On season 2, episode 9 of Unsigned & Independent, Kevin sits down with Fort Smith, Arkansas native - JD Clayton. JD talks about losing his job during COVID and having to work for a landscaping company to make ends meet, but this ultimately led to him writing his first album while on the job. Kevin and JD also talk about his upbringing and not growing up on traditional country music like the rest of his fans, and much more!
Socials:
- IG: JDClaytonOfficial
- Twitter: JDClaytonofcl
Follow: @KickOffKevin
Podcast Description:
Unsigned and Independent is a six episode season podcast hosted by Kevin O’Connell that features unsigned and independent artists and bands in Nashville. The purpose of this podcast is to highlight the journey and grind musicians go through trying to make it in the industry; the journey most fans don’t see leading up to national success. People move to music city from all over the country to chase something they have only dreamed of – making music and performing for a living. This podcast will dive into stories on the road, late nights and early mornings on the infamous Broadway, their background story, and if there is an ultimate goal for each artist or band. The artists featured on this podcast don’t have the backing of a label or sometimes even management, or a publishing team to handle their bookings, travel, etc.… But what they all have in common is a genuine passion for the love of music and performing. There is hidden talent spread throughout music city and the aim of this podcast is to give this hidden talent an opportunity to have a platform for an audience to hear their story, what the process is really like in the industry, and hopefully gain a new fan or two.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Unsigned and Independent Season two, episode nine with j D Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now, I don't know JD.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I know he's from Arkansas though, and I know that
Morgan number one, my manager, also has started working with JD.
And she reached out and she was like, do you
care if I pitched this to Kevin? And I was like, oh,
you can pitch whatever you want. I'm never going to
tell you no. And she was like, well, I just
don't want to because Morgan I've been together forever and
she did want to abuse the relationship, which she never
would so, and I know you wouldn't just take him either.
(00:37):
So there must be something about this guy you really liked.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It's his music, yeah, yeah, it's the sound of his
music is awesome. It's like a blues grass, old school field.
But it's weird because his inspiration was like Jack Johnson
and John Mayer, like acoustic. Yeah, but it's that either
you're sitting by the campfire and you're really enjoying it
on a Sunday night or some or it's your foot
stomp and kind of music.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So Fort Smith, Arkansas native JD Clayton, he did not
grow up on classic country, you know, like you said,
it's a lot of the singer songwriter stuff. I know
he likes Ben Harper. I'm a big Ben Harper guy too.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Man love Ben Harper. So I was watching a video.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It looked like he was pretty hard to when he plays.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, which is weird because he's so calm in person.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
He is yeah, very What do you think about him?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I thought he was great. His story is awesome how
covid He lost a job and he had to work
for a landscaping company. But that's where he wrote his album,
literally on the steps while working for the landscaping company,
on the steps on the steps of like a apartment
complex that he's working on.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Here he is j D Clayton, Season two, episode nine
of Unsigned and Independent with kickoff Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
All Right, JD, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Man? Doing good? Man? Thanks for having me, of.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Course, of course, clad you're in here, And I want
to say, the reason, not the only reason, but the
main reason that you're in here is I'm a big
fan of your music.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Thanks man.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I like your sound. I liked that it's it's something
that reminds me of I can either be sitting on
the couch on Sunday morning drinking cup of coffee, maybe
doing a little work or something like that. Or I
can be by a bonfire tapping my feet and you
got that little variety of sound. And I'm gonna play
two clips real quick right here, just so our listeners
(02:11):
have an idea of what that means. And the first
one is American millionaire lappy and a man can mean okay,
And then the next one will be a long way
from Home.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Mama longway keeps.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So this sound, is it something that you've always had
or cause it seems like I don't know if I
don't really like to compare artists, you know, directly, but
it's almost like that it's up and coming a little
bit with that whole like Zach Bryan, Warren Zeider's Tyler Child,
something like that. Worth that toe tapping, not necessarily that
pop country, you know what I mean? Is that something
that you try to, you know, aspire for and something
(02:58):
that you listen to. We're like, that's kind of the
sound I'm looking for or is it just your own thing?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, definitely. I have been heavily influenced over the last
couple of years by the music I like to listen to,
just late sixties, early seventies rock and roll Leonard skinnerd
Greeden's clear Water Revival. I really love Chris Stapleton. But No,
to answer your first question, it's not what I started
out trying to do. I didn't know what to do.
(03:25):
I just was making music that writing songs, learning to
write songs, making stuff up, and you know, just kind
of stumbled upon this sound I knew. I guess it
was during COVID. I just had the realization that I
wanted to make something that felt honest and felt like
it was me, and so I tried to. I did
(03:47):
a pretty deep dive on trying to understand my sound,
understand where I come from. And so yeah, I mean really,
when I talk to people after shows, I mean, this
is I call it the Arkansas sound. I'm trying to
I'm trying to bring a little bit of who I
(04:09):
am and where I'm from and that part of the
world into my music and the stories that I'm writing about.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And you are from where I at in Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Western Arkansas, Fort Smith, Arkansas on the border of Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And when you moved to Nashville about three and a
half years ago, so not too long ago, not too
long ago. I mean you get a little mixed, I guess,
but that's still a little fresh, right, Yeah. And what
was your upbringing like in West Arkansas?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So pretty pretty standard, middle class family. My dad's a pastor,
my mom is an oil painter. Not much going on.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Where'd the country music or where did music in general
come from?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
For you? Uh? My dad kind of an interesting upbringing
in music. My dad was a huge fan of singer
songwriters like Jack Johnson and On Mayor. That's you know,
really what we that type of music, amous Lee, Ben Harper.
That was kind of what I was brought up on Surfer.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, I'm a California guy. That sounds like more
California then that's what Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
That's all we listened to, like on the way to practice.
I didn't ever hear country music until I was probably
a junior in high school. All the football team guys
would be playing stuff, you know, in the locker room,
and I kind of got into it. But pretty much
in our household, it was just late sixties, early seventies
rock and roll. James Taylor, John Denver, the Beatles, and
(05:36):
then Jack Johnson and John Mayer.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That's a mix there. When did you pick up the first.
