Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Come on.
This is Outside the Round with Matt.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Burrill for Rage Rowdy Podcast.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: What's going on, guys? Welcome back to Outside the Round three Map Brill. Today, a new friend of the family. A guy who I'm honored to say has been watching the show for a long time. I've been listening to it for a while. He's from Carrollton, Missouri, a small town, about 3,500 people. It's our boy, Brian Andrews. We were just talking about Grizzly, the welfare bear.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Back in the day, I used to dip the hell out of that, man. I remember it was like groundbreaking and earth shattering when Copenhagen came out with the mint flavor.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Yes, dude.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: I had buddies from Florida sending it up to me at my college in New Jersey. And I used to be on my college radio show just packing hammered of Copenhagen, man.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: People loved it. I never really got behind the mint was just like. It was such a strong flavor.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: And so I like. And I didn't like Copenhagen that much, so I never really got into it.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: But go with what you know, man.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: That's right, dude. I started when I first took my first long cut dip. It was Skull Wintergreen. And I was like, I thought that was the. For like a year. And then I switched to Grizzly because all my buddies did. And I was like, this is way better.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: You know, That's a famous line from a Toby Keith song. He has a song beers ago from like his. His 2000s party, Toby Keith. And he says, and winter green Skull. It was all we had. And I was dipping wintergreen skull, man.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: 1552 beers ago.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah, man.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: So how. So how long. How long you been out here in town on this trip? Because I know you're still back in Missouri, right?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I just got here Thursday night.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Or no, no, Thursday morning. Yeah, I drove. I woke up at like 1am and drove here and then went straight into a right Thursday.
Got home or got back to the hotel and then did. I can't remember. What up? Oh, yeah, I went. I just went to sleep early and then I woke up the next day, my car window being broke out.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: I was like, I hate this town.
I ain't been here for 24 hours and my car window's already broken.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: What you get into over the weekend?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Not really. I just hung out.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Really?
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Caught up on sleep, dude, that. And then Friday, you know, we wrote another song, so.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. How long. How. How often have you been coming out here for trips and stuff?
[00:02:26] Speaker B: This is like my third or fourth. True. Yeah. So I've written a couple with Ev and then, let's see.
Just some other people around town, you know what I mean? We've only written probably three or four songs. Brandon Manley, dude, he's such a G man.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Good dude.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's my buddy, but, yeah, we're out here till next Monday.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Extended trip.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So a lot of my. A lot of my buddies are coming from my hometown. Like, four or five of them are coming down on Friday, and we're going to go to the Chiefs game on Sunday.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah, because they're playing in Tennessee, so.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: With Gardner Muu at quarterback.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Oh, we're so mad, dude. I was watching that yesterday. I was like, you got to be kidding me. Like, right before we're about to go play this game, and we're going to want some menu mania, dog.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Well, you're. You're. You're old enough to remember when the Chiefs weren't that good, dude.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: We were.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: They were bad for as long as anybody, bro.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: I saw a video of somebody talking about that last night. It's like he was talking about his old man, and he was like, you know, like, you know, what. What's. What's. What's this feel like to you? You know, and he said his old man was sick, you know, right after, like, the third super bowl or something like that. He's like, I just can't believe I lived long enough to see us be this good. Yeah. Because we were awful for so long.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: I remember when we drafted Jamal Charles, and we thought we were gonna be good, and then we sucked with him, but he was still, like, one of the best running backs in the league.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Priest Holmes before.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, he was a G dude from, like, the time I was a little kid. He was like the. The number one guy that I paid attention to as a child. You know, him and Tony Gonzalez.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah, Tony was huge for you guys. Yeah. Yeah. You guys have always had, like, one or two star players, but never, like, a dynasty in the last 10 years. Have just been.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Dude, we couldn't put it together. And then, like, when Trent Gurion retired, it just went from, like, dude, we had Matt Castle for a little bit, and then we just cycled through so many coaches like Romeo Cornell and Todd Haley and shit like that after Dig.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Todd Haley was rough, dude.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: That was Herm Edwards. We had him for a bit. Dude, like, sucked, man. But no. And then watching, like, Brody Croyle and all that, it was just like, are we ever Gonna be good. And then we got Andy Reid, and there was some spark back. Yeah. And then we got Alex Smith, and we started going to playoffs and winning the division. We were like, what the, man?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Like, is this what it could feel like? And then we drafted Patrick Mahomes. And I tell you what, when we drafted him, I was like, why are we drafting Patrick Mahomes? We have Alex Smith. Yeah. And then obviously, everything happened and I was like, fuck, okay. I'll eat crow for this.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Andy Reid. Andy Reid knew what he was doing.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. Him and Brett Veach both. I think that, like, Veatch didn't specifically draft Mahomes, I don't think, but he was, like, about to take over as GM the year before, so. But he was the. He was Patrick Mahomes, like, unsung hero in the organization. He was like, dude, I'm telling you, this guy's good. You know? And everybody. I remember when he got drafted, dude, everybody was like, what the are we doing? You know?
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Why him?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And then it worked out for us.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Other than yesterday.
Tearing his acl, dude, it reminds me of the movie the Comeback. You ever seen that?
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: He's like, ACL tear, whatever he gets.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: ACL tear, ACL tear, ACL tear. Oh, man, that's a classic movement. What was it like for you growing up in a small town like Carrollton, Missouri? You were welding, right?
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So when I. I was. I graduated from Carrollton High School. Same high school my dad graduated from. And then I went to the same college he went to for a couple years. I was. My dad was a band teacher, so I went to school for music.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Nice. That's cool.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: And ended up dropping out of there. Cause I was doing shit I shouldn't have been doing.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it happens, bro.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So I ended up, like, hooked on Xanax for a little bit and then quit doing all that and then went back to school after I dropped out the first time for, like, two more years. And I was working at a bar called the Cross Eyed Cricket. Shout out to them if anybody remembers.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: I feel like I've heard of this dude.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: It's like. It's named after a country song, you know?
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: So, like. But. Or not it's named after, like, cotton. I. Joe, I think, because it has, you know, like, whatever. But anyways, it was this bar on the outside of Warrensburg, Missouri. The same place Delaney Walker went to school.
And we.
I just, like, hated going to class, you know? But, I mean, I was in school. I was trying to Get a degree and everything. And then I was working washing dishes at that bar for eight bucks an hour back in the day, and all my buddies were welders, and they was making two, three grand a week.
Dude, I think I'm doing the wrong fucking thing here. So I dropped out of school, and one of my best friends in life, he bought me a couple welding shirts, and I went to welding school and made it out of there. And I worked on the road for four and a half years before I started doing music full time. Yeah.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: You know who's another kid from Missouri that started as a welder? I don't know if you know him. Tyler Nance.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Yep. Yep.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Is another one that spent.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: We went to the same welding school.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Really?
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I was a little bit before him.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: But, yeah, because he. Because he spent time living in, like, South Dakota and Iowa and Indiana and getting sent to different places. It's just such a. Such a unique lifestyle of jobs, being.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: On the road, and it is crazy, man. I. I wouldn't trade it for anything, you know, but because it taught me so much, you know, especially about writing songs and, you know, because I had to learn how to do it myself, you know, kind of like Tyler did, you know? Yeah. So it was nice to get all that experience and everything, but, you know, when I started downloading or I downloaded Tick Tock as a.
