Speaker 0 00:00:00 What's going on everybody? It's your boy. Matt Barre here to tell you guys about my friends from 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 gre 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 in good 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 bll. 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 raise rowdy.com. Now let's get into it. Outside the round with me. Matt bll, A Raise Rowdy podcast.
Speaker 1 00:01:08 Come on.
Speaker 2 00:01:11 This is outside the round of Matt Barill for Raise Rowdy podcast.
Speaker 0 00:01:19 What's going on everybody? Welcome back to Outside The Round with me. Map Brill. Uh, today a very special episode. Uh, I told you guys, when we were rebranding from in the Round to outside the Round, we were gonna have folks across all different, all different styles of life, not just performers and songwriters and musicians and artists and things like that, but having folks that are in the music industry, outside the music industry. And today we've got a guy that I've gotten to know over the last few years who's been a huge part of the music scene in Country and Rock for a very long time, and is associated with a lot of big acts that you guys are very familiar with, um, that are doing big things in the country scene now and have been for a long time. Uh, very honored to be with the Man Behind the Core Entertainment, our Man chief. And your name is, it's Kevin, right?
Speaker 3 00:02:03 It is, but you're making me sound very old. <laugh> very
Speaker 0 00:02:06 Old. I don't,
Speaker 3 00:02:07 I even, I've been around for a long time. I I'm not young. I okay with
Speaker 0 00:02:10 Well, how well, how old, how old You, you can't be that old,
Speaker 3 00:02:13 Right? I just turned 50. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:02:15 That's not old dude. Well, congrats. I'm 50. Thank you. That's freaking
Speaker 3 00:02:17 Cool. Okay, thank you. I'll take it.
Speaker 0 00:02:19 Yeah. So I mean, but you've been, now, if you're 50 now and you've been around the music thing for so long, when did you get into it?
Speaker 3 00:02:27 I mean, look, it was right when I graduated, so 18, and I knew I wanted to do music and, um, I instantly fell in love with the idea of actually becoming a producer engineer. That was my first love. Wow. So, um, up in Vancouver, I went to, uh, recording school for two years to become what I thought was gonna be a career in engineering and producing. And that's actually where I met Nickelback is I, I was interning at a studio up there and they had just moved there from Alberta. There were four young kids that no one knew who they were. And one of the first sessions I ever did in my life was recording this band called Nickelback and, um, recorded some songs. And at that time, there's a massive live music scene in Vancouver. So every band that was coming through the studio was also playing every weekend.
Speaker 3 00:03:22 So they would just be like, Hey, you wanna come do a live sound for us? And I didn't know how to do live sound, but you know, I knew how to work the gear. Yeah. So you just go start mixing and you just kind of figured it out. And, you know, I got to mix a lot of great bands. I got to go on tour with a couple of the bands. Um, one of the first tours I ever did was a band that opened up for Power Man, 5,000 and Kid Rock. Yeah. And then the next tour I went was a local band opening up for Motley Crew. So I kind of like got a really good taste of the road and I really started to fall in love with the live sound and tour manager. And then Nickelback got signed and they asked me to be their sound engineer and tour manager. And that was, I was with them for almost 15 years.
Speaker 0 00:04:07 Wow. That's, that's, see I had no idea you had the production background. It makes sense. Yeah. Having the, having the ear for it. Because I've, I've known you since I've known you. It's, it's more I've known you being the guy on the business side Yeah. Which you transitioned to. And
Speaker 3 00:04:20 No, I loved it. Look, it, I got to learn about radio and about promotion and marketing and record labels and publishing, and then got to sit in the studio for, you know, seven records with Nickelback and watch Joey Moy make great records. Yeah. And Mutt Lang come in and do a record with him. So I just, it, it was constantly like going to school. Yeah. I just got to learn, uh, and make a lot of mistakes as I went along. But without those mistakes being so costly that like, I'd lost my job. 'cause I was with, you know, Nickelback was making mistakes as well. We were just trying to figure it out as we went. And it just kind of kept, you know, we started in a van and then it kind of like, you know, we were just grinding, grinding, grinding, got a bus, then we got a trailer, then we got some gear, then we got some lights. And then Harry, remind me, came out and we went overnight. I mean, all of a sudden it was like world tour and, I don't know, eight trucks, eight buses, you know, 40, 50 crew. And all of a sudden it's just like, oh, we're like, we're doing it. We're doing this thing.
Speaker 0 00:05:26 We're not in the clubs no more.
Speaker 3 00:05:27 We're not in the clubs anymore. Um, and then you had to learn that jump like from clubs to theaters to arenas and all. Also, it's like, oh, this is, this is big. Um, but I loved it. I loved it. I loved every second of it. And it was, I mean, it turned out pretty good. We had a good 10 year run. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:05:42 My first, um, the first c d f two CDs, I remember buying as a kid at Target, were, um, all the right reasons was like my first cd that and Kenny Chesney's, no Shoes, no shirt, no problems. And then those are two great ones. And I remember just listening like that, that was the soundtrack to my childhood was, was Nickelback and obviously wasn't old enough to like, remember like going to shows. Like my first Nickelback show was this year, which was the show. Oh, that's amazing. The show at Bridgestone Man. <laugh>, I mean this, how does it feel to be, to be back with, to be back with the guys, to be a part of this re reunion? Like, and seeing the shows that are like, I know Boots and Hearts was just this past weekend. Yeah. It was freaking crazy. And then to have a guy like Josh Ross, who you've been investing a lot of time in for a long time and taken under your wing and have him have him out on the tour as well, like Yeah. It,
Speaker 3 00:06:32 It's, it's sometimes it's like surreal because it, it, it seems so natural and so easy when, when the guys decided to, to look for new management and when we all got in a room and we were like, this just feels right. You know, it just feels like this is so natural. They're like, my brothers, we, we grew up together. So it was like, yeah, let's just do this. But then when you remove yourself from the situation, they're like, wait, here's the band I started with like 25 years ago as like their sound guy. And now we get to manage 'em. Um, so it's a little bit to at times, but look, it's been great. We have such a great relationship and when we, when we agree to work together, our whole goal was to like, try, try some different things. Right? Let, let's shake it up a little.
Speaker 3 00:07:21 There was, there was I think a moment where a lot of the industry was like, they're nickelbacks either done or they're just gonna rinse and repeat, you know? And we came in and we were like, guys we know in Nashville and in country you guys are big. Yeah. You guys are. Well, like I know that Morgan Wall's a fan. Hardy's a fan. Bailey's a fan. Josh is a fan. Nate's a like everyone we talked to, they're like, we love Nickelback. We grew up on Nickelback. We, we learned how to write songs because of Chad. So it was such an easy thing for us to see and such a hard thing for them to see. 'cause they had never spent a lot of time in Nashville where the country seemed to be like, wait, all of those guys like us and they like our music. And we're like, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:08:03 Like all of 'em. Brantley Jelly Roll, all of 'em. They love it. So we, we, we just said, all you gotta do is connect the dots and you, your guys' music isn't that far off from what country now Country Rock has become. And so when we, we went to them and we said, Hey, let's look at a Brantley Gilbert and what about our guy Josh Ross? And they kind of just trusted. And they're like, if you guys think this is a good move and a smart move, we are down. And we are like, yes, we think this is a good move. Um, and it, I mean it's their biggest selling tour since 2010 and they're having a blast and they are now seeing that the country fans are Nickelback fans. Yeah. And it's this younger generation that is just discovering Nickelback. And they're like, we love your music. And then of course they stole the Die her Nickelback fans. So it's kind of in the perfect combination that we hoped it was gonna be. Um, and it's turned out great
Speaker 0 00:09:01 And a badass record to tore off of and coming back, putting out a record and hitting the road. And
Speaker 3 00:09:06 They still put out great music. Yeah. You know, they really do. So, um, it's been great. It's really a family atmosphere. They quickly bonded with Brantley. They loved Chad's really taking Josh under his, under his wing of like teaching him, Hey, you got a big career ahead of yourselves, but here's gonna be some pitfalls, you know, and here's some things I learned along the way and want to pass to you. And it's great. He's really, I mean, he is like his older brother out there. It's really, it's cool to watch.
