April 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Join @thebuzzknight as he celebrates the latest chapter in the journey of BMG Nashville country music sensation Parmalee. Fresh from achieving their fifth No. ! single with "Gonna Love You," they have new music out called "Fell in Love with a Cowgirl," and they are hitting the road coming to a town near you.. Join Buzz as he talks with Matt and Scott Thomas, Barry Knox and Josh McSwain, better known as Parmalee exploring their creative process and inspiration.
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Buzz Knight
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We were like Southern soul guys, R and B soul
and anything that kind of was in that vein. And
of course we loved you know, we grew up on
MTV and we loved the rock and roll bands and
all that too. It was all that kind of just
throwing in a big batch together, growing up in the South,
being country as you can be, and growing up on
a lifestyle, but also having all those different influences of
(00:22):
music around us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Taking a Walk, where we celebrate the latest
chapter in the journey of country music sensation Parmally with
your host Buzz Night. Fresh from achieving their fifth number
one single with Gonna Love You, the band is now
gearing up for the release of their new album, fell
in Love with the Cowgirl. Join us as we take
a Walk with Matt Thomas, Scott Thomas, Barry Knox, and
(00:47):
Josh McSwain to explore their creative process. Parmally joins Buzz
Night on Taking a Walk right now.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
So, since the podcast is called Taking a Walk, I
did want to ask you guys first, if you could
take a walk with somebody living or dead, who would
you take a walk with?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh man, Oh wow, that'd be old man. I'd have
to go with Robert Plan because it looks like him.
I go with my dad, Oh yeah, and I go
with my granddad. Says you going with our dad? You
probably do is.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'll like to go with.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Jimmy Hendricks.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Wow, that's a that's a broad array. I like that.
That's that is diverse for sure. Uh yeah, awesome. Well
we're going to get inside the making of a fell
in Love with a cow Girl in a bit. But
I did want to ask you to sort of take
us back to the beginning on how Parmally started.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh man, back in then almoston, back near the nineteen hundreds. Well,
you know me, Scott's, my brother, Barry's our first cousin.
Grew up into a little small town and my dad
played music, and so we had to bug as kids.
So we started playing in his band and grew up
(02:14):
playing his band, and eventually wanted to do our own
music once we got, you know, a little bit older,
So we wanted to start a band. And we knew
Josh was in a local cover band playing some of
the same places we were at and some of the
same venues and some of the same songs. I reached
out to Josh, I said, hey, man, we want to
start this new thing and do our own songs and
(02:37):
do some younger music than our dads and stuff. So
we drug him out to a little barn in the
town of Parma Lee, North Carolina, which was close to
where we grew up, a little small cement block building
that we rented for fifty bucks a month, and we
just went out there and we started this band and
started writing songs and making noise and just you know,
(02:58):
stayed out there as much as we possibly could and
just figured it out, you know, try to try to
write songs and be a band. So that was That's
kind of how it got started.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And it sounds like the influence is based on your
answer to the ticket a Walk question, it sounds like
they went to many different places beyond just certainly country music.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Oh yeah, we you know, I mean as far as
country music goes. Where how we grew up it was,
you know, Travis Tritt was like the side of my
dad played Travis Tritt song, So we learned how to
you know, sing and play like that. That was our
kind of introduction to the country. And Garth Brooks a
little bit later and job, but jobs grew up Blew.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
My dad was a plotograss band, and so I was
on that side of country music, the more mountain hillbilly.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Style of stuff. Yeah, but we were like southern soul guys,
R and B soul and anything. It kind of was
in that vein. And of course we loved you know,
we grew up on MTV and we loved the rock
and roll bands and all that too. It was all
all that kind of just throwing in a big batch together.
Growing up in the South being country as you can be,
and growing up in a lifestyle, but also having all
(04:12):
those different influences of music around us. That kind of
was training. But also like playing in my dad's band,
all the songs that he learned that we were just
playing nose because it was cool.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Aland Brother.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Dela McClinton, Stevie Ray. That was a lot of that
growing up. But my mom listened to pop music and
my grandma listened to country, old country. You just heard
everything very diverse. That's very cool, it really is. That's
that's like.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Making a very interesting stew stirring it up, letting it simmer,
and then serving it up.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, yeah, what was the first time you witnessed live music,
whether it be from an act that was well known
and national or just in general, someone that was out
playing out.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Uh, seeing our seeing our dad at the Fourth of
July celebration at the ballpark on a flatbed trailer.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And then Josh he was the.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Same thing, saying my dad on stage. We used to
travel around and got all these blue grass fiddler's conventions
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's what they called.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
The Fiddler's convention.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it was. It was my uncle Jerry, their dad.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Washington Play was my first introduction the live music yet.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
And did you ever have any idea that something would
come together named Parmally that would have you know, through
thick and thin, which we'll talk about, uh, you know,
great success. I mean, could you have imagined this?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean we all I always imagine that.
I just didn't know how it was gonna happen. And
that was that was the thing. We didn't have any
clue on how to get into music business. We knew
that we knew how to play our instruments and and
and try to write songs, but we didn't have anyone
that showed us the path of Hey, guy as you
(06:10):
this is kind of like how you did to write songs,
and this is how you be a band. And this
is my cousin who's in the music business and he
can tell you a little bit about this. Or I
have this guy that can help you out and maybe
get a pub deal and you can play music for
a living and write songs. There's a college, none of that.