You know, like, I wanted to do it because all my buddies were doing it or had it, and they were seeing all these funny videos all the time. Back in 2019. Yeah, I was like, well, I want to laugh on my lunch break too. You know what I mean?
And so I downloaded it, and I started seeing a bunch of other people start posting their, you know, covers or doing music on there, and I was like, dude, I write a little bit, you know. So I started posting on there, and it ended up with like 80,000 followers or something like that. Before I dropped my debut single, Liquor and Pills. And it went.
It was like the first week I dropped it in, on Christmas Day of 2020, I dropped that song. And it only had like, 9, 000 streams or something like that. But for me, you know, like, I'd never put out a song.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: So you're like, wait, there's 9, 000 people that have listened to this song?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: So I was like, dude, this is sick. And then, yeah, I posted a video of it getting played on my hometown radio station, KMZU, and that video got 15 million views. It was during the pandemic. Yeah. Right around the time of Dick Down In Dallas.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah. With Trey.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah. No, which. We got the platinum plex right there.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: It like that time. I remember talking to Trey about it, dude. It's just like that time period for musicians was incredible on Tick Tock because everybody was on their phone, dude. I mean, the whole world was shut down. And like, as soon as. As soon as stuff started popping off for, like, music and people were on their phones, then it just was crazy for a lot of artists and I was a part of it, so.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: That's wild.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Rode the independent train for.
Till April of this year or June of this year, and then I signed my first development deal with Disruptor, so.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: That's awesome, man.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: It's wild, dude.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: It's sick. It's. It's been a wild ride and I wouldn't trade it for nothing. You know, there's been some hard times and some really great times, but we just go with the flow. Yeah.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: The older I get, when does the. When does this shift? Because when people talk about. We know we don't really get into politics too much on here, but with you coming on, I'm like, I want to get. It's. It's a con. It's something that you talk about a. Yeah. When somebody thinks about someone that says the stuff that you say in that song, they are looking at. They are in their minds envisioning the complete opposite of a guy like you.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Which is. I'm sure people bring that up to you like you're a guy from small town Missouri, but one, I applaud you for taking the courage to say what you want to say and say what's on your heart and what's on your mind. I may not agree with a whole lot of it.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: But I can always respect somebody finding a cool, artistic way to express their opinion, man.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah, man. I think that when you look back on, like, music of any time period or like history in any time period, there's always music to go along with that time period. And for me, you know, I've kind of been left leaning my whole life, which is weird in a small town, too, but, you know, like, there's small town Democrats out there.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, there are.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, both my folks are left leaning, and my grandfather worked for General Motors for 30 years and he was a union Democrat, you know, so we just kind of. I was kind of around it and then growing up, like around music and stuff and, you know, seeing different perspectives. I think, you know, it's almost like I say, like, people in, in cities, if you're Republican, you're kind of a little bit softer of a Republican than you think you are. Yeah. Just because, dude, you don't. Like, in some of these small towns, you don't realize how far red some of these people are. Deep red.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah, like. Yeah, like back home I'm considered a very heavy Republican in a New York suburb. Down here, I'm considered very moderate.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: You know, fluctuates. But like you said, you got to travel a bunch so you get to see. I think there's so much power in seeing how other people do. Yeah, dude. To have more perspective and for you to be doing odd jobs and I'd imagine some of the similar places where Tyler's told me he's done jobs, where you're in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota and you're around folks that are living that reservation life and you. Or you're in those small blue collar towns where people are working their asses off and not making anything.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: He.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Let's see, Tyler, I think worked in.
I can't remember if it was Sioux Falls.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: I think it was outside of Sioux Falls.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Just outside Sioux Falls. I was about. And. Or a couple hours straight into South Dakota next year, kind of.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow, so you were in there?
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. The town we stayed in had like, it was a population of like 86. Wow. So. But I mean, I was around that shit my whole life, so, like, it didn't bother me. But like. Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm saying about like politics and stuff like that. I mean, I think I come across a little brazen online, you know, in social media and stuff like that. And I mean, to me, there was a point for that, you know, So I don't regret the way I came across or the way I said things, but I do think that it's a little like. I think a lot of people, even in my hometown, you know, have kind of labeled me as this fucking radical leftist. And I'm like, dude, I do every fucking thing that you do. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it. Especially in these small towns, you know, you grow up fucking riding ATVs, going trail riding, drinking beer on the weekends around a fire with your buddies, you know, like just doing hunting, fishing, you know, like fucking. My family owns ground too. You know what I mean? So, yeah, like, it's just crazy that to see like the.
It's not the switch up even. It's like, dude, you'll see like people. People say like, oh, he sold out. Or whatever the fuck. Or they'll be like, oh, he forgot where he came from. It's like, dude, I do the same shit that you do every day. Like, I still live in my hometown, for one. Yeah. Like, I haven't fucking packed my shit and moved to Nashville anytime soon, and I'm not going to. Yeah. I was raised in that town. God willing, I'll die in that town and I'll be buried in that motherfucker too.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Amen. Amen to that, dude. What prompted you to go from like, liquor and pills and some of the songs that you had put out previously? What was the turning point for wanting to put out a song like, the older I get and. Because I feel like you had touched upon it in some of the earlier catalog, but. But you really dove more into it. What led you to really jump off the high dive and tell people how you feel? Yeah, but again, there's nothing wrong with. You're an artist. You're supposed to write songs about what you are going through, what you feel.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I think what it was for me is like seeing kind of like, you know, because people will say all the time, like, oh, you know, he's not country or whatever, because you.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Are one of the countries dudes I've had on this podcast, Brian.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah. They'll be like, he's not country because, you know, like, he's a fucking Democrat because. And they'll be like, oh, he switched up because he used to post conservative all the time, but now he's just pandering to the left. And I'm like, okay, I never once ever have came out and like been pro conservative or pro Republican or anything before I started posting about politics. And like, obviously I'm not a Republican now. Yeah, everybody knows that. But I never once did that shit. I just posted about how I live. Country stuff like hunting fishing trucks. Fucking. Yeah. Doing stupid like we all do in small towns.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: And people associate that stuff with being a Republican and being a conservative. So they think that, you know, since now I'm saying this stuff, they're like, oh, he fucking is just pandering to the left. And I'm like, not really, dog. I just do the same. You do?