Speaker 0 00:09:35 That's awesome. Yeah. And, and it's like, you see elements of, we refer to it as as butt rock, the nothing but rock radio generation. And we do a lot with that, with Raised Rowdy. We have our, our Butt Rock Night account. We promote, post a lot of stuff about, about Nickelback, about Creed, about c saliva, oly, Bizkit bands from that era. And you can feel, you can hear the sounds of that era coming back in country with guys like, like Hardi mean, you, you were part of that transition too with I feel like F G L was kind of the bridge between that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:05 Look, it was it, if, if, and some people don't know this, but how I even ended up from Vancouver to Nashville is because of Nickelback. Because I was managing Joey Moy, who's Nickelbacks producer. Oh,
Speaker 0 00:10:18 I didn't know you were Joey's manager.
Speaker 3 00:10:19 I was Joey's manager for five, six years. And Joey and I got a call from Seth at Big Loud saying, I have an artist in Nashville who loves Nickelback, loves Joey's production and mixing, would Joey consider doing a song? And we're like, of course. Like, why not? So they sent a song to Vancouver, Joey mixed it, sent it back, they go, we love it. Would Joey come to Nashville and actually work on some music? And we were like, yeah, of course. So before, right before Joey's gonna come to Nashville, Seth was like, Hey, I was still out with Nickelback at the time. And he's like, Nickelback iss playing Atlanta. Seth is like, I wanna bring some of my writers to meet Chad. They love Chad. I was like, great. So Seth, Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkin and Craig Wiseman all came out to see Nickelback,
Speaker 0 00:11:08 What a crew
Speaker 3 00:11:09 In Atlanta and Will just hit it off and got along and, and Seth was like, does Joey still want to come to Nashville? We're like, yeah. So we set up some dates. Joey came to Nashville, he spent a couple weeks in the studio and ended up doing eight songs, mixing, producing and writing, co-writing most of the record. Um, mixed the album. And it was Jake Owen's Barefoot Bluetooth night. And, and if you listen to that record, you'll hear a massive amount of Nickelback elements that were brought into that because that's what Joey did and did it very well. And it was perceived as such a new refreshing sound in Nashville. And it was because nobody was doing the rock elements like Joey was. So Joey did that and Joey never left, literally never went back to Vancouver because at that time, myself, Joey and Chad had a production company and we were working together developing rock bands.
Speaker 3 00:12:07 And we had bands like, you know, Joey and Chad did, um, fear of a Dead Man. They did a Fault. And then we did My Darkest Days and, and we are just developing rock bands. And we developed like, we are like, this is how you write a song. This is how you play live, going to school, take vocal lessons, take guitar lessons. This is how you need to look like, you know, we would spend a year developing a band and then go shop 'em and get a, get a deal. So when we finished a Jake owned project, Seth and Craig had approached Joey and myself saying, Hey, you guys develop band. Nobody does that in Nashville. Would you guys want to do that? We have a publishing company, we have a studio. Your manager, you're a producer, we can kind of do this pretty easy.
Speaker 3 00:12:54 And we were like, sure, let's do it. And they're just like, no, he does it here. So we all put $20,000 each into a pot. We had 80 grand and we go, let's go sign an artist. And Seth at the time was like, Hey, I don't know if they're gonna be great artists, but I know they're great songwriters 'cause they're getting cuts in town. He's like, we should, they're playing a show. They do a bunch of covers, we should go see 'em. So we went downtown to his show and it was Brian and Tyler, it was Florida, Georgia Line. And you know, the show was rough, but great energy. We love the way the two of 'em worked together. And we're like, I don't know, this just feels right. And there was, there was wasn't really a country deal at that time. Brooks and Dun were done.
Speaker 3 00:13:37 Yeah. So we said great. So we brought him in, we signed him to publishing and management. We gave him enough money so they could quit their jobs. They were both painting homes at the time. Wow. And we're like, let's just get you guys writing songs and doing the thing. Let's get you guys looking good, playing good singing, good writing good. Let's get you guys doing some weekend shows. Let's like all the things to develop. So we did all those things and, and they went in the studio with Joey and they wrote Cruise and Chase Rice was also a co-writer on that song. And we got Cruise. And then we got round here and then we got Shine on and we were like, we are all ecstatic. And we shopped that band around Nashville and everybody hated it 'cause it was so different. Nashville wasn't ready, it was too different.
Speaker 3 00:14:24 It was too rock. And they're like, wait, there's some Canadian producer from Nickelback is producing country music. Their managers this Canadian guy who was out on the road with Nickelback. Like no one wanted to touch it. They're like, you guys are trying to come and mess our system up and we're not having it. So we then released it independently and on iTunes it just went like 2000 singles a week and then 5,000 and then 10,000 and then 20,000. And now we're making money, we've like recouped our a hundred grand. And we're like, we're making money. The guys are now making money. And still nobody wanted. They would not touch it. And, and just a weird turn of events of how the world works is in 2005 when I was with Nickelback and started managing another rock band, a rock band called Hinder. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:15 I, they were signed to Republic Universal Republic to, uh, a guy by the name of Tom Machai. So all of a sudden now F G L is like all over iTunes and they're selling, and no one in Nashville wants him. And Tom McKay calls him and he goes, I heard you manage his country Act Florida Georgia Line. He's like, we wanna sign him. Like we're, we can see what's going on. And I'm like, well we need a Canadian, or sorry, we need a, a Nashville country based label. And he's like, we being Republic have a deal with Scott Beta at Big Machine that Oh, if we sign an act, he has to work it because we're working Taylor Swift at Pop radio. So they have this kind of back and forth thing. And I'm like, fair, but I don't think Scott wants it. No. Right.
Speaker 0 00:16:03 Or else he would've come out and said, I want it. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:16:05 Yeah. And they were like, well, we think Scott will like this and we think Scott will like to make money <laugh>. Um, and we're, and we're the ones signing it, so we'll be okay. So we did, we did the deal with Universal Republic. And I don't know, a year and a half, two years into the deal, Scott just bought the rights back from Republic and then F G L was solely on Big Machine for 12 years. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:28 That's wild man. Who would've thought so technically, I mean, you look at the, the structure of the, of Taylor Swift crossing over to Pop brings o lines that it's just wild, like all the pieces. And I didn't know you worked with Hinder and Theory and all those bands too, man.
