July 10, 2025 • 36 mins
Robert Eskridge | Unveiling Stories and Music | Just Keep Talking Podcast
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In this engaging episode of the Just Keep Talking podcast, Brother Love dives deep into the life and career of country music singer and songwriter, Robert Eskridge. Known for his Southern Rock style with his band Southern Days, Robert shares heartfelt stories about his journey from playing bluegrass in Eastern Kentucky to achieving success in both music and business. They discuss the impact of mental health on creativity, the personal inspirations behind his songs like 'This Old House' and 'Summertime,' and the significant life decisions that shaped his path. Robert also provides insight into his innovative work with sleep technology and how he balances his passion for music with his career. Tune in for a sincere and relatable conversation that underscores the importance of creativity, family, and finding personal fulfillment.
#mentalhealthpodcast #yourstorymatters #musicianlife #roberteskridge #countrymusic #countrysinger #brotherlove #beseen #beheard #belong #musicianlife #middleagemusician #over50
00:00 Introduction to Just Keep Talking Podcast
01:26 Meet Robert Eskridge: Country Music Singer and Songwriter
02:11 Early Life and Musical Beginnings
02:35 Songwriting Journey and Inspirations
03:09 Personal Reflections and Family Life
09:41 Balancing Music and Career
16:51 Innovations Beyond Music: The Beyond Sleep Mattress System
20:06 Innovative Sleep Solutions
20:43 The Science of Sleep
22:10 Music and Life Balance
25:14 Navigating the Music Industry
30:50 Speed Round: Insights and Reflections
35:14 Final Thoughts and Farewell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brother Love (00:00):
Telling our stories is the connective tissue of the
collective human experience.
The Just Keep Talking podcast delvesinto the lives and stories of artists.
What is the impact ofmental health on creativity?
What does it mean to bea creative individual?
Someone who feels deeply, experiencesjoy and pain, intensely and
navigates the challenges of lifethrough the creative process.
(00:21):
With each story shared, we explorethe authentic experience of our
basic need to be seen, to be heard,
and to belong.
We're really not so different fromone another, nor are we alone.
Together we can inspire, encourage, andenlighten each other to find the true joy
and fulfillment that is within ourselves.
When we Just Keep Talking, we createthe space for gratitude, self-acceptance
(00:46):
and grace in everyday life.
In a world filled with divisiveness,
fostering inclusivity and connection isa powerful way to make a positive impact.
The Just Keep Talking podcast with me,Brother Love, because Your Story Matters.
She makes me a better man.
She makes me a better dad,she makes me a better friend,
(01:09):
makes me happy when I'm sad.
She does it all, takes no credit.
She makes me better.
Larry (01:20):
Welcome to the Just Keep Talking podcast with me, Brother
Love, because Your Story Matters.
My guest today is Robert Eskridge.
He's a country musicsinger and songwriter.
He's a storyteller.
He's in a band called Southern Days.
Known for their Southern Rockstyle, guitars and harmonies.
Seasoned musicians that havethe same passion and drive
(01:40):
for music and entertaining.
They enjoy putting onshows for their fans.
You know what's great about that?
I'm a fan of music and I love
seeing bands like yours.
Hello, Robert Eskridge,Welcome to the show.
Robert Eskridge (01:52):
Thank you for having me.
Larry (01:52):
I'm so excited to speak with you because we share so many things in common,
uh, and some of the things that I knownothing about your entrepreneurship.
You're a businessman.
Robert Eskridge (02:01):
True.
Larry (02:02):
You're a businessman that plays country music as well.
Robert Eskridge (02:05):
Yeah.
You know, it's kind of thebusinessman by necessity.
Uh, music out of passion.
Larry (02:10):
So let's take it back a little bit.
So you're from Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky.
Robert Eskridge (02:13):
Eastern Kentucky.
Larry (02:14):
And so you've been playing music for how long?
Robert Eskridge (02:16):
Ah, so I got my first guitar when I was six.
Mm-hmm.
But I started playing out when I was 16.
It's kind of a weird thing.
So playing guitar all the timewas cool, but I actually got my
start playing bluegrass music and Iplayed this big standup slap bass.
Wow.
And these guys would drag me around to allthese festivals around Eastern Kentucky.
Larry (02:35):
Well, when did you start writing songs?
You're a
songwriter.
Robert Eskridge (02:38):
do.
I love telling stories through song.
I probably wrote myfirst song when I was 12.
Larry (02:42):
What was it called?
Robert Eskridge (02:43):
What was it called?
It was called This Old House.
It was on my very first, ep.
it was kind of an old, funky one.
I did it here in Nashville.
I did it down at, uh, inFranklin, at, Country Q.
Mm-hmm.
So, uh, it, it turned out okay.
You know, you look back at some ofthose early things that you did, I could
probably re rewrite it a little bit andprobably redo the music piece of it.
'cause I really wasn't superhappy with the way it came out.
But man, it tells a great story, right?
(03:03):
Yeah.
I love songs that tell stories.
Larry (03:05):
So what's the story about?
What mindset, what
was the mind frame whenyou wrote this song?
Robert Eskridge (03:09):
When I was 12, I, lived in Delaware with my
grandparents and we were pretty
impoverished, to be quite honest.
We weren't super rich, but, uh, I hadto ride my bike to football practice
or baseball practice and I drove bythis White House all the time and
I always thought, you know what?
That house looks like ithas a lot of love there.
It looks like, you know, you had theswing sets in the yards, the little,
you know, back when our days youhad the little trikes, the little
(03:29):
big wheels that were out there.
And always thought, I bet you thatfamily's got tons of love in there.
And so the song's all about that oldhouse, how memories are made and how
they grow up and how they come backand you spend your holidays there
and it's, it's a really good story.
I love it.
Larry (03:44):
Was the song a bit of a, like a departure from your life?
Was it a place to escape to, like what
was it like growing
up as a 12-year-old with your family?
Was there, would you say you werein a loving house, a supportive
house?
house
Or
was this kind of like longingly lookingat this house being like, I want that.
Robert Eskridge (03:59):
Yeah, I think it was more of the boy that would be nice to
have that would be one of those things.
You know, I, I kind of grew upin a pretty rough situation.
My mom did the best she could.
And I, I kind of say this allthe time, but I had a dad.
My dad passed away at COVID, and,and it's, it's, it's a sad situation.
Larry (04:14):
I'm sorry.
Robert Eskridge (04:14):
But he was, uh, he was my stepdad.
I met him when I was 13.
My sperm donor, who I.
With my biological fatheris, not the best of dudes.
So I, I seen a lot of stuffpretty rough growing up and I
always thought, man, there's gottabe something better out there.
There's, there's no way.
This is all, this is everyday is somebody's life.
And so playing guitar was my escape.
I get locked up and I, andI really got into, and this
(04:36):
sounds crazy for a country guy,
I got into Billy Joel,AC/DC, and the Beach Boys.
Wow.
So I learned all cut my,my guitar licks and stuff.
I learned all that stuff from those guys.
And then, you know, I really gotinto old Hank Senior, Merl Haggard,
George Jones and those type of things.
But This Old House was thevery first song that I wrote.
Larry (04:55):
That's pretty amazing because as a young person, we don't really
speak about our feelings so much,
right?
I mean, 12 and 13.
I was thinking back to when I was akid and I was bullied very much so,
I remember being in second grade andI asked a friend of mine, I said.
How do you do it?
I'm sad.
I'm depressed and I'm thinking,wow, I had this conversation in
second grade, it's pretty amazing.
And, and I was very sad as a kid.
(05:16):
It didn't show, it seemed.
I'd look at pictures and I looked veryhappy, but my parents got divorced.
It was a broken
home.
Sure.
And it was a lot of,feelings of hurt and anger.
And I did turn to music.
Robert Eskridge (05:27):
Yeah I did the same.
Larry (05:28):
But
I didn't write, so my first song wascalled like, Love Cave, I'm serious.
Like what a,
I mean, really, I mean,I, I, you know, I'm a
Robert Eskridge (05:35):
about that 14 or 15-year-old stage.
Yeah.
Larry (05:38):
stage.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, you could seehow, what a wonderful songwriter I,
was back then, but you were writingabout something very, very serious.
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (05:44):
Well, not everybody's a victim, a circumstance.
You can be a victim or you can bea, this is gonna be a way that I'm
gonna motivate myself to get out.
Wow.
A little bit different.
Larry (05:52):
Good for you.
Wow.
Do you have siblings?
Robert Eskridge (05:54):
Yeah, I have a sister.
Yeah.
Yes, she's a couple years younger than me.
Larry (05:57):
Did you find yourself having to, take care of her a little bit?
Watch out for her.
Look
after Look after her,
Robert Eskridge (06:02):
the, the good thing, good and bad, my sister stayed with my mom.
Um, she's lives in easternKentucky, still to this day.
Uh, so she stayed with her the whole time.
And, I stayed in, Delaware with mygrandparents for a few years because when
my mom and my, father were, having alltheir challenges, there was just not a.
It was tough.
You know that's, that's the rightway to say everybody's got their
stuff that they gotta deal with.
Mm-hmm.
(06:22):
My mom was going through some harshstuff and I look back on it now and
wonder how in the world she raised mysister and I to be decent human beings
because all the crazies she had to put up
with, wow.
It's a, it was a mess, man.
It was an absolute mess.
So you, you take those life experiencesand those things that you see, and
then you translate 'em, you put 'emto a, a pen and paper and it comes out
(06:44):
differently.
My way that I portray thingsmight be totally different than
somebody that didn't have thosesame troubles and circumstances.
So I think in a lot of stuff whenI'm doing my songwriting, it, comes
back to a very personal level.
You heard the Better Man song.
Every song that I do on one of my albums,I have at least a song for my wife.
Yeah.
Because it makes me happy to do that.
That's good.
So I think that's important.
Larry (07:06):
Yeah.
It's important also because you are,you are digging deep into the well of
who you are and being okay with it.
See, it's okay.
That's been such a theme on thisshow is that it's okay to feel
these feelings that we have andit's great to write fun party songs.
I mean, your music is country and fun, andlet's go out and have a wonderful time.
(07:26):
It's Friday night,
give me a beer, let'sget on the dance floor.
Robert Eskridge (07:29):
Let's do it.
Buck wild and whiskey crazy.
Let's go.
Larry (07:32):
Let's go crazy.
But then you also have songs thatare very much like introspective.
You have songs that are personaland that are personable.
And I relate to your songs.
I didn't grow up where you grew up,but I, absolutely relate to your songs.
You have song called,Summertime is Your latest song.
Robert Eskridge (07:46):
Yeah the new single
Larry (07:48):
And
that's a beautifully fun, awesome song.
And then you have a song calledShe Took Everything But the Blame.
Yeah.
It's all good country
music.
You're telling good
stories.
These are Country Staples, goodtime party, and then woes me.
I'm a sad country boy and here'smy story, but then you have a
song called When Life Happens.
Robert Eskridge (08:06):
Oh yeah, that's a great one.
Larry (08:07):
When life happens took me to a place I was quiet and I was introspective
and I thought, man, that's a good song.
Robert Eskridge (08:15):
Yeah, that song is, interesting.
