Darius Rucker

He's got a new autobiography, "Life's Too Short."

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back Bob left Seth Podcast. My guest
today is Darius Rutger, who has a new autobiography, Life's
Too Short. Darius, how good a golfer? Are you?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay? I mean I can play, I get around. You know,
I play a lot, so I should be okay. I'm like,
I'm I'm like a five, so I'm okay. How often
do you play a five days a week? So you
play when you're on the road, you belong to a club?
What's going on? I'm along to a lot of clubs,
but uh, I do play a lot of the road.

(00:46):
Is why I'm play on both of my golf because
there's really nothing else to do all day. So I
usually get up pretty early, player around the golf before
working out, getting the rest of the day started.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
And do you still take lessons at this point? How
do you improve your game?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I do?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I do?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I still take lessons when, uh you know, when when
things start to go a little south, I got I
got a guy here, Dastviel that uh that helps me out.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
So uh, I do definitely still take lessons. And what
kind of clubs do you use?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I played p XG you know, I love them. I
think they're the best clubs in the world. So, yeah,
I love playing those those.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And is that because you have a relationship with the
company or you how did you discover that brand?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Uh? I thought I played them with the first generation
and I just thought they were really good. But I
took a relationship with the company. But uh, I just
thought they were really good. Every year they seem to
get better. And and so I'll get a new set
of clubs every every every now and then, and uh,
you know, every time I get a new set, they're better.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
So you played with a lot of pro golfers. What
have you learned from them about the game?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I learned that they play a different game than we do.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Oh, that's for sure, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
And you know, the best thing about playing with the pros,
you know, everybody I've getting to play with, is they're
always so willing to help you with advice and you know,
let you know little little intricacies of the game that
you're doing wrong that you can help and you could
improve on.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
And uh.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so I always enjoy when I get to play
with professionals, even though really they don't play the same
game we play.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
It should have a different name.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, I know, you know, they work the ball, they
do other things. But tell me how the game is
different for the professionals.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I mean everything, the sound of the sound of the
ball coming off the club.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
The thing that I that I'm so envious of when
it comes to professional golfers is their consistency. I mean,
they just hit the ball the same way almost every time,
and they and and you know, it's just that's that's
the worst part.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Of my game.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'm not consistent enough. I should be a better golfer.
But uh but I just love love watching them play.
I love watching him hit the ball. And they hit
it so much further than we do. I mean, it's
it's not even fair.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So why do you think they hit it further than
the amateurs?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Because they know what they're doing. They know what they're doing,
and we're we're also trying to figure it out. And
it golf is one of those games.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
When you get to that level, it's just they just
know what to do. They know, you know how, like
you say, work at the ball, left, right and all
that stuff. They just know how to hit it. And
even coming off the club, it sounds different than what
we do. So they're just you know, they're just a
different level.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And as far as people, what's the difference between athletes
like golfers and musicians as.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Far as people, I mean, the one thing I would
say with that is like, you know, people are people
and they're you know, their personalities may be different, uh,
you know, the way they see the world may be different,
but but really, at the end of the day, you know,
we're all just human And that's something I learned, you know,
you know, with my success and I've learned hanging out

(03:50):
with a lot of athletes that you know, at the
end of the day, we all have problems, and we
all have kids that we worry about, and we all
you know, worry about our health, and we you know,
at the end of the day, we're all just human beings.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
But golf they scored differently than music. You know, there's
par everybody plays in a tournament. What separates the winners
from the losers? In your mind?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh, the golf is what separation winners from the losers.
I think it's short game and punting because they could
all hit it. You know, they all hit they all
hit the green and they all are around the green,
you know, and the guys that can get up and
down or will make big putts, make long putts. I mean,
those are the guys that win tournaments, and those are
the guys that become legends.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
You know, you think of all the greats and you
could probably picture some putt that they made that that
you know, that was just amazing, or some ship that
they made that was just amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
And I think that's what really separates golfers, is a
short game.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
And then how about in terms of attitude.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Oh, I think that's got a lot to do with golf.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
I think I think that the great players, the great
players don't let bad shots get them down. And know
you that they all have the attitude of you know,
I got to hit the next shot. And I think
that's that's something we're talking about golfer. I think that's
something in life. The people who are really successful don't
let the little thing, not the little things, or just

(05:13):
don't let a setback get them down.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
You know, it's like like if me and music, you know,
if there's a setback, if you know, one single didn't
do well, well, you know, we go to the next thing.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's it's just I think really successful people have a
way of not letting things get them down and realizing,
you know, Okay, we got to move on to the
next thing and or move on to the next shot
and do that better.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
And if all the courses you played, if you could
just play one or two, what courses would they be?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Oh, if I could just play one or two Dustin National,
for sure, you know, I just think that's every time
I've been blessed to play there. It's just there's really
nothing like it. It's just every time I and I've
gotten to play quite a few times, and every time
I go through that kid, I can't believe if I'm
getting to play Augusta, I can't believe I'm on the
grounds of Augusta National.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
And probably the.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Other one, you know, either either Bulls Bay, which my
local course, or Scottsdale National, which I think is is
probably my favorite place to go play that I get
to play a lot.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Okay, Augustin National where they play the Masters. For a
long time, they kept black people out. So when you
play there, can you feel that or what do you
think about that?

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Oh? No, I think They've come a long way with that,
you know.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I mean, you know, in the sixties and seventies, you know,
they kept black black even out you didn't complain to the tournament.
You know. You think about you know, Lee Elder getting
being the first black to play, and Augusta and all
the stuff he had to put up with just to
go play a golf tournament, you know, And I think
I think Augusta's come a long way with that, you know,

(06:52):
you know, I I look at it, and we can't
just put it on Augusta.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
It was the history of America. You know.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Black people were kept out of a lot of things
just because of the color of our skin. And you know,
you know, we just you try to overcome that. And
you old people in the here, twenty twenty four year
old people, you know, can get past that. Don't even
get past that, just like it doesn't matter, you know.
It's you know, like I said earlier, at the end

(07:19):
of the day, we're all just human beings. And you
hope people really realize that.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
The fact that Kamala Harris is running and she's black,
as a black man, how do you view that.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I think it's great, you know, I thought it was
great when Obama became president. You know, I'll be honest
with you. When Obama became president, I was shocked. I
just never thought I would see that in my lifetime.
I just really, you know, back sixteen years ago, however
long it's been since it was when he was when
he was first elected, I truly never thought I would
see an African American president in my lifetime. And now

(07:52):
to see an African American woman get the nomination from
one of the major parties, I think it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
I think it's a I think it's great for the country.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Even though, just like everything else with the race is
going to polarize a lot of us, and you know,
separate is going to divide a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
But I think it's a great thing for the country.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
And how have you seen race relations and opportunities change
in your lifetime?

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Oh goodness, you know, I think we've all seen it.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
You know, Like we're sitting, you know, and I see
there talking about you know, black folks not being able
to play our stuff. I remember that, you know, you know,
me coming into Country of Music and being told that that,
you know, the audience would never accept an African American,
you know, country starm you know, that was there were
just places, you know, places we weren't supposed to go,

(08:41):
where we couldn't go, or we were just kept out of,
you know. And a lot of those doors and walls
have been broken down, you know, and sometimes you know,
we still see people try to put it back up,
and that's sad, you know. But but I think most
of America realizes that there's room for all of us everywhere.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
And there's been a big push back against the EI recently,
and certainly an affirmative action. What's your viewpoint on DEI
an affirmative action.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
I think, I know it's it's sad for me the
pushes back on it, and to watch people act like
it's a bad thing, that's the thing. That's the thing
that really bothers me, is people acting like diversity, equity,
and inclusion is a bad thing.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
You know. Uh, you know. It's the funny thing about
the EI.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
You know, you mentioned the EI or affirmative action, and
everybody thinks about African Americans, you know, but you're probably
the people that have been most h I saw that
the other the group that's been most that that had
the most affected by the eis white women, you know,
white women getting a chance to do things that they

(09:52):
didn't get a chance to do. But and you know,
I think, you know, inclusion and diversity is always good.
You know. It's like I always say about country music,
I'm glad to see country music starting to look more
like America because you know that America is a belting
pot of people, and so, you know, I think all
industries and all things should be.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Okay, you're a star, you travel around the world. What
do people in America, white people not understand about being
a black person in America today?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Oh goodness, I think I don't.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I don't think a lot of people really realize, you know,
how people try to keep how how much to people
try to people try to kept out of different things.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
That's why you have a formative action in de Ei. Yeah,
it's because we were for so long we were kept out.
And I think a lot of people don't really realize
how hard you're how hard you have to work to
to to get in at some industries, to douce some things,
you know. I mean, I always said everything I've done
in my career, I've realized I've had to work harder

(11:06):
than everybody else, and I'd have to, you know, be
a little bit better than everybody else to get a chance.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
And I think a lot of people don't want to
face that.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Now that you've had a lot of success in the
country world, do you believe you still have to fight harder?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, yeah, I do. I believe that one hundred percent,
you know, because I know I do. You know it's
even today to get a single, you know, I gotta
still work harder than everybody else. And I don't mind.
You know, our work has never been something that I've
I've showne away from I'm a bit afraid of. But

(11:42):
but uh, you know, yeah, I think I'll always feel
that way.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
And just to be a little more specific, in what
ways do you work harder on a single?

Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know? You know, playing yeah, you know, having to
play more radio shows, having to to you know, do
a little but harder work. And you know, watch my finger,
My singles move flower than other folks singles, even though
you know it might be a better song. But uh,
you know that that's just part of the deal. I'm

(12:14):
not gonna sit there complained about it, you know, because
it is what it is. I'm just gonna you know,
I just I'll work because I don't mind working. But uh, yeah,
you know, I don't think it's as easy for me
as it is for some people.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
And to what degree do you encounter racism in everyday life? Uh,
it's not as bad as it used to be.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
You know, there was a time when, you know, especially
like when we were playing clubs back in the day,
it was a time where you really did encounter it
every day, you know. But it's still there, you know, so,
I mean it will always be there. I don't I
think in my lifetime it will always be there in America,
which is sad, but uh, that's just one of those
things that that comes with the territory, you know, when

(12:54):
you when you do something that when you're in African
American and you do something that you're not supposed to do,
quote unquote, yeah, you got to deal with the consequences.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
And sometimes that's the consequences.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
And what happens if you're in an environment and someone
makes a racist comment, what do you do?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
You know, if it's somebody around me, you I'll address it. Well,
I'll address it, you know. If it's you know, sometimes
you just let it go. I mean, why why deal
with ignorance. You know, there's nothing I want to say
that's going to change that person's mind.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I like to change people's hearts, and you know, you
can only do that when you're friends with somebody. Oh
and you know you're you're you have a relationship with somebody.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
But uh, you know, you just deal with now with athletes,
people are always saying that black men who have success
have a responsibility to lift others up.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Do you feel that in country music that you have
an obligation or you want to lift other black men
or women up in the world.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I mean, I don't know if I have an obligation,
but I feel like something I want to do, you know,
So every you know, every every African record, I'll cut
your artists.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
I mean I let them know. You know, you want
to write with me, you want me any record, I'll.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Do anything I can't help you, you know, just just.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
To give you a chance.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
But uh, you know, I don't think anybody's obligated to
do anything. You know, people do what they want to
do and what they what's inside of them. But for me,
I just feel like it's the right thing to do,
that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Just to be very specific, you know, and this has
been a topic that's been hashed over a lot. But
since we're on this point, someone like Morgan Wallen uses
the N word, which is inexcusable, But what would you
say as a black man where it's just rawly bad,
he should be canceled. On the other extreme, he is

(14:55):
someone who's not sophisticated, who's listened to a lot of
rap records, Jen was inebriated. What's your viewpoint on that?

