True Patriot Love - From Soldier To Songwriter ｜ with Dallas Alexander

00:00:00.000 dallas thanks for being here man i i really don't think you need an introduction i think a lot of

00:00:08.160 people already know who you are and they're they're keen on checking this out um what's it like to be

00:00:12.720 on tour now with your family you know what i mean doing all these playing shows and and essentially

00:00:18.800 going from soldier to rock star and now you get to bring your family along what's that like

00:00:23.120 i love it man um there's a ton of stuff i think that

00:00:26.240 it's it's funny i always talk about it and people assume it's a very very very different job than

00:00:32.320 the military and in a lot of ways it is the forward-facing side of it is social media and

00:00:36.320 actually playing music but everything else around it it was like i was training for it my whole

00:00:41.920 life all the logistics of touring and road moves and flights and plans and moving people and gear

00:00:47.520 and equipment it's like it's almost second nature now and i think without having that

00:00:53.040 it can be really overwhelming um but now that i'm i'm used to doing that kind of stuff i i love it

00:00:59.040 get to bring my family around where it makes sense where the travel is good and be on the road and

00:01:04.880 it's cool so there's there's a equal sort of proportion of supporters around more or less

00:01:11.520 that able to sort of make it happen with all the moving the equipment and booking flights

00:01:15.760 and booking hotels and road moves and everything yeah totally i've got a great team uh right now

00:01:20.720 but it's still i've yet to really relinquish control of everything you know i i dream of one

00:01:27.520 day being that artist where they're just like hey show up here this time and i just show up and not

00:01:32.640 know what's going on but i like double and triple check everything and timings and robes i i think

00:01:38.080 i think by then you'll be in like a bedazzled leather jacket yeah it's a bedazzled tour bus

00:01:42.960 um yeah i mean like something that i guess i'll i'll uh parallel with myself like getting out for

00:01:51.320 me as sort of messy and ugly as it was it was similar for you in a different way but was it

00:01:57.200 did you have any trouble with sort of your identity you know what i mean getting out as

00:02:01.880 like you'd probably identified as this elite soldier sniper you know what i mean for a long

00:02:05.180 time uh you know i mean lots of deployments uh front facing you know what i mean tip of the

00:02:10.020 spirit type thing and then finding a new you moving into a new career did you plan on going into music

00:02:15.480 or how did that how did that uh I sort of I I went through the identity change while I was still in

00:02:20.820 the unit really um on the tail end of my military like this is the last like few years really even

00:02:26.940 before kind of that COVID stuff kicked in it got crazy I was starting to play music and I was

00:02:32.580 playing a ton of bar shows like I would go play for like three hours at whatever local pub would

00:02:39.120 me and then go to work the next day at Dwyer Hill. And I was doing that like three or four,

00:02:43.840 sometimes five nights a week. And I was just, I felt like I was pulling to get away. And finally,

00:02:50.280 they just like cut the chain. And so I already, I was off and running with a new identity. And I,

00:02:56.920 you know, I've always appreciated my time in the military and enjoyed my time at the unit for the

00:03:01.420 most part, but I was like ready to rock and roll. So when I left, I was like, oh, I'm a songwriter

00:03:07.980 and i had a new identity and i was off and running so were you were you like all over ottawa sort of

00:03:12.780 greely area yeah kind of anywhere i mean it was mostly west because i played country music so it

00:03:18.060 would be all lanark county and up to as far as wherever i could get like and still be relatively

00:03:23.740 inside our recall bubble that's where i was playing any pub or lounge or bar whatever that

00:03:28.540 would hire me did you ever have a moment where you were recalled and you had to come in from a

00:03:34.380 night from while i was playing no no no not well i was like halfway through his set sorry sorry

00:03:41.980 sorry folks gotta cut this one short yeah um that's cool man i didn't know that you had already

00:03:47.340 been doing that um that's that's really interesting that you kind of that the transition had already

00:03:53.020 started for you and the identity piece was already making that shift yeah it was 20 it was in 2019

00:03:58.780 that i i decided i'm going to be a songwriter so i go into open mics until i could play enough songs

00:04:03.580 and then booking bars and stuff like that did you did you grow up playing in a band or

00:04:09.980 so i played i didn't play anything really but i sang in a high school like alternative rock band

00:04:15.020 for a little while um with some buddies and it was super fun i always loved music but it was

00:04:20.940 i just like it never crossed my mind really outside of when we were young oh you could be a

00:04:25.580 rock star to like oh you can actually like have a job a career in something that's cool and you

00:04:31.500 could be passionate about it anywhere past high school in my adult life so i played hockey

00:04:36.460 eventually joined the military i had a guitar in the house but i never really learned how to play it

00:04:41.660 and then a bunch of things kind of collided in my life where i decided i wanted to be a songwriter

00:04:46.940 just went about learning whatever the hell that means so how long did it take you to learn guitar

00:04:52.620 like that's not an easy instrument to pick up and just uh well i just i i looked at it like

00:04:58.220 learning how to shoot the pistol because i never really knew how to shoot a pistol before i got

00:05:01.740 to the unit and i got pretty okay at it and it was just reps and reps and reps and around so i like

00:05:08.380 just walked around my house strumming my guitar all day and all night you can ask my wife she

00:05:13.980 heard all the worst versions of every song i could play um and i was just like all right i just got

00:05:19.100 to get to put in put in the work put in the hours put in the work but yeah it was just every single

00:05:23.660 day i still play every day um i just i still have a ton to learn there's guitar players that really

00:05:29.100 really kick ass and it's an inspiring group of people to be around down in nashville just everyone

00:05:35.740 you always want to be getting better so it's just the time and the repetition how how long have you

00:05:42.300 been down in nashville and like how what's your what's your sort of plan or program to stay there

00:05:46.860 and that's obviously the epicenter of country music in the u.s yeah and that's obviously what