Julie and I are a blended family.
We're celebrating our 10 year
anniversary.
Congratulations.
We're leaving Saturday to goto Mexico with like 30 people
to go have a great time.
We're gonna have awonderful time, but, uh,
Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
When we were getting together,our kids were all kind of young.
Our, my daughter, our oldest daughterwas already in college, so wasn't
that big a deal, but the otherthree had no licenses, one was in
Larry (08:38):
driver's license?
or
Robert Eskridge (08:39):
like driver's License?
License?
No, No, driver's license.
No driver's license.
Go to band practice, cheerleading
practice,
dance practices.
It felt like from time to time wewere just like passing each other
and today I'm a taxi tomorrow, I'mUber, just, I'm now on my Lyft.
And there's a part of that song
I was like, man, I am meetingmyself, coming and going.
So it talked about that a little bit.
And the other piece of this,at the very last, verse, my
(09:00):
dad passed away during COVID.
He was 80 years old.
Uh, had a good life.
Um, had a good run.
So good for him.
He was a wonderful man.
But he told my mom, and my,he told, hang on a second.
He told my mom that he'd bewaiting for her at Heaven's Gates.
So on, on that song, the very lastverse is, he goes, he'll be waiting
for Heaven's Gate because life happens.
(09:22):
Every day, life happens.
What you choose to do with it isdifferent, how you react to stuff.
But yeah, that, that kind of hit me.
Yeah.
Larry (09:28):
Well, it hit me too and thanks so much for that.
You're a fantastic songwriter
and,
and, uh, I appreciate you sharingthat story and it brings forth,
what happens in life, whichis the happening of life.
Robert Eskridge (09:40):
Sure
does
Larry (09:41):
You pursued a country music career.
Did you tour?
Did you make records?
I mean, this
is,
Robert Eskridge (09:47):
know, it was kind of an odd thing for me to be honest.
Early on I wanted to do this really bad.
I was coming down to Nashville,me and some dude named Billy Ray
Cyrus, You may have heard of him.
His dad and my uncleplayed tennis together.
But, uh, we were going through thesame studio in Lexington and I would
come down here maybe once a month,we'd share a car fuss and complain.
I still got a set of his speakersfrom the club that he left
in Huntington, West Virginia.
(10:07):
We still have 'em.
But you know, I, I tried thisa lot and I was working with
a couple development labels.
We had some deals that cooked and thingsjust were starting to get growing for me.
And then we got pregnant and I decidedprobably more important to, make a
career at, uh, a company called Lexmark.
And.
Yeah.
I kind of checked out of it for a while.
Larry (10:24):
So how long ago was this?
Robert Eskridge (10:26):
I started playing down here in probably the mid nineties,
so I, I had some good runs, man.
I, I played up here in, uh, music, top ofmusic Row when Gilley's used to be there.
Yeah, I mean, I did sixweeks up at Gilley's.
I played Stockyard Bullpen Lounge,and they trucked me around all
over town and played, you know,the Earnest Tubb Record Shop.
I did an afternoon at the Grand Ole Opry.
I had a storied early careerthat was freaking awesome.
(10:47):
The, the guy I was working with had theseother dudes and, and it was so funny.
They were really nice, man, theseguys, harmony, mandolin, they
could play anything with strings.
I'd never seen anything like it, but Iwas in Nolan's office one day and they
were sitting there talking back andforth and I came back maybe, I don't
know, probably, five or six weeks later,maybe two months, I don't remember.
I said, Hey, whateverhappened to those guys?
He goes, oh, yeah.
(11:08):
He goes, they, they changed their name.
I said, what was it before?
I said, well, they were theTennessee River Boys, but they
changed their name to Diamond Rio.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, here I am humpingNashville with like all these
guys and, you know, I'm doing mycareer now in my real world, and
I'm watching these guys that I usuallyrun around here in town and go to
(11:28):
songwriters nights and some other stuff,and slowly a little bit at a time, this
guy's made it and those guys made it.
And I'm like, man, that's awesome.
So some of these guys, they put inthe time, yeah, they put in the work
and the effort and so great for them.
So I was really happyto see all this stuff.
But yeah, probably by 97,98, I pretty much said.
I really need to focus on work.
(11:49):
Work.
'cause baby formula, diapers, allthat stuff was one of those things.
And so I didn't really shelf itand say I'm never doing it again.
With my first marriage, it was oneof those things, it was more point of
animosity than it was anything else.
And so sometimes the juiceisn't worth the squeeze.
And so I decided that I probablyshould just focus on my kids.
Mm-hmm.
My career and my Lexmark world.
(12:11):
And then at some point, maybe I'llkind of come back and revisit that.
And then, you know, you look at ityears later, I'm like, well, it's
not gonna get any worse, right?
I might as well just start my band again.
So I did.
I'm like, yeah, it's time to do that.
And then, you know, I got divorcedand She Took Everything, But The Blame
was about that first person, right?
So that's the true story.
That's, uh, that's how that came about.
But, uh, yeah, that, that'skinda what shook out, man.
I, used to come here a lot.
Larry (12:32):
So how old were you when this transition happened?
Robert Eskridge (12:34):
So when I started coming here, I would say 26, 25, 26?
Right outta college.
Larry (12:41):
Really, you were moving on up in the world.
I mean, you shared thestage with Tim McGraw,
Exile, Diamond Rio, John MichaelMontgomery, Montgomery Gentry.
Robert Eskridge (12:49):
You know, I would tell you a funny story I played bass
with Troy Lee and these guys, right?
So at the end of the day, Austin CitySaloon and Lexington's very famous.
John Michael got a start there.
I played rhythm with him for a while.
My guitar player played with John as well.
But, Troy came in one day.
We were, we're getting ready to playa gig and Troy was a pretty big dude.
I dunno if you knew Troy LeeGentry, uh, from Montgomery
Gentry.
Super nice looking guy.
He is a big tall dude.
Larry (13:10):
Gorgeous guy.
Are you kidding me?
Talk about an Adonis!
Robert Eskridge (13:12):
He had the best
hair, right?
The best hair, and he came in withhis big old black cowboy hat on.
Larry (13:16):
Take that hat off!
Robert Eskridge (13:17):
He walked in great hair.
So he walks in, he hegoes, what do you think?
I said, T-Roy.
I hate to tell you.
I said, but you gotta take that hat off.
He goes, you don't like it?
I said, you look like aredneck Fire Marshal Bill.
I don't know if you know who
Fire Marshall Bill is.
Larry (13:28):
I know exactly who
Robert Eskridge (13:29):
Loving color.
He goes.
He took the hat off, he threwit and he says, F you, Robert.
He said, and from that point, I don'tthink I ever saw the man in a cowboy hat.
Larry (13:37):
I was very fortunate to open up for Montgomery
Gentry a few times in the
band in my country days.
I moved here.
I was in a country rock bandthat I, we mentioned, earlier.
It was called Her and Kings County,
and they were just the nicestguys and God rest, Troy Gentry.
His soul.
yeah.
So you were in your mid twenties,you decide to really do something
that a lot of musicians don't do.
I didn't do it.
(13:57):
I don't have kids, I wasn'tmaking the living that I wanted to
make.
And
here I was getting marriedand I, married a musician.
I married somebody just like me.
And that's, I guess, a positive thing?
There's positive and negative with
everything, but my girlfriendsin the past were not
in the music business.
And my family, right?
I mean, I have a fatherwho's a boomer generation,
(14:18):
I don't understand your business.
You could always go back to school.
You know?
I'm like, he
doesn't really sound like that, butin my mind it's hilarious, right?
And it's like, but whenare you gonna get serious?
Right?
You said
something like the real world.
You said the real job.
Robert Eskridge (14:30):
It's true.
Larry (14:31):
And I hear that a lot where people say, I gotta
go out into
the real world and get a real job.
Where I'm like, well, I'm an artist.
What I do is real.
Yeah.
What I
do is important.
And I've always struggled with that.
Like, do I really think that one dayI'm gonna go into some other like realm,
like it's just other world and it is.
It absolutely is.
But would I ever leave this behind?
You are living proof that you can do both.
(14:52):
You can be successful andstill maintain your dreams.
What was your feeling likewhen you made that choice?
Because I think if I had to make thatchoice, I wouldn't do it with such grace.
I think I might be upset for a long timeand maybe I would take it out on my wife
and maybe
I wouldn't be a good dad and maybe Ijust wouldn't be a happy person because I
don't think that I could do what you did.
Robert Eskridge (15:12):
I think in general, musicians, songwriters, we're all kind of
interwoven in some level of DNA somewhere.
Yeah.
Uh, there's a lot of commoncharacteristics, right?
I think that there's a, uh.
piece of you that you'll nevernot be a musician or you'll
never not be a songwriter, right?
Right.
I wanna be the Buddy Guy that's87 out here throwing out shows.
Right?
Yeah.
That's the way you wanna be.
(15:33):
But on the flip side of that,I also had to look at it at a
serious level to go, you know what?
I can still maybe do this on the sidesometimes, but insurance was a big deal.
I needed to have really steadyjob and that sort of stuff.
But I, kind of focused the differentdirection because art is what I
would call somewhat arbitrary.
It might be music, itmight be physical drawings.
(15:54):
I put it into engineering work and stuffthat I did at a company called Lexmark.
I had a really good group ofpeople that I had opportunities
that ushered me along the way.
Everybody gets the person thatsponsors them or mentors them or
sees something in you that you don'tsee and gives you an opportunity.
Then you're like, wait a minute.
I didn't know I could do that.
Well, if I can do that, maybe I can dothis other thing and maybe I can do this.
(16:14):
And Lexmark gave to mean opportunity to learn.
Not just about in operationsand engineering, but business
and supply chain management.
And I did that job for 20 some years.
I had some really, really greatmanagers and had opportunities that
I never in a million years dreamtwould happen for me as a young guy.
Larry (16:32):
And you took your
creativeness,
Robert Eskridge (16:33):
It did.
I put that into, and I'm one of theonly guys that I know that has a red
dot award from Germany for a printerdesign, and I only got a CES award.
From, uh, uh, innovationtechnology group, right?
So from that perspective, I'm like,okay, so I'm not doing music, but
I take that same type of passion,energy and put it into something else.
We made some cool stuff.
Yeah.
And I, I had a, very storiedcareer, and, and then I got out
(16:54):
of the printer business and I gotinto the bedding industry, right?
And so I'm working at Tempur-Pedic.
I'm doing all this crazy stuff.
And so we've got tons of thisintellectual property, and we're
talking about this earlier and,
I've got some IP that is pretty cool.
I'm a musician.
How do I take this passion formusic and put it into something
that I can apply into the worldthat I'm day-today grind on?
Right.
And so we've got thisproduct called Fiber Sonic.
We're, doing something down herein Nashville this week with, some
(17:16):
big record labels and folks hereat Skydeck and the activation with
the folks that we're working with.
It's very, very cool.
So taking that type of passionand figuring out how do you
take that same drive and energyand put it into something else.
Yeah.
It wasn't in the guitar at the
time.
Right.
But at the same token, it was takingthat level of energy and, thoughtfulness
and how do I mindfully go make thiswork and figure out a way that can
bring some level of quality of sleep.