Was it a guitar that you first learned how to play? Yeah, okay,
when did you pick that up?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
When I was younger, my grandfather played banjo in a
bluegrass band that they would just go to prisons around
the region in Arkansas and serve barbecue dinners and then
play a bluegrass show. So he kind of when I
was really young, taught me to play a few chords
and just play along with him. So that was pretty
much my only introduction besides trying to learn Jack Johnson
(06:11):
songs and John Mayer's songs on guitar. That was pretty
much it just GC and D playing along while he
played banjo.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And when did you realize Did you have an age
at all where you're like, this might be something I
wanted to do for a career or long run rather
than just playing a couple of chords here and there
at a little shop here and there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, it was. It's a pretty long drawn out process,
it really. There's never really a moment that I just
thought I had it. My sister was given a piano
when I was in about the ninth grade, and I
would sneak into her room and kind of figure out
(06:48):
just I played music by ear, so I could. I
figured out how chords worked by just like you know,
using your fingers and spacing one note in between each finger,
and you had a chord. And I just would, you know,
mess around until I something sounded right. You learn that
if you play C G and F or CFG, you
(07:10):
have a one four five. I later learned, you know,
it's just it just sounded right, and if it doesn't
sound right, you're not playing something. So it was I
figured out I could kind of play piano. Then I
started taking some lessons, and then I started messing around
with my iPhone voice Memo app, just learning cover songs,
and then I would try to sing along. And there
(07:30):
was I remember recording a version of The Scientists by Coldplay,
and I'd been jamming that song for a while, went
down and showed the recording to my folks and my
dad was like, holy cow, like you can sing really,
So it was that's you know. I had been in
choir at church and stuff, but it was just really
(07:51):
nothing that my parents never pushed me in the in
the direction of music, never told me I should do that.
It just slowly kind of happened, and really what started
was a free kind of convinced me to play graduation
with her the ceremony, and that was the first time
I'd ever really like played in front of a huge
group of people in high school. In high school, Yeah, yeah,
(08:12):
we played and it did really well, and I kind
of got the bug after that. So I just started
going down to the farmer's market in Fort Smith and
started busking right next to the guy selling peaches and
would h cover Donovan, Franken Ryder, famously Jack Johnson, just
whatever I could make a couple of bucks, and yes,
(08:32):
A couple months later, when I started college, I started
a band.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Where'd you go to college at?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
In Fort Smith? The University of Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I was that for Were you did you graduate from there?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Okay, I thought you were going to say you left
there and foresee the music career. But it's good to
see that you finished there. So were you playing all throughout?
Would you play at local venues there like maybe die bars?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah? My uh. I think my folks were super ticked
at first, just because they thought I was just wasting
time and and call much money. But formed a band
and our first show was at the Starbucks on campus well,
just ride in the student union there. It was just
like my folks and my grandparents that came.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That's awesome. Would you ever be cause I went to
a University of Tennessee game last year was my first
SEC game ever. Yeah, And we were walking around pregame
and tailgating and all that, and there was a couple
of bands, but there was one band in particular that
I had the whole crowd or in this parking lot
jam in. There's food, drinks, everything. Would you ever do
anything like that before the game's big game something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No, that would have been awesome, But I never really
got invited to do anything. I just went on the
weekends go down and play at the bars in Fort Smith.
And I got really good at, you know, designing posters
for it or whatever. Just I was trying to like
really learn how to do the indie band thing and
what is it that's bringing people to downtown Fort Smith?
(09:53):
You know. It was just very focused on that, and
so I started planning shows around holidays, like we would
do a Thanksgiving shit or we would do a Christmas show.
And Fortsmith is one of those towns that basically everybody
graduates high school and then they leave and they go
off to college, and then on the holidays they all
come back. So I realized that if I planned these shows,
(10:14):
it was a chance for everyone to just meet up,
and if they're going to meet up, might as well
meet at my show. So it started to grow, and
we did that a couple of years, and by I
guess it was the year I moved. I had booked
to thanks to having a Christmas show, and yeah, I
mean we had like, you know, two hundred and fifty
three indred and fifty people showing up at these things,
(10:37):
So it just slowly grew.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Were you the only one playing? You and your band?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So yeah, so that show is specifically for you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, hometown headline type of thing.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That's awesome. What was that like for you playing in
front of your hometown?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh, my gosh, it was. It was amazing just the
fact that we had gone from you know, fifteen people
in Starbucks to three years later, you know, three hundred
people all from you know, my high school and the
other high schools. It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
What year did you graduate?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I graduated twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Okay, and you moved here, you said three and a half,
So did you move twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Twenty twenty one. No, I'm sorry. I moved here twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Nineteen, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
My wife was in nursing school, so we waited a
year for her to graduate and then moved.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And you moved here? Was that right before the pandemic?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
How? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Really?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And she'll live twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Okay, So every artist I've talked to you in here,
you know obviously the pandemic was a hit for them
and not the right way. What was that like going
through for you?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Then?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You only been here six months and then something like
that hits, and for an artist like you, or it's
already hard enough, that's something you got to deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It was rough. I was working for Frothy Monkey in
the Nations. Yeah, just slinging some slinging some brew and yeah,
I remember the day they called us in. They were like, hey,
we're that week of Nashville was and everything was shutting
down and they just called us in and said, hey,
we're we're letting you go. And I just lived down
(12:07):
the street. So I was just driving home after just
getting fired, and my landlord was sitting outside and he
owns a landscape company, and I just jokingly pulled up
and was like, Hey, I'm gonna have to come cut
some grass for you. I just lost my job and
we were laughing about it, and a couple hours later
he called me and said, if you're serious, I've got
(12:28):
a job for you. And I think like five days
later I was working for the landscape company down in Nolan'sville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Really, so you never that's good then, you never really
skipped a beat as far as you know income goes.
