4/18/25 - John Rich

Singer-Songwriter John Rich joins The Anchormen

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now it's time for the Anchormen Podcast with Matt Gates
and Dan Ball.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome back in for another episode of the Anchormen Podcast
Here in the beautiful man Cave, created by our wonderful,
amazing bosses at OAN, the one American news network, I
am Dan Ball. Alongside me and one of the Anchormen
in then primetime lineup, Riley Lewis, host of the Real Story.

(00:31):
By the way, if you're just catching this episode and
you haven't watched the last how many months? We started
this in February, right, yeah, February. If you've missed previous episodes,
you know that they got popular really quick. We had
more advertisers, we had more guests wanting to come on,
and so the powers that be here said, Okay, we're
branching off into two shows, and so because schedule scheduling conflicts,

(00:54):
you're doing this one with me. Matt's got one now
I think his are dropping Thursdays at seven, ours drop
Friday at seven. So you're getting two Anchorman podcasts with
like four hosts and awesome guests and topics twice a week.
So hopefully we'll just keep expanding this and let's just
keep going.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, absolutely, and it's going very well. I appreciate all
the feedback we're getting online. And oh, you read those absolutely.
I don't read that crap. You read that crap. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm just kidding people, know, I responded, I try not to, though,
you do you read the good and the bad and
the ugly or just the good?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I skim the ugly skim. Yeah, I register it, but
I'm not gonna you know, I like.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
The ugly man. Those are the ones I want to
chime in and say howdy to him, ask him why
so angry? Why so mad? Why you hate Trump? People?
What's your beef? What's your beef? All right, it's catch
up time before we get to our amazing guest tonight.
By the way, last week, are you still coming off
a little bit of a buzz a high? Not from
this awesome whiskey, but from Dean Kane's interview. People love

(01:55):
that we went like heavy on time. I didn't know
ninety percent about that stuff about and I thought I
knew a lot. But he was a great guest.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
He was I hope he comes back. And Dean, if
you're listening, thank you very much for your time. That
was awesome and I really, it's just nice to see
someone who's been so successful, who's very humble, very mature,
not much of an ego there. And I just really
appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, And I think that in this format people appreciate
this because I did see the good comments and a
lot of folks were like, I didn't know that about Dean.
That was so great to hear about Dean. Oh, that
was Sweetie Boddy's son in and talked to him on
the podcast for a second. Like this format style. There's
a reason your generation, Riley and youngers love this format,

(02:36):
the one two three hour podcast versus what we do
as anchor men and talk show hosts, where we're limited
to well, take out the commercial breaks fifty two minutes right,
take out the headlines we're reading up to the interviews.
We typically get four or five guests, we get maybe
five or six or seven minutes with them. It's it now.
We get guests and we get to go an hour

(02:57):
and find out all kind of stuff. But him so,
I love love of this format, and I'm so thankful
to the Herring family and Oway ends to doing it
so quick catch up before we get too far into
the weeds and get our guest John Rich. That's who's
coming on in just a second. How was your week?
Meet any girls, play any tunes? What's new with Rolly Lewis?

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Lots of tunes. Just started some new online music classes actually,
just to broaden my horizons, getting into other genres. Things
are good though, doing lots of work around the house,
just trying to maintain things there. Show's going good, everything's
going good. It's warming up now, baseball seasons here.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
So just Padres. Yes, you're a Padres guy. Yes, you're
a born and raised San Diegan kind of right because
you were in Insanita's ocean side. Carlsbad, same thing. It's
North County, right, So if you like a baseball team
and you're up north, it's going to be the Padres.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yes, because they're the best team in baseball right now.
I've been really yes, better than the Yankees, better than
the Dodgers, better than the Giants, and I've been waiting
forever for this. So this is it's historic and it's
just really exciting to see.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So everybody hates the Padres. It likes those teams that
you just talked about, they just unclicked, they left. If
you're watching on Rumble or YouTube or x they left
and they're watching different podcasts. Yes, but anyway, who cares.
I wonder which team our guest likes. We'll just get
him on. I bet he's had a lot to say. Yeah,
and I know we wrote up a whole bunch of
different subject matters to bring up. And again, folks, if

(04:14):
you're looking for politics, we try to. We're going to
touch on him. You can't host political talk shows and
not do politics, but we want to allow our guests
to do a lot of other things, discuss many other
things in their life in addition to politics. And so
let's welcome this week's special guest. This is a good
buddy of mine for oh G's I don't even know
about ten years by now, I think twenty fifteens and

(04:34):
we met at an Indian casino while him and Big
and Rich we're rocking out. If you don't know him,
this is legendary country superstar. He is a singer. He
is a writer. He's been a solo act. He's been
in big bands, he's been in small bands. He's done
a lot when it comes to the country music scene.
And I can tell you yep, he's one of us.
He's one of those god awful, horrible maga folks because

(04:57):
he's a hell of a patriot. My pal John Rich
on the Anchorman podcast, What up Jr?

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Hey Man, good to join you again. And yeah, I
wore my favorite big and Rich t shirt. Can you
see what it says?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh, make America big and rich again. I like that.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm on, man, you need one of those.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Uh Hello, you have my address. You could mail one out, Jr.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Can we make it too.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to do that.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I need a medium, he needs a large at large. Okay. See.
But John's a good businessman, and we'll get to the
economy in tariffs BIS a little later, to the little politics,
because he'll tell me, yeah, Dan, you can buy one
for nineteen ninety nine on the website, plus shipping and tax.
That's what a good businessman would say. Instead of my
boys saying send me a free shirt, He's like, you
pick one up like everybody else. That's what I was
expected for you to say, JR.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh, I could probably comp a couple. I could comp
a couple for you, guys.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Man.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Congrats on the podcast. I've been watching it and tuning in.
It's it's great, Dan. I'm glad that people can see
you off the headline news, you know, and get to
kind of understand you a little better. It's more more
along the lines of how you and I met, you know,
backstage at a Bigger Rich concert. I find out that
you're a veteran. I said, is that right? You have

(06:09):
tell me about your service and we started with that
conversation and the conversation continues today. But you're one of
the You're one of the most fun people out there.
Sometimes you wonder about people you see on TV. Are
they these guys any fun or they always just bang,
bang bang all the time. Now, Dan's a lot of fun.
He's a serious guy, but he's a lot of fun
when he's off the TV.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah. I don't know what that means, but I'll take
that as a case.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I'm going to tell some stories Dan about how much
fun you actually are.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
We're interviewing you. There's a couple questions for John Rich.
This isn't questioning me JR. I'll come on your podcast.
Isn't there a big and Rich podcast? There should be,
you guys could do it.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
There's not a big and Rich podcast. You know what
there's not.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You should do one. You and Big Kenny from that
kick ass bar by the way, I'll take you along
sometime to Nashville. Jr. Has his own nightclub at his estate.
He built like a three story nightclub at his house.
He's in it right now, I think, right, yeah, you're
always in it. It's got a it's got a stage.
It doesn't have the shiny crystal uh globe thing you'd

(07:14):
see like an old disco. Oh no, there's a saddle. Okay.
He's got a rooftop bar. He's got his memorabilia floor
with I mean stuff from Cash and Hank Junior and
all the rates over the years, whaling. Yeah, awesome stuff.
So he has a bar. Then he has a pool
that's designed like what is that a Gibson guitar. Y.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm going to show you the pool dance. I can
show you guys, the pool.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Look there it is.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Wow, can you see it?

