Bryan Simpson | Singer/Songwriter

Hold on to your hats, folks! This episode offers an exclusive peek into the life and creative journey of Texas-born songwriting wizard, Brian Simpson. From his earliest musical memories to his humanitarian endeavors in Sierra Leone, Brian's story is as intricately composed as his songs. We also have an intriguing Q&A session, where Brian shares his favorite pizza joint, earliest music purchase, and more.

We take you from the deep roots of Brian's musical beginnings in Fort Worth, Texas, straight to the songwriting haven of Nashville. Experience the power of the Fort Worth songwriting scene, and the creative magic of Nashville through Brian's eyes. We reveal the stories behind Brian's unreleased gems and his unique collaborative process with fellow songwriters. There's also a fascinating insight into how faith influences his creative decisions and shapes his music.

But that's not all! Brian opens up about his incredible humanitarian work in Sierra Leone, where he helped build a school that transformed the lives of countless children. We then delve into his transition from creating to selling music, and the humorous anecdotes from his past job adventures. Lastly, we explore his bucket list ambition of playing at the Grand Ole Opry and get a glimpse into his upcoming projects. This episode is a heartfelt symphony of inspiration, laughter, and powerful insights. Don't miss it!

 Catch up on Bryan Simpson’s journey and Connect His Melodies & Memories with Melodies n’ Memories: Music Media 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Brian Simpson's Music Podcast
• 11:15 Early Music Memories and Brotherly Support
• 16:48 Unreleased Songwriting Gems
• 22:45 Songwriting and Inspiration
• 32:52 Finding Inspiration in Nashville
• 42:32 Building a School, Learning From Faith
• 48:36 Music, Selling Vacuums, and Finding Faith
• 55:04 Songwriting and Seeking Guidance
• 58:33 Melodies and Memories
• 1:07:25 Rapid Fire Q&A With a Musician
• 1:11:33 Bucket List Goals and New Music
• 1:16:37 Get Lucky

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, this is Kyle Austin. You're streaming the Melodies and Memories Podcast hosted by Jillian and Aaron Shriver. Cause, that's all I get out of dodge.

Speaker 3: 0:13

Welcome to the Melodies and Memories Podcast with Jillian and Aaron Shriver, brought to you by Arlo Revolution. Each week, they connect melodies and memories with fans and singer-songwriters from all genres of life. When all else in life is gone, music will be left to leave the legacy of life's adventures. Please welcome your hosts of the Melodies and Memories Podcast, jillian and Aaron Shriver.

Speaker 4: 0:38

Hello and welcome everyone to season 7 of the Melodies and Memories Podcast. I'm your co-host, jillian Shriver.

Speaker 5: 0:43

And I'm your host, aaron Shriver.

Speaker 4: 0:45

And our mission tonight is to provide a platform for motivated singer-songwriters, passionate fans or someone who's making a difference in and around the music community. We hope everyone listening tonight leaves inspired with a positive outlook and begins connecting their own melodies to memories. Tonight we're presented by our good friends at Arlo Revolution cinematic wedding films, music videos and promos. Find them at ArloRevolutioncom And One Tree Plant It For every 1000 downloads of the show. We plant a tree with One Tree Plant It. Download the show on your favorite podcast app And Poddex. Poddex is the hottest tool to get your next great interview questions unique interview questions in the palm of your hand.

Speaker 4: 1:22

Our on-screen sponsors are Art on a Higher Wire by Joelle, original and custom artwork inspired by your life moments, treasured photos and memories. Looking for ways to support or sponsor melodies in memories music media? Then please head on over to our Patreon page where tier start at just $1 a month. The next buck's way to support the show is to like, share review on all podcast platforms. Remember, you can join us live every Monday night at 7pm on Facebook and YouTube. You can interact with the show, ask questions or join in on the live chat with your favorite guests. Visit our website, melodiesandmemoriescom for music news, concert reviews, photos, playlists and more.

Speaker 5: 2:00

I'm excited. I don't know I can still get excited for these shows. So one of my first groups ever had on this podcast, way back when I was Everett Huge Everett fan, And of course me. If I hear a good song, I'm on Spotify or I'm clicking song credits Where'd they come from. Where was that song born? And I kept seeing this one name pop up and I kept on digging. I found out some cuss from like Tim McGraw and Joe Nichols and stuff like that.

Speaker 5: 2:26

I was just like man we might have to have this guy on the podcast sometime We'll have a little chat I was saying what's Marley barking at now? That's our dog barker. Sorry, guys.

Speaker 4: 2:34

In case anybody doesn't know, we're in our home studio. That's our basement studio. Okay, basement.

Speaker 5: 2:40

Yeah. So that's how I was, like I kind of had this guy on sometime and I just kept kind of watching over the last year or two and what he's been up to And honestly, i just love this guy's songwriting style, i love his music and I'm like all right, it's time to reach out and have him on finally. So tonight we're excited. We're joined by a Fort Worth, texas, native, who's got some serious songwriting chops and has left his mark on the industry more ways than one, from his hits that have been cut by the likes of Joe Nichols, tim McGraw and Blake Shelton to his unwavering dedication to his craft. We're honored to have Brian Simpson join us.

Speaker 5: 3:07

Brian has been all has always been passionate about his music. He grew up surrounded by the rich musical heritage of Texas And it's safe to say that it's seeped into his soul. With his raw, powerful vocals and moving lyrics that hit all the right notes, he's quickly risen to be one of the best songwriters in the industry. You can feel his heart in every word he sings and every chord he strums. We're honored to discuss the melodies and memories that make up his journey. We're gonna have to write. Welcome, brian. Oh, what's up, buddy? We are so excited to have you on time. We're so ready.

Speaker 4: 3:37

Welcome to the Shriver Circus.

Speaker 5: 3:41

We got kids, the dogs, of course we were all ready to go.

Speaker 2: 3:46

That intro was incredible. I wasn't nervous initially about doing it, but after I hear that review of that intro, i'm like I'm a little nervous. I just had dinner with my wife and she was like you're just gonna go on a podcast live, there's no taking it back and there are people listening and you're gonna have to try and seem kind of coherent and interesting. And I was like, oh God, that does sound difficult to do.

Speaker 4: 4:10

No pressure.

Speaker 5: 4:11

We lay it off pretty easy too. It's pretty laid back and everything. And that's why I like doing this show. Man, this show kind of developed around COVID Because songwriters and artists didn't have a platform for a year or two And so we were kind of doing this podcast and interviewing just fellow fans of music and whatnot And I think it was like the Everett guys that actually reached out to me. It's like, hey, man, we ever want to have an artist on sometime. I'm like, yeah, let's do this, let's do this Right.

Speaker 2: 4:38

they're great.

Speaker 5: 4:39

Dude, I love it. I know we were talking a little bit earlier. We'll probably talk about them later when we're talking about some music. But, dude, I like to throw this back every week the same way And kind of get your earliest music memory, man. What were your parents listening to when you were growing up? I know you kind of like was around the age of nine. You knew you kind of wanted to do something in music. What happened from when you first knew about music to the age of eight, man? What kind of what kept it brewing for you?

Speaker 2: 5:02

Well, i grew up in a family my dad loved Like I would sit in the garage and not learn anything. Certainly he would just test it out. They don't know how to do anything with cars or anything like that. Our tools are completely. I'm a tool when it comes to tools.

Speaker 5: 5:16

I agree.

Speaker 2: 5:17

But I certainly, but I did do the late 70s, early 80s country FM, country, gold radio, all that kind of stuff. And then we would also and then I don't remember what about what age, but I wasn't too old when my family my granddad I think started dragging the family down to Bluegrass festivals down in like Glenrose, texas, and we'd go down in that festival twice a year And it was a really you know, the Bluegrass festival you can get really up close and personal with artists, and so I would sit there and soak it up, mainly with my granddad. I remember him and me and him sitting through shows. I'm not even sure I was that interested in the music at the point at that time, but I was certainly interested in hanging out with him And he would sit there with his legs crossed, legged in a cockeyed hat on his head And it'd be in the middle of it could be 102 degrees watching some band that was probably probably rehearsed maybe once every month or something like that, and he just loved it so much, and so it made it really easy for me to sort of soak up that music, and so those are some of my earliest memories.

Speaker 2: 6:21

I do remember, like being not very old, dressing myself up and as much as I possibly could with a hat and sometimes a diaper, and I wouldn't be wearing the cowboy hat and just strumming this big guitar that someone had bought me and my grandparents probably, or my parents maybe some Yamaha guitar playing to like Ricky Skag's Country Boy record when he's in that electric suit on the cover, and that was probably like this instigated everything. I just wanted to look as cool with the feathered hair and the electric blue suit, and Country Boy is just an amazing record for me. So I would sit there and strum, not knowing at all what I was doing.

