Telling the TRUTH on social media

if you're brand new, well thanks thanks for listening. This is such a crazy time, such a wild time in the music business without a major tour going on, so there's so many other other things that we have frian and different pans all over the countertop. Here I want to tell you some of the ways you can keep up with this. Of course, a lot of you guys know the Smiths. You could follow us, me and my family on the Smiths YouTube channel, on the smith YouTube page.

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like i need to tell you guys. First of all, I'm so sorry that that series has been stalled a little bit. The cab is at the body shop right now, and the body shop is you know, we've done everything on the frame up into the body, so the cabs at the body shop they're putting the new roof on it, and they got We got a big heilstorm that hit us in Texas about a month ago, and so the

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I'm right here sitting here at the headquarters at the EE Farm as we speak. This is always a passion project for me, as it has been for many many years with me and my brothers, and I want to first of all always thank you guys for joining EE Nation, for being a part of this brand, of this lifestyle that is so much bigger than just music or just one person. And I am so proud every day to know that we have the responsibility of representing this lifestyle

through this brand. The month of August coming up, there's a lot of new stuff we have August second, our back to school release that's gonna be really important August fifteenth. Some of you might not think this is important, but actually we've been working on this for a long time, but that's our leggings release. And Amber has been working so hard on these leggings. I mean she's been working on this stuff for almost a year trying to find

the perfect leggings. I know that sounds crazy, but it's the real deal and these suckers are going to be amazing. That's August fifteenth. Then we get into September fourth through the seventh. We're gonna have a Labor Day weekend sell That one's gonna be really amazing. I've seen some stuff all leading up to September eighteenth, our fall launch, and you guys know how these launches go. You got to get there early. Everything's gonna sell out, but it's so

worth it. We're gonna have early access through this fan club that I'm talking about, and I'm going to release a lot more information as that time gets closer. And you know what's really cool about the September eighteenth fall launch for Yigie Apparel. What's really cool is the next week, my brand new album is going to come out September twenty fifth. A lot more that you need to know about that and that will be coming soon. Today. This is a great chat a great friend of mine, one

of the pioneers in Texas country music. One of the guys that many times has been called the king of Texas country music, and he has he has lived life to the fullest and he has live a life worthy of you guys hearing his story because he's had a lot of love, a lot of loss, and a lot of redemption. So, without further ado, I want to I want to introduce you and introduce you guys to mister Josh Abbott. Welcome to the Grand Smith Podcast. Did Kids in deesel my tires and schools, Long line by four,

Husband down on back Home Range and co one page. Yeah, you'reation. So I believe it was two thousand nine. We were at Anton's downtown Austin. Yeah, a party and it was like a benefit I think. And there was a bunch of artists there, a bunch of Texas country industry people there. And I remember I played a couple of songs acoustic, a bunch of people played. Yeah. Yeah, it was a bunch And you remember on the nine talking about Yeah, I think it was like a showcase of sorts. Yeah. Yeah.

So my my radio promoter at the time, she said to see that guy over there. I think it was a red trucker cap you were wearing. That was a good memory. Man. She said, that guy is about to blow up. He's about to blow up. Was like, what's his name? Josh Abbott. That was the first, the first time I saw Josh Abbott. I appreciate it. Shout out to Angela was the one that did that, and and man, she was right, yeah, because you skyrocketed from there. And so what do you think I'm right about two thousand

and nine? Yeah, it's probably, well, I don't know when we necessarily skyrocketed, but that was probably, I mean, definitely is two thousand and eight or nine, Yeah, because we actually started touring in two thousand and eight. So we formed our band in two thousand and six just for fun. Then we eventually, I think maybe in two thousand and seven, recorded that taste Ep Yep, and it just caught so much fire and Lubbock that we were like, Okay, we're

onto something here. So literally, in January of two thousand and eight, I dropped out of grad school and signed a I didn't really sign any paperwork, but essentially orally signed an agreement to be booked by Bruce Kalmick, who's now our manager, and so I'll never forget it. I mean literally we started in January two thousand and eight in terms of like making it. So you know, we had we hired Angela to push songs on the radio. I don't even know we hired her at that point.

It might have been a few months out down the road. She was definitely, if not then she was definitely in talks with you. Yeah, yeah, she's she was great. She was a huge supporter and believer in the music and really got a lot of Texas radio to play it. And when we were just nobody here since since we met at least, yeah, man, I mean, you know what's funny is that you you reflect on that memory and I remember that show. I also remember, you know, I

also remember on that show. I'm pretty sure my fiddle, our fiddle player, Preston he uh he he hd, like really slippery boots in that stage was really slick, and I think he slipped and fell on it. I'm not one hundred percent sure that was the show, but the show I remember meeting you guys at two way long

ago we played a show in Tyler together. Yeah, and I mean there was like seventy five people there maybe or you were already you're already on your way then maybe, But I mean same, the reason it was, I wasn't I remember it as a weekday night. I think it's like a Wednesday night. The only thing I remember about that venue was the big red curtain that they had that would that would kind of dramatically open up for

everyone to watch you. And you know, they opened it and I'm like, oh, yeah, baby, there'll be a lot of people out there and they're just one. We just weren't in a position of celtickets yet, I will say. I will say though, I remember that show very well too. And and the reason I know you were skyrocketing, First of all, you had a bus, and you know there was a time when like it was a very defined position if you had a bus. And and when you played,

everyone rushed the stage. They might have been saving. I think it's more than saving. It might have been a buck fifty, but they all rush the stage, and it

was like, Wow, this guy's a real deal. And I don't know, I think before before we dive into this stuff, we need to take care of probably for the listeners here, we probably needed to to find Texas Country Yeah, sure, because as you know, when both of us started venturing out of Texas, that was always a question either you got it and you knew it or you just said, what is Texas Country? Right? This is like a big question.

So and I know that it's defined differently, but how do you Josh Abbott, the one who has seen I could say that you are top five ever of all artists that have experienced the extreme presence of what Texas Country has to offer. So how do you define it? Well, you know, I appreciate the compliment. I definitely think we've you know, we accomplished a lot more than I thought we would. But you know, it's a music. It's music

that speaks to our culture. I almost I almost think of Texas Country as the same way you would if you found out you went to if you go to Europe and you found out they had their own kind of music scene over there some other specific place, right, Because you know, we sing about these locations in Texas, and even if we're not like name dropping Rivers and and that whole kind of like stereotypical, cheesy quote unquote thing, but there's just something about like our culture, the way

we are raised down here, right. I mean, it's just very different as a whole compared to a lot of the other a lot of the rest of the country. There's there's a very strong sense of pride. You know. I caution on the word nationalism because that just seems to be like so grossly interpreted these days. And I don't want anyone to think I'm referring to like Nazis or anything. But I just what I mean is Texas we think of ourselves as a nation. You know, we're