There was zero education on like anything other than you know,
(06:30):
you watch TV and you see bands, and then you
go in a barn and you start trying to emulate
those bands and learn those songs, and you book your
cover show gigs and all that stuff. But I always
knew I wanted to play music for a living, and
I just you know, we all did.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
And yeah, we always thought it was the It was
the fantasy of if you started the band. One day,
you'd be playing at the local bar and the big
record guy would come in and sign you and give
you a million dollars and you'd be famous.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, that's how we thought that will end. So that's
what we did. We just tried to play as many
bars as we could with the songs we had.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, but the story is a little different than that.
You uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It is, but it is honestly kind of happened that
way with us in a in a strange way. We
were playing. We were in our first band, slip Joint
same for guys, and we we had just put out
an EP and we had the six songs that were
just six completely different songs. Yeah, we recorded and we
(07:28):
were packing out the clubs in town. One club, and
we had this one song that everybody loved, and the
guy came to town. He was in he was in a
cover band, but he was he was actually a manager
from the town up the street, and he asked the
club owner. He's like, what bands are packing what bands
are doing well in this town? And and so the
club owner told him about us, and so he got
(07:49):
a CD and then he actually reached out to us
and ended up being our first like manager, our first
kind of connect with the music business. Uh. He didn't
come in with the checkbook and none of that, but
it was the first guy that we met that was
actually in the legit music business. He was managing some
current artists at the time. And so I guess it
kind of did happen in a small way.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
But you were out touring for a couple of decades
and then you didn't get a deal until ten years
after starting out, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah? Yeah, we you know, we did. We did everything
we could to get record deal. We tried all kinds
of music. We just didn't have the song and didn't
have the sound. But we were grinding it out for
ten years before we got signed to a major record deal.
And we had ups and downs. We had almost so
many times, or we had you know, some people trying
(08:45):
to help us out and just couldn't get it done.
It is a long We were right on the verb
always for ten years, but we didn't give up. We
just would find out that next that next lot of
hope to kind of chase, you know, whether it be
somebody coming on board it wants to work with you,
(09:06):
they got some connections they're going to try to get
us a deal, or the song we have that people like,
or this producer you got to work with, or this
you know, anything that was what would lead you forward
instead of backwards. And that's always been our thing.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But this is the story of chilling resilience, even beyond
the you know, the record business aspect of stuff. And
I see you you nodding Scott, because you had a
terrible incident that occurred to you specifically into the band
in general. Do you mind sharing that difficult story?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, we sure we had an atteptive robbery at a
practice shared.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
We were playing a club on Monday night in a small,
little small club, just to kind of prepare to get
back out to Nashville. We had finally got us something
on the on the Verge in Nashville, and we were
just doing some rehearsal shows and played little small club.
I think we made fifteen bucks at night, Maybe twenty
people showed up, but some guys tried to rob us
(10:11):
on our little r V after the After the show,
Barry and Josh were in the club packing gear. Me
and Scott were on the r V and get a
knock at the door, thinking this these guys coming to
get on the little RV so we can grow and
it's a gun at my head, give me from cash.
Two guys bandanas rolled up into RB and and fired
(10:34):
fired a shot. Give me give me a cash, And
I knew Scott was a concealed carrier in the back,
so I screamed for help from him and he he
didn't hesitate. He came up and he engaged both of
the guys and shot both of them. One of the
us is no longer here, the other ones about them
this in prison. He's in prison now. But yeah, I
(10:55):
mean they they they were demanding money and they fired
on us, and Scott came out and protected me. But
he got shot three times and the shootout. Almost died
right there, bled out on the couch. One hit him
in his heart, one got him in his stomach, and
then one hit his form more ari which was the
money shot, I guess. But luckily there was a policeman
(11:15):
right next door to McDonald's that heard the commotion, was
there in an instant. The air letted him to go
to the hospital. Forty days in a comb for ten
days in a coma. I'm sorry, forty days in the hospital,
ten and a coma free life saving surgeries, pens and
needs of whether he was even going to be able
to walk again or have his leg or just I mean,
(11:36):
it was it was worst case scenario out of the gate,
you know, and luckily he survived dead one day at
a time. We were in there, nurses, We were the nurses,
we were the physical training, we were twice a day.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We had family and friends and fans, everybody raised money
and just come to the hospital and stayed and it
was just it was a it was a miracle. It
was a gave us a lot of hope. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, you know, you got to imagine you're in
a band and you you've had so many you had
so many almost their chances. You know that we're going
(12:11):
to change your life, and nobody nothing happened. And then
we finally had that, We finally had recorded must Have
Had a Good Time, which we ended up being the
four week number one on the Highway and the top
forty hit, and then Carolina the version that you hear, now,
that's all that changed our lives. We had those recorded
in July and we're trying to get back out to
Nashville in October, and then this happens in September. So
(12:34):
you're all your hopes and dreams are just shattered on
this thing, and then you you have to but we
pushed through it. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't, we
didn't stop. We said we got to get back out
to Nashville because that's that's where the you that's where
it's at. We got to go and uh, and so
when he was in the hospital, we played songs here
this saw, get up, Get up, Get up, Get up,
you know, and UH just kind of pushed through. And
(12:55):
I think four months later after after the incident, we
did a showcase and uh here and that, and we
played six songs and the label on and we play
one of his one of his songs that he wanted
us to cut, wanted us to try playing somebody else
the outside cuts, you know, other songwriters have one of
his favorite songs. And we played that and we love it,
and he's like, you boys passed the test. You're gonna
(13:16):
get this record. Deal that makes sense?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Oh man, I got the chills just thinking about the
story and everything that obviously Scott you went through, but
that you all went through. It's a story of incredible resilience.
