Success Takes Time | John Owen Bradley

A conversation about legacy, the country music industry, and why the best careers aren’t built overnight. Our guest: John Owen Bradley

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Found a picture from outer space of the first Apollo mission that went to the moon. That's crazy. And Owen, my great-grandpa, made a cassette tape. Owen made the first mixed tape that was ever in outer space where they shipped the truck on the album cover that's like falling into the lake up here from Mexico. Oh, the engine for that truck is still sitting out back.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

And welcome back to the Creatively Connected Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Rippy, and today's set may look a little bit different because our amazing guest has allowed us to come into this very um sacred and historical recording studio just right outside of Nashville. Ladies and gentlemen, your guest for the day, no stranger to the music industry, my friend and good buddy, John Owen Bradley. How you doing, bro? My boy.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Thank you for having me on, dude. This is this is great. I've known you for shit, a while now. It's been a minute. Man, it's a long time coming. I'm I'm glad we're getting to do this and catch up. And I'm glad you could come out here to the barn, man. It's uh, you know, this place has been here for a long time and we're we're rocking and rolling still.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

So it's a legendary spot. I've been fortunate to to come out here numerous of times, and we'll we'll touch on the history of this place here here shortly. But John, I'll start and ask you with one question. If every person listening could only remember one lesson from your career this far, what would you want it to be?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Man, it's funny because there's a lot of different lessons, and I feel like you could a lot of people have the same thing, you know, don't give up, work hard, all these things, stay hard. Um from my personal experience, the things that help you just elevate, because no matter what, you you're gonna have to work hard, you're gonna have to keep going if you want to get there regardless. So, like, that's just kind of in my opinion, baseline, like that's gotta be a part of it. But is the uh and I still got a lot of work to do on it because I'll snap on people, but is the kindness aspect of it and the you know, just being a great person to work around, not letting the little things get you too worked up to where other people don't want to work with you anymore. Sure. Um, so that that kind of aspect of it of just kind of treating everybody how you want to be treated, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah. I'd listen to you if I was uh if one, if I didn't know you, but if I was just on the other side listening to this episode because you have such a uh deep history in the music industry, not only you, but your your family. I mean, that's why we're we're in this this building right now. Um for the listeners that you know may have never heard of you or don't know the history on this place, just tell the people a little bit about where we are right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Yeah, man, I'm I'm very blessed. We're at Bradley's Barn, uh studio entertainment center. Uh my great-grandfather Owen, who produced a ton of country records, Christmas music, everything early on back in the day, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. Um, he built this place in 19, I don't want to get it wrong, I want to say 64. Um, it's funny because he had started the Quazet Hut down on Music Row, which was the first studio ever on Music Row back in the day. He had opened a couple other studios um with Harold Bradley as well. And they had so many studios downtown, they were like, you can't open any more studios on Music Row. So he came out to Wilson County, which is where we are, and opened Bradley's Barn, and it's been here ever since. And um we've just been rocking and rolling. They made music back in the day. It it shut down in about 2004 and became my grandfather Jerry's like man cave/slash storage unit for a long time. And then once I finally got into music and was like, okay, I want to do this for real, he let me come in here and turn this place around. And that was about 2017. So since then I've been working here and doing a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I always wondered how like such a place like this ended up out here in Wilson County. You know, it's not too far from town, but it's like most of the the big studios are are on music row or or around it, you know, and and to be out here, you know, obviously the the surrounding areas, it's kind of come up in the last you know decade or so. But I remember when I first started coming out here almost, I mean it's not fully been a decade, but it's been six or we're coming up on it. 2017? It was about 2018, 2019, so not long probably after. Pre-COVID. Right before COVID. Yeah, yeah. It was pre-COVID, like right before COVID. Um, but just even coming out here then, like there wasn't you know so much development that's happening now, and even back then I can't imagine, like it was probably just a field, and then Bradley's barn was right here.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

I mean, back then we were kids just trying to figure it out. Yeah, you know, you were doing all the video stuff. I was working with a bunch of like hip hop artists that I thought were amazing was working with, and we never had success in anything, but it was like, okay, we're we're grinding the gears and we're at least learning what not to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, and maybe that was part of the journey that we had to go through, you know. Like I yeah, definitely learned a lot of what not to do with that. You hit the nail on the head there. I think some of my first like music-related videos were here. It was for some of the hip-hop rappers that that you know you might have been working with in the studio and like pull up. I drove all the way from Bowling Green, Kentucky, all the way out here, shot the video and drove back at like three in the morning. And then I I mean I might as it might as well have been in a Lee Chapa I just shot for or something, you know, but it wasn't. But uh wow, yeah. A lot of uh lot of history, a lot of lot of history other than just us and our count coming up. Oh yeah. I mean um talk about some of the artists that have, you know, anytime I I talk about Bradley's Barn or someone, I never even know like which artist to name drop because there's been so many there's been so many legendary. I'm I'm looking over here at the all the plaques and I'll I'll insert some b-roll into that so people can see it. But just talk about some of the legendary songs and artists that that have recorded and and been in this building.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, it's crazy, man. Um so Owen, you know, he built this spot. He produced Brenda Lee, Patsy Klein, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Keith Whitley. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Um I actually found uh a piece of paper of sessions that had been out here back in the day and had a bunch of names on it. The Who have recorded here. That's crazy. I mean, it it Ween, that's a very niche band. I don't know if any of y'all out there will know Ween, but like Ween has been here. I mean, George Jones did his sessions out here, Dolly Parton was here, Keith Richards was here. We've had a lot of you know, a lot of great artists come out here and record songs and work, and um Owen had originally built this spot because he needed to get out of the city, have a different spot to work. We're luckily on some land, you know, so people can come out here and enjoy themselves and have a time, bring their tour bus, go do whatever. And Jerry, my grandfather, his son, back in the day was an engineer here, and that's how he kind of got his chops in the music business at first was engineering and working with these artists. And it's just so cool to see the evolution of you know Owen's era of the Patsy Kleins and the Brenda Lees, and then this place still be here and Jerry work with Willie and Wayland and Charlie Pride and Alabama and then you know, my dear Google. Yeah, man. So it's it's cool, it's really inspiring, you know, to come in here and see this stuff and be like, all right, we gotta go bigger, we gotta go better than that.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, yeah. I can definitely every time I've stepped foot in here, I always feel some sort of creative juice is flowing, you know. It's uh kind of hard not to when you look around and see all of the the names and faces on the walls and the jukebox and stuff, the random things too. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Hey, I'm glad that my grandfather kept and collected all this stuff. Like he was like a he was like a high-end hoarder. It was like not just trash.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah, yeah. Well, a hoarder, but for good cause. Like it's all a bunch of really just random dope shit in here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

I mean, nowadays we have you know, people wanting to come out here and throw parties. Laney Wilson was out here last year, threw a number one party, you know, all the songwriters came out, and she's out here, and it's a good spot to obviously record music, but entertain people as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, and you can get away from the city and not be uh not get honked at by the uh Nashville tour celebrity sighting or whatever bus that goes up and down.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

We've done that and been standing outside when the bus pulls up. And we were with uh this girl that worked at the old studio that I was working at, and she was standing out there and this guy pulls up and he goes, and that's Post Malone's girlfriend. She's like married and everything. She's like, No, I'm not. No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

That's so funny. That's funny. Uh so clearly you you've had a lot of um, you know, family go in within the music industry, grandfather. It sounds like it's been passed down generation to generation. Was there any point in time, like, you know, coming up that you didn't want to be in the music industry, or was it kind of always ingrained in you and you knew this is where you were going?

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah. I mean, I didn't know I never knew like what I wanted to do. You know, some kids are like, I want to do this, I want to do that. I didn't I didn't have a clue really. I took me a while to kind of get my bearings and be like, okay, I need to like be serious about life and like do these things. But I was very like, I didn't I didn't want to be told what to do. I wanted to pave my own way and not really receive the help that I actually could have. Um, which is funny because, you know, obviously I'm you know blessed with this amazing family and all these resources and all these things. But when I was younger, I kind of took it for granted and I didn't really, you know, want that to be like, okay, I, you know, I'm writing off my family's name or whatever. I wanted to go do my own thing, and that's when I, you know, I loved hip hop and I wanted to work with rappers and producers and all these things. And uh, you know, I had to find out kind of the hard way of like I said, learn what not to do and all the different things and experiences I had, honestly, were I wouldn't take anything back, I wouldn't change anything because it it really helped and shaped the knowledge of what I do have now and am able to do. But to answer the question, no, like I, you know, obviously you know, my whole family's been in music, my dad's friends with Kenny Chesney, and we used to like when I was a kid, we'd go to Kenny's house in the Bahamas and like stay at Kenny's house. That's crazy. And for most people that is crazy, but for me it was like normal. Yeah, like I was just like, okay, whatever. So it for me the the difference was when I had been doing it for a few years and we're not making any money. And my grandfather was like, Man, I wanted to do rock and roll back in the day. And my dad told me, Go try country music. I kind of paved this lane, try it. And you know, I wanted to do hip hop stuff, and as soon as I went in and started working on country music stuff, things started happening. Yeah. I was like, All right, well, we'll try this, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

