Since his new album comes out next week, Bobby takes a look back at the first time he met Bailey Zimmerman. Just a few years ago, Bailey Zimmerman was working at the gas pipeline…fast forward to this year and he just signed his first record deal! Bailey talks to Bobby about how he never sang his entire life until one day at the opportunity at a basketball court then decided he wanted to drop everything to pursue music! He started out in 2020 on TikTok just posting videos of his custom lifted trucks and then got attention from record labels and management after one of his songs went viral. Bailey talks about how he’s had to learn everything in such a small amount of time, getting to play his first shows and how his biggest inspirations are rock star frontmen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bailey Zimmerman's about to put out a full record, but
Bailey stopped by just a few months after signing his
record deal. This was the first interview he ever did.
I didn't know that, and I was just like, I
want to talk to this dude. And I remember when
he left. I was like, that was a refreshing interview
because he had never done anything. He was just in talking.
He signed with Warner back in twenty twenty two. But
(00:21):
you know, it was about TikTok at first, but the
real TikTok story here isn't a I gained a fan
base and then quit. He was like, dang, I got
one video that exploded. I'm quitting my job and we're
just gonna give it a run. I'm out of here.
I can appreciate just that, just that intensity of going
I'm putting it all right here. So Bailey Zimmerman, I mean,
(00:42):
since then, he's had two number ones, fall in Love
and Rock in a Hard Place.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
All this and between A Rock and Get.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He's gonna be on the radio show coming up, and
we've gotten to know each other a little bit. But
I just love this interview. The new album comes out
May twelfth, called real justus lay the album. So here
he does look back at the first time we met.
Get to know a guy that is blowing up here
is from back in the day, Bailey Zimmerman, when you
were driving in Bailey. The one of the guys that
worked here was like, I think he's got like a
(01:15):
monster truck. I was gonna bring it, and then it
starts coming through and I was like, well, looks like
a nice white suv, but I don't see how big
is the truck? This this mysterious truck. Uh. The mirror
got up on the microphone right there.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
The mirror is probably two or three foot above my head,
the side mirror now, so if I'm standing up, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Probably I mean, it's really tight, So is it?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I feel like when he one of those helicopter rope
ladders to get up in. Does it have a ladder
that comes out or you just pull yourself up every time? No?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well, I've been really working on getting steps for it
that come down, but they're not in yet, so it's
a struggle.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I don't drive it very much because it's oh.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
You don't now, but you have you climb up, you jump,
you use the okay to talk to me because I
don't know much about cars. But isn't an old truck?
Is it a new truck?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
New one, yep, and you got it jack that high?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. I've always wanted to do it, and.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I mean, I agree, if you want to do it,
do it. I yea. So it's so big. I think
if I had spent all this money and time, I
would only want to drive it. But I guess now.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You want to drive it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But then when you get home and there's like a
paint chip here, there's like a crack somewhere, You're like,
I'm not driving this anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
What about parking spots? I feel like that would be tough,
not bad.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, it's it's really not.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's just you have a picture of it. Yeah, yeah,
I guess I'm picturing like a bigfoot, like literal bigfoot.
Oh that thing's huge.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are those pink wheels?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Gold? It's all gold. So okay, let me ask a
couple of questions here. Then, how long you had the truck?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
About a year probably?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
How long did it take to finish? And did you
are you the one that specialized.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I customized it all. I didn't do the work but I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Saying this, but you from the beginning, you that I
want this done, this done this. Yeah, yeah, I picked
how take to do. Well, I've built this truck in
my head for years. Man, if I get enough money,
I'm going to build a truck like this. So I've
had every color picked out for like five years. So
it took like six months to build it, though, And
are you impatiently waiting the whole time? Like, come on,
come on, come on.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
As I've grown older, I used to be really impatient
with things, and now I'm just like, yeah, it'll get you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It's done.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Because I get a patient if I buy a pair
of shoes online and I'm like, all right here today, Yeah,
you spent six months building a truck. I'd have been
so ready to drive that thing immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Well, oh I was. Every day.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I was like, man, I wish my truck was done.
But you go through and you get calls like you'll
have like two calls when we came in, this happened,
we gotta we gotta switch this or you know, so
after like four times that happened, you're just like, you
know what, just I want to stress myself out.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And now people know it's that truck is so known.
I would assume a lot of people would even know
it's you because of your social media presence. I'd be
where people follow me home.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
We did have people follow us to Red Lobster the
other night.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, that that's what I'd be worried about. They would know.
And that's why I never got a personalized license plate
because I don't want someone it would be like I
hate that guy key in my car, or just people like, oh,
big shots, not you, but maybe oh look at him
driving that. Let's go, let's go hassle on a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I've kind of just always had big trucks, so I
just thought it's part of my brand. And I've always
had big trucks, so pretty.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Cool manly nobody how much costs to fill up?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yes, one hundred bucks, but it only gets me like
one hundred and twenty miles.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I could say a hundred buck isn't bad for a truck,
but when it only drives down the road, yeah, that's
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You can go to walmartin back.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh man, it's good to see you, good to talk
to you. I was when I leave the radio station
on Music Road. Because we'll work out of here. Some
we'll work out of there. Some when I leave, I
see your face on the big sign. Yeah I'm driving out.
And I was like, I wonder, what up with this kid?
And so I just started researching a little bit. First congratulations,
because you know, I'll look occasionally and look at just consumption.
(04:57):
You know, I don't really have any care that much
about what gets put on the radio because I'm a
whole bunch of stations. I don't I don't really look.
I shouldn't take care. I don't really look and try
to affect radio stations, but I will look and see,
you know, who's streaming a lot, who's getting played a
lot that's new? You're killing it, man, really cool? Like uh?
(05:18):
And And to be honest with you, I did to
you what people do to me when they don't know
who I am. And most people don't, but they'll go
my name will get spell bobb. I have a unisex name.
They'll think I'm a girl. And I was like Bailey.
I was like, man, she must be killing it. And
then I realized, oh, that's him with a unisex name.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you ever get that?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Oh my whole life. I used to hate it so much.
I was like, Mom, why did you name me Bailey?
And why would you name me a girl's name? But
as I've gone over, I'm like, you know what, I've
never met another I've never met another dude named Bailey.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I'm at peace with it now.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
But oh yeah, I'm a whole lives like daily Lynn too.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
My middle name is Lynn. You're doubling up the girl now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I like it. What are you attributing because obviously give
a big social media presence. But what I read though
was you didn't start off doing music on any sort
of social media, like even TikTok. You were just showing
off truck trucks. Yeah, so let's go back then, before music,
you said I'm gonna get on and did you plan
to just do it for like your small circle or
(06:16):
did you go I got some real I think truck
people will follow me. I'm going to create a brand here.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So I started.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
There's this girl in my hometowns Walmart, and she was
a cashier and she was like I was flirting with her,
and I was like, I'm going to catch you on
TikTok because I had posted one video and it did
just you know, a couple of thousand, and she was like,
you'll never hit ten thousand followers on TikTok. So I
just kind of got it in me. I was like, well,
I'm going to do that. So I started. I built
this truck. I started just filming it and stuff and
(06:44):
putting sounds behind it, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Ended up getting a lot of traction.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And then I got hooked on truck shows, so then
I started taking going. Yeah, I took it from just
like building tracks and posting. It's like, oh, I think
I'm gonna start going to these shows and maybe get some,
you know, try to win trophies. And I got hooked
on that in twenty nineteen and then just kept doing
my truck stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And then one day.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I had never sang before, and I was wanting to
get out of the pipeline industry just because of not
seeing family and being gone so much. And so I
was like, Okay, I'm gonna start building trucks. That's a profession.
And not only am I gonna post them, but I'm
gonna build other people's trucks. So me and my brother
John started doing that, and like three days into business,
(07:28):
I tried singing just in the shop and this dude
named Gavin Lucas from the same town I'm in.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I was like, hey, man, I think you've.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Got a cool voice, and I write songs, I can
play guitar. Would you ever just want to hang sometime?
And I was like, yeah, man, I'll hang sometime. I've
never really watched anybody play guitar and sing at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's how it started.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's how the whole thing started.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, dear God, I've never heard of a more random,
cooler oops, but awesome story.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It was very random.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
We like jammed like three times, and I was just
so in awe of him playing guitar and sing at
the same time. He's like writing, this guy can write songs.
So one night we were hanging and he said, hey, man,
tonight we should try to like really write a song
and see if we can write songs.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So that was my first single, Never Coming Home.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
That night we wrote the first verse and mind just
like a week indo hanging with Gavin and we wrote
the first verse and then posted it on TikTok that
night at like two am, and I woke up and
I like, kid, you know, I woke up had almost
two million views a crazy amount of comments.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I called my union that I was in that I
pipelined with.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Quit after one video in the next morning. Yeah, and
you were already looking to get out, but listen when
there's not a paycheck coming.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We were laid off at the time and got it.
I just felt like, man, if I'm going to chase something,
this is definitely something to chase. You know, you might
as well try it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But what's funny is You're like, if I'm going to
chase something, I guess it is this thing that just
randomly popped up a couple days ago. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, yeah, well man.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You did you never sing? As a kid.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
My mom would always like tell me in the truck, like, oh,
you should sing. I used to be able to sing
before I started smoking cigarettes. I used to be able
to sing and stuff, and I just always blew it
off because that's my mom, you know, So I always
just blew it off. And then over my life, I've
had like three people tell me, man, I think you
could sing, but.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
But did you ever sing where people could actually hear you?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
No. It all started like two years from now or
two years back from now. I like sang one day
and then after that, I had like three people tell
me and there just random like a random place. I
think it was up at the courts in Flora, Illinois,
like the basketball court.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so what do you mean? You're just like just
right here me and you and you're like you are
my sunshine.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah yeah, Luke Comb's Hurricane.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
This kid named Trey ZOOTI was just jamming on the
guitar and I was real bored and you always just
went up to the basketball courts to hang out. And
he was like jamming on the guitar and I was like,
I'll try to sing, and then I tried, and then
I tried again, and then that video I like was like,
you know what, I'm just gonna try it. Like what
could it hurt if I tried singing?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's crazy. You're like a kid who's walking by a
ball field and you're like, oh, man, there's a ball
land down there. Let me just credit it. Oh you
have a glove one over there? Am I supposed to
throw it to you? Yeah? Pow one hundred and two
mile an hour fastball. You're like, wow, So if I'm
rewinding before the music stuff, because I'm so interested in
your passion of cars, trucks, building when you because when
(10:29):
you said to me, when I got some money, I
built the truck. I figured it was when you got
some money from either stuff on social media, signing a deal,
but it was when you got some money. We saved
up money from like working real job.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So when I got some money, I built my big truck,
the one truck I had no money.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Two years ago, I couldn't like afford my truck payment.
I had no money. I was living with my mom,
which I loved my mom, but I was like twenty
almost twenty one, living my mom, and I'm like, man,
what am I gonna do with my life? And Pipeline's
not working out? So I no money. So I just
budget built this truck. It was like it was like painted.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It was bad truck you're talking about. That's the budget
truck you built. This is a truck you built when
you're like, Okay, I have some money for being creative.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I thought, Man, if what if I just build the
biggest truck, the biggest half ton truck in America? What
if I just build it and then I try to
brand me because my music isn't very party. It's like
super sad and feelings and like, you know what I'm feeling.
So I thought, man, but I do want people to
like know that I have a good time too, so
(11:33):
I know that, Yeah, I'm not always just this sad,
really depressed due to my house.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know, I do have fun.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And so I thought, man, I'll build this huge truck
and take it to truck shows and maybe I can
get my fans to come to these shows and see
me that way as well.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's pretty cool. I'm kind of an awe of the story.
And I've heard all the stories. I've never heard one
quite like this. This is really cool. And you're you're
young twenty two.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Twenty three, twenty two.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, that's crazy. So you live with your mom at
twenty you have no aspiration to be a performer. Yeah,
it's not that you didn't want to, you just didn't
even know that. What is the thing?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I was living in an eight hundred person town. You know,
nobody ever makes it out of there. So I thought,
I mean, I'm in competition with a billion people that
are all trying to do the same thing. Where Lewisville, Illinois,
where in the state, like very southern. Okay, so very southern,
close to like Mount Vernon, Effingham, two hours from Champagne.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, three towns that I don't even know where they are,
and I tore. I tore a lot, but that's tough.
