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September 17, 2024 73 mins

This week Reid and Dan host international artist, Kip Moore, out in God's Country. The guys dive head first into breaking down the shift the Nashville music community is seeing, the art of original songwriting, and what it's been like witnessing the massive changes over the last 15 years. Kip shares his most recent adventure of taking a nine-day motorcycle trip down the coast of California and into the Baja Peninsula that has Reid and Dan terrified on his behalf. The discussion of work/life balance is a common theme throughout the episode as they chat about Kip's new song that is setting a precedent for his next chapter as an artist. 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Okay, you want to do it again? What's up?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
You're off?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Of God's Country with Reid and Dan is also known
as the Brothers Hunt, where we take a weekly drive
to the intersection of country music and they're great outdoors.
Two things that go together, like not having kids and
doing things you want to do, like going to Hawaiian
surfing for two months.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Or a year or a year, or leading the tournament
through seventeen and choking on the eighteenth. Oh Horror Story
brought to you by Meat Eater and My Heart podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Dude, Kip More equals cool guy.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
He's legitimately cool.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
He's a handsome cat too. I thought the thing that
I thought it was stunning had like these boots on
with these I paint ripped up pants, and then you
went tight. You know the shirt that like the only
cool guys can wear. Yeah, the T shirt, Well that
has that. If you put it on me. The bacon neck, Yeah,
if you put it on me, you'd be like, bro
immediately take that.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
He had a bacon neck and he looked like a
model bacon you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Two necklaces too, Do you see.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
That he's a double necklace up and it worked.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You can't hurt it, man, Kid Moore's got it and
uh and he had it on the podcast. Man. He
another great storyteller. Such such a cool life, he leads. Man,
he's a that dude's adventure. Man. He he talks about
on the podcast. He don't care about. Things he cares
about like adventure and stories and and man he's got
a ton of them. He's lived. He's lived a cool,

(01:40):
cool life.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, man, like in a hut and Hawaii. Yeah, he
got whacky. It was fun, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Working working on a new record and got a song
coming out that y'all should go check out. Speaking of
checking out, thanks for checking out us, Thanks for checking
out God's Country, Thanks for checking out The Brother's Hunt,
Thanks for checking out.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Uh, that's it. That's the two things.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Those are the two things.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Smash the fallow like subscribey, but yeah that we don't
on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
We're so cool. We are so cool and you're so cool.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
For being here. Dam This is officialist here of the
day or something down.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Vocal Booth got you good, Sean.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Vocal Booth guy. He don't know your name yet. He's
been doing. He's done forty episodes, but I'm got to
think guy yesterday, he's done forty episodes, but he's gonna
get it at some point.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
No, this is his first one. All right, all right,
we're rocking, man, we're in the this is this is
a new studio, Kip.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Hold heck, I can tell man, this is their first
this is the first day on the job.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Kept sat down, his mic was perfect, Man, dam was over.
I didn't even know how to work mine. And then
like do I need to move the mike here?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And I was like, how many of these things have
y'all done?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, kid goes, Hey, man, y'all know what y'allre doing
around here?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
The truth is no, we don't. All right, we don't.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
All right, we're figuring it out, man, we're figuring it out.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
We've got a badass surfer. Let's just go ahead and
get out of the former college athlete? Did you know
that about Kid Moore?

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Come on now, if you're going to do it, do
it right to sport college sport. Let's kid it right.
Bo Jackson up in here, deonn Sanders in.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
This morment, Ronny clembing the mountain biker one billion streams
and two point five million month of listeners, performed sold
out headline shows in stadiums around the world, including Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, Europe, and the US.
Held as an uncompromising genre, defying artists, firing on all
cylinders and of them, and most recently, most recently, He's

(03:52):
off Hearty's Quit tour. We got Kip Moore out of
God's Country today.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
If I could just get played on the American country radio,
you'd be all right.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Talked about that this morning.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Man, thanks for hanging out with Man.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
I'm I'm excited to be here. You know, I'm very Uh.
I don't want to say I don't like people, because
that be a lie, because I really enjoyed the right
kind of people. But I could tell right away, and
this is Coco knows me over here. I wouldn't say
this if I didn't feel this way, but I just
immediately I'm like, Okay, these are my kind of people.
This is I'm.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
All good and I'll do the same.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah. Same.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I knew I know who the parking lot and you.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Kept your sunglasses on. I was like, you know, I
don't like this guy.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I started to wear him the whole time, just the
big time, y'all. But I just I should have messed
with you like that, just to kept kept them on
as long as I could.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Man, every church.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh man, traffic was terrible again coming in. We're starting
a little late. But dude, we're excited to hang out
with you.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Watch man.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, I did, and and and I was about to
intro that where we were you play that. We got
a lot of things to get to. But first, like
we always do, all of our gimmicky songs sound the same,
So it's the play and drop. Okay, dude, something different?

(05:10):
What Just tell us what it is? What you're mad?
Is it in lost kids? Might be your boss man
or your favorite cat.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Just tell us what you mad.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I got it wrong, I said favorite cat?

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Mad at our favorite cat?

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, because sometimes you get mad at your favorite cats.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I just got back from Mexico. Man, I'm out of
the look Mexico. We went to islam O Harris.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Oh yeah, Islam Harris. Yes, Harrison, I can tell you. Yeah, Okay,
that's South anyway. I recently took a motorcycle from with
a couple of Buddies from l A to the bottom
of the Baja Peninsula took us about nine days. Wow, man,
it was wild.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
That's done it around Carbo, isn't it. Yes, Yeah, I've
spent some time of that's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it's incredible maybe. But you know, what you don't
realize too is just how vast and empty and wild
MEXICOI ism. And you'll drive, You'll drive three four hudred
miles and not see a single house, you know, and
then you're in some little village, you know, and it was,
it was, it was a trip.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
That's all right, Let's wait.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
First of all, we got to do what what you're
matter and my my mind is, well, we just didn't know.
Is east Slimmer Harris? Right, I'm not mad at that place.
That place is incredible. What I am mad at is
somebody got into my bag and got my cologne and
threw it away.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
I guess all things to get. First of all, you're
nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, my curve, they got my curve with the pop top.
You know what it's saying to spray, you gotta do
the thing. What's what kind of colone you get me?
It's a nice cologne. They had it for sale in
the the airport, like came through.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Well was it on the way or was it at the.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
No, it's on the way. Well, first of all, my
bags got lost. So I show up to this and
we're there for a wedding. So like in these restaurants.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
What you mean you bags? You put me off there?
My bag just one?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I just I just had one. I don't do care.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I'm about to say, well, we ain't like.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
I don't carry on. I do carry on these days.
The headphones and a book. That's all I take for
carry on. And then I had a little bitty rollers
to the small roller bag of close you know. And
we were going for a wedding, so like had nice
clothes and at this place, at this resort, you had to,
uh you had to have like close to shoes and
pants and a nice shirt for dinner. The dog I

(07:39):
fly in jim shorts.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Lost shirt, weddings and all kinds of things.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I feel that and flip flops, that's what I flew in. Well,
we get down there to Mexico, to the Cancun airport,
and uh, we were like looking for the bags and
Jordan gets hers and mine doesn't come around on the
roller and we go to the little counter and Jordan's like, hey,
we're looking for his bag. She's like, oh, let me
look right quick. Oh it's still in Nashville. And I

(08:04):
was and Jordans, I mean she, I was like, sick, dude,
I'm about to roll around this place. Jim Short and
I lost their T shirt for four days. I'm gonna
be chilling. Yeah, But they ended up getting them to us.
But when they got them to us, I was gonna
do a little spray spray. I'm gone, dude. I was like, oh,
I must have left it at home. Got home. No,
I packed that thing and they they janked it through
right away.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
They got me.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Colomns a new move for me, and I think it's
because I had my I got my adenoids taken out,
so I didn't realize I couldn't smell for the last
ten years. So I was like, man, I wonder if
I stink more than I knew I did the entire
and Combs, our buddy was like loop. He was like, uh, chait, dude,
You're a big steaky dan Dude. I was like, I
was big steaky down that whole time. Yeah, so I

(08:47):
was like, I started showering on maybe maybe hit a
little cologne now, and then you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I want you mad at dude.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
I'm mad at dude influencers that say that you have
to work from four a m. Till till freaking two
in the morning. That those dudes drather like, Yeah, I
wake up at three thirty am, hop in the cold punch,
jump right out, start selling stocks immediately.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I meditate for two hours.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Take forty eight deep breaths down. I'm like, bro, you
must not have kids do because that shit ain't happening.
It's not happening. You know what I do? I wake
up in the day bed.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
They just stopped that dude influences. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I'm like, I wake up in a day bed with
a four year old's leg across my face, my two
year old's punching me in the and the guts going
Dad signs up, Dad, And I ain't slept but three hours. Man,
Who's got time to get up at three thirty am
and cold punch?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Bro?

