Heath Wright of RICOCHET ~ Where Classic Country Meets the Open Road

We caught up with Heath Wright—founder of Ricochet and a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame—at Stoney's Rockin' Country in Las Vegas, where the energy of classic country filled the room. Heath took us back to the band’s breakout success, including their No. 1 hit Daddy's Money, and shared stories of the road that’s kept Ricochet going strong for decades. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of a true honky-tonk venue, we talked about building a lasting legacy, staying true to their signature harmonies, and the connection they continue to have with fans night after night. It was a conversation rooted in tradition, longevity, and the timeless power of a great country song.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

I'm an old okey, trouble's my game. There ain't cowboy that don't know my name. Respect is a lesson I've taught many men. While I work, I don't make any friends. I'm easy going. If I'm left alone, forget on my back, you won't stay there too long. I'll stomp you and maul you till you're good as dead. And if you're real lucky, I'll stay off your head. Cause I am the bull down in shoot number three. Some like to think that they're gonna ride me, but young men are learning what old cowboys know. Some bulls ain't meant to be wrong. While Bill in the first shoot, he'll spin to the right. Old reindeer next to him puts up a good fight. But me I'm the bad draw, the master of pain. The man on my back ain't got nothing to gain. I don't went in buckles, but bucking you off, just satisfaction in knowing who's boss. So tighten your grip, grit your teeth and hang on. If you last eight seconds that you've been there too long. Cause I am the bull down in shoot number three. Some like to think that they're gonna ride me, but young men learn him what old cowboys know. Some bulls ain't meant to be rogue. The young ones are learning what old cowboys know. Some bulls ain't never been rogue.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Alright, hey music lovers, welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin, and I am here with Mr. Heath Wright with Ricochet.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Thanks for having me, Byron.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

This is a very cool thing. I love this guitar, by the way. Well, thank you. Thank you. I'll let the people at Close knows this close guitar. They call that carbon timber. So it kind of looks like wood, but it is 100%, and it's nickel-infused, so it's got a and the neck gun bolts, you can put that in a back sack, backpack size package. Yeah. Put it on the airplane. Very interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

And it holds tune, Greg, and plays easy. And it's nice and light. I'd love to hear it amplified. I'm not to borrow this during sound checks. Yeah, you might you might get to.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

You might get to. Hey, folks, we're at Stoney's Rockin' Country, and Ricochet is playing here tonight as the headliner. And then tomorrow night at the Rio Roundup at the Rio Hotel and Casino. Yes, they managed.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

I think the uh I believe the the the what do you call it? The the restraining order is finally up. So they're gonna let us come back to town and then we got two gigs this week.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

It didn't last very long. You just got to tell me you were here last week. So that's that's you can't you can't buff me about that. You can't bullshit a bullshitter. So because I'm pretty good at yeah at that. So but what a great week to be here as a performer and and just to see the rodeo, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Brother, I love I love rodeo like most men love beer. And I'm I'm one of those guys that I've always been a rodeo fan since I was a little kid. Yeah, and it's really the only sport that I get into. Me and my dad always watched the the Heston rodeo back when Heston was. You remember Heston Buckles when we all started? I have one or two of them.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, so do I. My dad would get them from the implement dealer because I grew up on a farm.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Me too. I grew up on a little small cattle ranch in eastern Oklahoma called the Rock and W. And we would we would watch that rodeo every time, because back then it was only on one or two nights. And it was in the city, it was in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City City. Well, well, started in Dallas, 1959. Right. Moved to Los Angeles for two years. Right. And then I forget what year it came to Oklahoma City, but it was there until 1985. 1985 has been there ever since, except for the COVID year where we had to move it to Dallas.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

I had to go back to Texas. And I got to go that year too. Me too to see. But uh, how cool. I mean, uh, you you know your rodeo history, so that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Brother, I love rodeo. Like I said, I'm uh I'm a huge rodeo. I I don't watch any other sport. I'm not a big sports guy, but rodeo is the one sport that I keep up with. I don't even think I watched the Super Bowl last year, honestly. I that's about the only time I watch it football or or basketball, any of that's in the playoff season. Let me tell you what killed me with professional sports. When people started taking a knee during the national anthem. That just pissed me off to the point of like I'm I'm done with you. Anything, any fandom that I might have had on any professional sport when I see somebody taking that taking a knee during the anthem, is this to me it was so disrespectful. It's like, well, I'm finished, I'm done with the sport. So you're gonna see that road rodeo. We still pray to God right before our national anthem. When old glory rides into the arena, nobody has to be told to stand and take their hat off. We do it out of respect. And we we we're great, we love America, we love our God, and we love our freedom, and we love rodeo.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

