Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 You don't have to air, it's just where youre, that in't like a Yeah. Inside it's called routing.
Speaker 1 00:00:26 What's officially start? Rob, welcome to the podcast. Kurt
Speaker 2 00:00:28 Has some sort of compressor on his voice where it's nice and beautiful.
Speaker 1 00:00:32 This is my radio
Speaker 3 00:00:32 Voice. He just sounds actually
Speaker 2 00:00:33 Like, That's unreal. What a diva. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:00:36 True.
Speaker 2 00:00:37 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:00:37 We've been talking about having you on the podcast for a while before Kurt even did the podcast.
Speaker 2 00:00:43 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:00:44 But now
Speaker 2 00:00:44 I didn't take that personally that you had Kurt on here before me, but
Speaker 3 00:00:48 Damn. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 00:00:49 <laugh> whatever.
Speaker 3 00:00:50 Uh, luckily, or I don't know, is, are you less busy than Rob? I don't know. You're both pretty damn busy.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 I, I would think so.
Speaker 3 00:00:56 Both busy. Rob's just busy doing things that make a bunch of money and you're busy doing things that
Speaker 2 00:01:02 Whatever Man. <laugh>. I'm busy with my cat man.
Speaker 3 00:01:05 That's true.
Speaker 1 00:01:05 I got a cat.
Speaker 2 00:01:07 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:01:07 Have you ever guys had cat play
Speaker 1 00:01:09 Dates? No. But we're about to have a cat photo shoot one of these days. Sure.
Speaker 3 00:01:12 About Let's go. I'm ready for that. At whose house? Your house or Kurt's house?
Speaker 2 00:01:16 Uh, wherever the Lord takes us. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:01:19 I love that. Oh yeah. Lord willing Creek D rise.
Speaker 2 00:01:22 Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just a vessel.
Speaker 3 00:01:23 Well, Rob, we've been internet friends and then now real friends for a while. Um, you're one of the first people that we reached out to and you were the first ever raise row collaboration. We did.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 I was also the first subscriber to your only fans account.
Speaker 3 00:01:37 Yes. Where we just shotgun beer, shirtless
Speaker 2 00:01:40 <laugh>. I don't have, It's like site club. You can't talk about it.
Speaker 3 00:01:44 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:01:44 Only can.
Speaker 2 00:01:45 But yeah man, we were, um, there for a while and occasionally I'll still get the, the random DM about it, but for a minute there I think people thought I ran. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:01:55 They did
Speaker 2 00:01:55 For sure. Raised rowdy. Yeah. Like where can I get one of those hats? And it's like when people come to Nashville and go, Well, should I do in Nashville? I'm like, probably Google it.
Speaker 3 00:02:04 Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:02:06 And you can find it about any, you can find any like only fans you can find about anything you want on there if you just use that search bar. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:02:12 <laugh>. So I've heard
Speaker 3 00:02:13 You type just type that in. Allegedly. Yeah. Allegedly speaking. <laugh>. Yeah. But man, it's been a, it's been great to get to know you and watch, you know, you develop from, uh, you know, someone that we knew from
Speaker 2 00:02:26 A young boy,
Speaker 3 00:02:27 Just a young buck.
Speaker 1 00:02:28 A young ward hog
Speaker 3 00:02:29 Just out
Speaker 1 00:02:30 There. It's grown stallion man.
Speaker 3 00:02:31 <laugh> Just a stallion man with hair flown in the wind.
Speaker 2 00:02:35 I wish I had hair like Kurt. That's
Speaker 3 00:02:37 True. Everybody
Speaker 1 00:02:37 Does. Keep on dreaming, man. <laugh>. Even if it breaks your heart,
Speaker 3 00:02:40 That's a good idea. Hell
Speaker 1 00:02:42 Yeah. I mean, Rob was like one of the first people I met in town for sure. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, Rob was the first person I knew in town that had anything going on. Cause you had a pub deal.
Speaker 2 00:02:50 Yeah, but I had nothing going
Speaker 1 00:02:52 In hindsight. Yeah. Well I thought you were like the fucking big shit back then.
Speaker 2 00:02:56 Me too. That's the funny thing. That's the problem. I've never been more insecure than Right in this moment, but back then yeah. I thought I
Speaker 1 00:03:02 Was It's inversely proportional.
Speaker 2 00:03:03 King of the castle.
Speaker 1 00:03:04 Yeah. And it just seems like, God, it's like 10 years have gone by so fast, man.
Speaker 2 00:03:11 It's pretty wild. I played in a band with Kurt before I ever met Luke. Yeah. And we, uh, I remember when we met, I met him at a songwriter around and he came up to me and I was like, This guy's one of the weirder assholes, <laugh>. I, I'd met a lot of assholes, but never once. So weird <laugh>. And I realized, no, it's just, that's how he is. He says once you get to know him, it's not, not the first impression thing. Uh, which I've been guilty of myself. But then we started playing music and stuff and I remember early on, uh, kind of joking, but kind of not being like, Hey man, when we hire a utility guy, like, you're the guy, so you gotta get good at these instruments that I suck at so I can hire you to play them <laugh>. And it's, it's kind of wild, you know, to, to look back on it and think that's been 10 years ago.
Speaker 1 00:03:57 Yeah. I think like your biggest cold shot I think ever was when Rob hit me up and he's like, Hey, do you wanna play Whiskey Jam with this guy Luke Combs? He's really fucking good and he is gonna be famous. Like Rob literally told me that. I was like, Well, yeah, I want to do that. Of course I do <laugh>. And then we got together and then we jammed and ran through songs at my apartment in Midtown and it was me and you. And then Same Crab Tribe was there. John Langton was there also. I vaguely remember.
Speaker 2 00:04:24 That may have been after.
Speaker 1 00:04:26 Yeah. I mean, it's been a while. It's been a long 10 years. I
Speaker 2 00:04:29 Do remember we ran hurricane, uh, and it hadn't been recorded yet.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 Yeah, dude. Crazy times, man. And of course if you go on YouTube and you search like the hurricane clip of like, this is like, he had just written it a couple days ago or whatever it was. And then so we played a version of it and it's on my old balcony That's so sick. And it has like millions whiskey jam. Yeah, yeah. Like millions of views. And when, uh, we sold that place, my hall's like, we need to advertise it. This is where the Luke Combs shot his music video for hurricane. Absolutely. That's not exactly true, but
Speaker 3 00:05:00 Then a Chinese person bought the
Speaker 1 00:05:02 House. Yep. Literally. Yeah. It's cash. But, um, Yeah, it's great having you on, man. Finally. This is cool. Yeah. And so now you're putting music out, which is why you're coming out here. Right?
Speaker 2 00:05:10 That is a apparently the case. Yeah. <laugh>. They, they tell me that's gonna happen. Kind of trusting that it is the
Speaker 3 00:05:17 Distributor.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 Yeah, Yeah. Whatever that means. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:05:20 Had you released anything when you were like, doing stuff before or not really?
