Yo, what's up your Bossend God's Country with your Boys Reading Dance, also known at the Brother's Hunt, where we take a weekly drive to the intersection of country music any outdoors.
Two things that go together like they were going the whole time. I know, I didn't know you were going. Two things that go together like preachers, kids and right tails. You gotta listen to another. That one means or bluegrass in West Virginia, brought to you by Mediator and Hit It Ray, Hit It Right and Fading Ray too too too.
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I baby got a new light hanging up that's looking pretty.
Nick almost as slick as these lisbons on my feet because they come spotsman, shine Baby, Look at.
Those shining in the new Tokova's neon light. Co's cowboy boots might be a little crooked, because that's I gotta get.
A drywall anchor in that top left one. We'll tie it up.
Calm down, John Morgan, John Morgan Man one of the coolest Nashville stories that you're gonna hear straight up, Nashville got a phone call from somebody.
You're gonna listen to that. It's awesome. He's got the number one song in country radio right now as an artist, got the number one mustache and country radio too. M M. There's a there's a couple of good ones out there. I think he beats rileygh okay because that was like all natur Row.
Yeah, I been there for a while. Great stories, great dude, interesting cat. Yeah, man, we we didn't know him, know of him. It's kind of that thing where we definitely know of it when and he knew of us. But it's one of those things where he sits down, you say, what's up in your immediate buddies, and that's I went, respect the.
Journey, respect the grind. Great songwriter, good singer, great guitar player, great singer, not just good.
It's great debut album, Carolina Blue out right now. Go go stream it, go listen to it. Yeah, man, he's a he's fun. You're gonna you're gonna really enjoy it. Thank y'all for hanging out, Thanks for following us on Facebook, Thanks for following us on the TikTok and the ground. Keep on bringing those roast.
Ray. You smell that.
I think that means yes, I wish we didn't say to hit this. When we say his name, he punches a button.
Don't hit a random button. Do we have like a ding of when's like the roast is ready, you know, like mama like a mama's like a timer ding dinner bell. I'm done. I'm not even asking. It's a storm of a chib. It's starting to annoy me because it's so that's closed. I guess if you can pull up a dang eventually hit it during my roast. So this comes from Room Ail Room Malay Ramollee. Crossroads of Great Potential and Epic Failure is the title of this five stars.
The guests are great. The host dot Dot Dot akin to dumb and dumber. I recommend this post podcast to anyone's solo hunting in grizzly country, if only to keep the bears away at the end. That's pretty funny. At the end of the day, I do appreciate reading down, pulling up there to Covia boots, and going hard after the things we love to care about. Keep digging for diamonds, boys, appreciate you stars. Keep them coming, y'all. Look, I just
found my shirt. Happy Easter, your Happy East everybody. Well, that's a bunny that my little girl stuck on me today. Apparently I think this is two weeks after Easter, but happy ago. Hey, we love y'all. We gotta go, We gotta go write songs. Check out John Morgan killer Yeah Carolina Blue. We got an artist in here. It's got the number one country song.
Yeah, it's pretty wall big time. That's a big time jad care would you mind shutting that door? I'm sorry, We're real professional asking our guests to do things down here. Yeah, hey man, we've got dad in of three number one song written, including a c m's twenty twenty two Single of the Year with Jason Now Danny carry Underwood piano.
Ballad Fighting Love. That'd be what's the worst?
Goodbye now?
Yeah?
Now yeah, let's got it. Uh you need the melody, man, Yeah, I got you.
Helen from the state of North Carolina going to raise up most mustache owning my bath currently has the number one song as an artist at the radio. With friends like that, We've got mister John Morgan out in. God's say thank thanks for having me, dude, Thanks for coming in man on this beautiful Nashville day.
Drury out there, man, a little drear dury outdoors out there, man, Yeah, a little rough out there.
It's Mark Drury out there, very dry. Which way do you come into town? Twenty four earlier?
Yeah, I'm out in jolting so yeah twenty four man, it's fine tit or miss you hit that right window. It's usually not bad. But this was not fun this morning.
Sixty five North has always hit. Yeah, it's always hit. Which one is the bad hit or miss?
Miss? It's always miss, it's always miss.
I had to thank for his second.
I feel like it was pretty nice this morning, honestly. I mean usually yeah, I mean it got took me forty minutes to get here. I got jammed up twice, and I got gas. I tell you, I tell you the truth. Though I walked in. We got some gas station. We always hit on the way end, and I've been trying to clean it up lately. Yeah, you know. And I had a biscuit and it's probably been since a legit full biscuit. It's probably been nine months. Bro. That poor that poor cooin is. It was hit in there.
They had a full rack, like the biscuit rack maxed out do anything you wanted.
Do they have like a hot and ready sign.
Yeah, it's like it's like a pizza. It's like a like one of them like pizza oven things like warmer things.
And they just got biscuits.
I was another day and I got a biscuit, and uh, you could tell some like it's pretty, we're pretty. It's right by my house too, and we're thirty five minutes south of town, right below Franklin Thompson Station Spring.
And so it's pretty. It's pretty country out there, and you could tell this dude, this the brand new Bronco rolled in and uh jumped out with the kids and he ran in and he had on a tank top and I was like, oh, this got my, you know. So he comes in and he's like this got my? What what are you talking about? It might not be from.
Around like it didn't look like he's from around there. And uh, and he ran in and there was like two biscuits left. It was like nine forty five. And he was like, he's like, y'all got any more biscuits in the back. She was like, no, honey, that's it. We put them out and people come get them. And he was like, oh, he's like you know, He's like, I didn't. I didn't know you got rid of them so fast. She was like, we're on farm time around here. Some she was like, she was like, it's sint city time.
She was like them farmers come in and get them quick. And it's true if you get if you try to get a bit biscuit after ten o'clock, ain't happen.
Yeah, no I didn't, but it was it was smelling. They must have just delivered them something due it was, And I turned around and I even felt like my brain go, hey, man, I don't get you wanted. Man, it's been nine months, bro, good for you to celebrate. And then I didn't, you didn't. I walked out side. I ate that banana as fast as possibly could and drink that protein ship, thinking about fast, trying to make
that banana taste like that poor. I was sniffing. I was sniffing, trying to get as much of it in my body as I could.
Dude, places like that, you don't have to like sniff too hard, man, there's a certain aura. I grew up on that stuff, man, gas station biscuits time. My uncle's on the shot back home, and I would eat there every morning you just swing through that. You had the Haunts Brothers hunk of pizza and I don't know, if you have that, it'll uh yeah, it'll take me back. Man, it's good stuff.
It'll take me back to the restaurant. Now. Yeah, those days are over, man, I like I liked those days and they were great days. Yeah, it's a thing of the past for me.
Man.
I just can't do it anymore. I mean, like my body is like I think my body is like, hey man, we've had enough. Like you like whatever your tank is of like gas station, chicken strips, hot wings, fish basically, uh and pizza. It's like you're fool.
Yeah, I get that, man.
Yeah, I'll sting. I'll sting one every now, man, just to look get a little pinch that little taste. Man scratching.
Oh man, speaking of I hopped on my truck this morning. This just cracked me up because I quit, you know, I did it for a long time, since I was like sixteen or you know, you know how it is. And I hop in my truck this morning and I've been you know, in my truck for a year, and I was like looking for something, reached up top, pulled out a brand new, unopened can of the.
Kid. Yeah, that's come on though, I put it right back where it was. I did. You didn't throw out the window. We'll see how I do.
On the way home. Who I'm right with. I'm right with Hay slip, I'm dipping.
I ain't no doubt you're right with him? A good bit. Yeah, we love that. We just right with the last week. Yeah, he's a trick. He's been on here before. He's fun baseball guy. Yeah, his boys are ross studs. Man. I love falling him. Man, it's fun. Yeah, ers to man, I know. Yeah for Bama, he's out, he's not people. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you a b or something other?