Speaker 2 (07:40):
There it is John.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeow awesome. Right, And that's the club. That's that's the
nightclub right there, got a little shuffle board back there
there's the bar. It's a beautiful pad, beautiful pad. So
I want to see a big and rich podcast. They
can talk music and family and patriotism and all kinds
of stuff, and we're gonna get to you and Big
Kenny and how you guys met. But I I want
to go back because this we've been doing this now
what February March, half of April, so two and a

(08:04):
half months a show a week, and everybody's been talking
about the Dean Kane interview from last week, Jr. Because
we went more personal the whole hour and really pulled
politics out of it. We only really got to them right.
And we started off with just childhood. And I thought,
you know, I've known Dean about five six years, you
ten years. I thought I knew a lot about him
until he filled us in on his background and I

(08:26):
did not know, you know, like the dad was a
navy pilot and left him and the new dad was
this and raised him in that, and I didn't know
any of that stuff. So it was very eye opening. JR.
Riley is a music nut way more than me. This
guy probably has tons of music questions. But I went
just to fill our viewers in first and give him
background about the guy behind the hat, the guy that

(08:50):
grew up in I think you pronounce it this way.
I'm not a Texan, but the guy that grew up
in Amarilla, Amarillo for you white folk, Mailla yeah, and
Mariilla yeah, you know Amarilla in that double wide with
the preacher dad and busting your ass. And then let's
go from there. So give them some background about John
Richard and where you came from.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
And so that's the Panhandle at Texas. If you look
at Texas, that's at the very top. It's as flat
as a board. You can see fifteen to twenty miles
in every direction, no trees. The wind blows on a
calm day around thirty miles an hour. It's known as
Tornado Alley. So's it smells like cows, which I don't
mind the smell of cows, pigs and chickens. I've got

(09:33):
a problem with that. I've actually slopped hogs and hog
barns back in Texas when I was a teenager. But
it's what you would probably call the wild West end
of Texas. I mean it is. The people there are tough,
the people there are outside all the time. I mean,

(09:55):
the old men, they ain't even that old, like some
guy might be fifty five and you might think seventy.
They've got lines. They've got lines in their face deep
enough you could plant tomatoes in them. I mean, they
don't come inside the house unless he's to go to sleep.
They work caddle all day. They work farms and fields
all day. It was the inspiration for a song I

(10:16):
wrote called Amarilla Scott was about my hometown at Jason
Aldan big hit on him that I wrote because I
wanted that way of life to be represented. So when
you grow up in a place like that, around human
beings like that who are just no nonsense, hard working,

(10:36):
get or done kind of people. Man, that has a
big effect on you when you're growing up, Like when
they say, hey, come with me and help me work
today on the weekend. You know you're out of school,
your fourth or fifth grade, and your uncle says, hey,
come out with me this weekend, help me do a
little work. You're like, okay, well it's actual work. It
ain't like hey watch me work. No, it's like, let

(10:57):
me show you how to put up a five string
barboire fence. For instance. Let me show you how to
stretch barbed wire that's almost a mile long from where
you can where you can see it up to that post.
I mean, that's how why it open. It is in Texas.
So growing up that way it definitely impacts the way
you think and the way you come at life.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
So wait a minute, Jail, you're saying that if you
would have grown up like, let's say, with two tree
huggers on an organic lama farm that well near Berkeley,
you'd be different.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Honestly, I might, I might be different. Maybe. I mean
sometimes I've wondered that. I think. I think, I think
you can. You can blame how you look at things
on your surroundings while you're a kid, while you're growing up.
But once you become an adult and you go out

(11:50):
in the world on your own and they start experiencing
it on your own and seeing things that don't hit
you right on your own, then it's up to that
man and want me to go you know what I mean.
I was raised to think this was okay, but it's
actually not, and I don't like it. I mean, I
think you saw that back in November, a lot of
people that were raised in a way that you would

(12:13):
never vote for Donald Trump actually did vote for him
because they woke up and became adults and realized this
is a much bigger picture here. So yeah, I'm sure
I would have been a little bit different, but I
would have come around to where I'm at right now.
My dad's a preacher. He started preaching at nineteen years old,
never preached in big churches. He is one of the

(12:34):
most charismatic individuals you've ever met. But his message when
he comes in, I mean he comes in like a hammer.
I mean he comes in for the kill shot with
those messages. So that really didn't lend itself very well
to Sunday Wednesday night over and over and over and
over like most churches. So he went into street ministry

(12:57):
and prison ministry. So my dad now in his mid
seventies and he is now training people to do stuff
like that. He'll sit with what would you call it,
outside the church ministries, however you want to put that,
from guys that are running ministries on military basis, to
guys that are still in the street, guys that are

(13:17):
working in prisons. He'll train those guys and tell them
my dad hit thirty marty grass in a row with nothing,
a guitar around his neck and a speaker standing in
the French quarter, singing as the gay pride parades are
coming by. Okay. That's the kind of guy my dad is.
So if you wonder why I am the way I am,

(13:38):
that has been my role model. Now I'm not a preacher,
but I believe in coming at things unapologetically. And if
you know that fully, you're fully invested in your mission,
whatever that is. And that's just what it is. And
it's okay if people don't like it. And it's okay
if you take a lot of bruises and beaten and banging,

(13:59):
that's part of it. I mean, if everybody likes what
you have to say, you're not saying it correctly. That
was the phrase I was raised with.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh yeah, because if you're if you're spitting truth out there,
you're gonna piss some of the people, sometimes half the
people off. But that's okay if it's the truth. Okay.
So Pops was a hard nosed street preacher. Love that
part of the story. He played the guitar on those streets.
You said, so, is this the musical inspiration or where
does John Rich get his voice and musical you know

(14:29):
background to say, Hey, I want to go in the
recording industry instead of going in Pops's footsteps and being
another preacher maybe.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Well, believe it or not, there's not a lot of
money in street preaching. I know, I know, I know.
There's a lot of multi millionaire street preachers and prison
preachers out there, but my dad wasn't one of them
because there was no money really in what he was doing.
My dad had all kinds of jobs. So my dad
was the night watchman at Amberlin National Bank, so he's

(14:57):
the guy walking night shifts through that bank. During the day,
my dad was selling cars. He was working at hog Barns,
which I worked at him with We talked about that
a few minutes ago. And he gave guitar lessons. So
my dad is My dad's a really good singer, really good.
He's more of a baritone. He's a little lower than me,

(15:19):
but he's an excellent singer. Actually went to college paid
for on a vocal scholarship, so I mean he's that good,
really yep, and plays guitar. So he would give lessons
at the local music store there and and Marilla was
called toll Zine music. I'll never forget it, toll Zine.

(15:39):
And one night, my dad's walking out of the house
at five or six o'clock to go give guitar lessons.
And I'm about five years old, and he looks down
at me and he goes, you want to go with
me to the music store? And I looked up. I said, yeah,
I want to go there. He goes, all right, come on,
hop in the car. So I get down to the
music store and he hands me a little kid guitar

(16:02):
and then he's got this semicircle of adults sitting in
front of me, like eight or ten people, and he
starts to lesson and he looks at me and he
just says, just follow along, you know, basically, hey, just
be quiet and watch. You know, it's kind of what
he was saying. But I was listening to everything he said.
So I'm doing with my hands what he's telling the
adults to do with their hands, and I'm following along

(16:22):
and doing it. And the next week I went back
and I'm doing it again, and I started out pacing
the adults. And my dad said, you're really good at that.
You really enjoyed doing that, don't you, John? And I
said yeah, I sure do, Dad, And he goes, I'll
tell you what, let's get you a little bit better
guitar that'll actually stay in tune and keep coming to
the lessons. So I kept going, and by the age

(16:44):
of about nine or ten, I was better on the
guitar than my dad was. And so that led us
to an interesting spot on Christmas, because, like I said,
we didn't have extra money. We were month to month
paycheck people, double white trailer, the whole thing. My dad
knew you're gonna love this story, Dan. My dad knew

(17:07):
that it was time for me to have an actual,
real guitar, like one that you could take on a
stage and play it. But he did not have the
money to get me one. And so under the Christmas tree,
I go in there's this massive box. I'm like, wow,
what is that?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know?