00:05:51.020 had brought you there yeah yeah it's uh i've been going down for like the last three years we were

00:05:57.340 just trying to figure out the time stamp on this so that my first trip was when i did the sean ryan

00:06:01.160 podcast and i was down there to do some co-writing um and then i kept going back you know almost

00:06:08.380 if i wasn't on tour i was down there every month um just trying to build a network and meet people

00:06:13.100 and then we just moved down at the beginning of last year and spent the entire year there

00:06:17.580 mind you I toured a bunch too so I wasn't there nearly as much as I thought I would be

00:06:22.120 um but yeah the plan is to always either be right in Nashville somewhere around there getting land

00:06:29.500 in a house but we'll we'll be connected back and forth with Canada like we're back and forth a lot

00:06:34.540 of touring in Canada right now we tour in the states and it's just kind of be another home

00:06:39.340 away from home how do you manage the I guess residency portion of that as a did you go down

00:06:45.920 as a as a e2 i think it is talented sort of visa that that's able to keep you there and you live

00:06:52.160 there yeah so the all the first trips were just for songwriting i didn't we weren't playing any

00:06:57.840 shows really sort of income didn't matter um and the last two years while we were touring in the

00:07:03.040 states we got a p2 visa so it's an artist visa you can play uh i think they were each year long

00:07:10.160 and we're we'll be on our third one this year there's some other options too that we're looking

00:07:14.320 at but that one it's relatively easy and we know the process so i just keep renewing that thing and

00:07:20.560 you can add shows and book shows and play as much as you want interesting because i uh i've been

00:07:27.120 looking at my like i was just telling you earlier i spent most of the winter um in the us and i was

00:07:33.440 kind of joking that if i'd overstayed my because it got kind of close to the wire of that 180 day

00:07:38.480 limit and i was kind of joking with some people that you get iced up bro yeah yeah like i ice

00:07:43.360 was gonna come looking for like a pale canadian to move them out of there um but no i i love the 0.99

00:07:49.200 u.s and i i think this anti sort of u.s trump arrangement syndrome is is out of control and

00:07:54.720 like i just had a bunch of conversations about that and i'm like if you just put your phone

00:07:59.040 away and go visit the u.s you're going to find that it's just like here people think everyone's

00:08:04.480 so crazy or divided or whatever like i tour for a living now so i talk to everyone and most people

00:08:10.560 are just nice people regardless of what they believe politically all this stuff they just

00:08:14.160 want to like have a good life take care of their family however they look at the world might be a

00:08:18.080 little bit differently but it's the dude it's the phone that is the problem it's it's like barely

00:08:23.760 even society um but yeah the us is is amazing man and i i'd say to everyone like that entire

00:08:29.920 country is built on like this this kind of capitalistic view of things where you can go

00:08:36.560 start a company in the u.s you can do it without without a social security number you can do it

00:08:41.040 without anything and that will give you a business it'll give you a tax number you can get a phone

00:08:46.080 you can have a reason to travel there's all kinds of foreign people that own corporations in the us

00:08:51.680 and anyone can go start that if you're looking for some you know way to be tied in do business

00:08:57.920 in a freer market there's all kinds of options yeah no i couldn't agree more my my time down

00:09:03.600 there i made some great friends everybody was i got i got teased from my accent i guess i don't

00:09:08.160 hear it but they they they definitely do and i agree with everything you just said and people

00:09:13.360 really do need to kind of separate themselves from the rectangle of anxiety that they carry

00:09:18.320 around non-stop and it just it just adds to unnecessary division and yeah man you you

00:09:23.840 you articulated it quite well kind of in that same vein do you still pay attention to like what's

00:09:29.840 going on in canada and the canadian military or that after you do you disassociate or is that

00:09:33.520 still on your radar i have disassociated as much as possible and yet still i hear everything i

00:09:40.480 don't understand it must be the group of friends that i allow to send me or something because

00:09:45.280 i feel like i still know all the current events even without going to look for them or chase them

00:09:51.120 up they always somehow come across um whether it's my algorithm even though i try to spend very

00:09:55.920 little time on social media if i'm not actually posting for my business and for music like

00:10:01.920 i have a thought in my brain where i want to like create more than i consume when it comes

00:10:06.640 to social media and that's just because i have a music brand to build um but still somehow yeah i

00:10:12.560 i mean i feel like i'm on top of most things unintentionally they find their way in it's um

00:10:19.840 yeah i totally get i i don't do the social media thing really at all um that might change kind of

00:10:25.200 where this thing is this this tpl gig has been steering and everyone's been really good and the

00:10:30.160 some of the interviews have been getting really good traction um hence you know what i mean being

00:10:33.520 able to talk to you right now but um the the most of the messages that i get and the conversations

00:10:40.480 that i have with guys that are still in or guys that are on their way out or whatever

00:10:43.680 uh is like just sort of embarrassment there's this sort of woke um social justice dei cloud

00:10:51.180 now that kind of sits on top of everything whereas the guys that i tended to surround myself with were

00:10:56.620 high hard charging high performing guys with ambition that wanted to go do this specialization

00:11:01.900 or this deployment or whatever and now they're just like i i had a guy confide in me this is a

00:11:07.040 couple years ago that he was sitting in a meeting as they were going over like a merit board or

00:11:11.280 whatever for promotions and he was literally told by one of the i believe it was a colonel

00:11:16.360 that like we were not going to promote the guy because he was a white guy and it's like we need

00:11:21.880 this female you know what i mean buddhist vegan or whatever you know what i mean whatever insert 1.00

00:11:26.580 thing and and he's just like he's like man i don't know how to compartmentalize this like i signed up

00:11:32.240 here to be sort of doing this job and it just becomes sort of expectation management sort of

00:11:38.960 dumpster fire for the last few years and I don't I don't know if this is going to change and I don't

