August 20, 2025 • 36 mins
On this week's In Service Of Old Dominion's Matthew Ramsey sits down with Steve Baltin for a powerful conversation on the healing power of music. Ramsey talks about the little girl who moved the whole Old Dominion camp to tears at a recent show, as well as hanging with Bruce Springsteen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, Steve Baldton, Welcome to in Service Hub. This week,
I have an incredible conversation with Matthew Ramsey from Old Dominion.
Beautiful conversation talking about how the song Miss You Man
from the band's new album and the way it's inspired
fans has already moved abandoned, they grew to tears. Really
fun conversation as well, talking about his love of Bruce
(00:26):
Springsteen thunder Road and how he got to hang with Springsteen.
So hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.
It was a lot of fun. So are you on
(00:49):
to ear at the moment or yes?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You know as I say, now, I'm fascinated with this
because I don't know anybody who's actually been in Idaho
at the moment. I've interviewed them. So how is Idaho
live market?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Like? Not very lively.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's been great for us in the past, so tonight
should be good too. So we just got here this morning,
so we're just outside of Boise and boys. He has
always been really really good to us.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nice. Are you doing much in the new material live yet?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
We are doing some you know, every song that we
have pre released so far, we have played at some
point in the set.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So I have only listened to Barber as a whole.
So I'm curious what songs have you pre released so far.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Obviously Making Good Time, which is the single, Water My
Flowers is out, Miss You Man is out. Man of
the Song is out. That may be it. There's a
couple more coming.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So how has the response been to the new ones?
Because I always talk about with people, you know, it's
so fascinating because, of course what happens is you can
say this is my favorite song of the record and
audiences are like, yeah, not feeling it in that song
that you threw on because you weren't sure about is
like the best song ever live.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, you know it's It's a good way to get
some instant feedback. But it's pretty crazy, man. So far,
the excitement around this record is a little different than
it has been in the past. There's a lot of
energy around it and people are very excited. So as
soon as we release a new song at the next show,
(02:24):
there will be people with signs requesting it. So people
really seem to be digging it.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's interesting. Why do you think that is? It's funny.
There's like things that you know, I've talked about with people.
There's stuff that you just simply cannot control, you know. Sure,
For example, like we're talking like Gerard from Mike CAMRA's
a friend, Right, we talked about it. There's a band
that played, you know, back in the day. They play
places like the Shrine here in LA that holds six
(02:52):
thousand people. Right, they come back and you know they
take time off, not because they were trying to you
know me fact or anything, but because they were having
band problems. Now they come back ten years later and
they sold out two nights at Dodger Stadium, sixty thousand Z. Yeah,
we just can't control what the audience is gonna love.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
No, you really can't. Man.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
The only thing you can do is is, you know,
I think the minute you try to target the audience
is when you probably miss. So, you know, hopefully, we
just kind of try to stay focused and make music
that we're excited about. And the more inward we go,
the more it seems to connect. So I think that's
that's really the only thing we can do is make
(03:33):
our best, you know, our best shot at what excites us,
and then it's up to them. You never can predict stuff.
If we could predict it, trust me, we'd be doing
it all time.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It's so funny. I did a book called Anthems We
Love Right where I talked with all these great artists about,
you know, why a song becomes an anthem, what makes
it that way? And it's funny because both Robbie Krieger
from The Doors and Steve Winwood said Robbie Greeger talked
about light My Fire, see Winwood said about give Me
Some Love, and they're both said exactly the same thing.
(04:05):
If we had any idea why those songs became what
they did, we'd do it one hundreds more times.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, And we always we always try to keep in
mind too, songs like you know, Everybody Wants.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
To Rule the World where you know, Tears for Fears.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Hated that song, they didn't want to even record it,
and you know, I think the producer and and one
of the one of the wives of the band members
convinced them to record it and became one of the
biggest songs ever. So we always try to keep that
in the back of my mind too. If if there's
a lot of excitement about a song that we just
didn't see coming we just go, Hey, you know there's
there are songs out there that artists didn't.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Know We're going to be their biggest Well.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's interesting too, because you talked about going inward and
by the way, everybody wants to rule the world is
in my book. So that's hilarious that you mentioned that one. Yeah, yeah,
I was rolling, was telling me. He's like, dude, I
hated that song. Yeah, my wife made me finish it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
But you know, two of the songs in the there
were holl Knows Sarah Smile and Graham Nash or you know,
Crosbysis Nash at Our House, both of which were literally
written about one person and became two of the most
popular songs of all time. And it's interesting, you know,
in doing the book, what I realized is, you know, obviously,
(05:17):
you know, everybody doesn't know Joni Mitchell. Everybody is know
Darryll's girlfriend Sarah, but they know the feeling, and they
want that feeling. They yearn for that feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, you know, you think, I think the world has
a way of and our brains have a way of
making us feel like we're the only ones experiencing something
for some reason, and you know, it turns out we're
not that special.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
That's one of the beauties of music is you know,
when you're a kid, you have those songs that you're like,
you know, you feel so alone or isolated or whatever.
Every kid at some point feels that way, and then
you can have music and you're like, wait, how did
this person get in my head?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Question? What were those first songs for you?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know, I think probably thunder Road was probably the
song for me that was go.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I was going, wow, you know just that line. You know,
it's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out
here to win.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You know that that line spoke to me so clearly
because I was from such a small town and I
felt I felt like an outsider there a lot of times,
just because I wanted something bigger. I knew something bigger
was out there and I had to go chase it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Whatever that was.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's interesting. I mean, how old are you at that time?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I was probably.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I would say seventeen when when I first sort of
resonated with that song.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So it's interesting you say you knew there was something
we were out there? Did you know his music? Did
you have any idea what it was, or just that
you needed to get out.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Some of both really, I think, you know, being from
such a small town, you know, there was no there
was no stoplight or anything. It was only about nine
hundred people there, and so on. On a grand scale, yes,
I wanted more just out of my environment. But I
was also at that time, you know, writing songs and
(07:21):
playing in bands and and you know, reading all the
magazines about that life and wanted that, wanted somehow to
touch that in some way.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What's the town, by the way, I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's called Buchanan, Virginia spelled Buchanan, but we pronounced it Buckchannan.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
All right. So at that point when you were making music,
you know, was it already were you kind of leaning
towards country or no. Not.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
In the early days, I was, you know, it was
in the height of the grunge movement, so you know,
I was listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden
and then summ into like even heavier metal and.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
But you know, I was also surrounded by country music,
and my life was a country you know, but that
just wasn't the music that I was choosing at the time,
but it was on the radio in the kitchen twenty
four to seven, you know, so I knew it all.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well. No, it's really interesting because I was just talking
with Nikki six about the song they did with Dolly Parton. Right,
And for me, I was growing up, I was a
metal kid. And when you're a kid, of course, you know,
like you said with seventeen, you were listening to grunge.
