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The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
Ever wonder what really goes on at a small-town morning radio show?
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett and Best Friends is your daily dose of real callers, big laughs, and unforgettable characters straight from QCountry 925 in Show Low, Arizona.
The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett
Service, Strings & a Country Climb with Keaton Simons
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Friday on The Morning Brew with Chris Bennett & Best Friends opens with purpose and ends with a guitar in hand. We start the show with Stephen Harrington sharing details on the MLK Day of Service in the White Mountains and how listeners can help restock the Salvation Army food pantry with much-needed items like cereal, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, tuna, and mac and cheese. It’s a simple way to turn listening into action and make a local impact.
After a quick check-in with Jineane Ford and a round of fun “nerd news,” it’s time for our Country Climb Star of the Week, sent to us by Shawn Burke and Austin Burke of the Playlisted Podcast. This week’s spotlight is on Keaton Simons — lead guitarist and musical director for Brett Young, accomplished songwriter, and a musician whose career has crossed stages, studios, and screens.
Keaton talks about growing up around Hollywood, choosing music for its creative independence, and learning how to tour light — both in gear and in mindset. We dive into the long life of his song “When I Go,” how a placement on Suits helped turn it into a steady fan favorite, and why blues roots and “humanly organized sound” still shape how he writes today.
We wrap things up with a call from Paul in Beaumont, Texas, who’s so impressed by Keaton’s musical knowledge that we turn the mic into a round of “Are You Smarter Than a Redneck?” music trivia to close the show with laughs.
Community, creativity, and a reminder that great songs — and good deeds — both have a long tail.
From the Horn Auto Center Studios, Chris Bennett and the Morning Brew. I am so excited to have on the phone a best friend. It's Stephen Harrington calling in to talk about the MLK Junior Day of Service. Stephen, tell us a little bit about what's happening in the White Mountains on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Chris, thanks for having me on today. Yeah, on Monday the 19th, we're going to have our second annual service expo over at the City Gym down there on 760 East McNeil here in town. From 9 to 1130, it's an opportunity for the public at large to get to know local volunteer service organizations and to learn how to get involved. Some of the exhibitors we have this year are the Sho Low Historical Society, Pet Allies, By Talent, Accord Hospice, Family Connect, the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels, and we probably have six or seven more that are going to be with us there that day.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man, that sounds like an amazing event. Is it free to attend?
SPEAKER_05:It's free to attend, open to the public. We we encourage everybody to come out. And uh just as uh an added uh incentive, uh this year we're kind of highlighting with the uh uh Salvation Army, Chris, and uh their pantry is really low and so we're asking the public if uh if they have opportunity to stop in to please bring a box of cereals, some peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, tuna, mac and cheese, something like this that uh that the salvation could use to help uh build up their their pantry at this time of the year.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Let's help uh uh the Salvation Army fill that food pantry. And uh remember if for more information and for this event for this MLK Junior uh day of service from 9 to 11 30 at the Sholo City Campus Gym, where can people go for more information?
SPEAKER_05:For more information, you can go online at justserve.org. Uh we have a number of postings there, and uh this day of service is highlighted. And uh if they need additional information, they can call me myself, Stephen Harrington, at 928-228-1813. Again, that number is 928-228-1813.
SPEAKER_03:All right, Stephen, thank you so much for joining us today. And uh, we're looking forward to this uh great event on Monday.
SPEAKER_05:All right, thanks, Chris. Y'all have a good day. You too. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_03:Janine, you there? Yes, I am.
SPEAKER_00:How are you, Chris? Friday.
SPEAKER_03:Friday morning. Happy Friday. What do you got planned this weekend?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, this weekend, gosh, I think we we might be burning my garden. Oh my gosh, why would you do that? Well, no, we burn it when it uh all this dead stuff is all just up there, you know. We burn it and I cover it with thick plastic to try to kill off the weeds. Yeah, it's you know, it's a thing. People know that have gardens know about it, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You and I spend our weekends way differently. I have a torch and I like it.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, really? Any chance you'd let me use it? Yeah, want me to tell you something else scary? Yeah. Really scary? Okay. I like the nerd news they put out on Fridays. There's a compilation of like a lot of scientific stuff that came out. Right. Okay, so it's a new study. And a lot of us kind of figured this because it happens in animals and everything else, but it's kind of a good news, bad news for all you guys out there. Okay, this new study, um, and it's a big study too, found that there is one thing that reliably makes men live longer. One thing for you to live longer, okay?
