This Past Weekend with Theo Von

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00:01:41.980 I have a new tour date to announce.

00:01:44.200 Springdale, Utah on July 6th at the O.C. Tanner Amphitheater.

00:01:50.120 The pre-sale begins Wednesday, March 8th at 10 a.m. local time with code RATKING.

00:01:58.480 And the general on-sale begins Friday, March 10th at 10 a.m. local time.

00:02:03.680 We've added a fourth show in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 1st at the Encore Theater.

00:02:09.000 I will also be in Hollywood, Florida on April 7th at Hard Rock Live.

00:02:13.960 That's the day before the Miami UFC fights.

00:02:16.920 We will be in Uncasville, Connecticut, July 21st, Bethlehem, PA, July 22nd,

00:02:24.700 and Atlantic City, New Jersey on July 23rd.

00:02:29.160 All tickets are available at TheoVaughn.com slash T-O-U-R.

00:02:35.860 Today's guest is an award-winning singer and songwriter.

00:02:39.960 He's written for some of the greats like Morgan Wallen and Blake Shelton.

00:02:44.800 He has a new solo album, The Mockingbird and the Crow, which he's out touring with right now.

00:02:52.540 I've gotten to know him over the past few years, and there is no one just more down to earth

00:02:59.100 and enjoyable to be around than this man.

00:03:03.000 Today's guest is Hardy.

00:03:04.680 Shine that light on me

00:03:09.020 I'll sit and tell you my stories

00:03:15.000 Shine on me

00:03:20.020 And I will find a song

00:03:23.940 I'll be singing

00:03:25.140 I'm on the stage

00:03:26.260 This house is dope, dude.

00:03:34.520 I live, like, I could walk here.

00:03:36.700 I would be tired, but I could walk here.

00:03:39.320 Could you really?

00:03:40.060 Yeah.

00:03:40.420 I mean, I would be tired.

00:03:41.600 It would take me 20 minutes.

00:03:42.060 Are we rolling?

00:03:43.080 All right.

00:03:44.260 So, it would take you how long to walk here?

00:03:47.700 I mean, maybe 30 minutes.

00:03:49.120 But it's like two miles.

00:03:50.680 It's like a mile and a half.

00:03:51.380 But that's not walking somewhere.

00:03:52.800 That's your, at that point, you're hitchhiking.

00:03:56.180 Yeah, kind of.

00:03:57.060 I could bum a ride here.

00:03:58.900 Yeah, dude.

00:03:59.720 Yeah, there you go.

00:04:00.460 Yeah, for sure.

00:04:00.880 Yeah, I could bum a ride here.

00:04:02.220 That's, I feel like that feels like a better state.

00:04:04.580 Yeah, that's, I don't know why people don't use that.

00:04:06.940 Like, because technically, you know how they're like, you could walk there,

00:04:09.940 and like, technically, you could pretty much walk any, like, you could walk anywhere.

00:04:14.080 Yeah.

00:04:14.720 Until you had to swim or whatever, but.

00:04:16.680 Yeah, you could walk almost, like, it's crazy to think of the old days when people were like,

00:04:21.380 I'll head over, and then you got there, like, four hours later.

00:04:25.240 Oh, yeah.

00:04:25.880 Anything, anything could happen between them.

00:04:28.480 Like, you wouldn't know.

00:04:29.580 Yeah.

00:04:29.860 Like, you'd have to be like, you'd have to call somebody on a payphone and be like,

00:04:32.600 I'll see you on Saturday.

00:04:34.340 And before payphones, it was like, by letter, it was like, I'll be there next month,

00:04:37.440 and then they never showed up, and they just, like, got killed by a bear or something.

00:04:41.840 Or people like, or, like, a parent showed up, and they're like, where's our daughter?

00:04:45.460 And the guy's like, I don't, you know.

00:04:46.820 She fucking died or something.

00:04:48.060 She went to get some water, and I haven't seen her.

00:04:49.680 He's lying.

00:04:50.300 Man, he took her life.

00:04:52.160 Yeah, exactly.

00:04:53.260 Damn.

00:04:53.480 That's like some Game of Thrones shit, dude.

00:04:55.340 Oh, that's heartbreaking, man.

00:04:56.800 Yeah.

00:04:57.260 We live in a more convenient time than ever.

00:05:01.320 Yeah.

00:05:02.140 It's pretty wild.

00:05:03.320 Yeah, things are almost too convenient now.

00:05:06.160 It is, dude.

00:05:07.840 Somebody needs to do a study on this, but I think that, like, do you remember, like, in the 90s, 80s, whenever,

00:05:14.060 but that when you heard a song on the radio that you loved, and you, the next time you got to hear that song was on the radio.

00:05:22.620 Yeah.

00:05:22.960 And it was so euphoric to hear that song again because you didn't have access to it, where now it's like, if you like one song, you can go listen to every single thing that artist or whatever has ever done.

00:05:31.920 Yeah.

00:05:32.120 And back then, you had the luxury of having that euphoric moment of, like, having that to yourself, you know, and then having to, like, record it on the fucking cassette tape.

00:05:41.180 On the cassette tape?

00:05:41.880 Cassette.

00:05:42.200 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:42.840 Well, it almost felt magical, too.

00:05:44.540 Like, if it came on at a certain moment, it was like, that was like the gods telling you, this is it, you know?

00:05:50.660 Yeah.

00:05:50.860 Like, oh, I was driving by, and this played, and there she was.

00:05:54.560 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:54.700 Yeah, and you had no control over it.

00:05:56.060 It just had to happen to you.

00:05:57.500 Yeah, now you can sit outside of somebody's house for, like, seven hours and play the same song over and over again.

00:06:03.440 Mm-hmm.

00:06:04.040 You know, until the cops show up and take you somewhere.

00:06:06.140 Yeah, exactly.

00:06:07.060 But it's like, you couldn't, yeah, before, you couldn't.

00:06:09.240 Yeah.

00:06:09.460 You couldn't build up that dirty momentum like you can now.

00:06:12.840 Oh, dang, dude, that is so crazy.

00:06:15.980 But then think of how much power the DJ had back then.

00:06:20.660 Yeah.

00:06:21.060 Because he's like, you know what?

00:06:22.360 Right now, I feel things out there kind of slipping, slipping out of our grasp.

00:06:26.640 Yeah.

00:06:26.780 I'm going to put you guys on something.

00:06:28.180 And he put out a love tune.

00:06:30.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:06:30.760 Or like, we are the world, you know what I mean?

00:06:32.380 Like, he controlled the narrative of people's lives back in the day.

00:06:37.060 It's pretty crazy.

00:06:37.580 The DJ was powerful, wasn't he?

00:06:40.040 It was like the DJ had a dance.

00:06:41.700 It was like that, but for the whole city or a nation, it was like, when that song came

00:06:46.440 on, it was like, this is what everybody's going to feel.

00:06:49.280 If somebody right now is like, if two spouses are fighting or whatever, the casserole ain't

00:06:54.040 good, I'm about to hit them with this love ballad and everything's going to change.

00:06:58.380 Yeah.

00:06:58.560 And that's the only way that they could hear it.

00:07:00.120 They couldn't do it themselves.

00:07:01.440 Unless they had a...

00:07:02.520 A violin or something.

00:07:03.940 Yeah.

00:07:04.240 Or a capability, yeah.

00:07:06.160 You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:07:07.180 I had to have a real capability.

00:07:08.640 Yeah, something like that.

00:07:12.080 Hardy, good to see you, man.

00:07:13.140 Hey, happy to be here, man.

00:07:14.440 I know.

00:07:15.220 I'm stoked.

00:07:16.060 Yeah.

00:07:16.480 Thank you so much for your time.

00:07:17.880 Thanks for it.

00:07:18.780 I know you had to, or pushed your flight or leaving tomorrow now.

00:07:22.940 Yeah.

00:07:23.060 I really appreciate you making the time, dude.

00:07:24.200 I am.

00:07:24.980 I'm glad to make it, man.

00:07:26.940 Um, I'm so happy for your career, dude.

00:07:30.820 Thank you.

00:07:31.920 It's been awesome.

00:07:33.340 Past couple of years has been incredible.

00:07:36.040 Bro, I didn't know you were such a, it's almost like going to a fitness.

00:07:42.180 It is like going to a dang show.

00:07:44.340 Yes.

00:07:44.740 When you go see Hardy, if you have not, if you haven't gone to see Hardy, then you need

00:07:48.760 to go see him.

00:07:49.780 Um, you're going to be touring with Morgan and doing, what do you, what do you have?

00:07:53.700 Right now I'm on, I have my first like real live nation, like headliner tour, the Mockingbird

00:07:58.180 and the crow tour.

00:07:59.020 And we're like a quarter of the way through it now.

00:08:02.500 It's only like 20 shows.

00:08:03.540 So, uh, like five weekends, but, uh, yeah, this summer I'm doing the, uh, uh, I guess

00:08:08.400 it's called one night at a time tour with Morgan.

00:08:11.160 I should know.

00:08:11.980 I should be more confident with that, but I think that's what it's called.

00:08:14.880 When Morgan, uh, Ernest, uh, and Bailey Zimmerman and then Parker McCollum is going

00:08:21.220 to when I, there's some shows that I can't do cause I had other shows booked.

00:08:24.620 So he's, he's doing, filling my spot when, when I'm gone or whatever.

00:08:28.640 Nice.

00:08:29.000 And that's dude, like two nights at the biggest venues in the world is like the craziest thing

00:08:36.180 to me.

00:08:37.060 Uh, it just.

00:08:38.160 Like, what do you mean when you say, when you're saying that you're like.

00:08:40.000 Like, well, just Morgan, like I've known him for so long now.

00:08:42.380 Like he, you know, he's always just been Morgan and, and it's just, it's so hard to

00:08:48.340 process that one of my friends is literally, quite literally the, one of the biggest artists

00:08:53.680 on the planet.

00:08:54.440 Like college football stadiums are the biggest, like that's like seven of the top 10.

00:09:00.120 He's the white usher.

00:09:00.860 Yeah, dude.

00:09:02.120 Yeah.

00:09:02.620 Maybe even white Michael Jack.

00:09:05.300 Yeah.

00:09:05.940 Well, yeah, yeah.

00:09:06.840 He's like, I don't know.

00:09:08.500 He's the Michael hat.

00:09:09.360 He's a country Michael.

00:09:10.140 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, dude.

00:09:12.980 But no, he's like Elvis Presley.

00:09:15.300 Kind of dude.

00:09:16.360 It's, it's crazy.

00:09:17.660 Yeah.

00:09:17.840 And like, I just, I don't know.

00:09:18.960 I came up with him and like, I, I, I like toured with him.

00:09:22.900 Like he brought me on my first tour as an opener and we were doing like rooms of like

00:09:27.040 800, maybe to 2000, you know, and just to know that he's doing technically like 80,000

00:09:33.980 people and shit is fucking unbelievable.

00:09:36.660 So proud of it, man.

00:09:38.200 Yeah.

00:09:38.320 Oh, it's, I mean, it's, I mean, I've only known you guys for maybe a couple of years

00:09:42.160 and I went, I got to go to some of his shows last tour, but the thing, and it was amazing.

00:09:48.660 I mean, when Morgan goes on, you know, you've heard, I never realized that I could sing for

00:09:53.320 two hours straight.

00:09:54.200 Like everybody, you know, every single word.

00:09:58.120 Everybody in the whole place is singing it too, which is awesome.

00:10:01.120 It's awesome.

00:10:01.680 But watching you, man, it is like a fit.

00:10:05.140 It's like, I'm like, dang, if that guy's wearing his, like his Fitbit.

00:10:10.880 I just said that in an interview like an hour ago.

00:10:12.840 That dude is, he going to step out.

00:10:14.780 He's going to beat his year and a half a month.

00:10:15.980 Somehow I get fat when I go on tour, dude.

00:10:18.140 I have no idea how, dude.

00:10:20.440 Well, cause it's, it's just incredible, man.

00:10:22.400 It's such a show, bro.

00:10:23.600 It's so powerful.

00:10:24.380 Yeah, I'm just, it's, I don't know.

00:10:26.400 I just have the, I feel like, I grew up like watching rock shows and then like, FGL had

00:10:32.960 me out a lot like early and I got to watch their show and how active they were and like,

00:10:37.000 I don't know.

00:10:37.500 I just feel like I learned from that and that's just kind of the only way I know how to, you

00:10:42.040 know, translate all that into mine or whatever.

00:10:44.700 Yeah, and it just feels like it fits you.

00:10:46.760 It feels like just like, oh, you're just getting who Hardy is.

00:10:49.160 That's what I'm feeling like, oh, wow.

00:10:50.520 Yeah.

00:10:50.900 This is who this guy is.

00:10:52.120 This is real exciting.

00:10:53.060 Yeah, man.

00:10:53.840 It matches the music too, especially with like, we're doing the rock stuff now and,

00:10:57.520 and so it's, the music itself is really high energy.

00:11:00.140 So I feel like I'm just having to keep up with my, the music, the songs, you know.

00:11:04.120 Oh, dang.

00:11:04.620 And portraying all that at the same time, I guess.

00:11:06.780 Are there ones where you got to take a couple of breaths before you start the, bro?

00:11:09.980 Yeah.

00:11:10.600 There's, dude, I, there are some songs that I am like suffocating, dude.

00:11:15.000 And I literally, I'll just like hold the mic out and be like, you guys, come on.

00:11:19.500 But really, I'm like, just fucking dying, dude.

00:11:21.980 Just trying to catch my breath.

00:11:23.660 And how, your fans are probably smokers too.

00:11:25.920 Like, no, no, you, you do it.

00:11:28.420 No, you, no, you.

00:11:29.360 And I'm like, no, fucking seriously, dude.

00:11:32.300 Yeah.

00:11:32.840 There's times for sure, man.

00:11:34.280 Like the first, right now, our set, the first six songs is like a ball buster, dude.

00:11:39.040 And it's awesome, but there's like no break.

00:11:41.660 And they're, the first five songs, especially are like all the, the biggest, like the heaviest,

00:11:46.900 like rock songs and the biggest singing and screaming songs.

00:11:49.540 So there's like no break.

00:11:51.640 It's crazy.

00:11:52.680 That's fire.

00:11:53.400 Exhausted, but it's fun.

00:11:54.780 Yeah.

00:11:55.160 The new album.

00:11:55.960 So Mockingbird of the Crow, it's like, um, it reminds me some of kid rock in a way.

00:12:01.080 That's a, yeah.

00:12:01.760 It reminds me of kid rock and, and then obviously country music.

00:12:06.780 Yeah.

00:12:07.340 You know, so it's, that's, uh, and people say you look like kid rock too.

00:12:11.900 Dude, you remember we were somewhere when you met kid rock.

00:12:15.620 Weren't we in the same place?

00:12:16.660 Oh yeah, we were.

00:12:16.840 Dude, it was, uh, Miranda Lambert opened her bar.

00:12:19.920 Yes.

00:12:20.500 The, uh, um, oh man, Casa, Casa Rosa or something like that.

00:12:25.200 Yeah.

00:12:25.300 Like a Spanish bar.

00:12:26.700 Yeah.

00:12:26.800 Yeah.

00:12:26.980 Yeah.

00:12:27.220 And downtown.

00:12:27.900 And, uh, yeah, she had a big, big star studded thing.

00:12:32.300 There we go.

00:12:33.480 Yeah.

00:12:33.940 And people, people had always told you, you guys look like each other.

00:12:37.680 Well, yeah, dude, I get it.

00:12:39.740 I'm seeing more memes and stuff now, but dude, I, yeah.

00:12:42.960 And I like that night when we met, like he already knew about it, apparently.

00:12:47.540 So like he made a joke.

00:12:48.980 He like was like my long lost brother, which kind of that.

00:12:51.780 Cause, cause I, I was a huge fan of kid rock back in the day, like massive and still am.

00:12:56.020 And I, I know him now, which is crazy, but I love him.

00:12:58.140 And, and, um, yeah, so he was in on the joke.

00:13:01.940 And like the first thing he did is like took my hat off and put his hat and was like, let's

00:13:04.740 take a picture, you know, twins or whatever.

00:13:06.960 It was cool.

00:13:07.720 Yeah.

00:13:08.020 But yeah, that was that night.

00:13:08.920 I was, I was, I forgot about that.

00:13:10.300 I was, that was really cool.

00:13:11.660 Yeah.

00:13:11.980 I think I, honestly, I think I might've taken one of those pictures.

00:13:14.360 I want to look through my pictures and see.

00:13:16.460 Um, yeah.

00:13:17.680 So where did some of that come from for you?

00:13:19.680 So, because some guys don't have that both sides of that thing.

00:13:23.360 They're really, they're in one world kind of, but you don't.

00:13:26.020 You really want, that's, you have a foot in both, in both boots, man.

00:13:30.300 Man, I tell everybody, like I grew up in a small town and, you know, country, you know,

00:13:34.780 I grew up 8,000 people and, uh, probably real similar at Covington, right?

00:13:39.200 Yeah.

00:13:39.440 Yeah.

00:13:39.660 Yeah.

00:13:39.920 Similar, just, just small, small ass town.

00:13:42.360 And so like growing up, that's everything lifestyle wise I absorbed.

00:13:47.460 So that's like, that's where all the country comes from and the lyrics and all that stuff.

00:13:51.620 That's how I grew up.

00:13:52.440 But like, I did not listen to country music at all.

00:13:55.140 Who listened to music in your house that you heard?

00:13:57.120 Everybody.

00:13:57.720 My music, other than like God, you know, like music was number two behind, you know, religion

00:14:04.780 in my, in my house.

00:14:05.760 Like, like, uh, there was always music playing.

00:14:08.960 My sister was a really good singer.

00:14:10.240 Uh, my dad didn't play or sing, but he was like obsessed with rock and roll and my mom

00:14:15.060 played piano.

00:14:15.760 So, I mean, music was, you know, it was huge in my house.

00:14:18.680 So I had no choice, but to be obsessed with it growing up.

00:14:21.420 Do you remember like the first song you ever heard?

00:14:23.440 Yeah.

00:14:23.880 Really?

00:14:24.260 I have a vivid memory, dude.

00:14:26.060 It was, uh, Alive by Pearl Jam.

00:14:28.300 Oh.

00:14:28.600 Dude.

00:14:28.940 I know where we were in Philadelphia, in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

00:14:33.080 Yeah.

00:14:33.260 We were in my dad's truck and he had a cassette and he said, listen to this, this is a band

00:14:36.940 called Pearl Jam and he put the cassette in and that riff from Alive started playing.

00:14:41.140 It was like something out of a movie, dude.

00:14:42.680 My brain chemistry just changed and I was like, what the fuck is this?

00:14:46.420 And I was like four, but I remember it's one of my first, dude, amazing.

00:14:51.380 It changed my life forever.

00:14:53.240 Did you, and was it just you and your dad?

00:14:55.560 In that, in that moment?

00:14:56.460 Yeah.

00:14:56.740 Yeah.

00:14:57.660 Yeah.

00:14:57.860 And he, he, he saw it like then, like he, he was like, okay, this, you know, thank

00:15:02.480 God, like my son loves rock and roll or whatever.

00:15:04.500 And so from then until I could like drive, basically every time we got in the truck,

00:15:09.580 it was something new.

00:15:10.500 Aerosmith or ZZ Top, you know, and, but it was never country.

00:15:13.660 He, he liked a little bit of like Merle Haggard and like, I guess if you call John

00:15:17.580 Prine country, like, but he knew he never played, it was always rock and roll.

00:15:22.280 So I owe all of my, and then I found, you know, then I got into like, by the time my

00:15:27.340 like prime setting, like teen, you know, angst or music influence years was like Lincoln

00:15:31.580 Park and like Puddle of Mud and all that new metal, Limp Bizkit and all that

00:15:34.400 shit.

00:15:34.560 So I've kind of discovered that on my own, but I owe all of my childhood, like music

00:15:37.980 taste or whatever to my dad.

00:15:40.140 It was all classic rock.

00:15:41.560 Yeah.

00:15:42.160 There's something interesting.

00:15:43.760 Cause Lainey Wilson was just on here.

00:15:45.680 Yeah.

00:15:45.700 Listen to it.

00:15:46.340 Yeah.