Speaker 2 (15:03):
You know, among as well as cats. You know, I'm
part of trying to change his heart. You know, I think, uh,
you know this this there's both that. You know, it's
both ways. You know, those guys do listen a lot
of rap records and you know they hear the word
and he's drunk, and you know he wasn't using it
in an adult derogatory way, but he shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Have been using it at all, right, And you know,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
It's it's a situation where you know, you know, you
try to change somebody, like you try to change his heart.
You try to and and try to make it, you know,
and I'm sure he does. You see why you can't
say that that's just not you know, it's not for
you to say. You know, I wish no one would
say it. You know, I never used it. I don't
use the word. I wish no one would use it,
you know. And I understand the reappropriation, and you know,

(15:52):
using it the way we're doing rap is just taking
it back. But it's like, you know, it's just one
of those words that really doesn't need to exist in
the English language.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
And if you've actually spoken to Morgan Wing about.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
This, yeah, I have you know, I mean, I have,
you know, and Morgan's trying to do better. Morgan Morgan
is he gets it, and he's trying to do better.
And you know, you know, I mean, I don't want
to say this is what it is, but you know,
he's either gonna, you know, when you're in that situation,

(16:24):
you're either gonna look at it and know God was
wrong and I'm gonna do better, or you know, he's
just gonna be who you are.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
And I think he's trying to do better.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Now, there's an impression in Nashville and country music that
everybody knows everybody. Is that true?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Absolutely everybody knows everybody. And what accounts for that, I
don't know. You just see folks. You see folks, you
see folks on the war shows or just hanging out somewhere,
or you know everybody.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
You met everybody and you either become friends with them
or your acquaintance acquaintances with them. But you know, you
know them, You've met them un in their face, they
know you. And because it's it's naturally such a you know,
most music doesn't have a home. Most music doesn't have
a place where everybody is. You know, rock and roll
was everywhere New York, La Atlanta is everywhere. Hip hop

(17:21):
is new you know, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, you know, but uh,
country music's in Nashville, and that's where everybody is.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
So yeah, everybody knows everybody.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
What the people who are not fans of country music
and a lot of people talk shit about country music.
What do they not understand about today's country music? Oh,
I mean a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
I think a lot of people say they don't like
country music because they haven't really listened to it. You know,
there's there's a lot of I believe music's music, and
there's a lot of there's a great song in every
genre of music, you know, even you know, the baroque vocals,
chants and all that stuff. Is you can find a
good song, and I think it's one of those things

(18:07):
they don't want to give a lot of folks, especially
you know, especially African American folks, don't want to give
it a chance. Don't want to give it a chance
because of the stigma of what is you know, what
are representative?

Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (18:18):
What what people thought of it for so many years?
You know, and that like when I came in one
one of the one of the best things about it was,
you know, getting letters or d ms from African Americans saying,
you know, man, I can you know I've always loved
country music. Now I can tell everybody else I love
it because you're you're doing you know that that was
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
And let's say you're going to write a song for
Hoody and the Blowfish where a country saw for your
solo career, do you approach them differently?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, totally differently.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, you know, uh, you know, you know, even though
who do we wrote a bunch of story songs. But
when you're writing, when you're writing country music, you know,
you're trying to make a three and a half many movie.
You're trying to the story every time, and you know,
who do you We're just we're trying to write rock songs, man,
you know, we're trying to write yeah, rock songs that

(19:09):
are just you know, sometimes you you don't even have
Sometimes it's really not about much of anything. It's just
about it's just us all the country. Which country songs
are always about something?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
And what country acts are you with?

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Fan enough?

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh goodness?

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, I love Chapel Heart, I love I love
Luke Bryan, I love so many ladies great. Uh, Dirk Brentley,
rad Haisley, I love Kane Brown's just amazing.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Luke Holmes is amazing.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Uh, there's a whole there's a bunch of new there's
new kids that I found on the internet. I think
his name is Javonne Newman. I just think he's amazing,
you know, and it's great to see that, to see,
you know, a lot of different artists coming up and
a lot of people doing stuff, and you know, I
sit don't listen to him.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Well do you think I mean? Historically, I country hit
music has been a controlled market on many levels, certainly
in terms of exhibition terrestrial radio. Do you believe that
has changed during your decade plus in country music.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Oh, I think it hasn't changed country music or pop music.
You know. It's all I wouldn't say formally, that's not
the word I want to use. It's just, you know,
it's a.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's it's a niche.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
You know. You have to write verse course, and your
course has to be big of course, has to be great,
you know, and if you're going to put a bridge in,
that's got to say something, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
And and you know, I think writing.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Songs is is. I mean, there's a formula for writing songs.
Even if you're just writing, you know, a song that's
not a hit, there's a formula writing it.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Even even Dylan wrote verse course, verse course, you know.
And I think that's just the way songs are.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, but if you go back to the Beatles, there's
verse chorus bridge. Sometimes they start with a chorus. And
you listen to a lot of the Spotify Top fifty,
it's like they lost the formula.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, you know, And but that's that's music. It just
you know, it just fluctuates and the changes and it
goes back to what was before and then you know,
every now and then something new comes brand new, comes
out and changes it and then that's just the greatness
of music. It's just gonna It's like a it's like
a tide. It's going to come in and go out
and just keep changing. And I love that about it.

(21:29):
And are you a hip hop fan? Love it? You know?
Love it? You know, I can't. I couldn't believe how
much I loved that. Uh, the Kendrick Lamar Drake feud.
I just thought it was great.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Thought are you well you know this is sort of
a dumb question. Last are you on Kendrick Steam or
Drake's team?

Speaker 2 (21:47):
I want to I want both teams because they were
both on bangers. So that was what that was what
I loved about it is they were both putting out,
you know, great songs out of this. I mean, I
think Kendrick won that. You know, I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think people agree with you.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
I think Kendrick won.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
That that that that that beef. But uh, they were
putting out bangers and I was like, you know, I
was loving it. Every time I heard there was a
new song, I had to hear.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
What about Questlove who said he thought it was the
end of hip hop?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Oh? Well, he would know better than me.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
I will uh, I will uh, I will requiesk the
question that you know, I don't think hip hop's ever
gonna end. I think hip hop is here to stay forever.
Just like even though you know there's no rock and
roll in the radio right now, rock and roll is
still never gonna go, and there's still people, there's still
kids playing rock and rolls in g Rogers right now.
But uh, you know, uh, like I said, I'll go,

(22:40):
I'll let Quest handle that one. I'm just gonna keep listening.
One I line, and is he a friend of yours? Yes,
I like Quest a lot. I'm a big fan, and
he is a friend, and he's one of the best
guys I know.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
He's just a good dude.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
So how come you never made a hip hop record?

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Because I can't rap? That's not what you know that
that's not my thing. Uh, you know, I've never really
really tried. You know, of course you rap along with
the songs you're like, you know, and but you know,
I'm not. I'm not a rapper, you know, That's That's
something I've never even thought about.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Okay, you talk about contemporary country artists. Did you come
up listening to country.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
I did, you know, I was a kid. For me,
it was Charlie Pride, of course. But uh, you know,
Kenny Rogers is my man. You know, I still know
all those Kenny Rodgers, you know Coward County and and
you know Ruby and and all those songs. I still
I still know all the songs. They still make playlists
when I'm making playlists to listen to because I think
they're great. Charlie rich I loved him, you know, my

(23:41):
grandmother loved them. You know that Blue Eye soul that
you know, he was a he was a soul singer.
He was an R and B singer that was singing
country music.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
It was great.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Uh. You know, then you can get a little older,
and you know I discovered Dwight Yoakam and and Nancy
Griffin and New grasp Re Bivle and Bradney Foster and
Foster and Lloyd and you know, I discovered these these
these artists that just changed the way I heard music.
Those artists were just huge for me. And so yeah,

(24:11):
I loved it for a long time.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Well, you know, Kenny Rogers and a lot of the
acts you're mentioning her from the seventies. How about the
earlier artists, you know, whether it be Tammy Wynett, George Jones,
et cetera. Were you exposed to them or so?

Speaker 2 (24:26):
The the one person from that era that was really
I heard the place because my aunt played or was
was Loretta Lynn.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Loretta Lynn was just you know, the Pill and you
know the Divorce and all those songs that were great.
You know. I remember my aunt played me a kiddie
Well song once that just you know, blew my mind,
you know, and it was really, you know, it was
for me, it was music. I've never I understand that

(24:56):
we have to put everything in a place, and we
have to compartmentalize everything and put it in a genre.
But for me, I say this all the time. You know,
we use the same chords, the same notes in the
same words, and we play music and everybody and it's
just all music to me.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
So when do you first remember hearing music growing up?

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (25:17):
My first memory of music was five years old, four
or five years old, listening to al Green, you know,
and just discovering instantly that that's what I want to
do for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
A little bit more in depth, you hear al Green.
How do you decide you want to do it for
the rest of your life?

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Oh goodness, you know, being a little five year old
kid and standing in front of my mom and their
friends with the salt and pepper shakers my microphone and
basically singing the whole Agreen album and the feedback I
would get from them and the love I would get
from them.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Just doing that, you know, made me go, Man, I
want to do this. I won't.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
I want to feel this on a much bigger scale,
you know, if it feels like you know, I mean
as a young kid thinking it feels like this in
the living room, imagine what I feel like this, you know,
and the bigger plans for more people looking at you
and love.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Did you do a dream ever waivered? Did you ever
think at some point, man, I got to give up?

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I did? You know?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
After high school? You know, when I was graduating high school,
I realized not give up so much as just you know,
what am I going to do? I mean, I never
played in the band in high school. I say, acquired
and everything, and I never had a band until college.
And so it was like I went to college to
get a broadcast journalism degree.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
You know, hopefully work on TV talking about sports or something.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
And it's not that I'd give it up on my dream.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
It's just that I realized I was gonna have to
get a real, real life.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Okay, that was your thought graduating from high school. How
did you also believe become convinced that no, you could
do it?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Oh? It was my sophomore year when I met Mark
Indean and we started playing in a band, you know.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
And you know, at first, from that first gig where Mark.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
And I played of ourselves at Pappy's, the local chicken
one joint, you know, you start thinking, all right, man,
I can do I want to do this, you know.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
That's what that's.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Really in my mind where school became unimportant. It was
in my mind where I don't know how we're gonna
do this, but we're gonna figure out how. We're gonna
play a lot more because I want to do this
every night.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Okay, let's just go back. Al Green, who's from Memphis,
is supposed to Nashville unbelievable talent. You know, you have
Jack White and other people working with old country stars.
Do you think you could help Al Green have a
hit in today's country market?

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh? I don't know if I could, but I bet
you know, uh, you know, one of the really big
superstars could you know, you know, Luke Bryant or or
Luke Combs, and one of those guys came, you know,
one of those guys that probably helped them have a
really huge hit.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
But uh, you know, I think.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
I'm at the that uh, that point in my career
where you know, I don't even know if I get
on the radio anymore.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
You know, I'm almost sixty. It's been an amazing run.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
But I think one of those guys could yeah, do it,
do it with Al Green, then you do the right song.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
They could have a really big hit.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Okay. Country music is different from rock and roll and pop.
Rock and roll and pop, you usually have a window
when you have your peak, whereas you know, George Straight,
these other people, they have first in country. Traditionally, once
you have success, your audience will support you throughout your life.

