Try That in a Small Town Podcast
In 2023, Jason Aldean's groundbreaking song and video "Try That In A Small Town" resonated with a resurgence of conservative values in America. The writers of the song, Kurt, Neil, Tully, and Kelley, took the opportunity to launch the Try That In A Small Town Podcast. This platform allows them to reveal the true inspiration behind the song and discuss the importance of common-sense values. With a lineup of influential guests, the hosts will entertain you with the stories behind their music, while also addressing challenging topics affecting our communities and country.
Try That in a Small Town Podcast
Colt Ford’s Second Chance :: Ep 81 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
Death tapped him on the shoulder, and Colt Ford answered with grit, gratitude, and a different kind of fire. We sit down with Colt for a raw, unguarded conversation about walking off a Phoenix stage and straight into two heart attacks, waking from an eight-day coma with no memory, and learning to stand again—physically and mentally. What follows is a story about perspective, brotherhood, and the stubborn power of music to pull someone back to life.
We dig into the origin story of Dirt Road Anthem and how that song, first on Colt’s record and later cut by Jason Aldean, didn’t just top charts—it shifted the country landscape. Colt explains the creative risk, the early Nashville resistance, and why starting Average Joes was the only way to get the music out. He shares how millions of sales came without a traditional chart run, why moving the needle matters more than a statistic, and how a single song can become a cultural fuse.
There’s joy here too—golf tales from pro tours to Pebble Beach, the nerve damage that might cost his right leg, and the way he’s already game-planning around it. The Vince Gill golf legend gets its due, equal parts respect and hilarity. Most of all, we celebrate the brotherhood that carried him: Brantley Gilbert getting family to his bedside, pushing for life-saving care, then hauling Colt’s mic onstage every night until he could take it back himself. That mid-set spotlight became a lifeline and a promise.
If you’re here for country music history, songwriting craft, comeback stories, or just need a dose of real talk about what matters, you’ll feel this one. Hit play, share it with a friend who needs strength today, and if it moved you, subscribe and leave a review so more folks can find the show.
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When I tell people stories of Vince Gill on the golf course, they're like, you're lying. I'm like, I no. Nope. I know I'm not. You could watch him sing go rest high on the mountain on the first T. And then if he hits a bad T shot on the first first T shot, you're about to hear something you ain't never heard. You're gonna hear some tough words that go together like you're like, that shit don't even go together. Like, why would you put them words together? Another funny one, Neil, is we all know Rich isn't here, obviously. We know we love some Rich.
SPEAKER_00:We do.
SPEAKER_01:They forgot to tuck I'm doing it one time with them on stage. And they forgot to cut Rich's mic off. So he I'm trying to rap, and Rich is in the talkback mic going, yeah, Colt, yeah, Colt, give it to him, give it to him, yeah, and I'm gonna give him my word, and I got Rich in my ears saying this.
SPEAKER_03:Neil had this song Farther away. Farther away. Wow, this this would be great for this girl, and and let's just let's just cut it. Because I don't want it disappears. Let's just let's just cut it because it's great. How true this is. Oh, it's very true. So we cut the song, and I called Neil and said, hey man, love this song.
SPEAKER_02:We cut it like a week ago, and all I said he goes, you know, podcast.
SPEAKER_04:Alright, welcome back to the Try That in a Small Town Podcast. We got Crash, KLO, TKM, Kurt, 20 from the Patriot Mobile. Powered by eSpaces. I'm ready for you. What are you ready for?
SPEAKER_07:You're interrupting his monologue. What are you ready for?
SPEAKER_04:I always interrupt his monologue. You do, actually. I've noticed it.
SPEAKER_06:I've I always interrupt his. It's kind of your thing. The interrupter. He goes back to Kurt. He needs a name. Wow. We're waiting. Well, we're working on it.
SPEAKER_03:There's lots of lots of names.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, there are lots of names. Not too far. And Kurt, you were saying about our sponsors, you were saying.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah. You know, I was giving him some love, right? Uh Patriot Mobile has been amazing. ESpace has given us a studio, which is fantastic. We got original Glory Beer, of course, which still haven't tried the buttons. Yep. Hey, so tonight, this is this is going to be really awesome. We've got a good friend of Olivars uh who's got an incredible story that I think is gonna it's gonna touch a lot of people. If you know Colt Ford, then you know a little bit about the story. If you don't know Colt Ford, you're gonna want to stick around because he's uh he's a unique human being and he's got an incredible story, which is very powerful.
SPEAKER_03:Great guy, great incredible work ethic as well, like back in the day, like just building things grassroots and always been a huge fan of him and you know he's we have a cool history together.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, for people that don't know it, like he wrote Dirt Rotant and he's came up with Brantley Gilbert, so there's a big history there.
SPEAKER_07:Um Nationwide uh countries nationwide, it's not number one for Brantley. He wrote that. They were on a tear there for a little bit.
SPEAKER_06:It was just good to see his face. And he's lost a lot of weight. I know it. He's getting back and he's just freaking he's gonna come back stronger than ever. It was just good to see his face. Yeah. It was good after what he went through.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06:It's good to see him bounce back.
SPEAKER_04:All right, everybody, please welcome our friend Colt Floyd.
SPEAKER_01:Colt, how are you doing, buddy? Hey guys, how are you? It's good to see y'all.
SPEAKER_07:Good to see you.
SPEAKER_01:Work good now that we get to see your face. Yeah. I'm glad to be seen. It's it's I'm a little older, a little uglier, but I'm still here.
SPEAKER_07:You're definitely smaller.
SPEAKER_01:I'm definitely smaller. Yeah, I'm back down to high school weight.
SPEAKER_06:Now I gotta I gotta know, I gotta know how your golf game is right now. Have you been out and swinging it? Have you been easing back into it?
SPEAKER_01:I have tried to make three swings since the accident, and one of them I fell actually fell over. Uh I don't my balance is not great. Really? I haven't played it all, Nil. It's it's I'm gonna try to get back to it here. I was just I'm gonna try. I just we'll see.
SPEAKER_04:Well, Colt, so you touched on it, you know. Can you share with us, and I guess some of the viewers, because you know, we kind of know what happened, but I don't think everybody understands the seriousness of what some of the hell scares that you just had.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was uh, you know, it uh I I had been doing better. I mean, I've known you guys, all you guys for 20 years. So I I I mean, I was a big boy there for a while. I mean, and I I was doing a lot better, I had lost a lot of weight, so I felt like I was, you know, you feel like you're doing good. And I'd just been to a and did a whole thing up at a big facility and checked everything out. They didn't see nothing. And 10 days later I walk off the stage in Phoenix, Arizona, got on my bus, and I that's I died, died twice. I mean, it was two two major heart attacks back to back. They brought me back twice, uh, flat line twice. The I was on ECMO, uh, which is that's basically the Hail Mary that's uh of of saving you. I mean, I was in a coma for eight days. Uh had to learn to walk again. I mean, like everything shut down. I mean, every I mean it was I don't know. The doctor told me I was one percent of one percent, and I was like, well, my mama told me I was special. So it's uh it would just it was just unbelievable. I didn't remember anything. I I wake up eight days later and I'm like, they're having to tell me what's going on and where I'm am and I was stuck in the hospital in Phoenix for two months. I meant uh it was it was a lot, a lot to deal with. It's and still a lot, but I'm I'm thank grace of God I'm still here.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you know, people tend to forget about that. It's like you know, you you have friends that go through maybe not stuff exactly like this, but that go through things and you think, oh, at the time, oh my gosh, that's so bad, my heart's with them. And then sometimes you forget that, man, this is a process. You're gonna be going through this and going through this and for a while. Uh, but we've been thinking about you, brother. I promise you, you've been in our prayers.
