Ep. 25: Michael Ray on Florida, Hunting Alligators, and Country Music

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
You're up in God's Country With Reed and Dan Is,
also known as the Brothers Hunt, we take a weekly
drive to the intersection of country and music in the
great outdoor. Those things that go together like Granddaddy's acoustic
guitar and the Grand old Opper.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Stage Florida and refrigerators on the porch. Brought to you
by Meat Eater and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
We're gonna be sitting down with Michael Ray today, Michael
Great Beard Ray, Great Teeth Ray, Michael Great Teeth, Rat
tattoos Man. We're gonna be talking Florida. We're gonna be
talking hunting, We're gonna be talking music when we talking family.
A lot of great stories from this cat, good buddy
of ours. Really excited to sit down with him in
God's Country.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Y'all.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Be sure to smash smash those light buttons, hit those
follow buttons, follow those follow.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Buttons, pew.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Do all you can to help us grow God's Country
podcast and the brand.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I appreciate every one of you. It's because of you
we get to do this.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
You know all the things we love, y'all. Thanks for
hanging out in God's Country. Enjoyed the Microreae episode.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
Where's Home, Like where you be born Eustace in Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
So it's like south of Okalla. Dude, Okalla is beautiful.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
Yeah that's horse country right, Yeah, dude, it's gorgeous. Now
I've been there once.

Speaker 7 (01:30):
Yeah, I didn't know that Okala was horse country until
like I started figuring out. Someone told me they're like, Okalla,
that's where Toby Keith is. He invested in like horses
and and all that stuff, and that's where Toby Keith
gets his horses. I'm like from Okalla and they're like, yeah,
it's horse country, and I'm like, I have lived there
my entire life and I had no idea. Of course,
I don't ride horses. I don't get out on top

(01:51):
of anything with the brain anything.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Good point, what like, what was it like?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Give us a glimpse into because I think, I mean,
I'm kind of judging you.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I mean I know you, like we've written songs together.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I know you, but I feel like you're like kind
of authentic Florida redneck a little bit. Yeah, like just
from where you've give us an insight on like what
growing up there was like.

Speaker 7 (02:17):
Man, it's you know, the older you get the more
you see around you know the world and around the
United States, it's just great, hardworking all American people, you
know what I mean, like blue collar folks that take
care of each other.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Man that look out for each other.

Speaker 7 (02:36):
And it's it's just one of those places that now,
you know, a lot is changing just because everything's growing,
you know, but it still has that And where my
dad and everybody lives is the same land that my
grandfather had, his dad had, so where we grow up
where you know, when I go home, I go to
the same place that you know, I learned to ride
a bike, shoot a gun, you know, all the stuff
my dad did.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, all that stuff.

Speaker 7 (02:57):
So it's cool for me to go back there because
a lot hasn't changed as much as much as like
infrastructures are changing. And you go back there and yeah,
we used to have like a bunch of orange fields
out there, and now there's a Publix, and you know,
there's different ways popping up, but it still has that
This is a core value man's god family country. And
and it was a great spot because you were dead

(03:18):
center of the state, so you know, you can hunt.
We were in the woods, but you're only forty minutes
from Orlando, you know, forty five minutes from Daytona, you
know if you wanted to go to the beach or whatever.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
So kind of had the best of all worlds.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
So that's where we went to the beach.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
You went to Daytona, Daytona and New Smerna.

Speaker 6 (03:34):
Yeah, bro the horse game, which I mean, I don't
ride horses or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
That's one thing I wish I had in my in
my like redneck cred card, was that I knew about horses.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Dude, don't. I don't know anything about horses.

Speaker 7 (03:47):
I don't am my stepsisters and I have some cousins
that like they had horses and you know where like
they would go and they do horse shows and stuff
like that. And so one of my stepsisters get bucked off,
and I was like.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Down that, and that's why that's why I said.

Speaker 7 (04:01):
I was like, I just don't get on any animal
that has like a brain that could like make and
go squirrel and then throw me off the other season.

Speaker 6 (04:08):
You know, my wife is from Kentucky and she went
to school at Les and like some of those horses
they're buying for those races and stuff.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
For like millions. Oh yeah, man, I mean like it
is some of that money.

Speaker 7 (04:21):
You ever gambled on horse racing, I have done that. Yeah,
well I have no idea what. We played some show
and the guy had there was like I think it
was in Kentucky and it was like.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Ducky Downs or whatever is it is.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
The Kentucky Downs is like the Owensborough.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
The Kentucky Derby, like a round.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Like oh, you're thinking of in Losbull, Well, there's the Oaks.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
The day before the derby at Churchhill.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
It wasn't that.

Speaker 7 (04:48):
It was like I think, I want to say, it
was like it might have been like early, way earlier,
but this guy brought us there. But you want to
get your blood pressure going, yeah, if you put some
money on a horse and you know, I just I
was like, that's a cool name, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
Bitch comes out the gate in first and it's like,
oh buddy.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
That I'm like, yeah, double down, lose everything.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's pretty fun. Man.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, I've been that evans Evansville, that's whatever is there,
but that's where that's where. That's where we went.

Speaker 6 (05:20):
But they like when we went, they took us back
to like like pre race. They took us back into
the stables and like we got to see the horses
that were about to run and how they were feeding
them and doing like.

Speaker 7 (05:30):
They take care of those horses like they are athletes
in the Ellis Park. I also didn't realize how small
the jockeys are, little little guys.

Speaker 6 (05:40):
Yeah, tiny little, tiny little man.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Little man.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible. It is. I'm I'm your
five eleven blaite guy six foot you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (05:52):
No, And when I walk around there, dude, I was like,
this is what Riley Green feels like when he's walking.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
I'm sick five Holly Green. Oh, dreamy wrong? He was
out with this past year. We had a we had
a lot of fun with that guy. Man, he's uhthing else.

Speaker 6 (06:12):
Yeah yeah, So what was like your first like it
says we've got it, like your stat sheet right here?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, you got a statue? Check that out.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
Alligators? Yeah, come on, what's the best alligator story you got?

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Well?

Speaker 7 (06:28):
Uh, last season, so you got to get tags, right,
My cousin Lee got tags and I took off three
days and you know, hunter the night and.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
So long how long is the season?

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Sorry? Shoot, I don't I don't really know what it is.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
I think it's short.

Speaker 7 (06:42):
It's short, yeah, I think it's like three weeks, three weeks,
I want to say, three weeks or a month. It's
not very long. You want to get so many tags,
you know. And then of course there's like the lakes
where like at night you could walk across on Gator's back.
Can't go to those, you know, So I'm like, we
just go to Lake George.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
We yeah, tag out in an hour, you know.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I think they do, like they a lot tags
for residents, like if you like on land or if
you they basically give you tags, right you sell them.

Speaker 7 (07:08):
Or I think, so, yeah, that's a person never got tags.
I've always like my cousins always got them or some
always had them. But this last season, normally like you
get like a ten foot you know, like one, you know,
you get.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
Some big ones.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
You know.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
Lost of six is for us.

Speaker 7 (07:23):
We got completely skunked last season, right three nights, and
so we're in this in this canal, in this canal.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
How does the process work? Do you real them in?
Do you shoot them?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Like?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
How is it?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
We had a so we had a like a big
treble hook there.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
In the middle of the water and throws across them.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
Yeah, and the only alligator experience or like this is
the show like the swamp people.

Speaker 5 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, and they're hanging like what like chicken, like
full chicken.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah off, So you're snagging them.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, we're snagging them.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
And then get them to the boat shooting and shooting.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
And so we were and then a second night, me
and my cousin are having a great time.

Speaker 7 (08:02):
It's so much fun, dude, Like it's one of That
and duck hunting are two of my favorites, just because
you can talk and bullshit, you know. And anyway, we're
in this canal and we're shining, you know, looking for
for eyes and stuff. And like I said, normally, man,
every season you're you're tagging out right. Everybody we knew
was not. We couldn't get a gater close, right, And

(08:24):
at one point in time they were like literally baby
gaters around our boat. We're like, mama's here, have no
clue where you can't find her nothing, right, So we're shining.
We're in this canal and there's houses around it. This
lady comes out, She's like, you're shining in my house
and my cousin's like, no, we're not. We're shining on
the water, you know. And she's like yelling at my cousin.

