Episode 53 - Elvie Shane - What Do I Know

Elvie Shane is an accomplished singer-songwriter, quickly making his mark in Nashville with his authentic lyrics and soulful country sound. In Episode 53, we discuss Elvie’s appearance on American Idol, his time preaching as an evangelist, and we hear the original work tape of his song, “What Do I Know.”

Find Elvie Shane

Listen to "What Do I Know" 

Produced by Brandon Carswell
Special thanks to Nick Autry, Sound Stage and Kent Coley for helping with this episode! 
Film & Editing by Shaun Carswell
  
Episode intro music written by Brandon Carswell & produced by Micah Tawlks - "Back To Us" Worktapes show cover art designed by Harrison Hudson
**All songs used by permission**

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Every day.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
When you log into jumbacasino dot com, the ultimate online
social casino, you get a free daily bonus. Imagine if
you got daily bonuses in other parts of your life.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I chose French fries, overloaded French Fries. I asked Stuart
from Accounting about his weekend, even though I don't care.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I updated my operating system without having to call tech support.
Collect your free daily bonus at jumbacasino dot com. Now
jump and live the Jumba life. No, we're necessary, but
we're primted by lots the term conditions eating plus.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Welcome to work Tapes. This is a podcast where we
tear our songs. Why was the song written, what's it about?
What's the context and emotion behind it? Where were you
at the time, what were you going through? How did
certain lines come to you? What's the inspiration? How long
did it take to write? I'm Brandon Carswell and I'm

(00:56):
fascinated with songwriting and how songs are built from the
ground up. It's easy to hear a full production song
in the radio and just miss its origin story.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
I want to hear the.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Rough draft of the song or the work tapes. I
want to explore the very beginning of how Songs That
Move Us and Make Us Move are born.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Hello everyone, and welcome to work Tapes, another edition of
Work Tapes. We're cracking up here with l V Shane.
What's up man, hey Man?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Just living the dream refusing to wake up?

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Yeah, well, thanks for being here, Thanks for having me.
It's a nice kind of The weather's been kind of gloomy,
weird here in Nashville and humid in November. Yeah, nice
and kind of cold in the studio here.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Can't make up its mind. Nah, I've kind of grown
to love it though. I just went to Boston for
the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it
was a nice, rainy day in Boston, which I feel
like is how you should experience Boston. Yes, so I
just put on my rain jacket and cool went and
hooked it.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Man, what were you doing in Boston?

Speaker 1 (02:29):
We had a show a couple of hours outside of
Boston with brothers Osbourne called Bigie Arena, which is like
a I don't know why they call it arena because
it's like a fair. But it was a great show.
It was a good time, nice, very cool. We met
in prison, Yeah, we did. That's how this kind of

(02:49):
got started as far as you being on the podcast,
and then we kind of just bonded over glasses.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Yeah, we did, like optic optical. I wear the.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Jacques Marie Maje fam over here. I wore these especially
for you. These are these are my special occasun glasses.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Those are cool.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, thank you man. I had to. It is my
guilty pleasure for last year. Like I said earlier, I
tried to buy one pair a year, but I'm not
going to buy a pair. I didn't buy a pair
this year because, yeah, you know, the music business is
fickle and the money wasn't cotting in like it used to.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, well it does that. And I always appreciate when
somebody notices what my glasses are. I get compliments on them,
and that's fine. But when you know the brand, then
I'm impressed.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
What's the arrowheads? They give it away for me? You know,
that's the kind of a thing of theirs. But it's
it was a pretty like cult following for a little while.
They're starting to get a little popular. Yeah, it's when
they when they get too popular, I'll try to find
a different brand.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
From yeah, because no one wants to be that.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Guy right, just pretendial about my glasses.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I I the reason I wanted these is because Jeff
Goldblum wears something. Oh yeah, and I had a few
years ago watched whatever his show the World according to
Jeff Goldblum, I think it's called and he wore these
like every episode, and I was like, I gotta have those.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I've seen Robert Downey Junior wear them, and a couple
of different.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
There's a show called a Gentleman, like a UK based
show that I think they wear a lot of these.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
That is a great show.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
It's a great show.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
It's pretty wild and violent.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And you said you've been watching Penguin too.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
I watched Penguin.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, that's a good show too. I'm enjoying that so far.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
I'm a comic nerd and so I had to go
down that road. But this show, just like I told
you a few minutes ago, Penguin is just a good
mob show.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah it seems that way. It's not like it doesn't
seem like superhero story comes up. It's just a good
I don't.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Think Batman is even mentioned first season so far.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, I haven't heard anything about it. It's a good storyline,
good plot so far.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It's supposed to. It's supposed to. It's supposed to roll
into the new Batman movie. I think I think the
theme or the plot or something. That's how they do it.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's cool.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Oh, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
They're still in some Marvel ideas there. Sounds like they
always have d C DC always it's a little little
tug and pool.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, it's no good. I casually mentioned we met in prison,
so our listeners might be confused by that comment. We're not,
because not exactly. We met through some musicians to prison.
So nonprofit that I've worked with. You were one of
the artists that played that day, and you did a

(05:31):
killer set and we just you know, as it goes,
and most show, Uh, when you do a show, sometimes
you're sitting around waiting. Yeah, and that's how we met.
Kind of talked about it.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
A lot of friends that way. Yeah, that's how good friends.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
So thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's awesome, man, I appreciate I love doing podcasts. It's fun.
I mean, if nothing else, I love to talk. So
here we are.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
I liked your set. I'm always I always get curious,
Like before one of those some musicians prison events, how
the artist is going to connect and if they're going
to connect because it's such a different crowd. It's not
your normal, homegrown Lvy Shane fans buying tickets for a show, yeah,

(06:16):
and super stoked to be there. So connecting with that
audience can be really tricky.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I started connecting with that audience through a song actually
that I wrote, and we'll talk a little bit about
a different song today, specifically with this episode, but another
song that we did that day is called two one
five six three four, which is a friend of mine's
number that he has right now, and when I wanted,

(06:44):
I set out to write a song for him, and
so I struggled, like, how in the world do I
begin to connect with this guy right now? And at
first I had already started this song and it was
like something something, something. I hate these god dang concrete
floors and I was thinking about I was at first

(07:04):
I was writing a song about working in a factory,
because I'd done that plenty. And then I talked to
him and I was like, oh, wait a minute, it's
like concrete floors in prison. And I was like, so,
how do I relate to this and I started thinking
about jobs like that. At times in my life where
I'd felt like I was kind of imprisoned, you know,
by this thing, whether it be a job or whatever.

