Ben Gallaher interrview

Austin James talks with Ben Gallaher about his love for playing the guitar, songwriting, and french fries!!!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
It is backstage pass. I amAustin James. Well, I mean,
you know, why did I hearthat again? All right, here we
go. It is backstage pass.I am Austin James. Ben Gallagher is
our guest and he is Well,he's a great guy. I mean really,
I'm not saying that to blow smoke, but he really is cool.
It's a great guitar player. Howlong have you been playing guitar? Since

(00:24):
I was six and you are twentysix now thirty one? Thirty one?
Okay, twenty six, thirty one, it's all the same thing. Whatever
it is, how'd you start toplay the guitar? I mean it was
was it something that you gravitated tosomeone showed you, Hey, why did
you start doing this? So it'skind it's a little bit crazy. My

(00:46):
folks got me a drum set whenI was three, and I couldn't figure
out why they got me a guitarwhen I was six, And now I
know why because I probably drove thewhole house crazy. But they saw that
I was musical as a kid becauseI would use pencils and drum on soup
cans. Yeah, so they sawthat there is Yeah, they saw the

(01:07):
music, the musical ability as muchas you can have with a three four
years old. So they end upgetting me a guitar and I just gravitated
towards that. And I've only hada handful of lessons early on. But
man, is I think is atotal god thing. It's like, it
sounds crazy to say, but Iwas born. I feel like I was
born to play guitar in same countrymusic because that's all I've ever wanted to

(01:27):
do. Well. Since you weredrumming on soup cans, did you call
your first band the Chicken Noodle Soups. Yeah, that's exactly what I call
them. It's actually what the bandtomatoes. It's actually what they're called to
this day. Good Yeah, extrathick, extra thick. All right.

(01:48):
Ben Gallagher is our guest on thebackstage pass we're talking about as guitar and
playing. And you've been going ontour, I guess, popping here and
there and doing some festivals and fairs. And you were opening for Gary Levox
of radscal Flats that's a fact.How did you get hooked up with that
man? That was just just thispast weekend and next weekend went out with
him? Okay, um, andGary is such an unbelievable singer. It's

(02:15):
mind blowing to see it in person. And I saw the flats you know,
growing up and everything. Um,and then haven't you know, I
hadn't seen Gary live in a while. And so it's a big bussing obviously
to go get a chance to openup all these shows for him. But
it's a rock star band. Man. His vocal ability is like it's unbelievable.
Yeah, but we're having a blastout there or head out to California

(02:37):
in a couple of days. Umto play the famous Troubadour. Oh man,
that's a that's a great place.It was. Let's see. I
think a guy named Doug Weston hadthat plays Doug Weston's Troubadour and anybody who
was anybody played that place. It'sa legendary. Yeah, it really is.
I mean it's a it's a greatit'll be a bucket list moment story

(03:00):
venue. So we were recording thison May sixteenth. You're gonna hear some
things here and there that it's like, wait a minute, that's already done.
It already passed. But we're recordingthis podcast on me sixteenth, and
Ben is on what's called a quoteunquote radio tour where a label representative whose

(03:21):
name is Carrie. That's right,that's you carry carry will and he is
taking Ben from station to station,from city to city, from state to
state, the traveling tell us aboutthat traveling man. Yeah, it's fantastic.
I love it. So when Ifirst started radio tour, some of
my artist friends they said, oh, man, get ready, he is

(03:44):
like artist boot camp man. He'sgonna beat your you know, and so
people everybody would say that. Soanyway, I started radio tour and I'm
a year in. I love it. Yeah, absolutely, I'm not b
sinciously. I love it. Ireally, yes, I absolutely love it.
I love to travel. I meanif you don't like to travel and

(04:05):
you play music on the road fora living, then you're you're in the
wrong. Yeah, you're in thewrong deal there. Yeah, that's right.
You have to love it because it'sI mean, it is a grind
man, it's late night's, earlymornings with you know, the travels,
tough. Um. You know,you're not eating healthy usually it's fine by
me. But and you mentioned thatyou love French fries. A French fry

(04:27):
kind of sore. Oh, that'sgreat. What's the best French fries you've
had? Man, homemade rest,fresh cut, fresh cut? Yeah.
Do you do vinegar on your fries? No? I don't. Okay,
I don't, but I do seesalt. I like sea salt on my
fries. Here's one for you.What about ever divonam and honey mustard.
I tried that a couple of times. I have to admit I don't like

(04:48):
it. Not jam, not myjam. But I tried this catchup that
head kind of like a some cinnamonin it. Yeah, and it was
really really good. It was seasonedwith cinnamon. I don't know what that
means, I know, and itwas real. I was at disney World
actually, and they brought out thiscatchup and I tried it. I said,

(05:08):
wait a minute, and I answeredthe server. I said, well,
well this is different. He said, yeah, we put a little
bit of cinnamon in the catchup.It's like, okay, yeah, I
never heard of that, but that'sthat's pretty darn good. I like sweet
barbecue sauce. That on fries isreal good. Do you like onion rings?
Oh? Yeah, oh man,I love me some onion rings.

