Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 All the good old days. You right. It's called
Speaker 1 00:00:31 Charlie. We rolling buddy. Yay. Welcome to Raise Rowdy podcast. On What up? Yay.
Speaker 2 00:00:37 Thanks for having me, dude. I'm Do I sound good, Charles?
Speaker 1 00:00:40 What? What a great sexy jort intro that's on brand <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:00:44 Good. Jorts. Uh, I mean a good pair of jorts. My favorite pair of jorts. I actually have, I cut at Red Rocks when you guys played Red Rocks. Oh
Speaker 1 00:00:52 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:00:53 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:00:54 I remember that. That was cool.
Speaker 2 00:00:55 My best jorts
Speaker 1 00:00:57 Mm. Mother's Day. All the mommies loved it. I
Speaker 2 00:00:59 Have two good pairs. One's a little too short, which is like, probably not the move all the time.
Speaker 1 00:01:04 Key West Key West
Speaker 2 00:01:05 Vibes Key West. Yes. Definitely Key West Vibes. I feel like Key West, you, you just wear anything, dude? Yeah, that's how I was. I was like, I got a green bathing suit and a red shirt. Good to go. Yeah, we uh, well we were down there at the bar that we hosted at Island Dogs. Their, uh, slogan is Come as You Are and that's very Ray's rowdy. Yeah. You know, <laugh>, it takes all kinds of kinds. Yeah. Have
Speaker 1 00:01:25 You recovered from Key West yet, or?
Speaker 2 00:01:27 Oh yeah. Yeah I did. I, dude, I was there from Wednesday to Monday. I was there way too long.
Speaker 1 00:01:33 That's a long time. It's
Speaker 2 00:01:34 A lot. Yeah. There was like five of us still there. Was that your first day or your first year? Yeah. Yeah. Never been there.
Speaker 1 00:01:41 Well, you're 24. Yeah. And so when I, I was 34 when last time I was there, which is last year and it's, I'm still emotionally recovering from it. It was awesome. It's just so much, I feel like.
Speaker 2 00:01:52 Yeah, it's a lot. It's, it's a lot. It's like a two night town for sure. Yeah. Yeah. But the festival's like four days, so you gotta go for that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It was good though. I mean, got to talk with some people and kind of relax. We've been on the road for like three months, so it was good to take a little break, but yeah. You guys have been playing full band all over the place, man. Yeah, I'm already ready to get back though. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's about. It's, it's cool to see that. Like I, I got to see you open up for, uh, after Midtown here in town. Oh yeah. That was probably the worst show I've ever played. <laugh> really? <laugh>. Yeah. Well that was like kind of at the first part of when you were doing this run For sure.
Speaker 2 00:02:26 Yeah. It was out outta Whack Band and got stuff dialed in now. Yeah. <laugh>. Yeah. Well that's like, that's the, uh, the Southern way is like toward the southeast, right? Yeah. And that's kind of what you've been doing mostly, right? Kind of. I mean, most of these shows with Dylan were north and west. Yeah. Like we drove to California and New York with who? We were out with Dylan, Scott. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Cool. Like D double D. Yeah. Two Dylans. It's weird, but it was kind of, it was kind of a cool thing. Yeah. You know. Um, what is your favorite part about being out on the road?
Speaker 3 00:03:00 Dude, it just like, when you're out on the road, you're like out of your head. Yeah. You know what I mean? When you're in town just sitting here, you're kind of just in the mix of everybody else and you kind of get like a, like a, I mean everybody I feel like gets into a little bit of a comparison game. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I've been better about not doing that. Um, but when you're on the road, dude, it's just like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. You're like making fans and um, yeah. You're just like playing your game. Yeah. I think that's the thing I like most behi besides playing, but
Speaker 1 00:03:31 It's kind of like you, there's less comparisons cuz out on the road and all these like, smaller towns and you're playing and it's like, that's just the thing that's happening that night. Yeah, for sure. The pie's a lot bigger. I feel like once you're able to start touring and
Speaker 3 00:03:44 Thousand
Speaker 1 00:03:44 Percent having fun.
Speaker 3 00:03:45 Yeah. And then just getting to, just getting to play even. I mean, that's what I wanna do. That's what I came here to do. I didn't really come here to write, write songs, but, you know. But you're
Speaker 2 00:03:53 Damn good at it though. Well,
Speaker 3 00:03:55 I appreciate it. <laugh> part of it though,
Speaker 2 00:03:57 You know. Yeah, man. I remember like, uh, first time I heard your stuff, like, cuz I mean, we did an article about U Y E just had stuff on SoundCloud. Yeah. You
Speaker 3 00:04:05 Know?
Speaker 2 00:04:06 Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:04:06 That's
Speaker 2 00:04:06 True. And then, uh, you know, you wrote Noah Hicks for a song that he put out too. We covered that raised on the radio. Yeah, he actually talked about that when he was on the podcast and he said he stills never paid you for, uh, he told you he was gonna pay you for cutting meth. It's
Speaker 3 00:04:20 Still never has. No, I wasn't worried about it.
Speaker 2 00:04:23 Super
Speaker 3 00:04:23 Funny. Held him out though, you know.
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Yeah, dude, that was a, that was a great song. I mean, we've been fans since then. That was before you were in town. When did you move to town? At first,
Speaker 3 00:04:32 I think, I don't know. I think like four years ago.