At least for me when I was a kid, I
was an idiot, you know, in the sense you listen
to one type of music and everything else has to suck, right,
(08:44):
and then you realize, of course you get older. Like
Nicki and I were talking about, you know, it's funny
because when you're a kid and I was listening to
Moley Kreu, I was like, eh, Dolly Parton. And then
I have never interviewed a rock star in the world,
and I have interview every fucking rock star who doesn't
tell you that Johnny Cash is the cool person who
ever lived.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Right, exactly, I know. And I was lucky too. I
had a dad.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
My dad is not a musician, but just a fan
of music, and he had a pretty solid record collection
and it was so varied, everything from hard rock to
motown to country. And he would, you know, spend the
evening just playing one song off of this record, and
(09:26):
then while that was playing, he was picking another. And
I got exposed to so many different types of music.
And I never I never was the type of person
to sit here and go, oh this sucks. I was
always just very interested in it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
See that's interesting to me though, because what I found
from interviewing so many musicians, and it's a normal process
of life. Right when you're a kid, you're very close
to your parents. When you're a teenager, the natural order
is to rebel no matter who you are, no matter
what you do. So part of that is finding your
own music, finding your own voice. And then, like Nikki
and I were talking about, you get back to being
(10:02):
older and you realized, oh shit, my parents' stuff was
really cool, and you find that stuff, like you was saying,
for example, like you know, as a teenager, he was
like not into this, and then he goes back and
listens to the rap pack and he's like, that stuff's amazing.
So was there stuff for you that as you've gotten older,
or was there a time for you when he realized, like, wait,
the country music that my fam listened to was amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
The cool thing Another cool thing that my dad did
when he kind of saw me gravitating towards towards different music.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know, if I was.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Digging into Pearl Jam, he had an ear enough to
hear who they were influenced by, and he would buy
me the records. So, you know, he would be like, hey,
if you like, if you like these guys that you're
listening to, you should check out this Who record. And
then I would go listen to the Who and be like,
oh wow, I can see. So I didn't really rebel
(10:56):
too much musically against what they were listening to because
he did such a good job of sort of feeding
me all of the band's influences that I was listening to.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Interesting. Okay, So was there one you know, it's funny
because I knew you mentioned Soundguarden. I mean Chris personally,
he was a friend. Was there one or two bands
that you know he turned your dad turning onto when
you were listening to Soundgarden that really stood out?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Probably probably led Zeppelin is probably where I ended up
gravitating towards after listening to Soundgarden, and I remember him
giving me a Jethro Toll record too to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know, it's so it's so.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Dramatic, and you know, Soundgarden's music can be very dramatic too,
so I think that must have been what he was
picking up on.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, interesting, because I'm the biggest Eeppelin fan of the world.
Jethro Toll not gonna lie not as much. Yeah I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I wasn't super into Jethrow Toll either, but I'm certainly
gave it it's due, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, well, you know it's interesting. Let's come back to you.
You know, this is always fascinating to me, and we're
gonna come on to miss you Van the second because
like I said, I'm very interested in the inward stuff,
and people tend to gravitate to that so much. But
one thing that's funny is I've talked with so many
artists about you know, as you get older, of course
your influences like become more desparate, and you just listen
(12:24):
to so much stuff. And of course most good writing
is subconscious, so you don't really know where it comes from,
and then you go back and listen to it like
I always love this Nick Cave quote. Love Nick Cave
and you have this quote where he sits. Sometimes they'll
be on stage a year and a half later and
I'll be like, oh, that's what that means. Yeah, moments
for you where you hear influences in there, like on
Barber for example, when you go back and listen to
(12:45):
it and you hear like a little Zeppelin riff or
something else that you like, our Springsteen line or whatever
that you're like, Oh, I didn't even noticed that when
I was doing it.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, I mean Man of the Song in particular, there's
some you know, there's a line in there when I'm
looking into the first line of the song is when
I'm looking in the mirror, I see a man on fire.
And that's a straight up Springsteen thing man. And even
if you read his book, he talks about that exact
feeling and talks about it more on his Broadway production too,
(13:20):
So that's a straight up where I was like, oh, yeah,
that's the Springsteen coming out for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah. It's interesting even when you go back and listen
to older stuff, is there' stuff that now you hear
that maybe you didn't notice at the time because like
I said, I'm always fascinated with that because I believe
all good writing. And let me preface this by saying,
I'm not intelligent enough to have this theory, but I
talk with people like I've talked with every songwriter in
the world, and I talk with Mike Stoller from Leeburn
Stoller ninety years old. He co wrote stand by Me
(13:48):
and je ass Rock, and he's like, I have no
idea where songs come from.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, kind of the same way.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I mean, usually I'm pretty mystified by the songwriting process
and can I'm always kind of surprised that we were
ever able to do it in the first place. You know,
it's always just so exciting when you get done with
the song.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So yeah, there's a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Where I look back and still go, man, I don't
remember how we wrote that, but wow, I'm so glad
we did.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know, so way I Yeah, that's fascinating because, like
Jimmy Cliff was telling me, the hard Did They Come,
which to me is one of the greatest songs of
all time. All I'm sorry many rivers across that one.
He told me. He wrote in ten minutes on the
way to the studio, you know, and so the great
songs are like that. So for you are those songs,
like you said, where you're just like, I have no
(14:39):
idea where it came from. But those ones that's still
to this day are like huh, you know, like because
a lot of artists will describe it as channeling. The
way they say is they have your antenna up and
the songs just come in, like Neil Diamonds tweet Caroline
came from God.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, that's absolutely the case. It's when you have to
work out too hard, they're not as good. You know,
it's still worth it's still worth digging in and doing it.
But for some reason, the ones like, you know, we
wrote a song years ago for Kenny Tesney that became
a big hit, and we wrote in about forty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I wrote most of it on.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The way to the Right that that morning and just
got there and said, hey, give me a guitar. I
got this and I just spit it out and they
were like, yeah, let's let's finish that.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You know. So for you are there those is there
like one or two mets with the Kenny Chesney one,
but is there one or two that really missed a
bisi the most or like your favorites of the stuff
(15:50):
you've done. Where again, it's weird because like to say favorites,
but in a weird way, like I've talked about so
many artists, because this song is almost like channeling. You
don't even know where it came, so it's kind of
like someone else wrote it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I mean one Man Band was one of those songs
for us where it was it just sort of sort
of sapped me.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
We were standing on the bus and someone said that
phrase one man band, and for whatever reason, it just
it hit me and I like immediately nudged Brad who
was standing next to me, and I said, oh my gosh,
we have to write this song one man band. And
he said, what do you mean? And I said, it's
a love song. I don't want to be a one
man band. And we were standing next to the stage
(16:37):
in about thirty minutes and our intro music is playing.
We're supposed to be walking on stage, but we're huddled
around the phone and we relate to getting on getting
on stage because we were huddled around the phone, just
spitting out One Man Band of the beginnings of what
would become that song. So it just sort of appeared
I could see the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Nice. All right, now let's come out of this where
their reck where their songs on Barbara that you have
that same feeling where it just kind of came from nowhere.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, you know, well, you know you're talking about Missu
Man that song. You know, lots of times when we
are writing, we certainly have those songs where we're trying
to quote unquote write a hit, you know, but that
day was just a true conversation about our friend that
(17:28):
we were missing that day.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
It's a good friend of ours. His name's Andrew Dorf
and he passed away about eight years ago and.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
We still miss him.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
We play we play a lot of songs in our
set still that we wrote with Andrew, and we were
just in the room that day talking about our friend,
and out came Missu Man. And we never even thought
even in that moment that that would be a song
that we would record.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
It was just it was therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
But again, going back to what I was talking about
with the Hall of Notes and Graham Nash songs that's
most of the time are the best songs.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Interesting too, because I mean, well, you know, have you
found that people respond to that song? It's kind of
like that Charlie Pooth and Whiskey Leaf of songs. See
you again people, Yeah, my favorite song everybody. It's funny.
