Bones Unfiltered Podcast : Music Edition Episode #8, featuring John Major

On this Episode of the Bones Unfiltered Podcast : Music Edition Episode #8, featuring John Major, a powerful rising voice in the country music scene.  From his hometown in Morreville, Mississippi, John shares his journey, the inspiration behind his latest endeavors, and his authentic sound that bridges traditional country with a modern edge.  Don't miss this intimate conversation with a name you'll want to watch.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Bones Unfiltered podcast. This is episode eight. I'm your host, Bones, and today we are featuring the very talented John Major. And luckily for us, he's actually pretty close to me. I didn't realize how close he's actually currently in Richmond, Kentucky, gonna be doing um, hopefully doing some gigs this weekend, eh?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Hell yeah, brother. Well, if you would. Um, for those who don't know, John Major is from uh Moorville, Mississippi. I've never been to Moorville before, but he's from Moorville, Mississippi, but now currently is a resident in uh Nashville, Tennessee. Is that still the case?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm based out of Nashville.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Well, except for when he's doing what you see now, you see he's in his uh his sprinter van because he has been a very busy man lately. He's been on the move.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Absolutely, man. It's been wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

So uh tell everybody a little bit about um about how you got your start in the music industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Well, to be honest with you, you know, um about uh this past February, I made five years, my dad passed away. And uh I'm sorry to hear that, brother. It's it's all right. Um, but yeah, when he passed away, uh I was in the welding shop. And uh I of course I always wrote songs and stuff. And uh a year later, after he had passed, I'd come up in the house. I had just bought a new house and sat down and I wrote this song called Your Favorite Whiskey. And uh I posted it online and it got a half a million views, and everything just kind of started started rolling. And then um, you know, I'd been wanting to go full time for a long time, and I got to the point where I was working 168 hours every two weeks, and uh, and I was uh I was playing five shows a week. And I said, well, once this music starts making more than the welding job, then I'll go full time. And so I did that for about three months, and uh uh the the music stack kept getting bigger and the welding stack stayed the same. So uh I went I went full time and uh definitely learned that a man can make a living off of picking up cans off the side of the road if he's willing to work, you know. And uh excuse me. And then after that, you know, I uh I started doing that, and I was like, man, let's try it going on tour. And so I had got this Chevrolet 2009 Express van. The thing said everything but free candy. It was the creeper van of all creeper vans. I I had a twin-size mattress and a uh and I had enough room for my twin-size mattress and it fit all my gear. And uh I used to call it the creeper sleeper. And uh so but anyway, so I lived in that, so I I started touring and everything, and everything was great. Um, I come back and I was like, well, I don't really have a home base. And so I started using Nashville as my home base, and you see this hat that says Music City Bar and Grill. Um, I actually lived out in that parking lot for a year. Um, and uh, you know, when when I get off a tour, I'd always stop in and I'd stay in that parking lot. Rain, sleep, snow, whatever, you know, and um I even had a flat tire one time in the middle of a tornado right there. And uh it was just it was crazy. And uh, but anyway, my biggest thing was networking. Networking was more important to me than playing in Nashville because it's it's kind of saturated. But um, I can only fathom. Absolutely. So I started meeting a lot of cool people. Um, I got to meet uh uh Parker Divy, he's a good friend of mine now, and uh I got to meet uh Jesse Keith Whitley. And uh when I first met Jesse, Jesse was like, You're gonna make it. He's like, I see you staying out there in your van and everything. He said, You're gonna make it. And he pulls out$500. And I was like, wow, you know, and um, and that gave me a lot of encouragement. So I went back on the road and started buying merch and stuff like that, and um just got busier and busier. And last year I was in 33 states in two months. There's that van that he's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

I had to pull that up. That's what I was doing. That's his first aka livable van.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah, yeah, that was that was that was the creeper van, man. That was that was it was crazy, man. But it, you know, it took me a lot of miles. I put 271,000 miles on that van. Dang. Yep. And uh wow, so the so that picture that you just showed, um, that um actually um right there at that very moment in time, the transmission went out in Daytona, Florida. And I was stuck, yeah, I was stuck at the Lowe's truck stop for like three days. And um I called my sister and I was like, man, because she's she's like a broker, she's kind of higher up in her company. And I said, why don't y'all sponsor me? And I was like, I was like, you see that I'm you know what I'm doing. I got a lot of you know, accolades and stuff like that. She said, let me call you back. I said, All right, and I was like, man, I I literally thought my career was to a halt. Like I thought my career was over. And uh my my my sister calls me and she's like, you know what? You got$20,000, but you better pay me back. And I was like, all right, let's go. So uh so I got a sprinter van now, and I got, you know, I can stand up in here, I got my bed in the back and everything. So it's been a man, it's been a hell of a ride. It's it's like one day you're like you're on top of the mountain, next day you're down in the valley and you don't know anywhere but up, you know, and then boom, something else happens, and then you're back on track again. So, you know, that's that's exactly how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Now, for the fans that are out there that don't understand what you're doing currently, I mean, you know, like he literally is while he's on the road, he's he's living in that sprinter van. Yeah so get if you don't mind, walk everybody through like a kind of a daily ritual that you have to do while you're on the road. So, like, you know, you you're you drive to a certain location, then what do you do? Do you stop? Uh where do you normally have to reside at while you're in spot to spot? And then what do you do to try to get gigs and go do gigs? Like, what's a day in the life of John Major like when you're in the sprinter van?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

So, like, so what I do is so I'll um I will get on the phone and I'll go on Google and I'll type in live music or whatever area that I want to go play, and I'll start from there and I'll kind of I'll kind of build a route and kind of where I want to go, and I'll call up everybody in that town and I'll say, Hey, look, my name is Sean Major, you know, I'm uh can I come play here or whatever? And you know, whether we can get the the rate set right and everything else, we're on a go. And so what I do is when I go book that show, I'll go drive to that show, I'll go play it. And then after that show, I'll go to the next station of the nation where I want to play, go to the Lowest Truck Stop, and I'll go in there and I'll stay in the truck stop, and then I'll get up the next morning, and then I'll um I'll start calling more places for the next show uh ahead of that one, and then I'll go play that show, and then I'll do the same thing all over again. So it's literally like drive, go play a show, uh go go uh go to the next truck stop, you know, wake up next day, book shows, go play a show, and it's just kind of all over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

So that's just crazy, yeah. And that shows what he's got to do to make it. Like, yeah, you know, I'm sure there's some misconceptions out there that people think that the vast majority of these singers that really explode just kind of exploded right out of the shoot, and that's not the case. There's a lot of trials and tribulations that you have to go through, and you can see like him. I mean, he's touring alone, he is essentially being everything, he's being his own tour manager, manager, booking agent, he's being his own driver, his own fucking roadie. You are literally you wear every damn hat everywhere you go, yeah, yeah, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah, it's wild, man. Um, and a lot of people what what gets me is too is I know like some people will say, Well, man, you play for free. And I'm like, Diesel ain't free. Like you gotta don't know. I mean, like, you you just I mean, you just gotta make it, you know. And a lot of people think, well, that's well, that's crazy. Uh uh, you have people play it, pay you to play music. And I'm like, I'm just I'm just offering a service, you know. If they like that service, they'll have me back. And I can only count on maybe four fingers of how many people told me not to come back or whatever, but it was it was either because the business was shut down, or um one time I did play a place in Huntsville, Alabama, and there wasn't anywhere to put drinks, and they didn't have any to-go cubs, so all they had was glass cubs, and I kicked over those cups, I probably kicked over five cubs. I'm surprised they didn't take the glasses out of my pay, but yeah. That is hilarious, yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, I probably busted like like four or five cubs.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

So that shows just what he's doing to to propel himself, and you've been all over the United States, correct?

SPEAKER_02 10:51

I have. I have uh, like I said, I've uh last year I was in 33 states in two months. Um, I've been as far north as Minot, North Dakota, where I was 50 miles away from the Canadian border, um, uh Butler, Pennsylvania, um, and then I've been as far south as um Daytona, Florida, and Tyler, Texas. Um, I've been as far east as uh Myrtle Beach, and then I've been as far west as Flagstaff, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Damn, so you've been you have really been all over the place. Oh, yeah. Now now when you leave, when you leave Nashville and you decide, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna run it this this gauntlet around the U.S., yeah, roughly how long do you get on the road and you stay gone before you circle back to the house and kind of have a little RR for yourself?

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Well, to be honest with you, a lot of that depends on what I have to do. Like if it's Christmas time, you know, like if it's if it's close to Christmas, I always try to be home for a couple days for Christmas uh and see the family. Um, I believe in family morals. I don't have any children or anything, but um, it's always good to see my nieces and nephews and my sisters and and everything, my mom. But um usually what I do is um just kind of depends on what I gotta do. Sometimes I've been on the road for uh two months. Sometimes I've been on the road for two and a half, I think the longest I've been on the road is two and a half months. But uh and then circle right back around. But this time here lately, I've been gone for I've been gone for about a month, um about a month and a half, something like that. And then I'll go and um I'm going up to I'm gonna play through here, and then I'm gonna go to Ohio, see my some of my folks in Ohio, and then go play in uh in Indiana, and then I'll probably I'll probably circle back around from there. But um hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah, Miss Janice is in here. Janice Schmidt. Welcome, Janice. It's always good to see you and Val. Val, thanks for dropping in. Miss Janice saw your steering wheel and she's like, you know, I assume John is a trucker. Well, yes and no, because he does drive himself. He is actually a musician, Janice. Uh he uh does travel and he does it right now, he's doing it all. He wears every hat. So he drives himself, he's his own manager, he sets up his own gigs, he plays his own shows. And he writes songs on the road. And writes songs on the road and books while driving and roads. So he is definitely the jack of all trades, that is for sure, when it comes to uh getting himself propelled through this this crazy musical journey that he's embarked on. But uh, thank you for that question. She said uh thank you for all the hard work you're putting in for the American people, because she assumed you were as a truck driver. But you know what? Hats off to our truck drivers, because a lot of times our truck drivers are the ones that don't get noticed because um it's just something that I think that we all take for granted on how we get everything that we have in life comes from a truck driver bringing it to us from wherever he received it. So without them, we wouldn't have cool shit like microphones, and John wouldn't have his cool ass guitar and shit like that, and his sprinter van that he's riding in, and and all that good stuff, and all the food that he eats while he's on the road is all prepared and done and by people that that are in those those type of industries, and it's all provided by truck drivers who bring them the materials they need to do stuff. So definitely, Miss Janice, you're right. Tip tip our hats to the American truck driver as well as our military always and police fire and EMS. We need all of them. So um, but uh thanks for that question. That was a really good one. Now, I do want to ask, I did find a picture of you, and it was it was funny because you and I have some similar we're we have some similar things that uh you're afraid of heights, so am I um you you found this this picture here, which I thought was an intriguing photo. What's the story behind the Joey here, man?

