Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: This is outside the round with Matt Barrill for Razor Alley podcast.
My man on a Thursday morning at ten in the morning. Don Lewis. Don, how the hell you doing, my brother?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Blessed and highly favored, just like you, big dog.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: What you been up to, man?
[00:00:31] Speaker B: I've been writing songs all night, hanging out with good times and good people. They didn't last forever, so I had to keep em going, you know? Now we're here in the morning, I'm ready for the day. I'm about to murder it. Have a great one.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. That's awesome. How's the Nashville co writing stuff been for you? Cause coming from Texas, it's a little bit of a different world.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Well, now that I've built up, you know, the resume and the love that when I walk into the room, people value what I'm saying now. In the beginning, it was very hard to walk in as a new country artist from doing prior what I had done and showing up people not taking it as serious or not valuing what you were saying. So they kind of steamboat you and just roll over, or they repeat your idea to you and hurt your feelings real bad, like, damn. I didn't just say that a second ago. That's okay. That's okay. I didn't say that. You're right. That's a good idea. That's a great idea. That's how it go. But now. Yeah, now they appreciate me when I come in the room and my input, I got value behind it. It feels a lot better than more quote unquote hits. I don't know, hits or subjects. I don't have a billion streams yet, but I have enough to get people's attention. So, yeah, they appreciate what I'm saying now. It's been awesome.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. And you were drinking. I. You're the first guest in a while. I've got drinking the surfsides, man. And I've been sober for eight years. I had to quit drinking a while back, which is which. It's. It's working in the world that we live in. It's tough.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: It is tough.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: But I save. I save a lot of money. Granted, I could be not saving money, and I could be fine with drinking the surfsides if I was still drinking, because they send them to us. But it's a good. It's a good vodka tea, right?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Save a lot of money. I mean, you got these meat for free.
Better. Better than mad decent.
I would be really upset if it wasn't vodka. Cause it's so, you know, plain like tea. It's probably getting you there already at the time.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Well, it's great. No, they did good, and that's awesome. That's why I got you another one. I didn't just get one for. I'm slamming the first one. I got a whole nother one to crack open.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: We're gonna send you home with a.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Four pack full sahin, baby.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. Um, so let's kind of get into it. So this is the first time that you and I are formally meeting. So for folks that don't know who Don Lewis is yet, kind of give us, give us a little bit of your background, or you're a Texas guy. You said you did some stuff in the rap game, you played football in college. You've had some, had some success, got some opportunities on a national scale with folks like folks like the Today show, bet record coming, liquor talking.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: What's man did his homework.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Who is Don Lewis?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Who is Don Lewis? I'm the philanthropic child of the Lord brother. I come out here, I give selflessly. Everybody's always asking me all the time, well, don, why you do it? So I can give it all away. And hopefully I make more. I got into music, man, because I just knew I was supposed to be doing something more than working out a sawmill. Wanted to go doing that, and it wasn't filling my spirit. You could be. I'm a big man. You see what it is. Going in there and working good and being a good worker for somebody who don't appreciate you is just one of the worst things you can do with your life, so. And you don't get your dreams happening. You're just making somebody else's money. You're never really, like, stepping up for yourself. You're gonna put yourself in the position to never get ahead. Always right in. So complacent, and I didn't feel complacent at those places. I grew up in a little small town called Cumby, Texas. Outside of moving from Dallas, it was a little ranch. My pop put me on twelve acres. He taught me how to work the land for a long time. I literally grew up breaking Bronx, grabbing my own eggs, you know, going out there and feeding the pig slop and shit. It was awesome. Going to, you know, learn that kind of manhood. Now that I appreciate the day as a grown man, at first, as a kid, you don't like, you don't want to do that. Then you start to love it, and then you start to appreciate the discipline outside of, you know, living on the farm. Ended up moving away and playing football for a bit. Got a college football scholarship. Not many people in my town get to do that. It was either, you know, like, go work at a sawmill, go work at the feast, or do this or college. Right? So we ended up getting a first person generational curse breakers, what I like to call myself a job and also, you know, passion to get the first one to get the. The football scholarship. So I went out to play at Washington Baptist for a while. Dropped out, ended up having a kid. Loved my son, much love to him. That's why I worked so hard, is what I do. Took the same discipline that I was having a football. Applied it to this music game. Got back in football for a year. Didn't work out what it was. Ended up hurting my knee. And I'm sure you've seen that thing, it's not that bad. I way would rather do this than have to worry about the physical demands that football is always asking of you. And when I started seeing the return on what, not even cash wise, it just. I'm talking about people's spirits. Because when you start saying certain things growing up, and I've grown up a lot now as you have, you start hitting more people in demographics besides just 16 year olds. You get 85 year olds who probably would not ever listen to somebody of my lovely, you know, texture is the best way to put it. And then you get them out there singing along. So you're like, damn, you know what? Maybe I've been wrong, and it's a good time. And I love being that connection. In the British, you can do that in music, but you couldn't do that in football, because in football, you're over there playing for somebody else. You playing for a team, you're playing for some. It is a team, and it's like a team sport. But when you get on stage and you start talking about certain things, people are engaged. It's not like, shut up and tackle or shut up and throw the ball.
I'm engaged to what that man is saying on the microphone right now. So I hope he's saying enough to make it make sense to me and then make me want to stay in this room, party with him all night, cry, laugh, have a good time, go by drinking. You know, that's way more power. And you bring God up. So you bring up all that noise and you just brought people to church right there sitting at the bar. Or you go play football, which is, you could say, like, thank God for making me as capable as I am, but it's not for God while we go out there.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Where was the turning point where you're like, all right, I can do this music thing.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: I mean, we just.
I was listening to a lot of music back in the day. I think around 2014 through 2016, all the good songs were coming out from Caroline, you remember? Yeah, and those were great. But then there were some people that were sneaking in with mediocrity is what I would call it. I feel like I'm very cynical, even with my own music. I try to at least do mad decent on it. And I remember this girl getting in my car. I had a tahoe at the time. My friend, we used to split it and drive back and forth, and she got in. She's like, you gotta listen to this new artist. He's so good. Turned on a song. I was just sitting there like, man, you know this word for word, and this does not land well. It don't feel good. It's like you really trying to force this art. It's art, and it's supposed to be for somebody. It just wasn't for me. But I realized right at that time, I was like, if this could be, you know, digested and given mass media presence, I can make something that could do the same thing because my work ethic is the same. And if I apply that to going in there and making a damn song, I would get to where I want to be. And I'm four years in now, and I've come a lot further than people I know, man, have been doing it for 15 years. So it's not lucky. I just. The work had to go crazy.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: And I think that comes from your background and the grind of working on the ranch and doing the work with the family, like you said, going out, feeding the pigs, the slop and the doubles. And you're. You're doing football in East Texas. You're doing football even at, like, it's not like the massive division one scope, but you're doing football in Texas and in Arkansas, bro, it's a grind. And you. And you imply that grindental to this music game, bro, it can take you some places.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: It is, for sure. There's a lot of people, man. Hopefully whatever sports or whatever coaches they had or any kind of teaching earlier in life, they applied to the life they want to. What do you want? What do you want to do? People be so. I don't really know, you know? And then they get to 35, and then they get the 42. I don't really know. And 50 hit them, like, well, I don't really know.