I do have to ask you. I produce another podcast
which is called Music Saved Me, and it's about the
healing power of music. So I think I know the
(13:40):
answer to this question. I mean, do you believe that
music has therapeutic healing power?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
One percent? Absolutely, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Hell yes, when you're riding in your car by yourself,
and that song gets you and you get those chills
or you flash back and it makes you smile or
makes you cry.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You just love it. You know it, you know what's help.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And then there's the other part of this story, which
is so beautiful where Matt and Scott your mom came
into this story. She was always there for sure, but
oh but she played a significant enough role. Uh, do
you want to talk about the specific role she played
that sort of added a little gasoline to your your career?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Yes, I think each each one of our family members
that gave us a little yeah, all along touch, Yeah,
everyone has helps.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Boss's dad he first one we got the we got
bought a van back in the day. And Josh's dad,
I think he loaness was it? Was it five thousand,
thirty five hundred dollars and something like that, and maybe
thirty five hundred dollars every Sithberg got our first, our
first loan that he never asked for. Hey, he never
played money back.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
And then Uncle Bennie gave us our second loan. Well
this RV that we were all be at the incident
happened there. Then our mom.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Before that though this is uh, well this is the
song Carolina. We we did a showcase. We had a
record guy coming to see this Arrest in Peace, Kim
Stevens in the local town. We had this big record
guy from Atlantic, It's gonna come see us. Well, this
was one of those almost times, you know, like we
were this is two thousand and seven, I think, so
(15:25):
we were seven years into this thing, pretty good. Six
seven years into this trying different managers, different songs, just
couldn't get a deal. And this guy was coming. So
he came to the show. We whined and we dined,
and we made sure that everything was great, and we
played our hearts out and we did the best we
could and he just you know, at the end of
the show, I knew he wasn't going to sign us.
(15:46):
You know, it just didn't have that vibe. But I
went up nasty after the show. We were like, hey,
if you signed us tomorrow, what's the first thing you
would do? And he said, well, I'd send you to
I'd send you to Atlanta to work with this guy
named Rick. Actually Rick Biauto, who's got a massive YouTube channel.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Definitely heard of him.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So Rick. We worked a Rick way
back and they didn't know he was. We just went
down and were like, man, caught him up, said hey man,
we're this band parmer Lee, and we want to come
work with you. You know, we didn't guess it. We
just said we want to come work with it. He said, cool,
come play me some songs. So we did. We went
down and we saw Rick and played in some songs
and we had this one song we hadn't finished. I said,
(16:23):
you want to finish this with us, you know, as
a writer, and he said sure, and we came back.
We did a recording. At this point in time, we
had a buddy who was our investor that was, you know,
put some money behind the band as far as like,
you know, starting this business together. And this was like
the the third or fourth kind of thing we worked on.
And he wrote us a check and so we went
(16:43):
down to see Rick and we did our recording. We
finished a song, and then you know, we're pumped up.
We got these great songs. We're excited. And about three
days later, I get a call from Rick and he's like,
hey man, he was pissed. He's like, just check bounced.
You have me eleven thousand dollars y'all do? And we
were like, shit, you know, we how we're gonna get
eleven grand because you know, credit cards are racked up,
(17:04):
we don't have any and and I think I'd mentioned
it's something to my mom, but but she has she Uh,
she took a loan out on a on a We
grew up in this little three bedroom house. So she
got in a divorce and she took a second loan
out in that house and loanless eleven thousand dollars so
we could pay this guy. Uh, and she didn't. It's
(17:24):
like I said, she never asked to hear a song.
She didn't. She didn't care anything about the music. She
just knew we you know, we were working hard and
we believed in it and all that. So yeah, so
she loaned us the eleven thousand dollars. And I always
say the show is like, the cool thing about that
is that one of those songs is Carolina. So you know,
we paid her back. Plus we bought her new house
(17:46):
in a new car, and she's retired now.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
With wonderful Oh my goodness. Wow, that's great. So congratulations
on the new music. Take us inside the creation of
the new music. When did you start working on it
and how did that all come together for fell in
Love with a Cowgirl.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I don't think that work ever really stops. We do
have time to where we're like, okay, we need these songs,
we need to go right, but it just kind of
flows and you get songs you get excited about, and
that may start the process. I think for this project
we had, we were just coming off of you know,
Gonna Love You was the was the last song off
(18:25):
before You Deluxe, and we just knew that that it
was time to start some new when it was time
to put something out, and we had the song enough
that that kind of fired us up. It was different,
it was tempo, and we just loved it and we
were just kind of going in that lane for a minute,
and uh, that really kind of got a kickstart, and
we were excited just about a new album, new album
(18:47):
and trying some new stuff, and we knew we had
to have a tempo because Gonna Love You was a,
you know, more mid tempo ballad kind of thing. So
it was really just it was go time and we
knew like we just got to get the best songs
that we can that we can muster up that's gonna
fit what we do and that our fans that we
you know, feel like our fans are gonna want from us.
