and those animals. I'm all good, We're good. I'm doctor doo a little, I'm freaking doctor doodle at out there. Then hit me, I can't tarn a c L with a shark. Well, tear my head off and I won't even know it. You have two brothers. Do you have any other siblings? Um? I have a step brother who

was who was around a lot to music at all. Um. He played a little bit, but not real but he was more of a musical influence just because of what he was listening to and and you know, just bringing that to it, mom and dad were they together? They were not? And did you know I didn't know my dad at all? My left So did you know your mom and dad? Yes, so my mom and dad were together. Uh, we lived. I was born in Santa Barbara. My dad got a job out in Maryland, so we all moved

out to Maryland. So when I was real estate, do you move all the way across yeah? Yeah, And then my parents separated. My mom moved back to Santa Barbara. So then there was a few years where we were bouncing back and forth, like we'd be in Maryland for a little bit, then we come out to Santa Barbara, back and forth until like until my mom finally got custodied of us full time. And then my dad stayed

out there. And you know, sadly now because my dad passed away when I was you know, around twenty eight or something, and I never lived in the same town as him again from the time when I was after after they split, Yeah, and he moved back to California eventually, but he was a couple of hours up the coast. So have you ever did the drive across. No, But there was a funny story where my um We didn't

know this because you know, we're just little kids. But when when we figured out after the fact, when when my dad like officially lost custody the office, he's fine, like all right, everybody get in the car, going for a drive, and we drove, like to like St. Louis or something, so yeah about halfway or like what are we doing? Your mom? Was she musical and in her love that you listened to a lot of music. My mom had what I thought at the time was the

worst musical taste in the world. Some of it, in hindsight, not so bad. But she would do this thing like she bought this Anne Murray record and there was like one whatever the hit was at that moment, and she would just play it over and over and over. But if it wasn't and Murray would be like, you know, stuff that like now I can appreciate, like James Taylor and Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that. But now we

got more of the music stuff from my dad. My dad had kind of hip taste, hip as in rock metal, not at all like hip like this is the Beatles, this is Bob Dylan got I know, even like you know, when I was when I was in the seventies. I remember him listening. He would listen to like almost nothing but Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley and stuff that we

weren't you know, like I didn't. I'm not gonna pretend that I liked those records necessarily, but but it was on in the house, and you know, it just kind of seeped in and stuff that you sort of you grow up a little bit and you go, wow, that was better than you know, the Wasp records we were listening to or whatever. It's your oldest brother's interest and how good he got a guitar? Is he the reason that your other brother and yourself were in music or

were in music? Yeah, pretty much. I mean it all started with him. He was the first one that got a turntable and got some vinyl and you know, and we all got hooked. So what's what's what's his deal? Was he a good artist? Does he still play? Is he does he alive still? He's a yeah, he's oh yeah, he's going. He's a guitar teacher at the shop Jensen Music in Santa Barbara that we all grew up taking

lessons from man. That's how you know he's good I know, and when he got I mean, he's done that for a long time now, but man, being a guitar teacher made him like a million times better and he was already real good. It's like studio like session players here in town because there are get our players, are instrumentalists whatever, and they go on the road, they play all the big shows and it's like, oh cool, you play guitar for him, and then you meet somebody's like, yeah, I'm

a studio session player for oh you're good. Like there's a there's a real difference in and no offense to you because you're obviously awesome. But I'm saying these technical guys who can look at a chart here in Nashville and go, all right, I'm gonna do three sessions today, We're gonna walk into this one. Got it all right? But it's crazy. Oh yeah, no, I know because some of those cats have played all my records and yeah,

it's it's humbling to say the least. What about writing, because obviously you've written songs in all capacities, but now for this project, did you write different? I don't and that's really not a good question. But sonically it's a bit different. You say you're challenged the writing side of the same feeling. Well, a lot of these songs were written during the lockdown, so it was it was just

a strange moment in you know, in life. Um so something probably about it's probably about in songs that were co writes with other people. And even that was a little bit different and kind of weird because you're doing it over zoom. Um, you're not just like sitting in a room with your friends. But um, but then, but just the writing process for me probably not much different. Um, but the process of making the record was very different.

