Grady Smith

Speaker 1 00:00:14 Well guys, welcome to the another edition of the In Thero podcast. Our first recording of 2023. It's your boy map here. And today we have a very special episode. Um, probably one of the most influential guys that in, in the country media realm. A guy that I've been following for a long time that we've been following it in the round for a while. And, um, a guy that's recently moved to town and, um, someone that if you're in the country music and you're the conversations that are around country music, you'll know this. Dude. It's my good buddy, Mr. Grady Smith, Grady, how you doing, brother? Speaker 2 00:00:43 Good. I feel, I feel so accomplished with that intro. Thank you. Speaker 1 00:00:47 It's the years of being a, being an overworked, underpaid radio guy, knowing how to do intros like that, you know? Well, good. Speaker 2 00:00:52 Yeah. I I only had six months as a radio guy once in New York, but Speaker 1 00:00:57 Really what were you doing there? What station? Speaker 2 00:00:59 So it was actually Sirius xm. Okay. It was when I worked at Entertainment Weekly. We had a, we started a Sirius XM channel that I think was just Sirius XM 1 0 5 and it was EW Live, but I hosted a show first it was called by the Numbers. And then they sh pivoted all the afternoon shows to be called The Editor's Hour, where you're getting to chat with the editors of Entertainment Weekly. Cause it was like all old school media stuff where they think that's like a big appeal, um, to talk to the editors. But we would just do kinda like talk radio about pop culture. And, um, I was an editorial assistant. I was like six promotions away from an editor, but I had to cosplay as an editor, uh, for a couple hours a week on the radio, which was fun. Speaker 1 00:01:40 Yeah. And those, how long ago was that? Cuz those Sirius has gone through like levels of changes cuz like I was in Jersey working in radio. So there was like a lot of crossover between folks that were working in like Cumulus, iHeart back then. Clear Channel. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or like different networks that would pivot over to Sirius and then come back to all that stuff. Speaker 2 00:01:58 It would've been 2013, it would been 2013 that all that was going down. Cuz I quit in 2014, like the whole magazine world. And so, um, it was only in my last year there that I was doing that. Really. Speaker 1 00:02:08 No shit. Okay, cool. Yeah. Cause the, so like you, your kind of approach is like doing the journal. Like you're a journalist, you're a lover of country music, you're a personality, you do the YouTube, like you do all kinds of different shit. So was journalism like the first thing you were diving into and doing? Speaker 2 00:02:23 Yeah, definitely outta college. That was my, that was my path. I went up to New York. I wrote for Entertainment Weekly. I was on staff there. My original passion was the movies and specifically the movie industry. So all through college, like I had this blog that all my friends gave me shit for called the Box Office Junkie. Hell yeah. Um, and I would do almost like fantasy box office where I would, uh, predict how much money the top 10 would make each weekend. And that's how I learned about video making a lot was I would film that, which now knowing what I know about YouTube not a great strategy because you're only giving that video like two days of shelf life. Yeah. Uh, to succeed of like, how much do I think they're gonna make this weekend? Why would you watch that a year from now? Speaker 2 00:03:06 Yeah. Um, but I would do that. And then on Sundays I would do a wrap up video of how much money the movies had made. And I, at some point in like oh nine made a video called I Want an Internship at Entertainment Weekly. And I tweeted it at all of their writers and it made it like this one guy, Michael Ausiello retweeted it and it made it all the way to the editor in chief. And that guy messaged me and was like, Hey, you should come up here and interview. And so I did an internship up there and then got hired after college. But it, it was interesting. Yeah, I kind of like got thrown. I didn't go to journalism school or anything, I just had a blog. They were like, can you send us some like published pieces of yours when I was interviewing? Speaker 2 00:03:47 And I was like, I mean, does a blog count? Yeah. <laugh>. Like I've never been published by someone else, but here's 700 pieces of my writing if you're interested in it. And that was interesting because it was certainly a fast track and it was also a huge target on my back that created a lot of resentment from me because a lot of people on staff didn't like that I had been kind of plucked off the internet and given a staff position at a big national magazine. Yeah. So it was kind of like, you know, in hindsight getting thrown into the deep end and I'm thankful for my time there and learned a ton, but also glad to kind of control my own platform now. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:04:24 Were you a WordPress guy when you were doing the blog? Cause that's where I was. I had a sports blog around that same time I was in middle school, like high school. Uh, or like, no, I think I was in the sixth grade when I started. I used to just blog about the, I was a sports, sports was my thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn't really get into the country music thing until later. But like, I remember just being a kid and my friends would also give me shit for it a little bit. They're like, dude, why aren't you coming out here and why aren't you online playing Call duty with us? Why are you writing a 1200 word blog post about CC Sathia signing with the New York Yankees <laugh>? You know? And I'm like, I'm like, dude, it just feels great. Speaker 2 00:04:55 It's like, dude, I gotta make my D v d uh, and Blu-ray sales chart for the week. That was mine. Yeah. It's like every Wednesday I post the Blu-ray sales. Speaker 1 00:05:02 Do do you, do you miss the movies being what they were like when we were kids and growing up? Cuz like the movies and blog, like just the, the whole industry's changed now. Speaker 2 00:05:10 Yeah, I think I, I mean, yes and no. I, I guess I miss it. Although I've, I look, I've been, we're in the midst of Avatar two, right. Uh, having a surprisingly good run at the box office after a disappointing start. So maybe they're back Speaker 1 00:05:23 A billion right? Is that Speaker 2 00:05:24 It's at 1.4 billion worldwide. Geez. Um, and it's like trending like 50% ahead in the US of where the first avatar was. And uh, so I still, I still have a little bit of that, uh, juice left in me. But no, I loved going to the movies with friends. For me it was, I, I don't know. I don't know that it's how my sister, I have a way younger sister. Okay. I don't know that this is how she relates to her friends and her own adolescences, but getting dropped off at the movies was like such a rite of passage. Yeah. And like seeing Zoolander and then loitering in Barnes and Noble afterwards while someone flew steel. Speaker 1 00:06:00 Yes. Speaker 2 00:06:00 Like there was a mall nearby. So like your options after the movies were either go loiter in Barnes and Noble and ride the escalators up and down until some associate told you to leave or walk over to the mall and go to Coldstone and like keep tipping them until they had to like, you know how they have to sing when you tip them at Goldstone? Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, and then we would go to Brookstone and just sit in all the massage chairs until Yes. You know, I did that too. Those were like a big part of being 13. Speaker 1 00:06:24 Yeah. That was the, the nineties kid in the, in the mid two thousands. Yes. That was the, the experience we used to sneak in. We used to, um, well you'd buy the classic, you buy the, the ticket for the one movie, but you end up seeing like two or three throughout the Speaker 2 00:06:37 Day. No, I was much more, uh, I did, I did that couple times. I'm a good two shoes than that. Speaker 1 00:06:41 And then the candy, the sketchy candy store in the shopping center next to the movie theater. And you wear that North Face jacket, your, your mom thinks you're Oh, great. He's bundling up. But no mom, I'm just trying to sneak in Butter Fingers and the little crunch bunch things Speaker 2 00:06:52 You see. I couldn't, I couldn't have, I was, so that would make me, I would've like burst into flame really? If I tried to do that. Really? I'm not a rule breaker. I've become more of one as I've gotten older. I Speaker 1 00:07:03 Was gonna say Yeah. Speaker 2 00:07:03 <laugh>. Um, but I, I was not at that age. Not at all. Speaker 1 00:07:06 And you're, you're from Virginia, right? Yeah. Okay, sweet. And you, so I think we're opposites when it comes to, I don't know if you're a big sports guy. I grew up a big Virginia Tech fan. <laugh>, and I think, I believe you're a Charlottesville guy, right? Speaker 2 00:07:18 I, I'm from Richmond, but I went to school at uva. Okay. And so I, and then I lived in Charlottesville for like the past eight years right. Before moving here. So, um, but honestly, like I feel zero allegiance to them. I'll never give them any money. Um, well they they Speaker 1 00:07:31 Have so Speaker 2 00:07:32 Much money, so I'm fine to support you in your, uh, tech fandom. Yeah. And Speaker 1 00:07:35 It's been, Speaker 2 00:07:35 Maybe that's sacrilege but <laugh> no love lost between me and the university <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:07:40 Yeah. I, there's, and we've done, we actually were out in Richmond do, we did a show out there with Trey recently, which I've been out, I've did shows out there with Musca on back in the day too. Where, what's the, the, there's a theater out there. Speaker 2 00:07:52 The national, Speaker 1 00:07:53 The national. I did the national with Musan on, that's like the Speaker 2 00:07:55 Coolest thing. Speaker 1 00:07:56 And then there's a new newer spot that's like a, it's like, it's like a step below Brooklyn Bowl, but it's like that concept. It's like broad Speaker 2 00:08:04 Or Speaker 1 00:08:04 What was it, what the hell was the name of it? Speaker 2 00:08:07 Uh, Speaker 1 00:08:07 It was like a bowling alley fucking but Rich River City Roll, right. River City Roll. Okay. And it was like a bowling alley on one side. Brick oven pizza. It's like brick oven pizza, bowling, live music in one and the crowd in Richmond. Like there is a cool like music scene out there in Virginia and you have West Virginia right over there. You have Kentucky right there. Like you've got a nice little mix of different songs. Speaker 2 00:08:30 I'm glad you noticed because it is like, so the thing to do on every tour, to just leapfrog over the entirety of Central Virginia. Yeah. And just go either from like Charlotte to DC or like Virginia Beach to DC Yeah. And I'm like, Richmond and Charlottesville are pretty vibrant music scenes. Speaker 1 00:08:46 Oh, Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's a classic spot. Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 00:08:49 <affirmative>. But a lot of people just skip 'em. So it's fun always when people actually do, cuz Charlottesville's interesting. It's a small little town, but you got a stadium where occasionally they do have shows. They had like U2 came and played there when I was in college. And then you've got arenas for the basketball team and then you've got everything down the line. They have a big amphitheater and so it, it weirdly does get pretty good music for being a pretty random town of I think like 50,000 people. So. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:09:14 Yeah. I, I enjoy going, going through there and it's like my, on my way home back to New York when I'm doing, which I know you did the drive back from Virginia. And it doesn't, like you said, from a border state for a border state, it's a, it's a relatively long drive because we're in middle Tennessee. So when I drive up back home to New York and you take I 81 and you're going through the blueridge, Speaker 2 00:09:32 You have to go all the way up through like DC and like, Speaker 1 00:09:34 I avoid that. So I, I had an extra hour so I don't have to go to Speaker 2 00:09:38 DC and you just go up into Pennsylvania, Speaker 1 00:09:39 Cut over, I go up the pa and then you cut all the way across. Hit hit a cup, maybe hit a sheets along the way, you know, get, get them two for one hotdog, you know. Speaker 2 00:09:46 Do you remember the first time you ever went to a Sheets? Speaker 1 00:09:49 I do because I was like, this looks like Wawa, but it's not Wawa. Cause that's what we had in Jersey. Okay. It was the Wawas. But I was like, wait a second. Like, like the menu was just great. The breakfast. Oh, the bathrooms are light years cleaner than a Wawa bathroom. Yes. Which was nice. I was like, this is, this is pretty cool. Speaker 2 00:10:06 And I, I was in Pennsylvania the first time I went to Sheets and just my mind was blown at the just touchscreen order. I was like, I can order anything and they just make it right here. It felt like the future. Speaker 1 00:10:16 Yeah. And the fact that they're open 24 hours and they've got people like Speaker 2 00:10:19 Are they still Speaker 1 00:10:20 Yeah, they've, they've been, as far as I know, I've, I had one at like four in the morning a couple weeks ago. Dude, Speaker 2 00:10:25 That's a dream. I did not know that. And I, look there are bigger losses than this, uh, throughout the pandemic, but the idea that some of my late night staples, I'm a night owl broke, like Walmart are still not open overnight. Yeah. Dude, the me fact Speaker 1 00:10:39 That Taco Bell's not open though three, four in the morning anymore. I used to get 3:00 AM Taco Bell all the time. Speaker 2 00:10:43 Taco I lives open until three. Really? Speaker 1 00:10:45 But you're in Oh, you're, you're in like one of the best not to give away where you live if you don't want that being public knowledge. But the, that little circle, Speaker 2 00:10:53 That weird cul-de-sac of fast food Speaker 1 00:10:55 Restaurants, that culdesac of just fast food munchy like degenerate fast food restaurants where you got Taco Bell, Wendy's and, and Mickey These's right next to each other. Speaker 2 00:11:02 Yeah. And Chick-fil-A across the street and Chick-fil-A across the street. Yeah. It's pretty, I've literally, I just was making egg white bites before moving here if I was a couple minutes late because Yeah. When I moved here I also discovered that little cul-de-sac of monkeys and Yeah. I was like, good gracious, I'm eating. Yeah. So badly all the time because it's like across the street. Speaker 1 00:11:23 Yeah. And I actually lost weight when I moved from the north to the south, which I was like fast food, alley barbecue. Like, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be greasy down here. I'm gonna probably put on about 10, 15 pounds I mover. But back home I'm eating pizza, I'm eating bagels, I'm eating a sandwich. Mom's making pasta for dinner. Wait, like it's so beefing potatoes in New York. Speaker 2 00:11:40 Best bagels I've ever had was actually in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. Yeah. And I was staying with my friend and his mom was like, oh, I got you tartan ham. Oh yeah. And I was like, what the heck is tartan ham? And she's like, you don't know what it is. And I've, I've since learned from Jersey friends that it's just like a, oh yeah, you gotta get like a ham egg and cheese with tartan ham. Well, Speaker 1 00:12:00 So I haven't heard it called tartan ham, but they call it North Jersey. They call it Taylor Ham Taylor Speaker 2 00:12:04 That no, you're right. Yes. Taylor Ham. Speaker 1 00:12:06 So this is a big, my bad this. No, you're good. This is a big, big discrepancy in the state of New Jersey and because, so Jersey, a very aggressive place. It's in between New York City and Philadelphia, which to me, like the fact, I mean, but they have millions of people in such a small state, kind of like the DC area where it's just very congested. So in South Jersey they call it pork roll, which is technically the term for what? The, what it is. That's like bacon. So like that bacon is bacon, but you have Oscar Meyer, you have like different styles of it. Taylor is one of the brands now Taylor is only available really in North Jersey. So they call it Taylor Ham. And then North and South Jersey both agreed that sa that central Jersey doesn't exist. Okay. I went to college in Central New Jersey cuz that was our radio station. Today's hits yesterday's favorite, it's magic 98.3 Central Jersey's music station. And some people will call it Taylor Ham, some people will call it pork roll, but people will legitimately like argue over Taylor Ham or pork roll. But yes. Taylor Ham on a bagel is like, yeah it's, that's just like a salty greasy breakfast Speaker 2 00:13:10 Meal. Totally. I remember getting a French toast bagel with Taylor Ham. Oh, you Speaker 1 00:13:14 French Toast Bagel. Oh Speaker 2 00:13:15 Yeah. And I was like for it, Speaker 1 00:13:17 This Speaker 2 00:13:17 Is extravagant. I was in college in Jersey for the first time and I was like, I love Jersey <laugh>. So anyway, I believe it. <laugh>, I believe that you ate badly Speaker 1 00:13:25 There. Yeah. Did you, um, so how many years did you live up in New York? Because you were in, you started out in Virginia, you were out in the Midwest for a little bit too, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or you or No, so it was just Virginia and New York, Speaker 2 00:13:36 Virginia. Then I went straight up to New York. I went to uh, 2011 through like late 2014. So almost, uh, four years that I was up there like three and a half, four years. And uh, then I came down to Charlottesville again and then just six months ago moved here. So about four years up there. Speaker 1 00:13:53 What took you so long to get here? Being involved in country as long as you have like, what were kind of, cause I remember you, you talked a lot about it like when you were, when you were kind of molding totally with the process. Like you, you documented it very well when you were thinking about coming here and making the move and looking for the apartment and going and touring all the apartments and houses and all that stuff and Yeah. What, what, what made it to where within the last six months you were like, fuck it, let me come out here. So Speaker 2 00:14:17 From the very beginning of ever talking about country, I've always had a somewhat critical take on the industry. Um, even back when I, when I was at Entertainment Weekly, I started just kind of dipping my toe into writing about country. And some of my original pieces that blew up were, I, I think I'd, the, the first one that really was popular was, I wrote one way back in like 2012 or 2013 called like how country music went crazy. A timeline of the genre of Civil War. Cuz at the time it was like Zach Brown and saying that Jason Aldean's song was the worst song he'd ever heard. Yeah. Um, and then you had like Casey Musgraves coming up and singing songs like, I don't want to Be in Your Good Old Boys Club. And there was just a lot of, it was interesting. And so I've always written about that and it was really easy to write about that in New York and it was really easy to write about that when you're, you know, 22 and don't know who you're offending. Speaker 2 00:15:10 Um, yeah. Once you start to get a sense of like, oh gosh, the genre likes to play nice and people like to pretend that everyone gets along, then it's, um, you're a little more reticent maybe to say some of those things. And as like I had transitioned in recent years into being a YouTuber, um, again, all my most popular videos are negative even though I believe I'm a quite positive person. Yeah, I would agree with that. Um, the things that people know me for are things like why country music was awful in 2013. This beat is killing country music. Yes. Yeah. Um, you know, all my most popular things are sort of negative in tone and that's, you know, sort of why people value me or at least that's what I gather from the fact that there's so many views on stuff like that. And I think I've always feared to answer your question that if I came to Nashville, I'd feel censored or bridled or unwilling to be so open. Be a Speaker 1 00:16:03 Critic. Speaker 2 00:16:04 Yeah. Because like I don't wanna offend the publicist next door and, you know, I I that just fear of like, well what good would come from being in the center of the industry that I'm trying to tell the truth about and like, I, I'll be compromised, I'll get invited to some party and that guy was actually really nice and now I don't wanna say that his song sucks and Yeah. Um, you know, and there's some truth to that. That's kinda like, if you've ever seen Almost famous that's like what that whole movie's about. Yes. Yeah. You can't fly too close to the sun. You can't be friends with these people. And yet at the same time, I, I don't know that the paradigm of journalism that I, I learned up in New York where there is a lot more of a separation of church and state. Like I wasn't allowed to review any album of someone I'd interviewed in the last three years. Speaker 1 00:16:48 Yeah. That's how it is up Speaker 2 00:16:49 There. Yeah. And uh, cuz they, they don't want you to be compromised, but it's like, I've just watched that wall evaporate now. It's weird when you are like more of an influencer and you can interview someone and then turn right around and act like they don't exist and review their album. And, and I've had to do that a few times. Like, you know, Kip Moore was the first kind of big person that ever came on my channel and then I think I didn't like, like his next single. And you always get a few comments that are like, you're so ungrateful and, and it is confusing to kind of navigate. You're like, maybe I am ungrateful, maybe, but, but no, I almost make myself be a little bit more negative. Well, Speaker 1 00:17:26 People like going you too because you kind of curate in a way you curate, you know, like people like hearing what you are, what you are into in a way Yes. They like getting your thoughts on this, you know, and people that are, especially as deep thinking when it comes to the country music genre, they're gonna go to you because how deep thinking you are. Because there's lots of platforms out there and there's lots of, lots of resource out there to, to find new music and lots of commentary within country music. But like you said, a lot of it's just copy and paste the press release that x y, Z PR company sends. Oh, totally. Not honest journalism, not honest opinionated editorial pieces, whether that's video written, blog goes, whatever. So it's, that's yeah, to me, like what, what you bring and you've introduced a, like you've been a, a kind of the last few years, like the rise of guys like Zach Bryan, Charles Wesley Govin, which I know is another proud Appalachia Heck yeah. Appalachia guy. And, and seeing that kind of subgenre within country music come up and you've documented that really well, what's that kind of been like to, to watch, and I know you got to do that interview with Zach Bryan, right? Speaker 2 00:18:29 Totally. Totally. Which Speaker 1 00:18:30 Is a huge thing cuz that that's very, that Speaker 2 00:18:32 Doesn't, that was the only interview of Zach for a long time. That was the only on-camera interview of him till like this year. So yeah, that kind of rode for three years of just like, it bombed out of the gate and I was like, man, I really thought the hype was real on this guy. And then like over time I was like, okay, I was right. Yeah. Um, but no, I think, I think that is, it's been very validating to my gut in a way. Like I've just, when you talk to people a lot of times in the music industry, they're just obsessed with data. And when you say things like, I promise you this guy Zack is happening. Like, I can just tell I've never been dmd by so many people that are like, dude, you gotta check out Zack Bryan. Which still to this the day people DM me, like they're, they're first on the case. Speaker 2 00:19:17 They're like, dude, have you heard of Zach Bryan? I'd love to hear you talk about him on your channel. And I'm like, there's not much more I could do. Okay. Yeah. There's like says like a lot of dedicated videos on the channel, but uh, when you try to tell people that like a few years ago, they're like, well, does he have a single out? Like what are his streams like? And you're like, no, no, no, it's just videos on YouTube right now. But I just promise you like everywhere he goes, he just completely sells it out. People are obsessed with him, they love him. His writing is amazing. And I think it's been validating over the last couple years to just realize, oh, I'm not crazy. Like, uh, this stuff really is happening. I'm watching the numbers go up now they're getting the streams and now suddenly they're the cool kids and everyone is chasing like, how do we get this gritty sound? And, um, stuff like Zack Bryan and, and so it's, it's just been cool to realize like, yeah, you can trust your gut if the thing happening right in front of your eyes is happening, just trust your yourself. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:20:14 Do you think part of Zack getting to where he's, where he's at, was kind of that, that opening in that part of that subgenre with Tyler and Sturgill falling off a little bit where there needed to be that next guy that came up? Or do you think it's just that there's enough of a difference between a guy like Tyler chillers? I've had people ask me this and I've got my thoughts on it, like with Ty, like, because you, there are a lot of kind of those similarities with the, with the honest writing that grittiness the fan bases are very similar to of Childers and a guy like Zach Bryan. Speaker 2 00:20:45 Yeah. I've never, I've never been, uh, a lot of people try to, and I'm not saying you're doing this, but a lot of people try to hold that against Zack. And I'm like, he put it right there on the first freaking song on the first album. He's like, got that line. It's like, let's all gather around where we can all sing chillers. Yeah. I'm Speaker 1 00:21:02 Like, that's Speaker 2 00:21:02 His, yeah. That's like the first thing outta his mouth. He's not trying to deny that that is someone that he's inspired by. And so I think that, but I do also think that those guys are quite the, the, the kind of earlier generation I would say is Bull Childers. Sturgill would be kind of the three, the trifecta of that kind of the early rumblings of this kind of indie country revolution. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:21:26 Would you put Turnpike in there too? Yes. As a band. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:21:29 Um, they kind of all, for whatever reason are a bit almost like against their own spotlight. Um, they're not, they're they're very anti-establishment for the most part. Um, or at least have always been very anti-establishment. Uh, but I, I do think they kinda like slowed down. They weren't ready to scale and Zach I think might be that one in a million person that just was more comfortable scaling. I've thought a lot about this recently, like one wondering if it was maybe his time in the Navy that made him so prepared to take off like a rocket ship. Because most of the people in this kind of scene that we're discussing that is more the independent scene. They tend to be shyer souls. They tend to not really, um, trust their own success. They're a little bit sad boy and struggle with like self-worth and should I really be taking off this quickly? Speaker 2 00:22:24 And if I am and if the radio is playing me, am I now feeding the beast that I came here to fight? Like, I wonder if, uh, Zach is that unusual person where maybe because he was so used to having to have all of these delegated duties, uh, to all of these different people around him in the Navy, maybe he's like that one person that can actually really cope well with it and just say, yeah, I signed a deal now it's your job to do this and your job to do this. And he just kind of continues living because the vibe I get from his label and from the people around him are that they're chasing him always. Like they're letting him do whatever he wants. Yeah. And they're trying to play catch up. Speaker 1 00:23:02 I mean, the name of the live record My Home, Speaker 2 00:23:05 I'm sure they didn't want that Speaker 1 00:23:07 <laugh>. No. But but, but look at what it, what it did. And that, that to me was just such a great sound. I haven't, I haven't had the opportunity to go to a Zack Bryan show and I know those are Yeah, those, you've, you've, how many have you been to now? I've just been Speaker 2 00:23:19 To two. Speaker 1 00:23:19 Just been to two. So I know you did the one in South Carolina. Greenville. Speaker 2 00:23:23 Greenville Country Fest. I've been to three then <laugh>, um, yeah, Greenville Fest and uh, Richmond. And I also saw him, uh, in Franklin. Oh, so he was in town when Speaker 1 00:23:33 We were in Greenville. Yeah, he was, yeah. We we played it at The Blind Horse Saloon in Greenville the same night as that festival. Speaker 2 00:23:39 Well Speaker 1 00:23:39 We had a Trey Lewis show the same night as that Speaker 2 00:23:41 Was. It did, did you still end up like selling a good number of Speaker 1 00:23:44 Texts? Yeah, we still, we still ended up having like, I think like six, 700 people in there. Okay. Nice. South Kack. He loves them. Loves them some Trey, it was a wild night, but, um, so what was like the smallest room you saw Zack Bryan in? Speaker 2 00:23:55 Oh, I also saw him at the Station Inn. They did this like little secret show for Speaker 1 00:23:58 I think I remember that. Cause I remember, I remember you and um, Magone. Yeah. Which Meg's a good friend of the program too. Speaker 2 00:24:04 Oh heck yeah. Yeah. That's where I met her. We were like sitting sitting right beside each other. Um, I was, I remember I had like a, felt like such a dork cause I had this book about, uh, Machiavelli that was like 16th century Italian philosophers. Oh yeah. It was like in my pocket and I was like, oh, I'm sitting down next to the Megan Morone whipping out my Machiavelli biography <laugh>, uh, while we're Speaker 1 00:24:26 Seeing that is that Brian show at the station in of all places. Speaker 2 00:24:29 I know. So that's the smallest room I've ever seen him in and I'm sure will ever see him in. Speaker 1 00:24:33 Yeah. Cuz it's, Speaker 2 00:24:33 It's, I think it's the smallest room he's ever played. Speaker 1 00:24:35 Yeah. Well I'm think like, I gotta think like early, like when he first got out and started posting videos, he had to have done some like No, Speaker 2 00:24:42 He did like a couple shows because he was active till last year. Um, like Speaker 1 00:24:47 So all that shit, all those videos like heading south and all of that stuff was coming out when he was still Yeah. So he was just posting that from like the barracks or wherever he was living Yeah. Speaker 2 00:24:55 Where people could like film stuff. A lot of 'em are like, he's just like sweaty on his back porch and a lot of 'em. And then I think, uh, cause I remember even when he made his Opry debut, they had to like get a letter of, I don't know what the technical term is, but they had to like ask, they had to petition the Navy essentially to let him have a leave in order to come play the Grand Ole Opry. Jeez. And I think they granted that. So yeah, I think all that he really has not had the ability to even tour until this year and Speaker 1 00:25:27 Has had probably one of the most successful tour first years of touring in history. Yeah. It's insane. And it's crazy to see, it's really cool to see like country be at kind of the, like there're being guys and girls that are starting to become in a way like bigger than country music in a way using that term. Like seeing Zack have that, have that hit that well, like I know he hit the billboard Hot 100 like number one today I think was when they announced that on Airplay or might have even been Speaker 2 00:25:51 Hot country Speaker 1 00:25:52 Songs. Hot country songs. That's what it was. Yeah. But then to see what guys like, like Morgan are doing with the amount of selling with World Tour Stadium shit, like we have multiple guys doing what Garth was doing in the eighties and nineties. Like Speaker 2 00:26:04 It's, I think it's cool, it just seems that there is a recognition right now that you don't actually have to play the sort of standard issue radio promotional method game. Yeah. Um, and I feel like there's been a lot of people saying that for so long, for like a decade being like, can we just like let artists be cool like Bailey Zimmer, what they want. Like Speaker 1 00:26:28 Bailey Zimmerman prime example, dude mm-hmm. <affirmative> Speaker 2 00:26:30 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And then I think you see a lot of people that sign a deal. They're buzzy, they're cool, they sign a deal and there's innumerable examples of this over the years. And then the label's response is often like, let's wait, let's find the right time to go to radio. Let's get the right songs. And these people get stuck in almost a, a mindset of they're getting a and r to death and over two years all of the spunk and the soul that made them who they are squeezed out of them as they're trying to find the right single that's gonna make them happen. And they start talking in this robotic way of saying, you know, I'm really looking for things with tempo right now. And you're like, you think tempo is gonna be what any makes anyone fall in love with you. Yeah. No, you're like, what was that soul that you had? And and it's so frustrating to watch those people have the passions squelched out of them. And so I think when you see it's very inspiring to see someone like Zack, even someone like Bailey, I think like it's it's a slightly less organic rise. Yeah. Um, not that it's an inorganic rise, I'm just saying like Zack's is truly like out Speaker 1 00:27:34 Security 110%. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:27:35 And, uh, but I, I think it's just really cool that it's almost like the labels are realizing even a little bit or they're starting to, we don't know everything and instead of making all these artists we sign, go back to the drawing board and figure out who they are and how we are going to market them. Maybe we can just add wind into the sales of something that's already happening. Yep. So, Speaker 1 00:27:58 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, and it's kind of cool now that artists can have an Instagram account, can have a TikTok account and if something blows up, the labels can't just sit there and be like, Hey, we got you on the shelf. If you got a video that blows up and gets three, 4 million views, the label's gonna be like, okay, we got like, the artists can kind of do it in a way, them themselves with getting shit out there. They don't just have to wait for Totally. Speaker 2 00:28:22 Whereas, which I think some artists don't like Speaker 1 00:28:25 Some artists, some artists hate having to do it. Yeah. But some artists that really like doing it, I mean, do you think like an artist like, like 10 years ago that was like say a group like, say like, like the Swan Brothers for example, they got, they got off just the ramp. No, I Speaker 2 00:28:39 Like it. No, I like it. I'm like, oh, that's a fun one. Speaker 1 00:28:40 Yeah. Like Swan Brothers, would you imagine they had, they had social media to kind of help carry them past their fir Like they had the two hits, they went on the tour with Carrie underwear, they went on like the Blake Shelton tour, but they never got to like that, that next step. And then they, there's just that over time, like you said, just that kind of like fizzle. Like do you, like imagine an act like 10, 15 years ago had that ability to kind of have it in their own hands control their own destiny. Speaker 2 00:29:03 Yeah. I think you, I I it would be cool if they did cuz I think a lot of, I think honestly it's probably really hard for a lot of these people who have been used to being marketed to the idea that the ball's in my court and I have to market myself now for some of them. And you can generally tell who it is, there's people that seem a little bit distant in their own social media and when they post, it's always like, stay tuned. I have an announcement in two days. And then they're like, I'm gonna go play the Today Show concert series. And you're like, well who cares? Yeah. You know what? That's not gonna do anything. It's not Speaker 1 00:29:36 Gonna sell tickets. Not gonna, Speaker 2 00:29:37 And you even look on iTunes and you're like being playing the Today Show that doesn't do anything but get you from like number 100 on iTunes to number 78. Yeah. Um, and y you know, the amount of money they spend. And so these are these traditional marketing techniques that I think some artists have almost been trained to think that this is what works and this is what it is to be a star. Yeah. Um, and in reality you could spend literally 1% of that money to just set up your phone with a ring light and do something kind of funny on TikTok and it will move the needle more. And that's sort of, I think almost something that a few of them don't accept. Yeah. Um, as being a reality and, and prefer to play dress up as a star. Speaker 1 00:30:20 Yeah. But there's some artists that I think are like the older school that are doing well are are doing a good job of Speaker 2 00:30:25 It. Totally. I'm trying to convince Brad Paisley's team to be like, you should be pushing TikTok. You're the, he's the most naturally funny person I've ever interviewed. Speaker 1 00:30:33 That was, and again, going back to the advent calendar, cause I did enjoy a lot of those moments. I remember watching <laugh> cause I, so I had a country, I had a country radio show in college. That's kind of how I got started doing this whole thing. And I would watch all the award shows and like kind of like pay attention to the scene of that. Right. From like 2013 to 2017 is when I really started getting into it. So I remember, I remember Brad and Carrie hosting the hosting the award shows and they were fucking hilarious. Yeah. I and Brad is such like, you have such a personality within him. Like why not showcase that all Speaker 2 00:31:01 That he could do. He could even be like the king of guitar talk if he doesn't even wanna be funny. I'm like, he's just an unbelievable, not many people are pickers like that anymore. No. And so he could run that scene because that's a whole big clique of TikTok as Speaker 1 00:31:13 Well. I mean, he had one of the greatest country music videos of all time with so much cooler online with Taylor Swift and Kelly Pickler dancing and George Costanza Jason. Um, maybe that's Speaker 2 00:31:21 My goal, to get them to do it. To be like, look, you're making a mockery of this song by not being cooler online. Yeah. Uh, because you're currently not cooler online. If you're not running TikTok. There it Speaker 1 00:31:31 Is. There it is. That's a, that's that's a clip right there. McElroy, mark that right there. That's a fucking clip. Boy. <laugh>. But, um, hell yeah. Yeah. Right. We Speaker 2 00:31:40 Like you're cool <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:31:42 Um, talking about artists doing it kind of their own way. I mean we, we both, we um, we were hanging out at the, uh, muscadine show here Yeah. A couple weeks ago. Um, and they're guys that you've been talking about for a long time, they're guys that are obviously very, very close, very close to me. Without them I wouldn't be out touring and doing what I do. Um, what's it been like watching them kind of come up too? Cuz you've watched them from Yeah. Port Swing, angel Day. Speaker 2 00:32:05 They've been to my house in Virginia. You've, and done like a janky little interview with me there. Um, no, it's been super cool watching Muscatine take off because, and take off on their own terms completely. Literally some people that, depending on your definition of what success