(28:33):
But a lot of people have hits as they get older.
It's always hard to climb the mountain again. But why
would you not have hits in the future.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
I mean I think I might, you know, I could
have its, It's just harder, you know, it's like, you know,
like you see Garth put out a single, or you
see George Straight put out a single. You know, when
they were in their heyday, the single raced up the charts,
you know, twenty weeks you got a number one, you know.
So nowadays, you know, you know, it could take months,

(29:05):
eight take eight months to get a record up the chart,
you know. And I you know, I hope, I hope
they still have I hope. Yeah, I'd love to have
ten more hits, you know, But that's I don't I'm
gonna stop trying. I'm gonna keep making records and putting
them out and seeing what happens. But I'm a realist
about life and about my career. And and you're right,

(29:26):
I could go play shows for the rest of my
life and my fans will come out and see me play.
But as much as they want to say they are,
the fans, aren't the people who are dictating what's a hit.
It's the gatekeepers at radio and you know, the gatekeepers
you know, at the at the streaming services that really

(29:47):
they're really determined what's going to be a h.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Are you working on an album now?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I'm not right now, you know, I put an album
out last year. I guess earlier this year, we put
a record out, and and you know, I'm doing the
Hoodie tour right now, but I'm gonna start writing the
next record. I want to have it out next year.
So I'm start writing next record real soon. And you know,
I love writing music. I love making records. Okay, So

(30:20):
what's your process? You start writing songs because you know,
we have an album. Where you get inspired and write
a song, how does it play out?

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Both?

Speaker 2 (30:29):
You know both? You know, I might get off the
phone with you, I might get off the zoom with
you right now and feel like I write a song
sitting here right one.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
But when you're making a record, I mean it's like,
you know, it's like a job. You go write songs.
You know, you get your buddies and you write songs.
You sit around, you know, Okay, I'm gonna write a
song today. And because you're trying to get you know,
for every I've never written less than fifty songs for
any record I've made some country music, you know, you
write fifty or sixty and then you pick thirteen, and

(30:57):
so you just start writing. And then when you think
you got enough, songs, you really start listening to them
and decide what you're gonna put on the record.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Well, on some of your solo albums in the country world,
you didn't write most of the material.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
I think there's a couple of records that, uh I
might have had two or three songs I didn't write
on them, and or at least co wrote on them.
But you know, in country music, when you hear a song,
when somebody say to you a song, because that it's
you know, it's a it's an occupation in Nashville.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Songwriter, you know, that's what you do your song right.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
You know Ashley Gorley, you know is you know, feelthy
rich because he's written so many number one songs. And
you know when when him or or or you know,
one of the other guys sends you a song, it
just clicks. You go, Okay, I'm cutting that because yeah,
I'm a songwriter, but I'm an artist. You know, I'm

(31:55):
an artist. I want to sing great songs. So do
people send you songs on a regular basis?

Speaker 3 (32:02):
All the time? All the time? Party sent me a
song about six weeks ago. All the time?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, and how do you separate? You know, they hit
from the ship. It's like, you know, a lot of
people send you unsolicited stuff that would be not worth cutting,
not worth listening to. Does it never even get to
you because you have a filter or what do you know?

Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know, that's the one that goes back to what
we were talking about, how everybody knows everybody in Nashville.
You know that, you know, it doesn't go to anybody else.
They send it to you, They texted to you, you know.
And for me, I don't know what's the hit, but
I know what I like, and that's how I judge it.
If I like it or I love it like a song,
Like if I told you you know, but that song

(32:45):
came in, I had to cut it. I loved it.
I wish I'd written it, you know. I you know,
I was talking to one of the writers once and
I said, how could you write my life without me
being in the room?

Speaker 3 (32:56):
And you know, I have to cut that song. But
that's for me, that's all I decide.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
I mean, I don't know what's a hit, but I
know what I like.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
How often are they pitching you a song and they're
also pitching it to somebody else.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
I don't know. I really don't know, but you know,
I'll be awesome. There has been songs that have come
to me that I turned down that you know, I
hear on the radio, you know, and you know that's
that's cool. They And the thing is, I don't know
how many. I'm sure it happens. I'm sure it happens
all the time. But those guys want somebody to cut

(33:30):
their song. But I'm not mad at them. You know,
if I was just if I was a song writer
not an artist, I'd be doing the same thing.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
But if you commit to a song, they commit. They
won't pitch it to anybody else.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Absolutely, If somebody sends me a song and I text
them go, I'm gonna cut this, they won't sign it
somebody else. And if they have said it to somebody else,
they'll text us go, hey, Darius's gotten this.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Okay. Have you ever heard one of these songs that
was pitched to you that you didn't cut and you
later hear the finished record, You go and I do
like that that was a hit. I missed that.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Uh yeah, you know, but I don't. I don't ever
said I missed it because usually there was a song guys.
So when I hear a song I use. I like it,
and I think I get but I just go I don't.
I'm not gonna cut it. You know, I like it,
but it's not for me. So when you're here with
somebody else, you go, yeah, that sounds great, that's a hit.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah, that's a hit for them. But I still wouldn't
cut it.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
And how about co writing? How do you approach that?

Speaker 3 (34:27):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
I love it, And and the crazy thing is I
never started co writing until like they in the Nashville,
like all the hoody stuff, we never wrote together.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
We all just wrote songs that brought him into the group.
Or or you know one of those guys that write
some music and they're bringing it and give it to
me and say, write some words to the song. And
So I love co writing because the thing I love
the most about co writing is you'll be sitting in
the room and you'll come up well lined and you'll
love that line and you'll sing it to somebody that
you're co writer, and they'll sing it back to you.

(34:58):
But one note will be different or who knows to
be different, and one they'll they'll change a word here,
and you realize, oh, that's so much better because for me,
you know, I sing the way I sing, and when
I hear somebody else sing something back to me and
it's a little different. You know, I want to sing
that like that because I love the way that sounds.

(35:18):
And you know it's it's not me being me, it's
me singing a song.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Okay. I mean people were writers, weren't even performers. You know,
five days a week, they'll meet with people to write
other songs. Do you just get together with people when
you know you're working up material for an album? What
would make you have a writing session?

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Uh? Just you know, either it happens sometimes when people
just call and you know, you see somebody who let's
write a song, and then you text each other you'll
set up a session. But when I'm when I'm writing
for a record, yet three sessions a day, five days
a week, you know you're just going to you going
you write.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
And when you go into the room, do you bring
something or you're totally a blank slate.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
That happens both ways. Sometimes you got an idea that
you take in and you know, I've walked in with
a with a verse and the chorus. You know I've
walked in with two verses and a chorus and just
need a bridge, you know, And other guys will come
the same way where they come with you know, versus
the chorus or or or or just the chorus, and
you go, all right, that's it, that's right, that one,
you know, and that's always that. That's the That's the

(36:22):
great thing about songwriting. It's it could be, it can
go anyway. There's also great songs that come from you know,
you're sitting around and nobody's got any ideas. Somebody says
one line and somebody catches on to that, and you
go and write a song.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
And what's the right number of people in the room?

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I think three is are perfect a great number three
or two. I think when you get four people in
a room for more, it's just too many.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
It's too much.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
And I've done it, neve written great songs that way,
but it really is too much before or more?

Speaker 1 (36:53):
And is there how do you decide on credit?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Oh, there's just if there's four people, you split four ways.
Just three people used put it in three ways. There's
I've never been in a room that was a discussion
on percentages. That's just the way it is.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
And if you could write with two people, who would
do those people be that.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I haven't written with?

Speaker 1 (37:15):
No, well, let's start with that that you haven't written with.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
If I write with two people I haven't written with,
it would probably be probably like Keith Urban and h
Kelly Loveless. I've never rely saw Kelly lovelas. He's a
big writer that I'd like to sit two of them
and write a song.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
But I write.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
You know, if people I write with Asthley Gorley would
have to be in the room.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
He's a He's a freaking genius. Uh uh.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
And Charles Kelly Lady. I love writing with him. He's
because he's got a voice that I just admire so much.
Or Chris Stapleton.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
You know, well, let's stay with Stapleton, because Stapleton was
around for a better part of twenty years before he
broke through, and he and his music are, if not
the most revered in Nashville, close to it. But he
is doing something a little bit different than everybody else.
He doesn't seem to be playing to the market. It's

(38:17):
almost more rock and roll. What's your take on Stapleton?
What's the magic there?

Speaker 2 (38:22):
He's got that thing that all artists wants you know,
he don't have to play the market. You know, Chris
could put out anything that's going to be a hit.
I mean, like you said, he's the standard bearer or country.
He's the best singer in the business, and so he
does what he wants and I love it. I'm such

(38:42):
a big fan, you know, I love writing with him.
You know, I've had number ones with him. You know,
he's just He's Chris and that's all he wants to
be and I love it.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
How about some people in the Americana world, which doesn't
charge on country radio but gets a lot of respect,
people like Jason Isbells the world do you pay attention to.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
I love Jason as well. I would write with him
at Heartbeat.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I think he's a you know Rihanna Gibbons, you know,
I would love to write with her. You know, I
think that that whole genre is is great, and you know,
Jason is just a crazy great songwriter, a lot of
a huge fani.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Okay, let's go back to South Carolina. You know, the
country is a result of the Internet and cable television.
There is no flyover country. And I certainly know growing
up in the Northeast that I had a long term
girlfriend from Tallahassee, which people don't realize is more Georgia
than you know, South Florida. So what can you tell

(39:43):
us about growing up in South Carolina? So it was
it was a southern town, you know, but it was.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
It was a bastion of of of For me growing up,
it was I was raised by a village. You know,
we had a neighborhood that was everybody. We were all close,
We were all friends, family, all the families were friends.
You knew everybody in the neighborhood. You know, if you
went around the corner and you know, miss Simmons had
to whoop you because you did something wrong, you know,

(40:15):
your mom didn't get up and go around and yell
at miss Simmons. When you got home, you got another
whooping because Miss Simmons had to whoop you, you know.
I mean, we were raised by everybody's parents and it
was great for me. I loved it. I mean I
would say I'd do my childhood to get an harpyat.
And for me, you know, you experience, you know, experienced

(40:37):
racism and stuff like that, but it just it was
just what it was. I mean, it was just you.
You dealt with it, and you moved on, you know,
and because it was what it was, and I just
grew up. We grew up with not a lot, but
we had. There was so much love and so much
friendship and so much camaraderie. I mean, I'm still best

(40:57):
friends with the five guys I grew up with. You know,
we still text each other every day. We have a
group text where we text every day. And what are
those guys up to? You know, guys are doing different.
One guy's a money guy, one guy's a lawyer. One
guy runs the school districts in Beaufer County, and you know,
one guy works at Target. You know, you know, one
guy whoves out in California as a social worker. I mean,

(41:20):
everybody's doing their own thing and loving it.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
So everybody this environment in the village ended up generally
speaking good stories.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
My friends all did Yes, my friends all ended up
being good, hard working folks who who you know, I
want to say God out of it, because that's just
not the word. Who became great, great men who raised
their families and work their jobs and try to enjoy themselves.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
So how does this affect how you raise your kids? Oh?

