#485 - Jelly Roll

Yo Bootleg cav podcast, Yes on the Road with Jelly Roll.

Baby The Road with the Role Dude.

First of all, Man, congratulations a new album. I text you this, but I truly feel I know it's, you know, coming from the hip hop side of things to say classic. When I hear a project a couple of times straight through, I feel like this is a classic body of work. We're gonna come back at this.

I'm super proud of it.

Dude.

It's the most time I've ever spent on a single body of.

Work and it's twenty eight songs, but it's.

A lot of meat. Dude. I wrote like one hundred and fifty, one hundred and sixty or something.

It's so crazy because even if like I go back to like your old school shit, like your songwriting to me has always been pretty superior in terms of like your ability to write certain hooks, like you know, thinking back to like Sunday Morning or smoking section. But it feels like the song writing has just like it's like it's hit its peak. Like I feel like you're in your prime with the pen right now.

I think I'm getting close. I don't think I'm there yet. I think i'm because I'm starting to like learn more about music too. Yeah, So the more I understand how the top line, like the lyrics side of what I do works with the music side of what's happening under it, the more dangerous I'm getting with understanding how this all works together.

You know.

Yeah, it's interesting too because like I think of a song, like, first of all, you kicked the album off with winning streak, which is crazy because I grew up going to NA and AA meetings. My uncle had a drug rehab and he is recovering addict. My dad's a recovering addict. So I some my summer job used to be to sit in the back of those meetings. Wow, as like a fourteen or fifteen year old wow, collect people's stuff, you know, like because it was it was a part of like

Did you understand at that age how impactful what was happening in front of you was?

Or no?

I think so, man, because you would just see people break down and like, I know, you know, I was like, I never have touched any like I would say hard. Oh, I've dounch rooms and weed and you know, a little bit of molly but I've never like putting none up my nose and shit because of like the I've seen it with my own eyes, Like right, you know, you.

Know the dangers of you got to see it. It's absolute worse. It's crazy that you got to see the impact and understood the impact at that age too, because something what's happened in those rooms, it's magical at times. Man, it's also hilarious. I've heard some of the funniest stories of my life ever in those rooms.

How because I heard you talk about it a little bit on Joe, But like, how often do you try to get into a meeting and like, at this point your jelly roll, So I can only imagine you walking into a meeting.

Nah, Man, That's kind of one of the cool things about going to a meeting is they take the anonymous side of that really serious. So that's why I don't That's why I haven't talked a lot about it, because I don't know how much they would want me sharing what happens in those rooms or not. Dude, you know,

That's how they look at you.

Man.

It just really humiliation, really this thing of humiliation that happens in there in a way of like humbling, like in a good way of like, no matter how great we're doing today, we always reduce ourselves to know that we're still that addict at heart, so we could that any moment, this thing could go left for us, and it is what keeps people in constant gratitude.

I was gonna ask you, man, but to answer.

Your question, because I hate avoiding questions as much as I can go right, you know these days a few a year, you know what I mean, ten a year, maybe.

What has there been, like any specific feedback you've gotten from that song and just being like wow, someone because I can't recall someone who's tackled that experience on a record, let alone kicking kicking off an album.

You know, yeah, it's been cool, man. I haven't I haven't got I've been sub dude. I hate to admit this.

I've been so in the vortex of this thing right here.

Yeah, I hadn't.

Even just today took the time to look at like critical.

Reviews of my album?

You know what I mean about that?

No, not at all, but it just popped up on my feed and I actually had time today to entertain it.

I didn't go search for it.

I just you know, it's like it's there and it's album review and then you hit one and you know how news feeds doing the Google, it just immediately gives you the role and you're like, well, let me just what did Pitchfork say?

What did Browne? So?

You know, and more than anything, it's not that I care about it. I'm just still so new to this. I care that they cared, you know what I'm saying. I don't care if you shop on the album.

The fact that you took the time to review a twenty eight song album that I put out, it's still fucking insane to me. Did people care enough about what I'm doing? You know? Yo?

Uh if by the time this comes out.

Think about that somebody got paid.

To listen to your music and give them like a.

Real deal, like well thought out thought like dude, thank you. I'm honored.

No, Like, I mean shit, growing up like and the source was such a big deal when you like going to look at the mics and but but again, it'd be like just having people give a fuck from Pitchfork or you know, if someone talked to you fifteen years ago, ten years ago, shit, eight years ago.

One hunt, I would just be I would be so excited that the review could have just been a shit on me. And I've been like I'm getting reviewed, and that's still how I feel now. So yeah, but I just now I'm starting to see like the effects of the music that's happened even past yesterday. I kind of missed how big that moment was on TikTok. For the first few days of like twelve fifteen, twenty thousand women just sharing their story was crazy.

Yeah, I know, it's it's crazy too because you the success of that moment on TikTok is what kind of it sped up you dropping the deluxe?

Yeah, exactly.

We planned to drop the Deluxe, but it was like, I was gonna wait a few days or maybe even a week and see if I needed to come back around. And I was kind of inspired by post Malone because remember he dropped F one trillion and it had all these features, and then he dropped like seven songs called the Long Bed Edition right after with seven songs that.

Were so low.

I had these five like fire features come in the bottom of the night.

In it, like people showed up for me, like Halsey, Russ Keith, Urban Ernest, like all those features showed up with for me, like within a week of releasing.

Crazy now because I remember hearing you working on some of these records, like at the beginning of the tour, just in a room backstage.

Yeah, and like these we're still writing Beautifully Broken on the Beautifully Broken tour.

I never thought of it that way. Cam. That's right, that's true.

That's a great way to put it.

That's why you're interview.

If you're watching this, there's a good chance by the time this is released, that you had the number one album, your first number one album.

Yes, it was either me or Rod Wave and it's the battle is more than me and I'm happy for him.

But it's crazy to think how far you've come.

Bro.

Like you know, I always say when I when I think of music, you are an anomaly in terms of your career path, Like this doesn't happen, I don't know if it will ever happen again. I think that You've always heard this from when you know, however many fifty to one hundred or three or four hundred people cedars you were doing. But I feel like what's always been synonymous with you is when people meet you, they love you right right, And I feel like that's just happening

Man?

Because the last album was number five?

Right? Yeah? I think last album was five, And I was blown away that we were in that car. That's what I was talking to Joe about. And I love Joe's perspective.

I needed it this week, Yeah, album week when Joe's like, don't worry about a number one out, dude, worry about being jelly roll man. I'll stay at the sun. I've got that'll stick with me forever. But for me, it's still just like I guess, just.

Being in the conversations are still so new to me.

Like when I read the first time that charge hits whatever, David double drops and it goes jelly rolling rodwave with an X amount of thousands of each other for what could be first week number one, and.

I'm a like enormous road wave man.

He's like a huge rod like and as an artist, as a human, like how he's handled himself in critical appeal and the songs and just what he stands for. And I feel like we're singing the exact same song, just over two different beds.

Of music, right, you know what I mean?

You know it's a It's like I would say that we're in the same house, just you know, we're in different rooms, you know what I mean.

That's what's happening right with Jelly Rolling rod Wave anyway.

So just even being that kind of conversation with him or Charlie XCX and like these like these.

Are pop stars to me.

Hey, you know this, you're a fucking pop star.

That's crazy talk. That's that's crazy weep.

It's funny. Every time we see each other after some time, we'll be like, Yo, it's getting weird, ain't it.

It's getting weird, and it's getting weird. I'll admit that to you though on and off camera. It's getting weird, but like in a good way.

But it's but dude, it's like if if I'm watching the Super Bowl and you're in a commercial, and then I'm watching Summer Slam and you're fucking by the way pulling off what what an amazing choke slamb.

Listen it was I probably up there, Listen.

I hate to say this. I'll get in trouble for just saying this. I've had one of the best years ever. If I have a number one album this week, I've had a number one album Saturday Night Live. I mean, I was invited to the Grammys for the first time this year.

This is all this year and I'm turning forty forty.

I want to be forty this year, and I can still tell you that I think Summer slim is probably the coolest moment of the year.

Oh for sure.

It's just hard to beat. Dude. It's like the listen, I got slimmed. That's up there.

That was cool.

Yeah.

But for me, these were big moments for me because I've talked about this a little bit, but not the way I really want to. It's like this was like inner child moments for me, you know what I mean, Like as a kid who grew up in the system, and everybody knows my story. They're exhausted here and I don't talk about it no more neither, But just knowing where I'm from, I was by by some decisions I made, had.

To grow up a little earlier than most people.

Yeah, so because of that, I didn't you know what I mean, Like, you bring me back and slim me, you circle back around and I get to choke slam somebody and sugget to listen, and they brought me in full face, just feeling off, just doing what they do best, just gracing them, just gracing and Austin just wiling people up. And I get to come in with a chair shot and then listen, here's the shoot on and I shot on. I shot on a little bit with Logan, but here's

What can I do to help you? Loving dudes? You will ever meet.

His His character where he confuses stuff is so hilarious. But like if that wasn't his character, that's a piece of his soul anyways, Like just that lighthearted.

Spiritedness of who he is. And I realized really early when I was working with all of these dudes that they were doing everything they could to make me look as good as I could.

Yeah, that whole jealous a little spoof he had. It kind of sets you up, like like that first appearance you did and he had the jelly.

It's so good, dude, It's like it was cool man.