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Oh man, so that was that was in Salina, Ohio. There's a place called NO's in Salina. Uh, if you haven't been there before, uh they have some of the best food or in the country. Um they uh it's a it's this it's this uh decent sized bar out in the middle of nowhere. It's a bunch of cornfields, and then you have this bar, but it's right on the Indiana, it's right on the Indiana, Ohio line. And uh, like I said, it's called NNO's, and um I was going up there to go play, and somebody brought a baby kangaroo, and then the alma showed up, and I was like, this is the craziest show I've ever had, man. But uh yeah, I went over there and I was like, I was like, can I please hold that kangaroo? I was like, I'll pay you. I was like, I I've got to put this online.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

So that was somebody just showed up with a little Joey. Yeah, that is it's like their I guess it is their emotional support Joey, I guess is what that was. But but he's badass. I saw that, and it made me think of myself because when I wrote EMS years ago, I found I found a uh a calf that was left when they moved the herd out of the pasture and they s they closed it off for the season. It had been born apparently in um while I was in one field. Well, it got hung between all these down trees and it couldn't figure out how to get out, so it was stuck, and all the other cattle were long gone. So I saw this thing moving, I jumped the fence, I went to see what it was. It was a baby calf, so I brought it, I got him free and figured he would take off where he was going. Well, of course, he followed me like I was mama, and um I had to sit there and we had to figure out whose farm it was, because there was like four farms that adjaced this property. So it was like, whose whose farm is this that has cattle to return it? And of course, they didn't even know their cat their cow was pregnant, so they had no idea it even existed. And uh when I saw this Joey of you holding it, it just made me think of that. I thought it was hilarious. And I thought maybe you went to Australia or something, you know. That's what I kind of thought. Miss Val's like, oh the kangaroo, yes. I would have totally paid to hold that kangaroo too, though. I'm right there with you on that, because that's uh that was pretty cool. Now the I do have another question, like I I do like this hat, and I wonder if this hat has to do with the actual Joe Diffie. And if so, what's your what's your story behind the hat?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

So I so like I was telling you earlier, like when I met when I met um when I met Parker, uh Parker Diffie, um Parker is the kind of guy that when you walk into the room, he makes you feel like a million bucks. It doesn't matter if you just crawl out of a van at 8 30 in the morning and took a shower at the Lil's truck stop and you know, whatever. Like he he makes you feel like a million bucks. And he was always a really good guy to me. And um I'm gonna be trying to work to write songs with him. He's invited me over to his house sometime. And uh, but anyway, um, that's a brand that um that he made in honor of his dad, and he's also going around the country playing shows and stuff, you know, in honor of his dad and stuff, even even still has his dad's old band. Uh the guys pretty much teamed up and and they've played around and stuff like that. But he's an awesome guy for sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

No, that's really cool. Now, do you ever do any shows with him? Have you have you tried to get on any tickets with him?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Or well, so check this out. This is the cool part. So I told you uh, you know, I stayed in my van, and that's how I met those guys. Um, I actually met them at the Nashville Palace and Music City Bar and Grill, Nashville Palace, and there's a bar called the scoreboard. They're all in the same same parking lot. And uh, but anyway, full circle moment, this past December, I got on the uh the flyer. I was on the flyer and on the same stage with Parker Diffie, Tyler Farr, and um Jesse wasn't there, but uh a few other guys, and they were all the same guys that I met in that parking lot from standing in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

No, no shit.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Yeah, so I wound up playing the same stage with them. Another guy that I would love to work with, and it and it's only because he's been been there since day one, Frank Foster.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Um man, I don't know if I know who that is.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Uh he's got a he's got a song called Good Old Girl. Um, but uh he's more of like maybe kind of outlawed um country and uh um kind of outlaw and modern mixed together, but he uh he pulled his tour bus up one day and he was like he's like hey man, about six months later I come back and he's like man, you still here and everything. And so I gave him some of my merch and stuff, and uh I haven't seen Frank in a long time, but it'd be it'd be cool to meet back up with him.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Heck yeah, I'll have to look him up because I'm terrible with names, so I'm back. So um now, speaking of you know us having similar things in common, and you know, I'm afraid of heights. Well, you know, if you all follow John, you'll notice that he had put up a reel of some sort the other day, um kind of kind of talking about his fear of heights, and for the first time in his life, he actually had got his ass on a Ferris wheel, which I shipped my hat to you, brother, because I'd have shit my pants if I'd have been sitting where you were. I don't know. I'll tell you tell the story on how that came. Well, first of all, why are you afraid of heights? And then how did how did it come about to where you finally ended up facing your fear and ended up on a Ferris wheel?

SPEAKER_02 21:48

To be honest with you, man, I I don't really don't know. Um like what made me scared of heights. Um, like I'm clumsy, so I fall like I fall a lot. Well, not like a Not like every day, but when I fall, like it it hurts, you know. But anyway, um, I guess that's maybe one. I'm not sure, but uh uh I was I was in Myrtle Beach. I remember Scal and I went into Landshark. Um it's like wrap a salad. And um I went to Landshark or Myrtle Beach and I was like, man, I was like, I'm gonna get a I was like, I'm gonna get one of these drinks. You ever go there travel at five o'clock somewhere? You don't need one. Yeah, blah blah blah. Yeah, I drank, I drank one of those. They're like, they're um um they're they're pretty good. So I drank one of those and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna get on this first. Well, I was like, we're gonna. So I get them there, man. And just as soon as I get set down, I'm like, the guy's like, I it's like in this little shuttle, and the doors are still open, and you're talking to the guy that's running it. And I was like, hey man, um how many loops is it got around? About four. I was like, is it fast? Not really. And I'm like, oh man. So we go in there and he hits, so go in there and the doors close, and he hits the button and it starts going, and man, I swear, I'm not even five foot up in there, and I'm like, oh, come on, man. And so like I'm sitting there and that thing's just rocking back and forth, and I'm like, I'm sweating, man. I'm like freaking out. But when I got about when I got about halfway up, I was like, you know what? If I fall from here, I can't change it. There's nothing that I can do. I'm just dead. Yeah, I'm thinking so might as well just ride it while I'm still alive. And dude, it was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

So a little bit of liquid courage, everybody. That's what uh that's what got him on there was liquid courage. And now now, did you did you start videoing? Uh did you start videoing? I remember seeing it, but I can't remember. Did you start once you were on? So did you kind of use the camera as your distraction? So you weren't really focused on exactly how high up you were, or or did you just how did that come about? What made you decide to video it? Just because it was the first, was your first time?

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Well, I didn't so when I got in there, I had to I had to go around it like at least once before I started making videos because I was like sweating and everything. I was making these Snapchats, and I still I got um, I think I got some of them saved. I'll have to send them to you, but I was sending them over to like I was going on Snapchat and I was taking these videos. I was like, I I love y'all with all my heart, but I'm doing something. I was like, if I fall, just know, you know. But uh, but anyway, we had to come, I had to come around at least one time, like one loop before I was like, okay, okay, we're good now. So yeah. I was like, man, this is something to make a video about.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Now you know it's funny, I'm scared to death of heights, but and like Ferris Wheels, my pussy ass couldn't do it. I wouldn't have been able to do it. But but yet I can get on a roller coaster and I can ride a roller coaster and do loops, and I'm okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Oh no, you had to shoot me.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

I don't I don't know if it's the I don't know if it's the harness, you know, you're clicking in and you got that extra, you know, you feel like that acts extra added protection, I guess, per se. Whereas when you were sitting with what you were doing, I mean, that thing held holds like what? What do you think? Probably eight people? Um it potentially, and there's no seat belts. I mean, granted, it's that one's at least walled in. That would help that would have helped a little bit, maybe. That you, you know, you give a little bit of a false sense of security. But like you say, if if that basket decides to it you just go bing and it's done, you're done. There ain't gonna be no take back sees, you know. But I saw that video and I had to I had to chuckle a little because I am terri and I used to not be afraid of heights. The reason I'm afraid of heights is I fell off my house. So I was I had a roofer come to inspect the roof. They were I was getting ready to have a new roof put on my house my house, and um at that time my kids were still little and I had food. I forgot the guy was coming. So I had food on the stove, and I was like, shit, I gotta get this guy on there. Well, the dude was he's kind of a large lad. And um, I knew that I was like, I don't think he can get on the roof the same ladder I use to get on my roof because I was so little and wiry. So I was like, man, I better get my different ladder. So I got this extension ladder that I had just bought that folded it it like folded, it was like 18 feet, but you can fold it into tripod or you know, like scaffolding or whatever. You know, it had like all these different clicks. I'd never used it, so I'm looking at it and I see this black boot, and I was like, Well, my dad's extension ladder is the black boot goes on the bottom. So I put it down, I held the ladder for the guy, he goes up on the roof. I said, I'll be right back to show you some repairs I had done before. And I said, I'll be right back. Let me get the kids situated. So I run in the house, I fucking put the dogs up, grab the shut the food off on the stove, slop some on a plate for the kids, get them fed. I run out and I take off up this ladder to go show this guy what I had done. And when I get all the way to the top, I go to step onto the roof, and when I shifted, I had the ladder upside down, and the whole fucking thing went and so did I. So I fell and landed on my deck. So and that that's deck with a D E C K, just to make sure everybody understands that. Um, but uh it was uh it was fun. Uh until that sudden stop at the end, that really sucked. But uh but uh after that it completely changed my perspective. But after I looked at that ladder after I got out of the hospital from falling off a house, it uh it come to find out I it that one didn't have the rubberized boots like a lot of the extension ladders did. That the black on that was a cap for so you didn't fuck your vinyl siding up. So it was actually smooth. Yeah, and of course I didn't look at it, so I fucked, I screwed the boots a big time. But that's why I'm scared of heights. Was you hurt pretty bad? Uh not too too bad. I mean, uh I had a tail like a rottweiler for probably almost probably two weeks. Like it stuck out, I landed right on my tailbone. And I thought I broke some shit. And uh, but apparently I didn't. But apparently I did do at least enough damage to where my body had to learn to compensate. So now I've got my pelvis is slightly just slightly off kilter from where I've compensated for it for so long. And that's starting to cause a little bit of issues now with you know standing for prolonged periods of time and shit like that, but it is what it is, you know. But that's why I'm afraid of heights. And uh so when you were in that thing, I especially you showed the shot, you're going up and you you pan over and you say, Look at this, you know, because you were yeah, I mean, I'd have been proud of myself too. But as soon as as soon as I saw where you were in that shot, I went, Nope. I was like, man, nope, and I'm not doing that shit. Yeah, right. Yeah. So I fucking feel you right there, my brother. I feel you. So typically then, like, uh, well, let's uh let's move on to let's uh let's actually move on to what uh some really cool cool things that I found out about you. Number one, um he's been nominated for a bunch of awards with with our award show through um uh Pamela Little's Southern Lights Entertainment, which I'm gonna touch on in just a minute with that. But prior to our award show, um John here has also been nominated for uh what was it? Was it the Mississippi? Let's see what we guys say. The Mississippi Award show. Yeah, so so in Mississippi, so uh where in Mississippi was this award show, and what were you nominated for with them?

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Uh I was so they had the award show in Natchez, um, Mississippi, and I got nominated for um uh Best Rising Star of the Year, Song of the Year, uh Duet of the Year, uh Best Song of the Year, and there was another one. Oh, Outlaw Song of the Year. Um yeah, and so um I did not um I did not win any of those. Uh I there was uh there was kind of some discommunication there um because I was thinking I thought that it was all ran by like judges. I thought judges were the ones I didn't know until after the fact that you could have people to come vote vote for you. And uh man, um I've got I mean I probably see a thousand people a week and like that just yeah, and so like I I I feel like I could have had people vote. And of course I I've got I've got uh a bigger support system now than I ever have. And so um yeah, but uh you win some, you lose some.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

So well that's uh at least you were nominated now. And in in this area of of t uh Mississippi, is that near your hometown of where you grew up?

