Eli Mosley

Josh Mattei, chats with Eli Mosley!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This week's episode is powered by The Barn in Groton, CT.
What you making? Check out their DIY Hat bar at a
future event, Minshaw Bubble TeaShop of Groton, Connecticut.
Our bubble tea is made from the best quality tea DJ JPO from JPO
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(00:22):
Connecticut. Old school, not old fashioned.
The ultimate experience this week on Country on Deck.
I opened for Tracy Lawrence. Nobody has a picture of that.
Oh. Man, that sucks.
Everybody had. Yeah.
And we were just so like, we're going to do a great job
musically, you know, that we just totally were dropping the

(00:42):
ball on that. And, you know, we never promoted
it. We never talked about it.
And it was just when it was all said and done, we were like,
huh, There's no proof of that atall.
Maybe it's the sign of the times, like people weren't so
obsessed with that type of stuffback then.
Yeah, it is true. That is true.
Now everybody needs to document everything.
Yeah, and I, and I'm a rancher. I'm a I'm a country boy.
I don't to me, I'm, I'm more interested in fixing a tractor

(01:05):
than doing a TikTok video. So to me, it's always, that's
always been kind of a little slow to the game on that one
anytime, anytime that that's on the table.
Discover the stories of rising country stars Country on Deck
with Josh Maddie. Kick off your boots and settle

(01:32):
in country on this. About to begin.
Josh Maddie's here. Stars on the rise, voices of
hope, dreams in their eyes. Sing your songwriters stories
are unfold hearts are wandered hearts that are bone but dirty

(01:58):
roads, she writes Angelines capture the journey shares their
fights country on deck. We're tuning in.
Well, the new star stories are coming in from a small.

(02:29):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Country on Deck,
where I sit down with today's rising country stars and help
you discover the stories behind their music.
I'm your host, Josh Maddie, and I'm back in my desk in
Connecticut with another rising country star on the show this
week. But first, if you missed our

(02:51):
conversation from last week, we sat down to talk to Sophia Lee
Davis. We talked to Sophia about her
latest song release, Ain't That Lonely.
We asked her what it's like juggling a job as a full time
lawyer while also going after her music career.
And we also talked to Sophia about her experience playing the

(03:14):
Country on Deck Writer's round at the Barn.
I genuinely Josh just love meeting people and that's I mean
this one lady that came up to meafter almost had me crying.
I had met her four years ago at a four years ago at a show I did

(03:35):
back when I was touring and opening a lot more, you know,
pre COVID before life changed for everyone.
But she for her birthday, it washer birthday.
She took her and her fiance, gota hotel room and came to to
country on deck just to I wish Iheard that.
Story I would have said something to her that's.
Crazy she was, it was insane. I, I, that's why I was over

(03:57):
there. I was giving her a free T-shirt
but literally almost made me tear up and she said to me, and
again, this is exactly why I do it.
I don't care if I have one listener or 1000 or whatever,
this stuff makes all the difference.
She leaned into me and she said I show my family your music all
the time because you you just say how I feel.
And sometimes I feel like peopledon't understand me and you just

(04:19):
get it. And I was like, Oh my gosh.
You can listen to our entire conversation with Sophia Lee
Davis that episode. That conversation is streaming
below this episode on the platform that you're listening
on. And don't forget to hit that
follow button on the platform that you're listening on.

(04:40):
We released new conversations with new rising country stars
every single Friday, and we don't want you to miss one.
And if you're already subscribedto the show, first, thank you so
much for doing that. I really appreciate it.
And 2nd, consider sharing the show with a friend so that they
can follow along and listen every single Friday just like

(05:02):
you do on the show this week. His music focuses on his life as
a cattle rancher in Florida. He's a former Marine, so we want
to thank him for for his service.
I really love his song Bad Things, Good Trucks off his EP
Summer of 25. Doing all right on the show this

(05:24):
week. Eli Mosley.
Hey, Eli. How are you doing?
I'm doing well, man. How are?
How are you? I'm doing well.
That's good to hear man. Thanks so much for making some
time for for Country on Deck. Oh well, thank you for inviting
me or for for reaching out thereresponding.
I'm thrilled to be able to do it.

(05:45):
It's an honor. I've been following y'all for
quite a while here. I love what y'all are doing, so
thank you. Thank you for that.
I appreciate that A. Lot of the outlets, even the
independent ones, just aren't really focused on the the newer
artist right now. And I notice you really are.
And that's something that's kindof stands out a little unique.
Yeah, that's a a big passion of mine.
When I when I got out of radio and I was looking for something

(06:07):
to do post post radio career, I,I thought to myself, what was my
biggest passion when I was in the business And it was always
the the up and coming artist coming in and hearing the new
songs from from new people. So I kind of just blended all
that together and started doing this.
Yeah, I love it. You're mostly up in New England

(06:28):
area, right? Correct.
I'm born and raised in Connecticut.
So like, OK, we go go for like aNew England vibe, yeah.
Yeah, sure. What?
What station did you work for when you were radio?
I actually think you you might be a little familiar with the
with the company Hall Communications.
I was on CTY in Norwich. Yeah, yeah, I still do some

(06:53):
engineering stuff on and off forthem.
Oh, OK, that's cool. That, that's awesome.
Do you know Bob Walker? I do.
He was one of the big bosses that would come in all the time.
Yeah. And like visits and stuff, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I work with him almost every day when I'm at the
station, so. Oh wow, you'll have to tell him
I said hi next time you see. Him, I absolutely will.
Absolutely will. Yeah, He's a great guy.

(07:14):
He's a great guy. In fact, he's helping me.
He's helping promote the show that we're doing at the House of
Blues. It's a fundraiser show for the
Texas flood, and he's helping medo a promotion for that at the
House of Blues by running on airspots all week.
So just kind of kind of crazy. But he's so supportive of what
we're doing, so it's really, really cool.

(07:35):
Yeah, it's one of those like small world moments.
I saw you in the I saw you in a 97 country T-shirt and I was
like, you got to be kidding me. Did this guy work for for 97
Country? Yeah, I was, I got AI went to
college for music business. Part of it I had to do an
internship and what I decided tointern at A at a radio station.