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: You know, and now you feel duped or whatever.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just like, if someone, like people freak out when they see a minority or first generation American, like an immigrant that is pro Trump, they're allowed to be. They're allowed decide which whichever side they want to. But they assume if it's like A female. Like it's a. It's a Latina first generation immigrant and she's pro Trump. Like, oh, she's faking it. It's like, no, you're a country ass dude from small town Missouri. But there's a reason why growing up, our parents always told us, like, you know, when you meet new people, you're at a dinner party, you don't talk about religion and you don't talk about politics. And I feel like social media. Yeah, I change that to where everybody's talking about it.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Know how everybody feels.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Right, exactly. And I think like for me as an artist, you know, like it was important for me to say something just because like I did. I vehemently disagree with a lot of the shit that this is, that's coming out of this administration.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Yeah. In the world that we're living in chaos.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. So for me, it was easy for me to start talking about it. And then especially like when I hear songs like try that in a small town. Or you know, like Richmond, north of Richmond, kind of confuses me sometimes because like, you know, we know the whole title is about how these billionaires are taking advantage of us. Right. Which is my whole fucking thing. Like.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: I mean, it's up versus down, you know what I'm saying?
And so we know that the whole title is fucking Richmond, North Richmond. And you're thinking about how this. Yeah, it's up versus down. This is a really unifying thing. And then there's that one fucking verse that fucking blames fat people and poor folks on welfare for why we're all fucked. And I'm like, if we know it's the rich man north of welfare, why the fuck are we still blaming fat and poor folks? Yeah, poor brown folks, you know, I mean, like in some of these things. And so that's where like for me as an artist, I was like, well, there's nobody talking about the other side of this shit in country music. I mean there is, but you know, like I saw an opportunity there and I took it because I feel like it needs to be represented. I feel like people need to be talked, you know, like some of the things we're seeing with immigration and stuff like that, I think that needs to be talked about because people are actually being affected by this shit every day. And I hear it all the time, you know, like even from a buddies in my hometown because, you know, we have tough conversations and like I'm surrounded by Republicans, you know what I'm saying? So even my best friends that I grew up with are Republicans.
And, you know, we talk about it a lot.
And it's just like, it's important, I think, to have those conversations because at some point we've all got to vote again.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: And we've all got to find some kind of common ground. I hate this political sphere that we're living in. Yeah. Because it's like, if you're not one thing, you're a piece of shit. And like, my thing is, like, I don't care. I don't think you're a piece of shit if you're a Republican, dude, I don't think you're a piece of shit for wanting secure borders. I think you start becoming a piece of shit when you advocate and laugh when people are thrown into a fucking concentration camp or when people are fucking arrested outside of courthouses trying to come here the right way. Like, everybody wants. You know what I mean?
So I think there's, there's commonality there for most people because a lot of people don't want to like, especially in country music. A lot of people don't like. In today's country music. It's either, you know, it's like, if you like, if you don't like it here, get the fuck out. You know, you see Nate Smith post a fucking video in response to Zach Brian's fucking 10 second line.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Of that song that got leaked, that talking about ice. And you see Nate Smith post a reaction video talking about if you, if you don't like, if you're not for America's values or whatever, then get the fuck out of our genre.
It's like, first of all, who the fuck made you the sheriff?
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. There's so much. There's so much room for everybody within the genre.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Exactly. Dude. Country music is one of the most vast genres ever. And like, what I think so fucking weird is that we're. We're like politicizing country music so much that.
And like, don't get me wrong, I'm doing it too, just for the opposite side. But like, we're politicizing it so much that people have to. They're putting like this mindset and movement, this maga movement on such a pedestal that it's like a part of who they are.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: You know what I mean? I think that's weird. Yeah, man.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: I mean, you've had politics and music forever.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Back in, Back in. Back in my drinking days. I'm. I'm coming up. Lord willing, I'll be 10 years off alcohol next. Next May which is great.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Congrats, man.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Thank you. I appreciate that. That's awesome. But I used to get blackout and write papers and I, I did really well. I had a higher GPA when I drank than when I first got sober. I was like, man, that Jagermeister in the freezer's getting me there. But I took a class at my college in New Jersey that I went to, Ryder University. Shout out. And the class was called Theories of Persuasion. It was an interesting time to take the class because it was 2016, so it was right as the first Trump administration was coming in and you saw like the power of ad hominems and memes and just tossing the ball up and letting the consumer finish the sentence, you know. But one of the papers that I wrote was the history of like music with theories of persuasion. And you look at, on, on the side that you, that you're conveying on the, on the leftist side, as people say, on the side that leans more, more liberal or socially advocate and things like that, you look at a lot of like the 80s 90s rap stuff. Like you look at straight, at the whole, Straight out of Compton in that movement, they were just reporting on what they were seeing with the police brutality and the str.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: They were going. Things that they were going through around them.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Green Day with the Rock Against Bush stuff, you know, like Bob Dylan singing about Vietnam and John Lennon and folks like that and singing about it from that side. And on the conservative side, I mean, Toby Keith kicked the Damn door down post 911 Toby Keith, which I, I mean I've, I definitely lean more, lean more that way. But music, it's always been about songwriters reporting on what they see around them and what they're feeling internally. And you're just writing about the world that you're seeing from your perspective, bro. And there's nothing wrong with that. And again, I'm never gonna, I might not agree with what you say, but I'm never gonna try to take away your right to say it.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, exactly, dude. And I think so important. Yeah, I agree. I think that like, you know, getting like a platform to speak in some of these podcasts, you know, like that you normally wouldn't see a left leaning person on. Yeah, you know, like for me it.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Doesn'T matter which way you lean. I like your music. Yeah, you're a good dude. You're working hard, you're putting out good music, people are resonating with it and you're, you're a part of the genre, you're a part of the country music family, you know.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: And that's the thing, you know, like, we saw, like, I think it sucks for women sometimes, you know, who are outspoken, you know. Like, we see like, you know, when Mary Morrison stuff took it took a stance, you know, I think, which there's part of me that thinks that maybe she bowed out of country music just because she was.
She didn't love it anymore and she wanted to do something else and that's fine as an artist to do. I just like, hope it wasn't that she felt like unwelcome here, you know what I mean? Because I feel like country music is country music. And being country used to mean standing up for people and it used to mean community and like being there for people, you know what I mean? And I think that for me as an artist, like, not just a country artist, but as, you know, like a rock artist and stuff like that, I think it's. It's lacking that, you know, And I think there's, you know, like you said with Toby Keith busting the door down for like that red, white and blue, like red blooded, deep south Republican.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Fan.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: And that was. And that was. You look at how rallied we were.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: As a country coming post 9 11, dude.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Coming out of that. Sometimes it takes traged tragedy for that stuff. You look at. Look at post Pearl harbor and the way that America was in the 1940s.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Right. And I think with like, that's why I think Toby Keith is one of the greatest country artists of all time because he played such an important role in like, unification, you know, for that time period. Like, dude, I'm a giant Toby Keith.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[00:23:03] Speaker A: And you're.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: And.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: But you're not a. You're not a Bush guy.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: You know, you might not agree with some of those decisions, but you can still appreciate and be a fan of that artist.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. And I think that like these like that. That music was a lot more centrist, I think, than most people think it was. You know what I'm saying? Like, we've just, we've got this mindset where, like, if you are left, you're this radical piece of leftist.