is, would say that they haven't happened yet. And I think that's ludicrous because, um, look, yeah. They don't have a big radio single, but they like own everything that they do. Don't, I don't think Speaker 1 00:32:34 They, they want the radio single. They'd rather sell out clubs and theaters and own everything and have the one of the most passionate fan bases in country music. Speaker 2 00:32:43 If you could have all of it, I'm sure that would be the ideal. Well I Speaker 1 00:32:45 Have all of it, but I'm saying like, you have, do you have the, like they sell out those v i p packages pro hundreds of people every totally Speaker 2 00:32:52 Week. So I I love it. I think they're, I think they're insanely successful. I, uh, I think I've just been talking to too many people in the a and r world lately, uh, that are, you know, super data nerds Yeah. And are like, oh, but are they, do they have any number ones, do they do this, da da da da da. And, and I'm like, no. Not necessarily your metrics of what success are, which often have to do with the radio, but in like, the real world of moving tickets, of gaining fans, of having people listen to the words that you're saying. They they pass with flying colors. Yeah. And uh, and they're live show is awesome and they're funny. I I just think they're doing everything right. And um, it's funny cuz it, I think it took them a while to figure themselves out. Like it was, Speaker 1 00:33:41 It was co I think it was Covid, I think it was during, during Covid mm-hmm. <affirmative> and having that time to go home to the family in Alabama and Mississippi, go out in the woods, spend time not touring and really having that time to reflect. Cause remember their sounds just changed from that. Totally Burn it at both from what it was like the, all those eps to burn it at both ends to dispatch to what's coming on this, this, um, teenage Dixie record. Like their whole styles just evolv. Speaker 3 00:34:06 I've been knowing them for a, we've known them for a while. Like I've known 'em since the cover days. They've always been able to pull like, move tickets. Yeah. Like it's, they started, um, they started a long time ago with, um, like opening for Luke Combs and Riley and like all these theater shows and just like, ever since then they've, it's been a slow build, but now they're like right there. Yeah. Like they can, they can move these tickets in like two to 3000 cap rooms and easily. Yeah. Like super easy I think. Like, and then like they've known all the people like Laney Wilson and, um, who else they had on here lately, right? Speaker 2 00:34:45 Jordan Fletcher. Speaker 1 00:34:46 Well, Jordan Fletcher was, well Jordan Fletcher was their damn was their damn merch guy. Yeah. <laugh>, which to me is what I love as a, as a former musket eye merch guy. We're in that Musket Eye merch guy fraternity <laugh>. Um, which, which I, which I love. But yeah. Like this that, what's cool too is like seeing how they're the class of the, the guys and girls that were moving to town around the same time as them, like that 2016 of Combs, Riley, Ray Fulcher, Laney Wilson, um, Gary and Charlie. I mean even Wallen and Hardy and all those guys were coming to town around that same time. Like to see where all those guys are at the development of the last six, seven years. Speaker 2 00:35:19 I think what's cool about them too is they th and this is where I really relate to them just interpersonally, is I, I think the same way that I kind of went into the belly of the beast and like worked in media and learned a lot, but also learned what I didn't want to be. Uh, I feel like they kind of, when they moved to town and they don't speak ill of it at all, but they, they like, were doing stuff with Creative Nation Yep. Working with Luke Lair and they really learned like the machinations of the industry and what it is to be a big hit songwriter. And I think kind of realized as much as they had to learn, they also learned that's not necessarily the path that we want to take. Yeah. And so they're, they're very savvy in in kind of pivoting. And I think also seeing man this honky tonk sound is kind of cooler than like when I, when people told me about Musca nine at first, frankly I liked it, this was like early days, but I was like, okay, it's like 20% better than like most country music. And now I'm like, oh, it's like 150% better. Yeah. Than a lot of sort of the, Speaker 1 00:36:19 They were like a country or Dan and Shea with the harmonies. Speaker 2 00:36:22 Yes. Yeah. That's kind of where I think it started and now it's just so many miles away from that and more adventurous and anyway, I just, I think they kind of, I agree with you. They learned really who they are, what they're about and then went for it with full ownership of it. Speaker 1 00:36:36 Yep. And they self-produced themselves. Like they work with, with Ryan Yeomans and I don't know if you know this, you familiar with Tyler Halverson of his crush as he crush? Speaker 2 00:36:43 Literally as of this weekend. Really? I just heard a song. Well it's funny because I remember, I don't know if he sent it to me or someone else did, but a long time ago I heard some song called Beer Garden Baby. And I was like, I like that song, but that's literally in one ear at the other. I just forgot about it. Yeah. And then this weekend I heard whatever his duet is with Kylie Speaker 1 00:37:02 Your bar now. Speaker 2 00:37:03 Yeah. And I taking Speaker 1 00:37:04 My as back to Midtown and Speaker 2 00:37:05 I really liked it. Yep. And uh, so I guess as of three days ago Im into Tyler Halverson. Speaker 1 00:37:11 Yeah. So Tyler's been one of my, one of our good buddies for a while and he's like in that that crew of the, the young I call me and Nikki Tequan, the, the young Americana kids in a way. And Tyler's more western cuz he's from South Dakota, has been out in Texas for a while. But it's like Tyler Halverson, Ben Chapman, Meg McCree, Vinny, PA, Lizzie, Nate, Frederick, job, Fortner, like that crew of, of guys and girls. And Tyler's stuff is produced by Ryan Yeomans who produce his, um, who produces Muscatine and Gary for Muscatine. Like Gary is a co-producer of Yeah. Which is really cool that there's just that. And then they're bringing out guys like Ben Chapman on the road mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they're kind of seeing like kids that remind them of, of them and doing it the way they want to do it. Not doing it, not being like being super authentic and they're kind of investing in those kids in a way. Totally. Which is really cool to see as well. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:38:05 It's, it's been interesting. Uh, just Speaker 1 00:38:07 Like BJ Barham invested in them. Uhhuh, American Aquarium, they them in American aquarium. Bj super tight. BJ's a cool dude too. Speaker 2 00:38:14 I've never actually gotten to meet him in really, I literally, I probably said 25 times on my channel that he's like, well I think one of the best living songwriters and Speaker 1 00:38:21 You and him together to make a conversation would be insane. Cuz he's very inte he's very opinionated intellectual as well. He's, he, I wanna see a Grady, I know I wanna see a Grady Smith, but American Aquarium interview. Speaker 2 00:38:32 Yeah. We see the world quite differently in Speaker 1 00:38:34 Which is why I want to see it Speaker 2 00:38:35 <laugh>. Yeah. But then we also see something like we both have a, I think we're both quite anti-establishment, but it manifests like sort of differently on a lot of subjects. So yeah, I think I'd, I'd love it. I mean I love his writing and his music so much. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:38:48 So who are some of your favorite, um, oh, um, what's been the biggest thing about living in Nashville that's like surprised you, aside from what you were talking about earlier with kind of being like, what's it gonna be like to be in the mouth of the beast saying the shit that I say, being honest. Speaker 2 00:39:02 Well, I can't believe how much I like it and I can't believe how down to earth people are here. I am just used to people feeling way more like a storm cloud all the time. I think I came here from a college town and you aren't really supposed to feel like that proud of yourself or that like happy all the time. That's not the currency in Charlottesville, Virginia. No. So I remember even when my, my like first, uh, when my Snapchat video went viral, all my friends truly meaning it. And this is what it is to be a good friend in Charlottesville and this is kind of how I am. They were like, do you feel like this is gonna be good for you? Like you've talked about like kind of wrestling with pride before. Do you feel like having like a viral video is gonna make that like worse or better? Speaker 2 00:39:48 And in Nashville they're just like, dude, let me buy you a drink. That's awesome. You hit a million views. Congrats. And it's kind of been weird. I'm like, wait, that feels so nice that people just sort of think a little bit more simply and down to earth here and just tell you to be happy about succeeding. I didn't really trust it for the first few months and every single person I met was like, you know, you're like successful and people like you. And I'm like, that's not true. Um, and they've really had to convince me that it is and that I maybe have some self-doubt issues. And so I, I think just the positivity of this place has really thrown me for a loop and it's almost made me, I don't know, it's just softened me a bit where I'm like, it's a nice feeling for people to be nice to you and for people to encourage you. Um, and then like I, I'm probably never gonna be so much that way. I'm a bit moody, uh, and darker. Uh, but people find that refreshing here. They're like, oh dude, you see the world so differently. So it's kind of a win-win. It's like I'm feeding off their positivity and they're feeding off my negativity and it's honestly refreshing. Like this is the most down to earth city I've ever lived in. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:40:59 I mean I've, I came from the, from, so I'm from Rockland County, which is like 30 miles outside the city. So like where the Tap Z bridge is at iac. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like that section. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So to come obviously New York, very hardnosed, go to college in Jersey, work in Jersey for a while, live in Jersey for a little bit and then come down here. And it was like a weird kind of thing for me too, coming from the northeast to down here. It's Speaker 2 00:41:22 What was so different. Speaker 1 00:41:23 Well, my first year in town I bounced on Broadway. Like I moved down here on a Thursday. I was the, I moved down here the Thursday before of Halloween weekend. The next night I was out with some buddies and then I was work, they, they handed me a, a security shirt and a walkie-talkie at Dirk Bentley's Whiskey Row. And I was a bouncer for a year. I'd never bounced a day in my life. I'd been into some shit when I used to drink, but I'd never like bounced. And so I was, I saw like the worst side of the tourism of Nashville for about a year. Interesting. I worked the front door and would catch fake IDs and deal with the, the, the homeless problem that we have here and deal with drunk idiots from concerts and games and this and that. But I also got to meet a lot of musicians and I got to meet a lot of the guys and girls that were busting their asses on Broadway and meet the sound guys that are now production managers like Tyler Lasar Boudreaux as we used to call him. Speaker 1 00:42:13 He used to do the podcast with me and he was a sound guy at Whiskey Row. He got hired to do the Muscadine gig and that's how I ended up on the Muscadine gig. So Broadway was like, it was Broadway was, was definitely like, I wasn't able to go to go to Whiskey Jam cause I was working downtown on Monday night. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't able to like, be fully in the community because I was downtown so much. But then once I got into that community, like you said, I was like, damn, this is, people are really welcoming. Other guys and girls that do rounds are like, dude, we love what you're doing. We love what you're doing for the community. Whereas they're, they're hosting, like me and Rob Snyder are good buddies. He used to have revival down at Tin Roof same night. I'd have my stuff at Live o you would think we'd be like rivals or competitors, but we would book it to where we would look at it like, Hey, if you're gonna be busy at your bar, there's gonna be overflow to this bar. And vice versa. Like, it's just everybody wants the community to succeed. You know, like Ward, even for example, like Ward Gunther, I call him the Godfather. Speaker 2 00:43:07 Totally. He, I call him the mayor. Speaker 1 00:43:09 He's, he, he ran for mayor. We joke that Ryan Nelson should run for mayor, but if, if, if Ward Ward legitimately like he, the the city of Nashville would not be the same without him, especially what we do in music. Um, but like he's a guy that's looked like that I look up to and that is welcomed with open arms. Like you said, the community factor here is just unlike other cities. Yeah. Like New York, New York City doesn't have that in other instances. It might, it might in like hipster hipster around NYU <laugh> or like in the Village or you're hanging out in Williamsburg. There's obviously some, some communities there, but like, it's just a different kind of feel. Like I Speaker 2 00:43:44 Didn't expect it, but I honestly feel like my New York experience is more aligned like ideologically with Nashville than really, really? Speaker 1 00:43:53 How so? Speaker 2 00:43:54 I think that the worst place on earth is Washington DC Speaker 1 00:43:57 Okay. Okay. So the Speaker 2 00:43:58 Closer you, you're Speaker 1 00:43:59 Virginia boy. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:44:00 You have to hate Washington DC if you're from Virginia. Um, it's like an important rite of passage and everything everyone says is true. Uh, it's like all networking and what's Speaker 1 00:44:10 Worse, DC or Baltimore, Speaker 2 00:44:11 Dc I Speaker 1 00:44:12 Got told Speaker 2 00:44:13 Baltimore, at least Baltimore will, you know, look you in the eyes while ruining your life in DC they'll just like create a narrative, uh, that all of the proper people will quietly believe and just ice out anyone that they don't like. It's the worst place ever. Everything, the way that politics just like infects the, the ways that interpersonal relationships kind of play out, I really think is a, I think you have a Speaker 1 00:44:35 Lot of poverty for, for the capital city of the country. There's some rough areas of DC that, Speaker 2 00:44:40 Okay. So I want her to talk and they boiled every city down to a central value. It was so interesting. So they're like, what does each city value the most? And like, like some of these are easy LA fame, uh, Miami sex. Yes. And, uh, New York, they said the central value was like hustle. And in DC they said the central value was influence. Um, and I think that, that, it's like a very insidious one that I think shapes a lot of like Northern Virginia thinking and philosophy. Yeah. It's a very kind of sly, I don't know, I, I'm Speaker 1 00:45:17 Like, like Arlington, Fairfax, like those areas are the people in those areas. Like, you go to the pool club in Fairfax, Virginia, you're gonna meet some folks that are Speaker 2 00:45:24 Totally, and I'm not saying that's not exactly the world I'm from. No. Um, but cuz it is. Oh, sorry. Uh, but I, uh, I I'm just glad to be done with it. Yeah. So I'm, I'm in my like weird, like, uh, realizing I'm slightly bitter towards Virginia phase of my life now. <laugh> Do you, Speaker 1 00:45:42 Do you, you don't go back and appreciate it at all cause like, I hate it. No, I hated New York City growing up. I used to ask my, I used to say to my mom and my dad, I wish the city could float away, leave Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, but like, float away just cuz again, tra like the traffic, the chaos, the crime, the, this, the that. Then I moved away. Now when I go back, it's like I have to go up and see my brother in Brooklyn at least once, like while on a trip home. Like, I have to go into the city at least once or twice. Like you don't have any of those feelings towards No. Speaker 2 00:46:08 DC uh, no <laugh>, like literally no, I don't, um, <laugh> and, uh, so, and I'm, I'm from like a little bit further south than that, but like Speaker 1 00:46:18 Yeah, you are. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:46:18 Wait, what's the central does, what's the central value? Value of uh, wherever you're from in New Jersey? <laugh>, you had to boil it down. Ooh. Speaker 1 00:46:26 So where I'm from is the new, so it's like Speaker 2 00:46:29 Pizza <laugh>, pizza <laugh>, Speaker 1 00:46:34 But Speaker 2 00:46:35 Pizza Family, I'm trying to think of Jersey Sho words. So, so tanning, so, yeah. Speaker 1 00:46:39 Yeah. Um, Penn a la vodka. Um, but um, we, uh, where I was from, it's like, so you know where Westchester is? Yeah, Westchester. I'm just across the river from that. Okay. So I'm like, I'm on the new, I'm on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, like in New York. So like, take the Garden State Parkway. I'm like the second exit over the border. Okay. Like where the Palisades malls at, if you know where that is at Fairman? Speaker 2 00:47:02 Uh, yeah. I had a car when I lived in New York. Okay. So you've been to Speaker 1 00:47:04 The Speaker 2 00:47:04 Palisades Mall. So I was, me and my friends would always go on field trips over to the Palisades. Speaker 1 00:47:09 Yes. So the Palisade, so like, Speaker 2 00:47:10 And eat it Cracker Barrel. I don't know why. That was our routine. We would go to the Palisades and then go eat at Cracker Barrel. Speaker 1 00:47:14 You Yeah. Cracker Barrel was in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, I was from there. So it's like a well off New York City suburb. Yeah. With like, maybe like one not so great area, but it's, it's all the folks that work in New York City but want to have families not in New York City. Okay. So it's that lot of, lot of bar and bat mitzvahs. A lot of like, well off to do like that kind of area. So it's like, we were actually top 10 when, remember when that Ashley Madison list came out? Wow. Yeah. We were a top 10 population for Ashley Madison users. And like my home county's Rockland County is the name of, of the area. Area. Speaker 2 00:47:46 Interesting. Why, why, like, because of the proximity to New York. You think people were coming from New York to, uh, go to Ashley or to like, I, I guess none of those things actually resulted in very real affairs. Cause the vast majority of them were just like chat relationships. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:48:02 Yeah. It was just fucked up stuff. But I think it's a lot to do with this, the culture of like, guys that are N Y P D detectives, people that are nurses, people that are people that work on Wall Street, people that are working late hours in the city, you know? Interesting. It's that it's that culture that kind of, that um, that like, what's the word for it? That, um, risque. Like just that New York Speaker 2 00:48:24 Uhhuh Speaker 1 00:48:25 Kind of kind culture. Speaker 2 00:48:26 Like seedy? Speaker 1 00:48:26 Yeah. Well, like the Sopranos, like the, they filmed, they filmed a lot of the Sopranos, like in my hometown. Speaker 2 00:48:32 Interesting. Speaker 1 00:48:33 So like a lot of that kind of thing. So I guess the value, I mean, I would say maybe, maybe Well, but there's that grind too. Like all my buddies grind. But we have like a lot of the union stuff like, you know, in the state of New Jersey, you know, the number one employers, I think, I think this is the stat, the state of New Jersey. It's the state of New Jersey. Okay. Because each town has, like the town government, they have these things called free holders and there's like 15 of 'em in each town. So every town in New Jersey right off the bat has all those, there's just so much like, weird shit that the way New Jersey's structured is just fucked. Yeah. Every governor's been corrupt Speaker 2 00:49:06 And, and having now like, you know, spent my time in that part of the country, it is pretty, I feel bad for your state in how bad of a name the turnpike gives it. Uh, because it is like a pretty shockingly bad turnpike. And then the rest of the states actually I'm like, oh, this is pretty, I see why it's called the Garden State. It's like, Speaker 1 00:49:24 Oh, south Jersey's beautiful. You have the mountains of where the, where the at runs through Western New Jersey. It's the lowest part of the at, but it's still the at. Um, and then you've got like the shore, but there's that armpit of like, new Yeah. It's caucus Speaker 2 00:49:37 And everyone's gotta drive through it to go to New York. <laugh>, Speaker 1 00:49:39 The oranges are just like the worst, you know, it's just some like wild, um, just some like, uh, some wild, uh, wild stuff. Hey, MC Wayne, I think somebody's at the door bud. If you want go do that, we'll just keep, we'll just keep rolling. Keep going if you wanna go answer that. Um, but um, but yeah, it's just, uh, it is a wild place because you do have a little bit of everything. So, so Nashville's been like your favorite place to, to live. Where's your, um, what's your, um, that's water damage from pipes and stuff in the apartment complex. That's what's going on out there. <laugh>. Um, but, um, how do you see yourself being in Nashville for a while, you think? Speaker 2 00:50:18 Yeah, Speaker 1 00:50:18 I do. This feels like home. Speaker 2 00:50:19 I, I don't know that it feels like home yet, but it's, it's definitely brought like a totally new energy into my life and that's been very welcome. So I have no plan to move somewhere else. I mean, my kind of contingency plan was if I really hate Nashville, I'm just gonna go to Florida. Um, and I like Florida. Florida's Speaker 3 00:50:36 Great. Speaker 2 00:50:36 We Speaker 1 00:50:36 Love, we love Florida. Nice. Speaker 3 00:50:38 Have you, have you done, uh, have you had the Broadway experience yet? Speaker 1 00:50:42 You've gone out on Broadway? Yeah, yeah, Speaker 3 00:50:44 Yeah. Yeah. You have. Speaker 2 00:50:45 I thought you meant like the Florida Broadway experience and I was like, I don't know what you mean by that. I don't Speaker 3 00:50:48 Know either. Speaker 1 00:50:48 Well, well, have you been to the Florida Bama? Speaker 2 00:50:51 No. I, Speaker 1 00:50:52 That's to me is Speaker 2 00:50:53 Maybe I've been near there, went out to it's Speaker 1 00:50:55 Perdido key, like down near Pensacola in Orange Beach. Speaker 2 00:50:58 So I got, as far as Grayton Beach, um, I, I did drive. I, I spent like three weeks last summer down in Orlando was my home base because basically my family had this timeshare that Speaker 1 00:51:11 Time, family time. I know about that family Speaker 2 00:51:13 Timeshare. Like, we weren't using it. It was in South Carolina. But then, you know, we, we, the only way to get rid of it was the essentially swap it. And the only person in the family that even could go on a vacation, uh, was me. And so I was like, well, I'll use it if no one else is using it. It was weird, but I, I had to get three weeks in Orlando and, uh, I made that my home base and I kind of went around Florida from there. So I went out toward like Appalachia Cola. That place was cool. Then I went all the way kind of out into the panhandle. Um, Speaker 1 00:51:44 The Redneck Riviera is what they call that. I Speaker 2 00:51:47 Liked it. That was by far my favorite area. Speaker 1 00:51:49 I, I enjoy it. But you gotta go to the Flora Bama one weekend and just check it out. Hey, Speaker 3 00:51:54 We'll do the Flora Bama one, and then let's, hey, let's put him on the bus and take him to Tifton and Oh, jeez. Lakeland geez. Speaker 1 00:52:01 To Wild Gregs. Geez. Oh, we bug you to Wild, wild gr there's a, we'll talk about Wild Greg off the mic. <laugh>. He's, he's a, he's wild. He's, he's, um, he's a, and he's a character. But, um, but Flo BA's great because it's got, it's like Riley Green wouldn't be Riley Green without the floor Bama. Like, to me, that's where All Musk and I too, like they actually used to go down there as Charlie and Gary before they were Musk nine and Trey and the guys used to play down there. Like every act that's every act that's coming. Like you feel like you're in a Kenny Chesney song, like you're in summertime. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> by Kenny Chesney all times of the year. And they have like seven stages within the building. I think it's like six or seven maybe for like five. But they've got quite a few stages within the building. And it's just live music and just people on vacation having a blast. Speaker 2 00:52:41 See, that would be interesting because when I went to Grayton, uh, uh, I hung out a little bit with Brian Kelly down there and his, like, all the people on that beach. It was not the kind of like young, sexy side of Spring break Florida that I kind of imagine. Yeah. Having not ever spent time there. It was like a lot of older, very kind like, just like old leathery, like nice retirees Speaker 1 00:53:06 That like dark clay, that like dark color red of tan that almost looks like magenta. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:53:11 Like tokos. Yeah. Like they are like the covis boots. It's like human hide. Um, but the, uh, yeah, those people were literally, as soon as I stepped on that beach, some dude came up to me and literally goes, yip brother. I was like, I don't think you've been here before. And I was like, who is this man with a pukka sha necklace? He's like, you ever ridden a YOLO board? And I'm like, did Brian pay off this person to, to do like a gorilla, uh, individual marketing campaign about his Beach Cowboy album? Because this sounds exactly like what the album says. Yeah. And that guy told me to go ride his paddle board. Cause I'd never been to this beach before. I don't know how he knew it. But you, did you ride it? I did. Uh, but right before I wrote it, some other old person, this lady came up to me and just goes, sweetheart, the mother in me needs to put sunscreen on you <laugh>. And she lathered me down. So within like, within like one minute I was like, you know, this is odd. This man's, this stranger is telling me to ride his paddleboard as this woman like goops me up. And, um, I'm feeling really welcome <laugh>. So use that term goop. That's what my, I don't remember. I guess that was from my childhood. Someone said goop, so my family says that for sunscreen. Speaker 1 00:54:23 But, but was it like, was it like the, so it wasn't even the spray on one, was it like the old school, like definitely banana boat, like squirt out, I'm gonna rub you down ball kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. Came from one of those little souvenir shots. Yeah. Came from one of them little souvenirs, like, Speaker 2 00:54:36 Which I was, okay, here's uh, this is a, you know, a random fact about me, my favorite scent on Earth. Well, I have two, but one of the two is sunscreen specifically. Really? Hawaii. Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen I think is like the best smell in the world. Just, Speaker 1 00:54:49 Is it just the nostalgia of it where it makes you feel like a kid going to the pool? Beach beach? I think it Speaker 2 00:54:53 Smells good. <laugh>. I just like it. I'm like, wow. It's like, kind of like coconuty, like, it's, it's yummy. Speaker 1 00:54:59 Would you buy it in a candle? Speaker 2 00:55:01 Okay, so here's the thing. My mother is a candle collector. Speaker 1 00:55:05 Oh shit. Okay. Like, Speaker 2 00:55:07 I'm not kidding you. When I say probably at my parents' house, they're probably like 1500 to 2000. Like unburnt, like big jar candles in and they are burning at all times in, in, in like every room. Speaker 1 00:55:20 In where where are these candles stored? Where do you store? 1500. 2000. Speaker 2 00:55:23 It's like a cancer that is just like spreading through the home. <laugh> like, into every, like, like literally when I went up to my little, my bedroom at home, I was just home for Christmas. It was basically like an attic. Now there's just like, there's a narrow pathway to the bed, but otherwise it's just filled with like random boxes and, and stuff that their Speaker 1 00:55:43 Story. Oh, I was, I was, I thought you were gonna say like candles. It was just Speaker 2 00:55:45 No, but in my closet now, the top like three shelves in my closet are all been claimed by candles. Um, so I actually love, uh, I I grew up with an probably overdeveloped, uh, sense of smell. Speaker 1 00:55:59 What's your least favorite candle? There's gotta there's gotta be one. Speaker 2 00:56:02 There's one that I really hate called, there's Speaker 1 00:56:04 Gotta be one that you really fucking Speaker 2 00:56:05 Hate. Uh, I, I really don't like, there's this one called Blueberry mayle pancakes. And I don't like Berry Sense in general. I find them very cloying and they kind of give me a headache. Yeah. Um, but no, it's definitely, if anyone ever comes to my house, I always say, you know, if you want to get in with my mom, just take a stab at whatever you smell when you walk in. Like, you don't have to get it right, but just try. And they'll be like, Hmm. Smells like strawberries in here. And mom will be like, it's actually winter candy wreath <laugh>. Um, or something like that. And uh, and then she'll like talk all about it and she really opens up and she loves it. And yeah. So Speaker 1 00:56:44 During, during Covid I worked as, like, I called it a, a candle elf. I was seasonal help at a candle factory here in Speaker 2 00:56:51 Nashville. What kind? Like soy, they're called wax paraffin. Speaker 1 00:56:54 They're called Ranger. It's a company called Ranger Station. So it's like all organic. I wasn't making the wax. I would, they didn't trust me of making the wax. I, I made the boxes. <laugh> put the matches inside the boxes. But they're cool. They're like these like organic candles in the scents where like, it was like, um, what was, it was something like, I dunno Me is a scent, but it was like, that was like merr. It was like, Speaker 2 00:57:17 So these are like kinda like hipster, nice understated. Speaker 1 00:57:21 They had one that was called New York City. Okay. And I was like, oh, this is gonna smell horrible. And it smelled delightful. Speaker 2 00:57:27 Yeah. Yeah. Like Chinatown in the summer, like, um, like Speaker 1 00:57:31 It smell smells like the inside of that, um, that $20 Gucci bag you bought on Canal Street. Speaker 2 00:57:35 Anyone making a scent based on New York City is, is definitely just thinking of like, the idea of like the being on the rooftop of the standard or something. Speaker 1 00:57:42 New York City, LA Chicago. They were good. They were good people like the candles, the candle thing. But I did get experience like watching them put the wax and the, and the, and the, the candles were in these like glasses that could be reused as whiskey glasses. Yeah. Which was kind of cool Speaker 2 00:57:57 Too. If I could make any candle. Here's the scent that I've never found and would love, like my favorite smell. I said that other one was my second favorite. My favorite smell is just like generic mall scent. Um, like the smell of uh, like super conditioned mall air with like laced with Calvin Klein perfume and Auntie Anne's butter Hollister. Yeah. Yeah. Just kind crombie fish that midpoint. Hey, we could do that. It'll call some Snap Cinon. Um, Cinnabon. Speaker 1 00:58:27 The Cinnabon smell. Wetzels pretzels. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:58:30 That, Hey, let's do that. And let's call it Snapchat <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:58:32 Let's go Speaker 2 00:58:34 <laugh>. Anyway, that's like, I I, that's maybe why I was going to the Palisades. I just needed to get a whiff. Speaker 1 00:58:40 Yeah, dude, that mall is not what it used to be either. That mall back in when you were there, that mall was still pretty solid. It was when it was built. You know that malls built on a sinkhole? No, it's built on, it's built on landfill. It sinks. You stand on the top floor during the like holiday season and you can feel it shake. Speaker 2 00:58:56 Yikes. Speaker 1 00:58:57 Yeah. It was a horrible idea to build. They built it in 1998. Remember my grandpa said he was on the committee to not, for them not to build it. Cuz eventually it's gonna sink <laugh> and it has sunk like feet since then. And he's just like, see, I told you it's not, not good to have there, but mall I do. But the mall, the mall thing is, I grew up, it's funny except I didn't know you would go to the Palisades Mall. Speaker 2 00:59:16 I've gone to every mall in this area already. A lot of times I listen to albums at malls. I like just Google. You Speaker 1 00:59:21 Just put the AirPods in and just walk Speaker 2 00:59:23 Around Walmart and malls is like where I, it's just nice to sometimes be moving and if it's like raining or if it's cold. Um, what's Speaker 1 00:59:29 Your favorite mall here? Speaker 2 00:59:30 Rivergate. Rivergate. I dislike Green Hills a lot. Speaker 1 00:59:33 Green Hills is very pretentious. And Green Speaker 2 00:59:35 Hills. I had a bad experience at Green Hills that I think colored my whole interaction where I was trying to, there was a woman in a scooter passed out outside of Dillard's. I was just walking through the mall, minding my business, listening to a podcast or something. And there's this woman fully passed out or asleep, I don't know, but it's concerned. Speaker 1 00:59:53 I'm setting Dillard's Speaker 2 00:59:54 Of all. And I was like, ma'am, ma'am. And I tried to wake her and uh, she doesn't wake up. And then some other lady's like, is she okay? And I was like, I don't know. Um, and so she's like, well I'm gonna try. You go and get someone. So I go into Dillard's, like a makeup counter and I'm like, ma'am, there's someone out here that I think, I don't know if you have a number for security or something, but, uh, I think she might need some attention. And so then I come back out and the lady comes with me and she calls security. These two women, they were like, Speaker 2 01:00:24 I don't know, they were like very peroxide blonde, had like Lululemon on and we're each pushing a stroller. Uh, and they just start like yelling at me. They're like, she needs help. And I was like, I know I'm here doing that. And they're like, well we have our children so we can't do anything right now, but you need to help her. And I was like, what? I am helping her. They're like, have you gotten anyone to come get her? And I was like, yes, I've been here for like five minutes. Um, and and they're like, well we can't do anything right now because we have our kids. And it was like a weird Speaker 1 01:00:54 Like, chill out Christina Speaker 2 01:00:56 Flex. I know. And I was like, I was like, is this how you walk around life, just yelling at people to do what you and um, let's Speaker 1 01:01:03 Go to the mall, push our kids around, yell at people. Speaker 2 01:01:04 But I was like, is this the Green Hills clientele? That happened my first time at Green Hills and I vowed to like never support it and I became a Rivergate boy, which is way Trashier. There's still like a Spencer's and like a Oh yeah. It really, there's like Journeys. There's a lids. Yep. It, it feels like what a mall should feel Speaker 1 01:01:19 Like. Yeah. That's what you been to Opry Speaker 2 01:01:21 Mills yet? I've been to Opry Mills. It, it's, it's cool. It's like a, I feel like that's a novelty mall. Speaker 1 01:01:25 Yeah, it's a mini mall. It's in my opinion like mini. Mini. Yes. I feel like it's small. Speaker 2 01:01:30 You think Opry Mills is small. I Speaker 1 01:01:31 Got Palisades is my home mall. Speaker 2 01:01:34 Opry Mills is not small. <laugh>. Speaker 1 01:01:36 I think it, I think it's, oh again, I grew up going to the Palisades where it's five, Speaker 2 01:01:40 You can walk. I put in, I put in all 10,000 steps for a day before inside of Opry Mills. Really? Speaker 3 01:01:44 I'm sorry. I got lost in that one. <laugh>. Speaker 2 01:01:47 I think it's like a 0.8 mile loop. Really? Speaker 1 01:01:51 Yeah. Doesn't, well I guess if Speaker 2 01:01:52 Is that, oh look, we're gonna go to, let's go to Cheesecake Factory soon and Speaker 1 01:01:55 Oh, I'm down. Have you, have you ever been to Cheesecake Factory? Malcolm Wynn? Speaker 3 01:01:59 I've been but not there. And also I want to hit that restaurant at the Bass Pro there too. There's Speaker 1 01:02:03 A restaurant. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:02:05 Did you get the alligator bites? We've had 'em before, but you get those, like, we'll do Speaker 1 01:02:09 That too. That's from Selma, Alabama. He's gotten a lot of culture since moving up here to Nashville cuz he's, he's, he's gotten to experience Chili's for the first time. Speaker 3 01:02:17 Uncle Bud's baby Speaker 1 01:02:18 Uncle. Yeah. Have you been to Uncle Bud's here Nashville? Speaker 2 01:02:20 No. I don't dunno what that is. Speaker 1 01:02:22 Do do you like fried food or not really particularly? Speaker 2 01:02:24 Uh, 2023. Grady does not. Speaker 1 01:02:27 Okay. Well, 20 20, 23. Matt Barilla has not had a cigarette yet, which has been great. No Speaker 2 01:02:31 Way. Congrats. I'm Speaker 1 01:02:32 Three weeks off the six, which is huge. I think going on the New York and seeing that they were $15 a pack definitely helped me not smoke when I was home. Cuz it's like $6 a pack here, but 15 in New York. But are Speaker 2 01:02:44 You people often say you have to replace <laugh>, like something like a habit? So, Speaker 1 01:02:49 So I replaced alcoholism with cigarettes. Okay. Like six years Speaker 2 01:02:52 Ago. So I'm just saying that, have you taken on, have you been doing, have you compulsively been playing minesweeper or something to Oh, Speaker 1 01:02:58 That would be a good Speaker 2 01:02:59 One. Speaker 1 01:02:59 <laugh>. I wonder if they have that for the phone. I used to play that shit like Speaker 2 01:03:02 Third grade JK Rowling. I remember reading an interview of hers long ago where they talked about like, what's your biggest vice? And she talked about quitting smoking and getting obsessed with Minesweeper. Really? That's why that came to mind. I've heard she's like, the biggest delay in the Harry Potter books was me playing mind sweeper Speaker 1 01:03:15 <laugh>. Whoa. I did not know that. Anyway. Um, yeah, I have not, I haven't, I mean I've definitely been eating a little bit more, which isn't good. But I feel like the, not nicotine stuff, but I'm still, I'm, I'm on, I'm on uh, an 80 80 ADHD medication too. So that like Adderall type of stuff. Not Adderall, it's called Concerta. But that kind of like helps, I guess that helps a little bit. I don't know. I don't know what's what I mean, I still have my nicotine, like I have my little, I used to call this my truck cigarette or my bus cigarette. Cause I couldn't smoke when I was on the tour bus. So like, this is just a little vape. But I haven't, I mean, I was two packs a day, bro. Damn. I was like two. I was, I was sounding like, what are they selling? Speaker 1 01:03:53 They're selling chocolates. Like I was selling like selling chocolate lady from SpongeBob <laugh>. That's what I was sounding like. And trying to host rounds and do podcasts and do like my personality stuff and having to talk to people at the venues on the road. Like my voice is my money maker. That's what I, what I do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it's like if you're 2027 sounding like you're 62, it's Yeah. Not gonna be good. You know? I mean Yeah. It's like you're, there's works for some guys like Brantley Gilbert's got that heavy voice, you know? Yeah. Like he's, he's got that deep, but he's a, he's been two, three packs for years. Yeah. You know, takes smoke breaks during the show. Speaker 2 01:04:29 I've never