We'll lean to this side. Yeah. Maybe you just had to really test the waters and realize that all the other stuff wasn't for you. And that's if I could give any piece of advice to someone chasing something outside of the the traditional path, like test the waters, you know. Go go try 20 different things before until you figure out what it is you want to take 50 if it takes you, you know, whatever. Just try a bunch of shit until until you figure out what works for you.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah. And what you like too. That was a big thing. It's like finding out, like, obviously, you can do all these different things, but you know, with you doing the video stuff, you you love it, you enjoy it. Yeah. So, like, yeah, there's headaches here and there. That's in anything you do, but it's less of a job when you're enjoying it. And that is what happened to me with the music stuff. You know, hearing a song created from scratch that really puts off emotion, or you know, putting together a show for an artist where these people are out here and it gives you chills at the show. Like that's the thing that's like, okay, I want to do this, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

You said something a second ago. I was gonna ask a question on it, but I can't I can't even remember what it what it was now. I know. We're spitting game. We're spitting game. Guys, if you're here, I hope you're still listening in. Be sure to go hit the link in in the description if you're a photographer or videographer and you're in need of a better camera case, a more protective camera case. I got the condition one camera cases linked in there. I broke a lens one time, throwing my lenses and bodies into a soft shell backpack. Please don't do the same. Hit the link in the description. You can even get 10% off with that discount link. Back to the show. John, you obviously come from the family, like we've talked about, of music and you're you're kind of that was your upbringing, you know. But what advice would you give to someone who wants to break into the music industry? Maybe they don't know, you know, that maybe they don't know if they want to be an artist or AR or or a writer. What advice would you give to someone that has no prior connections or knowledge about how to get into the music industry?

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Yeah, man. I mean, it's kind of what we just talked about. Go try everything.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

I mean, when I was trying to figure it out, I would engineer records in the studio. I would video people, I would book shows, I would tour manage the shows, I would do it all. And I think that's what makes you valuable, at least in from my experience speaking on it. That's what makes you valuable is being able to adapt and do different things. So if you're trying to get into it, really the key is networking and meeting people. You know, those relationships are gonna be able to put you in places that you can't get yourself.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

So it's you know, it's the old school grind. Go out, go to the if especially here in Nashville, go to the bars, go meet the artists, go meet the songwriters, meet the managers, put yourself in the mix. You gotta go meet the people because they're who's gonna give you an opportunity. You can send someone a a resume all day, that's great. Yeah, there's probably 20 other people sending a resume as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

So that face value and and getting out there, and I think also a part of what helped me a lot is I might not know at all, I uh at all about what this specific thing could be, whether it be tour managing or videography or whatever, but be willing to learn and be like, I might not know now, but I will be good at it. Show me how to do it and I can do it. Yeah. And that's something that's very valuable. People uh appreciate and want to help people that want to learn and want to help themselves. Sure. You know, if it's like, oh hey, you know, put me in this position and you know, it's kind of like cake and it's an easy thing to do. No, I'd rather have somebody that doesn't know but is like willing to hustle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

So and appreciative of it too. Yeah. Since I'm saying go like putting yourself out there and get in the rooms, go to like the bars, network. Obviously, where we're at here in Nashville, I think it's like it can be easier if you're in a bigger city, but if you're listening and you are in Nashville, I don't think there's another city, and maybe I'm just like not experienced. You can do this anywhere. Yeah, yeah, I think you can do it anywhere, but like uh more specifically, just on like on Nashville, I I think we have it so like I don't know, it's a different scene here. I feel like there's not and maybe it's just I've not experienced it in the other cities, you know, but I feel like Nashville is so like music industry that you can go out here and that you could meet host Malombo. Yeah, like literally at the bar, anyone else goes to and there are people are just more welcoming here.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Like, I mean, I've been in LA, I've been in New York, I've been in Miami, I've been to all these music cities, and it's cool, but it is a little harder to break the ice and like get through to be like, okay, let's actually make something happen. Yeah, more than just surface level here in Nashville. It's like you're dope, I'm dope, let's do it. Which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

But it can be done in in any city, you know, if it's meant to be, you can bump into whomever.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

But that's also like I was saying, the relationship aspect of it. If you know somebody, like just for example, is I'm going to Korea at the end of the month and we're going to work on some K-pop stuff, and that's because of the relationship. Yeah. One of the guys has a relationship with somebody in Korea, and the guy in Korea's like, no, you gotta be here and you gotta be doing this.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

That's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

And that's what leads to those things is building those relationships. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

So that's gonna be a fun trip. Crazy. I've never been. I don't even know where.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

The farthest I've been is like the Bahamas, or like how far I drove through Korea. Uh it's 15 hours from Atlanta. So I gotta fly to Atlanta and then Korea. But man.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

It'd be worth it for sure. Oh yeah. Get the uh extra leg room. Oh yeah. I did it.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Try some uh try some dog, some cat.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

I did a 15-hour flight a couple months ago to Australia from uh San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Wait, how was that? You gotta fill me in because I've never done it.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Australia was fun. The flight was pretty rough. It was overnight and I went to sleep, but I I upgraded, you know, the flight was booked through the through the band and crew and whatnot, but I was in like a middle seat and I was like, nah, screw that. So I upgraded to the exit row. And uh was it still kind of regular seats, or was it they were normal seats, but the exit row, there's no seats in front of you. So I paid like 150 bucks extra. Okay. Or that was all I paid because my flight was booked and stuff, so I I only paid 150 and got the extra leg. Oh bro, those the flight there was better.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

150 for some comfort.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Yeah, we'll take that. And then I got a normal seat on the way back, but it was um, I mean, it it it was whatever. It it was fine. I got uh an aisle seat though, so I didn't have anybody to my right.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

But I'm just wondering, I need some tips for the 15 hour flight, man.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

They're a long one, man. But dude, they had so much better food on the long flights, like full meals, like pasta, and you'll love it. You'll love it. Koreal game. Don't find out. That's at the end of August? Yeah. Nice. Yeah, nice. So, how would you describe what your position in the music industry currently with with what you do? What's your role?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Man, everything. I I've definitely transitioned from a couple different roles over the past couple years. I've been uh, you know, uh on the label side of things where I'm doing literally everything for the artist, the the mu setting up the sessions, the music, the cover art, the rollout, the promo, the playlisting, all those things into being a publisher where I'm specifically, you know, working on the songs and the sessions and getting songs to people and all these things. And right now I'm in a manager spot, which I I enjoy the most because you're the most flexible and I can still do those things. Um the the manager position is definitely better because you're not I'm not an employee for somebody. I'm able to do my own thing and work with whoever I want to work with, which is in my opinion, the most valuable thing. Once you get to a certain spot, like I mean, I've had to cut my teeth the past ten years working for people and doing things, but I'm finally to a spot where I've got songwriters and artists that we're doing we're doing it finally at a level that you know I'd always dreamed of doing it at. So that's that's uh you know, the spot I'm in where it's like I'm connecting with different artists and managers from across all genres. I'm connecting with songwriters from across all genres, producers, just trying to basically like a puzzle, put the pieces together. Um and I I see it through a creative lens because a lot of the time people on the business side who have never had a creative background, it's a lot harder. But like when I'm working with artists or songwriters or producers, I know how it is because I've I've tried to do that, I've never been successful at any of it, but I've tried to do it so I understand all of it works and the language and communicating those things. And uh yeah, man, I mean I've been doing artist development for a long time. I really believe in finding something from the ground level that's got it, and it is uh, you know, there's many different forms, but finding something that's got it and taking it to the level that we believe it can be. Yeah. So that's the phase I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Kinda answered it, but maybe maybe have another answer. When you first discover, you know, an artist, what's the what's the first thing that you're looking for? Obviously it, but like, you know, I guess touch a little bit more in depth on what what that it could be.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

I mean, talent, obviously, that's an obvious one. I I feel like it's kind of a cliche answer because everybody's like talent, hard work, that's true. Yeah, you know what I mean? Hard work will be talent any day. I feel like personality anything. Personality is big too. I mean, I've worked with guys who are talented and have a personality, but they might not have all the other things. But a little bit of talent, a little bit of personality will get you in the door. And uh yeah, I mean artists, you know, trying to do it and trying to have it, I would say is learning and being the difference in being able to learn and and really not have an ego and be a sponge. That those are the people that I have seen have the most success and can also, even if they aren't to a super successful point yet, are moving the quickest to get to that point. Um just being coachable, you know, and that goes in any aspect. I mean, I don't know at all if I if I'm trying to figure something out on a business aspect, I'd love to deal with somebody who's been doing it for 20 or 30 years that can give me all the examples and details of doing it. And I think a lot of artists have their vision and think they know how to get there, and that is true, and it's worked for people, but at the same time you have that vision, but you take all the bits and pieces around you of things and apply them as needed to be able to get there.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Um so that's yeah, that would be Do you think an artist can still blow up and make it today if they're not actively posting on social media?

