Muscadine Bloodline

Speaker 1 00:00:13 What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the In The Round podcast. It's Your Boy Matt Brill. And on today's episode, got one that I've been wanting. Got some, some bullies in here that I've been wanting to have back on for a very long time. Used to, uh, work with these guys. Spent a lot of time out on the road with them, used to, uh, co-host, uh, a podcast called The Grapevine Podcast with 'em. And, uh, super stoked to have 'em here today when they have some downtime, a lot of busy stuff coming up for 'em. They just put out a brand new record called Teenage Dixie. Uh, we have got my boys Gary Stanton and Charlie mcast are also known as Muscadine Bloodline. How you boys doing? Speaker 2 00:00:47 Dude? We're good, man. Speaker 3 00:00:48 It's good. It's weird cuz we're like boys, so it's kind of hard to have an interview. Like Yeah. Speaker 2 00:00:52 It's like, it's like the small talk. You're like, what are we talking about? Yeah. Speaker 1 00:00:55 Well what's, what's nice is that it's not like I, I've been trying to get, like, I've been like, as this thing's grown, I've been doing, um, trying to make it more like conversational Totally. Than like an interview. So having, having some folks on that, Speaker 2 00:01:08 I probably makes it easier when you just, like your friends are on, you know. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:01:11 Dude. And, and then just go and, and, um, so what have you guys, what have you guys been up to? It's the, were how many weeks now? Past the record being out? It's what, like a month? It's Speaker 3 00:01:21 Been almost a month. Speaker 2 00:01:22 Almost a month. It's three weeks. Speaker 3 00:01:23 Three weeks. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:01:24 It seems like it's been doing pretty good for you guys, huh? Speaker 3 00:01:26 Man, it ha it, it has, it was the, i I would say the best or the most well received record we've done. And I think the coolest part about it is we're, I feel like Charlie and I collectively are finally putting out music that it's not a, like, how do I say this? It's not Speaker 2 00:01:42 Like a shot in the dark. Speaker 3 00:01:44 Yeah. It's not a like, Hey, let's try this. Or like, oh, maybe this is what we should do. It's just like, this is what we want to do. And so, and that's what's really resonating with people. And so that's the best of both worlds cuz Okay. Finally, we feel like after seven, eight years of doing this, trying to figure it out, like it takes time. Like we didn't, you know, that's the hard thing is like seeing a band grow, especially like us. Like you take us at 2015 and it's like, man, we're different kids. Like, I feel like a kid had a lot of growing up to do and, and honestly like, or even listening and inspired by different things than we were then. But it seems like a lot of times I feel like Nashville kind of makes what music's supposed to be a lot more complicated. Speaker 3 00:02:24 Yeah. And, and we kind of, after Covid kind of dialed back and this record is kind of a manifestation of, of, I feel like this record kind of started in 2020, uh, around the dispatch record too that we were writing. And it's kind of the predecessor of that. And just the kind of the, even the evolution even more of like, okay, dispatch the 16th Ave was kind of like this. Like, okay, we're planting the flag here. This is like where the boat's coming to Harbor and now Teenage Dixie is the evolution of that. The step further and you know, really showcasing not just, you know, performance so to speak, but trying to, you know, songwriting and, and performance too, I guess. Cuz Charlie's got a killer voice and so Dude, dude, Speaker 1 00:03:09 The show is so fucking great. I got Speaker 3 00:03:11 In. Yeah, you gotta Speaker 1 00:03:12 See it. Cause dude, that show was, that new show is fucking awesome. Yeah. And Speaker 2 00:03:15 It kind of feels weird. We only play it for a few more weeks before we take a break. Yeah. But Speaker 3 00:03:19 <laugh> so it's, it's been fun to just play new stuff and I mean, trying stuff live, see what gets received and, and honestly you see, you know, we're not idiots. Like we wanna play what people, you know what, most people are there to see us. Like if we don't play Porch Swing Angel, like, like people will riot. Yeah. So, so it's one of those things that we, we kinda learn, but I love the few weeks after a record comes out. Cuz Charlie and I were like, we're just throwing darts at the board. Be like, let's try this tonight or let's try this. And then you actually see like, oh wow, this was really cool. We gotta start doing this. One Speaker 1 00:03:54 Of my favorite moments of the weekend, I had a great time with you guys. It was, it was fun, Speaker 2 00:03:58 Enjoyed having nice throwback Speaker 1 00:03:59 Weekend. It was fun to throw it back and sling some shirts and hang out with the v i p folks and do all that. Uh, the last, uh, night in Charlotte when you guys came out and did that encore of Devil died in Dixie at the Cowbell. Yeah. And we went out there and just gave it hell with that cowbell. I was like, this the fucks Speaker 3 00:04:16 This is awesome. Speaker 2 00:04:17 Yeah. Shout out to Whiskey Myers. We kinda like, took, took a little inspiration from Tony. They, they take a part in their set and they beat the shit out of a damn cowbell. We were like, we need to do that Speaker 3 00:04:27 <laugh>. I remember, uh, we posted a picture of Charlie hitting the cowbell and he, he commented on it and he was like, someone's gotta carry the torch, man. <laugh> so love those guys. No. Like, for example, that was the first time we'd played that song live in Charlotte and we're like, we Speaker 2 00:04:42 Practiced it for like four days. <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:04:43 We were like, we, we were gum to sound check and be like, let's, let's run this a few times and just kind of get it's, it's a hard song lyrically. Cause it's just six verses. It's, there's no chorus, no anything and, and a lot of musical things going on. And so finally after three or four days you were kinda like, let's get, let's give her stab. Speaker 1 00:04:59 But what's great now too is I, I know for this record and I think for just, you guys have had the band have had the boys playing Yeah. On the records. Like it's a cohesive thing. So it's gotta be easier for them cuz they were the ones in the studio Yeah. Mean doing it with you guys, right? Speaker 2 00:05:12 Yeah. A hundred percent makes it easier and like more fun. I mean, it's not like, I mean, they have to brush up on it. Yeah. But like, they helped write the parts too, so like they, you know, they're just as excited to play it as we are. You know, it's not like they're just some hired guns that come in there and say, all right, well here's the record, let's just play it how it is or whatever. Yeah. It's like, oh, they, they helped play the parts on the record, so Yeah. I mean, it's a cool way to create Yeah. Speaker 3 00:05:34 It, it wouldn't be a muston bloodline record without our band. Yeah. So it's just try any way to kind of stick out and just, I mean we, our group's pretty tight and, and we keep, try to keep it like a family. We wanna keep everybody involved. Yeah. And uh, you know, keeping everybody busy keeps everybody paid too. So Yes. That's, you know, that's a, that's another thing. But I, I would say another thing with this record that I don't even know if Charlie and I have talked about at, at Links, but this was like the first time we'd put out a record where there wasn't like clear favorites, uh, from the fans. So like, and from us. Yeah. And so it was like, if you went around the room in our whole band's, like, what was your favorite song? You're probably gonna get a different one for everybody. Speaker 3 00:06:14 And then also too, when the fans were like, were like, what's the favorite songs off of it? And they're like, I don't care. It's just like, someone's doing this one, this, this, this one. And so usually we'd been like, okay, there's three that we can, can all kind of know that these are the ones that are, you know, most of the fans are like the most. And uh, I mean you get to see it on Spotify and then when it came out we're like, man, all these songs are toe to toe. This is kind of cool. So it's, it's great to feel like when you make a a record and that's what we wanna do too. It's another part of the evolution is we just wanna make really good records. Like not really con more concerned about breaking records or anything. It's just man, just like, let's just throw it out there and make the best record we possibly can. Speaker 1 00:06:54 Yeah. I feel like y'all are like writing a big book and each record is a chapter and like the singles and the eps were kinda like the prequel and it's, I mean that's one of the best ways to put it. You it, it's honestly like thinking back to burning at both ends. That was you guys coming out of that era of Musk I what you guys have recorded before Covid and then released during Covid Dispatches. You guys are right. We turn another page, you know. Yep. This is, this is, this is our sound. This is how, what we think about a lot of things. And then this is, and then Teenage Dixie that we're from the south, we, we, we have these stories, we got something to say. And this is our sound. We like to rock it a bit. And we have, we have tons of heaters on there. Yeah. I can't wait to see what chapter four sounds like. I'm sure you guys are already planning the next one, man. Speaker 3 00:07:32 Dude ho. Honestly, y'all don't stop. I mean we, it's, it's about done. Uh, we got, I think we're like one song shy. That's Speaker 1 00:07:39 Ridiculous. Psycho, just Speaker 3 00:07:40 Keep going baby. Just, yeah. It's just keep, keep the ball moving. I mean that's our favorite, my my favorite thing. And Charlie too. It's like I'm a I'm a songwriter. Yeah. Like that's, you know, I'll die a songwriter. That's, that's what I love to do. It's my favorite part. The show and going, playing touring, that's just a, you know, a part of doing it. But my favorite part is the studio and, and you know, writing songs. So you're always, you know, stretching that creativity and Yeah. And it's kind of weird. We, I'm not gonna give like, give away details, but it's been kind of cool cause we kind of have this plan set for the next few years about what we're putting out. And so now we know what those records are. So we are writing specifically for records instead of just like, Hey, I had this song I did, it's, you know, blah blah blah and it, and it might end up being a really good song or might be terrible, but, so it's been kind of a cool thing and a challenge to be like, okay, we are looking at this body of work, these 12, 13 songs, what does this need? Speaker 3 00:08:41 Okay, well let's, let's write that. Yeah. And so that's what it's made it cool. And you're right, it, that's the whole point of records to us. I feel like another thing that a lot of people have lost sight of is just they pick their 10 or 12 favorite songs that they've written in the past couple years and put it on a project instead of being like, oh no, let's make something that cohesively flows together that has different ebbs and flows and journey and that sort of thing. And so, I don't know, it's, it's been really cool to, you know, just dial it back and Charlie and I are, you know, doing most of the writing just by ourselves. Speaker 1 00:09:13 And you guys are pr getting, you guys are producing it with your guy who's been with you since day one. Right. Brian? Fuck it. Speaker 3 00:09:19 Yeah, man. Like, like I said, it's like if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And it's, it's kind of like we just enjoy, Speaker 2 00:09:23 Well we got a taste of like, hey let's go do this thing we learned in the beginning, Hey, okay we'll try this producer and that producer. And then it's just like, which is fine. You know, it's like that was an evolution of the just part of learning, you know, you never know unless you try. And we just didn't like it as much as going to our friend's studio house. It's like it felt most comfortable to us to do it how we had been doing it. And so we were like, okay, let's peel the curtain back a little bit. Let's save money on top of that and just go make the records we wanna make with our friends. And thinking it's pretty easy to, to work like that. Speaker 1 00:09:57 It's so grassroots. The situation