(07:58):
And so I just put my name in there and wound up becoming an
intern for promotions. And of course, you know, you're
doing all the radio broadcasts and remote broadcasts and all
that stuff. And then I wound up becoming an
assistant engineer and I worked there for, oh golly, pushing on
11 years, although I've been kind of more on a contractor
basis for the last five or six. But I was there full time

(08:21):
working with all the all the higher ups.
Art Robotham. Art knows me, Bob.
I did a road trip with Jim Reed.Oh, Jim Reed's awesome.
He's like a huge mentor of mine over the years.
Yeah, yeah, Jim is. They wanted me to go pick up the
boom box trailer that I don't know how long you were there,

(08:41):
but. I've heard of the boom box
trailer. Yeah, yeah, they, they, well,
we, we had ours down here that needed to be redone and Art
wanted the one from Norwich brought down.
So I drove up to Norwich in AF250 that was on loan from a
radio or from a dealer down herethat we work a lot with.
They set me up in a brand new F-250.

(09:03):
I drove all the way up to Norwich from Florida to pick the
trailer up. And then Jim Reed and I drove
the thing back and he came down and did some looking around and
what not. And of course, you know, I guess
you probably knew Ed Munsky better than I did.
I would guess I didn't see him very much at all.
But he even though he's the headof engineering.
I think I I might have missed him.

(09:23):
I've heard his name but I don't think I ever met him.
Got you. Yeah, he he was the he was the
VP of all the engineering. So which I don't think they
actually have AVP of engineeringanymore.
When were you there? I was there.
I was part time between 2012 and2015 and then I was full time
from 2015 to 2020. OK.

(09:44):
Yeah, I was, I was full time from 2015 to 20, yeah, about
2019-2020. And then then I've been kind of
contractor based from here on for a while.
It got a little heavier. Our our engineer passed away,
was diagnosed with cancer and passed away a couple years ago.
And I had to basically step in as like full time engineer for a

(10:05):
few months while they found another one.
Yeah, I think I heard about that.
There's like a big fundraiser you guys did.
Yeah, yeah, that was real sad. It was real sad.
Do you work with Johnny GI? Know of him?
I've met him a couple times. He took over doing what I was
doing when I took over doing what our engineer was doing.
And then like it just he kind ofcomes in on call.

(10:28):
I think he comes in when needed every so often.
So I've I, I, I know I met him acouple times but I've never like
actually spent more than probably 5 minutes in passing
with him. Yeah, this is a small world.
It's crazy how you have that connection.
Yeah, I was. That's why I said New England.
I was like, wait a second, I wonder what station?
I didn't even make that connection until just now.

(10:50):
Funny. That's funny.
Yeah, it's a small, it's a smallmarket out here.
So they're only like a couple ofstations you could work for
really. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, Hall's Hall's always been a great company, so.
Definitely, yeah. I love my time there.
Yeah, you're mainly in Florida, right?
That's where your your base data.
That is where I live and that iswhere I'm based out of.

(11:11):
Most of our touring is national.Very little of it's in Florida.
In fact, this House of Blues show, I've got this House of
Blues show coming up. I did 4th of July.
And then of course this House ofBlues show coming up this week,
this this Friday, doing the fundraising for the Texas flood.
And then I'm playing a big country fest with like Red Clay
Strays and a whole bunch of other people in Saint Pete,

(11:35):
Florida, outside Tampa. And that's in November.
And that is the most shows I've had in Florida in one year, in
probably the last five or six years.
Most of the shows I do are Texas, Wyoming, Nebraska, South
Dakota, Montana, Utah, Idaho, oddly enough, California.
A lot of California stuff, Bakersfield type stuff.

(11:58):
You ever come to New England? I would love to, for starters, I
just want to let you know I would absolutely love to.
We have not been able to make any headway in booking shows up
there. I don't know what it is.
If it's, you know, some areas you just can't breakthrough
depending on what kind of an actor in you are.
I'm a traditional, you know, country act and it just seems

(12:18):
like it's almost impossible for certain areas for me to get
broken into in the lower markets.
And then like when you get into the bigger markets, people do
nuts over you. You know, George Strait goes up
to Boston or plays and it goes, you know, it's one of the best
shows of the year. But yet I think at the lower the
bar level and the the way we're not really even, I won't even
say lower. I mean, we're doing big honky

(12:39):
tonks and big festivals, but just that kind of that
independent artist, not a major label act.
It's kind of a hard sell to get.That seems to get us into New
England. But I would be loved to do it if
you knew, if you knew people, and we're wanting to make that
happen. There's a bunch of venues in
Rhode Island that would probablybe a a good size for you, like

(12:59):
Moonshine Alley and Off the Rails.
They're kind of like that middlesize venue that could permit
that. Maybe that could work out for
you. That's awesome.
Yeah, we're doing. We're doing a lot of fairs,
festivals like the bigger Headline Act spots and some of
these fairs and festivals. We're doing bigger venues, Dosey

(13:20):
Doe in Houston, the Big Barn, Dosey Doe.
We're doing $1,000,000 Cowboy Bar in Jackson, WY.
We just played Cheyenne FrontierDays.
That was cool playing for 1000 people a night, every night, so.
Yeah, that's got to be crazy. It was.
It really, really, really was. Your your very first gig.

(13:40):
I saw that you played with a guynamed Josh.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Josh, my buddy Josh Mcgaffigan,
we, we, that was, that was fun. You know, you get your, get your
PA system and you get your everything going and you're just
ready to rock'n'roll and you think it's going to be huge.