Speaker 1 (09:47):
What right? Every time I feel like I'm like close
to being like, you know what I can? I can
do this. I hear something like that, I'm like, all right,
I'm not having sex for another year. That's it.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Oh, it's a trip time, make sure you want that's all.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Go to the Orlando airport and you you never, you
never want to take an Orlando Southwest flight and you'll
be like, you know what, I'm never gonna do this.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
You know I'm good man.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
I think I'll just say it all the time, like
the best and the worst and the hardest and the
most rewarding. But man, it's it's a it's a good
ride anyway. Stop telling me what I need to do
on Instagram. I don't even know why I even open.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Then I don't either, because it breeds nothing but that
what you're mad at? So you mad at sluding, you
mad whoever?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Whoever?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
The song bitch took my clumb.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
What am I mad at? You can be glad of
something to you know what, Do it, and you're gonna
get me into the right away.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Do it.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I was riding in here and I heard a song
where I just think back to sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties.
You know, not that I was around the sixties, but
I can assume it was even worse than But when
Tom Petty was at the height of his career and

(11:12):
he was the guy and all those killer songs were
on the radio, if someone ripped off his entire sound, accent,
guitar tones, recordings, phrasing, cadence, everything that they.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Be laughed out canned over before it ever saw.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I heard something that sounded like identical to the biggest
guy in our format, who's really good at what he does.
You ain't gonna never do it as good as him, right,
And it was the same thing where I was I
thought that's who it was for a minute, you know,
then it said the name of the end. I was like,
you gotta be kidneyed, So this is getting rewarded now.

(11:51):
It's a weird time shot. It's crazy, bro, I.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Feel like that, Like I remember, not the one you
were front, but there was another one, a Tom Petty
rip that was like a different song but a couple
of years ago, and I was just like, hey, is
anybody are we Yeah, we're just like deciding to not
recognize this or is this Are we are we still?

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah? And you know, as songwriters you know this too.
Where I try to explain it to people like you know, music, movies.
We've been I guess commercially being able to see these
things since the forties. Hear these things, it's like the
forties one of you know, radio and stuff. Sure, so
you had such an open canvas back then, which I get,

(12:40):
you know, in for the next thirty years, there were
just all kinds of things that could be discovered. It's
harder now. You know, I want to make a movie
about a boxer, Well, you can't do that, right. I
want to make a movie about a karate guy. I
can't do that. So in music it is tough. You know,
we've all been inspired and we have bleeding things that

(13:00):
kind of filter through us. But there's some things that
you just know when it becomes so blatant and you're
staying on it for eight bars and twelve bars, and
you're like, okay, we gotta come off of this, you know,
because I've been in the room. Whe's like, that's kind
of feeling like something we got at least finagle this day.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
We gotta do it in a little bit.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, I know. First off, let me
say this, when he said there's a movie about a
karate guy, Yeah, who did what movie? Did you think
because I think mine's wacky.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
That went karate Kid?

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Of course, is that where you're Yeah, for sure, dude,
why did I go Blood Sport?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
I went. I can recite that whole movie as you say.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Karate Guy was like, yeah, blood Sport, Yeah, blood Sports.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Jean Claude, dam right, Yeah he throws this stuff at
the end.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, yeah that one.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, dang, he was to the I went Tom Tom
and and.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, for sure I went karate Kid immediately.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
The bad guy in that movie, the Japanese guy, he
was so jacked in that.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
But he's a legit. He was a legit, like karate it,
so you real that he was he was, he was
a stud. But yeah, I mean it's wild, man, it's wild.
I couldn't believe what I heard. I just was like, well, do.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
You remember there was probably eight for five to eight
years ago when that kind of started happening. There were
it was like, no, man, we can't do that, Like
that's a thing because you're exactly right with the blank
canvas when they first started off, and now you know
you're trying not to step on toes and now things

(14:36):
have been done too and three times, so there's it's
even harder to not and.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
This is always this has always been a copycat town. Sure,
I mean, that's just that's just the real thing. It's
always been a copycat town. Whatever's happening you kind of,
But there comes a point where, like today I was
just like, give me a break, man, this is this
almost blasphemy at this point.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
How many times have I called you said, does anybody
not have an original thought?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Like just going yeah?

Speaker 3 (15:05):
But the hard thing is as a just like we
refer to ourselves as like lunch pail riders, right, like,
we come in, we're not we're not chasing artists deal,
we're not trying to get a record deal, none of
that stuff. We just write and that's all we've ever
done for the past ten twelve years. The trouble, the
tough thing is when you know, we're trying to get
songs on the on the radio, and a guy, an

(15:27):
artist who's got a record coming out, comes in and says, hey, man,
I got a idea for a song, And he goes.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Oh, that's kind They're so young.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
They're so young that they don't even know some of them,
some of them, some of them do. Do you feel
like it's it's our jobs as writers to say, yes,
we can't do that, Yes I do. I don't think
people are saying that as much as they yes I do.
I think they're going, okay, Well, I.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Also think that there's you know, and I'm not trying
to be the guy to see and get off my
lawn right now. But we're not talking about We're not
talking about one hundred years ago. Men. We were just
talking about you know, you're talking about I was in town.
You know, I've been completely removed from writing in the
Nashville Circle for six seven years now. I mean, I

(16:31):
write solo a ton and then I'll call a buddy
like Dan Colch or Jaron Johnson their casey but there
and be like, Okay, I've got this half thing finished
and you want to join up, And but I don't
come down to the circle anymore. I tried to for
a minute when I was doing this record, just to
reimmerse myself and kind of see what was going on,
and I got right back out.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
But I feel like when when I was first getting going,
all the the young artists like me had such a
knowledge for not only artists, but all the writers in
town like you respected all these writers, and you knew
all about what they had done, and that is gone.

(17:16):
It's gone. Man. It's just kind of like walking in
the room and kind of like, hey, yeah, that's cool,
that's what's up, you know, And it's like, don't know
anything about the writers artists. History can't tell you any
artists from the forties fifties, and I just, man, I
studied that stuff. Like when I got to town. And
luckily I had a dad, you know, in a mom too.

(17:37):
My mom was obsessed with Willie Nelson and stuff, but
they loved music. But there was constant music from the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies,
eighties in my house. And you know, but once I
got to Nashville, man, I started researching everything, really had
done everything. Bob. I got so obcessful by dealing for
about two years and I would write out all of

(18:00):
his lyrics, which are along and I would write out
everything on a notepad and I'd study him and how
he's using metaphors and how he's playing off of words,
and I just, uh, you know, So the craft, I
feel like the craft is what's dying, and that's where
it's the songwriters, the real songwriters responsibility to be like, no,

(18:21):
that ain't what's up, This doesn't this doesn't work what
we're doing, you know, you know?

