Robert Finley — America’s Got Talent & the Road to Soul Fame

Mike  Show today is truly special! He  is  honored to welcome a true original — Robert Finley. From the backroads of Louisiana to national recognition on America’s Got Talent, Robert’s journey is one of grit, soul, perseverance, and unforgettable music. His voice carries the sound of real life — heartbreak, hope, hard work, and triumph. So settle in for a great conversation filled with stories, laughter, wisdom, and the soulful spirit of one of America’s most respected roots artists. This is  Mike’s “Conversation” with Robert Finley.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Mark here for the Mike Stone Show. Music, stories, and conversations. Mike's special guest today is with the Chris Louisiana Original Robert Stone Fest. More than Burnet Louise Giannis, Robert's Journey has been anything but ordinary. From Mark to Star to Young Boy watching God. To start with Army and Costco. To your story of the car, stories on the first. And now with his latest chapter continuing to inspire audiences around the world. Mike was honored to spend some time with the man whose voice sounds like the heart of Louisiana itself. Mike's conversation with Robert Finley starts right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

From the back roads of Windsboro, Louisiana, to stages around the world, Mr. Robert Finley has lived a life as powerful as his voice. He's been a carpenter, soldier, street performer, and now an international blues and soul artist. He was discovered late in life by the Music Maker Relief Foundation and brought to a wider audience through America's Got Talent. His journey is something really special. So, Mr. Robert Friend, so glad you are with us and welcome to the Mike Stone show today.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Thanks for having me, man. Great to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Well, Mr. Robert Finley, you grew up in Windsboro, Louisiana. You're born there in Monroe, St. Francis Hospital, but you raised up in Bernese, Louisiana. What what did the music sound like? Oh, you in Windsboro, I'm sorry. Winsboro.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Well, well, I went to Bernese, it was out there my military career.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I got it. So we we got you in Winsboro, right? In Windsboro. So uh tell us your first experience there. What did the music sound like when you were growing up as a kid there in Winsboro?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Oh man, uh all I got to see was every now and then we went to my auntie's house, we watched Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, and you know, all these guys was were playing on TV, and that's the only time I got to see it. I used to see the Beagles. I'm watching Ever Spressley, you know, doing his thing, and the all the girls would be running at him, and he'd be running for his life. And I always said as a kid, you know, I want to do that, but I don't want to run from the girls. I just want to let them catch me and see what they're gonna do to me.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Okay. Oh, that's fun. Hey, uh, do you remember? I think you were able to get a hold of a guitar at the young age of 11. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Well, I bought my first guitar at the age of 10, yeah. It could have been a year different, you know, but I I remember buying it. We went into the store, and uh, there was a white auto store. They were they had a guitar up there for 1995. And I had a $20 bill. I remember trying to buy the guitar for the 1995, but I didn't know anything about taxes. So I wanted my nickel back because I learned how to count. My dad taught me how to count real early, and I knew how to count my money. And if in 1995, then I it was me and four of my friends together, we should have got nickel back.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

And uh the lady, uh, when she told me she was like it's $21 and something, she tried to cheat us. Everybody with me knew in 1995, one more nickel would have been 20. We left out the store mad. And she shaking our head, you know, five little boys. So she called us back to the door. She said, son, y'all want that guitar that bad. Here you go. And she handed to her. I handed her the $20 bill. And and I was standing there and she said, Now what you want? I want my nickel back. I can count.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Okay. That's a good story. So you got your you got your guitar at a very young age, and uh, as you said, you you've been listening to a lot of the the great ones, I would say. You said Ray Charles and uh Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, and all those folks. So what kind of songs were you playing when you first started out?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Well, the first song I played, I I was playing Hookie from school. My daddy came and caught somebody. They found out I wasn't at school simply because the principal, somebody had broken to his office, stole the candy and the candy money, and he needed a new lock on his door. And my daddy told him, I got a boy that know how to put a lock on the door. So they called my daddy, and my daddy told him to go to the classroom and get me. And then find out I wasn't at school, I was playing hooky, hiding, you know, in the woods. And so when the that's how I got caught. When they called the principal's office, they told him to call my daddy and got my daddy on the phone. He told them to do me, and then that's when they say he ain't here. Well, my friends, my daddy came and got me, put the bicycle on top of the car, and rolled home. So all my friends knew I was in trouble, and they came home. They wouldn't, they weren't gonna come in my daddy's yard, but they knew I was gonna get a discipline. So the first song I wrote was Yasad Daddy. Oh, that's great. So that was that was, you know, it was like, Yes, sir daddy, yes and daddy, come here, boy. Yassa daddy, yes and daddy. And but they were teasing me. So the best way I learned how to stop people from teasing you is act like it don't bother you. So when they found out that it was fun to me, they quit teasing. But I used to just sing, yes and daddy, yes and daddy, come here, boy, yes and daddy. And once I turn it into a positive thing, then they quit teasing me about it.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