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And it applies to males of like almost all species, okay? Guess what that one thing is?
SPEAKER_03:To live longer?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Gosh, I don't know. Castration.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's awful! Isn't that terrible? No, it's the truth. Because, like, when you neuter dogs, you castrate dogs, they live longer. I mean, almost all animals you castrate them, they have longer lives. And uh, yeah, in humans, same thing, guys. Okay, so there you go. You want to live long, give them up.
SPEAKER_03:I'm here, I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
SPEAKER_00:I read that and I'm like, ouch, oh no, you don't want to hear that. I know. And then also in the solar system news, okay, scientists finally think they've figured out uh what's inside Uranus.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, Janine, these are the best stories ever.
SPEAKER_00:They say it's a weird substance that's both solid and liquid at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that sounds like the same thing that's in the liquid.
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:But these are both real studies and they're out there, yeah. So there you go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Sweet. Well, thank you for some nerd news on this nerd news writing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's always fun. I love the news.
SPEAKER_03:Well, have a great weekend, Janine. We love you.
SPEAKER_00:No castration. Okay, bye-bye. All right, bye-bye.
SPEAKER_03:Chris Bennett's Country Con, Star of the Week. And holy moly, this week might be one of our most accomplished musicians we've ever featured. He's the lead guitarist for Brett Young. He's toured with artists like Snoop, Dog, Dog, Chris Cornell, open for gold play, had music featured on major TV shows, and still finds time to write songs that connect on a deep, deep level. His song When I Go has over 18 million streams, and we're excited to play it on Q Country 925 for the first time this morning. Please welcome today's Country Climb star of the week, Keaton Simons. Hey, how are you doing? What a great intro, man. Heck yeah, I've been practicing all morning.
SPEAKER_02:You deserve the best intro. Oh, you're so sweet. You are too kind. You're too kind.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh, Keaton, to get started, I like to start with some fun icebreaker questions. You ready? Okay. I'm ready to break this ice. Perfect. True or false. I heard you might be the youngest actor in history, or at least the youngest actor to be in a motion picture film.
SPEAKER_02:Now, okay. I don't I can't confirm that I'm the youngest, but it doesn't get much younger because I was in utero at the time. So uh what you're referring to is the fact that my mom was in the movie Animal House, and she was pregnant with me at the time. So, yes, I appeared as a fetus in that movie, and uh I I don't know, I was pretty good. I don't know if I was the youngest, but probably the best fetus that I've seen.
SPEAKER_03:Well, we know the first movie you were ever in. What was the first concert that you've ever went to?
SPEAKER_02:Oh boy, well, you know, my my family's in the film and TV industry. My mom was working on a show called Don Kirschner's Rock Concert when I was born. So I some of the first concerts that I attended were live at Don Kirschner's, like on the set of that. So people like James Brown and stuff that Chuck Berry was one of the first that but I was just an infant for that. The first concert that I bought tickets for to go see was Primus at the Palladium in LA when I was 14. And uh I went to see Pink Floyd shortly after that, and you know, but I've I've seen a lot of concerts in my life.
SPEAKER_03:And you're uh a renowned guitarist, lead guitarist for Brett Young. What is a uh song you never get tired of playing on the guitar?
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, songs that I don't get tired of playing on guitar with with Brett. Listen, Brett Young's most popular song is called In Case You Didn't Know. And I think there's there's a reason for that, because it is one of the best songs ever written, and the recording and all the parts and all the licks and everything, I I kind of never get tired of playing that song, and I'm glad because I'll I'll play it every single time we play together, you know what I mean? So I'll I I'm glad I never get sick of it, but I certainly don't get sick of it.
