Struck by Lightning, Saved by a Guitar | Danny Griego’s Incredible Story

Transcript

Cold Open And Welcome

SPEAKER_04 0:00

And let's go. Just have a little chat or something. Yeah, I just came by the chat. What did you want to talk about? It's like going on a date with a tatty coffee doll. What's the tatty coffee? We need to stop talking. I think I'm getting off topic. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. It's show time. Please welcome. Absolutely. It is showtime. It is time for another edition of the Skip Happens podcast. My name is Skip Clark, of course, your host, you know that. But tonight's guest, uh, Texas-based country singer, songwriter, Danny Greco. Did I say that right, Danny?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

You ever been to San Diego?

SPEAKER_04 0:38

Oh, Danny Grego.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Close enough.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Griego. Griego. Is that how you said, seriously?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

San Diego, Danny Griego.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

Griego, I got it. And it's gonna be one of those conversations tonight where the story behind the artist is every bit as compelling as the music. Uh, I want you to know that uh Danny has spent uh years on the road. He's built uh creative ties with some true country music legends. We'll talk about that. He survived a lightning strike. He did. Uh taught himself finger-picking guitar during his rehab, and today he's making major waves. He's got a single out there, it's called Angelina. And uh let's just start right from the beginning. Danny Griego, welcome to Skip Happen's. Good to see you, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

Welcome to Welcome to Texas. I know. I I've been to um I've been to San Diego. Uh no, no, not San Diego. Now you got me thinking about it. Um San Antonio and uh used to hang out at the Riverwalk. But uh pretty place. How far is uh San Antonio from where you are? And where are you, first of all?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

About four hours. We're we are only about 45 minutes west of uh Fort Worth Airport, DFW Airport.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

DFW, okay. I gotcha. So if you go in and out, you're going through DFW. There's no doubt. What is it you cut out?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I

Growing Up Military And Finding Music

SPEAKER_00 2:10

said I'm in the cutting horse capital of America, a place called Weatherford, Texas.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

Weatherford, Weatherford, what's the um like how big is Weatherford?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Oh, you know, it's a pretty big little town, I guess. You know, probably like in the dark here, but maybe like 30,000 people.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Wow, okay. No, that's that's all right. It's not exactly tiny, but it's not super big either. Danny, I want to uh see we got you on here tonight. I want to go all the way back. I know you've been doing this for a bit, but uh where where did you grow up? Right there, weatherford?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So my dad was military, you know, but uh I grew up between um Prescott, Arizona and Salina, Texas, depending on growing up.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

And uh what was life like for you as a as a child? Um short. Well, you were on the road a lot. If your dad, you know, was in the military, I can I can only imagine you were bouncing around a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

You know, I have really good parents, so very good for that.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

So awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Good because I was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Was music always around the house when you were growing up, or is this just something you've been doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

My mom used to tell me, I don't remember any of this. I don't remember life before seven. I don't. But my mom used to tell me that I used to walk down the street singing Tanya Tucker at the tip of my lungs, Delta Dawn. And I ended up having Tanya in one of my videos, one of the first videos Walmart Girls, and she was in it twisting the top off of Mexican beer with her teeth.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Really, really. I know you're cutting out just a little bit. I don't know if it's the volume on the on your phone or not, if it's a little bit loud, sometimes it'll cut it out, and uh you kind of so you just kind of talk soft.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

I'll do that. All right.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Try. I know I can't do that. Um, you know, who were the artists uh you heard early on that really grabbed your attention? You said you'd walk down the in the street maybe singing Tanya Tucker, but uh are there any others?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Well, life changed with Elvis, you know. Oh yeah, uh Roy Orbison was a huge influence, Marty Robbins was a massive influence, and uh Jennings was a really big one. And I, you know, so my cowboy great uncle Roy, he used to run around with Marty in a place called Glendale, Arizona.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Really?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

You know, I would listen to my Uncle Terry, his son, gave me a tape called the Sue Brewer Gathering, and it was on CMT, and it was a big deal because they were doing a tribute. That was a tribute to Sue Brewer. And on that tape, there was a room full of songwriters that had Hank Cochrane and the producer, women's producer, Richie Albright was in the room, and Red Lane and Harlan Howard and Max D. Barnes. No kidding. And uh Hank Jr. was in there. There's just a whole room full of artists, and he gave it to me, and I was watching that with you know stars in my eyes as a kid, and then time went by and giant records brought me out of Nashville, out to Nashville to sign with them. I didn't end up signing the deal. I ended up meeting a guy named Richie Albright. I had a door there to Wayland's producer, and I went down the dirt road and started to work with Richie, and he had me cleaning barns that have wood in them for a hundred years and running fence and just what's called paying your dues. And my butt off. And well, one day he called me and he asked me to go start framing out a studio with an engineer. And I went over there and he said, Bring your tools. And I drove my little 57 Chevy pickup truck over there and framed out this studio, and I was homesick and cooking New Mexico red chili enchiladas in the kitchen. This old man comes snipping his way out, and then he's clicking his nails, and he said, That sounds exactly like it did in oil fields of New Mexico. What is that? And I said, It smells, and I said, uh Hank, that's uh actually I didn't know who it was. I said, That's New Mexico Red Chili Enchiladas. And he said, Well, could I have some of that? And I said, I'd love for you to join me for dinner. And he said, I'm gonna go get ready. And he went down the hall and came back with his bib overalls on, and he had a big white beard, you know, and long white hair. And and uh, you know, years went by hanging out with him, wrote a lot of songs with him, and he became a massive influence. And one day I looked up to bring all that back full circle, and I was working with half of the people in the Sue Brewer Tribute Room. I was working with Wayland Jennings and Max D. Barnes, and I was writing in the morning with 13 Hall of Fame songwriters and um Lily's White Lies, Billy Ray Reynolds, and Frank Dikas, and just got to run around with all my heroes. And it, you know, had nothing to do with me, man. The the man just swung the door open, and there I was.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Wow, how cool is that, though? When you think about all that and being able to hang out with your heroes, I mean that that that's over the top. Um, do you remember your first first break in your career where you thought, okay, maybe this is what can actually happen. I can actually do this. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