(07:26):
But where I really connected with it is where I
come from. Man. I was one of those kids that
was ready to leave when my feet hit the ground,
you know, and I always kind of felt stuck. I
love my hometown. Now I haven't an immense appreciation for
that place and those people these days. Caneyville, Kentucky, and
it's wonderful people up there, man, great great people. They

(07:49):
even gave me it. They gave me signs on the
outskirts of town and and they dedicated to day in
October as LB Shane Day. So that's pretty cool and
and everything. But growing up there, I just, I guess
I just wanted to see the world, man, And I
only knew I knew this culture, this religion, this way
of life, and I knew there was many other cultures,

(08:10):
religions and ways of life out in the world, and
I just wanted to see them and experience them and
meet people who've grown up in those and I don't know,
just diversify myself a little bit in that way. And
understanding people because I'm intrigued by people, yeah, mostly, But
so he's thinking about being a kid growing up there
and having that feeling of always wanted to go out.

(08:30):
And so there's a line in there that says, just
like the hollers in the streets in here fight like
hell and hydrate tears. And it's like it's still the
same old boy can't find his way out, you know.
And and so that was at the moment, that moment
I was like, Okay, this is this is how I
can step inside their shoes for a day, you know.

(08:51):
So yeah, for three minutes.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah, it was a great It was a great show.
And I knew I wanted to talk to you after
I heard of few of your songs and got to
know you a little bit, not much, but you know,
introduce ourselves backstage and backstage but you know in the
other room for our listeners that don't know who you are?

(09:14):
Who are you? What did I do?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I'm just a hillbilly from Knyeville, Kentucky man. I I
grew up going to church on Sunday singing hymns and
then helping my dad wrench on semi trucks. When I
got home and you know, listening to classic rock and
country and R and B, and so my daddy had
a pretty diverse love for music. My mom was very

(09:38):
country and gospel, but also my sister was. She was
always reading and writing poetry and stuff. And she had
a little typewriter and I would like sneak in and
mess around or typewriter, and I started getting introduced to
like F. Scott's Fitzgerald at a young age and J. D.
Salinger and stuff, and I just found that I had

(09:58):
had a love for literally mature and putting words together.
And so, you know, I don't know, it's like a
little redneck renaissance.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Did you start? Did you start music in the church?
Is that kind of at you?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah? So mom likes to say I was born on Sunday,
and the following Sunday she had me held tightly beside
Heavenly Highway hymns. You know, my first love for music
came from that. My brother sang a song called Victory
is Sweet in church, and him and my sister were
in a car accident and left my brother kind of

(10:34):
unable to sing for a while. And he had a
long road and it was in a coma for a
long time, and recovery was a long time and lost
some of his abilities because of brain injuries. But so
I took over singing that song, and that was my
first time singing in front of people, and I just
remember being really little and singing. I was probably seven
the first time I sing that in front of the congregation,

(10:55):
and uh, I seen in that moment how you can
sing it in front of people and move them, and
so I was kind of hooked at that point. I
was like, I got to make people feel something, and
I got to feel something in the you know, in
the middle of that myself. So I just fell in love.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
When you were seven when that happened.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think I was seven, maybe I was five or
six when they had the accident, So it wasn't long
within a couple of years after the accident that I
started singing that song.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah, so they you sing in front of the church,
you felt that how music can move people and you
kind of had that experience. So did that experience lead
you into wanting to write or was that later on?

Speaker 1 (11:41):
I think that coupled with you know, my dad was
always very much a lyric guy, so he that's I
think that's why his uh love for music was so
diverse is he really liked to listen to the words.
So I would just go ride around with my dad
or drive him around when I was a kid, while
you know, it was an nineties. I go drive gravel
back roads while Daddy drank some beer, you know, and

(12:04):
we would just listen to music, a lot of John
Fowardy and Steve Eroh in particular, and he would just
be he would make me listen to the lyrics of
the songs and he's like, you really need to know
what the song's talking about, okay. And Dad's you know,
he's a truck driver. He's not in any any way
like a writer. I think he's an artistic guy, you know.

(12:25):
But he gave me my love for for lyrics and storytelling.
And he was a truck driver, like I said, So
they can tell stories, you.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Know, because they have them.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, they got them, They got them. But Mama gave
me my love for singing. And my mom is beautiful
singer and my dad sing as well. But just you know, yeah,
fifty years of Marlboro reds changed that a little bit.
But I just kind of it kind of came together.
Mom gave me singing. Dad gave me lyrics, and yeah,
sister gave me a love for writing and reading as well.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
So when did you start writing your own? Man?

Speaker 1 (13:01):
When I was like seven years old, eight, maybe my
mom was on this kick. She was listening. She was
listening to I think it was Boys to Men or something.
She was just listening to this record all the time
in the car. This is such a stupid story, but.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
I don't know why. That's funny.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
It's exactly right. But I remember just being a kid,
and like she had this this record on all the time.
And then there was that other song. I can't remember
what was this guy's name. It one You're like a
dream come true. I just want to be And she
loved that song. And I just remember I'm walking through

(13:39):
a field one day and I'm just like trying to
string some words together, and I'm like eight years old,
and I got this little girl I think I'm in
love with at school and I was just like, oh, baby,
you must be the heat to heaven for me, you know.
And I was like, that was the first time I
ever strung words together, and then that sucks, So I
didn't do that again for a long time.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
You write like sexy songs.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I was trying to. I was trying to write
some boys.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
That one was like, I want to make love to you, dude.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
I don't remember any titles. I'm terrible about that, but
it's so wild to be to look back and be
like boys to men got me putting worse together for
the first time. But no, as I got a little
bit older, I went to a revival one night. It
was weird because we went to this other denomination for revival,
which my mom and my family were like, we don't

(14:23):
go to other denominations, you know, this is the way.
But we go to this other church and I'm singing
like I always do at church and having a good time.
And afterward, this guy walks up to me, Jeremy Carnes,
he walks up to He's like, hey, man, our a
singer in our band quit. I think I'm like thirteen
or fourteen at this time. Our singer or band quit

(14:45):
and we got a gig in ten days. You think
you could learn our songs and sing? And so I
went and I was like, man, somebody asked me to
be in a band, you know.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
So I go to my mom and I just knew
she was going to say no, I knew it, and
I asked her and blow and behold man, she let
me do it. So the next weekend, after church we
had they he sent me the songs and I can't
remember how that was ages ago. We didn't we can