So like that watching them rally and when you realize that, it gives you a whole new respect for wrestling. I always say it to guys when they do when like, uh, I tell Eric Church or guys. They don't know the language sometimes, but I'm like man in the wrestling world post Malone, when he put me on his album, I was like, Yo, this is called giving me the rub, Like you're pulling me.

Over right now. Yeah you know what I mean over putting me over, dude. It's like you're giving me the rub right now.

And I realized that that's why that business has stayed big for so many years. I wish music would steal that from them, the idea of constantly trying to pull people, get people, help put people, constantly trying to put people over, constantly trying to give people the rub, like watching.

I think you know, I think Drake did that for a long time, you know.

Because even in Austin's shoes, his idea was like, I know, I'm taking a bump here and listen, Austin is a world class wrestler. He has no business allowing an overweight musician choke slamming him on SummerSlam, you know what I mean.

But he's but it's in his mind.

It's like, no, this is what's best for all of us in this moment, because if we all do this right, this clip could be big for all of us. This could be big for the entire wrestling world. This could be new eyeballs on wrestling. This could like this is how they think of every decision they make back in those locker rooms, and it's I admire it, dude, and thank you for letting me come on here and get to shoot on that a little more because it's like I'm.

Now I'm also obsessed. I am ready in the backyard.

Rumble in Tampa.

Yeah.

I was just there hanging. Yeah, you was with your son. Yeah, we were just there on some like whatever stuff.

That's yo.

It's interesting to see.

That's something else I'm proud of. I've never been worked into the show for any reason. But being a fan of the show right because you're just there exactly. It was never like a media thing or like business is people together. This was real deal, Like, Hey, I'm coming to Monday night Raw. Anyways, how early am I allowed to get there?

And who can I meet?

And then when I'm.

There and they see that I'm such a fan, they're like, man, we should work this dude in the show. Randy's the home he sodom. I just met him, but he's just immediately was like, oh this is I love this. Let's do this, you know what I mean. He immediately was like drawing into bringing me into the storyline with him, which was super super cool because he's seen that I was a fan too, and he told me that afterwards.

Man, huge fucking wrestling fan, kah, huge wrestling fan.

Talk to me about this moment we're in where there's a lot of uh cross genre happening in the country direction, And I feel like you're kind of the first person that I that did it in a serious way. But but but you kind of did it in a way that was a lot a lot different than some of the artists will see it now, Like you kind of did it. You're an underground artist initially, right, like, and then doing country was always something that was natural to you, but it's what changed your life.

Right do you feel like the.

Trend of the genre of country music is being like

I think it's country music finally getting's turn.

Yeah, my perspective, it is like we've actually got to watch every other genre get its turn on critical mass, but never Country. There would be artists here and there that would get big enough that, like, you know, country has always been represented in critical masks, with the Grammys, Amas, VMA's, you know, all these different facets. But it's I think it's just like the natural evolution of like it was just kind of Country's turn. Finally, it was a great

I feel like you gave Post the rub.

No Posts gave me the use. Well listen, Post is Post, but I.

Feel like in this world like it's you giving him the run.

Yeah yeah, Well it's a weird thing, man. It's like Post and Beyonce.

What they did was just bringing a bigger spotlight to what was already overwhelmingly like if country couldn't have got any bigger, the two of the five biggest pop stars on Earth was like, Hey, we're gonna go do country albums this year.

It's like it couldn't.

Man, I sound silly when I talk like this, but I really think when you look back at this ten years from now, twenty years from now, it's going to just continue to stand the test of time more and more. Like when you look back, we're talking about it in real time and it's kind of blowing our mind. But when they really look at this decade and what happened with country music, and they're just like yeah, and Post Malone dropped one of the biggest albums of the year

And just by the way, the biggest song of the year is the country song bar.

Song, Yeah, well two years in a row now last night was last year. The second biggest song of this year was a Morgan Waham song.

Crazy Years in a Row. Speaking of the Bar song boy shameless.

Plug here Shaboozy's coming on tour.

Ka Boozy is on tour with Jelly Rawl. I love you, Shaboozie. Thank you Booze Man for picking my tour.

No, that's that's special. You can have the number one album, the number one song on toy Man.

Dude, it's like Booze Man, he could have kind of like Warren on this tour. He could they could have. These are two guys that are white hot right now, especially Booze.

I mean Booze is fish grease hot.

I think eighteen weeks number one.

It just broke the record for the you know what I mean, like just took Little Knaves X record. I mean crazy, It's unreal.

And uh, he could have did a headliner. He could have went out with anybody. He was like, No, I'm into that jelly Roll tour. It's just awesome.

Man.

Just who Shaboozy is though?

Man, So you reach out to Glorila on Twitter.

I love Glow.

You guys dropped the same day. She's got a great body and work out. Glorious.

Yes, a lot of people. That's her government name, right, I believe I think I think I'm serious. I think I think or something. No, I think her government name is Glorious.

That's amazing.

Hold on the coach is looking it up. I bet I'm right, Tennessee.

That sounds about Gloria.

Oh, you was right. It's Hallelujah. That's the part. Always I thought it was glorious, but it's because of Gloria Hallelujah.

That's what a what a name.

I love Glow, man, I'm such a fan of Glow.

I got to meet her at the iHeart Radio Wards. I got to meet with the iHeart Radio Awards, and I had me and my wife had already posted tiktoks to the song.

You know, we're huge fans.

I love Memphis music, growing up three six Mafia and they'm being involved in me so early, and I love a little White and living in Memphis for a few years. It's like, I just I'm always watching what's happening in Memphis because you can count on a couple of artists a year being in the top ten biggest artists in hip hop every year being Memphis.

Yeah, you're You're synonymous with Memphis forever. Man.

I'm proud of that too, man, because I love you know, I love Memphis and Gloria's just awesome. Dude, and me and you talked about this off camera, but I think we should give her flowers like this on camera. She is you feel a radiation of gratitude coming off of her that is rare in the music business, like this, real genuine, like every step forward for her as a win, and she is just in the most graceful place. You can almost tell. She's to the point now where even

Her, you know what I mean.

It's like she just gives off this genuine gratitude and the music is fucking incredible.

No, she's I just thought, so here's the story. I should. I should. I'll tell you the story.

Me and Glowyd when we met, we immediately because immediately people in her management camp, you know my relationship with Memphis for all these years, we all kind of know each other.

It's two degrees of separation where that is.

Anyway, So somebody hit me and me like, yo, I'm such a such you remember back then I'm working with Glowe. I want to get yall together, put us on a text thread and U Every time either one of us have been in La. We've hit the other one and missed each other, but like a couple of days so we were trying to do something anyways. It was like if I look at our text thread right now, it's a constant like I'm in La.

Where are you at?

When you hear and it's like a day later she'll be like, ah, I'll be there Friday, and I'm like I'm gone, yeah, Or it's like her being like, Yo, I'm in La.

Where are you at? Swing By? You know what I mean.

So it's like we I know, we like each other and we want to work together and she knows I'm a huge fan, and uh, it's been really cool man.

I love that she was like, we got to do this for Tennessee. I've me and my heart smile.

Yeah, it's crazy, dude. The Memphis, whole Memphis thing is just crazy. You know, Rest in Peace, Golf, you know that whole case. Some of the details that's getting interesting, how I mean it's like for you, like you're such a fan of just everything, Like you know, I kind of look at you as like, let's talk about.

The doll trail for two seconds. I know you don't want me to get hung up. Here because you're my friend. Don't want me to get in trouble. But all I want to say about the Doll trail is I was blown away that the doph trial opened and closed open on a Monday, closed on a Friday, and had a deliberated jury.

Return a verdict back in five days. And we have been watching.

Jeffrey sit down in the the Cave County jail for years. It is, man, I don't like to get in the middle of stuff, and some of the stuff that he was accused of is extremely heinous and if it's true, he should be held accountable like any other criminal. But man, it just seems like one of the greatest injustices I've ever seen happening down there, man.

And it's getting to the point.

Man, I don't keV. I would tell you something, keV. I don't talk about this much, Bubba. But there's something I'm into. When I'm writing music, I don't listen to music, so I listened to podcasts and it's somewhere between comedy and true crime. And my preference of keeping up with true crime isn't like the eerie stuff. I like watching Law and Crime with Jesse on YouTube or familiar with

We were I've never talked about Yeah, I've never talked about this one. What do you think?

What do you think about the thug thing? Because it feels to me as if it's gonna get thrown out at least it and then he's.

I think they're gonna I think they're just if it doesn't get thrown out, then it actually goes in there, they'll either find him guilty or the juri or hang. But the problem becomes I think that I think that he's gonna end up getting out of the case, and I think he's going to have the biggest class action lawsuit against the Cab County and American history. You know what I mean, Because it's one hundred and twenty some

I mean it.

It had all the makings of what looked like it should be a big thing.

My man, Hey, chow chy Bobby, we have we have three dogs, Tim, will you take them out? Tim? Yeah? Hey, what about scary gat mad today?

Because you think at that dog?

Why am I not going to l as like? Because you got to watch the dogs. He did bring it down. It was like he brought a dog, so you got to stay back with your dog. The mean greets seemed to go quick. Huh yeah, fifteen twenty. It felt great.

Kiss Cameron, Kiss, Shots to the Bunny. A pod swap is coming soon, the pop swap, the pods swap. I love that.

My wife immediately made a sexual cox swah.

She said, are we cock swapping? What does that mean?

Man? I love sex? Why am I? Yeah?