Speaker 1 (17:25):
And so I run up to the box start ripping
the paper off of it. I get into the box
and I open it up and it's my dad's guitar
that he's had since he was eighteen years old. What
And I opened it up and I went, I'm confused.
I'm going, Daddy, why is your guitar in my Christmas box?
He said, that's your guitar. Now, that's your guitar.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
He gave me his only good guitar, the one he
had had for many years. I still have it. It's
hanging downstairs on the first floor and you walk in
the front door. I still write songs on it.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
WHOA.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
So my dad recognized that I had ability and that
I had a real fire for music early on, and
even though he didn't have the money to do it,
he was willing to give up something that he really
treasured to make sure that his son had the tools
that he needed to maybe go out here and do something.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
That's a good parent too. That's called sacrifice. Yes, it's
called sacrifice. Good parents know you have to do that.
I sacrifice for my daughter. Jr. Sacrifice for his kids.
Riley's a youngster over here. Jr's only about twenty six.
Singley eight. No kids yet, you'll find out one of
the best qualities a parent can possess is self sacrifice.

(18:39):
You've got to give for your kids. That's an awesome story, Jark.
You never told me that one. I didn't know that.
All right. Let's jump forward then, So Pops is the
one pushing to do it. You had some natural talent,
probably some DNA. Thanks to Pops, You're not going to
be a street performer because a preacher rather because it
doesn't make a lot of cash. So let's go in
the music industry. When does that start? And then when
do you get in Grammy Award winning band loan start?

(19:01):
And did you help start that? I forget Give me
that background, and then we'll get up to big and rich.
He's got a long history to get through here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
So, at about sixteen years old, get my driver's license.
I had a nineteen seventy three Dodge dark Swinger baby
blue at the white hard top. I still have it.
I still have my first car. I have an issue, Yeah, man,
I have an issue getting rid of old cars, old guitars,
and old guns. I just gun can't let them go.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, guns never.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Can't let them go. Right. So we moved to Tennessee
when I was still in high school. And I was
very upset about that because I love Texas, I love Danmillo,
all my friends were there. I mean, I wanted to go,
you know, work work cattle, work on a ranch, do
something like that. Didn't want to move to Tennessee. It

(19:49):
never dawned on me that people made money doing that.
I just did it for fun. But I got to Tennessee,
and this kid at school, I'm getting another kid. I said, So,
what's your dad do for a living. He said, Oh,
my dad is the bus driver for Ricky Skaggs. Now,
I'm one of the biggest Ricky Skaggs fans you will
ever meet. The first cassette I ever bought with my

(20:10):
own money was a Ricky Skaggs record. It was just
a country boy, Country Boy at hard That's all, okay.
So I bought that with my allowance money. So I
meet this kid. My dad drives a bus for Ricky Skaggs.
And I thought, Ricky Skaggs rides around on a bus.
I'm thinking like a like a school bus. I mean,

(20:32):
that's how far removed that was from me of this.
He said, no, man, a tour bus, like a big, fancy,
million dollar tour bus. My dad drives his bus. And
it dawned on me that all these heroes, musical heroes
that I had grown up listening to, lived within spitting
distance of where I was now living in Tennessee. And

(20:53):
I went, wow, man, the Grand ol Opry's here, all
these heroes and minor here. And so I started entering
talent contests in Nashville. I would drive into Nashville go
to honky Tonks. We got to be twenty one to
get in, and I met the lady who was running them.
Her name was Judy Martin, and she had four or
five talent contests that she would do every month. And

(21:15):
Judy says, to me, how are you? I said, sixteen.
She said, you can't even come in here. I said,
I know. I just want to sing a song. I
just want to enter and just sing. And she says, okay,
if you sit right next to me, and she gets
a can of Coca cola and goes, he goes and
drink this and don't touch anything else in here. I
will let you stay, but you have to sit right

(21:37):
next to me. I said, yes, ma'am. And so I
remember my first talent contest. Here's some of the names
that were in the talent contest. Grace Atkins, Gracy Lawrence, Whoa,
Jody Messina. Okay, so all these people are entering these
talent contests that wind up going on to be multi
platinum artist. I'm sixteen, and they're all looking at me, going,

(22:00):
who's the kid? But I'm doing pretty good. I'm holding
my own with these guys. I didn't win, but I'm
holding my own. And that's when I realized how high
the bar was set. I mean, when you hear Trace
Atkins back in his mid to late twenties singing a
country song singing Merle Haggard, You're like, oh, yeah, I
can't do that, And I cannot do that made me

(22:21):
want to go work harder. So I kept up with
that audition process, and I wound up landing a job
at Opryland USA, which was a big giant theme park,
country music theme park in Nashville, and I worked there
the summer of my senior year, which is where I
met the guys who started the band Lone Star.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Wow, whoa Wow? Is that back in about I'm going
to guess here in nineteen ninety two, nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Three, ninety two, yeah, ninety two.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yep, because you graduate a year before I did. Jar
are about the same age, a couple months apart o Kevin, Yep.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yes, but you're older, obviously, clearly you're older.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Than clearly celebrities.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Just take one look at it. It's obvious you can tell.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Such egos at these celebrities, and I swear, he says,
they can't age. They never age. Do they look at him?
He never ages.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
People in the comments below, drop your opinion on that. Actually,
I want to know all of the audience on that one.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Who looks younger, Riley Dan or John Riley. Okay, so
Lone Star. Then I know you went solo for a
while and then Big and Rich, and since you and
I met with Big and Rich, this is the story
I want because I think most people today Riley and
you obviously your your generation. You know Jr. As the
leader of Big and Rich. So he's got to tell

(23:31):
us how he found because literally, I don't know what
you were out doing, but tell us that story on
how you found Big Kenny somewhere in a bar or
something singing and said hey man, let's do this. And
then I also want you to tell especially Riley, he's
such a music nut. I remember a time on the
bus when I think somebody moved your laptop or something.
You were like, hey, man, watch out the laptop and

(23:51):
you're like, there's like two thousand songs in there. And
I was like what, and you're like, man, I've read thousands.
I didn't realize that besides Lone Star solo, John Rich
and Big and Rich John Rich that he writes songs
for dozens of other country stars who also have big
hits that are songs he wrote. I didn't get that.
I didn't know the business well enough to know. I
thought I was stupid. I think a lot of people

(24:13):
write their own stuff where they collab. No, most of
them get a lot of their stuff from other people.
They didn't collab or writer have any idea about. They
get it handed to them. John's one of those guys
that wrote a bunch of those songs. So get us
up to Big and Rich and Kenny and take us
from there. JR.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Well, that's a lot of ground to cover, so I'll
try to I'll be as efficient as I can. So
something you should know about me that you probably wouldn't
pick up in an interview most of the time. And
I think that's the point of this podcast, which I
really love, is that I am what you would call
an anomaly chaser. So I chase, i'd chase the idea,

