Keaton Simons - Musician (Keaton Simons / Brett Young)

Keaton Simons
Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Keaton Simons. Keaton has been a Hollywood fixture in the music & film industry since he was a little kid. Keaton's parents, and grandparents have been in the film & television business for decades. His grandfather was a screenwriter for some of the most decorated & loved films in history, and his parents have both starred in & written some of the most beloved projects in the business. Keaton started off singing and acting in projects as a small child and quickly fell in love with playing music. In this episode, Keaton and I chat about his early years and some of those early projects. We then transition into his diving into the music scene. I ask him about his moving to Nashville, and some of the projects he has worked on as a musician. Keaton has played with some of the biggest names in music, like: Snoop Dogg, Danny Elfman, Jason Mraz, Pharcyde, Darryl McDaniels, Chris Cornell, Gnarles Barkley, and is currently the lead guitarist for Brett Young. I ask him about each of these projects, and Keaton shares fun stories of working with these music icons. Keaton explains what a musical director is and how he has been able to translate artists' musical ideas, into fully realized products. Naturally we talk about why some of the biggest musical stars of today are moving to Nashville, and what that city has to offer artists in the local the music scene. He even lets me play one of the songs he & Jason Mraz co-wrote! Keaton is currently on a world tour with country music showman Brett Young. If they are playing near you, you won't want to miss them!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Keithon Simon's and you're listening to Fashionation Street Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, yes, the amp.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Visual down the most interested street in the world with
my voice, Deeve Fascination Street.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I already know.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's get it when you wait for the Fascinating Street.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Welcome back, Street Walkers. This episode is with Keaton Simons.
Keaton is a musical phenom. Yes, he's an actor and
he's been in some things, but his focus is music
and he has been doing music for a long time.
Even from when he was a little kid. He was
singing in movie scores and different projects. Keaton has worked

(00:48):
with everybody you could possibly imagine. He was in Gnarls
Barkley for a hot minute. He's worked with Snoop Dogg.
He's worked with Darryl McDaniels from run DMC. He even
worked with the great Chris Cordon. We talk about all
of those things. There was a whole bunch we didn't
talk about. But of course he has his own music.
He does his own thing. He does. Let me play

(01:09):
one of his favorite songs that he co wrote with
his friend Jason Moraz, so you'll get to hear that.
It's a dope tune. As if that's not enough. Keaton
is also the lead guitar player for the country musician
Brett Young, who is Megan Waves all over the world
in the country music scene. Huge success, multi platinum selling artists,

(01:29):
and they are currently on tour for all of May.
They're going to be doing dates in Australia, and then
they're going to take a little bit of a break,
and then in October they're going to hit the road
again and go to Scandinavia doing shows in Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark. Check out brettyungmusic dot com to find out
where they're going to be and to get tickets to

(01:50):
some of those shows. As you will hear toward the
end of this episode, Keaton and I didn't even get
to a fraction of the cool things that there are
to talk about with regard to him and his career
and some of his cool stories. So expect to return
appearance from the great Keaton Simons, but for now, this
is my first conversation with Keaton Simons. For credit, be fascinating,

(02:17):
forgrett to be fascinating, Forgreta be facinating. Welcome to Fascination
Street Podcast. Keaton Simons, what's up dude.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
How you doing?

Speaker 4 (02:30):
I cannot complain, ladies and gentlemen, this is a long
time coming. Sort of a little behind the scenes. I
completely dropped the ball, and Keaton was so kind as to,
uh not tell me to go fuck right off. So
I appreciate you doing. You're awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
It was no problem at all. You did something I
do constantly, which is the right number but the wrong date,
the wrong month.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Oh my god, it was so crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I do it constantly, Like what month does that happening again?

Speaker 4 (03:01):
That is hilarious. Yeah, particularly like when we were scheduling
things so far in advance. I think you know fuck
you probably know him comedian Adam Carolla. Yeah, of course,
a long time ago. He said that whenever his agent
or his booking manager says, hey, do you want to
do this thing? And he'll go when is it? And
if it's more than three weeks away, he'll just go, yeah,

(03:22):
why not because he forgets about it and then he
has to be reminded and he's like, wait, what am
I doing?

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I said yes to that. Yeah, that sounds pretty familiar.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Keaton Simon's everybody, he is amazing. Well, he comes from
a whole I mean generations of film and television. And
this dude's a star in his own right. He is
a singer, songwriter, musical director, a composer. He does all
the things. Oh, he's also an actor. I mean, we're gonna,
we're gonna get crazy. And he owns a record label.