When I was six years old, I loved the song
Season and Sun by Terry Jacks. Noah Cyrus and I
had a long conversation about that song. Hold up, there's
those songs that just resonate with you in a way.
(18:32):
And have you found from people that they've talked to
you about Missy Man like I imagine?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we get so many messages already.
And you know, we had one particular moment in the
set just a couple of days ago, where this little
girl was right in the front row. She was probably
eight nine years old. She had a sign that said
miss you Man and it was plastered with pictures. So
I asked her, you know who is this and she
said it's my daddy, and you know, it was heartbreaking,
(19:01):
and you know, immediately, you know, we played the song
for her, and you know, the whole place is in tears.
We look over the side stage, the whole crew is
in tears, like we're all just bawling because you know,
we came off the stage and I was like, oh
my gosh, what have we done to ourselves?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I was gonna say, Man, I'm like, I'm certain to baltz.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, But you know, that's gotta be the greatest feeling
in the world. Like when you have these songs, like
I've talked about it with so many people write and
you write a song that goes platinum, you write a
song that wins a Grammy, you write a song that
wins this and that's all great at the end of
the day kind of who gives a ship Because when
you have a song that truly connects to someone, that
(19:44):
changes someone's life or tell you like, oh, you know
this song saved my life, that's gotta be like the
greatest feeling.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's the it's the biggest honor that you could get
man as a songwriter. It really is just there's there's
no no, nothing that you can just do to describe it.
It's just it's just we get fulfilled with gratitude that
we were given that song and given this gift and
(20:12):
this platform that we could do that because you know,
at one point and still we still are affected by
music in that way, and that that's we can forget
sometimes in this business, that that's.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
What it really is for. That's what music is for.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
And it's yes, it's our job, but it's also it's
people's lives, and it really, you know, at at our best,
we are enhancing someone's life in some way.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, you know, it's so interesting because the name of
the podcast is called in Service Up. And what I've
realized though, you know, it started off being about philanthropy,
which I know you've done a lot we'll talk about.
But what I realized too, is like talking with musicians,
musicians by nature are just in service up because like
you say, I mean, you gave that little girl a memory,
She's gonna remember her whole life.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, it's funny because we it took us a little while,
you know, in the beginning, when this started to take
off on a much bigger level than we were maybe
prepared for. It's difficult, you know, it's kind of hard
as a human to be like, oh, these people sort
(21:22):
of care about me and what I say and they
want pictures with me. And it was kind of weird
and a little bit hard to wrap our heads around.
And I was talking to my therapist at the time
about it, and she explained to me just that very thing.
She said, you signed up for a life of service,
and this isn't about you, this is you're in service
(21:45):
of other people. And it was it was the biggest,
like light bulb moment. It was such an easy thing
for me to shift my brain to to go, oh,
you're right, Oh my gosh, when I step out on
that stage, I'm serving other people. They're not you know,
they're not serving me, and they are in some way.
(22:06):
But if I can look at it that way, as
like every single time we go out on stage, every
single time we put out an album, it's because you
know someone needs it or someone can benefit from it,
and it takes nothing from me to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah. It's so interesting though. It's funny because when you
look at someone like, for example, you know, you mentioned Springsteen,
who's my favorite artist of all time, you know, and
it's like again, when you look at that, I mean,
and you look at the feeling he's giving you that
whole life of service. Yeah, way, like when you get
that big it's like you almost have I mean, he's
done a pretty good job of maintaining a private life.
(22:45):
But I mean, I've always said famous the worst drugg
there is, and you have so many people who don't
know how to do it. Is there someone who kind
of taught you besides your therapist, but like artists you watch,
who taught you how to kind of balance it? Because
it can be so overwhelming and it's really interesting. The
idea for this podcast was actually inspired by Alice Cooper,
(23:06):
of all people, said to me, I ran into him
an event and he said, fame is the brand that
allows you to do good. And I always just love
that quote so much, because once you achieve a certain
level of success, it's like you're not going for commercial
success anymore. You're going for her being able to have
a legacy and make a difference.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Sure, sure you know, I mean obviously you know, directly
or indirectly. I guess maybe Springsteen taught me that too,
because I could I could certainly see how he uses
his platform and how inward he does go or how
he can just observe the human experience and speak about
(23:45):
it while maintaining his start them and his personal life.
But I guess more directly, you know, we've gotten to
work so hand in hand with Kenny Chesney so much
throughout our career and become close friends with him and
watch how he he created a culture that was bigger
(24:08):
than him. He's a part of it and he's maybe
the ringleader of it. But it's about the feeling when
you go to a Kenny Chesney show. It's about the
feeling that is created in that building rather than oh
my gosh, there's Kenny Chesney, you know right.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, so it's interesting. Do you have that feeling now
when you come on stage at your shows? Do you?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's what Yeah, that's what we're That's our goal is
to you know, try to you know, I even tell
the crowd, you know, our goal during our show is
to have people feel better when they leave than they
did when they got there. In some way, shape or form.
We're here for you and we try to do our
(24:54):
best to sort of create that energy. It helps that
we're in a band too, because you know, they're not
just lashed on to me, or they're not just lashed
on to Brad. It's a band of brothers up there,
and we can it's a little bit easier to create
that sort of environment, I think than if I was
(25:14):
out there by myself.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Well, you know, I imagine as well. It's kind of like that,
you know, again, come back to the fame thing be difficult.
It's like when you have you know, you have other
people in there that understand that comes the way, and
you guys get each other and you know you've been
through it, and it's like, you know, it's funny because
I've talked about this with so many people, and I
mean I've interviewed every dysfunctional, fucked up band in the world.
And yes, you know, for all the problems though, it's
(25:37):
like still I always remember you Pop telling me after
twenty nine years when the studies of unitedies, like, eventually
all that stuff fades away and you remember all you did.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, absolutely, we you know, we're we're just as fucked
up as any other band.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
We're we're a family, you know, and and we.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
We treat each other as such, with with all the
love and all the shit talk that comes along with that.
But when we step on stage, it truly is the
great eraser of all that stuff, you know, and we're
on stage having a ball.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So let's come back to the philanthropy bird a second.
I know you just gave money to a middle school.
I mean, talk about the stuff that's important to you
at this point. And I mean, obviously that's so important
because you know, I've talked about this with I mean, look,
the world is so fucked up at this moment and
everything is so divided, but there are certain issues that
just everybody can unite on. Like I just interviewed Hugh
Evans from Global Citizen and he's like, if you don't
(26:32):
agree with the kid getting a thirty second vaccine, you're
just a psych oh. And I'm like, you can't right
agree with that, you know, regardless of your physical affiliation,
you know. And it's like, you know, whether it's poverty,
animal rights, you know, I've done a lot with City
of Hope with cancer stuff. So for you, what are
those issues? And what I was going to say is,
(26:52):
you know, education and arts funding is one of those ones.