Speaker 5: 6:59

I don't want to jump around, but you worked with Ricky Skag's at 1.2, didn't you?

Speaker 2: 7:04

Yeah, it had to be a full circle for you. Yeah, it was. It's a large feather in my cap of it kind of made me feel like, okay, something I'm doing is right. I remember getting a call we had made a record my old band, cadillac Sky, we had made a record and we had produced it ourselves and everything like that. And then, oh, that's cool, that picture on the feed that my wife took that picture in a church, that's a cool.

Speaker 4: 7:29

that's an awesome picture She didn't props tonight for it.

Speaker 2: 7:31

She's not a professional photographer, but she's got all these photos everywhere.

Speaker 5: 7:35

Yeah, I like to steal like 30 photos or whatever like from your Instagram or whatever I could find, Just to kind of show your journey while we talk. So it's cool to have that one on there.

Speaker 2: 7:43

I pay people $2,500 a session to do big photo shoots and the photos that appear are my wife's and she's like, yeah, don't you forget.

Speaker 5: 7:50

She does the same stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:52

Oh yeah, She does how to catch me in the right light and everything. But yeah, i remember sitting with my wife we had made this record. We didn't know what to do with it. I still, 20-something years later, i still don't know what to do with these records. I don't know if you want to make them, how do you get them out there? how do you get people to hear them? We were stuck in the same grind back then And this had been probably around 2005, i think, and I remember being at Duck Lake in Fort Worth, texas, and me and my wife had just gotten ice cream cones and Ross Holmes, who a great fiddle player, played in the band a good friend for a long time, and he plays now.

Speaker 2: 8:31

I think he lives in Nitty Gritty, dirt Band now. I know he does, unless something has changed in the last few weeks. He just called me. Ricky, googled the band just to find because there was so little information and the internet wasn't as expansive as it is now. And he Googled the band because he heard some of it. His engineer had gotten the record from our engineer, eric Legg, and passed it on to a guy that worked for Ricky And Ricky heard it and loved it and just Googled the band, found that the fiddle player Ross was teaching lessons at this place in East Texas. So he just called, randomly, called the shop. Ross happened to be there. Ross said, well, hey, the guy you need to talk to, the guy that started the band, kind of runs capping over it because nobody wanted all the trouble with it really. And then all of a sudden Ricky Skaggs is calling me and I really thought it was a prank call.

Speaker 4: 9:22

I'm sure.

Speaker 2: 9:23

Yeah, ross would be prone to do something like this as well. So when he called and said, hey, brian, this is Ricky Skaggs, or hey, buddy, whatever you call me, probably it was either buddy or Brian And he said I love your record, i want to buy it from our label, and I was like I didn't even, i don't even think I even heard the figure, the amount. I was like I'm in whatever. And then and I just kept waiting for him, as we did, as we started the process of putting the record out for him to just say you know, like I want to change this, i want to change that, you know. And he never said anything. And I just had this all my life. I'd heard of Ricky being this, this nickname of picky Ricky, and I just knew he was going to say something kind of sucked, honestly And we need to fix it. And he never really said anything at all. I think he suggested adding some a second fiddle or something to one of the last songs in the record.

Speaker 4: 10:08

But that was just an addition.

Speaker 2: 10:09

It wasn't a subtraction, which I was surely was coming, so that that is. but yeah, that in that relationship was great. And still he, i, still.

Speaker 2: 10:17

I worked on a song with him late 2021 that hasn't come out yet, but hopefully we'll at some point And he's been a mentor and somebody that I can look to in the music business is a guiding light of how to like sort of carry yourself with integrity and honor and presenting. Ricky does an incredible job of not only making music is interesting that's true to him but also doing it in a way that has a lot of that honors his creator and honors the gift that he's been given through that.

Speaker 5: 10:48

So he's built his own style too, like he's his own, like you hear those type of songs, like when you hear it, you're like, oh, that's so. And so you hear Ricky Skagg song No, that's Ricky Skagg's playing that song You're like, oh, that's, i know that. That's a little I know that playing our bandeau, playing right there, Yeah. I love that man. I love when you mentioned that Ricky Skagg's had an early effect on you. I'm like man. I'm reading somewhere that he worked with them too. That's awesome.

Speaker 4: 11:13

That's incredible. That's what a great story.

Speaker 5: 11:15

Dude. So I always also like to ask, kind of your first concert experience, that you kind of really the first one that you went to is like Wow, this is something like you just had to take something away from it. Who did you go see and what did you take away?

Speaker 2: 11:27

Well, it would have been. It would have definitely been like at this, that festival I mentioned earlier, okay, oakdale Bluegrass Park, where there was, there was a band called the Lewis Family Band that would play. They would be there, i think, in the fall, usually around October, and they were like this southern gospel bluegrass band out of Georgia and they would roll up in their bus. They were like one of the few bands that were like kind of like the big band that would play down there and at the time they had their own TV show in Georgia and all this kind of stuff and they were pretty big time and at least in those circles, and to me they were humongous because they pulled up in a big Eagle bus, a Silver Eagle, and they all rolled off.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And at that point I was probably, like you know, six, seven, eight years old. I was like it was blowing my mind. I thought that was the best name, the coolest, most rock star thing I'd ever seen. And then they would take the stage. There'd be like seven or eight of them in the band, three sisters, a couple of brothers and uncle and dad, the whole family and they'd get up there and for their 45-minute set they would entertain within an inch of themselves. And it was funny, it was musical, it was worshipful, it was fast. You know what I mean.

Speaker 5: 12:39

Yeah, you kind of got a little bit a little taste of everything when you went and saw them, almost.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yeah, i just remember I was probably bitten by the bug in a way there.

Speaker 2: 12:47

But I wasn't necessarily like I'm more extroverted than ever now, but I've always kind of been like my brother is far more somebody that would walk up to someone like I would never I'm sure I never walked up to that band and said, hey, i'm a huge fan. I never walked up and said, hey, i'm Brian, or shook their hands or nothing. Now my brother would do that and sometimes I'd hang out behind him, even though he's four years younger than me.

Speaker 2: 13:07

I'd kind of be behind him because he was always more brave when it came to that stuff, but I definitely knew that's what I kind of wanted to do is make music. I remember when I was in something was a Sunday school class they made us put a little on a piece of paper what I wanted, what people wanted, what kids wanted to do, and I had written down there on a musician when I was like nine years old So, and I think it was self-fulfilling My wife would prefer that it wasn't like the only thing I knew how to do. I should have on that piece of paper it said what you want to do when you grow up I should have wrote this is the only thing I want to do. No plan B, yeah, but I never learned how to do much anything else.

Speaker 2: 13:48

I always tell people it's like either I was either going to be successful at music or start breaking into houses and it's really hard at my size to squeeze in the window. So this is all the voice I had, really.

Speaker 4: 13:59

It's a good thing that worked out, then I love that.

Speaker 5: 14:02

So, with your brother being four years older, did he have any music influence on you man, Did he?

Speaker 4: 14:09

pass anything. Oh, he was four years younger.

Speaker 5: 14:11

Oh, okay, Well then okay, well then, let's, let's throw it that way. Then Did he kind of bring anything new and fresh to you that you might never heard, like I mean, i know, granted, i'm 30 or I'm 40 years old now and my kid's nine, but he'll bring songs to me or people to me. I'm like, oh man, who's this? I'll start listening to it. But he ever introduced you to anything that was kind of out of your range.

Speaker 2: 14:29

For sure. I mean, we're pretty close and we always have been musically aligned in that respect, So, but he definitely will. He'll tell something that I haven't got a chance to check out And it'll be, you know, and he's always been there. There we are, me and Everett on the screen, but the he's always been. I mean, i don't think I have to look far to know that between him, my family and my wife I've had incredible support system And he's always rooting for me And he's always I always. I'm always asking him to give me feedback, and so we're always talking about kind of finding a way to work together, and he's one of the. You know, on one hand, i can name people that I can trust they're going to give me an honest opinion and not one that's built of anything other than one of the best for me. So he definitely gets to hear the songs about as fast as anybody does. I'll send it to him and see what he thinks about him, and so he stays. he's an integral part of the music I make for sure.

Speaker 5: 15:25

He won't sugar cut it. He'll tell you what he really thinks about it. No, he won't sugar cut it. Yeah, he won't sugar cut it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:30

He has, you know, and honestly he could be just like he could rip me, because I'm sure as an older brother, there were times where I wasn't the kindest to him. Yeah, we definitely. Most people will attest to the fact we played Twin Fiddles when growing up. We would play it, go down around to local operas and play Twin Fiddles shows, and so I would teach him the parts or whatever. Now I was a pretty decent player, but I wasn't a very good teacher. I wasn't a very patient teacher. I feel like I'm a better teacher now, but my patience was really short. He wasn't quite bitten by the bug that I was, so he didn't practice as much. So probably to my parents my parents are probably thankful for that They didn't practice as much as I did because they got their sanity back, but I saw it would be kind of I would be a little more of a task master than somebody who's a patient teacher, which is probably what he deserved. So in spite of that, he still seems to be pretty kind with me.