00:15:46.500 She's great.

00:15:47.100 Yeah.

00:15:47.360 Awesome.

00:15:47.960 Yeah, dude.

00:15:48.660 She like, I mean, yeah, she's magical.

00:15:51.520 And you guys have that great song together, man.

00:15:54.620 Waiting the truck.

00:15:55.420 Waiting the truck.

00:15:55.740 Yeah.

00:15:56.460 And so, but I was thinking like, and I was talking on there about the first time that I heard

00:16:01.380 a song, I was with my babysitter and I wonder sometimes if there's like something about

00:16:05.940 just you and your dad together.

00:16:07.480 Like sometimes it takes like a certain, like, uh, I don't know what I'm thinking exactly.

00:16:13.440 Like, cause I remember it was that I was alone with, I'd never been in a car with somebody

00:16:17.100 that wasn't like probably all my brothers and sisters at the same time or all of us.

00:16:21.980 I was like, my babysitter was taking me somewhere.

00:16:23.600 So it was me and her.

00:16:24.700 Right.

00:16:24.960 It was just like this moment and then she put in a cassette and so my senses were already

00:16:28.980 real alert.

00:16:29.880 Yeah.

00:16:30.120 Yeah.

00:16:30.300 Yeah.

00:16:30.620 That's interesting.

00:16:31.660 I never really thought about it like that.

00:16:33.160 But I'm sure you and your dad had probably gone different places together, but that's

00:16:35.940 cool that he put that in.

00:16:36.880 Dude.

00:16:37.520 Imagine if there's like a dad and he puts like a good song on for the kid and the kid doesn't

00:16:41.880 give a shit.

00:16:43.500 Dude.

00:16:43.860 Coming from a music family, like it would have broken my dad's heart if I would have just

00:16:47.400 looked and said like, I don't, I don't like this.

00:16:49.820 Can you just turn it?

00:16:50.460 Can we sit in silence?

00:16:51.700 A four year old just asking if he could turn it off.

00:16:54.340 This hurts my ears or something, dude.

00:16:56.300 Bro, that'd be so crazy.

00:16:57.540 He would have died.

00:16:58.760 He would have hated that.

00:16:59.720 Or the dad even puts on something that's kind of like just not even that great and the

00:17:03.940 kid's like, this is trash.

00:17:05.140 Yeah.

00:17:05.400 But the dad like loves his favorite song and the kid's like, this fucking sucks.

00:17:10.840 That would have been horrible, dude.

00:17:12.240 I hope that does not happen to me, dude.

00:17:13.800 That would break my heart if I have a kid one day.

00:17:15.540 I know.

00:17:16.140 That would have to be such a heartbreaker.

00:17:17.640 Dude, I think about that a lot.

00:17:18.960 Like imagine if your kid isn't smart and you have to like wish him good luck on a test or

00:17:23.200 something when he leaves for school and you know, like the luck isn't going to, nothing's

00:17:27.980 going to help him.

00:17:28.780 I feel like parents probably go through that though.

00:17:32.080 Oh, yeah.

00:17:32.240 You know what I mean?

00:17:33.220 Like your kid sucks at fucking volleyball, soccer.

00:17:37.180 I don't know.

00:17:37.600 But you go out, you just have, like your kid likes it for whatever reason and you just

00:17:40.920 have to go watch him like fail until they lose interest in it.

00:17:43.880 Oh, that's crazy though.

00:17:44.940 If you have a kid who like, he loves like just not even being good at it kind of, but

00:17:49.840 he still wants to go.

00:17:51.180 Cause usually kids want to stop going if they're not good.

00:17:54.180 Yeah.

00:17:54.620 But I guess when you're like a young kid, I don't know.

00:17:56.720 That's, I don't know what would go on in a kid's mind, but like T-ball, you know, like

00:18:01.520 if they're horrible, like does the kid, is the kid old enough to be like, I'm not very

00:18:06.280 good.

00:18:06.680 I don't feel like a kid would say, I'm not very good at this.

00:18:09.640 I don't want to do it anymore.

00:18:10.480 Maybe, maybe like seven or eight, but when they're real little, maybe not.

00:18:14.680 And then you have to have that talk, like, you know, like if, especially parents that

00:18:19.320 grew up like, you know, middle class or whatever you want to call it.

00:18:21.440 And like, they're spending money, you know, on this thing and they're, you know, the kid's

00:18:24.560 terrible.

00:18:24.920 Like does the parents sit them down and say like, look, maybe you should find something

00:18:28.500 that's, you're going to actually be better at.

00:18:30.360 So we don't, we're not spending our money on this wasteful shit.

00:18:34.360 I don't know.

00:18:34.560 Yeah.

00:18:34.720 That's wild.

00:18:35.380 I think that's kind of, yeah, I'm trying to think of what I played.

00:18:38.680 And I think I play, oh, our team was, did you play baseball?

00:18:41.980 Oh dude, I was bad.

00:18:44.220 I was under, I couldn't even believe I was so bad.

00:18:46.700 At baseball?

00:18:47.680 Dude.

00:18:47.920 Yeah.

00:18:48.060 And the field we played on was like slanted, right?

00:18:50.300 We had a bad, was it slanted down?

00:18:52.200 So would, so would a home run be easier to hit though?

00:18:54.240 Like, cause you know, in golf, like if it's downhill, it's technically shorter.

00:18:57.800 Oh no, that would have been great.

00:18:58.940 Ours was just slanted over to the side to right field.

00:19:02.540 So every like kind of, if you hit it to third, it ended up like out in center field.

00:19:06.820 So it was.

00:19:08.980 What was the name of your park?

00:19:11.480 Oh, we played out at, uh, Cordell Furniture and American Legion.

00:19:17.080 Okay.

00:19:17.380 American Legion.

00:19:18.100 Yeah.

00:19:18.560 Everybody usually played at American Legion.

00:19:20.040 Yeah.

00:19:20.240 Yeah.

00:19:20.380 Yeah.

00:19:20.560 Something like that.

00:19:21.280 Ours was Northside Park, but then I'm pretty sure the American Legion was like right behind

00:19:25.900 the park.

00:19:26.400 Yeah.

00:19:27.040 It's like, that comes as a package deal.

00:19:28.860 It's like the national guard, the fire station and the American Legion, right?

00:19:32.200 Yeah.

00:19:32.540 Especially like in a smaller community, that stuff is awesome, man.

00:19:34.960 Yeah.

00:19:35.860 Um, what was, so what was Philadelphia like?

00:19:37.400 You're from Philadelphia, Mississippi.

00:19:38.620 What was that kind of like?

00:19:39.560 Man, I loved it, dude.

00:19:40.600 It sounds like a perfect size.

00:19:41.740 8,000 is like kind of a great size.

00:19:43.340 It's the most cliche in a way, the most cliche in the best way, like small town, dude.

00:19:49.060 Like when you hear like a cliche ass country song about the courthouse square and the whole

00:19:53.960 deal, it's, it is the definition of a small town.

00:19:57.400 But dude, it, you know, I hear a lot of people, I meet a lot of people that are like, talk

00:20:01.920 about where they're from and they're like, I'm glad I got out of that shithole.

00:20:04.360 And like, I had never felt that way.

00:20:05.900 I absolutely loved my hometown.

00:20:08.160 Yeah.

00:20:08.420 It was really cool.

00:20:09.440 And there was obviously, you know, like drama and everything.

00:20:13.580 It was all, there was just as much bad as the good, but I was just very thankful

00:20:18.620 for my time there and I still love to go.

00:20:21.120 We had it, dude, the coolest thing about my hometown is we have a county fair and this is

00:20:24.880 worth of Google called the Neshoba, N-E-S-H-O-B-A, Neshoba County Fair.

00:20:29.600 Okay.

00:20:29.900 Neshoba County Fair.

00:20:31.000 So that's, so y'all's county was Neshoba County, Mississippi.

00:20:33.460 Yeah, Neshoba.

00:20:33.860 I think it means like, uh, it's a Choctaw.

00:20:36.840 It's Choctaw.

00:20:37.600 Yeah.

00:20:37.800 And it's, I think it means like wolf or something like that.

00:20:40.280 I'm not sure I could be wrong or I could be completely wrong about that, but dude, so

00:20:44.740 this fair is everything else about it is just like a county fair.

00:20:48.000 You have horse races, all the whole thing, but you, but you have like 800 of these cabins

00:20:54.040 and they're all family owned and you, you, you move out there, uh, for an entire week

00:20:59.940 and it's the heat of the summer.

00:21:00.940 It's hot as fuck.

00:21:01.680 And you being from Louisiana in the, like the end of July, dude, it's brutal.

00:21:05.920 But, and you live out there and they air conditioning, like, you know, AC units and all that kind

00:21:10.700 of stuff or window units and stuff.

00:21:12.640 But dude, it's, it's the most fun.

00:21:14.560 It's the most unique thing ever because the town literally shuts down and everybody in

00:21:19.220 the little Quadra County area just goes to the fair and you, you, people take off work.

00:21:23.560 Like, and you stay out there and just kind of party and hang out for a week.

00:21:27.820 And it's amazing.

00:21:28.560 And the, the houses and stuff, they're around a lake or they're around, uh, around the,

00:21:32.900 around the fairgrounds.

00:21:34.000 Picture it like a giant, like cookie cutter neighborhood somewhere.

00:21:37.420 Okay.

00:21:37.780 There's like 10 rows here and then you kind of go over and there's a little section here

00:21:41.640 with a long row and then back over here.

00:21:43.340 But the, the, the like cornerstone of it is around, there's cabins that wrap around the

00:21:48.700 racetrack and that's like the cool picture ask, but there, there's 800 of them.

00:21:52.680 And they, dude, it's, it's like 200 years old or something crazy like that.

00:21:56.520 They're family owned.

00:21:57.640 Do they get broken up in divorces and wills?

00:22:00.660 You there, dude, if somebody sells one, you can sell them for like half a million dollars.

00:22:03.980 It's a really cool little piece of like Americana South.

00:22:08.840 That's like kind of still undiscovered.

00:22:10.760 I can't believe like Barstool Sports or somebody hasn't gone out and like kind of blown it up

00:22:14.920 yet, but it's a really cool little gym of the South.

00:22:17.040 Wow.

00:22:17.780 You have never, can you zoom in on one of those please, Ben?

00:22:20.700 I've never even seen, I've never even heard of this.

00:22:23.440 The Neshoba County Fair.

00:22:25.160 Yeah, man.

00:22:25.660 Have you played it yet?

00:22:26.540 I did.

00:22:27.120 I got to play it.

00:22:28.100 I was supposed to play it 2020.

00:22:29.840 It got first year, it got canceled since the civil war, not since the civil war, World

00:22:33.380 War II, since the depression, I believe.

00:22:36.480 And, um, but so it got canceled.

00:22:39.680 So I played it in 2021 and it was like, it's like three top three, like bucket list places

00:22:45.540 that, you know, and I got to play it and it was incredible.

00:22:48.940 Wow.

00:22:49.400 It was really, really cool.

00:22:50.300 And do people come in from around to see it or is more just the locals kind of go?

00:22:54.000 Well, the locals, it's the locals like have the cabins, right?

00:22:57.600 And then like, you'll have a, you'll have a crew like from Jackson that's had a cabin

00:23:00.720 for forever, maybe from Louisiana or like a, we know family from Texas that somehow has

00:23:05.380 a cabin that come every year, but like a lot of people from around the state will come

00:23:09.320 for like a night, like the first weekend and the last weekend, it starts on a Friday, ends

00:23:13.560 on a Friday, you know?

00:23:14.780 And like, so people from all over will take off work and like crash with a friend or go

00:23:18.940 and come or whatever.

00:23:20.000 But, uh, for the most part, the people that live around there are the ones that have the

00:23:23.220 cabins.

00:23:24.020 Wow.

00:23:24.380 And you guys can't see it.

00:23:25.120 I mean, if you're seeing on YouTube, maybe you can see some of these pictures, but it's

00:23:28.520 beautiful.

00:23:29.020 I mean, yeah, they have all these homes are beautifully colored and yeah, it's like a bourbon street

00:23:32.720 kind of vibe, honestly.

00:23:33.800 And then it mixed with like college football, like every, a lot of cabins are like Ole Miss

00:23:37.300 or Mississippi state, Southern Miss, like decorated kind of thing.

00:23:40.600 Ours is a big Mississippi state cabin.

00:23:42.160 Dang baby.

00:23:43.580 Wow.

00:23:44.100 That's nice, man.

00:23:45.020 Really cool.

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00:26:49.300 And what'd your folks do in town like for a living?

00:26:51.780 My dad was a chicken farmer and my mom was a food service manager for Philadelphia High

00:26:56.680 School.

00:26:56.880 I went to Neshoba Central, the county school, but my mom was the food service manager.

00:27:01.280 So she like was the lunch lady's boss and like playing meals and did, you know, like she

00:27:07.700 had a big spatula.

00:27:08.880 Yeah.

00:27:09.280 Yeah.

00:27:09.620 But my dad was a chicken farmer.

00:27:11.360 Was he really?

00:27:12.000 Yeah.

00:27:12.360 Wow.

00:27:12.860 So did y'all have extra chickens at the house as pets and stuff?

00:27:15.540 Hell no, dude.

00:27:16.360 No way.

00:27:16.800 He didn't bring anything home?

00:27:17.820 This was like, this was like Tyson chicken, dude.

00:27:20.920 Like, oh, he's working out there at one of the plants.

00:27:22.860 Five yard long houses with 27,500 chickens in a house.

00:27:28.280 And they're violent, aren't they?

00:27:29.560 Those animals.

00:27:30.480 Yeah.

00:27:30.740 Like game roosters are.

00:27:32.520 These chickens were like, I don't know, politically correct.

00:27:37.020 They were not.

00:27:37.600 Special ed.

00:27:38.420 A little more.

00:27:39.320 It's fine.

00:27:40.060 I was in special ed.

00:27:41.340 Yeah.

00:27:41.600 They were, they were, they were that kind of deal.

00:27:43.780 Like they're challenged chickens.

00:27:47.260 Yeah.

00:27:47.560 Look, let's be honest with what they're giving people.

00:27:49.500 Look, you ain't get, if you getting a McNugget, you ain't getting the best chicken, bro.

00:27:53.920 No, you're not.

00:27:54.500 And these things, man.

00:27:55.300 You ain't getting a Harvard bird.

00:27:56.960 No.

00:27:57.360 You ain't getting a fucking Yale chicken.

00:27:59.640 Exactly.

00:28:00.280 You're not getting the ones that are like on pictures on websites and shit.

00:28:03.660 They have those things.

00:28:05.280 These were like different.

00:28:06.840 They would start like this big and in seven weeks, they'd be a seven pound chicken.

00:28:11.240 They were pumping them things full of, I don't even know what, dude.

00:28:14.120 And would they send them like a little gym to, I mean, is there, what do they do?

00:28:16.800 And then they don't move, huh?

00:28:17.980 No, they're just packed in a house that the floor is literally chicken shit.

00:28:21.580 Oh, man.

00:28:22.400 And, uh, and, uh, it's just, it's crazy.

00:28:24.200 It's the way it is, man.

00:28:25.220 And, and, uh, there's a feed line and there's tons of like, it's just a long feed line and

00:28:29.940 it has a little reservoir and they eat and there's water.

00:28:32.700 And, uh, my dad had this thing called a cake machine and it literally, it was designed

00:28:37.240 for chicken houses that you would go in after they catch all the chickens because the shit

00:28:41.700 would be so compacted after they, you know, the people and all the chickens have been in there

00:28:45.660 and it would break up the chicken shit and lay it back out like dry and like soft for

00:28:51.160 the next chicken's cake machine.

00:28:53.120 Wow.

00:28:53.720 Yeah.

00:28:54.620 And is that a real machine that they have?

00:28:56.780 Yeah.

00:28:57.220 I mean, it was.

00:28:58.620 It breaks up chicken shit and then what lays it back out?

00:29:01.340 Yeah, like scoops it up.

00:29:02.340 Like almost tilling the soil?

00:29:03.200 Yeah.

00:29:03.640 It's literally, it's kind of like that, but it, it probably, it like goes into this, it's

00:29:08.100 like a big machine and you would scoop it up and it would go through the machine somehow.

00:29:13.160 And I think it would like dry it and just, it turns it into powder again and lays it back

00:29:17.120 down.

00:29:17.460 And then every time they would catch, you'd have to go back to there.

00:29:19.460 It's like mowing grass, but like scooping up chicken shit.

00:29:22.220 Yeah.

00:29:23.400 Wow.

00:29:24.040 We had a turkey farmer on.

00:29:25.760 Really?

00:29:26.020 Yeah.

00:29:26.320 And it was real interesting just learning about how quick they get them ready for Thanksgiving.

00:29:30.580 Really?

00:29:31.040 You know, and how they like change the lights in there and stuff to make them think that

00:29:34.800 it's day and night and stuff like that.

00:29:36.500 Oh yeah.

00:29:36.700 I think maybe my dad did some of that too.

00:29:38.920 It's kind of like that saw, like saw the movie, you know?

00:29:41.700 Big saw vibes, dude.

00:29:43.120 For sure.

00:29:43.780 Like if, if I, if I, if reincarnation is a thing, that's one of the last things, if not

00:29:49.680 the last thing I'd want to come back, it would be one of those chickens, dude.

00:29:53.400 It's crazy.

00:29:54.000 It's a really shitty life, man.

00:29:55.380 Oh.

00:29:56.020 Hmm.

00:29:57.240 Yeah.

00:29:57.560 We're doing better than them.

00:29:59.060 Yeah.

00:29:59.380 We do.

00:30:00.740 What, uh, I'm trying to think there's a bunch of stuff that I want to, that I want to talk

00:30:04.060 to you about.

00:30:04.720 What was, Oh, what was I looking at earlier that I was thinking about?

00:30:07.840 Um, whenever, whenever you start getting into tunes, like what is the first instruments

00:30:12.600 that you get?

00:30:13.060 Like who gets you keyed into music?

00:30:14.440 Like obviously your stuff, your dad was listening to.

00:30:16.780 You liked it.

00:30:17.580 Yeah.

00:30:17.860 Your mom's playing music around the house.

00:30:19.800 Yes.

00:30:20.300 Right.

00:30:20.560 So you're hearing a lot of good tunes.

00:30:22.320 When do you start to really get like an ear like, Oh, this is something that I'm kind

00:30:25.580 of good at.

00:30:26.400 I got, I got a guitar when I was little.

00:30:28.620 Um, I got like, my parents got me like a little Fender Squire, like a hundred dollar

00:30:33.140 guitar and a little guitar amp when I was like probably fifth or sixth grade.

00:30:37.700 And I picked it up.

00:30:39.360 I learned like the bar court, like the easiest shit, like smoke on the water and crap.

00:30:43.340 Like, you know what I mean?

00:30:43.820 Like, Oh yeah.

00:30:44.440 Sweet home Alabama and just all the shit that everybody learns.

00:30:47.060 Stairway to heaven.

00:30:48.360 No, not even bro.

00:30:49.420 I couldn't, that was, that was like expert level compared to the shit I was learning.

00:30:53.280 Oh damn.

00:30:54.040 But, um, yeah.

00:30:55.980 And I picked that up and then like I got, I, I went into my teen years and I kind of put

00:31:00.580 it back down and then I picked it up again when I was like 16 or 17.

00:31:04.240 And that's when I like started to really, I'd like figured out like write songwriting and

00:31:08.480 like all that kind of stuff.

00:31:09.620 And like actually learning a little bit more about the guitar and getting a little bit better

00:31:12.980 and stuff was like, like later in high school.

00:31:16.200 And did you feel more like a performer?

00:31:18.400 Did you feel like a writer?

00:31:19.680 Like when you, when you think about what you felt like that drew you to something, you

00:31:23.460 know, like, like sometimes a comedy, like, I don't know if I think of myself as a writer.

00:31:27.140 I think of myself as a performer.

00:31:29.100 Right.

00:31:29.300 It's like, I think of myself as me and, and, and, yeah, like a performer.

00:31:33.660 Sure.

00:31:34.240 Did you have one or, or did you have a.

00:31:36.420 Man, it was writing for me, dude.

00:31:38.180 It was writing for me until five years ago.