Speaker 2 (41:55):
You know, I like I would like to think you
like his. I think I was a pretty good dad.
I mean, I just I just wanted them to be
happy and successful.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
What are they up to.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I got, you know, one one daughter who lives here
in Nashville who's doing really well for herself. I got
a daughter just who graduated college college in Florida. I
got a daughter just graduated from NYU.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
I got a son that you know, went to NYU
and you know now he wants to get into real estate.
And they're just healthy, happy kids working their butt off,
knowing that you know, their parents have their backs.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
And are they off the payroll?

Speaker 2 (42:33):
You know pretty much? You know, the younger ones probably not,
you know. And uh, the one who just graduated colleges,
you know, she's still kind of on it. And you know,
but I'm sure just the way we live, you know,
I don't ever want them to be totally off the payroll.
I'm always there for them, you know. I want them
to get jobs. And they are and living their lives
and working hard. But you know, they need anything, I'll

(42:56):
always be here.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
What if they call for money? What would you say
no to?

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Oh? If they wanted to my house I wanted my
car and say no, no, like you know, you go
work for that. But uh, you know, you know I'm
a good dad. I'm a generous dad. But uh, you know,
I would never imagine cutting my kids off or saying
I'm not going to give you anything, because that's just
not who I am.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Well, needless to say, you've created quite an asset base.
When you do pass, which hopefully won't be for thirty
odd years, what do you plan to do with the money?

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Give it to them, and I'm sure I'll leave some
to the some charities I love, But you know, I
want my kids to enjoy the benefits of my hard work.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
So let's go back to South Carolina growing up. What
kind of kid we like? In school?

Speaker 2 (43:46):
I was a good I was a good student, you know,
didn't get in trouble at school very often. Until high school.
I was an athlete. And then in high school I
became music became you know, the choir and the choruses
and a small the small group were my life, you

(44:06):
know that going to rehearsals and we we had a
show choir. That was that was a lot of work,
you know, a lot of after school rehearsals.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
And stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Well, some people might have not been exposed to show choir,
So tell us about show choirs.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Choirs. Uh, you know, it's it's it's a big it's
not you. When you take a choir, you think of church,
and it wasn't that. It was choirs that got together
and you know, you sang contemporary songs or during Christmas
you sang all the Christmas stuff and you know there
was some dancing to it, and there was some uh
some uh you know, little choreography and a little but

(44:41):
it was you know, at my school, the Middleston singers
were a big deal, you know, and you had to
try out. Not everybody made it. Probably less than a
halfter people that tried out made it. And so it
was a big deal. And and so choir was fun.
It was you know, twenty girls and twenty guys that

(45:03):
all could say and would go out there and try
to be great.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
So it's in your book for those people don't know.
You graduate from high school and then what do you do.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
I went to the University of South Carolina and majors
in broadcast journalism.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
And what was that experience like? At first?

Speaker 2 (45:27):
It was tough, you know, I had gone from this
high school. I think my graduating class had three hundred
and twenty people or something. You know, I was I
was a senior class vice president.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I went from the school where and I was in
every clique. I was in the jocks click, I was
in the you know, the stoner's click. I was in
you know, the music click. I was in the big
brothers and sisters. Cause I was just.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
I was just. I was friends with everybody.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
And I went from that to this university of forty
thousand people, and that was a culture shock for me.
It really was first semester it was a culture shop.
And at first I didn't think I liked it, and
then I did. Yeah, when I found my place and
my friends, I did like it. And it was it
was a big university. It was exactly what you're think

(46:12):
it is. You know, college football every Saturday, and and
you know, every weekend I haven't parted our butts off,
and every wanting to go home to visit parents and
tell Thanksgiving. You know, it was a typical southern college
college experience. And you know that's something that's another thing
I would do and get an RP. But you ultimately

(46:33):
leave there right now. I stayed there the whole time
I was gonna leave, And then I met a buddy
of mine right before right before Christmas break, I met,
I met, I knew him, but he asked me to
come and have a beer with him, and we just
had such a great time.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I decided to stay.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
And yeah, Yo, that's one of those things that I,
you know, I believe in fate because I looked at
that moment of where I really was going to transfer,
and his name was Chris Carney, and he actually he
runs my life right now.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
But uh, he you know, beating him at not meeting him,
but just talking to him.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
That day at at that whole meeting and staying and
having so much such a great time with him, and
ended up staying in South Carolina. I mean, if I'd
left South Carolina, I wouldn't be talking to you that rapp.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
I don't know if I would have ever played in
the band if I'd doing this stuff after school.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
So that's one of those things that makes me believe
in fame.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
And what about finishing college.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Uh, after my junior year, I had wracked up a
pretty good uh student loan debt and uh didn't have
really the money to go back, so I decided to
take a year off and just never went back.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
So, you know, like Bruce Springsteen has that record where
his mother says he can still go back to college.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. And the funny thing is, I
think about it now because I'm such a gay Flock supporter.
I think a lot that you know, take online classes
and stuff and go back just to get the degree,
so I could up being a graduate of the University
of Carolina. But you know, like my friends have to say,
I think you did all right for yourself. So I'll
see it that way.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
What about your kids if your kids wanted to drop out.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
My nineteen year old has decided he did colleges enough
for him, and I was fine with it. Collegism for
everybody in today's world doesn't have to be you know,
it was just hounded into our head back in the
day that if you want a good job, you have
to have a college degree.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
You know. I just don't believe that anymore, you know.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
And and you know, like I said, he was going
to the NYU and to drop four hundred grand to
go to the school.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
You know, when you don't want to go to school
just if he didn't want to go. I was fine
with that.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Okay. So you play with your buddy out and you
have this realization that whoa, I could do this. What
happens next.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Oh, we get another buddy and another buddy and we
start playing shows, and you know, we start traveling all
over the East Coast after a while.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
A little bit. So first of all, I'm sure you
don't like it. Many people call you Hoody, But in
the book it tells the story of how the band
named Hoody and the Blowfish came about. Can you tell
my audience that story?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Oh? I was. I was actually in a show choir
and that's that's South Carolina and called Carolina Alive.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
And we were we were ship Man.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
We we played inaugurations and all over the place we
would play, and we were starting the band. Market and
I played together for a few months and we were
starting the band. We had our first gig about a
week after this happened. And there was one guy that
had really big guys and more round glasses like leaden
and I started calling them Moodie, and everybody in the

(49:50):
show choir started calling. And his best friend had these
big cheeks and he was a trumpet player.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
It could blow them up.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
And I called him the blowfish and I just kept
calling bow Fish that everybody the show choir was called
the blowfish. And they walked into a party once in
my room in Myrtle Beach. We were playing singing somewhere
in Myrtle Beach and I was in my room and
they walked in to the room and I said, hey,
Hoody the bowfishes here. And I thought, my head, but

(50:19):
Hooty the Bufish has to be the name of our band.
And I went back and said Mark, although they've been
Hooty the bois and he said whatever, And we've been
hooting both ever since.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Okay, just so I understand the timeline. While you were
playing with Mark, you were also in the choir.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yes, yeah, we were still in college. We were living
on the dorm hall and we were still in college
and you know, we were just starting the band. I
mean I think that was the fourth third or fourth
time we ever played together when we played with the band.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Okay, but the show choir was back home was associated
with the school.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Right, yes it was. It was at the universityth Carolina.
It was called Lot.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yes, So what was it like being in the show
choir in college as opposed to high Oh.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
The big difference was the parties. I mean all we
do was party. You know.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
We went through these great places. We would get to
go to these great places, these great cities, you know, Pittsburgh,
New York, you know, go down to Miami, you know,
go to Hertle Beach, go all these places and get
to to get to sing, either in competitions or just
and just singing. And it was it was awesome, you know.

(51:23):
And we were great. I mean we we I look
back in those days and we were great. I mean
everybody in there was a world class singer. You know,
a lot of people were getting scholarships.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
That's this thing. And it was it was it was awesome.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
I mean you really felt like you when you heard
other folks singing in that choir, you felt like you
were doing something because you were part of that.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
And what about the partying, the sex, the drugs, the alcohol.
What when you're in college to what degree that a
part of the show choir.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
I mean it wasn't back then the drugs learn so much,
but the accident. The alcohol was prevalent. It was everywhere.
It was you know, we were kids. You know, that's
what we were doing. You know, that's what we were doing.
We were having a party. And but you know, we
were we were pros. Party didn't start till the show
was though, but but yeah, we could have a party.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
And how long after you start playing with Mark did
you stop being in the show choir?

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Oh? Goodness, probably a year and a half after market
I started. After the band started, I stopped sitting to
the show choir. And it wasn't like, you know, I
just quit the show choir because the market marketing was
still in school, so it's not like we could just
get in the vans and go during the week or

(52:44):
anything or and so you know, and and all the
all the shows for the show choir we usually booked
before the semester started, so you know, when you were
at when I was going to be out of town
with them, So we just planned our shows around that.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Okay, so you play out with Mark, the bell goes
off in your head. What's the next step?

Speaker 2 (53:03):
I found a drummer in the bass player and uh, Mark.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Can you tell this story about the girl and the
thoughts etc. That's in the book?

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Well? Which girl? Will Sony by the drummer. Well, you know,
we our first drummer quit and uh, we were looking
for drummers, and uh, like seven guys were coming to
play with us one day and I saw Sony's name
on the list, and I told Mark and Dean that
Sony wasn't going to be our drummer because I hated him.

(53:34):
And the reason I hated him was my freshman year
in college, when I was in the show choir, I
had a friend. You know, I was still in the
friend zone, but I was trying not to be in
the friend zone. But we were pretty tight. We hung
out a lot and uh. And so she calls me
up and tells me to come to her room, which
was seriously on the opposite end of campus from where

(53:56):
I am.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
And so I'm all excited. I think today's today, you know.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
And I get up and I walk all the way
across campus, a twenty minute walk, probably twenty five minute walk,
and I get to her room and she takes me
out seat. She rushes me outside, and she tells me
to stand on the bridge while she runs down and
take a picture of her. When she got I realized
when she was running down that she had written we

(54:19):
had these sand volleyball courts, and I realized she had
written in the sand I love Sony And I didn't
know who the Sony guy was, but I hated him.
And then later I found out, you know who he
was and everything. But uh, yeah, I told him he
was never gonna be our drummer. But yeah, I was wrong.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
So where is that girl today?

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Oh goodness, I haven't talked to Devin years. It's been
I couldn't tell you. I really haven't known it. I
haven't seen her in years.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Okay, you become internationally famous, does everybody you ever knew
come out of the woodwork?

Speaker 2 (54:54):
A lot of people have. Yeah, like I like when
we first got big, I saw her a couple times
in a couple of shows. It was great to see her.
She was She's a wonderful human being. It's a wonderful
human being. And you know, it's still down. You know,
I'll be playing a show in some city. A buddy
of mine that I grew up with, that I haven't
seen in thirty five years, you know, found me the
It's social media makes it so easy. You know, found

(55:15):
me on Instagram the other day. And you know he's
coming out to his show this week and people just
coming out of the woodwork and nine time is great.
You know, it's it's that five percent when it was
somebody who didn't like back then. You know.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
But uh that that's a rarity.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
And how about people asking for money?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Uh that that's been a problem.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
You know, that's been something.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
That's the problem.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
I've gotten good at saying no. I've gotten really good
at saying no.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
I think early on it's tough for me to say
no because I was doing so well, and you know,
I hate to see anybody. I know how hard it
must be for some people to do that. But uh,
I'm really good at saying.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Now, okay. Friend of mine, Steve Lucather, guitarist in Toto
and other things, he says when he gives people money,
just say it's a gift, because if you say it's alone,
they don't pay it back. You ruin the friendship, et cetera.
What's your experience been.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Oh, I agree with that one.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I don't say it's a gift, and they always go bad,
I'm going to pay you back, and I go okay,
But in my mind giving it to him, because I
can honestly say, of all the times I've given money
to family or friends and they said they were going
to pay it back.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
I think maybe one person did.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Okay, So now you have the band, you have four
members in the band. What happens after that?