(15:16):
just send songs over the phone back then, you know,
But somehow I learned the songs. Showed up for rehearsal
then following Sunday, and then we took off a few
days after that to the VFW and Danville, Kentucky, and
I played my first like punk rock scream Oh wow,
you know, it's like that was the thing.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
That's also not what I was expecting.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, it was the first music that I was how
did these.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Guys hear you at church and then put you in
a scream o band?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
So Jeremy was the preacher of the pastor of that
church's son, so it was like it was kind of
you what.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
You were getting into.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, it was kind of like hardcore rock, but the
the lyrics also had just like a little bit of
a kind of like a p O D you know,
blind inside kind of tendency to lean towards some religious
stuff in some of the in some of the lyrics,
so uh, you know, Mom was like, okay, it was

(16:11):
kind of like Christian rock. So we did that, and
you know, as we got a little bit older, we
got away from the Christian rock, and then the band
we went through so many different names and players and stuff,
and you know, just from there split up and then
I went and I was actually a preacher myself for
a couple of years. Really, yeah, I did not know that. Yeah,
it was. I preached from the time I was eighteen

(16:34):
until I was about twenty.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Uh, that's not on Wikipedia.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, it's not on Wikipedia. It was. It was an
odd time in my life.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
I were, you, like, a pastor of a church.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
No, I wasn't a pastor. I was an evangelist.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I just would go around to preach Sunday evenings, Saturday nights,
whenever I could get an opportunity to. Uh, there was
one one summer in Macon County, Tennessee, I went to
revival sixty one nights in a row. The church is
the way that there was like thirty something churches the
same denomination I grew up in in that county, and

(17:09):
they they would set up their revivals where all summer
was revival.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
What denomination was it?

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Missionary Baptist. So it's kind of old school, you know,
health fire and Brimstone Baptist and really proud to have
a foundation in that, you know. But also you know,
there's a lot of stuff that I struggled with still
this day because of that foundation. But I love that.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
Man.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
It was good for me at the time. I definitely
I ended up going off on a way different path
after that. So had I not had that maybe between
my teenage years, because I'd started experimenting with drugs and
stuff around the same time that I was in a
Christian rock band. You know, a lot of people first

(17:52):
time doing drugs was a church at church, yeah right,
it was like smoking weed or something. And for me,
you know, it was it was pills. So I watched
Blow and the next day after I've seen that movie,
I was like, well that looks like fun, yeah, you know,
and that was and then somebody had a pill on

(18:12):
the bus and so did that, and then then the preaching,
and then you know, I left there because I just
I kind of felt like a caged animal man, And
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Mean the preaching.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, I just I didn't know if I really agreed
with everything I was preaching because I'd only ever been
told the same things I was saying, right, So, I
hadn't never lived any life yet other than you know,
some of the hardships I experienced as a kid. I
didn't know what it was like. I didn't know what
people were like. I didn't know what these other cultures,
religions and places were like. And I was like, I

(18:47):
feel like I'm just regurgitating things I've been told on
my life. I'm not really adding anything or anything. So
it became more of a tradition than following the Lord
to me, and uh so I stepped away from it,
and the devil showed up quick, you know, as I
was grabbing the door handle with my car when I

(19:09):
left church that that day and decided I wasn't doing
this anymore. He was right there waiting on me, you know.
So so a few years after that, I went back
to my old ways.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, yeah, I have questions, all right, I got answers.
That's what this podcast is for. Questions. Yeah, when you
were young and you got a taste for music and songwriting,
was that something you dreamed of? And then you got
into it with a band. What I'm trying to do

(19:43):
is make a connection between did you give up music
to go preach?

Speaker 1 (19:49):
I didn't give up music. I mean, obviously music wasn't
there were there weren't any really opportunities that had presented
themselves where I come from. You graduate high school, you
go get a job, and you work.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
So preaching was the job life.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
No.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
I moved. The pastor of my church would drive two
hours every Sunday, Wednesday night and third Saturday of the month.
He would come two hours from Lafette, Tennessee to Caneville, Kentucky.
He would pastor our church, but he had a mobile
home warranty business where drive all over the east in
the South and do warranty repairs on houses made by

(20:26):
Southern States Giles Southern Homes. So he offered me a
job and it was a good paying job. So I
graduated high school, I went down there with him. I
got pulled over every day for like two months, and
I was like, I decided that this was God telling me,
you know how, you need to do something for me.

(20:47):
This is why you keep getting in trouble. I still
feel like, you know, he he uses me in spotted
myself for some of those same reasons. But going to
work with with Brother Brad and working for his company,
you know, kind of led me into the church deeper.
And so yeah, I just I went to work and

(21:08):
found found a calling while I was out there.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Right, So you didn't you didn't go preach to to
get away from the music? Kind of like?

Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, No, well.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
I guess I'm not. So you said that you you
had gotten into a band, found pills. Yeah, and so
I'm my thinking is, oh, maybe he went to preach
to get away from that.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
No, none of the guys in my band are actually
any of the guys that I played in that band
with when I was a teenager would have killed me
had they known I was doing that. You know that
those guys, except for Jeremy, were in a different county,
and so I lived kind of on the edge of
that county. So in my county, I had a group
of people, small group people I was friends with that

(21:53):
we were kind of into those things. But I kept
that pretty close to the chest with these guys because actually,
my buddy Caleb, he's been you know, privy to some
of my struggles over the years and threatened to kill
me plenty of times over times when I've found myself
high and wanting, you know, so those guys would have

(22:14):
definitely kept me in line. It didn't have anything to
do with the music or the band that kind of
led me in that direction. I just found that all myself.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
Okay, and then you okay, so you went through the
preacher thing and then found your way back to music.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, so I left there. I came home. I cleaned
cow trailers out for a little while and uh sound yeah,
crappy job. So did that, and then I just yeah,
I decided I was going to be the first person
in my family to go to four year college. And

(22:49):
uh so I did all the work macy T's, everything
got ready, and I went. I took off for Bowling Green, Kentucky,
and uh went to Western Kentucky University. Did really well
at Western Kentucky University, was on the dean's list. My
first couple of semesters ended up getting a scholarship National
Collegiate scholarship, and they paid for my next semesters. But

(23:11):
I still borrowed money so I could have money. And
it wasn't long after being in college that you know,
I found my old ways and started having fun and
partying again. And Bowling Green was kind of a kind
of a trap for me and in a dark place.
But uh, I left there, so I got I got
pretty bad off. I ended up leaving there while I

(23:35):
was there, and I got a little bad off. Was
when I started the band with a couple of my buddies,
Chad and Seth, and we had a band called eighty eight.
And we just played bars around town, cover gigs and stuff,
and we wrote some of our own stuff too. But
we were just having fun hanging out. Those guys were
my brothers, and we were thick as thieves. We were

(23:56):
never separated, you know. But then I got those guys
had better heads on their shoulders than I did. I
got pretty bad off, and I went back home and
I needed a rehab. But my rehab was my dad
taking me to work with him the next day, ninety
eight degree weather inside of a grain bend, shoveling soybeans.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know, So yeah, that'll do it.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
I went from partying pretty hard one night to waking
up the next morning at five o'clock in the morning
shoveling soybeans and did that for a few months got
my head back on straight, nice gentleman there in town.
I found a wait for the school to forgive me
and let me back into a program that would allow
me to get back into school. And I went back.