Come on, man. Yeah, you can have it. You just gotta ask.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: I just gotta say, man, I know I'm supposed to do more than a sawmill. Sawmill's nice. It's cool. Mad decent. I can make. I could be.
I could work my way up that ladder.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: And probably would not be appreciated unless I put ten plus years in there. Why would I do that?
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Instead, why not go try anything? I can make shirts. I'd rather, you know, anything. Whatever it is, to make people want to look at my brand, my design, my love, my business. And I found music, and then I started talking some real nonsense, and everybody else was like, okay, you should stay on there. And then you got other people like, he gonna. He didn't. He didn't make it in football. Why he think he gonna make it in this? And I started laughing at him.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: All right, man, that just motivates you, dog.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Oh, put that chip.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: That just motivates. That's what I'm saying. You seem like a chip on the shoulder, kind of.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: There was a video, man, I remember my ex was in the room. She used to take care of me pretty good. She had a video of the dude saying that, and then I laughed at it. That's so crazy. And it hurt and it didn't. I wrote a whole rap song about. It was very funny. It was on edge. And then I invited him to come open up for me. Cause he was the one to get into music right after that.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: And I let him. Cause, you know, as I said before, I was a philanthropy. Child of the Lord, you know, I'm always just giving away whatever blessing I can. I was doing okay at the time. Now I'm doing a lot better, but I did it just humble pie. I gotta keep my people always saying, you know, you think you sold this, this and that. I was like, no, I've worked for this. I practiced it. I put it in so much. You know, drillers make killers. So I'm confident behind it now. And I've done it so well now, to this point, I'm not cocky. I know when my work is, there's.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: A difference between cockiness and confidence. There's a big difference between the two. And like you said, if you can exude the confidence and step with authority and pride in what you're doing and knowing this is what I'm supposed to be doing, man, you can take over the damn world.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: And I felt it in the music more than I felt it in football, and I did football my whole life, you know what I mean? My cousins did football their whole. Some kind of athletic event our whole lives. And it came out to be in this thing right here. And I still work out, and I still take care of myself because this is sports. I'm not trying to beat nobody else, but if I could beat me every day and I'm already winning like this shit, I'm gonna be at the top here soon. Cause I'm just trying to beat me every day.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: What's the big difference between rap and country? Cause you said you had some time in the rap world, and obviously, like, coming out of Texas, there's a lot of rappers historically. And I'm from New York, so I grew up kind of around it. Not in the city or in a neighborhood where. Where guys were coming out of that, but, like, in proximity to it, you know? And it's like Texas right now. Boom. And rap scene with big x, the plug, and those guys, mexican ot, like, and of course, down. Down south in Houston, there's. There's all that stuff. So what's. What. What made you do the pivot? Aside from growing up, country is hell on a ranch.
Where does the pivot kind of come from? And what are the big differences that you've seen?
[00:10:59] Speaker B: So my. My pops would, black country cowboy, used to head and heel with me, taught me how to do a whole bunch of stuff. Would listen, like slipknot corn, freaking metallica.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Oh, the rock shit. We love that rock stuff, bro. That's awesome.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: But my mom, she had two marriages in between, and the first one would play, like, the Eminem and the Andre three. My mom would play the Andre 3000. She played the UGK, she would do all that stuff. And. And the big hawk, you know, all the big mos and the h town flow kind of got to me. I was like, I like the slow chop. It was just so smooth at the time. And I was thinking, you know, when I got into the rap game, how could I bring that back and just land it smooth? Say something not as aggressive. Say something not as, like, over hyper sexualized, not degrading nobody. And just like, you know, I'm this, this and that, and I ain't talking about money. And you're like, oh, you know, that's nice.
The rap game changed in the country scene when I knew, how can I say all this with only seven syllables?
That made it a lot harder. But I met some good people on the way so far. Rip. The one of them who taught me how to write, mister Chad Zillas. And he gave me the song Neon U. Because of him, I know how to emulate the same kind of feeling I had in the song of neon U and apply it to all my new country songs or just find a certain feel that feels like that. And I know that's a banger in my heart because if I like it, as I said before, I'm very quote unquote cynical to myself. If it's not good, I'm not gonna lie to myself. And, you know, you can't feed me shit and just tell me it's sugar. It is what it is, and that's how my music's gotten for me.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
What's it been like being a part of this kind of revolution within country music of folks, like you said, of a different texture, like coming in now and being a part. Obviously, you're over at Empire and things are booming over there. With folks like, with folks like Shabuzi and CCDhev, there's 2024 is a great time for revolution within country music and creativity. And the playbook is open. The playbook is wide open.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: It's all on time right now. Just think about, you know, Shabuzi's blowing up. I don't even want to live on his coattails. But I have my own music, and I'm so appreciated to be on the same team as someone that amazing what he's doing. I got to meet Cece. Hopefully I get to have her on a couple of my songs. Beautiful lady, she keeps on killing it already, and she's making all of our big people pretty happy as I see when I come around and they start smiling and stuff, and they don't do that. They don't show fake love and they won't sign anything. Don't do that noise. They let you go real silently and quick. It's tough out here in the music game, but all of our sounds, the three names you just brought up, all different, all subjective, all something worth showing a little love to. And as I continue to bust out this new album that I got coming out on the 24 August, I know I'm in the right time. I'm in the right area. I'm from Comby, Texas. I said before I signed, I'm making history over here. First black country artist ever to go play the bets. Within the last month, I had to sit there and fathom that. I was like, we really made history and no one's gonna give us our flowers, which is fine, but I have to sit there and digest that knowledge and think, who else has done what I've done.
And I'm not saying the kageway's like, who else has done ever? Like, we're really bringing history to somebody. We might make somebody in the crowd want to pull up their pants, put some cowboy boots on, throw a hat on, go out. You know what? I want to throw some t posts down and see what that feels like. Go build a fucking barbed wire fence.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: I'm glad I've inspired you to go put that kind of work in. Glad I'm inspired to go try this simple kind of life. Cause it don't gotta be as much as what we think it is, man. We don't need as much as what we think we do. It'll be real nice. Sometimes I just throw this phone. I'd be so tired of talking to people.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Dude, the do not disturb button is power.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: It only works. They just keep calling me.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Oh, really? Oh, yeah, they.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Oh, you get the double three calls? Him with three calls. Oh, no, the double one I still ignored, like, nah, you ignored it too fast. I know it's on now. He told me that. I was like, what the hell? Nah, leave me alone. He didn't what he wanted to ask for. They playing your song right now. I love them, though. He's my friend. But it was late. It was like 03:00 a.m. they'd be calling me at all times for everything.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: And what was the BET awards like? And what's it like being the guy repping the country flag out there?