Speaker 3 (18:25):
So yeah, I think the trouble I run well, well,
first off, I'm not trying to put myself on some pedestal,
but I agree. I studied guys like Tony Lane. I
thought he was just ton Lane, the man man. That
was my guy. And then we were very blessed to
run across Casey Bather and he's I mean, everybody knows,
this is no secret.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
He's like our most amazing human around this town. And
and Dan kouts Man, they're very kindred spirits. I don't
know then is the best man the best.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
But very very blessed to to grow up on under
those writers, right, And I think the thing that that's
so inspiring about them is they never they never really
move from who they are, and that transcends their tunes yep.

(19:16):
And to me that's what makes them so special and
and and just going okay, how do I how do
I become that?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
You know?

Speaker 3 (19:26):
And I think part of it is studying, like you said,
but but but the the other thing to me is
realizing that like you, you have a voice and you
have and your words and your experiences they have value too,
and putting those into lyric. I mean that's where a
real song live.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, And I mean I think about how fortunate I was.
I mean Brett James was my mentor.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
So it was like I was in a room with
him constantly, hanging out with him constantly, and he signed
me to a pub deal and it was like I
got to learn from one of the greatest songwriters that
they've been through this town and that, but I waslearning
from him, Hillary Lindsay, Natalie Hemby, Tony Lane. I wrote
with Tony a couple of times. But it was like, Man,
I had such an amazing I had. I knew I

(20:09):
had that thing where, you know, I had all the
stuff in my head, but learning really how to put
it together and having guys that would check me be
like nah, you oh, that ain't how you do it right.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
And that's that's what makes me like, it makes me
think of like we write, you know, I write three
four times a week sometimes and a lot of those
are just coming to town and we're sitting around the
room with somebodies trying to throw some things out. But
when I see somebody like Bethart on my schedule. Stop
sorry when I when I see when I see something
like when I see somebody like Bethard on my schedule,

(20:46):
and like I go to those ideas in my phone
that I've kind of been holding on to that I
know we're special because I know I'm about to I'm
about to walk into class. I'm about to go to
school for for this craft and not only from just
a a professor, like the professor he's, you know, like
one of the best professors and to and to see him,

(21:06):
like you're saying, like I feel the same way I've
I've lived, you know, thirty six years on this on
this world, and you know, I feel creative. I feel
like I know a lot of things. I have a
lot of cool stories and and and things going on
in my head. But getting to watch, like taking an
idea of mine to him and watch him how he
do he does it through his lenses and through his

(21:27):
life experience teaches me how to do it better through For.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
All of y'all listening to this right now, Casey Bethard,
some of your favorite songs Church you know whoever, look
up Leonard Skinner Jones and just you want to talk
about the most top notch class. You know, when I
was doing this record, Casey and I had written together
maybe once or twice, you know, through the years, but

(21:53):
you know, I write so much alone now, and I
was just like, I want to I want to call
Casey up. And I called him up and said, I
really loved you to kind of come out to the
house in Charleston and uh ride on the marsh and
I said, we're gonna, We're gonna write something. He was
all in and me and him and me and him
and Jaron Johnson just hold up and man, it was awesome.

(22:16):
He's great.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Talk about the road trip, bro, Let's talk about your
You took motorcycles all the way down.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, all the way down the all the way down
to the bottom by And where'd you start l A
and uh yeah, I mean like the heart of l A.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
And how'd you get your Rica? Well?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
I met a guy that Sean McDonald who who does
marking for Indian I ride. I ride Indian Bikes and
and they've been taking care of me for years. They're amazing.
And met him out there and uh he's you know,
he was you know, semi street racers, mean, he did
all the leaning with his you know, knees hitting the pavement,

(23:05):
and he's an incredible rider, and so right away I'm
a solid rider. But you know, I've mainly just kind
of been riding around back roads here for years, cruising
around sixty. And I mean immediately we're on the four
or five doing ninety five, weaving in out of cars,
and I was like, oh boy, this is this is
going to be intense. You know, a couple of times
we had cruise control about one to ten going through Mexico.

(23:27):
Oh wow, but it was it was intense, you know,
but it was you know, about two or three days
in something happens to where we just had our backpacks
on the back of the bike. We were stayed in
these little like you know, you're basically a lot most
of the time we were staying. I can't remember the town.
We stayed on the coast, this one little spot and

(23:48):
it was just a couple of little houses, little shacks
kind of thing, and they had some basically just concrete
cylinders outside, and you're staying with a family and it's
like the next morning you've got like eight year old
daughter brand you coffee and they ring a bell and
it was like those kind of situations. Yeah, I mean
it was it was wild. He knew about this place,
organized organized it, but it was just the neatest little spots.

(24:11):
I mean it was it was uh and everything was
so primitive. And the only time I he you know,
he didn't know me when he booked the trip for
me because it was for Indian and it was three
of us, and you know, he didn't know what I
was like at that time. So he just said, most
of my the celebrity artists love it when I booked

(24:31):
these really fancy places, and I just you know, it's
to each its own. But the only time I got
uncomfortable we were staying at this like four seasons type place.
At the very end. I was like, take me back
to the little the huts, to the little hut, you know.
But but you know it was you know, we had
the guy have we had to have a guy that
was trailing us the whole time that was linked you know,
with the cartail and to keep us you know, he

(24:54):
was loaded to the teeth and so it was those
kind of it was. There was there was one situation,
oh man, that was there was one situation we were
eating this restaurant and we were the only green. We
were we were the only green goes in there, you know,
and and you know, seeing a lot of movies like
you guys, and I just kind of looked. I was
kind of looking around and everybody's dressed really nice, and

(25:15):
it's just tons of families, you know, said Twinkie out,
So is anybody tel in here right now? And he goes, oh, man,
this whole place is you know. It was you know,
I could feel it, you know, but it was, uh,
it was. It was but like about three days in

(25:36):
something happens to where all the stuff that we think
about and where your mind goes and my mind is nuts,
but you get into this rhythm of life is so simple,
and you waken up. You'd wake up and by the

(25:59):
third morning, I can remember we had our bikes and
woke up in this place and we drove down this
long dirt road and it was just like the only
thought you have is getting from point A to point B,
and your mind is so free of all the garbage.
And it was the most simplistic to where I almost

(26:19):
got emotional when this trip was over, because I was like,
I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave
because I feel and my soul feels like at peace
right now, So I don't want to go back into
this concrete rat race. I just want to stay on
this bike as long as I can. And it was powerful.
I mean, it was just.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Man, I'm so curious, I mean, I mean.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
It was one of those things too, where that this
dirt road was like that kind of thick sand at times,
so you're like cruising and you're trying to hold it together.
But it was cool. It was it was incredible, and
there was times like this is the sketchy part. You know.
We'd be cruising at ninety ninety five and you'd be
going over this hill. Then the minute you goat o
the hills, like the road just ended. It would just

(27:05):
like the concrete's gone, and it would be, you know,
straight rain and it was like kind of muddy, and
he'd be like, whenever you hit those spots, don't hit
the brake, keep on the gas. So you're hitting that
and you can feel your light slightly fish tailing, and
it was it was intense, man. But then you get
done and it would catch on that concrete.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
But isn't that kind of a metaphor for like life
in general. You're smoking along and all of a sudden,
I guess a little and you're like, hey, man, you
hit the brakes right, or you're in trouble. And I
can tell you I and our short my hit men
read had a motorcycle stint that was real short. And
uh I can remember the first time I rode my motorcycle.

