Jon Langston

Speaker 0 00:00:00 What's going on here, buddy? It's your boy. Matt Rell here to tell you guys about my friends from a big friendly productions. Now they specialize in creating merchandise for bands, artists, and even lifestyle brands. With their in-house equipment. They can provide shirts, branded hats, and more, as well as gra some graphic design services. They offer order fulfillment to handle your online orders and ship your merch straight to your fans from their shop down and go to Old Birmingham, Alabama, baby. Now, whether you are getting your first shirt, you're just starting out, or you're going on a 40 show run, hit them up for all your merchandising needs. Check out their website, big friendly productions.com, or shoot them an email [email protected]. Now we're gonna get into the episode. This is Outside the Round with Matt Bell. Also, make sure you guys like rate, subscribe, tell your mama and them and for more details and, uh, to get in touch with the rest of the familia, visit rays rowdy.com. Now let's get into it. Outside the round with me, Matt Bell Raises Rowdy podcast. Speaker 1 00:01:06 Come on. Speaker 2 00:01:09 This is Outside The Round with Matt Baril, a Raise Rowdy podcast. Speaker 0 00:01:19 Well, dude, how the hell you doing? I'm good, man. Fucking John Langston hanging out episode one of our Outside The Round podcast, the rebrand and the, and the Raise Rowdy family now, dude. Yes sir. How the heck have you been doing Speaker 3 00:01:31 Bro? Been good, man. We just been busy as all hell. I mean, hitting the road hard this year. I mean, we've been, uh, uh, let's get Rowdy Tour started this year. We were at, uh, hit It Hard the past, you know, eight weeks I guess. And, uh, got a little, uh, break this weekend, J d's getting married. So we got a little time off the road. So shout out my boy jd getting married, breaking the Curse. I hear you. Speaker 0 00:01:57 So I'm imagining you were on the Bachelor party for that, right? Did you guys do a bachelor party for jd? Speaker 3 00:02:03 I wasn't there. Oh, you weren't? I wasn't. I wasn't there. I had, I had a, uh, a private show I had to do, but apparently it was probably <laugh>. I, I don't know. Speaker 0 00:02:11 I would imagine it was a Speaker 3 00:02:12 Good time. Apparently it was a great time. I got a, I got a lot of good videos, uh, sent to me and, uh, I can't say that, uh, <laugh>. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Well, yeah, you've got, you've, Speaker 0 00:02:26 You've got an awesome crew around you on the road and we, we know a lot of, I do like we're tight with Brad. Tight with Ben Grubbs too. Which Ben Ben I met. Um, I used to work at Dogwood doing security. Oh yeah. And that was right when Ben was there, when that place opened, just like I was. And he had another guy that was running down their name, Jake, and we called him Timon and Pumba. Cause I couldn't remember their names when I first, well, the security guys that were Timon and Poba Grubbs is, is an awesome dude. Speaker 3 00:02:48 Oh, I love Grubs. I I met him at Dogwood. Oh really? Uh, for the first time there I was doing a round with Cole Taylor. It was kind of, it's funny how that one happened. You know, Cole Taylor loves playing golf. We go golf every now and then. And he just texted me outta the blue one day, say, Hey man, do you want to play around on this date? And I'm like, and we were talking about golf like earlier. Yeah. So I'm thinking, he's just talking about golf. So I'm like, yeah, dude. Sure. So, couple weeks ago by <laugh> and I see a flyer on my Instagram popup, and I'm like, you ain't getting tagged in. I'm like, I guess I'm playing around now. <laugh> a round, round, a round round. I didn't know it was round. I thought we were playing a golf round. Speaker 3 00:03:25 No, it was funny. So that's how I got, uh, and then Gross was, uh, he was working sound there and he got me all set up and everything and met him and, and, uh, and I, I think it was, you know, I didn't know a year and a half later now he is running my, running my ship, you know, when we're, you know, out on the road doing sound. So he's awesome, man. I love, I love what he brings to my camp and, and, uh, you know, he's, he's fun man. He, he's young and keeps us all just on our toes, man. I love it. Speaker 0 00:03:52 Yeah. Cause you guys have been road dogging it for a very long time. Yeah. Like you guys, that's one of the biggest things I think that, that the fans gravitate towards you is the live show. Yeah. And the, the energy that you have on stage and, and the, the fun you have with the guys. Like you have such a good, like, family out there. So to bring a young guy in like gross. Oh yeah. That's Speaker 3 00:04:11 Cool. Keith, Keith is all young again, man. Good, Speaker 0 00:04:13 Good. Good touring gig for him. Exactly. Break the kid in. And, um, I've, so I've, um, my first time seeing you was actually in 2019. It was, um, my buddy I was working with, my buddy Ethan Willis at the time was at Sliding Ride Martin, Tennessee. Bro, let's Speaker 3 00:04:30 Go Speaker 0 00:04:31 The place with the let's go legendary pawn shop next door. Yeah. With where, where you go in there and you can make a great purchase only in Martin, Tennessee. Speaker 3 00:04:40 Every time I would go play the sliding ride, I would go get like a, a gun every time in that little pawn shop. I got like a 22 pistol in there, use it all the time. And Speaker 0 00:04:48 Then the store, and then the sign of the store next door, bongs and Dongs in Martin Tennessee. And Martin Tennessee is just such an interesting place. Yeah. Because there were only the two bars. It was a dry county Right. That had two bars and Slid and Ride just had a wild energy to it. And that was, so I saw you there then. And then I saw you in 2020 right before the world shut down. Oh my gosh. One of y'all's last gigs before Covid. Oh Speaker 3 00:05:11 Yeah. And I'm pretty sure, like I was, I I I was pretty sick, so I don't know if I had it or not, but Speaker 0 00:05:18 Oh my gosh. Yeah. Cause I remember being out the road with Gary, I was working with, uh, Gary and Charlie at that time with Musk and I, yeah. And it was just such an interesting, interesting time because it was like we were all, all of us were out there gigging and it was just, just kicking off the year of what was gonna be a great year, 2020. Speaker 3 00:05:32 I mean, we just got off the Morgan tour, like Yeah. You know, it was, and we're actually in the middle of the Morgan tour and, and it was like things were ramping up my singles going great on radio and then Bam, world stop. And I was just in, last show was Sliding Ride and Little Had didn't play another show for a whole year. Yeah. To that day actually. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:05:54 Really? It was a full, it was a full full year March, full year later March 12th, I think it, it was Where was the first show back, Speaker 3 00:05:59 Uh, Atlanta, Georgia. Speaker 0 00:06:00 Okay. So you, you kicked off, got out of that, that's spot kicked, Speaker 3 00:06:03 Kicked it back off, and then everyone had their, you know, their barricades and stuff. Yeah. And everyone's trying to like, Speaker 0 00:06:07 Get, is that the Roxy? Yeah. Speaker 3 00:06:08 Yeah, Speaker 0 00:06:09 Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a cool spot. And Atlanta's got, I mean, for you come from one of the, to me it's like you, you can't go to a go out to a bar here in Nashville and hang out with other songwriters or artists or people in music and not have at least one, one guy or girl in the group, not be from Georgia. Like everybody, there's such a, a population of Georgia folks here. And the time that you were, you were coming up, it was kind of the, the start of, I mean, there'd always been Georgia folks coming up here. Right. But, but seeing you and Travis and, and Jr and Cole mm-hmm. <affirmative> coming after the, the, um, the Luke Bryan like, it, like the peak of the Luke Bryan era Right. At GL and all that. Man, you came up in such a cool time. Speaker 3 00:06:46 It was also a great group of guys. I mean, me and Ray Fulcher moved up the exact same day, you know. Yeah. Raised were, we were talking about, you know, Hey man, where where you at? I'm on Right behind you on 75, bud. You know, like, so it, it is just really cool to see all like, you know, that group of guys and, and everyone's success and just like how everyone's journey is just, you know, went different ways and just awesome to see how it's all, you know, it's been a long 10, you know, nine, 10 years. It's been crazy and cool to watch your friends, um, chase their dreams, man. It's, you know, we didn't know what we were doing. We were just like, Hey man, we're just gonna, you know, try this thing out. You know, we didn't, you know, I didn't know, I knew like two people when I moved, you know, three people, Ray, you know, Travis and Jordan. And I haven't really met Cole Taylor yet. So it's just, uh, you know, I met him when I got up here and everything. So it was, it was really cool to meet those guys and, and us all, you know, learn together and stuff. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:07:44 Was it tough to leave the local scene of Georgia? Cuz the gigs down there, you just have gigs for Speaker 3 00:07:49 Days Speaker 0 00:07:49 Yeah. With all them college towns and Yeah, shout out to the old Peachtree Tavern. Peachtree Speaker 3 00:07:54 Tavern. The gin Speaker 0 00:07:55 Blew water down in Basta. That's right. Just so many spots. Speaker 3 00:07:58 Yeah. And, uh, back in the day, it was Rum Runners down in Statesboro. Speaker 0 00:08:02 Well, God bless Statesboro, Georgia, God bless. That is one of my favorite places that I've ever been. I Speaker 3 00:08:06 Mean, tell you what, I, there's some memories down there. There's some memories, man. It's, uh, you know, when I was first, you know, starting out when I, I went to school at Gardner Webb in North Carolina, so I feel like every other weekend I was just driving down to Georgia somewhere, but at Statesboro or Abouta or, you know, Athens and I, you know, grew up 30 minutes from Athens. So it was a nice little ride home and, uh, you know, go play Genco in like generals. Like, I remember when I told the bar and I was like, Hey man, just let me come play for free next time. Like, I'll take the door just trying to get my foot in the door. You know what I mean? It's just, uh, you know, that whole circuit was just, it's a, it was a great way to cut your teeth. Speaker 3 00:08:46 And like, you know, people love country music. People love music in general down there, and especially in those college towns and, and, uh, you really learn how to work a crowd, see what works, what doesn't. And, um, man, I, I, I mean, I'll be first tell you like, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just having fun and I didn't even know I was gonna do it for like a living. It was just like something, you know, I got hurt playing football. So, um, you know, I was just like, Hey man, this is, I'm having a good time. Get, makes a little bit of money and uh, you know, and, uh, it wasn't much. It was just, you know, free bar tab and I get to fill my truck up to get back to school, you know, and <laugh>. But, uh, it wasn't until people started, you know, singing these songs back that I was writing and I was like, man, this is, this is cool. This is what I wanna chase. Speaker 0 00:09:34 There's nothing better than a show in like Athens, Georgia. And they're singing back one of your early songs, like, like A Forever Girl. Like some of those songs that you guys are writing with within, like, songs that you're writing with your buddies, figuring it out. And you see it start catching in the college markets. And I mean, guys like Brantley Gilbert were doing this early on and Cory Smith, I, that, those are kinda the forefathers. Oh, oh. And Colt Ford. And, and, and, uh, and those guys were, it's like you start out in the college towns and you just keep growing the circle around Athens. You keep growing the circle around <inaudible>, and then you cross over the Bama line. You cross over