Speaker 3 00:16:44 Yeah, it was interesting 'cause in 2005, you know, Nickelback was like, Hey, we're taking a year off. Like, we're just off, we're, we're fried. We've been on the road for 10 years. Oh, they went
Speaker 0 00:16:55 Nonstop. Yeah. Straight. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:56 I think it was like six albums in 10 years. It was, and you know, at that time you're doing, I think Chad remind us the other day, the first year they did 270 some shows. How do you That's <laugh>. Right? And, and, and at
Speaker 0 00:17:09 A high level
Speaker 3 00:17:09 Too. Never lost his voice and we never canceled, you know, and then so, you know, even in a slow year we're doing a hundred shows. So after 10 years everyone's fried. So the guys always took care of me. But there's a moment where I was like, well, what's my next, you know, I'm touring with one of the biggest rock bands. I am doing front of house. I'm doing Tour Manager. We are, we have traveled the world. We've been to Europe, we've been in Russia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Mex, you name it. So I'm kind of sitting there like, what, what's next for me? I, I didn't want to be the guy that was doing this for the next 20 years. And they were like, Hey, we're taking a year off. Like if you wanna go be a manager, like go manage a band. Um, so I'm like, okay.
Speaker 3 00:17:55 So as that turned out, this band wanted to work with Joey Moy, and they're from Oklahoma and it was Hinder. So they got in an rv, they drove from Oklahoma to Vancouver. They recorded with Joey. I hung out with them. We started talking about like, you're a new band. I'm a tour rancher, never managed, but I think you guys are great. And they're like, oh, we'd love to work with you. They're like, we're doing a show in Oklahoma, why don't you come and see it? So I flew down to Oklahoma and it was just one of those things at that time where like I get in a cab and I like go to the club and I see like 3, 4, 500 people lined up outside this club. And I'm like, oh damn. Like this is something, you know, and the radio station vans parked outside and it's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 00:18:42 And I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Like this is a great sign. And the club at that time had, it's called Bricktown and it held 500 people. So I pull up the guys, the guys are like coming to the back door. I go to the back door, I'm like, Hey, when do they open the doors? There's like four or 500 people standing outside and they're like, oh, the doors are open, the club is sold out. That's the people that can't get in. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh damn, okay, this band is about to go. So we agree, agreed to start managing them. And it was interesting because they started to take off very quickly. They'd get Stone and then Lips and Angel came out as Lips and Angels started to take off. That was becoming a full-time job. So then Nickelbacks getting ready to go back out on the road.
Speaker 3 00:19:26 So I have to go back to the guys and say, Hey, I can't go back out on the road. I got this band Hinder, they're blown up. I'm managing 'em, I can't come back. And Chad's like, well that doesn't work for us. And by the way, if they're blown up, then they should come on a tour with us. So then they took him on Tour <laugh>. So for the next two years I was managing Hinder, doing Live Sound for Nickelback and Tour Managing Nickelback on the same tour. On the same tour. And then it's like the record label would be like, Hey, we gotta do a video shoot. And I'd be like, okay, we have a day off in between dates in this city, this is where we gotta shoot. So I got away with that for about two years. And then all of a sudden the record label was like, guys, this is not, I mean, enough of this.
Speaker 3 00:20:09 Like Hinder was like, now they're ready to like headline and do their own thing. Yeah. So it was time. So I then, and the guys could see it. The guys knew I, they were holding on every day. Like they're like, you can't keep doing this. Like, you gotta go manage Hinder. So like 2007 left and just managed Hinder. Yeah. Full-time. And then that was the start of my management career where I'm like, I'm now gonna be a manager full-time. So who, so who, so who was after Hinder? Who was the next, who were some of the next additions to the roster for that? She'd be very surprised. But, um, the next one after Hinder was a female at that time, I think she's 17, she's now Jesse James Decker. But at the time was Jesse James.
Speaker 0 00:20:50 No shit.
Speaker 3 00:20:51 Yes. And she was a huge Rock fan. Is a huge rock fan. Loved Nickelback, loved Tinder, loved Puddle, Lamm Mud, like just a huge rock fan. So her and I got connected through Friend in Nashville and it's like, Hey, you gotta meet this girl. Her voice is insane. And we hit it off, started managing, and then almost immediately got her signed, uh, to La Reed, an island in New York. Wow. So then I'd hinder, then I had Jesse James, then I had another bank called Jet Black Stair. And then once that started, which is really, now we're gonna go really random for about a year, I had Ace freely of Kiss when he was making a comeback. Yeah. And I also had, uh, Jason Newstead on the Newstead project. Wow. When he went solo from Metallica. Yeah. So I had this like really, really random roster from Hinder to Jesse James to Ace Freely Ted and Jet Black Hair. So I had these five artists. Um, but I, I loved it. They all, I mean, it was, it just ran the, the gamut of everything. So, um, in the middle of that, I got a call from Live Nation to go and then tour manage the Charlie Sheen Torpedo of Truth tour of that. She did
Speaker 0 00:22:09 Comedy too.
Speaker 3 00:22:11 Well if you want to call it a comedy too, we don't really know what it was. Um, but I did. I I went and did when, geez, when he just got fired off Two and a Half Men
Speaker 0 00:22:20 Yet he was selling out shows
Speaker 3 00:22:21 And he was selling out shows and nobody knew what the show was, including us. But I did that whole thing with him for six weeks. Um, we are doing arenas. Yeah. It was crazy.
Speaker 0 00:22:31 He was on the back page, he was on, he was on the front page of like, every newspaper. Just, it was just a, a crazy buzz. I remember seeing that
Speaker 3 00:22:37 This day was the crazy ex experience of my life, of my life. There's nothing that I'll ever taught that. And he's, I mean, he's great. Yeah, he was great. But I'm telling you that was wild Beyond Wild. So, um, it's been, it's been a lot <laugh>. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:22:52 Dude. I mean that's fricking crazy. I didn't like I knew about the Nickelback and the Rock stuff and then like F G L and, but it's like there's, that's nuts to do all that shit.
Speaker 3 00:23:03 There's a lot of stuff in the middle.
Speaker 0 00:23:04 Like where like where the fuck do you sleep in that? Like how do, I don't, what do you, what do you, like I I would ask, what do you do in your free time? But you don't have any free time by doing that. No.
Speaker 3 00:23:11 Look, I think I, I've, I've very fortunate where I remember when I was in grade eight and I, I bought Def Leppard Pyromania I think it was. And I heard the record and I just read the credits. I was just enthralled with like the producing and engineering, what's the mastering guy doing? And, and always enthralled in music. And, and then I go to like my first concert, I think it was Motley Cru and Whitesnake. Wow. And, and I'm looking at like Backstage and I'm looking at how they hung the light and the sound and I'm like, I was just always enthralled with music. So for me, I, I think I'm just one of those rare people that actually are thankful that I get to live up my dream. I love my job, I love working with great artists. I love working with talented people in every aspect of what they do.
Speaker 3 00:24:02 Whether you're the drum tech off, off a tour or the bus driver. I just, I just love every aspect of the business. So it never felt like work. There's been obviously long days and there's times where you wonder why you're doing it. Um, like any job. But I truly am so grateful and thankful to be able to actually live out not only my dream 'cause I have surpassed what I ever thought the music business, where it would've taken me in my career. What it would, where has taken me around the world. People I've met relationships, I I've I've seen, and then being part of history and whether that's Nickelback or whether it's Hinder or whether it's F G L or now. Whether it's Bailey or Nate or Josh or, or you know, always every time you, you reach another milestone or you're part of something that is changing history and music. I mean, it just never gets old. It just makes you wanna keep doing it over and over.