(08:46):
So I'm like letting him kind of handle it, you know.
And I'm getting stuff and my back's turned and our
buddy JJ's on the back part of the boat, and
I'm like, Lee, he's got this. He's a smooth talker,
you know. And uh, he's like He's like. She's like,
we aren't supposed to be out here, and he's like, man,
we have tags.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
This is a lake. Yeah, completely legal.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
Well, she goes back in her house, comes back out.
Keep in mind my back's turned to her right. She's
yelling at at my cousin Lee again, and he's like
just backing the boat out, you know. And now there's
it's gotten a little heated more, right, YEA. All of
a sudden, I hear no way, the lady had a
gun on her and shoots right. And my cousin, my

(09:27):
cousin this at night, bro, and my backs turned right.
In my mind, I'm like they they say that when
your body is in shock, you don't feel it.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
So I'm like.

Speaker 7 (09:42):
I'm looking at my check, I'm checking the whole time,
and then we end up back and we back out,
you know, and and then of course, you know, all
the all the anger sets in, so you know, we're
calling our buddies, you know, our buddies as this lady
just walked out and shot it. It was only a
gun we fired for three days. It was the only
gun that was one damn gator.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Dude, that's kind of terrifying.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, it's Florida, baby.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
That is Florida. That was the Florida story.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, that's exactly what random Ga popcast alligator is.

Speaker 6 (10:15):
If you never had alligator people listening, it's actually really good.

Speaker 7 (10:19):
It's really good, and it's like one of the highest
proteins really gator tail. Yeah, this guy, I think like
you got like a ten foot gator. His tails was
pushing them through the water and it's just solid.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Oh yes, you know. Yeah, it makes it no fac
to go to.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
My dad would preach like revivals down in southern Mississippi,
and we went over to Basket Goula.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
It was that was that what it was? What song
is that in that squirrel and herself that they didn't past?

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Do you know what song?

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Yeah? Ray Stevens the Mississippi Squirrel Revival, Like you're like
Jamie Joe Rogan is, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
It just kind of became that over time because we
were like, get so much stuff wrong, like the Atlantic. Yeah,
so she's kind of cleans it up, but he's like actually.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
At the end, it's like.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
But that.

Speaker 6 (11:16):
We like went through a drive through like you would
go through KFC, and we would order. I remember Dad
ordering just like these styrophoam plates of Gator and jalapeno
fat and stuff, and it was all crumpled up. And
I was like five, I was probably older. I literally
brown bag, yes, like brown bag styrophone. They give you
napkins and this thing of Gator tail and uh dude,

(11:38):
I remember grabbing a piece thinking it was Gator and
it was about ten jilapenos Friday together.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
It was awful. I put him in it up so
it lit me up.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
But I just remember every time he went down there,
I was so excited because I was gonna get to
eat gator.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Do you remember, like the punch of that story is yeah,
that the way dad tells it. You know my dad,
our dad's a preachers, very animated storyteller, and he'll say, yeah,
Rady he come up and finally got it a drink
dr pepper whatever my dad had which was probably really unhealthy,
and and uh he said, yeah, raak him up. I
had a drink at Dodtor pepper and he said, what

(12:15):
Alligator's good? But uh, but man, I don't like him.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Pallahennahippers.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
I just remember like doing like this, and I just feeling.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
You try because your dad, you don't want to say
anything dying gator.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
You could be crying, like, why's it getting so emotion
I love him?

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Plahna heippers.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
So when did you fall in love with duck hunting?
I mean, can you duck hunting?

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Florida?

Speaker 7 (12:41):
So, my my buddy Tim Montana's who got me got
me hooked on it. I went, we go every year.
It's probably about six years ago was my first time going.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
That's the second time my buddy Tim Montana has been
mentioned on this podcast. Kobe said the same. I guess
she's friends with Yeah.

Speaker 7 (12:55):
Yeah, he's been one of my one of my best
friends man for for years. And uh he goes every
year to Stuttgarden, friends of ours that have a camp
out there.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
Capital of the World.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
And let me just keep in.

Speaker 7 (13:06):
Mind we all probably grew up the same where like
before hunting season, you have to go bomb the trailer,
get the snakes on, all the all the bugs.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
So that's what I'm used to at the time, right,
And He's like, we're going duck hunting and I'm like,
I've never been. He's like, you gotta go.

Speaker 7 (13:18):
And he goes every year at the beginning of January
for his birthday for like four or five days. And
and Tim is the one degree away from everybody.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
A dude knows literally everybody.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
We've heard that too, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:29):
Well everybody we talked to, like in hunting camps or whatever.
His name feels like it always gets brong.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
He knows every And what's great.

Speaker 7 (13:36):
One of the one of the many things I love
about him is he's like if he has a connection
with something and you're a friend.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
With his, he's connecting.

Speaker 7 (13:42):
You're plug you know, you're plugged, insuged And.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Literally knows everybody.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
I mean, like and and I got plenty of Tim
stories just like this only happens to you, you know
what I mean, Like the dude's playing a trade. He
would tell me for years how him and Dave Grohl
are going to be buddies right, are going away listen
to this. I might be messing this up a little bit,
but he was playing a trigger event, right and he's

(14:08):
I'm pretty sure just him acoustic on like a probably
a goose.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
Tim Tanne, for views don't know, is an artist in
his own right.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah. Yeah, he's got a big rock song right now
called Devil. You know. That's that's crushing it. But he,
uh so.

Speaker 7 (14:25):
This guy he's playing, this guy comes up with a
hat on watching him, gets up on the.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Ca hoone what starts playing the home guy.

Speaker 7 (14:36):
It's Dave Girl, No way, Dave and him hit it off.
Tim gets Tim, Tim, Tim get a little wild, you
know yeah, And so they get a little whild that
night and Dave girls like you're one of the last
real rock starry man, you know.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Weeks later, Tim's flying.

Speaker 7 (14:56):
Dave is asking Tim and Danielle his wife, dude, you
gotta come. We're doing two nights of Madison Square Garden.
It's my birthday, you gotta come. And this ship only
happens to Tim, you know what I mean. I'm like,
he sees this stuff and I swear it happens, you know.
But so he he had a good has this you know,
just knows everybody. And he does his duck hunt every
year for his birthday. And so I went the first year.

(15:17):
And this is way nicer hunting than I've ever done
in my life. Right, Like he's like, he's like, they
have a lodge, and I'm like, okay, and I'm thinking
what I grew up on? No, everybody has their own bedroom.
There's a fully stock bar, there's a commercial sized kitchen.
Easy hunt and yeah, I mean it's and then you
go out there and you can, you know, drink where,

(15:38):
you know, talk, have fun, you know, if you want
to shoot, if you want to not shoot, if you
don't want to, you know, you got a guy watching
and calling the birds for you.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
And I'm like this is my Yeah, this is this
is And I've gone every year.

Speaker 7 (15:53):
I love it, man, And a lot of it is
just last year we went and we were in Montana
and actually Tim and Billy Gibbons zz Top bought a
bar called the Wise River Club and Wise River, Montana
because Tim's from Butte, Montana, which is like thirty minutes
from there.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, and so Wise River.

Speaker 7 (16:13):
Is just this awesome town dude that like you feel
like you step back in time, right, it's they still,
It's very Montana. I'm the wise river. You step out there, dude,
it looks like a photo, you know what I mean,
Like a Thomas Kincaid picture.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
You know what I mean. You got like a log cabin.
The lights are on. You know, everything's beautiful out there.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Bro.

Speaker 7 (16:33):
We were riding around at like six in the morning
in a Polarius. I'm shooting aurs. I'm like, this is freedom.
I had to readjust the society when I got back.
But we had a flights out there, and I convinced
the guys. I was like, let's take a boys trip.
So we took Tim Sprinter because we thought it was
a good idea.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (16:50):
Uh, from Montana to Stuckguard, Arkansas. Get in at three thirty,
put camo on and go right to the.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah. But we had a good time.

Speaker 7 (16:59):
But but one of my favorite memories, man, and what
I love about it is the hunting's fun. But we
you sider it. There's always a table you know that
everybody gets together at. And you know there's some of
the old men out there that I've been hunting that land.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
For for years and they just all telling stories.

Speaker 7 (17:17):
Dude, and I'm like, you know, you're staying up way
too late, sleeping an hour and then going and grabbing
your gun.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
That's part of her camps.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
It's my favorite, man.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
It's like it's like, you know, once I've hit kind
of once you shot a bunch of ducks and geese.
I'm like, dude, I just want to go chill with
some of these old timers and hear some funny stories
in the back when nobody had social media.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Day I'll never forget. We were at at our deer
camp in West ce. We went to get sandwiches one
day and there's an old man saying there and.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
Our deer camp, same thing.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Dude.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
It's like double wide or like til be built a
two by.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Four, you know I was used to.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, And so.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
We sleep on a table that we fold back.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
We see this guy.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
He's like, yeah, he's like, y'all killing the deer over there,
and we're like, man, you know, we take a good one.
He was like maybe every couple of years or something.
And he said yeah, he said, uh, hunt was better
back before you youngins filmed everything, except he said he
didn't say youngs. And he's right, man, you know, it's like,

(18:27):
I mean, those guys are fun to talk to just
because they have a completely different view of the ground
that you're on. Like I would venture to say that
those men around the table that lodge probably wasn't or
it might have been there, but it wasn't as grandiose
as it is, right, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 7 (18:43):
And they know it was back before you could look
up on your phone how to get to a planet.
Those guys know the land like the back of their hand. Yeah, yeah,
I mean had dark in the dark, you know. And
those also are the guys that are sitting in a
tree stand from morning till yeah night.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, and you know, dark Woods has never really intimidated me. Well,
I mean besides, when I was like eight and my
dad would leave me out there for fourteen hours by myself.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Can I talk about Nope?