SPEAKER_01:I know, and I I appreciate it, man. The community certainly so many people have reached out and and a lot of people came to saw me in the hospital. I meant, you know, Brantley, Brantley was there, a big part of what was going on. And uh it was just so much, man. I've never had you know, you guys know me. We we played lots of music together, lots of shows, and I I I just play, I worked, I worked a lot, and all of a sudden I couldn't I woke I I wake up and I cannot pick up a styrofoam cup and feed myself ice. I can't do that. Like I had to learn to walk again. I mean it was it was insane. Like I I never I didn't know what I was in for. I didn't know what the battle was because I'd never I never even when I was a big boy I could still do anything you wanted to do. We could I mean just whatever. I mean, I I I I wasn't scared nothing but God and my mama, and now I got crazy anxiety and nerves. I never had that before. So it it's it's been an ongoing process that's a a lot to deal with. I meant like the first time I went to get back on the bus, I started to step on it and I was like, wait, oh, last time I was on here, shit, y'all carried me off here dead. So a lot of things like that you don't think about until they're back in the situation, and it's like, oh, that's yeah, I I don't even sit where I used to sit in my bus anymore because I that's where I was sitting when it happened. So I I I'm just unbelievably lucky that I meant because you know, you guys know the road, you have a routine that you do. And I I meant normally I go back to my you know, we get to on the show, my crew guy David said I when he took my ears off, he said I looked at him and said, Boy, I'm getting too old for this shit. And and he walked off. Normally I go back to the back of my bus, you know, to my bedroom, take shot, call my wife. I I don't, you know, I'm done with the partying days, boys. We done we done ease don't pass that. We done ease don't pass that. So I'm just gonna go back here and and eat a popsicle and watch Law and Order or Dateline or something and go to sleep. But for some reason, I sat down in the front lounge this time. And for some reason, my bass player Nick uh said, Well, I'm gonna take Colt to drink. It's super hot out there, and he walked on the bus and I had already fallen out, and it was then it was just you know chaos, and nobody knew. They didn't know how long I had been out. Uh when my wife flies in and lands in Phoenix, she asked my TM, like, how long was he out? He's like, No more than 10 minutes. She's like, 10 minutes? Like, 10 minutes, there's no cult left. I meant like it so it was just they didn't know till I came out of the coma, and they said we'll have to test him, you know, mentally. And and my wife was like, Well shit, you might not be able to tell. I don't know. He's a little messed up before he went in there. I don't know if you can tell mentally or not. It was just it was a heck of a thing, man, to wake up. It was just uh and you know, you guys, I don't know if you've heard how I did wake up. I mean, you guys all know Toby. I mean, I'm you know, he was been so important, I'm I'm sure to all of y'all, like he has to me. And you know, he used to call me little dog daddy, and and I was like, you know, for most people, you'd go, I don't want to be little dog, and you're big, I mean, but it's freaking Toby. So you're like, yeah, you still he feels like a superhero. And and I woke up by literally as a light, bright as it could be, and Toby stepped out and said, They're not ready for you, little dog. You need to go on back down there. And that's how I woke up.
SPEAKER_07:Wow. I mean I was gonna a ask you about that. So in being out that long, like did you have any any visions and like in your coma for for a good bit? Did you have any of that? You know, did you peek into heaven or anything like that?
SPEAKER_01:Three things I had to ask about because I didn't remember anything. I had uh my son, uh Brantley, of course, again was out there, Gilbert, and Brantley's known my son since he was six, and he's now twenty-six almost. So he he you know, it's good when you got great friends. You guys know. I mean, uh Brantley was out there and he he immediately had his TM Corey. They got my they got my son on a plane and bought him a ticket and flew him out there to me and my wife. And so it was just, yeah, I mean, it was it was crazy to wake up and just be like, I don't know what's going on. I mean, I just didn't know. I didn't know what was happening. I'm looking around like, oh, okay, I I mean I can't move. I mean, I'm just it was it was it was wild, man. But I I remembered my wife saying something to me, and my son, I asked him, did he, he said I was whispering in your ear that don't put your gun down, Dad, you're not out of the fight. That's you know, the Navy SEAL saying, I mean, and and he he was, you know, I remembered that, but that's literally all I remember. I don't remember days before that. I don't remember riding out there, I don't remember I I'd never lost time before, and that was that was interesting for me to never have I just wake up and be like, I I don't know what's going on, I don't know where I'm at, I don't know any of that. So it's been a lot to deal with, but uh man, the fans have been, you guys know this music. We play it for these fans, man. We write songs for these fans, and and they you know, I've gone on stage and stood out there and it's it's they're still there. Hey, you don't know. I didn't know. I'm like, maybe hell they might not be there. I mean, you know, you don't know. I mean, you it's we we're in such a fast-paced world nowadays. And I just turned 56 and things look different for me now, boys. I mean, I I see things differently. A lot of things I was chasing, you guys have all been there. I'm uh things, a little perspective on a lot of different things now.
SPEAKER_08:Amen.
SPEAKER_01:Not not not go go go all the time. Yeah, I'm trying to be still and be present more.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, we've always been a one of your all of us, the biggest fan of you because of your your hard work. You're you're the you're the you know the poster child for building something grassroots. And it's you you did it so uh great. I mean having you I can't remember what year it was you were uh on the road with us, but what a blast. Yeah. I mean what a what about what was that? Uh 2010, 2011, somewhere. Maybe 2010, yeah. I can't remember. I think it was 2010, some somewhere in there, nine, ten, eleven. Man, what a what a what a great time. And and for young artists who w want to know how to do it, you you did it. You you built it. You you you played show after show after show, building your fan base.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I did it similar to the way y'all did too. I mean, at that time, you know, when things were blowing up for Jason and you guys, I meant when he when he was first talking about recording Dirt Road Anthem, I I remember specifically we were playing Florence, South Carolina, that I mean, and uh after the show, you know, Jay's like, it's crazy to hear 10,000 people sing a song that has never been on the radio. Like he's like, that's crazy. And you know, so y'all have been a big part of it, and y'all have always been so kind to me. And uh, you know, I I I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I would guess I was probably a little ahead of compared to what's going on now. I'm like, really? I've never even had a song in the top people don't know that I've never had a song, my own song, in the top 40 on a country chart. Wow, never but I've sold five million records and I've had I've got multiple platinum singles, but I've never been on the chart, so I was just so far ahead. You know, I mean, like now, I'm like, hey, I I was doing that 10 years ago, boys. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_04:That's absolutely right. You know, you might they're talking about dirt road anthem. I think a lot of people know, but also there's a lot of people that don't know. You had a massive hit with Dirt Road Anthem before Jason Al Dean did. Can you take people back to that and how that turned out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, you guys know. I mean, our history is so intertwined together. I mean, uh, you know, obviously Jason and I both from Georgia, but Brian Brantley wrote that song, it was on my first record right through the country, and heck, we didn't know what we was doing. We didn't know what we was doing at the time, and it just started going crazy. And, you know, Knox was working with Brantley at the time, and so we started, it just kind of organically happened, and then we had no idea. You guys probably remember this. Like, I was getting ready to put out my third album when he cut Dirt Road Anthem, so I mean it wasn't like I they wouldn't play it for me. I I I can't help it. I wish they would. Clearly, the song does okay. I mean, it's it's a no, it's it's been pretty popular. Yeah, yeah. So our fans, if y'all remember, Brantley and I's fans went nuts. They were like, Jason stole the songs. And they weren't happy about it, eh? Yeah, yeah. We had to make a video about it. Yeah. Yeah, we Brantley and I had to sit down and make a video about it. Like, y'all calm down. Okay, what happened?
