From Church to Music City: Garth Justice's Nashville Sojourn :: Ep 243 The Rich Redmond Show

Join Rich and Jim as they as they dive deep into the world of Garth Justice’s musical roots, Nashville scene insights, and career highlights. Key moments include:

[0:11:16] - How Garth first picked up drumsticks at age two in his grandparents' house

[0:12:29] - His first church performance at 7-8 years old when the drummer didn't show up

[0:16:58] - Early musical experiences playing in college groups and seeking performance opportunities

[0:18:33] - Influences from legendary drummers like Carl Palmer and Carlos Vega

[0:19:24] - Learning from local Nashville drum heroes like Mark Hammond and John Hammond

Highlights include Garth's journey from Cleveland, Tennessee to becoming a sought-after drummer for artists like Reba McEntire, his Pro Tools engineering skills, and insights into the Nashville music scene. A must-listen for drummers and music enthusiasts!

The Rich Redmond Show is about all things music, motivation and success. Candid conversations with musicians, actors, comedians, authors and thought leaders about their lives and the stories that shaped them. Rich Redmond is the longtime drummer with Jason Aldean and many other veteran musicians and artists. Rich is also an actor, speaker, author, producer and educator. Rich has been heard on thousands of songs, over 30 of which have been #1 hits!

We have MERCH! www.therichredmondshow.com

Follow Rich:

@richredmond

www.richredmond.com

Jim McCarthy is the quintessential Blue Collar Voice Guy. Honing his craft since 1996 with radio stations in Illinois, South Carolina, Connecticut, New York, Las Vegas and Nashville, Jim has voiced well over 10,000 pieces since and garnered an ear for audio production which he now uses for various podcasts, commercials and promos. Jim is also an accomplished video producer, content creator, writer and overall entrepreneur.

Follow Jim:  

@jimmccarthy

www.jmvos.com

 

The Rich Redmond Show is produced by It's Your Show dot Co

www.itsyourshow.co

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Have you tried the morgenstein tool, the Morgan
tool, the Morgan tool. Hey, whatis it? God bless him, it's, it's
kind of like a, it's a, it's,you know
how you kind of put your drumsticks together to tighten lug
nuts and stuff. It's basicallythat okay?
And it's selling for a premium.I saw it at the drum show, and
it's flying off the show. Italked to the guys over at 2112

(00:20):
percussion in Raleigh, NorthCarolina, and I looked at the
price tag, and I was like, Areyou kidding me for this? And,
and they're like, Dude, we can'tkeep them in stock. I'm so happy
for Rod, yeah, how cool. Youknow what I mean to because to
get a to get a piece ofancillary, you know, auxiliary
gear in the music business, toget sticky, right? Like a big
fat snare drum, or a drum taco,or a Mr. Muff, lug locks. Yeah,

(00:45):
any of that stuff
is difficult, very, very, I havea Mr. Muff, yeah, it's cool. I
just like
saying it anyways. So the
thing is that, or you buy justa, you know, a channel lock, but
it's not a Morgan tool, see,channel lock can do the same
thing, yeah, but, but
we like rod, and we want him tobe successful. We do want

(01:06):
him to be successful. He's he'sretired from Berkeley, right,
tired from
Berkeley, still playing. She'sonly 17, right.
Rod, what's up? Buddy show,buddy left I would be too, yeah,
left handed. He's playing thewrong
way. This is the rich Redmanshow.

(01:26):
Apparently, we've started thisthing, Jim, you know, because
we're not supposed to reveal anew media when we are actually
starting the podcast. That's thenew thing, yeah. But we do have
our mugs, we do which are notdishwasher safe. Actually, they
are dishwasher safe, but theyhave some raised a raised logo,
and it will disappear if you putit in the dishwasher too much.
I'm talking about the iconicrich Redmond

(01:47):
show coffee mug. These thingsare flying off the shelves.
What's the code? Oh, gosh, fall2025. Is it? Fall 2020 Yes, it's
this rich Redmond show.com. Usethe code. Fall
2025 it's been a minute or 25%off? Yeah, the store, yeah, it
has
been a minute because we havebeen so busy. I don't know what

(02:07):
it is about the fall, but theschedule has been for Christmas.
What Christmas 2025 oh, yeah,we're gonna or Xmas. That's,
that's so wrong. No, yeah. Butwe, you know what, we got to re
release the Master series tokind of like, buy us some time.
So we released episodes onLonnie Wilson, Eddie bears and
Paul lime. And these are theOGs. And I went back and

(02:27):
listened to him, re listen tohim, and I learned a great
takeaway with Paul lime, getthere, always 30 minutes early.
Like, you know, his drums areset up, ready to go. But he
always is there without fail. 30minutes early, coffee in hand,
you know, shooting the shit witheverybody just ready to go.
You know, that's pushing it, 30minutes early. I think an hour

(02:51):
early. Well, he's kind of aslacker, I think.
I mean, what has he done,really?
Yeah, yeah. He's just, he's juststarting his career. But today's
guest knows Paul knows Lonnieknows Eddie. We all know each
other. We're as thick asthieves. Hailing from Cleveland,
Tennessee, calling Nashvillehome for 27 years. My guest

(03:13):
today, Garth justice hasperformed, recorded with Casting
Crowns. TG, Shepherd, JackieVelazquez, Petra Engelbert,
humperdig, Michael English,Ricky Skaggs, Jody Messina, the
list goes on and on, and mostnotably, last several years,
since 2021 the queen of countrymusic, Reba McIntyre, that's our
new friend. Garth justice,what's up? Man, rich, how you

(03:34):
doing? Thanks for being here.Man, thanks for having me. You
got Spring Hill, Tennessee, Idrove past the sign today, since
1809
Wow, that's surprising.
That little horse and buggies,you
know, doesn't look a day over.Well, 1811

(03:55):
even back then, they didn't haveany infrastructure. We're
overcrowded.
Oh, yeah. I mean these littletwo lane streets, yeah, right,
wow.
Dirt roads, most likely backthen
at least, at least traffic stillbad. So, yeah, that's anywhere.
It's a Tennessee these days.
Yeah, there isn't, there is acoalition out here. We've got,
you know, Dave Santos, the greatbass player. Yeah, we've got

(04:17):
Evan Hutchings is like a stone'sthrow from me, John spittle.
John spittle is here. ScottWilliamson's down here. Scott
Williamson, yeah, our
friend, the bass player. We hadon, not Louise, but
we had him on, Matt. Matt, Matt.Matt.

(04:44):
Have to. He came on withsunglasses. He was a great guy.
He lives right down the roadfrom me. Dang it nice.
And you know what we get? We gotto take our ginkgo Balboa. I've
been taking it,
taking my ginkgo Balboa. What
is that guy's name? Mean, butwith, like, what is his resume?
Ellsworth. Ellsworth,

(05:04):
gosh, my God, Jim, this isreally tanking. And he was so
cool. Yeah, no. Definitely lovedhim. So Garth, you know, we have
been in this, this, like, circleand scene of your drums over
there, drum
paradise, right? They were,yeah, I'm with sound check now,
yeah, you
moved over there, closed Sony.I've been with every Cartridge
Company and dang tank, you know,and a lot of them are closed

(05:26):
now, right? But I would see yourname over there, drum Paradise,
and I would be like, Oh my God,we've got to get together. I
mean, do something. And, youknow, here it is, I've been
you've been here 27 years. I'vebeen here 28 years, and you were
telling me you have a beautifulhome studio. We kind of lived
over in the same hood together,right, right, yeah, yeah. So,
what's, what's a typical day foryou? Are you cranking out five

(05:48):
songs a day, every day? What's,what's the thing? Boy,
it really varies quite a bit.You know, there are, you know,
the demo sessions where it's,you know, 2530 songs for the
day. I think 31 is my top Yes,for a single day. Wow. 21 for
me. A Keith follows, which iscrazy. This is a, you know,

(06:09):
buddy Hyatt. Oh yeah. Oh gosh.Love that guy. And he just
cranks him out and knows how todo it. I hope he's doing okay,
buddy, yeah, yeah. He's doinggreat. Okay. He's doing great.
He's still killing it. But, youknow, get, get a bunch of
players in the room, one pass,maybe a couple fixes, maybe a
guitar solo, and move on to thenext
song. Now, are you doing full,full tracking in your place?