Speaker 2 00:05:25 Uh, I had a band in my hometown that, uh, put out music under the name 74 southbound. Okay. And that was in 2011. Okay. That's wild. Yeah. Uh, but other than that, I put out a song over a covid as like a boredom thing. Right. Uh, being, uh, e emo guy I am. And other than that, no. I've never put out anything. Yeah. Just cause I had no desire to.
Speaker 3 00:05:50 Well, what changed that?
Speaker 2 00:05:53 Um, I think moving here and, and falling in love with writing music along the way. I met and in some cases, uh, worked with people that I had considered heroes of mine in that element or that craft the songwriting world. And oftentimes as I would learn more about like, the history of a song, and this, this goes back much further than my lifetime, but also goes further than country music. You know, you hear something like crazy, it's two notes, but you think oftentimes Patsy Klein's version of Crazy, which was written by Willie Nelson, I say all this to say I got kind of enthralled with these writers that had their own projects, their own albums, and those people being Travis Meadows, uh, Jonathan Singleton. Yes. Tony Lane. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, all the way to like a big Ding Dylan fan. Yeah. Uh, but Willie Nelson essentially is the biggest epitome of a songwriter who, uh, characteristically interprets these songs in a way that is, uh, you can't replicate it.
Speaker 2 00:07:03 And so I was like, well, there's something to that. And I really like listening oftentimes to the demo and or the work tape and or the, uh, songwriter version of the song. And that's simply because there's more emotion in it oftentimes. And it's less packaged. It's not a product. It's literally the thing that was pulled out of thin air as you're hearing it from the person that incepted it, that oftentimes has a much more personal attachment to the lyric and melody mm-hmm. <affirmative> than the guy singing it. And there's been a whole lot of people over the course of time, George Strait being one of them, that can pop into somebody else's composition and become the character in a way that's like, it stops traffic. But I kind of got fixated on, Oh, I wanna do a record. I started talking about this with Eric Dillon actually probably six or seven years ago. And I love Eric.
Speaker 3 00:07:51 Same.
Speaker 2 00:07:52 And, uh, when Covid happened, I was like, All right, now's the time to do it. You know, it was the first time we had had, uh, I got to come back in town and write on Monday and Tuesday, but then we were back in the van or back on the bus. Right? Yep. So it was my first time being in town and having the luxury of, Oh, I can do whatever I want. And I thought about maybe getting into heroin. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but then I was like, No, I'm gonna do a record.
Speaker 3 00:08:14 Well, glad you didn't <laugh>. Yes. And your mom is glad too, I'm sure. Yes. Yeah. Uh, that's the worst kind of drug. We like good drugs like, um, Lemonade. True and caffeine maybe. Maybe Jazz cigarette Dad Pop. Yeah. Dad, Pepper jazz cigarette. Yeah. Oh yeah. <laugh>. Yeah. Heroin's bad man. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:08:35 Yeah. Speaking of, Cause we're gonna get into it. Um, drugs and whatnot. <laugh>, uh, my like, little contribution to the legal legalization, I can't even say that word. The Legalizing Pot is putting a, a song on my record about pot.
Speaker 3 00:08:54 Yeah. And the damn good
Speaker 2 00:08:56 One too. Thanks, man. Yeah. But I, I just wanna to all my, uh, constituents out there listening, I wanna go ahead and let that be known that that needs to be on the docket.
Speaker 1 00:09:05 I remember Joe Biden heard it and he was like, Hey, we should like decriminalize this federally.
Speaker 2 00:09:09 He did. I talked to him, uh, briefly over the phone. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 1 00:09:13 Yeah. We got that done. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:09:15 He just a normal day.
Speaker 3 00:09:17 Hey, well we appreciate that because I have been known to partake in a brownie that is filled with substances from time to time and it makes me feel great. So I wish it would be less illegal to feel great.
Speaker 1 00:09:31 <laugh>. Plants are good. Plants
Speaker 3 00:09:33 Are good for you, as Kurt would
Speaker 1 00:09:34 Say. Yeah. No doubt. Kurt.
Speaker 2 00:09:35 Big plant guy. Big
Speaker 3 00:09:36 Flying
Speaker 1 00:09:37 Guy. Yeah. <laugh>. Um, so, so you decided to put a record out, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, how do you even, how do you find the, the space to record it or the people to record it with mean, I know how you wrote the songs, Right. But, um, or at least maybe I think I do, but, um, how do you find like how to put all this together? Cause we had Austin Snell on here and he like put a song out on acoustic, just him and his guitar that blew up. And he is like, I don't have a producer. I don't know how to, you know, I've never recorded anything before. Like, what do I do?
Speaker 2 00:10:08 I think the beauty of, uh, something like that, uh, and the time we live in is that there is no answer that's right or wrong. It's like Post Malone made that mix tape, uh, like in his basement or his bedroom, and then Whis Khalifa was hearing it. And so the, the ability and the resource to, to record music is kind of at anybody's fingertips over code. I decided I wanted to put a studio in my house. And so Zeus, our, uh, Mon Monitor engineer, uh, helped me do that. And, uh, I kind of wanted to learn how do you record? I'd been, you know, working on how do you write a song, but I'd never spent much time in the studio, aside from like an occasional demo mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I'm like, I would like to take time to better myself, it, that craft. And um, so I built that studio thing with Mike and immediately decided, well, I hate this. I I hate pro tools, I hate learning knobs. I've Yes
Speaker 1 00:11:04 Dude, I, me too.
Speaker 2 00:11:06 Only because my OCD is just maddening. I will sit there and, and and literally manipulate a plugin on a vocal chain for, for a day, for an entire day. And it just, it's not mentally healthy. Right. So I figured out the bare bones of how to get around on it. But then, you know, oddly serendipitously enough, whatever you wanna call it, I run into, uh, this guy named David Mess Conn. And how I ran into him was, um, a publisher was like, Hey, I'm working with this track guy. You should meet him and write with him. And I'm like, Whatever. I don't wanna write with a track guy. I was like, build my studio and trying to do this new publishing deal and trying to think about this record and also like, write songs in between that. And I'm like, I don't, No. And, uh, another person reached out the same week about the same guy and I'm like, Okay, that seems intuitive enough to, I should try to give it a shot.
Speaker 2 00:11:58 Went in, met him, wrote a song, not a track guy. He's a phenomenal, uh, musician. He's, he's Epic and he's a producer. He's a creative mind. He's not a guy that can arm a track, but he can't do that too. And so we just started writing a lot for like two years, just piling up songs. And we kind of got a little bit of a process of where I felt like the way that he could manipulate the recording. Uh, we got kind of on the same wavelength of, it was like if I felt like, Hey, the, the shaker's too, too hot or too high in this register. He knows that it's 2.7 K Right. And he's gonna do that. But we started doing in real time this kind of production tandem team thing. And it was like one day I was like, Hey, do you want to make my record?
