July 29, 2025 • 47 mins
What do Rick Ross, Soldier Boy, and Danzig all have in common? They’ve all toured with our guest — Buddy Ramsey, the unstoppable force behind King of Coaches.
In this episode of TryNsomethingnew, we sit down with our longtime friend and ultimate hustler, Buddy, whose journey from Vegas limo king to luxury tour bus mogul is nothing short of legendary. Buddy shares how he turned a single limo into a 14-car fleet, how ADHD became his superpower, and how he now runs a multimillion-dollar entertainer coach business trusted by some of the biggest names in music.
🔥 Inside This Episode:
•How a $5K borrowed camera launched our film career
•Why Buddy sold his house, Hummer, and even his plane to buy a tour bus
•The real-life Tour Life: fame, burnout, and a six-figure accident 😳
•What it’s like raising your kid into the family business
•Buddy’s philosophy: All gas, no brakes
🎧 Plus:
•Behind-the-scenes celeb stories (and one wild hotel room moment 😬)
•Why Buddy says depression hit hardest when no one called…
Follow Buddy at @king_budz_
Learn more about King of Coaches at: kingofcoaches.com
🎤 New episodes weekly — don’t forget to follow, review, and share if you love the journey.
Thank you for tuning into the TryNsomethingnew Podcast!
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review to help others discover our journey. Follow us on social media for daily updates and behind-the-scenes content:
- Instagram: @TryNsomethingnew
- YouTube: TryNsomethingnew Channel
- Website: www.trynsomethingnew.com
We’d love to hear from you! Send us your questions, comments, or stories at collab@trynsomethingnew.com.
Catch you in the next episode! Safe travels and keep exploring!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You know, I dream big.
ADD has been my greatestsuperpower ever.
If Rick Ross calls me, I willget out of the bed at the drop
of a hat.
Soldier Boy, Drake, Warrant,Citizen Soldier, Tyga, Danzing,
yep, Danzing.
I remember I've never in myentire life felt depression.
I just felt like I wasforgotten.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Anytime I think of the word hustle, you always,
always come to mind.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
All gas, no brakes.
The best advice for trying tobuild from the ground up, I
would say is...
All
SPEAKER_03 (00:29):
right, everybody, welcome back to another episode
of trying something new andwe're super excited about today
because we have the one and onlybuddy ramsey from the king of
coaches
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
oh man you are gonna want to listen because this guy
has experienced a ton
SPEAKER_03 (00:43):
he's from he's driven rock stars all over the
country for the past coupleyears he's had limos on the
strip he's ran vegas for thelast 20 years
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
built businesses from the ground up and i'm not
talking about a little businesslike a rock star no pun intended
killer business that is makingwaves all over the country and
now actually maybe in to Europe.
SPEAKER_03 (01:01):
So he's going to share his entrepreneurial
mindset and tell us some storiesfrom the road.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
All
SPEAKER_03 (01:05):
right.
So let's get into it.
We have a great friend of ours.
We've probably been friends forabout 25 years.
This is Buddy Ramsey from theKing of Coaches.
Yes, sir.
How are you guys doing today?
Man, we're doing great.
We're so amazing.
We rolled back through Vegas fora minute and we said, you know
what?
We got to get Buddy on thepodcast because as we're out on
the road traveling andadventuring and putting miles on
(01:25):
the truck in the RV, this guy isprobably 10x to our mileage and
probably we have 10 extrastories.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
And I did not think that you would be in town
because you are constantly onthe go.
You travel way more than us.
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Our stars aligned.
There it is.
There it is.
So to give everybody a littlebackground, let's go back.
I'm going to say 25 years.
I haven't done the math yet, butdoes that sound right to you?
About 25 years.
All right.
So I used to be a bus boy at arestaurant called Nobu in the
Hard Rock.
And Buddy used to come in withhis wife, Crystal, all the time.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
She was my girlfriend
SPEAKER_03 (01:54):
at the time.
They would come in and I wouldwine and dine him and show him a
great time.
Pour him sake and they get theyellowtail jalapeno And Buddy
would try to steal the littlesake containers because they
were in bamboo and it was reallycool.
And he kept trying to buy them.
I'm like, you can't buy thembecause we need them for the
next customer.
So he would just steal them.
Oddly
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
enough, we stole two of them.
One of them never cracked.
Perfectly preserved.
The other one cracked in half.
I'm like,
SPEAKER_03 (02:18):
yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (02:18):
that one out there.
SPEAKER_03 (02:19):
They're organic material, so they didn't last
very long.
But yeah, what a great friend.
So many amazing memories andstories.
And just to watch Buddy's comeup and the hustle and the grind
and where he started and wherehe has now is a total
inspiration to us.
I mean, I get goosebumps
SPEAKER_01 (02:37):
just talking about it, thinking about your story
all the time.
SPEAKER_03 (02:41):
And one of the reasons why I really want to
have Buddy on this podcast,because they say you are the
person you surround yourselfwith.
You're close.
his five friends and i reallyconsider buddy a close friend
and so uh yeah he's doing thingsso surround yourself with people
that are doing things and you'llprobably be doing things too
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
yeah man and you know your guys's story i say
this all the time when when italk about social media i work
with a lot of artists that havea lot of social media presence
but i've never seen somebodyground up build like you guys
have and so i always talk veryproud about man look at these
guys they're following
SPEAKER_03 (03:13):
their dream and making it happen so let's rewind
a little bit and talk about howyou got your start.
Because when I met you, you hada bunch of limos in your
runaround bachelor parties onthe strip.
And how many limos did you have?
How'd you start?
And what was like your thingthat got you into that game?
SPEAKER_00 (03:27):
So the limos started with one and ended our fleet
with 14.
I was very passionate about whatI did from the very beginning.
That's how I was able to buildit.
And I was very young.
I was 21 when I got my firstlimo.
And Las Vegas is like the Meccaof making cool things happen.
So I had like big dreams Youknow, pulling up to Utopia, fog
(03:49):
machine hitting out of the back.
So when you open the door,there's fog there, disco lights.
You know, this is before it wasreally party buses or thing.
And it was a little bit beforeits time.
We slowly migrated over to thebuses because I started losing
the passion, you know, betweenthe door guys robbing you and
the drivers robbing you.
And it made me a very bitterperson.
(04:10):
And I just lost that drive.
The entertainer coaches kind ofcame in by a fluke.
I knew the minute I got intosomebody's bus and drove that I
could capitalize on this.
I could take this over like Idid the limo game.
SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
Right on.
And so back in the verybeginning, when me and Buddy
first met, he'd come into therestaurant.
And at that time, I had a hugepassion for creating videos.
And I really wanted to see whatI could do with this video
making business.
SPEAKER_01 (04:34):
Well, what happened was we had our first kid and we
were like...
you don't want to work in arestaurant every night.
I'm like, we have to figure outwhat we can do to get you out of
the restaurant.
I'm, I'm at home with a babythat's screaming, crying.
She was colicky.
And then he's at work.
And I'm like, this ain't goingto work.
Like we have to figure somethingout.
And so, yeah, we like venturedinto what can we do?
Like,
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
yeah, I actually thought you were crazy because
what people don't really knowout there is you started as a
bus boy, but ended as a managerand making fat manager money.
Yeah.
And walked away from sixfigures.
Right.
To follow my
SPEAKER_03 (05:06):
dream
SPEAKER_00 (05:07):
of, I remember the day, you told me, you're like,
yeah, this ain't for me no more.
And I was like, what?
You're going
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
to
SPEAKER_00 (05:14):
do what?
But I always had great faith inyou because when you made that
video for our company, that wasso far ahead of its time that, I
mean, you could put that videoout right this second and it
would compete with anything outthere.
SPEAKER_03 (05:27):
So just give everybody a little context on
the video.
Buddy has limos running up anddown the strip.
He's got girls and guys comingin and out of the limos.
And so I had this idea of, shit,I need to build a portfolio.
So let me ask Buddy, thiscustomer who's been coming into
Novo, if, hey, I got this wildidea.
Can I do like a promo video ofyour bus just to create a
portfolio.
And he's like, hell yeah.
(05:47):
Well, needless to say, I didn'teven have a camera.
Oh, that's right.
I had to go to Marshall Silver,which is this mega millionaire
guy, but he had a bunch ofcameras because he did
production for his
SPEAKER_01 (05:57):
whatever.
Yeah, it shows.
Yeah, it shows.
SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
And he lent me like a$5,000 camera.
He was another
SPEAKER_01 (06:03):
guy.
You didn't even know how to useit.
And ChatGP did not exist.
So we're like, looking at themanual, I'm like, how the hell
do you work this thing?
I'm
SPEAKER_03 (06:09):
like, hopefully nobody knows that I don't know
what I'm doing right now, right?
Just film a whole bunch of stuffand let's get home and see if we
can make some magic out of it.
And, and yeah, that was rightwhen Afrojack first came out.
So we were doing some Afrojacksongs to it.
We went to some clubs, had somegirls walk out of the limo.
It was, it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (06:24):
Yeah, man, that video is still, it's
unbelievable.
The thing about it is, isediting, especially back then
where you didn't have YouTubevideos and, and you know, all
these, uh, what do they call it?
DYEs to learn how to do things.
It was going to a college andlearn how to edit there.
And you shortcutted all this andyou were
SPEAKER_03 (06:45):
like naturally great at editing.
Oh, thanks man.
Yeah.
I went to UNLV for like asemester and a teacher there
goes, just get out of here.
You just go, you're, you'rebeyond what we're doing here.
And
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
we were already like mid thirties.
So we were not like younginsstarting this whole thing.
It's
SPEAKER_03 (06:59):
never too late to follow
SPEAKER_01 (07:00):
your dreams.
It's so true.
SPEAKER_03 (07:01):
Never too late to try something new.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Well, you know what I love about, you buddy is like
your style you know like you'reso it seems like you're very
innovative with your limos andlike just like you said open the
door and the fog rolls out infront of the nightclub making a
statement like where did thatcome from because you were young
and like that wasn't reallyhappening I want
SPEAKER_03 (07:20):
to add something else on what buddy he had a flat
screen TV molded into the backof the limo where he ran ads on
so not only while he was makingmoney with the people inside he
was making money running ads onthe back thing before that was a
thing man that's crazy
SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
you know what What it is is ADD has been my
greatest superpower ever.
I hear a lot of people that, andI'm around all these ADHD groups
that complain about things, andI really use it as my
superpower.
I dream big, and the concept oftrying to make it come to
reality is probably the hardestpart of the whole thing, but
(07:58):
it's also the greatest downfallbecause when you get overwhelmed
with all these thoughts, youdon't pull the trigger on them.
But, you know, being in acreative space like Las Vegas,
it's really helped me be able todo a lot of the things that I
wanted.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
Yeah, there is a lot going on.
So there's eye candy everywhere.
So it's inspirational.
SPEAKER_03 (08:17):
All right.
So that was a little bit ofhistory, a little bit of past on
how we got to where we are todayand how our relationship
blossomed through the years.
But now I want to know where youare at now and what are you
doing?
I keep hearing this thingthrowing around are Prevo buses.
And in the RV game, if you got aPrevo bus, you're like a baller
times 10 because they run fromlike a million to 4 million for
these Prevo buses off theshowroom floor.
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
Yeah.
In the touring community forentertainer coaches and
traveling with bands, it's likethe premier way of traveling.
MCI came out with a bus a whileback and they really tried to
make that into a good touringbus.
but it got shut down real quickbecause the standard is Prevo.
Yeah.
You know, that's a bus that youcould be driving 75 miles an
(08:58):
hour down the road and theartist is walking from the back
to the front without, you know,falling back and forth.
SPEAKER_03 (09:03):
All right.
So how many, how many Prevos
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
you got, man?
So we, we started with one.
I bought Jason Aldean's, it'scalled a production coach, which
there's many different types ofentertainers, even though they
look the same on the outside,the inside is what really makes
it the bus it is.
So I special in 12-bunkproduction buses.
(09:25):
Coming into this business, Istarted as a driver, but knew I
could quickly turn over and takeover the industry, especially on
the West Coast, because therewas only one other company that
I could compete with, and therewas nobody in Nevada.
And so when I came to thisdecision, I went to my wife and
I said, hey, you know, we'vebeen saving our asses off.
This year, do you want to buy ahouse or a bus?
(09:48):
And she's always been verysupportive of me.
And she said, whatever you wantto do, daddy.
And so we bought our first bus.
And going into the bus game,buying a used bus is like buying
a used car.
Most people are selling thebuses for a reason.
So you got to really be inparticular of whose bus you're
going to buy because you couldeasily spend a couple hundred
(10:09):
thousand and get a turd.
UNKNOWN (10:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
and so we were heavily looking and my mom's
favorite color was maroon and ifound this bus and i was like oh
my gosh this is amazing and i'vebeen talking with the owner and
he sent me over some picturesand We flew out to Denver to go
see this, what I thought was anamazing bus, and it pulled up
and it was everything thepitchers weren't.
And I was like, damn.
(10:32):
That's horrible, like a
SPEAKER_01 (10:33):
waste
SPEAKER_00 (10:33):
of my time.
It's like a crappy Airbnb.
I was upset about it.