(24:48):
I'd chase the concept that nobody else is chasing. And
I was told about this guy Big Kenny by this
girl who worked for Fender Guitars, and she said, you
got to meet this guy, Big Kenny. I said, why
on earth is his name? Big Kenny? Is he big
and tall, big and loud, big and bat big and stupid? Like,
what is he? This is the dumbest name I've ever

(25:09):
heard in my life, Big Kenny? I mean, what is that?
She says, Trust me, you'll you'll understand when you see him.
She said, you got to come out and see him.
She goes, I'll buy you a drink. Come on out
to Douglas Corner, which was this tiny little place in Nashville.
I said, okay, fine, and she was pretty good looking
benner guitar girl. I said, I'll go. I'll go meet
her and have a drink. Whatever, screw big Kenny, I'm

(25:30):
gonna go hang out with her. So so I go
down to Douglas Corner and get a cocktail, and I
sit in the back of the room and here comes
Big Kenny, this guy with he had this hair it
was like a lion's mane coming off of him. He's
he's like, he looks like Robert Redford, hippie country boy,
this amalgamation of just a bunch of different stuff. And

(25:52):
I went, what on earth is that? I said, Well,
I wonder what he sounds like. And he starts singing,
and he had written all of his songs, and I
really couldn't put my finger on it. I still can't,
to be honest with you, What is Big Kenny music.
It is a It is a slamming together of country
and folk and rock and psychedelic and just all kinds

(26:15):
of stuff going on in his head. And he writes
these Big Kenny songs. So I heard him play him
I didn't really know what to think about it, other
than I was very impressed with how just ultra creative
it was. I've never seen anybody like that, never heard
anything like that. And to me, he was like a
unicorn running around out in the woods with all the

(26:36):
with all the white tailed deer, there's one unicorn running
around in the middle of him.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
He's not a hippie, he's not a country western.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
He's like a hippies neither.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
He's a hybrid blend. Yeah, yeah, Big Kenny's I love
Big He's so soft spoken.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah. Big Kenny's like a mash up playlist. I mean,
he doesn't he doesn't make any sense, but it's fun
to listen to.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
H and just a great soul like the person, like
the guy the person. He's a great guy. So ninety
two to ninety three is lone star. Then you go
solo for a bit, and then when do you find
Big Kenny and start that Because wasn't the early two
thousands that you guys had the mega hit save a Horse,
Ride a Cowboy? Was that oh one to two thing?
Where was that?

Speaker 1 (27:18):
So Kenny and I met in ninety nine. That event
where I saw him play was ninety nine. That night
we shook hands. I said, hey, man, great set. He goes,
you want to write a song sometime. I went, yeah,
I write a song with you. And he goes, what
are you doing tomorrow morning? I said, I guess I'm
writing a song with you. So I went over to
his apartment and we wrote a song. The next day
we wrote another one, and another one, and another one

(27:39):
and another one. Really that turned into a jam that
we called the Music Mafia, which was a bunch of
unsigned artists that were all anomalies. Everybody was kind of
just off the radar. In Nashville. It was Gretchen Wilson.
She was a bartender at the time Cowboy Troy. He
was working at a foot locker in Dallas, Texas, a
Big Kenny myself, a guy named James Auto who went

(28:02):
on to have the most played song of OA. He's
all this insane talent that led to people referring to
me and Kenny as big and Rich. It was like
a joke, like we would show up somewhere and they'd say, oh,
look it's big and rich.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Ha ha. Now make okay, reason you came up with
the title, but people were calling you, guys that because
of Big Kenny and John Rich. Here comes big and
Rich here again.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Well, yeah, it was like a joke. It was like
a joke. And I still had aspirations, uh to do
to be a solo country artist, and Kenny had aspirations
to do rock. He wanted to go be a rock artist.
But we're writing all these songs together. And so what
eventually happened is a guy named Paul Whirley is one
of the biggest record producers ever, came to Nashville onelmost

(28:51):
talented guys too. Saw us at a music mafia on
a Tuesday night with about fifty people sitting in a room,
and he said, come into my office tomorrow. I want
to talk to you guys and We're like, oh, cool,
maybe he's going to record some of our songs on
somebody else. But no, he said, big and rich, that's
a thing, and I want to sign it here at
Warner Brothers Records. I think you guys need a record deal.

(29:13):
In the world needs to hear your music. And we
thought it was a joke. So this said, I'm not kidding, this.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Is like twenty five years ago. Then about this.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Would have been two thousand. He offered us that deal
in late two thousand and two, okay years early two
thousand and three. Wow, And we said, well, will you
have a liquor budget for the for the studio, and
he goes, whatever you want, went all right, we're in
bang and shut his hand.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Very key, that's true. Well, but John, though that's true.
I wanted to just piggyback on that point. Then for
all the amateur songwriters out there in the world, myself included, Yes,
I want to hear about your songwriting process. Does the
music come to you first? Are you just messing around
with different riffs and chords and your guitar? Do you
go in do it into studio with an idea musically?

(30:02):
Do you hear a melody in your head. I just
want to get your sense of how are you creating
these really magical songs that are just very unique and
very touching in a way that you don't hear from
any other artists.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Really, yeah, bus.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Very kind of you say that about my songs. I
appreciate that. There is no set equation to how I
write a song. It can it can come in the
form of a sentence like something. I might say something
and go, oh, that needs to be a song, or
it could be i'll wake up in the morning, or
I'm out mowing the grass, or I'm doing whatever, and

(30:36):
there's just a melody rolling over and over and over
in my head. I can feel the pocket to melody.
I don't really have any words yet, And so basically
what I'll do is, I'll take my iPhone here and
back in the day it was, you know, before iPhones,
it was a recorder. But I'll just stop what I'm doing,
whether I'm driving, working in an airport, whatever, and I'll
turn that voice notes on it and I'll just scat something

(30:59):
into my phone, whether it's the melody or it's the lyrics,
or it's a combination of the boat. And then when
I get tired, I go sit down and I'll start
working on it. Sometimes I'll write them by myself, depending
on the song, if I'm looking for a certain kind
of angle or vibe in it. There's all kinds of
songwriters I'm friends with that are, you know, the most
talented people in the world when it comes to writing songs.

(31:20):
So I'll say, hey, would you want to come write
this song with me? The title is bang or it
sounds like this, and I'll bring them into the room
to collaborate. I really enjoy writing with females, honestly the most,
because when you're writing a song for public consumption, you're
not writing a song just for the guys. You're writing

(31:41):
a song for the whole crowd, the whole country. And
so when you have a female in the room, she
has the other side of that perspective. So I see
it from here, she sees it from here. And when
you really flesh that song out, whatever that subject is,
when it's all done, you're seeing the whole thing. It's
like an it's all three sixty, the whole thing is covered.

