Rob Williford

Speaker 1 00:00:14 What is going on everybody? Welcome back to this week's edition of the In the Round podcast. You got Matt hanging out with you, and today we got a very special guest. We got our good buddy, Mr. Rowdy, Rob Williford. Um, he's a heavy hitter here in town, uh, goes out in the road, plays guitar with a guy you might have heard of, named Mr. Luke Combs. And, uh, we're looking forward to talking with him. Gotta tell y'all real quick about our sponsors here on In The Round podcast. Gonna give a shout out to our friends at Saxon Studios, Grady, Saxon and the boys. They're big believers of what everybody does here in Music City. And if you're looking to record a demo, you're looking to put out a badass project, looking to work with great people here in Nashville, Tennessee. Check out our friends at Saxon Studios. Speaker 1 00:00:55 We love them very much and, uh, we appreciate their support within the round and with our songwriters nights at Live Oak, which, speaking of songwriters nights, we got a killer one tomorrow. We're super, super stoked for it. We got Sean s Stemly on there. We got our old buddy Noah Hicks. We have got all kinds of different people on there. Tyler Halverson, Minnie Pay, Lizzie, Josh Phillips, joy, Beth Taylor, Tristan Marez, Casey Tyle, Josh Kaiser. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So, uh, we have that going on tomorrow at Live Oak. Also gotta keep the list of sponsors going. Our friends at Whale Tale Media Wales and the Boys, they have you covered. You're getting hitched, you're looking for content, brand marketing, anything. Uh, the folks at Whale Tail Media, they have you covered, check them [email protected]. And then last, but certainly not least, our friends in the Green world, Trailside and CBD emporium, Delta A T H C. It's legal, it's hemp derived. It's awesome. And Hano, man, it's freaking works. So make sure you check them out. Use the promo code i t r at checkout for 20% off your order, and they'll do free delivery. They'll do all kinds of good stuff for you, so make sure you check them out. Trailside cbd.com, promo code I t r. Now, without further ado, let's get into this one, our conversation with Mr. Rob Willa Bird Speaker 1 00:02:19 Buddy. Thanks for hanging, uh, the observatory that we're in right now, bro. Speaker 2 00:02:24 You're very brave, Speaker 1 00:02:25 Dude. This place is awesome. Like I, I mean all the shit you got on the wall, dude, you got freaking golden tea in the corner. Speaker 2 00:02:33 Hey, don't be telling too much about the observer. Speaker 1 00:02:35 Don't be telling, all right. All right. All right. It is. We are in a disclosed location hanging out with our good buddy, Mr. Rob Williford. Uh, rowdy. How you doing, man? Uh, Speaker 2 00:02:44 I could not be more blessed, brother, and now that you're here, uh, even more so, so thank you for asking me to be on your, your podcast. Thank you for coming out to Mount Juliet, Tennessee, uh, Wilson County and coming to the Observatory. Dude, Speaker 1 00:02:59 I'm a, I'm a big fan and, uh, being outside of town is kind of nice. I'm, I'm in Antioch right now. That's where I live at. So Speaker 2 00:03:06 I, I lived in Antioch for about a year. Speaker 1 00:03:08 I feel like everybody's lived in Antioch at least one time. It's right of Speaker 2 00:03:11 Passage. Speaker 1 00:03:11 It is a rite of passage. You learn a thing or two living in the other, other la you know, you got Los Angeles, you got Louisiana, you got Lower Alabama, and then you got Lower Antioch. You know, Speaker 2 00:03:20 It's, I can't think of the term, lower Alabama without thinking Laney Wilson <laugh>. It's like, I hear her sing that whenever anyone says that. Speaker 1 00:03:27 Yeah, dude. Same here. Uh, now you've been in town for a minute now, right? You were saying what collectively, what, like 12 years or something? Speaker 2 00:03:34 Yeah, man, I got to a certain age where I stopped kind of keeping track of time, uh, as it relates to years, you know, I think that's me being afraid of getting old. But yeah, if I do the math, which I'm really terrible at, uh, I moved here in 2006 for the first time. Lived here for about three and a half years, moved back to Charlotte, and then I moved back to Nashville from Charlotte in 2013. So if you add it all up, yeah, it's, it's right around 12 years. Speaker 1 00:04:02 So what caused you to move here first? Like, was it wanting to do the Speaker 2 00:04:07 What? Being an idiot. What Speaker 1 00:04:08 Was young Rod Williford thinking of moving to Nashville? And you said what? Like, oh six. Speaker 2 00:04:12 Oh six, man, I, I had gone to, uh, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for my freshman year. Uh, ironically, I'm a Duke Blue Devil fan. We don't have to get into that. It's a long story. <laugh> I have, you'll learn, you'll learn even in this short podcast. I have a lot of issues. Uh, but that was one of them. I went to Carolina for a year and I dropped out, broke my mama's heart <laugh>, and I just wanted to do country music, man. I was in a band in my hometown. I'm from a little town called Gastonia, North Carolina. Shout out Gateway to, uh, Charlotte is the gateway to Gastonia, but it's a little town southwest of Charlotte. And I was in a band with two guys. Uh, we were called 74 South, bam. And we moved out here and just started playing on Broadway and anywhere we could, anywhere. Speaker 2 00:05:03 And, uh, I moved out here to do that. And to kind of back it up a little bit, um, in 2004, I believe it was, I came to a CMA fest, never been to Nashville, and, uh, fell in love with the city, first of all, and even at that young of an age. But I saw Dirks Bentley, uh, come out in Titan Stadium on the end of the thrust. I was 16 years old and I remember very vividly he came out just him an acoustic guitar, uh, playing two chords and, and played, come a little closer baby. Yeah, yeah. And right then and there I was like, well, that's it. That's what I wanna do. And I'm not kidding. I, since that moment, I have not stopped being obsessed with writing songs and country music. Speaker 1 00:05:51 That's awesome, man. And you think of 2004 Nashville, very different place in 2000, hell, 2006 now, hell, 2013 to now you've seen like the evolution of kind of Nashville over the last 20 or so years. Speaker 2 00:06:04 You know what's interesting that you say that, because I remember being here, uh, like when I had just moved here in oh six, I lived actually in Donaldson, uh, off of Elm Hill Pike. And uh, I remember meeting people even then that had lived here in the eighties, nineties, uh, and early two thousands. And they were talking about, even then they were like, Nashville is a completely different place and it would blow your mind. And, and now I've kind of seen it in three different sections. And, uh, man, I wonder what it's gonna look like in 2030. I mean, the aliens will certainly have come back by then, but Speaker 1 00:06:41 I agree, I agree with you a hundred percent. There'll be spaceships landing somewhere. Definitely, definitely somewhere, man, we can get into that a little bit later. Um, what were some of the bars that you were hanging out at when you first came to town in like 2013? Like what was, cuz you go, you go home too, and I mean, we gotta, we gotta talk about, um, talk about your buddy, um, Mr. Luke Combs that, that you, that you met. You said what in 2013 and then you end up coming back here. What was that kind of saga like? Real quick, then we'll get into the bars. Speaker 2 00:07:06 Yeah. So to get us to that point in the CliffNotes version of it all, um, the abridged version, basically, I lived here and I, and me and those other two guys in the band from my hometown, we played, uh, in bars and on Broadway. And, um, after a couple years, you know, we ended up moving back home and, and those guys got married and had children and uh, and I still keep up with 'em and they both have, they're both fantastic human beings. Uh, but I never quite let go. I was so resentful. I was so resentful to myself. Cause I was playing in bars in, in Charlotte on the weekends really for the attention of women and free alcohol. And, uh, you know, watching guys like Eric Church, Lee Bryce, Jared Neiman, Jake Owen, that kind of class of that I had watched when I had moved there kind of start to take off. Speaker 2 00:07:58 I then became really cynical and, uh, and by the grace of God, I kind of had a, an epiphany moment to where I acknowledged that. And, and I woke up on a Wednesday and I, and I moved here and we can talk about that. But had I not had that like, singular moment of going, oh, I'm just kind of pissed off because I'm not doing it. Yeah. You know, that was why I came back here. And so when I came back here, I came back with the intent of, no, I wanna write songs. That's what I wanted. Even if I was gonna fall on my face, like I knew I desperately wanted for the first time in my life to do nothing but invest in the idea that I could write country music. Speaker 1 00:08:33 Yeah. And did you have a lot to say at that time? Cuz if you're going through some shit, like, I feel like that's such a big thing for songwriters is like, you go through kind of these tips as a writer. Yeah, but Speaker 2 00:08:42 I wasn't even to the point of dealing with that, I was, I was still so far away from, I was delusional to what it was to be, uh, to be a songwriter in Nashville. I was so far away from it at that point. I was trying to chase the radio, I was trying to write songs that I had heard. Right. Speaker 1 00:08:58 And you know, that's a, that's that's Speaker 2 00:08:59 Everyone goes through it. Yeah. Almost everyone goes through it. Speaker 1 00:09:01 Especially early on. Speaker 2 00:09:02 Which early on you have to, Speaker 1 00:09:03 Which is tough when you're, when you are early on because Speaker 2 00:09:06 You've really, and I'm still early on Yeah. <laugh>, I mean, I'm in the, I'm in the absolute, no, I'm not kidding. Like I wanna be, I don't shy away from the fact like, I want to be Dean fucking Dylan. Yeah. I wanna be Tony Lane. I want to be Jonathan Singleton. Yes. Yeah. In 10 years I wanna be Jonathan Singleton. And, and he knows he's got 10 years on me. And I love that. Like, I I love that. I love that kind of like, I'm very intent about that's what I wanna be. Right? So I think I have to have this kind of self-awareness of <laugh>. I have no clue. I still have no clue in the grand scheme of things. Uh, but I do know now at least I'm smart enough to, uh, look towards those people and go, I wanna learn from them. Whereas before it was like, oh, I just wanna get out here and get a publishing deal. And I craved this validation of, I wanted, you know, the, the industry