our own country Texas. Yeah, that's fair enough. So I just think, yeah, we have our own music scene, we have our own seen a music that that people support, and it's you know, it's just very uniquely different than anywhere else in the country. I mean, I think the Seattle Portland, that kind of Northwest Coast rock scene is probably you know, maybe as close as it gets to

kind of mimicking what we do. It could even maybe even argue like the Southeastern kind of style and even a little bit of that, you know, Southern rock kind of has its own thing. But still there's just nothing infrastructure wise like we have in Texas, where there's venues stacked on top of each other, across the state and you can play a city four times a year and they're not going to burn your crowd out, which is crazy. Yeah,

infrastructure absolutely, fans are absolutely part of that. It's hard to define the actual style of the genre because especially it's Heyday when you have you have Jack Ingram, Whiskey Myers, Kevin Fowler, you have some very different styles of music all under the same umbrella. It could all play a festival. It is a little weird like that, but you know what, in the same sense, it's kind of like that with

national mainstream country, you know. I mean there's Luke Combs, Yeah, and there's Miranda Lambert, and there's Carrie Underwood, and there's Carly Pearce, and you know, there's Florida Georgia Line and you know, there's a whole spectrum of music that kind of gets put under the same umbrellas. It's almost the same in Texas, I think, you know, with just there's some of different styles. Yeah, there's more singer songwriter guys.

There's more rock bands then that you got your honky tonk cowboy hat wearing, you know, fiddle playing bands, and I don't know, we've fallen there somewhere. Could you could tour in the state of Texas and you specifically could put on jat Best, specifically in Lubbock, And how many tickets would you sell average on a Jabfest in Loveock, Texas. This was supposed to be year ten. I say supposed to be because I really don't think that we'll be

able to have a jab Fest. I understand that I'm hoping I'm wrong, but we've had it nine years and I'm pretty sure we've sold out the Saturday night starting in year three every year. How many tickets is that? Oh, a little over seven thousand. And then we added a Friday night show a few years ago, and we've sold it out a couple times, but we don't play both nights. We did one time, and I honestly didn't enjoy playing two nights in a row because I just kind of

wanted to hang. So now we just have it to where we have other bands headlined the Friday night and I'm off. I just get to hang, yeah and visit with them and friends and family, so that when Saturday comes around and it's a show day, I'm not distracted by all that stuff. But yeah, it's pretty it's been great. I mean, that's just an unbelievable number, seven thousand tickets.

Most people, way, especially from the mainstream nationals. People that are listening to this, you know that are your fans from across the country, or they might not even know who I am. Right because of this podcast, they'll discover me. And for them to hear that we have venues where we put five thousand plus people in there, they're probably like, what the yeah? Oh yeah, and that's what again, that's going back to what we talked about originally, is that's

what makes Texas music so unique. Yeah, we could have a chart system with number one songs selling merch. I mean I learned merch from Texas Country, agreed, I mean far beyond anyone I've ever seen. You know, It's funny. Hold one, when I've been asked this question before about what's the difference between Texas Country and mainstream country, I'm like, you know what, Honestly, we don't put our faces on

our shirts. Yeah, and we just talked about this. I've never seen the Texas Country artists put their face like on a shirt, like a tour shirt and sell it at shows. But every mainstream artist does it. And it's I have no idea why there's a difference. I don't either, except for when we first started open up for national acts and and our merch would have like ten times to merchant. We would be at nobody. The other tour managers would be just saying, hey, you got a limiture merch,

this is crazy. You got to take some of the os are way too high, looks like old Navy said over. But we learned that partly because that was just a big part of our income. Yeah, and Donna Hue taught me that early on. That's one of the things I wanted to tat me don hu and Watson Man and gotta throw a foul in there, because see, for sure, dude,

he would take me. He would take me as a nobody opening act and bring me over to the merch table at the end of the night, and then as this endless line if people were coming to take a picture or get something signed, he would say, did you meet Granger? Yep? And you know what, man, A lot of artists do that. And I think that's another thing that separates us, because first of all, just the act

of signing. How many country artists on the national mainstream charts sign autographs after shows, yeah, you know, and I'm not I'm not critiquing that because for some of them, that would be that would be horrible, that would be

a really horrible experience for them. Right, they get done playing into a huge show, and they got there to sign autographs and they're there for five hours, you know, And then what people don't understand is that's not really fair to the venue and the staff have been there all day long. And now you know, if you sign autographs for hours and hours and hours, it's cool for the fans, but all those people that work there, you know, it's not really cool for them to Nebraska. So you

have to learn that balance. But that's a big difference I think between the two scenes as well. It's just the op that I think, would you have a closer

relationship with fans? I mean, because you know, we're all from Texas, right, most of us, So it's kind of like, you know, you your fans probably are friends with someone you went to high school or college with at least early on, or you know, even as you've I've been around now for a little bit, but now you know, I meet people all the time who, hey, I move next door to your old room mate from college, and so there's just a real kind of closeness to that.

You know, the proximity feels really close. Whereas you know you're not going to find that in mainstream quite as much because looking at the country as opposed to the state. Yeah, there's a there's a feeling in the crowd in a Texas country concert. There's a feeling that, hey, I want to do that. I could do that, I could make a CD. It's literally what I start a band and do that. It's literally what I said when I went

and watched, So take me to that moment. So I was already playing guitar, started playing guitar probably around twenty one, twenty twenty twenty one, not the year at the age. It was a long time ago. And I started writing songs maybe in two thousand and four, three somewhere in there, you know. And I was going to the Blue Light and love it because I was going to Texas Tech, and you know, Wade Bowen was obviously he was the guy everybody listened to because he was a Tech alumni.

He was just older than me by a couple of years. So everybody loved Wade and then all of a sudden through that I started hearing about Randy Rogers band and Eli young Ban and I mean we would we would listen to their CD at the pre party and we'd all roll up there together, we'd pay our ten bucks or whatever seven bucks to get in, yep, and we'd

watch these bands. And I remember just feeling so just what's the word, I'm looking infatuated, just inspired by there's this little stage and there's this band that looks like they're having the time of their life and they're playing their own songs. I've never heard any of them until a friend of mine gave me this CD and said you should listen. And you know, I would always be like, well, how come they're not on the radio. And it's like

it's a different thing. You'll you'll learn, you know. And because for me, growing up, even though I grew up in love it, Texas country was not a really it wasn't a thing that was played on the radio like it is today now it's very normalized, but back then you never heard it on the radio. So I was like, you know, who are these guys? Which makes it even more cool? And yeah, and so I remember I was at specifically as a Randy Rodgers show one, not at blue Light, and I just remember being like, I can

do this. I could totally be that guy, like I'm an okay singer and I'm an okay writer. And looking back now it's both. There's a mixture of being naive and maybe cocky in those statements, but I'd like to think it was just more confidence. I was just like, I can totally do that. So I started writing songs, put together the band with my fraternity brothers, and we just started playing blue Light once a week. And you know,

I won't lie about it. I mean, I think part of the reason we caught some success early on, if you know, if I'm being humble about it, is, uh, we were all on a fraternity right, and specifically my bass player at the time, shout out know Hugh he was. He's pretty popular in our fraternity and a lot of people just love Neil. So we would go play blue Light on Tuesday Wednesday night. Am I talking close enough

to the mic here? Right? Okay? I didn't know. They are pretty directional and so anyway we'd show up, Well, we were the it thing to do on Tuesday night, so you know, all our fraternity brothers, not all of them, but a bunch of them would come out and they'd bring their girlfriends, well, they'd bring their sorority sisters and roommates, and then they'd bring their boyfriends. And the next thing, you know, I was like, yeah, I mean, I'm not

gonna lie. There were some nights where there was fifty people there, but there were a lot of nights were in college and there's it's sold out on a Tuesday night, and me and all the guys are making like five hundred bucks each and we think we are kings, Like it does not get better than this, right, Like this is great? And yeah, I just kind of went from there.