(14:01):
And you show up to the bar and nobody's there and it's, it's 3
drunk people sitting in the backof the bar that didn't even know
that we were there and couldn't care less.
So very humbling, very humbling.He and I kind of did a little
bit of a duo sort of a thing. And then then as it got more
serious, as we start doing this duo thing, as it got more

(14:22):
serious, we got to where we were.
It was just too much. It was just too much for him.
He wanted to have a family and be home.
And back then it took a lot of hours, a lot of time just
plugging away and grinding. Lot of playing, going to work
9:00 to 5:00 and then getting off work and driving across the
state to go play a show till 2:00 AM and then come back and
go to work again. I can tell you how many times at

(14:44):
the beginning that we would, youknow, I would be working at at
the radio station and I get off work at 5, load up my gear, go
drive and play on Friday night, go drive and play a bar show
till 2:00 AM, come back and be back at the radio station at
7:00 AM to load up for a remote broadcast.
And I wouldn't sleep that night until until, you know, that

(15:09):
afternoon. That's that's the schedule right
there. That's the schedule, man.
It's a lot. It's a lot, but boy, well, those
were the days. Those were the days.
I'd like to say it gets easier, but I don't know if it does.
Hey everybody, it's Josh, Maddie.
I I interviewed Julia Cole a while back on a previous podcast

(15:29):
project called Running on Country.
I was hosting that show for a little bit of time with my
friend, friend Mike and Julia Cole.
She was so awesome to talk with,very sweet, super talented, very
down to earth. I, I enjoyed that conversation,
getting to know her and, and doing what we're doing now,
helping people discover rising country stars.

(15:53):
My very first trip to Nashville back in 2023, we went to the the
Opry and who was playing the Opry?
Julia Cole was playing the Opry.That was really, really fun
having her on the show and then being able to see her play at an
iconic spot like the the grand old Opry.
And now I'm very excited. This is like a full, I feel like

(16:16):
this is a full circle moment for, for our show.
Julia Cole going to be coming toConnecticut, coming in New
England, two dates, September 27th, Saturday and September
28th, a Sunday. She's going to be performing at
the Palace Stanford and we have your chance.

(16:36):
We're teaming up with the PalaceStanford.
Thanks to to them for doing this.
We're teaming up for a for a pair of tickets.
Your chance to win a free pair of tickets at our next Nashville
Style Writers Round at The Barn in Groton, CT September 10th.
It's a free show. All you got to do is attend,

(16:57):
check out the music, grab a drink, and you'll have your
chance to walk out of that eventon September 10th with a
potential pair of tickets to go see Julia Cole.
And if you're familiar with Julia, you know that she is
awesome. Her music is great.
The Palace Stanford looks awesome.
Great place to see a show. And Julia Cole not the only

(17:20):
country artist playing at The Palace Stanford, they also have
Jimmy Allen going to be performing there soon as well.
This is all part of their Music City sessions featuring
Nashville's rising stars. You can get more information
about the show and ticket information on their website,
palacestanford.org. And we hope to see you on

(17:41):
September 10th at The Barn in Groton, CT starting at 7:00 for
our next Nashville Style WritersRound and for your chance to win
a pair of tickets for Julia Cole's show on September 28th at
The Palace Stanford. Before you dipped your toe in
radio, did you always know that you wanted to go in a country

(18:04):
music direction? Or did like your time in radio
kind of inspire that? I knew I wanted to be a country
music artist when I was a kid, and then as a teenager I saw
George Strait perform in Brooks and Dunn and that really kind of
set my heart on fire, if you will, for country music.
And that's kind of why we're then the 90s.
Traditional sound is always kindof come from in my music

(18:24):
journey. But the reason for radio is as I
was getting this music business degree down in Florida, going to
college and going up to Nashville and learning all the
performance of the production side.
I kind of wanted to see what, ifyou will, the the distribution
side of things. So I wanted to see, you know,
what are what is radio actually looking for?
And I think that's one of the things that has made so much of

(18:45):
an impact in my music career wasjust kind of being able to work
at a billboard reporting countrymusic station and seeing what is
the standard, what are you wanting to hear?
What are what are what, what are, what are radio people
thinking when they see a new artist coming to town.
And so that to me was just a kind of a, an additional tool on
the journey to working to being a country music artist.

(19:08):
It was never the end game. That's a fascinating,
out-of-the-box way to learn about your for your career.
Really kind of was, it was a interesting way, you know, and
just like you said earlier, you get to see these these artists
come in. You get to see these artists
come in and they're, you know, with major record labels that
you get to see them come in and play their music for the radio
people. And then you'll hear what

(19:29):
happens after the artist leaves and you'll hear the radio people
talking and kind of giving theirassessments.
And I would go around and ask them, hey, what did you think
about that artist? What did you think about that
artist? And it was always very
educational, if you will, to be able to see, oh, well, you know,
we thought that their performance was weak, but their
songs were great. And so we'll give them a chance
and see if the record label can,you know, get them to have

(19:49):
better stage presence or whatever it may be, and just
kind of learn from that. So you're, you were kind of
almost always in that environment learning rather than
like coming in once or twice, going station to station, you
were always kind of exposed to it.
Right. And then of course we started
doing. I remember talking to the
program director at the time andhe said, I said, well, how do

(20:12):
you get signed to a major recordlabel?
And he said, well, you got to get your songs on radio first to
show them that they're that they're, you know, radio ready.
I said, well, how do you get your songs on radio?
And he said, well, you got to get signed to a record label.
And I thought there's got to be a way to breakthrough this.
So I started with just the absolute smallest radio stations
I could find and got them in in Florida, got them playing my

(20:35):
music. And I'm telling you, we we went
to sheds out in the middle of cow pastures and had interviews
in barns. We had interviews in in
trailers. We had interviews in these
tiniest little radio stations you can possibly imagine in
small towns all across the Southeast.
I wore out a Honda Pilot just running up and down the

(20:57):
southeast and all the back roads, talking to people at
these small stations. And then, you know, as a bunch
of small stations, little, tiny,you know, mom and pop, small
town radio stations would get onboard.
The bigger one in that area would get on board and then.
There's little stations playing and we probably should, you
know. Yeah.
And then when you get 5 little stations and you get 5 or 6 mid

(21:17):
stations and you get 5 or 6 mid stations, you get 5 or 6 big
stations. And then all of a sudden now you
know and, and it and it's so cool because you know, people
will tell you it's impossible toget radio play if you're not on
a record label. Maybe your small town radio
station will play you, but that's it.
Well, last radio single we had out went to number 77 on the
Music Row panel completely independently and it went to 138

(21:44):
radio stations playing it on rotation every day.
And that is just one of those things where it's like, man, it
just takes hard work. It takes it takes grinding it
out, it takes it takes passion, it takes persistence, but it
takes a team. It takes a team of people around
you who are willing to invest inwhat you're doing.