It's not something you wanted to do, and you knew
obviously that wasn't your long term thing, but you had
to get through.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, I just I'm I didn't feel good about doing
the unemployment thing, and just I just he and I
were good friends, and I just you know, gave me
a chance to hang out with him and work and
do some manual labor, which was good for me to
be outside, and ended up they put me on the
install crew. So we were just, yeah, doing running irrigation
(13:07):
lines and planting trees and.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Still working for them. You're knowing that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It's a bittersweet thankful to not be there, but I
do miss the guys. It was me and Alfredo Jose
and Nico. That was our truck, and yeah, I mean
just it was. It was crazy, man. I went from
I had never done anything like that, never I learned
how to speak Spanish, you know. I was going to
Alfredo's kids' birthday parties, just hanging out by the pinata.
(13:37):
I mean that's I changed a lot over COVID as
a person and learned a lot, and for all for
the better. But yeah, it helped me write songs, and
that's I wrote a long way from home all during
that time. So it was it wasn't all for nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And were you playing shows pre pandemic out here? You
were out here about six months or so, like when
you were working out the Favey Monkey or no.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Not really, I was. The plan was to I was
a freight broker at the LL and C Tower downtown.
I worked for a company called Propax, So I was
in the trucking industry, and that was what brought me
to Nashville. Had that income and that's how we were
going to make it for a while. But I realized
I couldn't. There's no time to play shows. I had
tons of shows that I had booked before we moved
(14:23):
it down. Still in Arkansas. So my first four months
of being in Nashville, I was just driving. I think
I drove back to Arkansas like eight times, playing shows
that I'd already booked, So I really didn't play in Nashville.
I think I played one time and it was the
New Faces Night at the Basement that Grimy does, and
(14:43):
that was like the week before COVID, So that was it.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And then during twenty twenty you spent just basically writing.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I played a couple things. Arkansas wasn't taking COVID
very serious, so there were a couple performances I was
able to pull off during COVID, but yeah, for the
most part, it was pretty it was pretty shut down.
I was just basically I used that time to work
on the album I started recording in twenty twenty one.
Took the whole year to record that record, and then
(15:12):
I just started getting on Google and finding out everybody
in town, what they did, who they were, started cold, cold,
cold emailing my record to people, and it just, yeah,
slowly kind of stumbled upon my current situation with William
Morris and Red Light and.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
The album you're talking about it is called Long Way
from Home right released earlier this year. Yeah, that's something
I was reading a little bit about it, and it's
something that has to do with your life and your upbringing.
Is that something that the album that you were aiming
for as you're writing all these songs and you're going
through the pandemic and everything, and you're just thinking of
what do I need to write about? And your childhood
Arkansas was everything to you, And that's kind of how
(15:53):
this album came about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean I felt desperate. I felt a sense
of urgency because I was sick of landscaping.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
How long did you do that for it?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
By the way, year and a half, It's just it
starts to eat away. I was like, I mean, that's
I'm jumping ahead, but I mean that's how I wrote
long Way from Home. I was just sitting on the
steps of this apartment complex that we had just finished
the irrigation on, and you know, Alfredo's taking a nap
next to me. They always would take a CS to
that lunch break, and I was just sitting there typing
(16:30):
on the notes app on my phone, and I typed
long Way from Home in like twenty minutes. It really
like I was like breaking down. I was so emotional,
just like, you know, this is ridiculous. Why am I here?
Why am I If I want to do landscaping with
my life? I have a college degree, I'm trying to
do music. If I want to do landscaping, we need
(16:51):
to just go back to Arkansas. I can do landscaping there.
But missing not seeing my family, you know not. I
hadn't seen my folks in over a year. It was
just like, what is what am I doing? Is this
really worth it? Is this what this is all about?
You just just for your music dream? You can just
screw off and you don't see anybody anymore. That's so. Yeah,
(17:13):
it was a really hard time for me. So I
just it just started pouring out in the songs, and
I kind of slowly got some songs together and realized, like,
what you're talking about the upbringing? It kind of I
realized there was a story here. I didn't really necessarily
plan it that way at first, but it just kind
of happened. I had a good Morning song, which is
(17:36):
the intro of the album, a low good Morning, and
I was like, hey, that'd be a cool way to
open it. And then it just slowly kind of I
had a marker board in my room where I had
my studio, and I just started kind of writing the
songs as they came, and I got the form down,
and I knew it was going to be a kind
of an arc of an album, just a concept album,
(17:57):
if you will.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Was this something that you were coming up with on
your own or kind of like you taught yourself growing
up playing the guitar and everything, or were you reaching
out like you said you're emailing people, Is anybody responding
or was it something that you were just kind of
doing on your own and figuring it out and here
we are it all kind of worked out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, that's I can't explain it to you better than that.
I don't I don't necessarily deserve to be here. I'm
grateful to be here. I don't know how it happened
or why it happened, but I just I'm just a
kid that can stro my guitar and that's it. Man.
I don't know. It's a really cool thing and I'm
(18:32):
so happy to be here and all the people that
have taken a chance on me. But that's really what
it is. It's just people that took a chance on
a kid.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, but it's also well deserved at the same time,
like obviously you've putting in your long days and you're
you know, everybody has their down days and it makes
sure those up days a lot better. And it's us
sitting here right now. If that landscape had never happened,
this album might never happen. And you know, COVID and
that's right and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So that's right. It all happened for a reason. It
happened now it's supposed to. And you know again, I'm
just happy to be here. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Just long for the ride. Yeah, yeah, what's next then?
For you to have like a in your head? Do
you vision this?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
All?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right? I gotta I need to do this and this
is my version of success here in Nashville. I need
to do this, I need to write with this person,
I need to make this song. I need to be
on this stage or do something like this, or you
just enjoyed the right as you're going here.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
No, I'm able to look back on everything that's happened
and and talk very carelessly about it. And I am
along for the ride. But I'm a I am a
very driven person, and so I do try to keep things.
I don't know if they're gonna work. But I just
have Yeah, I have a list of things that I
know we need to get done. And it might not
(19:45):
be the right direction, might not be the right strategy.