(32:04):
And I have deployed that tactic a lot in my
songwriting career to bring in people especially females, to get
their perspective on what I'm saying, so that song can
be as widely appealing as possible.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
So there is a formula, but there isn't a formula
because sometimes he said, and I know I've been there
with him, or I've talked with him when he's got
a new song. We wanted to feature him on the
talk show the last five years, and he'll tell me, oh, hey,
I got this new one. Can I come on and
talk about it? It's about this my faith or this
one about patriotism, because something hit him that day and
then I wrote it in a weekend. I wrote it. So,

(32:38):
and you know that you're an artist. I'm not. I
don't get the process. I can't play an instrument, I
don't write music, and so I'll never attest to know
what you guys do. But I always find it absolutely
amazing how y'all can put whatever you're hearing in your
head to paper with the notes, then the words or backwards.
I don't know how you do it. Maybe it's the

(32:58):
words in the notes or sometimes it's both, and then
come up with you know, the eighth of November. I mean,
because John's got him and big Kenny being vet. You know,
I love eight November being a veteran. But they've got
a wide range because they've got rockabilly stuff, yes right,
that sounds more rockish. They've got folksy stuff that tells
a story like eighth of November our veterans, uh and

(33:18):
and people killed in battle. They've got honky tonk sound
and stuff. They've got good classic country, they got new
age rock and country so big and riches like covers
a big gamut. It's not just like when you listen
to Myrtle Haggard, love him one of the best. Mertle
Haggard is Mertle Haggard, Big and rich, covers a whole bunch.
It's almost like in my favorite of all time. And Jr.
Knows this he won't get, he won't get, But hurt

(33:39):
is Hank Jr. That's my favorite fricking artist. I'm never
changing no matter which celebrity or which singer songwriter I
have become friends with. Hank Junior is the best.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
In my book, Family the South, all one, punchy.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Boy, Knservant. You can keep going. There's so many whiskey
that hell bound. Don't even start me on Hank Jr. Anyway,
so we're up to big and rich. You have other question.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
I just wanted to sort of follow up if I could.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Hear the music. U. So you've got a lot of questions,
throw them at him. I do. We got him here
for another fifteen to twenty.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Minutes ago, and if I kind of ask a little
bit about the secret sauce, because as Dan was just saying,
you've managed to stay very musically relevant for a long
time and appeal to wide different groups of people. That
is very impressive and you don't see that a lot.
You see fads and trends. The eighties was a response
to the seventies, the nineties to the eighties. So to
see people that can cross into different genres and stay

(34:27):
relevant and at the front of the scene musically really
speaks volumes. And I just want to I want to
know a little bit about the secret sauce, like how
do you how do you do that? Because music will trends,
they change almostn't changes.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
He did a gospel went up absolutely so he had
my buddy actor Nick Searcy in the video. They were
in front of a church. What was that one called again?
John Revelation? Revelation Yeah, so he's done gospel. He so,
I mean, yeah, a lot of every genres. Yeah, so
how about that? What is there a secret sauce?

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, actually there is. It is very simply this. The
American people respond to authenticity. Ah, that's it. So when
you start chasing fads or you start you know you've
got talent as a songwriter as a singer, and you go,
I'm going to write whatever's popular right now because I'm

(35:17):
trying to get on the radio and I'm trying to
make some money. That might work for a minute, but
at some point it won't because fads change and sounds
change and the industry people's ears change what they want
to hear. If you come at your songwriting from a
from a spot that to you is dead on straight,

(35:38):
whether that means it's a party song, and this is
how we actually get down with it, like sable Horse Ride,
a Cowboy coming to your sit day songs like that.
They feel it. They know you didn't make that up.
Like that's actually how big and rich goes at it
when they when they want to go have fun. That's
what it is. When you get serious and you want
to you want to write a song about a veteran

(35:59):
like the eighth and November. They hear that song and
they go they did not make that up. There's no
calculation or equation to that. These guys are telling us
exactly how they feel about it. When you go into
a song that's based in the Bible, like Revelation, I
came straight at it exactly what it says on the pages,

(36:20):
exactly how I feel about it, exactly what the truth
of it is. And when you come at it from
that perspective, and you're not playing games with people for
long enough, they start to really understand of all the
nonsense in the world. I don't think that guy's full
of it. Actually, I think that guy what I see
is what I get, and that will take you the distance.

(36:43):
Merle Haggard is what you see what you get. Willie Nelson,
Johnny cash Waylon Tanya. I could go down through the
list the ones that we consider to be the greatest, well,
the ones we consider to be the greatest of all
times weren't necessarily the greatest vocalist. They were just the
ones that were the most authentic. Loretta Lynn. No more

(37:05):
authentic country singer than Loretta Lynn, and that's why people
still love the Loretta Lynn. She's passed away several years ago.
Authenticity is the key, my friend. Let me give you
one inside story because you'll love this. I was sitting
I was sitting in La at this massive songwriter's expo.
So there was like four or five thousand up and

(37:28):
coming amateur songwriters sitting in the room and on the stage.
This was in two thousand and seven. They had me,
I was the country guy because I had all these
hit songs going on, Al Dean, Gretchen, Wilson, Big and Rich,
all that was happening. They had Usher, who was hotter
than a match in Urban and R and B. And
then they had Tom Petty sitting on the stage, the

(37:51):
ultimate rock songwriter. Yes, and honestly, one of my musical
heroes is Tom Petty.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
I'm sitting on a stage.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
I'm sitting on the stage with these guys. Okay, that's
this is the scene in LA, thousands of people, and
this lady walks up to the mic out in the audience,
you know how. They'll have them line up in the row,
and she grabs the mic and she goes, I have
a question for mister Petty. And Tom is sitting there
he's just sprawled out in his chair, I mean iron

(38:22):
a kite, you know. He's just like, hey, hey, what's
the question, you know, And the lady says, mister petty,
how do you write your songs? And Tom looks at
her and he goes, well, I just stick my antenta
out there as far as it'll go, and every now
and then a song will just drift across it. And

(38:46):
he just looks right back at her and the place
is dead slad, and then they just start going. You
start clapping as loud as they can because because the
answer was absolutely spot on, it was brilliant. It's it's
like a it's like a CB radio that you leave
turned on twenty four to seven, and most of the
time it's just white noise, but every now and then

(39:07):
somebody starts talking and you'll hear a message come through.
That's kind of like what it is to be a
professional songwriter or a guy that writes songs his whole life.
Your antenna is always out. It's just always out, and
every now and then you'll hear something inside your head.
You'll feel something and it'll move you to take pen
to paper and create something new.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
You've written and collabed with a lot of people too.
Over the last two three decades. Have it to JR.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
I have man written. I've worked with everybody from Zach
Wild Black Label Society to Taylor Swift. Wow, I mean
I've worked with all of them. I've written with John Legend,
I have I've written, I've sat down and worked with
Hank Junior, actually all kinds of people.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Jewel.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
I produced a record on Jewel, which that was a
really challenging record because Jewel is a very challenging artist.
She's so so complicated the way she comes at things,
which is why she's Jewel. But actually a record I
produced on her was the only record where she ever
had a top ten single at country radio. I got
to produce that. So what started what started happening for me, guys,

(40:17):
is people like Jewel and Hank and Taylor, all these
pet and John Legend and all these people would start
calling me and saying, Hey, I'd like to write a
song with you. And they were only saying that because
they were hearing the things I was writing for other people.
It goes back to the authenticity side. You know, the

(40:40):
industry is completely fabricated, completely fake. It is it is
nothing but uh, it's nothing but a wave that they
ride up and down and up and down and up
and down. There's nothing there.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Next question, because I literally have today's music scene, ask
him about country music and the woke agenda into Coachella
on stagecoach, perfect segue, John, thank you. Today's music is
not authentic by a lot of artists. I'm not going
to say all there are some great artists out there
in all genres. However, I think entertainment in general, whether

(41:15):
it's television, film, or music, has gone downhill quite a
bit in the last decade, maybe even two decades, and
we've lost that originality and that authenticity because the big
corporate overlords that are running, whether it may be the
television studio, the movie studio, or the record label, are
giving them that garbage and think this is the mass