I've already contailed that that shaped a lot of your stories.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

When I was there in Waynesboro, it's really Wainsboro, Louisiana, where I was born and raised at.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

But uh, that's in uh what they call Franklin Parish. I went to a school called Franklin Parish Training School. But we didn't get to go to school that much because most of the time we was, you know, be farming or crops coming out during the spring. And we didn't really do a lot of schooling.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yeah. What year were you born, Mr. Robert?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Uh 54.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

In 1954, and you still had to work. Did your family have a farm there in uh Westburg?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

We were Sharecroppers. We were Shell Croppers. That's why I wrote the album, Shell Cropper's son.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Let's go back when you were young a little bit. I think you've already answered this. What particular artist or voice that made you uh say, Mr. Robert, uh that's what I want to do for a that's what I want to do. I want to sing. Do you remember who that was that inspired?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

It was always, you know, Rachel, Jane Brown. I use a little bit of all of them because I did, you know, Jane Brown, Steven wonder, my favorite uh lady singing was Aretha Franklin cults. She had this song, I don't want nobody sitting around me and my man, you know. I picked up on the message that she was delivering, and I I got to where oh I could sing, I can sound like Al Green. I can so I I can imitate anybody. But the the thing is, I never were my my my real self.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Well that's what that's Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Well that's what came later on, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So you know, gotta be yourself.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, and I think you've done a tremendous job at at doing that here in your latter latter days of your career. But you joined the army at 17. I guess you were ready to experience the world and get out and see what it was about.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

I joined the army and and uh got out in the age of well, actually, I signed up at 19 when I joined the service, and I got out when I was twenty one. Oh yeah, two years and fifty-one days.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Okay, I think you were able to carry on uh some music there. What was that experience like as a young musician in the Army?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

When I was in basic training, the drill sergeant said we, you know, for graduation, for basic training, they have all the families to come out for graduation. And I performed for graduation, which was in basic training. And they gave me a plat that just said outstanding entertainer. It didn't have my name on it, it was just outstanding entertainer of the year. And uh, but it was so many people there that came, you know, to the graduation of basic training. I sung this song, everybody think I'm lazy, but God knows I'm just tired.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

All right, that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

And it went over really good. So my first sergeant, when I went to AIT, he forwarded it on to my first sergeant in AIT, saying, you know, this guy here, he got a vision of entertaining.

unknown 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

What with AIT? What is that, Mr. Robert?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

That's when you're being trained for whatever branch of service you're going into, whatever your MOS is, uh, you know, that's what you trained to do. And they was teaching us, I went in as an aircraft armored subsystem mechanic, which means I worked on all the helicopters. And uh worked on all of the helicopters and the uh on the COBA. So if something didn't, if a bomb didn't go off, I had to disarm the bomb. In other words, I had to load it up and make sure everything was working. That was my change. But you don't you don't get no mistakes if you pull the wrong button or push the cut the wrong wire, you you know, your history.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Well, I think you wound up in Europe doing uh the helicopter uh maintenance work.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Where'd you where'd you go in Europe? Gilleshine, Gilleshine, Germany. I was with the 75th Aviation, and uh they worked on the COBA and all of the, you know, all the ammo.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Uh so any weapon that was dysfunctional, that was my job to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