(06:29):
Yeah, yeah.
And then, and then other days,you know, there are those days
it's, you know, 31 songs, butthere, there are days that are,
you know, a couple songs andspend a lot of time and get
everything right.
Now, if you're doing a fulltracking band at your place,
like I know, Tony Moore doesthat a little bit, maybe Scott
Williamson does it a little bit.But do you all? Do you have an
engineer there?
So no, I engineer all. Iengineer most of the stuff at my

(06:53):
place. I've got a remote rig setup by the drums. Wow. So
that means you're punchingeveryone the fixes. So you're a
master of
all the DAWs. I don't know aboutthat, but I mean, because you
have to be fast, yeah, you dowell, I a little, a little trick
I've learned is to set the setyour markers up before you ever
walk into the drums. Set themarkers up for the session. You

(07:15):
know, look through the chart.Set your verses, your choruses.
So when somebody asks for a Iwant the second chorus, you go
right to it, yeah, you get toit. So, yeah, just little tricks
like,
now, how did you learn ProTools? Was it a thing like, Oh,
my God, I better jump on thisbandwagon and get left behind.
First question, yeah, what wasthe first dog that you learned?
Oh, Pro Tools, yeah. Was it ProTools? It was, what would do?
What were you doing prior tothat? Did you cut and splice

(07:36):
tape
with? You know, my first couplesessions that I played on, I
never engineered to tape. Myfirst couple sessions I played
on were to tape. But then when Istarted engineering, producing,
mixing, that kind of thing, wewere on ADATs.
So yeah, so that was like theprecursor to digital as we know
it,
yeah. I mean, technicallydigital tape, but yeah, still

(07:58):
kind of fraught with peril. Yes,exactly. Was
there anything intimidatingabout Pro Tools when he first
got into it that
you remember just the, you know,learning the interface, you
know, learning the how long
it take you? Well,
gosh, I think I'm stilllearning. But no, what I did the
first Pro Tools rig that I hadwas bought by the band I was

(08:21):
traveling with at the time,corporate entertainment band
that brought me to town. And Igot, I got the rig set up, and I
was like, Okay, well, I don'treally have anything to do, so I
opened up a I imported a CDtrack, and I opened up every
plugin in the list. Just, let'ssee what I can do. Yeah, and I
would cut stuff up and move itaround. And, you know, just try

(08:41):
to try to create. It's goodpractice. Yeah, it was good. It
was good
training. That's what I did,because it was, it all the way
back when it's called Soundtoys,
this would have been, this wouldhave been 2000 so not it would I
think Pro Tools five was thefirst, the first version i You
ever hear of. Saw software.Audience. I did, wow. I did

(09:03):
early, early the mid 90s. Yes,those awful, yeah,
great movies. Great
Movies. 12 is coming out. Oh mygosh, in theaters. Are you a
Halloween guy? Do you? Do youlook forward
to it at all? Yeah, you know, wedon't. We don't dress up, except
for maybe an occasionalHalloween party with some

(09:23):
friends, and we generally justturn the lights off and don't
pass out really candy, becausealmost every Halloween we go out
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We are glad you're here. What?What? Who put the sticks in your
hand? Well, my uncle was adrummer. My dad's youngest

(11:13):
brother was a drummer, and hehad drums set up in my
grandparents house when I was,when I was born, yeah? And so at
about two years old, I made myway down there and just, you
know, kind of tapping around. Sothat's very young, yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, you know that Ididn't have any necessary
talent, you know, yeah, from avery young age, I really loved

(11:37):
the drums. But
then what was the thing? Well,you know, we might be around the
same age. So were you a child ofMTV or what?
Okay, yeah, yeah, I loved, Iloved watching MTV. I think, if
I remember correctly, the firstvideo I ever saw was Motley Cruz
looks at kill so, I mean, yeah,come on
and now, are you Martha Quinn orNina Blackwood?

(11:58):
Gosh, I, I don't remember thatfar back rich.
Okay, so Martha Quinn was like,she looked like a little pixie.
Had this. She had the cute,little sassy haircut. And then
there was Nina Blackwood, whowas blonde, and she talked like
she was gargling with razor.
Okay, I've done most of my workin town in the contemporary
Christian sec,
how did you find yourself inthat genre,

(12:21):
in the in the contemporary Oh,and that, well, I grew up in
church. I'm a church kid, yeah,grew up, you know, playing in
church, seven, eight years old,something like that. The drummer
didn't show up for Sunday nightservice, and so they said, Hey,
Garth, could you play drumstonight? And you know, I was off
to the races. So, like I said,from very young age, just loved

(12:43):
the drums. Loved everythingdrumming and drums. So
how old were you when thathappened started
seven or eight? When the whenthe Sunday night thing happened?
Yeah, I can't remember. My momwould be able to tell you. So
at that point, were you like,Could you play? I kept a beat,
you know,
I would not want to hear thetape of that service if it

(13:04):
exists
anywhere. Humbling, going backto those oh my god, set demo
cassettes, right? Yeah, yeah.Did you get rid of your I got
rid of all my
cassettes. Finally, yeah, yeah.You know what I by. By the time
I started collecting music, itwas all on CD, so I had a few
tapes, but not much. It's
really funny when someone youplay on their record, and they

(13:24):
sign a CD over to you, and youlook at it, and you go, I have
no way to play, right, right?
Yeah. We still, I have acorporate entertainment band,
and we still sell CDs at the atthe table, yeah. And people
still buy them. You know, mywife bought a new car last year,
2020 and not new, new to us, andit's got a six CD changer in it.

(13:45):
Really 2020 Yeah, really crazy.I thought you're gonna say it
didn't have a CD player, right?No, mine doesn't. My car
doesn't, but, yeah, I mean, doesyours nothing?
Because they're actually doingaway with am radio next? Wow.
Jim likes, Jim was in radio, andso he is planting his flag with

(14:07):
the idea that radio is going
away. It's not going away. Ithink it's gonna stick around.
Just, do you think terrestrialradio is going away, or is it?
Well, I don't think it'll nevergo away, because it's needed for
a public service, sure that, Godforbid anything happens. It is
we're supposed to have radiostations or the worlds or
anything like that. Yeah,exactly. Radio stations. I think

(14:28):
music stations are going away.Yeah. I think they're gonna
Yeah, that makes
sense, yeah. Well, did you seethat MTV and VH one pulled all
of their music programming.They're only going to 20
years ago. But I thought
they're going out of business. Ithought they stopped like MTV
just went off the
air. Really, I would havethought there had been a bigger
deal
about that. I remember, maybe itwas an AI article. Who the hell

(14:50):
knows? How
do you know what we're readingis the truth? Right? Exactly.
Spend a two hour conversation onthat, right? Yeah. I
mean, that's real. That's a realscary word. World. Living it is
it really, is it is MTVshutting. Sorry, I didn't get
much sleep last night. I can'tput my my articulation is not
happening today. We're
drummers. It's our paramount.Confirms MTV shutdown. Wow. Two

(15:12):
days ago.
Holy cannoli.
Speaking of which, it's not avery I don't know if it's a
compelling story, but do you andthe bride, like binge shows. I
mean, are you? Are you a NetflixHulu Binger
company? Yeah, we'll generallyhave a show or two that we're
watching together or with somefriends. So, yeah, we're in. Oh,

(15:35):
shoot. I can't remember the nameof the show we're watching with
friends right now, but we've gotone episode left, and it's been,
like a month, and we haven'tbeen able to get together with
our friends. And so black rabbitdie. No, it's shoot, it's a it's
an English show. It's fantastic.And I can't remember the name.
Anyway,
yeah, they got that channel Britbox, which all British
programming. Oh, nice. Yeah,nice. Very polite, yeah, very

(15:57):
polite network. But no, Irecommend black rabbit on
Netflix. That was incredible.What cool story? Jude Law and
someone else,
yeah, some very attractiveperson. We don't know who it is.
That's amazing. Jim is doing thething. He's trying to track down
what happened well, because
there's, there's like, anarticle that says, you know, MTV
is not shutting down, and it'slike the Dayton Daily News and

(16:20):
the car. The article that I gotbefore was from Hindustan Times.
That's in Kentucky, right? Yeah,I'm pretty sure think it's right
next to Cleveland. Yeah, it verywell, maybe a suburb of
Cleveland, Tennessee.
What's life like in Cleveland,Tennessee, to get back there,
you still have
some Yeah, my mom and dad stilllive there. Still active in
church. It's a, it's a, it's achurch town. Yeah, number one,

(16:44):
in a college town. Number two,the Lee University's there.
You're right there. So that'swhere you went to school. So
what? What happened between youjumping up at seven or eight
years old on the drums atchurch, to you studying music at
Lee University,
really just playing in churchand and played all through
middle school and high school,marched, played in the jazz

(17:05):
bands. Yes, any opportunity Icould get to play, you know,
travel play. Yeah, there wereseveral college groups around
Cleveland that would, that woulddo weekend tours, and I'd go out
with them sometimes or or asummer long tour, you know. So,
you know, just any opportunity Ihad to play, I was trying to
find those opportunities.

(17:25):
I like, I because I've listenedto a couple other interviews you
did, and I was always impressedwith you, you know, you're the
you read, you play styles, andyou did the big band, and you
did classical and marching. AndI think that's important. It's
really cool. You know,
I've enjoyed it. I, you know, Igot him chip Hancock in in
Chattanooga taught me to read atvery young age. You know, I was

(17:45):
probably eight or nine when Istarted taking drum lessons, and
he's still teaching inChattanooga, great guy and so
and then reading, reading inchurch. I was reading some of
the orchestra pieces, you know,that were actually coming out of
Nashville, and some of thechoral music that was coming out
of Nashville that was all legitcharts. You know, there, there
weren't, we didn't know what thenumber system was back then. So

(18:07):
all those were legit charts. AndI, I had to figure out how to,
how to read all those things,yeah, what
are all these this? What's allthis spilled coffee? Exactly,
right, exactly coffee groundsand like. So who were your guys?
Who were you guys? I Recaro,
yeah, I was big, big Carl fan, aCarlos Vega, you know,
untouchable. Both those
guys. What a shame, yeah, waytoo soon. Way too soon.