It was over time. So by the once we got to the end, because we recorded in three different sessions, once we got to that last session, it was sort of clear, uh, like the kind of the elements that that needed to be there that weren't there yet, and that's what we were kind of aiming for. So we're sort of going through I'm sending Jared little home demos and stuff and trying to figure out, you know, what songs we should we should jump in there and record.

Why here though, I mean obviously Jared John but why here? Why Nashville? Why are you basing this whole thing here. Um well, I made my last couple of records before this out here as well. Um And you know, for if you're making like kind of roots Americana country tinged music, can't really can't really go wrong making it in Nashville. You know your isn't your podcast based like Americana country? Maybe maybe kind of less so now, but like, yeah, that was that was the That's been the main focus

of it. If you who were your musical I don't want to say heroes because when people ask me that question, I tend to answer a lot cooler than I really feel. So I'm gonna say who do you? Who? Do you listen to a lot even now? And it can be old music because a lot of stuff I listened to his stuff I loved years ago, especially when I'm trying to relax, not a big new music guy, whenever I'm just trying to chill, who over the past twenty five years, will you still put on and just go like, man,

this is some good music. I'm just gonna drive somewhere. Yeah. Um year, Well, like that first sun Volt record is a huge one for me, you know, and when that came out, that was really like that record was one of my big introductions into like, you know, back then, I think it was just called All the Country, but what you know, we all know is Americana or however you want to look at it. Um. That one never

gets old to me. Um especially, I mean, I just have like these vivid memories because it was really the singer in my old band, Tony Sly was the singer of this band No Use for a Name, that I was in, and he was into all that stuff, you know, and he would always bring an acoustic guitar on tour, and so we'd be driving down the road in our van and he'd be sitting there, you know, strumming sun Volt songs and Whiskey Town songs and you know, the will Coast I was gonna Tupelo and all that, you know,

all that stuff. Um, he's the one that turned me on all that. And then through that I found you know whatever, Steve Earle and listen to Williams and even Merle, Haggard and Buck and all the you know, I just kind of worked my way back. I was just about to go to Wilco when you said it yet a cute Well, those first couple, you know, the first couple of song Vote actually the first couple of Wilco records. Just yeah, I could never get for those records. What

about is a kid? What did you love at sixteen years old? Sixteen? Well, okay, so I when you know, when I first started going to shows, I mean I was listening pretty much just like heavy metal was with the music of the day. And and then there was

this this change that happened. We're around like eighty four, the glam rock things started cooking up in in l A. And there was a band from Europe called handle Rocks, and yeah, and so I discovered I got turned on a Hando Rocks right right at the end of them being a band, because they basically they had made a bunch of records. But then they put out their major label record, The Drummer Dies, and the whole thing falls apart.

But as that was all kind of happening, we got my brother brought home that last record, and then you know, like with everything else, you sort of work your way back and get the other ones. But that record had a massive impact on the l A rock world, and all these bands started coming up, bubbling up, like you know, Guns and Roses and Poison and Jet boy Who from up North and Faster pussy Cat and Ally Guns and

that whole thing. And this is like pretty early in that, like probably like eighty five, Fish started to go see those bands, and it really was like so I was, yeah, I was around like fourteen fifteen sixty in those years as that whole thing was kicking off. Um, I would go down. We were just going down and it just see my memories. We're just going down to l A all the time to go see those bands like the Troubadour and oh yeah, no, I said, Man, I started

going to shows on about twelve or so. And then, and I look back on as a parent, helm why did my mama allow this to happen? How did you get where? Would go? And even before that, I was going down to see like you know, Keel and Armored saying all all that kind of stuff because they were

all ages show. All the shows were all ages shows. Um. And then maybe somewhere in the middle of all that in really kind of like in high school, like where I grew up was just far enough away that there was no like rock and roll scene really and so if you were going to see live music, it was punk rock or was thrash metal or was something like that, you know, or something like weirdo college band at the

at UCSB, And so it was just cool. That time was just cool because it was all this mix of music happening and you know, you're sort of getting turned on to all this different stuff. And like me and my I had this little tight group of friends and when we were into this thing that was happening in l A that eventually became very mainstream, but at that moment, you know, for there was like a couple of years there where it felt like it was like our little secret,

you know what I mean. Your mom obviously didn't throw a fit or she didn't know you were going to these shows, But do you think it's because you had two older brothers blocking for you? Yeah? She she was. She was broken by the time I came along. She's given up. And did you guys ever, because the age if you were your older brothers, how much older than you? He's about seven years old, okay, in your middle brother would be how about five? Yeah? Okay, that's significant an age.

