From Misfit Toys to Music Stages: Bizz Bigsby’s Road Through Addiction, Legacy, and a New Nashville Sound

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Hey everybody, we are live and welcome to another
Distant Skip Happens, and I'mjoined by this biz B.
Say that when you've had a few.
All right, he's an incredibleartist.
He's got a journey that isnothing sort of inspiring from
childhood marked by hardship tosharing stages with some music

(00:22):
legends.
We're going to talk about thatbecause it's turned pain into
powerful storytelling.
And I cannot wait to hear aboutthis.
Blinding the soul NorthNashville and with country in
blues.
And he created a sound that hecalls Urban Americana.
I love that.
His music is raw, it's honest,it's full of hope.

(00:44):
And today we're diving rightinto his story.
And ladies and gentlemen, youcan see him like I can see him.
It's Biz Bigsby.
Dino, I'm gonna mess that nameup before we're done here today.

SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
Man, trust me, Skip, I've been called worse.

SPEAKER_03 (00:56):
I've been called Trust.
Ladies and gentlemen, here'sBuzz Big Big.
Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
Here's Big Bagby.
Here's Big Bag B.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06):
Yeah, that's I'm not doing an album call it just Big
Big Bagby.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09):
Do you that's awesome?
How are you, my friend?
It's still good.
I'm well.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13):
Thank you for having me.
Thank thank you so much forhaving me.
It is it is an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18):
Well, you know, it's called Skip Happens.
So that's and it does.
And it does.
And we've been we've beenchatting a little we've been
chatting a little bit before youwent out with the lights and the
camera.
You know, just the energy thatyou have and all that.
You know, I mean both you and Iwe're no spring chickens, so I'm
just saying, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (01:36):
But uh I'm not even a fall chicken.
No, I'm more like a winterchicken.

SPEAKER_03 (01:41):
Yeah, I gotta say, when I first came out before we
get into everything about you, Isaid, How are you?
It's nice to meet you.
You go, Well, I got up thismorning, so it's yeah, all
right.
It's how we look at it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
No, no, exactly.
No, exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:56):
They're probably just going to bed when we're
getting up.
So exactly.
Exactly.
But uh, Biz, welcome to thepodcast Skip Happens.
Um, for those that might bediscovering your music for the
first time, how do you usuallydescribe your sound and what you
do?

SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Uh well, I I know one thing.
There are only two kinds ofmusic that's ever been made, and
that's good and bad.
So I just try to do good stuff.
I don't really know the genre.
Um, that's not really my job.
Um, I just try to write goodmusic.
I grew up listening toeverything from George Jones to
Parliament Funkadelli.

(02:32):
Like that, and everything in themiddle.

SPEAKER_03 (02:35):
Little George Clinton?

SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
Little Clinton up man.

SPEAKER_02 (02:38):
We want the funk.
Yeah, get about yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (02:41):
Yeah, he was just here at uh at our our uh we're
in Syracuse, so I'm in upstateNew York, but we had the uh New
York State Fair, it runs upuntil Labor Day, and it was one
of the George Clinton was herefor that.

SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Man, I tell my son all the time, um, like I feel
sorry for you.
He's 24 and he's never seen liveshows.
Like, you know, he's never seenI saw the mothership land like
when it really landed.
I saw Earth Wind and Fire likelive when the drones were going
upside down.
Oh my god, he's never seen it.
I feel, you know, he he doesn'the has no clue.

(03:13):
Was that like with uh MauriceWhite and that whole actually
George Clinton and Earth Windand Fire were that were the same
thing.
They were in the 70s, early 80s.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Earthwind and Fire was likeclean, wholesome, and George
Clinton was the total opposite.
So we would go to both and kindof just you know, yeah, balance
it.

(03:33):
We're going to George Clintonthis month.
I've actually uh I've actuallyhad the pleasure of of being in
his company.

SPEAKER_05 (03:40):
No way, dude.
Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 (03:43):
He's just a good dude, man.
He he got out of a cab one dayat 328 performance hall when
they were playing, and we justhappened to be standing on the
corner passing a doobie.
This is in the 70s.

SPEAKER_03 (03:54):
Well, we do it now and it's legal, so hey, yeah,
yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (03:57):
Right, right.
You don't have to run anymore.
Um this is this is not live.
We can cut this all out.

SPEAKER_03 (04:06):
Actually, just it is live, but never mind.

SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
Never mind.
Let's take that out.
Um, so so we uh we had to talk,and so every time we will come,
we talk.
Every time he would they wouldcome every seven, eight months.

SPEAKER_02 (04:19):
That is so cool.
Um yeah, really, really cool.
Good people, fun, fun, fun, funpeople.

SPEAKER_03 (04:25):
Immediately, you you just you know, you're like just
like you're talking about GeorgeClinton or I was, and you're
talking about Parliament and allthat.
It's like, dude, I listened toall that stuff.
I played, I was doing radio inthe 70s.
So oh yeah, you got it.
You know, I mean, been there,done that, and it's just now
it's like, even though I'm inthe country format itself with
the radio station here in town,but uh still I go back to those

(04:48):
days and I can crank Earthwoodin fire or Parliament or you
know, it's all those bands thatwere coming out of the 70s that
you and I and probably everybodyelse is like doing bad things,
if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 (04:59):
Yeah, bad things with good intentions.

SPEAKER_03 (05:01):
Yeah, no, exactly.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
So Biz, where are you right now?

SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
You're in Nashville, right?

SPEAKER_00 (05:09):
Yeah, I am at a uh I'm in an apartment overlooking
the Cumberland River that runsright through the heart of
Nashville.
I am right in the bend.
There's a do you see the gentlenest right below me?
It doesn't come this far out.
It only goes, it only goes, it'sa tourist attraction.
It only goes back and forthwhere you can see the city.

(05:30):
There I'm out, I'm out in thegood part.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, but there I have an eagle'snest right below me, and and I
get to to go out on my balconyand sit and get really, really
close with uh with nature andand the universe.
It's a really cool spot.

SPEAKER_03 (05:46):
I use this for writing and oh my god, it's
gotta be perfect for that.
I was asking about the GeneralJackson because uh for years
I've been going to the countryradio seminar.
And way back in the day, acouple of the well, one of the
big labels in Nashville wouldcharter the General Jackson, and
they would put, I think it wasRCA or Sony or one of those, and

(06:06):
they would put all their artistson this boat and bring all the
radio people on board.
Right, right.
We would go down the river.
That's why that's you knowthat's fun.

SPEAKER_00 (06:16):
No, you will never that those are see, that's what
makes Nashville different andspecial, and and it we'll we've
lost that.
Um and we've we've gained a lot,but we've lost a lot.
The trade-off, I don't know ifit's really good for the city.
Well, I know it's good for thebottom line, but not for the
city.

SPEAKER_03 (06:35):
You know, I love Nashville, and I love the people
that are there.
Now I'm meeting you, andhopefully someday I'll meet you
out there as well.
Um But it's when I was goingthere, you know, about 20, 25
years ago when I started goingthere for this country radio
seminar thing, um it wascompletely different.

SPEAKER_02 (06:52):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (06:53):
Now we go, it's like, I'm not leaving the hotel.
Right.
It's like you know, I could walkdown, I could go down on
Broadway, and it's like, no, I'mtoo damn old for that.
I'm not getting it.

SPEAKER_02 (07:02):
No, right, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (07:03):
But no, it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Broadway.
I don't know if Broadway changedor if we're just getting older.
I think it's both.

SPEAKER_04 (07:08):
I think it's a combination.

SPEAKER_00 (07:09):
I think it's a combination.
Um, I I think now, nowadayseverything is driven by money,
and so you would be surprised ifyou you wouldn't be surprised
how much money is made inNashville from fifth and broad
to first in broad.
Oh my god.
Four blocks.
Yeah, millions of millions ofdays.
That's crazy.
It's four blocks.

(07:30):
So that's that's what drives itnow.

SPEAKER_03 (07:32):
You know, well, you know, Nashville is known for the
music, and you're a part ofthat, is you're a part of what
they're doing there and whatyou're doing.
You said music has been alifeline for you.
Um, can you take take us back tothe earliest memory where music
really became that source sourceof strength for you?

SPEAKER_00 (07:51):
For me, um, four years old.
Wow, I was I I don't remember alot about being four, like most
people don't.

SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
I gotta go back 64 years.

SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
I can remember five, but I can't remember four.
But no, you can remember four.

SPEAKER_00 (08:09):
No, I was that there's a reason why I was my
grandmother and great aunts,they were all sisters, they
raised me.
And so I was it was a Fridaynight, I was four years old, and
uh TV was on, and they let mestay up late.
It was 10 o'clock, and um I sawthis show, and they had these,

(08:30):
everybody looked like they weredancing, having a good time, and
all of a sudden this guy comeson, and my my grandmother says,
That's your dad.
And I'm like, Really?
That's your dad right there, andso I watched him do um, I don't
even know what song he was doingat the time, but but he was he
had the the processed hair withthe go-go girls in the back and

(08:54):
the band, he's doing splits.
I'm like, that looks like that'sfun.
I I want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 (09:01):
And I pretty much skip have been chasing that my
entire life.

SPEAKER_03 (09:05):
So, I mean, you touched on it a little bit
because you're the son of goahead, tell everybody.

SPEAKER_00 (09:11):
Well, his name is Jimmy Church, and he was he was
on a show called uh Night Train,which was the first RB show in
the history of the world to everdo live music on TV, RB music
ever.
Uh it was before Soul Train,actually, Soul Train pretty much
took the the entire frameworkthat Night Train had, took it to

(09:31):
Chicago and the rest of hishistory.
But they were um they were doingthis.
I think my dad was like 19, 20years old.
Well, when I saw him, he was 20,when I saw that that night he
was 24.
Um and and they they did it atWLAC Studios, and it would be
them and um, I mean, Lil Richardand Sam and Dave and Sam Cook

(09:53):
and all this ready, arethaFranklin, all these guys, Aretha
Franklin, I board Sam, uh all ofthese people, man, would be on
this show.

SPEAKER_03 (10:00):
Um yeah, so biz, what was it like growing up with
that kind of legacy?
I mean, and how did it influenceyour own path?
I mean, so you didn't reallyknow your dad?

SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
No, I knew my dad, I just didn't know the legacy he
was doing.
He was just, you know what Imean?
I didn't know what was going onwhen it was happening.
My father was, he lived, helived like any touring artist
lived in the 60s, especially ifyou're African-American, you
just you you were out there.
That's how you made your money,that's what you did.
Um, and so um I can remember thesame thing that they that

(10:33):
brought me so much pride, to beperfectly honest.
The same thing that brought meso much pride and joy also made
me feel very insecure and mademe feel very small because my
parents were not there.
So when you're a kid andeverybody loves your dad, and
your dad is like the bell of theball in the city, but he doesn't
spend any time with you, you asa kid, you well, you think

(10:54):
something's wrong with you.
It can't be them because you'regonna be.
Did you feel lost?
I felt like uh I rememberwatching, I remember watching uh
Rudolph the Red Nose Ranger.

SPEAKER_04 (11:07):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (11:07):
And they went to he went to the land of misfit toys.
Yes.
And I remember saying to myself,that's where I'm from.
I'm from there.
That's that's I I felt a kindredspirit with that with that that
land.
Now, um, you know, like I'msaying, I'm very proud.
And my father and I are veryclose.

unknown (11:27):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (11:28):
Now my dad and I are very close.

SPEAKER_03 (11:30):
And your dad's gotta be up there though.

SPEAKER_00 (11:31):
I mean uh he's 86.

SPEAKER_03 (11:33):
Oh, God bless my dad.

SPEAKER_00 (11:35):
My dad still plays music, man.
My dad opened up for theCommodores last summer.

SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
Come on, I kid you not, I kid you not, man.
And he killed it.
He freaking killed his 80s, hewas 85, and he freaking killed
it.
You were there for that.
No, I was too, I was actually ata show.

SPEAKER_00 (11:54):
I had to show you, but how awesome is that?
Oh man, it was it it was it itblew my mind.
Because, you know, he tells meall of these stories of of of of
Motown and and and him and uhBarry Gordy and Yeah, he had to
be going through that time whereit was tough.

SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Being a black artist and all that going on, you know,
everything was just it was.

SPEAKER_00 (12:21):
It was terrible.
Yeah, it was it was bad.
It was bad.
And and and um, you know, you'retrying to figure it out.
And he had left Nashville at thetime and moved to LA.
Actually, when I was born, hewas in LA with Lil Richard.
Him and him and Richard havebeen had been friends.
Uh, when Richard died, they'vebeen friends since they were
since Pop was 20.

unknown (12:42):
Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
So they were in LA, and then Pop was working with
uh, he was, I mean, he was hewas out there with uh with
Marvin Gaye and and then all ofthese cats, man, and and uh
Wilson Pickett and uh NancyWilson and Sam Cook.
And the same thing he said, thething he would tell me about Sam
Cook was that everybody,everybody else would be around,

(13:03):
and everybody was everybodyuntil Sam Cook walked in the
room, and then he was everybodyjust gave it up for Sam.
He was that he had that thatthing.

SPEAKER_03 (13:13):
He had the record label in uh or no, was he in
Memphis?
What am I thinking?
Sam Cook?
Yeah, um no, maybe I'm wrong.
No, no, you know.
I'm thinking his son is maybe AlGrand.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Never mind.
Forget I said that.

SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
Stax was in Memphis.
Yeah, Stax records and that'sthat's it, Stax.
Which was Isaac Hayes and B.B.
King and all of those guys,yeah.
Which yes, a bad mother, shityour mouth.
Um, I didn't realize my dad wasa big deal until we did a show.
I was with his band, I was withhis band for about five years,

(13:49):
um, after my mother died, andthat's a whole nother story.
But I was with his, I was withhis band, and we were playing uh
I think the governor'sinauguration here, and um, he
was doing it with with with AlGreen.
And and we were backstage and AlGreen called me over.
He said, Man, let me tell you,you me and your dad used to shut
Memphis completely down.

(14:10):
I'm like, huh?
He's like, Yeah, man, me andyour friend, me and your dad
that.
And uh one time we were openingup for Richard, um, and we were
at the sound check and he'sbanging, he's knocking, but you
can't come in.
And he stops everything.
He's like, Jimmy, is that you?
And my dad is very stoic.
He's not a I love you kind ofdude, you know, like old old

(14:32):
80-year-old dads are, you know,you hug and he still feels like
a hug.
He's like you too.
He don't really know how to,they don't project that.
And he went up to my dad and theman, I love Jimmy.
Jimmy Church was the better, andPop's like, Okay, Richard, stop
now.
I'm like, Pop's a pretty bigdeal, man.
Everybody knows him.
So I was proud to be his son.

(14:52):
Um, I love this, but I was I waslost being his son, yeah, all at
the same time.

SPEAKER_03 (14:59):
Yeah, wow.
So uh I'm trying to so who weresome of the artists that really
spoke to you as a kid?
I mean, you you had Sam Cook andGeorge Jones, and you know, I
did some homework here, a littlebit of James Taylor.
What about their music?
And how did that connect withyou?

SPEAKER_00 (15:15):
Uh George Jones was pure.
See, oh my god, that's what Ithat's why I say there are only
two kinds of music.
George Jones could have been ablues singer and could have
killed it.

SPEAKER_03 (15:24):
No doubt, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 (15:26):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, no, exactly.
He's doing soul music that isfrom his soul.
Lord, I am the bartender, and Idon't like my work.
It's just so I would go fromthat, and then James Taylor was
just an awesome songwriter.
Actually, this album, this albumthat I'm releasing next week is
is a it's a mixture betweenJames Taylor and Motown.

(15:49):
It's kind of what it is.
That's that's the vibe I wantedit to be.
Uh, which is why I call it UrbanAmericana.
But those those those peoplejust drove me to want to be
great at writing.
And that's why, you know, peopledon't realize, well, I guess
people do, but Nashville,songwriters came in.

(16:10):
Musicians and people that'sgreat vocalists, they didn't
come here.
Songwriters came in to writegreat songs.
And I happened to be in thatbucket, and so I got to see
that.

unknown (16:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:23):
Where did you um back in the day though, where
did you go and write?
You were in Nashville.
Where would you go and write?
Just somebody's living room,somebody's baseball?

SPEAKER_00 (16:31):
In my in my in my grandmother's in my room in my
grandmother's house.
There you go.
And I would have people comeover, and we'd have a little
keyboard with about eightthings, and I'd have a and I had
a a guitar, an acoustic guitarwith two strings.