the Carolina line. The, like places like Wendell's or The Blind Horse Saloon or even smaller bars, Cote Speaker 3 00:10:08 Joe's. Speaker 0 00:10:08 Oh dude, coyote Joe's man, Speaker 3 00:10:10 That's one of my favorite places to Speaker 0 00:10:11 Play, dude. Um, Allen is one of the best, Speaker 3 00:10:14 He's the best man. He's, uh, he treats us like family, man. Yeah. And it's just, uh, it's, it feels like going home every time we go back, dude. Speaker 0 00:10:22 Yeah. There, there's, and that's one something that I've, I was really excited about having you on this podcast cuz we've done, we've probably, I think we've been to probably so many of the same venues Oh yeah. Over the years. Um, and the southeast, to me, coming from New York, I didn't know what to expect when I started working with Gary and Charlotte. My first weekend with them was, um, Huntsville, Alabama at the old Sidetracks there. Oh man. Was my first night meeting Bradley Jordan. And, uh, Thomas Trainor too. The Peachtree Boys. Yeah. And then the second night was at the Crazy Bowl in Macon, bro Brag Jam. And I got introduced to the south real quick learning <laugh> because Macon's a wild boy Speaker 3 00:10:57 Too. Crazy Bowl. Oh, Macon. I remember my first time playing in Macon. It was a whiskey river. I don't even know if it's still there, but I opened up for Cole Swindell there acoustic and I was like a deer, deer in the headlights, man. I had, this was my first time like playing in front of like, big crowd. Yeah. And, uh, man, and going the crazy bull and stuff. And brag jam was huge, you know, and you know, it's just, it's, the fans there are wild, they're wild. I mean, you never know what to expect. Yeah. You never know what to expect, man. It's, uh, they can be <laugh>, they can be pretty interesting. But I remember when, uh, me and Travis played there one time, that was when it started the, the shotgun and thing. And we were starting to do the shotgun thing. And, and uh, and then next thing you know, there was like 10 people on stage shotgun. I was like, what's going on? I have no idea. But this is Right. It's Speaker 0 00:11:47 A party, dude. You guys were doing ticketed shows and running them like the, like the frat party college bar thing like that you guys came from. And people love that shit. Speaker 3 00:11:55 Yeah, man. We, uh, we did the, uh, Peachtree Tavern. Uh, we did, uh, um, we did a thing with um, uh, Derek Chip Wood and, uh, and he, they came out and, uh, peach State Pride, you know, we're sponsoring the little tour with me and Jordan Reger and those guys. And, and, uh, that's exactly what it was. Everyone just knew what they were coming to. They were coming to a party. And, and that's what, you know, I kind of, you know, I I love that about the energy of a show is just, you know, people came there to have a good time and this is what we're gonna do and we're gonna have a good time. We're gonna drink some beers and, you know, it's just like, you know, good buddy sitting at, sitting around at a fire at the house. You know, that that's the kind of thing I want to bring to a show. Speaker 0 00:12:38 Yeah. And Peachtree, so I never got to go to Peachtree Tavern. That was before, before my time of being in the scene down here. But that was, that was Bradley's joint that he owned, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what, how did you first get hooked up with Bradley Jordan and, cause you guys got to watch that whole Peach History thing. Take off, man. I, being the biggest promoters in the Southeast now, Speaker 3 00:12:55 Actually got my first time. Me and Jordan Reer went to Swindells in 2013. Went to Swindells, uh, uh, showcase down there. And as before I met Carrie, you know, my manager Carrie, she was man, you know, manages him. And, um, and I didn't know anybody. I just was going there with Jordan Reger and he knew Bradley Jordan, you know, he had him come play at, at the Tavern. And um, I was just sitting there just watching this whole deal go down. And it was just awesome to see. I was just so, I was such a big fan. I had the Cole Windell, uh, burnt CDs, you know, like beer in the headlights. Yeah. You know, Luke ended up cutting and, and I was just, I remember being 20 years old in there going beer in the headlights play beer. I was that guy that day. Speaker 3 00:13:38 I was that guy to, I was that caught the hits. I play the hits. Yes. Cole, come on, <laugh>. I, I'll never forget that man. It's just, it's so cool to, uh, and then I met Bradley that that night and, uh, you know, we didn't like, uh, oh, let's work together, put me on shows. But we just, you know, introduced myself. And, uh, it wasn't until, you know, probably six months later that we started doing some shows and, and I got put a band together and, you know, and, uh, cuz it was a little rough up until that point, you know, really learning how to play with a band. <laugh>, my first time playing with a band was, uh, actually at a, a frat show in, uh, Kennesaw State. Ooh, Speaker 0 00:14:15 Kennesaw Baby. Oh yeah. Speaker 3 00:14:17 A Delta Hazard Party. Ooh, oh, flatbed trailer. About 800 college kids, man. Open up for Chase Rice. Uh, no security. <laugh> Speaker 0 00:14:27 Of course, not as Speaker 3 00:14:28 As sorry about it. It's crazy. It's, uh, it was fun. And, but, uh, you know, I got a call from my buddy, um, who was, uh, part of, who's like the chairman or whatever in charge of it. And he said, Hey man, you uh, you wanna play a full band show? I know everyone's loving this Forever Girl song. I was like, hell yeah, I do. Let, let's go. And so, uh, I was like, he's like, it's full band, can't really pay you nothing, but it'll be good exposure for us. I was like, sure man. <laugh>. So I, I called up my, my buddies down in, um, at Atlanta where I just recorded those songs at in a basement. And I was like, Hey, can we put a band together and go play the show? They were like, hell yeah, let's do it. So we stayed up all night, rehearsed, went the next day, like, zombies just like, just like trying not to mess up. Speaker 3 00:15:22 And uh, man, we played the show and it, I mean, it's so funny. Look at those pictures. I mean, we were so green, you gotta start somewhere mean it was awesome, man. Like we were just making noise, <laugh>, we were just up there just having the time, man and, uh, playing, you know, everything from, I think we played like round here. F G L Yeah. Like drunk on You was like top of the world, you know. Uh, and it was just, it was a good time. But at the end I played Forever Girl. And uh, everybody was just screaming the whole song and I was just like floored by it. And it was, I got yeah. And right then, right then and there, I knew that's what I wanted to do. It was awesome. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:16:02 First full band show, have the crowd singing back in the original. Speaker 3 00:16:05 It was, yeah. It was crazy. It was, that's when I knew, I was like, man, that's what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but <laugh> we'll figure it Speaker 0 00:16:12 Out. How, how were they hearing the music at that point? So you had the music out on like Yeah, at that point it was like iTunes, like early days of Spotify. Were you like a big YouTube guy, like on Vine and shit? Speaker 3 00:16:20 I'm Vine and YouTube. Like those are the days man. All Vine. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:16:24 It's amazing. What 10 Seconds Can do a clip for five seconds or Oh, I Speaker 3 00:16:27 Think six or something. Yeah. Six seconds. Yeah. Six seconds. Yeah man, I was like, it was, it was, it was crazy man. There were some videos I would went viral on on Vine that were like, with my dog, we're just doing funny videos and then like, I would do some, you know, singing videos and stuff and those would take off a little bit. And then what was really helping us out was, uh, the YouTube though. YouTube was just, you know, going crazy cuz it was so easily shared on Facebook and stuff like that and throughout other social media. So, I mean that's kind of how it's kind of spread like wildfire. Especially that song. Speaker 0 00:17:03 Yeah. In that era too, you had Gary and Charlie doing what they're doing. Oh yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe later. That with their Musk and I, Mondays with Old Money, Matt back in the day. Oh yeah. And Luke and Taylor, Ray Holbrook and like the guys that were coming out. So you moved to town you said, same time as Ray. So that's what, 20 20 14. Speaker 3 00:17:17 2014 Speaker 0 00:17:18 Man. Yeah man. Coming up on 10 years. Speaker 3 00:17:19 Coming up, coming up. Speaker 0 00:17:21 Crazy. Did you? It's crazy. Did you like live in the city? Cause I know you're at, you're far out of town now, which Congrats on that by the way. Thank you. It's, thank you. I appreciate it. Nice to have, nice to have a spot with some land and you come into the city when you need to and you, you don't gotta navigate through the bury and division every night. Oh man. You deal with the chaos like you did 10 years ago. Speaker 3 00:17:38 Exactly. It, it's, it's, it definitely keeps me out of trouble. <laugh>. But, uh, no, I moved to uh, uh, Bellevue when I moved to town. Uh, it was like 15 minutes from town. I literally had never been to Nashville in my life. Never didn't see the, didn't go to visit the apartment or anything, <laugh>. You Speaker 0 00:17:57 Were just like, this looks good in Speaker 3 00:17:58 The budget. Like this looks great to the budget, why not? Speaker 0 00:18:00 Let's go. You have roommates? Speaker 3 00:18:02 No, I, I just had a little one bedroom cuz I didn't really know anybody. I wasn't really, you know, everybody. I, you know, the two guys I knew they, they already had, you know, they were already rooming together. They didn't have no room for me. So <laugh> I was like, well be like, hey, let missed the be on your couch even though, you know people do that. I was just like, man, I just want my own space. I had a dog. So yeah, I was just like, man, I'll just go get in this little spot over here and see what happens. Speaker 0 00:18:28 Yeah. And then were you at that point, like, cuz at that time and still even to this day, like Whiskey Jam is still a huge thing. And Ward, I call Ward the Godfather as a guy that hosts events and does stuff in town like that. Sure. We refer to Ward Gunther, his as the Godfather, you know, but at that time you have Ward doing his thing, you have revival starting with Rev, with Big Rob and those Rev. Huge. Yeah. So were what were you, those were the days were you getting out and playing at those spots? Those, Speaker 3 00:18:50 Yeah, me and Luke Combs, you know, back in college, like, um, me and him, uh, he would come down to the Gardner Web and we'd go play the Mexican restaurant down in and Shelby, north, North Carolina. And I would go up there and play Klondike with him and, and uh, tavern and stuff. And um, and those early days, like we'd go to Revival and he would come in from North Carolina and sleep on my couch and then like, no shit for the weekend. No shit. Oh yeah, man, it was, those were the days man, where, you know, going to Revival was like, and, and then Whiskey Jam just back and forth every week, man. Just networking and meeting people and you know, the excitement of being in a new town, meeting new friends and stuff Speaker 0 00:19:28 Back when you could smoke SIGs behind the stage at winners, right. Which now you can't even vape in there. I've switched to the vape, I'm like, I hear you. I'm not buying SIGs, but I'm Nicky t knows this. I'm not buying SIGs, but I'm like, I'm bumming them. I'm that guy. I'm, I'm turning to my buddy Ryan Nelson where I'm just bum, I'm like, Ryan Nelson, I'm just bumming cigarettes everywhere I go. Um, but like, I was hitting the vape the other day and then with the security was like, you no, you, you can't do that. And I'm like, whoa, what are you talking about? Speaker 3 00:19:51 What Speaker 0 00:19:51 Kind of place is it? But I'm like, this, this isn't, this isn't my winners. But now you go upstairs and they've got like the smoke, they've got like the hangout up there