Oh really, Georgia, Hey, before we get get into that, congrats on the new addition to the fam.
Yeah, thanks man.
How what do you got? You got three kids? Now? Three boy? Girl boy? What you got girl? Boy girl girl boy girl? Uh? It's been awesome, man, I love I love being a dad.
I didn't. I didn't, you know, see my career happening this way, with like having a family already established and all that. But thank god, you know, honestly, it's it's been a really good I don't know, driving force for me, I guess, and and still like staying out on the road because I have something, you know, yeah, to do it for like a bigger purpose. So that's cool, man. I love doing it. I love I love getting to be home for a couple of days and you know,
hang out with them, make up for lost time. It's fun. But you know, the the beautiful thing where I'm at right now, I'm super Uh. I don't know. I don't know if this falls into your uh what's the the what you what you're mad at? Yeah, I don't know if it falls into that, but it's the opposite. I'm just I'm so thankful I get to do this. Man, I've been uh, you know, I did Chase Chase music for a long time. I was in the bluegrass world for like ten years and started traveling when I was
like eleven. You know, we're playing one hundred and fifty shows a year in middle school, and so it's been you know, I've been after a long time, not necessarily in Nashville, but it's been cool. Man's that's awesome.
That's awesome. You know, I saw I saw a meme or something of the day that Chapel Roon was saying, is that how you saying? I don't know as I say that, right? Is it? Chappelle Chaparral?
That would have been my first?
Ye, Chaparral, that's it. I saw her say that. I thought, She's like, why would I want to have kids? All my friends that I know who have kids are miserable, you know. And a lot of people are kind of replying to that. And yesterday I was mowing the yard. My kids are really in the four wheelers right now. I got a five, two and eight months so my girl boy boy, so we recently got her a little four wheeler. I got a motor four wheeler, and we
got my son of twenty four little four wheeler. And I was on the zero turn and I was cutting. I was cutting like lanes, and I was watching them. They were riding through the light, so I would cutting outside lane and they take off on their little fourhelers
and ride around while I'm on the zero turning. I was like, man, I wish I could bring Chapel rom and put her on my zero turn right now and just let her see and experience like what I'm experiencing right now because I'm gonna tell you something like there was a joy in that and it was nothing, right, it was nothing, It was me cutting the grass, but there was a joy in that. I was like, this
would change your mind. Like this section, this five minutes of watching the them laughing and throw their head back in the sunshine while the winds blowing their hair, their curly hair around in those cut lanes. Dude, that's the best. I'm just here to tell you, man, It it deepens the well.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, there's some there's some five minute moments that would probably not change her mind.
Oh there's there's some six hour beat. There's some six hour beach trips that would that would definitely you know, drive them. Also, I'd love to see somebody like that on a zero turn. You can't tell me, but you can't tell me that the good don't outweigh the battle a million percent.
Yeah you know you're you're dead, all man. It's I love It amazes me how like, you know, I don't know how else to say it, but simply minded children are like they just like they they'll notice stars. I don't even remember the last time I like looked up and was like, oh yeah, there's stars. Yeah, it's just like they're they're so oblivious to all the bad in the world.
It's that child like faith. Man, it's that.
It's that in a sense of of not seeing behind. They hadn't seen behind any curtains and there, you know, like they're looking at everything.
Crazy. It's crazy. You said that. We were at reads last night. We left and my daughter said, oh, look, my star's following me. And I was like, what because we left we they're usually in bed, you know. Yeah, we're on the way home from reads from Easter and uh and and Boone said, you have my stars? I said, they literally noticed the stars. Man, when's the last time you looked up? Oh, there's the star there. Yeah.
We're just so busy and you know, doing our own things like you forget sometimes, like you know, slow down there there there's I love kids, man. I've got a three year old, almost two year old, and uh, a month old. Maybe I don't know. I don't know, man, you.
Must be sleeping a lot.
Yeah to me, let me ask you one more kid question then we'll we'll get into it. So I've got girl boy right now, same thing. Might will be my first will be three in May. My boy will be.
Two in September, and everybody a, sorry, why don't I always say September? My bad? I got it all mixed up too.
You were close, so you said you got girl boy girl. When people ask me, they're like, if you have another what do you want? I'm like, boy, man, boy, because my little girl is my my angel, and I can't imagine having another one. Honestly, man, I can't imagine having another girl and and split, not that you split, and I know it'd be perfect either way, and I'm sure it is, but uh, they require a little bit. What was that for you having having another girl?
Uh?
I mean you're you're ready. They require more attention, you know, at least right now. And it's funny because I thought the same thing is when we found out it was another girl, it was just like, oh no, dude, there's no way, Like WILLI is the same one, because WILLI is my my first too, so like there's that can also she's like the one that made me a dad, right And now I'm like, oh, man, I gotta I
gotta find something something. One of my uh, one of my mentors, Kevin shrim told me, he's like, man, don't it's like when we found out, He's like, don't worry about it. He's like, there's a secret little door that God puts in your heart for for that third Like like there's it's there.
You just wait. I'm like a whole lot.
It's there, man. Yeah, but it's it's been fun. I you know, she's still a little a little you know, vegetable right now, so you know, it's just cute getting the getting to hold her. Uh you know, I don't know, man, every every time I'm home, Like that's that's the fun part now is I'm able to to go out and play shows on the weekend, and that's when I get to hang out with my boys, you know, like that's when we have fun and we're still grinding and working.
But you know, that's the that's the fun part of it to me is is we're able to do that and then come home for usual a couple of days during the week and right in town and stuff. So I've been getting like the full circle, you know.
Part of it. So yeah, it's full it's full term. Yeah.
We'd like to do a little segment John called what you mad at Just tell us what it is, what you're mad at is that your in lost kids might be boss.
Man or your neighbor's cat. Just tell us what you mad. The first three that's the first thing I had to I thought I knew where it was going. You did good? No, uh you mad anything? Bluegrass guy, that's where he hit the right, got you got.
I mean it's just waiting at haven't have any I don't know, man, I uh, you'd be glad to I'm I'm mad at airlines and actually I'm I'm mad at DNA.
Bro. I'm like, I'm like, what's going on here? Okay, they're still working on everything?
Well, no that we we show up right and they're they're like not busy, not busy, it's early morning flight whatever, Like not a lot going on. That is when they're okay with you not taking everything out of your guitar case, right, They're like, oh yeah, go on through. It's when they're like maxed out of the you know, out of the back doors, and that's that's when they're like, you know, they make you take everything out, like down to your picks.
I'm like, bro, your yeah, because you know, we've been flying a lot, so I'm like packing. I have like closed computer in my you know, my roads. Yeah, and it's just every time, dude, I'm like, what how does that even happen?
Man?
Like what that doesn't make sense to me? Like why have you got the fast pass whatever it's called. Yeah, I got pre check Yeah, and it's that's been nice. Yeah that has a few spots. Yeah, sometimes it don't matter.
But sometimes it don't matter, right, Yeah, I took a load of nine millimeters into an airport before, so I don't.
I can't get.
That'll do it for a while anything. Yeah, I got a I got a short lower back pain is what I'm mad at. I've never dealt with it until now, and we've been towing our kids around a whole lot and staring down forty on my lower back is crash sh.
I'm mad at uh. Like when you go to Walmart broker and there's the like the obvious like walkway, this goes two ways. What do you mean walkway thing like between the aisles and stuff? No, no, no, When you're pulling your car in front of the building, there's like that you stop to let people go across, you know, yeah, like the main strip. I really get mad when people stop me. When I'm driving and give you a hand and stuff right there, I'm right right clear, Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude,
there's I'm stopping. I get it. I also hate. I also hate when I'm that person and I'm going to walk across and they go like they wave you on, tell you to move. Yeah. I'm like, I know, I'm about to walk to see the cross I'm about to walk across. I don't need you to direct me to go. I'm going. You need to be the one that stops. Sounds like a personal problem. It sounds like a deeper, deeper roots up. If I'm walking across the crosswalk, I'm not going to turn and thank you for allowing me
to go because you posted to let me go. Yeah. And if I'm pulling up, I'm not stopping because you' putting your hand up. I'm stopping because I was stopping already.