(17:38):
How do I help somebody sleep better, give'em a better quality of life and help
them to be better and all the other stuff?
And I did that.
And that's cool.
Yeah, that was really cool for me.
Larry (17:47):
You've got a good smile on your
face.
Robert Eskridge (17:48):
Yeah.
I, I,
love what I do, man.
I, I tell you, I, got, thebest of all worlds for me.
Larry (17:52):
So explain the bed real quick.
Beyond Sleep Mattress System.
Yeah.
It's not
just a bed.
It's a system.
Robert Eskridge (17:58):
It is, it's a complete system.
So the company name is Beyond Sleep.
So, my wife and I have great friendsin Taiwan, Jack and Melody Shī, so we
kind of as a passion project for us,
we're an OEM provider for a ton of people.
You think of them, we probably providesomething to them in the Bedding Industry.
Given the intellectual propertythat we have on the speakers in
there, we said we should try tofigure out a path to get there.
So it's a nice, thick, 12inch memory foam mattress.
(18:20):
Very much like a Tempur-Pedicor a Nectar type of product.
Sleeps great.
It will fix a lot ofyour headaches, right?
No back aches.
You're gonna feel really goodwhen you get up in the morning.
Our publicist has one.
She absolutely loves it.
Larry (18:31):
But wait, there's more!
Robert Eskridge (18:31):
That's not
the main thing, right?
So I like to sleep with like a, sounds.
I have a rain, rain app in my phoneand you can connect this thing through
Bluetooth, RCA in / out Auxiliary in,SD card, any which way that you need to
connect into this particular control box.
It gives you a path of helpingyou to connect your world.
So I was thinking, how do we makethis more of a immersive thing?
And I'm thinking music, sleepsounds, and all the other pieces.
(18:54):
And my son who is a gamer is like.
Could this plug through my Xbox?
I said, I think so.
So I got all these crazy wires allwired out, soldered in, and we'd
make a jack and put it into his Xbox.
And next thing you know, Ifeel the bed kind of vibrating
when the tank comes, I'm thinking,all right, I'm onto something here.
This is a big deal, right?
So we then started looking at allthe patents that different people had
(19:14):
on substrates and blah, blah, blah.
So we found this way ofkind of making it work.
And we have a patent on how doyou integrate speakers inside of a
mattress system and now you've gotyour own immersive IMAX theater.
You've got your own concert.
If you wanna listen to music,you wanna do sleep sounds,
audio, waves, crashing, rain.
Whatever you can connect, youhave an immersive experience.
(19:34):
And we're, in the world of directto consumer and we, we've got
some pretty heavy influencers.
They're kind of pushing us intothe, the gaming world right now.
So we're gonna be entering Dream Hackhere, and we're doing some stuff here with
the CMA Fest world this week in Nashville.
So, it's a cool thing, man.
It really is.
Larry (19:49):
If you had a little refrigerator and a, hot stove, a
little small stove involved withthis, I would never leave the room!
Robert Eskridge (19:55):
You just need a small toilet.
Larry (19:57):
Exactly.
See, now we're getting it going.
Robert Eskridge (20:00):
I could probably design something.
You know it's like,Austin Powers evacuate.
Yes, evacuate.
Complete.
Larry (20:05):
And then we would never have to leave.
And by the way, you wouldtake care of a lot of
costs for healthcare for the elderly.
Yeah.
Right.
I could put my grandma right in the
bed.
Robert Eskridge (20:13):
You could.
Larry (20:13):
Not in the home,
Robert Eskridge (20:14):
It's true.
Larry (20:14):
In the bed.
Robert Eskridge (20:15):
Very true.
Yeah.
It's cool.
And so again, that whole sleepsystem is not just a mattress.
We do, most of our businessare adjustable beds.
Press a button, the headcomes up, foot comes up.
Under bed lights, USB and all that stuff.
So that's our core competencywhen it comes to the design
world and manufacturing.
But the Beyond Sleep, we think thatthere's something Beyond Sleep, whether it
be algorithms with, you know, biometricsor audio, or maybe it's a sensory thing.
(20:37):
Maybe it's a, some type of lavenderthat's puffing out of this little,
uh, dispensary that's out there.
I mean, there's all kindsof ways of doing stuff.
It's very interesting because we'rejust at the very tip of understanding
what sleep really does for you.
Yeah.
So the science behind that is startingto become more and more active.
And so having the ability tonow bring products alive to
help people to sleep better.
Right.
Oh man, that's, that's really exciting.
Larry (20:56):
I know
what not having sleep does for us.
We all know
that.
Robert Eskridge (21:00):
It's not good.
Larry (21:00):
It's not good It's not good at all.
And if you could have a bettersleep experience, why not?
I, do
the same thing.
I have a sound machine
and
so wonderful to have these immersive
sounds, but it's not
immersive if it's over there on my
phone.
Robert Eskridge (21:11):
No.
Larry (21:12):
So you have mattress with these speakers
in.
Robert Eskridge (21:14):
If you put in white noise, brown noise, pink
noise, Pink Floyd for all I
care.
Yeah.
You have two external speakersthat are really nicely tuned,
they're little bitty guys.
They're seven watts each man,these things are loud and powerful.
But depending upon the bed, youhave really, in a Queen, you
have six subwoofers that are inthe base layer of this thing.
So every time that you hear a lowfrequency below 120 hertz, yeah, the
whole bed just kind of rolls with it.
(21:36):
It's cool.
Larry (21:36):
Sex must be amazing!
Robert Eskridge (21:37):
Dude.
I'm telling
you.
Larry (21:38):
Sex must
be so much
fun.
in your bed.
Robert Eskridge (21:40):
I need to do, a study on that with my wife.
Larry (21:42):
Yes.
Well, it's
your 10 year anniversary.
Robert Eskridge (21:45):
I think we could probably make that happen.
Larry (21:47):
This is fantastic.
Wow.
Robert Eskridge (21:48):
The sky's the
Larry (21:49):
Limit, honey.
We're going all over the
place.
This is great.
Fantastic man.
I put on some Barry White andyour golden and delicious.
Robert Eskridge (21:56):
Right.
Now you're talking to myUncle Nathan's language.
He loves
Barry White.
Larry (21:59):
Who doesn't like Barry White in the bed?
That's great Except
maybe it's a little too
immersive.
It's so immersive.
It's
like Hey, can we not have thiswith Barry White under us?
Yeah.
So you are living your best life.
I mean, you're in Nashville, you havethis company did you say Lexmark?
Robert Eskridge (22:13):
Yeah.
I worked at Lexmark for 22 years.
Larry (22:16):
That's everything Lexmark, I'm
thinking now.
It's been on everything,every printer I've ever
had.
All kinds of stuff.
I also noticed that youhave tour dates on your
website.
So what I'm trying to
tie in here is, is that hereyou are, how old are you?
Robert Eskridge (22:27):
I am 28 this year.
Soon to be 28 and a half.
Larry (22:30):
Come on.
How old are you?
Robert Eskridge (22:31):
I'll be 57.
Larry (22:32):
57.
See, I'm 53.
I'll be 54.
Okay.
You look great,
by the way.
Robert Eskridge (22:35):
Thank you.
Larry (22:36):
Got a great head of hair
on
you.
I know.
It's crazy.
Okay, we take everything we got,
we got, right?
That's right?
Robert Eskridge (22:40):
I'll take that.
Larry (22:41):
So you have tour dates, you have music that you just released.
Summertime,
your song is just released.
So this is the kind of life thatI think I'm trying to aspire to
because I work.
And I, have odd jobs here and there,and I make some more money and life
is easier and cool things, also,
like I have
songs that are on television shows andI do some gigging and I do this podcast.
(23:03):
But what I really enjoy is when likeeverything's working at the same
time.
Robert Eskridge (23:07):
It all clicks,
it makes it a lot easier.
Larry (23:09):
You know,
it's like, there is somethingto be said about maybe
my
musical career could have been furtheralong if I really focused more.
Or if I
really just didn't do anything else.
I'm always one of those people whoare like, 'cause my father put this in
me, keep your hand in all the fires.
Right?
And just Be good at this, be good at that.
I'm understanding that, Jackof all trades, master of none.
(23:31):
Is just that I'm a jackof a lot of trades.
Not really a master of any of them,but what I'm hearing is that you
figured out how to master a few trades.
You've mastered your business, and you'rea jack of all different trades, but you've
mastered yourself, is what I'm getting at.
You've mastered the abilityto say, you know what?
This is what life is throwing at me.
Life happens.
(23:51):
And so what am I gonna do?
Am I gonna be angry at, myworld for having kids and
family and not playing music?
Or am I gonna go with it and then workand then insert my creativity into my
work, which is
what you did.
And at the same time, you'rewriting country music, you're
writing country
songs, you're in Nashville, youtour, you have a great band.
Robert Eskridge (24:11):
The guys are great.
Larry (24:11):
Yeah, so kudos to
you.
Because part of this show, this journeyof mine is talking to men especially
that
are our age, because look,I can admit that life didn't
happen the way I wanted it to.
You know, a few years
ago I was
really in the dumps
and I
was like, why?
Because I just wantedbe a rock and roll star.
But you know what, I live apretty fantastic life, because
I do a little of this, a
(24:31):
little of that, And Ido these things well.
Robert Eskridge (24:33):
And you get to have some cool experiences and, you know,
the, the reality too, and we teachour kids this, Money is a good thing.
Larry (24:39):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (24:40):
But it's not everything.
Larry (24:41):
Go on.
Robert Eskridge (24:41):
My wife and I, when we met.
between us we may have had a dime, anickel, a piece, but you look at the
stuff and stuff really doesn't matter.
Right.
What matters to me the mostis time with my family.
Larry (24:51):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (24:52):
My friends making memories.
' Cause I've always said this,you can always make more money.
You can't make more memories.
When that shit's gone, it's gone.
Yeah.
So we focus on the, smaller stuff.
And yeah, money stuff makes it easier,but at the end of the day, being driven by
passion, looking at your happiness mm-hmm.
and being present is reallypretty important, man.
Yeah.
It really is important.
Larry (25:13):
Wow, that's wonderful.
So where do you see yourself fitting in inthe new world of music and country music?
Nashville has changed
Robert Eskridge (25:20):
It's changed a lot, man.
Larry (25:21):
It's all changed.
It's all
TikTok world and
it's, it's literally,
it happened so quickly.
I was talking to a songwriter, afriend of mine, just the other day,
and they were working with a real youngartist who basically was saying, we
can do a, verse, a chorus, a verse,chorus, and the song is over and it's
less than two minutes and there's nobridge it's just, it's two minutes.
It's a short song, and I'm thinking, wow.
(25:41):
In the punk music days,
that's all we, that's right.
That's
what you went for.
That's not to snub any of it,that's not to say it's bad
or good or better or worse.
It's just
different.
It's how
do you see yourself fitting in?
Because you're still doing
it.
Yeah.
And
you're doing it well, and it's quality
work.
And I appreciate that from you.
Robert Eskridge (25:59):
I think it does change a lot.
So for me, trying to, uh, continueto go down the path that we're on.
I recognize that I am not aTIK TOKER and I get that right.
Yeah.