To me that seems it just you know, I've interviewed
Matt Sorem, Barry Manilow, Flea, will I am on it.
You know, all of these people are on the same page,
and it's like, man, you can not find four more
different people musically.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know for me, that is a
big one. And like you said, we just gate, we're
just able to give some money to to help fund
a music a music educator that you know, the school's
having trouble paying for someone to teach music. And you know,
I grew up, like I said that, in such a
(27:29):
small town with where opportunities were very limited and from
everything from arts and culture to just basic needs. And
it breaks my heart to see kids at a disadvantage
like that, where it's it's in my mind so simple. Uh,
you know, this kid needs food, give them food, and
(27:52):
or these kids are interested in art and music, we
should foster that because that's how that's how they're going
to become the best, you know, member of the community,
and they're going to serve through whatever they're the most
interested in. So uh, it does break my heart when
those things seem to fall short in certain areas, especially
(28:15):
rural communities.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah, all right, let's make this a fun question for
a second, because I've interviewed, like I said, all these
different people. FLEE has a music tool here in La
called Silver Lay Conservancy. I interviewed Lang Lang, the classical pianist,
about a program needed so and I remember FLEE used
to do this annual benefit called hullabaloo or even I
mean Tracy Chapman doesn't talk to anyone, but she was
there and she talked to me because it was about
(28:40):
music education. So there's so many artists who support it.
Who would you love to play with in support of
music education? Someone who gets behind it? That just would
be just pre you what's the fan that would be?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Oh my gosh, you know as a band, we all
are big Lenny Kravitz fan.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Answer.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I think that would be something that would be really
fun to do. And such a such a badass, unique musician,
you know, and we all kind of look up to
his his spirit. I think that would be a really
fun one.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
It's the wait, what song would you do with him?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh my gosh, maybe it ain't over till it's over.
That's a that's a great song. Of course we'd have
to do Are you going to go my way?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You know? But it's always fun to be right when
you like I remember, you know, like coming up in
the eighties, right, I remember seeing Springsteen on the Amnesty
benefit where you know the show would end with the
all star finale. So I'm always fascinated with this. If
you can cover any song in like an All Star finale.
What would it be? And why? Oh God, because it's like,
(29:47):
you know, that just great cover anthem, like I for
a rejemption song. But I mean there's you know, there's
so many.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean I might have to throw it back
to my earlier answer of thunder Road. That might be
one that I that I would love to be a
part of because it means just so much to me
and it's just such raw emotion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I would love to be a big part of that.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I do remember too, the moment, the first moment like
that that I remember being extremely moved by was I
think it was the MTV Awards when Pearl Jam came
out and played keep On Rocking in the Free World
with Neil Young, and it just absolutely blew my mind.
I was just so blown away by that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, all right, make this last question, but this is
a fun one. Like I just did a story for
the La Times with The Doors on their sixteenth anniversary,
and I was interviewing different people on what the Doors
music meant to them. I was interviewing a palaeontologist of
all things, who was telling me that he was in
Patagonia and he hired these gauchos who would excavate dinosaur bones.
(30:52):
While listening to writers on the Storm, I was telling
this story to Robbie and John, who were like, fuck,
that's amazing. It's like Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff.
So it's inspired my new favorite question, where's the craziest
place you've heard your music or heard it being played?
Oh my goodness, because again, well I was just going
(31:13):
to say, sorry, I have to get you up, and
I was gonna say, you know, when you release a song,
it's not yours anymore, no, and you have no idea
what's going to happen with it.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, it's definitely not It's always trippy to me when
we are somewhere and just hear someone else covering our music.
You know that, that to me is one step beyond
hearing our music somewhere, you know, because we know our
(31:42):
music's out in the world and it's cool to you know.
It's definitely We've definitely been in other countries and been like,
oh my gosh, this is our song, or or you know,
at a sporting event or something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That's always cool.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I will say one of the coolest stories that we've
gotten is, you know, the astronauts that were on the
space station that was supposed to Sonny was her name,
Sonny and Butch. They were stuck up there for a
little longer than they thought they were gonna supposed to
be a non day trip, and they were up there
for like nine months, and when they returned, they told
(32:17):
us that they were listening to our music to get
them through. So our music has been used on the
space station to motivate and lift morale while they were
up there working.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Did this is any particular song or just in general
your stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We have a song? Well, they did listen to a
lot of it.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
But Sonny in particular was a big fan of a
song called Coming Home because she wanted to come home
and she was up there just waiting on her opportunity
to come home, and so she used that song to
lift her spirits.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
See that's cool again because it's like, Okay, you know,
imagine being stuck in space for in and a half extra
months and like, you know, using your music to get
through when most people would just lose their mind.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's what a gift.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Cool man. What do you want to add that we
did not talk about?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Oh man, just I just appreciate the time man, appreciate
our you know, our fans, anyone who's listening to this,
thank you, And we are so excited about this album.
So we hope in the spirit of this podcast. You know,
people always ask what do you want people to take
away from this album, and the answer is, it's just
whatever they need, you know, whatever they need from it.
If they if they wanted to make their party better,
(33:28):
if they want to sue the Broken Heart, how about it.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You know, it's it's yours.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
So what do you take from it? Because it's always
interesting when you go back and listen to a record
because again, when you're making it right, you have no
idea what's going on. You're in the midst of it, yeah,
close to it. So now when you listen to it
as a whole, what do you take from it?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I take.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You know, I really just kind of experience the past
decade or so with this band and the joy that
we have in the studio together or on stage together.
I think it really shines through on this on this album,
the fact that we're just having fun and we're at
(34:09):
a place in our career where we feel creatively free
to explore that joy and that relationship with each other.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
So that's really what I get from it.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Cool man, Well, it's great talking to you. And by
the way, I have to ask you as a fan because,
as I say, my favorite artist, but I've never met Springsteen.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Of you, I did get to meet Springsteen. It was
an amazing, an amazing experience.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And I never do this.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
I never pull the like call the manager and be like, hey,
pull some strings. But I was going to see his
Broadway play, and I'm like, he is my favorite too.
I'm I'm such a huge fan that I didn't tell
anybody that I was going to this because I didn't
want anybody to go with me, because I didn't want
anybody to talk to me during the show. I just
wanted to enjoy it, you know. So I went and
(35:02):
I called my manager and said, I don't know if
you have any connections, but if there's a way I
could meet him, this would be incredible.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And he said, I'll shoot the.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Shot, you know, And so he messaged his manager and
they they got together and talked, and I was on
the phone with his tour manager and he said, Hey,
it's up to Bruce.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He might meet you.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Before he might meet you after, but it's a Saturday show.
He may just go home after the show, So just
hang in there. Let me know when you're at the theater.
So I got there like two hours early, and I
was like, I'm here, you know, And he texted me
back and said, okay, Bruce said he'll he'll bring you
back after the show. So I'm sitting in the sitting
(35:45):
in the seat and this guy comes and sits next
to me, and I could recognize his voice. I tried
not to like pay too close attention, but I was like, man,
I know who this guy is. And then I realized
it was Adam Dirtz from Counting Crows and he's sitting
next to me, and I turned to him and he
turns to me and he goes.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Hey, aren't you from Old Dominion. I was like, yeah,
I am, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
So the two of us after the show went backstage
and got to hang with him for probably thirty minutes,
and it was everything you could ever want out of it.