Speaker 2 00:04:36 Yeah. So like,
Speaker 3 00:04:38 It kind of flies by
Speaker 2 00:04:38 2018.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 August is 10 years for me.
Speaker 2 00:04:41 It's wild. Maybe you'll make it one of these days.
Speaker 3 00:04:44 Where are you
Speaker 1 00:04:44 From? I'm from south Florida. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:04:46 Okay. But
Speaker 1 00:04:47 My mom's from south Georgia, like Brunswick area, St. Mary's, if you know that
Speaker 3 00:04:50 Area. Yeah. Yeah. A
Speaker 1 00:04:51 Thousand percent. Same small town as JD Groover.
Speaker 2 00:04:54 Yeah. That's so weird. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:04:55 He'll let you know. He is from Valdosta, right? Yeah. Isn't that where he is from?
Speaker 1 00:04:58 St. Mary's, he told
Speaker 3 00:04:59 Me. Oh, St. Mary's. Yeah. Yeah. He's proud of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:03 Well there's a lot of Georgia boys, so you have to clarify where you're from, you know? Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 3 00:05:06 No doubt. And
Speaker 2 00:05:07 You're, uh, you're from Statesboro, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, yeah. So College town,
Speaker 3 00:05:11 Collegetown. Yeah. I think that's why like Key West for me was like cool. But I went to Georgia Southern for a year. Okay. I think I got it all outta my system. <laugh>, because I'll hang, but I just, I can't party. I don't know. I don't even enjoy it that much sometimes.
Speaker 2 00:05:26 Yeah. Every once in a while. Yeah. It's uh, it's one of those things too where it's like you don't want to go out and party too much in town, you know? Yeah. Like, you don't want everybody seeing you, you know, at your absolute worst <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:05:37 Are you speaking from experience Nick? Yes,
Speaker 2 00:05:39 A hundred percent. If I would've been in Nashville when I was 24, no one would talk to me anymore, so
Speaker 1 00:05:45 Same. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:05:47 So you're doing a great job,
Speaker 3 00:05:48 Obviously. Yeah. Well luckily I have a good, a good girl. She keeps my head on my shoulders, so
Speaker 1 00:05:52 Yes. That's Amen to that. That's a good part of
Speaker 3 00:05:53 It. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:54 Where's she from?
Speaker 3 00:05:55 She's from where I'm from. Yeah. Yeah. She just moved up here in July, so. Awesome. She's a realtor, so hopefully
Speaker 2 00:06:03 Yes. Housing market stays up. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:06:05 Hopefully she'll find me some land soon.
Speaker 2 00:06:07 Yeah, that's, uh, I I know we hung out over at Langston's Place and that's why I was like, <affirmative>, that's might be where you can afford, but it's like a long ways out to the city. <laugh> it's
Speaker 3 00:06:15 Outside, man. Yeah. It's like, I'm not gonna buy 10 acres, I'm either gonna buy 60 or
Speaker 2 00:06:20 None. Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. So none. It is <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:06:24 <laugh> right now. None. It is at least
Speaker 2 00:06:26 Williamson County. Right. You keep getting those cuts for, or, you know, the, the, your songs to keep getting streams, you'll get there for sure. It's, uh, it's cool to see Last Night Lonely, which we, you know, saw you play around town before, you know, it dropped come out and Yes. Hear party play it.
Speaker 3 00:06:41 That's been a cool, uh, cool thing for me. It was one that I was talking to somebody the other day. I don't ever really write for other people. Yeah. I just write for me. Yeah. And I remember telling Joe, I was like, dude, I want this really good badass like baritone riff. Yeah. And so he did it and I was like, this is the song for me. Like, this is great. And then they're like, yo, John Pardi wants to cut it. I'm like,
Speaker 2 00:07:02 All right, all right. <laugh> fine. You're like, that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:07:05 But
Speaker 2 00:07:05 Man, if you, that's sick. Yeah. But if you think about it, like, all these artists like Luke Combs, or not Luke Comb, Luke Bryan's first number one wasn't one he sang. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:07:14 Thousand I mean percent Good directions.
Speaker 2 00:07:16 So. Yeah, exactly. So it's like that, that's the path for a lot of folks.
Speaker 3 00:07:19 No, for sure. It's been, it's been cool. I mean, I get to sing it every night. Yep, yep. And uh, yeah, it's been helping out. So.
Speaker 2 00:07:25 And then you've had some other cuts, like with buddies and stuff and I know, uh, yeah,
Speaker 3 00:07:29 There's some smaller
Speaker 2 00:07:30 Ones. Drew Baldridge that stay at-home Dad Song Man. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> what a freaking smash that is too. Thank you. I remember the first time I heard you play that I was just like, my God, it's like one of my favorite songs that was played in town, you know? I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:07:44 I like that one.
Speaker 2 00:07:45 Yeahs.
Speaker 3 00:07:46 I feel, I still feel like that one's got some life
Speaker 2 00:07:47 To it for sure. You know? Yeah. Dude, that song, it just sounds like a song that every dad should hear and would play a hundred times after they did <laugh>, you know? Yeah. It's, it's just so good. It's fair. Yeah. Well, and then, I mean, you've been dropping songs, so you put out the EP last year. Yeah. The self-titled ep.