(03:54):
We're going everywhere. Okay, First, I want to say that
my mom and your stepdad share a birthday, which is
I guess a week from today.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's great, which.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
I thought was super cool. And your birthday and your
your friend Chris Cornell's right, y'all have the same birthday,
which is the anniversary of my wife and my marriage.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh wow, you got marriage July twentieth.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
We're connected, bro, We got all the things.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
What I like to do, Keaton is I like to
start from the beginning. It helps us understand how the
guests got from where they were to where they are.
So where you want to raise? Man, where'd you grow up?

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and
I grew up very much in that Hollywood world, you know,
on sets and things like that. But the majority of
my family who are in the film and television industry
are behind the scenes, behind the camera. They're writers, producers, directors,

(04:52):
casting agents, et cetera, et cetera. And then of course
there's plenty of actors and stuff too, but spend a
lot of time on sets and on all those all
those lots when I was.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
A kid, your mom's dad, your grandfather, who was a
screenwriter who wrote all kinds of crazy stuff. He wrote everything, Yeah,
including Three Days of the Condor, which actually the bad
guy in that movie was Hank Garrett. And he is
a previous guest of my show. Dudes like ninety five
years old.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
And yeah, he's old.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
He's amazing though. He's got such a crazy story of
like even before he was an actor, he did all
this crazy stuff. It's nuts. He's like in the Wrestling
Hall of Fame. He was a boxer, Like, he did
all this crazy shit. He was in gangs. It was nuts.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
That's amazing, bro, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
Before that generation, so before your grandfather, was he the
first one in the industry, or just to go even
further back than that.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I'm pretty sure my grandparents in general were the first,
the first ones in my family to be in that industry,
both sides, both sides, but my dad's side, I think
my dad is the first one on his side to
be part of the of the film and television industry.
On my mom's side, it's was my grandparents, So my

(06:06):
mom's parents who started in and they started in it's
so early on, in especially television. My grandmother, Eleila Garrett,
she was a pioneer in TV and moved to Los
Angeles from New York in what was it, nineteen sixty five,
you know, was writing Get Smart, Bewitched, eventually All in

(06:28):
the Family and San fermin Son's Give Me a Break
and all those sitcoms, you know, So that was a
part of it. I mean, honestly, my great grandparents age,
they're the ones who came over well no, no, no, wait
a minute, my double great grandparents. I'm pretty sure all
of my great grandparents were born in the US, and

(06:49):
that their parents came over from Eastern Europe from like Russia, Ukraine, Latvia,
that area and came in and did it. From what
I know, pretty typical of the peeps that immigrated at
that time. You know, they ended up going to Ellis
Island and like, you know, continuing a trade that they
learned in their old country. Usually manual labor stuff the hands,

(07:13):
textiles and stuff like that, and then and then it
was their their grandchildren that ended up starting in that
film and television industry.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Okay, so your grandfather who wrote Three Days of the Condor, Yes,
his last name wasn't Garrett, was it?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
No, his last name is Rayfield and his dad so
a lot of them, a lot of them were in
law as well. So my great grandfather, my mom's grandpa
biologically was a guy named Leo Rayfield, and he was
the Supreme Court judge for the state of New York.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Jesus.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Wow. Well the reason I asked is because Henk Garrett,
the guy we were talking about, the bad guy from
Three Years of the Condor, another Garrett. He's from New York.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Oh well yeah, so no, plenty of Garretts from that area.
The Garrett name came because my grandpa, Dawn Garrett, who
married my grandmother and then legally adopted my mom when
she was like two.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
Got you.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
That's where the name Garrett came from. And he was
an incredible, amazing person as well. He was a publicist.
He was a writer, but he ended up being a publicist.
He represented the Jackson five and like the Flintstones and
the Jetsons and all kinds of fun stuff.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
That is nuts. I think it's hilarious that somebody represented
the Flintstones and the Jetsons's funny. Okay, So we're gonna
bounce all over the place because your story is buck Well,
your story is all over the place. You're the second
cast member from the movie Animal House to be on
this show. Oh yeah, it was before actually your.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Mother, of course, of course, yes, my mom was the
first one. Well, I was a fetus at the time,
so I don't know that I was. I wasn't I'm
not in the credits.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
You were on set, bro, I was on set.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Okay, I was on set.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
I just think that is hilarious. So you got you
got started to young. What high school did you go
to in l A.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
I went to Oakwood Oakwood High School.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Okay. So I was talking to a guy of Frank Meyer,
which is Breck and Meyer's brother. He said that there's
if you grow up in the industry and like he
he grew up sort of tangentially like you did. Like
his his folks were like Hollywood lawyers, entertainment lawyers, that
kind of thing. He said, there's two high schools. There's
oak Wood and Yeah. Yeah. He said, if you grow