It is interesting it's interesting too, because like, do you ever get into these. I find myself sometimes watching them, but it's it's a little different because I know, I know like a lot of these guys, so I try not to. But like the like Hood documentaries that they be putting out, where they like they'll tackle like the Jacksonville hip hop scene, or how accurate.

Do you think some of that stuff is?

Who in that scene do you think actually does there? Takes their time against their information.

That's the problem. I just had this conversation.

I will tell you who gets their paper who gets the paperwork right. Jake gets the paperwork right. But I have a lot of respect for him. He takes the time to get it right.

Yeah, And I don't know if I've ever heard him be wrong. And if he feels like the a guy that would have the humility to be like this, this was no.

I think he jump on the grenade. If he was really wrong, he strikes music of would immediately be like those documents, you think.

He's I got no.

Man.

My old thing is.

You're in a tight spot here. You can't say you think.

No, no, no, I think that when you're I just had this conversation. Think about this, like, we're creating a culture of hip hop fans who don't look at hip hop artists people. They look at them as criminal interests on their favorite YouTube channel. Overall, what they're doing is they're not even into the music. Like, let's be honest, right,

Now my wonder becomes is from a I think about it as journalism, is that who is actually doing the research to get it right? And it makes you want and I don't know, I've watched some of Trapleo, of Ross's stuff.

He's got entertaining stuff for sure.

It sucks, man, because I'm such a hip hop fan to watch that part of hip hop. You know, you gotta think in our era when Tupac got killed, there wasn't a bigger news story in the world.

When Master J you can go on.

YouTube and watch. I mean, if Tupac died today, you know, there'd be so much content to digest about it.

For sure, it probably his murder probably would have gotten solved.

No, they would have filmed it all the way to where it happened. They've been able to track back every.

Video taken of that bends coming down the strip, or people waving at each other. All that stuff would have been able to happen in those moments.

Talk to me, man, you know we haven't really talked about this. I've heard you talk about it, but I know how how much of a big deal it is to even have like someone like Eminemic knowledge who the fuck you are, but to have Eminem sample your song and to be able to perform with him, to be able to just I mean, you've been performing, uh loose yourself on stage, yeah.

For years and years and uh you know.

Can you Like I said, I know, I know you've talked about it a lot, but I just feel like it's such a you know, I just know how big of a deal that was for you, man, So you know, just yet like it's.

Getting weird weird, No, dude, Marshall's the who's the goat. Anybody who says Eminem is.

Not the greatest rapper ever, it's just lie. Just you know, they're they're allowing other factors.

Yeah, if we're talking about the talent of.

Rapping, yes, I don't I would argue to say that, A man, I don't know. There's a lot of we'll never see nobody better. I think there will be. I don't think that I'll live long enough.

To see it.

Yeah, I think I know what I think lyrically, Yeah, I think, you know, I think I think we've we've had we've I always say, we're in the middle of this era of Kendrick Lamar and it's almost like watching Steph Curry where it's like, well, we just.

Kind of take advantage of Steph Curry and Lebron's on TV, but like we we appreciate we lived through the Eminem thing and we're still here, so we knew what it was like. But I think during that era we weren't. We didn't look at Eminem as the greatest of all time. We just loved I.

Don't know the Kendrick moment. I don't know.

Kendrick's got a unique thing that's happening right now. That's very Eminemish. As far as that dude's been putting out hits a long time.

Now, for sure, it's been ten years.

He's a decade into putting out real, absolute solified bangers. Eminem had a decade like that. I think that his follow up to Not Like Us will be one of the most important bodies of work. Whatever he does will be super super important.

What is it? Also takes a lot of time off right, he has big drops and big.

It takes time. Yeah, what is what is that like? First initial? Is it a text? Is it a call where you find out that a save me remix is on the eminem out?

It's Paul Rosenberg. It's Paul Paul Rosenberg. Man, Paul Rosenberg is the dude. So that's ms longtime manager. Anybody watching that doesn't know, absolutely legend been with him day one, built the entire business. Around.

It just one of the He'll go down as one of the greatest ever, do you know what I mean? And him and my manager John and nearly been friends since they did Renegade together back, so they've been friends for.

All this time. I didn't know I was on M's even radar.

I just assumed, you know that if I had a chance to be on his radar would have been a decade ago, whenever the Timnute Freestyle might have called it, you know. But apparently he dug the record, and when they initially called, they just said send it with no context. And for this, fum, I don't need any context.

You tell me.

Anyone wants something, send them, send them, Send the vocals we didn't use. He wants to go recop, you know what I mean, Like send him everything.

Uh, And you know how rap is.

I thought he was gonna send me a verse and I was just gonna have a remix of my phone, you know what I mean, Like.

Yeah, I like this, let me let me slide on. Man. I just kind of you know the role, I'm gonna get a Rul's gonna throw you one, you know him, Drake. They've kind of waned these I've watched these guys do it over the years.

It's like randomly, just throw somebody one, and I was like, I might be finn to get one, and were turned out even cooler than getting one. It turned out that end up being for his album. Now, I didn't I didn't hear much about it for a year or eight months or whatever.

It was a long period of time.

I'm not good at judging time right now, because I think I started this tour eight months ago and it was six weeks ago. I don't know, I'm lost, but it was definitely enough time that I had gotten sad. That's the best way to put it. It was long enough that I had come to the conclusion it wasn't gonna happen.

And then John calls me.

He's like, EM's, EM's gonna put this on his record, Like for sure, because when I seen Houdini drop, I was like maybe maybe, I was like, he might be you know this, this could be real, right, because my fear was he just didn't drop at all. But I had a feeling that it was gonna happen, and it did. Man doing the video with him, he's been nothing but kind man, Yeah, nothing but kind. Yeah, funny, genuine all that stuff.

How hard is it for you with your come up? I always wonder this because I know that we are in a very finicky industry and you've been a part of this industry long before you household name. But to have the success you've had over the last couple of years and to probably have new interactions with people that maybe didn't reply to DMS or big timed you, and that is that like does that do you remember all? And I don't think you're a petty guy, but is that like you ever?

Like?

But I also know you don't forget, so like, does that happen a lot for you?

No? I remember like.

The couple of like booking agents that really passed on me that like genuinely just like took the meeting and you just never heard back from and then somebody else come and says they passed Right, those you kind of don't forget because you know you're so desperate that those meetings meet everything right. But I also didn't hold much of a grudge though, because I man, I guess that's how I still look at stuff, keV. Is that even then I would go into those rooms like I don't

At, it was like I'm cooking. I'm cooking.

I thought about me and Paul talking about Paul Rosenberg. I met Paul Rosenberg when Yellow Wolf was getting ready to put out Love Story.

Okay, so this is like twenty fourteen, fifteen mm.

It's probably not right, around a decade ago, and he's it's way before right, probably a year seven eight months for the album came out. He was playing some of the music for like a private Grammy pre listening party for Interscope, and Paul was there and I got blackout

I feel like Love Story was so ahead of its time that if that album came out in twenty twenty four, it's got a couple of number one records on it.

Dude, it is that it still had a couple of really big reals.

No, of course. I mean I think I think, uh, I know it's gone as platinum or gold. I think it was American you on there.

I think that was a really weird time for Oh dude had the eminem record on there, my best.

Friend yeah, yeah, out of my veins, that one, and the one about about his baby Mama.

Yeah, dude, was empty Bottles on that record. Was the next?

Empty Bottles was on that record? Yeah?

Man, so many has so many big records. I think that it fell in a weird time. It was somewhere between the tail end of digital. Did you were streaming? Wasn't what streaming is yet?

And and and and the other, the old school way was dying off?

Was it was all but dead?

It was weird. It was a weird limbo it was a.

Super weird time to be putting out because remember Till It's Gone got picked up by the last scene of Sons of Anarchy.

Which made that such a bid I remember that, Yeah, I.

Remember said at the house, watching and going this dude's fixing out the biggest moment ever.

I could feel it right then.

For sure.

You felt it in Nashville though, Dude him and Clever as DJ running around town on Harley's long hair. It was just such a different feeling that was happening around what he was doing in that moment. But I think it was just a very weird time to be putting out work. It's like buying houses or selling them.

Right now, yo, you are the We kind of went over some of these numbers last night, the amount of physical copies you're actually selling, the true album sales, which to me means way more than streams. Right, streams can be manipulated. Streams could be background music. People could throw something on while they're at the barbershop. Shit just plays. If it isn't one hundred thousand, it's close to one hundred thousand actual physical copies of this album were bought,

No, that's great, man.

It's it's a support in a way that I couldn't ever dream that of felt. It's like overwhelming, honestly, you know, it's I don't know, man, it's crazy just having to me me and you talked about it too, and we talked about it off camera, but I'll say it on camera too. Is that I'm all I'm the grass is greener for me in that scenario where it's like the streaming side though, is such a big consumption side in

Four feet away from the stage.

That's it. It's like to me, that's the tail tale. You sold out?

How many people in Wichita, Kansas on a Tuesday?

Yeah for sure, thirteen fourteen thousand.

Cool, great show. We're gonna do it again the night of Springfield. But it's gonna be gonna be a ball down here in Springfield.

Is the like the people will they will they come?

Yeah? Yeah? Is that? Can you build a tour around it? And?

Uh, you know that's what to me whenever I look, and normally the top two or three albums can normally tell that road Wave is a huge touring act.