(22:04):
I mean, from family to friends to to people that just see us
and believe in us. And when they see us on stage or
see what I'm doing with radio, it's just, it's all, it's all a
a great team effort, but it nothing's impossible.
I'm learning. Speaking of great team
surrounding you and and a support system, was your wife in

(22:25):
your band at one point? She was, she was for a few
years. And then we kind of had this
cool moment where we, we stoppedplaying.
We stopped playing, you know, using local, local musicians and
we went up to Nashville and started using Nashville session
musicians on the road. And, you know, we're a list

(22:46):
musicians. And I remember my wife during
the first rehearsal, walked up to me.
She set her guitar down, walked up to me and said I am not good
enough to play with these people.
And well, I'm not good enough either.
But she, we also saw a need. We saw a need for somebody.
We were doing a lot of really great things out there in, in
the on the road and with the music industry, but we never had

(23:08):
anybody documenting it. And my wife is an incredible
photographer and she's pretty great at social media too.
And, and so she basically got said, hey, instead of having an
extra acoustic guitar player on the road and an extra background
vocalist, why don't you have some PR person and a
photographer with you? And that's exactly what she did.
And I'm telling you, that was the best move we've made because

(23:28):
all of a sudden people were ableto see what we're doing.
She shifted from 1:00 quality thing to an even more important.
Thing. Yeah, I mean, it was like the
crazy things that we weren't able that would nobody thought
to capture at the time I opened for Tracy Lawrence, nobody has a
picture of that. Oh.
Man, that sucks. Nobody had.
Yeah. And we were just so like, we're

(23:49):
going to do a great job musically, you know, that we
just totally were dropping the ball on that.
And, you know, we never promotedit.
We never talked about it. And it was just when it was all
said and done, we were like, huh, there's no proof of that at
all. Maybe it's the sign of the
times, like people weren't so obsessed with that type of stuff
back then. Yeah, it is true.
That is true. Now everybody needs to document
everything. Yeah, and I, and I'm a rancher.

(24:10):
I'm a I'm a country boy. I don't to me, I'm, I'm more
interested in fixing a tractor than doing a TikTok video.
So to me it's always, that's always been kind of a little
slow to the game on that one. Anytime, Any time that that's on
the table. How do you balance everything?
Are you still out on the ranch like all the time?
Is that like your full time job besides music or?
Yes and no. It's, it's kind of weird, you

(24:32):
know, let's say you're hauling aload of hay down across the,
across the county, You're load hauling a load of hay and you
need to, and you're just drivingin the truck.
Well, that gives you 45 minutes to sit there and call radio
stations promoting your, your new single or call venues and
talk about booking the tour for 2026 or so.

(24:53):
There's all sorts of stuff goingon.
I'm on the I'm on the phone withmy producers, my managers, I I
try to balance it all and just make the most of every spare 2nd
that I can get out on the road. So you're a master multitasker?
I guess. I guess I've just learned that
because it was either that or worked 28 hours a day.

(25:14):
That's a good point. I try to be a master multitasker
because then when I get home, I've got a nine month baby at
home and I've got my wife and when I get home I just want to
just shut my phone off and spendtime with them and that's it.
My wife and I are just a great team and it's really cool
because she can be the ranch wife or she can be the artist's

(25:37):
wife, both sides of it, and it'sa really cool to have that.
I want to thank you for your your service.
You were a Marine. I was.
I was six years in the United States Marines as a diesel
mechanic and boy, how many timesthat has come handy on the road
when the Mercedes Sprinter van breaks down.
If you ever have an opportunity to buy a Mercedes Sprinter van,

(25:57):
maybe pass on that. It's, it's great.
It's got 6 bunks in it, a fridge, microwave, TV, it's
great. It's a great way to roll with
the band. But I find myself usually about
once a trip laying underneath itfixing something.
I'm telling you, it's just, it'scrazy how much, how much that
diesel mechanic skills has come into play.
And of course, the, the, the work ethic and the, the drive

(26:20):
that you'd learn where the endurance you learn from being a
Marine is of course, very important.
In fact, I did go in the Marine Corps.
I went in the Marine Corps to toughen me up for the road life.
Oh wow. So everything from ranching to
the Marines to radio has all been coming into play somehow
for this music journey that we're on.
Yeah, it's it's very, very cool.I definitely could use a a

(26:43):
quality mechanic around the house out here in Connecticut,
that's for sure. Every time I go to the oil
change place, they're like, you need this, you need that.
And I'm like, Oh my God. You know, no, it's good.
It's handy to have those skills.It really is.
It's very handy to have those skills, especially when you're
out in the middle of nowhere andyou know, you just got to kind
of think outside the box. And of course, at home I save
myself money all the time fixing, you know, just doing

(27:05):
repairs and stuff on our own vehicles so.
Well, again, thank you so much for your, your service.
We we appreciate that. Oh yeah, I appreciate, I
appreciate it. Thank you.
It's it's been, it's been great to there's an honor to be able
to do it and it's been a great result in my life.
So. Were you the guy that was kind
of always playing the guitar around like the the barracks and

(27:28):
stuff like that or? You know, I wasn't, I'll tell
you, I'll tell you. I, I, I naturally had stage
fright and before I really got into performing, it would
terrify me to perform. And so no, I wasn't, I really,
really wasn't. I'd, I'd play a couple times
here and there, but only for very close friends and family.

(27:49):
And you know, I, I just, this isn't something that just came
naturally to me, But one day I remember walking on stage and it
just clicked and I said, oh, oh,we're good.
Let's have some fun. And then at that point I just
wasn't worried about it anymore.So no, I, I really wasn't, I
wasn't the guy that just naturally out entertaining
people around. I will tell you I do miss that

(28:11):
side of things. And I will tell you I one thing
I really, really want to do thatI've not been able to accomplish
yet is I want with all my heart to go play for the troops
overseas. And I want to go play some of
the like the pre deployment workouts they do at some of the
desert training facilities. And so I got a whole bunch of
things I want to do to give backto our military, and I am so

(28:32):
hoping I can do that someday. That would be awesome.
Yeah. I hope you have the the
opportunity to do that because it would probably mean so much
to those men and women. I, I do, I do too.
I, I know that when we had people come out and do it for
us, it was just so cool, so cooland such a morale booster.
One of the fun things that happened a few years ago, I
remember I was playing at the House of Blues in Orlando.