(27:48):
My uncle tracked it down in North Mississippi and he
was and he had cleaned it up and got it running,
and it was probably I think it was like a
five hundred some hond to five hundred that I eventually
chopped up. And anyway, uh so I was riding it
overhill the same thing, and there were cars behind me.
I was just too scared to go fast. It was
my first time ever. I didn't even have my motorcycleize

(28:10):
at the time. And I turned to go down. I
was like, well, I'll just pull off to let these
cars go behind me, right, And so as I pull off,
it's the same thing you're talking about. The gravel turns
to or the concrete turns to gravel, and I could
feel the back end and I'm like, well, here we go,
And sure enough, man, I just flipped that thing really

(28:31):
and luckily I had already started slowing down. But I
was going faster than I thought I was going, you know,
and uh, some old man pulled ay damn son y'all right.
I was like, I'm trying to be tough, you know.
I'm like, oh, yeah, man, I'm good. I'm good. He's like, man, man,
gotta be careful in that gravel.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
He was right man like. And I eventually learned, you
know how you just kind of just let it roll
on through.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Why do I have a picture in my head of
you riding that motorcycle in a in a leafy suit.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
I mean, I'm sure that happened.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Did you ride from Mississippi back to Nashville in a
leafy citter?

Speaker 1 (29:06):
So?

Speaker 3 (29:06):
After a turkey hunt?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
I rode it. Yeah, for some reason, I have it.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
I would ride it, so i'd drive it to work
down here. And then one time the back tires, the
tires draw draw rotted. You know, I used to, We used.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
To, you don't want that in the motorcycle. You don't
want to.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Singleton was one of our is, one of our good buddies,
and we park over there and we'd all we had,
like I said, we all wrote before we had kids.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
All our motorcycles were under under his points back that
on money did we were living on a boat. We
know where to park, and we just kept them over.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
I literally went to Vegas, won four hundred dollars on
the first pool of a slot machine, didn't bet another time.
That stayed the rest of the time and the rest
of three days in Vegas, came back, bought that bike
with that money right and parked at Jonathan's and rode.
It was fun, man, it.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Was we'd bob them down, get them the street. It
was a.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Freeing thing, man. But but eventually when you start getting
wives and kids involved.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
In your saw, so you know, riding around here, man,
it's a major major risk because everybody's.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Just it was probably less risk than you were.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Just on open roads. It's just like, you know, hold
the bike up.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
Is that why he put it out there? Or is
that where he lives?

Speaker 1 (30:15):
That where Indian is No, it was just you know,
they do rides, you know, once a year with different
you know, I think he's done with carry Hart the
year before, and so you just do you know, he
asked me, did I want to do Portugal next, you know,
so just stuff like that and he just goes to
different places.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
It took you nine days, Yeah it took us.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, it took us by nine days. You can go
to Portugal maybe maybe, So.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Cool man, Mexico is so funny because like I'm there.
Literally we went landing and Cancun got on the van
to the boat to take us to the island. And
the first thing I googled was is there cartailing?

Speaker 4 (30:50):
Of course there is.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah. Yeah, Oh that's funny. That's that trip's awesome. Man,
that's that's that sounds pretty. It does sound like a spiritual.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
And I mean when I go surfing in the winter,
you know, I always just get a little dirt bike
and you know, surf rack on the side. I love
this past year, I did El Salvador and then went
down into Costa Rica, and you know, I just kind
of bounced around looking for a cool guy.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Man, real cool this guy.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Wait, okay, I want to hear about Hawaii a little bit. Man,
So you live in Hawaiian No.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
I lived in Hawaii right out of college, briefly school.
I went to Wallace State initially like right out like
right around Birmingham to sport on a basketball scholarship, and
then I ended up switching after a couple of years,
and I did golf down in a year there. Then
I went down to Valdosta State and played the next
two years, played golf, golf.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Got what did you play basketball? Point guard? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Shoot the eyes out of it. You got close to me.
I was going right around grand I hope you're watching this.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
I was always that I was too small to play
play collegeball, but I could shoot it, man, I can
shoot it from anywhere.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
All right, let's go talkingout how awesome you are. Let's
talk about how I'm.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Just saying shooters shooters like there's a there's a there's
a thing wavelength between shooters.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Man.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, connected nineteen.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
All right, so, uh so how did you how did
you get into surfing? Like how you're like, I literally,
uh watched Point b Lie time.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
I'm on no no book, Yes, Point Break. I'm like,
I'm like, I'm like, I'll be honest, I'm like seventeen
years old and I remember watching that movie that like
a senior in high school. Now it's just like I
know what I want to be in life now. I
want to be body. I don't want to be And
I said, you know, you know, I loved that movie

(32:42):
as a kid man, and I was like, one day
I'm going to be close to water and I'm going
to figure this out. And I just loved you know,
I love trying stuff new and and and uh. I
literally when I graduated school, I had you know, thoughts about,
you know, well, do I try to get on some
kind of golf circuit you know this and that? But

(33:03):
I didn't love golf. I could just play it like
and I worked hard at it because that's the way
I am. But it was never like a love like
basketball was. And I was like, nah, I don't want
to spend all day doing this, and you know, just
a little lost. I've been doing the bar band scene
for two or three years down South, and I didn't
know music was even an option. I never heard about
anybody going to be songwriters. It was just all cover

(33:25):
bands scene down there. Yeah, and I knew I was
in love with music. I was already writing a bunch
at like twenty to twenty two. I was writing a
ton of stuff and I literally said screw it. I
bought a one way ticket and I went to of
all places, it's funny now because I've made all these

(33:46):
close friends that are pro surfers out there in Maui
and they just they get the biggest kick out of
you know. The only thing I knew about Hawaii was
hearing about Helo in high school. They were talking about
the title wave that happened in Helo, and I was like, well, Helo,
I remember named Helo, so it's like the capital of
the big island. So I literally bought a one way
ticket to Helo, which is like the most the most local,

(34:12):
and like it's it's scary for someone like me to
be in Helo and it rains eighty percent of the time.
That's super super tropical. And I literally lived outside in
a like tent hut for like a five to eleven

(34:33):
foot I had to know. I got to know. So
you're telling me you just pack a bag, you're see
a parent fifty bucks a month spot and you.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Fly down there. Yeah, but because at this time, there's
no like pre you're not going on Verbo and get
fine in a house. I mean you're literally just flying
into a No.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
I'm gonna figure it out city.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
You used to figure it out.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, So when you lay eighteen hundred bucks in my
bank account. I remember because I worked the summer job.
Every summer I work on this maintenance crew was on
the golf course, and I saved up and I was like,
all right, eighteen hundred bucks will buy me time to
figure it out. Eighteen hundred bucks back then was probably
what five grand now yeah, sure, probably more like fifty grand. Anyways, yeah,

(35:15):
you know, and it was fifty bucks a month.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
This guy, uh so your feet at the ground and you're.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Oh, yeah, well there was a guy at the airport
that was like, you know, okay, that's well like meeting him,
you know, and he's like, you can come stay here,
and you know, and so I literally would wake up
and this is no lie. It rained every single night
for months, like it's just the way it works there.
And it'll be sunny for a minute, then it pours rain,
and it's sunny for another hour, then it pulled. It
pours rain and every single night, you know, because there

(35:43):
was no I didn't have walls. It was just a screen.
So it was a concrete slab with a screen and
then like a roof over it. And it was five
by eleven foot.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Like in the in the backyard of this Dude's no,
it was.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
It was just like in the in the in the jungle. Yeah,
And uh, I would wake up soaking wet every day.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's cool I waved up, so you immediately became my
favorite person in Nashville.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Like this morning, soaking wet every morning, and I would
just say, all right, well, I gotta get up, like
I'm I'm already drenched at five a m. And I
would go out to the main road and I would
hitchhike to the to the surf spot. I bought a
surfboard for like two fifty of U surfboard.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
And had you ever did not?