Charlie is a huge touring act. You know what I mean, it's a but that's where that's where the rubber really meets the road is if you can get somebody to buy a ticket, because listen, man, I tell people, man, that's not a ticket stub. That's a soul. That's a story, and that's you get thirteen thousand stories. That's a babysitter, that's gas money, that's that's a rough day of work.

I took a day off and drove in, you know what I mean. That's all big stuff. So it's like, to me, that's the real tale.

You've had so many interesting live moments in terms of just your career obviously, many gatherings of the Juggalos opening up for insane clown posse, being in a van with highlight running around this country. What uh you know? Because how many tickets total will this tour move by the end?

It's it's seven hundred thousand.

Seven hundred thousand. That's fucking crazy to here. I love as well. What was like for you crazy? Talk to me about the other the other side of your Tory career where you were in the van and I think you guys are trying to track down the van, Bertha, We're.

Trying to find that old van right now. We sticked our guy on it.

But like for you, like to have seen it on all ends of the spectrum, like take me back, and you kind of shared a story about like a rough a rough life show. You had what was like kind of your your valley of being on the road as an independent artist trying to make it before people gave a fuck.

I told a story about whenever we played the Boardwalking Sacramento, when there was like seven people or something that showed up. But the one I told you that was just as funny was we played the Please called the Electric Factory Philly right in Philly, right, And I'm open enough for ICP. And I'm one of four. So what one of four means is there's four acts. I cps the fourth act. I'm the first act, which means I go first of

And and so I'm one of four in Philly at the Electric Factory.

And every night what I would do is because there was like a change over time between acts, fifteen or twenty minutes, I would say the last song. I would go, hey, y'all, I got inside information here, such as Smad Child's not coming on stage for twenty minutes.

So for the next twenty minutes until his song.

Starts, I want to be back at the merch booth, signed stuff, taking pictures, smoking joints, whatever y'all want to do.

Just come hang. You know.

It's early, right, And uh I come off stage and I'm like trying to get through the crowd to the you know thing and normally have to put my hood up and kind of get there, and I'll take a picture or two on the way and uh man, I'm looking people straight and the eye nothing. I'm walking right by people. I just remember I just performed for this whole crowd.

Yeah.

And I go to my merch moove and not a soul is in there, cav not a listen there's and it's so packed that people are standing like they have looked my front of my merch booth has become a common area where like people would come together and exchange cigarettes or like put stuff in a bag.

Even you were sitting there.

Yeah, nobody, I'm standing there like you know, like my little stuff behind me. You know what I'm saying, I'm selling my little T shirts. It's like nothing. It was so bad. I watched I watched, Uh, I watched.

ICP from front of house, but not like front of house. I meant like front of house, like you know, I just went out there. Yeah, I just stood next to a guy. You know what I'm saying that look annoyed that I was taking up faces.

Just watch those show.

Those are those stick with you too, because those are the nights you get in the car and really be like, maybe I'm driven. You're looking for the arrows, and that's a night where you don't get one.

You like you getting.

In fact, arrows go the other way. Net negatives another negative.

That's funny, Yo. I wanted to you know you and uh whether I don't know if you know this, but uh, you know your daughter and my son have something in common. They're both as as I heard you describe it on a podcast Victims of Drug Addiction. Because my son's mom, her whole life was just I mean, it was like a battle to keep her sober. She left him when he was like two for like a year, and then at the age of ten, I decided to pull the plug on trying to keep the bullshit together. He hasn't

Yeah, well he is. There's no way he's not.

I mean even the toughest, smartest kids that are the most grounded and understanding, when you go through something like that, you can't help but wonder what's going on. And you also got to keep in mind that no matter how smart he is, that brain still developing. Yeah, for sure, you know what I mean, he's still even though he's nineteen, he's an he can buy a cigarette now.

It's not to me. He's not no adult. I wasn't an adulted eighteen.

I mean I had him when I was eighteen.

Yeah, yeah, you know, so you know that feeling.

So it's like, I don't know, man, I would I would encourage you to encourage him, or I'll encourage him to reach out and seek real help about that, you know what I mean. There is a book called.

Children of Drug Addict Parents or something like that, children of Alcoholic Parents.

I'm just not didn't you know whatever, But I normally would have that book on the top of my head. But I've read it before. It's a great book. It helped me a lot, just like getting in tune with that and understanding and one him just acknowledging it, that'll be a good step for him just to kind of be like, yeah, man, it does bother me a little bit that, you know.

Do you have to deal with that with Bailey at all? Sometimes where you got kind of like, you know, because to get your you were forced to get your shit together.

And I still had the moments would be where I can tell its way and on and we still allow her to talk. Yeah, and I allowed she I allow her to have space to feel however she feels about her mother. That's a big one because sometimes she's like, yo, I kind of want to talk to her and I want to figure this out, and I'm like cool. And then sometimes she's like, I never want to talk to that woman again, and I'm like, I respect that decision too, But either decision you make, I think it's important that

Right, Well, that's important.

They yeah, well, it just will help him to understand why he thinks the way he thinks about things. And I would hate for it to affect his relationships later in life by not getting ahead of it now.

Yeah, And it's like having you know, like the way you had Bunny, the way I have my wife. It's like, man, I don't know where. I don't know if I was able to even handle like the level of like fatherhood that came with trying to make it while also keeping this kid right on the right tracks. You know what I'm saying? So deep?

No, that's deep. Thanks for sharing that. I'll get the name of that book though. Man, that book is it's it's incredible.

Man.

I remember when I first looked at it, I was like, this doesn't look like children of adult children. Of adult alcoholics or something like that, adult children of our adult children of alcoholics, is it?

Or something like that.

You're on this health kick right now? How many I think I heard you say you lost about sixty pounds? Hundred pounds? Well, congratulations, I'm at a legit hundred.

I'm at a legit hundred from my like kind of a little bit more than a hundred from what my biggest was. I'm down eighty or ninety this year.

It's amazing. I remember the last time, because I remember was about twenty sixteen, seventeen, you had lost a lot of weight.

Yep, and back this time I got to keep it off.

Well, you know, it's it's crazy because I was talking with Big X the Plug about this because I was like, hey, man, like you're like Big X the Plug, but like we also want you to be here, right. Do you worry about like your image of what the public knows you as being wrapped into being like a heavier guy.

Man, I'm gonna lose the weight and I'm gonna break the curse.

Yeah, Because there is a quote.

Actor curse of actors who lost weight that couldn't find work, but there's also actors that lost weight and found more work, you know what I mean. But if that is a quote unquote curse, I'm gonna break it. Me and my wife actually talked about this real deep one night recently, because she she knows whenever I get the eye of

You know?

And I was like a little bit. I was like, I know that, I know how this works. Like they're gonna even though I'm losing the weight in front of everybody, They're still going to like, there's still gonna be some people like, well, of course he took the shot.

I never took a shot. Yeah.

It's like it's like they're not not that I'm against those in picks. My doctor thinks it's great. I'm just personally not. I'm afraid of stuff like that.

I don't know.

I did drugs for so long. I like putting weird shit in my body on one fair enough.

You know.

But I'm not saying I won't do it. But you know it's I can still see her. I can imagine that I'm about another seventy eighty pound. I got another goal to lose a lot more weight. And they'll come a point where they'll start saying I look sick, you know, and I'm cool with I'm just me. And her talked about it, and she was so honest. She was like, good, I just wanted to make sure it didn't hurt your feelings.

I was like, no, I'm not.

The difference is I think a lot of people make the mistake of going and hiding and getting healthy and then coming out healthy, you know what I mean.

Where it's like instead of doing it in front of everybody, so they see that.

Like watch the daily rolls and I put them on my Instagram every day. It's like just what we're doing in life. And I'm not going to be one of them weird people that loses a bunch of weight and it becomes my identity.

Neither right, like I feel better.

I'm gonna talk about it because it's going to always be the elephant in the room. But it's like, I feel better, I'm thinking clearer, and uh, it's just it's one part of what I do every day is I now eat better, I fight my my food addiction demon, and I work out. It's just but it's still makes very little of who I am.

As a human.

Yeah, only making who I am as a human better. I'm only becoming a better human as I'm getting healthier.

What for you like talk about just like because you know, for anybody who's friends with you, you've always been at a recreational relationship with certain substances. But for you, like, you know, just being around you the last like six seven months, I've noticed like you're like you've like calmed down a lot when it comes to I mean obviously we'll drink sometimes, but was there like a breaking point for you where you're like, yo, I gotta kind of kick back a little.

I could not drink the way I was drinking and keep up with this schedule.

Yeah, because dude, you're the tequila god.

I drink. I don't drink a lot, but when I drink I drink a lot.

Sure, I am legend with people. It gets it is crazy, but yeah, I just couldn't drink. I just man, I'm so like.

I have one. I started implementing a little like adult forty year old rules.

Now that are like, I don't drink unless I have a full day off the next day, just in case it's the way I like to drink and I haven't.

Had a full day off.

It.

Yeah, backed up to a night that it made sense to drink in a long time night or something like we were we were thinking about it, like the iHeartRadio Awards was like one of those magical nights where we won an award that we're celebrating and had nothing to do the next day.

It was like.

Score, we know we got blacked out that night.

Buba for sure, because when I like.

That was wasn't that the name you fell in the pond?

Yeah?