Speaker 3 00:08:07 Yeah. That was kind of, you know, I think I was still in the process of like building what I want to do. Yeah. And so like, if you asked me now if I'd put the same three songs out, it'd be like, hell no. Yeah. But I think it was a good part, you know, all about it opened a lot of doors. Yep. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm just now getting into the stuff I really love. Hell yeah. And so like, and with these shows, like the Energy, like I'm like all dis and slow songs right now. I'm like, every time I write they're like, what do you want? I'm like, it's freaking up,
Speaker 2 00:08:35 Up. Yeah, yeah. Get this because you're out on the road and you're seeing people react.
Speaker 3 00:08:38 Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's, yeah. Well our first song I'll Keep the Country and Last when I look back are the most like energy. Yeah. And I just want more of that all through cause it's great, you know, in the middle. But the first and the last really, like when you just see people just partying and like moving and stuff, I'm like, I want that. If we have a 35 minute set, I want every song other than like maybe all about it too.
Speaker 2 00:09:01 Right. Just freak just put the hammer down. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:09:04 Yeah. Just for now at least.
Speaker 2 00:09:06 Well, yeah man. I mean, and then when you get past that 35 minute set, then you bust the other stuff in now
Speaker 3 00:09:10 For sure. Yeah. Once you get to that, like the level, like a level or two above, meaning you can really start getting into songs that are maybe a little more mature songs too. Yeah. Because I have some mature songs, but right now it just feels like I just wanna put out just the freaking, not even necessarily party songs, but just songs that just like make you feel something. Yeah. But are still up and like can catch your attention if you've never heard of me before. Yeah. So
Speaker 2 00:09:33 I think that's a good move, man. And yeah. It's like you build your releases around that. Yeah. So I'm sure you're playing some unreleased tracks now, right?
Speaker 3 00:09:39 For sure. Yeah, we have. Yeah. Yeah. I think we have two or three unreleased mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I think we're thinking about doing maybe an EP in the fall, cuz heck yeah. Potential two or stuff coming up, so, yeah. Interesting.
Speaker 2 00:09:51 Yeah. And so you have, uh, publishing through
Speaker 3 00:09:54 Yeah, I'm gonna play it again. Yeah. With Dallas Play again. Yeah. And that's, uh, artist development too. Hell yeah. For now. Yeah. Which has been sick cuz we can just do what we want, you know? Yeah. If I really like a song and, and, and like with, when I look back, like, I remember Dallas was like, this is good. I don't know if it's what you need to do. And then I kind of went to like social media with it and they were like, all right, let's do it. You know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's like if it's, if it works and if I can, I got a good team behind me right now. Yeah. That's why I'm like saying earlier, I'm not really in a rush to sign a record deal. If the right one came along, I would definitely Yeah. Not against it at all.
Speaker 2 00:10:25 Right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:26 But I, I kind of love where we're at, just building, you know? Yep.
Speaker 2 00:10:29 And so you have, I'm sure you have major booking. Who do you guys book through? Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:10:32 We're with wme. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:10:33 That's awesome.
Speaker 3 00:10:34 Yeah. Kevin mes
Speaker 2 00:10:35 In my head like, okay, you got like the artist dev. Right. Which is like the deal before the deal, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you have the booking and you're getting on tours. That's a win for sure. You know, those are the two things you need to like, really put the throttle down
Speaker 3 00:10:48 Thousand percent, cut
Speaker 2 00:10:49 Your teeth too, and like getting all that experience.
Speaker 3 00:10:52 Oh dude, yeah. That, that Dylan tour man was the best thing. I mean, just learning like even how to take care of myself on the road. Yeah. So important. And with 35 minute sets, taking care of my voice mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, like, definitely haven't been drinking Thur, uh, Thursday, Friday, maybe some Saturday night. Right. But yeah, it's been, it's been good. I've learned a lot of stuff. Smart. And they're like a good group of guys too. I mean, anything we need, I don't think it's supposed to be that good on a first tour <laugh>, honestly. I think you're supposed to get treated more like shit than we did <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:11:23 Yeah. Well, I think what it is, is a lot of those guys remember when that was their first tour for sure. And they're like, I wanna be better or equally as good, you know, if they got treated well then they wanna treat someone else well, and if they didn't, then they're like, I don't wanna be that
Speaker 3 00:11:35 Guy. Yeah. I think he said he, he was on some pretty rough stuff, so he was super cool with us and his whole team. I mean, there wasn't one bad thing I could say about anybody.
Speaker 2 00:11:45 Yeah. About how many dates did you guys do with them?
Speaker 3 00:11:47 Like 25. Oh yeah. It's like the perfect amount of learn. So like with this next stuff we're about to hop on, hopefully, like I'll just know what to, how to adjust the set. Like I said, I'm going on a retreat this weekend to write some songs and it's like, I know I want these songs, these kind of songs, this sound. It's just all around a good, you know? Perfect. It's been great.
Speaker 2 00:12:09 Yeah. So, and then, uh, I know like some, one of my favorites makes
Speaker 1 00:12:13 It easier to write when you know what you want to
Speaker 3 00:12:15 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like for a while I'll, I'll be, I was going into rooms and they were like, what do you want? What do you want? And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1 00:12:21 I don't know what kinda artist I am,
Speaker 3 00:12:22 You know? Yeah, exactly. I mean, it takes a while to find that. And, and for me, just like, I'm like a different person on stage. I'm sure tons of people are too. I just get this like thing inside of this energy, this like something and I'm like, I want, like I said, I just want, now I know what I want. I don't want anything slower than a hundred bpm <laugh>. No, I'm just kidding. But like, yeah, I just, I don't know, it's been good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:12:45 So it's, and that's, that's what they call cutting your teeth, man. I mean, that's what it's about. Yeah. For like finding yourself on stage, finding out what you like, what the crowd likes, you know.