Cause there's a lot of cult, there's a lot in the culture, and a lot of. A lot of great music of all different varieties at that thing.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. There's a. Some that you're gonna like. There's some that, you know, we all don't agree with or, like, that's just how it goes on both ways. Even between cushions from my first experience going out there, I mean, we stayed pretty much to the business side of it. Besides, we went to a little cigar bar and talked about how proud we were of our growth and success at the end. Pull it up into the bet war zone. We're about to play country dog. And, like, imagine these people are not listening to the freaking country at the time. They're expecting for me to come out there and go, my put it pink and my Buddha hulk brown kind of vibe, you know, and I already knew I wasn't gonna do that. So you go out there, you start singing, which, the new. It was part of the new album. Some of the stuff we're working on. And at first, you really have to get them to start moving their hair. Cause they don't know you. They don't know who hell I am. First time country coming out there and I watched the transition go from like this shit kind of. Kind of whack. This is, you know, ooh, baby shit. You know what? He moving kinda good right up there. Oh, he had brother. Oh. And then like the whole flip from a 180 be crazy. Cause, you know, I'm trying to bring good music and a good time. How can I say everything? All the rappers are saying less words, just as cool, just as suave. And then, you know, you got other people start talking like that. Then you got them, you know, cutting out certain harsh words. Cutting out words. They don't even need to be a filler word. Using real vocabulary and like, I'm murdering you right now. You don't feel the presence of what, like the lyricism is going on. This noise, they gonna start to get it, though, here. So everybody's already getting it.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, instead of the context, you're talking about the ranch. You're talking about your hood, which your hood was a twelve acre farm. It was a twelve acre ranch.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: So be hard. You know what I mean? I'm a grown ass man. Take care of my friends and my family. That's hard.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: And there's my granny. I go take her when she needs help. I go cut down the trees.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: What's Grant, what's granny like? Tell me about Granny.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Blessing the angel sent straight down to earth. I work so hard for my son. People like her. I want to get to the place that I see this vision getting into. And I will, hopefully before she passes. Cause you never know how long you got with your grandparents anymore. And anybody's life could be taking them more. You appreciate what you do have in the room. And she's definitely a driver for some of my music because I want her to be able to get up and she don't move that well no more. Dance with my paw paw. So I try to put them hips in the songs for her to just be able to move them hips. At least if she could do anything, she can get her moving a little bit, man. And she my right hand. Everything. When I need somebody lean on, she pray for. My mama's amazing, too. But, like, my granny is somebody I'm gonna have my mom a long time for all the time. My granny, you know, like I said, I can only put so many prayers in. I can't keep beating everybody off, but she needs more blessings, so y'all keep them in it if you're hearing these things.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm very close to my grandparents as well, and my grandparents were huge in raising me, and I had a mom and dad that were around. But there's something special about those days at your grandparents house.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: There's something special with the cousins that Granny's had. They all come down. The family kind of gets together. I had the older cousin. I was like, the baby. It was mean to me. That's all I'm gonna say. We got a good relationship now. Shit. So sweet. And then the. The whole, you know, granny and papa or granny grandpa or whatever. My. The Louis name actually comes from papa also.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Incorporate that. Hope he's proud.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Ah, that's awesome, dude. Now, did they. Were they kind of. Were they near you? Would they come up? They come up in the same area.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Whenever mom needed help, and they were always willing to pick me up on a dime. They used to walk around, act like I was because they was black and white, and it just. Y'all had a. How y'all having a baby at this age right here. So papa, I was proud, like, my bad dad. Louis, that's Don or Demetri Lewis. It's so funny. Just, like, making them smile even at this time right now, because all my other cousins, all my other siblings, you know, they ain't so nonsense sometimes. We're caught in our own ways, and afflictions look harsh on each other. We shouldn't be so damn harsh on each other. And I come over there smiling and have a good time, and I like driving. All the nonsense is the best part. They're amazing. Now I'm Don Lewis. I'm killing.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. That's awesome. So when did you first start coming out here to Nashville?
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Only like, a year and a half ago, I would say. It's really has not went maybe two years now.
It's not been that much. Chad came out and helped us with the neon you song the first time. I wrote red light just at the time, and we started promoting that and putting. That was our first, like, intro to country. And I was already panicking cause my manager came and he ended up signing my deal with me and signing me out of some, like, it was real bogus, what I was already in, so. Best way to put it. I'm not gonna talk no nonsense on him.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: It's the music business, bro. It's the music business. We live and we learn sometimes you.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: Go through the bogus. But he came through and bought me out. He was like, what do you think about doing country? And I looked at him, I was like, you're crazy, brother. Not that I'm not a hick. It's just like, I kind of want to do this flow that's not quite rap, not quite art, whatever I was doing. But after we got to a few, there was a few headaches in between trying to get into it. We almost wrote a song about Alabama. It was the worst thing ever for me to sing, personally. I felt like they were taking my soul while I was singing it. But eventually we started building that don's got value when he speaks on these songs. We should probably listen to something of what he wants to write about and then try to move it to. Soon as we started doing that, we had a couple hits. And I was like, man, that's crazy, right? So, like, I got a little value where I know what I'm talking about. So he writes me all the time, but if you don't want to talk to me, get to know me, you're not gonna know shit. Yeah, that's what I had to turn into.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome, dude. What was. What is the cause? Right? Obviously, like it has on here to the. The NFL. The NFL stuff. What is an NFL combine? Like, well, what the hell? What the hell is it? Like, were you at like the. The official one up in indie or is it like a remote one or how does all that stuff.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: So there's a lot of those base, obviously, because it would be just too much for to get every athlete that's trying to apply for the, you know, the combine to pull up to one place. They put them all over, not just Texas, I'm sure it's all over the world, global. If you get invited to it, you either pay or you get a direct invite. You get to go work out and do stuff with them. At the time that I had been signing up, it was 2020, and they stopped doing the regular test.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Covid combine, bro. Covid combine, bro.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: If you weren't in it. Football really is politics. I mean, sports, period. Life. Nepotism follows in or like, you know, you know, somebody upper hand and that can happen.