He just talked to us like we were Pierce, you know.
So it was really a great experience.
Hey, Steve Baldton, Welcome to in Service Hub. This week,
I have an incredible conversation with Matthew Ramsey from Old Dominion.
Beautiful conversation talking about how the song Miss You Man
from the band's new album and the way it's inspired
fans has already moved abandoned, they grew to tears. Really
fun conversation as well, talking about his love of Bruce
(00:26):
Springsteen thunder Road and how he got to hang with Springsteen.
So hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.
It was a lot of fun. So are you on
(00:49):
to ear at the moment or yes?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You know as I say, now, I'm fascinated with this
because I don't know anybody who's actually been in Idaho
at the moment. I've interviewed them. So how is Idaho
live market?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Like? Not very lively.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's been great for us in the past, so tonight
should be good too. So we just got here this morning,
so we're just outside of Boise and boys. He has
always been really really good to us.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nice. Are you doing much in the new material live yet?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
We are doing some you know, every song that we
have pre released so far, we have played at some
point in the set.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So I have only listened to Barber as a whole.
So I'm curious what songs have you pre released so far.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Obviously Making Good Time, which is the single, Water My
Flowers is out, Miss You Man is out. Man of
the Song is out. That may be it. There's a
couple more coming.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So how has the response been to the new ones?
Because I always talk about with people, you know, it's
so fascinating because, of course what happens is you can
say this is my favorite song of the record and
audiences are like, yeah, not feeling it in that song
that you threw on because you weren't sure about is
like the best song ever live.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, you know it's It's a good way to get
some instant feedback. But it's pretty crazy, man. So far,
the excitement around this record is a little different than
it has been in the past. There's a lot of
energy around it and people are very excited. So as
soon as we release a new song at the next show,
(02:24):
there will be people with signs requesting it. So people
really seem to be digging it.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's interesting. Why do you think that is? It's funny.
There's like things that you know, I've talked about with people.
There's stuff that you just simply cannot control, you know. Sure,
For example, like we're talking like Gerard from Mike CAMRA's
a friend, Right, we talked about it. There's a band
that played, you know, back in the day. They play
places like the Shrine here in LA that holds six
(02:52):
thousand people. Right, they come back and you know they
take time off, not because they were trying to you
know me fact or anything, but because they were having
band problems. Now they come back ten years later and
they sold out two nights at Dodger Stadium, sixty thousand Z. Yeah,
we just can't control what the audience is gonna love.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
No, you really can't. Man.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
The only thing you can do is is, you know,
I think the minute you try to target the audience
is when you probably miss. So, you know, hopefully, we
just kind of try to stay focused and make music
that we're excited about. And the more inward we go,
the more it seems to connect. So I think that's
that's really the only thing we can do is make
(03:33):
our best, you know, our best shot at what excites us,
and then it's up to them. You never can predict stuff.
If we could predict it, trust me, we'd be doing
it all time.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It's so funny. I did a book called Anthems We
Love Right where I talked with all these great artists about,
you know, why a song becomes an anthem, what makes
it that way? And it's funny because both Robbie Krieger
from The Doors and Steve Winwood said Robbie Greeger talked
about light My Fire, see Winwood said about give Me
Some Love, and they're both said exactly the same thing.
(04:05):
If we had any idea why those songs became what
they did, we'd do it one hundreds more times.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, And we always we always try to keep in
mind too, songs like you know, Everybody Wants.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
To Rule the World where you know, Tears for Fears.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Hated that song, they didn't want to even record it,
and you know, I think the producer and and one
of the one of the wives of the band members
convinced them to record it and became one of the
biggest songs ever. So we always try to keep that
in the back of my mind too. If if there's
a lot of excitement about a song that we just
didn't see coming we just go, Hey, you know there's
there are songs out there that artists didn't.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Know We're going to be their biggest Well.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's interesting too, because you talked about going inward and
by the way, everybody wants to rule the world is
in my book. So that's hilarious that you mentioned that one. Yeah, yeah,
I was rolling, was telling me. He's like, dude, I
hated that song. Yeah, my wife made me finish it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
But you know, two of the songs in the there
were holl Knows Sarah Smile and Graham Nash or you know,
Crosbysis Nash at Our House, both of which were literally
written about one person and became two of the most
popular songs of all time. And it's interesting, you know,
in doing the book, what I realized is, you know, obviously,
(05:17):
you know, everybody doesn't know Joni Mitchell. Everybody is know
Darryll's girlfriend Sarah, but they know the feeling, and they
want that feeling. They yearn for that feeling.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, you know, you think, I think the world has
a way of and our brains have a way of
making us feel like we're the only ones experiencing something
for some reason, and you know, it turns out we're
not that special.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
That's one of the beauties of music is you know,
when you're a kid, you have those songs that you're like,
you know, you feel so alone or isolated or whatever.
Every kid at some point feels that way, and then
you can have music and you're like, wait, how did
this person get in my head?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Question? What were those first songs for you?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You know, I think probably thunder Road was probably the
song for me that was go.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I was going, wow, you know just that line. You know,
it's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out
here to win.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You know that that line spoke to me so clearly
because I was from such a small town and I
felt I felt like an outsider there a lot of times,
just because I wanted something bigger. I knew something bigger
was out there and I had to go chase it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Whatever that was.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's interesting. I mean, how old are you at that time?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I was probably.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I would say seventeen when when I first sort of
resonated with that song.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So it's interesting you say you knew there was something
we were out there? Did you know his music? Did
you have any idea what it was, or just that
you needed to get out.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Some of both really, I think, you know, being from
such a small town, you know, there was no there
was no stoplight or anything. It was only about nine
hundred people there, and so on. On a grand scale, yes,
I wanted more just out of my environment. But I
was also at that time, you know, writing songs and
(07:21):
playing in bands and and you know, reading all the
magazines about that life and wanted that, wanted somehow to
touch that in some way.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
What's the town, by the way, I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's called Buchanan, Virginia spelled Buchanan, but we pronounced it Buckchannan.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
All right. So at that point when you were making music,
you know, was it already were you kind of leaning
towards country or no. Not.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
In the early days, I was, you know, it was
in the height of the grunge movement, so you know,
I was listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden
and then summ into like even heavier metal and.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
But you know, I was also surrounded by country music,
and my life was a country you know, but that
just wasn't the music that I was choosing at the time,
but it was on the radio in the kitchen twenty
four to seven, you know, so I knew it all.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well. No, it's really interesting because I was just talking
with Nikki six about the song they did with Dolly Parton. Right,
And for me, I was growing up, I was a
metal kid. And when you're a kid, of course, you know,
like you said with seventeen, you were listening to grunge.
At least for me when I was a kid, I
was an idiot, you know, in the sense you listen
to one type of music and everything else has to suck, right,
(08:44):
and then you realize, of course you get older. Like
Nicki and I were talking about, you know, it's funny
because when you're a kid and I was listening to
Moley Kreu, I was like, eh, Dolly Parton. And then
I have never interviewed a rock star in the world,
and I have interview every fucking rock star who doesn't
tell you that Johnny Cash is the cool person who
ever lived.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Right, exactly, I know. And I was lucky too. I
had a dad.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
My dad is not a musician, but just a fan
of music, and he had a pretty solid record collection
and it was so varied, everything from hard rock to
motown to country. And he would, you know, spend the
evening just playing one song off of this record, and
(09:26):
then while that was playing, he was picking another. And
I got exposed to so many different types of music.