And I just don't, like, I don't feel any more unpatriotic just because I lean liberal.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? Like, if anything that makes me feel more American is that, you know, like, I can have the platform where I can speak up for people, you know, Because a lot of people don't have that platform. I mean, I Get dms.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: All your messages and comments have to be fucking in.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. And, like, for, like, every bad one, you know, there's. There's somebody that, you know, sends me a dm. Like, I got a DM a couple days ago from a Latina woman that was saying, you know, like, she's like, I wish that, you know, I could say or speak as loudly as you do, but I have family members that are trying to go through the process right now, and I don't want to bring anything attention to him. You know, it's hard for folks like that, but it's not hard for me. Yeah. You know what I mean? And, like, for just as an artist, I wanted people to know where I stood, because. And I got this from Jason Aldean. He said in a Dax Shepard interview that he did on that podcast, where he was like, you know, I'm gonna say whatever I want to say, and they're gonna take it how they're gonna take it, and I'm not gonna let anybody sway me. Yeah, I can do the same thing then.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: You know, I mean, like, it's.
And I just felt like that that side, especially from small towns, was being misrepresented, you know, And I think a lot of people came at me real hard because I came at Christians real hard, you know, and they. They immediately were turned off by that.
But.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: I think there's. There's. When you see hypocrisy, and I think. I think it speaks to, like, religion as a whole, where there's a lot of that. And obviously, in small towns, religion plays a huge role because it's that sense of fellowship and community, and that's what it's supposed to be.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: It's not supposed to be the I'm better than you because I'm sitting in this pew and you're stumbling in a little hungover coming in.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Or, like, don't even believe, man. Like, that's the thing. Like, I. I'm.
I hate that it's a. That it's a saying even. But there's validity to it, or people wouldn't say it so much. But people say there ain't no hate. Like Christian love. Yeah, that's. That sucks. As a Christian myself, to hear, like, I fucking hate hearing people say that, because it makes me think that when they think of Christians, they think of hate. Yeah. And we're not supposed to be represented by that. And I think that you see, like, a lot of these, like, deep red pill guys, you know, that are fucking doing Whatever they're doing and speaking online and stuff. Saying. Saying what they're saying, it's like, how can you.
Christianity was never supposed to be used as a weapon against the weak. It was supposed to be used as a shield for the week.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: It's not exclusive. It's inclusive.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Exactly. And that's the. That's the thing. It was never. It was never supposed to be that. And then, like. And they. They talk shit. Like, you know, you hear people say all the time, oh, he's a fucking soy boy leftist. Like, okay, fuck you. I don't care. You say what you want to say. But I know this Jesus Christ didn't show his masculinity and strength through oppression. Yeah. He showed it through love, compassion, and empathy. Yeah. You know what I mean? So when I. And I'm not saying that I'm Christ, like, in every way, I'm just saying I'm trying to get there, and this is my way to get there. You know what I'm saying? And I think that, you know, when I see.
It's just like you said, the hypocrisy. I put out a song called the Older I Get, where I write a line that says, the older I get. I wish Christians tried to be a little bit more like Jesus, but I guess all them poor and sick kids just can't buy that house of white. That's in specific reference to people calling me whatever they want to fucking call me and say whatever they want to say about me. But then watching the president, the United States that they love to support, put his name on a fucking Bible, you know what I'm saying? So, like, it's. I think it was.
For me, it was much less of a. Like, I'm not. I know I'm not gonna change your mind overnight or with one song or whatever the fuck. I just want to give you an alternate perspective, you know, because, like, I'm seeing the alternate perspective every day.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Especially, like, in my hometown, online, because I'm in country music, dude. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, like, it. Like, everything I do is surrounded in a Republican space. And I don't have any problem with that.
You know? Like, I grew up around Republicans and stuff. I can live in these spaces, too.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: You know, and that's where.
That's where I started talking about that stuff and started writing about it. Because, I mean. And I'm not done writing about it neither.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: No, man. And there's the power of the dialogue is what's needed.
What's needed. And I think that's something with. I mean, I wasn't like a huge like Charlie Kirk guy or follower, but I respected what he was doing with trying to talk, like giving that. I think more people from the other, from one side and the other need to sit down and talk like conversations and just have discourse. Now where a lot of the clips that were posted, definitely a little much and a little propagandist. Yeah, absolutely. But I think that there's all. We're all better when all the flavors of ice cream are available.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: And we can try a little bit everything and then you see what you like and you don't. It's. It's stupid to just put somebody down without hearing them out first.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, exactly, man. And I think that, you know, we all come from different walks of life.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, man.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: And we all have a different perspective. And I think that what's missing is that we don't look, especially in small towns, is we don't look at an alternate experience because we never see it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, I think that's how you get these super far right Republicans and then how you also get these super far left Democrats in cities and stuff is because they just don't, they're not, they're not exposed to it, you know what I'm saying? So like, you know, somebody who's a farmer in a small town, who grew up in an ultra conservative family is not going to overnight change their mind just because they watched one headline or saw one headline or whatever, you know? And like, to be honest with you, a lot of farmers in small towns don't even really get on their cell phone. And if they have a cell phone, most of the time it's a flip phone, you know what I'm saying? Like, I know guys that are 40 years old with flip bones still, you know what I'm saying? So it's not like these people are. And they go to work from literally dark to dark, so they're not getting online and researching, you know, who they should vote for and being interested in it and you know, stuff like that.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah, they go to the co op, they go to church, they go to the same Waffle House or small town diner and they have, they're surrounded by their family and those close to them and that's it.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Exactly. So they're. They're gonna vote red, you know, because that's just what they know.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Or they're gonna vote blue because that's how they came up in that family.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. So I think, like, it's important for people to speak openly and like, especially for artists to, you know, I hear that, you know, like, I don't want to hold it against anybody that doesn't want to talk about politics, artists or whatever, and like, kind of put where they are out there for people. But I think that, like, it's important for me to do it because I want to show other people that, like, dude, you can live in these spaces too and still have a different world.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? But that's what I mean about small towns is that, you know, they. They just get pigeonholed into this way of thinking, and they're never exposed to the opposite side, so why would they change their mind? Yeah. You know what I mean? Nobody's ever challenged their idea. So for me also to be able to write songs like this, I knew I look like them, talk like them, and I'm from where they're from.
So if I was ever going to reach people on the middle of the road or these, you know, people that I would consider, like soft Republicans or whatever, if I'm ever going to get them to see a different perspective, it was going to be someone who looks like me.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: You know, like, that's where I think a lot of it is lost in translation because these people in cities and stuff like that are just. They just get so mad at people from small towns and stuff like that and, you know, speak to them without knowing where they come from, you know, and so I.
You might.
You might not be the perfect person to talk to these people, you know what I'm saying? So that's where I started saying what I said, because I knew that I could. Yeah.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: How do you balance being as outspoken as you are and as upfront as you are without alienating people?
How do you.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: How.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: How have you navigated that?
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah, you're going to. I think because like I said, like the. The things that I was saying, it was loud, you know what I'm saying? So I was. I knew I was going to alienate people at first, but I knew if it did, if it had the impact that I thought it would, I would get to do stuff like this, where I could talk candidly with people.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Yeah. We're sitting here having a conversation, and we're. We're on different sides of the aisle, so to speak. But there's a way to sit and have a. Have a grown. Grown man conversation about stuff. And I want to hear your perspective and I want you to share it and all of that, man. When did you realize, like, oh, this song's really stirring the pot, or this is getting a lot. This is getting more eyes and ears on me than I thought it would or that I've had before.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I knew like I was posting videos about it and some of them were going semi viral and stuff like that.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: What's semi viral?