(09:41):
up in the business, you go to one of those
two high schools.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Either in the valley or the west side. Yes, the
Crossroads is on the west side and oak Wood to
the valley.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Again, this is going to be a weird and wild ride.
But one of the first things that you did on
A Thing for a Thing was you sang on the
score for the movie Scrooged. Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (10:08):
I did? Yes, that is correct.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
I'm sure you've seen that movie more than once.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh yeah, I love that.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
What is your favorite quote from that movie? Because there's
a quote that I use on an almost daily basis.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
It has been too long since I've seen it. But
what's your favorite quote from that movie? I want to know.
I'm sure I'll remember it, Okay.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
So I love it because that is so apt for
every corner of business and industry. At a certain point.
Bill Murray says, all day long, I hear excuses about
why people can't do their jobs. I'm sick, I'm tired.
I'm only four.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I'm only four.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
That's right. I love that. How how did that happen
to be? How did it come to be a part
of that score because that was Danny Elfman's first score.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Right, it was, indeed, and yeah, it was his first
feature film score. I went to elementary school with his kids,
so all the talent shows and anything to do with
music at all of my schools, I was just part
of all of it. You know. They wanted me to
sing everything, and so I happily did and did a

(11:12):
bunch of stuff with his kids. And he was there
and had like me and his kids sing the children's
like parts for the vocal stuff on that score. It
it was pretty cool. Man. We used to do Halloween
sometimes over at their house. It was Intopanga Canyon. If
you're not familiar with it, it's nothing like La. It's

(11:33):
so different from La and I'm so fortunate that I
grew up going to elementary school there. It's very rural
with mountains and woods and horses and cacti and all
kinds of fun stuff. And Halloween at the Elfman place
was pretty damn cool. It was like we had like
metal sheets to make it sound like there was thunder
and all kinds of stuff, and that house was just amazing.

(11:54):
Skeletons all over the place really really cool. All kinds
of musical instruments in the studio was really beautiful, old
schools the eighties, I think at the time.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
I love that so much so. The band that he
was in before that was it Oingo Bingo or Wang Chung.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
The Mystic Knights of the Mystic Knights.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's nuts real quick. How many guitars do you have?
Not with you, but how many cars?

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I honestly don't even know anymore. I like that some
there are guitars. I have so many guitars that there
are a few where I'm like, where where is that?
Where are those guitars? Like? I have so many, I
don't even know where they all are. I'm not sure
a lot.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
So you never get rid of one.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
I never get rid of them because I don't really
have to have a need to get rid of them,
you know.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
So where do you keep them?

Speaker 1 (12:41):
All the numerous places. There's a bunch that travel in
the semi in the vault with Brett Young because I'm
you know, on tour with them all the time. So
they just live there or in our in our storage
space for Brett, and then I have a bunch at
my house in Nashville. There's some of my my mom's house,
there's some of my dad's house, like guitars all over

(13:03):
the day a blade.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
So you did move to Nashville fully right.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, I did when I moved there about six years ago.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
I know that you're back and forth all the time
because you just have so much to do in LA
as well as Nashville. But why did you decide to
permanently move Like just now, you made it sound like
you don't have a place in LA like your mom
does and your dad does.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, I don't have a place in LA anymore. Yeah,
I moved to Nashville full time about six years ago
when I started playing with BRETTYA.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Oh, so that was what precipitated the move, was that.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
That was the reason? Yeah? Absolutely? And you know, Nashville
geographically is in such a perfect place for touring, especially
bus touring, because it's so easy to get everywhere. South, Northeast,
Midwest certainly is all right there, so ground transpot it's
pretty important. Most of the touring country bands in Nashville

(13:58):
live in Nashville because otherwise you'd have to fly yourself
to the shows or to bus call to catch the bus.
It's you know, I live ten minutes from where I
catch the tour of US and it's very very easy.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
Oh that's cool.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, it's nice, man.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
And also it's got to be just a weave bit
more affordable.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Well yeah, I mean, gosh, that was a huge plus
of course, living up in l in my whole life
and born and raised there and watching that go crazy.
But of course the housing market in Nashville has gone
wilde as well. My friends who moved there ten fifteen
years ago or so, you know, got the bonanza of
a lifetime, you know, buy a house for nothing and

(14:39):
now it's worth millions.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yeah, but if you moved there, if you moved there
before COVID, then you you kind of got You're like
the last group of fools who got there before it
started going crazy. Because yeah, COVID Nashville just busted wide open.
Like everybody moved to Nashville and Texas. I live here
in Bernie, like outside of Antonio, and gotcha, the influx
is insane from everywhere.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, there were people who left Nashville too to go
back to hometowns during COVID as well, you know, I
mean that was just the kind of like I think
people moved from from more expensive places than Nashville to Nashville.
But people moved certainly from Nashville to other places that
were less expensive than that during COVID. I mean, it's
still on the rise. The influx of population in Nashville