SPEAKER_02 23:34

It's hard. It's funny because as much as I don't enjoy social media, it's part of it. You can't ignore it. You have to do it, and it doesn't matter. It could be a skincare business, it could be a barbecue business. Like you're going to not get the sales you want unless you use social media. So I think the thing about social media too is is if you just try, like just do stuff, not posting anything is not gonna work. So like it doesn't matter if you look goofy or feel insecure about it, like just do it. People are gonna forget about it anyways. So just do it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 24:16

That would be uh what's something that most people believe about the music industry that you think is completely BS? Oh man, completely without throwing yourself under a bus or anything.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Yeah, I mean the uh the the gatekeepers and the politics of it. Like there's so many people with amazing, amazing songs. Number one hit songs that haven't been recorded because the person at the label doesn't like the person who pitched it. The uh intern, the assistant had a problem with somebody from the company. There's a lot of things that get missed out on because of the in-between. Yeah. And that's why like nowadays we try to just go direct to the artist. Like I said, the relationships, you know, you build those relationships with the artists when they're still small before they are big. You treat people right in that way, and then when they do blow up, they're gonna answer your phone call. Yeah. So it's you know, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

That's one thing I've never been able to wrap my head around. It's like you think of all these different forms of art that you can do, right? You can be a a music artist, or you can be a photographer or a a painter, graphic designer, all of those things, except the music artists, and uh obviously you you can do this, but I'm talking like if you're with a label and stuff, like it's different. But all those art trades, you can have an idea and you can go create something tonight, put it out tomorrow. But a song that can be tossed around and and perfected, and it can be done and it's still not come out for like another eight months, a year. I've never been able to, and I know there's like politics and there's a business behind it, and blah blah blah, this and that, but like I've just never understood that. It's like, why that? I've like you could make a song, a great song, in in 30 minutes if you really wanted to, and why can't you put it out? But no, it's gotta go through all these different loops.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

All the politics of it, man. It's it's funny. I mean, I've had I've pitched a million songs to all the people at all the different labels for all the artists you can think of in every genre. Like, okay, that sounds insane. Like I pitched songs to every artist in the world. Not every artist, but a lot of them. And it's just so crazy to especially like pitch a song where it's like, okay, this one I've played for 20 people, it's given them chills. I've had the most insane feedback, and then to send it to a label or somebody and then be like, it's two on the nose. And it's like, what do you mean? What do you mean it's two on the nose, dude? It's too much. And you're like, seriously? You're like, they pick that one. So I don't know. That's that's also why what I'm doing now is like working with artists who uh songwriter artists, because in my opinion, the best artists in history have been people that write their songs, they write their music. Yes, they have other people that help and influence this, but like you think about the greats, they wrote their songs and probably here. I mean, hey but like being able to be an artist that can actually put something from your mind into reality and it affecting other people is is the goal of this, and you know, having to get through all the obstacles of getting a song or something to be able to reach that is so difficult. But once you do figure that out, it's kind of like the the process does become easier. Yeah. So it's just breaking down the barriers. It's like anything in life. It's difficult, it's it's hard, it's all difficult until you get there, and then you're like, oh man. Yeah, you know what I mean? You're already on to something else.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, you're already on the next song by then. So yeah. That is that is kind of life. Is it's like it things are difficult until it's not, and then by the time it's not, you're already on the mission to whatever's next.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

And the music business is different because you're waiting to get paid. You're hoping to get paid. That's so funny because everybody's like, oh yeah, you know, the music business is so fun and cool. And even as a videographer, it's like we were just talking about it. You gotta wait to get paid sometimes, man.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

You gotta wait to get paid.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

You know, hey, the light bill is due, you know?

SPEAKER_00 28:50

So yeah, it's a job just like any other, you know. That that's I think that's one misconception. Don't get me wrong, it it's it sure beats a traditional job. But yeah, I think that's one misconception, is it still is a job at the end of the day. Like people always ask me, like, what's it like to to tour? You know, I tour a lot with artists, and it's it's awesome. You then you know it's it's as cool as you think it is, but then it's also a job, just like your job is a job.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Yeah, I mean the road life is different too, because it's tiring. Like 14. Especially you, you're you're out there running around. I literally know you're getting a workout as you're shooting these shows. Yeah, and then guess what? Afterwards, they need something to post tomorrow. So you're having to stay up the rest of the night while they're partying or going to bed or doing whatever, and you're still working. Yeah, so it's yeah, that's the thing about the music business. You know, people are like, oh, don't get in the music business if you don't want to make money. And that is true until you get to a point where you are making money, and then it's like the most fulfilling thing you can do because you're like, Oh, I love this. Yeah. And you know, that that is the hard part though, is when you do get into it, you're not gonna make money for a little while. Social media has helped that. You can definitely expedite the process if you get a viral video or whatever it is, but it's not gonna happen overnight.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Man, it's work, it's work, it is work, and it it takes a while to get to that point of, you know, quote unquote your success. And it's uh you see people on social media and it looks like it was an overnight success in whatever they do, but no, that's just when you discover them. They've been doing this before content and social media was as big as it is, you know. Back when I mean us when we were starting, I mean, we started a little bit before we met here, but that was on the come up. That was in those days of it. And we shot a music video together one time.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Wow. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Should we roll the clip? Uh yeah, roll it. Five seconds, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

That's all y'all get.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Five seconds, it's on your screen now.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

It's funny because that's why I said like I get it when working with artists and producers, is because I I went through a little phase, you know. I I tried to be a white rapper for a while and You was hard, bro. It was alright. It was alright. I, you know, uh the thing I will say that I was good at was knowing how to, even though I didn't have the funds or have whatever, I knew what needed to be done. You know, I would make my own cover, I would book shows. I mean, as crazy as this sounds, I booked myself to open for Waka Flocca in front of like 8,000 people, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

That's insane.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

But like I did all these things for myself, which made me be like, okay, when I find something that's really, really good, I'm gonna know how to do this with that. And that that definitely was a big learning time in my life, you know, transitioning from being like, okay, let me try this music stuff as I'm a young man and being wild and out here and doing all these things to finding talent and putting them in positions where things started actually working. And we would go on tours and I would I would book every show for the tour. I'd be on the road with it, I'd be shooting the content for the shows. I'd be, you know, doing all these things and you see the numbers starting to go up and you see these things starting to work. And that's when you're like, okay, we're on to something here. And obviously, you know, it starts at a small scale, and that was with all the local rappers here in Nashville. Um but it all it all starts to lead somewhere eventually as long as you keep doing it. I think if you stay in the world, the other advice would be don't quit. Yeah. I know a lot of people that give up, you know, they there's things within this business that will make you want to give up. I've thought about it. I know you've probably thought about it.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Today, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Hey, come on. But that's what separates you, and that's what ultimately will leave a legacy, and you will have something that you've created that will last by not giving up. And that's in any business. I mean, you think about guys out here that own pavement companies, they kept paving roads, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

They've been paving them for years. Their daddies was paving it and they took over it's uh we're all trying to do. I think if you can just stay consistent with anything, you'll make it in your mind, you know. It it's just it it's I feel like it's become cliche, but too many people just throw in the towel too soon. It's like, okay, I've done this for three years and nothing's really working. I can't, this isn't my full-time thing. Like, I I guess something's gotta give. And it's not even necessarily the the person that thinks that it could be out outside energy, outside, you know, whether it's the their partner or their their family or their who who they're hanging around, like all of that can creep in, and those can creep into your thoughts and make you just like, okay, maybe I'm not built out for this. Maybe I do need to go get a real job. It it can be something as simple as that. So it's important to surround yourself with good people.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

I did it actually after the phase of helping all the rappers and everything before I like got a real music business job. I went back to cutting grass.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Really?

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Oh, dude, yeah. Up at 5 a.m. until 8 p.m. during the summer, it's hot as hell. You're out there sweating. You know, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive in order to. Yeah, I mean, dude, I've worked at the pizza shop. I've worked at the uh I did UPS and I wasn't even the guy driving the truck. I was the guy in the seat that had to run the packages to the door and back.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

He's the one getting chased by a dog.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Yeah, it's like, you know, it's it's not glamorous, but it's the grind that makes you appreciate those things. And then once you do get to a spot, you're like, I'll do anything not to go back and do that shit.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Yeah. So yeah, I think that's an important part too. Like, I know for me, right around the time when I met you, actually, and I think that's why I ended up coming over here, because I was I was working with my dad at um I'd picked up a camera and stuff, I was learning it, but I was during the summer when I was home from school, I was working with my dad in Mount Juliet. Uh at it, he worked at a body shop.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Oh, yeah, because you were out here.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Yeah, I was already out here and I like brought my stuff anyways, uh, and that way I can come right after work or something like that. It worked out I was already gonna be out here. But I was washing and detailing cars, like in that. So I did that right today and then came out here, and it's just like I don't know, all of those days I I sometimes miss those days, you know, because you know, we're obviously in in good places now and better places than we were then, but those come up days, like those those founding years, the the grind stages, it's like those you don't realize you're you're in them until you're kind of out of them. Not that we're not grinding now, but it's like we was getting out the mud.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

But so funny to look back to because even like the the videos like I had you shoot or whatever, it's like now when I look back, like I cringe so hard, and I'm like, oh my god, like what made me think this was okay to do? And then you even probably look back and you're like, damn, this video is terrible. I did.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

But you had to start it somewhere. I'm gonna expose myself to it in the in the roll of the clip, the the edits and the effects. I remember it vividly. Like, I still got it on my phone, probably. Like, and I know I got the the songs that we was doing because sometimes, sometimes still to this day, it happened, it happened probably a month or two ago during my workouts. I'll be shuffling through my music and I have any song that I've ever had like downloaded or anything to any Apple device that I've ever owned, and it'll it'll play real real quick. So funny. I'll just have a quick flashback to it, and then I'll sorry, bro.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

I skip it on the good, please skip it. I don't even know my login to the distro kit I use.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

That's funny, man. That was the founding.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

It's come a long way, dude. It's funny. We were earlier. We I feel like the pod should know this. We were talking about uh when he was at Western Kentucky and he was going to school up there and getting up at 5 a.m. to go video for the news and then working with the was it football team all day after that, and our other buddy Will. That's actually how we met. Yeah. Was through Will. And uh he was a producer and making a bunch of music that I was working on with him, and he would DJ, and we would come up to WKU with our PA system.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

They're rolling freaking deep to the and we would throw these parties up in WKU. What do you think that was like a 500, 800 cap venue? Dude, it was a bar. It was a college bar.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Yeah, yeah. It was literally college kids, bunch of underage, like, you know, 19, 20 year olds, 21, 22, 23, roll that clip too, because I still got it all. Oh my gosh, dude. So funny. But like that was a time too where it was like, you know, we were we were as much fun as we were having, we were building. Like for sure. We didn't even know it. We didn't even know it. Yeah. Like, you know, we would go to the what was the name of the bar Hideout. Hideout, and then wasn't there a Hilligan's? Was it A-Frame?