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Um no, um, so Natchez is kind of like it's kind of around the Delta area, um, Natchez, Mississippi. Um, but where I'm originally from is northeast Mississippi, um, not far from uh the Tennessee line. I'm actually so the birthplace of Elvis is Tupelo, Mississippi, and that's about five miles from where I grew up.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 32:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. My um now, did you grow up in the city in kind of a well, I I should say a a city, uh small town or like on a farm? Like how did how was your upbringing when you were younger?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

I grew up in a town full of 650 people.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 32:54

It was crowded. Yeah, yeah, it was it was definitely the holler. Like uh I grew up there and um and uh I tell people all the time now 649 because I don't live here anymore. But uh but uh no, it's um it's a small town. Um it's uh it's home, you know, a bunch of back roads, a lot of hollers. Um, as a matter of fact, mostly back roads. And right behind, so when I was a kid, we lived down a hill and a double wide trailer, and I could walk out in the woods about probably about a mile, and I'd go out in the woods, and I used to sit at the edge of the woods and look out through all the sod farm fields and all the bean fields.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

No shit. Yeah, yeah. I bet that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

But boy, boy, your life's in a different place now, isn't it, brother?

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Yeah, it is, yeah, 100%. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's it's crazy. Um you know, you look back, all right. I was a welder for 10 years. Um, before that, I was uh I worked in the sawmill.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Um that was interesting.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Absolutely, and hot. Oh, really? No shit. Yeah, that uh sawmill job was when I when I was working in the sawmill, I weighed a hundred and I was about 187 pounds soaking wet the whole time. But I was like, I was pretty built too. Because I what I did was is I took all the big planks and I would cut I would cut the planks up and then then kind of send them on down the line. But yeah, it was it was a job for sure.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Dude, that's cool as shit. Yeah, that would that would definitely be interesting. Yeah, like how big was your saw that you had to man when you were in that sawmill?

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Uh I had a I had a hydraulic saw, so it was probably the blade was kind of like yay wide and then uh probably about yay tall. And so I would have to take these planks off the bunk and I had to throw them down on these rollers, and I'd have to push it up and cut the ends off, and then push it up to a stop. Um, and I would have these stops kind of sit along down this rail, and then whatever size, I'd have to push it up to that stop and then step on it, and then it cuts it, and then I just set it on the table.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Oh, no shit. So that's how that works. That's interesting. So you can do multiple different lengths. Uh you just you just choose a different stop, and that's the and that's the length of board that you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

And so it's cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

I didn't like that. Yeah, so they they take those off and then they they take those planks off and then they give them to uh uh to another person that runs uh it's called a gang rip saw. So it it makes like two inch, two inches wide um cuts or whatever, so they can use them for furniture. So you just run into the saw, and then you got like eight pieces of like two inch, two inch um sticks.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Yeah. That's kind of interesting. Now, was that a big operation? Like or not, or did they have like a staff of like 20 people?

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Oh, we had we had a staff of five people.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Oh so it damn. So it was kind of a smaller up. I mean, I'm sure it was a large building, but a small operation.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Yeah, well, it was it was a small building too. It was actually in this, it was in this little shed, and we had uh uh somebody run the gang rip saw, I ran the chop saw, we had somebody running the band saw, we had a forklift driver, and then we had our boss. It was only five of us.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

No shit.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Yeah, yeah, and uh, and uh man, it it was it was always hot, and I think I I think I made eight dollars an hour.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah, yeah, spend it all in one place. Now, when you were pipe fitting, were you were you part of a a union or were you not?

SPEAKER_02 37:04

I wasn't I wasn't pipe fitting, I was uh I was a welder. Or so you're welder. Yeah, gotcha. Uh I welded so I started off welding bush hogs. Um I went from welding bushhogs to I went to a I had went and got another job. I actually welded parts for the big Tiffin motorhomes and like the the big motor homes and stuff, like the Allegras and stuff like that. And then I welded uh parts for those, and then I ended my welding career uh welding chassis that loaded bombs in the fighter jets.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Oh no shit. Now, was that a govern governmental job? Um or was it just like a subcontracted job?

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah, it was can't it was kind of subcontracted. Um, but we had to have like certain certifications, like they had to have they had to have like our cert card every time, every time that we went to go, you know, start on a job and everything like that, and our id and stuff like that. So it was it was pretty it was pretty uh by the book, you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Hell yeah. Well, Wolf Vair just joined in. She says hi, and um, she's one that I sometimes do podcasts with. Uh we kind of help each other, but she is uh she's got something going on today, so she's uh that's uh obviously more important. So uh I hope she it all goes well with her. We had Scott Braille in. I don't know if you know who Scott is, but if not, uh Scott used to be a manager for some different bands, but now he kind of does more of like uh promotion stuff. So you've got a promoter in here that actually sees you. He's actually from the main area. Um, so if you ever get up north around the main area, you never know. You may end up meeting or seeing Scott because he's uh he's a really cool dude and uh very supportive of pretty much anything I've done so far. He he drops in and says hi, and he knows some people on the west coast like Mike Clacy, and then he I mean he knows people all the way obviously to to the east coast where he's at. So um so he's definitely there. Uh oh, Wolf's telling me about something else here. So um back to the award thing. So obviously, we you know he was nominated for quite a bit of things in Mississippi, but for us, fortunately, uh for us at the Southern Lights Entertainment Award show, John is also nominated for a lot of stuff. So if you don't know much about the Southern Lights Entertainment, please go to www.southernlightsentertainment.com. When you go on there, you you'll see the website of uh Miss Pamela Little's booking agency, and then you can scroll through the different tabs. If you scroll through the tabs of nominations or voting, you will see people such as John Major here, along with others who have been nominated for various awards. John, we'll start off with him uh today's the first thing that uh he's uh nominated for was the solo male artist of the year. So that's a big one, and uh that's that's really cool. He's also up for songwriter of the year for his song that he wrote, which was called Backwoods Outlaw, and he's up for Song of the Year, which is also the same. So tell us a little bit about your Backwoods Outlaw song. Like, how did you come out about making that? Is there a story behind it that's personal to you? Is it just something that came to you that's just a story that came into your head that just you just thought was cool? Like, how did that song come to fruition?

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Well, to be honest with you, man, I've um I've written over 3,000 songs my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

And uh when I wanted I wanted to be able to make a song that was my intro to the people. I wanted to introduce myself to the world with the song. I wanted people to know me, um, and how I, you know, why I'm here, what I'm doing, and stuff like that. And so I was at work in the welding shop, and I was sitting there, and mind you, I've never wrote a song down on paper. Um, I most of the time it's it's recordings, and I still have some of my old recordings. Um I um I did some recordings, and um anyway, I'm just sitting there and I was like, what if we could just have this like this rocking song or whatever? And the first thing when I was I was in the middle of welding, like probably in the middle of the weld itself, but I was like, what would you tell somebody right now? How would you introduce yourself? And I was like, you know what? I was born and raised on a little back road on the side of Tupelo. So we just kind of go on went on from there. And then it then it said way on down back in the holler where the mouth heads wouldn't go. Because because we in in in if you've ever been in northeast Mississippi or been to Morvel, um, if you ever go to Morvel, there's two sides of Morville. You have Tater Hills, and that ain't nothing but a bunch of old single-wide trailers that's been blew up. And then then you have another side of the road, which is just the countryside. Like there's it never really had a nickname, but it's where all the side farms and stuff like that were all the farmers and and like just old country folks are. I mean, you know, uh people, people, what I'd say is people that tend to their self, you know, you know, and so so uh, but yeah, and there was there was two sides of that road, and yeah, it was it was it was wild.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

I was trying to bring in focus, but apparently I'm a little bit blurred right now. Oh, you good? So um, well that's that's cool. Now, um you're also up for rising star of the year as well. So I mean, he's up, ladies and gentlemen, he's up for a lot, he's got a lot of different awards. But I mean, I have I've heard so much good stuff about you too, from people like I say, all the way even to the West Coast. Um, so John is definitely well known. The sacrifice he's currently making, as you can see again, that he's in his sprinter van by himself and he is doing it. He is driving around, making shit happen. He is the poster child of of exactly what trials and tribulations you have to go through to get to the other side. And right now, man, you're you're trucking along hardcore, brother. So congratulations on that.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Thanks, man. Yeah. I mean, I it's uh it's something that I've always wanted to do. And you know, um just going and like a lot of people a lot of people don't know, but there's there's a lot of this this doing this in in itself is all based out on faith. There's a lot of stuff you don't know, man. Like you don't know if you're gonna be driving down, you know, four hours to get to your next show and them cancel on you. Yeah. You don't yeah, a lot of you know, you don't know, you know, if you you could be out in the middle of nowhere and you could have a wreck and nobody ever find you. You know, there's there's there's there's a lot of stuff that that plays in your mind when when you're doing this, but it's for the love of of music. It's for the love of it's it's having the drive enough to to want to be able to um to shift to shift the world. You know, um, you know, I don't I'm you know, I'm I'm a pretty I'm a pretty religious guy. I'm I'm I'm pretty good in my faith and stuff. I don't I don't always do I'm not I'm not perfect and I do some I do things that I probably shouldn't, but I was um I was actually I was actually praying this morning. And uh you know, like I said, it's been hard. You know, it's it's it's been a hell of a ride. But one the my biggest prayer that I had this morning was in the Bible it says if you have enough um faith as small of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. And I said, I have enough faith as big as the mountain, so let's shake the world. And yeah, and that and that and that that's my thing, you know. Um just having that vision, and no matter what, um you can um no matter what uh that vision is, just go for it. Because um it's like playing the lottery. If you go in the store and you buy a lottery ticket, it's a very slim chance that you're gonna hit 200 million dollars, but it's a hundred percent chance you don't win if you don't play.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Yep, yeah, that's true. Yeah, amen to that. That is very true. Now, have you thought you know, obviously it's there's it's gotta be some trials and tribulations to being alone, too. Like it I'm sure it gets a little bit lonely on the road, obviously. Um do you like being a solo artist completely or are you or do you kind of wish or maybe have plans in the future to eventually kind of adopt a band and start running around with uh you know a little bit more people with you when you're doing your travels?