(18:30):
Way too soon, both of them,yeah.
But then, you know, I, I lovedall those la guys, you know, the
New York guys, Gad and all thoseguys, but I was enamored with
the Nashville scene from, from,you know, one of my earlier
probably my next drum teacherafter chip Hancock was guy named
Mike Childers, who's local guy.He played with Carrie Underwood

(18:54):
and public town. And, you know,I think he manages Scotty
McCarthy now, oh, he got intomanagement. Great, great
drummer. And, yeah, it doesn'this brother Mark. Mark is still
carries. MD, so Mike was yourteacher. That's great, yeah. So
he was teaching me a school, andturned me on to mark Hammond,
and said, Hey, find anything youcan this guy has played on. And

(19:15):
so, man, I just, I devouredeverything he he played on.
And Mark and John Hammond, yeah,and they're local, and they're
busy, yeah, never run into them.Yeah, I we got to get them on
the show. We got to get
them. Oh, man, yeah, you got to.I mean, if you can get it would
be listen both of them. I wouldlisten to the whole thing

(19:36):
multiple times if you got boththose guys. So they're heroes.
They're absolute heroes. Andthrough Mark, I was exposed to
John. And through John, I wasexposed to Scott Williamson,
Brewster, you know, eventuallyneed him all the all the greats
around here, Tony Mora, allthose guys. So, yeah. So I
started trying to findeverything I could find that

(19:57):
Mark played on and John. On aswell. So in Cleveland, there was
a, there's a studio, when I wasgrowing up, and they would, they
would do some, some of thechoral print stuff that was
local to Cleveland. And theywould hire Nashville musicians
to come down. And rather thanpay the drummer to bring a kit
down, they would rent my drums,which, God love them. They were,

(20:20):
they were old Ludwig rocker, youknow, birch Not, not a
great kid, but hey, you'repretty savvy. Renting your kid
out as a young man, I
say rent. I don't think theyever paid me anything,
but at least I went and set themup for free too. So, yeah, no,
but, but John came. John wouldcome down and do do sessions in
Cleveland, and my parents,knowing that this is kind of

(20:41):
what I wanted to do with mylife. Would let me skip school
and go hang the session, whichwas really cool. So I met John
that way, met several of theother Nashville musicians that
way, and met Scott Williamsonthat way. So that was a, you
know, they were both veryinfluential in telling me, Hey,
if you want to move toNashville, you should do it.

(21:01):
Yeah? You should try it. So
encouraging, yeah, I like that,because the flip side of that is
a lot of people saying, Hey,man, don't right, you know? I
mean, a common form of advicenow is, don't do it, unless you
can't picture your life withoutyour music. Sure, you know what
I mean, because it's just such ahard road.
Yeah, when you met with ScottWilliamson, because we've, we've

(21:23):
had him on before, yeah, andhe's, yeah, I just listed his
episode. Dare I say, friend ofours? Yes, absolutely. He's,
he's one of those people thatlike you're being funny, but Are
you being serious, right? Right?He has any kind of do that to
you.
Sardonic wit, though. Oh, yeah.Sardonic, good, good. Word,
right, yes.

(21:45):
Insult, right, yeah. Like he'stalking about the first time
meeting him real quick, if youhave,
okay, well, this, it's, it's,it's funny. Listening to his
episode, he was talking aboutsome of the production stuff he
had done. My mom and dad bothworked at the local church
bookstore there in Cleveland.And so I would after school, I'd

(22:07):
always go over to, you know,wait on my mom to get done with
work or whatever. So I waslooking around one day, and I
found this new artist, you know,brand new artist, four girls
called point of grace, yeah,yeah. And I was like, Oh, that's
cool. They're, you know, girlgroup for him was big then, I
don't know you remember thoseguys for him was big then. So it

(22:27):
was, like, a, okay, maybe afemale for him then. So I bought
the, bought the CD, and put itin my car and just it was a
Wednesday night because I waslate to church, because I
listened to the whole recordtwice, sitting in my car, just
blown away. And Scott hadproduced that record and played
on it, yeah, and I was like, Whois this guy? This crazy, just,
you know, really, really greatstuff. Anyway, a week later, he

(22:50):
came and did a session inCleveland, and so I met him, and
he was, he was very funny, very,very dry, you know, immediately,
immediately caught that, buthe's the guy that actually I was
a weckle Freak. Little splashes.Yeah, of course, still got

(23:11):
little splashes. Come on. Butyou know, so somebody had said
that I was really into weckle.And he said, Hey, if you're, if
you're into weckle, have youchecked out? Vinnie, yeah. And I
was like, Well, yeah, I've heardof any. He said, check out,
Vinnie. And just completelyopened my eyes, yeah, Vinnie,

(23:34):
Paul for some Well, yeah,
Vinnie, call you to
Yeah. So the night Walker recordand yeah, Joe's Garage, all the
stuff.
And that was right around thetime of 10 summoners tales. So
yeah, making five, four sexy,right? Five, or was it seven?
That was five. That was five.Seven days is in five. Seven
days is

(23:54):
in five. That's a big Have YouHeard you need to Google this if
you haven't heard it, seven daysin seven, four, ooh, or seven,
eight. Who does it? I don'tknow. It's some guy on YouTube.
Yeah, plays it in seven.
Marcus Finney does some of thatstuff, right? He'll mess with
that. Yeah, it's a it's a funexercise. I feel like my playing

(24:16):
over the years has just gottenstupider and stupider. I'm just
heading more and more towardsPhil red,
it's crazy. You play for field.My brother even asked me. He
goes, Hey, would you ever playin a rush tribute band? I said,
Hell no. He goes, really? Isaid, No, I would. Why would I
want to do that? I said, Onceupon a time, I said, Can I pull
it off?

(24:39):
There's some videos of that dudethat sings at the same time?
Oh, they got the new world men,I think is what they're Yeah,
they dress in the orangejumpsuit, jump shoots jumpsuit.
Again, that guy sings and plays.Yeah, he's a beast, yeah. Well,
and pretty big rush news in thelast weeks, yeah, talk about
that. Annika Niles,
she's nice. I've. Met her overthe years, couple times at

(25:01):
conventions. Percussive artist,
I'm excited about she's gonnacrush, yeah, absolutely.
I'm afraid that, like she'sgonna cry. She's gonna play it
better than Neil,
dude, people are gonna starthaving you in the cross
explain. Okay, he was, he was atrailblazer, yes, okay, he

(25:22):
wasn't really all that much oflike a technician, as we know,
as a weckle, or a kaleida or,you know, Carter Beaufort and
stuff like that, you know. Butcome on, there are cats out
there that could smoke him,sure, and play circle. He just
happened to be first in the mindfor the general masses, you
know. I think when you think ofdrummers, people know,

(25:42):
generally, not drummers, butgeneral mass audience, yes.
Who's gonna come to mind? NeilPierre, John Bonham, Phil
Collins, Phil Collins, ChadSmith, right?
Chad Smith, everywhere. He's gota great publicist.
God. So there you go. But Imean, I think in that, in that
sense, he's like the
every man's drummer.

(26:02):
Yes, Neil. Neil had power. Neilhad precision. He had creativity
too. He had creativity parts thefinesse of a Vinnie or a weckle
or a gad. Yeah, that's thatwasn't his testimony. You know
what? I mean, that that wasn't,that wasn't what he was going he
wasn't a flamboyant player. Ithink Annika will bring some of
that finesse to his parts. Now,see, Neil was the first drummer

(26:26):
that I ever realized was playinga part, a drum part. Yes, they
composed. He composed it, and hetried to play the same thing
perfectly every night, right,right? Where I'd never play the
same thing twice, you know,yeah? Like, Oh, okay. So he was
the first guy that I everrealized did that.
Yeah, just cool. So you don'tplay, like, if you, if you're

(26:48):
playing with a band that you'verecorded with, you don't
duplicate the fills or anything
like, really, no, I've only beenasked to do that one time.
I was filling in for JodyMessina, and she likes those
parts we were rehearsing, yeah,well, and what she said made a
whole lot of sense, and itwasn't offended at all. But she
she stopped in, like the secondor third song, and she said,

(27:09):
Hey, I gotta ask, could you playthe fills from the record? I
said, Yeah, no problem. Shesaid, I take my vocal cues, or,
you know, I get cues from thosefills, yes. So I took the lunch
break and I I charted out every,every fill Lonnie played on the
record, yes. So
yeah, cuz our fire buddy EltonCharles, was out with her, yeah.
And he's like, I gotta playthose fills the same

(27:31):
every day they open for us on onthe first leg of the little
player. Elton, gosh, he'sfantastic,
good little player. He reallyis. I mean, there's some guys
that you don't hear about everyday that are out there crushing
it.
Yeah, he's gonna be a monster. Imean, like, not. He's already a
monster. He's going to berecognized as a monster in this
town.
Yes, getting back to Annika,though, yeah, she's got a tough

(27:53):
job ahead of her. She does. Shecan do it now.
See, I'll be honest, I haven'theard the hate that I've I've
seen people talking about, I'm
really, I'm really happy. Idon't even know her, and I'll
tell her this to her face, I amso happy for you. Massively, oh
my gosh,
massively happy. Don't you
agree that? Mean, you know she'sif she changes up any of those

(28:14):
parts, oh, it's gonna be hell topay. It's gonna be
it's gonna be interesting tosee. It's
gonna be a lot of air drummingdudes in that arena? Are we
getting our tickets? Jim, are wegonna have like, a guy's night?
Are we gonna go? You got acouple of grand? Are they that
expensive?
Yeah, they're crazy. They
added they added dates, I guessanother 17 dates.

