Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:14 Alright, fellas, we got, well, first of all, welcome to the, uh, to the End Round podcast. Got a great episode today. Got two of my good buddies, two of my favorite, um, I guess I could say Red door regulars. These are guys I bump into. I Red Door Live Oak that are here in the scene, um, in country music and Western. They do a lot on social media. We got my boys Pierre Wilson and Rodney Smith. And, uh, fellas, I appreciate you guys joining us today. Thanks for
Speaker 2 00:00:41 Having us here. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:00:42 It's
Speaker 1 00:00:42 Dope. Y'all just got back from probably one of the busiest weeks of your, of your year. Yeah. Where do you guys go out to Vegas and do the NFR thing? What was that like?
Speaker 2 00:00:51 You know, they make n it is crazy, you know, being influencers and stuff, but you know, NFR has turned into something that has become more like influencer based, right? Because it's, it's all about promotion. I mean, I hate to put it that way, but, um, obviously it's, it's about the finals rodeo and those events, but there's more influences out there than, it seems like there is cowboys sometimes, but you have everybody from across the nation, um, competing in what is kind of like the end of the year rodeo. And, um, dude, it is just crazy. It's nothing they turn, you know, I've, I've been to Vegas before, but they turn it completely into a cowboy town and it's like literally like cowboys you grew up with just as far as the, I can see. It's insane. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:01:33 It was fun. <laugh>, I'm on the other end of it. It was like, for me it was like my first big rodeo and like, as we were talking about earlier, for somebody that's not really in that scene to, to feel accepted out there was kind of dope. Hell yeah. That was pretty cool to see. Cuz I mean, everybody was worried or asking me if I was worried about not fitting in because that's not my lifestyle, quote unquote. But, uh, just the reaction that people got that I got out there from people just being like, yo, what you're doing is making a stand. Yeah. Like you're, what you're doing is dope and the majority of people see certain people putting on a cowboy hat as respect cuz it's like you're embracing their lifestyle. Yeah. I talked about this on TikTok, like, I'm embracing your lifestyle cause it's that dope. And that's what getting that validation from actual bull riders did enough for me. Yeah. I was like,
Speaker 2 00:02:25 I
Speaker 3 00:02:25 Think clearly I'm doing something right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:27 I think showcasing diversity is, is the thing that we do. Um, and a lot of people see it as kinda like a joke sometimes. You know, you get like a lot of negative comments that are like, um, like you're mocking this culture or whatever. You're not a cowboy. Like you're just, which is
Speaker 1 00:02:43 The furthest thing Yeah. From the case. Yeah. It is embracing the culture and we love this shit just as much as y'all do. Yeah. That's really what it is.
Speaker 2 00:02:51 Yeah. Yeah. For, for me, like growing up cowboying and, and working horses and things like that and I was, you know, I was more of a rodeo cowboy than I was a cowboy. We raised like a couple like, you know, cattle and things like that and um, but I was never like some 300 head or thousand head fucking cattle farmer or rancher. But, um, you know, it's, it's obviously it's not a joke for me. Like this has been the way I've been like my entire life and, but it is crazy to see what just kind of being of color and putting on a cowboy hat can do on social media, but like you said, man, going to NFR and seeing, um, getting, I hate to use the word validation cuz I don't need anybody's validation. Yeah. But getting like so many supporters and kind of like watchers fans, followers just come up to you, just let you know what you're doing. It's being seen and they, they appreciate it. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:03:41 Is it weird having eyes on you now? I know media wise, like, we're kind of used to it. We have a similar background rod of doing the radio thing and having people knowing your voice and this and that, but like, going out there and, and getting recognized like in a way that a lot of my, that a lot of our artist friends do when they're out on the road or doing, doing the country music thing. Like going out there and people taking notice of what the fuck y'all are doing. Yeah. Like, that's cool as hell. Yeah. What's, what's it, what's it like to kind of see that?
Speaker 3 00:04:08 Well, I guess for me, I've, like you said, I've kind of been in it for a while now that I had to kind of watch what I did as stuff started to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Um, but to see where it is now just kind of like shows me like how important social media actually is. And like, a lot of people tend to be like, you know, if you're always on your phone, you're doing, you're like, you're that person or, or if you're so focused on social media, you have nothing else to do with your life. But realistically, a lot of like jobs now are requiring all your social handles.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 This right here is like sitting at an office and being on a computer. Yeah. It's the same shit as the, the Google Chromebook that they gave us in school, like when we were kids or the, um, or the, the office computer that our friends that have the quote unquote normal lives have. Yeah. This is, this is that for us,
Speaker 3 00:04:56 It's practically a resume. It's, it's, it's your resume now.
Speaker 2 00:04:59 Yeah. And, and a lot of jobs, especially like, you know, social media's created real jobs for few people. It has like, you know, I'm obviously an influencer. I've gotten like, pretty decent and I make money doing it. But like, it's created like real like, you know, W2 paying jobs for people, like social media marketing for businesses and all they do is reach out to influencers all day. Like, they, like if there wasn't influencers, there would be like a lot less jobs. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, what we do is, is a real thing. And like, like being an NFR was like on the strip and I would, I lived in Vegas so I was like trying to take in.
Speaker 1 00:05:30 Oh, guess you've done Vegas before? Yeah. Have you done, you done Vegas before or is that
Speaker 3 00:05:33 Your first time not to party? Party?
Speaker 2 00:05:35 Yeah. I was a kid so I never, I was there
Speaker 3 00:05:37 For my sister's basketball tournament, so <laugh> not the same thing.
Speaker 2 00:05:40 <laugh>. So I never got to like, um, like party there. But like, I was on the strip trying to take in like old memories and shit. And um, I remember like, I'd look up and we'd be at the end of the strip cause I was like in my phone the whole fucking time, like trying to respond to emails and comments and shit. And I'm like, God damn. Like I keep missing it. <laugh> like, every time I'd get to the end next strip, I'm like, fuck, it's gone. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:06:00 There it goes. Now. So did the influencer thing for you guys or, or the social media thing, was that a reflection of, of Covid and kind of the shit that we went into with 2020 where we had a lot more time on our hands? Actually, no. Or you guys kind of diving into that, as I say, BC before Covid like 2019, where you got, when did, when did the, the social media stuff, because I know TikTok Poo
Speaker 2 00:06:20 Was 2020. It definitely, definitely started for the same time for us. I feel like, I feel like you worked at it a little bit harder than I did for me, like growing up in a small town, like social media was just connect with people you in high school with. Yeah. So like for him being in like radio and stuff, he was making connections before, but we didn't really have this I ideology of being like influencers. Like, we created a brand called like, um, country influence, like Influence Country. And um, so we created that brand and we were like literally looking at each other. One night we were at fucking winners on the rooftop and we're like, I was like, I asked a girl, I was like, what if you looked at both of us? What would you say that we did? And she was like, I, I told her the name. I was like, it should be influenced country. And I was like, is that, that sounds fucking stupid.
Speaker 3 00:07:02 I was so against it. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:07:03 And I, I looked at, I looked at a girl, I looked at a girl and I go, if you looked at us and, and tried to figure out what we do and like knowing what you know, what would you say it was? And she was like, you guys kinda like influenced country. I was like, exactly. Motherfucker. Like that's
Speaker 1 00:07:16 It. <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:07:18 No, I think for social media wise for media people, we had to be in it. Yeah. But I don't know if a lot of people figured it out. Like we, we had to be there. So I just had a TikTok. I just had Instagram. I just had a Snapchat. Like Yeah. I would get on every social media outlet just cuz I needed to be there. Yeah. Now I would say we didn't figure out TikTok until, like they say, once your big break happens mm-hmm. <affirmative>, then you figure the fuck out.
Speaker 1 00:07:44 What was, what was the big break?
Speaker 3 00:07:46 I, you, we were both originally on TikTok. Yeah. But my first video, my first ever TikTok video was high school musical. Cuz like, I thought TikTok was comedic. I thought it was like a joke. It was like, I'm not gonna go in there and be corny. Yeah. And go like flex my stomach and all sort other stupid shit. Like, I was like, I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be on TikTok like that. Right. It's
Speaker 1 00:08:02 Not what you're trying to do.
Speaker 3 00:08:03 Itt what? It wasn't what I wanted to be known as. Yeah. When I went on there, I made a fucking video getting dressed to go to the dance hall back in San Antonio, Texas. Mm-hmm. And the shit blew up. Like it was negative comments, positive comments, but it blew up. And I was like, is this what people want to see? Like I've always been into fashion out outfit
Speaker 1 00:08:20 Of the night outfit.
Speaker 3 00:08:21 I was going to the dance hall. I'm like, have like, yeah, but also your social assets. I had a Deec Equis in my hand. I was in San Antonio. I was going to the San Antonio local dance hall. So like everybody was like, oh that's that was that you
Speaker 1 00:08:31 Drinking that?
