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Skip Happens Podcast - Every Boot Has a Story!
🎙️ Welcome to the Skip Happens Podcast – Your Backstage Pass to Country Music 🎶
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Skip Happens Podcast - Every Boot Has a Story!
Red: A Song That Brings Us Together
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Introduction to Jet Juergensmeyer
Speaker 1Hello everybody and welcome back. It's another edition of Skip Happens and on the show tonight I'm joined by rising country artist. He's an accomplished actor. Jet Juergensmeyer is with us. You may know him from his roles Last man Standing. He was the voice of Pip the Penguin on Disney's Tots. But tonight we're diving into his latest music. You're going to love this, including his powerful new single. It's called Red, and his genre blending album. It's called the Ride, Phase Two, and I want to hear all about that as well. We're going to hear about this together. From Nashville studios to the Hollywood sets. Jet's storytelling is heartfelt, honest and impossible to ignore. So let's get in it, let's get right into it, let's do it.
Speaker 1What's going on?
Speaker 2man, you know nothing too much. I am in a car, traveling, so I guess that's kind of I guess different than what you're used to having on the show.
Speaker 1You know I've had it both ways, because there's a lot you know, you being an artist and an actor and all that. Of course you're making your rounds and others do the same thing, and whether they're on a bus or in their own car or whatever, it's like dude. I had to pull over so we could do this interview.
Speaker 2It happens. That's exactly what it's like tonight. I'm glad that I could talk to you.
Speaker 1Skip happens, but it's been so long that I knew I had to make this work because we were talking before we went on air. We ran into each other at CRS, but how long has it been since the first time that we talked? You know I should have looked that up and I did not, but I know we've done this before.
Speaker 2It's been a couple of years.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's been a couple of years. Time flies so it might even be three years ago, I don't know. But it is crazy, no-transcript Stressful. So it never seems to get easier the more times that you why? Why is it stressful, not just right off the top? Why why is it stressful?
Speaker 2you know, it probably has something to do with the fact that pretty much every song that I put out is one that I can relate to, so it's personal to me I'm watching this guy walk around you, by the way there you go. I told you before I was like you're gonna see people. I am at a truck stop in north tennessee, so okay, if anybody if anybody happens to see this, if you're here within like the next 30 minutes, you might get to say hi yeah so it's stressful when you're putting a song out there that's personal to you, um, that's your creativity the melody, the lyrics, and then it's it's your voice singing it.
Speaker 2People can not like your voice, uh, I don't think that I, you know, sound like Trisha Yearwood, so I imagine. But so it's always going to be, I think, a little bit stressful, but I think that that's a good thing, because it drives me to keep, uh, it drives me to not be complacent and, uh, too overly confident. It means that I want to keep working and I think it drives my work ethic, which I think is probably my most beneficial thing about me, is the fact that I'm just constantly working.
Speaker 1Yeah, you have a good work ethic, obviously, but let's I mean let's go back a little bit that we're talking about red, but still, I mean with the voiceover work and of course you know Last man Standing and the movies you've been in and all that that you've done. How old were you when you first stepped into that world?
Speaker 2So I did my first ever acting job in Nashville when I was four. So that was kind of the first time I got on stage though I was three. So that was the first time I got on stage though I was three. So I kind of just performing is all I've ever known, it's all I've ever done, whether that be on stage behind a microphone or in front of a camera on a set.
Speaker 2It's all I've known, but I enjoy it. I love it a lot and I'm I'm really blessed. There's a lot of worse jobs out there.
Speaker 1Oh, 100%, no doubt about that. But is there something that you really enjoy more? I mean, you've done the acting, the voiceover, now doing the country music, and you've been doing this for a little bit, but still is there something that you prefer to do overall?
Speaker 2I mean I have hobbies. I have hobbies. I have a lot of friends. You know I see my family. My family and I are really close. I have a very large family, even though I'm an only child. Very large family. So I mean I'm friends with a lot of my family. They're kind of the most important thing to me, especially being an only child. I have a loving girlfriend and so I mean I definitely have things that keep me busy and that I enjoy doing. But as far as a job goes, I do enjoy working on our family farm in Missouri, you know, raising cattle. I was Ted and Hay and Mo and Hay last week, but other than that, right now, 20 years old, I feel like God's really put this entertainment industry just in my path for the foreseeable future.
Early Career and Family Background
Speaker 1At 20,. You've been doing this for 16 years already, Dude, and you're only 20. I get it Now. Where do you call home Missouri?
Speaker 2Nashville's my home, because it's where I was born and raised. But I mean, at least that's what my id says, but uh, raised is kind of where I was raised. I mean, I've been going to california since I was five, so are you considering being raised?
Speaker 2you know the first four years of your life between tennessee and missouri, always going back and forth, because we've always had a place in both. My grandparents are in Missouri and, like I said, I'm really close to my family, so all my family is pretty much in Missouri. So I was raised kind of in the south and the Midwest. I'm a southern Midwest boy at heart and you can kind of hear it in the way I talk a little bit, but I've spent my fair share of time in California.