But did you guys ever bond as brothers and have real true brother mo much over music? Oh? For sure? I mean where you're all cool with each other. Yeah, yeah, tons, tons, but sort of as we you know, as each one of us got to a certain age. You know, when I was a kid, just whatever my brother thought was cool, I thought it was cool. But would you ever think you were a cool at fifteen and be like, hey, fifteen, yar, will come with me. I'm twenty two, and our other

brothers seventeen. Let's get in the car and go to a show that probably never happened. I mean, and maybe here and there, maybe more so me and my brother Scot, because me and my brothers got also, like you know, played bands together and stuff like, you know, like lived in l A together, and um, so that was probably a little bit more of that with him. But yeah, now we we all kind of broke off and had our kind of specific musical interests once we got to

a certain age, you know. And and it is a funny thing because, like I learned so much about playing from my brothers, but we probably never sat down and had them go like, okay, here's how this lick goes. It was just kind of osmosis. It was just being in the room. Did you were you ever good enough to where the older brother would go, hey, that's pretty good. It uh not when I was not when I was

a teenager. No, you you know what I did. I did a few years ago we were making a document of food fighting documentary and and and I went back and found all the old like footage of my high school bands that I could get my hands on, you know, like the drummer in my band that played the ninth

grade talent show. I had a video of that, and then you know, another person had a video this, and then and so I wound up cobbling together my ninth grade talent show, this club gig when I was in maybe tenth grade, and then a gig when I was a senior, or wouldn't when I would have been a senior um. And so it's just really over the course of like four years, and it's wild to see. It's like the first one, you can't even tell what we're doing, and so we're playing kiss songs. It just sounds like

it's madness. Nobody's playing the same thing, you know, just total chaos. The second one, it's like songs, but it's really stiff and jan kee and not very together, and I'm trying to play guitar, so all those and it's not really working, you know what I mean. And then by like that third one, we're like it's kind of Shredden, you know, like it's it's like you could see the evolution of just like because it was all we did.

It was just play. You know. We were either playing keg parties or you know, bar gigs once we could sort of start to get him and or just rehearsing to my friend Luke's garage, or we just played all the time, you know. And the more you played, obviously the better he got. Yeah, and the more the more you played. I mean it's like the Beatles in Germany and they played clubs for twelve hours a night. Yeah, of course they got great. They had to. They wouldn't

have been able to survive. They'll learn everything. You evolve really fast and then you just kind of hold steady for the next forty years. You rat Pack, did you play bass? I did play bass in rat Pack. Bass in a punk band? Is that consider punk? Would? Yeah? Okay?

Yeah there that the edges blur for me a bit punk and thrash, well especially you know, I mean at that moment in time in punk rock, like like you know, rat Pack was was like a local punk rock band at Santa Barbar where I was at, but like they were also listening to guns and rows this and stuff, so you get a little bit of that. Nobody wants to admit that now, but there was. There was a

lot of crossover. What's a bass player? What's the comment throw and a bass player in a punk band and a guitar player in a rock band because I feel like overplaying. I remember the guitar player in rat Pack one time and I was like, yeah, I was probably like six teams, so I didn't it wasn't really a bass player. But um I remember rehearsal him stopping us in the middle of the song, and it was like, dude, quit playing lead bass. It's not lead bass, it's just basse. Stop.

That's funny. Did you take to bass pretty easily from playing guitar at the house? I mean, you're a kid now. I played bass like a guitar player. My brother plays bass like a bass player. It's a different thing. It's I tried to play bass a little bit, and again I'm not. I mean, I'm close as good as you, but not really, but not at all. But it's it feels like I'm walking with different legs to get to

the same destination. It's like because you know, with the guitar, especially if it's like a rhythm guitar, but bass, it's like I'm having to play notes in places where I never even heard the note to begin with, and I'm setting things up, I'm building like tables for other notes to sit on, Like this is way too smart for me. Yeah, I think like when I'm playing bass on like my own little demo or something, I just trying to play like it's like one of those real like less is

more kind of guitar player. You can kind of be clacking around, floating above everything else and making a racket. But the bass, I don't know. It depends on the genre too, But it's like for most of the stuff that I'm doing, I'm trying to like like not just kind of like not fill every little nook and cranny. I'm music illiterate and I need to prove myself, so

I'm trying to everything. I'm trying to tell every new But when I played long View the first time, I was like, I'm good, I'm put it down after a green day and I was like, I'm good. I'm good at bass. I just mastered it. I'm good to go. So guns and Roses obviously massive, just in general in the eighties. And there was a story that I read about a friend of yours. Did he go an audition for Guns and Roses or tell you should know, my buddy.