(15:21):
is crazy. It's NonStop. You know, We'll see. It's interesting.
A lot of people moved from LA to Nashville. Nashville
became kind of a little LA and I was one
of the later ones to make the move.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Right, you're a new kid.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
I'm a new kid on the block.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
So since we're talking about Nashville, Yeah, why do you
think that there is another artist migration happening like currently?
Like I just read yesterday that Ed Shearon is going
to move to Nashville and start making country music.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Amazing. I think they have their shit together to do
this in ways that other places haven't done. And Nashville's
been music city for one hundred years, you know what
I mean. Didn't just start right now trying to put
those systems in place. They have been developing, evolving and
solidifying over the last century. And it's a very friendly

(16:10):
place for somebody like Ed Shearan walk right in, come
into the best studios, work with the best songwriters, the
best producers make real country music, you know what I mean,
like with the cats who have been doing it.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, real country music like Beyonce's Cowboy Country, right I do.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'm glad whenever anybody tries to expand their genres because
the truth is, especially today, there's so few elements that
lock a style of music or an artist into a
particular genre, and country music the way that it's evolved
is a great example of that. Country music is not
pure traditional country music by a long shot anymore. And

(16:48):
kind of what the country music industry did was they
were able to continue to have success in areas where
the mainstream industry was failing because they kept it tight,
you know what I mean, They kept it small. There's
a lot of gatekeeping that happened in the mainstream world
where there were a lot of people who had success

(17:10):
or a few people who had success, and they were
kind of like, you know, maybe we can just keep
this all to ourselves and let everyone else just spin
their wheels. But in Nashville, the music always wins, you
know what I mean. If you come into town and
you're a great songwriter or a great musician, people are
going to pay attention to that. They're not going to
lock the door so you don't get in and make
them look bad. They'll be like, come on, let's see

(17:31):
what we can do together.

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Speaker 5 (19:01):
Let's get back into it.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
I think that music is art, and art really starts
to get fucked up when people put rules on it
and try to define it. Art is art and it
should just free flow and do whatever it needs to do.
I hope they didn't come off as a knock on Beyonce.
I think it's cool that she tried that with Cowboy Carter.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Oh no no.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
My favorite quote from her is kind of like the
way Dolly did. Dolly put out a rock and roll
album last year, huh, And it was after she was
inducted into the rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and
Dolly said about that, she said, my music isn't rock
and roll. My music is Dolly Parton. And so that's
basically what Beyonce said. She said, this album isn't a
country album, It's a Beyonce album.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
That is correct. That's a better way of explaining, like
post Malone, for example, by Jack's position right exactly. He
came to Nashville, he worked with all the cats there,
worked in the studios there, wrote songs with Nashville country songwriters,
and he made a country record that total qualifies as
a country record whether he's a country artist or not. Beyonce,

(20:04):
on the other hand, made a record that sounds like
what a pop singer thinks country music sounds like exactly myself.
I couldn't do a country I couldn't make a country
record as a solo artist. I'm not a country artist.
I don't have that authenticity. And I also just whatever
it is anytime I write a song. When I was
making my last EP, I did it in Nashville with

(20:26):
the great Marshall Altman producing, and I was writing stuff
and I was like, is any of this, Like we're
in Nashville, here is any of this country, and some
of it, like one of my songs called Crane City,
it sounds almost bluegrass, not country, not bluegrass. I can't
explain exactly why. But in the same way that Beyonce's
record is not country, neither would mine be, even if

(20:47):
it had country elements and instruments. And so there's this
fine line. It's hard to really define, but part of
it is if it's done in that context, in that community,
as a part of that movement, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (20:59):
That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Look, Chapalone has a country song on the charts right now, Sure,
why not? You know, like country has been pop for
a lot longer than pop has been trying to be country.
So let's let pop do some country stuff, why not? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
I think the best example, in my eyes, probably be
Taylor Swift exactly. Yeah. Like she started off like this
straight country, I mean, like pure bones country, and then
slowly with each album she's sort of changed a little
bit of what that definition is, and now nobody even
thinks that she used to be country, which is funny.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
It is funny. And not only did she change the
definition of country music for herself as an artist, but
she changed the global definition and what classifies it and
qualifies it as country music. She's a great example because
she came up in Nashville writing with great writers, recording
at those studios with those musicians. Scott Borchetta, who's a
lifer in the industry, was a big part of that

(21:58):
in creating the initial thing that was Taylor Swift that
she then took and ran with to become the biggest
artist in the world.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
You know, well, second biggest, but yeah, I got you.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, who's biggest?

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Little dude name Keaton Simon's what's up, dude?