(41:36):
produced stuff. The messes alike, So just sing this crap,
and most of them, like you said twenty minutes ago,
jar are so excited about just becoming a star and
not being an authentic artist. Yes, they just want to
be a star. They'll sing that crap, they'll they'll read
that role, they'll play that character, and they don't care
well so yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Well I'm sorry, that's just a weird transition. And John,
I like your thoughts about that, because you look at
even now, I mean seventies, eighties, nineties up through what
you're doing now. You have bands and people come together.
They're all musical, they have ideas, they work with each other.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
But you learn talented.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
You look at the auto tuned Yeah exactly. But now
you look at the Spotify top four hundred, and the
first two hundred and fifty are all solo artists with
teams of writers. And I wonder, how do we go
from the era of incredible bands and groups and even
duos to just hundreds and hundreds of solo artists that
have teams of writers they out, Yeah, the great machines.
It's a very weird change, and a lot of times

(42:25):
they end up sounding kind of like each other. They're
just like duplicates of each other a little. I don't
want to knock people, but.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
No, no, no, weird great point, JR. I bet he's had
something to say about this one.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Well, so this is probably not the answer you're expecting
about why you don't see bands, But I'm gonna give
you the real answer. When digital downloads. When music went
digital and you could now purchase one song instead of
having to purchase the whole record to get the one song,
so the record would be twelve ninety nine thirteen nine

(43:00):
for eleven to thirteen songs. Now you can spend ninety
nine cents and get the one song that you heard
on the radio and forget the other twelve ninety nine cents. Okay,
let's do the math on that real quick. What percentage
is ninety nine cents of thirteen ninety nine about seven
percent somewhere in that range the income that was coming

(43:24):
in from record sales. Let's talk about bands for any artists,
But the income dropped by ninety three percent on record
sales when digital music showed up. And then, to make
matters even worse, dreaming shows up. So now you don't
even have to download the song. You just buy a
streaming service and listen to it as many damn times
as you want to, and you never have to pay

(43:46):
for it. So what that did was it killed the
income stream for the artists on record sales. There's no
such thing as record sale income anymore. Nothing it is,
It is zero, It means nothing. So what happened because
of that, the record labels were going belly up because
all the record deals were based on record sales. And

(44:07):
so what they did is they completely remodeled the record
industry where now they get a piece, a big piece
of your touring, of your t shirts, of your merchandise,
your website, everything.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Why concert tickets now are just through the.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Well, no, there's more to that way the concert tickets are.
That's part of the problem. But also part of the
problem is all these services charging all the fees, which
you just heard the other day. Trump's going to take
a look at it because kid rock Bob was telling
him take a look at this crap in the White
House and he signed that EO. John here. Now we
see we got into politics. We stayed off of it for.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Four Well, but I didn't get I didn't get finished, Dan,
I didn't gets damn it. Sorry, sorry stup cutting me off.
I mean, hey, if you want to finish my sentence
Dan about why there are no more bands, feel free.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
I just wanted to get that in there because it
was politics. I was't supposed to, but I didn't want
get there because I want you always.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Just want to get that in there. I know, I
know how you are. You just always want to get
that in there. The reason there are no more bands
is because when you kill that income stream and there's
no more there's no more money being made on the
actual sale of music. Think about what that means. That
means if you've got a band with four or five
people in it, how much smaller did the whole pie get?

(45:17):
And now they're split in the smaller pile of four
or five different ways, and everybody's taking a commission and
everybody's getting a piece of it, and it almost becomes
it almost becomes a unsustainable situation monetarily for bands to
go out there and actually make anything. So if you've
got a really talented person that's a part of a band,

(45:38):
they may go, you know what, I'm just gonna go
do this solo because otherwise, I mean, world, it's gonna
we're gonna go work our butts off and be broke. Yeah,
I mean, that's how they really.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Want about to If you've got four or five, if
everybody in the band's really talented, they have an opinion,
they have ideas, maybe they help collab and write stuff,
and the record labels like, yeah, well we want you
to sing this, and they're like, well, that's crap, we
don't want you. Gonna have more pushback. If you have
one solo artist, it's easier to convince one than it
is four or five. So that's probably a big part
of it too, because the court again goes back to corporations.

(46:07):
So talk about the pricing though, because when when Kid
Rock was in the White House the other day and
Trump signed that EO. A big problem with these five
hundred dollars tickets for a concert for one solo artist
is all of these different how many vivid seats, YEP,
ticket Master, I'm forgetting names. There's like four or five
apps UB I mean, yeah, there you go, seat geek.

(46:30):
There's four, we got four, and there's at least two
or three more. So you have all these apps and
the fees jr. Are unreal. You're like, oh, it's a
two eighty five ticket for upfront, Great, you got ready
check out it's six hundred and twenty seven. You're like,
what the hell just happened? I can't go to that show.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Well, one thing about people that have families or friends,
it's become I mean, you can't spend the average American
can't drop one thousand dollars to take themselves and their
wife and maybe a couple of kills.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
No answer.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
That's that's a greatious.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Is that one of the main reasons? Or why did
it also spike the last few years?

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Now, that's that's the main reason. I mean, like, if
you apply that tactic to any other sector of American life.
Let's say, I don't know, everybody, some company went and
bought up all the plywood right before a hurricane and
then decided to charge you five hundred dollars a sheet
for plywood. We wouldn't allow that's right, it would be
price scouging. Yeah, So these companies come in, they swoop

(47:20):
up all the tickets and then they put it on
their site. That way they can inflate the prices and
then charge you all these fees and on and on,
and if you want to go to the show, that's
how you have to you have to do that. If
you want to go to the shoal, it's generally not
the artist that's killing these these these poor fans coming
to their shows. We don't want that. We want the
place to be packed. We want we don't want a

(47:40):
seat left in the room. We don't want to price
our fans out of the chairs. So I'm glad to
see that Trump did that, that he at least made
a first move on it to put a light on
that because it's highway robbery.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, you've been a fan of President Trump for a
long time. Now I will get political just for the
last couple of minutes, and then I'm going to ask
him about Coachella because it was this past week and
we got another week of Coachella crap this coming weekend
and then stagecoach speaking of overpriced events and concerts. What
sparked you Jr? To put yourself out there because many

(48:12):
artists will not do it, especially when it comes to
aligning with Donald J. Trump. I know you're on the
Apprentice years ago and that probably played into it, but
you still could have chose today since twenty sixteen and
obvious since the last election, since twenty twenty to go.
You know what, This ain't good for my career. I'm
walking away from Trump. People hate him. Oh my god.
It's hurting my sales. Da da dah because a lot
of people that like this man ran away from him

(48:34):
and still have not come home to show their support.
You've always been right there, Jr. And you haven't worried
about ticket sales and album sales and T shirt and
whiskey and beef jerkey sales. Why not?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Because I feel like that he is the only person
alive in the world today that both sides of the
aisle hate him. The system hates everything about Donald Trump.
And we know that the system is inherently evil. We
know that. And so if an evil system hates this
man with everything they have, and I mean both sides

(49:09):
of the out when I say that, because you know
exactly who I'm talking about, Dan, there's a bunch of
them on the right that also hate him, that go
out of their way to mess him up any which
way they can. When an evil system hates this individual,
that means he is not part of that evil system.
He's not part of it. He's the enemy of the wicked,

(49:31):
evil system. And when I finally realized that's who this
man was, and that he was willing to do whatever
it took to try to dismantle that, so that down
the road, the two boys I'm raising right now, your
daughter Dan would have a shot to be in America
without this evil system in place. Man you got to
get behind that, And you're right. The music industry didn't

(49:54):
like what I had to say. They cut me lose.
Country radio was run by liberal conglomerates. They don't play
my music anymore. But I wouldn't go back to that
situation for anything, because the only way I could survive
there and exist there would be to keep my mouth
shut and play the same stupid game that most artists
play these days. There's a lot of big time artists
that are actually conservatives in country music that won't say