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

We'd go to A-Frame, we'd go to all these bars up in bowling group. Literally, the A-frame building there, yeah. But it became a thing. I think we'd go in. That was probably like Friday or Saturday night.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

I think the so I think the the Hilligan, or no, not Hilligan's Hideout where y'all would vote.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Was the big one.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

I think and it would probably alternate, but uh, their big nights were like Thursdays because I would have to on Friday mornings. The only reason I know it's Thursdays is because I didn't get up. I didn't work on the weekends at the news station on Friday mornings. I did, and I had to get up. So yeah, I think it was Thursday night at hideout and Friday nights at the A-frame. Dude, that'd be so funny. We'd be like, we'd be like coming in from like hammered from the whole night out, and Rippy's like getting out of the shower, putting on his clothes, being like, I gotta go to the whatever work I'm out to do, and we'd all be like, yeah, because I mean because I was out with y'all filming at that stuff, and I'd leave probably like, I don't know, 30 minutes, an hour before everybody else, and come home and just try to get any shut eye that I could. Look, everybody would roll in just post post-game party, and I'd be like, screw it, I'm just gonna start this edit and just roll it in. That's the grind, though, man. That's the grind. I can't tell you how many shifts I went into at that news station. And mostly I'm not talking like an on-campus news station. Like this was the NBC and CBS affiliate news station for South Central Kentucky. Yeah. Bowling Green and all the surrounding areas. I remember one morning, it was after one of the nights, I was on teleprompter. I was I was just the space bar and just controlling it with that. Not the space bar, but the arrow keys right beside the space bar. And I fell asleep during the show. I'll never forget this. Any if anybody, any of my other coworkers right now are watching it, they can vouch for me. And they were like, rippy, rippy, and I was like, oh, and I I hit it like it scared me. It's it startled me, and I double tapped it, and it skipped like it went past the commercial break. The next commercial break. That's so good. It was so bad. And luckily, like with the on uh air talent was really good, and they like they flowed for a second. I was able to double tap and get right back on track, and like I was just a dog at that teleprompter, but it was yeah, credit to John here for keeping me up late night. We just turning up in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

For me going to work off of no sleep. Just being like, hey, y'all, and then I'm here and then go to class, bro.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

I mean, and given like this wasn't an every week thing, but like there were definitely times insane because y'all were in school.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Like I was not in school, I was just up there partying. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Well, at that point, Will was out too. He was just coming back. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

He was staying with you, the guy who has to go to work in class, and yet we're just partying. That's a good guy right there.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Oh, I'll go to class Friday, y'all. I remember there was one time specifically that we'll get off the old times. Um, you I went to class, you stayed at my my crib, I was in class just on Snapchat, just going through the Snapchat stories. And you was at Walmart with uh, I don't even know if you was with Will. He was with somebody, and you was on one of those foam rollers cracking your back. And I was just in in class like this dude I don't even remember that.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

That's how much of a time we're having. I really didn't tell you I remember that at all.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

That's so good. Oh, good times, bro. We could probably do a whole episode just on those those times. Rocco was there.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Oh my gosh, dude. What was the uh I think we threw a New Year's party one time. It was either New Year's, it was some sort of holiday, and it was turn. I think they like shut us down. I think like the cops came in the bar and were like, there's too many people here.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Oh, we got the fire marshal called once or twice for sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

That's when you know it's good. That's when you know it's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

I I think we were the start of that place, like really going downhill because they went out of business not long after.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

They were like, everyone stopped coming here because they stopped booking us, man. Yeah, no. But you know, if you got a party going on, book us. We'll come turn that thing up.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Oh, so many memories, bro. So many memories. What's to to switch gears a little bit, what's the biggest mistake that you see talented artists make before they ever get the real opportunity?

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Um couple things, but already kind of mentioned it is the ego, is the thinking you kind of know it all. You know, especially as a new artist, it's like you don't know shit. Like you really don't.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Um I mean having a vision is obviously key, but you you just gotta be willing to learn. Um yeah, just keeping that ego in check, and that's that's for anybody in this business, you know. Yeah. I I mean I can elaborate more if you want, but that's basically it. You know, I think that kind of explains itself. Don't have an ego. Ego can uh can be your biggest and surrounding yourself with the wrong people, which is hard to know getting into until it's on the things you usually find out, you know, months after. But that happens a lot with songwriters or artists that are signing label deals or publishing deals. Is you know, these people are gonna act fired up about you to get you to sign and bring you in. And then as soon as that happened, things change. That hype. I mean I've I've been on calls on Zoom calls with at places I've worked. Where they have literally said, do whatever it takes to bring this person in and get them to sign. And then after they sign, those rules don't apply. I've literally heard those words spoken. So, you know, you gotta be careful about the situations you get into.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

It's a cutthroat industry at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

I've seen people get burnt. I've been burnt a couple times myself, you know. It it it just kind of happens.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

And I think part of that too is that is the experience, though. You know, luck hopefully your situation that doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

A lot of the time those situations do happen, but that is a good learning experience for going forward. Because if your first situation you're ever in is all hunky-dory and it's amazing, then you're out of it and you expect it to be like that from now on. That's not how everything's gonna go all the time. So, you know, obviously you don't want that to happen, but if that does happen to you early on, that's a good learning experience and and teaches you how to deal with people and deal with these things. So, you know, just two sides to every coin.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Where did y'all get this Dolly Parton pinball machine, bro? Dude, it's crazy. We uh I just box.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

My grandpa had had it forever. I mean, he worked with Dolly, and uh it was in a box when we were cleaning this thing out, and we put it together and got a pinball machine guy we found in East Nashville that fixes pinball machines. Nashville's probably one of the only places you can find somebody to fix a pinball machine. Yeah, and he came out and set it up and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Too freaking cool, man.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Kind of crazy, man. We found all sorts of random stuff in here.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

I mean, just in this room alone. I found a picture of uh you know telling whose signature on that guitar, it's just sitting behind it.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

No, I found one of the coolest things is I found a picture from outer space of the first Apollo mission that went to the moon.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

And Owen, my great grandpa, made a cassette tape, and they got to listen to country records that he had worked on while they were on the first trip to the moon. So Owen made the first mix tape that was ever in outer space. That's and there's a picture from you know from the spaceship of the earth, and they wrote a a note, you know, saying thank you for the music and everything.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Yeah. It's pretty cool. That's freaking probably the most cool random fact I know about your family. Like I gotta find that tape, dude. Yeah. See what's on it. That's pretty incredible. What's your I mean, you spent a lot of time here in your childhood. What's like your most memorable memory or moment here?

SPEAKER_02 46:53

And it's funny because obviously tons of music stuff has happened out here, but uh my grandfather Jerry he was the one, you know, who helped Willie and Wayland and Dolly and all those people. He he was a big believer in me, 'cause I, like I said earlier, I didn't want to do what everybody else wanted me to do, and I was a black sheep in senses, and uh really my best memories are are him believing in me and helping me and being like, Yeah, let me open the studio up, bring in all your hip hop artists, go record. He he would literally tell me, I don't like this music at all. I hope it works out for you because I don't like this shit and you know, seeing him out on the we had a tractor out back and he'd ride around on the tractor and he's like 80 something years old. It's like dude, you shouldn't be operating a tractor right now. But like those things of him giving me the opportunity to be able to even do these things that I'm now doing, you know, it all started with somebody believing in me and I think that was the most memorable thing here. You know, obviously we've had big artists here and oh yeah, things like that, which are amazing. I if you want an example of that, it would probably be Post Malone.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

I was just thinking the post, the that was probably the most recent.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

I mean, I worked with Post for a while and uh we had him come out here when he decided to do his country album, that F1 trillion album. They s actually cool story, they shipped the truck on the album cover that's like falling into the lake up here from Mexico, and so it still had the Jalisco license plate on it. It had the uh what's the name of the thing that's uh the title? Um, all in Spanish and all these things, and actually, right now the engine for that truck is still sitting out back. Um but post being up here was super cool with me. We had horses out here. We set up a skeet shooting spot, and post was shooting shotguns at Clay's and that big fire too, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Was that here?