Speaker 3 00:12:53 Yeah. Even down to like the clothes I wear. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:12:56 So
Speaker 3 00:12:57 It's been great. Do you
Speaker 1 00:12:57 Wear workout clothes on stage now? <laugh>? No.
Speaker 3 00:13:00 No. It was more of a, um, a discipline thing for me. I've, sorry, I keep burping. This beer makes me burp. Um, I've been trying to put on some weight, so I've been eating like 3000 calories a day, which is like, kind of hard sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:15 Especially on the road
Speaker 3 00:13:16 Probably. But yeah, on the road. And then with Dylan, he, I went and worked out with him some, they work out hard.
Speaker 2 00:13:21 Yeah. So
Speaker 3 00:13:21 I was like, I'm gonna try to work out by myself. And then, yeah, I got some pre-workout last night.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 Oh man.
Speaker 3 00:13:28 And I took it today.
Speaker 2 00:13:30 Get some motor running. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:13:31 Yeah. It's like if you don't go to the gym, you will dive all <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:13:35 I was itching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was more like a self-discipline too. I'm pretty, I don't have the best self-discipline, so it was more so even if I don't get a lot done, I'm gonna go to the gym today at some point mm-hmm. <affirmative> and make sure I just for
Speaker 1 00:13:47 The heck of that. Yeah. I do that sometimes when, if I know I have to go to the gym, which is probably every day. But I know, like I know today, like I went two days ago and I didn't go yesterday, so I'm going today I'll wake up and just put my gym clothes on <laugh>. And I'm like, I'm not showering until I go to the gym <laugh>. And I'm not doing anything until I go to the gym. Cuz I got my gym clothes on and like, I kind of stink. So I'm like, I have to go <laugh>. So someone's like, Hey, what are you doing? I'm like, well, I got my gym clothes on, I'm gone and I'll just get it outta the way. Yeah. And when I get there, I'm like, oh, this is great. I forget why I like going into this, but sometimes I forget.
Speaker 3 00:14:18 Yeah. It also puts you in a good, like, head space after it puts you in like a creative head space. For sure. I wish I could go before I write every morning, but I just can't, I can't go that early. Like, I enjoy it in the afternoon. I hate it when I go in the morning, but as far as like social media content, like if I'm doing some, some TikTok, sometimes I'll go and I'll just feel like sometimes I get lazy with it. But if I go to the gym, I'm in a good head space, I'm like trying to solve my career problems. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:45 After, but, and you, uh, you've had some stuff on TikTok, hit a couple million views you have? Yeah. Yeah. A couple hundred thousand followers on there. Maybe 200,000 or something like that.
Speaker 3 00:14:54 Yeah, I think so. I I really don't want to be like the TikTok guy. Right. But, um, it
Speaker 2 00:14:59 Does help build a fans. It's
Speaker 3 00:15:00 Too, it's too good of a, of a place right now to not be on. Yeah. And I think you can hate on it and hell I did for a couple months, but you can get left behind and, or or you can't, you know? I mean, I don't know. That's a, it's such a weird thing. TikTok is, but if I can throw my songs on there and, and not look too much like a, like an idiot. Well dude,
Speaker 2 00:15:23 It's like free a and r right? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:24 A thousand percent
Speaker 2 00:15:25 Straight. I mean, it's straight to the fans. It's
Speaker 3 00:15:26 Like, Hey, if you want your music out there, you utilize, I mean, the tour's been great. We converted really great, but then like still, what else can you reach a million people on? Right. Just like that.
Speaker 2 00:15:36 Right. Crazy. It's wild
Speaker 3 00:15:37 To think about it crazy without paying for it. Right. You used to could on Facebook, if you pay for an ad and Yep. Probably cost a thousand dollars to reach a million people, but
Speaker 2 00:15:44 More. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:45 Yeah, yeah. But on TikTok, I mean a day something hits, you know, so I definitely try to stay on there, uh, as much as I can. But it's easier to do when also when nobody's telling me to do it. Right. Like, if I want to do it, it's good. Yeah. But I hate doing it on
Speaker 2 00:16:00 Sometimes
Speaker 1 00:16:00 Hate. I know that feeling. It's like the gym, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:03 Thousand percent.
Speaker 2 00:16:04 Um, and then you, your most recent lease is G T B. Yeah. And that stands for
Speaker 3 00:16:11 Yeah. Stands for Girls Trucks Beer. But I didn't want people to be turned off by the title. Right. Because it's not like a normal what you would think. Yeah. Girls Trucks Beer would be, and like that song, uh, was, we've been playing it live and just getting the crowd to sing along every time. And it was, I just had to put it out, you know?
Speaker 2 00:16:29 Yeah. Dude, I I love that song. And, uh, so I have a question for you. Okay. Fuck one marry one kill one girl's trucks, ice cold beer. Go <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:16:39 Okay,
Speaker 2 00:16:40 So one you give for one night, one you give for the rest of your life and one's gone forever.
Speaker 3 00:16:45 I guess the, uh, I guess the one night would be the, uh, maybe the
Speaker 2 00:16:51 Beer. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:52 Okay. Maybe the rest of my life would have to be the girl or the truck.