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh hey watch that?

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Okay, So again we're gonna bounce all over the place.
You have a degree in ethno musicology. What the hell
is that?

Speaker 1 (22:25):
That's right, So it is just a fancy setting word
for the study of world music eth no musicology.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Why did you decide to do that?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
You know, it's funny because I didn't go into it
going I would like to go to college in order
to study ethnic musicology. What I did was I graduated
from high school early. I graduated when I was sixteen,
so playing guitar and just got you know, was very
good at music and knew that I wanted to do
that and I was started doing it and started working

(22:56):
as the musical director for Slim Kittre from the Far
Side when I was like seventeen. And then I went
and visited some friends of mine who were going to
college because I was like, ah, do I want to
go to college? I don't know. It was a couple
of years later my friends were graduating from high school
and they were going to go to college. I was like,
I'll come visit a couple of you, and I went
to visit my friend Jesse Krakau at the Evergreen State

(23:19):
College and it was such a wonderful, magical state. It
is in Olympia, Washington.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
My daughter lives there.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh, very cool man. What a beautiful place. I mean
it rains a lot, of course, but during the non
raty months, it's hard to find a more beautiful place
on earth. It was amazing there. I went, I visited,
I had a magical time. I decided it was the
right vibe for me. And your first year at Evergreen,
the only stipulation is that you need to take a

(23:46):
full time course, right, so sixteen credits per quarter course
rather than piecemeal, which you can do, you know, for
the rest of your time. There, but the first year
they want you to do a full time, full credit course,
and the music course that was being offered full time
that year was Southeast Asian Performing Arts and Culture, which

(24:07):
was my entree into ethno musicology, and so because of that,
I learned how to play Indonesian Gamalan music and a
dozen instruments that comprise that ensemble. With my professor Sean Williams,
we pioneered a course in playing a string instrument from
Indonesia called the Kachapi that they now continue to teach

(24:28):
at that school, but I was the first one to
do it. It started with me, and I ended up
playing so much music and so much hip hop. I
was so involved in the hip hop scene in LA
while I was at school, so i'd go back to La.
As an example, I left before walking in my graduation
because I had a gig with Trey from Farsight in

(24:50):
Vegas with like Planet Asia, Black Eyeds, all these like
crazy dudes flew there for that gig and flew back
to do gigs in Olympia for the most graduation festivities
and stuff. So I was jumping all over the place
and it was a really fun college experience for me.
Because it was the nineties. I was in Olympia, Washington
with Kill rock Stars and K Records, Elliott Smith and

(25:14):
you know, Nirvana and all that had come out of
that area, and they all lived in the in the
housing that we all lived in, and all that kind
of stuff, and it was just a cool vibe. And
then the hip hop was really rocking and everybody was
into that, and I was very heavily involved in that,
so it was fun.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
So you mentioned the words musical director. That means different
things to different people. What does it mean when you
Heaton Simon's are a musical director for an artists or
very hip hop artist specifically. I mean you did that
for Snoop too.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Well, yes, but although I wasn't technically the musical director
for the Snoop project, but I ended up being default
MD for a lot of those projects at that time,
mostly because I had education in music and the ability
to kind of communicate it to everybody. I think of
being a musical director as basically a translator. I'm a

(26:09):
liaison for communication. I hear from the artist what they want,
and then I translate that into reality, whether it's communicating
it to the other musicians or in the studio or
whatever it might be to make it sound a certain way,
or just interpreting it. Like in hip hop, a lot
of the front people out of the artists don't have

(26:31):
musical education. Many of them don't play an instrument at all,
or even sing for that matter, but they have plenty
of ideas about what they want stuff to sound like
and can say something like I'm hearing this kind of
thing where it's like a parent right, cool, you're hearing that.
I can translate that and turn that into something that

(26:53):
we can play live with a full band, that we
can take into the studio and record that we can
develop into something you know, I mean, take it and
actualize it. Whereas you know, the rest of the band
is kind of going, all right, what would you like
me to play here? You know, I'm able to be
the liaison and say, well, here's what Trey's hearing for this,
so let's do it this way and see how that works.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
So like a composer almost or a conductor.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, a little bit. There's a little bit of conductoriness
to it. You know. Also, we just recently with Brett,
started to tour without any backing tracks, which is quite uncommon,
especially in this genre. At this level, usually you have
the live band and then you have other elements that
are synced up playing to the audience to bolster the sound,

(27:43):
make it bigger, add little things that where you would
would otherwise necessitate like three or four other musicians on stage,
but instead you can just have it in tracks, you know.
And one of the jobs of musical director, at least
for myself as a musical director, is producing and creating
and curating those tracks as well. So like, I'll create

(28:07):
those tracks to play along with us live. Now we
don't have anymore, so it's less work for me, which
is totally cool, but it's a fun thing to do
as a producer. I have so much fun creating because
most people in the audience don't even know there's their
tracks being played. And that's that's intentional. I don't want
anybody going, hey, where's that sound coming from? You know?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Sure? Yeah, nobody needs to peak behind the curtain. That's
a weird question. How many TV pilots have you been in?
And why didn't you quit trying to be an actor
when they all none of them went right?