SPEAKER_02 (16:46):
And so we would I'd write a bass line and then I'd
put a melody on it, and there wego.

SPEAKER_00 (16:51):
Um that's kind of where it started.
And and then we got a I wasblessed to um a friend of mine
and I grew up with CharlesSpoke, who is an accountant now.
Most of my friends are totallythe opposite of me.

SPEAKER_03 (17:03):
Because they want to go make money.
Um, I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 (17:06):
No, you you you hit the nail on the proverbial head.
Yes.
No, they didn't want to go makemoney, they made money.

SPEAKER_05 (17:12):
They made money, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (17:14):
And they're like, dude, are you doing why are you
still doing this music?
I'm like, dude, first of all, umyour purpose is what makes you
happy, and it's what makes yousleep well at night, not your
money.
Uh, because I know people withlots of money that I don't that
don't sleep as well as I do.
No, money's not that out ofwell, money is it gives you

(17:36):
choices, but it doesn't make youhappy and peaceful.
You have to be in your purpose.

SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
That's how you handle it.

SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah.
It's and it can become it, itcan, yeah, that's a great way to
put it.
It's how you handle it and howyou how you um because in done
right is a really good tool.
Done wrong, it will it willconsume you.

SPEAKER_03 (17:56):
How do you handle startup?
How do you handle I have noidea?
I don't know what that is.
Because you're very humble,you're very cool.
I mean, you're you're full ofenergy.
But you know, it's like, well, Imean, there's gotta be those
moments where I just did thisand I can't believe I did it.
You pinch yourself, but you alsogotta keep everything in check.
You also, you know, you gottajust I've talked to other

(18:17):
artists where you know it's justlike I have to stop being that
person and come back to me.
Yeah, I mean, like shows andstuff like that.
And you know, there comes a timewhere you just gotta separate
everything and do I mean groceryshop, you do everything like the
rest of us.
You know, it's all the same.
But then there's this other sidethat but how do you handle all

(18:40):
that?
What do you every once in awhile do you have to say, All
right, all right, biz you needto uh talking yourself, you need
to like, you know, okay, I needto slow down, I need to get my
shit together.
Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 (18:50):
All the time.
Every day.
I did it before I came on here.
Like, I'm ready to come on skipshow and let me come down.
Well, you know it's called skiphappens, so you know, man, it
does, and it's happening rightnow.

SPEAKER_03 (19:01):
It is, and it's see when skip happens, it's good.
I'm just it's good.

SPEAKER_00 (19:05):
You know, I'm telling you.
I I need I need one of thoseshirts, man.
I started to actually buy ashirt and get it done the other
day and wear it, but I'm like, Idon't want to get I don't want
to be.
You know what?

SPEAKER_03 (19:15):
I'm actually um I've got uh I'll send you a couple of
my coffee mugs when we're donetonight, but yes, there you go.
I'll I'll make sure you gethooked up with those.
Please do, please do.

SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
But I'll I'll tell you to answer that question, um,
two things.
Number one, um ego is really,really tricky, and your ego will
fool you.
You have to keep that bad boy incheck.
And I was blessed because Godhumbled me at an early age.

(19:45):
The life that I grew up in andthe way I was raised, I had I
was humbled.
Um, I'm 12 years clean, right?
So my son always tells me, Dad,you're just 12.
So you gotta hold it, you know,you're only 12.
You've done you've done a lot in12 years.
Um it's easy for me to stayhumble because I I've seen that

(20:07):
other part.
Yeah, I was gonna know whatthat's I know what's waiting on
you over there.

SPEAKER_03 (20:11):
So I was gonna ask, Biz, now when you went ended up
going down that road, why?
Just because you wanted toforget about other things?
I mean, just if you don't mindtalking about it a little bit.
Not at all.
Because you could be aninspiration to others that maybe
going through something, you'vebeen there, you're 12 years
clean.
But why did you go down thatroad?

(20:31):
What happened?

SPEAKER_00 (20:32):
Um, that's a that's uh there are about four answers
to that.
Number one, I got I got lots oftime.
Number one, I used to lovegetting high.
Let's just be honest.
Everybody say, No, man.
My thing was my drug address wascocaine.
But my mother gave me a jointwhen I was 11.
And that's where it started.

(20:54):
Like I'm sitting on sitting onthe porch.

SPEAKER_03 (20:56):
Yeah, and uh uh but a joint is one thing, cocaine is
another.

SPEAKER_00 (21:01):
Yeah, but when you're 11, a joint is cocaine.
Like when you're 11, that doorhas that door is good.

SPEAKER_03 (21:05):
All right, I got I gotcha.
I got you.

SPEAKER_01 (21:07):
Okay, you don't know what you're doing, man.
Your mom, so it must be good, itmust be okay, you know.
Um like mom wouldn't give me,you know, she makes me eat
turnip greens.
That ain't good.
This is pretty good stuff,right?

SPEAKER_03 (21:20):
Some poke salad, some poke salad, yeah, Tony Joe
White.

SPEAKER_00 (21:28):
But um, so I I started uh it started there and
it and it felt I could escape.
I could escape the fact that myparents weren't around me, and I
could escape the fact that Ithought I was broken, and I
could escape the fact that Iwasn't good enough and all of
that.
And then it got to the pointwhere I just wanted to please

(21:48):
everybody around me because Iwanted everybody to like me
because I didn't know who I was.
Um, so I'm buying out the barwhen I'm going in.
I never had a problem.
Uh I just say I never had aproblem acquiring money.
Gotcha.
So I would I would go to the barand buy the bar out, and
everybody loves beers, and I'min a limo, and da da da da.

(22:09):
I'm the loneliest dude in theworld.
Um and then it gets to a pointwhere where you just you don't
even think of life without it.
And it affects every part ofyour life.
Oh, that's my phone.

SPEAKER_01 (22:23):
I thought you were just going, I thought you had
like special effects.
That's the bird of thebackground.
Yeah, special effects.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (22:31):
We got a few of those here, but um not real
birds.

SPEAKER_00 (22:34):
It just got bad, man.
Yeah, and and so um what whatwhat made me stop, if you if it
if I can tell this.

SPEAKER_03 (22:43):
No, no, please do, please do.

SPEAKER_00 (22:45):
What made me stop, my son, who is 24 now, he was 12
at the time.
And I uh we got him this MacBookPro, and they were really,
really expensive at that time.
And I've been out three or yeah,I know I've been out for three
or four days on a binger, and Iwas coming home, I was trying to

(23:06):
sneak in the house because I wasrunning out of everything, and
like, okay, I need to I need tokeep using, and um I'm like, ah,
his MacBook Pro.

unknown (23:18):
No, dude.

SPEAKER_00 (23:18):
And and no one will never know.
I'll get it back before it justit didn't even make sense.
So I'm sneaking in the house toget it, and my wife comes in,
and uh she's like, What are youdoing?
I'm like, Well, I'm gonna takethis out, but if don't wake him
up, I'm gonna bring it back.
She's like, No, you're nottaking his MacBook, you're not
doing yes, okay.

(23:39):
And we're going through it, andhe comes out of the out of his
bedroom and he goes, Mom, lethim have it.
And uh man, I get emotionalright that thing.
No, no, no.
I mean, I don't even know if hesaid it.
I don't know if he said itbecause he felt sorry for me, or
if he said it because he wasdone with me.

(24:00):
But the one thing that I always,always, always said was I was
gonna always be there for my sonand be a father because that's
why we were all in the samehouse.
My father wasn't in my house,his father wasn't in his house.
You were gonna do things thatyou dad did not do.
I was gonna break thatgenerational curse, man.
I'm breaking that curse.

(24:20):
And here I am, and and here weare, and now uh he's I I've let
him down.
And I'm gonna tell you how baddrugs are.
I it it killed me inside, butyou know what I did?
I wrapped the cord up, I shutthe MacBook, I put it in my
backpack, and I left.

(24:41):
And uh I was out for another twodays and I could not get out.
I just couldn't.
I'm using everything because mydrug address was coke.
So I'm snorting in Peru, my noseis bleeding, I'm I can't, I
can't, I can't run, I can'tescape it.
And uh so I run out ofeverything, and then two days
later I come home, um, figuredout how to get back in the house

(25:03):
because by then they had lockedme out.
And she the she just she waschanging the locks on the door
the next day, and she had theyhadn't done it yet, so I figured
out how to get in the house andI got in and I called uh a place
here called Cumberland Heights,which is a rehab center.
And I said, Look, I'm I'm I'mI'm I'm I need to get in there.

