Country Minute: James & Laura Shotwell

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Come on. [00:00:15] Speaker A: This is Outside the Round with Matt Burrill for Rage Rowdy Podcast. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Outside the Round. It is CMA Fest week. We are super excited, and we have got two of my favorite people. It's like a family reunion whenever big things happen here in Nashville because folks come in from all over the place. We got James. We got Laura. Country minute, Country Wrestling. We got the homies. How we feeling? We ready for a busy week. [00:00:40] Speaker B: I'm already losing my voice, dude. I was laying in a hotel bed last night thinking about you telling me about the losing your voice. I was like, this might be the only time I talk today. [00:00:49] Speaker C: Some vocal rest. He's just quietly sitting in the car, not doing anything. [00:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. It really is a marathon, not a sprint. And you guys hooked us up with some gifts. I got to talk about this right here. [00:00:59] Speaker C: Yes. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Where did you find this, man? [00:01:00] Speaker B: Tiny Vinyl is my favorite company right now. [00:01:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:03] Speaker B: These guys, a few months ago, they make four inch discs. It's actually from a guy who used to work for Funko. Started this company. [00:01:08] Speaker A: Really? [00:01:09] Speaker B: Yeah. They were trying to figure out how to get a vinyl inside of a Funko pop like box. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:14] Speaker B: And then they decided not to do it, but he liked it so much that he left and kept that idea. So there are Tiny Vinyl now. You can get these in Target everywhere. But when we met them, they gave us like a stack of these things. [00:01:22] Speaker C: Wow. [00:01:23] Speaker B: So I've. I've been slowly handing them out, but we gave Graham Barum one of these Florida Georgia line ones and he, like, lost his mind. [00:01:28] Speaker A: So. Yeah. I'm about to Lose My Mind plays [00:01:32] Speaker C: on a standard record player. [00:01:33] Speaker A: Really? [00:01:33] Speaker B: He's a 4 inch disc. [00:01:34] Speaker C: 4 inch disc. So you just set it on the smallest setting and it should work. [00:01:37] Speaker A: Let's go. Dude. I'm so excited right now. And talk about the hype. We'll get into the. Let's just get into this right here. This is number four of eight. So this is special. I'm one of eight to have one of these things. And you guys are from the great state of Michigan, which I love. Let me get this. Let me get this thing open real quick. My parents always would give me. Give me help for how I'd open Christmas. Just rip it like a banshee. This is. [00:02:03] Speaker B: This is something I think no one else is giving away these days. [00:02:06] Speaker A: No. And I'm so. Oh, my. Oh. And it's a good one too. It's like a quality grinder. [00:02:12] Speaker B: It's from China or wherever we got the. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah, wherever it came from. A factory somewhere around the world. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Sharp, dude. [00:02:18] Speaker A: The Country Minute Grinder. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Country music hits different. [00:02:21] Speaker A: I have one. I have wanted one of these since I saw you posting about them. Oh my God. It's got the keep chamber in the bottom. [00:02:28] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:29] Speaker B: So we bought these being like, this is gonna be such a cool thing to give people because. Yeah, cool little inside thing. And then it got harder to give them their people in person because you'd realize it never came up naturally to be like, hey, by the way, would [00:02:41] Speaker C: you, you know, I mean, is it cool for you? [00:02:43] Speaker B: Like, we got into this period where we were sending out gift boxes and so we would just like I'd be listening to a band and be like, it seems like they would like one of these. So like we'd send it out and then I'll get a DM that'll be like, I use this every day. Like, okay. I never expect them to post it. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Who are some of. Who are some of my. My grinder, My family. Country Minute Grinder. [00:02:59] Speaker B: Bonner. We both know Bonner. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Yes. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Bonner has one. The band Lula has one. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Oh, perfect. [00:03:04] Speaker B: I love the band Lula. [00:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they're awesome favorites. [00:03:06] Speaker B: We've sent a few others out. We'll keep them. Keep quiet. Cuz some people gave them to people. Sometimes we give them to artists that we like and we'll be like, I know that you don't want this, but someone on the crew will take it will be. [00:03:15] Speaker A: It will be on the road with you and your country and country music will be hitting different with you. [00:03:21] Speaker B: And when they were going to do tariffs last year, we were thinking about this and I was like, I have to order these before tariffs drop because they're like $20 a piece. And so I was like, I can't afford the tariff on these for them as is. [00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. This is, I am so happy this is going right. And it's funny, like me being a California sober guy. It's like a lot of people have like their, their bar carts or like all their bottles and stuff. I have a cabinet in my kitchen and it strains from all the different places that I've gone to. So like, I've got some Michigan stuff, I've got some South Dakota stuff, some Northeastern stuff, some Illinois stuff, Colorado stuff. And I have like my little, my little pieces and everything. This is going to go right on the shelf. I'm so excited. [00:03:59] Speaker C: Trophy piece. [00:04:00] Speaker A: Oh, we will, we will be. We will be using this at Festivals, [00:04:03] Speaker B: but we'll never make them black again either. So. [00:04:05] Speaker C: No. So you get. You got a limited. [00:04:07] Speaker A: Limited edition and this 4 inch FGL. And this is a big time for us FGL fans. Like, the three of us have been waiting for this period of time. And just talk about your thoughts of why it is 2026, like, why now, and just what you're thinking of the FGL LFG that we're seeing. [00:04:27] Speaker B: If you want to get real technical, I think that it's like in 2008, when we had the economic problems back then, that's kind of what birthed bro country. Right? Like, there's this escapism that happens when life gets hard. Life's pretty hard right now. And like, I feel that that will bring us back. Yeah. Also, as secretly, I have always wanted to hear the demo of Anything Goes. Everyone in country music tells me it's the coolest thing they've ever heard. So this era makes me hope that at least we'll get like a deluxe edition and they'll be like, here's those demos. Here's those early things. Cuz, like, maybe they have songs. I don't think they do. But let's talk about. They did just update their profile picture with FGL lfg. And my first thought was, what a song that would be. Like if they just called a song lfg or just put that on a shirt for me. I'll buy that. [00:05:06] Speaker C: FGL lfg. It's like, it's genius. Let's go. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah, let's go. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Let's go. [00:05:12] Speaker A: And the hint of Spotify House this week. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Spotify House, Yeah. So we saw them at CRS when they reunited. [00:05:17] Speaker A: Yep. [00:05:17] Speaker B: And I screamed the way you probably think Laura screams. [00:05:19] Speaker C: We jumped and screamed like it was a Backstreet Boys concert. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I Yelped. I'll Yelp. It was pretty good. And then I tried not to because I was trying to make the video, but my hand was like, that's the worst. [00:05:29] Speaker A: It's like, man, I want to record this song on video. But I'm so excited and I'm singing. [00:05:34] Speaker B: Enjoy it. [00:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I want. I'm at the concert. Like, I want to rock out. Like, I ran into that with Treaty Oak. Is this. This past weekend where I'm like, I gotta get Treaty Oak videos. I gotta get Treaty Oak content, but I want to sing every word. And FGL reuniting at that Aldean number one event, like, was definitely. I'm sure one of the. That one. [00:05:50] Speaker B: And Travis Trick came out that night did Night Train. That was another one where I was like, that's Travis Tritt doing. And Alabama was there. [00:05:57] Speaker C: Well, that was a crazy night, too, because we went to this party having no idea what it was going to be because it was just question marks. We walk in and we're like, what do you mean, Jason Aldean party? What do you mean? Florida George? Like, it was. [00:06:06] Speaker B: I never even thought of Florida Georgia Line, even when we were sitting there watching it. And then they're like, one more guest. And I was like, there's no way. There's just. And they started, like, reading off the things about them because they were like, they haven't been on stage together in four years. And I was like, there's no way. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:19] Speaker B: And the best part was, is our buddy Chase Matthew, who you know as well. [00:06:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:22] Speaker B: He had sent us a text to meet him somewhere else that night, and we had went to that place and he wasn't there. And so I'd been like, man, where's Chase? He's. Maybe he stood us up. I'm texting him. Where is he? He doesn't text me back, but I get, like, a notification that he's updated his story, and it's him with his arms around BK and Tyler, and I'm texting him, like, what do you mean? Why did you send us somewhere else, bro? You were going to the real party. [00:06:41] Speaker C: We were friends. Best friends. [00:06:43] Speaker B: I've been to your house. [00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:45] Speaker B: I met your dad. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Yes. [00:06:48] Speaker B: We'll get there, though. We get there, though. You know what? It's like, you. You tell people that you like someone in this town. Everyone's like, oh, you haven't met them yet. And you're like, why would I ever be in the same room as Luke Combs or something? [00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Why do you think I know them? That happened with Graham recently. He was like, t hub would like you guys. And I was like, that's cool. Can you. [00:07:02] Speaker C: Can you text him or can you let him know? [00:07:05] Speaker A: Can you facilitate? Can you be the middleman? Like, come on, Graham. No. [00:07:08] Speaker B: But when it happens, you're gonna. It's gonna be great for him. [00:07:10] Speaker A: It's gonna be great. Yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker A: That's awesome. So I want to back up to kind of the start of getting into country minute and where this idea came from. And watching Yalls content has become one of my favorite things. And I love the new music stuff, the trends, and getting it truly from a fan perspective. So walk me through how this all came to be. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Well, I guess I credit Laura at the end of the day. But really, I was working in music. Well, I was. I started in alternative music, right? So when I was 16 years old, I opened my own venue in my hometown of, like, 1500 people. I use the city budget to do it. And I was working. I was on Warped Tour as a tour manager. I mean, I'd done everything you can do. Wow. Yeah. So I'd done the things. [00:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:50] Speaker B: I worked in magazines. And then, you know, there's this thing that happens in alternative music after you hit 30 where it gets really. It starts to get weird. Like, everyone's 19 to 20 years old in a band, or you're like, all your friends have been headlining for 10 years straight, and everyone's kind of like, where are we going from here? You know what I mean? I remember I used to get to the point where I would meet up with our friends and, like, bands, like, Sleeping With Sirens and stuff. And the conversation went from like, where's the party? To like, do you guys have health insurance? [00:08:14] Speaker A: Can you guys. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Are. [00:08:14] Speaker A: We turned into adulting? [00:08:16] Speaker B: We're adulting on the road now. Like, it's not a party anymore. And I was like, it's kind of weird. I don't. And it didn't fit me anymore. And I was speaking at Music Biz, a conference here in Nashville four years ago now, and I went to dinner with Dustin from Venture Media Group and a few other people. And I had just been kicking around the idea to start a TikTok. I'd never made one. And I was like, have you ever seen anyone talk about country music as news on TikTok? And everyone said no. And I was just like, is my idea because it's like a national meeting. I was like, yeah, shut up. I called this. It's mine. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:45] Speaker B: So I went home and, like, made a video about Ashley Gorely because he's my favorite songwriter. And it took off. And Laura, I was like, remember being like, oh, I got 100,000 views? And Laura was like, who was making content? Was like, that's not usual. You shouldn't. [00:08:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, I'm like, I got a thousand, and I'm pretty amped. What do you mean, you got 100? [00:09:01] Speaker A: We get to four digits, we're happy. [00:09:04] Speaker B: She was like, that doesn't happen. She's like. Like, okay, sure. And, like, the next two or three also did that. And she was like, I think you might be on to something. And I was working in marketing at an old theater at the time, and that place went out of business, basically. But the night before, we had seen Morgan Wallen on, like, they had sent us there for the first time in a stadium. He dapped me up in the middle of the show and we left. And the next morning I got a call from my co worker that's like, I think we're all getting fired today. And I was like, okay, that's cool. And we literally drove from the concert to my office and I got fired. Like, let go. And on the way home, Laura was like, I guess you're doing this now. She never doubted it, never questioned. It was like, this is what you're doing now. And three years later, I'm still doing it. And she's slowly but surely become more and more involved because she was in radio full time when that. When I was doing this, and now she's out of that. So we've just slowly kind of been working her into the fold more. But there's not been a day it hasn't been the two of us. [00:09:52] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love that. [00:09:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:55] Speaker A: And talk about your, your background in radio and kind of how that factors into all this, because country radio is a huge part of our ecosystem. [00:10:02] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I spent 20 years in radio of all kinds. You know, I started off in college and then and worked my way into rock radio for a long time. I was a classic rock DJ for almost 10 years. [00:10:14] Speaker A: Such a fun format. [00:10:15] Speaker C: The best format. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Such a fun format. [00:10:18] Speaker C: So much fun doing that T shirt cannons, the whole nine yards. I was the first female number one radio DJ in Louisville history. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Wow. [00:10:27] Speaker C: There's no one had ever really given a female a solo show like that before. I had, and I kind of just took off, had a big moment there. But then, you know, I. I kind of gotten to a point where I was just, I. I kind of hit a glass ceiling with what I wanted to do and how I wanted to grow. And I, I loved my time with radio and all of that, but it kind of got to a point where it's like, I want to do a lot of stuff that we're not seeing eye to eye on which direction to go. And, you know, James and I have been growing this so much. So it's like that background of knowing a lot about music and how to sell music and also just, you know, being a fan of it and having that crazy encyclopedia type knowledge is kind of folded all into this to. To help with country Meta. And I don't know, I just, I've always been a content creator in some form. It's kind of fun to Just get to do it about the things I really am passionate about and not the things that they tell me to be passionate. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Isn't that great? Because I. I came. I came to this town wanting to be on the radio because that's what I started calling college radio and doing that. And then I was working for an adult cluster that had Jersey Shore rock. [00:11:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:27] Speaker A: Like, it was called the Rat, and it was like their events were, like, promo events popping up at, like, a strip club or, like, very Jersey Shore. [00:11:35] Speaker B: Like, absolutely. [00:11:36] Speaker A: The Rat. You know, I did modern rock. [00:11:39] Speaker C: It's very similar. [00:11:40] Speaker A: Yes. You get it. [00:11:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:41] Speaker A: And then so we had a couple rock stations and oldies station, and then I was on the adult contemporary station. So it was today's hits, Yesterday's favorites, Magic 98.3. End up doing that. And it was like, I wanted to get, like, really full into country because my college show was country and took the jump down here, and I tried to get a job down here, and it just didn't work. But it led me to where I'm at now, where it's like, I get to do this and create, like you said, the content that you want to create and do the things that you really want to do, as opposed to a PD or an operations manager or whatever telling you, hey, we got to do this. Hey, ratings. Ratings look like they're going to go up if you do this or. [00:12:20] Speaker C: Or if you pretend to give away this money or whatever. Well, there was a lot of. The radio really was such a great beacon when I started, and it's kind of starting to whittle down in a way where it's like, there's a lot of people trying their best. There's a lot of really great people out there making good things, but there's also a very shortage of people doing it, too. And so when you're wearing eight hats, it gets to a point where you're just. Yeah, you're losing a lot of the. The sparkle. And I just. I. I can't wait till they figure it out again. [00:12:48] Speaker A: That's. [00:12:48] Speaker C: That's my hopes, you know, until they figure out how to give people that space to sparkle. [00:12:52] Speaker A: And it's. And it's a thing. You do it for the love of the game kind of thing. [00:12:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker A: You know, you. It's a job that you do. Same thing with. With your venue and music promotion. You do it because you love it, and music makes you feel something, and you want to tell people about music that you love and find other people that love the music that you Love, I think. [00:13:10] Speaker B: I think I came to CRS before. Why? Definitely came to Saras before we got did this. And I remember the first time I left being like, oh, country music is so much different than alternative. Like, I remember, like, I. Sometimes I meet country artists who'll be like, it's a hard time finding ten grand to record. And I'm like, I know people who would, like, do such things for $10,000. You know what I mean? Like, I world from, like, if you have $1,000, we're like, you're getting an EP out of this money. You know what I mean? Like, I remember being a serious me. [00:13:33] Speaker A: Like, what. [00:13:33] Speaker B: They treat music here so much more respectfully and, like, it felt like people were really hungry about it. But there was still that disconnect frustration of like, you seem to know where it's going, but you won't go that direction or won't commit to it fully. But I'm like, you where I. We still talk about radio as if it's the thing. Maybe not what we want to do, but when people are like, what are you trying to do here? I only can be like, I don't know. Cody Allen, Bobby Bones. Yeah. There are only so many examples. So we still reference radio is like. I mean, that's still kind of the gold standard of what we're trying to do, just in our own way. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So you talk about that Ashley Gorely video blowing up. When did the first video blow up under the brand of Country Minute? Like, when did you really start to see the motor running? [00:14:13] Speaker B: I don't even remember how we came up with Country Minute, honestly, other than the fact. [00:14:16] Speaker A: Genius name, by the way. [00:14:17] Speaker B: I think it was just that when it monetized, it was on TikTok. [00:14:21] Speaker C: I think at TikTok at the time, you could only make videos that were, like, up to a minute. So the idea was that it was a minute of country, and then eventually they added five and ten minutes, and then it was like, well, now it's just kind of. [00:14:32] Speaker B: We needed to hit a minute to monetize. Once we did monetize, the name worked because it was like, it's a minute of content. Because I need that much. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And I like that. I like that it's a minute is like the time duration of it, because everyone's attention span is so short. I think that's part of where radio. It's a different thing than it was years ago. And it's like, if you advertise that something's only a minute long or Someone sees the duration of a short form clips only a minute, they're going to be more likely to watch the whole thing. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think the metaphor works, too, of just like, in, like, the idea of a country mile, a country minute. It can be as long as it needs to be. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:07] Speaker B: But it feels short because you're with friends. That's kind of where we're going with it. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Who were some of the early adopters on the artist side? [00:15:13] Speaker B: Chase. Matthew. [00:15:14] Speaker A: Chase. [00:15:15] Speaker C: Chase. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Chase. I like Chase. Before we started, I was a fan. Like, I was already a fan of country, obviously, but I had been, like, writing about Chase before he popped a little bit. And I didn't know how to meet him. I didn't realize I had been emailing with him. I think he was like one of those people that pretended to be his own manager. [00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:27] Speaker B: Like, I represent Chase, and you meet him, you're like, that's just you. You're that guy. [00:15:30] Speaker C: You're that guy. [00:15:31] Speaker B: So Chase was an early one. Who else? I think Lee Bryce was one of the first people we got to meet. He was the first guy who was, like, willing to meet us because we email people and they'd be like, what is it? And like, oh, I make tiktoks. He doesn't dance. And I'm like, I don't either. It's fine. We don't do that. [00:15:44] Speaker C: Same with Trey Lewis. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Trey Lewis. He's the first people to give us, like, a. Let us come out to a show and, like, hang out. Like, really? [00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Which I love that he told that story last night. [00:15:53] Speaker B: He didn't tell it as good as it really is, though my version of that story is slightly. [00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah, well, tell. Tell me the version. [00:15:58] Speaker B: So my version that we asked to see Trey, which is true. All of it's true. He said that we asked to come do an interview, and they agreed, but they lumped us in with the meet and greet for the night. But for that night, only two kids had showed up to the meet and greet for him. So we go downstairs and there's a couple, and it's very clearly that the boy loved Dick down in Dallas. And the girl did not care that she was seeing Trey Lewis. And so it's just the two of us. And I was waiting for more people to come, but it was just them. And then us and Trey comes in, and of course he's like, so, you guys got any questions? And she does not. And Laura's looking at me. So then I just started. I just made it an interview. Then I was like, all right, well, let's talk about some of the other songs. Like, things you would never ask. And, like, yeah, I'm like, going immediately 12 miles deep down the road with him, and he's like, oh, okay. He answers the question. He goes, well, I actually wrote this thing for Cole Swindell. Do you want to play? So then he played, like, three feet tall for us and stuff, and played. I think he played the sequel to Dick down in Dallas, too. [00:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:48] Speaker B: At that point, he was like, I got this other one, which made me cry. Wasn't cool. There's also kind of just that infant, because it was like, one more person that's here with us right now, basically. And we'd never met him before, and he was playing songs for us. And that guy's good at eye contact. So, yes, I felt out of place. But it was also a really good learning lesson for us because it was not well done. But when we left, we're like, okay, now I know how to. I want this to go. Yeah, but you know what? It's like sometimes you get back there and it. I always tell Laura, it's like, it's going to depend on how the vibe is. Like, do we get along all about the vibe? Because sometimes we sit down and there really is. We are somewhere recently, and we were walking back to do an interview, and the person goes, so you need five minutes. I was like, five minutes. Like, in my head, I was like, is that what. I don't. What do you have that's like, hello, how's your day going? Or. Or sometimes people just. We start talking in my head. I'm like, this is not going well. Like, we are not. We would not be bros if we met outside of this situation. And I feel like that translates especially because people know us so well that I try to be like, all right, let's get out of here. Let's. Let's go. Have time. [00:17:46] Speaker C: There's times, too. Then we get people like Nate Smith, who we. We have no idea how we're going to go into it. We were even nervous going into it. He's like, I'm going to get tattoo. You guys are going to hang from, and you're staying with. [00:17:55] Speaker A: With our buddy Mike Stole, by the way. We've known Mike forever. [00:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah. We just met Mike for the first time. [00:17:59] Speaker A: We're going to get. [00:18:00] Speaker C: We got to get something done by him because he's amazing. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah, he's my. I only have my. My little. My little sobriety day right here. That's Mike. That was Mike at Raise Rowdy Summer Camp, which, if we had known each other back then, y' all would have been there. So it was during the COVID days when festivals weren't happening. Nikki T. And his friends were like, hey, let's do. Let's throw our own little festival. Let's get, like, 40 people together in a campground in western Pennsylvania or eastern Ohio. We all chip in, pay some artists from Nashville to come up and play acoustic, and we tent camp like we're at a festival. And so this was At Summer Camp 2 in eastern Ohio, and Mike was there. There's a ton of people that have Razor Audi tattoos on their ass from that weekend, But I. I just. I just ended up with the sobriety date. But, yeah, you got to bring it back. [00:18:45] Speaker C: You got to bring it back. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, summer camp was. That was a fun thing. It was like Hannah Dasher and, like, Casey Tindall, Styles Hrey, Ryan Nelson. Like, it was a fun group of people. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I was like, that would be a fun lineup. [00:18:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it was fun. And it was just. Everybody just hanging out, chipping in for the food, and our buddy Chef Dave grilling up on the Blackstone, and everybody hanging out, staying up way too late, just jamming the songs on a little JBL on a JBL speaker that was plugged in. [00:19:11] Speaker C: Just a big group camp. [00:19:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was like a. It was like a big. A big camp of, like, all the Razor Audi folks that day. [00:19:17] Speaker B: That's the dream. That is the dream. I feel like that's what we're working towards. Right. If you asked me, I'd like all these people in one room would be cool. [00:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you guys see, like, the. The country minute, like, crew, like, because you guys are very involved with. With your home market being right there in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and anything really, in, like, that Michigan area. But have you started to build like, that folks coming out to shows where you see a lot of the same people? [00:19:40] Speaker B: Sometimes we have a few people in Grand Rapids especially, but it's more when we travel. So there are artists that I would say bring out our community, like Morgan Wallen. We can't go to a Morgan Wallen show without getting stopped a bunch. [00:19:50] Speaker C: Yeah. It's crazy difference. [00:19:52] Speaker A: And that promo, like, the countdown that you guys did was freaking genius. [00:19:56] Speaker B: We got a lot of clips of Morgan Wallen. [00:19:58] Speaker C: We got a lot more. [00:20:00] Speaker B: Up until we had our. Our son, he was probably the person other than each other in our phone the most. So, like, putting that to work is a good thing. But also we found that, like, his audience. I think his audience is really misunderstood by people outside of it, but they are some of the most welcoming and diverse group of country fans you'll ever meet. And they love it. They love it so deeply. And that's what I always looking for, because I like. We go to a lot of shows with the intention of treating them the way we treat Morgan Wallen or Ella Langley, where it's like, I'm out front, we're talking to the first in line, and we start talking to people, and we are immediately like, oh, they do not want. [00:20:31] Speaker C: They don't. [00:20:31] Speaker B: We're not. We're not playing this game. [00:20:32] Speaker C: They're not here for a good time. Like, we're just not. [00:20:35] Speaker B: We're. Sometimes, I won't say who because it's not nice, but we. We went to. We've been to a couple of events where the show wasn't great. So when we left and we're like, let's do the man on the street stuff, everyone was like, you could tell that. You're like, oh, we didn't have a good time tonight. Yeah. The vibe was not like, this was great. [00:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:20:50] Speaker B: But we're doing a little bit better these days. People are a lot more welcoming. I think, in Grand Rapids, we're getting there. We have a partnership with basically every venue, and we have that benefit of not living here, which hurts us sometimes. But when artists come through Michigan, we're getting to the point now where they're like, oh, yeah, we're there. [00:21:03] Speaker A: See, I. I. Part of me misses when I didn't live here, you know, like, not being outside of it, because it makes. When you're in town, people really want to see you. And there's that stuff. You're also not fully behind the curtain, and sometimes you fly a little too close to the sun, and you meet. They say, don't meet your heroes, and sometimes it's great, and you meet your hero. Then you meet the Luke Combs or the Morgans or the Ellas or whatever, and they're the Trays or the Chases, and they're awesome. And then sometimes you. You see, you're. You become part of the bureaucracy, you know, which is kind of where Nick and I are at, because it's like Nick was going to a ton of club shows and going to festivals and stuff. I was doing the same thing. I remember driving seven, eight hours, like, frequently to go and see Brantley Gilbert in, like, Maine or Western Pennsylvania or Virginia or wherever, and it's like, there is a Power. You can be more editorial tutorial when you're out of town. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. Yeah. But also then when. But the reverse of that is when they go like, hey, we need somebody to do this. We're never on that list. You know what I mean? [00:22:06] Speaker C: Or like, skipped over a lot. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Or like, they flew me out to this place to do some award show. And you're like, they're never. They're not calling Grand Rapids to be like, you want to meet us in [00:22:13] Speaker C: Vegas even though it's the same flight. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:18] Speaker C: Like, it's hello. [00:22:19] Speaker B: We are actually. I mean, not to change subjects, but that is what we are in town this week kind of thinking about is if we move down here or not. [00:22:25] Speaker A: At this point, it was one of the better decisions that I've made in my life. And granted, I came from New York, so it's like. And I got down here right before COVID hit. So my life was the experience that I had and the experience that my family and friends had during COVID Very different. [00:22:39] Speaker B: Yes. [00:22:40] Speaker A: My Covid was hanging out with Trey and going to raise Rowdy summer camp and meeting Nikki T. And meeting Ella and like, building those friendships. When the bars closed at 9 or 10 o' clock and then we'd have bonfires and songs like Dick down in Dallas were getting. We're getting played like sitting around the fire. Nobody knew what it was in like July, August of 2020, you know, and it's that. That it was that fellowship time. But I mean, yeah, there is something in me because it is such a town of creatives, you know, like everybody here feels about country music for the most part, like you two do. [00:23:11] Speaker B: There is something that I found. I was thinking about it last night. I don't know if this is what it's always like at ODIs when you're. We're at your event. But there is this thing like where we live, let's say, like a Mad Metcalf. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:20] Speaker B: I love that song. I can be the. I can feel like the only person in Grand Rapids who knows that song or loves it. And I love it so deeply. We share it in Nashville. It's always humbling to me. I know it's humbling for there. It's humbling for me too. When I come down here and I see someone like that perform and I'm like, could you be quiet like the [00:23:33] Speaker A: rest of the bar? [00:23:34] Speaker C: Do you even understand where we live? [00:23:36] Speaker B: People would murder to see this. [00:23:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:38] Speaker A: And it's. You have different rooms, have different aesthetics here. There's so much live music here. Like, you go down on Broadway, there's a reason there's not a lot of originals there, unless it's in the full band setting, which Ward does with Whiskey Jam and he's the Godfather. And we love. We love Ward and we love Whiskey Jam, but it's like in Midtown, it's. You have to. You have to have this power as an artist or as a songwriter where you shut the bar up. And when we see that, because we do the acoustic writers round. See, like what you guys saw last night was that hybrid of the rounds and then the. The five song, like full band or acoustic sets and the rounds. I mean, there's some people that'll have like a hit song and they'll get talked over. And then you have a girl like, like, it's funny. It's usually the females that do it that can command the room, which is awesome. Like Joy Beth Taylor, who's everybody knows as. As Ella's big co writer. And she's got cuts with all kinds of people. But even like four or five years ago, before she had her name out there and before she had signed her publishing deal, she would, in her soft spoken voice, like, the room would just shut up and dial in on her. You know, like, the bar would be loud. Like, we'd have hundreds of people in the old live oak and JB would get the room to be quiet. And it's like just this power. [00:24:52] Speaker B: See, I dream of the. Seeing being there for those moments. But sometimes it's an advantage for us to just like a song because we like it organic. I think for what we do, it's better because if I was in those rooms, I would just lean into what everyone. [00:25:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I would just immediately be like, [00:25:04] Speaker B: that is the thing. That's the thing that we're all going to talk about before we are. I can talk about it. And then I almost. I'm going to start texting you. Being like, how loud are they when this person plays. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Am I hyping this up too much or are they shutting down? [00:25:15] Speaker A: But it's also too. It's like some people become Nashville famous and have all this buzz in town, but if they're not vibing with it in a market like Grand Rapids, Michigan, or Dubuque, Iowa, or Hoboken, New Jersey, or wherever outside of Nashville, it's like, how. How many. How much legs is it going to have? Like, selling tickets is so hard right now, but if you don't have an audience outside of talent, you could have all the Industry love you. It doesn't mean it's going to work. Yeah, you need the fans, you need the folks like yourselves like that really dig it for it to truly work. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Yeah. I find it's easiest for me to talk about it and make content. Content that I like if I haven't been that exposed to it. That's. I like the distance that we have. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Because that's coming from like that pure soul where I'm just like, yeah, I just like this. And it's not because I have access to it. I just enjoy it. But I. We still are like, should we move here every time we. Like this week became let's get there on Wednesday to let's get there on Sunday. And it just keeps doing that. We keep being here longer and longer, [00:26:09] Speaker C: and now people want us to stay longer on the back end. And we're like, if we just lived here, it wouldn't be such a. [00:26:14] Speaker B: But whatever. But we would miss being the belle of the ball when it came to. [00:26:18] Speaker C: That's true. [00:26:18] Speaker B: You know what I mean? If we just started showing up at Rowdy on the Row every week, you would not be as excited that we walked in the door, oh, they're here. [00:26:24] Speaker A: Oh, I'd be. I'd be very excited you guys were there. And then we could go and smoke cigars and hang out and. And kick it and have lunch and talk about artists and talk about, hey, I got this girl playing or I got this guy playing. Check them out. And. And there. There. Is that. That power to it as well. [00:26:39] Speaker B: The hang power is pretty. [00:26:40] Speaker C: Well, they just FaceTime us in for now. Just set us on the table. We'll hang out in Michigan. [00:26:46] Speaker A: I'll have Ike run a live feed for you. Gu. [00:26:49] Speaker C: We'll sit there and clap quietly. They'll know, you know, it'll be great. [00:26:53] Speaker A: Yeah. What have those. What I gotta ask, because I haven't seen a Morgan show since he did St. Patrick's Day. He played at Bridgestone, like 2021 or 2022. So it's been years for me since I've seen him. What have those shows been like? Because you all come from that rock background. Like Warped Tour, big time classic rock shows, big time modern rock shows. Like. Like, at what level is it at with, like, some of the bigger shows you guys have been to? [00:27:19] Speaker B: It's. It's. It's top tier, I would say. I mean, we've seen everyone from AC DC to Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. [00:27:25] Speaker C: I've seen it all. [00:27:26] Speaker B: I would say that. I mean, you're never gonna be the Arrows Tour necessarily. No, this tour is right up there in terms of, like, how much he's doing. [00:27:34] Speaker C: Yeah, obviously there's just so much production and it's so on the rails in a good way. Like, on the rails could sometimes be like a guy. It's the same thing over and over, but. But I think Morgan Wallen is having more fun at his concerts than anyone else. And it translates from that to the three story tall pyro. So, like, if you're anywhere in the first half of the stadium, you. You do need to wear short sleeves because it is going to be hot. It's crazy how hot those flames are when they go up and then just the fireworks. It's still. I'm in awe of it every single time. And I've seen it four, five times this year. [00:28:08] Speaker B: And so on the rails as it is, he's not on the rails. So the beauty of his live show is that he doesn't have anything that's choreographed on his part necessarily, other than one part in up down where he, Gavin and whoever else is opening are like at the end of the platform doing their little. [00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:23] Speaker B: Thing that they do every night. Other than that he's not walking the same path. He's not doing that every night. And it's fun just to kind of watch people react to him. Like, at this point, I watch the crowd as much as I'm watching him. I just like to look around and see people be like, that's my song. Or like, what was it the other day? It was, I. I'm the problem. We were in Indianapolis, this girl and [00:28:42] Speaker C: her four friends, whoever that guy was, [00:28:45] Speaker B: Derek was definitely the problem for sure. They'd be like, I guess Derek's the problem. And they're like, they're screaming, they're crying, they're throwing their drinks. They looking at, they're like looking at each other screaming. [00:28:56] Speaker A: They're having a moment in this. [00:28:58] Speaker B: And like, so loud. The other people, people are being like, are they okay? Like, are someone fighting? [00:29:02] Speaker C: And she wanted to go hug one of them. I was like, girly, you don't let him take this much space in your heart. He's not worth it, you know? [00:29:08] Speaker B: Or there's that moment, you know, when he does stand in my boots every night or when he does cover me up. You always see all the couples kind of slowly, like everyone kind of. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:14] Speaker B: And I love, I just love that feeling of like, being in that many people who are having a good time. And I, you know, we've Seen a lot of shows in all sizes, but there's just nothing like 60,000 people singing song. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah. How. How loud is the singing back? Because the loudest, some of the loudest that I've heard was what I remember getting to go to Garth Brooks at Yankee Stadium years ago when he. When he first came back. [00:29:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:37] Speaker A: And that was a huge. A huge moment for. For me to experience as a concert fan, like, because I grew up at that. You see the bobbleheads. I'm a die hard Yankees fan sitting in Yankee Stadium, just hearing every word being just sung by a whole crowd. I'm sure Morgan's Sing along. It's a very much a sing along. [00:29:53] Speaker B: It is that. I mean, honestly, though, at Nealon, it was the. [00:29:56] Speaker C: That was the loudest, best. [00:29:58] Speaker A: Oh, y' all were. Y' all were at the kneeling shows. [00:30:01] Speaker C: We were on the floor. [00:30:01] Speaker B: I keep a ticket from Nealon in my wallet, actually. [00:30:04] Speaker A: That was the best of all time. [00:30:06] Speaker C: Yeah, Neela. And it was just deafening, like, the whole time. [00:30:09] Speaker B: For us to get invited to do that was like. For us, that was like the peak of our career. Last year, I guess, or whenever that show was. [00:30:16] Speaker C: Two years ago. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Two years ago, we were like, we've made it. It. Yeah, let us come to Neil. [00:30:18] Speaker C: They let us come to Neal, and we drove all the way to Knoxville, all the way down 75. But we made it. [00:30:23] Speaker B: We made no money. We lost cash. So much money. [00:30:26] Speaker A: It doesn't matter, but you have memories for the rest of your lives. [00:30:30] Speaker B: There are people who still meet us and are like, oh, I saw. I watched the show on your channel or whatever, so that helps. [00:30:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:35] Speaker B: Does this feel good this year, though? I would say the loudest crowd I've heard this year was Al Dean and Luke Bryan at Between the Hedges. [00:30:41] Speaker A: That was. Yeah, yeah. What do you guys think of Athens? [00:30:44] Speaker B: Athens is beautiful. [00:30:45] Speaker A: It's. Isn't it like just such a charming college town? Like when they. When they talk about like an sec. College town and that, it's just different. They say it's different round here. Different down here. Athens is just the epitome of a college stadium. [00:30:59] Speaker B: Is gorgeous. [00:30:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:00] Speaker B: Like what? It's. [00:31:01] Speaker C: It's gorgeous. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Air conditioned, all in different place. And there's airflow. [00:31:04] Speaker C: It's not the edges, like, all gorgeous. So nice. Well, my. My father went to UGA and I never got to go, but, like, he passed away a few years ago and I never got to go visit it, so it was really cool to kind of get to see what he had always, you know, Told me about the. The arch and all these other things. It was really cool to finally see all that in person. [00:31:21] Speaker A: And. [00:31:22] Speaker C: And you're like. You said sec Towns. I'm from, right. From right outside of Lexington. It felt like home. It felt like a UK game because everybody was. He was like, very confused. He's like, why is everybody in polos? I'm like, it's game day. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Definitely one of, like, dudes. And. [00:31:35] Speaker C: Yeah. No T shirts, bro. [00:31:36] Speaker A: I'm a. I have a razor outy polo that I wear sometimes. And they keep. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Nikki. [00:31:42] Speaker A: Nikki T always gives me for it because Nick's like, the cut off shirt. Like, he wears, like a union work shirt that's got the sleeves cut off. That's like Nick's hosting attire. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Driving vineyards. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Vine. [00:31:52] Speaker B: Vineyard Vines, bro. [00:31:53] Speaker C: He's like, oh, no, I'm underdressed. [00:31:55] Speaker A: Yeah, bro. They're wearing. Hey, dudes. Like, it's the. They're not wearing, like, jeans and boots. They're wearing. Yeah. Chubby shorts, boat shoes, and a polo with their sunglasses that have the thing on it. [00:32:06] Speaker B: Like a bright. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Yeah, like a loud, bright polo. [00:32:08] Speaker C: It's gonna be the school color. It's gonna be that red there because at home it's blue. [00:32:12] Speaker B: You got people who are wearing, like, band merch are like the super Luke Bryan fans. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:18] Speaker B: They have, like, face paint and signs, and I'm like, I'm not one of those. I just felt so out of play. Like, we were driving and I was like, I think I'm underdressed for a stadium concert right now. [00:32:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Weird. [00:32:26] Speaker C: It was. It was so cool. [00:32:27] Speaker B: But to hear, like, that many people sing, like, Big Green Tractor, which is not even like a top five Aldean song for me, but that was like. Oh, man. It was like echoing around outside. It was amazing. [00:32:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:38] Speaker A: And it's funny, we were talking about the FGL stuff when we started. When we start earlier in the pod. It's like that era, I think back, like, when I first got into country music was really. I mean, I grew up, like, I went to my first show. First concert ever was Tim McGraw pre Tim McGraw sobriety. It was 2003. It was when he was doing the no Opener tour was like the Tim McGraw and Dance Hall Doctors record. And I went. I was like. I went on a school night. I remember bringing my glow stick to school the next day. I was so excited. But I remember the. The era of, like, Aldean and Luke, like, co headlining their shows back in, playing all the arenas and all the sheds, like, right as FGL was coming up like that. 2010, 2011. So it's like the fact that they're doing shows again, the fact that FGL is coming back, like, we're coming into an era of fun. I think people are getting over their sadness. [00:33:25] Speaker B: Yeah. If I can just get Sam Hunt to make a record, bro. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:33:30] Speaker B: We're actually interviewing Shane McInalley on Saturday and I. It'll be like the last question I asked. [00:33:35] Speaker A: You should. [00:33:35] Speaker B: So what are you. What are you and Sam up to? [00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah, what's. Yeah, yeah, please. [00:33:39] Speaker B: I have like 900 questions for him all about Sam Hunt, but that's the main one. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah, Shane, that's gonna be. What other. What other interviews you guys got? [00:33:46] Speaker B: Well, you know, we're doing a lot of small people this year. People that I think are going to be huge. I think Matt Geiger from Australia, bro. [00:33:52] Speaker A: He's great. [00:33:53] Speaker B: I've not met him yet. I think he's gonna be a massive Ty still. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I love Ty. [00:33:58] Speaker B: I haven't met him. We listened to that yesterday. She hadn't heard it yet. And I was like, this is incredible. [00:34:02] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Tice, he's awesome. [00:34:04] Speaker A: He's another guy that. It's like the bar will be loud and then he gets into the start of Adeline. Everybody turns their head and is like, [00:34:11] Speaker C: that's the one that my brain was just like, what is this? [00:34:14] Speaker A: The hell is this kid? You gotta ask him about basketball. He grew up playing basketball. I believe he played in college. Yeah. And he's not the tallest guy. He's like a scrappy little point guard. [00:34:24] Speaker C: Where is he from? [00:34:25] Speaker A: New Mexico. [00:34:26] Speaker B: Okay. [00:34:27] Speaker C: I was like. Because as from uk, I was like, is he related to Tony Del. Cuz that would be crazy. You said basketball in my brain. I was like, come on. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Big, big Boston Celtics fan. Die hard Celtics fan. And he came up in the Lubbock scene. So it's like he. He moved from New Mexico to Texas and now he's. From. Now he's been coming out here to Nashville. [00:34:48] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:34:49] Speaker A: But he came up. That's how him and Hudson and all those guys got connected. Same West Texas scene. [00:34:53] Speaker B: I'm trying to think what else we got. We have Ashley Cook for sure. [00:34:55] Speaker A: Oh, nice. She's a. [00:34:56] Speaker B: She's. [00:34:57] Speaker A: She's a sweetheart. [00:34:58] Speaker B: I love her. [00:34:58] Speaker A: She's great. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Music's really fantastic. She's great. I think we're doing Elizabeth Nichols maybe. [00:35:02] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. [00:35:02] Speaker B: I know. You guys just. [00:35:03] Speaker A: Y. I just had. Yeah, Elizabeth is. She is Kentucky girl. [00:35:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:08] Speaker A: Born and raised Kentucky girl. [00:35:09] Speaker C: We'll get along instantly. [00:35:10] Speaker A: And came to Nashville pursuing a law degree. Dropped out of law school when her music started taking off on Tick Tock. So she is very, very bright conversation. That'll be. That'll be a good one. [00:35:22] Speaker B: I mean, we have a few more, but honestly, we're really focusing on a few activations and then we have a couple of meetings in town trying to figure out what we're doing and then hoping to catch some sets. When I talked to Brian Andrews. [00:35:33] Speaker A: Nice with him. [00:35:34] Speaker B: I like what he's doing. [00:35:35] Speaker A: I love. I love Brian too, man. He was a fun pod. [00:35:38] Speaker B: He's doing something interesting. [00:35:39] Speaker A: Yes. It's. [00:35:40] Speaker B: Well, his set will have some surprises. [00:35:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:44] Speaker C: We could tell you that we know you. If you like him, show up at his set this week because it'll be something. [00:35:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And I just. I just respect him for being him, you know, and it's not everybody's cup of tea, but that's okay because that's Brian, you know, that's country music. [00:35:58] Speaker C: Being a rebel, being different, kicking out. Out of the lines is exactly what it's about. And if you don't like it, that's okay. But you should at least bare minimum respect it. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah. We really believe in country is what country means to you. And for us, it's most things. [00:36:10] Speaker A: So. Yeah. Same. [00:36:11] Speaker B: I've never. [00:36:12] Speaker A: So why. [00:36:13] Speaker B: Whenever someone's DMS me and it's like, this isn't country, I'm like, I literally don't care. I don't. Could not be bothered. [00:36:18] Speaker A: It's not country to you, but it's country to me. And if it's country to me, it means it's probably country to somebody else. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Is it good then? Yeah. [00:36:25] Speaker A: That's what matters. [00:36:26] Speaker C: Yeah. And what. What fun is life if you're just saying no to everything? Go enjoy to have fun. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:32] Speaker C: Everybody's so stuck on being mad about stuff. Go have fun. Go touch grass. Go enjoy life. If you don't like it, cool. [00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah. You should probably listen to Grand Bar, but. [00:36:41] Speaker C: Listen to Grand Bar. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah, Listen to Grand Bar. [00:36:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:44] Speaker A: Yeah. 100. What I love too, is how you guys capture it from the perspective of fans, too. Like, we're at the end of the day, y' all are fans. And I think of everybody doing in this. In this country, lifestyle, media world, y' all do it the best out of anybody. [00:36:58] Speaker B: I'm trying. [00:36:59] Speaker A: I. I feel like. I feel like I'm in line at a show. I feel like I'm in the pit At a show, the way you guys cover the merch. Oh, yeah, let's talk about the. The Ella Mer. [00:37:09] Speaker B: Ella was a random. Ella was like a beautiful set of circumstances because we had been. A company invited us to do the two Morgan shows in Indianapolis. Ella was the day before in Toledo. We live in Michigan. And it was like, well, we might as well try. [00:37:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not far. [00:37:22] Speaker B: We'd ask for tickets first. Everyone was like, they're never going to give you tickets. I can't get a hold of anybody. And I was like, okay, well, we'll try. And they did offer us tickets. And they were like, cool, so we'll go down, we drive to Toledo. And I was in my head. Usually what happens is we talk to a bunch of these other country creators and they go, we're not going to go to insert this thing. And then we get there, and they're all there. [00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:38] Speaker B: Because everyone just doesn't want you to also have a chance. So we got to Toledo being like, all right, we're gonna run into country this and country that. No one was there. And we were like, oh, okay, maybe we have this to ourselves today. [00:37:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:49] Speaker B: Kickoff of this tour. It felt like a moment. So we got there, and the merch truck was easy because it was right outside. And we filmed that and do our little. Little walk around. But for me, the big thing is the first person in line interview. I love meeting that person because I am not that human being. And so it's like meeting an alien to me, where I'm like, when did you get here? Seven hours. [00:38:05] Speaker C: Why? [00:38:05] Speaker B: What are you doing? [00:38:06] Speaker C: Why? [00:38:06] Speaker B: The girl at Ella Langley got there [00:38:08] Speaker C: by herself, and she literally came from 20 minutes away from where we did. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So she had driven. She was from west Michigan, gotten up. She'd gotten there at 7am There was no one in line, so she came back at 8am because she didn't think she had. She wasn't that worried about being first. But what ends up happening is we shoot this video with her, we post the merch and everything. We get inside the show. I got a text from Ella's management. I don't know how they had my number because I didn't have their number. It was just like, hey, this is so and so from Ella's team. We'd like to have you come down and watch the show from the pit if you want. And we're like, absolutely, dog. So we meet them, and while I'm waiting for that person to show up, Ella starts liking all the videos that we Posted outside the venue. And so I send it to the girl that we met, interviewed, because I. We got exchanged information, and I was like, look, Ella liked it. And she was, oh, my God, that's so cool. And we were like, good. We made her day. Well, then after the show, they found that girl and brought her backstage to meet Ella. [00:38:55] Speaker C: So she got to meet Ella Langley [00:38:57] Speaker B: because of this video that she shot with us. And I was like, dang. That's all. We didn't even get to meet Ella Langley. [00:39:01] Speaker C: But it's like, it was so cool to see something that, like, we were able to give this girl, that she put in that hard work. We got to give her a little platform, and, like, she got to touch the stars, Something she didn't even think possible when she left that morning, Became [00:39:13] Speaker B: a huge ambassador for us forever. And then we go to Morgan the next two nights, and Ella's there again. And so when we get. By the time we get to Morgan on the Ella day of Morgan, which is two days later, everyone that we see that recognizes us recognizes us from that Ella content. And then, like, that. Actually, since then, everywhere we go, people have been like, oh, I saw your Ella content, because you're the only game in town. [00:39:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:32] Speaker B: We didn't really think about it until the next day when someone else said it to us. We're like, oh, yeah. Anyone that wanted to see that tour probably saw our stupid faces. [00:39:40] Speaker C: We're the kind of people, we look for that content, and no one wants making it. Yeah. [00:39:45] Speaker B: Because that was my thing. Like, when we doing this is like, I love. I want to do. Like I said. I always say Bobby bones and Cody Allen is an angle I love, but I always feel like there's this disconnect between the fan and There is. There is radio, whatever it happens to be. And we want to bridge that gap by being like. Because fans have artists they want to hear that radio doesn't play, and we have artists that we want to hear that radio doesn't play. But also, there's just this. That idea of, like, we're in this together, and we're all deciding together that this is country music, and that community is really special to us, bro. [00:40:12] Speaker A: Yeah. I love that we. We. One of the early raised rowdy sayings back in the day that Nikki T. And his friends came up with going to festivals was, front row or don't go. [00:40:21] Speaker C: Yep. [00:40:22] Speaker A: And you doing those early, early line, the people, the girls, and the guys in line, that is the epitome of that. It means more to them. Than it does to anyone else. [00:40:32] Speaker B: And I get mad when I sit online and people are like, I can't believe I didn't get tickets from Morgan Wall. But then we go to Minneapolis on opening day, and there are kids sleeping on the sidewalk with no blankets at. In 30 degree weather to be first in line. And I'm like, do you love him that much? Because I don't. Like, I'm not even mad that they got the tickets. I'm like, you guys deserve them. [00:40:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Do you love it this much? You know? [00:40:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:52] Speaker B: So I feel like it's also helping people understand, like, how deep this love goes. I'd like to be able to reach that kind of coverage for a much smaller artist. We're trying to get there is like. It's like that game of people wanting to play ball. Wall and Morgan Wall. People know us, but, like, we were at Russell Dickerson a few days ago, and we tried to give people some, like, sunglasses and stuff because, you know, you guys have freebie stuff all the time. So I was like, they don't have sunglasses. And everyone was like, no. And I was like, they just don't want to play this game. [00:41:15] Speaker C: These games. They're not even remotely interested. [00:41:18] Speaker B: And I think we'll get there. We just didn't find the right people that day, so sometimes we just don't find the right people. [00:41:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that happens, too. It's like you go out to shoot the content, but you don't have the right. Yeah, the right subject. [00:41:28] Speaker B: The right subject. Yeah. Or like. Or people you talk to, you can just feel it. Like, you're like, I need you to go 10 bigger. Yeah. [00:41:34] Speaker C: Like, we went to a concert in. In a city in Florida. I won't name specifically what city because it's a nice city. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Miami. [00:41:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it was really hot. Everybody hated us. Like, they. It was like we were asking them to give us five dollars just to spend two seconds to talk to us. [00:41:48] Speaker B: A guy straight up me for asking his girl her favorite Morgan wallets. [00:41:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:53] Speaker B: Like, the show hadn't even started yet. We were outside sweating, dripping, and I was just like, hey, real quick, what's your favorite Morgan Wallen song? Mike, you know, that has the flag. I am. [00:42:02] Speaker C: And I'm with him. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Like, I mean, like, I could muscle guy gone down on the ground. And then he kept walking as if, like, I was like, come on, bro. Yeah, it was. That was a rough one. So some places aren't countryman friendly. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Just what I think is a huge part of your brand is where you guys are From. And I think that there is. Is something special about the Midwest, and we love the Midwest. Raise Rowdy started as Nick and his friends on a bachelor party going a country concert in Fort Laramie, Ohio, in 2012, when FGL and Wyatt McCubbin each played two sets, and that was the camper party on, like, a little trailer stage. He saw FGL play a camper party in 2012, and Nick's been every year since. But it's just in the Midwest, you don't see a lot of. You don't see a lot of fights at shows. You're at a festival and you're walking around a campground and you're walking past, and they need an extra person on the beer pong table or flip cup or stump or whatever. They're tossing you a bush light a can of whatever, and you. It's very, like, inclusive. It's not exclusive. It's the Midwest mentality of, we're all here, let's have a good time together. [00:43:08] Speaker C: You got to work together when it's cold. I've lived on both sides of it. I'm from Kentucky. I live in Michigan now. When it's that cold, you have to have community or you're gonna freeze to death. And I think it comes from that core nature of. And. And. And the fact that people don't expect country to be there, because when I moved up there and went to a country concert, I'm like, this isn't con. You can't. You're not from. You know where I'm from. How are you all wearing cowboy boots? And it took me a minute to warm up and be like, no, this is country, too. [00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:33] Speaker B: I think the first arena show she went to in Grand Rapids, she was like, there's not a farm for 30 miles. What are we doing right now? Because there are people, like, set up cowboy hat booths outside and stuff. [00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:45] Speaker B: No, I also think, like. Like, we do Country Jam USA in Eau Claire when I lost my job and we did this, like, let's do this full time. The very first person that sent us a DM was this woman. Kathy, who ran Country Jam USA in Wisconsin. Was like, I love you. We'd love for you to come up. And she gave us more money than anyone had ever given us to come to her festival. Yes. Like. Like, paid our bills for the next month. [00:44:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Not insane, but. So we've gone there every year since Sense. But that festival has been going on since the 80s, and I think, like, 90 of their audience returns every year. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Yeah, It's So that's how country concert is in Ohio. [00:44:14] Speaker B: That beauty. And you want. And like, getting to join it feels special. [00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Getting to. Getting to be a part of an institution like that. Like, getting to come in and. And then capture content with people who have been appreciating it for generations. Because that's since the 80s. That's. There's. There's. There's second, third generations going to that festival. Festival. [00:44:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, they'll tell you that. Everyone tells you the same stories. They'll be like, this is where Tim McGraw and Faith Hill met. And you're like, oh, that's awesome. Everyone will tell you. They'll be. I was there. I was there that year. [00:44:44] Speaker C: Well, I think there's something magical about kind of showing that. You know, everybody thinks a festival with a lineup, they're all the same, but it's like every single one of them has something special and unique. And I love being able to show [00:44:54] Speaker A: that the ones that are good and the ones that work do. [00:44:56] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's true. [00:44:58] Speaker A: The cook it. You have to have something unique and something distinct at every festival. Like, it's got to have a thing to it. I also think part of the Midwest, like, you talked about how it's cold all the time and, like, it's cold most of the year. Those few months that it's warm, people go wild. Why are you gonna get into a fight or do something stupid like, where you're gonna get in trouble, like, you're gonna have fun. You want it. You want to cherish those two to three months of beauty. You want to get out on the lake. You want to be in a field. You want to be in an rv. You want to be in a tent, and you want to be listening to your favorite songs with your favorite people. [00:45:32] Speaker C: Big. [00:45:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Big country party songs. That's all we want. Once it gets to be nice. And it's only been nice for, like, four days in Michigan. So we've just started this. [00:45:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it's great. We just got there. It's. We got our first, like, 75 degree day the other day, and I was like, I can plant my plants now. It's like late May. Let's go. [00:45:47] Speaker B: When we went to Russell Dicker. Went to Russell Dickerson on Sunday, and it was like 75 at night. [00:45:51] Speaker C: Had to wear jeans. [00:45:52] Speaker B: She had to wear jeans a little bit, but it was like. [00:45:54] Speaker A: And Russell Dickerson, you talk about, like, part. Like, a show is a party. [00:45:58] Speaker B: It is a party. [00:45:59] Speaker A: RD Is a party. [00:46:01] Speaker C: The biggest show he's ever had in his entire career in Grand Rapids. [00:46:04] Speaker B: Grand Rapids, but was that city. But it was the most tickets he's ever sold for a single show. [00:46:07] Speaker A: Wow, that's really cool. I saw him in a 85 cap room in Hoboken, New Jersey, called Maxwell's Tavern. That's no longer around. And it was a club that was built. It was like a. Like a shotgun bar on. I think it's Washington street in Hoboken, and it's a shotgun bar. And then they have, like, a little, like, basement room, like, not much bigger than this podcast studio where they would do shows. And in, like, the 90s, it was where, like, Nirvana's first Jersey play was there. Oasis, like, all. It was a rock. It was a rock club, like, their final night. I went and helped them out with it because I helped out a lot of the country shows. And it was. Was like, all, like, hardcore bands. And I was like, in the country scene in Jersey, and I was like, what is going on right now? But watching Russ, like, watch. Seeing him back then to where he's at now is so cool. And he's such a nice guy, too. Like, he's just. And it's just. It's a. It's a show where there's. There's movement and you're dancing. Like, he's. He does the Garth thing now where he wears the. He wears the. Wears the head mic, Right? [00:47:06] Speaker B: Yes. [00:47:07] Speaker C: Wrestling fans. I just love the WrestleMania thing. Anyway, so, like, this is such a fun, fun way to do this, because, you know, your audience is half of this. Anyway. Let's just lean in now. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Here's great seg right here. Talk to me about country wrestling. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Please do. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Tell us. Please tell me all about it, because I love it. [00:47:24] Speaker C: It's. You know, it's a. A new attempt to try something different because I. I really love country music. I really love wrestling. And I think there's. It's like a circle of a Venn diagram of fandom, I think, within reason. And I don't see anyone else out there kind of covering this, but we started watching WWE really religiously, like, about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. And it's become, like, this thing in my life where it's like, we do so much country music, but I was like, but I want to talk about wrestling. Like, I've got really big opinions about what Jay uso's up to, what Penta's gonna do, what, like. And so I figured maybe we can use this lane of when we're Doing all of this stuff. Why not marry these two things and show that this. This. This can be kind of a whole thing? I've gotten a few DMS and things from people here in the industry that are like, they're trying to do this. You're going in the right direction. Keep running. So we've been kind of doing this thing, a fun thing, where we're ripping cards in weird places. [00:48:15] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys, I. I definitely want to rip some packs with you. [00:48:19] Speaker C: I brought one. [00:48:20] Speaker A: Oh, you brought me? Yeah, yeah, Go grab it, please. I'd love to rip a pack. [00:48:25] Speaker B: I'll tell our story of last night while she. She does this. So she's figuring out what to do. And I was like, let's rip packs in places that no one's ever ripped a pack before. [00:48:31] Speaker A: No one's ever ripped a pack in here. [00:48:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So last night, this was perfect. [00:48:34] Speaker C: I'm gonna give you the honors. [00:48:36] Speaker B: There's only four cards, so what's the [00:48:37] Speaker A: etiquette to doing it? So you just open it and you [00:48:40] Speaker C: start from the front, because the back one's gonna be the. The special. The special card. Unless you get a super special. [00:48:45] Speaker A: See, I grew up a big baseball card guy, like, being a big Yankees fan. I have a whole book of all my Jeter cards and all that stuff. I love the card cultures come back. I know. Great. Grady Smith's talked about that. Seeing Luke Combs, like, being at the car. [00:48:59] Speaker C: One of our dreams is to. [00:49:01] Speaker B: All right, what do we got? [00:49:02] Speaker C: Okay, what do you got first? [00:49:03] Speaker A: So we start at the front. Jbl. [00:49:07] Speaker C: Very country. Seems appropriate. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Very country, very number two. [00:49:10] Speaker B: What do we got? [00:49:10] Speaker C: All right, number two, what do you got? [00:49:12] Speaker A: Oh, we got Candice Lerae. [00:49:15] Speaker C: I think we have her yet. So that's good one. [00:49:18] Speaker A: All right, Seth Rollins. He's been around for a long time, right? Seth's been around for a minute. All right, our final. Ooh, Roxanne Perez. [00:49:31] Speaker C: Oh, focus. Real not bad. [00:49:34] Speaker A: We'll take it. We'll take it. [00:49:36] Speaker B: So last night, we kick off this series, and we were at the Ryman for Darius and friends. So she was like, I'm gonna be the first. I was. I had. I was like, let's be the first person to ever rip wrestling cards of the Ryman. [00:49:44] Speaker C: No one's done this, right? [00:49:45] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, let's do it. [00:49:47] Speaker A: I love it. [00:49:48] Speaker B: So she. We shoot it, and I'm not joking with you. The video is out right now. Anyone watches, you can go find on Country Wrestling. She starts ripping the cards. The second card is an autograph Dragon Lee card. [00:49:57] Speaker C: Like, one of one, like, a super rare card. [00:49:59] Speaker B: So she's, like, ripping him like this. And I'm holding the camera and she goes freaking out. Second car comes across. She must see my face go like, oh, I'm trying to, like, I think I even said, holy. And she goes, oh, my God. Meanwhile, we have to go quickly because she's standing in front of those rhyming letters. You take pictures. [00:50:16] Speaker C: Like, everyone takes photos. [00:50:17] Speaker B: People are, like, trying to walk around, and we're like. I'm like, keep going, Keep going if you don't understand. And then she finishes. Everyone's looking like, what happened? [00:50:28] Speaker C: This is so cool. [00:50:29] Speaker B: He's one of my favorites at the [00:50:31] Speaker C: Ryman, so I felt like Mother Church blessed me with that pack. [00:50:34] Speaker B: And Darius is a big wrestling fan, so I feel like the energy felt [00:50:37] Speaker C: like he was good. [00:50:37] Speaker A: Energy was definitely there. Guys, that's awesome. [00:50:40] Speaker B: You just pulled a Seth Rollins. We're off to a good start. [00:50:42] Speaker C: We're off to a good start. We've got five more packs we're gonna rip throughout the week. Nice, random places. I think at least a bar on Broadway. We don't know which one yet. Will be one of them. [00:50:52] Speaker B: Yeah, probably a show somewhere. [00:50:53] Speaker C: Probably a show. [00:50:54] Speaker B: Yeah, we haven't. [00:50:55] Speaker C: We haven't figured them all. [00:50:56] Speaker A: I'm trying to think if there's any people that, like, any of the. Of the Broadway bar, like, name people that are big wrestling fans. [00:51:05] Speaker C: We're going to Hurricane 10, so I think we could probably. Or Category 10, Cat 10. [00:51:09] Speaker A: It's a hurricane. [00:51:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a hurricane. Cat 10 we're gonna go to, so I guess that would be a good. [00:51:14] Speaker A: Have you guys been in there yet? [00:51:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:15] Speaker A: It's a cool spot. Isn't it? [00:51:16] Speaker C: Insane? [00:51:17] Speaker B: I love it. It's. It's massive in the right way. [00:51:20] Speaker A: It's a big. It's a big space. [00:51:22] Speaker C: I like that it's open. Yeah. [00:51:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:24] Speaker B: We're seeing Graham there tomorrow for the Opry next live thing. I mean, all of them, but I'm excited to see Graham. [00:51:29] Speaker C: Yeah, we're always excited about Graham. [00:51:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm. I'm excited about. Excited about what Graham's doing and all that. I'm gonna be seeing him at some festivals this. This summer, too. [00:51:38] Speaker B: Which were you actually excited to see these days? [00:51:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:40] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I mean, Treaty Oak is great every time. [00:51:43] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. [00:51:44] Speaker A: That is one I I. The term degenerate is a term that Nikki T's been using for years because people ask so Like, Nick, are you more country or redneck? He's like, well, I was married. He's like, I was raised more white trash, you know, because Nick's from like that West Virginia, Pennsylvania border, so he loves the term degenerate is like a term of endearment. So we love Treaty Oak. I mean, I don't think I'll get to see Ella again this year. I got to see her at the first rock country yesterday. [00:52:10] Speaker C: Unless she announces something for the fall. [00:52:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure she. I'm sure she will. I'm sure we'll. There'll be. There'll be some more. But watching Ella's really cool just because of my. My history with her. Just watching from her being Trey's opener back in the day and being like little sis, taking her, making sure her and the rest of the. The rest of the drinkers got home safe from Red Door. And I was like, the ogdd. You know, Gavin show's always a lot of fun. Like, I. I enjoy chaos. I really do. Side stage. I like there to be not as much. Lakeview, I love. [00:52:43] Speaker B: She hasn't seen Lakeview. Oh, you saw him at CMA Fest last year. [00:52:46] Speaker C: I saw him at CMA Fest, but I haven't seen him in like a club. [00:52:48] Speaker A: Seen them seen that? [00:52:49] Speaker C: No. I need to. [00:52:50] Speaker B: I see. I saw them at a 400 cap last year. Yes. [00:52:52] Speaker A: Have you guys done content with them yet? [00:52:55] Speaker B: No, no, no. We did one interview with them a long time ago. [00:52:57] Speaker A: Yes, you. You definitely should. And you should rip a pack with them for sure. You talk about like, no kidding. What kind of. [00:53:07] Speaker B: Around this week we pitched them a. We did pitch their team an idea last year when they were coming through. We wanted to do like crew shirts. Like, like Union Cruise shirts. [00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:15] Speaker B: Had boots and they're like thing we didn't get. We didn't get it done in time, but we might get back to it. [00:53:20] Speaker C: We're gonna try to do it. [00:53:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:21] Speaker C: Like a 616 crew type thing. [00:53:23] Speaker B: So. [00:53:24] Speaker A: Yeah, they're. They're great. I mean, I'm for talking about the one we're going to be at together with Crossroads. I've never seen Wiz Khalifa before, so I'm very excited to just see Wiz Khalifa in front of Zach Brown. [00:53:37] Speaker C: Post to a couple times and it didn't work out. [00:53:41] Speaker A: I gotta look at the damn. At the damn. At the damn lineups of what we're going to. Because we're doing. How many are you guys at the. This year? [00:53:48] Speaker B: Well, We've already done. Haven't already done one. I feel like. [00:53:51] Speaker C: No, we're about to do. [00:53:52] Speaker B: So we have Buckeye Country Superfest. We're going to Kenny at the Sphere, which I count because it's like multiple days. [00:53:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You guys have gotten to go to the Sphere. What is that? Like, it's amazing. Just, just as. As die hard concert fans. Like, as someone who's been to a ton of shows and loves all different. Like, what is that environment like, like, what could. What could you possibly compare a spear show to? [00:54:14] Speaker C: Nothing. Nothing. I mean, it's the most brain breaking thing you've ever seen in your life and it needs to be on your bucket. Bucket. [00:54:20] Speaker B: And people hate on the floor. We like the. I like being on the floor because you're closer to Kenny Chesney than you would ever be in a stadium by a million miles. And then you have the giant screen. But to me, it's like, I still love Kenny Chesney. So to me, I was like, he's right there. [00:54:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:33] Speaker B: You could. You can touch his hand if you're on the rail. You're that close. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Wow. [00:54:36] Speaker B: Yeah. His stage, there's like, no. Wow. [00:54:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:40] Speaker C: But a lot of people want to sit in the seats because then you. Because when you're on the floor, you do have to do this. [00:54:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:44] Speaker C: And it's a little. Your neck gets a little tired by [00:54:46] Speaker A: the end of the night. But if you're low, you still. You're close to the stage. Yes. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:52] Speaker A: Kenny Chesney. [00:54:52] Speaker B: Chess is right there. Yeah. Slapping hands. He's running around and stuff, making me feel old and lazy. [00:54:58] Speaker C: He's still doing. I go back. It's still amazing, you know? [00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:01] Speaker B: I would. I would start. I keep watching him. I'm like, oh, yeah, there's a big show going on up here. There's other things happening. I love it. I think it's incredible. I think it's kind of a strange experience for what we do. We're learning it. The first time we got in trouble with security, we were shooting out outside, doing our reactions. We're doing like, what'd you think of the show? And secure. Like, one security guard was like, I think you guys got to leave right now. We're with them. And he goes, okay. And then he comes back with another security guard and then another. And then there was eight security guards surrounding us. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Surrounding you, surrounding the two of us [00:55:31] Speaker B: while they make a call, being like, like, so are they with you? We don't have a badge or anything. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:35] Speaker C: No. [00:55:35] Speaker B: And because they'd never done a country show there. Why would we know? And they finally were like, you're cleared. But it took like 25 minutes. [00:55:42] Speaker C: We lost all the crowd. [00:55:43] Speaker B: All the crowd had left. Oh, you guys are good. [00:55:45] Speaker C: We're just like, please don't go to jail. Please don't go to jail. I don't even know what Vegas jail's [00:55:48] Speaker A: like, who are you gonna meet in Vegas jail? [00:55:52] Speaker B: That. Or like get banned from the sphere. Like right out the gate. [00:55:57] Speaker A: One and done. Kenny. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Yeah. But I do remember some college kids. We did get one great clip of these college kids came out and I was like, what do you think of the show? And this guy just goes, kenny Chesney's that dog. And I'll never forget how he said it. And I was like, he is. Actually ever since then, he does have that dog in him. He's just got that dog forever and always. [00:56:12] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I love, love Kenny. [00:56:14] Speaker B: We weren't really fans, I think when we first saw. I mean I was. We liked him but we. The first time we ever saw him we had pitched doing this thing where we got to know New New Shoes Nation. So we flew to Atlanta and. And at 11 in the morning we're doing pineapple jello shots with no. [00:56:28] Speaker C: With random strangers. [00:56:29] Speaker B: Cuz they were like, they're all over here. And the first woman we met, she's like, do you guys want a jello shot? It was like what? I like looked at my watch, I [00:56:34] Speaker C: was like, I got so much day. But you know what? I'm not going to be mean, so give me the time. [00:56:38] Speaker B: I was like, he's on at 9:30. You know what I mean? [00:56:40] Speaker A: I got time. [00:56:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Everyone there was like, yeah, you're fine. You got a while. We'll take naps. [00:56:45] Speaker C: They had cookies. Like that's the best fan base you [00:56:47] Speaker B: were talking about the best in country music for us. [00:56:49] Speaker C: No Shoe Station. [00:56:50] Speaker B: But by the time we left that night from like hanging out with them all day and then going to see the show, we were like, I'm. I'll. Know. She's nation for life. [00:56:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:57] Speaker B: I've officially entered my late 30s. I'm. [00:56:59] Speaker A: Now they're the. [00:57:00] Speaker C: We're getting a flag for our house to put out front. [00:57:03] Speaker A: Nice. [00:57:03] Speaker C: On our flag pole when we go to Vegas next week. So. Or week after. [00:57:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it's. Those are the folks where I remember back in the day, like the stadium shows, people would be able to park their RVs the night before like a festival and you'd have tailgating would be going if Kenny was playing on like a Friday or Saturday. I know Nick's been to a bunch of the shows in Pittsburgh where it's like people would get there on like Thursday like two days before with their RVs or whatever and just it's like a three day party for a one day show. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we're still friends with some of them. They travel in like groups like 8 or 9. [00:57:33] Speaker A: They do all go together. [00:57:34] Speaker B: It's amazing. So after Kenny, we have a week off. I think we might come down here for Alan Jackson if they give us tickets. [00:57:39] Speaker A: We're trying. [00:57:40] Speaker B: Everyone in town is trying. [00:57:41] Speaker A: Yes. [00:57:41] Speaker B: So everyone that knows that if this comes out before then everyone knows shows. There's one person that you can ask for tickets to the last Alan Jackson show and there's one email address and they don't reply to you. So everyone I know and their mother has been like, can we get tickets to Alan Jackson? And plus, you know, I'm sure the Today show and everyone else. So I don't think we'll get to tickets. But if we do, we'll be here for Alan Jackson. And the week after that we have Minnesota Country Club immediately into Country Jam usa. We go to like five shows back at Grand Rapids. [00:58:08] Speaker C: Yeah. We go home for like a week, [00:58:09] Speaker B: see like four bands. And then we have Crossroads with you. I think we have Billy Strings Freak Festival at the end of April. [00:58:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that is that just like 20 [00:58:19] Speaker C: minutes from our house. [00:58:20] Speaker B: So his first ever like event that he's throwing. [00:58:23] Speaker A: And it's a home game for you guys. [00:58:25] Speaker B: Game for him too. It's in a place where they don't even have parking to sustain. [00:58:29] Speaker C: Yeah, we don't know how this is gonna. It's gonna be chaotic, but it's gonna be fun. [00:58:33] Speaker B: So we'll see Billy Strings there. I'm really excited for the fan man on the street stuff. Stuff at that. Oh, those people will play ball. [00:58:38] Speaker A: And that's going to be a different crowd than you've encountered from the festivals and the mainstream country stuff. Like you're gonna meet some Die Hards there. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Yeah, Real, real wild folks. [00:58:46] Speaker A: Yes. [00:58:47] Speaker B: We have Billy Strings. We're in talks to do that Cabo festival. I don't know if it's happening, but we might do Cabo and then we're going to Country Calling in October. [00:58:55] Speaker A: Oh, have you guys been to Country Calling? [00:58:56] Speaker B: We have now. This is our first year. [00:58:57] Speaker A: So I went last year just as a fan because my parents live. My mom and stepdad live in just on just over the border in Delaware. [00:59:04] Speaker C: Okay. [00:59:05] Speaker A: So it was one of my favorite festival experiences as a fan. So it's integrated into the boardwalk. So the, like, the. Like the pure fries and, like, all the games and all the bars are, like, part of the festival. So, like, you enter. You'll, like, say, enter here, and then you'll walk down boardwalk and all, like, the boardwalk stuff's going. And then you'll go on. And then a stage here, b stage on the other side of the beach, and then C stage in between. And it was just. It's a lot of people. It was a. It's a big. It's a. It's a big one. Yeah, but it is, like. It was just incredible. And we stayed on. We stayed in a hotel on the boardwalk, but, like, farther down. So you just walk down the boardwalk to get to the show and then walk back on the boardwalk with all the fans. So your man on the street stuff on the boardwalk, because they're not walking to a parking lot. They're just walking on the boardwalk. Thousand tens of thousands of people. [01:00:03] Speaker B: I'm excited. [01:00:04] Speaker C: I can't wait. [01:00:05] Speaker A: It's a lot of fun. And, yeah, with the food vendors being. They don't jack the prices up either. So, like, the fries, the pure pizza, because you're east coast, so you get the good pizza, the good seafood, the, like, all the stuff you'd get on, like, on the shore. Like, you're literally on the ocean. [01:00:21] Speaker B: I mean, that sounds like a good time. [01:00:23] Speaker A: It. It's a very. I'm very excited y' all going. [01:00:25] Speaker B: Are the. How's the concert? Like, I. We can stand on my boots. I like. I learned so many new, terrible elements of concert etiquette. Like, beach concerts are so crazy. [01:00:34] Speaker C: So people, like, built sand castles to stand. [01:00:38] Speaker B: That is my favorite move I've seen at a concert. [01:00:40] Speaker C: Like, they built a ramp, stood on it above everybody in the middle, and I'm like, I'm gonna kick. I'm gonna kick the sand out from under you. That's not stable ground. [01:00:47] Speaker A: I'm gonna keep the sand out of your booth. [01:00:49] Speaker B: Boots right out of those boots. I thought that was funnier. People would dig holes to sit in, but then they cover them with their blankets, and people are just, like, falling [01:00:56] Speaker C: into the beds that got dark. [01:00:58] Speaker A: So you didn't. Didn't have that. Didn't. I didn't see that. What I did see my. One of my favorite moments from that one Luke Combs headline, which was sick. So Luke Combs, and he didn't do A lot of festivals last year he did, like the big old genre festivals, but him doing. Getting to see him there was really, really cool. And then the Tree Oak set, because that crowd just didn't know what was happening. [01:01:24] Speaker C: So when Boomtown happened. [01:01:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I'll show you the video after. It was one of my favorite moments because you have all these people in VIP that are used to seeing, like, in the Northeast, the heritage acts do really well. So, like, Carrie Underwood can still can get close to selling out an arena in New Jersey or New York or Delaware. You know, it's like they're not quite in it like that. You could tell who was there for Treaty Oak, but you could tell who was there that brought them. Bought the multi day because Brooks and Dunn was on the night before, you know, so you had the Brooks and Dunn fans going over because they were able to see John party on that B stage the night before. And they get over there for Treaty Oak and they're like, what is happening? And then you see people, like, they just didn't know, you know. [01:02:07] Speaker C: That's always fun, though, because it's kind of fun to watch the chaos of people being like, what is happening around? [01:02:12] Speaker A: The reaction when they don't know. But what you do know and those around, you know, you know, like. So, yeah, country calling is a blast. I. I highly recommend. [01:02:21] Speaker B: And then we're doing. What is it? St. Pete's we're doing St. Pete's oh, nice. Yeah, we haven't done that one yet. [01:02:25] Speaker A: Sick. I've heard good things about that. And it's beautiful scenery. One thing that's weird about that is it is in the fall, which does turn into, like, hurricane season down there. So they've had good luck. But knock on wood for you guys going down. Oh, it's your birthday week in Florida. [01:02:39] Speaker B: Peanut patch boiled peanuts are bringing us out. [01:02:41] Speaker A: Oh, Peanut patch boiled peanuts. [01:02:44] Speaker C: The ones you see in the gas station everywhere. [01:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, in the. [01:02:46] Speaker A: Y' all work with the gas station peanut people. [01:02:48] Speaker C: They're the best. [01:02:49] Speaker B: We're in the peanut. [01:02:50] Speaker A: You're in the. [01:02:51] Speaker B: I love that, dude. I have so many. We have so many cans of boiled peanuts, but we also eat them in hats. We did a festival with them last year. [01:02:58] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:02:59] Speaker B: So much fun for this year. Shout out Boiled peanuts. [01:03:01] Speaker C: Yeah, we love them. [01:03:02] Speaker A: That is sick. [01:03:03] Speaker B: I love it. Peanut patch boys. [01:03:06] Speaker A: We got Surfside. We got cigars. We got. We got watch. I gotta watch. Like, that's the peanut patch thing came [01:03:12] Speaker B: out of the blue, though, because the guy that we know, Brent He's a musician. He's a really great musician. And one day they did a collab with Luke Bryan where they made Luke Bryan peanut patch boiled peanuts. Like a can of them. [01:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:22] Speaker B: And he DM'd me one