Exploring Music and Life on the Road with Scott McLaughlin

The Friday night before the concert we wandered around downtown Nashville on Broadway , to listen to some good music . If you've been to Nashville , you know what I mean . We strolled down Broadway and came across Blake Shelton's Place , old Red . We heard some great music coming out .

The windows were open , the doors were open , so you could hear the music really well . So we wandered in there and band was up called the Scotty Mac Band . Their music was outstanding . We just enjoyed our time there and sat there for probably a good hour , hour and a half listening to the band perform . My mind just went to .

I need to have the lead singer on my show . I reached out to him and he agreed to talk to me taking a virtual road trip today with Scott McLaughlin . He's the lead singer for the Scotty Mac Band and I'm excited to learn a little bit more about him . Welcome to the show , scott .

I've been in multiple bands , all different genres going up , and it wasn't until I was probably in my mid-20s that I finally realized that I needed to get an acoustic guitar and start playing songs that I could sing to people .

They would actually want to sit and listen to me for more than a few minutes at a time , and that's kind of where it all picked up from there . I love country music , I love all music . I grew up in a very music-friendly family . My dad is kind of one of those people who can pick up anything and get a knack for it .

He played piano and guitar and saxophone . He's just really intuitive . He had played guitar a lot growing up , always had a lot of the classics classic rock , classic country on rotation in the car , road trips , vacations and stuff like that . I've just always been a lover of music . It just intrigues me .

When it came time for me to get a car , he slapped the paint job on it and that was it . I loved it , man .

Yeah , we had to do all the normal stuff feeding the animals and cleaning the fields and just all that stuff . It was cool . It was a really really good childhood .

I drove that thing until the wheels fell off and I've been driving Fords ever since .

My dad was real big so he put on Fleetwood Mac or Dwight Yocum or something like that . It was just always about driving and music and just open desert road . We never flew anywhere . I don't even think I got on my first plane until I was 18 or 19 years old .

We had to be back in California early the next morning .

So there was really no way we were going to make to be able to get a hotel room and stay , and so we drove out and then I flew my wife out to catch the show and her and I just drove the rig back home overnight in order to make it , got back to the house , had like two hours to nap and had to get in the car and go off to our next show that

we had already had on the books , which was a big festival the next day . And you know , and there's just been a lot of those I mean we drove with the band . We drove 20 hours to Grand Junction , colorado , to play a festival with the Zach Brown band .

I mean they asked us to play the after party and so we went , and I mean it was a 20 hour drive to get up there , you know . So there's just been so many of those . Some of my best memories actually were when the band , we got a van . We got like a 15 passenger cargo van okay and I just remember thinking like this is what I've always wanted .

It's like I'm I'm packed in this van , I got my best friends here and we're just driving around playing shows . You know , and again , being on the West Coast at the time it was mostly driving through Open desert roads , so it was just very reminiscent of what I did with my family Growing up .

When you cut through Eastern Utah , over that pass into Colorado , it's just like it's like the kind of the kind of desert mountain Ranges where the the peaks just go so high and they're so red and it's just so beautiful and it just feels like you're driving through , like a , like a painting or a cartoon , like it doesn't feel like it can be real because it's

so massive . So you know that , and then me and my family , we will trip everywhere . Okay my wife my wife and I love to drive . My kids are all really good road trippers . We'll drive to see family , her family's all out in Oklahoma . So we drive out there and drive all over Oklahoma and that's just God's country , out there it's just just beautiful .

So you know , we , we , we take as many opportunities to drive To go do something as we can , because we just love being on the open road .

Because you're on the road with nothing else to do so you're just looking this stuff up exactly you know , you research the best sandwiches or tacos or best burger . You can get in town and you get to go somewhere that you've never been before and try Stuff that the regular people , that the locals , eat every day . That's the kind of stuff I like .

I'm really a big on on checking out new , new food places and stuff like that , so we're always looking up what's . Where did the diners , diners , drivens and dives guy go like ? What's the top rated place on Yelp ? If they have it ? He's just kind of going and seeking out new , new adventures while we're out there .

You know I love I'm a window guy and I love nothing more than looking out During takeoff and landing . I think I have this weird thing where it's the grand scheme of history and the evolution of the human race , like that's .

That's a gift from God to be able to look down , because you're such a small percentage of the population in the history of mankind that's actually going to be able to see the earth like the way a bird would yep . And it's just a spectacular thing to take it all in and and stare down on creation .

And you look at those little towns and stuff and even some of the big ones , and you I just I can never help but wonder , like , what life is like down there . So getting the chance to pass through them and see that it's like , oh man , this is , this is cool .

Like , you know , this is an interesting industry , it's a wonderful town and it's got Some of the best people in it , like a lot of the people that are really doing the hard work here . They're good old boys and it's a good old boys club and as long as you're a good hang and you're friendly , it's really easy to make friends and that does .