(28:35):
We were talking like a grand fora ticket. No, you're talking
sometimes like five to 10 on thefloor especially. Is that legal?
Well, someone's buying them andturning around and selling them,
right? They put out. Theyspecifically said, Look, get in
line at Ticketmaster and makesure they get them from the
source with the prices that theyhave. Because these guys are,

(28:55):
yeah, because usually, back inthe day, when I would want to,
like, go see a show, you'd go tothe ticket master booth, yeah,
at Dillards, yes.
And they print them up rightthere
for you. Yes, yeah. Does thatstill happen? No, no, no, no,
it's online. I All I remember isthat when Courtney got the
tickets for Taylor Swift, shecould buy up to six, okay, and

(29:18):
she's like, I just want to buythree and blah, blah. I think
the grand total, I think it ranus about 800 about 850 bucks for
three tickets. Wow. And then shegoes, she let me know when she
got them, and I said, did youget all six? No, I only bought
three. I'm like, oh, becausewhat
you want to turn them around?Hell, yeah,
dude, I could have charged like,three grand a ticket. Dang.

(29:39):
You know, consumerism, right?Yeah, absolutely, it's the name
of the game. No, I'm incrediblyhappy for her. And I feel like
we're used to females being inthe music industry as front
people, but I feel like she'sgonna move the needle a decade
ahead for female side people,yeah, you know what? I mean? Oh,
I hadn't even thought. Aboutthat. Think, yeah, it's great,

(30:01):
you know, I think
that's a great thing. You thinkshe's gonna be a side person? Do
you think they'll make her apart of the band?
God, who knows what the businessdeal is?
Question, yeah, that's a goodquestion. I mean, either way,
I'm sure she's making a prettybetting. Oh yeah, yeah, good for
her. Because I don't think they,I don't think they don't need
the money.
She's gonna be living in aGerman castle

(30:21):
with a moat and alligators inthe moat.
Madamonica, you just soundedlike Arnold. He's Austrian.
She's got to live in a Germancastle. Oh, my God, she got to
be sitting there with hertapestries. So,
you know, back to the Hammondbrothers, just because I don't
want to let that go, if somebodywanted to check those guys,

(30:42):
wanted to check those guys out,what are the seminal recordings?
Oh, gosh, they probably havesome, some holy grail.
Yes, absolutely. Well, for forme, one
of John's best recordings is theWest King album, The robe.
There's a song on there inparticular called, I believe

(31:03):
that he just kills, yeah, goodlord. And then probably my
favorite John Hammond track isfrom a Phillips Craig and Dean
record, and it's called Mercycame running, and it's him and
Jimmy Lee, slowest playing bassand just the most unique drum
part, brilliant Drum and Bassinteraction. Yeah, so that's for

(31:26):
John. Gosh, yeah, those are acouple of great ones. Also the
dogs of peace records. Have you?Have you heard those? No, I got
I gotta do like a deep dive dogsa piece. It's him and Jimmy Lee
and Blair and Gordon Kennedy.Wow, yeah, that's, it's a, it's
a series. They've got tworecords, one from probably 1520,
years ago, and one from aboutfive

(31:46):
years ago. Jimmy Lee is such anaw shucks type guy, right? I
gave you know, when you try tocompliment, I mean, he's just a
world class musician, yeah, he'slike, ah shucks, I know, right?
It's kind of like you ah shucks.
A lot of the greats are, right?
You are so that way.
Well, I mean, it's, oh, thankyou very much. It's very off

(32:07):
putting to be the other way. Youknow,
that's something I need to be.It's not attractive. I need to
get off putting
go to sugar free. He totallysugar free jello.
Stuff, pretty good. The guy inour band that does the dad jokes
is Jack Sizemore. He's our, youknow,
okay, he's a dad. He's

(32:28):
he really loves the puns. The
puns are very we could
count on rich stick to it. Can'tbeat him. I mean, he loves him.
Oh, he loves them.
Oh, I've got a, I've got anongoing thread with Jeff King
and Jacob Lowry and CarmellaRamsey from the Reba band. Yeah,

(32:50):
we, we always share dad jokes.So it's, it's, it's a constant,
like almost daily occurrencethat somebody posts a dad joke
that's amazing. And same thingwith my sister. I exchange dad
jokes with my sister and her twogirls. What's your sister do?
She is a well, she was apharmacy technician for a long
time. She's actually gone intothe legal side of Big Pharma.

(33:12):
Yeah, right. So I'm not exactlysure what her job entails, but
it's relating topharmaceuticals. Yes, yeah,
that's good business, yeah. Ohmy gosh. You
mentioned Germany before Iactually knew a German sound
engineer. Yeah. Let's put a timeI knew a check one too, as well.
Oh my God in heaven. Oh

(33:35):
God. So I was, you know, when wewere just about to start, we
were talking about, you know,your road versus your studio
tan. And when you do the roadwith Reba Mason, how many dates
a year? You guys? Do
you know the first year? 2022 Ithink we did.
45 maybe dates,

(33:57):
very manageable. Yeah, yeah. 23
maybe that's around the samenumber. She took 2024, off to to
tape. And then this year we didmaybe 20, yeah. And then she
took the back half of the yearto record happy's place and the
voice. So she's been on the WestCoast since June or July. Do you
have to do the fills? No, that'sgreat. No, no, it's it was

(34:21):
surprisingly easy transitioninginto that band. Yeah, of course,
I did a lot of homework, but Ionly had like, a week and a half
to to learn the stuff, you know,after we after it was confirmed
I was in the band. So, you know,I charted everything out. And
it's cool to have a little iPadup there with some carrots
or whatever. Yeah, nice. Yeah,that's, that's been nice. So
it's always nice.
I do need to make the transitionI've been getting. I've been

(34:43):
watching all the sort of footageof all these drum clinics I do,
and I've got the giant musicstand with the notebook and
people. But it's like, I don'ttrust the iPad. I mean, sure.
What if it dies? What if the sungets on it? What if it
right? I get it? I get it. Butwhat if the wind blows and blows
all your charts. I
got my clothes pins on there andthe Crown Royal bag. Yeah,

(35:05):
right.
What if a little drop coming offof a leaf hits the sun just
right, and then all of a suddenlight your notebook? Oh, see?
Yeah, I guess you can really getinto some final destination
stuff here, right, just in time.But that's a thought about that.
What we're gonna do forHalloween is I'm gonna put the
original John Carpenter on.That's five, four done, 10,

(35:29):
counting, ding, Dan, Dan, yep.It's like an update to take
five, three plus two duple. Andso I'm gonna have that on in the
back, and then My gal is justgonna be dressed totally normal.
But there's gonna be a chance.Gonna be a chain, and when the
kids open the door, she's gonnapull me off and I'm gonna have
one of those spirit Halloweenmasks, you know, with the yak

(35:49):
hair and everything. And I'll belike, take one. That's gonna
get old after about 10 minutes.Yeah, I know you're gonna be
like, just, just take the damncandy. I
got some. I got some kids prettygood with our ring doorbell.
Last year, they came door. Youknow, the porch light is off.
They came rang the doorbell. SoI, you know, I get a

(36:10):
notification on my phone, and Iactivated the phone. I said, Go
away. It's amazing, great idea.That is a fantastic over drove
your mic there. They're good.
So, so back to Reba. We are allover the place. What is it like
working with you know, this isreally crazy, because she's a
singer, she's an actress, she'san entertainer, entertainment

(36:32):
mogul. Yeah, she's had two, Ibelieve, two sitcoms, but I
mean, 70 million recordsworldwide now, 100 singles. I
don't know how many went numberone, sure, but when you're
choosing from 100 singles to puta show together, you know the
rule in a, usually moderncountry concert going is, leave

(36:52):
them wanting more, give them 90minutes. Is that what you guys
do? 90 so you're looking atRick's, 24 songs. 25 songs.
Is it the same set list theentire year?
Generally, we'll change thingsup about every six months. Or
that's how we that's how we, wedid it. Yeah, so, and generally,