(50:16):
a word about it, And honestly, it disappoints me that
they won't because they've got enough money to burn a
wet meal. As we would say in Emerald of Texas.
They don't need any more money. They should be concerned
about the future of their country and setting an example
for their kids, but they just keep cashing those checks.
That just never sat right with me. And I'd rather

(50:37):
have less money in the bank and know that I
that I stood for something that that had integrity and
was concrete, and that was really a much bigger play
than any kind of cash wouldever be to me.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
That's why he does his own youth now no more.
Warner brothers, right, Jy are big and riches there.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Now. I have I have no record label, I have
no publishing deal I have I do not have a
contract with anybody anywhere in the music industry nowhere.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
That's why he can say whatever the hell he wants.
I know you and I were talking before the show,
and this is about timed rap. But I want to
get this in because it's top of mind right now
because it just happened. And then well, matter of fact,
it's a Friday, so they're kicking off the second weekend
of Coachella. There was some crazy stuff that went down
at Coachella, and they'll probably be more at Stage Coach
because it's all the same producers of this show. And

(51:25):
let's be real, they're liberal as hell.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
So I'll truly after this first.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
I'll let you take it from there. There was at
least I got at least three things on Coachella that
I went, what the hell go ahead? Really?

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Yeah, Well, so I guess it would start by saying
I thought Coachella was supposed to be just about music,
a good time, fucking the artists, and it turned into
a brainwashing session a little bit. This first weekend with
Bernie Sanders, Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day coming out
and slamming Trump and MAGA and American Patriots.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
I don't understand why they would do that. I really don't.
Maybe it's because they are just, you know, liberal, But well.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Billy's been that way since w he came out and
ripped on Bush too with.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Even still you didn't see this has been for a
couple of times.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
But Golden Voice, I'm gonna fill Golden Voice that's a
producer of this whole thing under the rug and then
and then we'll get a Jr's take. They allow this crap.
They invited Bernie. Don't get up there now they can
say the artist because I forget who he was out
in the stage with. She may have invited Bernie. Fine,
but it's your stage, Golden Voice, you allow it, so
you bring Bernie, You let Billy say this crap? And
then did you see the show put on by Lady Gaga?

(52:22):
I mean, enough with the satanic crap? We get it.
You guys are freaking weird. You're into this stuff.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Why do you have to keep promising earlier? This is
about promoting evil? They do what they're promoting they're glorifying evil.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
I'm glad I didn't waste talk about big money, right?
What is this one thousand bucks to go now? And
if you want a VIP, it's even way more like
I've been to a Coachella in years. I still go
to Stage Coach once in a while. I actually prefer
to go down to Nashville and see JR. On the
first week of June and go to Cmafest, which that's
becoming a little woke too, So JR. Your take on

(52:56):
how the wokeness is affecting big gigs like cell A,
Stage Coach, CMA Fest.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
And when I was growing up, Satanists used to worship
the devil out in the dark woods, and now they're
doing it in the open spotlights.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yeah, scary, scary.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
I mean that's exactly what you're seeing there. And trust me,
it is not art to them. They say, oh, this
is just artistic. Now it's not trust me, it is
not art to them. It is religion to them, and
they are they are deadly serious about it. And as
far as Billy Joe Armstrong, what an absolute blithering idiot

(53:31):
that guy is to bring on bring on an old
white multi millionaire on his stage, so scream at old
white millionaires. I mean, Billy Joe Armstrong going the man,
the man, all the rich people are keeping usself. First
of all, Billy Joe Armstrong is probably worth a few

(53:51):
hundred million dollars at this point as well. I'm sorry,
Billy Joe, how much money have you donated to anybody
to to take care of any of these problems? And
then you're going to bring on the exact guy who
you've been screaming at the whole time. They are in
complete disarray. Everything they're doing is saving the Conservatives so

(54:12):
much money in the midterms and in the next presidential election.
By all the creative, they are not going to have
to spend money on any creative. All they're going to
have to do for their ads is just show what
they're doing. I mean, just go and now here's what
they're doing. There's a guy in El Salvador trying to
drag this guy back to the United States. Oh, by
the way, you just found out he's a wife beater

(54:33):
and a child abuser on top of being part of
MS thirteen, on top of being an illegal alien human. Yeah,
they're going to go out of their way to drag
him back to the country. Dan, this is the greatest
thing that could happen. I hope they just continue to
triple and quadruple down on this. They are idiots, They're
blithering idiots. They don't have the sense God gave a goose.

(54:53):
They look like fools. They look like wicked, evil, wicked
evil moron. They're not even smart enough to shield us
from their wickedness. They're going to stick it right in
our faces and think we don't understand what we're looking at.
And meanwhile they're cratering the future of their party. Thank god.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. The best commercial you can
do is just let a Democrat talk, Let AOC speak
these days, Let what's the crazy one from Texas, Jasmine
Felicia Prockett, Let her speak.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
I hope we have an AOC Jasmine Crockett.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Jarney centers put and I would love that. Don't even
put paid for by Just give thirty seconds of what
they say and then be like who you voting for
twenty twenty six? Like that's all you got to do there?
All right? They're giving me the wrap in the ear,
so a JR. Quick plug for you. Where do they
find everything that big and rich is doing because you've
got your Rednick Riviera brand. By the way, the whiskey's
really good. I like Granny's the best, the Granny Reserve

(55:46):
and the Apple One's not. Batty's had a couple of
different kinds of whiskey. We'd love to see the whiskey
on here Jr. By the way, if the company will
to do a little spoers, you know what little sponsorship.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
I know we need to get it up, we need
to get it going. We need so I appreciate you
leading me to that. Ye, So let me give you
a update.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Dan.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
You've been around me since the beginning when Rednick Rivera
Whiskey was just starting. It's in now over ten thousand
stores and in the past, in the past, well we're
in April now, so four months in over last year.
The brand is up seventy one percent nationwide, and we
unveiled a new bottle on a live stream I did

(56:22):
about a week ago. My glass is made in America.
It's actually made in Pennsylvania. My corks come from Indiana,
my labels, everything is assembled here in Tennessee and we
ship out of Tennessee's one hundred percent made in the
USA product. But here's the new bottle, Dan, because I
bet you haven't seen it yet. I'm gonna bring it
up to the camera.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
We'll see the stars on the shoulder printed nice beautiful.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
You see that, and then it's got uh, it's got
the work hard, work hard on this side, and it's
got that played hard.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Yeah at the big right now, You've got to work hard,
play hard.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Still got Folds of Honor. Still got Folds of Honor
right here.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Let me throw that in jr. Is huge Folds of Honor. Folks,
if you don't know what the Folds of Honor charities about,
google it right now as soon as we sign off
and go donate five fifty five hundred whatever you can afford.
Folds of Honors a great charity. Jair has been donating
to them for years through his Rednick Riviera. His concerts,
great great charity. So you got Rednick Riviera. We got
big and rich Folds of Honor. Is there a website

(57:18):
by the way, stop you can check all this stuff out, Jair.
You guys have a website?

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Yeah yeah, Biggo Risk dot com has our concerts. Rednickrevier
dot com has all ten thousand stores in our sisterre
locator got check that out, and it's gonna be It's
gonna be a great summer. Dan. I hope we see
you and Peyton up here for CMA Fest. Man, it's
gonna be another good one.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I believe the airbnb has already booked. I just got
to get the tickets in the airfare. But we're getting
there first week of June as usual. This is about
the seventh or eight years straight minus COVID that I
had down you left the com Riley. Yeah, I'm telling you, bro,
it's four days of fun in Nashville. You're at the
Honky Tonks all day, then you're watching the concerts all night,
then you're back at the Honky Tongku till three in
the morning. It's a hell of a lot of fun.