Speaker 3 (19:09):
But since but dark water, like you think about it, man,
Back in the day, those casts were going out there
in places where no cell phones.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Oh no, literally dark putting waiters on and putting.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
Waiters on, and walking or boating and then eventually stepping
out into like dark water. It's not that I'm I'm
not scared of it. I just, dude, that's a that's
the like a mind thing of mine, like filling up
and like not being able to get back in the boat,
or maybe there's not a boat and then you got
to go and you trip and you're soaked and you're
in the midd I mean that it's pretty safe now,

(19:45):
but man, to be able to go after ducks back then,
you had to really really love it.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
Oh you had to.

Speaker 7 (19:51):
Yeah, you know, it probably wasn't anybody on a griddle
cooking your breakfast, which is polarious, but hell you God
knew when to put us in to the world.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Bos they're gonna dive, they put them in. Put them
in where they're cooking breakfast in a commercial.

Speaker 6 (20:04):
Kid cargoes, or you can drive out to the.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Step right there.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, it's something.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Maybe it's because I have mega short legs and I'm like, man,
that freaking I'm just built the saint.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (20:18):
Who introduced you to hunt?

Speaker 4 (20:19):
Was it?

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Granddad?

Speaker 4 (20:21):
Who was it?

Speaker 7 (20:21):
My family grew up hunting, and I remember, like my
great grandmother's house is I mean probably the size of
this room and a half right little block yellow house
still there, and that's where everybody would get together, you know,
the smallest house possible. But everybody my great grandmother growing up,

(20:42):
you know, it was you know, their generation.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
My great grandpa worked.

Speaker 7 (20:46):
She got up, they breakfast as soon as I was done,
she was preparing lunch because everything was from scratch, you know,
And so all of my family, all the our bus
stop was her house. And so all the guys that
were working, yeah, they were all telephoned, like telephone men
a lot. We're getting off for My family's either veterans,

(21:07):
first responders or cable splicers, right, like, that's what That's
what everybody in my family, all the guys did. And
so everybody meet up my great grandma's house would be
all of us cousins and stuff, and she would cook, dude,
like for everybody, homemade biscuits, grits, eggs, baked, I mean,
the whole deal, you know, and so everybody, oh, dude,
she she's passed away a few years ago, but she man,

(21:28):
that's we all talk about it.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
We're like, and I don't think she really.

Speaker 7 (21:32):
I think she left out a couple of things in
the recipes just so we would miss her, you know,
because like no one can make Grandma's fried chicken the
way she did you know. I think people have tried,
and a lot had tempted, but they've fallen short. You
know what we're like, I think she left something out.
She's looking down on heaven going you'll never understand. That's
it's a pinch of salt, you know, got you? But uh,

(21:54):
But then like when my uncle Earl would come down
from uh, North Florida, and they would ever they would
get together. My grandfather is one of six seven boys,
I think, and then they had and one one have
one sister, aunt Debbie, So everybody would always get together
in the mornings and then every holiday we would all
end up at my Greatrandma's house. But then during deer

(22:14):
season and Florida, like I still this day have not
killed like.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
A huge deer. You know, deers aren't they're like great
dames with horns.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
I haven't seen many.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yeah, you might get lucky.

Speaker 7 (22:26):
I think my cousin Donnie got a pretty decent sized
ten point.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
And that's like Uncle Earl.

Speaker 7 (22:34):
I got a great story about when we filmed the
Holy Water video. I'll tell you all that about Donnie
and Spidey. You know Spidey the videographer photographer. He's like
huge and all the eminem stuff he did, I mean
everybody stuff.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
But I got a funny story about Donnie and yeah,
pin that.

Speaker 7 (22:49):
So anyway, I just remember when they would come down,
my cousin Buyern, everybody would they'd go, you know, deer hunting,
and they'd all come back.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
And I remember just being a kid. They teach us
how to skin it, you know, and all that stuff
and so and then it was just like always around.

Speaker 7 (23:01):
It was something I look forward to, you know, as
a kid, you know, and then as I got older,
you know, I would hunt here and there. And then
in high school I became buddies with you know, other
buddies of mine that hunted and their dad's you know,
had some land and you know, hunting camps and stuff,
and so there was a little bit of family, little
bit of friends I grew up with, and so a
little mixture of both, I think. But to me and
I think more and more the busier you get and

(23:23):
the more especially with all of our lifestyles and where
it's ninety miles an hour all the time, it sending
the Woodsman, there's just nothing.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
There's just nothing better, you know, it's just peaceful.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
It takes on a different like uh, I mean, just
like a different spot in your life as opposed to
when you're young and don't have anything to do. Absolutely
like it just it becomes almost therapeutic.

Speaker 6 (23:50):
But it also almost like meets you where you are
though too, Like even when you're little, there's a there's
an excitement and there's something there's something about that you know,
and then like in high school it's a little bit different.
But now sitting in the woods is completely different than
any of that. I could go a whole season and
just sit out there and never shoot anything, just to
be out there.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
Yeah, I agree, man, There's just nothing like seeing the
world wake up, you know, the birds are you know,
like turkeys are coming down. It's just something special.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I just I need it more now.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, you know, and like Reid said, it doesn't have
to necessarily be action or whatever. But dude, I mean,
our lives are crazy. I can't imagine how jammed yours is.
I mean from touring and all that. I mean, I
say this, I feel like every podcast, but I went
out with Loot last year and I recognize now, like
that's the first time I've ever seen like actual professional

(24:46):
touring schedule and so I know there were years of
your life where you were probably playing well over one
hundred days of year. I mean, he's not even doing that.
He's doing you know, forty or whatever I did thirty
or forty with him whatever. But like, I can't imagine
in those years of when you're just show after show,
trying to write songs, trying to be a good friend,

(25:09):
trying to be a good son, trying to you know,
it's like we always talk about energy and how much
energy you have to give to these certain things, and
there's probably not much time for you to just chill
and kind of take instead of give, give gift all
the time.

Speaker 7 (25:24):
Yeah, I think that's why I love the being in
the woods so much now. You know, it's just that
time to kind of reflect and because you're right, man,
and a lot of this stuff, you know, it's there's
not a there's not a book a handbook of how
to handle it, you know, and everybody's different, and so
there's this you know, you're like, oh my, and then
and then when it happens, you get it, you get
to hit everything changes all of a sudden, you know,
and you're like, oh, now you're everything you've wanted and

(25:47):
dreamt for is here. But then there's all this other
stuff that comes with it that you're like, I thought
I was just going to be playing shows, you know,
and there's all this other stuff. And like you said,
you you go through the years of dropping the ball
and other things so you figure out your you know
what putting you out. I was just saying this to
a new artist not long ago. I was saying, I
was like, man, have grace for yourself, you know, like,

(26:11):
because you have no you don't know what's coming right,
and hopefully it's everything and more, you know what I mean,
Then your butt off for and and I and I
hope that for you, but just understand that, man, there's
gonna be times where you know, maybe you aren't showing
up like you should, you know, and I've done that,
you know, and and and you wear yourself out.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
I go. If you don't take care of this, then
everything else is gonna fall.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
You're crazy, man.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Like I mean, I even I still think of you
as like a new artist because I feel like when
I got here, Look, we kind of came up at
the same time as far as like songwriters and being
in town. And I'm like, dude, we're not We're not
like the new guys anymore.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Dude.

Speaker 7 (26:53):
No, you know what reminds you that is when you
meet somebody that's twenty five.

Speaker 6 (26:56):
Now.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
Man, I saw you when I was fifteen, and I'm
like at kicking Chicken when I was playing in high school,
They're like, no.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
Dog like you were my favorite artists when I was
growing up.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
I was growing up. I'm like, oh, I'm here. It
happened so fast.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
But to your point, man, like that, and and I
hope everybody, everybody should have something to be that release
and that that outlet for him. But but that's what
that's what the outdoors in the woods and and something
unt and fish and just like that's what that is
for us. And dude, that is invaluable.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
It is, man, That's why. That's what I was telling
telling them.