And what's crazy is and I say this a lot, but sometimes those days it's all relative to where you are in your life, because maybe that was maybe it didn't get any better than that, because well, those were pretty awesome nights. They were pretty great, you know, when you're the in five hundred at the time, when you're a college kid, five hundred bucks is a lot of money single college did, yeah, you know, and you can pack out the blue light and not have to worry

about traveling expenses. Make five hundred bucks. It's not a bad deal, but you know, you realize real quick, can't do that forever, right, So you have to at some point parlay that and take the next step. And that's what we did. So took the next step. A couple of the band members changed because they just didn't want to. They honestly did it for fun and they didn't want to be in a touring band. They just didn't want that wife, and so me and the banjo players stuck

it out. We found Preston on the fiddle, and we found Eddie on the drums, and literally the four of us have been, you know, work together since two thousand and eight. It's a hard thing at the beginning finding guys that you say, hey, we got a gig on Friday. I know you have a job, but we got to leave at like two pm. Yeah, And they're like, man, I can't get off till five, know, And eventually you got to say, you can't be in this band anymore. Yeah, it's funny you say that. So again, I was in

grad school. The rest of the band was all in college, except for I think Eddie, our drummer. He was he had already finished his music, his two year program at South Plain's Music School, and so Preston was in school in Amarillo at West Texas A and m or Kenton Canyon just outside of Amarillo, and so I was like, he's such a great fiddle player and a fun dude to hang with, and I love the kid. Like, we'll

adjust on his schedule. So we had like we set it up to where Thursdays we had to play within three hours of Lubbock Max, so we would never take

a gig pass that. So luckily for us in the Texas scene and Lubbock, we would play Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Abilane, Wiched All Falls, or Lubbock's and that's what we'd play on Thursday night, and then from there we'd rout it right and we'd go to like Dallas, Fort Worth, Hill Country, San Antonio, Austin, and then on Saturday we might venture to East Texas Corpus, Houston and Sunday the long drive all the way back to Lubbock.

And that's what we did for a couple of years living out there, and then we all finally kind of moved and relocated in twenty ten when things were hopping a little bit. Yeah, things were hopping a little bit in the spring of twenty ten is when She's Like Texas came out, which was kind of the That's what changed the game for us, because not only did we have that song, She's Like Texas, which has become just kind of a massive regional success story, changed life. It

changed my life. And then we followed that up with the duet I did with an unknown artist at the time named Casey Musgraves. And the music video is pretty wild, isn't it For everybody listening that doesn't know. Granger and his wife are in the music video. And I don't want to give away the plot because it's actually like a little controversial, and but y'all's makeout scene is still

it's top notch. That's you know what I mean. It's it's it's underrated because, you know, because we were never a big band at that time, so it never got the attention to deserve. But that's that's a cool music video, and I appreciate you being in of course. Man. Fun fact, Amber was pregnant with London on that shoot, showing yet

so then she's eight Now. I just remember being like, I knew it was your wife, but I was like, you know, no, you know, I can't tell the story because I don't want to ruin the plot for the video. But she was like she did not you know, she was like she didn't want to kiss me. And I was like, well, look, I don't blame you. It's fine. I totally get I'm not here as good looking as your husband. This doesn't we're just acting here. I like,

this doesn't have to be real. And she kissed me on the cheek and it worked for the video because really it didn't need to be any more than that. So well, if you're watching on YouTube, we'll link that music video top of description series. That's funny, Yeah, amazing memories. So where do you think go back to Texas Country? Where do you think it came from? This thing that became so huge and so regional and so accessible to a young musician and so appealing to a fan that

had a lot of state nationalism. And it wasn't just Texas. I mean Oklahoma jumped on sure, Arkansas jumped on board, Wesan jumped on board. New Mexico did Oklahoma more so? Yeah, I mean I would almost argue they have something different than what's Texas Country. We all get closed in together. Texas country red dirt country. I think there's two very distinct sounds and approaches. So where did all of this

come from? Well, you know, that's a great question. And why I don't pretend to be a historian, I would say, you take a look at like, I hope I'm using this word correctly. The epistemology m the way we view the world, right, I think that's what that means. And so in Texas again, we have you know, we come from descendants of people who you know, want Texas to be their own country again, right, So there's that very independent sense among us. So it creates this pride. And

we're a big state. So that allows geography, for sure, for a lot of area to to kind of sing about and cover. And you know, honestly, I just think some there's always been I don't but I think there's always been some sort of disdain for the mainstream radio. Which is so funny because you know, I listened to old country from the seventies and eighties and I'm like,

I love this. But at the time, the guys who were in the Texas country scene, they knocked on you know, Terry Allen, you know, He's got a song called the Flatland Farmer, who talks about this farmer up in the middle of the country who never got famous, but he he he can outpick out play in the Nashville Star. And we actually covered that song one of our records. But anyway, so yeah, I don't know. I don't want

to get too wordy here. I'm not a historian. I bet there are some guys that probably have a better understanding of maybe who started it and how it dominoed here. I mean I can recite you a bunch of names, especially from the Lubbock area, you know, going all the way back to like the Flatlanders and even before them. Yeah, but the word of mouth is just it's unreal how that worked because this was before really social media at all,

and it was word of mouth that was taking these concerts. Like, for instance, I was in College Station in early two thousands and I remember seeing Pat Green core Mora was opening at Shadow Canyon Old Club there right there on the University and it was just packed, I mean slam packed, and everyone knew all the words, including me. Everyone had the record, including me. Yeah, and then Corey starts the show.

