#333 - Ben Rector on How He Got Snoop Dogg To Rap On A Song With Him + How Much Kenny G Charged Him To Be On His New Album + Building A Giant ‘Muppet’ for His Album Cover

Ben Rector is a singer-songwriter who has had major success with hits like “Brand New” and “Love Like This”. He stops by to talk to Bobby about what it was like growing up in Oklahoma and going to college in Fayetteville, Arkansas where he was the only one in college playing music and trying to be an artist. Ben talks about songs from his new album and how he got Snoop Dogg to rap on a song with him and an interesting thing that happened once he got the verse sent to him. He also talks about how cool it was working with Kenny G and getting to also have him play on a song. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Great episode with Ben Rector, episode three thirty three, and
this guy plays massive shows, just known for how good
of a singer, how good of a performer he is.
It was super pumped him over the house. Ben was
born at Tulsa studied piano growing up. He talked about how,
like everybody else, he quit playing piano. Did we put
on the thing? How violent a singer he is? Is

(00:25):
that on here? Yeah? He starts talking about that, about
how loud he speaks. Yeah, he talks to me, it's
like I just sing so violently. It doesn't look like
a guy who would sing violently. He looks like a
guy who just sing a pleasant little bitty But his
new record is really good and that's really wise here um.
And also at the end we kind of talk about
and playing golf and how he really wasn't a golfer
but now he's really really good. So, Ben Rector, this

(00:47):
is fun for me, and I think you'll I just
think you'll like his album. I think you'll like the
music that's already out right now too. You know, such
such fun, such positive music, Ben Rector, I'm gonna play
it for you now. Anything you want to say, Mike
before we it. I think that's the first time I
heard about him. He sold out a show here in town,
like a big amphitheater, and I was like, who's been
Rector but a big amphitheater and I hadn't heard of him.

(01:09):
The Snoop Dogg story is funny that you're hearing this.
How he got Snoop Dogg on a record? Yeah, it's
great because it doesn't you know, like been Rector and
Snoop Dogg together. Hopefully I'm introducing you to an artist
that you love from here out. This has been Rector.
Enjoy Hello, Oh sounds sounds good? Yeah, we really mashed
it to your voice. So we took some clips to
your voice. We kind of put him through. We made

(01:32):
the we condense the mic to your voice, so should
feel perfect. If I was singing, I would just I
would would blow this up. It's so so loud, all right?
Do you need it? You need it down your volumes
right there. I'm just the amount of sound that I
admit when I sing is embarrassing. Are you a loud singer?
So loud? I've performed with a few really violently loud singers,

(01:54):
John Party, I don't know if you know that is
kind of heat. It's scary at how he's not angry,
but he treats his voice like it did something bad
to him. Yeah, I I just don't. Um. I don't
know why it is, but I just I am very
loud and I'm not it's not even aggressive necessary. It
doesn't sound like that if you heard it recorded, But

(02:15):
if you heard me, like in person, you'd be like, wow,
that's just a lot of noise. Has that always in
the case, or yeah, it has been since you started thinking? Yeah,
I don't and I don't know. I don't know why
that is. What's what's the deal with your your music prowess?
Meaning did you have a family that was music early on? No,
I'm from Oklahoma and my dad worked at banks and

(02:40):
my mom's a psychologist, and nobody in my family is
like it's not a thing. That's like, oh, you take
after your uncle, like my dad's saying in choir, but
it's not a thing. And so I don't really understand it.
And I picked it up late in life, like I
played piano as a kid, like took lessons but quit
like every kid, and then like picked up guitar and
maybe like eighth grade or something, and I just loved it.

(03:02):
It just was all into it. So who put the
guitar on your hand? I'm trying to remember this. I don't.
I took like I took like a little bit of
lessons again when I was a kid and quit, and
I don't remember why I picked it back up. I
think maybe I just wanted to. And then I went
to like a summer camp and every counselor played guitar,
and I was like, that's awesome. So then after that

(03:24):
I started being like I'm gonna be into this or
your parents the parents didn't that exposed you to a
lot of different things, seeing what would catch. I think
they um, music wasn't really a thing. They exposed me too,
and they did expose the other stuff that I played
a bunch of sports growing up, like all through school
piano lessons though, yeah that's true, that's true, but they

(03:46):
but it wasn't like, um, when I picked music up again,
it was really more like, Wow, I really love this.
It wasn't my parents being like do you want to
get into music again? It was just like I don't
know what it was about it, but it just like
hit me probably like really in my ninth grade year,
I was like, Wow, I'm like, I'm really into this.
But other than that, I was just like I played sports,

(04:07):
and you know, it wasn't really a thing that my
family was like, you should check this out. It just
kind of like happened when you say you played sports
where you're pretty good athlete where, Because what it's really
annoying about a lot of people in town is that
not only are they great in music, but they're also
great in something else. There are some of us who
weren't great at anything, and then there's some of you
who were glad at too many things, and the average

(04:28):
it averages out, but it's some of you get to
keep all of it. So I would say this, I
was as a late bloomer, and I'm probably more athletic
now than I was in high school. I was not
like a game changer athlete. It wasn't like, oh, like
I'm in the game and now the team's like really winning.
But if we played like pick up sports, you would

(04:52):
be like, you're more athletic than I thought you were.
But I would so when I was in high school,
like I played high school sports not particularly well. I
quit everyth senior year because I was just doing music,
but I was not, Like I wasn't like changing the
game for anybody. But I think that's also because I
was playing sports that I was never going to be
good at. Like I played like football and baseball. I
was not not a big person now, but I definitely

(05:12):
wasn't then. I'm not fast. So I think if I had,
like if I had played golf for like tennis or something,
and maybe could have been like, oh, you're like pretty
good at this. But I didn't play anything like that,
So like I would say, I'm coordinated, but I'm not,
you know, like a guy like you know, I think
they're especially in country, there are guys who are like legitimate,
like proper like capital a athletes. I wasn't like that,

(05:34):
but am like maybe sneaky good for pickup sports. When
you say you play music in high school your senior year,
what does that mean, Like, were you playing around Yeah,
so acoustic stuff for a while. Yeah, so I had
we had a band that we formed for a Battle
of the Bands named Euromart. It's terrible, It's really it's
not what's the basis of euro Because you're living in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

(05:57):
there's not a lot of euro that okay, so uh
we love as every kid my age did. That was
when like, you know, some of pop music was like
cold Play, there's like a sort of British rock wave,
and um, we liked that music. And there was a
small like would you call it like an imports store?