Speaker 1But I've spent my fair share of time in California. But you spent a lot of time in those other places. But your actual home, because you were born and raised, would be Tennessee Nashville.
Speaker 2Yes, sir, the home of country music, which I'm all too happy about.
Speaker 1Yeah, what do you do in Nashville? Do you get out, do you ever go down on Broadway or anything like that, or do you just avoid the area, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2I think that if you asked any true Nashville native if they go to Broadway, they will tell you no, no, uh, I personally I say this kind of as a joke, but it's also pretty true, unless it's a rare occasion where I have a friend or family member visiting that wants to go see it. I mainly go to Broadway If I'm getting paid. If I'm performing on Broadway or working, then it's worthwhile. But I grew up going down to Broadway back when you could still go to Broadway on a weekend with your seven-year-old kid and it not feel like spring break, exactly, Exactly. But now it's a little bit crazier, which you know. What I'm happy about we're bringing business to my hometown, support local businesses. But, uh, I definitely enjoy when I travel for a living.
Speaker 1I enjoy staying at home and where are you heading back home now?
Speaker 2I am, I was, uh, I was in Texas this weekend, uh, for a George Strait event, uh, raising money for the, uh, the, the flood victims down in Texas. Very so we were there. We were there last night. It was amazing. I think they raised $6.25 million.
Speaker 1Dude you being a part of that. That's huge.
Speaker 2That was super cool. Everybody was Riley Green. Garth stood up and performed.
Speaker 1I mean, was straight there, he was there he performed, he was there his ace in.
Speaker 2the whole band was there and it was phenomenal. So we flew back from Texas this morning to Missouri because we were flying with some family. And now we're driving from Missouri to our place in Nashville.
Speaker 1I got you. Now you say mom and dad went into the truck stop to get you something to eat.
Speaker 2Yes, sir, I hope that they're getting me something. You didn't place your order before they left the car.
Speaker 1I didn't think about it. It was like I got to go on. Skip happens here in a little bit.
Speaker 2Mom and dad go right there, skip happens, man, you got to work around life. Life happens around you.
Speaker 1It does. I want to get back to talking about red a little bit. It's a song that apparently brings people together. Can you walk us through the moment that the concept hit you while you know driving to that writing session?
Speaker 2So you said it right. It's not a very flattering story of when the the idea hit me, because I was literally driving to the right. You'll hear this say this a lot. When I talk about my rights, I go into them just trying to go off the feel and stuff, so I don't always have the most ideas going in. So as I was driving, though, I knew Erica and Kaylee we'd all written together and we all were really close friends, and I'm a huge Cody Johnson fan. I love what he stands for, I love hearing him perform live and he has close friends, and I'm a huge Cody Johnson fan. I love what he stands for, I love hearing him perform live and he has his song Human. I'm still learning to be human.
Speaker 1Yes, I was going to talk about that.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, yes he always talks in his shows about how he doesn't care what you believe. If you're a good person, you're a good person and we're all human. And I was like that's exactly how I feel. I would love to have my own version of that. And I was thinking about you know, there's we all bleed red. We're all like, yeah, that might that might have certain implications to it, but we all bleed red. Jesus bled red and that's. That's good enough for me to feel like I'm pretty close to him and I feel like we're all Children of God.
Speaker 2So I I brought the idea to Erica and Kaylin. I kind of had a melody, but I didn't really know where to run with it and Before we knew it it was on the paper and I I had the idea for me, but it wasn't gonna be a song, I was gonna record, we wanted to pitch it, see what happens. And I kind of sat with it for a bit and played a couple of writers rounds and I was like, man, I really like this song. It's my, it's me. I mean, if you listen to the lyrics, you will literally know everything about me. And I I was like, all right, I think I'm going to be a greedy songwriter and cut this one, and I'm very happy I did because so far to date it has been my fastest growing single ever.
Speaker 1Rightfully so, I know I will attach it to this after we get done tonight. Thank you. At least a clip of it, until Facebook yells at me and says you can't do that.
Speaker 2I know that happens it does.
Speaker 1So you might get a little note asking for your permission. But you know how that goes. But yeah, I mean that's cool, that's cool and these rights that you talk about now. I've seen them, I've sat in a few of those, but how old were you when you went to your first right?
Writing "Red" and Creative Process
Speaker 2I think. Well, I tried to write a song, apparently with my mom, when I was like five. I don't really remember that, but my first true right, I think I was about 11 or 12. One of my close friends, olivia from Nashville. She and I grew up together. She's like a sister to me. I was in California, she was here and we both kind of started writing at the same time she's six months older than me she always makes me remind people of that and so she was 12, I was 11, and we both started writing, and so she was my first ever co-write and we wrote for probably six months over FaceTime.
