Dead Armadillos & Cosmic Energy with Mary McNeill & Fluffy

On this episode of The Hook with Johni & Jess, we sit down with visual artist Mary McNeill and music industry veteran Fluffy for a conversation that refuses to stay in one lane—in the best way.

Behind the scenes, they serve as Band Manager (Mary) and Tour Manager (Fluffy) for Tim Reynolds and TR3, bringing the music to life far beyond the stage.

From the raw and unexpected to the deeply spiritual, this episode dives into how creativity actually shows up in real life… not polished, not perfect, but built through experience, loss, reinvention, and everything in between.

Mary pulls us into her imaginative, almost otherworldly artistic space—where emotion, energy, and meaning live just beneath the surface. At the same time, Fluffy brings the stories most people never hear—the long nights, the road, the chaos, and the reality of what it takes to keep the music going.

Because every song you hear has a story—and a crew behind it grinding to make it happen. In this episode, you hear from two of those people—the ones in the vans, backstage, and behind the curtain. The ones carrying the weight, solving the problems, and keeping the show alive when no one’s watching.

Together, we get into the energy that connects it all—the seen, the unseen, and the moments that shape who we become as creators and as people.

To explore more of Mary’s work, visit: https://marymcneillart.com/ 

You can follow Mary on social media at:

FB at www.facebook.com/mary.mcneill.737 

IG at https://www.instagram.com/marymcneillart/

Follow Fluffy on IG at www.instagram.com/fluffysucks

This one’s a little gritty, a little cosmic… and exactly what The Hook is all about.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to The Hook, where music and art come together with the people that created it. I'm Johnny. I'm Jess. You're on the hook.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Today on The Hook, we're stepping into a world where creativity doesn't stay in one lane. It moves between art, music, and something a little more cosmic.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

We're hanging out with visual artist Mary McNeil and Fluffy, who has lived just about every version of life behind the scenes in music that you can imagine.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Mary's work invites you into this imaginative spiritual space.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And Fluffy brings the stories from the road, the studio, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

This one's about creativity, loss, reinvention, and the magic that connects it all. Mary McNeil and Fluffy, you're on the hug. We're gonna kick this off to Mary, and I wanna know if someone could step inside your creative world, your space, your energy, your imagination, what would they experience?

SPEAKER_05 1:19

Psychosis, beautiful colors and music and pretty shiny things, bells, fairies, aliens, dragons.

SPEAKER_06 1:29

Dragons.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Fluffy, what's one moment from your life on the road or in the studio where you thought, this doesn't even feel real?

SPEAKER_06 1:37

I mean, there are literally thousands, but the one that immediately jumps to mind is anytime I'm in haunted hollow with TR3 recording. Because that feels like you're in church. It feels like a spiritual thing. I've been in the studio with a lot of bands, and a lot of times it's like work. It's like, oh, somebody's running around, smoking, drinking, whatever they're doing. You're rounding people up, trying to get them to pay attention. We need you now, we don't need you now, blah, blah, blah. But when I'm there with TR3, we're all doing that stuff. Everybody's drinking and running around, but there's this vibe there that it's magical. It's like the mill. The mill has that same kind of weird magical thing. Mary and I noticed it the very first second we were there, I think the first time we went. But when I go into Haunted Hollow with TR3 to record, it feels like the closest to God I'm ever gonna be. I don't know how to explain it other than that. You know, I can't put it into words. It's just a feel look, I'm getting goosebumps talking about stupid ones like you know, Robert Smith coming out of an airport to tell you thank you for driving him around all weekend, which doesn't mean anything in and of itself, because lots of people thank me for helping them. But then when the tour when he walks away, the tour manager turns to you and goes, Fluffy, I've never seen him ever thank anyone for anything. The fact that he walked out of that airport just to thank you for driving him around all weekend is pretty big. So that things like that feel special, but they don't compare to what I was trying. That's not gonna make me cry. But I do. There are lots of them like that. And these are just things you can't, I guess you could write them all down, but you know, you just sit there and you think about them, but it's not a big enough story to tell people. You don't like them, hi, Robert Smith thanked me once. Oh, really? You know, it's like I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

I wouldn't mind if Robert Smith thanked me.

SPEAKER_06 3:32

So, you know, and all you did was drive them around, you know. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So all you did was drive him around being you, right? Well, that's part of it.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

It's who you are, and to that thing, the wallflowers. What's his name? Jacob Dylan.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

I love the wallflowers.

SPEAKER_06 3:47

I loved it. I I was not a fan of the wallflowers, it just is not my thing. And when I hate something, I don't hate it. I just it's not something I put on. It doesn't, it appeals to me now, but the wallflowers were playing at 9 30 club, and my job was to drive him around. And of course, he's the only one who gets driven around because the other guys are just other people in the wallflowers. Can anyone else name someone else in the wallflowers? No, we all know it's Jacob Dylan. Yeah. So at any rate, I'm driving him around back and forth to his hotel from the 930 club in my little Rav 4. And I'm and I'm thinking, like, I'm not already a fan of the band, you know, like not uh like I didn't buy your album, so I don't really feel like I have a lot to talk about. And I mean it's Dylan's son. What do you say? Like, I love your dad. What do you say to Jacob Dylan? So I'm thinking there's not gonna be a lot to talk about. It's gonna be a quiet trip. So I try to put him in the backseat. I have a four-door, so but he's like, No, I want to sit up front. And I was like, oh, okay. And then he starts talking to me, and he's questioning me the whole way. And we spent the rest of the day with him interviewing me in my Rob Four driving back and forth to 9:30 club in the hotel. And he turns out to be the sweetest, nicest, most down-to-earth guy in the world. Bob Dylan's son was the nicest, sweetest guy in the world. Thank you for everything. Set up front with me, talked to me. Didn't want to talk about himself, one didn't know about me. It was great. And so just by his personality, I became a Jacob Dylan fan, because that's how that happens. And I went into it not expecting anything. So but yeah, Daddy taught him rat. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure he did. He's just a sweet guy, one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. And that comes from somebody who's not a fan. So there's no like bleed over of, oh, I like him so much. I just think he's a super sweet. He's somebody I met that's exactly not what I expected they would be.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

I mean, we need to explain that Fluffy was a tour manager.

SPEAKER_06 5:47

I started as a doorman at 930 club and I was DJed there. At the old club, I was just a doorman. All those people trained. By the time they opened the new 930 club, I had been a doorman long enough that now I'm training all the doormen. I also started training all their merch people. I had been offered the manager position like three times, but because I was traveling on the road, I had told them I'd they said, like, if I do I have to come off the road. And they were like, of course. If you're gonna be the manager of this club, you're gonna have to stop touring. And I didn't want to stop touring. So I just stayed in that position. But I was happy to, because that's what I wanted to do. The road is literally what I wanted to do my whole life, as I was telling you outside. I figured out early on, this is what I want to do. I want to work with bands, I want to be a part of this. And I knew I wasn't the creative force. I mean, I have a creative force, but it's just not like that. So I was like, I'm gonna be the support, I'm gonna make sure they get their message out, and that way I'm contributing. My part is behind the scenes and no one will know me, but that's all I need.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Y'all have so much, the both of you, that I don't even know if we can unpack it all. There's so much talent sitting at this table.