Yeah.
There's a lot of people that don't understand the term right of way. A lot of people I don't get it. I understand that it's not a it's not.
A consideration, it's an actuality. You have to do it. Yeah.
Yeah, Yeah, that's a good one, bro.
I appreciate that I would hold out for a couple of weeks. It sounds like, Okay, I came down.
Yeah, hey, man, where's like where It's not It's it's really not normal for us to get somebody in here that we do not know, like at all. I have never met and you know, because the road is a small place, a small town and in the middle of a big city, and you kind of know everybody. And it's one of those things where anytime we meet somebody that does what we do, it's always like you feel like you don't know each other, but you know each other.
You know what I'm saying.
You might not know us, but we kind of know you. Yeah, no, I know you guess for sure. Man, I've been fans for a minute. It's just it's like you said's funny how we haven't cross paths.
Ye.
Yeah, there's there's a few people I've said the same thing to when I when we finally met, I'm like, dude, I don't know why it took us so long.
You know, it's like we're instant buddies. I literally like years. Sometimes it takes years. I mean we've been to town twelve fifteen years only yeah, uh going on six years. Yeah, yeah, where's home? Like, where's home for you? Where'd you grow up?
Uh?
Silver, North Carolina. It's like probably forty five minutes west of Asheville in the area Smokies. Yeah, okay, yeah, it's not far. It's probably four and a half five hours from here.
J'all get hit with the storm, the big storm. Yeah, dude was wild because I was here and.
I was watching it, and I knew it was going to be really close. I knew were going to get a lot of rain, but I didn't know if we were going to get directly hit. So I was watching it, and literally the last second it went right around my hometown and went through Burnsville and all that, and dude absolutely wiped Burnsville out.
Really.
One of one of the guys in my uh in my camp on the road. Uh, he's from there, and he called me. We were going out to I think we were going to Charleston, like the day after it happened, and he called me. He's like, dude, I can't, I can't. Uh, I can't go this weekend or it's gonna be tough because I got to go back home and get my mom out of her house.
She was like surrounded by water, you know, had no power, no running water for a couple of days. So I heard so many stories like that from did he boat to her? How did he get to her? No?
They I think him and his brother drove as far up as they could and then they hiked the rest of the way.
Oh yeah, it was you know, it was. It was wild.
He's sending me pictures and like videos of just like you know, vans like just crushed just by water.
You know, it's like seeing some of those towns in the like in the valleys down there between just completely gone. You know, you just see the foundation and mud.
Yeah, roads, like infrastructure, the entire thing just like just like you took your hand, it just went going downhill. Is a powerful force when there's a lot of it. Well, I didn't understand it really until Zach Massy gave us that that he talked to us about it on here, and he said, basically, imagine like a tidal wave coming through, except it's coming at like sixty miles an hour like the force behind because it was coming downhill. When that damn broke, it was coming downhill, it just I mean
just crushed everything nothing hold that dude. Water is a dangerous thing. Man, well, are they get making on their feet? Everything is?
I think so, Man, it's you know, people people there. It's like, you know, they take care of their own.
There was a lot of.
A lot of uh, I don't want to say, like false information. It just wasn't getting talked about, you know, and enough. I don't think I know that. You know, Church and Luke and those guys did a huge fundraisers did a lot, but you know, like immediately it wasn't like, you know, there wasn't a ton of like awareness about it. I don't think like how how bad it actually was.
And so it took a minute. But I had had guys on the road tell me that one of my buddies has a trucking company and he was like, man, we're trying to get in there. We had like eight semis full of supplies that we're trying to get in there, and uh FEMA was turning them away because they didn't have the right permit to be crossing over.
So you hear stuff like that and you're like, what, like, you know what I mean, don't make sense.
And he was on the ground like he was there. He made several trips and and that was just like one of the first ones. He's like, dude, we literally just rerouted. We just because the roads were all messed up anyway. It was like we just found another way, you know. Yeah, it was like they were turning people away.
And yeah, they had like they were bringing, they were dropping supplies, right, and then they had nowhere to store these supplies, so all the supplies were just out in the weather and like, yeah, so it was just weird stuff. But I won't get into all that.
Yeah, something you can't prepare for figured out and try to get through it. Well, you never expect something like that to go through that area too. Like that.
That was the crazy thing to me. It was like no one there has flood insurance or anything like that.
You know.
Yeah, so it was it was wild, man. But I think they're I think they're back on their feet. And I came through Hot Springs not too long ago, about a month ago, and you know, forty still shut down, but I think half of it's opened back up now. But I went through Hot Springs and yeah, it was like flooring outside of everybody's houses, you know, they just ripped, had to rip the whole floor. Yeah, it was just crazy. It was like you were saying, but what was.
What was your outdoor experience growing up? Like, did you hunt your fish? Yeah, I'd say, are you in the mountains? Yeah, okay, that's a little different. That's yeah, mountain hunting is pretty different. Yeah, yeah, it's It's funny. We we didn't have there's a there's a few deer around me. But I didn't.
I didn't get into like white tail until really, like I was late in high school. Man, I didn't. I was, like I said, I was always playing music every weekend we were gone, you know, and I'm playing all these festivals. And then I played ball, you know when I was in during the week, went to school and played ball and did all that.
So I stayed busy. But how did you have time to play hundred dates a year if you're playing ball?
It was back and forth, man, Yeah, it really was. Looking back on it, I'm like, I don't know how we did that.
But are you playing that many dates now? Yeah? Maybe not. I don't know.
Uh yeah, I probably will this year. Uh but yeah, it was just I don't know. It was wild man. You know, we're always on the road. So again I got into bow hunting, you know, pretty heavily about three four years ago, and because oh dude, I love it. One of one of my friends I met on the road, he sent me a brand new Phase four and I haven't got it set up yet, but I've been shooting my my buddies. I bought my buddies Dad's old Botech
and I just have that thing dialed in. Yeah, And I'm like, I don't want to sit in the stand if I don't know what I'm shooting. Yea, I know I can put this one in in a small group. So it's a lot of fun. Man, how far do you feel like, how okay?
What's what's max distance for you that you feel confident shooting? Confident?
Oh? Man, I mean I've slung on it probably about sixty sixty, but that I've hit sixty, you know, just just target shooting.
But dude, a different thing when there's there's whatever.
Yeah, I was probably six feet off, like it was bad. I had I had a glow tip on it too, because it was late, it was getting late. I was hunting up in Minnesota last year and this massive dough comes out right like right before it's getting dark. And it was about sixty yards and she was coming across the ridge. I mean, I was like, I'm gonna try, man, I gotta I'm tired of sitting out here. So I flung one and sure enough it got buried in the
corner field. Never found it. I had a glow tip on it, Like, howd on I am not seeing this in the snow?
You know?
Yeah?
It was wild, Yeah, I was. I was sitting around the fire the other day.
Enjoy was out walking in the backyard, kids riding their little boys around and hanging out, and and Jordan came up. She goes, look what I found? And it was a maximum red Like I mean, like like about probably three years ago that I shot and missed.
The target hard to find. Once you let them go, they're hard to find. Yeah, what do you? Uh so you said you're on the road a lot? What do you do out on the road to like you look?
I mean, you sound like a like a like an outdoorsman. How do you like, how do you do that out on the road? How do you how do you scratch that ditch out there?
I don't get to a lot really, Yeah, that's that's one of the hard things about the road, you know, I grew up like even though it wasn't like I did a lot of small small game hunting. Most of the guys, most of my buddies back home ran dogs. They either rancoon dogs or they were bear hunters, you know, and.
Really bear the mountain.