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Well, like to be honest with you, man, like the when I think about having a full band, like it'd be great. Like I mean, we I mean, we would would make a lot more money and and and it'd be solid, but the only thing is, man, it's so hard nowadays trying to find some you have by finding people that want it just as bad as you do. And not not downing anybody or anything like that, but like a lot nowadays people, you know, uh people got kids or they got family or they got a girlfriend that's that's that's you know breaking their heart or they've got issues back at home. A lot of times people just just don't. And guys that are really serious and the guys that are doing it, well that they're um they're either with the band already or it's just you know, um I was actually thinking about that, you know. I kind of want to wait till I got a deal to where to where I have a full band because then I can breathe a little bit. You know what I mean? Like I, you know, like I have a hard enough time babysitting myself as well as me and four or five other people. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

And I feel you. Well, and you know, like I had Mark Hare on uh with I was on with Wolf when we did him. I don't know if you know Mark, but he's an up-and-comer that is out of Pennsylvania, and he kind of said the same thing. He kind of said that um it's the hard part for him right now is the more the more people you have in the band, the more mouse you gotta feed too. And trying to get shows and whatnot, it's kind of challenging. I think we lost John. Let's see if John can make it back. If I have to, John, if I don't see you in a second, brother, I will uh I'll remove you and then resend it because apparently we just had a connection issue. And uh but that's see, that's the that's the joys of live podcasting, ladies and gentlemen. So John John did get dropped. I am going to remove him from the studio and send him back an invite, and we'll see if we can get him back in. So you gotta love technology when it's good when it works. I don't know if John knows that you can use the same link, so I'm gonna send it to him again. Just oh, yeah, he does. Beautiful. There we go. No, no, you're good. I'm glad you realized you could use the same link because I forgot to tell you. Um, so that's better. Actually, you're clear now. I could probably yeah, I now now I can bring you to a bigger screen and I can see you. Um so and that makes a lot of sense, you know, because it is more mouths to feed. You know, the hard I'll tell you what, the the the frustrating thing for me, and granted, I'm new to this industry, so I'm learning. Um, like I told you before, I I I have one artist that which James Lucre that I kind of I'm managing, and then of course just do the podcasting stuff. But but the uh the hard part I'm having trying to help that's why we we got Pam. That'll that ought to help make things easier because somebody who actually has some knowledge. Uh booking, I'm f I fucking hate it. I hate it. Um and I'm not and I'm not all that good at it. Now, the problem we had, which you know, you don't have this much of a problem when you're a solo artist, ex you know, um maybe a little bit, but not as much, obviously, was the fact that I had to turn down so many gigs because we didn't have our own sound at the time. And I I was blown away with how many venues just don't really have their own sound. Um so I had to turn away like 15 gigs because I was like, they're like, Well, you have to have your own sound, we don't have that. And I was like, Well, fuck, we don't we don't have everything we need, we don't have PAs and standboards, so we've been working on getting that because you gotta have certain shit when you have a three-piece or a bigger band, you gotta have certain stuff, and without that, you're you're losing gigs. Now, with you, in regards to you, do you do strictly acoustic gigs or do you do um do you also do like some electric, you know, electric style gigs? I know obviously it's just you, so either way, you're you're either playing acoustically or it's just you with uh uh I guess do you have an acoustic guitar that's acoustic electric or are you just all acoustic? What what kind of gear do you have?

SPEAKER_02 52:15

I have an acoustic electric guitar. Um what I do is is I have a um I've got a 1300 watt uh S SRM or SMR. Um it's like a liner system. And uh it's kind of like the kind of like the bow system. It's like this big speaker, and then you have a tower, then you put your tower speakers up there. Um I've had that for about for about three years. I've never always playing acoustic. That's that's that's what I've always used. Um as far as like my sound. You know, I always tell them, you know, I got my sound. Um, but it's it's it's pretty, I mean, it's pretty loud. Um, and then I have a wireless headset microphone and a wireless guitar. So I'm all over the place when I'm playing. Like I'm just I try to bring the most entertainment that I could possibly bring and try to bring the most quality that I can possibly bring. Um it's funny because when I first started, I had a microphone standing microphone, and I had a 40-watt fender acoustic amp that was probably about this tall and about this wide, and I did my first 57 shows uh doing that with that with that speaker.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Like the the amp that generally comes with your guitars when you fucking buy them. Something that's yeah, holy and you did 50 something shows with that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

57 shows with that crunk all the way up. And uh man, you can barely hear it. I mean, like it, but uh, I mean, we I pushed three power through, and then I started getting on the radio in my hometown. And uh I uh I went up to um this country club and I was like, look, man, I was like, I was like, I really need a sponsor. I was like, I gotta get I was like, I really need some gear. And I was like, Yeah, we'll help you out. And so when they did, they uh they helped me out and I'd got one of those speakers. And uh I've been using it ever since. I'm I'm gonna need a new one pretty soon. So if there's any sponsors out there, I'll put your sticker on my on my sprinter van. We'll we'll go around the country.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen. So there, if you want if you want to be a if you want to be like a NASCAR decal on the side of a sprinter van to help out John Major, then just reach out to John Major on Facebook. Um, and I'm sure he'll go through all the other links here shortly on where you can find John, where you can uh listen to his music and what all that good jazz. So we will definitely get to that. So who knows? Yeah, because I tell you what, having a sponsor would be nice. I mean, it's yeah, it's it's something. Now, your sprinter van, do you have are you do you have like um uh I guess like storage like underneath where you don't have to keep it inside with you, or does everything have to reserve live behind you in in your van?

SPEAKER_02 55:22

So I've built a bed. Um, I've built a bed in the back, and then I've got I put all my gear up under that bed. Like I've I've got yeah, it's a full-size bed. Um, I've got enough room for a couch right now. I could probably put put a refrigerator in there in here. Um, you know, it's it's a lot of room, um, a lot more than what the creeper van had, but it's uh but yeah, I've got I've got a I've got a ton of room back here.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

That's cool as shit. I was watching some video which I don't know if you could do it in yours, but I thought it was really interesting. It was it was a kind of like a a sprinter vanish kind of thing. But the way the way the people did it is they had they had their bed to where it was on, it was four-pointed on some type of pulley system to where they could hit a switch and it would raise the bed up to the ceiling to where it would stay all the way to the top when you weren't using it, and then when you needed it, it would drop down and it would drop down like the way they had it set up. There was like certain tables and stuff there that I guess were stationary to where it would sit. So it was it those kind of became the support system for the bed, and then you laid in there, you slept, and then when you were done, you just fucking rose it back up to the ceiling, it was out of the way. I thought it was kind of neat. But um, oh yeah, the sprinter vans are definitely they are definitely nice for sure. But um are you do you think that you um may be able to make the award show in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in November 14th, or is that pretty much got to be played by ear based on your whole travel disposition?

SPEAKER_02 57:07

Um, yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna have to play it by ear. Uh, I'm gonna try to make it up there the uh best way that I can. Um right now, and back to what you said earlier about the booking was so hard, man. I'm telling you, like that's I'm I've I've I've got this one woman I think that I've kind of I'm gonna try to train her on how to do the booking and stuff like that and try to get some help and everything else. But I mean, um it's it's it's a headache because yeah, a lot of people ask me, well, I was like, why don't you post as much? Why don't you post as much? Well the thing is it's not it's not I'm intentionally going dark or anything, it's just like when I've been in I've been in this van and I have started booking from 11 o'clock in the morning and stopped at 1143 at night and only had like one show booked. Like I've and like and that's that's you know that's kind of the that that what's takes most of my time, you know. Um and so um but you know um I'm I'm gonna try to get it all together.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Yeah. Well, and and I I I feel for you there. I've definitely feel for you. Because I tell you, you know, another frustrating thing to me is too that I've noticed it's becoming a trend. And I don't know if it's just due to the economy currently or what, but but it's um I've noticed that a lot of these venues uh they just don't want to pay the artists hardly nothing anymore. I mean, it's like they expect you to bring your sound, and it's it's almost like they well, I'm sure they don't care, but you know, it's like you don't really realize how much money you would have to spend to especially like say you're a full band. When you're talking, you're talking at least probably four or five thousand dollars just to get enough sound to do the job. And it it still ain't big enough to do like it still wouldn't be enough to do like really big venues. I mean, uh, you're talking that's enough to do like small venues. So, you know, it it it it's hard, it's hard to come up with that kind of money until you're doing like what you're doing and you're driving. I mean, the good thing about what you do is you're constantly on the move. So you can go to all these different little venues and hit them as you're traveling through, which is nice. But it's rough when you're trying to book a band for and it's just one show, and if it's six hours away, it's like they don't want to pay you. It's like, well, I gotta charge you more, I gotta have a place to stay, and you know, because we don't have you know, like vans or anything like that. And fucking tour buses are crazy expensive, and I mean, hell, that's a that's a huge expense. I was trying to look into that years ago for one of the bands I was with just to get an idea of what it would cost, and I was blown away. It's like 718. Yeah, it's nuts, brother. It's nuts. Well, just like John was telling me this, um, and he'll verify this. Um, you know, like this young man is in his sprinter van. Well, currently he does not have a generator. So if there's any any generator companies out there that want to maybe do, you know, do a good cause and sponsor him or throw him a generator his way to help him out, it's something small. In the wintertime, when John's in that van and he has to leave it running to stay warm so he don't freeze to death. You're talking about he roughly spends roughly around, I think you said it was around$20 a night in fuel cost just to stay warm while he's in his van. So a generator obviously would probably save him at least something. Um, might be a little bit better on the expense, you know. And um, but that just shows the kind of what this young man's going through. I mean, he's he's doing whatever he's got to do to make it happen. So I gotta tip my hat to you on that. Now, this this picture here, obviously, that is like an album cover right there. That's a great photo. Um thanks, man. Tell us a little bit of story about what's going on in this photo and and what propelled you to kind of create that. And and do you use this one the most on like your concert flyers, or is this one more special for another reason?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

So that shirt right there, that that shirt right there is um is my welding shirt. Oh no shit. Yeah, and so that's actually over at my sister's house. Uh that uh that's a K10, that's a 87 K10 Chevrolet. Um, and that is um, that is my nephew's. And uh we uh kind of we uh they have a pool out there, um not like a swimming pool, but they have like a little pond out there, and we put the uh we parked the truck right there um right in front of that that uh the little pond out there and uh and everything. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:40

Now is this the guitar that you still currently use for your gigs?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

It is, it is. It's uh it's definitely been a workhorse, man. That's that's what I use. Um it's been through a lot, as you can see, but uh I still have I I got a few more scratches and dings on it, but it's it's been with me through thick and thin.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

That's awesome. Yeah, it makes me I love the coloration too. I love how that's got that little sunburst right in the center, but it's kind of it's all black around it. It just looks so neat, it's really nice. I love the fretboard on it too. I can't quite tell what it is, it but you know, if it's like little diamonds or what on the fretboard, but but I like I like it, man. That's a that's a beautiful piece.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Yeah, that's a Epiphone EJ 200. Now, how long have you had that?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

I've had that for about going on six years. No shit. Yeah. But yeah, that truck behind you. You there's also a picture on his Facebook where he's sitting in the truck. But I tell you what, that's a nice, that's a nice old ride right there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that'd be a that'd be a good one to have right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't take it to work as high as gas is now, but it's oh my god. That's sharp. You ain't wrong there, brother. Yeah, I just passed um um I passed one gas station. It's uh four dollars and nine cents now.

unknown 1:04:07

God damn.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:08

Yeah, now how do you do on your sprinter van? Is how does it do on gas mileage?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

Pretty good, better than the old van. The old van got 11 miles to the gallon. And it's 23, uh, but it's diesel. So I mean, I pretty spent like I pretty much spend the same. Like it's a hundred dollars and uh it's a hundred dollars. Well, that's not dead only. It's probably about a hundred and twenty dollars to fill up. No shit. Yeah, so um each time. And I mean, even like back to what you were saying earlier about, you know, trying to find somewhere that that pays and stuff, you know. That's that's that I guess that's one of my biggest pet peeves when people are like, you want to come play for free? I'm like, have you seen decent prices around now? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