Speaker 3 00:08:32 That Cowboys. Cowboys. Yeah. Everybody's like, that's cowboys. Oh you're in San Antonio. Oh, those jeans. Oh, they're too small. What the fuck are you wearing? There was a multiple different things. Then I kept doing that. Yeah. And then I started seeing that people liked fashion and then I met him and I was like, yo, cuz I had been seeing his tos. Yeah. And I was like, yo, go make a video of you getting dressed to go to the dance hall.
Speaker 1 00:08:52 You probably looked at him like, what are you talking? Well,
Speaker 2 00:08:54 Like going, like going back to what we were saying earlier, man, like Ronnie's kind of had like the whole media aspect locked down. Before I met him, I was a fucking cowboy. I was Ron Bulls when the Army made me move down here to Fort Campbell. And that's how I met him is at a dance hall up there. Fucking electric cowboy. Two
Speaker 3 00:09:09 Of the only black people in the building, let's say. Let me say that back then. I swear to God. Yes. Yeah. I swear to
Speaker 1 00:09:15 God I've been to Electric Cowboy that is and
Speaker 2 00:09:16 I didn't know him, right. Yeah. Like, and he had, you know, this like south Texas kinda like, style of dancing shit. And I'm like East Coast, like two stepping, like nerdiest shit hopping around <laugh>. And um, I had just learned how to like one step as soon as we come here cuz it started getting popular. But anyway, enough about dancing. So like, me and him are the only two black guys in the bar. So it's kinda like rivals at first you're like, who the fuck, who the fuck is this black guy? Like I'm the only black guy. I'm, there's, there's not
Speaker 3 00:09:38 <laugh>. That was like the first joke that we have. He was like, who is this black guy here? Then I went up to him and I was like, who are you? <laugh>?
Speaker 2 00:09:44 So, um,
Speaker 3 00:09:45 But it was joke, it was all jokes.
Speaker 1 00:09:47 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:09:47 So we had about like two weeks of this town's not big enough for the both of us. And then, um, finally we like, I don't know why we met each other, but finally we did like some drinks together and shit. And that's where it all started, man. And it, it was a long run of like realizing that we both had something different. Even though I was a cowboy who didn't have anything about social media. Like my senior superb living high school was best dressed. That was 13 years ago, you know? And so I've always been a really well-dressed cowboy. I'll just put it that way. And um, so yeah, he, he did the little video on TikTok or whatever and he is like, you need to do this. And I'm like, man, I'm not trying to get laughed at, but the people I grew up with and um, I did it and it, it blew up, I think bigger than the one he did. Yeah. And so that was basically literally the same time we both started this shit. And for me, I don't know why, but my fashion resonates with like, just cowboy culture a little bit harder cuz like I said, I've been doing it forever. And so yeah. It just took off from there.
Speaker 1 00:10:47 One of my favorite posts that I like is when you, I like when you guys go downtown, go on Broadway and you're walking with the, with the, with the, with the case of Boots. Yeah. And you're just, you're walking like, you're like, you're just strolling business. You got the shades on. Yeah. Like, I'm not in, I'm not, I I dressed up a little bit. I, I figured, let me break out this pearl snap that I somehow acquired from the road. I forget where I got a new, I got a pair to Covis. So I actually got shit kickers. You know,
Speaker 2 00:11:09 Shout out to
Speaker 1 00:11:09 Covis. Yeah. Shout out to Covis. Um, for real
Speaker 3 00:11:12 <laugh> and
Speaker 1 00:11:12 Yeah. Um, and um, like all of us. Oh really? Oh, all of them. Okay. Hell. Now what's, so these boots right here. What are these? Oh, I have a, I have buddies that work there, so I know these are square toe. Yeah, but these are what just basic kind of cowboy boots?
Speaker 2 00:11:26 Well you would call it a roper, um, roper, squarer square toe. That's, you see how your heel kind of starts flat and it doesn't have an arch. Yeah. At the, um, the beginning of the heel there, that arch is usually, see this is like not really much of an arch cuz this is a pub boot. Yeah. Those I think are though, are those Zs too? No, there's,
Speaker 3 00:11:41 Uh, the
Speaker 2 00:11:42 Dukes. Oh, okay. Well anyway, we both have on Roper style boots right now. Yeah. But, um, it's more of, it's more of a comfort boot. Something for people to get down to rope a little bit easier when you're calf roping and things like that. Okay. Um, yeah, it's more of like a more foot on the ground, more foot placement type of boot anyway. You know, I know a lot about boots and shit. That's
Speaker 1 00:12:01 What I'm, I don't know about boots. I want my people to learn about boots. Yeah. And you guys know the whole, the whole fashion thing. Like, like even the style of like the hats that you guys wear, like the hats. There's all these like, hats that are made by, by different companies or, or different designers. Yeah. And have different materials. Some are like felt, some are straws, some are wool, some are this. Yeah. Like how is it like seasonal kind of stuff with your attire or do you mix it up on the occasion?
Speaker 3 00:12:26 Some might argue with you on that one. <laugh>. Really, it depends on where you, where you live. Cause Texas is always hot. Yeah. So felt season for them may be a little bit more delayed than it would for straws. Yeah. Like, like other places.
Speaker 2 00:12:38 Yeah. You know, it's, um, what is it, labor day to um, whatever day. I can't remember right now. But, um, you know, you have your, your your felt seasons, but like you said, in Texas it'll be warmer. Like people are gonna make fun of you, you if it's 80 degrees outside, doesn't matter if it's felt season or not. If it's 80 degrees
Speaker 1 00:12:54 Outside, probably just sweat your damn ass off I went. It's just natural selection at that point. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:12:58 Yeah. And um, you know, but it's, it's more acceptable to wear a, uh, a, a uh, felt head and warm weather and during felt season than it is to wear like a felt hat in the summer. Even if it is a little bit colder for some reason. It's just, you look really stupid if you're
Speaker 3 00:13:17 Yeah. Anything in the summertime is
Speaker 2 00:13:18 Yeah. If you're wearing, if you're wearing a felt in the summertime, you just look stupid.
Speaker 1 00:13:21 So how many hats do each of y'all own? I gotta ask cuz you guys have to have collected.
Speaker 3 00:13:26 Oh, what kind of hats are we talking about?
Speaker 1 00:13:28 I'm talking about like those, like I cowboy hats. Like I have like, I'm sure baseball caps, you guys got a ton of those too and stuff. And like the trucker hats and the, the, the hats with like the ropes on 'em are really popular. But how many like cowboy lids do you think you own?
Speaker 2 00:13:39 Um, shit, uh, you know, I have a lot from like sponsors and stuff and some of them are like shitty and then they just kind of like rack up. And so I probably have like a hundred but,
Speaker 1 00:13:51 Um, a hundred cowboy hus.
Speaker 2 00:13:52 Yeah. I probably have a hundred cowboy hats.
Speaker 1 00:13:53 What do you keep, you have just like a closet of just stuff that you guys will get from
Speaker 2 00:13:57 No, my house is small and like my office is like my bedroom and like, only, only people know that are like the ones in my live feed. Yeah. But like, um, yeah, my, my house is literally like, my bedroom is literally like my office, my closet, everything. And so I just stack 'em up. They're literally like in my corner, just like all
Speaker 1 00:14:15 The way to,
Speaker 2 00:14:16 It's like, yeah. So you just like, you flip 'em inside the like brim, you flip 'em inside the crown or whatever and you just keep stacking. So the, the hat on the bottom is getting that mush like hell. But <laugh>, that's
Speaker 3 00:14:28 The reason it's, I ain't got a hundred, I ain't got a hundred cowboy hats cuz I wear fedoras and stuff like that too,
Speaker 1 00:14:32 So. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:14:33 All like the Travis Austin's and the Mike Ryans and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 00:14:35 Yeah. Travis Austin. Are they based here in Nashville? Travis is, yeah. Travis's. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 3 00:14:40 So is Mike. He's like a small, he's like a smaller, like in the house.
Speaker 1 00:14:42 Cool. Yeah. Have you guys seen, has that been, that's probably a big thing for you guys being in town too. Is there are there is the fashion presence in Nashville too. People talk about music city, but there's a lot more to Nashville Yeah. Than just country music. You've got a comedy scene here. You've got other styles of music. Yeah. And you've got a, a, a growing fashion scene, especially when it comes to the western of Tyler, you guys sport. It is,
Speaker 2 00:15:04 It is interesting seeing that like Nashville has its own sense of like, fashion. Like with the Travis Austin hats or the Mike Ryan stuff. It's uh, it's very different. It's not me at all. So it's interesting to, to see that I actually work here, you know, like Yeah. That like my thing works here because his style definitely was more like Nashville and like, I feel like more accepted in Nashville. I came out here and kind of like broke the mold a little bit. And um, yeah, it's interesting to see that it actually works cuz like I, I've yet to own like one of those hats and you know, one of those like crazy fashion hats. You get a lot of <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:15:40 You get
Speaker 3 00:15:41 Crazy fashion.