Speaker 7 (27:32):
I was like, you know, find that one thing that
is yours, right and no matter what I mean, unless
you get a big pet, but no matter what, that
doesn't change, you know. And and some little things that
I look back on, go, man, I wish I would
have handled that different. You know, like my great grandmother

(27:53):
who were talking about she passed away and I was
on the road for a funeral. I went to a
funeral in my bedroom of the bus via FaceTime with
my sister, you know what I mean. And like little
things like that, that that that you miss and I'm like, oh, man,
I could have you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
I wish now looking back.

Speaker 7 (28:08):
That I but you know, but when she passed, it
was she was ninety eight, so like we kind of
knew it was coming.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
And and uh also, man, like the job in the
dedication to it kind of puts you in a place
where sometimes like you can't make that stuff.

Speaker 7 (28:25):
You can't and that it was one of those situations,
you know where and thank god, man, thank god I
got a family that is so supportive. And and you know,
my great grandmother anytime I was on Good Morning America
or any TV show you know, she was watching and
she was she always told me that she was writing
a book about about my life.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
And I'm like, well, leave a couple of things. How much.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Yeah, we read that one time.

Speaker 7 (28:50):
She get we're at We're at Christmas and my uncle
Kenny said, and they all live. Like what do when
I tell you they all live? And it's like you
go down this road. Ranch road was uh dirt and
now it's uh what ever the next level between dirt
and shaved it? And uh, Well, you go down there,
and I always joke, I'm like, when you drive down
and you think there's no way anybody lives past year,
you take a left right, you go down about a

(29:12):
hundred yards and you take a right and you're going
past my cousin Teresa's trailer. I ain't Kim's trailer, my
uncle Kenny trailer, my cousin Mason's house. My dad's house
is in the back, and we're we put a gate up, buddy,
helicopters on.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Yeah, that was where.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
You were from.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
I don't know if you had told me that or
maybe i'd seen that about it, but I was like, man,
I think he's yeah, Man, I think he's from it.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (29:32):
You shoot turkeys from the front porch if you want,
but you don't season. But you don't season and season,
you don't call calls came along.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
The refrigerator, you don't. We do not on the porch. Yeah,
we have.

Speaker 7 (29:50):
With all the signs of you know, if you shoot once,
if I'm issue to get my dad on the front.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Porch yeah, what is the uh this uh?

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Oh shoot, it's like our place is protected by like
the gun, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
It'll be like the.

Speaker 5 (30:06):
Good Lord and the Gun.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
That is song.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, it is, oh shoot the songwriter's coming out of
you to day man.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Josh got that one.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Haven't you had enough? When is it?

Speaker 5 (30:21):
So?

Speaker 6 (30:22):
Turkey season opens pretty soon, like, and it's the first
one in Florida, right, it's already open.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah, I think it's already opened down there. Man.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, they start like March fifteenth.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
It's all where are we doing?

Speaker 5 (30:33):
We gotta go?

Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yeah, come on down to Florida.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Boy, is that you got Olla's then?

Speaker 5 (30:38):
I've never killed one?

Speaker 7 (30:39):
Yeah, it's a uh And dude was crazy about so,
Like I said, I mean, we're generations on that same land, right.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
And so my.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
Grandfather, my grandpa, when he was alive, he would go
out there in the morning and when he got off
work pretty much around the same time, and throw a
corn out right, these wild turkeys. All of a sudden,
my grandfather looked like the pigeon Lady in New York, right,
and they know the time, you know, And he's like,
y'all can hunt anything.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Out here.

Speaker 7 (31:04):
Don't you touch these turkeys. So now we got turkeys
out there, bro that the beard is like dragging the ground.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
We have to kill this. He's like, shoot me, please
try to get this gobbling.

Speaker 7 (31:17):
Yeah, he's twitching a little bit, you know, his head down.
It was the wildest same when my grandpa go out there,
put a bunch of corn in a bucket and go
out there and just feed the turkeys and then out
of nowhere do They'd be twenty of them coming out
and he'd just be right there in the middle of them,
and they knew him, but none of us could even
get close.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Man, we got palm trees or like what's.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
Yeah, like thick, thick woods. It's like really, oh, it's
like heaven for ticks. Really a lot of tics, a
lot of ticks. Yeah, especially down there because it's we're
it's I don't know if you consider it swamp but
kind of you know, back in there, but it's it's
like the thick moss and charm a.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
Lot of rock mountain spider feet at them.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Bringing up I just did a writer's retreat and Josh
Phillips was.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Awesome.

Speaker 7 (32:15):
We were just talking about like how no matter where
he's from North Carolina, gone from Central Florida. It's the same,
you know what I mean, Like when you grew up
like we did. It doesn't matter if you're in Kentucky, Florida.
It's upstate New York. And like all of us grew
up with the same type of guy, same mama's same.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (32:34):
Josh will tell some stories and I'm like, we grew
up together exactly what my dad.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
There is the foundational red neck neet red neckness. I
guess when we make that word up that that yeah, man,
you just know, like you just know what you cut
from the same floth man.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
I went hunt with Josh one time, and I'm not
much of a duck hunter. I mean, I guess we've
hunted a little bit now, but five years ago we
had not been basically, and uh, He's like, man, you
got waiters.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
I was like, no, dude.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
He's like, dude, let I got something. I let you
bar you know. I was like, okay, cool. So we
got this place, we're duck hunting, and the next day
we have to wear the waiters. Well, first off, I
didn't know he had like a size eighteen foot dude.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
If you see.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I mean that dude's feet.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
Are like he's a big boy. Yeah, dude. He texted
me this when we were right and he's like, he's like,
this song's a hit. I put up.

Speaker 7 (33:22):
I threw up three fifteen. I'm like, I threw up
at three fifteen, thrown up fifteen on a bar.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
So he he gives me these waiters and we get
into this water and I'm telling you, we were literally
having to break the ice to get in the water.
And man, We've been standing there about an hour, and
my toes and my shoes like went like this, and
when they did, they came down in water.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
So I was like, oh no, these waiters. I was like, Josh,
did you know these waiters leak? He was like, yeah, bo,
I don't think you'd be deep enough in that water.
That's my bad. Are you serious? And I I'm telling you,
I didn't want to go out, bitch. Dudes.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
I stood there for like three hours and man, I
have my feet have never hurt. They were hurting, Yeah,
to the point to where when I got back to
the uh little house lodge they were staying in, I
turned the space heater on and put my feet by
the heater.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
That was sleep for two hours, woke up and they
were still cold. Dude.

Speaker 7 (34:21):
Yeah, nothing, nothing's worse than that. That that same similar
we weren't in the we weren't in the water though,
we were in a blind and that that morning hunt
was pretty warm, right, And so we had gotten there,
Like I said, we decided to drive the sprinter from
Montana to Stuffguard, Arkansas because it was we were drinking
a lot of adult.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Water sure.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
And and and so I was like, all right, yeah,
I'll go, I'll do an afternoon hunt.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
And they're like and that morning, dude, we like limited
out and geese and like it was fast. So I'm like,
we're not going to be out there long. So me
and my buddy Chad, mindez, you have Steve Fighter now
baar nocle Fighter. And I think we just put on
like a hoodie, you know, and went out there. Dude,
I'm just holding the gun.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
I'm like, yeah, this is not safe for me to
fire because I don't know what I'm not hitting a.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Duck and there's nowhere to go, man, Like, you just
have to freeze it out until either sun goes down
or you limit out. I mean, there have been plenty
of times where I'm like, maybe I should go I
should go ahead and shoot at four points so I
can get on that.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Of here I'm freezing. It starts when it starts influencing
your uh.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Your judgment on you, and you're like, all right, sorry, buddy,
yeah right, it's me or you.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
All right, we probably need a music, don't we. We're
only fifty.

Speaker 5 (35:40):
I'm reading this and I love this.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Man.

Speaker 6 (35:42):
It says your grandfather used to do a Sunday morning
gospel show on the radio with your second grade teacher.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
Yeah, yeah, missus hype.

Speaker 7 (35:50):
Yeah, so miss Height would when I she was my
second grade teacher, and she would always she'd bring her
guitar and like teach us two class two class, and
she would play and she would like sing songs for us.
We should we learned songs, and then we would learn,
you know. She would put like things we need to
learn in a song. You know, you memorize it better,
you know, and so and so we you know, I

(36:12):
had seen her in a long time. Once in a
while you'd run into her, you know, a small town
and and uh, my grandfather was doing this Sunday morning gospel.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
Show on an AM station.