Yeah, man, yeah, they just they run dogs. And I I never I never got into it. But you know, I was always hanging around those guys and watching how they worked them.
And it was a lot of fun.
But I don't know, man, I just I got a small squirrel hunted and turkey hunted and did all that. But you know, honestly, I fished a lot more than I hunted. I love stream fishing, and you know, we up in the mountains. There's the Tuck River runs tuck Sig River runs through my hometown, and it's like a really popular place for fly fishing. A lot of fly fishermen come through there. So I never got into that.
I just I've always just opened reeled and I just loved doing that, man, just walking up and putting your waiters on, walking up the creek and fishing. But I don't know, man, I I do love whitetail now, man, I've got the buck i haven't killed a buck yet with a boat, so I'm like, I'm trying to I'm trying to check that one off.
That was my first deer I shot with my That was the first buck I shot with my bow in Illinois, and I've been I've been bow hunting for close to probably five six seven years before ever even getting a dude. It's hard, man, It's hard getting them big deer, yeah, close to your stand, It's really hard.
And then it's hard executing the shot with a bow. Yeah, it's it's hard. I mean, you're you know what I feel like when a white tail goes from three to four, this like mega jump happens in their maturity to where it's like they're just they just change into a different animal. It's almost like you're hunting a different animal. And if you're trying to kill that or hunt that quality of a of an animal, like you're gonna have to work out.
You had to put some time in, you know. And uh, I mean you go shoot a little six point or something and get your feet wet if you want, and then there's nothing absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I'm saying that jump from three to four is a that's a different animal. Man.
Yeah, we're the same way, man, we do. We've we're two weeks in the Turkey season now and we've had a heck. I hope everybody's Turkey season is going to again as Arthadel. We've had a heck of season.
That's awesome.
But my turkey tank is this compared to my deer tank. My I wish I wish it was November fifteenth every day of the year, you know. And I'm sitting in Kansas and a and a you know, just a bohunt. But uh but but I will say, man, you talk about stream fishing like there is, it's hard to beat ripping smallies and brown trout out of a little creek with a with a spinning reel man and.
Cg in a song. I didn't know. Hey, I didn't know that river. Uh, but somebody from it might be. Yeah.
I was gonna say, see up there close Asheville, close to the Tug.
Is that close? Yeah? That's a cool name for a river.
Cool.
Yeah, great there. Yeah, you called the Tuck.
That's what my touring company was, Tuck River Touring. That was the only one that was available. I tried to eight hundred more. I'm like, how does everyone There's no way all these are taken, just like doing being my name?
What's my name?
Uh?
Man? I got a few. I think my I think it's racks and plaques right now. Oh nice, Wow, that's good.
That's good.
I was sitting with Lindsay Rhymes, who was an Australian songwriter here in town, and he was trying to come up with a name and I said, dude, you know what you need to do and he was like what And I was like, koala, t's kuality quality too from Australia. He was like, oh my god, and so he uh he changed it to And so we were at the Bemis he got he got an award for a number one and they're like, Lindsay Rymes with quality, dude. I was like, yeah. So he never hunted or anything like that.
He would get He would be funny on the show just because he has no idea about any of it, like no stuff. And it was the first time we were at Sony and we were so broke at the time. We had to like I would literally bring in whatever my dad cooked from the weekend, you know, and eat on it all all week So I had these little medallions where we had taken a white tail tender lorning,
you know, cut into medallions and grilled them. And so I was like a little fillet, like a little white So when I pulled that little baggy out, I had a rite and I ran in there to get some lunch real quick, and I grabbed that baggy out and uh, he had come in behind me. I didn't know it. And so when I pulled it out, you know they're like little rounds. Yeah, he was, oh cookies. And I was like, no, man, yeah, go get you. This is he is? What is it? And I said, this is
deer Tony and this is like me? This is I said, actually, man, it's really great. Would you like to try what? He was? Oh? No, I like my I like my meat from the store. I was like, all right, man, this is not from the store. But no, not a chance. Good dude, though, good dude, chout hey. What's what's something? What's something from from your childhoodhood like growing up and out door or is that you that you wish to pass on to your little ones.
That's a good question, man, I mean I think it it's honestly, I think just a great time to spend uh with somebody, you know, if you're you got somebody. I like I personally when I'm bow hunting, I like being by myself.
I don't I don't want.
Yeah, Like I like that time, especially now because that's you know, especially now, Yeah, especially now for all the reasons. But it's just fun, uh, you know, being out in the woods, especially if you're out in the middle of nowhere too. Like that's my favorite. That's that's what I loved about back home. There were those spots where like you can go out and not hear nothing, you know, like you're just hearing you know, wildlife and whatever's going
on in the woods. And I just loved that environment. So I was always in the woods doing something. But I don't know, man, that's a good question. I feel like one one kind of niche thing that we did growing up is a different kind of hunting. But it's called gen sing hunting.
I have ever. Yeah, I heard about it.
Yeah, that that was something that me and my dad did a lot because we were uh, he was always working, right and so when I started working for him, Uh, we would always be up in these.
Really like wooded areas. What did he do. Sorry, I don't sorry.
He was a property manager, had his own own property management business for a long time, and we, you know, would be out on a job somewhere and we would just walk out and in the woods and look for Jen saying, you know, back in the day, you could take in make a thousand bucks a year probably if you just you know, if you kept the roots. Sometimes they wanted them dry, sometimes they liked them right. Well,
there's there's a season for it. It's basically an herb that that gets used in like a lot of energy drinks. Jen Sing's in there. It's really good for your energy. And they're saying there's a lot of other health benefits of it now. But yeah, you could take it down and that there were buyers, at least in my hometown. I don't know if they're legit, and I don't know who they're selling it to, but that paper, Yeah, but
I made a little cash every year. I don't know. Man, That's that's one thing, like one type of hunting I guess that I would like.
To pass down.
That's cool because it's it's kind of you know, it's native to to western North Carolina and it's fun to do it here.
I mean I don't know, I don't know how you do it or where you do it. But I mean we've I ran into people, uh like jen Zen hunting on some of our properties have just been like, hey man, we doing it, oh man, just looking for In that case, you're like, okay, well dig it because we're not doing anything with it. Yeah, is there like a.
Certain like moriles. It's like, what is it like around like wedded areas? I mean there's so much old trees, the tree stuff. There is there a certain like I mean you see the top of it, right, are you looking for in a certain area?
Yeah?
So it's an herb and it it likes really damp like wet areas. Uh So like if you're if you get back in a holler somewhere, like you know, it's where there's a lot of moss and it's just really shaded, you're probably gonna you're probably walking on it, you know what I mean. And the the other thing that looks just like poison ivy. It's got the same leaves, but the way you tell it apart is that it has uh these little berries that get they turn red when
it's when it's seasoned. And the leaves will wilt into like a yellow color, so they kind of stick out when it when it's the right time of year. But you can spot them, you know, in the woods if you know what you're looking for.
You dry the root, dig it out, drive the root.
You know, it depends like some there were some years where yeah, they wanted it dry, so you you know, just leave it out and let it, let it air drive for however long it needs. And like I said, we would just dig a little bit, you know, every every day, and by the end of it we'd have a pound each, you know or whatever and go turn it down. But yeah, you sometimes they wanted it wet, sometimes they wanted it all dried out.
It just depended on what they were doing that year. Sounds fun yeah, yeah, I mean it's a reason to get poison all over you. Yeah, that would be my fault.
Like this is a song never Yeah, it's just funny because you know, you get you get shot digging somebody's gen sing up back home.
That's only when you said that, I'm like, a yeah, yeah, how do you get ground to gens? Hunt? You ask? Or do you just kind of just hunt your own ground? That's it, Uh you can.
I mean some people don't care, right, like the kind of like that too, like I'm not gonna dig it, so you might as well. Yeah, but yeah, my palpal planted a bunch around and uh my my childhood home, and so we were always like trying to protect it.