Workouts were made multiple times and then new opportunity was like, hey, keep coming back to this. Like we are. We are looking at you, this and that, but you gotta keep testing before it happens. And then in between, you know, that's a lot of maintain that happens, I think every six months or something like that. Do some kind of thing, or it might just be for the year. So you imagine you gotta stay healthy all year. Yeah. Keep your body together. End up getting a bar fight. Blew my knee out, man. It was bad. I was like, damn, what am I gonna do? I cried a little bit. I'm not gonna lie.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: I cried.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: I was one day just had a freaking knee elevated above my heart. Sitting there thinking like, damn, I'm a grown ass man. I can't even walk right now. This is tough. Move my leg. It hurts too damn bad. Then I started pucking on my little guitar. I just bought a little guitar and was sitting there. I sucked. I sucked so bad. It was fine, though. We've gotten so much better. You gotta suck before you get good.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's just it, man. You gotta. You get better. You get better at it as you go. And being a musician is just. It's. It's similar to being an athlete. When you're doing it right, you're traveling all the time like you're on a team. You gotta practice out your craft, take care of yourself. Just like you're taking reps and you're doing drills. You're sitting there songwriting and working on the guitar and rehearsing.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: You get better. Confidence, man. Exactly. You practice so much, and I'm like, oh, how's he doing that? Cause he sits. You don't see the part. All you see is game day. You don't see the practices where he stays up seven, 7 hours watching tv, hanging out the boys, and he's just talking with him, or when he's out there promoting, trying to get 400, 500 people in a little acoustic show. And he promoted it for a week. They don't see, you know, they just, like, show up. So when they just show up, they think, shit, be sweet. I get it. 100%.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a grind, man. Do you miss the football stuff? I feel like it's always a party.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: My body feels good.
The only time my knees hurt is when I pop out.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, like, the team camaraderie and stuff like that.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: So I built.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Or I guess it became more like a professional kind of thing for you. Like, when you're doing it at the level you were doing it at, it becomes more like work than the love of the game. When guys like myself that just played.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: In high school got crazy after high school, you know, you got a 530 weights, and then you got. 06:00 630 breakfast. 06:00 630. You're gonna be eating and you gotta go to class probably at seven, seven to nine, nine to ten. You got an hour class. You get out, you gotta go to lunch after that, and you go down, you got film. I'm out a few more classes, then you got film. You go down there, watch film, then you got practice, then you go down and you got maybe coach, your special coordinator calls you back to go and have another kind of meeting. So, yeah, it's a job, 100%.
I've been able to do the same thing and build the friend group slash team around me. And I've made a lot more people disciplined from, you know, bringing those kind of things that I've had in football. People who have. I didn't know structure was so lacking outside of me or my family. And then, like, everybody, don't be practicing this and make everybody so, like, your life would get a lot easier if you x amount of, you know, just a little bit more into. You start doing that. See, my friends get better. Unfortunately, you lose some friends in between. If you ain't bearing good fruit, I will cut you off. If you ain't, you know, get out of my harvest.
And I've been pretty much weeding out the ones who weren't supposed to be in this new season that's about to come. I think it's about to be a blessed season because we're all staying on that football discipline that I've been able to apply and have my team now. It's not just the college football team I was working. And we're not doing it for just the money, but money gonna be real nice when it come in like that. I know it's coming.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, you can make a lot of money in this. In the music world.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You can lose a lot of money.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: You can't. Oh, yeah, you spend. You gotta spend money. You gotta spend money to make money back. I need it.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. I need it all the time.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: So who are some of the friends that you've got to make here in Nashville? Like, who's some of the.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Look at the boys over there.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I know you got Mike and Nick over there.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Nick. Thanks for drinking water while me and Mike drink our vodkas.
Somebody's gonna be responsible. No, there's more people. I met my boy Colby. I met Ben. But I try to keep it real family oriented. Just unfortunately, sometimes family get a little academic. They get to being lazy around. Cause they just see. They see game day. See game day. Be getting you thinking shit. Sweet all the time. They don't realize I need you working just as hard as me. Cause when I work hard for you and you work hard for me, we work hard together. But when I go slack, when I go doing everything, you slacking all the way. I got you.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: High tides raise all ships, bro. Everybody's grinding and doing that. What then?
What's a night out with Don Lewis look like?
What's a night out? What's a night at?
Where do you like to hit up? You a Broadway guy? You an East Nashville guy? You a midtown.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: And I don't like being around a lot of people.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: Okay, so you're not as much of a go out. You're more like a hang at the house kind of guy.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: I don't. You know, cuz the club scene, I can't hear you in a club. I can't go out of those places. And like, what am I gonna say to somebody? Drink and I'll shit. Yeah, drink. So then I just got hit for dollar 16 right there. I ain't got a name. And I'm over there waiting at the bar, and we can't hear nothing. The fucking bands playing, blaring right at our face. Midtown is usually where I'm gonna go. Cause I like live oak. I like the. The live acoustic guy that you can have, like I said, have a conversation. You can mess around and do that. Or I go to east, I'll go to the basement and go hang out at Lakeside kind of vibe, bro.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Lakeside is a whole vibe. It's like a fucking time machine in there, dude.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: It's more comfortable. You know what I mean? I want to go hang around with kids just 19 years old, you know, just got in the club. I just got in. No, I'm good.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Have you done the Broadway thing? Oh, I feel like you have to.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: We did it for sure. Yeah. And I've done it more than a couple times. And I sat there and then I sat in midtown, I was like, yeah, the vibes are immaculate. More over here. I'm way more. Less anxious. And I'm not waiting.
Not that, you know, lines aren't cool or whatever. I'm not gonna sit there and wait an hour and a half to get in Jason Aldean's bar. Is it gonna change my life? Actually, I accidentally walked around though one time and skipped so many people and didn't know I did it till I got all the way to the front. And I just winged it, though, and I got in.
It was probably about 300 people, though, dog.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, I used to work down there.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: Do it confidently.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, I used to work the front door and the side door at Whiskey Row, and I was the guy checking the ids and in the middle of the shit.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: It's a shit storm.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: It is. And that was in 2018, so it's only gotten crazier over the last six years.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: Happy to be out of that.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Oh, bro. Yeah, bro. Getting, getting. And I went from that to being traveling around the country in a sprinter van, and that changed my life.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Glad to be traveling in a, traveling.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: In a sprinter van. I was like, dude, yeah. Have you gotten to go out and do a lot of. Do a lot of shows yet and do a lot of the touring stuff.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: For, yeah, we, I remember the first show and just, you know, not sucking, just like, being okay. And then the bigger we get, just get more confident, as we said. Now I'm just booking pop up shows. We're booking all over the place. I got Utah, got Kansas City coming up here soon.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: Those are fun.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it's my first time in the Kansas City area.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: Kansas City's cool, dude. I've wed. I did. And the, I know in Texas, you guys claim your, your meat and your barbecue and stuff. Kansas City's got some good shit, bro. Kansas City, them. Burn them burnt ends in Kansas City, dude. Make sure, make sure that's, make sure that, make sure that's on the, make sure you get out there and that's on the itinerary to have. Have some barbecue and shit.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: I gotta see it first.
I'm ready. I'll take your word for it. I gotta have before I go get.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Where else have you gone and done shows? You said you got Utah, Kansas City, California.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: We play Las Vegas. I got a couple good friends out there, and I've done some private shows. Vegas was fun.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: I was going to say, I've never been to Vegas. I think we might be going for the NFR this year. I think we're going to do it. And I've never been, I've heard Vegas, you've got to do, like, a select amount of days because there's too much and there's too love. I've heard two to three days in Vegas because four days, it just becomes trouble.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: What are you doing out there for days? You're just sitting in four days in a row, man. You need to go home.