And while you were there in Europe, you started another band, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Well, I actually flew in on a Friday. They told me to report to duty Monday morning. My first sergeant said, well, go in there and put his stuff in the room, and Monday morning he reports to duty. But Saturday, they had a function. Uh it was a company battalion picnic. And the lead guitar player had just gotten discharged and went back to the States. So now they they got all this stuff playing, but they don't have a guitar player. I just happened to check out a guitar in the music room. So I'm in there playing my guitar, and then I noticed a lot of people were coming up to the door because I was playing a guitar with the door open. And that's when the young man came up to me and said, We got a battalion picnic tomorrow. We don't have a guitar player. And we want to know what you play for us. I'm like, well, man, I done minded, but I don't know what, I don't know your music, I don't know nothing. I just, you know, I'm just getting here. And they told me, well, you you just play what you're playing and we'll back you up. So that's how I wind up. The first, I got there on Friday and I did my first show on a Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Oh, that's pretty quick, Mr. Robert.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

So that's how I got to know all the big friends. Everybody that was in the Friday was at the picnic, I got to play for the whole battalion on my first weekend in France. I mean in Germany.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

So you continued to work on the helicopters and you also continued to have your have your band in play. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Well, yeah, when the war in it, they didn't no longer need the helicopter mechanic. So I had to take up a secondary trade, which was uh 73 Y Yankee or something they call it. I went from an aircraft and subsystem mechanic to a uh, you know, an entertainer. And it was like I uh went from there to the band. I was allowed to put together bands and look for guys with talent.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Yeah, where would you play mostly uh around the base, the barracks or uh outside the base?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

We started off on the barracks and then we wound up traveling throughout, you know, going into Frankfurt and different little towns as entertainers. So uh we played in out the hour joints and we played for the uh for the military, but we also did shows outside the military. Then we also took, I was allowed to take a lot of people on tour. We went to different uh places. I even went to Jerusalem, you know, and it showed us the tombstone that Jesus was buried in and the grave and all that stuff, and I'll tell people all the time, whether he wasn't there, either he got up, like they say he got up, or somebody stole it. But uh he wasn't there. And I looked, I looked out and got a chance to see those with my own eyes.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Hey, you saw the empty tomb, right, Mr. Robert?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, I did. I really did. I walked up and looked in it, and wasn't nobody in there.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I think gospel music is a big, a big uh part of your life, and also some of your albums that you have uh you have made with Mr. Arbac. Uh so gospel has got to be a big thing for you and your career.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Well, yeah, gospel is tell the truth about it. The last album, Hallelujah, don't let the devil fool you, that was that was all all gospel album. Before then, I would usually like throw in one or a couple neutral songs or something, you know, that could pertain to the gospel, but the last album was all full gospel.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Well, let's uh let's get you. You came back home after serving in Germany. You play in bands, you're playing around all over the place there. You've made a well, you sort of made a name for yourself around there in Germany, around your base. So you come back and you moved to Bernice, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Well, I came back. I stayed in uh Texas. I stayed in Texas for a while in uh Houston, and then I stayed in Dallas for a while. Well, I actually came from Houston to uh back to Windsburg, and then I met my my wife and uh we we had three three daughters. I went back out on the road again, and I went back this time I went to Dallas. Uh I lived in Dallas and I worked as a carpenter and a maintenance man, you know, carpenter plumber electrician.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Were you still playing music at that time? Or you had Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

I played, I played at the local clubs, you know, that place called the car wash. They used to have a talent show and stuff. And I won it a couple times, you know. I would go in and just unannounce and show in at the on an open mic night. And it was really good.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

So music has always had a place in your heart. I mean, you just couldn't you couldn't leave it by. It was part of your uh deep soul, it sounds like, Mr. Mr. Finley.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah, yeah. It's part of my existence. Yeah, I mean, how do you say winners don't quit, quitters don't win. I I couldn't shake it.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