You know.
It's kind of a little little heightie spot up there.
Yeah. Man, any any drama ever go down with somebody trying to dig some he may ever get shot or anything, not that I know about.
Yeah. Now, I don't think anybody has, at least none of my relatives, So yeah, who knows. Man, There's there's always something going on back home. I love I honestly, I loved growing up in North Carolina. Man, it was a lot of fun. It was just very laid back. I've you know, I'm I grew up in the same house my mom grew up in, So it's it's very deeply rooted there and get a lot of family still there.
So do you ever think about going back? Yeah, I do like moving back.
Yeah, you know, I don't know if I could do it full time now with what I do, but yeah, it'd be nice to be nice to have a spot back there. That, you know, you could go. I would. I love fall time there, man, it's like the best time of year. So it be nice to if we had a weekend off to go back for yeah, a few days.
Yeah, you're not at the point, right, you don't. You don't get that for a while, buddy. No, I'm dreaming, but dreaming on the mountaintop though. Man. Yeah, I mean here we are. How what'd you say, six seven years in? Yeah? Six years due. That's awesome, man, Yeah, that's awesome. So you started playing piano. I saw you had some piano lessons as a kid or something. How'd that go? Uh?
Not as well as they I hope they would they. I actually I love playing piano now, just cord like I didn't learn anything, but I hated it at the time. It was like just a bear, and so I was like, I'm gonna try a fiddle, and then that was god awful, dude. The fiddle was like even worse. Yeah, it was rough. And then I finally found guitar and stuff with that, so.
It's fun.
Bluegrass was cool too, because you got to learn how to play multiple instruments. Most people do just from jamming and hanging out and so it's fun. I get to I like playing bass and mandolin and stuff too. It's fun to do that every once in a while on a demo or something.
Who was your band, like as far as your first little bluegrass band? Who played in it?
Uh?
Family or buddies or what?
Yeah? The first one I was in was you gotta tell the name of the band you got to Yeah, Mountain Faith Bluegrassto.
Yeah.
If I would have give you three guesses, you would you would have put Mountain in there somewhere. Uh No, it was fun. Now we yah cousins band. And then my uncle was like our band leader. He drove us around nice. Yeah, it was fun.
That's crazy.
Church festivals anywhere anywhere. Yeah, anywhere anybody would take us.
That's the weirdest place you have played, guy, Always think my band we played this, We played this thing. If I told this one? We played this thing for who's the guy from uh Sweet Oabama? Leonard Skinner. It was like one of his like yeah, it was one of his, like cousin or something. It was like a name you haven't ever heard, like Ricky van Zander or something. It
wasn't like Ron. It was kind of an off thing and we played this gig and they were like the we opened the form of course, you know, and they were the headliner. Well, the guy had had had already like assured his payment, and then nobody got real cold. It was weird. It was like summer and he got super cold, and nobody came to the show obviously because nobody knew us, and they definitely didn't know Ricky, you know what I mean. Yeah, So the guy was like, uh, well,
you're gonna pay me. I'm a van Zank, You're finna pay me. He brought us all in the end, He's like, guys, I don't have any money. Basically, he was just saying, like no show festival, I know. And he's like, I don't have any money. And we were like, okay, well how much beer you got left? You know, and they're like we got a couple of cases. We're figured, okay, we're cool, just send us with that. Well, Ricky wasn't having it, bro He was like what do you what
have you got? He was like, I mean all I got to my name is this Harley And he was like where are the keys? Right here? And he's like drove back to Nashville. Baby took the dudes. I watched it took it Ricky or whatever the guy's name was. Yeah, it was pretty tough, pretty tough. He got his we never got it. Was cold blooded dude. But anyway, that was a terrible place to play. If you got any anything stick out in your head, is like the worst place you ever played or the best random place you
ever played? Yeah, I don't.
I don't places kind of sometimes like vinyards roll together sometimes.
Yeah, I just didn't know.
I just have like stories, like I remember places from stories like we well, one of the funny early ones was ya, you'll like this, and we we played this. We were playing at church I can't remember where. We were somewhere somewhere in North Carolina and we were playing this church man. And I'm not making this up, man, I swear I'm not. We're in the middle of it. We're in the middle of our set and we're playing, right, and they the pastor came up like kind of I
don't know if it was planned before. I didn't know it was planned, right, and he comes up. He was like, all right, we're going to take a brief intermission here, you know, and we'll be back in ten fifteen minutes and we'll finish up the concerts. So we're like, okay, cool. So we're like, you know, taking a break and hanging out and talking to people, and all of a sudden, well, I think, honestly, I think it was for them to take a smoke break, because literally everybody went out on the on.
The front porch up, yeah, and like, yeah, we take a break.
Well, all of a sudden, this dude starts with like running down the aisle, right, and he's a bigger dude. And I was probably dude, I don't even know, I was maybe thirteen or fourteen, maybe it might have been that ot and and they it was the pastor son and he was running down and dude, they were like pinning him down. They were cutting his rat tail off. He had a rat tail about yay long, like actual just just old school rat tail.
Not braided.
They were talking about it was braid. It was it was braided, yeah, yeah, but that's all he had. It was it was buzzed and then a rat tail.
Like buzzed full on. And they were we're getting you today. They're like, we're done with it.
And that happened in our intermission I just I don't know why held him down. They held him down and cut it off? What did they cut it off with a pocket knife?
Right? Story? Right? That is the best gig story I think I've heard. Dude, it's pretty nuts. Yeah, and you feel like you're dreaming it. But maybe I did. I don't know. But what was the guy saying? I mean, I want to visualize my head as much as I can. Don't cut my right tail? Was he screaming, don't cut my rat tel?
Yeah?
He was pissed, but for sure, yeah, I would be. It was one of those things. It's a long time ago, right right, Yeah, that only had a commitment that only happens at a at a mountain bluegrass show for sure. For sure.
Yeah, you could tell that it'd been bruined for a while though. Oh yeah, like somebody didn't like the rat tail for a while, probably or maybe.
I mean, honestly, I don't know anybody loves especially if it's if it's all shaped and that's the only thing rebelling going there's he'll billy rebelling going on right there?
For sure?
Yeah, I mean, so what happened after? I gotta know what happened? He stayed for the show. I don't remember. I have woke up at that point. I don't know.
I don't remember. Let's play the gig man. Yeah, yeah, I was there to put it. No, I just remember, like, and I swear my I need to call my dad and have him back me up on this. I think he was there. But yeah, I just remember like that scene, you know what I mean. That's that's all for you all. I remember thirteen years old. Yeah, there's people ripping STIGs on the front porch of the church and somebody's getting their rat toel cut off.
All right, we're back from intermission. Rat Tael religion. What I want to know is if he stayed for the show, he was like, all right, I have my seat back. What they do do? They whip it around? The lots of I'm definitely what was spun it around? Yeah? What else would you do with it? I don't know. I wish you had. I wish you still had. I wish somehow you had acquired that rat tail and built it into your guitar strap to where it was like hanging
off the neck. That's a not a terrible idea. Actually, next time, is that a turkey beard?
You kid, He said, no, kid, I played the show and scalp, scalp, He'll billy scalp And oh man, where did the thing that was funny? Where did the songwriting start for you? Were you writing songs back then, like back when you were young, or did it come later in life?
Honestly, I didn't know a lot about the songwriting world until I got, you know, into high school, maybe the little out of high school, honestly, because uh, you know, with traditional bluegrass, you're just playing the same song as everybody else, plays a different way. Yeah, you make your own version of it, and so it's fun in a lot of ways. But that that was kind of the turning point for me. It was when I I'd been playing bluegrass for a couple of years and and you know,
it was in that that circuit heavily. I was just like, man, it's a lot of fun. But I didn't see it, you know, really like being something I could do as a job.
Right.