00:31:40.480 Like I moved to town to be a songwriter and, um, my goal was to write hits for people.

00:31:47.520 And then, um, so that I always had that in me and like in, like in my favorite class

00:31:53.380 in school, I liked like biology cause I loved animals and like being outside and all that

00:31:56.840 kind of stuff.

00:31:57.200 But I, I was not a very good student, but I excelled randomly in writing.

00:32:02.560 And I was, I always had a really good knack for it, whether it was like essay, you know,

00:32:06.020 like short stories, whatever you had to write in school.

00:32:09.560 And, uh, I just had a knack for it.

00:32:11.160 And I was obsessed with it.

00:32:12.160 Like knowing that I had the ability to create a story or make something up or say something

00:32:17.680 in writing was always like really important to me for whatever reason.

00:32:22.900 Yeah.

00:32:22.980 And now I know why, like, that was just like, that was the gift that God gave me, I guess

00:32:27.040 was my interest in writing or whatever.

00:32:28.620 And, um, but so I, I, that's, it was always writing.

00:32:32.800 And then, um, the record, like the, the artist thing, you know, people say doing the artist

00:32:37.020 thing that came around the time, like Morgan's up down was a hit like that, cause that was

00:32:43.100 my first number one as a writer and it was his first number one as an artist.

00:32:46.360 And he was at big loud and I was writing other songs for other people at big loud.

00:32:49.480 And that's when they kind of came to me and they were just like, you know, do you want

00:32:53.120 to do the artist thing?

00:32:55.000 Wow.

00:32:55.520 Yeah.

00:32:56.520 And that was 20, it was 2018.

00:32:58.620 Damn, so that's not that long ago.

00:33:00.140 No, it, dude, it feels like a time has flown by, but it also feels like forever ago.

00:33:04.200 But like, I didn't, I was super apprehensive about it.

00:33:07.680 Like, well, most of that was COVID.

00:33:09.940 Yeah.

00:33:10.420 A lot of it.

00:33:11.100 Yeah.

00:33:11.360 I mean, when I really, my shit finally kind of started going is when 2020 happened.

00:33:15.780 Um, but I was, I saw like what Morgan was going through and it's not a bad thing.

00:33:20.120 It's, it's great.

00:33:20.920 But like you, if you're, if your shit like pops off, like it, it, your life changes.

00:33:26.380 You, you understand.

00:33:27.280 I mean, like your life changes forever.

00:33:28.940 And, and I just didn't know, like I had an offer on the table and I sat with it for months

00:33:34.200 because I didn't know if I wanted to, to do it.

00:33:36.620 I was, I'd had some success as a writer and I was like, man, it's, you get to go write

00:33:40.560 a fucking song and then go play golf every day or something.

00:33:42.900 And, and, uh, I just got done reading the alchemist and that book, it talks about opportunities

00:33:48.560 and omens and stuff like that a lot.

00:33:50.140 And, and, and so I had that in my head cause it, it kept kind of getting brought up of

00:33:53.580 like, you know, like, are you going to sign this record deal and blah, blah, blah.

00:33:56.500 And then I finally just said, I'm going to do it.

00:33:58.900 Cause I didn't want to regret it later, you know, having turned it down or whatever.

00:34:01.780 I think it's awesome that you, that you did choose that.

00:34:05.020 I mean, you know, like Mississippi has a lot of great writers, you know, I mean, over time,

00:34:10.020 some of the greatest writers are from Mississippi and, um, yeah.

00:34:14.440 Eudora Welty, I think she's from Mississippi, right?

00:34:16.500 Yeah, I think so.

00:34:17.460 Um, dude.

00:34:18.260 And then you've got Elvis.

00:34:19.660 Oh yeah.

00:34:20.220 You've got Robert Johnson who arguably created rock and roll with the blues.

00:34:24.060 Um, does, is, does he have us, does his son, did his son play music too?

00:34:28.500 I think so.

00:34:29.400 I should know that, but I don't.

00:34:30.640 Um, but yeah.

00:34:32.600 And it's, it's nice to see Mrs.

00:34:34.160 Kind of like, you know, cause people, a lot of times, especially in the South, they put

00:34:37.220 an artist onto a state, you know, it's good to see Louisiana getting a guy.

00:34:41.560 It's good to see Mississippi, you know, have a musician, you know, like that, uh, people

00:34:46.840 can get behind and a guy that has his own point of view and stuff like that.

00:34:50.260 I think it's because also a place needs that, you know, there needs to be a young man in Mississippi

00:34:55.940 right now who loves your music.

00:34:58.120 And then he's going to learn, he might not even realize right now you're from Mississippi.

00:35:01.640 He might just, and then in five years you were like, no way he's for, I could do that.

00:35:05.340 Yeah.

00:35:05.540 You know, so that's how things happen.

00:35:07.600 Absolutely.

00:35:08.160 Man.

00:35:08.340 We had, are you familiar with Marty Stewart?

00:35:10.440 Uh, he's a big bluegrass guy.

00:35:12.940 Pull him up please.

00:35:13.820 He had, he had a, uh, he had a couple of hits in just a regular country format in the nineties,

00:35:18.280 but he's a really famous roots, like bluegrass guy.

00:35:22.000 And, uh, he, there he is.

00:35:24.400 He is from Philadelphia, Mississippi.

00:35:26.440 And so when I was a kid, he was the shit.

00:35:29.780 And so exactly what you're saying, like, I always had that in my mind of like, well,

00:35:34.620 somebody from Philly went and did it, you know, and he really made it.

00:35:37.500 I mean, he's very, very respected in the country.

00:35:40.100 He's really big in the Opry and like all that, you know, and I've certainly heard his name

00:35:44.400 before.

00:35:44.800 So it was inspiring, man.

00:35:45.780 That was like, uh, I knew it was like exactly what you said, like it can be done.

00:35:50.660 And that gave me the courage to move up here and give it a shot.

00:35:52.940 Well, there's a part of your brain that you don't even know that's working that it's like,

00:35:56.800 okay, that's in my head that that's possible.

00:35:59.860 And until that little thing, until that little coin gets put in your bank, your brain doesn't

00:36:05.260 really have that as a, as, as, as part of its account.

00:36:08.660 Yeah.

00:36:09.000 You're not like hyper-focused on that.

00:36:10.640 It's just your subconscious.

00:36:11.360 No, it's just, yeah, your subconscious.

00:36:12.780 Like, oh, this can happen in your subconscious that, you know, it just starts to be part of

00:36:17.120 the, uh, your assets, you know, in the background, you're like, oh, then eventually it can happen.

00:36:22.520 My favorite comedian, one of the reasons I believe that I got into comedy and storytelling

00:36:26.820 myself, um, my best friend, Scott, he's, uh, uh, his dad is from Jackson.

00:36:32.920 His family's from Jackson.

00:36:33.740 Mississippi.

00:36:34.360 Yeah.

00:36:34.720 Cool.

00:36:34.920 And I would go up there and he would play Jerry Clower for me.

00:36:39.880 Oh, come on, dude.

00:36:41.340 Speaking my language, dude.

00:36:42.580 Bro, he would play Jerry Clower.

00:36:44.180 Knock him out, John, dude.

00:36:45.220 Knock him out, John.

00:36:46.280 Come on.

00:36:46.500 And he'd be like from Yazoo City, Mississippi.

00:36:48.740 That's it.

00:36:49.220 And, and, and I was like, oh my God, like this guy, like he's, it just, it's amazing what

00:36:55.580 he's doing and like that, that this is a possible thing.

00:36:58.180 And I think hearing that to this day has had a big effect on the fact that, um, that I got

00:37:03.900 into storytelling and that I like it or that I believed maybe that I could do it.

00:37:08.920 Um.

00:37:09.320 Do you think like, was he kind of the first guy that really based his comedy around Southern

00:37:15.060 ideals and stuff?

00:37:17.980 I think he was a really, well, he sounded very Southern.

00:37:22.760 Right.

00:37:23.380 But I think he was probably just a good storyteller.

00:37:26.420 And he had a lot of that, like, um, the lead betters, you know, like he named people in

00:37:31.480 his neighborhood and characters.

00:37:33.560 So when you were listening to him, you start, he had this world was being built, you know?

00:37:37.700 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:38.060 And so I think I, I've, that was fascinating to me.

00:37:41.360 Well, I was curious because you talk a lot about people from your hometown and stuff.

00:37:44.340 Oh yeah.

00:37:44.520 That was an influence or whatever.

00:37:45.940 Yeah.

00:37:46.120 No, I think it probably had a lot to do with it, you know, but it was funny because yeah,

00:37:49.840 my best friend's dad, he said, yeah, you should, you got to listen to this guy.

00:37:53.940 You'll love him.

00:37:54.520 And he put him on and I just, I couldn't believe it was a thing, you know, and he was, and then.

00:37:59.960 Man, that's awesome, dude.

00:38:00.900 I haven't really heard Jerry Clower in a long time.

00:38:04.380 That, I remember my childhood playing him too.

00:38:07.000 Everybody knew his bits, right?

00:38:08.200 Oh yeah.

00:38:08.760 It was really cool.

00:38:10.000 Yeah.

00:38:10.180 And you go, and there's, there's video you see him performing.

00:38:12.420 He always wore this kind of like loud red outfit.

00:38:15.600 Right.

00:38:15.740 He was a big dude too, right?

00:38:17.020 Yeah.

00:38:17.460 And he was a drug, he had a cocaine problem for a while and he ended up being a pastor,

00:38:21.820 I think towards the end of his years.

00:38:22.920 I didn't know that.

00:38:23.760 His wife still lives in Mississippi, but.

00:38:25.620 He passed not like that long ago, right?

00:38:27.640 10, 15 years ago, something like that.

00:38:29.840 Yeah.

00:38:30.200 I'm not sure when he passed, I would say 10.

00:38:32.020 Yeah.

00:38:32.320 It sounded like about 10 or 15 years ago.

00:38:34.220 Yeah.

00:38:35.680 But one day I was getting out of my car at the mall and this guy comes running up and

00:38:40.260 he goes, Hey man, I've heard you say that my grandfather is your favorite comedian.

00:38:45.420 And it was his grandson.

00:38:46.620 Here?

00:38:47.200 Jonathan Clower.

00:38:48.160 Yeah.

00:38:48.320 Here?

00:38:48.900 Here.

00:38:49.060 No way, dude.

00:38:50.200 Did he look like him?

00:38:50.900 It was pretty cool.

00:38:51.620 Was he a big dude?

00:38:52.480 I mean, he was young.

00:38:53.460 So it was hard to be like, I didn't want to fucking, you know.

00:38:55.440 Dude, that's really cool though.

00:38:56.680 He lives in Nashville.

00:38:57.520 Put him in old clothes and see how he looked, you know.

00:39:00.820 He didn't have like the old, like puffed up fucking hair.

00:39:03.480 It would have been crazy if he just had old ass hair.

00:39:06.620 He was born like that.

00:39:08.940 So how'd you get over to, so at that point, so you're starting to write, you're in school.

00:39:13.800 How did you get over to Mississippi State?

00:39:15.440 That's where you went, right?

00:39:16.180 No, I didn't.

00:39:17.100 Dude, I moved to, dude.

00:39:18.180 This is my biggest, and I understand like if I didn't move up here when I did, like my

00:39:22.840 life would be completely different.

00:39:24.060 But that's like my biggest life regret is that both my parents went to state.

00:39:27.520 We're a Mississippi State family, but I moved to Nashville when I was 19.

00:39:30.840 I went to one semester at a junior college called East Central Community College in Decatur,

00:39:36.080 Mississippi.

00:39:36.520 But no, I didn't go to state.

00:39:39.040 I actually went to Middle Tennessee down here in Murfreesboro.

00:39:43.200 And you got your degree from there eventually?

00:39:44.400 Yeah, I did.

00:39:44.900 Oh, wow.

00:39:45.540 Commercial songwriting.

00:39:46.840 Dang, really?

00:39:47.760 Yeah.

00:39:48.540 So you just went and took a class on it?

00:39:50.020 Yeah.

00:39:50.260 I mean, it's like a poor man's Belmont, you know what I mean?

00:39:52.500 Yeah.

00:39:53.160 Like all the kids, all the belt, the kids that didn't get into Belmont, which is like,

00:39:56.560 you know, the big music.

00:39:57.640 I mean, it literally sits at the end of Music Row down here.

00:39:59.860 Um, but yeah, I mean, and the songwriting class was like, whatever.

00:40:06.140 And I've said this before and I feel kind of uncomfortable because I know there's people

00:40:08.700 watching it probably that go to MTSU there.

00:40:10.840 But like when I was there, it was like there was no filter.

00:40:13.500 So it was like a bunch of people that just weren't very good.

00:40:15.760 And so like it was like, okay, today we're going to learn about writing a verse and it's,

00:40:20.560 there's got to be structure and each line has to rhyme.

00:40:22.680 It's just stuff that like most people knew, but there were a couple of kids in there that

00:40:25.720 like got it.

00:40:26.300 You know what I mean?

00:40:26.620 Like you were, you like, you had to play a song you wrote every week and they'd critique

00:40:30.520 it and talk about it and this and that and the other.

00:40:32.300 Yeah.

00:40:32.660 And, and there was some people in there were horrible and, but there were some kids in

00:40:36.480 there that were really good, but you could tell like, that was what I took away was like

00:40:39.920 the people that had it, had it, but you can't like learn it.

00:40:42.940 Like you can't, in my opinion, like, I don't know if you could like say, man, I owe all of

00:40:47.380 my songwriting success to the songwriting class at MTSU.

00:40:51.000 Cause it's like songwriters, it's like any other form of writing.

00:40:54.280 It's like everybody has that weird internal voice and that's how they write and stuff.

00:40:58.680 And I feel like people are just born with that.

00:41:01.500 Yeah.

00:41:01.860 I think you can hone things and you can like fine tune them.

00:41:05.440 You can whittle them.

00:41:06.260 Right.

00:41:06.960 You know, you could put a little bit of, you know, you could put something in a cross,

00:41:10.800 you know, you could put a icing on something, but you got to have something.

00:41:14.060 You got to have the natural kind of thing, I think.

00:41:17.080 But I learned a lot about the industry there and like record deals and publishing.

00:41:21.380 I mean, I learned a ton about all that stuff and like even recording and studio stuff.

00:41:26.420 Like I got all of that, all of that stuff from MTSU.

00:41:30.460 Yeah.

00:41:30.840 And then the first time you hear those things in business, it's not the first time you've

00:41:33.920 ever heard them, you know?

00:41:34.820 So it's interesting how, like some people know I took a comedy class, right?

00:41:39.340 So I went to, I was in, uh, I was out in Los Angeles, you know, and everybody was just,

00:41:45.640 you know, it was when you first get out there, that's a lot of like kind of per, like every

00:41:49.740 people like they'll have agents and managers will sign you, but just cause they're damn

00:41:54.240 pedophiles or something, you know, it's like, they'll try to get you out to dinner and then

00:41:57.500 they give you a ride home and they're squeezing on your leg or something, you know, asking if

00:42:02.000 you got any leftovers on you or something like, you know, what are you talking about?

00:42:07.480 You know, I don't have any leftovers, but it's like, yeah, it's just a lot of pervs

00:42:11.600 out there.

00:42:12.400 But, um, eventually I found, you know, I said no to all that.

00:42:15.980 And then I got into a comedy class and the best thing about it was, I thought I was probably

00:42:24.020 in my head.

00:42:24.640 I thought it was better than the class, maybe in a weird way, or I didn't, but it made

00:42:29.660 you at the end of the class, you had to get on stage after six, you know, and then I realized

00:42:34.840 as a class went on, some people were better joke writers and they were better.

00:42:37.480 Or like, or get to keeping their stuff.

00:42:38.880 Or I just came in with a little bit of an attitude, I think, but at the end you got on

00:42:42.600 stage.

00:42:43.320 So how long was it?

00:42:44.440 How long did you have to go for?

00:42:45.820 It was six weeks and it was probably the actual performance.

00:42:49.000 Oh, three minutes.

00:42:50.080 Okay.

00:42:50.540 Damn.

00:42:50.880 So they didn't give you, you had to like, you had to give it everything you got then.

00:42:54.580 Oh yeah, dude.

00:42:55.720 And it was like, and the first week, they're like, at the end, we're going to do a three

00:42:58.740 minute performance.

00:42:59.240 You're like, I got that.

00:43:00.140 And then like the day of, I mean, you're, you know, you're losing it.

00:43:04.120 Yeah.

00:43:04.700 You know, people are just damn, you know, just losing it, jumping off a really small buildings,

00:43:09.940 not hurting themselves, but just, you know, just practice it in case they can't handle

00:43:13.720 it.

00:43:13.860 Exactly.

00:43:14.640 But, um, it got, yeah.

00:43:17.000 But then we got on stage and that was the thing.

00:43:19.540 That was the breaker.

00:43:20.800 It was like for you guys having to have a song at the end of the week.

00:43:23.360 It's like, yeah, that's the thing where it's like, okay.

00:43:26.600 Cause if I don't get on stage then, I don't know if I ever get on stage.

00:43:28.640 It's like, can you do it?

00:43:29.780 Can you actually do it?

00:43:30.800 Right.

00:43:31.100 Yeah.

00:43:31.900 And once you get that first, can you do it?

00:43:34.380 Once you get that first, like open mic or I'm going to write a song and play it in front

00:43:39.480 of other people.

00:43:40.220 Right.

00:43:40.960 Once you get through that first time, everything changes.

00:43:45.240 Yeah.

00:43:45.460 Cause then you have a real clear idea on if you're capable of it or what part of it

00:43:50.540 you're capable of the most.

00:43:51.860 Yeah.

00:43:52.200 And that's all contingent on your audience too.

00:43:54.360 Right.

00:43:54.600 In a way, cause you don't know if you killed it or if you did a good job, unless somebody

00:43:57.800 tells you people that, you know, you can trust.

00:44:00.540 That's a good point.

00:44:01.280 But I think you get a feeling as to, okay, maybe I loved writing it.

00:44:05.220 Maybe I didn't love being up there.

00:44:06.820 Maybe, I mean, you just get more information.

00:44:09.560 Yeah.

00:44:09.780 You know, it's crazy that the, the, how much, how little information you have before that

00:44:15.020 first step, almost with anything.

00:44:17.760 Yeah.

00:44:18.580 That's really true, man.

00:44:20.000 You know?

00:44:20.540 Yeah, that's very true.

00:44:21.520 Especially for getting on any type of stage.

00:44:23.340 It's like, you just don't, you know, yes, it's going to be thrown to the wolves in that

00:44:26.960 moment.

00:44:27.340 Right.

00:44:27.720 Yeah.

00:44:28.700 But, but right after that, you're like, all right, you know?

00:44:32.340 Yeah.

00:44:32.740 And then you get into like immediately, I feel that like you can immediately be like your brain

00:44:37.300 starts ticking on like what you could have done better and like how to make it better.

00:44:40.160 But you don't know that until you do it.

00:44:41.980 Right.

00:44:42.360 Yeah.

00:44:42.520 And it's so crazy.

00:44:43.600 The difference between I didn't do it yet till I just did it.

00:44:47.920 Yeah.

00:44:48.100 You'll come off like, and suddenly you'll be like, next time I'm going to do it this

00:44:51.380 way.

00:44:51.520 And you're like, what am I saying?

00:44:52.460 Next time, that means I want to do it again.

00:44:53.960 It's like just the little information that you get from taking that first step.

00:44:58.540 Dude, and that's such a cool snowball effect too, because it just, it gets better and better.

00:45:03.040 And like, you're constantly critiquing yourself and telling yourself next time, which

00:45:06.860 is manifesting that you're going to, it's going to get bigger and better and all that.

00:45:10.140 Yes.

00:45:10.420 True.

00:45:10.920 Yeah.

00:45:11.280 It's interesting.

00:45:12.120 It is, man.

00:45:13.940 When you write a song, like, so you guys write, you and Lainey wrote Wait in the Truck.

00:45:19.900 No.

00:45:20.160 So I, so she, she did not, she did not write it.

00:45:23.820 Okay.

00:45:24.160 Yes.

00:45:24.740 So you write the song with other writers?

00:45:26.760 Right.

00:45:26.980 Okay.