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Oh, yeah. We had fires all the time. I love a big bonfire. Yeah, but Post was one of the cool ones for sure. Um I mentioned Laney. Um we've just had a lot of cool different people at a smaller level as well that have you know come through here and done content or recorded. Um and it's just really cool to see this modern era people appreciate what we've got and want to come work out here, you know, yeah, versus all the stuff that did happen and could be in the past.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Yeah. So obviously you've got you know your connections uh into the music industry and you still bring people out here pretty frequently. I know we did a uh like writer's retreat thing not too long ago that I shot, uh like last year. Um, but do you think that this space is like kind of a hidden gem in today's time with like the modern music industry?

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Yeah, I mean we have the capabilities to do everything modern as well. Uh I would say it's a little more niche because you know, people love country music are the people that really want to come here. Like, not everyone in the world loves country music, so yeah, it's not really for you if that's not your thing. I think most people appreciate it just because of the history that is here in general. Um but yeah, I kind of forgot the question.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

I did too. It happens. Um Bro, this is a fire episode. I'm glad we uh sat have sat down for this. I I feel like we could probably do a a solid three-hour episode.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Oh yeah, we could bring in like other people, do like a group episode, it'd be so fun.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Who would be your dream, like, other than like being on the creatively connected podcast, what would be like your dream podcast to sit down and have a conversation with somebody that you haven't already gotten the chance to?

SPEAKER_02 51:02

I don't even know. I do like a lot of podcasts. I I watch a good bit of them. Um I don't know, man. Honestly, it's funny because I have a wide range. I watch like the 520 club, like the basketball guys. I watch obviously Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn, all those guys, you know. Um, I don't know. That's a hard one. Cause I feel like it, you know what? Two Bears, one cave, Tom Segura, and Bert Kleischer. They're the funniest. Bert would be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

They're so funny. Burt would be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

They're so good.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Burt would be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

That's gotta be the most like easy watching. Like, you can tune out, tune back in, it's got you, you know what I mean? That one's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Mine would probably have to be Will Farrell might be a good conversation. Pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

Um What do you think about the new like style? Have you you've seen the uh gosh, I'm going like on the name, but it's Benny Blanco and Lil Dickie, and they do like their it's I think it's like hanging with friends or something like that, but they've kind of changed the way of how the podcast is to more of a hangout, and they've got mics and cameras set up around the room, but they're like sitting in the living room and they're eating food, they're cooking drinks, cooking drinks, doing whatever, but it's like a hangout, and they're low-key switching up the the style of podcasting and and kind of creating something new to where it's this just organic, them hanging out.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

You feel like you're in the living room with them type of thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:45

And it's been interesting to watch that and see how that goes because sitting down and talking is obviously amazing, but I think for some people who aren't able to sit down and talk and might be camera shy or whatever it is, a setting like that is gonna be a little easier.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

So I haven't seen that. I'll have to I'll have to check in. Always it's cool, always get intrigued by like other podcast clips, and just I feel like with how social media is now that's more relatable. You know, people can okay. Like I feel like I'm in the living room instead of I'm in this crazy production studio and and you know, they don't I think the thing too with this is people are listening for the most part.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

Yeah so the the extra is the you know wherever you are or whatever the setting is, but uh you know it's it's what's being talked about is why people want to listen.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Yeah. So yeah, man. What advice would you give to someone that's trying to be like and obviously we we've talked about like networking and stuff, but if they're sitting there, maybe they're in a small town and and they don't have you know direct access to networking and they want to they want in the music industry to them that don't have that access to that, whether it's social media, whether it's outreach through DMs, like what kind of advice would you give to those people?

SPEAKER_02 54:11

DM people, cold calls. Yeah. I mean that still works. I've had an artist I worked with that.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

Way more than you'd think.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

It's crazy. I had an artist I worked with that uh, you know, we didn't we didn't have any backing, we didn't have the stuff behind us, but we had great music. And I literally would go on Instagram and I'd find all the rate I found so probably 250 radio stations across the US. And what I do is I'd find the personality on air from each of those radio stations on Instagram, give them a follow, shoot them a DM, and be like, hey, you might like so and so's music, check it out. Uh happy to give you an early listen. Make people feel like they're a part of something with that cold call, because I mean you send it to 250 people. I remember specifically doing this for a song, a campaign we were trying to get played on the radio, and I had 13 people out of 250 that actually played the song on the radio when it came out. And for an artist who's nobody at the time, that is huge. I mean, if one person plays on the radio and other radio people hear it, it could get picked up. Yeah. And it could just start working on its own. And, you know, there's power in that, man. Just reaching out. You never know what somebody's gonna say or do. The the worst answer you can get is no. And if you don't ask, it's a no either way. So you might as well. And yeah, you can think you're being annoying or whatever, and at a point it might be, but guess what? If the stuff is as good as you think it's gonna be, it's going to eventually work. Yeah. So just try.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Put yourself out there. You don't want to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

I mean, social media is the tool we have now. Sure. Like the message.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Vehicle that's never been there before, you know.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

I mean, we it's funny, me and one of my artists were talking about this the other day. Um, because there was a song we had sent to a label for people, and nobody had even responded. Like, usually it's like, okay, pass. You're like, okay, move on to the next one. We'd sent it to multiple people and nobody had responded. And he was like, let's just go show up at their doorstep. I was like, Yeah, people don't do that anymore. Let's go show up and see what they think. And uh, you know, nowadays the times have changed, people are sensitive, you can't really be as aggressive in some of those things as you used to be, but you do it enough times, you find one person that it does work with, and that door opens, that's the difference. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

You talked a minute ago about or we've touched on it multiple times, about you know, not having an an ego in this industry. How do you know the difference between your intuition uh versus your ego?

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Yeah, I mean I think intuition is if you believe in something and you're willing to show it to other people, and other people have the same feeling about it, you know you've got something there. Ego is where I know this is gonna work, I know this is the thing, the outcome. Where you might have other people telling you, I don't know about that, but you still do it anyways. That's that's kind of the difference is being able to, like I said earlier, be a sponge and kind of take those things. You know, if I've got a song that I think is perfect for, you know, a list artist, well, I'm gonna play it for five people around me that I trust that I know have been in a position to get a song to a big artist like that. And if four out of the five tell me, nah, I don't really think this is it, I'll still send it anyways, because I believe in it. And then when it comes back as no, it's like, okay, you know, I should have listened to them. But being hardheaded, it can it can work against you, but it could also work for you, you know. Sure. So that's kind of the the difference. I mean, I've had examples specifically in the recent past where, you know, I've worked with songwriters that two of the let's just say there's three people on a song, two of them are my guys that I work with, one of them's another guy from another company or whatever it may be. And we've got an opportunity for two major, major artists to do a song where one of the other guys is featured on it. One of the guys who wrote the song is also uh an artist as well. And he decides, oh, this this is the song I need to do, and it's gonna be the one to blow me up because now these other artists have shown interest in it. Well, when you're a new artist at that level, it's about getting notches on the belt, it's about building up your credibility because everybody's an artist out here. So for this specific example where things went left, was this artist decided I've got to release this song myself because he's hearing, you know, all these other people like the song where you're a tiny artist. These other two songwriters on this song have the potential to make hundreds of thousands of dollars if the two major artists do it. But the ego got in the way of him saying, No, I need to do it. And I mean, I think right now it still doesn't even have a hundred thousand streams, and it screwed the other two guys out of potentially making a ton of money, and him. He could have made a bunch of money.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Nobody won.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

So nobody won. And that's you know, for any new artists out there, that that's a real example of don't get in your own way, because if that song would have worked out the other way, you could have potentially made a lot of money, which everyone needs money, and you would have gotten the notches on your belt of the credibility to be able to get into more rooms and more positions and do more things. But you decide but you lost all of it. Damn. So that's a you know, I've seen it though. You see it all down. You see that happen with uh tons tons of people, and that's where it's like you gotta be a sponge, you gotta listen, you gotta, you know, and the thing about that also is if these guys do this song and it becomes successful and you make money amazing, you can still release the song yourself after the fact. But if you release it beforehand, they definitely ain't gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

Yeah. So, you know. I think so many and like too, I mean myself included, sometimes like the music industry is such a business. I think there's so many artists that are doing this independently that just truthfully have zero clue, and it's not their fault, they just have zero clue how like the business side of it works, you know, and it's it's uh I don't know, like we've mentioned that's why I like uh yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

My guy Eddie in the getaway. If y'all aren't familiar with Eddie, check him out. He's crushing it. He is independent, he has built his entire business himself. He shoots his content, he does his videos, he gets on the shows, he rocks him out, he does all of it. And I mean, compared to major label artists, and I know what they're doing right now. Oh, dude, he's 10xing what they're doing independently, and he's still not satisfied where we're he's at. He's still working and growing, and like there's so much ceiling still there, but like that's the thing, especially too with the independent artist lane. I mean, Zach Bryan's the one who really kind of blew it out of the water to make other people think and believe, oh, I can do this. The difference with Zach Bryan is, and I don't even really listen to Zach Bryan, honestly. Like, I don't I don't love his music, but a lot of people do. Yeah, he's a great songwriter and he knows how to connect with people.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Yeah, a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