(24:37):
But what it was is they put me on what
was called South Campus, so I wasn't actually able to
go to main campus unless I met a certain you know,
a curriculum or whatever. But I thought I'd done great
and I deserved to be on the hill. And that
was my dream to be on the hill. And so
I never got it. And I come back and I

(24:58):
do good again for while, and they still won't let
me on the hill, and it just it kind of
sent me in another downward spiral and got pretty bad
off again, worse that second time. And uh, I had
a really good friend. Sorry I'm a little tangential here,
but I had a really good friend Paul that showed
up at a house I was living at. There was

(25:19):
the people called the Hell House, and it was definitely
a place where you can find the devil, you know.
And he showed up and he's like, hey, man, uh,
why don't you just come live with me? He's like,
my roommate moved out. He's like, you don't have pay
me rent right now. Just come live with me and
figure figure stuff out, and when when you're able to,

(25:41):
you know, pay me some print, you know. And so
I owed him like four or five months rent by
the time I figured my stuff out, but I started
up slowly paid him back and got my head on
straight again, and me and him started going and we
we got to where we'd play a lot of billiards,
and there was this one or pool. There's one bar
in town called Overtime where they had three brand new

(26:02):
tables and you could find a good game there. Started
going there all the time, and this blonde girl started
waiting on us all the time named Mandy, and I
fell in love with her, and I ended up getting
a job there and found out she was dating the
kitchen manager, and then I became the kitchen manager and
she became my girlfriend. And now we're married twelve years.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yeah, wow, pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Do you think that did? Okay, So we haven't gotten
to where you eventually moved here, yeah, And or that
you got serious about music and songwriting. Yeah, So connect
that dot for us and let me know if songwriting

(26:49):
helped to pull you out of kind of the mess
that you had gotten yourself into.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
It pulled me out and right back in again. So
when I met my wife, we got together. We had
been together from April to August. We decided to move
back to her hometown. And uh, when we moved back
to her hometown, at that point my life, music had
become very associated with a certain lifestyle. And uh, so

(27:16):
I put my guitar in the closet and touch it
for three years and write a song. I didn't listen
to records and just music. I just was done with
music because it had been a dream.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
But it was like, but why what was you said?
It was associated with what.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
It was, with drugs and partying, and you know, I
would do a lot of house parties and take my guitar,
and people wanted wanted me to play songs and you
know that. Yeah, and I always had stuff they wanted,
you know, And so I was I was cool guy
parties from time to time, you know.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
But guitar guys always the good.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Party, especially the good guitar guy with a stash in
his pocket, you know. So we moved to her hometown
sober now, actually I got sober. I got completely sober
right after I realized that she liked me, because I
was like, I went I remember going home and being like,
this girl's probably not the kind of girl to be

(28:08):
with a dude that's doing what I'm doing. So that
was it, and I meet her. We moved to her
hometown there three years and I'm just out well. We
start going out to see some of her friends from
high school had this band called Borl Blue, and they
had some support behind them, and they were on a
bus and they were going around playing casinos and bar

(28:29):
gigs and some festivals and stuff, and she wanted to
us start going to watching them when they were playing local.
They had like a residency gig there in Somerset, Kentucky.
So we started going and somebody had sent me. They
sent me like three records. They sent me Sergil Simpson's
Metamodern soundsand Country Whipper Will Buy BlackBerry Smoke, and the

(28:52):
I can't remember the name of the Cadillac three record,
Country Fuzz maybe or something, and I started listening to them.
I got turned onto the Steel Drivers and the Johnson
Brothers as well, and there was a Johnson Brothers song
called Barely Alive and so kind of in the background,
nobody knows, but I've ordered this little guitar that I

(29:14):
have out here and from Sweetwater is like a little
cheap tailor gs Mini, and I was like starting to
play a little bit again at the house, and I
learned this song Barely Alive. And so one night we
go to their show and we come back to one
of them's house and we kind of party in and
I'm you know, at this time, I'm having some drought.
I never had any problem with alcohol really, so I'm

(29:38):
feeling a little loose from some drinks and I grab
a guitar and I just start singing to myself. I'm
just vibing. Yeah, I sing this whole song, and like
I realize everybody's quiet, and it's like, my buddy Cooper
looks at me, it's just like you sing, and I
was like, yeah, you know whatever. So these guys started
having me come and play their breaks at bar gigs

(29:58):
and open up for him and stuff accoustic, and Cooper's
dad had a place in Nashville where he would come
down and write with people.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
And so I.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Figured out a way I met. I didn't figure out
a way I met this amazing couple from Ohio that
had been very successful in life, and they see me
play one night and I was like, we're gonna We're
gonna figure out a way for you to not have
to worry about your bills and be able to go
to Nashville and write music. So they took care of
me financially for a little over a year and until

(30:35):
I got a publishing deal so started coming down here.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
All that that's wild.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Also there was another like little another guy in that
van Brandon Davis. His dad owned a company called Pro
Video Audio Productions. There's so many moving parts of the story.
I'd been working construction. I hated it. My foreman wanted
me to go after music. I got so mad at
work one day I just threw my shovel. I was like,
I'm out of here. He's like, where are you going?

(31:00):
I said, I don't know. I'm gonna go do American
Idol or I'm gonna start a band or something. But
I'm done with this crap. And he's like, I'll be
waiting for you to say that.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
You know you did American Idol that I did?

Speaker 5 (31:10):
I did? I did?

Speaker 4 (31:11):
Yeah, how far did you get?

Speaker 1 (31:13):
I think I made it through like four rounds, so
they did a big story on me. The first think. Man,
I went back to watch that, you feel like, I mean,
it helped in a in a certain way. It didn't
like help catapult my career in any way former fashion.
What helped me the most when I did my tryout
in front of Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connic Jr.