00:45:27.600 Yep.

00:45:29.640 Just, it's like going to work and you just, you know, go in a room and throw out your ideas

00:45:34.080 and sit around and write a song.

00:45:35.640 Now, say you walk in a room, right?

00:45:37.560 And you see the other writers in there.

00:45:39.180 Is there sometimes you're like, all right, I'm going to put a certain ideas.

00:45:41.780 And sometimes I'm keeping some in.

00:45:43.800 Ooh.

00:45:44.300 Yeah.

00:45:44.600 Oh, dude.

00:45:45.000 Like if you're, this is like, if you have a like balling ass, badass idea, like I'll sit

00:45:53.000 on that until I know I'm in a room.

00:45:54.880 Because if you throw it out, especially in Nashville, like LA, it can be a little greasier

00:45:58.960 where like people will take back ideas, but you just don't do that really in Nashville.

00:46:02.020 And like, like, uh, it's not as dog eat dog.

00:46:05.220 Let's just put it that way as it is in LA.

00:46:06.840 And, but like, I'll wait until I'm with some of my buddies or people that will completely

00:46:12.840 grasp a cool idea.

00:46:14.680 So, you know, you're going to nail it.

00:46:16.160 Cause I've made the mistake of throwing out a really good title with some people that could,

00:46:20.220 that just couldn't latch onto it as well as maybe other people could.

00:46:22.860 And you just kind of ruin the idea.

00:46:24.360 And then you can't really write it again or you're an asshole.

00:46:28.820 Right.

00:46:29.200 Because then other people are attached to it and that sort of thing.

00:46:31.840 And you get, then, then that's when like, you'll, you know, then if you did write it

00:46:35.040 10 years later, then you got to add these people because they were there when, you know,

00:46:38.300 and they're like, well, I said that line and you use that in this song too.

00:46:41.480 But yeah, there's definitely times like waiting the trucks, a perfect example.

00:46:44.380 So Hunter Phelps is like one of my best friends and I wrote that with him and Jordan

00:46:48.860 Schmidt, who's also one of my best friends.

00:46:50.360 You know, I'm pointing that way cause Jordan lives right down the road.

00:46:52.420 Okay.

00:46:52.680 Um, and Hunter and I kind of came up with that idea together and we knew Jordan

00:46:59.740 was a really incredible writer and that that was the time to bring that idea out

00:47:03.780 and write it with somebody.

00:47:05.200 Definitely.

00:47:06.020 That's wild, man.

00:47:07.000 That's cool.

00:47:07.920 Yeah.

00:47:08.100 It's interesting because I guess in the beginning you might go in and just put all

00:47:10.460 your eggs out there and the other two people, one of them shows up hung over.

00:47:14.000 One of them, you know, is prepped, you know, not prepped could be.

00:47:17.340 They just found out they're pregnant.

00:47:18.620 Right.

00:47:18.820 So the day is fucking ruined.

00:47:20.300 Yeah.

00:47:20.520 Their day is wrecked.

00:47:21.700 Yeah, exactly.

00:47:23.680 Uh, and then you're like, damn, man, you just don't get it to fruition.

00:47:28.480 Yeah.

00:47:28.900 And it, dude, it, it breaks my heart when I have a great idea and then you kind of ruin

00:47:32.120 it cause then you're just like, fuck like that, that, that, I mean really to get into

00:47:39.400 the technical or the not to be vain or not vain, but materialistic.

00:47:42.740 But you're like, I just missed out on like $200,000 because I had a hit idea and I just

00:47:47.260 ruined it on, on these people.

00:47:48.860 It happens, dude.

00:47:49.760 And you just kind of beat yourself up about it and like this and that.

00:47:52.960 Some people even go home and completely rewrite the idea and make it better and be like, send

00:47:57.160 it back to the people you wrote it with.

00:47:58.420 And you're like, I like this.

00:47:59.840 You guys can be on the song, but I read completely rewrote the song or whatever.

00:48:03.340 Does that happen sometimes where somebody will write it to other people who are in the room

00:48:06.520 and they get a part of the credit and that's that.

00:48:08.120 But yeah, the, the rule in Nashville is drop a word or say a word, take a third, you know,

00:48:13.920 like it doesn't matter if you're having a bad day and that there's like, it always evens

00:48:20.040 itself out.

00:48:20.560 Cause like you go into a room with two other people and one of the guys sits over there

00:48:24.020 and doesn't say a word.

00:48:25.160 He's still on the song.

00:48:26.420 He still has a third of the song.

00:48:28.060 Like fricking Boo Wordly over there.

00:48:30.080 Yeah.

00:48:30.260 Right.

00:48:30.640 Boo Radly.

00:48:31.200 Yeah.

00:48:31.520 Like sitting over there like fucking, just not saying a damn word, just staring at his phone

00:48:36.740 or something.

00:48:37.180 But then there's times where you might not be on your A game and somebody else, two of

00:48:41.020 the other guys or guys or girls are killing it.

00:48:42.980 And yeah, you know, you, it's just like a Nashville rule.

00:48:46.220 I know in LA, like they have lawyers and people like sitting in on rights, like paying attention

00:48:50.020 to who said what.

00:48:50.760 And then they like get in and they try to like negotiate who contributed the most.

00:48:54.640 And that's like the percentage they get.

00:48:57.100 That hasn't made it here yet.

00:48:58.380 I hope it doesn't, man.

00:48:59.140 This sounds stressful.

00:49:01.960 It ruins everything.

00:49:03.720 LA will ruin anything.

00:49:06.020 Are you still out there?

00:49:06.920 Do you still have, you still have out there at all?

00:49:08.820 Yeah.

00:49:09.160 I probably spent about three, almost three, I would say almost four months maybe.

00:49:13.260 All right.

00:49:13.720 Out of the year out there.

00:49:14.380 Cause I have to practice out there.

00:49:15.600 I can't really practice comedy in Nashville.

00:49:17.380 Yeah.

00:49:17.620 So Zany's, is that the only spot here?

00:49:19.960 Yeah.

00:49:20.600 That's kind of surprising.

00:49:21.700 I mean, it's good for them, I guess.

00:49:23.680 Cause they have like a, they, I mean, it's, it's like that until you, until you, you're

00:49:27.880 bigger than that.

00:49:28.420 Right.

00:49:28.580 And then you do like the Ryman or something, right?

00:49:30.240 Yeah.

00:49:31.480 So we could do other places.

00:49:32.760 Yeah.

00:49:32.940 It's like, but if I want to practice, you know, like in LA, you can probably, I can do three

00:49:36.640 spots a night.

00:49:38.400 Is that like comedy store and stuff like that?

00:49:40.540 Yeah.

00:49:40.560 Improv, comedy store.

00:49:42.380 There's a place called the Bourbon Room that's really popping.

00:49:46.160 West side comedy.

00:49:47.420 There's a, I mean, you could do five in a night if you wanted to, but at a certain point,

00:49:50.160 you're just driving around, like perform, you're not really learning anything, you know?

00:49:54.280 Do you just like show up and see the guy that runs the thing and you're like, y'all

00:49:58.100 got a spot for me or do you schedule it in advance?

00:50:00.040 No, on Mondays, usually you put it in your avails.

00:50:02.000 Ah.

00:50:02.520 So that, I mean, you can, someplace you could stop in and they'll let you get up if you have

00:50:07.560 a certain level of, I guess, success or notoriety, probably is a better term, but I don't know.

00:50:13.100 That always feels uncomfortable to me.

00:50:15.740 Like I always hate.

00:50:16.500 Does it feel like you're crashing a party?

00:50:17.380 Yeah, a little bit.

00:50:18.120 And it feels like it's not your, you know, somebody else drove up there.

00:50:21.580 Yeah.

00:50:21.800 They might have a couple of children.

00:50:23.080 They might be expecting to get home.

00:50:24.940 I don't want to wreck that guy's.

00:50:26.540 Yeah.

00:50:26.960 Or, you know, I don't want to have him get home 30 minutes later.

00:50:29.640 Yeah.

00:50:30.000 That's, you know.

00:50:30.640 That's nice.

00:50:31.280 That's like just out of respect, right?

00:50:32.660 It's like showing up to somebody's show and then somebody pointing you out and then you get up

00:50:36.480 there and play for an hour and steal the show or something.

00:50:38.900 Like if you want to do one, you know, but, but, but yeah, I think, yeah.

00:50:42.040 So that kind of thing is a little bit uncomfortable kind of.

00:50:44.700 So I would rather, I like to, and I like to know in advance when I'm going to have to go,

00:50:47.620 go to work.

00:50:48.580 Yeah.

00:50:49.000 You know, cause now it's, it is more like going to work.

00:50:52.200 Is it interesting?

00:50:53.000 Does that start to feel like that for you?

00:50:54.340 Like in the beginning that it was a lot more of like, this is fun and it's still fun.

00:51:00.440 Yeah.

00:51:00.720 Yeah.

00:51:01.400 But once it, once it becomes your work, it becomes your work.

00:51:05.840 Yeah.

00:51:06.140 Yeah, definitely.

00:51:07.200 I mean, man, I would almost argue and say that the, the more into it I get, like the,

00:51:14.500 the, the more the years have gone by, the, the more fun it feels and the less.

00:51:19.440 Cause when you're, if you just start out, man, and you're like, you've got a new brand new

00:51:23.980 single, you're doing like radio tour.

00:51:26.600 And I mean, you are grinding so hard and you're playing shitty shows for people that you're

00:51:32.900 either opening for somebody and the crowd is not there for you.

00:51:35.240 So they have no fucking idea who you are.

00:51:37.380 So, but then the more you're established, I feel like, I mean, it, it still feels like

00:51:41.920 work.

00:51:42.220 It's just a crazy job, but it's, it's, I think it's more fun.

00:51:45.740 The more like, you know, success you have, which I guess that, that makes, you know, that's

00:51:50.900 obvious, but.

00:51:51.860 No, it's not obvious really.

00:51:53.080 I don't think.

00:51:53.620 But I think it's interesting cause it's like, yeah, I don't know if, I guess there's different

00:52:00.600 ways to look at it or different ways that it kind of happened in the way you perceived

00:52:05.460 it.

00:52:06.160 Yeah.

00:52:07.260 Because I think some people would say that it was more fun in those other moments.

00:52:15.400 Yeah.

00:52:16.020 And I guess in some ways it is more, it's like, you don't know what's going to happen.

00:52:21.320 Yeah, that's true.

00:52:21.920 Well, that's true.

00:52:22.660 Like there's so much left to wonder, like what's going to come of that.

00:52:27.040 You mean?

00:52:27.520 Right.

00:52:27.660 Or what the other side of the coin can look like a little.

00:52:30.380 So I guess maybe fun isn't the overall word that we're kind of looking at.

00:52:35.200 It's like, it's all fun, but some of it's.

00:52:38.820 Thrilling, more thrilling in a way or.

00:52:41.040 Yeah.

00:52:41.540 I don't know.

00:52:42.760 I mean, I'm just trying to figure it out.

00:52:44.460 And today's one of those days where I'm not figuring it out that good, you know, but

00:52:48.540 that's okay, man.

00:52:51.340 But yeah, it's definitely, there's things that are more.

00:52:54.440 Well, there's more intrigue, I feel like, but I don't know, because then you get different

00:53:02.820 opportunities.

00:53:03.620 You're like, oh God, this is what this feels like.

00:53:05.960 You know, it's like.

00:53:06.500 Yeah.

00:53:06.640 I think it's all, it kind of comes in like, not waves, but even levels, right?

00:53:10.840 Like.

00:53:11.300 That's a good word.

00:53:11.980 You know, because then you have a, you have like a big record and then, then you're kind

00:53:16.640 of like new to a newer scene of more of a higher level, you know, and, and then there's

00:53:21.820 more wonder and all that.

00:53:22.980 And then like you blow up again or have another big moment.

00:53:25.920 And I don't know.

00:53:26.640 I feel like it could be kind of tiered, but it's all relative.

00:53:29.120 It's all the same situation, but just at different levels of success.

00:53:33.040 Maybe.

00:53:33.600 I think that's a good way to say it.

00:53:34.600 I remember going to you guys's show at the.

00:53:40.700 In Nashville.

00:53:41.540 At Bridgestone.

00:53:42.260 At Bridgestone.

00:53:42.940 Yeah.

00:53:43.240 And I remember seeing the arrows on the flutter taped on the floor where the, where the artists

00:53:50.220 go and go up and like, you know, cause it's dark back there.

00:53:52.600 Yeah.

00:53:52.800 Yeah.

00:53:52.900 Yeah.

00:53:53.100 Everything really dark.

00:53:54.040 And I remember thinking, oh man, how cool.

00:53:56.740 You know, I've always wanted to be like, see what the rock star sees, you know?

00:54:02.160 Like the backstage and all that kind of stuff.

00:54:03.700 Yeah.

00:54:03.820 It was just like, and I have my own backstage at shows and there it's different, you know,

00:54:07.620 it's just with comedy, it's a lot different.

00:54:09.320 It's really subdued.

00:54:10.220 It's just, you're sitting back there.

00:54:12.480 Yeah.

00:54:12.760 And I was going to say, there's probably not, it's not all hustle and bustle.

00:54:15.020 Cause there's not, it's like the production's not like a country, like, or any, like a

00:54:18.680 concert.

00:54:19.140 Oh, there's nobody to damn bum a vape off of you.

00:54:21.540 Yeah.

00:54:21.560 Yeah.

00:54:21.720 Yeah.

00:54:21.880 Yeah.

00:54:22.040 It's like you and your, do you have a tour manager?

00:54:24.660 Yeah.

00:54:24.860 You got a tour manager, a couple other comedians.

00:54:26.940 Yeah.

00:54:27.220 Yeah.

00:54:27.800 And it's like, wow.

00:54:28.640 It's like quiet and more chill.

00:54:29.940 It's dead quiet.

00:54:31.260 Yeah.

00:54:31.420 That's kind of crazy.

00:54:32.360 Yeah.

00:54:32.700 And so, so it's totally different to be back there and you guys' environment is like

00:54:36.120 people walking around.

00:54:37.180 Oh yeah.

00:54:37.480 Especially like, you call it like a Nashville show.

00:54:39.340 It's like fucking chaos back there.

00:54:40.860 It's just, but in the best way, like there's, it's just exciting and there's people everywhere

00:54:44.260 and like other country stars and shit walking around.

00:54:47.180 Yeah.

00:54:47.400 It was cool.

00:54:48.240 That's when Ronnie Dunn came out and played.

00:54:50.240 Yes.

00:54:50.560 That's right.

00:54:51.160 God, he can, I didn't realize he could sing.

00:54:53.000 Oh dude, he's a legend.

00:54:54.380 I mean, I knew he could sing, but I just didn't know it was like that.

00:54:56.820 Yeah.

00:54:57.900 Dude, he's a, people, a lot of people say that he's like the, his, the most, the most

00:55:03.780 or one of the most iconic voices in country.

00:55:06.280 He's a damn wind instrument, dude.

00:55:07.940 He's just a damn, my God.

00:55:09.700 It's fucking man flute.

00:55:10.620 You want to hang him outside on your grandmother's porch out there, you know?

00:55:13.340 Yeah, just let the wind blow through him.

00:55:14.100 Yeah, just let the damn birds eat off of him.

00:55:16.500 Did you imagine, dude, a fucking Ronnie Dunn wind chime, dude?

00:55:19.480 Yeah.

00:55:20.020 Just every time it was, like every time.

00:55:22.340 That's a great idea.

00:55:23.440 That'd be fucking awesome.

00:55:24.600 If we could make it so that when the wind went through it, it sounded just like him.

00:55:27.820 Yeah.

00:55:28.280 And then have three notes in harmony, you know, like wind chimes do.

00:55:30.880 Yeah.

00:55:31.600 That's a fucking, that's a million dollar idea, dude.

00:55:33.320 That's a great idea, Ronnie.

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00:58:44.960 Yeah, that was fun, man.

00:58:46.380 And who did I was there with?

00:58:47.820 Oh, your parents were there.

00:58:48.900 Yeah.

00:58:49.400 Mm-hmm.

00:58:49.760 My mom is actually, they're having some work done.

00:58:51.620 They live here at the house.

00:58:53.180 And so she, I was walking out the door.

00:58:54.800 She was like, where are you going?

00:58:55.480 And I told her I was coming over here and she was like, oh, I love him because I forgot

00:58:59.100 y'all had met there.

00:59:00.140 Y'all met, right?

00:59:00.940 Yeah.

00:59:01.100 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:01.760 Yeah, I got to meet your folks there.

00:59:03.740 And who else?

00:59:05.440 Yeah, like, oh, Baker Mayfield was there.

00:59:07.640 Yeah, he was there.

00:59:08.780 And like, yeah, that was so random, dude.

00:59:11.720 It was random.

00:59:12.600 Jason, Jason Wirth.

00:59:15.720 I think it's Jason Wirth, baseball player.

00:59:18.120 There was a bunch of like athletes there.

00:59:20.380 It was a bizarre group of people, man.

00:59:22.640 It was an interesting group.

00:59:24.120 That was fun, though.

00:59:25.060 Ernest was on.

00:59:26.000 Yep.

00:59:26.580 Yeah, that was great, man.

00:59:27.520 Was that, there was three nights.

00:59:29.500 One of them.

00:59:30.720 I came the first night.

00:59:32.040 Thursday night.

00:59:32.820 To me, I thought Thursday and Friday were the best.

00:59:35.220 It was Thursday night, St. Paddy's, or was that Friday?

00:59:38.420 I can't remember.

00:59:39.520 One of them was St. Paddy's Day.

00:59:40.780 And I just remember how drunk the whole crowd was.

00:59:42.940 It was like, I could see it from all the way at the top.

00:59:45.960 Like, people were falling over and stuff.

00:59:47.800 Oh, that might've been sad.

00:59:49.280 I don't, yeah, I don't think when I left, I remember seeing people doing St. Paddy's.

00:59:52.460 St. Paddy stuff.

00:59:53.360 It might've been, it might've been.

00:59:54.940 Might've been Saturday.

00:59:55.760 Yeah.

00:59:58.060 Is there a night that you guys like to, is there a night when you feel like the shows

01:00:01.620 are better or a day?

01:00:02.540 Is there a show that, give me that day and time.

01:00:05.380 Okay.

01:00:05.660 That a country show or that, that a performance, a musical performance is the best.

01:00:11.740 Friday nights, usually in the summer.

01:00:16.400 Cause Thursday night, a lot of people have to go to work.

01:00:18.880 So they're there and they'll stay up late, but they're not going to, they're not going

01:00:21.960 to party.

01:00:22.460 And then Saturday night, a lot of people go to church, especially in a country crowd.

01:00:26.540 Friday night is like, I just got off of work and I don't have shit to do tomorrow.

01:00:30.580 That's like, that's the one every time.

01:00:32.660 Even if you do, you can feel it, especially when you, if you do three nights at one venue,

01:00:38.100 you, you can see the difference between Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

01:00:42.100 It's pretty crazy.

01:00:42.940 And the Saturday crowd's like more tired and hungover.

01:00:45.160 You know what I mean?

01:00:46.240 They're all good.

01:00:46.940 But like Friday night, nothing ever beats Friday night.

01:00:49.280 It's the best.

01:00:49.940 Damn.

01:00:50.400 Yeah.

01:00:51.040 Cause for comedy, it's different.

01:00:52.180 Friday night is the toughest night.

01:00:53.700 Really?

01:00:54.020 Why do you think so?

01:00:54.680 I think it's because people have been working, they get off and I don't think they want to

01:00:59.380 be kind of still in a space where they have to sit and kind of listen.

01:01:03.700 Pay attention.

01:01:04.500 Yes.

01:01:05.020 I think their attention is a little burnout.

01:01:07.860 They either want to fucking rip their dick off, you know, or not their, somebody's, they

01:01:12.400 want to rip a tit off or whatever and get a damn Michelob in them, or they want to, um,

01:01:19.480 or they want to, uh, chill out.

01:01:22.340 Yeah.

01:01:22.500 But I don't think they want that middle ground.

01:01:24.900 Well, I wonder why that's.

01:01:26.460 But it's notoriously the worst.

01:01:27.840 Steve Martin quit performing touring.

01:01:30.300 On Friday nights?