And and and you know, damn good way, they're making a killing. Especially if they serve alcohol. They're they're gonna, I mean, they're making a killing off that shit. So it's uh you know, Tom sometimes I think there's a little bit of uh, you know, a little bit of greed. Now, some places I get it, some really small mom and pop bars that are really tiny, they may they may be struggling to compete with some of the bigger conglomerates, and I get that. But but you gotta pay, you know, it's like nobody nobody should play for free because everything you're doing. I mean, think of all the work that you do, because you're doing it all. You're wearing every hat right now, currently. So and I don't see how anybody can do it like you're doing it, but you are. But I mean that's gotta be I mean, that's a full time that's a nonstop job to make it happen. So I I gotta tip my hat to you because um it's pretty impressive what you're doing s thus far. Now, um any shows coming up here in in The immediate future. I know you're in Richmond, Kentucky. Excuse me, currently.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

And you are going to be doing trying to put together some stuff in this proximity. Right. Um anything that you currently have on the books that that you know of that you want to share? Or upcoming shows, big festivals, anything like that that you may be attached to?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

I've got a really big show in um in Fredericksburg, Virginia, May the 7th. That's gonna be that's gonna be really big. Um September the uh September the 11th. Uh that's a day after my birthday. Um is gonna I'm gonna be playing in Panama City Beach, Florida. Um and then when when was that again? Uh September the 11th.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

September the 11th night.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

Yeah, so I'll be playing down there. And um I've got some more that I'm gonna be posting online and stuff like that pretty soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

Well that'll be that'll be really really interesting and stuff to have all that take place. So congratulations on those big shows. And you know, like the hard part for us is this year was you know, festivals like uh you know, festivals book up quick. So almost pretty much everything was already booked for 2026. So it's like now if you're wanting to take part in festivals, I mean you gotta prepare to be a year or two out. So to be considered. So and that's a long wait, especially when you're doing it as a full-time job, like what you are. Now you're that that's your bread and butter. So that's uh that's crazy, you know. So I can see why you're doing a lot of travel. Which is which is a good thing, you know. I know any thoughts of you headed back out to have you ever have you ever been on the West Coast? Like, have you done California and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

I've never done West I've never done I've never done California. Um I'm I'm I'm I'm thinking about it uh this year by going around renting. I have some I have I have some.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:15

I think you just froze up. Hopefully we didn't lose him. We'll see what happens, guys and gals. He just locked up again. It's probably just where he's at. But yeah, I imagine when he goes, he's talking about he may hit the west coast. He would like to uh hit that soon. And uh I'm sure he knows Mike Clacy, so you know you know if you're to get out to the West Coast, it'd be nice to go up to um Oregon and and Washington and do some gigs. But yeah, I think we may have lost John again. I don't know. We'll see. It still froze up, but we'll see what happens here. Give it a second. If not, he can get back out and come back in. I don't know why we're having troubles today, but we are. Yeah, we lost him. He'll be back. He'll be back here in just a second, ladies and gentlemen. Um but anyway, until he gets back, um uh just want to let you know we we definitely got a lot. Wolf and I both have a lot of people that we're gonna be uh still gotta go through. So there's a lot of bands. If you're hearing me talk and I have not got back to you, I'm trying to not forget and trying to knock it out. But I've got a lot of people to call and try. Uh I need to probably sometime this week or next week start doing a calendar to where I I go ahead and start mapping this out because we've definitely got a lot of people. Anyone who's hearing me that has not been reached out by me. Um if you would like to be interviewed, and it doesn't matter, I you everyone knows I do music side of things uh one day a week. Everyone knows that um let me resend him an invite again. In case that link is problematic. Um but anyway, the uh everyone also knows that I am doing the special needs podcasting as well. Um I have not forgotten about the special needs thing. I know I don't do as many of them as I do the music side of things. I'm kind of taking that one slow because there's uh like I've said before, there's a little bit more red tape when you're dealing with the special needs community. So it's not as easy to set up shows as it is, like for instance, with John here, which hopefully I can get him back in. Um you know, it's not as easy dealing with uh the special needs community. There's more red tape that you gotta kinda gotta walk through. Um you definitely want to talk to family more and stuff, because that's just a different animal. But um but I've done two episodes thus far, so if you're interested in seeing special needs people, I wanted to give them a platform on my podcast to talk and brag about their self. Um people who are not interested in hearing uh people with special needs talk about their lives, then they don't have to watch. But I I don't really recall ever seeing anyone giving a platform for the special needs community, and I want to do that. So I want I I think the special needs community, or we can learn a lot from people with special needs, whether it be Down syndrome, whether it be autism, uh TBI patients, uh fetal alcohol syndrome. I mean, uh there's the list of you know, CP, the list goes on and on. So you know, I had a near and dear friend uh when I was growing up who had cerebral palsy, and um I'll tell you what, super, super intelligent. He got over his adversities. He went on to work for his family business, which was an engineering firm, and uh he ended up doing that and taking care of business for quite a while. There he is, and uh there we go, he's back. So anyway, um I was just kind of broke off while I was getting you back talking about the the the different podcasts that I'm doing, and for anyone interested, that's whether there's a special needs community, because I don't know if I told you, but I do special needs podcasting too because never really thought of anybody that that allowed them to talk and brag about their lives. And I just think it would be cool to give them that same experience that a lot of other people get. Right, exactly. So um so yeah, I see you you ejected from the driver's seat and you're now in the back. Um I don't know, can you pan your camera? Do you it do you feel comfortable showing your humble abode to everyone?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:58

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:01

I've never been inside a sprinter van, but it looks to me like above you and stuff, there's all sorts of looks like there's tons of things where you could actually secure in various, I guess, storage units or yeah, it's almost like they build it to where you can put shelving and oh, I see what you did with your bed. Yeah, dude, that turned out good, bro. And it's just a regular wood frame you did, and then that yeah, see how you've got all your space to put your gear underneath where it's out of sight, out of mine.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

Right, and I I still have room to put the couch right here and everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:34

You sure the hell, yeah, you do got enough room. You could definitely put a college fridge in there, yeah. So, you know, a generator would be something that would be kind of nice, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:43

Yeah, and see, I have like places for like shelves and stuff like that, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:49

So that's what them little, yeah, that's what that's cool as shit. I've never been on the inside of one. Yeah, I've always thought they were nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

Heck yeah, that's where I put like I just put like little stuff here and there and for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:06

I mean it works. Definitely works, and that's a big enough bed that you know oh yeah. That's definitely a big enough bed where you got I mean it it's not it's a nice little setup. Now, do you ever get bothered? Do people bother you much when you're uh when you're kind of pulled over? I mean, at the Love's truck stop, they're not gonna fool with you, I would assume.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:28

I mean, not too much. I mean, like, it does happen. Sometimes you like sometimes you'll have people knocking on your your uh yeah your window at 2 30 in the morning, which is usually the typical lock lizard or something somebody, you know, that's broke down, you know. But um, but it not a whole lot. I've only had I've had one incident, and I had, I was actually up here, or not up here, but I was I was actually sitting in my van and this guy starts knocking on the on the door, and I was like, you know, I was just kind of ignoring him. He opens up my passenger seat or my passenger door, and I run to the front and I was like, get out of here. He's like, have you seen those purple frogs in the in the grass over there? Oh, god dang. And so I backed out and I'm like freaking out. So I backed out. I locked the doors. I um when they shut the door and I backed out. And when I did, I was coming in where I was trying to go out where they were coming in. And I was like, because I was just I wasn't thinking. And then um this guy, I as I was backing out to go around the right way, the guy grabs a squeegee and starts running towards my vehicle like this. And I'm like, what? So I yeah, it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:02

So what do you end up doing? Running up there and then squeegee in your windows.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

No, no, so I got I just left and uh I looked at my phone for the next truck stop and it was like 221 miles. I was like, man, so I could so I like I'm not the I'm not the kind of guy that calls a cop, but I had to I had to sleep, you know. So I called, I called the law. I was like, look, man, I was like, I don't, I was like, there's not a Walmart around here. I'm a country artist. I said, I'm just trying to get some sleep. I said, I've got to show the next day. I said, and the next truck stops 221 miles down the road. Well, anyway, they came up there and they transported him. So, but yeah, because he he was already the they were they had already had somebody called out. I guess he was trying to mess with somebody else too, but yeah, it was it was wild. That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:52

Yeah. Now, do you ever stay in any of the uh rest areas like the uh you know how the ones when you go into new states, you always you generally have rest areas all over the place. Oh yeah. Uh do you ever get to stay in those or do they not really allow that?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:07

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They do. Like it and it's cool, you know. Like if you if you need somewhere to rest, if you need somewhere to sleep, that's perfect. Um, the only thing is about the rest areas, rest areas don't have showers. And so a lot of times, like when I get up the next morning, a lot of times, you know, I've either been driving all night, I had a show and been driving all night, and I usually won't get to the truck stop till like two or three o'clock in the morning. And then when I get when I actually get somewhere and get parked, I got to get up the next morning and then take a shower and kind of get ready for the day. So it's not like, you know, sometimes it's hard because like when you go to truck stops, you know, and you know, shout out to our truckers and stuff like that for what they do. Um, but a lot of times, like if you if you go up, say I got a show at seven, if you're trying to get a shower at three or four o'clock in the morning, it ain't happening. You're gonna, I mean, three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it's not gonna happen because because like you've got all these truckers that are coming in and they've got showers too, and you you've got a two-hour wait. Well, you got a show at seven. And so, like, you're kind of cutting it close if you get out, get a shower and get out by six, and you gotta be up there at seven. And then, like, my real thing is like when I go play somewhere, and this is this is just me, this is you know, kind of what I've learned on the road. When I go somewhere to go play, I'm three, I'm three hours early. It only takes me 10 minutes to set up, but I'm three hours early. Because what I do is is I'll go in there and I'll go, you know, I'll grab something to eat, I'll go grab a beer and I'll hang out with the crowd. I'll get a feel for the crowd. And I'll just start talking to everybody, like, hey, you know, where y'all from? Where you what do y'all like to do? And once you, once you get to know these people, once you really get to know people and know their likes or dislikes, you don't have to ask them what they want to hear tonight. You already know. You talk to somebody and they're like they're like um, say they're a farmer, or or say say they're a blue collar, say they're a welder, a construction marker, or uh, you know, whatever, like you kind of you get to know them and you get to know their vibe. And I and it even goes as crazy as this. So recently, Lord please forgive me for what I'm about to say. I got I had a show in Augusta, Georgia, and I said, I said, I said, yeah, I said you're gonna be playing up here uh at the Masters. And I was like, what is the Masters? Yeah, so they they told me, you know, and uh I was just like, ah so and that was that was a little nerve-wracking because when I pulled in, dude, I'm you know, I I usually don't, I mean, I'm I don't wear this shirt a whole lot. But a lot of times, like when I go somewhere, I usually have a nice vest, maybe a camo shirt under it or something like that. But I've got a black vest and everything and and um that I wear. But dude, I was the only one in the house that didn't have a polo on. Like it was like it was classy, like everybody was pulling up in these nice black SUVs and everything else. And I mean, they look like they just got back from the Masters. So they look like they're at the Masters, you know? And so I went up there to go play, and I got there and I got to talking to some of these people, and I was like, Oh, I was talking to this one lady, like she was a nurse, this one guy was a doctor, this other dude, that's what he did for a living. He played golf. And I was like, You like to fish? And it's like, yeah. He's like, Yeah, we go all the time. I was like, You like to hunt? He's like, Yeah. And so uh, so I was sitting there looking at him, and he was looking at me, and uh, I started playing um Hank Williams Jr., country state of mind, and he was all about it, man. He was like he was he was in there, you know. Um, or like um, and even someone to your like your newer school, like like I was talking to a um a veterinarian one time, and she was like, Yeah, I'm a country artist. And she was like, Yeah, she's like, I really like I really like Morgan Wallen and I really like Hardy. Well, Hardy grew up two hours from where I grew up, and uh really, yeah, and so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:31

