#378 - Band Name Origins with Rascal Flatts, Dan + Shay, NSYNC, Old Dominion + More!

In this episode, we've compiled stories from past Bobbycast episodes on how various bands got their names.  You'll hear how Dan + Shay, Lady A, Rascal Flatts, Old Dominion, Little Big Town, Locash, NSYNC, Creed, Seaforth and LANCO decided on their names, some of the struggles they went through with their name, and what they called themselves before they made it big. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Episode three eight Band Name Origins. It's a really cool
Bobby Cast all about how your favorite bands chose the name.
On this episode, we've taken stories from episodes over the
years and years of various band members here talking about
the origin of their name and how they settle on
our name. And this is all from us, right, We're

(00:23):
not pulling stuff off YouTube that were like, this is
all stories we've been given over the years from the
Bobby Cast. That's pretty cool. We have like a library
that so many episodes. You know, deciding on a name
for your band is a pretty big deal. You know,
it's like naming your kid or pet. You get one
shot really, unless you break up, that's it. So you're
you're out there and there are some terrible band names.

(00:44):
There's some good band names, but then their names who knows,
because they were famous, they're just normal, so we don't
know if it's a good name or not. That's just
who we know him as. Some of the bands had
controversy with their names and they had crazy names and
had to change their name after they got famous, which
but we talked about that in the Lady A. Yeah,
we're talking about that one mh so a lot of
that has happened. You'll hear stories from Rascal Flats, Little
Big Town Dan and Shade Low Cash, Old Dominion, Lady

(01:06):
A in SNT creed like we had all them on
how they got their names? What about Bobby Bones and
the Raging Idiots? How did that come about? When I
was in high school, it was the name of our
little group because we were the Concubine Kings. First, we
don't even know what that meant, which just from the Bible,
but then I realized concubines were like prostitutes. Oh, we

(01:28):
were the Concubine Kings. And then we because we were
playing churches and so you can't name yourself the Concubine Kings.
And I was like, yeah, that's kind of idiotic. And
I just wanted a word that was funny, and ragings
sounded funny. I don't know, but I called us the
Raging Idiots. And we played churches and we did parodies
made for church because we didn't want we don't good,

(01:48):
and we did instead of bad to the bone, it
was easy to play. We did There's Gold up above
the Donna, No No. So we would play churches and
a couple of talent shows and that's where the raging
and then I quit them, although it wasn't really anything,
and then I started to do it in my solo
com I would be like, oh yeah on the Raging Idiot,
gonna show him play, and then I was it and
everybody disappointed. So I started to learn how to play

(02:09):
guitar because I didn't want to do parodies over other
people's music. So it never was really really really a
thing until Eddie and Eddie had a band too called
Rum Tied. There were arch Nemesis and we got into
a huge fight. We killed each other, only to the
left standing um. But I went and played with the
Eddie's band once. We did a couple of songs and
then we were like, well, let's just him and I.

(02:29):
Let's just be the Raging Idiots. So we were just
the Raging Idiots. I never wanted it to be Bobby
Bones and raging idiots. That was never the plan. Well,
we signed a record deal and the head of the
label was said, hey, you should really put your name
on it, and I was like, well, not do it.
But then we started touring and I would do comedy
before the Raging Idiots, and the thing would say Bobby
Bones and the Raging Idiots on the Marquis, and so

(02:53):
he was like, see they're even writing his Bibones and
the Raging Idiots. No, no no, it's me and the Raging Idiots.
And he said, I'll tell you what the first record,
let's put your name want it so people can search
it and I'll know it too if they happen to
come across it. And then we were stuck with it.
And so Eddie's hilarious. All he's not worth of the
Raging Idiots, but he's It's now it's like me and
Eddie and Eddie's all the raging idiots, which is not it.
It's like Hoodie and the Blowfish. Um, so that's how

(03:14):
the Raging Idiots came about. That's it. And that story
sucks compared to some of these. It's funny with parodies,
even from the beginning though me. Yeah, yeah, because I
don't know how to do music anything. I don't do
anything musically. I'm gonna play anything. I still don't really,
just enough to get by. But that's that's how the
whole thing started. Doing parodies in church, not funny, god like,

(03:35):
and we were terrible, all right. So it's a good episode.
Thank you guys for being here. Let's go all right.
Kicking off with Dan and Shay. Dan talked about how
they struggled choosing a name before finally settling on Dan
and Shay. I just think back because all these memories
are hitting now, because that's right when I moved to town.
It's it right about the time you guys went on

(03:56):
with Warner and became a thing. But again, you weren't
Dan and Show. You were Dan and Shap Yeah, Todd,
just friends still looking for a band name. Yeah, that's crazy.
We were honestly under SoundCloud. I don't know. I hope
it's private because somebody's gonna go out there and find it.
We were on SoundCloud as ragtop Red. That was our name.
We were like big Tim McGraw fans and we're like,

(04:16):
well we has red rag Toop. What if we like
flip it rag top Red. There have been much of
our names. There is one. We were in Austin, Texas.
We did south By Southwest and uh, we were down there.
It was I don't remember exactly the timing of this. No,
this was the first. We've done south By Southwest twice.
The second time Justin Bieber came out on stage with us.
It was the whole thing. Yeah, that was crazy. The

(04:37):
first time we did it. There's a picture of it.
There was only we played a showcase and like Shay's
lawyer at the time, this guy Jim's I'm Walt the man,
great guy. Uh. He was like, come down to do
this showcase and we can hang out. And we were like,
this is awesome. You know. We went down and there
was literally three people in the crowd. My lawyer, Jonathan
He's the man, Jim's I'mwalt, and Paul d. Giovanni, the

(04:58):
guy boys like girls keeps coming up in this sit suation.
I don't know why he was there. I think he
was just I think the band was on a break
or something at that point and he was just hanging out.
He was literally standing in the crowd and there's We
watched this the other night. We were cutting together videos
for Tequila and my buddy Pete Tracy, who does like
all our content, he found a video that somebody had
taken and it was showed us like rocking on stage.