Speaker 5: 16:29

I love that man. So you started a song right around the age of 12 or so, before 12, did you really know what a songwriter was? Did you kind of did you ever look at old CD books or cassette books or anything like that and like look at the songwriter names? Did you have anybody me you looked up to then?

Speaker 2: 16:43

Yeah, i think I did. I think I started looking. One reason was I started. There was a guy that played. He just passed away the last couple of years. I got him, tom or, and he had a band called the Shady Grove Ramblers And Tom had written, actually, a song for one of my favorite concert experiences and one of my early ones. It wasn't it wasn't the earliest by any means, but probably around 13 years old I went to see Tom had written You May See Me Walk In, which is an old big hit for Ricky Skaggs back in his country days his epic days And he was playing the seminary there in Fort Worth and we went to see him play And I got to meet him.

Speaker 2: 17:20

That was the first time I got to meet Ricky. But Tom wrote songs and and he was a visual present, a visual representation of he didn't actually sing the song, he wrote the song for the artist And the artist sang the song or whatever, even though he was an artist in his own right to some degree. I mean, for honestly I don't think about it a lot, but my career path has probably followed his Tom Moore's career path more than I'm, more than I usually publicly recognize, because he had his, he had bands and but he also wrote songs for other people And his life kind of gotten the his his making, having children and having to make a mortgage and stuff kind of got in the way of his being able to do it full time like I've been able to. But he was great And so he was somebody that once I saw, once I knew he wrote songs and I had heard them on other artists, i started to look into it more and pay attention to it more.

Speaker 2: 18:12

I'm not sure I understood the financial end of it at all, like I didn't know that. You know, sitting on this couch I could make a lot of money if I did, if I figured out every once in a while you get pretty lucky and bless for sure. But but I do remember starting. Tim O'Brien was a huge influence on me, like his band Hot Rise. I knew he wrote songs as well for other people, although I didn't know Tim, but he had a band called Hot Rise but he had written songs for, like Kathy Matea and, you know, dixie Chicks later on and all these kinds of people. So I was. I was a little more aware than maybe some kids, but still I'm not sure at all. It synced itself together or since the self of my brain, like stitched it, that's the word I should use. Stitched yourself together, oh, they make, that's how they make money and this is how this process, yeah.

Speaker 5: 19:02

We were talking. We were talking to a guy last night. I went growing up I always thought for the longest time whoever, whoever's name was on the cassette tape. I was born in the 80s so I had cassettes. But whoever's on the cassette tape, that's who's saying it, that's who wrote it, that's where the song came from was them. When I, when I looked at CD books or cassette books and saw other names in it, i got, it sparked my interest. Like all right, who's these names? and parentheses like who's these people?

Speaker 2: 19:26

Yeah, so that's what I think about it is now. The funny thing about it now is that it's actually more true now. You would actually. Most artists' names are appearing on the songs. Yeah, not every one of them is actually. Well, i won't get into that.

Speaker 5: 19:42

But we've seen more singer songwriters lately too. I feel like the singer songwriter genre is getting huge lately and people are keeping songs more for themselves, and I love that.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Yeah, it is And there's, you know there's. I think you know it's funny. What do they say? What's the mother of invention? I can't remember the term, the phrase, but lack of is the mother of invention. Somebody's screaming at the screen. I'm supposed to be the one with the way, the words, but you know, i think the fact of, like, record sales not being what they used to be, i think you're seeing a lot of people go find other routes in order to sort of make their own records. You're seeing a lot more songwriters not just sit, you just can't sit around and wait for royalties to come in by the next hat act you know, so kind of making other avenues, and so they're finding ways that they can.

Speaker 2: 20:36

So you're seeing a lot more records made by people that still write songs for other people but also making records of their own, and so it's. It's a really cool thing and you know, i love more the. I love hearing what. I love hearing the songs that the songwriters haven't gotten recorded.

Speaker 2: 20:53

I'm always kind of disappointed if I go to the Bluebird or something like that, and if I'm, i don't get to go over there and just sit.

Speaker 2: 20:59

I used to sit in the pews over there and just like soak it up at the six, the six o'clock show or whatever, and I would just walk out of there so inspired, you know, getting to hear guys like Craig Carruthers or Don Henry or Don Schlitz or whatever, all be in this big round and having. They'd be having the best time and I just wanted to be in that circle. They'd be singing songs that I didn't heard because they were kind of quirkier songwriters not Don Schlitz, he obviously had plenty of hits, but the other guys were a little quirkier, so they would play these quirky little songs and I wouldn't have heard them before and so I would be so intrigued by those songs. The ones that aren't getting necessarily, because I know for me the songs that aren't necessarily the ones that you would list in a bio, are the songs that are the songs I would go man, there's a couple songs in my catalog that no one would probably will ever hear, but I'm the most proud of.

Speaker 5: 21:51

For sure. Yeah, we're Die Hard Eric Church fans. Everything behind us that you see on the War Walls is all stuff I've collected Eric Churches over the years and I once somebody gave me like 70 songs of his way before his first album that are just publishing cuts this and that and I swear to see that some of his best work I've ever heard Like and people never heard these songs. They're buried there deep down. They'll never see the light of day. I think Ray Fulcher finally cut one like a year or two ago and it was crazy that he even cut one. But I listened to some of those songs now and I'm like dang dude, if he put one of these out they would go straight to number one. Like just listen to these songs. But yeah, some of these, some of the songs are these gems that you only will hear if you go to Bluebird or Songwriters Rounds or places like that. So definitely very international. Check those little areas out because you're gonna hear some cool gems.

Speaker 2: 22:41

For sure, man, I love them. Yeah, that's Eric is amazing. I get to write with one of the guys that writes a bunch, has written a bunch of hits with him, Jeff Hyde. He's one of my best friends and one of my favorite guys to write with. You should have it. I don't know if you've had him on here.

Speaker 5: 22:53

No, we know, we know Hyde real well. We've had Driver on, Driver's been on. but yeah, we've known Hyde for years, man We've. Jillian and I used to live in down in Mississippi and we got to catch Eric Church in like 06 and started to kind of hang out with the guy That's actually his Gibson Hummingbirds right over my shoulder. He had him giving it to me one year and I was like dude, this is blown away Like cigar burns on it.

Speaker 2: 23:12

but yeah, I do you said Jeff's a little more shy.

Speaker 5: 23:14

He's a little more shy than it, Yeah but he's quirky dude, and that's what I love about. Jeff, he's a great songwriter though He's funny when he wants to be. I got a. my old dash cover from my car is autographed by him and Jeff wrote don't take no wooden nickels. I signed my dash in his car but just the funniest things he would write are in everything else. I love it because he's quiet, but when he puts pen to paper, dude things that come out of him are just wild He is.

Speaker 2: 23:39

He is a true, true songwriter, and he's another Texas boy.

Speaker 5: 23:42

Yes, what was one of your favorite songs you wrote with Jeff.

Speaker 2: 23:47

We just wrote a song called Spinning.

Speaker 4: 23:51

Okay.

Speaker 2: 23:52

It's about a man getting his. He's getting. Well, i'm seeing him. I wonder if I could think of what it. I never can remember what the actual, what it actually is here.

Speaker 5: 24:07

Speaking of the devil, is a picture of you and Jeff hiding in front of the bluebird.

Speaker 2: 24:10

Oh, that's the very next picture That guy tried to say have you heard his song Pants?

Speaker 5: 24:16

Yeah, was that his one album that he put out?

Speaker 2: 24:19

I don't know. Charlie Wershyn put it on a record but it has like seven lines in it and he tried to make that on that show at the bluebird. He tried to make that his round. You know I was gonna. That song is like let's see, can I play something a little bit.

Speaker 4: 24:35

Yeah, go ahead, buddy, go for it.

Speaker 2: 24:36

Let's see It's called.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Spinning. Last summer the Lord called Granddaddy home as we laid him in the same ground.

Speaker 1: 24:45

That he loved and worked every day of his life. But before he was six feet down, all the next to Ken was fighting, trying to get their hands on the family farm. Some distant cousin with a big shot lawyer, one album, both those. The barn put up a Starbucks and a pizza. A strip mall for a country mile. But the insurance rates keep going up because every once in a while the ground starts to rumble and the building starts to fold the walls in that concrete jungle start time to light Jericho. People start raising hell and praying, thinking it's the end of the world, earth's way. Me, i'm grinning, no one, it's just granddaddy spinning. It is great, yes and it's just great.

Speaker 4: 25:42

I love it started following you demand.

Speaker 5: 25:44

I got that from you. Like I, i watch a lot of yourself. I'm like this guy. He has a funny side.