But at that moment, while I'mlooking at this turd bus, and I
already knew this wasn't my bus,Jason Aldean's people that run
their buses, called All AccessCoach, an amazing coach company
out there that really set thestandard in our community, sent
me an email that had anothermaroon bus, but this bus was
(10:54):
incredible.
And I showed it to my wife andshe goes, that's your bus.
And I looked at the price tagand it was a hundred thousand
more than I had.
And I was like, there's no way,like how are we going to do
this?
And she was like, you're goingto do it.
And so I went home and soldeverything.
Everything.
Like what's everything rightthere.
We had an airplane, a Hummer,you know what I mean?
(11:14):
We just started liquidating
SPEAKER_03 (11:16):
everything.
You sold the famous Hummer, the
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
yellow Hummer.
I did.
I sold it.
And, uh, I was, I didn't evenregret it because it was my best
buy.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
And so,
SPEAKER_03 (11:25):
so how many buses you got now?
SPEAKER_00 (11:26):
So now we're working on eight.
Damn.
And how long did it
SPEAKER_03 (11:29):
take you to build those or not build them, but how
long to acquire those eight?
SPEAKER_00 (11:32):
So originally when I started in the business, uh, I
had a partner and it quicklyfound out it didn't work out and
bought the partner out.
And then I started doinginvestor buses that helped me
get more traction because inthis business, people don't want
to do business with somebodythat has one bus because if that
bus breaks down, what's going tohappen with their tour?
(11:54):
And so we started doing investorbuses and quickly found out that
other people's mind with mycreative mind didn't work.
And then we reverted back to twobuses.
And I decided that moment thatevery time I build and buy a
bus, it's going to be on me.
And that way there's nobody totell me what I'm going to do or
can't do.
And I can be as creative as Iwant with these things.
(12:16):
Right on.
SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
And that's what makes you stand out.
SPEAKER_00 (12:18):
Yeah.
Ultimately.
When I was a driver and I drovethese buses, one of the things
that was, it was like a cashgrab for the companies because
they, They'd put their buses outthere.
They'd have okay stereos.
You know, lighting was very farand few in between.
And the first thing I'd hearfrom the artist when he got on
the bus is, man, I wish we had abetter vibe.
(12:39):
You know, I want to, you know,let's get a better hotel room or
a green room.
SPEAKER_01 (12:43):
Make it feel good.
SPEAKER_00 (12:44):
Right.
And I'm thinking to myself, man,why don't we outfit the bus to
be the vibe?
And that's what we reallystarted doing.
And so every one of my buses,they all have great changing LED
colors, rock and sound systems,you know, to where it makes the
artist want to go from the venuestraight into the bus and vibe.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (13:05):
So as everybody can hear, we got a little
thunderstorm coming in.
So if you hear anything in thebackground, but we got some
thunder going, some rain on theroof, but I think we should be
all right.
It's not too bad right now, butall right, buddy.
So we got buses, right?
We finally acquired all thesebuses.
Now, like, what are some of thestars,
SPEAKER_01 (13:23):
the celebrities?
Well, first off, how did you getthe attention of these huge
stars?
SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
Well, let's name some of them, then we'll figure
out how we got them.
Getting into this industry, I'mvery confident with everything I
do, was definitely one of thehardest things I've...
really accomplished.
I think getting people to workwith you and trust with you is
very hard.
SPEAKER_02 (13:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:42):
And so I really just started cold calling people
like, Hey, I'm this new guy inLas Vegas.
You know, a lot of, a lot of thetours end or start here on the
West coast.
I got amazing buses, but Istarted doing something that
other companies weren't doingand that's given them a little
bit more love.
And, you know, being in Vegasand in the limo industry, the
(14:03):
one thing I knew is how to compand take care of people.
And so we got new escalades andnew jet sprinters as like an
incentive.
Hey, use our buses.
And when you're in Vegas, youcan be going out and you don't
have to pay for transportation.
We got it right here.
Wow.
And so that, that really, youknow, helped out.
(14:24):
Another thing that's really bigis word of mouth.
And when coming into theindustry, I was young, I'm
tattooed and everything thatNashville isn't, you know, in
case you guys didn't know thisNashville, Tennessee is the
entertainer capital of theUnited States.
SPEAKER_03 (14:39):
I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
Anything I want done in my buses, I can get done at a
fraction of the costs inNashville.
Sometimes I'll drive my buses upthere to get things done because
it's just cheaper to, you know,have it done there with fuel
costs and dry wage in hotelsthan it would be trying to get
it done here on the West Coast.
What I do is I start with theoutside.
I wrap every bus differently.
(15:00):
And the reason why I do wraps isthese things are rented and on
the road.
And when you drag a tree on apaint, that usually costs about
$3,000 to$8,000 to get fixed.
We got a few tiger stripes.
And so in a bus, it costs me$600to unwrap it and wrap it again.
And so I start with, I pick outWhat color is this bus going to
(15:20):
be?
Every one of my buses is a Vegastheme and named from Vegas.
Give us a
SPEAKER_01 (15:26):
few of the names.
Let's run down because it'sreally cool.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
We got Roulette.
We got Ace.
We got Sinatra.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
Yeah.
We got Blackjack.
SPEAKER_01 (15:36):
Is there any that's like a favorite?
Like one that stands out thatpeople are like, I want that
one.
SPEAKER_00 (15:42):
Really fortunate because nobody's ever said, man,
I'd much rather have this busbecause each bus I do is pretty
dang nice.
Right now, my favorite isSoprano.
It's just our newest bus.
It has every bell and whistleyou could think of as far as
color changing LEDs.
you know, nice sound systemthrough the whole thing.
The driver's area is reallyspacious and has a nice sound
(16:04):
system for the driver.
How
SPEAKER_01 (16:05):
long are the buses?
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
45 feet.
SPEAKER_01 (16:07):
45.
Same
SPEAKER_00 (16:08):
as the RV.
45 feet.
And most times in smaller bands,we carry a 15 foot trailer as
well.
SPEAKER_01 (16:14):
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_03 (16:15):
So one thing I want to know is like when you're
going into New York City,Chicago, I'm petrified when we
roll in there.
So like I see these tour busesrolling through.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
I'm like, I give you guys.
Then you got to
SPEAKER_03 (16:28):
around the stadium and in the back door
SPEAKER_00 (16:30):
and through the, you know.
Try doing a surfing team turnbackwards with a trailer down
Madison Square Gardens and itgives you exactly two minutes to
shut down the bus.
No way.
You want to talk about nervewracking?
With the trailer?
With the trailer.
Damn.
You know, and that's the thing.
With this industry, anybodycould be a steering wheel
holder.
(16:51):
It takes somebody with realfinesse and love to this
business to succeed and reallymove forward in this.
And I tell everybody the samething.
If you have a CDL and you liketo drive, this is the most
amount of money you're going tomake as a driver.
My drivers make well over sixfigures a year.
They work eight months.
SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
So what are some of the celebrities, the juice?
What are some of the, give ussome of the, what do you call
that?
The tea?
What do you say?
What are some people that youhave driven around or that use
your company that you can talkabout?
You didn't sign NDAs about that.
Uh, you know, some of yourfavorites or let's talk about my
SPEAKER_00 (17:26):
favorites because, uh, you know, the tea on the,
the bad ones would, uh, probablynot be the best.
Cause I would expose.
We're running a business there.
So we got to keep, uh, keep itrunning.
I'm going to tell you, Some ofmy favorites, Rick Ross.
If Rick Ross calls me, I willget out of the bed at the drop
of a hat, and I will have a busready for Mr.
(17:48):
Ross.
The thing that I look for is notthe name, because I could care
less who I tour with.
Everybody pays the same.
It's how they treat us whenwe're on the road.
SPEAKER_03 (17:55):
And
SPEAKER_00 (17:56):
for me...
That's a big thing.
I'm a veteran.
I've been doing this a longtime.
I deserve the greatness.
And so, you know, Mr.
Ross, he's one of them.
There's a band that is comingout that's been, they've already
been out for a while, butthey're getting a huge traction
now called Citizen Soldier.
And their music is about mentalhealth and suicide prevention.
(18:20):
So that alone, you know, Ireally like.
But these guys, they really fromday one have treated me like
family.
They make sure that my hotelrooms are plush.
You know, I got bananas, whichis important.
I love bananas.
You have
SPEAKER_01 (18:32):
that in your rider.
I
SPEAKER_00 (18:34):
don't even have a rider, but I should.
Citizen soldier, I get out ofbed for them.
Soldier boy.
He gets a lot of controversy.
You know, the kid always haspaid me very well.
And, you know, we've had somebumps in the road, but he
always, you know, manages to get
SPEAKER_03 (18:50):
through.
So what does it mean to betreated right?
Like, what does that mean?
Because we come from Vegas.
We're in the hospitalityindustry.
Whenever we go overseas, a lotof times, It's not appropriate
to tip, but I tip everybodybecause we come from me and tip
and I appreciate your work.
SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
I was a cocktail waitress.
We
SPEAKER_03 (19:03):
were recently in Tokyo and they pride themselves
just on the work that they do.
And when you go to tip them,they'll chase you down.
They don't want you to.
And they're like, no, I did
SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
a good job.
That's my tip.
It's almost like insulting.
And we're like, no,
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
seriously.
And I tell them on my littleapp.
In America, we show appreciationby, you know, Giving you a
little extra love.
So what does it mean whensomebody treats you right?
What does that feel like?
SPEAKER_00 (19:23):
For me, it's the hotel rooms.
You know, being ready after youjust got done with a 10-hour
drive and being going straightto your hotel room and having a
hotel ready, you know, that'sclutch for me.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:34):
You know, little things that matter, you know,
having waters in my room, youknow, sending bananas, you know,
buy me lunch or dinner.
You know, those things arereally important.
Being on the road is likeeverything.
that is different than, youknow, traveling in a travel
trailer because you're living insomebody else's bus.
Even though it's my bus, thesepeople are paying me good money
(19:56):
to use it.
So it's actually their bus andthey could treat the bus the way
they want in the back.
And so when you have people thattake the extra time to clean up
and to, you know, pick up afterthemselves, you know, that's
also a really big thing.
You know, you got some artiststhat they just live like, like,
Oh my gosh, I got to clean it inour, in our job detail, in our
(20:16):
job detail, we clean once aweek.
That's part of our, our, ourthing.
And we changed linens once aweek.
So everybody has fresh linensonce a week.
And, you know, we wash the busonce a week and we do the
generator oil change once aweek.
SPEAKER_03 (20:31):
Damn, really?
SPEAKER_00 (20:31):
Yeah.
And so outside of that, youknow, To have these people go an
entire week without cleaning, itcould be a three- to four-hour
job.
SPEAKER_03 (20:40):
So
SPEAKER_00 (20:41):
when you have the ones that are really clean and
it makes your job easier,
SPEAKER_03 (20:44):
that's great.
That's cool.
Let's run through real quick.
Give me 10 names of people thatyou've had on tour with, like
boom, boom, boom, Machine GunKelly style.
Machine Gun Kelly style.
SPEAKER_00 (20:56):
My palms are sweaty.
I'm knee-deep.
Okay, let's do Citizen Soldier,Rick Ross, Drake, Soldier Boy,
Warrant.
SPEAKER_01 (21:08):
I know Tyga, right?
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Tyga, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
Warrant, really?
Yeah.
Oh, man.
And you just said Danzig?
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Danzing, yep, Danzing.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (21:17):
my
SPEAKER_00 (21:17):
gosh.
Yeah.
Glenn Danzing is actually areally great dude.
I was a little bit worriedbecause I had a lot of people...
that were like, man, you justgot to be careful.
You know, he's hot-headed.
The guy was an amazing guy.
I had a great time with him.
Guitarist has been with himforever, Steve.
Amazing, caring individual.
He sat up front.
We had many good conversations.
(21:37):
And, you know, that helps thedrive get by.
You're doing these back-to-backlong drives.
That's crazy, man.
SPEAKER_01 (21:42):
Do they come up and talk to you a lot of the time?
SPEAKER_00 (21:45):
Yes.
And so my rule of thumb is youcan come up and talk to me.
I don't really get too personal.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
but
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
I'm a great listener.
And so part of my occupation isalso being a therapist on the
road.
SPEAKER_01 (21:55):
Yeah.
I'm sure they appreciate thatbecause they're celebrities,
they're mega stars, right?
And so their circle, I'm sure isvery small.
And so when they have somebodythat they could just talk to and
just shoot
SPEAKER_00 (22:06):
the shit, just be normal.
With social media, the way it isnow too, is you get so many of
these people that are driversare starstruck.
They immediately start posting
SPEAKER_01 (22:12):
things.
And it's weird.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:13):
And you know, for a lot of these high level artists,
it's a security threat becauseyou're driving around with these
people.
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
You know, so it's a thing to where you've got to be
very, you know, level-headed.
And, you know, I'll give a forinstance.
I replaced Diana Ross's driverbecause he got too handsy to
where he would do selfies withher.
And, you know, he would always,you know, want to do social
media with her just for his ownclout.
(22:40):
And that was told me from thevery beginning, this is the
reason why you're replacing him.
And so I was, you know, a littlebit nervous, like, oh man, you
know, I'm coming in to wipe outa bad situation.
So already she.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
The knight in shining armor.
Right.
And she's older too, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
What a diva queen she is.
