Colby Acuff: Enjoy The Ride

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Come on. [00:00:15] Speaker B: This is Outside the Round with Matt Burrill for Rage Rowdy podcast. [00:00:20] Speaker A: What's going on, guys? Welcome back to Outside the round with me, Matt Burrill. Today, a very special guest, a long time homie of the razor Rowdy family. You may have seen one, you may have seen any of his three part interviews on the Raise Rowdy podcast with Nikki T. And our. Our man Kurt. We got our man Colby a cuff with us today. Getting ready to drop a brand new record. This is what you said three days home in the last month. [00:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah, actually three days home in the last two. I left July, like 15th. No, when I got home, Sunday. [00:00:54] Speaker A: Wow. [00:00:55] Speaker B: And today's September 23rd. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Yes, today is the. Yeah, today's September 23rd, but. Yeah. Holy. [00:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:04] Speaker A: How was it? [00:01:04] Speaker B: It's great, you know, I mean, we got a lot. Do a lot of things that we normally don't get to do. Got to play Lollapalooza. This year we went to Europe for the first time. Went, I mean, just over the pond. We also played in England at Long Road Festival. Now we're on tour with John Pardi and we just finished up a headline show or headline tour. That's what we were doing for the last month and a half or so. But yeah, crazy year for sure. No doubt. [00:01:29] Speaker A: That's crazy. That is absolutely crazy, man. I mean, I think back to the first time I met you was when you played that rowdy on Rowdy on the Row that Sunday night. And that was. And then we went and hung out at Red Door after. And then not long after that, you. You made the move out here. [00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I was. I can't remember exactly when that was. I think 22. [00:01:47] Speaker A: 20. [00:01:48] Speaker B: 22. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Yeah. That was before I was even involved. That was. That was before I was a business partner with raised Rowdy. [00:01:53] Speaker B: I moved to town January 23rd and I started like, I met Nick and then I met management, and then I got my record deal all in, like from July to November. I was like, whoa, here I am. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, man. [00:02:09] Speaker B: I was on tour by February. [00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is crazy because coming from where you come from, being out in Idaho and you had a life of working like a legitimate, like, professional job. Right? You were, you were selling. Was it real estate? You were. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Well, no, I mean, I had my license, but really I was a fly fishing guy. [00:02:27] Speaker A: You were guiding. You were doing fly. [00:02:28] Speaker B: I mean, hard to sell real estate when you're guiding 100, 115 days out of the year. Yeah, I'd sell a couple houses to hold Me over. [00:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:36] Speaker B: You know, and I figured that out when I was 18. When I was 18, I didn't want any help from anybody. It was. It was one of the best and worst things I ever did for myself. I was a real prick. But I. I feel the worst for my parents more than anything because I've kind of pushed them out. And I wanted to be so independent when I went to college. So I had to figure out how to pay for everything on my own. I was like, point zero one away from getting, like, a good scholarship to my. To Idaho. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Go Vandals. [00:03:05] Speaker B: I got inside tuition, which was dirt cheap, and I still could barely afford it. [00:03:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:09] Speaker B: But I got my real estate license and I realized if I could sell one or two houses a year, that would really float me. [00:03:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:16] Speaker B: And so I'd spend all summer fishing and hopefully sell something. And. Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite stories from college is a little bit of a tangent, but I. My. Going into my senior year, I essentially. My buddy had just graduated. He was a year older than me. We had been hunting and fishing. Like, he's one of my groomsmen in my wedding and, like one of my best friends. He graduated a year ahead of me. And so it was like his last summer, you know, before he had to go be an adult. So I'm like, dude, I don't even care. I got some money saved up from selling houses. I'm like, let's just go fishing for two months. I'm not going to work. I come back, you know, school starts in August. I'm broke as hell. I got no money. I paid for my. Because I had to go in two weeks early because we'd rented this house, me and my seven other buddies. So I paid the security deposit in, like, the first month's rent. And then I had $200 in my bank account and I hadn't paid tuition. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:15] Speaker B: So I was like, oh, well, I guess I gotta go get a student loan. You know, this is the first time I'd had to do that. I've been able to float myself. Didn't sell any houses, didn't work very much, didn't have any money. So I'm like, well, there's only thing I know how to do if I have 200 bucks. So I'm like, let's go to the bar. Yeah. Because this 200 bucks might as well be zero. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:33] Speaker B: It doesn't matter. So we go to the bar. I'm buying people beers. I'm just burning this last 200 bucks and I'm sitting there at the table with my buddy, and I get a phone call, and it's the, like, the Idaho Real Estate Commission or whatever. Like, hey, this is Colby. I'm like, yep, absolutely, that is me. You know? And they're like, well, you know. Yeah. We see here you. You applied for a scholarship back in April. I was like, oh, yeah, I guess I. I did. You know, I don't know. I'm like, What? I get third because it's like, you know, 500 bucks. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:07] Speaker B: No, you got first. You won the scholarship and it's $5,000. I was like, boys, drinks are on me. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Let's go. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Pick up the check tomorrow. That's how I got through my senior year. [00:05:19] Speaker A: Wow. [00:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah. I won a little scholarship I'd forgot about, and then I sold the house in November and got a little extra. [00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:26] Speaker B: Strapped it together and played some gigs, put myself through and graduated somehow. [00:05:31] Speaker A: That's crazy, man. Now, how does that transition to Colby Acuff, the songwriter, the artist that is now touring the world? Like, how does that get going? As being a senior at Idaho, I'd. [00:05:44] Speaker B: Love to say I haven't changed at all, but I have, for sure. I mean, I think that mentality, though, has always been with me. It's like my biggest. I think it's my biggest strength and weakness is just my. I love risk, and I like taking the big risk. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:00] Speaker B: And I don't see. I'm not very scared at all. I think part of it, too. I mean, I'm just. I've been broke and I've had money, and I've been broke and I've had money, and I'm just not afraid to be broke again. [00:06:13] Speaker A: Because you've done it. [00:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Like, I made it on the other side. [00:06:16] Speaker B: I've rebuilt myself three times. Like, you know, I've. For me. And that's because I think that there was a really great quote that I read about music, and I can't remember who said it, unfortunately, but it was essentially like, you know, it's not so much about celebrating the wins, it's about taking the losses with grace. And that's 90% of it. I mean, like, this whole thing is an up and down swing, and there's troughs and there's peaks to the. You know, whatever. But for me, it's. It's always the same. It's just like, keep going forward. There's always the next show. There's always a next record. There's always the next song. There's. There's Always something out there. [00:06:50] Speaker A: You got to sit back and enjoy the ride. [00:06:52] Speaker B: There you go. Absolutely. [00:06:53] Speaker A: Which I think is just the perfect title for this record. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:57] Speaker A: So talk about the process of creating this one. How is this different from other stuff you've done in the past? And where does the title Enjoy the Ride come from? [00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah, so, I mean, I think, you know. I mean, if you know who I am, there are dozens of you, but if you. [00:07:13] Speaker A: There's. There's a lot. There's a lot. There's. There's hundreds, there's thousands. There's lots of people out there. [00:07:21] Speaker B: But if you're new to me, then what I would say is if you go through the discography, you're never going to find the same thing twice. We got a lot of different records about a lot of different things. This one was really important, though, because coming out of American sun, we'd kind of gone into, like, this rock record that was a little bit more about, like, the mental health of the world and kind of some personal shit that I was going through at the time. And I was writing these songs, and you could tell that they. It was leftover shit from American Son. And my producer called me and he was like, hey, man, you know, these songs are great, but you're kind of stuck or, like, lost in the brutality of it. Like, these songs are brutal, you know, and he's like, there's a time and a place for these. It's not right now, I don't think, but, like, we need to figure out, you know, you used to write some stuff that was kind of funny, too. And, like, it was, you know, this and that. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Like, I used to write some, like, funnier stuff. And so I'm, you know, now we're sitting down and we're talking, like, what we want this next record to be. And he said essentially, like, well, you know, why don't we just go ask people? And it's, you know, it's such a wild concept that. Isn't that crazy? Like, yeah. Oh, you want to know how someone's feeling? Why don't you just go ask them? [00:08:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:32] Speaker B: And not only that, but I think truly it opened my eyes to a lot of stuff. Like the metaphor of, hey, you don't even know what that person thinks. Or you can guess or think whatever you want, but until you go and talk to them, you have no idea. So that's what we did. We packed up the truck, went, and we interviewed 40 people in three different cities in One weekend on the street, and we wrote up, like, all these interview questions, essentially. And we just say, hey, do you want. I mean, can you give us 20 minutes of your time? We just want to talk to you about you. And it was, you know, the questions were anything from like, what are you most proud of? What would you do if you won the lottery? Tell us something about yourself. What do you most? Or are you happy? You know, what is your average day look like? What is your perfect day? Blah, blah, blah. And so my mentality of it was like, all right, well, we'll go in, we'll interview all these people, and then I'll get probably, like, you know, 10 or 11 individual personalities that I can, like, separate throughout this record. That is not what happened, because I'm a dumbass. I should have realized. I should have known what was going to happen. But this is why you go talk to people. [00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:37] Speaker B: Everyone answered every, like, exactly the same, from all walks of life. And it occurred to me very quickly that the reality is, is that everybody wants the same outcome in life. You know, everybody wants to be happy. Everyone has great intentions on how they want to do things. Everyone is proud of themselves. Everybody would buy a house if they won the lottery. There's a lot of things, you know, that everyone answered exactly. Everyone's day starts with a cup of coffee. Typically, their perfect day is the day that they experience every day, but they get to see their friends. It is. That was 100% answered. Like, everyone said the same. So I realized, you know, like, this record now is changing into a concept record for me. I could see where it was going, and I wanted to take 40 people and put the way that they felt about life and their individual answers and stories in two 11 songs that follow these two characters, essentially, and talk about, you know, try to mirror their life and then give some people some agency. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:40] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:41] Speaker A: And it's cool that it's so different in that you thought it was going to go one way. And then that experience of just going and talking to the people transforms it into this awesome concept of the. The two parallels. [00:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's funny, I mean, there was an article written about it when I announced it. I believe it was from Whiskey Riff. And they said it was what could be the ambitious record ever written or whatever. And I thought to myself, you know, I understand why it's a wild concept because, like, what are the odds that someone's going to take the time to go out and talk to people? But in reality, that's what we should be doing. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:19] Speaker B: You know, I mean, we, we as artists, we sit in a room every day, and we should sit in a room every day and try to write a song. But, like, when I'm in the room every day trying to write a song, I'm thinking about what other people are thinking and feeling. It's very different. Like, it would be way quicker to just actually walk out of the writing room, walk down to Broadway and ask four or five people a question, and then walk back and write that song. Like it's. [00:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:53] Speaker B: Experience is 90% of a song, you know? [00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And you've gotten to live a lot of different life experience, from going back to Idaho to now traveling internationally to relationship stuff to just. To being. To betting on yourself and packing up and moving here with your boys. Like. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I've gone through a few chapters. [00:12:11] Speaker A: It evolved a lot in your, Your, your few years of being here. I feel like we've seen different eras of Colby Acuff. [00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I got to remind myself this is year three for me. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:21] Speaker B: I mean, and I, I probably been in town less than a year total month wise. Like, I'm just gone, you know, crazy. But yeah, I always say, you know, like, I'm. I'll be 29 next month, and in 29 years, I feel like I've lived 15 different life, you know, lifespans. Like, I call it the high mileage package. Yeah. And I'm not afraid to, you know, go out there and live. I mean, that's. I think there's a huge push. I've always had a big push for adventure. Know, I love that part. I'm very welcoming to that, you know. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's no better adventure, no bigger adventure than traveling around, betting on yourself with your guys to go out there and play music for people and hoping that they show up. [00:13:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. And sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, that's. And that's part of the thing. But. And you're. And you're somebody that loves seeing new places and touring's got to be great for that to where you get to put yourself. And you've probably created songs by popping up in a Witchita, Kansas, and then like a Portland, Maine, or this place or that place where you see that individual in that moment. You're like, that's a story. [00:13:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I have a. I think for me, like, visually, songs will kind of. I'll find inspiration sometimes in visual stuff, but it's hard for me unless I'M like talking to somebody or like, I gotta. I have to experience an emotion. Because for me, when I write a song, I try to earmark what made me feel that emotion. And then when I go back and write a song, I'm trying to pull from that exact feeling so that when. Then I put it out, then someone can feel that way. I think for me, as a songwriter, that's what I look for. I look for someone listening to a song and feeling the same way I did of why I wrote that song. It doesn't always happen that way. And, you know, like, the reality is, you know, once you write the song and it's just like me or me and the other guy I wrote it with, when we finish it, when that song is done and that work tape is done, to me, that's the best it ever gets. Only two people know about it, so it's. It's a big secret. [00:14:32] Speaker A: It's pure. [00:14:33] Speaker B: It's pure. It's raw. That's the best it ever gets. The second best it ever gets is when you finish it in the studio. It's still yours. It's you and the producer or whoever you know is in there, and you get to listen to it done for the first time, then you release it. And that's the third best it gets. It's still great, but it's no longer mine, is now, you know, the public's. And they get to decide, you know, what it means to them, which I think is really special. And that's like truly the best part of it. But those songs, when you very first pen them and you very first get them done, and it's just, you kind of like, oh, there's a new little creation I have. I don't know how it's going to go. That's the best it gets for me. [00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Talk about kicking off the record with Trail Less Traveled because you're a guy who has traveled many trails in your life from fishing and touring and just gone all around that song. I have an idea of what I think it. What I think it means, where it's. You're. You're going, you're carving out your own path, and you're not doing anything that anyone else is telling you to do. Like it's for that individual. It feels like doing it their way and going and cutting their teeth. And it makes a lot of sense that that would be the first one on there for me. [00:15:42] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think so. I wrote that song on a duck hunt with Ben Roberts and Mark Chandler. And we were out in Arkansas with the Roberts family. And, man, like, when we started on it, I. I can't remember how we came up with that line. I don't remember who came up with it, but I just left Sony. I just gone independent for the first time. And those lyrics really rolled off the tongue. Yeah, we started writing it and it's. You're 100% right. I mean, I think what's funny is I did end up with a concept record, but there's a lot of me in these songs. Yeah, there's a lot of everybody. You know, the influences. Some of those. Some of the lines in the songs are direct quotes from people from the interviews that I just put straight in. [00:16:30] Speaker A: That's so freaking cool, though. [00:16:32] Speaker B: And some of them. No, I mean, no, but it should. [00:16:35] Speaker A: But, yeah, that's what I'm saying. [00:16:36] Speaker B: It should. [00:16:36] Speaker A: Like, I love that. [00:16:37] Speaker B: But there. But some of the. Some of the song lyrics are, you know, directly from me, but, like, that male character. So there's a male and a female character in the record, and it's a kind of. It follows their path, but it starts with the male character. And the male character in the first song is me for all intents and purposes. You know, it's. That's. That's about as much me as you're going to get. You know, he's free to the world. He's very open to adventure. He's got everything you could ever want, except for he's alone. And I think it's, you know, as it builds, you introduce this really cool female character, and the male character is trying to figure out what his life is supposed to be, and she is trying to be more free and, like, less caring. And it's them trying to figure out who they are, you know, And I feel like that's 90% of kind of everybody. [00:17:28] Speaker A: Everybody goes through that. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And then they find each other in the end. Yeah, there's a happy ending. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And talk about being. Being independent. Navies. I remember when I first met you and that first podcast that. That we did in the Razor Rowdy Network at Nick's old house at the Amber Sound. And I remember you talking about, like, the Muscadine Bloodline guys and people that do it their way, in a sense. So now to have that where it's your first indie project, what's that kind of been like, where you do what you want? [00:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, you know, my first three records. When I say, like my first few records, I was independent I was. I had no management, no booking, no label. Yeah, it's just me and the guys. We had a record that was doing pretty good, but, you know, like, when we started, I was. We were a cover band that was releasing records the rest of the country or, you know, some people knew who we were, and then some people knew us as a cover band. I mean, we were playing every dive bar. [00:18:30] Speaker A: Welcome to Tom's, baby. [00:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I mean, and don't get me wrong, I would not include Toms in the dive bar, okay? We played some dudes. [00:18:37] Speaker A: Tom's above. [00:18:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Tom's above. Above all Tom's is. They treated us nice. They were great. [00:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:43] Speaker B: Paid us well, you know, I mean, I'm talking, like, we're playing three, four hours. We're getting paid maybe 700 bucks a night, maybe some tips. You know, it ain't like playing Broadway and you're getting a bunch of tips. Yeah, it's like, hey, can I pay you a hey, penny for friends in low places again? And I'm like, what's a hey penny? It's like a half a penny. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't. I've never even heard of a hate. [00:19:03] Speaker B: It's like an old, old, old penny. But, like, essentially, they'd be like, throw a dollar in and be like, you know, Tennessee Whiskey. I'm like. I'm like, dude, I got a record that's got 5 million spins in the last two months. And they're like, I don't give a. About you, dude. Play Chris Stapleton right now. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Like, okay, jeez. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Yeah, watch me botch this. Yeah, you got another dollar? But, yeah, I mean, so we did those three independently, and it really. 2022 was that turning year for us. We came on the record called Honky Tonk Heaven, and, you know, I don't think people really understand this, but in 2022, I put out Honky Tonk Heaven. No backing, no anything. I did make the record at Sonic Ranch, which I paid for on my own. Damn near put me in the drink. So broke and. But I got on Indigo as an independent artist in 2022. I got listed. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Which for me, was a big win. Now, we lasted about four days on it. Like, someone up and made a mistake and put us on there. And, like, the manager's, like, going through, and he's like, oh, geez, who put this on there? Get this out of here. You know, but we made it. And, you know, then kind of full circle. Last year, we actually. We. Thankfully, we got. Or not thankfully, but I'm very grateful for Indigo playlist, but they made us. They put us on the COVID for two weeks last year. So to go from 2022, you know, just little fly fishing guide made it on the playlist to, you know, getting the COVID last year, couldn't be more grateful for that. But yeah, you know, we've. As. We've kind of gone. I don't think, you know, I. I don't regret at all signing my label deal. And it's not like, you know, me and my label have bad blood or anything. I just. It just kind of got to the point where like I was ready to go off and I was ready for the next chapter. I was ready to do something different. And we. We only had one record left in. In our deal, so figured it was. I could buy out now and pack it up and see what happened. And truly, when I left, my. My initial goal wasn't to be independent. But then we started talking and I'm like, well, I don't know, like we're fairly self sufficient. I don't know. See how it goes. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:21] Speaker B: And that was. I don't know, that was December. So here we are, still independent and we got a record coming out and so. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's really. That's really cool. Talk about a song that's been out. Her song. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:33] Speaker A: And that's one that has been released already before the. What, what. What goes into your process of putting out a song before you've put out the full record? Like the singling of certain songs. What. Why that one? [00:21:47] Speaker B: Well, I think there's two answers here. I think that when you put out songs, there is a. There's a marketing piece to it and then there's the artist side of it. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:03] Speaker B: You know, I think our first single was Average American for this project and we released on the 4th of July. That was a marketing call. [00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:12] Speaker B: I wanted to put out his song in like April. [00:22:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:16] Speaker B: But we. Anyway, how we got to kind of her song. Because we released his song. Her song as a. As a duel. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. [00:22:24] Speaker B: And when her song came around, like when I wrote it, I finally. That's when it kind of the whole thing clicked for me. It was like, oh, I have this character now and now I need to write the male character and like, so introducing that. That female character. A lot of the. There was a couple really influential interviews that we did in these three days, and one of them was a. A mom who was helping her daughter sell. I can't remember what she was making, but it was like a farmer's market, and it was in Knoxville, and we interviewed her mom, and it was just. She was just electric, you know, she's so awesome. Just a great person. And so that was kind of. For me, it gave me a ton of insight into, like, that. That female, like, very mothering nature, just helping, like, you know, no matter what. And she had had a bunch of trials and tribulations in her life to help her family, you know, just, like, get wherever they need. And then the other ones, for me, there was a tattoo artist that we interviewed. She was amazing. And then there was a college kid that we interviewed in Johnson City. And between kind of those three characters, I kind of built, you know, her song. [00:23:39] Speaker A: Yeah. What is the numb to everything? [00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, so. I don't know. I mean, I hate to. Obviously, for me, I think the hardest thing to write for or put my, you know, walk a mile in their shoes is a female character. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:58] Speaker B: I am a man. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:00] Speaker B: And I'm pretty dude Esque. [00:24:02] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:02] Speaker A: I would agree. [00:24:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So, like, writing the male character, that took a lot longer for me, but I knew what I wanted to say. I just couldn't really get there for the female part of it. I was kind of like, well, I have these characters. I don't know how I would say it, but once I started kind of meeting all these people, there was a small generalization, and it could be wrong, but it's how I built the characters. I think a lot of the times, like, with men, men really want validation. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And I would agree with that as a man. [00:24:36] Speaker B: And they need it. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:37] Speaker B: Right. And it's usually for. It's like, validation for shit that a lot of people, you know, I think a lot of women overlook. Right. It's like the little things that you want the validation for. Like, anything that you thought was a big project. That's the. That's the thing. Or, like, whatever you think you're good at or whatever your hobby is or whatever it is, that's what you seek. [00:24:54] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:24:56] Speaker B: And I think, you know, women get that all the time. Women get a lot of validation in their life, and I think, you know, men seek that, and women kind of take it for granted just part of how it is. Right. And vice versa. I do think that men are born into a world with pretty much unlimited freedom. Men can do anything. Kind of. They can. You know, it's kind of that way. Like, and I think men, a lot of times take it for granted. I mean, even in, like, if You. You gotta take a piss or like, you know, whatever it is. Like, it's. There's no lines at the bathroom. There's. You can kind of get away with things. And so I think men take that freedom. I think women really, really want that. And I don't think that those two parties all the time, we miss it like this all the time. And so for these two characters to give people agency in their life. Her song, I created this female character who is undoubtedly free. She's super cool. She's calm and collected. She answers to no man. She's so independent and free. And so the numb to everything is like, yeah, I am trying to do all these things, and I have reached this point of like, I'm as free as a man is, and it's not all that great. It's so inspired me because I'm just numb to everything. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Wow. [00:26:18] Speaker B: You know, and then the male character, like, in his song, he's just like, what is my life? [00:26:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:23] Speaker B: He can't find validation from anything. You know, he. He sees the. The Jesus billboard on the side of the road, and it all reminds him of. Is pissing his whole life away. It's like he can't find it anywhere. And she finds it and it's. You know, it's just numbing. [00:26:40] Speaker A: It's just numbing. Yeah, it's like you're writing a book. [00:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's. It's my first through line, you know, it's my first through line concept record. I think all my records have had an overlying concept. They've all had an idea behind them. This is my first one where I really got to really dive into character building. And I. It's really interesting because I usually don't write, like, love songs at all. I usually write like, very. Either like, very chaotic songs or like, very fun songs. It's kind of my in between. And I've written a few love songs, but even those love songs are kind of just like. They're insane. Honestly. They're very sad. Like Cherokee Rose. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Yep. [00:27:19] Speaker B: But that being said, this was great because as I got to follow the characters, I got to write these love songs that I didn't even think were love songs while I was writing them, you know, just kind of like end up in these songs where they're like, all of a sudden it's a breakup song or it's like it's a together song or whatever it is, you know, so it was fun. [00:27:35] Speaker A: That's cool, man. That's really. That's really freaking Cool. What is one that you love playing live so far off this new project? Because I'm imagining that you've thrown some of them into the sets with how often you're. You and the guys are touring. [00:27:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I know. For sure. I mean, right now we're playing all the singles. I think my favorite one to play is his song. His song is just. To me, it's my favorite record or my favorite song on the record. And so, yeah, I just love playing it. I love like the simple walk up progression. I love the melody. The lyrics are funny and good. And it, you know, for his tongue in cheek, as that song is, it is like, it is pretty deep at the same time. Yeah, I like it. [00:28:18] Speaker A: Yeah. How has your live show evolved from when you first got down here with your guys to now where you're doing how many dates will it be this year? Will it be like over the hundred mark? [00:28:29] Speaker B: Maybe? I mean, last year we did 110. This year we did take three weeks off in June, which I filled with this other project that I'm doing, which is like a hunting and fishing. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Which I want to get to talking about that. [00:28:44] Speaker B: So the guys got three weeks off and then I was. I was gone for three weeks. So I don't know, we probably won't hit 100 this year because we also don't play after the Thanksgiving until like February. So. [00:28:54] Speaker A: Nice to have that break, though. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Got to do it. [00:28:56] Speaker A: But just how is the. From you guys being a cover band and playing at those little dingy dive bars where you just cut your teeth as a performer to now getting the travel opening for Midland Overseas and going on this John Party tour and the stuff with 49 and your own headlining stuff. Just how have you seen it evolve over the years of the way you and the guys are on stage? [00:29:17] Speaker B: Well, I think, you know, when I very first moved to town, moving to Nashville also, I mean, obviously, I think for everybody, it's fairly daunting in the beginning. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:29:26] Speaker B: But you never want to admit how daunting it is. You know, like, I didn't want to get to town and be like, oh, I'm kind of scared. [00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:35] Speaker B: You know, I wanted to get to town and be like, hey, I'm here. Like, let's go. And I tried that and I think it worked fairly enough. Like, it got me in enough doors and, you know, it definitely got me on some great tours and made some great friends. But this year I think the show has finally hit final evolution for me because I just, I have Stopped totally caring what everyone thinks about me all the time. Like, I walk on stage, I might be wearing boots. I might be wearing Converse. I. I might be dressed just like this. I might be dressed up. We might play a full rock set, we might play a full country set, but at the end of the day, the thing that I would do for free is play on stage for as much time as they'll give me with my band and have a blast. Yeah, it's all the travel and everything else is why we get paid. So for the thing that I would do for free, I don't. I don't want to do that for anyone but us. And we'll play some of the hits. Or we might play all the hits. Oh, we, you know, fuck it. We may play none of the hits. [00:30:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:48] Speaker B: You know, I always say, like, we always play Devil last. We always play fire the devil last in the set. And I always say, you know, you got to keep you guys here somehow. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yep. [00:30:56] Speaker B: You're gonna listen to all this other shit, and then we'll play the one that you really want. And I love playing Devil still, but, like, there's so much music. I mean, we got 66 songs out, and I want to play all. [00:31:04] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy to say out loud? You got 66 songs out and now you got this record coming, too. [00:31:09] Speaker B: I have 66 songs in five years. [00:31:11] Speaker A: It's not crazy, but you're thinking back to the. To the guy putting a dollar in your. In your tip bucket at that bar in Idaho being like, play Tennessee Whiskey to. Now you have 66 of your own songs, right? [00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah. No, and I mean, three years crazy when we. When we play headline shows. It's great because, I mean, like, I love opening and I love headline. It's. There's a totally different deal between the two of them, obviously. Headline shows are much more taxing, you know, and there's, you know, we go on these. We, you know, we go on these opening gigs. You know, like, with John, it's great, dude. We show up, everyone's super nice. We set up, you know, they. They're taking care of us. We got catering. Yeah, shit, life's good. [00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:54] Speaker B: But, you know, I only get to play for 30 minutes or so. And, you know, like, the other side of it, too. I mean, I. I will say this. We've only played two shows or three shows with John this year so far. Or four, I guess. I don't know. I can't count. But it has been so much fun. Him and his team are Amazing. So nice. I mean, and I can't believe the biggest one is that I can't believe we're on the tour. [00:32:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:19] Speaker B: Because I remember when we, when I went independent, I told my management, I'm like, dude, well, I mean, you know, like, we'll see how it goes this year. Independent, like, we're probably not going to get any industry looks this year. Which was followed by Stagecoach, Lollapalooza, John Party Tour Midland in Europe. [00:32:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:33] Speaker B: Like, you know, so all of a sudden now we're getting more industry looks than we ever have. But it is interesting, like when we walk out to open for John, it's Jake Worthington, John and us. I mean, Jake Worthington is country and cornbread. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Unbelievable. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's so good. I mean, geez. I mean, I. I love his stuff. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Yes. His. The fact you get to see his show. [00:32:55] Speaker B: Well, and I, I met Jake two years ago in Dallas in a parking lot opening for Luke. We both did the, the parking lot party. And so that's when I met him. First time. And this is the first time we're actually doing stuff together. But just phenomenal. And just the country music coming out of that guy is amazing. And then you got John, who's also super country music. You know, he's got fiddle and it's all swung and it's. And he's got great songs. That guy's got so many hits, man. Like, you know, every song he plays for two hours. And then there's us non radio, non down the middle. We walk on stage and it's like, okay, who's this guy? And then we start playing. They're like, what is this? But by about song four, you can see people looking around like, do we like this? Okay, I think we like this. Okay, okay. Okay. And then they start having fun. And it's good, but it's. It's a, It's a funny deal for sure. [00:33:45] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Because you being more in that Americana left of center space, which you do so well, and that lane is so vibrant right now where it's such a cool spot to be in. But you get put on these like mainstream country tours and you're like carrying the flag for the sub genre subset that you've kind of landed in. In your career. And you're getting to. What's it like opening for Talk about John, but like Midland, but then you get to go back to other left of center guys. Like the 49 guys. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, we've super lucky. I think it's. I Mean, I think part of our once again, it's a strength and a weakness, but, like, it's. It's really hard to pin a genre on us. Yeah, right. Like, because we have different things. I mean, I have folk records, I have rock records. I have straight down the middle, like, honky, rocking. And then we have like a, you know, like an Americana record that's even like kind of Americana leaning. Country. [00:34:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:39] Speaker B: You know, I don't even know what that means. Yeah, but we have all these different things, and so I think. But I. I do think the reason why we get on a lot of this stuff, and I could be wrong, which I've been wrong a lot, but I think it's because we got great songs. Like, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I. I like the music. I'll never release something that I don't like. So I think we got good songs and we. And I got a great band. [00:35:03] Speaker A: Yes. [00:35:04] Speaker B: You know, and I think those two things together make it a. You know, you listen, you know, hey, you want this guy to open? Sure. Listen to his music. All right. Music's pretty good. And then we get there and play, you know, I mean, we're no track, no clicks, like, we are live as hell. So if it's good, you're gonna hear it. If we up, you're gonna hear that too. I mean, that's just the way it is. But we try to keep it as, you know, as raw as possible. That's kind of our. Kind of our shtick. [00:35:30] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Just raw dogging it. Always just get after it and go out and play. So talk about now you've gotten to live out your. Your dreams of doing this music thing, but now talk about the exciting, exciting