SPEAKER_06 7:03

And that's how she and I stay on the phone for that two-hour cover because we're just talking to each other. We'll see where it goes.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

But yeah, it's gonna And we we continually find out new things about each other because we're so focused on work and and you know, what we're supposed to be doing together to make the tour happen or whatever. And previously we didn't really get to know who each other is, we got to know how to work together. And then I started unpacking Fluffy about a year ago. And it it was like every conversation that we had would leave me speechless. I would, my jaw would be dropped open because he would just we would be talking about religion or spirituality or whatever. And Fluffy's like, you know, I lived in a monastery. I'm like, well, I would jokingly called him Fluffy Gump because if I didn't know that he tells the truth, like he's an honest person, I would just think that he's making up all these stories, but he's not. And then every once in a while I'll I'll come out with a zinger of my own.

SPEAKER_06 8:03

I'm like, She's got some memphis stories I've heard.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

We we took that's how he looks shots with Phil Everly from the Everly Brothers.

SPEAKER_06 8:10

Wow. No.

SPEAKER_05 8:11

He was he uh it was at my brother's Halloween party. They lived, Phil Everly and his wife lived in the neighborhood. And Phil Everly came dressed as Phil Everly from the 60s in that iconic white suit. And his wife was dressed as Cindy Lauper. And I wouldn't and I I felt comfortable enough because I knew that he was, you know, friends with my my brother and sister-in-law. That was a really cool that's like I'm gonna stick this in my back pocket. Absolutely. And I told him the other day, and he is he's like, well, you know, it you can introduce yourself as hi, I'm married. I had a tequila shotgun fill everly.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

But I don't do that. My big story was about meeting Diddy, and that's gone south.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

Yeah, and then you couldn't share it in the little body alone.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Did you get any?

SPEAKER_06 9:06

I don't think anyone's gonna believe you if it didn't even little body alone.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Well, it was in a it was at a radio station. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 9:12

Well still. With that much buddy on the I'm sure he had it on him, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

The mini, the little pocket version. Yeah, right. Little pocket version.

SPEAKER_06 9:20

He's putting it on his hands while he's talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I want to know a little about what the real version of Life on the Road is.

SPEAKER_06 9:30

It's funny, I was thinking about this earlier. I've been on the road with so many different bands, and it's different with each one. You've got all these energies going. I think it's what you bring to it or what I bring to it that becomes my thread that travels through all of those things. And it's finding your place. You become a cog in the machine, but that's your job. In a crew of 24 people, there are 24 cogs that gotta work perfectly together for this time piece. You know, if you think about the the whole thing coming off without a hitch is like a clock. And if one piece goes out of whack, it starts to affect everything else. I try to bring this positivity to it, and I try not to show, like I wait till I get to my room to let out my frustrations about what has gone on. I try not to bring that into the group dynamic. But if I had to sum it up in the simplest terms, it's the brotherhood that I feel, and that could be with women or men. I just mean it as a group of people with a like mind, all trying to get the same thing done. And I've worked on crews where there wasn't that, and it's not fun, and I don't usually stay with those projects very long if it just doesn't feel like it's working. I've been lucky to work for Tim since 1999. Tim, Tim is a magical being, he finds the best people. And I don't say that to fly my own flag. He's just he finds good people and they gravitate toward him because he's got this energy. Like I've said it a million times to people. You could offer me more money, and I wouldn't quit this job because my happiness in this place doing this is more important than the money. Because I've done not just tour manager, I've been personal assistant, I've been the roadie, I've been the guitar tech, the drum tech. I've done every job you can do backstage and drive. And again, I don't always like to give myself a title. I mean, I have a title with Tim, it's tour manager, but I just want everything to get done. So I find that thing that needs to get done, and I make sure it gets done so that they can do what they do with without them having to worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Explain TR3 for anybody that's not.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

I was just gonna say that because with you being a road manager for Tim, when Tim tours with Dave Matthews, do you No.

SPEAKER_06 11:51

You gotta remember when he first hired me, he didn't know me. So he didn't know what to expect. You know, I'm sure he's come to figure out that yeah, he's definitely not around for the DMB tickets. But in the beginning, he didn't know. So he we kind of sat down and he said, I'm trying to hire somebody to work for me. So the guy who tour managed before me was a guy named David Wellbeloved. He worked for me at 930 Club. He was a doorman at 930 club who I trained. So I was his boss at his day job. But he also knew about my work ethic. So when he was looking for a roadie to do merch and set up the gear, David called me and said, Hey Fluppy, would you want to come on the road with me and this guy, Tim Reynolds? And I said, I don't know, what's he do? He goes, Oh, he plays in Dave Matthews' band. And I was like, no, that's not my cup of tea. I have to enjoy what I'm doing for it to be. I don't want to just get a job to have a job. I want to feel like I'm a part of it. So I want to work for something that I enjoy, that every night I'm gonna go, oh, this is cool. This was cool, this was worth it. I feel like I'm putting good out in the world. So I kept turning the job down. So finally, the third time Tim calls me and was like, Oh, I think they tell me you got this hang-up on the fact that I'm in the band and I'm not really in the band. I never joined the band. I'm just a friend of Dave's who helped him out in the beginning, and I do my own thing. And it was like two weeks before the tour was going to start. It was a two-month tour. And I said, You know, Tim, I'll do it just so you don't have to keep stressing about this person, but I think you should keep looking and putting out feelers. But I'll start the tour, and then if you can find somebody, you know, you should keep looking. And I don't know if he did or not. I have no idea. I never talked to him about it. But I agreed to start the tour and at least get as far into it.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

I kind of And here we are.