I can't tell you enough greatthings about her and her team.
Yeah, they were just such greatpeople.
At the very end, my son, he's22.
He's been working with me sincehe turned 18, got his CDL as
soon as he turned 18.
And we needed a co-driver whenwe got back to the East Coast
because every time she does ashow, she goes back to her
(23:16):
Connecticut house.
So it takes two drivers becauseyou're out of time.
SPEAKER_01 (23:19):
And
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
so I said, okay, I'm going to fly in my son to
co-drive and he'll help us getthrough.
And she looked at hiscredentials and she said, buddy,
he's a little bit young.
And I said, yeah, but he's agreat driver.
This kid has been bred to dowhat he's doing.
And so she was a little bitnervous.
And I said, listen, Ms.
Ross, I will replace him at mycost if you don't feel
(23:41):
comfortable.
And by the end of the tour, shewas asking him for a picture.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (23:47):
So
SPEAKER_01 (23:48):
let's touch on that because that is something that
we have seen unfold is youshowing Sean the ropes and
taking your son to like groominghim to be like, the next buddy
or his own, but you know, liketeaching him the ropes because
it's huge what you, what you'vebuilt.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
You know, I don't have a lot to teach my boys, but
I could shortcut them on what Iknow.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (24:11):
And he read the blueprint from a very early age
and decided this is how I'mgoing to do things.
I'll give you, he was with a guynamed Miami Mike, which is a
very famous, uh, Manager,producer, he does it all.
I actually don't even know onething that he does.
He just does a lot of things.
And he's the guy who discoveredSoldier Boy.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
And
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
so they just happened to all be in the same
town.
My son went out with them.
And by the next morning, MiamiMike was sending me pictures
with him.
And he's like, I knew from themoment I saw this kid that this
has to be your kid.
Because we dress the same.
We wear the same fedoras.
We're very close.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
So Buddy is pretty flashy.
He likes style.
He likes to look good.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
I toned it down today.
SPEAKER_03 (24:57):
You did, actually.
SPEAKER_01 (24:58):
We'll throw some pictures in.
We'll throw some pictures in.
I saw
SPEAKER_03 (25:00):
a mirrored hat in the car, so I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
A mirrored hat?
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_03 (25:05):
It's a disco ball, actually.
All right, so I'm prying here,Buddy.
I want to know some dirt.
I want to know some stories.
But I understand that you'rerunning a business here.
It's all disclosure, yes.
Yeah.
you can probably sign some NDAsalong the way where you're not
really allowed to say, you know,and I don't want to compromise
you like that anyway, but youknow, maybe when the, maybe when
(25:26):
the mics are off, we can hearsome stories.
I'll definitely
SPEAKER_00 (25:28):
tell you a couple of stories with the mics off, but
nobody wants to trust the guythat's going to be on their
tour.
SPEAKER_01 (25:34):
That has loose lips.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
Yeah.
But you know, I could tell youthings like, uh, you know, bad
hotel room stories, you know,that, that would be a, give
SPEAKER_01 (25:44):
us a juicy one.
SPEAKER_00 (25:45):
A bad hotel story was with a band that I truly
like.
I won't even name them.
So that way they don't feel badabout when they hear this, but I
knew I was screwed when I sawdays in on our tour master and
you know, I have a rule.
I can't, I don't do a supereights.
If it has a number in it, I'mnot involved in it.
Right.
(26:06):
And so we're
SPEAKER_01 (26:10):
in
SPEAKER_00 (26:12):
Denver and it, I just came off of a 10 hour
drive.
So I was a hundred percent readyto get in my room and go to bed.
And I only had eight hours tothe next drive.
So we get to the hotel room andI'm checking in and it's already
smelling dirty.
You know, I'm like not feelingthe best about it, but I'm going
to make do.
And as I'm walking to my room,there's an old guy in a
wheelchair with a missing legand a needle hanging out of his
(26:34):
arm.
Doing it right.
Those are signs.
This is a good
SPEAKER_03 (26:38):
place.
What movie is that?
Run, Forrest, Run?
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
That didn't deter me.
So I put the key in the doorbecause at this motel, it
definitely had an old key.
And when I opened it up, therewas a six-foot transvestite with
a younger...
working lady and a guy with agag ball on the bed all
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
right so are you supposed to just like join in i
SPEAKER_00 (27:01):
froze for a second i didn't know what to do and then
i just shut the door and i waslike oh my god and i go down to
the front desk and i explainedthe story and she didn't even
seem surprised about the traybut was like man this is the
second time this happened todayman
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
girls got to make some money, you know?
SPEAKER_03 (27:18):
That's a good story.
I like that story.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:22):
So did they, did you let the band know?
Like we
SPEAKER_00 (27:24):
have an issue with my girl?
I called the band and I said,hey, do you hate me?
because this is what happened inmy hotel room today and luckily
they tell me you know we carry abank credit card when we're on
the road and they said hey justgo get a good room and that's
SPEAKER_01 (27:39):
what I did and you were so exhausted we know after
long travel
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
days like you don't want to do nothing when you're
on the road for 10 hours youknow first of all you're trying
to drive the best you can forthe people in the back that are
sleeping but you have so muchstuff that goes on that your
brain is scrambled by the timethat you get there I can't
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
even imagine
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
I just did a drive from Rockfest in Ohio going to
New York and as we were on the81 uh I see a deer about 50 feet
away and I can see it looking atme.
And I'm thinking to myself,don't run in front of the bus.
Don't run in front of the bus.
And by the time I said, don'trun in front of the bus, the
(28:17):
thing ran in front of the bus.
And so the only thing you coulddo when this happens is just
drive through it and deal withit.
And that's what we did.
I pulled over, you know,immediately to assess the
damage, but to also make surethat this struggling deer isn't
on the side of the road, youknow,
SPEAKER_01 (28:32):
still
SPEAKER_00 (28:33):
alive.
After getting out and assess inthe situation.
We got back on board andcontinued our drive.
The next day, the band memberwoke up and he was like, man, I
didn't even feel a thing.
Like, thank you, buddy.
And that's like a complimentbecause if you could drive
through a deer, you could drivethrough anything.
Was there any damage on the bus?
Yeah, it was like$3,500 worth ofdamage on the bus.
(28:56):
I saw
SPEAKER_01 (28:56):
that video, actually, that you put on social
media.
It was a big deer.
SPEAKER_00 (29:00):
It was a big deer.
I actually had full intentionsof taking its rack if it still
had it.
As in, you know, you damaged mybus, I'm going to at least put a
rack on the front.
You should have put that as ahood order.
Yeah, but it didn't have one, sounfortunately I didn't get that.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (29:15):
always the biggest nightmare, scare.
Whenever I see you, I honk my
SPEAKER_03 (29:19):
horn.
It scares them to get out of the
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
way.
I'm going to let you No, I havetwo deer whistles on each bus.
Oh really?
It doesn't work.
Oh really?
They don't work.
What's a
SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
deer whistle?
SPEAKER_00 (29:27):
It's a, it's like a whistle that you put on the
front of your car.
That's supposed to deter.
SPEAKER_01 (29:31):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
I didn't even know about that.
If anything, I think that itattracted it more.
SPEAKER_03 (29:36):
He's like, Oh, that's my calling.
It was like a mating call tohim.
All
SPEAKER_02 (29:42):
right.
SPEAKER_03 (29:42):
So, you know, being out on the roads of grind, it's
like a, it's a lot like as we,we have these hard drive days
and it's like, it's, it's, it'sa, it's a sport.
It's a finesse.
It's, it's, You know, it's hard.
So what keeps you going afterall these years?
What keeps you grinding and keep
SPEAKER_00 (29:56):
it?
I truly love what I do.
And I practice to my kids andeverybody.
I know if you love what you do,you'll never work a day in your
life.
You know, being on the road,you're seeing America, you know,
you're in this beautiful hogdriving down the street.
To me, it's definitely alifestyle.
It's a gypsy lifestyle that you,you gotta have that in you
because it's not for everybody,right?
(30:17):
And the hardest thing is beingaway from your family.
You know, being away from yourwife and kids for that amount of
time, it gets difficult.
And then the readjustment ofgetting home is even more
difficult.
You can't be the guy on the roadthat, you know, you've been gone
for so long and then you comeback in and start ordering
chores to get done and food toget made, you know.
They're
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
like, I don't think so, Dad.
So what's your typical length oftime that you're away?
SPEAKER_00 (30:39):
For me, I get to pick and choose now.
So I'll be gone sometimes, youknow, two to three months at a
time.
Wow, that's a yeah.
But my drivers will drive outFebruary and March and they
returned in November.
SPEAKER_01 (30:52):
In the beginning, did you do those long stretches?
SPEAKER_00 (30:54):
I did.
It was really hard.
I remember I've never in myentire life felt depression
until I was probably four monthson the road.
I remember like it wasyesterday.
I was in Atlanta.
I woke up.
None of my kids or nobody calledme.
None of my friends.
I get on social media andeverybody's having a great day.
And I just felt like I wasforgotten.
(31:16):
And I remember I was, I, Isulked for a little bit and I
went to a hookah bar and, andthen I went home and I was like,
or my hotel room.
And I was like, man, nobodyknows what I'm doing or where
I'm at.
That's a
SPEAKER_01 (31:30):
weird feeling,
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
huh?
You know, when, when the outsidepeople that are at home still
their day to day goes on everyday, you know, and you're not in
that.
So it's, just like they're notin yours.
And that, that feeling ofdepression, I realized like,
wow, this is like a real thing.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (31:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:46):
Yeah.
I can't even imagine.
Cause that's a long stretch.
And you know, even when I, alittle side story, I was in the
hospital when I had pneumonialast year.
Right.
And I was sick for like a monthin the bedroom and we were at
Pigeon Forge for Ryder'sbirthday and everybody's,
they're all out doing all thethings to celebrate.
And I was like almost dying inthe room.
And then I was in the hospitalfor four days and literally I
felt the same way.
(32:07):
Like I go, everybody is justgoing on with their life and I'm
here and it was this detachment
SPEAKER_02 (32:12):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (32:13):
in a weird way I go nobody cares like I could just
go nobody knows like you know itwas a weird thing so I totally
relate in a weird way But that'sa, yeah, that's a sucky feeling.
SPEAKER_00 (32:23):
This job is, you know, unforgiving for birthdays,
holidays, Christmas, gettogethers, 4th of July, Mother's
Day, your birthday.
I mean, you're missing everygreat holiday when you're on the
road.
But the being able to providefor your family in this way,
it's like a love and hate thingbecause some families say, well,
we don't really care about themoney.
(32:43):
But, you know, that's what'sreally supporting the life.
We all need money to go around.
SPEAKER_01 (32:47):
I got to say, because as an entrepreneur,
there is ups and downs.
And so has there been timeswhere you were like, you had
your business and then somehowlike dead broke and you had to,
you know, get back on top again?
Like, has there been crazy highsand lows in your business?
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
This whole business has been highs and lows.
And, you know, for mepersonally, my greatest
achievement of every, all mysuccess has been able to support
other people and give otherpeople a way of life that they
would have never had before.
And for my drivers, that'sreally big for me for them to
always be happy to have a pocketfull of money.
(33:23):
And, you know, that's whythey're out there on the road.
And at the same time, they'realso, you know, in charge of my
asset that I've worked my buttoff.
And so, um, to be able to givesomebody this kind of lifestyle
to provide for their family tome is the greatest achievement
I've done.
And so, you know, we're, we getoff in November.
And so usually I have all mybuses home by Thanksgiving and I
(33:45):
tell my guys, make sure youprepare to save.
Cause we may not be out on theroad until February or March of
next year.
And so during the winter months,you know, I do help.
And sometimes I overextend myhelp, but as long as my guys are
happy, I'm happy.
And it's, The beginning of everyyear is always, you know, you're
starting fresh with zero in thebank account, you know, making
(34:07):
it happen.
You know, insurance, and I'msure on your guys' rig,
insurance is outrageous,especially now with, you know,
everything that's going on inAmerica.
That's one of my biggestpayments every single month.
How
SPEAKER_03 (34:18):
many figures?
UNKNOWN (34:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:20):
I spend well over six figures a year.
What?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (34:24):
Whoa.
SPEAKER_00 (34:24):
I'll tell you.
I mean, I spend$200,000 a yearon insurance.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Holy moly.
Those are big boy
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
payments.
Yeah, those are big boys.
Luckily, my thing is very low.
SPEAKER_00 (34:35):
What about, can you say fuel?
Like how much do you know?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I spend well over sixfigures, but we charge the band
for the fuel.
So, you know, what I do is Icharge the band for the fuels.
I put everything on AmericanExpress so I can get those
points and I use those points tobuy my driver's dinners or I'll
bring this Spouses in and out ofthe different tour dates.
SPEAKER_01 (34:53):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:54):
So what's some of the best advice you would give
somebody that's trying to buildfrom the ground up?
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
The best advice for trying to build from the ground
up, I would say, is do yourresearch before you get into
what you're going to do.
Because if you don't have a gameplan, then you're already
setting yourself up for failure.
And this was told to me longbefore I actually came prepared.
When I came in the limoindustry, I winged it from day
one.
I am school of hard knocks allthe way.
(35:20):
No college, you know, nobusiness, no nothing.
I learned everything frommyself.