100%.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Amen. Yeah, and that's a great song. Did you write that? I wish I could take credit for writing that. That song was written by uh uh John Wiggins, and he's probably got a co-writer, but I don't know who it is. Uh I heard that song probably 30 years ago at the Bluebird Cafe one night. Oh, really? And he did it, and he said, I'm gonna do a song about a rodeo athlete you all know. And uh I think I think the song is probably about Baudacious because that was back in his heyday.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, yeah. And so he I was here when he knocked uh Tuff out. Oh, really? He broke his face all over.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

And then Tuff still gets up and walks out of the arena. Oh yeah. Uh that's that's a cowboy.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

He is the epitome of Tough. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, yeah. No kidding. What a guy. What a guy. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him, but uh I'm I'm sure. I'm kidding, Tough. I'm just kidding, buddy. No, he's a cool guy. So so uh Jason Johnson, do you know Jason? He does the canine dog uh uh retired. That's how I know. I know who he is. I've never met. So he's he's from well, he lives in Nashville or outside of Nashville. That's not true. He's closer to well, he he's out of town a couple hours. Okay, all right. But nonetheless, that there he claims Nashville's home and they do a big fundraiser. They've invited us to come out in January. Oh, cool. The end of January, but that guy's raised 60 million dollars for those dogs. That's awesome. Yeah, over the course of the years, right? But uh anyway, he he's a cool guy. But he he ran into Tuff the other night and here in Vegas and got to hang out with him. And and uh he also writes children's books, and Tuff recognizing me goes, I have my kids have your book, your dog book really and yeah, and so anyway, it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

But that's uh anyway, yeah. Everybody knows Tuff because I think Tuff has been sponsor has been uh mentoring uh Stetson Wright, if I'm not mistaken. Has he? Uh well I saw a photo of the two of them on social media the other the other day, and I'm I got from just reading uh the snippet on it, I kind of got the idea that sure that Tuff is definitely a hero of Stetson's. Oh, yeah. But I get the I have the feeling he's a mentor as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Could be, could be. There's there's a lot of those guys are you know step up to the plate when they get after these young bull riders. Stetson doesn't need to have very many mentors. That kid's just got so much natural ability.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

He really, all those right boys do. You know, and my last name is Wright, and every time I introduce myself to somebody around here that, oh, are you related to the Wright brothers? I said, I wish. I don't think we have any relatives in uh in Utah unless somebody got in trouble with the law and went that that far north.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Could have been one of one of them he's a Mormon rights. Well, I'll tell you what, um uh I've been coming out here for 25 years in a row to the NFR. My wife works for Stetson Clothing Company uh during the NFR and has for 18 years. And so we come every year, and I've just been fortunate the last two years to get to meet artists and and interview, do interviews for my podcast, and and what a cool experience that's been.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Well, I gotta tell you, uh, we're we're just country people like everybody else. Most of us country singers grew up either on a farmer ranch or you know, uh somewhere outside of the city. And uh we just love this simple way of life. The Western lifestyle is uh I like I said, I grew up on a ranch called the Rockin' W there in eastern Oklahoma. I lived there now, I lived in Nashville 15 years. Oh, you're not in Nashville? No, I'm not even I was there exactly 15 years. I moved out there May 18th, 1993, and I got the last load of stuff and moved back to my ranch on May 18th, 2008. No kid. So I've been home. So you've been home a long time. I have, yes, and I I you know I still traveled on the road not as hard as we used to. Sure. And like in 1996, uh, I think we did we were on the road 268 days. Now, not all of those were show days. But some of them were traveling, but it's still a lot of time on it.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Well, listen, I you're talking to a guy who who made a living for 30 years in sales, and I traveled, and so I've you're a gypsy like I've lived and so it's in retirement, this is what we decided to do, right? Which is to do a podcast. And so, and we named it appropriately Musical Miles, because they've all been in person and everywhere from Nashville to Texas. That is pretty cool. Yeah, to Texas, to Nevada and Colorado and everywhere. We do a lot of songwriter festivals, so a lot of those songwriters that you're familiar with, yes, you know, and artists from back in your era, uh, you know, we got to meet and interview Dean Dillon, who's one of the greatest Dean Dillon, yes, and uh I actually got to write a song with Dean back in the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Did you? And Reba Maggie's song called uh When You're Gone about Okay, about uh I would assume it's maybe a truck driver, it could have been a salesman, but it was somebody who spent his life on the road written from a female perspective, and she's like, Well, I'm I I do the I I volunteer with the PTA and I do this. I keep all these, I keep myself busy doing all these things, but I I'm just doing it to try to try to wait until you can come back home. So these are the things I do why you're all that. And Reba had it on hold for about three two months. I thought I was gonna get an interview. She never did cut it. Never did cut it. No, um one of these days, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Well, that's an interesting term that you use there because we talk about that with with songwriters, and we once again I've probably interviewed over 40 major songwriters that have multiple number one hits, and so they've told me those stories about well, I had this song written and so-and-so had it on hold, and then somebody else ended up cutting it. You know, like I'm moving on, you know, was Garth had it on hold.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