And you know, for me, it's it's no, you know, I'm waiting to hit a real big lick in someone to say overnight success, Danny Green, you know, because um it's just been it's not a for anybody coming up, it's not a sprint. You might hit a lick, but it's a marathon, and you've really got to have the wherewithal to hang on in there. It has to be, it isn't people ask me sometimes, they say, you know, are you still picking? I say, I'm still breathing, because it isn't, it isn't what I do, it's what I am. I'm a songwriter, it's what I that's who I am. So it isn't like I'm gonna quit. Um, I drive my own 53-foot, 54,000-pound tour bus. Her name is Desiree, and she's a long-nosed 379 peak that's been stretched. And uh man, I'll be out there tearing up the road and picking with my band as long as I'm breathing air.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

That's cool. You're driving your own bus. How many artists do that? I don't know. Partly can count them in one hand, to be honest with you. And you're one of those. I'd love that. Do you um, Danny? Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

Nashville Doors And Paying Dues

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Oh, shoot. Um, yeah, it was it uh it's called It You. And you know, I never I cut it on my first album. It's a love song, and it it still holds up. It's it's a pretty well-written song, and it it reminds me of a I was I came to Hank Cochrane with a song one day, and Hank and I used to sleep write. I used to go in his room when he was sleeping, and I would sit in a chair next to him, and he'd be in there snoring, and I would start saying lyrics to him, and he would answer me. He'd wake up and answer me. And he's the only other writer writer that I've ever met that writes in his sleep. I'll dream sleep songs, and I'll wake up and just sing them in a tape recorder and go right back into the dream. And Hank was really, really good at that. He'd mastered that. I think it's the ability to get out of your own way. I had pitched a song to Hank and he and he, you know, without skipping a beat, he goes, Would you go down to the sonic and get me one of those cream pie shakes? And I said, Man, I really hit you with that, didn't I? And he said, Let me tell you something, son. You had 99% when you came to town. We're just fixing the other one percent. And man, I was feeling really under the house, and that just picked me right back up, and I floated down the road and got him his cream pie shake.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

Of course you did, and why wouldn't you? That's awesome, man. I love that. I love that story. That's that's all pretty cool. Was there ever a point early on when you seriously considered walking away from music?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Oh, yeah, like you know, you go on stage and you're so I just did a thing for I have a charity called Freedom Horse Ranch, and we do therapy for special forces veterans and such, and we just had a fundraiser, of course. So, with a fundraiser, there was no budget for what I normally have behind me. I didn't have any production crew. I hired one sound man, um, hired a stage to come out and get dropped off. And I've got out there at 5:30 in the morning and just started busting everything in, setting up this massive PA system that John Pryne used to own. It was half of his old PA, a thing called Eastern Audio Works, these big, huge 18-inch woofers and massive subs. And here I am hauling all that stuff in half of the day, just sweating like a dog in the middle of June. And uh the dogs sweat anyway. So just you know, just really work off. And uh and to answer your question, there's a lot of times when you're busting in or working like that and you're wondering why are we doing this again? There's no money in it, you know, and you're working your tail off and just wondering why you're doing it, and then you play your song, and that one person comes up to you and thanks you for singing your song, and it makes it all worth it.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Well, I love that. It does make it worth it. There's no doubt. Um, what did you have to learn the hard way about the music industry? I'm that's a tough question. I know.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Maybe it's never miss a good opportunity to shut up. Um you know, I think it's doing things. Wayland used to say there's one more way to do something, and that's your way. And every artist has a right to do it at least once. So um it's a not compromising thing, I think, for the art. Um, I do my music, and I don't, man, I hardly ever listen to radio, no offense, and I hardly ever listen to social media and the music out there. I don't. I I try to stay more pure so I'm not influenced by everybody I'm influenced by has already happened. All right, so I'm not influenced by what's happening now. I don't care what's happening right now. I don't care if I'm in style or if the you know, I'm just me. I just do my thing. And uh early on I didn't do that. You know, you're you're still trying to figure out who you are at that point, but before I was trying to do what everybody else was doing, and somewhere along the way, I just stopped being them and started being me.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Well, uh I'll tell you, uh Danny, this podcast is called Skip Happens, and it's because that's me, and it happens. And I just put it out there, nobody's perfect, you know. And you want to do what you're doing and do it your way, and uh you know, focus on that. And uh the same thing when I do the podcast, Skip Happens, and you know it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

It's real and number one meter that Richie used to tell me is for producing anything is believability.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

100%, my friend. Um, you know, I want to talk about the new song that you've got out, and we'll do that here in just a couple of minutes. Uh, but we're gonna work our way up to that. Um, when I was reading a lot about you and found out you've been struck by lightning, first of all, how man, dude, I'm like, what? How long ago was that?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

It's painful. I don't recommend it. Um, it was when I was just finishing up my last year of college, and you know, when you get hit, you don't see the lightning strike, you just hear the thunder. And I was blowing almost 40 yards, and it stopped my heart and paralyzed my right arm. And the neurosurgeon told me that if I wanted to try to connect the dots and get my motor skills back, that he asked me if I played guitar, and I said, No, but my granddad left me his gut string guitar. He said, Well, go get you a classical guitar chart and learn how to play classical guitar, and it'll rebuild everything in your in your mind, let you connect the dots again. And I did. I went and got a I mean, it was a really frustrating time for me. I I was having trouble putting my fingers together and I couldn't talk to anybody about it because I felt like my parents would have been mad at me for being out in a lightning storm fishing

The Grind Of Road Life

SPEAKER_00 15:05

and uh other stupid things kids do. And um so I learned how to play classical guitar and worked on it, and it was that whole lightning strike that really changed my entire life and and got me going in a different direction.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Does it um you know, we all get storms, especially nowadays, and it seems like they're getting even a lot worse. But uh do you have like PTSD from that? Do you like yeah?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