Speaker 1 00:15:42 What do you, what do you, what do you mean by crazy fashion? So we talking like tombstone like Yeah, like, like that kind of thing. You
Speaker 2 00:15:48 Know, like the, I actually tried to wear a flat brim. Like my followers will like, they talk shit about me about it, but like, um, yeah, like the flat brim hats with like the custom work and stuff. Like I, I appreciate all the girls and like guys who do that shit. Cause there's a lot out there and they're like more viral than I am. And, um, yeah. It's, it's a cool thing. It's definitely art, but it is like, it's not cowboy.
Speaker 1 00:16:10 Okay. So you're more like cowboy and you're more like if you do the cowboy thing, but you, you're Yeah. You're a little, it's
Speaker 3 00:16:16 Like a, just a mix of everything.
Speaker 1 00:16:17 Yeah. You, you'll mix in whatever you feel like will look good. Do you guys, are you guys at the point now where you're turning down deals where you're getting hit up? Oh yeah. So much by different things.
Speaker 2 00:16:26 Then
Speaker 3 00:16:26 See the thing, let me, let me touch on this though. Like, I want to go a little bit back. So a lot of people when he first started blowing up, like to think that there was a competition between us. Mm-hmm. I, I, I wanna touch on this because so many people think that it's a verse. Like we'll always get comments like, oh Rodney looks better than you, Pierre looks better than you, blah blah blah blah. Yeah. And we have never ever saw a competition. Yeah. No. Because
Speaker 1 00:16:51 You guys are buddies.
Speaker 3 00:16:51 Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like even but when we, when we first started, like we knew our areas and we knew who was better at what and that's why we started the brand togethers cuz it was like, I have stuff I can offer you, you have stuff you can offer me. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So a lot of my Western style is heavily influenced by a lot of shit that he was doing. Like, same thing that he said about the media, like we were talking about it the other day. We were joking about it cause we were bullshitting, we were drunk as hell. <laugh>. But like I didn't wear wranglers damn near as much as I have now. Yeah. But that's because when I started getting brand deals and they were like, Hey, we're gonna send you a pair of wranglers, make a video. And it was like, damn, these are, these have been comfy the for the whole time. And I never knew.
Speaker 2 00:17:26 I used to talk shit about 'em when like his skinny jeans and shit.
Speaker 3 00:17:29 Oh, <laugh>. Everybody did.
Speaker 1 00:17:30 It was that, I remember it was, I remember I had
Speaker 3 00:17:32 A bad face <laugh>, like I didn't understand too much of the western style, but what I was wearing was like, oh that's different cuz he doesn't give a fuck. Yeah. So when I was wearing skinny jeans with the cowboy hat, people were like, oh shit. Yeah we can do that. Cause cause Rodney's doing it
Speaker 2 00:17:46 For the record, they weren't that skinny
Speaker 3 00:17:48 <laugh>, they were slim fit, but they looked tight. When I look back at pictures, I'm like, ooh.
Speaker 1 00:17:52 Well there there were guys in Nashville that are country artists that have worn skinnier jeans than what you
Speaker 3 00:17:57 Were wearing. Oh yeah. A hundred
Speaker 1 00:17:57 Percent. Yeah. For sure. Fuck them. They're leggings at that point.
Speaker 2 00:18:00 You're superstars.
Speaker 3 00:18:01 They do it and they make a statement like that's, they make
Speaker 2 00:18:03 It popular. They legit.
Speaker 3 00:18:03 That's what Nashville is though. It's like when you're trying to be a trendsetter Yeah. You gotta stand 10 toes behind what you want to, what you're trying to do. Right. So like all the hate that you say we're getting from being black and in country. Yeah. Right. You can either cry about it and go stick at the bottom or you can continue to do what the fuck you wanna do and make a statement and people are gonna start following you. Yeah. And that's what, that's why I think we've both excelled at what we're doing is because we don't care. Yeah. We make jokes about those comments. Yeah. But it's funny.
Speaker 1 00:18:31 And those videos do great. You know
Speaker 3 00:18:33 What I'm saying? It's just like, yeah. It's great content. What do you think your TikTok comment is? Why do you think your TikTok comment is gonna make me go throw away all my cowboy boots Yeah. That I just got sent? Well they want their,
Speaker 2 00:18:42 They want their five seconds of fame. These guys, they'll get like a hundred likes on a negative comment hundred like hundreds. I, it happens all the time. The number one comment on most of my videos is some shit that's like still ain't no cowboy. You know, something stupid that, that comment will be like the number one liked comment on my videos, but they want their five seconds of fame. The reason they say that is because they feel like their comment resonates with other haters or other like negative people.
Speaker 1 00:19:06 Yeah. And what's funny is that the way the algorithms work, the more comments you have and the more,
Speaker 2 00:19:11 Oh they're just helping.
Speaker 1 00:19:12 They're just, they're just fueling y'all's fire of growth. That's all they're doing and what y'all are trying to do.
Speaker 3 00:19:18 Yeah. And that's why I
Speaker 1 00:19:18 Just, the best part,
Speaker 3 00:19:19 And that's why I tell people when they wanna argue with people on TikTok comments, I'm like, try this. Go respond in the dumbest way possible and then just see how much better it goes for you. Because then the people that hate will change their mind and be like, wow, that was a great comment. I'm gonna follow you. And then they'll just follow you and be like, you know, I respect your response. Oh
Speaker 2 00:19:39 Yeah. You gotta kill 'em with kindness. You
Speaker 3 00:19:40 Just make a joke about it. It's so, it's so much easier. But that concept works for so much in life. You know, like you're always gonna have things against you. Right. And you can either cry I, I'm sorry to say Yeah. But you can either cry about it or you can like find a way to make them wreak their words. Yeah. That's, that's literally everything in life. Yeah. And I remember earlier you were talking about like how people see us in the media. I wanna go back to this. I wanna go back to the Morgan wall thing. Okay. And I wanna touch on this for the simple fact that as a media person, when I was doing radio at the time Yeah. I had two audiences at the time. They were saying, what are you gonna do? Right? You have the African American community that says, oh this you're a country music star just said the N-word. And then you have the other country music fans that are like, what are you gonna say? Cuz he did 19 weeks in number one from saying the N-word. So it's like, you're gonna pick and choose your battle. What size are you gonna lean towards? Yeah. As a person in that situation, I said nothing. Why? Because you have to pick and choose your battles. Yeah. Why would I pick a certain side? Yeah. To a mass audience that is gonna ride behind them. Him, regardless of what radio rod Rodney Smith says, but
Speaker 1 00:20:49 Matter what anybody
Speaker 3 00:20:50 Says, not even just Right. Nobody said it doesn't, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 00:20:53 Put Bobby, anybody, Bobby Bones, whoever.
Speaker 3 00:20:55 It's a defenseless thing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So like, and then you're not doing your community no justice because this stuff happens all the time. So do I look better than my cuman community because I overcame that to show people that may think odd against us that we, we belong here, that we belong in the room. Or do you want me to go cry and be like, yo, he said the N-word. Like let me go fucking pout in the corner doesn't and lose all the respect from the people that are like, if you could overcome a negative comment then you are special.
Speaker 2 00:21:19 Yeah. And with that it's such a higher level that's like why even let it affect you? Yeah. Like at this point we deal with it directly. Like I deal with like people calling me the word and telling me that I should be like picking cotton in their field all the time. Geez. You know? Brutal. So like why even let something at a level like that affect you? Yeah. I, I've met Morgan Wall, you know, several times and um, you know, I, I feel about him a certain way. I think he's a great guy and I think he just got caught lacking, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, you, you can't let things affect you at a level like that. And I feel like so many we, that's what we do in, in America today under now. I can't give him to that, but
Speaker 1 00:21:59 If you want, you the hell you want Pierre. But, uh, y'all are the guest. This is y'all's episode at the end round podcast. But
Speaker 2 00:22:06 That's just something we do today, man. We let things affect us that don't even affect us. Has nothing to do with us. Yeah. I don't give a fuck what the fuck somebody says to I, I can't even care what people say to me today cuz like you were asking earlier, you know, you have to watch what you say and how you respond and all these things and you do. That's why I respond with kindness sometimes. I do want to, you know, tell 'em off, tell the fuck themselves if you can't do that cause that's the end of your career. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:22:27 To people are looking to ruin you. Yeah. So you gotta you gotta know that. You gotta understand that and you gotta maneuver very, very differently. Oh
Speaker 2 00:22:34 Yeah. You think And and that's the thing, you know, I can't imagine how many millions of positive comments I have, but you let those little negative negative ones. Like some people, you know how long they probably sit behind a keyboard and they're like, yeah
Speaker 1 00:22:46 He should probably go fuck his cousin
Speaker 2 00:22:49 Or something. Like say some crazy shit.