SPEAKER_07:This is a good thing. This is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, it was a good thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I've got a great I'm sorry, Catulli. Go ahead, go ahead. No, I've got a great story about Dirt Road Anthem. Well, give it to us. No, uh I went to the studio when when they were tracking that song. And they were tracking, y'all were tracking a couple of things, and I went over there just to hang out.
SPEAKER_04:And uh That might have been the only song that Neil didn't have on that record, by the way. No, it's really probably right.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, yeah. Thanks. I appreciate you, Neil.
SPEAKER_06:No, I gotta just props to you, bro. I'm like, we're in there and I'm getting ready to leave, and so I'm I I walk out and Knox, Michael Knox follows me out and he goes, Hey, come here, I want to play you something. So we get in his truck, and he had already had like a rough mix of dirt road anthem up already, and he plays me that. He didn't say a word, he just turns it on, and he plays the whole thing, and I'm sitting there listening to it, and I go, I don't care what y'all cut of mine. All I know is I want to be on the record that that song is on right there, because that's gonna that's gonna be freaking huge. That's all I told Knox.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it was fantastic. Nox really pushed that through because you know there was a point when Jay was like, Jason was like, I don't know if I can do it like you. I was like, well, stop doing it. Don't do it like me, say it like you. You're not, I mean, we're both named Jason, but don't do it like that. Uh say it like you. I mean, and and and Knox really pushed him, and well, thank God he did. I mean, as as that's as a songwriter, you guys know. I mean, that's that's uh you're extremely blessed to have one like that.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, like, you and Brantley wrote, y'all wrote, y'all wrote the balls off of that song, man. It was so good.
SPEAKER_01:You know, and we didn't know, we didn't have no idea what we was doing. I mean, and and I'm just I'm still tickled that I play it every night and people still go crazy. You know, it's I've had a lot of fun doing it. My most embarrassing moment doing it was with the boys there. We were on the road with them at freaking uh Wii Fest.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:75,000 people throughout as far as I could see. We started the second verse, and I looked at Jason, and he looked at me, and I couldn't say a word. I didn't remember one single word. I've been there. And he and the guys are just playing, and he goes, You wrote it. Well, that doesn't help me. I need y'all to sing the chorus, tell it.
SPEAKER_03:You know, that song's got a really cool history because I remember even before we cut it for Jason, Knox was producing Brantley for a little bit. Yeah, he was gonna do it for Brantley. We actually cut the song we we cut their odd anthem for Brantley. We cut it in the studio and we're like, this is a cool song, you know. And then that was kind of the last we heard of it until we until I think Jason called us one day and was like, hey, you guys remember that song you did with Brantly? We're like, yeah, that's a cool song. And I do remember tracking that song in particular and knowing immediately within the first three, four bars, I'm like, this is this is gonna be this is something. Because it just for what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01:Y'all, right after y'all cut that, tell y'all and you you and Eric, y'all and Eric had were out together.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So Eric called me from the first night, and he and he called me late at night, two o'clock, I'm like, why the hell's Eric Church calling? Two o'clock in the morning. He's like, I just told Jason, if he doesn't make this a single, he's a biggest idiot. And I was like, I was like, what? He was like, I just watched these people go crazy. He's like, it's it it was it's a big record, it's a special record to be a part of. It's a special song, and you know, me and Bradley are lucky to be a part of it, and to have so many other, you know, versions of it or whatever. I meant another funny one, Neil, is we all know Rich isn't here, obviously. We know we love some Rich.
SPEAKER_00:We do.
SPEAKER_01:They forgot to talk, they I'm doing it one time with them on stage, and they forgot to cut Rich's mic off. So he I'm trying to rap, and Rich is in the talk back mic going, yeah, Colt, yeah, Colt, give it to him, give it to him, yeah, and I'm like, I'm trying to remember my words, and I got Rich in my ears saying this. I'm like, Jesus Christ, this is difficult.
SPEAKER_04:That's amazing. I have forgotten about that.
SPEAKER_01:That was unbelievable. I was like, dude, he's he's just and he's up there grinning like a mule eating briars.
SPEAKER_03:That's it. It is it I always love uh these kind of episodes, and this uh especially with people we have such history with. It it does it does my heart good to to see you doing well, and and I really uh appreciate your your work ethic. Like I mean we I you were grinding playing so I mean you were playing so many shows back in the day. We were we were doing close. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, yeah, we had Kevin Neal was booking us. Shout out to Kevin.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, same ham and yam festivals and strawberry briar patz festivals or fairs or you were the you were always there. We were always there together. You were we were playing the same circuit. So it's I I feel like some of the dogs and wherever.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, some of that's lost today, you know, I think with the with the the grind, you know, and people I think some of these youngsters out there today would shit themselves if they went to play some of the places that we played. I don't know that they would they'd be like, I'm not going in there. I'm like, I played in places like Supper Club in Auburn, Alabama, where they'd issue you a knife at the door if you didn't bring one.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, there are there are some places I know you played it too, because again, Kevin Kevin Neal had his hand in in uh in in in both careers, but um you know there are some places and I love by God West Virginia, I love it, but there's some places up there we played Kevin, and I'm like, and we're playing two-a-days, you know, in in August, you know, in the in the in the mountains. I'm like, man, we boys, we may or may not make it out tonight. I don't know. But it was uh you know, yeah, I don't see a lot of the young artists doing that, you know.