That's not to say that there's not some egos , because that's just the name of the game , of the business for him .

You know , there's a lot of really wonderful people and my philosophy has and I've learned from a lot of them is just to be kind , you know , to everybody and you know I'm not gonna go too far off the rails here , but we had a show not too long ago Down at Ol Redd where we had met you and standing in the lobby getting ready to go on , a young lady

came up to us and we just stand there by ourselves and just wanted to chat and we had actually had a bass player Sitting in with us . That is actually part of one of the Larger acts in country music . He's a buddy of mine and we needed help . So we filled in that day and they weren't on tour that week .

He came down to play a bar gig couple bar gigs with us and it was just this interesting like Scenario where , you know , this gal was kind of Apologizing because she just wanted to make friends and didn't want to be intrusive .

And you know she is funny , she had two beers in her hand , I like two tall boys and she , you know , she felt the need to explain to us that she wasn't drunk . But she had just gotten off of a plane from Michigan and Was waiting for the rest of her group to get in town and was just trying to make friends . And you know , again she's overly apologetic .

And I just said , you know you don't have to apologize . I said , well , you know I've bumped into a few people today who just haven't been all that friendly . Mm-hmm and so my response to that was shame on them sure like no , nobody's a rock star , I don't care if you are a rock star , you're not a rock star .

We're all just people here that are lucky enough to stand on on a stage of some size or another and Play guitar and make money , and everybody needs to keep that In mind . And so my buddy that's actually in this major touring act , you know he told this funny story goes . You know , my wife is a social worker .

She's out there working a real job , doing hard work and making a difference . Every day he goes . I'm just the guy who picks up an instrument and I make noise and it makes people feel things like this isn't a real job , you know .

No , we're lucky to be able to do this and and so those are the kind of experiences , experiences that have crafted me and shaped me as to the type of , as to the way I try and present myself and I interact with people .

I mean , and and you may have heard me say at the night I was up there but we are truly blessed To be up on a stage like that playing music every weekend for the crowds that we get .

I've worked my whole life for this and so I never especially after the COVID shutdowns and not being able to perform For about a year and a half by the time it all settled . You know I'll never take that for granted and I never take those people for granted and that includes , you know , the drunk , obnoxious ones because we get our first share of those .

It really is a privilege , so you know . To go back to your original question , performer is probably the more all-encompassing term , but I'm just another guy playing guitar and I'm so happy for it .

As you said , it just makes me feel better and I'm glad .

Anything that , anything we're doing up there , the sole purpose is to make people Forget about things and just be happy and joyful for those couple hours . So I'm glad you said that .

You know , you're kind of getting to that age and I had never thought about it .

Hmm and then within a week or two , I was at school and one of my buddies had a guitar and he knew somebody else who had drums and he told one of the they talked one of the other kids in our group to getting a bass and he's like , man , you should get another guitar and we'll start a little band .

And we're like 13 years old , 12 maybe something like that . I went home and you know it was just within a couple weeks of that thing my dad mentioned . I said , dad , you know I've been thinking about it and I really want to get a guitar and I , I think within a week he had come home and surprised me with one and I still have it .

I'm looking at it right now .

, you know . So I started writing songs , like Probably most . You know , most of the first couple years was me just banging around making noise with my friends . But I started writing songs , you know , freshmen , sophomore year of high school , and for the most part it was the kind of stuff that was popular with my friends .

You know , I was trying to write little rock stuff and low punk stuff and because that's all my buddies were into , you know , and my dad was always telling me , like , look , you need to play and write stuff like this , you need to do this , you know it'll . This is what's going to make you Do a more well-rounded musician .

And he was my dad , like I said , he was a hell of a player and A hell of a music fan . I mean , the stuff we listened to it was like , looking back on it , I'm still a fan of it . It was the best of the best .

It was the almond brothers , it was boston , it was scannered , it was fleetwood mac , it was a lot of air clap , then a lot of live records . My dad was a real big fan of live albums . Okay when they came out . So we played a lot of those .

You know fleetwood mac live when they did their reunion deal in the mid 90s , air clap , then unplug , and I just remember those records being played until they burn out . I remember , yeah , I just just nonstop . And then you know a lot of the country stuff that was popular or country crossover .

So you know Dwight Yolkham , when he broke out that record , just my dad played that thing until it wouldn't work anymore . The Dixie chicks you know the crossover stuff . Cheryl Crow , it was just that was . I just grew up in a Household that just love music that way . So I was always doing stuff . But it really , like I said , it wasn't so about 25 .

So I got an acoustic and started learning to sing and Within a couple years or a year or two , like I had a band going that I go play bars with or I go play by myself in the corner Wine bars and places , little lounges and just do acoustic songs . And then I got taken to stagecoach festival , which is a big multi day festival in California .