Speaker 2 00:12:43 We're kind of already doing it in here. He's like, Yeah, actually we should do it down at Fame in Muscle SHOs. And I had just watched the documentary about fame and was kind of, I'm a docu nerd. I love any kind of history, especially around music. And I had read about Rick Hall and I was like, That's too perfect of timing. Let's do that. At the same time we had just started getting back on the road and uh, my favorite band is Matchbox 20. And, uh, I got in my truck, cranked it up one day and it was like the top of this Matchbox 20 song bent and search was this, this guitar part that's like barda bound. And I'm like, Wow, I've never really paid attention to that. I love it. I went home and I started listening to it again and I'm like, just had this eureka moment.
Speaker 2 00:13:35 I don't know why I'd never thought of it cuz I'm an idiot, but I'm like the guy that played that Kyle Cook lives in Nashville, Tennessee. And then that really started putting my brain on this fixation of, I'm not gonna tell myself no. Like, if I wanna write with somebody where I wanna record it, uh, who I want to produce it, I'm not all the, all the fear around being told no, I don't care. And so I just picked up the phone and I called some people. Two weeks later I'm having lunch with Kyle, and afterwards we go to his studio and we're jamming and I'm like, this is surreal. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, Teenage Me is, is really freaking out about, like, I'm playing on the guitar at 3:00 AM was recorded on just jamming with the guy. And I was just like, kind of had that mantra thing come back and I'm like, Hey dude, uh, random question, would you produce my record?
Speaker 2 00:14:25 He's like, Sure. <laugh>. That's so cool, man. I'm like, Okay, this is working out <laugh>. Yeah. This is going good. This is working out. And so we then got together, me, him and David in that studio that I'd built at my house over like the next three months, uh, July, August, September-ish. And I played in probably 25 songs. And I said, If you hate it, tell me you hate it. If you love it, tell me you love it, but tell me why. And I think, think we whittled it down to about 15 songs. And, uh, from there got really picky, got it to 10 songs. And I was like, All right. I called up, the guy at fame booked the studio. Now this is where it got tricky because we're on the road. Yeah. And with Luke's schedule, like I had booked it at four months out that that's a deposit that I may not give back cuz we may book a TV appearance.
Speaker 2 00:15:14 Yep. It just is what it is. Cards lined up, stars lined up, whatever. Um, and I went down there, tracked it, um, Wells came down, shot a documentary that's I'm really excited about. And Kyle Cook and David and I produced this record and we ended up putting 11 songs on it. And uh, really what was cool throughout the whole process was like I hit up David Lee Murphy to write for it. He said, yes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I asked Luke to write for it. He said yes. I asked Darius to sing on it. It just, it became this kind of thing of Wow. It was such a cool creative energy around it. And it was like I was getting to do all these things that I never dreamed I would do. Yeah. And make a record. And so now talking about it, which we did that back in December, so it's, it's coming up on a year. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, It's pretty wild.
Speaker 3 00:16:04 Yeah. I remember you talking about it like, you know, when I was over your house and like it was before you cut the record and just like talking about the idea of making a record and just hearing you have taken that from just the thought to like an actual thing that you did.
Speaker 2 00:16:19 <laugh>, I'm really glad. It's probably my, my favorite thing that I've undertaken, but it's also been probably the most mentally taxing. Yeah. It's, I'm, I'm tired, I'm exhausted from it and it's, we're just now about to have the first song come out with it and I'm going, I see why it takes a village Yeah. To do this kind of thing. Cuz I've put on every hat and I've been obstinate about doing that. Like I'm paying for it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's my fucking songs. <laugh>. Hell yeah. And it's my call on how we're gonna do it. And I had, dude, I had multiple people try to mix it. I ended up mixing it like defiantly not saying I did a better job, but I did take pride in like, I'm gonna take as long as I want and I'm gonna put every song on there that means something to me.
Speaker 2 00:17:05 But at no point am I gonna feel a pressure of anything creatively, financially, uh, I'm not gonna have anybody telling me that we're going to package it this way or whatever. It was never to make any money, which when I pitched this around town to record people and I, look man, I went to, I went to school for this. I went to school for music business. I know how it works. There is no delusion with me. But like I would walk in and meet with some people about it and go, it's not to launch an artist career. This is not me becoming hardy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, this is not me trying to parlay this into anything. I'm not gonna get in a van, I'm not gonna do any kind of radio show. I'm not even probably gonna do a show, maybe one or something for fun.
Speaker 1 00:17:48 I'm playing a show with you. Don't
Speaker 2 00:17:50 Care what you said. But like, the point being, we're not trying to launch anything here. This isn't about charts. This isn't about spins or sales or streams or any of that. I'm like, I just want this to exist as kind of this piece of art that hopefully down the road some kid is sitting in his basement, Young Post Malone Young Billy Eilish, young Ed cheering, whoever young Keith Whitley. And he goes, Oh, I love that. Granny's got a garden and he listens to it and he, eight years down the road moves here and he wants me to produce his record. I want it to just exist in this organic. If people like it, great. If they don't, I understand why I'm not trying to be an artist. But when I pitched that to people that work on the other side of the desk, it was a hard thing to get people to see the vision of.
Speaker 2 00:18:27 They're like, Well then what the hell are you doing wasting money? Yeah. Probably. But it's like, I want these songs to live in like a story that like my grandkids are gonna play this for. Yep. For somebody. And so I took it seriously with that respect. But what's beautiful is now that that's done, I mean, I'm not trying to, Sorry mom for cussing. I don't give a fuck. Yeah. And, and I've had a lot of people that have been so very kind and sweet and encouraging, including tonight I met with a buddy of mine and he's like, Man, I, I really just think people need to hear this record. And I go, I appreciate you saying that, but there's a freedom in me going, who gives a shit? Like if it gets out, it gets out great. But all that to say I'm at this point of it has been a really wonderful wild, uh, learning experience for me. But I'm glad I did it kind of thing. And I don't know that I'll ever do it again. <laugh> <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:19:19 And the cool thing at the end of the day is like, you literally can hold all your hard work in your hands. Like it's a physical thing that you're holding. Like it's a record's gonna be done, Right. You're gonna put a CD out or a vinyl or something.
Speaker 2 00:19:31 I mean, one day eventually I hope that, you know, we'll press some sort of physical thing. But nowadays, you know, everybody's in the metaverse. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to sell my body in the metaverse <laugh>. Yeah. And if it, if we gotta do this with a record, you know, that's how we do it.
Speaker 1 00:19:46 Yeah. It's just wild man. It's just hours and years and decades. And
Speaker 2 00:19:51 To try to put it, cuz I've always felt like, and I felt like this with songs that have been fortunate enough to, to go from like me and Luke sitting there in a room talking to, like hearing somebody in Australia seeing it, it's, I'm too close to it. I can't wrap my brain around the impact of it. But I do know that creatively, by the time a song that you write hits the radio or even gets any sort of success, it was so long ago, it was in such a different period, a different season of my life that like this record now has even become like a thing that I go Okay. And what's crazy to look at it as a whole, Hey Mama Joe and I wrote in 20, I think 13 or 14, and then the last song I wrote with Luke and Lori McKenna, like three weeks before we tracked the record and it ended up being the last song on the album. So it's like, it encompasses this huge arc of my time in Nashville, but now it's like a, a finite bow on, Okay, now we're on the next chapter of things. Yeah. Which is cool.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 I remember like putting out like records of my rock band in high school or whatever. Out of ashes. Hell
Speaker 2 00:21:00 Yeah. Out of Ashes.