day. I'm like, would you like a can of these? And I was like, hell, yes, I do. So he sent me, like, a care package, and ever since then, we've been on the boiled peanut train. [01:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah. We love. [01:03:32] Speaker A: Are they. Are they like the lightly salted ones and regular? What do you prefer? Because I've done the spicy ones and they lit me up in the van with Trey back in the day. [01:03:41] Speaker B: That's kind of. I mean, that's how I. [01:03:42] Speaker A: It's high risk, high reward. [01:03:44] Speaker B: That's how I react. I like those ones. But for the sanctity of our marriage, I think it's probably better if I go with the salted ones. She knew them better than I hadn't had them because I'm from the North. [01:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Kentucky. [01:03:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:54] Speaker A: You have some boiled beans? [01:03:55] Speaker C: We have some. It, like, further south of the state. Like, when you're on the state line, you get it more than, like, w. [01:04:00] Speaker B: You're not going to find boiled. I remember when we talked to them the first time, and they were like. Like, we're in all the Walmarts and we're in, like, like, 3,000 gas stations or something. She said some insane number of gas stations. I was like, where? And then we started traveling more to the south last year, and I was like, oh, everyone. [01:04:13] Speaker C: We just. Now it's a game to find them. We're like, oh, we found them there. Oh, they're here, they're here, they're here. [01:04:17] Speaker B: We're those people that will send you a text if we hear your song or see your product in the. Like. We were at Loves yesterday in Springfield, driving down, and they were playing Chase Matthew in there, and Jason was up there, too, so we, like, sent him a message, was like, they're playing your song in your town, bro. [01:04:30] Speaker C: Your hometown. Loves. They got you, bro. [01:04:32] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:04:33] Speaker B: That's that fan element coming through. We're like, oh, my God. [01:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And you need. And you need to have that, because the moment you lose that and it switches to completely business, it's not nearly as fun. And that's the balance that Nick and I have been trying to have, you know, with being down here and being so entrenched. It's like, we make it a point to try and go to just go to shows where we're not Hosting. We're not covering. We're just. We're just in the pit and we're just in it, you know. [01:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah, we do that with non country stuff a lot too. [01:05:00] Speaker C: Yeah, that's our free time. [01:05:01] Speaker A: That's what we're doing. We've. I think we're going to be going. I'm very excited because I've never gotten to see them because they were a little. They were. Their heyday was like when I was. I was an old. I mean, I guess you can be any age and get brought to a show, but I think we have secured Limp Bizkit tickets. We saw them a few years ago at the. At the new Live Nation venue they're opening. It's called the Truth. [01:05:21] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:05:22] Speaker A: So it's like Limp Bizkit and like a club environment. They're doing a sat. They're doing a Sunday Monday of like Columbus Day weekend. So we have one of our bloggers, pretty much our. Our main blogger, his name Sam. He runs a rowy alternative. He actually lives right on like the Cincinnati, Kentucky line. [01:05:38] Speaker C: Oh, right there in like Fort Thomas or Florence. [01:05:42] Speaker A: Florence. Yeah. He's like right. Right around like the Florence Florence, y'. [01:05:45] Speaker C: All. [01:05:47] Speaker A: He's like. He's like right around there. And he's a. His idol is Fred Durst, like the kid Live. His idols are Hulk Hogan and Fred Durst. That's like what he loves. Like Halloween every year. He's either Fred or Hulk and he's like different eras. Like in Halloween weekend he'll be like different era of Hulk. Like NWO Hulk, he'll be like Hulster Hulk. He'll be like all different things. So we're going to take care. Take care of him and bring him down here for Olymp Biscuit concert. [01:06:12] Speaker B: It's a. [01:06:13] Speaker C: It's a good time. You guys are going to have a blast. [01:06:15] Speaker B: We. We reset by seeing Pitbull every year. [01:06:19] Speaker A: Okay, now, what kind of Pitbull girl are you? Are you. You go normal or do you do though. Do you do the bald head thing? Because I see a lot of females do the bald head thing. [01:06:26] Speaker C: I'm gonna bald head the next time we go. It wasn't a thing the last few times we went, but when they announced it in our market, I got to be in the video wearing the bald cap. So I have one. [01:06:35] Speaker A: Oh, you have one. [01:06:36] Speaker C: I have one. So I'm ready for town. [01:06:39] Speaker B: We went as a, like, kind of as a laugh. When we first started dating, I was like, we were looking for something to do And I've always been a person who's like, if something is really big is happening and I don't get it, I like to go and try to figure it out. [01:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to know. [01:06:50] Speaker B: I want to know what's happening, right? So I was like. I remember I telling her, like, I think we're gonna go see Pitbull. She was laughing at me, and she's like, I mean, okay. And he hadn't even gotten on stage before. We're like, we're never missing another football. [01:06:59] Speaker C: It was so much fun. [01:07:00] Speaker A: I hear they're a blast. [01:07:01] Speaker B: It is just such good. Like, it's honestly two and a half hours where you don't even think about anything else. [01:07:07] Speaker C: Brain off. Just dance. It's so good. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Everyone's. Everyone's having a good. He doesn't have a sad song, right? [01:07:12] Speaker A: No. [01:07:13] Speaker B: Like, now it's time for the ballad. [01:07:14] Speaker A: It's like, there's no ballad. [01:07:15] Speaker B: It's just up, up, up, up, up. Just keep going higher and higher. Like, we start at 10 and move up to 15. [01:07:20] Speaker C: He's got all the dancers and this. [01:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah, he just gives motivational speeches, you know. [01:07:25] Speaker A: Oh, he does, like, the sermon thing where he hypes the crowd up. [01:07:28] Speaker B: One time. One time we saw him, and he did it as the intro. Like, the lights all came down, and it was like, some of y' all out there don't know what you're doing with your life. And let me tell you, you can do anything. Take it from me, Pitbull and he's like, yo, this big speech about all of his accomplishments, and then he takes the stage, you know, [01:07:47] Speaker C: it's so good. [01:07:48] Speaker B: And it, like, always reminds us of just, like, the pure joy of, like, that's why we do this. [01:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:52] Speaker B: Like, if I could. I want everyone to have that experience at every show they ever go to. So that's like the maximalist version. And I like to get that, like, dose of it every year. [01:07:59] Speaker C: I think that's why we got into wrestling, too, because it was kind of the same energy where it was. It. It wasn't country music, but it was still that same. Everybody's so excited to be there. [01:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, they're fun. [01:08:12] Speaker B: They all, like, different. Like, they all, like, different wrestlers. A lot of them feuding with each other, but they don't care in that setting. [01:08:18] Speaker C: No. And people are so nice. Everybody's complimenting your shirts. They're like, oh, you got my wrestler shirt, and, hey, I got yours. And it's like. It's so. It's Such a good vibe that it's like, I want that at every concert [01:08:28] Speaker B: experience a secondhand language where you're like, oh, you know, so and so. It's. Wrestling's that way, like, especially in country. I've started slipping it into interviews just to see how people will react. I'll be like, yeah, you know, we. We were watching wrestling the other night, and I see if their eyes light up, I get excited. Yeah, yeah, we have a thing to talk about. Yeah, you're good, because you don't need to tell me about the out song you have coming out. Tell me about your favorite wrestler. [01:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah, so a random wrestling thing that I ike our video guy is huge into it. Like, him and his. Him and his wife will travel to, like, one big, like, super event every year. We did. There was an event that happened here. It was called the Ballroom Blitz. It's with a company. I think they're called Circle six. And they are like, a wild underground wrestling company. And what they do is they tie concerts to it, but there's no ring. So what they'll do is they'll do it in a parking lot or in a very small club, and they're, like, wrestling on the floor. Like, you're in, like, a circle. [01:09:23] Speaker C: It's like a street match happening. [01:09:25] Speaker A: Yes. And so people, when they're falling, they're not falling onto the mat, they're falling onto the concrete. Like, it was. It was like our buddies Cody Parks in the Dirty south played. And Luke Borchalt. And Luke Borchalt played. Oh, man. And they're, like, longtime homies. We've been Dirty south, like, country metal guys, and we've known Luke forever. And so we went to the show, and the guy. The. The promoter, they're out of Los Angeles, and I'd seen a video of them, like, light it putting someone in a casket and then lighting it on fire. And then a guy getting out of the casket and having to be sprayed with, like, a fire extinguisher. So the promoter hit me up, hit up me and Nick and was like, hey, like, would you guys be interested in putting your name on? Like, you know what? It's Cody. It's Luke. Like, why not? So we put the Razor Eye name on it, and they gave us some tickets. So our whole crew got to go. And one of the people that competed that night was Dan Havsen. And this was, like, two, three years ago. And it was like, I have a video of them playing Pink Pony Club over the. Over the. Over the. Over the thing and he's, like, dancing to it. And then he pulls out, like, a card, and, like, paper cuts a guy on the neck, like. And I. I looked back at the video because I've been seeing all of his stuff. I'm a big Knicks fan and watching the Danhausen. You're cursed, you're uncursed. You're cursed. You're uncur. Like, if the Knicks win, I want him in the parade for sure, but he needs to be on the float with. With. [01:10:47] Speaker B: I'm surprised you're here and not seeing Knicks games. [01:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's country. Me. [01:10:52] Speaker B: I don't. [01:10:52] Speaker A: And I don't have the money for that. Knicks tickets are way too. I'd be better off going to San Antonio, flying there, getting a hotel, getting a ticket. It'd be cheaper than going to the Garden. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Tickets are a lot cheaper. Plus, the Riverwalk. San Antonio is a cool city. [01:11:04] Speaker A: Yes. [01:11:06] Speaker C: Made it far enough. [01:11:07] Speaker B: You know what? I'm gonna. Can I ask you a few questions? [01:11:09] Speaker A: Yeah, go for it. [01:11:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:10] Speaker A: Please do. Absolutely. [01:11:11] Speaker B: First off, we're going to New York in October to see the format at Radio City Music Hall. Laura's not a New York City person. Yeah, sell her on New York City. [01:11:20] Speaker C: What? Yeah. What? Why would. Okay, because my experience is it's kind of dirty. Not a mean way, a little dirty. And everybody's kind of trying to grope you or steal your stuff. [01:11:29] Speaker A: What time? And I don't love it. [01:11:30] Speaker C: And I like big cities. [01:11:31] Speaker A: What time of year are you going? [01:11:32] Speaker B: We're going to knock. [01:11:32] Speaker C: October. October. [01:11:33] Speaker A: Okay. So it's not going to be as hot and as smelly. So there's one that's good. I tell people the threshold is from. Usually people are like, it's great to go somewhere between Memorial Day and Labor Day. New York is Labor Day to Memorial Day. [01:11:45] Speaker C: Okay, deal. [01:11:46] Speaker A: You don't want to go in the summer? My girlfriend was like, let's go for the 4th of July, 250. I'm like, hell, no. And for the record, I grew up in the suburbs about 30 minutes outside of New York City. So growing up, I used to wish that the city was. Would float away, leave me Madison Square Garden, and leave me Yankee Stadium, and they can take the rest of it. But since I've moved away, I've gained an appreciation because it is. It is a special place. You just have so much. Any kind of food that you want, any kind of experience that you want is there. There's country bars there. Now you want Asian fusion stuff. My good friend Stephanie Wagner she runs a page called Country Swag. [01:12:24] Speaker C: Okay. [01:12:24] Speaker A: If you guys are familiar with them. [01:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:26] Speaker A: But Steph books the entertainment at a bar called Common Country. And my buddy Drock, who just did the remix, is putting out the remix of Dick Down Dallas with Trey and put a bunch of other remixes. He's the house DJ there. And they've had people popping up. So there is that, like, country type of thing. Skinny Dennis, which is huge here in Nashville. Their. Their home, like, mothership location is in New York City. So, like, there's so some of that. But it's the food, and it's where you go in New York. Now. Am I going to tell you to go to Times Square? [01:12:55] Speaker C: I've already done that. [01:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't. You don't watch that. Are you a foodie? You like food? [01:12:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:59] Speaker A: Have you. So there's. In the West Village, they do food tours, and they guide you around, and you go to, like, you know, in Kroger, what's the famous cheese that they have in some of the Krogers? [01:13:10] Speaker C: Oh, I know. [01:13:11] Speaker A: I forget the name. I gotta look it up now. But they take you to, like, the. The. They take you to, like, the original place, and they take you to, like, these Italian. These little Italian spots, and you get, like, a drink in the places. Murray's. Murray's Cheese. So you go to. You start out the original Murray's Cheese Shop, and then you. They walk you through. And they walk you through, like, all the old historic homes that were there. So it's a cool thing if you're in the comedy, which I'm guessing you [01:13:38] Speaker C: guys are going to Upright Citizens Brigade. I did do that the last. [01:13:41] Speaker A: You gotta go. You gotta go to a comedy seller. Comedy seller. Last time I went, I went with my. Went with my mom. My mom, my stepdad, and I brought my girlfriend Aaron up there, and we just got tickets on a whim. It was one of the old Saturday Night Live guys. Colin Quinn was playing, and he was. He was a little rough to watch because he was going through something. He was just not all there. But Shane Gillis hopped up out of the blue and gave us seven minutes. And it was before his big special. So, like, his whole Trump thing that he does now. Yeah, we got to see him kind of workshop that. So you buy a ticket to one of the shows at the Comedy Cellar, and that's in the same section as where the food tour is. Hang out in, like, the Village. [01:14:21] Speaker C: Deal. [01:14:22] Speaker B: There you go. [01:14:22] Speaker A: West Village is where you want to be. That's where the good Restaurants are. That's where the culture is and things like that, as opposed to the tours. Because I agree, it's daunting. It's a lot. Now, how, how long are you guys going to be up there? [01:14:33] Speaker B: Three days. Three days long. [01:14:35] Speaker C: We're there to see something at Radio City Music Hall. Yeah. [01:14:37] Speaker B: Gotta take her to the Natural History music. [01:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've done MoMA and I will say too, and it hits a little bit different for, for me being a local New Yorker, going to the, the memorial, the 911 memorial in the World Trade center and the Freedom Tower. It's. You go there like earlier in the day and it, it is a very, very heavy, solid, solemn, heavy experience. And it's not too far from Radio City, so you guys should be able to route that and I'll send you a bunch of pizza places, restaurants, because I still have some boots on the ground. Some buddies that are up there that are partaking in the, in the craziness. They're. They're not going to the Knicks games. They're going to Madison Square Garden after the Knicks games, and they're just witnessing the chaos. You know, that's what I would do [01:15:19] Speaker B: if I lived there. [01:15:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, I wouldn't pay thousands of dollars to go to the game. I just go. [01:15:23] Speaker C: I bar across the street. [01:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, not even that. I just stand outside, watch it on the jumbotron. And then after the game when they win, like, everybody freaks out and just sit there with a glizzy or a chopped cheese sandwich and watch it happen. Yeah. And just be a part of the moment. [01:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah. We're going to do a thing with our pal Willie Lock, lives in New York. [01:15:40] Speaker A: Oh, I know Willie. [01:15:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:15:41] Speaker A: Will's good people. [01:15:42] Speaker B: We're going to do a thing where he takes us around and helps us find country. [01:15:44] Speaker A: He's a great. He's a great tour guide. He'll. Willie, will. Willie will set you up. Yeah. Shout out. Shout out to Willie. Appreciate you, Will. [01:15:51] Speaker B: Underrated. Underrated out there. [01:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah, man. [01:15:54] Speaker B: Let's see. I got another one for you. Well, you guys, you guys are really good at these. When's the last time you felt like you bombed one of these? [01:15:59] Speaker A: Oh, man, I've had some where I'm trying to think of ones happened this year. [01:16:05] Speaker B: Or just maybe a singular flub in an interview where you're like, it just. [01:16:08] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna do one. And I haven't talked about this publicly, so I'm gonna do it right now. I had a very. It lived with Me for about a week where I was like, man, I screwed. I screwed the pooch. Like, I was bad. I feel. I feel as. As our. As our buddy Matt. As our buddy Matt McIlwain, who and the trade crew now out with Kenny Whitmire. He used to say, like, I'm embarrassed, you know, Like, I'm