SPEAKER_01:A lot of great stories from it.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You've talked about uh Brantley a lot, and we have too. Give people a little background on when you met Brantley and that whole relationship.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we Brantley and I kind of started, came up together in the in the business. So he was heck, I was saw a video that I was like, God, he was I made him really feel old the other day when I said, you know, your son and my son were the same, his son the age that he is now was the same age my son was when they met. And now my son has a I have a grandson, my son has a little boy, and Brantley just had I was like, now y'all have babies the same age. I was like, does that make you feel old? I meant like, my God. It's uh it it we didn't know. We were just too do, you know, when I'm you guys were taking off when we started, we were just doing our thing. We didn't know we were just being honest and raw and real. I didn't know what kind of records I was taking. Yeah, I meant like honestly, I'm trying to get back to that to be honest with you. Like, geez, I missed that. Like, I didn't know rules, I didn't know. When I made ride through the country, the song was four minutes and something, I didn't know they wanted it to be a certain length or anything like that. I just writing what I wanted to write. And we wrote Dirt Road Anthem. I picked Brantley up to write that, to write with our other friend Mike Deacle, who we wrote lots of stuff with. And Brantley goes, hey, check this out. What about this for you? And we started, and then next thing you know, we wrote Dirt Road Anthem about 30 minutes, and then we went to our other right, spent eight hours, and I don't know what we wrote. I don't know what we wrote. I meant like, you know, you guys have been there. Like, I don't know how that worked out, but it it just worked out. And Brantley's just been, we've just been like brothers, you know. I mean, I'm I'm the definitely the way older brother, unfortunately. But uh, you know, he it was a big deal for him being out there because everybody, I mean, Brantley happened to be in Phoenix when we were at Country Thunder was going on, so he immediately found out what was going on, he got to the hospital. Uh and you guys know B. B is the B is the sweetest guy in the whole world. But he's also a little bit like a Sons of Anarchy character who, I mean, like he's that in real life, if you would choose to find that. And they weren't telling anybody anything because nobody in the band is related to me. So they don't want to tell anybody any information. Well, Brantley's getting agitated with that. I mean, and and and then they tell him there's nothing else they can do, and he's standing there with this doctor, this young doctor, and he's like, I'm looking at this guy, and he's covered in your blood. He's got and he's like, I don't, there's nothing else we could do except possibly ECMO, and we we don't have that here. And Brantley just said, hey man, either you're gonna get that squared away and get him to there, or you're going back in there as a patient, basically. I mean, like he caught Amber caught Jack was like he took his Rolex off. He he called Amber and said, I'm probably going to jail if they're I'm gonna tear this damn hospital up if they don't get this shit figured out. And, you know, thank God they did.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's your brother.
SPEAKER_01:They got me over to the Mayo clinic and got me on that ECMO machine, which was that's the nurses call that circling the drain. That's what they call it. They say at 40 years old in perfect health, you got about a 30% chance to survive ECMO. And uh I went in there at about 260 at 54, not in the best of shape. And uh yeah, so I'm really, really blessed to still be here, boys. I'm so tickled to be able to talk to y'all for real.
SPEAKER_03:Man, you're you're one of the great ones, man. Just uh we love you to death, man. Just it's all of us.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you guys, you know, you guys have always been good to me. All all all y'all at the table have always been good to me and and kind to me. And when I started, obviously, it it was things were again a lot different. I was always on the outside looking in, and now the stuff coming out, and I'm like, how's that okay? You told me I couldn't do that at all. You said that was not okay. And I'm like, I was doing everything you told me to do, and you said that that's not okay. But I'm just tickled to be still doing it, man. I mean, like, I'm still playing music, that's what I love to do. I mean, I can't go work like I used to, but I still get to play music. I hope to get on the stage with you boys and Jason again someday, and I'd like to write a song with y'all.
SPEAKER_07:Yes, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Hey, and do you do you feel like uh like as far as your artistry stuff, that that taking off, is it is it because of Dirt Road Anthem, and then uh you and Brantley had another number one for him, that uh countrywide, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, countrywide, and then I lucky I was lucky to write George Burge's number one mind on you. So that was cool. I mean, I I still you know, I it's I'm old though, man. This town, I just feel so young to me now when I'm there. And uh but I I just love making music. Dirt Road Anthems certainly move the needle. I mean, like there's there's a lot of people that do incredible things in music, but I I feel super lucky, not everybody moves the needle. So I I mean I was super lucky that it it it certainly changed the musical landscape a little bit. When I came out with Dirt Road and all that stuff, it kind of moved things a little bit. And I didn't I wasn't trying to do that. I was just that was I was just trying to make whatever Colt Ford could do, uh you know, to to pla make music, but it it ended up doing that, and I'm I'm honored to be a part of it. I mean, uh there's some people that you well, you guys know there's a lot of people that didn't certainly did not like it and probably still don't like it, and then hell that's alright too. I can't help it, but I mean, uh, you know, I I'm just happy to still be doing it, boys. That's all.
SPEAKER_03:Another funny story about that song, I remember after it blew up, it was like right in the middle. Uh or maybe it just peeked out. It was huge though. That that that wave lasted a while in that song. We were producing an artist, I can't remember who it was, down at soundstage. And I remember I was out kind of walking down the hall and Billy Decker, the engineer, had an office there and he where he used to mix his demos. And I'm walking by it and I heard two or three songs he was mixing mixing, and it sounded just like Dirt Road Anthem. The writers, everybody's trying to write. Oh, everybody. And I I remember peeking my head and saying, I don't know who the writers are in that song, but that's that's not gonna work. Yeah, that's not gonna work. But every everybody's trying to chase it, and rightly so is so different. And it's you nail it, Cole. It's easy. We talk about it all the time. You can look at it now, and all these young guys out there doing their thing, and yeah, it's easy to do that now, but when Dirt Radiant Anthem came out, it hadn't been done yet like that.
SPEAKER_01:You know, yeah, Jason was really putting himself out there doing that. It hit where he was at, because he was right. I mean, it was the the fuse was lit, the powder keg was burning, and I mean it was about to be like, and that song that to me, that's that song just sent you guys into the stratosphere.
SPEAKER_04:He says that literally on stage every night, every night he credits that song. Yeah, he goes, We've had some heads and we were we were doing our thing, but until Dirt Road Anthem came along, that's right, that set it into the stratosphere.
SPEAKER_06:It didn't, yeah, and the first time I heard it, I didn't I didn't hang my head and go, damn, I wish I'd have written that. I was fired up. I'm sure you didn't even. No, dude, I was fired up to be on the record it was on. Because I knew how big that thing was gonna be.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it was a groundbreaking song. I I would say, speaking for myself, but probably most writers when we heard it, it wasn't it wasn't like, oh man, I I wish I I should have had something on there. I was like, I couldn't have written that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have written that. It was the coolest thing ever. No, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I see that all the time. Like I I I'll listen to some people's stuff. Like, I used to tell Jamie, John, I'm like, how do you I couldn't I can't write like like that's incredible. How do you think that way? Like it's I'm amazed by songwriters and and you know, guys do things. I mean, we again sometimes it just works out that way, you know. You just stumble onto it.