and one of my peers. I wanted that validation. And the more I get into it, the more I realize how misguided and misplaced that was. Speaker 1 00:09:58 Yeah. No, it's, and it's, it's great that you can, you can look back on that now. Who were some of the folks that you were looking up to early on and who were some of your like, early co-writers? Like who was that crew? Because for a lot of times you're just, you're just writing with your friends and then it takes some one of these heavy hitters out there to kind of kind of take a chance with writing with you or like, just kind of weird shit to happen. Who were some of those folks early on for Speaker 2 00:10:19 You? Also, I realize I have skipped both your questions. No, Speaker 1 00:10:21 You're good. We'll get back to it. We got plenty of time, bro. As Speaker 2 00:10:24 Far as how I met Luke, I was out here trying to get a publishing deal, uh, in 2013. I was lucky enough to get a publishing deal at this bullshit. Um, we don't need to go there. I, I got, uh, my first publishing deal and, uh, thought I had really made it and boy was I ever so wrong. But the connection was, um, my high school science teacher. I went to a little private Christian high school called Gaston Christian. And, uh, miss Lenora Crabtree, she was my science teacher. I think biology specifically, um, probably got that wrong, you know, probably screwed that up. But I do know, uh, I was in Boy Scouts with her son Sam, Sam was going to Appalachian State University. Speaker 1 00:11:08 Oh shit. So this is okay. Cause I know Sam, that's, yeah, I didn't know about all this. Yeah, that's wild. Speaker 2 00:11:13 And so she was like, Hey, I know you're in, uh, in Nashville. My son is rooming with a guy at App State. He's got a really great voice. I think he should meet him. He wants to be a songwriter. And of course I'm going, nah, I ain't got time to meet that guy. I'm out here. I'm a real songwriter, you know, <laugh> stupid, stupid. Yeah. Just, I look back on it, I'm like, this is why I taught. I am very, very honest about how delusional I was and still am to a certain extent. And you have to be if you're a dreamer. But I met Luke that way. And you know, the running joke has always been when we met, we, it wasn't like we high fived and became boys. You know, I was pretty pretentious. Young, immature, cocky, arrogant. Take your pick. And, uh, and I think comms, you know, he, he knew what he wanted to do. Speaker 2 00:11:59 And, and just like I say, I want to be Dean Dillon, Luke knew that he wanted to be, I'll never forget we played our showcase one time and one of these big label execs came out. And this super, make no mistake, this is intimidating for anybody no matter how long you've been here, no matter matter how talented you are, that's intimidating. And this guy comes out and, you know, he's like, oh, well son, what do you, where do you see yourself in your music? And comms didn't even break stride. He just said, oh, I wanna be Garth Brooks. And, and there was like a h hush that fell over all these a and r suit wearing people. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I love that. You know, he's, he's like Michael Jordan. He wants the ball in his hands. Yeah. He feels most comfortable behind a microphone. And that's why I tell people, like, if you wanna be an artist, like if you wanna come out here and do it, you should be chomping at the bit to play your best songs. You should be chomping at the bit to be playing any gig in front of anybody. You should never think that you're too good to play any gig. That's ridiculous. And you should be wanting to get out and, and, and do it and play. Speaker 1 00:12:55 Amen, dude. Amen. What were those initial gigs like with Luke? With Luke? Yeah. Yeah. Like where you guys were doing the, the bars and, and the Mexican restaurants. It Speaker 2 00:13:04 Was lightning. It was lightning. Uh, Luke and I, I think I can talk about this. Probably not. I mean, I'll probably get fired. I don't know what, what I can do and can't do these days, to be honest with you. But, uh, I'm pretty honest. Guy, Luke and I wrote a song about this very thing, and I'm, I'm hoping, uh, knock on wood, that it'll be on the album. Uh, but it was, it was absolute, uh, there's no other feeling like it because it was a couple of guys, a couple of buddies, like going on stage and playing in front of crowds that there was nothing to lose. There was nothing, there was no expectation. There was no pretense, there was no kind of pressure. I I only equate it to like, when it's the Cinderella team and the NCAA tournament, it's like, you know, once they get to that Sweet 16, it's like, oh, they're, they just, it's momentum is what it Speaker 1 00:13:57 Is. Yeah. They just don't stop. Speaker 2 00:13:58 It's momentum. Yeah. And, and Kathy is big on that. Uh, but man, those days where we're electric and, but in the same way, just in a different, uh, different places now. But Speaker 1 00:14:09 When did, when did it start feeling like, oh shit, this is like something, something that can, something that can happen. Like even before, even before you guys go out and tour with Brantley and do all that stuff, right? Like, was there a moment like playing, playing the, the circuit of, of the Peachtree Circuit with good old, good old Brad, good old, uh, uncle Ronnie, Bradley, Jordan, and all those Speaker 2 00:14:27 Guys. Yeah. Well, there's all, there's like all these kind of chapters in the journey. And, and that's definitely one of them. I would say as far as like those early bars is Zydeco. Oh Speaker 1 00:14:36 Dude, I love that place. Speaker 2 00:14:38 Shout out Lane. Zydeco <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:14:40 It's, it's a, it's, it's a shit hole, but it's a shit hole that you're proud of. And it just has this energy and this energy, electricity and it's energy in the room. There's something about that Birmingham crowd. And I see it now working, working with Trey. I mean, right. He, he came up, he couldn't even play like this time last year. He would, he would've been happy to play downstairs, Zydeco. And now we, we sold it out like five, six months ago. But the electricity And for you guys, when was that initial gig, would you wanna say at Zydeco? Speaker 2 00:15:06 Um, Speaker 1 00:15:06 20 14, 15. Speaker 2 00:15:07 I think the, the very first gigs were 2015 when, when Bradley came into the picture. And those gigs were Zydeco, uh, brewhouse, Ron Brewhouse. Dude, that was a big one. Dude. Speaker 1 00:15:20 God bless Rome, Georgia, Speaker 2 00:15:21 You know, a lot of that. Georgia, south Georgia, you know, states for, uh, Speaker 1 00:15:26 Bro, the blue room dude, Speaker 2 00:15:28 Valdosta, oh boy. Uh, the gin in Tifton. Yep. Shout out jd. Um, but, uh, coyote Joe would be number one on the list. But I'm trying to think like, even before that, like the early, early stuff, 10, we did the 10 roof circuit, you know, in like Columbia, Louisville, uh, Lexington. Speaker 1 00:15:50 Did you go down to Delray? Speaker 2 00:15:52 No. Speaker 1 00:15:52 You would, you wanna do the Florida ones? Speaker 2 00:15:54 We, I, we never, man. We played like one, we played in Jacksonville. And I know Ryan Nelson remembers this gig cuz I got rowdy with him and his brother that night. Oh, Colin. Oh yeah. Um, but we didn't play much in Florida Speaker 1 00:16:09 Because it was everything you needed. Everything was, it was mostly what? Carolina, Georgia, Alabama. Alabama was a big one. Speaker 2 00:16:16 Oh, we, uh, Hattiesburg. Speaker 1 00:16:18 Oh bro. Brew skis. Brews skis, skis. We were just there a couple weeks ago. I love that Speaker 2 00:16:22 Place. I, I'm forgetting Boathouse. Yep. Myrtle. Myrtle, Wendell's Dipping Branch. Dude, Speaker 1 00:16:27 We, we did Anderson southbound. So we did that one. And it's, and it's funny, I mean, Speaker 2 00:16:31 Man, you're getting me all fired up cause I ain't played a show. Like we ain't played a show and now I think it's 14 months or something like that. And I'm going, now you're talking about all these places. And I'm like, every place we've named, I've recalled a really inappropriate, to be honest, a really inappropriate <laugh> memory. But I'm like, it reminds me of all the good stuff. And by this point, I'm ready to just go right now. Let's go pack up the truck. Yeah. Works. Throw an amp. We're going down to Wendell Dipping branch. And I'm just getting in with the house span. Yeah, dude, this weekend. You can catch me down there. <laugh>, Speaker 1 00:17:02 Dude. I mean, because that's the thing, Tim, I mean, you do quite a few things here in here in town, you know, I mean obviously you're, you're out in the road playing songwriting, as you said, has been like a day one thing for you. Like this is kind of a big reason for you, for you to be here in 2020. You can write a lot of songs, but you're not, you lose the other half of what you're doing. Like your identity in a way. What was that like? Speaker 2 00:17:24 <laugh>, that's really the best way to put it. So my life had become, it, it, it had gotten to a really good place, like a place that I'd, I'd worked very hard to get it, but my life was very, um, two dimensional half of the time. And I'd argue, uh, later on it became way more than half the time, but half the time it was going and, and getting on a tour bus and traveling and playing shows and being a guitar player, which I love, you know, that's how it all started when I was 13. I picked up a guitar cuz I wanted to learn Metallica. Fuck. Yeah. You know, like, and then there's still, I still wanna be a fucking rockstar. That's at the end of the day, I still wanna be, it's the same thing that attracted me to watching Driver Williams at an Eric Church show. Speaker 2 00:18:12 You know? And, and so I, that my joy and my passion is deeply rooted in performing. The other half of it was getting to come off the road and pop into this kind of creative head space to where you get to, uh, take your imagination and just turn it loose and you get to pull things outta thin air. And then you take those things outta thin air and you put 'em to a lyric and a melody. And if you're lucky enough, you get to go back out and take those things on the road and watch 'em grow and watch people come and, and sing the songs. And there's nothing truly nothing more fulfilling, fulfilling than having that kind of happen in real time together. And so when one of those things was just cut off abruptly Yeah. It was like losing half of myself. And, and at first it was like, whew. Like an exhale. Cuz we had been going pretty hard. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:19:04 How long did you think this break was gonna be? Because I remember being with Gary and Charlie and thinking like, oh, maybe we'll maybe we'll be out in April. Oh, maybe we'll be out in May. Like when did it kind of set in like, things are fucked? Speaker 2 00:19:17 I don't really remember. It all kind of seems like a blur. I do know that in May, the first week of May, I got a boat because I, that was when I had acknowledged and accepted, all right, this is outside of my control. I don't really give a shit how long it is, but I do know it's gonna be long enough that I can learn how to bass fish. And like a lot of people don't know I love the fish. Um, which people do know. But I grew up wanting to be a professional fisherman before I ever picked up a guitar. Oh no shit. Yeah. But I never knew how to bass fish. And so this whole like ba the bass thing is brand new and uh, yeah. That, that was a direct result of just accepting that we are not gonna be on the road this year. So I'd say probably May a year, year a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:20:03 Cuz that's, that's where, I mean, and then you talk about you're, you're, you're a songwriter and you're, you're out there, you're, you're in a band, you've been doing it for a long time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you finally put out a song on, on your own as, as Rob Williford. Mm. Was that a reflection of 2020 as well? Like, cause that song's deep and I relate to a lot of the shit that you talk Speaker 2 00:20:23 About. Man, that song was nothing more. And uh, and sometimes I forget about it and I think that's a very healthy thing, but that song was nothing more than, cuz I put that out in June. Yeah. And it was talking about not only the, uh, the pandemic and kind of the weirdness around that, but kind of my whole life up until that point, it was nothing more than a cathartic, uh, I didn't care if one person listened to it. And I was very humbled that people did. And you know, I, I got a lot of people that re reached out and said very kind, moving things, impactful things. And that made my soul happy. But I selfishly did that for two reasons. One, as kind of a cathartic kind of therapeutic thing. And then, uh, the other reason I did it was to not be a puss. I had always said that, uh, I was tired of being insecure and caring about, uh, you know, my lack of vocal ability or, or my lack of guitar ability, or I was done with all that. I was like, no, I just wanna write a song I'm gonna wanna put out and prove to myself that I can do that. And yeah. And so in that way it was more of like a middle finger. And, and nobody knew that. And I didn't need anybody to know that, but I knew that. Speaker 1 00:21:35 Yeah. And for, like I said, I mean, there's just a lot of stuff in there cuz I don't drink anymore. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they're my, my parents are divorced. Like, there's, there's lines in there and stuff. So thank you for putting that out. I remember seeing that. I was like, oh shit, how I put song. That's cool. Speaker 2 00:21:50 It's a very layered thing and, and we can move on from it. But yeah, to me it was like, okay, I always get a, I think the number one question I get is like, what advice do you have for writing songs in some way, shape or form? Some iteration of that question. And I usually answer with, with something like, you know, <laugh>, one of my favorite quotes is write hard and clear about what hurts. And sometimes we're able to do that and sometimes we're able to maybe tap into another emotion that we aren't experiencing in that moment in real time. But I'm like, all right, if you wanna challenge yourself, Robert, that I call myself that name. If, if you hear me say Robert, then I'm either probably, uh, ive lost it or I'm punishing myself cuz I'm talking to myself like my mother. But I say Robert, like, if you're gonna tell people to write heart and clear about what hurts, like you should do that too. All right. Let's do it. And so I kind of tried to hit every single thing, like my relationship with my father, my parents' divorce, my, uh, struggle with substance abuse for a lot of my life. Uh, my toxic relationships. I, I tried to really hit on the things that I think most people try to ignore or avoid all the time. Speaker 1 00:23:02 Yeah. But it's shit that everybody, everybody, one way or another, everybody runs into hell. Yeah. Whether it's you going through it yourself or you see a loved one going through it, or it's impacting your life in some way. Yeah. So I'm, I appreciate you talking about that too and all that. Now, another song that you were a part of and I see the plaques for it on, on the wall here and all, all the cool shit one number away, man. What, what went into that one? What was your role? And that Speaker 2 00:23:22 Was that That will always be a very special song for a lot of reasons. It was mine and Luke's first number one together. Uh, it was also like one of the very first songs we wrote together. Um, but yeah, that was one of those true story songs. Um, we co-wrote it with a guy named Steven Batty and, and Sammy Mitchell and Steven had this, the kind of the melody thing. I'm won number away. And I'd had this idea in my phone, uh, called One Headlight Away that I was gonna write as a joke song because I'd heard of a guy that like, had gotten busted. He got pulled over and arrested cuz he had a headlight out and he had like three pounds of weed in his trunk. Oh man. I was like, dude, you were one headlight away from getting home that night. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:24:07 Anyways, so then we kind of went in, but it was like mine and Luke's, I remember coming home and I, I sent that to my mom and my mom didn't get it. She was like, oh, this got a lot of words in it, <laugh>. But I remember thinking, I was like, this is one of the first songs. I felt like, no, I, I think this is pretty good. And I went with Dustin Huff to Panama City. Now I'm 26 years old going to Panama City for the first time with a bunch of 18, 19, 20 year olds. And, which was a terrible mistake, but we went down there and played that. We had the demo of it. And I'm not kidding, man. By the end of the week, the entire hotel, this huge condominium place was playing one number way. It's crazy. And that was kinda my first experience with watching a, a song kind of catch wildfire. Speaker 1 00:24:58 That's freaking awesome, man. Panama City. Speaker 2 00:25:00 You've seen that firsthand. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:25:02 I've seen that from sitting in the backyard sitting and I met all those guys from playing fucking kickball, bro. We were playing pick up kickball games at the Belmont softball field. We had the commissioner Alex Maxwell putting together kickball games and me and Ryan Nelson would've cigs in the outfield and all, all that stuff. And, and first time I heard, heard Trey Well, but the D D I D stuff, it was actually one of the writers playing it around A bonfire Yeah. In somebody's backyard. You know, it's like, it's so cool that that's another part of Nashville is we get to experience music things so organically. Speaker 2 00:25:33 That's the best part that people take. I'm gonna, I'm sorry, I gotta ran on this. No, what do you Speaker 1 00:25:38 Got? I'm so sorry. No, you're good, Speaker 2 00:25:38 Dude. Well, the reason I don't do a lot of rounds, uh, and, and I only kind of, I play rounds that I have a personal attachment to. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:25:47 Which I appreciate you playing ours. My, my Speaker 2 00:25:49 Neighbor across the street owns the listening room. Yeah. Chris, he's great. I love the listening room. I think it's a great venue. I'll play there. And I'm not trying to act like, oh, I'm too good to play. Right. It's not that, but if it's somebody I know or a friend or something, I'm all about it. But the thing that that kind of burdens me in this town is I go to these rounds and I see these kids that like move here that wanna be songwriters and all this shit. And I see 'em talking and giving zero shits about who's on stage or what's being sung. And I'm not talking about like people, I'm talking people singing hits, people singing timeless music, people singing songs that, like I've watched the Hall of Fame songwriter being on stage and these kids don't even know who his first name. Speaker 2 00:26:29 And I go, it's great to get out network. It's great to get out and meet people and being social, we've kind of been starved from that aspect of our lives. And I think it's important. But the thing that bothers me is that you, the coolest thing in this town that we take for granted is you get to experience songs organically before anybody else does. The entire world at one point may hear the song and know it and you're gonna be like, oh, I knew that song when it was cool. Well then act like it. Like go out and listen. Shut Speaker 1 00:26:55 Up. Yeah. What were those around that you've been very attached to and that you've kind of your class, like, it's funny how people talk about like Nashville mm-hmm. <affirmative> like high school classes and stuff. You were part and you've seen revival grow into the monster that it is. Whiskey Jam. What were those early days of Revival and Whiskey Jam? Speaker 2 00:27:13 People went out and listened to the songs, right? Yeah, man. Yeah. And I'm, I'm not trying to sound like the old man saying get off my lawn back Speaker 1 00:27:20 In my day, but Speaker 2 00:27:20 I, but I kind of am because I'm going, if you really wanna learn, because I know dude, I've, I've been here long as long as most people, but like some people have been here longer and then some people come to town just, it works out quicker and it is what it is. But I've been here long enough to know that like I for a long time did a lot of things wrong. And if I can help anyone circumvent doing those things, so when I see people go out and like, and play a bunch of rounds and, and that's great. Get out and play as many rounds you can also like remember it's a, in my opinion, it's a privilege, it's an honor. It's the thing that I wake up every day and get inspired by. I get goosebumps from it. I think it's what moves people to tears. We have all that kind of magic here in this town. Don't take advantage of it. Like shut the fuck up, get off your phone talking loud if, Speaker 1 00:28:12 If you're here to watch these people are playing, they put, there's a lot of time and effort that goes into this. Oh man. Lot time. This is, this is their shot. And I mean, especially with playing around traditionally you, you do have people sitting back and listening, whereas you're playing, like you talked about back in the day, the tin roof circuit or like other places where the crowd's just kind of there, you know? Or even on Broadway