It's funny because that that thing. I should have never told that story um in an interview, because it didn't well yeah, so it's it's this funny thing that's become like like a internet that ever I know. But so okay, here's the straight I know. I was never in Guns and Roses. I never auditioned for guns and Guns and Roses never asked me to join the band. None of

that ever happened. What it was was a friend of mine UM mentioned one day say, hey, dude, I think I could get you an audition for Guns and Roses. And this was in so this is right about the time when I joined Food Fighters, right and in that conversation I said to him, Hey, I heard food Fighters are looking for a good time. Our player could see if you can, you know, And he said, oh, I know somebody that worse than whatever, And he actually did wind up getting my name thrown in the hat when

they were having auditions. So that's how I got how I wanted up audition in for foods. But um, but that was the like and my buddy Bill, he didn't work for guns or there was no official anything. And that was at a time when Guns and Roses wasn't even Guns and Roses. It was like accel and and you know it's like none of the original guys weren't it besides actual So yeah, let's just put that to

bed right now. I never played in Guns and Roses and and I would have gladly played in Guns and Roses had anybody ever, right, especially if it was seven, you know what I mean. Um. And I was also never a professional soccer player. That's another one of those weird internet rumors that I don't know, that one. Yeah, that one, that one's following me. I wish I had been a professional soccer player. That would have been great. Like a couple of things myself. I was never an astronaut,

that's right. I was never a brain surgeon. I don't have a massive wiener that people have heard about it. It's not that side. You're gonna keep that one. Alright, good, biggest crowd that you guys have ever played in front of? I don't know, I remember, and this was a long time ago. We played Rock and Rio two thousands in Rio.

That's in Rio. Well it's funny, you asked, because they also did Rock and Rio in like Lisbon, but which wasn't in real But um, yeah, I know rock and Rio actually in Rio, and I remember at the time maybe somebody said it was like a hundred thousand or a couple hundred thousand people even big, and uh, get more nervous. It's gotta be still up there. Now, you get less nervous for that. You get less nervous for that because it's so big. It's just like you can't

even see people's faces. What about your shows now? Way more nerve racking, especially if they're sparsely attended. Those are the most nerve wracking of all. Do you watch people's faces?

I have a bad habit when it's my solo thing of of like getting distracted by watching people's faces, especially if like somebody's like looking at their phone, somebody's like like yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and still and somebody's like looking at their phone and like elbowing their friend and they're laughing, and all of a sudden, I start to think about, like, what's that I'm dealing and then I

forget the verse that you know what I mean? Um, yeah, I gotta I gotta figure out how to just tune the crowd out but stay connected, but tune them out. I drive myself crazy because if I I can't assign my feelings on to other people. And I've even been to therapy where I would go out and I'll do a theater of a couple of thousand people. I'll be doing,

telling jokes, rocking it. If I see one person that looks like they're tired or yawned or get up, And it's a theater, so it's not only the environment where people get up, but if they get up, Like god, I'm a suck totally. And so I didn't have. The weirdest thing was performing, Like it's so easy to misjudge a crowd, but because I've assigned how what I think on them. If they're yawning, they must be like me. And when I yawned, I'm board. They may have a

yawn disease. What do I know? The old classic yawn disease, and so what I would talk to my therapist about it. She goes, let me get this straight. There's I don't know, two thousand other people. They're having a great time, yeah, laughing their butts off. But you see one person in the third row that's like talking to their buddy or and that's the thing that triggers you to go, maybe