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Why didn't I quit? Yeah? Quit?

Speaker 4 (28:43):
A lot of people have a lot of quit in them.
How come you didn't quit?

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, you know what, With acting, I don't know that
I feel I ever really like committed to it. It's
to be fairly honest, so I kind of pre quit.
I think, you know, I grew up in that industry,
so it's a very casual thing for me. I have
some fundamental issues with the auditioning process. I find it
to be ineffectual. I don't really believe in it, so

(29:07):
I don't do it very often. I did more when
I was a kid, you know. I think part of
it is that I've always been aware of the fact
that the majority of projects that get started don't come
to fruit, and so that's just a part of the business.
Like everybody else I knew who was really trying to
make it in the industry were in ten times more

(29:28):
failed projects than I've been in, and they stuck with it.
And I think, honestly, if you want to be successful
in any of these fields, you have to have enough
passion and desire for it to stick with it despite
those things. You can't even let that impact you at all,
you know what I mean? If it drives you, sure,
But honestly, I like to be as detached from that
as possible. You know, I do a lot of singing

(29:50):
and commercials, and most of the demos that I sing,
I feel are better than what I hear as the final,
But the majority of the finals don't go to me,
just because that's part of the process. Is there's ten
plus people in contention for something, nine of them aren't
going to get it. That's a big landslide of a
ratio there.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
So I guess it helps, you know, because you kind
of seem pretty laid back about it. You're like, well,
if I get a movie, if I get a commercial, cool,
If not, that's cool too. I guess it helps that
you kind of had a front row seat for that.
Like there's a famous story that John Hamm was in
fifteen failed pilots before Madman got picked up. And likewise,

(30:31):
there's a guy who was a huge actor now, but
he was struggling for a really really long time until
coincidentally your mother got him on Er. And that guy
is George Claney.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Oh little George Clinton. Yeah, oh yeah, buddy.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
I mean he was in Roseanne and he was in
Fact of Life and all that stuff, but nothing really
blew him up until like way later in his career.
He had been in so many things until it finally popped,
which everybody that was this dude's mom convinced everybody put
that date in there.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, man, that's I've seen that happen so many times,
where like like what was what would I just see that,
like they were considering James Gandalfeini for the lead instead
of whoever got and was like so different from oh
my god, what was it? What move? I'll think of
it later. But when you hear those stories, you see
like the auditions for Marty McFly role in Back to

(31:24):
the Future and like everybody a huge actors were in
there reading for that stuff. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Well, they filmed half the movie with Eric Stoltz.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Exactly, they did. They did have to move with Eric
Stults before they replaced it anyway, so you know, and
if Eric Stolts imagine Eric Stoltz quit after that heartbreak
being in a pilot that fails. That's one thing. Going
on on an audition and not getting the part. That's
one thing. Shooting half a movie and then having them
spend a full movie budget just to shoot somebody else

(31:54):
in your stead. It's that. I commend our sweet Eric
Stolts for having therewithal to continue to pursue this that
life after that kind of a heartbreak, because that will
hurt you. It will hurt your feelings. It takes work
to rise up out of that, you know, oh for sure.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
And I mean just the feeling of you know, like
it'd be one thing if back to the future, you know,
he got replaced and then it didn't do anything.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Exactly. It's like a win. It's like you buy two
lottery tickets, you give one of them to your friend,
and that one's the winner, yours is a loser.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
There you go, exactly what am I supposed to do? Well,
not a loser, You're You're just normal, right, they won
the big one, but you're yeah, right, sure, But whatever
it is, you know, because he got that's cool.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
That is cool. But it's a tough one man. Those
types of things can be very challenging. But the truth is,
I really live with a mentality that I only have
the things that I have, I only have the things
that I experience, and there's no such thing as an
opportunity that I missed or that an opportunity for me

(33:04):
went to somebody else. That's impossible. If it was my opportunity,
I would have had it and had the full experience.
My experience is only what it is. It's not anything
that didn't happen. That mentality, I think enables me to
be happy and comfortable and sane in an industry that
would otherwise have a lot of disappointment. But I don't

(33:25):
allow for disappointment. Disappointment only exists when I'm comparing reality
to a hypothetical, parallel, imaginary version that doesn't exist, And
I go, if it had been this, but it wasn't that,
it's this.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Yeah. If you don't have a preconceived notion of what
is supposed to happen, then you can't possibly be sad
or let down or disappointed by it not happening.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Correct.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Casey Musgraves in her Think it Is on the Deeper
Well album, she has a line I don't remember which
song it is, but it basically says what you said.
She says, if the train is meant for you, then
it won't leave the station and pull away.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Correct. You know it's not your train. If you're not
on it, it doesn't matter who else is.