(25:25):
And they're like, we don't haveany beds.
And I'm like, no, you don'tunderstand, I'm coming.
Whether you got beds or not,I'll stand in the corner, but
I'm coming.
And it's uh Cumberland Heightsis probably 12-13 miles from
where I live, and I walked.
And um they let me in and said,dude, you must be serious.
So I was gonna be in for oneweek, it ended up being 30 days,

(25:49):
um, and I've been clean eversince.
So, and my son and I are likethis like we like we he's my
best, best friend.
Oh my god, yeah.
So, so yeah, man.
So I you know, and I used to bereally ashamed of those stories.

SPEAKER_03 (26:05):
Um be ashamed, no, man.

SPEAKER_00 (26:08):
I am I'm proud of those stories because it shows
what God does in your life.
Like, thank you.
It makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 (26:14):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (26:14):
Now it makes sense because I'm telling you, and
somebody might hear it and go,they're gonna that dude can get
due.
I can make it now.
Now that all the pain, now thepain makes sense to me.
It makes sense.
But before I would care, youjust walk around with all that
in you.
I don't want anybody to knowbecause you don't want anybody
to be judging me.
Man, I could care less aboutwhat people think about me.

(26:35):
I really could.
This is bigger than me, it hasnothing to do with me.
My story has nothing to do withme.
You know, it's it's uh it's tolet people know.
Well that you're not bigger thanthat.

SPEAKER_03 (26:45):
I want to say you're wrong.
It has a lot to do with youbecause look at you as a person
right now, it's made you such abetter person.
It's it's done so much for you,and the love that you and your
son have for each other, yeah,and all that.
I mean, yeah, no, it is aboutyou, Biz.
It is.
Well, I I get what you'resaying, but I do, I do, and I

(27:06):
couldn't quit it, Skip, and allof a sudden it just went away.

SPEAKER_00 (27:09):
Like, you know this, you in the business, you know
this.
I can't do a show withoutsomebody handing me something.
Like somebody gonna putsomething in my hand, somebody I
can't.
I'm around liquor and drugs allthe time, and it never crosses
my mind.
I don't even think about it.

SPEAKER_01 (27:24):
I didn't do that.
That's not me.
That's you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
I got you because I didn't have the strength to do
that.
All of a sudden, it's just likeI have to, and that's what I
mean when I say for me that egois really tricky.
I had nothing to do with that.
I was I was blessed to be usedto show the power of things that
are bigger than me.

SPEAKER_03 (27:48):
Oh, I hope somebody uh whoever watches this, and I
know people are watching it livenow, but uh somebody knows
somebody and they haven'twatched this and listened to
what you said.
Yes.
Um if you save one life or yousomebody says Yeah, that's my
hope.

SPEAKER_00 (28:04):
That's my hope.
The whole reason that I go and II do a show here at Rudy's Jazz,
and we saw that show probablytwo years now.
And uh the show is is I tellthese stories and I play songs,
and it's never not there.
Hasn't been a show in the lasttwo and a half years that
someone hadn't come up to me andwent, I needed to hear that.
I'm gonna bring my son back tothe show.

(28:26):
I needed to hear the so it makesa you know to me, church is not
a building, church is here, it'shere.
The spirituality of what weneed.
It's an extension, it's a yes,yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we we are we over therehaving church.

SPEAKER_01 (28:42):
But you can't say that because people won't come.
Wow.
We call it church without theguilt.
That's heavy stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (28:48):
Oh no, no, no, I get you.
Um let's change the mood here alittle bit because I know this
was um really a big thing foryou.
Tell me about the night thatyour dad asked you to step in as
lead singer for his band.

SPEAKER_00 (29:03):
Man, um so my mother died.

SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
And what was going through your head?

SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
And he was never around.
My mother OD'd.
Um and and so she uh it's funny,man.
She oh she overdosed on on crackokay.
And she smoked so much that herstem cells just snapped.
And so I had to make a decisionof what to do.

(29:29):
And um to make a long so she wasthis was 23 years ago or
thereabouts, because Brandon wasa year old, he had never spoken
a word until I was nine, tenmonths old, and we they moved
her to the to this place and wewent and looked at her and she
was out, you know, just notnothing, the nose thing coming
out of it.
And we're trying to make adecision of what to do.

(29:51):
And I I I can the doctor's like,well, look, her brain stems are
snapped, and there's nothing wecan do about it.
So I don't know what to tellyou.
You you know, we we just can.
We can the insurance is onlygonna pay for so much you can't
afford our you know, so we'relike, okay, we're leaving the
nurse, we're leaving this thisnursing home facility thing, and
and uh my son was EO looks backand first words out of his mouth

(30:16):
was bye-bye.
And my mother woke up, sheopened her eyes, she looked at
it, and she smiled, and sheclosed her with a guy.
And by the time we all got home,she had passed.
So um my father, and my my dadwasn't in my life a lot before
that.
I mean, we were cool, but hedidn't spend a lot of time with
me.

(30:36):
So my father uh he called memaybe um at well at the funeral.
I can't I sang at the funeral.
I sang a song called Mama fromBoys to Men, and he was there.
And maybe uh two months afterthat he called me and said,
Look, man, you ain't got nobodyto do it.
I'm like, No, I'll say youreverybody's dead, you know,
gone, your mom's gone, grandma'sgone.

(30:56):
So why don't you come on theroad with men work the lights?
Um, you know, give you somethingto do, you get some money in
your pocket, you try to keep aneye on you because you're
running rampant.
And so a leash on you.
Hold on, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hold on, like, and I and atfirst I was kind of upset.
I'm like, oh, so now you want tohold a leash on me, huh?
Like now it's okay.
Like, man, I I'm I'm okay.

(31:17):
You know what I mean?
Just the the pride part, like Idon't need you.
But the other part that like, Iwant my dad in my life, I just
want to make you proud.
That part took over.
So I'm like, sure.
So we get in the band, I'llnever forget it.
We were we uh we flew into intoSan Jose and we drove down to
Monterey, but we played inCarmel.

(31:39):
And we were playing, uh, weended up playing at Clint
Eastwood's house.
And and he's like, and my andthe the lead singer got sick,
and he couldn't he couldn't dothe show.
So he's like, Man, I I can youthink you can you you can work
up some songs and we can kind ofoff the fly.
So he never knew I could sing,he never knew I could entertain
at all.
And I got up and I went outfront and we did Mustang Sally

(32:02):
and we did a couple more, andthen because he's got this
10-piece band, three horns, twofemale singers, yeah, him, uh,
and rhythm section, and it'sdoing a lot of different stuff
that's moving around.
And um, and we killed it.
And I was with him for fiveyears after that.

SPEAKER_03 (32:20):
And that's what started all the touring and all
that.

SPEAKER_00 (32:22):
That's what started all that, yeah.
Well, he had been touring, hehad been doing it for years.
I just caught that at that timehe was the number one wedding
corporate band uh in the uhactually in the world series.
So he he he was playing for uhfor the royal family in Europe.

(32:44):
Uh he was he was doing prettybig things, and so I'm I'm I'm
but I'm not used to that stuff,Skip.
I don't know what's going on.
I'm still using.
He doesn't know this, right?

SPEAKER_03 (32:54):
I'm still I mean doing your thing there when
yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (32:57):
Yeah, so one day, um one day we're going to to Sand
Dustin Floor, and I think we wewere getting Beyoncé's tour bus
or something.
And we're like, we're gonna takethe bus and then she's not
using, we're gonna take this andum take it on down to Florida.
And I ran up up the street toget me a uh, you know, a little
a little something, something totake on the trip.
And I started I opened thepackage and I didn't make the

(33:20):
trip, and he fired me on thespot.
And so take that as a lesson.
Yes! Oh man, one of the mosthumbling times of my life, I'll
make this real quick.
One of the most humbling timesof my life is that I I I um I
was I started trying to getclean and I lived right around
the corner from him.
Um at that time we were tryingto get close, and there was a

(33:43):
house right around the cornerthat he knew that got it on the
house.
It was like, man, just you livein our take care of it for you,
and da-da-da-da.
And I'll you could we're rightaround the corner.
You can come right around thecorner and we catch the bus and
go to the gate and catch thecleans.
And so I had to walk by hishouse every day, going to my
meetings, my NA meetings.
And every day I would see themgetting on the bus and they'll

(34:05):
go, everybody's like, hey, biz.
He wouldn't even look at me.
I disappointed her, he wouldn'teven look at me.
That is humbling.