Yeah, we got. They gave me a nice little hotel out there at the wind went to, if you go anywhere, go to hash house. Go, go. Super great prices. Huge proportions. You're gonna have to take it again. Oh, the pancakes probably, like, as big as for me to you and that other mic.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: No shit. That's awesome.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: They take good care of you and then go to the buffet, which is at the wind. The best. One of the best buffets in Vegas is at the wind. And I always get stupid stuff, and I gotta go to my room and just. Just turn off all the lights and pass out. Get the itis.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great time, though, you know, nothing better than passing out on a buffet. Makes you feel good.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: It does. It's good for the.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: I earned this. I'm in Vegas. I'm gonna go hard, and you're just busted and sitting there looking like a can of busted biscuits, man stuff.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: So tell me about liquor talking, and tell me about this record that you've been working on. What's the. What's the process been like for that? Where's the title come from? How does all that. How does all that come to be?
[00:29:58] Speaker B: You know, I really didn't have a theme in my head besides country weekend, which was like, you know, sometimes toxic, sometimes I'm gonna make you. You're gonna feel great while you're here. I mean, a little toxic, I'ma do, but it's gotta be like, okay, there's more good in them. The bad liquor talking came into mind sitting with all these songs that we got coming. And the song also called liquor talking, all these songs that are gonna come out on the album is the liquor talking. Albumen different ways of how you feel when the liquor. You might be sad one day. I remember drinking back in the day. You might be a little angry one day, but I was drinking and forget, and now I'm pissed, and that's how it goes. You might be a little. You just be trying to hang out with the boys, trying to turn up party. So, like, it's gonna be how different reactions, different things. Can I. Can I, lord, if I'm over here drinking again, I said I'd stop doing it and look at me having a beer kind of vibes we're gonna have. That's the liquor talking to us. There are different ways how the liquor start talking to you. And we've had. I love you. Karen's come into our group and be like, well, you sound like you're just drinking a lot. I'm a grown man who takes care of my family, my friends, my business. If I want to go work out, go running, go hang out and have a beer while I'm fishing, I'm gonna have a beer. And you can't stop me. Cause I'm grown ass mad and I love it. So we started doing that, and that's liquor talk. It is what it is. Like, maybe I get more confident and all these songs are gonna have these different emotions inside of it and have these different kind of stories. But as he was gonna correlate with one another, it's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be like, hopefully not too many people skip.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: I like the. I like that concept. Dude, it sounds like a concept record almost. Cuz. Cuz you have that general theme of it. Was that important to you to have like, a theme of your. Your first big record?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: I wanted empire to be tight with one another. Each song should, like, you know, if it shouldn't be too Oprah. And I shouldn't go from, obviously, doing rap bars and doing a strict, traditional country, because I want people to realize, hey, I can give you the strict traditional country now. I got this new idea for country music. It's not rap, it's a soul country. I put it all together and they think they don't like it, and then they can hear, okay. And they see them start moving. Okay. It's like, you just gotta accept what I'm doing over here.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: What. What is soul country? How would you describe it?
That intrigues me.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Just hearing that leads a little bit more bluesy. You know, it's got a lot more seasoning. I put hips with it. It makes you feel like you got a stomp clap. Or if you can't stomp or clap, you might sway a little bit and you find yourself doing. You don't know why you're doing it, but the reason is because it's good. It's got that sultry to it. It's my music that I'm not copying nobody else to try to make. I'm sure there's probably been other sultry artists, but I know the music I have is distinguished. It is standing out my voice. My songs are not, you know, replicating anybody else. Yeah, inspired maybe by people, but not, you know, not trying to be nobody else but me.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you said growing up, you listen to all kinds of different shit. Threw me for a loop when you were like Slipknot, cuz I. That's the shit I listen to.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: But you enjoy it. You know, when you started listen, you want to like the things whoever, you know, your admirer is liking at the time. So I started listening lyrics and started breaking it down and stuff. And that. That kind of music got me crying, got me going over, and I started wanting to even make my own kind of rock music. I have a couple rock songs. They're not coming out yet, but.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Really?
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Yes. I just like making music so fun.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: That's the best part about it, is you do have that creative control to kind of do what you want to fucking do, but you.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: If you're gonna write album, you obviously gotta.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah, you gotta.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: There's a place. There's a. There's a time and a place for everything. The nineties country stuff. Guys like Toby Keith, who were some of your. Who were some of your heroes in the. In the cowboy world.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: That is definitely one of them. Toby Keith, you know, you think about should have been a cowboy, or how do you like me now? I feel that song in my spirit.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Oh, dude, it sounds like with your story. How do you like me now? Could be. Could be the title of the Don Lewis movie. Yeah, if it was Don Lewis movie. How do you like me now?
[00:33:41] Speaker B: You start. I've had a lot of people say we were lucky, or like, you know, he's not gonna. Obviously, that guy that I let come open up for me, that we weren't gonna do what we've done. I know we're going way further than what I'm already at right now, but I'm just so appreciative of gotten what I have. And Toby Keith's how do you like me now? Just resonates super hard in my soul. Garth Brooks was huge because he had that. He would say so. I would say sultry for him. His voice was different in the world of the country at that time, because that was a brother. That brother could sing, man. Garth Brooks got it going on.
Trace Lawrence, Trace Atkins were just wonderful songwriters. Trace Atkins, paint me a Birmingham ain't no thinking thing. Like, they had swag. They had swag in their country, and I wanted to start adding more. That's the best way I could put it. Like, cool swag to the country, to it. Make people feel not player, but a winner. How can I make you feel like a winner and then be either sad or be, you know, I'm getting over this shit right here.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I just saw trace Atkins at a festival. Dude, the dude still got it. He's a big horse. He came out. First song was. First song was, I got my game on. And he just came out, and it was just, you see this big dude and the tight black shirt with the cowboy hat, and he's still moving around and doing his thing, man.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: That's getting the swag 30, you know, 25, 30 plus years inside your career. And that's where we all want to be.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: And still having that same swagger. Yes, because like you said, there's a difference. There's ways that you can have. Have game and have swagger and be talking about things that you believe in, not talking about shit that, you know, it doesn't resonate with you or your fans.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Now, imagine you get too old. You've been singing about what you just said on the second half, and you're 55 years old, 60, and that music don't work the same no more. And you look like, what the hell are they doing up there? Moving their hips and doing this and that. He was able to keep his mature enough to be his legendary. You know, it's gonna last. It's generational music. That kind of music gonna be. You could turn that on at any age. Oh, I like the way you say that. It made me feel the swag.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: One hot mess.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: That's what I want. Exactly.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Swing, batter, batter, swing.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: But donkey donks a lifetime song.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: That's the goal. That's the goal. To have that generational music that hits every. Even the kid, when the kids just talk, they don't know what they listen to, but they're like, I like this. And they might seem.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because it goes back to the flow and the beat and the melody and things like that. What's it been like working with your producers that you work with? Are they out in LA? Are they here in Nashville, or.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: They're. They're pretty. Yeah, they're all here in Nashville. I haven't done any recording yet.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: Oh, you haven't? Okay.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: That was my first time going out there. They.