I don't know. So yeah, I've already started recording my
next album. It's almost done. The goal in my mind
is to start, you know, put some songs out soon.
Even though we just put the record out of I
think in the day and age we live, people are
hungry for more content, and I think people will find
(20:09):
their way to Long Way from Home down the road.
It might take me four albums before someone hears a
long Way from Home. That's just kind of how it works,
I guess. But yeah, I'm just kind of trying to
find ways to just stay on the grind, stay on
the right path. Meet Last night I went to a show.
There was a lot of writers there and that was great.
I got some phone numbers, and yeah, I need to
(20:30):
be writing with more people. I typically like to write alone.
I wrote long Way from Home alone, except for Beauty
Queen with my friends Lauren Huntgate and Redoster. But that's
just kind of been my writing. Is kind of my
time to get a loan and just think and but
but I realized the benefit of co writing, and so
I'm trying to do more of that.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And there's a lot of that Nashville. There is, I mean,
everyone I've talked to on here is co writing, and
you know, somebody's helping me write. But I could see
the you know, the day of writing by yourself and
getting all of what's in your head out on that
piece of paper or out on your phone with your notes,
whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And it's like a puzzle, right, It's like a there's
a great sense of accomplishment when it's done, and you
can listen to the voice memo of a song you
just created and you're like, that's you know, that's what
it's supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Mm hmm. And then how many times do you have
it where you picture something in your head as you're
maybe writing it out, and then you go to record
it and just sounds completely different. Is it ever like
that or is it something from beginning to end where
you have an idea of what this song or this
album is going to be.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I it's typically pretty close. I'm I keep most stuff
up in my head, so it's like when we're going
in if it doesn't sound like what's in my head.
Then it's not right. You don't want it, We'll get it,
We'll get what so like with Cotton Candy Clouds for example.
To highlight that song. The day before we went into
(21:55):
the studio, I had a meeting with this guy that
was helping me produce the record, and we just couldn't
figure it out. Like I tried to play it for
him on my guitar. He didn't get it. It didn't
make sense. And I left the studio and just went
for a walk around McKay Park and just did like
(22:16):
three three or four laughs, and just had my voice
memo app and I was just singing how I thought
the song was gonna sound like all the parts at
the end, like I would like hum the guitar, what
the guitar would be doing everything, And then went into
the next went into the studio the next day, showed
the band basically how the song was going to feel
(22:38):
based on these voice memo apps recordings, and that's the song.
So it just when I hear it, I can pretty
well know if it's right right away.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Do you have anybody out here in Nashville that's been
a big influence on you? Whether it's a writer, some
part of your team, or just somebody that helped you
along the journey, taking you from you know, a guy
just writing songs while working in a landscaping company to
really trying to hone in on your craft.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, I think somebody to highlight would be would be
Thomas Dolan. He is a producer in town. Helped me
with a Long Way from Home and he was the
first person that I reached out to when I was
coming to Nashville a lot to help me get some
professional recordings. And so my first EP a couple of
(23:33):
singles that I did, and then Long Way from Home
I did at his place and he was really good
about He taught me a lot and I kind of
have learned how to produce and get songs to sound
the way they need to sound in the studio through
his guidance. So that was Yeah, he was really instrumental
(23:55):
during those early years being here.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, Okay, I want to run through some real quick
questions and as we kind of wrap this up here
with some rapid fire gets to know you a little
bit more even outside of the music. Just three quick
ones for you, sweet, and the first one is what
is your favorite hobby outside of the music.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Favorite hobby outside of music would probably be fly fishing.
I guess my dad and my brother and I go
a lot quite a bit. Arkansas is a good place
to do that. The little Red River, White River are great.
But I grew up every year going Every year we
go to Colorado and we we fish out there, and
(24:33):
we've been doing that. My family's been going out there
for about forty years. So really that's that's probably the
that's what we do together.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Okay, what about your favorite movie? You have one favorite
movie of all time?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yes, Once upon a Time in Hollywood and by Quentin Tarantino. Okay,
the most recent one. I have watched that probably four
hundred times, and I'm not exaggerating seriously. I I don't
know what it is. I think it is a masterpiece.
(25:05):
I watch it for inspiration, I watch it for uh style,
I watch it for I mean everything. I love that film.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Are you a big Tarantino guy in general? Or is
it just that movie I like?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I like his films, It's it's really that movie. I've
watched a lot of his movies, but that one in particular. Yeah,
I don't know. It just checks all the boxes for
me when I'm chilling at home, I'll if I'm trying
to kind of get in the right headspace, I'll just
throw that on, like some mincense or something that's quite
(25:39):
some movie, some Stone or something. I don't know. I
just yeah, I just uh, it's great, man. I don't
know what. My friends, I'll make the guys in the
band give me such a hard time, but it's it's
all I want to watch. If we're chilling them throwing
that on.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
That's wild. I mean it's a great movie. Don't get
me wrong, but that's quite the movie. I don't know
if I've ever heard anybody say something like that. All right,
last one, you kind of talked about this a little bit, so,
but I'm gonna ask it. Anyways. He said he'd like
to write alone. But if you could co write with
anybody dead or alive, who would it be?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Chris Stapleton.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, yeah, okay, see that one. I understand definitely.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
That's uh. Like I said earlier, I don't, I don't.
I didn't understand country music. Didn't grow up with it.
My dad hates country music. It just wasn't until I
guess I was either a senior I think I was
a senior in high school. Yeah, there a video came
(26:34):
across my YouTube feed of Chris Stapleton playing at the
Opry singing Amanda just a trio with his bass player
and his wife and my dad and I were sitting
there watching it, and I mean I almost got choked up.
I was just like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Have you seen him live?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I think he's playing here this summer too, isn't he No,
I'm on the road, on the road.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, it's a sad It was a sad day to.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Learn that sorr I mean, and bring it to a
subject that's well speaking on the road. Go check him out.
Go to JD Claytonofficial dot com for your tour days.
You're on the road quite a bit this summer. Right
open up for Hank Williams Junior.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I did. Yeah, that was just a couple of weeks ago.