Speaker 7 (36:20):
With him and you know, his friends that he jammed
with and stuff, and they would just play old gospel
songs and and my Grandpa's on all the time and
he's like, hey, I'm this height you know you remember
miss Heightning. I'm like, yeah, she was my second grade teacher.
He's like, yeah, she's in our band, in our in
our Sunday Morning and gospel.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
And I'm like what.

Speaker 7 (36:35):
So I was like I got to see her and so,
uh we it kind of like got me back in
touch with with Miss Heighten and yeah, she was awesome.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
Yeah is that where is that kind of where your
your love of music started happening?

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Uh? Church?

Speaker 7 (36:48):
And yeah, well it was kind of So my grandfather
got out of the army and like I said, he's
one of my six or seven and my grandmother was
one of eight girls, all girls. Right, So my my
grandpa and all his brothers lived in the ones you know,
from that area, and then my grandmother and all her
sisters their family moved like right up the hill, right,
So you got eight girls who just moved in with

(37:09):
six dudes, you know you're gonna meet and so so
he meets my grandmother and all of them. You know started,
you know, having kids. You know, they all met their
wives and stuff. They all had a bunch of kids.
So I got slew with cousins. You know that that
uh that we're all around the same age, my dad's generation.
So my grandfather, dude, I still to this day, I

(37:30):
don't think I've met anybody that had more passion for
music than him. And he played lead guitar, had an
old Gibson three thirty five.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
I got now and and it's it's incredible, man, Yeah,
I mean the he he played lead. So the finish
has worn off. The bagame. The case is exactly the.

Speaker 7 (37:47):
Only thing I've changed on it is the strings because
I played it my first song on on the op
on my opera dat. So the only thing I've the
only thing I've changed on it is the strings. Everything
else is the case is exactly the same. Everything, everything's
the same. And so but he would, I mean, dude,
he would play four nights a week. He'd get off work,
My grandma would have everything ready, he'd get home, change
his shirt, comb his hair.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
They'd go and he played for four hours for free,
right like wherever.

Speaker 7 (38:11):
This didn't matter, Oh dude, they would My Grandpa would
play till the sun comes up right, and he would
always be and whenever I moved, he'd be like, man,
you gotta come down here.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
He plays.

Speaker 7 (38:19):
He'd played like assists of living homes and then he'd
be like, he'd be like, men he got, come on
down here, man, you got you crushed them. He's like,
he's like, dude, they're gonna love you. And uh and
and I don't pay anything, but they feed you. And
I'm like, that's it's bland food first off, like it's
mel on wheels.

Speaker 5 (38:33):
Grandpa, He's like, come on, can't can't get no better.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
You ain't getting white bread any better than you play.

Speaker 7 (38:41):
You just play a couple of songs. They got you
and so so but free sandwich is all you can eat.
Blow but you've never had frozen ham.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
Like and so. But when he got out of the army,
all the you know, they all had kids.

Speaker 7 (38:54):
And so my grandfather just loved music and so he
was just putting. I mean even to this day, I
mean there's guitars in my family's house.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
Is that some don't play. It's just he was the
guy right just giving him out.

Speaker 7 (39:06):
Oh, he just wanted he wanted you know, he just
wanted to play music, and and so he had my
dad and my uncle Terry and his you know, my
cousin Jeff and Greg and Matt and all them. They
would they were on the same age, and so they
all grew up more like brothers than cousins, you know,
And so they learned you know, harmony at like you know,
young age, and my Grandpa's teaching them all this stuff,
and so that would end up becoming my family's band.

(39:28):
So my grandfather played lead, my dad sang lead, played rhythm,
my uncle played bass, sang harmony. My two cousins, Greg,
Jeff and Eric sang harmony. And then my cousin Matt
played drums.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
He played in this band.

Speaker 7 (39:39):
He was just chucking oysters. I think my uncle Kenny
was managing and running down.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
It was a family affair. It was like a redneck partridge. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (39:48):
Their van that they traveled and is still at my
dad's house. Really, yeah, my grandpa had My grandpa would
have all these old trucks out there, wouldn't sell any
of them, would just crank them once a week to
make sure they're still cr They would never move the
great But then when I came along. We always joke
I have two older sisters, and I think my Grandpa's
just process of elimination. Once a grandkids started, He's like, guitar,

(40:09):
all right, they're not picking it up. Next wee come guitar.
And I, at the time was the first grand I'm
the first grandson. I was the only one at the time.
And so you know, when you got that bond with
your grandfather, you know, there's nothing like I mean, there's
a bond with a dad, and then there's a bond
with a grandfather, you know, and it's very different. And
I didn't realize how fortunate I was until later on
in life. You meet people that didn't ever meet their
grandparents or whatever. And so when I was always they'd

(40:33):
have me on stage. Man, when I was a kid,
I was this little Kermit the Frog guitar, you know,
years old, and they would just put me on stage
all the time. And then my parents got divorced when
I was eight and I and we were headed up
to my uncle Kenny's property in North Carolina, and I
remember going, man, I want to learn guitar. Everybody in
our family plays. You don't want to learn And now
looking back, I think it was like one of those

(40:54):
moments of like we put let's let's see if he
picks this up and doesn't go another route, know when
when your kid and your family's splitting up, and you know,
you don't know what's going on, and so I just
hooked onto it. And then it was like I started learning.
It came pretty easy to me, you know, and and
most things didn't and so and so this came easy
to me. And then I started learning songs with him,

(41:16):
you know, And so that's kind of what got me
falling in love with what would now be I guess
traditional country music.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
You know, do you remember one of your earlier songs
that you learned, like with your granddad?

Speaker 7 (41:26):
Yeah, I started loving you again right before that was
second to Boil Them Cabbage Down? Have you remember that
old bluegress on Boil them Cabbage down down, made them
whole cakes around?

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, because it's G, C and D. And my Grandpa's like,
just learned this progression and then just make it faster.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
Playing faster as fast as you possibly can.

Speaker 4 (41:46):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (41:47):
But uh, but that and I think like impressing him,
you know what I mean, became the thing. And then
my dad was my dad was a play guitar, so
I was playing guitar with him. We had the house
and and and then my grandma I would go and
we had every second and for Saturday was a gem
at this community center in Kashia, which is a little
town right outside of where where we're from. And they
would do two every second and four Saturday was like

(42:08):
everybody would bring, you know, their castle rolls and all
their stuff and they would just be bands, bluegrass bands,
country bands, just jams, you know.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
So I grew up playing that.

Speaker 7 (42:17):
And then I'd played this sis the living Holes in
my grandpa and you know, the moose Lodge or whatever,
and I was the twelve year old kid, you know,
doing it. And then finally I was like I remember
the first time I sang in front of like my middle.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
School here of fine, scared of death.

Speaker 7 (42:34):
And because like your grand I'm like, oh, I've played
for is older people like they're not going to tell
the twelve year.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Old kid he sucks, you know, speed it up. Yeah,
there Drew Parker and me in the front.

Speaker 7 (42:46):
Here just double double yeah, and so throwing a white
bread at me, so I get them cut his throat. Yeah,
get this kid out of here. So I might dawned
on me when they asked me because my mom was like,
Michael was singing. I'm like, oh my god, I really
don't know if I'm good, you know, playing all these

(43:06):
damns with my grandpa where there's like fifteen flat tops,
you know, no microphone, you know, you're singing over this.
I'm like, man, I don't know if I'm screaming, don't
know what's going on. And I remember singing and I
got stand innovation and all my buddies and you know
how all buddies are, Oh yeah, they're the first ones
to give you ship. Yeah, you know, so they all
come up and I might here it comes and they're like,
actually pretty good man, Like we were going to get

(43:28):
your ship. But you know, that was the first time
where I was like, oh, maybe I can do this.
Maybe I can do this, you know. And I think
because it was such a passion to my grandfather's and
my families and just growing up in a small town
and you know, where it's you graduate, marry the girl,
have a kid, get the job, you know, and uh
that timing just didn't work for them and they had kids,
young and jobs and very hard to move to Nashville,
and obviously it was no social media, so you're not

(43:49):
posting on from your house, you know. And uh so
I think that night singing for my middle school and
then just having a family that was like, bro go,
really worst case scenario what you moved back, Like worst
case it doesn't work, was going to give you ship
for trying, you know, And so they just always pushed me, man,
and it was like, you know, you know how this is, man,

(44:11):
The highs are high even at this level. You know,
you have you're on fire side. That Jason Alden song
is so true. It's like one year, you know, they
repossessed your truck. Next year you got a million bucks.
It's like it's it's like this man and it and
it doesn't you know.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
It's always like that.