It was it was like a hobby for me. It was fun, but it was also like I knew if that's where I stayed, I was going to be doing that, that would be my thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, And so I also knew that, you know, I just want I had. I felt like I had something to say as an artist too. I didn't really know what it was, but I was like, man, I just think it'd be cool to write my own stuff. And so I got into, you know, looking more into credits and like who who's on this? And you know who produced this? And you know, I started learning a little bit that way. But that's really was a turning point
for me. I like just got burnt out a little bit on on the road and doing grass, and I was like, man, I'm gonna try writing. And I had a few buddies, actually my my uh my drummer now, uh he's a buddy of mine from back home, and uh we would we would write all the time, and before I moved here, we would.
Uh. I started slowly.
My dad had a little woodworking shop in his In his shop, it was like an add on that he put out there. You know, it was always turning, turning bowls and like doing woodwork and stuff. And uh, when he was still working heavily, heavily, I slowly started moving one piece out at the time of his equipment because he wasn't getting to use it.
And I eventually made it a music room, and uh, surprised, but yeah, it was. It was nice to just had a.
Little spot where we could, you know, meet up and and just and write and so it really I'm thankful for those because I felt like it got a lot of bad ideas out, you know, before I moved to town. So it wasn't like, you know, hey, I'm this and oh, let's write about my boots today, you know, like it's like, actually, you know, I feel like you when you when you
grow up. At least for me, I grew up listening to country radio right like I never I listened to a lot of bluegrass, but not like I did country music. I was always listening to the country of rock something.
And who was the guy who was? What year was this did you?
Uh?
For as far as like you know where I like what age I was? Yeah, I was probably maybe my early twenties at this point I've been working.
Okay, what year is that? Uh it would have had to.
Have been like twenty seventeen eighteen maybe.
Yeah.
I'm not good at math either, especially today. No, I was, you know, it was in my early twenties, I know that. And we because I was working you know, had a good job, no bills, right, I was like in that in that spot where you like, I'm chilling, man, I can go by again if I want to. But yeah, yeah, I just uh, you know, I knew, I forgot what I was talking about. We were talking about why or
who is your earlier yeah influences? Yeah, sorry. I I really loved country music and listen to rock, and my dad was like big on seventies music, so he always had some wild band playing that he was you.
Know, yeah, yeah, so it was fun. Yeah that's cool.
He uh, I don't know, man, It was just I had all these different kind of genres that I liked, and when we started writing it, it really helped me kind of flush some of those ideas out and be.
Like, Okay, this is cool, but is there like a hook here?
Like I didn't know what a hook was, honestly, Like, how would you you just you know, naturally you're like, okay, this is the title, so let's try to get back to that. You don't know. I didn't know like what set ups and all that, you know what I mean, like in depths on it, and so I was just trying to get it close and It's funny looking back
on some of those ideas. You're like, I went through a couple of on this one of these flights, just like digging through old stuff, and I was like, honestly, it's not a bad idea.
You just missed. We were way off.
But it's cool, uh, you know, seeing how far I've been able to, you know, come in the last five six years on the writing side, because I really that was my thing. I wanted to be a songwriter when I moved here, Like I knew that that would I knew that if the artist thing happened, it would happen, and it might take a minute. And I was fine
with that, you know. Like I said, I was kind of burnt on the road anyway at that time, and so it was really really healthy, I think for me to just be a writer for three years, four years, you know, and just like write for other people and didn't necessarily like help me, hone in on what my sound is, per se, but it helped me figure out what it wasn't, you know, writing for other people. It was just like, which is just as important? Yeah, trufu. Yeah,
And it's and I enjoyed writing. I love chasing somebody's thing with them, right. I love doing that, but yeah, it is you just I just I was just mindful of it, like you just know, like I'm yeah, I would cut this song, but I would do it this way or whatever. You know, it's like you kind of figure those things out. So it's really good for me. Man, I'm thankful for those years of just like really grinding writing five six days a week. You know, I'm doing demos.
I still I was doing a demo last night. Man, Just I love I love it. I love music, man, I really do. It's it's it's still fun for me even even though it's a grind right now and you know, I'm seeing that side of it it stuff. Still love doing it.
So yeah, tell you probably tell this a mean times, but I want our listeners to hear about your your moving to national experience and getting hooked up with totally and Kurt and Jason and those cats.
Yeah, I don't know this, go into this a little bit if you don't care.
Yeah, it's it's kind of it's kind of wild.
We sorry for Did you have the support of like was the family band like yeah, go to Nashville, or were they like don't go to Nashville and sell your soul to the country music devil.
You know, yeah, I think I wouldn't say they were. You know, it's just it's funny, like you're there are some people in those hometown people that are like, oh yeah you get you go on, honey, Yeah, well you chase your dreams and home will be here when you come back.
You know.
The devil's playing paying pretty good. I'm preachers kids like Baptist Southern Baptist fire from the you know what.
It was.
It was the same thing we had.
We had one or two guys that were like, hey, man, go go be light in the in the in the Nashville man like, go go do you know that thing? And then someone were like, I can't believe you ain't doing Christian music, you know, saying that ain't God's calling for your life.
I know, if anybody knows God's calling on your life, it's funny.
Yeah, I mean there is probably a little bit of that. But you know what, man, I just I try to I try to just keep the uh the morals that that that place instilled in me. You know, there's obviously things when you get older you realize like maybe I don't agree one hundred percent with that, but I see what they were going.
For to, you know, get that. So yeah, yeah we love politics on this sure, sure thing. Yeah whatever you say. Yeah, sorry, no, but she's like, yeah, she just had a little heart malfunction there. We'll over that word. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh man, it's I don't know, man, I just I it's it's so much fun for me to get to do this now and like actually make money doing it. Oh, I know, like this is the first year we are, but but it's you know, it's just fun.
Man.
It's like it allows you to really focus on it. It's that was always the thing for me about the road.
It's like.
I would love to do that if I could solely focus on that and like solely focus on being a front man and like playing guitar and like doing that, because that would I'd be able to do my best at it, right, So that was kind of always my thing. I was like, it'll happen when it happens, but it
definitely happened a lot faster. Okay, I was telling the story. Yeah, so yeah, we I didn't start making trips like really to write until about twenty nineteen is when I started making trips down here from back home, and I would I would come down here and crash on my buddy Rob's couch and write for a couple of weeks, and then, you know, when i'd run out of money, I'd go home and work and you know, make enough money to come back and do it, you know, for another week
or so. And I did that for almost a year, and then finally in twenty twenty officially moved to town.
And yeah, it was.
It was funny because while while I was like making trips I think it was in twenty nine town, I was making trips down, my buddy Rob was like, man, let's let's go out to eat. Like I had never seen Nashville. I'd never been downtown, like nothing, right, Like, uh just kind of showed up. I was like, So he's like, yeah, let's let me let me show you around town. So we go out to eat or something and we get it uber. Right, We're like uber and downtown and this guy picks us up, super nice guy.
You know, we're chatting and he's you know, telling us about how he's been in town. I've been a writer for a while and you know, who'd worked with and stuff, and so it was like cool, man, can I take it with a grain of salt? And just like yes, it's cool. And so he dropped us off and we parted ways. Didn't get his info, nothing right, like just thanks for the ride. Uh Well, about a year later, I had moved to town. I had a part time job over at Aubrey Mills, working at a Lucky brand
if you can imagine that. And I was was working one day, usually was stocking shells, but they had me out on the floor they're shorthanded, and uh so I was like walking around and I saw this guy come in and I was like, I recognize that guy from somewhere. So I approached him and it turns out it was it was my Uber driver from a year earlier.
And you remembered your Uber driver from a year.
Earlier, Yeah, well I can't remember.
I don't even feel like you see your Uber driver's face very much. How he's just.
A memorable guy. He was one of those guys like it. So I don't know, and he's I'll get to the good part, but yeah, he's just one of those guys. He's a very nice guy, like easy to talk to, friendly guy.