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Just watched the movie, just just watched Johnny Utah and
the Body Utah. But I was just thinking to myself,
you know, I know I'm good on my feet, like
I know that athletes. Let's just keep saying that sport athletes. Anyway,
could have been three, but we won't go there anyway.
Don't make me get upright all right now, I turned

(36:50):
double play right now, so I uh, I literally would
just said I'm just gonna throw myself in the ocean
and figure it out. And like this wave, this break
was heavy, and I mean I literally literally almost died
two or three times where that was on my last
breath of getting held down the inside. I mean, you're

(37:10):
talking double overhead waves out there that just all reef,
all reef, and I'm not even thinking about that no sense.
So I learned on like shallow reef, just having to
like get the guts to go for it, you know.
But of all the sports that I have ever done,
there is nothing more difficult to learn at older you know,

(37:33):
older age, you know, you know, you learn things like
skateboarding and surfing when you're really young, where you know
that fear of falling. You're only falling with seventy eighty
pounds ninety pounds kind of thing and you're not going
to the bottom and hitting the reef and all those things.
There's not a fear with that kind of thing. But
that sport is they're so you give me anything kind

(37:54):
of on end coordination, whether it's volleyball or tennis or
ping pong paddle, I can figure it out for quick.
But surfing there's so much It's all about reading the
wave and knowing where to get to your spots, because
if you're in the wrong spot, you're gonna get held down.
On the inside and you're stuck if you're in big surf,
and then it's really terrifying. So I just threw myself

(38:14):
into it and I was I've always been a good
uh observer and mimicker, So I would just stay on
the shore and I'd really watch the spots that people
were getting into and how they were getting into them
and what their position was, and then I would just
try to mimic and yeah, now I can serve.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Wow, that's cool. Are we?

Speaker 2 (38:35):
We went to Maui for our honeymoon uh instead over
there for a couple of weeks, and that was one
of my things, was like, man, I'm gonna get a
surfboard and because not the same way, I'm like anything
hand in hand, eye like I can figure it out.
I can. I can.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
It'll humble you quick, dude.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
I never I may have caught a wave for like
a split second. Yeah, it'll h We took the little
surf classes on, like the big long ones where you
just pretty like hop on and just ride the wave
in they take some pictures of your holding hands like
the honeymoon thing, and so I was like, no, I
really want to, like I want to go rent one
for a week, and I want to go find where
the local surfers are surfing, and I want to go

(39:11):
swim out there and try to try to catch one dog.
I was so tired just from trying to swim out
to where they first off.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
They'll kick you out, like.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
With my with my bill of ball, they kick you out.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Oh man, buddy, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
It's almost disrespectful kind of They don't.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
They don't want you if you're in if you're in
a it's if you're in a good spot, you're gonna
mess up the flow, You're gonna be in the way,
you're gonna get somebody hurt. So they want you to
learn and the baby learn on the baby waves, you know.
But it's uh, it's intense, you know. And I, like
I was saying earlier, I've just I've made some dear
friends out in Maui and one of my best friends

(39:51):
in the world now a guy named Albi Lair who's
one of the biggest big wave riders in the world.
And he is the most radical human being you will
that I've ever met. Like he's nuts, truly nuts, and
you have to be kind of for that kind of thing.
And now I've watched him surf Jaws and fifty foot swells,
you know, and it's just the most insane. But he'll

(40:14):
take me out sometimes, you know, and he's not thinking
about We went to a place called Honolua Bay one day,
which is known for just this incredible wave and it
was the biggest day I've ever seen there. And I've
been going there for years, you know, when I show
up and when it gets really big, it'll wipe the
whole beach out. Nobody wants to get in that. Even

(40:34):
some of the really good surfaces will kind of stay
away from it. Get so heavy and it's really shallow,
and he's like, come on, you know, let's I'm like, man,
this looks intense. You be fine. We get out there,
and he's coming back from a brain injury from Jaws
a year ago, so it's kind of the first time
he's really been in big surf. We did our first
duck and dive, like we see a big set coming

(40:55):
and he's like, oh, go go. We're like trying to
get duck at duck and I. We met through the first,
we made through, the second, third one was coming. It
was like, we're not gonna make it. We barely make
it under and this is this is you know, one
of the biggest and best big way riders in the world.
And we're not liking the fifty foot swells, but we're
in swells enough to really mess you up.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Or yeah, take you out, know what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
And we did that last duck and dive and we
both came up at the same time and his eyes
were big and goes, whoo, man, this might be too big,
this might be too big to get into on my
you know, getting back into it. I looked at him
and I'm like, if it's too big for you, right,
But then you're out there. There ain't no getting back
in because it's steady. It's steady set, so you got

(41:39):
to catch a rib. You have to catch one to
get back and ain't ain't no body surfing back in
like it ain't it's not that you got to catch one.
And I just sat in that line up thirty forty
minutes just watching four or five guys that are out
and they were all incredible, you know, they're all top
of their game, you know, and I'm like, I got
to catch one of these. I finally they're all you know,

(42:03):
he's all he's yelling at me to go on this one.
Coming in, it just looks like, all right, this is it,
this is how I die. And I caught it and
then it was just the most epic feeling I've ever
been on something like that, and looking up and that
things like a mountain. When I rode off the back
of that wave after riding it, they're just all hooting hollering,

(42:25):
you know. But what I try to tell people when
they're like, you know, why would you do that? And
sharks and this and that, And I think about it
and it's a great question because I love the snowboard.
But if you told me, hey man, you want snowboard
this year and I said yeah, they said, where are
you going? It's a park city Canyons or Idaho or

(42:47):
they said, well, just awesome. But just know, there's been
this monster that comes out.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Of the mountains.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
There's this there's there's this monster that comes out and
twice a year he kills somebody. I'd be like, well,
I'm never snowboarding again. That's but surfing does something to
me that brings out. Once you get past like sixteen fifteen,
sixteen year, you're gonna have years old. Oh you're gonna

(43:14):
have joyful moments in your life, and you're gonna have,
you know, elated feelings. But to tap into like a
childlike innocence is dang near impossible.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
But when I'm.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Doing that, like, I'm ten years old again and there's
nothing more magical than life. So I'll risk whatever it
is fail to find that feeling.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yeah, that's pretty beautiful.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Yeah, honestly, dang, that's awesome. You So you you go
out there every year for an extent amount of time.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah, I have been. I don't. I don't know if
I will this year, but I've got another spot in mind.
But I have been going every year for for several years.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
What part of Maaloey do you usually stay at?

Speaker 1 (43:54):
I can't tell you that, right, but I have I have.
I used to stay in Lihina a lot which is
now gone. So that place was so special to me. So,
you know, been trying to do things to help those
people get back on their feet.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
So let me ask you this just to I mean,
eventually we don't we'll jump to music and all that
other stuff. But I'm feeling that had been inspired by
kind of what you're saying. How do you how do
you get to the place because you got so much
else going on? Right when you've got your career. Yeah,
and obviously the career I mean reading I we're literally
talking about this morning. Well, the career funds the passions, right,

(44:43):
and so how do you find time, I mean with
with management and shows and everything to go? Okay? These
three months I'm writing a record. These three months, I'm
cutting a record. These three months, I'm touring a record.
These three months, I'm going on freaking gotcha on a
motor side these once I'm going to Honolulu or wherever.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
I always write every morning. I write every morning, every
single morning. I write, no matter where I am. I
do it. And you know, sometimes it might last hours
and sometimes it might last forty five minutes. But every
single morning I'm writing before I come in here, I'm
at least sussing out what I've got, man, because I've
always got something that's happening, and I just get it out.