Speaker 0 00:25:02 Yeah. And it's, it's cool too, like the 'cause you can trace, I always tell people, you can trace back modern country music to Nickelback. And I, Jo and I, and I say that and I cite you and I, and I cite Joey and, and like watching that go so Nickelback to F G L and then you don't have like, you don't have F G L without Nickelback then you don't have Morgan and Hardy in that train without F G L because those are the guys that they were a
Speaker 3 00:25:25 Hundred percent
Speaker 0 00:25:26 That's who they were. People don't, don't know that. And now you see the, the Bailey Zimmerman just boom, just craziness. Because I remember Bailey's one of his first times playing was at Live Oak. Yeah. And Austin was playing guitar for him. And he had this, this, this tiny little kid with curly hair, fresh, fresh out of Illinois. And to see what he's doing now, it, it's crazy. What was the, what was it like transitioning from rock to country? 'cause there are quite a bit of similarities, but Yeah, look,
Speaker 3 00:25:55 It was the transition, like let's say business wise and, and music wise wasn't, you know, labels are labels, right? Yeah. And you, and you're all, you're trying to do the same thing. You're trying to like break an artist and build an artist and market and all that. Where, where it was really weird at first was not knowing anybody in the country music scene. Like nobody. So I remember the first time Joey and I went to, uh, c m A awards and it's at Bridgestone and we're backstage and Joey and I, and you know, we're with Craig and, and Seth and you know, they know everyone. And everyone in the hall is like, Hey, how you doing? Good to see you. Let's catch up. Let's see the, and Joey and I are just standing there. We don't know a single person, like nobody. And you kind of have that moment where it's like, should it actually be here?
Speaker 3 00:26:45 Like is this actually the right move? Because we were those people in rock. We knew every label, every programmer, every artist, every tour manager, every manager. We were those people that were highly connected in the rock world. And now we knew nobody. And it, it there, uh, you know, I don't think, I think Joey would say the same thing. There were moments like, are we really fish outta water here? Like should we really just stick with what we know? Because this seems like this could be tough, you know? But you know, this town, you, you meet a couple people and they introduce you to a couple people and this and that. And all of a sudden you go for dinner and then you go for another event. And all of a sudden a year later, by the time we're at the next award show, we're now those people backstage like, good to see you. How you doing? Let's get, you know, and all of a sudden it like, it happened so quick that you're like, oh, I get why people love Nashville. I get why people love the country music scene. People are very welcoming and friendly. We were used to very, very competitive space. Yes. That is very competitive.
Speaker 0 00:27:50 That's the rock world. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:27:51 Um, and especially on touring, like when you tour, it's like, nope, you don't get the video wall. You don't get to use that ramp. You're gonna get this row of lights. We're gonna turn down your sound. I mean, that was the norm. So I remember the first two, first big tour with F G L was when they're out with Luke Bryan and we're like, okay, so tell us like, you know where we can go, we can't. And they're like, what do you mean? They're like, well we see that Luke's got some ramps, he's got a catwalk. And they're like, no, you guys have to use that. And we're like, what? Like are we gonna get fined? Like bands would get fined for walking on that. Right? Really? Like that's, wow. And it was weird because it wasn't coming from a place of like, it was always a place of less of ego.
Speaker 3 00:28:35 It was more like, we're paying for that. You know what I mean? Like this is our show that ego riser is costing us $5,000 a week. We're paying for that. So why would we give that to you to use for free? Yeah. Like, 'cause we're paying for that. But, so it always came from a bit of a place of business, but where we learned with the country is, but the real answer is like, no, we have to give the fans the best show possible for all of us and we're all gonna win and it needs to look good for all of us and the fans go home even happier. Um, so that was like a nice, like, oh, things, things are a little different in Nashville. And it was like, it was a nice change from what the norm that we were used to.
Speaker 0 00:29:18 Yeah. And then you get to bring out acts like, like Mor Morgan Wallen, like, and to see the, now that he's like one of the biggest things in all of music. And I remember short, I remember Short Hair Morgan Wallen wearing an f g l smooth jersey at Jens Club in 2016 2017. And now to see where, where he is at now. How like, 'cause were you still working with F G L at that point when he was out on the smooth tour? Oh yeah. Or how did that all happen?
Speaker 3 00:29:44 Look that, I mean, people forget how big, I mean now when you tell people, they're like, of course. But at the time it was F G l Dan and Shea Morgan Wallen Hardy. Yeah. Which is, that was the lineup. No, knew Hardy Morgan was Morgan had the way I talk and then just did up, down and then get down to Shay and F G L and f G L was Oh yeah. Top. And you know, it was interesting because it was one of those tours where you could see it, you could see that Hardy had this thing, like he was still figuring out who he was gonna be as an artist, but it was working. And then Morgan would go out there and you're like, damn, there's a lot of people here early in the sun to see Morgan Wallen. And then they would bring Morgan out for up down.
Speaker 3 00:30:31 Yeah. At the end of the night. And he just had, he, he had the thing, you see, you know, he, we always call it the X factor where the confidence, the swagger, the, you know, he's comfort, very comfortable on stage and knew how to talk to a crowd, knew how to command a crowd, knew how to like perform. You know, and just those things that you just can't teach. You know. And I've been thankful enough to look at all the artists I've got to work with. You know, Chad being one of the greatest is being a front man that can just command a crowd. Oh
Speaker 0 00:31:04 Dude, there's Front men and there's Chad, right? He's another level.
Speaker 3 00:31:07 He is just another level. So when you see that, it was funny because, um, when Nickelback played the show at Bridgestone, er came up to me after the show and he goes, I see it. I get what, what's going on? And I go, what are you talking about? He goes, well now that I've seen Nickelback, he goes, everything in F G L was Nickelback. Yeah. The show, the pyro, the lights, the staging. He goes, I get it. And he goes, and now I'm seeing it all with Bailey. Like he wants power. And he's like, I get it. I now get what it is that you do. And it was when you learn over the years from some of the greats and you get to be around those people and every time Nickelback got more money, they're like back in the show, invest back in yourself.
Speaker 3 00:31:48 Put it back in yourself. Because if you're thinking long term and big picture, if you invest now and give people a great show, they're gonna wanna keep coming back. If you try to save a thousand dollars here and there, it's like you're only hurting yourself. So I've carried that mentality over with every artist I've ever worked with. And you know, thankfully it's always worked. And you know, when you look at a Morgan Wallen show right now, it is a Nickelback show. Yeah. It is a bunch of pyro. It is great lighting. It is big. It is all the things that are rock show. It truly is not a country show. Um, and that's what people love. Yeah. That's what they wanna see. So yeah, it's kind of fun to see those what you think are secrets in some, to some people they are, but just the gags and part of the, that make a live show entertaining that everyone goes home and they're like, that's a damn good show.
Speaker 0 00:32:37 Yeah. And it's every artist having their bit, whether that's them or like who they want to be on stage, who they want to be on their records. And having that, whether it's, whether it's their, their original bit or they're playing and they're like, like seeing, seeing Chad on stage and seeing the, the other guys in the band and the interaction and the video wall and like all that. They're kind of the, the masters of that. And then you've seen that with the other acts too, where
Speaker 3 00:33:02 It's, yeah. And, and again, those are a lot of that is like things you can't teach. No. You know, like, like, you know, you look at a kid like Bailey who's been doing this just over two years now, the first show we ever saw him do, where like we can't teach that. The fact that he can just walk on stage and run around and look people in the eye and sing people and talk to the people in the back row and make sure the people in the front row aren't ignored and making sure everybody in arena or stadium or theater, they all feel part of the show. That is really hard to do. And even if you tell somebody, Hey, here's some things you need to do, then it becomes robotic. Yeah. And the, the fans pick up on that. They're like, are you actually having fun up there or are you just going through the motions or you're trying to hard or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 00:33:50 And you know, again, it, it's pretty obvious when you see the superstar acts that can sell out stadiums and arenas, they're performers. Like they know how to put on a show. Like there's lots of artists that can sing and lots of artists that play great and have great songs. But you go to the show and you're like, I don't need to see 'em again. Yeah, right. It was fine. Yep. It was good. Heard the songs they say, everyone sang along, it was fine. Don't need to see him again. And then, you know, whether it's Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars or Pink or everyone's like, I will go to that show a hundred times every before
Speaker 0 00:34:26 I die time. Yep.