SPEAKER_01 (34:12):
Wow.
I was like, one minute I'm atClint Eastwoods, right?
And the next minute you're I'mwalking to a rehab.

SPEAKER_00 (34:19):
And uh yeah, so it's it's it's uh it've been a lot of
those in my life, you know.

SPEAKER_03 (34:24):
And I hope somebody's taking this all in
because, dude, what just wow, Iguess one word explains it.
Wow, so God is good, man.
God is good.
What was it like?
Uh any memorable moments.
I mean, being on stage with thatJames Brown.
Ooh, I feel good.
Arika Franklin, Little Richard.
You know, that I know youmentioned those before, but

(34:46):
still, I mean, you were on stagewith all them.

SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
Yeah.
Out of all of those people, thething that touched me the most
was being on stage with JamesBrown, man.
Man, that dude is a there was anenergy.
Get on up, you could just feelget in it.

SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
I don't care.
I'm like, oh really?

SPEAKER_00 (35:07):
And it was it was actually Dorothy Moore, Aretha
Franklin, James Brown.
That was the tour.
And um, and and he was.
And how old were you?
How old were you when you were Idon't even remember, to be
honest.
Uh in my 20s.

SPEAKER_03 (35:22):
Okay.
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
Yeah, in my 20s, we've we've gone through uh
there was a guy named uh did youknow Marty Gamlin?
Uh is is big, he he was big incountry music, but Marty um I
do, I do.
Yeah, uh Marty just passed nottoo long ago.
Was that Gatlin?
Gamlin.

SPEAKER_03 (35:39):
Gamlin.
Oh, I don't know about that.
All right, no.

SPEAKER_00 (35:41):
Okay, he he was a pretty and Marty got us this.
He said, I think, I think youmight want to you might want to
look into this.
Um we looked into it and andchange he comes out of the
thing, he's like, you know, Iknow your dad, and I know you
got it in you, and y'all justGod bless, God bless.
But I'm thinking, I can't reallyhear him or understand.

(36:03):
I'm thinking he's calling usgarbage.

SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
And I'm looking over to him, I'm like, yeah, he's
saying this shit right intoright to my face.

SPEAKER_00 (36:09):
He's like, no, he's saying, God bless.
He really, really knows you'redoing a really good job, and
your dad would be really proudof you.
And then he pulls us, he pullsme into this into this room, and
it's uh we're in Jackson,Mississippi, man, in like
August.
And he's got this mint coat on.
And I'm like, how are you notsweating?

(36:31):
I don't think you're human.
He's like, you're not sweating,and he he was he was so nice and
so um just outgoing, and just hejust made me feel really,
really, really good.
And then I watched, I got tocome up on the stage and stand
back in the corner and watch himwork.

(36:51):
And I still take some of thatwith me in my because I got a
I've got a uh 10-piece Motownband, the corporate band, it's
just like my dad's that I dothat's totally separate from my
music, and so that's kind of whyI do that.
You can't yeah, I mean theenergy.

SPEAKER_03 (37:09):
You know, the energy, the memories you have,
and I'm sure there's more tocome, but uh just everything
from the past to where you aretoday and the people you've been
on stage with.
And you know, how can you notjust smile and go, damn?
Yes, I do it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 (37:25):
It's happening.

SPEAKER_03 (37:27):
And it continues to happen.
Um you know, uh your music is II urge people to go online and
you know, do a search for bidsat Bigsby.
And uh you're gonna hear it.
I mean, I was blown away by it.
It just uh you know everythingthat you do.
Um so can you we talked aboutyour struggles with addiction,
but also you've had some othernear-death experiences.

(37:51):
I mean, I read that uh youovercame cancer.

SPEAKER_00 (37:55):
Uh yeah, I'm a cancer survivor.

SPEAKER_03 (37:58):
God bless you, man.

SPEAKER_00 (37:59):
Uh oh man, yeah, I'm I'm so blessed.
I caught it early.
Yep.
Um, I caught it early.
They took the entire prostateout.

unknown (38:06):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (38:07):
Um, it it has not come back.
That was years and years ago.
I think uh my PSA level now is0.002.
Uh and I have good friends ofmine that have had the same
exact thing and it came back andjust killed them in their own.

SPEAKER_03 (38:23):
It's pretty common for men.
Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 (38:25):
And nowadays it has never come back, and I'm so
glad.

SPEAKER_03 (38:28):
Dude, God bless you.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 (38:31):
That's what I mean when I say this is so faith,
yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (38:35):
Faith and hope.
I mean, all the ups and downsthat you've been through, you
wouldn't be able to do thatwithout faith and hope and your
recovery, and you know how itweaved that into you weaved that
into your music, and you know,that's what I hear.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, too.
It's an escape for me.

(38:55):
Tell me about urban Americanaand how did that sound develop?

SPEAKER_02 (39:01):
Because there was nowhere else to put the music.

SPEAKER_03 (39:03):
That's right.
You just kind of created uh wejust made a lane.
You made your own genre.
I mean, no, and I think that'scool.

SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
We made a lane.
Well, we couldn't, it when Ididn't it just evolved, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (39:16):
It's you go in this, you know, you go in the lab, you
go in the studio, you sit downwith somebody, and you you it's
like a blank canvas there, andthen you you don't know what
you're doing, and you startmessing around with stuff, and
in two hours you got, orsometime in 20 minutes, you've
got this great stuff, and youdon't know what to do with it,
and then that's the good part.
Then you have to take it andpackage it and and and ask

(39:40):
somebody where to put it, andyou know how how to sell it,
right?
And you got this I don't know.
Yeah, it's like, well, I'm notcountry, I'm not R and B, but
I'm not because I'm I'm not, butI'm but I'm all of that, right?
Right, exactly.
So what do you that's what Imean when I say that how can how

(40:01):
do you like it's almost likethis how do you describe
chocolate cake?
How would you describe chocolatecake to me?
See what I'm saying?
Like it tastes like chocolate.
Well, what's chocolate tape?
Yeah, but what's that tastelike?
It's good.
I know, I know.
You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 (40:16):
That's how exactly, right?
You know, and we talked aboutthe different genres and not
finding a road to go down withwhatever genre.
Nowadays, it's not what it wasyears ago.
I'll I'll tell you what I thinkabout this.
Not maybe it doesn't matter, butum I think it does.
Oh no, it matters because if itdoes it, let me tell you.

(40:36):
Um but nowadays what used to becountry was country, you know,
pop was pop, hip-hop waship-hop, yeah, um, you know,
jazz was jazz, uh smooth jazzwas jazz.
Smooth jazz.

SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (40:50):
Nowadays I don't know where you draw the lines
because there are no lines.
There are no lines to write.
Because you know, I look at, forexample, doing what I do,
playing country on a countrystation that's kicking ass and
styric.

SPEAKER_01 (41:06):
Um that's right.

SPEAKER_03 (41:09):
Thank you.
But I'm glad I'm sad.
But no, when I look at when Ilook at like where our listeners
are coming from, you know, I Idon't know whether you believe
in the ratings or not, but youcan see pretty much the
crossover.
Like it's like, you know, I gotpeople that love hip hop and pop
and all that, but yet they'realso listening to country.

(41:31):
And country is now listening tohip hop.

SPEAKER_02 (41:34):
You know, I'd cross that cross-pollinate.

SPEAKER_03 (41:37):
There right.
There are no real lines.
And you know, it's just oldschool, I guess old school folk
saying, oh, that's not country.
But really, what is what iscountry?
You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Yeah, yeah.
No, I and and I'm you know, it'sfunny because I'm at I'm at the
age where I understand why theyfeel that way.
Yeah, because you don't want tochange.
Why why change?
It's not broken.
Why why fix it?
But but you have these creativesthat that are younger and
younger and younger that listento everything and they want to
they want to cross-pollinate.