But I'm gonna have to figureout how to go do those things.
We do a pretty decentjob on social medias.
We don't really invest a lotof time and energy in that.
And I recognize that for me to go fromwhere we are today to where I think
(26:20):
we need to be, I need to probablyput some more energy into that.
So they're not coming after, middleaged dudes or older to try to go
get a deal to go start touring
and, yeah, and that's notreally what we're about anyways.
Our music is more gearedtowards making myself happy.
Yeah.
'Cause I'm a firm believer and my wife andI talk about all the time with our kids.
Circle of happiness is something thatyou gotta really focus on and you,
(26:42):
can't find happiness in other people.
You gotta find happiness in, what yourlife is about and what you've accomplished
and, and what your dreams have been.
And knowing where you are todayto where you want to get to it.
It is not from a A to F, you gottado the B, C, D, and E the work.
You don't put in the work,you're not gonna get the return.
Yeah.
So I, I do think that there'sa level of happiness that, but
with the music piece mm-hmm.
You know, with our publicist, I'm alwayssaying, you know what, you know, I just
(27:03):
wanna play a little bit bigger places.
Yeah.
I would like to play, couple.
Festivals and some bigger arenas andnot have to call every freaking bar
around to get a gig from time to time,which that's changed, which is we're
starting to actually get people tocall us now, which is a lot better.
Yeah.
You know, instead of having to humpthe radio and every freaking telephone
number you get people saying, Hey,are you available on these dates?
Here's what we do this.
(27:23):
I'm like, well, there's the contract.
This is the rate would youlike to book us on these days?
This is what's available.
So it has changed a lot and I think someof the small medium radio stuff has been
big for us, so from that perspective,it's changed dynamically for those pieces.
But social media did makea huge, huge change, right?
Think about Shaboozey.
He came outta nowhere and his Summer Songa couple years ago put him on the map
(27:45):
and now he's playing these big things.
And, and you watch these guys likeCooper Allen and these younger guys,
they know how to go do the whole thing.
I love Cooper Allen.
He's got this one thing on TikTok wherehe's like his wife or his girlfriend's
like, I need three minutes of this type ofa beat with every song you can think of.
And he does like from rock torap, to country to pop r and b.
And he's got all these snippets ofsongs and it's, it's freaking awesome.
(28:05):
But now he's out there 'cause that'show people find the people these days.
Yeah.
And so you gotta put the time intothat and, and we've not done that,
but at the end of the day, weenjoy playing music just to play.
And it was funny, we, played the othernight and some lady came up, we played
down at Proud Mary's on the river in,
Lexington, Kentucky.
And we don't play for tips, to be honest.
We would play for free most of the time.
We, we don't really careabout the money, right?
We care about getting in front ofpeople and just having fun and,
(28:27):
and I think that's important.
And this lady comes up, she'slike, don't you have a tip jar?
Like.
Uh, not really.
She goes, do you want tips?
I was like, oh, if you wanna throw themoney down, we're not gonna say no.
I said, but we don't play for tips.
We play 'cause we like to play.
Right.
And next thing you know, we got liketwo or $300 and $20 bills on the stage.
'cause she started throwing twenties.
I'm like, man, that's all right.
But yeah, it's, it's kind of cool.
(28:48):
I think from a music perspective.
I write probably every day.
Even when I wasn't playing, I still,I got books and books full of stuff.
And it might be a chorus ofthis or a stanza maybe I've
got a little riff in head.
I'm like, all right, let me put this downon my iPhone and kind of figure out how am
I'm gonna make something work with that.
But I've got hundreds andhundreds of pieces and parts of
songs, and you know how it is.
Oh You, you, just can't let it go.
(29:09):
And then I come back to it and I justfinished a song the other day and I
love that part of music that just letsme take my experiences or something
I've seen or something of that othernature and really make something with
it and maybe connect with somebody,even if it's just that one person.
Yeah.
I think it's awesome.
We have a song that'll becoming out in the fall, it's
called a, If Heaven Had a Phone.
I wrote that song really about mydad because I talk to him every day,
(29:32):
every day of my life you know, he'sprobably old school like your dad.
I mean, you call like,Hey dad, what's up Pops?
He's like, I'm doing good.
What you doing?
I was like, ah.
I just call second.
I say, good.
Talk to your mom.
Right?
To my, I'm talking to my mom everyday, but you know, you don't realize
how much you missed that until.
Yeah,
Larry (29:47):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (29:47):
You can't actually hear the voice.
Yeah.
So I wrote this song called If HavingHad A Phone, and it's turned out great.
We just got the tracks done.
It's laid down the vocals on it.
It's good.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
and that's what I love to do.
Yeah.
That, and I love, on the other side of myworld, I love bringing technology to life.
I love working with customers.
I love taking the ideas and taking'em from blank pieces of paper into
a concept, into a manufacturingworld, to getting 'em out there.
(30:10):
And then I see 'em out there onthe market and see people selling
the products that we're making.
That's pretty cool.
Larry (30:14):
Good for you.
You're a creator.
See, when
I give my little
elevator
pitch for my show, they say,well, what is your show about?
And I keep saying, well, I interviewcreatives and we speak about,
music and mental health and things.
And I go obviously morein depth than that.
But I keep coming back to creativesbecause I don't necessarily think that
I need to interview just musicians or
just writers of
(30:35):
song or artists, because I reallydo believe we're all creators
of
some, sort.
And you have a way of expressingyour creativity in such a
fantastic, wonderful way, and
you're bringing the wisdom of yourlife and your life experiences with
it.
Fantastic.
I have a few questions.
This is our speed round.
Are you ready for me?
What fascinates you rightnow, Robert Eskridge?
What fascinates you?
Robert Eskridge (30:56):
What fascinates me Prince Prince still fascinates me.
Yeah.
He's one of the most prolificdudes that I ever, ever followed.
I love Prince's music.
Yeah.
So he still fascinates me when I thinkfascination Prince comes to mind.
Larry (31:08):
Wow.
He did it all.
Robert Eskridge (31:10):
He did.
Larry (31:10):
He did everything and more.
Yeah.
He's the most incredible cat.
That's wonderful.
Uh, What angers you?
Robert Eskridge (31:15):
Stupidity.
Larry (31:17):
Now what do you mean by stupidity?
Robert Eskridge (31:18):
I get pretty angry when people disrespect one another.
I think that life ispretty Dagg on simple.
I think that you should respectpeople and meet them where they're at.
You don't have to agree, but youdo not have to be a jerk, right?
You can be respectful, and I don't likeit when people don't do their best.
Those are two house rules in ourplace, and our kids could repeat
those on that fast of an ask.
(31:39):
What do you do in the house?
We do our best and we respect people.
It doesn't matter.
Race, gender, religion, color, don't care.
Just be respectful, man.
Yeah.
And I tell you, that kind of stuffangers me worse than anything.
Yeah.
And then we got a bad taste of it in theUnited States, in the world these days.
It's, terrible.
Larry (31:54):
Yeah.
Not being mindful of, one another.
Robert Eskridge (31:56):
Of people, just be a decent human being.
Larry (31:58):
Yeah.
It's not hard.
Robert Eskridge (31:59):
It's not hard.
Just be nice.
Yeah.
It costs you nothing to be
nice.
Larry (32:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
See it
so you, Yeah.
So it's not stupidity that
angers you.
Yeah, that's Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah
Robert Eskridge (32:06):
But they're stupid because they don't do it.
Let me put it that way.
Yeah.
Larry (32:09):
What brings you joy?
Robert Eskridge (32:11):
My family.
I love my family.
Love my wife, love my kids.
Music, creativity, my friends, I, again,stuff doesn't make me super happy.
My, family and friends make me happy.
Larry (32:20):
If you had a magic wand and you could fix something, anything at all.
I got this.
I'm Robert Eskridge I got my magic wand.
You could fix it.
Make it the way you think it should be.
Make it better.
What would it be?
Robert Eskridge (32:31):
Decent in humanity.
Just make, like I said before,I think if you had a magic wand
and all you could do is say.
Everybody doesn't have to agree.
Yeah, just agree to disagreeand be respectful of each other.
I think that would go a long way intoday's world, regardless whether you're
an American, Chinese, Russian, French.
Just be respectful, you know, theworld that I, my not music world
(32:53):
and I get to travel all over the
world, right?
And I see tons of different cultures.
There's probably not verymany places I haven't been.
And the one thing that I see everywhereare people are pretty daggone.
Nice.
I.
And, and that's different than what youget on the media and listening to people
on the different us versus them type
worlds.
Yeah.
And I think that's somethingthat we don't see as people is
we don't really see it that way.
(33:14):
We just see a nugget or atalking point or a buzzword.
Mm-hmm.
And, at the end of the day, Ireally believe most people in
the world are nice and they'realways gonna be those outliers.
There's
always people that are just on onefar side or the other far side.
But if you put this in termsof like football world.
Yeah.
Said, okay, here's your left, end goal.
Here's the other, goal every bylineup where you think you're at.
(33:35):
99% of us are gonna bebetween the forties.
Yeah.
We're not that far apart.
Right.
Yet we have a tendency tojust lean on one thing.
And if I could wave the magic wand.
I'd just remove the blinders.
Just be a decent humanbeing and talk to people.
Communicate.
Yeah.
You don't have to be a jerk.
Larry (33:50):
Yeah.
It's so funny you put it that way.
'cause if you really do breakit down like that, right?
Give people the chance, they'llsomehow find their way to the
middle.
And yet all people wanna do is fight.
Robert Eskridge (33:59):
Talk about
the far sides,
the far side.
Forget the far sides.
We're not those are thepeople that are driving the
craziness.
Larry (34:04):
And by the way, there's a little far side.
There's a
little near side.
It all works, man.
It all
Robert Eskridge (34:09):
It all works, but at the end of the day, we're not that far apart.
So yeah, I would try to fix that.
Larry (34:13):
That's fantastic.
There's a quote here that I justlove by a man named Howard Thurman.
He's an American Author, Philosopher,Theologian; Christian Mystic,
Educator, Civil Rights Leader.
And I thought of you, as I was doing my
research about you, for this show.
"Don't ask for
what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do
it.
Because what the world needsis people who have come alive."
(34:36):
You,
sir Robert Eskridge, have
come alive.
I want to be you when I grow
up.
Thank you so
much.
You're an inspiration.
I appreciate yourkindness and your wisdom.
Gimme the elevator pitch forRobert Eskridge and Southern Days.
Robert Eskridge (34:47):
So we are one of the best bands you've never heard of.
RobertEskridgeCountry.com.
You got the Facebook TikTok, Instagram's.
I would say, for the money.
Yeah.
And we're pretty damn cheap.
We're the best valuein entertainment, man.
We cover everything from your fiftiesmusic all the way to r and b and rap.
So between four guys we all play andsing, man, it's very rare in today's
(35:08):
world you get four part harmony.
We're kind of a four piece band that doesvery egoless type stuff, is kind of cool.
Larry (35:13):
That's great.
Robert Eskridge, thank you forbeing on the Just Keep Talking
podcast.
Robert Eskridge (35:17):
Thank you so much
Larry (35:17):
so much
Your story matters.