(19:08):
And so that's kind of how the whole thing, you know,
panned out. And we're saying that we have four or
five songs that kind of fit this bowl for file
to fit this, and we ended up with this battress,
you know, a bunch of songs, and we just kept
whittling down like a like a sports chart, sports bracket.
You know, we're just like this song, you know, on
(19:30):
you're out on the road and and you know, Thursday,
this song might be your favorite, and time you get
home and listen to it a couple of times, it's
out of the bracket. And then they kind of keep
we kept an ongoing list just on the bus handwritten,
this song's out back, then let's go you that. Yeah,
And that's that's kind of how we did it.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
And are you constantly envisioning it how it will play
in live performance as well?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yes, yeah, yes, sir, it has a lot to do.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
It.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's so crazy because some songs just work well at radio.
It's just like you you hear it on the radio.
Some songs just work well live, and some songs just
work well streaming. If you can get all three of
those together in the song, then you got to you know,
that's the golden goose. And so we knew we had
to have. We knew we needed, you know, a nod
(20:18):
to the fans and for that love just away and
take my Name and girl of Mine. You know, we
had that. So we had Day one that was our
best one, that was kind of in that vein, and
you know, we knew we needed a straight radio song,
God knew better, or you know, something down in the
middle that people would expect to hear from us. And
we knew we needed something different but totally parmer lead
(20:40):
that nobody else could do. And so enter Cowgirl. And
then you know, the other songs are just us being
band guys and just loving guitar licks and things like that.
But it's really about knowing the fans and knowing what
we need to give them, and knowing radio and in
streaming services too. So it's like kind of putting it
all together with the least amount of songs we could
(21:03):
then I confuse everybody.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
So when you're out in the road, as an example,
when you were out on the tour with with Kane Brown,
are you writing all the time while you're out on
a tour.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yes, yes, sometimes I think out on tour is where
you might come up with a cool idea because they're
always coming, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But if you're really sitting down, really serious about writing
a song, you know, in Nashville, which other writers, you
bring those ideas that you get from the road to
town and and kind of mold them in a different setting.
It's it's tough to do it on the road because
we've just got so much. There's so much activities going
with meet and greets and shows and setlists and all that.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
It's hard to be able to sit down for a
couple of three hours and really focus. Yeah, it's it's
not my preference now. Like on the Cane tour, Tyler
Hubbard was out. Now he had his he had his
bus and his crew bus. Now he had a writer.
Writers come out with his bus. So it's easy if.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
That kind of thing's going on. Or Caine's got a
room in the back and he's got some writers out,
you know, we all jump in on a song. That's
a little bit easier sometimes, But I'd prefer to when
I go on the road, I like to enjoy it.
And enjoy my time out and my day and have
fun at the show that knowing you got a song
to kind of come back to. If it's fun, it's easy.
(22:30):
Sometimes it gets to be a chore when you're out there,
but that's part of song, right, You got to you
gotta get it all out, You got to knock it out.
But uh, I'm like him, I love I get more
ideas on the road that I can bring to town
to kind of bring you life.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
If we had assets like Tyler had with his own
studio set up at it.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh yeah, there's so many of us on one bus, Yeah,
all of us. Well, yeah, it is six seven crew guys,
but there's just eleven people on this bus all the time,
which is decent space.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I mean, it's not easy getting out there and going
from city to city and making this all happen. I mean,
is that fair to say that people don't always understand.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Oh, it's definitely fair to say. Yeah, it's a lot
of working parts and it's you know, not glamorous like
you know, some thing show. But it's also it is
fun and it's like what we've always wanted to do.
We love it and but it is a lot of
working parts. It's a lot of people that are just
busting their ass all day to get it, to make
it happen. Whether you're doing it's crazy. You know, you
(23:33):
do an opening slot for say, you do it over
to slot for thirty forty five minutes and you're driving
eight or nine hours to get there. Somebody's flying in
and it's like, it's crazy when you think about it.
But you know, you're you jump on stage and you're
in front of this festival crowd of twenty thirty thousand
people sometimes and you're doing a forty five minutes set
and then you're out of there and lying to the
next place, you know, and you just barely barely made it. Yeah, yeah, right,
(23:57):
But everybody's having a good time, and I mean that's
that's the power of hit songs and you know, having
fans it's really cool.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Well talk about that. How when you look out at
a show and you see the crowd and you see
the smiles and the joy that you bring to people
as an artist, how does it feel?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh? I love It's the best. That's the best. That's it.
I love it. I'm excited to get out there this weekend.
I ain't gonna lie they had playing a couple of weeks.
I means it got a boogie fever. Yeah. When you
when you're on stage performing for me, it's like everything
else in the whole world, or even in your mind,
is just gone. All you're thinking about is performing those
(24:41):
songs and performing that crowd, and that's just a great space.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
To be in.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
I think you know who when instantly when you say
everybody's singing back, it validates that you've done something good,
like enough for them to want to be a part
of it.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You know. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Well, guys, it's it's such a joy to talk to you.