and stuff. But I, how, how, how wild would it be if you still had that? Like, I want to, I wonder if you still, if you could dig that up, a graphic of you and Luke Combs. Oh my gosh. Playing, playing an acoustic duo, Mexican restaurant, Gardner Web somewhere. Speaker 3 00:20:09 I think it is. I think you can scroll down through my Instagram. It's Speaker 0 00:20:12 Probably on the, because I saw Lane and Bradley on the, um, on the 65 South account recently shared a, um, Riley opening for Luke at Zydeco. Oh my gosh. Back. Gosh. But you probably have memories of Birmingham Speaker 3 00:20:22 Too. Oh yeah. Speaker 0 00:20:23 Zydeco. You guys were just at Iron City not too long ago, right? Speaker 3 00:20:25 Yeah, we're in Iron City. Yep. Speaker 0 00:20:26 It's a cool spot. I love it. Birmingham's just a wild town. Speaker 3 00:20:30 It is, it is. I mean, especially those early days, man in Zydeco man, the the there, everyone's crammed in there like sardines, like everyone's just sweaty Speaker 0 00:20:38 Them low, nasty ceilings, nasty. Speaker 3 00:20:40 The low ceilings, them lights are just beaming at you. You're sweating, you're throwing your hands up, you're just splattering sweat everywhere. <laugh> Speaker 0 00:20:48 Yeah, there's, yeah, bathroom situation, like golf there in the corner, the green room with those old couches that, you know, some shit's been going down on them Speaker 3 00:20:54 Couches, you know, you know it man, you just, you just stand up the whole time. Speaker 0 00:20:57 What was your first, uh, your first gig outside of, um, outside of like the Georgia, outside of like your home base of Georgia and Carolina? Speaker 3 00:21:03 First gig outside of it was actually, um, another fraternity show in Alabama was at Troy University. Me and Jordan Reger went down there. Speaker 0 00:21:12 Troy's wild too, that whole area of Troy Dothan, like they're, they had it's South Alabama parties. Speaker 3 00:21:17 It was like d k e I think it was like, uh, they called it the Deep Dynasty is when Duck Dynasty was like huge. Speaker 0 00:21:23 They're Speaker 3 00:21:23 Doing, everyone's like camo, like my kind of crowd, you know, like everyone's like done up in their waiters and everything for this party. I'm like, yes, let's go. No, it was awesome man. And, and, uh, yeah, I told, you know, I didn't have enough material at the time. Like I just had like three songs and like, I knew like 10 covers and they want us to play for two and a half hours. And so I called Jordan Rayer, I was like, Hey man, I know you like, you wanna come split this time with me and like, we can just like tag team this. He was like, oh yeah. And it was, at the time, it was so funny. He was like, still like, he was like 19 and like, just outta high school. And like, I remember like, you know, he hadn't been too far away from home. And I like, he was like, man, I know this is gonna sound weird, but like, you gotta meet my mom before we go to this frat party Speaker 0 00:22:12 <laugh>. I was like, whoa. Speaker 3 00:22:14 Take Speaker 0 00:22:14 Mama Rieger's awesome, by the way. I've met her a few times. She's awesome. She's Speaker 3 00:22:18 Awesome. Connie, I love, I I I love his family and I'm, I love them man. And uh, but yeah, we, so I finally met, she was like, okay, you, you, you can go to this party and go play out outta state with some random guy. You know? Like, she didn't know what kind of guy I was like, hell, I'm gonna take, we're gonna get, get wild out here, Speaker 0 00:22:37 <laugh>. No man, we're gonna break. We're gonna break you in JR. Exactly. Speaker 3 00:22:40 No man, it was, it ended up being awesome. And um, you know, so that was my first time playing outta state. And then, um, you know, I was up in North Carolina for school, so I was playing up there a good bit, but between North Carolina and Georgia. But that was my first time in Alabama. Were you a Speaker 0 00:22:56 Bourbon Street guy at Auburn? Did you ever do any shows there? Speaker 3 00:22:58 We did do there 2015, Bradley put us in the Bourbon Street room. Man, one time I gotta do it once Speaker 0 00:23:03 Because Auburn was another spot where like a lot of just stuff came out of like, oh yeah, those college and then like Druid City in Tuscaloosa right, was a wild time and Speaker 3 00:23:12 Then, and opened up for like Sam Hunt and like Corey Smith in Auburn before. And it was Speaker 0 00:23:17 Awesome. And then we were just in Rome, Georgia not too long ago. And Peaches. Peaches, formerly the brewhouse, formerly the brewhouse with, to me the most legendary green room in all of country music. Gosh. I mean, upstairs. Speaker 3 00:23:28 I mean you could film some movies over Speaker 0 00:23:29 There. Your your, your name is all over that place by those on those walls. There are, there are John Langston signatures. Speaker 0 00:23:36 Inized signatures and they keep the bottles that they give to to you guys on the Riders. So there are bottles of Crown and Crown Peach. There's just like, I would say there's probably, there were probably like what, like 25, 30, 40, 50? Like I didn't know Crown Bo. Yeah, they're, that's insane. They kept, um, last time I was, when I was there last time I was there with Trey. Cause we've been there, we were there twice. Uh, when I was out with Trey, there was a, they um, somebody, somebody in our crew I guess left a pair of boxers or underwear and they stand it sta right, they have it stapled. They have it, they have it stapled on the wall and it says Trey Lewis with the date thinking it's Trey's fucking underwear. But I sent a picture of Trey's, like, that's not mine. That's, that's amazing. It's like those are way too small to be mine. But um, but like there, there's this history to it and I think there's a video from back in the day on YouTube of you with Gary and Charlie playing acoustic. Oh my gosh. At the Brew House. Like the history of that place from like, you can't talk about country music now with like, like the guys like yourself and Combs and Riley and Musket on all coming up playing that circuit. That era had to just be so much fun. Speaker 3 00:24:41 It it was, man, it was, you know, cuz we're all learning together and we're all just like trying to figure it out. And it's cool to see all our, you know, you know, growth and like seeing, you know, the different, you know, the growing fan bases and pe the more and more people coming out to those shows and like outgrowing those places and just, you know, seeing and, uh, especially Musco Iron Boys, like just seeing what they're doing now, man, I'm so happy for those guys. And um, you know, it's like we're, you know, when you move to town, you go to Tinder Roof and you talk about those times that we're doing now. And like, and um, man, it's just, it was a really cool time to, um, work those different markets in that, in that whole circuit between that and the southeast. Because I mean, I feel like a lot has to do with the, the kind of fans, like the, the passion they have for that for music and all kinds of music. Like we're all have our own different styles and things, uh, we do that are, you know, are so different. So awesome. And, and um, and just seeing the fans, how they, how they gravitate to certain things and how they come out to shows and shows and like, they've been there for us since and they haven't gone anywhere. Oh. Like they're, I mean they're just the most loyal, amazing fans and it all started right then, you know, in that time and there in in, in that circuit of bars. Speaker 0 00:26:04 Like, it's awesome. Yeah. And they'll, and you'll have fans that will follow you for a whole weekend run. Like if you're in the Carolinas, you'll see them in, in Charlotte, then you'll see them in Greenville, then you might see 'em in Myrtle Beach if you're playing one of them Sunday boathouse shows out, out on, out in, uh, dirty Myrtle at the boathouse. They Yes. One of the worst load ins. Oh my goodness. Pushing down the ramp down to the little, that little island stage that's out there. Right. And that's Speaker 3 00:26:26 No room for air Speaker 0 00:26:26 Right there. That sun, no room for air beating down on you on that damn Sunday Speaker 3 00:26:30 Afternoon. Speaker 0 00:26:31 Yeah. You're loading in and the sun, the sun's up there nice and high. And then right as you, right as you get ready to go on, like the sun's setting is just right in your eyes and shit. You got all them Wild Carolina rednecks on the hill just looking down at you. You Speaker 3 00:26:42 Just got done with a three day run. It's your fourth show of the weekend. You're just like, all right boys, one more. Speaker 0 00:26:48 And then the crowd's really good. You're like, okay, this, this is why we did Speaker 3 00:26:51 This. Get you a fifth win in and Yeah. Yeah. No, it's awesome. I love that. Like, you know, you, you, you, youve been in it and you've seen that and like, Speaker 0 00:26:59 Dude, I've been broken down in Vans before. Yeah, I've been, and it's funny when we had, um, one of the, one of our bigger issues that we had, we had our, our trailer, like our, our axle on our, something with our trailer happened where one of the wheels, one of the wheel bearings fell for whatever, right. My first call was JD Gruber. Oh man. And I was like, JD, what do I Speaker 3 00:27:16 Do if anybody knows it's that man. Like we've seen it all, we have seen it all sometimes like I'll just feel something in the bunk or whatever and I'm like, oh God, what now? And he's like, don't worry boys got it under control and I just know he's got it. Yeah, Speaker 0 00:27:31 He, Speaker 3 00:27:32 He's he's been through the Ringer Speaker 0 00:27:33 Dude. I remember having him on here and he told the story about his trip out to his bro trip out to Colorado I guess, or you guys were going out there? Oh Speaker 3 00:27:40 Yeah, we got robbed in St. Louis. We Speaker 0 00:27:42 Got robbed in St. Louis and then went to a, went to a Rockies game and did this and that. Insane Speaker 3 00:27:47 <laugh>. I think we went through like three trailers in like two months. I mean we left one in Wisconsin. Did he tell you about that story? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Just left it in Walmart parking lot. Told the insurance for like, sorry, there it is. Dropped Speaker 0 00:28:00 Pants and you still, and you still, and you still found a way to get to the, get to the gigs and do it. Man, that's part of the real Speaker 3 00:28:06 Place man. That's part, that's part of it. Grind. It's just, it's a grind man. And um, just being around guy, you know, the whole crew, but just guys who can embrace it and just be like, well this is, this is how it is. And, and not just getting down or having, you know, cuz it, it can be easy to get down out there and, and uh, but just having guys that are just, you know, have good spirits and just, especially Speaker 0 00:28:29 In abandoned trailer or in the early days in suv. Yeah. Or a fucking s church man, whatever you, whatever you can get your, your hands on to get from point A to point B. Right. Like, there's guys, I mean I'm sure you probably did the pickup truck or the SUV thing back in Speaker 3 00:28:42 The day. Oh yeah, I did the pickup truck for a long time and then SUV a few times and then did the church van thing for the 15 passenger. Yeah. Long time. Did that for a long time. What, Speaker 0 00:28:53 What was yours? Was it a four, was it 43 50 or was it a Chevy? Chevy? Speaker 3 00:28:56 It was the, it was a Chevy Speaker 0 00:28:57 Express. The Chevy Express. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I've for sure. I've, I've driven many miles in a 43 50 man Speaker 3 00:29:04 <laugh>. I, dude, I, I'd rather go back in the truck than go back. Speaker 0 00:29:08 Yeah, dude, the van. Yeah, because how many guys were you, were you packing in there? About eight. About eight. Yeah. Yeah. So everyone, so some guys are sharing rows. Some, Speaker 3 00:29:16 Some guys are, you know, stacking. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:29:18 And then were you pulling a trailer or were you fitting all the stuff in the back? Yeah. Okay. Pulling. Yeah, pulling a trailer. Driving, driving. Um, Speaker 3 00:29:22 Especially going down those big grades in the, in Virginia. Speaker 0 00:29:26 Virginia. And um, we had some, uh, talk about Asheville, like the Black Mountains, North Carolina bro or Colorado are just Speaker 3 00:29:32 Smoking and just trying to, to die and run off the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:29:37 Dude. Crazy shit. And then the, then the windshield wipers stop working or this stops working? The vans, man, that's, they just, there's always something with Speaker 3 00:29:43 'em driving through the blizzards in middle of Illinois or Buffalo getting Speaker 0 00:29:47 Yeah, yeah. They've set you up north in the winter, right. Oh man. Man, what, what was your first run up north in the winter? Cuz that's culture shock for you in Georgia, boy. Speaker 3 00:29:53 Yeah, we got, uh, we got snowed in at the Mohegan Sun one time. Speaker 0 00:29:56 Uncasville, I love that place. That's the where I'm from in New York. Speaker 3 00:29:59 Kids. That's one of my favorite like casinos ever. So Speaker 0 00:30:02 They hook it up, hook Speaker 3 00:30:03 It up, you just, they give you a car and they got a Chick-fil-A there and you're just like chick-fil-A and roulette all day. Yeah dude. Until it's Speaker 0 00:30:09 Time to play. You put, you put your money on black or red. You big you a big casino guy when you guys go out there. Speaker 3 00:30:14 I, yeah, but so jd when we first started hitting the road, um, 2016, he like, I mean I knew how to play blackjack but I didn't know how to play. Like I would just, I was that guy who like, the the veterans up there were pissed off at me cause I wasn't playing the table. Yeah. So JD was like, what are you doing dude? And you're like, that's how you play it. So every time we go we play blackjack and I, I love roulette just cuz I love, I have these numbers I play and, and I play the hot numbers. You should play the hot numbers. And so we were in Mohican Sun and I won th $3,500 Nice. And like 10 minutes. And they had the pit boss come down and check me for like magnets or something. They were like scanning me. I was like, what are you? I was like, I swear man, this is all luck right Speaker 0 00:31:00 Here. Speaker 3 00:31:00 Yeah. I'm not trying to Ocean G right now. <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:31:04 And you said you got snowed in? Speaker 3 00:31:06 We got snowed in for a day. Yeah. It was crazy how Speaker 0 00:31:08 Much, how, Speaker 3 00:31:09 I mean it was just like, we couldn't get the van and trailer out. I mean it was literally like snow. Speaker 0 00:31:14 Cause it, cause that's kind of near, like, that's that part of Connecticut that's like out there, right? Like towards the coast. So the snow builds up differently Speaker 3 00:31:21 Out there. Yeah, it was, it was a little different. I I mean it was, uh, it was definitely past half, you know, we couldn't even get outta the parking lot. It was like up to the bumper and we tried to get out and we said, screw it. We'll just stay for another day. Speaker 0 00:31:34 Have you done a New York City show yet? Speaker 3 00:31:36 Did gotta do, uh, and up for Cole Windell in, uh, in New York City. So you, you that whole load in's crazy so you gotta like Speaker 0 00:31:44 Yeah. How many, how many tickets you guys got? Everybody gets at least one ticket. Speaker 3 00:31:47 Yeah, we got a couple. I was gonna say, I know it was, it cost like, I think it was like $700 to get our stuff over there with tickets and like renting a like a truck to get our stuff over there. All the tolls. All the tolls. Everything was crazy. God, that was, that was like, man, that was fun tour. That was 2016 I think. Speaker 0 00:32:07 Did you guys eat well when you were up there too? Did you guys get the do the pizza thing or we actually do the cat deli thing or any of that stuff? Speaker 3 00:32:14 Man, I don't think we, I mean we did get together <laugh> we did. It was, we went the night before and it was the night Trump got elected. So that was Oh wow. That was crazy. Wow. That was my first time in New York City. Dude. Speaker 0 00:32:27 What a time. See I was actually, you Speaker 3 00:32:28 Could hear a pin drop, dude. It was insane. Speaker 0 00:32:30 Yeah. The per it was insane that night. Funny enough was my, was me coming back from my first trip ever to Nashville, Tennessee. Really? Was the night was the night of election night 2016. Speaker 3 00:32:38 What a Speaker 0 00:32:39 Time. So I was, I was, I was getting back to New Jersey. I went to college in New Jersey, bro, you talk about a wild time. I was the guy that had a country radio show called Redneck Radio at a college in New Jersey. Speaker 3 00:32:50 That's amazing. Speaker 0 00:32:50 The day after the or and I, my and I, my show that week and people were freaking out. They were like redneck radio. It was just like Trump stuff, this, that, and I didn't even talk about it, but they were just like freaking out. It Speaker 3 00:33:01 Was That's amazing. Speaker 0 00:33:02 It was wild stuff. But, um, another city that I really like is Chicago. Speaker 3 00:33:06 I love Speaker 0 00:33:06 Chicago. And JD said that Chicago is his favorite. You got one. You guys know how to do Chicago. Speaker 3 00:33:10 We know how to do Chicago. We get, I mean go to the cut, get a steak, go to uh, what was that? Uh, the, the Mama Hubbards or something. Speaker 0 00:33:21 Mama Hubbards. I like Portillos. Oh, Portillo's. Yeah. I'm still newer to Chicago, but I get my chop. Tills is great. J JD was was, um, looking down down. He Speaker 3 00:33:27 Loves that Deep dish pizza. Speaker 0 00:33:28 Yeah. Yeah. You go to Lum Lumin Illuminati. Speaker 3 00:33:31 Yeah. Yeah. I I I mean Speaker 0 00:33:34 Have you done the festival up there? Have you done Wind City Smoke? Speaker 3 00:33:37 The Wind City? Yeah, we've done that. Speaker 0 00:33:38 Ed Wor, ed Warren, the godfather of, of Chicago. Speaker 3 00:33:41 Oh man, he's Speaker 0 00:33:42 And Joe's on Weed Street. He's Speaker 3 00:33:43 Another like a legend. Just another legend that, you know, always takes care of us and man, we love going on Joe's on Weed. I mean that's a, that's a special place man. I mean the Speaker 0 00:33:54 Hospital there Speaker 3 00:33:54 Is great, it's Speaker 0 00:33:55 Amazing that balcony get that whole little bar area there that Speaker 3 00:33:58 You bar yourself and you're just like looking down. I'm like, okay. And you see it start filling up and you just get you amped up. Yeah, there you go. I love it. But, uh, but yeah, Chicago, man, my first time playing there, I didn't know what to think, you know, I told the guys, I was like, Hey man, like it's the first time up here. Crowd might be like, let's, we haven't heard the ticket counts yet, so let's, it was, you know, sold out wild as hell. People screaming like, I was like, man, okay. Country's, you know, they up here. Yeah. Up here, man. And I was talking, you know, some fans and stuff in Ingre. I mean they were driving from everywhere though. It was awesome. I think that's what I admire about, you know, these fans and stuff too, that support. Um, my music is just like, they'll, they'll travel and they'll, they'll come outta the woodworks to come support us man. And it really means a lot. Like you said, like a bunch of people will come to multiple shows a weekend and just kind of follow us around. And I think that's just the coolest thing. And uh, you know, they, they come like, you know, part of the, part of the crew, you know, cuz it's like you can expect them there and they're gonna sing with you and, and they, you know, and they're always there for you. Speaker 0 00:35:04 And they buy merch. Speaker 3 00:35:05 They buy Speaker 0 00:35:06 Merch and they drink their asses off. So the venues love it. The Speaker 3 00:35:09 Yeah, the venues love it. Speaker 0 00:35:10 They got the ticket sales are great. The energy of the room's great. They might get a little little extra rowdy in there. Especially up, up in like, up like, cuz you've, that's um, what's cool now with me being in the raise Rowdy family, I've still yet to go. I've never been to Gurgle's or Dusty Armadillo or Country concert, which are like the Speaker 3 00:35:27 Trip. Yeah. You got Dusty armadillo. Speaker 0 00:35:29 I'm, yeah, I'm going to country concert this year with Nicky T which is gonna be a blast to here. It's just the best festival ever. B y O b four day. It's Speaker 3 00:35:35 Insane. Speaker 0 00:35:35 There's craziness. Wow. But I want, I want to experience Dusty Armadillo and Gurgles are like two venues that I hear like Warrendale, pa, and um, and man I Speaker 3 00:35:44 Heard, uh, gurgles was getting the best part about Gurgles is they have the cigar bar in the back Speaker 0 00:35:49 Is this cigar bar in the back of Speaker 3 00:35:50 Js. Oh it's, it's the greatest part of, and I heard they're getting rid of it. Is that I saw, I saw it on Facebook cuz I follow 'em. That's how much I Speaker 0 00:35:57 Love. That's how much you love journals. You follow the bad. Speaker 3 00:36:00 I follow the page man. And they said they're shutting down the cigar bar and I love cigar. Like, I mean that's our, you know, that became our thing the past couple years. You know, just wind down, Hey, have a cigar at the show. We, we Speaker 0 00:36:12 Will hook you up with some cigars cuz we do have an endorsement. Speaker 3 00:36:14 That's what Speaker 0 00:36:14 I heard. That's what we have an endorsement with a company here in Nashville called Crown Heads. Yes sir. Yes sir. They, they have, um, they have a bunch of different blends and they, they send us, send us, uh, free cigars Oh. To give out to our music friends like yourself, <laugh> Well, we'll to have to be over for a second cigar that great. Sometime, sometimes soon, dude. But, um, something else I wanted to bring up was like, now that you've been in, you've been in town for a while and like you remember like looking up to guys and getting brought along by guys like, like Cole Swindell, like, um, like Brantley or the, the, the FGL guys and Luke Bryan. And, and obviously you're, um, the like, you're part of that tree now. There's guys and girls coming up the next generation after you, after like your crew, your class. See like the of the Dylan Marlow's. Yeah, the Meg Morones, Noah Hicks, Noah Hicks. Noah's a great buddy. Dude. I first met him, he opened up a show. We were in Carrollton with Muscatine and he was just his little local dude. He had his long hair. It was, it was long hair flow. Noah Hicks with the lettuce. And um, and now seeing what he's doing, like you're seeing all these guys and girls come up now. What's that been like getting to watch folks follow in Doll's, Speaker 3 00:37:18 Footsteps? Yeah, it's cool, man. I mean, you know, me and Dylan have become pretty good friends, you know, past couple years and, and just seeing his growth and like what he's, you know, he's doing, and I kind of look back and see his crew. I'm like, it's like a flashback in my, in my past and like, said, oh, I remember the like, you know, like the crew, like just getting into town and like, you know, seeing, seeing, you know, the, the hype and everything. It's just awesome man. It's just really cool to see those guys, you know, blow up and then there, I mean, Dylan's gonna be a, I mean, he's a superstar man. Um, but, uh, man, it's, I just love to see, you know, it, it's kind of crazy to me to think that like, you know, like Noah told me, like, yeah man, like I just wanna do what, what you did. Speaker 3 00:38:01 And like, I'm like, what you talking like, that's crazy to me that like, I'll do it a little bit different way Bud. But <laugh>, you know, um, it's, it, I mean it's, it is really cool to see, you know, the next class. Like, you know, take take hold of it and, and be great with it. And honestly, like I, it's a kind of like a hell yeah. Moment. Like that's awesome. Like carrying, you know, passing on the torch a little bit or whatever. What, you know, I still got a lot where I, I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but it's just like that first step of moving into town, it's so huge. You gotta be in the, you know, you gotta be here to play the game and Absolutely. And um, you know, just that, just seeing that leap of faith from people is just, I mean, that takes a lot of, a lot of courage and, and a lot of faith in yourself to like, you know, believe like, Hey, I'm gonna move this crazy town and give it a real shot and just see like guys that you know, that you believe like you see it and like, yeah man, like I, I totally see I believe in you. Speaker 3 00:39:05 And just like when I was moving to town, Cole, someone else said that to me. He's like, man, you like I believe in you. Like, come out on tour with me and like Luke and like just, it's, it is really awesome man. It's really cool. Speaker 0 00:39:17 Well, you guys on the road with the, you opening, you going on tour with those guys had to be pretty, pretty awesome, like full circle kind of things for you growing up Circle in Georgia, listening to their music from watching Cole's showcase and, and Atlanta Speaker 3 00:39:30 Beer in the headlights. Speaker 0 00:39:31 Yeah. Yeah. To being on tour with him, but, but the fun you had to have had too with those South Georgia guys. Yeah, man. Like you guys as it's like a fraternity. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:39:39 Like we, uh, we got to, uh, you know, we did the four wheel drive thing for a while. Me, Cole and, uh, Travis and Jordan, we would, you know, go to those, you know, ran, we just ran the circuit and go to Valdosta and Blue Water and or not Blue Water we go to, um, yeah, blue Water and Speaker 0 00:39:56 Uh, blue Water and Valdosta. That's Speaker 3 00:39:58 Right. I was thinking Blue Room States, Speaker 0 00:39:59 But yeah. Which is one of my Speaker 3 00:40:00 Favorites, right? Yes Speaker 0 00:40:02 Sir. Shout out to Alan Williams in the Blue Room crew. Yes, sir. Love you <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:40:06 Love you guy. But, uh, yeah, we, I mean, and then finishing out, you know, go to the gym where, you know, where so many acts have came through and um, and that's where I met JD. And, and Speaker 0 00:40:21 Tifton has character too, by the Speaker 3 00:40:22 Way. It does, man. I love in Georgia, that whole Speaker 0 00:40:24 Ain't a whole lot to do. But the Do Chin now terminal South is a blast. Speaker 3 00:40:28 It's a blast. And I mean, just the history of music that just came through there, it's really cool to see. And you know, me and the guys, we go do our full wheel drive show there and end it and in Atlanta at, uh, in Decatur and it was, uh, at Eddie's attic. That's what it is. And, um, we all be struggling on that two shows on that Sunday night. You Speaker 0 00:40:52 Guys did the Christmas thing too, right? Yeah, yeah. Like the holiday shows. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:40:56 Yeah. That was, we did that for a couple years and then it just got life happened, started having, having kids, your family stuff. It, it is just, it, it just gotta the point where when we got, you know, Christmas time, we were all scattered all over the Speaker 0 00:41:10 Place. Yeah. How's, how's, what's it like now doing, doing the family thing? You got a little one running Speaker 3 00:41:15 Around, man, I tell you, it's, uh, it's, it's a whole lot harder than it was back, you know, back in those days. I mean, seriously, like, you know, now when I'm leaving I turn around and say, Hey, dad's gotta go work. I love you. I'll see you later. And like, she doesn't get it. She's like, daddy don't go. And I'm, I'm like, okay, I won't go <laugh>. You know, it's like I ain't going. But um, you know, they, you know, they gotta come out to a few Speaker 0 00:41:39 Shows and Yeah. I was gonna ask, have you, have you had the shows? Speaker 3 00:41:41 Yeah, we had 'em out and uh, it's been fun. I gotta bring her up for, uh, dance tonight. Once on, she's got ear most on and, and it was her birthday and it was really cool to spend the whole day with her. You know, we had a show down in Alabama and I was like, man, we gotta, I can't, I can not see my little girl on her birthday. So we're, you know, we make it, um, you know, apparent that we're not, you know, gonna make that work. Like, I'm, even though I'm gonna be far away from home, I'm gonna, you know, make it work and talk to my little girl every day. And like, and, uh, you know, it's hard man. Like, you know. Whew. It's, it's tough to even think about sometimes cuz it, it's taken a toll on me a little bit cuz Speaker 0 00:42:28 It father daughters songs Speaker 3 00:42:30 Harder. Yeah, man. It's just like Speaker 0 00:42:31 My gots my little girl and like all those, Speaker 3 00:42:34 I got a song called Try Missing You and every night I'm singing on the road. I'm just thinking about her big smile and her just, you know, I'm always FaceTiming FaceTiming her when I'm, before I hit the stage and it's usually she's bath time saying good night or whatever. And I'm just thinking about that and I'm like, gosh dang it, like, what am I doing here? You know? I should be home. Yeah. And, but you know, I gotta support my family. I gotta, I got a job to do and this is what God put me on earth to do. Yeah. Is entertain write songs and do this thing. So I mean, so that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:43:07 I can't wait till some of the other father daughters songs like Cleaning This Gun by Rodney Atkins. That's right. That's gonna, that, that to me is what Langton as a dad. When, when she is, when she is, when she's growing up. Speaker 3 00:43:17 God, I don't even wanna think about that one. Right. Speaker 0 00:43:19 Take, take, take, take him out. Turkey hunting. Play down a Speaker 3 00:43:23 Little bit, man. Let's go hunting. Let's go to Speaker 0 00:43:25 Farm. How's, how's you got? Um, it's Oh, Zora Farms, right? Yes, sir. How's, how's that all? How's that all going? How'd that come to be? Man? Speaker 3 00:43:31 It's really cool, man. Um, I'm very blessed. Um, I gotta purchase my, my farm in 2018 and, um, you know, it, it's, it's kind of just kind of grown into, I didn't really understand like what I, I knew I had a vision of something I wanted to do with it other than just me having a good time with buddies out there killing stuff like, you know what I mean? Or have it, you know, for a replace me and my family can go make amazing memories. Like that's, you know, of course. But I wanna do something a little more with that. So, you know, I wanted to have a place where, you know, kids with, you know, disabilities could come hunt for the first time and, um, or a terminal illness and, you know, their family can't afford to go take 'em, or they don't have a hunting property or something. Speaker 3 00:44:22 Like we can, you know, facilitate that and we have a lodge, we can put 'em up in our lodge and stuff like that. So that, I kind of started thinking about that and how the merchant stuff came to be to kind of facilitate all that. I was at a photo shoot and had a bunch of logos on with the label and they were like, Hey, you know, we don't have permission from, uh, these certain logos or whatever. And I was like, man, all right. And I, I was getting kind of frustrated cause like, I don't, I don't have any just blank stuff laying around, you know? I got, you know, Carhartt Bass Road. Yeah. You know, you know, real tree, all kinds of stuff. And, um, so I was like, man, I'll just make my own logo. And I was like, what am I gonna make? And I was just like, well, I called my farm Zora Farms after the road I grew up on in Georgia. So, uh, so I grew up on a Zora Road, so I was like, I'll just call it a Zora Farms and then you know, the Z and it's got the L and the Z and then just, you know, I just went with it and just looked good. I was like, the O just like, looked like Oregon. I was like, I ain't doing that <laugh>. Speaker 0 00:45:24 So Speaker 3 00:45:25 I was like, I'll go with a Z. And uh, it just kind of, you know, didn't take off right away. I was just, I just made the stuff for me. I wasn't planning on selling it or anything. And then, um, I was wearing at shows and stuff like, where can I get that hat? Where can, you know, fans were like, Hey, you know, you got this at your merch booth. I was like, no, I guess I should, you know. So I, you know, made a couple orders and, um, sold 'em online and sold out like that. Made an Instagram account for it. And I just take that money and, um, uh, past couple years we gave it to Dream Hunt Foundation, Louisiana. That's great. And, uh, so it helps, you know, I think we got to help 10 kids go hunt for the first Speaker 0 00:46:06 Time. That's huge Speaker 3 00:46:07 Thing Louisiana last year before last. So it was, that's really cool. And eventually when we get process of building lodge right now, so I want to be able to have a place where they can come there to the, our actual farm. Yeah. And not just, you know, facilitating outta state and stuff like that. I wanna be the place where we can do events out there, do a youth hunt, you know, um, you know, have, have, you know. Sorry. Speaker 0 00:46:35 You're good, dude. Get that water. That's what we got that water out there for. Speaker 3 00:46:40 Talking about it. I ain't Speaker 0 00:46:41 Talking this much. No, you're good. Um, has Turkey season, have you been able to get out there for Turkey season yet? As I know, my boy Gary, our boy Gary Stanton is going, oh my Speaker 3 00:46:49 Gosh. He's, he's going, man, Speaker 0 00:46:50 He's going to more states killing turkeys than he is playing shows. Speaker 3 00:46:53 I think I saw him yesterday. He was in New Hampshire or something. Today He is in New Jersey. New Jersey. Speaker 0 00:46:58 New Jersey. He was, yeah. I was like, dude, you better go get some sandwiches and pizza's like, man, I'm eating peanut butter and jelly. I got my meals. Speaker 3 00:47:03 He's like sleeping in the truck. Speaker 0 00:47:04 He's like, I'm sleeping in the truck. And I'm going, I gotta hit this state at this time because it's open season. I got this permit and that permit and tag out here and this and Speaker 3 00:47:10 That. I'm like, he stays mad at him, man. It's crazy. Yeah, no, I, I mean, we hunted him last, last week. Got some blood from Georgia come up and, um, we shot a few. I haven't shot one yet. I tried to shoot one this morning and it was at 60 yards. Speaker 0 00:47:25 What happened? Speaker 3 00:47:26 He was just too far. Oh, Speaker 0 00:47:27 He was just too far Speaker 3 00:47:28 In. Wouldn't, he wouldn't come in. He had two hands with him. Wasn't come any closer. I was belly crossed, swept my ass off. Speaker 0 00:47:36 <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:47:37 I was so outta shape. I was like trying to, I was like, bows and toes for like an hour and a half trying to get closer. And I got this fan in front of me, but it wasn't even like a full fan. It was just like a crappy little <laugh>. Speaker 0 00:47:49 See, I've never been like Speaker 3 00:47:51 A half fan. Speaker 0 00:47:51 I've never been hunting. I'm very, very much, oh Speaker 3 00:47:54 Man, I'll take you. Speaker 0 00:47:54 Let's go. I've never been, but I, I don't know if, I mean, I've, cuz I've been out, like I, I have a Mossburg five, I have a shotgun, so I'm a gun owner, so I have that. So I'm kind getting into to being in the southern thing. I've worked with enough folks from Alabama to have to pick up on a thing. I've eaten chicken gizzards and done all that shit. But like, it just sounds like it is a grind when you're out there. Like you really, especially turkeys, you have to work for it. Speaker 3 00:48:15 Yeah, I mean, I mean it's, it's, it's challenging for sure. I mean it's, when it's on, it's on It can be really, really good. Yeah. Have you But I Speaker 0 00:48:23 Mean, don't like the exotic con if you've gone up, I have up north like, cause I know I saw Screeches up in fucking Montana or something right now. Is he? Speaker 3 00:48:30 Yeah, he's like, Speaker 0 00:48:31 I mean, like to me, those, those kinda hunts where there's a huge hike involved that has to be exhausting. <laugh>. Like you're trying hunt, like what do you do? You're out, you're out