01:01:31.220 Because, totally.

01:01:32.640 I think, but, cause if you go out and you're just waiting Thursday to Saturday, I think

01:01:35.740 it's just kind of a low, but he said he quit performing because Friday night.

01:01:39.820 Really?

01:01:40.440 It's that big of, it's that big of a difference.

01:01:43.680 I wonder why, I mean, I guess, I don't know.

01:01:47.780 It's crazy.

01:01:48.280 Cause I guess you don't have to pay attention at a concert.

01:01:50.660 Or this is super artsy for, I guess you feel music more than like you actually pay attention

01:01:56.040 to it, you know?

01:01:57.340 So maybe that's a little bit more of a release than feeling like having to sit and focus on

01:02:01.320 something maybe.

01:02:02.260 I don't know.

01:02:02.820 I don't know.

01:02:03.140 It's interesting.

01:02:03.760 That is interesting.

01:02:04.500 That's very interesting.

01:02:05.100 Sometimes it stands up.

01:02:06.000 I think in the, in the end it gets, it gets in your head that Friday's going to be,

01:02:08.840 you know, might not be, but then I don't know.

01:02:10.520 Half the time I feel like I can't really tell the difference.

01:02:12.760 So.

01:02:13.200 Dude, what other, if you take Louisiana out of the equation, what's your favorite city to play in?

01:02:17.040 Oh, dang, dude.

01:02:18.820 Anywhere in Texas is good.

01:02:20.260 Really?

01:02:20.780 Texas is fucking good, dude.

01:02:22.540 But then Portland, some of my biggest crowds are like Portland, Australia.

01:02:28.440 Oh, dude.

01:02:28.900 I'm going in like a month.

01:02:29.960 I've never been.

01:02:30.920 Oh, bro.

01:02:31.720 I'm so excited.

01:02:32.980 It's like, you know, they started it.

01:02:35.160 It was all criminals, dude.

01:02:36.860 Yeah.

01:02:37.340 They sent them down there.

01:02:38.660 That's right.

01:02:39.300 From, from like the UK area, right?

01:02:41.560 So it's awesome.

01:02:42.660 Yeah.

01:02:42.880 Dude, do you know that Georgia, our Georgia was the same thing?

01:02:47.920 Really?

01:02:48.480 Was like Australia for Americans and they would send, and you can fact check me, because I

01:02:54.260 could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was a place where if you went bankrupt or committed

01:02:58.780 a crime, they would send you down to Georgia because Georgia is one of the, I think one

01:03:04.420 of the 13 colonies.

01:03:05.840 It's one of the original.

01:03:06.680 If not, it's like, it was very early and they would send it down there to, send you down

01:03:13.320 there to like restart down there.

01:03:14.900 From jail to Georgia.

01:03:16.160 Let's see that.

01:03:17.360 Hey, I think you had it there, bub.

01:03:19.840 Zoom in on that if you don't mind, please.

01:03:22.880 18th century Georgia was really just King George's penal colony, right?

01:03:29.040 Can you zoom in a little bit more?

01:03:30.060 There you go.

01:04:00.460 Damn.

01:04:00.760 Isn't that crazy?

01:04:02.240 Well, the here's, hold on then.

01:04:05.060 This might go for the whole STC because Louisiana, they said if, it was like criminals and prostitutes

01:04:13.660 from France.

01:04:15.000 Really?

01:04:15.600 They settled like in New Orleans?

01:04:17.400 No.

01:04:17.720 In France, they're like, if you want to marry a prostitute, we'll give you land in Louisiana.

01:04:24.200 I just tweeted something about it.

01:04:25.840 Or no, I saw, I just saw something.

01:04:27.480 The original colony of Georgia, for example, was founded by James Oglethorpe, who originally

01:04:31.240 intended to use prisoners taken largely from debtor's prisons, creating a debtor's colony

01:04:36.660 where the prisoners could learn trades and work off their debts.

01:04:39.260 Wow.

01:04:39.760 Dude, isn't that crazy?

01:04:40.820 So you had people over there that were just work, doing a trade to work off a debt that

01:04:44.500 was in England.

01:04:45.120 That's crazy.

01:04:45.600 Yeah.

01:04:45.880 Isn't that wild?

01:04:46.380 But then the craziest part had to be after the American Revolution, after we beat England

01:04:52.060 in the, I guess, in the war, that those people were just like, oh, I don't owe anybody anything.

01:04:57.060 Yeah.

01:04:57.800 So then they were just free.

01:04:59.760 That's crazy.

01:05:00.360 They were just there.

01:05:02.360 Huh.

01:05:02.760 That seems like Georgia a little.

01:05:04.180 Yeah.

01:05:04.620 I think it has a little bit of that vibe, dude.

01:05:06.560 What is something, I was thinking about this, what is something that, had you met Lainey

01:05:14.880 before you guys got together to make that song?

01:05:16.840 Oh, yeah.

01:05:18.580 So that tour I was talking about, Morgan brought me on that tour, I said 800 to 2,000 people.

01:05:23.140 Lainey was first of three, just acoustic.

01:05:26.760 So she was the acoustic opener, and then I was second, and then Morgan was third.

01:05:30.980 And so I met her then, and we did, that was like 39 shows or something.

01:05:38.660 So we, she was, and that's, I really got to know her then.

01:05:41.220 She was on the first half of that tour, and got to really know her then.

01:05:45.160 Yeah.

01:05:45.420 Dude, she's, I love, she's like a sister to me, dude.

01:05:47.380 She is salt of the earth.

01:05:49.500 Yeah.

01:05:49.980 Oh, she seems really, really, I mean, she's interesting, beautiful, exciting.

01:05:54.940 Just authentic, man.

01:05:55.940 Oh.

01:05:56.380 Real deal.

01:05:57.080 Yeah, she just, yeah.

01:05:58.160 Yeah, she sounds like, I mean, you just want to climb down her throat and just, damn, just

01:06:02.960 be in, just ready, you know.

01:06:04.060 Just live in it, dude.

01:06:04.820 Yeah.

01:06:05.420 Yeah.

01:06:06.000 Just get a damn, you know, get you a little oven or something in there and just stay in

01:06:09.960 there.

01:06:10.100 Yeah.

01:06:10.440 Make treats.

01:06:11.100 Couple chairs.

01:06:11.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:06:12.560 Yeah, dude.

01:06:13.680 Yeah, it's like, she just, she sounds like a home.

01:06:16.420 Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

01:06:17.960 Wow.

01:06:19.020 She writes songs.

01:06:20.600 And she sounds, yeah, she just sounds really, this is so powerful.

01:06:24.080 I really enjoyed getting to spend time with her.

01:06:25.600 I was thinking, what is something that people wait in the truck for?

01:06:30.560 Their Sonic order.

01:06:32.360 Okay.

01:06:33.260 Definitely Sonic.

01:06:34.260 Uh, their, like, their drug dealer to show up, maybe.

01:06:37.460 Okay, drugs and Sonic.

01:06:39.240 Yeah.

01:06:41.200 Um, oh, their wife, anywhere their wife is.

01:06:44.580 Oh, yeah.

01:06:45.040 Especially if you're like, if you're like, the kind that's like, I'm gonna go wait in the

01:06:49.940 truck.

01:06:50.740 So hurry up.

01:06:51.440 You know, and they're honking kind of deal.

01:06:52.880 Which was every dad, I feel like.

01:06:55.000 Oh, yeah.

01:06:55.540 When we were, like, and even like, I mean, you're younger than me, but when we were growing

01:06:58.600 up, it was like, every dad was like, I'm gonna wait.

01:07:01.300 Yeah.

01:07:01.800 I'm gonna be out here.

01:07:03.220 I heard a story about George Jones and he, like, got tired of waiting on, um, his current,

01:07:08.000 the wife that he died with.

01:07:09.120 I can't remember her name.

01:07:10.180 Uh, I should know that.

01:07:11.960 But that one time, he, he wouldn't wait on her, so he went and sat in the car and laid

01:07:16.080 on the horn and she came out in her underwear and got in the car and he was so fixated on

01:07:20.380 going wherever they were going.

01:07:21.400 He drove all the way down the road and didn't realize, and she was, she was pulling one on

01:07:26.020 him because she was like, well, fuck you.

01:07:27.240 Then I'll go wherever we're going.

01:07:28.500 I'm going in my underwear if you can't wait.

01:07:30.260 And he even paid attention.

01:07:30.820 And he went like five miles down the road until he realized that she was in her underwear

01:07:33.760 and turned around and came back.

01:07:35.000 Yeah, that was always a thing.

01:07:37.820 I'm going to wait in the truck and you would just see dads out there just shaking their

01:07:43.280 head.

01:07:43.560 What about like your, like a little brother when your big brother's like at baseball

01:07:46.600 practice, you know, like that type of deal.

01:07:49.320 Oh yeah.

01:07:49.860 I'm a sit, you would see the brothers always just lean on the open, on the open window.

01:07:53.680 And then somebody would come up and just like bang on the window, scare the shit out

01:07:57.340 of them.

01:07:57.720 Yeah.

01:07:58.080 Yeah.

01:07:59.020 Um, what else do people wait for?

01:08:00.520 Yeah.

01:08:00.880 Drugs for sure.

01:08:02.580 Dude, I, uh.

01:08:03.540 Waiting for drugs is always, it was always like.

01:08:05.780 Dude, always, always.

01:08:07.800 You always had to wait.

01:08:08.740 What was the fucking deal?

01:08:09.840 Why don't drug, yeah, drug dealers are not punctual.

01:08:13.920 No, they're not, dude.

01:08:15.140 Even like weed before weed was legal, like I would have panic attacks, dude.

01:08:18.980 Like he'd be like, show up here at three and I'd be like, all right, cool.

01:08:21.560 And then, and then like, dude, it would be like 305 and I'm like, but you're like,

01:08:26.660 I don't want to piss my drug dealer.

01:08:27.860 You know what I mean?

01:08:28.220 Like, I don't want to piss my guy off.

01:08:30.100 But you're like, where the fuck are you at?

01:08:31.260 Did you get arrested?

01:08:31.960 Like, are they, are, like in my mind, it was like, okay, the cops got him and they're

01:08:36.600 like, all right, go do the drug deal so we can bust the guy.

01:08:39.180 Like I had, that's where my brain went, you know?

01:08:41.340 Dude, I remember this guy, I told us one time, he's like, yeah, meet me at this time.

01:08:44.180 So we get there, it was like a huge, in the middle of this Kmart parking lot, right?

01:08:48.100 So we're like, well, fucking pick a corner or something.

01:08:50.900 Yeah, dude.

01:08:51.480 Go behind it.

01:08:52.820 Any, it was just the worst idea, right?

01:08:55.240 So we, so we were like, I remember we drove around, like just around the middle for a

01:09:01.440 while.

01:09:01.780 Like, I guess we didn't want to go in.

01:09:04.000 It was like, if we went into the middle, we were in trouble, but it was like, we were just

01:09:08.320 scoping it out.

01:09:09.020 You thought it'd be less suspicious to just make like a bunch of laps around the parking

01:09:12.220 lot?

01:09:13.460 Oh, dude, the worst.

01:09:15.140 Yeah.

01:09:15.260 I remember one time we got some weed to sell it, right?

01:09:17.500 And it was like, we were so excited, right?

01:09:19.520 We get this weed.

01:09:20.420 And the second we got it, we're like, oh, we're going to fucking jail, dude.

01:09:23.660 Right?

01:09:24.720 So we're so scared.

01:09:26.260 We're in the driveway.

01:09:27.440 We finally ended up just giving the shit away to a guy down the street, dude.

01:09:30.480 And just ended up working the payment off to the guy.

01:09:33.940 No, seriously?

01:09:34.720 Just too freaked out.

01:09:35.500 Yeah.

01:09:36.420 Damn, dude.

01:09:37.320 Too noited out, dude.

01:09:38.180 I would have done some shit like that too, though.

01:09:40.000 Too fucking noited out, dude.

01:09:42.100 How much was it?

01:09:43.840 Was it like a quap or was it like, was it like teenager a lot of, like an ounce or something?

01:09:48.300 No, no, no.

01:09:48.860 I would say it was probably, yeah, maybe a QP, I think.

01:09:51.380 Yeah.

01:09:51.860 Damn.

01:09:52.140 It was good.

01:09:54.200 Damn, dude.

01:09:54.860 Gave it away.

01:09:55.580 That was a good day for the guy you gave it to, though.

01:09:57.500 Yeah.

01:09:58.420 And maybe he saw that in us.

01:10:00.000 Maybe he said, oh, these fear babies over here.

01:10:02.080 I'm going to fucking get that.

01:10:03.240 Yeah, he might have.

01:10:03.940 Was it a stranger or somebody you knew?

01:10:05.680 Somebody we knew.

01:10:06.520 Okay.

01:10:07.760 That was fun, though.

01:10:10.360 All right.

01:10:12.040 So you get in a tune.

01:10:12.920 You get out here.

01:10:14.000 Yeah.

01:10:14.360 How do you get that first hit, you think?

01:10:16.380 Dude, it's a crazy story.

01:10:19.440 I got my first publishing deal.

01:10:21.960 And what is a publishing deal for people that don't know?

01:10:23.880 So if you're just a songwriter in Nashville, you sign, there's tons.

01:10:28.520 If you drive up and down Music Road, there's like 50 or probably more publishing companies.

01:10:32.720 And they sign songwriters.

01:10:34.100 And the point is they pay songwriters a salary to write for that company.

01:10:40.280 And they also have people that work for the company that schedule the rights for the songwriter.

01:10:45.540 They pitch the songs to artists that the songwriters turn in, that type of thing.

01:10:50.440 Oh, so you get to deal with a publishing house or a publishing company.

01:10:55.580 Yeah.

01:10:55.780 And then you're kind of like one of their batters in their box.

01:10:59.080 Yeah, exactly.

01:11:00.240 Wow.

01:11:00.600 Yeah, and like, you know, a lot of times I've seen like, you know, fucking Joe Blow

01:11:08.240 Nobody signs with a pub deal and then he blows up or signs with a publishing company and then

01:11:12.980 he blows up and has a bunch of hits as a writer.

01:11:15.280 Well, then suddenly that publishing company is on the map because people are going to want

01:11:19.060 to sign there so they can write with this dude.

01:11:21.180 You know what I mean?

01:11:22.200 And that's how people, that's how Big Loud, you know, Big Loud started as a publishing company.

01:11:25.840 And Craig Wiseman signed like four writers and it was like Rodney Clawson, Sarah Buxton,

01:11:32.320 Chris Tompkins, and a few others.

01:11:35.340 And they all blew the fuck up.

01:11:37.920 And so that just boomed Big Loud.

01:11:40.200 And then along with Craig, who also was a big hit writer.

01:11:43.700 And so then they were able to really have a legit publishing company and sign a bunch

01:11:48.780 of writers because people wanted to be in that camp because they were the guys writing

01:11:51.860 all the hits.

01:11:52.420 Okay, so then how does Big Loud get guys like Morgan and you and Ernest?

01:11:56.620 So once they, you know...

01:11:58.960 So they're doing well, people know their name.

01:12:00.480 Right, just as a publishing company.

01:12:02.420 And so then Craig Wiseman and I think at that point Seth England and them decided to start

01:12:08.500 a record label.

01:12:10.140 And so that's, you know, when they started Big Loud Records and then they said, well, let's

01:12:16.820 go find an artist to try to develop.

01:12:18.360 And then they went and found Chris Lane and they had a hit on Chris Lane.

01:12:23.340 And FGL was in that because they signed FGL to a publishing company, but they also managed

01:12:28.780 them.

01:12:29.360 But their record label was a big machine.

01:12:31.600 But they had Chris Lane and then, you know, they broke Chris Lane and then they went and

01:12:34.960 they've got, I don't even know who like the next would have been.

01:12:39.040 But anyway, then they found Morgan and they just like catch word.

01:12:42.060 Like Morgan was on The Voice.

01:12:43.660 And then he had, you know, word had gotten out that he had been coming into town and

01:12:46.760 doing stuff.

01:12:47.400 And so they were like, let's have a meeting with this Morgan Weiland kid.

01:12:50.240 And they reach out to Morgan and Morgan plays them a couple songs.

01:12:53.280 They're like, we like your voice.

01:12:54.840 Seemed like, you know, we could work well with you.

01:12:57.400 They signed into a record label.

01:12:58.580 Dang, huh.

01:12:59.360 You know, it's just constantly growing and that whole deal.

01:13:03.020 And then guys like you at that point are friends already with Morgan.

01:13:05.720 You see that he's there and that excites you guys too?

01:13:07.800 Yeah, yeah.

01:13:08.100 I mean, like I met Morgan.

01:13:08.980 That's part of it.

01:13:09.780 Yeah, yes, exactly.

01:13:11.280 And like, and especially like Florida Georgia Line and those guys, like they were all in

01:13:16.620 that Big Loud camp.

01:13:17.600 And so that draws people into that.

01:13:20.100 But I met Morgan when the way I talk was like at, I think it died at like number 30, which

01:13:25.900 is crazy to think about because it's such a still like a big hit for him.

01:13:28.820 But it died at like number 30 at radio.

01:13:31.000 And I wrote with him around that time and for the first time.

01:13:34.760 And I was just a big fan of that song and his voice.

01:13:38.000 And I was just like, this kid's really good.

01:13:39.940 And so he came over to the house.

01:13:41.940 I lived in an apartment over here and we wrote and hit it instantly, hit it off.

01:13:46.680 And, you know, rest is history.

01:13:49.180 I am.

01:13:49.720 But when I, so my publisher to this day, his name is Dennis McCoskey.

01:13:55.180 And he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his mom.

01:13:58.360 Oh, really?

01:13:58.920 From Philadelphia, Mississippi.

01:14:00.340 And his mom is my grandfather's aunt.

01:14:06.440 So, and I knew, and so Dennis in the 80s lived in LA.

01:14:09.920 His mom is my grandfather's aunt.

01:14:11.580 So, so Dennis and my grandfather are first cousins.

01:14:14.640 They shared moms, sisters, you know what I mean?

01:14:17.260 And when Dennis, Dennis in the 80s was a big hit songwriter in LA and his claim to fame,

01:14:23.620 he's done a bunch of other amazing things, but his biggest claim to fame is he wrote Maniac.

01:14:28.560 In the 80s, exactly.

01:14:30.220 Yeah.

01:14:30.860 And so growing up, I knew I had this cool cousin that was like a songwriter, but I didn't know,

01:14:37.180 like, I knew he lived in Nashville at this point, but I didn't know.

01:14:39.960 And he's an older guy.

01:14:40.660 He's like late 60s, maybe early 70s.

01:14:43.660 And so I was in college and I was writing songs, videoing them on my webcam, dude, and

01:14:49.700 putting them on like YouTube and shit.

01:14:51.260 Oh, man, what a pervert.

01:14:52.560 Dude, yeah, right?

01:14:53.820 I know, right?

01:14:54.740 And he wrote on my Facebook wall, my Facebook wall, dude, and was like, you seem like you're

01:15:01.320 doing good.

01:15:01.840 Like, come by the house sometime.

01:15:02.440 Oh, what a bigger pervert.

01:15:05.940 Dude, that's like, back then, this was shit.

01:15:09.000 This was like-

01:15:09.700 But if a man writes that on your Facebook wall, you seem like you're doing good, come by the

01:15:13.420 house sometime.

01:15:14.640 To anybody that didn't know the situation, I could see how that would be.

01:15:17.920 Yeah, dude, that's like-

01:15:19.560 But I went by his house and then he signed me and then, I mean, well, it took like years,

01:15:24.540 but it was a cool thing because like, it was a family thing, but I didn't really know him

01:15:29.480 and then he reached out and so we've now, and now he and I are very close, so-

01:15:32.900 But it felt like it was supposed to happen when some of those other pieces are kind of

01:15:35.620 built into the background.

01:15:36.400 Right, it was written in the stars.

01:15:37.820 Especially when it's family stuff, you know, you kind of put those pieces together.

01:15:41.000 Yeah.

01:15:41.260 Um, what about, uh, what about, so tell me a little bit more about that publishing house.

01:15:48.660 So how does that work?

01:15:49.420 So people get signed, writers get signed to a publishing house.