I got you. Well, I understand you did some busking around Arkansas. Man, you've been all over, Mr. Robert. I and uh very very well uh traveled in Europe. You are very well known there. We're gonna get people, because a lot of people here in the States, with your association with Dan Arbag, we'll talk about him in just a minute, but you did some busking there and you got discovered by this Music Maker Relief Foundation. Tell me about that, will you?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Well, I was I was playing, and this guy named uh Jim Duffy walked up and he uh you know asked me, Did I mind if you take a picture? And I was like, No, I don't mind you taking a picture because people were doing it anyway. But I thought he was, you know, gonna take a picture, but he was like all up in my face with the camera. And that's what kind of tripped me out. Then after I finished the show, he wanted to know, would I be interested in traveling? And I was like, yeah, he said, You want to do this all over the world? And I'm like, Yeah, why not? But I didn't, I really thought it was just a joke, you know. But uh, I finally called me back about two weeks later, and they asked me to come North Carolina. And uh I went to the little town and you know, they had it really set up. They they paid for my flight. I'd say, well, if you pay for a round trip ticket, I'll come.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

That was Mr. Duffy?

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Kim Duffy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Is he the founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation? Right, right. And they have other artists as well that they help out.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Oh, they had plenty of artists. They had off that had been with them for years.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

And they had access to a studio for recording?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Oh, yeah, they had the studio in their yard. In their back, back of their building, they had a recording studio. And I recorded several songs, just me and my guitar, and then they they transported it in Memphis, Tennessee. It was in it was in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a place called Fat Possum. And they had just changed the name to Big and Leave a Mess. So yeah, that was that was how uh I wind up.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Did you record Age Don't Mean a Thing with them?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Or I I did Age Don't Mean a Thing with Fat Possum. And then uh 10 years later, I still ain't got paid. Oh sent me a $10 check every now and then.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

That was not the first song she recorded. Was that uh what what was the first song that she recorded?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

The first song I recorded was Lifetime of Doo. That was a moment, buy me a bulldog, my woman bought herself a tone cat. You know, we was all kind of crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Where did you record that, Mr. Robert?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

In California, San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Right. Well, it looks like you never really uh thought you'd ever have a have a big break in the in the music world. This guy came along and Mr. Duffy and uh brought you to Carolina and got you set up. So uh what was going on in your mind? Do you think, well, I'm maybe I'm fixed to make it in the music world, or did you just think, well, I'm just riding the way?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

I didn't have nothing else to do. You know, I was I lost my sight. I couldn't see as good as I see now. I lost my sight, so I didn't have nothing to lean on but my own career.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, carpentry is hard to do if you can't save a very take baggy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

I was a carboner and I was a plumber and I was an electrician, but you know, who wanted to be trying to do electrical work and can't see, can't see the wall, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Right. Well now let's get to Dan Arbach, who uh he's a great producer of Black Keys. Uh one of the, I guess, front men, one of the guys who started Black Keys. And how did you uh come about meeting Dan Arbach? And what makes that collaboration with him? I know that's got to be a special thing for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Well, the thing where I didn't know anything. I got a phone call. We was I was in London. I got a phone call, road manager told me to say, hey man, uh, you got uh Dan Arbach want to meet you. I didn't know who Dan Arbach was, you know. I never heard of the Black Keys because, you know, it was a whole generation of different in our lives. So when they told me who it was, I was like, well, I'll check it out. But it was Dan, and he was, you know, breaking it down to me that say, I'm Dan Albach, I'm like, I'm Robert Fennett, but I don't know who Dan by. So he just laughed. But here we we were 30-something years different in our age, you know. I think it's about 33 years different than our age. So if I'm if I'm 72 now, uh Dan's just 40. So we whole different generation, but we clicked with the music. And I, you know, I got a chance to go down and meet his mom and dad. Uh I met his dad before they passed, you know, his dad barbecued for. So I met pretty much his whole family.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

He must have heard your music at some point somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Well, the guy, the guy at uh Fat Possum told him about me. And I had just recorded an album at Fat Possum. You know, Dan used to be with Fat Possum. That was his time. He started his career was through Fat Possum.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Now, Fat Possum is a music studio.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, yeah.

unknown 21:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

And we call it Big The name of it now is Big Liga Mess, still Fat Possum.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

That was in Memphis?