00:11:43.140 know if you can comment on that but guys are like really struggling the guys that I know yeah I mean

00:11:48.080 I get the same from some people that are still in that I chat with or even at shows and I think

00:11:53.420 right now the problem is the military in Canada like Canada has gotten what it asked for in terms

00:12:02.240 of who they voted in and then obviously the people that are voted in are putting into position

00:12:07.940 or putting these changes from their position into the forces to represent like the virtue signaling

00:12:14.540 that they like to do all over the world so like well let's use our our armed forces as this

00:12:19.440 extension of our virtue signaling and it's it's changed to the point like this is why you have

00:12:25.720 commanders like crying about racism like you want to talk about putting a foot forward where like

00:12:32.860 the picture you're representing is a total weakness and i'm not saying don't cry i'm not

00:12:37.480 even saying don't talk about racism but don't have like the military is something different the

00:12:42.100 military is a fighting force and I don't think ours is capable of fighting right now there's

00:12:45.960 people within it that are capable of fighting but we do not have a capable fighting force

00:12:49.520 the army the navy the air force and even the special operations have been like beaten down

00:12:56.820 so much there was a gigantic weeding out process like we talked about earlier through all the

00:13:01.700 COVID stuff there's like this if you don't listen to us kind of thing and you don't want to

00:13:06.840 do what we say in terms of what the government is doing like people are getting kicked out

00:13:10.680 we have now the fighting force that we asked for and that we meet our bed yeah um but what i keep

00:13:18.440 saying to people and i get asked this thousands of times i've been asked like should i still join

00:13:24.360 in my opinion service like to your community or your country is still important and it still

00:13:30.520 needs good people you're just it's going to be an uphill battle for a while and will it ever change

00:13:36.360 i mean i'd like to hope it does i mean at some point it's i don't know i don't think we can go

00:13:43.400 down the path we're on right now and still call it a military no matter how much we increase our

00:13:47.720 spending by but um i'm hopeful that it'll change it'll just we just we just need good people to

00:13:53.800 keep doing it no that's man i agree with all that too it's uh i i did a i did a show not long ago

00:14:01.480 that landed on the radar of some folks that are still in some that are out uh very high ranking

00:14:07.540 senior officers that reached out to me to say hey like uh you're kind of wrong on this you're

00:14:12.480 you're kind of right on this you don't even know how accurate you are on this and and long

00:14:16.180 conversations kind of spooled into basically being confided by again very senior officers i was a

00:14:21.840 junior officer my whole life like what my administrative and you know what i mean officer

00:14:26.040 abilities like contained in a small brown bag and these guys are 25 years in kind of thing

00:14:31.160 and they're telling me that the current cds again this is allegedly told to me the current cds

00:14:37.260 kerrigan and jenny who i actually met in iraq and i can tell that story later if it's necessary but

00:14:41.900 um she failed her interview like there's a vetting process for the cds that you have to you have to

00:14:48.140 hit certain metrics and a checklist and you're then basically appointed you know what i mean

00:14:52.840 based on your scoring merit wise compared to your peers and she and she failed but she was installed

00:14:58.120 anyway because trudeau was on record sort of as saying like we we're gonna put a female in there

00:15:03.160 and then i'm saying to this person on the phone like well like why did we do and and the person

00:15:09.320 asked not to be identified obviously and then said there were other women in the mix for this role

00:15:13.880 like the most important senior officer in the military the essentially a politician in the

00:15:18.280 military yeah and other women had scored higher but i guess didn't check as many boxes like i i 1.00

00:15:23.960 don't know but all that i'm saying is that it is it's exactly what you said like it's gotten to

00:15:29.320 this sort of scary level where is it still a military like i'm not sure it's kind of this

00:15:34.840 organized club of people who you know i mean go camping with guns it's kind of like that's in the

00:15:40.120 in the reserves like we called it kind of camping with guns because you could go off for a weekend

00:15:43.640 exercise and your phone wouldn't even die by the time you were i think but um yeah man no i i think

00:15:50.280 think that that's an important insight that you gave and if you're okay with it i kind of want to

00:15:55.440 bring it back a little bit to what we talked about earlier when you were sort of pushing back

00:15:59.320 um and how many people i don't know like i'm not asking you to chuck anyone under the bus and we

00:16:03.840 can we can derail this instantly if it's a no bueno but like when when you were when you were

00:16:09.400 going through your stuff and i think people are curious because it seemed like you were being

00:16:14.240 portrayed with all this the nonsense letter by the jag that went out that's just highly embarrassing

00:16:19.380 of like a Canadian lawyer asking an American to abide by Canadian jurisdictional laws like it's 0.98

00:16:26.300 pretty dumb and silly in Freedomville Tennessee yeah yeah but uh the if the the PR sort of agenda 0.97

00:16:35.020 for this was that you were the outlier you were the outcast like everyone was on board with this 0.99

00:16:40.220 you were the only one who wasn't but maybe that's not the case yeah it's 100% not the case uh what

00:16:46.360 we were talking about earlier just I mean most of the guys I worked with every day were snipers

00:16:50.540 and I would say I always go back to this cliche like I'm pulled in we have to pick a team to go

00:16:58.960 do some crazy mission it's a it's a Hollywood movie and I have to hand select who I'm going

00:17:04.320 with all of the people that I pick are out of the military all of the people that I pick

00:17:09.560 left because of the same reason I did and they were all snipers so there's a collection of dudes

00:17:15.620 all across this country right now that were the the hardest dudes i've ever worked with

00:17:19.760 the the smartest the most talented snipers i've ever seen in my life far better than myself um

00:17:25.320 and those would be the people that i would pick and none of them are in and they're not in because

00:17:28.940 of all this shit that happened with covid um at the time the cypress group was the highest like