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SPEAKER_04:Hey Cole, when did uh when did you uh when did average shows come? About. I don't know if a lot of people know that you kind of co-founded a label. Tell them a little bit about Average Joe's. We obviously know about it and some of the artists there, but um give us a little background.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, when I started working on the music, you know, we we quickly discovered that a lot of people in Nashville, they were like, we love this. We have no idea what to do with it. We're terrified of this. I mean, you know, I mean, I'm a 36-year-old 300-pound guy in a cowboy hat. I mean, although extremely good looking, I mean still, I mean, it was a hard sell. I mean uh and so and so I mean it was just so different that I I I just I don't I didn't know what I was I mean I I wrote the whole Ride Through the Country album in in a week. Entire record. I didn't know. I didn't know when I finally was just honest about I said, I'm gonna sit down and write what I I write about what I think, my life, not chasing anything else. That's I wrote all that in a week, and then it was like, oh, and we didn't we just didn't know. We didn't we had to start the label because again, everybody up there was like, we love this. We have no idea what to do with it, we're terrified, you know, we don't know what to do. So uh Shannon, my best friend and partner at the time, producer, you know, he sold a lot of records as a producer, ran other record labels, and but we got we didn't know anything, we didn't know anybody in Nashville, and uh didn't have the money either. So I I went to Zach McEroy, my my good friend, the found founder of Zaxby's. I said, Hey man, uh we want to do a record label, and he's like, How much does that cost? And I gave him a pretty stout number and he's like, I mean, he doesn't know Shannon at all. He's like, You're who's gonna run it? I was like, Shannon. So he took a leap of faith too. There was a lot of leaps of faith because we were crazy. And doing it, I mean, there was no other way to do it. Nobody would sign me. They would tell I mean, I mean, if I'd come to town now, I mean maybe maybe so. But I meant like then they were like, uh-uh, we don't know what to do. You we don't know what to do with you. So hell, they still don't know what to do with you. So that's all right. And so we just didn't have a choice, but we we had to start it ourselves, you know. I meant we just so uh it was kind of by there wasn't no other way to put Colt Ford out, and we like, well, if this don't work, then we'll go back to doing something, find something else to do, I reckon. You're right though. You know, at that time 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you're right. At the time, no, none of the labels would go off uh off the road like a script. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, that they they weren't detouring, no, they weren't going where I was at.
SPEAKER_04:And you're right, maybe now they do it a little bit, but you were you were definitely a trailblazer in that respect.
SPEAKER_01:And again, man, just trying to make the best songs you can make. I mean, you know, I that's that's all I've ever tried to do. So we started the label, and we've been really lucky that it's been successful and turned into a a film company, and we're doing tons of stuff with film and TV and movies, and yeah, it's really pretty pretty crazy from where it started, really. I meant uh, you know, but you guys, look at you guys, three kings, just out there playing some music together, and who knows? Look at you now. We got a podcast.
SPEAKER_03:Making tons of money. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You've made all the money there is to make.
SPEAKER_04:Let's go back to how Neil started this podcast and ask if you played any golf. Another thing that people might not know is that you were a professional golfer or you were on the nationwide tour, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I played professional. Most people just thought male model, you know. Well, that is what's a given. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I I did. I played professional golf for a living, and it was uh interesting. And it's been an interesting thing. People always ask me, like, music and golf, and I'm like, well, the difference, the main difference is I know what I'm making in music before I start. Golf, you don't know until you get finished. That's a that's a good piece of information to have. Uh and the schedules do not match up. I'm like, when I get when I was getting up to play golf for a living, that's when we go to bed playing music for a living.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So uh they're very different. But golf's been good to me, and it uh I'm disappointed that I of what's you know, hopefully I'll be able to get back and play a little bit.
SPEAKER_06:I know I was I was gonna ask you physically, like, is it like step by step? Is it slowly coming back? Muscle memory and all that stuff, is it slowly coming back?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll let y'all, and it's a little something I'll share with you guys since y'all are friends. Uh so when I when they got me to the second, when they got me to the Mayo Clinic, there was a they had an issue at the first hospital where they had messed up some return lines and my so my leg, my right leg was about to explode from no blood flow. It it and so they had to do this fasciotomy, you know, which is slice me down my leg on both sides to keep it from exploding. The doctor told me, he said, Man, normally I would really take my time, do it. He goes, by the time I got there, there was no time. There I meant like every millisecond was something. So he said, I uh it was a lot faster and not precise. So I can't really feel anything but pain from my knee down and neuropathy really bad, and I'll probably lose my leg from the knee down, they said at some point. Uh it's operating on about 20% blood flow and oxygen because I it just it's such a weird feeling. I meant uh to not feel you know, just don't feel anything but pain. I mean so that's weird, but I'm dealing with it. I'm dealing with it. And I've I've done looked it up. You can do a bunch of things with it with one of them uh bionic legs. So we'll see what happens. There's no it's not a guarantee, but it's just it's something pretty heavily on the radar. So I'm that's what's caused me a lot of problems with my golf, because I my right leg, I can't, when I try to turn, it doesn't stay stable because yeah, I can't post up. You you get it. I cannot post up on my right leg. And one of my friends my fiddle player, Rylan, goes, Well, man, you can go out there with that. I shot 89. I'm like, if I shot 89, I will punch a baby. Like, I cannot do that. I cannot do that.
SPEAKER_07:Well, so I don't know. Well, I know whatever's coming, you're you'll you'll make through you'll get through it. Your perseverance is amazing. I mean, you because you think about we kind of talked about you went from being a professional golfer, which is unbelievable, it's that's impossible to make money playing golf, and you you did it. Then you went to another impossible thing, trying to make money playing music, writing music, and you've done that and excelled to an amazing degree. So I know it's a lot of hard hard work too, though. It's not just not just luck, it's a lot of hard work.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but you gotta work hard, there ain't no doubt about it. But I mean, I I've just a lot of luck, a lot of breaks. We all catch them along the way, and I'm you know, guys sitting at this table, letting me share the stage with them. I mean, it's it's uh yeah, it's it's humbling to still be able to do it and still be friends with you guys. The guys have been doing it so long, so successful, and uh I'm just I'm just still trying as hard as I can. I don't I don't know what else to do. I got a new record coming out uh November 7th. Uh probably be uh out uh and I'm excited about it. I I actually cut a song that Jason had had on hold, which is y'all will be surprised, boys, when you hear a couple things. Uh, because I didn't work for a year, so I started working on my voice a little bit, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, I didn't I didn't know I could do that. I mean, and I played some of the new stuff, and they're like, wait. Brantley's like, that's you? Because Jason had called us several years ago. Brantley and I were on Brantley's cruise, his first kicking in the sticks cruise. He goes, I need another song. We wrote this song called The Tracks. Because you know, Jason loves trains and stuff, and he loved it, but then y'all, I don't know, y'all didn't cut it, whatever. And I just kind of stumbled back onto it and cut it. And that I mean it, it sound I mean, I don't sing like Jason, obviously, but it sounds like it's like rocking country like that. And I'm people like, wait, that's you? I'm like, Yeah, yeah. Maybe I can get me a Neil Thrasher song.
SPEAKER_03:He's stingy with those, you gotta be careful. Yes, he is. I know I got a great, I got a great I I I I I may have told us I got a I love the my this Neil story so good. Back in this time period, this is a great story. Around the same time, Dirt Rodanthem is blowing up. We start producing Thompson Square, you remember this stuff? And we start producing we start producing some other people. We were producing this girl and and and Neil had this song. And I I can't remember the title of it, and I wish I could right now.