Speaker 2 00:16:56 That's the question. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:16:57 I don't know which one I'd want to kill. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:17:00 That's
Speaker 3 00:17:01 Tough question. I'm pretty good at, at killing trucks by like wrecking 'em. Yeah. <laugh> and messing 'em up. So probably that.
Speaker 2 00:17:06 Yeah. Yeah. I'd say it's probably the right call
Speaker 1 00:17:07 With a monster truck. Yeah. <laugh>. But then you gotta kill that one too. So you needed this infinite loop of growing monster trucks running each other over.
Speaker 3 00:17:15 I'm so hard on trucks, dude. I drive terrible. Terrible. I mean, I'm a great driver. I don't really have that many incidents, but just like, I'm just rough. I drive it like a bat outta hell. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:17:26 You go too fast and accelerate too fast.
Speaker 3 00:17:28 Yeah. A thousand
Speaker 2 00:17:29 Percent. Yeah. I've never had a truck cuz I've always been poor, so <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:17:34 Yep. That'll happen. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:17:38 So I've always been driving little sedans or other crappy cars.
Speaker 3 00:17:42 You just gotta find a good deal.
Speaker 2 00:17:43 Yeah, that's true. It's, it's hard right now though.
Speaker 3 00:17:45 Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 00:17:46 Cars are so insane right now, man. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:17:48 Yeah. It's nuts. It really is. I a buddy who bought a truck knew like three years ago and the dealership called a bump and were like, Hey, we'll give you the price you paid for it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:17:56 That's what happened to me. So nuts. It's my old truck, so wild. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 00:18:00 I'll just walk to work now. Yeah. It's
Speaker 2 00:18:01 Like I'll buy like a $4,000 car and use for two years till these cars are backed down.
Speaker 3 00:18:06 <laugh>. Yeah. I I would Dude.
Speaker 2 00:18:07 It's thousand nuts, man.
Speaker 3 00:18:08 Stupid. Yeah, everything's high right now, dude. So crazy. When we were in California, I was putting diesel on our little short bus, dude.
Speaker 1 00:18:14 Oh my God. I was gonna ask, what are y'all, what are y'all driving?
Speaker 3 00:18:17 So I renovated this short bus.
Speaker 1 00:18:19 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:18:20 Okay. So let me explain. So like, you know, a lot of people have the Mercedes sprinters. Yep. Yeah. But they break down so easily. Yeah. And plus my thinking was like, if I'm in Wyoming right and there's the chances of getting Mercedes parts versus a 2007 Durmax diesel part. Right. It's pretty like, yeah. So we got this, uh, short bus for like, I think we paid 19 grand for it and it was a 2007.
Speaker 1 00:18:47 Can you describe what a short bus is? I'm picturing a yellow,
Speaker 3 00:18:49 It's not yellow, it's like more so like a church bus.
Speaker 1 00:18:52 Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:18:53 So it's not like, the front isn't like a bus, it's like an express body, like a van. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> cab with a, just a bus body. Yeah. It's
Speaker 1 00:19:00 Got that. Oh yeah, window. Yeah. Yeah. Okay,
Speaker 3 00:19:03 Cool. And uh, so I had 28,000 miles on it. Oh, damn. Nothing. The guy was asking 30. Yeah. And this was like the best year I've had. People offer me 30 just for the dur, the durmax that's in it. And so we, we bought it and me and my dad and Screech. Have you met Screech? Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, you gotta meet Screech one day. Dude. He's,
Speaker 1 00:19:20 I'm
Speaker 3 00:19:20 Down, he's my tm. He's my, one of my best friends and he used
Speaker 2 00:19:24 To work at Red Door, but I don't think he does anywhere.
Speaker 3 00:19:25 Right? No, he's just full-time with us now. That's awesome. Yeah. And uh, we built five bunks. I'll show you a video later. We got five bunks in the back and then there's like a wall, uh, and then the front has two like futons that fold out and then I put a power inverter in it and a TV and everybody's got like phone chargers in their bunk and everything. So
Speaker 1 00:19:44 Do you, um, pull a trailer or does everything fit in the back?
Speaker 3 00:19:47 Yeah, no, we got a trailer pretty long, pretty big trailer actually.
Speaker 1 00:19:51 I've definitely seen people touring some weird stuff. Yeah. So, um, like RVs and things?
Speaker 3 00:19:56 Yeah. Well I was, I was opening for Colby Cooper one night. He was like, don't buy a sprinter, buy a shuttle bus or a short bus. He's like, let your pride out the window. Yeah. And me, I don't even care. Like I have no pride issue. I'll, when I Turkey hunt, I'll literally walk up to people's doors and knock on it and ask if I can hunt. Like Yeah. I have no shame in my game. <laugh> <laugh> plus it kind of, I don't know, it's different. So
Speaker 1 00:20:19 I know I had someone recently they were like, Hey, do you want to come out and photograph us on the road? And I was like, yeah, sure. And they're like, well we're not on a bus anymore. I'm like, so, and they're like, well don't you feel weird going back to like a van or whatever. I'm like, no. Like, this is like what I grew up Yeah. In my career doing so.
Speaker 3 00:20:37 Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a, I mean a van was like 17 grand. Yeah. And this with a diesel was, I talked him down from like 30 to 19. It's like no brainer. Yeah. I haven't bought a hotel in three months.
Speaker 2 00:20:50 Easy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How much did you spend uh, fixing it up?
Speaker 3 00:20:53 Probably five grand. That's not
Speaker 2 00:20:54 Bad at all.