Speaker 5 (34:05):
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(34:41):
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Speaker 5 (35:06):
Let's get back into it.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Again. We're bounced all over the place. Tell me about
the live performance you did inside a Southwest Airlines airplane?

Speaker 1 (35:18):
What? Oh? Yeah? Well, first of all, I'll tell you
about the thirty thousand times I've entered an airplane with
a guitar and had everyone go, are you gonna give
us a concert? Right? Okay, So that's every time I
get on an airplane. And then one time I got
to say, yes, I am going to do that, and

(35:38):
it was on the Southwest flight. It was part of
a whole campaign for a sixth man cruise called Sail
Across the Sun that's hosted by Train Train the band
Train the Band. Yes, not to get confusing between boats
and trains and planes and armorius, because.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
We were just talking about Casey.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Exactly. So I was on trains boats called Sail Across
the Sun. It was a fan vote thing. So they
did a whole spiel with me, including a live performance
on Southwest Airlines flight. Because I was one of their
sponsorship partners. We filmed a bunch of behind the scenes stuff.

(36:15):
I had a bunch of performances on the boat, of course,
and then on the flight on the way over there,
performed live at thirty five thousand feet on that Southwest
plane and it was great. It was so much fun.
Is wild You know, it was a little hard to hear.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
But since you have been in and around both film
and television industry and the music industry for your entire life,
you know everybody. Yeah, how did you meet and work
with and become friends with Jason Moraz?

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Oh? Okay, Well, Jason Moraz has been a part of
the singer songwriter community that I've been a part of
since the very beginning. And so when I first got
signed to Maverick Records, a subsidiary Warner Brothers in two
thousand and two, I was already familiar with him as
an artist and as a person. A couple of my

(37:07):
band members were playing with him as well and touring
with him, you know. I went to go see them
perform a couple of times, and then I got signed
to Maverick. I was working with a production trio called
the Matrix and they had just finished writing and adding
to a song of Jason's called The Remedy that then

(37:27):
became his first big single that went and so I
was in the studio with them writing and recording my
record when The Remedy went to radio, and so that
was a big part of the initial connection we had.
Then some years later we started playing together at a
really cool venue scene in Venice Beach on Abbot Kenney

(37:49):
called the Stronghold. It was a clothing store and above
the clothing store was this really cool loft that got
transformed into a live music venue kind of speak easy hang,
and the artists and friends of mine that were part
of that scene were really really cool. Ben Harper, Brett Dennin.
Moraz was a big part of it. I mean, Jackson

(38:09):
Brown was in there doing stuff. It was a really
cool scene. We played there constantly and I was with
Jason a lot during that. Then we did a fun
thing that our friends Hanson the Band do a songwriting
retreat at their property in Oklahoma called Fool's Banquet, where
they invite a bunch of their friends, people they've toured with,

(38:30):
so like Stephen Kellogg, Pat McGee, Kate Vogel was there
that year and Maraz was there. They kind of pair
people up in groups to write songs. There are studio
spaces open, so I think I co wrote and recorded
six songs in a couple of days while while we
were there was a very productive and prolific time for everybody.

(38:52):
And Jason and I wrote a really beautiful song still
one of my favors, called is There any Other Way?
One night, late at night, it was off the books,
off the schedule, and the two of us were just
hanging and we wrote that really beautiful song. Was it
released Yes by him or you by Me? It was
on a record of mine called Beautiful Pain. Oh Okay, Yeah,

(39:13):
Is There any Other Way?

Speaker 4 (39:14):
Well, can I play that song since you love it
so much?

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Absolutely? Go right ahead?

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Do you want to introduce it like your radio DJ?

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Absolutely? This next one is Is There any Other Way?
By Keaton Simons. This is a co write with the
great Jason Moraz.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
How does it feel now that you call yourself man?
Do you remember how some leto like a child?

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Ready or not?

Speaker 8 (39:58):
I never thought I would be so much like my father.
He always told me I should keep end of the mind.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
And how does it feel WILLI or alone?

Speaker 3 (40:13):
How do you see yourself?

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Well?

Speaker 3 (40:16):
No one there, I'll see you? How will you know
what the right about? Now that don't want?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
You?

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Love us? Gol? How will you call me on? Is
there ready? Uh? Way?