(37:13):
there's a, there's a medley ofsome medley, not Reba songs in
there. So she did like a gospellittle gospel medley. Of course,
she did a gospel record. So Iguess those technically, yeah,
are her songs. Little gospelmedley in there. We had, you
know, we, we had worked up acouple of her number ones that

(37:34):
it eventually didn't make themake the show. Does he love you?
Was one that got cut, wow, likethe week of our first show, and
I was, I was kind of shocked. Ofcourse, the vocalist who was
singing with her got sick forour first show. So maybe that,
that, you know, played a part.But it never background singer,

(37:55):
yeah, it was Carmella Ramsey.Something happened and she got,
she got sick and missed a misseda show, or couldn't sing, I
guess she she still played greatfield player, but yeah, so that
one never made it back in whichwas one of her biggest hits,
yeah, you know, yeah, it's, it'sreally interesting. You know,
seeing the set list every timeand, okay, there's a new one,

(38:17):
there's a new there's a new songthat wasn't even a single that
she just really likes, so analbum cut that she'll throw in.
So I love it. So it's not allthe number, yeah.
And then Jeff King, love thatguy. What such positivity. You
know, occasionally when I findhim in a session, he's just so
happy to be there, absolutelycreative, encouraging, positive

(38:38):
energy. And that Jacob Lowery, Idon't know if we have met in the
flesh, but I do enjoy his side.Man Chronicles, he has a
podcast. Yes, it's verydramatic. It's the side. Man
Chronicles,
you should have him on yourpodcast, on just kvetch about
making podcasts. Yes, see,
I might know something aboutthat. Yeah,
Jim, 20 podcasts, I don't knowhow you do

(38:58):
Jacob's fantastic. We actually,we were hired at the same time
and as a team, because you guysworked together all the time.
Well, we
didn't even know the other hadbeen hired. I thought Mark Hill
was still, still in the band,and he and Trey gray left to
stick it out with Brooks andDunn Yeah. So anyway, I show up

(39:18):
to a session. I'm waiting tohear from management, you know,
if I've, if I've got the gig, orwhatever. And Jacob walked in,
he gets set up, and we playedthrough the first song and and
he says, after the first song,he said, Garth, anything new in
your life? I was like, Well,funny, you should ask, but I'm
kind of, I'm waiting to hear ifI got the Reba gig. He's like, I

(39:43):
mean, he looked like he'd seen aghost. He said, I am too. Are
you kidding me? No, oh yes. Itwas like a call. No, this did
listen. This was for me, atleast. I don't know how exactly
it worked with Jacob, but forme, at least, it was a Jeff King
recommendation, nice. And so we.Waited, Jacob and I waited that
whole day. You know, in betweensongs, do you hear anything?

(40:05):
God, you could have text nothingat the end of the day, we both
got a text saying, Hey, you'rein the band. Yeah, man, but
yeah, Jeff. Jeff had called meabout a week before that. I was
actually on my way downtown tosub the smoking section. Show
you familiar with the smokingsection? Yeah, do tell us to
makers started it back in theday. It's, it's a funk horn band

(40:28):
all the great RnB hits ArethaShaka, all that stuff Chicago,
whatever. Anyway, it's a heavybook, and I was really nervous
about playing the show thatnight, because I was subbing for
John Hammons, the regulardrummer, heavy book, and I was
nervous, and I looked down, andJeff's calling me, and I sent

(40:51):
him to voicemail, and he sendsme a text. He says, answer your
phone. Okay, sorry, so I calledhim back. He said, Hey, Reeve is
looking for a drummer. Would youmind if I put your name in the
hat, I said, No. I mean, what'sthe what's the schedule? Like,
you know, what's it? I don'twant to be gone a whole lot. So
he told me, and it soundedgreat. And I'm thinking,
there's, there's, there's got tobe 100 other drummers are

(41:13):
looking at. And there were afew, but I got the gig so nice.
Very thankful. Just just on hisrecommendation.
So what's the first like,practice, rehearsal with the
mic,
yeah. How much does she rehearsefor a tour? Because you hear
about these, like, the pinks ofthe world. They're like, we do a
month without the dancers, we doa month with the dancers. I'm
like, I'd be burnt out,
if I remember correctly. We dida week of just the band, maybe,

(41:39):
maybe four or five days. Andthen she came in for about three
days, and then we went up toEvansville, Kentucky and did two
days for rehearsals in the arenawhere we did our first show.
Nice, yeah, it's great.
That's a common thing to go tothe opening place and set up and

(41:59):
do a couple days.
You kind of did that, like onelast time we did your tour kit
breakdown.
People are so mad. They want toknow what these drums are. And
let me just tell you, folks,it's always the same. I just
change the finish. I go from ablack sparkle to a red sparkle
to a black and red sparkle to amatte black to a piano black,

(42:20):
same sizes,
same configurations. You stillhave all those kits.
Yeah, you can ask me if I needthem or if I use them.
I, you know, I was No, that'sfunny, maybe, yeah, Jim, you
know how long I've been doingthis for free, or,
Jim, you got it? You get a lotof gear.

(42:41):
I got the second handdrumsticks. Love it.
Oh, tons of crack symbols. Thereyou go. Yeah, you know, like
crack symbols. And when I go upthere to see his kid, I'm like,
dude, be careful. Don't cutyourself on there. They look
like murder
gave them to me, right?
I know, but you really crackedhim. I mean, you kept it going

(43:02):
well, I mean, it's tough to stopa crack. I know. I did the whole
keyhole drill thing. It doesn'twork. Yeah, I tried to patch it
up with some gaff tape, and eveneven
shaving the symbol out, doesn'treally work. No, because it's
sharp, the crack is, yeah, yeah.
I love the fact that they havewarranties on symbols. I went to
forks and I bought a pisty, oh,it's got a two year warranty.
I'm gone. Really, they actuallyhave warranties on these things.

(43:26):
I guess it's
pretty crazy. I didn't knowthat. I mean, you're talking to
a Sabian and Zildjian guys.Yeah, yeah. You don't have a
whole lot of ground here.
Zildjian one of the oldestcompanies in America, oldest
company in America, the oldestcompany in America.
Pretty cool now is Sabian kindof this, like, you know, young,
it's a young company, Young.There were, like, the America of
the world, or the Sabian, theCanada of the world, Canada of

(43:48):
the world.
But isn't like Sabian, kind oflike, you know, Zildjian, me
too, in a way, like
Zildjian, no, no. Children,yeah, it is. It is. And they've
got their own voice,
different alchemy, and yeah,they,
it was, what the 80s theystarted, yeah, because I
remember the advertisements, andRod morgenstein was a big yeah

(44:09):
endorser for them, Harvey Mason,I'll yeah, I was, I was a die
hard pasty guy back because ofAlex. Hey, nothing wrong with
that. No, I say I like Sabian. Iwas just messing
past is a good rock and rollsymbol. I mean, if you're gonna
go classic, you go get me somevintage Ludwig drums and some
pasty giant beats.

(44:30):
Yeah, right. I have no idea whateven those mean. I know, like
the 3000s
Yeah, are good. They got darksymbols now, like Steve Jordan
plays super
dark signature, I have asignature crash, 2020, inch
crash. Everybody's making greatstuff. I will say there's
probably maybe, like four orfive brand new companies that
are on the scene. They're not sogreat. But if you stay with, you
know, if you stay in the in theBig Four, yeah, you know, what

(44:53):
are the big four? You know, yougot children, sabe and pasty and
mineral mine are because.
Yes, I interviewed one of theguys who owns one of the newer
companies. I'm going, Dude,you've got some freaking cojones
starting a symbol company,you're going
up against, like, I mean, it canbe done. I mean, in the
automotive sector, they've,they've shown it can be done

(45:14):
going up against the big three.I mean, for a symbol company,
that's, that's a man, I have
to say in in almost, excuse me,sorry, I'm a drum nerd. I've got
a huge collection of drums andcymbals. I love, I love to buy
gear. And so in every city I goto, I try to find a drum shop or

(45:36):
a local music store. And in nineout of 10 drum shops that I find
outside of Nashville, most ofthe new symbols they have are
smaller companies. Interesting.Yeah, wow, it's very
interesting. Badges. Drum shopin Cincinnati is fantastic shop,
by the way, but almost all theirsymbols, I mean, they have

(45:57):
plenty of zilchin and feisty andSabian, but they have a huge
selection of these custom madesymbols, small, small batch, you
know, one off symbols. And thoseare a lot of fun to play, yeah,
you know,
well, so that's your thing.Like, everyone's got a thing on
the road. Like, some people liketo go buy, you know, vintage
clothing, or find the, try tofind the most extreme Mom and

(46:20):
Pop coffee house. But I like tocombine the coffee house with
the where's the drum shop thing,and then, so do you have the
discipline to not buy a snaredrum? Or is it
like it's, it's white knuckling?Sometimes I love to buy drums
and cymbals. Well, I
saw a little video with JoeCarroll from Treasure Island. He
was like, you know, Garth, showme what you got in the case

(46:42):
there. And it looks like you hada lot of eights. Well, he had,
yeah, I've got, I've got moresix and a halfs than I do
eights. I do have a coupleeights that make a regular
rotation right now.
Nice. I have no eights. Whatwould my first eight be? Are you
talking about? Gosh, eight inchdeep.
Oh, snare, civilian, deep dish.I'm thinking like, Tom, well,

(47:04):
I just, I have to say, I foundon on marketplace about maybe a
year ago, an eight inch deep DWedge. Nice, custom, custom deal.
I brought, bought it down herein Spring Hill. Man, that thing
just is a cannon. Did you buy itover boomers? No, I bought a
craviato 1012, years ago over atboomers.