And, uh, when I came into thebus business, I knew I wanted to
change and things are just somuch different in the limo game.
When a limo broke down and wentin the shop, a$1,500 bill used
to piss me off.
A$1,500 bill in the bus industryis like, what?
(35:42):
You don't even, you don't get,it's 10,000, 20,000, you know?
So it's, uh, Definitely you gotto be prepared and do your due
diligence of what you're goingto get
SPEAKER_03 (35:52):
into.
What's your most expensive bill?
Like maintenance wise thatyou've had to like unexpected or
expected.
A hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_02 (36:00):
Uh,
SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
actually I'm, I'm lying to you.
$126,000.
Yikes.
Yeah.
I had a bus that was parked onthe PCH in Huntington beach,
California that got rearrendered by a drunk driver that
was on meth doing 70 miles anhour.
SPEAKER_03 (36:17):
Goodness.
SPEAKER_00 (36:18):
And I really love this bus and it was a great bus.
And so the insurance companywanted to give me a little bit
of a settlement and I didn'twant to take that.
I just said, you know what, giveme what you can and I'll pay the
rest to fix everything.
So that was probably one of mymost expensive.
SPEAKER_01 (36:35):
So I know when you start a new business, you always
wait for that big break to say,all right, we like, we made it
like we are substantial.
We're a competitor in thisfield.
So for you, who was that firstbig contract where you're like,
all right, we have arrived ourlittle business that we just got
off the ground.
It's like,
SPEAKER_00 (36:51):
I would say not that he's the most giant artist out
there, but he was an artist thatI listened to as a child that I
never in a million years thoughtI'd be doing business with.
And that is a, Warren G.
SPEAKER_01 (37:04):
Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (37:07):
It's crazy.
Cause he'll text me and my kidis in the car and it'll show up
on the screen and he'll look atme and he'll be like, dad, is
that?
SPEAKER_02 (37:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:18):
And he's like, man, that's insane.
I'm sure your Rolodex is crazy.
That's really when I was like,man, I got Warren G texting me
for bus questions.
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (37:31):
You know, I have to say hands down.
We've known a lot of people overthe years.
Anytime I think of the wordhustle and killing it, you
always, always come to mind.
And for us, you're a hugeinspiration.
And whenever we get, you know,it's, it's up and down in this
game.
And I'm like, what would buddydo?
Like he'd be out there.
He'd be doing anything likeCOVID screwed us all.
(37:51):
And I remember you like, Youwere doing anything to get some
money in, to get going.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (37:56):
right.
We were in Bali together.
Yes.
And I was telling you, I amgoing to get a bus business.
Yeah, I remember.
And I came home, and I got a busbusiness.
And look at you now.
It hasn't
SPEAKER_01 (38:07):
even been that
SPEAKER_00 (38:08):
long.
You know, same thing with youguys.
I see and I know a lot of peoplethat are real well off from
social media, and I have somethat are clients.
But watching firsthand how youguys built this as a viable
business has been insane.
And I've been there with youthrough the highs and lows.
And I remember I was on tourwhen you guys hit a million.
(38:29):
I was like, I was watching thecountdown.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
I'm like, get it, get it.
We just hit a million on TikToktoo.
I know, we just
SPEAKER_01 (38:36):
got a million on another platform.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (38:38):
Almost social media is almost like the
entrepreneurial life becausethere is highs and lows and
there's like, we're like, wesuck, nothing's happening.
And we're, you know.
See, my
SPEAKER_00 (38:46):
business, I know what works, right?
And I have the recipe.
With your business, it changesall the time.
It does.
And so always having to get upon that change.
Mad respect to you guys.
But it keeps it fun andexciting.
You're not in control.
Absolutely.
But it's
SPEAKER_01 (38:59):
that ADD brain, right?
You love the quick hits andokay, this is like It's easy to
adapt, which is, I think, youneed that.
Otherwise, you go crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Something you said earlier that resonated with me
is this is kind of like a gypsylifestyle.
And it's funny how us gypsiesattracted to each other 25 years
ago.
We didn't even know we werereally gypsies back then.
We're just trying to make it inVegas.
But then we get out on the openroad and travel the world
together.
And we're just like, holy crap,man.
This is what we're meant to be.
SPEAKER_01 (39:28):
You remember when you looked that monkey in the
face, in the eyes?
And we said, you're not supposedto look him in the eyes.
You go, let me test it out.
You take your sunglasses downand he showed his fangs.
SPEAKER_03 (39:38):
That monkey wanted to kick my ass.
We were just in Bali like amonth ago.
We were just there, yeah.
And then we went to MonkeyForest and we were like,
everybody's looking at themonkey in the eyes.
You know, that was probablystill to this
SPEAKER_00 (39:47):
date the scariest two-hour ride I ever went on
with the most disappointment atthe end because the only thing I
wanted when we got there was abeer.
And they don't have alcohol
SPEAKER_03 (39:59):
out there
SPEAKER_00 (39:59):
in Ubed.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
Oh, that's
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
right.
I was so nerve wracked.
If you remember, we saw a dudewith his bone sticking out from,
got hit on another scooter.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
We did?
SPEAKER_00 (40:07):
Yeah.
I don't remember that.
I don't remember that.
Yeah, when we were drivingthrough, there was an accident
and we stopped for a second andthe dude's bone was hanging out
of his ankle.
Oh, man.
Then we continued on and lightturns green and everybody goes
at once.
It is, it's wild.
Oh my gosh, what a nervewracking.
Yeah, it's
SPEAKER_01 (40:23):
like organized chaos.
That's what I call it everytime.
Like, I don't know how peoplearen't crashing, but they make
it work.
SPEAKER_03 (40:29):
We're going to go through a quick lightning round
here, buddy.
This is something we like to doin every podcast.
So let's give it a shot here.
You ready, buddy?
Yes, sir.
All right.
Let's see.
Wildest city you drove through?
New York.
All right.
Tour bus snack of choice?
Man, I would say peanuts.
SPEAKER_00 (40:46):
All right.
Peanuts, huh?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:48):
Who would be your dream band to work with?
SPEAKER_00 (40:50):
Man, you know, I've worked with some greats, but I
think if I was to put who wouldI love to just sit side by side
with, it'd be like Dr.
Dre or Eminem.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
yeah.
I
SPEAKER_00 (41:00):
like that.
What's one of your best momentsin the past six months?
One of my best moments in thelast six months was definitely
running through that deer andhaving the artist wake up the
next day, not even know that Iran through a deer.
SPEAKER_01 (41:13):
You're like, yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (41:15):
that's accomplishment driving right
there.
You know, the thing that that'sthe biggest is we're like the
security point for these artistsgetting to and from the road.
And the artist I was with had ascary incident.
So, you know, having that muchtrust in somebody while you're
sleeping is very important.
SPEAKER_03 (41:31):
All right.
So we're going to pivot a littlebit here and do a this or that.
OK, so, buddy, I'm going tothrow these off to you real
quick and let's see if we canget some answers.
Tour bus or private jet?
Tour bus.
Oh, Vegas nightlife or Nashvillevibes?
Nash Vegas.
Oh, that's a good one.
That's a little tie.
Strip club or steakhouse?
Strip club.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Limo or bus?
I love limos, but man, you couldget up and use the bathroom and
sleep bus.
That's true.
SPEAKER_02 (41:58):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (41:58):
All right, buddy.
Rock band or country tour?
Rock band.
All right.
SPEAKER_03 (42:02):
Why?
SPEAKER_00 (42:02):
They're just so much more fun to be with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just going for it.
Is the
SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
country vibe like they're more serious or just
SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
kind of- All right, buddy.
Early
SPEAKER_03 (42:14):
morning grind or late night hustle?
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Late night hustle all the way,
SPEAKER_03 (42:17):
baby.
All right.
All right, buddy.
On the mic or behind the scenes?
Behind the scenes.
Really?
I can see you doing a little bitof both.
SPEAKER_01 (42:25):
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (42:26):
All right.
Let's get back to the questionshere.
Driving through the Rockies orcruising on the coast?
Cruising on the coast.
All right.
Building an empire or enjoyingthe ride?
Building an empire all the way.
All right, buddy.
So you're on our podcast, butyou also have a podcast.
So what was the reason forstarting your podcast and where
can people find you?
SPEAKER_00 (42:43):
Man, Tour Life is the name of our podcast.
It started as a passion project,but we're going to see where it
goes.
And, you know, you can check usout.
My IG is at King, K-I-N-Gunderscore Buds, B-U-D-Z
underscore Buds.
And that will have all theup-to-dates of the podcast.
SPEAKER_03 (43:02):
And what do you hope to accomplish with your podcast?
It's a lot of work to set
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
all this up.
So give us a gist of it.
What's it about?
SPEAKER_00 (43:07):
Tour Life is exactly what it says.
It's about being on the roadwith production managers,
artists, drivers.
you know, there's a lot thatgoes, a lot of mechanical parts
that go into, go into a concert.
And when you go to like a MorganWallen or a jelly roll or ice
cube concert, there's so manywheels behind their turning.
And I just want to show theworld those
SPEAKER_03 (43:29):
wheels.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (43:30):
cool.
It's very
SPEAKER_03 (43:30):
intriguing.
And it's very like, Ah,mysterious to see behind the
SPEAKER_01 (43:34):
scenes from our point of view.
Everybody loves behind thescenes.
The inner workings that younever see, right?
It's like the duck feetunderwater, right?
He's just gliding, but it'slike...
SPEAKER_00 (43:46):
That's a good analogy.
SPEAKER_01 (43:47):
I always think about that.
People don't see that.
SPEAKER_03 (43:49):
And what do you hope the podcast does?
Where do you hope it goes?
SPEAKER_00 (43:51):
Man, you know, I expect nothing and hope for
everything.
And I just, if I could make aliving of just traveling around
and doing podcasting, I thinkthat would be great.
It would be a great retirementbecause I don't think I could
all the way retire.
I'm always going to want to dosomething.
SPEAKER_01 (44:07):
Yeah, that brain will never shut
SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
off.
Never.
SPEAKER_01 (44:09):
And so I know you shot a couple.
Can you give us a little insightof some of the names?
SPEAKER_00 (44:14):
Yeah, I got all five members of Citizen Soldier on
there.
I got Soldier Boy.
So
SPEAKER_01 (44:21):
pretty big names you are kicking off with.
SPEAKER_00 (44:23):
Man, we're going straight for the throat.
SPEAKER_01 (44:25):
I see.
I see.
SPEAKER_00 (44:26):
Yeah.
I got another one that's comingup with a Vegas local artist.
He was actually with Bunnybefore Jelly Roll was.
SPEAKER_01 (44:34):
No
SPEAKER_00 (44:34):
way.
And so he claims that Jelly Rollis stopping him from making it
to that next plateau.
SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
Because he was with his wife.
SPEAKER_00 (44:42):
Correct.
And so he's a really good guyhere in Vegas.
He has good momentum.
And, you know, his songs arebumping, so...
SPEAKER_01 (44:51):
All right.
Well, I like you going for thethroat going for it.
So I can't wait to hear it.
So you got to get this launchedalready because there's some
listening ears out there.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Jimmy is, is the guy that, you know, just like you
guys say you inspire, I inspireyou, you guys inspire me because
you get stuck in this, you know,plateau of, of you're, you're,
you're, you're stuck in this,this, you got so many ideas
going, but you, you can't getthem all out there.
Yes.
Pull the trigger.
And so Jimmy, you know, alwayshits me up with inspirational
(45:21):
things in the morning and says,today's the day you're going to
get this done.
And I'm like, all right, that'sit.
Yeah.
So
SPEAKER_03 (45:28):
I'm glad that resonates with you.
Cause sometimes I'm like, itmight be in a pain in the ass
and like, but I know what you'recapable of and I just want to
see it like come out,
SPEAKER_00 (45:36):
you know, as men, you never want to reach out for
direction.
Yeah.
because we're terrible at that.
But when you have your closeones next to you inspiring you
to do this and pushing you to dothis, you know it's time.
You
SPEAKER_03 (45:48):
know what's funny?
Buddy gave us directions onwhere to meet up at his shop
earlier today, and they were thewrong directions, right?
Shame on Buddy.
But Ryder's like, just call him.
Just call
SPEAKER_01 (45:57):
him.
Oh, I do that a lot.
He's so damn stubborn.
SPEAKER_03 (45:59):
And I go, Ryder, we don't look like men if we call
Buddy and ask him for directionswhen we can't find a shop.
So we're going to man up, andwe're going to see if we can
find this.
And then finally it got to apoint where we couldn't find the
shop.
All right, Ryder, we got to callhim.
So it's funny that you just saidas man, we don't like to take
SPEAKER_01 (46:15):
direction.
It's so frustrating for me ashis wife, because for me, I'm
straight to the info.
If I it's like, I don't want towaste any time trying to do
this.
I'm like, where is it?
Let's go.
You know, and him.
He's so damn stubborn.
We don't ask people fordirections or we don't ask for
help.
And I'm like.
Oh, no.
Yes, we do.
Because I ain't taking any moretime wasted over
SPEAKER_03 (46:36):
here.
Definitely.
All right, buddy.
Super honored, privileged,excited
SPEAKER_00 (46:41):
that we got to sit down and have this conversation
with you.