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

Yeah, he grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and I'm I'm from Tupelo, or I'm from I'm from Morville, right beside Tupelo. But um, they used to have a water park where uh where uh where he lived around where he lives that we used to go to all the time. And so um, and so when uh when she was telling me all that, I was like, I'm gonna play her some hardy, some old school hardy. And then when I went in from that and then play some Morgan Wallin off, she was all about it. Like, you know, so I don't like I like to be the guy that knows it without them knowing that I know it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:13

That's awesome. Yeah. Now let's see. Um we tell see, we covered all well. That's good. I covered my notes. Now, the one thing I was trying to do, and I I have to learn how to do this, so you'll have to forgive me. Hopefully, I can eventually get this done. I was trying to find some like a video or something that you have done to display your music to people, but I'm I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Every time I try to download it, see, I I know how to achieve what I did with the pictures and stuff. I know how to do it through my stream yard through I'm on a Mac, so I have to do it through that uh finder. Well, I have to put in downloads, and I can never I can't seem to get the shit into downloads where I can pull it up and and play it. So anytime I played music videos, people had sent me, and uh, and of course, I didn't really have time to to do that with you today, sadly. But um but where can people find you, brother? Like what what what all platforms are you on uh to where they can find your music? Uh what's the best source for them to start with so they can see what John Major is all about?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:24

So you can go online right now and you can type on John Major and uh John Major Music, um Jay uh John with a H major like the general, and then so you type in John Major Music, and you can go on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. They're all under John Major Music. You can find me on there, and then on Spotify, you can find me under John Major. Um, I'm you can't miss me, I'm the big dude with the guitar, and so uh, but uh, and I'm I've never been the prime minister for Britain or or coached our coach the uh Tennessee volunteer has never done that either. So but uh but anyway, yeah. I mean you could uh you can find me out like that, and you know, um you can also find me on OnlyFans, but uh don't worry, they pay me to keep my clothes on.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:24

So do they really allow that shit on OnlyFans? They do just like music too and stuff. Uh no, no, so it's always gonna I do that wouldn't surprise me because I'm old, so I'm dumb. I don't know, but I was trust me, dude. That would be hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:41

I was the same, okay. So we have the same mindset here. I was sitting there thinking the exact same thing when OnlyFans first come out. So, and and mind you, I was married at the time, and so I downloaded OnlyFans, and like I started sending them this profile, and I was like playing music, and uh, and it was about six months later, I was like, man, I ain't I can't catch no luck off this. You know, most of my biggest stuff right now is like on TikTok, Facebook, like that. And uh my wife at the time, she asked me, she's like, You have an OnlyFans? I was like, Yeah, she's like, What do you put on there? I was like, music? And she was like, She's like, Do you have your clothes on?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:24

And I'm like, Yeah, why would I be naked? So, yeah, so it's uh so there is there is a I think it's still I think there is still uh OnlyFans out there swimming around, but it's yeah, I kind of I kind of took it down. Yeah, that is hilarious. Now, do you uh now you say you're on TikTok. Obviously, TikTok is another very big platform right now. Um do you ever go live do lives or anything on TikTok?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:57

I do, and you know what, to be honest with you, I need to be I 100% need to be more personal um with with my audience, with my fans and stuff like that. And and like I said, it it's it's hard sometimes. It just they just they just um Vuckin has has my stuff, you know, like my my attention most of the time now. Um, but yes, absolutely. Um the lot last couple times I went live on TikTok, we had like two, three thousand people there, and it was cool. And like all I was doing was just sitting on this bed playing guitar. And like, you know, every now and then like I'll stop or I'll tell people why I wrote this song or whatever. Um, and I've got a I'm telling you what, I've got enough songs to last me 10 years. Like, I could I could literally put out an album every week for the next 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:54

Like, I've I've got that many songs that you've put out, I'm like, holy shit, that's a lot of yeah, and it's a lot of music to remember too. Golly, and that's not even counting covers because I'm sure you still probably incorporate some covers when you're when you're doing your shows, correct? Or are you absolutely original?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:14

No, um, you know, I in a way, I would love to see what it was like to have an original show. I would I would just I'd be all over that, but uh to be honest with you, what I do is and and I have a little pattern I have in my head, and also another thing too, I never read from a phone, I never read from a tablet tablet. I try to be as as professional as I could possibly be, not knocking the people that have phones or tablets, but that's just in in in my act, in my performance, that's just something that I don't do. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:49

Whereas me, I'd be like, I'd probably have one at least if anything over to the side where I could be like my old dementiated ass, be like, where was I at again? Oh, yeah, I know where I'm at. Okay, you know. Keep keep myself on course, so I get I feel you. But um dude, and that's impressive to have that many songs, and you have to put that to memory. That's a lot, that's a whole lot. Plus, all the cover songs that you've done, like out of all the covers, what would be your favorite cover that you you you like to go to when you're doing your shows?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:21

Help me hold on by Travis Tripp. Um that's probably that's probably my best one. Great song. And and and that song alone, like I was a big Travis Tritt fan. I mean, I still am, but I was I was a big Travis Tritt fan when I was a kid when I first started. There's a I don't I don't even know if it's still around anymore, but there's an old VHS tape. When I was a little kid, I had like a little rat tail, and I was singing here's a quarter, you know, running around and everything. And um I've always been a big fan of Travis Tritt. And uh, you know, I that that song just is always always hit me in the right right time. And then so a lot, so I've played it a lot, and then um that's probably my best one. A lot of people ask me, like, what's your best cover song? And when I play that one, it's it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:12

That's that is a really good one. That's a really good one. Now, do you ever do covers because I know this can be some artists may think it's tricky, some may not. Right. Do you ever do cover songs that were originally performed and written by a female, but you have added your own kind of swing to it and brought it around and actually performed it as a cover on some of your shows?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:38

Yes and no. Um, I I haven't done that as much as probably what I should have should be doing. Um, but there is a song um by Dolly Parton um and Porter Wagner um called Rock and Chair.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:57

Oh wow, that's a good song. I haven't heard that in years.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:01

So, like the way that I play the song, the way that I play that song, it's more of it's more of the bluesy vibe. It's not like like and I try and I'm I'm a gold country uh fan through and through, but I just kind of put my own little spin on it. Um I know it sounds crazy, but that was my mom and dad song growing up. Um, or when I was growing up, that was their song. And so I played that song probably a million times, and I was like, Well, what if we play it like this? And so I just started I started kind of um kind of putting the A minor on it and everything else. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:37

That's cool. Yeah, that's real, that's really cool. Yeah, that song, God man, I have not heard that song. Yeah, it's been it's been uh probably over 20 years since I've heard that song. It's been a long time. Yeah, I might have to give that a listen again because that that brings back nostalgic memories of me too, because my parents, I grew up, they did the they were definitely in the the old country, you know, your Johnny Cash's and your Chris Christopherson's Whalens and Willie and all that good jazz. And oh yeah, and of course, of course, my you know, my dad was all country, and then my mom, she was all she loves country, but she also got into the she got into some of the rock too. So she definitely loved the Beatles, like which I think every fucking woman on earth did. Same with and same with Elvis, I think every woman loved Elvis and you know all that good jazz. But um then she would do other stuff like the Carpenters and Starship and stuff like that, you know. And then of course the old 70s classics, your C C Rs and all that stuff, too. But um now other than let's see, other than Travis Tritt, who do you have any other influences that you really that have really kind of been a huge part of what you're m molding yourself into into this career?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:58

I'd say Justin Moore. Like Justin Moore was definitely one of the to me is like one of probably one of the most underrated country music artists there are. I mean, the guy the guy's got 14 number ones. What I like about Justin Moore is Justin Moore is small town. A lot of people's like, yeah, I'm from a little town, but if you listen to his songs and you listen to the way that he just says stuff, he is a he is, you know, he is a small town. And I feel like Justin Moore stands for a lot of people um that are not heard a lot of the times. Um so cool story about that. When I was 20, 22, 23 years old, I always wrote songs. I always like that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't know. But and people's always told me my whole life, like uh, you know, Nashville has songwriters, they got singers, you know, nobody ever just goes out there and makes it. Well, like I had written this song, so Justin had this song called Old Red Rit Nick Reason, um, with him and Charlie Daniels singing on the song. And so thing is about Justin Moore, he has a like when you listen to his songs, his outros are kind of long. Like we're talking 30, 40 second outros. Um, so I so I was listening to that outro when I was and I wrote this little part. And uh, so I went to Justin Moore's concert, off the beat and path tour concert out in Tupelo, Mississippi, and I got a meet and greet. And uh so I got back there and I was like, I'm gonna do some of the craziest thing ever. And so I was going through the meet and greet, everybody standing on. We're talking about mile-long. I love it. We got up to Justin Moore and I shook his cold hands and I said, Justin, I said, look, man, I said, I've always, I said, I'm a songwriter. I said, um, you know, um I've I've always wanted to do what you're doing. And I said, I've got this line that I wrote. And I said, I don't know if I'm good enough. And that he looks at me and he says, let's hear it. And I was like, and I said, well, I work 40 plus down at the local mill. I get my beer from the county line and my liquor from my moonshine still. You best believe on a Friday. Well, I'm gonna have me a few, and maybe I shouldn't get rowdy, but for some old redneck reason, I do. And what does he say? 2D looks at me and he's like, man, I love that. And I was like, that push me, that like that that opened a whole new door for me. I was like, I could actually do this, you know, and so um ironic as it is, uh, I was out in the middle of Arkansas, out in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and I was calling up everybody, and I was like, man, I gotta get a show. Well, I called up this country club, uh, and it was right down the road. It's called uh Malvern in Malvern, Arkansas. And I was calling up everybody and I was like, yeah. It's like, can I come play? And they were like, Yeah, like we'll give you, you know, whatever. And I come up there and they're giving me 400 bucks to play for three hours. And I was like, okay, all right, so we'll do it. So I went out there and I went and started playing. And I was like, I want I just want to tell everybody, it's like Justin, like I've always looked up to Justin Moore. It's just one of my somebody I've looked up to my whole life. I said, check this song out, and I wrote this song for him. The whole room got real quiet. And I'm playing that song. They were like, I got done. They were like, hell yeah, that's that's pretty, that's badass, man. And they was like, Did you know that Justin is a member of this country club? And I was like, I was like, no way. I was like, yeah, I was like, get out of here. Dude, I was like, get out of here. It looks so they were showing me like pictures, like, like he brought like they so Justin does a lot of stuff for like his his daughter's um school and stuff. He does a lot of stuff for like their baseball teams. Um, he bought he bought the school a lawnmower one time, like he does a lot of stuff for the community. And so him and his daughter uh were coming up there and they were they were playing, they did a whole benefit for him. And every time that he has come to that country club, I have missed him every time for two years. And I played up there for two years in his hometown. Check this out. So his hometown is right beside Malvern, Arkansas, called Poeen. And if you ever go to Poeen, they have a statue of him or whatever, uh, like kind of on a rock. And I was sitting, yeah, and so I went out there and I remember one time I just got back from uh it was Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, one of them ones. But anyway, I came up there and I had played through and I got there and I was gonna start playing. And um, and I'm sitting here with this beach shirt on and it's raining, man. And I'm trying to make this video like you know, he's he's always been a big part of my life, whatever, and you're gonna make this video. And I stand inside of a fire ant bed, and I'm literally hopping around on one foot with a crock in my hand, slapping it as I'm sitting there, uh standing out there in front of the statue, and there's cars driving by and everything else. And I I bet you people thought I was crazy, man. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:56