SPEAKER_06 13:35

And I kind of told myself if I have to go the whole two months, I guess I could, but I wasn't looking forward to it. And then he picked me up at the train station that first day, and I met him and I thought, oh, cool guy. And I remember thinking, he doesn't look like he's in the Dave Matthews band. We went and we played in Northampton, Massachusetts, was my first gig with a different TR3. So this was two guys named Johnny and Houston. When I got hired by Tim, I worked for what was the Charlottesville TR3. That only lasted about the first year, and then it was all acoustic. So we got to the gig in Northampton. We unpacked, they went in the dressing room, I set up everything on stage, and they played their show, and the show was all Tim Originals and two covers. And the two covers were T-Rex and Prodigy. And I was like, the guy from Dave Matthews' band is covering T-Rex. I can totally hang with it. So I told him after the show, I said, I can totally hang with this. I'm good, you don't need to keep looking. This is totally my thing. He goes, I thought you might like it. They told me what you listen to. So and then later in that tour, Dave Wellbeloved got a phone call. We were in Nashville, and uh David Wellbeloved got a call that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. So David decided he should go home. Turned out it was a good thing he did because his mother ended up passing before we got off the tour. But they came to my room in Nashville and said, Hey, David thinks he's gonna go home. Do you think you would finish the tour as tour manager? And that's how I technically became the tour manager for Tim and TR3. But that ended that lineup of TR3. Tim started doing solo shows. So then this guy, John Beckner, who owns the mill now, booked Tim to play in his living room in the Outer Banks with Stanley Jordan. So me and Tim Roo and Tim went to the Outer Banks and did the show, and John, John turned out to be one of the nicest people I've ever met in my knowledge why we're still friends today. He has helped me out more than almost anybody else on the Outer Banks, probably outside of the guys in TR3. So Tim went home, talked to his then wife, Diane, who had grown up in Charlottesville and wanted to go to the Outer Banks for a visit because she'd done that her whole life from Charlottesville. So they came out for a vacation and never went home. Literally packed to come for a couple weeks. John found them a house on the beach to hang out in. And then they were like, I think we should just stay here. Because Diane was like, I can live anywhere. You're always on the road. And so Tim was like, sure. So they kind of stayed. And then Tim called me in DC. I was still working at 930 Club when I wasn't on the road. And he called me and said, Fluffy, you got to move down here. I just met the new TR3. And I was like, oh, really? And I wasn't skeptical because I know Tim, like if Tim says he met some guys, and Tim's telling me these are the I mean, I quit my job and moved to the Outer Banks just on Tim's word. And when I met him, it was like magic. And so that is the TR3 that I'm talking about now when we talk about TR3. It's Mick, Dan, and Tim, that little core unit. And I think Tim was magically blessed to meet these two guys who have played together forever on the Outer Banks and know each other's everything inside and out. And they were exactly what Tim needed. I remember after like the first year with him, I remember Tim telling me, he said, Fluffy, I've had like four or five iterations of TR3 over my life. And I've always had like this version of TR3 played the metal stuff really good. And this version was much more jazz-oriented. But there was never anybody who could do everything Tim did with a level of proficiency. It's hard to find people who can play jazz as well as they can play metal. And he did with Mick and Dan. And he just found his magic. It's not just for us, but for them. Watching the three of them in the studio, you can see Mick and Dan have their input, but they defer to Tim because Tim has everything written in his head when they go in there. It's not out on paper. He doesn't know how to write music. But he goes in there and he describes something to Dan. Dan will be sitting behind the drums and he'll just start going, doot, doot, doot. He'll play it and Tim will go, No, it's a little more whatever, Tim will say. And Dan will do it. He goes, Yeah, like that. And then Tim will pick up the guitar and start playing what he heard in his head and go, yeah, yeah, that's it, that's it. And then Mick will start to play something. And oh yeah, that's perfect. That's yeah. And it's like you watch it come together and you and it's magical like that. It's never a struggle. I've never seen them argue in the studio. Talk to a band who's recorded an album. Oh yeah, there are always arguments about this or that. I've never seen them argue in the studio ever. I've never seen them go, ah, more me, more less me. It's like, no, we are doing this harmonious trio thing that is Tim's vision, and Mick and Dan get that, which is important. Neither of them have enough ego to say, well, there's not enough bass, or this song doesn't have bass or whatever. It's just, no, what is the vision? We are just trying to help Tim get his vision across, which identifies with me because that's all I'm trying to do. They're doing it in their way, I'm doing it in my way. We are all cogs in Tim's machine, including her, just trying to get Tim's vision across because we believe in Tim. We know what he's got to give to the world and we want to get it out there. And if a million people listen, that's even better. But I don't think he cares if he sells 50 records or a million records. He just wants to make his music. And that appeals to me from an artist standpoint. I don't want somebody who's just doing what the record company tells them. You know, I don't that that's not serving my soul. Like if you listen to five different Tim albums, you're gonna go, these are all the same person? Just like her paintings all look different. He's just getting what's out of him in the sound. And it's not about, oh, trying to sound like Tim Reynolds. He's trying to sound like birds. This is what's here, and I'm gonna get it out. It's really amazing.

SPEAKER_05 19:57

So and I listen to music visually. So I listen to a lot of ambient music and binaural beats. I I mean, I grew up on the Beatles. I was obsessed with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I was really into Led Zeppelin. But uh the first artist that I I feel like I connected to visually was Sufjan Stevens and his album Come on Field, the Illinois. His songwriting, each individual element is very simplistic, but all together it creates this cacophony of sound and also visuals. I can see visuals whenever I'm listening to Sufjan. And it's the same way with Tim Reynolds, and the majority of his music is instrumental. I've always seen music. I paint with music, specific music, I pick out certain music. When I was in my early 20s, it was exclusively Billy Holiday. I just wanted to paint her voice. I wanted to put her voice on canvas.

SPEAKER_06 20:58

Some people don't need to know that. I want to know that. That to me, I want to read a book about Mary the painter, Mary McNeil's process, and go, wow, she was listening to Billie Holiday, whatever she was listening to, and she painted that. Because you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna put that song on and I'm gonna look at her painting and I'm gonna go where her headspace is. So I mean, both are, yeah, I'm getting them too, just talking about it. But I mean, but it neither is right or wrong. You know, I understand her, I want to experience it on its own. But me, I want to go deeper, especially not being the creative one. I want to understand the creative one's process. So I want to get as deep in there as I can. I want to see what affected them. Oh, she was listening to that song. I'm gonna put that song and see if it makes me look at it differently. Because you have your ways of looking at anything, but then when you put it on and see what they were listening to while there, you might see something completely different. Like, oh, that changes the whole mood. It was very happy to me then, but now it's got a much more somber tone.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

When do you remember the first time that you listened to music and saw those visuals? Come along with it.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

I feel like I started seeing music when I got involved in the music industry because I became jaded really, really quickly with the whole networking thing. And there were some people who would be like, Oh, you work for this company. That's so cool. Can you get me in the door or whatever? And then other people would be like, Oh, you're just the receptionist. So I became jaded really quickly. And the music industry is my job. Art is my life. And I started painting a lot. And when I was listening to Billy Holiday, I was doing this series called Jazz Band of Angels because my mom has always prayed a hedge of thorns and band of angels around me. And I always thought, well, what kind of angels do I have? And they're always, you know, it's well, probably jazz musicians. And in my my newer stuff, it's dead armadillos and aliens and guardian aliens. I have a lot of different types of angels. I visualize them in different ways. I believe it was in my early 20s, it's almost like I wanted to clean the music industry out of my head when I stopped working because it just felt a little bit icky. Just the what can you get for me? I'm a songwriter. What can you do for me? And that's not my personality. Like I really thought I I'm not sure if I'm cut out for this world. Social anxiety. I don't want to go, air quotes, backstage. In fact, please don't make me. Do I have to? I'm not a snob. I'm just I'm just very introverted.