And I never I never was the type of person
to sit here and go, oh this sucks. I was
always just very interested in it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
See that's interesting to me though, because what I found
from interviewing so many musicians, and it's a normal process
of life. Right when you're a kid, you're very close
to your parents. When you're a teenager, the natural order
is to rebel no matter who you are, no matter
what you do. So part of that is finding your
own music, finding your own voice. And then, like Nikki
and I were talking about, you get back to being
(10:02):
older and you realized, oh shit, my parents' stuff was
really cool, and you find that stuff, like you was saying,
for example, like you know, as a teenager, he was
like not into this, and then he goes back and
listens to the rap pack and he's like, that stuff's amazing.
So was there stuff for you that as you've gotten older,
or was there a time for you when he realized, like, wait,
the country music that my fam listened to was amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
The cool thing Another cool thing that my dad did
when he kind of saw me gravitating towards towards different music.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know, if I was.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Digging into Pearl Jam, he had an ear enough to
hear who they were influenced by, and he would buy
me the records. So, you know, he would be like, hey,
if you like, if you like these guys that you're
listening to, you should check out this Who record. And
then I would go listen to the Who and be like,
oh wow, I can see. So I didn't really rebel
(10:56):
too much musically against what they were listening to because
he did such a good job of sort of feeding
me all of the band's influences that I was listening to.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Interesting. Okay, So was there one you know, it's funny
because I knew you mentioned Soundguarden. I mean Chris personally,
he was a friend. Was there one or two bands
that you know he turned your dad turning onto when
you were listening to Soundgarden that really stood out?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Probably probably led Zeppelin is probably where I ended up
gravitating towards after listening to Soundgarden, and I remember him
giving me a Jethro Toll record too to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know, it's so it's so.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Dramatic, and you know, Soundgarden's music can be very dramatic too,
so I think that must have been what he was
picking up on.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, interesting, because I'm the biggest Eeppelin fan of the world.
Jethro Toll not gonna lie not as much. Yeah I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I wasn't super into Jethrow Toll either, but I'm certainly
gave it it's due, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, well, you know it's interesting. Let's come back to you.
You know, this is always fascinating to me, and we're
gonna come on to miss you Van the second because
like I said, I'm very interested in the inward stuff,
and people tend to gravitate to that so much. But
one thing that's funny is I've talked with so many
artists about you know, as you get older, of course
your influences like become more desparate, and you just listen
(12:24):
to so much stuff. And of course most good writing
is subconscious, so you don't really know where it comes from,
and then you go back and listen to it like
I always love this Nick Cave quote. Love Nick Cave
and you have this quote where he sits. Sometimes they'll
be on stage a year and a half later and
I'll be like, oh, that's what that means. Yeah, moments
for you where you hear influences in there, like on
Barber for example, when you go back and listen to
(12:45):
it and you hear like a little Zeppelin riff or
something else that you like, our Springsteen line or whatever
that you're like, Oh, I didn't even noticed that when
I was doing it.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, I mean Man of the Song in particular, there's
some you know, there's a line in there when I'm
looking into the first line of the song is when
I'm looking in the mirror, I see a man on fire.
And that's a straight up Springsteen thing man. And even
if you read his book, he talks about that exact
feeling and talks about it more on his Broadway production too,
(13:20):
So that's a straight up where I was like, oh, yeah,
that's the Springsteen coming out for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah. It's interesting even when you go back and listen
to older stuff, is there' stuff that now you hear
that maybe you didn't notice at the time because like
I said, I'm always fascinated with that because I believe
all good writing. And let me preface this by saying,
I'm not intelligent enough to have this theory, but I
talk with people like I've talked with every songwriter in
the world, and I talk with Mike Stoller from Leeburn
Stoller ninety years old. He co wrote stand by Me
(13:48):
and je ass Rock, and he's like, I have no
idea where songs come from.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, kind of the same way.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I mean, usually I'm pretty mystified by the songwriting process
and can I'm always kind of surprised that we were
ever able to do it in the first place. You know,
it's always just so exciting when you get done with
the song.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So yeah, there's a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Where I look back and still go, man, I don't
remember how we wrote that, but wow, I'm so glad
we did.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know, so way I Yeah, that's fascinating because, like
Jimmy Cliff was telling me, the hard Did They Come,
which to me is one of the greatest songs of
all time. All I'm sorry many rivers across that one.
He told me. He wrote in ten minutes on the
way to the studio, you know, and so the great
songs are like that. So for you are those songs,
like you said, where you're just like, I have no
(14:39):
idea where it came from. But those ones that's still
to this day are like huh, you know, like because
a lot of artists will describe it as channeling. The
way they say is they have your antenna up and
the songs just come in, like Neil Diamonds tweet Caroline
came from God.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, that's absolutely the case. It's when you have to
work out too hard, they're not as good. You know,
it's still worth it's still worth digging in and doing it.
But for some reason, the ones like, you know, we
wrote a song years ago for Kenny Tesney that became
a big hit, and we wrote in about forty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I wrote most of it on.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The way to the Right that that morning and just
got there and said, hey, give me a guitar. I
got this and I just spit it out and they
were like, yeah, let's let's finish that.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You know. So for you are there those is there
like one or two mets with the Kenny Chesney one,
but is there one or two that really missed a
bisi the most or like your favorites of the stuff
(15:50):
you've done. Where again, it's weird because like to say favorites,
but in a weird way, like I've talked about so
many artists, because this song is almost like channeling. You
don't even know where it came, so it's kind of
like someone else wrote it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I mean one Man Band was one of those songs
for us where it was it just sort of sort
of sapped me.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
We were standing on the bus and someone said that
phrase one man band, and for whatever reason, it just
it hit me and I like immediately nudged Brad who
was standing next to me, and I said, oh my gosh,
we have to write this song one man band. And
he said, what do you mean? And I said, it's
a love song. I don't want to be a one
man band. And we were standing next to the stage
(16:37):
in about thirty minutes and our intro music is playing.
We're supposed to be walking on stage, but we're huddled
around the phone and we relate to getting on getting
on stage because we were huddled around the phone, just
spitting out One Man Band of the beginnings of what
would become that song. So it just sort of appeared
I could see the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Nice. All right, now let's come out of this where
their reck where their songs on Barbara that you have
that same feeling where it just kind of came from nowhere.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, you know, well, you know you're talking about Missu
Man that song. You know, lots of times when we
are writing, we certainly have those songs where we're trying
to quote unquote write a hit, you know, but that
day was just a true conversation about our friend that
(17:28):
we were missing that day.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
It's a good friend of ours. His name's Andrew Dorf
and he passed away about eight years ago and.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
We still miss him.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
We play we play a lot of songs in our
set still that we wrote with Andrew, and we were
just in the room that day talking about our friend,
and out came Missu Man. And we never even thought
even in that moment that that would be a song
that we would record.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
It was just it was therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
But again, going back to what I was talking about
with the Hall of Notes and Graham Nash songs that's
most of the time are the best songs.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Interesting too, because I mean, well, you know, have you
found that people respond to that song? It's kind of
like that Charlie Pooth and Whiskey Leaf of songs. See
you again people, Yeah, my favorite song everybody. It's funny.