(06:19):
It was like, um, a European like very small grocery
store kind of in a part of town that there
was a restaurant we ate at next then, and so
we need we had to come up with a name
for the band because we had entered into this ballot
bands put on by the local newspaper, and we were like, well,
we need a name for our submission. And so I
was like, what about euro Martin. We all agree it's

(06:40):
not It's not great, man, it's not great. What's funny?
As you ever in Oklahoma? I know the part I know.
And so we we we played shows, we like made
an EP and did that, and then I, you know,
I was I started performing more in high school and
then in college was when I was like I'm like
really doing this. So but I was like you know
that year, we like you know, we weren't playing like

(07:03):
in bars all the time. But like we played around
Tulsa a bunch, like our our friends would follow us around.
It was that kind of thing. So when did Euromart split?
When you actually move off or yeah, you know, we
split up and we went to we went to college
different places. Mostly we played one reunion show no big deal. Um.
It was hilarious that and the whole my whole like

(07:25):
career of being a young artist was always I would
play it like, you know, a bar slash bar venue,
and nobody knew who I was at the bar, and
then a whole bunch of people would come and they'd
get excited, and then nobody would buy booze because it
was a bunch of like nineteen year olds who were
all like pretty straight laced. So we played at a
bar called nineteen seventy four and Tulsa for the Euromart

(07:47):
reunion show. They're stoked because it's sold out the bar.
People are like, this is incredible, man. And then of course,
like at the end of the night, I'm getting a
stern talking to by the manager being like we didn't
sell anything. I was like, I'm sorry, man, I don't know.
Let's tell you. Everyone's like a kid here were you
the lead singer, and was your role from man I
was from in yes, I yeah, and I at that

(08:08):
point I'm not a great instrumentalist now, but I picked
up piano late and guitar, like I was fine. But
it wasn't like watch Me Shred. I was like, you know,
we had other guys in the band that were a
little better than I was. Did you learn something about
the band dynamic then that made you reconsider being in
a band later or made you just want to be

(08:29):
a solo artist? You know? Um it? I don't. It
wasn't really like after euro Mart, I was like, I'm
not going to be in a band. I think the
people when I was in college and I started like
touring a little bit, the people that I saw like
ahead of me, we're all solo artists, and I think
I realized, Um, I loved playing with some of the

(08:51):
guys in euro Mart, but like I think, I was like,
I'm probably supposed to be like a solo artist because
you know, I loved like John Mayer and whoever, and
that just made more sense to me. Um, And like
I played a lot of shows alone. It wasn't really
like always a band thing. Your mark literally was reformed
for the Battle of the Bands because we thought it'd
be fun. It was just like a fun side project.
But here's a clip of one of the songs from EP.

(09:12):
This is euro mart I'm just kidding. I was like,
oh gosh, where did you find you don't have that? That
That would have been awesome. So you you go when
you're from Tulsa, Are you from Tulsa Proper? Or because
my wife is from, um, you know a suburb of Tulsa. Yes,
so are you from Tulsa Tulsa? From Tulsa proper? My family, UM,
my sisters are a lot older than I am. And

(09:33):
so the first two years of my life and then
their whole life, we lived in a really small town
west of Oklahoma City called El Reno, which is like
a proper small town. It's like cattle and ranchers and us, um,
not us like we were the other people, but like
it's just not a big town. And so they moved
to Tulsa, UM when I was two and we lived
there ever since. So, just like suburban Tulsa. You decided

(09:55):
to go to the University of Arkansas. Why was it
something at that school? Was a because it was close
my sister, my middle sister, went there and loved it.
And then I which is really funny because in hindsight,
I'm pretty like, um, I'm a little O. C D
like want to do a good job at stuff. And
for whatever reason, college I wasn't stressed about it. I

(10:16):
didn't apply to very many places I applied to like
oh U O s U in Arkansas, I think, and um,
I did reasonably well on the air the A C. T.
And so Arkansas. I was like, do you want to
come here for like a great scholarship? And I was like, yeah, sure,
let's do it. Um. And so I was familiar with
it because of my sister and I had visited there
and really liked it. And then when I, uh I

(10:39):
got that scholarship, I was like, this seems like the
thing to do. And then my my best friend from
high school also went there. We were roommates. He was
in euro martin a big deal um of euro mart
fame Chris Wiley. But uh so it was great. It
was felt like it just felt like where I was
supposed to be and it was awesome. So you're now
in college where there were more minded people, you know,

(11:02):
and Tulsa there are people, but they're not close to you.
They're kind of spread out, and some of them hack
have left to go pursue it. But at the University
of Arkansas, are any major college, you have a lot
of people there just to do music. Did you find
more of you type people there that inspired you to
to do music? You know? It's actually interesting is I
studied business there and I started doing music like on

(11:23):
the weekends pretty much. Um. And it's interesting because I
think there was one second where I was like, should
I move to Nashville and go to Belmont? And I
think I was. It actually was really beneficial for me
to be at a school that wasn't primarily musical, because
I was it was an interesting thing to people, like
it was very helpful kind of in like my music

(11:43):
spreading that basically like second semester of freshman year, people
are like, well, there's a guy on campus that's like
kind of doing music. That was a novel thing. And
so I think it's spread a little quicker than if
I had been at a music school where it's like
literally every person who goes to Berkeley is like, I'm
trying to do this too, and so that I was
doing it like passibly was very novel in Fayetteville, and

(12:05):
there there's a lot of great musicians there, but it
wasn't like like I would practice in the music building
and there were some guys that I played music with,
but I wasn't like in the music scene in Fayetville.
I was literally just like a Walton College of Business
students and then on Thursdays I would leave and go
play shows. What were you studying business? Like? What was
the business plan? I don't I don't know. I think

(12:27):
a lot of it was my parents are very practical
and if I had been like I'm gonna drop out
of schools do music, my mom would have like probably
like broken my legs in real life, and I'm like,
you can't do this, um, And so I don't know.
I I didn't feel drawn to study music. UM at Arkansas.
I can't site read. I know, like chord theory and

(12:47):
like musical theory, but like I never learned to like
site read music. And I did you know. I took
a songwriting class there, but it wasn't like I should
be studying this. And honestly, man, I just loved it
so much. I was stealing time from every thing else,
Like I'd go to the music building at night and
in between classes and I'd skip class, Like it was
just like a passion thing for me, and so I
didn't feel like why I should be studying music. I

(13:08):
was just like, why I'm at college, I'll get a degree, um,
And business seemed like as good a thing as any um,
but I music was like separate from that almost. I
want to come back to this place, I want to
jump around a bit, and I do want to talk
about the new album, which will spend some time on.
But I was talking to Mike beforehand and I said, hey,
because I've heard the stuff that you've released from it,