(05:19):
I'm wearing like a Boston Red Sox hat and we're
dancing around like we've got something going on, and he
zumes out. Literally no one in the crowd. Was so embarrassing.
But so we go to p F Changs after that
little showcase and Zombie's like, you guys are poised to
be the next big stars, Like whatever, we need to
come up with a name. So he's got his little iPad.

(05:39):
We're sitting at the roundtable in the corner of PF
Chains in Austin, and he's like, I got it, and
we're sitting there like he might have it. This is awesome,
let's hear him out. He's like not showing us. He's
got a big surprise, and he's typing it out on
this little iPad and he flips it around. And his
big pitch to us was that the name should be
Schools Out. Yeah, so like if we ever get a
big Dirk's Bentley or something and can do the you know,

(06:03):
country night, that's funny. I remember that, man. So when
you guys finally decided on Dan and Shay the name,
the name, like we're really just gonna it probably had
to be like, well, we couldn't come up with the name,
so we're just gonna be d Yeah, what was that
conversation and who was the one that said, Okay, we
think it just should be Dan and Jay? Was it Espo?

(06:25):
I don't remember exactly how it happened, but we are managers.
We we work with Scooter braun Um you know which.
By the way, it's funny because I was a Scooter
two weeks ago and Scooter goes hold on and facetimes.
He's the king of FaceTime. While I'm sitting with Scooter
in Los Angeles. I don't know where you guys were.
You were driving. You were driving though we were on
the bus, I think you're doing or was I at home?

(06:46):
I don't know, well whatever, I remember it. So Scooter
is part of the Hey, we're gonna name you guys,
Dan and Shay. Yeah, he was part of that. He
was like, you guys are like recognizable by your names.
Because we had met with Scooter. We'd flown out. We
had like insane experiences at Scooter's place, like Scooter, by
the way, it's Justin Bieber, Kanye Carly class manager, like yeah,

(07:08):
grand everybody, and we would like go out and jam
with Justin Bieber and Selena would be playing guitar and
singing and doing all the stuff and like crazy like
these nights that you see and you know at HBO
series like crazy stuff. And uh, he was always just
like everybody knows you guys is Dan and Shay. It's cool,
Like for the branding and instead of having some band
name that you have to reinvent some new moniker, it's like,

(07:29):
why not just go by your names? Then people will
know you guys and do whatever. We're like, we don't
have any other ideas, Sure, let's go with it. Karen
Fairchild from a Little Big Town talked about how they
tried to find a name that reflected their music. Who
was the person who said a little big town that name, yeah,
a little bit um it was. It was a publishing company,

(07:53):
a little bit town Publishing And did they go away
before you get the name? And so you thought that's cool,
keep it. Well, we we were messing with town names
because of like Kimberly and Jimmy and Philip are like
from tiny, tiny, tiny towns and I was a little
bit of the city girl, and we were trying to
find names that reflected the music. And somebody turned over

(08:16):
a CD and it's a little big town Publishing and
we're like, maybe that's the name. You know. Again, you
become kind of names, you know what I mean, Like
you said about Florida Georgia line or it was not,
but now a Little Big Towns is a name. Yeah,

(08:37):
it's just the name of the group that you hear
all the time. It's not even weird. But I would
think that the first time, Little Big town that was
weird too. Yeah, it's not inside it is. Think about
the first time. It is very selfish thing for me
to tell you to think about think about the first
time and you won't remember it, but that you ever
heard my stupid name Bobby Bones, Like who is that
a pirate? That a porn star? Like? So is Bobby
Bones your real name? No? No, no, I would like Bobby,

(08:59):
asked so, and so I was given that name when
I was like seventeen. And I gotta get her copy
of my book on the way out. I'll tell I'll
sign it for him when she lives. Um. Yeah, no, no,
I'm sorry, I was. I know, I was, I know
it wasn't It's only on Wikipedia. Don't worry. No, no no, no,
that's not my real name and I don't even hide it,
but it's Um, it was forced on me. I was
seventeen and so like you can be Bobby Bones, Bobby z.

(09:23):
I was a kid. I don't know. I was like,
well Bones at least sounds like an actual person. And
so everywhere I was I went, I was connected to
somewhere else because I went from Hot Springs, Arkansas to
Little Rock shared some listening audience Little Rock to Austin, Texas,
and I was already doing nights, and then Austin I
was started doing a national night show. And then the
morning everything was connected. I could never leave the stupid name.
Everybody went to had the stupid name. It's not stupid

(09:45):
now now it's not because it's normal, because it's normal,
and it's because it is something you know, like it
becomes well, I feel like a little hurt, you know
my real name, like a little bit and my father. Look,
I'm gonna be honest and be selfish a second, my
fans a little hurt you know my real name. That's
a I didn't want to hurt your feelings, and we
should that. That's honesty. When you can openly ask in
her feelings, when you can put other people at the risk,

(10:07):
could see that means you're being open and honest, I'm sorry,
why would you be sorry you didn't know. Charles Kelly
was in and he told me about Lady A and
the inspiration behind the original name, Lady Annabelle Um and
how they wanted a southern name that made people wonder.
And Charles also opens up about the controversy behind the
original name as we reflect back for a second on

(10:31):
the origin of the band. Whenever you guys name your
still and you call yourself Lady Annabellum, I would assume
most people think that she's Lady Annabella. Yeah, oh yeah.
And I mean, which is so funny. I mean, obviously
with all that has gone on with their name. I
mean it was the most silly, innocent way of naming