I I have one thing that you know it's interesting because here I am doing equine therapy for special forces warriors that have PTS and have physical limitations, and I understand, you know, I have a paradigm a little bit on what they're going through because I know what that feels like. Um, for years I had nightmares that there would be a storm or the thunder would crack, and I'd wake up in bed just sweating, you know, just drenched and and terrified. And then that followed into the I think I have a little bit of PTS from the road from being out there from sleeping in your truck and just people pulling guns on you, and you know, I've been dragged out of the truck before and hit and beaten, and you know, just road stuff that that uh that's why I drive my own bus and I stay in my coach because it doesn't matter where I wake up, I'm home, you know. Yeah, I'm safe. But um, yeah, I definitely had PTS from that. And my one thing that I still have from that is uh I have a heck of a time recovering from the heat. I just my cooling system is broken. I can't I can't get cooled down fast enough.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Oh my god, you're in Texas, and we all know. I mean, I'm I'm complaining about the 90-degree heat here in upstate New York, but you're down there and it's I know the humidity is high. I actually have a niece in Houston. I've never been there, as I mentioned before, but uh I have a niece there, and then I hear it all the time that it's hotter than you know what. And um the humidity is up there, so it's gotta be so tough on you.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah, my old road manager, Johnny, used to say, Man, is Africa hot out here?

SPEAKER_04 17:11

Yeah, well, true. True. Was the um Danny, was the guitar simply part of your physical uh recovery at first, or did it become something deeper?

SPEAKER_00 17:21

It is something deeper to me. It's it's really an extension of me. Um, I love playing guitar, and what I found out like this is a I'll show off a little bit. This is I bought this from New York, Little Town Pawn Shop. It's a 1967 Martin with Brazilian rosewood, and I took it out of the box, and I'd asked the guy from the pawn shop, I said, Hey, you know, I'm a player, I'm not just buying this thing for a prop. Is this a player's guitar? And he said, Danny, if you have any problems that guitar, you ship it back, I'll give you all your money back, but you won't be shipping it back. I took it out of the box and hit the E-string, and it was in and it just resonated. And this guitar has taught me how to phrase musically because of the resonation in the guitar. So, you know, guitars for me are a really special thing, and um they they uh different guitars and different instruments will help you write different and help you phrase what you're trying to communicate differently.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Do you have do you have a name for the guitar?

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I have not named this guitar. No, maybe we can come up with one.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

So there you go. Hey, so uh you cut out when you said the the town and the pawn shop. Where in New York did you get that?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Oh boy, I'd have to look that up.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

Okay, no worries, no worries. I uh it caught out. I thought maybe you had said it when it cut out, but it's all good.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Little town in upstate New York.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Yeah, well, there's a lot of little towns around here. We're upstate New York. It depends on what you call upstate New York. I mean, there's a lot of people that don't know New York and they think just north of New York City would be upstate New York. I mean, areas like Poughkeepsie or Croton on a Hudson or one of those, but no, we're you know, upstate New York is like I'm in this podcast, my pod zone is in Syracuse, and we're like central New York, so that's what we call upstate New York.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

So I'm Danny Grego and I'm on the wolf of Syracuse. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I'm gonna make sure that plays too. Uh, did uh did that guitar? It made you a different songwriter, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, you know, every guitar has a contribution. I've got, I wish I had it right here. I'd go grab it. I've got a 53 Gibson that was on the song that I wrote and cut with Wayland Jennings, and um it's a beautiful guitar. I went into a pawn shop on the way to a show at the museum club in Flagstaff, Arizona. My fiddle player left the mandolin. I was upset with them, and so I said, I don't know about pawn shop. I pulled them, we had an old 1977 Flex, flexible bus, and I pulled it over and ran into this pawn shop to get the mandolin to see if they had one. I was looking all around at their rack and everything. I didn't see anything I really wanted to spend because those things aren't cheap, man. I was gonna spend everything I was gonna make for the next three shows on this mandolin that somebody forgot. And over in the corner, there was this old mandolin hanging on a rack by itself, and I went over there and pulled it down. It was in 1953, which turned out to be the that's the first model of electric mandolin Gibson made. And I took it up and put it on the counter, and there was an old man at the counter, and he said, I've got the case for this son. And he comes and walks out with the original case in another case, and he puts it in the good case and gives me the original case, and he said, You know, I've got the matching guitar, would you be interested? And I was like, Yeah, and he goes back there and gets like he's gonna clean out every pit, every bit of money I have, and he he lays his 53 Gibson on the counter and opens a case, and the case cracks, you know, like crackles because they hadn't been opened in a while, and this wonderful smell comes out of the case. And I mean, as soon as I saw that guitar, it was like a long-lost love, and I picked it up, played it. And I was in the studio with uh we we had cut at the crossroads with Whalen, and Richie said, Richie Albright, Wayland's producer, that famous, that famous right foot that did the that feel at Whalen flop. He said, uh, Danny, what do you think about that track? I said, that's great, Richie. You know, it doesn't

Surviving A Lightning Strike

SPEAKER_00 21:55

have the it doesn't have the lick on it. And he says, What? He said I said the lick. Take two. And uh he uh he said I put you in the room with Wayland's band and you want to play on your record, which artists didn't do, you know, they weren't allowed to do that. And uh I said, I dreamed it. So cool. And he said, All right, get your butt in there and play it. And I and you know, I'm in the studio, I'm nervous as a cat because Reggie Young is in the room, you know, and I'm my hands are shaking, and I gotta play that lick. I played it the first time and it made the record, and it's be it's the signature lick that's on that album, and that lick was in that guitar, man, and it was a special guitar, and it ended up that guitar ended up making the video, and it's just become like part of my thing. I go out there on the road with it, and you know, I should have left it in the closet because it's this perfect guitar in perfect shape, but that is a row guitar, and I play that thing everywhere. I have never done any modifications to it. Every time I plug it in and play it, it sounds great. It's just a special guitar.

SPEAKER_04 23:29

Love that. Love that. Uh, let's start with Whalen. I want to talk about this a little bit. What do you remember most about being around him?