I think you were supposed to And yeah, in God's plan, it sounds like this guy is supposed to be remembered in your store.
That's that's a great point. That's probably exactly what it was. But yeah, we we just kind of we hit it off again and he was like, he's like, what are you doing? Yeah, He's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, well, you know, I get a mixing demos in my bedroom and doing this and you know, trying to grind it out and get better rooms. And he was like like, man, I'd love to write.
And so.
We set up a it was a zoom right, it was our No, I take it back. Our first one was in person and uh we actually read over at river House and uh, I was I was in uh having conversations with zeb over there, you know, looking to sign just the standard pub deal, and we were kind of I was doing demos for for his guys and and he was plugging me in on riots and stuff. So it was kind of one of those things. And
that's that's about when this happened. And so yeah, anyway, John, his name is John, Me and John started writing songs. John Edwards, Yeah, do you know John? Yeah, Yeah, I gotta write.
I'm writing with him maybe this week, maybe next week. Yeah, yeah, he's great, Yeah it is. But yeah, he started chatting.
We started writing a few songs, and then he was like, hey man, i'd love to I'd love to pull some guys in on on this idea. We had something started. I was like, yeah, sure, and it ended up being Kurt and Tully and uh, you know, he'd been writing with them.
For grinding twenty years until any success at all came in. Yeah.
Yeah, he's Uh, he's one of those cases man, where you're just like, I don't get it.
I don't know.
It's like, yeah, I don't know. Memorable due now he's a very memorable guy, just genuine you know, like he's just a good dude. And but yeah, they they we started. I think they helped us finish the song, and then we actually wrote in person after that a couple of times. And then I was mowing my grass one day and uh, Tully text me and was like, hey man, can you I think I had to work that evening and so I was just kind of clean up around the house.
He's like, can you can you like sit down and do an acoustic video of the song, this song we wrote. It was like the day before we finished it.
I was like sure, So I sat down, had like grass all over. I didn't you know, I didn't know what I was doing.
I was just doing a video. I didn't know what he wanted it for. Sat down, played it, played through it or whatever, sent it to him. Well, maybe an hour later, I get a phone call and random random number, random number, six one five. So I'm like, and I usually don't answer fun no, I'm like, nah, but it was six month five, So I answered it.
Well, now you turned down six one five numbers, then yeah, somebody hits you with six five or someone who does anybody but anything? Yeah, this turned out You're right, very true, very true. I was.
I was answering any six one five numbers, but no, he he I get I get a phone call, answer it and he's like, hey man, it's jasonal Dean gets your phone number from Tully and he's like, they've been sending me some stuff you're writing and just really dig you know your vibe and what you're doing. And he's like, we we started a publishing company in a in a
record label like two years earlier. And he's like we've just kind of been sitting on it waiting for somebody to sign that we really believe in and and we dig and he's like, i'd love to, you know, love
to chat about that with you. And I'm like I'm literally sprinting inside to find my roommates and I'm like, dude, this is a prank call man Like yeah, so, but I'll say this, man, I always always try to say this because you know, there's there's always somebody that really like steps out and takes a leap of faith on you and it's like, dude, oh yeah, this is my guy. That was al deem Man, Like there's there's been a few.
I'm not saying he's the only one, but he's the guy that, like, you know, he wasn't just like, oh yeah, well, we'll sign you to you know, publishing. He's like, dude, you're a writer. I wanted you as a writer, an
I'm gonna sign you as an artist. And that was the coolest thing to me because I was like, at the time, I was literally just singing demos, like and people would ask me to sing demos, but I wasn't like I wasn't the singer in the room, right, and I didn't care to be honestly, I enjoyed being the producer in the room and still do. But I don't know.
It was just a it was kind of a.
A moment that clicked for me where it's like, I mean, if he believes I can do it, surely I can do it, you know.
So it was a cool, very cool him. I always, you know, be.
Appreciative of that for him, just a confidence boost at that at a time where I probably needed it, you know, to power through like where I was, you know, in the grind phase of like having no holds and no you know, really nothing to like show for everybody back home. Are you still down doing the music? But thank you for asking. I'm still depressed having attacked all the yeah.
You can play my sons, yeah covers? You know, Luke Bryan, I got my kids. My uncle wrote something would be good for Sorry, dude, I got that this weekend. I still get that. It never that never goes away. No, I never can go away.
Man.
It's like and I used to really used to really annoy me, but now it's kind of it's it's almost fun just to see what people think might work.
Yeah, dude, I love it honestly, Like somebody gave me a mixtape. It's a CD of I assume all songs that they had so little written, and dude, what I took away from I would never think of that. That's what I took away from. Like you could put me in a black room with four walls and give me whatever, and I would never.
Say that title, you know what I mean. And it's not even it's like it's kind of cool.
Yea.
It's like what I was saying earlier, like the idea is not bad. It's just you just missed. You have no idea how to right.
But it's crazy to me how sometimes you're like, dang, that's it's actually.
Not bad, bro, what a natural story like that is? Yeah? It is, man, And that that goes Like people ask me all the time, they're like, what do I need to do? Man?
Like, like I love writing songs, but you know I can't I can't get down there enough and what do I need to do? And the first thing I tell him, I'm like, bro, you got to move here. And maybe maybe not because because of social media now and TikTok and all that, but like you got to be it's almost like you have to be present to win, especially if you're trying to start off doing it well. It depends on what get a foothold in the town, you know, it depends on what avenue of the business you want
to work in. I feel like as a songwriter, you have to be here as an artist. Yeah, you can kind of and maybe not as a song or maybe people search for that. I don't really know, but I feel like you gotta be uh around to take the call right to jump in the room the one time the guy doesn't make it and your buddy's in there and he just so happens to say, I got this guy that just moving up here from Florida, you should
check him out. Like it's almost been in a position waiting for an opportunity and when the when the opportunity comes, you capitalize on it.
Yeah, but that could take six months or that could ta sixteen years. Yeah, I was, Oh, it's so wild.
Yeah, I mean you're exactly right. And and you know again like in the moment you're like, god, dude, when is this When is something gonna happen? When it's something that.
Is something every going to happen. I mean, we also know those guys that have been here for thirty years and have had plenty of album cuts, not sorry, not plenty, but enough to just kind of keep them in the in the town. Bro John Edwards, I mean what, right, like twenty years of that's that was the I forgot to say the payoff.
The coolest thing to me is that, you know, after we had these conversations with without Danny, who was like, I love to chat about it whatever, well they signed John and I both cool man, Yeah, somebody nobody more deserving than that. And dude, what what is crazy about? I've heard a lot of his catalog and I'm like, how have the world did this not land somewhere?
Sure, you know, he's just like it's wild to me.
But you know that.
Guy persevered through twenty years of like you know, whatever he went through, and you know he's still one.
Of the nicest guys in the world. You know, he's a great guy and always have good ideas.
Man, always he's never out of I'm like, dude, how do you keep that turning? Man Like he's always got an idea? Yeah, I love writing one, John Man, He's we still write quite a bit.
It's a great story. So cool man.
Now here you are, dude, dropping your debut album. It's out everywhere now Carolina Blue Songs, number one songs, number one on the radio. Got a couple under your belt as a songwriter.
Three three? What how it's more than a couple?
What is that?
Few? Bad? They all right? Think?
What?
Uh? Bro? Put that into words? Man, like, like can you can you can you explain that?
Like?
Yeah, it's hard to man. Uh.
You know it's from all the stuff I've been talking about.
I just feel like I, you know, before I moved.
To Nashville, I thought, for sure, I'm gonna settle down right here on this mountain. I'm gonna, you know, own this ten acres of land. I want to redo this old house and I want to be here. And fine, yeah, and I might have been just as happy as I am today.
Sure, But.
You know, I just remember when I was working on that old house one day and it just had I'd been out of music for about a year, hadn't touched the guitar. And that was like the I knew it. I knew something was up when I wasn't because I always played guitar. You know, That's what got me into it. Anyway.