Speaker 3 00:20:55 So if I have 24 in it
Speaker 2 00:20:56 Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 00:20:57 Versus, you know, and you
Speaker 1 00:20:59 Don't and you don't need any, uh, like a CDL to drive it or anything?
Speaker 3 00:21:01 No. It's like the class right under it. So the only, the only thing is the person driving. I saw his seatbelt. That's the only like
Speaker 1 00:21:08 Classification. That's fair.
Speaker 2 00:21:09 Yeah. <laugh> probably should anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:21:11 They probably shouldn't drink any beers, but Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:21:13 Yeah. Yeah. Fair.
Speaker 2 00:21:14 Unless you're in Alabama then it's fine. <laugh>. But, uh, dude, I think, and that's one of those things you're probably gonna keep forever and look back on. That
Speaker 3 00:21:23 Was a percent I, I don't think I could sell it. Even if I'm in eight buses. Yeah. I'm still gonna have it
Speaker 2 00:21:27 <laugh>. Just keep it at the house and be like, yeah, you can go stay out in the camper <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:21:30 Yeah. Well I'll be able to rent that once I'm out of it, I'll be able to rent it out. Probably. Very
Speaker 2 00:21:34 True. Um, so how long did it take you guys to renovate it?
Speaker 3 00:21:38 Like two weeks. Oh
Speaker 2 00:21:39 Damn. You did it quick then. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:21:40 We put like vinyl floors. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, on the bottom of it and we insulated it so it'll hold heat and hold cold air. Um, yeah, it's been,
Speaker 1 00:21:50 You could probably rent in east for like two grand a month. <laugh>. Oh
Speaker 2 00:21:53 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nashville. That's worth as much as some homes probably. Hell, I think
Speaker 3 00:21:57 I paid like a thousand for a 12 passenger van to go to New York and back for a run with Langston one time. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:22:03 Golly. Yeah. That adds up quick man. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yep. You're paying yourself back instead of that. Plus it's a write off.
Speaker 3 00:22:10 Thousand percent.
Speaker 2 00:22:10 Is it over 6,000 pounds?
Speaker 3 00:22:13 I don't, I don't even know if it
Speaker 2 00:22:15 Is. It's a better write off cuz you can write it off all in one year. It's like a, I
Speaker 3 00:22:19 Don't know, as a business we thought about weighing it on one of those love skills just to see what our, to what our total weight is. Yeah. We haven't done it yet. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:22:25 Yeah. Yeah. There's like, there's like tax things where if it's like over 6,000 pounds you get like a different level of write off Oh, gotcha. For a business vehicle.
Speaker 3 00:22:32 Yeah. I need to look into that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:22:34 Tax. Yeah. If you just got it. Yeah man, they take it all.
Speaker 1 00:22:37 So what's a live show for you? Like, um, as far as like, I know you like to keep things up, but Yeah. Yeah. Um, for people listening that aren't as familiar, haven't seen you live, is it more of a rock show? Is it more traditional sounding like?
Speaker 3 00:22:50 Um, we run some tracks like this tour I didn't make a lot a night and so we, we threw bass in the tracks and I took two guitar players, which is definitely kind of looked down on some people, but for us made a lot of sense. I mean we, the songs that I have are pretty,
Speaker 1 00:23:06 I mean Hardy still does it, so. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:23:08 Fair. Yep. We have a lot going on in our songs, so I definitely have some tracks. It's just up up tempo, you know. We do, uh, I'll keep the country girls trucks, beer. We do Good directions.
Speaker 1 00:23:20 I was gonna ask what covers y'all do.
Speaker 3 00:23:21 Yeah. And then I play last night Lonely. Yeah. And then the band goes off and I do all about it and we do an unreleased song and then we do Somebody Like You by Keith Urban, but we do like a little country or version of it and that's cool. People love it. Yeah. And then we do goodbye and then when I look back Cool. So it's pretty up and then just down for a second and then back up. You know, usually once, once you get, once you've heard a song you don't know know you're gonna get a song you do know. Yeah. So
Speaker 2 00:23:48 Are you booking any uh, full band stuff, like in the South or anything recently or?
Speaker 3 00:23:52 Yeah, I think in August we're gonna do like a little headline thing. Oh yeah. Before hopefully whatever comes next. Yeah. But um, yeah, I think we have some
Speaker 1 00:24:00 Festivals, you know what's coming next. But you're not allowed to say yet. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:02 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:24:03 Well this isn't coming out for like three months, so go ahead and tell everyone. No.
Speaker 2 00:24:06 <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah. No, that's awesome. When I love when that stuff happens cuz then, you know, it's really good. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:24:14 It's gonna be fun dude. It's gonna be great. But, uh, yeah, I
Speaker 1 00:24:17 Remember listening to the Rose podcast. Y'all did? And she's like, I can't tell you what's happening, but it was already out, so I'm like, I know what it is, <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:24:25 You know.
Speaker 3 00:24:25 Yeah. I might, I'll tell y'all after this out. Cool. Yeah. Off the record.
Speaker 2 00:24:29 Yeah. You guys won't know for a few months. We'll put a picture of it up after when it happens. Fair.