Speaker 2We were doing the whole Zoom writes before you had to write over Zoom, and that was kind of the first time that I really started writing and started trying to put my thoughts and my feelings kind of on a page Interesting.
Speaker 1And now I do of on a page.
Speaker 2Interesting, and now I do it for a job.
Speaker 1Yeah, you do. Now you have a. What am I trying to say here? You're writing for a company, now, right?
Speaker 2So my parents have a publishing company. That's what I was trying to say.
Speaker 1I was having a skip happens moment.
Speaker 2It happens.
Speaker 1It does too much, especially as you get older and you will find out. But no, seriously, those you know publishing deals can be very beneficial to you as well.
Speaker 2Absolutely. You know, I was fortunate that my parents have been in this industry for a long time and. I was raised in it, and it's a great thing, because their connections have become my connections. My connections are theirs.
Speaker 1And I mean, mean?
Speaker 2my songs wouldn't be where they are if I didn't have strong, strong team behind me.
Speaker 1Yeah, and your mom and dad are pretty much the team that's behind you they are. There's a few other people that are that are in that short list, but yes, they are they're definitely the the driving force of it it all and that's very important for anybody that's watching this or listening. That's that's how important to have somebody behind you. If you got your parents or somebody like that, you get the support. I mean you can't beat that. You can't beat that. They're not going to hold you back.
Speaker 2No, and I'm also fortunate that all of the people that are in my close friend group that I really are like siblings to me. Uh, they all are friends with me because they know me. It's just jet and they. I know that if anything happened, push came to shove, I could call them in the middle of the night and they'd be there for me, and so even if you can't have your parents be there for you or something like having having a couple of those people in your life, that's you.
Speaker 2you can't break those bonds, people that aren't in the same industry as you, because then they gain nothing from being friends with you. That's the key.
Speaker 1Is that a Bucky's that you're at?
Speaker 2It's not. It's not a Bucky's, it's just all right, I wish.
Speaker 1All right, I know, because I love Buc-ee's. That's why I'm just kind of.
Speaker 2I love Buc-ee's so much Every time we are on the road with the band. If there's a Buc-ee's between point A and point B, we are stopping at Buc-ee's.
Speaker 1You are stopping Exactly. Of course, you know I want to talk about your next no, no, the previous single. What was that? It was Going Next.
Speaker 2Yes, sir.
Speaker 1Right, that was the previous single and you tapped into the vulnerability of relationships and shared history. How do you decide when a song should come from a place of emotional depth versus having fun with the writing? That's a heavy question.
Speaker 2That is, you know. I think it comes down to your audience, and what I mean by that is people can smell bullcrap from a mile away. So if you're writing about something and singing about something and trying to preach this story that you very clearly can't relate to, your audience is going to get bored with it, In my opinion. That's what I think.
Speaker 1No, and I think you're right yeah.
Speaker 2And I think the worst thing that an artist, or really anybody, can say is well, this is how I've always done it. Your audience is continuing to grow and continue to experience life. They want to know that you are as well. You know, I'm not, I'm not stuck at 17 or something, and so writing about what you're going through, I think, is the most beneficial thing. If you're going through a hard time in your life, freaking, put ink on paper. You know it might not even be a song I have plenty of songs that I will never share with people but damn if it didn't help get it out and so I think that that that's what happened with red, that's what happened with going next, and I think it's what will continue to happen through like, uh, you'll see it on on the ep that I'm working on, you'll see a wide range of, uh, the phase and the point in life that I'm at right now well, you know the music that you, you write in a lot of other country artists.
Speaker 1It's you know. They say it's the story of our lives. It's, it's you. I could be driving down the road to hear a song. Come on and go. Holy crap, I just went through that, or or what it's.
Speaker 2It's like so-and-so's singing about me right now I always say I want to write the most relatable music and I do that by acknowledging the fact I'm a regular guy that is fortunate that he gets to write songs for a living. So if I'm a regular guy experiencing is fortunate that he gets to write songs for a living, so if I'm a regular guy experiencing regular guy stuff, then I can make all the other regular guys and girls that are going through life and feel alone know that they're not alone by simply listening to however many songs I put out on an album or an EP, and if you can relate to one of them, then you know that you can relate to me and that you're not the only one that's going through this thing.
Speaker 1That's cool and obviously you're in a relationship. You're really young. You see, you got a very beautiful, loving girlfriend. Yes sir. Does she know everything that you've done? And I mean, let's just face it. I mean, dude, you're a star. Everything you've done up to this point is is she in the business at all or is she just? I mean, we don't have to go real deep with this, I'm just saying, you know, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2It's like, dude, you're dating jeff well, saying I'm a star feels weird because I don't. I don't acknowledge that you'll. You'll kind of hear that from my close friends. I don't acknowledge enough. I don't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 1But I'm just going to say, for you to say that means a lot because you're real and there's a lot of people you know it's. I look at it as everything you've done, from the acting to the voiceover, just all that, and it's all gone. It's big, it's huge. So in a sense, you are a star. But for you to think that you're not a star, you're real and don't ever don't let that you know. Like take over your life, because then you're going to lose. Just be yourself.