So if very like the bottom little tip thing there, yep.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So if you go up to Champagne or Peoria, we're like, yeah, yeah,
three hours from Peoria South.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Because minor league teams in Pori. Okay, so you go.
You guys, graduate high school?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yep, graduated high school.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You finish high school? What kind of student were you?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Terrible? Hated school, a failed, math failed, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Of Yeah, if you're talking about I'm not gonna be like, okay, Belle,
Yeah that sucks.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
So okay, you graduated high school. And does your truck
fascination just generally come from your dad?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You think it comes from a dude in my town
named Wade Prather. I saw his huge truck when I
was thirteen, twelve thirteen going to school every day. So man,
one day, if I could make some money and be
able to build that, I would do that. So that's
what I think. That's where it all comes from.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You dad, The truck driver was the truck driver.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, he hauled cars and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So did you learn about trucks and actually the functionality
of them and how they work and how to fix
it from your dad at all?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Yeah, working on motors. So it all started really with
just like anything with the motor. I loved going fast,
So I raced a lot of outdoor motocross, you know,
from like fourteen to nineteen and twenty. And Dad and
John always built race cars and dirt cars and trucks.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Whatever they could build, if they could like work on.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Aren't they in your yard something was being worked on
or built.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There was chassis and motors.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's the early fascination to me, even if you don't
know you're fascinating it. You're learning sometimes just because you're
around it, your dad's around it. But then you go
next level and you see somebody with a freaking awesome truck. Yeah,
and you're like, I know how to do this, but
that's what I want. That's so did you ever think
about racing like that as being a career.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I wanted to so bad, I really did.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I love, you know, racing outdoors, and I always did
love it. But kind of the same thing that's even
a harder just industry to get into. You got to
be a top five contender to even make a living day.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I hear you saying that, Honest to god, I do
I know, I respect that, but what you're doing right
now is just as weird and odd and hard. Oh yeah,
and lightning in a bottle and all. So when you're like, man,
I don't know about what you can do anything, apparently
you're kneeling it. You can be a astronaut, Just go do it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, Hey, I tell people that from the last two years,
I truly believe a person can do anything and they
ever want to do and they're like, there's nothing is impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You can do anything. I just wasn't very fast on
it your bike.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Is this still weird to you? What's happening to you
right now?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Every day?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Every I wake up and I called my mom and
I'm like, hey, Bobby Bones just asked me to come
be on a show.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I'm blown away that you're so normal. I'll be honest
with you, I thought you're twenty two. You're killing it
right now. Sometimes you may not even know how much
you're killing it, or you're killing it. Your town's talking
about you, your style, and I'm like, oh, this guy's
not a douche because just the nature of this town,
there's a good amount of douchebags because created different. And
(15:31):
even if I think you're somebody else may not. But
there's just enough, there's enough to always and you're not.
You're just a dude. It's awesome, it's so refreshing. You're
just a dude. And so but I mean that in
the best way of you know what you care about,
you know, and you understand what's just happened to you
and how crazy it is, and you're still going full
(15:51):
speed ahead at it and like you're dedicated and you're
attacking this thing, and that is really freaking cool.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I just you gotta think, man, Like a year
and a half ago, I know where it's at.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I know where being at the bottom is.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I know how it feels to have nothing and feel
like you just have literally nothing. And now that I know,
you know in all honestly how it is to be,
you know, going towards the top or going and doing
great things. So every day I wake up, I thank
God for just letting.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Me be here.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
First what she's always just like, no freaking way, that's crazy,
you know. And she'll like, she's like, this is just insane,
and she'll like talk to herself. I'm like, this is
just crazy, you know. So Mom is like I love
talking to her about things. She has no clue what's
going on, as you know, just as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
And I'll just.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Be like, yo, I think I'm like flying on a
private jet and she's like what And I'm like, yeah,
Like how crazy is that? Man?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I just can't just like I just sit back and
smile and I'm just like, this is insane.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Have you done a lot of interviews?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
No, you're one of the very first I've not. I
don't think I've ever done an interview like this.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I've never done anything like this.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Don't change, and it's gonna be hard for you not
to change because you get so jaded. And also you'll
get your label people and they'll do a good job.
For the most part. You're in a good place. You're
a good place. You're worn, right, Yeah, you're worn. That's
that's a good It's a good group. And so you
already know how to talk. And some people who are
great off might come in and they aren't sure how
to talk. But what you're doing is you're talking what
(17:31):
out there and just bring it in here like that's
the key.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, I'm just talking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
They never changed. Yeah, So you're freaking out, your mom's
freaking out everything. But I want to go back to you.
Load the video up, you singing, you wake up, You
got a couple million views. You decide you're gonna tell
the union you're not coming back. So but then what
do you do next? Do you go? All right? So
I'm singing on TikTok?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
So literally what I did next was so I called
at the union quit and they're like, wait, you just
like you just want to like get off the list.
I'm like, no, cut my card up, I'm done. And
they were like, what are you gonna do? And I'm like,
I'm gonna try to be a country singer because I
might as well try, you know. And so I called
Gavin because I called him at two am, and I said, hey,
(18:12):
do you care if I post this video? And he
said no, man, hell if it gets some views, why
don't we try to cut it or however you do that.
I don't even know how that works, you know. So
I called him, and I said, dude, have you seen TikTok?
And he's like no, and I'm like, yeah, dude, go
look at TikTok And he looked and he's like, dude,
so what do we do now? And I'm like, well,
we got to figure out how to record it. We
(18:33):
got to figure out how that works, like I don't
know how it works. And he said and he said, uh,
all right, man, I'll I'll take off work today. You
take off too. And I said, nah, did I already quit?
And he's like, you quit your job? And I'm like, dude, no,
I'm for real, Gavin, like, I'm coming over to your
apartment in the next year. You're gonna quit your job.
I'm gonna I already quit my job. So you're gonna
quit your job. You're gonna be a writer. I'm gonna
be an artist. We're gonna do this. So we got
(18:55):
over there and we searched up recording studios because I
always thought you had to have a per personal studio
to start off music well.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
And that's what it looks like on TV anyway, is
that they have to go into a building in a
room where all the big board is the microphone I
thought the same thing. But then you quickly learn what that.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's just a lot of home studios, And I thought,
you legit. I had to go buy speakers, I had
to go buy all this gear. I had to like
produce my own stuff. So when I learned that you
didn't have to do that, I was like, Okay, this
is way easier. This is a lot easier than I
think it is. So we went to Nashville. Cut the song.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
What's the drive to Nashville?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Four hours?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Okay, so not that bad.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
We were doing it like two or three times a week.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Men, gav when you cut a salt, you drove to Nashville,
Did you find somebody here with a home studio or
did yes?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Sean Rodgers had a home studio, and I randomly, it's
the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I randomly got hooked up with him from a dude
that I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
This dude in my hometown of eight hundred people randomly
knew that I was looking for a producer. And I
had not told anybody about this. I had not talked
to anybody.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
But my mom.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Wait, how would he know? Then?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No clue, Still to this day, have no clue.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
How any of it got he just randomly called me
and said, hey, man, my name's Richie and for some reason,
I've I just got your number from somebody.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Do you need a producer? And I was like, why
do you know that? I've literally not told anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
He was like, I don't know, but I feel I
just I just got your number and I like, I
just knew to call you, and I was like, yeah,
I need a producer, and he was like, well, Sean
Rodgers does an artist from back home named Dolan Wolf.
He produces him and would you want to would you
want to go produce Him'm like, I'll take whatever I
can right now, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So it was really wild.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I had like fifteen hundred bucks me and gave through
fifteen hundred and fifteen hundred to get the song produced.
And we were like, man, do you think we'll make
our money back?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Like I don't have no more money, and so.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
So you take the song though? Do you load it
up on the digital DSPs? Though thistro kid Okay, so
you put it there and then it goes up. Now
that's a song you did on TikTok at first, So
then how did you get back on TikTok and go
we just loaded it up? Or did you like, how
do you let that crew? Because how many followers do
you have now at this point because of that song?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I so I went from sixty seven thousand that night
and then when I woke up the next morning, I
had one hundred and forty thousand.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So you went from the truck fan the people that
were fans of your work and trucks, and you doubled
up in one night. And so now you have all
these music folks too like your music? Yeah, so how
do you let them know?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I just I just started doing tiktoks. I was just like, hey, y'all,
thank you so much further support.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On this song.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I'm gonna try to get it out. I really don't
know how we do that yet, but I'm trying to
figure it out, so just bear with me. And I
was super just transparent with him, and I just told
them how it how I was learning how songs were
made and this and that, and then I just told them, hey,
I uploaded it and now it's going to be released
this day.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You guys can stream it this day.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And were you surprised, relieved?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Which? When it started to really get some traction in
that space. Then on the you know, getting streams.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So when it started like streaming really well, we hit
a million on Apple and I called I called Gavin
Mom into the room and I'm like, is this good?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Like is a million?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I think it was a million streams first week on Apple?
And I was like, is this good? How do I
gauge this?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Are we doing good? Is it not making enough money?
I had no idea. I had no idea what anything was.
I thought my management before I signed with him, was
a label.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Oh no, that's a common that's common. Yeah, yeah, same thing,
I label management agents. All that got to me when
I started too, I was like, wait, I thought, what
do you do?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yeah, you're telling me I can have a manager and
a label at the same time.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And you're telling me I got to pay a manager
and an agent. But I feel like it's the same crap. Yes, yes,
same thing. So you are when did you get managed?
When did they come to the picture? Do they message
you from seeing you blow up online?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So Scott Frasier hit me on on Instagram and for
some reason I responded. I would have never responded because
there's this long, huge message with this weird looking guy
with a bow tie on and this profile picture, and
I just thought, man, this guy looks like a weirdo.
But something is telling me I need to like talk
to him. So I called him and I'm running through
the airport and we just had the best conversation. And
(23:09):
he introduced me to Chief Chief Saruk and Simon Tickman
of the Core Entertainment and that was I had already
had a meeting with Warner with Chris Lacey, and I
didn't know even what it was. I didn't know what
I was. I was at this building just talking to
a bunch of random people about music. And then a
month later I told him all about it and they
were like, wait a second, You've been talking to Chris
(23:30):
and you've been doing this and I'm like yeah, and
they're like, we need to manage you. So they like
sign me. And then about that was two months after
Never Coming Home came out, and then I think I
signed my deals, like a month and a half after
that or two months.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Mike, can you place someone? And Never Coming Home? And
I got you.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Blowing up my phone alone that on me and I
haven't coming home?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Oh no, Never Coming Home.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I'll say good about So what is the label When
they meet with you and they say, hey, we'd love
to have you, I love to sign you. What's their
pitch to you as to why they'd be the right one.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So when I got with.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Warren, when I met with Warner for the first time,
it wasn't they The first question was do you know
why you're here?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And I was like, no clue. I'm gonna be fully
transparent with you all.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I have no idea who you are, who you are,
I don't know what this building is. And they were like, well,
we're Warner Nashville, w We're a record label, this and that,
and I was like okay, And then honestly, it was
just a really good conversation. I just really got to
know Chris. I really got to know Rohan.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
How did you get down there though? How who told
you to come to that building and what they told
you was going to happen there.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Rohan Kohli is an A and R from Warner and
he just messed me on Instagram and he just was like, hey, man,
would you want to come have a meeting?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I said sure. I just loved Nashville, So I
was like, any anything to get me.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
To natually drove down to have the meeting with people.
You had no idea what they did.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yep, eight pharmacy burgers in front of the That was
when COVID was really really you know, popping and outside
with mass eating birders and stuff. And we didn't even
talk about deals or nothing. We didn't talk about anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
What did you tell them that your your life goals were.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I just told them, I said, I don't know what's
going on. But more of the story is I've got
a vision for this.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I like, I think I know.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
What music I want to sing, and I know how
I want to do it, and I know who I
want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
So there you go. That's that's what I am.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I don't know, I've not written, you know, written any
more songs of not I don't know how to play guitar.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I can't do this and I can't do that.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
But I know I've got a vision for what I'm
doing and social media is working, so I'm just gonna
keep doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So you left the meeting. What was like the general
feeling was that, Hey, we'll talk more. We would love
to have you go think about it. We don't like
you like, what, what do they make you feel like?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Chris made me feel super like at home. I felt
super like, very comfortable in the situation just with the people.
I got to know Chris and Rohan really well, just
sitting there, and it was more like, Hey, we're gonna
keep watching what you're doing. We're really excited about you.