(31:39):
Harry Connick and Jennifer Lopez, where they were just real bubbly,
they really enjoyed my performance. It got to Keith and
it's like he wasn't being he wasn't being like, I
don't know, rude or anything in any way, but it
was like, Okay, well you can sing, but you know,

(32:00):
can you be up for thirty hours because you've had
to do this, this and this and now you've got
to travel across country and you got to entertain you know,
twenty thousand people tonight. Can you do that? And it
was the first time in my life that somebody just
looked at me and was like, you can sing, so
what you know, what else? What else can you do?
Because I was always just like one of very few

(32:21):
guys in town that had a guitar and could sing well,
you know, so I was like it was the first time.
I was like, oh, well, it's not just about having
talent or being able to sing and play guitar. And
then I remember, so they let me through and then
we're I'm on Adobie, I'm adobe theater, on stage, singing
long as I can see the light. And I remember

(32:44):
looking at Keith and like, I'm singing, but I'm thinking
about the moment, like how it fell to me when
he was right before he told me yes. And I
look at Keith and I was like, I want people
like Keith, like John Foger, you like Steve Burrow, like
my heroes, to respect me the way and the way
that I made it. And you know, I'm not necessarily

(33:08):
trying to talk down to anybody that's made it through
a TV show or had success through a TV show.
But for me, I didn't want to make it that way.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
And I talked to my one of my producers that
night and I was I was like, man, you know what,
I just I'm not feeling this. I don't think this
is the thing for me. I believe I want to
go home, And I did want to go home. It
was Hollywood was not as cool as it is made
out to be in the movies, you know, pretty dirty place.
And he was like, no, no, man, you're doing great

(33:35):
and taught me into stand and lo and behold. The
next day I go singing, they're like, you're out, just like, oh,
y'all just wanted to get this moment on TV, you know,
And sure enough, like I walk out the doors and
they're like, Elvie, how does it feel to you know,
it's like, are you upset at all? I was like,
last I checked, ten thousand people tried out and there's
only seventy five left in there, so I'm good.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
They were trying to get me, to get me to
boohoo a little bit, but it didn't work.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
Yeah. I think it's interesting because some of those contest
shows you can kind of rag on some of the
winners like, uh, oh, well you got your start here. Yeah,
but there's not a whole lot of them that keep
going yeah well yeah, I mean because you got to
work hard after the fact.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
But I'll say it, and uh, those those shows are
these days are pretty much designed for for just a
few people's pockets, sure, And it's the producers and the judges,
you know, and uh, now do you have friends that
have had generated enough success off of being on those
shows that they were able to go out and and

(34:36):
hoof it and make a career for themselves.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
Bas But you still have to That's my point. That's
what you can't rely on that one TV spot that
you got.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
It doesn't launch you in It's not the Carrie would carry,
would carry Underwood and you know Kelly Clarkson days anymore.
Back then, it was it was a it was a
it was a beautiful thing.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
Like yeah, but even some even some of the first ones,
like you don't know, you don't ever hear from them.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, yeah, man. So I just if anything, that show
taught me that I was going to have to there
was a lot of work to do, and I think
that show gave me, you know, one hundred and twenty
percent more work ethic.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, so good.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
But and then after that I went back home, I
was working at a meal. I was like, well, I
just sang at Adobe Theater. I don't want to go
back to working at a meal now. So I was like,
I just want to do something with music. So Brandon
Davis's dad had this company as a production company that
set up stages, ran sound and lights for festivals all
over Kentucky and the surrounding area. And I just went

(35:38):
in there. I was like, dude, i'll load trucks, I'll
do whatever you want me to do. I just want
to be around music. And he said, well, you'll be
around music here, and he gave me a job. And
then I might be getting a little bit of my
wires crossed with how everything went. But it's been a
long time ago. But anyways, and then I got an
opportunity and they sent me on my way and shook
my hand and still friends and proud of me to

(35:59):
this day.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
It was.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
You know, it's a little bit of a wild road,
a lot of a lot of twist and turns. Daddy
always said, always forward, never straight, you know. I like that.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
But it wasn't, if I'm hearing you correctly, it wasn't
like your childhood dream to become like a recording artist
or songwriter band guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
I just didn't ever. I don't think I ever let
it be a dream because I grew up in it
in yeah right town. You know, It's like, yeah, I
want to go do this, Yeah right okay, but yeah,
you know, it just seems so far away. It was
a it was a different universe. I was like, had
I known that you could just come down here and
start having drinks at the bar and hit it off
with somebody and be like, hey, you want to go
write a song? I came down here when I was
eighteen and got a fake ID, you know, but uh,

(36:45):
I just didn't know. I didn't I didn't know that
places like Belmont existed where you could go to school
and like hone their skills. And I just didn't know
that that was a thing, right, Yeah, I didn't know,
and I still don't know how to do it. I'm
just I'm still to this day just try to figure
it out. You know, what do you know? Yeah? What
do I know?

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Great Sea like that talking about a song called what
do I Know? Yeah, that's the song we're going to
talk about today.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
What do I Know?

Speaker 4 (37:16):
I would love to hear where this song came from.
Did you write it by yourself?

Speaker 5 (37:21):
Uh? No?

Speaker 1 (37:22):
I wanted to pick this song for a few reasons,
one reason being it kind of highlights how I love
to write songs the most. And I have a lot
of people that will come up to me after shows
and and and say very kind things about my songwriting.
And but I don't really ever get to tell get
a chance to tell the whole story. Man. If anything,

(37:45):
I'm I'm a great arguer. I mean, I can write
a song I wrote you know, does Heaven Have a
Creek by myself on the last record, And I've been
a bigger part of some songs and smaller part of
some songs. With this song in particular, it goes away
that I love it to go and it's I love
my co writers. Man, I've got a solid group of guys,
and this song was pretty much put together. It was done.

(38:07):
It was verse course verse course, of course, and uh,
but it didn't have that last part in it. And
I was listening to it and I was like, I
love the groove, I love what it's trying to say,
but it's not really saying anything to me yet. And
I just remember laying in the bed and I couldn't
quit thinking about the song. And so these guys send
me this song that you know, they thought was done.