Speaker 2: 25:49

He has a serious side, so I love your writing too.

Speaker 5: 25:52

I'm a I'm a big Luke Dick fan and, honestly, when I was researching for this show, like I saw so much Luke Dick stuff in you like I was like this guy. It's like almost a spinning image of like Luke Dick's been doing over the years.

Speaker 2: 26:04

I love it yeah, man I love. We've only gotten around a couple of times, but I think it's because people go up and he does similar stuff to him, so let's put it with someone who who doesn't do the similar thing, you know whatever, but I'd love to. I hope, to get more, more opportunities to hang out with Luke and just watching. I, i loved it. I love guys that do anything while they're writing. That's kind of interesting and Luke'll light up a pipe. I was doing the right. It's so interesting to me.

Speaker 2: 26:28

I don't have enough vices.

Speaker 5: 26:29

When I'm writing, i just kind of sit there we had him on the show and I swear he's smoking weed in that pipe. Oh yeah, he was sitting there like this with that pipe the whole time that we were live. I'm like this guy's is a bad ass.

Speaker 5: 26:40

I love it so um, i also, when I was researching for this show, i heard uh, there's one time you're in a movie theater and you had a run out because you just was inspired for a song. Do you remember what movie it was? and two, do you use your cell phone a lot, kind of when you're just a spur of the moment, like we're kind of like I got through, the sound of my phone is an idea that I can't let go oh yeah, yeah, i was.

Speaker 2: 27:05

I'm trying to think of what movie it was.

Speaker 2: 27:07

The problem is it wouldn't have been just one movie, it would have been lots of okay um, that I, you know I love going to movie weeks, if not twice every two weeks, and Lately there haven't been too many good ones to see, so but but we will try to check them out. So we love going there. So I definitely get inspired by movies and other stories or whatever, and I always feel like I can write off the movie ticket if I can go get a song I did for me. So it's really just a tax evasion situation, yeah, so what was the other question?

Speaker 5: 27:43

Um no, it's kind of like what you kind of want one another movie, so I was hearing like you had like 9,000 voice memos or something in your phone like so. How often are you always using that? like to put ideas?

Speaker 1: 27:58

down.

Speaker 2: 28:03

Oh, it says oh, i have 8,937. I recently deleted one, it says, because I finally decided that one out of the 890 8000 and was not any good. All the rest of them, i'm holding out. Hope for that someday they're gonna bloom into something great.

Speaker 4: 28:23

Oh, they will.

Speaker 2: 28:24

I'm sure That's awesome So most of them are a lot of them. Like every 20 of them are the same exact song, just like me singing and You know, getting on a, getting in a sort of a rabbit hole where I just like keep Changing the melody or tweaking or tweaking lines, and then a new one and a new one. So sometimes I do have to go through there and clear them out because it's just like a lot of the same, you know.

Speaker 4: 28:47

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 28:49

Yeah, that's crazy. I have just to do list in my phone. Tons of mom always have to do him. Come a topic, i like to lay things out, so I had those lists, but, um, so you wrote better than I used to be with Tim McGraw. For Tim McGraw Yeah, joe Nichols, a guy with a girl, blake Shelton man. Your lyrics over over the years have been very personal and heartfelt and everything else. How do you decide, though, experiences that we're talking about, like movie theaters isn't that, but how do you?

Speaker 4: 29:14

How do you draw from?

Speaker 5: 29:15

yeah, I decide which experience to draw from when you're writing songs like, do you know? like alright, i'm gonna take this, i'm going to the right with this experience. This is what I want to talk about, or do you? how do you pick?

Speaker 2: 29:25

in rooms I kind of do a little bit of both. There are times I walk into a room that I, when I'm writing from Myself, i definitely want to like. I definitely, when I'm writing for my own projects, i'm trying to find something that's only me, that I want to write about. It's um, i Can hear as I'm writing a very if it's a song idea like that. I think to myself like I don't really want to have to. It's not the words, not quite. I don't think what compromise is quite the correct word. But I don't want to put anybody else on the hook for this idea, like you know. I mean I'll be the one that answers for the blankets, the blame and the credit. Yeah, you know, if it's stupid Or it's too silly or too weird of an idea, then I won't because I feel like there was some responsibility.

Speaker 2: 30:08

If I go in and co-write with someone that you know They probably want to, or someone in their camp wants them to write a song that can actually actually make money, i always joke to my wife that the genre of music that I make is nonprofit and she always amens. She says she doesn't, but I think secretly she But uh, the Oh, somebody texting. A good to see. And here you, brian. Hope you have been so successful. Hey, blake, that's cool. I used to see each other at the the great van opera back in the day. Um, i don't know if I'm supposed to read those when they come on, it's all good.

Speaker 5: 30:42

Hey, yeah, i throw them up there. People comment on the comments. I throw them up there if you want to read them.

Speaker 2: 30:53

But there are time but. But when I'm in the room, especially if I'm writing for another artist, i'm trying to find something out, probably to my own detriment Not one. I don't necessarily love working in broad strokes, so I'd rather find something that is very like, sort of like they're the only artists that could sing that like. Like you mentioned Everett earlier, they have a song called dang the whiskey, which is a song about Brent getting in trouble with the law when he was a kid in Up in Bowling Green, and so no one can actually, you know, no one if they didn't cut that song, no one else is cutting a song, because no one's actually probably had that experience and I usually were writing it from a first-person situation. Now, sometimes it would work, it might work, but obviously there's a lot of money to be made in the broad strokes of lyrics that are less Less nuanced or less less niche. So but So I like to do that. I like the right songs, that only artists, because if it works and when it works, they're the only ones that can sing that song and I feel like the audience will completely feel who they are, and That's my favorite kind of artist is that when I hear them I can. I can hear their soul, i can know who they are, in three minutes At least, to some degree, a lot better than I did before, because there's certain artists on the radio on a regular basis that I, i Mean, i may like their song, but I have no idea who they are.

Speaker 2: 32:13

They could have, they might have five number ones. I could name artists for you. Well, i don't have to, because you probably know who they are, or you maybe don't know who they are, you wouldn't even know who they are. But I go oh, they had that song, they had this song, but there's no like, sort of like, there's no tie, there's no, no ligaments between the song and the artist. It says it connected me with the artist and you can see that all the time in like streaming numbers for artists that have number one songs But have streamed. You know very little, they stream very little. And you have the artists that are streaming like crazy And that necessarily haven't topped the charts, except for maybe a few songs.

Speaker 5: 32:46

Yeah. Yeah, dude, is crazy how this, all this whole industry works, but we'll talk about that. It's like I got a question with that. But uh, you moved to Nashville at 19, what was a turning point in your life and you reached out and make this jump come Texas national. That's a huge jump to make, man, so we'll finally brought you to Nashville.

Speaker 2: 33:05

Um, it's funny. I did an interview earlier today I don't usually do interviews And I'm done done a couple of the day for a guy that was writing a book about Nashville And he asked me that exact same question and I I was trying not to be overly Sort of like I don't know, i wasn't, i was trying to give some sort of answer that had some like Physical implications, not be so whatever, so poetic, but it was it comes. I literally remember What drew me here was the first time I came here. So at 19 I got a, i got a, i came up and did an audition I think that's what you're talking about and did some audition for some different artists and actually got and got the, got the gig, and so I would come here and work out of here and travel out of here and play with different bands.

Speaker 2: 33:48

And I just remember I can't forget the the way it felt when I first drove up on the mumbrean, which is the street here in Nashville, coming off the Broadway or whatever, and I remember getting out at the show knees parking lot that used to be there. It's so cliche, but I got at the show knees parking line. There's a best Western that I think I might have stayed there a night or two. I think there was a round that night as well, in the middle, in the front of the best Western, which I don't sure they used they still have that, but they used to and I just remember the air was thick with creativity in a way That I just never felt before. I definitely felt some sort of like gravitational pull And and it always, it has always remained. Sometimes I don't feel it as much now because I've been here so long, but if I go away for a long period of time which I don't do very often but if I Times where I go out of country for a week or two or whatever, i can come back, i can feel it. There's this, there's just a buzz in the air From all these people, all these little bees buzzing around the high up trying to try to do something, but they don't know exactly what they're doing.

Speaker 2: 34:48

It's such an energy to come here and go. I mean you think about. It's kind of crazy to come here and think out of you know I have something. It's funny, it on a honestly. It's funny the egos that can be a national and the fact that people are relatively humble, because they came here going like I know there's a lot of great songs in the American music catalog but I have decided to add one or two or three or a thousand to it.

Speaker 2: 35:12

I have something to say that hasn't been said before, that comes with its own sort of its rot, with all these sort of like Characters. You know what I mean. You have to be a character, think I have something to add to something that has so many, so much great lineage already, you know. So we come here and we try to figure it out and there is no sort of like. You know there's no five steps, five steps to success in Nashville or any music business. You know I, you know the dots that connect are Radic at best. And you, you know, usually you're putting your foot out into the water and the stone appears right as you put the foot down into the water. You know. So it's very like you could. You know it's walking on faith in a lot of ways and and trust in that something somehow It's gonna work out.