It was unreal.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, it was a wild Do you like his music?
He grew up on his music or listened to him?
I guess not.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That, but that was in it. I guess that's an
exception to country Hank Williams kind of or his stuff
in the seventies, early eighties kind of flirts the line there.
Arkansas loves its Southern rock and so some Hank's music
kind of blurs the lines there. So I'd listened to
(27:38):
some of that in high school.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Okay, okay, Well check him out on social media as
well at JD Clayton Official, check him out, fall him,
stream him over five million streams. He's awesome, man, Keep
doing what you're doing. Thanks man, love your music and
keep listening. I appreciate you coming in here.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Thanks dude, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to
the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
to advertise us.
Unsigned and Independent Season two, episode nine with j D Clayton.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now, I don't know JD.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I know he's from Arkansas though, and I know that
Morgan number one, my manager, also has started working with JD.
And she reached out and she was like, do you
care if I pitched this to Kevin? And I was like, oh,
you can pitch whatever you want. I'm never going to
tell you no. And she was like, well, I just
don't want to because Morgan I've been together forever and
she did want to abuse the relationship, which she never
would so, and I know you wouldn't just take him either.
(00:37):
So there must be something about this guy you really liked.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It's his music, yeah, yeah, it's the sound of his
music is awesome. It's like a blues grass, old school field.
But it's weird because his inspiration was like Jack Johnson
and John Mayer, like acoustic. Yeah, but it's that either
you're sitting by the campfire and you're really enjoying it
on a Sunday night or some or it's your foot
stomp and kind of music.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So Fort Smith, Arkansas native JD Clayton, he did not
grow up on classic country, you know, like you said,
it's a lot of the singer songwriter stuff. I know
he likes Ben Harper. I'm a big Ben Harper guy too.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Man love Ben Harper. So I was watching a video.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It looked like he was pretty hard to when he plays.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, which is weird because he's so calm in person.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
He is yeah, very What do you think about him?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I thought he was great. His story is awesome how
covid He lost a job and he had to work
for a landscaping company. But that's where he wrote his album,
literally on the steps while working for the landscaping company,
on the steps on the steps of like a apartment
complex that he's working on.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Here he is j D Clayton, Season two, episode nine
of Unsigned and Independent with kickoff Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
All Right, JD, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Man? Doing good? Man? Thanks for having me, of.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Course, of course, clad you're in here, And I want
to say, the reason, not the only reason, but the
main reason that you're in here is I'm a big
fan of your music.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Thanks man.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I like your sound. I liked that it's it's something
that reminds me of I can either be sitting on
the couch on Sunday morning drinking cup of coffee, maybe
doing a little work or something like that. Or I
can be by a bonfire tapping my feet and you
got that little variety of sound. And I'm gonna play
two clips real quick right here, just so our listeners
(02:11):
have an idea of what that means. And the first
one is American millionaire lappy and a man can mean okay,
And then the next one will be a long way
from Home.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Mama longway keeps.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So this sound, is it something that you've always had
or cause it seems like I don't know if I
don't really like to compare artists, you know, directly, but
it's almost like that it's up and coming a little
bit with that whole like Zach Bryan, Warren Zeider's Tyler Child,
something like that. Worth that toe tapping, not necessarily that
pop country, you know what I mean? Is that something
that you try to, you know, aspire for and something
(02:58):
that you listen to. We're like, that's kind of the
sound I'm looking for or is it just your own thing?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, definitely. I have been heavily influenced over the last
couple of years by the music I like to listen to,
just late sixties, early seventies rock and roll Leonard skinnerd
Greeden's clear Water Revival. I really love Chris Stapleton. But No,
to answer your first question, it's not what I started
out trying to do. I didn't know what to do.
(03:25):
I just was making music that writing songs, learning to
write songs, making stuff up, and you know, just kind
of stumbled upon this sound I knew. I guess it
was during COVID. I just had the realization that I
wanted to make something that felt honest and felt like
it was me, and so I tried to. I did
(03:47):
a pretty deep dive on trying to understand my sound,
understand where I come from. And so yeah, I mean really,
when I talk to people after shows, I mean, this
is I call it the Arkansas sound. I'm trying to
I'm trying to bring a little bit of who I
(04:09):
am and where I'm from and that part of the
world into my music and the stories that I'm writing about.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And you are from where I at in Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Western Arkansas, Fort Smith, Arkansas on the border of Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And when you moved to Nashville about three and a
half years ago, so not too long ago, not too
long ago. I mean you get a little mixed, I guess,
but that's still a little fresh, right, Yeah. And what
was your upbringing like in West Arkansas?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So pretty pretty standard, middle class family. My dad's a pastor,
my mom is an oil painter. Not much going on.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Where'd the country music or where did music in general
come from?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
For you? Uh? My dad kind of an interesting upbringing
in music. My dad was a huge fan of singer
songwriters like Jack Johnson and On Mayor. That's you know,
really what we that type of music, amous Lee, Ben Harper.
That was kind of what I was brought up on Surfer.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, I'm a California guy. That sounds like more
California then that's what Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
That's all we listened to, like on the way to practice.
I didn't ever hear country music until I was probably
a junior in high school. All the football team guys
would be playing stuff, you know, in the locker room,
and I kind of got into it. But pretty much
in our household, it was just late sixties, early seventies
rock and roll. James Taylor, John Denver, the Beatles, and
(05:36):
then Jack Johnson and John Mayer.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That's a mix there. When did you pick up the first.