It's so funny you would mention that song. We got that song pitched to us. Oh, yeah. Talking about the Rascal Flatz song, the great song of uh Philip White and Philip Williams. Yep, and I've met them both. Yeah, they're great, great. I've yeah, I'm a huge uh D Vincent Williams fan as well as Philip White. But D not only is a great singer, a great song, but also a great singer. Yeah, but he pitched us that song. He's been a friend of mine for for decades, and we had already the song is written, and for you musical people out there, it's written in like six, eight time, which feels like a waltz. It's just like a dot that one, two, three, four, five, six. That it feels like a fast waltz, is what it does. Sure. We had already cut a waltz, a slower waltz, on our album, and I was like, guys, are we really gonna put two waltzes on the same album? I I'd love, I love the song, but we had already had one, so we knew that one of them would get thrown out if we ended up cutting both of them. Sure. And we kind of was really partial to the waltz that we had cut as a song on our third album called uh uh Fall of the Year. It was written by a friend of ours. Uh Tom Payton wrote that song, Tom Payton and Lenny Wallace. And I just uh I loved the song. I didn't want to see it go away, and but I loved, and then I thought, well, maybe on the next album, you know, naively thinking that song would still be available by the time we were gonna cut it for our next album. But no, we my moving on, ended up moving on past Tricochet, and it landed in Rascal Flats.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Well, the crazy story was is that that Garf put it on hold. That's what I didn't know. This is the story they told. Uh-huh. And and and of course, you you need to know the whole story because uh uh D. Vincent Williams was done. He said, I had my stuff packed, I'm leaving Nashville. I hated that town, I was over it. And he was going through a divorce at the time. And he was struggling, and he showed up at that right with Brian. Not Brian, uh uh Philip. Philip White. Philip White, yeah. So he he had he showed up at that right with Philip, and Philip said, Man, he says, You don't I don't think you're really into this today. And he said, I'm not. He said, Well, let's go have breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

So they went to breakfast and I have a hard time telling this story because he could so emotional, yeah. Well, it's a great song. Yeah, it is a great song. I wish I could sing part of it.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah, anyway, it it's just amazing. But he just said, he said, he said, I had that first verse, or the excuse me, the second verse written, but he says I couldn't use it. Yeah, it was the first verse. But he said it was kind of like I'm I'm I'm spitting on Nashville when I fight if we do that. That's what everybody's gonna think. Yeah. And anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Oh, so in his mind, he was thinking, uh, I'm moving on past Nashville. I'm saying goodbye to this.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

That's kind of the way I took it. Yeah. And and and so then they wrote the the original, the opening verse for it now. And and and uh anyway, and ended up, but they said Garth put it on hold, and then he said, You know, I'm gonna let these this young group from Oklahoma have this song. Yeah, what on this? Yeah, Joe Don. Joe Don. Yeah, he said, I'm gonna let Joe Ron have this song, and he and then he's like, Oh, you're kidding me. I thought I was gonna get a Garth Brooks cut. Same deal. But then it ends up being song of the year.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yes, yeah, what a story. Oh, I'd love to have a song like that in my catalog. I uh and I'm I'm glad that Joe Don got it. Joe Don't a buddy of mine. I was actually on stage with him when he accepted his honor to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame this past song. That's cool. And it was a very cool thing to watch Joe Don get that, finally get that honor. And and uh I'm working, you speaking of D. Vincent Williams. I'm sorry, this is the way I tell stories, guys. I tend to chase rabbits off over here for a while, and then I'll chase them over here. And we're good because this is what we want to know. We want to know these stories. I'm working on a new project right now. Uh I mentioned the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. They had the uh, I guess they got down to the bottom of the list and they went ahead and put Ricochet in the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. Congratulations. Thank you. It was uh last year, 2024. And ever since then, I have been working on a new project, and it's sort of a passion project of mine where every musician on the album, now it's not just a ricochet project, it's like Heath Wright and Friends, every musician on the album is an Oki. Every song on the album, well, almost every song, is it's either written by an Oklahoma songwriter or it's about Oklahoma. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

So it's my oak it's my Oki project. It's it's your tribute to Oklahoma. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And in honor of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and them putting us uh inducting us and all of that. Sure. I've been I'm still working on it. I've got 15, I'm about uh 15 songs deep, and I want it to be a 20-song project. Oh wow. So I want it to be a double album. I'm uh I've recorded a D. Vincent Williams song called Oklahoma. Oh, cool. And I haven't actually learned it yet. I'd have to look at my phone.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Yeah, is he from Oklahoma originally? No, I don't think I think he's from Texas originally.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