Yeah. Where the crowd's just there, it's different. We're always different. Speaker 2 00:28:33 Yeah. People are there to be entertained. Yep. People are there to get drunk and have a good time. So everything has its place. Right. Yeah. I'm just saying like, if you wanna go do a songwriter round or, or have a songwriter night, which yours is great by the way. That's why thank you. And that's why I play it. Thank you. Um, and I think Live Oak has done a really good job at Dude having Spot I Speaker 1 00:28:50 Love, it's just, I love live Speaker 2 00:28:51 Though. Look man, it's just simple. Like put a little, give a fuck. Just give just care enough Care a little bit more. Speaker 1 00:28:57 Have a have a good sound guy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> have, have a good, have a good stage. Have actually give a shit and like get to know the writers Yeah. And all that man. And that's why I think it's become such a cool hub. When was the first time you guys played Whiskey Jam? Speaker 2 00:29:12 Uh, man, I should know this. I wanna say it was, I do know it was right around the time, coincidentally that we wrote one number away. So I wanna say February of 2015 ish. Speaker 1 00:29:23 That was And was it full band or was it just you and Luke Acoustic? Speaker 2 00:29:26 Just me and Luke and, oh, I remember this, uh, we had gone, I knew this guy named Kurt Ozon. Speaker 1 00:29:33 Dude, I fucking love the content king. Love Kurt. Speaker 2 00:29:37 Yeah. I actually knew Kurt well before I knew Luke. Um, and Kurt and I played in various bands together. Um, and I used to joke with him like, Hey, whenever it's time I'm hiring you. And sure enough, that's how it played out. But I told Luke, I said, Hey, I know this guy. He lives over in this apartment complex, he's a weirdo, he is got a cat and he's all right at dope bro. Like let's, and I hit up Kurt, I was like, Hey man, you wanna play Whiskey Jam? And we went over on Kurt's balcony right down there like a block away from Winters and went up and this, I'm pretty sure this video is still on YouTube, but we learned that's Kurt learning Hurricane on Do Bro. Like if you listen to Lick is not, there's no Sig l Yeah. Cause the song hadn't been recorded. And so we're all just kind of thumbing through it. And that was the first time I'm pretty sure that we played Whiskey Jam and then Kurt went with us and played Speaker 1 00:30:27 Hell yeah. That's freaking freaking dope dude. Speaker 2 00:30:30 Yeah. And, and when watching Kurt like kind of go on to, I mean he just is, he's in everything dude. Speaker 1 00:30:36 He really is. Everything is. He really Speaker 2 00:30:38 Is. It's awesome though, because I look at that and I go like, you wanna see a good blueprint of like what great attitude being a great guy, hard work and talent all looks like that's the guy Speaker 1 00:30:52 That's Kurt. Speaker 2 00:30:53 You want to, you wanna come in town and like, and do music. You wanna make it quotations around it. Like look at that guy. Speaker 1 00:31:01 Yeah. And he's doing the, the personality stuff now too. He is working with our old buddy Nikki t which, how'd you meet the raised, rowdy guys? What was the first time, when was the first time that Rowdy Rob met Ray Rowdy? I'm gonna guess it was up north somewhere. You know, Speaker 2 00:31:14 I, I have no clue. I really don't know. But what's funny to me about that is I think it kind of all went down because, and to this day I still get hit up cuz people think I run that Speaker 1 00:31:23 Because you're rowdy rock. Speaker 2 00:31:25 Yeah. Yeah. And it, I think that's how at least I was introduced to Nick or Ray Rowdy was that I kept getting all these messages and kept getting tagged in this stuff. Raised, rowdy, raised, rowdy, raised, rowdy stuff. And then from there, uh, I remember me and Nick kind of went back and forth because he had this idea, um, to do a raised, rowdy Waffle House hat. I Speaker 1 00:31:48 Remember this Speaker 2 00:31:49 Rowdy The Rowdy, Speaker 1 00:31:50 Yeah. Yeah. Classic raised rowdy hat. Speaker 2 00:31:52 So I want to, I wanna say, uh, man, it had to be right somewhere maybe in pa Speaker 1 00:31:57 Probably Jurg or Dusty Armadillo if it was, if it was at a venue. Yeah. Jurg is like the Pittsburgh name. I haven't been there yet. Yeah, I've heard the, I've heard stories of many stories of Gurgles that's like Ray's rowdy's breeding ground and uh, country concert. Speaker 2 00:32:12 Oh, I do know the Speaker 1 00:32:14 Festival Ohio. Speaker 2 00:32:14 I do know I met him there. I do know I met him there. Yeah. He's a pretty unforgettable guy. Speaker 1 00:32:20 <laugh>. Yeah. And having what they're doing in Nashville right now, I mean, hell, they just had, uh, just had the uh, the make wake takeover and stuff and seeing Speaker 2 00:32:27 Match. Yeah, I saw that man. I was really, really, and when I say really, I mean really sad. I had flown back from Key West, uh, that day and <laugh>, uh, I had rented a car and was driving. Um, and so I drove like the first little bit and then flew. Anyways, as long as story short, I, I got in later than I been anticipated and was worn out and I didn't go. But Kurt FaceTimed me during, uh, for forever after all. Which by the way, like you wanna, this is Kurt fan club hour here, but like it was his birthday. Yeah. That was for his birthday. And he had like the mindfulness to pick up the phone and FaceTime me to let me hear that song we wrote and Speaker 1 00:33:08 And hear the crowd. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:33:10 That's Speaker 1 00:33:10 A good friend. Just belting at that. Speaker 2 00:33:11 That's a good friend's like the best. So yeah man, I was really, really bummed. I did not get to go to that. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:33:17 I didn't, I didn't make it either. It was one of our friend's birthdays and we ended up out on a boat till about six. And you know how, you know how those, you know how those pontoon birthday boats go out on Percy Priest? You Speaker 2 00:33:27 You I don't, but I would like to this summer. They Speaker 1 00:33:29 Are. They are. Yeah. I think, I think they, you was something about doing a raised rowdy one. So I'm sure we could all, we'll get a whole fleet out there of just the rowdiest motherfucker. Speaker 2 00:33:36 I'm gonna be out there in my bath boat, you know. Speaker 1 00:33:38 Oh yeah. You'll be just up Speaker 2 00:33:39 There. I'm so people don't realize, and maybe they do and I just flatter myself, but I'm a redneck. Like, and there's part of me that gets kind of bugged by like, I don't get to do redneck shit as much as I want, I think is the fair thing to say. Yeah. And some of that's an effort to become just kind of more of an adult <laugh>. Uh, but yeah, I would love to get out there on my bass boat and like anchor up with a bunch of pontoons and and kick it on Percy Priest. Like that sounds exceptional. Speaker 1 00:34:08 Yeah man. So you said redneck stuff. Who's your favorite NASCAR driver? Speaker 2 00:34:12 Oh dude. There was only one NASCAR driver and I quit being really a, a huge NASCAR fan after he died Dell. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:34:18 Yeah. What was it like playing? You guys did the uh, the 500 this year, right? We Speaker 2 00:34:22 Did, man, I got the, Speaker 1 00:34:23 Uh, the fuck was that Speaker 2 00:34:23 Like, oh, it's not over here. It's getting framed right now, but I got a, uh, the, whatever the sheet is, the poll order from the Daytona over there. Oh no shit. Yeah. It was incredible. Cuz I did, that's one thing I, I did grow up watching with my dad was the Daytona 500. And so, you know, being there and, and kind of, it was odd because they only led about 30,000 people in and the place is so huge. I wanna say it holds like, what, 120 Again, math is not my thing, but it was strange cuz it looked empty but it wasn't, there were people there. So that was still kind of cool. Actually at that moment. We were the biggest event crowd wise that had happened in 2021 in the US and then, uh, like Texas is open now, so Yeah. Speaker 1 00:35:11 They're doing, doing Texas shit. Hell yes. Yeah. You like going out to Texas. Speaker 2 00:35:15 Texas, uh, is awesome. Um, I love Fort Worth. Speaker 1 00:35:20 Yeah, I think Fort Worth's one of like the most underrated areas cuz we've, we've gone through and done, done that too. And, uh, Bucky's bro. Speaker 2 00:35:29 Yeah. Let's go Speaker 1 00:35:30 Buckies, let's go. What, what was your first Bucky's experience like? Cause let's talk about that as road guys. Speaker 2 00:35:33 Yeah, we went on a, I'm sure there was one before, but we went on a tour out west with Cory Smith in 2016. And we, I mean we started in Kansas and we went all the way out west, down California, back through Arizona and Texas. And that was, I remember we did like Lubbock, Texas, uh, of course Fort Worth. We did Billy Bob's. But I think that was definitely my introduction to Bucky's. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:36:00 Dude. How would you describe it to someone who's never been, Speaker 2 00:36:04 There's a couple places like this. Um, it's everything that you never knew you needed. Yeah. I mean you is what I'd say Speaker 1 00:36:12 You can get deer, corn, a pair of jeans and a brisket sandwich. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:36:16 We, uh, like south of the border. You ever heard of that? Speaker 1 00:36:18 Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we'll be running up on that soon with, uh, the Carolina runs that we've got. I've never stopped but I've driven past it. Speaker 2 00:36:25 You ever been to Carol's? Speaker 1 00:36:26 I have not been to Carol's. What's Carol's? Speaker 2 00:36:28 South Georgia, I think. Uh, there's a place called Carol's. It's like peanuts, Carol's peanuts or something like that. But it's literally in the middle of nowhere. But yeah, you can go in there and it's, they got anything and everything you could dream of. Also. Some really great apparel. Speaker 1 00:36:47 Yeah. I might have to, might have to hit that next time we're in. Yeah. Check that out. South Georgia. It sounds freaking cool. Where's your favorite place to go on the road? Outside the state of North Carolina? Yeah. And the venues that we talked about earlier. You know, so I know, I know. Like I know, uh, I know Coyote, Joe's Joe's is gonna be up there on the top of the list and all that stuff, but where's the place you were like I don't, I you didn't think you were gonna like it but you fucking, it was unreal. I do, Speaker 2 00:37:12 I do at some point. Wanna talk about Kylie Joe's? Cause it needs its own section. Yes. Speaker 1 00:37:15 Yeah, Speaker 2 00:37:16 Absolutely. Um, I have a couple of 'em. I'm just gonna kind of try to go geographically in my head. Starting in the Northeast Guilford, New Hampshire, bro, Speaker 1 00:37:26 The best amenities you will run into are Speaker 2 00:37:29 Like and people. Speaker 1 00:37:30 Yes. Yeah. New Hampshire baby. Live free or die Speaker 2 00:37:33 New Hampshire. The people in New Hampshire are, in my opinion, the epitome of southern hospitality. Just without the y'all. Yeah, without the accent. Uh, moving from there. I really love Kansas City. Um, I really love Fort Worth. I mentioned San Diego just because of how beautiful it is. Um, Maui <laugh>. I gotta Maui. Gotta put Maui in there. Speaker 1 00:38:00 Fucking Hawaii. When when the fuck did you go to Hawaii? Speaker 2 00:38:04 I just, well we actually played in Honolulu. Speaker 1 00:38:06 No shit. Speaker 2 00:38:07 Yeah, I was just thinking about, I'm sorry I got distracted. I was thinking about the us Speaker 1 00:38:12 Have you been, have you been overseas? Speaker 2 00:38:14 Yeah, we've done three. I think we've done three, two or three. Speaker 1 00:38:18 What's that like? What's playing country music to a crowd in Europe? Play. Oh, Speaker 2 00:38:22 Sydney Australia's crazy. Speaker 1 00:38:24 Australia. Speaker 2 00:38:25 Sydney Australia's my favorite place. Speaker 1 00:38:26 That's your favorite place? Speaker 2 00:38:27 If I had to pick one place on Earth, Sydney, Australia. Why? You know, I don't know. It's like, why is your favorite color green? Um, what's your favorite color? Speaker 1 00:38:36 My, what's my favorite color? Yeah, I'll say blue for the Yankees after last night. Speaker 2 00:38:40 Okay. Well as a kid, what was your favorite color? Speaker 1 00:38:43 Probably probably blue. Speaker 2 00:38:44 Okay. Yeah, it's just one of the things. I don't know, dude, it the combination of my experience there. No, it, we played it I think the first time in 2018. So like I got to hear a couple, you know, like whatever way it was out and beautiful, crazy was out. So I got to hear, you know, 50,000 people in Australia singing these songs. Pretty surreal for a kid like me. Speaker 1 00:39:04 Yeah. What's an Australia crowd like? Are they into it? Speaker 2 00:39:07 Oh, like the most into it? Just ravenous wild, all the, all the things about Americans without the bad things about Americans. You know, Speaker 1 00:39:16 <laugh>, that's Australia. Speaker 2 00:39:17 Yeah, because they, they're, they're awesome. Like they party and, and they do whatever they, everyone kind of does whatever they want to do in Cool, you know, uh, at least in my experience there. Yeah. You know, it was, it was very much, uh, high energy. Uh, which Europe is kind of the same way. Europe, they either love you or they hate you, but they will let you know which one it is. Speaker 1 00:39:45 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Is there a place in America that lets you know if they love you or hate you and Northeast comes to mind? Speaker 2 00:39:51 Yeah, man, we've been blessed to have just great. Speaker 1 00:39:54 Good. I'm sure you've just, yeah, I'm trying to think if there was Speaker 2 00:39:56 One actually I did leave out. I, I do like Michigan Speaker 1 00:40:00 Michigan's country. Have you guys done the machine shop in Flint? Speaker 2 00:40:03 No. No. I just like Michigan as of state. I think it's the people I have met from Michigan, uh, are badass. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:40:12 Like Speaker 2 00:40:12 They're, and like in Detroit's got the music scene too. You got Seeger, you got Kid Rock. Like it's, it's cool. I just think Michigan, I needed to make an honorable mention. Yeah. For the Speaker 1 00:40:22 State. Yeah. Now let's, let's, let's talk about co Coyote Joe's. Okay. For you man. Um, what was the initial experience like going there? Cause that's, that's your backyard. Like what was it like as a kid? I mean as that being the venue to grow up going to, because we have some cool venues where I'm from in New York, but nothing quite cuz The Joe's just an instant experience. You got all the tax, the most tax I've ever seen in my life. <laugh> we played when we played in, uh, in 2019 when I was out with the Muscatine guys, we did Greenville and Charlotte back to back and I was like, there's a lot of taxidermy here at the Blind Horse Saloon. Then you go to Con then you go to not Cotton Joe's, coyote Joes, excuse me. Um, and there's ta even more taxidermy and the nicest people. What's, what's Coyote Joe's mean to Speaker 2 00:41:05 You? So again, I grew up born and raised in this town called Gastonia. Gastonia is off of I 85 and I 85 runs east and west. Even though it's an odd interstate, it's supposed to go north and south Anyways, if you take 85 north, you hop over about 10 miles east and get off, you're at Co Joe's. And so as a teenager loving country music, they would bring in national acts, you know, like it wasn't quite going to see Kenny Chesney or we would always get the mega ticket where I was from. And it gave you basically like all the summer concert tickets at the Live Nation. At the time it was called Blockbuster Pavilion or Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, something like that. Yeah. But Joe's was where you'd see, you know, the regional and national acts come through that the people that I was listening to. Speaker 2 00:42:03 And so I can remember 16, 17 years old you had to be 18 to get in and I can remember, uh, going and there's like a back door area to the green room and I, I used to sneak in there and so, and it was like those nights were, you know, the Eli Young Band, even if it breaks your heart. Oh yeah. You know that verse where he talks about going and listening to the bands play. Yeah. Sneaking think that verse is it he painted that Will Hope painted that so perfectly because that's where I would go and just like, try to just soak it all in. And so as I, you know, grew up and ended up moving to Nashville, one of my very first dreams really was playing in Cottage Joe's. So that place would always, uh, have a special place in my heart. Speaker 1 00:42:49 What was that first show like? Speaker 2 00:42:52 Uh, so Speaker 1 00:42:52 And, and have you only played, have you only been able to play there once Or did, were you guys able to hit it few Speaker 2 00:42:56 Times? Played a couple times. Yeah. Uh, the first time I believe there were 800 people show up, but it was one of those things that like, they expected us to have between two and 300. Speaker 1 00:43:06 Yeah. Were you just, Speaker 2 00:43:07 Just Speaker 1 00:43:08 Dominate the numbers. Speaker 2 00:43:09 Yeah. But it was like, and I remember and Luke would back me up on this, it was definitely a feeling of nah. Like y'all thought we weren't even gonna bring people. Like we'll be back and the next time we came back it was like 1700. Speaker 1 00:43:24 Yeah. It was slammed. Speaker 2 00:43:25 And then after that was, we did, in 2016 we did two nights back to back December 15th and 16th. I remember this cuz my birthday's the 14th and it snowed. And those nights were insane. I mean, I think they probably put 3000 people in there, <laugh> Speaker 1 00:43:44 At least, which is just, yeah. Crazy. Like that side room is just like, yeah, wherever you could put a person, there's, there's somebody there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the electricity of the Carolina crowd. And that being home for now, who'd you grow up listening to? Who are some of your like musical influences and stuff? I see a lot of Eric Church shit on the walls here. Yeah. So I figured he's, he's the king for you. There're Speaker 2 00:44:04 Two people that are very, uh, prevalent in this room. Eric's one of 'em. If you look over here, there's a, I have a Keith Whitley corner and then up top there. Speaker 1 00:44:13 Yeah. There he is. Speaker 2 00:44:14 So yeah, Keith Whitley is who I consider to be the goat. You know, people use the term the goat, it's Keith Whitley. And, and Eric Church is certainly Eric's important because of the kind of the, uh, mutual thing that brought Luke and I together was our love for the Centers like Me album. And so Luke being from Carolina and going to App State and a lot of that kind of similarity, I mean, it's easy to see why we, uh, are very heavily influenced by that guy. And so yeah, he's, he's around here a lot. Um, I was a big Travis trip fan. Hell yeah. Growing up. But I, you gotta think, man, like that's a really tough question for me because I could give you an hour on my songwriting influences. Like at the time I was John Singleton, Randy Montana, Travis Meadows, um, Tom Douglas, Jesse Alexander, I could give you a hundred that I was Speaker 1 00:45:14 What's, what was it like initially? Cuz tho those are folks that you'll, you'll write with mm-hmm. <affirmative> now. Right? Right, right. Like what's the, what what's that feel like to grow up? Like you're just naming off your, like songwriting is what you love, it's what you moved here to do. You, you're just named off like who's like your top how you right with him? What, what, what's that feel like? That's gotta be pretty sick. Speaker 2 00:45:35 Yeah, that is, is pretty wild because, and, and it continues to be wild because I, you know, as time goes on I end up meeting and becoming friends with and a lot of times working with, uh, those people that I would read the liner notes on these records and be like, oh, who is this? You know? Uh, and I wanna get back to that cuz it's kind of a full circle story for where I'm at with publishing. But as far as like, who was I listening to? So I grew up, my favorite band is Matchbox 20. Speaker 1 00:46:09 Okay. Oh Speaker 2 00:46:09 Yeah. Okay. A lot of people don't know that. The reason I go by Rob is Rob Thomas, and that's very serious. When I was in seventh grade, I thought Rob Thomas was the coolest and still dude the coolest cat. And I decided I wanted to go by Rob. And so I to like, I think like my favorite is Two Thousands Rock or, or that kind of like hoot in the Blowfish Gin Blossoms era. But I listen to everything like, I mean, I could, you could catch me this morning bumping the Jack Harlow record and then I'll go and listen to something like a Laurie McKenna or from there I'll go to, I was a huge Incubus fan. Hell yeah. Uh, my cousin has turned me on to Bob Marley and reggae. Okay. Yeah. Uh, I listen to classical music sometimes. I literally listen to everything. Even Speaker 1 00:47:01 Even like rapping stuff, rap. Are you a rap hip hop guy? Love rap. I love rap. Who's your, who's greatest mc of all time? Who's the greatest rapper of all Speaker 2 00:47:06 Time? See, I I don't feel qualified <laugh>. I really don't, man. I don't, I can tell you who I like. Speaker 1 00:47:10 