Their resumes are in the catalogs, just, you know, stupid. So they were amazing to get to work.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Have you felt the imposter syndrome of, like, what am I doing in this room? Like, the first time you go into this fancy studio or you have that confidence.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: I know I got value behind me, if any kind of thing, you know? And, like, I'm proud of, it's because it's my story we're trying to write a song about. So I made sure you wanted me to come here, get to get to know me, and then write a song that might, a, be good with my vocals, b, actually match up to my lifestyle or what I've done, you know, so I don't go in there thinking, oh, man, I don't know. I shouldn't even be in here with the dude that did the Miranda Lambert thing and the culture wall thing. It was like, man, I've earned it to be here. I didn't deserve nothing. I've worked my way to be able to have this conversation, have this opportunity, and I capitalized on all those, and I don't do it, you know, too over, you know, zealous or confident. Real humble pie. Tried to, you know, put my story, my spin on it. And now that I'm at this level, they, like I said, they appreciate the words, and they'll tell me no. And I can take a no if it's not supposed to go on a song, because that's the hardest part about songwriter. Imagine you got, like, this whole nice ass hook, and you got this part, and you think you got the next part, which is a rhyme scheme for the same one above. Nah, you gotta go. You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe I need to try to beat that. But you need those people in the room because they keep you from getting too just complacent with yourself. You don't want to be doing that. You want to write better. So I want to be better in my music. So I need new people around, new producers who have new things to show me. They all got something. Everybody's got some specified knowledge to give somebody, and I pay attention when I'm in the room. I hear them, and I try to apply it to whatever I'm doing. The next thing.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Does it feel like a coach player relationship almost?
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Where you're in the room and it's like coach is kind of helping you along and guiding you with the knowledge.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: That what the coaches end up doing. When we got to college, we ended up having a man school kind of thing, which is something I did for a while when I was doing coaching with a little. Little league team, it was, we do pretty much like a little bible study together. Do maybe go over a passage and then talk about how you should either treat somebody. One could have been women treating women right. A proper etiquette for how you're gonna handle talking to somebody in person, which would have been business communication. And we were, you know, trained to be, you want to win in the room or you want to, you know, sit in the room?
Which one you want to do? And I was like, yeah, I want to win in the room. When I show up, I don't want people who, you know, that guy over there, he's cool. What does he do now? When they come in, they're like, that guy over there is who?
Oh, he's cool.
That's the difference.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. What's it like you said coaching, coaching the little League team.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: He got to coach, said he wasn't like little League. It was like t ball. Advancement of opportunities for kids who had dropped out. But I knew how to, I knew the proper way for you to be in shape to play at a college level.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: So it'd be so what age groups were these?
[00:38:56] Speaker B: 18 to 22 you were coaching?
[00:38:59] Speaker A: 1822.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: My buddy Des Anderson has a program, father figures, which is, you know, he ended up getting them jobs pretty much throughout the day. And then they would come and practice, and then we were getting to the point of going to different colleges are, you know, trying to get these kids. Hey, like, I know what it takes to be at a collegiate level. Can you check this kid out? You know, I even got his nil locker room or whatever. So he's. He's applicable. Get him in here. Because they don't, I mean, they don't teach you none of that stuff. You drop out of school, you wouldn't know how to. I didn't know how to do that if I had not been recruited. It feels good to be able to pass that little bit of knowledge that, hey, man, your dream ain't done. Cool. So this is what I can do for you. They got them a job. They stay consistent on that. They got discipline from that. Then they got to come out of. We busted their ass, showed them this is what it takes. And I'm sure some of them now. Cause I got all my music have, you know, hopefully gotten into being in at least college level. And then we'll see. Cause that'd be awesome if one of them gets the NFL, like, yeah, you started at 18, 1920. Cause you dropped out of school and you get to go now practice and do this thing. Because one grown man decided to put a little program together to help y'all better yourselves.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: That's cool, dude. That's very fulfilling.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's incredibly.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: That's incredibly fulfilling, dude. So what's something that you think people don't know about you that they should?
Again, we're get. We're introducing you to our raised, rowdy crowd, to the world of.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Don't you want me to say, what's.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: What'S the, what's, what's that? What's, what's the reason? Why? Why should they be, why should they be fucking with Don Lewis?
[00:40:31] Speaker B: I'm always trying to change, be the best me that I could be, which is more christ like every day. So it's a consistent practice. And the music, as well as I get better, you know, rhyming or putting in these parables, putting in these similes alike. As is the Hana mada p is the bam. The slapping it down. That my word play and I'm doing in the country. I can do. I can bring good times to you. No matter what the feeling is. I think I'm gonna have a song for that. So if they don't know anything about me, they should know mad decent as a man.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Define mad decent. Cause that's gotta be a Texas terminal. Because I was just. I don't know. Mad. I don't know. I've mad said it a bunch. I've never said it.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Okay, it's decent, and then it's mad dudes. Mad decent. That's pretty good.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Pretty good. Pretty good. Mad decent is that. I'm expecting a song. I'm expecting you to work mad decent into it and do a country soul title.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: Exactly. You spin it. That's what HC's like. Damn, this stuff is. It's him. It's authentically him. And it's good. It's a little different. I kind of like it. Maybe you added in a few of your playlist.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: Yeah. That's what I like about you, too, man. You seem like you're the. What you see is what you get, guy.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: I'm too tired to be anybody else. Other people trying to be like me, apparently through fake tiktoks and snacks.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Oh, dude. Yeah, the fake accounts, bro. That means you're doing something right, though. If there's the fake accounts, that means they're trying to be an account that's got something going on.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: To the shows. Looking at me passionately like, you didn't talk to me last week. We're in a three month relationship, Pat. That happen feels real.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: I'm like, let me see the messages. They're married. Pretty much. Basically. I'm gonna get shot like that one day. Some husband's gonna be coming out there talking. But you been talking to my wife. That wasn't even me. You don't even take the time. Then he goes back to look at the messages. It's gonna be like, don Lewis. Zero, zero. JK 571-39-9999 the real official what blows.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: Me away is the fake snapper accounts. Because it's like, how are they sending a snap that's not you? Or they just not showing your face? And these people just believe it.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: They studied all my. All my apps. Whatever I'm on, they're going to screenshot, and they're taking old pictures, new people going back to, like, Facebook, they're making fake AI accounts using, like, a fake. Trying to get as close to.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: My shit's crazy, right? The AI shit's dangerous and crazy, man.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: It was close enough to be. I could understand why someone do it. But, you know, there's also legal contracts and certain things. We're lackadaisical and, you know, it's tough. We're a little lazy. We don't take the time to go in there, really do the research. Then me, he. My manager gets yelled at. He's like, so why is dawn not showing up today? He said he'd be here. And you're sitting there like, bro, I didn't. I don't know who you are. You're gonna lie to me and then look at that. Now you're getting hated. What if he pulls up on a manhunt? We gonna get him. You don't take my fifteen hundred dollars. I don't even have it. Look, that dude's gotta get me killed. It's tough. We gotta stop. Stop stealing people's identity. Identity theft is not a game.