SPEAKER_04:Farther away.
SPEAKER_03:Farther away. And back in those days, it was like Wow, this this would be great for this girl, and and let's just let's just cut it. Because I don't want it to disappear. So let's just cut it because it's great. Oh, it's very true. This is this is very true. So we cut the song. Comes out great, and I think I I emailed like Neil's publisher at the time, and she sent me Neil's phone number, and I called Neil. I said, hey man, love the song. Want to let you know that we we cut it. You know? We cut it like a week ago. And all I said he goes, ask next. Ask next time.
SPEAKER_05:I did not say that. It's not even funny.
SPEAKER_07:That doesn't sound like a lot of people. Ask next time.
SPEAKER_05:That doesn't sound like a lot of people.
SPEAKER_06:I wish I I can't even fathom me saying that to you.
SPEAKER_03:Ask next time. That's exactly what you said. You said ask next time. No. This is very this is actually very much nailed.
SPEAKER_01:Telly's been holding on to this for a while.
SPEAKER_03:I told this story before, but not on the mic, I don't think. I think we joked about it at its past. But yeah, I've got enough haters. It's because the song is good. It's good. The song was still great. And it was like it was it was the uh you know Neil's thing in the demo, but it was like uh this female artist, like this is perfect for female artists, you know. And um so we didn't we couldn't get a hold of anybody because you know Neil wouldn't give us his phone number back then. So personally, you only had to email Neil. And um reading email?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03:So we had we had to cut the song and it came out so good that I remember calling him and hey Neil and just quiet hum on the other end and goes, ask next time. That's it. I don't I don't know. That's how it went. We will stir for sure next ask.
SPEAKER_06:There had to be more to my answer than just ask next. No, that was it. That was the answer. I would never say that too. And then he hung up on you. It was it was pretty quick. Colt used to like me. I feel like you did it.
SPEAKER_01:You ain't never done that to me. I don't care.
SPEAKER_06:No, there's you think of I don't I don't want you to I don't want your image of me to be tarnished at all. And Cole just did it.
SPEAKER_01:He did not tarnish it for me, did he?
SPEAKER_03:I love that story. You know why? Because that's something that I would say.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I I mean I love it. I mean it's it's true. We should have asked, but you know what I miss, Cole.
SPEAKER_06:I miss seeing you on the Pebble Beach Pro amp, man.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Boy, I miss being there. I ain't gonna lie. I told I told us I told uh Steve John, the tournament director, I I told him he called me in the hospital. I said, boy, if I'd have known that last time there, I sure would have walked a little slower. I mean, I you you don't I did I didn't know. I didn't know.
SPEAKER_06:I know the only reason I'd watch, the only reason I watched that was you and Joe Don. That was the only reason that I watched.
SPEAKER_01:Don't nobody care about seeing Jake.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, no, it was Joe Don. For sure. It was you and Joe Don. That was it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. How were those days, man? Do you miss going out there and hanging with him?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. A lot of fun to be back in that element. The first time I went out there, Neil, it's funny. So the first time I got invited to Pebble, I, you know, of course I'm super excited. I'm fired up. I get in there early, and this is back in the way bigger Colt Ford days, uh, when I was about 3 30. Uh and and immediately I realized, oh shit, I got you gotta walk everywhere. Ain't no carts out here. You ain't riding the cart. Ain't nobody. You gotta walk. But I went back when I got there on Monday or Sunday evening and Monday, I'm out there, you know, early. Eight o'clock in the morning, I'm out there. I've spent all day hitting, I'm gonna hit thousands of balls. I could not move on Tuesday. I could barely walk. But I'd got back in my mind, I was like, I'm back playing on tour again. I'm gonna act like when I played on tour, which is practice all day and all this shit. I couldn't walk. My big ass was dying. Dying. Jim Nass. Yeah. Jim Nass loved you, man. I got Toby, and Toby came and played, and him went, him and I would be in the same group together, and we just have a big time. It's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I missed that. Who in the mission? You mentioned Joe Don. Who in the music business could give you a run for m your money on the course? What when I was when you were stroking. Yeah. Yeah, when you were hitting good.
SPEAKER_01:Nobody.
SPEAKER_04:Nobody.
SPEAKER_01:Nobody. No, no. There's some that like to think that they could, but I meant like a big thing. What about there may be one sitting right here? What about Vince? Anybody can write a hit song? Well then by God, you ought to write one. I know, I know, right?
SPEAKER_07:What about Vince Gill? Was AV ever close?
SPEAKER_01:Every money, every dollar I made derived by me playing golf for a living. That when that two-footer, whether you can pay your mortgage or not, it's a whole different, it looks way different than a$5 Nassau. But again, it was fun. I mean, there's a guy Jake can really play. I I think George Burge is one of the best, maybe the best player overall. You know, George played at the University of Texas.
SPEAKER_08:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:So George can really play. George is really I mean Morgan and Hardy are both pretty good players. Charles Kelly can can play good. Darius plays good. There's a lot of guys that play a lot now. A lot of guys can play. But I meant during the pandemic, I wouldn't qualify. I I started couldn't work, so I started practicing. And a lot of people don't even know because there wasn't much press about it. I wouldn't qualify and played in two champions tour events. So it was pretty interesting to get back out there and play at that in that environment again and do it. It was it was it was fun. It was a lot it was nerve-wracking. I mean, I could stand on stage in front of 50,000 and not even not worry at all. But all of a sudden, out there it's like, oh, this is.
SPEAKER_06:That's exactly what I told these guys. Because I I played in the the uh the senior am at Bell Mead the state at this year, and I told them, I'm like, okay, because the first it's the first TGA event I've ever played in. And you were right. It's like when you have a foot and a half, it doesn't even have to be two feet, it can be a foot and a half for for par. On any on any given hole, I've never felt that kind of pressure in my life. On stage, it's a it's a whole different deal.
SPEAKER_03:You can't just pick them up that close.
SPEAKER_06:I wish you wish you could drag them.
SPEAKER_01:See, Tully, that is the problem. Everybody rakes those back, and then all of a sudden you gotta play for real, and you're like, oh shit. Yeah, and you miss them every time. That's not good. Yeah, those guys miss them every day. They don't play in the leather on the champions tour. I tried, they wouldn't do it. That's a fact.
SPEAKER_07:Have you ever uh played around with Vince Gill? And if so, did you finish the round with Vince Gill?
SPEAKER_01:I played several rounds with Vince, and quite honestly, I wasn't thinking about that. Vince Vince is a fantastic player. Vince uh when I first came to town, you know when they used to do the rankings of the on Goth I just used to do the musicians and the and the and all that stuff, and and they they got down to it was one and two, it was me and Vince. And they were just calling me, wanting me to just wanted a quote saying that I was, you know, I was better. I'm like, listen. Am I gonna win a prize or something if I say that? Like I mean, like, I'm not gonna make this argument. I played for a freaking living. There's not an argument. I don't argue with Vince whether I can play guitar better than he does, because I can't. He can't sing better than Vince. I don't argue that. And I can't throw a fit on the golf course like Vince can.