00:17:38.020 percentage of people that were like yeah we don't believe in any of this and some people still did 0.81

00:17:43.000 and some people didn't um but it was it was spread out throughout the unit that same opinion like

00:17:51.240 it's easy to see that like i went to the doctor and just i just asked for medical advice i was

00:17:58.260 like look here's all of the things that i've had happen in my career from brain injury to all the

00:18:03.640 different things like the heavy metals in my blood and all you know my file here it is how does this

00:18:09.120 medication interact with any of those issues and he's like well we don't know like then how can

00:18:15.600 you tell me that it's safe he's like well it's safe and effective it's like okay i've heard that

00:18:21.400 that's not what i'm asking i'm asking for medical advice i'm like tylenol is not safe for everyone

00:18:26.140 peanut butter is not safe for everyone like this is not i'm just asking you because like when i

00:18:31.740 look at this and these things i'm like the category i'm in is a young fit person it feels like there

00:18:36.100 could be some heart issues on the side of this that might not be there if I just you know get

00:18:40.520 COVID and get over it but it's like having any of these conversations with people were just like

00:18:44.700 they look at you like oh was this a was this a Dwyer Hill doctor yeah someone at the unit okay

00:18:50.600 and so I got a medical exemption for it but they wouldn't recognize I talked to a different doctor

00:18:55.160 outside of our base and like yeah we're not recognizing that so the day I got kicked out

00:19:00.160 like we were talking about this earlier I was going to a meeting for them just to tell me why

00:19:03.200 they weren't recognizing my exemptions and that was just the last day I was ever allowed it to

00:19:08.380 was it literally like you had this confrontation with senior leadership you were escorted out give

00:19:15.860 us your badge like you're not back here ever they didn't even so I drove uh like my sergeant major

00:19:22.180 my squadron brought me this meeting and this is where I had the confrontation with the RSM um and

00:19:29.280 was over wearing a mask and then when i left that building my squadron sergeant major was like okay

00:19:37.520 well you probably should go home i'm like all right well see you tomorrow i left and then

00:19:44.320 when i came back as i said like all my gear was there like i'd been at the hill for almost 14

00:19:49.440 years and i was a sniper a diver a climber surveillance troop and like a backup breacher

00:19:56.240 so like the amount of gear you have is astronomical so i had like all this stuff my stall had been

00:20:02.960 there for you know almost 14 years and it was like okay well i i knew i was leaving because

00:20:07.520 i was on the medical leave path anyway as soon as all this stuff happened i i took the first

00:20:11.920 off ramp i could find i was going through all this stuff so i went back and my past just never

00:20:16.480 worked again i couldn't get in so i contacted my like true board did you like did you actually show

00:20:22.000 up yeah just show up to the gate and your pass just like beep boop like you can't do it's like

00:20:27.520 called and they're like yeah you're not allowed back on camp and it's like okay i guess i'll be

00:20:31.920 at home then holy moly so so you didn't really even know at all that this was going on sort of

00:20:38.000 in the no they were not like hey you're kicked off and you can never come back it was like

00:20:43.280 they probably didn't want any more confrontation just like turn off that pass yeah yeah yeah yeah

00:20:48.480 fair enough so what like what did you you just went home and then like awaited yeah it was just

00:20:53.600 like via text messages on signal i like did out clearance essentially some people would visit my

00:21:00.160 house like oh here's where's this piece of gear where's that we're turning all your kid in and

00:21:04.320 this is like over months now and i just remember i was like i have not i know how the military

00:21:10.000 works dude i have not been there to do my 100 every friday so who's been doing 100 uh well if

00:21:17.360 it wasn't done how am i supposed to keep track of my equipment you have any cameras on my stall no

00:21:20.800 you don't anyone could have took it anywhere so they're like where's this piece of thing on you

00:21:25.680 tell me i no longer give a like that's wild man i didn't know any of that um he's so funny to him

00:21:35.360 like i i sort of vaguely remember the shape of an area of the sniper cell building that was near uh

00:21:43.360 son of kind of sort of near the training squadron stuff that we like i spent most of my time in

00:21:49.200 can you can you talk at all about like what goes on in there is there is there an indoor range

00:21:52.960 like are guys actually what's been disbanded now it's been disbanded because what does that mean

00:21:59.040 like sniper troop is not a thing anymore at gtf2 it was the goal for a while so there's it's an

00:22:05.840 interesting thing because it was always the envy of other units in the five eyes uh sniper groups

00:22:12.400 So like every time we trained with Delta or SEAL Team 6 or the SAS guys or the Aussie or New Zealand, like they wanted to have a sniper troop like we had because it was it's basically just all the snipers have stalls and offices together.

00:22:25.380 You still attach to squadrons and go do whatever tasks overseas and you're, you know, under whatever ground force commander or task force commander.

00:22:34.480 Like you're still an asset, but you're you're you're not in the squadron.

00:22:38.440 So every time you come back from deployment, come back from training, all that stuff, you're going to the same area with other snipers.

00:22:43.820 And when you're in the area training, you can take all that information from all the different experiences you've had and different equipment you tried or you ran into or came across and just made the program better and better and better and better.

00:22:57.720 And that's that was like the value in it is going back to that group of specialists and doing it.

00:23:03.780 And, you know, there's specialists all over the years with climbers and divers and stuff, but they're normally spread out.

00:23:09.020 So like they'll try and have, let's say, a climbing symposium once a year with all the climbing debts from the other squadrons.

00:23:15.640 But for us, that was it all the time.

00:23:17.320 We were always coming back with information from the last training session or deployment and building this program that just got better and better.

00:23:25.420 And that's no longer a thing now.

00:23:27.080 Am I allowed to ask, does that have anything to do with the number of people that are no longer there?

00:23:35.080 I think I think it has to do with the fact that it's always been a little bit of like a outlier group of dudes, a little bit wilder, a little bit like there's there's no officer in charge of sniper troop.