(42:10):
And I you can't say, I mean, ifit works for them, I can, you
know, we can remember when whenlike they didn't want the
Beatles here.
It's gonna call these kids to goto hell.
Exactly.
You know what I mean?
So I I can't, even though onething I've learned is that I I
can't, I do not judge anything.
Like I it might not be for me,but it's for somebody.

(42:34):
And so um then I like the samething I said.
How can you describe chocolatecake?
Well, some people like pecanpie.
That doesn't mean it's wrong, itjust means that's just what you
like.
Is it pecan or pecan?
Pecan?
Pecan.
Well, you know, I'm in I'm inNashville, so it's pecan pie.
So it's pecan.
I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean,that's probably pecan, tomato,

(42:55):
tomato, somewhere else.
Yeah, exactly.
I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03 (42:59):
I go off on these tangents every once in a while,
but go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 (43:02):
Man, there's a street here called Lafayette,
and I can tell if you're fromNashville or not by how you
pronounce that word street.
If you Lafayette, if you sayLafayette, you're from here.
Lafayette.
If you say Lafa Lafayette,you're not from here.

SPEAKER_03 (43:15):
Well, we have a Lafayette, we have a Lafayette
Street, Lafayette Boulevard, wehave a Lafayette New York.
That's how we say it'sLafayette.

SPEAKER_00 (43:21):
Right.
Here's Lafayette.

SPEAKER_03 (43:22):
Lafayette.

SPEAKER_00 (43:23):
Lafayette, yeah, man.
It's not even, I never evenknew, I never even heard of
Lafayette until I was 20.

SPEAKER_03 (43:29):
There's one street, and I'm sure you know exactly
what I'm gonna say here.
Demember, Demembrion?
Demumrium.
Thank you.
I already said Demon Burrow.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (43:38):
Well, it's that's a harbor.

SPEAKER_03 (43:40):
Because when we're going from the airport to get to
downtown, it's like we got to goto the Mumbrium, yeah.
We go to the Demonboro Street.
I don't know.
I that's it.
I I can never get that right.

SPEAKER_00 (43:49):
But that that one is hard.
That one is hard.
But but it's uh that now you gota lot of uh transplants in
Nashville, so it's kind of it'sit's fun just having a lot of
conversation in English.
It gets really fun.
They're not we call ourselves uhunicorns because it's not many

(44:10):
of us left that were born andraised here.

SPEAKER_03 (44:12):
Wow, and it it's not many of you're right, that were
born and raised there, and thatare musicians because a lot of
people are coming in from theoutside.

SPEAKER_00 (44:20):
Yes, a lot of LA, it's a lot of LA here, uh, which
is why um this the the name ofthe album, the song here in this
town, that's where that songcame from.
I um I was born in in a in NorthNashville, okay.
Which is there's a street calledJefferson Street that goes right
down the middle of NorthNashville.

(44:41):
Now, Jefferson Street, uh mostpeople don't know, but you've
heard everybody's heard of BillStreet in Memphis, but nobody's
heard of Jefferson Street.
Jefferson Street was was wasBill Street, but it was just it
wasn't blues, it was everything.
There would be nothing thatHendrix played on Bills, on
Jefferson.
Um Lil Richard, of course, uhFats Domino, all of these people

(45:07):
played on on up and downJefferson Street.
They would go and they wouldthey would bring them in to play
on the white side of town, butthey couldn't stay on that side
of town once they got throughplaying, they had to come back
over here.
And they would just that streetbecame D street in music.
Um, and it was huge, andeverybody um that's how that's

(45:28):
really how night train and allthis started because all this
talent was here.
And and so the interstate camethrough, they had to put an
interstate from Memphis toKnoxville, and that was
interstate 40.
So it's 40 West, and then 40 iscoming back.
So they were coming, it had tocome through Nashville, so they
decided to take it through mycommunity, and they completely

(45:49):
cut off uh about 20 crossstreets.
So you can imagine Jefferson'sgoing down here, 8th Avenue, now
8th to 28th are all crossstreets, and it's a
neighborhood, and everybody'shaving, and all of a sudden you
cut that off.
Yes, and it it choked out thecommunity.
The dentists had to leave, thedoctors had to move, the stores
had to close, and it became umthe number one 37208, my zip

(46:14):
code, was uh was the number oneit got hit the hardest.
It got hit the hardest.
So uh that always bothered me.
So I wrote this song called Herein This Town because I have a
love-hate relationship with mycity, okay, to be honest.
I love it, but sometimes theyjust ain't like anywhere else.

SPEAKER_01 (46:34):
No, it's like any city in the world, man.

SPEAKER_03 (46:37):
Yeah, I mean I think we all can say that for our
cities, yeah.
But go ahead, tell me about thecity.

SPEAKER_00 (46:42):
We just happen to be songwriters here, right?
So everybody feels it, but we'vegot to say it.
We just can't feel it.
So we there's a line in the songthat says, You walked into my
hood and took what you wanted.
Monday is mine, but by Friday,you own it.
And I'm supposed to live thereand love you anyway.

(47:02):
And that's corporate.
That's just that's that's notthat's not contained to North
Nashville.
That's happening everywhere.
Um, and so it was just it wasjust um, you know, you're
getting pushed out, the tall andskinnies are coming, and the
corporate, and people are comingand buying up entire streets and
then putting tearing down allthe houses that are 20 houses

(47:25):
and putting 80 up.
And it's happening everywhere.
It's real life.
But I wanted that song to have acountry, like the like if I if
I'd have made that an RB song,it wouldn't have it wouldn't
have hit the way it hits.
I wanted the song to beNashville, like I wanted the
core progressions to beNashville.
I wanted the vibe to be bluesycountry, and that's exactly what

(47:49):
it is.
And then, and then um, for lackof a better term, there's a
soulful voice on top of it,which happens to be mine.
I don't know if that makessense.
I mean, I feel real weird sayingthat.

SPEAKER_03 (48:00):
No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 (48:01):
I wanted to make it like Otis Reading doing this
song, and that's that's that'skind of what my mind was like
Otis Redding does this countryish blues song about the
neighborhood he grew up in.
And that's where it came from.
And actually, that song was thealbum was done.

SPEAKER_02 (48:20):
We were done.
We were about to put it in thecase.
We were putting a check by it.

SPEAKER_00 (48:24):
And about three o'clock uh that Tuesday before
the Friday, we were finishingthe album.
I got this epiphany.
I'm like, oh gosh, I got thesechords and I gotta get them out.
And I called my my co-writer ofGuitar Phil.
I'm like, man, I I can't stop.
I got I got these chords in myhead and I can't go to sleep.
So we'll just write them down,put them on a thing, and we'll
talk about it in the morning.
And we wrote here in this time,and it became the the title

(48:48):
track of the album.

SPEAKER_03 (48:50):
That is so cool.
When when uh the album dropswhen uh we've changed the day so
much, it drops um pretty quickthough, right?

SPEAKER_00 (48:59):
Next, yeah, it drops next week.

SPEAKER_03 (49:01):
Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (49:02):
I should know that.

SPEAKER_01 (49:03):
I'm sorry, man.
My people are gonna kill me.
I can feel them choking me now.
What is he talking about?
But if you go, if you go to BizBigsby on it's probably somebody
taking, it drops so and so,Bill, they're probably thinking
you can tell me.
I know they're they're liketexting you right now.

SPEAKER_05 (49:20):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (49:21):
Christy, I love you, Christy.
You do like you, bird.

SPEAKER_05 (49:24):
Um my good.

SPEAKER_02 (49:26):
You know, there um it's dropping this week.
But if you really want to know,if you go on to bizbigsby.com,
we'll tell you all of that.
Every link tree is there.
So that's awesome.
Um, but it's it's it's next weekthat we're dropping it.
We're doing a show at Rudy's onthe 15th.
Uh, and we're doing the entirealbum front to back.

SPEAKER_03 (49:42):
How um how often do you play at Rudy's?
Once a month.
Once a month.

SPEAKER_00 (49:47):
Normally it's the third Wednesday, six o'clock.
And it's it's turned into areally good vibe, man.
The thing I like about the thingI like about it, honestly, is
that it's a room full of peoplethat are so diverse.

unknown (50:00):
I love that.

SPEAKER_00 (50:01):
Um, it just nobody is nobody, everybody's from a
different place.
Everybody doesn't look alike,everybody doesn't think alike,
everybody doesn't vote alike,everybody doesn't believe in the
same things.
But but at that for those twohours, everybody's there saying,
no, this can happen.
Because it's happening.
And that is that that's thepower of music to me.