Thank you, guys.
And, you know, I am going to betrying something new myself with
this podcast.
Oh, I love it.
And it's definitely because ofyou guys.
You inspired me for
SPEAKER_03 (46:51):
this one.
We inspire each other.
It's been a great experience forus to sit here and watch your
journey.
Because, seriously, it has,like, turned us up a notch.
SPEAKER_01 (46:59):
Oh, man.
Every time you say, I justbought a new bus.
I go, what
SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
the heck?
SPEAKER_01 (47:03):
Those are not cheap buses.
Each one is like a damn, youknow?
SPEAKER_00 (47:08):
All gas, no brakes.
All right, brother.
It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_03 (47:11):
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01 (47:14):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (47:16):
And whatever you guys do, get out there and try
something new.
You know, I dream big.
ADD has been my greatestsuperpower ever.
If Rick Ross calls me, I willget out of the bed at the drop
of a hat.
Soldier Boy, Drake, Warrant,Citizen Soldier, Tyga, Danzing,
yep, Danzing.
I remember I've never in myentire life felt depression.
I just felt like I wasforgotten.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Anytime I think of the word hustle, you always,
always come to mind.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
All gas, no brakes.
The best advice for trying tobuild from the ground up, I
would say is...
All
SPEAKER_03 (00:29):
right, everybody, welcome back to another episode
of trying something new andwe're super excited about today
because we have the one and onlybuddy ramsey from the king of
coaches
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
oh man you are gonna want to listen because this guy
has experienced a ton
SPEAKER_03 (00:43):
he's from he's driven rock stars all over the
country for the past coupleyears he's had limos on the
strip he's ran vegas for thelast 20 years
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
built businesses from the ground up and i'm not
talking about a little businesslike a rock star no pun intended
killer business that is makingwaves all over the country and
now actually maybe in to Europe.
SPEAKER_03 (01:01):
So he's going to share his entrepreneurial
mindset and tell us some storiesfrom the road.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
All
SPEAKER_03 (01:05):
right.
So let's get into it.
We have a great friend of ours.
We've probably been friends forabout 25 years.
This is Buddy Ramsey from theKing of Coaches.
Yes, sir.
How are you guys doing today?
Man, we're doing great.
We're so amazing.
We rolled back through Vegas fora minute and we said, you know
what?
We got to get Buddy on thepodcast because as we're out on
the road traveling andadventuring and putting miles on
(01:25):
the truck in the RV, this guy isprobably 10x to our mileage and
probably we have 10 extrastories.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
And I did not think that you would be in town
because you are constantly onthe go.
You travel way more than us.
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Our stars aligned.
There it is.
There it is.
So to give everybody a littlebackground, let's go back.
I'm going to say 25 years.
I haven't done the math yet, butdoes that sound right to you?
About 25 years.
All right.
So I used to be a bus boy at arestaurant called Nobu in the
Hard Rock.
And Buddy used to come in withhis wife, Crystal, all the time.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
She was my girlfriend
SPEAKER_03 (01:54):
at the time.
They would come in and I wouldwine and dine him and show him a
great time.
Pour him sake and they get theyellowtail jalapeno And Buddy
would try to steal the littlesake containers because they
were in bamboo and it was reallycool.
And he kept trying to buy them.
I'm like, you can't buy thembecause we need them for the
next customer.
So he would just steal them.
Oddly
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
enough, we stole two of them.
One of them never cracked.
Perfectly preserved.
The other one cracked in half.
I'm like,
SPEAKER_03 (02:18):
yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (02:18):
that one out there.
SPEAKER_03 (02:19):
They're organic material, so they didn't last
very long.
But yeah, what a great friend.
So many amazing memories andstories.
And just to watch Buddy's comeup and the hustle and the grind
and where he started and wherehe has now is a total
inspiration to us.
I mean, I get goosebumps
SPEAKER_01 (02:37):
just talking about it, thinking about your story
all the time.
SPEAKER_03 (02:41):
And one of the reasons why I really want to
have Buddy on this podcast,because they say you are the
person you surround yourselfwith.
You're close.
his five friends and i reallyconsider buddy a close friend
and so uh yeah he's doing thingsso surround yourself with people
that are doing things and you'llprobably be doing things too
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
yeah man and you know your guys's story i say
this all the time when when italk about social media i work
with a lot of artists that havea lot of social media presence
but i've never seen somebodyground up build like you guys
have and so i always talk veryproud about man look at these
guys they're following
SPEAKER_03 (03:13):
their dream and making it happen so let's rewind
a little bit and talk about howyou got your start.
Because when I met you, you hada bunch of limos in your
runaround bachelor parties onthe strip.
And how many limos did you have?
How'd you start?
And what was like your thingthat got you into that game?
SPEAKER_00 (03:27):
So the limos started with one and ended our fleet
with 14.
I was very passionate about whatI did from the very beginning.
That's how I was able to buildit.
And I was very young.
I was 21 when I got my firstlimo.
And Las Vegas is like the Meccaof making cool things happen.
So I had like big dreams Youknow, pulling up to Utopia, fog
(03:49):
machine hitting out of the back.
So when you open the door,there's fog there, disco lights.
You know, this is before it wasreally party buses or thing.
And it was a little bit beforeits time.
We slowly migrated over to thebuses because I started losing
the passion, you know, betweenthe door guys robbing you and
the drivers robbing you.
And it made me a very bitterperson.
(04:10):
And I just lost that drive.
The entertainer coaches kind ofcame in by a fluke.
I knew the minute I got intosomebody's bus and drove that I
could capitalize on this.
I could take this over like Idid the limo game.
SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
Right on.
And so back in the verybeginning, when me and Buddy
first met, he'd come into therestaurant.
And at that time, I had a hugepassion for creating videos.
And I really wanted to see whatI could do with this video
making business.
SPEAKER_01 (04:34):
Well, what happened was we had our first kid and we
were like...
you don't want to work in arestaurant every night.
I'm like, we have to figure outwhat we can do to get you out of
the restaurant.
I'm, I'm at home with a babythat's screaming, crying.
She was colicky.
And then he's at work.
And I'm like, this ain't goingto work.
Like we have to figure somethingout.
And so, yeah, we like venturedinto what can we do?
Like,
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
yeah, I actually thought you were crazy because
what people don't really knowout there is you started as a
bus boy, but ended as a managerand making fat manager money.
Yeah.
And walked away from sixfigures.
Right.
To follow my
SPEAKER_03 (05:06):
dream
SPEAKER_00 (05:07):
of, I remember the day, you told me, you're like,
yeah, this ain't for me no more.
And I was like, what?
You're going
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
to
SPEAKER_00 (05:14):
do what?
But I always had great faith inyou because when you made that
video for our company, that wasso far ahead of its time that, I
mean, you could put that videoout right this second and it
would compete with anything outthere.
SPEAKER_03 (05:27):
So just give everybody a little context on
the video.
Buddy has limos running up anddown the strip.
He's got girls and guys comingin and out of the limos.
And so I had this idea of, shit,I need to build a portfolio.
So let me ask Buddy, thiscustomer who's been coming into
Novo, if, hey, I got this wildidea.
Can I do like a promo video ofyour bus just to create a
portfolio.
And he's like, hell yeah.
(05:47):
Well, needless to say, I didn'teven have a camera.
Oh, that's right.
I had to go to Marshall Silver,which is this mega millionaire
guy, but he had a bunch ofcameras because he did
production for his
SPEAKER_01 (05:57):
whatever.
Yeah, it shows.
Yeah, it shows.
SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
And he lent me like a$5,000 camera.
He was another
SPEAKER_01 (06:03):
guy.
You didn't even know how to useit.
And ChatGP did not exist.
So we're like, looking at themanual, I'm like, how the hell
do you work this thing?
I'm
SPEAKER_03 (06:09):
like, hopefully nobody knows that I don't know
what I'm doing right now, right?
Just film a whole bunch of stuffand let's get home and see if we
can make some magic out of it.
And, and yeah, that was rightwhen Afrojack first came out.
So we were doing some Afrojacksongs to it.
We went to some clubs, had somegirls walk out of the limo.
It was, it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (06:24):
Yeah, man, that video is still, it's
unbelievable.
The thing about it is, isediting, especially back then
where you didn't have YouTubevideos and, and you know, all
these, uh, what do they call it?
DYEs to learn how to do things.
It was going to a college andlearn how to edit there.
And you shortcutted all this andyou were
SPEAKER_03 (06:45):
like naturally great at editing.
Oh, thanks man.
Yeah.
I went to UNLV for like asemester and a teacher there
goes, just get out of here.
You just go, you're, you'rebeyond what we're doing here.
And
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
we were already like mid thirties.
So we were not like younginsstarting this whole thing.
It's
SPEAKER_03 (06:59):
never too late to follow
SPEAKER_01 (07:00):
your dreams.
It's so true.
SPEAKER_03 (07:01):
Never too late to try something new.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Well, you know what I love about, you buddy is like
your style you know like you'reso it seems like you're very
innovative with your limos andlike just like you said open the
door and the fog rolls out infront of the nightclub making a
statement like where did thatcome from because you were young
and like that wasn't reallyhappening I want
SPEAKER_03 (07:20):
to add something else on what buddy he had a flat
screen TV molded into the backof the limo where he ran ads on
so not only while he was makingmoney with the people inside he
was making money running ads onthe back thing before that was a
thing man that's crazy
SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
you know what What it is is ADD has been my
greatest superpower ever.
I hear a lot of people that, andI'm around all these ADHD groups
that complain about things, andI really use it as my
superpower.
I dream big, and the concept oftrying to make it come to
reality is probably the hardestpart of the whole thing, but
(07:58):
it's also the greatest downfallbecause when you get overwhelmed
with all these thoughts, youdon't pull the trigger on them.
But, you know, being in acreative space like Las Vegas,
it's really helped me be able todo a lot of the things that I
wanted.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
Yeah, there is a lot going on.
So there's eye candy everywhere.
So it's inspirational.
SPEAKER_03 (08:17):
All right.
So that was a little bit ofhistory, a little bit of past on
how we got to where we are todayand how our relationship
blossomed through the years.
But now I want to know where youare at now and what are you
doing?
I keep hearing this thingthrowing around are Prevo buses.
And in the RV game, if you got aPrevo bus, you're like a baller
times 10 because they run fromlike a million to 4 million for
these Prevo buses off theshowroom floor.
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
Yeah.
In the touring community forentertainer coaches and
traveling with bands, it's likethe premier way of traveling.
MCI came out with a bus a whileback and they really tried to
make that into a good touringbus.
but it got shut down real quickbecause the standard is Prevo.
Yeah.
You know, that's a bus that youcould be driving 75 miles an
(08:58):
hour down the road and theartist is walking from the back
to the front without, you know,falling back and forth.
SPEAKER_03 (09:03):
All right.
So how many, how many Prevos
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
you got, man?
So we, we started with one.
I bought Jason Aldean's, it'scalled a production coach, which
there's many different types ofentertainers, even though they
look the same on the outside,the inside is what really makes
it the bus it is.
So I special in 12-bunkproduction buses.
(09:25):
Coming into this business, Istarted as a driver, but knew I
could quickly turn over and takeover the industry, especially on
the West Coast, because therewas only one other company that
I could compete with, and therewas nobody in Nevada.
And so when I came to thisdecision, I went to my wife and
I said, hey, you know, we'vebeen saving our asses off.
This year, do you want to buy ahouse or a bus?
(09:48):
And she's always been verysupportive of me.
And she said, whatever you wantto do, daddy.
And so we bought our first bus.
And going into the bus game,buying a used bus is like buying
a used car.
Most people are selling thebuses for a reason.
So you got to really be inparticular of whose bus you're
going to buy because you couldeasily spend a couple hundred
(10:09):
thousand and get a turd.
UNKNOWN (10:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
and so we were heavily looking and my mom's
favorite color was maroon and ifound this bus and i was like oh
my gosh this is amazing and i'vebeen talking with the owner and
he sent me over some picturesand We flew out to Denver to go
see this, what I thought was anamazing bus, and it pulled up
and it was everything thepitchers weren't.
And I was like, damn.
(10:32):
That's horrible, like a
SPEAKER_01 (10:33):
waste
SPEAKER_00 (10:33):
of my time.
It's like a crappy Airbnb.
I was upset about it.
But at that moment, while I'mlooking at this turd bus, and I
already knew this wasn't my bus,Jason Aldean's people that run
their buses, called All AccessCoach, an amazing coach company
out there that really set thestandard in our community, sent
me an email that had anothermaroon bus, but this bus was
(10:54):
incredible.
And I showed it to my wife andshe goes, that's your bus.
And I looked at the price tagand it was a hundred thousand
more than I had.
And I was like, there's no way,like how are we going to do
this?
And she was like, you're goingto do it.
And so I went home and soldeverything.
Everything.
Like what's everything rightthere.
We had an airplane, a Hummer,you know what I mean?
(11:14):
We just started liquidating
SPEAKER_03 (11:16):
everything.
You sold the famous Hummer, the
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
yellow Hummer.
I did.
I sold it.
And, uh, I was, I didn't evenregret it because it was my best
buy.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
And so,
SPEAKER_03 (11:25):
so how many buses you got now?
SPEAKER_00 (11:26):
So now we're working on eight.