(13:29):
I've seen a lot of the promo stuff that you
do because I'm a stalker and I love you so much,
But um, how did you get snooped? How does that
come together? Do you reach out? Do you pay them?
What's the deal? Yeah? So, um, you know, I'm usually
a pessimist and like it's hard for me to like
be optimistic about stuff. I have like high expectations for
my work, but then I'm not like a hype man

(13:51):
for myself. And for whatever reason, man, on this record,
I've just had this calm that I've never had before,
and I've just been like, I think it's gonna work,
and I know what that means. But so when I
wrote that song, when I finished it, I was just like,
I really want Snoop to be on this song, and
I think he's gonna do it, and that's it's so
so unlike me. And so basically I called my manager

(14:14):
Greg and I said in the song, I was like,
we gotta get Snooped to wrap on this, and he
was like, Okay, I guess I'll try to track him down. UM.
So we talked to his I think manager named Kevin,
and he was like, I like the song, but before
we talked about anything, gotta make sure Snoop likes the song.
And then my new found optimism, I was like, he's
gonna love it. I didn't say that, but I was like,

(14:35):
I think I like it. So Snoop liked it, and
then we did. We did pay him some U S
dollars as you do um rappers like rappers need to
be paid. It's a thing and and and but honestly, like,
there's other features on the record, and I was just like,
that sounds fun to just like have people on your
songs because I feel like people in hip hop do
that so well and it's it's fun for listeners. You're like, oh,

(14:58):
like I love these two people. This is great, and
so uh, I thought it would be super funny to
get snooped one just because my ninth grade self, which
is like melt out of excitement, but too it's super
unexpected and odd for me, and I just was like,
that would be perfect, and he really isn't fit for
the song. So there was some back and forth, just
like trying to figure everything out. It was actually while

(15:18):
he was doing the Olympics with Kevin Hart. They were
doing that like commentary Summer Olympics, Yes, and so basically, uh,
we got everything worked out. But then he didn't do
it for like a week or so because he was
having to get up literarily to do this. And I
was still like that, you know, he was everywhere, Like
the New York Times did a piece on him right
around then he's in the Olympics. I was like, he's
not gonna do this, like why would he want to

(15:38):
do this? And so he ended up actually doing it,
which is awesome and it's still funny to me. So
like listening to mixes for the record. My daughter, who's four,
liked this song and she would occasionally tell strangers she
would like, my dad has this new funny guy Snoop
on a song, and I was like, Jane, and I
don't people probably don't believe her, but I was like,
he's not new. I guess he's kind of funny, but

(16:00):
still wild to me that he did it. It's really
fun whenever you get a rapper on a track. And
then I have other friends in music who have done
the same thing, who have gotten hip hop artist and
it's different than country artists because they country was kind
of just trade, like I'll give you one, but you're
gonna give me one. And and I feel like, for like,
uh that, I think that's the way that it goes
like for that kind of stuff. And then singer songwriter

(16:21):
world two, and I just feel like rap is a
different there's that marketplace has been like worked out. It's like,
here's how we do this. So it's kind of a formula,
totally yes. And so with that though, when you asked
Snoop to do something, do you go, hey, give me
this many bars and just write whatever you want you
get you kind of go here, listen to the song,
come up with your own. So I was feeling it
out and I'm like a total control freak. So it

(16:42):
was a little weird to basically his guy. After we
worked everything, now he's like, okay, just so you know,
this is how it goes. Snoop does this one time.
There's no reados, it's not like you know he and
they're like he's the best, but he's going to do
it one time. You can best, the money, will give
you the track, that's it. And so Greg, my manager,
is like you sure you want to do this, and
I was like, we came all this way, man, yeah,

(17:04):
let's let's do it, which again not at all like me.
We did confirm that it was going to be clean
because I was like, you know, I don't have any
misconceptions that Snoop has like followed my music closely for
many years. I was like, just so you know, like
we gotta we gotta keep this like pretty PG and
so there's a there's a bit of a saga there,
so I'm like, let's do it. He sends the tracks

(17:28):
and uh, I wasn't gonna tell his story, but I
will basically the second line. So the song is called Sunday.
His first line is you got me feeling like chick
flows open on a Sunday, and then a second line,
after we've waited, you know, for like ten days, kind
of on pins and needles, is like they legalized green
and made it the National blunt Day, and I was
just like, oh, Snoop, come on, man. So I I

(17:52):
got that. I got like the files like in the
middle of the night one night, and I woke up
to it like seven, and so I'm just immediately panicking
where it's like I just paid Snooped wrapping my record
and now I can't use it. So I like go
oatch my studio and I'm like flying stuff around and
so basically I ended up wrapping over him a couple
of times onlines that I was like, I don't really
like that, and uh. I talked to Greg and I

(18:12):
was like, okay, I fixed it, and he was like, well,
I don't know if we can do that, like we
can't necessarily edit what he sent us, and so then
it was a whole another thing. But he ended up
being cool about it, and it actually ended up being
I think cool because it feels like we're like doing
back and forth, but it was totally you know, I
was out on a limb already from what I would
usually do, ask him to do the song, and then
when they were like he's only gonna do this once,

(18:33):
I was like, let's do it. But it ended up
great and I did. I asked him to do the
intro and he did that, which is really kind of him.
But so that's that's how it went. I didn't know
if it was like do you want me to write
this or do you want some pointers? It's just like
we got it, bro, and I was like, okay, hope,
good funny. It was like, yeah, I may give me
some pointers something like in that clip that you played,
are they going back and forth? Let's see ship? But

(18:56):
leg was open over Sunday Snoop By we tried it
was close. Wouldn't that be great when you tell the story?
I wouldn't. I would never have thought that were the case.
I think that is such a great story. I know,
And that's and the deal is, like I would love
for people to believe. And I think people are like,
oh man, what was like hanging with Snoop? And it's like,
I dude, everybody does this remote Like I wasn't I

(19:17):
would I would have hung with Snoop, but we didn't.
And so part of it is like I think it
sounds like Snoop and I are just like best buds,
like throwing it back and forth, and in reality it
was a very stressed out me that was probably like
seven thirty five am. I'm like, what would I want
him to say? I'd be like Snoop, I know we
tried it was closed, wouldn't that be great? And I
was like, That's what I'm gonna do? But it ended

(19:37):
up it ended up working out, but it was pretty
funny to get there. Now. In your bio, Ben Rector
also wrap a Snoop Dogg and Snoop. In that wrap,
Snoop says, you know, I don't think I'm extrapolating too
much in this, but he said, we you know they
there's only there's only one of the We've got that
hustler flow. And so I'm I'm happy to accept that