(10:52):
the band. Literally, we're taking these pictures from his Annabellum
Holmes coming up with a name. We were about to
call ourselves Spring spring Day or something. We didn't know
we were just like all these names. Did you guys
name yourself though, or did someone say that we did?
We did? When we're looking through these pictures, like, that's
a beautiful Anabelle Im home right there, I was like
an about it sounds southern. It just sounds graceful. It

(11:13):
sounds like muscle shoals or something. You know. I pictured
like I pictured like Savannah and this thing. I don't
know why I said lady, but I guess I was
thinking like Scarlett oor Hair. I mean, it's so funny.
If I could go back to what made because I
was I came up with that name, and I remember
like saying and I said it today and he goes,
that sounds cool, and I was like, people are just

(11:34):
gonna be intrigued. At the time, all you wanted were
people to go, what what what? What's the lady Annabelle?
And I was like, man, you know there's always that
are like cool bands like Jane's Addiction, all these like
like it gives it a little bit of mysterious vibe
and um, and I was like, maybe there's this like
haunted lady that used to live there, this thing I

(11:55):
don't know laying about and it just sounds southern. And
and then I didn't really think about it. And when
we started going on tour, it's like, oh, so she's
the lead singer, and I was like, I was like,
I'm an idiot, Like, I mean, if I could go back,
I mean, especially when we were going through this whole
thing with her name change. I can't tell you how
many nights I would like stay up going and I

(12:15):
would come up with names in my head, like why
didn't I call myself, you know, freaking green Grass the
screen because it was like it was so and how
do you how do you? How do you? How can
you convince people that it was just like it just
came out of the thin blue er. I don't know
why it just did. It just came out and it
sounded southern. And I remember having so many people going

(12:36):
I won't name the artist, but I remember having like
two or three artists, a like, do y'all think you
all would be as successful without such a cool name?
You know what I mean? And it was like for
them it just felt cool. It just felt us. I
don't know. I can remember I was working and I
was still doing pop and hip hop in Austin, and
you guys were doing a radio tour because you'd bring
by the little pictures signed and it's very early on,

(12:57):
and I was like, Lady Annabelle on, what the heck?
Because he even is that? But I was curious enough
to go and check it out, I know, And you know,
And I don't think we thought past that. We We
didn't never thought past like what's gonna make someone just
push the click on my space and say what let
me hear it? And I don't know even thought it's
kind of cool that it would be like oh and

(13:18):
then a guy singing, I don't know what. Maybe why
when you guys going you play in the open for
your brother and it's the three of you. Were you
doing what you and Dave did where you were just
playing under your name or did you even have a
name or did you have that name? But we had
that we have that name by then we first before
our first gig, I mean, we initially started. I think
are are my Space. It might have been under Springdale

(13:40):
or something like that. I think it was a road
called Springdale. And I remember like telling that to somebodys
or like that sounds cheesy, and you know, and we're like, oh,
it sounds a little bit too much like Sugarland too,
you know, I mean, We're just the name is it's
so hard to come with the name because everything, I mean,
the Beatles, Eagles, you know, all the mascots are basically
taking yeah and uh, and so you know, we didn't

(14:02):
want to be like two dudes in the Chick or
Hillary Dave, you know, Charles Band. So it's just like,
you know, you could just come up with this name.
But and yeah, it was just very intriguing to people
and it worked. The last things I'm gonna ask you
are a bit about the name change, but not really
what you expect about the name changel. I don't mind

(14:23):
at all. I'm not I'm really not that interested in
in the drama of that. I mean, I think we
kind of all saw that play out. But it's like
all the murch you had with Lady Annabellum written, like
those are the questions I have, Like what the crap
do you do with It's like a world series team
to finish a second, like you got it all printed out?
What do you do with it? Then? I don't know.
I mean, listen, I love you know. I just think

(14:44):
we're in a time now where like when you know better,
you know, when you know better, you do better. And
we had never thought about that name. I mean I
had talks with so many of my you know, my
black friends, and they were like, you know, I never
really thought about it. But when I look at it,
you know, like because I, oh, you guys, and I
know that's not but they were like I could see
how that just and I don't know, man, with everything

(15:06):
that's going on, it's like, I don't want to be
a part of any I don't want to have anything
associated with us that would make any human being think
that that was any part of our hearts because it
could not be any more different. Um. I just think
it's just one of those I call it one of
those little blind spots. Especially when you grow up in
the South. You're like you kind of you kind of
in a weird way romanticize some some things around here

(15:29):
that you're not necessarily associating it with the bad. You're
associating it with like the grace this, and you know
what I mean. And I think that was kind of
naively kind of where we were in that and and
there's a lot of people that I thought we folded
or whatever. And it's like, well, you know what, then
if you if you don't want to be a part
of the conversation of change and just opening ourselves up

(15:51):
to like making a better world, and that's fine, you know,
dig your heels in. But that was what it was
all about and yeah, I mean probably a lot of
teachers out there. There was a lot of like all
kinds of stuff we you know, and people still will
call us lady and A Belle. I slipped and have
done that on the opera stage and I was like,
I was like, God, no, listen, that's okay. I mean,

(16:12):
same thing with the Dixie Chicks. They never had There's
no way they had any intention of that being offensive.
And there's a lot of people are like, well, it's
not offensive. It's like, well, no, kid, it's not offensive
to you. And lady and Bella is not offensive to you. Listen.
It wasn't offensive to me. It's not necessarily I don't
associate those things with that word, but a lot of
people do. And when you can make a change, especially

(16:34):
when people called us, you know, lady A, that probably
would have been the most difficult thing if we didn't,
because think about the brand recognition. That would have been
the most difficult thing, if we didn't have a name
that already everyone associated. I mean from the day day one.
I mean I remember, like the first time we went
on Today's Show, it was like Lady A taking over
the pavilion. This was like two thousand seven, so everyone's