Speaker 2Thank you so much.
Speaker 1And continue doing what you're doing, dude, thank you To answer your question about her. Okay, sorry.
Speaker 2She's not in the industry, she's not, she's just. I don't know if saying a regular girl is like weird, but that is. It is that's cool, that's who I, that's who I, who I'm dating. And uh, a great example of this is literally this morning. When I was telling her about the schedule for the day, I texted her and I was like, yeah, and then we're gonna stop along the way because I have an interview and she said for what?
The Ride Phase Two Album
Speaker 2and I was like, uh, for for me. I was like we're going to stop along the way because I have an interview. And she said for what? And I was like for me. I was like we're talking about like Red and the upcoming EP and this kind of stuff. And her text was literally oh, I forgot, lol. Like she forgot that like I would have an interview. She thought that it was for like a job or something. I was like it's not for like a job and it took her a second and I was like that's when you know you're with somebody that you want to keep around for a while Because she's just, she's the biggest supporter of me.
Speaker 1She'll come to every show she possibly can. That's so awesome.
Speaker 2But she is, she doesn't. She doesn't gain anything from being with me because she's not in this industry and she has no interest in being in the industry. That's so good in being in the industry, because she's with me and she knows the industry and she's like I want to be in that. So, uh, so it's it's been great, she's awesome, her family's great, and uh, I'm very fortunate to have uh a lady like her.
Speaker 1She's not going like man. I'm dating Pip the penguin, so I don't think so.
Speaker 2She might maybe to her little cousins that watch bubble guppies or something. Yeah, I know, I know, but she's not going around spreading it in Nashville.
Speaker 1No, that's awesome, that's awesome. Let's talk about the ride. I'm thinking about what you might be having for dinner when your mom and dad show up at the car door there. But the album the Ride, phase 2, it kind of builds on themes from your earlier work, if I'm not mistaken. And what was your vision for that album and how did you want it to evolve from Phase 1?
Speaker 2You know it goes with what I was saying earlier about writing what I know and what I'm experiencing I wanted people to be able to hear. I mean, if you listen to the songs, every song on the ride is one of my stories. My previous album, phase One, it was stories that either myself or my co-writers had been through. The ride was completely me, 100% me. Everything that I'd been through the ride was completely me, 100% me, everything that I'd been through. So you can kind of listen to the songs and figure out what I had gone through or was going through when we wrote each one of the songs.
Speaker 1It's not hard to put two and two together, we know what was going on in Jet's life. Go ahead.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's not hard to put two and two together, and so I wanted to I guess you kind of said it. I wanted to be vulnerable with my audience, because that's how you guys are going to get to know me. You know, I'm 20. I'm not selling at arenas, so the best way for me to connect with the people that want to listen to my music, in my opinion, is by being the realest version of myself possible, and so that's what we did with the ride, and it's crazy to think that that was 2023 when I put that album out. Uh, it's kind of it's, it's wild ago.
Speaker 2Wow, so that was two years ago already yeah, which is bizarre, uh, but that's just, that's just how how it goes. So that's why we're working on an ep now and I'm really excited for people to hear some of the songs that are on that, because you'll get to hear this point in my life that I'm at. You know we called it the ride because it's kind of a roller coaster of events throughout the whole. Every song, everything from roots down to bones to six strings. You know, the first time hearing one of my songs on the radio was surreal, and so I wrote a song about that and then I played that song on the radio, the song about hearing my song on the radio.
Speaker 2I got to perform down in Alabama for the first time on the radio before that was ever released, so nobody had heard that, and I got to write about the fact that people didn't. I came from a family where I was really the only munitions, so nobody knew that I was. Nobody knew that you could do it as a career. Everybody was like, well, maybe you should stick around and work on the farm a little bit more, and I was like we're gonna see what this app, what working this hard for something like this can do, and so getting to like play that song about those people that didn't believe in me on the radio was pretty neat, and so that's what we did with the ride and I was super proud of it, and I'm at a really good place now and I'm really happy with where I'm at with my career, and so I'm really excited for people to hear these songs that are going to be on this EP.
Speaker 1Yeah, you've been doing it, like I say, 16 years already, when you first started doing all that, as we mentioned minutes ago, to where you are today, at the age of 20. And you're still most people are just getting started.
Speaker 2Yes sir, I'm very blessed. I'm very, very blessed.
Speaker 1And very talented. You know they say good days in coffee bar have become fan favorites. Which track on the ride, phase two, feels the most personal to you and why I? Know I got crazy questions, don't I no?