Everyone knew all the words and everyone had the record, and that was just no one thought about it in terms of is this guy on the radio or not? It was it represented a good time with our friends and pat saying about all the He was the background music to all of our fun parties that we had, and so is Corey. In the year two thousand and that became the soundtrack to our lives then. And I think there's something attractive about the unknown, right like moths

to a flame. There's something about that because in the process of discovery with music, I mean, don't you even still to this day you discover. You might listen to a band who has one song and you're like, oh my god, I love them. I got to share this, right yeah, And you want to be able to You want to be the guy to share it with your friends and be like, y'all got to listen to this because I think this is going to blow up. This

is huge. You know, I still do it all You're really good at that, and well, you know, social media platform has always partly been really helping younger artists. I love doing it and I think if I was going to have a job in the music industry besides being a singer, would be A and R because I've just always had some sort of natural ability to see a star, you know, even when they weren't necessarily shining bright at

the time. But to me, it's always like you see a star, you know it, you know what I mean, everyone knew you were super talented. You just had to like get out of the Texas country scene and sign a record deal and crush it, you know. And seriously, hats off to you, because I mean, you've done it. You've accomplished so much. My record deal came way later, so did yours. Yeah, we didn't sign a record deal until twenty fifteen, really, and it's crazy what all the

stuff that happened before that. It's crazy to think that was all brought on by the infrastructure of Texas country, for sure. You know. I remember you did a quote one you did an interview years ago, and you talked about how the Texas country scene was kind of like the It was was almost like the miners that would prepare for the majors. Quote. You know what, though, I

didn't think that you were necesscessarily wrong. I think that just some people in Texas kind of took it wrong, because again, no one wants to feel inferior to any other genre or any other state. But I totally got what you meant. What you meant by that was it

trained you to visit radio. It trained you to get your band and crew and infrastructure set, and it trained you in a way that like when you when you signed your record doing you started touring nationally and being on like big tours with all these other huge artists, you were way more prepared than for that. Then let's say the normal act who had moved out to Nashville, signed a record deal, had the first song on the radio, and then got put on a tour and they had

no clue how to tour as a band. I have no clue what they're doing with their merch absolutely, and I totally got what you meant by it. So just no. I remember you text so fans should know this. You're such a good guy. You texted me an apology for making that statement, and I remember replying to you like, you do not have to apologize for this statement because I get what you meant, and if people want to misconstrue that, then you can't. You can't be responsible for interpretation.

Let me que responsible for intent. I want to take a quick break on here, and then I want to I'll tell you what I said in the interview that became notorious. So I was this was coming off of a national radio hit for me, and a reporter said, how do you attribute having this hit coming from nothing and having this hit on national radio? And I said, well, it came from Texas Country. And he said, well, what does Texas Country mean to you? And I said, man,

it's everything to me. It taught me everything I know. It taught me just like you said. It taught me how to make my first radio call, how to walk into a radio station and say here's me, and here's my band, and here's my song. It was the minor leagues for everything thing in terms of training. It trained me. But that one quote again got screenshot out of an article,

and then it stood. It floated around, and there was a couple guys that took it really bad, a lot of guys probably were neutral on it, and a couple of guys actually defended me. I talked to all of them, all the above. I talked to everybody because when that came out, it crushed me because I thought, here, I am thinking, I'm trying to pay homage. Yeah, to the only reason I'm actually standing on this stage. Yea, and

the whole thing collapsed underneath me. Again. You know, I'm not trying to be prophetic, but again, you cannot be responsible for interpretation. You have to be responsible for intent. Your intent was pure, and anyone that knows you knows that. So if anybody wants to misconstrue it and be an asshole,

they can be an asshole. Yeah. Yeah. And I stand to this day saying I have nothing in my music career without Texas Country and the infrastructu Sure that it taught me the grind that it taught me, the resilience and and persistence that it taught me through through a lot of times at the at the midnight rodeos when we were having a really bad night and I got back in the van and decided to go do it again. Yep.

And a lot of national acts that sign a record deal right out of the gate, they don't ever have that opporationality to do that. They never do that because first of all, they're shielded. Their booking agency and label won't let them go put themselves out there and be vulnerable and show up and play to nobody. It's not

their fault. To their credit, they didn't have what me and you had, right, They just they hunker down, they visit radio, they get a hit, then they go on to her, and then they open for somebody who's big. So you're naturally in front of crowds, and then you get a false, a false reading on how you're doing. For sure, there's there's acts that will go for years never headlining their own show. I'm not even at a club. They spend years on the road with somebody big, and

they think, I think things are pretty good. I think crowd loves me. And then they go out for the first time at Cotton Ideas or whatever in Knoxville and no one comes and they cannot understand it. And so then they just they think they need to rethink their whole sound and everything they do. Yeah, and they think

they have to pander and play a bunch of covers. Yeah, exactly right, Like you know what I mean, Hey, let's you know, we don't want them to be bored tonight, so let's, you know, let's play ten covers or you played twenty songs, you play ten covers, you know, And I know when you're a young band, you don't have a lot of originals, so that's you know, there's something

to be said for that. But it's like, I mean, I've gone out and I've seen some of these you know, shows of people and I'm like, you know, they might have one hit, right, yeah, and they're opening and they're playing a twenty five minute time slot. Well, the other five songs were covers. I'm like, yeah, you just played me five stuff cover songs and then your hit. You didn't take this opportunity to show all these people that you have more than the one song. So weird and

we said the right word there there. They haven't understood the vulnerability of standing there and delivering an original music. And maybe they're not going to clap at you. Maybe they're going to go to the bathroom or go get a drink, and that is really that kind of rejection is really hard. The one of our very I wish my band was in here with me because we laugh about these stories all the time. One of our first gigs, when again we signed with Bruce, he puts us out

on the road. God bless Bruce. At the time, you know, he was still very young and green in his career, right, so he's doing the best he can. He books us. I think we were getting like five or six hundred bucks to play a steakhouse in Madisonville. I always remember that. So we go there, we get we get like free food, and so that that alone, it's kind of worth it, right for a bunch of young dudes. And so we set up and play. There's only like three people there

listening to us, and I kid you not. At one point, I don't think anyone was in there except for the waiter pushing the broom across the floor in front of us, like cleaning. And I was like, Okay, we have to have a little more pride than this, you know. I mean we may be nobody's but yeah, we're not doing any good playing to nobody, you know, like we've got to be We have to get in front of people. Send my whole philosophy's flip to I'm going to open for everybody and anybody, and I don't care if it

pays fifty bucks, five hundred bucks, or zero dollars. I want to be in front of a crowd, you know what I mean. My goal as a young artist was I want to open, and I want people leaving talking about the opener, So I would fire up my guys every night. We're bringing it tonight. Every night we're bringing it. And you know, it works when you're a young band and you're a new band and there's an infectious energy

to that. Yeah. Absolutely, If you are the first music artist I've had on this podcast, really you the first. I'm honored you're the first. So yeah, we're getting some good conversation. And I've told a lot of stories on here about music and U and about those early days. But you're the first artist that's backing these stories up with me. That's I'm honored. Thanks buddy, of course. Man.