When I was six years old, I loved the song
Season and Sun by Terry Jacks. Noah Cyrus and I
had a long conversation about that song. Hold up, there's
those songs that just resonate with you in a way.
(18:32):
And have you found from people that they've talked to
you about Missy Man like I imagine?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we get so many messages already.
And you know, we had one particular moment in the
set just a couple of days ago, where this little
girl was right in the front row. She was probably
eight nine years old. She had a sign that said
miss you Man and it was plastered with pictures. So
I asked her, you know who is this and she
said it's my daddy, and you know, it was heartbreaking,
(19:01):
and you know, immediately, you know, we played the song
for her, and you know, the whole place is in tears.
We look over the side stage, the whole crew is
in tears, like we're all just bawling because you know,
we came off the stage and I was like, oh
my gosh, what have we done to ourselves?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I was gonna say, Man, I'm like, I'm certain to baltz.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, But you know, that's gotta be the greatest feeling
in the world. Like when you have these songs, like
I've talked about it with so many people write and
you write a song that goes platinum, you write a
song that wins a Grammy, you write a song that
wins this and that's all great at the end of
the day kind of who gives a ship Because when
you have a song that truly connects to someone, that
(19:44):
changes someone's life or tell you like, oh, you know
this song saved my life, that's gotta be like the
greatest feeling.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's the it's the biggest honor that you could get
man as a songwriter. It really is just there's there's
no no, nothing that you can just do to describe it.
It's just it's just we get fulfilled with gratitude that
we were given that song and given this gift and
(20:12):
this platform that we could do that because you know,
at one point and still we still are affected by
music in that way, and that that's we can forget
sometimes in this business, that that's.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
What it really is for. That's what music is for.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
And it's yes, it's our job, but it's also it's
people's lives, and it really, you know, at at our best,
we are enhancing someone's life in some way.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, you know, it's so interesting because the name of
the podcast is called in Service Up. And what I've
realized though, you know, it started off being about philanthropy,
which I know you've done a lot we'll talk about.
But what I realized too, is like talking with musicians,
musicians by nature are just in service up because like
you say, I mean, you gave that little girl a memory,
She's gonna remember her whole life.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, it's funny because we it took us a little while,
you know, in the beginning, when this started to take
off on a much bigger level than we were maybe
prepared for. It's difficult, you know, it's kind of hard
as a human to be like, oh, these people sort
(21:22):
of care about me and what I say and they
want pictures with me. And it was kind of weird
and a little bit hard to wrap our heads around.
And I was talking to my therapist at the time
about it, and she explained to me just that very thing.
She said, you signed up for a life of service,
and this isn't about you, this is you're in service
(21:45):
of other people. And it was it was the biggest,
like light bulb moment. It was such an easy thing
for me to shift my brain to to go, oh,
you're right, Oh my gosh, when I step out on
that stage, I'm serving other people. They're not you know,
they're not serving me, and they are in some way.
(22:06):
But if I can look at it that way, as
like every single time we go out on stage, every
single time we put out an album, it's because you
know someone needs it or someone can benefit from it,
and it takes nothing from me to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah. It's so interesting though. It's funny because when you
look at someone like, for example, you know, you mentioned Springsteen,
who's my favorite artist of all time, you know, and
it's like again, when you look at that, I mean,
and you look at the feeling he's giving you that
whole life of service. Yeah, way, like when you get
that big it's like you almost have I mean, he's
done a pretty good job of maintaining a private life.
(22:45):
But I mean, I've always said famous the worst drugg
there is, and you have so many people who don't
know how to do it. Is there someone who kind
of taught you besides your therapist, but like artists you watch,
who taught you how to kind of balance it? Because
it can be so overwhelming and it's really interesting. The
idea for this podcast was actually inspired by Alice Cooper,
(23:06):
of all people, said to me, I ran into him
an event and he said, fame is the brand that
allows you to do good. And I always just love
that quote so much, because once you achieve a certain
level of success, it's like you're not going for commercial
success anymore. You're going for her being able to have
a legacy and make a difference.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Sure, sure you know, I mean obviously you know, directly
or indirectly. I guess maybe Springsteen taught me that too,
because I could I could certainly see how he uses
his platform and how inward he does go or how
he can just observe the human experience and speak about
(23:45):
it while maintaining his start them and his personal life.
But I guess more directly, you know, we've gotten to
work so hand in hand with Kenny Chesney so much
throughout our career and become close friends with him and
watch how he he created a culture that was bigger
(24:08):
than him. He's a part of it and he's maybe
the ringleader of it. But it's about the feeling when
you go to a Kenny Chesney show. It's about the
feeling that is created in that building rather than oh
my gosh, there's Kenny Chesney, you know right.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, so it's interesting. Do you have that feeling now
when you come on stage at your shows? Do you?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's what Yeah, that's what we're That's our goal is
to you know, try to you know, I even tell
the crowd, you know, our goal during our show is
to have people feel better when they leave than they
did when they got there. In some way, shape or form.
We're here for you and we try to do our
(24:54):
best to sort of create that energy. It helps that
we're in a band too, because you know, they're not
just lashed on to me, or they're not just lashed
on to Brad. It's a band of brothers up there,
and we can it's a little bit easier to create
that sort of environment, I think than if I was
(25:14):
out there by myself.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Well, you know, I imagine as well. It's kind of like that,
you know, again, come back to the fame thing be difficult.
It's like when you have you know, you have other
people in there that understand that comes the way, and
you guys get each other and you know you've been
through it, and it's like, you know, it's funny because
I've talked about this with so many people, and I
mean I've interviewed every dysfunctional, fucked up band in the world.
And yes, you know, for all the problems though, it's
(25:37):
like still I always remember you Pop telling me after
twenty nine years when the studies of unitedies, like, eventually
all that stuff fades away and you remember all you did.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, absolutely, we you know, we're we're just as fucked
up as any other band.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
We're we're a family, you know, and and we.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
We treat each other as such, with with all the
love and all the shit talk that comes along with that.
But when we step on stage, it truly is the
great eraser of all that stuff, you know, and we're
on stage having a ball.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
So let's come back to the philanthropy bird a second.
I know you just gave money to a middle school.
I mean, talk about the stuff that's important to you
at this point. And I mean, obviously that's so important
because you know, I've talked about this with I mean, look,
the world is so fucked up at this moment and
everything is so divided, but there are certain issues that
just everybody can unite on. Like I just interviewed Hugh
Evans from Global Citizen and he's like, if you don't
(26:32):
agree with the kid getting a thirty second vaccine, you're
just a psych oh. And I'm like, you can't right
agree with that, you know, regardless of your physical affiliation,
you know. And it's like, you know, whether it's poverty,
animal rights, you know, I've done a lot with City
of Hope with cancer stuff. So for you, what are
those issues? And what I was going to say is,
(26:52):
you know, education and arts funding is one of those ones.
To me that seems it just you know, I've interviewed
Matt Sorem, Barry Manilow, Flea, will I am on it.