SPEAKER_08:Let's go.
SPEAKER_01:He's the most un when I tell people stories of Vince Gill on a golf course, they're like, You're lying. I'm like, I no. Nope. I know I'm not. It's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know about this.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, it's true. I've played Vince. You can get a little mad. I played with Vince, I don't know, probably ten times. And maybe half of those, he's finished the round. Does he yell in a soft voice? No. No, no, he just leaves. He just without telling me. You don't understand.
SPEAKER_01:It's not even, it's not, it's I meant you could watch him sing go rest high on the mountain on the first T, and then if he hits a bad T shot on the first first T shot, you're about to hear something you ain't never heard. You're gonna hear some tough words that go together. Like, you're like, that shit don't even go together. Like, why would you put them words together?
SPEAKER_05:I know. I meant I don't think he even says anything anymore. I don't think he says anything anymore. I think he just leaves.
SPEAKER_01:He's gotten way quieter now. Yeah. Yeah, no, he doesn't he doesn't say much now, but I meant, but but Vince could really, really play. Very good player. Very good player.
SPEAKER_06:He can out, he can play. He can play.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. And lots of Vince Gills told me recently one of the funniest things I've ever heard, boys. He said, Colt, you know, I've worked my whole life to be elite guitar player, musician, elite singer, elite songwriter. He goes, now all my works for 99 cents right next to a fart app. That's what he told me. And I was and he goes, and they'll buy the damn fart app and steal the music.
SPEAKER_04:Wow. It's a different kind of perspective. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Ouch. It's a different way to look at it.
SPEAKER_06:I'll just say this. You haven't played golf until you've played with Vince Gill.
SPEAKER_01:That's all I'm gonna say. I think I knew he could play really well.
SPEAKER_03:No, I didn't either. I didn't know about the temperature. I knew he could play, but not about the So there's a reason.
SPEAKER_01:So like there's a reason Vince never played in ATT in Pebble Beach. And it's because of that. He never played in those pro amps. And he'll tell you. He said, I I couldn't control I I know I couldn't control it, so I can't I can't play it. Harry Taylor's like, I can't invite him to Pebble Beach. There's no telling what he'll do.
SPEAKER_06:I know it'd be all over for the world to see. Jim Natchez will be talking about it.
SPEAKER_01:See, that's what I meant like that's my complaint with golf.
SPEAKER_03:That's why I'm so terrible. I'm so terrible because golf's the only game that can take a legendary guitar player, singer, songwriter, soft spoken, great man, and turn him into an absolute animal. That's how frustrating that game is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's crazy. You're right. He's he's all those things you said, and he's quiet, soft spoken, and then man, he'd go he'd get bum after it out there when he gets on the golf course.
SPEAKER_06:You know how you know how laid back Al Dean is? Al Dean's pretty laid back. I watched him throw a club 30 yards today. I watched him fling a club.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think that's out of character, though.
SPEAKER_06:I'm just saying I've never seen him do that to a guitar. I mean, he smiled. Well, you guys got in the street.
SPEAKER_01:I'll make sure I send him I'll make sure I'll send him a message and tell him I saw something posted online about the exact log.
SPEAKER_03:Cole, that would be great. That would be I'll do that. That would that would that would be amazing, actually.
SPEAKER_06:But actually, Al Dean, I gotta stick up for him. He actually plays better now than I've ever seen him play. He slowed everything down. I think somebody at Troubadour has been working with him and he slowed everything down and he's he's making much better content.
SPEAKER_01:He's playing a lot. Jason is a very good athlete and very good baseball player, hand-eye coordination. When we back in 2009, 10, I got him some club. I was full of help trying to help him then. We were playing at the wharf and went out and played. And uh I he could play, he just doesn't, he just in the he's just going all different directions. If he worked at it a little bit, Jason would certainly be a single-digit handicapper.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, golf is one of those things.
SPEAKER_01:And Luke, Luke, Luke Bryan actually swings it decent.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01:I don't believe that. I was surprised by that.
SPEAKER_06:Luke plays good when he's not playing with Dallas Davidson.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Dallas. Yeah, that's all I mean.
SPEAKER_07:That's another podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my gosh. Listen, brother, you know, we've used the word perspective a couple times in this podcast. Uh and I I truly hate that it takes something like that to to give someone perspective like you you're seeing the world now. But I hope that it gives us a lesson. I mean, we get wrapped up in our daily lives all the time, and then we come in here and talk to you, and you're like, oh my gosh, this this man has gone through it all. And brother, we love you like you can't even imagine.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. I appreciate it, man. I do. I appreciate you guys. It has been it has been hard. Uh I've always been pretty tough, alpha male dude. Like, I ain't scared nothing. I'm in it, but this was this has been the fight of my life, and uh luckily I have an amazing woman and family and some friends like you guys that have continued to encourage me and and still let me hang around. And uh I'm just trying to still poke around there and still see if I can make some good music and play a couple shows. And uh, you know, just lucky to still be here. And but it it changes the way you look at everything about what's important and what's not. Like I the things that I've chased for my whole life, I'm like, man, y'all can have that. I don't know. I'm trying to make everything more simple. That's all I'm everything I'm doing is about making things more simple now. Just again, be still, be present with the people that you're with. Uh and if you and if you love somebody, man, let them know. Tell them. Don't if you our our world is hard because we're constantly, it's so frantic all the time. When I think about it, I need to do it right then. So when I think about it, when you think about it, just call them. And you know, as brothers, that's another thing I've learned, you know. Men, we gotta, we gotta, that's the try that in small town. I mean, like, we gotta take these small towns back. You gotta stand up as men, you gotta help one another, support one another, and and you know, get some of that back and still it in our young'uns and kids and bring up that next generation where they can understand that.