But he but he wrote a song. He wrote a song called uh Well, it's about this kid that's in the foster system. Oh it was originally recorded by uh little Billy Gilman. Remember him? Oh yeah. When he was like we called him the singing fetus because he was 12 years old when he when he got his record. When he got his record, so he sings it it didn't do well on the charts for him, it died somewhere in the mid-30s, mostly because it's such a serious song about such a serious subject, yeah, sung by a little tiny voice, little boy voice. Yeah, and I think he sings it now as an adult, and it it's one of the biggest songs in his shows. But uh, we I D pitched that to me, and I pitched me and uh give you a little background about the original Ricochet. There's two guys from Vienne, Oklahoma, I'm one of them. Okay, and me and my best friend Greg Cook. And both of us were adopted at birth. Now the song's not necessarily about adoption, but it's about this kid in the foster system. And the last line of the chorus is of the first chorus is Son, I think we found your dad in Oklahoma. So it's about him, it give gives the kid a happy ending. He's found his dad, he gets out of the foster system. Yeah, it's a beautiful song, very well written, perfectly crafted. And D. Vincent just sang the hell out of the demo. I wish I could find the original demo. I even called Warner Chapel Music whenever I decided to record it, yeah, to see if I could get a copy of the original demo, and they can't even find it. Oh, you so and just just he just nailed it. And no offense to little Billy Gilman, uh, you know, the 12-year-old singing fetus, but uh he he just wasn't ready for a song that that deep. Yeah, exactly. It's hard for me to sing that song without getting choked up like you just did. I'm telling you, that's how uh deep that lyric goes. And I hope you guys will it uh go go YouTube or iTunes, the uh Billy Gilman version of it, and just listen to the lyric. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, it it's it's it's so cool to hear those stories because most of our viewers, a lot of our viewers, you know, uh because we interview so many songwriters, they'll go, Baron, I I don't know these people you're interviewing. I said, No, but you know their songs. Know their songs, you know what you know the songs they've written and and who they are and who they wrote them for, right? You know, and so so that's that's always cool, but it's I like to hear the backstory to just like that, you know, and the fact that you were adopted and how that impacts you.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yeah, oh and I oh so we pitched it to Sony as uh hoping that maybe we could record it on one of our projects. And they said, first of all, it's it's not good for a band, it's too personal of a story, needs to be sung by one person. And they were right about that. Sure, it was it. And and secondly, we just don't hear it as a hit. And I'm like, gosh, are you sure? I mean, that's the like the most that's the deepest, most involved lyric, and it's a great story. I think country music is all about telling stories. No question about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, that's what it that's that's the whole history of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

And that one just tells the sweetest story and then gives this kid a happy ending. He finds his dad, and you know, welcome to your home in Oklahoma. It's just such a great song. And then it sounds like it has a great ending. It has a great happy ending. Yeah, not all of them do. What's funny is I asked D, I said, What's what's the song about? Neither of you, neither of you writers are from Oklahoma, so how did this come about? He says, Well, not sure if we just what why where we got the state from, but there used to be this kid show up at Warner Chapel, and I think he was the secretary's foster kid. Oh and he was a handful, and he even named him by name, but I don't remember what it was. And uh anyway, he uh one day he well, he wasn't there, and we asked Stephanie or whatever the secretary's name was there at Warner Chapel, which we asked her what happened, what happened to him, and she said, Well, I had to give him up. He was a little little more than I can I could handle by myself. And so he said, Me and uh his co-writer, and I'm drawing a blink on his co-writer's name right now, but he said we were we had a writing appointment that day, and we just decided to write the kid a happy ending. So I thought it was kind of whether he had one or whether I had no one or not. So I he said, I often think about that kid and I wonder what happened to him. But we decided to write him a happy ending. So yeah, that's the beauty of songwriting. It's you can uh you can take a song, you can take a situation that may or may not be uh you know have a happy ending and turn it any way you want to. It's your story, you can write it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

That's exactly right. Well, and and and we we've heard so many great stories that touch us.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah, yeah. So well, so let's talk a little bit about Ricochet. You found the band originally in the 90s in Tulsa.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Not well, yeah, sort of I mean, uh uh there was a a band called Lariat that was founded by two brothers, Jeff and Junior Bryant. Okay. They uh I know some of my bios say that we're originally based out of Tulsa, but we played in Tulsa some, but we weren't based out of Tulsa. Okay. Uh I I had I had met the guys when they were playing at a nightclub in Dallas. This was when I was living in Dallas shortly after graduating from college. I moved down there to play with a band, and on my nights off, I would go out to the nightclubs and just pass my tapes and my business card out. This was back in the day of cassette tapes. I would pass it just, you know, because of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