(28:52):
See, I guess it was more than a few years and six years ago it
was 2019. And it's kind of weird that
we're getting ready to do it again here.
And it's 2025. When I was in Orlando, the last
time all of my Marine Corps buddies came out from our unit,
it was so it was like 1 big giant Marine Corps reunion
again. It was so special to see all
that, to see all of them show upand just hang out and be

(29:14):
supportive of the music. So yeah, that was pretty cool
moment. You visited 49 countries.
Was that when you were in the military?
No, no. My dad was a missionary when we
were growing up and he was in charge of international mission.
So he was kind of running aroundchecking on construction sites
for mission organization when wewere younger.
And so yeah, 4949 countries is the number as of right now.

(29:39):
Wow, what was your favorite? Papua New Guinea.
Easy. Easily Papua New Guinea.
Why? Why is that?
It is so far, so far in the past.
I mean, you still have cannibal villages in Papua New Guinea.
Did I hear that correctly? Yes, you did.
You still have you still have people making Spears out of palm

(30:04):
fronds and stone heads on them and you still have people
running around in grass skirts and and and you know, bones
through their noses, nose rings.I mean, it's just crazy.
It's it's so far in the past andin some of these more remote
areas of Papua New Guinea, you can see things happen, but you

(30:25):
can see things out there that you just impossible to describe
if you've never to just any described fully anyway, if
you've never seen it or never, you know, believe that actually
would be a thing. Interesting.
I'm not sure I want to get eatenso I'm not sure if I'd go there,
but I mean. There is, there is that, there
is that chance so. Is that like their their jail
time sentence like you may? Yeah.

(30:47):
Yeah, good question, good question.
A life sentence has very different weight over there.
Very possible I guess. Who knows?
Yep, yeah, it's that was that was one of my favorite places.
Of course, China and Tibet and Thailand of course were just
magical as well. But you know, one of the cool

(31:08):
things is you get to see these places off of the tourists
because you're out there doing, you know, projects and stuff.
You get to see it off the tourist path.
And so you get to see things that most people that go there
on vacation would never see. Although I will say one thing
that I remember saying that I want to go back and do someday
is there is a golf course. You can look this up.
There's a golf course in betweenthe runways and the Bangkok

(31:29):
International Airport in Thailand.
Really. And I would love to go play golf
in between runways at an International Airport, although
I'd be terrified of slicing the ball.
Oh man, just take a shot right off a an airplane taking off.
Yeah, I know, right? Just put a put a golf ball right
through a windshield of an airplane.
It's like, oh goodness gracious.Goes flying right through the

(31:52):
window, right past somebody's head or something.
Right, right. Well, that was a crazy take off.
Yeah, yeah. We've seen some pretty neat
stuff and we've gotten to help out a lot of people and we've
gotten to to, you know, build wells for people in Africa or
school houses in Haiti or yeah, just all sort of clinics,

(32:13):
hospitals in in Papua New Guineaand just all sorts of stuff like
that. So it's been a really
interesting life. And I'll tell you that World
Travel has drastically affected my worldview.
And so when I'm writing music and I'm writing songs, I have a
different perspective and I'm trying to figure out, I'm
working on a couple songs right now to kind of describe that.

(32:35):
But that's a very difficult thing to describe.
So that's just a challenge for my music career.
So you're saying you're trying to take things a little bit more
outside the box? Yeah, a little more outside the
box, but also realizing how blessed we are.
You know, you can. People can get, you know, I so
like when I see political stuff happen and political tensions

(32:55):
happen, I have a different a different view on them because
of what I've seen around the world.
Oh I see, that makes sense. And so things that may start
happening here and there I people look at and they say,
well, that, you know, you know, that's just, it's the end of the
world. And I'll look at it and go,
well, actually, most of the world operates like that.

(33:16):
Or, or come on, guys, this is what they would expect to do in
this country. You know, it's just why are we
doing it this way? So just like I said, just a
different world view, different perspective.
So like in America, somebody might have their head on fire,
like, Oh my God, this is so awful.
And then you've like seen something way worse that kind
of. Thing, yes, correct or, or
things that people are just sitting around going well, it's

(33:37):
fine it's not going to get that bad and I'm sitting here going
I've seen a lot of regimes startthis way or that way or, you
know, so it's yeah, it's it's eye opening for sure.
Just gives you a different perspective, kind of opens your
eyes up and your mind up to whatcan happen.
We are back in the Barn on September 10th.

(33:57):
That's Wednesday night starting at 7:00 for another free, yes
free Nashville style writers round.
We can't wait to be back at the Barn.
They've been tremendous hosts, allowing us to use their
beautiful venue each and every month since since the end of
last year. And we have another ticket

(34:18):
giveaway thanks to Mohegan Sun. They have been tremendous.
They've been a tremendous partner just like the barn
giving us a pair of tickets to give away the last couple last
couple shows and Warren Zeiders those tickets on September 10th.
If you attend your chance to winWarren Zeiders tickets his show

(34:38):
November 15th at Mohegan Sun tickets on sale right now
through Ticketmaster or you can get more information at their
website mohegansun.com. But if you hang out with us on
September 10th, you and a friendor you and a family member, you
and a spouse could be going to see Warren Zeiders perform at

(34:59):
Mohegan Sun on on November 15th.So hang out with us September
10th and then possibly win thosetickets.
Thanks so much to Mohegan Sun for a for making this one
possible. You, you did some great things
recently for the victims of thatflooding, the 4th of July
flooding in Texas. You brought some supplies and

(35:19):
some goodwill out to the the people in Texas.
That was awesome. My goodness, yeah.
This is what I want to do. This is why I'm getting into
music. Or I am in music.
I guess I should stop, say, getting into music I've been
doing 11 years. But This is why I'm an artist.
I have recently discovered my ability to encourage people to
get on board with good causes. I'd never realized that until I

(35:43):
just put that video out a couplemonths ago when as soon as that
flood happened, I I was just riding out of the ranch on the
side by side and I said, you know what, I got it.
I just got to get people to do something.
And I knew I was heading out to Cheyenne Frontier Days in two
weeks. And that's two weeks after the
flood happened. And I said it's a 5 hour detour

(36:04):
to drop down through there and so I might as well just go out
there and fill what's left of the trailer space we have up in
the back end of the truck. I have a Topper on the truck.
And so I have all that room in the truck bed.
And I just took as much stuff asI can get.
And people, people went out and they came in and they donated.
We had people stopping by our church dropping stuff off.