SPEAKER_06 23:25

I took the job at 930 club with one goal and purpose to be able to go into crowds. And it's why, and even tour managing and working, I have a purpose for being there. And that is a great thing because I'm like her. I don't want to go to a crowded room and stand in a room with a bunch of people. I'm uncomfortable. I would prefer to work the show than go stand in the show and watch the show because I'm like, ugh, all these people. It's really for me personally, but you give me a job, it's like Fluffy, you need to get to the dressing room. They have an emergency. This is my job. I have to do it. I took these kinds of jobs because they get me into places that I wouldn't want to go on my own.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Like so, y'all are staying at the Cross Mill Art Gallery. And whenever I'm there, and I'm there quite a lot for a lot of the musicians that come in.

SPEAKER_06 24:15

We have pictures together this week.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yes, we do. Well, the crossmill is an amazing space for creatives.

SPEAKER_06 24:22

It is. The energy there is off the chain. We felt it from the second we turned onto the property the first time we went there. And we have never once come away from there going, no, didn't feel it this time. I told her this morning I was only there two hours before I was seeing stuff, not physical stuff, but seeing things happen, going, yep, it's here. Whatever it is, it's happening already. It's just there. That place, that place has a spiritual vibe. That's like a cathedral of art in all its forms. I think John's bringing it more into the music world. I think it started from uh wit, Nancy Witt. Nancy Wit. She did sculpture, she did talk. And her children, she raised the children as artists. So that energy is in that space. It's beautiful. And and that is a creative energy. It's not just an artist energy, it's a creative energy. So that has to affect everybody. I believe if musicians come in there, they're gonna be like, they're they might not even notice that they're being affected by it. I watch people I know's mood change in that place. Like, wow, he seems a lot friendlier. I feel like that place affects people in some way, and they may not be aware of it, but I'm aware that they are different than when I normally see them in whatever setting I normally see them in.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

So TJ Peterson and Joey Davis band, they stay there, and we had them on the show, and they both were like, we wrote music like crazy.

SPEAKER_05 25:48

Well, I told my friend, one of my friends that's here this weekend, I told her on on the way up, you know, the the land and the building, everything in this on this property is alive. Treat it with respect. If you want something, ask the house. Ask the house where the spoons are. Ask permission. Like I've got a picture of myself hugging the tree on the back patio. And I asked permission from the tree before I before I hugged it. But this morning, the house woke me up. I opened my eyes at 7:30 and the door just like, oh, okay. Good morning. Good morning, house.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Thank you. And you've got a showing there, right?

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Yeah. I I did a show for the winter solstice. I wanted to plan an art show. When John Beckner told me about the mill, he was buying the mill and he wanted to do these music and art things. I had been working on a collection, and it's two of my friends passed away after I had painted the first couple of paintings, and they really encouraged me to like continue doing that style. And I was kind of insecure about it. Like it's so weird. And are people gonna get it? And they got it. I so I lost unexpectedly two of my longtime close friends, and I say that they're my angels on the other side. But so John had told me about this thing and the the mill. And I said, Would you would I have an opportunity to show some of my art there? I'm working on this series. And uh it's kind of mixes together, heavily influenced by by music, and it mixes together my spirituality and just how I see things. Like when I imagine being protected, I visualize angels around me. And so the I did the jazz band of angels, and then this collection is called Dead Armadillos in West Tennessee, which came about because of a conversation that I was having with our guy, Tim Reynolds.

SPEAKER_06 27:40

Is that not a great Jacob Dylan album title? I'm just saying Jacob, take it.

SPEAKER_05 27:46

I was talking to Tim one day on the phone, and he had sent me a video of some armadillos, and he's in he's in Florida. And I was like, wow, that's that's wild. Like I didn't know that armadillos had migrated that far east because when I was growing up in West Tennessee, there were no armadillos, but 20 years later, there's armadillos there. And so Tim and I were talking about armadillos, as you do. And I said, I've only seen dead armadillos in West Tennessee. And Tim goes, Oh, that would be a that would be a good song name. And I was like, ooh, or a collection. And so I looked up the spiritual significance of armadillos, and of course, they're covered in armor, and I sort of visualize my two angels as armadillos. They're here, they were protective over me in in life, and so I can't even imagine what they're doing on my my behalf on the other side, but they're encouraging me. Like that, I I get a feeling when they're around me and when I'm doubting myself, they're saying, Look, everybody knows you're crazy. Just fucking do it. Nothing happens until it is absurd in my mind. Like I sit and think and I visualize something, and I like the guardian aliens, I'm just sitting out on my porch, just listening to my meditation music and suddenly get this idea that kind of piggybacks off the jazz band of angels. And I'm thinking, well, as an adult, my angels have gotten a lot weirder. And I sit there and I visualize it until it is a complete finished product. And when I start giggling at the idea, that's how I know that it's just absurd enough. And so when I'm painting, I'm just like, hey, this is so stupid. What the fuck am I doing? There's a sock. What's the sock? Well, there's a whole story behind the sock. The missing sock. You know, the missing sock from the dryer is on the other side of the veil in an alternate universe. That's where it went. Origins was also inspired by by Tim. And during COVID, Tim had sent me a few albums that he had recorded 20 years ago in his home studio in Santa Fe. You know, we were trying to find things to do. So we did like live streams from home during COVID, which was a lot of fun. But he's like, this is, you know, now's a good time for us to do these. So I listened to these albums that he sent me, and he sent me this one called Freak Song that we didn't release until last year. And I listened to it, and I think it's it's seven or eight tracks, and it's like all Tim Reynolds' music defies genres. You know, you can't really put it in any box because Tim is just a brilliant musician and and composer. I listened to it a couple of times and it was so weird. It's like this there's all these weird noises and like ditter-do type sounds. And after I listened to it a few times, I called him and I was like, Tim, this this sounds, this is you've created the soundtrack of the creation of the universe. Like I could visualize creatures coming down from the great beyond, and there's a little alien, and there's a camel, and there's all this stuff. So I I made a painting for Tim, the original origins. I'll send you a picture of it. It's only, I think it's only like 24 by 30 inches. So fairly small compared to the big five by five foot ones that I've done. And it was just, I, you know, I wanted to make it really cosmic and colorful and just I wanted to express how I felt listening to this album to Tim. Like, Tim, here's a gift. This this gift is what I created because you inspired me with your music. And so when I started doing these big paintings, a neighbor of mine who's an artist left five huge five by five canvases for me that just kind of sat out on my patio for a while because they're just too big. And I I was like, I'm gonna pay, I want to paint big. And canvases are really, really expensive, especially that big. So it was that that was just such a beautiful gift that she gave me. So I thought I want to do origins, but bigger. And one of my struggles as an artist has always been to fill space. And I I want to read this quote by the artist, I'm gonna try and pronounce it right, Jean-Michel Basquiat. It says, art is how we decorate space and music is how we decorate time. And they just they work together, you know? And so when I I listen to music visually and I wanted to use origins just as an experiment in filling in space because I feel like I I'll do the like the main subject of something and I'm like, I want it completely full. I want to fill the space entirely. And so this is where the absurdity comes in. It's like there's uh an octopus climbing a monolith in the Sahara Desert. Like, what the fuck is that about? And my husband will, my husband will look at this stuff. And I'm just, I just like giggle at myself. I just have so much fun. It's just coming up with something to put here. And I really, really love working with colors. So when you look at one of my paintings, I want you to be just like overwhelmed with the the colors and how they they work together. You know, it's there's everything is very, very intentional, even if it it's kind of silly or or fun or absurd. And in Origins, I've got a giant baby alien playing with blocks, and of course, we know that's how Stonehenge was built. He's wearing the sock, the missing sock. The missing sock from the other from the other. Yeah, from the dryer. But I I really use that as a way to fill space. So I just added in just silly elements, just things that I connect with on a spiritual level. I am connected to aliens and I I love octopuses for some reason. I have a theory about octopuses, but yeah, so I uh Tim's Tim's music inspired me. Like I could see the universe coming together. And I don't think there's another musician on the planet that creates like he does. I almost feel like, and and not to put myself on the level with with Tim, but I I feel like we think creatively in a in a similar way.