(16:55):
been calling us lady A. But it was a very
difficult time. I mean really wild Um never been in
our lives kind of misinterpreted like you like that or whatever,
or you know, and because it's always been about the
music and that's that's what we wanted about. That was
one reason you know that wrote that song on Talk

(17:16):
of This Town was like, I don't want to be
the talk of this town. It's got a little double
meaning there, um. But man, we learned a lot about
ourselves and it kind of made us even more passionate
about being a part of of a band that represents
love and a welcome environment and and putting out music
that makes people feel good. I don't know. So for us,
it's like I know there's something beautiful that's going to happen,

(17:39):
and I know there's something beautiful that's that's out there
that you know, we're we're all, we all are going
to make changes and people are always so resistant to it,
and uh, I don't know. I just I'm hoping that
there's gonna be some beauty from the from the name
change at some point, because I will say right now,
it's it's been it's been pretty tough to be misinterpreted

(18:01):
so bad with your intentions, especially people that I don't know,
you never tried to know, you never even tried, and
they're only basing their only knowledge of you off a
headline that they read ext and and and and trust me,
there's so much more to that in a very crazy
way that people wouldn't even understand, you know. But but listen,

(18:22):
we're just we're trying to do our best like everybody else.
And I think as long as you try and and
um and you know, try to leave it where a
little bit better. You know. I don't want my my
little boy as he grows up and he's in history
class going dad, well what did you mean by that?
And what you now? Because when I learned about I
was like, well that's hard to explain. I don't know,

(18:44):
and so I don't know. It Just we grew up, man.
You grow up, and you start looking at the world
and going all right, man, we can all do better.
And that's just the bottom line. We can. And sometimes
it takes a pandemic and you know, and and and
a lot of things that happened that that kind of
change the world for the better. You know, and it
takes time. It's it's it's still going to take a long, long,

(19:07):
long time. But there's a there's some beauty I think
that's going to come out of this pandemic and everyone
having some forced stillness and um, it's also gonna be
a lot of anxiety and and and therapy we're all
gonna have to go through after this. Trevor Rosen of

(19:30):
Old Dominion talks about how they were worried about being
sued because of the legality of their name, and then
how they got the approval to use the name Old Dominion.
Do you guys ever go do Have you played at
school school Auld Dominion? Ah? Yeah, we played there. I
think last summer. Was that a thing or no? Um,
do they care? I don't, I can't remember. I don't

(19:50):
feel like they hyped it up too much as Old Dominion.
At Old Dominion, I think there was a little bit
of an element of that, but I don't know. Was
it weird to have the name? Was there any legal
thing like you can't call yourself Old Dominion? Yeah? Actually
we almost weren't called Old Dominion. Um, well, so early on,
you know, it's so hard to pick a band name
you know, it's like the worst thing it can possibly

(20:12):
have to do, because yeah, you're always self conscious. You know,
everybody's gonna rip on you and shoot down anything. Everything
definitely um. So, you know, we had to sit there
and go, Okay, well we're not gonna be named Matt
Ramsey or whatever. Let's figure out a band name or
band and so we had tried so hard and we
finally settled on Old Dominion. Matt said that one day,

(20:33):
He's like, the only thing I could think of that's
related to Virginia that hasn't been taken as Old Dominion.
We were like, well, what's wrong with that? So we
were Old Dominion for like maybe two years and started
to get some steam. You know, we had some things going.
We had already put out a couple of songs on iTunes,
and then we were talking to our attorney and he's like, man,
I'm just really concerned about the legalities of this. You know,

(20:55):
you've got the peanut company, and you've got the trucking company,
and you've got the university and and the beer and
so man. We we actually got to the point where
we were sitting at a bar in Nashville trying to
come up with a new name and pretty much having
a band fight. And then I finally, I don't know,

(21:16):
I can be stubborn sometimes, but I was like, you
know what, this is stupid. I'm like, we can be
called the Dominion and they were like, well no, he
the attorney says we could get sued, and I said,
that doesn't make any sense to me. I'm like, there
is there is a university, there is a peanut company.
They're they're not suing each other. There are already more
multiple dominions, and so I'm like, I'm not doing this.

(21:38):
I'm gonna call the attorney. And our attorney was like, man,
I don't know. He said, really, you're probably right, except
the university is the one I'm afraid of um because
they have a marching band, they have merchandise that they sell.
So I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna get ahold
on somebody. So I stay out there all day and
track down somebody at the university and just asked people

(21:59):
until I out to the right person and I said, hey,
we're this band, we've been operating under this name. We
already have songs out, you know, is this an issue?
And they said no, as long as you don't use
our logo, we're not worried about it. You're good. And
so I took it back to the guys and I'm like,
does this satisfy everybody? And they're like, okay, I guess
we're still old dominion. You got it in writing, Yeah,

(22:21):
that's the play getting in writing. Yeah. So it was
all out of like futility of being able to come
up with a new name. Remember any of the names
you guys talked about. I mean, I do know they
were all awful, um, but man, I can't remember. I
do remember playing the Wild Horse one time when we
were in limbo and we were like, let's just be
let's just tell her where Friday Agle. The girl would

(22:41):
announce us when we would play the wild Horse, and she,
you know, she'd go, what do you guys call it?
Sometimes we'd just be Matt Ramsey or whatever. And one
time she was like, how do you want me to
announce you? And Matt was like, Friday Eagle. She's like,
ladies and gentlemen, Friday Eagle. That's pretty funny. I thought
that video of you guys playing was it the Wild Horse?