I'm not good enough. Plus you immediately assume that the thing that they're talking about is something negative about you. That's the absolutely. It's like if two people are whispering around you, You're like, well, for sure they're talking about me. They probably heard that big penis rumor, and now so

they know it's not true because I revealed it. And then here we are, oh yeah, and you know nine times out of town when you actually encounter because I've had that happen where the person you in the crowd that you think is not enjoying themselves, you'd like talk to them after the show and they're like, dude, that was the best, and you just have completely and you and I always gotta remember myself, like when I met a show, I'm not like in the rogued dancing and

going you know what, I mean, it's like, you know, I try to watch fourheads. Yeah, that is now what I try to do. I only look at foreheads and listen back. I tell you what, dude, Having played in like punk rock bands in my younger years, it ruins your ability to judge a crowd forever because the because the bar was if there wasn't a big pit, it

wasn't a good show. And so you get conditioned and I will never be unconditioned to that that, like the crowd has to be going insane for it's a registers a good thing and I always have, especially with like with my solo stuff, that like runs way mellower than punk rock. You know, even though a lot of it's like rocking, it's not that kind of rocking, you know what I mean, it's and and at the no, you're not gonna be sad they're not, and like they're in

seats and stuff. So it's just not in it's it's it would be genre inappropriate. Was ever dangerous for you play and punk bands that young? Because I would be scared to go heat. Mike is a huge punk guy, goes to show still, It's like he's very valuable to me. He's like my main guy, yet he's in there freaking big in his neck broken, Like I don't understand, Like, I just feel like you would get hurt too. Um, like you're diving on drums, spitting in people's mouths. I

don't think anybody ever actually spit in my mouth. But yeah, I'm like, I remember one time and this didn't really seem like scary scary, but uh, but you do have moments like this, like where we were on tour. Um I was on tour with no used for name, and and we were in somewhere in Spain and we were playing and the crowd was really like going bananas, and it was packed club and there was like, uh, all the bouncers were lined up across the front of the

stage and they were really man handling the kids. And so we got on our high arts. I'm like, man, get that out of here, and you guys b and all the bouncers just kind of went like all right, and they all left and then we started playing the next song and it was just a complete stage vasion, like totally insane. But I'm sorry, guys, Okay, you were doing something after all. I get it. Yeah, I mean

I've seen stuff like that. I remember touring with with Unwritten Lawns and then we were down and when and when I was playing a band called twenty two Jacks and uh, and there was if I remember correctly, there was some some the bouncers were being pretty rough and one of them was standing like in the middle of the stage, like not like crouched down, but like in the middle of the stage while the while Unwritten Law was playing, and Scott, the singer front Written Law, just

kicked him in the ass into the crowd and it was like that time I was scared because the bouncers wanted to kill everybody. At that point, I think I think we had to sneak him out of there in our van. Yeah, lost it see the record itself. So

I don't know. Whenever you go, when you play these shows and now you're having and you've been listen, you've been doing versions of this for a long time, right, So it's not like this you're just going, I'm a solo artist now from a first time, you have different kind of incarnations of who you are. This to me is the first project like this that's just you. You

can tell me I'm wrong, Am I wrong? I feel like this is the mode from what I've heard of this, it's way it's different sonically, and it feels like a way different you than I've heard through other versions. Yeah, yeah, I'd say that's fair. That's fair. Okay, So lost at see you're playing these songs? Are you playing I don't know, mostly songs from the new record? Are you playing any of the other versions? I don't know. What you do?

It depends on you know, like the like, like if we're supporting somebody else and we have a shorter set library Smoke, for example, when you're opening for them, you'll play three three songs off the new record. Okay, I think, yeah, it's so two of which nobody will have ever heard, um and then what else? And then songs from my last couple of records. And then I put out a couple of songs just on my own last summer, So

I'll probably play one or two of those. You know, that's a question of how you juggled that, especially when you were kind of not rebranding but just showing a different part of who you are music. Yeah, it's it can be challenging to try to, like, you know, because you want to just get up there and play everything. But you gotta you gotta trim it down. Well, you do double time and get double the songs in there, you go faster. Indeed. Yeah, well we'll just set the

you know, the click track a little faster. Mike. I know you're a big fan. What's the deal here with you? Yeah? I mean I grew up on Fat Records, so now you all right on? No use for her name me first in the game games favorite bands growing up? Um, I think the thing I loved about me first was punk rock supergroup. Guys did amazing covers. If you could form a supergroup now, like with him, of your peers, who would be in that band and what kind of