(20:00):
from Snoop Dogg. Did I pay him to say that? Yes,
but he I think he meant it. I feel he
meant it. Yeah, for sure, you're an art of Arkansas.
Maybe I think the story that I read was maybe
your sophomore of your freshman year, like, do you interest

(20:21):
song in a contest? Yeah? It was a John Lennon
songwriting contest, which I had No. I don't think any
business entering. I don't know what made me think that
I should, and so I did, and then I wanted
which was crazy. And who's in this contest all over America,
all the world? Yeah, it's it's still goes on now.
I haven't followed it. It's just basically like I don't
know if there's rules against professionals, but it's just like

(20:42):
enter your songs to be considered. And they had like,
you know, judges who were like cool. I don't remember
who they were, but it was like hip people. What
was this a song that you had just written? Was it?
Oh euromart song? It wasn't a euromart was it was
an original? Uh? Just one of my songs I had made,
like an EP over Chris This break at Oral Roberts University,
which is a Christian university in Tulsa. They have a

(21:05):
studio that we used, and um, I entered that song
and yeah, I got a call like I don't know
how long after that, and someone was like, is this Bend.
I was like, yeah, they're like you won. It was
like I won what like you won the gent and
SI as like incredible, that's awesome. Um, and then it
was cool. I mean, nothing like major changed for me then,
but it was really cool to get some affirmation to

(21:26):
be like, oh, hey, like maybe I could do this.
What do you win? Though it was actually quite cool.
They it's at that point it was sponsored by Roland
and somebody else, and they just were like it was
kind of a lot of I want to say it
was like ten thousand dollars of stuff, and so I
got to pick out like pedals and the piano and
some cases and whatever it was. It was I was like,

(21:47):
this is incredible. It's awesome. Practically it was amazing for
what you were doing, the stuff that you could Oh
yeah no, I used like that piano and some of
that stuff for like a long time. But I think
the biggest takeaway was just like, you know, I'm just
like making all of I still I'm making all of
this up. But then I was just like I didn't
even know if am I really doing music? And it

(22:07):
was cool to have any outside anything be like, hey,
you're good at this. I was like, oh, thank you,
that's awesome. When did you start to feel the sort
of underground buzz that made you go, wow, this is
not that you don't deserve it or you aren't talented enough,
but you can be both and and still not get
I think honestly, man. So, second semester of freshman year,

(22:31):
I started playing on campus and people would like come
to shows, but it was usually like you know how
it starts. It's like your friends are excited about it,
and they might bring a couple of friends and it's like, Okay,
this is kind of cool. And the summer in between
freshman and sophomore year, everybody took everybody that had bought
my like EP home. They took it home and shared it.

(22:52):
And so like the next year, there was a bunch
of people like I'm making this up, Like Kappa Kappa
Gamma at a state wants me to come play it,
like the walkathon for charity, a bunch of stuff like that.
And so that next year I was playing in other
places and basically like when I would come back to
those places, I would realize I was like I don't

(23:12):
know anybody here, Like none of my friends are at
this show. You're just here, I guess because you like this.
I think like probably sophomore year I started to realize
that it was like I stopped knowing people at the
shows and it was just like people, And I was like, oh,
this must kind of be working because it's not like
my buddies and their friends. It's just like strangers. So
I think probably maybe sophomore junior year, it felt like

(23:34):
it was like I was being pulled by like a
ski boat rather than like trying to like paddle myself,
you know. And is that the time when you thought,
all right, this is it, Like I got it, that's
what you're gonna do. Not maybe I don't. Not I
have it in that I'm really great, I'm gonna rock this,
but like I got it, like I've kind of found
my purpose. Yeah. I think, um my parents practicality rubbed

(23:55):
off on me in that, Like I was never the
like I'm just gonna like go out l a and
chase my dreams. Like I just I'm not really wired
like that. And um so I think that probably probably
like junior year, I started being like, I think this
is my job. Like there was enough stuff coming in
and I was missing enough school and we were at

(24:15):
that point starting to play like actual venues. It wasn't
like just bars anymore. Like I remember we played the
House of Blues Dallas and just felt like we had
like won the Grammys or something. Um. I think when
that started happening, it was like, oh, like this is
this is probably what I'm supposed to do because it
was enough of a wave. It wasn't like, oh, yeah,
it's like Ben Place covers at a college bar. It
was like, oh, it seems like people are actually enjoying this.

(24:37):
So I'd say, yeah, that's kind of like when I
was like maybe I could do this. I mean this
in the most complimentary way because I feel this way
about even me at a point, because I've shifted and
done all the different formats I've been hip hop and
pop up the country. You're a bit genre lists, which
is great and at times can also be frustrating. Totally

(24:58):
so being a genre lest artists, Like, was there ever
anyone that said, hey man, pick a lane, like pick
a lane and dedicate to it? And you know what's
interesting is like I was super fortunate to come along
at the time that I did because you could kind
of like choose your own adventure, like it was just
when iTunes was like really happening, and there wasn't really

(25:18):
as much of a ceiling anymore on independent artists, which
was awesome because I was like, oh great, like I
can just like make music I want to make it
seems like people like it. This would be great. But
because of that, like I also wasn't in the infrastructure
of the music industry, and so I was kind of like, uh,
like an overgrown cottage industry musician where it's like, oh,

(25:38):
like there's like a type of like a dwarf tree.
I was like a tall version of that, and so
um because I wasn't on a label or anything, there
was nobody being like, hey man, to like really have
this blow up. We need you to make like folk
music only where we need you to whatever. I was
just like I was a and ring everything and I'm
like making the records, and so I'd say later on

(26:01):
in my career like now, it is occasionally frustrating because
you're like, oh, dang, Like I like I envy the
infrastructure of country because it's like hey, like there's a
there's a playbook here and it's not necessarily that simple,
but like there are lanes for people making this kind
of music, and for me now it's weird because like
I'm kind of in the same lane as like do Aalipa,

(26:23):
Like I'm kind of in that lane, but I'm not
really that. But I'm also I'm not really in the
like folk Americana and so um. I think in hindsight,
it probably would have behooved me to be like, oh,
like really drilled down on like one thing. Um, But
it's just kind of a time and place thing. Like
I if I had been come along ten years earlier,

(26:43):
I probably just would have signed because we've talked to
like labels on every record, and it's always just been
like I was a little bit too late, like senior
singer songwriter music was kind of like coming down in
popularity as I was coming up, and it just never
really made sense for me. So if it was ten
years earlier, I probably would have signed end and done it.
And because I came around a little later, it's just
like yeah and so um, it's always kind of fallen