(38:29):
And then I had been journaling at the time, so
I had a composition notebook lamb inside the bed, and
I just kind of set up, and I was like,
I grab my thing, hoping it and I start writing.
And the four lines that came on the page right
then was I think grudges only hurt the ones who
hold them. Sometimes we could agree to disagree. I believe
we're going to read. The seeds were sowing, so I

(38:49):
tried to keep my head down in conscience clean, and
I was like, Okay, I feel like it's about it,
like it has some more meat on it now, and
so I send it back to them next day. I
think I changed like a line or two in a
course or something, or just it's something, but I think
it's I think it's just important as a songwriter, as

(39:09):
an artist, as a welder, as a carpenter, to know
where you're weak and where you're strong, and when you're
strong in your strengths and when you're weak in your
strengths there because we go, we all go through seasons.
But keep people around you here. I always like to say,
keep people around you who are mighty where you are weak,
you know, And I've got a lot of really great

(39:30):
guys and girls around me that are that are mighty
where I'm weak. Sometimes in the songwriting department, and I
I used to write everything by myself and have this
pretentious attitude about it, man, And it's like, for me,
it's all supposed to be about the human experience, and
my experience isn't the only one out there. So I
love to have these guys and and also just to

(39:51):
just to be able to bounce ideas off of and
hang out and have fun.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
And it can be confirming too, ye for you as
an artist to sit in a room with other writers
who are going, man, this song is great that we wrote.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
I've got I've already have an audience and I'm trying
it out on right now. We're all here together.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Yeah. And then when you when you have a song
that you wrote by yourself, at least in my experience,
I'm kind of always asking like, is this really good?

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Tell me I might I really love singing the song
as it is our five other people.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
Yeah. But with the with co writers that you trust,
then uh, then you kind of have that confidence backing
you with them.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Who co wrote this with this was Dan Couch, who
has always been a big part in being there when
I'm trying to find my way for a project and
helping me get on the right Road, John Sherwood, who
I call Vibe City. He's just he's such an awesome
soul to have in a room with you. And Oscar Charles,
who is a co writer and produces my my records

(40:53):
for me.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
So, okay, cool, let's sorry to cut you off. Good.
Let's listen to the work tape. I like this work tape,
so let's go through that and then we'll kind of
unpack what it's about.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Well, I'm glad you liked it, because my producer didn't
because I didn't play the guitar.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Right here we are, We'll let the listeners decide if
it's good enough for me.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
I think the Red Lipstick gone, Woman's live such sixes.
I thank Coach so pavens way down. But Jack, I
think the Outlaws willing and Johnny gone for River.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
I think Jesus he's come back.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Oh do I know?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
I'm just a hard worker. Hear drinking song of it
every shoe.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
I think there ain't nothing that I can't fid's with
the hammer, rent.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Of crest and wrench over the why. I know WHOA,
I know why?

Speaker 5 (42:23):
I think it sixteen sty the best way to tell
the story.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
In the front porch Stan It's the best place. Force moke.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
I think the moonlight is the best night.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Live lovers.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
And heaven taste some good ones way to the yond
love what they I know.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
I know.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
I'm just a hard drink of beer drinking.

Speaker 5 (42:56):
Song of it every joe. I think there ain't nothing
that I can't feeds me the hand't rent of crests
and wrench old do I know why?

Speaker 2 (43:10):
I know.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Even why.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Even why.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
I think Drudge is on.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
He heard the one who holding Sometimes we could agreed
to this sugree. Now I believe we're gone to reap
seeds we're sowing. So I try to keep my head
down the concients clean.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
I know.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
Why. I know.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
I just looked at the hard.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
Work of beer drinking song of in every joe, I
can find the right nothing that I can't beat me
the hammerman of Christs and ranch over who who.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Whallow? Wow?

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Okay, so what do I know?

Speaker 5 (44:40):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (44:41):
The song to me, basically, the song is going You're
asking all of these kind of deep rooted questions. Yeah, ah,
you're asking them simply. But but the more I listened
to it, the more I was like, Okay, the these
are actually deep questions or deep comments that you're going

(45:05):
I think this, I think that this is what I believe,
or you're asking it question, and then it's always every
line is followed up with but what do I know?

Speaker 1 (45:15):
You know, at the time that the original idea for
this song was sent to me, there's a lot of
political and social tension in the world, and I was
at a point in my life where I'm trying to
figure out what I believe, you know, who I believe
will take us the right direction, if anyone can take
us in the right direction. I'm trying to figure all

(45:36):
these things out, and I'm I'm looking at my people
and the people you know, where I come from, and
I understand why they feel the way they do, and
the people that they choose to, you know, pick up
their torch and and follow. And I understand that. But
I'm also looking at friends I've made that come from

(45:56):
much more, you know, liberal Ara, and I understand why
they feel the way they do too, And and like
I felt like I was in the middle of this fight,
and I was just like, man, we say all this
crazy stuff before we even know each other, and it's
like this one little thing, and I know, I always
like to say, agree to disagree. There's obviously some topics

(46:18):
that we should never agree to disagree on. The things
need to be figured out. But where I come from,
I felt like the people and my people where I
come from were just being misunderstood and misrepresented. And I
kept hearing about empathy, empathy, empathy over here, and I'm like,
but this is all we've ever been taught, This is

(46:40):
all we know, this, this is where we come from.
This is what's hammered into your brain. And so how
do you You can't just change it. We're still We're
still over here, We're still in this culture. We so
it's like empathy, empathy, empathy, Like, yeah, I think we
need empathy over here, but I need empathy over here
too for my people. Like just we need to quit

(47:01):
coming at it so combative, and and like can we
sit down at the table and have a conversation.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Without canceling each other, without canceling.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Each other with like can I sit down and have
a conversation with you and say words that I'm not
supposed to say because I'm trying to understand like how
this affects you or and vice versa. You know, Yeah,
And I just wanted to I wanted to try to
bridge the gap, and this song felt like a bridge

(47:31):
to me, you know.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
Yeah, So it's basically and it's interesting to have this
conversation the day after a political I mean a presidential election.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
This is a record of the day after. This is
recorded on November sixth.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
So this song is going, here's what I've always been taught.
But you're keeping your mind open. Also, you're going, well,
what do I know, Let's have a conversation about it.
Is that right? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (48:00):
So this was my So I've made a lot of
friends in the industry that come from the opposite end
of the spectrum of where I come from, you know.
So this was my attempt even though some of my
beliefs have shifted away from my raising, you know, and
I still have a lot of core beliefs that are
that still lie over there, but I have a lot
of beliefs that line up with these friends too.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
And I'm very you know, centric in a lot of ways.
But this was my attempt to Okay, I'm wishing that
I could see empathy coming this way too. Just you know,
these things might be wrong, but can you understand this
is where we come from. It's all we've ever known.
So put myself back in the shoes of the boy
that was turning a wrench, you know for ten fifteen
years before I started doing this, that lived in small

(48:42):
town Kentucky and small town Tennessee. So I'm going to
go back to being that guy. Now. I'm going to
sing this song and that chorus especially, and be like, Okay,
here's here's a little bit of an insight to who
I am, where I come from, being you know, small town,
blue collar. There's a little insight to my culture and

(49:05):
where I come from and the things I believe, you know.
But also it's like what do I know? So what
do I know? Is kind of like, you know, I've
been through it. I do what I got to do
to get me and my family through it.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I'm just trying to live my life too. I want
to be happy too. Everybody just wants to be happy
in the end. But you know, what do I know?