Speaker 2that's a great one. Definitely. Bones and Six Strings are some of my favorites. Bones is very personal. I wrote it by myself, which you will not see on any of my other tracks. Every other track has been co-written. Every other track, uh, has taken a lot longer to come up with. And bones I I record all of my rights of a little voice memo, just in case somebody throws out a melody or something, we forget it. Well, we've got it on recording for later. Uh, there's a recording that's 13 minutes of me writing bones. It fell out on the page literally, and that was super cool. Uh, that song's probably the most personal on the on the album, so you can listen to that song and really, really get to know Jet, which is really neat.
Speaker 2Some of my favorites, though, are definitely Roots and Ruin. This Town, production-wise, lyric-wise, the songs quite literally spell out the stories of how they kind of came about. But those are some of my most proud production and overall sounding-wise. State is also one of our favorites. To perform live. It's what we open our shows with. It's super fun and is a good way to start a country show.
Speaker 1I love that You're a co-writer on all those songs correct yes sir? And how do you keep your writing fresh and authentic across an 11-track project like this?
Speaker 2You write a lot of songs that don't make it on the project.
Speaker 1You write 50 songs to find those 11.
Speaker 2Yes, I mean I think it was Ed Sheeran that said once you've written your first 200 songs, then you'll have songs that maybe you can start recording. So you maybe write 30 terrible songs for every one good one. I definitely still always have my fair share of those 30. It feels more like an endless amount of crappy songs. So it's a lot, I think, when they stretch out, you work on a project, especially a full album. You work on that project for so long I mean it's been since 2023 since I put out a full project.
Speaker 2So, you work on a project for so long that eventually you're going to just have songs that are different, sound different. You do catch yourself every now and again. I can't say that, or we can't do that, walk up because we did that and it's the same key. So every now and again I can't say that or we can't do that, walk up because we did that and it's kind of it's the same key, so it could sound kind of similar. So you kind of catch yourself with that every now and again. But when you're a writer for a living, it's kind of your job to make sure that the songs are different.
Speaker 1You know I want to say it was probably 23 when you and I talked last because they were dropping that yeah, yeah. And they reached out and said hey, we want to hook you up with jet, we want to, you know, get them on the podcast, so that that's now, here we are now, here we are again, again, again, and mom and dad are in getting your hot dogs, so I don't know, I hope they're getting me a hot dog we'll see, what do you do?
Speaker 1they have good food there. I have no idea where you are. I mean, does? I don't think so.
Speaker 2I think it's more of a vending machine kind of stuff.
Speaker 1Oh, is it so we?
Speaker 2might have to drive down the road a little bit before we find a substantial meal.
Speaker 1It's like one of those rest areas where you go in and take care of business and then they have all the vending machines.
Studio Experience and Live Performance
Speaker 2There's a bathroom that nine times out of 10, you won't stop at but that one time you will stop that.
Speaker 1You have to. I totally get that. So when you co-produced Red, you were at Farmland in Nashville. I took this off your notes what was that studio experience like? And how hands-on are you when it comes to actually shaping the sound?
Speaker 2So, first of all, recording at Farmland is awesome.
Speaker 1It's a great studio.
Speaker 2It's big enough to be very comfortable, but it's also small enough that it's intimate, which I enjoy, and I I know pretty much all the musicians that ended up playing on my songs. They've, most of them, have played on my songs since I was 12, 13. So it's been a while now. So we've kind of built that rapport and it's almost like you're speaking a different language when you're in the studio. It's a series of numbers that someone's calling out and references to other songs that are well known. Can you do something like that on this? Can that fiddle sound like this? I'm not a micromanager, but I just kind of. I mean, you're working with the most talented musicians in the world, so it's almost silly how simple you can give an idea and they can turn it into what it later becomes. So you don't have to be crazy hands on like with everything. But I'm there for the full process and definitely voice my opinion and am very vocal about how I would like for it to sound.
Speaker 1No, no, it's your thing, man. This is you, so you want it to sound a certain way, but you also have a really good producer behind that board as well.
Speaker 2I do Dan Frizzell's mixed and worked on every song I've ever put out. So now that I'm older, to be able to actually produce and mix the songs with Dan is really important to me and that's definitely what we did for the ride and it's what we're continuing to do now and I love it and Dan and I. Dan has now become, like you know, one of my good friends and that's pretty cool. You know, go over to his house and mix your songs. That's pretty fun.
Speaker 1Stop by Dan's on the way home today. Yes, you know. What do you enjoy most about the process, though? Is it the writing, the recording, the performing live? What is it that you enjoy most?
Speaker 2I mean, there's nothing like performing live and getting to see people react to either your song or a song that they know that you're covering. That's always going to be fun. You know, we played up in Idaho a little over a week ago and we were playing a bunch of covers and everybody was two step into it and dancing and swing dancing and it was so super fun. You know, and they didn't know my songs, but they knew the songs that we were playing and so it has that same effect because it's us performing them and so that's always going to be fun. But I love being in the studio. I really love the writing process. I think that that's the coolest part, because you're writing about something that you experience. So it might even be outside of the writing process experiencing the things that you later write about is also pretty neat, because that means that you're experiencing life.