(23:02):
And there's like one couple dancing. Oh yeah, that was
I couldn't believe Matt still had that on his computer.
It was just and I mean that in the most
sincere way. It was here you here, you guys, are
you got all these hits? A band? You got all
these hits? His riders and you're playing to no One right,
And there's an old couple that are It looks like
they're two stepping to that summer and you want from

(23:22):
memory that summer, that summer and it was a hey, look,
even we like struggled our brains out and nobody would
come to our shows and look at us now. And
it wasn't look at us now, like look at us now?
But I was like, freaking look at us now, like
we can do this, You guys can do this. Yeah,
I was inspired by the video. I thought that was
pretty cool post it was really cool. I mean that,
like you said, that was that was before any of

(23:44):
the hits or anything. Fried Eagle Days. Maybe it was
Fried Eagle Days. Wet might have been the night we've
announced ourselves as Frida Eagle. Gary Levox of Rascal Flats
talks about the various names they used before paying someone
five hundred bucks to be able to use the name
Rascal Flats. You and Jay obviously are related with with
Joe Don. Did Jay find Joe Don? Who's Who's what

(24:08):
was that? So Jay was the bandleader for Shelley right,
and then he hired uh Joe Don to play guitar
for Shelley and so that he had Jabe been telling
me about Jodan how you know high ten and our
Grady sings and plays. So he came down at the
Feeling Steel Guitar Bar one night and it our guitar
player didn't show up, so he invited jode on in

(24:30):
and we did. Uh. Church on the Cumberland Road was
the first song we ever did. The rest was history.
We were like, wow, I don't know what that was,
but that was I mean, it was just it was incredible.
So we asked him and how was that? How quickly?
And tell you had a name? Though it took a
while because we were because I think Jabord and I
were going by deuces Wild and then there was three

(24:51):
of us in there, so deuces Wild didn't make any sense,
and then you know it was hard to come up
with a name. And uh, but we we sat there
and we were thinking, so we're Oaklahio because Joe don't
from Oklahoma is just terrible. And then it was awful.
And so this piano player name Jelly Roll was in
town or was playing with us, and he was like, man,

(25:12):
back in the sixties, I used to have a band
called Rascal Flats and um, We're like, what does it means?
Jelly He was like, hell, I don't know, no idea.
We're like, all right, So we literally wrote on a
napkin um and we paid him five bucks for the name.
So if it did work, get sued later. So that's
the story. Preston of Low Cash shares the story of

(25:36):
how they used to say that's low cash money, and
that was a figure of speech that they used with
each other, and that inspired the name. They told their
management about the name. The management said it never will work,
and it turns out management isn't always right. So you go,
you go play, are you Christen? I'm so enamored when
with him in the name, who came up with the
name and when it came out? Okay, So back in

(25:57):
the day in Kokomo, Indiana, where I'm from, it was
me and my high school buddies. We have this thing
called low Cash Money. Boys, and um, we call ourselves
l c MB low Cash Money Boys, and you had
to be like initiated. You had to get a nickname.
And it was like a little fraternity, high school fraternity,
and we low Cash was kind of a figure of

(26:17):
speech if you could, because none of us had very
much money. So if something really cool would happen, we'd
be like that was so low Cash high five and
be like that's awesome. And so that's how low Cash
kind of came to be. So while we're out in
my jeep Cherokee with the U haul, I tell Chris,
I said, man, you know up in Cocoma, I want
you to meet my buddies when when we play Cookemon

(26:38):
and he says okay. So he meets everybody and he says, um, uh,
these guys are pretty cool. This is pretty cool little
crew of dudes. And I said, yeah, you should be
in the low Cash family with us. We'll give you
a nickname everything. So we give him a nickname and everything.
Chris says, he gets the you know, the light bulb.
He's like, we should be the country boys of Low Cash.

(26:58):
And I was like, because meaning is just never forgetting
where you're from. It's not about being poor. It's about
cool stuff happening for next to nothing, best things in
life for free kind of attitude. So Chris says we
should be the country boys Low Cash, and I was like,
I love that. So then we were like, let's just
be a little cash cowboys. And we came back to
Nashville and we told our management. We're like, we got

(27:20):
a name, weren't called ourselves low Cash Cowboys And they
were like that will never work. And we're like, okay,
well then that's it. We're going with low Cash Cowboys.
If you say it will never work, at least it's polarizing,
it's making you feel something right now. So we're gonna
go with it. And so we did. Chris Kirkpatrick been Sync.
Talk to me about how one of the biggest boy

(27:42):
bands in America came together and how Justin Timberlake's mom
was the one that came up with a name in Sync.
So who was the first guy of of of the
band the group that you were like, all right, come
do it just and you met him was this Mickey
Mouse Club No Post. So so the story, the real
story is I was I was making cold calls. I

(28:04):
was just calling people. I'm like, you know, I need
to find you know, parts, I need to find guys
that saying I need to do whatever. So I don't remember.
I think I went through the paper or something like
that and I called. I think I called agents. I
called like nineteen agents. I'm like, listen, I'm putting together
this group. Okay, thank you so much. It's my number,
this my address click, you know, I did nineteen agents.
One person got back to me and I went over.

(28:25):
I remember it like it was yesterday's Studio Plaza in
Orlando and pulled up in my little Nissan Center or
whatever I was driving, and he gave me this Manila
envelope and I went out and you know, put it
popped in this cassette tape into my player and heard
this voice. I'm like, oh my god, like this is unbelievable.
This is better than anybody that's been in my band yet.
And I pulled up the headshot and I'm like, justin Timberlake?