songs would you cover? Oh man, who would be in it? Now? Does it? Of I don't know. That's a tough one because me first and then Gimme's just kind of fell together. It was just like the you know, me and Joey were living in San Francisco at that time. We had just moved up there. Spike was working at Fat Records, Dave was was living there because he was still in r k L at the time, and you know, of course, Mike,

you know it's bat Record so he was there. Um, so it just kind of came together without like any real any real planning. But I always thought it would be cool to make, like to corral a bunch of folks from out here and do a really super badass like classic country cover band and go play parties. But there must be like a hundred people that already do that, so I don't, well, not, I've never done that. Yes,

that would be fun for me, but not not. Yes and no. The answer is yes, people do that, but not people that are superior at least I'm in theory. Or Okay, you say that, that's why I need a bunch of really good players to come make it sound really good. But like, like, how cool would that be to take like everybody that played on on my new record Coach play like you know, of just a classic classic country cover set somewhere. I think it'd be super I think, give me the analogy here. I'll set you

up if I do. Obviously, I had a showing that GEO for a while on a small ish budget, and we had fine catering. It was fine. You know, we go out, we're all over the country on location. Fine good crew, fine American idol. Network best food money is awesome just a lot more time. But there's a difference in the two when you're doing you versus food. I'm assuming that's probably similar. Well, if you need a visual, uh, send your camera crew to the Airbnb I'm staying at

right now and that will clearly illustrate the difference. And if that doesn't make it clear enough, um, I'll drive you around in my van that we tour in as well. Is it a plus because that I say, I've said it before, not just here, you're here. I think the I think Food Fighters are the greatest American living band

right now period, just because two things. One three lots of hits still relevant and the length of amount that the time you guys have been relevant, meaning you're talking about decades and yeah, I did an alternative based show for a long time. And to me, Food Fighters are extremely well respected and regarded and acculated, but still the most underappreciated band, one of them in music history. And I think up absolutely very much. So you can be but you can also be overrated and be awesome. Not

Food Fighters, but I'm saying you can. You can be like, Wow, that person's overrated and they can still score thirty five a game and get nine rebounds. But the point is, I think because of a couple of things, you guys do not get the actual appreciation you deserve. Like some of the absolute greats of all time, I don't think you're great versus everybody, and I think great versus everybody. Ever at the duration of success they hits. You keep putting in the relevance. Now you put out a new record,

Now it's still boom go. I'll tell you when you talk about the duration, it is funny because somebody posted um on my Twitter feed the other day. I don't even know when this. I think it was pretty early in me being in the band. It must have been like the first tour, some live clip and it just you just look at it and you're like, oh my god, we're kids were like, you know, but here was that?

You think? Well, I mean, I joined the band at ninety nine, so it was probably like a clip from like two thousand or so, I don't know, and like I'm wearing like sleeveless. The thing that jumped out of me was I had cut off sleeve T shirt, which dates it from quite because I can't imagine I would be doing that anytime recently. But um removed Food Fighters from the conversation. Just just me and you're talking about music. Remove food Fighters. Name another American band that's got years

of absolute greatness, just period. It could be from any time. It's a what do you do? Who do you put there? Yeah? I mean, you know, we're it's it's you gotta appreciate it. You know, it's amazing, and you just you know, when you're like in it and living at day to day, you sort of you know, I think one of the hardest things in life is to sort of be in the moment and appreciate it as it's all happening. And

it's like you never really do. But when you look back over the length of time, you just look at like exactly what I'm saying, Like, I look at that video footage, dude, that was that was like several lifetimes ago. You know, I didn't I wasn't married, I didn't have kids, and my son's in college now. It's like that's it's

literally like it's it's a long stretch. When we look back at songs that you've written and they all come to my head and you know, music for me, if I hear a song that was a big part of my life at a certain point, I automatically kind of feel like that pointing and even for just a second, it's one of the cool things music or even smells of, like old food does, like oh my grandma used to cook that. Okay, I kind of feel that. But it's like, oh my, so you're one of the writers in the song, right,

like you're writer on in my life. I mean, you know that's a that's like is that I'm not gonna claim writing, like you know, aren't you but aren't you on? Then you're on there where Yeah, I'm on that record, but like you know what I mean, like like, yeah, that's dude, that's Dave, that's Dave's riff man. No, okay, I'm not talking about the Riff's mean the song in general. But you we all we all played on it. But you know what I mean, But you're not do you

get publishing for it? We're getting into the weeds? Um yes, okay, so but it's but at the same but that said, like I'm you know, like Dave is very much the writer and the and the has always lad the sort of creative vision of the band. You know, and I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't saying he wasn't. I just think that these songs and I was looking at through the notes with your name through on the publishing, So I just assumed I was on the publish any for sure.