I fear of the hotel splashed around? No, It's like, dude, those are the like if I'm gonna go out and party, I party that way and the next day it falls real recovery from Yeah, I gotta drink certain water, drink eat food, get in asana, getting I be I'm old. I just don't have it no more. So it's like, I don't know, I'm just more I'm more in love with the pace of.

The work I'm doing right now, we're working at a way different pace. Man.

Yeah, it's crazy too, man, just to see the production, Like how many people are employed on this tour? One hundred and fifty something that's insane.

Twenty two trucks, sixteen buses. Bro, Like, it's crazy, huge production.

That's so crazy, so fun though, Like so many people's livelihoods are in this building and connected to you going on that stage and doing your You're out, And that's.

Not counting the one hundred plus locals every night, another one hundred vendors.

Right, you know what I mean. So that shit's crazy. I'm curious.

I know.

Really, you got your bar coming yes in Nashville, which is I can't wait to like how far along is that process?

Oh it's there, dude, they went the other day. It's framed out, it's ready. We should be open top of the year sometime early.

So you already got the least together and all that.

Oh no, at least, I mean, dude, this building is being has been getting rebuilt for the last eight months.

Oh wow from scratch.

Oh yeah, this has been a.

They kept the frame of the building because it was an old concrete built in the nineteen twenties concrete style, but then they just framed wood inside of it. But she had no completely remodeled the whole thing. Really really did it the right way.

Yo. This guy and this company we're with is like really really good at what they do. Are you are you? You know them from Phoenix? You know what I'm working with? Right the bottle blinde? Oh ship? Yeah, they got a great place. Got they got a bunch of great spots. Yeah, I'm working.

Oh that's gonna be crazy and they're gonna be great to put everywhere.

Yeah that God? Will you know what I mean? Hey, hey, holler, I'd love to expand. I love it.

Man, let me tell you, I want to touch this. For a second, I said it. It kind of glossed over and on, Joe. But I'm the first.

Uh.

Of course, Steve and his son BT owned most of Broadway and their locals. They're real Nashville people, like for real Steve Smith and BT. But as a as an artist, I'm the first real Nashville guy to get a bar.

It's a big deal. Man.

It's like, I don't know, I don't feel entitled to very Broadway. Yeah, I don't feel entitled to very much. But like being a local, It's like.

Yeah, I mean I feel like I feel local.

That was my only complaint when I didn't think I'd ever be in the runnings for one. I'd be like, let Chris Young get one or Cadillac three or Ernest Like, let a local get one.

I mean, you've done the the opry, You've got a bar on Broadway. I think the next thing is owning a piece of the Titans.

I would love to own. Hey, miss Samy, Me and Miss Amy, your friends even hang out with the other day. Just give me a little skin in the game.

Amy, I'll give you some money and I'll stay out of the business completely. Miss Amy, I just love to you know what's crazy I talk about that. I mean, the only way it happens is if she'd ever let me buy into the team, and I'd take I.

Would take whatever she'd give you. But of course I would have never dreamed of that. Man. But Eric Church is kind of a mentor to me.

And Eric Church owns a piece of the Charlotte Hornets.

Wow, like a real piece.

Wow.

Yeah.

And it's a true story. And I heard Kenny Chesney is trying to work out a deal with a with his dream. I think has been always work out with mister craft. Something for the Patriots from a lifelong Patriots fan got.

Me So Tom brook Brady just brought up a piece of the fucking Raiders.

That's what I'm saying. Tom got him a little piece. Give me that little deal, you know what I mean? They got him a deal where he's not allowed to nothing. He just got a little piece of the team. And that's it, you know what I mean.

Yo. I know there was a lot of big dream big dreams.

I know there was a lot of features that almost happened for the album. Is there anybody who you weren't able to because you have some great features on this album, Hawsey Russ, Uh shit, I'm forgetting Skylar Gray, Ernest, anybody, Yeah, anybody who you're like ya, I got this. I got this, Like there's two or three of these motherfuckers. I just got to do something with that. Just it just didn't work out this time.

Oh, I mean for me, just like my list of people out want to work with or I still want to work with, like Miley really bad. She's from Tennessee? What not from Tennessee? Always I like make her claim Tennessee. I don't know she probably you know, but I know that they have Tennessee roots. Of course Sissa. I think Siss is like everything about her Lizzo just what they them is people. And you know what I mean, she

I hey, how are you.

There's a special delivery? Sorry sorry, A nice a nice young lady.

But and you know she's Sciss is great also because of outside of the writing, the music, the rollouts are crazy, the labels I mean, but.

Man, her artistry is just different. Right.

I love when you know people are putting in the work and you can't watch Sissa do anything thing live, whether it's an award show or an actual concert without it just reeking of her putting tens.

Or hundreds of hours into into it. Yeah you know what I mean. Like not the craft itself, you can tell she spent tens of thousands there, but I mean in individual you see her on an award show, like the Grammys, and you're like, dude, I bet she spent one hundred hours working on this, you know what I mean, You're like real hours stand here and working on the court, you know.

Like I mean, I think we waited for five years.

For albums and she don't miss man, because if you take that long to put out an album. You know this in our business is inside baseball right here. But there's an old joke that says, uh, the longer you sit, the bigger the hit, you know what I mean, Like, the longer you sit out, you better have that much bigger of a hit, you know what I mean, Like when you do come back. Adele's the queen of that, by the way, coming when she wants but never missing.

Apparently, Dell would be a dream dream scenario. The weekend.

The weekend would be my true, true, true buck. I think he's the greatest artist this generation.

I agree.

Yeah, I just, I just, I just not the number one artist in the world for by default. No, he makes my favorite music too, I.

Mean, yeah, great shots of the weekend. I just met him in at the iHeart of iHeart festival and it feels like a fan of my work. Really, he was like, Yo, I just want you to know, like, uh, like it seems like everything you do is like from a genuine good place. You feel like you got a good spirit.

If Abel said something like that to me, I know.

It was crazy because and we just started talking about like we talked for like twenty minutes.

Did you gets a fuck?

It was just cool as fuck. And then he was like yeah, he was like, yo, dude, you look like you're like talking.

If I could have a thirty minute conversation with anybody, it would be be him or James.

Taylor Man or Seeger see.

One of them three Seager, Taylor, Abel. It's yeah, that'd be a dream feature for me though. Man, I'm a huge weekend fan.

How do you feel about these you mentioned, adell, these memes that are going around that you're the adele.

For uh fort Drivers. Man, dude, I'm just glad. I'm just dude. Can you believe I've become a mame?

Yeah? No, I mean you know what they've got so many are they called gifts or gifts?

I think it's a gift.

I think it's a it's a gift.

So yeah, they got they got gifts of me. Now, yeah, it's really cool.

Yeah, you're You're like I've said this to other people, but I'll say to you you are on your way to being And I don't mean musically in any sense, because I think you have a lot. You're gonna be like the white Snoop Dogg hope. And I mean that in the terms of, like, oh.

My god, Snoop Dogg announced I'm on this album. Oh we can.

Talk about this, Snoops on the album. You're He announced it, so I think I'm allowed to talk about it. We cut this, I'm not okay, but he announced it. It sounds like it should be fair Gun and the records dope, Dude, it is crazy. I won't say anything about the record because he didn't, but man, it's special.

It's really good.

Him and the Him and Dre shit.

Yes, the Hum and Dre album. Dog, I'm legitimately on the Snoop dog and Doctor Dre outm It's crazy.

Who reaches out for that?

Ian Oh ship dude.

Jimmy hits John and says, can we get on a FaceTime with Jelly Rowland Drake And I'm like, Doctor Dre. They're like, yeah, so listen, I get on a FaceTime on my back porch. I'm like a kid. Jimmy's there and I'm already like I cannot believe.

This is Jimmy.

Yeah, and uh.

He goes, oh, there goes on Dre coming.

Now.

There goes Dre now. And you can see that the cameras wiggling a little bit, so you could tell he's walking in the frame, and you could tell that they do that, you know that this is there still. They could tell they're still this close. So it was just super cool.

And he sits down and they're just like yo, and he's like, I got this crazy idea and.

I'm like, oh, dude, this is doctor Dray.

And then he's like so it gets even cooler and he's like, I can send you something, or you can write something and send it back, or you can come here and we can write something something. When he said that, I was like, I don't there's no way he expected me to do any other option. I was like, if coming and writing with you is the option, I'm coming.

So you went. I went, and you worked with Dre and person.

I worked with Dre in person.

At his house. Yes, yeah, because that's why we were I mean, I heard that it's it's.

We're gonna say at his studio, but yeah, but yeah it was. It was cool.

Yeah, everybody I heard the speakers are crazy.

Listen dog.

Now that I've worked with Eminem and doctor Dre, when you work with people that big, they're the only two people I'm scared to talk about, like when it's like how did that go? But I mean like being like I don't know what I can and came to you know what I mean, They're that famous and that legendary. But uh, it was the most awesome session ever. Dude, I walked in. Dre was just like the biggest, most

So I had a moment where I was like, all right.

Cool, I'm holding Yeah, It's like because I knew when you walk in those rooms, I'm still the kid that's coming to wrap at the lunch table, like I want to prove that I just deserve to be at the table. And uh I came in with that kind of attitude. Man, it was really cool. We hung out, wrote stayed there for a few hours. I mean, we chatted. Is he by the way, Kendrick Lamar pop out of just having okay, So I'm getting like when I say just happened, I'm his first session.

After that, I'm.

Getting all getting I'm getting all that energy. You know, all these people in the room together for the first time too, So I'm getting all this energy.