So if you want to be an independent artist, that's the thing, is you gotta learn how to connect with people. There's songs, I mean we talk about this all the time with the artists I work with. There's songs that you may love that you think, oh, this is a smash hit. But are other people gonna think it's that? Is it going to connect? You know, and that's the that's the difference.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Uh just gotta connect with others outside of your bedroom.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:01

Yeah, you know, the the business is hard. Like being in a label, being in those situations, it's great when it's working. When it's not working, it's not great. Independently, the same thing. When it's working, it's great. When it's not working, you're like, oh man, why am I doing this? So, you know, man, it's trial and error. You gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:23

Speaking of trial and error and keeping going. What's your thoughts on AI in the music industry? AI song, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

Parts of it I like, parts of it I don't.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

What the hell even is an AI artist?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

Dude, why don't I ever son? Uh AI turned into that song AI. Bro, that was the song. Bro, dude, we got the files. Oh shit. Um man, I mean, from uh such a bag. I was in California on the beach when that came out, and I remember watching the music video, and as a young white dude, you're like, I can't do anything, bro. Like which is so full circle, me, you know, becoming a fan of him. That is crazy, and then ten years later working with him and having him out here, and you know, being able to AR and help pull songwriters into the record he was making and producers and being able to do that is insane example of how the business, if you don't quit, can work.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

Yeah. What if you would have given up year five or six, you know, and that would never happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

Yeah, but AI, it's there's it's a double-edged sword, you know. There's obviously AI artists out here on Spotify and streaming that people have created at home on their computer that are streaming way better than real artists that are making more money off streaming than real artists. And I don't like that because it's like there's already enough voices out here trying to be heard, so you're just taking up more room. So I don't like that. But when it comes to the creative side of it, I think it's a tool that you're stupid if you don't use. Because if you're a guy that sits in his bedroom that can write songs to a high level, but you don't know producers, you don't know people to make a track for you, well, you can use AI to do that, and it's gonna spit out something that literally sounds like something on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Way faster, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:31

I mean, I've had luck in the past pitching songs to people where we might have sent them the demo at first with the songwriter singing it or whatever, but we'll AI the vocal of the artist onto it. And so now when they hear it, they can hear what they're going to sound like. They can be like, oh my gosh. And some people don't like that, also. So it like I said, it's a double edged sword, yeah, but it is a tool and So I said if you don't use it, you don't know what you're gonna get from it. So there's no reason not to use it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

There still has to be a human behind the tool to like prompt it to do what you know, make it do what you want to do. It's that I think that's the biggest like disconnect from with with people who hate AI versus people who use it and actually like use it for good. Is just like you're not just typing in, like, if I'm gonna edit a video, I'm not just gonna type in make me make me this, blah blah two sentences, and I'm getting a masterpiece that I can actually use in like a real world use case. Like I think there's ways you can implement it in MySpace and in and in the music. Um, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

I've well the thing with AI too is it can't actually do what a human can do. So True To clarify why I say to use AI, like the songwriters I work with, they will write the entire song, every lyric, the melody, they'll play the guitar part. So like the song is there, the bones of the song is there, but then they'll use it to beef it up to get production out of it or to put a cleaner vocal on it. And that's where it's useful. If you're going into AI being like, write me a song, I'm gonna make a number one hit. It's never gonna work because you can't the human has to be able to do that. Yeah. So that's the difference.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

Bro, I've taken some freaking heat online for some of the AI stuff that I've made. Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

Oh, what was the what was the one you did kind of recently?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

Taylor Swift?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:36

Yes! Oh my gosh, the wedding photo.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:38

Bro, that blew up. Bro. It's at like four almost four million views now. That's insane, dude. That was so genius though. I woke up out of a sleep, out of a dead sleep at like four in the morning, and just and on the morning like following their wedding, and it was just like so like clear to me. And I'm like, okay, do this now. And I spent time, bro. I even I even did a a video before I even posted, and it was like, this is proof that I wasn't at the wedding, like I'm AIing this. I had like five or six different generations where I was like, nah, I don't like that one. That one's too AI, like, I want Adam Sandler, I want Kanye Weston.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

So in the photo too.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:16

But that's the thing that someone has to be it's so realistic, but there has to be a creative mind. The first one would not have done. I mean, I can't, who am I to say, but it wouldn't have performed the same way because I'm like, I want Kanye in here.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

And then when I did Kanye, dude, the Kanye was now because people are looking at it like, no way he was there, dude. And like, you know, everyone else that like kind of knows this is fake is like, oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:43

So it worked on both ends. If you zoomed in real far, Adam Stanler was over here, and Patrick Mahomes. So there were so many different like elements. Oh god, I was kind of blown away, and you know, I've kind of felt, you know, I got a little I was walking my shoulders high. I had people from like my hometown messaging me, like, congratulations, like you have done, you've come so far. I'm like, the fact that like I've worked with people over time that they think that like that might just be another client, you know. You know, like obviously that was not my intention. It was clearly supposed to be fake. No, but that's great though. Someone messaged me, she was like, You shot my uh you shot my cousin's wedding like five years ago, and now you're shooting Taylor Swift's wedding. Like, I just didn't even I only read it from like the preview. I didn't even open it, still haven't.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

Yeah. You just come with the AI of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

I mean, jumping on jumping on trends like that too, like going back, we were talking before a lot about viral content and social media, it's like being able to jump on trends is super key. It may, it may just be a viral video to some or a viral piece of content, but think if three million people see that that video, it's for say you're a music artist and you do a meme kind of content. Say three million people see that, that's three million eyeballs that never might have known you existed before. They click on your page, well then they like this song, you know. What someone finds you on social media, that's the crazy part about social, is like they can find you from the most random video. Think about the dude years ago, like five or six years ago, Dogface, longboarding down the in California or wherever it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cranberry, whatever. Now he's in freaking commercials, got brand deals, and all kinds of stuff. Nobody knew who he, I mean, people, you know, the world didn't know he existed before that, and they found him from that one random video. And now it looks like it's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

The funny thing with that too, though, is obviously the trends, but you gotta hop on them early. Yeah. Because once it's played out, it's played out. Yeah. So, you know, being early on those things and being attentive to the internet, and that's why these young kids and the streamers and all these people are are blowing up so fast is from being on it early, you know, like I mean I'm 30, which is crazy. I feel old to hang it to most people. They're like, oh, you're young. But like I'm even late to stuff where I feel like I'm on stuff early, yeah, but I'm late to something. I'm like, oh, we gotta try it. And then I'm like, oh, I got 1200 views on TikTok. Like, what?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:26

Yeah, and it's that one. The one you saw is 400,000, 500,000. It's because they did it, they caught it first, and it's just the I mean, we were talking about it earlier, even with yours.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

You were like, I didn't think this one was gonna do it. I do all these other, like, I work hard on all these other pieces of content, and then I do something simple, and that's the one that blows up.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:47

The one I took five minutes to edit is my most viable video, and here I am spending hundreds of it's just that's goes back to putting yourself, put whatever out there, and don't overthink the content. I I it's a it's a problem that I see so many artists that I work with that that they do, they overthink the content, they nitpick and micromanage. Yeah they want to change this or that whole time they could have already been posted that, and that could have been the video that went viral at the time that they had it, but they wanted to change something that they thought, and it's like who's to say who's right, you know, to to each his own, like you may be right, I may be right. But at the end of the day, it's social media, anything goes, just throw. I mean, as bad as it sounds, like the strategist would hate to like for me for saying that, but like throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. For real, and then when you s find things that stick, just rinse and repeat that process, put spins on it, do do different things, you know, don't do that same format, but like don't overcomplicate it. I feel like so many people think or like in their mindsets thinking of like social media circa 2021, and when TikTok came in, it changed everybody's algorithm, every platform's algorithm. So it's uh Gary V always says it's the TikTokification of social media, and every social media platform is is is going to that style of algorithm. You can blow up with anything. I've seen and I think it was fake, but some was something I read the other day that said MySpace is coming back, and they're they're not gonna adopt the the TikTok algorithm like to where you're just fed like what you're interested in. It's gonna be like your friends and your I don't think it's coming back.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

I think if they do, like they better make it cool as hell some other way. Like what's great?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:36

What was your profile song? What what was one you remember?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:39

Oh you know what's funny, dude, is I wanna say I was in like sixth or seventh grade, and I was trying to be like a cool guy with the ladies. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure I had Soldier Boy Kiss me through I did not know that before you even said Soldier Boy when you said when you said uh cool with the ladies, that was the first thing. I remember uh I didn't even have a cell phone. I remember my buddy had a cricket six seven eight. And we also put we would like we would like call you know, girls or whatever. Yeah, and we put we also got bought the ringtone kiss me through the phone for the cell phone that we used together. That was insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:30

You probably didn't even buy it. You probably, if you were like me, you just held it up to another device that was playing it and recorded it and set it as your ringtone. The lime wire days.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:42

I'm curious for you, who are like some of your influences, whether it's musical, whether it's you know creative and videography, whether it's you know, just inspirational people that kind of help your vision. Like, who are some people for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:57