Damn.
And how long did it
SPEAKER_03 (11:29):
take you to build those or not build them, but how
long to acquire those eight?
SPEAKER_00 (11:32):
So originally when I started in the business, uh, I
had a partner and it quicklyfound out it didn't work out and
bought the partner out.
And then I started doinginvestor buses that helped me
get more traction because inthis business, people don't want
to do business with somebodythat has one bus because if that
bus breaks down, what's going tohappen with their tour?
(11:54):
And so we started doing investorbuses and quickly found out that
other people's mind with mycreative mind didn't work.
And then we reverted back to twobuses.
And I decided that moment thatevery time I build and buy a
bus, it's going to be on me.
And that way there's nobody totell me what I'm going to do or
can't do.
And I can be as creative as Iwant with these things.
(12:16):
Right on.
SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
And that's what makes you stand out.
SPEAKER_00 (12:18):
Yeah.
Ultimately.
When I was a driver and I drovethese buses, one of the things
that was, it was like a cashgrab for the companies because
they, They'd put their buses outthere.
They'd have okay stereos.
You know, lighting was very farand few in between.
And the first thing I'd hearfrom the artist when he got on
the bus is, man, I wish we had abetter vibe.
(12:39):
You know, I want to, you know,let's get a better hotel room or
a green room.
SPEAKER_01 (12:43):
Make it feel good.
SPEAKER_00 (12:44):
Right.
And I'm thinking to myself, man,why don't we outfit the bus to
be the vibe?
And that's what we reallystarted doing.
And so every one of my buses,they all have great changing LED
colors, rock and sound systems,you know, to where it makes the
artist want to go from the venuestraight into the bus and vibe.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (13:05):
So as everybody can hear, we got a little
thunderstorm coming in.
So if you hear anything in thebackground, but we got some
thunder going, some rain on theroof, but I think we should be
all right.
It's not too bad right now, butall right, buddy.
So we got buses, right?
We finally acquired all thesebuses.
Now, like, what are some of thestars,
SPEAKER_01 (13:23):
the celebrities?
Well, first off, how did you getthe attention of these huge
stars?
SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
Well, let's name some of them, then we'll figure
out how we got them.
Getting into this industry, I'mvery confident with everything I
do, was definitely one of thehardest things I've...
really accomplished.
I think getting people to workwith you and trust with you is
very hard.
SPEAKER_02 (13:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:42):
And so I really just started cold calling people
like, Hey, I'm this new guy inLas Vegas.
You know, a lot of, a lot of thetours end or start here on the
West coast.
I got amazing buses, but Istarted doing something that
other companies weren't doingand that's given them a little
bit more love.
And, you know, being in Vegasand in the limo industry, the
(14:03):
one thing I knew is how to compand take care of people.
And so we got new escalades andnew jet sprinters as like an
incentive.
Hey, use our buses.
And when you're in Vegas, youcan be going out and you don't
have to pay for transportation.
We got it right here.
Wow.
And so that, that really, youknow, helped out.
(14:24):
Another thing that's really bigis word of mouth.
And when coming into theindustry, I was young, I'm
tattooed and everything thatNashville isn't, you know, in
case you guys didn't know thisNashville, Tennessee is the
entertainer capital of theUnited States.
SPEAKER_03 (14:39):
I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
Anything I want done in my buses, I can get done at a
fraction of the costs inNashville.
Sometimes I'll drive my buses upthere to get things done because
it's just cheaper to, you know,have it done there with fuel
costs and dry wage in hotelsthan it would be trying to get
it done here on the West Coast.
What I do is I start with theoutside.
I wrap every bus differently.
(15:00):
And the reason why I do wraps isthese things are rented and on
the road.
And when you drag a tree on apaint, that usually costs about
$3,000 to$8,000 to get fixed.
We got a few tiger stripes.
And so in a bus, it costs me$600to unwrap it and wrap it again.
And so I start with, I pick outWhat color is this bus going to
(15:20):
be?
Every one of my buses is a Vegastheme and named from Vegas.
Give us a
SPEAKER_01 (15:26):
few of the names.
Let's run down because it'sreally cool.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
We got Roulette.
We got Ace.
We got Sinatra.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
Yeah.
We got Blackjack.
SPEAKER_01 (15:36):
Is there any that's like a favorite?
Like one that stands out thatpeople are like, I want that
one.
SPEAKER_00 (15:42):
Really fortunate because nobody's ever said, man,
I'd much rather have this busbecause each bus I do is pretty
dang nice.
Right now, my favorite isSoprano.
It's just our newest bus.
It has every bell and whistleyou could think of as far as
color changing LEDs.
you know, nice sound systemthrough the whole thing.
The driver's area is reallyspacious and has a nice sound
(16:04):
system for the driver.
How
SPEAKER_01 (16:05):
long are the buses?
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
45 feet.
SPEAKER_01 (16:07):
45.
Same
SPEAKER_00 (16:08):
as the RV.
45 feet.
And most times in smaller bands,we carry a 15 foot trailer as
well.
SPEAKER_01 (16:14):
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_03 (16:15):
So one thing I want to know is like when you're
going into New York City,Chicago, I'm petrified when we
roll in there.
So like I see these tour busesrolling through.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
I'm like, I give you guys.
Then you got to
SPEAKER_03 (16:28):
around the stadium and in the back door
SPEAKER_00 (16:30):
and through the, you know.
Try doing a surfing team turnbackwards with a trailer down
Madison Square Gardens and itgives you exactly two minutes to
shut down the bus.
No way.
You want to talk about nervewracking?
With the trailer?
With the trailer.
Damn.
You know, and that's the thing.
With this industry, anybodycould be a steering wheel
holder.
(16:51):
It takes somebody with realfinesse and love to this
business to succeed and reallymove forward in this.
And I tell everybody the samething.
If you have a CDL and you liketo drive, this is the most
amount of money you're going tomake as a driver.
My drivers make well over sixfigures a year.
They work eight months.
SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
So what are some of the celebrities, the juice?
What are some of the, give ussome of the, what do you call
that?
The tea?
What do you say?
What are some people that youhave driven around or that use
your company that you can talkabout?
You didn't sign NDAs about that.
Uh, you know, some of yourfavorites or let's talk about my
SPEAKER_00 (17:26):
favorites because, uh, you know, the tea on the,
the bad ones would, uh, probablynot be the best.
Cause I would expose.
We're running a business there.
So we got to keep, uh, keep itrunning.
I'm going to tell you, Some ofmy favorites, Rick Ross.
If Rick Ross calls me, I willget out of the bed at the drop
of a hat, and I will have a busready for Mr.
(17:48):
Ross.
The thing that I look for is notthe name, because I could care
less who I tour with.
Everybody pays the same.
It's how they treat us whenwe're on the road.
SPEAKER_03 (17:55):
And
SPEAKER_00 (17:56):
for me...
That's a big thing.
I'm a veteran.
I've been doing this a longtime.
I deserve the greatness.
And so, you know, Mr.
Ross, he's one of them.
There's a band that is comingout that's been, they've already
been out for a while, butthey're getting a huge traction
now called Citizen Soldier.
And their music is about mentalhealth and suicide prevention.
(18:20):
So that alone, you know, Ireally like.
But these guys, they really fromday one have treated me like
family.
They make sure that my hotelrooms are plush.
You know, I got bananas, whichis important.
I love bananas.
You have
SPEAKER_01 (18:32):
that in your rider.
I
SPEAKER_00 (18:34):
don't even have a rider, but I should.
Citizen soldier, I get out ofbed for them.
Soldier boy.
He gets a lot of controversy.
You know, the kid always haspaid me very well.
And, you know, we've had somebumps in the road, but he
always, you know, manages to get
SPEAKER_03 (18:50):
through.
So what does it mean to betreated right?
Like, what does that mean?
Because we come from Vegas.
We're in the hospitalityindustry.
Whenever we go overseas, a lotof times, It's not appropriate
to tip, but I tip everybodybecause we come from me and tip
and I appreciate your work.
SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
I was a cocktail waitress.
We
SPEAKER_03 (19:03):
were recently in Tokyo and they pride themselves
just on the work that they do.
And when you go to tip them,they'll chase you down.
They don't want you to.
And they're like, no, I did
SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
a good job.
That's my tip.
It's almost like insulting.
And we're like, no,
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
seriously.
And I tell them on my littleapp.
In America, we show appreciationby, you know, Giving you a
little extra love.
So what does it mean whensomebody treats you right?
What does that feel like?
SPEAKER_00 (19:23):
For me, it's the hotel rooms.
You know, being ready after youjust got done with a 10-hour
drive and being going straightto your hotel room and having a
hotel ready, you know, that'sclutch for me.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:34):
You know, little things that matter, you know,
having waters in my room, youknow, sending bananas, you know,
buy me lunch or dinner.
You know, those things arereally important.
Being on the road is likeeverything.
that is different than, youknow, traveling in a travel
trailer because you're living insomebody else's bus.
Even though it's my bus, thesepeople are paying me good money
(19:56):
to use it.
So it's actually their bus andthey could treat the bus the way
they want in the back.
And so when you have people thattake the extra time to clean up
and to, you know, pick up afterthemselves, you know, that's
also a really big thing.
You know, you got some artiststhat they just live like, like,
Oh my gosh, I got to clean it inour, in our job detail, in our
(20:16):
job detail, we clean once aweek.
That's part of our, our, ourthing.
And we changed linens once aweek.
So everybody has fresh linensonce a week.
And, you know, we wash the busonce a week and we do the
generator oil change once aweek.
SPEAKER_03 (20:31):
Damn, really?
SPEAKER_00 (20:31):
Yeah.
And so outside of that, youknow, To have these people go an
entire week without cleaning, itcould be a three- to four-hour
job.
SPEAKER_03 (20:40):
So
SPEAKER_00 (20:41):
when you have the ones that are really clean and
it makes your job easier,
SPEAKER_03 (20:44):
that's great.
That's cool.
Let's run through real quick.
Give me 10 names of people thatyou've had on tour with, like
boom, boom, boom, Machine GunKelly style.
Machine Gun Kelly style.
SPEAKER_00 (20:56):
My palms are sweaty.
I'm knee-deep.
Okay, let's do Citizen Soldier,Rick Ross, Drake, Soldier Boy,
Warrant.
SPEAKER_01 (21:08):
I know Tyga, right?
SPEAKER_00 (21:09):
Tyga, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
Warrant, really?
Yeah.
Oh, man.
And you just said Danzig?
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Danzing, yep, Danzing.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (21:17):
my
SPEAKER_00 (21:17):
gosh.
Yeah.
Glenn Danzing is actually areally great dude.
I was a little bit worriedbecause I had a lot of people...
that were like, man, you justgot to be careful.
You know, he's hot-headed.
The guy was an amazing guy.
I had a great time with him.
Guitarist has been with himforever, Steve.
Amazing, caring individual.
He sat up front.
We had many good conversations.
(21:37):
And, you know, that helps thedrive get by.
You're doing these back-to-backlong drives.
That's crazy, man.
SPEAKER_01 (21:42):
Do they come up and talk to you a lot of the time?
SPEAKER_00 (21:45):
Yes.
And so my rule of thumb is youcan come up and talk to me.
I don't really get too personal.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
but
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
I'm a great listener.
And so part of my occupation isalso being a therapist on the
road.
SPEAKER_01 (21:55):
Yeah.
I'm sure they appreciate thatbecause they're celebrities,
they're mega stars, right?
And so their circle, I'm sure isvery small.
And so when they have somebodythat they could just talk to and
just shoot
SPEAKER_00 (22:06):
the shit, just be normal.
With social media, the way it isnow too, is you get so many of
these people that are driversare starstruck.
They immediately start posting
SPEAKER_01 (22:12):
things.
And it's weird.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:13):
And you know, for a lot of these high level artists,
it's a security threat becauseyou're driving around with these
people.
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
You know, so it's a thing to where you've got to be
very, you know, level-headed.
And, you know, I'll give a forinstance.
I replaced Diana Ross's driverbecause he got too handsy to
where he would do selfies withher.
And, you know, he would always,you know, want to do social
media with her just for his ownclout.
(22:40):
And that was told me from thevery beginning, this is the
reason why you're replacing him.
And so I was, you know, a littlebit nervous, like, oh man, you
know, I'm coming in to wipe outa bad situation.
So already she.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
The knight in shining armor.
Right.
And she's older too, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
What a diva queen she is.
I can't tell you enough greatthings about her and her team.
Yeah, they were just such greatpeople.
At the very end, my son, he's22.
He's been working with me sincehe turned 18, got his CDL as
soon as he turned 18.
And we needed a co-driver whenwe got back to the East Coast
because every time she does ashow, she goes back to her
(23:16):
Connecticut house.
So it takes two drivers becauseyou're out of time.
SPEAKER_01 (23:19):
And
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
so I said, okay, I'm going to fly in my son to
co-drive and he'll help us getthrough.
And she looked at hiscredentials and she said, buddy,
he's a little bit young.
And I said, yeah, but he's agreat driver.
This kid has been bred to dowhat he's doing.
And so she was a little bitnervous.
And I said, listen, Ms.
Ross, I will replace him at mycost if you don't feel
(23:41):
comfortable.