I'm probably one of the bigger country music festivals nationwide now and I remember very , very clearly Brad paisley Was the headliner . It was like pretty big line up , a ribbon back entire was on the bill and Brad paisley was a headliner and I was just amazed . I just amazed .

And that's when I went home and I was like there might be something like Even in California there might be something to try and country music , yeah , and that's really when it kind of kicked over . We started the band .

I was single at the time and the original conversation went something along the lines of I love this music I'm not sure if it's really gonna work and I have another project that I'm working on right now but I would really like to put together a band and we're not gonna take it too seriously like I just want to go out and Drink a couple beers , play some

good songs . You know Meet chicks , because I was single at the time and okay and I just wanted it to be fun and low pressure , and and that's what it was .

it wasn't long after that that I mean within a year we were on a plane to Nashville and we recorded six songs that I had written okay put out our first EP and you know I'm jumping around , but I had done some groundwork and attended some festivals with other bands and made some contact in the interim and when I started sending that EP out to those contacts

we started getting booking . I'm major festival building so you know we had cut the CP , put it out and then the summer after that , within a couple months of it coming out , we were booked on a bunch of big festival buildings opening for acts like Jake Owen , christian and so on and so forth .

Okay yeah , and and it just kind of rolled from there like this , this thing that we didn't want to be very serious and we wanted it to be fun , and just it became serious real quick .

You know , I think one of my favorite ones is a song off of our second EP called starts with a girl . I just I had written this melody and I loved it and I had started the song a week before I was doing the studio , I went out and I just had the bare bones framework for this song .

But the band came in and knocked it out of the park and the producer said look , I don't think that you're ready to sing this . I don't think you know enough about what you're trying to put down yet , but I think there's promise here . So what I'm going to tell you to do is come back in a month or so With the words done and then we'll cut it .

So we did all the other tracks , got everything done and his studio flooded shortly after that . Oh , wow he was out and he was out of commission for like six months , seven months .

So I mean , by the time it all got back together and I got out there , I mean we're probably closing in on a year since I had written the song and I went out and track the vocal with them . It just was so much better than I've ever could have hoped it would have been .

And so you know that one , just because of the story behind it , was kind of like the little song that could . It just didn't feel like it was supposed to be become a thing and it held up the release of the record and everything else . But I'm still just so proud of that song . So that's probably the first one that sticks out .

But yeah , they've all got a special place because most of the music that I write comes from personal experiences or observations .

So I think back to that a lot and I think and you know , I grew up not far from there , so I mean it would really be like kind of like a my own little personal homecoming to be able to say like , hey , I'm right around , right over the hill from where I grew up , and this is one of the biggest shows in the country and you know I remember standing in

this crowd . You know , however , many years ago , looking up at the stage got the idea that this needed to be my life . You know , there's small . There's other things too . Like I am just praying for the day that I get to play at the Grand Ole Opry . We've done their outside stage . That's probably the most significant one .

Sure , because that's going to be , that's going to mean becoming a part of history and a part of the fabric of this music that's so important to me . We've done a couple of shows outside .

They have a really nice little plaza stage outside and you set up and you play during the day and the folks that are there for the tours and stuff , and you know you're on the front steps of it and it's just such an honor the day that I get to set foot on that stage .

I probably I'm not going to say that that'll be it for me , but if that is the only thing that I do , that'll be enough .

up . What did you struggle with ? How did you overcome that ? So let's just pick somebody real like a big name , like Ronnie Dunn . Ronnie Dunn from Brooks and Dunn , that is a voice that I just aspire to sing like because it's so distinct and so classic and Brooks and Dunn have done just a phenomenal job of writing out what is a .

I mean , at this point they're going on 35 years , I think .

They got together they had had their solo deals in the mid 80s and then got together in the late 80s and then kind of kicked it off in the early 90s and they were fairly late in their career when they got started and they have just found a way to ride the ups and downs of what the musical land , the changes in the musical landscape , and they've navigated

and they've always found a way to come back stronger and more relevant . And that's what interests me , because this music is very the landscape is dynamic .

I can talk all day about what I do and don't like about it right now , but I think there's something to be said for the people that have made a long career path and they found a way to still be a part of what's current but still retain what it is that made them them , and I don't want to use the word like sell out , because everybody's here .

At the end of the day , they want to make money and do this on a grander scale , and so your choice to buy into whatever is popular is your choice , and I respect that . But there's just something to be said for the people that just put their foot down and go no , this is who I am and I'm going to make what's going on work for me .

So I'd be interested to hear that . I've heard some interviews and watched some documentaries about how he felt about things in his life and the trajectory of his career leading up to when he got the call and they got their first deal . So that's what I'm interested in , because this is a hard line of work .