Speaker 7 (44:23):
And so those those lows, man, I was so grateful
now looking back and being able to call a family
when I was like trew that I was living in
a two bedroom, two bath with five guys in Nashville,
sleeping on the floor, driving my tour van around for
a car because we couldn't afford a vehicle, you know,
and just playing anywhere. And there was those days where
I'm like, dude, I don't have enough money to get
to the show that's only paying us two hundred and

(44:44):
fifty dollars.

Speaker 5 (44:45):
I'm literally, yeah, I'm breaking.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
I'm sleeping on a couch. My friends think I made
it because I'm recording in Nashville. Absolutely like we should
come visit you.

Speaker 7 (44:53):
I might give me five years, a ten year town, right, yeah, eleven,
give me eleven years. But you know, so those moments
I looking it was like I had them so uh
So it was a combination of of definitely church, growing
up in the Southern Baptist Church, and then my grandfather
just having this mad passion for country music.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Crazy man, what a great story, dude, And you're so
right having that having that, I think about it too.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
On the way home.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
I always either I'll read or I'll call my one
of my sisters. I'll holler at my dad because he
don't care, right, like yeah, I mean he'll even go,
who's you right with it today? And I'm like, oh,
you know somebody he doesn't know, right, He's like, oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Well fish riting.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Immediately it's like he dangles it out there in order
to be like I kind of care about what you're doing.
But also I bought a brand new I brought a
weed eater on Facebook marketplace for seventy eight bucks.

Speaker 7 (45:46):
You need one, you know what you're writing with Luke Combs,
I guess, but listen, I saw get down Turkey's Gobic
leave the songs up there, And it's so.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Great to have that, you know, to bound to fall back,
you know a lot. And you're right.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
As you get older, you start recognizing not everybody has that, dude.

Speaker 7 (46:04):
I didn't realize that until I moved here and started meeting,
you know, artists that were coming around the same time
I was, you know, that not everybody had that support system.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
You know.

Speaker 7 (46:15):
I met some artists that their families were like, you move,
we ain't cut you off, yeah, you know, and yeah
that's look if you're not, yeah, best luck.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
You ain't taken over the family. You know, at least
get a college degree, at least get this, you know.

Speaker 7 (46:25):
And they went this route, and I'm like, all in
my family, like, hey, appreciate you, you know what I meant.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
And my family they and they and the and that.

Speaker 7 (46:35):
You know, they were all middle class, hard working people.
So when they had the money to give, but the
support was there, and that's sometimes that's more than the money.
That's worth more than the money, you know, when you're down.
Each so you're down and you got to do I
remember one time, man, we we had the van, had
a drive to I think Cookville or somewhere in the
middle of nowhere to get my cousin's trailer to haul

(46:57):
all this stuff. So we drive our cars there. I
drive the van to of my buddies had cars and
two of my band members did.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
I have the van. So we drive down there. We
get there.

Speaker 7 (47:04):
This van is damn there bigger or the trailers them
there bigger than the van. Right, so we're pulling this thing.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
We finally get it all set up and uh, I
take off. We get right down the road.

Speaker 7 (47:14):
This is one of those where I had like one
hundred and fifty dollars to my name and we're playing
this place in Gainesville. That their form of advertising, not
that anybody probably would have showed up anyway, but like.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
Their form of advertising was, well, we put the flyer
outside you know what I mean, what more you want?
And oh yeah, there was ten people, including the five
that I brought in the band.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
And then when nobody's showing up. They put pressure on you. Well,
I hope you bring them out to that.

Speaker 7 (47:40):
Yeah, and so and so we get through, and we
finally get through, and I swear to you, dude, I
it looked like a Ninja star that I ran over.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Right.

Speaker 7 (47:48):
This tire doesn't just bust, it explodes. Right, We're in
the middle of nowhere. I have no money, I got nothing,
and of course, you know, we find this small town
tire shop. The dude hooks us up with a tire
for like seventy five bucks, right, so I barely got
enough gat We changed in the in the Sitco gas
station before the show because we were hauling asked to
get there, you know.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
And uh.

Speaker 7 (48:10):
And I remember sitting when the tires blown my one
of my band members took it to go to the
tire shop, and some of us stayed with the van,
and I'm just like, damn near in tears, dude. You know,
I'm like, I don't know what to do. Man, I
really don't know how to connect Eustas, Florida to a
record deal in Nashville. And I didn't really understand like
the Nashville networking thing at the time because I was

(48:30):
playing bars and I'd go down to Florida. Thank god,
it was working down there, and we were selling tickets.
I'd sell out House of Blues and all these places.
But then you go to Mississippi and they be twelve people,
you know. So I'd go to Florida, play down there's
play some bars for a couple of weeks and make
some cash and that would fun. Yeah, the rest of
the other shows, you're just playing to make fans. And
so we were just road dogs, dude. Like, So like
when I got I remember I got a record here,

(48:50):
They're like, if you just moved to town. I'm like, oh, man,
I've been here for eight years. They're like what, And
I'm like, yeah, I didn't do that part, right, I'm
been down here, dog. Yeah, yeah, I just didn't know.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
You know, I had no idea.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
But you also have to do what pays the bills,
you know what I mean. I mean, you gotta We
would do the same thing basically, except we would we
would go make our money in Mississippi and then play
to twelve in Florida, you.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Know what I mean. So it was the same. It
was the same thing, man.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
But you talk about, uh, just having to make it work.
I mean especially with the prices. I mean, now, I
don't know how anybody does.

Speaker 7 (49:24):
It now, bro, It's it's so hard, and I would
Me and Josh were talking about that was like the
problem is the guarantees aren't going up, but everything is
else is going up. Yeah, you cost to living, cost
of living's going up, man. I mean you look at
you know, filling a bus up was five six hundred bucks.
Now it's fifteen hundred and seventeen hundred dollars. So when
you look at a tour of like Luke's size or
Morgan size or any of these big tours, you know,

(49:45):
my brain, I'm like, they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Just to get to the show, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Just to get there, and six seven buses, ten twelve trucks.

Speaker 7 (49:57):
Yeah, yeah, man, I mean all the crew that goes
in it, you know what I mean, there's a lot, man.
I remember figuring out once up there was this little
place called the ust to Sunshine Opry, right, and they
would during the winter times they would bring some of
the older guys in, like you know, I open for
Porter Wagner down there, Ray Brice, Bobby Bear, Uh, Tommy Cash,
Johnny Cash's brother, would always come down once a year

(50:17):
and then during the summertimes they would do like open
mics with the band on Fridays and then they'd give
like random people, like a show, you know. And I remember, uh,
the old Miss June, the older lady was she was.
I was like, they kind of like took me in.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
I was a young kid. I was. I was a
kid sixteen.

Speaker 7 (50:33):
Instead of going to parties, I was playing the Sunshine
Opery Fridays. Yeah, and uh and so Miss June was like,
I go, how much how much these guys? You know,
Porter Wagoner? Porter came with Bobby Bear. They were fishing
and he brought Porter with him and uh so she
showed me how much you paid?

Speaker 4 (50:47):
And I was like, holy cow, how much was it?
One night?

Speaker 7 (50:51):
I think it was like think for that little thing.
I think it was like ten ten grand, you know
what I mean? I think so yeah, I think it
was about then.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
I was.

Speaker 7 (50:58):
I was in high schoolmember going like I'm calling Kicking
Chicken right now, They're playing me one hundred and fifty
for four hours. I'm getting rapped, oh Uday Kick and Chicken.
We played Shay's bar and grill dude on Thursday nights. Man,
I played every every bar in my hometown. But I
remember seeing that and then she broke.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
It down for me. She's like, no, no, no, there's
a booking that gets this. There's a manager gets this.
He's paying for this.

Speaker 7 (51:23):
So at the end of it, he's walking away with whatever,
you know. And that's and then now you know, now
getting you know, having a bus and crew and band
and everything. I'm like, man, it's a lot, dude. It's
like you said, I don't know how some of these
new artists are are able to do it, man, And
I see them, you know, just now with social media,
you gotta be on social media twenty four hours. They
you gotta do this, have your numbers. And then you

(51:45):
also got a tour and you gotta write the songs.
You gotta be the face, and you gotta do this,
and you got to be the leader of your business
and your team. I'm like, you know, these kids are
twenty years old, dude, and I'm like, I'm in my
thirties and I'm just now kind of getting it, you know.
And the other just like and that's why I was
telling that artist. I was like, man, just find that thing.
Keeps something for you, keep something for yourself, dude, because
if not, they'll take it, you know, and and commercialize

(52:09):
and before you know it, you haven't done.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
That with your buddies in five years.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Man, very very good point.