But I wasn't even playing guitar.
I was kind of out of it, was burnt, like had some things kind of fall through where I was like, all right, yeah, that's that's a old news for me. You know, I gotta move on. And I just remember, like sitting on this old house is just like nailing something into the roof or something. It just hit me, man, it was just like what do you like? What are you doing? Bro? Like you I knew I wasn't happy.
I just didn't want to admit it, you know. I was just like I was fighting that for a minute where I was just like something's up, man, Like I just there's something messing in my life. And I wasn't really thinking about music until that moment. It just hit me and I was like, man, it's just it's just em me.
I don't know.
Yeah, I feel like it's all. It's all always. If somebody asked me, hey, what do you get at music? I mean that that was what I was best at, right, And so I think just having it out of my life it was good because it made me realize how important it was and how much I loved it. But yeah, getting it getting it back into you know, into that feeling and in that moment and then now being able to you know, see fruit come from you know, digging in and selling that property and like dissipating that dream
and letting that beautiful piece of property go. Like just to do this, like it tells me, you know, not only one that I made the right decision, you know, but it's also it's like you says God, you know, showing me like Okay, here's the next route for you or whatever.
You know.
So it's it's very cool and rewarding in that way. It's such a grind out here.
Man.
I wish you know, people I don't really care, but I doubt I don't think a lot of people understand, you know, radio tour and like and uh, you know.
That there's no way to now that's what I mean. There is no way to understand how hard that stuff is. Yeah, it's just it's the job, right and just do it if you want to do it. That's what everybody's done it. Everybody has to do it. It doesn't stop, it doesn't get less. You just accept it, you know what I mean, And you can get a little more picky and choosy.
I feel like goes, but it's always a grind, man, So I just I try to be thankful for it because you know, who knows, maybe that will's fall off tomorrow.
I still go write songs and be happy. But that that's the rewarding thing for me, man, to answer your questions, just like, you know, knowing how how low that feeling was before I made the decision to move here and then getting to see this happen, and like have friends here in Nashville that like are lifers, man, Like I have great a great friend group, like people I met early on when I moved to town that I'm still really close with, not just writing buddies with, but like
friends with, you know, and you know, getting to engulf myself into Nashville and like be a city city boy for a minute, Like, uh, it was.
It was great.
It was a great growing point in my life, I think in a lot of ways. But I love it, man. I love getting to do this and I'm very thankful for this job.
Man. That's well said. Yeah, man, it's been fun having you home. I can't believe it's been an hour. I know.
A way out Wood is it is my jam. Yeah, I love kid myself we were talking about that. But the record's great, dude, thank you. The record's great.
And and I think you said an interview like you're trying to get parts of you out there too, and I can I can see that now sitting here talking to you for a little bit over an hour, I can see where those tracks kind of intertwined throughout your life and the five of some Man. It's cool.
Yeah, thank you stuff. I appreciate it. I'm you know, it's always nice getting new music out. It's just like, I don't know, it's especially like this project specifically. I feel like all of all the artists we're talking about have had an influence on me. They've all had a
debut album, and it's probably one of them. It's probably my top three, you know what I mean, not not to say that it's like the best, but it's just my favorite because it's it's that first project, you know, like give me a few, uh, I mean, Church Is Carolina is one of my favorite like albums.
Ever, possibly I think one of that for our generation, one of the most influential records there is in country.
Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with us. One of my favorites. I love obviously huge Keith Whitley fan, so his his was a big one for me. I think of the other one. I don't know, man, I love I'm a big skinnered fan too, so all that stuff is really
really fun to me. I just I don't know. I guess my point was, like, you know, I was beating that to death trying to put this project together because I'm like, I can I can nitpick something to wear it out, you know, even writing like I'm I'm a slow rider most of the time, and I just like I want every line to matter, you know, like I want it to be right. So that's kind of how
I was putting this project together. I had a lot of time to do that, and so I was just in the weeds on it, and you know, I had this whole thing I was trying to I was trying to go too far, like make it art toy far to right.
I was just like I was so.
Zoomed in right. And I called al Dean one day we were talking about something. He was like, He's like, how's the album going? And I was like, it's going good. I was like, I feel like I got, you know, pretty much what I feel like I need on there, and he was like, don't forget you need hits right now.
And I was like, zoom out moment. Yeah, I was like thanks, man, I needed.
That because I was just so far into it, and I was like, you know, putting all these things and and honestly, it's true, at the end of the day, put your best songs out there, you know what I mean? Yeah, And so I tried not to worry about, you know, sonically always everything because the cohesiveness to all my favorite records and artists is the vocal and a lot of times the mixing engineer. Can you know that that has a lot to do with it. There's all everybody's important.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, like, you know, that's that can be cohesive enough to like tie a record together a lot of different sounds, you know. So, I don't know. It was just really fun to make. Man, this this you know, I co produced it with Brent Anderson.
He's so good. Yeah, yeah, he's uh, he's one of my favorites. And guitar player too, man, they got oh yeah, dude, he's sandbags on. Jamison told me something real fun about Brent the other day. He was we were talking about just like artists and musicians and in town, and he was like, yeah, He's like it's like Brent says man and uh He's like. Jamison's like, man, how is how do you so good? Like? How do you get so
good at guitar? And Brent was like, oh, it's probably fun for you to have friends when you were young. I just played the guitar all like having friends. It was like being cool. I don't know, I just play guitar a whole life. He's crazy, man, he's awesome. Great. He is in The Killer Songwriter too.
Yeah.
Man, all right, we gotta do it. We gotta do it. I know. I wish we could stay for another two hours. We all got yea who you are right about? Today? Man? I've got uh Frank Ray oh yeah yeah yeah with him last week. Yeah, Paul Sykes, you know, oh yeah, all today and uh Sony, yes there's another. I'll be over there to Oh wait, no I'm not. I'm at his house. I'll be at his house. Parker Welling, you writing, you're working today?
I get another one of these today.
Yeah. The competition, who is it? Is it?
Outside the line?
Take it? I'll take it. I would take it podcast take it out, bro, plenty of room, don't we don't listen to podcasts.
Hey man, your music? You do a thing at the end of the favorite tune. We talked about it earlier. If you wouldn't mind giving he's still stuck on.
Ronnie, you want to do something else? What do you want to? What do you want? Do you tell me? Well, you guess?
Do you normally hop in?
I mean we can hop in if we know the.
Do you know stranger in my house?
Ronnie, Stranger in my house? Yeah? Out here? You play it though, Okay, we'll see you do that. I don't know what you're a real life you're a real guitar player. Play whatever you want to, bro, or don't play anything at all?
Oh you know this one? Oh, let's see.
Where there's a clown?
Do'ms rain tears and my don't mean pain on fighting your shu, I'm a.
Smooth baby. Things on on with what they say? You can't believe everything every on my face. I'm a you you heard, I'm drinking more than I should and I'm been looking on that. But someone told Jo sticking aro. But why they make them old stories.
And I'm a.
John Morgan up Guy's Country. Everybody smell oh dad, sound like a bit on the road. That's good.
That was a good Hey, maen, y'all go check out Carolina Blue. Uh grass man, thank you.
You too.
Got your little present for coming on the show man, oh Man to COVID likes to likes to make us look good and and hook hook our dudes up with some thank you, fresh pair of fresh pair of kicks for you. Wow, dude, pretty loyal to the red Wings.
Get them red wings, you know. Yeah, they look like they've been they've seen some they've seen my balls.
Yeah, pretty good.
But you can't wear these too, c M as you know.
Hey, we appreciate your thanks. Thanks for coming out looking all this up congress everything. Man, I'm a fan y Monday morning.
Yeah. Yeah, pulling for you, bro, Thank you man, Thank you all for having me.
It's been fun. I was definitely getting a room sometimes.
Check out Carolina Blue out everywhere now. Thanks for hanging out in God's Country. You next time.