And I'm like, hey, I'm just grateful to be here,
(26:13):
so thanks.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
For having me.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And they paid for the burgers.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So let's say paid for the burgers.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and no backtrack in a second. But
I'm even looking at your dates here because you're gonna
be doing one, two, three, four us on this eight
shows and half of them are already sold out, maybe
more than that at this point. Have you played a
show yet for more than one hundred people?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, we've We've been playing some really crazy shows.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's another thing.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Now, can you sell more than on hundred tickets? Don't
be confused by that, because I know you can. But
I'm saying, when did you start to actually they make you, okay,
go in front of this many people. You've never done
it before, but ghosting in front of folks, when did
that happen?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
So? My very first show, I had a writer's round
in Nashville at Live Oak and it was just a
little acoustic thing, and I was I wasn't really nervous.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
Let's see how this goes.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
And then the next show I did was Luke Comb's
Rock the South. I opened for Luke, and it was
I just I've watched rock stars, so I grew up
on rock. I grew up eight years old. I went
to a Tesla Pop Evil concert.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And in so you're like like seventies like sixties and
seventies rock, you say that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, man class yeah some, but more into like the
nineties stuff too, like the you know, Saving Abel and
you know nickel back and.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Straight ahead or not even nineties alternative, like you're straight
ahead modern rock nineties.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I grew up put just on a lot of rock,
anything with big guitars, you know, kid rock, show Crow,
any of that stuff. And so I started going to
shows when I was like eight or ten.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And when I went out to.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Play Rock the South, I just was like, all right,
I'm just gonna do what I've seen other people do.
So like very first thing, I'm running all the way.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Down the catwalk.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I'm just gonna sprint as fast as i can and
that'll get people's attention. So literally, very first thing was
just like sprinted. And I've not stopped every catwalk I've
ever done. I just go and I just balls the
walls all the way down and then I just sit
there and look. But playing these shows for more than
one hundred people is insane. It's like truly something that
(28:17):
I've never experienced in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
No, truly, Yeah, because no, truly, you didn't do school, Like, yeah,
talent shows. You know, it's like okay, oh I can sing, Well,
go play for a thousand people. Five thousand people? Yeah,
I mean that's baptism by fire. Yeah do you have
Did you have fun doing it?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh? A blast.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I learned that to sing you have to breathe. I Like,
I got off of Rock to South Stage and I said, man,
I just just don't feel good, don't I just don't
feel good. I can't breathe. I don't feel good. And
then I ended up like zonking in the camper. I
just passed out in the camper. So it was insanely fun,
insanely fun, like my my body has never felt that.
(28:58):
Like just I can run as much as I want,
nobody's gonna tell me to shut up.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
I can scream as loud as I want.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And after that, I was like, I definitely want to
do this more. But let's figure out how to breathe.
Let's get in shape, let's get some partio going.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And it's really a thing. Yeah, And if you don't
breathe right, especially if you have songs that are even
the song we just played there, if there's a lot
of singing, you have to really measure where you're going
to breathe, or you miss it, you don't get back
to it until later. They always have a breath, Then
you're catching up the whole time.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
God awful.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, So have you kind of figured out basically, you know,
when you have a second take a breath.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, Well the show since then has progressed a lot.
You know, We've got like a like a break where
I introduced the band and it gives me just a
second to like get my heart rate down, get my breathing.
But when you miss a breath, it's hard to catch it.
You don't you're not getting the back. There's no way
because your next breath is going to be a shorter
than what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Terrible and really wordy songs and you know, and also
do a lot of stand up and so really wordy situations.
You have to hit your exact points, then you miss it,
and when you do finally get your second point, you're
trying to make up for the first one. You're never
caught up. No, but it's fun that you've got a
band break because you learn quick.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yep, you learn yep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
One night, I just went boys, this thing gonna work,
this thing gonna work. I gotta I gotta have something
to breathe because that last show is pretty rough. I
need something to get me through this second half.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And I've learned.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
I went from playing twenty five minutes with Luke at
Rock to South to now I can play our our
half shows whatever in a year. And like, if you'd
have told me, you know, twenty one year old me
playing that show, that's like dying in the camper. Like,
hey man, in a year, you're gonna be just fine.
The watch out have been like you're a liar. So
I've learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Listening to your music like Rock and a Hard Place
that's like my vibe musically meaning you know, you go,
you know, I sing all these songs, but that like
songs that I can hear the words, I can feel
the words. I don't need a bunch of tempo like
that's that's my vibe and even musonically, even musically like
what you have going personally for me, like I love it.
(31:15):
You know, I don't think, and I don't think I
have to love something to know why it's good, but like,
I really love how you're doing it. I want to
play rock in a hard place right now.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Where and man's are and breaks between you?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And have you gotten to be a better singer now?
Because you have to sing a lot more so you
got to take care of it. But also like tricks
and you're working on a muscle, are you getting better?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Insanely better? Going?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Uh? Looking back at like demos from last year to now,
I'm like, yeah, we got to reac out those vocals.
I've I've learned just I've been in a lot of
vocal lessons.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I did go through some voice stuff right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I was smoking a lot, and because I used to
smoke vape and I smoked a lot and singing every
single day. I was, you know, I was going out
and having drinks just because I was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And I learned very quickly that you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It's not just this like infamous thing that just has
power all the time. It's it's a muscle and you
have to work it. So I've went through the last
year has been a very informational year. I've learned so
much just about how the voice works, things to preserve
the voice, things to do after a show, before a show.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So you've had to cram that's a great word for it.
You've had to cram it all that people learn at eight,
all the way till now for a normal person who
grows up singing. You had to cram that all in
one year. Yeah, like all of it, the physical part
of it, the mental part of it. Take care of
your voice, and so it's a crash course.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Feel healthy right now, super healthy. I'm like the healthiest
I've been in a long time. I've been singing a
lot here recently, and every day I just I'll call
Chief and good dude, just cut another song, and I
feel amazing, man, Like I can't I can't express how
I feel you know, and that just comes with the
cardio and working hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So do you get nervous when tickets go on sale
that people are going to buy tickets or did you
not think about it at all?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
No, I didn't complete transparency. I didn't even know that
what the dates were yet. I didn't know like the
routing or what was happening with the tour. And then
Scott called me and said, hey, tickets went on twenty
five minutes ago and you just sold out six of
the eight venues. And I'm like, well, that's good, that'll work.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Let's go that you that that's good.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That is good. Sold out is always good.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So the stress didn't even get to you because you
were still learning and you didn't know what you didn't
learn yet.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, being just thrown in the fire is honestly, it's
like can you swim? I don't know, Let me jump
in and see. So because then you're not so focused
on the little things. You're more focused on let's keep
living every day and let's make sure we're progressing.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And also what I like, what's happening too. If you
don't know the rules, you don't always follow the rules,
and sometimes you can create your own rule. And I've
been able to do that in my career a bit
where I would just be a dummy at something and
be like, I'm gonna I'm just gonna attack it, if
it's writing a book or doing stand up and people like,
well you have to write it like that. Well, I
don't know how to write it. So I did it
my own way. And so when it finally comes to light,
(34:13):
people are like, oh, this is different, and I'm like, oh,
you're saying it's different. They said it was wrong, but
it is different because I didn't know how to do it,
and now it becomes kind of a standard. And I
can see that happening with you a bit where you
didn't know. But that's a strength for you because you
created your own lane. And so that's exciting as an
artist when you don't know all the rules because you
can create your own. And with all these other Nashville folks, producers, writers,
(34:39):
they want you to be around them. I'm assuming like, hey,
get with this writer. Is that happening to you now
where they're trying to put your places? Any of these
rooms you walk into and you're like, dang, you've written
all these songs and you're gonna write, You're gonna write
with me? Does that happen at all or is it
all still a lot of your crew?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
We wrote with we wrote, I write with of course
Gavin every single day.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I right.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It's awesome too that you guys are still like, like,
that's that's your dude.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I told him from day one, I will never like yo,
if we start this, it's like in it to win.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I don't know when did he quit his job though,
that's the question. How long?
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Probably six months ago now. Yeah, he was so nervous.
He was like, man like, I don't know if I
should quit. I don't know if I should quit. And
I'm like, dude, I can promise you I'm gonna work
really hard to make us both successful.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Just trust me.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Does he shows with you?
Speaker 2 (35:30):
He loves He.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Doesn't play him with me, but he goes and he'll
just watch. He just loves watch. And he's like, dude,
can you believe that this is what we're doing now
instead of working?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So is he he signed a publishing deal?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, he just signed with Warner Chapel.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Okay, so he's writing songs yep with you with other folks.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Yeah, I bring him. I told him that's what I
told him too. I said, I will never not bring
you to a right. You you were always invited to
a write whatever, whatever right. I don't care if it's
he's right in the world, you know. So I bring
him to every right because we grew up, we grew
up together. He knew, he knows exactly who I am,
how I like my songs to be, so he can
kind of help guide the train in the room.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Has he gotten to be a better guitar player since
he's around a lot of players all the time.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Oh yeah, we both have.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I mean, so you play now? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah I can.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I can.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
I played my first I played fall in Love on
guitar the other day.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I was very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
So when did you pick it up? And how long
did it take you before your fingers stopped hurting? Yeah,
and you could do more than GCD.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I just honestly going into all the rights. Man, I
watched just every guitar player. I'd be like, man, that's
a cool chord. So I would watch every time he
would go to play that in progression, I'd be like,
where's his fingers? So then I would go home and
I would just find it and then I would do
different variations of that chord to.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
See you would experiment yourself without even knowing what it was, the.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Same thing with just not knowing the rules.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
You know, And even to this day, everybody's like, hey,
why don't you think about guitar license. I'm like, you
know what, no, man, I've been doing everything my whole life,
whether it came to pipeline or building trucks or this
and that did it my way because I didn't know
how to do it. So I'm just gonna keep doing
it my way and I'm gonna figure it out on
my own.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Do you feel pretty confident playing in front of folks
now with a guitar.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Not on stage yet, but playing guitar.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
If they're like, hey, can you play us a song,
I'm like, yeah, I can play a song.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
You know. I can make you think I can play guitar.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
That's what I do too. Yeah, Like I have people
that are really good, but like, I'm gonna do the
Bluebird on Sunday night because I was sick. I have
a couple of theater shows in town that I'm doing,
and so I just need to get on stage a
couple of times because a lot of myself comedy, and
you know, you can practice a song, but if I
don't tell jokes in front of people, I don't know
if they're funny. Yep, Because I can go like I
wrote this, it's freaking funny. But if I don't put
(37:41):
it out in front of people and hear back, I
never really know. So I'm gonna go play the blue Bird.
I'm gonna do it by myself. But like you, I
gotta really pick the songs that I'm really comfortable with, yep,
Because unless I got my people around me, I'm very
selective about what songs I'm gonna be playing. So same
to where it's like I'm not I can fool you. Yeah,
if you need twelve minutes like a you'll be like
(38:01):
that guy is awesome. You play guitar, definitely, Or if
you need a clip on Instagram, no problem, I can
do that. So you're playing guitar, are you getting the
free stuff now or like our music company's reaching out
guitar guitar companies and anything going, Hey, put this you
know on your Instagram or your TikTok and and take
it on stage.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
You need that happening I've been telling Scott and them,
I'm like, honestly, I wanted Gibson and I want a
Gibson deal. I've ever since i've watched The Food Fighters live,
he Dave Girl's always had a light blue Gibson.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Whatever that is. It's some some guitar.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
But I've always been a fan of the Less Paul's
so Les Paul's SG forty or at SG, the J
forty five's whatever. So I'm like, yo, if I could
have any guitars, it would be Gibson for sure. Big
Food Fighter fan, huge massive Food Fighters fan.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I've seen him, I've seen him nine times.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Dave Grohl is just a different energy.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Honestly, it's an energy. It's an exact energy that nobody
else has.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, they grow live Yep. When I when I watch that,
I go I want to be him. I want to
be Vince Neil. I want to be these.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Rocks, Crazy Motley Crue too.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Oh I watched I watched The Dirt every single night
all the way through. I never I never not finish,
not every single night, every I swear for the last
It's good three and a half months.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I've just manifested that I.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Want to what about that though, And not like the
crazy party like drugs and stuff, but just the way
they live life. I want to just do what I want.