SPEAKER_03:And last question for this segment, it'll be the hardest question I ask you all morning. If you had one country song to request for the rest of your life, what country song are you requesting and why?
SPEAKER_02:Well, gosh, you know, you know what? It's that one, I'm gonna go with Brett Young's current single that's out right now. It's called Drink With You. So I say give that one a spin.
SPEAKER_03:We are back with today's Country Climb, star of the week. Keaton Simons, we're gonna be listening to his song When I Go here shortly. Uh, but we had some fun, Keaton, and now it's time to get to the nitty, gritty, and find out about your country climb. We found out you were you're basically born into the entertainment business. You have a lot of acting, a lot of a TV movie around you. What made you decide uh to go the music route and and and how'd you fall in love with music?
SPEAKER_02:You know, it kind of chose me. I've been in love with it and passionate about music for my whole entire life, since I was a little tiny baby guy, you know, and I've been playing forever. I started playing piano when I was very young and singing as soon as I could, and and then started playing guitar pretty young, you know, as soon as I could physically do it, I was doing it. And it wasn't even a question for me. I love I love the arts in general, all of the creative arts are wonderful, but there's something there's something so uh so fundamental about music and something so independent about it. I can create music just myself. I don't even really need an instrument, I don't need even an audience. I don't, you know what I mean? Like it's it's not it's very independent. And even though we we use it to connect and to engage socially and and and from person to person and globally and so on and so forth, it has tremendous power that way, it also has the full full integrity when you just play music alone by yourself. And that's magical. That you don't really find that with a lot of the other arts, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Right. And well, you've been doing music for forever, and I know you have a bunch of pinch me moments. If I had to say, hey, give me, can you give me three pinch me moments of your musical journey and your career?
SPEAKER_02:There are there have been there have been so many. There, they are innumerable. The the first one that comes to mind certainly is when I was playing with Chris Cornell, and we did that live in studio at Sirius XM, and we did uh a you know live acoustic performance of numerous songs, and each one was as magical as as the other. If I'd most people have just seen the Prince cover, the Nothing Compares to You cover that we did. Um, but man, I just watched and listened to and said to some friends uh our performance of Fell on Black Days. And it's just you have to see it. You have to watch, you have to see it to believe it. This guy, Chris Cornell, was the most incredible singer in the world. And I was sitting right there. It was a real pinch-me moment. Like I just can't can't even believe that that happened. Um, but man, I can't even I that one's clowning my whole my whole mind. I know I have so many. I could choose a few other ones, but God, they pale by comparison. I should have left left that one for last.
SPEAKER_03:No worries, that's amazing. That is that's really, really cool. And you've you've been doing guitar forever and music in forever. What's the biggest lesson um touring has taught you as a uh musician?
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, you know, it's taught me how to go with the flow and how to live minimally, how to uh let go of material things and and shows me how unimportant my stuff is because I can be on the road and not even remember I have any stuff. It doesn't matter. You know what I mean? It's uh I've got a bit of that object impermanence, they call it. You know, when something is out of sight for me, it's it's hard for me to keep track. I'll constantly be like, oh yeah, I have that already, or like, oh yeah, I forgot about that whole thing. You know, and that that can kind of happen with like all of my stuff because I'm on the road so much. And I love the challenge of I call it Tetris. That's my that's my analogy for it all. The Tetris of life, the Tetris of figuring out exactly what I need and what fits perfectly where, and that that's all I need, and it just can go boom, and you put that last piece in, and it just completes the block. You know, and the Tetris of life is is what I love, and that's that's what I've learned so much from touring.