Speaker 1 00:22:50 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:22:50 Like how long they think about that. They're probably there for 10 minutes. Like no, that's not good. Delete,
Speaker 1 00:22:55 Delete, delete. I
Speaker 2 00:22:55 Should say this way he's really gonna hurt when I push this button. Yeah. And um, you know, there's so many times you wanna respond negatively and you just, you just can't, you gotta think of those those times they actually get a response outta you. Cuz you actually have to take the time and think about how you're gonna respond positively. Yeah. You just can't let that slot. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:13 And there and there's, and there's quite a few like folks in in the, in the community there's, there is, there are a lot of, a lot of people of color, a lot of lot of folks, a lot of Latino folks. Like there's, it's country music is as diverse as it's ever been. And the diversity's always been there, but it hasn't been showcased. Like especially in the city of Nashville. Yeah. Like, it, it, it, so that's why it's, it's a really cool time for you guys to be doing what you're doing. Yeah. And for social media to be doing what it's doing and just in general, it's kinda like a perfect storm of like the, the 2020s right now. A great time to be here and a great time to be doing what, what the fuck you want to do and standing up to the haters cuz you can do that. You're, you have, you have the power to do that. What's, what's, what's are, who are some other folks like within the community that are kind of like in y'all's crew? Or do you guys kind of roll as like a duo?
Speaker 2 00:24:00 Going back to that, and I think we're gonna have the same intro on this cuz we've literally, we've as, as much as we progressed people, you know, they tend to fade out cuz you don't wanna help 'em. And it's not that you don't wanna help 'em, it's that you can't, we're still helping ourselves but as much as we've grown, we've always found each other and um, damn. Makes me almost tear up. But like, um, we'll always have each other as far as this goes cuz we started it together. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like people think they started it with us, you fucking didn't.
Speaker 1 00:24:32 Well it's cause you, it's cuz you're putting in the work, you have the passion, you gotta have the passion. Yeah. And you gotta have the work ethic. Yeah. And you gotta be able to go through the times of putting out the content. Yeah. Nobody responding. Oh yeah. To get to the point that y'all are at now, you gotta keep,
Speaker 3 00:24:45 But it's also putting your pride to the side. I think that's another
Speaker 1 00:24:47 Big thing. Yes. That's a big thing for
Speaker 3 00:24:49 Sure. That, that it's like seeing people in, in, what is the word? Seeing people in competition with their friends. Yeah. I never understood They're from the get go. I, when we first started off doing this with the massive group that we had, I was always the one watching, I was always the one being coachable. If you said that I was, if people were staying out till 4:00 AM I'm staying out till 4:00 AM But I wasn't gonna be the dickhead doing the dickhead shit that they were doing. Yeah. Right. I was gonna be with them. I wasn't gonna speak against them, but I wasn't going to be them. Yeah. Is what I want to say. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, people being in competition with their friends was just weird to me. Yeah. Right. And that's why we always talked one-on-one. Yeah. Like anytime it was like something was happening. I'm texting him like, why is this, why is this person doing this? Yeah. Like why, like what is it? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:36 We always, we, and that's what I'm saying, man. Like, we started this together. Like a lot of people feel like they did with us, but no, me and him, like from the fucking dirt. You know? And don't get me wrong, like we all, we were all paved in our way individually before we got to where we are today. Me and him. But when it comes to the social media, the TikTok and the success that we've had, we started together and a lot of people feel like they did with us and they, they didn't. And so if, if somebody does this wrong, we're talking about it to either one of, you know, to either one of us. Yeah. We're talking about it and our group is, is that way. And we still have, you know, good people like that. We're around all the time. I love Willie Jones. He's another guy who's
Speaker 1 00:26:18 Will, dude, me and Willie have had some times together. He's, he's four 20 friendly. Like me, me and Willie <laugh>. I love, I love Mason. Some Willie Jones. That's one of my favorite guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:26:27 That's like, that's some of my brother man. And he's another guy who's influenced country heavily
Speaker 1 00:26:30 And dealt and dealt with a lot of hate.
Speaker 2 00:26:32 Modestly. Modestly a lot. Yeah. Modestly too. Yeah. And one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. And that's the thing about him, that's, that's his biggest weakness is being so damn nice and humble. Like he will take anybody in and g hang out with anybody. Yeah. And he's just a great guy, man.
Speaker 3 00:26:47 But he never lost the vision. That's, that's another thing like when you see the way he dresses, you see the way he acts, like yeah. People are gonna hate against them, but what you can't take away from that's his talent. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you put them in front of a microphone Mm. And he's wowing people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just like that. Yeah. Same thing with Jimmy Allen. Like Jimmy Allen started the trend of do rag on stage with four chains. Oh yeah. Right. And all of these people are like, what the fuck you can't do that's not country music and not, look
Speaker 1 00:27:10 He's, it's like, I'm from Delaware, I grew up just outside of Philly. I'm gonna be me. Y'all want Jimmy Allen, I'm gonna give you,
Speaker 3 00:27:17 But he never had to shove that down people's throat. No. Right. No, no. All he did was make country music, but in the style that he wants to do it in. And now look where he is at. Yeah. CMA award winner ACM Award win. Like he's, and that's what it takes, right. You have certain people in the industry that will force it. Yeah. Right. And it does make us look bad. Yeah. Right. You gotta know what you're up against. But there's also people on the opposition side that understand what they're up against and that's why they're at the level that they are now is because they know how to maneuver this industry. It is a smart industry to maneuver. Yeah. Right. It's not that simple.
Speaker 2 00:27:49 It's, you have it, I mean, like unfor, you know, I hate to make it sound that way, but we have like difference. You know, we have something that we can exploit, but I feel like a lot of guys are modest about it and um, like you have so many people doing it. You, you know, you got Shaq Carter, you got Lathan, you got, um, so many people that are really diverse that people don't even know about cuz they do it modestly. Um, you know, I met, um, Parker, MCC Collins mom, um, at a show at Billy Bob's or whatever. And uh, we talked about Charlie Pride and she told me more about Charlie Pride than I ever knew in my life. And if you don't know who Charlie Pride is, look him up. <laugh>. Yeah. But there's so many, oh God, there's so many of them that just did it modestly and paved the way for what country music is today that we don't credit. And, um, even cowboying Fred Whitfield, um, bill Pickett, like, you just have so many God, it's so many of them, man. And it's like, we don't even know. It's, it's insane to me. Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:28:49 That's, and it's, it's something that, um, that I remember seeing like in within working, working in radio too. And within media, like you do you, what, what's your experience been like doing that stuff, rod? Because you're with, you've, what's your, who's your current company with now? You're with Amazon right
Speaker 3 00:29:05 Now. All right. All right. We taking shots or do you have, what do you want?
Speaker 1 00:29:07 I'm saying whatever you want. You get
Speaker 3 00:29:08 Serious.
Speaker 1 00:29:09 Okay. I want you, I want you to be serious. Like, cuz you, you got your media start, you said in Kansas
Speaker 3 00:29:13 I start. Okay. So I went to a small school in Kansas. No radio, no radio station. I had to figure everything out on my own. Right. And
Speaker 1 00:29:21 You're in Kansas. Kansas is, is
Speaker 3 00:29:23 In the middle of nowhere fucking Kansas.
Speaker 1 00:29:24 It's a, it's a, it's a state that is definitely a little bit different than say doing it in in say a place like in Texas where you have Houston or San Antonio or New York or like not a huge
Speaker 3 00:29:33 Market. Yeah. So, I mean, growing up in Texas, I understood the country lifestyle. Like I, like I, I'm not rodeo, not the rodeo lifestyle, but like I was out there hunting, I was out there fishing like, like, but I don't tell people that now cuz I don't need that validation to see like I'm country. No. You
Speaker 1 00:29:50 Know, you know how you grew up. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:29:51 Yeah. Exactly. So I don't need to tell people that. So Kansas City, I started in radio. I mean, uh, I went to school for broadcasting, but the school, I had the, I went to a small school that had no radio station. Right. So once I graduated I was like, I want to go do radio but I need to figure it out on my own. Right. So I went to two, two radio schools in Boston, one in Kentucky. Right. So they were like, it's basically just an institute program where they put you in front of people that you want to network with and if you get a job, you get a job. If you don't go buy, I mean, that's it. Yeah. Right. So I wanted it that bad and I never accepted a job that was not country music. I was asked to go into hip hop.
Speaker 3 00:30:29 I was told by my teacher that are you sure you want to go into country music? I was offered multiple pop stations and I told every last job, even though I was supposed to never say no, I didn't wanna be anywhere besides country music. Cuz talking about music, the best hosts are passionate about what they're talking about. Amen. That's for anybody. Amen. Right. So if you want me to go fake talk about pop or hip hop, it's not gonna work. <laugh> like you, you can read bullshit through somebody's voice. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So when I was at these institutes and they're like, well what do you know about country music? Blah, blah, blah blah blah. And I started hitting them with this, this, this and that. And they're like, wait, where are you from? And then it's like, oh, you're from Texas. Oh, okay. It makes more sense.