You know one of the writers there? Do you when you guys right? And I really don't have that many food fin questions, but you just put me on to another one. When you guys write, do you guys get in a room and just if you write, do it together or does he come in or do you come in? Or is it different every time? It's it's changed here and there over the years, you know, UM, And in the in the past, maybe we would we would spend more time, UM, like he would make it like record

some demos. Then we would learn the songs and maybe we demo UM and then get into the studio. And then there's been times where you know, he just brings them in, we learned them in the studio and kind of piece them together as as we're going. UM. So it's it's a little bit of everything. Do you write. I used to get really hung up on demos, you know, well, like what what you know how the demo demo, Yeah, and like you know and and that was well, that was the part I played on the demo, and I'd

really try it. It's like I almost try to prepare less now to be more responsive and so you're not attached. Maybe if you prepare less, that means you're not married to that. The first time I ever sort of learned that was coming out here and making a record with Dave Cobb, which is like he even in that before I came out here for the first record I made with him, he was like, don't make demos, and I did anyway. I made it like a bunch of demos. But then once you want to work tape, I mean,

then just recorded in the iPhone the general rough. I think he would prefer you to just sing it in the room on an acoustic guitar and then but yeah, but what if you're write it's not here. I guess

it's my point. You said don't make demos because I like that, and I liked what you just said there, because you can definitely fall in love with the demo and then anything that comes after you're just like, I don't know, it's not really what I felt when I wrote this original, but it's way more fun to be open to just kind of getting banged into something different

when you're in the room. So if you right now, we just write something and recorded on your iPhone like in a voice note yeah, and then you know, to truth be told. I'll still go make it demno it in my studio, but I try not to get stuck on it. That's the lesson. Do your kids think you're cool? Um? Not to my face? Do you ever hear though? And it makes you proud that they've told somebody they're proud of you, but they won't tell you, but it comes back to you they are, Um yeah, I don't know

if it's ever come back for me exactly. Um, you know, my like, my kids are great. I think like they've grown up with you know, they've they've grown up with a dad who has a really weird job, you know, and so they've been around that their whole lives. And I think it's I think it's it's totally demystified. Like if if my dad had been in you know, heart or something, you know, and then I wouldn't have wondered

all the things that I wondered about. What happens on the other side of them, you know, backstage door or whatever. So you know, I think it's I think it's an interesting thing. Like I think my kids definitely appreciate the fact that I get to lead this weird life and they get to, you know, lead a weird life because of it. Um. They they musical. Uh, they've all well I've forced them all to take lessons here and they them have a passion to do it for their life.

My youngest has gotten really kind of into it now. Yeah, he they all quit playing. My oldest wants to be a filmmaker, so you know, that's his thing, that's his passion. And and then my you know, they all played, but my youngest has now kind of come back to it. So we'll see. Do you ever practice? Do I? Oh, god, all the time? I know, not so much in terms of like practicing. I don't sit like I might sit there and kind of would shed on something specific. Um,

but I'm being I just play all the time. Do you still love to play? I still love to play? You ever? Like, I just wish I had a guitar right now all the time. Yeah, And isn't that if you can move yourself from you, which is a hard thing to do. Isn't that kind of awesome that somebody who's done it through all different levels and stages and seasons of life like still has that thing that they've

done and they still love doing It's so rare. It's it's so like, I'm thankful that I get to do what I do and still love doing it even though it's a grind sometimes. Are you thankful that you still

love it? Totally? Yeah, Because there was a point, there was one point that I remember, and it was a long time ago now where I was kind of like not playing that much in the off season and not doing much, you know, and and and then um, a series of things happen to kind of like reignited that feeling in me, and I just never ever want to lose it again. And I know, for me, like even when you're not feeling like particularly motivated or whatever, I