(45:23):
I might come back to it. But things have never
mattered to me, truly, I can say that with all honesty.
I do not care about things I've only ever cared about.
And if you my business manager always gets the biggest
kick out up. You know, the for years they thought
I was hiding money or something because they were just

(45:45):
like your account. And this is like a twenty seventeen
We're having a call and she's like, keep I just
got to ask you something like because they've been they
when I signed my record deal in twenty eleven, they
sign me, and Julie's just one of my favorite humans
on the planet. She's become like, yeah, I just trust
her so much. But she called me one day and

(46:07):
she's just kind of like, I just you know, We're
just sitting here and we're just baffled. We've never had
this happen in the whole career of this town with
the artist, Like your account since twenty eleven, has it changed?
Are you doing something with your money that we don't
know about. You're still living in that little shack over there,
and like, what are you doing with your money? Because

(46:27):
you have some, you know, And I'm like, I know,
y'all tell me I have some, but I don't believe
it's there. But I'm just you know, they were like,
you go to Kroger occasionally, you buy a surfboard, and
you've got a gym membership. What are you doing and
I'm just like I've never needed anything, and I still
live that way. I just don't. Things don't do anything

(46:51):
for me. I see all this wave now, like everybody's
constantly taking their pictures and their jets and this and
then that, and it's like, you know what, fine if
you want to go that way. I find that stuff
so silly. But I also I also never want to
make people feel like man less than not because they're
looking at my life and like, well if I had

(47:12):
what he had, sure, I always try to make it
a point, even like when I'm posting things on socials,
it's all about the experience. It's never I'm never staying
in nice places. I never you don't have to like
we can't live that way, we can't go, Yeah you can.
I was doing this stuff back when I was broke,
Like I'm still doing it the same way. I go.
I get a dirt bike, I stay in a minimal place,

(47:33):
and I just kind of you know, I've come back
after you know, after a two month trip, you know,
and I've spent thirteen hundred bucks, you know. So it's
like but even like what you're saying, like, you know,
why would you put yourself. I think you were getting
at that, like, with all you got all this stuff
going on, why would you risk And it's like, you know,
take like rock climbing, you know, yeah, there's accidents that happen,

(47:55):
especially if you're lead climbing. You know. I hate heights.
I got the same thing my dad had. I'm then
you put me on a fifteen foot thing up there,
made me look down. I'm just like, ah, you know,
I've always been that way. I'm so fearful of heights,
so I wanted to immerse myself in rock climbing for

(48:15):
the challenge of trying to conquer that. I'm still scared
to death of them, but I make myself climb up,
you know, I look down all of a sudden, I'm
three hundred feet up, you know. So it's I make
myself push myself into uncomfortable places because I just feel
like your spirit's gonna die if you're just constantly staying
in this comfort place. And I just don't think that's

(48:37):
the reason we were put on this earth, just to
kind of just like I want to know that I
drank up every drop I could by the time I'm out.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like you already have.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Man, that's awesome. Yeah, so you move to why you
do that? When do you start zeroing in on like music?
Being your professor?

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Two thousand and five, I moved here, and it was
you know, it was immediate, you know, I just threw
myself in the whole thing. I don't think I signed
a publishing deal till two thousand and eight.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Was it kind of the same, like like your mindset
on music, the same as moving to Hawaii. You just
moved here. Just I'm gonna figure it out, anybody, I'm
just going something I want to challenge myself with. I'm
gonna go try it out.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Yeah, and I want my sons to be like that.
Ain't no doubt, man, Honestly.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
I just, uh yeah, I just threw myself in it
and was just like, I'm gonna figure it out. I'm
knocked on doors, couldn't get meetings, couldn't get anything, you know,
and I'll do it. And uh, I can remember so
many times and I'm not gonna say the name of
the place, but a place in town you know that
kind of deals with your publishing this and that, and
I'd have a meet and set up and then I'd

(49:45):
show up and had to take off work, and and
I tried to do jobs that that that, you know,
my whole game was to make it in this I
remember getting offered a really good job that was going
to be a to file and said, well, I can't
do that because I got to do this. I work nights,
and I work jobs that allowed me to come into

(50:05):
town on the weekdays because that's where everything was happening.
And I'd work all the weekends and work nights and
this and that, and but I'd have a meeting set
up and you're looking forward to it. It's like, Okay,
three months from now, we're going to meet with you.
We're gonna hear your songs, yep. And then you show up.
It's like, well, so and so I had to cancel.
So he's going to meet with you four months from now, which.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Means they forgot probably. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
And that was just you know, trying to find ways
to keep your feet moving for sure, you know, And
that was the hardest mental game, is just to keep writing,
keep writing, and keep writing, and you know, and then
it just kind of became one of those things where
Joe Fisher, you know, I'd shout out to Joe fisher
Man just one of the one of my favorite music
people in this town because he loves music. Joe loves music.

(50:48):
I can remember when he was my first A and
R guy, and I'd send him a song and what
I loved about him it was like he didn't always
tell you liked it, but if he didn't like it,
he'd break down all the reasons. Well there's a whole here,
and I'm not sure you know this has been said,
And if he loved it, he'd give you two freaking
two pages worth of like these. I just love that,
you know, like, we've got so many people in this

(51:09):
business that don't even love music. You got people running
radio stations that don't love music. You know, It's like
I just it's a strange thing for me. Then you
got people that do you know, you got your Sweatburgs
of the World and Jenny Brophy's and Nate Deaton's and
these people that love music and Randy Hawk and love

(51:29):
talking music with you. But you know, I just kept
myself moving until you know, it just was like little
by little, Joe Fisher came out and saw me playing,
and we talked for a long time and He's like,
I think he really got something, you know, and he
called Brett James is one of his best friends. And
then Brett. I went over to Brett's house and I

(51:50):
played in two songs I wrote and I'll never forget
Brett James looked at me with that incredible hair of his.
I looked, I looked at him and had him down
laugh and I said, how do you have hair like that?
And you're not, say this famous person. I said, you
must have no talent. I haven't heard you actually play yet.
But anyways, he looked at me after I finished sancing song,

(52:12):
and he says, well, I can't offer you a record deal,
but I promise if you sign with me, we're gonna
make something happen, because you've got it, you know. I
just remember him saying that, and then he just put
all his chips in on me, and I just, yeah,
he's just even though we don't see each other as
much anymore, he will always be like a brother to me.

(52:33):
I just, man, I've developed such a bond with that
guy over like the four years that I was there,
and yeah, I just I just and then it just
was one of those things where you know, you know,
how it is where I started playing all these shows
and then record labels start coming out. And then Joe Fisher,
the same guy introduced me to Brett, was the one
that got me signed at Universal.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
I would tell, I would tell anybody moving to this town.
More important than a record deal, more important than a
publishing deal, more important than any relationship you're going to
have in this town. Find yourself a champion. Yeah, find somebody.
And Jonathan was that for us. Man, he was that
Dan brought me in, but Jonathan latched onto me when
I was young and said the same thing like, hey, man, like,

(53:16):
if you stick with me like we will, we will
make things happen in this town. And and and and
bro I from and I've been through multiple pub deals
in that whole thing, but he is he is a
something in my musical journey in this Nashville town that
that has stuck with me and has got helped me
get to where I'm at now. And those those those

(53:38):
relationships are in value.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Man, you know what the crazy sport I just thought
about this. I'm kind of forgotten by this, but the
day that Brett called me into his office, now I
had been in town for three and a half years,
just banging my head against the wall, just being like.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
How do I thing to figure out?

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Not one call, couldn't get meetings. But somebody from at
the time, a big, pretty big record label had two
big acts, saw me play and called me, got my number.
I had nothing going for three and a half years
before I got the call from Brett the same day.