SPEAKER_00 23:36

He was funny, he was hilarious. He had a great sense of humor, and he also had this massive presence, you know. He could feel him. There's only two people that I could ever really feel when they walked in the room, like the wake of a boat pushing the water out of the way, and that was Johnny Cash and Whelan Jennings. I got to meet Johnny Cash and Hank Cochran's hospital room when he was uh going through his pancreatic cancer stuff, and uh he was asleep, and Cash walked in the room, and you know, you I felt him coming the door, and I looked back there and I'm like, good lord, you know, and uh and Hank felt him, and Hank woke up and he said, Damn Cash, you look like death. And uh, but Cash and Wayland, Wayland and I had a thing where we could feel each other, feel each other's presence. And uh, like if I walked in a room, he would always like look directly at me when I walked in the room. He just his eyes would just pierce right through you. So that was one thing that really stood out. And then his his sense of humor and then this humble wisdom, you know, he took me under his wing and he would tell me things that were way beyond my pay grade, and that I would just record in my head. And later on in life, during the course of my career, I would remember him and say, that's what he meant.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Gotcha. And uh that would go, you know, he said something that stayed with you, and I would imagine all those thoughts and what you just told me is pretty much what that is about. What about Hank Cochrane? He was uh obviously you mentioned him a moment ago, but one of the great songwriters. What did you learn from him about writing a song?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Oh gosh, there's so many things. You know, he he and Red really taught me the most about structuring a piece of material. Um there's so many little nuances to it. I guess the biggest thing would be premise. You know, you have to start with a good premise. So Red taught me the energy thing. Whelan taught me the live energy thing, Red taught me the songwriting energy thing, which is totally different. And that that is that you don't want to burn up your songwriting or really any creativity that you're doing by wielding that hammer all the time. You just keep that hammer close to you and you pull it out when the right premise shows up, and you'll have all that power in that hammer to knock it down in one shot. You can catch the fish, pull it out of the river, creativity, and match it.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Love it. What about uh Billy uh Billy Joe Shaver? What about your relationship with him?

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Oh man, there's there's a funny thing, man. When I first met Billy Joe, I was in a Cadillac escalade in the back seat, and we'd just done a whaling thing, and we were leaving with this big guy from the UP named Nels, big old giant guy with a big, big voice. And Billy Joe was up in the front seat, and I, you know, he'd only said like a few words to me that night because he was busy. I'd run around with him before, but he he um all of a sudden he turns around in the car and goes, Hey man, nails tells me you're a good songwriter. Here, play me something. And he hands me this little Martin guitar, and I took it. It was a parlor guitar like this, but it's a little bit smaller. And I took it and I looked at it and went, Wow, this looks like Marty Robbins, like the guitar he played. And he said, Well, it should because that's his guitar. And man, my hand started shaking. I'm like, I'm holding Marty Robbins' guitar, you know, like a sacred piece of wood. And he said, Play me that song. And I played him uh song called Feeling Like a Three-legged Border Town Mexican Dog. And Billy Joe goes, Man, that's great. Did you write that? And I said, Yes, sir. And he said, Oh my god, would you let me cut that? And it's like, you know, God's right hand writer, songwriter asking you if you can cut one of your songs. I'm like, Are you kidding me? You can do whatever you want with that. And then a few months later, I asked him if he would sing it with me. And you know, that song's got a billion streams now, it's up to a billion streams. And uh, where's where's the money?

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

So anyway, um, yeah, he he uh told me that he was gonna cut it with me, and I was all excited, man. Here's one of my Billy Joe Shaber wrote Honky Tonk Heroes, like not only the song, but the entire album for Wayland Jennings. And here he is, like my honky tonk hero. He's gonna cut one of my songs. Like, couldn't be any bigger compliment that a songwriter could get than having a master like that cut your song. I got to do a duet with Hank Cochrane, too. And anyway, Billy Joe he said, uh man, I'll cut this thing. Just just let me know when you're ready. And we set a date, and I told Richie Albright that the Billy Joe Shaver is gonna cut my song. He said, Ha! Good luck! And I said, What do you mean? He said, He's more no-show than no show Jones. Good luck getting him. And so we had the date set, and I was in my Peterbilt 379 tour bus, and I'm headed down um through Dallas Tollway and headed to Waco, Texas. And I was gonna pick up the phone, and literally I could hear Richie laughing at me. And I put the phone down because I wasn't gonna tip him off that I was coming. I hadn't talked to him in two months, and so I rolled the Peterbilt around the corner, and you know, in Waco they had these big high curves, and I was looking at the address on the GPS and I saw the house and I said, It's gotta be it. So I pulled my coach up on that, climbed up on that curb, and I called him. And

Guitars That Shape The Song

SPEAKER_00 29:35

he uh, and I'm coming down the sidewalk on the curb, you know, just about one house away. And and I said, Hey, this is Griego. Um, we still on for today. He goes, Oh man, I I don't I don't think I can make it down. I'm not feeling I'm feeling poorly. And I just he says, Is that your bus? And I said, Yes, sir. And he goes, I'll be right out. He comes, he's dressed up like Billy Jochet. He was ready to go. He was just gonna no-show me, man. You know, so he comes out to the bus. I'm in a hurry to get the slide out on the rig, and I had the microphone set up, and I have my Pro Tools rig set up, and he went on the bus, and I had him singing that thing within 10 minutes, and we we cut it. We cut the vocals on it right there on the bus.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Wow, wow. You know, you've been around when you're around people of that caliber. Um, do you realize in the moment uh how special it is, or does it uh kind of hit you a little bit later on?

SPEAKER_00 30:32

I think I think that's a good point. A lot of times it does hit you later on. It I don't if I was in that same place now, I would know. Um you don't know what you don't know. So at the time, if you're not at a certain level with your thing, you're not gonna recognize certain things. But like, you know, it took me years to become a big Johnny Cash fan. And now to see the genius in his artistry and how big of an artist that guy was, and just unparalleled and unmatched. And for some reason, when I was a kid, I didn't see that. But Billy Joe Shaver had his own thing and his own way of phrasing and his own way to turn a phrase and to write, and you know, I I can only say so much, but allergic to BS, you know, makes them break out windows and doors and everything else. And you know, I probably didn't realize that in that moment, but going back and listening to just to how fast you can lay something down and phrase it and know exactly where to put something and uh knowing exactly who he was.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Yeah, I love the fact, you know, being a songwriter, that is just it's so cool. Um, how has your songwriting changed from the young guy starting out to the songwriter that you are today?