That's how it worked in the club.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, that was the band I was playing in. Only did weekend gigs. They were like a a corporate band. They Amway shows is all they did. And they put it all over the country to do, and I was just a guitar player. Literally an Amway band. And Amway, they would play Amway conventions all over the country. And I uh I but during the week they didn't do anything. And so I had and in Dallas, Texas, there was a nightclub open every night of the week. So I could go, you know, I could moonlight if I wanted to. So I would go out and kind of hand out my business card and my cassette tape and tell bands, hey, if you ever need a sub guitar player, I'd play a little fiddle too, and I can sing. And so that's how I uh ended up hooking up with these with the Bryant brothers and and the band Lariat, because about six or eight months later I had moved off to West Texas to uh little town just west of Lovett called Level Land.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Level Land, Texas has a college there called South Plains College, and they have a music program that is different than any other music program in the country. Uh you know, most music programs you have to study Bach and Beethoven and all that Mozart and all the classics. But at South Plains College, they had what they call a commercial music program where you could study George Strait and Reba McIntyre. And I learned I studied Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and learned how to play Western Swing while I was out there. So I was studying out there and playing with this Amway band. And I was about to graduate, and I get a call from uh one of the Bryant brothers, one of the two founding members of Lariat, says, Hey, our lead singer's about to quit, and we're gonna need we're gonna need somebody in about six weeks. What what do you think? I said, You called it the perfect time. I'm graduating in five weeks. Oh wow, I could move in at the time the two Bryant brothers were living in Nashville. And my plan was to move to Nashville anyway. It was time to get out there and you know try to you know get my feet wet. And so I knew that if I was playing in a band, I wouldn't have to wait tables. Yeah. So they already had you know a whole camp. Calendar, a whole summer calendar full of dates, and I'm like, let's do it, man. And Jeff, the drummer, said, You can live with me, and we got a spare bedroom in our apartment until you find a place of your own. Everything sort of fell into place until I got out there. And I got out there and the damn band fell apart. Oh no. I mean, like we within weeks of me joining, they fell apart. Not my fault. I want folks to know it had nothing to do with it. All right. What happened was they had had a previous manager, a guy named Ed Burlingame, and his line his business was carnivals. He would go from town to town and set up carnivals, and he would tell the Chamber of Commerce, look, I want to set up my carnival in your town. I've got all the rides, I've got all the food vendors, I've even got a band that'll play the beer tent. And Larry was just doing basically his carnivals for Ed. Well, they realized that they were never gonna, he Ed wasn't gonna be the ticket to get them a record deal. Right. Just all that he cared about was them playing his carnival. Sure. So he uh they they parted ways with Ed. And I don't, you know, not to say anything bad about the two original brothers, but I don't think they read every document that was put in front of them to sign. And I don't think they really looked at their there weren't the music business, they call it that for a reason. It's the music business, not the music friendship. Right. No, it's a business, it's a business, and you need to look at every single document that's put in front of you. You need to read, you need to know exactly what the people who are representing you are are doing in their camp. Well, it turns out Ed had registered the name Lariat under his name, not under the Bryant Brothers who founded the band. He registered the name Larry under his name. So when they told him that they were going to move on and try to find new management, he said, That's fine. By the way, you don't have any more dates anymore. He put another band, he put another band together, gave them the name Lariat, and put them, put all the dates in. So our band fell apart because every musician, when they were they're looking at their summer, you know, they need to be able to pay the bills. So all of our band members just started dropping like flies. So we had to rebuild the band in the summer of 1993, and that was, I guess, my job now that I was the new lead singer. Oh, me and the two Bryant boys had to rebuild it. So it was kind of a blessing in disguise because we were able to build the band, or I was able to build the band that I wanted. Sure. I wanted a band that could play some Western swing because I'd just been studying it, you know, delving into it deep at South Plains College, so I wanted a steel guitar player. Junior Bryant was a great fiddle player, and to have a steel was a perfect compliment. And I thought to myself, there aren't any country music bands out there that are putting themselves out as a band that has a steel and a fiddle. Right. There was Charlie Daniels' band, but he has a fiddle player. He is the greatest, but he but he didn't have a steel player. There was uh Highway 101, they used a steel guitar in their band, but they didn't have a steel player. No, no fiddle. I couldn't think of a single band that had both, you know. And and then I wanted a band that had real uh vocal abilities, a band that could sing five or six-part harmony like the Eagles. Yeah, like Restless Heart, yeah, Exile, all of these great bands out there, they were, you know, that big harmony sound, I just fell in love with it. So I wanted that from my band. So we just started auditioning band members, and one of the requirements was that you had to be able to sing. You had to be able to play at least one instrument and play it well. It was better if you could sub on a you could play another instrument as well. Right. Uh I play guitar and I play a little bit of fiddle, so ever there was times me and Junior would do twin fiddles and stuff. Okay. So it was uh I man, I just got lucky. I've put together what I thought was the perfect band for the time for the 90s. Uh bands like Restless Heart had broken up and Shenandoah, Marty had gone off to do a solo career, and uh Little Texas was taking some time off the road. So country music was looking for a new band. Yeah. And so when we managed to get signed, I was out there a little less than two years when we got signed. And they say it's a five-year town, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Well, now it's a 10-year town.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Now it's a 10-year town. Yeah, yeah. You better move out there like little Billy Gilman. You better be a singing fetus. You better start at 12. And maybe maybe you might make it by the time you're 24. Yeah, whatever. So that's you know, that's kind of how Ricochet was uh. Well, then you but but but you had some early success. Oh, so back to the Tulsa thing. We had some early success. Our new manager owned a nightclub in Columbia, Missouri. So that was even though we were based out in Nashville and we were rebuilding the band in Nashville, we were playing just about every weekend at the Silver Bullet in Columbia, Missouri. Okay, because that was our new manager's place. Sure. And what when we found out that we couldn't use the name Larry no more, because Ed, the old manager, had that tied up, we had to rename it and just start all over. And so I wanted it to be one word, like Alabama. Right. A few syllables, no more than three syllables, and and so I just kind of I wanted it to be memorable, you know, restless heart. That's three syllables, you know, exiled. See, I wanted it to be something that people could could remember. And restless heart is two words, but still it's just three syllables. And I someone said, uh uh, Steve, our our new manager, said, How about the silver bullet band? Because he owned the nightclub, the silver bullet. Oh, yeah. I'm like, dude, that you're an idiot, first of all, because Bob Seger's band has been using that for 30 years now. That's what I'm just gonna say. Yeah, that's one already out there. And so his wife came up with uh the the name Ricochet. She said it'd look cool on the sign out front if the silver bullet ricocheted ricochet bullets. No ricochet, that's perfect. It was perfect until we realized how damn hard it is to spell. Trust me, I had to look it up twice. Well, you can uh I mean, I think Shannon Doyle was broke up at the time, so we were the most misspelled band in country music. No kidding.