SPEAKER_06 33:36

Like I'm inspired by nature, nature and and the supernatural and I think you have to be familiar with Tim to really get why this is important. By that point, I knew all of Tim's music and I'd heard it and I'd visualized whatever I'd visualized in it. And somehow I'd never visualized this, but it made perfect sense when he told me the story. I said, So what makes you go outside the box with this instrument that normally sounds like you hear it and you go, oh, that's a guitar? And then there are things on the record where you're like, what is that? It's a guitar, it's just Tim. It's a guitar in Tim's hands. And he says, Well, when I first got it, I couldn't afford an amp. So I would sit on my porch and I would listen to the birds, and I would just try to make the bird sounds with the guitar. And I was like, Wow, they are bird sounds like listen to any Dave and Tim track and listen to what Tim plays in the background at Dave. He's making bird noises. That may not have been what he was thinking on every song, but a lot of them, you'll go, oh yeah, once you hear that, you'll hear bird noises when you listen to the acoustic stuff Tim plays. It's like, it's he's he's listening to bird noises and going, I can do that. He's not thinking, what chords am I gonna write? He's thinking, I'm making bird noises, dude. It's like cool. And she has a bird thing. So that's why I'm like, it all comes full circle. And we don't know that at the time. It's only been recently we've gotten into the whole bird thing.

SPEAKER_05 35:11

I'm the I'm the crazy lady hanging my head out the window at Home Depot and looking up the light and screaming, Hi Crow, hi crow, hi crow, hi crow, hi crow. Because I know they can remember your face. So I try to make friends with the crows everywhere because I they're, you know, they're gonna look out for me. They make their presence big and known at times when, you know, often when I'm going through kind of a hard time and they're like, Hey, we gotcha, we got you.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

When I see your paintings at the Crossmill Arts, because you have a bunch of them in there, and I told you the one, there's one there that I'm in love with, and it's the one with the octopus and the lady just lounging there beside him. Back corner. Yes, I'm in love with that painting. I always come in and look at it. But when I look at all your other paintings, every time I look at it, I see something new. It it's amazing to me that I didn't catch that. And I just the colors, the vibrancy of it, I can see the story that you've created in your mind. I may not know what the story is that's in your mind, but as it flows, I can see a story in there. And I just I love, I love seeing your paintings. And when I first get to the mill, I usually walk around and look at your paintings. Oh, thank you. That's the truth. Because I just first of all, it puts me in a great mood because they're just so whimsical, and I don't know. I every time I see it, I see something new and I love it and the colors.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

My first biography was about Van Gogh. I'm a huge Van Gogh fan. So I want to know about the Van Gogh's wheat fields with Cypresses, what pulled you into that?

SPEAKER_05 36:46

I can't pinpoint what it is. I mean, as an adult looking back, because I saw Van Gogh's work for the first time when I was four or five years old. I was, I've just I've always been a student. My mom had this art history book, and I would just look through the pages, and and that's how I became familiar with art. And I just remember like always when I'd pull out the book, I'd try to find the Van Gogh wheat field with cypresses. And, you know, it wasn't sunflowers that that pulled me in. It wasn't a starry night. It wasn't the cafe in Paris or whatever that that cafe painting is. It was the simple nature. And as I grew up, and I so I was just always fascinated or drawn to Van Gogh. And as I grew up and started learning more about art and about his art, uh his process, I learned that he would just use various tools to paint. Like sometimes he would use a stick or whatever. And I loved that it didn't look like a photograph. I was not drawn to the the paintings of the Renaissance where it's just this soft, a bunch of people in a soft dark room looking real. Like I wasn't like if if I want to see real, I'll just open my eyes. So I was I've never been impressed by realism and by realistic art because it's all about the soul. And again, going back to music, it's like there's this Nashville songwriting formula, and it's you know, the I I don't know what it is, but I'm just gonna say it's the A, the B, and the chorus and the B and like the bridge and whatever. And everybody writes a song like this. Not everybody, of course, but there's this like formula. And to me, that's that's boring. You can hear whether or not a person's soul was invested in the writing. I was drawn to Van Gogh because I felt his soul. When the first time that I saw Van Gogh in real life, two things happened. I cried. I saw the blue room, and it was so much smaller than I expected. And so I was a little bit disappointed. Like I was, I could feel it and I cried and I felt so connected to it. And then I was like, well, what the fuck? This is so small. Why would people paint so small? Like every time I start an art project, I'm like, I want a bigger canvas, I want a bigger canvas, I want a bigger canvas. And when I got the five by fives, it's like this playground. I can do whatever I want on it. As long as I have enough paint, I can just fill it up with colors and things that make me happy and make me feel alive.

SPEAKER_06 39:07

Have any of you seen Letters to Theo?

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Yes. No.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

That 1990s movie. I must have seen that in the theater like six times. That is one of the most beautiful. Okay, it's on my list now. It it it what it is is it's the letters that he wrote to his brother, and it's told through the letters he wrote to his brother about this experience or that experience. So really it's like going inside the head of Van Gogh. Here's the most beautiful movie. You cannot help but cry coming out of that movie. But see that movie if you have it if you like Van Gogh. Letters to Theo.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

And there's this is really controversial, I know, but the immersion experience. I know a lot of people were like, it's not really, you know, it's replicas, whatever. But just to be surrounded by that and to I think that's taking it to the next level.

SPEAKER_06 39:57

It's not is it art like he painted? No, I mean it is his art, but still it's becoming immersed in it. And how can that not how can that be a bad thing?

SPEAKER_05 40:08

And the soundtrack for it was perfect. It was key, you know, it was it was key.