SPEAKER_01 21:59

In Memphis, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Okay. So he got word from Pat Fat Possum, uh what used to be Fat Possum about uh about your singing, about your songs. He must have heard some of them.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

And he heard some and he was like, we had four days. He had four songs, and I had four days to to do the four songs. They were, you know, wasn't my lifestyle, wasn't my way of living, but it was my opportunity. We did all the songs. Well, we had four days to do, we did it in less than four hours. So that's when Dan said to me, Robert, you want to record an album? And I was like, yeah, so that's why the first album, Going Platinum, I didn't write any of the songs on the album. We had four days in the studio. We did what we needed to do in less than a day. So the next day we started, or actually the same day we started recording the album, Going Platinum.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

What was the name of the album again?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Going platinum.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Going platinum. Okay. You did you have uh studio musicians in there? Uh or did you have some of your own people in there, Mr. Roberts?

SPEAKER_01 23:03

No, they were all studio musicians, all friends of Dan. They just played the music, and I couldn't read, so they put an earplug in my ear, and and Dan would tell me the words to the song, and and I would just holler it out.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

I understand a lot of times you just freestyle a lot of your that's how I write.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

The last two albums, Shellcrapper Son, especially uh Holy Ghost Party, or how you say, Hallelujah, don't let the devil fool you. The last album, they were all just freestyle. They just they just play the music and tell me, you know, when it's time to start singing. So no rehearsals, nothing. Just it was all just, you know, like, good Lord, tell me what you want to tell your people. And I how they say it, open up your mouth and I'll speak for you. I just had to open mouth. And the good Lord, I'll tell you the truth, I had to learn the songs myself because I didn't remember what I said.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Sound like you just had the spirit come down and just gave you uh what you needed as far as your lyrics. And uh you were you were feeling it more than you were anything else.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah, I just even my daughter told me, said, Daddy, we didn't write none, so she had to go back to the studio and add the background because I didn't know what I was gonna say next.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

I just That's amazing, right there. I mean, that's that's gotta be something very unique that many musicians or artists are able to pull that out of their hat, I'm telling you. So, how would you describe your sound to somebody who maybe has never heard or never heard Robert Finley sing or or his music? How would you describe your sound if you can?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Well, I just tell just keep it real and tell the truth. Just you know, I sing about life. I try to sing about things that people can relate to on a day-to-day basis. I don't I don't do that uh flyaway kind of stuff, you know, like everything that I try to sing about, people can deal with it on in everyday life. Yeah, so your songs are very personal and they can real, yeah, just by real life, real life.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Yeah, and people can relate to uh a lot of your what you're singing and what you're feeling there.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They they they know that uh you can't make this up. It has to be real. And I also say to the to my friends that grew up with me, see, they know about what I'm singing about. So they can't come in and say, no, it wasn't like that. Nobody can deny the truth. The truth would set you free. And I tell them, you know, even on my albums, I think they're gumbo. They got a little everything in them. Got a little blues, got a little rock and roll, got a little so-and-so, you know, got gospel songs on it. You'll never listen at a whole album and don't hear something related to my upbringing in the gospel. So the last album was Hallelujah, don't let the devil fool you.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Right. And while you were recording with Dan Arobac, did you continue to tour around the the U.S. or I know you toured over in Europe a lot.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Me and Dan is actually going on tour in September. I think it is uh September I'll be going on tour with the Vlack King. This all be arenas, you know, 12,000, 15,000 people. Keeping it real, you know. Uh that's one of the good things about being blind. You you can't see how many people out there, so you don't really matter.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Gotcha. Well, let's let's talk about your experience at the um America's Got Talent. Uh, that that was a uh quite a deal there. And I'm sure, of course, you'd been around. My gosh, you had been all over Europe, you'd perform, you had had a lot of experience, but that still had to be quite a unique experience there. Tell us how you came to be on America's Got Talent there on the stage. And man, you were a big hit, Mr. Robert.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Well, I was just having to be in the right place at the right time. That's that's all I'd be saying, you know, and I'd say that to most people because if you're in the right place at the right time, that's one opportunity. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Did you have to uh audition for that show?