Speaker 1Absolutely, absolutely. And you got a lot to go yet too. I'm just saying We'll see. No, I know that and uh, you know. So Reddit, reddit is out there. I saw the video. I liked the video man. Tell us about the making of the video a little bit.
Speaker 2So we film at this uh farm called farmland uh down, uhland down, near Franklin, tennessee, yep, and it's super cool. We saw online that they had this American flag on the side of their barn. We were like, oh well, that's perfect. And so the Riker brothers, derek and Drew, have filmed every one of my music videos and they flew from California to Nashville and we filmed it just in a day there and we're just, we were there for the whole day. So we were just randomly be like, oh, that might look cool, let's go over there and film me singing the song once or twice.
Speaker 1And then oh, that looks neat.
Speaker 2Let's go film me doing that, and uh, it was just kind of a we like to keep it fun.
Speaker 1I was going to say is it fun? Is it fun or is it work? You say it's fun.
Speaker 2So it's a little bit of both, but it's mostly fun Uh, and we enjoy. You get sick of your own song by the end of the day cause you have to sing it about 200 times, but other than that, uh it's, it's a good time and we enjoyed it a lot. It was the perfect uh setting. It turned out great. I'm really happy with how it turned out. One of my co-writers, david Seeger. Him and his wife don't live far and so he was working and his wife showed up in his truck and we went. That would look really cool in the video. Here's the keys. And I got to drive his truck in the music video.
Speaker 1So it's good to know people.
Speaker 2It's not about what you know it's about who you know, right Isn't?
Voice Acting and Hollywood Career
Speaker 1that how it's done. No, no, yeah, it's who you know. There you go and that's a good example of it. But that's all with the music, and I tell you you're just kicking some tail with that and moving on with Red and everything that's gotten you to this point. But I want to talk a little bit about voice acting. It's a very unique craft. Um does working in animation, like you did for pip the penguin, um, or bubble guppies, uh, give you a different outlet than music, does that, do you?
Speaker 2they're. They're different, yes, but I think that they're also more similar than people realize. One of the things that most people don't realize is, if you're in the studio doing voiceover work, they have a camera filming you, because a lot of the time the animators don't know what to do with the character, because they're creating it from scratch. What kind of face should the character make? What kind of information their face show? So they'll go to the actual video of the actor saying the line to see what we do. So it's not all that different from being on stage and performing. It might not matter as much about what you're wearing, but it definitely matters about the feeling.
Speaker 1The feeling, the expressions. Yes.
Speaker 2Exactly. If I'm not smiling when I say a line, you can definitely tell uh, and so it's little things like that that I, I think, translate very clearly over to music and and vice versa.
Speaker 1I don't think I yeah, yeah, I'm at either one if I didn't have each. Are you do? Yeah, are you doing any of that now, or are you sticking with?
Speaker 2I still do. I still do auditions and stuff. Actually, tomorrow morning, once we get home tonight tomorrow morning, I will record a voiceover audition from home. That's cool, but I am so focused on music right now that that's kind of the main focus, especially since it's summer and there's fairs and festivals happening everywhere across the country and we're kind of traveling about every week for a different show. We'll be traveling what's today, we traveling on Friday for a show this coming weekend. So that's kind of.
Speaker 1That's kind of where my head space has been for the past while I got you You're, if you don't mind me asking because I'm a geek what do?
Speaker 2you use at home to record your auditions. What is it just so I? I have a little kind of variation. It depends on the on the show. I love a shirt, SM seven B as a microphone, but I also use the, the blue bluebird.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, okay, I did that a lot for season two of Tots.
Speaker 2I pretty much did 98% of that show from home because of COVID and it was recorded on the Blue Bluebird. So that's what I use Simple recording software. If I'm on my Mac, I'll be using just Logic and I've got an interface. I've got a couple different interfaces. I at a clear it. I like that interface.
Speaker 1So nice, yeah, yeah, nice. See just the point. If somebody wanted to do what you're doing or give it a shot, I mean you don't need anything over the top now I have a full studio here, of course sure, sm7bs and all that, and I love it, but I do this almost at least twice a week, so just keeps me going you also don't have to have, like a lot of people think, that you have to have a nice recording software.
Speaker 2If you can save a file as an mp3 or a wave, that's all you need. Go online and use audacity, it's free. Literally the first, like 12 years of my voiceover, all of my auditions were recorded on a blue snowball microphone and audacity. So you can definitely get into the industry for little to no money.
Speaker 1Exactly. That was kind of where I was going with that. So, and look where it got you. So anybody could do that. What about your acting?