But no, have you have you got a chance to meet him since? You know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:01

And this is this is the ironic parting up. Like I've been um I went to a thing called CRS. I've been past two years. Uh actually, when I signed my first publishing deal, that's where they say I got discovered, you know, and um and everything. And uh I was just in Billboard magazine uh about my publishing deal and everything else. And um, but when I went up there, I met his manager. Like I like I know I know his manager and stuff, and I got some of his contacts and stuff like that. But but to be, I just want my biggest thing, I want I want just 30 minutes to talk to this guy. Like, dude, like he's the one that pushed me to come through this and and everything else and do some of the most unthinkable stuff I could I could have ever imagined. And like, if and and and and this is where the shift is. If Justin would have told me that day, well, that sounds like shit, or you need to you need to do better than that.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:01

I'm gonna fucking wreck you.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:03

Dude, I'd still be in, I'd still be in the welding shop, man. Like I I would I would literally still be in the welding shop. But and it it might have like it might it might have not been the best, but like I was like just that little bit of hope that he gave me, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:21

That was that was awesome. That was a hell of a compliment.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:24

Thank you, yeah. And like just that little bit of hope just just pushed me, man. And then you know, the late great Toby Key said one time, he said, you might be able to outsing me, you might be able to outright me, you may be able to outperform me, but you'll never be able to outwork me. And that's something that I live by every single day.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:43

Well, and that is that I mean, it's uh just look look at your situation. Proof in the is in the pudding right there, folks. I mean, John's traveling around making gigs as he goes, living in his sprinter van for a month or two at a time before circling back and having a little bit of RR at home in Nashville. I mean, you gotta tip your hat to you. So, Justin Moore, if you're out there listening, which I know you're not because no one knows who the fuck Bones is, but if you're out there if this gets to you, it gets to your desk, look up John. You remember you'll remember him. Fucking put him on one of your damn shows sometime and let this young man hang out with you, let him rock the fucking show with you. At least one gig. Give him one gig. Yeah, you know, there it is. You know, he'll never Justin won't see it, and he'll be like, Who the fuck's bones? Fuck that old dude. But maybe you never know, brother. What if? Because if he gave you that compliment, I mean just just think how cool would that be to be put on a even if it's just one show, one arena show with him, the opener. You could be the very first act, who gives a shit? But you're there and you could do that that one song that you added, you know, maybe do one song with him and and him come out on stage and do like a little duet with you. That would be fucking cool as shit, man. Yeah, absolutely. Justin Moore. And he seems like a cool dude. I mean, every interview I've ever seen, Justin Moore seems like a stand-up guy. Like he's he definitely I I I totally can see what you mean by he's kind of the small town hero guy. Yeah, like he's that small town guy, and uh there's a lot to be said to me anyway about small town small town people because generally these people are more down to earth. And that's what I love, like having you on. And I want to thank you for being on the show. Oh man. Thanks for taking time out of your day when you could be doing something else that's probably more productive. But thanks for giving me a chance to interview you because I think a lot of these people too, the the up and coming I'm having so much fun doing up and comers because you all are so humble and so genuine. And um and I I just love that. I mean, the people I've met so far, and you included, are just outstanding. So thank you so much for taking time out of your day to spend with me on this podcast. Because this podcast is it's got a long way to go, but it's I'm having fun doing it, and so far it seems like it we're making traction.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:25

So we'll see, and right, and I appreciate you having me, man. It's it's always it's always fun to come on and hang out and everything else. And and there's a lot of people out there that don't know my story. A lot of people think that I'm just some dude that just drives around the country and plays music. Yeah, but you know, there's a lot more to him than that. But you know, like I'll tell you this much, and and I tell people this all the time, and it wouldn't matter if I had five million dollars in my bank account or I've got five cents. Um, but it's kind of like this. Um I'm not I'm not this big, rich, fancy, famous guy. I'm not I'm not viral on TikTok every day. Um, but in my hometown, like I'm somebody, you know. I go to Tupelo sometimes, um, and I'll go eat, and I'll go see the family, I'll go see some of my friends, and I'll sit down at the bar, and that's where I hang out because that's I got a lot of friends that that hang out at the bar. And there's a place called mugshots. And if you ever ever been to Tupelo, go to mug shots, probably one of the best hamburgers you ever had in your life. Um, crazy hamburgers, too. They've got a peanut, they've got a peanut butter and jelly burger and a macaroni burger and all kinds of stuff. But but anyway, when I go in there um and I sit down, I've had people stop me in the middle of man, can I can I like dude? You're blowing up, man. Can I get your autograph? Can can we get pictures together? Can can you can you tell my niece happy birthday? Can you call my little sister and you know, or whatever? And will you FaceTime my friend? And here's the here's the thing, and I tell people this all the time. Um, somebody asked me, does that not bother you? And I'm like, these people, right, these people, those people, they're paying my bills.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:21

And you know, like put yourself in their shoes. If if Hank Williams Jr. or Morgan Wallin or or um or Justin Moore, how would how would you expect for them to act? And I mean, like, yeah, we do this and and everything. I play music, and yeah, I got, you know, I I have stuff that I like to do, you know, or whatever. And you know, sometimes people have bubbles. I mean, everybody's got one, but but the thing is that those guys are listening to my music, they're paying my bills, they're coming to my shows. And I mean, if I would be the guy to come to their house and just work on their fence if they needed help, you know. I'm still the guy that's gonna pull over on the side of the road if they're broke down and help them change a flat tire. Because it's not only is it the right thing to do, but one of the biggest things that I've probably that I've probably that's probably one of the worst things about me, um, it's not bad, but whatever. But I try to see myself. I try to see the best in everybody. I try to put myself in their shoes, how they, you know, yeah, and and people take advantage of that. But you know what? I've also learned too that not to let the bad apples affect your day, you know, um, or affect the way you act towards other people. Because one of these days you might be in the same mood as they are, but you might need just as much as help as the next person.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:01

Yeah, and I can get that. I mean, I could only fathom that it can get frustrating at times, I guess, because you know, especially if you're just like you say, sometimes you're everybody, we're human, we are we're in an off mood, and it's just like, oh, I really don't feel like talking to anybody today. Right. But you sound very much like Billy Bob Thornton. And Billy Bob Thornton, I watched an interview with him one time, and he was and they they they kind of asked a similar question. They were like, you know, hey, you know, do you how do you feel about people coming up? And he's like uh he goes, uh I love it. And they're like, Well, don't you get tired of it? And he's like, Yeah, but he said, But you know, the big thing is these people put my kids through college. He's like, these people gave me the opportunity to do what I'm doing. He goes, I owe them everything. And he's right, because without him, I mean, he would be no different than anybody else. He would work a you know, a nine to five job or whatever, you know. And uh so it's it's cool that you've got that humble abode about you because you sound very similar, but but uh you're gonna you're gonna be something someday too. I mean, you've got a lot of talent, and that's why I tell people all the time, I said, Man, you know, these podcasts, it's it's cool because the up and comers I get the opportunity to interview because most of them have enough time on their hands or they're like, Yeah, fuck it, why not? Why why not be on this guy's no name fucking podcast? You know, because but my podcast, it may not ever become anything, but it could. But on the same token, I'm getting a chance to talk to you and I'm helping you introduce you to people who may not know who you are, and you may be their next Toby Keith. You may be their next Travis Tritt. And um I mean, how cool would it to be once you do break free and you're so big you're like bones who, you know? It's like ah yeah, it's like, but the cool thing is I can be like, yeah, I got to interview him what when he was starting his propulsion up. And I got the opportunity to sit and talk to him for almost two hours now. And uh, so I'm very privileged to have the opportunity to be able to speak to you, and I'm really blessed that you took time out of your day to give me a shout and uh give me a chance and to be on this show. And you know, hopefully as things grow, um more and more exposure comes out of it. And the way I see it is if if you pick up just one follower from from this show, then that was a win. That's the way I look at it. So um, but um very much love and respect to you, uh, especially with the way you're doing it, man. I tell you what, it takes a lot of cojones to do what you're doing, especially doing it alone and wearing all those hats. It's gotta be exhausting. So um so you know, if somebody does meet him, cut him some slack, because you know what? He's he's doing a lot of work to bring you good music. So everybody, please, if you're watching the podcast, or for those who will watch it in this upcoming future, um please look at John, check out his stuff. He gave you links, you can find him on all sorts of different social media platforms. Um I'm assuming you're on Spotify, Apple Music, all that good jazz, too. I am so finding, give him a listen. Um every listen you do benefits him. But also, again, you may find your next favorite guy. He may be looking you right in the face right now and you don't even know it. So give him a chance, give him a follow, and give him likes. Those are things that I preach about all the time on here for people like John, for people like help, for even like me with this podcast, my guy like James Lucre, Wolf Bear with her podcast. I always try to take all of Us little people because because everyone is little when they start. We're all little. Everybody's got to grow to make it make it big. And some people make it and some don't. And so far, this is a fun journey, but for him, I want to see him make it. This is his livelihood. This is what he does. So give him a like and give him a follow. It doesn't cost anything to follow somebody. I have that hard time getting people to hit that follow button. You know, and it's just like just go there and just give it a follow. What's it gonna hurt? Give it a follow, give it a listen. You're helping the smaller people become known and be seen. And uh so please do that for uh for everybody, all of your artists go and and give them some support. Um, anything you would like to add, any other links? Um, anything else you would like to plug? Um maybe even plugging things that you may be in your head that haven't really become a reality yet that you want to kind of push, like say maybe uh an album or a single or an EP. Like what what do you got in your up in that brain of yours that you haven't quite made in to fruition yet, but that you're wanting to kind of pursue?