Speaker 3 00:31:10 Why did you need to know where I was from? And it's nothing to do with understand from Texas doesn't at all. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So then I came over here and my first offer was Cumulus. Yep. Right. Cumulus wanted to put me in this little fucking box that I was not right with Cu Cumulus here. If I can say names, I mean I've already said their fucking name, but they, they, I did the street team for two and a half years. Every on-air personality that came to that building said, how are you not on air yet? You are an African American that knows what the hell he's talking about in country music. You are not faking this. It's not
Speaker 1 00:31:49 Even the African American that you're a guy that knows about country music
Speaker 3 00:31:52 And has years knows it. Yes. But like the For the Love doc, for the Love of Country music documentary for Amazon. Right. That, that came out in April. Yeah. I was in it. No shit. I brought that, they did my scene in that radio station. I brought that clout from Amazon documentary into that radio station and that radio station could never give me anything back. All I ever asked was for an opportunity to get a chance to be on air. I was staying up till 2:00 AM doing the air checks. Yeah. Like we talked about grinding, sitting in on morning shows six o'clock in the morning, then going to go serve right after that. Then going to go do the street team. Like I wanted it that bad. Yeah. And they never wanted to get me a shot. So Covid happened and they were like, okay, well you know, we can't do promotions so we're just gonna, whenever we get stuff up and running again, we'll have you come back. And I said, okay. But then again, c o D gave me my biggest start because at this point it's like, now you need to figure it out. Right. Are you gonna wait and sit on your ass for a job to come to you? Or are you gonna go figure something out? So then I started the podcast. My podcast ended up blowing up accidentally. I just went on there to talk just to stay comfortable on a microphone during Covid.
Speaker 1 00:32:59 Yeah. Be to be ready for when that, just to be ready. When that shift came
Speaker 3 00:33:01 On along, when my shot came. Yep. And then opportunities started to come. Right. Bobby Bones liked my tweet. I tweeted about it and my job said, wait, are you considering going to iHeart cuz Kim and iHeart arrivals? Yeah. So he was like, are you considering going to iHeart? I said, what do you mean? Then I started playing the hard gown, the hardball game. And I was like, if you, if you guys want me to stay, I just need to start seeing opportunities. Right. And then they started trying to offer me to sign the podcast. They wanted, CUUS wanted to sign our podcast for t for my promotion salary. And I said, no, no.
Speaker 1 00:33:30 That promotion salary for said fuck for those back home promotion salary, ate nothing.
Speaker 3 00:33:35 Like you want me to go on my own time and make these podcasts that are blowing up for your $10 an hour? No. Yeah. So then I ended up saying I gotta be done with this radio station. And I figured it out on my own. Right. Then I started to go in to go trying to start interviewing artists shows I was trying to start another podcast. I'm literally dabbling in everything at this point. And
Speaker 1 00:34:00 You and you're, and you're finding what works and you don't find what works literally until you fail at some shit. Literally.
Speaker 2 00:34:05 Yeah. You
Speaker 3 00:34:05 Just gotta keep shooting. My mentor, this is the biggest quote cuz I haven't tatted on me like, but my mentor gave me this quote and it was it, he told me at the beginning, he was like, go stay relevant in everybody's business. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And for the longest time I had no idea what that meant. Right. Time started going and then I started DJing in Nashville Palace, then I started a dance crew, then I started teaching DJing, then I became an artist interviewing, then I did podcast, then TikTok came and then it started to come to me. I was like, go be relevant and everybody's business. I literally just did Yeah. 10 different jobs that I had no idea. I came to Nashville
Speaker 1 00:34:35 All in one city.
Speaker 3 00:34:36 All in one city. I came to Nashville to be in radio and then I ended up doing all these other different things and now I'm full-time as a creative director. Talent producer. Yeah. On major markets. Yeah. This is something I never, I didn't plan to come to Nashville to be working with Amazon and CMAs and Apple and all this shit. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:34:55 Dude. Yeah. That's like what I was telling you earlier, man.
Speaker 1 00:34:57 Success. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3 00:34:58 You just, you gotta just like, not saying no to an extent, but how bad do you want it in a city that you're either watching people that have made it or people that are trying to make it. But where do you fit into that?
Speaker 2 00:35:13 Amen. It's such an interesting town, man. Cuz like I said, when I come here, I made that offer on that 36 acre farm. All I wanted to do. Like my, my claim to fame was gonna be starting my own rodeo out here. Like that's what I wanted to do is like maybe a little jackpot in my backyard where people could come rope, ride some bulls. But um, like I said, I lost that. I lost that offer on the house. And um, so I met Rodney. We were dancing. Like dancing was literally like the start of all this. Like we would dance for music videos and stuff like that, which I never knew was a thing. And
Speaker 1 00:35:46 Shout out to the, to the, to the dance halls that are here in Nashville. Oh yeah. They give opportunity for anybody that wants to dance in this town. Yeah. You got a few of them, right? Where's the big Marshall
Speaker 3 00:35:55 Palace? Whiskey? Dicks and Murfreesboro Electric Cowboy. Homeville Clarksville. You got Cotton Night Joe about four hours out in Knoxville. Oh,
Speaker 1 00:36:03 I, we've done shows out there. That place is Raddy.
Speaker 3 00:36:06 Yeah. There's a lot of places. Dude.
Speaker 2 00:36:08 It is very interesting man. Because if it wasn't for the dance halls for, first of all we would've never met and then we wouldn't ever dance in music videos and things like that. And if it wasn't for dancing in music videos, I wouldn't have got started in fashion. It's like what he was saying, man, you just gotta keep, it's not really putting your eggs in different baskets, but it's like keeping an open to mind and listening to what people are saying and where you're needed. Right. You can't turn anything down if you need something. You know, if somebody's like, Hey man, I need you to dance in a music video. I don't give a fuck if it's for free. Back then I was doing it. Now it's damn near $3,000 to get me to do anything <laugh>. Let's go.
Speaker 3 00:36:45 But
Speaker 2 00:36:46 Fucking Yeah man. It's like you, like you said man, it really started from diversifying what we were capable of doing. And if it was within the country realm, if it was in within the path that I wanted to be on, that's what I was doing. Shit. I was working the horses still for free. You know? Cause I wanted to be around horses. I was uh, I was dancing for free. I was styling people for free. If it wasn't for all of that. And me building up my confidence, cuz it takes a lot of confidence to, to be in the media thing,
Speaker 1 00:37:18 To do up trust. Yeah. Like my confidence has grown since I've come to Nashville and started doing this shit. Yeah. Like you do need a lot of,
Speaker 2 00:37:23 No man, it takes so much confidence. Like I was like, I bro, he's seen me do an interview before and talked to people. Like I fucking, like the way that I started at social media was like what you were saying earlier, like, you know, 22nd bits or whatever. Like, okay. Like you ask a question. Let me think about that real quick. I'll think of a response, rehearse it in my head, then I'll drop it. That's how I was man. Like I couldn't go straight shot for shot talking to people. Like, I was just, people don't under, like if you know me from home, you know, like all of North Carolina knows. Like I was just a guy who wanted to ride horses and I didn't talk to nobody. Yeah. And um, I thankfully, you know, Ronnie got me outta my comfort zone. This town got me outta my comfort zone accepting things. Just, I really didn't say no. Yeah. If anybody ever wants to know how the fuck you get to where we're at, not saying we're so far, you're probably way bigger than we are. But everybody is special. Everybody is talented. Everybody's got their own unique thing that makes them who they are. Nobody's the same. Um, the first thing you gotta stop doing is trying to be like anybody else cuz you're not. Yeah. You can't, you can't do that. You're not like anybody
Speaker 1 00:38:33 Else like them race horses. You gotta put your blinders on. Yeah. And focus on you. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:38:37 Exactly. You gotta put your blinders on and focus on you. And the minute you do that, the minute you focus on, I tell everybody, ev all my friends back home who are like, how'd you do it man? How are you doing what you're doing? I, dude, I fucking, I got to a place where I was confident and I didn't care about what anybody else thought. I didn't know anybody in this town. So it's like I got to a place where you don't have to worry about what people think about you cuz they don't fucking know you, you don't know them. Yeah. You have to get to that place where you don't care what anybody thinks about you and get outside of your comfort zone and create that kind of content. What, what, who are you when nobody else is watching? When, when you're just fucking by yourself. Yeah. I don't care if there's a hundred people by you, you're by yourself. Who are you right now? Fucking be that person on social media. Be that person in life. Ask those questions. If it doesn't work, it doesn't fucking work. <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:39:25 Amen. You talk about content, you guys have gotten to do some, some cool interviews, some cool hangs recently. Two that two that really stand out. You getting to hang out with Cody Johnson. Man, I know that's a huge deal for you being a Texas guy Media guy. And then you at fucking, I think it was Marathon Music Works. You're in a room with I saw the video, I was like, what the fuck you're hanging out with fucking gravy <laugh>. What? Fucking young gravy. Yeah. So what's that been like getting to meet different, different people? What were those experiences like for each of you guys? What was, what was Rod like? Imagine, imagine, imagine you tell eight years ago, fucking you tell my God, tell young Rod, Hey, you're gonna be hanging out with Kojo. You're gonna have a a a, you're gonna build a, a friendship with him and his team and get to interview him. Yeah. What was that like?