Speaker 1 00:24:33 It's co-head lying tour with Luke Combs. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:35 <laugh> fixed it. There it is. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Luke Combs is gonna open for you everywhere. <laugh> <laugh>. Dude,
Speaker 3 00:24:41 It's funny, uh, Noah was on the, uh, on a news channel one time in Carrollton and he was so nervous and they were like, who's your who, who are you, who's your biggest, like who do you look up to? He's like, Luke Combs is my biggest fan. He's like, I mean I'm Luke Combs biggest fan. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:24:57 Classic. Yeah. How high was he when he did that? That's the question.
Speaker 1 00:25:02 Probably. Probably
Speaker 2 00:25:02 Super. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:04 Probably super. He was, he was sweet when he was on here. Yeah. And so I asked him that question, he was like, it's Luke. I'm like, oh
Speaker 2 00:25:10 Yeah. And that was his first pod with us. Yeah. You've done a couple before. I know you did one with Matt Brail. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:25:15 I did that one. I wanna say I did another one, but I don't remember.
Speaker 2 00:25:19 Yeah. So they're not too bad. You just basically bs with buddies and I love
Speaker 3 00:25:22 It. I love talking music. I don't get to talk music that much.
Speaker 2 00:25:25 Yeah. How, uh, how many days a week do you get to write now since you're on the road?
Speaker 3 00:25:29 When I was, when we were Wednesday through Sunday I was writing Monday, Tuesday, Uhhuh <affirmative>, um, with writes that I was booked and then I would try to book some afternoon stuff. Cool. So cool.
Speaker 2 00:25:40 So still getting a good number of rights in. Yeah. Cause I know that gets tough, you
Speaker 3 00:25:44 Know. It does. And I, I wrote with Dylan some on the road too. Hell yeah. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:25:48 I assume they're in a bus.
Speaker 3 00:25:49 Yeah. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they're in a bus. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:25:52 He's a couple number ones. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:25:54 I ditched my band a night or two on with that <laugh> hop on that.
Speaker 2 00:25:57 Well if you're writing, you know, it's like, you're like, sorry boys. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:26:00 Sorry. We're writing. Um, what are you guys, were you guys playing clubs or theaters or? We
Speaker 3 00:26:06 Were like the 1200 to 1500 cap rooms. Nice. Like the Tabernacle in Atlanta was probably the biggest one.
Speaker 1 00:26:11 Well, the Dusty,
Speaker 3 00:26:12 We didn't go there. Um, we did like the all the House of Blues stuff like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:26:18 I've done those. It's fun.
Speaker 3 00:26:19 Yeah, it was, it was really fun. I mean the only thing I hate is the damn barricade is like five foot away from the stage every night. Yeah. I'm like, yo, can we just pull that,
Speaker 2 00:26:28 Pull that right to next to the stage. I want
Speaker 1 00:26:30 You concert photographer. I appreciate that. But it's someone that's on stage. I go get them closer today.
Speaker 3 00:26:35 Thousand percent. Yeah. So I would try to get down on that freaking, I got in trouble every night from the venue, but I would just hop down on the thing and
Speaker 2 00:26:42 And play down there. Yeah. Yeah. Make some more fans. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:26:46 I love it
Speaker 2 00:26:46 Though. What's, uh, what's the easiest way you think to make fans on the road? Um,
Speaker 3 00:26:50 Or
Speaker 2 00:26:51 Like, or like a cheap
Speaker 1 00:26:52 Code, million dollar question. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:26:53 For me, I mean, we converted really good. Like just from Instagram following from beginning to end was stupid. Not like in a bragging way. Yeah. But in just like a, we've seen growth wise, I think, I think, um, I don't know. We go out there and just give, give it all we got. I think it's uptempo. I think it's like hard to just go get a beer during our set because it's pretty loud <laugh>. And uh, I think definitely meeting with fans after, um, I try to meet everybody. You
Speaker 1 00:27:23 Sign stuff at the
Speaker 3 00:27:23 Merch booth company. Yeah. And, and I let 'em know too, like, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna try to meet every single person in here after. And so usually we have a good little line. Um, I think, I think just, yeah, I think being, I think that, I think meeting people after and I think just being like true and being honest with the songs and I think if you're genuine writing the songs, it comes off genuine. Yeah. And I think people appreciate that.
Speaker 2 00:27:47 Absolutely. I agree with that. So yeah. What do you, uh, would you ever cut outside cuts or do you think you're gonna wanna write?
Speaker 3 00:27:53 If I did, it would have to be something that I would be like, all right. I don't know if I could have wrote that. Yeah. Because I've been pitched a couple of songs, but it's like, I don't know if I'm gonna cut something I didn't write. It's really gotta be something special.
Speaker 2 00:28:06 Makes sense. Well you're a damn fine writer. That's why I
Speaker 3 00:28:09 Appreciate
Speaker 2 00:28:09 That. I mean, in my head, like I remember talking to people when I was like, Dylan's one of the best writers in town and he's 22 years old. You know what I mean? Appreciate
Speaker 3 00:28:17 That.
Speaker 2 00:28:17 Some people always like, some people ask me like, I got asked last night like, who's your favorite unsigned writer? And I'm like, I don't always have one, but sometimes I do. And you were it Yeah. Before you were signed. <laugh>. Well, thank you man. Yeah, of course man. It's uh, it's great to see you like starting to have some success cuz like, we'd see you around town and now it's harder to get you on a round, but <laugh> <laugh>, you're on the road all the the time. That's how it works. That's good. Yeah, dude, that's how you want it, you know.