Congratulations on the new music. It's really special to hear
it and to hear your story and to meet you
and to know the joy that you bring to so
many of us with your music. So I really have
to thank you Matt and Scott and Barry and Josh
(25:19):
Harmi Lee for being on Taking a Walk. It's a
true honor.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Thank Thank you man.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
It's by bus.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Thank you shu us.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
A Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We were like Southern soul guys, R and B soul
and anything that kind of was in that vein. And
of course we loved you know, we grew up on
MTV and we loved the rock and roll bands and
all that too. It was all that kind of just
throwing in a big batch together, growing up in the South,
being country as you can be, and growing up on
a lifestyle, but also having all those different influences of
(00:22):
music around us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Taking a Walk, where we celebrate the latest
chapter in the journey of country music sensation Parmally with
your host Buzz Night. Fresh from achieving their fifth number
one single with Gonna Love You, the band is now
gearing up for the release of their new album, fell
in Love with the Cowgirl. Join us as we take
a Walk with Matt Thomas, Scott Thomas, Barry Knox, and
(00:47):
Josh McSwain to explore their creative process. Parmally joins Buzz
Night on Taking a Walk right now.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
So, since the podcast is called Taking a Walk, I
did want to ask you guys first, if you could
take a walk with somebody living or dead, who would
you take a walk with?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh man, Oh wow, that'd be old man. I'd have
to go with Robert Plan because it looks like him.
I go with my dad, Oh yeah, and I go
with my granddad. Says you going with our dad? You
probably do is.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'll like to go with.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Jimmy Hendricks.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Wow, that's a that's a broad array. I like that.
That's that is diverse for sure. Uh yeah, awesome. Well
we're going to get inside the making of a fell
in Love with a cow Girl in a bit. But
I did want to ask you to sort of take
us back to the beginning on how Parmally started.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh man, back in then almoston, back near the nineteen hundreds. Well,
you know me, Scott's, my brother, Barry's our first cousin.
Grew up into a little small town and my dad
played music, and so we had to bug as kids.
So we started playing in his band and grew up
(02:14):
playing his band, and eventually wanted to do our own
music once we got, you know, a little bit older,
So we wanted to start a band. And we knew
Josh was in a local cover band playing some of
the same places we were at and some of the
same venues and some of the same songs. I reached
out to Josh, I said, hey, man, we want to
start this new thing and do our own songs and
(02:37):
do some younger music than our dads and stuff. So
we drug him out to a little barn in the
town of Parma Lee, North Carolina, which was close to
where we grew up, a little small cement block building
that we rented for fifty bucks a month, and we
just went out there and we started this band and
started writing songs and making noise and just you know,
(02:58):
stayed out there as much as we possibly could and
just figured it out, you know, try to try to
write songs and be a band. So that was That's
kind of how it got started.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And it sounds like the influence is based on your
answer to the ticket a Walk question, it sounds like
they went to many different places beyond just certainly country music.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Oh yeah, we you know, I mean as far as
country music goes. Where how we grew up it was,
you know, Travis Tritt was like the side of my
dad played Travis Tritt song, So we learned how to
you know, sing and play like that. That was our
kind of introduction to the country. And Garth Brooks a
little bit later and job, but jobs grew up Blew.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
My dad was a plotograss band, and so I was
on that side of country music, the more mountain hillbilly.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Style of stuff. Yeah, but we were like southern soul guys,
R and B soul and anything. It kind of was
in that vein. And of course we loved you know,
we grew up on MTV and we loved the rock
and roll bands and all that too. It was all
all that kind of just throwing in a big batch together.
Growing up in the South being country as you can be,
and growing up in a lifestyle, but also having all
(04:12):
those different influences of music around us. That kind of
was training. But also like playing in my dad's band,
all the songs that he learned that we were just
playing nose because it was cool.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Aland Brother.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Dela McClinton, Stevie Ray. That was a lot of that
growing up. But my mom listened to pop music and
my grandma listened to country, old country. You just heard
everything very diverse. That's very cool, it really is. That's
that's like.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Making a very interesting stew stirring it up, letting it simmer,
and then serving it up.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, yeah, what was the first time you witnessed live music,
whether it be from an act that was well known
and national or just in general, someone that was out
playing out.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Uh, seeing our seeing our dad at the Fourth of
July celebration at the ballpark on a flatbed trailer.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And then Josh he was the.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Same thing, saying my dad on stage. We used to
travel around and got all these blue grass fiddler's conventions
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's what they called.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
The Fiddler's convention.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it was. It was my uncle Jerry, their dad.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Washington Play was my first introduction the live music yet.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
And did you ever have any idea that something would
come together named Parmally that would have you know, through
thick and thin, which we'll talk about, uh, you know,
great success. I mean, could you have imagined this?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean we all I always imagine that.
I just didn't know how it was gonna happen. And
that was that was the thing. We didn't have any
clue on how to get into music business. We knew
that we knew how to play our instruments and and
and try to write songs, but we didn't have anyone
that showed us the path of Hey, guy as you
(06:10):
this is kind of like how you did to write songs,
and this is how you be a band. And this
is my cousin who's in the music business and he
can tell you a little bit about this. Or I
have this guy that can help you out and maybe
get a pub deal and you can play music for
a living and write songs. There's a college, none of that.