or up up in the, up in like big sky country. Yeah. You're looking at this elk from like thousands of yards. They're looking under their scope and then you gotta call 'em in. Then you gotta hike to 'em. Then you gotta get the elk outta there. Like what do you do with, you Speaker 3 00:48:49 Gotta pack 'em out and everything. That's insane. You got, yeah. You better be training for six months for that trip. Yeah. I mean people do that. Speaker 0 00:48:55 Oh, people do it like religiously. It's Speaker 3 00:48:57 Crazy. It's awesome. I've, I've never got the chance to do it, but I've always wanted to do that. But, um, Speaker 0 00:49:01 So you're Turkey and deer primarily? Ducks. Speaker 3 00:49:04 Ducks. Turkey and deer. Um, I've never done the elk thing. I've always wanted to. Um, but yeah, I've been to Nebraska and like other places, the deer and Turkey hunt, but, and duck Hunt and Arkansas and Missouri and stuff. But man, I've, you know, I've always wanted to go to Africa and go get a Oo though. Yeah. Those like crazy like Speaker 0 00:49:25 Giants. Yeah. I've seen co I think CO's gone out and done that. Yeah. Co co finds a way to just get all kinds of exotic shit Speaker 3 00:49:31 <laugh> every other day. I feel like he's out there killing some Speaker 0 00:49:34 You you've done some shows with him, right? Yeah. Co You've gone know Speaker 3 00:49:37 In Alabama? Yeah, in Tuscaloosa. Speaker 0 00:49:38 He did a show in Tuscaloosa. Yes. With co wetzel. Speaker 3 00:49:41 Oh God. Insane. Speaker 0 00:49:42 That had to be kept. That was, uh, was that one of, was that the amphitheater? Speaker 3 00:49:45 Amphitheater, yeah. Oh dude. It was, it was nuts. It was nuts. Speaker 0 00:49:48 Was that your first time like getting to meet him and Dre and like that crew? Speaker 3 00:49:51 Yeah, it was, uh, we've met before but it was our like, uh, kind of first time like hanging and stuff and man, they were awesome. That's a good group. That's Speaker 0 00:49:58 They're they worked. I mean, but it's cool cuz similar to what you were doing and similar to what other acts out of the Southeast were doing, they were doing that same grind in Texas. In Texas driving around in a van saying honk if you need Jesus on the side of the van, doing it, doing it their way. Right. But playing those same kind of college markets, private gigs, Mexican restaurants, whatever they had to do. Yep. And now it's, it's cool that, that's a cool, I would love to see that show <laugh> you and you, you and co. That has to be just energy out the roof. Speaker 3 00:50:24 Yeah, man, it was fun. I was, I was trying to keep up, you know, I got that crown bottle just rocking and I'm just like, no, you Speaker 0 00:50:31 Kind of have to at that point Speaker 3 00:50:32 With those guys Speaker 0 00:50:32 Cause he's a Jack Guy. Speaker 3 00:50:34 Yeah. It's just like, well it's just like the energy in the room just makes you want to just party man. And it was just like, you're all about it and in the moment and just, but I was like, man, I need to put this down for a minute, for middle of the set. I need to remember the rest of this Speaker 0 00:50:48 Set. Yeah. I remember telling. Um, cause I had gotten the no co through, um, through Gary and Charlie. Um, cause they're, they're really tight. The ade guys and co um, I remember telling Trey and telling particularly our, our band leader Ben, I was like, Hey, if they throw stuff at you, that means they like, that's the co crowd. Cuz Ben's the guy. He's like, but he's like, make sure there's a barricade. Make sure there's this, there's that. No nothing. It's on my pedal board, which I totally understand. He's been doing it a while. But, um, I told him like, Hey, people start throwing shit at you at this show. That means the co wetzel fans accept you. That's how they are. They loved you man. And we were in, we were in, uh, Salem, Virginia and shit just started flying. And I was side stage and I looked at Ben, Ben looked at me and I was just like, dude, they love you. You're good. <laugh> and shit was just flying. That was a Colby, Colby Cooper, Trey Lewis, so Oh my God. Yep. Yep. You go from Dick down to Dallas into the freaking, the co wezel chaos. Insane. It was just wild, man. So you got some, some new music out. You dropped a song last week. You got, sir? Did I see something about a record coming? Speaker 3 00:51:42 Man, you peed Speaker 0 00:51:43 Or we got some stuff coming. Speaker 3 00:51:44 We're working on. I'm working on something that I've always wanna work on, man. Really glad, I've always wanted to put out, man, I've been, uh, you know, at this thing for 10 years now. And it's just like, it's, it's taken me a while to, you know, people are like, why haven't you put out a record yet? Why haven't you, you know, like, well, you know, it's been a, a long time for growth and, and a long time of me personally as an artist and be confident enough to, you know, say, Hey here's a collection of songs that, you know, this amount is, is me and this is what I wanna do and this is what I'm gonna say. And, uh, I think we're about there, but man, it's just, uh, I guess for right now I'm putting out these songs here and there just kinda leading up to, uh, something bigger that, uh, I'm really excited for. I think I get in trouble. Speaker 0 00:52:32 Yeah. Anymore we're getting that No over there. Speaker 3 00:52:36 Yep. I knew it. I was like, God. Speaker 0 00:52:39 Well, I mean, it's tough too when you tour as much as you do and to, and playing shows and having the fan bases that you do that come out to the shows and that being such a huge part of the business and, and you having the, the crew on the road taking the time off to make the project that you really want to make. Right. You have to, you have to take a break from the road. And it's like you get in your nature of just road warrior, right. And stuff like how many it's time. What was your biggest year do you think of, of number of shows? How many, like thinking like over the years before covid Speaker 3 00:53:09 Thousand 19 we did like 1 27 dude. And then 18. I did like one, I think it was like one 15. But like, and then I did radio tour. So Speaker 0 00:53:21 Yeah, it's like where do you find the time to record after Speaker 3 00:53:23 They're recording that? Exactly. I mean exactly. I was just Speaker 0 00:53:26 Like, and and have Speaker 3 00:53:27 A life and how do I, and how yeah. How am I gonna be creative? I'm just like brain dead out here. Speaker 0 00:53:32 Yeah. So it makes sense. And there, that's why there is like, like it makes sense. Take your time with that shit Speaker 3 00:53:37 That, that's kind of like this silver line with like covid when that happened, I got to decompress, chill out for a while and really do some, you know, creative thinking and creative, like work on, you know, my music and stuff. And, and I feel like, you know, it gotta a place where I was start, it was starting to click with me and what I wanted to do. And you know, cuz up from 2013 to 1516, man, I was just throwing out demos before I saw, before I had any guidance. I was, I didn't even know what mastered meant. I was just throwing out demos on iTunes, Speaker 0 00:54:13 Demos in that SoundCloud, bro. Speaker 3 00:54:14 SoundCloud and everything. I was just, I mean I was, I was just trying to get out, get as much material out there as I could. And I think that's what really helped me out in the, in the beginning was just throwing out, seeing what st you know, seeing what stuck. But, um, but yeah, I'm, I'm really excited for the new stuff. It's, uh, it's exciting cuz I feel like these fans are gonna see my like, you know, the, the evolution of, you know, college me into, you know, now I'm a dad and I've been doing this thing for so long and you know, I've learned a lot and you know, see what, you know, I been through a lot of life stuff. So, uh, you know, I got some stories telling it. So it's, Speaker 0 00:54:57 That's important's important man. You gotta Yes sir. You gotta have some, have some stories to tell that. Now I gotta ask you some, uh, some, uh, some like, fun questions here. Um, of your buddies. Who's your, who's the best one at golf? Uh, aside from yourself? Like, like of your, your, I'm, Speaker 3 00:55:11 I'm not terrible. Who? Speaker 0 00:55:12 Oh, you, you just go out there. Drink, drink a beer. Drive the golf cart. Speaker 3 00:55:14 I'm, I'm just having a good time. Uh, <laugh>. Gosh. Speaker 0 00:55:19 Who's, who's a solid, who's a, there's a lot of guys that golf in country music. Speaker 3 00:55:22 Yeah. Cole Taylor. I mean he's really good. He's really good. Him or Tyler Ree. Speaker 0 00:55:26 I feel like Tyler Reeves always on Speaker 3 00:55:27 The golf. Tyler, he Speaker 0 00:55:28 Is a scratch golfer mean mean He's playing with Daley all the time. Speaker 3 00:55:30 Oh yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't know who's, I mean I, one of Speaker 0 00:55:34 Who's the most fun to be out there with. Cause sometimes it's not about being with the best guy cuz you're like, damn, I wish I could do that. Speaker 3 00:55:40 Oh my God. Like Speaker 0 00:55:40 Getting rowdy in the Speaker 3 00:55:41 Golf cart. I love playing golf with Mitchell. Tim Penney. I'll tell you what. Oh, Speaker 0 00:55:44 That has a Speaker 3 00:55:44 Blast. That's a fun day. That's a fun day. If I just like, Hey, we ain't worried about score, we are just, hey we're, you know, we're rocking today. Yeah. We're gonna have a good time. I mean, we've, we've played a few times together. It's a good time. And I love Mitchell Man and <laugh>. It's so funny. We were, we were playing it, um, gosh, what is that course called? Anyways? Playing some, some course and we just end up just like drinking a beer every single hole. Beer. Oh, Speaker 0 00:56:14 Beer. A hole. I hole I used to do that before I got sober. I was, Speaker 3 00:56:17 It was my first time doing that. And I, and I definitely had to get a ride home. It was Speaker 0 00:56:21 Awesome dude. Eight eight. I mean, yeah, a beer. It was awesome. Beer hole is beer hole. That's that like scramble golf outing kind of stuff. Like when you have like the town like golf outing or something. <laugh>. Have you done those before? Like played like golf outings or? Speaker 3 00:56:33 I did. I did the uh, the Blue Otter. Speaker 0 00:56:35 Oh, Bradley and Megan. A little Hickory. Yes sir. Those are fun too. That Speaker 3 00:56:39 Was a good time. That was probably one of those <laugh> we showed up. And the undertakers there. I thought that was insane. Yeah, I was like, <laugh>. Speaker 0 00:56:47 Was he playing? Speaker 3 00:56:48 He was playing. He was playing The Speaker 0 00:56:49 Undertaker was playing golf. Speaker 3 00:56:50 He was playing golf. Who Speaker 0 00:56:51 Was in his group? Speaker 3 00:56:52 I think he was with, um, he's, no, Bradley was with Cole. Now Speaker 0 00:56:57 I was gonna say Bradley's picking up, I remember he was picking a team with called do remember Matt was playing to win the game. Speaker 3 00:57:02 My buddy BT was was teeing off and uh, hunter Tank was walking by and they're just both giant human beings. And Hunter Tank was like, good shot man. <laugh>. BT was like, you see that? You see that. That's all. I mean I was just like, that's fucking undertaker man. Speaker 0 00:57:20 I just can't imagine him like dressed up in golf attire. Speaker 3 00:57:23 Yeah, it was a little strange. I didn't know. I didn't really understand what was going on at the moment, but Speaker 0 00:57:27 <laugh>. That's wild dude, Speaker 3 00:57:28 That was awesome. Speaker 0 00:57:30 Um, that's a good time. Um, what's on the John Langston rider Speaker 3 00:57:34 Crown? Speaker 0 00:57:35 Well yeah, I figured <laugh> it's, if not you're spending a lot of money on Crown. Speaker 3 00:57:40 Yeah. Yeah. Um, man, Speaker 0 00:57:43 Do you even know, do you even know it at this point or is JD just, just got success system? Speaker 3 00:57:46 I feel like he's just customized it for him now. <laugh> for him. Speaker 0 00:57:50 Bag bag, bag of Bo. Bag of Bojangles. I feel like bag of Bojangles on the rider. Speaker 3 00:57:54 I was like, what? Well