Speaker 5 (49:24):
You know?

Speaker 4 (49:26):
And then I.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
But still that felt a little one sided, you know.
So that's when the bridge or the third verse comes in,
and it's like we just got to find some we
just need to find some common ground man, and just
come to the table together and sit down and be
able to have hard conversations.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
And yeah, things are not as simple as they seemingly
once were. And I think that's because things are talked
about more now where they're they're kind of put out
in the open, and if you don't accept it, then
then you're out.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Well, my buddy Josh's got the best solution you should
is a heptic suit where you can like feel everything.
It's like he believes that when you get on social
media you should have to wear a suit, so when
you type some wild crap, you could just get a
punch to deliver, you know, just being able to be
like done.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
So I like that. I like that. Well. I think
it's also okay to you know, if your convictions are
what they are, stand your ground. That's fine. You believe
this thing, by all means, tell people you believe it.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
If there's no malicious intent and you're following your heart.
And people can disagree with me and think that I'm
like whatever for this, I told them we had a
show at the basement last week. I was like, the
election's coming up. Look, I don't care who you vote for.
I'm gonna vote for who I believe is gonna take
us in the direction that I would like to see
us go. I don't care who you vote for, as

(50:52):
long as you just follow your heart, you know, and
don't do it because just in spite of these people
or that person just yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
But there's no middle ground anymore. And that's that's what
I'm saying, is like, man, you you can stand your ground.
That's okay. You might be wrong, you might not, but
you know, at least at least I would have more
respect for the person standing their ground and speaking what
they believe to be true than going down the middle
and just following the crowd. It doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Well, it's also you know, it's it's also a hard
ground to stand when you're in the center too, when
you when you lean this way and that way on
certain things and you you're not caught up in the
hysteria chaos, yeah, and the chaos. It's it's it's hard
to stand there, especially as an artist when when so
many careers seem to be driven by political and social

(51:42):
viewpoints these days, and people just get on you know,
and hammer you know, this belief or that belief, and
they gain a following because they say some wild stuff
and I just refuse to do that. I'm not it's
just not in me, man, Like, I'm not gonna use
this thing or that thing to try to draw the
These people are those people. I just want to sing

(52:02):
my music and I want to I want to see
September twelfth, two thousand and one again. That's that's all
I want to see one day. I want to I
want to just tell the truth the way I see it,
and I want to see September twelfth, two thousand and one.
I love that.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Yeah, I have two more questions for you, yeah or comments. One.
I'm proud of you for keeping things PG thirteen Today.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I did well, I did well.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
You've done great. I think I heard the words, man,
I think I heard a hell and that's it.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
We're at PG.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
That's part of the thirty seven words. I think we're
at PG right now. We're at PG. Well, damn.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
So PG.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Yeah, that's part of the thirty seven words too, you
know the thirty there's like thirty seven words in radio.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
That what do you take some profanity and songs, I.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Think when they're necessary, I would never just like I'm
not saying I wouldn't use the F word in song,
or you know, there's a couple of songs that I
use the B word in. You know what I'm saying,
I hate even saying the word and the B word
that just runs through my skin. I hate censuring that.
But when oh, you know what I'm saying, uh uh
but uh, I said, you didn't have to. I get it,

(53:18):
but I'm just but also I try to be respectful.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
I think that when it's necessary and it gets a
point across, it needs to be used.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
I sent uh a fairly religious friend of mine my
song do Just Haven't Have a Creek, and they're like,
you know, I love this is amazing. And then they
went back and it was like, well the song right
before it fan on high, you know, it was talking
about remember the show, and they're like, how do you
put that right after that? And I was like, because
it's all honest, man, like you know, it's that song

(53:52):
like or two one five sixty three four or Appalachian Alchemy,
like my boy. Some radio person told me here, well back,
it's like, you know, I think it was just that,
you know, after my boy. Then you know, all this
other stuff has been out there and it's a little crazy,
and I was like, yeah, but there's no common thread,
you know. It's like the common thread is that I'm

(54:14):
being honest in every song, Like I'm trust me, I
deal with me seven days a week, twenty four hours
a day. Like I know, I'm all over the place.

Speaker 4 (54:22):
But I just it's not about just throwing profanity out
just to throw it out and make some kind of
like I'm a rebel kind of guy. No, I never
sit out serve law. Yeah, it needs to serve the song.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
The whole outlaw thing, and like if you've got to
say you're an outlaw, dude, get out of here. You're
not outlaw. If you got to say you're an outlaw,
it's like, just just write song.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
Believe in the Outlaws of Country. They were dubbed at that,
and you listen to their songs, You're.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Like, this isn't outlaw music. It's not that beautiful love
songs and songs about drinking at the r.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
And Willie Nelson smoked pot and Johnny Cash barely went
to prison.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
It's like the outlaws are gone. It says it. I
believe ve Waylon and Johnny are gone forever. Yeah, you
know it's in the song. It's like we that error
has already come across. Man. I just you know, to
each his own. I can. I can get frustrated about
other music real fast. I try not to drink the
hater aide these days.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
If you could listen to one record again for the
first time, as if you've never heard it before, what
would it be easy?

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Guitar Town nineteen eighty six, recorded in this studio we're
in right now, the first country record ever recorded on
a digital platform.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
Who was that Steve Barrel, Steve her old Guitar Town, Sorry,
meeting in Almond.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
No, it's all good, stevever Ol. Guitar Town, produced by
Tony Brown and uh, recorded in this room. I don't
know if it was this exact room. I think it
was the room right across the hallway over here on
the other side of the parking lot record the same building.
I think it was called backstage then or something. I
can't remember. So uh, but one like unsung from those

(56:01):
great Steve Earl records, and Uh, I think Steve would
probably agree with me here. I think Richard Bennett was
such a huge and crucial part of those records. He
he you know, legend goes with him and Steve would
kind of meet up and do some pre production stuff
and work on those guitar parts. So the guitar Town,

(56:21):
the hill Billy Highway, good old Boy getting Tough, all
those like very iconic to me and significant to the record.
Guitar chord changes and tones and stuff was Richard Bennett.
And I had a chance to go see Richard Bennett
and Martinofler play and acoustic set at the Rhyme and

(56:43):
something happened and I didn't make it, and I've been
very upset.