SPEAKER_07:Amen, bro. Amen. 100% agree. And you've been doing a great job with uh the giving back also, you know, because I you know, with the MS, and then you've got uh the mental health, you're really an advocate uh for that as well. And is that was that post was that before uh everything happened?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was before. Yeah, that was before. I mean, you know, I was dealing a lot with this myastania gravis stuff, and uh, you know, I just had never had health issues before, never had anything wrong with me, and then all of a sudden to have something make me have to be still, I just I never had that. But I mean, when you have success, I mean, and and you guys, you guys know, because y'all all give back. I mean, like going out, you told us talking earlier about Brett Saberhagen, the pitcher, the longtime pitcher in the Major League Baseball, a great friend of ours. Like, there's charity work. You're supposed to give back, man. What are you doing? Like, that's what you're you're supposed to give back when you've had some success. You're supposed to pick up young artists, you know, and give them a shot and try to tell them what I mean. That's that's what it's that's what it's all about. That's what it was for me when especially 20 years ago when when I first met you guys. It was such a camaraderie, and I I I still love that. And I want to keep trying to encourage that. It's not as much as it used to be because everybody, it's the same on the tour. Like when I go out and visit tour players now. When I was growing up, we all traveled together, we stayed together, we ate dinner together, you know. Shit, these dudes got eight different dudes traveling with them now. They I mean I mean you got a physiotherapist and a trainer and a manager. I mean, they got in all kinds of a cook and a chef. I mean, like, they don't hang out with each other anymore.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I miss that. I I miss just hanging out with one another, you know, just after shows, kicking it down, you know. That's that was a lot of fun. We all grow up a little bit, get a little slow, slow down a little, I reckon.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we talk about that all the time. It's like we're lucky to have what we do right now, especially when we're on the road and we always say, you know, yeah, we'll miss playing, but really what I'm gonna miss is before the show in the dressing room, just hanging out after the show, just talking, being with the guys that those that relationship.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. On that stage, everything goes away for me, no matter what. I meant like getting back out there. I meant, look, I don't know if y'all know, I meant I I Brantley was gonna take me he Brantley, you you guys know my microphone, the shotgun on the American flag. Brantley took it from the hospital that night in Phoenix and carried it on stage with him every single show he did till I stepped back on that, till I got back on the stage and took that mic back. He put it on every single stage he played on. He brought it out and he said, and he'd sing Dirt Road Anthem and and he and and so I couldn't commit to going back on the road with him this year because I didn't know when I I I don't I had no idea. So that you know, our world doesn't work like, oh, you want to play a show next week? Okay, we'll book it. That's not how this works. So they're trying to book a tour, and I'm like, I I think I'll be ready. Maybe I don't know. I just didn't know. And so I couldn't commit. So what he did that really allowed me and made me think it was I could co-do it again was he took me out for two weeks on the road. He took me out on his bus. I didn't have my bat, I didn't have no stress, nothing to deal with. And he brought me on stage in the middle of his show every night and let me do 15 minutes in the middle of his set. And he would sing the choruses and let me be the star. And it was un unbelievable. Because I I was terrified to get back up there. And and that made me go, okay. And and to do that, I meant like it's your it's a tattoos tour, it ain't got shit to do with me. And he stood aside, and then when I'm about to walk off, the crowd he just wouldn't let me do that either. The crowd, he would they would stand there and give me a standing ovation for a couple of minutes, and they just it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. And that made me go, okay, I can I can get back up here and try again. So I would be a lot for that for sure.
SPEAKER_07:I don't I don't know, Bradley, but that that's that's about the most selfless thing that that's a good idea. Well, you guys you guys know the world we live in.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, and that's not even disrespectful to even somebody like Jay. It's no disrespect to nobody. I mean, you're it's that's not that just doesn't happen. I mean, not even promoters don't even want that to happen. It's like going, I don't give a shit what y'all say. This is my brother, and I don't care what what what happens. We're gonna do this. And and that that was that was big for me being able to go, okay. So I I'm I'm back out here, I'm doing it now, playing. The shows are rocking, it's fun. Hopefully, I get back and play with you guys again sometime, and we'll just we'll just keep on rocking. We'll keep trying to do it in a small town. I like that.
SPEAKER_06:Come on. It's so good to see your face, brother. Absolutely. It's so good to see that you're doing good. You look good, your color's good, you look great. I don't like that hat, but you look good. I know you don't. You look fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:I made Tyler Farr you're talking about Tyler Farrah. When he found out how much I weighed, he nearly killed him. He said he was gonna kill himself. I don't know. He said, I never thought there'd be a day where I wear heavier than Colt and wear bigger britches. Hey man, times have changed. Times have changed, man.
SPEAKER_04:Times have changed, and guys, I love y'all.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so thank you. Congrats on the the podcast and congrats on that song. That was a big great song. Hey, thank you. When you get back going, we need more, we need more of that.
SPEAKER_06:We need to get you, I need to get you out to the grove, man. When you get that swing back, that leg, hey, that leg's gonna come back.
SPEAKER_01:I played with Kevin a few times out there. Place is good. I I'm gonna work on it. I'm gonna work on it and try to get back where I can play. Maybe next spring I'll get out there with you and we'll do it.
SPEAKER_06:No, I just all I want you out there for is for tips. That's all I want you out there for.
SPEAKER_01:I can do that. I can go give you tips now. Hell, I can ride around now. I can do that.
SPEAKER_06:I want Coach Ford out there. I got it. Yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's fun. I still enjoy giving guy. I've I still have tour players that are friends of mine that I've worked with that'll call me up sometimes, be like, hey man, can you have you looked at this? Because I you TV now coverage, you can see so much more, and I'm like, oh yeah, maybe your ball position's a little off or something. So I still enjoy it a lot. I still love talking about it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we love you, brother. Uh like you said, uh, we're gonna make it a point to see you soon, and I can't we can't wait for it.
SPEAKER_01:And I look forward to all that. I look forward to seeing you guys in person. And uh thank y'all. God bless you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. And I can't wait to see you boys. You too. Thank you very much forwarding. Love you, man. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_04:We've done a lot of episodes, and um not many make you sit back and go, oh man. Like I he said it a couple times and I said it, but the perspective that you hopefully gain from that is uh is actually overwhelming to me because I just today, this week, I've got a lot of stuff going on. I feel like, oh man, I'm getting stressed. And then you talk to Colt, and it's like, oh man, okay. He that's a whole different that's a whole different thing.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And what he's been through and his newfound perspective is it's it's actually beautiful, even though you have to go through some of that to to gain it.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Anyone got a thoughts?
SPEAKER_07:No, I just thought I'd just the same. You're just kind of uh encouraged and motivated by that because we're very close to the same age, you know, and you know, he said he went to the doctor like ten days prior, you know, to having uh the incident and stuff, and then that happened, and you know, you think you're kind of in the clear, then that happens and and um and and he's having to relearn things, you know, same thing like walking and uh filling a cup up with ice and stuff like that, and um it's just just different. And then also I love the you know what he talked about, the appreciation he has for his family and his friends. Not that he didn't before, but if that happened to any of us, we're gonna have it's gonna be that times 10. Yeah. You know, because like, oh thank God I'm still here, you know. And uh so anyway, I just thought that was that was really cool. And the fact that he's not and he's working through things like like now he has different things he's never had, like anxiety. But he never had anxiety before, so now he's having to figure out how to deal with that going on stage in front of a you know a ton of people. Um so just a lot of new things, but he's still a lot of people that they would kind of shrink back into a shell. Yes, I'm not so sure I wouldn't shrink back. I might I might say, hey, we've we've done good. I I'm done with that. Now I'm gonna now I'm gonna watch the grandkids and stuff, you know. But he's still out there working, it's very inspiring.
SPEAKER_06:No, day by day. He's gonna he's gonna he's gonna he's got a plan, he's coming back. I want our listeners to pray for him. And his healing. Yeah. And his mind. So it can take some time, yeah. Absolutely. Because he his his his his whole attitude, his whole demeanor seems really, really positive. And everybody just keep him in your thoughts and prayers, please.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Well said.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's great. Um we appreciate you guys listening. You know, if you're watching on YouTube, leave us a comment. Uh, we'd love to hear your comments on this episode specifically, actually. Leave us a review, download the episode. We uh, as always, want to thank Patriot Mobile eSpaces, original glory, and we want to thank you guys for watching and listening. Uh, we'll be back next week to try that in a small town podcast.