SPEAKER_06 40:12

So I used to go to the National Gallery to the Roscoe room, and you know, some people say, Well, you can only look at a painting for how long, Fluffy? And I said, Well, you can look at it a lot of different ways. Because I started getting in trouble when I would go in there and lay on the floor and put my feet up on the chair and look at it upside down for an hour. See if I saw anything different than I'd seen looking at it for two hours sitting on the bench. And I would just do that. And like I said, at first they come, sir, sir, what are you doing? But after a while, I was like, oh, it's just fluffy. He's gonna he's not gonna hurt anything. Just let him do whatever he's gonna do. And I would go to the Roscoe room and lay in weird positions and just stare at the paintings, getting what I could from it. And if you're familiar with Roscoe, there it's a depth of color. That's all it really is. There's no form. I mean, they're usually shape squares. I would try to immerse myself. Like it's like, okay, I've seen it this way. How can I see it some other way? I'm not allowed to touch it. I can't hang it upside down, but I could get upside down.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah, and then they created something just for you where you really can do that without security getting. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 41:17

So I'm like, I'm all for it. I was trying to do that stuff in high school in the 80s, and the National Gallery finally agreed that it was okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

So, this is our speed round. Instinctive answer. What is a completely irrational fear that you have? Cotton balls. I want you to just elaborate a hair.

SPEAKER_05 41:38

Oh, I don't like how they feel. I can't touch them. I have to get somebody to get the cotton out of the pill bottle. I think it has to do with my early childhood. I had a lot of ear infections, and my mom would pull the cotton ball apart and put stick them in my ears for the drainage. And I just remember the sound of it pulling apart. And yeah, that was that was childhood trauma.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Fluffy, what's something you're embarrassingly bad at?

SPEAKER_06 42:06

Singing for sure. I try it all the time because I love it, but I'm embarrassingly bad at singing.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

Who do you think out of the two of you is most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse?

SPEAKER_06 42:18

Me. Although she's more prepared for it. I swear to God, she's she's more prepared. She's waiting for it to happen. Oh, but I think I will survive it more than she will.

SPEAKER_05 42:31

I actually had to unpack my run bag, like in in case of emergency, and I have two gas masks in there, a solar-powered battery, and 10 changes of clothes. I have jugs of water. I used to think that I, and sorry, I know this is lightning. I will make this really quick. I used to think that I wouldn't survive the zombie apocalypse because I have poor vision and I sleep with a CPAP, but I'm finding ways around that because now I see with all my eyes.

SPEAKER_06 42:54

Wow. And I would just mad max it. I don't need anything. Give me a car, give me this big sprinter van. I'm gonna drive across the country driving over zombies. I will survive as long as I can get gas.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

See, I feel like you would protect her the whole way. The whole way.

SPEAKER_06 43:09

If she'd sit in the car with me, she'd be screaming at me the whole time. Floppy, stop driving so fast. I'm like, it really takes a lot to plow these guys down.

SPEAKER_04 43:17

Yeah, you're you're gonna be the one to throw me out of the van to the zombies. If you keep talking about my driving, I'm open the door. Yeah, yeah, you're the reason I don't survive the zombie apocalypse.

SPEAKER_06 43:27

I told you she would go first, didn't I?

unknown 43:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

All right, I love this question. Okay, and I'm gonna start with you, Mary. And I kind of want you both to answer this. If your life had a walk-on song, what is it?

SPEAKER_05 43:40

Walking on sunshine. Love that.

SPEAKER_06 43:43

Well, I have two. It depends on which movie we're watching about me. If we're looking for the bouncy movie, it would probably be Chumbo Wumbo, which everybody hates. But I love but that is that like powerful song that everybody gets up and goes, and it's got a positive message. You can Hate it all you want for its kitschiness, it's I get knocked down, I get back up again. It's like just keep going, you know? It's the final scene of the movie. But the opening scene setting the stage is probably Imagine by John Lennon.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Nice. If you could switch lives with someone for a week, who would you switch lives with?

SPEAKER_05 44:17

I would never do. No. Never.

SPEAKER_02 44:20

What's something you believed way too long as a kid? Fluffy.

SPEAKER_06 44:25

Gosh, I didn't believe much. I really, it was gone. They were everything was gone for me really early. Okay. I I was in sixth grade reading Hunter S. Thompson books. Literally reading Hunter S. Thompson books in sixth grade. So I didn't my parents always like, if you have a question, ask us. We didn't play the myths of Santa Claus and all of that. Like I'm sure I believed something about, oh yeah, if you chew on a piece of cactus, it'll make your swollen lips get small. You know, something I'm sure there was something like that growing up, myth that I heard. Because I, you know, I'm Indian, so we had back to the nature thing we were talking about earlier. I was always into nature, so I was always looking for natural remedies and stuff. So I'm sure there's something there that I thought that I heard at one point when it's like probably step on a crack, break your mama's back. I still try not to step on cracks. And and my mom's not even alive anymore, and I still try not to do it. So I'm just saying, so that I guess that one would do. And I know it's not true, but you still You don't want to take that chance. You don't want to take why take the chance, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 45:31

So Mary, what about you? That the patriarchy should be the standard by which we live our lives. It's time for the rise of the matriarchy.

SPEAKER_06 45:43

And the great thing is in my house, I knew my mom was in charge. Not because she told us, I could just see it as a kid. I knew my mom ran the house.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

Well, we've been conditioned for 10,000 years to believe that men are the ones who are capable of running society. Pretty sure whatever they're doing is not working. And the thing about the matriarchy is that it's the women are not above the men, the women are equal to men. And together we work to protect the innocent, the marginalized, anybody who who needs help. The patriarchy is all about keeping control over the people.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Who would get kicked out of a fancy event first?

unknown 46:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

Fluffy. Probably fluffy.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Yes, because you'd be back there very quiet. Oh, yeah. Trying to make everything okay.

unknown 46:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:29

I raised my hand. I raised my hand before any of them gave the answer. I was just, I realized nobody can see that, but I immediately raised my hand when you asked that question.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

Mary, what's something people misunderstand about you?

SPEAKER_05 46:44

I think people might think that I'm rude because I because I do keep to myself a lot. I'm an introvert and I am highly sensitive to energy and I'm not what I look like.

SPEAKER_06 46:56

I don't think any of us are.

SPEAKER_05 46:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:58

I think we all have masks on that we let the world see. And until we start talking, like this, maybe even where the masks come down and we start to see the real people, the world sees us differently than we see ourselves. Always.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Dive bar or sold-out venue.

SPEAKER_06 47:17

Dive bar.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Oh god, dive bar.

SPEAKER_06 47:19

Empty dive bar, me and the guy playing on stage, and I'm way happy.

unknown 47:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 47:25

Sold-out show, I'll be there if I'm working. Otherwise, I don't want any part of it.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

Late night inspiration or early morning clarity.

SPEAKER_05 47:32

Late night inspiration.

SPEAKER_06 47:34

But me too, for sure. I'm in this moment finding out a lot more about Mary. That's awesome. We're even closer than I thought we were. We are answering questions exactly the same. It's like, yeah, of course she does. Like I would have predicted that about her, but my point is just to hear her say it. I'm like, yeah. Yeah, we are literally like we could be the male and female yin and yang of one another.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Well, you know what I want to know is the relationship between the two of you and how that what the collaboration looks like.