Speaker 4 (56:48):
Since that's the worst thing you can't make.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Richard don't even have a phone. He's got to email,
and it's like you got to email him, get a
hold of him. And I've been trying for a few
years to just like go sit down and have coffee
with him, pick his brain.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
But and for our listeners, we're in this episode at
soundstage and Nashville on music Row. So that's why, Yeah,
you know I've done I do some episodes at home,
so I didn't want people to think, you know, Steve
Roh made his record at my house.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Yeah, Steve's probably been Steve's number one hero. They say,
never meet your heroes. I've met Steve several times now
and and uh, he has never let me down.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
It wasn't a disappointment.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
No, it's never been. I mean I remember some stuff
went on that I didn't quite understand, and and uh
overseas and he had been over there and wrote a
song about it. And I called him and uh, I
tried texting him. He said, hey, call me, I'll tell
you what I know. You know, and so sit here
and talk by the phone. Helped me understand kind of

(57:44):
what was going on with the you know, the Israel
and Godza thing. And he's he's a great dude, man.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
Yeah that's cool. Uh why didn't you bring him? You
should have been really cool man. Yeah, I think he's
probably right now kind of brought Steve if you call.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
And I asked, we could have been at PG thirteen.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
Or is that our No, it's asshole makes it?

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Oh okay, okay, okay, okay, so.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
You made me there you go there show.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
But uh no, a really funny thing happened, though. I
think I was I was kind of disrespectful to Garth
Brooks one time I was at.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
I wasn't hear this story?

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Really?

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I was.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
You don't have to edit this, you know, I was.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
I was at I was at the Country Music Songwriters
Hall of Fame, and I turned and I see Steve
is coming to sit down with his mom on the
table beside me, and Garth is sitting facing that way.
And I got up and I was going to walk
to Steve and shake his hands say hello. And as
I did, Garth was standing up, and I've seen it

(58:48):
that he thought I was, you know, coming to say
hello to him, and I just said, excuse me, sir.
He sat back down and just was like, okay, was
like my bad. I did, but I did. I wasn't thinking,
you know, I.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
Was just like, dude, like I would have talked to
see my way girls right there is like that's my hero,
you know.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
But so yeah, that's funny. It was, yeah, well excuse me.
I don't mean it's okay. I don't feel bad for it.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
So he probably didn't feel that.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
He probably he forgot about twenty seconds later.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Yeah, with that, man, thanks for doing this.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
No, thank you man, it's great talk.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
LV Shane. Everybody where, can everybody find you?

Speaker 1 (59:26):
They can find me anywhere that you like to listen
to music and on all social media platforms. I think
everything on social media is at ELV Shane Music and
if it doesn't have a blue check mark, don't give
them your money. Betty.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
And uh, do you have any shows coming up? This
episode will probably come out in a week or so,
or what do you have this year?

Speaker 5 (59:48):
You know?

Speaker 1 (59:48):
I'm I'm one of those weird guys that doesn't that
evidently doesn't stay too concerned with his his career at times.
I'm taking some time for Elbie. So I don't have
any shows lined up right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
I am.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
I feel like there's a project that that is in
there somewhere, and I've kind of cleaned my plate recently
to be able to decide if that's something I want
to go after or if I want to just try
to play more shows next year. I don't know. I
don't know. I don't know what I'm doing right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
I'm just, Uh, you started producing? Can you talk about
that or you can? I?

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Yeah, that's fine, It's been so much fun. There's an artist, Jade,
that I met when she was eleven years old. I
had a songwriters around in Wisconsin and I just couldn't
believe how incredible this this kid was. And so she
ended up moving to Florida with her family, and since
then I would go down like once a year, spend
a week there right with her a little bit and
always you know, she didn't even go to school, man,

(01:00:47):
she she was homeschooled so she could focus on learning
guitar and home school school. Well, she she didn't go
to a public school. She she schooled herself literally, and
she's super smart and brilliant kid, super talented. But I
promised her when she was in high school, Hey, when
you're eighteen, I'm gonna figure it out. We're gonna get
you in Nashville, and you're gonna make a living and

(01:01:08):
writing songs and be able to focus on yourself. So
I found a very generous and beautiful soul who had
a little bit more money than I did, you know,
and and believed in her as well, and was able to,
with his support and the support of another friend that
I've been with him, publish him for a long time.
We started up a company and and got her publishing

(01:01:31):
deal a couple of years ago. And now she's in
and and she was kind of just bouncing around a lot,
and I know I've known her long enough to know
what she wants to do with her music, and yeah,
and really I just I finally stepped up and I
was like, I told her I would do it for
and now I said not to I didn't have time.
And then I seen her kind of going through the
ring or just really wanting to get in the studio

(01:01:52):
for the first time. So I was like, you know what,
let's do it. So I hollered at my producer, Oscar
and he lets use his spade see engineered co produce
mixing the record and hopefully have some music out on
her in the spring. And it is quite amazing. I
told you earlier, but I feel like she's like this
really she's knowed so for sure, but she's like this

(01:02:14):
really cool mix between Atlantis, Morsett and Susan Tedeski, and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
Yeah it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Yeah, it's a little patchy Klein peppered in there too,
you know, it's just something beautiful about it, just some cool.

Speaker 4 (01:02:26):
Like cored changes, progressions things going on.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Yeah, she's got a hard hard row to ho you know,
since when when you when you go that route, you know,
it can definitely be tougher.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
But well, I hope you and her will come back
to this once you have her stuff out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
I would love to come and sit with her and
get always great.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
Yeah, that'd be a cool episode.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
That'd be really fun.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Thank you, dude, thanks for coming. I appreciate your son.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
God bless y'all.

Speaker 6 (01:02:50):
All right, man, it can get lonely climbing, Mam McKinley.

(01:03:31):
So to entertain myself, I go to Chumpacasino dot com.
At chump a Casino, I can play hundreds of online
casino style games for free, like online slots, bingos, Slingo.

Speaker 5 (01:03:41):
And morn.

Speaker 6 (01:03:42):
Plus I get a daily login bonus. It's just too
bad that up here I don't have anyone to share
my excitement with.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Jump live the Temba life anytime anywhere. Play for free
now at tempacasino dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
WoT no not necessary Ford look recavity my lass terms
conditions eating us