(47:26):
You know what he's got? No, Ikind of like it's hard to find
drum so long ago.
Yeah, I remember those. I neverowned one. Vinnie loved them.
Really secret weapon, yeah, wow.Who was that? Any it's just,
it's
still over there, and I'm it'sreally crisp and yummy. And
what time is, what time theyclose? It's like a, it's like a
four, it's like a piccolo ish,

(47:47):
yeah, close soon. I don't thinkhe locks
the door. It's wood, it's wood,but it plays like a deeper drum,
but it's thick, okay, which ishard to do.
That's, yeah, that's, that'simpressive. I got to check that
out. Any idea who was? Was aBauer? Buyer, was he involved?

(48:10):
Buyer, I don't think so. Okay, Ihave a couple of his drums too.
Okay, I don't have any of hisdrums. James. Buyer, James.
Buyer, yeah, yeah. Remember
what like Premiere, but theirthing was, yeah, like, slightly
smaller diameter shell, right?Almost like a timpani kind of
effect that was there. That wastheir differentiation. Yeah,
it's like that. And, yeah, we'llsee. You know, not to slam a

(48:33):
drum coming. No, not at all.Have
you tried the morgenstein tool,Morgan tool, the Morgan tool.
Hey, what is it? God bless him.It's, it's kind of like a, it's
a, it's,
you know how you kind of putyour drum sticks together to
tighten lug nuts and stuff. It'sbasically that, okay?
And it's selling for a premium.I saw it at the drum show, and
it's flying off the price. Italked, I talked to the guys

(48:53):
over a 2112 percussion inRaleigh, North Carolina, and I
looked at the price tag, and Iwas like, Are you kidding me for
this? And and they're like,Dude, we can't keep them in
stock. I'm so happy for Rod,yeah, how cool, you know what I
mean to because to get a, to geta piece of ancillary, you know,
auxiliary gear in the musicbusiness, to get sticky, right?
Like a big fat snare drum, yes,or a drum taco, or a Mr. Muff

(49:18):
lug locks, yeah, any of that
stuff is difficult, very, very,I have a Mr. Muff, yeah, it's
cool. I just like saying itanyways. So the
thing is, is that or you buyjust a, you know, a channel
lock, but it's not a Morgantool, see, channel lock can do
the same thing, yeah? But, butwe like rod, and we want

(49:39):
him to be successful. We do wanthim to be successful? He's he's
retired from Berkeley, right?Tired
from Berkeley, still playing.She's only 17, right.
Rod, what's up?
Buddy show, buddy left, yeah,left handed. He's playing the
wrong way. Are you a foodie? I'ma fat kid, so I like you are not
a food kid. I'm. I'm, I'm a fatkid at

(50:01):
heart, right? So when you wereyoung, I mean, you turned it
around, you're like, well,
well, I'm diabetic, so I've hadto, I've had to switch up my
diet, you know, low carb thing.But Hello, 1517, years ago,
something like that. So, yeah,my son was very young. He's 21
Yeah. So, yeah, he's very young,and so, you know, I went through

(50:21):
all the questions of, is it, youknow, hereditary or anyway, but,
yeah, you know, just trying toeat reasonably, you know, and
just just try not to be stupid,and then trying to get to the
gym, yeah, when I can, you know.
So you're just doing themachines and a little bit of
cardio, yeah, yes, free weights,you know, free ways
to go. Yeah, Rich has given mecrap because I want an E bike.

(50:44):
Nothing wrong with an E bike andE bikes better no bike, right?
I've been riding my bike. Yeah?As I've gotten older, it's the
hills, man, like, off a duplexhere. Yeah, you, I know you
don't ride your you don't have abike. Do you even have a bike?
No, I would like to
get home, you know, get thehelmet and everything. See,
you got to worry about these.

(51:05):
We make, we make our money doingthis. Yes, yeah, I know too many
guys who I went mountain bunkbike, mountain bunking. Nope,
nope, no story. Do that. I wentmountain biking a couple times
with Gary Lund. And, you know,Gary great, great bass player
here in town, went mountainbiking a couple times with him.

(51:27):
And, man, it's so much fun. Iloved it. And the whole time I
was working out, yeah, justbecause you're gonna go over the
handlebars at some point that
Joe Bergamini, you know, one ofthe editors at Hudson music. You
know, he helped with the StuartCopeland book, yeah, the GAD
book, and he had a spill. Man,
it was messed up his hands,yeah, but, I mean, he

(51:51):
just can't, he rehabbed. He'sback. I can't risk it's the
same, same reason I sold mymotorcycle. I loved riding my
motorcycle, but especially withcell phones these days. Man,
it's just not
worth it. No one, no one ispaying attention. No at all.
But, I mean, you
could make the same case for,like, lifting weights, or, you
know, even running, you couldfall down. Sure, sure, you know.
But I
think you know, there's a

(52:14):
tempting fate with some of thosethings, maybe.
So I will say that, you know,you want a bike, possibly, yeah,
mule town bikes is the place togo. Oh, there you go. Mule town
bikes.com.
You have a little deal workedout with these guys. Yeah, I
forgot to tell you little undertable.
So basically, 10% off now,
yeah, I'm getting a Venton ebike. So my philosophy is that

(52:38):
look, instead of five miles aday and knocking the crap out of
me. I'll do 10 and, like, it'llbe fun and something to look
forward to. Well, as long as youget the heart up, you know,
right, you're basically
getting everything going. And,yeah, it's just because, I mean,
dude, I like duplex out herewith the hills. Oh yeah, oh man,
they freaking run you ragged.They run Sydney ragged. She's

(52:59):
like, you know, 100 pounds lessthan I am, 150
thanks. So, no, no, I see 100seems like a lot. I mean,
that's, that's crazy. So youwere talking about, you know,
your diet, like, Do you have anythings that just either you got
to splurge, like, oh, I mean, Igot to have my BLTs with
avocado. Or, you know, like, I'ma coffee house culture guy,

(53:22):
like, I will choose a coffeehouse based on the quality of
the food. There you go, youknow, okay, no, I don't, I
don't. I don't have any realsplurge items. There's so much
now, especially with the Ketomovement and all that kind of
thing that you can, you can getpretty much whatever you're
craving. A little lower carb,yeah, way,

(53:43):
yeah, you get keto pitas.
You know, there's even keto cakemixes, because I love, I love
sweets, sweet guy,
so, yeah, mine, mine is the, isthe Eminem, the peanuts,
right, right?
That was my downfall in the inour dressing rooms, because
evidently, somebody put on therider. Hey, peanuts every day.

(54:03):
Oh, come on. I know it's reallybad. Don't at least put them in
the little baggies so I can atleast not grab the bag. But when
you got a bowl of them sittingthere, just, just one,
or at least toble The road,
you know, another great thing isthe biscotti, the Scott brand,

(54:24):
the cookies, yes, vanilla.
They'll give you those on theplate. I was flying in from
Seattle, and I was like,
they make that, they make thatin a spread, oh, like a
butterfly, yeah, yeah. Mercuriotalked me about, we
definitely took a turn here. Wedid
that's all right, that's apleasant, it's a pleasant turn.
But yeah,
so getting back to, like, yeah,things that you like to eat,

(54:45):
okay,
oh, man, where's gonna go withthis? Oh, you ever try? Like,
just for a little supplementalshakes, the core powers, no gas
stations, no. Actually, prettygood, okay, like, the kind of
because I'm a sweet guy too,especially chocolate. Yep, it's.
Totally just kind of nips it inthe bud. High protein, low
sugar, high protein, low sugar.Yep, fantastic stuff.
Okay. Well, everybody that knowsme, it knows me. That

(55:10):
core power, there you go. That'swhat I was about to say. He
needed to give away. Just
keep stewing the Mr. Hey, it'sgot to wink it.
You got to do that. We got toput the littleness. I need that
sound effect. Well,
while we're on the subject, whatis your favorite
food, your favorite yourfavorite
food, if I could, if I couldchoose anything to wanted to

(55:33):
eat, regard, irregardless,regardless, regardless of my
Yeah, I'd have to go Italian.Mom used to fix an amazing
lasagna when I was I love, yeah,yeah, just any kind of pasta.
And, yeah, sauce.
Now, do you have, like, littlealcohol every once in a while?