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Hank Cochran warned me about this. He said, Be careful what you write because you'll end up living it.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

That's good advice.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

That's how you how it changed a little bit. I'm a little careful with things I write. Some of the things I've already lived that I don't want to go through again, you know.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

No, totally, totally. So would you say that when you sit down to write, you um you usually come up with ideas drawn from your own life, from people you meet, or from uh pure imagination?

SPEAKER_00 32:25

I've been working on mastering the art of getting out of my own way. I do it with my life now. I don't try to plan things like I used to. I don't try to, I don't go into a networking room and say, Oh, I want to meet this guy and this guy and this guy. I I do it the other way. I pray, hey Lord, please protect me from anybody that you don't want me to meet. And and I just get out of the way and let him steer the ship because he's a lot better at it than me, man. You know, I tried to do it the other way and just got my butt kicked.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Now I'm just on a mission and I just do my mission and I ask him what we're doing next, and I get out of the way. So it's the same thing with uh with songwriting. If you can get out of your way and master doing that, creativity will hand you the whole song and all the music and everything you need right there, all together. So that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

Oh, sorry, you cut out and I cut you off. I apologize.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah, watch it, Bub.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

I'm trying, it's an upstate New York thing. What can I tell you? Skip happens. There you go. I told you. But uh Danny, uh, when you sit down to write, what usually comes first for you? Is it a line, a title, a melody, or even a story?

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Man, I usually get the whole thing. Like I guess the first thing that I that if I'm composing a song, I would get the premise first. I think it's all about premise. And there's, of course, there's multiple ways to skin a cat, you know. Um Elton John made a career out of writing uh melodies and not lyrics, and he would hand it to Bernie and he would write the lyrics. And uh most of the big songwriters I know are lyrics dictates melody. So they get they start with a really strong premise. And if you're really good at getting out of your own way, creativity will handle the rest. Now, some people could call that the subconscious, you know, and uh they could say you you you plant that thing in your subconscious mind, which I think happens, you know. I get premises sometimes and I think that's pretty good, and I'll put it over on a list, and then sometimes if I'm going down the list and I see it, and I say, you know, that's pretty strong. I I'm over I'm over my own thing now, right? So I go look.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Oops, sorry, my bad.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

I'll look at the premise unadultered and say, you know, that is a strong premise. Now that I'm not caught up in the moment, I think I'll write that and then I'll grab a guitar and find out it's already written. The thing just goes blop. Um we're getting ready to release a song called Give It to Me Straight, just like Texas whiskey. I was around a high net worth group of guys, and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader was our hostess, and she uh she brought us, she took our order, and I corrected her on the order. I said, Hey, uh, I don't want any ice in mine. Just straight up. And she said, I got you. I said, Okay. And the guy said, Hey Danny, what's up, man? She heard you. And I said, Nah, she didn't hear me. And uh they said, You think she's gonna bring you ice? And I said, I know she is. And uh I said, I'll tell you what, I'll bet you the night's bill, the round of drinks for everybody, that she can bring me a glass of whiskey with a big ball of ice in it. And they said, You're on. So she shows up, puts everybody's drink down, and and I, you know, she hands me my drink and I pull up my whiskey with a big ball of ice in it and said, Here you go, boys. And then she goes, Oh, I'm sorry, did you not did you not want ice? And I said, Give it to me. And and I went home that night, and I so I had it in my mind from the time I said it. As soon as I said that, give it to me straight, because I was drinking Texas whiskey. I said, Hey, that's a song. So I wrote down the line in my phone so I didn't forget it because creativity has no memory. So I wrote down the line. That's one of the best things Red Lane ever taught me. Creativity has no memory. So I get back to the house and I pull up my phone, and I was getting ready to go to bed. I was pretty tired, and I thought I'll just write down a couple little notes on this song in like three minutes and change later. That song was done. I haven't changed anything in it since.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

Oh wow. You know, I want talking about creativity. I'm gonna do a little bit, a little bit of this. Hang on, here we go. Let's go. There it is. Dude, there it is, but wow. All right, we're talking about creativity here, and that's that song Angelina. That is it. And uh Danny, um, where did that song come from?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

That that song, I don't know if they told you this, but that thing just hit the number 10 on the media base airplay charts. Yes, which is the guy that runs the billboard charts told me that I'm the only independent artist to crack that nut in 25 years. So thank you, radio, for spinning that thing. Because like I don't know how it got up there, but thank you. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate that. It is so hard out there on independent artists, you just get your butt handed to you, you know, and getting radio airplay, it's really tough. So um, Angelina's about daddy love, it's about a girl who had her heart broken by her first love, her dad. And a lot of girls

Songwriting Premise And Getting Out

SPEAKER_00 39:10

end up really messed up from that and they never recover from it, and they just become man-eaters, you know, and it takes them half their life to figure out why their heart is broken in the first place.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

But the um, you know, when he finished the song, did you know there was something special about it?

SPEAKER_00 39:25

I've always known that song was special. You know, I never got the cut. I've cut that song four times now. And the last time I went in with Willie's band, you know, Willie's got an awesome set of studio players. And and uh we had one more song, we had time for one more song, and I just literally went, I think I'm gonna take another crack at Angelina. And I pulled it out, I pulled out my guitar and just laid it on the guys and said, Hey, I want this thing where like sting meets Orbison, and I want you to put it right on. I'll be watching you, you know, that that that meter, that tempo. And the drummer put it right on that click, and uh, we kind of cut that retro track on it, and those boys just burned it down. I think that was the second take. And when we got done, Kevin Grant, they call him swine, he's the bass player. He said, I won't tell you what he said because there's some there's some explicit words in there, but he said, That's a hit.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

So, you know, it came time to put another song on the radio, and and I was really struggling with what I was gonna put out there next. And um, this girl that comes out and helps me feed at the ranch, special girl, really good girl, and she said, uh, I really like that song, Angelina. And it just happened, she just happened to say it when I was getting ready to put that next release out. And I went, Well, why can't I put that out? So um I flew back out to Nashville and sang it, you know, put another one more vocal on it. And we ended up using probably like 80% of the recording of the tracking vocal on it. Whenever we set, whenever I record, I set up with like a seven-piece band, and we set up like it's 1964, and uh I set up the microphone chain through the compressors and use the mic that I'm gonna record my vocal on, and I put my guitar in my hand so I'll phrase like I'm gonna phrase it live because this guitar dictates how I phrase. And I laid down the song, and that was the vocal that we use for like 80% of the song.