01:15:52.480 Right.

01:15:52.940 They start writing.

01:15:54.000 Yeah.

01:15:54.580 And then they're on salary.

01:15:56.960 Yeah.

01:15:57.280 But if one of them does well and creates a song, then they start to make money from the

01:16:01.380 song.

01:16:01.620 Yeah, but only these days, only if the song, uh, gets played on the radio.

01:16:07.400 Um, so you have what's called mechanical royalties and that is royalties that are paid to the

01:16:17.700 song if it sells copies.

01:16:19.640 So like, for instance, like on Morgan's last record, the big record that created a lot of

01:16:25.960 mechanical royalties because it sold really well.

01:16:28.180 Right.

01:16:28.580 So, but, but when you sign your first publishing deal, most first publishing deals called a baby

01:16:34.700 deal, uh, you, you, as a writer, you don't get control of your mechanical royalties that

01:16:41.700 goes to the publisher and the publishing company.

01:16:43.920 Oh, wow.

01:16:44.260 And it's just, it's something that's been around for a long time.

01:16:46.280 So, so even if you had a song that blew up on Tik TOK or that sold or streamed like crazy

01:16:52.000 on Apple music or Spotify or whatever, um, you wouldn't see any of that money.

01:16:57.700 The only way that young songwriters really make money because most of their salaries are like,

01:17:02.680 if you sign a first publishing deal, it's like 40 grand.

01:17:05.480 That's, that's really good.

01:17:06.500 Like you're doing really good.

01:17:07.720 So it, it really, for a year for usually they're like four, three or four.

01:17:13.200 Yeah.

01:17:13.700 So 40 grand over three or four years.

01:17:15.720 No, sorry.

01:17:16.980 Yes.

01:17:17.420 It's 40 grand a year for the term is like three or four years.

01:17:20.480 Got it.

01:17:20.980 But you only make money if, if you have a hit on the radio.

01:17:24.020 So like anything, especially for a young writer, top 20 and better is you'll make a life-changing

01:17:31.360 amount of money.

01:17:32.860 You know what I mean?

01:17:33.740 Like, is that the one you were talking about earlier?

01:17:34.920 Like you can make a couple hundred thousand dollars?

01:17:36.580 A number one, you will.

01:17:37.880 Wow.

01:17:38.220 Depending on how many writers.

01:17:39.220 Cause if it's split, you know, if it's a six way, you're going to make less, you're

01:17:43.020 going to make half of what you'd make if it was a three way and that kind of thing.

01:17:45.420 But, um, but, uh, yeah, so the radio pays out a lot of money and that's where, that's

01:17:52.000 where songwriters get paid and that's through PROs, which is paid.

01:17:56.860 Wait, what's it, what does it stand for?

01:17:58.460 Paid Royalty Organization?

01:18:00.680 Is that right?

01:18:02.080 Yeah, I think so.

01:18:02.960 And, and they, they collect money from the radio stations and then they in return pay the

01:18:08.820 writers for having hits on the radio.

01:18:11.780 Ah.

01:18:12.500 It's tricky, man.

01:18:13.180 It's hard to get a song on the radio.

01:18:14.440 Like it's, it's a, it's so hard.

01:18:16.740 It's.

01:18:17.080 I worked.

01:18:17.880 Well, you know, one of my jobs that I had, I was a tour manager for, uh, Josh Kelly.

01:18:22.360 I don't know if I ever told you that or not.

01:18:23.920 Really?

01:18:24.420 Yeah.

01:18:25.200 George Kelly?

01:18:26.520 Uh.

01:18:27.040 Yeah.

01:18:27.420 Just like that, George Kelly.

01:18:29.020 Yeah.

01:18:29.480 Was it that time?

01:18:30.480 Baby.

01:18:31.360 Dude.

01:18:31.740 You're amazing.

01:18:33.360 Yeah.

01:18:33.920 Yeah.

01:18:34.280 Oh, Josh's, man.

01:18:35.520 I didn't know that you TM'd him.

01:18:37.100 Yeah, dude.

01:18:37.640 When was that?

01:18:38.420 We went around the whole country, dude.

01:18:40.240 We would go to all the radio stations and I would go in in the morning and be like,

01:18:43.620 da-da-da-da, Josh Kelly, you know, and get the coffee and the donuts and, you know, get

01:18:49.360 people fired up and stuff.

01:18:51.300 And Josh would come in with his guitar.

01:18:53.100 You paint a picture on the wall.

01:18:55.720 Yeah, man.

01:18:56.240 It was awesome.

01:18:57.120 Whoa.

01:18:57.560 This was, I don't know, this was probably eight, 17 years ago, maybe or something like

01:19:01.080 that.

01:19:01.220 Oh, wow.

01:19:02.000 But we went around, we went to, I think every radio station.

01:19:05.760 I mean, we went to a lot of the bigger radio stations.

01:19:08.300 We went to probably 30 states.

01:19:08.620 Okay, so you totally know the radio tour game, man.

01:19:10.580 I didn't realize until you were saying that, I kind of forgot about it, but yeah, we would

01:19:14.640 go in and you trying to grease, not grease these people, but you wanted to get them excited

01:19:18.440 about an artist.

01:19:19.460 Yeah, of course.

01:19:20.280 You know?

01:19:20.680 Yeah.

01:19:21.400 And they see so many of them that, like, what can you do?

01:19:24.360 You know, like, a lot of those radio visits.

01:19:26.880 Well, tomorrow, you know, Jason Mraz is bringing crab legs.

01:19:31.460 Exactly, dude.

01:19:32.620 We're damn fucked.

01:19:33.440 Yeah, dude.

01:19:34.300 We are fucked, man.

01:19:35.240 Dude, it's hard, man.

01:19:37.060 You sit in a room and they're just, they're looking at you like.

01:19:39.320 Like, what are you doing here, you know?

01:19:42.760 I did not know that, though.

01:19:43.780 That's crazy.

01:19:44.540 Yeah, Josh Kelly is one of the most talented guys out there.

01:19:47.240 And yeah, I just feel, I feel grateful I got to be just even a little bitty part of

01:19:51.920 his career.

01:19:52.800 That was fun, man.

01:19:53.760 It was interesting.

01:19:54.320 But that's what I learned about kind of, and that's when radio was still even more, it

01:19:58.240 was a bigger deal.

01:19:58.980 Yeah, 20, 15 years ago.

01:20:00.340 Yeah, now a lot of them have been kind of consolidated now.

01:20:02.740 Yeah, I mean, streaming is just, streaming is like, it's taking over a lot of that market

01:20:07.920 for sure.

01:20:08.720 Yeah.

01:20:09.840 What was I thinking about?

01:20:12.780 Did I saw, or do you see that thing with the governor?

01:20:17.100 The, um.

01:20:17.960 Tennessee?

01:20:18.520 Yeah.

01:20:19.380 I don't, I'm not sure.

01:20:21.300 It was like, the governor of Tennessee, um.

01:20:28.720 Brought crab legs to a radio visit.

01:20:31.020 I'm sorry, no, no, this Tennessee governor appears to have dressed in, oh, they're, remember

01:20:35.400 there, did you see this thing, you're trying to make it so in Tennessee you couldn't, they

01:20:40.220 don't want people performing, get into the article, man, if you don't mind.

01:20:46.460 Criminalizing drag performances in public?

01:20:49.680 Yeah, my dad, he, a recently passed bill, criminalizing drag performances in public and

01:20:53.660 in front of children.

01:20:54.580 So they want to stop, I guess, like drag perform, they don't want performances that

01:21:00.080 could influence, I guess, a child's sexuality maybe, or, um, but then this is the governor,

01:21:06.640 right?

01:21:06.880 And they found a picture of him in a powder puff game.

01:21:09.060 Oh, no way.

01:21:10.200 And so that's what they're saying.

01:21:11.320 Well, they say, look, here you are, you dragging out.

01:21:14.600 Oh boy.

01:21:15.800 You know?

01:21:16.180 So they found this, a picture of him in high school.

01:21:18.260 Man.

01:21:18.900 But it looks like they're going to try to pass this law, which is kind of wild, you

01:21:23.340 know?

01:21:23.860 Yeah, I mean, let's just let people do what they want, you know?

01:21:27.540 Well, I think it's like, it almost seems like it's more of a parent's thing.

01:21:30.840 Like, if you're taking your child to something.

01:21:32.820 Yeah, where, where would you, where are you going to be that your child's going to see a

01:21:36.440 drag show?

01:21:37.500 Right, without the parent going, like a child child.

01:21:40.440 Yeah.

01:21:40.900 You know?

01:21:41.800 Without the parent going.

01:21:43.700 Yeah.

01:21:43.880 Dude, I remember in, we went to like a prom or something dance and they had this restaurant

01:21:48.640 in the French Quarter, New Orleans, and it was, uh, it was all drag queens in there.

01:21:54.560 Yeah.

01:21:55.220 And dude, they kept getting like, they were getting, I mean, all of us, I think we're

01:21:59.160 underage probably, but we're in there with fake IDs, you know?

01:22:01.840 Like teenagers?

01:22:02.800 Yeah.

01:22:03.060 Like probably, yeah.

01:22:04.380 We were under 21 anyway.

01:22:05.720 So it could have been, I think it was high school.

01:22:08.940 And all the, like, it was like the male waiters or whatever.

01:22:12.640 They kept getting people liquored up and then they would take like this one dude, Ryan,

01:22:18.000 I remember they kept taking him back like into the kitchen.

01:22:20.640 And I'm like, damn, I don't know what's happening with Ryan, bro.

01:22:24.140 Like they, how long was he back?

01:22:25.320 Would they do it like more than once?

01:22:26.600 Oh yeah.

01:22:27.100 And at first he was like, I don't want to go by the third time.

01:22:29.640 He's like, I'll be right back guys.

01:22:30.860 Like you could tell they were like, kind of like picking off young birds who were kind

01:22:35.000 of milling around.

01:22:36.140 Really?

01:22:36.620 You think they had any cocaine back there or something?

01:22:38.640 Oh God, I hope they did.

01:22:40.060 I wouldn't want to get molested if I didn't have something in me.

01:22:42.140 Yeah, no kidding, dude.

01:22:43.260 I don't feel like, anyway.

01:22:44.440 Holy shit, man.

01:22:45.060 I mean, I hope not anyway.

01:22:46.520 Dude, I fucking love New Orleans, man.

01:22:49.100 Yeah?

01:22:49.560 Yeah.

01:22:49.920 It's like, Key West is like my number one favorite place to go, you know, visit.

01:22:56.480 But New Orleans is number two.

01:22:58.380 I fucking love it so much, man.

01:23:00.540 Dude, Nick Swartzen, do you know who that is?

01:23:02.520 Yeah.

01:23:02.980 He spent almost a million dollars during COVID.

01:23:05.560 He stayed at a hotel in Key West.

01:23:06.740 He went there.

01:23:07.580 Oh, really?

01:23:08.320 And he was like, I'm just going to stay.

01:23:09.680 I wonder which one it was.

01:23:11.880 Have you ever been down there?

01:23:13.680 I have been one time, but I don't remember it real well.

01:23:15.980 Man.

01:23:16.400 What's it like?

01:23:17.400 It's like a beachier, safer New Orleans.

01:23:22.860 It's very, very similar.

01:23:24.860 Man, I went for my bachelor party.

01:23:26.440 It was so fun, dude.

01:23:27.640 Oh, dang.

01:23:27.760 Oh my God, it was so fun.

01:23:29.420 It's just, man, I don't even know, dude.

01:23:31.980 And the island time thing is such a thing down there.

01:23:34.800 Like, nobody is worried about shit.

01:23:36.700 And like, you know, it depends on what you're into.

01:23:40.840 But there's like the food.

01:23:41.920 It's just like New Orleans, man.

01:23:43.320 There's these little hole in the walls that are like super authentic and like badass.

01:23:46.180 Oh, I could see that because you're in kind of like that.

01:23:48.080 It's kind of got that Caribbean vibe, huh?

01:23:49.600 Yeah.

01:23:49.860 I mean, shit, you are 90 miles from Cuba.

01:23:52.980 Oh, wow.

01:23:53.420 If they built a bridge, you could get there in like less than an hour and a half.

01:23:57.080 Dang.

01:23:58.480 I love it.

01:23:59.100 But New Orleans, man, the food and there's something, there's no other city to me with

01:24:04.760 the culture that New Orleans has.

01:24:08.160 It's such a fine-tuned, like distinct culture.

01:24:13.360 And like every city has this thing and like, you know, the Northeast and Boston and seafood

01:24:17.880 and all that.

01:24:18.540 But there's just something so fucking dope about New Orleans.

01:24:22.060 Yeah.

01:24:23.000 Yeah.

01:24:23.420 I guess, you know, I always, I always noticed that growing up, I went to like San Francisco.

01:24:26.980 I thought that was a really exceptional city, very unique, right?

01:24:29.700 Yeah.

01:24:30.440 And I remember thinking Charleston was kind of cool.

01:24:34.320 Charleston had a vibe of its own.

01:24:35.920 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:24:35.940 Definitely.

01:24:36.420 It was like kind of an old South, but still pretty neat.

01:24:39.200 Chicago, New York City.

01:24:40.980 And then I was like New Orleans, because for a while I was like New Orleans, man.

01:24:44.420 But then I went around a lot of America and I'm like, oh, wow, it's really unique.

01:24:47.780 Because you were kind of like, kind of like, you took it for granted in a certain way.

01:24:53.040 Yeah, you're used to it.

01:24:53.960 Yeah.

01:24:54.280 But then you go around and you're like, dang, bro, New Orleans is something else.

01:24:58.320 Do you like New York?

01:25:00.820 I do.

01:25:02.180 I think there's some energy about it.

01:25:03.800 I don't think I like some of the, I don't like the, like the overtly liberal shit, a lot

01:25:10.720 of it.

01:25:11.060 Yeah.

01:25:11.280 You know, if I'm real, you know, where it's like ridiculous, you know, where it's like

01:25:15.980 they're wearing masks to the end of time, like the same kind of stuff that happens in

01:25:20.300 L.A.

01:25:20.780 Yeah.

01:25:21.020 You know?

01:25:21.660 No, I'm not for that either.

01:25:22.800 There's something about it that's cool though, right?

01:25:24.760 Oh, yeah.

01:25:25.440 There's something about it that is.

01:25:26.140 There's an energy that's like no other city has.

01:25:29.100 That they could build this.

01:25:30.360 I remember the first time I got out of New York in a taxi and I was like, what?

01:25:33.860 Yeah.

01:25:34.260 It looks like, it's, I love every time.

01:25:36.980 I think, I can't remember if it's JFK or LaGuardia, but there's one where you can see like

01:25:40.340 a really stretched out view of Manhattan and it's just like, so, it's like breathtaking

01:25:46.780 in this weird way.

01:25:47.920 Like there's so many fucking buildings and shit.

01:25:50.040 Yeah.

01:25:50.340 It's crazy.

01:25:51.420 I love it.

01:25:52.180 Yeah.

01:25:52.400 It blew my mind, man.

01:25:53.500 Did you guys tour internationally yet?

01:25:56.220 No, we're doing, we're flying to Australia on like March 16th.

01:26:02.400 Wow.

01:26:02.900 First time.

01:26:03.620 I'm so excited, man.

01:26:04.900 We're flying from San Francisco too, which is, or San Francisco.

01:26:11.000 I can't remember, but, uh, so it's that shorter flight.

01:26:14.100 It's not like, I've heard there's like a Dallas one and like a New York one and that's like

01:26:17.440 20 hours.

01:26:18.260 Yeah.

01:26:19.000 Dude, I'm so stoked.

01:26:20.460 It's nice though, dude.

01:26:21.480 I like being up in the air.

01:26:22.820 I like, if you get.

01:26:23.760 Yeah.

01:26:24.000 If you get the good seat, if you get the bougie, like the, the, the pod or whatever.

01:26:28.140 Oh, sometimes.

01:26:28.840 Yeah.

01:26:29.340 I think I got that one time.

01:26:30.620 I don't know where I was going.

01:26:32.080 Oh, you getting that bitch.

01:26:33.260 You're like, let's stay up here.

01:26:34.440 Oh yeah.

01:26:34.860 You're like, why does everybody want to land?

01:26:36.700 You start getting angry.

01:26:37.760 Yeah.

01:26:38.220 Yeah.

01:26:38.420 Cause the second you get off, people aren't serving you and shit anymore.

01:26:41.300 Dude, what's Australia like though?

01:26:42.860 If you had to, if you had to compare it to anything or describe it.

01:26:45.480 It's a lot of, well, they don't have a lot of religion over there.

01:26:49.460 Really?

01:26:49.940 Yeah.

01:26:50.200 And it's a lot of dangerous animals, dude.

01:26:51.880 If somebody's like, Hey, look at this animal.

01:26:53.720 Yeah.

01:26:54.540 You know, where I'm from, if somebody's like, look at this animal, it's usually some type

01:26:57.840 of somebody trying to flash that wiener on, you know, like a sling blade situation.

01:27:02.860 Yeah.

01:27:03.160 It's like, Hey, you want to come see this animal?

01:27:04.880 And it's just a wiener, you know, with like little cat ears on or something.

01:27:07.600 Yeah.

01:27:07.640 Yeah.

01:27:07.800 Yeah.

01:27:08.200 Some guys like got little, you know, little mouse ears on his penis, you know, and you're

01:27:12.340 like, I'll pet it, but I ain't feeding it cheese.

01:27:16.500 You know what I'm saying, bro?

01:27:17.600 But it's like over there, it's like, you know, God put nine of the most dangerous animals

01:27:23.220 ever in New York.

01:27:24.360 Can you look it up?

01:27:25.080 No.

01:27:25.640 In Australia.

01:27:26.820 I know the box jellyfish, right?

01:27:28.620 That's one.

01:27:29.260 Oh, they're all bad.

01:27:30.920 I mean, I hate to say it, but it's crazy because they put all the prisoners in Australia and

01:27:35.240 then God put all the, pretty much the most criminal animals in Australia.

01:27:39.020 Yeah.

01:27:39.600 It's kind of wild, right?

01:27:40.900 Very wild, dude.

01:27:42.280 Yep.

01:27:42.460 You got box jellyfish called the sea wasp also.

01:27:46.160 Oh God.

01:27:47.060 Look at that thing.

01:27:48.220 I've heard the Taipan snake.

01:27:49.880 It's like you, you live like 15 minutes or some crazy shit.

01:27:54.320 Yeah.

01:27:54.900 Saltwater crocodile.

01:27:56.480 Saw these.

01:27:58.540 That blue ringed octopus.

01:28:00.300 I saw a TikTok of this kid that picked one up and didn't know it was an octopus.

01:28:03.820 And then he just like casually let it back in the water.

01:28:05.660 And they were like, damn, if that thing would have.

01:28:07.900 What does an octopus do?

01:28:09.140 Bite?

01:28:10.040 I don't know.

01:28:10.900 Probably just, I feel like just.

01:28:12.640 How does it.

01:28:14.020 Don't octopus have a beak or something?

01:28:15.980 Don't they have a little like.

01:28:17.220 That's a good question.

01:28:18.000 Can you look at it?

01:28:18.540 Yeah.

01:28:18.700 Go to that blue octopus and let's see what it says.

01:28:21.320 Can you zoom in?

01:28:22.080 Do you mind?

01:28:22.580 Just overall note.

01:28:25.200 Dear God.

01:28:27.740 They look absolutely.

01:28:28.980 Okay.

01:28:30.920 They look absolutely amazing in a fish tank, but don't touch.

01:28:33.020 These ball sized creatures bite and are highly venomous.

01:28:37.580 The sting is often fatal.

01:28:38.640 The body shuts down, becomes increasingly paralyzed and breathing is no longer possible.

01:28:43.300 Oh.

01:28:43.620 Damn, dude.

01:28:45.020 There's no known.

01:28:45.820 That's the scariest part.

01:28:47.020 No known anti-venom.

01:28:48.220 So if you're asking people for help, they can be like, oh, I can't help you.

01:28:51.320 And they mean it.

01:28:52.040 So does that mean that you die if you get bit by one?

01:28:54.820 Oh, there it is.

01:28:55.740 Look at that.

01:28:56.180 Oh, damn.

01:28:57.900 Chitin?