Speaker 1 00:21:02 <laugh>. Yeah. We're a metal band.
Speaker 2 00:21:03 I had one called Aluminium. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:21:05 That's pretty metal too.
Speaker 2 00:21:06 Yeah. We played like a couple Metallica songs and then, uh, Ain't Talking About Love. Same. Did I book, Did I butchered <laugh>, but I played the Frazer. I love the Frazer.
Speaker 1 00:21:16 Like Yeah, yeah. Still do.
Speaker 2 00:21:17 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:21:19 Um, but I remember like as soon as we were done recording it, it was like, then I would write the coolest riff of my life as soon as it was done. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's just like, there's like some sort of thing that happens. It's like you always like write your best songs after you're done. It's cool that you got to sneak that Laurie McKenna one in there with
Speaker 2 00:21:35 Luke. Yeah. I wasn't going to, uh, because we had it all figured out and then I was actually down there at, it was either right before we went or we were down at Fame and I talked to my mom and she was like, That one's going on there. Right? And I said, No, we just wrote it too late. And she was like, Well, it has to go on there. And I'm like, You're right, it does. And so we, one day we just had little extra time and slash we stayed up till 3:00 AM drinking Seltzers, but <laugh>, um, no, it's a special place down there. Uh, I've been because of that, I've really kind of set up a, I like to call it a residency down there. I hope they, uh, are cool with that. But I hope to, you know, do a lot more work down there and it's a very inspiring little area. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:22:22 What would you describe that studio like to someone that maybe is a layman?
Speaker 2 00:22:27 Um,
Speaker 1 00:22:27 What's the, what's the vibe like
Speaker 2 00:22:29 Before I tell you about the vibe? So if you don't know anything about it, it's where, um, people like Aretha Franklin edit, James Wilson picket, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, I mean a, a ton of that Mo Motown stuff came outta there. But I mean, there was a period of time to where over a hundred gold records I think were done in five years in this studio. And it was, it was black artists coming and recording with, with a white band that was just fucking grooving. And, and these guys just, they had magic they would capture in these studios, two studios, A and B a's the bigger one. I cut mine and B and it goes all the way through up to like the Allman Brothers. And then you got country people like Shannon Doah, uh, have, have tracked down there. Uh, I was listening to Leonard Skinner on the way here, like, give me three steps.
Speaker 2 00:23:20 I've heard that song 10,000 times. It rocks and it's just, there's some kind of energy down there with the swampers and, and that part of town, it also has a lot of, uh, cool Native American history that, uh, if we wanna get hippie with it, I can tell you about, uh, the ghost and the energy down there. I won't bore you with it. Um, but there's something special about the location. Now let's talk about the studio. It is preserved and it, it is the way it was. You walk in and it's, the first thing I noticed is it smells like my grandma's house. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I'm like, it's like disarming. Like I, I love playing golf, but when I walk in a country club, I feel like I'm too rednecked to be there. I love playing music and I love riding it, but when I go in Ocean Way or Blackbird or any in their world class studios, I just feel like I don't belong there. I'm not quite good enough to deserve to record in this. I go in fame and I go, Well, right, we're home. Let's go to work. And there's just some sort of vibe, um, in, in the walls that is inspiring to me. And it could be all horse shit and in my head, but I don't care cuz I feel it. And it comes out through the music and I've written my favorite songs, uh, there. So I hope to do that a lot more down there. That's
Speaker 1 00:24:35 Awesome. And it's a, it's a killer space. You definitely, I mean for those of the you, you know, don't know anything about it, I hope this documentary comes out that you, Well
Speaker 2 00:24:43 Also I feel about it like I do when I moved to Mount Juliet and people are like, How you like living out there? And I'm like, No, I hate it. Don't move because everybody's moving out there. Yeah. I like, fame is cool, but don't like, it's,
Speaker 1 00:24:56 Well luckily it's not even in Nashville, so Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:24:58 It's so far away. It's just, it's so far. So
Speaker 1 00:25:01 Hours and hours and hours,
Speaker 2 00:25:02 Hours, hours on the highway. <laugh> hot down there too. It's hotter down south than it is in the summer. That's
Speaker 1 00:25:09 True. And, and you know, all the current owners over there listening to this podcast going, Godammit Rob, Why <laugh>?
Speaker 2 00:25:16 Well let's talk about some of the songs. So you lightly talked about like, Hey Mama, which I know, um, Joe and Martina had released also previously. Yes. Um, let's talk about some of the other songs. So, um, talk about the lead single that we're gonna be dropping. Mm. Such a weird word, single. I never like saying that cuz I used to play those writers rounds with people and they'd be like, You can find me on iTunes and Spotify and MySpace. And then it'd get to me. I'd be like, You can find me on Porn Hub. Yeah. <laugh>. You know, that's how I met Dustin Huff actually was that joke. Um, but I just, I don't know why I call it a single, I guess cuz it's one song, The first song we're putting out. I say we like, I have a mouse in my pocket.
Speaker 2 00:25:57 <laugh> I've done, I've done this entire thing pretty much solo. So I can say I, the first song I'm putting out is called Like I Do. And I wrote it with God, I hope I don't mess this up. I think Billy Montana and Adam would. Yeah, I think that's right. And, um, I love Third Eye Blind. I love nineties Rock. That's why I wanted to make the record with Kyle. It's uh, it just kind of sonically, it sounded like Third Eye Blind to me. And I had this guitar part and it's uh, it's like a country punk rock song. Uh, and it's just got a little tempo and Kyle Cook, uh, wrote the, the lick to
Speaker 1 00:26:41 It went in New New
Speaker 2 00:26:43 And it's got a lot of nostalgia for me. And I don't know what to do with my hands. <laugh>, you know?
Speaker 1 00:26:49 Hell yeah. Wow. Let's, let's go down the list. Let's just bang these out.
Speaker 3 00:26:53 Yeah. In Sweet Spot, which is one that, uh, I had heard before. I heard you play live as well as, uh, the recording. So why don't you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 00:27:00 I think that's great. That one I wrote with Wyatt and, um, Danny Meyer.
Speaker 1 00:27:04 That's a tempo on there for sure. That's, it's Groen,
Speaker 2 00:27:07 Me and Wyatt started, uh, we were riding it at his apartment in Midtown and it was a beautiful sunny summer day and we just had that swee bye kinda wrote the chorus and then when we were done with it, and I'm like, God, it just reminds me of all the things I like about Appalachian music. It reminds me of a song that I would wanna play around a bonfire or like on a front porch.