SPEAKER_04 41:37

Wow, that is cool. Did you ever imagine that a song that is rooted in your style, Danny, in storytelling, would cross over and connect the strongly strongly at AC Radio Adult Contemporary? This is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Yeah, you know, I I think people are really yearning for believability right now. What to believe? Everything on AI now, you don't know whether you're seeing as real, you don't know whether you're hearing as an AI artist, and it's gonna get we're already really there technology-wise, but in the private sector, within just a little bit of time, even the people who know won't know whether you're hearing something that is made up on AI. So, um, but I think you can feel it. Um, I'm not a fan of it, I don't use it to write. I don't think that if you you know, you're probably gonna make some enemies here, but if you're a songwriter, you're writing with AI, that ain't you writing, Haas. That's the idea. Okay, so you're not a songwriter, man, unless you unless it you're you birthed it through creativity. You can't just stick it in a computer and let it spit it out. Who's writing that? It's coming from somewhere, it's either coming from there or it's coming from there. There's only two places creativity come from.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

So that's just my opinion, okay. But um, I think people, my point is that people are yearning for something real, and things are times are getting tough, and they're gonna get tougher. And the tougher they get, the more people are gonna want something that's real.

SPEAKER_04 43:08

Yeah. Have uh Danny, have listeners shared personal stories with you about the song and what it means to them?

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Oh, absolutely. I love that. I I was playing that. Gosh, I'm so glad you brought that up. We were playing the Westerner Club in uh Elko, Nevada. This club is so big that you can't see the end of it when you're in there. It's a massive honky talk. And uh, we were in that club, and the buttons it was just a rough deal. You're talking about earlier about you know, you wonder why you're doing this. The heater on the bus broke, and we lost all the money that we're gonna make on the gig because the bus driver, my bass player, took the gas nozzle, the fuel nozzle, and he put it in next to the fuel tank. He missed the hole. And so I came out from getting the the band snacks, and I walk out there, and there's a river of diesel running down. The road through the ice, and I'm wondering, what the heck? And I went and grabbed it. The tank was still empty, and we had pumped, you know, $200 right down the gutter. It was just a rough trip, you know. And I drove the rest of the way up there, my foot was frozen, couldn't feel a damn thing. And and uh we get to the club, and really I'm wondering, why am I doing this? And the lady came up and she said, That song, Angelina, whose song is that? I said, That's just mine. And I told her who the co-writers were on that thing, and she said, I've been I I left my husband and I've been out here for a week in a motel, not knowing what to do, and now I know exactly what I need to do. And I just want to thank you for singing that song, and that made made the whole trip worth it.

SPEAKER_04 44:50

Makes it worth it, no doubt about that. Um, so does success feel different now because of everything you went through to get here?

SPEAKER_00 44:58

I'm not even in the business for the same reasons that I got into it. You know, I'm in the business now to leverage what I've got to help people because we've only got like this much time left. Things are coming together, there's a convergence going on. I think the world as we know it is fixing the change in a large way. And I just want to help as many people as I can. That's why I I picked special forces warriors because they're guarding our walls, they're they're they paid for our freedom. So um, it feels a lot different now. I don't I don't long for the show business success end of it. Like I don't care about being a star or any of that stuff. I just I just want to help that kind of music music is a healing thing, and and horses are a healing thing, and so that's what I do. I I um train horses and work with cowboys to heal warriors, and then I go out on the road and I pick my music and and you know focus on the two things I know how to do, and that's that's what I do.

SPEAKER_04 46:00

That's awesome. Are you able to enjoy the moment? For example, what's going on with you right now or with Angelina, or are you already focused on the next song?

SPEAKER_00 46:10

That's a good question. You know, Angelina's coming down the we don't I don't have that huge budget to compete with those people in the top 10. They're throwing so much money at promo and marketing, and you know, it was a miracle it got there in the first place. There was just some DJs like you and some radio people who believed in it, man, and they made it happen. And like I don't even want to talk about, I'll start crying. I just killed me. Um I think it was really special that it got to go up that high. It's kind of like uh kind of like seeing one of your kids hit a lick, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 46:46

I don't have any it is no, but that's one of your kids, if you know what I mean. So that's what it, you know, that's what it's all about. You know, as an independent artist, do you think the music business is finally reaching a point where you as an independent artist you have a much better chance to compete, or no?

SPEAKER_00 47:05

I think we're right at a crossroads, you know, with that. Um there a couple years ago, yes. Um, when Ella Langley hit a lick, she got her song on a Taylor Sheridan production, blew up. And and uh, you know, I'm I don't even know if I'm I probably shouldn't say some of this stuff, but the social media and the apps have been corporatized now, which means that if you go do a Google search, you're gonna find out that those social media profiles are owned by major labels, certain just enough of a percentage of them to where they can sit on the board and make decisions and take artists like me and cut them out of the algorithms. So it it was getting that way a couple years ago, but they've got a handle on it again now.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

It's kind of cutthroat.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

It is, it's rough, it's a rough you know, just like anything else in life, they can't control the herd. If the herd spooks, they'll run you over. So if you can get enough people to listen to your music, then you can do it. But getting past those algorithms, I don't know how to do it, quite frankly. Well, you're you hopefully they can figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

Yeah, you're doing a pretty good job of it though, Danny. And much

Angelina Hits Radio And AI Talk

SPEAKER_04 48:20

respect to you for that. Um, what is it about if we could change it up here a little bit, the Freedom Horse Ranch? What is it uh about horses that can create such a strong connection? Uh, for example, with somebody dealing with physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges?