Thanks for tuning into the Just KeepTalking podcast with me, Brother
Love.
Until next time.
Ah, so much fun and so muchjoy getting to know you, sir.
Cool.
Robert Eskridge (35:27):
sir.
Cool.
Thank you so much.
Larry (35:28):
All right.
We'll see you soon everybody.
Bye-Bye.
Brother Love (35:30):
You can personally support this show simply by clicking
the tip link in the show notes.
The Just Keep Talking podcast is nowavailable on all podcast platforms.
Please like, share, and subscribe.
Visit our website@justkeeptalking.com,
our YouTube channel@justkeeptalkingpodcast and
Instagram @thejustkeeptalkingpodcast.
(35:51):
Thank you so much for supporting theJust Keep Talking podcast with me,
Brother Love, because Your Story Matters.
Telling our stories is the connective tissue of the
collective human experience.
The Just Keep Talking podcast delvesinto the lives and stories of artists.
What is the impact ofmental health on creativity?
What does it mean to bea creative individual?
Someone who feels deeply, experiencesjoy and pain, intensely and
navigates the challenges of lifethrough the creative process.
(00:21):
With each story shared, we explorethe authentic experience of our
basic need to be seen, to be heard,
and to belong.
We're really not so different fromone another, nor are we alone.
Together we can inspire, encourage, andenlighten each other to find the true joy
and fulfillment that is within ourselves.
When we Just Keep Talking, we createthe space for gratitude, self-acceptance
(00:46):
and grace in everyday life.
In a world filled with divisiveness,
fostering inclusivity and connection isa powerful way to make a positive impact.
The Just Keep Talking podcast with me,Brother Love, because Your Story Matters.
She makes me a better man.
She makes me a better dad,she makes me a better friend,
(01:09):
makes me happy when I'm sad.
She does it all, takes no credit.
She makes me better.
Larry (01:20):
Welcome to the Just Keep Talking podcast with me, Brother
Love, because Your Story Matters.
My guest today is Robert Eskridge.
He's a country musicsinger and songwriter.
He's a storyteller.
He's in a band called Southern Days.
Known for their Southern Rockstyle, guitars and harmonies.
Seasoned musicians that havethe same passion and drive
(01:40):
for music and entertaining.
They enjoy putting onshows for their fans.
You know what's great about that?
I'm a fan of music and I love
seeing bands like yours.
Hello, Robert Eskridge,Welcome to the show.
Robert Eskridge (01:52):
Thank you for having me.
Larry (01:52):
I'm so excited to speak with you because we share so many things in common,
uh, and some of the things that I knownothing about your entrepreneurship.
You're a businessman.
Robert Eskridge (02:01):
True.
Larry (02:02):
You're a businessman that plays country music as well.
Robert Eskridge (02:05):
Yeah.
You know, it's kind of thebusinessman by necessity.
Uh, music out of passion.
Larry (02:10):
So let's take it back a little bit.
So you're from Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky.
Robert Eskridge (02:13):
Eastern Kentucky.
Larry (02:14):
And so you've been playing music for how long?
Robert Eskridge (02:16):
Ah, so I got my first guitar when I was six.
Mm-hmm.
But I started playing out when I was 16.
It's kind of a weird thing.
So playing guitar all the timewas cool, but I actually got my
start playing bluegrass music and Iplayed this big standup slap bass.
Wow.
And these guys would drag me around to allthese festivals around Eastern Kentucky.
Larry (02:35):
Well, when did you start writing songs?
You're a
songwriter.
Robert Eskridge (02:38):
do.
I love telling stories through song.
I probably wrote myfirst song when I was 12.
Larry (02:42):
What was it called?
Robert Eskridge (02:43):
What was it called?
It was called This Old House.
It was on my very first, ep.
it was kind of an old, funky one.
I did it here in Nashville.
I did it down at, uh, inFranklin, at, Country Q.
Mm-hmm.
So, uh, it, it turned out okay.
You know, you look back at some ofthose early things that you did, I could
probably re rewrite it a little bit andprobably redo the music piece of it.
'cause I really wasn't superhappy with the way it came out.
But man, it tells a great story, right?
(03:03):
Yeah.
I love songs that tell stories.
Larry (03:05):
So what's the story about?
What mindset, what
was the mind frame whenyou wrote this song?
Robert Eskridge (03:09):
When I was 12, I, lived in Delaware with my
grandparents and we were pretty
impoverished, to be quite honest.
We weren't super rich, but, uh, I hadto ride my bike to football practice
or baseball practice and I drove bythis White House all the time and
I always thought, you know what?
That house looks like ithas a lot of love there.
It looks like, you know, you had theswing sets in the yards, the little,
you know, back when our days youhad the little trikes, the little
(03:29):
big wheels that were out there.
And always thought, I bet you thatfamily's got tons of love in there.
And so the song's all about that oldhouse, how memories are made and how
they grow up and how they come backand you spend your holidays there
and it's, it's a really good story.
I love it.
Larry (03:44):
Was the song a bit of a, like a departure from your life?
Was it a place to escape to, like what
was it like growing
up as a 12-year-old with your family?
Was there, would you say you werein a loving house, a supportive
house?
house
Or
was this kind of like longingly lookingat this house being like, I want that.
Robert Eskridge (03:59):
Yeah, I think it was more of the boy that would be nice to
have that would be one of those things.
You know, I, I kind of grew upin a pretty rough situation.
My mom did the best she could.
And I, I kind of say this allthe time, but I had a dad.
My dad passed away at COVID, and,and it's, it's, it's a sad situation.
Larry (04:14):
I'm sorry.
Robert Eskridge (04:14):
But he was, uh, he was my stepdad.
I met him when I was 13.
My sperm donor, who I.
With my biological fatheris, not the best of dudes.
So I, I seen a lot of stuffpretty rough growing up and I
always thought, man, there's gottabe something better out there.
There's, there's no way.
This is all, this is everyday is somebody's life.
And so playing guitar was my escape.
I get locked up and I, andI really got into, and this
(04:36):
sounds crazy for a country guy,
I got into Billy Joel,AC/DC, and the Beach Boys.
Wow.
So I learned all cut my,my guitar licks and stuff.
I learned all that stuff from those guys.
And then, you know, I really gotinto old Hank Senior, Merl Haggard,
George Jones and those type of things.
But This Old House was thevery first song that I wrote.
Larry (04:55):
That's pretty amazing because as a young person, we don't really
speak about our feelings so much,
right?
I mean, 12 and 13.
I was thinking back to when I was akid and I was bullied very much so,
I remember being in second grade andI asked a friend of mine, I said.
How do you do it?
I'm sad.
I'm depressed and I'm thinking,wow, I had this conversation in
second grade, it's pretty amazing.
And, and I was very sad as a kid.
(05:16):
It didn't show, it seemed.
I'd look at pictures and I looked veryhappy, but my parents got divorced.
It was a broken
home.
Sure.
And it was a lot of,feelings of hurt and anger.
And I did turn to music.
Robert Eskridge (05:27):
Yeah I did the same.
Larry (05:28):
But
I didn't write, so my first song wascalled like, Love Cave, I'm serious.
Like what a,
I mean, really, I mean,I, I, you know, I'm a
Robert Eskridge (05:35):
about that 14 or 15-year-old stage.
Yeah.
Larry (05:38):
stage.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, you could seehow, what a wonderful songwriter I,
was back then, but you were writingabout something very, very serious.
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (05:44):
Well, not everybody's a victim, a circumstance.
You can be a victim or you can bea, this is gonna be a way that I'm
gonna motivate myself to get out.
Wow.
A little bit different.
Larry (05:52):
Good for you.
Wow.
Do you have siblings?
Robert Eskridge (05:54):
Yeah, I have a sister.
Yeah.
Yes, she's a couple years younger than me.
Larry (05:57):
Did you find yourself having to, take care of her a little bit?
Watch out for her.
Look
after Look after her,
Robert Eskridge (06:02):
the, the good thing, good and bad, my sister stayed with my mom.
Um, she's lives in easternKentucky, still to this day.
Uh, so she stayed with her the whole time.
And, I stayed in, Delaware with mygrandparents for a few years because when
my mom and my, father were, having alltheir challenges, there was just not a.
It was tough.
You know that's, that's the rightway to say everybody's got their
stuff that they gotta deal with.
Mm-hmm.
(06:22):
My mom was going through some harshstuff and I look back on it now and
wonder how in the world she raised mysister and I to be decent human beings
because all the crazies she had to put up
with, wow.
It's a, it was a mess, man.
It was an absolute mess.
So you, you take those life experiencesand those things that you see, and
then you translate 'em, you put 'emto a, a pen and paper and it comes out
(06:44):
differently.
My way that I portray thingsmight be totally different than
somebody that didn't have thosesame troubles and circumstances.
So I think in a lot of stuff whenI'm doing my songwriting, it, comes
back to a very personal level.
You heard the Better Man song.
Every song that I do on one of my albums,I have at least a song for my wife.
Yeah.
Because it makes me happy to do that.
That's good.
So I think that's important.
Larry (07:06):
Yeah.
It's important also because you are,you are digging deep into the well of
who you are and being okay with it.
See, it's okay.
That's been such a theme on thisshow is that it's okay to feel
these feelings that we have andit's great to write fun party songs.
I mean, your music is country and fun, andlet's go out and have a wonderful time.
(07:26):
It's Friday night,
give me a beer, let'sget on the dance floor.
Robert Eskridge (07:29):
Let's do it.
Buck wild and whiskey crazy.
Let's go.
Larry (07:32):
Let's go crazy.
But then you also have songs thatare very much like introspective.
You have songs that are personaland that are personable.
And I relate to your songs.
I didn't grow up where you grew up,but I, absolutely relate to your songs.
You have song called,Summertime is Your latest song.
Robert Eskridge (07:46):
Yeah the new single
Larry (07:48):
And
that's a beautifully fun, awesome song.
And then you have a song calledShe Took Everything But the Blame.
Yeah.
It's all good country
music.
You're telling good
stories.
These are Country Staples, goodtime party, and then woes me.
I'm a sad country boy and here'smy story, but then you have a
song called When Life Happens.
Robert Eskridge (08:06):
Oh yeah, that's a great one.
Larry (08:07):
When life happens took me to a place I was quiet and I was introspective
and I thought, man, that's a good song.
Robert Eskridge (08:15):
Yeah, that song is, interesting.
Julie and I are a blended family.
We're celebrating our 10 year
anniversary.
Congratulations.
We're leaving Saturday to goto Mexico with like 30 people
to go have a great time.
We're gonna have awonderful time, but, uh,
Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
When we were getting together,our kids were all kind of young.
Our, my daughter, our oldest daughterwas already in college, so wasn't
that big a deal, but the otherthree had no licenses, one was in
Larry (08:38):
driver's license?
or
Robert Eskridge (08:39):
like driver's License?
License?
No, No, driver's license.
No driver's license.
Go to band practice, cheerleading
practice,
dance practices.
It felt like from time to time wewere just like passing each other
and today I'm a taxi tomorrow, I'mUber, just, I'm now on my Lyft.
And there's a part of that song
I was like, man, I am meetingmyself, coming and going.
So it talked about that a little bit.