(57:56):
Plus we might take over to Jr's pad. You can
check out the pool and the night club.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Please?

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Can I give Riley? Can I get Riley? Can I
give you one last little songwriter advice before we hang
up the phone?

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Here freease, hey give you.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
I'm gonna give you a little stat So I've had
two hundred and thirteen songs of mine recorded on big records.
In my career, I've written twenty two hundred songs, so
one out of ten. So if you're wanting to be
a professional songwriter, understand this. It is not a hobby.

(58:29):
You write, and you write, and you write and you
write and understand most of the time, as great as
you think it is, nobody's ever going to hear it.
But man, that one out of ten, or even that
one out of one hundred, man can change the whole
entire ballgame. So I hope you stick with it, and
I hope you dig deep, man, and be authentic. If
you be authentic, something great's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Thank you, bo I appreciate that song.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
You need to pay for that? Really Yeah, that's free
awesome advice right there, right really is. Thank you, John
John Rich the man, Big and Rich is always Thank
you brother for coming on. We'll see on the talk
show at some point. But thanks for doing this a
little bit longer formatt and I think people got to
know you more, learn a lot more about the music industry,
a lot more about Big and Rich and John Rich
the artist. Thank you brother, Thank you sir.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Good seeing you boys. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Yep, take care ja air. All right, let's wrap things
up with you and me. What you got planned for
the weekend? Anything fun?

Speaker 1 (59:19):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Well, based on that advice, you're gonna go home and
write songs like one hundred of them this week.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
I feel like a brand new man.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
So yeah, that's some good advice.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
I think about that twenty See, I knew I told
you that one time. I almost built the computer. He
was like, there's two thousand songs on that computer because
I almost dropped it off of a desk on the
RV once I saw RV on his motor coach on
his bus tour. I almost knocked it or spilled something
on it. And he was like whoa, because he said,
I have a two thousand songs on that laptop. Don't
f it up. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Yeah, so you got to get writing, bro, I've got
a busy weekend ahead of meeting to get right.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
I do.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
But I do think he's right across the board. Just
being authentic and being sincere. That's the key, I think,
just for being successful across the board.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Oh yeah, look, it works in our industry. Yeah, absolute,
I mean your show, the real story I called mine
Real America. The boss has let us name our shows.
What do you want to call your show? I could
have called it Dan Ball Tonight, or on the Ball
Dan or something stupid cheesy like that. No, when I
sat back, I said real America, because I want them
to know what's actually happening in the real country that
we all live in, Not the lies told on CNN

(01:00:20):
or the lies told by politicians. The real story, the
real American. That's why I went to be authentic. Your
your idol in our industry. You told me it was
Rush Limbaugh in the Firch episode you appeared on. Right,
I think Rush was pretty damn authentic. Oh ye, people knew.
That's why he was so Yes, that's why he was
so unfiltered, so he was so successful speaking of speaking

(01:00:43):
the truth and speaking truth to power. Real quick, before
we say goodbye, let's remind everybody where our shows are
what we're doing. And I got a little special event
I'm doing if you don't mind, real quick, please Okay,
So for all you Hoosiers or if you live in
Michigan or Ohio, this is in the Tri state area
next Friday night, so a week from tonight. I believe
it's April twenty five at thirsay info, I'm gonna be
in Steuben County. This is a county in northeast Indiana,

(01:01:05):
just north of Fort Wayne. I'm the guest VIP speaker.
I guess, plus, Indiana's Attorney General is going to be there,
Todd Rakeda. I think a couple of Congressmen like Marlin Stutsman,
maybe even the Senator might show up, Jim Banks. And
then I'm the keynote speaker. So there's still a few
tickets left. If you want to get them. The best
way to do it is to go to their website
right there at the bottom. So you want to get

(01:01:27):
a hold of Steuben County, I believe it's Steuben County
gop dot org and you can buy your tickets. I
hope to see you there next Friday night in Steuben County, Indiana. Again,
make the drive. If you're over in what southwest Michigan,
if you're in northwest Ohio, you can get down over
to Northeast Indiana real quick.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Even beyond that, if you got a CA Chicago far
of a drive.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
That's only two and a half hours from Chicago. And
I know there's patriots in Chicago, so buy the ticket,
come over, see us speak and have a good time. Also,
make sure you tune into the OA in primetime lineup
Monday through Friday. You want to start with Riley with
the Real Story at six pm Eastern. Seven o'clock we
got the News hour. Eight pm is Real America with Me.
Nine o'clock is Matt Gates, and then Chanelle Rhon wraps

(01:02:08):
it all up with Fine Point at ten and then
more news at eleven. So be sure to tune in
for all that. Huge thank you. I can never forget
to thank these guys enough. Are Grunt Style sponsors. We
love having them on great shirts. By the way, you
can never mistake a Grunt Style because they got the
old rifles. I love their logo beautiful. If you would

(01:02:28):
like to sponsor or do anything with the show, maybe
you want to be a guest, maybe you want to
have some product here with us, you can always shoot
me an email at Realamerica dot com. That's the best way,
or just send one to me Dan dot Ball at
awa inn dot com, or send one to Riley. It's
all the same thing. Riley Lewis at o com. Send
us your thoughts, the good, the bad, the ugly. What

(01:02:49):
you think of the podcast or do you think of
our guests. We'd love to hear it from all of you.
Final words from mister Brown, im I drink some more whiskey.
I'm in battle in this cold all week. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
Please don't don't be strangers out there. We want to
hear from you. I think we both do this in
part just because we love people and we love getting
to know people, and everyone here has a voice, and
we want to know what you guys are thinking. We
do so we can better serve you and talk about
the stories you want to hear about. Maybe there's something
you're not getting from the legacy media and that's where
we can come in and fill in the gaps and
give you the truth they're not giving you. So if
you have story ideas, the greatest ideas, please let us know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
We'll work on it. And this being longer format, we
can go way more in depth than we can on
our talk shows, yes, where we only get fifty two minutes,
like I said at the beginning of this, and it's
usually five guests, so it's ten minutes each. But then
we always have an intro that's three or four or
five by tending to the guests, you get five minutes
with them six minutes. We got almost an hour or
more with JR. Tonight. I learned so much about a
guy I've known ten years. Speaking of that next week,

(01:03:40):
it's the last thing Congressman from Tennessee. We're in a
Tennessee mood, we said, JR. From Nashville. Now we're going
to have and he's I think outside of Knoxville. Congressman
Tim Burchett from Tennessee. The congressman will come on for
the whole hour next Thursday. We're going to talk a
little politics, but a lot ranch life, his early years,
his family, the beautiful stated time Tennessee city in Knoxville,

(01:04:01):
which I think he used to be the mayor of
back in the day too. So yeah, a lot about
mister Burchett. I don't know, but he's one of my
favorite congressman, how about you? Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Absolutely? And he's authentic himself.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
I love that he's a good old boy. I love him.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
In DC, there are so many of these politicians just
play mind games. They're only self serving. But you can
tell this is someone who's really a man of the people,
and that's what we need in America.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
We need a lot more of that, all right, So
tune in next Friday, seven pm when we drop these
across all Owen platforms on Rumble, YouTube, Truth and x right,
so that's where we drop it all. We will have
Congressman Tim Burchett at another hour discussion about all sorts
of things. Thanks so much for tuning in to the
A Command Podcast. I'm Dan Ball, that's Rody Lewis God
bless y'all. See you later.