So outside of Texas Country, you've also over the last decade, you've you've made it through being i mean, essentially the king of the genre. Maybe we had our moment for a couple of years. I think that we were. It's hard to you know, I use that raise that term king very cautiously because you know, it's people like who they like, and you know, there's a lot of big,

popular bands. But I do think that you know, in Texas Country, there's been a torch that's been passed and it's kind of gone from Pat to Ragweed maybe and then to Randy obviously, and I think you know, we carried that torch for a couple years of kind of being the van in Texas, and man, what a time. I wish we could. I wish I could relive those days in a way. I wish I wish I could relive that success and moment with my life now, if

that makes sense. Yeah, because you have a wife and a lot differently, And so I was going to say that over that course of time being the king of Texas Country, you also experienced the same highs and lows that any major celebrity would go through in such high demand. And you you lived your life out in the open, partly because you had to because you were in such

a huge spotlight. But but I watched you go through highs and lows in front of everyone, and through all that, my hat's off to you for how for you sitting here today and uh and still maintaining the integrity that you have as a person and as a friend. But you yeah, well, but you've been through some low stuff. Yeah, I mean, and we can dance around it. I can just talk about it for a second. I was married

previously I was a really shitty husband, really shitty. I was so focused on my career, I was so selfish. I drank way too much every single day, and I just had insecurities and I was just a bad person, I think for a couple of years there. And so we ended up getting a divorce and I deserved it, and I think that was a moment where I really had to reassess my life, like is this what you

want with Josh? You know, like, yeah, you've played all these sold out shows, Yeah, you got a record deal at the time we had one, And it was like, but now you've lost you know, the person who really loves you and her whole family and a bunch of your fans kind of you know, I just don't have the same positive view of you. And I'm like, I don't want this one thing to define my narrative because I mean, I don't think I'm a bad guy. I

don't think i'm that guy. I think I just I was a bad guy for a short amount of time, and so it's hard to admit that. But I think I grew from it in a way where I'm proud of where I'm at now. I mean, I don't have any issues with the things that I used to have issues with, and I have a wife and two kids now and life is beautiful in a way that if my music career goes away, which right now it is

right like, no one's doing a career right now. But I mean, if it goes away and I have to go get a normal job, I'm actually fine with that because I love where my life's at right now. There's just a happier place. And so yeah, Highs and Lowe's, man, I mean, there's been a lot of them. And if anyone, if anyone doesn't understand, let me, let me paint the scene for you. Josh skyrockets to the top of Texas Country, and I hope that we've done a good job defining

what that is. If you don't know what that is. But the fact is you you rose so fast from the boy that was in Luveck, Texas looking at the stage at Randy Rodgers saying I want to do that to just a few years later, you're making, you know, any kind of tour date sell out. I'm talking if there's a festival, you're probably headlining it or or direct support or direction. I mean, but you're equal and we

have no we haven't earned it. Yeah, we have no tenure, we have no You know, you have to pay your dues. I don't think we paid our dues long enough, and I think that caught some resentment from the traditional longtime fans of the scene, as well as some other bands who just honestly didn't like to be They didn't like

a new gap bypassing them. Yeah. So if you're if you're trying to put yourself in Josh shoes, imagine imagine that where you're in such high demand, You're you're fending off the haters that don't understand why you've You've come up so quickly. You're trying to satisfy everyone that loves your music so much. They don't want you to change. They want you to just keep spitting out the same record over and over. And I'm like those those records we put out early on, there's some stuff I love

about them, but there's a lot I don't like. If I could restart my career now, right, I wouldn't put a song like Taste out. And that sounds hypocritical because if we hadn't put that song out, I don't know that I'm here right now, because that song created such a magnetic you know following. I mean you could go to to the to the to the river or the lake or anywhere across Texas after that song came out and people were playing it, and you know, but I

wouldn't put that song out now. And even a song like She's like Texas, I'd polish that up a little bit better. There's some there's some lines in there that are a little bit understandable, and you can't there. They are pieces of history better forever part of you. And it doesn't matter. Well. The process informs the results, so I can second guess things. Wish I hadn't done certain things, but all of these things have led to a moment now or I'm good. I live in Tuscaloose, Alabama. On

the bus We're playing a club that night. I'll never forget it. And it was probably three o'clock in the afternoon, sitting on the bus, just finished soundcheck, and my crew starts kind of grumbling, you're seeing this, you're seeing this. It's like, what, Josh, you see this? Josh start passing the phone around and you are public on Twitter, Yeah, about your your current separation from your current wife. Oh yeah, and that was dumb. I wish I could take that back.

I don't know. I don't know, because what I was about to say is you could have you could have lived that privately. But I think I would like to think that you inspired a lot of peace people to live life in truth and light and honesty. That was the goal, it really was. I think what you did. That's what I read in those those tweets. It was, you know what, this happens a lot. And I promise I'm not the only person that's guilty of cheating on their wife and being an alcoholic out here on the road,

and all sorts of other stuff. And I would never name names, right, but there are a bunch of other people who are guilty of those and have gone through divorces themselves. But everyone's so scared keep it so quiet, You're right, don't want to damage the reputation. And I think that was just a moment for me where I was just over the fakeness and was like, I used this celebrity path. I use the word celebrity pretty loosely, but you know what I mean, the being in the limelight,

being in the radio. You know, I mean I'm not saying.

You know, there's there's different levels oferity, you know, but if I I the way I felt about it was, if I was gonna use that path and trajectory of kind of getting my music out there, being on the radio and playing shows and being the guy, it would be really, you know, disingenuous, fraudulent, whatever you want to call it, for me to like not admit my failures too, Like this can't just be a narcissistic praise everything I do, which is I'm so over the narcissism that I see

on a daily basis on social media from other artists. But you know, and I'm guilty of it too, and we're all guilty. There's there's a balance of self promotion and narcissism, yeah, because we are still a product. But at the same time, you got to be real. You gotta be real, and I wanted to be real with people.

You played a show that night, too, didn't you. I did, because it was like a Saturday I played with the Randy opened for Randy in Wichita, Kansas, and he immediately after I posted I'm on the bus, I'm in the back, I'm bawling, and he comes over there and just he literally just walks in the backlune and just sits next to me, gives me a hug. It's like, hey, buddy, I wish you would have talked to me before he

posted this. You know, he encouraged me to, you know, probably the smartest thing in the world be to delete it and try to cover up a little, you know, a bit and save some face. But it was too late, and I just didn't. I was just in I wasn't thinking. I was just in a really bad spot. I just knew my life was crumbling, you know. I mean we were on the record label for a couple of years. At that moment, we still hadn't had a single radio

you know. Here it is, my life's falling apart, and it's like Johnny Cash moment for me, you know, and walk the line, you know, where you reach that point where it's like, Okay, you better get your shit together, dude. And so I'd like to think that since then I got my shit together, you definitely have, as you mentioned now, beautiful wife to beautiful children. And so looking back on that tweet, does it not feel like that's part of

your life and you need it is? But you know what, there's also a part of me I went, I cringe at the idea of my daughter talking to me about it one day. Yeah, dad, how could you do that? Why are you such a bad husband to your first wife? And you're gonna you still have a long time. And another thing is, you know, there's I almost feel like I carry a scarlet letter on me. I don't anymore,

but for years I did. In fact, we when we released front Row Seat album, I almost made the album cover an a and it for Abbott, but also write the scarlet letter. So but it sucks for my wife, right, my wife now, who's everything and is so gracious and perfect for me in my life and I would do anything for her, does it. But I think it sucks for her because I put myself out there like that and now there's people think like, oh, that's her husband, you know, but he oh, I got you? Does that

for her too? And she probably you know, I think she's probably self conscious of some of the things of the mistakes I've made in my past and probably embarrassed by them. But in the same sense, if I hadn't gone through that road, right, I wouldn't be with her now and have these kids, and so it's kind of like you know you, you you know, people say I wouldn't change a thing. I would change some things, right, but I would hope that my path got right back to here.