Speaker 3 00:34:26 Every time. Because you know what you're getting and it is, is a show.
Speaker 0 00:34:31 Yeah. And something else with Bailey that something I've, I've kind of picked up on being in the scene for a while. You find guys and girls where the fans start to kind of resemble them. Like you look at a guy like Luke Combs, <laugh> and Luke Comb, granted Luke Combs and Morgan, it's a little bit easier for them. 'cause I mean, now Morgan just just cut his hair signature mullet. But you look at like, there's, you go to any small town in the southeast, there's a chubby guy with a beard and a p f g shirt on like Luke Combs. There's that guy with the mullet that's at the bar that the girls wanna hang out with. You go, I was at Tailgating Tall Boys this year, Bloomington, Illinois. And granted that, that's Bailey's home turf, his home area. Hundreds of people with the the curly hair. Yep. And the hat, the baseball. Yeah. Like he's like, there's like, it's, it's, you could tell that it's working on such a high magnitude when the crowd is resembling the, the artist. Like, it's incredible. Look, they'll
Speaker 3 00:35:21 Al I I did a speech in grade eight at my high school and I, I won a contest, which I hated because I hated public speaking back then. Yeah. But my speech was on how music influences how we look and dress. And that was in grade eight. And I was, my favorite band was Kiss. So I had like the jean jacket with like kiss backpack, you know? Yeah. And everybody at school at that time looked like Motley Crue and you know, the long hair and all this. And it, it, that has not changed. So like you said, whether it's Morgan, whether it's Luke Combs, whether it's Bailey is when, when it, when an act can be so effective and their music's so powerful that people want to look like them or pretend to be them or act like them or dress like them or whatever it is, that's when you really know, like you're changing culture and when you know you're changing culture, you are, you know, you have a real career.
Speaker 3 00:36:17 Yeah. Like a real career. Like, you kind of gotta like, you're like, oh, this is happening. And I think for, for us with Bailey, that's what we noticed is we knew there was talent there. We knew that this kid was, you know, unique and special and different. But when you started seeing why, oh damn, people are dressed up like Bailey, they're cutting their hair. Like Bailey, oh, they're only wearing Air Force ones 'cause Bailey. And then that's when you go, oh, this is gonna be big. And you know, you can see it's, it's blown up very quickly in a short time.
Speaker 0 00:36:51 Yeah. And it's, it's just continuing to grow. And him and the the guys on stage are just, the Bailey show is fucking awesome, man. I saw it at Rock the South as well. Yeah. I've seen, I've, I've been, fortunately because I'm not, I used to be on the road with, with Trey Lewis, then the Muske on Bloodline and I spent my time doing the tour manager thing dealing when, when buses Yeah. Or vans break down, which I'm sure you've dealt with many a times over the years. Um, but I've gotten to go to a lot of festivals this year. Most of the festivals I've been to, it's been some of you guys playing. Yeah. I've seen Bailey, I've seen Nickelback, I've seen Josh, I've seen, seen Nate, like seen all those guys. And it's cool to get to see the, the roster that you've, that you've built over at the core. So how did the core end up becoming a thing? 'cause I know Simon's heavily involved in it with you. Yeah. Look, we
Speaker 3 00:37:34 Were all that, um, after, you know, after the big loud departure, um, it is literally like covid hit, you know? Yeah. And it's kinda like, you know, the world's shutting down. And Simon and I had got connected through a, a lawyer who represented both of us separately, um, at our companies. And he's like, Hey, you guys should get together. You guys think a lot, you know, you guys are very like-minded, think a lot, um, similar about a lot of things. So him and I, you know, got together, we talked about life, you know what I mean? Yeah. Just like what do we want? What's our goals, our passion for music, our passion for developing new artists. Uh, just all the things that we're very much aligned on everything. So we're like, we should start our own company. And we're like, well, it's during Covid, but look, you can still find artists.
Speaker 3 00:38:25 You can still develop artists, you can still listen to music and do all the things. You just had to do it a little differently. So him and I were like, well, let's not sit around like everyone else is sitting around for good reason. But him and I were like, let's go to Nashville and, and find some artists. And, and we went with the attitude of we want to work with great people. We want to do things the right way. We want to enjoy every artist we work and represent. We want to build a great culture and we want to like find really great young, talented artists, um, and then mold them. And I think from Simon's background, from his previous management company in my background, it's not a perfect science and we all know that. But there are things that you repeatedly see Yeah. That you go, this is what makes a great song.
Speaker 3 00:39:19 This is what makes a great artist. This is what makes a great live show. There's just things that you see over and over that work and then vice versa. You see the mistakes that you go, I understand why that didn't work. You know, and you start to just pick up on those things and, and after years and years, you start to get experience where you trust your gut, you trust your ear. It's not always gonna be perfect there. It's not always gonna be a hundred percent, but we both felt confident that we could find the red artist and, and make some noise. So we did, we very quickly, Nate Smith was our first sign. He was
Speaker 0 00:39:56 Your first, I was just gonna ask you, the first sign was, and you talk about a guy with a, with a voice and someone that's impossible to root against, just the, the ultimate guy to root for. And that's Nate
Speaker 3 00:40:06 Smith. And that was it. Nate, Nate was everything we had set out to find. It's like this guy who's got this great story, heartbreaking at times because of his town, but, um, work ethic just wanted it, this is his second time, you know, kicking the can coming back to Nashville. Yeah. Um, unbelievable voice. This passion, you know, everything that you hope you would find in an artist, and maybe you'll find some of the boxes. But Nate truly checked them all. Yeah. Where we were like, this, this will not fail, this cannot miss. And we sat there with Nate and we're like, if you just trust the process, be patient, write the right songs, sing the right songs, put on a great show, it will happen. And it did. You know, and he still, he, we always say he is our model artist. Right. When we go to sign new artists.
Speaker 3 00:41:04 Whereas like, these are the things that work and we know work and we know why because Nate did them and they worked. Yeah. You know, and then Josh comes in and he's like, yep, I got it. And then Bailey, you know, we're like, so they all kind of look at each other. They all get along great. They're all like kind of brothers and they're like, oh, you're doing that. It's working. Well I can do that, but my way Yes. Or my version of that. Yeah. You know, and when you get that, when you get artists who know who they are and how they want to be branded and the songs they want to sing and how they want to perform a live show, then it makes our job easier. It's now us to just navigate and put the pieces together. So when Bailey comes and says, I want my show to be this and this and this and that, we just go, great.
Speaker 3 00:41:49 Got it. Now we will go and build that show and put the pieces in place and it makes it so much easier. So thankfully we've got real artists that have real vision, um, passion. We got great relationships. They trust us, we trust them. There's lots of debates, lots of arguments, but all always healthy. Always with respect. Yeah. Um, and look, sometimes the other person's wrong, sometimes the other person's Right. Um, but it's kind of what makes it fun. 'cause again, it's not perfect science, but great music, great talent, great voices and a great work ethic. This is what we always tell all of our artists, you will be successful. We just don't know how big. Right. We can't, we can't predict how many people are gonna listen to your music, how many people are gonna buy your tickets, how many people are gonna buy your t-shirts. But you will have a fan base, you will have a career. We just do all the right things. And then there's a certain point where it's like, outside of that, we just gotta see what happens. Yeah. But if you do the all the right things, you will have a career.