(28:47):
Is he an Indian? Like I didn't you know, I
didn't get I didn't know if that was a stick
or what was going on. And UH called his mom.
And that was a tough call because they were back
in Memphis, and I was like, Hey, I'm this twenty
four three year old guy, and I want to put
your fourteen year old son in a band with me,
and you know, and and they had this thing where

(29:10):
it was like they went down for Mickey mouse Club
and they said, well, if we got to go there
for Mickey mouse Club and we don't get it, Juliska,
we'll go to Disney. So you know, they kind of
said it again. They also suggested, they said, well, he's
been working with j C. So j C came down
and I actually met j C first because Lou went
and picked j C up at the airport and they
came to my work and I met j C. And

(29:32):
then Justin came and the three of us are out
one night and we ran into Joey randomly, and I
knew Joey. Joey is the only one of them that
I knew prior because we worked at Universal Studios together,
and uh, I knew Joey and we're like, dude, you know,
we're looking for a band, you know, can you do it?
And he's like, yep, I'm in because he was in
this group in high school called the Big guys with

(29:53):
the Luis Fonzi Oh yeah really yeah, which was in
and they were like this. They were like this high
school band. It's so weird to see Fonzie, you know,
doing so much now. And his brother John is amazing
too because his brother John was in my group. But
that's I'll just make this story really long, but um,
but yeah, So then Joey got in the band and
he brought in this kid, Jason, And that's how we

(30:16):
got the name because uh, Justin's mom was looking at
all our names and Justin, Chris, Joey, Jason, and j C.
The last letter all spells in sync, and that's how
we got our name. And then um, the night we
were signing the deal, Jason quit left and it took
us a year to find Lance and night you were signing, yeah,
we ended up signing the next day, just the four

(30:36):
of us. But we needed a base, like we knew
we needed a base. The guys from Seafourth, Mitch and
Tom share the earliest memories they have of meeting in
kindergarten and growing up in Australia and how that inspired
their name. What stage of your childhood life did you

(30:57):
guys meet were three years old. Oh, before school, we
went to a preschool you call it. He was eating crayons.
I think infused that meeting already. I have no memories
before five. I remember. We'll actually have videos that helped
me remember, so that's probably what it is. But Tom
was really begin to eating sand back in the day,
like sand pit star, just like something, yeah, something with

(31:18):
the texture. But we went to c Fourth Kindergarten, which
was the town which are suburb within Sydney where we met,
and the kindergarten was called essentially if we were from Nashville,
we would be called Green Hills. You know. So you
meet then, but do you become friends or do you
just know each other? We know each other, we had
like play dates like our parents. Like, I don't even

(31:40):
know how that gets talking. Did your parents know each other? Yeah? Yeah,
through through the kindergarten. And I feel like it's like
a thing. Did the parents assown that the kids get along,
so let's go, let's let's make them hang out kind
of thing. And that's kind of like the age that
we would hang out. I guess, like I have a
vivid memory of stealing one of Tom's Pokemon cards that's
like one of the earliest memories I have, Tom and
I's going out of the postmon collection and taking a

(32:02):
card out of sn't remember exactly what the card was,
but that was serious. That's caused a lot of tension.
This might this might break the duo right now you
find out. I think it's the one that Jake had
on his knack or was that when Mike was the
chars you're all nerds, great, that's all like, I know
you guys. Um, So when did you actually become friends
where it's like, Okay, you're my guy, We're going to
be friends. We've been friends since we were young, and

(32:25):
we've kind of always like got along and laughed and
like we made music together. We played music together through
high school like a different events and stuff. But then
after high school I moved to l A for a
couple of years. Mitch was in Sydney doing his thing
with a band, and then we started writing together around then,
like twenty one ish in l A. When you were
writing were you writing online? Yeah? We wrote like we
were sending songs back and forth via Skype, and then

(32:48):
we kind of wrote once. But then I went back
to Australia, to visit my family and stuff. One time
when I was about one, and we wrote together and
we're like, this feels like something really cool, and then
we kind of just were like, let's just do this, like,
let's focus on this. Did you moved to later to
music time? You did? Yeah, And so ended up getting
a job at In and Out Burger and that was
kind of the peak, so that the l A trip
wasn't good for you, No, I know it was. Man,

(33:09):
I didn't have a job at in and Out, but
I did have a job at Big Wangs. But yeah,
I had a place at a job at a sports
park called Big Wangs. And I only realized years later
what it was kind of implaying. You didn't know then
You're working at a sports part that was named after
a large penis. Well then it was like wings though
as well, because it was known for its wings, And
I was like, yeah, Wang Wangs. Yeah, So now I
figured it out, And there's just a lot of revelation

(33:29):
coming into my atmosphere today about the Pokemon card and
Big Wings. It's just it's a lot to take in.
You moved to l A to pursue a like a
solo solo Yeah, Yeah, we both did individual things and
it was great. Man. I learned a lot there and
made some connections with people I'm still friends with and stuff.
And then Yeah, but then this just felt like the
right thing, and so I was like we Nashville was

(33:52):
the end goal, and so I was like, I'm going
to move back to Australia. Focused on this for a
couple of years with the end goal of moving to Nashville.
Scott's staff of Creed talks with me about the crazy
names they almost went with before going with Creed, and
one in particular that scared a lot of people off.
You get to Florida State, you want to do music,

(34:12):
but how the heck do you start, you quote, doing music?
When do you meet Mark? Literally I went around and
handmade little flyers I want to you know, looking for
a band, looking for a guitar player, called this number,
you know, and was putting them up on campus. UM.