And when you change things, am I not? Yeah? So yeah, I think that you have a long time to come up with that answer to your daughter. But it's somewhere along the lines of baby. Let me tell you, I have made mistakes. I've learned so much. And then I learned from those mistakes, and then I got better. And then I met your mama and she taught me. She changed and I've never known. And then you were born, and then I looked into your eyes for the first time,

and you taught me. I knew kind of love that I didn't think I was capable of having agreed all because of my broken past. I've balled my eyes out when my daughter was born the moment I got to hold her. I mean I was crying. Same for my son too. But really, he'll listen to this one day and be like, what the hell did more from my daughter? Because you know I I just after going through everything I went through, I didn't think that I would have

a family. I was like that ship sailed. Right, I'm just gonna be the single bachelor guy for the rest of my life probably, and maybe if I get married one day, I'll just marry someone who already has kids. Right, So having a daughter in that way was just, uh, it changed, just changed everything for me. And I'm proud of of my life now and I'm proud of you know what we're doing. And you know, we might not

be our band. We're not probably as popular as we used to be, because you know, when you're the it band, it only lasts so long, right, it goes away. It goes away for everyone right now away everyone who comes is the it guy for country music, and he is. He is badass and probably going to stay at that level for a long time. But at some point he'll he'll be the He'll be the guy with five or six albums instead of two albums. Right. It also doesn't mean he's any happier than you are, are in a

better place in life than you will. I don't know. And you know that, Oh yeah, you do know that. Yeah, And ever since I've known you for over a decade, you you have a tendency in conversation to kind of backfedal and play yourself down a little bit. I do you always have? You did that when you were the king. Yeah. And and my point to all that is you you have. You had that ability to rise so fast and to fall in love again and be renewed and then have children.

You have all that ability. There's nothing to say that there's something on the horizon. Isn't even bigger than everything in your career wise? I hope so, because I'm so proud of the music that we're putting out right now. The newest song that we put out, it's called the Luckiest. It's how we named our son luck I think it's the best song we've ever put out. And the thing is, every artist says that, every artist says their newest song

is the best song they've ever put out. But ask me in five years, because I didn't tell you, Luckiest is my favorite song. I think it speaks to my life, the direction, the gratefulness and my kids and the appreciation for everything that's come along the way. You know, that's a love song not only do my wife and kids, but it's also a love song honestly to the fans too. Like right in that song, I don't know that you've heard it. It says, you know, I can't believe the

life I've been given. Yeah, I'm lucky. I know it's true, but I feel the luckiest to be loved by you so good, and I think that's i' will be able to sing that to the fans every night and be like lucky because of y'all. Y'all all paid a concert ticket price to come here, and some of you bought our shirt. There's millions of bands that you could spend your money on, and you came to do it for mine. I don't want to take that for grants, especially when we get to play again one day. That's going to

even mean it more to us. Togethers like us that people are risking a lot more just to see us, and I think we'll even feel that gratefulness even more. But man, if you say that your latest song is your best, I don't think anything else matters in your past. Yeah, you say, Every artist says it, but I don't think you can really believe it unless it's real. Yeah, Oh, I believe it. You know I believe it. Let's take a quick break and then I want to talk about

possibly post music for you. Let's do it. So politics, Yeah, I had to go here. Yeah, everybody, everybody sees that I probably post more about politics, and a lot of other artists I would say, do you have aspirations in the political world, I'll say this, yes, yeah. Even ever since I was in college, I thought I wanted to be in politics, but I didn't know that I wanted to be the politician. When I got out of college.

Between college and grad school, I actually worked on a political campaign on as on a representative campaign, and I realized real quick I did not want to be on the political team unless I was the politician. Just a lot of grinding for not a lot of pay, and kind of saw the trajectory of that, and I just I never wanted to move to Washington, d C. Anyway. So I was just kind of quickly like, you know, if I'm ever going to be in politics, i'm going to be I'm going to stick to Texas and I'll

cross that road down down the line. But obviously I've been focused on my career for the last I mean, like I said, we started touring making it serious in two thousand and eight, so twelve years now. Yeah, you know,

been doing it for fourteen. But I think I'm at a point now where it's an interesting like hmm, you know, And I've had talks with Governor Abbit and Senator Cornyn and some other elected officials, and they all know that I'm fifty percent serious about maybe me running for governor one day so Texas could see another Governor Abbit, they could yeah, you know, but I won't run against Governor Abbit now because what did you say, by the way, when you talk to him about it, Hey, things, it's great,

you know, I mean obviously you know, what's what's he gonna say? No, Tosh, you would hate this job. No, He's like, you know, if you're called to do it, and you he's like, you know, I don't know if there was him that said it, or corn In or someone else, but they're all kind of like the general consensus is. You know, normally, when you're going to be in politics, you really have to work your way up to get that name recognition to be able to climb

the ladder. Right, It's where you've got to start local small, you get bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. He's like, you know, you've spent the last twelve years getting name recognition on radio across Texas. You have more name recognition than them. You know a lot of politicians do. So yeah, if you ran, you already have that gone for you. So it's just got it's about, you know, wanting to accept the challenges that come with you know, running for politics

and then obviously being elected. So I do entertain the idea. My wife is very against it, really very So I won't run unless she unless she gives me your blessing, and I don't know if she will because I think she's you know, we have kids, and I think she doesn't want to see my name and some of the things I've done in the past drug out again all across the newspapers. Which it's not like I've you know, it's not like I had a DWI or murdered someone

or anything. But I mean, you know, just being a country music singer and kind of going through the stuff I've gone through. You know, she's just afraid there might be a picture at leaks of me smoking though you know, there might be you know, some stories that come out that aren't flattering, right because they were so long ago. But that's what we do, That's what that's what our

society does. In elections. In politics, it's nasty and it's find the dirt, even though that has nothing to do with someone's ability to you know, actually you know, create policy and understand it and work with others. But that's what politics is. And so anyway, yeah, long winded answer. I do want to run one day, but only in my wife will let me. So going back to the tweet that we talked about, you know, when I was in Tesscalus and you're in Wichita. That makes more sense though,

to look back and go, yeah, I've had some problems. Yeah, there's no right, right, There's no one's gonna come up and go, I know something about Josh. You guys don't know. Ye'll be like tell me, yeah, you know, because you've been very public. That's a good thing. I do still hear stories sometimes about me and they're completely wrong. I mean there's not even one person accuracy to them. And it blows my mind because people be mad, be mad at something they've heard from and it wasn't even true.