(36:25):
We had people stopping by my house for a week dropping stuff
off. I mean, people donated stuff so
graciously and so generously. It was so beautiful and they
just came together. They saw what happened on the
news and it was terrible. I think the worst part about it
was, is that you just had all these little kids that were just
washed away and still haven't been found.

(36:46):
And mom's dad's watching their kids in front of them get swept
away by a river. I mean, it's absolutely tragic
and heartbreaking. And I knew we had to do
something more than the standardsending our thoughts and prayers
on social media. I feel like that's such a cop
out to just say that and not do anything.
That's great that you're saying your thoughts and prayers, but

(37:07):
we got to do things. And for those of us that have
been blessed with the opportunity to be able to help,
we need to help. And so that was kind of my, my
motive for this whole thing is let's load up, let's show people
from Texas that Central Florida cares and that Central Florida
loves them. And we did.
And I think we did in a big way.We dropped off tools for the

(37:28):
firefighters. We dropped off diapers and baby
formula and clothes for people that have lost everything.
I'm so proud I won one. I'm very blessed to be able to
do what I do. That's that's first and
foremost, but I'm so proud of the people that came on board
and sent money. They sent gifts, they sent

(37:49):
tools, supplies, anything and everything they could.
And I have a whole list of youngmen that are willing to come out
and put a work trip in come October, November.
We're working with officials on the ground in Texas trying to
find out when is a good time to come out there and put boots on
the ground and still help with the cleanup.

(38:10):
Because that's one thing that wefound is that people, oftentimes
everybody rushes to the aid immediately.
And sometimes in the disaster zone, the, the victims are even
more overwhelmed by the amount of people that come in trying to
help. And the help is often times more
harm than it is good. Because now you have all these
extra people to feed and all these extra people to house and
all these extra people on top ofthe victims themselves.

(38:33):
And but everybody seems to forget about 2-3 months after
the fact that anything ever happened and all the help goes
home. And so we're waiting
intentionally a few months laterto go out as like a second
relief wave when they're still cleaning up the rubble.
I mean, I was just drove throughthat.
I did a show this weekend in Bernie, Texas, which is about 15

(38:53):
minutes from Kerrville where theflood happened.
And I drove down to the river and went to the memorial.
You can see it on my on my Instagram and Facebook page.
But I went down to the memorial and went down the river and
they're still cleaning up. There's still crews running
around the clock everyday cleaning up from this disaster,

(39:16):
and everybody's kind of forgotten about it.
That's unfortunate. Yeah.
And so that's, that's what I gotinto music to do, is to make a
difference. And this is how for the time
being, I can make a difference. I don't care about the money.
I don't care about the fame. I really don't want the fame, to
be honest with you. My friends that are bigger
artists that I know, it seems tobe more of a hassle than it's

(39:37):
worth. What I do care about is being
able to go out and help people. And so I guess I do care about
the money, but not for me. I want to be able to I want to
be able to go in and take care of people.
And hey, you lost your car in the flood.
Well, let me donate a brand new car to you.
You know, that would be such a beautiful moment, so.
Yeah, It looked like the supplies that you brought down

(39:59):
there looked like that when you open the trailer door, like
stuff was just falling out, likeyou got like Florida really
stepped up big. They really did and I was very
proud of them. I still am very proud of them.
And that, by the way, leads me to what we're doing this Friday,
Friday, this Friday, we're playing the show in the House of
Blues at the House of Blues in Orlando, FL on September 5th.

(40:21):
We have donors who are paying for every ticket.
Tickets are free. Tickets are free to anybody who
wants to attend, but we have donors who are paying for every
single ticket that is coming, that is coming into the door,
every ticket that's scanned. The donors are paying money for
every single ticket towards the Texas flood relief.

(40:41):
And so we're putting this free show on, but everybody that
shows up is helping raise money to go towards the victims of
that flood. There's one more little thing
that we can do. That's great.
So everybody gets a night of entertainment and then some
money goes to a good 'cause it'slike a win win for everybody.
Correct, correct. So.

(41:02):
And also I totally forgot because I just got so sucked up
in the, in the process of the fund really the, the, the
fundraiser and the, the flood relief that I just totally
forgot that I have a radio single coming out on September
5th as well. So now I really, yeah, I got to
do radio promo. I'm, I'm on two different news

(41:23):
stations in Orlando on the on TVradio, promo, radio interviews,
all this all day long. Plus getting band members picked
up from the airport and doing the show that night and setting
everything, everything up. So I'm just totally sideways on
everything. Oh.
Man or. Through the September 6th hits,
I'm going to take a big breath of air and a sigh of relief and

(41:45):
breathe for a minute. What's the What's this new
single called? What's the new single about?
I am so excited about this one. So I'm actually standing as we
speak in the at the property at the house where we wrote the
song. The song is called We Still
Ride. And it was, it was the title
track of the album that I just dropped in November called the

(42:06):
We Still Ride album. And I wrote it with a bunch of
Cowboys out here in western Nebraska.
And this song quite literally isjust the lifestyle of people of
Cowboys today. I released it as a title track
on the album. And then I wanted to write a
song for my Florida Cowboys and kind of describe the lifestyle

(42:30):
there. And so all I did was I just kind
of edited the original We Still Ride song and decided to release
it as a radio single. So a good example is in western
Nebraska, you know, they're out working cows in the snow and in
Florida we're working cows in 100° weather.
So I changed like the first linefrom it's 20 or it's 32 out now,

(42:52):
but it feels like 23. And I changed that to it's 92
out now, but it feels like one O3 did some slight edits and then
released it as a radio single. And it's coming out on September
5th and we got a bunch country stations are already playing it
and it goes out to streaming on the 5th.
And so we're trying to get people to pre save it and
promote the heck out of it. So that's kind of where we're

(43:13):
where we're at with the radio singles.
So between the House of Blues show and the radio single and
the touring that we're doing outWest here, it's a pretty full
plate right now. Your your head's spinning right
now. Absolutely, it is 100%.
I I really loved your your EP that you put out back in June,
summer of 25 doing all right. Yeah, those were honestly just

(43:37):
some of the new songs off the full length album that I just
felt were, you know, more summer, summer, summer vibe
songs. And so yeah, we we just kind of
Co made a collection of the summer songs and the beach songs
and put them out for people to jam to while they're hanging out
on summer break. So you're all about it?
Seems like you're all about creating a vibe for the
listener. I really am trying to, Yeah.