chapter of getting back into the outdoor space and personality and. And the show of getting out there like, it's fishing. Right. It's not. Hunting is a little bit of both or. [00:35:52] Speaker B: It's both. Yeah. So the. The last year we had, we were very, very fortunate to have some sponsors come on. And all of them were like, essentially in the fly fishing, duck hunting space. The first one to jump on was a company called Duck Camp, which I was a big fan of their stuff prior, but they specialize in just fly fishing and duck hunting. [00:36:17] Speaker A: Your two things. [00:36:18] Speaker B: Those are the two things. Yeah. My, my. The only three things I've ever been good at. Music, fly fishing, dot com. And so they come on and they just wanted to sponsor music. And I was like, yeah, it's awesome. And then I was like, oh, but I Could like, ever since I was a kid, you know, I grew up watching all these fly fishing videos and duck hunting videos. I mean, I was like, it was literally country music. And those two things, that was all I was consuming at all times. [00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:46] Speaker B: And those are also the only three things that I was doing ever, you know, and also back then, all three of those things were super lame. No one liked any three of those things back in, in the early 2000s. [00:36:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Like 2008, 2009. [00:37:00] Speaker B: Like, yeah, I mean, those are. That was my life. [00:37:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:03] Speaker B: And everyone was shooting deer and bass fishing and listening to like punk or, you know, top 40 pop or Nickelback, which I do like Nickelback. But there's like. All three of those things were super lame. I almost had to hide it, you know, to not get a swirly. But I. That was all I was doing. I was like, man, like, this sponsorship came in. I'm like, man, I could really. We could do this. Like, I could take this sponsorship and run with it, try to get some more on board and then we could make like, I could have my own fly fishing and duck hunting series. But I didn't want it to be just like your standard practice. Like, hey, look at us. Catching a lot of fish and killing a lot of things like that to me is not really what hunting and fishing is. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Yeah, you need that. It's all that extra stuff. [00:37:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's like the. Why you do it, you know, Like, I don't really do it to catch and kill. I do it because there's like a big element of like fooling nature. And there's like all these. I mean, there's a lot of time and knowledge spent doing this shit. So what I did is I said, you know what, we're going to tell the story of these guides and the outfitters. People use it every single day. And they never usually get to be the front facing thing on these shows. They usually have some host who would be me, who's like, hey, so can you tell me what I need to say on camera? And the guy's like, he's like, yeah. So anyway, it's 65 degrees here and like we got sun and blah, blah, and the fish are doing this and that. So I'm like, you know what, we'll just. I'm just gonna play client. I'm literally just gonna play a dumbass in the front of the boat. And these guides are going to be the main character and the support character is the resource, the area, the fish. And we're Just going to make little 8 to 10 minute docu series about these people and where they are, where they're from, what they do. And we're going to try and you know, just kind of show importance of conservation and you know, knowledge. [00:38:58] Speaker A: Dude, that's awesome. [00:38:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think you get. [00:39:01] Speaker A: To go so many places with that too. Like where all have you traveled? Like, I don't know how much you can tell us about what you've shot and whatnot, but. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Well, this year we, we with the fly fishing section of it, we've stayed obviously stateside just because we had to do it with tour, but we've been all through Montana. We did one episode in Idaho, we did Tennessee, Arkansas, Boston, Massachusetts. Oh, and then for duck hunting we'll stay stateside as well. But we'll be, you know, all around we're gonna do was Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas. So yeah, we'll be around. But then hopefully, you know, we can go do some saltwater fly fishing, like go down to Mexico, go to Belize, go to wherever we need to go. The Keys, you know. Well, I'm, I'm hoping this thing can just kind of take me. It. I just hope it takes me fishing and hunting. You know, that's my thing and I, I want to feature these people. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And you want to give something to the young, to the young guy that's. Young guy or girl that's into this stuff and give them something to watch. Like you watch those shows 20 years ago. [00:40:10] Speaker B: Well, yeah. And I think, I don't know, like in today's age, you know, it's kind of like anything it's. I've watched it happen with all three of the things I love most where between music, hunting and fishing, like all three of those things have gotten super popular, especially like in you know, the social media space and like short form content space. And there's not, there's so much within music, hunting and fishing that's very hard to convey in 15 to 30 seconds. [00:40:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:39] Speaker B: And it's, I think, you know, if you got in to fly fishing and duck hunting, to just catch and kill, you're already kind of missing the boat. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Because it's really hard to do those things correctly if that's the only goal. Like the easiest way for me to explain that I guess would be like when I was a guide, on my days off I'd go fishing, but I really wasn't fishing. I was going to find fish that I could put people on tomorrow. And so if I go in to this hole that I really want to bring someone to the next day, and I catch every fish in that hole, and I'm like, oh, yeah, they're in here, and I bring the guy the next day, those fish are not going to be as willing to eat because they just got absolutely slaughtered the day before. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:32] Speaker B: So what I would do is I would go in there and I cut the hooks off my flies, and I'd fish with no hooks, so they'd eat, and I wouldn't sting them or catch them or anything, but I'd know that they were there. And then I bring someone there the. [00:41:46] Speaker A: Next day with a hook, and they'd be happier. [00:41:49] Speaker B: Then you got to be able to put down the rod. You got to be able to not want to just catch and kill all the goddamn time. Like, half of the reason why I love duck hunting so much is just watching the birds work. Like, just getting them in. I mean, like, truly, like, I could basically never kill another duck goose in my life. If I was just running the blind, calling and getting them in and telling, like, letting everyone else shoot, that'd be totally fine. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Seeing the formation come in. [00:42:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, just. And you're talking to him the whole time, you know, like, it's awesome. But that's the. That I like, and that's the. That I feel like when you're getting into it, that's like, when it clicks of like, oh, I really like this. But it's not stacking bodies. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:28] Speaker B: You know, that's just. That's just stacking. [00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I've never been duck hunting or fly fishing, so it's, like, on the list. I've gotten offers about going duck hunting, so I'm like, one of these days, I'm gonna get out there. I feel like that's the. The good for. For somebody who's never been out hunting, I feel like duck hunting is, like, a good entry point because it's that commute. It sounds like it's a communal thing. Like, you hang out with your boys in the blind. [00:42:50] Speaker B: It is. Yeah. I mean, you're. You're sitting there. I mean, it's kind of like anything. Like, you're waiting for them to come in, and you're. You're stationary. So you're not hunting them so much. Like, you're not tracking them and like that. But there's a lot of work that goes into it. Like, you got to make sure that you're where they want to be, and then you put out the decoy spread, and then you start talking to. To them. And there's definitely certain sections of the day that are really hot, and then you're, like, waiting, and then it gets. You know, they fly on a cycle and whatnot. But, yeah, it's a. It's a. To me, people go duck hunting. They either love it or they hate it, because it's typically, like, really early morning where I'm from. It's usually really cold. But if you love it, it's, like, totally addicting. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I've heard, man. What are you hoping that people feel? And take away from this, your first concept record with Enjoy the Ride? [00:43:44] Speaker B: I mean, I just hope that, you know, when people listen to it, that my only goal for the songs ever is that so that they do what they are intended to do. That is. I mean, I think, as a songwriter, put the bar pretty low for what I want to do with songs. I just. I'm not trying to change the world. I just want to give people songs, and then if they decide they want to change the world, they can. And so, like, with this record, especially the way that I wrote it, is to essentially give people agency in their life to make sure that, you know, they feel that is. And it's also backed by this interview process. Right. So they feel that they're not alone. Everyone feels this way. Trust me. Yeah, I talked to them. This. This record was literally written by you, you know, and so it's the. It's. Hey, I can't. I can't tell everybody how I feel, but I can show. I can hold up a mirror and show people how they feel. So hopefully that is kind of the response. [00:44:51] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, that's got. It's cool, because I don't. I'm trying to think of another album that did that where it was, like, the crowdsourcing thing, where it's going out and actually talking to the consumer. Like, it's such a practical concept, but the fact that nobody, like, does it because you're. You're telling other people's stories, which is sick. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And I actually haven't thought about this. I don't know if I'm the first to ever do that, but that would be crazy if I was. I can't be. There's got to be something, like, in. [00:45:20] Speaker A: Our world of country music. [00:45:22] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. [00:45:24] Speaker A: Like, I feel like in. In the world of, like, indie stuff or like, crazy songwriters like Bob Dylan, like, people like that, I'm sure somewhere along the line, they did something well. [00:45:32] Speaker B: And, like, there's stories, you know, like, so Like Money for nothing. Yeah, Dire Straits. So, like, that song was written. He was just. He was in a. Like a Lowe's or like a Home Depot, like a department store situation. And he's like. You know how they have, like, the. The kitchenettes. Like the. The kitchen spaces that are up, but they're like, fake. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:53] Speaker B: You know, and so there's like a fridge and all this in there. And he's standing in the kitchenette, and there's a slide window above the sink, and it just looks into the TV department. And he's standing there looking through the window, and this guy's dropping off TVs to put up. And, like, on the big TV wall where all the TVs are, they're playing MTV. And it's like back in the heyday of MTV, right? So it's like all these rock stars playing, you know, and jamming out, and it's like the top music videos or whatever. And the delivery guy is like, man, like, I'm here delivering this. I should have done that. They get money for nothing chicks for free. And all the lyrics for money for nothing chicks for free is quotes from that guy. Every line. [00:46:38] Speaker A: Wow, I did not know that Mark. [00:46:40] Speaker B: Sitting there writing down every single thing this guy is saying about the guys on mtv. Like, dude, see that gets. Or see that guy. Yeah, that's the way you do it. That's, you know, play the guitar on the mtv. [00:46:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. [00:46:56] Speaker B: Every line is just this delivery dude. [00:46:58] Speaker A: For a generational song. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Yeah, Well, I mean, the thing is about that song, too. I mean, the lyrics are great, but that guitar riff. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So anyway. But, yeah, so, like, there's been songs, you know, that have been written that way. But I don't know. I mean, it could. I guess it could be the only record that's. That's been done that way. [00:47:16] Speaker A: But, yeah, what have been some. Some fan responses, because you go deep with a lot of your stuff, like if I Were the Devil, and you came out of the gate releasing music of having a lot of fun with your songs and something that people can drink a cold beer to with their friends. But also something where that guy or girl sitting in the room and thinking about what have been some, like, fan responses that you've gotten to your music over the years. [00:47:41] Speaker B: I mean, a lot. I mean, I think, you know, there are some songs that pull greater responses. Like something like Scared of the Dark. You know, that song is about mental health. I've lost a ton of friends to suicide, unfortunately. And so I wish I Would have written that song 10 years ago, but nonetheless, I'm happy it's out now. So, like, the response from that song is obviously much different than a response for, like, Moscow Drinking Team or Tom's, you know, And I think being diversified in the catalog is a good thing. I don't want to be doom and gloom all the time because I understand, you know, how grading that can be for a live show and a lot of other things. But, you know, I'm a guy who likes to have a good time. I. I try to think very thoughtfully about things. And so when it's time to write a song that I feel like something needs to be said, yeah, I'll write it. American Son, Scare of the Dark, if I Were the Devil, Playing God Again, so on. But there's plenty of time for, you know, start in the morning, welcome to Tom's. And even, like, personal triumph songs for me, like, Outlawed Me as a song I wrote about moving down to Nashville and feeling like I don't belong, but I have a seat at the table, you know. And like, I always thought it was such a big, like, when if I. The devil came out, every interview that I did and all these things, you know, they would. It was a big buzzword at the time. Everyone was talking about new age outlaw, New age outlaw, New age outlet, New age outlaw. And I just remember thinking it was such a joke. Like, I still think it is a joke. Like, do you think that if I were the devil is new age outlaw? You think I'm. I'm a fly fishing guide, bro. [00:49:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:39] Speaker B: Like, I'm not an outlaw. Like, and so there's a line in outlaw me that says, you know, who can tell me what's an outlaw? I'm not for sure. I'm not for certain. But I can tell you what, it ain't sound. It ain't hats, tats, sound, or in between. It's about not being wanted where you want to be. [00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:56] Speaker B: And I think, like, that to me is that's just me in general. Like, I don't think that it's, you know, I don't know what you want to consider anything these days, but I would say I'm more of like, a misfit or a degenerate or a trailblazer. You can. You can say a lot of things, but an outlaw? I don't think. So. [00:50:16] Speaker A: How do you deal with that? Do you get the senses of that identity crisis or that imposter syndrome at times? [00:50:23] Speaker B: No. [00:50:23] Speaker A: Some of the opportunities that you've gotten with describing Yourself in that way where it's like you're, you're an outsider, but you're here at the table. [00:50:31] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, I think, you know, no, I don't have imposter syndrome. I. The. I don't have like a. I don't have a personality that's different. I. I mean, I am me. [00:50:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Talking to you. I'm. When we're off air, I'm the same. [00:50:49] Speaker A: You're the same dude. [00:50:50] Speaker B: I walk on stage on the same. You know, maybe that is something that, you know, maybe that's something that I should have done is have a stage personality or whatever, but people want Colby Acuff. Well, no, the truth is I just can't do it. It. I can't. I have to be me. And so like, the only. A big fortunate thing for me is I know who I am. And I think, you know, this, this is where it's tough because I don't, I don't love. I guess speaking highly of myself, I'm usually like pretty self degrading. [00:51:27] Speaker A: That's what, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. [00:51:29] Speaker B: But I do think in, in, I'm willing to admit that I think we deserve to be. Be here. You know, I mean, I think, I mean, at least, I mean, I think we're just as deserving as anybody else. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:40] Speaker B: You know, like, I mean, we, we're pretty prolific in what we do and, you know, we try to do it a little different way. So. I mean, I think for, for that reasons, I do, I, I do think we're supposed to be here. [00:51:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:51] Speaker B: So I, I try not to like, you know, beat myself up. [00:51:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like more where you talk about. You don't know what genre, like how you would describe it to where you're. You're on tour with guys with radio hits, like. [00:52:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:52:02] Speaker A: It's where you have those moments or when you first come down there and you're like, I'm not the new new age outlaw. I'm Colby. [00:52:10] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. I mean, and that's. That's exactly it, right? Is. It's like we try not to take ourselves too seriously because if, you know, back in 2020, you got all these comments and shit that's like, dude, outlaw. And if I would have taken that to heart and created a new personality for myself, I'd be. I'd be an outlaw, dude. [00:52:31] Speaker A: Be completely different person. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Exactly. So I try, you know, it's like. Well, sure, like, I mean, to me it was a big compliment because I, I do Love, like, I love that Willy Whalen whole deal. But even Willie and Whalen hated that title because, dude, I mean, here's. At the end of the day, when you get started getting slapped with labels, typically, you never pick them. Like, you can't pick it. You can't pick your own nickname. [00:52:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:55] Speaker B: You're not going to pick your own label. [00:52:56] Speaker A: No. [00:52:57] Speaker B: You know, and so I think, you know, like, Bob Wills, great example. Bob Wills was like, we're playing jazz, and they slapped him with a country swing or Western swing. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:11] Speaker B: Like, Western swing was huge. He was super popular for Western swing. He was pissed about it. Waylon, Willie, they're playing country music. Slap with Outlaw. They hated it. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, they're like, we're country singers just like everybody else. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah. It's hard to claim your own thing, is what I'm saying. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:29] Speaker B: You know, and so I've never really been a big fan of that. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah. What are some goals for you? Obviously, this record coming out, you get the. The break that it sounds like is needed with. With the boys. Get the time with. With. With your. With your other half, with. With the family, with all that stuff. But what are some, like, big goals that we're trying to close out 2025 with? And what are we looking at for 26, man? [00:53:51] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, there's. I think, closing out 2025. I could not be more happy or surprised. I mean, we're one. We survived. [00:54:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:02] Speaker B: Which is just unbelievable. [00:54:04] Speaker A: I'd say you freaking thrived, man. Like, it was a big year for you guys. [00:54:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Everywhere. And a lot of tunes coming out. Seems like the. The business grew, like. [00:54:13] Speaker B: Totally. Yeah. [00:54:14] Speaker A: You guys are trying to do it. You took steps forward this year. [00:54:17] Speaker B: What's funny is it's. It's my first year back as being an independent, and it's my biggest streaming year I've had. Yeah. So it's. It's been good. But, yeah, I mean, we successfully played headline shows, and those went great. We successfully played Farewell Fest, Lollapalooza, Stagecoach. [00:54:35] Speaker A: Real quick to sidebar. How. What. What was Lollapalooza like? Because it. Those all genre things just sound like chaos. I haven't done many of them, but it just sounds like to walk me through you and the boys rolling up in the van, it was Lala Frickin Palooza in Chicago. Like, of all the scenarios, I'm like, that one's got to be a great story. [00:54:55] Speaker B: Okay. It is a great story because it's really funny and it. It's not quite the thing that you think it might be exactly what you think, to be honest. So we were super, super fortunate. We played the BMI stage. BMI picked us up to be the representation. And I was, I mean, it was awesome. I'd never played anything like this in my life. And you're right, like, it's all genre. Luke was a headliner there for the very first time. There's a country headliner. We. I got to watch that. Luke did amazing. Sarah Farrell did amazing. There was only, I think four country acts on our day. It was us, the Drop Tines, Sierra and Luke. Our set overlap with Gracie Abrams. Dude. So we show up and we are, I think we're, we're like direct or maybe headlining the BMI stage. I can't even remember at this point. We had like a later set though. Okay. So I'm like, dude, this is gonna be sick. [00:55:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:58] Speaker B: There's so many people there. It's gonna be awesome. No, prime time was for Gracie Abrams. [00:56:03] Speaker A: Well, I mean, prime time side stage. [00:56:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But I'm telling you, man, like we started and all I can hear is like the 80,000 people just, I mean they're, and they're not super close, but it's like 80,000 people down the way on the other main stage watching Gracie. And I can hear. I mean, it's like if there's 80,000 people there, I'd say 60,000 of them are, you know, 17 to 20 year old girls. I can just hear them screaming every word. I can hear them through my in ears. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Holy shit. [00:56:37] Speaker B: In fucking room mics. And they're like a half a mile away. And I'm like, oh God. So we step on stage, you know, we, we had a decent crowd, but it, you know, it wasn't like crazy. I was, it was an amazing experience to do it, but I love it because the one thing for us, the one thing that is consistent with our experience is we always have like this group. It's not the same guys, but it's like I can tell who the Colby Acre fan is in the crowd. And it's like, you know, we have, it's like usually something from like a, like a pipe welder to like, you know, it's any guy working kind of like that blue collar job. Like I, I always say, like, you know, the reason why I would still classify us as always being a country band, even though now I kind of say we play American music, but like we're a country band because we always represent the working class. [00:57:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:31] Speaker B: And I Think that is truly the definition of country music is you got to be there for the working class. And so the working class always shows up for us. You know, they're. They're there and they are very supportive. But I can always tell, like we walk out and it's like there's some girls in the front row. And I think they're probably there for the guy after us. Or maybe they're there for the guy before us. And they're kind of like, like, what the is this? And then you got, I don't know, like, probably a group of 30 guys. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:54] Speaker B: And they're just like, yes. [00:57:56] Speaker A: Hell yeah. Dude, how long me play bar with the devil? [00:58:00] Speaker B: I'm like, these are my guys. Yeah, I know exactly what you do. [00:58:03] Speaker A: Yes. You got a cold beer in your hand that you paid a lot of money for. [00:58:07] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:58:07] Speaker A: And you're gonna drink that beer and rock out with us. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So Lalo is. Lalo was super interesting for me. It was like, I mean, it was an incredible opportunity. Got to see a lot of things that we never get to see in our day to day, you know, it was, you know, it's even like when we walk into a country festival, you know, like, even if it's a main mainstream country festival, you know, I still feel like we're right in that groove. [00:58:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:58:31] Speaker B: Like, I'm like, man, we are going to go out there and people will love this because it's just raw enough. It just flips the bill a little bit. Or like we go play, you know, kind of a. More like Americana, like left a center fest. I mean, that's really up our alley. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Because that. We have fans there, you know, at that kind of thing. We have fans, the mainstream. We have some fans, but we're trying to make some more. At lala, I might as well been like George Washington, dude. I mean, like it was nobody but. [00:59:04] Speaker A: You know, but it had to be. It had to be just cool to kind of see like what's the vibe there overall? Because there's like arts and there too. Right. Like, those mainstream festivals are just all over the place. [00:59:15] Speaker B: I mean, it's 120,000 people. Like, I walked through it once and had a panic attack and had to go back. Like, it's. It's unbelievable amount of people. And the other thing that I realized too, I walked the festival one time before we played because I want to go see the stage and we were. Our green room was. I mean, it's a mile. Like it's. You got a cart everywhere. So I walked the whole thing. I walk all the way down to our stage. The whole time I'm walking, like, I'm starting to realize where I'm at. I mean, I just played three festivals, all country festival, big country festivals. It was Farewell Fest and Stagecoach were the big two. And I was like, okay, like, those, to me, they were big, but I could. The audience made sense to me because I. That's from my world. [01:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:02] Speaker B: Walking lala. I'm like, oh, God, I'm way over my head here. You know, it's. It looks like I grew up, you know, out west. It looked like Coachella. [01:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:12] Speaker B: You know, where I'm like, oh, yeah. I'm like, oh, God. Yeah, this is how this goes. But, yeah, you know, I mean, and. And overall too, like, it did go over really, really well. We had a pretty good crowd there. But, yeah, give myself a little less credit than, you know, I probably should, but it was funny just hearing all those people screaming for Gracie. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:31] Speaker B: It was so loud, dude. It's incredible. Good for her, dude. She crushed. [01:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. [01:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:35] Speaker A: 80, 000 people's wild. [01:00:37] Speaker B: It was nuts. [01:00:38] Speaker A: Or 120 in that whole festival, like, because you did a country concert with us this year. [01:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, correct. [01:00:43] Speaker A: The Raised Rowdy Camper Party. [01:00:45] Speaker B: That was great. [01:00:45] Speaker A: Which. That is like our. Our. That is the Raised Rowdy origin story. Was Nikki T. Circa 2012 going to that festival. That's how the whole thing started for us. [01:00:54] Speaker B: That was a fun one, man. [01:00:55] Speaker A: That was a really fun BYOB. Blue collar as hell. Kicking off the week. You old 60 Lakeview, Shelby Ray. That was a fun night, dude. [01:01:04] Speaker B: It was great. I had a blast. [01:01:06] Speaker A: It was raised as, man. It really was in Lakeview and the old 60 guys, like. And Shelby, it was like. [01:01:13] Speaker B: And that was actually the first time I got to hang out with old 6 year. [01:01:16] Speaker A: Really? First time surprises me because you guys are in like, a similar type of world where I'm like, I feel like you guys would have hung out and drank some beers or something beforehand. [01:01:25] Speaker B: You know how it goes. I mean, like, they're on the road. [01:01:27] Speaker A: You'Re on the road, Right. [01:01:29] Speaker B: Unless. And you know, I always say, like, unless you're on the road together. Hard to meet people, you know, it's just the reality. [01:01:34] Speaker A: What have been some of your, like, on the road or like, festival encounters where you've gotten to become like, boys. Like, who would you say? Or like your family, where you see their. You see they're on a festival and you and the boys are just grinning Being like, we can't wait to see these guys. [01:01:48] Speaker B: Oh. I mean it's a long list to be honest, but I'd say it's, you know, for sure. Anytime wrong with Luke, you know, Luke and his band, the Family. I mean That's. Yeah, that's family. 49 Winchester's family flatland Calvary is family. Charles, what's the Godwin? His family. I love being on with Laney as well. We've been really lucky. We got to start opening for Laney when she was doing like 2,000 cap rooms. We kind of, you know, built that relationship. So. Love it when Laney's on Caitlyn Butts, you know, in that anything in all. [01:02:17] Speaker A: Those artists, man, that's a great group of people, man. [01:02:20] Speaker B: And Muscadine as well. I gotta, yeah. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Make sure talented but also just great humans. Like the nicest people to be on the road with. [01:02:27] Speaker B: And dude, we've been so lucky. Like the people have treated us so well and there. And I can't, you know, we've opened. I always say, like we're kind of like playing all time opener for the last three years. We've opened for everybody. [01:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:38] Speaker B: You know, and we've made friends with damn near everybody. And if we didn't make friends with them, it was nothing short of just. We just didn't really get to hang. [01:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:46] Speaker B: And it's no fault to anyone but like we've been super fortunate to really make some amazing allies and friends and other creatives and just kind of, I don't know, have that family on the road that we can always rely on. [01:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah, man, it's so important. What's something that you would tell that. That guy. So you've been in town now, what you said like you came here what, four years ago? Three years ago. [01:03:14] Speaker B: This is my third year. [01:03:15] Speaker A: This is your third year. [01:03:16] Speaker B: Two and a little change. Yeah. [01:03:17] Speaker A: So you came out here when you were 25. So what would you tell that 25 year old kid that's saying it, I'm going to Nashville. Like knowing what you know now, having been through the journey, the, the ups and the downs, the success that you've seen, you've got to pour the damn world with some of your favorite bands. Like what would you tell that that kid that's leaving the, the guiding behind back in Idaho and coming down to Music City? [01:03:41] Speaker B: I mean, I would definitely tell him that, you know, you're making the right choice, you gotta go. But in reality, I don't know, I probably wouldn't say too much because there's so much that he hadn't experienced yet. You know, I didn't want to give it away. I don't know. I mean, I think. I don't really know if I've, you know, I'm sure, you know, I've made mistakes, obviously, but there's nothing that I regret. So I wouldn't, you know, tell him to change anything. I wouldn't tell him to do anything different. I think it's just, you know, go get them. [01:04:18] Speaker A: Go get him. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Keep going. [01:04:20] Speaker A: Go get him. Get after. [01:04:21] Speaker B: You're still doing it. That makes any sense. You're still doing it. [01:04:26] Speaker A: Still doing it. Well, you're. Me. [01:04:27] Speaker B: You're like almost 30. Yeah. No, we're still doing it. Oh, yeah. [01:04:34] Speaker A: Still doing it. How long have you had these. This rendition of your band? Is it still all the same guys from Idaho or. [01:04:42] Speaker B: I've had. I got. So my bass player is the only one that had changed from when we moved from Idaho. Yeah, he's from Idaho. He went to University of Idaho. He was an easy. You know, he was living in Portland at the time. But I mean, this I've had. This is my band. I've had this band from 2021. Like, when this band formed, it was the day I got done recording if I Were the Devil and I had to play a gig in Moscow. So I drove up from Boise. Who. The guy who recorded that record. The producer on that is my steel guitar player now. So, like, this. This has been the camp. This has been the thing forever. And we've never had, you know, any problems. They're a great group of guys. We don't take anything too seriously. We embrace the suck, you know? Yeah, I think. I think we just live for pain. We love it. [01:05:35] Speaker A: Glutton for punishment. I mean, we want to do this. [01:05:39] Speaker B: Try our best. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Just traveling around and making cool stuff with your boys, man. That's badass. Well, dude, I appreciate you so much for coming on here and. And hanging out, dude, absolutely. [01:05:49] Speaker B: Thanks for giving me the time, dude. [01:05:50] Speaker A: Of course. Like, you're. You're literally family. Like, when people talk about, like, artists that we've gotten. Gotten to see from early on that are out there killing it and living their dreams and doing cool. You're always one of the first guys we mentioned, right? [01:06:03] Speaker B: Because it's. [01:06:03] Speaker A: I remember first meeting you and hanging out with you at Red Door. I think it was your first time going to Red Door and like. Yeah, and. But now to see, like, to where you talk about how little you've been Home. And that's. That's what you want. Like, you want opportunities to go on the road and play music for people. You want opportunities to do guiding shows and put out records and do all this stuff, man. So it's so cool to watch you just. Just doing your damn thing. And you're the same guy that I met four years ago. [01:06:29] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. [01:06:30] Speaker A: You're still the same old Colby, and you always will be. And that's what. And that's what the fans love about you too, man. That's. That's how you build. Like, you talk about, like, the Muscadine fans or the Red Clay fans or the. Or the Charles Fans of the 49 fans or Luke fans. It's because it's. It's. They just. They grow with you. And I'm so excited to see how they react to this chapter of Enjoy the Ride. [01:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:52] Speaker A: I think it's going to take people on a different kind of journey. Where did the next project will be something different. Like, all your projects are just different chapters of the book, man. [01:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's always, you know, I mean, for me, I think, like, I'm an artist that I'd love to have 50 records, you know, for a lifetime. Like, it'd be awesome. I'm gonna try and put out a record every year forever. [01:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:10] Speaker B: You know, and so I don't know, like, I'm always excited for the next chapter as well. I'm excited to get this out. I am just, like, I'm so happy that we've been busy. You know, it's funny you bring that up. It's, you know, every job, you're gonna. About your job a little bit. I love my job. I wouldn't want to do anything else, but it is hard to. When you're busy. [01:07:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:30] Speaker B: And that is something that sometimes I got to keep in mind. [01:07:33] Speaker A: Hard to when you're busy. Those are words I'm gonna. I'm gonna remember that because that's same thing with us, where me and Nikki are going more. But it's like, hey, Nick, we. We could be. Think of anything else we could be doing. We're getting it. We're getting to be raised the raised rowdy guys for a living. Like, oh, way worse to be doing. [01:07:49] Speaker B: When I first moved down, I mean, I remember too, because it was like, you know, you guys were getting started. You had the podcast. Yes. And I remember because you just had gotten your. The. The beer sponsorship. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Yes. [01:08:01] Speaker B: And that was a Bud Light. [01:08:03] Speaker A: Huge deal. [01:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The Bud Light, dude. [01:08:05] Speaker A: Light everywhere. [01:08:06] Speaker B: We Just were drinking Bud Light. [01:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just unlimited Bud Light. [01:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. And. But I remember that, and I just remember, like, you. I mean, it's awesome because since I have moved to town, too, like, it has felt like everyone has grown together, which is awesome. And it's. No one's kind of, like, left anyone behind or, like, you know, it's. It's been ultimately always thankful for Raise Rowdy, you know, And I always tell people, too, like, we're at festivals and. Or you meet, like, a young fan, it's like, hey, I'm going. Going to Nashville for the first time. Like, you got any advice? I might get in with Raise Rowdy. If you can meet Matter Nick as fast as you possibly can, come check. [01:08:40] Speaker A: Us out at the local or at Odies. That's what we're doing the events now, so. [01:08:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Well, hey, I can't wait for everybody to check out this record. What do we know when the. When the. When the guiding show is, like, where we're at with that? Are there episodes out right now? [01:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, so we. We just dropped an episode last night. We have three episodes out. [01:09:00] Speaker A: Okay. [01:09:00] Speaker B: But there will be about 15 episodes this whole year. So there's a lot that's coming out. You can find it. Just go to Colby Acuff on YouTube and there's a playlist called Fin and Feather Feathers. What it's called. Go there and you can watch the three right now, and there'll be more coming out as we get going. When we. This fall, we'll release all the rest of the fly fishing ones, and then we'll start releasing the duck hunting ones. [01:09:22] Speaker A: So that's gonna be awesome. [01:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:23] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, dude. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Y' all be sure to go and check out Enjoy the Ride and check out Finn and Fish. Feather Fed and Feather Fit the Fin is the fish. Too many freaking F's. Fin and Feather. Enjoy the ride. Finn and Feather, our man Colby Acuff. Y' all go and check it out. Give him a follow and be on the lookout if you're going. If you're a fan of John Party, go check out one of the shows. You got a bunch of dates left with him, right? [01:09:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It's, like, all the way through October 18th, so check it out. I know. [01:09:50] Speaker A: And be on the lookout for where he'll be in 2026, because I'm sure you and the boys will be all over the damn place. [01:09:55] Speaker B: Oh, you know it. [01:09:56] Speaker A: It'll be something. But also shout out to our friends from Surfside Vodka lemonade, vodka iced tea, vodka green tea, no bubbles, no troubles. It is not a single seltzer. It is a Surfside sunshine again. We love you Surfside. Love you, Matt Quigley. Also shout out to check out the website raisedratty.com for more on us from Ann Colby. I'm Matt Brutal. This has been outside the round? I ain't never been the kind for still one place for too long? I never been the best. [01:10:28] Speaker B: I love. [01:10:29] Speaker A: You to a girl I love? Only got a couple tricks up my sleeve? They usually just make em leave? So if you know me, if you really know me? You know I'm just a two trick pony? But maybe the drinking and the lack of money for show? I'm just a two trick pony yeah.