And by the end of the tour, shewas asking him for a picture.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (23:47):
So
SPEAKER_01 (23:48):
let's touch on that because that is something that
we have seen unfold is youshowing Sean the ropes and
taking your son to like groominghim to be like, the next buddy
or his own, but you know, liketeaching him the ropes because
it's huge what you, what you'vebuilt.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
You know, I don't have a lot to teach my boys, but
I could shortcut them on what Iknow.
SPEAKER_01 (24:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (24:11):
And he read the blueprint from a very early age
and decided this is how I'mgoing to do things.
I'll give you, he was with a guynamed Miami Mike, which is a
very famous, uh, Manager,producer, he does it all.
I actually don't even know onething that he does.
He just does a lot of things.
And he's the guy who discoveredSoldier Boy.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
And
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
so they just happened to all be in the same
town.
My son went out with them.
And by the next morning, MiamiMike was sending me pictures
with him.
And he's like, I knew from themoment I saw this kid that this
has to be your kid.
Because we dress the same.
We wear the same fedoras.
We're very close.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
So Buddy is pretty flashy.
He likes style.
He likes to look good.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
I toned it down today.
SPEAKER_03 (24:57):
You did, actually.
SPEAKER_01 (24:58):
We'll throw some pictures in.
We'll throw some pictures in.
I saw
SPEAKER_03 (25:00):
a mirrored hat in the car, so I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
A mirrored hat?
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_03 (25:05):
It's a disco ball, actually.
All right, so I'm prying here,Buddy.
I want to know some dirt.
I want to know some stories.
But I understand that you'rerunning a business here.
It's all disclosure, yes.
Yeah.
you can probably sign some NDAsalong the way where you're not
really allowed to say, you know,and I don't want to compromise
you like that anyway, but youknow, maybe when the, maybe when
(25:26):
the mics are off, we can hearsome stories.
I'll definitely
SPEAKER_00 (25:28):
tell you a couple of stories with the mics off, but
nobody wants to trust the guythat's going to be on their
tour.
SPEAKER_01 (25:34):
That has loose lips.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
Yeah.
But you know, I could tell youthings like, uh, you know, bad
hotel room stories, you know,that, that would be a, give
SPEAKER_01 (25:44):
us a juicy one.
SPEAKER_00 (25:45):
A bad hotel story was with a band that I truly
like.
I won't even name them.
So that way they don't feel badabout when they hear this, but I
knew I was screwed when I sawdays in on our tour master and
you know, I have a rule.
I can't, I don't do a supereights.
If it has a number in it, I'mnot involved in it.
Right.
(26:06):
And so we're
SPEAKER_01 (26:10):
in
SPEAKER_00 (26:12):
Denver and it, I just came off of a 10 hour
drive.
So I was a hundred percent readyto get in my room and go to bed.
And I only had eight hours tothe next drive.
So we get to the hotel room andI'm checking in and it's already
smelling dirty.
You know, I'm like not feelingthe best about it, but I'm going
to make do.
And as I'm walking to my room,there's an old guy in a
wheelchair with a missing legand a needle hanging out of his
(26:34):
arm.
Doing it right.
Those are signs.
This is a good
SPEAKER_03 (26:38):
place.
What movie is that?
Run, Forrest, Run?
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
That didn't deter me.
So I put the key in the doorbecause at this motel, it
definitely had an old key.
And when I opened it up, therewas a six-foot transvestite with
a younger...
working lady and a guy with agag ball on the bed all
SPEAKER_01 (26:58):
right so are you supposed to just like join in i
SPEAKER_00 (27:01):
froze for a second i didn't know what to do and then
i just shut the door and i waslike oh my god and i go down to
the front desk and i explainedthe story and she didn't even
seem surprised about the traybut was like man this is the
second time this happened todayman
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
girls got to make some money, you know?
SPEAKER_03 (27:18):
That's a good story.
I like that story.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:22):
So did they, did you let the band know?
Like we
SPEAKER_00 (27:24):
have an issue with my girl?
I called the band and I said,hey, do you hate me?
because this is what happened inmy hotel room today and luckily
they tell me you know we carry abank credit card when we're on
the road and they said hey justgo get a good room and that's
SPEAKER_01 (27:39):
what I did and you were so exhausted we know after
long travel
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
days like you don't want to do nothing when you're
on the road for 10 hours youknow first of all you're trying
to drive the best you can forthe people in the back that are
sleeping but you have so muchstuff that goes on that your
brain is scrambled by the timethat you get there I can't
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
even imagine
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
I just did a drive from Rockfest in Ohio going to
New York and as we were on the81 uh I see a deer about 50 feet
away and I can see it looking atme.
And I'm thinking to myself,don't run in front of the bus.
Don't run in front of the bus.
And by the time I said, don'trun in front of the bus, the
(28:17):
thing ran in front of the bus.
And so the only thing you coulddo when this happens is just
drive through it and deal withit.
And that's what we did.
I pulled over, you know,immediately to assess the
damage, but to also make surethat this struggling deer isn't
on the side of the road, youknow,
SPEAKER_01 (28:32):
still
SPEAKER_00 (28:33):
alive.
After getting out and assess inthe situation.
We got back on board andcontinued our drive.
The next day, the band memberwoke up and he was like, man, I
didn't even feel a thing.
Like, thank you, buddy.
And that's like a complimentbecause if you could drive
through a deer, you could drivethrough anything.
Was there any damage on the bus?
Yeah, it was like$3,500 worth ofdamage on the bus.
(28:56):
I saw
SPEAKER_01 (28:56):
that video, actually, that you put on social
media.
It was a big deer.
SPEAKER_00 (29:00):
It was a big deer.
I actually had full intentionsof taking its rack if it still
had it.
As in, you know, you damaged mybus, I'm going to at least put a
rack on the front.
You should have put that as ahood order.
Yeah, but it didn't have one, sounfortunately I didn't get that.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (29:15):
always the biggest nightmare, scare.
Whenever I see you, I honk my
SPEAKER_03 (29:19):
horn.
It scares them to get out of the
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
way.
I'm going to let you No, I havetwo deer whistles on each bus.
Oh really?
It doesn't work.
Oh really?
They don't work.
What's a
SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
deer whistle?
SPEAKER_00 (29:27):
It's a, it's like a whistle that you put on the
front of your car.
That's supposed to deter.
SPEAKER_01 (29:31):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
I didn't even know about that.
If anything, I think that itattracted it more.
SPEAKER_03 (29:36):
He's like, Oh, that's my calling.
It was like a mating call tohim.
All
SPEAKER_02 (29:42):
right.
SPEAKER_03 (29:42):
So, you know, being out on the roads of grind, it's
like a, it's a lot like as we,we have these hard drive days
and it's like, it's, it's, it'sa, it's a sport.
It's a finesse.
It's, it's, You know, it's hard.
So what keeps you going afterall these years?
What keeps you grinding and keep
SPEAKER_00 (29:56):
it?
I truly love what I do.
And I practice to my kids andeverybody.
I know if you love what you do,you'll never work a day in your
life.
You know, being on the road,you're seeing America, you know,
you're in this beautiful hogdriving down the street.
To me, it's definitely alifestyle.
It's a gypsy lifestyle that you,you gotta have that in you
because it's not for everybody,right?
(30:17):
And the hardest thing is beingaway from your family.
You know, being away from yourwife and kids for that amount of
time, it gets difficult.
And then the readjustment ofgetting home is even more
difficult.
You can't be the guy on the roadthat, you know, you've been gone
for so long and then you comeback in and start ordering
chores to get done and food toget made, you know.
They're
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
like, I don't think so, Dad.
So what's your typical length oftime that you're away?
SPEAKER_00 (30:39):
For me, I get to pick and choose now.
So I'll be gone sometimes, youknow, two to three months at a
time.
Wow, that's a yeah.
But my drivers will drive outFebruary and March and they
returned in November.
SPEAKER_01 (30:52):
In the beginning, did you do those long stretches?
SPEAKER_00 (30:54):
I did.
It was really hard.
I remember I've never in myentire life felt depression
until I was probably four monthson the road.
I remember like it wasyesterday.
I was in Atlanta.
I woke up.
None of my kids or nobody calledme.
None of my friends.
I get on social media andeverybody's having a great day.
And I just felt like I wasforgotten.
(31:16):
And I remember I was, I, Isulked for a little bit and I
went to a hookah bar and, andthen I went home and I was like,
or my hotel room.
And I was like, man, nobodyknows what I'm doing or where
I'm at.
That's a
SPEAKER_01 (31:30):
weird feeling,
SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
huh?
You know, when, when the outsidepeople that are at home still
their day to day goes on everyday, you know, and you're not in
that.
So it's, just like they're notin yours.
And that, that feeling ofdepression, I realized like,
wow, this is like a real thing.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (31:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:46):
Yeah.
I can't even imagine.
Cause that's a long stretch.
And you know, even when I, alittle side story, I was in the
hospital when I had pneumonialast year.
Right.
And I was sick for like a monthin the bedroom and we were at
Pigeon Forge for Ryder'sbirthday and everybody's,
they're all out doing all thethings to celebrate.
And I was like almost dying inthe room.
And then I was in the hospitalfor four days and literally I
felt the same way.
(32:07):
Like I go, everybody is justgoing on with their life and I'm
here and it was this detachment
SPEAKER_02 (32:12):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (32:13):
in a weird way I go nobody cares like I could just
go nobody knows like you know itwas a weird thing so I totally
relate in a weird way But that'sa, yeah, that's a sucky feeling.
SPEAKER_00 (32:23):
This job is, you know, unforgiving for birthdays,
holidays, Christmas, gettogethers, 4th of July, Mother's
Day, your birthday.
I mean, you're missing everygreat holiday when you're on the
road.
But the being able to providefor your family in this way,
it's like a love and hate thingbecause some families say, well,
we don't really care about themoney.
(32:43):
But, you know, that's what'sreally supporting the life.
We all need money to go around.
SPEAKER_01 (32:47):
I got to say, because as an entrepreneur,
there is ups and downs.
And so has there been timeswhere you were like, you had
your business and then somehowlike dead broke and you had to,
you know, get back on top again?
Like, has there been crazy highsand lows in your business?
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
This whole business has been highs and lows.
And, you know, for mepersonally, my greatest
achievement of every, all mysuccess has been able to support
other people and give otherpeople a way of life that they
would have never had before.
And for my drivers, that'sreally big for me for them to
always be happy to have a pocketfull of money.
(33:23):
And, you know, that's whythey're out there on the road.
And at the same time, they'realso, you know, in charge of my
asset that I've worked my buttoff.
And so, um, to be able to givesomebody this kind of lifestyle
to provide for their family tome is the greatest achievement
I've done.
And so, you know, we're, we getoff in November.
And so usually I have all mybuses home by Thanksgiving and I
(33:45):
tell my guys, make sure youprepare to save.
Cause we may not be out on theroad until February or March of
next year.
And so during the winter months,you know, I do help.
And sometimes I overextend myhelp, but as long as my guys are
happy, I'm happy.
And it's, The beginning of everyyear is always, you know, you're
starting fresh with zero in thebank account, you know, making
(34:07):
it happen.
You know, insurance, and I'msure on your guys' rig,
insurance is outrageous,especially now with, you know,
everything that's going on inAmerica.
That's one of my biggestpayments every single month.
How
SPEAKER_03 (34:18):
many figures?
UNKNOWN (34:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:20):
I spend well over six figures a year.
What?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (34:24):
Whoa.
SPEAKER_00 (34:24):
I'll tell you.
I mean, I spend$200,000 a yearon insurance.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Holy moly.
Those are big boy
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
payments.
Yeah, those are big boys.
Luckily, my thing is very low.
SPEAKER_00 (34:35):
What about, can you say fuel?
Like how much do you know?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I spend well over sixfigures, but we charge the band
for the fuel.
So, you know, what I do is Icharge the band for the fuels.
I put everything on AmericanExpress so I can get those
points and I use those points tobuy my driver's dinners or I'll
bring this Spouses in and out ofthe different tour dates.
SPEAKER_01 (34:53):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:54):
So what's some of the best advice you would give
somebody that's trying to buildfrom the ground up?
SPEAKER_00 (34:58):
The best advice for trying to build from the ground
up, I would say, is do yourresearch before you get into
what you're going to do.
Because if you don't have a gameplan, then you're already
setting yourself up for failure.
And this was told to me longbefore I actually came prepared.
When I came in the limoindustry, I winged it from day
one.
I am school of hard knocks allthe way.
(35:20):
No college, you know, nobusiness, no nothing.
I learned everything frommyself.
And, uh, when I came into thebus business, I knew I wanted to
change and things are just somuch different in the limo game.
When a limo broke down and wentin the shop, a$1,500 bill used
to piss me off.
A$1,500 bill in the bus industryis like, what?
(35:42):
You don't even, you don't get,it's 10,000, 20,000, you know?
So it's, uh, Definitely you gotto be prepared and do your due
diligence of what you're goingto get
SPEAKER_03 (35:52):
into.
What's your most expensive bill?
Like maintenance wise thatyou've had to like unexpected or
expected.
A hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_02 (36:00):
Uh,
SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
actually I'm, I'm lying to you.
$126,000.
Yikes.
Yeah.
I had a bus that was parked onthe PCH in Huntington beach,
California that got rearrendered by a drunk driver that
was on meth doing 70 miles anhour.