Speaker 5: 35:55

Yeah, I love that you talked a little bit about characters in there. And something I was listening while I was studying or researching for this show was you quoted Wendell Berry once about practice resurrection. Is this something you still do in your songwriting? Do you feel like you need to reinvent yourself Every so often to kind of keep it fresh?

Speaker 2: 36:15

For sure, for sure. I mean you know, like I don't, i don't make, i don't make records regularly enough. Most of this happens in record. In making records I don't make records regularly enough, where You know. So that, like I'm not, i'm usually a few years at least in between, three or four years in between. So in doing so, you know, i mean a lot of me has changed by the time I'm ready to make another record.

Speaker 2: 36:40

And you know I try to I'm a naval gaze just as much as anybody And and try to sort out my life and sort out where I stand, and things are always kind of like change. There's my brother right there, i'm gonna drink there. So things are always changing. So and, yeah, i mean there's one of my. You know, i Renew your, renew your mind daily. I think that's a scripture, that's a something Paul said in the scriptures, and, and so I try to do that, try to get a clean slate. I try to think look at the business and look at my music and look at myself and look at every folks around me as as um freshly as I possibly can and not, you know, because we get a habit of just kind of like, you know, looking at someone but not seeing them you know, and uh, we kind of like we, we decided what they are, we decided what this is, and sometimes I can do that with music as well.

Speaker 2: 37:35

I go, oh, it's just gonna go this way, you know. And or you know, if I do this record, i know what's gonna happen with it. It could probably won't be the thing that I, it'll probably be disappointing in some way, or it'll be this or that. You know I have. I can set all kinds of boundaries for it. But thankfully, you know, there's a Quote I have put on a couple places before. I'm trying to think of the guy that said it. He was an old guy. But uh, sometimes you build the fires, sometimes you build the altar, so the fire can comes down somewhere else.

Speaker 2: 38:03

It's the quote I think like that Um so you know, we just um. I'm always trying to.

Speaker 2: 38:10

You know, go in there and try to make up my mind, to be As open to the situation as possible, and who knows what's gonna happen. You know, like I um, with my last, with my, with my was in Cadillac Scott, this uh um Bluegrass adjacent band that I had for for a long time, between 2002 and 2010 Um, you know we were, i remember the last couple years We were kind of coming to the end of. You know you work really hard, you tour for a couple years. You can kind of, if you're not making the strides that you would hope to make, you know you haven't had that break or whatever. Um, you know you can really feel like, and sometimes it's just sometimes the good news that you're wanting to get It's just stuck in a slow email. You know, uh, slucking, and you just haven't gotten it yet.

Speaker 2: 38:54

And so I can remember sitting at telluride We had played a festival show We played early in the day, went on ride or whatever. Um, but you know you don't know if you're making an impact like you'd hope to do. I mean, we all have visions of grandeur. I do at least Um to have people really, you know like, oh, i'm gonna, this is the record that's gonna blow their minds. This is a record that's gonna make me, uh, the new towns, vans, ad or whatever it is. You know whatever my ego conjures up. Um, uh, foolish delusions.

Speaker 2: 39:20

But and I remember, uh, mumford and sons Winston Marshall of Mumford and sons came up to me as I was going to him to tell him how much I loved his band. He comes up to me and goes hey, i wanted to meet you. We've been playing your record for the last two years on our bus. It's one of the, when we came to America, your band and and uh, oh, cro medicine show where the two bands we wanted to meet Because they inspired our sound, and so it's one of the things you go Oh, i had no idea about that. You've been doing this for two years. You know what I mean. Like I, oh, you know you kind of go start bargaining with God. Why couldn't I got this information two years ago, god, when I was feeling kind of like we're not getting anywhere?

Speaker 2: 39:57

Right, right, no, so you know you just trust that the music is going into the places and is, and you have to. I mean. I have to. I don't know how someone operates in the music is about some kind of faith that, uh, in something.

Speaker 5: 40:10

Did you tour with Mumford and Sons with Cadillac Sky, or who are you? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 40:13

Yeah, i, i was, um, sort of at the end of my rope with, with um, it was so many things going I was trying to. I was trying to still um, uh, i was trying to Live my life as well. I just come to faith in 2008 in a new way that I hadn't ever done before. I was raised up, going to church and knew of new, of God, of course, and, uh, had some relationship, but I'd never sort of like invested time into getting to know this God that I was saying that I believed in and had Created me and all that, all the different ins and outs of that relationship that I wanted to try to spend time doing that. I was also traveling with the band. I was also traveling to Nashville and trying to continue a songwriting career that was having some success. So it was a really difficult road to figure out and I was just like man. You know what? there's an opportunity. Uh, i was like man, i think if the band could shift gears, go on tour with Mumford and Sons. I'm not sure that's what I want to do.

Speaker 2: 41:07

The rest of my life, um, is being a band, um and uh. So I did go play some shows. I played a show in Milwaukee and um play to show down and and uh, uh, but, um, we try to switch over to another lead. They I try to say, hey, here's the guy that I know that can sing the lead. Um, maybe I can use this as a sort of a jumping off point for the band, because a lot of people were coming, the band was coming to a lot of people's attention at the time because they were getting exposed for the month from Son Tour that the band opened up for and, uh, it didn't quite work out that way.

Speaker 2: 41:39

The band kind of broke up after a couple of months, um, but uh, there was also uh, um, that was that, was that, was that was that point, just even knowing that we had, you know and it's always good to hear it, man, from someone that, hey, you're doing something that's getting to people, that's inspiring them in some way. That's why I appreciate you saying this and having me on the The podcast. You know it's like, oh, i mean, it likes what you're doing. Yeah, i love it.

Speaker 5: 42:01

Yeah, this is a lovely thing. Yeah to the stories and, honestly, to your songs, because I Ever since I kind of found out about John with ever I was like dude, this guy He has some stories and he has just a lot of stuff when I was researching for shows I was interested about because, like you went to Africa once, uh, and that kind of changed a little bit about who you were to tell me a little bit about that trip, man, and kind of how you came back from that trip.

Speaker 2: 42:26

Um, well, definitely changed, um, also with greater perspective. I've actually went there three times. Um, we started a school over there with a lot of bunch of people helped and and provided money for this school, which didn't cost a whole lot actually to build. And we've got um in a place there in Sierra Leone. There's a place where, um, Uh, in a place where, in the history of of that country, they've never had an opportunity for kids to go anywhere near their homes to school um, up until, like you know, they'd have to walk several miles Um, we're talking like 10 miles to school, um and and and be at risk, especially the young girls. And we were able to build a school there, um, uh, in Sierra Leone, benduma, with the help of a lot of people that put their money into it and, uh, we just the first. We got 120 students and we just graduated our first group into They go, they go off into high school. So it's, it's a, it's a up and it's like, basically, can a garden through 5th grade to middle school or whatever? So so we graduated, the kids are graduating into that and it's been, it's been, it's it's funny, it's a, it's funny, could you go there? and you're like one thing.

Speaker 2: 43:45

I came back thinking myself, or most everybody said when I came back, like was like, can you just want to take all those kids with you? I certainly did not because of the fact that, not because, i think, just because the joy they had. You know, i was really thrown by the fact there weren't a bunch of sullen, sad sack kids sitting around. That didn't because they don't really know. You know everybody doesn't kind of have there you know what I mean The lowest economic places in the whole planet. So you know they're playing soccer with balls made of tape that they put together or their. You know climbing up palm trees to get get fruit or something like that in order to, or coconut trees or whatever to get coconuts. And there all these in there running in the street.

Speaker 2: 44:31

You know they're not necessarily sad or whatever, and I was like we have to bring them all back here and stick them in front of video games. But you know, i mean we can all learn from each other, you can be honest with you, and so there's some beauty, there's definitely some beautiful stuff there And I just and also just learned that. You know that it probably expanded the way I thought about faith and you can really get easy to get tied into the concept that Christianity is like a American idea or something like that, or that it's primarily. You know, i don't know. I mean there's just a bunch of things you can get, you're easily get tied into and then you go and see how this is, how faith, whether it's Christian or Muslim, has impacts the world in a powerful way And I'm not even saying negative or positive in powerful ways. You have very devout people around the world and that impacted the way I think about everything.

Speaker 2: 45:29

Really, meeting some people at a conversation on a hillside with one of the guys that was one of the ministers, the Christian ministers. He wanted me to have this conversation with his father who was sick. Who is this devout Muslim? Now they have peace among the Christians and Muslim there in Sierra Leone, but you know, it's a little tricky to be proselytizing another Muslim, that's one thing. To go there and teach and all this kind of stuff, but to try to kind of if you approach it like I'm trying to pull someone onto our side If that's what somebody looked at it and there's plenty of people that I know that do look at it that way I just want and that's the way this, this Koji was his name, that's what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to convince his father to become a Christian.