Like I'll give you an example. A buddy of mine was eating I think he had a Josh Abbat shirt. He's a good friend of mine, and he was eating at like a Mexican restaurant in Mexican food restaurant in New Bronfols or something like that, and it was either the waitress, the bartender or something was like, you know you like Josh Ababan. He was like, yeah, yeah, I like his music. You know. Well she was like f that guy, and he's like, why do you say that?

And she's like, I heard he's got a kid in Abilene that he never accepted or sees and doesn't want anything to do with. And I honestly died laughing because I was like, it's just not true. So he found out the name of the person who's claiming this right, and you know, I looked her up on like Instagram or Facebook or something like that, and I was like, I've never even met this person, much less created a

child with them. Yeah, I don't eve think I've ever talked to this person unless it was in a meeting Mary. So I mean, like anyway that that I probably shouldn't have even told that story. Life be like, Bay, why do you tell these stories? It was like a new song a child. Oh no, I'm not right, But it's just funny because again, you just hear stories and you know, we live in a society where we accept truth at

immediately right truth bias. We we read something in a tweet it's true because someone said it, and that makes no sense because there's no credibility to a lot of that stuff. But that's the world we live in. And so you know, headlines and X amount of characters and short fragments they do damage. And so again, I want

to run for office. I think i'd be great at it because I am a Republican, but I have some democratic views in terms of like social views, you know, and I think it's time that the Republican Party gets past the antiquated, you know, narratives of being against homosexuality and having the others. Everything on the ticket has to be one ideology, and it's a huge problem. And if that is a huge problem, because if you don't cater

to that, you'll lose your you'll lose your base. But it's like, well that's you know, that's not what I believe. So I'm like, if I ever ran, i'd be like, yeah, I'm a Republican because I'm for small government. I'm for I don't think I don't want the national government coming in here and tell on Texas how to handle itself. Texas can do handle itself just fine. But in the same sense, like I'm you know, let's let's put casinos on the coast. I mean, how many dollars lead this

state and go to New Mexico, Oklahoma or Louisiana. How many billions, billions right go across the border to those places. Now, Vegas you don't really count because that's a destination, But how many people drive across these the Texas border to

go game one these other states? And what if we had some casinos in Texas and what if it was you know, what if there was like a tax on it on those casinos, and you know, people that are against it say, we yeah, but you don't, you don't understand what it decimates, what it does to the communities.

I'm like, well, let's let the communities vote on it, you know, because some of them may be so hungry for economic prosperity that they say, maybe we can manage this responsibly as citizens and police ourselves and not fall victim to some of the entrapments so to speak that occur with you know, with a casino being in your city, and so that legalize marijuana. I mean, why does Texas have to be so behind on it. I mean, there's

so many states that are done. It does mean people have to do it, and it doesn't mean that we have to just full blown like, hey, any amount is fine. Smoke as much as you want. Like, there's still a lot of rules around it, right, like don't operate a vehicle, you know, don't you can only have x amount and so forth. And it's been proven so many times that it's it's way easier on yourself than alcohol. But we

get alcohol is very legal. Gay marriage, homosexual marriage, everybody uses different terms, right, But I mean, why do I care if they get married? Now on a level of church for church and state, I don't think that the country or the state should be able to tell a church they have to marry someone because that would go against maybe their their their you know, beliefs system. But if there is a church that says, yeah, we'll marry a gay gobble, why can't they get married? Like, who cares?

It does not bother me in my life, you know, why can't they have those rights? Why can't they have the ability to be on each other's insurance and things when they're partners together, Like I just I wonder why we can't reach these compromises, and the hypocrisy of it all is what kills me, is because especially like I'm a Republican, but the Republican party, where the core of that is free will, right, small government, free will. We

don't want the government tell us what to do. We want less regulations, less laws, right, So why are we like, no, you can't can't be getting married? No, no, you have all these restrictions when it's convenient for some sort of like Christian conservative narrative. But even that I think is outdated. I think a lot of modern Christians, while they necessarily

wouldn't be like, yeah, homosexuality is is okay. I think a lot of people are now are like, well, you know, the Bible definitely addresses it, but it addresses a lot of things we're all guilty of, right, And That's where I'm at, Like, my sin is no less or worse than someone else's, So you're right. And there's a big difference between church and state. And there's no no apostles in the Bible. Never did they ever say we have to overthrow the government the Roman Empire because they're wrong

and they need to be Christian. In fact, when the Roman Empire did become the Roman Catholic Empire, it actually was still really bad. It's really bad for sure. So that having that separation of church and state, Uh you could you could, you could worship your own way in your own church. Yeah, but the lawmakers could make laws and it doesn't have to contradict each other. And uh, and we've we've kind of been caught up in that a lot. And you know, it's just like there's all

these you know, hypocrisies of the left too. I mean, there's there's so many right the Party of tolerant, but they don't want to be tolerant of people who don't

believe what they believe, which makes no sense at all. Right, And uh, you know in today's culture that we live in now, we see these race riots occurring, and we see Black Lives Matter as a political agenda and and you know, a movement, and there's a balance to it all because you have to the way you have to tread that right, like, you know, black lives do matter, right,

all lives do matter. And but you can't but you say one it alienates the other something and I do think that there's probably some sort of yeah, institutional racism that kind of still exists as a byproduct or from trickling down over the years, right like laws that weren't place years ago, that have just kind of only gone away in little bits, and today they're you know, I do think that it's very obvious that the African American the black community is you know, covered in poverty and

they need a hand and and you know, I don't know how to fix that. But I think when it really angers me when I see Republicans who don't think it's a big don't think it's a problem. Of course it's a problem. What you just said is interesting because no, this is that you said the exact sentence that no politician is allowed to say. Right now, I don't know how to fix that. Oh, but yeah, that's what we want them to say. We want we want someone to finally tell us. I don't know how to fix that,

but I'm working on it. I'll put it. I'm putting all the best people I know on this, and we will figure it out. Right now, I don't have an answer. I just realized it's a problem. But they always feel like they have to talk they always feel like they have to communicate like a solution, and sometimes it's I don't know if I have a solution, and I don't know if my solution is the best one, but here's