Speaker 2 (56:41):
We start playing, you know, and we we play from
New York down to Florida and Tennessee and.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Who whoaaha, you get a band together. What are the
first couple of gigs?

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Oh? Just I was Chicken Wing Joy in Columbia. That
was right across the street from my dorm.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
We would literally carry our instruments from our dorm room
across the street and play at Pappy's and it was great.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
You know, it's not even there anymore. It's a bookstore now.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Well, a lot of people, you know, bands start and
there's a member in the band who's hitting up every
club owner. It says, give us a gig, give us
a chance. What happened with your band?

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Sure we did that, you know, especially especially in the
first couple of years, where we just called clubs in
town that we knew had bands and tried to get in.
And then you start calling outside of town, and you know,
you start playing frats and you know, I guess we
got lucky early on. I think it was East Coast
Booking or something was the David book Is. Somebody saw

(57:42):
us one night, liked us, and so they would.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Help us book that.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
They would help us book shows all you know, either
frat house here or some small club somewhere, and you know,
so you just start playing and developing a reputation. And
I mean, I'll say, you know, every club we ever played,
we might have gone there the first time there was
ten people there, but the next time we came.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
There was forty.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Why because we were good, you know, we were good
and we were fun. And people would tell their friends,
well that WHOI Wolf's band back in time. We gotta
go see them, And then the next time they be eighty.
Then the next time they'd be two hundred.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Okay, you're the front band. It's your job. How do
you make it fun?

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Oh? I never thought of it like that way. You know,
for us, it was just let's go play our music,
you know. I mean, I think it's still like that
when Hoodie's together. It's not it's not my job to
make it fun. We play music and we do what
we do and we hope you like it. I will
say to somebody the other day, the difference between playing

(58:42):
my country band and playing with Whodi is when I
play with Hoodie, I feel like I'm Jerry Garcia. I'm saying,
I'm never with my guitar and my job is to
play guitar and say, you know. But when I play
with my country band, I feel like my job is
to be big jagger. I mean, and that's just two
different things. But with Hoody that's what we are as well.
We were just we were four. We were a band.
It wasn't anybody's band. There was no front man. We

(59:03):
were all the frontman.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
I was just a guy, that's And at what point
did the money become such? He said, wait a second,
this is real. Never mind not finishing school.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Oh before we before we made it, before we had
a record deal, I think two years about. We played
for seven years before we had a record deal, and
I think two or three years before before we got
a record deal, we each made like fifty sixty thousand
dollars each and we thought that was amazing. We were
making more than our friends that had graduated, and we're

(59:36):
working in all these different jobs.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
So it was like, you know, we're doing just fine,
we're doing all right.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
And that was how we felt, you know, Okay, we're
doing fun, and we're making money. We're playing a lot
of shows. We're making money, and we're working our buts off,
and we compare our bills and have money to go
out and drink and have money to buy clothes, and
it felt good. It felt like we were doing something right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
At what point did you start to play original material.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Oh, after the first couple of years, Like, yeah, Sony
came in. You know, we started in eighty six. We
started really writing songs in eighty eight, and Sony came
in the band in eighty nine. And when Sony came in,
it was, you know, we went pretty much straight to
eighty percent originals and you know, twenty percent covers unless

(01:00:23):
you were going to our frat house then you know,
you do sixty forty.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Was there somebody in the band who said, wait a second,
we have to write originals.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
No, that was just something we wanted to do. It
was never anything that anybody's sitting down and going, okay,
we got to It was a you know, we just
started writing songs, you know, and we'd play them and
and you know, it was for us. It was always
when we're in Columbia, let's play the new songs, because
those people have been listening to us for a while.
If they don't like it, we should probably scrap. And

(01:00:54):
so that's how we started.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Now you're on the road and rock and roll band,
you're paid in cash. Most people are not paying taxes
on most of that money. What were you guys doing?

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Not us? We had our bass player was a business major,
and we we would take half of everything we made
every night, put it away from taxes. Really every every night,
every night. We sometimes we'd get mad. We would get mad,
but uh, you know, we put away from taxes and

(01:01:34):
we pay taxes and everybody would get it all bad,
you know, but we didn't want some day to make
it and then ours coming over what happened in these
three years you guys were playing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Have you ever had that experience in your career? With
the I R S came into what did you want?

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
It?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Significant?

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Some oh knuckle would no.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Okay, because that's a typical rock and roll story.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
But we didn't live that story. I mean, Dean wouldn't
let us. We were sticklers with taxes and we were
sticklers were doing everything right, and because we didn't want
that to wrappen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
So you're driving in a van. There are bands who
literally died with their van flips over. In addition, they
stayed in a hotel and the equipment is stolen. What
were your experiences going on the road for all these
years before you had a record deal?

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Oh goodness, it was usually good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
I mean we our first van sucked in the navy
seats in the back, so we'd lay on the ground
and the equipment would be there, and a couple of
times until somebody hit the brakes and thank god we
were all awake because we had all but sleeping. One
of us or too, was to be dead because the
equipment started to come forward, and you know, you got
up and got your hands up in time to stop
it from killing us. But uh, the worst thing that
ever happened to us. We were playing the Bayou and

(01:02:48):
DC and we were parked out back.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Our fan was parked out back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
We packed up the van with all the equipment and
we went out drinking and we at this point we
had one other guy with us, Jeff Poland with the
He was a slash bank tour manager, slash security. He's
riding with us in the van, and we came back
and five of our guitarism and there was abandoned house

(01:03:12):
right next to the bayou, and we knew homeless folks
lived in there, and Jeff wasn't having it, and we
went into that house and we found all our guitars
and we beat a couple of people up with the
guitars back.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
And no car accidents, No car accidents. We were lucky
with that. No car accidents. I mean when we finally
had a trailer once one of the guitars fell out
of the trailer that we didn't know and that that sucked.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
He lost a really good lass ball that day.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Okay. Their bands they meet in high school, they travel
in vans. By the time they have the success, they
hate each other. And there's certainly mega bands where everybody
goes in their own limo. You know, you got four
guys in a van, et cetera. How harmonious was it?

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
We were best friends. We were separable. I mean it
was we would go on the roads for three weeks,
come home, I'm going to come home, And in an
hour of being home, we were calling each other to
find out where we were going that night.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
We were always together and he loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
And you know, I know acts where you know, all
of a sudden, a couple of years after college, they
got parental pressure whatever. They had a girlfriend and they
said I'm stopping. Ready, the members of Hoodie the Blowfish saying, man,
you know, I can't do this for another year. I'm
thinking of quitting.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Uh huh huh. No, that's that four of us. I mean,
our first drummer quit, Our first drummer left the band.
He he you know, he was he was really religious
in this. I mean, his family didn't want him playing
in the band. And we understood that and we respected that.
It was probably a good thing because then Sony wouldn't
be in the band and we would have home my
hand and you know, some other stuff and so but uh,

(01:04:59):
the four of us, it was ever that. It was
never I'm gonna quit. It was we won't play until
we make it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Okay, okay. Was there a conscious thing because you're making
good money at this point and you're living quite a life.
Was there a conscious thing? We got to get a
record deal, We're going to be big stars.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
At first, at first, that was that though I don't
think we ever said we're going to be big stars,
especially the nineties when grunge took over, you know. But uh,
at first it was that do we got a record
deal with a company like Capricorn Records or something I
think it was called, and uh we got a record
that was so excited and they went under before we
made our record, and that really, I think put a

(01:05:40):
bad taste in our mouth labels, and so we we
weren't drying to get a record deal because we were
making money. We were playing shows, we were we were
selling out, you know, like I said, I'm from New
York down to Florida and all every every state, every
six weeks, the same clubs selling them out, you know,
even some towns moving to a little theater because we
were doing so well. So we if a record deal came, great,

(01:06:04):
If not, we're just gonna keeping make playing, keep making music.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
But then Atlantic comes around. So are you once beaten
twice shy or how does what goes on there?

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
No? We put when we put Kouchi Pop out, which
was our EP that wrapped for Crack Review. Uh, we
put that out and we sold like sixty five thousand
copies out of the back of our van and at
Mama Pop stores.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
All around the Carolinas and Georgia and.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Stuff, and and Atlantic was the only one that came.
I mean, there were a few labels that wanted to
come see this band that was out selling YouTube and
Pearl Jam down in the Carolinas, you know, and they
wanted to sign us. And you know, it was like, okay,
let's go make a record. You know, hopefully we'll sell
two undred thousand copies. They'll let us make another one.

(01:06:54):
So how'd you end up using Gone Gaming? We talked
about a few We talked to a few producers, like
good names, really good names, and we met Don And
the minute we met Don, we knew he was our producer.
He was such a calming, laid back, affeelable, invuncular presence

(01:07:17):
in our lot instantly, and we knew we wanted that guy.
And he had also done an RM record and he
had done those Melicat records. You know, it was like, yeah,
we want to sound like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
So what was the experience of making the record?

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Like, oh man, our first record was you know, the
four of us all lived in the same house, two
bedroom apartment we lived in to make that record.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
And it was it was us against the world. It
was awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
You know. We drove in the studio together every day,
we hung out all day. After the studio, we ate
together and went home and watched TV together. We went
out the bars together. It was awesome. It was it
was exactly what we needed to make our first record,
and it was it was never work. It was never working.

(01:08:09):
It was it was always God, we're working with Dog
gave it. We're going to make this damn record. This
is crazy, Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
A lot of people make the first record and when
they're done, they're not happy. They feel they were pushed
around by the label or the producer who didn't sound
the way they wanted to do. When the record was done,
how did you feel about the record?

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
You know, I remember taking I thought that we played
everything too slow, but that you know, that's because we
were still playing used to playing live, and you know
those click tracks you know, you're drinking songs just get
faster when you're that in that atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
But I thought it was a great record.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Okay, So you deliver the record to Atlantic and they say,
this is ship. We don't want to do anything with it.
I'm not gonna say they say it was ship. You know,
there were a couple of people up in Atlantic, they
said it was ship you know. Uh, you know, actually
Daddy Gober who was the president, loved it. You know,
Tim Summer right and our guy loved it. You know,

(01:09:07):
there were people up there that thought it was really cool.
But there were a couple of people who were important
that didn't like it because their mind, their mind was
on grunge, their mind was on what was popular at
the time, what was what was the big thing, you
know at the time, and we weren't grunge. And I
still think the greatest line of that type of our

(01:09:30):
lives was the guy who said that that if Atlantic
put that record out, there would be the laughing stock
of music.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
That's a direct quote. I just always laugh at that.
You know, we all laugh at that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
I'm sure Atlantic that I bet the guy that says
that that laughs at that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Now, Well, in this process between the record being finished,
in the record gaining traction, what was your mood, in
the mood of the rest of the band, We're like, no,
this is still gonna happen, or man, we cut this
record and they're not going to get behind it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Oh, we do, we do. We knew they were gonna
get behind it, you know. I mean, they didn't give
us anybody to make it, so we knew. So our attitudes.
Let's go out and play shows and get people to
go out and buy it. You know, Let's go up
and play. Let's do what we're doing and tell them
on stage we got a new record out. Yeah, go
buy a record. Let's start. Let's tell two hundred thousand
copies and get to make another one.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
We were we were never woe is me. We were
never those folks. We were never victims. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
We were on a major recordable man. You know, let's
just go out and play. Let's keep doing exactly what
we were doing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:38):
When was the first time you heard the song on
the radio?