unknown 27:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

That's funny. That's funny. Well, so so how long how long were you you together before you got your your first big hit?

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Well, we were like I said, I moved to Nashville May 18th, 1993, and by May of 2025, we got our record deal, and the we worked on the album and we did a what we call a radio tour where we go around to all the radio stations of the country and introduce ourselves to radio. They uh we our first song was released in November of that year, November 1995. And and that was What Do I Know? Okay. A lot of people, you know, forget about that one because there wasn't a video on it. We used our video uh money, our marketing money that we would have spent on a video on a radio tour. Right. So we go because it takes a lot of money to promote a record. Well, it does, and when you're getting in a bus that's costing you a thousand dollars a day, you know, and you're out there, you know, going from radio station to radio station. And then you gotta remember we weren't we know we weren't able to work at the time. We were on a radio tour, so we weren't out playing nightclubs or anything like that. So we had to, you know, the one guy that worked for us, our sound man, we he had to get a real job. The rest of us just took a weekly draw from the bonus from the uh signing bonus that Sony gave us. Okay. And it wasn't much of a weekly draw, it was you know a little less than what we were used to making anyway, playing the nightclubs, but we did that long enough until we could start working again. Yeah. So that song was released, what do I know was released in November of ninety-five. It was out for a long time. It was in March or April. April of ninety five, because Daddy's Money was released April 15th, tax day. Okay. So uh early in April of '95, What Do I Know Pete at number three on the Billboard charts. Or on the R charts, number five on Billboard. So anyway, yeah, we uh uh I guess to answer your question, that took us a few a few months after signing with Sony, just a matter of months to get this to get the album recorded. What we first did is we we first went in and recorded four developmental songs. They gave us what they call a developmental deal where they give you a small budget and they say go into the studio with these two producers and record a few tunes, and then we'll listen to those and we'll see how how it goes. We did that. They liked the four songs. All four of those songs ended up making it on the first album. I don't think any of our singles was in those four, but I may be wrong. Maybe uh maybe our fourth single, uh Ease My Trouble Mind, might have been part of the original four. But anyway, we uh so after we got our full-blown record deal, we recorded the album, then we went out and started uh doing the radio tour to set up the first single. First single, as I said, was released in November of '95 and peaked in March uh sorry, yeah, November '95 and peaked in March of 96. Late March, early April.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

And then and then April 15th of 96 when Daddy died. That's money was released. And that was your that's your number one.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