And the other piece of this,at the very last, verse, my
(09:00):
dad passed away during COVID.
He was 80 years old.
Uh, had a good life.
Um, had a good run.
So good for him.
He was a wonderful man.
But he told my mom, and my,he told, hang on a second.
He told my mom that he'd bewaiting for her at Heaven's Gates.
So on, on that song, the very lastverse is, he goes, he'll be waiting
for Heaven's Gate because life happens.
(09:22):
Every day, life happens.
What you choose to do with it isdifferent, how you react to stuff.
But yeah, that, that kind of hit me.
Yeah.
Larry (09:28):
Well, it hit me too and thanks so much for that.
You're a fantastic songwriter
and,
and, uh, I appreciate you sharingthat story and it brings forth,
what happens in life, whichis the happening of life.
Robert Eskridge (09:40):
Sure
does
Larry (09:41):
You pursued a country music career.
Did you tour?
Did you make records?
I mean, this
is,
Robert Eskridge (09:47):
know, it was kind of an odd thing for me to be honest.
Early on I wanted to do this really bad.
I was coming down to Nashville,me and some dude named Billy Ray
Cyrus, You may have heard of him.
His dad and my uncleplayed tennis together.
But, uh, we were going through thesame studio in Lexington and I would
come down here maybe once a month,we'd share a car fuss and complain.
I still got a set of his speakersfrom the club that he left
in Huntington, West Virginia.
(10:07):
We still have 'em.
But you know, I, I tried thisa lot and I was working with
a couple development labels.
We had some deals that cooked and thingsjust were starting to get growing for me.
And then we got pregnant and I decidedprobably more important to, make a
career at, uh, a company called Lexmark.
And.
Yeah.
I kind of checked out of it for a while.
Larry (10:24):
So how long ago was this?
Robert Eskridge (10:26):
I started playing down here in probably the mid nineties,
so I, I had some good runs, man.
I, I played up here in, uh, music, top ofmusic Row when Gilley's used to be there.
Yeah, I mean, I did sixweeks up at Gilley's.
I played Stockyard Bullpen Lounge,and they trucked me around all
over town and played, you know,the Earnest Tubb Record Shop.
I did an afternoon at the Grand Ole Opry.
I had a storied early careerthat was freaking awesome.
(10:47):
The, the guy I was working with had theseother dudes and, and it was so funny.
They were really nice, man, theseguys, harmony, mandolin, they
could play anything with strings.
I'd never seen anything like it, but Iwas in Nolan's office one day and they
were sitting there talking back andforth and I came back maybe, I don't
know, probably, five or six weeks later,maybe two months, I don't remember.
I said, Hey, whateverhappened to those guys?
He goes, oh, yeah.
(11:08):
He goes, they, they changed their name.
I said, what was it before?
I said, well, they were theTennessee River Boys, but they
changed their name to Diamond Rio.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, here I am humpingNashville with like all these
guys and, you know, I'm doing mycareer now in my real world, and
I'm watching these guys that I usuallyrun around here in town and go to
(11:28):
songwriters nights and some other stuff,and slowly a little bit at a time, this
guy's made it and those guys made it.
And I'm like, man, that's awesome.
So some of these guys, they put inthe time, yeah, they put in the work
and the effort and so great for them.
So I was really happyto see all this stuff.
But yeah, probably by 97,98, I pretty much said.
I really need to focus on work.
(11:49):
Work.
'cause baby formula, diapers, allthat stuff was one of those things.
And so I didn't really shelf itand say I'm never doing it again.
With my first marriage, it was oneof those things, it was more point of
animosity than it was anything else.
And so sometimes the juiceisn't worth the squeeze.
And so I decided that I probablyshould just focus on my kids.
Mm-hmm.
My career and my Lexmark world.
(12:11):
And then at some point, maybe I'llkind of come back and revisit that.
And then, you know, you look at ityears later, I'm like, well, it's
not gonna get any worse, right?
I might as well just start my band again.
So I did.
I'm like, yeah, it's time to do that.
And then, you know, I got divorcedand She Took Everything, But The Blame
was about that first person, right?
So that's the true story.
That's, uh, that's how that came about.
But, uh, yeah, that, that'skinda what shook out, man.
I, used to come here a lot.
Larry (12:32):
So how old were you when this transition happened?
Robert Eskridge (12:34):
So when I started coming here, I would say 26, 25, 26?
Right outta college.
Larry (12:41):
Really, you were moving on up in the world.
I mean, you shared thestage with Tim McGraw,
Exile, Diamond Rio, John MichaelMontgomery, Montgomery Gentry.
Robert Eskridge (12:49):
You know, I would tell you a funny story I played bass
with Troy Lee and these guys, right?
So at the end of the day, Austin CitySaloon and Lexington's very famous.
John Michael got a start there.
I played rhythm with him for a while.
My guitar player played with John as well.
But, Troy came in one day.
We were, we're getting ready to playa gig and Troy was a pretty big dude.
I dunno if you knew Troy LeeGentry, uh, from Montgomery
Gentry.
Super nice looking guy.
He is a big tall dude.
Larry (13:10):
Gorgeous guy.
Are you kidding me?
Talk about an Adonis!
Robert Eskridge (13:12):
He had the best
hair, right?
The best hair, and he came in withhis big old black cowboy hat on.
Larry (13:16):
Take that hat off!
Robert Eskridge (13:17):
He walked in great hair.
So he walks in, he hegoes, what do you think?
I said, T-Roy.
I hate to tell you.
I said, but you gotta take that hat off.
He goes, you don't like it?
I said, you look like aredneck Fire Marshal Bill.
I don't know if you know who
Fire Marshall Bill is.
Larry (13:28):
I know exactly who
Robert Eskridge (13:29):
Loving color.
He goes.
He took the hat off, he threwit and he says, F you, Robert.
He said, and from that point, I don'tthink I ever saw the man in a cowboy hat.
Larry (13:37):
I was very fortunate to open up for Montgomery
Gentry a few times in the
band in my country days.
I moved here.
I was in a country rock bandthat I, we mentioned, earlier.
It was called Her and Kings County,
and they were just the nicestguys and God rest, Troy Gentry.
His soul.
yeah.
So you were in your mid twenties,you decide to really do something
that a lot of musicians don't do.
I didn't do it.
(13:57):
I don't have kids, I wasn'tmaking the living that I wanted to
make.
And
here I was getting marriedand I, married a musician.
I married somebody just like me.
And that's, I guess, a positive thing?
There's positive and negative with
everything, but my girlfriendsin the past were not
in the music business.
And my family, right?
I mean, I have a fatherwho's a boomer generation,
(14:18):
I don't understand your business.
You could always go back to school.
You know?
I'm like, he
doesn't really sound like that, butin my mind it's hilarious, right?
And it's like, but whenare you gonna get serious?
Right?
You said
something like the real world.
You said the real job.
Robert Eskridge (14:30):
It's true.
Larry (14:31):
And I hear that a lot where people say, I gotta
go out into
the real world and get a real job.
Where I'm like, well, I'm an artist.
What I do is real.
Yeah.
What I
do is important.
And I've always struggled with that.
Like, do I really think that one dayI'm gonna go into some other like realm,
like it's just other world and it is.
It absolutely is.
But would I ever leave this behind?
You are living proof that you can do both.
(14:52):
You can be successful andstill maintain your dreams.
What was your feeling likewhen you made that choice?
Because I think if I had to make thatchoice, I wouldn't do it with such grace.
I think I might be upset for a long timeand maybe I would take it out on my wife
and maybe
I wouldn't be a good dad and maybe Ijust wouldn't be a happy person because I
don't think that I could do what you did.
Robert Eskridge (15:12):
I think in general, musicians, songwriters, we're all kind of
interwoven in some level of DNA somewhere.
Yeah.
Uh, there's a lot of commoncharacteristics, right?
I think that there's a, uh.
piece of you that you'll nevernot be a musician or you'll
never not be a songwriter, right?
Right.
I wanna be the Buddy Guy that's87 out here throwing out shows.
Right?
Yeah.
That's the way you wanna be.
(15:33):
But on the flip side of that,I also had to look at it at a
serious level to go, you know what?
I can still maybe do this on the sidesometimes, but insurance was a big deal.
I needed to have really steadyjob and that sort of stuff.
But I, kind of focused the differentdirection because art is what I
would call somewhat arbitrary.
It might be music, itmight be physical drawings.
(15:54):
I put it into engineering work and stuffthat I did at a company called Lexmark.
I had a really good group ofpeople that I had opportunities
that ushered me along the way.
Everybody gets the person thatsponsors them or mentors them or
sees something in you that you don'tsee and gives you an opportunity.
Then you're like, wait a minute.
I didn't know I could do that.
Well, if I can do that, maybe I can dothis other thing and maybe I can do this.
(16:14):
And Lexmark gave to mean opportunity to learn.
Not just about in operationsand engineering, but business
and supply chain management.
And I did that job for 20 some years.
I had some really, really greatmanagers and had opportunities that
I never in a million years dreamtwould happen for me as a young guy.
Larry (16:32):
And you took your
creativeness,
Robert Eskridge (16:33):
It did.
I put that into, and I'm one of theonly guys that I know that has a red
dot award from Germany for a printerdesign, and I only got a CES award.
From, uh, uh, innovationtechnology group, right?
So from that perspective, I'm like,okay, so I'm not doing music, but
I take that same type of passion,energy and put it into something else.
We made some cool stuff.
Yeah.
And I, I had a, very storiedcareer, and, and then I got out
(16:54):
of the printer business and I gotinto the bedding industry, right?
And so I'm working at Tempur-Pedic.
I'm doing all this crazy stuff.
And so we've got tons of thisintellectual property, and we're
talking about this earlier and,
I've got some IP that is pretty cool.
I'm a musician.
How do I take this passion formusic and put it into something
that I can apply into the worldthat I'm day-today grind on?
Right.
And so we've got thisproduct called Fiber Sonic.
We're, doing something down herein Nashville this week with, some
(17:16):
big record labels and folks hereat Skydeck and the activation with
the folks that we're working with.
It's very, very cool.
So taking that type of passionand figuring out how do you
take that same drive and energyand put it into something else.
Yeah.
It wasn't in the guitar at the
time.
Right.
But at the same token, it was takingthat level of energy and, thoughtfulness
and how do I mindfully go make thiswork and figure out a way that can
bring some level of quality of sleep.
(17:38):
How do I help somebody sleep better, give'em a better quality of life and help
them to be better and all the other stuff?
And I did that.
And that's cool.
Yeah, that was really cool for me.
Larry (17:47):
You've got a good smile on your
face.
Robert Eskridge (17:48):
Yeah.
I, I,
love what I do, man.
I, I tell you, I, got, thebest of all worlds for me.
Larry (17:52):
So explain the bed real quick.
Beyond Sleep Mattress System.
Yeah.
It's not
just a bed.
It's a system.
Robert Eskridge (17:58):
It is, it's a complete system.
So the company name is Beyond Sleep.
So, my wife and I have great friendsin Taiwan, Jack and Melody Shī, so we
kind of as a passion project for us,
we're an OEM provider for a ton of people.
You think of them, we probably providesomething to them in the Bedding Industry.