what we have, you know, and and so. But in the same sense, you know, these I think the rioting and the burning and the looting and all that is just it's really just painting and perverting what is a what can be a really positive moment in history for civil rights, you know. And uh, I think it's okay for Republicans to go, yeah, you know, clearly there's some sort of you know, there's some sort of reason that African American men are being killed at the rates that

they are by police officers. And I know that I'm getting into such deep stuff, right. I know that there are people who listen to the podcasts who say, well, you have what about black on black crime? Yeah, but that's we're not talking about black on black crime. We're not talking about white on black crime. We're talking about police and African American men, and there is some sort of weird correlation there, and I think we have to

address that, you know. But in the same sense, I can't I don't personally feel like I can go out there and post and tag black lives matter, because even though yes, those three words aligned together, Yes, for sure they do, but it's become a political movement, and that political movement accepts dollars and it becomes a pack and donates money to, you know, candidates across the country that I might not support, And I don't want to be bullied into sup you cannot something that I don't want

to support. So you know, if you if you act one way, or you're racist. If you act another way, you're not. And I just think the whole thing is bullshit. I think, why can we not just look at this from a lens of common sense and agree that, you know what, there's some truth to both sides, and let's find the real truth in the middle. So what's a reasonable timeline your wife willing that we could see Josh Abbot on a ticket one day, I don't know, I

mean ten years, fifteen years. If she told me I could run in twenty twenty two and Governor abbotstep wasn't going to run for reelection, I would run. I just don't want to run against Governor Abbot because you know, and we have shared the same last name. First of all, it would be just very confusing. Thanks for voters, it

really would be. Yeah, And I like Governor Abbit, and he's in a weird spot right now because the whole world is looking at him because Texas you know, opened up quote unquote two soon and we saw COVID rates spike up again, and then he had to come in and do something he didn't want to do, and that was shut the state back down. So he's it's like he's damned ivy, dude, damnit Ivy doesn't like, he's got both sides mad at him because he hasn't done it

quote unquote the right way. And I'm like, he's in a no end spot. Let's all show him some grace. This is an unprecedent in time and history, Like this is weird, weird. The most developed country, you know, developed nation developed in this time of the world and we're undergoing this weird pandemic that you know, really sets us back to you know, times decades ago. Right Like it feels like I feel like we're living in the nineties again, where every mills at home and no one travels and

goes out and yeah, you know, I'm rambling now. But you asked about the if I would run. Yeah, I'm run in twenty twenty, and my wife would let me. Yeah, but I don't see her change in her mind in the next couple of years, and I think Governor Abbit will run for reelection, So whenever the next one would be twenty twenty six, twenty thirty, twenty thirty sounds good man, it's ten years from now, right, Yeah. Wait, I'm off on my years. I'm a dumb as far as when

the election years are. I know I'm not off on my years because he's not running for governor right now, and it's twenty twenty now it's president's Yeah, so every other twenty two, I think, is when he's up, and then it would be twenty twenty six and twenty thirty, so who knows. Maybe in twenty thirty that's the year that I run for governor. And let's get that ee Nation vote. We'll bring you back on there. Rekindle that how many of your fans are so bad at me

right now for some of my viewpoints. But that's the thing is, I would just hope that people could listen to the approach I'm coming from because I don't come from a very polarizing viewpoint of very far right or very far left. I'm more right than left, but I'm closer to that middle, and I'd love to see more people get there and go. Yeah, man concede that point. I think a lot of people could use a little common sense when it comes to politics, and it doesn't

exist right now on either side. Yeah. We'll bring you back on the podcast in twenty thirty to rekindle that, hopefully many times between now and then. But I'll end with this too. The one the one fraternity that me and you both belonged to that neither one of us

wanted to get into, was we lost our dads. I lost my dad in twenty fourteen, and the first show I played back was with you in South Padre Island, Texas and opened up for you, remember, And it was a terrible show for me personally, in a great crowd, terrible show for me personally. I was just really going through the motions, and me and you had a good talk after the show. One year later, right this sever

What year was it? My dad died in twenty seventeen, but it was March, that's right, So same month March Texas Independence Day. Yeah, my dad was March fifth, so the the night of the the invasion of the Alamo or the the the night and they breached the walls. So I, uh, I have this connection with you because yeah, I remember I reached out to you and you lost your dad a similar way that I lost mine. And it was I don't know why that I that I

took that really hard with you. And I guess now knowing that it was three years but the same month, three days apart, maybe it was that point in my life where I had kind of come to an understanding that he was gone, and then you lost your dad, and it just, like I said, I don't know why, but it just really hit me hard. And I remember falling. We're friends and we empathize with each other, and I remember bawling, balling, and I was I'm not a crier.

I'm not, and I don't just ball all the time, but man, I really cried, real tears thinking about your dad, who I had never met. And I remember thinking that where's the sadness coming from? It? It's not my dad that I'm sad about. It's not rekindling an old feeling. I think it was me knowing your heart and how crushed it was. Was so devastating to me to know that someone else, a buddy, would spend a night like that. Man,

I mean, I can't even talk about it still. It's been three and a half years and I choke up. That was definitely the hardest moment of my life. He didn't get to meet my daughter. She was born two months after he died. She was born May fifth. He passed away March second, so I think we buried in March sixth. So, man, just rough time. That was a weird year. We followed that up with and it's just so much change, Right, my dad died, had a baby,

and my wife and I got engaged. You know, our story might not be the the Christian movie story of you know, high school sweethearts that fell in love, got married and then had kids. We dated for a year and we were definitely in love. I already knew I wanted to marry her. I'd already told my parents that, I'd already told some of my team that. But yeah,

we got pregnant first. And so anyway, and in that fall, we released the album Until My Voice Goes Out, and we were in Vegas for the shootings, and luckily, fortunately I wasn't down there. I had just left, probably thirty minutes before, to go back to the hotel room to check on my wife, who was up there not feeling well. And the whole reason she came out was to see Jason Aldan. She's like a big fan, right, yeah, big fan of all countries, so she wanted to watch Jason Aldan.

She comes out there and she wasn't feeling good, so she stayed in the hotel, and so I went to check on her. And that's why I was not on the side of the stage or backstage when that happened. And maybe my story is a lot different right now if I was so so many what ifs. And I appreciate your heart and saying that about my dad, you know, because you know, I don't want to get into a I don't want to try to compare situations at all. But I remember when you suffered a loss. Yeah, I

bawled once again. We were kind of connected with that too, because we had seen each other a few days before and you took a picture of me and riv and texted it to me. Yeah, and that's why did I cry. Several times. We just our hearts broke. That was one of the last picks. Yeah that I have me and him. You took it at Lone Start Jam and so yeah, we we have. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to end like on this kind of note. But but me and you have really intertwined history, some

highs and some really lows. And I like to think that we're not even halfway done with with our history, me and you together and uh and I just I appreciate you driving over here for this, for this podcast, and I hope that we get to do it. It's my first musical artist. I hope we get to do it many more times down anytime. Ye