(27:06):
on me to sort of creative direct that stuff, which
is good and bad. Like creative freedom is awesome, but
sometimes it would be great to have somebody be like, hey, like,
we're gonna plug you into this lane. And so now
it's just kind of I'm just sort of free floating.
You know. How I relate to that a bit. And
why I asked that question is when I was doing pop,
I was too country to do pop. When I did country,

(27:28):
I was too pop to do country. When I did
hip hop, when I did sports, I never I never
quite fit anywhere, but I was able to go anywhere.
And there is a power in that. Then I could
go anywhere. And I was extremely and still am extremely versatile.
But again, I never I was never a part of
any group totally that they just welcomed and embraced. If anything,

(27:52):
people obviously I wouldn't be at the point. So I'm
not I'm not whining about it because it's been great,
but I never had just a group that said you're
one of us, let's go together. Sure, And I was
good at what I did. Heck, I'm great at what
I do, but there still wasn't and and I just
I can feel that at times with you as well.
You're great at what you do, but you know, there's

(28:14):
really not a lane. This has come on in right,
and I think I think the real difficulty is I
there are I think those lanes do exist, but I
think like, especially in the last ten or fifteen years,
they've changed so much, Like the definitions of formats at
radio have changed a ton, Like we think about that
a lot with this record, where it's like there's songs

(28:34):
that I think could do well and like people are
starting to play the Living My Best Life the first single,
which is great, but there's not like a total lock
fit for me for a lane. And it's funny because
it's like really like it's pop music, but what pop
radio is or looks like today, it's like a little
bit odd for that, like it doesn't totally fit. Um.

(28:54):
So yeah, I mean, and it is a challenge, And
I think the place that it's a challenge is mainly
just like in the street stuff because big picture, people
can kind of find what they want to find, and
like I've been super fortunate to have like people be
like we like this enough to like have it be
a thing. It's really more the kind of like uh,
internal industry stuff that's a little bit tough because I

(29:14):
feel like I always joke I'll use the like office space,
we put cover sheets on the TPS reports. I was
always like, if I make a good enough report, it's
not gonna matter. And I realized in the internal like
industry stuff, it's like, now I we need still you
need a cover sheet. We on the CPS reports, TVs reports,
we have cover sheets, and it's like, oh, man, like
I I didn't get the memo on that. I just didn't.
I don't put those on there, you know what I mean?

(29:35):
I think I heard it on the Pulse I listened
to because that's serious too, and listen to the not
nineties on nine. But I think I heard your new
single on the Pulse? Is that right? Yeah? And there
they a man are so great, um huge shout out
to them, but they they just started playing it. And
it's honestly, I feel like, uh, for me, especially, radio

(29:58):
has always been like an interest endeavor. But for whatever reason,
again with me being like maybe this is just gonna work,
it feels like there's a little bit of like a
thing happening where stations are playing it that I didn't
think would, and it feels like people like I like
this song, I'm gonna play it, which is like incredible,
but I don't know where that will go. But serious
has has been super kind to like start playing it,

(30:20):
which is super awesome because I'm not I'm not like
on Universal or something. It's just like me and Greg.
You know what I mean. Here, let me play some
of living my best life. Here you go wake up
with the sunrise. It does not look good. Thing I
thought that, but I've been gets him steps and awest

(30:44):
my best friend. It's the best said it has been
in a long I'm living my bed. Whenever you see
the art for The Joy music, yeah, the Red Creature,
and I watched I think I watched you do a
whole Q and A on it. But but I'll remove

(31:05):
what I kind of already know and just explain it
to me. It's basically you and what looks like a muppet.
I don't know if a muppet was the you know,
in the genesis of the idea. Yeah, so I'll tell
you the whole story. Um, Basically, I had this crazy,
wild idea to make kind of a creature that would
embody Joy because I started realizing the record was gonna

(31:27):
be called The Joy of Music and kind of had
the idea to be like, let's make this short film
which is like music videos for the record together and
with one narrative, and um, I was like, I've never
seen anybody do that, and it would be so awesome
just to like get everybody in on this joke with me.
I transparently can also like at shows and stuff like
throw the like spotlight onto this thing and I have

(31:48):
it do stuff and like get a little bit of
a break. And also it just sounds super fun to
me to get to do something creative like that. So
I sketched out some stuff and I was like, who
could build this? Looked all over the internet at Jim
Henson's Creature Shop is like the best in the world.
At this they make them up. It's sesame Street and
like anything that looks like that they made where the
wild things are like all that stuff. Um, we talked

(32:10):
to them and it was expensive, and I was like,
I don't know if this is like are they gonna
this is gonna be a big enough project for them
that they're gonna do a great job. I'm worried that
they're gonna be like, oh, we got the new Star
Wars movie. Sorry, kid, Like here's your like silly creature.
It's like snoop. They make one and that's it. Like,
here you go. I didn't want to, I know, but
I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to, like figure,

(32:31):
I'm trying to feel out, like how's this going to go?
Talk to another group? And so when realized that Henson's
was the way to go, so talk to them, and
they do. They were the best. It was a dream
and so I'll you know, I think you'll probably pick
up what I'm putting down here, But this is kind
of the party line with Joy. What actually happened was
I sketched it out there. Artist sketches that out better.

(32:54):
We kind of like start diving in. They start building
a prototype. They're like building this giant suit. I went
to their offices in New York and like tried it
on and gave notes and we got really close to
the end. They're like, you're never gonna believe this. There's
a guy that looks just like this and he lives
in Nashville. His name is Joy, And I was like,
why didn't you just tell me this when we started out.

(33:15):
So what had happened was Joy is just living in
Murphy's borrow, just giant red creature, and he had talked
to Henson and he was like, I want to be
in the Muppets, and they were like, you can't be
in the Muppets. We make the Muppets. And he was like,
oh bummer. And so when this happened, I just ended
up casting him in the film and they helped me
find him. You know what I mean, I'm confused with

(33:35):
references to him and him living in Boro. It's hard.
It's it's you know, what I'm gonna say is the
older you get, it can be harder and harder to
believe that Joy exists. Got it? But there is, you know,
and you know, you guys are close. We're tight. Man.
He's actually staying at my house right now. He's really great.
He's a really good guy. And well, Joy come to

(33:58):
shows and ever present or make appearances. We're kind of
we're in talks with him and we're trying to figure
that out. Um. You know. As the as the short
film started to come out, he's like a little bit like, well,
I don't know, maybe I gotta consider some other options,
et cetera. But I think he'll come out on the
road with us. Well, he need his own bus for