00:23:53.080 sniper troop so there's an admin officer but there's no like squadron well the squadron that

00:23:58.580 we were in had a squadron commander but like we didn't have a what would be like a platoon commander

00:24:03.840 do you know what i mean it was all there's for one i think that rubbed some officers the wrong 0.98

00:24:10.280 way that there was no officer in charge of all these fucking yahoos um and it was historically 0.99

00:24:16.420 the most aggressive like hard charging dudes were there and things like the opinions around 0.98

00:24:22.820 covid and stuff like when most of the pushback was coming from one small cell of people

00:24:29.380 i think it was more like okay let's just spread these guys out and get them under the control of

00:24:36.820 some squadron commander instead of having them run their own stuff or whatever but i mean the

00:24:42.500 proof is in like we had an incredible product like we we broke the world record for a reason

00:24:50.660 and it wasn't just because us four guys were in that country that was a that was a sniper program

00:24:54.820 that had been built for years and years um and just pushing the limit pushing the limit pushing

00:24:59.940 the limit any group from our unit that would have been in that same position would have broke the

00:25:04.100 world record and they would have broke it five or ten times like we did in a week um but that was

00:25:09.940 because of it was because of all the guys that cared and worked hard and pushed and moved in

00:25:15.860 the like the yardstick forward every time we deployed or trained so i'm glad you brought

00:25:23.460 that up i didn't know if it was going to get there but it's as an outsider looking in um

00:25:28.500 what's it like you know what i mean when you're you're you're firing from that distance you're

00:25:33.540 doing your corrections you know what i mean you've got a guy who's i guess a relatively

00:25:37.620 static target i guess it would have to be from that distance um like the the i think the the

00:25:43.060 rumor was that the flight path or the flight time of the bullet was like around 10 seconds it was so

00:25:47.780 far can you can you can you walk me through sort of like how that went if you don't mind yeah of

00:25:54.980 course you know what i mean you spot the guy and then you're pulling the trigger like what happens

00:25:58.100 in between yeah we were in this position in a hotel in downtown moses was like the top of the

00:26:04.260 none of a hotel and it's like a bombed out shell of a building it's not really good there's no

00:26:09.460 room service um but we were there observing for for a long time on and off on that tour for i think

00:26:15.380 50 52 or 54 days but what we were waiting for is the iraqis to push into like old downtown mosul

00:26:23.460 that was the last big stronghold of isis and they'd been like they're pretty dug in like they'd

00:26:28.420 been there a while you're looking at like tight quarters street fighting so they're like hesitant

00:26:33.940 i get it but once they started pushing that's when we started engaging with our 50s um and

00:26:40.340 that particular shot is we were shooting at guys uh that were firing at the iraqis from like behind

00:26:45.940 this car and they went into a building and so we called an airstrike but it was a dud which i'd

00:26:51.940 never all the airstrikes we ever call i'd never seen a dud like a missile not go off so we sought

00:26:56.820 land strike nothing happened and so the the first shot was a guy was climbing out of the second

00:27:04.740 story because i i can't imagine what it sounded like inside that building but he was trying to

00:27:09.140 get out and he like lowered his gear from the second story you see he lowered his aka he like

00:27:13.300 climbed down so that gave us enough time to be like okay here's the target and send it ended

00:27:18.980 being a simultaneous shot because we had two sniper teams um and we did not plan that but it

00:27:25.300 was just like send it send it and they did so we actually don't know who's around it was we say it

00:27:30.900 was ours they say it was of course um but it gave us enough time because by the time he climbed down

00:27:36.340 and he hit the ground he reached down to pick up his gear it like hit him through the through the

00:27:40.660 back and rolled down the hill and died and then from there it was just like they were all over

00:27:47.060 the place so we just kept at it and the fight was perpendicular but kind of angled where it was

00:27:52.020 slightly getting closer to us so i think i said this on the golf box but i bet you we broke the

00:27:56.820 previous record probably five or six times like in that week with just other other dudes that didn't

00:28:04.020 make the front page of yeah i was just like we never really thought anything of it because it

00:28:08.100 wasn't the further furthest one anymore and then thinking back on i was like i should have kept a

00:28:13.380 better log of i might even still have videos somewhere where i'm like that was number one

00:28:17.540 this was number two this was number three so we so canada actually has like eight or nine of the

00:28:23.540 top ten records then potentially that would be my estimation i mean let's go on record as calling

00:28:29.780 that out sorry but yeah i think we're about eight of the top ten that sounds that sounds about right

00:28:34.580 to me um and like i again i got sort of a very rudimentary training in uh pendems and ballistics

00:28:43.460 and and that sort of stuff but from that distance uh as an expert as a subject matter expert here

00:28:49.380 like is the bullet still is the bullet tumbling because it's been traveling that it's in subsonic

00:28:55.380 it wouldn't necessarily be tumbling but it wouldn't be as like the flight path is not as consistent

00:29:00.660 in this you can tell just by like the holds and how fast it's dropping when you're in subsonic

00:29:05.540 like travel at that point so it's it's not like fully tumbling you know like head over heels as

00:29:11.540 you would picture a bullet going but there's a lot more um instability in this flight path

00:29:17.700 okay and you're able to see it through a spotting scope the the the path of travel is sort of i got

00:29:23.620 a little bit of experience so you can't do a certain distance yeah like the swirl you can see

00:29:28.420 it too yeah yeah the problem with the shot at three and a half kilometers is the culmination

00:29:32.900 point of the bullet is outside of your scope so like because the part of the yeah but yeah

00:29:40.660 yeah but you're essentially when you're dialing your scope what you're doing is adjusting the eye

00:29:45.780 release so your gun is pointing higher and higher and higher because you're kind of lobbing the