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
Oh, I mean the the week the single came out,
we called My Head came out as a single. We
heard it Columbia on the radio, you know, and it
was wow, there we are on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
You know, it was awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
I mean, were you know there were stations in Columbia
and Charleston and Bertle Beast that were playing the song,
you know, but it just wasn't nationwide yet.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Okay, at what point did you get a manager and
a major agent?

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Oh, we got a manager before Coucie Pop, like when
we were when we were we were making our very
first EP. We got a manager. But he was just
some dude that we do. It wasn't like he was
a big time. He was just some dude. We know that,
and we need people to make phone calls and stuff.
That could be our manager. You know, we got a

(01:11:30):
major booking agent, probably right after Letterman, you know, right
after Letleman as well.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
We led a major booking agency.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
So how long did you stay with that booking agent?

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
Oh? Forever?

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
We we I don't think we left him. We were
living with them for six years, maybe six seven years.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
And how did you get rid of the garage manager?

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
He was what We kept him for ten years or
probably more. Maybe I'm sure it's more than that. You know,
he was just our manager.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
It was he was.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
He was part of our group. He was just one
of us, you know, and so we kept him forever.
And then finally he just wasn't working out for us.
We didn't like some of the decisions he made and
some things he did, and we just decided to move on.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
And when we talked McGee.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
So, how did you decide on Doc?

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Oh? I knew when we were when we were firing Rusty,
Doc was going to be a manager. We hadn't met
Doc a couple of times, and he loved us like
Doc was a Rusty's bental and and and you know
the joke was he would know Russey would call Doc
and ask him what he should do, and when Doc
told him what to do, he would do the exact opposite.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
And so, uh, you know, Doc was a no brainer
for us.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
And what did Doc do that Rusty couldn't do?

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Goodness, exactly what Doc said he was gonna do. He
said that, uh, we're gonna tour less and make a
lot more money, and we're gonna do it the right way.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
And that's exactly what he did.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Well, a little bit more granular, What did he actually
changed so that came true?

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Oh, I mean everything, he streamlined everything we didn't have.
We we didn't say yes to the opening of of
a doenvelope anymore, you know, we we made what we
did special. He made people see what we did, we're
doing a special. And he was Doc McGee. Doc McGee
calls you. You take the phone call and so he just

(01:13:22):
big time managed us and he made it. He made
being us something that was cool and important, and just
do it on a bigger scale.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Like it's like John bun Joey said to me.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
When we looked where were when we fired RUSI, we're
looking for managers. I called John and I asked him
what he thought about Doctor, and he said, Doc will
take what you want to do in a theater and
you'll do it in a in the stadium.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
And that was Doc.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
And you're still with Doc, right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
I'm not with Doc anymore? No, Doc, Doc's I'm pretty
much retired these days. I'm with the Maverick now with
Clarence Faulding. But uh yeah, you know Doc is still
my dad. I still call him for advice every week.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
So how'd you decide who your new manager would be?

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
I do, Clarence. I've got Clarence you know, around here
in Nashville. And uh I liked them, and you know,
at this point of my career, at the point I
went with Class I guess about five six years ago. Now,
I mean, I just want somebody that I liked, that
I get that that that wants to work would be
you know that wants to take what I have and

(01:14:33):
maximize it and not work my butt off and make
me do things I don't want to do. And so
when Clarence and I had a meeting, because I met
with every manager pretty much in Nashville, who is somebody
and you know it was it was definitely Clarence for me.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Tell us about that definitive performance on Letterman oh Man.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
You know, the legend goes that, uh, you know Letterman
artists in the radio on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
It was it was it was a DJ. The DJ
had heard whom I.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Had in a meeting and they weren't gonna add it.
You know, it was it was drivetime DJ. They were
gonna add it, and he loved the song, and you said,
I'm gonna play this song. You gotta tell me what
you think? What do you think? Was the only time
they had ever played it, And you know, Letterman hears
it on the drive home from the show, and you know,

(01:15:25):
the legend is that he pulled over and called his
book engagent and said, I want this band on my
on my show.

Speaker 3 (01:15:31):
This is Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
We were on the show on Friday, and first of
we got a phone call on Wednesday, week Wednesday morning.
We didn't believe it. We thought our manager was fucking
with us. You know, no way, because we were says
fans of the show. I mean that was a staple
for us, watching Letterman and no way, there's there's no way,

(01:15:52):
David Levond, you know. And we got a show in
Colombia that night. You know, we can't. You know, that's
the biggest show we've ever had in Columbia, the four
thousand people. You know, we got to play the show.
We'll get take the TV show, you know. And the
first time the label stepped up and got us a plane,
you know. And I always say we played, we drove

(01:16:16):
to uh we we flew to Florida. That we flew
to New York that day and we we we couldn't
get on the radio anywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Except the Carolina's and we left in that Monday. We
were the most added for the next eight days in
a row.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
It was it just it changed our lives.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Okay, that album crack re review becomes a phenomenon and
the band is everywhere. What was it like being on
the ride? Oh we did, We didn't see it. All
we saw was that we were so insulated with the
four of us. That that was a that was the
point in our career where if you wore a black
T shirt, the other three guys.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
Would destroy you. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
It was we were so insulated and so conscious of
each other that all we saw was it the shows
were getting bigger, and you know, we were doing you know,
there's more TV shows calling us. That's just the play.
That's how we saw. The shows were getting bigger, and
we're doing a little bit more TV.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
That's good. We're good with that, you know. And then
the money started coming in.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
Okay, you're so successful that ultimately a backlash begins. Do
you experience that at all?

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Of course, of course, you know, of course you experienced it,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
And it was the thing that we had going for
us with that was that even when we played clubs
and we were becoming the biggest bands in the clubs,
you know, other bands didn't respect us. You know, they
either called us a cover band or they were you know,
those guys playing that pop music. You know, they so
like we wouldn't even write our names on the walls

(01:17:59):
the clubs were players. Because we knew when we came
back somebody would be talking ship under Yeah, so when
that happened, it was just like, okay, but we're still
sell our baskets, Square Guard, three Nights in the road.
You know, we still you know, we're still going to
number one five times.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Okay, you y'all will have to like us, because everybody
out there that's a couple to see us loves us.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
And you emphasize in the book that you're living the
rock and roll lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
Oh, we were having a party. We were It was
a flat out, flat out party.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Yes, it was everything you expected, you know, sex, drugs,
and rock and roll.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
It was. It was so much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
So no regrets, you say that was great. Glad I
got to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
None. I'm glad. I'm glad all the four of us
came out the other side. Okay, I'm glad the four
of us could be these guys who the party's over for.
But we had a great time when it was going.

Speaker 3 (01:18:59):
No regrets.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
What can you tell us about women on the road?

Speaker 3 (01:19:05):
So they were there. I want to tell you about
that they were.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
Okay, so a certain number of women were willing. Did
you have an interest in these women beyond one night?
Did some of these women have an interest in you
beyond one night when you weren't interested.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Sure, I had girlfriends, you know, I had I dated
people here and there, but uh, you know, at that point,
it was it was so hard to date anybody because
we were traveling all the time. We were never off
the road, you know, so it was hard to date anybody.
And so, you know, it was it was all about fun,
you know. And there were folks you hung out with

(01:19:45):
and you saw more than once and you hung out,
but it was it was that it was that this man.
It was you know, the hedonistic lifestyle. And what about
drugs everywhere? You know, it was everywhere. We yeah, you know,
we did our share and probably some other people share too.

(01:20:06):
We had a real good time.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
The first check comes in, what do you buy?

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
First check came out, I paid off my student loan
and bought a truck, the first truck I ever was
the first utumbild of my life.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Yep, okay, tell me about the experience of the second record.

Speaker 3 (01:20:29):
Oh, I think we made that record too quick.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
I've said that before, but you know, Marx just really
wanted to make a record and we we we're banned,
and you know, somebody feels strongly about it. You can
talk us into it, we'll all do it. So we
It was a great experience, you know. We we we
rented a big house in l A. We went, we
reread it. Uh, we went. We were up in the

(01:20:53):
hills of Sarah Fell and we just stayed. We stayed
at the studio and we thought it was great because
everybody had their own room. And but it was it
was us, a dog and the engineer and you know,
a couple of other people, and we ate there and
we worked out there, and we played golf right down
the street, and it was a great experience. It was

(01:21:14):
just once again us against the world.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
So in retrospect, was it the record was released too
soon or the record didn't have it or both?

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
Well, I think the I think it's a better record
to crecor review. I just think we put it out
too soon. I mean, you know, our label wanted to
put out one or two more singles, and their words,
not our words, go after thriller, you know, that's what
they wanted to do. But uh, you know we did,
and you know, we sold five or six million copies
or whatever it was. You know, that was considered a flop.

(01:21:49):
After selling whatever wherever we were at that time with
record Review.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
Okay, at this point in time, do you still get
royalties from the Hoodie Records?

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
Oh? Yeah, every week every year.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
And do you own the songs you wrote?

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
We knew yes.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
And in this crazy rule to the last six eight
years where everybody's selling their publishing in royalties, were you
ever approached? Would you ever do that?

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
Oh? We get approach all the time, and I don't
plan to do it. I mean that for me, that's
an annuity for my kids. And you know, I don't
need the hard earned I don't need the hard money
and my bank account or anything you know from that
when I know that the money's going to come eventually.
But uh, you know, and people ask the Bible kind
all all the time. You know, I'm not really interested

(01:22:37):
in that right now.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
So at what point do you realize that whod he
peaked with the first record and it's not going to sustain?
And how does that feel?

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
Oh? I said that before we went into the second record.
That was that was a direct thing I said to
the band. You guys know that what we just went
through is an anomaly and that just doesn't happen like that.
I mean, you can look at the history of music
and the history of the biggest records in the world.
And you know, you look at Michael Jackson from Thriller
to Bad, you know, it just doesn't sustain.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
We just wanted to keep playing playing music at the
level we were playing it, and we got.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
To So what comes first, your country career or the
winding down of Hoodie?

Speaker 2 (01:23:24):
Oh, the winding down of Hoodie for sure. I mean
I would have I don't think I would have ever
gone to Nashville if someone hadn't come in and said
he didn't want to tour anyone. You know, that was
our job. We toured every year. That was what we
did for a living. We went out in the summer,
and so that was just what we were doing. And
until you know, one of the band members said didn't

(01:23:45):
want to do that anymore, that's what we want to done,
we'd probably still be doing it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Okay, you have this great success in the country world,
how do you decide to work with Hoodie again?