(05:29):
I really do the pink on onionrings I'm not too crazy about. But
the regular old fashioned flower dipped onionrings, the real thin you know,
the real crunching when you get them, and you know, you eat like
five of them, mean you getsick, which is great. I love
that you have to. How aboutthis you had fried okra? Oh dude,
you're talking to a fried okra manmonster. I like it. I

(05:51):
don't like it length cut length ways, but in little pieces like that.
Um. And there's a brand outthere that it's frozen frozen foods, and
I always get it. And I'lltell you what. I fry my fried
okra outside. I have this littleuh kind of like a kettle. It's
about this big. It's it's Ithink it's called a fried daddy or something.

(06:14):
Anyway, you plug it intellectric,you plug it in, heat up
the oil all the way, andthen you put some of those things in
there for about five minutes and youtake them out and sprinkle a little bit
of slid on there. They're righton the money. Oh dude, I'm
telling you what amazing. I loveme some fried okra. It's weird that
you said that. All Right,I got one for you. Hit me
with it. What about fried cornnuggets? Oh, dude, you are

(06:36):
in for a treat. Let's go. I'm telling you about it. I'm
serious. I ain't never had them. You are in for a treat.
Where does one get some of those? You have to well, you know
it's weird. Um, it's obviouslyfast food. Some barbecue places have them.
Really yeah. Um, I don'tlike the powdered sugar that they they

(06:57):
sprinkle on it. So you cantell them if they do sprinkle powder sugar,
you know, if you like that, fine, If not, I
usually tell them no, no,no powder, powder tuggar. Yeah,
but it's it's amazing. They reallyare. They're little little corn nuggets,
fried corn nuggets, and um,they're great fried mushrooms. I'm sure you
like. Yeah. So you likefried food period, fried everything. You're

(07:23):
my kind of like, I don'tknow, and this is a fact.
I don't know if there's many daysof the week, if any, that
I'll go without having something fried.Yeah, for sure. Well, you
must have a good metabolism. Doyou work out a lot? Jog?
Run? No? I used towork. I wrestled in high school and
cut a lot of weight and uhthat was the last time I ever stopped
on a treadmill because I had tolose so much weight and it burned me.

(07:45):
I'll be dark really Oh yeah,oh wow, Well good for you,
man. Let's get back to themusic because I'm starving. I'll tell
me, man, if I hadif I had a plate of corn nuggets
right now, I'd be a happyman. Um okay. The first single
tell us about your debut single,Loving You Gets in the Way. That's
what it's called, man. Forthis first record that we made that we
just put out. We picked fromabout almost four hundred songs that I've written

(08:09):
over the past several years. Sothat was the hardest part, is narrowing
down songs because you get attached andthere's two outside songs on the record,
two songs I didn't write, LovingYou Gets in the Way as one of
them, and one of the cowriters on the song, mister Jason Aldean
and my producer on the track,Neil Thrasher. Oh I know that guy,

(08:33):
Oh yeah, from long time ago. Rasher shy, that's right,
he is. Indeed. Well,Neil is singing the son of a Gun,
and you know he wrote there goesmy life, fast cars and freedom
tattoos on this. I mean,I'm just a boatload of songs. But
Neil, who's produced to produced thesong, wrote it with Al Dean,

(08:54):
and I heard it a couple ofyears ago and I always, I always
loved that song, loving You Getsin the Way, and I wasn't sure
if I was going to get achance to record it. And fast forward
a little bit, big time.Fortunate enough to be able to go in
and record that song and bring itto life, and it's coming right now.
Oh that's great, So I'm firedup about it. Man. Now

(09:18):
there's a video that you shot fora cowboy song, right and I watched
the videos. It's incredible, itreally is. It features a ninety year
old cowboy tell us about that songis called still a Few Cowboys Left and
the Cowboy. We went out toTexas to shoot the music video at the