Was it a guitar that you first learned how to play? Yeah, okay,
when did you pick that up?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
When I was younger, my grandfather played banjo in a
bluegrass band that they would just go to prisons around
the region in Arkansas and serve barbecue dinners and then
play a bluegrass show. So he kind of when I
was really young, taught me to play a few chords
and just play along with him. So that was pretty
much my only introduction besides trying to learn Jack Johnson
(06:11):
songs and John Mayer's songs on guitar. That was pretty
much it just GC and D playing along while he
played banjo.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And when did you realize Did you have an age
at all where you're like, this might be something I
wanted to do for a career or long run rather
than just playing a couple of chords here and there
at a little shop here and there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, it was. It's a pretty long drawn out process,
it really. There's never really a moment that I just
thought I had it. My sister was given a piano
when I was in about the ninth grade, and I
would sneak into her room and kind of figure out
(06:48):
just I played music by ear, so I could. I
figured out how chords worked by just like you know,
using your fingers and spacing one note in between each finger,
and you had a chord. And I just would, you know,
mess around until I something sounded right. You learn that
if you play C G and F or CFG, you
(07:10):
have a one four five. I later learned, you know,
it's just it just sounded right, and if it doesn't
sound right, you're not playing something. So it was I
figured out I could kind of play piano. Then I
started taking some lessons, and then I started messing around
with my iPhone voice Memo app, just learning cover songs,
and then I would try to sing along. And there
(07:30):
was I remember recording a version of The Scientists by Coldplay,
and I'd been jamming that song for a while, went
down and showed the recording to my folks and my
dad was like, holy cow, like you can sing really,
So it was that's you know. I had been in
choir at church and stuff, but it was just really
(07:51):
nothing that my parents never pushed me in the in
the direction of music, never told me I should do that.
It just slowly kind of happened, and really what started
was a free kind of convinced me to play graduation
with her the ceremony, and that was the first time
I'd ever really like played in front of a huge
group of people in high school. In high school, Yeah, yeah,
(08:12):
we played and it did really well, and I kind
of got the bug after that. So I just started
going down to the farmer's market in Fort Smith and
started busking right next to the guy selling peaches and
would h cover Donovan, Franken Ryder, famously Jack Johnson, just
whatever I could make a couple of bucks, and yes,
(08:32):
A couple months later, when I started college, I started
a band.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Where'd you go to college at?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
In Fort Smith? The University of Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I was that for Were you did you graduate from there?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Okay, I thought you were going to say you left
there and foresee the music career. But it's good to
see that you finished there. So were you playing all throughout?
Would you play at local venues there like maybe die bars?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah? My uh. I think my folks were super ticked
at first, just because they thought I was just wasting
time and and call much money. But formed a band
and our first show was at the Starbucks on campus well,
just ride in the student union there. It was just
like my folks and my grandparents that came.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That's awesome. Would you ever be cause I went to
a University of Tennessee game last year was my first
SEC game ever. Yeah, And we were walking around pregame
and tailgating and all that, and there was a couple
of bands, but there was one band in particular that
I had the whole crowd or in this parking lot
jam in. There's food, drinks, everything. Would you ever do
anything like that before the game's big game something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No, that would have been awesome, But I never really
got invited to do anything. I just went on the
weekends go down and play at the bars in Fort Smith.
And I got really good at, you know, designing posters
for it or whatever. Just I was trying to like
really learn how to do the indie band thing and
what is it that's bringing people to downtown Fort Smith?
(09:53):
You know. It was just very focused on that, and
so I started planning shows around holidays, like we would
do a Thanksgiving shit or we would do a Christmas show.
And Fortsmith is one of those towns that basically everybody
graduates high school and then they leave and they go
off to college, and then on the holidays they all
come back. So I realized that if I planned these shows,
(10:14):
it was a chance for everyone to just meet up,
and if they're going to meet up, might as well
meet at my show. So it started to grow, and
we did that a couple of years, and by I
guess it was the year I moved. I had booked
to thanks to having a Christmas show, and yeah, I
mean we had like, you know, two hundred and fifty
three indred and fifty people showing up at these things,
(10:37):
So it just slowly grew.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Were you the only one playing? You and your band?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So yeah, so that show is specifically for you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, hometown headline type of thing.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
That's awesome. What was that like for you playing in
front of your hometown?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh, my gosh, it was. It was amazing just the
fact that we had gone from you know, fifteen people
in Starbucks to three years later, you know, three hundred
people all from you know, my high school and the
other high schools. It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
What year did you graduate?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I graduated twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Okay, and you moved here, you said three and a half,
So did you move twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Twenty twenty one. No, I'm sorry. I moved here twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Nineteen, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
My wife was in nursing school, so we waited a
year for her to graduate and then moved.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And you moved here? Was that right before the pandemic?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
How? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Really?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And she'll live twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Okay, So every artist I've talked to you in here,
you know obviously the pandemic was a hit for them
and not the right way. What was that like going
through for you?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Then?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You only been here six months and then something like
that hits, and for an artist like you, or it's
already hard enough, that's something you got to deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It was rough. I was working for Frothy Monkey in
the Nations. Yeah, just slinging some slinging some brew and yeah,
I remember the day they called us in. They were like, hey,
we're that week of Nashville was and everything was shutting
down and they just called us in and said, hey,
we're we're letting you go. And I just lived down
(12:07):
the street. So I was just driving home after just
getting fired, and my landlord was sitting outside and he
owns a landscape company, and I just jokingly pulled up
and was like, Hey, I'm gonna have to come cut
some grass for you. I just lost my job and
we were laughing about it, and a couple hours later
he called me and said, if you're serious, I've got
(12:28):
a job for you. And I think like five days
later I was working for the landscape company down in Nolan'sville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Really, so you never that's good then, you never really
skipped a beat as far as you know income goes.
It's not something you wanted to do, and you knew
obviously that wasn't your long term thing, but you had
to get through.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, I just I'm I didn't feel good about doing
the unemployment thing, and just I just he and I
were good friends, and I just you know, gave me
a chance to hang out with him and work and
do some manual labor, which was good for me to
be outside, and ended up they put me on the
install crew. So we were just, yeah, doing running irrigation
(13:07):
lines and planting trees and.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Still working for them. You're knowing that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It's a bittersweet thankful to not be there, but I
do miss the guys. It was me and Alfredo Jose
and Nico. That was our truck, and yeah, I mean
just it was. It was crazy, man. I went from
I had never done anything like that, never I learned
how to speak Spanish, you know. I was going to
Alfredo's kids' birthday parties, just hanging out by the pinata.