Yeah. Who Speaker 2 00:47:10 Do you, who do you like I love, I love Eminem. I'm, I'm a huge Eminem fan. I'm a huge Biggie fan though too. Yeah. I'm a huge, uh, I love anything that the lyric and the craft of it, how it's delivered hits me impactfully and I don't care what the genre is Speaker 1 00:47:24 Because that's songwriting too, when they're spitting out verses I mean, that, that raps about sometimes as vulnerable as it can get. I mean, you listen to those slim Shady records, those old, old school Eminem and even the, the stuff that he put out most recently, like, he's going in from the bottom of, bottom of his soul just up and out. Speaker 2 00:47:42 And I've gone through phases of different rappers and like, I'm a Big Mac Miller fan. Yeah. Um, but dude, I really, and as I get older and, and continue to do, do music with the air quotes around it, I get weird about listening. Like, I have to try to listen to music in a way that it doesn't, it stays compartmentalized into me being the fan of music, especially country music. Speaker 1 00:48:07 That's where it all started. Speaker 2 00:48:08 Yeah. And so I'm very defensive about, like, whenever I'm, if I get in the Jeep and I cut on xm, you know, I, I don't listen. I will listen to the highway. I love Buzz Brain <laugh>. Yeah. You know, I, but I don't like get stuck on that. I'll go and some days I may go, Ooh, I wanna go listen to this. I wanna go listen to the Thriller album today. I wanna listen to Michael Jackson today, or I wanna listen to Fleetwood Mac today. I wanna listen to an Eagles record today. I try to do it intently as far as like, it depends on what mood I'm in. Pretty moody, cat, <laugh>, <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:48:41 I feel Speaker 2 00:48:41 That. Uh, and that to me is the beauty of music is I love country is, you know, it's what I resonate with in my soul, but I listen to everything. Yeah. So that's a hard question for me. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:48:55 No dude, I, I've, I feel that too, like music, it's very much like the mood and all that stuff. I'm a serious XM guy too. I throw on, like, I'll throw on the highway every now and then, but I'll throw on like turbo, like I'll throw on like the rocking, rocking kind of shit Cool too, and like mix that up. Speaker 2 00:49:09 I very much get into, uh, like phases. So like, right now, right now I've been on, like I said, a Jack Harlow kick. I've been on a Noah Gunderson kick. Oh Speaker 1 00:49:18 Shit. Okay. Yes. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:49:20 Dude, incredible. It's incredible. His riding is beautiful. It's epic. Yeah. Uh, Charlie Ham's got a new tune out called Fifth Through This Town that I love bumping. It's very angsty. Yeah. Uh, it really appeases the angsty songwriter in me, the Cynic now. Uh, but yeah, man, as far as like, things that, uh, influenced me growing up and what I listened to, I listened to just a lot of, I'd say non East Country was, was Allen Jackson, uh, Brooks and Dunn. Um, my dad had, he, he wore out Brooks and Dunn, diamond Rio, uh, Toby Keith, any of that kind of Black Hawk, Shannon DOA Speaker 1 00:50:04 Dude. Speaker 2 00:50:04 Yeah. You know, the, the stuff that like you'd crank on Randy, Travis, George Strait. I just remember riding around with my grandparents and listening to those country stations. Reba McIntyre was up my first concert when I was six years old. Hell yeah. Uh, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, all that stuff is really where I got the, I think the bug in the ear for country. Speaker 1 00:50:24 Absolutely. No, that, that's freaking awesome. So you talk about, um, publishing now being, being a full circle thing. Yeah. And you were talking about that. What's, what's going on? I saw you signed something. It was, was it earlier this year or was it in 2020? Speaker 2 00:50:37 It was in 2020. But if you are familiar with anything in Nashville, anything that you see has happened <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:50:44 Oh yeah. With like, at least like long months. Speaker 2 00:50:47 Same thing with hearing a song on the radio. Yeah. That, that damn song had been written 18 years before you hear it, Speaker 1 00:50:54 You know. So when did this new pub deal, uh, when did this all come to be? Speaker 2 00:50:57 It was like 2019. But why it's really full circle is, so when I'm, when I got off the boat here in town, you know, green as can be, two guys that I met, like very first people I met were the Warren Brothers, and Brad and Brett are their names. And, uh, the kind of the connection there was at the time, they were out on the road with Martina McBride opening up their duo. And I knew them from the liner notes on the Tim McGraw record. No shit. Yeah. They'd written a song called Blank Sheet of Paper, which was my favorite song off this particular record still is to this day. And so I met these guys, right. And like, we ended up kind of working with them. Like they gave, remember I played in this band, right? Well, they gave my, my band their old, uh, like mic stands, which I still have. Speaker 2 00:51:57 They're down in the garage. And I'm like, one day, one day I'm like, sell 'em back to you. <laugh> <laugh>. But, so I meet these guys and like kind of work with 'em, whatever, but I always admire them, you know, as songwriters. And so fast forward, I move back Luke and I have, you know, this kind of whirlwind song, beautiful crazy wins song of the year. It just pure, like fairytale stuff. And I was, so my first, my last publishing deal, I was with Warner Chapel, which I still am, but Ben Vaughn, who was over there, I ran into him at a Christmas party and he said, oh, I saw your buddy Brett Warren in Maui, actually, coincidentally of all places for a BMI event. And he was like, your boy, Brett Warren said to hit him up and say hello. And I was like, huh, I need to reach out. Speaker 2 00:52:45 And so I hit him up and we ended up going to a juice bar, <laugh>. Uh, and I, I, by a strange series of events, they were starting a publishing company with Tim McGraw and I was their first signee. And so I'm like, that to me, that was so fulfilling as far as, you know, to, to start from meeting those guys 15 years ago to now getting to be fortunate enough to, to work with them and, and not only that, to write songs with them. I will have a hit with the Warren Brothers. I will have a hit with the Warren Brothers. Speaker 1 00:53:23 And they were the ones you were, look, you, you found them from reading the ba reading the lines. Speaker 2 00:53:27 That's, yeah. I tell people all the time, like, it's so cool. I know it's cliche, but like, never let anyone limit your dreams. And I, and I, earlier I was talking about being delusional. I think you have to be a bit of that delusion has to exist and you kind of, you can't limit the thought of or the scope of like, what might happen. And this town is like a, a pretty, uh, powerful example of anything is possible. At least I'm a living, walking, talking example of that. Speaker 1 00:53:54 Bro, I, I feel that too. I mean, I moved here wanting to be in radio. Like I moved here, like wanting to work for, for 1 0 3, 3 or, or Big 98. And I had talked with him about that. Then radio goes down in the show. I bounced for my first year and a half here. I worked on Broadway. I was in the trenches, bro. I did CMA Fest, the NFL Cab. Speaker 2 00:54:12 I love that man. I, uh, yeah, I worked at, I worked at Home Depot, I worked at Mills, I worked at the movie theater, sweeping popcorn. I worked on the General Jackson Showboat, Speaker 1 00:54:21 The general, where's that at? Speaker 2 00:54:22 It's right outside of Opry Mills on the Cumberland. It's a big like paddle boat. Speaker 1 00:54:27 What were you doing Speaker 2 00:54:28 There? It was a deckhand. And what this means is you take the rope, the big old rope and you tie the boat down. And at the time, I mean, I must have weighed about 140 pounds soaking wet. And I was out there in the middle of January with these frozen ropes trying to, let's just say I didn't do good. I wasn't too good of a deckhand, <laugh>. I didn't cut. I did construction. I worked at Best Buy selling phones. Um, I know I'm leaving stuff out, but yeah, man, I think it's important. You, I worked at cvs, Speaker 1 00:55:02 It builds character doing that. Speaker 2 00:55:05 To me, it's indicative of, and I'm not gonna use names here to protect, well they're not innocent, but one of my favorite quotes that I've got, and it was not meant as a compliment, but I always take it as that was this guy that I, uh, looked up to or, or still looked up to songwriter, uh, told me one time he was like, the reason you'll make it is cuz you won't fucking leave. And I'm like, yeah, that's the thing that the people that want it bad enough to do whatever it takes to achieve or get themselves to where they wanna be, that's the cream that rises. Uh, and some people accomplish it faster and some people just gotta tough it out and, and work harder, in my opinion. But the people that are willing to do that, they're always the ones that seem to be successful. Speaker 1 00:55:53 Absolutely. And it's being able to manage your time, right? Like having to do what you gotta do to pay the bills, to keep a roof over your head and keep gas in the car and all that stuff to, Speaker 2 00:56:03 But also devoting enough time Speaker 1 00:56:06 To your craft. To your craft. Speaker 2 00:56:08 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:56:08 So you probably pulling long freaking days where you'd work a shift or, or dare I say a double shift and then have a right in the morning or at night whenever you were available. And like there's, that's a grind. It's a real grind trying to do that. Speaker 2 00:56:21 Yeah. I mean, I look back on it and I go, if I could do anything differently, I would probably have spent more time writing intently writing. But yeah, the people where people kind of tend to get their priorities and in a bit of a different organization, I don't know what I'm trying to say. I completely lost train of thought and hope to recover with a big word. So I'm gonna start over <laugh>, Speaker 1 00:56:53 It Speaker 2 00:56:53 Happens. I think where people get distracted is that they get called up in doing the other things that enable them to work on their craft. And then over time they spend less and less time doing their craft until it becomes, it feels like when they go and do their craft, that's when they're going to, to their job instead of the other way around. Yeah. And so I'm very, very defensive. I mean, and I don't care. I don't care if people don't like it. I don't care if people call me an asshole. I really don't. And I'm comfortable and