(43:59):
And, you know, my lifestyle is very, very strange in that
regard, where, you know, I'll beranching and I'll be on a horse
on Friday morning and then Friday evening I'm out fishing
in Tampa Bay and watching dolphins swim by.
So it's just kind of a weird, it's a weird lifestyle to go
from working cows on a ranch androping calves to to reeling in a

(44:23):
redfish. So it's just kind of an odd, an
odd life right there. Anna Maria off that EP, It kind
of reminded me of growing up in a beach town in the shoreline of
Connecticut where people were flocking to go to the water and
relax. And I, I was just kind of, it
was hometown to me, but everybody was always flocking,
flocking there. Yeah, yeah.

(44:45):
That's exactly what Anna Maria is down in Florida.
It's kind of your kind of like your Padre Island in Texas.
It's kind of your, your, your Sag Harbor in, in New York, you
know, it's kind of just kind of is that like local local, but
you know, people will still travel nationally, but it's kind
of mostly your local tourist getaway, but people still live

(45:06):
there. I was sitting there, my wife's
family has a has a timeshare there.
And I was sitting there on the beach one day or on the on the
porch, the screened in porch facing the beach, watching the
sunrise because I just love getting up early in the morning
and watching the sunrise. And I was watching the sunrise
and all the fishing boats go by.And I'm telling you, it was a

(45:27):
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful moment.
And yeah, just very, very, I just kind of wrote down what I
saw. And that song Anna Maria was
honestly one of very few songs I've ever released that I wrote
100% of. And just every, everything I
felt, everything I I saw, I justwrote down.

(45:48):
And yeah, I had 100% of the writing on that song and it was
just really cool to do that. Oh wow, doing all right.
Almost had like a Kenny Chesney vibe to it.
That was kind of the goal, too. Yeah.
Doing all right was just kind ofa fun breakup song.
I went in to write a song with abuddy of mine, Brian Thomas, and

(46:09):
it was a 8:00 AM, right? Which is a little early for a
song, right, because you're not quite awake yet.
And I walked in and I said, hey,man, I got a couple ideas.
And he said, well, real quick, before we launch into your song
ideas, let me play you the song I wrote last night at 2:00 AM.
And he played that song for me word for word.
And I looked at him and I said, all right, so let's just go grab

(46:32):
coffee or breakfast because there's no point in writing a
song because that's the song I'mgoing to record.
I mean, it was that quick. It was that quick.
You just like instantly fell in love with it.
Yep, and immediately. I must feel good to to have a
connection with a song like that, so.
Quickly it it really does. You know, there are a lot of a
lot of songs I have a couple standards on.
If I can't get it out of my headfor like 2 weeks after writing

(46:56):
it, that's a good indicator thatI'm going to record it.
I've got one right now that I'm really excited about.
I wrote and I've got to go in the studio and record here soon.
It's going to be a really fun radio single, but it's one that
we I'm trying to fishing around for the actual title.
I got to figure out what I actually want to officially call
it. But right now it's standing at
margaritas down in Mexico and itis very much a Jimmy Buffett,

(47:22):
Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown vibe toit.
And, and The thing is, I can pick up a guitar.
I cannot hear the song. I cannot play the song for a
month. I can pick up the guitar and I
can sing it word for word, and Icould do that ever since I wrote
it. And I mean, when you can pick up
a guitar and play a song word for word that you just wrote and
you've only ever written the lines down once, but yeah, you

(47:44):
have them all memorized immediately.
That's a good indicator. The other, the other good
indicator is we played it every night out in Jackson.
I mean, not Jackson, Cheyenne, Cheyenne, WY for Cheyenne
Frontier Days. And every time we played it, the
crowd went absolutely wild over it.
So I'm really excited about thatone coming out.
I I love the fiddle in the beginning of bad things.

(48:05):
Good trucks that that sounded awesome the beginning.
Part yeah, that that is that is Janae Fleener, who is the fiddle
player now. She's now George Strait's fiddle
player in the Ace, in the whole band.
But she is the one that has recorded things like heartache
medication for Jon Pardi and allof Jon Pardi's fiddle stuff
until just recently. She's done.

(48:27):
She did all the dirt on my boots, fiddle, all that, all
that fiddle stuff in the studio.She also done most of everything
Cody Johnson's fiddle. You've heard Carrie Underwood.
So she's a pretty heavy hitter when it comes to fiddle playing.
But she and Mike Johnson, who's Brad Paisley and Reba's steel
guitar player, is the steel player on that song as well.
And those two just get in there and just slay it.

(48:48):
I'm guessing that it was a take on the phrase Bad things
happened to good people, right? Bad things, Good trucks.
You know, I, I got to be honest with you, I don't really know.
A buddy of mine wrote that and he did.
He and I've been friends for about 12 years now and I've
never asked him that, but I knowthat he wrote that song and it

(49:08):
was originally picked up by LukeBryan and it was going to be a
Luke Bryan single. It was recorded and everything
was ready to go. And the label goes in after
albums recorded. They usually record about twice
as many songs as the album is going to have on it just, and
then they kind of figure out what they want to, what they
want to hear and what they thinkfits best together.

(49:31):
Well, that song was the last onecut from the album, so it was
almost a Luke Bryan single. All I knew is it was a Luke Luke
Bryan song and it was fun. And when he sent it to me, the
demo tape was very modern country, very rappy, very hip
hoppy. And I walked into the studio
with Janae and Mike and I said OK, how do we make this country?