Speaker 2I saw gray's anatomy on this I did gray's anatomy when I was five, I think really six. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1My wife has watched every freaking episode of gray's anatomy, and then over again. So it's and I saw that on on the notes that they sent me and I went really wow, do you recall what did you do in gray's Anatomy? Were you just a patient? I?
Speaker 2was just in one episode. Uh, my dad was like my fake dad was a patient on the show.
Speaker 1I gotcha there.
Speaker 2Uh, I, I vaguely remember it. It's crazy to think that I experienced so many, yes, interesting cool things young, because some of them I don't even really remember and I wish there's a part of me that wishes I would have you know experienced that when I was like 13, because then I'd have a full memory of it.
Speaker 1Right, no, exactly what keeps you grounded, though, because you've got all these different things going on in your life or you had them. What keeps you grounded when life gets really hectic?
Speaker 2Definitely my friends and family, my faith, but being able to, you know, go to church on Sundays and spend time with my family when I am home, go to the farm and you know things. Like I said earlier last week, tedding hay, mowing hay 321 bales of hay is what we got on the 75 acres that we mowed last week. So being able to do things like that, that I think not many people imagine somebody in my industry would be doing during the week when they're not on the road with their band, was literally driving back from our show in Idaho, stopped in Missouri to do hay and now we're traveling back to Tennessee. So I mean, it's stuff like that that uh definitely reminds you where you came from and is uh kind of brings it all back rock.
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly, tell me a little bit about your band.
Speaker 2the same guys all the time pretty much the same guys all the time. Every now and again somebody will have a different show. You know, we're not headlining arenas yet, so it's not quite the Ace in the Hole band, where they've been playing for 30 years together. All the same people, but it's mainly the same guys. We kind of float around a couple people every now and again, but all of them are within two years of my age, so we're all pretty young and we're all you know. Just I guess the word is like starving musicians we just want to play, we want to play shows, and so we're always down to do a show and have fun.
Speaker 1Are you, let me ask, are you looking forward to selling out stadiums, or would you prefer to perform in a venue? Maybe? That's limited to maybe 1500, 2000 people.
Future Goals and Charitable Work
Speaker 2You know, I mean there's always the point in your career where you'd be like, oh, that that'd be cool to be George straight or Garth Brooks and sell out Nissan stadium in Nashville, especially the new indoor one, because then you won't have to deal with as much humidity in july or something down by the river. Yes, but the the, the box that I want to check more so than any place really in the world is the ryman auditorium. I mean the original grand ole opry. That's the place that, if I could perform anywhere. It's intimate. You can essentially see the faces of everybody that paid money to come and see you and it's which is important for me especially. You know I've played plenty of dive bars where there's been six people and two of them are my parents. So being able to play someplace that's intimate, but also that that would feel like pretty much the biggest milestone for me.
Speaker 1See, I asked you that because, you know, I've talked to a lot of other artists, both independent and also major, major artists, and the answer I usually get is you know, I don't care too much about the stadiums, I want to be able to connect with the fans, so therefore I prefer a smaller venue where I.
Speaker 2You have to remember those people that got you there.
Speaker 1Yes, exactly. And Jed, I can't believe you have not performed the Mother Church yet. At the Mother Church I Dude, we'll see.
Speaker 2We'll see. I would love to. We've got to make that happen.
Speaker 1You haven't been on in the Grand Ole Opry either. I've not.
Speaker 2I performed outside last year with my band in the fall. I got to perform on their stage outside the Opry, which was really really cool.
Speaker 1That's cool.
Speaker 2Especially getting to work with the Opry sound guys that are running the sound outside. That was cool to me Because without those guys I wouldn't be performing, because I don't know how to run that sound system. Um, but there's, there's definitely a few places that I want to check off. Uh, the Opry, you know, step into the circle and you know the original Opry the Ryman.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Yes, it'd be pretty neat.
Speaker 1Oh my God, I know, you know we do the CRS thing and we do the lunch thing at the, you know at the Ryman, and it's just like you get in there and it's just like wow.
Speaker 2It's surreal.
Speaker 1You know, I've done that for so many years and it is surreal. And to think about somebody like yourself as an artist, and those artists that are performing for that lunch, that they're walking out on that stage and doing their thing, and you know, it's just the first time experience had to be so like surreal, I mean just.
Speaker 2I don't even know if I can describe it.
Speaker 1Yeah, so we'll get you there. You got to get there. You're going to get there. We'll see. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, we'll definitely get you there tell me about the ryan seacrest foundation.
Speaker 2I've I've worked with that foundation for a really long time. I was probably 10 or 11 the first time I went into for the people that don't know. They raise money to build, essentially, studios like the one that you have or radio stations have, uh, inside children's hospitals around the country and they'll have anybody from Taylor Swift to local sports stars to me. Come in and we'll perform and we'll play games with the kids and try to help take their mind off of whatever it is that they're going through that has them there in the first place. So I've worked with them for a long, long time. Meredith Seacrest Ryan's sister, is an amazing person Actually wrote me a letter of recommendation for college, which was super special, nice and it's just. It's been awesome to be able to work with them.