I've always had that mentality of my whole life. I
just don't tell me what to do. I just want
to do what I want. I just want to be
able to live.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Let's do this. Five singers front man, Okay, and that
could be too you may move off of it. Who
are the five front men that you've watched as a
kid and you're like, I want to be them, and
now you're actually going I always wanted to be them,
but I didn't really know, But now I do really
want to be them as I do this. Who is
it hiring you?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Vince Neil, Chad Kroeger, Nickelback, Jeff Keith from Tesla, No Girl,
Chris Cornell, Chris Cornell. We were watching him last night
and he was different, man. Chris Cornell was different. Scott
Stapped is badass. Scott's badass. Any any of them old rockers, man,
they just all knew how to Just have you met
(40:21):
Scott No, Nope, not yet.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
We've had him. We've had him here before.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
He follows me on TikTok. He does he does follow
me on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
So that's awesome. I was a big that's a huge
Creed guy when you are with awesome. I went to
a Creed show from Arkansas, really small town in Arkansas
about A and Dred people like you. Grew up in
a town like you the same size, and drove to
Little Rock to watch Creed in an arena. And I
(40:49):
was a teenager, so I bet I was working in radio.
And I went back and Scott Stapp was walking around,
and you know, they were massive at the time, and
he was like, where's the pig pong table? It was
I was next to the ping pong table. I don't
I don't know to play ping pong. Yeah. I picked
up Battle and he found it. It was like to
play ping pong. I was like, yeah, said he said,
you won't play. It's like I don't. I don't play
ping pong. Oh my gosh, I don't play pingle And
(41:10):
I was like, yeah, of course, and he goes, all, right,
here we go. I don't even know the rules, like
you have to hit on the ground first, Yeah, to
be around, see, you have to hit on the table
to hit it over. And he goes you want to
go first. Here he goes, you go first. I don't
know what to do. I go no, no, you go first.
You're the guestrash course. Yeah yeah, And I'm watching he
hits it and I'm like, okay, I think he beat me,
like I don't know twenty one before we got to
twenty one zero, he was like, you don't want to
play and he quit. We quit and he walked on.
(41:30):
He's like, you don't want to play and he walked
off and I told him that story and he goes, yeah,
thats about like me. He's awesome now. But that's that's
really cool. So you don't put Dave groll up there
though at your top five.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
It's hard. It's so hard Dave Grohl would be up there.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
He's such so many He's such an intense positive energy
when he performs yeah, and he screams and I don't
want to throw that word screen round, but he screams
right on key Yeah. I mean it's it's perfect. And
I've seen him nine times and it's always been one
of the greatest shows I've ever seen, every single time.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah, have you seen him live? Never seen it? I've
on YouTube every day every single day. I just watched
Dave Girl, I've watched. I really like going back to
like the Nirvana days and watching Dave Young because I like,
look at.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Him, straight, straight hair, long haired, goofy playing the drums.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Grunge, just really grunge.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
And I like look back at that, and I look
at him and I go, all right, what has he
done from then to now to better his life? Because
if he was doing these things of twenty two, probably
shouldn't do those. What has he done? He's a super
big role model. Yeah, Like looking at him through the phone,
I just go, man.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I would be best friends with this guy. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
It's interesting too, because you know, he's in Nirvana and
he is starting to do the Foo Fighters, but he's
doing it's all him, all just he created all that himself,
all the instruments, everything. Yeah, and he talks about you know,
he gave it to show to Kurt, and kurts like, great,
that's all you know. So he had already been on
that a bit. And I think at times, and obviously
I'm way older than you, but I grew up a
(43:01):
massive Nirvana fan, massive Foo Fighters fan, like that for
me was when I was a kid, kid and to
watch him come out of Nirvana possibly one of the top,
depending on decade, top ten biggest rock groups of all
time because Vana made the whole ninety sound there, the
first one, yep. And for him to go from something
that big to something else that's massive that really aren't connected.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, he did it twice. He did it twice in
his life, and I don't think.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, I don't think he gets the respect, and he
gets a lot of respect, but I don't think he
gets what he deserves. I would argue, and this would
be an interesting conversation that he is right now America's
biggest rock star. He's a little older. But who would
be a bigger rock rock star than Dave Grohl? Meaning success, relevance, history,
Who's an American rock star? Rolling Stones are still dead,
(43:53):
so you can't They're not dead. They're still alive, but
they're British. Yeah, right, And I'm counting the old people.
But once you get certain old, you're not even Cole
plays a massive rock band that's still here, not American
name a bigger American rock.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Star, I don't think there is. Dave Grohl.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I think that's it.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, And he's like the craziest part about him is
he's never lost momentum.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
He's always just been it.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
And they just put out another record and it was
massive again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Few fighters just put another record out, yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
A year ago or so. Oh yeah yeah, yeah, that's
what I mean, like just meaning they're in their fifties. Yeah,
and that's just and it was relevant even then. So
that's that's pretty cool to hear your influences. And it's
also pretty cool that you're honest about them. Yeah, you know,
I like that. I like that. I'm just a big fan.
I'm a big fan now, even more so after spending
time with you, because like, I enjoy what you're about.
(44:42):
It's just all right, this is presented itself. I really
love it. I want to work really hard to do it.
And you don't know the rules and that's great. Yeah,
And if you're gonna get in trouble, you have people
now that'll stop. If we're get in trouble, yeah, they'll
be like, well we can't do that, but like that
might put you in jail. But I like where your
mind was. I do want to play All in Love, Mike,
if you could play that, please Top forty Radio right now, yeah,
(45:22):
I'm starting to get a little little let's go. Yeah. Yeah,
And that is a whole different animal, meaning you have
a lot of people that are gonna come to shows,
but it's just a different kind of And I say
radio to me is radio, it's satellite. It's anything where
the mass population that is not extremely tuned into the
digital space where they just hear things and then become
(45:44):
fans of a that's a game. The space you're going
into now is a game changer because you already got
one unlock and you keep putting stuff there. You're gonna
hold that unlocked because of who you are and how
good you are. But man, you start to become just everywhere.
Once you hit freaking radio.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
You can change somebody's life, an artist's life so many
time like ways.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
But if you go to radio and you have a song,
do good, Like.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
People's aunts didn't know who you are? Yeah, random people's
ants like oh yeah, I know I've heard of Bailey.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
And I think it's so funny talking about radio. Small towns,
hometowns of artists. You're never like a big artist until
you're on like the highway, or until you're on you know.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Someone can actually listen to in their car. Whatever it is,
You're not big until then.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yep, No, I saw him. I was on the way
to k season. Helly came on to radio. He must
be getting pretty big, you know. So I've always thought
it is so funny how you really nobody really knows
like music industry unless you're really in it, you know.
So radio is a weird thing that I'm still trying
(46:47):
to learn. I'm still trying to understand it.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
So yeah, I don't think there's any to understand. I
get pissed at. I'm like, yeah, the whole situation, well man,
it's it's really cool. Like, keep at it. I'm anxious
to see how you just you just kill it, you know.
You came in. I was like, yeah, we'll see how
this guy is. It probably a you're not you're not,
You're just not. And I'm super pumped it that we
(47:10):
were able to make this happen. I was with my
manager just this is how, this is how it happened.
I was with my manager and we were talking about
just general consumption and he said, Bailey Zimmerman is like
one or two this week, and I just heard it
and whatever. People people are always telling me that things
(47:30):
are good or things are not good, and so I
was like, cool. So Mike, who's like my main guy
here at my producer, my right hand guy and everything
I do. I was like, hey, I know anything about it.
I don't know who you were. I was like, Bailey Zimmerman,
what's the deal. Uh, apparently she's killing it. Like I
said earlier, said she's killing it, and Mike goes mm.
We talked about the saying Bailey Zimmerman because the one
I know is not a she, and I was like,
(47:52):
whoever it is, I need I need to know what's up.
And so then I found out what's up. And I
saw like all your dad and listen to your songs
and stuff, and I was like, okay, I'm into it.
And then now get to spend time with you. It's
like I might be your biggest fan. I might be
a number one family that that's it. I'm paying for ingrades.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
But dude, I've been your biggest fan. I've I saw
Mitchell's wife, Megan, Meghan Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yes, yes, Meghan.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
I saw her cry on her tour bus because you,
like you had her on your show and stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
And I thought, dude, I want to cry. I want
to I want to do that, like I want to be.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
On Bobby Bones. Like that would be so sick because
I like just you know, going around Nash listening to you, like, hey,
like my style and she was like, yeah, that's Bobby
Bone's house. I'm like, man, maybe one day I'll get
to go over there and like do that show or something.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
So well, you should come up whenever you're good and
we got a whole stage at the studio. You play
play one morning. It'd be awesome, dude, I'm in it'd
be awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
I've not actually played a radio show yet like that
really where it's like hey, eight am, we're gonna come
in and we're gonna play.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I've never I've not done that yet.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Well, I know it sounds exciting, but kind of sucks
because you're like, a, I never sing at eight am. Hey,
we just had Cody Johnson in and he did a
bunch of songs and he was like, man, and Cody
plays for twenty thousand people at the night every night. Yeah,
and he's like, man, it's singing in the morning. This
kind of sucks. I'm like, I know, imagine waking up
at three to do this stupid show for.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Five hours, stupid show.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
And it's awesome. But you don't like I don't like
being early. That part sucks. We'll keep it up, man.
I'm really really pumped for you.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
It's exciting to see all that you're accomplishing. And it
sounds like you have your priorities and check you're still
you got your boys you came up with, you're still
running with them. That's such an awesome story. And I'll
end on this and that it's such a story. And
I and you know, in five years, ten years, we'll
see where it takes you. But like when you talk
to Garth or when you talk to Dave, girl, they've
(49:42):
had this small, small group of folks the whole time,
and that has been a bit of what has at
times kept them centered either as a human or creatively
and sometimes a little bit of both, sometimes one or
the other. But yeah, you and you and your boy.
I hope you guys are are doing it for a
long long time.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I will never get rid of him, so I.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Mean famous last words, I love it, I love it,
I love it. Well yeah save that, yeah, well yeah,
and maybe he wants to get rid of you. So
let's not like that. It's all you tell your mama said, hello,
Well she sounds awesome. If she ever comes down and
she's here, uh, bring her to the show, bring her up,
We'll do the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
I love.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
I love a supportive mom that is just like living
uh through their kid and someone who you call and
like hey, this is happening, and I feel like that's
that's awesome. All right there. I'll tell you guys, go
follow Bailey Bailey dot Zimmerman on both TikTok and Instagram,
and that's it. I got nothing, Mike, is anything you
want to say? This has been one of the most
(50:46):
fun interviews I've done in a long time. Down Yeah, dude,
I'm telling you a lot. It's it gets to be
pretty douchey, and so it's awesome. This has been really fun.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Yeah. I was super nervous. You were I was.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
I was nervous, man Like, Okay, honestly, I thought maybe
maybe Bobby's a douche. I feel like, I'm so nervous
to go into these rooms and with these random people
because you know how it is, like it's very easy
to get off the ground when you're a person of
interest and people know who you are when you go around,
and so going in here.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I was like, I really hope Bobby's just like a child.
Look at just hanging well.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
I think at this point I am. I think I
got to this town it was normal. I was like, wow,
I can't believe it. I had a couple of years
where things blew up really fast. I didn't know what
was going on, and I was like, oh, maybe I will.
And I had my douche eighteen months or so because
I was just confused, and I was like, oh, maybe
I am way cooler than I and so I was wrong.
I was way less cold than I actually thought. And
(51:38):
so but now I know that, and you know, I
just I'll leave with this. And I've had a couple
of friends that are artists that started. I was like,
you're gonna kill it. I can just see it. I
can see it already. You're gonna kill it. This is
gonna be a long career for You're gonna be super successful,
You'll have it's just try to shorten your douche yes
as much as you can. Yeah, you're gonna have a
couple of douche months on the minimal, but it's have
(51:59):
a good piece people around you, hopefully they're douches with you.
Get to live that out and then you get back
to normal and you're like, remember that douche team months
we had, let's never do that again. But you're old
that just don't be a douche to me. We're all good.
You mean to do everybody else. You're owning a good
douche a team months and then back at it, you know, yeah,
next time, all right, I'm gonna listen to this. You think, oh, yeah,
what's her name? Christy, Christy, Chris, you are more than welcome.
(52:22):
If Bailey's ever like, I'm going to Bobby's show, you
come with him. I would love to meet you, and
I hope you're super proud of him. You've got a
good kid. You stop stop vaping.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
That's sick.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, And he stopped vaping because because that's that voice.
That's what it is like. If you want to care
about your professional career, you got to take care of things.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
And so all right, there he is, all right, Bailey Zimmerman.