It's a serious matter.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: It is.
It is.
[00:43:30] Speaker B: He's. Ice teas and vodka mad decent.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Decent. Surfside show a lot more love. Surfside iced tea, vodka mad decent. You get you into sports, like, watching sports, though. Yeah.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: I still enjoy.
What are your teams that you like following?
[00:43:44] Speaker B: The boys, man. I'm a Texas fan.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Cowboys, Houston.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Not that the Texans are cool. If, like, if the Texans were in a Super bowl and the Cowboys weren't, I'ma claim the Texas, but I'm always claim I'm a ride with the boys. I'm gonna show love to the Rangers and the Mavs for sure.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: The Rangers Stadium is so fucking nice. I went out there, I was out there in 2021, and they were the only stadium not doing the restrictions. And we went to, like, the second we happened to be out there on some off days when I was out with. Out with Trey and we went out, there was the second game ever in that stadium, and it was wild then. We had a wild night once. That Texas live thing that's outside the stadium, then ended up at some clubs that were a little wild where very, very ddid. Yeah, dude, it's Texas fun.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Texas fun place to get into.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Texas is a lot of fun for somebody that hasn't been to Texas. Where would you send them first?
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Mmm.
Are they city or country?
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good question. All right. For the country people. Where would you send them if you.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Want to get, like, out of town? Out of town, you go down to Tyler if you want to go check out, you know, concrete cowboy kind of stuff. All right. I would check out Fort Worth because stockyards are super fun. They got, like, the theme of the western appeal down there. Still got the cobblestone roads and stuff, but it's more gentrified, I would say. It's, like, expensive. Yeah, yeah. So going to Tyler, it's like, that's.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: The hit kind of where you send in my city.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: People from New York go to Dallas, go ahead and check out deep Ellen. And then, you know, y'all get. There's the shootings up there. It's just bad down there, too. But the foods delicious, the vibes are gonna be all them close bar, you know, the dot to dot the dot bars. You never know what you'll be able to run into. And then if not there, you should go check out, which is still Dallas, like the bishop's art district, the bishop arts district. And there's one more that I go check out every now and then. She. I can see Greenville Avenue. It'd be lit over there sometimes. That's the city side. It's so funny seeing the guys come out there just country with a. With the shoot tennis shoes on. They're like, trying to pick up him because this country wave is like, put it on like a jacket and go try to get women or go to. Try to get something from acting like, x amount of way. Those are the place you want to go for the city part, though.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah. You ever go down to Houston or Austin? Austin's fucking weird, bro. Austin is weird. I like Austin because they got an in Dallas, you guys, all you guys have in and out all over Texas. But in and out was in and out. And Bucky's used to be the highlight of Texas for me. Now. Bucky's boosties, baby.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we love. I love stopping at Bucky's. I get those little.
[00:46:14] Speaker A: I love. I love stopping at Bucky's when it's chaotic. Like, there's a new one that just opened up in Kentucky, and we were coming back from a festival in Ohio, and I was. I said to my business partner, Nick, and our content guy, ike, and our buddy Mitch, that was selling merch for us. I was like, hey, you. We're gonna stop in this thing. And they're like, dude, it's a Sunday. This place just open. It's gonna be nice. I'm like, this is the best time. People watching is prime. I want to see the cast. I want to see the kids all dressed up like they just got out of church. I want to see. I want to be in the pandemonium of a new bucky's. And bro, it was so long to get out of there.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: Trying to check out.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: It was awesome.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: Who is headache?
[00:46:50] Speaker A: It was.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: When a new Bucky's comes, they know what it's good.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Oh, in the first. First one in Kentucky, bro, I went crazy.
[00:46:57] Speaker B: I didn't know it was outside of Texas for a while. So that's really cool. Look at. Go ahead, Bucky. Go ahead, set a spot.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: They're protective. They're protective of that beaver too. Like if anybody tries to make a. We were talking about like the fake accounts. If anybody tries to make like a logo that's like replicant of the beaver, they will immediately send out cease and assist. They are so protective of that.
Yeah, dude, that furry beavers come a long way from Texas.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: I didn't get a picture with it, but if I did, I'm gonna post it next time and maybe even dress up as kid. I don't need no suit.
My busiest baby. I'm just kidding. Bucky's goat.
Yeah.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: What's. What's another. What's another Texas thing that you wish was out outside? Cause we got whataburger here now. You're probably more of a whataburger guy than an in n out guy, right?
[00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
It's good. It's good. It's not bad. I don't. But whataburger is like, I would rather go to whataburgers. And Brahms ain't even apparently Texas. But Brahms is mad solid.
I was just. That's why I don't have my here. We have brahms out here. What do we got going on in Texas that a lot of people don't? Going on everywhere. I hate when I get Tex Mex outside of Texas. It don't make no sense.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: Yeah, like Chewie's in midtown is not the same.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: No, no, not at all. I had an ex that really loved chewies too. And I went in there and I took her to some authentic Mexican beforehand. She told me that there I was disappointed with Chewie's chips. It just felt real processed at the time. So I don't go on there very much like what we got out of Texas that we. You know, something that just comes my. Besides barbecue, man, I know Whataburger's already.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Torch cheese was one.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Torches a Texas thing.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: I don't know. It might be a Texas. California might be like a west coast thing.
Because I was gonna say torches was something. Whenever we. Whenever there was one nearby in Texas when I was tour managing, it was. It was get the whole band a shit ton of torches.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: Trash can.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: You know the trash can tacos? Yes, that's right. The trash can tacos, the TCT's.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: I would get sponsored by torches if I could. That'd be sick. Just have tacos in your hand all the time.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Tacos whenever the fuck you want.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: Camera.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: That's your twitch stream.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: What does he do?
[00:48:59] Speaker A: That's. That sings and eats. That's your tick tock live. Bust out a song and eat tacos and talk to the people every time.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: Only when you ask the question, though, I wouldn't start answering to you. Like, you'd be like, what do you. What do you like doing with your music? Yeah.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Do you do it?
Do you do a lot of. Do you do a lot of lives on, like, Instagram and tick tock you, do they have you. Do you do a lot of that social media stuff?
[00:49:19] Speaker B: I've been so busy here recently, though. You tired? Kind of trying to do the Instagram live or the tick tock live, but it's great for promotions when a new song's coming out. Yeah, I got to get on there and I got to bust it out.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: What are the comments are like, in there? What's, what's the, what's the Don Lewis following? Like, are they. What is women mostly women. All right, not. Not a bad problem.