(49:53):
What was the first thing that you changed about it?
Oh, well, first thing we did waswe got rid of the, the, the trap
beats and the, the electric drums in the background And, and
then we, and then of course, it was all just very, it was all
just very poppy. You know, you had sense and you
synthesizers and you had electric guitar where all the
fiddle and the, the steel are. And we just added in the fiddle

(50:16):
and steel and it was incredible.So that whole beginning part
that I really liked, I'm, I'm assuming that wasn't even in
there. No, no, not at all.
No, not at all. And also the song was kind of
wrapped, so it started off with just that civil poom ta tune to
tune Tai got an F1 city in the middle of the city.
Like that's how it ran. OK.

(50:37):
Yeah, and I could. See the song like that?
But I think it's much better than how you have it arranged.
I I was, I was blessed to be able to have those people in the
studio at the time they were in there and they just went to town
on it. Janae has experience with that
because I know there are severalJon Party songs that were like
straight up pop songs that he went in and did the same thing
with. So I know Janae had experience

(50:58):
with that, being in the studio with him.
It's kind of fascinating how a song can almost be
unrecognizable and switched up like that, but be the same song.
Absolutely. Do you feel like that's a fun
project for you to to set out toto do that?
Right now my big thing is writing about life.
When I get in a room with somebody, I tell them I don't
want to hear cliches. I don't want to hear the

(51:20):
standard line about hitting the back Rd. and girl on tailgate.
And I said, let's just, if we don't have something to, you
know what, we all, we all have something to say, said, why are
we wasting our time saying what everybody else is saying?
And, and so like my big thing right now is I'm just trying to
get people to, well, we're in a writing room together.
I just want to, I want to write about life.
I want to write about what's actually going on.

(51:42):
That's kind of my big project right now.
Do you do you own the hat store or do you just like sponsor them
or? Oh no, they are a Texas legend.
They've been around for 100 years, I think it is.
And they're a legendary company in Texas and I am just blessed
to be able to represent them and, and wear their hats.

(52:02):
And they're owned by a family that's owned them forever.
And they are just, they're, they're truly, truly an amazing
store to go to. So if you are in Houston, if
you're ever nearby, swing into the hat store in Houston, TX.
And yeah, tell them I sent you. But they're just, I'm blessed to
be able to represent them and where they're, where they're

(52:25):
exclusive line of hats and represent the store itself.
I definitely love hats. If you ever stepped into my
office and saw the amount of hats I have, you'd be like,
what's wrong with this guy? Oh.
I don't know. I've seen, I've seen some pretty
amazing collections of hats before.
So. But I was, I was going to say,
if you, if you did somehow own that store, I, I was like, is

(52:47):
there anything this guy doesn't do?
No, no, no, I, I that is something I'm very new to.
I'm very new to quality, qualitygood cowboy hats.
Usually I destroy him on the ranch.
So yeah, yeah, Oh my. I get, I get new hats each year
from them and for the new season.
And when I get the new one, the old one becomes the work hat.

(53:08):
So you switch it from like the tour world and being on stage to
like, OK, if it gets dirty, it gets dirty, kind of.
Yeah, right, right that yes, like my like we just left it
hats felt felt season begins on Labor Day and felt season goes
from Labor Day to Easter. And so I just did my last show
on Friday or Saturday, sorry, inTexas here did my last show and

(53:33):
that was my last show before Labor Day.
So I walked off stage, took off my have a video of it I'm going
to post here but took my my straw hat off, put my black felt
on and said yeah we are in hat season or we're in felt season
now. Well, Eli, I'm looking forward
to this, this new song that's coming out and I'm looking
forward to hopefully people herein this episode and go and

(53:54):
check, go in and checking out all the music that you have out
on all the listening platforms. I I had a lot of fun helping
people learn about you man. I really appreciate everything
you're doing and thank you for taking the time to do this.
I'm just blessed to be able to do what I do and I hope we can
continue to make more music and I'll see you down the road.
Look forward to doing our interview someday.
Absolutely, yeah. We're we're just right up I-95.

(54:16):
So if you're ever in the in the area, we do the writers round in
in Groton. So if you're ever in town, be
cool to have you be a part of it.
I would love to do that. That would be great.
Well, thanks again for for coming on.
I really appreciate it. All right.
Thank you. That's going to do it for this
week's episode. Thank you so much to Eli Mosley

(54:37):
for making some time and in coming on country on deck.
I really appreciate that. I really enjoyed learning a
little bit more about him. How crazy is this world, such a
small world that he had that radio connection working for the
the same company as as I did? Can't.
I can't believe that I was blownaway.

(54:59):
I was looking at his Instagram getting ready for the the show
and I saw him in the in the radio station T-shirt and I was
like, did what, what did this guy work for the same company as
me? Now he's doing big things in
this country music world as a asan artist.
So very, very awesome. Very excited to have him on the
show and, and learn a little bitmore about him and help you help

(55:22):
you learn a little bit more about Eli Mosley.
You can learn more, even more about Eli Mosley if you head to
his website, elimosley.com. You can find his music and his
bio and pictures and everything you need to know about hopefully
your favorite new artist. We'll be back next Friday.

(55:46):
We'll do it all again. Another rising country star on
the show to help you learn about.
So make sure you hit that followbutton wherever you may be
listening, whatever listening platform you have the show up on
right now and and tuning in on, make sure you hit that follow
button so you don't miss any of the fun and any of the stories.
I'm Josh Maddie, and this is country on Deck.

(56:18):
Off your boots and settle in country on this.
About to begin. Josh Maddie's here.
Stars on the rise. Voices of hope, Dreams in their
eyes, Singer songwriters, stories on phone.

(56:42):
Hearts of wonder. Hearts out of bones.
Does he? Rose she rise.
Sane lines captures her journey.Shares their fights.
Country on deck. We're tuning in.
Well, the new star stories are coming in.

(57:06):
And the small town dreams, they're gonna take you away.
Country on deck with Drunk Man Day.
Thank you so much for listening to the Country on Deck with Josh
Maddie. Josh is back at his desk every
Thursday talking with a new country artist, so make sure you
hit that follow button whenever you're listening so you don't

(57:29):
miss an interview. Follow Country on Deck on social
media. All social media links can be
found by going to LINKTR period.EE slash Country on deck.