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Like 1, 2 million views, something like that.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: That's semi.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like I just have it for like virality and success is objective and subjective.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Everybody's scale is different. But if you're just calling that semi, then you've had some, some big pop then.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: Well, I just feel like, you know, in the, in the past, you know, I've had stuff go pretty nutty viral, you know what I mean? So like whenever, you know, I put out a couple videos in January and February, I think, and each of them got 30 million views. Geez.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: So what was the content in those videos?
[00:33:10] Speaker B: The first one was about.
That's when I started getting first outspoken about. This is the video I made about gun violence.
And the line is that I used in that video that I think stuck with people is it was right after the United Healthcare CEO got shot.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: And I wasn't trying to make light of that in any way. And I'm definitely not trying to make light of, you know, school shootings or anything like that. But my main point was I bet if more health insurance or whatever big corporation CEOs got shot in this country, they would do something then.
But it doesn't matter how many kids are getting fucking killed. Yeah.
They're just getting fucking mowed down and all we can say is thoughts and prayers. Yeah. You know, and like, I don't think that's bad. I don't think it's bad to offer thoughts and prayers to people. What I do think is bad, you know, like referencing the Bible in James, it says faith without works is dead.
So if we see things that are happening and we don't do a thing about them, but we say, I'll pray for you, isn't that the same as saying it's dead? Yeah. You know, and like, I'm not saying that.
I don't. I'm a gun owner. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like I, I live in spaces where I've owned guns my whole life. I hunt pretty much every day of rifle season, you know, in Missouri. And I would never advocate for the total confiscation of firearms.
But there's not a class or a license or an obstacle that I wouldn't go through if it meant saving one child. Yeah. You know, just in that. On the flip side, you know, advocating for putting funding towards schools to help with kids who struggle with mental health issues, but we don't give a fuck about mental health in this country, and I can prove it. We got homeless vets everywhere. Yeah, yeah.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Like, people that we put on a pedestal of loving the troops and loving the vets, and meanwhile, we have homeless folks.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Exactly. It's insane. It's insane to me. So, like, you know, back to the virality thing, you know, like, I knew that some of the things I said were going to be polarizing and I knew that they would catch some eyeballs, especially from people on the right, you know, because if I said.
If I. If I said something bad about Christians while looking like one, I knew they would watch, you know what I'm saying? Even if they were getting ready to leave a mean comment, they were going to watch it, so. Or disagree with what I had to say. They were going to watch what I had to say and listen to that song and maybe it might have an impact. You know what I'm saying? And then when I posted the Crash out video, that's when it went nuts. Viral. On TikTok, it only got like 1.7 million.
And on Instagram, it got like 9 million. That was my most viral Instagram reel of like that I've ever had. And then it's crazy. You just started seeing people sharing it and everything.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: And I'm curious because I have not dove into you. I'll be. I don't get on Tick Tock much.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: It's a.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: It's a pro. I need to be better about it because our Razor Audi account's slacking big time in it.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: I feel like dying.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: It's not what it was.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: Not back in 2020, it's not what it was.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: I mean, you saw. I was. I was Trey's right hand for four years. Like, I remember when it was going.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. When it was just so. It felt so, like, so much like community.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Like, it felt like people were there to see people win.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So you do as much as many talking, like personality videos as you do, like your music. So you use it as both a broadcasting platform for your music and your thoughts as a. As a figure in the country space that leans left.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: That's beautiful. Because I'm looking. I'll be honest, I haven't looked at your feet, but it's a Lot of you just sitting in the truck and it looks like just talking and I'm sure some of these. Are you teasing a new song?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I'll relate it back to the music a lot of times, you know what I'm saying? Like, especially these rants and stuff like that. I mean, you know, I saw the impact that it had with that Crash out video and the HuffPost shared it.
You know, Fox News did an article on me and it's crazy. So. But like, seeing all that, I was like, this could, this could at least get to people. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And like the message could get to people. So that's where like, for me, I figured out my lane style of content, you know, that really can grasp people and people know me for that now. Yeah. You know, so I think that it plays a. It plays a major role in being able to talk about things that I. And I love it now because now I can be like super outspoken about the things that I care about and relate them back to the music that I'm making.
And it's.
It's all into one. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't have to have separate platforms.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Has it been hard for you to find guys and girls to write with? Do you think that it's. It's been. That's been a challenge, like not really coming into town is. Have people recognized you from your stuff and mentioned something at say like Red Door or one of the bars in town? Like.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: No, nobody's really said anything, to be honest with you. I haven't gone to Red Door since I started talking like about this previous song, you know, because the last time I was here was early September. So I haven't been out in like in town much since I put that song out. But I don't like, as far as the industry goes, like, when it comes to getting rights and things like that.
Like I said, you know, most people from Nash are, or a lot of people from Nash are a little bit on the lesser side of the ride. Yeah. You know, that you would think. And so like just like me and you, you know, like, we can come on here and have a conversation. We can get in there and write a song. Yeah. And it doesn't always have to be political. Yeah. But I think that there are certain things you can say in music that both sides agree with.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: And it's funny sometimes to get in rooms like, you know, with a couple left leaning people and a couple. Right. Right leaning people because you find that Common ground through music.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: It's beautiful.
[00:39:13] Speaker A: The common ground is the best part of it, bro.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: It's amazing, dude. And it's like, especially writing a fairly political song.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: When you're, like, in that. In that room and you're. You have these different ideas, but you all come together right there around that one song, it's just.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: Have you candidates or, like, political figures reached out to you?
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah, a few have, like, followed me and. And, like DM me and stuff, like, asking where I'm from and stuff like that. But nothing crazy. I mean, not like any. I mean, I guess, like, Jasmine Crockett, she follows me on Instagram.
[00:39:47] Speaker A: I'm not familiar with her. Who's.
[00:39:48] Speaker B: She's a U.S.
congresswoman from Texas. Oh. Yeah. She's running for the primary and the Senate now with James Talrico.
So, I mean that both. Both those people, I really, I. I think are great candidates. So I don't. I'm not gonna speak on which one I like better. Yeah. Just because I don't think it's my place to say. Yeah. You know, and also I love them both.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: So, you know, so I don't.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: So you follow. How do you take in your political news?
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Mostly social media, podcasts a lot. Right.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy? Because that's so not what our parents did.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: I mean, or even like our older cousins or older. I don't know if you have any older siblings. It's like. Like 10 years ago, it wasn't this way. It was. You either watched FOX or CNN or msnbc.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Like, where I was, I grew up, my family, watching Fox and getting the New York Post every day. Like, that was.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: That was how you got your stuff. Was what's on the. What's on the front page of the newspaper now. It's. Who's. What's this person saying on Rogan or saying on this channel or posting on TikTok? Like, do you like that better or do you kind of miss how it was in the old days?