cause I was looking at it the other day. I'll ask, I just like my, my, my uh, notch like the to Tostitos, like chips and just regular salsa. That's, I mean, and some sub sandwiches or whatever. Chips and Speaker 0 00:58:12 Salsa Speaker 3 00:58:12 Sandwiches and crown. I'm simple and just like case of water, I just need some water. But like I was seeing like, we had some like, uh, some rehab, some uh, or like the, the um, what's it called? The monster Rehab. Yeah. I was like, where are these going? Oh man, we just, you know, cause he just did the 75 horse, so he had like some little things trickled in there Speaker 0 00:58:32 Customized. Speaker 3 00:58:33 I, I was like, okay, I see what's happening here. Speaker 0 00:58:36 <laugh>. Yeah. I customize. I put cold brew coffee on Trey's. That was my big thing was like them stoke cold brew coffees. And then Trey would have like the Cana dip. And then it's funny cuz Trey's sober, I'm sober, but the band would drink enough for everybody. They'd go through a, a bottle of fireball and a case of Miller every night. So we'd have the Miller and the Fireball on there. And sometimes the venue like certain, like wild Greg for example. Right. Which I know you said you're going to again soon. Shout out Wild Greg. Um, he'd, he'd be like, Hey, whatever y'all want. Whatever you whatever you or talking it's Minnesota accent. I don't do a good Do you do a good, can you do a wild I can't. I can't. I can't impersonate. I can't do it. Some of our friends can do, can do, do that. Speaker 3 00:59:08 Don't you know. That's all I Speaker 0 00:59:09 Know. Don't you know, we sell out Shoals at Wild Greggs <laugh>. Um, and he like, he'll hook it up with like multiple bottles of Fireball and that's when shit gets real wild. Have you played all of those clubs? The Wild Greggs think I have because there's Pensacola like Glen. Yeah. And then he had Minneapolis, which he just got rid of because he's been, he was, he he he always get, he's always suing the cities that he's in. Does he, does he, does he update you with, does he give you those kind of updates? Speaker 3 00:59:33 No, I've heard, uh, I get Speaker 0 00:59:34 Texts from him all the time. Be like, look at me on this news channel talking on Fox News or something. He's on national TV talking about how he's suing the city of whatever. Speaker 3 00:59:42 Geez. I think I, I think last time we were with him down in Pensacola, I think we were, I was in the like a car ride and I was like overhearing something like that. I'm not sure. Speaker 0 00:59:53 Does he, does he drive you guys around in his car? Yeah, dude, he is the king. I mean, I'm not the guy the texting him driving cuz he drove us. We were in, we were in, uh, Minneapolis, or no, it was in Lakeland. He was driving us to, uh, we were on the road with, with Bob, with Kid Rock and he was driving us from his Lakeland location to the amphitheater in Tampa. He was on the interstate and he's like sticking his phone like, like sticking it in like, like Trey's face in the front seat while driving, but still back. We're like, oh man, you never know what you're gonna get with Wild Greg. Never. Never. And the load in is always fun to Pensacola. They've made it better. Oh yeah, Speaker 3 01:00:26 The lift. Speaker 0 01:00:26 Oh they did? Well then. Well they have the lift now, right? I thought Ben was coming. Forklift. Yeah. Yeah, the four, they've lifted up over the front. Sketchy as opposed to the Speaker 3 01:00:33 Elevator. It's, it is, yeah. It's the sketchiest thing I've ever seen. I was like, my gosh, if it's gonna fall and just Speaker 0 01:00:38 Like did your, did your stuff fit in the elevator because you guys have those light cards Speaker 3 01:00:41 Carts? No, we got those, those carts. So they didn't fit in the elevator. So you gotta do the lift, like outside the building and over into the loft thing. It's insane. Yeah. Speaker 0 01:00:49 Pensacola as Speaker 3 01:00:50 Well. I'm just like grubs. You can figure it. Speaker 0 01:00:52 Yeah. Grubs your piano here. This is what we pay you for, bud. Yeah, Speaker 3 01:00:54 Exactly. Speaker 0 01:00:55 Um, some of your, um, your favorite spots in, uh, what's like, what would be, cause you don't go out in town as much anymore because like, not really, you're down. I'm just hanging out. You're outta town. But if you were to come up into town, what bar do you think you'd be going to? Speaker 3 01:01:07 Man, I What's Speaker 0 01:01:08 Your vibe? Vibe now? It's different than it was. Yeah, Speaker 3 01:01:11 It's different for sure, man. I, man I man I've been going to, uh, Sperry's in town, going to getting a steak and over there in Bellmead, I haven't you ever been to Sperrys is be Speaker 0 01:01:22 I don't, Speaker 3 01:01:22 Haven't spent, if coming to town, I wanna go get a steak, you know, go to E three or uh, Speaker 0 01:01:26 E three. I've been to Speaker 3 01:01:28 Spars over there. Speaker 0 01:01:29 I gotta check that out. Speaker 3 01:01:30 The E three bar and the rooftop is top. Speaker 0 01:01:31 Well that's on Bread too. Oh yeah. That's, that's, that's all, that's all in the family. Oh, yes. Right. Here's family. Yes, sir. Speaker 3 01:01:37 So I say those two places, you know, chill, like, you know, you can have a good drink and, uh, good some good food. But man, I, I will find myself at 10 roof with the boys every like, you know, on a once Speaker 0 01:01:49 After hours JD texted me. Speaker 3 01:01:50 Yeah. Once Speaker 0 01:01:50 A blue moon, Hey, like tin roof after hours. And I'm like, okay, I'll go. That's what is this music you to run? And it's just people just hanging out with, with where nobody else is allowed in. That's all it is. It's just tin roof. Speaker 3 01:02:00 Yeah, it's just hanging out. Yeah, man. It's, you know, and a bunch of those guys, you know, you know, you know, forever and, you know, you got JD in there DJing and stuff playing Neon Moon, oh, J JD on repeat. It's like, come on, Speaker 0 01:02:14 <laugh>. Yeah, he does, he does have some, he does have some good bids, like on, on his, uh, on his Instagram with, um, what he, what he does, like the voice stuff where he is like he's, he's playing and singing the, the Brooks know, like he was learning. He was like, he was like single coming soon. Awesome. Speaker 3 01:02:27 There was a minute there. He, I mean he was like really practicing. I was like, really? I was like, oh yeah, I was really impressed for a little like, I mean for a minute there he was like every, every, every show he would like grab my guitar and just like practice Speaker 0 01:02:38 Do more than just make sure there's batteries. He be like, Hey, Speaker 3 01:02:40 Come check this out. And he play the de chord. He's like, it's a de chord. I'm Speaker 0 01:02:43 Like, yeah. I love JD walking around like, on like as now like watching from the crowd JD as a tm like on stage before there's like, just making sure he just walks around like a boss man, you gotta, oh man. And then the show with the Sharpies and stuff. Like, you guys have it down to a system, man. Speaker 3 01:02:59 It's a system for sure. Sometimes like he's, he's so locked in, I'm like, is everything okay? I'm like looking, I'm like you. He goes, oh yeah, we're good. We're good. I just have to make sure. Cause sometimes he's so honed in and he is just, so much stuff's going on. Sometimes it worries me a little bit. I just like, I need some reassurance, bud. Make sure everything's all right. Speaker 0 01:03:17 That's awesome, man. Um, favorite college town in Georgia? I mean, I guess you gotta say Athens, right? Speaker 3 01:03:22 I gotta say Athens, I guess. But if I didn't have to say Athens, I mean, Speaker 0 01:03:29 It's tough cause there's so, there's so many of them and you've had good and probably bad times than all of them. More good times than bad. Hopefully. I know I've had good and bad times than all of Speaker 3 01:03:37 Them. Oh yeah. I mean Athens is, you know, will always be, you know, you know, starting out there and everything and Georgia Theater and Genco, I don't even know if it GenCos there anymore, generals and stuff, but 40 Watt and all that. But I mean, I'd have to say the heyday when Statesboro was rocking, I mean that was just like the whole, like you got Ru Rudy Rudy's right there. You got Rum Runners and Retrievers right there. Um, DUS McGee down the road, man. It was just, it was a, it was a, it was a cool vibe down there and, and, um, but yeah, it was, I mean it's still, it got Blue room there now. Yeah. And it's just like, I mean it's, I mean, it's still like a great place to play music. Speaker 0 01:04:20 I mean, yeah. I saw, um, Meg Marone was just down there playing. Oh. And her and, uh, Logan Crosby. Speaker 3 01:04:25 Well, like, there was like 5,000 people out there. They, Speaker 0 01:04:27 They had to do it outside. It's Speaker 3 01:04:29 Insane. She had Speaker 0 01:04:29 Her first time playing down there weren't on her first tour. Headlining over, she's putting five, 5,000 people outside of, outside of the blue room in Statesboro and every girl singing back everywhere and guys probably. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:04:40 Oh yeah, I saw like, she posted on her story, like these guys, like in her, uh, hoodies and stuff. I was like, good. Like, that's amazing. Like, it's so awesome. I'm so happy for Speaker 0 01:04:48 Her. Yeah. You saw you, you met her when she was at school at uga, Speaker 3 01:04:52 Right? Yeah, yeah. We played, uh, came up in the scene, played their philanthropy, uh, event and, uh, while, oh man, that was a long time ago. It was 2016, 17. And, um, and, and she, she opened and I was like, man, she's really good. Like she had some, you know, some, uh, original stuff and, and um, she opened up for me at the Georgia Theater and, and she just became a good bud. And like, she, I'm just so happy for her success. It's really, you know, she moved, you know, came up to Nashville, introduced her to a few people, and she just watched her shine. Man. It's just like, you know, it's, it was awesome. It's so cool. So, so cool, Speaker 0 01:05:32 Man. Yeah. And it is cool at the end, she still says, I, I still want the dogs to win. She keeps her Georgia roots, Speaker 3 01:05:38 Man. She had on that Tennessee jersey the other night. I was like, God Almighty <laugh>. She's like, it kills me to have this Tennessee jersey. I was like, yeah, kills me too. Like, kills everybody. No, I'm just messing. But, uh, I guess it is what it is. Yeah. What can you do when you got a song that, I mean, Tennessee Orange. You gotta, you gotta do it, man. Speaker 0 01:06:00 Oh, Speaker 3 01:06:01 Ucc. She was in Knoxville, Speaker 0 01:06:02 I think. Yeah, she, yeah. What you, you got, you gotta tell that that's like Gary and Charlie always said we were in Tuscaloosa. I'm like, are you gonna say War Eagle? And like, no, we don't want to, we don't want to die. Yeah. We're not gonna, we're not gonna say War Eagle in Tuscaloosa, but we will say it everywhere else in Alabama. Speaker 3 01:06:14 <laugh>. I was, you know, we would, we would, I would do a, she's so Georgia remixing when we were in other s e C schools, I'd be like, all right, we're gonna do, uh, she's so Bama tonight. All right, here we go. So, and it some sometimes it good over Will. So sometimes it did not at all. Speaker 0 01:06:30 She's so Starkville, Starkville and Rick would get a tear in his eye. <laugh> did you hear about his cow by the way that he has? Have you heard about this? A Speaker 3 01:06:37 What? The cow bill? Speaker 0 01:06:38 No, he has a cow like cow. Him and his wife have all those animals and stuff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Did you ever hear about the calf that he Speaker 3 01:06:43 Had? No. Speaker 0 01:06:44 Oh, I'm gonna, I'm Rick watches the podcast. Yeah. And he was, he was gonna like, so he told me this last time we were there earlier this year, and um, he, um, told me he is like, look at this cow. I'm like, he's like, do you know what the name is? And he named the cow, John Langston. Him and his wife adopted a cow <laugh>, him and his wife adopted a cow. We're gonna throw photos