Cole Bennett.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:58

Okay, fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:59

Cole Bennett would and like I feel like now that's kind of a cliche answer because like he's just grown and become just an icon in the video directing. But like when I found him, I re I'd never forget it was 20 about around the same time I probably met you, honestly, a little bit maybe a little bit before. Um, yeah, it would have definitely been probably a couple months before I met you.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:23

Um was it Juice Chief Keefe era, juice world era?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:27

Juice World, um, juice world famous Dex, Little Skies. Um, you know, his first, I don't know if it was his first video, but one of Famous Dex's first like videos that popped off. They shot it. They shot it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:40

Oh, yeah, they're like, whoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:44

Yes, that one. And they uh and they did, and it's crazy. If you if you go back and watch that, and you then you watch the music video that I shot for you, you you see what I was trying to emulate, but it was so it was so trash. It was so trash. But like you if if you were to do it now, you would be like, okay, I I see you was on a cold bennet.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

That was a wave. It was like uh those little Which the Kid famous decks, uh Jay Critch.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:12

Yeah, they had like this little squiggly lines and like colorful, like little subtle things, but took forever to edit, bro. And I'm I'm talking, I'm going to go into the computer lab on campus to use their MacBook desktops because my little Dell computer is about to explode. That's probably what took so long to get that video back to you, is I I was having to do that process. But yeah, no, Cole, to answer your question, Cole Bennett. I I'll never forget I I read an article. I think I want to say it was Rolling Stone did one on him. Um, and this was you know, back in those times, little skies. Like this was before he was even crazy, crazy big. But I uh kind of similar to how SoundCloud era. Soundcloud era for sure. It's kind of similar to how you you said um you know you seen posts below, and you're like, I can do this. Like, you know, like you know Cole was from a small town in in um uh Illinois, and I was from a small town in Tennessee. He picked up a camera, he was a football guy, I was a football guy. There was a lot of correlation there, and I was just like, I can do this. Like, I don't know what I can do, but I I I can turn it into something, and I'll never forget that's the same week that I read that article, I was on vacation, one of my buddies, uh well, DJ, you know DJ. He was at the he was in the mix of all that the Western Kentucky hideout stuff. We were sitting out, bro, it's crazy. And if they're listening, and this is kind of just a little off topic, but it goes along with the the Cole story. We were sitting out there late at night on the beach, and the craziest same week that I like decided, okay, I'm gonna go all in on a camera because I read the Cole thing, midnight, probably 1 a.m. Bro, I've never experienced anything like it. If you're listening, you're probably like, what were y'all smoking on? Not even gonna answer that question, but I was in the right state. It's legal now, yeah. I was in the right state of mind. Bro, the whole the we were talking about just like dreams and stuff, and I was like, and I hadn't done shit at this point. I I all I've done, I hadn't even shot anything for Will. I just shot that week a family vacation, and I was I hadn't even edited it yet. And I was like, bro, I'm gonna I'm gonna go and shoot a music video for some crazy big artist soon. Like I can just feel it. Like I'll never forget, I'll never forget. And I remember saying at that time, I was like, I don't know, someone on like Khalid's level, because I really love Khalid then. Bro, I shit you not within, and I'm like starting to get chills just talking about it within 20 seconds of me saying that the whole sky just lit up green, like green, the color of the jukebox right there. Damn, and it was just like I don't know, it was insane. And I was just I felt like the whole tie-in from finding coal and then like seeing what he had built and like really studying it in that week, and then like getting my hands on videography for the first time, just documenting my family. I was like, something's there, and then that shit happened. I don't even know how to what to even call that or explain it, or or or or to what and he and like DJ seen it too. He was like, bro, what was that? I'm like, I have no clue. Like, and I don't know, it was crazy, and I felt like whatever that was, whether it was like a magical moment, I don't think it was that per se, but I think it was just like uh the light bulb going off. It's almost what it was. It was like you're on you're on the right track, you know. So Cole Bennett to answer the question, I kind of rambled there, but Cole Bennett is the is the sole reason that I feel like I've and Will too, bro. Will too. He he inspired me when I'll never forget. We were sitting in my bonus room before any of it was really taken off or anything. He's like, bro, you got something. Don't ever give up on this shit. And you know, I I'll never forget that conversation. I'll always give him the flowers for that. Not that it motivated me, kept me going.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:08

Even just one person believing in you or telling you you can do it, yeah. Gets the fucking fire started, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:16

Crazy how much just a little bit of gratification will really just be that fire under somebody's ass to keep going and never know who it'll come from. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

And I mean, speaking on that even is like faith, man. You gotta you gotta have faith that it's gonna work if you do what you're you know you don't know the path how you're gonna get there, but you know if you keep going down the path, yeah, you will eventually get there. And hopefully it's sooner than later. Sometimes it's later. But that's that's uh, you know, for anybody in any industry, it's not just music. Man, having faith, knowing that I can do or I can learn or I can meet the people or whatever it is to get to where I'm trying to go is is very important because there's gonna be dark days, there's gonna be down days, it's going to happen no matter what. And if you lose that faith, then it's really not gonna happen. So that's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

You almost have to be delusional to make it in the music industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:22

That's almost cliche now because everybody says it's like, oh, you gotta be delusional, but like you really do, man. Like, you know, it's I think and that's for me what helped and why I wanted to do all this, because I didn't I mean I barely went to school, dude. I I I could never get a real job because I don't have a degree, I don't have these things. But the delusion of being like, no, we're going to make this happen, and working around all the ins and outs of whatever it is and continuing to go is what also going back to the relationships is what other people see, and that's what starts getting it going, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:10

Amen to that. Ready for a little rapid fire?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:15

We're we're approaching the end here. We'll we'll we'll try to make these fast as quick as you can.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:23

Best concert you've ever been to.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:25

Oh shit. Uh 3-6 Mafia, Juicy J. Insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:32

Most underrated artist out right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:36

Um, like people would know or like someone. Whomever.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:39

Plug whomever. Put them on to somebody.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:42

I mean, it's it's gotta be my guy that I work with, Jackson Nance.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:45

I knew he was gonna say that. I I get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:47

Insane. He doesn't have music out yet, but y'all stay on the lookout. I'm telling you. He's written songs for a ton of people whose songs you would know. But uh, we're gonna be starting to release his music here soon and game changing, I'm telling y'all.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:01

Early bird or night owl.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:04

Shit, dude. I got a baby now, so both.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:07

Congrats on that. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:10

All the parents out there, you know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:13

Talent or work ethic?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:16

Work ethic. I think that's a pretty easy one.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:18

Yeah, one skill every creative needs.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:22

Uh social skills. Being able to be a good hang is half of the time. You know what I mean? If you can go in the room and hang with somebody and connect with them, yeah, that'll get you in the door.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:34

I think being a good hang has been brought up in like so many of my recent podcasts out. Yeah, and it's I mean, it's it's there's a good reason for it because it yeah, it comes in.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

I mean, what do you want to be around somebody you don't want to hang out with? Like, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:48

Best career advice you've ever received.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:50

Uh, I I just told this to you earlier. Relax. Yeah. It's all gonna suck. Guess what? It's gonna suck. If you can find some uh happiness and joy in it, it'll be good on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:05

One hobby outside of music.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:07

Oh man. Fishing, shooting, you name it. I love cooking food.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:14

Nashville or LA, Nashville. What? Not even a question. This is a good one. Phone call or email? Or text message. Depends on the person.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:31

If I don't want to really want to talk to you, email. If you're like a homie, phone call. Text is cool, but it might take me a second to respond.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:40

I like text sometimes how I can really articulate what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:44

I can too, but the thing with that sometimes is the tone. Yeah. People are so sensitive nowadays. If you put a period on a sentence, they're like, oh, he's being stern. It's like, yeah, dude, come on, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:56

I sent some texts today that were very respectful, but I think just given the circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:02

The tone, though, they can take it that way when you don't even mean it like that. Yeah. So that's the difference, though. That's why a phone call is better at times. But yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:13

Favorite podcast out right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:18

One I probably uh watch the most, which everyone else in the world is Joe Rogan, just because there's the most interesting topics in people.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:28

One person dead or alive that you would love to have dinner with. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:35

Dead or alive. Probably, honestly. Owen, my great grandpa. Because I was a kid when he died, and I never really got to like pick his brain as an adult. And just I mean, he came from nothing. He was the one that started this whole Bradley name and all these things. Like he came his dad was a tobacco salesman. Like he was from a small poor town. And uh just seeing how he changed it all, that that would be really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:05

Yeah. That's him. He looks like a G. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:11

I don't know if they can see this in the video or not, but I'll get some D Right. There's Johnny Cash inducting him into the country music hall of fame. That's so good. In uh the 70s, and uh he you know, Owen Owen really had a vision. I mean, when he was fifteen years old, he started being a band leader. It's like back in the I think he was born in 1915. So when in 1930, he was getting into the music business. There was no music business. So like just taking that risk and that chance is like cra like to think about now all the tools we have and all this all the things, like he didn't have shit back then.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:56

He walked so we could run. Yeah. Or I think that's I think that's how the saying goes. Either way, he ran so we could walk. He was a pioneer for us. I was like, damn, that's a bar mic dropping mic. Bars. Wait, hold on. I think I said that. Bars.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:12

We should just drop a uh children's book of bars. Kids should learn.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:16