It's fun , it's always fun , but it's so hard on the heart for a number of reasons that don't always pertain to just being told no , it's not even always that simple . So you've got to have quite the Constitution to get up and do this day after day after day and not get discouraged sometimes . So those are the stories from these people that I like to hear .

When you got knocked down , how did you pick yourself up . Those would be the questions that I would ask .

There just are not a lot of kind people out there and kindness goes a long way because at the end of the day , like I had mentioned this earlier , the people that are doing the real work , the people that are the sound people , the touring bands not the artists , the bands because there is a distinction there a lot of times the studio people .

There's a lot of people out there that don't get base time in this industry that are responsible for 95% of the work and they just go to old boys and girls and they're just out there . This is a job for them . It's 365 days a year and nobody knows their name most of the time .

The average fan would know , like I've got a buddy who's played on more records and you can imagine Every fan will never know his name , but they have no idea that he's responsible for the most part for the way that song sounds . I mean these artists come in with an acoustic work tape and then these musicians . They're the ones that breathe life into it .

So you know , I've just learned from them , because it's long hours . It's long hours in the studio , it's long hours in a bus or a van , it's long hours waiting around when you get to these festivals or venues to get to go on stage and do your 45 minutes or an hour .

In an industry where egos run rampant , it's important to keep that in check and just be nice to everybody . It doesn't matter who they are . And then , secondly , know and this is really important . They need to know who they want to be and stand behind that .

And again , totally respectable , you want to go out there and chase the latest trend or try and set the latest trend , or whatever it is . That's cool , but just know who you are and know who you want to be , know the type of artists , the type of songs you want to put out and stand behind it . Because the bottom line is you have two options .

When it boils down to it You're either going to make it or you're not . That's it . Those are that's it . There's no gray area .

If you're going for a record deal , you're going to either get it or you're not , so you might as well get it by doing something that you can stand behind in my opinion , something that you , because you got to feel good about it at the end of the day .

If you're a true artist and this is truly your crap you have to feel good when you lay your head down at the end of the day .

And there's a lot of artists with major label deals that I've heard interviews with or had conversations with that have said look , I've passed on songs that I knew were going to be number one singles , that I knew were going to make me a lot of money and get me a lot of airplay , but it wasn't who I wanted to be . That's not why I got into this .

So you know that's , and so those are the kind of people that I admire . Lastly , and this is the important one , this is a job , and a lot of people lose sight of that . It's long hours and hard work . It's not a party .

It can be for a lot of people , but it's not a party Like if you want to do it right , you got to be able to devote your life to this . If you look at , everybody's got a different setup , but let's just look at the show that you saw . I will .

I get down there at , you know , we'll say nine o'clock , we get on stage at 10 , start within 20 to 30 minutes and play till 2am and I don't stop . And I do that two or three nights in a row .

So you know , by the time I get from Friday to Sunday , like this , last weekend , I had sung 12 hours of the less than 48 hours that I was from start to finish . You got to , you have to be prepared . And same thing with my drummer and guitar player , like we go home and then we're sore .

You know my , my drummer , always likes to tell the stories like we would go out and play like this massive festival , and you know you're playing for three or four thousand people and it's just like this rush and you just walk off stage and you feel like there's just no feeling , it's electric .

And then you wake up the next day and go home and then he always jokes like , yeah , the first thing I do is it's like well , I got to go out and clean up dog poop . Yeah because we're still human beings and we , you know , so it is .

It can be glamorous , you know , it's fun , but at the end of the day , like there's an eight hour van ride , you know , sleeping on the bench seat of a van or sometimes on the floor if you want a good nap , and you know , or in the case of when before we lived in Nashville , we would fly out , play , sleep , play again and go right from the gig at 2am

to the Waffle House and we would go to the airport and be on the 5am flight home without going to sleep , so we could be home at a decent hour . Right , and I want to make it clear I love every minute of it . Sure , that's just the life in the rush and the good parts of it to me , because it's the adventure , but it takes a toll on you .

And my the thing that I've said forever is buy it , steal it , stream it , I don't care , I put it out there for your enjoyment . So we have , you know , a brand new record that we're looking to put out , hopefully right after the first of the year , when the you know , after winter time's over , when the town picks back up , that we're really excited about .

And we actually have an app and we put a lot of work into this and it's pretty cool . It's on for iPhone or Android users . You can just go to the App Store and search Scotty Mac Band , but you can stream all of our music through it .

We have all our merch stuff through it , at links to our website , and it's got this really cool feature where , when we're booking a show in your area , it geolocates you and it will send you a notification saying , hey , we're coming to your town . Or if you come to Nashville , it'll let you know that we're playing when it sees you in there .

So really cool thing . We've had it going for a lot of years and it's just a very cool way to stay in touch with people .