SPEAKER_03 (50:24):
I just have to keep that in mind.
I make a trip to Nashville.
I'll have to find out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (50:28):
You have to.

SPEAKER_03 (50:29):
You know, when you're playing at uh when you're
playing at Rudy's.

SPEAKER_00 (50:32):
Please let me know when you come.

SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
I'm taking you to lunch.
And I'll walk.
I'll take you on.
There you go.
I'll I will have a shirt on itsays.

SPEAKER_03 (50:40):
All right.
Let me ask you that.
Yeah, I I should have those men.
I know you do.
It really is.
Um if if you could share thestage with anybody, any artist
of today, who would it be andwhy?
I'm talking about today.

SPEAKER_00 (50:59):
Um Post Malone.

SPEAKER_03 (51:06):
That is so cool.
See, Post is from this area.
I don't know if you know that ornot.
I did, but I love it.
I love him.
He um he's so genuine.
Yes, he is uh very down toearth.
You look at him, you might getscared.
But other than that, I mean, youknow, this guy can sing.
He can sing practically any uhhere go here I go, genre if

(51:28):
there is one.
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (51:29):
Well they make us say it, man.
They make us say it.
I know they do.
They do, you're right, you'reright.

SPEAKER_03 (51:33):
Um wow.
I think I was wondering what youwere gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
Yeah, Post Malone.
He he he was the first.
Everybody, everybody was was sowas so upset or crazy, crazy,
whatever good or bad aboutBeyonce changing genres and
coming into the country vibe.
Post Malone did it first.

SPEAKER_03 (51:53):
I know.
And here's one thing I'll sayabout that.

SPEAKER_01 (51:55):
Nobody said anything.

SPEAKER_03 (51:56):
No, you're right.
Po Posty did it.

SPEAKER_01 (51:59):
You're right, it's exactly the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 (52:01):
And uh people argue with me when I talked about when
I talked about the Beyoncething, and I'll tell you why.
Um, I firmly believe that it wasall good, and I believe what
Beyonce did was, if anything, itgave a boost to the country
genre.
Uh because now you're takingsome of Beyoncé's people and

(52:23):
they're kind of coming over tothe countryside a little bit.
Yes.
And countryside's good.
So it was a good thing for theformat.

SPEAKER_00 (52:31):
It was a good thing for the well, it gives it gives
people an option.
And and so for the people foryou know, for the hardliners
that don't want to cross it,they they can stay, that's fine.
But if people have one ofchoice, and I don't think
there's any like I I just Irefuse to take sides on
anything.
I just I'm not doing thatbecause there's too much gray,

(52:53):
there's too much in the middle,so it's all good music.
And and I wish I wish that wecould have a if if I could do
one thing in this world rightnow, and I could do it, I would
have Post Malone and Beyonceco-headliner show.

SPEAKER_03 (53:10):
Damn, you better call me if that happens, you
know what I mean?
I'm gonna I'm gonna give you mynumber.

SPEAKER_01 (53:15):
Yeah, yeah, no, I would man, because it would just
it's the same soup.
The bowl is just different, butthe soup is the same, yes.
Oh my god, it's like it's soit's like it doesn't make sense
that we would that we have totake sides on this, it's just
it's music, so it's supposed togo all kinds of different ways

(53:37):
and make so if I had a choicethough, I if I had to sit down
and talk to someone, and it'sbecause of uh what yeah, he's
genuine and he's honest, and andhe's he did something to most
people, he did it seamlessly.

SPEAKER_00 (53:49):
Yep, he did it seamlessly.
He got this guy smooth withtattoos everywhere with gold
teeth with a cow and go with acowboy hat on and and cowboy
boots, and they're like, come onin, yeah.
And and that's who it's not likelike I don't like stuff that is
being done to get money, likeyou know, I don't like fake
shit.
Right, right.
But he's he's real fake, he'sreal.

(54:11):
Wherever he is, he is where hewants to be.
He's not doing it for anythingother than the fact that that's
what he's feeling right there,and that's that's and I went I
went to the post Malone showwhen they hit the amphitheater
here in town.

SPEAKER_03 (54:25):
One of the best shows I had ever seen, if not
the best.
I mean, that he was justphenomenal.
No, just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 (54:31):
He he's that dude to me, man.
Yeah, because cool.
Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:35):
Well, I'll wait for it.
Send it to me when you do it.
Yeah, no, you'll you'll know.

SPEAKER_01 (54:40):
Trust me, you'll know.
Uh get in touch with Skip.
And tell him that we're about tomake this happen, man.
Um start in New York.

SPEAKER_03 (54:50):
Yeah, you know.
It could just could have sparkedsomething.
But uh, you know, uh BizBigsby's been with us uh tonight
on Skip Happen.
So before I let you go, let'shave a little bit of fun.
We've been having fun all night,but uh yeah, we have.
So Nashville is full of greatfood and stories.
What's your go-to Nashville spotwhen you want to unwind and grab
a bite?

SPEAKER_00 (55:11):
Oh man, ooh, I think Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_03 (55:16):
What is it?

SPEAKER_00 (55:17):
Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_03 (55:18):
Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_00 (55:19):
It's a meet and three on 10th Avenue North off
of Jefferson.
And man.

SPEAKER_03 (55:26):
Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_00 (55:28):
Silver Sands.
We're talking about homemadechicken and dumplings.
I mean, homemade.
We're talking about uh oh man,we're talking about fried
chicken and waffles forbreakfast.
And and oh yeah, we're talkingabout hash browns and dude, uh
like like grandmama.
So much.
Holy shit.

(55:48):
Well, I can't, you said once.
I I'm not only go once, likeevery now and then, because I
can't blow up on the same.
That's my goal.
You know, food is is like it'slike it's one of the senses,
it's one of the five.
So you know, it just makes me itmakes me remind me of home.

SPEAKER_03 (56:06):
All right, before I let you go, if you could
describe your life story in thetitle of a song, what would it
be?
A change gonna come.

SPEAKER_00 (56:17):
Sam Cook.

SPEAKER_03 (56:19):
Wow, I was gonna say, I knew I heard the edit,
you're right, Sam Cook.
Sam Cook.

SPEAKER_02 (56:24):
Sam Cook wrote that song and he never got to hear
it.
They killed him, but he diedbefore the song was released.

SPEAKER_03 (56:29):
Oh have you um been to uh is it Studio A, the RCA
studio?
Have you done that tour thing?

SPEAKER_00 (56:37):
You probably accidentally because everybody
that's on my album has playedthere, yeah, has done some stuff
there, and I I just I had a wehad a publishing deal on the
road, uh, and I'm very proud ofthat because I was one of the um
few blackers say that apublishing deal on the road, and

(57:01):
I was very, very, very, very,very proud of that and got into
the part where where I actuallysaw how it was done and how it
was made.
So I've gone through it, but Inever took the actual proud of
that.

SPEAKER_03 (57:13):
How about Jimmy Allen?
Did you ever do anything withJimmy Allen?
Or no?
I've had him on the podcast acouple of times, you know.
He he's been through a lot oftough stuff.
But um yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 (57:25):
We had a we had a long, we had a nice conversation
at uh um he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_03 (57:30):
You know, we talk all the time, dude.
I could call him right now andhe'd talk, he'd answer his
phone.

SPEAKER_01 (57:35):
He'd answer your phone.
That's a I tell people out oftime, people like, yeah, I know
so and so.
I'm like, Yeah, but does he knowyou?
You might have been Jimmy Idon't know.
Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (57:43):
But no, he's somebody that he's been on Skip
Happens twice, and um really,you know, he's trying, he's a
great guy, and he's really,really, really talented.
Oh my god, he is just skiphappened and not in a good way
for him.

SPEAKER_00 (57:58):
So yeah, but you know, but he's here and and he's
here, yeah.
I would love I actually Ithought about this um after I
talked to him because we met, wemet.
I was I had my kids at a uh at aplace and he had his kids and
it's the place we had aconversation and talk, and I
thought about like, man, thatwould be a really good guy to
co-write something with.
Oh my god, he's I had one personI would co-write with right now

(58:21):
in this city, it would be him.

SPEAKER_03 (58:22):
Yeah, cool.
And that I'd love to I'd love tohear the result too.