embarrassed. We got invited to do a round table for Ella's double number one party for. For the Wind and choosing Texas. And we got to be a part of the round table thing. And I've interviewed Ella. I was her first podcast. Ella's like a little sister, you know? And so we got to sit. And it's like, you're sitting in, like, a boardroom. [01:16:50] Speaker B: Oh, it was actually an in person, person roundtable. [01:16:52] Speaker A: Yeah, you're sitting on a boardroom. You're sitting in a boardroom, and everybody gets one question. [01:16:56] Speaker B: I hate those. Oh, no. [01:16:57] Speaker A: I'm thinking, like. So I. I went in. I'm like, oh, it's Ella. I don't really. That's Ella. This is gonna be easy. This is. This is Ella. And it was. Everybody had asked their questions and whatever, and I asked a. I asked a question. And the way that I started it was so informal because it was like Billboard was there, this outlets. They're like the big boys voice. And it's like, Ray's Rowdy's got a seat at the table. [01:17:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:22] Speaker A: And I'm sitting there. Ike's in the room too. And I'm sitting. We're all sitting at the table. And I asked a question about, like, looking back on the good old days. Is there any, like, the old days, like, coming up, Is there anything that you miss about that time or whatever? And she laughs at the question and just is like, hell, no. It just moves on. And I just. And while I was asking the question, I remember I was. I was like. I felt like it was like game seven. I'm pitching on the mound, trying to win the World Series. Like, I blacked out when I asked the question. And. But I'm like, I've known this girl since she was, like, 19. Like, it's so that was a moment. But in this room, I don't know, like, podcast wise, because sometimes you guys know it, you get a guest or you get somebody to interview, and it's like pulling teeth. [01:18:11] Speaker B: Teeth. [01:18:11] Speaker A: You can tell they really don't want to be here. Which, for this, it's like they're driving 25 minutes out of town, parking in this warehouse outside of this tractor supply, which is Incredibly on brand for us. We love it. Yeah, we do. We do. We fit right in here. Shout out to City Limit Studios. But it's like, you, you. I'm looking over at the clock, like, right now. I can see we're well over an hour, which I knew we would do. I knew we'd crush this. Like, we'd have. We could go all day. [01:18:36] Speaker B: I expected to be too. [01:18:37] Speaker A: So, yeah, the three of us talking, we could go for days on end talking. But it's like, you look and you're like, oh, man, it's only been 15 minutes. [01:18:46] Speaker B: I can't imagine. [01:18:47] Speaker A: I've already asked, like, the points that the PR team wanted me to hit. Like, we're. I gotta. It's like you find the commonalities. Like, you see when you mention, oh, we were watching WWE the other night and their eyes light up. So for me, it's like talking about, I have like a cheat code where since I've toured so much with Muscadine and with Trey, I know all these clubs and I know what it's like to be in the van or getting that first bus or this or that. So I can usually find the commonalities in that. And I've been to so many states from touring that I can find something. [01:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, we do those. We use those tricks. [01:19:19] Speaker A: It's just finding the right thing. Like, you don't want to hear that somebody's from Iowa and just talk about corn. You know, you've been in the field [01:19:26] Speaker C: of dreams since, you know. [01:19:28] Speaker A: No, no, it's. You want to talk about. About the Midwest. And what makes the Midwestern country music fan so special is that it's not there quite all the time. It's as blue collar as anywhere. And it's the most welcoming, friendly environment. And then get them rattling off their experience of that, you know? [01:19:42] Speaker B: Well, I feel like when people come, you also have the benefit that when people come through here and you're in Nashville, they usually have a thing they're trying to promote. When people come through Grand Rapids, they want to do it, but they can't talk about the thing they need to promote yet. You know what I mean? So we end up in a lot of interviews with. Where, like with Graham. We had a lot of fun with Graham Barham, but it became obvious pretty early on that he was either saying something we weren't going to be able to use or he couldn't. When he realized he couldn't, then it just became like all my questions were turned into like, yeah, man, we'll See, you know, I think releasing more music would be a good idea. [01:20:12] Speaker A: Well, what you could do too is you could always break it up into segments and hold part of it. [01:20:16] Speaker B: That's what we do. Or I'll just be like, this isn't coming out till you've announced that thing. Thing. [01:20:20] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll just hold this until then. Thanks. [01:20:22] Speaker B: Or like, I hate. I can't. We don't have a podcast proper yet. We want. We want to get a good show off the ground. But I do hate when it starts to go slow. But we only do like 10 minutes. And sometimes I'll be like, was that good? She was like, it was six and a half minutes. I was like, oh, my God. It was a rough six and a half minutes. [01:20:36] Speaker C: It was. [01:20:36] Speaker B: It was rough. My biggest interview. Blah. Full of mess up lately was probably this month. Yeah, no, we interviewed Kip Moore in October. We just interviewed Kimmore three days ago. Went great. Interviewed him in October last year. And I had my first full blown panic attack as we were walking to his bus. [01:20:53] Speaker A: What was it? Was it just. Oh, shit, I'm talking to Kid Moore. [01:20:56] Speaker B: Adam. You know Adam. So he attended this festival in Texas last year that you guys didn't go to Tanglefoot? [01:21:01] Speaker A: Yep. [01:21:01] Speaker B: And it was like 98 degrees in wherever temple, Texas. And there I was not prepared for that. I wilt like a lily when it's that hot outside. It's terrible. [01:21:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:21:10] Speaker B: So we got there and I had like pass out almost most. Like we were the 30 minutes in September. And I was like, we. Laura took me to the medical tent. Like that. [01:21:17] Speaker C: Yeah, we had to go to like, EMS because he was about to die. [01:21:20] Speaker B: Hadn't got off stage yet. [01:21:21] Speaker A: Oh, no. 3:00pm Y' all were early. [01:21:24] Speaker C: They're like, is he drunk? And I'm like, no, not at all. Don't believe us at all about this either. [01:21:29] Speaker B: So like, we got there early because it was like the first ever time this festival would happen. And I was like, let's go do our thing, you know, run the grounds and everything. Not thinking that it was gonna be this, like this miserable. Then we got there and it was the first year they'd ever done this festival, God bless them. There was only one tree in the [01:21:43] Speaker C: entire festival and no shade. There was no one there anyway. [01:21:47] Speaker B: Just 98 degrees in middle Texas. And like, so I just, like, I'm doing bad. She takes me to the medical tent or whatever. And after that I was just having a really. I was just getting anxious in different places. But it wasn't that bad? I didn't think it was that bad. Laura would probably say a completely different story. It was getting worse. But then we. We were supposed to see you guys in Louisiana. Yeah. [01:22:08] Speaker A: Boots on the Bayou. [01:22:09] Speaker B: Bayou. And I broke. I legitimately broke three teeth up here that Tuesday. [01:22:14] Speaker A: We didn't go. [01:22:15] Speaker B: But then on Saturday, they were like, do you want to talk to Kip? We're like, sure. And I was like, well, we didn't go there. Let's go talk to Kip Moore. So we were backstage, and his band is, like, giving us straight, like, asking. They're very nice. [01:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, they're all cool guys. [01:22:27] Speaker B: The nicest guys. Couldn't be a more peaceful. We're at our home venue. We're in Grand Rapids. [01:22:32] Speaker C: Could not be more. [01:22:32] Speaker B: Could not be more of, like, the most natural place for me to be. And I don't know. His manager's like, I gotta go see if Kip's ready. And he leaves the room. And for whatever reason, I'm like. [01:22:42] Speaker C: Immediately, he turned white. [01:22:44] Speaker B: I'm white. I'm sweating. I'm, like, pacing around. I go to the bathroom, come back, I tell her. I'm like, I don't think I can do this. As I start to say that, he comes back and he's like, kips are ready for you. So now we're walking. [01:22:53] Speaker C: We're going. [01:22:54] Speaker B: It's like, 100ft to his bus. So we're walking to his bus, and I'm, like, literally squeezing Laura's rv. I'm like, I. I'm like, I can't see straight. I'm so dizzy right now. And I'm like, I don't know what's happening. I can't catch my breath. And she's like, we have to do this. There's no. Like, you can't be. [01:23:05] Speaker C: Yeah, we're too late. It's too late. [01:23:06] Speaker A: There's no out. We can't abort the mission. [01:23:09] Speaker C: No abort. We can go. [01:23:10] Speaker B: And he's like, hi, I'm Kid Moore, and I've been looking forward to this. I love Kim. [01:23:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:23:16] Speaker B: I'd been like. And as a guy who really loves Buddhism and Ram Dass and all this, like, higher thinking stuff, I was like, I'm so ready to go deep deep with Kit Moore. [01:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:24] Speaker B: We start talking, and it is not going well because I am, like, rattled. That's why my brain can't think of my questions. And I asked him something about a story I'd heard him tell, but I completely biffed the fact that the story Was not about him. Like, I thought he had told the story about himself doing something like wind surfing or something. And I tell him the story back to him, and at the end, he goes, yeah, so that wasn't me. And he starts correcting me. [01:23:45] Speaker A: No. [01:23:45] Speaker B: And this is like, the second question. So now we have like, eight more. And I'm just trying to not take personally how bad that went, but I'm still coming down off this panic. [01:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:23:54] Speaker B: So you watch the video. You can see me just being like. Like I'm listening to him, but in my face is giving away, like, stupid. [01:24:00] Speaker C: Like, I don't think we even ever released. [01:24:01] Speaker B: No, we clip out clips of it, but not the whole thing. So when we met him the other day, I was like, I don't know if you know this, but I was having a panic attack last time we met. And he told me this story was so funny. He goes, I had a panic attack once, like, six years ago. He told us the story of how it happened. And he goes, it was crazy. Anyways, after that, I started to feel that way a few times, and I just used my brain to not do it again. [01:24:21] Speaker C: He's like, I just willed myself out of panic attacks. I'm like, I wish I like that. [01:24:25] Speaker B: And I was like, you know what? That's a really good idea. [01:24:27] Speaker C: That's a great idea. [01:24:28] Speaker B: Get more. And I was like, I do wish that was how my. I was. That's why I like you, man, because you just have that level of chill. I can't even imagine Kid Moore being anxious we've ever been around him. Yeah, he has that aura. Some artists, you know, you get around him like, man, you just. I want to be in this space. [01:24:40] Speaker A: Yep. Stuff. [01:24:41] Speaker B: And his team has that energy around them. [01:24:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:43] Speaker B: But it was. It was. I. I still. I don't even want to see the footage because I could, like, feel myself in the moment being like. [01:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And I look back on some of my. Like, back in my college years when I was drinking and stuff and I was doing interviews, Like, I had. Like, I had. I was very blessed to have my college radio show for us to have enough. Enough stuff. It's a much better station now than it was back then, but it was like, we had the ability to do phoners. Like, we had Comrex machines, we had audio vaults, which is such a rarity in college radio. [01:25:15] Speaker C: People don't understand. It's like, most of the time, it's like, you're lucky. You have a Mackie board, a mic, [01:25:19] Speaker B: and you a dream we were. [01:25:20] Speaker A: We were. We were spoiled, really. We were spoiled to the point where, like, I was able to have Luke Combs on my college radio show. [01:25:28] Speaker B: That tops yours, I think. [01:25:29] Speaker C: I was like, I was caged the elephants first ever. I, I. I am the first person to play Cage Cage the Elephant on the radio. [01:25:35] Speaker A: Sick. Yeah. [01:25:36] Speaker C: That's really, like, one other person. [01:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:38] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's so cool. [01:25:39] Speaker C: Yeah, they're from Bowling Green. They were like, they're home boys. Yeah. [01:25:42] Speaker A: That makes a lot of sense. Why old 60 is the way they are. I've always. [01:25:45] Speaker C: We've decided that's absolutely an offshoot of that existence. The way that Cage the elephant ran and did things. They ran so old 60 could also run. [01:25:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense because I didn't. I didn't realize that the cage was also from Kentucky. [01:26:00] Speaker C: Yeah, they're from, like, an hour away from each other, so it's kind of the same general weird, sad, sad, sad Kentucky. Yeah. [01:26:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. [01:26:09] Speaker C: No, I. I saw a caged elephant in this place that doesn't exist anymore called. More called Tidballs. And it was literally this, like, almost. The stage is the size of this room. It had a crow's nest. Also, Matt used to literally jump up and hang upside down from the crow's nest while singing. [01:26:24] Speaker A: Wow. [01:26:25] Speaker C: And you just like, please don't die. There's still, like, 10ft from your head to a concrete floor. And it was just like. It was. [01:26:31] Speaker B: Oh, man. [01:26:32] Speaker C: Genuinely one of the coolest experiences to get to watch them come up. And now they're playing CMA Fest this [01:26:37] Speaker B: week, which is cool. [01:26:38] Speaker A: Yeah. That's sick. [01:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, that's gonna be so cool. [01:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Dexter is so cool to watch right now, man. I love you guys. Have to love it with your rock background. What is coming in. [01:26:51] Speaker B: It's the last song Morgan plays before he goes on stage. Yeah, like. Like when the lights are. When they want everyone to get in their seats at the stadium shows. [01:26:57] Speaker C: That's the song. [01:26:58] Speaker B: That viral song is what plays every night. We've seen him five times, and every time, you can see the crowd kind of talking over it. And then it gets to the. Taking drugs and sleeping and snapping. [01:27:09] Speaker C: Walk in, white boy. Like, everybody. [01:27:11] Speaker A: Big, big loud country playing nice with big, loud rock. You love to see it. You love to. To see you. [01:27:16] Speaker C: Yes. [01:27:17] Speaker A: But. But, yeah, like, all these bands coming up, like. Like, we're talking about Treaty Oak and, like, Fox and Bead is one that we love. We're Doing their album release show in a couple weeks, which is going to be nutty for. Yeah, we're doing that at Odies on a Wednesday night. Like a free. They were like, do you guys mind if we do, like, a free show Takeover. Like, play the whole record in, like, 15 songs on one of your Wednesday nights. Have some of our buddies open. We're like, jordan, you sure. You sure you want to just come do it with us? But it'll be. It'll be. Be fun. But it's so cool getting to see that. That element come into it with the rock stuff and everything. But I appreciate you guys coming on here and hanging so much. And I cannot wait to be at the same festivals and doing content and doing vibes and, like, just watching shows with you guys. I think it's gonna be my favorite part. [01:28:05] Speaker B: Well, let me give you your flowers because we do watch everything you guys do. And we often will talk about. About, like, how we can steal stuff or, like, borrow your ideas. [01:28:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:28:13] Speaker B: Or sometimes. You know what it is? You know what I think makes us a really good friend sometimes, and Laura pointed this out to me, so I can't take credit, is that you and I are very opposite in our. Out, like, our outgoing personality. Yes. So, like, you and I can be in the same place. And I'll be like, look at Matt doing this thing in the campgrounds. And she's like, you would never pull this off. And I'm like, I wouldn't. I'm not. [01:28:30] Speaker C: You would not be out there. [01:28:31] Speaker A: There's things that you do that I could never see myself doing in a million years, you know? [01:28:36] Speaker B: Yeah. It's that. And so sometimes I've. I've learned to respect it. I think when I was younger, I used to see people that would have opportunities. I don't be like. But now I'm like, I. I'm not that person. [01:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:28:44] Speaker B: So I can't have that opportunity or whatever. It just doesn't work that way for me. So I'm excited to have us as a team of people, attract different groups of people. [01:28:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:28:51] Speaker A: 100%. And what. What I like is that it's all a give back to that community that is at that festival. [01:28:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:28:57] Speaker A: We want them to have the best time for all they're doing fun things. Like, it's gonna just enhance the vibes, [01:29:04] Speaker B: you know, I'm not a guy that can camp a, crash a campsite and be like, let's play Beerfall. You are. [01:29:08] Speaker C: No. We started to try to walk around at one of the festivals Last year, we're like, oh, we're gonna do some raised rowdy stuff. And we're like, we. We're so awkward. [01:29:15] Speaker B: We can't jump in there. The way you do have this thing. [01:29:18] Speaker C: You are the party when you walk [01:29:19] Speaker A: into a room and it's wild because I don't even drink. [01:29:21] Speaker C: No. [01:29:21] Speaker A: But that's what's funny. Everybody hands me shots. [01:29:24] Speaker B: It's your core of your aura out of you. Because I don't have that in me. My body. Like, I. Like, I remember talking to Chase one time about, like, I was trying to. We were trying to figure out, like, what do we