Speaker 3 00:28:40 Yeah. Well a lot of the times, like on this tour, before then, I had been asked to do a couple and I was like, I felt like a dick. I was like, I just don't want to get home on a Sunday night. Sunday night. Yeah. Yep. Play Tuesday if my voice is tired. Yeah. And then have to go like, play those, you know?
Speaker 2 00:28:55 So Yeah. Totally understand it, dude.
Speaker 3 00:28:56 But it was actually way better. I drank a lot of water and did a lot of, I had a vocal coach Oh, damn. Uh, before. Nice. And she gave me a lot of good tips.
Speaker 1 00:29:05 I have so much respect for you for getting a vocal coach, man. Um, there's a, I know a lot of incredible singers that just like, this is your livelihood. Yeah. Spend the money in like, I don't know if it's like a pride thing or just some people that grew up not learning guitar from a teacher or never taking any music lessons at all. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they don't, they're intimidated by it or think they don't need it, but it's like, this is like, you know, you're business. So it's like Oh, for sure. The sure money. Yeah. I've, that's a big thing. Like why, why isn't this like everyone doing this?
Speaker 3 00:29:38 Yeah. I would recommend everybody too. I mean, what I would get there and I was like, Hey, I'm having really trouble singing this song that I wrote and I sang it a million times that day. But when I've been singing it live, I've just been messing it up. And so she like broke the song apart. She was like, all right, now try it. And I was like,
Speaker 1 00:29:54 Who's your vocal shout your vocal coach out. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:29:57 Laura. Laura Donahue. She's the freaking lady, dude. She's freaking dope. She got me singing through a straw <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. She's been, it's it is great. I mean, I'm not like by any means like a power vocalist. I think where you're gonna get drawn to me is just from the live show and from the songs. So it's like, I'm gonna do all I can to at least try to be the best singer I can to sing the songs. All right. So
Speaker 1 00:30:20 And then once you sign your record deal with wherever it's gonna be and you're gonna be doing radio tours a thousand percent and then you're gonna be doing stuff on the weekends. Yeah. You're gonna think of Laura in your head and she's gonna be like, drink water thousand and go to bed early and take care of yourself and here's some warmups and here's an app to sing along too and
Speaker 3 00:30:37 Stuff. Dude. Like the warmups have been crazy. The warmups I've been warming up before soundcheck and then I do the same warmup before I play and then she has a warm down. And then when I go meet people I warm up again to like do all that talking. Oh wow.
Speaker 1 00:30:51 Because it's like at a bar and everything.
Speaker 3 00:30:52 Yeah. And so it's been like, I didn't give out one time the whole tour. I mean the one night it was starting to, I drank some throat coat and it was fine.
Speaker 2 00:31:02 Good to go. But
Speaker 1 00:31:03 Yeah. Cause when I first started playing with Luke, he never did any warmups at all. And he's singing all this stuff and it's like, he's such a crazy vocalist. I'm like, and he, it's not like he's like getting through it. It's like, he's like, every night he is the best thing I've ever heard in my entire
Speaker 3 00:31:17 Life. <laugh>, he's just a different breed person.
Speaker 1 00:31:19 <laugh>, you know, but then it's like eventually something's gotta give. And um, and so now he just does vocal warmups. Yeah. So like, they help.
Speaker 3 00:31:28 Yeah. They're worth it for sure. Like you said, it's your business. I mean Yeah. You lose this, I've, I'll lose everything. So.
Speaker 2 00:31:34 Yeah, absolutely man. I think that's smart. And it's cool to see someone, you know, as young as you are that gets that, you know, because that means as you get older you're just keep paying attention and doing more and more. Yeah. A
Speaker 1 00:31:44 Thousand percent. And you know, the, the good thing is eventually you'll be in charge of paying your band and they got their families and all this stuff like that. So it's like you can't just be missing shows because Yeah. You
Speaker 3 00:31:56 Everybody
Speaker 1 00:31:57 Right. It's like you're taking care of a, you know, it's a lot of responsibility for sure. So, but it seems like you got a good head on your shoulder. So Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:32:03 Trying to, trying to, sometimes I think not, but
Speaker 1 00:32:06 No, I feel bad for giving you a beer <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:32:08 No, dude, I, I still drink. It's just like when I'm on the road I try to be easy about it. Well
Speaker 2 00:32:13 This is the one beer, you know, just count
Speaker 1 00:32:15 Podcast beer.
Speaker 2 00:32:16 It's got the girls the whole time, the truck's gone and this is the one beer. Yeah, this is the
Speaker 3 00:32:20 One the one night. Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:32:23 Well man, thanks so much for, uh, jumping on with us and uh, thank god for
Speaker 3 00:32:27 Having me, dude. Anytime the pod I could, uh, probably talk for three hours. Well,
Speaker 2 00:32:31 We're gonna do that. We just gotta wait.
Speaker 1 00:32:32 Gotta warm up first. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:32:34 Gotta do the warmup. This is the warmup. We, uh, we have a lot of guests back on, so. Oh yeah. Once we do that, we're gonna have a full podcast studio for you to come in. Yeah. And it'll be way more redneck. I'd love to. And hopefully we have some bush light there.
Speaker 1 00:32:46 Yeah, for sure. And we'll go talk about all the other career goals and accomplishments. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:32:51 Sure. Yeah. Well I appreciate y'all having me. Good man. Yeah, dude, we appreciate you. This is, uh, Nikki t
Speaker 1 00:32:57 And kudos on and we'll see you in the front
Speaker 2 00:32:59 Row.