(34:18):
pretty much. You know, I mean, you you would you
would be you can kind of tell on the cover,
but um, it's so much bigger in real life than
you would think. Like you and I couldn't get our
arms around him. It's so big, really big. I mean
I initially when I saw the yard thought it was
probably just like a foot and alt hall. Oh no,
I mean I know, just next to you large about that? No, no, no, no,

(34:42):
I mean really and truly, man, it is so before
everything came out, we kind of had Joy walk around
Nashville one day and we went to twelve where I
used to live, and I mean you can see Joy
from a mile away, and it is like it's just
the most giant thing. It's wild. It's truly crazy. Do

(35:04):
you expect Joy to be in your future creative process
or is this a one album thing? You know? I
don't know. Or I spent off into book kids, but
I just want to kids book, no joke. So kind
of Joy has started to express to me maybe some interest,
like maybe he wants to make some music, and I'm like, well,
we could talk about that, so you know, I could
see that offshoot happening. And then honestly, we have talked

(35:28):
about him doing some kind of a you know, because
these kids so far love him. My kids are like
truly like love him more than me. So maybe maybe
we'll do that. One of the other songs on the
record has Kenny G. I watched I'm Not Done with It.
You have you watched the HBO documentary on Keny No,

(35:50):
I've heard him. I've heard it's awesome. It's awesome. Yeah,
I've heard his rad and Kenny G is more than
just a saxophone player, dude. So I I can't say
enough good things about Kenny G and my experience working
with him. The best guy in the world. And he
so he was the first person, he was the first
like quote unquote feature on the record. There's a song

(36:11):
with saxophone on it, and I was like, what if
we got Kenny G to play this? So we get
with Kenny G. He's awesome. I don't know if it's
gonna be like I'm just gonna shred over your song,
have fun, or if it's like we work on it together.
And so he sends his first pass and I literally
into him in an email is like, I don't know

(36:32):
how this goes. Is this like you're Kenny G and
you give me the sacks? Good luck or do I
give you notes on the sacks And he's like, oh, man,
let's make it what you wanted to be. So like
we go back and forth and the coolest part of
the whole thing it comes, you know. He's like, man,
I've had a great time on this. I'm really glad
I got to do it. And I was like, that's
so kind of you, man, and so like, I'm getting
ready to kick it over to my manager to work

(36:53):
out like whatever financial arrangement we're gonna have, and he's
just like, man, don't worry about it. I loved I
loved it. I was like, Kenny g are you kidding me?
Like are you serious? And dude, he just the kindest
guy of all time and it was so fun to
work with. He was he was a blast man. You'll
like the HBO Max documentaries that you have a relationship
with them already, but it's just shows the many sides

(37:14):
of him. He's also a big golfer, was super into
golf and I so I this was like in the
you know, the very the very beginning craziness of COVID,
but I was like, man, and we talked about that.
He's like, we should played all some time, and I
was like, from fem from your lips to God's ears,
how did you get so good at golf? And Jake Oh,
and it's like, hey, you know, Ben's really good. I

(37:34):
was working I was working with I've worked with everyone,
and I still suck. And we were talking about something
in your name came up and he's like, you know,
Ben's really good, and I thought, okay, sure, whatever, And
then I see you on like the Golf channel swinging
a driver outside you or something, and then you're playing
at Jake or at Jake with Jake, or at least

(37:54):
at the same event, the Pebble Beach. Yeah, the prom Yeah,
so man, okay, So what actually happened was, um, I
I played my Chris Wiley of euro mart fame, and
I in eighth grade. I was very large seventh grade actually,
I was very chubby kid, and Chris is like six

(38:16):
for like a hundred pounds. We were like the odd couple.
For whatever reason, we decided to try out for the
golf team, none of us being good at all at golf,
and the deal was like pretty much nobody tried out,
so we both made it. No instruction, no anything. It
was literally like childcare pretty much. So my mom would
drive us out to the middle of nowhere. It was

(38:36):
really far away and literally like I don't remember a
coach speaking to me. It was just like, you're here,
hit balls. I guess so. Um. I stopped playing after that,
and I wouldn't really consider that like a history with golf.
It was like one year for like a fall, I
like hit some balls kind of. I asked Chris. I
was like, how bad were we? He was like, I
don't think we broke a hundred and twenty, like truly,

(38:58):
I think we were like not golfers. So after college,
you know, I was like kind of looking for a hobby.
And then I started touring more and Hillary, my wife,
I would come home and she was like, you really
need to find a hobby because I would go from
being on the road moving a million miles an hour
and then I'd kind of be like bouncing off the
walls at home. So her dad gave me his old
golf clubs and I started playing a little bit. What

(39:19):
age the twenty four And I'm always like, these kids
that are good. They started at eleven, they were rich kids. Yeah,
now I and and and I honestly did. My greatest
regretted life as that I didn't play golf because I
had so many years I could have played, and instead

(39:40):
of like it doesn't matter if I can feel the
ground er, now it doesn't it doesn't matter. Um. But
so basically I started playing like a little more. And
then probably like five or six years ago, I was
like kind of getting into it in a real way,
and I was like, I should join a club here,
and so I joined it the place Jake plays. And
that's when I got like actually serious about it, and
so I just to playing with people that were better

(40:01):
than I was, and like practiced. Do you ever play
with Corney h dude? You know it's so weird. I
don't know if we've ever played together, and we've talked
about it. I see him all the time, and I
feel like we just keep like our schedules don't line up,
but I need to play with him. He's also a
guy that's annoyingly good, takes it really applied with it,
takes it really seriously. And you're jealous because he has
multiple things really good. Um, you're weren't. You should come

(40:22):
hang out with our group though we we have a
filled grounders club no. We also, yeah, we're sit around
the Phili grounders all day. I can't tell you see
if joking? Yeah, of course maybe legit. If it was
like Homer and Derby, I'd be like, let's do we
do that? Though we do home run Derby too. There's
a little baseball phil this. I'm serious about seven of
us and there's uh, it's probably a filth, like twelve

(40:44):
year olds and we play home run Derby. Oh dude,
I mean that that's the exact kind of pick up
sports that I miss. We I gotta call last, do
you play basketball? Pick up basketball? Ever? I messed up
my ankle really bad a year ago and I haven't
done anything like that since. I also am nervous about
playing in and I have a lot of friends that
are like, hey, let's play, and so I have been considering.