Follow Bailey. Tickets, I'd say get them. There are a
couple of shows where it's like three tickets left. And
separate parts of the venue. He's selling out like crazy.
But if he comes, go see him all right. Bally
good to see Buddy, good to see him. Man
Bailey Zimmerman's about to put out a full record, but
Bailey stopped by just a few months after signing his
record deal. This was the first interview he ever did.
I didn't know that, and I was just like, I
want to talk to this dude. And I remember when
he left. I was like, that was a refreshing interview
because he had never done anything. He was just in talking.
He signed with Warner back in twenty twenty two. But
(00:21):
you know, it was about TikTok at first, but the
real TikTok story here isn't a I gained a fan
base and then quit. He was like, dang, I got
one video that exploded. I'm quitting my job and we're
just gonna give it a run. I'm out of here.
I can appreciate just that, just that intensity of going
I'm putting it all right here. So Bailey Zimmerman, I mean,
(00:42):
since then, he's had two number ones, fall in Love
and Rock in a Hard Place.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
All this and between A Rock and Get.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He's gonna be on the radio show coming up, and
we've gotten to know each other a little bit. But
I just love this interview. The new album comes out
May twelfth, called real justus lay the album. So here
he does look back at the first time we met.
Get to know a guy that is blowing up here
is from back in the day, Bailey Zimmerman, when you
were driving in Bailey. The one of the guys that
worked here was like, I think he's got like a
(01:15):
monster truck. I was gonna bring it, and then it
starts coming through and I was like, well, looks like
a nice white suv, but I don't see how big
is the truck? This this mysterious truck. Uh. The mirror
got up on the microphone right there.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
The mirror is probably two or three foot above my head,
the side mirror now, so if I'm standing up, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Probably I mean, it's really tight, So is it?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I feel like when he one of those helicopter rope
ladders to get up in. Does it have a ladder
that comes out or you just pull yourself up every time? No?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well, I've been really working on getting steps for it
that come down, but they're not in yet, so it's
a struggle.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I don't drive it very much because it's oh.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
You don't now, but you have you climb up, you jump,
you use the okay to talk to me because I
don't know much about cars. But isn't an old truck?
Is it a new truck?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
New one, yep, and you got it jack that high?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. I've always wanted to do it, and.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I mean, I agree, if you want to do it,
do it. I yea. So it's so big. I think
if I had spent all this money and time, I
would only want to drive it. But I guess now.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You want to drive it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But then when you get home and there's like a
paint chip here, there's like a crack somewhere, You're like,
I'm not driving this anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
What about parking spots? I feel like that would be tough,
not bad.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, it's it's really not.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's just you have a picture of it. Yeah, yeah,
I guess I'm picturing like a bigfoot, like literal bigfoot.
Oh that thing's huge.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are those pink wheels?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Gold? It's all gold. So okay, let me ask a
couple of questions here. Then, how long you had the truck?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
About a year probably?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
How long did it take to finish? And did you
are you the one that specialized.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I customized it all. I didn't do the work but I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Saying this, but you from the beginning, you that I
want this done, this done this. Yeah, yeah, I picked
how take to do. Well, I've built this truck in
my head for years. Man, if I get enough money,
I'm going to build a truck like this. So I've
had every color picked out for like five years. So
it took like six months to build it, though, And
are you impatiently waiting the whole time? Like, come on,
come on, come on.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
As I've grown older, I used to be really impatient
with things, and now I'm just like, yeah, it'll get you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It's done.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Because I get a patient if I buy a pair
of shoes online and I'm like, all right here today, Yeah,
you spent six months building a truck. I'd have been
so ready to drive that thing immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Well, oh I was. Every day.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I was like, man, I wish my truck was done.
But you go through and you get calls like you'll
have like two calls when we came in, this happened,
we gotta we gotta switch this or you know, so
after like four times that happened, you're just like, you
know what, just I want to stress myself out.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And now people know it's that truck is so known.
I would assume a lot of people would even know
it's you because of your social media presence. I'd be
where people follow me home.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
We did have people follow us to Red Lobster the
other night.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, that that's what I'd be worried about. They would know.
And that's why I never got a personalized license plate
because I don't want someone it would be like I
hate that guy key in my car, or just people like, oh,
big shots, not you, but maybe oh look at him
driving that. Let's go, let's go hassle on a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I've kind of just always had big trucks, so I
just thought it's part of my brand. And I've always
had big trucks, so pretty.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Cool manly nobody how much costs to fill up?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yes, one hundred bucks, but it only gets me like
one hundred and twenty miles.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I could say a hundred buck isn't bad for a truck,
but when it only drives down the road, yeah, that's
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You can go to walmartin back.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh man, it's good to see you, good to talk
to you. I was when I leave the radio station
on Music Road. Because we'll work out of here. Some
we'll work out of there. Some when I leave, I
see your face on the big sign. Yeah I'm driving out.
And I was like, I wonder, what up with this kid?
And so I just started researching a little bit. First congratulations,
because you know, I'll look occasionally and look at just consumption.
(04:57):
You know, I don't really have any care that much
about what gets put on the radio because I'm a
whole bunch of stations. I don't I don't really look.
I shouldn't take care. I don't really look and try
to affect radio stations, but I will look and see,
you know, who's streaming a lot, who's getting played a
lot that's new? You're killing it, man, really cool? Like uh?
(05:18):
And And to be honest with you, I did to
you what people do to me when they don't know
who I am. And most people don't, but they'll go
my name will get spell bobb. I have a unisex name.
They'll think I'm a girl. And I was like Bailey.
I was like, man, she must be killing it. And
then I realized, oh, that's him with a unisex name.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you ever get that?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Oh my whole life. I used to hate it so much.
I was like, Mom, why did you name me Bailey?
And why would you name me a girl's name? But
as I've gone over, I'm like, you know what, I've
never met another I've never met another dude named Bailey.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I'm at peace with it now.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
But oh yeah, I'm a whole lives like daily Lynn too.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
My middle name is Lynn. You're doubling up the girl now.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I like it. What are you attributing because obviously give
a big social media presence. But what I read though
was you didn't start off doing music on any sort
of social media, like even TikTok. You were just showing
off truck trucks. Yeah, so let's go back then, before music,
you said I'm gonna get on and did you plan
to just do it for like your small circle or
(06:16):
did you go I got some real I think truck
people will follow me. I'm going to create a brand here.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So I started.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
There's this girl in my hometowns Walmart, and she was
a cashier and she was like I was flirting with her,
and I was like, I'm going to catch you on
TikTok because I had posted one video and it did
just you know, a couple of thousand, and she was like,
you'll never hit ten thousand followers on TikTok. So I
just kind of got it in me. I was like, well,
I'm going to do that. So I started. I built
this truck. I started just filming it and stuff and
(06:44):
putting sounds behind it, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Ended up getting a lot of traction.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And then I got hooked on truck shows, so then
I started taking going. Yeah, I took it from just
like building tracks and posting. It's like, oh, I think
I'm gonna start going to these shows and maybe get some,
you know, try to win trophies. And I got hooked
on that in twenty nineteen and then just kept doing
my truck stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And then one day.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I had never sang before, and I was wanting to
get out of the pipeline industry just because of not
seeing family and being gone so much. And so I
was like, Okay, I'm gonna start building trucks. That's a profession.
And not only am I gonna post them, but I'm
gonna build other people's trucks. So me and my brother
John started doing that, and like three days into business,
(07:28):
I tried singing just in the shop and this dude
named Gavin Lucas from the same town I'm in.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I was like, hey, man, I think you've.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Got a cool voice, and I write songs, I can
play guitar. Would you ever just want to hang sometime?
And I was like, yeah, man, I'll hang sometime. I've
never really watched anybody play guitar and sing at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's how it started.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's how the whole thing started.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, dear God, I've never heard of a more random,
cooler oops, but awesome story.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It was very random.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
We like jammed like three times, and I was just
so in awe of him playing guitar and sing at
the same time. He's like writing, this guy can write songs.
So one night we were hanging and he said, hey, man,
tonight we should try to like really write a song
and see if we can write songs.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So that was my first single, Never Coming Home.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
That night we wrote the first verse and mind just
like a week indo hanging with Gavin and we wrote
the first verse and then posted it on TikTok that
night at like two am, and I woke up and
I like, kid, you know, I woke up had almost
two million views a crazy amount of comments.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I called my union that I was in that I
pipelined with.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Quit after one video in the next morning. Yeah, and
you were already looking to get out, but listen when
there's not a paycheck coming.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We were laid off at the time and got it.
I just felt like, man, if I'm going to chase something,
this is definitely something to chase. You know, you might
as well try it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But what's funny is You're like, if I'm going to
chase something, I guess it is this thing that just
randomly popped up a couple days ago. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, yeah, well man.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You did you never sing? As a kid.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
My mom would always like tell me in the truck, like, oh,
you should sing. I used to be able to sing
before I started smoking cigarettes. I used to be able
to sing and stuff, and I just always blew it
off because that's my mom, you know, So I always
just blew it off. And then over my life, I've
had like three people tell me, man, I think you
could sing, but.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
But did you ever sing where people could actually hear you?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
No. It all started like two years from now or
two years back from now. I like sang one day
and then after that, I had like three people tell
me and there just random like a random place. I
think it was up at the courts in Flora, Illinois,
like the basketball court.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so what do you mean? You're just like just
right here me and you and you're like you are
my sunshine.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah yeah, Luke Comb's Hurricane.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
This kid named Trey ZOOTI was just jamming on the
guitar and I was real bored and you always just
went up to the basketball courts to hang out. And
he was like jamming on the guitar and I was like,
I'll try to sing, and then I tried, and then
I tried again, and then that video I like was like,
you know what, I'm just gonna try it. Like what
could it hurt if I tried singing?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's crazy. You're like a kid who's walking by a
ball field and you're like, oh, man, there's a ball
land down there. Let me just credit it. Oh you
have a glove one over there? Am I supposed to
throw it to you? Yeah? Pow one hundred and two
mile an hour fastball. You're like, wow, So if I'm
rewinding before the music stuff, because I'm so interested in
your passion of cars, trucks, building when you because when
(10:29):
you said to me, when I got some money, I
built the truck. I figured it was when you got
some money from either stuff on social media, signing a deal,
but it was when you got some money. We saved
up money from like working real job.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So when I got some money, I built my big truck,
the one truck I had no money.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Two years ago, I couldn't like afford my truck payment.
I had no money. I was living with my mom,
which I loved my mom, but I was like twenty
almost twenty one, living my mom, and I'm like, man,
what am I gonna do with my life? And Pipeline's
not working out? So I no money. So I just
budget built this truck. It was like it was like painted.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It was bad truck you're talking about. That's the budget
truck you built. This is a truck you built when
you're like, Okay, I have some money for being creative.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I thought, Man, if what if I just build the
biggest truck, the biggest half ton truck in America? What
if I just build it and then I try to
brand me because my music isn't very party. It's like
super sad and feelings and like, you know what I'm feeling.
So I thought, man, but I do want people to
like know that I have a good time too, so
(11:33):
I know that, Yeah, I'm not always just this sad,
really depressed due to my house.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know, I do have fun.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And so I thought, man, I'll build this huge truck
and take it to truck shows and maybe I can
get my fans to come to these shows and see
me that way as well.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's pretty cool. I'm kind of an awe of the story.
And I've heard all the stories. I've never heard one
quite like this. This is really cool. And you're you're
young twenty two.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Twenty three, twenty two.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, that's crazy. So you live with your mom at
twenty you have no aspiration to be a performer. Yeah,
it's not that you didn't want to, you just didn't
even know that. What is the thing?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I was living in an eight hundred person town. You know,
nobody ever makes it out of there. So I thought,
I mean, I'm in competition with a billion people that
are all trying to do the same thing. Where Lewisville, Illinois,
where in the state, like very southern. Okay, so very southern,
close to like Mount Vernon, Effingham, two hours from Champagne.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, three towns that I don't even know where they are,
and I tore. I tore a lot, but that's tough.
So if very like the bottom little tip thing there, yep.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So if you go up to Champagne or Peoria, we're like, yeah, yeah,
three hours from Peoria South.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Because minor league teams in Pori. Okay, so you go.