Speaker 3 00:40:06 Man, I think for me Coro is the George Strait the people now. Yes. Like Coro is my George Strait. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and man, just, I think the thing about Coro, regardless of like where I'm from, cuz I know he is big in Texas, but he has a very similar mindset to how I am. Right. He does whatever the fuck he wants to do and doesn't care about the hate that he gets back from it. If you've been to a cultural concert, you understand like the hate that he, he was getting for the military veteran. Shout out all every concert.
Speaker 1 00:40:37 He says what the fuck is on his
Speaker 3 00:40:38 Mind. He says what he wants, but I mean, but he's a cowboy's cowboy. What He says he's real though. You know what I'm saying? It's not the media that influences you, it's not what you see on the news. It's, it's, it's way more than that. Right. So I've always been a Coro fan for who he was out off the stage on the stage and then what he stands for. So he has been, he is way more deserving of what he's getting now. Right. This is, he should have
Speaker 1 00:41:07 Been should have been getting that shit five years ago,
Speaker 3 00:41:09 Bro. He should have been getting it.
Speaker 1 00:41:11 I'm with you. I'm with you. Eight, 10 years
Speaker 3 00:41:14 Ago. Shit. I mean, but to like, to see where he is now. I just feel like I'm growing with him. Right. I don't wanna sound cliche cuz like I'm a big Cody Johnson fan. Yes. That's no secret. Yeah. But like I feel like I'm growing with him as far as a fan and getting to interview him. I don't even know if I could put words together in my head. What
Speaker 1 00:41:36 Was the first thing you said to him? I like you walk, you walks, you guys are in the same room. What's the first thing
Speaker 3 00:41:40 You said? But see, ok, so here's the thing about that.
Speaker 1 00:41:41 You're looking and you're looking down. Kojo is not the tallest in stature. Yeah. He's a cowboy.
Speaker 3 00:41:44 The thing about the media industry is you cannot fan girl.
Speaker 1 00:41:48 Oh trust me. I know.
Speaker 3 00:41:49 No matter how bad the inside of you wants to fucking scream. Yes. You have to keep Yeah. Your chest out.
Speaker 1 00:41:56 I I got, I got thrown in as an intern to the, to the Yankee Stadium press room to interview Garth Brooks when I was like 19 years old. Yeah. And I had to not be like, holy shit. Holy shit. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:42:05 Yeah. Exactly. Because you have to, you have to act like you belong here,
Speaker 1 00:42:08 Have that professionalism and
Speaker 3 00:42:10 Throws that there. So, and that's how I got my first start at the ACM Awards in Vegas last year. Yeah, right. They were like, I wasn't even, I wasn't even full-time with the job that I was at yet. Yeah. Amazon was like, Hey, um, we need somebody to go out there to do interview all these artists. Um, and you seem like a good fit. Go do it the same week of the awards. I said Bet flew out there, interviewed every artist and they were like, are you like, are you okay? Like, you made that look so easy. And I was just like, it's cuz I belong here. I was waiting for my shot. Right. I just needed somebody. And that's, that's for,
Speaker 1 00:42:42 So I think I've been doing reps free.
Speaker 3 00:42:43 Yeah. Like that's for so many people in the industry that waits for their shot. Like as soon as you get it, like, we're ready. Everybody's ready. Yeah. As soon as you give them you're ready. Their first start. Those people bet I'm here. Yeah. I always used to say the, the, the thing about interviews is the hardest part about interviews is getting to the interview. The interview itself is not hard.
Speaker 1 00:43:01 No. It's
Speaker 3 00:43:01 Getting to the interview. It's the, trying to get that job, trying to get to the interview has always been the hardest thing. But as soon as you get there, it is your time to shine. So you gonna nut up and get it done, or are you gonna freeze? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So when Cody came, I mean, my whole staff knew I was a big Cody fan, so I was, they they knew, like, they were like, Hey, can you know, come down, can you do this? Can you do this? I'm like, chill out. I got it. Right. He came in, I had already done my research. I knew what, I knew exactly what I was gonna ask him. So this is easy. I'm about to just lay this out. So many people with Cody Johnson interviews or with any interviews, they asked the generic questions, the music questions, what's going on with your music? Where'd you come from? Blah, blah, blah. No, no, no, no. I'm trying to get into the nits and grits cause I'm gonna take a shot here. Right. So my, I I asked Cody about, you know, um, why are you getting overlooked as a Texas artist in Nashville? First he, he stopped for a second. He's like, didn't know what to say, right? Because asking a different question that's gonna really push your answer is gonna catch you off guard.
Speaker 1 00:44:00 And that's a question he's probably been wanting to answer for a long
Speaker 3 00:44:03 Fucking time. That was, that was one of the questions that I, that I asked, I asked him about that. I asked him, how does it feel like finally getting like your breakout into the Nashville scene? And then the last one I asked, I said, I know you get a lot of fucking hate for your military shout outs. I said, my family's military, so I understand exactly what, like what you were going through and all the, the social media stuff. I, and then I, I, I forgot what I said, but I asked him a question about that and he said, holy shit. Nice question. Like, in the middle of it, like on camera, like, I'm hoping it when they put it out, I want the raw footage. But he was like, holy shit. And this is Cody Johnson, right? This is one of your heroes. This is to everybody who says, I'm fake country. Like I have if not a major fucking country guy right across from me telling me, holy shit, you're asking the right questions. You
Speaker 1 00:44:47 Get it, you
Speaker 3 00:44:47 Get it. You understand? So he answers that question a long form question, and he answers it. And after that, the camera turned off. He said, sir, he said, son, where are you from? I said, Texas. He said, I can fucking tell just like that. He said, I can fucking tell. He said, real recognize is real. And I was like, yes, sir. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:45:06 At
Speaker 3 00:45:06 That point, at that point is when I fucking lost it. I was just like, then his wife comes over and she's like, that's a fucking phenomenal hat. She's like, I can tell you're from Texas, blah, blah, blah. Starts talking to me and I'm just like, okay guys, look, uh, cat's outta the bag. I'm a fucking massive fan. I just, and then we just have a conversation and we talk a little bit more after that. And he was just like, bro, just keep it. What the fuck you're doing? He's like, I promise you, in the next couple, four to five years, you're gonna be something that people are talking about. And I just, I broke down and cried. I literally went to the bathroom and cried. Like, this is stuff that I didn't tell people about, but it's because like, this is major for me. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:45:38 As far as people who come from, uh, a place where they don't feel accepted, where you have, growing up it was so hard to be black and in country wearing cowboy boots and blah, blah, blah, blah. As you get older, you adapt to it. But when you're growing up and you're younger, that shit's hard. Yeah. Getting called the N-word, that's hard. Like, I never knew how to take that. And then like your teacher telling you, are you sure you wanna go into country music? Like, like this is stuff that I, that I know is in the back of my head,
Speaker 1 00:46:04 An anti support system, right?
Speaker 3 00:46:06 Yeah. Like, like so much hate. And then you finally get to that point, and I'm only 25, right? Yeah. I'm only 25 and I just interviewed this massive person to the country music scene that just told me that I'm doing everything I need to do to be where I am and where I'm gonna be. Amen. Yeah. Like, you think I need any more validation after that? Fuck that.
Speaker 1 00:46:24 Like, I'm good. Cody Johnson. It's, it's almost like, where do I go from here? Exactly. What do I do next,
Speaker 3 00:46:29 Man? And that, that just right there just did it for me. Like, and then like now I know I'm just, I'm in the right spot. Hell yeah, man.
Speaker 2 00:46:36 I'm crazy. You on,
Speaker 1 00:46:37 Well, how does Pierre get in a room with Young Gravy
Speaker 2 00:46:41 Shit? Um,
Speaker 1 00:46:42 Because I love Young Gravy with the Trey Lewis crew. We're out on the road, we bump gravy all the time. So we, we love that shit.
Speaker 2 00:46:49 I got this guy saved in my phone as Clayton from Howdy, and I don't know how the fuck his contact
Speaker 1 00:46:54 Howdy as in like as Howdy accompany
Speaker 2 00:46:57 The, in the media company or whatever.