SPEAKER_06 48:06

I can tell you from my perspective, and then she can tell you from hers. This will be interesting because I don't know if we've really ever so so my boss is Tim Reynolds, and then or our booking agent was Hugh Southard, who has since passed, and that's where she and I started really communicating was after Hugh passed because she kind of took Hugh's spot. And so then she and I had more communication. But so when Hugh passed in 2020, right at the beginning, right before COVID, she took over for him. And so then we started communicating a lot more. I I felt a kinship with Mary when I first started talking to her because I felt like she's like me. She's buried here in the back. Nobody knows who she is, but she's working hard as shit. And that always impresses me when people take what they do really seriously and like want to do the best at it with no credit. You know, it's like I don't get my name on an album cover for doing what I do.

SPEAKER_05 49:04

I believe that the reason why he and I get along so well is that we're both introspective. And as far as like the the industry wanting to be a part of the industry, my first day at Belmont University in Nashville, I went to study music business there. And I had to go to student orientation or something. And I remember the guy who was doing the intro or whatever, talking about networking. And I froze because I'm an introvert. And I just thought to myself, I'm in the wrong industry if I have to go and talk to people that I don't know. And so for me, going backstage, this whole like you know, I want to be backstage where all the the stuff's happening. I was always like, oh God, do I have to be back? Do I have to go backstage? Do I have to talk to anybody? Can I just, can I just like wave and s and say hello? That first day at Belmont when I learned about networking, I was really terrified. I thought, and and the the guy said something like, Look around, look around you. This is the future of the music industry. You're gonna be, you know, you've you're you've got heads of record labels and managers and da da da. And I'm like, I don't want to look around, I don't want to make eye contact. I don't want, I don't know if this is the right thing to do. But I I had switched to music business. I originally moved to Nashville as an aspiring singer-songwriter. I went to one open mic night. I I didn't perform, I just wanted to observe. And I got panicky just thinking about having to perform in front of a Nashville audience because she's a really good performer. Oh in my former life. I am gonna revisit music in the future.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Keep all doors open.

SPEAKER_05 50:51

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm doing everything now. No fear, no limits, no limits. I went to this open mic night and I was like, these people are really, really talented. And I think I want to I wanted to shift gears to being support, like like Fluffy said earlier. Like, I want to help the people who are really, really talented. I'm a mediocre songwriter, and I say that as from a realistic perspective. I'm not Taylor Swift or whatever. I'm just a very, very simple person and I don't like to make things complicated. But I I was terrified. I was like, there's no way I'm gonna do that. I could perform in church in front of my peers and and at parties and stuff, you know, it was like, oh, a girl guitar player, you know, it was kind of cool or whatever. But I I couldn't do it. I was not a performer.

SPEAKER_06 51:39

And I I'm the same way. I can't, it's like three bands, one practice for each band, and then I quit. I'm really supposed to be a roadie. I'm really am. I knew it really early on.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

I love it. I love getting the other side because none of what they do could be possible without that kind of support.

SPEAKER_06 52:01

I grew up with a dad who is an amazing guitar player. Not probably as good as Tim Reynolds, but I mean, he was still, in my eyes, when you're a kid, your dad is the greatest. So he was the greatest guitar player I knew growing up. So when I took guitar lessons, I was like, I'm not as good as my dad on guitar, so don't want to be good. So I switched to drums. And that I thought that would get me to be like, I can find my place here and even being a drummer. And all three of those bands I joined, I joined as a drummer. And I was like, okay, I can play drums, but I am not comfortable in this seat. It's it's a weird feeling. I don't know how to describe it. It's just like I was hearing tenths of it when she was saying it, going, Yeah, that's how I felt. I was, I just knew that wasn't my spot for this trip, you know. And that was, I was still in high school then, you know, like tenth grade. And I immediately started working for each of the bands that I didn't join. Because I was like, I still want to be here. I still want to, I'll carry the gear, I'll drive the car, I'll do and I didn't drink and I didn't smoke, so it was like perfect. It's like, you know, you always have a sober person to get you home. It was almost perfect. So it just worked out.

SPEAKER_05 53:10

And I always need a sober person to get me home.

SPEAKER_06 53:14

Everybody does. That's the great thing about being a sober person. You get a lot of free concert tickets in high school when you're the sober person. Yeah. Everybody bought me, hey, we bought you a ticket, you're gonna drive, right? Yep. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

That's great. Well, the common thread is that a door opened and you knew you needed to go through it, you just weren't sure what direction to go once you got through it. Right. And so thank God you went through it, at least.

SPEAKER_05 53:39

I go through every door that opens for me. I I don't think, I don't think once or twice. There are so many doors that I went through in a way that was uncharacteristic of me, being the the introvert, you know, not wanting to make waves or cause any trouble. A couple weeks before I started at Belmont, I had to go and show up for my internship work program. I, as part of my financial assistance, I had to work on campus. So I hadn't found a job yet. And I just on a whim, I walked into the music business intern coordinator's office. And I said, Is there a work study position available? And I got right in. They said, Yeah, we we need somebody. And one day when I was in this internship coordinator's office, the person that I worked for got a phone call and somebody was calling. And I could tell by what my boss was saying that somebody was looking for a receptionist. And the woman, I don't remember her name, said, Essentially, our music business students are above this type of work. And when she hung up, I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not above this type of work. Can you tell me what the offer is? And she said, It's, I think it was like $15 or $20 an hour to answer phones, four hours a week or something. And I said, I would like to do that. Please, could I, could you give me the contact? And she's like, Yeah, I guess so. So I made the call and I immediately got an interview with Renee McIntosh. I'm gonna say her name because she's an amazing Leo. So she interviewed me. We talked for about 30 minutes and she was like, I want you. Like, I want you. And I nearly immediately got a call back saying, we'd like to hire you for this position. And I was so excited, you know, it it wasn't Christian bookstore selling Bibles when I was hung over. And, you know, I had this position. I just felt so like official and I'm working in the music industry. And that job led me to so many different to to meet so many different people. And I just sitting at my little desk behind the phone, I felt really comfortable. Johnny Cash's son walks through the door and he's working on a project. He worked on his June June Carter Cash's, I believe it was her last album. What was it called? I can't remember. It was on Dual Dual Tone Records, but it was before Johnny or June had had passed away. They did a Johnny Cash tribute album. And so I believe John Carter Cash would come in related to those two projects, but being behind, like having a purpose, like I'm here to help. How can I help you? Can I get you coffee? It just I felt so I felt so valuable when other people are like, it's just a receptionist position. And I never had any aspirations to run a company or be in charge or have any position of power because I didn't feel like that was my personality. I like to be in the background. I like to make sure that the wheels are turning and that everything's working out. So for me, it was just such a fun experience to see who was gonna walk walk through that door. One time I was not a proper receptionist. Apparently, I let a homeless guy come in and take a bath in the bath in the men's bathroom. And when he came out, somebody from the office was like, Mary, there's a homeless man taking a, you know, cleaning himself in our bathroom. And I was like, Oh, I thought that was one of Dual Tone's clients.