Speaker 1 00:27:29 10000%.
Speaker 2 00:27:29 Yep. And it was begging for Fiddle. And I was like, All right, hear me out on this. Kyle, I love this guy named Eric Church. Yeah. Eric Church has this song on his first record called Living Part of Life. And it's one of my favorites. And if you listen to it, the cool thing is, if I'm not mistaken, they track that live and it's Chris Thy on the Mandoline.
Speaker 1 00:27:51 Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 00:27:52 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he changed the lyric to keeping up with the The's boy, you came back off one inch, uh, because Chris came out and just jumped in and they jammed it and it's got this really nice, what I call front porch feel. It's East Bluegrass. You hear this where it's one microphone gather around it and it's a beautiful texture. So what we did is we set everybody up and Kurt played on this song. Um,
Speaker 1 00:28:12 We played mandolin on it, which is pretty big shoes compared to Chris. Right.
Speaker 2 00:28:16 <laugh>. And we just lined everybody up in like, I call 'em the church, uh, like assembly hall chairs. They're like brown leather, uh, the fellowship hall chairs. We just put four of 'em in a row and put some room mics up and just tracked it live and it's, it's just got it got a cool energy or whatever. And I had run into, uh, one of the weird things about what we do with tour and stuff. I've made friends with people I'd never thought I would. And one of those is Darius Rucker, who I met in, uh, Australia in 2018 and became buddies. And he's always been like overly kind. Like he, he, he goes out of his way if we're at the CMAs or if I run into him on the road or if I'm with my mom, he'll come up and say hello and he makes it a point to make me feel like I'm really his friend rather than like kind of the transactional relationship that exists in this town.
Speaker 2 00:29:06 And, and it is very surface level. And so we were at Red Door and I was like, Hey, I'm doing this record, blah, blah, blah. And he said, Well, I wanna sing on it. And I'm like, Well, you know, you know, despite the alcohol involved right now, I'm going to remember this and I'm going to ask you to please do this. And he's like, Yeah man, hit me up. And so I hit him up December, January, February, March each month and schedules did not work out, which I anticipated would be the case. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he got to like, the last day of overdubs, very last day. I had one vocal part to do. It was Jake and Matt coming over to, they had like a gang vocal or something and uh, I just hit him up and said, Hey, doing last over Dubs let me know. And he came over to my house, you know, and sang on it. But I thought it was a fitting. I wanted his vocal on that particular song just cuz it's, I have this again, I'm a nineties rock guy. So the nostalgia of Cracked Rear View. Yeah. And man, it's just, I, I think when you hear it, people are gonna be like, Who is that? And I hope by the end people are like, Oh cool. You know, I want it to be a little Easter egg in there. Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 1 00:30:17 Speaking of Easter eggs, are you gonna talk about anyone else that's on the record singing Bg vs.
Speaker 2 00:30:24 Yeah. Who do you wanna know about? I did, I did a bunch of Bg vs.
Speaker 1 00:30:28 <laugh>. Well, obviously Matt and Jake did <laugh>. Right. Um,
Speaker 2 00:30:31 Uh, Clementine, there
Speaker 1 00:30:32 We go.
Speaker 2 00:30:33 Clementine the Cat is, uh, featured, credited as a background vocal on, uh, film Me again. That's
Speaker 1 00:30:39 Awesome. Classic man. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:30:42 We gotta have her on the podcast soon. She's, she's going, You're gonna have to, uh, talk to her manager. Wow. She's got a really tough schedule right now, <laugh>. It's uh, with it being spooky season and whatnot. That makes sense. Black Cat tied up. Yeah. Yep. Busy out there. All right. What about, uh, Heartache Happens. Heartache Happens. I wrote that I remember this song specifically cuz I wrote it. Uh, I would say hungover, but that would be a lie. I wrote it still drunk from the night before <laugh>. It was like 2017. Uh, and it was the day after the BMI Awards and it was me and Ryan Beaver.
Speaker 1 00:31:17 Oh, I didn't know Ryan Beavers on that. That's
Speaker 2 00:31:18 Cool. And uh, it was my first time riding with him and I accidentally walked in the wrong publishing company and ran in, ironically ran into Rob Snyder. Oh yeah. And he was like, Yeah, it's the next one down. So I felt like a boob was running late. Get in there. Turns out he was in a similar condition. <laugh>. And uh, man, we wrote that, I'm not kidding cuz people say this and I personally am the guy that I'm sure co-writers can attest. I will spend an obnoxious amount of time on the song. There's been some that Luke and I have written seven times. This is the one time that, well I think we wrote it in 35 minutes, 40 minutes. And we're like, Is it done? It's like, yeah, it's done. We should go take some Advil <laugh>. But it's kind of always stuck around and I love this song.
Speaker 2 00:32:05 And uh, it ended up really like, I call it Drunk Jimmy Buffet vibe on the record. It's kind of creepy and sad and whatever. Love that. What year-ish was that, that you guys wrote that? I think 2017. 2017? Yeah. Cool. And then back again, Back again is the song that I wrote with David Lee Murphy and, uh, David Mess Kahn. It was one of the later ones on the record, but, so I'm a huge fan of, of him. But, but more his writing and like I, I love his artist stuff because it's like country Tom Petty. Yeah. Man. It's got this real punk rock thing about it and I love his voice. And so yeah, that was the first time we wrote. And uh, I, I did, I literally just reached out to him and said, Hey man, I am Rob Williford, I would love to ride with you for this record I'm doing. And he was like, Yeah, sure. That's
Speaker 1 00:32:53 Awesome. Cool. Did he know who you were or,
Speaker 2 00:32:55 I don't know.
Speaker 1 00:32:56 I'd like to think you did. I meant you won CMA Song of Year, so he probably knew
Speaker 2 00:33:00 You would. I, I don't know. Um, but I will say in every case that I did that everyone treated me like it just normal.
Speaker 3 00:33:08 That's great. He's a great guy. I've gotten to meet him through like my day job a little
Speaker 2 00:33:12 Bit. He's the coolest. And he and I like, it was like an hour in the right and he brought up, he was wearing a shirt that was from Guatemala, which I joke around, but like, I want to ultimately maybe in like three or four years move and reti retire away to Guatemala and grow watermelons. That's what I wanna do that are pickles.
Speaker 3 00:33:32 I do like a good pickle and a good watermelon. True
Speaker 2 00:33:34 Pick.
Speaker 1 00:33:35 Yeah. It's almost a good retirement playing.
Speaker 2 00:33:37 But anyways, he and I start talking about Guatemala and I'm like, Yeah, this is great. This guy gets it.
Speaker 3 00:33:42 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:33:43 That's unreal. I wanna hand with daily me grow pickles, I guess. I don't know. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:33:49 Uh, that would be the life.