Speaker 1 01:04:30 You've never been a cigarette guy. You've been a cigar guy. Speaker 2 01:04:32 I smoke internationally. Um, I liked cigarettes in another country. I think there's something very romantic Speaker 1 01:04:38 About it. You like, you like the hand rolled cigarette. You like the quick, like, Speaker 2 01:04:41 I'm fine with just the pack. Um, but I, I enjoy just the idea of, I don't even really enjoy it. I just kinda like puffing on it. You puffing on and standing on like a cobbled street and smoking a cigarette. Speaker 1 01:04:51 You like being in like London or like Germany. Speaker 2 01:04:53 I'm about to go to London. Oh, Speaker 1 01:04:54 You've gotta smoke so many cigs, so Speaker 2 01:04:56 Many <laugh>. If I can get through one pack, if I can get, I mean I, yeah, I'll probably get through like half a pack and then just throw the other away. So Speaker 1 01:05:03 What you gotta, so do you have a New Year's resolution for this year? Speaker 2 01:05:07 Uh, not a resolution. Speaker 1 01:05:09 Per or per. What Speaker 2 01:05:10 Are some, what are some goals? I do have some goals. Speaker 1 01:05:11 What are some goals for you? The channel? Like just what you've got going on. What are some 20, 23 goals for you? Your first full year in Nashville? Speaker 2 01:05:19 Yeah, I think, uh, like everyone else, I want to, you know, get fit. But fortunately I've started that process, you know, not just a couple days ago, but like a month and a half or so ago. Kind of started doing some personal training and good. Speaker 1 01:05:33 Yeah, I've been seeing those videos of you just brutal. Putting in the grind, Speaker 2 01:05:37 Trying to, and um, it always makes me, so for me here, this is going to answer your question. It's gonna seem like it's not answering your question, but it will, I was talking to an executive the other day and he said something, he was like, dude, the hardest part of anything, just getting started. Uh, it's, it's like once you have that momentum, so easy to succeed. That's what I tell all my artists and I said, I literally, like nothing you've ever said I have related to Les <laugh>, um, I find starting so easy. I love starting, I love a new project even throughout my career. And this isn't meant to sound douchey, like I've just found it kind of easy to have a viral video or make something that a ton of people see or, yeah, like I, I may painted something and made it into a puzzle and that sold like incredibly well and that stuff's cool. But for me, momentum is so much harder. I'm a bit sabotaged driven. Um, I don't trust when I'm doing well at all. I kind of like going off the rails. Um, I don't feel good about myself ever. And I am coming off what is easily my most successful period of life I've ever had in the last two months. And every part of me wants to destroy it. Just, Speaker 1 01:06:47 Just take the wheel, just go rare. Speaker 2 01:06:49 A hundred percent. That's like at my truest internal self, that's all I want to do. Um, and I, I know logically that that does not bring me anything good. I've learned that enough times in life. And, and then you step back and you're like, man, what? Everything was going so well. Why am I now like depressed and fat and lonely and angry and like feeling like I'm not living up to my potential? All of those things. Uh, and I, and I think like, I'm trying to break that cycle really hard. So my word for the year is, is forward. Um, I'm trying to not dwell on anything in the past, just trying to keep it moving, keep going forward. And so part of what I'm doing is like literally learning to, one of my big goals is to actually communicate with the people that I work with. Speaker 2 01:07:38 Yeah. Cuz now I'm like working with an editor for the first time the last couple months. Like I've never had anyone edit my videos till like three months ago. And sometimes I just ghost that guy for like two weeks and don't tell him anything <laugh>. Um, because I'm like, who is he to be editing for me? I'm probably ruining his life. I don't wanna mess up his life and make him edit. I'm not good at being a boss, but I'm trying to remember. That's not good to do actually. It helps you and it helps him when you have more work to do. Yeah. So respond, um, and communicate. Same with like this producer I'm trying to work with. Uh, I want to really scale. I came here to learn to work with others. Um, I don't want to turn 40, 50 years old and be making videos in my bedroom and just reacting to what's going on out in like the country music news of the week. Speaker 2 01:08:23 That's depressing to me. Um, so how do I build something bigger, smarter that actually in involves me with other people, put some natural accountability into my life. And so I think I have a few of these, you know, I won't name anything here, but just like a few of these leads kind of, and positive. There's things that have some momentum to them and relationships I've formed here. Let's actually do it. Yeah. Let's stop living in theory and actually build the damn thing. Um, or at least try and if I fall on my face, well that'll be way more fun than like, I don't know, like depressively scrolling TikTok for two hours at the end of a day where you did nothing. Yeah. Amen. Speaker 1 01:09:03 Amen bro. Amen. Speaker 2 01:09:04 So that's kind of forward forward Speaker 1 01:09:06 2023, the year, the year of going Speaker 2 01:09:08 Forward. Even just like I said, no, I, I think like the first time you or Trey or someone reached out and was like, do you wanna talk? I was like, no. Uh, and even just this time saying, you know, what's the big deal? Just go say yes. Try new things. Yeah. Do things, meet people, come on a show. Yeah, it's uh, it's for whatever reason quite hard for me. So. Speaker 1 01:09:30 Yeah. Well dude, I appreciate you coming on and it, it means a lot to, I know if you're busy and got a lot of shit going on. So it means a lot to have you come hang out here and it's been been a blast having you here in town and getting to, getting to hang out at Whiskey Gym and occasional red door having you pop by the round at Lava. I love the Red Door dude. I love Red Door. Is we've, I, so I had the bail outta red door last night. Sometimes when I do the rounds and like they're busy and like you're just constantly talking to people and this will sound, this will be my sounding trying this will, I'm not trying to sound douchey, but like you get a lot of people that come up to you be like, Hey man, how do I play the round? Speaker 1 01:10:03 Hey man, I'd love to play around. Hey man, this, this. And then you go to Red Door and it's like, I tell people at the end of the round at Live Oak, Hey everybody, the bartenders wanna get outta here. We're gonna go to this degenerate bar up the road that stays open till three o'clock in the morning. <laugh> call the red door. The bartenders are gonna go with us once they clean up, close your tabs so they can close and we're all gonna go to Red Door. So then those same people just bog you there. So I left early, but old sweet boy there, he um, so he stays here at the studio a lot. We have a little like through that bathroom, there's a I'm Speaker 2 01:10:31 Locked. Yeah, I'm locked in here for Speaker 1 01:10:32 The next like three days. Yeah, well he's practicing on his drums, but, um, there's um, a little bedroom in that like in through this bathroom over here in the closet for where like any of our Alabama crew that comes up that works with Trails staying there. But Mwa, since he lives in Hermitage, he'll be able to go out on the Umbrian or on division, get hammered and he can just walk from Red Door here to the podcast studio. Well, boom. So I left him there. I think it's Speaker 2 01:10:57 Like a little like sleeping locker. Oh it's, Speaker 1 01:10:58 Oh it's his little, it's it's his fun house. Yeah. He's just, he he is the set manager, the studio manager. But he is, uh, we're red door regulars. Red door to me is just great. It's, that's the communal, it's perfectly located in between what's on Deum and what's on division. It's just a great place to end the night. I want the kitchen to open back up and I want to know when they're gonna open up that fucking expansion. Speaker 2 01:11:21 Yeah, it is funny cuz I've only lived here as long as that expansion has been there and I'm like, what's this weird part of this bar that just you can't get to Speaker 1 01:11:28 Like, Speaker 2 01:11:29 And the reason I see it there and Speaker 1 01:11:30 The reason they don't have food anymore is cuz they used to serve all the food out of a food truck that they would run. So the food would be made in this little like greasy like trailer and then would get run up into the restaurant and there would be a food runner or server or something. Speaker 2 01:11:45 So after New York, I had like years of like odd jobs and I managed a taco restaurant in Virginia for like two years. What Speaker 1 01:11:53 Was the name of it? I Speaker 2 01:11:54 Love Brazos. Speaker 1 01:11:55 Brazos. Speaker 2 01:11:56 Brazos Tacos. And every freaking Texan in the area would come by and be like, you know, it's actually pronounced Brazos. And I'd be like, it's actually Spanish. Get over yourself <laugh>. Um, but like, uh, Brazos Tacos sounds better than Brazos Tacos. Um, but you gotta be careful with expanding your footprint because they doubled the size of our kind of patio and everyone wants to sit outside and drink Mars and eat tacos and stuff. And we did not double the size of our kitchen. Yeah. And it was a cluster. Yeah. Like just, it was impossible. It with that many people. It just, there was no way to actually keep up with demand. And that's when, you know, someone that had way more experience in the restaurant industry than me was like, oh, you kitchen should always be about the size of your seating area. And I was like, are you crazy? Um, but now I now I believe her. Yeah. Because I'm like, maybe that's their fear. Yeah. Is, you know, it would not be smart to add to this much Speaker 1 01:12:53 More Speaker 3 01:12:53 Capacity. I actually heard last night of what that is gonna be. What is it? I think it, uh, gonna be for private events. Speaker 1 01:13:00 They're just gonna rent out one little section of Red door. I mean that makes sense. There's enough famous people that go in there to rent Speaker 3 01:13:05 Stuff. I, I think that's what they're going Speaker 1 01:13:07 For. Vi Yo, let's go to Red Door. We got, I I bought, I bought v i p at Red Door. That just doesn't sound right. I like it being the Speaker 2 01:13:13 C spot. It might sound right to someone not from here. Speaker 1 01:13:16 Oh yeah. The tourism on the weekends. <laugh>. Yeah, the tourism on the weekends might work if Speaker 2 01:13:19 You could just set up like a little, uh, mean, I don't know, bachelorette luncheon, Speaker 1 01:13:24 Red door bottle service, <laugh>, it's happening dancing. Speaker 2 01:13:30 It happened at Brazos one time. Some, some woman came by and I saw her pushing the tables together and putting balloons up and yeah, I was like, man, what are you doing? And she's like, well my daughter, she's a bride and she's bringing 12 of her friends, which is gonna be good business for you. And I was like, okay, we didn't know anything about that. And like, we don't really reserve tables. When are they coming? She's like, they're gonna be here at two. And it was like noon. And I was like, ma'am, you can't take two full picnic tables. Um, and for two hours. And she's like, well I would be a little bit more appreciative if I were you. Um, of, and it was just a very frustrating convo. Yeah. But then the worst thing in the world happened, which is when they all got there, this woman had been a menace and she was very unpleasant and had been claiming this table and sort of peacocking around at the patio. And when, uh, when all the girls got there, I don't know how this happened, but we forgot the alcohol in their margaritas <laugh>, like all 12 margaritas that went out. Like sometimes when it's a huge batch like that and you just mix 'em all in a picture and shake it up. Yeah. But they just forgot the freaking, uh, tequila. And it was fortunately it was all these young, it was like 22 year olds did they act Speaker 1 01:14:40 Like they were fucked up? Did they don't even know. Speaker 2 01:14:42 They were like, oh my gosh, these are the best marks I've ever had. I'm like, well good because you're rocking with sugar Triple Sec. I mean there was Triple Sec in there I guess, but there was no tequila. Um, and I didn't know what to do cuz I was like, oh gosh, if this woman, if this woman finds out, um, and comes and complains, it'll just be like, it's going to cause a civil war. Cause she'd already been fighting with one of the servers. The Speaker 1 01:15:06 God Zillow of Karen's. Speaker 2 01:15:08 Yeah. And, and frankly we made a giant mistake. So I'm like, well this, this would be a justified Karen outrage. And I was like, you know what, if they say anything, um, you know, I'm gonna comp this. I'm gonna, and they're obviously gonna get like a full next round. Yeah. And like those ones are totally on us. I made her, I went and made the mom like a, cuz she hadn't gotten a drink originally, so I made her like a really good drink and brought it out to her. I was like, let me know anything. You just gotta flirt a little. Um, and everything went fine. But that was my, my great fear was I was scared