SPEAKER_03:And you've worked across all genres rock, soul, country. Oh, yeah. How has that shaped you as a songwriter? And is there one genre that speaks to you the most, or are you just kind of open to to whatever?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I I I love them all. They're all they all seem very much on the same continuum for me, the same spectrum, you know. Uh, and I studied ethnomusicology in school, in college, and that taught me really the the extreme diversity of music and types of music throughout the world, and the the amazing connection between humans and music. You know, the the definition of music, according to ethnomusicology, is humanly organized sound. So sound exists everywhere, and there's a great musicality to the sounds that we hear in nature and so on and so forth. But in order to qualify as music by definition, it needs to be organized by humans in you know, in a musical way. Humanly organized sound is the definition. So, you know, it we find music everywhere we find people in the world, no matter what, no matter the how remote or populist, no matter how oppressed or free, music emerges everywhere. It's such uh an incredible thing. So the genres kind of fall away for me. I've probably played more hip-hop than I have anything else, but the the genre, if I were to say it was most natural to me, is blues. And I think my next record, I keep kind of speaking this into existence, but I plan for my next record to be a blues record.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, we've been having fun, uh, played fun icebreaker games, found out about your country climb, and uh now it's time to hear some of your own music. We're gonna play a song that has over 18 million streams on Spotify. It's called When I Go. Tell us a little bit about this song.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this song has an amazing story. And when they say that a song has a life of its own, you know, or has the potential to have a life of its own, it really does. And as a songwriter, as a producer, as a creator of art, I love to see something that I created have a beautiful life and existence, you know what I mean? So this song was written in 2013 or thereabouts, right, and recorded around then. Around 2015, it got placed on a TV show called Suits, and it had such a spectacular placement. I've been fortunate enough to have hundreds of film and television placements in my career, and that one head and shoulders more impactful, and it shows in the life of this song, which on Spotify alone has you know over 18 million streams, and then it's got a whole YouTube life and iTunes and and uh Spotify, I mean not Spotify, the uh what's it called, Shazam. The Shazam numbers on that song are crazy, hundreds of thousands of of Shazams on that on that song, you know? And it's just been great. Now here we are, 2026, and it hasn't even slowed down one bit. It still gets well over a million uh spins a year, I think. Last but my Spotify raped shocked me this year. You know, it's say what you will about all that, of course, all the the critique is is real and true, all the issues are real and need to be addressed, but as an individual who isn't even really focusing on myself as an artist right now to under to know and feel so supported and to feel like that energy is just out there cooking away, you know. I I had over a million listeners this year on Spotify. That's insane. You know, I'm extremely grateful, beyond grateful. I'm a little too self-conscious to do the to the like, hey, it's me, and I'm really grateful. But like, as long as we're talking about it. Yeah, and that song, that's the whole thing, man. I got a ton of songs up there, but none of them do anything like that one.
SPEAKER_03:Heck yeah, well, I'm so excited to play it for our Q Country audience for the first time on our airwaves on Cue Country 925. Good old-fashioned radio, baby. We are playing Keaton Simons with his song When I Go on Cew Country 925. Woo! That was Keaton Simons! That was Keaton Simons with When I Go. Holy moly, man! That got me moved and approving this morning.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, bro. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. I love I that's it's a cool one. I'm really happy.
SPEAKER_03:I love that after all these years, that song is still still killing it. So it appeared on the TV show Suits. Did you write it for a TV show on purpose? Or did that just happen? No.
SPEAKER_02:No, I didn't write it for a TV show on purpose. That just happened, but I'll but uh my music has been used for that purpose for a long time, and I I just I think it's kind of a natural, natural marriage there, you know, because it just enables me to be able to create outside of the restriction of any particular genre or even any kind of production style or anything. I can just create uh what inspires me, and and if you know what I mean, like it doesn't have to be pigeonholed.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. Well, and you've done some acting. Does that help with your musical storytelling?
SPEAKER_02:It definitely helps. It helps to uh, you know, to check out all different kinds of creative arts, you know. I I grew up in the acting world and have a great reverence and respect for it. You know, it's a it's a it's a really cool thing. There's something amazing about filmmaking in general, creating that thing that transports people to a to a different place where you can create a whole mood and a whole vibe. It's there's something magnificent about it. People don't realize how challenging that is. If you try to make a movie yourself, you realize it's like, ooh, this is really hard, you know? So I have great admiration for it. I get a lot of inspiration from movies, and I'll put I'll put on a cool inspiring movie or something during a writing session without the sound on, or so just for a minute to watch, just to be inspired by an idea or an emotion or a thing, you know. Um just just like I would look at a beautiful piece of art or listen to a piece of music for inspiration, too, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, um, well, first, thank you so much for being a guest on our show. This has been so cool uh to be able to talk to you, a national touring musician with so many great uh songs out there. If the Q Country Nation wants to follow you and uh support you, what's the best way we could do that?