Speaker 2 00:33:50 Yeah. I don't know if I wanna grow the pickles. I just wanna sell the pickles. Yeah. So
Speaker 1 00:33:54 Yeah, I'm not a manual labor guy. Is not my favorite thing. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:33:58 He just likes eating the vegetables. He doesn't like eating the vegetables. Yeah. All right. And, uh, too close.
Speaker 2 00:34:06 Oh man. Good. David. I wrote with David Mascon and I'm gonna goof this, I think it's name's Nick Bailey. It was over Covid and it was a buddy of Daily's, um, who, uh, is a big rider and we FaceTimed. And the first time I think we just talked about song ideas and then we landed on this title. It was one of those that we wrote multiple times. And I don't know, something about it I just really loved and I thought it didn't sound like anything. And we got in the studio down there and kind of played it live. And at the end there's this kind of jam thing that happens that I, it makes me think of Incubus. I'm a big Incubus fan. Same. And, uh, we just kind of got to jam on it. And I think I just gratuitously wanted a jam on the album. <laugh> Cool.
Speaker 3 00:34:58 Yeah. And then I ain't,
Speaker 2 00:35:02 Yeah, I ain't probably has the best, uh, story of like how it started. I wrote that song with a guy named Steve Bogar, um, mega hay writer wrote one of my favorite tunes Carrying Your Love with Me. Dang. And, uh, it was just a two-way me and him. And I had this idea that was like this fairy, it was in songwriter land, but it was like, if I was a boat, I'd be out on the ocean and if I was a plane, I'd be in the sky kind of thing. But it like wound up on, if I was you, I would be over. Me too, but I ain't. And so I wrote it and man, we wrote the shit out of it. Like I was proud of the lyric. We really went to town on it. And I, you know, walked away that day going That's really cool to get to write with a guy like that and, and come away with this song that's I'm fired up about. And I actually put a co, uh, a version of it up on Instagram of me playing in my kitchen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I played it for Kyle and he's like, Hm,
Speaker 3 00:35:59 I don't get it
Speaker 2 00:36:00 Right. Is that what he said? Yeah. He's like, I don't get it. I'm like, What do you not get about it? He's like, Well, it's just boring. And it kind of like fired me up. I go, All right, you know, I'd been in this muscle SHOs kind of vibe and, and thinking about going down there. And I'm like, Well, let's just make it Motown. And I remember I'd been listening to Bill Withers and he does this move that Kurt will know where it goes, um, to the God I'm gonna butcher it three minor to the two minor Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:36:26 With Little Duda. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But,
Speaker 2 00:36:29 And I was fixated on that move and I just basically took the song and, and had David started playing on the piano and that movement and it just changed the entire landscape of the song. And it, it's got some surprises in it and stuff. So
Speaker 3 00:36:42 It's kind of dancey a
Speaker 2 00:36:43 Little bit. It's, it's really dancey. It's Yeah. Got some maroon five feel
Speaker 3 00:36:47 To it. Sure. Yeah. Early Maroon five.
Speaker 2 00:36:49 I hear that. But I want it to, I wanted every song to kind of live in its own sonic Turn the page thing. And it, and it, the record starts in that punk thing. It goes into Appalachian by the time you get to I ain you're like, What am I listening to? No clue. This guy's on drugs <laugh>. But I'm not, but I'm not <laugh>. I'm not just the nice stuff like Tylenol. I don't take Tylenol. I don't like Tylenol. That's true. I don't like the, the the prescription stuff. Me grows outta the ground. We're okay. There
Speaker 3 00:37:17 We go. This heroin grow <laugh>, You have to manipulate it, but that's true. That's true. Uh, and then look who's talking's
Speaker 2 00:37:25 Next. Look who's talking I wrote was Sam Banks and, uh, Joel Hudson and I, it's just a country love song. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know,
Speaker 3 00:37:33 Especially with Sam.
Speaker 2 00:37:35 I, I think I just had this pension for talking about Keith Whitley in songs. And, um, that one was just, uh, I, I like songs in 3, 1, 2, 3, like a waltz feel. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's one of 'em.
Speaker 3 00:37:49 Well, you gotta do one for the Ladies
Speaker 2 00:37:52 <laugh>. Right. True. Full of Women. Um, that song also has this kind of thing in it that, uh, you, you remember this band Al City? Yeah, I do. Fireflies. Yep. That was back in the MTV Music Video Days. <laugh>. Uh, I just love that song, but it has this kind of sent part in it that's like fireflies all the songs kind of have these, uh, sonic influence from my past sort of things. Like one song has a Foo Fighter's drum vibe, and then one song has a blink base vibe and it's, but all these things kind of came together and, and this one was one that I just love, uh, Randy Travis. You know, I love just good old fashioned simple country music too.
Speaker 3 00:38:32 Love
Speaker 2 00:38:33 That. Yeah. And then we got Got Fool Me again. Fool Me again. I wrote with Cam Marlowe and the Warren Brothers and Cam put it on his record. Yep. Which was I'm fired up about. Um,
Speaker 1 00:38:42 Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 00:38:44 Uh, he came over to the house. We went, I called my studio The Observatory. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we went up to the observatory and we fired up, uh, what, what do I call the
Speaker 1 00:38:55 Ja cigarette or
Speaker 2 00:38:56 No, no, no, no, no, no. The pod. Its, I've, I've since had a new name for it, but I forgot the name. Lucie fired up Lucille. Lucille Bong. Yep. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:39:07 Classic. I love weed. Pun names. It's the best.
Speaker 2 00:39:11 And uh, we was just, I was playing guitar and I was playing this thing and it was just open and strumming and I thought it was like Ryan Adams and Ray Lamont ta sounding. And at the very end right before at the last chord, cam kind of hung Fool Me again. And he like, he didn't even really make the words, but it just, it hit me just right. And I'm like, Oh man. Fool me again. That's great. Next day we writing, I believe with the Warren Brothers and that was born, that's, that's probably one of my top five favorite songs I've been a part of. Just cuz of how it's so country and how the hook lands. And that's like all, all of my favorite sad, sad country songs have something like that.
Speaker 1 00:39:55 What are your other top five ones that you've been
Speaker 2 00:39:58 A part of? It's too hard for me to tell <laugh>. So after Fool Me again, we got another banger, one of my personal favorites. Granny Got a Garden. Mm. That is also a Cam Marlowe cam getting the two cuts, which I cut these songs before Cam cut 'em. So Cam really got the Rob Willow cut first. Yeah, it's true. No doubt. Uh, but no, that one, uh, again, good story with it. We're in Tin Roof Tuesday night, he's in the booth behind me talking to some people and he's like, Yeah, my grandma keeps her plants in the closet. And I overheard him turned around and was like, I'm sorry man, did you just say your grandmother keeps her plants in the closet? And he's like, Oh yeah, my, my grandma's a pothead. Next day we were riding with Warren Brothers. I was like, We gotta write that. And um, it's cool because that song, the first verse is kind of his grandma. And then second is mine, which is a neat little, I know that he loves that song too. And it's, it's really neat to watch. Uh, like I went to his show at Nashville at Brooklyn Bowl and he brought his grandma out for it. And That's awesome.