Speaker 1 00:46:59 Okay, so Howdy Media. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:47:01 Okay. So I don't know how the fuck his number got saved in my phone and have no fucking clue. But we talk all the time. He's a great guy. And um, you know, as an influencer you get a lot of song deals and stuff like you have to do like song promotions and stuff like that. And, uh, it's like, Hey man, you wanna come do some stuff for uh, Mason Ramsey? I'm like, yeah, sure man, I'll, I'll come out there. And uh, then I was like, can I bring my camera girl or whatever so I can like, you know, get behind the scenes kind of stuff or whatever. He's like, no, cause we're in Young Gravy space. And I was like, all right, bet. Cool. So funny thing is like, I had to pick somebody up from the airport and so they fucking like their car, the wheel was flat or whatever.
Speaker 2 00:47:45 So I let 'em take my car. So I didn't have a way there, so I had to call a friend. I'm like, Hey, can you like, can I use your car? And my friend Jonathan, shout out to Jonathan. This guy's like, I don't know what the fuck Jonathan did to be as success successful as he is, but he's like, yeah man, take my car. And so I take his car to this fucking thing and um, yeah, all the influencers are there and young Gravy's there and he's just a cool dude, man. Like, just willing to do what?
Speaker 1 00:48:08 Tall motherfucker, right? Yeah. Big as hell,
Speaker 2 00:48:10 <laugh>. And, um, he's just willing to do what whatever the influencers wanna do. He was just like, the whole thing was about Mason, but like, he was just fucking willing to work with everybody, every influencer there. And he was just chill. I mean, it was right before a show and he's just cool dude, man. But, um, yeah, for everybody watching that, that's like, I'm not a big young Gravy fan or anything, but it was just cool situation to be in <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:48:33 That's a video <laugh>. I'm a young gravy guy personally. Yeah. But, um, but the, you had a couple videos from that, like go Yeah. Go boom too. Yeah. Yeah. We
Speaker 2 00:48:43 Uh,
Speaker 1 00:48:43 One of, one of 'em I think was with Ella's song, right?
Speaker 2 00:48:45 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole thing was about, yeah, we did a cool video and like Clayton or whatever
Speaker 1 00:48:51 You dressing him up was cool. That, I mean, was like gravy's in Nashville. This is Pierre's one of the, one of the Nashville style guys. He's, you're putting the jacket on him. You're like, all right, now you can be in Nashville kind of thing. That's how I took
Speaker 2 00:49:03 That video school. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Its like a cool bit. It's kinda like, you know, like passing the reins, you know, just alright, like, you're good brother. Like you can ride
Speaker 1 00:49:11 Now. Seal of approval. Yeah. Pierre Seal of approval. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:49:13 Yeah. <laugh>, it was cool. I wish I could've got him in a cowboy hat, but he is like not my hair bro.
Speaker 1 00:49:18 <laugh>, you imagine him and him and a fucking Stetson bro. That would've been sick.
Speaker 2 00:49:25 That'd have been sick, man.
Speaker 1 00:49:26 That'd have been cool. So if, so like Kojo was like, your big was probably one of the bigger ones that you've done. What? That, that, oh shit. Moment. So if you're not a huge gravy guy, have you had that? Oh shit moment yet. Someone's
Speaker 2 00:49:37 Funny man. I feel like with that guy we did that dance video for, um, you remember that, uh, damn, what was the song called? You remember when we did the one? It was, uh, flowers and um, oh, um, what was his name? Oh my God. Take two to Tango. I know. Yeah. Two to Tango song. The song. Yeah. Damn. I don't know the, I know the name, whatever. But after we did that dance video, I go to Losers and this is such a fucking, that's what I was gonna say. I, I feel like this is more such a cool story, man. This is more, this is such a cool fucking story. So, um, we do that video, we do that dance video and it's a lot of fun. And we, this was like our first big kind of video. I, I feel like, yeah, maybe not for you, but for me it was, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:50:18 And um, so we go to Losers and um, we're just kind of like celebrating. We didn't know what to do afterwards And how was the weekend like Cowboy, right? When it comes to drinking, like that's just how it is where I'm from. So I didn't really drink during the day until this like moment, you know? So I, I come in the bar and we're just sitting there and we're trying to get tables together and shit. And like this, this older guy, like just old cool dude. Like if you're from North Carolina, you know, like we get drunk old people. That's what you do. We just like, I swear to God. Like, and you learn a whole life story. Exactly. You learn bar, bar story. You learn so much drinking with older guys, man, than you will from anybody. Yeah. And it's just the best time. You just get drunk old people.
Speaker 2 00:51:01 So this old guy walks up to me's like, Hey man, I like that. And um, I'm like, yeah, you too man. What's your name? He's like, John party. I'm like, oh shit. Like John, John party ain't this old. And he is like, yeah, senior <laugh>. So it's uh, is John Part's dad and um, this guy senior. This guy's just fucking awesome man. Yeah. And we just sit there and we drink and finally John party comes over and this dude's big as fuck. And I look up and I'm like, dude, like I'm a country music fan, but I'd like, okay, so when I was in Korea, it ain't Always The Cowboy was one of my favorite songs. And I would play that in Korea. They actually have Honky DOKs, they have two of them. And I would play them in the honky tonk. And, um, so anyway, so I knew who John party was, but I didn't know his face.
Speaker 2 00:51:50 So here's this big motherfucker and I look up at him and he is, he's got like a, a fucking tray of like te tequila shots. Oh fucking, oh dude, you can throw 'em back. Yeah. It's like fucking like 15 of 'em on there. Yeah. And he's, sounds about right. You want one. So this is like my first John party experience, cuz me and him do a shot. And um, I don't even know what the fuck happened after that. We just got drunk and had a good time. He drinks Michelob and I drink Michelob. So we were just drinking mega lobes. And um, fucking we, he goes to the back room and, and senior's still out there and me, me and him are, uh, sitting there drinking and fucking talking to ladies and shit. And there was another girl in the room, I'm not gonna mention her name, but another big really big influencer and shit.
Speaker 2 00:52:30 And, um, we're just having a damn good time. And I finally go back there with, um, with Party and John Party, the young one. And um, we go, we're looking for the Moxie Hotel. It's like late as fuck at this point. Like, I've been drunk with senior all day. Like we were just fucking turned up. Yeah. I've learned so much about this guy, man. I, I love, I love John's dad more than I love John. Hell yeah. And so, um, shout out to senior. Yeah, shout out to senior man. And um, so I finally go back there, me and Sr. And um, John's like, let's go to the Moxie. And so his driver's name is Ernie Ernie's is cool as fuck man. And um, so we go to the, the Moxie and it's the wrong one and we get there. <laugh>. I didn't know there was two Moxies in town.
Speaker 2 00:53:10 And uh, John's like, where the fuck are we at Ernie? This ain't the goddamn one. <laugh>. So we um, so we get back in the truck like fucking senior stumbles to the door cause we're both fucked up. And um, so we get back in the truck and we go to the real Moxy to meet, uh, one of John's friends. But ever since then, John's been like my favorite country artist cuz I don't care about, I don't care about who you are or who your music is, but that guy just showed me so much hospitality, man that it, I can't deny him the right to be my favorite country artist. Yeah. He's just so fucking good. And ever since then he's um, he's brought me out to like multiple shows and shit. No shit. I've gotten to hang out with him and I love Summer, his wife. And um, I just love that whole crowd man. They're just good people. So I'd have to give it to him. No disrespect to co wetzel. I fucking love you co <laugh>. Um,
Speaker 1 00:53:58 Have you partied with co
Speaker 2 00:53:59 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rowdy me and co have stayed up till like five o'clock in the morning on the bus. Just bullshitting. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1 00:54:04 Yo him and him and Dre and those guys will do.
Speaker 2 00:54:06 Yeah. I love Dre too, man. I drove. They're,
Speaker 1 00:54:08 They're, they're at, we've done some runs with them, with Trey, with the Trey Lewis, with our, with
Speaker 3 00:54:13 Me. Nice little group right there.
Speaker 1 00:54:14 You talk about, you talk about a a time and sweet, sweet boy can touch on this too. He, uh, we, the crews meshed, meshed very well
Speaker 3 00:54:22 Together.
Speaker 2 00:54:23 I still
Speaker 1 00:54:23 Have a scar on my wrist.
Speaker 2 00:54:25 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:54:25 Still got Scar.
Speaker 4 00:54:26 I jumped a, jumped a fence.
Speaker 2 00:54:28 <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:54:29 But
Speaker 2 00:54:29 I love that crew man. I really do. I
Speaker 1 00:54:31 Love it. So, so talk about Nashville. What are some of y'all's favorite Hangout spots? But I mean, to the dance halls, obviously you guys enjoy doing the dancing stuff. Yeah. But like, if you were to say, if someone were to ask you, Hey, hey Pierre. Hey Rod, what's the best bar in
Speaker 2 00:54:42 Nashville? You're gonna find me at? Losers.