SPEAKER_00 (58:26):
Because yeah, you might make I might reach out,
man.
Reach out to him for me, tellhim I really want to talk to
him.

SPEAKER_03 (58:30):
I will, I'll actually do that.

SPEAKER_00 (58:32):
Yeah, we can put it together, and we will we'll tell
everybody, man.

SPEAKER_01 (58:36):
Skip happened, and that's why it will give out free
t-shirts.
That's why this song, man.

SPEAKER_03 (58:42):
Wait, but I got skip happened's hat here somewhere
too.
I do, I don't know where thehell it is.

SPEAKER_01 (58:48):
So yeah, but it's it's uh no man, you never know
how things work, but yeah, justwhen we get out the thing,
Texas.

SPEAKER_00 (58:54):
I ran it, I ran into this dude named Biz.
He said he's seen you forget acouple times because we played
with him.
Um we played the after party ofa show that he played, and so
that's this that's and then andthen I got to, you know, we
talked and we met and and had atotally different thing.
But I really would that's oneperson I would love to sit down
and write with.

SPEAKER_03 (59:14):
You know, dude, I I ain't look watch.
I mean, I'm just gonna text him.
Watch this.

SPEAKER_00 (59:19):
Okay, and I'm sure he'll text you back.
He'll be like, Biz, who don'tknow that dude.

SPEAKER_01 (59:25):
Which is fine, which is fine with me.
I have no problem.
I told you, man, I have no ego.
I have no problem, but the pointis is that he will know me, and
that's I just want to meet him.

SPEAKER_00 (59:37):
So we'll we'll actually we'll on a writing
basis.
Because he won't he won'tremember who I am, I promise
you.

SPEAKER_05 (59:43):
All right, hang on.
I gonna be I don't know thatdude.
Who the F is he?
No, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 (59:53):
No, that's probably but but it's but but man, I'm
used to that.

SPEAKER_00 (59:58):
Uh I'm Used to that.
That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:01):
I I um I tell you, me and my ego, we got a really
good, we have a good, goodrelationship.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:06):
Oh my god.
I see.
Anyways, you know what?
This has been great.
Um thank you.
A lot of fun talking to you,getting to know you.
Um thank you.
Your history, everything you'vebeen through, a good, bad, man,
it's just made you into theperson that you are today.
Um, and hopefully somebodywatches this or somebody gets

(01:00:28):
something out of it with youknow, talking about everything
that you've been through.
And yeah, you know, you'reyou're you're standing tall and
you're making it happen.
And look at you, you're stillwriting, you're performing,
you're doing all that.
You got a song coming out thatuh, you know, it's kicking the
ass.
If it like I say, what what thewebsite is a biz?
I almost said Bill Bixby.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:47):
Bill Bixby.
Bill Bixby.
Uh courtship of Eddie's father.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:52):
That was that's right.
Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:57):
Oh, yeah.
Remember those days?
Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:02):
Courtship of Eddie's father.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:03):
You remember those managers?
Let me tell you about my bestfriend.
Oh man, God.
See, I could talk to you foranother hour now.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:13):
You you just you you gotta you gotta easily talk.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:16):
But it's my bedtime.
Yeah, it's mine.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:19):
So I'm staying up for you, brother.
No, I would.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:22):
I did I, you know, I I do my podcast, we go as long
as whatever.
Usually I like to keep it aboutan hour.
I mean, yeah, if I cut you offat a half hour, that means you
sucked.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:32):
So I'm just saying No, you know what's funny?
They said I get all these, I getall these papers characters that
come saying, okay, we got thisfor you, we got this for you.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:39):
And normally they'll give me a length of time.
Yours put TBD.
I went, okay, I know exactlywhat that means.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:46):
Like that means I'll determine how long I talk to
you, buddy.
Because if this ain't fun,skip's about to happen.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:53):
It is.
And uh, so so that means thatwe're the hour, so that means I
must have been, I must havepassed the test.
But but I I uh You did.
You I'm so honored, man.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:05):
Right back at you.
And uh, you know, doing allthis, I get to meet a lot of
great people like yourself, andwho I probably would not have
met or even known.
Uh, but now I've been doing thepodcast for a few years.
Everything I used to have them,uh, artists would come into my
studio.
I have a full studio here,right?
I own like this room in thehouse.
Nobody comes down here, exceptfor my wife.

(01:02:26):
Except for my wife when shewants to go in the other room to
do laundry.
That's it.
Then she's gotta have a pass.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:31):
Right, right.
I'm just passing through.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:34):
See these socks?
You want them washed?
You let me in.
How about this underwear?
This has got to be washed.
You know, I'm just it's yourchoice.
I think they'll leave them atthe door.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:43):
You know what to do.
Didn't have done that, man.
Oh man, you're the best.
I totally get it.
But uh thank you for your thankyou for having me.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:53):
Uh yeah, and thank you for your time.
And um stay right there.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:57):
Can I say something really quick?
Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:59):
It's all yours.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:00):
Any anybody that is going through anything of what I
went through, if you've beenwatching this show and you reach
out to me, I have no problemtalking to you.
None at all.
Uh, go to bizbigsby.com and andum email me.
If you all of my the link treeis in that is in is in my
website.
Find me.

(01:03:20):
I will talk to you.
It is okay.
It is really is okay.
They gave up on me years ago,and I'm still here.
Nobody gave up on you.
Nobody gave up on you.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:31):
No, man, don't do there'll people that there are
people that will tell you, like,don't deal with them.
Um and now these same people arepaying like good money to come
see me play.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:41):
There you go.
Yeah, as long as they buy aticket at the door, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:44):
Yeah, and they the same people like, hey man, can I
get in?
Can I do you remember you walkright back?

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:49):
No, I'm just gonna but that was so cool.
That's cool of you to do thatbecause Yeah, no, I mean that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:55):
I and I mean that uh you are not alone because you
never know what one person, justjust one person saying it's
okay, can change the wholedirection of the wind blowing.
You just never know.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:09):
You never know.
Wow, I'm here for you.
You are the best.
Thank you, brother.
Biz Bigsby.com.
Yes, biz bizarre.
Why didn't you just callyourself Bill?

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:25):
I said, Hey man, the Bigsbees would be really mad at
me if I didn't understand that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:30):
Quickly, where did Biz come from?

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:33):
I used to take care of a lot of business when I was
a kid.
They used to call me babybusiness.
Okay, and so I had to, I, youknow, I'm I am nine years old,
and I see this this group on TV,and I'm like, I want to start
this group, and so I'm nine, andI start a band in my living
room, and I'm like, this dude issaying he's baby business, and

(01:04:53):
then it goes from baby businessto because when you're 20, they
can't call you baby anythinganymore.
So then it just cut cut down thebiz.
But it I thought it was kind ofI didn't usually like it, but
I've leaned into it now.
My name, my real name is WendellScott Bigsby.
So if your name was Wendell,wouldn't you have a nickname too
by the time you were 12?

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:14):
Yeah, I don't know if it'd be Biz, but I would do
that.
Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:19):
At least I didn't name myself.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:20):
Like I know some cats give their own nickname.
Like, no, dude, it's no, youname you gave yourself your own
nickname.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:28):
Well, you know, it goes back to you know, growing
up, yeah, and whatever was goingon.
That's how you get yournickname.
I totally get it.
I totally get it.
And and you know what?
You want it to be differentbecause you want to be unique.
So yeah, and now you know I'llleave it to it.
Yeah, they'll remember Biz.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:47):
Yeah, well, let's hope so.
And for all the right things,all the right reasons.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:50):
There you go.
Uh, Biz Bigs B.
I wanted to say nope.
All right, no, Biz Bigsby, dude.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:58):
Big uh I love Skip Clark.
I love you.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:06):
Right back at you, my friend.
Biz Bigsby on Skip Happenstonight.
It's our podcast.
We're gonna do this again.
Uh we're gonna sign off.
Everybody, thank you forwatching.
Subscribe.
I don't know.
Do you have a YouTube channel?
Make sure they subscribe to yourYouTube channel.
Make sure you also subscribe toSkip Happens so you don't miss
another one of these crazyconversations because you never

(01:06:27):
know the direction the road wego down.
It's it's always different.
Every week it's different.
So and it's always a lot of fun.
Uh, Biz, thank you for joiningus.
Stay right there, and thank youeverybody for watching and
listening.
Have a great night.