That was our first number one record. It was uh it it peaked at the top position on every chart. Billboard, R and R, uh, Radio and Records. Every chart that was available back then, it peaked in July. Uh wow. Mid-July. Some some charts lagged a week behind, and some, but I've you know, I've got the list of all the dates that that song went number one. It was number one two weeks in a row on Billboard. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I I don't know how this may be because Sony had a little strategy, a little business strategy. They had us come in, it was, as I said, it was July, it was right before the July 4th holiday. We went into the recording studio and recorded our version of the national anthem, our Star Spangled Banner. And so we sent that back when you had to mail everything out. You couldn't just digitally send it over the over the internet. We sent that out to all the reporting radio stations in hopes that they would play our version of the national anthem on July 4th holidays and then back it with Daddy's money. Oh, there you go. And that's what they did. And it stayed on the charts for a second week at number one because of that. Or it was either that or it it pushed it on up to number one the first week. I forget exactly. But I thought that was kind of brilliant on Swan's part. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Well, every once in a while they have some great ideas.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Well, that's what they say. You know, I've asked a lot of a lot of bands, a lot of songwriters, a lot of artists, you know, if Nashville's the place where musical dreams go to die. Because for for some people it is. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

And uh, but you gotta do it though. I mean, people there's there's a music scene in Austin. Hell, there's even a music scene in Branson. You know, that's uh in in Branson, Missouri, they used to call themselves the live music capital of the world because there's just so many shows out there. Right. Um, and then there's a musical scene, uh, country music is well West West Texas, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

West Texas Oklahoma's got the red dirt teams. And the North Texas, you know, Texas is almost four areas, really. You got West Texas, because that's Bob Wheels, that's the but but that's where you know Pat Green, a lot of those guys. Well, Buddy Holly came from Lubbock, you know, and and so Wayland, those guys came from that area, and then and then there's Austin and San Marcos and the in the hill country, right? Yeah, and New Broncos and Green Hall, you know, legendary places. Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

You know, that they got their own music scene. And uh I've got a cousin that plays for Jason Boland and the Straddlers. Do you? Yeah, and and I've seen them play. Yeah, they're they're they're great, but it believe me, that's that's not what you would hear uh on Nashville road. Oh no, that has nothing to do with it. No, it's totally different. It's got its own rawness to it and its own honesty. Yeah. I mean, they I love when he does uh Guy Odyssey. He always opens a song with this. He says, This is the greatest song in the world about the sport of cock fighting. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you're not gonna hear any cotton songs on country radio. No, no. I think it'd be cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

I mean, you've got bands that came out of Oklahoma like yourself, but you know, uh uh Cody Canada and the well the departed the Cody and the Departed, but but before that was uh uh Cross Canadian Ragwing. And and and then you've you've got you know, I mean, there's a there's a whole bunch of those guys that came out of that country. Stony the roof.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

It's so funny that you would mention all these guys. Everyone you just mentioned, uh this past year, this past summer, they did a big show in Oklahoma called The Boys from Oklahoma. Oh no, I know at their T-Boon Pickett Stadium. I was there that night, the night that they inducted all of those guys into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. Oh, that's awesome! It was so cool, and I I had uh suite tickets in the presidential suite through the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame folks. They invited me out, and I uh my cousin's mom, she just didn't want to fight the crowd, and so she wasn't even gonna get to be there to see her son be inducted until I called her and said, Hey, Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame has invited us to come sit in the president's suite. Oh, so we we got to I got to watch my cousin get his trophy, you know, from the president's suite that night.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Well, I gotta tell you, Cody Canada was one of my first interviews on this podcast. Seriously. Yeah, we got to interview Cody. We we interviewed Django Walker, Jerry Jeff's son. Uh-huh. He was one of the early ones. Um uh, of course, you know Reckless Kelly and and and Mickey and the Motor Cars. Those are Idaho boys that live in Texas, yeah. That made it big in the Texas scene. But that Texas world is they've got that that music scene in Texas is almost as big as as Nashville, however, yeah. You're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

But it's its own animal, it's its own animal and it's its own crowd as well. Yes. I mean, like a lot of folks here this week in Vegas are very familiar with that Texas music and Oklahoma red dirt music. Yeah. Uh, but they couldn't name a Luke Bryan song.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

No, it's a snow. Well, they don't, they don't, they're not and and even even like Ella Langley, you know, I'm a big I think Ella's incredibly talented. Me too. I I got to interview uh Aaron Raitier, who co-wrote You Look Like You Love Me with Ella and Riley. He actually, him and Ella wrote it. Yeah. And then Riley added his two cents worth later. So but but but what I mean, what a cool deal. And I mean, you know, we've just and I have such a love for our really our true love is live music in general. Just live music. So everything from Andrea Bocelli to ricochet. You know, I mean, let's let's you know, I mean, that's the truth. We we just there's no replacing a live music experience.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