There was zero education on like anything other than you know,
(06:30):
you watch TV and you see bands, and then you
go in a barn and you start trying to emulate
those bands and learn those songs, and you book your
cover show gigs and all that stuff. But I always
knew I wanted to play music for a living, and
I just you know, we all did.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
And yeah, we always thought it was the It was
the fantasy of if you started the band. One day,
you'd be playing at the local bar and the big
record guy would come in and sign you and give
you a million dollars and you'd be famous.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, that's how we thought that will end. So that's
what we did. We just tried to play as many
bars as we could with the songs we had.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, but the story is a little different than that.
You uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It is, but it is honestly kind of happened that
way with us in a in a strange way. We
were playing. We were in our first band, slip Joint
same for guys, and we we had just put out
an EP and we had the six songs that were
just six completely different songs. Yeah, we recorded and we
(07:28):
were packing out the clubs in town. One club, and
we had this one song that everybody loved, and the
guy came to town. He was in he was in a
cover band, but he was he was actually a manager
from the town up the street, and he asked the
club owner. He's like, what bands are packing what bands
are doing well in this town? And and so the
club owner told him about us, and so he got
(07:49):
a CD and then he actually reached out to us
and ended up being our first like manager, our first
kind of connect with the music business. Uh. He didn't
come in with the checkbook and none of that, but
it was the first guy that we met that was
actually in the legit music business. He was managing some
current artists at the time. And so I guess it
kind of did happen in a small way.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
But you were out touring for a couple of decades
and then you didn't get a deal until ten years
after starting out, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah? Yeah, we you know, we did. We did everything
we could to get record deal. We tried all kinds
of music. We just didn't have the song and didn't
have the sound. But we were grinding it out for
ten years before we got signed to a major record deal.
And we had ups and downs. We had almost so
many times, or we had you know, some people trying
(08:45):
to help us out and just couldn't get it done.
It is a long We were right on the verb
always for ten years, but we didn't give up. We
just would find out that next that next lot of
hope to kind of chase, you know, whether it be
somebody coming on board it wants to work with you,
(09:06):
they got some connections they're going to try to get
us a deal, or the song we have that people like,
or this producer you got to work with, or this
you know, anything that was what would lead you forward
instead of backwards. And that's always been our thing.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But this is the story of chilling resilience, even beyond
the you know, the record business aspect of stuff. And
I see you you nodding Scott, because you had a
terrible incident that occurred to you specifically into the band
in general. Do you mind sharing that difficult story?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, we sure we had an atteptive robbery at a
practice shared.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
We were playing a club on Monday night in a small,
little small club, just to kind of prepare to get
back out to Nashville. We had finally got us something
on the on the Verge in Nashville, and we were
just doing some rehearsal shows and played little small club.
I think we made fifteen bucks at night, Maybe twenty
people showed up, but some guys tried to rob us
(10:11):
on our little r V after the After the show,
Barry and Josh were in the club packing gear. Me
and Scott were on the r V and get a
knock at the door, thinking this these guys coming to
get on the little RV so we can grow and
it's a gun at my head, give me from cash.
Two guys bandanas rolled up into RB and and fired
(10:34):
fired a shot. Give me give me a cash, And
I knew Scott was a concealed carrier in the back,
so I screamed for help from him and he he
didn't hesitate. He came up and he engaged both of
the guys and shot both of them. One of the
us is no longer here, the other ones about them
this in prison. He's in prison now. But yeah, I
(10:55):
mean they they they were demanding money and they fired
on us, and Scott came out and protected me. But
he got shot three times and the shootout. Almost died
right there, bled out on the couch. One hit him
in his heart, one got him in his stomach, and
then one hit his form more ari which was the
money shot, I guess. But luckily there was a policeman
(11:15):
right next door to McDonald's that heard the commotion, was
there in an instant. The air letted him to go
to the hospital. Forty days in a comb for ten
days in a coma. I'm sorry, forty days in the hospital,
ten and a coma free life saving surgeries, pens and
needs of whether he was even going to be able
to walk again or have his leg or just I mean,
(11:36):
it was it was worst case scenario out of the gate,
you know, and luckily he survived dead one day at
a time. We were in there, nurses, We were the nurses,
we were the physical training, we were twice a day.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We had family and friends and fans, everybody raised money
and just come to the hospital and stayed and it
was just it was a it was a miracle. It
was a gave us a lot of hope. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, you know, you got to imagine you're in
a band and you you've had so many you had
so many almost their chances. You know that we're going
(12:11):
to change your life, and nobody nothing happened. And then
we finally had that, We finally had recorded must Have
Had a Good Time, which we ended up being the
four week number one on the Highway and the top
forty hit, and then Carolina the version that you hear, now,
that's all that changed our lives. We had those recorded
in July and we're trying to get back out to
Nashville in October, and then this happens in September. So
(12:34):
you're all your hopes and dreams are just shattered on
this thing, and then you you have to but we
pushed through it. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't, we
didn't stop. We said we got to get back out
to Nashville because that's that's where the you that's where
it's at. We got to go and uh, and so
when he was in the hospital, we played songs here
this saw, get up, Get up, Get up, Get up,
you know, and UH just kind of pushed through. And
(12:55):
I think four months later after after the incident, we
did a showcase and uh here and that, and we
played six songs and the label on and we play
one of his one of his songs that he wanted
us to cut, wanted us to try playing somebody else
the outside cuts, you know, other songwriters have one of
his favorite songs. And we played that and we love it,
and he's like, you boys passed the test. You're gonna
(13:16):
get this record. Deal that makes sense?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Oh man, I got the chills just thinking about the
story and everything that obviously Scott you went through, but
that you all went through. It's a story of incredible resilience.