Speaker 1 00:41:02 <laugh>. Do you think that, I mean, cause you cut it first, do you think that that helped sway, like persuade him to cut it, put it on his record?
Speaker 2 00:41:10 Uh, politically I'd probably, and I'm supposed to probably be humble and say no, but yeah, I think absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:41:16 I felt that way too. Cause it really didn't seem like, it seems like out of left field for his sound, which is like, and his first EP was like kind of more down the center. I, I'll
Speaker 2 00:41:25 Say this about it. I think him hearing it in the headphones as we had interpreted it made him go, Oh, and it, it connected the dot for he has this real emotional attachment to the song. It's about his grandmother. Right. And I think it was like, it maybe not, maybe he was planning to all along, but in, in my opinion, I think he was like, Yeah, I should put this on my record too, because this is, you know, you write so many songs, it's like, well this one's funny. And it's like, has a little bit of meaning to it. So it, I hope that that hearing that was like maybe an impetus for considering
Speaker 1 00:41:57 It. I always felt that way too. I mean, I don't know Cam as well as you, but it just seemed like, oh, he cut that. Like, I'm glad he did. Cause it is such a unique song. Yeah. The story's great. And the also the production and the vibe of it is so different than like, what, what else? He's cut too and playing. I mean, I've gotten to play with you on stage a bunch of times. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> super fun, super fun song to play. Get Outta Here Spider. There's spiders in here. It's
Speaker 2 00:42:21 Just one real nice spider.
Speaker 1 00:42:22 True. Well, so we got one more song here on the list, right?
Speaker 2 00:42:26 Yeah. What Learn. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one I wrote with Luke and Laurie McKenna. Uh, we were on the road and I believe Albuquerque and we were in a hotel room and we zoomed and I just had that little hook thing you're going to learn. And I will say this about that particular tune. Um, one thing about calms is he's, he's a competitive guy in the writing room, which I admire. I am too. And, uh, he got the best line in that song. We, I started out, you know, it was like, um, Loop SW and Pool. And I'm like, That's that's a good line. And then he immediately just goes, Don't run by the pool. And I'm like, dang, he just rued. And so yeah, he got the good line in that <laugh>. Congratulations man. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:43:12 Yeah. It's all about shit. You're gonna learn, right? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:43:15 But it's this song that has no real, uh, there's no like verse chorus. There's really no chorus. It's just a refrain. And then the song ends in a quirky way. But when, when I played it for Kyle, he was like, Oh yeah, that's how the record ends. I'm like,
Speaker 1 00:43:29 You get it songwriter song
Speaker 2 00:43:31 I think. I think so. Yeah. Love that. Plus now he has a Rob Witherford cut, which is cool. That is cool. And he is singing on the, on the track. That's just, which is very cool. And Cam is singing background on both the ones of his. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:43:45 Love that man. I'm, I'm fucking stoked for this to come out.
Speaker 2 00:43:49 Yeah, man. Me too. I think
Speaker 1 00:43:51 <laugh> so, I think so. Yeah. I know. I'm sure you're probably a little excited, a little near anxious about it or something, but,
Speaker 2 00:43:58 Uh, yeah. I think I should be more anxious about is the problem is that I'm just like,
Speaker 1 00:44:03 You can't change any of it now. Might as well put it out.
Speaker 2 00:44:05 Right, Right. I would almost maybe like people to hate it.
Speaker 1 00:44:08 <laugh>. Well it's, it's so different because artists in Nashville, um, they have the success first than they put the record out. You know? So like, doing it this way is just doing it ass backwards, which is great cause there's no pressure and it's just you're doing it for the love of your music. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:44:24 Yeah. Love
Speaker 1 00:44:25 Of
Speaker 2 00:44:25 Music. Yeah, I agree. And it's like, I think about like, I got this tattoo on my arm, I spent years thinking about, cuz I got my first tattoo when I was 17 with a fake id. And it was terrible. I mean, it was really terrible. I mean, I mean, but it was like really bad <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:44:44 It was like some blue,
Speaker 2 00:44:45 Like, like terrible, like a blue blog. It just terrible <laugh>. Anyways, I had to, I had to live with that for like 12 years. And because of that, when I got this kind of half sleeve thingy done, I thought about it for many years and really was patient with it. So this thing is like, you know, they say you have your whole life for the first record thing, literally, I spent my entire life thinking about it, contemplating it, what songs are on it. And so at this point, even if it sucks, I'm like, that is the best I got <laugh> <laugh>, dude. And I'm okay
Speaker 1 00:45:20 With that. Hey. Oh yeah man, that's great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:45:22 That's funny. But it also has, like, it's these songs that, you know, there's some that follow you around. And these in particular, out of all the hundreds of songs I've ever written, have a special, each one of 'em has a very special, for whatever reason, attachment to me. And so to put that into something that I can, I mean, I'm not that far away from being, uh, Dementia guy, but when I have lost all faculty of my mental, uh, ability, then I, I'll have this thing to go. At one point he wasn't right. So weird. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:45:55 Well, music lives forever and I think that's the, the thing that makes it special. Right.
Speaker 2 00:45:59 I agree.
Speaker 3 00:46:00 And one of the things too, like, again, like you said, like one of my favorite albums is Jonathan Singleton's The Getaway.
Speaker 2 00:46:06 Oh, I, I listen to it probably and I've told him this. I listen to that probably every couple months. It's, it's inspiring to me.
Speaker 3 00:46:12 Yeah. And it's, and you know, not that many people know about that, but the ones that do it means something too. A hundred percent. And I think this record, I
Speaker 2 00:46:19 Keep trying to get him to another record.
Speaker 3 00:46:20 I think you're gonna be happy. He's,
Speaker 2 00:46:22 I'm sure you sure he is gonna, after this podcast, he's gonna call me. Yeah. Rob, what you talking about producing my record?
Speaker 1 00:46:28 <laugh>. That would be sick.
Speaker 3 00:46:29 Yeah. I'm good on
Speaker 2 00:46:30 Fame. Manifest that
Speaker 3 00:46:32 <laugh>. Uh, well I know you've been doing a little bit of that, right?
Speaker 2 00:46:35 So a little bit. I guess I can say that on here. We don't have any rules here. No. Yeah. Say whatever. I'm this kid named John O. Clayton. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> from, uh, East Tennessee, you know, Slack, jaw, Redneck Hillbilly. He's great. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and we, we'd been writing over the Covid Times and had put together enough tunes that I felt like, uh, I'd been wanting to do this production thing and my record was like the Guinea pig for it. I'm like, well, I won't screw up another kid's career. I'll just go down and butcher my record <laugh>. And so once I got down there and really love the fame thing and, and really have a passion for it, um, it's my joy, uh, along with writing. And so at that point I was really ready to, to work on somebody else's project. And, um, he's the guy.