and stuff in this, like, when you do this clip, he has a photo, he has a cow, he has a baby calf and it's named little, he named it, it was Little John Langston. Now the calf's like to become a cow. So next time you're at Rick's, cause when his wife adopted it, I think it was one of the times you had played there or you had just played there. And she was like, what do you wanna name it Rick? And Rick was like, well, we're gonna name it John Langston. Speaker 3 01:07:21 That's insane. Speaker 0 01:07:22 So he has a cow. There's a cow on, well, fallen was named name John Langston named. It was amazing. Little John Langston <laugh>. There's pictures. I mean, I'll show you Little Johnny. Yeah, little Johnny on Rick on Rick's farm, which is the most Rick's cafe thing ever. Oh my gosh. Because you played that place probably what, 10 times over the years? Yeah. Oh yeah. That, that is one of the best clubs in the circuit. Rick, Speaker 3 01:07:41 Why wouldn't you tell me this, but why you keep this right? Speaker 0 01:07:44 I hope I didn't ruin a surprise. He might have had a big thing going like, Speaker 3 01:07:46 Yeah, probably. He was like gonna bring it on stage. <laugh>. Speaker 0 01:07:48 Yeah, he was gonna walk it on stage. He, Rick would do that. He Speaker 3 01:07:52 Would though. He would with the Speaker 0 01:07:53 Cowbell. Would everybody big Speaker 3 01:07:55 This cow go crazy Speaker 0 01:07:56 <laugh>? Yeah. You never, I I'm surprised didn't hear about this. Cause he sent me pictures on this. Gosh, Speaker 3 01:08:00 Dude. No, I went over to his farm and like we saw the horses and Yeah, show me around stuff. Speaker 0 01:08:06 It got spread over there. There's a, there's a John Langston. Where's <laugh> Rick? Speaker 3 01:08:10 That's insane. See if Speaker 0 01:08:11 He's got the picture of it. Speaker 3 01:08:12 <laugh>. I had no idea. It, Speaker 0 01:08:15 Um, oh yeah, see there he is. See Little John, little John Langston right here. Yeah. Little, little John Langston. And then he was like, just listen to the podcast. We now have medium-sized John Langston. Just scroll down. He's, he's all, he's all, she's all grown up. He's all grown up. Shit. We have little and medium-sized John Langston. Speaker 3 01:08:30 That is amazing. Speaker 0 01:08:32 That to me is the ultimate love from a club owner. Speaker 3 01:08:34 I, I love Rick. I love you buddy. Much love baby. Can't wait to see you. And Little John Langston. Speaker 0 01:08:41 Yeah, dude. Now you gotta go there. Like, that's content. John Langston meets John Langston on Rick. Speaker 3 01:08:47 Man, I got, I got to do I what we doing? Can we Speaker 0 01:08:52 Asap It's happening. Let, it's happening. I love Starkville too. Mississippi Road Speaker 3 01:08:57 Trip Tonight. Speaker 0 01:08:58 Road trip to get down Starkville. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm surprised you didn't know about that. Speaker 3 01:09:02 I had no idea Speaker 0 01:09:03 Because that message with him like a while, he told me that story like a while ago and he was like, yeah, I got John Ston on my farm. He's played my club. Now I have one at the house. <laugh>, all you gotta do is feed it <laugh> Speaker 3 01:09:15 And then we eat it. Speaker 0 01:09:16 Yeah. Then we eat it. Then we hog John, Mike stood inside of us. Speaker 3 01:09:22 Oh Speaker 0 01:09:23 Boy. Oh man. So what do you got coming up the rest of this year? You got some more, you got some more shows. You're out in the Turkey Awards doing the dad thing and got the music coming. You had the single come out last week. Speaker 3 01:09:32 Yeah. Ain't No Cowboy came out. Yeah, man. Uh, it, it was a really cool song. I, I got that idea from my first time playing down in Texas, playing in Amarillo. First time ever. Speaker 0 01:09:42 Ooh, that's a fun place to be. Your first time in Texas. Probably like Speaker 3 01:09:45 15 people. Speaker 0 01:09:45 Yeah. No shit. It's Amarillo. We've, we've had those shows in Texas. Was just out there with Trey a couple weeks ago. And like the crowds sit, they sit down. Oh, Speaker 3 01:09:53 Sit down. They chill. It's Speaker 0 01:09:54 A weird, it's different. It's Speaker 3 01:09:56 Different than Georgia for Speaker 0 01:09:57 Sure. Well, it's different than everywhere. I mean anywhere. But especially coming from the South, Speaker 3 01:09:59 Well just like the, Speaker 0 01:10:01 Oh yeah, dude. Yeah, there's, but Speaker 3 01:10:04 I go get a drink before the show and uh, there's the girl sitting there, she was like, Hey, are you playing it us? I was like, yeah. And uh, she's like, where's your cowboy hat at? Just, and I was just joking around. I was like, oh, you know, sorry, ain't no cowboy. Um, just different kind of country I guess. And she, we just laughed about it or whatever. But I had that idea. I was like, man, that's probably good idea for a song. And I had it in my phone for a long time and I actually brought it up in a couple rights with a few other co-writers that just didn't, you know, just no one was vibing with it. And then, uh, I brought it up with Jordan Gray and Brad Wagner. We were on the road writing and um, and Jordan was like, oh yeah. Speaker 3 01:10:42 And then Brad had a track going and just fit the kind of vibe and we just kind of rolled with it and wrote it like an hour and a half. And it was, and I was like, all right, we're gonna cut this thing next week. And so that's how it came to be. Hell, hell yeah. And uh, I, I love the story of the song. Like I just, you know, the, the whole like sonically, it's really cool. It's kind of, you know, it's got this like, you know, uh, nostalgic kind of feel to, it's pretty cool. So I hope the fans are loving it Speaker 0 01:11:08 And they're, and like you said, and it's a different kind of country. Yeah. Different. That's different kinda country. Any, any guy or girl can relate to. Yeah. I'm cu you don't need a cowboy hat to be country especially. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Especially from good old down home Georgia. That's Speaker 3 01:11:18 Right, that's right. <laugh>. Speaker 0 01:11:20 You still can't get over the John Langston thing. I Speaker 3 01:11:22 Can't get over that cows in my mind and I can't get em out. We need to get shirts. Little John Langston. Speaker 0 01:11:29 We need to get merch shirts. Speaker 3 01:11:31 No, John Little Speaker 0 01:11:32 Shirts with the cow. Speaker 3 01:11:33 I feel like it's like Lil John though. And it's like <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 0 01:11:36 Oh, little John. Yeah. With the sunglasses. Like Yeah, he's like, yeah. Speaker 3 01:11:42 <laugh> Speaker 0 01:11:44 Man. What, what show What uh, what shows, what shows you got coming up? Do you know the calendar off the top of Speaker 3 01:11:48 Your head? Oh, we got, uh, wild Greg's <laugh> Speaker 0 01:11:52 Wild Speaker 3 01:11:52 Gregs in like two weeks Speaker 0 01:11:53 Actually. Does he intro you guys on stage too? Does he do that for you guys too? He Speaker 3 01:11:57 Has before, yeah. Speaker 0 01:11:58 He still insist on doing that. Yeah, he's insist he's done that. He comes on stage, tells the people what's up, gets in the DJ booth, Speaker 3 01:12:04 Gets him rowdy, Speaker 0 01:12:06 Tells the stories about Uncle Cracker and tearing up the tour Bus <laugh>. Speaker 3 01:12:10 I haven't heard that one. Speaker 0 01:12:11 Oh, you gotta ask him like when you see him be like, Hey, what's, well he'll know cause this episode will be coming out next week. So he'll see the episode and he watches all of our episodes. Um, meet Greg. I'll get random calls whenever he comes to Nashville. We, we took while Greg the red door not long ago and I introduced him to a bunch of kids, like a bunch of like the young bucks that are new to town, like the 2022 to like 25 year old kids that have all moved here and they're like, this guy's awesome cuz he's just telling 'em all the stories. All these crazy stories. Yeah. And they like all love. They're all, it's all like a goal of theirs and their career to play wild Greg. That's insane. So Greg loves it, but Oh that's awesome. Bringing, bringing him in his people out. Speaker 0 01:12:44 He always wants to go to Broadway. I'm like, dude, I'm not going to Broadway with you. No, I can't handle that Greg. You can't do Itin. I think did I think Michael Owen's? Oh no, you did that with Mike. That was another guy. But, um, he's gone out with Greg a number of times and seen some shit. Cause I don't drink so I'll step out at the end of the night. But the guys that drink will stay out with Greg, get the full Greg experience. Which is which is a thing right? Not going. It's an experience. It's an experience. Oh yeah. Speaker 3 01:13:06 Oh yeah. It's an experience. Speaker 0 01:13:08 It's what So you got wild Gregs coming up more shows in Florida. Speaker 3 01:13:10 Yeah, we got, uh, some Florida shows. We got, uh, I think we're going back to Michigan this summer. Fuck yeah. And uh, couple places, right. And then, um, bay City, Michigan. Um, you doing Flint Speaker 0 01:13:24 Or you guys were we Speaker 3 01:13:25 Just, we were just having Flint last week. We Speaker 0 01:13:26 Love the machine shop. Oh my gosh. The sandwich shop next door, bro. Those Speaker 3 01:13:29 Cheese. Insane, insane, insane. Speaker 0 01:13:31 You wouldn't think, Jim, we wouldn't take a place where you're not supposed to touch the water. Yeah. Ridiculously good sandwiches. I, who would've thought? I Speaker 3 01:13:37 Know. I'll tell you what one place if you ever go to bat, the eight Second Saloon. Oh, Speaker 0 01:13:41 I love that place. Speaker 3 01:13:42 Yeah. Tamale Place. I Speaker 0 01:13:43 Haven't been to the Tamale Place, but I've been to that menu. Speaker 3 01:13:46 Best tamale you'll ever have. Speaker 0 01:13:47 Really? In India. India in Speaker 3 01:13:49 Indianapolis. Indianapolis, right next door. It's ama it's, I think it's called the Tamale Place. Speaker 0 01:13:53 It's literally just the most Indiana thing ever. <laugh>. Right. Speaker 3 01:13:57 But it is legit. It's awesome. It's good. But, uh, hell yeah man. Speaker 0 01:14:03 Sweet. Yeah, that was my phone. That was my phone vibrating over here <laugh>. Um, but um, but dude, I really appreciate you. Appreciate you coming on man. Thanks for having me man. This is fun. You're, you're a guy that I've, I've looked up to having worked with other guys that have come up in the, in the scene of the southeast and, and um, cuz when I was first starting with Muco, I was one you guys all put out Damated Dirt Road. Yes sir. That was that era. And then I love that. And it's, it's cool to have you on and, and um, I have you our first guest on Outside the Round that's in the raised rowdy family too. That's that's right, that's right. Like what better way to, to kind of get the, the raised, rowdy, um, merger going than with, than with Mr. Speaker 0 01:14:40 Rowdy himself. John Fucking Langston man. Perfect. It is, it is just absolutely perfection man. Well I like that. I appreciate, I like that. I appreciate you coming on bro. For real. Yeah. Appreciate it and hanging And um, guys, make sure to uh, follow along. I'm sure you already are, but follow along with our boy John Langston and um, we will be posting a picture of Little John Langston on the social media accounts. So shout out Rick Welch and uh, Rick's Cafe and Grid Old Starkville, Mississippi. We love your Rick and uh, we love Little John Langston. Um, make sure you guys follow John on all the socials, stream the music, go out and see his show. You guys will not regret. It's one of the best shows in country music, high energy. Just a blast. Uh, so get out there, buy your tickets and uh, be sure to like rates subscribe. Of course. Check out Ray rowdy.com for all of the outside the round stuff. And uh, check out our events at Live Oak. Also shout out to big friendly Productions B F P, our friends from Whale Tale Media, Saxon Studios and our boy Mitch Wallace with the Digital Marketing Agency. This has been outside the Round with me. Map Real. Y'all have day Speaker 5 01:15:45 One Place for too long. I ain't never been the best. I love you too. You know.