Given the intellectual propertythat we have on the speakers in
there, we said we should try tofigure out a path to get there.
So it's a nice, thick, 12inch memory foam mattress.
(18:20):
Very much like a Tempur-Pedicor a Nectar type of product.
Sleeps great.
It will fix a lot ofyour headaches, right?
No back aches.
You're gonna feel really goodwhen you get up in the morning.
Our publicist has one.
She absolutely loves it.
Larry (18:31):
But wait, there's more!
Robert Eskridge (18:31):
That's not
the main thing, right?
So I like to sleep with like a, sounds.
I have a rain, rain app in my phoneand you can connect this thing through
Bluetooth, RCA in / out Auxiliary in,SD card, any which way that you need to
connect into this particular control box.
It gives you a path of helpingyou to connect your world.
So I was thinking, how do we makethis more of a immersive thing?
And I'm thinking music, sleepsounds, and all the other pieces.
(18:54):
And my son who is a gamer is like.
Could this plug through my Xbox?
I said, I think so.
So I got all these crazy wires allwired out, soldered in, and we'd
make a jack and put it into his Xbox.
And next thing you know, Ifeel the bed kind of vibrating
when the tank comes, I'm thinking,all right, I'm onto something here.
This is a big deal, right?
So we then started looking at allthe patents that different people had
(19:14):
on substrates and blah, blah, blah.
So we found this way ofkind of making it work.
And we have a patent on how doyou integrate speakers inside of a
mattress system and now you've gotyour own immersive IMAX theater.
You've got your own concert.
If you wanna listen to music,you wanna do sleep sounds,
audio, waves, crashing, rain.
Whatever you can connect, youhave an immersive experience.
(19:34):
And we're, in the world of directto consumer and we, we've got
some pretty heavy influencers.
They're kind of pushing us intothe, the gaming world right now.
So we're gonna be entering Dream Hackhere, and we're doing some stuff here with
the CMA Fest world this week in Nashville.
So, it's a cool thing, man.
It really is.
Larry (19:49):
If you had a little refrigerator and a, hot stove, a
little small stove involved withthis, I would never leave the room!
Robert Eskridge (19:55):
You just need a small toilet.
Larry (19:57):
Exactly.
See, now we're getting it going.
Robert Eskridge (20:00):
I could probably design something.
You know it's like,Austin Powers evacuate.
Yes, evacuate.
Complete.
Larry (20:05):
And then we would never have to leave.
And by the way, you wouldtake care of a lot of
costs for healthcare for the elderly.
Yeah.
Right.
I could put my grandma right in the
bed.
Robert Eskridge (20:13):
You could.
Larry (20:13):
Not in the home,
Robert Eskridge (20:14):
It's true.
Larry (20:14):
In the bed.
Robert Eskridge (20:15):
Very true.
Yeah.
It's cool.
And so again, that whole sleepsystem is not just a mattress.
We do, most of our businessare adjustable beds.
Press a button, the headcomes up, foot comes up.
Under bed lights, USB and all that stuff.
So that's our core competencywhen it comes to the design
world and manufacturing.
But the Beyond Sleep, we think thatthere's something Beyond Sleep, whether it
be algorithms with, you know, biometricsor audio, or maybe it's a sensory thing.
(20:37):
Maybe it's a, some type of lavenderthat's puffing out of this little,
uh, dispensary that's out there.
I mean, there's all kindsof ways of doing stuff.
It's very interesting because we'rejust at the very tip of understanding
what sleep really does for you.
Yeah.
So the science behind that is startingto become more and more active.
And so having the ability tonow bring products alive to
help people to sleep better.
Right.
Oh man, that's, that's really exciting.
Larry (20:56):
I know
what not having sleep does for us.
We all know
that.
Robert Eskridge (21:00):
It's not good.
Larry (21:00):
It's not good It's not good at all.
And if you could have a bettersleep experience, why not?
I, do
the same thing.
I have a sound machine
and
so wonderful to have these immersive
sounds, but it's not
immersive if it's over there on my
phone.
Robert Eskridge (21:11):
No.
Larry (21:12):
So you have mattress with these speakers
in.
Robert Eskridge (21:14):
If you put in white noise, brown noise, pink
noise, Pink Floyd for all I
care.
Yeah.
You have two external speakersthat are really nicely tuned,
they're little bitty guys.
They're seven watts each man,these things are loud and powerful.
But depending upon the bed, youhave really, in a Queen, you
have six subwoofers that are inthe base layer of this thing.
So every time that you hear a lowfrequency below 120 hertz, yeah, the
whole bed just kind of rolls with it.
(21:36):
It's cool.
Larry (21:36):
Sex must be amazing!
Robert Eskridge (21:37):
Dude.
I'm telling
you.
Larry (21:38):
Sex must
be so much
fun.
in your bed.
Robert Eskridge (21:40):
I need to do, a study on that with my wife.
Larry (21:42):
Yes.
Well, it's
your 10 year anniversary.
Robert Eskridge (21:45):
I think we could probably make that happen.
Larry (21:47):
This is fantastic.
Wow.
Robert Eskridge (21:48):
The sky's the
Larry (21:49):
Limit, honey.
We're going all over the
place.
This is great.
Fantastic man.
I put on some Barry White andyour golden and delicious.
Robert Eskridge (21:56):
Right.
Now you're talking to myUncle Nathan's language.
He loves
Barry White.
Larry (21:59):
Who doesn't like Barry White in the bed?
That's great Except
maybe it's a little too
immersive.
It's so immersive.
It's
like Hey, can we not have thiswith Barry White under us?
Yeah.
So you are living your best life.
I mean, you're in Nashville, you havethis company did you say Lexmark?
Robert Eskridge (22:13):
Yeah.
I worked at Lexmark for 22 years.
Larry (22:16):
That's everything Lexmark, I'm
thinking now.
It's been on everything,every printer I've ever
had.
All kinds of stuff.
I also noticed that youhave tour dates on your
website.
So what I'm trying to
tie in here is, is that hereyou are, how old are you?
Robert Eskridge (22:27):
I am 28 this year.
Soon to be 28 and a half.
Larry (22:30):
Come on.
How old are you?
Robert Eskridge (22:31):
I'll be 57.
Larry (22:32):
57.
See, I'm 53.
I'll be 54.
Okay.
You look great,
by the way.
Robert Eskridge (22:35):
Thank you.
Larry (22:36):
Got a great head of hair
on
you.
I know.
It's crazy.
Okay, we take everything we got,
we got, right?
That's right?
Robert Eskridge (22:40):
I'll take that.
Larry (22:41):
So you have tour dates, you have music that you just released.
Summertime,
your song is just released.
So this is the kind of life thatI think I'm trying to aspire to
because I work.
And I, have odd jobs here and there,and I make some more money and life
is easier and cool things, also,
like I have
songs that are on television shows andI do some gigging and I do this podcast.
(23:03):
But what I really enjoy is when likeeverything's working at the same
time.
Robert Eskridge (23:07):
It all clicks,
it makes it a lot easier.
Larry (23:09):
You know,
it's like, there is somethingto be said about maybe
my
musical career could have been furtheralong if I really focused more.
Or if I
really just didn't do anything else.
I'm always one of those people whoare like, 'cause my father put this in
me, keep your hand in all the fires.
Right?
And just Be good at this, be good at that.
I'm understanding that, Jackof all trades, master of none.
(23:31):
Is just that I'm a jackof a lot of trades.
Not really a master of any of them,but what I'm hearing is that you
figured out how to master a few trades.
You've mastered your business, and you'rea jack of all different trades, but you've
mastered yourself, is what I'm getting at.
You've mastered the abilityto say, you know what?
This is what life is throwing at me.
Life happens.
(23:51):
And so what am I gonna do?
Am I gonna be angry at, myworld for having kids and
family and not playing music?
Or am I gonna go with it and then workand then insert my creativity into my
work, which is
what you did.
And at the same time, you'rewriting country music, you're
writing country
songs, you're in Nashville, youtour, you have a great band.
Robert Eskridge (24:11):
The guys are great.
Larry (24:11):
Yeah, so kudos to
you.
Because part of this show, this journeyof mine is talking to men especially
that
are our age, because look,I can admit that life didn't
happen the way I wanted it to.
You know, a few years
ago I was
really in the dumps
and I
was like, why?
Because I just wantedbe a rock and roll star.
But you know what, I live apretty fantastic life, because
I do a little of this, a
(24:31):
little of that, And Ido these things well.
Robert Eskridge (24:33):
And you get to have some cool experiences and, you know,
the, the reality too, and we teachour kids this, Money is a good thing.
Larry (24:39):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (24:40):
But it's not everything.
Larry (24:41):
Go on.
Robert Eskridge (24:41):
My wife and I, when we met.
between us we may have had a dime, anickel, a piece, but you look at the
stuff and stuff really doesn't matter.
Right.
What matters to me the mostis time with my family.
Larry (24:51):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (24:52):
My friends making memories.
' Cause I've always said this,you can always make more money.
You can't make more memories.
When that shit's gone, it's gone.
Yeah.
So we focus on the, smaller stuff.
And yeah, money stuff makes it easier,but at the end of the day, being driven by
passion, looking at your happiness mm-hmm.
and being present is reallypretty important, man.
Yeah.
It really is important.
Larry (25:13):
Wow, that's wonderful.
So where do you see yourself fitting in inthe new world of music and country music?
Nashville has changed
Robert Eskridge (25:20):
It's changed a lot, man.
Larry (25:21):
It's all changed.
It's all
TikTok world and
it's, it's literally,
it happened so quickly.
I was talking to a songwriter, afriend of mine, just the other day,
and they were working with a real youngartist who basically was saying, we
can do a, verse, a chorus, a verse,chorus, and the song is over and it's
less than two minutes and there's nobridge it's just, it's two minutes.
It's a short song, and I'm thinking, wow.
(25:41):
In the punk music days,
that's all we, that's right.
That's
what you went for.
That's not to snub any of it,that's not to say it's bad
or good or better or worse.
It's just
different.
It's how
do you see yourself fitting in?
Because you're still doing
it.
Yeah.
And
you're doing it well, and it's quality
work.
And I appreciate that from you.
Robert Eskridge (25:59):
I think it does change a lot.
So for me, trying to, uh, continueto go down the path that we're on.
I recognize that I am not aTIK TOKER and I get that right.
Yeah.
But I'm gonna have to figureout how to go do those things.
We do a pretty decentjob on social medias.
We don't really invest a lotof time and energy in that.
And I recognize that for me to go fromwhere we are today to where I think
(26:20):
we need to be, I need to probablyput some more energy into that.
So they're not coming after, middleaged dudes or older to try to go
get a deal to go start touring
and, yeah, and that's notreally what we're about anyways.
Our music is more gearedtowards making myself happy.
Yeah.
'Cause I'm a firm believer and my wife andI talk about all the time with our kids.
Circle of happiness is something thatyou gotta really focus on and you,
(26:42):
can't find happiness in other people.
You gotta find happiness in, what yourlife is about and what you've accomplished
and, and what your dreams have been.
And knowing where you are todayto where you want to get to it.
It is not from a A to F, you gottado the B, C, D, and E the work.