SPEAKER_02 1:51:14

To be honest with you, man, um, you know, with the economy and everything, everything's been ever been everything's been a lot tighter than than usual. Um I'm I'm I'm waiting to record some music. I've got all the music in the world. It's just, you know, it it costs money to record. Um, but I've got I've got some new music coming out. And it and if you liked, if you if you even halfway like the last the lot the last project that I did, this new project is definitely gonna blow you out of the water. Um, but I would say this, you know, as far as a person, as far as an artist, um, as far as a songwriter, um, I'm just I just bring the day-to-day life, uh, stories, and um, and maybe up and in some songs even uplifting. You know, um, I don't I don't say this enough, and I know it's kind of funny, but I'm never I could have dementia today and I'll never forget Cole Ford because when um when Waffle House first came out, I went through my first heartbreak. And I was like eight, I was like 17, 18 years old, and I heard Waffle House for the first time. And that is like one of very few songs that I've ever listened to where I was just like, I'm not even mad no more. Like I'm not even hurt no more. I listened to that song again, and I'm like, I'm doing better now. And that that's that's yeah. So that's that's powerful. That's a powerful song right there. And so I that's that's what I want to bring to the table. You know, and I do touch, I do, I do also touch base on like mental health and stuff like that. Um, because I tell people all the time, you know, um, anxiety, doubt, fear, worry, um, it's a it's a big issue right now. Um, but it doesn't define who you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:16

No. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:18

Amen. So you know, and so I've got that's uh that's kind of a plug for a new song that I that I've got that I'm gonna be putting out too. Uh it's called Define Me. But um, but but it and it just it just pretty much talks about your day-to-day life, you know, um like that for mental awareness. It it doesn't define who you are, that that you can power through anything. Um, and then, you know, um, and everything. And one more thing that I do want to say, I want to, I want to thank, uh, thank you for having me on here. I really appreciate it, man, to giving us an opportunity, giving, you know, um, independent artists uh opportunity to come up here and come talk to come hang out with you and come talk and whatever. And um, and I appreciate everybody else that came up in here. Um, and if um if there's anything that I could do, or if you, you know, um I could send you to a link or whatever, if you got a song request or whatever, or even even if it's an old song that I wrote a long time ago that you've seen online that you'd like for me to play or whatever, I'd I'd be willing to do that. Uh, and also, too, most importantly, no matter where you're at, I don't care if you're in Maine or Georgia or New York City or California or Washington, D.C. If you have a place that you would like for me to play, let me know, and I'll come up there and play just for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:49

Well, there you have it, folks. And you can find him. He does accept um instant message, correct? Am I still correct about that? So he does accept instant messages. So again, if you're a venue and you know of people, he travels. You see him in a sprinter van, he gets all over the place. He's willing to go and come to you. So reach out to him, show him, get him some, get him some gigs because the more this young man is seen, the faster he's gonna climb to the top. And um, you're putting in the work, brother. So I gotta tip my hat to you. I mean, traveling in that van is gotta be it's gotta be have its trials and tribulations to it, but you you're doing it because you are you're hellbent and determined to succeed, and that's why I I can see in the future you will. Yeah, you'll be uh you'll end up on a ticket with Justin Moore or hell, even Colt Ford, man. Uh Colt Ford, if you're out there listening, I know you don't know who the fuck Bones is and don't care either, but but uh you know if you're out there listening too, you you heard him talk about you, man. You have a show, reach out to this young man and see if he's gonna be in your area with one of your shows. Maybe he can be an opener. Maybe you can you can do a song with him or something and uh show this young man some love and get him some propulsion going on here. So so brother man, I'm so glad you you're on it. It was nice chatting with you on the phone the other day, but it's it's nice to be able to look you uh in the face while I'm talking, while we're talking, and actually see you. And um it I I feel like this was a very fun show, and thanks for giving us you know, letting us see your van. I didn't want to show the pictures of the outside of your new van because I don't want people to see what it looks like, you know. I don't want you to be stocked in a Walmart parking lot and be next thing you know, they're on the news here. Country singer sensation John Major was accosted in a Walmart parking lot, and while he was in his sprinter van, I didn't want any of that, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:53

I ain't got no cream pies, but I I ain't got I got I ain't got no free candy or cream pies back. I got all the songs you want.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:59

There you go. And he has written a plethora of songs, as you all heard. So, well, I guess that's about the two-hour mark. Um, I guess we'll go ahead and get ready and wrap this episode up. That way, John's got he's gotta get back to work doing, yeah, put on yet another fucking hat and start doing some uh try to figure out where he's gonna make that next uh next stop or two while he's here near near me here in uh Louisville. He's in Richmond, Kentucky. So I'm not exactly sure where where he may or may not get picked up, but uh keep an eye on his site if you're in this proximity, because you never know. He may land a quick gig for this weekend, say. And he may end up, who knows where he could end up in the state of Kentucky. He may be near you. And if he is, if you ain't got nothing going on, go check this young man out. You uh will not be disappointed. So, John, fucking pleasure, bro. Dude, thank you so much for it. Really nice, really nice. Uh, if you ever want to be back on again, especially in the future, you know, who knows, man. You may drop an album, you may, you may end up doing a video, whatever. If you want to uh show it, um feel free to let me know because I mean, hell, we can either redo an episode like this, we could put you on Wolf's show as well. Um we like to feed off each other to help with numbers. So, like she's been in the room pretty much the whole time uh before her interview. So she didn't get to be a part of it this time. However, I guarantee you she still kind of even sent it to her side, so you have extra people that are seeing this besides just the small numbers that I have. But every day we are growing our numbers a little bit bigger and bigger. So uh, again, everybody, please check out John Major. Um, he's gonna be traveling all over, so we're not gonna tell you what a sprinter van looks like, but he may end up in a town near you. So uh so definitely check that young man out. And uh again, brother, it was great. It was great talking to you, and I really appreciate you giving me the time of day to to take two hours out of your busy schedule to uh talk with everybody. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:10

Well, I thank you for having me, man. It's been a lot of fun, and and like I said, I I a lot a lot of these stories that I told you, especially, you know, like the you know, um, you know, like the kangaroo and all that other stuff. There's a lot of stuff stories that I that people don't know. So it was cool to get to get it, get on here and kind of share that out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:30

And I'm trying to get better at learning how to do this stuff so I can do stuff. So looking at your stuff to try to make for interesting shows. So and but the Joey one, I definitely was like, I saw that picture and I was like, Yep, I gotta ask him what's going on about that. And I think we just lost him again. So we've had definitely had a little bit of some problems, it's probably where he's at, you know, or living inside of his, you know, his um uh whatever you call those big ass vans. But um sometimes I think reception can be a huge issue. And I don't know if he'll be back now that we were getting ready to wrap up or not, but we'll see. And uh we'll see if he'll we'll see if he comes back in. But until then, uh if not, remember give likes, give follows to all your favorite people that are up and comers. The up and comers need this, we all need it. So uh uh give them a like, give them a follow. Um following numbers, there's John, he's back. There we go. Man, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:37

Every time somebody calls me, ah, well, oh there you go. I reject the call and it's yeah, every time somebody calls me, like I reject the call, and then it like it won't go back. And then earlier when it went out the last time, my I I was sitting in the driver's seat and my phone had done got pretty hot because it's over there in front of the window. Oh and it was yeah, so I'm I I'm so sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:04

No, no, no, it's it's all fine, dude. That's the glory about the unfiltered podcast, man. Is you know, I don't edit shit because I don't know how to yet. So it's live, it is what it is. If people don't like organic and that there's problems, then then change the channel. That's fine. Yeah, right. It doesn't make no difference to me. We want people in here that want to be in, and if you don't want to be in, well then you know, hey, do you do you, we'll do us. So it's fine. But anyway, I was telling everybody to you know, please look for you. Um, even look for me, you know. If if you're liking the podcast so far, if I I mean people say I do a good job, I'm my worst critic. I'm sure you probably are too, John. 100%. I feel like I'm I'm shit at everything that I do, but apparently there are people that are pushing me as well. It's kind of like your your your uh Justin Moore story. I've got somebody, Pamela Littles, pushing me to kind of do podcasting because she's got faith in it. And if you're liking what you're hearing then again, go to his page, go to my page, go to go to everybody's pages that I deal with. Anyone you've seen on my show, um, my guy, you know, follow all these artists because all of us, every one of us are all up and comers, some some a little further along than others, some have a little bit more clout. However, we're all on that bus of trying to get this train rolling and for everybody's careers to take off. So give them give them a like, give them a follow. It helped. Every little bit helps. You don't have to spend money. Some people like to donate to podcasts, they like to do the whatever the star thing is, or when you're on TikTok. You know, if you see this young man on TikTok playing you some ditties, then then do the send the whatever the hell that shit's called. I don't know. I gotta learn that stuff too. But yeah, these and the hearts and the gifts or whatever the hell they're called, send that stuff if you if if you like what you hear, because every little bit of that helps this young man out. Or people like me, it helps my podcast out to get likes and to get follows and to get stars. It helps to raise a little bit of money for you for what you put out to help you make your show better. In this case, you know, it it you you're you're helping put food on his table. This is this is his job, this is his livelihood. So give him some support and love. And um, I look forward to hopefully we'll get to see you in November in person. That would be really cool to hang out and bullshit at the awards if you can make it. If you can't, then congratulations on all the nominations. And again, if you like John, if you know him, if you want to you know check him out, if you like his music, you want to uh you want to be a part of the process for the award show in November, then again go to Southernlightsentertainment.com. Go in there, hit vote. You can vote now, you can vote often. Um this is all fan voting based, so there's no judges. Um it's all about how many times the fans vote, and we'll tally all voting will end, and you can vote every day for this young man if you want to, but every day is up until sometime in September, then we're gonna cut it off. We're gonna have to tally all the votes, and then November 14th of 2026 is where we'll be when we are at the Oak Grove uh theater in Oak Grove, Tennessee, is when you're gonna find out did this young man win any of the many awards that he's uh he's up for. And just to say it one more time before we get off the air here, just to let you know, for our award show, he's up for Songwriter of the Year for Backwoods Outlaw song. He's up for Song of the Year, which also is for the same song, Backwoods Outlaw. He solo uh male artists of the year and rising star. So he was nominated for a lot of things. So go check him out, vote now, vote often, vote for your other favorites. Whoever you like, vote for these people because they all deserve recognization too. Um so so so definitely show them some love. And John, you be careful on the road. Good luck with landing your gigs uh while you're here near Louisville, and fuck, man. You're you're here near Louisville while you're coming through. They just did Thunder over Louisville here. Yeah, what was it? Uh Saturday. Okay. So we started our two weeks of Derby festivities that shit goes on all the way up through Derby. So uh if you're if you happen to stop in Louisville, you never know. There may be some events or some shit going on that may show of of interest to you. Or check out the damn track, it's a cool place. So uh the dirt, Kentucky Derby is a really historic, really cool place if you've never been. So, but other than that, I guess we'll sign off for now. John, you be safe, my brother. Best of luck. I wish you the all the success in the world in your career, and look forward to uh seeing you and talking to you soon. Well, I think he he just he dropped out again, or we lost him, or he ended. So we're gonna go ahead and wrap up. But thanks to John for taking time out of his day. I want to thank Wolf Vare for uh I want to thank Wolf. There he is. There he's back. I want to thank Wolf Vare for uh all the help of helping me start learning how to podcast. And actually, because of her knowledge, is why I'm able to sit here and talk to John because she made that made my dumbass learn a new skill. Um Miss Janice, thank you for stopping in. Send him to Mike, have him hook up uh at the northbound northbound tap. Oh, so send him to Mike. Probably Mike Clacy is I I think Janice, if memory serves, Janice is a really good friend of Mike Clacy. Um, you know, you probably know who Mike Clacy is, but he is out of Washington and uh does a lot of stuff at like Ponderosa and in uh Portland, Oregon and whatnot. Mike's a super stand-up dude. Um so Miss Janice was saying, definitely check out when you're up that neck of the woods, the northbound tap room. So uh that sounds interesting. I mean, I may have to look into that as well. But uh, but again, y'all find out where this young man's gonna be. Go show him some love and support and check out his music. You will not be disappointed. And I guess that's it. So, as for now, everybody have a great rest of your week. Absolutely and you be careful while you're on the road. And when you get back home for some R, say hi to the family for me. Uh, thank you so much, man. Thank you for having me. You got it, brother. I appreciate you. All right, see you, man. And that's gonna be a wrap, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all.