Speaker 0 00:42:55 Yeah. And it's like, you talk about having an argument, like having the back and forth. That's 'cause everyone's passionate. Everybody gives a shit. You, you need to have that. You need to have everybody being mentally, physically spending their time being invested in this thing for it to work. So you're gonna butt heads every now and again. If you're not, then it's
Speaker 3 00:43:13 No, you have. So it doesn't seem right. You have to and and I think, look, this is just me speaking on, on my behalf, but you know, there oftentimes where I look at things and maybe people feel the same way about us, but I look at whether it's a song or a video or whatever it is that sometimes you see another artist do and you're like, wait, how did somebody not say something? How did somebody not realize? Like, that's just not a good idea. Yeah. Or that's not the right piece of content for that song, you know, and every, you know, it's art. So everyone has a different opinion and everyone's obviously entitled and should have different opinions. But that's where it comes to your point where it's like, but there should be a team of people to at least debate it and debate what's right and what's wrong or what feels like this is gonna work or that might not work. Um, and then you ultimately land on a decision and it might work or might not, but there are definitely times where I'm like, wow, that person really did not have a team of people to look out for the best best it shows. It really does show,
Speaker 0 00:44:17 Yeah, it shows. And even on like an independent level, like all different levels there, it, it shows. And right now, I mean you, it's kind of cool you came into music when it was like, when it was the album era, it was people going to f y e going to tower records, going to places, and seeing how many physical copies of records. And you got to be with a band that set a bunch of records and milestones with that. And now you're with guys in the streaming era that are breaking records on, on that stuff. Like that's,
Speaker 3 00:44:44 It's, it's crazy wild to know that, you know, again, not to try to age myself, but say I've been doing this since 20, so in 30 years, it's crazy to know that. Look, there wasn't cell phones back then. When I was a tour manager, it was payphones. I carried a briefcase with a fax machine.
Speaker 0 00:45:02 You were a fax machine? Yeah, it
Speaker 3 00:45:03 Was landline tell you. And I would show up at the club and call our agent and he would fax the contract over to whatever number I was like hooked into. And, you know, roadmaps and all, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't where we're at now. So yeah, it was, it was all about that first week sales. Like, you know, we did 200,000 albums and everyone's like freaking out. And it was like, it was all, it was, like I said, it was physical CDs and it was, and now it's digital streams, you know, so it's been, again, it it's happened kind of so quickly, but when you kind of remove yourself, you're like, damn, music has changed a lot. And, and 30 years isn't that long of a time from where it was to where it is now. Um, it's kind of crazy. I remember getting my first iPod, I was just like, this is wild.
Speaker 0 00:45:50 Was it one of the ones that had, was it one of the colored ones or was it just
Speaker 3 00:45:53 The class? No, it was the all, it was the all white one. Oh,
Speaker 0 00:45:56 The old school.
Speaker 3 00:45:57 All old school. With the little, with the little wheel on it. Were you
Speaker 0 00:46:00 Hesitant to, to go to that, to, to do that? Because I remember, like, I, I feel like back then there must have been a debate of people wanting, like having this, the digital devices versus the, I mean
Speaker 3 00:46:09 Everybody
Speaker 0 00:46:10 Or the vinyls.
Speaker 3 00:46:11 To me it was, I mean, and I think this is why the labels took a while to catch up, is every label said it would never work, but every consumer wanted it. You know what I mean? Every, like, wait, I'm sick of breaking or scratching my CDs. I'm sick of like carrying around a bunch of CDs. You're telling me I could put a digital, my songs on. Like, every consumer knew it was gonna work. It was the record companies that were like, we can't let this work. Yeah. So, um, you know, I think everybody wanted it and they knew it was gonna happen. It was inevitable.
Speaker 0 00:46:43 Yeah. So when you're not doing music stuff, what do you, what do you enjoy doing with yourself? You a big hockey guy being a Canadian guy
Speaker 3 00:46:49 Or? Um, I am a hockey fan. Hockey fan. Sports fan. But honestly I love golf. Okay. It, it's been interesting to see how, um, very different from when I toured back in the rock and roll days, days off. We're not going golfing, no days off were Oh, we can even party more. Yes. Because, 'cause we have a whole day to do whatever we want.
Speaker 0 00:47:08 Best, best party city to go to back in the day. Oh.
Speaker 3 00:47:11 Um,
Speaker 0 00:47:11 Because you went everywhere. You went over the world.
Speaker 3 00:47:14 I mean, the best, the best place to party was Australia. Really Just crazy.
Speaker 0 00:47:20 He just didn't care. They were just having af having
Speaker 3 00:47:22 Fun. Their clubs were open 24 hours nonstop. No shit. Yeah. You could go there anytime and just party your face off <laugh>. So we loved going to Australia. Um, you know, look, the small towns were always like crazy. 'cause a band like Nickelback would roll in and you see trucks and buses and you know, all of a sudden the clubs are like, come on, free boos, come on in, bring the crew, bring everyone. Um, so the small towns are always amazing. Um, and it was fun. But look, now, you know, things are different. You gotta, you gotta take care of yourself when you're touring. You got to, you know, you can't afford to cancel shows. And there's also like, the expectations have changed. So I think for the artist and, and there's a lot of stress. Like if you think back then there's no, um, no cell phones, right.
Speaker 3 00:48:09 Which means there's no social media and there's not all that madness that now comes with it. There's so much stress on all these artists from social media and TikTok and posting. And then you gotta write and then you gotta perform, then you gotta tour and then you gotta do videos. And it's like you gotta do radio. And it's just, it's nonstop that I think artists are like, where's my break? And golf has become that for a lot of artists where they go, I can just go smack a ball on a course for three, four, five hours, put
Speaker 0 00:48:39 The phone on, do not disturb or turn off the phone in the cart. There's
Speaker 3 00:48:42 No fans on the golf course. Yeah. And you can just, you can have some drinks and just relax. Yeah. And actually like it's, you can enjoy the day, you can enjoy the weather, you can actually chill with your friends. You can just be kind of normal. So it's weird how in, especially in country music, it's become hardy. Golfs Bailey, golfs Eric, golfs Nate golfs, uh, it just Morgan golfs, you know what I mean? Like when we get a day off or even a show day, everyone's like, Hey, should we go golf for nine holes and, and get outta here and like take a break. So golf.
Speaker 0 00:49:15 Yeah, the rider changes The
Speaker 3 00:49:16 Rider. The rider
Speaker 0 00:49:17 Is very different. Changes. The rider goes from bottles and bottles and bottles to, Hey, can I get a nine o'clock tee time?
Speaker 3 00:49:23 <laugh>, that's exactly what it is. It's like, hey, call the local promoter and can I get on, um, TR is a big golfer. Yeah. You know, the f d l guys are golf. I mean, everybody, almost everyone golfs. And it's also like, it's become a real cool way for the artist to be able to spend time outside of the craziness. Like, let's just go on the golf course and hang out for three hours with nobody else around and talk about family and relationships and the music business and whatever it is. And it's just their own time. And you just don't get that. You don't get that in Nashville and you don't get that on the road. No. Um, so it's actually, it's great. I think everyone's really likes it for that reason.