Speaker 4 (52:14):
But yeah, it's getting it's expensive out there, man.

Speaker 6 (52:17):
And not only like is it expensive, but like like
you're talking about struggles when you move here and like
early struggles with money and all that kind of stuff
and trying to get your break and find break through
the wall, climb the wall. But there's also like there's
struggles when you make it. Oh yeah, like there's like
and that's yeah, what what's making it? Yeah, I mean,
but like there's struggles in success.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
That's just like there's struggle. There's not struggles. There's struggles
in not success.

Speaker 7 (52:40):
That's why I tell everybody, man, it's like no matter
what level you're at, whether you're brand new, where you're
you know, where Luke is at. Yeah, every step, every
tier comes with something, you know.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Like my preacher says, new levels, new devils, dude, and
and he was, I told you we had our breakfast
earlier this week. And I told him, I said, man,
I zone out on a lot of agent just because
I'm my dad's preacher, and I get real tired of it.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
I said, but new levels, new Devil's got, that's gonna
And it's very true.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
It's like as you progress, like you were saying, it's
like struggles early, but there's also struggles with staying right
and and and there's that constant you probably have this.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
I don't know, we I do.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
We deal with it all the time, like the constant
full of like growing up in a small town, like
I kind of want, you know, my family, my kids
to have that that kind of effect.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
You know, I think too, there's a feel a fear
of when's it gonna end? You know what I mean?
That oh my god, is this the last?

Speaker 7 (53:37):
Yeah, you're always just like ah, And it's that constant
that's what keeps you going. But it's also what keeps
you crazy to you know what I mean. You're like
you're like, oh my god, is this it?

Speaker 4 (53:47):
You know?

Speaker 7 (53:47):
And and and it's so easy to let those moments
that you need to soak in, you know, like you
get a number one song, bro, you were It's it's like, statistically,
you have more chances of throwing a pitch as a
professional baseball player. Then you do get the number one song.
You know, it's like getting struck by lightning. Now if
you get that two times out there, you know what

(54:08):
I mean, think about if you think about, like how
many people are on the radio. There's a lot of
people making music and where you know, everything saturated. We're
getting hit in the face constantly with social media and
you know, streaming. There's a bunch of music out there.
There's only like so many slots on radio, you know,
And so for you to get on there and then
get a top forty thirty, twenty ten, then to get
a number one, dude, you know what I mean, it's

(54:29):
like so when that happens, you're just like, oh my god,
it's happening. You want to take in that moment, but
then that little bit of fear of well, I don't
want this to be if this is my last, so
I got to get on the next one. Next thing,
you know, you look back, you're like, man, I didn't
even take in that. Yeah, I didn't even take that in.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
You know. I was just like, what what's you know?

Speaker 5 (54:44):
You gotta have another one?

Speaker 7 (54:45):
Yeah, I gotta have another one. Okay, I got that one.
I don't you know, I want to get to you
know you quit ten years later?

Speaker 6 (54:55):
Well you got what we got Spirits, demon spirits and demons, right, yeah, yeah,
yeah with the Megan Pasture.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Y'all had her on here. She's she's she's awesome.

Speaker 6 (55:05):
We've been hunting kid with her a bunch and she
literally has the first the big deer she's ever killed.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
With the latitude and longitude of it.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Yeah, really where it had the topography of.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
Yeah, the topography geometry where I'm a mathematician guy. I
don't know if y'all know I make numbers disappear.

Speaker 7 (55:34):
We had been friends, you know, like and I hung
out with her and Mitchell and everybody kind of get
off the bus, come back on Sunday. There we meet
a doghouse or tin roof or whatever, and and so
we were always you know, friends, and but never saying again.
We never even done like a writer's round together. But uh,
we recorded Spirits of Deamons, right, who we're gonna get?
And I knew we wanted to keep it in the

(55:54):
country music family, and you know, have a female country
artist on there. And so they brought a Meg and
I was like, oh, yeah, that'd be awesome. So we
sent to her and and uh, she jumped on it, man,
and just took it to another level. She's a real
deal man, you talk, great singer and somebody she works hard,
works her ass off, dude, and wants it. Handles her
business great. Like I Like, she's done some shows with us,

(56:16):
and like she says some things and I'm like, what
are you doing?

Speaker 4 (56:20):
I need I need to do that.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
Yeah, I need to do that better, you know.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Yeah, and uh, and so she just mad. She you know,
she has all the.

Speaker 7 (56:27):
Old road dog stories too, man, you know, being in
Canada and this girl was driving from Canada to Nashville
and going back up and playing shows and come, I'm
just putting the time in.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
Yeah. So excited to see things popping off.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah too, I love that song.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Man. What's uh, what's next? What's coming?

Speaker 4 (56:42):
Man? We're we're cut.

Speaker 7 (56:43):
So we just released a song called nothing Else, and
then we got another song coming out here in a
couple of weeks, and then another song after that.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
We're about to jump in the studio soon and and
cut more and just.

Speaker 7 (56:53):
Just continue getting us keeping music out there and and
really just seeing what the fans gravitate to to see
what we.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Go to radio with. And I think, now that's that's
how it is now. You know, there's no albums anymore.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
That seems like the program.

Speaker 7 (57:06):
Yeah, so it just just put songs out, which is
which took me a minute to us because I was
still part of the generation of you had your radio
song and if you put anything else out then everbody's
gonna get confused.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Are you saying, bro, we're not in the pops anymore?

Speaker 4 (57:18):
No, No, we're not the old boys yet.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
We're not old boys.

Speaker 7 (57:21):
We ain't on the porch. We're in the yard yard.
We ain't we ain't mindlessly running around yet.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
You know, but it's coming.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
We're muming, not playing ball.

Speaker 7 (57:33):
Yeah, people still want to pet us. We ain't there yet,
but uh but yeah, so now it just took me
a minute to wrap my head around. And then uh
so we've just been releasing music man, and I've been
working with Michael Knox and and uh, he's always kind
of been in my corner since I came to town,
since before I moved to town. And and I really
think that everything happens in God's time and right time,

(57:54):
and when it's supposed to. And you know, I've been
able to work with, you know, Scott Hendricks and Ross
Kaufreman a great taught me how to you know, singing
live and singing in a studio or two very different things,
you know. So Scott Hendricks taught me how to sing in.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
A studio, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (58:12):
And and he's so precise on on vocals and for
a guy that doesn't sing, he's got the perfect pitch
in his ear. Yeah and uh, and I remember he'd
make you sing. He's like I believed it, but the
word was was a little flat. And I'm like, we
can't tune that, you know, singing. But he was doing

(58:35):
that because you're gonna get that live feeling. Guess what
you are also going to learn how to do it singing,
you know, singing in a microphone. So I went through
I always called those those are like my college years
of cutting records, you know. And him and Ross taught
me a lot and and then it got me ready
to work with Michael and and I say that in
a way because I just I always felt I always
knew we wanted to work together, you know, I just

(58:57):
didn't feel like I was.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Confident in who I was and what I bring to
the table with him yet and.

Speaker 7 (59:01):
So I learned a lot from those guys, had hits
with them. And and and Knox and I were just
talking and I'm like, man, let's do it. Now's the time,
you know, and uh and so we just man, have
just been writing.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
You know.

Speaker 7 (59:13):
I always listen outside songs and and and cut outside
songs as well, but just releasing music as much as
we can, man, once every four weeks, six weeks, and
just keep it going.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Yeah, awesome, that's awesome.

Speaker 5 (59:25):
I'm sure I was important, but it's the time.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
That got.

Speaker 4 (59:37):
But I mean, I feel like I should tip you.
Just leave it there, Just leave to leave my one
debit card.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
We'll cut it half.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
Go lightly. It'll get you Mercedes. But it's gonna be
a ninety one.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
One that got away. Man, it could be fish dear whatever, Hamburger.

Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:00:04):
So there was a there was a time, you know,
talking about like the old men that knew the woods
and knew you know, back and Florida. It's like these
guys knew the lakes like the back of the hand,
you know. So me and my buddy John would go
we were like I was like, man, I want to
I want to learn a lake. He's a little bit
older than me, and his father in law owns the
car dealership down in our hometown Bank anyway. And so
we would go to this lake every day for this summer, right,

(01:00:25):
and it's a lake that all these houses have been
there for years. Nobody really fishes it, right, you got
to kind of know somebody to fish. So there's fish,
you know, easy bass fishing, you know, you just go
out there all day and so oh man, it's so
much fun. And and and I remember getting this. I
was real this it would been the biggest bass I

(01:00:46):
ever caught in my life.

Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
I pull it right up to the boat. This bastard
kicks his tail. I mean he's right there sunset and.