So it was really it was special. Man. Is he directed?

Because I heard he's like a perfectionist dude, so he directed your takes perfectionist.

Let me tell you about Drey. This dude, he's doctor Dre for a reason. But he's incredible. He's a conductor of a symphony in there, and he hears everything in everything,

I'm over here feeling like for a forklift, you know what I mean.

I'm over here feeling like fucking Frank Ocean right like I'm killing it, you know what I mean.

Snoop was not around.

Snoop was not there, Okay, saddest part of the whole story is that Snoop wasn't there.

I don't think I could have took it though.

I just feel like I couldn't.

Have walked into Snoop Dogg and Doctor.

Drape famous in like twenty years where it doesn't matter what, like you're just gonna be, You're gonna have five TV shows, You're gonna be hosting the Olympics.

I'll receive that. I would be honored, kind of would love it. Noop is definitely a model, a career after kind of guy.

Yo, it's give me some of the inside baseball on you know, when we talk about the music industry, You've seen so many facets of it. You've been independent, you've done distro deals. Uh, you know, you're you're with your label now, but you still you still own everything, right,

So yeah, I could definitely say that the biggest difference was really getting with a label, like honestly, not because of the machine as much as people like I used to be the guy who like rage like the machine, right, but more so just having an infrastructure of people who are working all day delicately towards what you're ever.

We all got the same goal.

We all got the same goal is to try to get this music in front of as many people as possible. And it's been really, really, really cool. But I can also tell everybody this man, that it's I truly believe that what makes music and art so special is that it can be done so many different ways. So do it the way that your heart is convicted to do it. Like for me, my heart was convicted to try to

Also like a whole new way you have to move.

Man, Everything about my life is different, Everything about my life is different. I'll be the first one to admit that, but it was a sacrifice that I wanted to make to try to get the message out.

You know what I mean? But man that you know there's other artists that do it otherwise.

Me and you were talking about how much we love the way Rod Waves operates, like he just wakes up and he's like.

You know what, the album's done, let's put it out.

And then he puts it out and goes in towards it, and then you don't hear from him again until he weekends.

The same way.

Able is the I am. We've talked about this privately a bunch, but I love I am such a fan of people that do it different than how I do it because I'm like most people. You know, why this something? I'll this this good one. I used when everybody says comparison is a thief of joy. I used to always look at the way other people would do things, and if they did it different than me, I had a natural that was the wrong way to do.

It, that you were doing it the wrong way. They were doing that.

Somebody had to be wrong. There's no way that both could be right correct. And now I've realized that there's like I let go that was all ego.

There's no rules.

Now I look like there's no rules man.

It's like whatever your conviction is, to do it, whatever way you want to do it.

That actually works for you. You know.

It's uh, what the best news I ever heard from a trainer. When I sat down with Ian and Uh, we were talking about getting my weight together, and I was like, what kind of diet are.

We going on? It's like the one that you'll eat mmmm, And I was like huh.

He was like, yeah, man, all that stuff is like, yeah, does keto work for sure? But can you eat carbs and still lose weight?

For sure?

Can you do all this? It really comes down to what you will stick to, the moderation you're willing to eat at. If you want to eat nothing but shitty foods, we can really make that figure out. You're gonna have to eat a lot less because this is a calorie in calorie.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

But when he put that to me, it's like, I feel that same way I walk through life with that. I used to walk through life like this, keV. Everything that I had I held like this, and it served me none at all. It only worked against me. I learned I walked through life like this. I don't hold none of that stuff like this no more, you know what I mean. I don't have none of those I

Yeah, I mean I think you like you're on a record with Russ. There's a kid named love Russell. Have you heard of the Russell? Yeah, like the Russell's. He's doing this pay what you want live show thing, and it's like, I've never seen anybody do that.

It's work, dude.

It's like, go do it the way that you want to do it, the way Russell has done it. I love watching people that do it their own way.

Yeah.

I chose to write songs about it, stuff that I grew up experiencing, and I chose to go out and beat the drum about it like this. You know, that's just the way I chose to go about it. Yo.

When you write some of these records, man, like it feels like like you know what I think about like the records you got with Skyler that is going crazy on TikTok right now after you get down recording that, like you wear that on you for a little bit, Like that's a really like that's a crazy Oh.

Yeah, No, we have sessions. Man, you know you don't You're not writing the right song if you don't leave a piece of it there. Yeah of you there, you.

Know what I mean, if there's not a part of you that it doesn't stir your soul. The songs that mean the most to me are the ones that sit on my phone and bother me that they're not out,

Two am and I'm still away writing this song. I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me.

Two am song.

Yeah, it's called just Breathe two am, Just breathe good. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. And she has a line that goes.

The end of the song goes two am. And I'm still awake writing this song. If I get it all out on paper, it's no longer inside of me, threatening the life.

It belongs to.

Wow, arguably greatest lyric ever written in a song. I've been arguing this with people all the time, and whatever I mean. There's a lot of other lyric you know, I could there's other, but like, as a songwriter, I don't think anybody's ever encapsul how I feel in one sentence ever Better then, like songs like past Yesterday drive me crazy because I know that they belong to someone else and I have to get them out.

They're not for me.

I have a lot of songs that are for me that will never make it, that are just wasn't either written well enough, I just never wrote, or just they were for.

Me, you know what I mean. But this song, when it's really not for you, those are those kinds of songs.

Man, yo, because you have this Like you know, when I was watching the Hulu documentary when it came out, there was a part where I don't know if it was a grandmother and a daughter, you were approached backstage, and I forget the exact interaction that ended up happening between you and these two fans, but it may like

This is like if I remember that right, that story was a murder suicide, yeah, little girl.

It was something.

It was just a lot, but uh, it was one of the one of the hardest stories I've ever heard. I do hear that stuff a lot.

Man.

I just feel honored that I can help people in such a moment. I'm very empathic, so I feel it. I definitely feel it.

How do you turn off that because you also kind of like, you know, you have your own shit to worry about, so it's like, you know, you're having all these deep interactions with people, you see, how the whether even if it's online like the TikTok response to your record, it's so crazy.

I'm encouraged by it too, though, because I think that it's like creating conversations.

Yeah, I love that.

Whenever I spoke about Finton all that, Whenever I went to the Grammys two weeks later, everybody on the red carpet want to just tell me their story about a family member they had. You know, it's like that kind of vulnerability because I think once we start letting people tell their stories, like I don't know how many times you share the story about your son and your podcast.

And it's zero.

Yeah, you see what I'm saying, Like, now there's somebody who's been watching you for years that's gonna see that, and like it's gonna impact them different because they're gonna be like, damn, man.

Him, damn.

You know what I mean.

Like it's gonna hit different with people.

So like me, creating that kind of vulnerability where people will have these kind of conversations is Man.

I think it's what I'm actually really here for.

Pose.

I think that's truly what my purpose is.

The music and me talking is just a vessel. The music is just a vessel to create these conversations with people that normally wouldn't be had, you know what I mean, Because now it's like there's we've You've brought a human element to it.

So Vester Stallone, you said it was the first person that commented congrats on the album.

The first person first comments.

Sulton King slides the best shout out to the Stallone sisters. Systeine, Yes they are. They came to the show. Is it Sophia or Sophia. I think it's Sophie Sophie Stallone or is it Sophia Stallone? But it's and Sofia and the sweetest girls ever, so humble. You never think they grew up, Sophia Custine and Sophia Stallone. You would never know they were like they just don't act like Sylvester Stallone's kids. They just act like two like really humble, cool kids,

Man.

Sistine loved Bunny. This is how Bunny changes my life. As always found me through Bunny. Then seeing they had a documentary about me on Hulu, it was like, oh well, this is Bunny's husband, let's see what this is about. Loves it, and then like Cistine being a true champion, thank you for this forever. Sisteine rallies her family around one night like, hey, y'all gott to watch this. This

Then they do I haven't watched any of I haven't watched any of the Yellowstone spinoffs, but yeah, it's crazy.

So then we get to talk about Tulsa King and he just can tell I won't shut up about it because I'm just like, this.

Show is so well thought out. I was like, Sophster Stallone is back, like he never left. I'm just like, this show it could do. This show is fire.

It's great show.

I don't care who you are.

Now, Plut's got some heat.

You go sit down and watch fucking Tulsa King and tell me I ain't one of the best shows on TV.

You're fucking litw you know what I mean? It is so good.

So he was like yeah, and what's so cool about David was, h go back to our Paul Rosenberg conversation. People who just have your back and are men of their word. Paul told me how my back ten years ago, and fuck kept over for ten years. David goes, oh, dude, we're shooting the next season in Atlanta. Just drive down one day at least come hang out on set. Maybe we'll get you in the show. But I'd love to introduce you to sly. So when he calls Slash, I

It'll be funny. I'm gonna set you up to you know what I mean. It was really cool. It was like.

I hate to keep circling back to previous conversations, but I love podcasts that have themes. It's like Austin theory. Like I realized right then that Sylvester Stallone putting you over, he just was putting me over, dude. He just wanted me to look as good as I could, you know what I mean, And like he was just in a place where that's what his heart was.

And I'll forever clip.

This and send this to me so I can send this to him and his family because thank you forever.

Selvestro. Acting next, I want to do it so bad. Yeah, I want to do it so well.

You know, I'm gonna just move to LA and try get a little acting coach and stand in line.