(54:19):
Didn't know Brett's call was coming in. This guy calls
and said, can you come down here and meet with us?
So I'm just like, oh, I'm ecstatic. I'm just thinking
they just want to hear songs, and maybe there's a
chance that something happened. When I walked in the room,
the lawyer and the head dog were at the table,

(54:40):
piece of paper on the table and told me they
wanted to sign me into a record deal. I'm just
sitting there and I'm like everything I'd wanted was right there.
And I'll never forget this because it was so instrumental.
I just think about I've always had a faith about me,
and you know, something in my spirit was like, don't

(55:05):
sign that paper. Now. I don't know what my journey
would have been like. But they were already talking about
making a record. This and that, And at this time,
I hadn't written the songs. I hadn't written crazy. More time,
I hadn't written a pretty girl. I hadn't written those
songs Faithfuhl, I fall that made the fan base what
it was. On that first record, Truck got people in
the door, and then when they came to see the show,

(55:26):
they were like, oh my gosh, what you know? What
is this? You know, because it was a different sounding
record than anything in town at that time, And I
just remember being like, can you give me twenty four hours?
And they looked at me so confused, like, what you.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Know, nobody passes this.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Give me twenty four hours. Just let me think on this.
And I left, and within forty five minutes of leaving
that room, Brett called me Wow, And I went straight
to his place, played him two songs, and I just
knew when I was looking at him, I just I
just knew. And I just think about that. I don't
think i'd be here, Wow. I think they'd have made
some curated.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
From Choky Cuter bullshit record.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
And on me, and I wouldn't have known any better,
to be honest, because I had I didn't know myself
as an artist ship.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
You know.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
I was still trying to figure that out. And it
took those four years with Brett to really where I
got to. I was paid to write every day, and
I wrote two songs a day for four years. I
mean I was. I would stay at home, man, I
slept in that building for two years.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
I would sleep on the upstairs twin bed. They had
a twin bed in one of the rooms, and I
would just take it. Yeah, and I just write all night.
I listened to records and I was obsessed. But that's
when I wrote all those songs.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Wow, that's aw That was.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
A piece of advice I got early on in this
town too. Is like as weird as it sounds, when
you walk into a room from the jump, you can
almost tell if it's if you're supposed to be there, Yeah,
if if it's if it's right or not, and listen
to your gut man. Yeah and yeah, man, that's that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
To you primarily write by yourself.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
I primarily start by myself, and a lot of times
I'll just finish by myself. But I always usually start
not all ninety fibers in the time, I'll at least
get a verse and of course going and then I'll
call up people that I trust that I like collaborating with.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
You've already talked about your process a little bit, is it?
Is it? It's every morning you just but if you
have a if you have an inspirational thought, inspiring thought,
whenever throughout the day, will you just pick up a
guitar start johnn to down you.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I just you know, I used to I used to
be all a groove writer. I was always picking up
my guitar first and and playing a groove and then
what does that make me feel? But I'll write full
songs in my head now and just before I ever
pick up the guitar. And then I picked the guitar
up and figure out where I want to go with it,
and I start singing all the camera mellois in my phone.
Then I figure out how that all goes, and I'll

(57:56):
try to put down an entire blueprint of the whole
track just from singing the parts on the phone, you know,
And then I'll have a really good blueprint when I
go in and record. But I mean so many of
the tracks, I mean, even live here to work. I
did that in my head before I picked up the
guitar the minute, the minute I heard the construction workers
say what he said, tell us why just you know,

(58:19):
I had a bunch of guys working on a house
beside me, you know, and I'm backing out, and you know,
I heard somebody say it like, man, I don't live
here to.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Work, thank you?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Yeah, So it makes so much sense with the like
the past conversation. Yeah, it makes so.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Within five minutes, I'd written the course, already knew how
to write on the gym, so I seen that, And
as I'm in the gym, I think of the verse
and I sing that my phone. I think the second verse.
I seen that my phone and I got back to
the house. By the time I was back in my house,
I'd had three fourths of the song written. So then
I just picked it up and was like, all right,
what key do I want to be in here? And
what's the rift going to be?

Speaker 2 (58:53):
And yeah, yeah, we got a sneak peek to some
of the new music, and that's they're all great, man,
but that's that's the one for me. Many that's that's
the one that evokes it, like it's like, oh yeah, no, man,
that I ain't live here towhere.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
You know, it seems like everything we're talking, even from
like my watching mad At is kind of it weaving
in and out of like this idea that I feel
like the world is continually pressing on people that that's
what we're supposed to do, that we're supposed to just grind,
get up three am, get it out of me, grind,

(59:30):
grind and grind, grind, and and then make that money.
And oh, that's how you're proving your yourself to the world.
But there is a beauty that comes with just getting
to a place to where you're like, man, I don't
have to prove anything to anybody, you know, And and
this is how I want to live my life, whether
it's surfing or for us it's in a tree, you know,
or it's in the mountains, or it's you know, or

(59:50):
in a fish tire or on the river fishing.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
But I can I can totally identify with what you're
talking about about, the not only like being in a
free space, but also the cleansing that happens in the
process of not working. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. And you know, I think
back to like when we were talking about you know,
come to town. You know, how'd you make it happen?
And all this stuff, And it's like, I do think
it's key to for songwriters that hear this. It's like,
find you a fellow dreamer that's good at what they do,
that's hungry, that might not be as polished just like you,
but he's has all the tools. And I just think

(01:00:28):
about too. You know, I had a buddy in my life,
Weston Davis, early on where we just were kind of
kindred spirits and it was like neither one of us
have pub deals and we'd hold up on all our
days off together and hustle and and he was had
that same hustle mentality and he's extremely talented, you know,
and we just you know, through the years, you know,
you kind of come up together and it's like those

(01:00:50):
kind of things are so you know, that was just
as instrumentally important as the four years with Brett really
learning in that way too, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Sure, Yeah, you had an episode a few weeks ago
where the tagline was beat on your friends, and it
was that and it's not like we're playing that out,
but it was basically saying exactly what you're saying. If
you can find you a dog man, Yeah, to stay
in there with you and and buy you enough time
to learn the craft and to and to produce some
product too. Man. You know, I mean I hate to

(01:01:19):
call songs product, but like, I mean, that's what we're selling,
you know, whether you're singing it on stage or trying
to get somebody to cut it, you know, songs with
the product.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
And it's interesting too because I think about, you know,
day and the other day. You know, just some of
these songs have been write and recording. He's just like,
you know, he's been in the room with me a
lot in the last year year and a half, and
he's like, you're tapped in, and like I've ever seen
you tapped in, but it you know, I've been faster
than I've ever been. But it's it's all those years.

(01:01:47):
It's those years with Weston trying to really figure it
out and no one's in there but not knowing quite
how to put it all together. And then with Brett
and then with guys like Casey, and it's just you know,
little by little and all sudden the light bulb goes
off and it's like now I just I feel different.
I feel very, very different. There's a different confidence level

(01:02:08):
of knowing how to get out you know what's in there,
and knowing how to put it down and knowing when
it's right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
You know, when you look back on your on your journey,
is there anything you would change? Are you? Are you ecstatic?
Are you happy that you did it exactly the way
you did it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
I'm not one of those people that say, oh, I
wouldn't change a thing. You know, you gave me the
opportunity to change things. I probably would now would that
be for the better of me? I don't know. But
there's definitely moments of my career with especially Slow Heart
and While Ones. While Ones was the record that really

(01:02:49):
catapulted the fan base. I didn't have any commercial hits
off that record, but none none, Wow, but it galvanized Jared,
What's that?

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Did you do that to me?