Speaker 0 00:50:03 Do you have, do you have a favorite course here in Nashville? 'cause I'm assuming you're getting after the lys while you're out here.
Speaker 3 00:50:07 I just got to play Troubadour. How
Speaker 0 00:50:08 Was that? That place looks awesome. Phenomenal. Looks state of the art.
Speaker 3 00:50:12 It's, I haven't done every course in town, but I would say that is probably the best course in town. Yeah. Um, I don't think there's anything better than that course. Yeah, it is, it was ridiculous. Yeah. We had a great time.
Speaker 0 00:50:22 Yeah. I've heard nothing but good things about that place because I got, I had played golf, like growing up. I'm not great at it. I played it a lot during Covid because it was, there wasn't a whole lot going on. Exactly. Great. It was hanging out at house parties, sitting around the fire, playing guitar, and then going and playing golf. But like, I know, like Old Hickory and then there's a Hermitage and then there's, but there's so many freaking golf courses around here. But also when you're on the road, every town has a golf course.
Speaker 3 00:50:46 You can find a golf course everywhere now. Yeah. And look, when you now start getting at the Bailey levels and the Hardy and the Morgan, there is not a course that you can't get on. Yeah. So all of a sudden you're like, wait, that's a member's only course. I could never, ever golf. Now they're like, no, you guys can come. No problem. So there's some perks to, you know Yeah. Being able to golf some nice courses.
Speaker 0 00:51:07 Yeah. Um, who's your, who's your hockey team? Have you con you're, are you rooting for the Predators yet? No, I was gonna say, I figured you won't.
Speaker 3 00:51:13 No. Very randomly. Uh, even though I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, um, my hockey team is in New York Islanders because they Wow. When I started watching hockey at a young age, um, New York Islanders were the team. They're the dynasty. So I was like, Mike Bossy became my favorite player. And I'm just watching this team year after year after year after year, just like win. I'm like, this team is unbelievable. Obviously they're not that team now, but I love them. I still stick with them, so I would Diehard Highlanders. Yeah. For
Speaker 0 00:51:43 I'm sure you've got to play. Got to do a show at the Coliseum then back in the day. Oh yeah. What was that like walking in that arena for the first time? It was amazing as an Islanders fan, but for work,
Speaker 3 00:51:51 I mean, you know, we got to meet, I mean, I got to meet my, my boss that day, you know, like the alumni were there and it was, yeah, it was amazing. It was like, I'm looking at my childhood hockey heroes and, you know, and now, you know, it's continued. Every, every hockey player is diehard music fans. They love Morgan, they love Nickelback, they love Bailey. So even at Boots and Hearts, a couple days ago, like Conor Mcda and Leon Dry Seidel are like at the show. No shit. And
Speaker 3 00:52:21 All Conor McDavid wanted to do was meet Bailey <laugh>. And it's like, I had, I had to go up to Bailey and be like, Hey, this is Conor McDavid. He's the greatest hockey player in the world right now. And then Connor comes over and says, hi, I'm Bailey just looks at me and goes, I'm not hockey fan, bro. <laugh>, I'm so sorry. My, my manager just said, you're the greatest hockey player in the world. I have no idea. I've never seen you play. I'm, I'm gonna look you up. I'm gonna do my homework, but I just gotta be honest with you, I have no idea who you are. <laugh>. Um, and Connor loved it. Connor loved it. Yeah. Connor's like, I love it. I love it. And he's a great guy. But, so we're gonna try to get Bailey to be a hockey
Speaker 0 00:52:57 Fan here. So Yeah. I mean the, the, um, hockey culture here in Nashville for a southern City. City,
Speaker 3 00:53:02 It's massive. It's
Speaker 0 00:53:03 Fucking
Speaker 3 00:53:03 Awesome. No, it's massive. It rivals most Canadian cities. Yeah, it really does. It's great. Yeah. People are like real fans here. And look, the team's great. I've gotten to go to a lot of games here. It's fun. It's a blast.
Speaker 0 00:53:14 Yeah. That a game at Bridgestone Arena, the crowds are all, maybe it's 'cause it's Nashville, but everybody's in kind of, kind of in sync and harmonizing on their, it's like on
Speaker 3 00:53:21 Their conscience. Yeah. It's a real event. They actually make an event. So yeah. I love it. I love
Speaker 0 00:53:26 Hockey. Then as a Canadian trailer Park boys or letter Kenny, I feel like you'd be a trailer park. Boys
Speaker 3 00:53:30 Guy. Trailer Park boys. Only because they were, and I do love Letter Kenny, um, and some of those guys are, are so funny. But, you know, trailer Park Boys was like the beginning of that. Yeah. You know, that was the show that when it came out, everyone's like, oh, this shit's funny. And taking all the shots at Canadians in such a funny way. Yeah. That it was, I mean, it was great. You
Speaker 0 00:53:50 Had to have met those guys at some point,
Speaker 3 00:53:52 Right? Oh yeah. Well, what, what a lot of people don't know is, um, I'm gonna forget his name now. The, what was the character with the glasses?
Speaker 0 00:53:59 Bubbles.
Speaker 3 00:54:00 Bubbles. Bubbles was in a rock band called Sandbox. And Sandbox was actually a pretty big Canadian act at the time. Really? So I had known bubbles through that band.
Speaker 0 00:54:11 <laugh>, no shit. Yeah. So you knew him, like the actual actor?
Speaker 3 00:54:13 I knew him when he, I, well, I knew him when he was, when he was playing in the band. I didn't actually know he was an actor until Trailer Park Boys came out. And then you're like, oh, you actually can act. So it was, it was very random. Very random. Um, but yeah, they're, I mean, they're just all incredibly funny guys. And the funny thing about that show and letter Kenny is like, it's not really acting <laugh>. It's like some of those guys are like, oh, this is who you are. Yeah. Like you, this is just, you grew up like this. Your friends are like this, this is your life. I mean, that's why the show was so big and successful because it was like watching reality tv. Yeah. Like, it wasn't like that far off. We all,
Speaker 0 00:54:53 We all know DJs from up country, we all people go fishing in Quebec. Like, it's like
Speaker 3 00:54:58 We all know those guys. Everyone's like, I got a friend just like him. Yeah. Every single person's like, yep, I know that guy.
Speaker 0 00:55:04 <laugh>. That's freaking awesome. Um, if I've, so I've, I've never been to Canada. If I were to go to a Canadian city, which one should I go to first? Well,
Speaker 3 00:55:12 Look, I'm gonna be a little biased 'cause I, I also still live in Vancouver, but Vancouver has, you know, we always say Vancouver's like San Francisco and Toronto's like New York, right. Um, so it just depends what you're looking for. But look, we have ocean, we have mountains. Ooh. We have Whistler. We have skiing, we have hiking. You know, we whistler's one of the gray ski mountains and villages in the world. Um, so the fishing, the hiking, the skiing, you know, all that part is incredible. And you can, in one day, you can go ski up in the mountains and drive two hours down in your suntanning on the beach. You know. So our summers are phenomenal. It's, it's one of the best cities in the world. And, you know, we got the food and all that stuff too. Toronto is just completely opposite. It's like New York.
Speaker 3 00:55:59 It's big city. You've got all the big city things. You've got major League baseball team. Yep. You got an N B A team. We don't have either. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, you've got the shows and the nightlife, which is much bigger and more prominent in Toronto. And then you can go up north and you've got Lakes where we have the ocean Toronto's lakes. Yeah. And they have, you know, again, beautiful cottage country, you know, they, they say it's like the Hamptons. Yeah. Um, so it just depends what you're looking for. But I mean, beauty, nothing really tops Vancouver. Truly.