SPEAKER_00 48:36

I really think they're god's magic animals. They they're the they're finding out just now with some of these technologies and frequency, the study of frequencies and healing frequencies that you hear about, that like you can buy a frequency generator that kills parasites now or or will kill cancer cells. Well, horses, their heartbeat goes four feet in either direction. And you can't lie to a horse skip, they'll look right through you. So when these some of these guys that come out, they're three-letter agency guys, they're doing special ops, they're they're chameleons, they disappear into places and do their business and come back out, and people never know they were there because they're just really good at it, and they'll show up to the ranch with PTS. And I I I don't use PTSD because I don't believe that soldiers get post-traumatic stress disorder. I don't think it's a disorder, I think it's normal. I think if you go over there and that stuff, it's perfectly normal to feel what you feel. And these people in big pharma have labeled you so they can drug you and put you in a box. So I try to tell these warriors they don't have a disorder, man. And if you're honest with the horse, he's gonna hook on to you. And when he does, it's gonna change your life because everything that's in you, horses are like a grounding rod, and they'll just pull out stuff out of you and just leave it in the arena dirt. It's a nice feeling when it happens. You and you know, you can tell somebody about it, but until they feel it, they wouldn't even believe it. And then once they do, you can see it all over them, and they come in here broken and they can't even look you in the eye. Can't even shake your head, they're just they're just they just don't feel loved or appreciated, and they're beat up, and they leave their head up high. So we renamed the program the Horse Warrior Program because when they leave here, they're warriors.

SPEAKER_04 50:36

Absolutely. Do you um let me ask you this you survived your own life-altering uh trauma? Does that give you a different connection to the people who come through the ranch?

SPEAKER_00 50:48

I guess it does. You know, I sure I sure feel bonded to these guys when they leave, and we talk about a lot of stuff, stuff that they don't tell civilians, you know. I think that's part of the reason. I think part of it's because of music that flows through me, and I think part of it's because of lightning that flows through me. Um, it was definitely a life-altering deal. I died. My heart was code, you know, and uh I think that that day when I when I woke up when they when they picked me up off the ground and carried me to the truck, I think that uh I was born that day again. So I feel like I can relate to those guys a lot.

SPEAKER_04 51:33

Wow. How can uh somebody find out more about this or make can they get involved or support what you're doing? Uh-oh. I think we lost him. And uh, well, you know what? I'll bet you that the battery on the phone went dead. He did not plug it in. And right now he's probably running around looking for a charger. But uh Danny Griego is uh the artist that I'm chatting with tonight. Um he goes, Man, I tell you, he's the life-altering trauma that I was talking about. The fact that he got struck by lightning, as you mentioned just a moment ago, and uh, you know, he was he was actually more or less dead. Uh, they brought him back. He's uh been through rehab, uh, learned how to play, you know, playing the guitar really helped him out, changed his life. Uh, now he's writing songs and putting out some great, great music. We'll uh wait here and see if he pops back in uh any moment. But uh, I do have a few more questions that I'd like to ask him. We can look that up online if you followed Danny Griego. Uh, you can Google him, find out more about him. But uh, he's a songwriter, very traditional, independent, Texas. And uh Harry, oop, well, I don't know if he just went somewhere, but uh yeah, so he's uh probably gonna plug that phone in. But uh I highly recommend that you go online, that you check it out. Check out the song Angelina. All right. This is uh quite an accomplishment for him, and from somebody that's in radio to know that uh nowadays there's a lot of crossover. There's a lot, it's a very traditional sounding song, but it also crossed over onto the adult contemporary chart and uh with Billboard and MediaBase and what have you. But uh, you know, you know, hitting the top 10 is um somebody like Danny to do that is quite the accomplishment, and uh he needs to be recognized for that. We'll we'll wait a moment or two here and see if he comes back on. And uh, if not, I certainly hope that you enjoyed it. Uh, you know, the podcast, uh, we get artists all different, the independent to the well-established, and even some people that uh individuals that uh the men and women that aren't involved with music, but we always hear from the other side as well. And uh it is skip happens and uh would appreciate it if you could subscribe and uh you know just follow, follow what we do, what I do, and uh follow me at the radio station at the at the wolf here in Syracuse. So that's where the pod zone is, and uh we love doing this. So we'll just wait a moment here and see if he comes back on. If he doesn't, then we'll just move on. But uh I know it gets a little tricky. He is in Texas, as I mentioned, and uh, you know, what do you say, about 25, 30 minutes away from uh DFW, Dallas Fort Worth. So that whole area. I think the only part uh when it comes to Texas, I've been to San Antonio, and uh I have a friend that's um just outside San Antonio, actually more I mentioned San Antonio earlier, but uh he's in Austin, but um he's a former uh captain for Jet Blue. So uh but he's got his ranch there, and of course I'd love to go down and go on a ranch. I don't even know what it's like to be on a ranch, to be honest with you, but it's gotta be beautiful. It's gotta be beautiful. Just uh the peace and quiet and be able to see the mountains and see the countryside and just enjoy, enjoy that. But uh yeah, we'll just wait a moment or two here and uh we'll see if he comes back. But my name's Skip Clark. Thank you, uh, thank you for watching, and uh thank you for listening. Thank you for all that. We'll just give it a moment here. If you got questions, you can always uh you know just uh hop on here

Freedom Horse Ranch And Warrior Healing

SPEAKER_04 55:10

and uh you know I'll answer them the best I can. But uh who knows? So, anyways, I want to take a moment to say thank you for watching, and uh it is Skip Happens. Thank you to Danny Griego. He said, like San Diego, it's Grieago, I believe. It is, it is. So make sure you check him out online. Uh, follow him, do what you gotta do, uh, Google him and get the music too, and support support the independent artist. So, and there you have it. So, I guess uh I don't think he's coming. Oh, wait a minute, he may be. Uh, there he is. Let's see if I can get him back up here. Let's see what he's doing. Flip him back on. Danny, are you there?

SPEAKER_00 55:55

I'm working on it.