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, the best way right now is Instagram. That's like one of the that's you know, my main social media connecting point there. And that's just at Keaton Simons. But I got my Facebook back, it was hacked for years. But the hackers did a great job, they got the numbers way up.
SPEAKER_03:So now well, uh, we have been talking to Keaton Simons, he is today's Country Climb star of the week. Big shout out to our friends uh Sean Burke and Austin Burke at the Playlisted Podcast for sending you our way. And uh if you have new music or if you're ever uh in Arizona, uh let us know. We'd uh we we'd love to continue to support you and follow you in everything you do.
SPEAKER_02:Without a doubt, I I thank you so much. I cannot I cannot thank you enough, my brother.
SPEAKER_03:This has been Keaton Simons, today's Country Climb star of the week. Woo! That's Bob Log! Beaumont says so! Yay! Yay, yay! Everyone's favorite redneck from Beaumont, Texas. It's Paul from Beaumont. Did you hear today's Country Climb Star of the Week, Keaton Simons?
SPEAKER_04:Man, that dude is deep, man. That dude is like deep into music too and stuff, bro.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, did it intimidate you? Because you just started uh playing guitar, what, like two years ago?
SPEAKER_04:Has it been that long?
SPEAKER_03:Has it? I don't know. It feels like it's been at least a year, but uh uh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I haven't really approved. I really haven't improved very much, but uh yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he he was uh so great to talk to, and it's so obvious to see his his passion and love for uh music, and uh it's uh it was just really cool and refreshing, and it was so easy to talk to him. And uh, you know, he Oh yeah, yeah, he looked super simple.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, he sounded super simple to talk to.
SPEAKER_03:Man, his answers, man, they were like deep too too deep for this redneck? Yeah, man, like way too deep, man. Yeah. Well, uh, let's uh go from deep to uh just having plain old fun. It is now time for Are You Smarter Than a Redneck? And today, Paul, uh, we're gonna do some music trivia edition. If you know the answer, say your name, that's your buzzer. You ready? Yeah, I'm ready. All right, who was the first country artist to win Entertainer of the Year at the CMA's three years in a row? Was it A, Reba McIntyre, B, Garth Brooks, C, George Strait, or D, Luke Bryan? Oh boy.
SPEAKER_04:Paul. Paul, go ahead. I'm gonna say uh Garth Brooks.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, there we go. He's up one zero. Uh, next question. Here we go. Which rock band famously wrote a song about a small town girl and a city boy on a miniature, Paul. Yanny. That's right. Gosh dang it, I gave it away. Uh, if I don't get this next one right, it is over. What instrument did Taylor Swift first become famous for playing? Paul. Paul, go ahead.
SPEAKER_04:Uh, Coldwood Taylor guitar.
SPEAKER_03:There we go. Holy moly. That is one smart redneck guy.
SPEAKER_04:Dude, I I knew way too much about Taylor Swift right now.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Well, Paul, we love you, buddy. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for calling in and having fun. And uh hopefully we'll talk to you on Monday.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, yeah, I hope so, man. Hopefully everything's going smooth. Everybody's at work, and I'm not at the office. So uh, yeah. There we go. Y'all have a great, yeah. Y'all have a great weekend. Be safe. Enjoy yourself. Thanks, best friend. We might be getting we might be getting some of that pow pow this weekend here.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, some narnar pow pow? You might be getting some snow.
SPEAKER_04:Send it our way. I find it hard to believe because it's 58 degrees right now. I'm in a t shirt and I'm like, snow, really?
SPEAKER_03:Well, we need it, so send it our way if you get any. We love you, buddy. Goodbye. Yeah, I don't want none of that. See you, buddy. Bye. Bye bye.