You guys, graduate high school?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yep, graduated high school.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You finish high school? What kind of student were you?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Terrible? Hated school, a failed, math failed, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Of Yeah, if you're talking about I'm not gonna be like, okay, Belle,
Yeah that sucks.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
So okay, you graduated high school. And does your truck
fascination just generally come from your dad?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You think it comes from a dude in my town
named Wade Prather. I saw his huge truck when I
was thirteen, twelve thirteen going to school every day. So man,
one day, if I could make some money and be
able to build that, I would do that. So that's
what I think. That's where it all comes from.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You dad, The truck driver was the truck driver.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, he hauled cars and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So did you learn about trucks and actually the functionality
of them and how they work and how to fix
it from your dad at all?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Yeah, working on motors. So it all started really with
just like anything with the motor. I loved going fast,
So I raced a lot of outdoor motocross, you know,
from like fourteen to nineteen and twenty. And Dad and
John always built race cars and dirt cars and trucks.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Whatever they could build, if they could like work on.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Aren't they in your yard something was being worked on
or built.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There was chassis and motors.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's the early fascination to me, even if you don't
know you're fascinating it. You're learning sometimes just because you're
around it, your dad's around it. But then you go
next level and you see somebody with a freaking awesome truck. Yeah,
and you're like, I know how to do this, but
that's what I want. That's so did you ever think
about racing like that as being a career.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I wanted to so bad, I really did.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I love, you know, racing outdoors, and I always did
love it. But kind of the same thing that's even
a harder just industry to get into. You got to
be a top five contender to even make a living day.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I hear you saying that, Honest to god, I do
I know, I respect that, but what you're doing right
now is just as weird and odd and hard. Oh yeah,
and lightning in a bottle and all. So when you're like, man,
I don't know about what you can do anything, apparently
you're kneeling it. You can be a astronaut, Just go do it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, Hey, I tell people that from the last two years,
I truly believe a person can do anything and they
ever want to do and they're like, there's nothing is impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You can do anything. I just wasn't very fast on
it your bike.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Is this still weird to you? What's happening to you
right now?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Every day?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Every I wake up and I called my mom and
I'm like, hey, Bobby Bones just asked me to come
be on a show.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I'm blown away that you're so normal. I'll be honest
with you, I thought you're twenty two. You're killing it
right now. Sometimes you may not even know how much
you're killing it, or you're killing it. Your town's talking
about you, your style, and I'm like, oh, this guy's
not a douche because just the nature of this town,
there's a good amount of douchebags because created different. And
(15:31):
even if I think you're somebody else may not. But
there's just enough, there's enough to always and you're not.
You're just a dude. It's awesome, it's so refreshing. You're
just a dude. And so but I mean that in
the best way of you know what you care about,
you know, and you understand what's just happened to you
and how crazy it is, and you're still going full
(15:51):
speed ahead at it and like you're dedicated and you're
attacking this thing, and that is really freaking cool.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I just you gotta think, man, Like a year
and a half ago, I know where it's at.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I know where being at the bottom is.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I know how it feels to have nothing and feel
like you just have literally nothing. And now that I know,
you know in all honestly how it is to be,
you know, going towards the top or going and doing
great things. So every day I wake up, I thank
God for just letting.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Me be here.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
First what she's always just like, no freaking way, that's crazy,
you know. And she'll like, she's like, this is just insane,
and she'll like talk to herself. I'm like, this is
just crazy, you know. So Mom is like I love
talking to her about things. She has no clue what's
going on, as you know, just as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
And I'll just.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Be like, yo, I think I'm like flying on a
private jet and she's like what And I'm like, yeah,
Like how crazy is that? Man?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I just can't just like I just sit back and
smile and I'm just like, this is insane.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Have you done a lot of interviews?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
No, you're one of the very first I've not. I
don't think I've ever done an interview like this.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I've never done anything like this.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Don't change, and it's gonna be hard for you not
to change because you get so jaded. And also you'll
get your label people and they'll do a good job.
For the most part. You're in a good place. You're
a good place. You're worn, right, Yeah, you're worn. That's
that's a good It's a good group. And so you
already know how to talk. And some people who are
great off might come in and they aren't sure how
to talk. But what you're doing is you're talking what
(17:31):
out there and just bring it in here like that's
the key.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, I'm just talking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
They never changed. Yeah, So you're freaking out, your mom's
freaking out everything. But I want to go back to you.
Load the video up, you singing, you wake up, You
got a couple million views. You decide you're gonna tell
the union you're not coming back. So but then what
do you do next? Do you go? All right? So
I'm singing on TikTok?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
So literally what I did next was so I called
at the union quit and they're like, wait, you just
like you just want to like get off the list.
I'm like, no, cut my card up, I'm done. And
they were like, what are you gonna do? And I'm like,
I'm gonna try to be a country singer because I
might as well try, you know. And so I called
Gavin because I called him at two am, and I said, hey,
(18:12):
do you care if I post this video? And he
said no, man, hell if it gets some views, why
don't we try to cut it or however you do that.
I don't even know how that works, you know. So
I called him, and I said, dude, have you seen TikTok?
And he's like no, and I'm like, yeah, dude, go
look at TikTok And he looked and he's like, dude,
so what do we do now? And I'm like, well,
we got to figure out how to record it. We
(18:33):
got to figure out how that works, like I don't
know how it works. And he said and he said, uh,
all right, man, I'll I'll take off work today. You
take off too. And I said, nah, did I already quit?
And he's like, you quit your job? And I'm like, dude, no,
I'm for real, Gavin, like, I'm coming over to your
apartment in the next year. You're gonna quit your job.
I'm gonna I already quit my job. So you're gonna
quit your job. You're gonna be a writer. I'm gonna
be an artist. We're gonna do this. So we got
(18:55):
over there and we searched up recording studios because I
always thought you had to have a per personal studio
to start off music well.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
And that's what it looks like on TV anyway, is
that they have to go into a building in a
room where all the big board is the microphone I
thought the same thing. But then you quickly learn what that.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's just a lot of home studios, And I thought,
you legit. I had to go buy speakers, I had
to go buy all this gear. I had to like
produce my own stuff. So when I learned that you
didn't have to do that, I was like, Okay, this
is way easier. This is a lot easier than I
think it is. So we went to Nashville. Cut the song.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
What's the drive to Nashville?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Four hours?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Okay, so not that bad.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
We were doing it like two or three times a week.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Men, gav when you cut a salt, you drove to Nashville,
Did you find somebody here with a home studio or
did yes?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Sean Rodgers had a home studio, and I randomly, it's
the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I randomly got hooked up with him from a dude
that I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
This dude in my hometown of eight hundred people randomly
knew that I was looking for a producer. And I
had not told anybody about this. I had not talked
to anybody.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
But my mom.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Wait, how would he know? Then?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No clue, Still to this day, have no clue.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
How any of it got he just randomly called me
and said, hey, man, my name's Richie and for some reason,
I've I just got your number from somebody.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Do you need a producer? And I was like, why
do you know that? I've literally not told anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
He was like, I don't know, but I feel I
just I just got your number and I like, I
just knew to call you, and I was like, yeah,
I need a producer, and he was like, well, Sean
Rodgers does an artist from back home named Dolan Wolf.
He produces him and would you want to would you
want to go produce Him'm like, I'll take whatever I
can right now, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So it was really wild.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I had like fifteen hundred bucks me and gave through
fifteen hundred and fifteen hundred to get the song produced.
And we were like, man, do you think we'll make
our money back?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Like I don't have no more money, and so.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
So you take the song though? Do you load it
up on the digital DSPs? Though thistro kid Okay, so
you put it there and then it goes up. Now
that's a song you did on TikTok at first, So
then how did you get back on TikTok and go
we just loaded it up? Or did you like, how
do you let that crew? Because how many followers do
you have now at this point because of that song?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I so I went from sixty seven thousand that night
and then when I woke up the next morning, I
had one hundred and forty thousand.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So you went from the truck fan the people that
were fans of your work and trucks, and you doubled
up in one night. And so now you have all
these music folks too like your music? Yeah, so how
do you let them know?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I just I just started doing tiktoks. I was just like, hey, y'all,
thank you so much further support.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On this song.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I'm gonna try to get it out. I really don't
know how we do that yet, but I'm trying to
figure it out, so just bear with me. And I
was super just transparent with him, and I just told
them how it how I was learning how songs were
made and this and that, and then I just told them, hey,
I uploaded it and now it's going to be released
this day.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You guys can stream it this day.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And were you surprised, relieved?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Which? When it started to really get some traction in
that space. Then on the you know, getting streams.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So when it started like streaming really well, we hit
a million on Apple and I called I called Gavin
Mom into the room and I'm like, is this good?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Like is a million?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I think it was a million streams first week on Apple?
And I was like, is this good? How do I
gauge this?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Are we doing good? Is it not making enough money?
I had no idea. I had no idea what anything was.
I thought my management before I signed with him, was
a label.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Oh no, that's a common that's common. Yeah, yeah, same thing,
I label management agents. All that got to me when
I started too, I was like, wait, I thought, what
do you do?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yeah, you're telling me I can have a manager and
a label at the same time.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And you're telling me I got to pay a manager
and an agent. But I feel like it's the same crap. Yes, yes,
same thing. So you are when did you get managed?
When did they come to the picture? Do they message
you from seeing you blow up online?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So Scott Frasier hit me on on Instagram and for
some reason I responded. I would have never responded because
there's this long, huge message with this weird looking guy
with a bow tie on and this profile picture, and
I just thought, man, this guy looks like a weirdo.
But something is telling me I need to like talk
to him. So I called him and I'm running through
the airport and we just had the best conversation. And
(23:09):
he introduced me to Chief Chief Saruk and Simon Tickman
of the Core Entertainment and that was I had already
had a meeting with Warner with Chris Lacey, and I
didn't know even what it was. I didn't know what
I was. I was at this building just talking to
a bunch of random people about music. And then a
month later I told him all about it and they
were like, wait a second, You've been talking to Chris
(23:30):
and you've been doing this and I'm like yeah, and
they're like, we need to manage you. So they like
sign me. And then about that was two months after
Never Coming Home came out, and then I think I
signed my deals, like a month and a half after
that or two months.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Mike, can you place someone? And Never Coming Home? And
I got you.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Blowing up my phone alone that on me and I
haven't coming home?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Oh no, Never Coming Home.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I'll say good about So what is the label When
they meet with you and they say, hey, we'd love
to have you, I love to sign you. What's their
pitch to you as to why they'd be the right one.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So when I got with.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Warren, when I met with Warner for the first time,
it wasn't they The first question was do you know
why you're here?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And I was like, no clue. I'm gonna be fully
transparent with you all.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I have no idea who you are, who you are,
I don't know what this building is. And they were like, well,
we're Warner Nashville, w We're a record label, this and that,
and I was like okay, And then honestly, it was
just a really good conversation. I just really got to
know Chris. I really got to know Rohan.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
How did you get down there though? How who told
you to come to that building and what they told
you was going to happen there.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Rohan Kohli is an A and R from Warner and
he just messed me on Instagram and he just was like, hey, man,
would you want to come have a meeting?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I said sure. I just loved Nashville, So I
was like, any anything to get me.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
To natually drove down to have the meeting with people.
You had no idea what they did.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yep, eight pharmacy burgers in front of the That was
when COVID was really really you know, popping and outside
with mass eating birders and stuff. And we didn't even
talk about deals or nothing. We didn't talk about anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
What did you tell them that your your life goals were.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I just told them, I said, I don't know what's
going on. But more of the story is I've got
a vision for this.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I like, I think I know.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
What music I want to sing, and I know how
I want to do it, and I know who I
want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
So there you go. That's that's what I am.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I don't know, I've not written, you know, written any
more songs of not I don't know how to play guitar.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I can't do this and I can't do that.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
But I know I've got a vision for what I'm
doing and social media is working, so I'm just gonna
keep doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So you left the meeting. What was like the general
feeling was that, Hey, we'll talk more. We would love
to have you go think about it. We don't like
you like, what, what do they make you feel like?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Chris made me feel super like at home. I felt
super like, very comfortable in the situation just with the people.
I got to know Chris and Rohan really well, just
sitting there, and it was more like, Hey, we're gonna
keep watching what you're doing. We're really excited about you.