(55:55):
Or no, you
know, not really. I mean, notgood man,
yeah, if you have to, what's thewhat's the go to? Oh, like, at
the holidays, it's like,
I tried a beer. I'm not, notmuch of a beer drinker, so
whisking would probably be Wine.Wine.
Yeah, nice of red wine. Yeah,good for your heart, yeah,
there's some medicinal benefits,antioxidants, totally. There you

(56:18):
go. That's what they say.Depends on who's doing the
study, right? That's the thingabout studies, right? Who's
funding the study? Because theyare going to sway it in their
direction.
You know, what's coming up?What's coming up? Evan Williams,
season,
season, yeah, that's a thatcould be a five pound spread.
You have to bike 20 miles a day.
Evan Evan Williams. EvanWilliams, eggnog. Okay, spiked

(56:39):
eggnog.
He's got all kinds of this show.
So here's the deal. Let's getback to this a little bit,
because I want to is
one of my favorites. Okay, there
you go. So anyways, it's spiked,and it's so incredible. It's
like drinking pancake batter.Oh, but it's incredible. It's

(57:02):
just amazing. And the guys in myband have been polishing off as
well. Yeah, that's how I foundout about it. Oh, my God. They
love this thing. I introducedthem to to Kentucky coffee. What
is that? I told you to bring ittoday. It's a brand. It's with
coffee whiskey. Oh, I thoughtyou were winking at me, like,
let's put some whiskey in ourcoffee today. You know what? I

(57:22):
mean? We could do that.
Yeah, they kind of infused thatfor you with Kentucky coffee.
That would be a way to wake upand go to sleep the same time.
I don't know what to do. No,okay, the final, final eggnog
comment my son and I for thepast, yeah, 12 years, we have a
celebration every year, and Imark it on our calendar first
nog celebration, the firstpurchase of nog, and we'll have

(57:45):
our we're we'll toast and have,what is it like mid December?
No, it actually comes out midOctober, usually. So we've
already had, really, we'vealready had ours this
year. Really, is it made or doyou actually first Evan
Williams, eggnog?
No, no. It's, it's, it'sSouthern Comfort eggnog, but you
buy it at Walmart. There's no noalcohol in it. And I've tried
making eggnog, and I'm not goodat, oh, that's a heavy thing.

(58:07):
Anyway, sorry. No,
no, my thing is, I want you toshine a little light on your
wife and tell us about nextlevel entertainment. Yeah.
Well, my wife and I moved here98 as you, as you said, 27 years
ago, she got hired in a anentertainment, corporate
entertainment band. She was,she's a singer, and so she got
hired. I moved here with no job.We we were living, living in

(58:30):
Phoenix. We left college andmoved to Phoenix. Worked at a
church out there for about ayear and a half. I was on the
production team, and they had astudio and dry heat, oh gosh,
like a blowtorch. It'sunbelievable, exactly. Yeah. So
anyway, she got called to jointhis corporate entertainment
band. And we were, we'd alwayswanted to move to Nashville. You
know, that's like I told you,this is where I always wanted to

(58:53):
be. And so she got hired. Imoved here with no job. So I was
actually, I would go out withthis band and run sound I'd do
front of house for them on theweekends. Wow. So we were
traveling together, you know,went around the world together,
and we did that for 18 years,wow, in that band. And then when

(59:13):
that ended, we started nextlevel entertainment slash
productions. And we do kind ofthe same thing. We do just a lot
less of them we do. We do ahandful a year of these
corporate that's
a lot of work dealing with thecorporate client. They could be
a handful.
And these people are wonderful,great. They, I mean, it's, it's
like, no stress, kind of like afamily. We've known them for so

(59:37):
long. It's just, it's a, it's afantastic arrangement we have,
so that's been great.
What's so you're saying you havea relationship with, like, event
planners in Nashville or No, no,
it's actually, it's actually aspecific company that we have
been going in for. They're WestCoast based. And, yeah, we just
got back yesterday from Seattlefrom an event. So did Vegas and

(59:59):
Seattle. One, yeah, just afantastic people, easy and so,
you know, we, we're looking atmaybe spreading out in some
other venues. But, man, we'vegot, we've got such a good thing
going with these folks.
So is it the thing where you'redoing celebration at the end of
the night you're doing YMCA,
we usually open up each of theirevents, like on a Friday and

(01:00:23):
Saturday, we'll do a 30 minuteset. We used to do only covers,
and then they asked us not to docovers, and so we wrote a bunch
of original tunes and do thatkind of stuff.
I've never heard a party plannersay, do originals, yeah.
Well, we were shocked too. Itwasn't them. It was their,

(01:00:43):
without getting deep into theweeds. Here it was their, their
attorney who was a littlescared, because they have their
own again, not getting in theweeds. They have their own
social media platform, like aprivate social media platform.
Oh, I see. And their attorneywas afraid that the licensing
that normally covers, coverbands, yes, wouldn't cover that.

(01:01:08):
Oh, interesting, private entity.And so they were like, you know,
we don't want to take anychances. Would you be willing to
write some music? And we'relike, yeah. So, man, a couple
good friends of mine, JohnNewell and Marty lemaine, great
songwriters and producers ontheir in their own right here in

(01:01:30):
town, helped us write 10original dance pop songs, nice,
and we performed them. You know,for this corporation, it's a
four, it's a it's four frontpeople, right? Three front
people and a four piece band.Gotcha, yeah? And then we'll do
a worship service on Sundaymorning for this, for this
event,
yeah? Cuz there is a companycalled West Coast music on the

(01:01:51):
west coast that basicallyassembles, you know, all these,
like, famed side men from, like,big bands. And they'll put them
together and be like, Hey,you're gonna go play clooney's
place tonight in Malibu, youknow? And it's, yeah, it's good,
yeah, 800,000 bucks, yeah,right. You know, you're gonna
eat some nice, gigantic prawns.
Exactly, exactly you get a lotof like, tribute acts, maybe,

(01:02:11):
because, are you, are you kindof sourcing the acts for? No,
this is, this is the same man.
It's our band, Yeah, same bandthat goes to these events,
I was gonna say I know a tributeband that like plays for
peanuts. Oh yeah.
Okay, we've got several here intown. I've sub for almost all of
them. So, yeah,
I know of one in particular.Okay, what's that? What we'll

(01:02:34):
talk off. Okay,
great. Sounds good. So manyinside little wink winks.
Where'd the
wink go? There's no wig forthat. That's okay.
So hey, Garth, have you beendoing any do you like teaching
at all? Like, have you taught
anything? You know, I taughtwhen I was in college, yeah, and
it, I enjoyed it, but it didn'treally resonate with me. I

(01:02:57):
haven't. I haven't taught in 25years. Wow, taught a little bit
in Phoenix. I had a couplestudents out in Phoenix,
but, yeah, since I moved toNashville, I haven't really,
yeah,
you really enjoy teaching.
It's been a calling, you know,and I've been doing so many
recently. I just did well. I didthe Guitar Center in Brentwood.

(01:03:20):
I did the Music Lab in Brentwoodlast night. I did a college two
weeks ago. Don't ask me what itwas. And then Friday, I'm going
to Trevecca Nazarene, because mybuddy Larry aberman. So it's fun
because you get to address theaudience at hand. Sometimes it's
like a mixed group, where theywant to talk about the music
business, and it's a lot ofbased on Q and A. Sometimes they

(01:03:42):
want more traditional drumclinic. Sometimes they want a
master class where it's moreintimate and make sure that
everybody gets up. So I've gotall these different models, but
what's fun about it is I justtry to make it like a one man
show. So there is there'scomedic elements. Everybody
leaves with handouts, there'sinteraction, there's
performance, there's education.So I just try to take the lead

(01:04:04):
from the great clinicians whosay, you know a Carmine aposio.
He said, Hey kid, make sure thatyou teach them something, that
you entertain them, and mostimportantly, you make them
laugh. And if you do those threethings, the hour flies by. It
feels like five minutes
exactly. So fun. My leastfavorite clinics I've been to
were clinics where the guy wouldjust play the whole time, yeah.