Speaker 1Have you been to St Jude?
Speaker 2You're talking about those hospitals, have you?
Speaker 1had that opportunity.
Speaker 2St Jude, you're talking about those hospitals. Have you had that opportunity? I don't believe I have worked with St Jude in the past.
Speaker 1If you did, you would remember there's so many artists and everybody. Eventually you will be there and you will see what's going on and you know.
Speaker 2Just work with the kids and be in who you are and getting pictures taken and stuff the best thing honestly is being able to see the faces of the family members, because they are, in some cases, having a harder time than the actual patient, because, I mean, I can't imagine being a parent having to watch your kid go through that, or even a sibling, you know, seeing how close they are. So to be there and be able to help them because we're playing, playing games right there with their siblings and that makes the parents happy that's really special.
Speaker 1I've seen it, I've been there, I've done that a few times and it's an experience. You're absolutely right. And the parents. They'll be smiling, but what's behind that smile? You know what I mean. There's a lot going on and it's just I mean I'll be honest with you. I cried, I cried, oh yeah, it's hard not to, it was so hard? Yeah, exactly. So if somebody wanted to get a hold of your music, where can we find you? Your name is hard to spell, but I got it right, I think.
Speaker 2But tell us where can we go. So anywhere that you buy or listen to music. It's just my name, jet jurgensmeyer. Jet with one t like a plane, a super fun way to remember it. Jurgensmeyer, I'm typically the only one that's on the internet, so if you type jet and then j I'll, I should be the only one that comes up probably will yeah on social media.
Speaker 2It's all the same. It's not official or music or any of those. It's just jet jurgensmeyer, my website's, jetjurgensmeyercom, and that's kind of the simplest way to find me, get ahold of me, see where I'll be performing social media and my website.
Speaker 1Is there somewhere where we're going to see you, either on TV or hear your voice, besides the music, real soon.
Speaker 2There's always a possibility. I know that Disney Junior and Nickelodeon Nick Jr is always playing old episodes, so there is a chance that you will hear what my friends and family call Baby Jet on TV. There's a possibility you'll hear that.
Speaker 1When you hear it, what do you think? Do you sit there and go? Oh my God, I can't believe I did that. I can't believe it.
Speaker 2Sometimes I'm like oh, I should have said that line differently. Why'd they use that?
Speaker 1Sometimes it's like why?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's like man. Why did I sound like that I was 14. I sound like I'm about six. Oh, why did I do that? Why?
Speaker 1did I sound like that.
Closing Thoughts and Contact Information
Speaker 2This is true, uh, so there's always that, but also it's. I mean, it's kind of neat. You know, being being on TV is kind of cool when you find, when you step back and get to think about it and not not just, you know, act like it didn't happen, it is pretty neat.
Speaker 1So I have to ask if you look out your window, there's mom and dad like standing over there looking at their watch going come on, dude, dude, dude.
Speaker 2they were they got hot because of how the humidity is outside, so they actually are sitting in the front seat now. So, it is 93 outside, with about a hundred percent humidity, so it's warm.
Speaker 1Well, tell them we said hello and appreciate all they do for you as well.
Speaker 2I will do it.
Speaker 1That's. That's pretty cool. It's so good to see you. I know you got to get on the road and get back home. You got a lot going on tomorrow. You on the road and get back home. You got a lot going on tomorrow. You got stuff going on, so the sooner you get home the better. You must be pretty close, though, right.
Speaker 2We are pretty close. We're only you know hour, hour and a half maybe.
Speaker 1Yeah, Something like that, Something like that oh we're only an hour away, there we go. That's cool.
Speaker 2All right, Do you have?
Speaker 1are there pets waiting for you at home at all, or anything like that?
Speaker 2No pets. I think I travel too much that I couldn't keep a goldfish alive. So it's too difficult.
Speaker 1I got you, jet Juergensmeyer. You're awesome, my friend. There's a lot going on with you and everything that we can look forward to. I love the new song and I know there's going to be a lot more and I love everything behind it. Thank you, so it. It's just, it's your feelings you're doing it and everything you've done. Your mom and dad must be so proud and of course you said they're kind of in the business as well. So you know what God bless you all. Thank you for coming on, skip Happens tonight.
Speaker 2Thank you for having me. God bless, thank you so much.
Speaker 1All right, it's Jet Juergensmeyer. Everybody, do you have a YouTube page? Can they go and subscribe, or anything like that.
Speaker 2I do Quite literally every social media page is just. Jet Juergensmeyer, it's pretty easy to find me.
Speaker 1Yep and Skip Happens the same way, or Skip Clark. There you go, it all works out. All right, jet, have a great night and safe travels for the remainder of the ride home for the next hour or so, and thanks.