[00:49:38] Speaker B: Bros come in eventually afterwards when they realize the lyrics and the vibes are immaculate or whatever. The women are a little wild. Like I said, one day my little wild over there try to abduct me. It could happen. You never know. Never know. The comments, they get crazy in there, cuz, like, what do you respond to? Hey, baby, hey, this isn't that. I'm like, hey, love, just enough to, like, make you feel like. I see, I see you over there talking to me.
But then you get those people who probably think, what if I say, hey, love, they finally popped up in. We've been talking for weeks, you know. I'm so glad you called me, love. And then they go and they get off my line. He loves me. It's deep. It's deep.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Dog crazy message.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: What's the crazy calls, though? It's cool.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: Yeah. He adds what you bets, what you have.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: He directs him straight to him.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: That's what you got manager Mike for.
[00:50:26] Speaker B: Hey, just like, imagine getting a phone call. They're just breathing.
He says, don, this is his manager.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Oh, you get oh, he gets those. It gets that wild.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: You should do other stuff than music. You're like, whoa. And then we gotta hang out. It gets weird for him. I feel bad for him. We gotta go through it.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: Oh, one of them was, oh no.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: He'D have a better career if he was just getting into corn stuff.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: You know, the corn stuff.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: A whole lot of good corn stuff.
He put a whole, you know, like request for me on my website too.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: Oh, some guy put in requests on the show.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: It was gonna be show, but it wasn't gonna be the show I wanted.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Private party.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: It takes at least $10,000.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: I was gonna say, I was gonna say it takes a high price for the name your number.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: It gets weird. We get a lot of weird messages. We get a.
They just. People feel so entitled just to say crazy. I was gonna wall stuff sometimes and I think it's cuz they're talking to fake people. It's like, what does this even mean? You're not the same Donna used to.
[00:51:31] Speaker A: Be, so you don't know you're not the same. Don't even used to be.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: You just see what you've seen literally virtually for this x amount of time. And hopefully I'll put off a good enough vibe that you don't think of a piece of shit or whatever. But like you don't do.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: You get a lot. You have a lot of haters in the comment stuff too.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I delete them, you know. Cause I can't be being in there with haters or I kill them with kindness. So there'd be people that come in there. You're just a one hit wonders. Like, bro, how many millions of songs, how many million streams on each and every song would you have to consider for it to be a hit or whatever, you know? And it's like, if this is my one hit, that, why is this one outdoing this one? Yeah, that's the biggest haters against. And I tell them, you know what, I'm gonna pray for you. Why don't you come over here sometime?
[00:52:10] Speaker A: Let me give you a hurt the key.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: I'm gonna give you a hurry.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: I'm a pray for. For you. That's the, that's, that's the response right.
[00:52:16] Speaker B: There, over there getting ugly. Like, what do you create? What do you do for the world? Oh, you got. I don't care about followers, but like, what are you even putting out there besides just commenting? Cause life probably ain't going too good on the other side of the phone. Them Twitter fingers sounded real strong. But, you know, you wouldn't talk to me like that person.
And I gotta. I gotta kill him with counters. Hey, hey, baby. Don't even worry about it, y'all. Everybody in the chat, all hunted out. Let's all pray for 10, nine, unanimous, no pay. You know, that's. And it turns into that. So you just gotta learn how to get through it. Cause I see being hard is tough, that mental. It gets drained on chopped, stabbed. A lot of the time, they wanna try to kill your confidence. And you gotta have a little bit of an ego to make this happen.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you do. You do, for sure. So liquor talking comes out. August comes out here at the end of August.
So excited for this album to hear what you've got. Hear what you've got going on, dog. It's fucking. It's fucking wild. And see, again, like you said, it's perfect timing for where you're at. You've been coming out to town now for two years. You've been doing this music thing you said for what, like, four years? And now you're getting to put out a body of work, like liquor talk, man.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: It feels good to have good work behind it. Imagine, you know, you get to see, when you finish a painter, you finish building the house, you finish building anything you like. Look at that. We made that happen. Look at all those people doing, you know, shaking their heads, moving, having a good time, crying. Have a feeling. Something in every one of them. So we gonna be proud of what we're doing over here. It's amazing.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Hell, yeah, dude. Well, I appreciate you coming on and hanging out, and we're definitely gonna have to kick it. You said you. You said you hung out at a cigar lounge.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: You a cigar guy, getting into it.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: You're getting into it.
[00:53:55] Speaker B: All right.
[00:53:56] Speaker A: You and I. So we. We have. We do a lot of cigar related events, and we have a. We have a good partnership with crowned heads. It's a Nashville based cigar company that's about 20 different blends, and I don't have any here with me, but we can for sure get together, have a cigar. There's a spot in east Nashville called Smokers Abbey that we hang out at.
Okay. Yeah, it's greenbrier whiskey. There's a place called Smokers Abbey in east, and it's a really cool vibe, dude. It's a great vibe. Very low key, chill. We'll definitely have to get together and.
[00:54:27] Speaker B: Have cigar bar with a pool table or something.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, we have to find a cigar bar with a pool table.
Table I just got into darts recently.
Darts are my new. My new bar game. And I didn't know I was good at darts. I was playing somebody's garage in fucking Ohio, and I was hitting. Yeah, I never played before. And I'm like, all right, darts is my game.
[00:54:47] Speaker B: Maybe this is my skill. Maybe I need to quit podcast and just be professional dartpoy.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Just be a professional dart player and ESPN at Theo practice.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: I have a story like that. How did you get into. I was just naturally good at it.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: Just smoking cigars in their own bull size, bro.
Amen. I seriously, I appreciate you. Y'all be sure to check out her boy Don Lewis, and be on the lookout for liquor talking. Drop in August. The was it? What, what day in August? 23, 24th, 24th, 23rd.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: My phone.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: I was gonna say I got the 23rd right here.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:55:19] Speaker A: The official information. Shout out to Nick.
So, liquor talking, August 2030. I'll be sure to follow our boy Don Lewis. Be on the lookout for that country soul that is coming at you. And you're going to feel all the phases of when the liquor talks. You know, feel a little sad, feel a little happy, feel angry. I'll turn up a little bit. And you'll feel. You'll feel like that when you're drinking these surfsides, too. So I'll be sure to give us. Give us a review, a like rate, subscribe, all that stuff if you're watching on YouTube. Thanks for watching. You're listening. Thanks for listening. Be sure to tell your mama and them and be sure to follow raised rowdy for all of our other stuff that we do. For my man, Don Lewis. I'm Matt Barrel. This has been outside the round.
I never been the conference one place for too long. I never been the best at sin.
I love you to a girl I love all of only got a couple tricks on my sleeve. They usually just make them leave.
So if you know me, if you really know me, you know I'm just a two trick pony. But maybe the drinking and the lack of money for show, I'm just a two trick on it.