I do have to ask you. I produce another podcast
which is called Music Saved Me, and it's about the
healing power of music. So I think I know the
(13:40):
answer to this question. I mean, do you believe that
music has therapeutic healing power?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
One percent? Absolutely, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Hell yes, when you're riding in your car by yourself,
and that song gets you and you get those chills
or you flash back and it makes you smile or
makes you cry.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You just love it. You know it, you know what's help.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And then there's the other part of this story, which
is so beautiful where Matt and Scott your mom came
into this story. She was always there for sure, but
oh but she played a significant enough role. Uh, do
you want to talk about the specific role she played
that sort of added a little gasoline to your your career?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Yes, I think each each one of our family members
that gave us a little yeah, all along touch, Yeah,
everyone has helps.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Boss's dad he first one we got the we got
bought a van back in the day. And Josh's dad,
I think he loaness was it? Was it five thousand,
thirty five hundred dollars and something like that, and maybe
thirty five hundred dollars every Sithberg got our first, our
first loan that he never asked for. Hey, he never
played money back.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
And then Uncle Bennie gave us our second loan. Well
this RV that we were all be at the incident
happened there. Then our mom.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Before that though this is uh, well this is the
song Carolina. We we did a showcase. We had a
record guy coming to see this Arrest in Peace, Kim
Stevens in the local town. We had this big record
guy from Atlantic, It's gonna come see us. Well, this
was one of those almost times, you know, like we
were this is two thousand and seven, I think, so
(15:25):
we were seven years into this thing, pretty good. Six
seven years into this trying different managers, different songs, just
couldn't get a deal. And this guy was coming. So
he came to the show. We whined and we dined,
and we made sure that everything was great, and we
played our hearts out and we did the best we
could and he just you know, at the end of
the show, I knew he wasn't going to sign us.
(15:46):
You know, it just didn't have that vibe. But I
went up nasty after the show. We were like, hey,
if you signed us tomorrow, what's the first thing you
would do? And he said, well, I'd send you to
I'd send you to Atlanta to work with this guy
named Rick. Actually Rick Biauto, who's got a massive YouTube channel.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Definitely heard of him.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So Rick. We worked a Rick way
back and they didn't know he was. We just went
down and were like, man, caught him up, said hey man,
we're this band parmer Lee, and we want to come
work with you. You know, we didn't guess it. We
just said we want to come work with it. He said, cool,
come play me some songs. So we did. We went
down and we saw Rick and played in some songs
and we had this one song we hadn't finished. I said,
(16:23):
you want to finish this with us, you know, as
a writer, and he said sure, and we came back.
We did a recording. At this point in time, we
had a buddy who was our investor that was, you know,
put some money behind the band as far as like,
you know, starting this business together. And this was like
the the third or fourth kind of thing we worked on.
And he wrote us a check and so we went
(16:43):
down to see Rick and we did our recording. We
finished a song, and then you know, we're pumped up.
We got these great songs. We're excited. And about three
days later, I get a call from Rick and he's like,
hey man, he was pissed. He's like, just check bounced.
You have me eleven thousand dollars y'all do? And we
were like, shit, you know, we how we're gonna get
eleven grand because you know, credit cards are racked up,
(17:04):
we don't have any and and I think I'd mentioned
it's something to my mom, but but she has she Uh,
she took a loan out on a on a We
grew up in this little three bedroom house. So she
got in a divorce and she took a second loan
out in that house and loanless eleven thousand dollars so
we could pay this guy. Uh, and she didn't. It's
(17:24):
like I said, she never asked to hear a song.
She didn't. She didn't care anything about the music. She
just knew we you know, we were working hard and
we believed in it and all that. So yeah, so
she loaned us the eleven thousand dollars. And I always
say the show is like, the cool thing about that
is that one of those songs is Carolina. So you know,
we paid her back. Plus we bought her new house
(17:46):
in a new car, and she's retired now.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
With wonderful Oh my goodness. Wow, that's great. So congratulations
on the new music. Take us inside the creation of
the new music. When did you start working on it
and how did that all come together for fell in
Love with a Cowgirl.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I don't think that work ever really stops. We do
have time to where we're like, okay, we need these songs,
we need to go right, but it just kind of
flows and you get songs you get excited about, and
that may start the process. I think for this project
we had, we were just coming off of you know,
Gonna Love You was the was the last song off
(18:25):
before You Deluxe, and we just knew that that it
was time to start some new when it was time
to put something out, and we had the song enough
that that kind of fired us up. It was different,
it was tempo, and we just loved it and we
were just kind of going in that lane for a minute,
and uh, that really kind of got a kickstart, and
we were excited just about a new album, new album
(18:47):
and trying some new stuff, and we knew we had
to have a tempo because Gonna Love You was a,
you know, more mid tempo ballad kind of thing. So
it was really just it was go time and we
knew like we just got to get the best songs
that we can that we can muster up that's gonna
fit what we do and that our fans that we
you know, feel like our fans are gonna want from us.