[00:40:57] Speaker B: I think you see, like, you have access to a lot more different perspectives on one thing now. You know what I'm saying? Because you're not listening or reading or listening to a news article that's from one person, one journalist, you know what I'm saying? Or edited by one person or whatever. So I think you have a lot more perspective.
However, I do think it's a lot easier to fall for misinformation, you know what I'm saying? So, like, when, you know, for me, a lot of times I'll use an app called Ground News and this is not an ad. They don't pay me or nothing. But they're dope because they'll like every article you see. You can put it or you can see it on that app and they'll tell you which way it is biased.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Oh, because they, because there's always a bias. Yes, there's always going to be at least some bias. Do you sometimes find yourself looking at the, from the, from the other lens, like seeing what is the right wing saying?
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah. On certain specific situations. Absolute fudgeing.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: I do that too. Or I'll tune in like election night. I'll tune in to CNN or MSNBC during a commercial break on Fox just.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: To see how differently they're portraying it to their aud.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: The same thing is happening, but how different are these talking points and graphics and headlines?
[00:42:16] Speaker B: You know, dude, it's insane.
That's why I try to stay away from CNN and Fox News as much as possible. I think the only times I watch them is on election, election nights. Just because they, I feel like they have the best coverage.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they have the best resources to get everything.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah. But as far as like, I mean, and I think like, you know, CNN and Fox News are both getting better about like having certain segments on their shows where they have of different, like the people from the opposite side of the aisle, you know, to talk about things. But it's still, you know what I mean? So I, I think for like headlines and like that it's cool to, you know, like I've got some of my updates for certain news outlets and stuff turned on or whatever so I can see those. But as soon as I grab the headline, I'll go look at it in Ground news because I'm like, okay, what am I reading? And I want to know who I'm reading it from and you know, stuff like that and then where's the source?
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: And be able to form my own opinion about it. But there also are some things where like, dude, you'll see a video, like a real time footage of something unfolding and it won't be like news or anything. It's just a video that somebody in that place has recorded and posted online.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Like what we're seeing with the latest thing that happened in Australia.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. And like it's not even, you're not even watching a news outlet. You're just watching people that have recorded it that were there.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: The raw footage.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Yes. And like I think that is good and bad because like, you can see it in real time with your own eyes, but at the same time, like, some of that we shouldn't see. Yeah. You know, like, even with the Charlie Kirk thing, that shouldn't have been. No.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Every Day should not have been released.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: No. Everyday people are not supposed to see things like that. Yeah. Like, you're not. You're not, like.
Because there's a certain connection that you have with that person, whether you like them or hate them.
And to watch, like, life be taken like, that is. We're not supposed to see that. You know what I mean? And, like, there's specific situations in your everyday life where you're gonna, like, be there when somebody passes away or something like that. But that was, like, sickening to. Why? Dude, I. I hunt deer ever. And I have killed more than I can count.
That was. I've never been sick to my stomach as much as I did watching that video.
And I don't. I. We are not supposed to see stuff like that.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree, man. Now, getting off the politics and getting.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Back to the music.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: Thank you for opening up and talking about all that. By the way, man, another song that you had put out earlier this year, blue, which is one that. Because you're 29, right? Yeah, so I'm 30. We're right about that same age. We've all grown in the iPhone text bubble era. And when you get a green message sent, it's like they either blocked or they switched to an Android. And they probably didn't switch to an Android, man. But talk about that song and what went into that.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that was just about. I actually wrote that song a couple years ago, and I had just got around on by a girl that I.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: The worst, bro. The worst. But everybody goes through it. Guys and girls.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And it's like, we weren't even like, you know, that. That girl. We weren't even, like, you know, like, real into it or anything. It's just like. It's just like that one feeling of betrayal or whatever that you can't get because, like, it's so common, you know that, like, and it happens so often that you're like, how many times is this gonna happen? So I sat down and I wrote that song. And it came at a time where I wasn't right. I hadn't written a song in, like, six months. I mean, I was starting to feel pretty down about that, you know what I mean? And, like, was just kind of slow and stuff like that. So when I wrote the song, it was two years ago. And I wrote it. It wrote the first verse that, and then the chorus, where it's like, you know, hope returns green instead of blue. And I got that idea because I was like.
Like, I wish I could fucking block you. You know what I mean? Because, like, I just kept going back over there. I was like, I wish I could just fucking get you out of my life. You know what I mean? And then as soon as I wrote that song, I finished it and I was like, I'm. I'm so back, you know? Yeah. And so I sat on the song for a little bit because I sent it to a couple people, and the response wasn't like, in my personal life, and the Spawn response wasn't what I thought it would be.
Nobody, like, talked on it, but it wasn't like, you know, great. You know, it's like, oh, this was. This isn't a banger. You know? So I was like, whatever. And then when I started talking to Disruptor, I went to Los Angeles the first time and was in a room with which.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Which. What is Los Angeles like? Quick sidebar.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I love it, dude. I love la. I think people have this, like, real deep misconception about, like, you know, LA is this, like, liberal place that you can't go anywhere without, you know, be having leftist ideology shoved down your throat. And I didn't feel that way at all, you know, And I'm from a small town, and I relatively don't like big cities. Like, I most time cannot stand Nashville, you know what I'm saying? But when I went to la, it was just.
It's. For one, it's always fucking sunny there, and you just feel good.
[00:47:23] Speaker A: It's hard to have a bad day when the sun's out.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: Yes, dude. So when I got there, you know, it was like my first time really getting in a writer's room with people and, like, having a producer there. And we did that song with Andrew Goldstein was a producer, and the other songwriter was Marshall Vore. And we got in there and I had the whole song written or whatever. And it was. I just got off the plane, I went to this guy's house, went to Andrew's house, and he was like, all right, so what do you guys want to write about today? And I was like, I don't care, you know, And I. I knew I had that song in the back of my mind because I've got a bunch, you know, that I never finished or whatever. And I was like, hey, can I just play you this song? And if you don't like it. It's whatever. We don't have to do it or whatever. But, like, I'll just play it for you and if you like it, we can roll with it. And I played it and he was like. Like, we have to write that. So I was like, yeah, hell yeah. And we didn't end up changing anything besides, like, we got rid of the bridge and changed the second verse and then the song was basically done. And like, it was six o', clock, I think, in the afternoon when I got done, and I remember going back to my hotel room and I was like, that was awesome. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And, like, I had already known that, but I mean, that moment, there's specific light bulb moments that you have.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: You know, and that was one of them. So I'll always love that song because I felt like it revived my career kind of, you know, I was slowing down a lot.
I was still doing the independent thing. And being an independent artist is a hell of a lot harder.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Than people think it is. But.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: But the rewards when you win as an independent, it's crazy. No other.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: Yeah, because, I mean, dude, you. You basically did it yourself, you know, I mean, it's just such a freeing feeling, you know, And I, I.
When I think about, you know, that I signed a deal or whatever, I still have such a ton of respect for people who live that independent grind for their whole careers.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: What led you to wanting to sign the deal?