You know, all of these people are on the same page,
and it's like, man, you can not find four more
different people musically.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know for me, that is a
big one. And like you said, we just gate, we're
just able to give some money to to help fund
a music a music educator that you know, the school's
having trouble paying for someone to teach music. And you know,
I grew up, like I said that, in such a
(27:29):
small town with where opportunities were very limited and from
everything from arts and culture to just basic needs. And
it breaks my heart to see kids at a disadvantage
like that, where it's it's in my mind so simple. Uh,
you know, this kid needs food, give them food, and
(27:52):
or these kids are interested in art and music, we
should foster that because that's how that's how they're going
to become the best, you know, member of the community,
and they're going to serve through whatever they're the most
interested in. So uh, it does break my heart when
those things seem to fall short in certain areas, especially
(28:15):
rural communities.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah, all right, let's make this a fun question for
a second, because I've interviewed, like I said, all these
different people. FLEE has a music tool here in La
called Silver Lay Conservancy. I interviewed Lang Lang, the classical pianist,
about a program needed so and I remember FLEE used
to do this annual benefit called hullabaloo or even I
mean Tracy Chapman doesn't talk to anyone, but she was
there and she talked to me because it was about
(28:40):
music education. So there's so many artists who support it.
Who would you love to play with in support of
music education? Someone who gets behind it? That just would
be just pre you what's the fan that would be?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Oh my gosh, you know as a band, we all
are big Lenny Kravitz fan.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Answer.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I think that would be something that would be really
fun to do. And such a such a badass, unique musician,
you know, and we all kind of look up to
his his spirit. I think that would be a really
fun one.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
It's the wait, what song would you do with him?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh my gosh, maybe it ain't over till it's over.
That's a that's a great song. Of course we'd have
to do Are you going to go my way?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You know? But it's always fun to be right when
you like I remember, you know, like coming up in
the eighties, right, I remember seeing Springsteen on the Amnesty
benefit where you know the show would end with the
all star finale. So I'm always fascinated with this. If
you can cover any song in like an All Star finale.
What would it be? And why? Oh God, because it's like,
(29:47):
you know, that just great cover anthem, like I for
a rejemption song. But I mean there's you know, there's
so many.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean I might have to throw it back
to my earlier answer of thunder Road. That might be
one that I that I would love to be a
part of because it means just so much to me
and it's just such raw emotion.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I would love to be a big part of that.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I do remember too, the moment, the first moment like
that that I remember being extremely moved by was I
think it was the MTV Awards when Pearl Jam came
out and played keep On Rocking in the Free World
with Neil Young, and it just absolutely blew my mind.
I was just so blown away by that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, all right, make this last question, but this is
a fun one. Like I just did a story for
the La Times with The Doors on their sixteenth anniversary,
and I was interviewing different people on what the Doors
music meant to them. I was interviewing a palaeontologist of
all things, who was telling me that he was in
Patagonia and he hired these gauchos who would excavate dinosaur bones.
(30:52):
While listening to writers on the Storm, I was telling
this story to Robbie and John, who were like, fuck,
that's amazing. It's like Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff.
So it's inspired my new favorite question, where's the craziest
place you've heard your music or heard it being played?
Oh my goodness, because again, well I was just going
(31:13):
to say, sorry, I have to get you up, and
I was gonna say, you know, when you release a song,
it's not yours anymore, no, and you have no idea
what's going to happen with it.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, it's definitely not It's always trippy to me when
we are somewhere and just hear someone else covering our music.
You know that, that to me is one step beyond
hearing our music somewhere, you know, because we know our
(31:42):
music's out in the world and it's cool to you know.
It's definitely We've definitely been in other countries and been like,
oh my gosh, this is our song, or or you know,
at a sporting event or something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That's always cool.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I will say one of the coolest stories that we've
gotten is, you know, the astronauts that were on the
space station that was supposed to Sonny was her name,
Sonny and Butch. They were stuck up there for a
little longer than they thought they were gonna supposed to
be a non day trip, and they were up there
for like nine months, and when they returned, they told
(32:17):
us that they were listening to our music to get
them through. So our music has been used on the
space station to motivate and lift morale while they were
up there working.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Did this is any particular song or just in general
your stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We have a song? Well, they did listen to a
lot of it.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
But Sonny in particular was a big fan of a
song called Coming Home because she wanted to come home
and she was up there just waiting on her opportunity
to come home, and so she used that song to
lift her spirits.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
See that's cool again because it's like, Okay, you know,
imagine being stuck in space for in and a half extra
months and like, you know, using your music to get
through when most people would just lose their mind.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's what a gift.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Cool man. What do you want to add that we
did not talk about?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Oh man, just I just appreciate the time man, appreciate
our you know, our fans, anyone who's listening to this,
thank you, And we are so excited about this album.
So we hope in the spirit of this podcast. You know,
people always ask what do you want people to take
away from this album, and the answer is, it's just
whatever they need, you know, whatever they need from it.
If they if they wanted to make their party better,
(33:28):
if they want to sue the Broken Heart, how about it.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You know, it's it's yours.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
So what do you take from it? Because it's always
interesting when you go back and listen to a record
because again, when you're making it right, you have no
idea what's going on. You're in the midst of it, yeah,
close to it. So now when you listen to it
as a whole, what do you take from it?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I take.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You know, I really just kind of experience the past
decade or so with this band and the joy that
we have in the studio together or on stage together.
I think it really shines through on this on this album,
the fact that we're just having fun and we're at
(34:09):
a place in our career where we feel creatively free
to explore that joy and that relationship with each other.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
So that's really what I get from it.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Cool man, Well, it's great talking to you. And by
the way, I have to ask you as a fan because,
as I say, my favorite artist, but I've never met Springsteen.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Of you, I did get to meet Springsteen. It was
an amazing, an amazing experience.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And I never do this.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
I never pull the like call the manager and be like, hey,
pull some strings. But I was going to see his
Broadway play, and I'm like, he is my favorite too.
I'm I'm such a huge fan that I didn't tell
anybody that I was going to this because I didn't
want anybody to go with me, because I didn't want
anybody to talk to me during the show. I just
wanted to enjoy it, you know. So I went and
(35:02):
I called my manager and said, I don't know if
you have any connections, but if there's a way I
could meet him, this would be incredible.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And he said, I'll shoot the.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Shot, you know, And so he messaged his manager and
they they got together and talked, and I was on
the phone with his tour manager and he said, Hey,
it's up to Bruce.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He might meet you.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Before he might meet you after, but it's a Saturday show.
He may just go home after the show, So just
hang in there. Let me know when you're at the theater.
So I got there like two hours early, and I
was like, I'm here, you know, And he texted me
back and said, okay, Bruce said he'll he'll bring you
back after the show. So I'm sitting in the sitting
(35:45):
in the seat and this guy comes and sits next
to me, and I could recognize his voice. I tried
not to like pay too close attention, but I was like, man,
I know who this guy is. And then I realized
it was Adam Dirtz from Counting Crows and he's sitting
next to me, and I turned to him and he
turns to me and he goes.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Hey, aren't you from Old Dominion. I was like, yeah,
I am, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
So the two of us after the show went backstage
and got to hang with him for probably thirty minutes,
and it was everything you could ever want out of it.
He just talked to us like we were Pierce, you know.
So it was really a great experience.
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Elvis Duran
Garrett
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