00:29:50.740 shot at this point so the culmination point of the bullet like the highest point it reaches

00:29:55.300 is outside of your spotting scope field of view it's like hundreds of feet in the air

00:30:00.740 that's crazy and then you're and then it's just like one mississippi two mississippi yeah and

00:30:05.460 you're looking for impact and then you're like and this guy's on the ground with his rope because

00:30:10.900 you you see the guy in the video in your video audios amigo you see this guy literally adios

00:30:15.460 amigo at the end of this song this guy kind of rolls over and slumps over yeah and then i guess

00:30:20.980 you there was like a couple high fives that went around in in the in the building well we were

00:30:25.620 excited but we also didn't know that the guys in the op with us from the squadron were filming at

00:30:31.700 of time so it would have just been a nice story that we had if we had not had them filming and

00:30:37.540 like actually got the video from those engagements so that's where the video came from you had an op

00:30:42.500 team recording a yeah sort of recce yeah and we didn't like they just had a camera going we didn't

00:30:49.780 know throughout that entire thing that any of it that day or that week or that day at the end of

00:30:55.780 the day is when we like realized and watched it we're like oh is is that potentially what got you

00:31:04.180 in hot water was releasing that or uh no maybe a culmination of the funny thing is the hot water

00:31:10.580 came before the release but they blamed it on the release which is interesting so

00:31:16.420 the hot water that i got in was for one reason that was because i talked about

00:31:21.300 covid and the reaction from the unit in the military and i had tons of meetings before i

00:31:27.940 ever went and did a podcast with uh guys in the unit low ranking and high ranking um and the last

00:31:35.220 one i met with um became a very high position in the unit we'll say uh his warning because i i

00:31:43.380 wanted to make sure obviously like that there was no actual operational security breaches in the

00:31:47.940 stuff that i talk about and so i talked through you know the things i was going to say when i

00:31:52.740 wasn't going to say and his last point was well if you bring up the covet stuff it's like you

00:31:58.740 will get hammered and i was like okay don't care but that's not the part i care about i care about

00:32:05.620 there's actually something i'm talking about this operationally like still relevant as a

00:32:12.820 as a breach in security um and so that was kind of

00:32:18.580 where the hot water came from and then they were just kind of trying to find anything they talked

00:32:24.260 about like oh there's a picture with panos oh there was this and i'm like yeah that doesn't

00:32:29.780 like those are on golf commercials and before i got out of the unit i asked i don't even know

00:32:36.340 how many times i said look i'm gonna i'm getting out i'm getting into music but i'm going to talk

00:32:40.740 about my military career i'm going to be posting things on social media and this is at a time like

00:32:46.340 i was not getting along with the unit because i was getting in a lot of trouble for not wearing

00:32:49.700 a mask everywhere i went but i still was like i'm still gonna get out if you give me someone

00:32:55.540 i will send every post to them before i post anything and they can tell me what they like

00:33:01.860 or what they don't like and how it fits with the picture that the unit's trying to paint

00:33:05.380 so i'm like i will run everything social media through this person and then and then post it on

00:33:11.300 the other end uh so like you can have control of the picture of the unit that's going forward

00:33:17.780 and they're like okay yeah we're gonna find something and it's like six months from retirement

00:33:22.180 and then like three months i'm like i've not no one's come to me one month out two weeks out one

00:33:28.020 week out and literally the night i was retiring i'm like messing my war and i'm like look i've

00:33:32.500 I've heard from no one.

00:33:33.820 So like public affairs, whoever this person is

00:33:36.460 that wants to vet anything social media.

00:33:39.340 I'm like, so if you guys don't care, that's okay.

00:33:41.660 Just act like you don't care after I'm out.

00:33:45.580 And then when I was out and started posting things,

00:33:47.820 everyone lost their minds.

00:33:49.740 That's like us trying to find a solution for this.

00:33:52.820 Yeah, it's interesting that you did so much

00:33:55.740 sort of due diligence proactively to make sure

00:33:59.120 that it wasn't gonna get anyone's knickers in a knot

00:34:01.480 and it still did anyway so the pettiness like the pettiness is not a good look the

00:34:06.820 the clinging to these notions that what we did was in the best interest of everybody it's like

00:34:11.580 it's still something that like I said these guys reach out to me they see a show maybe I know them

00:34:16.560 maybe they know me through someone else or whatever but people get a hold of me and the

00:34:19.900 number of people that have like life altering medical issues or like administrative problems

00:34:26.400 now with their chain of command because i knew i knew one officer a medical officer very well

00:34:33.120 and this medical officer had a ton of sort of petty and vindictive administrative measures

00:34:38.480 taken against them despite the fact that they were a doctor and and wrote a wrote a memo you

00:34:44.160 know what i mean asking for an exemption with a medical degree and 36 annexes on this memo saying

00:34:49.920 here's why i don't need this here's all the research and basically they tried to destroy

00:34:53.360 this person's career all the way up and all the way up until right before um the the mandate

00:35:00.720 quote unquote sort of got rescinded even though as i'm sure you still talk to guys that are in i

00:35:05.520 don't i don't think they're making guys do it anymore but they still pretend like it works and

00:35:09.520 they're still giving it to people before they deploy like you still like on your dag sheet i

00:35:15.120 don't know what it's called now but that the sheet that you get your all the boxes checked before you

00:35:18.800 go they still want you to go and get a booster like it's it's absolutely insane that this is

00:35:25.600 like where yeah man and anyway all that to say like people are seeing other people come forward

00:35:30.960 like yourself and it was really inspiring for me to see especially come like i'm not comparing

00:35:35.440 myself to you by any stretch but having like coming from the same place sort of and then

00:35:40.480 seeing okay well there's guys there who sort of got it and it just like it put some wind in my

00:35:45.200 sales when i really needed it so like definitely appreciate that um yeah but we can we can pivot