(41:05):
You told me, I think this is lamb or not
hiring one of these coaches they coach like ten year
olds to come out here in a basketball court and
like work with me. That's a great idea to make
sure that I'm back in it all. Dude, I think
I think it's a great idea. It would It would
be an enriching experience. I feel like any any new
challenge is awesome. I feel like the older you get,
it's easy for me to be like I don't want
to do new stuff, and it's I think it's rad

(41:26):
when let's go back again. So you're a did you
graduate college? I graduated, I mean just nice, just barely.
It was to the point if I had had two
more years, I don't know if I would have finished.
And I vividly remember. So I've played two shows in college,
which is insane. It was like every weekend Thursday, I'd leave,

(41:47):
come back Sunday night. I remember one time getting back
to class on a Monday and they were handing out
Scantron's and I was like, this is bad. I didn't
know he had a test today, which is I try
to like take stuff seriously, so I d of came
in for a crash. I had to keep a certain
g p A for my scholarship, and I was like
just barely barely slid in. So where did you move

(42:07):
to when you graduated college? I moved to Nashville, So
basically I was going to stay in Fayetteville and um
a couple I there was like a core of Nashville
singer songwriters that I like looked up to, and it
played some shows with it was like Dave Barnes and
at Words and those guys, and Dave was like, you
should really move to Nashville. And I was like, Nashville

(42:27):
doesn't need another like guy with songs about his feelings
who plays guitar like you guys chock full of that.
And he was like you should just consider it. And
so UM ended up moving right after to Nashville, and like, yeah,
it was literally like finished college, finished, like an EP
drive to Nashville to like find a place to live.

(42:48):
It was like that does this place feel like home?
You know? I think it does. There's the only part
that doesn't is I didn't realize that like Oklahoma. I
think I grew up thinking Oklahoma was so darn and
I think some Oklahoma's think that, but it's really like
Cowboys South. It's like a different flavor. And so I've
realized I'm like, oh, like I actually kind of missed

(43:09):
Oklahoma because that's like my like native tongue. That's like
like I'm so used to that. Um, And so I
think Nashville totally feels like home, but there's still a
little bit of like, oh, this isn't exactly like where
I grew up. And I think I didn't expect that
because when I moved here, I was like, yeah, I'll
be like Oklahoma. And it's like, oh, it's a little different,
but I like it. Again. My wife from Fort Gibson
and I always assumed Oklahoma was the South. It was

(43:32):
just next to Arkansas totally, and it's and it really
is not. It's a different brand, and it's yeah, it's not.
And she doesn't even think of Oklahoma as the South.
And not only that, she's like, hey, we weren't on
the bed side in the Civil War, right, we weren't
even state. Yeah, she was like, we weren't. We weren't
in it. Yeah, totally. Now, I think, and I think
some people in Oklahoma would claim like being Southern. But

(43:56):
I think that like when you meet someone who's from
like Alabama or George, it's like, oh, it's not. It's
not like that, you know what I mean. It's kind
of its own thing. Here is a clip of Supernatural
featuring Dave cos from video album See Something, super Natur

(44:33):
Let's Do one More. Here is dream On, dream On,
dream Of, Even when you're afraid, Oh your dreams maybe
gone stream on Dreamer, when what's chans you crazy? Just
telling them they're wrong. Dream I was looking at some

(44:54):
of your tour and you tour not like a country act,
which is even when when I tour, if I'm doing
Standout or we're doing our music comedy group, we tour
like a country artist. I got a job, you know, well,
tour maybe Thursday night, Friday Saturday, mostly just Friday Saturday, right.
And then I have friends that aren't in country music
and they just go and stay on the road like
knock it out. Yeah, you're kind of a hybrid of that,

(45:15):
like there are times where you're out there for four
or five, six nights in a row, and yeah, and
and so um. I used to do the like go
out for like two solid months, speak on the whole time.
And I think just having kids, I was just like
I don't want to for a long time, I did
music like it was like a rental car or like
summer camp. It was like a dead sprint. I was like,
I'm gonna like sprint as fast as far as I can,

(45:37):
then we'll be done with this. And I think now
I realized, like, oh, this is my real life, so
I need to like integrate it into that. So, um,
it's a little more expensive to not just be gone.
But I've also realized, like I just I don't think
I would do well. It's at some point for me
in the life stage I'm in with kids and stuff,
it's like I just don't want to be like actually
gone for that whole chunk of time. So um, yeah,

(45:59):
it just kind of pens like I try at this
point keep it to like three shows a week, just
like anytime I have a bunch of four show weeks
in a row. Vocally it can get a little bit dicey,
but sometimes routing stuff, it's like, yeah, like we will
just stay out. But it just kind of depends when
you do the new tour again. I was watching on
your Instagram. Someone's like, Hey, you're gonna play the old

(46:20):
stuff the new stuff? Will you play the entire new record?
I'm I'm actually trying to figure that out, and part
of me is like I'll be interested to see, like, um,
it's the first record I've been optimistic about and I
just I'm like, I think it's actually good. Were you
the most sad person ever before the truck. No, No,
it's finally had faith in myself. I think it's I
think what it actually is is like I'm just I'm

(46:42):
very critical of the stuff that I do, and so
like there's there hasn't been anything that I've released that
I'm like, I think this is bad, Like I'm not
like that. But there was always kind of an asterisk
with stuff like in golf, you know, it always felt
like I wanted to make a little bit of excuse
where it's like, well, like that was that one was
a little toy, like know, they didn't get all that one.
And I think this is the first one that I'm like,

(47:04):
I had this one good, Like this is about as
hard as I can hit this record, and that's a
It's just a funny feeling for me because I think
I'm used to being like, oh I should have done
that song again or whatever. So um, yeah, I think
it's just the first time that I've that I haven't
maybe that I've made something that I don't still feel
like very critical of. I'm like, I think it's good.

(47:24):
So part of me is like I'll be interested to
see what people's reaction to it is and if it
ends up being like a whole thing where it's like, yeah, dude,
we got We're gonna play the whole record and other
stuff too. If I had to guess, I bet it
will be like a decent amount of the new record
and other stuff. Because I never want to be the
person that someone's like, we came from des Moinese for
this show and like you didn't play the song we

(47:45):
want to. I want people to leave being like that
was awesome, And I don't ever want to be like
I don't want to play the old stuff. But I
don't know exactly what songs will resonate or if it'll
be like, oh man, people are as excited about this
record as I am, so we need to play a
lot of them. I bet it would be a little
They're both when you cover Shania Twain still the one

(48:10):
you know we were playing I was playing on the
National AC count I show. You know you can't play
it on the radio, Like why that? Why record that?
Why put that out? Like what about that song? To you? Well? So,
I mean in Oklahoma, country music very popular, and I
feel like because I wasn't at an early age like
diving into like obscure random stuff, the country music was

(48:31):
just playing. I love that song. It's like literally just
one of the best songs I think ever. Um. And
I also love with covers stuff that's like a little
bit there's a little bit kitchy, a little bit unexpected,
kind of fun and funny. Um, not just like an
earnest like this is like a very important song, because
I feel like people wouldn't immediately be like, oh, you