You're gonna get typecasted like a motherfucker.

And the prison, Oh, I'm gonna be every fucking But you know what I told him, I was like, if they ever knew the prisoner of a Mary Kingstown. I'll be a prisoner for y'all. Oh yeah, Now i'd go to play a cricket cop or real cop.

A crookeedt cop would be fun.

Oh I might get in trouble for telling this story.

Yeah. Have you ever seen the rookie the ricky? No rookie on a Oh the rookie no like her family. You know, I'm aware of the show like a dramed I'm aware of the show. Yeah.

I love it.

Me and my wife and daughter watch it all the time. I was gonna get to be on this season, dude. I had the coolest scene ever. I wasn't jelly rolled. I was like something else. I was gonna go get to be on the watch be a part of my favorite show. And I thought. I had a gallbladder attack the night the day before we flew to the point that I went to the hospital and I missed the scene.

Oh shit, but that's the next thing to try to tackle. Yeah, man acting.

Yeah, well, dude, that's like my daughter like, bust my balls about that.

Now, when you do a twenty eight song project, you have a lot of songs to work, So I feel like, is it safe to say that this album is gonna live with us for a little bit.

I can tell you that I'm not an you know, we were talking about the artists that take their time to put out albums.

Yeah, I'm gonna take my time to put.

Out my next album. Yeah.

I hope Beautifully Broken can suffice people for a while because I'm gonna go get I'm gonna do some acting. I'm gonna really focus on now. M hm, you're getting good stuff today for me.

My next goal, too, is that the next hundred pounds I want to lose a little different than the first hundred. The first hundred was just head down, eat right, drink water, exercise, get it off. I want to start lifting. I want to make sure that when I do lose the next hundred pounds out of the body. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't look I don't want to look weird.

So so that's the next thing.

That's the next thing. Focus on health, focus on acting, and really slow rite the albums.

Yeah, I mean, dude, it's it feels like an album full of singles.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy to go.

Just keep working this album, man, take it slow, just keep pushing Beautifully Broken. Festivals only next year and travel abroad.

Yo U would you obviously? And you're not gonna stop doing features though, like the go to feature. I feel like you're becoming like a go to guy.

Kel told me I was the White Way, and in twenty.

Eleven, it's what it's feeling that way, That's what MGK said. I loved him for it, but uh now, I'm always up. I'm a collaborative guy. So somebody, especially if a friend of mine or somebody I really adore sends me a record, I'm always in.

Would you ever do another?

Whaling?

And Willie would Struggle.

And Struggling are definitely gonna do another. We got a single coming out next year that we're gonna go to the country radio with his single feature of meat Fire. He's I'm proud of struggle Man one. He's just he's putting out a great body of work right now. He's fixing to go out on tour. Struggles just always work and he's been I didn't get him on this album, and it was kind of intentionally. I've had him on every album I've ever done, and I think that I

And and and kind of like grab grab your people in.

For sure, like go out there and plan because you haven't even got to go plan this flag yetty and so with and then he'll go do a couple of headliners himself with his artists like Caitlyn Curtis and them, but he hasn't, like, you know, I'm such a I'll block off half that dude schedule every year with my

I'm gonna take them abroad wherever I can, wherever I can get.

Could you see yourself doing another hip hop album?

I don't know, man, I don't I don't have If you get you you'd have to probably get the itch right like something I'd have to really, yeah, something would like and I would spend a lot of time thinking about what the subject matter was.

I wrapped about certain things for so long that I wouldn't even know how to. And I was always so honest in my raps that I don't know if I would even be allowed that kind of honesty right now in my life, you know.

Yo, I mean, I don't know. I just don't know. Man, I don't have the itch at all. Well, we're talking about this some people's hearts out there.

There's so much money, there's so many deals.

I would rather do a hook for Big Exes album, which I'm working on. Oh so you're I'm working on a Big X record. I would rather do something for Mexican O T. I would rather work with Joiner again. I would rather work with him again.

That makes sense.

I would rather like keep I think I'm bringing more value to hip hop right now than I ever brought to hip hop.

And I hadn't wrapped a bar in five years.

So it's like, I think I just want to keep doing that because I think I'm really I want to do another Tech nine record. I want to make sure that I want to I want to help hip hop and them, I think I don't think I would help hip hop by trying to be hip hop.

Well, and I think too like you're like, like you said, you're doctor d calls, You're I mean you're to me, you're you're a pretty genrealist man. I feel like you've kind of always been that way.

So it's like sure, and like that's a big one, you know what I mean, that's huge, Like to work with somebody like Rod now you know what I mean, like goa happen. But yeah, that's my heart. Maybe one day I'd love to wrap on somebody else's stuff for fun. I always joke with all my rapper homies like if you ever get one, it really makes sense, you know what I mean, maybe like slide a little sneaky twelve in somewhere and see if I still got it.

Yo, it's can you can you speak?

Struggle could get it out of I mean struggle at him. They could get it out of the probably maybe Wolf, Yeah, Wolf could get it out of him. Yeah. But but once again, I think I would do Wolf more by like.

Trailer in the Skyhook, which was great. Wolf wrapped and I did. I just think I bring more value to the song by doing what I do.

Yeah, it is whild Do you still have a ton of those Day One like fans who maybe because you know, you are a part of this like underground hip hop uh world that was very niche. It was like and I was a part of that world, you know, with Ritz and Wolf and yourself, and you know, we can go on and on and on. I guess like what would call that kind of like the white the like twenty ten white rapper.

Yeah, there was an air underground like rapper things.

Everybody was going all the famous white rappers are going at each other. But it's like, like, do you still see those same things because you were talking about back in the day you would give pizza in Knoxville to the people standing outside when you'd sell out, and you're like, yo, we should do that again. But like, do you still run into those crazy like Day one fans who?

Oh yeah all the time? Man, they're awesome. I went to the DMV. I was home. I've been home two days in the last one hundred days. They were just like four days ago.

Walking to the DMV, I've been in there thirty seconds, right, and I'm just looking for somebody I know to go Hey, it's not letting me set this up online. I'm only in town for a day. I need to bring my daughter to get a license, which I am proud to announce on the Bootleg CAF podcast. My sixteen year old daughter, Bailey Anne, is now a licensed driver.

Congrats, it's a huge deal. Thank you, A huge deal.

So I walk in, the first person I see is a dude with a Jelly Roll shirt. Not making this up. First dude, I mean. I run into him and I'm like, what's up.

He's like David.

I mean, he's ghost white. You could tell he's like been with me a long time. He immediately shows me like a a game bad Apple blended tag like my sorry two of like the original brands that we tried to take off. And uh, He's like, I got a brother in the car and you meet him. I was like, yell, let me go talk to this person. I meet him on the way out. So I take a couple of pictures and I meet the DMV people are so sweet,

Of that good good shit again?

And I go, good good shit, you know, and he goes, you know what I'm talking about? This stuffs and he shook, I need you to do something with Haystack.

He was like, He's like, I'm talking about it, and I said, listen, man, don't take this wrong, sir. I don't want to sound like Andre three thousand. I'm get in trouble here, but at a forty years old would as soon to be college kid, I'm not sure what I would rap about, you know what I mean. I'm not sure that people would even want to hear what I rapped about.

Right now. It's like, you know what I mean, Like, you're not gonna rap about slanging freaking crack, yeah, for sure.

Like slaming pussy, you know what I mean. Those days are.

It's like, it's like, you know, I'm not gonna rap about I don't know. I guess I could rap about what's happening in my life now, but I'm kind of you know, I don't know. I'm having more.

Fun telling other people's stories. Yeah, and I don't.

I've never done that in hip hop. I've only kind of expressed self, so I'd have to find my way into it.

Are you still when you have you know your background that you have and I'm sure a friend group of a certain you know amount of people who may or may not be up to criminal activities. You know, when you come from that lifestyle, you fall out with people. But when you have this meteoric rise to fame, it feels like the people who are closest to you or where you're from, usually in hip hop, of course worse, you get the most hate from you know, you didn't bring me up with you, do you?

Like?

Like, how do you deal with that shit? Doug, Because like even me and on whatever level of success I have, I deal with that shit all the time.

Man. It's it's really hard. It hurts.

Thanks for bringing this up because it's probably one of the thorns on my side of life that it took me a while to forgive myself for not being able to do everything for everybody. But somebody told me you can't be everything to everybody, you know what I mean? And I just started forgiving myself and giving myself grace you know where it's like. Look, man, if you think that I'm responsible for bringing somebody up, your mentality is wrong.

Anyways.

Yeah, Like I remember been a time where my entire world felt like it relied on the actions of another man. You know, does that make sense?

It makes a lot of sense.

That's not the way to go through life.

Man.

If you if your success is dependent on anybody at all, you were in the wrong. You're in the wrong area searching for it. So if you're looking for a homie to do this for you, or you got your buddy that's doing this, that he might be able to give you a look, or this guy might be able to do this for you. If you're one of those people, that mentality is going to tear you down. That's that street stuff that tourists down for years. It's also the

Think about just now, that I'm an adult, and I even say that back out loud, I go, how did I believe that? How did I buy into that, you know what I mean, Like, how did I even let that become a thought? All that stuff works hand in hand to me. All that is, all of those are the same language. The other languages I look for now that I'm very I pay attention to language now, keV, that'll do you know what I mean.

It's like entitlement words.

Oh yeah, Entitlement's the worst, man.