SPEAKER_06 57:07

I was gonna say when he came out, it might have been. They're like, Oh my gosh, I know you. You're on our label.

SPEAKER_05 57:13

And of course, I'm I'm just I I greet him. He's like, Where's the bathroom? Like, right here, sir. Would you like some coffee after your bath? Like, I didn't know what was after your bath.

SPEAKER_06 57:25

And that's the same thing for tour managers. Everybody's heard, oh, tour managers just glorified babysitters. Well, and you may have to be with certain bands. If you worked for corn, I pretty much guess your job description is babysitting. But with TR3, I don't consider myself a babysitter. I'm a facilitator, just like she said. I have all their stuff planned out, they're loaded, so they don't have to think about it. They just have to get in the van, get there, set up, and play. They don't have to think about the minutiae. They don't know what we're doing for dinner, but they know dinner's coming. They don't have to wonder about things, they didn't have to sit around. It's all about facilitating and making their life easier so they can do what they do better. It's really just that more than anything else. For whoever it is. I mean, I've also been personal assistance for people, and that is a babysitting job. So there is in my mind a distinct difference. It always drives me crazy when they say you're glorified babysitter. I said, it can be that, but that's not what I do. I'm not a glorified babysitter. I don't have to babysit my guys. Some some tour managers may have to. I luckily don't have to.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

I love that because if it was something, if I would have gotten into the music industry in any other way other than radio, I would have totally wanted to be in the behind the scenes. As a DJ, I was good on the mic, but you put a camera out there, I get very nervous and worried. So I get that. I would love to be you behind the scenes. I think that's amazing, and I can understand that.

SPEAKER_06 58:56

Well, I think it's something that a lot of people don't think about. And it's like, that's why I always feel like when I tell people, they're like, God, I never even thought about that. For for every one of me, every band has one of me and one of Mary. Some have more, like DMB has so many, they've got chefs and all that. We don't have chefs on a TR3 tour.

SPEAKER_05 59:16

Oh, I beg to differ.

SPEAKER_06 59:19

We have John Beckner and John Beck. Big chunk catering. Big chunk catering and John Beckner from time to time. But there's so much hired support. And I don't think people ever think about it because everybody grows up wanting to be the rock star. Everybody's like, I want to be in front of the spotlight. You don't see people with their Instagram page going destined to be a roadie. It's like, you know, it's just not an aspirational mantra for a lot of people, is what I'm trying to say. But it was for me. I was like, yeah, this is what I want to do. This is I'm close with the bands, the bands like me, and I get to be there in this creative process and move it forward in whatever way that is. Just, you know, nudge it or whatever. And I feel like I have my influence. Whether it's overt or in most cases subtly, I'm not going back to being in the studio. I'm not telling them what to do, but my input is there. What did you think, Fluffy? And then I say something, and it either changes or doesn't change based on my answer. I've now affected how that song sounds. Whether I changed it or not, it stayed the same because I said what I said, or it changed, or we talked about it and it didn't. But somehow my influence is in there, at least in my mind. I mean, I don't I don't know how deep people who listen to music think about that kind of stuff. But when I listen to music, I often wonder, how did this song get like this? I would love to have seen the behind the scenes for every one of my favorite songs. How did we get to this point? And you don't think about it until you're sitting in a studio watching something that you love come out like that, like you said, like a baby, and then going, wow, I saw that process. And then it makes you want to see the process for everybody else's. Like, I want to see how that happened. Sadly, there's not enough time in the world for me to visit that, but I think that is magical. Because as we all know, everything we do, every moment we said it this morning when we were leaving, and we were trying to get here on time, and we're like, maybe something kept your door closed, so you didn't leave one minute earlier and you didn't have a car accident because of that. Everything's interrelated. So just my presence at the studio, whether it's verbal or not, is somehow affecting what happens there. My energy is floating in that space with their energy. It's all cosmic melding. Yeah, exactly. And so no one's ever gonna listen to a TR3 album and go, oh, I hear Fluffy's influence. But I do. When I hear it, I know my influence is, I know it's there. And that's enough for me. You know, that that feeling, that pride I take when I when somebody says, God, I love that song, I was like, I was a part of that. Whether I'm not playing one of the instruments, but I was a part of that. So, and that is important to me. That feeds my soul, makes me sleep at night, and it makes me feel like I'm contributing to the world in a positive manner. Because when people like something, that's what we're doing. We're trying to bring love into a world that's missing it. So when things make people happy, you gotta feel like it's affecting them in a positive way. And I'd like being a part of that. So and if I can't do it on the drums, I'll do it by helping the drummer do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

So I think one of the best stories of the behind the songs was the Queen documentary when they talked about Bohemian Rhapsody. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:36

Oh my god, that's I mean, how I watch every music documentary I can just for the those kind of nuggets, because you never know what you're gonna get. I'm constantly on YouTube watching the behind the music of something just because Oh, I can't stand those things.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:51

I don't like to watch the behind the scenes things or music documentaries. I don't watch really no, it makes me feel uncomfortable. You're such a Gemini. I love it. Oh my God. It I I don't know what it is. It just is it like too intimate? Because I recognize patterns. I feel like, you know, I'll watch five minutes of it and and I feel like I've got it figured out. I don't. I mean, I I'm you know, I don't know everything. Like I don't want to hear about the journey.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:17

And music's a very personal thing. So you have to remember that everybody's experience with it is different. For me, I I wonder about the creative process. She's reveling in what she hears. In the mass and what they talk about, yeah, and what they talk about might destroy that for her. She says, I don't want to know there was an argument and they broke a beer bottle, because that disturbs what I've built in my head. What I take away from this doesn't need that. So I can totally respect that appraisal. But for me personally, I know how I've affected it, so I wonder who's affected their thing. You know, when they talk about, oh, we didn't record in recording studio, we set up in this old house, and you got to feel like what spirits and ghosts were going on in that house when they recorded Led Zeppelin 4. You know, it's like, I yeah, I love seeing the behind the scenes. And that's probably because I'm behind the scenes, so I like seeing other people's behind the scenes. It kind of normalizes what I do in a way. It's like, oh yeah, I'm not the only one.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

You bring up, I'm sorry, you bring up Led Zeppelin. One of my favorite documentaries in the whole world is It Might Get Loud.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:15

It's a great one.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:16

That is one of my favorites. I could watch it over and over again.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:20

I I couldn't. Well, part of, I mean, I have a process to listening to music, and I listen to music visually. So I I listened to a lot of ambient music and binaural beats. I I mean, I grew up on the Beatles. I I was obsessed with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I was really into Led Zeppelin. But the first artist that I I feel like I connected to visually was Sufjan Stevens and his album Come on Field, Illinois. His songwriting, the way that he plays, I feel like is each individual element is very simplistic, but altogether it creates this cacophony of sound and also visuals. I can see visuals whenever I'm listening to Sufjan. And it's the same way with Tim Reynolds, and the majority of his music is instrumental. I've always seen music. I paint with music, specific music, I pick out certain music. When I was in my early twenties, it was exclusively Billy Holiday.