SPEAKER_04 55:56

I'm trying to get a camera to work on here. It's all right. But did the phone go dead? It did. Skip happens. It skip happens. And were you running around looking for the charger?

SPEAKER_00 56:08

Uh well, I kind of mose it over there and got it.

SPEAKER_04 56:12

I was just talking about it a little bit, so that's good. And uh, you know, just just good stuff. But we can we can pretty much put a wrap to this. But uh, I want to say thanks for coming out again. If somebody wants to follow you, you can just, you know, don't worry about the camera at this point. Hey, oh, there you are.

SPEAKER_00 56:29

I'm back.

SPEAKER_04 56:30

There you are. I see you.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

All right.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

I see you. Tell me uh yeah, I was gonna say, tell me about the elk.

SPEAKER_00 56:43

Oh, that's uh that's a real special elk right there. There's a there's a eight by eight elk from Colorado. And this is uh this is the hacienda freedom horse ranch. It's kind of dark in here right now.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Dude, that's gorgeous. That's gorgeous. I love it. I love it. Is that uh, did you get the elk?

SPEAKER_00 57:03

Is that yours? Yes, sir. Yeah, I I love hunting, I love to hunt elk, and a lot of times I'll feed the warriors elk out here.

SPEAKER_04 57:11

Um we'll have elk stew or elk steaks or give me an what does I I don't mean to sound stupid, I've never had elk. So what would you compare that to when it comes to taste?

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Lean beef, like a filet. Oh, okay. There's not a lot of fat in it, and of course, you know, there's no hormones or no anything, it's just natural. So um highly recommend it's really, really good meat, good, good for you.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

You know, it's good for you.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

So in the world of uh RMA vaccinated beef. So yeah, you go do your own thing.

SPEAKER_04 57:48

Oh no, I get it, I get it. And I like the fireplace in the background. I just like that whole setting. And I was talking about the fact that you are on a ranch and uh how beautiful that's gotta be. Um, you know, I'm just outside Syracuse, so I'm just outside the city, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

So here's an invitation, man. Come visit Freedom Horse Ranch. You you come out to visit your friend in San Antonio, and uh, you know, the hacienda's got plenty of room, so you can come hang your hat out here for a couple days and then I I may take you up on that.

SPEAKER_04 58:17

I'd love to come down and hang my hat up, hang out and see what it's like just to be on a ranch. I would love that. I would love that. How do you compare, Danny? How do you compare being on the ranch where you are to you know, we watch Yellowstone, we've watched Marshall, we've watched those type of shows. Is it similar?

SPEAKER_00 58:37

What's that guy's name in Yellowstone? Um Rip?

SPEAKER_04 58:40

Rip, yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Yeah, well, he's playing me.

SPEAKER_04 58:44

I love Rip.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

Yeah, he's playing me, basically. So, you know, we're we're out here really doing it. Um so you run the ranch, a lot of drama and theater and the Yellowstone thing, and I guess it makes for good television, but uh there's plenty of drama that happens out here on a ranch, believe me. You know, it's um you definitely learn to appreciate life because it could end at any moment. You're working with heavy equipment and and wild horses, and uh life can turn on a dime. Skip happens.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

That's uh what did we talk about before?

SPEAKER_00 59:20

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 59:21

Exactly. It's uh whether I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 59:24

I guess they're doing casting for Marshalls right now, and uh, I'm just I'm just getting ugly enough to be a bad guy in a western.

SPEAKER_04 59:31

Dude, you should do that.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

I would love to do it. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_04 59:35

Shoot, you know. I mean, Taylor Sheridan, man, he's got it, he's got all the right idea.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

That guy does, he's done a heck of a job. You know, he's there's a guy that knows how to master creativity, he's a great writer.

SPEAKER_04 59:51

And you know, you should send some of your music in. You could be uh may even just get a cameo.

SPEAKER_00 59:57

Man, I don't have a door to that place. Um, but shoot, they could they could shoot out here, you know. It's a beautiful hacienda. I'm sure we could do some stuff out here.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

Cool, cool. All right, and before we wrap it up, as I said a moment ago, but uh somebody wants to get a hold of you that where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Freedomhorse ranch.info.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

Freedomhorse ranch.info. Go there, get all the info. You is your music up there as well?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

No, it's not. That's dannygriego.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

G-R-I-E-G-O.com. And and of course, uh the social media profiles. Um, I just finally hired somebody. You know, I'll work my social media profiles and the numbers go down. So I get uh I just hired somebody to run my socials, and uh hopefully that'll work out. Um, I was born in the wrong century if you hadn't figured that out yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

So it's you and I both, brother. I'm just telling you, been there. I just it's yeah, I have a son that can handle a lot of that. So plus we have somebody special in the radio station, a whole lot younger than I am that can do whatever she needs to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

So every once in a while I'll get

Where To Follow Danny

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

up there to New York to do shows. I'd love to come see you sometime.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

I would love to have an open door, I'll put you in front of in front of a bunch of listeners. We can have some fun with it. So you let me know if you're ever up in this area up in upstate New York. So do that. All right, Danny Griego. Did I say that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

You did, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:23

Thanks for having me on Danny Griego. Yeah, thank you for being you, number one, and coming on and spending uh, you know, a little bit of your time tonight. Um, you know, Angelina, I love it, and I know there's gonna be more. And uh, you know, your songwriting history and who you've hung with and the people you've written with, the people you've gotten advice from, the people you've you just I mean, you've got the it's the connections too. It's those people that know how to do it, know how to do it right, and they're pointing you in the right direction, or they have pointed you in the right direction. So uh just it's it's so cool, so cool, very cool. So, and I may take you up on that offer. I mean, if you don't mind a city boy bouncing around the ranch, you'd be like making fun of me, I'm sure, but that's all right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

We'll get you on a horse, Skip. Come on out.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:10

I would do that. Danny Griego, I want you to stay there. We're gonna say goodnight to everybody, and uh thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe to Skip Happens Podcast. You can find it on YouTube or just about anywhere that you get your podcast from. And uh again, Danny, have a great night. Thank you for being there, and uh hold on, we're gonna say goodbye. Goodbye, everybody. Have a great night.