[00:49:06] Speaker B: I think it was just that if there was going to be a time where I did sign a deal, it was right now. And so I was like, you know what? It. We're gonna do it, and if it works, it works. If it don't, it don't. I'll go back to welding if I have to. I don't give a. You know, so. But it's worked out great so far. I mean, obviously it's been incredible. And, you know, getting right with so many different people. I think we've got, like, by the end of this trip, we'll have like six. Oh, no. Like 18 songs.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, it makes it worth it. Yeah. That are pretty much done. You know what I mean? So, like. Yeah, especially dude. And like, it's not that I hate Nashville.
It's just in Los Angeles, like I said, dude, you can go. There's so much history there too. And it's almost like New York City, you know, I mean, like, you can go anywhere and see anything, you know, and see so much history. And then you can drive an hour and be at the beach, or you can drive two hours north and be at Big Bear or, you know, whatever. So there's just so much shit to do in la and you, like, in a. It's. There's an isolating feeling about Los Angeles because there's so many people and you don't know fucking any of them. You know what I'm saying? But. Which for me was crazy. But there's also, like, a freeing feeling that, like, there's so many people here and I'm. I'm one of them. You know what I mean? Like, I'm here on a mission, doing something with my life.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: Yeah. See, on the other side of that, coming from New York, I have loved being here for the last seven years because. No, because I've gotten to see the city get built, like.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: I've. The whole skyline when I first got here to now, completely different.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Well, and I think that's.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: It's cool to watch. Yeah. But I also grew up 25 miles outside of Manhattan.
[00:50:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:43] Speaker A: So it's like Manhattan's had always kind of been there.
[00:50:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: But it's cool to. I've. I've. I personally am. But I've also never been to la.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: I've had it on my list of places to go, but I've never been.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: Yeah. That's something that people don't, like, understand about Nash, I think, is that, you know, because, like, when I. When I first came here, it was on my very first trip ever. It was for my buddy's bachelor party when we were 21. So, like.
Or 22. So, like, six, seven years ago. Yeah.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: BC before COVID Yeah, exactly.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: It was right before that. And like, I was like, dude, this place is really cool or whatever, but it feels a lot like Kansas City. It just wasn't super huge or anything like that. And, dude, this place is growing by the day. Yeah. Like, now when I come here, I'm like, holy fuck, traffic is way worse. Like. But, yeah, so, I mean. And I've been to New York City once, and it was fucking so dope, dude. Yeah. I don't. I don't know what it is about that city, but there is something.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: It's again, history. And you have. Every culture of the world has a representation in that city, dude.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: And I think that's where New York beats la, because I think. I think Los Angeles, which. I haven't been to Los Angeles enough. But, like, I think that LA is like, this very. Like, it has a certain vibe to it, but, like, going downtown LA is cool to see all, like, the rock bars and shit like that where Ozzy Osbourne used to snort cocaine and shit. Like.
[00:52:02] Speaker A: Yeah. When Motley Crue was kicking the door down. Drop. Kicking people off stage from Metallica, all those guys, Guns N Roses, where they all came up.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's great to see that, like, music history there. Yeah. But in. In New York, there's, you know, jazz history and all kinds of music history, too. But, like, in New York City, there's, you know, Ground Zero, which is a chilling place.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Like, anybody that goes to New York, you've got to go to Ground Zero. It's just incredible, and it's wild.
[00:52:30] Speaker A: I've gotten to go there with my. With my mom and my stepdad and with my dad, and they know, like, we'll go. They know people's name. Like. Yeah, we were close enough to it. Where. Or people from my hometown that died.
[00:52:40] Speaker B: Dude.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: It's wild.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: So, yeah. But, yeah, like you said, there's so many things, like, the Village is one vibe. Astoria and Queens is won by Brooklyn and Williamsburg.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: They're all different.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Bye, guys. Different than the Bronx, different than Staten Island.
Yeah, bro. Chinatown, Little Italy. Like, you got everything there, dude. And it's funny you talk about, like, the music history of la.
I've been saying it on here for the past few years. It's really been, like, a few years, so I guess the moment's been extended. But I've been saying that we've been having our Sunset Strip moment here in Nashville for, like, the past few years, where it's like, this is the spot to be.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: Exactly. Because country music is, like, evolved in such a way that it's such a broad genre now that musicians from everywhere are coming.
[00:53:29] Speaker A: Dude. Youngblood's been teasing that he wants to get into it, that he wants to collab with Bailey Zimmerman. I'm like, that'd be wild. Like, I would love that post coming here to the point where he opened up his own bar.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, I mean, you're seeing it just transcend the genre.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Sabrina Carpenter, who's selling out stadiums and arenas all over the world, says, I want to play at the Grand Ole Opry.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: She's one of the biggest pop stars in our generation.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: Which. Dude, like, I think that that's such a cool thing.
[00:53:57] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: I love it. I want people. I want there to be as big a light on our job now, will there always be that indie and that underground and that gritty side to it? Yes. There's so many sub gen of country music to where there still will be that. That like part of the scene that isn't the cool thing that folks that are really in it like us appreciate, you know, But I want people to get their chances and sell tickets and make money doing what they were doing than what they're doing, you know, it's cool that.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: That's absolutely. Dude, I think that there's like something super admirable about all the artists who come through here and not even just come through here, but like make that style of music that maybe it's not even just that style of music, but just music that, you know, is that gritty, like. Yeah, just underground type of thing. And they are going. Instead of taking like the hardcore social media route, they're going out and playing shows to 50 people at a time, you know, and like grinding their ass off for years. You know what I mean? There is, there is a respect to that that I think every artist has to have.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah, man.
[00:55:02] Speaker B: You know, and so for me, I think that's great. And what, what frustrates me sometimes though is like when somebody will come up to me and they'll be like, oh, he's just a fucking tick tock artist. You know, especially in the industry, they'll be like, oh, he's a tick tock artist or whatever, you know, blah, blah. And they'll be like, oh, he didn't come here and pay his dues and play in Nashville for fucking 25 bucks in a fucking free parking spot or a free dinner or free beer or something like that. You're right. I didn't come here and pay my dues playing writers rounds and stuff like that. Yeah, I was paying my dues welding pipe.
[00:55:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Everybody's path is different now. Have you gotten to do a lot of shows or is that kind of the next thing that you want to get into?
[00:55:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the. That's the next step is really honing in on getting like my live presence going.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: Because that's the hard part. There's so many ways to get there. So many guys like Trey come came up playing shows in Birmingham. That's how Dick down now is came to be. Nobody's ever been doing music for 10 years. Nobody's ever given a let's play, put this song out and. But he had the reps to when the moment happened. Trey's live show at that time, he.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: Was ready for it.
[00:56:05] Speaker A: I put it up against anybody. Muscadine bloodline who I came up with as well. Years playing shows. But then you watch guys and I'm good friends with a guy like Bailey. And I remember when Bailey was starting out, it was rough.
[00:56:15] Speaker B: I love it was rough.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: It was rough. He had never, he had never played a show before. Was getting thrown in the rooms full of thousands of people. Tyler, Tyler. Selling tickets right now. Like, like. And it's you, you have to learn how to do that. But now it used to be you have to break an artist through the road and through radio and through this. Now there's just. You can still do that, but now there's another way to do it with the social media presence where folks know who you are before they even see in person.