(19:08):
And so that's kind of how the whole thing, you know,
panned out. And we're saying that we have four or
five songs that kind of fit this bowl for file
to fit this, and we ended up with this battress,
you know, a bunch of songs, and we just kept
whittling down like a like a sports chart, sports bracket.
You know, we're just like this song, you know, on
(19:30):
you're out on the road and and you know, Thursday,
this song might be your favorite, and time you get
home and listen to it a couple of times, it's
out of the bracket. And then they kind of keep
we kept an ongoing list just on the bus handwritten,
this song's out back, then let's go you that. Yeah,
And that's that's kind of how we did it.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
And are you constantly envisioning it how it will play
in live performance as well?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yes, yeah, yes, sir, it has a lot to do.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
It.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's so crazy because some songs just work well at radio.
It's just like you you hear it on the radio.
Some songs just work well live, and some songs just
work well streaming. If you can get all three of
those together in the song, then you got to you know,
that's the golden goose. And so we knew we had
to have. We knew we needed, you know, a nod
(20:18):
to the fans and for that love just away and
take my Name and girl of Mine. You know, we
had that. So we had Day one that was our
best one, that was kind of in that vein, and
you know, we knew we needed a straight radio song,
God knew better, or you know, something down in the
middle that people would expect to hear from us. And
we knew we needed something different but totally parmer lead
(20:40):
that nobody else could do. And so enter Cowgirl. And
then you know, the other songs are just us being
band guys and just loving guitar licks and things like that.
But it's really about knowing the fans and knowing what
we need to give them, and knowing radio and in
streaming services too. So it's like kind of putting it
all together with the least amount of songs we could
(21:03):
then I confuse everybody.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
So when you're out in the road, as an example,
when you were out on the tour with with Kane Brown,
are you writing all the time while you're out on
a tour.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yes, yes, sometimes I think out on tour is where
you might come up with a cool idea because they're
always coming, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But if you're really sitting down, really serious about writing
a song, you know, in Nashville, which other writers, you
bring those ideas that you get from the road to
town and and kind of mold them in a different setting.
It's it's tough to do it on the road because
we've just got so much. There's so much activities going
with meet and greets and shows and setlists and all that.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
It's hard to be able to sit down for a
couple of three hours and really focus. Yeah, it's it's
not my preference now. Like on the Cane tour, Tyler
Hubbard was out. Now he had his he had his
bus and his crew bus. Now he had a writer.
Writers come out with his bus. So it's easy if.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
That kind of thing's going on. Or Caine's got a
room in the back and he's got some writers out,
you know, we all jump in on a song. That's
a little bit easier sometimes, But I'd prefer to when
I go on the road, I like to enjoy it.
And enjoy my time out and my day and have
fun at the show that knowing you got a song
to kind of come back to. If it's fun, it's easy.
(22:30):
Sometimes it gets to be a chore when you're out there,
but that's part of song, right, You got to you
gotta get it all out, You got to knock it out.
But uh, I'm like him, I love I get more
ideas on the road that I can bring to town
to kind of bring you life.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
If we had assets like Tyler had with his own
studio set up at it.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh yeah, there's so many of us on one bus, Yeah,
all of us. Well, yeah, it is six seven crew guys,
but there's just eleven people on this bus all the time,
which is decent space.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I mean, it's not easy getting out there and going
from city to city and making this all happen. I mean,
is that fair to say that people don't always understand.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Oh, it's definitely fair to say. Yeah, it's a lot
of working parts and it's you know, not glamorous like
you know, some thing show. But it's also it is
fun and it's like what we've always wanted to do.
We love it and but it is a lot of
working parts. It's a lot of people that are just
busting their ass all day to get it, to make
it happen. Whether you're doing it's crazy. You know, you
(23:33):
do an opening slot for say, you do it over
to slot for thirty forty five minutes and you're driving
eight or nine hours to get there. Somebody's flying in
and it's like, it's crazy when you think about it.
But you know, you're you jump on stage and you're
in front of this festival crowd of twenty thirty thousand
people sometimes and you're doing a forty five minutes set
and then you're out of there and lying to the
next place, you know, and you just barely barely made it. Yeah, yeah, right,
(23:57):
But everybody's having a good time, and I mean that's
that's the power of hit songs and you know, having
fans it's really cool.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Well talk about that. How when you look out at
a show and you see the crowd and you see
the smiles and the joy that you bring to people
as an artist, how does it feel?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh? I love It's the best. That's the best. That's it.
I love it. I'm excited to get out there this weekend.
I ain't gonna lie they had playing a couple of weeks.
I means it got a boogie fever. Yeah. When you
when you're on stage performing for me, it's like everything
else in the whole world, or even in your mind,
is just gone. All you're thinking about is performing those
(24:41):
songs and performing that crowd, and that's just a great space.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
To be in.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
I think you know who when instantly when you say
everybody's singing back, it validates that you've done something good,
like enough for them to want to be a part
of it.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You know. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Well, guys, it's it's such a joy to talk to you.
Congratulations on the new music. It's really special to hear
it and to hear your story and to meet you
and to know the joy that you bring to so
many of us with your music. So I really have
to thank you Matt and Scott and Barry and Josh
(25:19):
Harmi Lee for being on Taking a Walk. It's a
true honor.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Thank Thank you man.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
It's by bus.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Thank you shu us.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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