just play through it. Let's play, I just play. I bet it's it's almost at this point like that never happens because either either you're writing or recording or rehearsing or just sitting in my studio mess around with with amps and pedals and different guitars, and so there's just it's just always something. Are you on an eternal search for the right tone? Probably more so now than ever? Yeah, And do you know when you hit it or do

you still question it even though you got it? I think he's still I think you you hit it and then you lose it and then you start looking for it again, or your or the you know what that is changes, or you hear somebody else and you're like, whoa, how do you do that? You know? Why is the record called Lost to Sea? It's it's a part of a line in one of the songs. Yeah, any lines and these songs that are super personal because I did see a thing where you're like, it's a very personal

record and that that means that is sure? I like that, right, everybody's trying to write personal stuff because that's what we have that's different than everybody else. But is there anything a line or anything that's in there? It's like, man, this is like a real personal and like, I don't know if I should even put that out there. Yeah, there's a couple. There's one of the songs. Um, you

don't even have to highlight it now. I just wonder if that's ever yeah, I know there's a song on there that I wrote probably, like I don't even know, a long time ago, when I was going through some stuff. Uh yeah you So, yeah, there's It's it's funny because I don't think to anybody else would read it the way that I hear, which is why I don't want to ask you what it is. But it's just did you get in that place where you're like, man, this is something if but good for you? I mean you

you hung in there? Did you pull any out? Though in the same way that was no, you know, I mean they were definitely. It's a funny thing with songwriting because like there it's like I like it the more specific it is. But then you know, it's usually a lot of these songs wind up being like it's like

ten different things that become one story. So the whole thing is kind of just fictional pale, but it's based on you know, it's like every line is like from something that that you experienced, you know what I mean. So it's like it's real and it's just a story. At the same time. The most country song that you've ever written is on this record, I think, So, yeah, there's one. There's a couple of them. There's one called Dead and Gone um, and there's another one called carry

Midnight Texas Queen. It's a lot of words. It's a lot of words. Did you consider just Midnight Texas Queen? A lot? I know? Name and songs and name and records. It's always kind of challenging. Do you write on the set list Queen? When we learn it? Yeah, now we're in that fun part where now I actually have to go in there and learn how to play my own songs. Everybody Chris Shifflet music dot Com go to on Instagram

shifty seventy one. I saw that you're on TikTok now, yes, which well, I mean, can you talk about my kids thinking I'm cool? My kids roast me about my TikTok posts constantly. You're not. I didn't even roast me on there, like you're not dancing though, right, no dance, no dancing. But they're just like, oh my god, dad's please stop putting like the little like dancing cowboy boots or like the filter like nobody does that, Like I don't know.

That's it's an option in there. It makes it look sparkly. What do you mean it looks like snow's falling. It's cool. The record is out in October. But when this airs, Mike, just making sure we're all black top white lines will be out. That'll be out. Um also quickly, you just want to just highlight a couple of songs real quick. Here is Long Long Year, here you go, and here is Born and Raised. I mean, I I hear like

eighties Eagles, like because I love eighties. I mean that's the most complimentary way, Like that's what makes me feel that feeling. I yeah, where it's just like, ah, it's funny because something like that. That is exactly kind of what I was alluding to earlier, where in my head I'm hearing it like Steve Earle, but everybody else hears it like the Eagles. So it's cool either way, or what I said. You know what, Chris, they are the Wiggles. Okay,

see exactly, all right, you guys follow Chris. You're out on the road. But what are you doing on the road. I know you're with black Berry Smoke here, but are you with them all the time? No, we're just it's a one off we got, you know, I got offered to come out and play open one off uh here and there. I just did a bunch of dates in December out on the West Coast and then I've got um a tour of the UK and Ireland coming up at the end of March. Um and that's and we're

working on trying to figure out some other stuff. But yeah, watch Foreheads. That's it. That's gonna leave you. I'll leave you with a nugget. That's right, because obviously I'm your hero, So watch Foreheads. You learned from me. This is a big deal. Fee to be here, and it's actually the opposite of all I just said I was. We're pumped to have you. This has been a thrill for me. I hope you had a good time it. We just did over an hour and love and loved the music.

Thank you, love the music. All right, there is Chris Shiffick.