SPEAKER_01 27:25

I did not. I got a phone call, and the phone call asked me would I be interested in doing that.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

All right. Well, was that one of the producers of the show? Or do you know who it was?

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Matter of fact, she was pregnant. You know, she was about to give birth, but she said she had heard me on uh YouTube, and then uh she recorded and took it home, showed it to her mom and dad, and they liked it, and so she spoke up to reach out to me to do that. So that's that's how they wind up.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

All right, did they uh was that in Hollywood where the show was recorded, or where was that located?

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, in Hollywood. We started in Hollywood and then we wind up in Beverly Hill.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

So, yeah, so okay, so you got there and did you have to go and uh have a little talk with some of the producers, or and they were telling you how'd that happen?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Oh well, they just they really just let me be me.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

But they did, they just let me be myself.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

So how did you choose your song? And what was the name of the song that you sang that night or that day?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

The first time I song was get it while you can. I I wrote one called uh, and I wrote it really for that show. It was trying to start it, finally starting to see. I was the name of song Starting to See, you know, what the Lord given to me.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Right. Okay. Did you ever meet Simon, Simon, or any of the uh judges?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Oh, yeah, I met him on. We all talked. Debbie Hill talked, me and her, her and her hub and Dwayne were there one time. Well that I won. So I won four out of five.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah, you went to the semifinals, I think, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

I uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

And I can't think of the host. What's the host name there that brings everybody out? Oh, Terry.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Yeah, Terry. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, he seemed like a real genuine guy, real down to earth.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Oh, he was. He was he more like a big brother. He was so excited about my performance. I got to meet him and his wife, his daughter. I got to meet his whole family down on the show.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

So how long did that process last, uh Mr. Robert? Did was it a month or two weeks, uh or more than that? It went on for a month because it came on once a week. And you had to perform once a week? Yeah, it came on every Saturday. Okay, of course it was taped, uh, I'm sure it was taped. It was not live, is that is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Yeah, it was taped. It would tape, and then it would be it again live. Oh, you had to it was live shows. I mean, the audience was there, they just taped and showed it.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Showed it on TV, but I mean it was it was one every every on a real deal.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yeah. Well, let me ask you, did that experience on America's Got Talent, did that change how people respond when you perform now, or did it make any difference at all?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Same show I was doing for 400, probably four grand now, you know, it made a hell of a different money.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

All right. How about audience reaction?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Yeah, yeah. I was saying people then, you know, for some reason, they see you on TV, then they they respond different.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Well, Mr. Robert, we're about done here. You've been uh gracious, gracious to do this, and what a life you have had, and what a life you're still having. What keeps you motivated to keep touring and keep creating music at this stage in your life?

SPEAKER_01 30:56

You know what I think it is? Uh, to be honest, it's a it's a people. Because I mean, you go through all this to fly and get there, but when you get there and you see there's five or six hundred people or a thousand people waiting to see you, they've already bought their tickets, then that makes it worth whatever you went through to get there, it makes it worth it. That's a great answer. And without them. I always tell before I before I sang down song, I always tell the audience. You know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be doing what I do. So I take out the time to say thank you. Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

So if somebody wants to get a hold of your music, you're you're all over YouTube. You got on Spotify and I guess iTunes and all the rest of the platforms, yeah, they can see or or get a hold of your music by going uh to these platforms and listening to your music, it's all over the place. So I'm inviting the audience to go and look at YouTube and Spotify and iTunes, all the rest of the platforms you can see, Mr.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Anywhere music is out there, I'm out there. They go to YouTube and just punch in Robert Finley and they'll get all five albums.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

So, Mr. Robert, how many times will this make that you've been overseas to Europe and perform?

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I go every year, at least three or four times a year. Matter of fact, I spend more time in in France and Germany and Spain together than I do in the U.S. When I come home, it's like a kind of like a vacation.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

So you still perform in the States, and I guess you can go uh anywhere somebody would like to have you. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Yeah, I can go anywhere I want to go, as long as I'm not booked overseas.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

So you got a webpage as well. If somebody wants to book a Robert Finley concert, how would they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Just call up me or my daughter, or call one of my agents, you know. I'm not that hard to get. I mean, you can talk to me directly you don't have to go through no lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

If you say Robert Finlay, all I need to do is look at my calendar and see that I don't have nothing on that particular day. And once I plug it in, we book.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Okay, have you got an email that your daughter can look at that you can uh people can email you and uh and get a hold of you and ask you if you want to perform a concert?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Do you mind giving the email address or do you know what that is?