Speaker 2: 46:17

And I remember having a conversation on the hillside that was I opening for him and I opening for me, and to see that, you know, like that, he was a well thought out man. He had and he didn't agree with me And I didn't agree with him about a lot of things, but we both had our. Both of our goals were ultimately to know God and to see his creation Live. You know, live in continuity with the, with their creator, and we have different ways of looking at it. I remember at the end we shook hands and I said, hey, i'm going to pray for you, you pray for me, and that God would, god would shine a light, give us both wisdom. And he shook my hand and that conversation changed the way I think about everything as well, and I think Koji walked away disappointed. I didn't you convinced him. Why didn't you do no good? But it's funny, those things that you think you're going to. You're going to go change someone else's world and they change yours.

Speaker 4: 47:14

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 5: 47:15

But man, it's great, it's awesome hearing that story because you're changing lives over there, man, with having that school and everything. It's just phenomenal what you're doing over there. Like, i read a little bit about that kind of you're working with a nonprofit and everything like that And I just I was so intrigued by that, i just wanted to hear that story the whole, the whole about the trips and everything. But I didn't know about the school, which is phenomenal.

Speaker 4: 47:33

They're just breathtaking.

Speaker 5: 47:35

I love that. No, it's cool to see people give back like that man. And honestly I mean just to go over there and give those kids this another day of dreaming and be able to study the right way. And you said just not walk 10 miles to have something right there in their neighborhood.

Speaker 2: 47:51

So yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 5: 47:52

They won't have the 10 miles uphill story to tell their kids.

Speaker 2: 47:57

Our parents had my parents.

Speaker 5: 47:59

So tell me a story. So well, we talked a little bit about Cadillac Sky. You guys released three albums together and then you came to the whistles and bells. Tell me a little bit about that project, man, how it came along. You released two albums under that title. Are you still thinking about you're going to come back to that project and really say more, or how you feel about that I?

Speaker 2: 48:17

just finished. I will say this I just finished. I thank you for mentioning all those. I just finished a project which I've been shooting some. I just shot some videos for down in Texas. I was in Texas. I've been working on a bunch of stuff So hopefully I have a single out off that new record, but hopefully the next few months.

Speaker 2: 48:36

I've been saying that for a while. It's really one thing to. I've had the records finished since February, but it's it's a whole nother thing to sort of shift into gears of like. Let me, you know, just to go into be a tupperware salesman. All of a sudden you know it's like I just wanted.

Speaker 2: 48:50

I love making music. It's all the selling part of it and getting the word out is the more difficult part, especially right now, because it's such a like a. It's such a. It feels like you got to have a lottery ticket to. You got to, you got to win a. You win the lotto to get people's attention or whatever. But that's all going to be under the umbrella of just my name. So that's all this music the Western, the bells, the golden age, the Cadillac scouting, all these things and a bunch of songs I've written for this new project. I just decided to try to like tear back the veil, do it under my name And, for better or worse, be the one that's going to that. The buck stops here, kind of. So the wisdom so I love to make the wisdom the bells was a project built up around the idea of like.

Speaker 2: 49:33

When I did come to a new content, i thought about faith and thought about God and thought about my place with God and all that kind of stuff. I went to the radio and I didn't necessarily find songs represented how I felt about it, how I felt how I felt about I found the road of faith to be more difficult than As much as anybody. But I'm still moved by worship songs that you would hear in a modern church or whatever. But I also wanted to write songs that I felt like reflected my journey in some respect.

Speaker 2: 50:12

So those records were kind of bent around that, a little bit built around those concepts, and so I've you know I don't want to keep making this like I said, practice resurrection. I'm not trying to continue to make the same records. So I think you hear it in this new record. There's certainly all parts of me, whether it's I'm just. I'm happy to talk about anything in my songs, whether it be you know, love, life, god. All that stuff is all interconnected to me, so it's all so you can hear all that in the news and the new material. But it just began in my name. I love that.

Speaker 5: 50:47

I love that you're putting it on your name too and say, hey, this is who I am. If you like it, great, if you don't, whatever. So you know, i love that, man. I love that you're putting it out there and just saying, hey, this is me. So well, before you wrap up, man, i got to ask one last question, because when I was listening or researching for this, one thing's just popped up You used to sell Kirby vacuum, so so did I. I think the only one I sold was to my ex-girlfriend's mother. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:17

I sold one of my mom for sure. I brokered him Yeah.

Speaker 5: 51:22

Oh, we froze. I think we just got froze. There we go.

Speaker 2: 51:25

There was like $600. I think you can make $600 profit on each vacuum cleaner. So as long as you just, i think you know we would cut in our profit anytime we did I don't remember how much you sold them for like $1,200.

Speaker 5: 51:38

Yeah, we sold them. When I was selling them, this had to be when do we get together 2004? This had to be like 2001,. 2002, when I was doing, i think they were around $1,200. And it was like $600 profit. But you could go down the price and that's cutting into your profit, exactly.

Speaker 2: 51:54

So yeah, I mean it was good man, I sold like 12 one month And I only did it for a couple of months And then I started selling security system because I did not like, I did not like selling, selling vacuum cleaners, And we would always they would always do these like calls, these cold calls, to where they would offer me to clean them.

Speaker 5: 52:11

You get one free room.

Speaker 2: 52:14

We talked about it. It didn't take me long to figure out, like, hey, man, if I walked in your house and they were like really kind of like not very nice to me And just said, hey man, like a lot of times this would happen to be like Hey, i'm never buying that vacuum cleaner too expensive, but you can clean my floor And he walked out of the room, I'd be like let me go get my stuff in my car And then I'd put that thing in drive and leave.

Speaker 4: 52:34

See ya, goodbye.

Speaker 2: 52:36

So if they weren't nice to me, they certainly weren't getting me to clean their floors.

Speaker 5: 52:39

That was the same way. Then we'd always have the big guys where you're like, oh that's NASA quality, whatever the tubing was, and he'd be trying to pull it apart. I'm like, dude, that's my, that's my. my demo said don't, don't rip it.

Speaker 2: 52:52

The center man, the center was always the bed bugs. When you do the black light on the bed, I mean, if you hadn't had someone sold, especially the ladies, if you, if you took them to the bed, can we go to your bedroom and then I'd take the black light and put it over there Over their bed and they're all. These bed bugs would be almost in any bed. You'd find bed bugs, especially the houses I could get into with these things, you know right.

Speaker 2: 53:18

There would be bed bugs and it'd be like they just hand me their credit card. I remember the the last that when I quit, actually, i remember I sold to this young couple that just married. They were like 21 years old And and I remember the price at the end of when they paid off the payment. There's gonna be $50 a month, but I think it was over the lifetime, but it's going to be about $3,500. They were going to pay for this vacuum cleaner And I just knew like man, this is going to. Really they were in, their apartment was tiny, you could tell they were just barely surviving And I just sold them this thing and I felt terrible about it And I was like I can't do this anymore.

Speaker 2: 53:56

I had to call them. I was like man, this is because you always sold to the people that really could barely afford it. Yeah.

Speaker 5: 54:01

Yeah, yeah, you said that that good sales pitch and whatever I couldn't do, i was like you know what I was. The same way, i cannot sell this piece of junk to people Like it was a good vacuum, but we had, like, the little catcher you put on that would catch the stuff in the white little filter And you show them here. Here's your coffee filter full of crap on your vacuum.

Speaker 1: 54:18

Oh yeah. And. I was like my mom has it.

Speaker 2: 54:21

I got a tank that head of that thing is like kill animals, Right.

Speaker 5: 54:27

Yeah, our sales pitch we vacuumed there with their vacuum, they're living or whatever. Then we use the Kirby with like a little catcher on there and go over top of it.

Speaker 2: 54:37

Like see what your vacuum missed. Yeah, Exactly, That was the trump card man.

Speaker 5: 54:40

I love it. So you talked a little bit about work on some new music. What else is the rest of 2023 look like for you, man? And so next year, where are you going to be working?

Speaker 2: 54:47

on. Yeah, that's it. I'm going to try and begin this record out. That weighs heavy on my mind. Getting it out and getting it going because I want to, i love me. I've already started working on another record, so I didn't have this one out, so I love that part process. I write all these songs that for my records, basically almost all of them by myself, so which is its own, its own animal And I really it's like it's funny I write them myself. I do feel like I'm collaborating when I'm writing them by myself somehow, i don't know how, but I do feel like there's a couple of people in there.

Speaker 4: 55:21

I'm not necessarily You could be a collaboration in different parts of you.