(48:54):
probably would cover Shania Twain. But I think it's just
like as a writer, I was just excited to play
it every because I'm like, it's such a good song,
and then it people on the road enjoyed it more
than I expected, and so we're like, well we have to, like,
you know, we should put this version of it out
the record in its entirety out March eleven. There are
some songs out already now. The tour you can go

(49:16):
to Ben Rector music dot com, slash Tour, the Joy
of Music Tour. There will be special appearances by Joy. Yes,
we can say that. Yeah, well I think we already.
I thought we already said that. Well, I was trying
to still give him an out in case he changed
his mind, but he's gonna come. Um, JP Sacks, Yeah,
is gonna come out on the road with you. Yeah,
so he's basically we split the tour in the tour right, Yeah,

(49:38):
So basically the front side is again named Jake Scott,
who's also from our mark Ye and then um JP.
I just love his music, Like at the beginning of
the pandemic, I would go for runs and I just
like wore his music out, and he Aaron Sterling, was
a drummer friend of mine, plays for everybody he played
on his stuff and so like I know a few
people that know him. And so when I was thinking

(49:59):
about this tour, I'm trying on this cycle to just
do stuff that sounds fun, and I was like, it
sounds like fun to have JP sacks out because I
just think his music is awesome. So he'll he'll be
on the back side of the tour, and then the
first of three slot there's two guys who I think
are like the best young Nashville singer songwriters, just both
insanely talented, and so they're gonna split that set. They'll

(50:20):
like play like, you know, a few songs each and
then we'll join in my band. Oh that's cool. Yeah, alright,
Well he's all over starting in May and it's one
to three. I can just ask you, but I'm going
to count out and be really annoying. Three four or
five six seven looks like twenty shows or so, yeah,
it's probably is. I don't know if the final count
was I counted wrong, then all right, maybe maybe it twenty.

(50:43):
You could be right. You know, it's a couple of them.
Don't go on seal yet, the one in Vienna that's
probably yeah. You guys go follow Ben at ben Underscore
Rector because I'm assuming somebody has been rector. There is
a British photographer who doesn't post anymore, but he he
beat me to Instagram. Actually, my social people were just like,
he hasn't posted for a why I think might be

(51:03):
able to get it from I'm like, no, I don't
think that's gonna happen. That's the worst because I have
to go with Mr Bobby Bones everywhere now. Really, because
one guy who wasn't posting from Virginia Beach named Bobby
Bones named his name the handle and there's yeah, we
couldn't get it from him. I was I was just
like I was a little bit of a late adopter
on Instagram, and then I looked up and some guy

(51:25):
had it. I mean that was when it was like
nobody used it, but he was. He was at ben
Rector was quick, He's got it. Read one question for
been Rector. All right, this is read Or. He does
the cameras, he's running all the cameras. No pressure, read pressure. No,
he does this too every time. Okay, okay, come prepared.
But I used to just hit him with it and
he was like you are you are you? Are you

(51:46):
from Arkansas? I am where? Yeah? I grew up in Benton.
Sweet man. Yeah, man, that's all I do. I just
hire us. We're all, we all work together, we're all cousins.
Somehow we try to get back. But I've been a
fan for a long time, awesome things all throughout junior high,
in high school and stuff. And one of my favorite
songs of yours is probably yeah, So how did that

(52:07):
song come about? And like is it a true story?
So I would say that story is like an amalgamation,
so it's like not necessarily like this happened like on
this flight, but that's like a type of conversation that
I had with a bunch of people and I realized, like,
you know, I wanted to be able to write a
song that was like from a place of gratitude, um,

(52:27):
but also acknowledging that, like some of the parts of
my job are kind of weird. So uh, that's it's
a it's a conversation that I had with you know,
a number of people, and then I kind of distilled
it down to like one thing. So it did really happen,
but it wasn't like and it happened like on flight
to for eight Atlanta, you know what I mean. I
met on a flight. Yeah, I thought it was I

(52:47):
thought that's what it was about. Actually, but yeah, we
were flying to California. So that day I now remember this.
I think it was like some kind of was like
a radio festival or something in maybe Arizona. Maybe we
weren't going or coming from the same spot. So that day,

(53:08):
no joke. I think that's the only time I've ever
done this. But I think I was in every time
zone of America on that day because we woke up
in the on the East coast and we had to
fly connecting somewhere. Then we got to that place, and
then I ended up flying from there to Central time

(53:29):
because I was meeting the tour later, it was a day,
it was a thing. Well, you were still fairly nice.
You you're very kind. I don't even say really like, hey,
you're fine, you kind of I think maybe one of
us was standing in line for the bathroom and I
was like, I'm a big fan and you were like Billy,
and I was like, no, still big fans. And that

(53:53):
was the first time. Well listen, um, obviously I'm a
massive fan and I can't wait for the whole record
to be out. And just of that, you Chase, I
won't say new concepts, but interesting ways to take concepts
used in other parts of the creative space and combine
them and not just joy but snoop, but the way

(54:14):
you will choose a cover. So it's you know, there's
no reinvention of the wheel, but you know there are
different spokes and everyone put it in that specific will
that you're doing that and thanks, so you know, I
really admire that. And I'm also jealous that you're really
good at golf and you didn't start until your twenties.
I mean really good. It's a little it's a little
bit generous, but you're you're you're probably good, no, not

(54:35):
at all good. What's good? Do you have any cab? Yeah,
I mean around a fourteen he had to really be over.
It's not it's like when you're you're like, it's pretty good.
I was waiting on you being like, I'm like, no,
I can on a good day. I can shoot at
eight on a good day. So okay. So here you

(54:57):
would say as encouragement, I was there probably five years ago, truly. Yeah,
but here's the thing with me my body. I'll play
really good for a week and then for some reason
it just forgets. Yeah, but it's it's and I'll shank
for a month. I feel like it's like that for me.
It feels like for everybody it's just you're always like
kind of like you're like this if if, if this

(55:20):
is good. You're just like always up and down. But
like the trend can be better. If you had told
me five years ago that it's like, hey, you'll like
shooting the seventies, A lot of it that's never gonna happen,
that's never going and it's gonna have it's gonna the
best training equipment. I bought it all. I So I
you have the foresight, which is like the one that
sits on the ground. Oh yeah, well you're cooler in

(55:42):
every way. No, no, it is better. You said it
all right there he has been Rector Ben Thank you,
thank you. Good luck with the record when you come
to Nashville. Hopefully I'll find a time my busy schedule
to come right there.