Hey, when AI first came out, ChatGPT was like just fresh, and I was on my like, okay, I gotta learn this stuff. Everyone, all the gurus were like, just write children's books. Like they're they're the most in demand. So I was I I didn't do it, but I I thought about it. I have. You you wrote a child's book.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:33

Bro, well, I've got a you know, a little baby right now. Oh, that's true. So funny because these children's books out there are kind of like uh sounds like I ain't reading this shit. I'm gonna make it. I will literally, dude, I created uh her one and I put it in. I was like, make it the baby world tour with all these things and all these stops and the journey along the world tour, and she's selling uh bottle rattlers and merch down. And it wrote me out this insane story for created artwork. I'm like, man, I should make children's books.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:07

It's like the plot of entourage button babies. Yeah, for babies. Yeah, literally. That's amazing. Dude, I'm telling you. That's so cool, though. Like putting AI to good use, you know? You know? That's so neat. Yeah, I sure as heck thought about it. I was like, uh, I wasn't I didn't, but I'm it's crazy, especially with the music stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:27

Like now that I am a father and I'm my most listened to thing this year, hands down, will be this baby lullaby album on my Apple Music. And seeing how many streams, they have no lyrics on most of it. It's just noises. I'm like, man, I'm about to go make an album myself with just noises for kids to listen to and get a hundred million streams, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:55

That's where the money's at in this industry. I might cut that so we can gatekeep.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:00

Let's go make a let's go make a children's album and uh and like clips for like YouTube. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:07

I'll do the Vision for a whole new business going on. Screw this podcast and stuff. Yeah, let's get on. We need to chart start a baby podcast, a podcast for children that are learning how Hey bro, like no BS, like Gary V. I don't know how much if you follow him. Oh yeah, I know Gary V. Bro, he's like already like on that wave of like distributing his brand, but like in different forms like that. I off the top of my head I can't think of what it is, but it it's like a uh it's like Gary V, but in like Bumblebee form or something. Like I don't know. Yeah, and it's like it's his message, but breaking it down and making it digestible to the youth and stuff. And it it's just you know, it's I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:52

I mean you look at the biggest YouTuber in the world, Mr. Beast. Yeah. Kids it's for kids mainly. Yeah. I mean, yeah, adults can watch it as well, but it's mainly for kids. He's turned that into lunchable things or whatever, chocolates and all these things for kids. And when you think about it, you know, different places and different people have different places in the world, but for the most part, kids who have parents that can't afford stuff for their kids, if a kid is into your product, their parent is going to spend their money for you on it. And I mean, Mr. Beast goes and puts his videos in all the other languages. He's not just marketing to in the English language, he's in all so it's like that's the thing also to think about. You know, if you're a country music artist out here, country music has now gone global. Yeah. Go put your song in Spanish, go put your song in all these other languages. You never know, man. It's gonna open up some doors.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:03

Yeah. I learned that going to London earlier this year, too. Like for the um was it, C2C Festival. So first of all, that arena, the O2 is just fucking insane. Like absolutely insane. But like I didn't realize there were so many like country music fans all over the world. You know, you hear about it, you know, it's like they're everywhere, but you didn't realize like how much they're actually I mean, it hadn't been that big until the past couple years.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:31

Honestly, Morgan Wallins the one that opened the door up on all that, yeah. But it's it's wild, man. I got a bone to pick with Mr.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:40

Beast now. Mr. Beast, come on the pod. Come on the pod or let me on your freaking game show. I I bro, I made it to like nobody knows this about me except like a couple people. But last summer, right before the summer, it was like April, April or May, whenever they were doing the auditions for it. It came across my feed, and I was like, I don't know. Something I'm I'm gonna apply. So dude, I did the application, I made the intro videos. I'm talking, I put effort into these things like with yeah, I put a lot of effort into them. I made it to like the the third round of uh of the application or whatever, and it was like the one before you get like flown out and actually like you know get to start the stuff. You know, obviously there'd be thousand hundreds or thousands of people out there, but like there for like a split second, like I was clearing my calendars right before the summer. I had a tour lined up. I was about to like, I was low key about to like shy away from the tour and go like just just see where this led, you know. Like I was happy with touring, but I'm like, this is an opportunity. Maybe this is the start of my acting career. Like, I don't freaking know. Was talking to like people within the team and whatnot, and then freaking, I think what screwed me is I was on I was actually on tour while I was filming like the last two parts of the application, and I had to do it within like 24 hours of their response. Like, that's how far along I got. And I did this shit, but it was like a fitness challenge in and I did it in a hotel gym, and I just didn't have like everything that I could do in a normal gym, and like that's the excuse I'm gonna. Maybe I just you know dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:14

I was so uh Was it one of those like uh keep your hands on a car for a million dollars, last one to take their hand off?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:21

So so like the the application was more just like to prove you were like physically fit for the you know, no, I mean what you were signing up for like a challenge or like a oh it was to go on the TV show, like the game show. Oh, it was to be a contestant show. Okay, so it was to be like contestant number, you know, whatever. Yeah, it was to be that would be fun though. You know, there's so many people applying this stuff, but I made it to the third one and it was the one before. So, Mr. Beast, you either owe me give him a chance, give me a chance, or come be a guest on the podcast, whichever, man. Whichever.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:55

That's funny because uh when I was younger, my mom, I'd I I've got a crazy experience in the wilderness. I went to the wilderness camp twice as like a bad kid. Uh but my mom wanted to sign me up for Survivor, and I was like, I'll do it, like get me in there, I'll do it, I'll win this shit too.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:12

That would be a that would be a pretty cool one.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:14

But honestly, Survivors like pretty intense. Nah, yeah, but like I'd rather do one of the like have you seen uh it's Outlast. There's like a new one now. I think I've seen that one where it's basically like teams and like they have challenges, but you like get different supplies and you have to like work around the you know the relationships and the challenges. I'm like, oh, I would win that so fast because it's based on who can provide for like the camp or the shelter. I'm like, no, I'm gonna make fire out of sticks and rocks. Welcome over here. We're gonna win this shit. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:45

That that is true. I've seen you start some fires out here a couple times out of diesel baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:50

Random shit. We start trash fires in the country with diesel.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:55

That one, the last one we did that for my shoe, probably the last one you've done here, but I I was worried about it. I don't even remember. Oh, we've had a lot of sketchy fires.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:04

I'll have to like call the fire department ahead of time and be like, in case this gets out of hand, I want to let y'all know.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:11

That's fucking funny, dude. Bro, it's been a fire episode. We gotta, we gotta end it at some point. We're we're approaching, we're we're getting up there. All good, man. Nah, this is great. I'm glad I'm glad we did it. You wanna plug your socials? You want the people to follow you, or do you not not care?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:27

Sure. Uh John O. Bradley on Instagram. That's what I use the most. I don't really, I'm not on a bunch of other stuff. This is official Bradley's Barn, the studio where we're at. And uh yeah, man, thanks for her doing this. I've had a great time chopping it up. We'll have to do another one and get the homies in at some point and like go through all the old stories before.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:51

We'll start a campfire out there and then just we can do a campfire uh podcast. Yeah, that would be that would be sick. You may have said it earlier, I don't think you did, but what's the what do you think? Obviously there's been a lot of legendary songs recorded here, and you might might skip over the the actual one, but from the top of your memory that you can think of right now, what's the most it can be two if it need to be, what's the most legendary song or songs that's been recorded here?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:18

Man, there's so many. Um I mean Rocking Around the Christmas tree or uh Jingle Bell Rock, because those are just massive every year. I mean, there's also you know, there's there's Alabama, Dixieland the Light, there's um which is funny. A lot of people don't know uh the it's in commercials right now to this day. Call me the breeze. Uh-huh. And they use the Leonard Skinnard version on everything, and you hear it everywhere. Y'all might not even know just the title, but you hear it, you're gonna know what it is. The original version was JJ Cale. He wrote the song and recorded his first two albums here, and then it ended up being recorded later by Leonard Skinnard and became a much bigger song. But I think that's a really cool thing that I appreciate about her too, is a lot of you know, original stuff was made that became bigger later on. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:23

This was the place that it that it actually originated from. Oh man. A lot of freaking history here, man. I appreciate you allowing us to to shoot here today and record the episode, and it's always a good time coming back in here. We'll um we'll ask one final question kind of similar to the one we started with. If there's one piece of advice that you could give to anyone listening that you think would change the trajectory of their career or life today, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 1:37:56

Man, I feel like I've I've kind of said it all, but based on what I've already said, something a little different, which is still similar, is listening, just being coachable. And that can be in any any aspect. That can be on the business side, that can be on the artist side. You know, you're we don't know it all. Nobody knows it all. You can always learn something, and I think having that and being willing to learn and listen and taking criticism is very key because a lot of people will take criticism and get upset about it or whatever and ruin a l relationship or whatever it may be. And criticism really boiled down to it, is there to help you grow. So those would be the things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:49

Ladies and gentlemen, your guests, John Owen Bradley. Appreciate your time, brother. Thank you again for letting me. Thanks. Y'all tap in tap in with your boys. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of the Creatively Connected Podcast. If you made it this far, you a real one. And I appreciate you, and you'll probably be in the next one. So I'll see you guys then. Your guest, John Owen Bradley. Peace.