01:28:59.460 Oh, yeah.

01:29:00.100 Okay.

01:29:00.360 There you go.

01:29:02.380 Man, it kind of looks like the mouth of it looks like a vag a little bit.

01:29:06.360 Oh, yeah.

01:29:06.860 Definitely.

01:29:07.340 And that probably would get you into it.

01:29:09.920 Some perv over there by the beach being like, hold on, son.

01:29:12.780 I'm going to go meet up with this little thing.

01:29:14.480 Do you think that people in Australia, you think somebody like if they wanted to end it

01:29:20.400 all would just go find something like that?

01:29:23.540 Use it as like a sex toy or something?

01:29:25.220 Or just spend time with it?

01:29:27.200 Oh, yeah.

01:29:27.620 Oh, I see what you're saying.

01:29:28.240 Like if they wanted to die.

01:29:29.000 Right.

01:29:29.180 If you wanted to die.

01:29:30.160 Now, that is kind of nice.

01:29:31.980 It's almost like God saying, hey, you don't need to hang yourself or, you know, you don't

01:29:37.220 have to get all Brooks was hearsy.

01:29:39.320 You know?

01:29:39.700 Yeah.

01:29:39.940 You can go the way, you know, the natural way.

01:29:42.420 I've always said I wanted to, if I was going to die, like an animal killing me, it would

01:29:47.420 be kind of honorable, I think.

01:29:49.960 Like, well, especially since you hunt, too.

01:29:52.740 Yeah.

01:29:52.960 Do you feel like it's almost like turnabout is, you know, it's like it's their turn to

01:29:55.960 get one?

01:29:56.700 Yeah.

01:29:57.100 Yeah, exactly.

01:29:58.380 I don't know.

01:29:58.960 I've always thought that they were here first kind of thing.

01:30:01.300 And, and, uh, I don't know.

01:30:03.760 I just think it'd be, it'd be terrifying, but like bit by a rattlesnake or like even a mountain

01:30:08.840 lion or something.

01:30:09.800 It would be terrifying, but.

01:30:11.540 Yeah.

01:30:11.900 Or just nature, dude.

01:30:12.920 Like letting nature get you.

01:30:14.220 Yeah.

01:30:14.780 Like some naked and afraid shit, dude.

01:30:17.100 Cause yeah.

01:30:17.660 Yeah.

01:30:17.960 Yeah.

01:30:18.340 Back in the day, like you could, you know how Jack Daniel died?

01:30:21.800 The whiskey guy.

01:30:22.640 He fucking got mad cause he couldn't open a safe or something and he kicked it and his toe

01:30:28.040 got infected and it went up through his body and they chopped his leg off.

01:30:31.300 And it kept going and he died because he kicked a safe or a heater or something like back

01:30:36.400 in the day, man.

01:30:37.140 Like if you, if you fail and like cut yourself, like you could, that was, you could, you could

01:30:43.240 die.

01:30:43.960 Yeah.

01:30:44.340 Like instantly.

01:30:45.520 Oh dude.

01:30:46.340 Imagine.

01:30:46.700 Imagine.

01:30:46.920 And how, like, that's what kind of, it's like, we were just living these long, like crazy.

01:30:51.900 We don't need.

01:30:52.360 That's why I think it's one of the reasons why we have so much mental health.

01:30:54.780 Cause we don't have any, at a certain point, you don't have anything else to do, but have

01:30:58.580 problems, you know?

01:30:59.580 At a certain, it's like, we've just, because nature is, you're not, yeah, the same things

01:31:04.580 aren't happening.

01:31:05.520 People, now they even have like, um, it used to be, you got stung by a bee.

01:31:09.260 Yeah.

01:31:09.400 You were dying.

01:31:10.240 You know, you fell off a light, you fell off like a third step three or four.

01:31:14.020 Yeah.

01:31:14.680 Died.

01:31:15.100 Yeah.

01:31:15.820 You know?

01:31:16.120 You couldn't.

01:31:16.680 And also like tuberculosis.

01:31:19.600 What happened to that?

01:31:21.720 What is it?

01:31:22.300 Look it up.

01:31:22.960 Everybody, everybody died from tuberculosis back in the day.

01:31:25.920 Oh my God.

01:31:26.040 It's heartbreaking.

01:31:26.920 Do you think that like, I wonder if like tuberculosis was just like cancer before they

01:31:32.680 knew it was cancer.

01:31:34.040 Oh, there you go.

01:31:34.920 Probably.

01:31:36.400 Or do people like, is there a, is there a vaccine for it?

01:31:40.020 Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germ, germs, sorry, that are spread from person to

01:31:45.460 person through the air.

01:31:47.040 Oh dude, this was, yeah.

01:31:49.380 Can people still get it though?

01:31:51.060 Or is it?

01:31:51.300 Affects the lungs.

01:31:52.120 It also affects other parts of the body, such as the brain.

01:31:54.680 Oh God.

01:31:56.280 Kidneys or the spine.

01:31:57.640 Imagine that.

01:31:58.460 It literally sounds like COVID dude.

01:32:00.200 Yeah.

01:32:00.420 It sounds like, definitely has very early COVID vibes.

01:32:02.760 But do you think, uh, over 10 million people get infected with tuberculosis every year?

01:32:08.620 Was there a cure for it?

01:32:09.360 That's gotta be in India or something, dude.

01:32:11.420 Yeah.

01:32:11.880 I can't imagine.

01:32:12.620 I never met anybody with it.

01:32:13.700 Have you?

01:32:14.660 No.

01:32:15.580 I thought, I mean, absolutely not.

01:32:17.660 But dude, when I was growing up, people would have like, you'd have a dude who like, if

01:32:21.880 he got hit by something, that's just how he was.

01:32:25.480 Oh, like polio or something.

01:32:26.680 Oh yeah.

01:32:27.120 You had a dude who got hit right, like it would have a baseball bat in the side real hard.

01:32:30.480 And he was just like that from now on, dude.

01:32:33.380 You had a dude, if somebody broke their collarbone, they're just, their shirt never fit

01:32:37.580 right.

01:32:37.780 You know, just, that's who they were.

01:32:39.700 Like everybody has spaced out teeth, had a bad eye.

01:32:42.620 You'd always see him at church and you'd finally ask like your parents and they'd be

01:32:45.840 like, well, when he was a kid and then like, yeah.

01:32:48.520 And the truth would come out.

01:32:49.640 Yeah.

01:32:49.940 But now everybody's all patched up.

01:32:52.480 Oh yeah.

01:32:53.360 For sure.

01:32:53.960 It's different, man.

01:32:54.860 Like scoliosis.

01:32:55.900 Like people, that was, that's such a common thing.

01:32:58.340 Back in the day, people were just like.

01:32:59.680 No, they checked at school?

01:33:00.880 Yeah.

01:33:01.960 Yeah.

01:33:02.680 Did they do checks at your school?

01:33:03.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:33:04.460 And you'd have to bend over and that lady would do both of them.

01:33:07.300 Yeah, I do remember that.

01:33:08.200 Like that on your back.

01:33:09.940 That's right.

01:33:11.380 Damn, dude.

01:33:12.060 I forgot all about that.

01:33:14.120 They would check that damn spine.

01:33:15.920 Boy, check that railroad on you.

01:33:17.780 Mm-hmm.

01:33:18.220 School nurse, dude.

01:33:20.300 God, dude.

01:33:21.340 Oh, we had, for a while, we had a hot one.

01:33:24.080 Then we had a man, dude.

01:33:25.640 Man nurse?

01:33:26.360 I used to know I didn't think men could be nurses.

01:33:28.340 Oh, God.

01:33:29.440 That was tough.

01:33:29.720 And nobody got sick for like two years, dude.

01:33:31.780 All the guys like.

01:33:32.580 Just scared to death.

01:33:33.360 Oh, dudes were like, dude, I don't want to get sick.

01:33:35.740 I think they were just scared of, you know, just, you know, it just wasn't.

01:33:39.420 A lot of people had never seen a man nurse.

01:33:42.040 Yeah, I didn't think it was allowed.

01:33:44.140 I thought it was like illegal or that, honestly, I truly, I thought it was like you were gay.

01:33:48.220 Yeah.

01:33:48.520 Like actually gay if you were a man nurse.

01:33:50.440 Right.

01:33:50.600 It was just part of the practice.

01:33:51.560 And I think early on, it probably was, you know, I think now it's a little bit more universal.

01:33:55.520 Yeah.

01:33:55.880 Because you see a lot of Latino male nurses that have like families and stuff.

01:33:59.880 But I think in the beginning, yeah, it was like, it was like, I think a lot of men used

01:34:05.200 to want to have kind of women jobs kind of, you know, I think if they were, I think a lot

01:34:09.160 of gay men, because I think here's probably why, because they probably weren't accepted

01:34:13.040 in a lot of male jobs.

01:34:14.280 Yeah, I'm sure.

01:34:15.520 You know?

01:34:15.880 Maybe people made them feel like they weren't capable, like a maid, a maid, like a man-made.

01:34:20.820 Oh, wow.

01:34:21.300 Man-made, damn.

01:34:22.440 Or a train conductor, dude.

01:34:23.800 There's no way if some guy was like, they're going to let him run the train, even though

01:34:28.480 he would have loved it, dude.

01:34:30.140 Yeah.

01:34:30.800 Oh, bro.

01:34:31.740 All aboard, bro.

01:34:32.680 Bro, I think they should only have gay male train conductors, I feel like.

01:34:37.240 Could you imagine, dude?

01:34:38.460 Why would they have anybody?

01:34:39.860 Who wants a, like a, some straight dude being like, brr, you want that fucking party boy

01:34:44.920 up there?

01:34:45.080 Dude, 100%.

01:34:45.660 You know how it's got like the little rail that, you know, and they just do a little

01:34:48.520 grind on it, and they pop up in there and fucking go to town?

01:34:52.720 Dude, that's what I want, man.

01:34:54.400 Damn.

01:34:54.640 Yeah.

01:34:56.200 School nurse.

01:34:57.140 It's, does it feel weird to consider that you've made, you know, this term that you've

01:35:01.460 made it?

01:35:01.960 It's a weird feeling, isn't it?

01:35:03.140 Yeah, I think so.

01:35:04.880 Man, I don't know.

01:35:05.560 I don't, I've never, I don't, I don't see, maybe there will come a time, but like, I always

01:35:12.860 feel like there's a next step, a next level.

01:35:16.680 You know what I mean?

01:35:17.260 Yeah.

01:35:17.920 I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

01:35:18.460 Or you're in the midst of something.

01:35:19.840 Yeah.

01:35:20.460 Right.

01:35:21.100 Like something is next, always.

01:35:22.800 Like I'm still doing it.

01:35:24.000 Yeah.

01:35:24.260 Maybe I haven't written my best song yet.

01:35:26.520 Yeah, no, I dude, 100% believe that.

01:35:28.560 Wow, that's a nice feeling.

01:35:29.560 I hope I always feel like that, for sure.

01:35:31.120 Yeah.

01:35:31.960 Because I don't know, I think content can kill somebody's career.

01:35:35.880 I've seen it happen to friends and stuff, you know?

01:35:37.520 Yeah.

01:35:37.660 And like, that's definitely a thing.

01:35:40.660 But I also, you know, want to learn how to slow down or like, I don't know, feel like,

01:35:49.160 you know, I appreciate moments, but like really try to take time to be like, man, I have,

01:35:54.120 I've done really well and like technically have made it, you know, to a lot of people.

01:35:57.840 And because there are times where I'm constantly worried about the next year and, man, we're

01:36:02.520 going to be in arenas next year.

01:36:03.700 And then the year after that, we're going to do this and that and, you know, and kind

01:36:06.500 of constantly worried about that.

01:36:08.000 But it's good to check yourself for sure.

01:36:10.480 What, um, you started a family.

01:36:12.720 Yeah.

01:36:13.000 I mean, you know, that's one thing I think that kind of starts to put down something

01:36:15.920 that's real to you.

01:36:17.000 Yep.

01:36:17.180 And you seem to really love your wife, you know?

01:36:18.920 I do, man.

01:36:19.640 You seem to really love being around her.

01:36:21.080 You know, I noticed that when I'm around you, you guys have such a nice connection.

01:36:24.280 It's admirable.

01:36:25.080 Thank you, man.

01:36:26.100 Um, how did that kind of come to play, man?

01:36:28.480 Did you know she was the, there was no doubt when you met her?

01:36:31.200 How did it go down?

01:36:31.720 First night I met her, man.

01:36:33.160 Dang.

01:36:33.580 It was awesome, bro.

01:36:35.100 Dude, I, I, again, my buddy Hunter Phelps, this is so cheesy, but we, we hung out.

01:36:40.940 I met her at, um, I was, I was playing drums for Hunter opening for a guy named Jameson

01:36:45.980 Rogers at Ole Miss.

01:36:47.620 And, uh, I met her there.

01:36:49.980 She went to Ole Miss?

01:36:50.940 She did.

01:36:51.640 Oh, dang.

01:36:52.300 She's an Ole Miss girl.

01:36:53.320 She's from San Diego, but went to Ole Miss.

01:36:55.100 Ooh, okay.

01:36:55.880 Okay.

01:36:56.360 Best of both worlds.

01:36:57.240 Yeah, it's interesting.

01:36:58.700 And we met and then like, she took us, well, I went to her apartment, hung out with her friends

01:37:04.020 and then she took us, I always remember she drove us barefoot to Huddle House.

01:37:10.120 Oh, God.

01:37:10.840 We ate Huddle House.

01:37:11.760 She went, she went to Huddle House barefoot, bro, which is a thing on its own.

01:37:15.520 Oh, that's tuberculosis.

01:37:16.780 Yeah, exactly, bro.

01:37:18.200 That's ringworm fucking shit.

01:37:20.940 And, uh, and then like.

01:37:21.900 Yeah, if you like it, put a ringworm on it.

01:37:25.920 Dude, exactly.

01:37:27.200 I'm, I'm gonna put that in a country song.

01:37:28.600 I'll give you a credit, dude.

01:37:29.760 It won't be a good song.

01:37:30.780 I already told you that, bro.

01:37:32.500 Um, but anyway, and I knew that after that night, man, I was like, I got to keep in touch

01:37:36.980 with this girl.

01:37:37.580 Cause.

01:37:38.140 Ah, so that was, I have to keep in touch with her.

01:37:39.980 There's something about her.

01:37:40.960 Yep.

01:37:41.360 And I'd never really, I'd never had that with anybody.

01:37:43.620 And then we went, she and I, we dated, we'd been dating for like, uh, three or four months,

01:37:48.800 not long.

01:37:49.420 And then when she got out of college, I, she and I took a road trip from here to San Diego

01:37:55.840 to meet her parents already.

01:37:58.560 I mean, we just, it was the one, it just was, we just knew.

01:38:01.480 And so we drove all the way across the country.

01:38:03.220 It's my favorite memory I've ever had.

01:38:05.560 And so it's hers too.

01:38:06.680 It was just everything.

01:38:07.840 It was like, we were like newly like in love and shit.

01:38:10.460 And, but also seeing the, you know, the driving across the whole country together and like

01:38:15.900 just that whole experience.

01:38:17.240 And, but we would hit like a middle of nowhere spot, but then go to Vegas the next night.

01:38:20.420 It was unbelievable.

01:38:21.440 And, uh, but anyway, uh, there was never, never a doubt that it was awesome.

01:38:26.600 I am.

01:38:27.180 Yeah.

01:38:27.500 And did you, where'd you propose that?

01:38:29.540 Did you do something?

01:38:30.740 I did at the venue that I met her at a specific spot in this venue called the Lyric in Oxford.

01:38:37.040 Okay.

01:38:37.320 And I proposed, I faked a, uh, she, she knew, she, she tells me she don't, she fucking knew,

01:38:42.280 but I faked that I had a private show at this venue, uh, on a Sunday after our Atlanta

01:38:47.660 show on Saturday.

01:38:48.800 And so she rode with me to the private show and, uh, we go in the venue and then like

01:38:54.560 it had been like laid out with flowers.

01:38:56.000 And so I did it like at the exact spot that we, we met.

01:38:59.040 It's pretty cool.

01:38:59.680 That's cool, man.

01:39:00.840 That's romantic.

01:39:01.840 Yeah, dude.

01:39:02.780 Does it feel hard to keep up with that amount of romance?

01:39:05.500 Cause some dudes are like, Oh dude, I'm starting with low level romance.

01:39:09.620 So you always have something to work up to.

01:39:11.400 Yeah.

01:39:12.260 There's no, we're moving up, you know, man.

01:39:15.200 I try, dude.

01:39:16.120 Yeah.

01:39:16.380 Uh, I don't know if, I don't know if I would consider myself romantic, but, uh, I try and

01:39:23.540 it's, it's tough, man.

01:39:24.420 I think in any relationship, but it's just always some, so much shit going on and like

01:39:28.500 just try to take a second every couple of weeks and like think of something, you know,

01:39:33.860 to do like out of the ordinary, just, and I, it could be anything.

01:39:37.240 It could be like a fucking Chick-fil-A gift card to leave, you know, and be like, go get

01:39:41.120 some lunch.

01:39:41.580 So it could be anything, but I just try to do something just to keep it, to keep it, you know,

01:39:45.520 keep it interesting or whatever.

01:39:47.280 Yeah.

01:39:47.600 To be thinking of somebody else, you know?

01:39:49.520 Yeah.

01:39:49.840 Cause that's the thing I think in the end we want to be thought of, you know, people want

01:39:53.580 to be damn thought of, you know?

01:39:54.940 Yeah.

01:39:55.180 And that's, you know, like the love languages thing.

01:39:58.180 You ever heard of that?

01:39:58.940 Oh yeah.

01:39:59.120 Yeah.

01:39:59.580 Hers is like definitely, um, like, uh, acts of service and like quality time and stuff

01:40:07.860 like that.

01:40:08.320 You know what I mean?

01:40:08.760 And I've learned that, you know, throughout us dating and being married, but I always just

01:40:13.580 try to think of that.

01:40:14.280 Like, even if it's just like one little thing or whatever, you know, it's hard though, man.

01:40:17.940 Like this life, you know, it's just busy, busy, busy.

01:40:21.920 And I come home and I'm tired and stuff, but I'm, she's, she deserves it.

01:40:25.680 So like, I really try to do as much as I can to, you know, out of the ordinary for her.

01:40:30.260 Yeah.

01:40:30.580 I just noticed that when I'm around you, it's like, you really put her on a, you know, you,

01:40:33.140 you, there's no doubt that you, I feel like when I'm around you and she's around that

01:40:38.120 you present her proudly.

01:40:40.960 Yes, I do.

01:40:42.040 And there's something about that that is, uh, it's like, Oh, I, I would like to be like

01:40:47.260 that.

01:40:47.580 Yeah, sure, man.

01:40:48.340 And I'm, you know, in love with, with, with a lady.

01:40:51.480 So it's easy to do when you find the one that, that you want to do it with though.

01:40:54.420 Like I'm never, I'd never be ashamed.

01:40:56.780 Was there a close call before that?

01:40:58.320 Was there any, we went through a little, a little, where you got married though, where you

01:41:02.200 almost got married before.

01:41:04.140 With me and another, another, no, that was it.

01:41:07.420 Nah, I had like one other, maybe, maybe two in the past, like serious girlfriends.

01:41:11.320 Like I would say, like, I wouldn't count a serious girlfriend until after like 18, you

01:41:16.900 know what I mean?

01:41:17.320 So I had like maybe two over the course of eight years before I met her, but nah, not like

01:41:23.940 never really considered like going and buying a ring or anything like that.

01:41:28.440 Yeah.

01:41:28.720 Just, it was just like a year, year relationship or something like that.

01:41:31.900 But she was the only one for sure.

01:41:34.180 That's cool, man.

01:41:35.140 Yep.

01:41:35.900 Damn.

01:41:36.220 She went to Ole Miss too.

01:41:37.260 She did.

01:41:37.640 She's from San Diego.

01:41:38.640 Her dad was in the military.

01:41:39.580 You don't see a lot of that California to Ole Miss.

01:41:41.440 No.

01:41:42.500 She only knew, she knew like one other girl, I think from San Diego, but she wanted to do,

01:41:48.120 she's, she wanted to, an experience outside of what she was raised in.