Speaker 2: 55:26

Yeah they tend to disagree with me. I find those collaborations when I'm writing myself to be harder than the ones with actual people, but I do love the process of that. It's really like I feel kind of getting in tune with the muse as much as I possibly can. So I got to get the records out and start playing some shows. I'm playing a couple of shows, coming up songwriter shows and then putting some band shows together as well. So I'm pumped about that. I have a song. I'm grateful my girl, hailey Witters, has a song on the charts. It might be at 18 today on the charts. So me and my wife are both just praying and going with the charts. So it's been on the chart for like 70 weeks. It feels like It feels like I think it has been So hopefully by December it'll polish off its journey somewhere near the top. So that's what we're spending most of our time doing and probably that's what we're doing.

Speaker 5: 56:21

Hailey Witters is out there killing it. She's amazing, one of those amazing artists growing up.

Speaker 6: 56:26

This episode is powered by Poddex. Poddex are unique interview questions and episode starting prompts in the palm of your hand. So, whether you're a new podcaster or an existing broadcaster looking to take your interviews and podcast episodes to the next level, you're going to want to check out Poddex. Visit poddexcom to get your Poddex today.

Speaker 5: 56:50

Well, buddy, we're going to move on to our powered by Poddex. It's our sponsored part of the night. We pulled a couple of cards earlier. I call these cards against humanity the other day, but they're not. They're just kind of a little more heartfelt than cards against humanity. But when you find yourself in doubt, what are a few steps that you can take in the right direction?

Speaker 2: 57:08

A few steps I can take in the right direction. Is this in songwriting?

Speaker 5: 57:15

Yeah, it's songwriting. anything, man, If you ever find yourself in doubt, just in life in general, it's anything. What do you do? I mean?

Speaker 2: 57:22

probably pray. I know that may not be the most exotic answer Pray. Find a couple of people that I can count on their counsel to be pretty good, to be trustworthy. Ask some people that have been through it already. That would be a thing.

Speaker 5: 57:41

Call that your brother yours. What is that? Call that brother yours. but all right, That's what I need.

Speaker 2: 57:49

My wife's very honest. She'll tell me what she thinks as well. So I got all kinds of people I can call a friend and get a bunch of people to kind of give me some feedback on what I should do. But you know like, and I try to, you know I try to be in tune with what I'm doing on a regular basis And a lot of times I know I knew when I started something that it wasn't the right thing to be doing it or whatever. It didn't feel quite right. So I'm trying to be quicker at cutting those ties earlier on So I don't get myself in these too deep in the forest of, of, of, uh, yeah, that's it. Just don't get too deep in the forest. Start to notice the early, the few trees right at the beginning where you don't feel right. You know I love that.

Speaker 5: 58:33

So our second one is what are you most nervous about in the future and how can you prepare for it? Is there anything that you're looking for in the future that makes you a little nervous, and how are you preparing for it?

Speaker 1: 58:43

Collapse of the bank system chat GPT.

Speaker 2: 58:47

No, I don't know. Um no, I'm not. I'm not really nervous about nothing. Like I feel, um, uh, you know, I'd like, I'd like, uh, here in Tennessee, I'd like interest rates to come down so I can buy a house without paying through the roof. Um, uh, I'd like some property in Franklin, Tennessee, to open up so we can buy some, buy some, some acreage, Uh, so I'm nervous that that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Speaker 2: 59:10

But, I'm not too nervous. I mean, my life has been um. you know I try not to get too ahead of myself or whatever That's kind of what we do.

Speaker 5: 59:19

You take day by day and just whatever it throws us at us tomorrow, wherever curveball comes, we're just going to try and nail it out of the park, man, and see what happens. All right, buddy, this, this next section, i'm going to do a little different thing. We call it melodies and memories, um, and I normally just pick four songs, play a couple of seconds of each song and we talk about your first memory. The songs I picked tonight are just songs that you've written over the years that I kind of I don't know I connected with in a way, and I'm like you know what. Let's hear a story that you might have. So the first time you hear this song, we're just going to talk about the first thing that pops in your head that you think of when you hear it Hit the yellow one. So when you hear yeah, by Joe Nichols man, what's the first first memory of pops in your head about that song?

Speaker 2: 59:59

I mean, my buddy asked me to write that song and there was a Billboard magazine sitting right there on the table and it was of Usher and Usher had a song called yeah And we decided to write a country song called yeah. um, that was completely different, nowhere near the same thing, but that was definitely. usher was definitely the inspiration for that title, which is not much of a title. honestly, i was concerned that all my I was going to have. I was like you know, i love song titles. I was like am I going to have a hit song called yeah?

Speaker 4: 1:00:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are.

Speaker 2: 1:00:36

Money, because it wasn't. I don't, it wasn't my buddy, matt Jenkins and Zach Crowe, a couple of my buddies. They have a song called. It was a Dustin Lynch song, but it's called yep, yep, and I was like man, this is we. We're really mining some real gems here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, dig in deep for those.

Speaker 5: 1:00:53

Yeah, definitely, man, i love it All right, hit the green one. This is one of my favorite artists right now, other than me, jackson Dean. So when you hear that man, where did that song take you?

Speaker 2: 1:01:09

It takes me to that. Have you seen the video of Jackson Dean singing the national anthem?

Speaker 5: 1:01:13

No, I might have to see it.

Speaker 2: 1:01:14

Yeah, he's like 17 years old and he's like, it's on YouTube and he's like, he's like, oh, he's probably, yeah, he's probably 17. He's in his football, he has his, he has his uniform on and everything like that, and they ask him to step up there and he sings this rendition of the anthem, or star spangled Yeah, yeah, out of this world. I forgot for a minute. I was like is the anthem singing the star spangled? Yeah, yes.

Speaker 2: 1:01:39

Okay, good, but they and he just sings the hell out of it. Honestly it's incredible. And so when you're with him and he is like a shotgun coming, you know it is loud and powerful. And we wrote that song like I bet that song didn't take I don't think it took probably more than an hour or two to write that song. It was really easy to write And we I think me and Ryan Tindall wrote that song. We've written a bunch of good songs. I love me and Ryan were in a band for a minute together and everything. But we started out on the little patio and then Jackson Jackson got there. We finished the song up and it was nothing And I you know some things. Some things are like. Sometimes getting songs cut is like pulling teeth and sometimes it just happens like that And you don't even get to have to. You don't have to have a second to worry about it. I wish more were like that one, yeah, for sure I love that.

Speaker 5: 1:02:30

All right, here's my favorite one. You did by with Everett, so go ahead and hit the yellow one. We're going to be okay, man, everett dude, i love it. This is one of my favorites. When you hear that song, where's it taking it?

Speaker 2: 1:02:44

My wife, my wife she we wrote that song before, before COVID, and my wife, you know, every once in a while she'll come to me and go Hey, whatever happened to that song. Whatever it's, it may be a different song, it was better than it used to be for Tim McGraw. That was one of the ones she whatever, i love that song, but this was one of the ones. She said Hey, whatever happened? that song And I remember I texted it every now said whatever happened to that song. And then they then they were like yeah, what, why didn't we do something with that song? And then it came out at the and then they were like Hey, why don't we just? they went and made it kind of, i think, mid COVID or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:03:24

They went in the two of them and made that record and put it out and I, man, I thought it was the perfect anthem for what we were all going through and feeling kind of lost and not knowing how things were going to turn out. And so then the recording of it's just magic. Brints voice is killer, and Anthony's, Anthony's production on it is really, really poignant. And yeah, I love that song too. I wish that. I kind of want them to do it and do it and put it out again. So every if you're listening to put it out again, you know.

Speaker 5: 1:03:52

I'll let it down and be like Hey, this is just a single for you guys, Yeah All right.

Speaker 5: 1:03:57

The last one is another one of those. What happened to songs you just mentioned? but we're going to do this one. Go ahead and hit the green So better than I used to be to McGraw man, i love this song And, honestly, when I was researching for this show and I saw you wrote that song, i was like man, that's when my life I am from this guy. This is one of those songs, man, that just hits you. But when you hear it, where'd it go? Where'd you go?

Speaker 2: 1:04:20

I'm sitting in. I'm in the attic of my grandmother's house putting her Christmas tree up. That song has has has a long life It was a cat man nine lives. But it was initially recorded and put out as a single by Sammy Kershaw And it didn't actually work necessarily, but it they played it a ton down in the Louisiana I remember that and because that's where Sammy's from, whatever And it became a single and they did a video and it all while this had happened. Tim McGraw had recorded it. So I was really worried that Tim was going to decide not to do it, you know, because Sammy Sammy's on the backside of his career but he's still at some presence in the business in the industry And so and then, so you know, i didn't hear nothing for a while.