of look bridal any kind of event things in the service industry. I find it too high pressure. Yeah, I Speaker 1 01:15:44 Did, I did a year on Broadway. We got a hundred bachelorette parties a Speaker 2 01:15:47 Week. I guess That's true. Probably better than Speaker 1 01:15:50 Me. Which as a, which as a single dude on Broadway is great at times. But then you're like, wait, Speaker 2 01:15:55 This as a bouncer, you probably gotta like, deal with a lot of drama and follow. Oh Speaker 1 01:16:00 Bro. You deal with all we had in my first year we had, we had, um, so it was 20, it was fall. I got, I was there October, 2018 to September, 2019. And that time we had a cma it was this last CMA Fest pre Covid. So that was crazy. Like it was normal CMA Fest. We had, um, all the Titans games, all the predators games, all the concerts at Bridgestone. We had the NFL draft on Broadway. Speaker 1 01:16:22 Wow. They put a stage by the river and they had the NFL network and like all the things, every fan base of every team was in town for a week. I worked during CMA Fest, I remember I worked the Ty Bentley show was still a thing on the, on the, uh, on the cumulus on Nash fm here. And they were doing, they were doing morning show stuff. So I had to be there from like three 30 in the morning till like six o'clock at night bouncing on Broadway. Geez. It's crazy shit. You just see a lot of stuff down there, man. Broadway's not, not for me. We have friends that like going Broadway a lot cuz they prefer Broadway over Midtown, which is kind odd. But when, I guess when you, when you work in music and you don't want to talk music all the time, you can just go to Broadway and watch bands and Speaker 2 01:17:02 Get hammered. Yeah, Speaker 1 01:17:02 That'd be true. Do dumb shit Speaker 2 01:17:04 <laugh>. Uh, the only way I do it is if there's like not a Titans game happening and you can park over at the stadium and then I just walk over that foot bridge. Speaker 1 01:17:12 Oh yeah. The, yeah. The pedestrian bridges. Speaker 2 01:17:13 But I've learned my lesson too many times of being like, maybe I could find parking somewhat near there. It's just like, no, not even gonna try. Speaker 1 01:17:19 Yeah. Yeah. The parking situation's rough man. But, um, what last, finishing up here, what are some of your like favorite spots that you've kind of discovered in town? Like where do you, like you're a mall guy so you're a river, you're Speaker 2 01:17:30 Guy Rivergate Mall. Igate mean truly. I'm probably like any, any given week, I'm probably at least once have walked through the Rivergate Mall. Not bought a thing, but just walked through. Um, Speaker 1 01:17:40 Have you undo the Franklin I feel like you'd be a Franklin guy. Uh, Speaker 2 01:17:43 I went once when I was looking for furniture for my apartment, went to their Goodwill. It's very fancy. Everyone's super nice. Speaker 1 01:17:49 Their goodwill is like, uh, Gallatin. Sears. Speaker 2 01:17:52 Yes. <laugh>. That's a, that's a great way to put it. Yeah. The Franklin Goodwill is the Gallatin Sears <laugh>. Um, uh, uh, I like it, it looked like a movie set, that little high school down there and the pretty street lamps. Um, where else have I really liked I Speaker 1 01:18:06 You an East Nash guy at all or does Speaker 2 01:18:07 That I I do. I'm I'm about to. I'm very excited this afternoon. I'm getting, I want it to be a spot that I love. I'm getting like a nice ass haircut. I've never gotten like a, a fancy like haircut and beard trim. Which one you going there? It's called Black Heart. Speaker 1 01:18:21 Okay. I've heard of that. Speaker 2 01:18:22 Yeah. Barber or something. Yep. Their site is kind of like standoffish. It's like, let us reiterate our cancellation policy. If you don't show up, you will still be charged. We don't care. Um, if something came up, if you don't communicate this, you'll be charged the full price of your haircut. Uh, this is how our business works. It's just, and and I'm like, Ooh. But I feel like they take their craft seriously. Yeah. If Speaker 1 01:18:42 They're Speaker 2 01:18:42 Doing all that. Oh, and I, I like that. So there's Speaker 1 01:18:45 A, there's a list of people wanting to get their hair cut. They're, they're mad about it. Cancellation. Speaker 2 01:18:49 Yeah. I want it. So I want it to be, I want it to be one of my spots. Um, I also, uh, okay. I love Red Door. I I, I went to some bar that I think is really cool early on here and it was like a random day, so I don't know if it's busy or what, but it was called Pearl Diver. Um, Speaker 1 01:19:06 I've Speaker 2 01:19:07 Heard of that. And that place was really cool. It was like straight outta the 1950s. It was all like Emerald Green and Flamingo Pink and I got a ma tie and like it was, uh, I'd never had a ma tie before. I was like, that seems like the appropriate thing to get here. It seems tropical and I've never had one before. Um, so I think that place is cool. I don't know. Oh, I like 51st Deli dude. Speaker 1 01:19:28 Yeah. Speaker 2 01:19:28 That place just sort of reminds me of this place back home called Bodo Bagels in that it's like you roll in still in your sweatpants on like a Saturday morning and you get a bagel sandwich and a coffee. Like I like that place a lot. Speaker 1 01:19:40 Are you a big brunch guy? Speaker 2 01:19:42 I'm a big, that kind of brunch guy. Okay. I'm not a big, like, let's dress nice and eat eggs benedict and have mimosas. I've always found it cringe. Yeah, Speaker 1 01:19:51 I would agree with that. I, I prefer the 51st stuff. Well, cause there's a place on the west side of town called Big Bad Breakfast and No, no free ads here. But like big fad breakfast is a cool spot. Not like it got dressed up in Pums. Just like Speaker 2 01:20:03 I went to some place that I loved on the west side called Wendell Smiths. Oh Speaker 1 01:20:07 Dude. Yeah. I Speaker 2 01:20:08 Liked that Speaker 1 01:20:08 For breakfast. Yes. Wendell Smiths is good. Are you a hot chicken guy? Speaker 2 01:20:12 I've never had it. Speaker 1 01:20:13 Do you like spicy shit? Speaker 2 01:20:15 No. No. I mean, I don't hate it but some, I did have a slice of that hot chicken. It was like, there's some pizza place near Whiskey Jam and they have a slice of pizza that has two bits that has like hot chicken on it. Yep. It was too hot for me. Speaker 1 01:20:28 Yeah. Yeah. You got, yeah. And Distillery's good right there too. The restaurant right across from Winters. That's a good little spot to pop into. Um, Speaker 2 01:20:34 Oh, I went, is this boring for people? No, Speaker 1 01:20:37 This is fine. We talk about Nashville's like we always wrap up with like Nashville Speaker 2 01:20:41 Spots. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. Um, I went into a place called, uh, granted when I first got here I was like a mystery to a lot of label people cuz they were like, we've seen your videos for years. But no one had ever met me cause I didn't ever come here. Yeah. Um, so I feel like I got treated to a lot of nice places and I wasn't footing the bill. So that could color. That could color. That Speaker 1 01:21:01 Is the immediate Speaker 2 01:21:01 Experience at some Speaker 1 01:21:03 At these places. Dine in Grady Smith, let's go. Speaker 2 01:21:06 So it's, it's like fun to go get like steak tar, tar at fifth and Taylor when you're not paying. Yeah. It's fun to go to Oou when you're not paying. It's fun to, uh, like, but the best thing I had was the dessert at, um, a place called Butcher and B um, someone got a piece of the banana cake. They're like, you gotta get the banana cake. And oh my gosh. It was like the best, it was the best like thing I've eaten in Nashville. So maybe if you just need like a great romantic date for somebody, just get a drink and the banana cake at butcher and b Speaker 1 01:21:38 Is the portion big enough to where you get, Speaker 2 01:21:39 You can definitely, two people can split it. Two people can split it. It would be like a meal, but just for a dessert. Just for Speaker 1 01:21:44 Just quick little dessert and drink. Yeah. One last thing because you've driven through East Tennessee a lot. Have you ever had pals? No. You've never had pals in East Tennessee though. It's the rest Speaker 2 01:21:55 East Tennessee's like a sort of big area. Speaker 1 01:21:57 Well, well I'm talking like Speaker 2 01:21:58 It's like off 80. Speaker 1 01:21:59 I'm talking like tri-cities like Bristol Johnson City, Jonesboro Kings, Kingsport. Speaker 2 01:22:05 No, and I always sleep in Bristol too on the way home. Speaker 1 01:22:07 So there's pals Sudden service is, I have family in like Jonesboro, Tennessee. They're actually coming, coming through Nashville tonight. I'm grabbing dinner with 'em. They, my farm, my uncle, he calls himself, um, he's a farmer. He calls himself Frugal Farmer Phil. Okay. Jonesboro. He's from Stanton, Virginia originally. So he is a Speaker 2 01:22:23 Proud Virginia Guy. No way. Not far from Charlottesville at all. Speaker 1 01:22:24 Yeah, he's a v VMI guy. Proud, proud Virginia Guy. But, um, I grew up going to Pals whenever I go to visit them, it's Fast Food Place, drive through. Only the the building is the food. So it's like a hamburger, a hot dog. And they're only in East Tennessee and they like put their employees through like a month long training program like school. It's like chick, like Chick-fil-A kind of thing where they're like very, that's where we Yeah, we had it in Bristol. Yeah. Yeah. I fed all them double. Speaker 2 01:22:51 I can't wait to, I can't wait to go try it. And I, I mean, I literally dropped. That's exactly the route I have Speaker 1 01:22:55 To take home. They have one, you know, all the, you know, like the Bass Pro is on 81 on the left when you're crossing over Brist, it's like in Bristol. Speaker 2 01:23:02 No, I gather that y'all are more attuned to like Bass Pros than me. <laugh>. I don't, um, I Speaker 1 01:23:07 Am by association <laugh>. I'm still a proud New Speaker 2 01:23:09 Yorker. You're just like, I'm Speaker 1 01:23:10 Just like, okay. But there well there's, well there's like the ba there's like the shopping center that's on 81, like right on the state line on 81. Okay. That exit you'll see there. You just type it in your, your maps or whatever on your route. But they have 'em only in the Tri-cities. They're fucking delicious. The food is not super expensive and it's all fresh. Like at East Tennessee, I, I fight that. It's my favorite fast food in the country and I go all over the country on the road. I've been to like 40 something states. I've had everything. PALS is my favorite and it's good at East Speaker 2 01:23:37 Tennessee. Well I'm excited to try East Speaker 1 01:23:39 Tennessee, Southwest Virginia Original, you know, which I'm proud of too. Cause I love that area. Speaker 2 01:23:43 Well heck yeah. I'm glad, I'm glad you're including Virginia in that because, because Bristol Speaker 1 01:23:47 Is partially Virginia. Speaker 2 01:23:49 I know. And Bristol different, which is why I think it's dumb. Look, as much as I am a hater of my own home state, we just gave up the whole country music debate and we're like, oh, Tennessee can just own it. Where I'm like, you know where the Carter family's from Virginia? Yes. You know where Bristol is? Half in Virginia. Yes. And yet Tennessee is like, we created country music. And it's like, okay. No. Um, but so I'm glad that at least Pals is fighting the good fight. They are. Um, and including themselves in the Virginia, in Tennessee. Yeah, for sure. Speaker 1 01:24:15 Well, where can people go to find you and Speaker 2 01:24:17 Plug on? I'm just, all that shit just on YouTube. It's just my name, Grady Smith. Uh, and on Insta, it's Grady w Smith. Same with TikTok. And I don't know on any of my videos, there's like a whole long list of all my various links. Okay, cool. Spotify stuff. And, and so people can just click on any of those. Speaker 1 01:24:36 Hell yeah, dude. Well this was a real pleasure having you. I appreciate Oh, so fun. I appreciate you went. I figured we would talk for a while. I know I gave you kind of did we kind of the Yeah, we've been here. It's like three o'clock, Speaker 2 01:24:45 About an hour and a half. Yeah, Speaker 1 01:24:46 We got after it. I figured we'd be talking a lot. So it was a good, good freaking episode, Speaker 2 01:24:50 Man. Heck yeah. Dude. Speaker 1 01:24:50 I appreciate you coming on guys. Be sure to check out our boy Grady Smith. You can find him on, of course on his YouTube channel. Uh, he's got a lot coming up here in 2023 going forward, the year of going forward. And if you're here in Nashville, uh, be on the lookout for Red Door Rivergate Mall. He's hanging out at Rivergate Mall. I Speaker 2 01:25:06 I probably am. Or the Walmart on Dickerson. Walmart Speaker 1 01:25:09 On Dickerson. But if he's got his air pods in it means that he is listening to that new music. So be sure to not interrupt him when he is passionately listening and all that stuff. Shout out to the sponsors, uh, whale Tail Media, Saxon Studios, our boy Mitch Wallace with the Digital Marketing Agency and our friends at Pickle Jar Pickle Jar, the world's largest tip jar. Sign up, make an account with promo code I t r. Be sure to rate, like, subscribe. Uh, appreciate you guys for checking this episode out and of course, shout out to our band, sweet Boy behind the camera. We'll see you all next time. This has been the In The Round Podcast.