01:41:52.920 And so she went and toured, she said she went and saw like Texas, LSU, maybe Alabama.

01:41:59.400 And then she went to Ole Miss and she just was like, this is where I want to go.

01:42:02.040 She did say that she, when she went, she was, she thought like, you know, as a lot of people,

01:42:06.720 I think she was like, this is South.

01:42:08.480 So everybody's going to have like cowboy hats and shit.

01:42:10.820 And she shows up and it's just a bunch of fucking fat frat dudes.

01:42:14.260 Like, you know what I mean?

01:42:15.520 Like completely different, you know, than what she thought.

01:42:18.560 Well, especially at Ole Miss, I don't think you get the cowboy hat at Ole Miss.

01:42:21.900 No, no, that's a Mississippi State.

01:42:23.360 Yeah.

01:42:23.960 Yeah.

01:42:24.240 The Ole Miss is all the kids from Memphis and Jackson, dude.

01:42:26.700 Yeah, definitely.

01:42:27.680 City, city kids, city, country kids, if that makes sense.

01:42:31.680 Yeah, I think it does, man.

01:42:33.300 That's interesting.

01:42:35.440 Ben, was there anything else in the news that we wanted to look at?

01:42:38.060 I'm trying to think of anything else that was cool.

01:42:41.780 Oh, dude, what?

01:42:43.440 Let me see.

01:42:44.000 People, yeah, it says the average penis length is growing.

01:42:48.560 According to a new study, the study was led by Michael Eisenberg, a urology professor

01:42:54.480 at Stanford Medicine and sexual function specialist.

01:42:58.660 The compiled data from over 75 studies done between 1942 and 2021.

01:43:04.540 Damn, he's been just looking at a lot of ween, huh?

01:43:11.040 Gathered measurements of the erect penises of over 55,000 men.

01:43:16.100 God, this dude's probably in the damn closet.

01:43:18.060 If he's got a wife, she needs to damn knock on the door sometimes to see what's going

01:43:22.120 on in there.

01:43:22.980 Bro, 55,000 men and erect, dude.

01:43:25.700 Yeah, there's no way you could look at this many.

01:43:28.360 I don't want to bring up a picture of the guy, but damn, dude, are we sure he's not just...

01:43:32.280 The findings were astounding is what he says, dude.

01:43:36.040 Oh, let me see.

01:43:36.820 Zoom in on him.

01:43:37.380 Bro, there's no way.

01:43:38.240 That guy wasn't born in...

01:43:40.380 Oh, no.

01:43:40.820 He just looks like a dude who would look at some penis.

01:43:42.440 1942, though?

01:43:44.720 Oh, that's when he's been looking at them from then.

01:43:47.560 Oh, oh, okay.

01:43:48.560 So he's just been looking at pictures?

01:43:50.160 From then, yeah.

01:43:51.440 Or drawings out.

01:43:51.900 How do you even find a picture of an erect penis from 1942?

01:43:55.760 Oh, I think you can get that pretty easily.

01:43:57.580 I think it's some of the rest of the...

01:43:58.820 It's like just putting them all in a stack or whatever.

01:44:01.460 How many is...

01:44:02.480 Go back to the information, please, brother.

01:44:04.140 Let me see the findings were astounding.

01:44:07.180 Penis linked also showed variation by draft.

01:44:09.140 Go down.

01:44:11.080 Let's get into some information.

01:44:14.400 Oh, it locked up.

01:44:15.420 Great.

01:44:16.620 You know what's becoming interesting?

01:44:17.560 You have to pay for news now.

01:44:18.920 Do you notice that?

01:44:19.860 Yeah.

01:44:21.000 So then over time, whatever information is going to be only available to people with money.

01:44:30.580 Damn, that's wild.

01:44:31.740 It's going to get weird.

01:44:32.360 Yeah, you read.

01:44:33.400 I've noticed that.

01:44:34.140 Like, I'll see a clickbait thing and you'll read like the just enough.

01:44:38.560 And then it's like for the rest, like subscribe to Huffington Post or whatever it is.

01:44:43.940 Oh, there you go.

01:44:44.880 Can we get any more?

01:44:45.860 Eisenberg told Stanford.

01:44:47.000 Showed variation by...

01:44:47.960 We all knew that already.

01:44:49.440 By geographic region?

01:44:50.440 Yeah, that's a given, right?

01:44:52.380 I think so.

01:44:54.060 In the article, Eisenberg said,

01:44:55.940 chemical exposure could be interacting with our hormone makeup,

01:44:59.140 which could be one of the many reasons that biological change is occurring.

01:45:02.800 Oh, maybe people are living in a place where there's more plastics in the water.

01:45:06.700 Or could it be like, I've heard like kids, like a 13-year-old boy or girl today looks like a grown-up,

01:45:14.640 like has the, is built like a grown-up compared to like in the 30s, 40s, 50s or whatever,

01:45:21.600 because of like hormones in the food or something like that?

01:45:24.480 That's crazy, dude.

01:45:25.540 It's weird what we're going to end up as.

01:45:27.760 Wow.

01:45:27.960 We're going to end up like chickens in your dad's thing.

01:45:29.940 Yeah.

01:45:30.500 We probably kind of already are, you know?

01:45:32.800 It feels like it, doesn't it, sometimes?

01:45:34.360 Yeah.

01:45:35.320 You know, it feels like we all know the same information and are kind of like watching this.

01:45:38.980 You know, it's like we all get the same six news stories every day.

01:45:42.540 Yeah.

01:45:43.140 We're all kind of like stuck in the same thing.

01:45:45.160 What about that train thing?

01:45:46.640 Are you keeping up with that?

01:45:47.480 That Ohio derailment?

01:45:48.740 Yeah.

01:45:49.260 It's supposed to make it here, but I don't.

01:45:51.300 Oh, that cloud is coming here?

01:45:53.040 Or something, yes, in the water.

01:45:54.400 Oh, damn, boy.

01:45:54.920 I'm going to get a hot air balloon and go up and get a hit, cuz.

01:45:57.620 If that shit comes over here, boy.

01:45:59.200 You might grow a fucking tail or something if you do that, dude.

01:46:02.120 Like a third arm or something.

01:46:05.080 Dude, I'll take it, bro.

01:46:06.680 If I had three arms, dog, oh, what would I do?

01:46:09.860 What would you do with three arms?

01:46:11.120 Would you fight people?

01:46:12.920 Oh, yeah.

01:46:13.700 I would grapple.

01:46:14.600 You'd make a hell of a prostitute, I think, too.

01:46:16.880 Oh, yeah.

01:46:18.840 Dude, you'd be, you could juggle.

01:46:21.560 Oh, but you'd have to juggle like five things, right?

01:46:24.460 Yeah, that's true, huh?

01:46:25.700 You have to really up the ante.

01:46:27.400 What would you do if I had three arms?

01:46:29.500 Oh, you could be a really good like blackjack dealer.

01:46:31.820 Oh, yeah.

01:46:32.820 Car dealer.

01:46:34.020 Magician.

01:46:34.920 I got a handjob from this gal that dealt blackjack one time, and I remember at the end,

01:46:38.360 she went like this.

01:46:39.960 It was like.

01:46:43.200 At the end, dude.

01:46:44.440 You sound like it.

01:46:44.660 And then it went like that, yeah.

01:46:45.920 It was awesome, dude.

01:46:47.400 Pretty cool.

01:46:48.060 And that was over by, I think, by the wind.

01:46:51.860 Is that in Louisiana?

01:46:52.740 Y'all got casinos?

01:46:53.300 Oh, that was in Las Vegas.

01:46:54.460 Oh, Vegas.

01:46:55.260 No, we don't.

01:46:55.820 We have two.

01:46:56.200 You guys have Tupelo, right?

01:46:58.360 Tunica.

01:46:58.940 Tunica.

01:46:59.200 But that's another thing about my hometown.

01:47:01.060 We got two big Choctaw casinos.

01:47:03.180 Oh, really?

01:47:03.640 Out in the country.

01:47:04.400 Like, you top over this hill, dude, and it's these two like, they're like what the size

01:47:10.280 of like Tunica or somewhere like Vicksburg.

01:47:14.200 But there's one that's crazy.

01:47:15.820 It's called the Golden Moon.

01:47:17.080 And it's this like stairway to heaven looking shit with a big old moon at the top corner

01:47:22.680 of it.

01:47:22.960 It's pretty wild.

01:47:23.720 It's in Philadelphia.

01:47:24.780 Oh, wow.

01:47:25.140 But I moved here when I was 19.

01:47:27.980 So I never.

01:47:29.260 Got to go and do it.

01:47:30.140 Yeah.

01:47:30.260 And I was afraid of getting out there, like sneaking out there and trying to sneak on the

01:47:32.920 floor and like getting arrested or going to like Choctaw jail or something, you know?

01:47:37.020 Oh, yeah.

01:47:37.900 What did we have?

01:47:39.980 Did you have one in Covington or close?

01:47:42.540 No.

01:47:42.980 What did we have?

01:47:43.840 We had like a daiquiri place.

01:47:46.420 People would go drink it.

01:47:47.240 That was big in Louisiana.

01:47:48.240 Get you a daiquiri.

01:47:48.860 Oh, I've heard.

01:47:49.480 And they put the little straw, the thing on the end.

01:47:51.880 Yeah.

01:47:52.100 If they don't take like the thing.

01:47:53.140 If they don't take the paper off the straw, then it's a closed container.

01:47:56.720 Right.

01:47:57.220 So they'll give you that thing with that little hat on it.

01:47:59.540 Yeah.

01:47:59.660 You know?

01:48:00.620 Dude, it's crawfish season.

01:48:03.040 Oh, yeah.

01:48:03.500 It's good.

01:48:03.840 Man.

01:48:04.080 I haven't had any yet this year.

01:48:06.100 Yeah.

01:48:06.300 They're good, man.

01:48:07.060 Did you guys ever have them up in Mississippi?

01:48:08.380 Did they get up there?

01:48:09.160 Oh, yeah.

01:48:09.380 Oh, yeah?

01:48:09.720 Yeah.

01:48:09.920 We actually just recently in the past 10 years, there's a place in Philadelphia called Blake's

01:48:13.660 Seafood and they do it there.

01:48:16.040 And you can go get like a big old.

01:48:18.240 You know, I'm actually going to Philadelphia tomorrow.

01:48:19.780 I'm playing a little acoustic hometown show and I might go get some crawfish.

01:48:24.480 That sounds pretty good.

01:48:25.240 That does sound good.

01:48:26.760 Dude, we used to go, because I used to work on a farm in Mississippi in the summers.

01:48:31.500 So I would go up to-

01:48:32.200 I've heard you say that before.

01:48:32.700 I'd go up to Natchez, right?

01:48:34.000 Yeah.

01:48:34.240 And the farms, I mean, the land was actually right over the levee in Louisiana.

01:48:38.600 Oh, really?

01:48:39.100 Because Natchez is on the border, right?

01:48:40.680 Yeah.

01:48:41.040 So we'd go by like Deer Park.

01:48:42.600 We'd be like in Faraday and Vidalia, like right there.

01:48:45.980 And we'd go across and we'd be in Mississippi.

01:48:53.240 And yeah, it was nice, man.

01:48:55.380 What kind of farm was it?

01:48:56.680 It was soybean, corn.

01:48:58.540 Okay.

01:48:59.680 Cotton.

01:49:00.400 Did y'all ever find arrowheads out there?

01:49:01.980 Milo.

01:49:02.340 Oh, no, but they had land around where we'd go look for them sometimes on the weekends.

01:49:06.040 I'd look for them out here.

01:49:07.860 Go look for Civil War shit.

01:49:09.460 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:49:09.960 Well, Natchez, that's right.

01:49:11.240 Yeah.

01:49:11.580 Apparently, Natchez, though, was like that the Union came up the river and they fired a

01:49:17.640 bunch of cannons off and that the whole city came out and was just like surrendered or

01:49:22.220 whatever.

01:49:22.640 Oh, they gave up?

01:49:23.720 Yeah.

01:49:24.040 And it kind of opened up the gate.

01:49:26.860 Oh, they-

01:49:27.860 Natchez gave up Natchez to the Union.

01:49:30.760 Go look it up, Natchez's surrender in a civil war.

01:49:33.460 Damn.

01:49:34.380 I think they kind of opened up the gate to-

01:49:37.120 Because there's a lot of pills there now.

01:49:38.640 I don't know what they were doing then.

01:49:41.380 But I could see everybody being on something and just-

01:49:44.180 Dude, this is right here is big Civil War shit.

01:49:47.260 Really?

01:49:47.720 Yeah, big time.

01:49:48.540 There's a hill right over here called Shy's Hill.

01:49:51.080 And there's a memorial at the top.

01:49:52.740 It was a giant battle.

01:49:54.040 People find, still to this day, find relics and shit in the ground.

01:49:58.680 Metal, you know what I mean?

01:50:00.180 Like, all kinds of stuff.

01:50:01.500 I'd get out there.

01:50:02.200 My buddy says he saw a ghost.

01:50:03.820 He lives over here.

01:50:04.940 Uh-uh.

01:50:05.180 Says he saw a Union.

01:50:06.320 I mean, dude, and this dude-

01:50:07.360 Is he from Mississippi?

01:50:08.420 No.

01:50:08.880 He's from Minnesota.

01:50:11.220 Oh, damn.

01:50:12.000 I don't know if they usually like ghosts as much.

01:50:13.700 Dude, he was laying in his hammock, said he saw a dude walking up the side of his hill

01:50:17.720 in like Civil War outfit.

01:50:19.700 I swear to God.

01:50:20.400 And he was like, dude, he was like, I don't believe in nothing.

01:50:22.780 And I saw this and I was like, I think I just saw a ghost walking up Shy's Hill where there

01:50:26.640 was like an actual battle.

01:50:27.860 It's pretty crazy.

01:50:29.000 I could see that, man.

01:50:30.180 I could see there being so much traffic, right?

01:50:32.440 Where a lot of deaths happen at once.

01:50:34.220 Yeah.

01:50:34.560 That a couple spirits get kind of logged in the-

01:50:36.800 Yeah, something like that, right?

01:50:37.900 In the ether.

01:50:38.360 Open that back up, Ben, please.

01:50:42.260 Surrender, there you go.

01:50:43.120 Surrender and Atchers, Mississippi.

01:50:44.600 There we go.

01:50:48.640 This shit looks damn good.

01:50:51.840 Is this a play?

01:50:53.420 I know.

01:50:53.920 I'm pretty sure it was a thing that they fired a bunch of cannons and shit.

01:51:01.420 I got a damn AA meeting.

01:51:03.480 Do you?

01:51:03.980 Yeah.

01:51:05.180 What time?

01:51:06.840 In one minute.

01:51:07.920 Oh, shit.

01:51:08.780 All right.

01:51:08.820 Dude.

01:51:12.200 It's at home.

01:51:13.280 Oh, word.

01:51:13.880 All right, cool.

01:51:17.480 Yeah, will you be bummed if we chat another time?

01:51:20.800 Dude, not at all.

01:51:21.620 Okay, cool.

01:51:22.100 Bro, I've been here for about two hours.

01:51:24.140 Dude.

01:51:24.660 Yeah, we've been sitting here for a while.

01:51:25.960 I appreciate the time, man.

01:51:27.220 Yeah, I appreciate you teaching me about the Neshoba County.

01:51:30.120 Yeah.

01:51:30.640 Dude, you gotta go.

01:51:31.540 Dude, I can't even believe it.

01:51:32.280 It looks amazing.

01:51:32.940 I can't believe I've never heard of it.

01:51:34.200 I mean, you can just walk.

01:51:35.620 And dude, like people are so inviting.

01:51:37.740 Like you can walk into any cabin and say, hey, I'm not from here.

01:51:41.340 Can you guys tell me something to do?

01:51:42.660 And any cabin will be like, come in here.

01:51:45.640 Feed you.

01:51:46.340 Like, it's just, it's the coolest thing in the world.

01:51:51.420 God.

01:51:52.460 And it's hot as fuck, which I love, dude.

01:51:54.840 Yeah.

01:51:55.660 Well, you know what's interesting, man, is I noticed like, say if, like there's been times

01:51:59.320 where I go and stay in a hotel somewhere and then I'll stay like in an off the beaten path

01:52:03.840 place that doesn't have air conditioning.

01:52:05.220 And there's something about when you're in that non-AC place, you like wake up in the

01:52:10.380 middle of the night, you're sweating and shit's weird.

01:52:13.100 And it's like, but it feels like more natural.

01:52:16.200 Yeah.

01:52:16.420 It's sticky and it's nasty, but it feels a lot more natural.

01:52:19.060 Yeah.

01:52:19.620 We did that in Thailand.

01:52:20.760 Like we went to Thailand for our honeymoon and like there was a couple of places that

01:52:23.960 were like that.

01:52:24.620 And it was just like, they just don't have air conditioning.

01:52:26.400 Yeah.

01:52:27.080 You feel like you're just out, you know, you're inside, you feel like you're outside or something.

01:52:31.900 I don't know.

01:52:32.580 Yeah.

01:52:32.900 Yeah.

01:52:33.260 I think it was just, you're more in tied into nature when that kind of stuff's going

01:52:36.980 on, you know?

01:52:38.860 But yeah, I could imagine that there's a lot of places where people died at once and then

01:52:42.020 there's just bumper to bumper traffic going to heaven or whatever.

01:52:44.720 I think so.

01:52:45.380 And people are like, I'm a mill around.

01:52:46.880 Yeah.

01:52:47.060 It's like, that's like why like, um, mental hospitals and like old prisons and shit, you

01:52:51.460 know, where like a lot of people died in one place.

01:52:53.220 They say that's like the most haunted places.

01:52:55.900 Oh yeah.

01:52:56.420 You know what I mean?

01:52:57.140 I could see it.

01:52:58.060 Yeah.

01:52:59.260 Um, all right.

01:53:00.680 The Mockingbird and the Crow.

01:53:02.800 Yeah.

01:53:03.460 Congratulations, man.

01:53:04.080 Thank you very much.

01:53:04.860 Yeah.

01:53:05.040 Please keep, keep, please keep writing and making cool music, man.

01:53:07.980 Thank you, brother.

01:53:08.700 I love you.

01:53:09.120 You know, my sister and I are, one of my sister and I had me real super close and we

01:53:12.400 listened to, uh, give, uh, heaven some hell.

01:53:16.000 Yeah.

01:53:16.240 Yeah.

01:53:16.380 Yeah.

01:53:16.680 And dude, we, we, we just jam out.

01:53:18.780 I said, we'd never done that before.

01:53:20.140 That's awesome, dude.

01:53:20.900 So it's cool.

01:53:21.560 Like, you know, we never had that kind of, even those, that little moment of fun, we

01:53:25.480 never had that.

01:53:26.080 That's cool, dude.

01:53:26.920 Uh, that's, that makes my day.

01:53:28.640 That's the power of music, man.

01:53:29.940 It really is.

01:53:30.460 It's the only language we all know how to speak, dude.

01:53:32.780 Yeah.

01:53:33.100 It's pretty incredible.

01:53:34.220 Uh, thanks for all your contributions to it.

01:53:36.100 Oh, you guys can check out Hardy.

01:53:37.540 Uh, we'll put all his links to everything and, um, and you guys can catch him on tour on

01:53:41.300 his own tour and, uh, with more with Morgan and Parker and Bailey.

01:53:45.380 And Earn.

01:53:46.080 And Earn.

01:53:46.660 Yeah.

01:53:47.200 Oh, dude.

01:53:48.380 So funny.

01:53:48.940 I can't wait to have Earn in here.

01:53:50.000 Yeah.

01:53:50.320 He's a trip.

01:53:51.000 Yeah, he is, man.

01:53:51.720 Thank you so much.

01:53:52.920 Dude, it's just, I really appreciate it.

01:53:55.300 Yeah.

01:53:55.560 It's awesome, man.

01:53:56.140 I'm glad we got to spend some time.

01:53:57.340 Hell yeah.

01:53:57.660 Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.

01:54:03.600 I must be cornerstone.

01:54:08.720 Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind.

01:54:13.520 Well, I found I can feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take a little time.

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - March 07, 2023

E433 HARDY

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