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Robert Guitar Finley54.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Robert Guitar Finley 54. I got one final question here, unless you got something else that I did not cover. If you could go back and talk to that young guy, what do you think he would tell him?

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Don't give up. Never give up on the dreams because dreams do come true. And if I had to say something to the young people all over the nation, I would tell them you got choice. When you're traveling, leave home, you're gonna be offered everything. You're gonna be offered all kinds of dope. But I would tell them, just stick with the hope because hope is better than dope. Never die from too much hope. But we're losing kids every day from experimenting with dope.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Amen. We uh really got an epidemic with a lot of folks searching for something that they can hold on to that's real. And but it sounds like Mr. Robert Finley, that you've got your feet firmly planted on the ground, and that God has uh blessed you with a lot of uh a lot of gifts, and it has not been easy. I can uh see in your life it has not been an easy life. You've uh went through a lot of health issues with your sight, and you uh had to go through uh so many different places and you you lost, could not do your profession that you had. So you turn to uh what was in your soul, and that was the music that seemed to have brought you through.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

I've always believed in in my dream, but people gotta understand it's a good thing come to those who wait. So don't ever give up on your dream. My advice, everybody always tell them, you know, I sing this song, take it when you can get it, get it while you can. But at the end of the day, you gotta realize winners don't quit, and quitters won't win. So whatever your goals are, you gotta believe in yourself. And anybody doubts you, you know, you make a lie to everybody. But never give up on your on your dream.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Hey, that's great advice. I don't care how old you are or how young you are, that's pretty good advice because it's not over till it's over. And uh people need to keep on keeping on, and sometimes the road gets long, but you know, as you have uh shown in your life, just stick with it, don't give up, keep plowing, and good things turn out.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Thing is, if you if uh you know, if you quit when they tell you to quit, but here's the deal. People say to me all the time, what do you think about waiting until you're in your 60s for your career start? Well, to be honest, I don't think I could have handled success as well as I do in my younger years, because everybody that I admired was into drugs. Was in the whatever the hell he OD on, Michael Jackson knows these. Everybody that I knew of that I love, their music, they had a drug problem. So here's the deal. If I could do without the drugs, I could have dealed with Johnny, you know. Now if I'd have got, if I'd have been successful in my 20s, who knows, I might have bought a race car, I might have bought a sports car, drove too fast, don't make it around the curve. I wasn't mentally prepared to handle success. At this age, with the wisdom and the knowledge, money don't make me, I make money.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

There you go. Well, that's some powerful stuff there, Mr. Robert Finley. And I'm so I'm so glad I was able to have uh this conversation with you to maybe get that out there. People so much need to hear about that. There's so many things go through in people's lives, and they turn to some bad things to try to get some relief, but that is not the answer, and I think you just you just explained that so well.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

So I hope I hope you're better than dope.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Amen. I sure appreciate. I hope the people who listen to our conversation, they will certainly look you up, find out about Mr. Robert Finley. He has got some soul. He's a freestyle singer, he comes to sing whatever he feels in his soul, and he brings it out, all the rest of it mixed together. So we appreciate you coming on the show, and we look forward to maybe seeing you at some point live again. I I have met you, and maybe we can see each other down the road. So thank you so much for being on the Mike Stone show.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

And I thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Well, good luck to you and Mr. Arbach on your tour of Europe again, and I wish you well there, and I hope I know you'll have a great audience and you'll enjoy being out there playing for the people.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

And that wraps up another great conversation here on the Mike Stone Show with the incomparable Robert Finley. Be sure to listen to Mike's Show found on his webpage or download his app from the Apple App Store. Just search for the Mike Stone Show on your device, and don't forget to catch his live show every Monday and Wednesday from 10 AM until 12 noon at Central Time. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time with another great conversation.