[00:56:41] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, dude. I think it's like the chicken before the egg thing. Like I don't think it really matters as long as an artist is dedicated enough to go out there and sell their songs and speak to people. Yeah.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: So what shows have you gotten to do?
[00:56:52] Speaker B: I've done a bunch around Missouri, you know. And like the, the thing that I like started doing when I started playing music and writing my own songs full time, I did this like small town tour thing when I back in 2019 when I first started and we just went around like I think it was like 10 or 11 cities and just raised money for St. Jude and we just sat there for three hours playing guitar and singing songs and shit like that. And then getting to like move into some of the space where I'm playing some of these bigger venues around Casey and stuff like that close to where I'm from.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:23] Speaker B: And going to like Iowa City and stuff like that and playing shows there for.
In these cities but like surrounded by small towns, you know what I'm saying? Where people can actually come where it's.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: A hub where they can get to it.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And dude, like there's. It's slept on like how hard it is to sell tickets in this business.
[00:57:38] Speaker A: Oh dude, it's.
[00:57:40] Speaker B: It's.
[00:57:40] Speaker A: There's few and far between. It is. Club shows are in a very rough spot right now.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: Oh man. When I'm.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Shows are hurting, bro. I'm glad I got to tour the club market before COVID and right out of it.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: And like when I, when I first started blowing up, I remember playing a show and I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna sell tickets. And like 40 people showed up, which is great.
But yeah, like there's a lot less.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: That could show up my brother.
[00:58:07] Speaker B: Yeah. But, like, in my mind, I was like, fuck, dude. You know, like, what did I do? Did I fall off or whatever? And then I think the last show we just played, we played. We sold like 368 tickets. Yeah. In Casey. So that was incredible. You know what I mean? But, like, I think that's where those older guys who are like, you know, you need to go hit the road, and that's where they have some validity, because you do.
You do need to go figure out how to play live in front of people. Especially, like, you know, for me, I had never really done the. The first full band show I played was in Nashville.
[00:58:36] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: And it was at 6th and Peabody, and I was playing for, like, a showcase thing for a booking company down here.
And I was so fucking nervous. I bet I said the F word every other word. Because I just. It's like my filler word.
[00:58:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: And I was like, I could not stop shaking and shit. And there was only like, you know, 50 people in the bar, but it was still on a stage, you know, the lights were up and shit. And I was fucking real nervous. And like, that's right around. That's right before I met Bailey.
And then I started seeing, you know how Bailey was playing in front of like, seven, eight thousand people when he got started, and people were eating him up on some of those performances, and I was like, they don't. You don't understand.
[00:59:20] Speaker A: Well, because it used to be. Bailey was the first of that. Bailey was the first Tick tock guy.
[00:59:26] Speaker B: Yes, he was.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: He was at the forefront of being that guy. Before that, it was. You start out in the 200 cap room, and then you go to the 500 cap room, and then you go to the 800, then you go to the thousand. And that's over the period of years because you start out in each market at the 250 and work your way up.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: Yep. And I think that's. It's great. I think that with Bailey, you know, like, I've. And I'm sure you know, too. He's such a great guy.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:59:51] Speaker B: That, like, back then, I remember seeing it because I was like, dude, if that was me, I'd be fucking toast up there. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And I remember thinking about that and I was like, like, there's got to be some grace period involved there. Because Bailey works his ass off, too. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
[01:00:09] Speaker A: Well, that's where the opening slots worked out really well. And having him as an opener, and he did that for a long time.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: Yeah, he's just a good dude. But I mean, like, that's. That's the thing. It's just there's different paths to this, and nobody's journey in music is the same.
[01:00:23] Speaker A: No, not at all.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: And I think that when you look back at, like, artists who are really stuck in their ways, it's because, you know, they sometimes. They never got the break or whatever. And I can understand being frustrated at that. You know what I'm saying?
And. But I think their break could always come. Yeah. You know, I think that's. That's my thing about country music in general is that I think there's room enough for us all to eat.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: You know, so that's. That's where I'm at.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: Amen, brother. So what are the goals for next year?
[01:00:54] Speaker B: Touring.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: Touring.
[01:00:55] Speaker B: That's the number one thing, because I just. On the road. Yeah. I'm craving human connection so bad, Especially after this last song, you know, because, I mean, there's a certain amount of hate that comes with saying stuff that I say. And so when you're just reading comments and like, that, it's not good for you. So, you know, so, like, you need to be able to go out and actually, you need to be able to see in real time what your music has had an impact on, you know, and, like, some. You need to be able to see someone in real time who. Your music has had a real effect.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: So that, for me, is number one priority goal in 2026 is getting on the road.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: Amen, buddy. Well, I look forward to seeing you out there and appreciate you coming on and hanging out, man. This was a lot of fun.
People can go and find you. Just look up Brian Andrews and your stuff's everywhere.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Yep, everywhere.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: Do we have plans on any new songs coming or.
[01:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, December 19th. I know. I don't know if this will be.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: This will be. That'll. The song will be out before this comes out.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: Sounds good. So the song is called Grizzly can, and it's basically.
[01:01:56] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. Hold it up.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: It's basically just about growing up in a small town and, you know, and, like, hearing people say all the time, like, getting into social media and stuff like that. And the way we see being country now, I think people are always like, oh, I only listen to real country music. And this is like, the other side of that. Like, I feel like I'm country just like you are.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? And, like, before. Before this shit was all a trend. I was still doing this.
[01:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:21] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying? So I think I'm super pumped for that song. It's not. It's not getting the love that I thought or that I hoped it would. But at least on pre save campaigns. But like being an independent artist myself, I hate pre save campaigns. Yeah. Or used to be an independent artist. I can't stand them. They're junk. But I think that like, why would you trade pre saves for real time streams? You know what I'm saying, man?
[01:02:43] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And you're just throwing darts and seeing what's going to hit. Seeing what's going to hit the board.
[01:02:47] Speaker B: You know, man.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: There's nothing wrong with doing that. Well, Brian, I appreciate you coming on and hanging out, buddy. Y' all be sure to look up our man, Brian Andrews. Grizzly can. It's out right now. Y' all go and listen to the hell out of that thing. Comment on the video, what your thoughts are on the song too. You can comment below on our comments section. Shout out to a good friend from Surfside. You like the green tea?
[01:03:06] Speaker B: Hell yeah.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: I gotta. I got. I got a. I got an eight pack over there with your name on it and we got some. Got some hats for you to sift through as well. Our light selection of what's. What's left post. Holiday sale.
Yeah, dude, I got you. Well, from my man Brian. I'm Matt Brill. This has been outside the round.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: I.
[01:03:25] Speaker A: Ain'T never been the kind for staying one place for too long I ain't never been the best at sin I love you to a girl I love Only got a couple tricks up my sleeve they usually just make them leave so if you know me, if you really know me you know I'm just a two trick pon maybe the drink and the lack of money for show.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: I'm just a two trick on it.