00:35:51.040 back here we don't have to harp on this all day i kind of want to know like you're in alberta now

00:35:55.600 you're touring like how long is the tour where else are you going are you coming back through

00:36:00.400 the states or are you like what's the plan yeah i mean a few months i say touring we we just are

00:36:06.320 kind of on the road non-stop i it's for me i have shows booked from now until the end of the year

00:36:13.280 so then oh wow next year and see like i i sent a a picture a tour poster to my band last year and

00:36:20.640 i'm like this is all the shows we played and it was crazy it was from coast to coast in canada

00:36:25.680 back and forth twice it was from like north to south america all over the southern state we just

00:36:31.680 like we're everywhere and it was cool to see like yeah because it feels busy and it's like you kind

00:36:38.160 of forget the town sometimes like where did we go and what the hell it's like you're on the road

00:36:42.640 then you're in the studio then you're here and you're in there ah back in nashville now like

00:36:46.080 here that it's just it's cool it feels like i've been doing it for so long now because we've been

00:36:51.360 to so many places and we've written a bunch of songs i'm in the studio a bunch but i'm like

00:36:56.320 it's still pretty new for me i'm like i figure out some way to slow down time by just living

00:37:01.920 this crazy pace i guess um waking up in hotels not not sure where you are from that has happened

00:37:07.520 to do a lot and it's not even just like because i burned it down party or something i'm just like

00:37:11.840 okay what town are we in they're like what city we're supposed to be here okay we're going there

00:37:18.080 um but yeah so touring is just like kind of a non-stop thing for me like we'll take some time

00:37:23.760 off to hit the studio or some time off to do more writing and whatever but it's just it's always like

00:37:30.720 every time we play a couple more shows i'm adding like a couple more on the on the end or in the

00:37:36.400 middle or filling in dates that we don't have stuff booked or whatever are the kids uh are

00:37:41.280 they school age i know you have a my daughter's five we're doing uh homeschooling with her right

00:37:47.280 now probably for the next next year she might hop into something we're looking at some different 1.00

00:37:52.960 schools i'm not a big fan of like the school system as it is right now um so we do a lot of

00:37:58.640 work with her and she does you know stuff on the side with horseback riding and gymnastics and

00:38:03.920 ballet and do some some fight classes and she does all the other reading writing and math and

00:38:11.040 all the stuff here at home and creative work um and i think it's it's good for now we need to

00:38:15.680 spend more time with her and it's not someone else you know i don't want someone else in these

00:38:22.560 especially in the ages where they're they're learning so much about the world someone else's

00:38:27.520 opinion to be what's in her ear more hours of the day than ours and our own family so for now we're

00:38:34.960 going to keep it as is hi i've got a visitor speak of the devil okay go outside please

00:38:44.800 and he's not uh i i so just it's just the one you have a daughter no so the daughter's five that

00:38:51.760 boy's two and we've got a five-month-old boy here and then i have two teenage boys that are

00:38:57.120 basically both adults now so i got five okay yeah holy moly you've been busy there's a declining

00:39:02.960 birth rate and i have to do my so that you're you're a you're a country boy from uh alberta

00:39:10.880 is it did you ever think you did you ever think you'd get here to do like was this what you would

00:39:16.800 imagine you know what i mean i don't know no my entire life all i wanted to do was play hockey

00:39:21.680 um same it like it i loved having that as goal it fueled me like i just wanted to play hockey

00:39:28.520 i spent my whole life just trying to get better at hockey did a big pivot uh after my last year

00:39:35.040 junior hockey deciding where i was going to go play next i probably could have played semi-pro

00:39:39.400 somewhere i had a couple camps to go to and stuff i was kind of deciding i wasn't going to go to the

00:39:43.380 nhl but and then i learned about jtf2 from a guy i was working in the oil field with and was like

00:39:49.440 what the hell i had no idea we had that in canada and i remember just this gigantic pivot and then

00:39:56.240 you know through the unit loved it but then there was some things that came together in my life i'm

00:40:01.280 like it was all music it was just like another big pivot there's gonna be two big pivots and

00:40:05.600 it was from hockey to wanting to be special operations and then from that to wanting to

00:40:09.680 play music but it was as a kid i would have never imagined being like a touring recording country

00:40:16.960 artist from uh from from tier one sniper to rockstar yeah i guess it's not yeah and especially

00:40:25.440 that that path i never thought about the military no one in my family was in the military it wasn't

00:40:30.560 like my parents weren't military historian like it just was not really part of our lives outside

00:40:36.000 of like rambo movies and stuff like that you know how old how old are you i turn 43 next month okay

00:40:43.760 so we're we're saying it's april is it april yet the day before yeah so i i turned 43 in

00:40:50.560 the end of november so we're we're same age so the guy that informed you about jtf on the rigs

00:40:56.160 did he end up joining the military as well he was he had done a like a four years contract

00:41:02.080 as a comms guy so he just knew about the he'd never been there okay and then there was rumors

00:41:07.440 that like one guy who was on dispatch used to be in airborne and like went to jtf so i don't know

00:41:12.720 it's like very mysterious but i just remembered learning about it and then i was hooked dude i was

00:41:18.160 like i went watch black hawk down like a hundred times and i'm like i am joining the military to

00:41:23.600 go to jtfc how much times did you spend on the rigs like were you up in way up in northern

00:41:28.800 alberta doing yeah it was mostly like off-season stuff because i played hockey like junior hockey

00:41:33.840 during the year so it would be uh i think two or three years off season i would go do different

00:41:39.040 things like as a mechanic assistant like way up north past fort mcmurray and then uh flush by truck

00:41:46.880 i was like a swamper never any of the skill jobs it took a lot of time it was like when you could

00:41:51.440 just hop in and start doing the work those were the jobs i had because i just wanted to go play