(09:39):
Four Sixes Ranch, which you knowabout, yeah, part of Yellowstone,
the legendary Four Sixes Ranch, andwe got Boots O'Neil, who is an
absolute legend cowboy, real life cowboy. It's been at the Sixes for a
long time and he was the mainI want to say character, but it

(10:00):
wasn't really a character because we justcaptured his everyday life, the real life.
Yeah, what he does when hewakes up in the morning, has
coffee, that's right, and takeshis grandchildren out. I'm telling you,
man, it was so cool tobe a part of that whole experience filming
it there because there wasn't any acting, you know, there wasn't a Okay,
let's do this. We just werolled the cameraman and we captured what

(10:22):
he does. So it was soauthentic and I feel like you can see
that in the in the video.I feel like it comes out. But
it was a really cool experience tobe out there in Texas and film that
music video. We've been playing thatsong live for a little bit and it
goes over really well lives, andwe've been seeing the connection that it's having.
And to me, I mean,I'm not a cowboy, right,

(10:43):
and but it's not really about theliteral There's so much more things. It's
about values and treating people good andhard work and getting knocked down and getting
back up again. And I feellike a lot of yeah, man,
I resilience. I feel like,you know, everybody's got a little cowboy
in them in that sense. Yeah, I mean, you grew up in
Pennsylvania, but you still have there'ssome blood in there big time. That

(11:07):
that that you can relate to withwith being a cowboy one hundred percent.
And it just goes back to thosecore values. And that's what we're seeing
connect with people, um who aren'tliteral cowboys, they got cowboy in them.
Man, that's great. Uh,Ben, if someone wanted to reach
out to you on the social networking, go ahead and uh let them know

(11:30):
how they can do that. Yeah, Instagram, just Ben gallaher ga l
l A h E R. Facebook, same thing, TikTok. I ain't
gonna do any dopey dances for you, but I will pick you a guitar.
The dude, dude, the guy'scredible guitar player. Have you met
Keith Urban? I have not,but man, here's a big influence.

(11:50):
I mean, growing up, Imean and even now. But what an
absolute monster of a guitar player.What's your favorite guitar to play? Oh
man, because I know you've gota collection. I got quite a few.
If I'm playing acoustics, I'm playinga Taylor. They fit my hands
the best. And if I'm playingan electric, I'm playing a Fender telecaster,
which you know is everywhere in countrymusic. You know, if you

(12:13):
think of the electric, not everytime, but if you think of the
you know, an electric guitar andcountry music, first thing that would come
to mind would be the telecaster.Now, they say a guitar player's fingers
have to bleed if there's if he'sgonna be or he or she's gonna be
a good guitar player. What's yourthought on that. Yeah, mine used
to bleed, Not anymore because they'reso calloused up. Yeah, that's what

(12:37):
I hear. You have to buildup the callouses on the I don't think
feel it really anymore at all.Yeah, you know, but a new
guitar player, for sure. Imean, if you're just starting to learn,
and I mean you can do alot to learn on YouTube. There's
a lot of cool lessons and stuffyou can do on there. But when
you first start out playing, Yeah, yes, sir, does that hurt?
That's I mean, it's not likenails, but definitely it's like ah

(13:01):
man, yeah wow wow wow.But um, but I mean that's you
know, that's a rule of thumbfor a lot of players out there who
are thinking about our young musicians whoare thinking about getting into guitar and playing.
I mean, look, you knowit's a cool thing on stage,
but you do pay your dues.You gotta pay your dude like everything else.
Man, there's absolutely you know,there's there's no shortcuts, right,

(13:24):
yeah, there's no fast tracks.Um, so you just put your time
in and learn. Put your timein, learn, get on a tour
bus and eat as many French friesas you can because mister Ben loves French
fries. You need to try thosecorn nuggets. Man, I'm telling you,
it's on the list. It's onthe I tell you what. When
we were finished with this podcast,I'll give you a place here in town,

(13:46):
in Baton Rouge that serves up well, there are a few places,
but one close to here that that'sreally really good. So hopefully you can
you can have some of that stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna need those recommendations.
This is my first time here,so I'm pumped about it. Well,
good man, come on back.The doors always open for you.
Awesome, all right, it's beengalliher right here on backstage pass. I'm
Austin James. You can find moreepisodes on our free iHeartRadio app or wherever

(14:11):
you get your podcasts. Thanks forlistening. I'm Austin James on backstage pass