Speaker 2 00:47:28 So I, I've been cutting some songs on him with David Mess Con down there. And uh, by the way, Mess is a huge part of this record. Um, and a huge part of everything that I'm doing down there at Fame. So it's kind of, it's, it's a really cool, uh, cuz he comes from like the hiphop world and then I'm over here in country world and, and John's country mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But I wanted to record the stuff to where it, it didn't necessarily have to be in the country lane. Like I can hear the stuff that we recorded being played, uh, and you know, there's people like Tyler Childers or, or Zach Bryan. Um, Stir was a good example, but that don't necessarily live in the commercial radio land, but there's genre kind of traverses country or Americana or whatever it steps on on different buttons. So like, I wanted to go into it with that mindset. I'm kind of rambling about it, but that's my, my vision for it. My end goal is like, I wanna produce, uh, a pop record down there just as much as I wanna produce the next Black Hulk record down there. Yeah. You know, all that stuff's exciting to me.
Speaker 3 00:48:29 I love that. And I love Johna too, man. Actually had him on the podcast, um, Right first on this one on the race row one without Kurt.
Speaker 2 00:48:36 Oh, cool. Wow.
Speaker 3 00:48:37 Yeah. Right when he, uh, first got on the scene. So I'm a fan as well.
Speaker 2 00:48:40 Yeah. He, he's got a cool thing and uh, he's got
Speaker 1 00:48:42 Some great songs too.
Speaker 3 00:48:43 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:48:43 I think he's a naturally, uh, he's got the thing that I like when I first heard Thomas Rhett, like that first little EP that ain't ready to quit and Front Porch Junkies. Yeah. And, uh, what was the song about if I could have a beer with Jesus? Yep. Like that stuff that was his country and authentic and it just, I don't know, just some, something about that that I dig and, uh, I think we've got, he's got some tunes up his sleeve now, so I'm excited for people to hear that. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:49:12 Man, it's been great getting you to sit down and chat with us. I know we talked about this for a while, and I'm glad it lined up where you were available.
Speaker 2 00:49:19 Yeah, man, this is great. I love this chair.
Speaker 3 00:49:22 Yeah, it's uh, it's super nice behind you too.
Speaker 2 00:49:25 Yeah. Is there anything else we need to talk about, Kurt?
Speaker 1 00:49:27 Um, let's see. Uh, you got any Luke cuts coming up on this new record?
Speaker 2 00:49:33 Well, your looks are becoming a problem.
Speaker 1 00:49:35 <laugh> my
Speaker 2 00:49:35 Looks. Yeah. I don't know if anybody's told you about this.
Speaker 1 00:49:37 There's no greens for green behind me, so, Oh,
Speaker 2 00:49:40 I just mean in general. Oh
Speaker 1 00:49:42 Yeah. <laugh> ugly looking or something?
Speaker 2 00:49:44 No, I'm just wanted to say something weird. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:49:46 The beard looks great. It's just not as long.
Speaker 2 00:49:49 True. No, I'm just trying to get him riled open. Yeah. <laugh>, let's talk about you. How's your love life? Me?
Speaker 3 00:49:55 Yeah. Man, I wish I had more of it. You know, that's the, that's the thing
Speaker 1 00:49:58 I'd say <laugh>. What a blessed answer. Hey, this is good. We should shout Nicky out, man. Some gals listen to the podcast. I know. My, my mom's gonna listen to this. She's
Speaker 3 00:50:08 Taking figured out if I met him in Midtown, it's not the right move. That's, that's what I figured out, I think. What do you think, Rob?
Speaker 2 00:50:16 I have never met any woman in Midtown.
Speaker 1 00:50:18 Must have never met any woman in Midtown
Speaker 3 00:50:21 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:50:23 That's how it started. That was the original title. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:50:25 For sure. Uh, by the way, I'm making Fat lie. I'm making a T-shirt that says Midtown Famous. It's gonna be a Raz T-shirt. I'm only gonna sell it in, in Midtown. Inappropriate. Yeah. You know, <laugh>, Did I walk that? Yeah, absolutely. It's gonna be great. I mean, I'm pretty sure we're gonna sell lot of those. That's for sure. I know a couple people that would buy. No, but I know some really great girls. I just haven't found the ones for me yet. Rob. Hey, respect. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Hey, man, brother. Well, in the meantime, I think you should still keep doing the only fans thing. It's, uh, it's, I just grill meats and drink beers on it, man. The girls love it. I look, whatever you're into <laugh>. I, I got nothing. We were throwing out this idea of doing like an only cans. It's like, like, um, like we were talking about on the bus with Jake chugging the beer.
Speaker 3 00:51:11 Oh, that's a brilliant idea. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Jake, if you're listening to this, please reconsider. That is a, We'll just like get feet picks and then it'll pan up from the feet. Okay. And drinking. I'm a beer. I can No, no, no, no. It's feet. Jake chugging beer. Right? Well, you or you know, if you want Kurt or Nicky t to chug a beer, you send like $300 <laugh> Yeah. Via Venmo to us. And then we'll chug whatever beer you want. Yeah. Even if it's like six years old. We'll, it drink Bush, we'll drink bush light, we'll drink bush, apple, whatever. And heck, I'll even drink Miller Light if you're paying me. Oh, yeah. True. <laugh>. It's good work if you can get it. Yeah, that's it. <laugh> boys, thank y'all for having me. Absolutely. Rob, we appreciate you doing this, man. What a blessing. I know you're a busy boy writing more hits and, uh, I'm, I know. No more, no more. That's it. <laugh>. I'm so superstitious guy. So don't jing somebody saying anything like that. I'm not. I'm just stitches Stitious. Yeah, Stitious. But man, uh, you know, we got to become buddies with you over the time and it's been a, a blessing man. I appreciate you. Come play a song real quick. Absolutely. Play it. You never had anybody play a song on this thing? We've like, with instruments, Yes, but never with their phone. We're gonna make you do that too. But yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3 00:52:26 Is there a good way to I love the intro to this John Clay. No.
Speaker 3 00:52:41 Yeah. What you going do? What you going do? Uh, Black Eye PE is God bless him. Yeah. Just want my favorite song. Song. Sorry. I wanna play it <laugh>. That was great. Are we doing, What are we doing where we put them? Let's get guitars out. Yeah. We're gonna make you play music with Kurt like you do all the time. Every weekend. <laugh>. Great. All right, let's do it. All right. I'm Nick T I'm Kurt Ozo. And that's Rowdy Rob. Hey. All right. And this is the Raider Rodney podcast. God bless you. And God bless America.
Speaker 5 00:53:11 Yay. Job, Rob.
Speaker 6 00:53:13 Bless.
Speaker 7 00:53:17 What you going do with all that junk? All that junk inside your
Speaker 8 00:53:21 Trunk? I'm get get, get, get you drunk, Get you love junk off my my hump. My hump. My hump. Myp myp My hump. Myp. My hump. My hump. Lovely little lumps. Check it out. I drive theses crazy. I do Day. They.