confident in who I am, but like, I don't wake up and write with anybody who doesn't wanna wake up and write with me. Because if, if I wake up in the morning and go, damn it, I gotta write today, I'm out. I dont have to write. Why, why would I want, why would I want to go and like put myself through that? I'm not trying to be arrogant, but like I do it because I love it. Speaker 1 00:57:43 Yeah. That's how you're supposed to feel about Speaker 2 00:57:45 It. And I see so many people, and look, this town's a motherfucker. It is, it will be, it will beat you. It will break you. It not a matter of like, it might, it will, but to me, I just see too many people kind of exist in this. They've lost their joy and my joy is literally writing songs. And so if I ever get any sniff of like nega negative energy around that, no. No matter where it comes from, even if it's from me, like some days I have to go, Hey man, I'm sorry. Like I'm, I'm gonna take the day off because I'm not in the right head space Yeah. To waste your time or my time. But for whatever reason we feel this pressured, like better get there at 11 and go to that dentist office down on Music Row and by two o'clock we're gonna leave and we're gonna have a song. That's bullshit. That's not how I write. Yeah. And I'm just, I I look at it differently these days. Speaker 1 00:58:40 Yeah. Well when you, when you talk about the, um, the early days too. Real, real quick. Um, wanna touch on this. The, the class of guys that had come in around that 20 13, 20 14 time and like folks that were out on the road with, rode with you guys early on when you talk about our mutual buddies, Gary, Gary Stanton and Charlie MCASTs are from Musk, Andon, you talk about like Ray Fulcher, drew Parker, like the folks in in that crew. What was it like all you guys kind of creating together, like writing together early on and just kind of that comradery as things started to really just the rocket ship started to kind of take off? You know? Speaker 2 00:59:15 Yeah, I think everyone, if you hang around in Nashville long enough, everyone kind of seems to realize the, uh, reality that everyone kind of has their team of people they create with their circle, their group of friends. And it's really as simple as I always tell people that moved to town, like my cousin just moved here recently and I was like, just find people that you dig what they do. It's that simple. Don't overcomplicate it. Just get with people and, and at your level, you know, I like, I remember moving to town and wondering why I could never get in a room with some of these guys. And it's like, now I get it, them guys have devoted their entire lives. They're not gonna go and pop in with old Robbie who's been here for, you know, two weeks. Speaker 1 01:00:06 Yeah, no. Yeah. And, and they have their guys that they, their guys or girls that they, they already, they got to that point with. You know, it seems to work a lot like that Speaker 2 01:00:17 To me. I always equate it to sort of like Luke, for example, Luke and I used to write a lot more than we do now, but that's because now his time and, and his life is in a completely different place. And so one thing I'm very thankful for is that because we have such a trust and trust is what it is, but because we have a trust in the writing room we're in, we're able to, as soon as we get in there, hit the ground running and we kind of bypass a lot of the things because we've already put in the legwork on, on developing that kind of, uh, trust and relationship in the writing room. And to me, the only way you develop that is over time with somebody. And so rarely, if ever do I go into a riding room with somebody I don't know, or that I've never met or that I've never written with and get great art. Speaker 2 01:01:11 And I think you're silly if you think that that's how it works. You've gotta develop the per, like, develop that relationship, get to know that person, get to know who they are, talk, talk about things that like you must trust them to talk about with. Right. That's how I write. And you know, I'm, I'm very thankful to have a relationship with guys like Luke, guys like Drew that I can, you know, our journey has been together over the past six or seven years and we've kind of seen each other in different, uh, capacities change and grow. And to me that's uh, a beautiful thing when you get to make music with those people. So, uh, yeah, just thankful to, to have that Gary and Charlie too, like talk about, I guess I met them guys 20 16, 20 15 around Speaker 1 01:02:00 There. Yeah. What were, yeah, what were those road days like, having guys like that out with you? Like, because that, that was you guys' first taste of like headlining a tour, right? Speaker 2 01:02:09 Yeah. That would've been the, I guess the don't Tempt Me tour Speaker 1 01:02:13 Because it was after the Cory Smith stuff, right? Speaker 2 01:02:15 Was it, it's right behind you 2017, is that Yeah, Speaker 1 01:02:20 Yeah. 20, 20 17. Speaker 2 01:02:22 Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was especially cool cuz it was like all our buddies. It was Ray, Josh Phillips Fair, and Rachel's, uh, muscadine Drew was on some of them job. So it was like we were getting to go play all these, you know, theaters and clubs around the US and yeah, that was an awesome time. I I I, I remember being out with Gary and Charlie the night that Port Swing Angel had gone up on iTunes. We were like celebrating that or their epa, I can't remember which one it was. Uh, but yeah, I need to hit them guys up. Speaker 1 01:02:56 Yeah, they're, uh, they're, I mean because it's, it's, uh, that, that has to be cool too to like, because everybody kind of started, started like, started winning and whether it was folks that were a part of a part of it as writers or folks that were out on the road and all that stuff. So that's, that's freaking sick. I'm starting to, it's, it's cool now. I've been in town long enough where I'm starting to see that kind of happen too. Right. You know, where I, there's friends that I have that are, there's that just excitement like when there's buzz around, buzz around folks, you know, Speaker 2 01:03:25 So we've had Ashley McBride out with us now on two tours. She was out with the one out with us on the one when the world shut down too. Um, but she's a great example of, cuz I remember I met Ashley in 2007. I think we were playing her and she doesn't remember this. Uh, we were playing around at Blue Bar, Speaker 1 01:03:47 Oh shit mm-hmm. <affirmative> Row back Speaker 2 01:03:49 And uh, I, so I watched her over the course of 10 years or so, have a crew and, and a group of friends and songwriters. Uh, and same with Miranda Lambert. And same with really any artist who writes their music, you're gonna find that they have a comradery of a team around them no matter where you look. But I think Ashley's a great, great one to look at too. Even with her band as well. Yeah. Her band's badass. Speaker 1 01:04:19 Yeah, they are, they are badass. I'm a big, big fan of what they do. So we always like to touch upon, uh, touch upon food on here. You've been in town for a while. What are some of your go-to space? You a hot chicken guy, you're more of a barbecue guy. Are you a Carolina barbecue purist where you won't fuck with Nashville barbecue cuz it ain't as good as it is in Gastonia? Or you like going to the Mexican restaurants? What's, what's rowdy Rob's guide to eating, uh, eating food here in the great city of Nashville, Tennessee? Speaker 2 01:04:44 I am not your guy to ask and here's why I love Waffle House, baby. Oh, Speaker 1 01:04:51 So you just keep it simple? Speaker 2 01:04:52 Uh, but no, to answer your question, man, I'm not a hot chicken guy. Okay. I do love, there are a couple places around town that I love, but they're not like the conventional. Like, if people were to come here and go, where should I go eat? And I go Google it. <laugh> <laugh>. Um, I love, there's like a place called Secure in Hermitage, dude. Yeah. It's just fire sushi. Yeah. You know, I love that. Um, Speaker 1 01:05:20 You know what's really funny about that place? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I dunno if you've noticed it, I don't know if it's always been there, but we had gone there, um, a couple weeks ago. They have like an Italian pizza man at the front. It's like a hibachi like Asian place. Oh. And, and front there's like, there's, it's a little like Pizza Chef. I've never like a Mario like, like a Mario, like a Mario, Mario looking Speaker 2 01:05:38 Guy I think now. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 01:05:40 Outside of a hibachi Speaker 2 01:05:41 Place, that's when you know it's good. <laugh>. No, no. In Donaldson there's a place called Lowe's Trace and he goes, I'm giving away all my spots right now. <laugh>. Um, I now in town, I really like Whiskey Kitchen. Uh, Arnold's Country Kitchen off of eighth is pretty dope. Speaker 1 01:05:57 I haven't been, I haven't even heard of Arnold's. Speaker 2 01:05:59 Arnold's is right beside Gru's guitars. It's uh, just southern food. It's not really like a menu. It's like, here's what we're having today kind of thing. Oh, it's, what would you like? Sounds good. I like places like that. Yeah. That's my kind of speed. Uh, I'm not, dude, now that I've kinda moved out here in the country, I cook a little bit more. Uh, so I'm, I'm trying to get it into that. Um, Speaker 1 01:06:21 What's, what's your, what's your big, big thing? Like, yo, you gotta come over and try Speaker 2 01:06:25 This again. I'm not your guy. However, I love cooking breakfast. Okay. Any kind of breakfast Speaker 1 01:06:33 That's probably to do with your Waffle House Love. Speaker 2 01:06:35 Maybe. Maybe. I do love Cracker Barrel too. Yeah. But see that's the thing, like people are like, well what's some of the best spots to go eat around Nashville? And I'm like, well, I just, oh, Loveless Cafe. Speaker 1 01:06:46 Well where's that at? Speaker 2 01:06:48 You've never been to Loveless Cafe? Speaker 1 01:06:49 I don't think I've been there. I've been here three years now. I ain't never been. Speaker 2 01:06:51 Dude. Okay. This is one that like, I'm a big, I don't get into the hype of anything for the sheer reason that other people are hype about it. And I know that's more of a commentary on me. Yeah. But Loveless is worth all the hype. It's out. It's in the west part of town off the notches trace. It's beautiful out there. It's this old cafe that's been there since the fifties. They, their biscuits are what they're known for, but they have everything. It's just, it's a romantic, charming little place to go. I mean, go for breakfast, go for lunch, dinner. It don't matter. But I would highly recommend you checking that