SPEAKER_03 (36:17):
Goodness.
SPEAKER_00 (36:18):
And I really love this bus and it was a great bus.
And so the insurance companywanted to give me a little bit
of a settlement and I didn'twant to take that.
I just said, you know what, giveme what you can and I'll pay the
rest to fix everything.
So that was probably one of mymost expensive.
SPEAKER_01 (36:35):
So I know when you start a new business, you always
wait for that big break to say,all right, we like, we made it
like we are substantial.
We're a competitor in thisfield.
So for you, who was that firstbig contract where you're like,
all right, we have arrived ourlittle business that we just got
off the ground.
It's like,
SPEAKER_00 (36:51):
I would say not that he's the most giant artist out
there, but he was an artist thatI listened to as a child that I
never in a million years thoughtI'd be doing business with.
And that is a, Warren G.
SPEAKER_01 (37:04):
Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (37:07):
It's crazy.
Cause he'll text me and my kidis in the car and it'll show up
on the screen and he'll look atme and he'll be like, dad, is
that?
SPEAKER_02 (37:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:18):
And he's like, man, that's insane.
I'm sure your Rolodex is crazy.
That's really when I was like,man, I got Warren G texting me
for bus questions.
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (37:31):
You know, I have to say hands down.
We've known a lot of people overthe years.
Anytime I think of the wordhustle and killing it, you
always, always come to mind.
And for us, you're a hugeinspiration.
And whenever we get, you know,it's, it's up and down in this
game.
And I'm like, what would buddydo?
Like he'd be out there.
He'd be doing anything likeCOVID screwed us all.
(37:51):
And I remember you like, Youwere doing anything to get some
money in, to get going.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (37:56):
right.
We were in Bali together.
Yes.
And I was telling you, I amgoing to get a bus business.
Yeah, I remember.
And I came home, and I got a busbusiness.
And look at you now.
It hasn't
SPEAKER_01 (38:07):
even been that
SPEAKER_00 (38:08):
long.
You know, same thing with youguys.
I see and I know a lot of peoplethat are real well off from
social media, and I have somethat are clients.
But watching firsthand how youguys built this as a viable
business has been insane.
And I've been there with youthrough the highs and lows.
And I remember I was on tourwhen you guys hit a million.
(38:29):
I was like, I was watching thecountdown.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
I'm like, get it, get it.
We just hit a million on TikToktoo.
I know, we just
SPEAKER_01 (38:36):
got a million on another platform.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (38:38):
Almost social media is almost like the
entrepreneurial life becausethere is highs and lows and
there's like, we're like, wesuck, nothing's happening.
And we're, you know.
See, my
SPEAKER_00 (38:46):
business, I know what works, right?
And I have the recipe.
With your business, it changesall the time.
It does.
And so always having to get upon that change.
Mad respect to you guys.
But it keeps it fun andexciting.
You're not in control.
Absolutely.
But it's
SPEAKER_01 (38:59):
that ADD brain, right?
You love the quick hits andokay, this is like It's easy to
adapt, which is, I think, youneed that.
Otherwise, you go crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Something you said earlier that resonated with me
is this is kind of like a gypsylifestyle.
And it's funny how us gypsiesattracted to each other 25 years
ago.
We didn't even know we werereally gypsies back then.
We're just trying to make it inVegas.
But then we get out on the openroad and travel the world
together.
And we're just like, holy crap,man.
This is what we're meant to be.
SPEAKER_01 (39:28):
You remember when you looked that monkey in the
face, in the eyes?
And we said, you're not supposedto look him in the eyes.
You go, let me test it out.
You take your sunglasses downand he showed his fangs.
SPEAKER_03 (39:38):
That monkey wanted to kick my ass.
We were just in Bali like amonth ago.
We were just there, yeah.
And then we went to MonkeyForest and we were like,
everybody's looking at themonkey in the eyes.
You know, that was probablystill to this
SPEAKER_00 (39:47):
date the scariest two-hour ride I ever went on
with the most disappointment atthe end because the only thing I
wanted when we got there was abeer.
And they don't have alcohol
SPEAKER_03 (39:59):
out there
SPEAKER_00 (39:59):
in Ubed.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
Oh, that's
SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
right.
I was so nerve wracked.
If you remember, we saw a dudewith his bone sticking out from,
got hit on another scooter.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
We did?
SPEAKER_00 (40:07):
Yeah.
I don't remember that.
I don't remember that.
Yeah, when we were drivingthrough, there was an accident
and we stopped for a second andthe dude's bone was hanging out
of his ankle.
Oh, man.
Then we continued on and lightturns green and everybody goes
at once.
It is, it's wild.
Oh my gosh, what a nervewracking.
Yeah, it's
SPEAKER_01 (40:23):
like organized chaos.
That's what I call it everytime.
Like, I don't know how peoplearen't crashing, but they make
it work.
SPEAKER_03 (40:29):
We're going to go through a quick lightning round
here, buddy.
This is something we like to doin every podcast.
So let's give it a shot here.
You ready, buddy?
Yes, sir.
All right.
Let's see.
Wildest city you drove through?
New York.
All right.
Tour bus snack of choice?
Man, I would say peanuts.
SPEAKER_00 (40:46):
All right.
Peanuts, huh?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:48):
Who would be your dream band to work with?
SPEAKER_00 (40:50):
Man, you know, I've worked with some greats, but I
think if I was to put who wouldI love to just sit side by side
with, it'd be like Dr.
Dre or Eminem.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
yeah.
I
SPEAKER_00 (41:00):
like that.
What's one of your best momentsin the past six months?
One of my best moments in thelast six months was definitely
running through that deer andhaving the artist wake up the
next day, not even know that Iran through a deer.
SPEAKER_01 (41:13):
You're like, yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (41:15):
that's accomplishment driving right
there.
You know, the thing that that'sthe biggest is we're like the
security point for these artistsgetting to and from the road.
And the artist I was with had ascary incident.
So, you know, having that muchtrust in somebody while you're
sleeping is very important.
SPEAKER_03 (41:31):
All right.
So we're going to pivot a littlebit here and do a this or that.
OK, so, buddy, I'm going tothrow these off to you real
quick and let's see if we canget some answers.
Tour bus or private jet?
Tour bus.
Oh, Vegas nightlife or Nashvillevibes?
Nash Vegas.
Oh, that's a good one.
That's a little tie.
Strip club or steakhouse?
Strip club.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Limo or bus?
I love limos, but man, you couldget up and use the bathroom and
sleep bus.
That's true.
SPEAKER_02 (41:58):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (41:58):
All right, buddy.
Rock band or country tour?
Rock band.
All right.
SPEAKER_03 (42:02):
Why?
SPEAKER_00 (42:02):
They're just so much more fun to be with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just going for it.
Is the
SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
country vibe like they're more serious or just
SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
kind of- All right, buddy.
Early
SPEAKER_03 (42:14):
morning grind or late night hustle?
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Late night hustle all the way,
SPEAKER_03 (42:17):
baby.
All right.
All right, buddy.
On the mic or behind the scenes?
Behind the scenes.
Really?
I can see you doing a little bitof both.
SPEAKER_01 (42:25):
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (42:26):
All right.
Let's get back to the questionshere.
Driving through the Rockies orcruising on the coast?
Cruising on the coast.
All right.
Building an empire or enjoyingthe ride?
Building an empire all the way.
All right, buddy.
So you're on our podcast, butyou also have a podcast.
So what was the reason forstarting your podcast and where
can people find you?
SPEAKER_00 (42:43):
Man, Tour Life is the name of our podcast.
It started as a passion project,but we're going to see where it
goes.
And, you know, you can check usout.
My IG is at King, K-I-N-Gunderscore Buds, B-U-D-Z
underscore Buds.
And that will have all theup-to-dates of the podcast.
SPEAKER_03 (43:02):
And what do you hope to accomplish with your podcast?
It's a lot of work to set
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
all this up.
So give us a gist of it.
What's it about?
SPEAKER_00 (43:07):
Tour Life is exactly what it says.
It's about being on the roadwith production managers,
artists, drivers.
you know, there's a lot thatgoes, a lot of mechanical parts
that go into, go into a concert.
And when you go to like a MorganWallen or a jelly roll or ice
cube concert, there's so manywheels behind their turning.
And I just want to show theworld those
SPEAKER_03 (43:29):
wheels.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (43:30):
cool.
It's very
SPEAKER_03 (43:30):
intriguing.
And it's very like, Ah,mysterious to see behind the
SPEAKER_01 (43:34):
scenes from our point of view.
Everybody loves behind thescenes.
The inner workings that younever see, right?
It's like the duck feetunderwater, right?
He's just gliding, but it'slike...
SPEAKER_00 (43:46):
That's a good analogy.
SPEAKER_01 (43:47):
I always think about that.
People don't see that.
SPEAKER_03 (43:49):
And what do you hope the podcast does?
Where do you hope it goes?
SPEAKER_00 (43:51):
Man, you know, I expect nothing and hope for
everything.
And I just, if I could make aliving of just traveling around
and doing podcasting, I thinkthat would be great.
It would be a great retirementbecause I don't think I could
all the way retire.
I'm always going to want to dosomething.
SPEAKER_01 (44:07):
Yeah, that brain will never shut
SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
off.
Never.
SPEAKER_01 (44:09):
And so I know you shot a couple.
Can you give us a little insightof some of the names?
SPEAKER_00 (44:14):
Yeah, I got all five members of Citizen Soldier on
there.
I got Soldier Boy.
So
SPEAKER_01 (44:21):
pretty big names you are kicking off with.
SPEAKER_00 (44:23):
Man, we're going straight for the throat.
SPEAKER_01 (44:25):
I see.
I see.
SPEAKER_00 (44:26):
Yeah.
I got another one that's comingup with a Vegas local artist.
He was actually with Bunnybefore Jelly Roll was.
SPEAKER_01 (44:34):
No
SPEAKER_00 (44:34):
way.
And so he claims that Jelly Rollis stopping him from making it
to that next plateau.
SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
Because he was with his wife.
SPEAKER_00 (44:42):
Correct.
And so he's a really good guyhere in Vegas.
He has good momentum.
And, you know, his songs arebumping, so...
SPEAKER_01 (44:51):
All right.
Well, I like you going for thethroat going for it.
So I can't wait to hear it.
So you got to get this launchedalready because there's some
listening ears out there.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Jimmy is, is the guy that, you know, just like you
guys say you inspire, I inspireyou, you guys inspire me because
you get stuck in this, you know,plateau of, of you're, you're,
you're, you're stuck in this,this, you got so many ideas
going, but you, you can't getthem all out there.
Yes.
Pull the trigger.
And so Jimmy, you know, alwayshits me up with inspirational
(45:21):
things in the morning and says,today's the day you're going to
get this done.
And I'm like, all right, that'sit.
Yeah.
So
SPEAKER_03 (45:28):
I'm glad that resonates with you.
Cause sometimes I'm like, itmight be in a pain in the ass
and like, but I know what you'recapable of and I just want to
see it like come out,
SPEAKER_00 (45:36):
you know, as men, you never want to reach out for
direction.
Yeah.
because we're terrible at that.
But when you have your closeones next to you inspiring you
to do this and pushing you to dothis, you know it's time.
You
SPEAKER_03 (45:48):
know what's funny?
Buddy gave us directions onwhere to meet up at his shop
earlier today, and they were thewrong directions, right?
Shame on Buddy.
But Ryder's like, just call him.
Just call
SPEAKER_01 (45:57):
him.
Oh, I do that a lot.
He's so damn stubborn.
SPEAKER_03 (45:59):
And I go, Ryder, we don't look like men if we call
Buddy and ask him for directionswhen we can't find a shop.
So we're going to man up, andwe're going to see if we can
find this.
And then finally it got to apoint where we couldn't find the
shop.
All right, Ryder, we got to callhim.
So it's funny that you just saidas man, we don't like to take
SPEAKER_01 (46:15):
direction.
It's so frustrating for me ashis wife, because for me, I'm
straight to the info.
If I it's like, I don't want towaste any time trying to do
this.
I'm like, where is it?
Let's go.
You know, and him.
He's so damn stubborn.
We don't ask people fordirections or we don't ask for
help.
And I'm like.
Oh, no.
Yes, we do.
Because I ain't taking any moretime wasted over
SPEAKER_03 (46:36):
here.
Definitely.
All right, buddy.
Super honored, privileged,excited
SPEAKER_00 (46:41):
that we got to sit down and have this conversation
with you.
Thank you, guys.
And, you know, I am going to betrying something new myself with
this podcast.
Oh, I love it.
And it's definitely because ofyou guys.
You inspired me for
SPEAKER_03 (46:51):
this one.
We inspire each other.
It's been a great experience forus to sit here and watch your
journey.
Because, seriously, it has,like, turned us up a notch.
SPEAKER_01 (46:59):
Oh, man.
Every time you say, I justbought a new bus.
I go, what
SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
the heck?
SPEAKER_01 (47:03):
Those are not cheap buses.
Each one is like a damn, youknow?
SPEAKER_00 (47:08):
All gas, no brakes.
All right, brother.
It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_03 (47:11):
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01 (47:14):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (47:16):
And whatever you guys do, get out there and try
something new.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.