Speaker 2: 1:05:10

The Sammy then came and went and and then I hear anything from Tim and then my wife literally said Hey, what happened to that song? So I'll try, i won't make this too long. I'm going to make it short, but he played it on the view. One day, out of the blue, he played on the view and I was like all right, we're in. Man, this is going to happen. It sounded so amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:05:33

And then, like a month later, he broke up with the curb records and he had made a whole record for them And they said that record's never, tim's not putting that record out, you know. And so I thought, well, there we go, it's not going to happen, you know. And then curb, maybe despite Tim, i have no idea, but they'd spent money on this record and they went ahead and put that record out, despite Tim not have not supporting the record. I was in my attic or my grandmother's attic, putting the Christmas tree up and I don't know if I was putting it out or putting it up. I can't really remember I may be putting it out, bring it down from the attic. Can't remember that. I think it was actually bringing it down around Thanksgiving That's what it was And my friend Matt Jenkins, wife Brittany, called me and said Hey, they just played your song on the radio. It's the new single from Tim McGraw and no one had told me.

Speaker 6: 1:06:18

I had no idea And she had heard it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 1:06:21

And so I was like what You know, i fell out of the attic on the floor and my jaw along with it And that song, that song is like one of my favorite songs I've ever had, recorded for sure, and I play it every round and it always has some sort of you can just see people. you know it's a. I'm grateful that we wrote that song. It's a song that people can always feel they they've had some sort of experience with that sort of place in their life And it definitely spoke to the place I've been in my life and sometimes still are.

Speaker 5: 1:06:51

Yeah, i do. I love it. When I hear it I always think of, like the meme you see that just be a better person than you were last year, just be a better you than you were the year before. I think of that song all the time because, honestly, i used to be better than you used to be. Man, as long as you are, keep moving forward, so yeah there's my favorite line.

Speaker 2: 1:07:07

The song is actually not the hook, it's the line You don't have to be who you've already been. You don't have to be who you've always been.

Speaker 2: 1:07:14

That's always the line I'm like. You know you're not. You know we can feel trapped by our circumstances or trapped by our history or whatever, but we can rise. You know we can rise up out of that. You know there's opportunities, you know, just there's. I think people, if you give them a chance, we'll forgive. You know what I mean. Give them a chance to forgive you and move forward.

Speaker 5: 1:07:32

I love that man, all right. Well, we're going to put you on the hot seat real quick before we let you go for, before we get you to play one and let let you go for the night. So this is kind of like what we just did. First thing that comes to mind is spit it out. There'll be some rapid fire questions. Try to put 60 seconds on the clock and we'll see if we get through them all. First CD or vinyl you ever purchased.

Speaker 2: 1:07:49

Hmm, tim O'Brien, all right, actually, hot Rise Untold stories.

Speaker 5: 1:07:56

All right, where's your happy place? Have you got a blow off scene? Where are you going?

Speaker 2: 1:08:04

My dog comes out. Every letting my dog come out and to see me every morning I got pulled up from the gym and he runs out to jumps up in my face. I take my face off and I never feel better than that right there. Yes, i love that.

Speaker 5: 1:08:19

Who has the best pizza you've ever had?

Speaker 2: 1:08:22

Oh geez, the best pizza. I'll tell you the best. I can't remember what ever had, but I definitely think there's a place in town, right over there off Houston or whatever, called Dicies, which is my favorite place right now.

Speaker 5: 1:08:35

That's kind of.

Speaker 2: 1:08:36

Detroit pizza Really awesome.

Speaker 5: 1:08:37

What's the wallpaper on your phone?

Speaker 2: 1:08:42

My wife and our oldest puppy right there. Look at that I love that. I did have a far racier picture of her in a swimsuit. She'll be thanking God right now. That that's what she is.

Speaker 5: 1:08:59

I feel that She'd be throwing something.

Speaker 2: 1:09:02

What's a?

Speaker 5: 1:09:03

movie that can always make you laugh.

Speaker 2: 1:09:05

Napoleon Dynamite.

Speaker 5: 1:09:07

I love that. What was your first job?

Speaker 2: 1:09:13

I worked at MJ Designs. That's where I actually met my wife. I worked in the floral arrangement section of MJ Designs, which at MJ, is like a spin off of Michaels or whatever.

Speaker 5: 1:09:21

I'm like two brothers, what's the oldest thing you own?

Speaker 2: 1:09:27

I have a 1946 LG2 guitar Gibson guitar. I think it's the oldest thing I own, probably. This guitar here is 64. That one's got to be fun.

Speaker 5: 1:09:40

We get a lot of guitars, but I love seeing how far back they go.

Speaker 2: 1:09:43

That's one question.

Speaker 5: 1:09:44

I love asking That's probably the oldest What chore do you not like doing?

Speaker 2: 1:09:57

She'd probably say any chores, but I'm trying to learn to be better at the chores.

Speaker 1: 1:10:05

That's my least favorite chore to do.

Speaker 2: 1:10:10

There's so many to choose from. I'll tell you what I don't like doing. She don't ever make me do it, but I don't love them. I remember as a kid I hated We used to dust the ceiling fans, thank you. When my wife's not into ceiling fans, i remember being so exhausted. One of the biggest fights my wife ever got into was we tried to put in a ceiling fan with one of those big light fixtures. My arms feel like they're falling apart. I put up a ladder. I don't like installation of stuff.

Speaker 5: 1:10:49

I agree, man, mine's always full of laundry. But I agree, i know about ceiling fan at all. I don't know how to do that, let alone dust one. What was your favorite childhood television show to watch?

Speaker 2: 1:11:04

Good times. That was a little later, but my favorite television show to watch. I don't know if it was a children's TV show, but me and my mom used to watch General Hospital from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock. All growing up we would sit there and I watched. I think I got most of my song ideas from General Hospital. They're just recreated retreaded old plot lines.

Speaker 4: 1:11:26

All story lines? yeah, for sure.

Speaker 5: 1:11:30

I love that We showed pictures. you got to play Bluebird a couple of times. You got to do some really cool things in your career, but what's something that's still on your bucket list A venue you want to play, or an album that you want to release, or something. What's something you want to do before you call it a day?

Speaker 2: 1:11:49

I'd like to play this music that I'm under my name, probably the Grand Ole Opry. Would be pretty amazing. I've done it with a band or two but never gotten to play music that I kind of like That was strictly, strictly oddly me. I think that'd be pretty super cool. I'm not very good at these kind of answers because I'm not a much of a.

Speaker 5: 1:12:13

I think Opry would be a hell of a bucket list man. For sure That'd be a good one, especially, like you said, playing your music, just having them introduce Brian Simpson and bringing you out there onto the stage.

Speaker 2: 1:12:23

Yeah, that'd be pretty cool.

Speaker 5: 1:12:25

I love that dude. Well, man, before we let you go, i know we went over tonight but, like I said, the stories were just phenomenal. I'm like you know what. we're just going to let this thing run for a while tonight because I was loving it, but could we get you to play one for us?

Speaker 2: 1:12:36

For sure My wife will not be surprised that we went over. She's like he is so long winded. She's probably like shut up.

Speaker 5: 1:12:45

It's all good man, I love it. Like I said, it was an amazing episode tonight. I was having a blast, Yeah man, it's a great one.

Speaker 2: 1:12:53

It's a song from the new record that I'm about to put out. Truth is, i haven't got all these songs built to memory yet, so I'll put up a lyric here. This is a. This is a true story about. I was at the BMI songwriter party that they have once a year and I saw Cabo Jack Clement, who wrote like a bunch of Johnny Cash songs someone I used to know and all these incredible songs, and he was getting a drink at the bar and I wanted to say hello to him, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on it. Like I said, my brother had been there. He'd have walked up and introduced us, but I couldn't pull the nerve out. So I wrote a song about that a few years later or a lot of years later actually, about how it would have went, possibly, if I'd actually pulled the trigger on it. It's called Get Lucky.

Speaker 1: 1:14:17

I'm a little bit of a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song I'm a fan of the song but.

Speaker 4: 1:14:50

I'm not a fan of the song.

Speaker 1: 1:14:58

I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song. I'm a fan of the song, but I'm not a fan of the song.

Speaker 1: 1:16:37

I'll leave you with this March out of line, roll up the joints, roll up your sleeves and roll the dice and bend that head on the shoulder, son. Your mama didn't raise no dummy and life ain't nothing but a game A game that did run me. Be ready when the fire comes down. Leave your tape record and run it. Make a little laugh, make a little money. When all is face, get lucky. Make a little laugh. Keep it good and funky. When all is face, get lucky, get lucky.

Speaker 4: 1:17:59

Get lucky.

Speaker 5: 1:18:08

Get, lucky Get lucky. Get lucky.

Speaker 4: 1:18:48

Get lucky.

Speaker 5: 1:18:51

Get lucky, get lucky, get lucky.

Speaker 4: 1:19:44

Get lucky.

Speaker 5: 1:20:03

Get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky. Get lucky, get lucky.