Speaker 1 00:54:44 Losers. That's your spot. Yeah. You're gonna find
Speaker 3 00:54:46 Me at Losers. Yeah. I guess it's gonna, I guess it's gonna be Red Door.
Speaker 1 00:54:48 Uh, for me it's red for me. It's gotta be Red door for me it's Live Oak and I'm kind of biased cause I'm, I'm kind of on the payroll doing the rounds there. Yeah. But for me, I've, red door is just the, the consummate like where I end up
Speaker 3 00:55:00 Historic.
Speaker 1 00:55:00 I ended up at Fucking Dogwood the other night. Cause I'm si I'm, I'm recently single, so I'm back to critter crawling <laugh>. So I'm, so I'm, I'm out, I'm out and about and I ended up at Damn Do. And you hear you're in the boom boom room upstairs and it's just, it's like, fuck this man. I wanna go have a cigarette at Red Door. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:55:18 I think it like, like once you get more comfortable you just wanna chill. Like, I mean when I first moved here it was like, I wanna be around the rowdy stuff and party until 4:00 AM at losers and shit. But then it's like, I'd rather just go get a beer at Red Door. Dude, you see who's out, Chad. But I
Speaker 2 00:55:30 Feel like Luther's is a chill spot for me. Like, I go back there with uh, fucking Tiffany or whatever. Yeah. And, um, fucking get my drink and I'll, I'll sit there and chill
Speaker 3 00:55:39 In the back. But in the back is cool. It's
Speaker 1 00:55:41 More chill. Yeah, yeah. In the back that, that front of the front of losers is can get can. And I can't wait to see what to do after the deck, man.
Speaker 2 00:55:47 Oh yeah. I'm ready. Party,
Speaker 1 00:55:48 Party, party. And Nikki t broke the bar. Yeah. You remember that? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:55:52 I didn't go,
Speaker 1 00:55:53 I was on the I was not gonna prepare this. I was on the road. I was on the road that night. I didn't go either, but, um, but so what, what do we have for 2023 now we're coming up on the, the end of this year. This year's obviously been a big year of growth for, for both of y'all. But going into this next year, like what are some things people have to look forward to and with, with the, with the, is it influencing country influence? Country Influence country.
Speaker 3 00:56:15 I will say that is like on our goal
Speaker 2 00:56:17 To, yeah, we gotta
Speaker 3 00:56:17 Focus that. We need to get on that better. We need to get a little bit of better on that for the next,
Speaker 2 00:56:21 I definitely wanna focus on that next
Speaker 3 00:56:22 Year. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:56:22 I I think we got something good with that. We just, we've been, I think we've both been in agreement, like we've got momentum, we need to keep momentum for individuality real quick and then we'll come back and bridge this gap and kind of make that a thing because we are in influencing country from both ends of the spectrum. Yeah. And um, I think in 2023 we're definitely gonna come back around for that For me. Individually. Individually. There you go. I think for me individually, it's gonna be focusing on trying to get that 36 acre farm back. Um, not, not back, but trying to get one and just focus on trying to do some jackpots. Trying to get rodeo community out here. Because like I said before, man, there's a lot of people saying Yee-haw out here. But not a lot of Yee-haw going on. It's a lot of fake cowboy hats. It's a lot of um, you know, a lot of people thinking this place is Western and it ain't Western, but
Speaker 1 00:57:14 You, so you wanna bring some of that Western.
Speaker 2 00:57:16 I wanna bring Western here. I've talked to um, Randy savvy from um, Compton Cowboys and stuff about that. And we're kinda on the same page about it. We wanna bring Western culture out here. We wanna bring horses out here. We wanna bring rodeos out here. That's what I want to happen in 2023. 2024. Maybe it's gonna take some time, but yeah, I wanna make this place actually Yee-haw, man. It's a lot of people saying it. Awesome. It's a lot of people saying it, but not enough people doing it. Yeah. Hell
Speaker 1 00:57:39 Yeah. I look
Speaker 3 00:57:39 Forward to that. Yeah, I think, like you said, like with the brand is when we first started it, we knew that we needed to pave our way individually first. Uh, cuz we had clout going on, but it wasn't to the point where now we are, I, I wouldn't say icons, but like in inspiration. Yeah. You know, now it's to the point where people Yeah. Inspiration, you know, people were like, uh, cuz I remember I came across a guy at Vegas and he was like, it was Pierre around, I wanna wear the shirt for him. And I'm thinking like, you wanna wear a shirt for another, another guy? But just, just seeing, just seeing that like that's how inspiring what we got going on is it's like, this dude wants to wear a shirt for you <laugh>. So shit. But I think, um, I think concluding this year, I think we've had made a pretty good stamp on who we are individually. So I think next year for sure, tapping in on the brand and taking that to New heights can really do some crazy, crazy things to Nashville in general, but just to the world, but to the African American community who doesn't feel like they can wear Western stuff, you know? So I think the brand is one of my main focuses is for next year, but for me individually, I wanna get on a major market before 27. I'm trying to like, and you know, everybody says say you're
Speaker 1 00:58:51 Off to a pretty, pretty damn good start there. Right?
Speaker 3 00:58:53 I know. I mean, I'm saying like everybody says Nashville's like a 10 year town, um, and I've only been here for like three.
Speaker 1 00:58:58 Well it's, well they've said it's a 10 year town and then the internet became what it's become and I think that's expedited. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:59:04 And that's changed everything
Speaker 1 00:59:05 Quite a bit. So you're
Speaker 2 00:59:06 Right. Yeah. Yeah. With internet, it became a fucking two year town. Yeah, it
Speaker 1 00:59:10 Can be. It's all about how you, it's all about how you and how you, it's how you use your tools. Bust your ass. It's how you bust. It's your, it's your work ethic. It's being a good person and it's knowing how to use your tools and utilize Exactly. Utilize opportunities. And you guys are doing a great job of that. So I really appreciate you, you fellas coming on for real. Yeah. Like this was, this was a blast. I usually have like songwriters and artists, but I was like, I wanna have guys that are, that are in the community. Like I'm in the community. Don't, don't write songs, don't sing songs, don't play an instrument. Yeah. But, but in this scene and uh, it was an absolute pleasure having you guys, where can people go to go to find y'all on everything? Because shit, TikTok is the big one, but you guys are on institute and Yeah, I'm sure on, on do you guys on YouTube and shit? You guys doing like YouTube shorts and this that?
Speaker 2 00:59:50 Yeah, I am doing YouTube now. I'm the best dressed cowboy on YouTube. Hey
Speaker 1 00:59:53 <laugh>. Um, is that the end of the account? Best dressed cowboy? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:59:55 That's it. Hell yeah. Um, and then, uh, Instagram is Pierre j Wilson and then TikTok is, uh, Pierre Gerard Wilson. So, damn.
Speaker 3 01:00:04 Find ads. Pick one.
Speaker 2 01:00:05 I should've made it simple, huh?
Speaker 1 01:00:07 <laugh>. Yes.
Speaker 3 01:00:08 Mine. Just radio rod everywhere with tds at the end.
Speaker 2 01:00:12 I don't have such a unique name. So, funny
Speaker 1 01:00:13 Story. Do you ever have an on-air email where it was like Rodney Smith on Air? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. See, I, I was always taught to have on air. So with my last name Bell, what's name? It looks like Bellaire. <laugh>. Like, so it looks, I'm like, guys, it's Bell on Air, but it looks like Bellaire, like I was trying to spell billionaire. Yeah. My last name. So
Speaker 3 01:00:30 Mine's always simple. Just Rodney Smith. Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:00:32 Rodney Smith and Radio Rod. That's awesome. Well, well be sure to check out our, uh, our friends right here. Uh, Pierre Wilson. Rodney Smith. Um, be sure to be on the lookout for, um, influence is I keep fucking it up. Influence Country. Influence Country. Country Influence Country. The big IC influence country. Um, and be sure to check out our fellows. Uh, you can probably find them at Red Door in any given night. Find that any given night. And if you're here in Nashville, you're coming to Nashville and you want to dance, you want to learn how to dance, you wanna, you want to show support for what these guys are doing, be sure to give 'em a follow. Shout out to our, uh, friends, uh, from Whale Tale Media, Saxon Studios. See you tonight. Yeah. Round two. Oh you go. Are you going there tonight? Oh shit. Yeah. You guys are both gonna be there tonight. I'll be there. Oh dude. Yeah, we're gonna Sweet boy's gonna be there too. That's, and we'll celebrate, dude. It's gonna, yeah, that's gonna, we'll talk about that in a second, <laugh>. But, uh, thanks as always for checking out, uh, the in the Round podcast. Be sure you like great, subscribe, share, tell your mama and them and we will see y'all next time. This has been the In The Round podcast.