Speaker 7 (01:00:58):
Eric Church CD is playing because we put the CD
and speakers in his boat and didn't realize when we
put the steering wheel.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
On the CD hit the hut.

Speaker 7 (01:01:06):
We listened to Airic Church record for every day for
three months, the one with uh uh, the uh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Yeah with a Haggard song on it, dude, yeah, boots,
all of them. Yeah. So I was the biggest Eric.

Speaker 7 (01:01:19):
Church fan because knew to back your hand because we
put the steering wheel on into the CD.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
Was the one that we're still in there. It's probably
still there.

Speaker 7 (01:01:30):
Someone has that boat where I can't get this Air
Church CD. These guys love Eric Church again. Yeah, I
tell you what, man, you really get to talk to
your buddy. After about three months of listening to the
same record over and over, I remember that bask getting
in and it was like it would have been one
of the biggest ones ever caught. And right there, dude
kicked and just watched.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
What do you think, I mean, what's it gonna go
nine to ten?

Speaker 7 (01:01:53):
It probably been. It probably been ten, my buddy. So
so Chip Van's son, my buddies, my buddies on son
in law. He came out with us one day and
I was on the I was on the battle of
the boat. John was in the middle. Chip was on
the back of the boat. And we finally talked Chip
into coming out with us, right, and he comes out.

(01:02:13):
I catch at eight pound, right, which is a big bass,
a huge, huge bass. As I'm reeling it in, Chip
goes I got one on too, right. So John's like,
damn it, He's realness to go to get the net, right.
I pulled mine up.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
I see Chips the fish he caught it. It looks
like a whale, right, Like, this is the biggest bass
I've ever seen in my life. Dude. Wow, he pulls
it in. Fourteen pounds. Fourteen pounds and.

Speaker 7 (01:02:44):
Chip soft belly too, by the way, right, so no, no,
no eggs, no nothing right, And Chip's just the sweetheart
of a dute. He's like, man, we should just measure it,
throw it back. I'm like, I'm gonna let you know
right now, if you throw this back, I'm gonna jump in.
I'm gonna catch this thing, and I'm gonna lie to everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Take a long picture.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:03:02):
And so dude, you could fit both your fists in
this fish's mouth and I'm holding my what looks like
a dinky bas Yeah. People think this is good if
it wasn't for this guy, you know. And uh so
it's still mounted in his office at in Vanka anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
But I'll never forget that. Man. I was like, this
is but it was that lake. Man, no one ever
fished it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
So they had those big bass in Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
I've never steal.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
And all that stuff down there. It's just a it's
a mecca for for bastards.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
You were hearing like the fiberglass and his rod popping.

Speaker 6 (01:03:36):
That's what everybody like. When people are stocking ponds up
here and lakes up here. They're buying f one strings
from Florida and putting them up here and put them
in the ponds.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
That they're crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
You're doing, yeah, but keep posting them ten pounds.

Speaker 6 (01:03:53):
We love to see, all right, favorite song, greatest slash,
favorite country song that that uh, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I like to throw this into.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
It can be just kind of like your chorustone song,
you know, like the thing that inspired you or maybe
man I love this, or you know, you have a
moment where they or whatever the whatever the hell it
is we're doing.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
We're doing a playlist God's country playlist that weak and
nobody said the same one so far.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
I doubt anybody said this one.

Speaker 7 (01:04:19):
Joe Diffy became like a mentor to me, right and
somebody that we like good friends, and I got some
funny stories with me and him, dude, just obviously growing
up in the nineties, you know, Joe Diffy, and then
to become good buddies with him and his family, and
and he was just one of the best dude. And
I remember being with him in places and fans coming
up and and he just didn't take the picture.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Dude. He I mean, he sat and talked. He taught
to fans so much that they're like, maybe.

Speaker 7 (01:04:44):
We gotta go to we gotta go to watch He
was just he just the friends are coming up like, yeah,
we gotta go, you know what I mean. And he
was just he just made it was like and I
remember watching them as a young artist, going Okay, that's
how you treat fans, you know what I mean. But
he would tell them stories and and and and just
the sweart of a dude personal to him. And and
I got to sing this with him one time because

(01:05:05):
I told him the story. I was like, bro, ships
that don't come in his hands down one of my
favorite country songs of all time. God made life a gamble.
We're still in the game's favorite lines of all time.
And it's something that I still think of, you know,
because life gets busy and you know, stressful and whatever.
Everybody has their own their own stuff, and it's like, man,
you know what, We're still in it, you know what

(01:05:25):
I mean. We still wake up and get a shot
at it. So it's a good thing. So mine's going
to be ships that don't come in.

Speaker 5 (01:05:30):
Awesome, that's great, said that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
I'm surprised he said that's yeah. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
He was the best dude. He was way forever. And
I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 7 (01:05:51):
That was the best part when they started those festivals,
when they started putting like more than nineties artists on
it too, i was like moving my meet and greets around.
I'm like, dude, I'm not missing little text that's I
got a free backstage pass to Joe Diffy, you know,
Tracy Lawrence.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
I'm like, I'm not missing this. I got to see.

Speaker 7 (01:06:08):
Haggard one time. No way, we're playing this festival, dude,
and we're pulling through and it's big beer. I don't
know if the festival is still going on or not,
but anyway, they had like a side stage where they
had a bunch of you know, those artists from you know,
nine eighties, ninety seventies and colling up and I'm like,
is Haggard playing tonight And they're like yeah, And I'm like,

(01:06:28):
get off the bush.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
I told him. I was like, dude, y'all know, if
it's during my time I'm not playing. Yeah, I'm gonna
tell everybody, listen, go to the show.

Speaker 7 (01:06:36):
Don't worry about me. I'll be there. Yeah and uh
and luckily he was playing before.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
I'd gone on on that stage, man. And it was
one of the last, you know, a few shows that
he did. Man.

Speaker 7 (01:06:48):
I remember, I think Jake Owen was was standing next
to me, and the Oakreage boys were sitting in front
of me, and Jake were like, this is nuts, dude,
Like it was just really cool.

Speaker 4 (01:06:56):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:06:56):
But when they started putting all those guys on it,
I was like, I love festivals. I feel like the
biggest fan that that happens after do forty five minutes worse.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
That's awesome, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
I killed to see the hag Oh man, it saw
diffy down here when he did the the whiskey jam thing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Yeah yeah, and man, that was that was fun.

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
Yet it was that was like one of the last shows.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Yeah yeah, dude, Haggard.

Speaker 7 (01:07:20):
I remember them walking them on stage, right and like
helping him walk on stage. I put a guitar in
his hand and he.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
Goes up.

Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
Like it was really man, talk about like down just
like the record still just I mean talk about guys that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
Had to do it.

Speaker 6 (01:07:37):
I mean he dude, he could have stayed at home
and never touched the guitar again, but like he had
to play music, yeah, and had to sing those songs.

Speaker 7 (01:07:46):
When you get to that age of life and it's like, dude,
you were there will never be another Merle Haggard.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
There will never be another Haggard. And so when you
get to that.

Speaker 7 (01:07:55):
Level, I remember kind of thinking that too, going here,
this is a passion this guy has, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
It's Mount Rushmore country.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Will he's doing it right now.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Will he's still do yeah so much.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
Eighty five years old.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Hen got a tour no more, no sir, but he
is now, but he's got a tour. It was what
keeps those guys alive. Man.

Speaker 7 (01:08:12):
You know, It's like it's like when you you know,
if you're if you're you know, grandfather worked a blue
collar job his whole life and then all of a
sudden he retires.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
If he just stops, he stays at home.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
He stays at home. Dude, he's dead in five years.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Man. You know, well, dude, I hope.

Speaker 5 (01:08:24):
You just for the note.

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
Willie Nelson is ninety years old and he's putting the
next record. It's an R.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
You got a valid email?

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Yeah, check on.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
Well, I hope you're making music when you're eighty five
or yeah, me too. And you've been a staple in
this town. People love you and we appreciate you coming
on hanging out.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
Dude, I've been wanting to do this. I've been watching
y'all's podcast on here. I like, I like watching it.
Like the kid that was like, please invite me to
I wanted to do it. I'm like, man, I'm proud
of you guys.

Speaker 6 (01:08:57):
This first time we ember like really hung out. Uh man,
cool ship. I appreciate it, appreciate it. Thanks on hanging out.
Thanks for coming on, Michae away everybody. I hope you'll
enjoy us. Thanks for hanging out in God's Country with us.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
Check out this time

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Dan Isbell

Reid Isbell

Popular Podcasts

1. Stuff You Should Know

2. Dateline NBC

3. Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 25: Michael Ray on Florida, Hunting Alligators, and Country Music