I agree. Uh yeah, uh I've always said a band lives live, and I I think it's becoming more and more important in this day and age, this digital day and age, when people live on their freaking phones and their laptops and their iPads, uh, uh where every single bit of entertainment you get is from a screen. People are now. I remember we used to uh live, we used to tour so we could support our recorded project. These days we do recorded projects just so we can support our tour because that experience of hearing live music being made by real musicians, not AI, real musicians singing, you know, singing their songs and and you know there may be some mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

There may be an out-of-tune guitar here and there, but it's it's real and it's real and it's and then we tell everybody, honestly, uh that's a little bit about our our podcast. We tell everybody we're a little wrong ready, right? So yeah, so you know, when when when somebody makes a mistake or they drop the F-bomb, we just go, hey, listen, you know, it is it is what it is. But listen, hey, heath you've been so gracious with your time, and you've got to probably got to get sound check, and I gotta get another interview. Oh, that's right. You got four o'clock once. And and so, but thank you so much. Play me one more song. I'd love to go.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I want to play this guitar one more time anyway. So let's uh how beautiful is that thing. It's a great feels good. I got I got my little acoustic that I played during the show. I tell people it's my acoustic girlfriend, uh-huh. I like to put my hands on her and molest her every now and then, just give her a little sweet touch. Yeah. And she's got such a sweet voice. But right now she's my only girl. But this one right here, I don't know. I might have to open up the door for another girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

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SPEAKER_00 37:58

This is a song written uh by Daryl Dodd and Brett Beavers. Okay. And uh, since we're in Vegas, I thought this would be appropriate for this one. Perfect. Well, he's packed up his boots and his saddle seventeen heading out on his own heal rodeo from Cheyenne to Texas, dreaming of one ride in Vegas, one ride in Vegas Lonely Nights run down motel rooms, aching bones from yesterday's ride. It's taking more than he thought he could give in, but he's holding on for one ride in Vegas. This one ride in Vegas. He's risking it all, he's driven by hunger that never will let him give up, and with a fire in his eyes, he dances with thunder till one day his day finally comes. His heart beats fast with anticipation, a brighter light than he's ever seen before. He's waited his whole life for the next eight seconds, but he'd do it all again for one right in Vegas. This one right in Vegas. Oh, this is where it goes, yeah, yeah. I'll tell you, I'm just gonna shoot to the last verse here. I love the last verse. It's uh he's an old man now, four-time world's champion, a modern day legend. Every cowboy knows his name. He's all settled down on his big ranch in Texas, but he traded all today for one ride in Vegas, one more ride in Vegas. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

That's awesome, dude. That that is such a great song. It is a great song. And I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to go listen to Daryl's version of the song. I am too, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

I can't seem to remember how how the and you don't want to mess up a story song because it just gotta be in the right order. So I I I think I might have switched a few things around there at one point.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

That's okay, but what a story. What a great song.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Oh man, I that was another one of those songs that I would I would get emotional trying to sing through it because you just put your spot in yourself in the spot of that kid, 17 years old, leaving home for the first time, just riding the rodeo circuit, trying to get to Vegas, then he finally makes it and he's there, and then it it passes him by. He's an old man, and he's I just you know it it makes you think about life and and and just the the need to live it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Well, and you think about some of those those champions, some of those guys that actually did did it, yeah, lived it, won four gold buckles or five or ten or whatever, and and and and their lives are all of a sudden they're over, and guess what?

SPEAKER_00 42:41

They're spectators that like like me. They're out there in this in the stands watching it, you know. And so it's uh but you know, at least at least they did it. At least they got out there and and and they uh they followed the dream. That's what that song's about to be following the dream.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Absolutely, absolutely. And and you know, honestly, yeah, it it applies to lots of different true aspects of life. So whether you're a a a singer, songwriter, performer, or uh uh and I I used to rodeo myself, but was never a a a world champion. But uh, but I I had a lot of fun doing it, and and my kids got to do it. And you know, but but it's the same about being a parent or or being a successful in business. So that's right. But anyway, he thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

What a pleasure, Byron. Let's do this again next year. What are you gonna be back here? Oh, hell yeah. I'm hoping to be back here as well. Yeah, yeah. Let's do it again next year. Let's just make it an annual thing. We'll do it. Thank you, Heath. Thank you, brother. We look forward to seeing you somewhere down the road.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Hey, for Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin, here with Mr. Heath Wright. Not related to Cody and all his good-looking kids. Yeah. Thank you, thank you for watching, and we'll see you somewhere down the road. Audios for now. Thank you, brother.