do? Where do we take country man? Where do you go next? And he was like, how good do you at the hang? And I was like, terrible. What's the. What's my other option? He's like, there is no other option. And I was like, okay, well, we got to work on the hang. So, like, that's our thing that I'm actually working on. But I was like, matt makes it look so easy. How do you just. [01:29:45] Speaker A: Well, it wasn't like that when I first moved down here. When I first moved down here, I was. I. I was not. I was trying to figure it out. Especially coming from New York, I had to learn how the Southern stuff works, you know, and bouncing in a bar on Broadway taught me that. I learned real quick how to undo my Yankee Doodle Dandy a little bit, you know? [01:30:02] Speaker B: Compliments. [01:30:02] Speaker A: Well, not as well as I probably should. [01:30:07] Speaker B: I hate it. Something we talked to Nate Smith about recently, where I was like, I have no idea what to say. When people are very nice to us in public, I'm like, thank you. Yeah. And they're. They're still looking at you, and. [01:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah. What I. What I. What I do, what I. What I try to do in my head, it goes to thank you, and then. Then it's immediate return compliment to that person. That's what I've programmed to. Yeah. [01:30:25] Speaker B: Or something like that. [01:30:25] Speaker A: Yeah. It's turning into, like, the. The. Where you from? What's your name? Like, Love that you're at this show. Like, dude, that hat's sick. Like, something like that. I do. [01:30:33] Speaker C: It's smart. [01:30:34] Speaker B: Or I'll be like, have you met Laura? [01:30:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:30:36] Speaker B: She's like a talker. She's the talker of the. [01:30:37] Speaker C: What's the radio in me? Because you spend so much time under tents and, like, listeners have such a Dude. [01:30:42] Speaker A: The promo events, relationship with you. [01:30:45] Speaker C: So I'm really good. [01:30:46] Speaker A: But it. I haven't thought about a Prize wheel in so long. [01:30:49] Speaker C: No, I'm so happy not to do it anymore. You know, I loved I when I was in classic rock, and that audience, that was. Those people were just there. And they're still my people. I still keep in touch with my listeners from that era, but it's just a different. There's a lot of people that. It's very humbling as much as it is ego building because it's like half of them are like, you are the reason I get to work every day. And then you'll have somebody be like, are you gonna give me a sunglasses? Shut up. I don't care. Yeah. You're like, okay. I don't. They don't. They don't even know what radio station. [01:31:16] Speaker A: Weirdest radio event you ever did, like, promo, like, street team style thing or like, paid appearance. [01:31:23] Speaker C: Oh, God. I mean, I, I. [01:31:24] Speaker A: What's one that stands out where you're like, man, that was a little. That was a little interesting. [01:31:28] Speaker C: I think one of the ones, the hinkiest ones, it wasn't that it was a unique experience. I got to open for Pat Benatar and someone else when they came to the Brown Theater in Louisville, Kentucky, which is like, I got to, like, bring them out like radio. And it's like this iconic. The Brown Theater is one of the nicest venues in the world. Has a massive chandelier in the middle. Somebody allowed me to have a T shirt cannon. I never used the T shirt cannon prior to this appearance. So me and the other person get up on stage, they're talking. I'm trying. I'm like, trying not to have a panic attack in front of, like, 2,000 people. I've never been on stage that big. I shoot the T shirt cannon. I miss the chandelier by the 3 inches. And I was like, all right, time to put that baddie down before I get banned from this. [01:32:12] Speaker B: Excited for Heartbreaker. [01:32:15] Speaker C: Let's go. And so it's like. Or just like, you know, weird place. Like a weird Boost Mobile. Things like that. Weird. [01:32:22] Speaker A: You know, I. I was. I was in. I was a street teamer in the Boost Mobile era. Yeah. [01:32:27] Speaker C: Had a guy make a shirt of me and come to one of those. [01:32:30] Speaker A: Oh, no. Like the. Rip your. Rip your face off and wear. [01:32:32] Speaker C: It was one of those like, Like a printer, because obviously there's no. And yeah, I heard that one before. [01:32:39] Speaker B: That was pretty good. [01:32:40] Speaker C: No, well, I had a cardboard stand up and people would take pictures and send it to me because it was like at a fireworks store. And some people like, oh, I'm with you. And I'm like, Weird. [01:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:49] Speaker C: Weird. And it's. It's so, so nice and so kind because it's like, that's the whole point. But it's like I know that I live in a apartment. Barely could afford my bills. [01:32:58] Speaker A: Yes. [01:32:58] Speaker C: Scraping by. And these people are like, like, you're the. You're the talk of the town. And I'm like, I don't know if I can eat tonight. [01:33:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. [01:33:06] Speaker C: You know, it's a humbling and beautiful [01:33:08] Speaker B: thing, but a cardboard cutout's so cool. [01:33:10] Speaker C: It was cool. I want to get it back. It's in Louisville still. My old boss has it. I can get it back. We just literally have not stopped by to get it. So I'm gonna have it one day. [01:33:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:18] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:33:18] Speaker C: It's like seven foot tall. It's massive. [01:33:20] Speaker B: I always just imagine that you pass people off to Nikki, like when you don't like, oh, it's so weird. Nick. [01:33:25] Speaker A: Nick passes people off to me too. It's like there's both. There's two of us. Because Nick spent years hosting as well. Like he's. He's slid back a little bit from doing that just because he doesn't enjoy it as much as I do. But we're. We're figuring out like, who are like. Because my thing is, it's like you want. You want somebody hosting that's getting people to buy drinks at the bar. I don't drink. I talk about surfs. I hype them up. I do a solid job of that. And they. It's great that I can be like a sober spokesperson for them, but we like having somebody that's like getting the party going. Cuz Nick used to drink with everybody when he would host. And that would drive bar sales through the roof, you know, like that would just go like bush lights were flying. But back to the radio thing we did. [01:34:06] Speaker C: We. [01:34:07] Speaker A: One of the stations I was with, it was called 1450 WCTC AM. [01:34:11] Speaker C: All right, so AM station got you old school. Yeah, like. [01:34:16] Speaker A: Like pictures of. Pictures of JFK using a CTC microphone. Like old school, like Marconi type. And they would do an event. Our morning show guy was a dude named Bert Baron who was very int. He was a character. Bert would take me to all kinds of weird places and. But we would do an event called Live on the Lawn. And it would be Bert broadcasting the AM radio morning show from the parking lot of the radio station on the lawn of the station. And the people would come out we'd bring in, like, we'd have a catering partner that would bring in like a very, very shitty breakfast of like, danishes and like, bagels. And then there would be a, like, recycling truck or like a shredded truck that would come and people would show up and bring their stuff to shred, eat the shitty breakfast and then just linger around. And Bert would bring all of the stuff from his garage that his wife was making him get rid of. [01:35:09] Speaker C: Just give it to people. [01:35:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, so that did you, like, do. [01:35:12] Speaker C: Did he do straight tradio or would he just. Just give it away? [01:35:14] Speaker A: He would just give it away. Like it was like, come, come and take our garbage. And we did it like it was like the first Friday of every month during the summer. And people sponsored this thing like it was live on the lawn. We'd wear. He was a Hawaiian shirt. He wear Hawaiian shirt every Friday. So I had to be out there as like a promo intern in a Hawaiian shirt that said wctcam, handing over like a shovel to like, some random guy. Like, random stuff. People with take, like, they'd put the plate over their, like, breakfast that they would take and just put it in their car. It was like all the hoarders like we had. And it was in central New Jersey, so you can imagine the characters. Like, it was like the old Jersey guido guys that are like. It was quite the sightsee. [01:35:57] Speaker C: The worst one. You're now reminding me. I worked in this very small cluster in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as my first job at a hot AC station, a mom station. And they sent me as a part of the classic. The oldies station in my station were sponsoring some like, balloon glow event where like, some ancient person was playing. I don't even remember who it was, but they sent me out with the tip with the table and it had a. All I had to give out were packets of gravy. Like those 69 cent packets of gravy. [01:36:23] Speaker A: Are we, are we talking like turkey gravy or like biscuit gravy? [01:36:27] Speaker C: No, turkey gravy. [01:36:27] Speaker A: Okay. [01:36:28] Speaker C: And it's like August, July, not a time of year you could spin this very well. And bags of jelly beans that had been misprinted so that the label hit in the middle instead of the side. So it was like half and half of a label, but not the right half. And so I had to sit there and try to get rid of all the stuff off the tent at this like big balloon glow event in town. And finally I started being like. I mean, Thanksgiving's in like four months. You should Just take the gray. I did get rid of all the gravy, the jelly beans. I think I ended up just like throwing in a trash can and even. But it was genuinely one of those moments where you're like, did I make the race choice? [01:37:07] Speaker A: Like, what am I doing out of college? [01:37:09] Speaker C: I'm giving out turkey gravy. [01:37:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:37:11] Speaker B: These are my dreams. [01:37:12] Speaker C: My parents would be so proud right now. [01:37:14] Speaker A: I. I used to sleep on my PD's couch and our PD's office. [01:37:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Because I slept in the studio. [01:37:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:37:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:22] Speaker A: Because I lived like two hours away. I lived over the New York border and would drive like and for. For $10 an hour. Because I was. Was 22 years old and wanted to make it in radio and busting my ass. [01:37:32] Speaker C: Drove from Louisville to Elizabethtown at 65 every day. I lost $30 a paycheck. [01:37:37] Speaker A: Yep. But we did it because we loved it. And look at where it's taken us now. Where you guys have. You guys have a cool brand that you're passionate about. It's making a difference in the community that you're able to make a living doing. And me and Nick feel the same way. You know, like, it's. You go through those times, you talk about having the venue and those. Those days and those struggles, and now it's like we get to be our own bosses and talk about music that we love and be a part of the best genre in all of music. Fastest growing genre. The biggest genre in American music arguably in the world right now. [01:38:07] Speaker C: Preach. Yep. [01:38:07] Speaker A: You know, Amen. And here we are. We've made it. [01:38:10] Speaker B: We've made it. Do your. Your motivational speeches to us do keep us going. We're not here too. That is. We will talk about. Remember what Matt and them said about us, though. Can't. Can't let them. [01:38:18] Speaker A: I'm a good. I've got the hype man thing down very well. [01:38:22] Speaker B: She said something recently. Last time I saw you where you were, like, you guys don't know, like, people around here are. Take notice to this. [01:38:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:27] Speaker B: That kept us going for like two solid weeks. Yeah, they are, man. [01:38:31] Speaker C: They are. [01:38:31] Speaker B: It's hard, you know, it's hard. It's hard to know that stuff. But we appreciate it nonetheless. [01:38:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I appreciate you guys and it's. We just. We love being friends with other folks in the space and being. And becoming family. And you become family when you go to a festival together. So I cannot wait to Crossroads and I cannot wait for what's to come in the future for. For all of us. [01:38:50] Speaker B: And There are still tickets, so people should go to Cross. [01:38:52] Speaker A: They definitely should. I mean, it's. It was the highlight. IAR Ike Everard, who's going to be editing this whole podcast for me. Editing all the video part. I still do the audio. I use my Adobe audition. My. My little skills. Yeah. [01:39:05] Speaker B: Going. [01:39:06] Speaker A: But he said it was that we went to a bunch of festivals last year and he was like, oshkosh was my favorite place. He was like, I gotta go back to Oshkosh. Trash. Like, okay. Crossroads was. It's a vibe. [01:39:17] Speaker C: But there's no bad Wisconsin vibes. [01:39:19] Speaker A: No, there are no bad Wisconsin vibes. It's just that's the only one that I've done in Wisconsin. I'm sure all of them are freaking awesome. [01:39:24] Speaker B: We'll get you to Country Jam next year. [01:39:25] Speaker C: We'll get you to Country Jam next year. [01:39:26] Speaker A: That'd be fun. I want to come out to Yalls World and just experience the. [01:39:30] Speaker B: All the food's free there. There's never been to another festival like it. [01:39:33] Speaker C: Yeah, it's all inclusive. So, like they have like. So, like. Yeah, you walk in and there's food and drinks. [01:39:38] Speaker B: Yeah, there's. [01:39:38] Speaker C: Think about it. [01:39:39] Speaker B: Yeah, they do like, like Asian American every day. [01:39:42] Speaker A: I thought country concert was wild because it's still byob, but everyone gets all [01:39:47] Speaker B: inclusive with their ticket. So, like, you eat all day there. [01:39:50] Speaker C: It might be vip. It's vip. [01:39:52] Speaker B: It's primarily. [01:39:53] Speaker C: But it's. Yeah, yeah. [01:39:55] Speaker B: So it's like big. [01:39:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:39:57] Speaker B: So every day that. I mean, country Jamie USA is on a site that they built and they own. [01:40:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:40:01] Speaker B: It was only used for that festival, so it's built smart. But they have a giant kitchen and. Yeah, you can get. Get egg rolls and whatever. Tacos and everything. Burgers and hot dogs all week long. All day long. [01:40:13] Speaker A: The munchies are going to be dangerous for us this summer. It's a lot we're gonna be eating. [01:40:18] Speaker B: There is. [01:40:18] Speaker A: There is also. [01:40:20] Speaker C: That is also one of the things. [01:40:22] Speaker B: There's a dessert one, obviously. [01:40:24] Speaker A: Just ranch dressing on everything the way of the Midwest. Ranch dressing and bush lights. [01:40:30] Speaker C: Sign me up. [01:40:31] Speaker A: I love it. Well, thank you guys so much for hanging. Thank you for what you do for this community. And I cannot wait to get down in August with you guys and girls. It's going to be freaking wild. And there's the DJ afterparty every night, too. I don't know if you've seen. If you've seen that. Our Buddy Grant Fiser DJs at the end of each night. And it's, it's all the campers stay for the DJ thing. So there's like thousands of people at the side stage and it's like a rave till like one or two o' clock in the morning. [01:40:58] Speaker C: Like to hear we're missing Electric Forest this year. So I'm ready. [01:41:00] Speaker A: Oh, you'll, you'll get, you'll get wild. [01:41:03] Speaker B: Thank you for having us. Dude. This means the world. [01:41:05] Speaker C: Yeah, genuinely. [01:41:06] Speaker A: And I, I. What I want to do too is I want to talk with Nick and figure out, look at our calendar and try to get up to a show in Grand Rapids and go to. I want to go to the intersection with you guys. [01:41:16] Speaker B: We'll find one that we have a [01:41:17] Speaker C: place for you to stay. You just get there. You can stay with us. [01:41:19] Speaker A: I want to experience an intersection show with Countryman. Like I want to, I want to get out there and do it. [01:41:25] Speaker C: Pick the one if we're in town. You come stay with us. [01:41:27] Speaker B: Come stay with us. Our big pitbull, Tulip will love you. [01:41:29] Speaker A: Tulip. Let's go. [01:41:31] Speaker B: The pit bull. Yeah. Shout out Tulip and yeah, man, that's our dream too. We would love to have you. [01:41:36] Speaker C: Yes. [01:41:36] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [01:41:37] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much. Shout out to our friends James and Laura from Country Minute. Y' all be sure to go check out Country Minute. Check out Country Wrestling as well and follow along with all the content. If you're at any of the festivals are going to be at or you're at any of the shows, you recognize them. Go over. Don't be weird. Go over, say hi. Wear the sunglasses. [01:41:54] Speaker B: Bring the party free stuff. [01:41:56] Speaker C: We have free stuff. Always come say hi. We will give you free things for. [01:41:58] Speaker B: I would like to be able to buy more of it. [01:42:00] Speaker C: So please. [01:42:01] Speaker A: Yes, yes, 100. But you'll be sure to go check out their content. Give them a follow if you're not following already. And thank you so much for the gifts. [01:42:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:42:08] Speaker A: These are awesome. And I can't believe I pulled the Seth Rollins. That's pretty great. [01:42:11] Speaker C: It's pretty good. [01:42:12] Speaker A: That's pretty. That's pretty great right there. And for more on us Visit raise your eye.com Big shout out to our friends from Search side. No bubbles, no troubles. Gonna give you guys a. An eight pack to touch, take back to the Airbnb or wherever you all are staying. So y' all can have some, some teas, some lemonades. I got some green teas over there as well and I got a bunch of hats. You guys take whatever you want from that pile as well. For our friends from Country Minute, I'm Matt Brill. This has been outside the ramp [01:42:38] Speaker B: I never been the kind for still one place for too long I never been the best at sail I love you [01:42:48] Speaker A: to a girl I love only got a couple tricks up my sleeve they [01:42:54] Speaker B: 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 drink and the lack of money for show I'm just a two trick pony yeah.