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
We had we had not played in ten years. In
nineteen we hadn't played in ten years. And to be
honest with you, when they came to me with it,
I wasn't enthusiastic about it. I wasn't because I remember
the end and when we stopped playing, you know, we
would still play the fourteen thousands either, but there'd only
be nine thousand people there, you know. And when you

(01:24:22):
look out there and there's five thousand depty seats, that sucks.
I mean, yeah, there's nine thousand people there, but yeah,
there's five thousand depty seats the place that we used
to sell out. And so that was such. So I
said in the meeting that I didn't want to I
didn't want to play if it wasn't gonna be huge.
That was my exact words, this is not gonna be huge.
I don't want to do it. I don't want to

(01:24:43):
do what I don't want to go back and do
what we were doing before we decided to do that,
before we broke, before we stopped playing, and everybody in
that meeting was like, what's gonna be big. It's gonna
be big. And then the day after that meeting, I
was playing somewhere, uh and I flew into the place

(01:25:04):
and I'm walking back to my dressing room and Rob Light,
who is the CEO.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Of of c A, a head of music at the
top yeah, see he still lives.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Well, yeah, he got promoted whatever it. Then let's talk
get into the details.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
He runs the show. He's one of the one of
the guys who started CIA exactly. And uh, I'm walking
to my I'm walking into my addressing room. Mate Rob's
standing there, and I know Robin our friends, we beg friends,
We've been there. You know golf, we have that golf
thing that we'd love to do together. And he's standing there.
I was like, oh man, you came. I was like,
what are you doing here? Let's go alone to talk

(01:25:40):
to you. And we went to the He had been
dispatched to tell me this thing is going to be
fucking huge, and they were right.

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
That King was huge. Billboard Magazine toward the year it
was huge.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Why do you think it was huge?

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
People missed it, People missed us playing and it had
been ten years since who they had been out And
there was a lot of people when we stopped playing
that came to see us every year. You know, we
see a lot of the safe faces every year, and
it was ten years without that, and the nostalgia, God,
I want to experience that again kicked in and it

(01:26:15):
was huge.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
So going forward, how much, shooty, how much.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Solo from this point on? Yeah, this is probably my
last thuty who blow for your store? I don't know
if I'm going to do this again, so you know,
just pretty much solo. I mean, you know, this has
been such a great run and it's been fun. But
you know, I'm almost sixty. I don't even know how
much long I don't want to play, you know, so

(01:26:44):
like I want to do I want to do country
music for a while, for a long while.

Speaker 1 (01:26:50):
And how many gigs a year have you been doing
over the last ten years?

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
Fluctuations between saba D and one hundred and twenty? It
could get you know, go like I think, who he's
playing fifty or sixty? They shit here, so you know it,
it fluctuates.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
Okay, So what point in the hoodie career did you
say I want to make a country record.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
I would saying that since the late eighties, you know,
since whody really started. You know, there was actually a
moment when things kind of died down where I tried
to talk to guys into making the country records, like
let's just go and consciously make a country record, and
nobody wanted to do it, you know, Okay, we'll just
keep doing what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:28):
Okay, just in this interim between you start your country
career and you reunite with Hoodie, what is your relationship
with the other three members.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Oh, we're brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
You know. When we see each other, it's great, you know.
But when you stop playing, and as much as we
were playing, you stop really hanging out a lot. You know,
you call each other and play around the golf, you know,
call each other and go have a beer or a beat.
But but it wasn't like we were seeing each other
every day, you know. But we were still in touch
all the time. We were friends, like we're like brothers.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Okay, So you tell Doc you want to make a
country record, and Doc says.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
He really just said okay.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
And I mean I made it clear to him that
I wasn't looking for a record deal because I didn't
think I could get a record deal the country music
you know, the pop black guy cutting over the country music.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
What label?

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
And I told him, if you're gonna get me a
record with, if you're gonna get me a label with
Joe Schmow Records or some indie label, I'd rather do
it myself. I'd rather just get my buddies and go
do it myself and just make it for me, you know.
But you know Doc doesn't do things that way. You know,
he does things like we said, you want to do
it in the theater, and he does at the stadium.

(01:28:44):
And a couple of weeks later he had been a
record deal with Capitol Records.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
And what was the experience of cutting the record?

Speaker 3 (01:28:51):
Awesome? Right it and cutting was awesome. It was awesome,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
Frank Rogers, my producer, was wonderful, you know, playing Brad
Hazy coming and singing all playing a single was awesome.
Vince Gill coming in. You know, it was awesome to
be a Nashville making that record, making a country a
real country record. That was the one thing that that
me and Frank really wanted to do. We wanted to
make a country record and we did and it was

(01:29:16):
one of my favorite experiences making the recorder.

Speaker 1 (01:29:19):
Okay, the record is done. Do you think you're going
to have a hit on the chart?

Speaker 3 (01:29:25):
No, I did not think that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
I it was another one of the situations where I
was hoping they would let me make a number one.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
I hope it did well enough that I could make
a number one, because.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
You know, the rock pop guy coming over is so
proud upon a Nashville.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
I'm so proud upon him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
But more than that, I hadn't seen anybody that looked
like be on the charts for twenty five years. You know,
Charlie had been twenty five years since Charlie probably had
his last hit. And there hadn't been anybody that had
a top forty hit since, you know, And you know,
talking to some folks and being told that they just
never thought their audience would accept the black country sing.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
You know, so I don't know what I I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
If I didn't expect, I thought I might have a
minor hit, you know, something that maybe cracks in top
Floridian makes a little noise. But you know, once again,
you know, Mike Doung in the Capitol said to me
when he when he signed, when he went, I was
the first meeting. Now I sided with him that if

(01:30:30):
I gave him, if I gave him the record, he
would give me a shot. And he worked and they
worked their button butts off. They worked their butts off well.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
In the book you talk about how you worked your
buttle I did.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
But you know that's of course I didn't. It's my record.
If if I'm not gonna work it, why should anybody else?
So what did you do for that first record? I
went to one hundred and ten radio stations, No five
days a week, going to two or three radio stations
a day, five days a week. Went to one hundred
and ten of those days, and it worked.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
Okay, let's once again go a little more granular. You
go in, you're selling. Okay, what is your pitch? How
do you convince people? How do you get them on
your team?

Speaker 3 (01:31:16):
Oh? My pitch was simple, you know for me.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
You know, you know Jimmy Harden who went with me
a lot, and uh, you know, the label was really
trying to get it. But when I talked to people,
I said the same thing. You know, if you like
the record, play it. If you don't, I understand. I wasn't.
I wasn't in their bagging. I wasn't there going I'm
Darius Rucker, who your blowfishes to play on record? You know,

(01:31:42):
it wasn't anything like that. I was just, you know,
glad to be in the room for a second, you know,
and if you like it, play it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
If not, I understand.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
But there was more than that. To what degree did
you work your charm to try to make them feel
good about you personally such that that would help to
play the record. I didn't. That wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
I just went in and that was me. I really
was never in there trying to overly charm anybody or
make anybody. It was just go in there and be
yourself and be a nice guy that you are and
talk to people. You know a lot of people like
the Probably the only reason I got into a lot
of those buildings is because of who need a bothish,

(01:32:25):
you know, and so just go in and play the
song that if they want you to sit in the
conference room and play some songs for you know, play
some songs for for the for the employees, you know,
if you're lucky enough play play the song acoustically on
the radio. You know, just just go in and be
you and they like you, they'll play it. If they don't, they't.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
And to what degree of you maintained relationships with the
people of radio.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
Oh, I so many guys like probably to do guys
that uh that told me didn't think their audience would
play you know, we'll accept a black sat or my
best buddies, you know, And I'm still for I see
folks all the time and friends with them, and you know,
they they're they're you know, I think a lot of
people are thankful, relieved and happy that that that there's

(01:33:19):
you know, there's now radio start. You know, there's you
get to see so many app more African Americans came
brown and other guys having hits and stuff like that,
and and it's just people are like, this is cool.

Speaker 3 (01:33:29):
You know, this is good for cuntry, this is good
for everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
What's the difference between being on Atlantic, a rock and
roll label, and Capital and national and country label.

Speaker 2 (01:33:40):
Capitol in Nashville really cares about me and will work
their butt off and do anything for me.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
And let the just use us. That's the difference. They
just used us.

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
And how often will you interact with the people at
Capital all the time all the time?

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
You know, you know, City Babe, the new president, we're ted.
We text all the time with friends of all the time.
All the people who work up there. We were friends.

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
And the world has changed and country music fans do stream.
So to what degree have you fostered relationships with Spotify, Apple, Amazon?

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
I've got friends in all those places you know, you
meet because you have to meet those fives. You've got
to go in their offices and hang out and do
all that. And you know, streaming is is so important.
It's the new way that kids are getting music. And
not even kids now, everybody's getting music. And so the
cloth red relationships. And you know, I'm sure when they
can help you, they can, they do, and they don't,

(01:34:46):
you know they don't.

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
And to what degree are you Internet addicted TikTok, Instagram,
Spotify or are you old school?

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
I'm kind of old school, but you know, I'll look
at Instagram, I'll look at you know X, that's that's
you know, those of those Some of those places are
where I get my news. So yeah, you're going to
read it. But uh, you know, I'm not big on
going on.

Speaker 3 (01:35:11):
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
I think I've been on TikTok three times in my life,
you know, and I'm simple, I'm animals.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
Okay, So the record goes to number one? Does that
blow your mind?

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
Yes, it brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't believe that.
Uh that don't think. I don't think about that when
number one it was the number one song country music.

Speaker 3 (01:35:37):
It was. It was amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
And at what point do you feel you were embraced
by the Nashville community.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
I think when I was asked to join the Opry,
it was the first time I really felt like I
was part of Nashville, that was part of country music.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
I got invited to join the Opry and that was
just a great moment.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
Tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:59):
Uh, you know, when I came to Nashville, I stided
told Doc I wanted to play the Opery as much
as I could.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
I wanted to play as much as they would let me,
and I did.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
And uh, you know, one day I was playing, and
you know, Brad Paisey stood up in the audience and
asked me if I wanted to be the news member
of the Country I love the Grandal Opery, and I
didn't believe it. I thought he was pranking me, you know,
And it was just that moment where, you know, really
that moment I really thought to myself, Wow, I made it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:30):
You know, I'm in.

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
And the first album runs its course. How much pressure
do you feel for the second album? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
None, none, you know, because I had the team in
place and I knew that capital was going to be there.
They weren't going to abandon me. I knew all I
had to do was make give given themselves, you know,
And so we started working on that, and you know,
it felt good to know that my label wasn't going
to abandon me. They were in, we were going to
do this. Let's do this.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
And to what degree did your experience with HOODI in
Atlanta inform your choices?

Speaker 3 (01:37:06):
Uh? I?

Speaker 2 (01:37:11):
Also I didn't think about I didn't think much about
that when we were doing the country stuff because I
felt like I was in such a different situation. You know,
there was nobody. The guy who saw me was the
president of the latter so I was in good hands.
He was gonna he told me, you do, I will
give you a shot. He gave me a shot, and

(01:37:31):
I knew if I gave him another record, I was
gonna get another shot. And so I didn't even think
about the past. I was thinking about, you know, what
are we gonna do now?

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
Okay, So Hoodie breaks. MTV is still a thing, The
Internet is not a thing. Songs are bigger than they
ever are today. You then have success into the twenty
first century in country music when irrelevant of the record,
the landscape is different. Do you find that people know

(01:38:02):
your country music as well as your hoodie music?