out. Yeah, I'm, Speaker 1 01:07:29 I'm gonna have to check that out cause I'm a big biscuits guy and I've, uh, I've learned especially hitting some, uh, some random spots now. Cause I never thought I'd spend as much time in the deep South, like me coming from New York. I never thought I would ever spend like half my time in the state of Alabama or Mississippi or any of that. That's hilarious, dude. Um, I just love, I I'm a big fan of the country cooking, you Speaker 2 01:07:49 Know, it's also vinegar based is far superior. I'm not saying that I don't like the Sweet and Tangy and the Kentucky or, uh, Kansas was the i the Midwest barbecue. I'm not saying that I got anything against it. Billy Speaker 1 01:08:04 Bob's food is fire though. It is like the Billy Bob's Speaker 2 01:08:07 Barbecue I'm saying is good. Good. But it ain't like our barbecue with like the vinegar based is, in my opinion, there's different kinds of barbecue. Like they do it in Memphis pretty good too. But dang, you can't touch us. Ain't nobody fucking with us in Carolina on barbecue. I'm sorry. That's just how I feel Speaker 1 01:08:22 About it. Plug, plug plug. The hometown barbecue joint. Speaker 2 01:08:25 Oh, Kyle, there's a couple, I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to Kyle Fletchers Speaker 1 01:08:29 Run through 'em. Run through 'em. Speaker 2 01:08:30 Kyle Fletcher's and Ros Barbecue. And from there, I mean there's a lot of others, but I would hit up those two if you're ever going through Gastonia. Speaker 1 01:08:43 Oh yeah. Then what's, what's your um, late night post gig Rowdy Rob Waffle House order? I know you got one. Speaker 2 01:08:50 I do. And usually people are surprised by it. It's pork chopping eggs, hash browns, smother cover Captain Chuck Speaker 1 01:09:00 Pork Chop. Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen somebody get a pork chop at Waffle House. Speaker 2 01:09:04 I get this a lot. Pork chopping eggs. Eggs scrambled, uh, hash browns, smother covered. Captain Shank. Speaker 1 01:09:12 Yeah, the one all the way. Is there another option besides those four? Or is that everything? What's the Speaker 2 01:09:17 Fit? No, it's not everything. The, the chili. Speaker 1 01:09:19 Oh yeah. I, I wouldn't fuck with, I don't know if I could do the chili on there. Speaker 2 01:09:23 Yeah, Speaker 1 01:09:24 That's, that's aw, that's freaking, that's awesome. Yeah. Cause I know you're already Big Waffle House guy. That's freaking dope, man. Dude. Um, I guess one last thing, um, let's run through a couple, couple, just, just quick hitters. Um, so favorite songwriter of all time. Speaker 2 01:09:40 Oh, cool. We'll get into these questions. <laugh> my favorite songwriter of all time. Yeah, man. You know what's crazy? I don't just, nobody jumped off the page for me right now in my head, which means that I could have brain damage. Speaker 1 01:09:54 Okay. Your biggest, oh shit. I gotta co-write with X, y, z. Well, Speaker 2 01:09:58 Let me, let me again try to dissect this cuz this, this question's hard for me. I love guys like Eric Church, John Mayer, Rob Thomas. I'm a huge mayor. None obviously those guys to me are songwriters too. Right. But then I try to go, all right, who's my favorite songwriter guy named Bernie Toin. He, you know, he wrote a bunch of songs with Elton John. Loved that stuff. Guy named Dean Dillon. Yeah, Dean Dillon. You know, the man, if you're not familiar, wrote a lot of the George Strait stuff. A song called The Chair, which I think is one of the most epic. Tony Lane is one of my favorite songwriters. Uh, George Strait run, uh, letters from Home. John Michael Montgomery. Um, that one's really tough for me, but I think if I had to, if I could write with anybody, if I could ride with anybody, it would probably be Rob Thomas. Speaker 1 01:10:51 Okay. Um, your, uh, favorite, um, what's your favorite topping to get on a slice of pizza? Speaker 2 01:10:59 All of them. All Speaker 1 01:11:00 Of them? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> you a pineapple on pizza guy? No. Okay, good. I was gonna say, Speaker 2 01:11:04 That's not a topping, so I don't, I don't even consider it. All Speaker 1 01:11:06 Right, good. A real topping. There's some pineapple pizza eating motherfuckers out here. I I'm not a fan. Look Speaker 2 01:11:11 Dude, here's how I feel. If you want to do that with your life, you do that. But keep that pizza far away from mine. That's, that's all I'm asking. <laugh>. Speaker 1 01:11:23 Yeah, I, I agree with that a hundred percent. Um, what's your best score in, uh, golden Tea? Speaker 2 01:11:29 Uh, think 21. 21 or 22 under. Holy Speaker 1 01:11:33 Shit. How, how, how the hell did you pull Speaker 2 01:11:36 That off? Oh, no, you, you mentioned Josh Phillips earlier. Josh Phillips out here shooting 24 under, I'm sure. Speaker 1 01:11:42 Geez, geez. Um, you're, uh, is a hotdog a sandwich. Speaker 2 01:11:49 I, I don't even answer questions like this. <laugh> also, we have a guy out on the road with us. His name is Zeus. Zeus, yeah. Michael Zoso recently got married. Shout out Mr. And Mrs. Zoso. Uh, he, he posed this question on the road years ago to me and it became a, the whole tour debated about it. Uh, hotdog is in fact, yes, it is a sandwich. Cause Speaker 1 01:12:13 It's in between. Yeah. The bread. Speaker 2 01:12:14 Yeah, it is a sandwich, Speaker 1 01:12:16 Yeah. Oh, for, uh, for sure. Um, and then, um, for, uh, for the last one, who's your foxhole buddy? Speaker 2 01:12:23 What does that mean? Like, Speaker 1 01:12:24 If you're trapped in a foxhole, like we're talking World War ii, uh, world at War, call of Duty, you're in the foxhole. Who's there with you? Who's getting you out? Speaker 2 01:12:32 Luke. Speaker 1 01:12:33 Luke. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Why is that? Speaker 2 01:12:35 Uh, because he's the most loyal motherfucker I know. Hell yeah. And truthfully, hell yeah. Yeah. So he's, he would be the guy. Speaker 1 01:12:44 Badass dude, fuck you. Well man, I really appreciate you doing this. We usually end it with our guest playing a song. Are you cool? Playing something for us? Speaker 2 01:12:51 Yeah, man. I don't know if you would be cool with me playing something, but I I would try. Are you Speaker 1 01:12:54 Kidding me? Dude, of course. I've been, I've been wanting to get an episode with you for a long time and, uh, I appreciate all the support you show us with our writers rounds too, man, that Oh yeah, man means a lot cuz you, you've been doing this thing for a while and, and it me it means a lot when we have guys, we have folks like yourself, uh, come out and play and, uh, and to the, we like, uh, too asking when we have the, uh, when we have our, our four people that we have like bring, bring their people, you know, that's the way we like to do it. And you've, you've always brought us some ridiculous lineups, so we're very thankful for that man. Really appreciate you. Yeah. Yeah, man. Really appreciate you said bro, and letting us in the observatory here. Um, ready to, ready to hang out with our girl Lucille. Um, oh yeah, we Speaker 2 01:13:33 Got Lucille in the house. Speaker 1 01:13:34 Yeah, we got Lucille in the house and, uh, ready to play some golden team man. But, um, if you wanna sing, great. If not, no biggie too, you know, it's up to you. Speaker 2 01:13:41 Yeah. I just, now I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do. Speaker 1 01:13:44 What you gonna do. I mean, I mean, it's not like you don't have some hits to choose from, you know? Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 01:13:48 <affirmative> Speaker 1 01:13:49 <laugh>. Speaker 2 01:13:50 Nobody wants to hear that. Speaker 1 01:13:51 That's true. Well, well, Speaker 2 01:13:53 Um, let's, well, I'll play, I'll play a song. I don't know. I'm just gonna grab a guitar and play whatever I, whatever strikes me. I still don't know yet. Speaker 1 01:14:00 That, that sounds great. Well, while Rob figures that out, thank you guys as always for listening to the In the Round podcast. Um, another great episode. This is actually episode 69, which is cool. I thought, Ryan kidding? I thought Ryan Nelson man was Speaker 2 01:14:12 Gonna Speaker 1 01:14:12 Sorry, Ryan. I thought Ryan Nelson out was gonna be episode 69, but he was 68, so episode, Hey, Speaker 2 01:14:18 He was one number away. Speaker 1 01:14:20 He was, he was one number away. <laugh>. Hell yeah. Well y'all make sure to check out our man, Rob Williford. You can find him on Instagram. It is Rowdy Rob. Uh, 74, I'm guessing that's an old baseball basketball something number. Um, but uh, you could look up Rowdy Rob, um, check out. He does, um, have a song out and uh, you can always catch him playing sometimes Playing all rounds. Um, he's an awesome, awesome songwriter, a great guy, great guitar player, and just one of our best buds here in Nashville, Tennessee. Very thankful to have him shout out of course again, to the sponsors, our friends at Saxon Studios. Grady Saxon, longtime buddy of the program. Whale Tail Media, um, our Boy Wales and the Content Kings over there. We love them. And uh, of course Trailside, C B D with the Tasty Delta eight THC and cbd they even got shipped for your dogs. Check them out. Trailside cbd.com promo code ITR 20% off. Thank you again for listening. Make sure you leave a review, five stars only baby, and we will see you tomorrow night at our round over at Live Oak Music Row. Now that further ado, it's our boy Rowdy Rob Williford playing us some songs. Y'all have been listening to the In the Round podcast. Speaker 2 01:15:35 I drive slow show The miles ain't so blurry. I don't, no, while everybody's in such a hurry, I hit the brakes more than the gas got no reason for going fast. And that guy behind me, man, he damn sure know I drive slow like that sun comes up in the country in the morning like that, brisket in the backyard out there, just smoking. And I don't care that it takes me twice as long getting where I'm going. Keep my windows down a little static on the radio and I drive slow. I take the good ones with bad ones, let 'em go. I let that weight roll off my shoulders. I don't fly, I just coast handing the wind waving as I go slow. Like that sun comes up in the country in the morning like that brisket in the backyard out there just to smoke. I don't care that it takes me twice as long getting where I'm going. My windows radio and I drive slow easily. I roll slow down that open road slow like them big old clouds up floating over slow like that. John Bull with that yard sale trolling motor. I don't care that it takes me twice as long getting where I'm going. Keep my winders down a little static on the radio Speaker 2 01:17:48 And that guy behind me, man damn sure knows I drive slow. I drive slow.