over there at the Amber Sound currently. Yeah, totally. Because it's like it's, y'all have your office, Brad, who is just the man Ive, I he is great. He to me is one of the best, one of the best things I ever did in my life. You Speaker 3 00:10:09 Did. Thank you for that. Be Speaker 1 00:10:11 Finding the ultimate merch manager. Cause cuz he, he can sling merch like I can, but he's got an organization that I will never have and Speaker 2 00:10:17 He's, and he's a great designer. Like he, he's good at coming up with ideas. Like he's really in tune so creative with the young like crowd and what they want. Cause he's young. I mean, yeah. He's like 24. Yep. And so it's like he knows what these younger kids want and like, and we know a little bit of what's cool, but he'll show us something that would not, not necessarily be our idea, but he's like, just trust me. Like this is what kids want. And we're like, okay, let's try it. You Speaker 1 00:10:40 Know? Yeah. The merch game is just insane. And I think that's because you guys are grassroots and you guys are independent. Y'all can do whatever the fuck you want to do. Exactly. Which is so cool. And, and the fact that Ray Rowdy's in that building and that's, that's Nicky t's somebody that's been riding and d with you and then Ryan's downstairs recording the records and you guys got business being there and Tyler's living Speaker 3 00:10:58 Yeah. Lives in Speaker 2 00:10:59 Your Speaker 1 00:11:00 Tyler's not tech. He's not just your tour manager, he's your tour manager. Production manager. He front the house. Speaker 2 00:11:05 He does, he wears a lot of hat. It is funny to see, like, you know, from when Ryan, we were, you know, Ryan was just using the studio space in the beginning of, you know, somewhere it was. Okay. It was called 41 15 and it was in East Nashville or whatever. And then he bought this house and built the studio and like we recorded in that house in every phase of the studio. So it was like, it was just a house at one point. And then he built the live room and then he moved to another house and now we rent the house from him. We rent the entire house. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> from Ryan. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And like you said, it's like, Speaker 3 00:11:34 And now Speaker 2 00:11:35 Nick Rays rowdy lives there, Speaker 3 00:11:37 Our tour manager Speaker 2 00:11:38 Slash pm lives there. Speaker 3 00:11:39 Yeah. And then, uh, then there's a, a session going on all the time there. Then it's not even Ryan a lot of the time, it's just like some other people. But it's been cool. Like, shout out to Ryan in the Amber Sound. The Speaker 2 00:11:50 Uh, he's a grinder Speaker 3 00:11:51 Man. Like, uh, you know, Ben Chapman just did his live record there. Ben Chapman, Speaker 1 00:11:54 The Tyler Halverson Speaker 3 00:11:55 Stuff. Yeah. We did Tyler stuff there. And so it's just, it's a lot of cool stuff coming out of there and I, I hope more and more people just keep coming to that and realizing that you don't have to have the a-list studio to go cut a record. And Speaker 2 00:12:08 You can if you want. Speaker 3 00:12:10 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:12:10 You definitely don't have to. But Speaker 3 00:12:12 Yeah, we just on and too with this record by doing it with Ryan, doing it with our band. We weren't on the, the time clock of Okay, we, we gotta hurry up, we gotta hurry up cuz we spent so much money on this, we only Speaker 2 00:12:26 Get four days, you Speaker 3 00:12:27 Know? Right. And so, and that was one thing we kind of got burdened with was we were like, man, like the part we were rushing is the most important. It's like, imagine you sit and write a song and it sits in a Dropbox file for a year and you're playing it at rounds and you're, you know, you're sitting in your bedroom playing it over and over and then you go to the studio with these incredible session players and they finish it in two hours. And I'm, and Speaker 2 00:12:52 And how does that compute, Speaker 3 00:12:53 You know, so, and I was just like, man, like the thing that matters the most is the music. And, and that's really kind of, we had that come to Jesus too in 2020 when we were just like, man, like the music's what drives everything. Yeah. It's not, it's not a TikTok trend, it's not even a live show cuz the music's gonna get people to the show and so like, forever. Yeah. And you need to have a great live show cause you want them to come back. But, but pushing the needle, moving, moving all the pieces, it starts with the music and we lose sight of that a lot. It's just like, oh, like we gotta hit here and, you know, we'll we, we will go and cut it when, whenever it's just like, so on this record, I mean it was a six week process, you know, we cut it twice. Yeah. We did the record twice. Speaker 1 00:13:36 You what? You did it Speaker 3 00:13:37 Twice. Yeah. So we came in with the guys and we were like, let's pretend like this is the record. This isn't just a hey demo. We'll, we'll nitpick later. It's no, we are nitpicking now. And then let's go home for a couple, two or three weeks. Listen, do on some things. Literally live with it for a and then come back. And, and it's funny too cuz now you go play it live and, and you, and then you end up with things most, mostly with like vocal phrasings out. You're Speaker 2 00:14:01 Still a couple things you wanna change. Speaker 3 00:14:03 Just like, oh man, I wish we would've changed that. But it's just like, but you get it to a point where you're just like, man, this is, you've, you've done the due diligence. And it's like, okay, now put it out there. And well Speaker 2 00:14:12 That was one of the mistakes I feel like that we made in the beginning, you know, just speaking on what he said about rushing the process, because like, we didn't have the money to make it in, in the beginning. It was like, oh, we're stretching our last dollar to make these records. Now how much Speaker 1 00:14:23 Was Port Swing Angel again? Oh boy. Speaker 2 00:14:25 Guys spent like 500, Speaker 1 00:14:27 500 bucks in Ryan's garage at the time. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:14:30 Oh yeah. But that, but like, learning from that, it's like, you know, I mean there's even things on Porch Swing Angel like that we, if we could recut it, it wouldn't be like that. We would recut it differently probably, but Speaker 3 00:14:38 It's not, we probably wouldn't write that song today. You're right. Right. Speaker 2 00:14:41 So it's like, you know, thankful for everything and every mistake and every past and every, you know, part of the journey. But it's like, you know, there's so many times in our career where we went back and, you know, later on we're like, man, like I wish we would've changed that on the record. Mm-hmm. Or whatever. Mm-hmm. You know, we don't really have that conversation about Port Swing, but it's like, there's plenty of our other records and stuff where we're like, man, you know, that could have been better. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's what we're, that's the part we're trying to perfect. And stay away from and like, hopefully never have that conversation again. Yeah. As creatives, you're always gonna hear something and make it, want it, want it to be better. But we try our best to get it, get it right the first time. Speaker 1 00:15:16 Yeah. Now how many years have you guys been like, not having to come down to this part of town now you guys got out of the publishing deals when that was like right when I joined up with Speaker 2 00:15:25 You? 18. End of 18. Speaker 1 00:15:26 End of 18. Yeah. Cause I joined up with you guys Summer of 19 was when I was Speaker 2 00:15:30 Started. It was like right before we put out Enemy, which I think was in like December of 18. Yeah. That was when we got outta. So that Speaker 1 00:15:35 Was a, was big though, putting it that, cause that song obviously was you guys singing about some real shit that was going on with y'all personally. Yeah. Y'all kind of really kickstart the, the independent thing at that point. Like 2018 to 2019 right before Covid. That's some, some wild stuff going on for you guys back then, huh? Speaker 3 00:15:52 Yeah, there was, and there was still a lot to figure out I think. And I think we were just, you know, just puppies man. Yeah. We were like, we just, we'd gone to, you know, we had a, a publisher created a nation, great people, the layers are awesome. And, uh, I mean they took a chance on us and, and that really helped us out at first. And then we kind of just were like, man, like it's all about finances. And at that point we just needed, didn't need the capital and we saw ourselves. I think this is just my, I Charlie might not agree with this, but this is, maybe someone can resonate with this listening, but I think a lot of times, like having a publishing deal and writing four times a week, that is a smoke and mirror game of making you feel like you're busy. Speaker 2 00:16:34 Feeling busy. Speaker 1 00:16:34 Yeah. And then going on the road every weekend like you guys work Speaker 3 00:16:37 And then you're like, oh wait, when do we go and record these songs? We've been writing, when Speaker 2 00:16:40 Do you go record content? Speaker 3 00:16:41 Yeah. When, when do we do content? When do we come up with better merch and that sort of thing. And we just kind of changed our priorities and, and that's when it really kind of started moving and then actual money started coming. And that's like, oh, okay, wow. You know, we can actually, you know, do this stuff by ourselves. And really that was our option because we, you know, we went through the whole like, Hey, here's these eps we made with Luke Laird and no labels were biting on 'em. So we're just like, all right, well we just gotta act like no one's gonna help us. And we, and then now here we are in 2023 and it's just like, we ain't looking for help. We're just going keep doing what we do. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:17:17 It's too far gone now. Yeah. So it's, we can't just know too much and own too much and just, Speaker 1 00:17:22 Yeah. And there's so many other artists that have done, there's other artists that have done that before. You guys like BJ Barham with American Aquarium. Yeah. Oh yeah. And a lot of the, the guys that are out of the, that are out of the Texas scene and like, there's strong independent things and you guys are carrying that torch now. And now with the way streaming is and the way social media is, you really can do it all yourself if you're able to put in the grind. But you guys have a work ethic that I think is unmatched underneath the fact there's two of you takes it to another Speaker 3 00:17:46 Else. Speaker 1 00:17:46 Definitely de Speaker 3 00:17:47 Yes. But, but I mean, to be honest, like you start realizing like, yeah, there's a, there's a lot of legwork in the beginning, but we kind of got to a point now where it's like, I'm not saying we don't do nothing cuz we do still do a lot, but it's like, it's at a pace that's not gonna kill you. Speaker 2 00:18:02 It's not as much, I would say it's not as much pressure to like just get up to get up. Like in the beginning it was like, how can we just get up and work? And now it's like way more calculated. It's way more like aimed at a seat a certain goals instead of just being like, Hey, let's just get up to get up and if we make some cool content, like whatever, it's like, nah. Like, you know, the like, like luckily we have, you know, we have a income stream or three or four of 'em in our business and it's great. And it's like, but it's like, okay, well now we can take a calculated mindset to it and it's like, okay, let's really dive into this merch thing more like, alright, let's, let's take a day and, and care about that. All right, let's take a a day and write two songs. Speaker 2 00:18:39 Like, we wrote two songs yesterday and then it's like days like today, okay, let's take a day and go do some promo stuff like i e podcasts and stuff like that instead of just getting up to get up. You know, like I think that's been one of the biggest changes. It's like, you don't have to spend as much time, I would say like, you don't have to spend eight hours a day doing it anymore. Yeah. You know, it's like you're, you're able to take a step back and worry about the bigger picture instead of the little Yeah. Which is the hardest transition to make. But Speaker 1 00:19:07 Yeah. And you guys are at a point now where you're, you're both happily married, you're both ha you're both in, in houses not sharing an apartment or live shit split shit, renting a room from someone like yeah, y'all are doing the damn thing. Money Speaker 3 00:19:18 Alleviates a lot of problems, you know, and what, you know in every business and marriage, like what, whatever. So it's just kind of like, it's just when you get to a point where you're like, okay, like we're make comfortable, we're comfortable. And so it's like there's not much more I desire. And so it's like our kind of thing is now it's like, dude, if it gets no bigger than this, I don't care. Speaker 2 00:19:39 We can make it work. Speaker 1 00:19:41 <laugh>, y'all, y'all are in a damn tour bus now, right? We're the Speaker 3 00:19:44 Crew. Right. So, so it's kind of one of those things where it's like, man, like if if it, if it don't get better than this, that's okay. Like this is awesome. So it's Speaker 2 00:19:52 Kind of like the driving, you always wants to make it better. Right. But yeah, so it's just Speaker 3 00:19:55 Like that my mentality of like being content with where you are and running your own race, but yet still like, I mean obviously we want more people at shows and more people to come to the table, listen to music and it's just like, it just takes time. And our journey's different than every single person. So Speaker 2 00:20:09 Yeah. It's like, it comes down to like two or three things. It's like, okay, try your best to make a better record every time. It's like that's the, that's the main priority. And like we've started to figure out, it's like if you put every single marble, you have every chip in your basket in the record, it's like a lot of the other stuff will take care of itself. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, it's like, and you still have to care, but like yeah. The, the record is the blood running through your body, you know, and then like your arm is the merch and then your leg is the touring and your, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's like without the, that heartbeat pumping it all through there and there's nothing, you know? Yeah, absolutely. If you care about the, the record, a lot can take care of itself. Speaker 1 00:20:42 Yeah. Something I've gotten to experience over the last few years and I got to experience a little bit with you guys. My first show's with you, with you boys were in the deep south, were Huntsville and Macon and then mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Boaz and Heflin. I got a real good taste of road roll Tide, war Eagle, Eagle, great place, all that stuff. And then I've, the last few years it's, I've obviously been out with Trey. Yeah. And so I've gotten to know the Alabama scene a lot. I've gotten the experience it down there two Speaker 3 00:21:05 Alabama Speaker 2 00:21:05 Acts, you know? Yeah. Speaker 1 00:21:06 2, 2, 2. Up until recently, two independent Alabama acts like, like doing it very grassroots were were Treys to the way that it was running. He said the same man. Like everything was based outta Birmingham. Speaker 2 00:21:16 It's like a family style Speaker 1 00:21:17 Thing. Yeah. Which just like how you guys were, um, and or, or how you guys are. And it's like, I've gotten to kind of appreciate the scene that's out of Alabama. Like going back to when you guys were doing it, when Riley was doing it and when, when um, what was it, Wayne Mills I think is the o the OG down. Yeah. He's on the and and Jamie Johnson and, and guys that have been guys and girls that have been coming up for years. How, how important do you think it was to come up out of that scene and have those times playing those bar gigs at Mo's barbecue, playing at Sky Bar? Oh bro. Playing those frat parties. Like you guys made a living doing that for a long time. I feel like that's what elevates the live show and elevates you guys as entertainers cuz you learn how to play those rabbit Speaker 3 00:21:54 Places. This is that 10,000 hours man. I Speaker 2 00:21:56 Think, I think like, you know, it doesn't feel as important now because like, you know, you're playing bigger shows and stuff, but it's, you know, when you look back it's like, you know, playing cover songs, like for better or worse you're learning how to entertain a crowd. So like that's definitely something that's, you can tell when people have cut their teeth in the bars and like, you can tell like you, and you can also tell when people haven't. Yeah. So it's like know there's Speaker 1 00:22:21 A lot of guys and girls that haven't Yeah. Speaker 2 00:22:22 For better or worse it's like, do I wish we could, could have played the bars less probably and like yeah, for sure. Like everybody does. But I think it was so important to learn that way and fail that way, you know, because, you know, even before we were playing together, it's like I learned, I was playing in the bars for three or four years, making a living without a job, you know? So it was like, yeah, I was thankful for that. But I mean, no one ever became famous off playing cover songs. So I think, I think making that transition is the Speaker 3 00:22:52 Transition. It's tough cause you sometimes gets stuck. It's the same kind of thing is like, uh, guy moves to Nashville and starts playing on Broadway and it's like, okay now he's playing four or five days a week on Broadway and there's no time to do Making cash. Yeah. Making money, making good money. But it's like at what expense? Speaker 1 00:23:07 Yeah. Well that's why, that's what I, what I think separates being for being in that, that having that local kind of circuit. Cuz you guys, in a way were touring where you weren't in the same place for multiple nights in like, you weren't playing like the guys that play Broadway, they're just there, they're on Broadway seven days a week. Speaker 3 00:23:23 Perception is reality. We, I mean like we, we kept busy. We weren't necessarily touring and they weren't sexy gigs. But you guys were, but we were playing different towns. You Speaker 1 00:23:30 Guys were Huntsville to Birmingham, to Montgomery, to Auburn, to Tuscaloosa. Speaker 3 00:23:34 Yeah. Mississippi. Speaker 1 00:23:36 Yeah. Like you guys were Speaker 3 00:23:37 Atlanta Speaker 1 00:23:38 <laugh>, Speaker 2 00:23:38 We had about 10 cities that we were rotating in. Speaker 1 00:23:41 Yeah. Which, which to me is just, it it, cuz there's, there's guys and girls, girls that are coming up now that have that experience too. And it's something that I see cuz I get to look at these, these folks firsthand when they come up, they're all like, Hey, how do we get on your round? And I get to see them as they come up and you can see the folks that are really green and the folks that have, that have kind of done it. And uh, yeah. It's pretty Speaker 2 00:23:58 Obvious. Speaker 1 00:23:59 Yeah. And, but I, I just, I've gained a lot of appreciation for that, that scene of, of Alabama, Georgia, the, the 65 South Peachtree, all the folks that are down, like I've gotten to see it and you guys were kind the, you know, all of them. Yeah. You guys, you guys were kind of at the forefront. Like that era of that 20 15, 20 16 was when that scene was exploding with, with you guys, with Riley, with Luke. Like people are coming outta that. So it's, Speaker 2 00:24:21 Its cool. I mean we all helped those guys like create the 65 South logo <laugh>, you Speaker 3 00:24:26 Know. Yeah. What's I think a cheat code that we take for granted is that now that we are in Nashville, when we first moved here, all of our gigs weren't that far away. So imagine you're from Speaker 2 00:24:37 That should be from Wisconsin Speaker 3 00:24:39 Or something. Yeah. And it's like, you can't just run up to, you know, Milwaukee, you know, and then run back to Nashville really quick. Speaker 2 00:24:45 Yeah. That's it. Speaker 3 00:24:45 Yeah. So it's like, that was one thing we did in the beginning. I remember, I remember like Charlie and I were switching off vehicles and we would literally to tour our way to, to Mobile Alabama and then we'd stay at our parents' house for a couple days and have some family time and then we tore our way back to Nashville, come up here for two or three days. Right. And then it was back again. It was just up and down 65 and it, and so, but uh, so that was a blessing. Like, uh, that I don't take for granted at all because we could just, you know, hop in the truck on a Wednesday and be in Auburn in, in four hours. You know, it wasn't, you know, and then you're, you only gotta go to Birmingham. There's, we Speaker 2 00:25:25 Are lucky our scene was Speaker 3 00:25:26 Close. Yeah. It's like, it's, it's almost kind of a catch 22 or juxtaposition kind of, because I think a lot of Alabama is so used to just like every bar has live music. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:25:36 Which we don't have that in New York at all. Right. So most places don't have it. Speaker 3 00:25:40 So what what what we see is like when you go show up to South Dakota and when you show up to, you know, Oklahoma, Iowa or where, wherever where there's just not that, hey, every night of the week there's just, there's a college bar, someone playing, someone's playing low places, you know, somewhere. Yeah. And so it's like they really come out and they're super excited and, and then like, not to discredit Alabama or the South cuz there's a cool culture there, but it's like we see more people excited in other places Yeah. Than the south. It's kind of been fun. They Speaker 2 00:26:10 Don't have the oversaturation, Speaker 3 00:26:11 You know? Right. Because every night of the week, you know, someone's playing at Zydeco, you know, in Speaker 2 00:26:17 Tuscaloosa there's 10 bars that have live music. Right. Speaker 3 00:26:19 Every Speaker 2 00:26:19 Night like take your pick. Like they don't have to go like, oh this guy's playing. It's like, oh, we'll just hear the same songs over Speaker 1 00:26:24 Here that's tts and then go to Rhythm and then go to this. Exactly. And go to that. Exactly. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:26:27 That's, I mean, mean we used, used to, we used to say at our buddy John Wayne's house and we would literally play three gigs at three different bars in Tuscaloosa. It's like, Speaker 2 00:26:37 Only advertise one of 'em because Speaker 1 00:26:38 Yeah. What were, what were the three, what were the, what was Speaker 3 00:26:40 The bars mostly? It was like Red Shell and Colette. Yeah, those were the two, two big ones. But Speaker 2 00:26:45 That was another hack though, was like, we would only promote one of them. Yeah. So it's like the other two were just paychecks. It's like, oh, well let's just promote one so it doesn't look like we're just like playing the same town over and over. It's like life hack, just promote your favorite one and then just play the others and just get the check because Speaker 3 00:26:59 Reality, no one really cared anyways. Yeah. It's like, but it, but it made us but it made us, you know, the perception was like, oh wow. They're like on the road. Speaker 1 00:27:06 They tour then. Was that, was that acoustic duo back then? Or did you guys have Zolty at that point? Speaker 3 00:27:10 No, no, we didn't have Zoltan yet. Uh, Speaker 2 00:27:12 We didn't have Zoltan until like, we were playing real, like, I mean it was after Ung Angel, you know, it's like he came out, the first weekend he came out was the weekend shut, your Mouth came out. Oh wow. It was like, oh wow. It was like July or June of, of 17. We Speaker 3 00:27:27 Werere out with Corey Smith. Speaker 2 00:27:28 16 or Speaker 3 00:27:29 Something like that. Yeah. We, and it was the, the route was Myrtle Beach in Orlando. So it was like, and we were Speaker 2 00:27:35 Driving no hotels. Speaker 3 00:27:37 We didn't Yeah. We didn't and we didn't sleep. I remember I drove all through the night from Myrtle Beach to, to Orlando. Speaker 2 00:27:42 Well, you're following a bus. Like, it's like Yeah. You know, in our van it was like, oh, we usually tried to keep it around like six hour commute limits because it's like you have to sleep. Yeah. You kill yourself and if you're in the van, you're really not sleeping. So it's like we were, we literally we're following the van. It was basically 10 hours. 10 hours. 