(34:32):
And then a friend of mine who I went to
high school with, she went to school at Florida State, uh,
and I was connecting with a couple of people that
I knew um in in high school, and she said,
you know, Mark's here, Mark Tremonti's here and he plays guitar. Uh,
And I said, you know what, I remember that. I
remember going to like one of the only two parties
that I snuck out of my house and went to

(34:53):
because I wasn't allowed to do that. I remember coming
out of the kitchen and walking by a sliding glass
door to outside and seeing some dude sitting outside alone
playing acoustic guitar. Uh. And I remember opening the opening
the door and looking outside and going, hey, you're Mark.
You're Mark drawnni right and he goes yeah, And I go,

(35:13):
you play guitar? And he was yeah, And I got
I sing and he goes cool man. And that was
it because he was a junior and I was a senior,
and that was that was the only because we weren't
like buddies in high school, but we knew of each
other and that was our only interaction in high school
was that moment. And then you know, fast forward, uh

(35:35):
years later he had gone to Clemson University and then transferred,
uh you know over to Florida State uh. And then
we get introduced again, uh through a mutual friend uh.
And I think because we went to the same high
school and had some mutual friends that we felt comfortable
around each other. And I was so excited man to

(35:56):
to find someone to jam with. And he's I remember
sitting down with him and and he's just shredding all
these metal licks and and playing all the stuff that
I really didn't know a lot about at the time,
but I didn't care. I was like, it's awesome, it's awesome,
let's write songs. And we sat down and shared all
these ideas, and I think we probably came up with

(36:17):
like twenty ideas in the first like three hours we
had set down with each other. Uh and uh. And
then it just started from there and and we decided, Hey,
let's let's let's do this. Let's start a band. So
what does that mean? Because you're gonna start a band,
do you do you go out and do you play
for anybody? Just YouTube? Like, do you go to coffee shop?

(36:38):
Do you well? What? We we kept getting together and
just jamming. Uh? Did he think you were good? I
don't know, you know, I I hope so. Um you know, uh,
you know, I I think we had a mutual admiration
for each other. And I know he saw because he
commented before, you know, he saw my passion. Um, you know,

(37:00):
he saw how committed I was, how much I lyrics
I was writing and poetry that I was writing, and
how passionate I was about getting together to rehearse and
right and and so yeah, you know, I definitely think
so I think we inspired each other. I saw his
passion um and his his playing moved me, uh and
and brought it was like it was amuse, it brought

(37:23):
things out of me. And I think that energy began
to share with you know, was shared with each other.
I would inspire him and and and it just became
this this mutual admiration for each other. Eventually, um. And
then you know, we had to find a bass player
and a drummer um. And so we eventually did. We
found Brian Uh and Scott Phillips. Brian was actually playing

(37:45):
in a cover band, pretty successful college cover band that
was like playing gigs every weekend, making making money, you know,
and uh, you know, we kind of stole him from
that gig, and that was a big thing. We were
like trying to recruit him, and he was like, man,
you know, I got this good thing going and I'm
making money, you know, and you guys aren't even playing
out like you're just you know, jam In and Scott

(38:08):
singing through Marks amp, same amp that he's playing playing
guitar from. And finally we got him. We had this
one bass player. This is hilarious. Uh, I can't remember
his name. My mind wants to tell me. His name
was Kern's okay. Uh so anyone out there listening, um,
if you remember, uh, you know, shoot me a text

(38:29):
or call in or whatever. But he didn't play. He
didn't he actually did. He just stood there and pretended
to play. We couldn't tell because he didn't have he
didn't have an AMP or he had an amp, but
it was it's just the way we were rehearsing. It
was like maybe he did play a note here or there, uh,

(38:53):
during rehearsals. But we eventually realized when we would have
our friends come over and you know, and we were
playing original song that coming up with ideas that me
and Mark were writing. He wasn't even playing bass. He
was just standing there trying to look cool. Uh. And
so we eventually we it's a funny spinal tap kind
of story, like you know, this this stand in bass

(39:13):
player that just you know, and he would rock and
move and you know, look like he was playing but
like nothing. Uh, and maybe we realized that at our
first gig. I think Mark came to be made a gig,
though he actually got to a gig, got to a
gig like he he fooled us just long enough to
get to to like one gig, I believe, if my

(39:33):
memory serves me. And then Mark came to me afterwards
and he goes, dude, Karns didn't play the entire night,
and I was like what and uh, you know, so
we let him go and and uh, you know, eventually
got Brian and and and Scott and and man. Really
we were just kind of a you know, jam. Scott

(39:54):
Phillips had this cool little rental house uh that he
rented while he was going to school and and working,
and had had this outdoor concrete like garage but I
don't I don't even almost like a basement, but it
was like outdoors and separate from the house, just a

(40:14):
solid concrete room. Uh. And we would go out there
and and uh and just jam and righte and rehearse
and rehearse, but we never played out. Uh. And so
finally we began to play out. Where did you get
your first gig? I believe it was a place called Yanny's.
And what if I if I remember correct not it
was either Yawnny's or or or oh man, no, it

(40:37):
wasn't your trying to remember did you have a name.
Then we we went through a couple We went through
a few names. I mean we we didn't really have
a definitive name. I mean we we had some stupid ideas.
Um I mean backbone, I mean, you know, how cool
is that? Right? But I would have been the name
have been a hit, would have been like that normal.

(40:58):
And then we had this crazy name that that you know.
Mark had this idea and he goes, I've always had
this idea for a band name. And he pulls out
this newspaper article from his wallet and it said Naked Toddler.
And he had always and he thought Naked Toddler would
be a killer band name. And and literally, man, he

(41:20):
carried the article in his wallet and he pulls it out.
So we're like, all right, let's be Naked Toddler. And
so we went and played a gig and they had
Naked Toddler on the on the billboard. Uh and uh,
I didn't go over too well. A lot of people
didn't show up. I think the name kind of I
think I was gonna show up. I may have not
kind of kind of scared them, but but you know,

(41:41):
no one was really showing up to see us anyway.
We were really just like playing it at bars, you know,
playing covers, uh, throwing in you know, an original here.
They're just trying to figure out our sound and our style. Um.
And so eventually Brian Marshall, our bass player, Uh, he
came and he said, you know, I used to be
in a band called Maddox Creed and UM. When he