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
And Bread? And we started to see in the fan
base triple in size. And it was just that record.
I could play it from front to back and the
whole crowd would know every single album cut off of
that record. But I can remember, and I've even had
people from the label now be like, you know, we
messed up. We should have we should have put out

(01:03:22):
that was us. We should have put out this, We
should have put it. I was like, I know, I tried,
you know, but it was like, I wish I would
have stood my ground a little more of being like,
but you have that feeling of well, if I fight
for my pick, it might not get hustled as much.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Totally.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
You know, that's a weird political game. It's so political
how people get in their feelings, and it's like, you know,
it's a really odd thing to navigate. But I'll just
look at, you know, those songs and watching how big
they became in the shows, and I was like, I
knew hearts Desire. I remember playing that record for the

(01:04:03):
whole team and they loved the record, but they were
scared to death of wild Ones because it was so
different than Up All Night. It was so different, and
they were like, well, where's girl two? Where's something by
the Truck part two? I've already written those. I would
get so bored. I see these and you know, to

(01:04:24):
each its own. But I listened to some of these
artists that have got this really formulated sound, and I
know before I get the record what it's gonna sound like.
I know what they're gonna sing about I know everything
that's about to happen. Before it happens, I would be
as a musician, I'd be so bored in the studio
doing the same thing over No. So I wanted to
push every record. I wanted to be different from one

(01:04:45):
to the next. But I remember heart's desire. Nobody be
in the room being like, man, that's our favorite song.
We loved that song, and I said, yeah, I think
it's a hit record. I don't think that's gonna work
for radio, Like what does that mean? All of y'all
just said that's your favorite, but it's not gonna work

(01:05:06):
for radio. So we want to give something water down
the radio, whatever that is, you know, something that's easy
and more palatable.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
But ten years later, it's a number one in a
different country, and I always knew what it was in
like South Africa. Now when I when we just hit
that opening and it's madness unlike truck has ever been.
It's madness when you play that song there. So I
always knew what that song was, and I should have

(01:05:35):
been like, no, we're this is what we're doing, you know,
but kindsight you're doing all right? Though?

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Yeah, what's uh? What's next for Kid Moore?

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
What what you got coming up down the road?

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Well, about to leave Saturday for Australia, New Zealand, which
it's going.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
To do it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
Can I tell us something else which we were doing?

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Yeah, it's gonna be great, man, it's gonna I can't
believe it. You know, when I think about the other
night I saw just randomly on TV, you know, Caketown
Football Stadium, I can't believe about the headline that thing
that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
I just well, I just but we went to New
Zealand last year and did some rugby games and then
hunting out there in the South South Alps. I think,
what's called? Man? You want to talk about some beautiful
cultural Man, it's stunning, dude, it is stunny. So it'll
be winter. It'll be winter down there, right, are coming
up on winter?

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Yeah, it'll be like the end, like the tail end.
Oh well, it'll be the tail end, and then you know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
The seasons are like completely reversed.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Yeah yeah, And then I'll come back from that. I'll
do an American fall tour like I do a headline
fall tour that starts in November goes till December fifteenth,
and then I'll go surf until into February and then
I'll start back up in March and then the record
will be out on record.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
That's sick, man.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Man. Then we get some tickets to a show or something. Man, Yeah,
you know somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Yeah, dude, I'm a fan, am bro. Yeah, I'm not
for music now, just hanging out with you, dude. Of
you and and uh, your mindset, bro, the way you
live your life. It's inspiring, dude, from real and we
need more of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Yeah, I'm sure it was important that thing you had
to say, but it's sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
One that that one felt weird for some Yeah, because
it dropped d you wouldn't do tune earlier and you
were like looking at me and you're singing it, and
that's what I was saying. Well, they got away, dude,
let's go. Yeah, can't we do the one that got away?
It could be you know, this is outdoor podcast, it
could be hunting fishing, it could be a song. It
could be we always say the Kobe Kalay one was

(01:07:46):
a gift card that she She was gifted a twenty
thousand dollars gift card for a show that she let Expire.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
It was like spots.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
I got a ten dollars cracker Bill car Hey, man,
that really bummed.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
I'll get your Friday Day.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
When did they go up on price?

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
I'm sure they did everything.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
I'm sure, man, off the top of my head. I
hate to say this because I hate no. I have
no problem, never had any problem talking about my mess ups.
Two different times in college, I had a chance going
into the eighteenth hole. Most of the tournaments are two
and three day tournaments. In two different times I was

(01:08:31):
either leading, leading in one of them by a shot,
and I was tired in one of them going into
the last hole. And I pulled the biggest choke job
ever on number eighteen, but I was standing. I'm easy
to do being standing. I pumped the drive on eighteen
and I'm leading the tournament by one over some two
big names end up playing with the PJ Tour and.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Come on, we got to know we got who were you?

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Bubba Watson was? But I'm standing on eighteen and I'm like,
I've got a chance to win this. The first time
I've been in that position.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
Middle of the middle of the green and drive, and
I'm like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
I'm about to win this.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Thing, Yeah, to put the game over.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
And my coach man, I love him. Rest in peace,
Dan york Man. I love that guy. But he was
an intimidating guy. And he always wore these like Oakley's
that wrapped around his face. And he's standing on the
back of the green and we were the final group
and every all the players, everybody's and it's an island
green and I've got a little pond dead front, but
I've got a like one hundred and forty.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
Five yards in what close that for you?

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
So pitch back then? Yeah, pitching Wedg's nine iron? How
you wanted to hit it? But but because I was like,
I want to make sure I clear this water, there
was no wind, and normally I would have pulled a
pitching well pulled a nine iron. I said, I'm gonna
hit a little three quarter nine iron, and I chunked
that sucker dead center of the water, like dead center

(01:09:54):
and you get just spill it. Yeah what your coach man,
I just remember seeing him in this Oakley and he
just turned around and walked off, turned around the walk.
Because we were also in the hunt as a team.
It was it was a tournament to qualify for the
National Championships, so we ended up still qualifying, but he

(01:10:14):
just and I remember I had to drop then, you know,
and the start of the water was only ten yards
in front of where I hit it, so I had
to pretty much just drop right from where I was.
And then I scored one over the back of the green.
I don't think I had hit my bad iron shot
all day, and I scolled it over to the back
of the green and I ended up, you know, making

(01:10:35):
like a double buggie. And then the other one I
three putted on eighteen in the Conference championship. I three
putted on eighteen from about twelve feet straight away, no break,
and just smoked it by I just but I looked
back and I mean it was just a massive choke job,

(01:10:56):
there's another way to put it. My hands were shaken
and I was like, oh, I've got a chance to
win the conference championship. Wam you know, And it was
just gone, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
We had the We had the Kelly brothers own last
last week and they're big golfers and grew up in
Augusta and they're one I think Josh is one that
got away with the same things like the junior am
to it like leading by two and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
He's told me that oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
That's right. Fourteen yeah, junior, yeah, masters only club, only
club I ever broke the same thing. I was the
only tournament high school I ever had a chance to win.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
I was.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
I was up by one on the seventeenth hole and
then the sand I was on the short side, sand
bunker and uh, water behind. So I was just gonna
try to flow it up and I was used my
dad sandwich and I hit one, just caught it real
thin over the green end of the water and son,
I took that sandwich, which and my dad wash.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
That was fine.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
That is great?

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Now, favorite song, greatest slash, favorite song that comes to
your mind. I know that's a big question, but uh we.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
Try to play it like what's It's not the greatest song,
but it's like the cornerstone song to you, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Like what kind of Sunday morning coming down? Sunday morning
coming down? Man. I remember just living in that garage
apartment when I was first in town, and I just
remember hearing that song boy, and it just hit me
like a hammer man.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
You gonna give us a piece or not.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
I'm good with that. You know. Another thing comes to
mind is run.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
What was that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Baby run? Cut the path across blue sky straight in
a straight line. You can't get it fast enough. Find
a truck and fire it up. Lean on the gas
and off clutch leaf, Dallas in the dust. I need you, you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Know, soap, baby.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Run, that's probably written. I think it be run.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Yeah, I think it be run and George us selves.
That so beautiful, so good man, shout out Tony Wane.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Dog.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
I could sit here and do this for hours.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Bro, man, you're an interesting fellow.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Hey, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
You bet that was your inspiration.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Wrong. I appreciate being the guinea pig y'all's first episode.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
We got a physics might stand. I've been looking at them. Hey,
keep more everybody out in God's Country. Thanks for hanging
out with us, and uh well, we'll check out next time.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
You're handsome to man, handsome

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
H
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