10 hours. And we took a nap. I remember we took a nap in Orlando the, the morning before the show. And that was it. Like we <laugh> we like slept a little bit. Speaker 3 00:28:08 That was all. And then it had the money. So we drove consultants first. Speaker 1 00:28:11 And he's still with you? Yeah. Speaker 2 00:28:13 Yeah. He like came out. I remember he's talked about it like in a funny way, you know, many times when he was just like, bro, I didn't, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Like, he was like, that was a gauntlet first Speaker 3 00:28:23 Weekend. And you know what's cool is Dalton has never had to sub a gig ever. Really? Yeah. He, he, he's got one coming up and he's really upset about it cuz but he's getting married. He's getting married, Speaker 1 00:28:32 He's getting Speaker 3 00:28:32 Married. So, so, but it was, it was kind of cool cuz like, you're like, oh dude, he's been with us six years. Speaker 2 00:28:37 I mean he's one of the most loyal for Speaker 1 00:28:39 Everything. Speaker 2 00:28:39 Yeah. Loyal guys on Speaker 3 00:28:40 And he's been through regime changes and, and a bunch of stuff changes and Speaker 2 00:28:45 He's agent changes. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:28:46 In the course. But we loves Alton. Speaker 1 00:28:48 Yeah. He's seen it all. And then you guys met, cuz he was the, was he the session? Speaker 2 00:28:52 Yeah. So Guy hired him to come play percussion on Porting Angel. Cause we were like, man, what? Like we had recorded the guitars and the vocals and stuff and he was like, wow, I kind of wanna, let's see if he put some percussion on it. And he was like, I just know this guy down the street. He'll do it for cheap. Speaker 3 00:29:06 He did it for like 25 bucks. And, and Speaker 2 00:29:08 Dalton was new to town too, so he was just like, I'll just do it like 25 or 50 Speaker 3 00:29:12 Bucks. And then when we needed a drummer, he was the only one we knew. So <laugh>, he happens to be an incredible drummer. So it's, Speaker 1 00:29:18 Yeah. From, from Mendocino, California, dude coming, all teaming up with them boys from Alabama's fucking fucking wild man. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:29:24 Dude, it's, it is wild. He's Speaker 2 00:29:26 Still there baby. It's Speaker 1 00:29:27 Crazy. Crazy crazy. Looking back on a lot of that stuff and, and obviously like the shows like, did, was it weird coming out of Covid and getting back to it? Like, did you guys see kind of a weird thing the that Speaker 2 00:29:38 First stretch coming out? I mean, just so Houston not playing. I think that like, I don't think it was like weird. Like I was excited to come back for sure. But it also like, just felt so strange cuz we had never like, since, you know, since for me it was like 2011. I'd never been home that much in my entire life. So <laugh> I mean, for real. Yeah. So it was like, it was even like a learning experience for Gary and I, and like, I remember reading, like me and Mallory, it was like, we're spending so much more time together than, than we usually did. And we were just like, what's going on? Like, this is so weird. We were having to learn like how to be together more. And like, it was just a, I think that was the biggest adapting thing is like got used to being home. Which we do like being at home. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:30:19 One. And we have the Speaker 2 00:30:20 Luxury of being there more now, Speaker 3 00:30:21 Which is great. Great. Was one thing we've l we learned from that. It's like, oh man. Like cuz we, I think just like everybody after, you know, everyone got back to live shows, it was kind of like we had to hit the ground running and we were playing catch up. And so it was like, and then I remember that first year it was like, I mean literally we came back and, and we were like, dude, like let's we the, I think it was I guess would've been 20, it was 2021. Yeah. 2021. Um, no, it it was 22. It was 22. Yeah. We took a six month break. We just Speaker 2 00:30:48 Like, but 2021 was like pretty busy too. What are you guys Speaker 1 00:30:51 Doing? Like the shows where it was like the limited capacity and like the mass, like the spread out. We Speaker 3 00:30:55 Did do those. Yeah. Which was stupid. Like it was weird. It was, Speaker 2 00:30:59 It was a weird vibe. Speaker 3 00:30:59 It was one of those things where it's like, I remember our first show was the San Antonio Rodeo and it's this huge arena and it's like a 10,000 cap arena. And obviously we were like just the entertainment kind of thing. Yeah. There wasn't 10,000 people to see us, but, but uh, they, they ma it was only 10% capacity. So you have this 10,000 person arena and or maybe more thousand people are in there. And I remember trying, we do our thing at Portrait Manager, like put the lights up and it's just like this bearing little, like, it's like Speaker 1 00:31:27 Stars in the sky. Yeah. Twinkles. Speaker 2 00:31:29 Like, it wasn't, Speaker 3 00:31:31 It wasn't cool. Speaker 2 00:31:31 It wasn't a sea of lights. Speaker 3 00:31:32 Yeah. So it was just like, and then you realize like, oh wow. When they turn to, when they turn the lights off, you didn't really realize cuz the, there was no one in the pit, I guess in the pit or the, the rodeo arena. Yeah. So, or the, you know, when you see the horse arena Yeah. Real horse. And so it's just everybody in the stands and we just like look up and they're like, we see it and it's like, oh wow. There's not many people here, <laugh>. But then the very next night we go to Oklahoma City. I can't remember that. I Speaker 2 00:31:57 Don't know how you remember this. I Speaker 3 00:31:58 Don't, I don't remember what that room was called. Diamond Ballroom. Yeah. Diamond Ballroom. And it was, we were like, it was a cool room. Yeah. We were just like, and it sold out like really quick and we're like, oh dude, like everyone's jacked. And it was half capacity, but it was just like, the room holds like 3000 people. So 1500 people were there and they, it was just 1500 people cluttered up at the Speaker 2 00:32:15 Front. Yeah. They weren't, they weren't social distanced. Speaker 3 00:32:17 So just like, just, just release more tickets, man. Like, whatever. So it, yeah, it was, it was a weird thing, but I think at the end of the day everyone just had the itch to play. So anything to play, I didn't care. I was just like, whatever. Like if people gotta sit at a, a round table and have to be in a, you know, a barricaded off circle or whatever, you Speaker 2 00:32:36 Just like Yeah. I mean at the end of the day it was like, okay, we can actually make money again. You know, it's like we weren't making money on the road for a long time. It was an adjustment <laugh>. Yeah, for Speaker 1 00:32:44 Sure. Yeah. And then, um, coming outta Covid too, or coming out in like the last year, a big, big thing for you guys, a big kind of for telling the Musk on Bloodline story Me on you is like a, a big moment in this chapter of where you guys are at right now. Sure. Like what, what, where did that all kind of come from? Cause that's you two and Ryan on that song, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Speaker 3 00:33:03 Yeah. I like, uh, Speaker 1 00:33:05 It's country as hell, like Right. It's Speaker 3 00:33:07 Just awesome. The writing process was pretty, uh, unconventional for what we usually do. But, uh, we, we kind of got on this tear where I was gonna go. I was just going to the studio and just laying down riffs and so I had the riff for me on you and then we were like, well let's just write these like banger choruses and then just like, let 'em sit and we'll come back to write 'em. So that was one of 'em. Ryan and I were there and we just started writing the chorus and we wrote the chorus and then showed it to Charlie. He, I remember he came to my house, we were sitting at my kitchen table and I was like, dude, I think this is really cool. And then Charlie, he's like, dude, what if we started out like no instruments, anything, it was just like this line. And it was something like, girl, I hope your daddy doesn't own a gun, guys. It's like, I know why was thinking that thing that's doing to me. And then, and then the beat drops and we were like, oh, this is special. Speaker 2 00:33:52 We're like, okay <laugh>, Speaker 3 00:33:54 And then we gotta thank TikTok six seconds TikTok video just pops off. And we're, we had no idea. And it's just like, I mean, Trey had the same thing right? A big, you know, viral moment and, Speaker 1 00:34:06 But you don't expect right Speaker 3 00:34:07 At all and you can't and not planning it, you know, and it's tough cuz I think now like everyone is chasing a viral moment and that like elevates the, the whole sphere of Speaker 2 00:34:16 It makes it harder to do Speaker 3 00:34:18 It. Right. I mean, and so it's like, and then you're, you're like game planning for something to go viral and it's just like, you can't plan on that. It's just like, it just happens. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:34:25 And so it has to be so Speaker 3 00:34:25 Organic and, but you taste a bit of that and you're like, oh dude, how, how do we get that again? You know? So Speaker 2 00:34:31 And we haven't So <laugh> Yeah, Speaker 3 00:34:32 We haven't, but, but that, but that was the first song we put out off this record and so it set the bar like really high. Speaker 1 00:34:38 It did a lot. It did a lot. I mean that's, that's one that people just, Speaker 2 00:34:43 Yeah. I mean we haven't felt that felt it back to the ma like we've felt like, I guess what I would consider, like we had a break in the beginning with Port Swing, but mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we didn't have as many fans then. So like at what what felt like a break to us then was like, oh we can sell like a hundred tickets now or whatever, like in, in in 20 markets, you know, but it's like, you know me on you happened and it was six years, six, seven even more years later and it's like now you have, you already have hundreds of thousands of people that listen to your music, you know, which is great. You like, you've built it that far but now it's like it spreads quicker cuz it's like this compounding interest of all the years you put in and then it's like, oh you have a, you have a viral moment and you're seven. You know, you're like, okay. Like this is crazy. We've never seen this many people come to the table at one time. Yeah. Only Speaker 1 00:35:29 2 million monthly listeners I think right now for you guys. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:35:32 Which is, yeah, it's crazy. Speaker 3 00:35:33 Is massive. Yeah, it's, I mean there really are rises kind of like you start porting angel boom, we're here and then we just rode that barely climbing up for about six years. And so it's like, I mean we just put in our time we were playing 150, 170 shows a year and, and it was just like, you see a crowd go from too many shows. Yeah, yeah. Way too many, Speaker 2 00:35:52 Like a societal amount of Speaker 1 00:35:54 It ain't quite BJ in American Aquarium, but it's dang Speaker 3 00:35:56 Close. No, Speaker 2 00:35:57 He, I don't care what anybody says, bro. That dude is psychotic. Like he's fucked up. The amount shows they play is Speaker 3 00:36:03 Crazy. See now they play less shows but he just goes, he he'll go out on like a, a 20 day run and plays 19 shows in 20 days. And Speaker 2 00:36:10 Then we still joke with him, we're like, you're psycho. I don't know how you do it. Speaker 3 00:36:13 He came to our show in Riley and he's like, yeah, I'm at home for two months and then we'll go back and just hit it hard Speaker 2 00:36:18 For 20 days. I mean it's an efficient way to do it. Yeah. If you, if you could actually like, like Gary and I's voices wouldn't hold up for 20 days in a row. There's no possible way. I don't know, maybe I guess after so many you'd probably build up some sort of tolerance, but it's never done more than like five. Speaker 3 00:36:31 I think the break almost killed you like every time. Cuz like then you just, like for us and that's our thing, like we gotta sound good. Like, and, and and Speaker 2 00:36:39 After three days of belting it, I guess Yeah. Speaker 3 00:36:41 You're, Speaker 2 00:36:42 You're shot. Speaker 3 00:36:42 Yeah. Like you almost feel, you almost feel bad sometimes for the Thursday show cuz you're like man, cuz in our heads like subconsciously we know we got two more nights of this. Like I Speaker 2 00:36:51 Can't, can't blow it out. Like Speaker 3 00:36:53 Saturday always gets like you get it all, you just, you just get let it, let it hang