You don't put in the work,you're not gonna get the return.
Yeah.
So I, I do think that there'sa level of happiness that, but
with the music piece mm-hmm.
You know, with our publicist, I'm alwayssaying, you know what, you know, I just
(27:03):
wanna play a little bit bigger places.
Yeah.
I would like to play, couple.
Festivals and some bigger arenas andnot have to call every freaking bar
around to get a gig from time to time,which that's changed, which is we're
starting to actually get people tocall us now, which is a lot better.
Yeah.
You know, instead of having to humpthe radio and every freaking telephone
number you get people saying, Hey,are you available on these dates?
Here's what we do this.
(27:23):
I'm like, well, there's the contract.
This is the rate would youlike to book us on these days?
This is what's available.
So it has changed a lot and I think someof the small medium radio stuff has been
big for us, so from that perspective,it's changed dynamically for those pieces.
But social media did makea huge, huge change, right?
Think about Shaboozey.
He came outta nowhere and his Summer Songa couple years ago put him on the map
(27:45):
and now he's playing these big things.
And, and you watch these guys likeCooper Allen and these younger guys,
they know how to go do the whole thing.
I love Cooper Allen.
He's got this one thing on TikTok wherehe's like his wife or his girlfriend's
like, I need three minutes of this type ofa beat with every song you can think of.
And he does like from rock torap, to country to pop r and b.
And he's got all these snippets ofsongs and it's, it's freaking awesome.
(28:05):
But now he's out there 'cause that'show people find the people these days.
Yeah.
And so you gotta put the time intothat and, and we've not done that,
but at the end of the day, weenjoy playing music just to play.
And it was funny, we, played the othernight and some lady came up, we played
down at Proud Mary's on the river in,
Lexington, Kentucky.
And we don't play for tips, to be honest.
We would play for free most of the time.
We, we don't really careabout the money, right?
We care about getting in front ofpeople and just having fun and,
(28:27):
and I think that's important.
And this lady comes up, she'slike, don't you have a tip jar?
Like.
Uh, not really.
She goes, do you want tips?
I was like, oh, if you wanna throw themoney down, we're not gonna say no.
I said, but we don't play for tips.
We play 'cause we like to play.
Right.
And next thing you know, we got liketwo or $300 and $20 bills on the stage.
'cause she started throwing twenties.
I'm like, man, that's all right.
But yeah, it's, it's kind of cool.
(28:48):
I think from a music perspective.
I write probably every day.
Even when I wasn't playing, I still,I got books and books full of stuff.
And it might be a chorus ofthis or a stanza maybe I've
got a little riff in head.
I'm like, all right, let me put this downon my iPhone and kind of figure out how am
I'm gonna make something work with that.
But I've got hundreds andhundreds of pieces and parts of
songs, and you know how it is.
Oh You, you, just can't let it go.
(29:09):
And then I come back to it and I justfinished a song the other day and I
love that part of music that just letsme take my experiences or something
I've seen or something of that othernature and really make something with
it and maybe connect with somebody,even if it's just that one person.
Yeah.
I think it's awesome.
We have a song that'll becoming out in the fall, it's
called a, If Heaven Had a Phone.
I wrote that song really about mydad because I talk to him every day,
(29:32):
every day of my life you know, he'sprobably old school like your dad.
I mean, you call like,Hey dad, what's up Pops?
He's like, I'm doing good.
What you doing?
I was like, ah.
I just call second.
I say, good.
Talk to your mom.
Right?
To my, I'm talking to my mom everyday, but you know, you don't realize
how much you missed that until.
Yeah,
Larry (29:47):
Yeah.
Robert Eskridge (29:47):
You can't actually hear the voice.
Yeah.
So I wrote this song called If HavingHad A Phone, and it's turned out great.
We just got the tracks done.
It's laid down the vocals on it.
It's good.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
and that's what I love to do.
Yeah.
That, and I love, on the other side of myworld, I love bringing technology to life.
I love working with customers.
I love taking the ideas and taking'em from blank pieces of paper into
a concept, into a manufacturingworld, to getting 'em out there.
(30:10):
And then I see 'em out there onthe market and see people selling
the products that we're making.
That's pretty cool.
Larry (30:14):
Good for you.
You're a creator.
See, when
I give my little
elevator
pitch for my show, they say,well, what is your show about?
And I keep saying, well, I interviewcreatives and we speak about,
music and mental health and things.
And I go obviously morein depth than that.
But I keep coming back to creativesbecause I don't necessarily think that
I need to interview just musicians or
just writers of
(30:35):
song or artists, because I reallydo believe we're all creators
of
some, sort.
And you have a way of expressingyour creativity in such a
fantastic, wonderful way, and
you're bringing the wisdom of yourlife and your life experiences with
it.
Fantastic.
I have a few questions.
This is our speed round.
Are you ready for me?
What fascinates you rightnow, Robert Eskridge?
What fascinates you?
Robert Eskridge (30:56):
What fascinates me Prince Prince still fascinates me.
Yeah.
He's one of the most prolificdudes that I ever, ever followed.
I love Prince's music.
Yeah.
So he still fascinates me when I thinkfascination Prince comes to mind.
Larry (31:08):
Wow.
He did it all.
Robert Eskridge (31:10):
He did.
Larry (31:10):
He did everything and more.
Yeah.
He's the most incredible cat.
That's wonderful.
Uh, What angers you?
Robert Eskridge (31:15):
Stupidity.
Larry (31:17):
Now what do you mean by stupidity?
Robert Eskridge (31:18):
I get pretty angry when people disrespect one another.
I think that life ispretty Dagg on simple.
I think that you should respectpeople and meet them where they're at.
You don't have to agree, but youdo not have to be a jerk, right?
You can be respectful, and I don't likeit when people don't do their best.
Those are two house rules in ourplace, and our kids could repeat
those on that fast of an ask.
(31:39):
What do you do in the house?
We do our best and we respect people.
It doesn't matter.
Race, gender, religion, color, don't care.
Just be respectful, man.
Yeah.
And I tell you, that kind of stuffangers me worse than anything.
Yeah.
And then we got a bad taste of it in theUnited States, in the world these days.
It's, terrible.
Larry (31:54):
Yeah.
Not being mindful of, one another.
Robert Eskridge (31:56):
Of people, just be a decent human being.
Larry (31:58):
Yeah.
It's not hard.
Robert Eskridge (31:59):
It's not hard.
Just be nice.
Yeah.
It costs you nothing to be
nice.
Larry (32:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
See it
so you, Yeah.
So it's not stupidity that
angers you.
Yeah, that's Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah
Robert Eskridge (32:06):
But they're stupid because they don't do it.
Let me put it that way.
Yeah.
Larry (32:09):
What brings you joy?
Robert Eskridge (32:11):
My family.
I love my family.
Love my wife, love my kids.
Music, creativity, my friends, I, again,stuff doesn't make me super happy.
My, family and friends make me happy.
Larry (32:20):
If you had a magic wand and you could fix something, anything at all.
I got this.
I'm Robert Eskridge I got my magic wand.
You could fix it.
Make it the way you think it should be.
Make it better.
What would it be?
Robert Eskridge (32:31):
Decent in humanity.
Just make, like I said before,I think if you had a magic wand
and all you could do is say.
Everybody doesn't have to agree.
Yeah, just agree to disagreeand be respectful of each other.
I think that would go a long way intoday's world, regardless whether you're
an American, Chinese, Russian, French.
Just be respectful, you know, theworld that I, my not music world
(32:53):
and I get to travel all over the
world, right?
And I see tons of different cultures.
There's probably not verymany places I haven't been.
And the one thing that I see everywhereare people are pretty daggone.
Nice.
I.
And, and that's different than what youget on the media and listening to people
on the different us versus them type
worlds.
Yeah.
And I think that's somethingthat we don't see as people is
we don't really see it that way.
(33:14):
We just see a nugget or atalking point or a buzzword.
Mm-hmm.
And, at the end of the day, Ireally believe most people in
the world are nice and they'realways gonna be those outliers.
There's
always people that are just on onefar side or the other far side.
But if you put this in termsof like football world.
Yeah.
Said, okay, here's your left, end goal.
Here's the other, goal every bylineup where you think you're at.
(33:35):
99% of us are gonna bebetween the forties.
Yeah.
We're not that far apart.
Right.
Yet we have a tendency tojust lean on one thing.
And if I could wave the magic wand.
I'd just remove the blinders.
Just be a decent humanbeing and talk to people.
Communicate.
Yeah.
You don't have to be a jerk.
Larry (33:50):
Yeah.
It's so funny you put it that way.
'cause if you really do breakit down like that, right?
Give people the chance, they'llsomehow find their way to the
middle.
And yet all people wanna do is fight.
Robert Eskridge (33:59):
Talk about
the far sides,
the far side.
Forget the far sides.
We're not those are thepeople that are driving the
craziness.
Larry (34:04):
And by the way, there's a little far side.
There's a
little near side.
It all works, man.
It all
Robert Eskridge (34:09):
It all works, but at the end of the day, we're not that far apart.
So yeah, I would try to fix that.
Larry (34:13):
That's fantastic.
There's a quote here that I justlove by a man named Howard Thurman.
He's an American Author, Philosopher,Theologian; Christian Mystic,
Educator, Civil Rights Leader.
And I thought of you, as I was doing my
research about you, for this show.
"Don't ask for
what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do
it.
Because what the world needsis people who have come alive."
(34:36):
You,
sir Robert Eskridge, have
come alive.
I want to be you when I grow
up.
Thank you so
much.
You're an inspiration.
I appreciate yourkindness and your wisdom.
Gimme the elevator pitch forRobert Eskridge and Southern Days.
Robert Eskridge (34:47):
So we are one of the best bands you've never heard of.
RobertEskridgeCountry.com.
You got the Facebook TikTok, Instagram's.
I would say, for the money.
Yeah.
And we're pretty damn cheap.
We're the best valuein entertainment, man.
We cover everything from your fiftiesmusic all the way to r and b and rap.
So between four guys we all play andsing, man, it's very rare in today's
(35:08):
world you get four part harmony.
We're kind of a four piece band that doesvery egoless type stuff, is kind of cool.
Larry (35:13):
That's great.
Robert Eskridge, thank you forbeing on the Just Keep Talking
podcast.
Robert Eskridge (35:17):
Thank you so much
Larry (35:17):
so much
Your story matters.
Thanks for tuning into the Just KeepTalking podcast with me, Brother
Love.
Until next time.
Ah, so much fun and so muchjoy getting to know you, sir.
Cool.
Robert Eskridge (35:27):
sir.
Cool.
Thank you so much.
Larry (35:28):
All right.
We'll see you soon everybody.
Bye-Bye.
Brother Love (35:30):
You can personally support this show simply by clicking
the tip link in the show notes.
The Just Keep Talking podcast is nowavailable on all podcast platforms.
Please like, share, and subscribe.
Visit our website@justkeeptalking.com,
our YouTube channel@justkeeptalkingpodcast and
Instagram @thejustkeeptalkingpodcast.
(35:51):
Thank you so much for supporting theJust Keep Talking podcast with me,
Brother Love, because Your Story Matters.
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