Speaker 3 (01:38:06):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
Absolutely absolutely when we see it doing the hoodie shows.
Right now, we play wagon wild all right, he plays
the rupts. You know, it's this this, It's so funny.
There's people in the world that don't even know that
I was a singarete who like it was probably goodness.
It was not even a year ago. And this guy

(01:38:29):
comes into my DMS and he asked me why I
played somebody covers at my show And I said to him, man,
I only played like two covers, maybe three.

Speaker 3 (01:38:39):
What you talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:38:40):
He said, well, you played all those hoodis must be
a big he said, you must be a big fan
of Like, dude, I'm the Bofish And he was like,
no way, go believes it. And I mean and a
lot of the younger kids are shots when they don't
know that I'm that I'm the lead singer for the Bothfish,
that all they know is that I'm Darius Country.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
Say okay, and you're in the mailstream. You're an African
American and a traditionally white medium. The main story in
our world today is politics, red versus blue. What do
you see, and is it possible to bring the country together, you.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Know, I hope it's possible to really cut together, because
I think we're always we're always the best when where united,
you know, like after nine to eleven, even though it
was a brief time that that was great for the catch,
how much we were all together. You know, everything right
now so divisive. Everything's so divisive, and the politicians and

(01:39:46):
the media seems to want to keep us that way
because that way they all make more money, and they
all you know, but uh, you know, I just wish
people would realize at the end of the day, we're
all just Americans, man, you know, and and we should
we should be able to come together on some important stuff.
But it just doesn't seem like it's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (01:40:09):
And because of the divided nation and being a prominent
in country music, we have the bud Light situation, we
have all the we have all these black and white
not in terms of race, but some of them are issues.
Does that make you reluctant to stand up or to
make certain decisions to work with different people.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
I'll work with anybody that doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
I mean, I'm not going to not be friends with
somebody or not work with somebody because they're politics.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
Let me say different. Okay, Elon Musk, who has come
out in support of Trump. If Elon he doesn't do advertising,
but let's say he got a hold of you and
wanted to tie you up with Tesla, you would say okay,
or you would say wait, this is a dangerous subject.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
I would say it's a dangerous subject.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
I stay out of politics, man. I believe what I believe.
I'm gonna do what I want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
And the sad part about politics for me right now
is there was a time in American history where it
was okay to say, I'm not gonna be friends with
that guy because he's white. Well, I'm not gonna be
friends with that guy because he's black. Well I'm not
gonna be friends with her because he's a woman. I'm
not gonna be friends with those And now it's like,
I'm not gonna be friends with this person because they're conservaible.
I'm not gonna be friends with this person because they're liberal.

(01:41:26):
You know, for me, that's just bullshit. So I stay
out of it. I stay out of it. Don't even
want to talk about it. You know, it is I
believe what I believe? You know, I hope the country
can find a way to come together. But you know
it's just so divisive.

Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
So you would not endorse political candidate?

Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:41:49):
I will?

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
I would say, I would say I would, though I
never will. But it's like, you know, I'm not I'm
not How do you say this? I am not eatistical
enough or or narcissistic enough to think that I should
be telling people how to vote. Everybody's got their own vote.

(01:42:12):
There's enough stuff out there for you to decide how
you want to vote. Why should I tell you? That's
not something I've ever.

Speaker 3 (01:42:18):
Wanted to do. Do you vote every here?

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
Okay? You live in Nashville. Now, what's the difference between
Nashville and South Carolina?

Speaker 3 (01:42:30):
Nothing? There both very red states.

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
Okay, So you ever take commercial transportation or only private?

Speaker 3 (01:42:42):
I fly, yeah, fly plays all. I fly a commercial
a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Okay, you fly commercial? To what degree? Is do people
know who you.

Speaker 3 (01:42:51):
Are all the time all the time?

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
And is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Speaker 3 (01:42:58):
It's a good thing. It's going to suck when people don't.

Speaker 2 (01:43:01):
You know. The byproduct of success in my business is
that so that means I don't have a success.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
And as a result of your fame, you've met incredible people.
Who have you met that? Who have you not met
that you want to meet?

Speaker 2 (01:43:20):
Oh goodness, who if I've not met that?

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
I want to be. Uh, that's a great question.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
Oh good Every time I think it's not when I go,
I think I met him. You know, the day I've
met Paul McCartney was the day that everybody else can
it doesn't matter. But the day I've bet alt greed,
you know, the times I've got to hang out without greeding.
You know, No, you know, I guess right now. If
I had to think of one person I want to bet,

(01:43:51):
I want to be Keith Richards and a Vic Tacker.
I mean, I'd love to beat the guys with the stoves.
How'd you meet Paul McCartney? Tell me about that he
was having a show and I was taking my kids
to Tampa to see the show, and uh, you know,
we're I think we're under the same management group, Maverick.
And I called Clarence and I said, Clarence, if you
never do anything for me ever again, I'll be okay,

(01:44:13):
But you have to get me to meet Paul McCartney
and he did and I cried, yes when he walked away,
I cried.

Speaker 1 (01:44:19):
So a little bit slower because I've met Paul McCartney
a few times. You know, meeting a celebrity, especially in
a live performance thing is a very unique thing. How
did it literally happen? And what was literally said?

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
Well, he doesn't do a great and so uh we were.
They took us backstage and he was about he was
when he what he done with this interaction was done.
He walked straight to the stage and he comes out
and he knew who I was with shock me, and
you know, we had a conversation. I told him I
wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for him, and

(01:44:54):
he was not important to me.

Speaker 3 (01:44:56):
And we had.

Speaker 2 (01:44:57):
A great conversation and took a picture and he had
on the sergeant upper jacket that maybe lose my mind,
and it was.

Speaker 3 (01:45:04):
Just it was a beautiful thing.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
It was like he was They tell you not to
meet your idols, but it meeting him was damn, We're
worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
He was. He was a gentleman. He was a great guy.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
And did he say anything of dope, Oh, you know,
he was about to go in.

Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
So it wasn't like we had a deep conversation, right,
you know, he was like, just keep playing music.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
He was like, you know, I've heard some of your songs.
I love him. I like what you do? You know,
keep doing it. It was great.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
And what about Al Greed? Oh it was great for me.
I met Al a couple of times. And the second
time I met out, I was doing this Al Greed
tribute and he was there and we were backsaced talking
and I had covered one of his songs about R
and B record and he told me he really liked
my version, and that was pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:45:52):
Okay, you have this autobiography. People said, I mean, there's
not a week goes by that I don't get one
of these books. And interestingly, Alan Eisenstock, who was your
co writer, he's a personal friend, so that was kind
of interesting. But what made you write this book? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
I was first, you know, I've been asked to write,
you know, a memoir for for so long and I
kept staying no, no, and no, and you know, they,
to be honest with me, they came. They came like
big dogs to get me to write it this time,
you know, and I Ala said I wouldn't write it
till my kids were old enough. We're adults, so they could,

(01:46:33):
you know, deal with be telling the truth because I
was going to tell the truth and they were adults
and it was just okay. And actually, when Al and
I started writing it, it was it was so therapeutic.

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
It was it was it was I'm so glad I
did it.

Speaker 1 (01:46:51):
And the funny thing about the book is I actually
got hooked on the book about a quarter the way
through and sat in the chair and finished it. The
book is really a good read. What is your experience
been since the book has come out?

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
It's amazing. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:06):
Most people that have talked to me about it have said,
you know, it feels like I'm sitting in a bar
with you and me telling the story. And that's exactly
what we wanted. We wanted to be like, you're sitting
with a friend who's telling you the story in their lives,
and you know, it's been amazing. I'm you know, I'm
a New York Times bestselling author right now. Just saying that,
you know, makes me want to giggle. You know, it

(01:47:29):
was it was every interaction I've had to people who
read it, even my friends, especially my friends or they're like,
you know, I learned stuff that I had no idea about.
And you know, every every interaction I've had about my
book has been positive, and it's been really awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:47:48):
So what is your everyday life like now? How book
did or do you have any relaxation time where you
just basically work at three hundred and sixty five days
a year.

Speaker 2 (01:47:58):
I work a lot. I work a lot to the
point where I was I was pitching at my manager
today because I don't work a lot. But uh, you know,
I've got a happy life. You know, I got three
wonderful kids, are adults that I get to see when
there when their lives are too busy. And I got
a wonderful girlfriend who I probably spend the rest of

(01:48:18):
my life with, you know. And you know I live
in a great neighborhood Nashville. I got a great place
at Charleston. I'm on the road when I want to
be on the road. You know, I was good.

Speaker 3 (01:48:30):
I get to see my brothers and sisters all the time.
I mean, life was just good.

Speaker 1 (01:48:36):
Now, you were married for a good chunk of time
and then you got divorced. To what degree did the
job you have contribute to the end of that relationship.

Speaker 2 (01:48:50):
I mean, especially the years we were together and where
I was mentally. You know, I was you know, I
was out there and I was partying and I was
having a great time. And you know, totally, like I've
said this before, that breakup was on me.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
It was all me.

Speaker 2 (01:49:16):
And you know, you know, through a lot of therapy
and you know, a lot of soul searching and really
a lot of giving up that lifestyle. You know, I've
become a better person and I live a better life.
But you know, sometimes things are just over. And so
I would say my lifestyle and what I did for

(01:49:37):
a living was one hundred percent reason for that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:40):
And what will be different with this new girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
I'm not that guy anymore, you know, I really I'm
a homebody now. I don't want to do you know,
I don't want to do anything. So, you know, so
I go work and I come home and don't play
golf right you know, by but four minutes from where
I live and I'm home. I don't want to go
out drinking with you. Don't call me to go drinking

(01:50:04):
because I'm not going to go. You know, you want
to go to dinner. I go to sit and have
dinner with even have a bottle of wine. But I'm
going home and I don't want to go to the
right door. I don't want to go. And like Louis,
like I said, is your therapy? I've I've dealt with
my devons and I'm still dealing with them and I've
figured out a way to beat them.

Speaker 1 (01:50:24):
How did you decide to go to therapy?

Speaker 2 (01:50:27):
It was just, you know, I'd go into a couple
of people, but then I found the right guy. And
when you find the right person to talk to and
talks back to you and gives you exercises of things
to make you be a better person, you know, life
gets a lot better.

Speaker 1 (01:50:44):
So what is one thing that your therapist told you
that help was helpful?

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
Goodness? It's a big things, you know. One thing that
was huge for me was how he you know, to
let let go on the guilt. You know, that was
tough for me, you know the way I was raised
and where I was.

Speaker 4 (01:51:04):
I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:51:06):
That was hard for me. But when I finally like
go with the guilt, I became a better person.

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
And since you're a homebody, what do you do at home?

Speaker 2 (01:51:14):
Like I said, I got a golf course four minutes
from here that I play golf almost every day.

Speaker 3 (01:51:17):
I went home.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
I got two great dogs that are awesome. You know,
I like to watch TV. I like to play video games.
I like to jump in my pool. Yeah, I'm just
you know, I've built a home that there's a lot
of things I like to do, and so when I'm
not on the road, they don't want to do.

Speaker 3 (01:51:35):
Much in an.

Speaker 1 (01:51:37):
Okay, Darius, thanks so much for taking this time and
being so open and honest with my audience. I really
appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:43):
I think it was a great talking teacher, very great.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
Talking Until next time. This is Bob left Sis