out, Speaker 1 00:36:58 Whatever that was, that was how it felt was a Friday on that run. I was out with you guys. Yeah. That night in Charlotte. I mean no disrespect to Richmond or Raleigh. Those shows were great. Incredible. Yeah. And maybe it's biased cause I actually got to be in the room watching you guys was I was on a fucking platform. I had the best view. You were like, Speaker 2 00:37:12 I'm watching. Speaker 1 00:37:13 I was like, yo, I'm seeing the boys. Yeah. And you guys have gotten to take out some cool thing. You guys spent a lot of time as as openers and as Oh yeah. As important. You have some, some big stuff coming up this year Mr. Eric fucking church, which is pretty, pretty wild and gotta be crazy. But you guys have have now are now in the position of bringing out your friends, like bringing out people that you believe in like, like Tyler, like Ben and Meg. Yeah bro. Nate Frederick I know is gonna be coming out in some like folks Yeah. Folks Speaker 2 00:37:38 Gonna be some of his first shows this Speaker 1 00:37:39 Yeah, yeah. Like folks that you guys believe in. Like how cool is that now? I, I Speaker 3 00:37:43 Think it's, I think it's cool cause we just kind of how we built this thing a lot of times like in the old days it used to just be like, Hey, who else at the booking agent we were at, it's like okay, who else is on the roster or whatever. Yeah. And then you might not even like the music and it might not even be a good fit. And so we're just kind of, now that we've built this, we don't like that it's, yeah. It's more so just like who are we fans of and, and who, because our fans are very like, okay if if they're playing with Muscadine, like we'll be fans too. Speaker 1 00:38:10 They're a cults fans. Speaker 2 00:38:12 It protects our own credibility to bring out great people. Like if we don't like the people Yeah. You know, you're, your fans can tell. Yeah. Like you saw some of that with us. It's like, not mentioning names but it's like some people come out or whatever and like our fans will even be like, who are these people? Speaker 3 00:38:26 Yeah. Why are they on tour with you? Yeah. Yeah. So it's cool. There's a lot of a cool, awesome artist coming out. Like we've had, like we had Cole Cheney out really dig his stuff. Yeah. He's killer Ben was with us for, Speaker 2 00:38:38 For Ben feels like a little brother to us now. Speaker 3 00:38:40 Yeah, I know. We love Ben and he's just so fun and, and we were in a place we can't do it anymore cause we're tapped out on the bus, but it, it made it easier cuz we were just like, dude, just ride the bus with us, whoever. And it's like, save some cash on travel cuz we, we get it. We been there like, Speaker 2 00:38:53 And people did that for us. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:38:54 Yeah. And so it's like Speaker 2 00:38:55 Kip did that for us and Luke Combs has done that for us. It's like, damn, it'd be nice to let some other people help, like, help 'em out. Like, hey, come ride for free. Speaker 3 00:39:02 You know, it's, it's, it's hard to ask someone to come open the show for, you know, in Texas and drive for, I mean those opening slot you, y'all, y'all probably done 'em. It's not, it's you don't do it for the money, you do it for the exposure. Yeah. But it's like, I mean I remember we went on a tour with Whiskey Myers for like six, six weeks or eight weeks and we lost like $30,000. But the exposure was great. Yeah. It got, it helped grow in the work. Right. So it's like, you know, it's, it's investment right. It's just a cost of, of doing it. And so, and that, that leads back to the same kind of conversation of, you know, people staying in the bar gig cuz it's like, man, I already got, you know, you know, this bar gig on Wednesday night at Sky Bar pays more than any opening slot. We were getting Duo acoustic, you know, you know, coming up. Speaker 2 00:39:42 It's like, I can tell you like a funny story about Bradley Jordan. Yeah. You know, it's like, and he, he's one of our favorite people in the whole industry. Like love that dude. He's one of the pioneers of, you know, book the best book Young artists Speaker 3 00:39:53 Best. He's the best a and r in. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:39:55 I mean, and like in the beginning, you know, he, he took a shot on us and like, I had like a friend reach out to him was like, check these people out. And he did. And like he like listened to our music and everything, started putting us on shows and it was that same transition moment that Gary was talking about. It was like, he was like, Hey man, like I wanna book you guys a show at Bourbon Street in Auburn, which is like one of our, which was Auburn was one of our, you know, quote unquote bigger markets at the time. But it was like, it was like, it's gonna be, you know, for example it's like okay it's gonna be $500 guarantee, but like, it's like I know you're getting paid $1,500 over here, you know, at Sky Bar, but it's like, it's gonna $500 guarantee, but we're gonna give you 80% of the door. You know, so, but at the time like that just doesn't compute to us. Yeah. Cause we're just like, more cash is here. This is way bigger of a risk. But Speaker 3 00:40:43 When you gotta eat, you're like, man, like I don't wanna take risks. Speaker 2 00:40:45 Yeah. And he was like, look dude, like I promise you he was like, we're gonna put, we're gonna at least put 300 people in this show. You're gonna leave with more money than you made a Sky bar. And I remember even the first time he offered us the thing we were like, no, like we're just gonna keep doing the thing. And Sky Speaker 1 00:40:58 Bar's just the spot, it's just an, an electric, Speaker 2 00:41:01 It's an ego boost. It's because like, you just feel like people care, but they don't really know who you are. Like as long as you're playing what's cool, it doesn't matter. But like we finally, you know, he finally convinced us, he's like, dude, trust me, like being a hard ticket act is God. It's everything in his business. Try it. And we finally tried it and we were like, and we made more money that night. It wasn't like $10,000 or some shit, but it was like, you know, a few, like a couple thousand or whatever. And you're like, oh man. Like, you're right. You know? And like that was our first taste of being like, okay, you gotta risk, you have to risk in this business to, you're gonna lose in the beginning. You have to lose to win. You know, it's not just gonna be a sexy guarantee every show you go play and now that you're worth hard tickets, it's almost even worse being like, Hey, I don't want a guarantee. I'd rather just take the risk and, you know, take the, take the door a hundred percent of the door or 80% of the back end and well, Speaker 1 00:41:48 Well that's so much of, of y'all's story is betting on yourselves and doing it how you want to, like you guys are the door deal of, of country music. Y'all bet on yourselves and y'all and y'all are fucking No, but, and, and, and I mean that in like the, the absolutely best way possible because y'all bet on yourselves and, and are doing it your way better Speaker 3 00:42:05 Than the doorknob. You know, better than Speaker 1 00:42:06 Being the door knob. Everybody's fucking grabbing on shit. Speaker 2 00:42:10 For real, dude. Speaker 3 00:42:11 Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I mean it's, this shit ain't that deep. Like that's, that's the reality of it. It's when we prioritized it, cuz I'm the head case of the group. Like I'm the one, it's like all, you know, always stressed about everything and Charlie's great to level me out. It's a Speaker 2 00:42:29 Great, and he levels me out cuz I'm like, great, I can relax a little too far sometimes. And he'll be like, he'll pull me back to like, hey, let's, let's keep grinding, you know? Alright, thanks. Speaker 3 00:42:36 It's a, it's a great partnership and great ying and yang. But, uh, yeah, it's just kind of one of those things where we were just like, man, like this extra stuff just don't matter. Like, and there's just stuff I don't wanna do and there's stuff he don't wanna do, so we ain't gonna do it. So it's kind of like, okay, let's just do what we want to do and what we want do is make really good records and then go play that record. Speaker 2 00:42:56 Well it's like, hey, I don't wanna go do the local TV thing. Like, I just don't care. Yeah, yeah. Like I don't, it's just like what does it add, you know? Yeah. Speaker 1 00:43:02 Well also I don't, I think your fans don't, that you guys have such a diehard fan base. And I, I had always remembered that, but then going out and subbing for y'all this, this, this last run was, I, I forgot how Speaker 2 00:43:14 It was probably a cool like moment for you cuz you're like, well I left and saw these shows and it's like, I see 'em on social media. They're Speaker 3 00:43:19 Doing good to Charlotte with us before I Speaker 1 00:43:21 Have, I've been to Coyote, it's like, I Speaker 2 00:43:22 Know they're doing good, but it's like when you get to see the fans and like, see the show, I feel like it helps put in Speaker 1 00:43:28 Perspective. I saw the damn merch numbers. Like I'm a good merch salesman, but it ain't all me. People are just, people are loving man. It's, it's a movement. Yeah. People love having, like last night for example at Live Oak, I saw two, two separate hats. I saw the, the black, um, the one with the uh, with the grapevine grape and then I saw the master or the Turkey hat. The one with the Turkey feather on. Yeah. Just people around Nashville, even wearing the merch like Speaker 3 00:43:49 It's chi code, take it for what it is. But a lot of these acts in towns don't pay attention to merch and, and they're dumb for not. It's like, what do you want? You want someone tos you to, to equal, you gotta get what freaking a million streams to about get the, what it costs to get, you know, someone sell to purchase a t-shirt sell. Yeah. It's like, man, dude. Like let's, I don't care if they buy records, if they wanna buy a t-shirt, so be it. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:44:10 Don't leave millions on the table by not giving a shit. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:44:13 People don't. And you, and then you start seeing those, those things and I mean that's a testament to honestly having a good salesman in you. And then when Brad came in and we took, cuz we do all our merchant house. Yes. And so it's not like a bigger company or whatever doing it. Like Brad ships it out from the house. Speaker 1 00:44:28 Yes, he does. And so I was there for, I saw a release week. Yeah, I saw, I saw Speaker 3 00:44:34 They hate his ass. But, but it's one of those things where we started paying attention and it's just like having a guy who wakes up every day and all he thinks about is, how can I better the merch for Muscadine? And it's just like all, I don't even care if they like Muscat on Bloodline. I want people to buy a t-shirt that they think that t-shirt is cool. Yeah. And so it's like, I mean obviously I want them to like musket on, but I mean like yeah. I just mean like, I would rather have some bystander just walk by and be like, oh that's cool. That's that shirt or hat is really cool. And I, I I'd wear that. Well Speaker 1 00:45:05 I think the design's cool, but I think also too, just the, the fans just people buy into what you guys are about Yeah. And what the sound is, whether that's the sound from, from five, six years ago. Yeah. Or that's the current Teenage Dixie stuff that's out right now. And like it's, it's really cool to see and Yeah. Watch you guys build what you have. Speaker 3 00:45:20 And I think that's also too, it's like man, you want people to be fans of you. Like you want 'em to be fans of music, but you want 'em to be like, our brand is tangible. It's always been that we're on social media, we're the ones responding, you know, we do free meet and greet after the shows still when it's like, even it's sometimes it's a headache. We'll be out there for an hour or so and it's like sometimes you're sick and tired. Yeah, it is. And it's like, but it's like man, it's like what's gonna set us apart if, what if another artist is playing in town? What are we willing to do that they aren't willing to do that? Those people would be like, oh, those are pretty cool guys. Yeah. And the crazy thing is that it's not that hard. No, it's not. Speaker 3 00:45:56 There's a lot of things that are very easy that artists neglect to do just because they don't want to do it. Yeah. Which is fine. Like I respect it. If you don't wanna do it, I that's fine. Yeah. But we're willing to do the stuff they don't want to do. Yeah. And that's one of those things that's, to us it's like, it's not about the money. It's like I want, I just want people to like be fans. Like that's how you retain people and create a culture to where it's like they're just some normal dudes who have a different occupation than us and they just get on stage. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:46:19 Like, like they're, your fans will be out in the golf course very soon just like you will. Yeah, true. They're gonna be out in the woods calling those damn turkeys. Yeah, man. Maybe not going all the places that you're going to cause you're, you're about to travel the country. So you, we were talking on the way up here. Yeah. How many states are you trying to hit this Speaker 3 00:46:34 Year? I got 10 on the list <laugh>. So, uh, yeah, I got it. So there still has to be a little magic in there. It's like, yeah. Speaker 1 00:46:41 What, what, what? So Tennessee, Alabama? Speaker 3 00:46:43 Nope. No. Um, he's already got those buddy. Speaker 1 00:46:46 Yeah. Oh, so you're not even going back to the honey holes. You're going, you're 2010. Speaker 3 00:46:49 Yeah, I'm just going to new places. Yeah. So tell him what you're trying to do. Like Well, so there's a thing called the Super Slam and it's to kill one in the 49 states that have turkeys. And so I'm 15 in and so it's like, honestly it's like my, my wife is super, like, she's great cuz she, she knows it's a passion of mine and it's like, it is, it is kind of a tough thing cuz like, okay, we get off the road and then I'm still gone. He's like, see ya. Yeah. So, but it's kind of one of those things like, um, I'm really passionate about it and, and I want to get, I want to get it in while my responsibilities are at the, the minimal, you know? Yeah. Cause there's gonna come a day where I got a couple kids running around. You can't just like run amuck in spring, all, all, all Turkey season. Speaker 1 00:47:29 See you got until they're old enough to go out with you. Speaker 3 00:47:32 Right. If bar, I have some boys or a young girl who wants to go. Yeah. But, uh, cuz I'll probably wanna go to, you know, dance recital and you know, ballet cheer coach, baseball team cheer and cheer, cheerleading if I have girls. But, uh, if Leigh has anything to do with it, but, uh, but no, yeah, it's just, uh, I it's, it's honestly a lot of planning. Uh, and it's not just like, I just like, just guess where I'm going. Like, I've been planning for about six months and Speaker 1 00:47:54 So what's the tour? What's the start? How, how's this Speaker 3 00:47:57 Going? Okay. If you wanna hear, uh, I do, I do. I got, uh, South Carolina. We, we play in Spartanburg next Friday. And then from there I'll go to south the south part of South Carolina cuz the whole state doesn't open at the same time. So I do that. Then we go to play with turnpike in Tulsa. In Tulsa and then we're in Texas and then actually Tulsa again. We're playing two nights with turnpike. And then I, uh, I'll fly to, I'll fly back, go to Georgia, then we're done Hashi's birthday, then I go to Illinois. I drew like, and all these seasons have different parameters. They start different, they have different like season dates. They have, you know, certain states you have to draw. So you have to like put in for draw. So if you don't draw one state, you're planning on going, that changes the plan. You've gotta have a backup plan. It's like, it's a bunch of this stuff. So then after that, after Illinois, uh, actually has two bachelorette trips back to back weekends. Perfect. So I got like, uh, perfect. I got a 14 day run that Speaker 2 00:48:54 Girls think we hate that. Yeah. We, we Speaker 3 00:48:55 Love it. Yeah. So I start starting Delaware and then depending on if I get done there, there's different parameters there. Like you can't hunt on Sundays in Delaware. Nope. But you can in Maryland. So it's like, okay, well, you know, so the plan, hopefully it's, it's Delaware, Maryland. I drew New Jersey, West Virginia. Skip over, it's a pizza too, you know, skip over Virginia because North Carolina would be closing if I wait. So I'll go to North Carolina, come back and then it's, I got a weekend trip to either Virginia or Oklahoma, I don't know yet. And then I got a weekend, uh, trip week trip with a buddy that does South Dakota and Minnesota. You know Speaker 2 00:49:33 What other slam you're doing that you don't even realize What Speaker 3 00:49:35 Finding Speaker 2 00:49:36 The best shitty gas station food? Probably. Speaker 3 00:49:38 Yeah. Probably Speaker 1 00:49:39 <laugh>, shitty gas station food. And let me know where you end up going in Jersey. Yeah, because that is my neck of the woods. I'm guessing you're gonna be in South Jersey. Pine bear. The pine Barons area is where, cause I don't think you can, Speaker 3 00:49:50 I'm not Speaker 1 00:49:50 Telling that I, well no shit. Yeah, you're guys can't give away my spot. I said Trey with fishing, I ask him like, Hey man, where are you going fishing? He's like, I can't tell you that. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, I know Speaker 3 00:49:59 You can't. No. Uh, <laugh>. Yeah. So it's, Speaker 1 00:50:01 But if you want pizza recommendations, cheese, steak recommendations. Yeah, I got you. Speaker 3 00:50:05 Yeah. But no, it's, it's, it's fun. I, I honestly, I keep it pretty cheap cuz I, I have a camper shell and I camp in the back of the truck dude. And so it's, and then I just bring a cooler of like deli meat, bread and peanut butter and jelly. And so it's like I'm, I'm out there to hunt. Not like I'm on a time thing. He gets he gets serious about it. Yeah. So it's not like a, it's not like a hey like, and I go by myself because if I had a lot of these places, cuz if I had someone else, we gotta wait for them to kill one too. And I'm on a time crunch. Yeah. So Speaker 2 00:50:30 It's, it's probably easier just go by Speaker 3 00:50:31 Yourself. Yeah. So I, and I enjoy. Yeah. Like I, I look forward to it and it's coming up. Charlie's going to Mississippi this week to go hunt. So I'm Speaker 2 00:50:39 Reason why I Turkey hunt is cuz of Gary. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:50:41 But I'm, he's taught me do it. I'm, I'm more fomo cuz like he's going, he's going get a Turkey account before I am this year. But for a baby, Speaker 2 00:50:47 Baby barring things go the right way. I've scared more turkeys than I've can have you, Speaker 1 00:50:51 Have you, have you gotten Gary on the golf course yet? Speaker 2 00:50:54 No. No He won't go man. I Speaker 3 00:50:55 Got, the problem is, Matt is I have, I can't just do and enjoy. I don't have hobbies. So it's like my literally the only things I love in this world is my wife writing music and Turkey hunting. So it's like that's how I spend my time. She chooses Speaker 2 00:51:12 Wisely. Speaker 3 00:51:13 Yeah. And so it's so it's just like outside of Turkey cuz because if I'm gonna ask my wife to leave for that long, I better be doing all the honey dos and 10 months I'm doing whatever she wants to do. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:51:23 Or whatever. Well if you think about it, like the irony of it is like, you know, if you combine all the days that he Turkey hunts in the year, it's like that's probably a spring and an entire spring, summer and fall of golf outings. Like seriously, it's like if you combine like the hours, you know what I mean? Yeah. So it's like yeah. He just like picks his wisely cause he is like, he has to leave, you know, Speaker 3 00:51:42 To do it. Yeah. I just have passions and like I, if I get on the golf course and like it, it's not gonna just be something I can really, Speaker 2 00:51:49 He would like it. I mean that's a thing everybody Speaker 3 00:51:51 Likes. Yeah. It's, it's kind of one of those things. It's like I'm not even going to dance with that devil because cuz I'm, cuz well he Speaker 2 00:51:56 Sees how sick I am for, Speaker 3 00:51:58 I mean, Charlie's how many times you play a week now, barring the weather. Speaker 2 00:52:02 Yeah. I mean Speaker 3 00:52:02 Barring what your wife, what's your wife will let Speaker 2 00:52:05 You do when the weather's good and the day like now the, the, the daylight savings, it's like I'm gonna, I I walked to nine yesterday, I'm gonna try to walk nine today. Yeah. Like, I mean you can always go out there at four o'clock in the summertime spring. You can, you do it on the road. You guys play road as much on the road just cuz we do have like VIPs and stuff, but like if there's a, if there's a show where we don't have a vip, I, well cause Speaker 1 00:52:26 Tyler Love Tyler and Taylor will go out with you and play too. Speaker 2 00:52:29 Oh yeah. Half of our guys like to golf, which is great. Yeah. It's nice to just have like a couple guys that'll be like, hey, like we're going out to California or whatever in June. It's like, hey, let's go try to play one of these like iconic courses, you know? Yeah. Try to just experience it and you, Speaker 3 00:52:43 You realize how much time you don't have. It's, it's a special days when you have all the time in the world. Yeah, it is. It's because a lot of times we just don't have busy, Speaker 2 00:52:50 Busy easier than you think on the road. It's like Speaker 3 00:52:52 When, you know sound check and then the v ip exper, it kind of breaks your day up to where it's like you're segmented. Speaker 2 00:52:57 Like the hours are like awkward, Speaker 3 00:52:59 You know, like every two hours you have something going on. So it's, so it's, it doesn't make it conducive to be like, okay, we got here and we'd play at nine so I can do whatever I want all day. Right. And maybe one day it'll be that and that'll be sick Charlie play all the golf he wants, you know. Yeah, that'd be great. I can coordinate some Turkey hunts, you know, before the shows or whatever. Speaker 2 00:53:14 Yeah. I mean in a, I think if, if the situation was like perfect, it's like, oh you're, the bus got there at six o'clock and you could get a seven 30 tee time somewhere and still show up it sounds like at one o'clock. Yeah. But like, it's just, you just never really know logistically concrete what's gonna happen. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:53:29 Cuz bus life has been good. I know you guys, uh, last year had some, uh, had some times, well Speaker 2 00:53:35 We had some times, but overall it was still a 10 out of 10 compared to Speaker 1 00:53:39 Compared to the van. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:53:40 We had a bus that broke down like every three weeks. Speaker 2 00:53:42 Shitty days on a bus are are not as shitty as in a van. So. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:53:46 Yes. So yeah. So, but yeah, this knock on wood, this is uh, yeah, for real. Cowboy Speaker 1 00:53:51 Cowboy's your driver, right? Speaker 2 00:53:53 Yeah. Well we call him Cowboy. Yeah. His name's Jason. Jason. Speaker 1 00:53:56 Jason. I was just, but Jason's guy, I, I was told by Tyler, his name's Cowboys, I was called, I've Speaker 2 00:54:00 Never, I've never Speaker 1 00:54:00 Called him that. I just called him Cowboy all week. I feel bad. I'm sorry. Jason does kinda Speaker 2 00:54:04 Dress like a cowboy. Like he's got like a, he wears like the vests and like some like slick boots and stuff while he is driving. Speaker 1 00:54:09 Bus drivers are characters. Oh Speaker 2 00:54:11 Yeah. He's, Speaker 1 00:54:11 Cause we've, we've had some characters with, with us. We've Speaker 3 00:54:14 Had, so have we had brother Speaker 1 00:54:15 Do you have anybody with nicknames? Like nicknames? We had a guy named Cookie one time Speaker 2 00:54:18 Time We had Steve. Steve, he was our longest running driver Speaker 3 00:54:21 And he was awesome. And he was just, he was a, he was an ex-police officer and just like, he didn't talk unless he was like asked, talked or you wanna talk to him. And even then he was just short and sweet to the point and he always did this thing go All righty. Like Speaker 2 00:54:34 If you say like, Hey man, Steve, I'm going to bed, man, have a good night. He go. All righty. All Speaker 3 00:54:38 Righty. All right. So, so now the whole group, we just all go Speaker 2 00:54:41 All right, we miss Steve. Hope you're, hope you're doing good Steve. If you watch this for some Speaker 1 00:54:44 Weird reason. Yeah. Yeah. The la the la the latest, the last one I had with Trey was a guy named Danny and we called him Daddy Danny. He was about five foot five. The Speaker 2 00:54:51 Dude that would always like take his shirt off and shit. <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:54:53 Yes. He was like five. I always saw like on your Speaker 2 00:54:56 Snapchat story, he Speaker 1 00:54:56 Was, he was about 5, 5, 5, 6. About 250 pounds. Dude was a ho. Speaker 2 00:55:00 I met him night. Cause y'all used to y'all do bus call right next Speaker 1 00:55:02 To us. Yes. Yes. And he used to say, well, and then he would go, ain't that something <laugh>? I would be sitting up there trying to talk to him like, ain't that something? And he would just waddle around. He'd be in the show at every and he was private coach, so he would just fucking drive. He would just go. He was Speaker 3 00:55:16 Oh, he didn't have any, he didn't have no rules Speaker 2 00:55:17 That Speaker 3 00:55:18 That can be dangerous. He wanted Speaker 1 00:55:19 To be at the scene. Speaker 3 00:55:20 Kinda like, y'all kind of like y'alls whole crew. There are no rules. Yeah. It's Speaker 2 00:55:23 Just dangerous the whole time. Like Speaker 3 00:55:24 Yeah dude. Like it's just Speaker 2 00:55:25 Craziness. Speaker 3 00:55:26 The things that, the things that I've heard that that that just, the polars for better for worse, there's not, it's just different. It's just there's Speaker 2 00:55:34 No right way to do it. Speaker 3 00:55:34 Yeah. Our we are the lamest band, like in the bus. Yeah. Like Speaker 2 00:55:39 It's, it's when it comes to like socially like Yeah. People would be like, man, I'd love to come on the bus, have a shot with y'all. I'm like, well we're not really drinking. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:55:47 Can sip. You can sip a LaCroix with me. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 3 00:55:50 We Speaker 2 00:55:50 Maybe smoke a cigar. It'd be the worst thing. Speaker 3 00:55:53 I know we, we kind of go to bed at midnight and wake up, get nine hours of sleep every night. Yeah. And it's Speaker 2 00:55:58 Just like, like the boys like drink beer and shit. But like Yeah, for the most part it's like everybody just chills and Yeah. We're Speaker 3 00:56:04 All like, there's no, there's no rounding. Our guys up. Cause And Speaker 2 00:56:07 That's married. Speaker 3 00:56:09 Everyone's married has a serious, serious girlfriend for the most Speaker 1 00:56:11 Part. Helps Speaker 2 00:56:11 Too, besides Taylor. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:56:13 Yeah. Man, I wasn't gonna do that to him. But Speaker 2 00:56:15 <laugh> Speaker 1 00:56:16 Taylor, he's off the market. Speaker 2 00:56:18 Yeah, he's a single. It's a pr. Oh, Speaker 1 00:56:19 He's single. Yeah. I was trying to find girls at the merch table for him. I've been, I've been good. He's, he's picky. I've been good at mergers and acquisitions over the last Speaker 3 00:56:26 Few years. He like making the moves on his owns what we found out. He, he's pick pick. Yeah. He don't, he don't, he don't want, he don't want it to feel like it's set up. Yeah. Hey dude, I got some, you know, Ashley's got a friend or Mallory's got a friend. Whatever's. Speaker 1 00:56:36 Yeah. You guys have probably tried. He's a nice guy. He's great Speaker 3 00:56:39 Dude. Great one the best. Speaker 1 00:56:40 He's a good guy. And you met him over playing Xbox Call Speaker 3 00:56:43 Duty. Yeah, I met him. I met him playing Call of Speaker 1 00:56:44 Duty. Call duty Chap. One of Speaker 3 00:56:45 My best friends. He's a cool guy. I love Taylor. Speaker 1 00:56:47 He's a hard worker too, man. That guy knows how to load a trailer. He works Speaker 3 00:56:51 Grind. He's an ass. I mean that's one thing. Like we run a, like we run a pretty tight ship. I mean it's fun. We have a good time out there. Don't, I don't wanna get it twisted, but it's like our idea of fun is at 30 and married is not the same idea of fun when we were 22 and single and single. Yeah. You know, so it's so it's just a little different. And it's, I mean it's a work trip. We're out there to, we're out there to make fans sell some merch and, and play really, really good show. Yeah. And so that's where our kind of priorities are. And then you get home on Sunday and you're like, wow dude, I don't even feel tired or all over. Yeah. It's like, I actually wanna work on Monday. Yeah. It's like, oh it is not like, you know, pulling teeth to round up everybody or whatever. So yeah, it's our home. So like, we like to keep it, it's pretty, we run it pretty clean. Tyler runs pretty tight Chip. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:57:33 It's, yeah, it was, it was clean. I like all the snacks that Tyler has on there too. Tyler is king. But I know you guys are tough cuz y'all are, y'all are always on the diet stuff. We trying, Speaker 3 00:57:42 We, we always trying to stay healthy and they always bringing Twinkies and we at least go to the gym every day. Like, we'll we'll have a Twinkie every now and then, but we try not to <laugh> Speaker 1 00:57:49 Those lucky Charm breakfast bars. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:57:51 They be on there. Ty, Bob knows how to buy Snap. Speaker 1 00:57:54 He does man. That guy's the king of bus stop. Yeah, dude, he does very well. There's always Speaker 3 00:57:58 Some damn Oreos or some shit on that when he's playing with the company credit card. He's like, I'll try these <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:58:04 He's like my money. That's what, that's what Sweet Boy does with Trey. He's got the Amex card and he goes in there. He was always our bus stop guy. Um, but so for the rest of this year, um, what else do we got? So we got, we got time off right now. You're about to go in the woods. You're gonna be hitting the golf course. Um, and then you guys are back out in the road just Yeah, Speaker 3 00:58:19 We got our, we we finish up, we got two more four weeks of Yeah, we got five shows left. We're in Athens and then Spartanburg and then Tulsa. Texas. Tulsa. Yeah. Tulsa, Texas. Tulsa. Yeah. What's that? Some Chilifest Chili Fest. We're with, uh, Summerville maybe. I think it, I think that's what it is. We're there with Jamie Johnson and Oh, sick. Uh, geo Giovanni. Speaker 1 00:58:40 Dude. What a And that's like both sides of y'all's spec. That's uh, one of the Yeah, Speaker 3 00:58:45 It's kind of cool. We're like the the middle, the middle, like Speaker 1 00:58:48 The middle man Speaker 3 00:58:48 Yeah. Of the spectrum. So it's cool. And then the shows with turnpike are always kickass and, you know Yeah. They're 15,000 people. Yeah. So it, that's gonna be fun. And uh, yeah. And then we'll have our, our little, a little break. And it's kind of funny, we, we always take kind of January off the road. It's pretty light and so, but it wasn't a light work cuz we knew that hey, we got this record coming up and then we're gonna be off. So like let's get everything in order. So once we do hit April, like we can actually have a break Yeah. Or whatever. So, but yeah, we, we, we could kick back up in June and through the year and you know, we're doing some, some new, we are doing, doing our first like west, like a real west like a headline. West Coast. West Coast run. Speaker 1 00:59:29 Shout out to Ulti UL's. Gotta be excited about that. Oh yeah, Speaker 3 00:59:31 He is. Yeah. They're all, I mean, I'm pumped too cuz it's like, we've never played Seattle, Washington never played like LA you know, LA you know, Oregon or Montana or whatever. So it's kind of, it's gonna be really cool to be like, oh, this is kind of like the testing ground. I wonder what and the tickets have been doing. Really. We're like, we're like, holy crap. Like we didn't know we had that many fans out there. People Speaker 1 00:59:50 Been waiting for you to come out Speaker 3 00:59:51 There. Right. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's an ego stroke for sure. It's cool. It's like, man Boise, I Idaho's about to sell out. This is weird. Like never been there. Yeah. So that's a, it's always a cool thing, but yeah. And then people Speaker 2 01:00:01 That don't get to see you very often are very excited to see Speaker 3 01:00:03 You. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And then we'll, we'll hit, always hit the southeast and then we have the Teenage Dixie tour, uh, that'll announce in May. And then that'll be pretty much, we do our summer thing and we're gonna be busy summer. It's start like August, September. It's gonna start August, September, something like that through the year. Speaker 1 01:00:17 How crazy is the Eric Church thing doing two shows? Speaker 3 01:00:21 He's sick, man. I mean, Speaker 1 01:00:22 Like, how, why? Like, because that's, those are the, you guys used to make money singing Eric Church songs. Oh, no. Acoustic duo in a bar. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And Speaker 2 01:00:30 Eric, I mean, Eric's one of the goats. So, I mean, there's not many times you get opportunity to play with artists like that, you know? Yeah. Especially like, I mean, there's certain artists that, you know, that are big that, that don't make sense for us that I would say. But it's like, there's, there's a handful of them that, you know, are like bucket list guys that you're guys are like, oh shit, I we're crossing this one off. You know? Yeah. Speaker 3 01:00:49 Like, I remember when we, when we changed booking agents and it was kinda like, well, who are some big artists that you'd really wanna play with? And it's like Turnpike Air Church in Stapleton. We haven't got Stapleton yet, and I don't know if we ever will. That would be awesome. But it's, but it's literally like, is Speaker 2 01:01:02 Are like our bucket list. Speaker 3 01:01:03 Yeah. And it's like, that's coming into fruition. That's really cool that we're getting to do that. And, and then it's like, it Speaker 2 01:01:08 Could turn into more like, yeah, like Speaker 3 01:01:09 We've done a lot of shows with Turnpike this past year and it's, and they're great guys. We coming up too and Yeah. A lot this year, so they wanna put us out on the road. I wouldn't mind. Speaker 2 01:01:17 Yeah, dude, they're, Speaker 3 01:01:19 It's crazy. So it's cool. And that, like I said, same kinda artists who have very guarded fan bases of like, oh, if Eric likes this, if Eric, they're playing with Eric, I like him too, then I'm a fan too, you know, same with Turnpike. So it's, it's a cool thing. And those are the, it's it is, I mean, for us, the Eric thing was just like, I feel like he's kind of picky, choosy on who he brings out too. Yeah. So just very, even if whoever made that connection, whether it was him or not or whatever, it's just like, thanks. The fact that we're on like that radar is, is really cool. Thanks. Speaker 2 01:01:50 Shout out to whoever that Speaker 3 01:01:51 Was. Yeah. So we're, we're Speaker 1 01:01:52 Pumped about it. And to be doing it independently. Yeah. Like it's, yeah. It's special man's. That's a big, that's a big deal, boys. Well I appreciate you guys coming on dude. This Speaker 3 01:01:59 Thanks for having Speaker 1 01:02:00 Us, man. This is long overdue. Speaker 2 01:02:01 We'll do it again. You Speaker 1 01:02:02 Know, dude. Yeah. I mean, maybe it Speaker 2 01:02:03 Won't be a couple years. Speaker 3 01:02:05 This is like, this is light work, man. We, we love, I mean, didn't, I mean, you texted us yesterday about this and we're like, man, we got nothing to do tomorrow. Let's see Speaker 2 01:02:12 If they can do it. Yeah, I like, might as well. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:02:13 I was like, I'll do it, I'll not, Speaker 2 01:02:14 Yeah. Called Matt yesterday, he was like, Hey, what up? And I was like, Hey, you wanna just do it tomorrow? He's like, I mean, yeah, <laugh>, Speaker 3 01:02:19 He's like, that's fine. Like whatever. Speaker 2 01:02:21 So he was like, what is your schedule like in the next month? I was like, what about tomorrow? Yeah, Speaker 3 01:02:24 <laugh>. Yeah. No, it worked out. So yeah, we're really blessed, man. And and happy to see all y'all got going on too, man. And I know you're making the transition to civilian life. Speaker 1 01:02:32 Yeah, I'm in the, I well I'm still going to like festival now. I mean the concert goer thing where me and Nikki t have, like, that's Speaker 2 01:02:40 Still a good thing. Well Speaker 1 01:02:41 It's, it's, I get to like sit and enjoy the music. I'm not having to wonder if the food's backstage, if the settlement's right. If there's, yeah. You can Speaker 2 01:02:48 Just enjoy it how it's intended to be Speaker 1 01:02:49 Enjoy. Yeah. And then I'm Speaker 3 01:02:50 Where sweet boys at. Yeah. Speaker 2 01:02:52 Seriously though. He'll get lost on you, bud. Oh, Speaker 1 01:02:55 He's great. <laugh>. But um, but yeah, it's, uh, it's been, uh, it's been good. And uh, we've got a lot of exciting stuff coming, uh, with the raised rowdy thing and, and in the rounder we'll be rebranding that soon too. So Yeah. Dude, Speaker 3 01:03:07 It's, by the way, I saw that, uh, was that y'all doing the the butt rock thing? Speaker 2 01:03:11 Dude? Speaker 1 01:03:12 Butt rock. Dude. Dude, that Speaker 2 01:03:13 Looks hilarious. Speaker 3 01:03:13 That looked awesome. I saw, uh, was it Brian sj? We're doing And I'm, bro, Speaker 2 01:03:19 Dude, Speaker 1 01:03:20 That was one of the what? So we did it last year. It started as an idea where we, so we, me and Nikki t we went to Key West last year. We're going again this year. And we were on the flight, it was us. And then Brian Frazier, his wife Holly. That's a nut. Speaker 2 01:03:32 He's Speaker 1 01:03:33 Hilarious by the way. Brian's the man's hilarious. Then. Um, and then Mikey Gert and Dean PDO used to play with Tyler Braid and they play a lot down downtown. We were all stoned, um, in the Atlanta Airport. And we were like, Hey, what if we did a butt rock event? And then, because Speaker 2 01:03:46 Everyone loves butt rock. Like they, they don't like to admit Speaker 3 01:03:49 Hat if you don't. Cause there's some, Speaker 2 01:03:50 If you don't like Nickelback and Creed. Yeah. And like yeah, you're, Speaker 1 01:03:53 Yeah. So last year, so last year we did it and it went great and then this year we were like, what if we did it on Nikki t's birthday as a rowdy on the row? And it lined up perfectly and we had the house band. So it's like we have a house band of like Dean Mikey, their buddy. Oh was, Speaker 2 01:04:07 They were like live playing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Speaker 1 01:04:09 Yeah. So they live, they played about I think 12 or 14 songs and then Speaker 2 01:04:13 Grady Live band karaoke basically. Speaker 1 01:04:15 And then Grady Sack and then Grady Axman and his guys came up and played about eight, nine songs. And we had like, um, and then we ended up having McElroy Sweet Boy actually made this connection. Our buddy, we have a good buddy named Josh Terry who does podcasts as well. He's down in Georgia's crazy bastard. Uh, but he, so he, Speaker 2 01:04:31 You keep those around, you Speaker 1 01:04:32 Know, <laugh> I do. I have to keep my life interesting. I have a thing for the, the Wild Metro crazy bastards, Speaker 2 01:04:36 Like Speaker 1 01:04:36 The wild folks of the south. I do Man, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi. Just love them. I do man. I just attract him. I don't know what it is. But, um, he's boys with the guys from Saving Abel. So Saving Abel. I saw Speaker 2 01:04:46 That. Speaker 1 01:04:47 They showed up. I did see that. They showed up and we're like, Hey man, what, what song you wanna sing? He's like, we wanna sing a Three Doors Down song. And we're like, okay. And they hopped up and sang Kryptonite to close out the night. That's awesome. It was just fucking epic. The place was packed. We sold a lot of merch. Speaker 2 01:05:00 That looked like a lot of fun. It Speaker 1 01:05:01 Was, it was, it was wild. And we'll definitely be doing it again. Nothing but Rock Night is what we call it. Nothing but rock. Speaker 2 01:05:06 I like it. Oh, nothing but rock. But Speaker 3 01:05:08 Rock. We gotta figure out what our butt rock song is. Speaker 2 01:05:11 I was about to say, I ain't even gonna lie, I was kind of thinking about like what we would do, you know, <laugh> Speaker 3 01:05:15 Like a cross fade song or something. Dude. Speaker 2 01:05:17 Yeah. Speaker 1 01:05:17 Just cold. Yeah, we we, yeah. This Pat. Yeah. I'm trying to think of like, we had like, I mean because like the godfather's like Nick looking Speaker 2 01:05:24 Back at me. Speaker 1 01:05:24 Yes. Yeah. Nickelback, limp, Bizkit Creed, hinder Seear. Those are like the godfathers. Don, you throw like Theory of a Dead Man. We Speaker 2 01:05:33 Have so many warman wonders. Like you have so many one hit Wonders in that like, they're so gased stained. Speaker 1 01:05:38 Dude. Dude. Oh, stained. Yeah, dude, Speaker 2 01:05:40 It was stained. Not one hit wonder, but Speaker 1 01:05:41 Drew, drew Dixon saying, uh, I'm on the outside. I'm looking in like it was. Oh yeah, dude, awesome. We had, uh, Jordan Rage saying, uh, click, click boom by saliva. And he Speaker 2 01:05:50 Probably, like, he's a nut too. Like, he like wild on stage so he like Speaker 3 01:05:53 Jumps up and down. Gotta do like p o d or something. Speaker 1 01:05:56 <laugh>. Yeah. Oh dude. Yeah. And it's whatever Speaker 2 01:06:01 Nation. Speaker 1 01:06:02 Yeah. And, uh, it's whatever the band's willing to learn. So it's up. We, we ask Dean and Mikey for a list of songs. You say Speaker 2 01:06:07 Like, here's a list basic. Speaker 1 01:06:08 We make, we, we make, we all make a joint big Spotify playlist and put like, oh, this could be cool. Like, we had Ella Langley sing, um, bad Girlfriend by Theory of a Dead Man, which was fucking awesome. That's, we had girls singing Flyleaf Hailstorm Fucking Evan. Yep. Evan s Daniel saying that dude. Yeah. It was fucking, I Speaker 2 01:06:25 Don't dunno if that's butt rock, but Yeah. Speaker 1 01:06:26 It, it fits still. Good Rock. We had AVR Levine complicated on this one, which isn't quite butt rock, but, but Speaker 2 01:06:31 It's like pop butt rock. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 01:06:33 I bet the crowd loves it Speaker 2 01:06:34 Though. Yeah. Speaker 1 01:06:35 It's the be the best Rock and roll from 1998 to 2007. You know, Speaker 2 01:06:39 We were raised on Speaker 3 01:06:39 That. Was it, was it slammed in there too? Oh, it was packed. Speaker 1 01:06:41 Yeah. It was Speaker 2 01:06:42 Great. Awesome. So we were raised on that dude. Like that's why we all love it. Speaker 1 01:06:44 It was great. And then we had America's the bestest bar crawl for Nikki T's birthday, which he's been doing since he was in Pittsburgh. Jesus. So it's Jesus, everybody's in green for St. Patrick's Day and we're all in red. We're 30, 40 deep. We're in red, white, and blue going to all the bars in Midtown. And it was Speaker 3 01:06:57 Just chaos. Nick. He's, he's so funny than Speaker 1 01:06:59 Me. He's, he's man, he's the older brother. I never had, I can't believe he Speaker 2 01:07:01 Hates like that still. He, he's a legend. What Speaker 1 01:07:04 He did, he was smart. He went home at eight 30 on Saturday night and I was like, Nikki, you got another hour. Slept in hard. We're at Red door. And he's like, man, I'm fucked up. I gotta go. I'm like, dude, let's go sit outside. I'll have a, I'll have a cigarette. Like, we'll sit outside, we'll chill. He's like, no man, I gotta go home. And then he was perfect the next day. If he had stayed another hour, he would've been hurting on Sunday. But he, he was like, we have butt Rock night the next night. Dude, Speaker 2 01:07:26 He's 40. He's he's 41. Yeah. He's he's a pro dude. Like he's gonna space it out. Right? Speaker 1 01:07:31 Yeah. Dude, I'm excited to be, um, to be, to be doing some more work with him, going to festivals with him. That's Speaker 3 01:07:36 A good dude. It's a, it's a good dude Speaker 1 01:07:37 Man. And he, he's got, and he's got his podcast stuff we're working on getting some more podcast concepts going and that Speaker 2 01:07:42 Yeah. We've done theirs before too. Yeah, dude. And to hop back on that. Yeah. Speaker 1 01:07:45 Yeah. And it's, and it's fun. And it's cool what they do with, with Kurt being able to play on the songs and No, it mean you have, you have a world-class musician. You have, they, their interviews are a little bit different. Mine are a little more outta the box and wild cuz it's, cuz it's me. Yeah. But Speaker 3 01:07:57 <laugh> no, I mean this, it's cool to see like guys who are just like you, you know, your past coming from radio and then also too, it's just being a fan and, and it's like finding your place here and it like, and Mare matters in Nashville and so does Nicky t and like that's so it's really cool Speaker 2 01:08:14 To be Yeah. Shout out to you too bro. Cause y'all were doing it before people were listening like, you Speaker 3 01:08:18 Know, you know, so it's like, it's just like you put in the time and effort and now it's like, you know how, you know, we, and it's kind of weird cuz you're our buddy. Yeah. So it's, but it's like how we looked at like Ward when we first moved to town, like those guys moved into town. Look at you in t just in that same, Speaker 1 01:08:33 I gave out my number seven times last night. Not a single one was to a girl. Yeah. It was all to dudes wanting to play the round on the like Speaker 2 01:08:40 In the scene. You're, and being nice enough and genuine enough to like want to connect with them. Yeah. It's not like you're just like blowing people off. Speaker 3 01:08:45 Yeah. What's in it for me? It's exactly. You a champion for the people. Dude. You like, Speaker 2 01:08:49 You like to get to know people. That's one of your best attributes. <laugh>. You gotta Speaker 3 01:08:52 Be part and you've never met a stranger. Speaker 1 01:08:54 No, I've never met a stranger. I didn't even talk to homeless people downtown when I worked to work down there. Oh yeah. I'm so glad I don't work down there. Which by the way, that's probably the biggest thing I got to thank you guys for, I mean I've had great times with y'all and, and the touring thing was a huge chapter of my life and all that. Yeah. But you guys got me away from downtown working security on Broadway, which was the greatest thing ever. That Speaker 2 01:09:12 Nice wheel man. Speaker 1 01:09:13 Oh it was great. And um, but, but for real boys, it was a pleasure having you guys today. Yeah dude. And um, thanks Speaker 3 01:09:18 For having us man, Speaker 1 01:09:19 Dude. And um, congrats on everything. Look forward to seeing what's coming the rest of this year. Thank you bud. Hope you get all, all 10 birds all Speaker 3 01:09:26 That'd be cool. Hope, Speaker 1 01:09:27 Hope. We hope we break. Speaker 2 01:09:28 Um, we need to go play again. Yes, Speaker 1 01:09:29 We do. It's not too long. I haven't played in a long time so it's gonna be bad. Speaker 2 01:09:32 So I'd probably kill you. Speaker 3 01:09:33 Me, Charlie's gonna break 80. Speaker 2 01:09:34 I'd probably kill Speaker 1 01:09:35 You. Me and Tyler are gonna play for who can shoot the highest course. Speaker 3 01:09:37 You know, you gonna break 80 before Speaker 2 01:09:39 Maybe I need to do the super slam of golf, you know, like just pick the best. Speaker 3 01:09:42 See, I think that'd be it. The Speaker 2 01:09:43 Best course in every stage. You played Speaker 1 01:09:45 Trump's course not too long ago, right? Speaker 2 01:09:46 I did in Miami. Yeah. See Speaker 1 01:09:48 There's, that's that's a Florida, that's a that's good one. Speaker 3 01:09:50 There's Florida. Yeah. Know, there's, Speaker 2 01:09:51 Everybody needs a challenge, you know, <laugh>. Speaker 1 01:09:54 Hell yeah. But um, all the socials are, um, muscadine, bloodline Muscadine b wine Speaker 3 01:09:58 Stuff, right? Same. Been the same, Speaker 1 01:10:00 Been the same friend's Speaker 3 01:10:01 Type muscadine. It'll come up. Hell yeah. Speaker 2 01:10:02 We're the only musco on band out <laugh>. I think. Hell, Speaker 1 01:10:05 Hell yeah. Well guys, thanks for watching this episode. Uh, be sure to check out our boys, Garrity and Charlie. Um, check out Musca on Bloodline. Don't just stream the record by the record by the merch. Go out to the shows. You guys will not be disappointed. Um, and they've got a lot coming for you this year. Um, thanks as always for watching the episode, um, watching the podcast. Be sure to like, rate, subscribe, tell your mama and them shout out to Sweet Boy. Behind the camera and all of our friends. We got Whale Tail Media, we got Saxon Studios. We got our friend Mitch Wallace with the Digital Marketing Agency and of course our friends at Pickle Jar Live. Uh, we'll see you all next time. This has been the In The Round podcast.