Speaker 0 00:56:30 Okay. That's good to know. Yeah. I've, I've never been out Pacific Northwest in general. It's incredible. So Cliff, I gotta get out there. It's really incredible. And check that out. That's awesome, man. Um, favorite spots here in Nashville. 'cause you spend a lot of time here now, and you have for a long time, and you've seen this city change, like around the time that F G L was really getting going was when Nashville was starting to have its big fricking boom. Yeah. What are some of your like hangout spots you like to go do here?
Speaker 3 00:56:51 I mean, look, if you ever wanna find me outside of work, it'll be at Halls Steakhouse. Oh.
Speaker 0 00:56:55 Hall's got my girlfriend's a big hall. My girlfriend's a big Halls fan. She's from Charleston, which is where they're based out of. I am,
Speaker 3 00:57:01 I am obsessed with that restaurant. They, um, had all the Nickelback guys in there the night before the show. We've done many dinners there with, uh, we, we were laughing. There's one night a couple weeks ago, we're all leaving work and we're all like, what are you doing tonight? And there's like, oh, I'm gonna Halls for dinner. And I'm like, oh, Simon and I are going there for dinner. And then we go there and like Josh is there with like, his family for dinner. And then we look around the corner and I'm like, oh, there's Bailey for dinner. Like, we're just obsessed with that place. They, the food's incredible. The service is amazing. So we love hanging out there. And then, you know, outside of that, it's Red Door and winners and losers
Speaker 0 00:57:37 And you know, red Door guy that
Speaker 3 00:57:39 Yes. All, all the go-to where you're like, you walk in and it's like cheers. It's like you see all the same faces. Um, and it's always a good time.
Speaker 0 00:57:47 Yeah. It's Red Door's. One of those spots where I've had more business come out of Red Door in my career from just sitting and hanging with folks in the smoking section at Red Door on that little patio. Yep. Than I have in any conference room or anything like that. There's just, that to me is just the Nashville networking is being, being outta ball.
Speaker 3 00:58:04 It's like, there's also some days it's like we can't get our artist on the phone and we go to Red Door, like, oh,
Speaker 0 00:58:09 There he is. Hey
Speaker 3 00:58:10 Buddy. How are you doing? Good to see you. Where have you been all day? Um, no, it's just a great hang. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:58:15 It's a great hang. It is a great hang. So what is, what do, um, what are some things for people to look forward to as far as your core artists? I know the grind never stops and it's, well, look, the tour's still going on right now.
Speaker 3 00:58:25 Yeah. We've, we've got, I mean, we're really excited. We, we can't fully announce it yet, but, you know, Bailey's got a big year of touring coming next year. Nate's got a big year of touring. Josh has a big year of touring. Um, Nickelback is gonna be on some soon to be announced, big country festivals. Uh, we're gonna keep, wow, we're gonna keep that train going. Like the boots and Hearts and the Tails and Tall Boys.
Speaker 0 00:58:48 I love that dude. Um,
Speaker 3 00:58:49 There's gonna be some great things coming from them next year. And then, you know, at the core we're launching, uh, a producer division that we're gonna announce in the next couple weeks. That's awesome. We just announced Core records.
Speaker 0 00:59:00 Universal. Yeah, it's universal. That's full circle for you too, man. Full circle. It all comes
Speaker 3 00:59:04 Around circle. It's all coming around. Uh, we got some exciting new artists that we are working on to get signed and get announced. We got a new project that we're putting together. I mean, we just, we're just going. I mean, we love it. And we're, we're using all this momentum. We have to just keep it going, keep growing and, you know, just keep having fun. We just want, we really, we have a great, our staff is young and hungry.
Speaker 0 00:59:31 Phenomenal. I'm a big, your staff is Macy Kenzie all great.
Speaker 3 00:59:36 Incredible. They all get along and they just hustle. And then, you know, we got our little secret weapon and not so secret anymore. And Tracy Martin, who's our president Oh yeah. Who is just crushes everything she touches. So, um, we're just excited, excited about everything coming down the pipeline.
Speaker 0 00:59:53 That's awesome, man. Dude, it's, and I've, it's been cool getting to watch the Core coming, coming out of C and we've done the, the events with you guys before. I'd love to love to do another one as things keep
Speaker 3 01:00:04 Going. Honestly, we were just, we were just talking about it. We, um, we were just talking about doing it. Dylan, James finally is getting ready to release new music. Let's go. Um, and let So Studio's done. He, he, I think new music is coming out in September. So, um, you know, this kid's just been on a grind for three years and you know, we, we, we preach to all of our artists that everyone's journey is different. Yeah. Everyone's timeline is different. So it's hard sometimes when, when you see a kid like Bailey come and go so fast. Um, but it doesn't mean that that's not gonna happen to you. It just means your timing's different. Yeah. So, you know, Dylan is just patient and worked hard and probably this guy's been in the studio and probably written hundreds of songs. Yep. And now he's got a body work that he's proud of and he now looks back and sees it. He's like, I wasn't ready a year ago. I wasn't ready six months ago. I am now ready. Hell yeah. Um, so we're excited about that. And yeah, we're just, we're just gonna keep trying to take over.
Speaker 0 01:01:04 Yeah. We would love, we'll we love it. Takeovers. We'd love to do a a, a court takeover. One of our raise rally events, man. Let's, we
Speaker 3 01:01:10 Are ready to do another one. Let's do it. We literally talked about it last week. Hell yeah.
Speaker 0 01:01:13 Well that sounds freaking awesome, dude. I really appreciate you coming on and hanging. Dude. Thanks for having me and hanging, man. You're, you're a guy I look up to in the business and, and someone that it's just, it's cool to get to sit down.
Speaker 3 01:01:23 I really appreciate that.
Speaker 0 01:01:24 Shoot the shit and hear your story, man. For real. It was fucking, fucking awesome.
Speaker 3 01:01:28 I've just been <laugh> thankful and lucky at times and all the things, but, um, you know, just try to treat people good, work hard, do the right things. Hope it works out. That's
Speaker 0 01:01:39 What it's all about. Well guys, thank you for watching this episode of Outside the Round. Be sure to check out the core entertainment management late. There's a record label. What's the official title? Like what, what is the official?
Speaker 3 01:01:50 Well, it's the core entertainment. The core
Speaker 0 01:01:52 Entertainment
Speaker 3 01:01:53 And then everything, management, records producer, all falls under
Speaker 0 01:01:56 That. Awesome. Well y'all be sure to check out our man in chief, all the artists that he works with and all the big things that the core entertainment has coming up in the future. Uh, a lot of big things coming to follow up. What has been an incredible 2023 and finishing out this year. Uh, appreciate y'all tuning in. Shout out to our friends from big friendly production Saxon Studios, of course, whale Tail Media, and our boy Mitch Wallace with the Digital Marketing Agency for my man, chief Fer Earl. Sweet boy behind the camera. My name is Matt Brill and this has been outside the room.
Speaker 4 01:02:27 Come on. I ain't never been to one place for too long. I ain't never been the best at I love you too, girl. I love only got a couple tricks on my sleeve. They usually you make them leave. So if you love me,
Speaker 1 01:03:04 If
Speaker 4 01:03:04 You really know me, no, I'm just a two trick on it. Maybe the drink and the lack of money for show. I'm just a two trick on
Speaker 1 01:03:15 It.