(42:05):
said that, I instantly gravitated to the word creed. Uh,
you know, being the lyricist and and you know, writing
the songs that it just fit with how I was
writing and the songs that that Mark and I were creating,
in the lyrics that I was coming up with. Uh.
And I go, let's keep the Creed part. Man. I

(42:25):
love that, And so we all agreed, and Creed became
the name. Brandon Lancaster of Lanco talks about the early
years of the band and why they chose to go
with Lanco. So, Uh, Lanco is a combination of a
couple of words, right, isn't it? Like, Yeah, it's a

(42:46):
Lancastering Company. Yeah. From what I remember, somebody worked there
and that's where you guys like practice they got together. Yeah, well,
why so the band name comes from My name is
Brandon Lancaster. So I uh so, you know that's not
whouse is a warehouse in the story, but it's not
not Lancaster. Um, my name is Brandon Lancaster. So you know,

(43:09):
early days in Nashville, and uh well, I'm trying to
think how far to go back. I met Tripp, who's
the drummer in Lanko and he worked at a carpet warehouse,
and uh I met him in Chattanoga, Tennessee. I was
going to school out there, and we both played a
music festival out there in different bands. And I'm from
Nashville originally, I grew up outside of Nashville. That you
know how rare that is? Oh? I know, which is fun.

(43:30):
I didn't know that was rare until because when you
grow up here, everyone's from here. I grew up in
Smyrna South in Nashville, and uh yeah, when you grew
up here, everyone's from here. And then I went to
school and when I came back, you know, started making
new friends and meeting people, and everyone would ask where
I was from. And that question was so strange to
me because I was like, I'm yeah, where are you from?
And they always a grew from here. I'm like, yeah,

(43:51):
where are you from? What are you doing? More people
aren't from here? Oh, especially in the business that we're in.
Absolutely yea, more like people aren't from here from I know,
I've met very few people that are from here. Um.
But yeah. But I went to school in Chattanooga. So
when I moved back, Tripp was moving to Nashville the
same week. I was. So, you know, I've been writing songs,

(44:13):
I mean virtually my whole life and uh and and
so I told me I have the slew of songs
and I want to put a band together, and kind
of gave the idea and and so we put it
to get you know, my name is Brena Lancaster. So
it started as you know, Lancaster and and something, and
we thought we'd build a band arount around. Let me
ask you about that. Let me stop you for a second,
because I always thought, you know, all the guys in

(44:34):
Dave Matthews band, Yeah, h Dave Matthews band, like Dave
Matthews is band bon Jovi, John bon Jovi, nobody else's
name Van Halen. Yeah, I got a couple of Van
Hammon bro You know what, how come is it? Because
you're the one that came up with the idea and

(44:55):
he was just cool with it because his last name
is not company, is it? Yeah? Uh it actually no,
it's not. Um Yeah, we were duos Lancasko. No, it
was I think the way it started, you know, at first,
like he was in a different band and I had
written a bunch of songs. It was a thing where
I I could have done a solo project if I
wanted to, I could have just you know, made it
mine and and hired guys out, and you know, I

(45:17):
kind of had a revolving door, which is what happened
Nashville lot and early on that's kind of what I
thought might happen, you know, because I had these songs,
and you just don't know how long you're gonna keep
a guitar player or a bass player because everyone's working
and has to you know, kind of go where the
money is sometimes. But early on it was, you know
this thing where I I wrote these songs, but I
want to build a band around it. I did look
at Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I did look

(45:38):
at at Dave Matthews band, where there is a primary
songwriter and there's this guy that came with the songs,
but there's a band around it that makes it unique
and has its own sound. And when you keep those
same guys together, like even like a Zach Brown band,
you know it has a unique sound because they've had time.
The same guys have had time to craft that sound

(45:58):
and and and build what they're doing and also go
through hard time together, go through great times together, um
and and so early on, I didn't know what it
would look like, you know, I didn't know if it
would be a band band or if it would be
this Zach Brown band or Dave Matthews band, and guys
might come in and come out, and you keep hiring

(46:19):
and you keep adding people. I didn't know at all
what it would look like. I just knew we had
Landcaster and then if Tripp wanted to be in this band,
we could have a company and start building it. And
that was also where the name change kind of came though,
was when we shortened it. It was because it was
the same guys for for a long time, and you know,
we had gone a year and then we had just
all become friends. We're like, all right, this is a band,

(46:40):
so but people know it's is Lancastering Company, but let's
shorten it to more of a band name, kind of
sound selfless thing, because Landco does not sound like random
like guys, it doesn't so selfless thing to make that
move to go Lanco becauys. If it were me, I'd
have been like, we're gonna call ourselves brand caster. Thank
you for listening to this episode of the Bobby Cast.

(47:02):
Choosing a band name that's a good one, that's interesting,
it's cool we get to pull from all of our
own archives. Was Abby part of this Abbey got all
the clips? Yeah, Abby's grabbing archive stuff and it's a
big part of this Bobby Cast at time. So big
shout out to Abby Lee Anderson. She's touring all over America,
So go see her if she's out there, because who
knows when people can set in five years she could
be a star then. So a big shout out to Abby,

(47:25):
also to Mike d and a big shout out mostly
to me. Yeah because it's named after me. Thank you
hopefully enjoy this episode. You learned some new information and
hurd some stories. Thank you for being here. Please share
this with your friends if you found interesting. Because we
don't get any promo, I don't pay for us to
be promoted, so if you don't mind sharing it on
Instagram story you liked it, thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh.

(47:46):
Wherever you're listening, rate us five stars. If you don't mind,
subscribe to the Bobby Cast it would help. We'll be
back next week with a brand new episode. Thank you guys. Bye.