00:41:57.920 man i think i think uh hopefully a lot of people are going to hear this i think you're going to

00:42:01.760 inspire a lot of young people who are kind of slaving away on the rigs up because that's a

00:42:05.760 tough job that's that job is no joke like compared to like i've never done it but i've had a handful

00:42:12.480 of buddies that went out and did it for money many many years ago and like the only thing i could

00:42:17.600 compare it to would be like an infantry career just like well yeah and the life of style around

00:42:22.960 it is so austere like even the nicest camps you know even if you're in a hotel like rainbow lake

00:42:30.720 makers in the city it's like for me as a young man I was like this is terrible dude I was trying

00:42:37.080 to work out to play hockey the next year and like everyone just gets done work and drinks like 48

00:42:41.880 beers and passes out like there's no women anywhere I was like what am I doing with my

00:42:46.860 life right now but it was good money good money that's for sure it's it's rough it definitely it

00:42:52.680 definitely makes or breaks guys that go and the ones that the ones that stick around make a lot

00:42:56.280 like you said um yeah that's that's wild man like i said i think you're i think a lot of people are

00:43:01.800 going to hear that and realize that this isn't necessarily all they have to offer and especially

00:43:05.960 guys coming from an athletic background a lot of guys that i met in the infantry a bunch of dudes

00:43:10.600 actually that were on um on on course at the unit with me all came from pretty much hockey backgrounds

00:43:16.440 i can't remember if there was other athletes like if you're canadian you played hockey there's really

00:43:19.240 no other yeah there's a lot of players worth it for sure yeah and we're and um there's that sort

00:43:24.520 of uh sort of infamous sort of boxing match that happens at the end there and everybody was like

00:43:30.520 early on squaring up of like who who did who did they mostly who did they not want to be in the

00:43:36.040 ring with more so than who did they think they might end up yeah and there was a dude and names

00:43:40.360 don't matter but like there was a big dude there who had a hockey background and i was like i think

00:43:43.960 he and i would be a pretty good tilt i think this is where this is going to go maybe i should have

00:43:47.800 more worried about what was coming the next day than what was coming 10 10 months later but um

00:43:53.240 yeah man this has been super fun dude you're uh your story's crazy your uh your success is

00:43:59.480 awesome to see like just sort of living this dream and and making sure just like taking names on the

00:44:05.720 way and uh like how can more people find you like get tour dates like your socials everything just

00:44:10.600 kind of laid out so yeah anybody who hasn't heard of you will be able to yeah i keep everything around

00:44:15.480 basically i have a website dallasalexander.ca and then i post everything social media

00:44:22.120 dallas alexander or i am dallas alexander on instagram i i like i was saying earlier i stay

00:44:27.400 pretty on top of social media stuff i'm just trying to uh use it less i want to create and

00:44:34.200 not like to be taking in the content and have the algorithm feed my life um but i'm getting

00:44:39.560 all this stuff out there on shows and on tour and all the dates and new music so you can follow

00:44:44.200 along anywhere what are like what are the next i don't know handful of dates do you have them

00:44:48.200 on the top of your head in case some anyone's like oh i'm doing a run of shows here in alberta

00:44:54.200 uh i'm bringing up a couple of songwriter friends from nashville doing a thing called nashville

00:44:58.440 unplugged and it's like a songwriter round um in nashville is a very popular thing and it's

00:45:04.280 songwriters just kind of telling the stories about songs they've written and a lot of the times the

00:45:09.560 hits you hear on the radio are not written by the artists that are singing them and so i love hearing

00:45:15.080 the songwriters tell the stories behind those songs so i'm bringing up a couple of my friends

00:45:18.920 that are badass and they've got cuts from everyone from zack brown band to post malone uh we want to

00:45:25.320 tucker wetmore and so they're coming to we're going to play in longview alberta we're going to

00:45:30.920 play in water valley alberta we're going to play in rocky mountain house and we're going to play

00:45:37.160 in ocotoc so there's four shows in five days um one or two of them are sold out they're all pretty

00:45:43.320 close to sold out so i don't know when this goes out but those are the next four or five and then

00:45:47.480 i'll be on the road opening for gord bamford uh for a few shows in saskatchewan after that that

00:45:52.680 run of shows are done right on man this will come out pretty quick so those will be timely for folks

00:45:58.360 to be able to catch that hopefully if there's any tickets left but uh yeah man i can't thank

00:46:02.760 you enough again as an ambassador for dnd as an ambassador for anybody that has balls um you know

00:46:10.040 what i mean critical thinking skills for real though man it's like it means a lot i think for

00:46:14.360 a lot of folks that maybe haven't gotten a hold of you or haven't been able to reach out to you

00:46:18.040 like it took me a couple years to get here but uh thanks man like thanks for being here and just

00:46:22.680 keep doing what you're doing because uh some catchy songs man like the music video for audios amigo

00:46:27.800 was great i love the art style super unique like a comic book yeah well thanks man thanks for having

00:46:33.880 me thanks for saying uh consistent with the emails sometimes they get buried and i'm like oh my god

00:46:39.400 what were we yeah so i'm glad i'm glad we finally made it work out yeah me too man thank you so much

00:46:45.400 Thank you.

00:46:52.680 Patriotic means looking out for each other and fixing things together.

00:46:57.480 True patriotism is being in a country you love, surrounded by people you love and great weather.

00:47:03.240 Being a patriot is being a part of your community and caring for it.

00:47:06.040 It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, patriotism is the one thing we all share.

00:47:10.920 It's okay to be critical of government and still be a patriot.

00:47:15.560 It's gratitude to your country.

00:47:17.160 Of course I'm a patriot. I'm Canadian. It's my home.

00:47:20.360 Well, actually, true patriot love is the mission.

True Patriot Love - April 01, 2026

From Soldier To Songwriter ｜ with Dallas Alexander

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