And I'm like, hey, I'm just grateful to be here,
(26:13):
so thanks.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
For having me.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And they paid for the burgers.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So let's say paid for the burgers.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and no backtrack in a second. But
I'm even looking at your dates here because you're gonna
be doing one, two, three, four us on this eight
shows and half of them are already sold out, maybe
more than that at this point. Have you played a
show yet for more than one hundred people?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, we've We've been playing some really crazy shows.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's another thing.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Now, can you sell more than on hundred tickets? Don't
be confused by that, because I know you can. But
I'm saying, when did you start to actually they make you, okay,
go in front of this many people. You've never done
it before, but ghosting in front of folks, when did
that happen?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
So? My very first show, I had a writer's round
in Nashville at Live Oak and it was just a
little acoustic thing, and I was I wasn't really nervous.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
Let's see how this goes.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
And then the next show I did was Luke Comb's
Rock the South. I opened for Luke, and it was
I just I've watched rock stars, so I grew up
on rock. I grew up eight years old. I went
to a Tesla Pop Evil concert.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And in so you're like like seventies like sixties and
seventies rock, you say that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, man class yeah some, but more into like the
nineties stuff too, like the you know, Saving Abel and
you know nickel back and.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Straight ahead or not even nineties alternative, like you're straight
ahead modern rock nineties.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I grew up put just on a lot of rock,
anything with big guitars, you know, kid rock, show Crow,
any of that stuff. And so I started going to
shows when I was like eight or ten.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And when I went out to.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Play Rock the South, I just was like, all right,
I'm just gonna do what I've seen other people do.
So like very first thing, I'm running all the way.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Down the catwalk.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I'm just gonna sprint as fast as i can and
that'll get people's attention. So literally, very first thing was
just like sprinted. And I've not stopped every catwalk I've
ever done. I just go and I just balls the
walls all the way down and then I just sit
there and look. But playing these shows for more than
one hundred people is insane. It's like truly something that
(28:17):
I've never experienced in my whole life.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
No, truly, Yeah, because no, truly, you didn't do school, Like, yeah,
talent shows. You know, it's like okay, oh I can sing, Well,
go play for a thousand people. Five thousand people? Yeah,
I mean that's baptism by fire. Yeah do you have
Did you have fun doing it?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Oh? A blast.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I learned that to sing you have to breathe. I Like,
I got off of Rock to South Stage and I said, man,
I just just don't feel good, don't I just don't
feel good. I can't breathe. I don't feel good. And
then I ended up like zonking in the camper. I
just passed out in the camper. So it was insanely fun,
insanely fun, like my my body has never felt that.
(28:58):
Like just I can run as much as I want,
nobody's gonna tell me to shut up.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
I can scream as loud as I want.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And after that, I was like, I definitely want to
do this more. But let's figure out how to breathe.
Let's get in shape, let's get some partio going.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
And it's really a thing. Yeah, And if you don't
breathe right, especially if you have songs that are even
the song we just played there, if there's a lot
of singing, you have to really measure where you're going
to breathe, or you miss it, you don't get back
to it until later. They always have a breath, Then
you're catching up the whole time.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
God awful.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, So have you kind of figured out basically, you know,
when you have a second take a breath.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, Well the show since then has progressed a lot.
You know, We've got like a like a break where
I introduced the band and it gives me just a
second to like get my heart rate down, get my breathing.
But when you miss a breath, it's hard to catch it.
You don't you're not getting the back. There's no way
because your next breath is going to be a shorter
than what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Terrible and really wordy songs and you know, and also
do a lot of stand up and so really wordy situations.
You have to hit your exact points, then you miss it,
and when you do finally get your second point, you're
trying to make up for the first one. You're never
caught up. No, but it's fun that you've got a
band break because you learn quick.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yep, you learn yep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
One night, I just went boys, this thing gonna work,
this thing gonna work. I gotta I gotta have something
to breathe because that last show is pretty rough. I
need something to get me through this second half.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And I've learned.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
I went from playing twenty five minutes with Luke at
Rock to South to now I can play our our
half shows whatever in a year. And like, if you'd
have told me, you know, twenty one year old me
playing that show, that's like dying in the camper. Like,
hey man, in a year, you're gonna be just fine.
The watch out have been like you're a liar. So
I've learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Listening to your music like Rock and a Hard Place
that's like my vibe musically meaning you know, you go,
you know, I sing all these songs, but that like
songs that I can hear the words, I can feel
the words. I don't need a bunch of tempo like
that's that's my vibe and even musonically, even musically like
what you have going personally for me, like I love it.
(31:15):
You know, I don't think, and I don't think I
have to love something to know why it's good, but like,
I really love how you're doing it. I want to
play rock in a hard place right now.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Where and man's are and breaks between you?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And have you gotten to be a better singer now?
Because you have to sing a lot more so you
got to take care of it. But also like tricks
and you're working on a muscle, are you getting better?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Insanely better? Going?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Uh? Looking back at like demos from last year to now,
I'm like, yeah, we got to reac out those vocals.
I've I've learned just I've been in a lot of
vocal lessons.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I did go through some voice stuff right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I was smoking a lot, and because I used to
smoke vape and I smoked a lot and singing every
single day. I was, you know, I was going out
and having drinks just because I was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And I learned very quickly that you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It's not just this like infamous thing that just has
power all the time. It's it's a muscle and you
have to work it. So I've went through the last
year has been a very informational year. I've learned so
much just about how the voice works, things to preserve
the voice, things to do after a show, before a show.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So you've had to cram that's a great word for it.
You've had to cram it all that people learn at eight,
all the way till now for a normal person who
grows up singing. You had to cram that all in
one year. Yeah, like all of it, the physical part
of it, the mental part of it. Take care of
your voice, and so it's a crash course.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Feel healthy right now, super healthy. I'm like the healthiest
I've been in a long time. I've been singing a
lot here recently, and every day I just I'll call
Chief and good dude, just cut another song, and I
feel amazing, man, Like I can't I can't express how
I feel you know, and that just comes with the
cardio and working hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So do you get nervous when tickets go on sale
that people are going to buy tickets or did you
not think about it at all?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
No, I didn't complete transparency. I didn't even know that
what the dates were yet. I didn't know like the
routing or what was happening with the tour. And then
Scott called me and said, hey, tickets went on twenty
five minutes ago and you just sold out six of
the eight venues. And I'm like, well, that's good, that'll work.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Let's go that you that that's good.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That is good. Sold out is always good.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So the stress didn't even get to you because you
were still learning and you didn't know what you didn't
learn yet.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, being just thrown in the fire is honestly, it's
like can you swim? I don't know, Let me jump
in and see. So because then you're not so focused
on the little things. You're more focused on let's keep
living every day and let's make sure we're progressing.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And also what I like, what's happening too. If you
don't know the rules, you don't always follow the rules,
and sometimes you can create your own rule. And I've
been able to do that in my career a bit
where I would just be a dummy at something and
be like, I'm gonna I'm just gonna attack it, if
it's writing a book or doing stand up and people like,
well you have to write it like that. Well, I
don't know how to write it. So I did it
my own way. And so when it finally comes to light,
(34:13):
people are like, oh, this is different, and I'm like, oh,
you're saying it's different. They said it was wrong, but
it is different because I didn't know how to do it,
and now it becomes kind of a standard. And I
can see that happening with you a bit where you
didn't know. But that's a strength for you because you
created your own lane. And so that's exciting as an
artist when you don't know all the rules because you
can create your own. And with all these other Nashville folks, producers, writers,
(34:39):
they want you to be around them. I'm assuming like, hey,
get with this writer. Is that happening to you now
where they're trying to put your places? Any of these
rooms you walk into and you're like, dang, you've written
all these songs and you're gonna write, You're gonna write
with me? Does that happen at all or is it
all still a lot of your crew?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
We wrote with we wrote, I write with of course
Gavin every single day.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I right.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It's awesome too that you guys are still like, like,
that's that's your dude.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I told him from day one, I will never like yo,
if we start this, it's like in it to win.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I don't know when did he quit his job though,
that's the question. How long?
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Probably six months ago now. Yeah, he was so nervous.
He was like, man like, I don't know if I
should quit. I don't know if I should quit. And
I'm like, dude, I can promise you I'm gonna work
really hard to make us both successful.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Just trust me.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Does he shows with you?
Speaker 2 (35:30):
He loves He.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Doesn't play him with me, but he goes and he'll
just watch. He just loves watch. And he's like, dude,
can you believe that this is what we're doing now
instead of working?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So is he he signed a publishing deal?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, he just signed with Warner Chapel.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Okay, so he's writing songs yep with you with other folks.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Yeah, I bring him. I told him that's what I
told him too. I said, I will never not bring
you to a right. You you were always invited to
a write whatever, whatever right. I don't care if it's
he's right in the world, you know. So I bring
him to every right because we grew up, we grew
up together. He knew, he knows exactly who I am,
how I like my songs to be, so he can
kind of help guide the train in the room.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Has he gotten to be a better guitar player since
he's around a lot of players all the time.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Oh yeah, we both have.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I mean, so you play now? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah I can.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I can.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
I played my first I played fall in Love on
guitar the other day.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I was very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
So when did you pick it up? And how long
did it take you before your fingers stopped hurting? Yeah,
and you could do more than GCD.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I just honestly going into all the rights. Man, I
watched just every guitar player. I'd be like, man, that's
a cool chord. So I would watch every time he
would go to play that in progression, I'd be like,
where's his fingers? So then I would go home and
I would just find it and then I would do
different variations of that chord to.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
See you would experiment yourself without even knowing what it was, the.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Same thing with just not knowing the rules.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
You know, And even to this day, everybody's like, hey,
why don't you think about guitar license. I'm like, you
know what, no, man, I've been doing everything my whole life,
whether it came to pipeline or building trucks or this
and that did it my way because I didn't know
how to do it. So I'm just gonna keep doing
it my way and I'm gonna figure it out on
my own.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Do you feel pretty confident playing in front of folks
now with a guitar.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Not on stage yet, but playing guitar.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
If they're like, hey, can you play us a song,
I'm like, yeah, I can play a song.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
You know. I can make you think I can play guitar.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
That's what I do too. Yeah, Like I have people
that are really good, but like, I'm gonna do the
Bluebird on Sunday night because I was sick. I have
a couple of theater shows in town that I'm doing,
and so I just need to get on stage a
couple of times because a lot of myself comedy, and
you know, you can practice a song, but if I
don't tell jokes in front of people, I don't know
if they're funny. Yep, Because I can go like I
wrote this, it's freaking funny. But if I don't put
(37:41):
it out in front of people and hear back, I
never really know. So I'm gonna go play the blue Bird.
I'm gonna do it by myself. But like you, I
gotta really pick the songs that I'm really comfortable with, yep,
Because unless I got my people around me, I'm very
selective about what songs I'm gonna be playing. So same
to where it's like I'm not I can fool you. Yeah,
if you need twelve minutes like a you'll be like
(38:01):
that guy is awesome. You play guitar, definitely, Or if
you need a clip on Instagram, no problem, I can
do that. So you're playing guitar, are you getting the
free stuff now or like our music company's reaching out
guitar guitar companies and anything going, Hey, put this you
know on your Instagram or your TikTok and and take
it on stage.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
You need that happening I've been telling Scott and them,
I'm like, honestly, I wanted Gibson and I want a
Gibson deal. I've ever since i've watched The Food Fighters live,
he Dave Girl's always had a light blue Gibson.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Whatever that is. It's some some guitar.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
But I've always been a fan of the Less Paul's
so Les Paul's SG forty or at SG, the J
forty five's whatever. So I'm like, yo, if I could
have any guitars, it would be Gibson for sure. Big
Food Fighter fan, huge massive Food Fighters fan.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I've seen him, I've seen him nine times.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Dave Grohl is just a different energy.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Honestly, it's an energy. It's an exact energy that nobody
else has.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, they grow live Yep. When I when I watch that,
I go I want to be him. I want to
be Vince Neil. I want to be these.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Rocks, Crazy Motley Crue too.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Oh I watched I watched The Dirt every single night
all the way through. I never I never not finish,
not every single night, every I swear for the last
It's good three and a half months.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I've just manifested that I.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Want to what about that though, And not like the
crazy party like drugs and stuff, but just the way
they live life. I want to just do what I want.