(13:37):
I mean that's I changed a lot over COVID as
a person and learned a lot, and for all for
the better. But yeah, it helped me write songs, and
that's I wrote a long way from home all during
that time. So it was it wasn't all for nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And were you playing shows pre pandemic out here? You
were out here about six months or so, like when
you were working out the Favey Monkey or no.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Not really, I was. The plan was to I was
a freight broker at the LL and C Tower downtown.
I worked for a company called Propax, So I was
in the trucking industry, and that was what brought me
to Nashville. Had that income and that's how we were
going to make it for a while. But I realized
I couldn't. There's no time to play shows. I had
tons of shows that I had booked before we moved
(14:23):
it down. Still in Arkansas. So my first four months
of being in Nashville, I was just driving. I think
I drove back to Arkansas like eight times, playing shows
that I'd already booked, So I really didn't play in Nashville.
I think I played one time and it was the
New Faces Night at the Basement that Grimy does, and
(14:43):
that was like the week before COVID, So that was it.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And then during twenty twenty you spent just basically writing.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I played a couple things. Arkansas wasn't taking COVID
very serious, so there were a couple performances I was
able to pull off during COVID, but yeah, for the
most part, it was pretty it was pretty shut down.
I was just basically I used that time to work
on the album I started recording in twenty twenty one.
Took the whole year to record that record, and then
(15:12):
I just started getting on Google and finding out everybody
in town, what they did, who they were, started cold, cold,
cold emailing my record to people, and it just, yeah,
slowly kind of stumbled upon my current situation with William
Morris and Red Light and.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
The album you're talking about it is called Long Way
from Home right released earlier this year. Yeah, that's something
I was reading a little bit about it, and it's
something that has to do with your life and your upbringing.
Is that something that the album that you were aiming
for as you're writing all these songs and you're going
through the pandemic and everything, and you're just thinking of
what do I need to write about? And your childhood
Arkansas was everything to you, And that's kind of how
(15:53):
this album came about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean I felt desperate. I felt a sense
of urgency because I was sick of landscaping.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
How long did you do that for it?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
By the way, year and a half, It's just it
starts to eat away. I was like, I mean, that's
I'm jumping ahead, but I mean that's how I wrote
long Way from Home. I was just sitting on the
steps of this apartment complex that we had just finished
the irrigation on, and you know, Alfredo's taking a nap
next to me. They always would take a CS to
that lunch break, and I was just sitting there typing
(16:30):
on the notes app on my phone, and I typed
long Way from Home in like twenty minutes. It really
like I was like breaking down. I was so emotional,
just like, you know, this is ridiculous. Why am I here?
Why am I If I want to do landscaping with
my life? I have a college degree, I'm trying to
do music. If I want to do landscaping, we need
(16:51):
to just go back to Arkansas. I can do landscaping there.
But missing not seeing my family, you know not. I
hadn't seen my folks in over a year. It was
just like, what is what am I doing? Is this
really worth it? Is this what this is all about?
You just just for your music dream? You can just
screw off and you don't see anybody anymore. That's so. Yeah,
(17:13):
it was a really hard time for me. So I
just it just started pouring out in the songs, and
I kind of slowly got some songs together and realized, like,
what you're talking about the upbringing? It kind of I
realized there was a story here. I didn't really necessarily
plan it that way at first, but it just kind
of happened. I had a good Morning song, which is
(17:36):
the intro of the album, a low good Morning, and
I was like, hey, that'd be a cool way to
open it. And then it just slowly kind of I
had a marker board in my room where I had
my studio, and I just started kind of writing the
songs as they came, and I got the form down,
and I knew it was going to be a kind
of an arc of an album, just a concept album,
(17:57):
if you will.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Was this something that you were coming up with on
your own or kind of like you taught yourself growing
up playing the guitar and everything, or were you reaching
out like you said you're emailing people, Is anybody responding
or was it something that you were just kind of
doing on your own and figuring it out and here
we are it all kind of worked out.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, that's I can't explain it to you better than that.
I don't I don't necessarily deserve to be here. I'm
grateful to be here. I don't know how it happened
or why it happened, but I just I'm just a
kid that can stro my guitar and that's it. Man.
I don't know. It's a really cool thing and I'm
(18:32):
so happy to be here and all the people that
have taken a chance on me. But that's really what
it is. It's just people that took a chance on
a kid.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, but it's also well deserved at the same time,
like obviously you've putting in your long days and you're
you know, everybody has their down days and it makes
sure those up days a lot better. And it's us
sitting here right now. If that landscape had never happened,
this album might never happen. And you know, COVID and
that's right and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So that's right. It all happened for a reason. It
happened now it's supposed to. And you know again, I'm
just happy to be here. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Just long for the ride. Yeah, yeah, what's next then?
For you to have like a in your head? Do
you vision this?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
All?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right? I gotta I need to do this and this
is my version of success here in Nashville. I need
to do this, I need to write with this person,
I need to make this song. I need to be
on this stage or do something like this, or you
just enjoyed the right as you're going here.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
No, I'm able to look back on everything that's happened
and and talk very carelessly about it. And I am
along for the ride. But I'm a I am a
very driven person, and so I do try to keep things.
I don't know if they're gonna work. But I just
have Yeah, I have a list of things that I
know we need to get done. And it might not
(19:45):
be the right direction, might not be the right strategy.
I don't know. So yeah, I've already started recording my
next album. It's almost done. The goal in my mind
is to start, you know, put some songs out soon.
Even though we just put the record out of I
think in the day and age we live, people are
hungry for more content, and I think people will find
(20:09):
their way to Long Way from Home down the road.
It might take me four albums before someone hears a
long Way from Home. That's just kind of how it works,
I guess. But yeah, I'm just kind of trying to
find ways to just stay on the grind, stay on
the right path. Meet Last night I went to a show.
There was a lot of writers there and that was great.
I got some phone numbers, and yeah, I need to
(20:30):
be writing with more people. I typically like to write alone.