You know, these are the things that are like or even friends who are like. I had a friend tell me recently, he's like, you change, man, don't act like you're not different. And I'm and I had to really take perspective of that because it hurt my feelings. But

Yeah, you know what I mean, Like one hundred and eighty people whose mouths I have to feel like.

There's one hundred and eighty people that are counting on me to make sure everything that stage right. And that's not counting the fourteen thousand people that came here to get served. You know, there's they're like, we look at this like church, man, we're here to serve, dude, that we're not here to do anything but serve. We are here to try to make people leave this building feeling better.

You're viral to address the Congress I thought was one of the most just beautiful moments, dude, Like it was fucking insane. I know you've talked about it a lot. I know that there was a bill that ended up getting passed right.

That it did the fend dolphin all that was put in the law. I wonder I'll tell you a story about that off camera. Remind me got you?

I wonder, like for you, you do have so much good grace, so much influence right now, Like is that like an area in which you're you want to still kind of be active in terms of.

Oh yeah, man, I definitely want to just I want to go use my ah No, that was the one and done for me unless they need me for something that I'm convicted about. As you can imagine, every Senator on America called me send us an email the next week with the calls, but uh, I'm just wasn't interested. Yeah, I'm very specific into I don't like politics.

I just never have.

I mean, you can't even vote, right, Yeah, I can't vote. I don't have your a feeling. Yes stuff, whoever, somebody giving my right.

Vote back and we'll start to go, Yeah, that's what we'll talk.

But I'm an ally in need of things that I know, right, you know, I'm just also big about not talking about shit I don't know. Yeah, I knew that particular subject pretty well. There's a couple of other subjects that if it really came up, I'd be willing to go try to speak about. But I just want to make sure that our people had a voice that day. That was real simple for me, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think too. It's like, you know, going back to what we're talking about the AA meetings, and you know, having family members who are addicts, like legitimately people look at and I just heard you talk about this, but people don't acknowledge addicts who are in a really low places like people. They really dehumanize them. And and you know,

Yeah, the airplane reference is real. That many people die day as a plane crash. And it's because we've long had this thing in America where we look at everybody as a it's a personal thing.

We have no sense of community.

No more is to be more, have more tribalism in America than we've ever had, to have more tribalism in America than we've ever had. I feel like we have less community than we've ever had.

And you know what's crazy is most of the major shit we all agree on.

Yeah, right, it's crazy.

But think about it, like I don't. I think I think we all agree that like our tax dollars, we'd like to kind of know that they're helping you know, us a little, you know, not getting you know, sent over to fight O.

That's yeah, one percent, it's just you know, but once again, it's like back to that point, we've lost our sense of real like community, you know what I mean.

So divided everybody. It's like, dude, if we don't agree on this one thing. It doesn't mean that we can't agree on this or we can't have beer.

You can't you know, man, or just say, hey man, we just don't agree about that. Let's talk about something we do agree with.

Yeah, we could. I wish we would just focus a little more to on the things that we do agree about. We can make so much more progress.

All right, let's quit arguing about the stuff we don't agree about for a few minutes, and the four or five things that we all agree about, let's go forward with that. But yeah, back to the addict talk. I say that because we look at them like, ah, they chose to get on drugs. Fucked them, you know what I mean. It's like, but like, nah, man, that's bootleg. Kev's son's mother, you know what I mean, Like this is so much more bigger than her.

Let's think about her son, thinking about how it affected her mother, how it affected keV, how it affected Kev's wife.

Kev's wife had to marry into a whole situation for Svins, an eleven year old young man, to be a mother.

It's like this is you.

Then you start seeing the the true impact the you know, the uh, the drug addict is is not the victim here, you know what I mean, that's not and I'm not saying that they're the the the aggressor neither what you know, the but saying that, you know, the victims of drug addiction are so much murther further we change that we state this the right way. The victims of drug addiction her so much more than just the just.

The drug addict.

It's the family drug addict is a victim of drug addiction. So it's like the victim of drug addiction is so much more than just the drug addict.

How do you how do you because you know, with the last few years, man, I'm assuming like you need your wife more than ever now, right, how do you guys? Like, how is your guys' relationship evolved? Uh? With with the new success like that, like and her own success as a as an entity on her own, her podcast is massive.

Funny's podcast is huge, Bunny's Patreon is huge, Bunny's TikTok is bigger than mine.

But she's going crazy. I mean, she she really, I mean, correct me, I'm wrong, but she kind of broke the sky, the gray record. It was her TikTok, right, it was her. Sure.

What's even cooler about that was I sent Bunny the album and said, if any of these songs touch you in any way that you want to post them and help me out, please, you know. I'm just like, I'm We're that kind of with each other, and buddies like, she's like, she's my Wife's like, I'm gonna post something.

I got you, no problem. And then when she did that, I was like, oh, man, because you know, Bunny had never shared that side of her story a lot, and I won't either because that's her story to too, of course, but I wrote that thinking about her and she knew that. So for her to like be like, you know what, man, I'm gonna stand on this now. For all we know about Bunny. When her book comes out, we're gonna find out that we don't know about Bunny, you know what I mean.

She's like, Bunny's been through a lot more than even she tells, so her connecting with the song. But dude, we see each other less, but we are communicate more. And that's kind of the rule, is that if you're not gonna be able to see each other and spend time together, we got to fill in the communication blank. So every night we'll talk for hours if we're on the phone. If we're not together and just catch up. We still prioritize making time for each other. It's just important things to do.

Man, any new brand deals on the way, Hey dude, do you see my hate dude shoe?

I did not or that with these.

These are the hate dudes.

This one was a piss dirty one because I'm wearing it. Everyone was great, but dude, I'm sure, hey, dou won't mind me, but you don't worry. On the inside it says made for the beautifully broken. I mean, these are just cool. I love Hey dudes, we wear them anyways or it's just insanely comfortable, and uh, we did a deal with them, but I'm sure they won't mind me saying that we're we It wasn't a one off.

We got like we're doing a big deal with day Dude.

Like everybody who's like, we only did a very limited drop for the album. Maybe too limited in hindsight, because I've seen a lot of people that were upset, and I don't like to upset people. Like I'm not trying to be a rare drop artist. You know, I'm for everybody all the time is how I always want to be. But we maybe slightly under anticipated what the demand could

So don't worry.

It's gonna be good, man, it's probably. I mean, I got a lot, you know. The Dunkin donut commercial was cool. I don't have a Dunkin.

Deals tak a donut shit, it's crazy. Well, I feel like they need to give you your own item on the maybe.

Dunk and holler at me. Y'all know how much I loved working with y'all. It was an absolute ball.

Or a McDonald's meal.

Yeah, oh listen, you can have your own McDonald's. Oh that's a big one.

You remember.

I remember when Travis gott got his first McDonald mill. I was like, get out of kas just dropped the flame sent you, I know, and did it with John Cena talking about a big flex. Nobody's bigger than him.

He had John con to come to his house.

Dude, come on, what would be that's the only way you go to kind do that is fair? He's the king.

I would you guys talk to me?

No, please intro.

I don't know him.

Oh I want to know him.

So he's so funny.

I think he's hilarious. Dude. I know Aiden. I talked to Aiden every now and then. I think he's funny too.

Man.

I love that whole stream culture. Man.

It is it's it's It's interesting because the only time I met Aidan Ross I met him at a Dre's I was I was there in the VIP and he was live on the internet and I was there with fifty seven. I was just like, ah, fuck, we're like on the internet right now and with like hundreds of thousands of people, and I'm fucking shroomed out, blowed all.

The way back with fifty fifty. Such a fifty fan. What would be?

Anything happened with me and Aidan? By the way, he was at a casino Heland. Yeah, dude, I was playing with Exposed and Nick Nick Marks. Yeah, we were over there gambling together and then they was like Aiden Rosses in the other room. He once you come, say what's up? And I walked in and said hi, just because I'm a fan. And I looked up and of course he's gambling, but he's you know, they're they're there's training him gambling.

I was like, oh, this is crazy. I looked up and he was cool. He's like dub Jelly in the chatch all and everybody gave me the dog.

Was like, oh cool, cool. Well listen dude, number one album. Oh God Willing, Baby, God Willing. If you're watching this, we we it's it's for sure beautifully broken. Uh. I'm just proud of you, man.

I'm glad we do a pot. We hang a short time with a few years.

So what about the dog? Can I wonder you don't need one of them cameras right now. I wonder if he can be seen just dogging out right?

He slept.

I love this dog, bust dog. Yeah, he's been the star of your your daily.

Daily roud, He's He's the most love thing on this tour.

I'm you know, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little surprised there's no bus dog Merchip dude.

So we're trying to get it inflatable to put in front of the venues for the last twenty shows. That would be fine dog.

His fans know about their dogs.

Yeah, they love bust Dog. Yeah, bust Dog is a big deal. Dude, he's a hit.

He was on the dunking Donald's commercial. That's the more they knocked on the door earlier.

He was bringing some men for the Bust Dog. Oh oh, that's a Bustdog gift. He gets way more in the Tiffany bag.

Wow, that's crazy.

We don't know what's in there.

Well listen, man, I'm super fucking proud of you, man, I'm happy for you. Congrats on everything. You deserve it all, brother, Thank you brother.

Halfway through the tour, yes, sir, halfway through twenty something shows left twenty six.

If you're watching this, and I will say this, man, best best show of the year.

Who come see it, baby, Yes, sir.

Jelly Row