I've always had that mentality of my whole life. I
just don't tell me what to do. I just want
to do what I want. I just want to be
able to live.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Let's do this. Five singers front man, Okay, and that
could be too you may move off of it. Who
are the five front men that you've watched as a
kid and you're like, I want to be them, and
now you're actually going I always wanted to be them,
but I didn't really know, But now I do really
want to be them as I do this. Who is
it hiring you?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Vince Neil, Chad Kroeger, Nickelback, Jeff Keith from Tesla, No Girl,
Chris Cornell, Chris Cornell. We were watching him last night
and he was different, man. Chris Cornell was different. Scott
Stapped is badass. Scott's badass. Any any of them old rockers, man,
they just all knew how to Just have you met
(40:21):
Scott No, Nope, not yet.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
We've had him. We've had him here before.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
He follows me on TikTok. He does he does follow
me on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
So that's awesome. I was a big that's a huge
Creed guy when you are with awesome. I went to
a Creed show from Arkansas, really small town in Arkansas
about A and Dred people like you. Grew up in
a town like you the same size, and drove to
Little Rock to watch Creed in an arena. And I
(40:49):
was a teenager, so I bet I was working in radio.
And I went back and Scott Stapp was walking around,
and you know, they were massive at the time, and
he was like, where's the pig pong table? It was
I was next to the ping pong table. I don't
I don't know to play ping pong. Yeah. I picked
up Battle and he found it. It was like to
play ping pong. I was like, yeah, said he said,
you won't play. It's like I don't. I don't play
ping pong. Oh my gosh, I don't play pingle And
(41:10):
I was like, yeah, of course, and he goes, all, right,
here we go. I don't even know the rules, like
you have to hit on the ground first, Yeah, to
be around, see, you have to hit on the table
to hit it over. And he goes you want to
go first. Here he goes, you go first. I don't
know what to do. I go no, no, you go first.
You're the guestrash course. Yeah yeah, And I'm watching he
hits it and I'm like, okay, I think he beat me,
like I don't know twenty one before we got to
twenty one zero, he was like, you don't want to
play and he quit. We quit and he walked on.
(41:30):
He's like, you don't want to play and he walked
off and I told him that story and he goes, yeah,
thats about like me. He's awesome now. But that's that's
really cool. So you don't put Dave groll up there
though at your top five.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
It's hard. It's so hard Dave Grohl would be up there.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
He's such so many He's such an intense positive energy
when he performs yeah, and he screams and I don't
want to throw that word screen round, but he screams
right on key Yeah. I mean it's it's perfect. And
I've seen him nine times and it's always been one
of the greatest shows I've ever seen, every single time.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah, have you seen him live? Never seen it? I've
on YouTube every day every single day. I just watched
Dave Girl, I've watched. I really like going back to
like the Nirvana days and watching Dave Young because I like,
look at.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Him, straight, straight hair, long haired, goofy playing the drums.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Grunge, just really grunge.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
And I like look back at that, and I look
at him and I go, all right, what has he
done from then to now to better his life? Because
if he was doing these things of twenty two, probably
shouldn't do those. What has he done? He's a super
big role model. Yeah, Like looking at him through the phone,
I just go, man.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I would be best friends with this guy. I feel like.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
It's interesting too, because you know, he's in Nirvana and
he is starting to do the Foo Fighters, but he's
doing it's all him, all just he created all that himself,
all the instruments, everything. Yeah, and he talks about you know,
he gave it to show to Kurt, and kurts like, great,
that's all you know. So he had already been on
that a bit. And I think at times, and obviously
I'm way older than you, but I grew up a
(43:01):
massive Nirvana fan, massive Foo Fighters fan, like that for
me was when I was a kid, kid and to
watch him come out of Nirvana possibly one of the top,
depending on decade, top ten biggest rock groups of all
time because Vana made the whole ninety sound there, the
first one, yep. And for him to go from something
that big to something else that's massive that really aren't connected.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, he did it twice. He did it twice in
his life, and I don't think.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, I don't think he gets the respect, and he
gets a lot of respect, but I don't think he
gets what he deserves. I would argue, and this would
be an interesting conversation that he is right now America's
biggest rock star. He's a little older. But who would
be a bigger rock rock star than Dave Grohl? Meaning success, relevance, history,
Who's an American rock star? Rolling Stones are still dead,
(43:53):
so you can't They're not dead. They're still alive, but
they're British. Yeah, right, And I'm counting the old people.
But once you get certain old, you're not even Cole
plays a massive rock band that's still here, not American
name a bigger American rock.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Star, I don't think there is. Dave Grohl.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I think that's it.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, And he's like the craziest part about him is
he's never lost momentum.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
He's always just been it.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
And they just put out another record and it was
massive again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Few fighters just put another record out, yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
A year ago or so. Oh yeah yeah, yeah, that's
what I mean, like just meaning they're in their fifties. Yeah,
and that's just and it was relevant even then. So
that's that's pretty cool to hear your influences. And it's
also pretty cool that you're honest about them. Yeah, you know,
I like that. I like that. I'm just a big fan.
I'm a big fan now, even more so after spending
time with you, because like, I enjoy what you're about.
(44:42):
It's just all right, this is presented itself. I really
love it. I want to work really hard to do it.
And you don't know the rules and that's great. Yeah,
And if you're gonna get in trouble, you have people
now that'll stop. If we're get in trouble, yeah, they'll
be like, well we can't do that, but like that
might put you in jail. But I like where your
mind was. I do want to play All in Love, Mike,
if you could play that, please Top forty Radio right now, yeah,
(45:22):
I'm starting to get a little little let's go. Yeah. Yeah,
And that is a whole different animal, meaning you have
a lot of people that are gonna come to shows,
but it's just a different kind of And I say
radio to me is radio, it's satellite. It's anything where
the mass population that is not extremely tuned into the
digital space where they just hear things and then become
(45:44):
fans of a that's a game. The space you're going
into now is a game changer because you already got
one unlock and you keep putting stuff there. You're gonna
hold that unlocked because of who you are and how
good you are. But man, you start to become just everywhere.
Once you hit freaking radio.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
You can change somebody's life, an artist's life so many
time like ways.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
But if you go to radio and you have a song,
do good, Like.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
People's aunts didn't know who you are? Yeah, random people's
ants like oh yeah, I know I've heard of Bailey.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
And I think it's so funny talking about radio. Small towns,
hometowns of artists. You're never like a big artist until
you're on like the highway, or until you're on you know.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Someone can actually listen to in their car. Whatever it is,
You're not big until then.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yep, No, I saw him. I was on the way
to k season. Helly came on to radio. He must
be getting pretty big, you know. So I've always thought
it is so funny how you really nobody really knows
like music industry unless you're really in it, you know.
So radio is a weird thing that I'm still trying
(46:47):
to learn. I'm still trying to understand it.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
So yeah, I don't think there's any to understand. I
get pissed at. I'm like, yeah, the whole situation, well man,
it's it's really cool. Like, keep at it. I'm anxious
to see how you just you just kill it, you know.
You came in. I was like, yeah, we'll see how
this guy is. It probably a you're not you're not,
You're just not. And I'm super pumped it that we
(47:10):
were able to make this happen. I was with my
manager just this is how, this is how it happened.
I was with my manager and we were talking about
just general consumption and he said, Bailey Zimmerman is like
one or two this week, and I just heard it
and whatever. People people are always telling me that things
(47:30):
are good or things are not good, and so I
was like, cool. So Mike, who's like my main guy
here at my producer, my right hand guy and everything
I do. I was like, hey, I know anything about it.
I don't know who you were. I was like, Bailey Zimmerman,
what's the deal. Uh, apparently she's killing it. Like I
said earlier, said she's killing it, and Mike goes mm.
We talked about the saying Bailey Zimmerman because the one
I know is not a she, and I was like,
(47:52):
whoever it is, I need I need to know what's up.
And so then I found out what's up. And I
saw like all your dad and listen to your songs
and stuff, and I was like, okay, I'm into it.
And then now get to spend time with you. It's
like I might be your biggest fan. I might be
a number one family that that's it. I'm paying for ingrades.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
But dude, I've been your biggest fan. I've I saw
Mitchell's wife, Megan, Meghan Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yes, yes, Meghan.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
I saw her cry on her tour bus because you,
like you had her on your show and stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
And I thought, dude, I want to cry. I want
to I want to do that, like I want to be.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
On Bobby Bones. Like that would be so sick because
I like just you know, going around Nash listening to you, like, hey,
like my style and she was like, yeah, that's Bobby
Bone's house. I'm like, man, maybe one day I'll get
to go over there and like do that show or something.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
So well, you should come up whenever you're good and
we got a whole stage at the studio. You play
play one morning. It'd be awesome, dude, I'm in it'd
be awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
I've not actually played a radio show yet like that
really where it's like hey, eight am, we're gonna come
in and we're gonna play.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I've never I've not done that yet.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Well, I know it sounds exciting, but kind of sucks
because you're like, a, I never sing at eight am. Hey,
we just had Cody Johnson in and he did a
bunch of songs and he was like, man, and Cody
plays for twenty thousand people at the night every night. Yeah,
and he's like, man, it's singing in the morning. This
kind of sucks. I'm like, I know, imagine waking up
at three to do this stupid show for.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Five hours, stupid show.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
And it's awesome. But you don't like I don't like
being early. That part sucks. We'll keep it up, man.
I'm really really pumped for you.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
It's exciting to see all that you're accomplishing. And it
sounds like you have your priorities and check you're still
you got your boys you came up with, you're still
running with them. That's such an awesome story. And I'll
end on this and that it's such a story. And
I and you know, in five years, ten years, we'll
see where it takes you. But like when you talk
to Garth or when you talk to Dave, girl, they've
(49:42):
had this small, small group of folks the whole time,
and that has been a bit of what has at
times kept them centered either as a human or creatively
and sometimes a little bit of both, sometimes one or
the other. But yeah, you and you and your boy.
I hope you guys are are doing it for a
long long time.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
I will never get rid of him, so I.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Mean famous last words, I love it, I love it,
I love it. Well yeah save that, yeah, well yeah,
and maybe he wants to get rid of you. So
let's not like that. It's all you tell your mama said, hello,
Well she sounds awesome. If she ever comes down and
she's here, uh, bring her to the show, bring her up,
We'll do the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
I love.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
I love a supportive mom that is just like living
uh through their kid and someone who you call and
like hey, this is happening, and I feel like that's
that's awesome. All right there. I'll tell you guys, go
follow Bailey Bailey dot Zimmerman on both TikTok and Instagram,
and that's it. I got nothing, Mike, is anything you
want to say? This has been one of the most
(50:46):
fun interviews I've done in a long time. Down Yeah, dude,
I'm telling you a lot. It's it gets to be
pretty douchey, and so it's awesome. This has been really fun.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Yeah. I was super nervous. You were I was.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
I was nervous, man Like, Okay, honestly, I thought maybe
maybe Bobby's a douche. I feel like, I'm so nervous
to go into these rooms and with these random people
because you know how it is, like it's very easy
to get off the ground when you're a person of
interest and people know who you are when you go around,
and so going in here.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I was like, I really hope Bobby's just like a child.
Look at just hanging well.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
I think at this point I am. I think I
got to this town it was normal. I was like, wow,
I can't believe it. I had a couple of years
where things blew up really fast. I didn't know what
was going on, and I was like, oh, maybe I will.
And I had my douche eighteen months or so because
I was just confused, and I was like, oh, maybe
I am way cooler than I and so I was wrong.
I was way less cold than I actually thought. And
(51:38):
so but now I know that, and you know, I
just I'll leave with this. And I've had a couple
of friends that are artists that started. I was like,
you're gonna kill it. I can just see it. I
can see it already. You're gonna kill it. This is
gonna be a long career for You're gonna be super successful,
You'll have it's just try to shorten your douche yes
as much as you can. Yeah, you're gonna have a
couple of douche months on the minimal, but it's have
(51:59):
a good piece people around you, hopefully they're douches with you.
Get to live that out and then you get back
to normal and you're like, remember that douche team months
we had, let's never do that again. But you're old
that just don't be a douche to me. We're all good.
You mean to do everybody else. You're owning a good
douche a team months and then back at it, you know, yeah,
next time, all right, I'm gonna listen to this. You think, oh, yeah,
what's her name? Christy, Christy, Chris, you are more than welcome.
(52:22):
If Bailey's ever like, I'm going to Bobby's show, you
come with him. I would love to meet you, and
I hope you're super proud of him. You've got a
good kid. You stop stop vaping.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
That's sick.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, And he stopped vaping because because that's that voice.
That's what it is like. If you want to care
about your professional career, you got to take care of things.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
And so all right, there he is, all right, Bailey Zimmerman.
Follow Bailey. Tickets, I'd say get them. There are a
couple of shows where it's like three tickets left. And
separate parts of the venue. He's selling out like crazy.
But if he comes, go see him all right. Bally
good to see Buddy, good to see him. Man
Host
Bobby Bones
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