(01:04:27):
I'm like, okay, that's reallycool. But can you show me how to
get a little closer to whatyou're doing?
Yeah? And I went to the otherdirection where it's like, I
don't do solos at all, and Ijust play songs, and I talk
about the skill set that like,what would make somebody, you
know, get in line behind a Garthjustice? Well, great gear,

(01:04:49):
understanding of the history ofmusic, rudiments, reading,
understanding styles, balancebetween the limbs, tune.
Interesting, musical mindset,all that stuff absolutely that
we really have to address. Yep,you know absolutely.
But you know when you're atTribeca, yeah, make sure to look

(01:05:10):
up at the lights.
Oh, boy, we did those. Oh cool.Oh, really at the host, the
whole university campus, no wayback in 2017 How come you
haven't retired from that? Thatsounds like a big job, man. Job,
man. We'll talk about thatoffline. I mean, so the whole
campus is LED lighting. Yes,wow. Now my only complaint about

(01:05:31):
LED lighting is, I hope it getssofter, because it's so intense.
That's the color temperaturehe's talking about. Yeah,
maybe the intensity, sure,super. I don't like the bluish.
That's color temperature, yes,6000 what they call 6000 Kelvin.
I like more of a sunlight kindof vibe. This is
3300
let's go with that. But they areforcing us to do it. And I think

(01:05:53):
Jim sees an opportunity there,because that opportunity has
come and gone, yeah? But I meanthat, I mean it's very hard to
find traditional Edison lightbulbs? Yeah, no, it's getting
harder. You can get
the Edison bulbs that have theLED filaments in them. Ooh, they
still look like Edison
bulbs. Nice. Yeah, yeah, I'veseen those. This Edison guy,
man, can you imagine our worldwithout that person? He came

(01:06:17):
along and changed the world,
right? Could you imagine if hedidn't screw Tesla?
I was about to say, some wouldsay Tesla was the yes, yeah,
founder, but Edison's got hisname on all the
Nicola Tesla.
I got into Tesla five years ago.And the car, the actual man, oh,
sorry, I know some saying, butit led me to the car, yeah, and,

(01:06:40):
and the guy said, Hey, do youwant, do you want it to drive
itself? And I was like,Absolutely not. Absolutely not,
man, you've
never been in a car drivenitself.
No, really. Well, here's whatI'll say. I had my first, like,
decent run in a Tesla. I took atrip down to Huntsville with a
buddy of mine, and he's, youknow, he's got the self driving

(01:07:00):
feature on we're on theinterstate, and the car will
fuss at him if he looks away fortoo long, like he'd look over
and talk, talk to me, and itwould say, eyes forward or
something, you know, keep youreyes on the road. And he said,
yeah, it gets on me all thetime. He said, if, if it gives
you too many warnings, it willshut off the auto drive feature,
wow. It will like, ground youfor

(01:07:22):
autos driving, but it stillwants you to be present. Yes,
you
can't be like, you can't bedrinking an
app. Yeah, you can't, dude,people's got a camera on you,
all times, is what he says.
Interesting, yeah, yeah, whichmeans that the government's got
a camera, exactly, right?
Oh, my God, man. I mean, wait,this girl, the man listening. I

(01:07:42):
love that you are just, you justsurrendered the process Exactly.
It's really, really good. Thatmakes it great. Hey, so, so you
know you're, you're gonna be outwith Reba, yeah, probably in
2026, that'll be your fifthyear. Yeah, very nice, amazing
body of work. You're busy doingsessions on Music Row. You got
your incredible home studio,super active, amazing body of

(01:08:05):
work. How can people find youthat says here at Garth justice,
is that your Instagram? Yeah,
Instagram, Facebook, email is [e-mail]
I love it. I mean, she's got tobe so cool to work with. She
looks like such a nice person.
Yes, she is. She loves to havefun. She'll, you know, she'll,

(01:08:25):
she'll ham it up with us and cutup.
Maybe that's why she's gotten sofar in life. People want to be
around people they know and likeand trust
absolutely well. And it's and weall know folks who are real good
at doing that in a fake way. Andthere's nothing fake about it.
With, with Reba. She's, she'sthe person you, you would hope

(01:08:45):
she would be. Are you
playing around here anytimesoon?
Yeah, actually, I'm. I'm subbingwith, well, it's not around
here, sorry. Subbing with theeagle maniacs tomorrow night up
in Bowling Green, except forLonnie. Yeah. Lonnie got called
to do something, and had to bailthe last minute. So I'm subbing
for them. And then the day afterThanksgiving, down here in
Spring Hill, at the mule house,I'll be subbing with the eagle

(01:09:08):
maniacs.
So mule house, Columbia, yeah.Columbia, yeah.
A day after Thanksgiving, thatwould be the 25th I think.
Hold on, I could be wrong. Youcan't get anything past you. I
could be wrong. Is it always,it's always, like the fourth
Thursday of the year. So, so
for any musician in in parting,any musician that comes to do

(01:09:32):
the thing in Nashville, what's acouple of, just quick 20? Hey
kid, yeah, do this. Don't dothat.
Find the people who are doingwhat you want to do, and hang
out with them. Fantastic. Gohang out on sessions. Do it the
right way. Don't, don't, don'tbring your drumsticks. And, you

(01:09:52):
know, expect to, you know, playon the last. Hey, you don't want
to play on the last. No, that'snot gonna happen. Just be cool.
Be a fly on the wall and. Takeeverything in, drink everything
in. That's what I tried. TheHammond brothers do that for
you. The Hammond brothers didthat for me. Scott did that for
me. Brewster, yeah, those guyscouldn't have been more more
generous to me when I firstmoved to town. And then, you

(01:10:14):
know, eventually you startmeeting people through that. And
you know, when you're cool,other people are cool. Somebody
will remember you. Somebody'sneeding a drummer. You know, I
met this guy at the session theother day. I wonder if he'd be
good for that. And don't be in arush, exactly. And you get
called for an audition, and ittakes time, and you you don't
build relationships to get work.You build relationships to gain

(01:10:38):
friends, and through friends,you get work. That's how it's
worked for me.
Great advice. I like this. Thisis a feature, like, kind of a
new thing you just stumbled uponjust now, tidbits, well, you
know, tidbits and good advice.Yeah, would you call me
No, but I love, I love the
but I have a I have more to say.Okay, go home. Sorry, Jim,

(01:10:58):
that's right. What if we call itgood advice, bad advice. Like,
everything that you just saidall of a sudden I'm like, like,
so while you're there, should,like, every time the guy gets up
from the drums, you should goand sit on the drums. Yeah, play
them, right? Yes, withoutasking, and then ask to take
pictures with the artist everysingle time. Absolutely right?
Or what other bad
like, I said, you know, bringyour sticks to the bring your

(01:11:18):
stick back. Have your stick bagover your arm when you walk in
to hang out at a session that'sputting laxatives in his coffee.
That's a good way not to getcalled back or not to get
invited back to
a session. So as far as workingon relationships, call them
every day and say, Hey, what doyou got for me? Yeah, exactly.
What other bad advice
would you told my mom that I metsomebody who's gonna help me
make it in Nashville? Yeah?
Oh, when you go, when you getcalled to sub for somebody, do

(01:11:40):
not try to snake the gig. Oh,that is the worst, right? Just
do that advice, though,absolutely, we want bad advice.
I don't have any that.
So the opposite of that would belike, you know, make sure that
you try and Snake the gig outfrom underneath.
Oh, gotcha pass the band leaderyour card. Say, Hey, man, yeah,
my brain doesn't work.
Like, if old freakin slow pokehere doesn't work out anymore,

(01:12:01):
you know where to go. You know,
that's a funny feature, okay,well, remember it, but you're
the producer.
I like it, yeah? Fantastic. Goodadvice, bad advice. You know,
what good advice do you have?You can counter with bad advice.
I'm gonna tell you, like, after
27 years of living here? Yeah, Iam so happy we got to spend an

(01:12:23):
afternoon together same there'sbeen the like, really great,
really great. Andcongratulations on an amazing
career. Thank you, and you,
thanks, man. I watched this. Iwas watching this guy when I
first moved to town. I told himI'd go to the Preds games. And I
was like, Who is this drummer?Yeah, this Energizer Bunny
behind the kid.
That's interesting that youwould have liked my playing in
the year 2000 Wow. I hope Isounded
98 that's 98 I'm telling you. Wewere both new in town. Wow.

(01:12:47):
We're killing bro. Well, thanks,bro. Was it
really intimidating for you atthe beginning? Yeah, oh
yeah. Well, because I thinkeverybody sorry I did cut this
out if you want to. I thinkeverybody moves to town
thinking, wait until they hearme. Oh yeah, I mean, and then
it's, all I got to do is startplaying.
It's crickets for the firstcouple of years. Yeah, you know,

(01:13:07):
I was like, Man, I'm a top calldrummer in Dallas. I got my
master's degree, played withthis big band. Give me the
chart. And then you move here,and you're like, No one cares,
right? You have got to startover. You have to ingratiate
yourself with the communityconnections, slowly do the
thing. Yeah, and I wish I wasn'tin such a rush, but that's just

(01:13:28):
my thing. I'm an East Coast guy.
I think all of us, you know, arein that rush. But no, I mean, he
was, you know, you set the barfor me. I mean, it was like,
okay, that I got to be at leastas good as that guy. You know, I
don't remember that. That's sosweet, though. It's killing
Yeah, see,
so you just did it. See, we'rejust talking about that earlier.
Oh,

(01:13:52):
I love it. Everyone that isGarth justice at Garth justice,
and the email address is [e-mail] Do you like? You
get DMS from kids like, hey, howdo I do this? Yeah, all the
time, all time. And you givethem that advice, absolutely,
make friends, absolutely
right. Come see me. We'll hangout a session. You know, I love
it. Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, man,
bring your sticks. Jump on mydrums when we're trying to

(01:14:15):
figure out what the track soundslike. Corner the producer, yeah,
Jim, it's always great to seeyou. It's been a while, and to
all the listeners, oh, there'sthe camera right there. Be sure
to subscribe, share rate andreview. It helps people find the
show. Really appreciate youjoining us, and we'll see you
next time. Thanks. Garth,thanks. This has
been the rich Redmond show.Subscribe, rate and follow along

(01:14:38):
at rich redmond.com forwardslash, podcasts you.