I wrote long Way from Home alone, except for Beauty
Queen with my friends Lauren Huntgate and Redoster. But that's
just kind of been my writing. Is kind of my
time to get a loan and just think and but
but I realized the benefit of co writing, and so
I'm trying to do more of that.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And there's a lot of that Nashville. There is, I mean,
everyone I've talked to on here is co writing, and
you know, somebody's helping me write. But I could see
the you know, the day of writing by yourself and
getting all of what's in your head out on that
piece of paper or out on your phone with your notes,
whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And it's like a puzzle, right, It's like a there's
a great sense of accomplishment when it's done, and you
can listen to the voice memo of a song you
just created and you're like, that's you know, that's what
it's supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Mm hmm. And then how many times do you have
it where you picture something in your head as you're
maybe writing it out, and then you go to record
it and just sounds completely different. Is it ever like
that or is it something from beginning to end where
you have an idea of what this song or this
album is going to be.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I it's typically pretty close. I'm I keep most stuff
up in my head, so it's like when we're going
in if it doesn't sound like what's in my head.
Then it's not right. You don't want it, We'll get it,
We'll get what so like with Cotton Candy Clouds for example.
To highlight that song. The day before we went into
(21:55):
the studio, I had a meeting with this guy that
was helping me produce the record, and we just couldn't
figure it out. Like I tried to play it for
him on my guitar. He didn't get it. It didn't
make sense. And I left the studio and just went
for a walk around McKay Park and just did like
(22:16):
three three or four laughs, and just had my voice
memo app and I was just singing how I thought
the song was gonna sound like all the parts at
the end, like I would like hum the guitar, what
the guitar would be doing everything, And then went into
the next went into the studio the next day, showed
the band basically how the song was going to feel
(22:38):
based on these voice memo apps recordings, and that's the song.
So it just when I hear it, I can pretty
well know if it's right right away.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Do you have anybody out here in Nashville that's been
a big influence on you? Whether it's a writer, some
part of your team, or just somebody that helped you
along the journey, taking you from you know, a guy
just writing songs while working in a landscaping company to
really trying to hone in on your craft.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, I think somebody to highlight would be would be
Thomas Dolan. He is a producer in town. Helped me
with a Long Way from Home and he was the
first person that I reached out to when I was
coming to Nashville a lot to help me get some
professional recordings. And so my first EP a couple of
(23:33):
singles that I did, and then Long Way from Home
I did at his place and he was really good
about He taught me a lot and I kind of
have learned how to produce and get songs to sound
the way they need to sound in the studio through
his guidance. So that was Yeah, he was really instrumental
(23:55):
during those early years being here.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, Okay, I want to run through some real quick
questions and as we kind of wrap this up here
with some rapid fire gets to know you a little
bit more even outside of the music. Just three quick
ones for you, sweet, and the first one is what
is your favorite hobby outside of the music.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Favorite hobby outside of music would probably be fly fishing.
I guess my dad and my brother and I go
a lot quite a bit. Arkansas is a good place
to do that. The little Red River, White River are great.
But I grew up every year going Every year we
go to Colorado and we we fish out there, and
(24:33):
we've been doing that. My family's been going out there
for about forty years. So really that's that's probably the
that's what we do together.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Okay, what about your favorite movie? You have one favorite
movie of all time?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yes, Once upon a Time in Hollywood and by Quentin Tarantino. Okay,
the most recent one. I have watched that probably four
hundred times, and I'm not exaggerating seriously. I I don't
know what it is. I think it is a masterpiece.
(25:05):
I watch it for inspiration, I watch it for uh style,
I watch it for I mean everything. I love that film.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Are you a big Tarantino guy in general? Or is
it just that movie I like?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I like his films, It's it's really that movie. I've
watched a lot of his movies, but that one in particular. Yeah,
I don't know. It just checks all the boxes for
me when I'm chilling at home, I'll if I'm trying
to kind of get in the right headspace, I'll just
throw that on, like some mincense or something that's quite
(25:39):
some movie, some Stone or something. I don't know. I
just yeah, I just uh, it's great, man. I don't
know what. My friends, I'll make the guys in the
band give me such a hard time, but it's it's
all I want to watch. If we're chilling them throwing
that on.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
That's wild. I mean it's a great movie. Don't get
me wrong, but that's quite the movie. I don't know
if I've ever heard anybody say something like that. All right,
last one, you kind of talked about this a little bit, so,
but I'm gonna ask it. Anyways. He said he'd like
to write alone. But if you could co write with
anybody dead or alive, who would it be?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Chris Stapleton.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, yeah, okay, see that one. I understand definitely.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
That's uh. Like I said earlier, I don't, I don't.
I didn't understand country music. Didn't grow up with it.
My dad hates country music. It just wasn't until I
guess I was either a senior I think I was
a senior in high school. Yeah, there a video came
(26:34):
across my YouTube feed of Chris Stapleton playing at the
Opry singing Amanda just a trio with his bass player
and his wife and my dad and I were sitting
there watching it, and I mean I almost got choked up.
I was just like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Have you seen him live?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I think he's playing here this summer too, isn't he No,
I'm on the road, on the road.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, it's a sad It was a sad day to.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Learn that sorr I mean, and bring it to a
subject that's well speaking on the road. Go check him out.
Go to JD Claytonofficial dot com for your tour days.
You're on the road quite a bit this summer. Right
open up for Hank Williams Junior.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I did. Yeah, that was just a couple of weeks ago.
It was unreal.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, it was a wild Do you like his music?
He grew up on his music or listened to him?
I guess not.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That, but that was in it. I guess that's an
exception to country Hank Williams kind of or his stuff
in the seventies, early eighties kind of flirts the line there.
Arkansas loves its Southern rock and so some Hank's music
kind of blurs the lines there. So I'd listened to
(27:38):
some of that in high school.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Okay, okay, Well check him out on social media as
well at JD Clayton Official, check him out, fall him,
stream him over five million streams. He's awesome, man, Keep
doing what you're doing. Thanks man, love your music and
keep listening. I appreciate you coming in here.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Thanks dude, Thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to
the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
to advertise us.
Host
Bobby Bones
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.