Speaker 2 (40:34):
How does it feel now that you call yourself a woman?
Was there a moment when you left.

Speaker 9 (40:42):
That girl behind? What was it like late in the
night did you think your life was over? Or where
you only get a closer.

Speaker 10 (40:56):
To the truth?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
How does it feel really o alone? How do you
see yourself when longs there?

Speaker 3 (41:07):
I'll see you? How will you know what's right? All wrong?
None of the ones? You love? A god?

Speaker 1 (41:15):
How will you get me on?

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Is it really the way?

Speaker 8 (41:22):
Because time doesn't measure roll the things you are and
where you come from.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
There's an endless road the head.

Speaker 8 (41:51):
What is a life now that you recognize the mirror
call of life?

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Do you believe it? I believe it is happening.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Oh how does it feel?

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Will alone? How do you see yourself with.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
No once there'll see you?

Speaker 3 (42:13):
How will you know what's right along? Now that the
world you love? How will you cary on? Is it
really the way? Is there any the way? Is there
any way?

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Awesome? Thank you so much. That's one of my favorite
things is to get is to get artists to act
like you're ready to j How long did you think
with Narls Barkley? And were you an official member?

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I was an official member, but it was only for
a short time that I was singing with. It was
in two thousand and six. The single Prazy had been
released and was breaking records in the UK, all the
iTunes records were being broken, and then they formed the band.
Basically it was Danger Mouse and Sila that created that
project together and made all the recordings, and then it

(43:25):
was time to put a band together because now they
have a big hit singles, a big hit record, so
let's go So in La. They assembled a band of
mostly artists, so there were a bunch of really really
cool people involved. And the vocal ensemble, especially the background
ensemble that I was a part of in that band

(43:46):
was Holly Palmer and Wreath and myself was all artists
and writers and stuff. Justin Meldell Johnson was the MD
and bass player at that time. Chris Brenna was playing drum,
Zach Ray was playing keith. It was an all star
type of situation. I was completely on to be a
part of it. Did a couple of classic appearances with them. Coachella,

(44:09):
did that first Coachelle, the first time that Madonna was
at Coachella, Like Friends Ferdinand. The backstage was us and
Friends Ferina. That was such a I mean, it was
that time. It was that era. That was amazing. We
did a pop up It was a mice Space secret
show at the Key Club I think or either there
or the Roxy I forgot where. It was somewhere in

(44:29):
La on sunset. But then their next move was a
European tour. They cut the band in half for that
for budget reasons, sure, and that was it. So it
was a short time, but it was really really wonderful.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
And your first record label was Maverick. Yes, like you
mentioned Madonna's company. Like almost all record deals, that album
did not come out.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah, surprise, the prise, surprise, surprise.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
So that was Madonna's company. But did you ever meet
her or interact with her about it about your thing?

Speaker 1 (44:59):
No, not at all. During that time, GUYO Siri was
the president of that label and Danny Strick was the
head of n R And those are my dudes.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
You know, what did you ever do with the music?
I know that they owned it or maybe still do. Yeah,
did any of it ever happen to get out?

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, some of it did get out. I re recorded
it and some of it I just kind of made
available or released on my own independently and just kind
of said like, hey, if I start to generate enough
that these guys come looking for me, then great, we
can make a deal then you know what I mean.
But at first it was quite discouraging because of course,

(45:36):
you know, I was trying to avoid all those pitfalls.
I knew what the typical story was for an artist
at a record label, and it was not looking like
it was going to be that story for me at
the time. But it is no surprise that the most
typical thing that happens happened because it's the most typical thing. Sure.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Yeah, it's like all those pilots that we were talking
about in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Exactly exactly. That's what most people don't realize. It's like
pretty much anything, there's a veil covering all the stuff
that's less sellable, less interesting, less digestible, you know what
I'm saying. And if you lift that veil, you see
there's a lot of stuff, you know that just kind
of doesn't go anywhere. All the consumer public sees is

(46:18):
the stuff that gets released. They don't see that there's
ninety five percent more that doesn't So what are you
going to do?

Speaker 4 (46:26):
And that's the same with any job. I mean, if
you you're in a hotel right now, if you go
downstairs to the lobby, the person who's at the front desk,
there was three hundred people that applied for that job,
but only one got it. It's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
It is the same thing. It is.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
What did you work on with Darren mccaniels of run dmc.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Oh? Yes? Oh?

Speaker 4 (46:44):
And also can I have his phone number?

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Go ahead, Yeah, no problem, I'll just give out his
thanks no man. First of all, I am a hip
hop kid from way back, so run DMC.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Well let's see how far back previous. Guess if my
show is the Soul Serve fat Boy.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Oh I was bigger than the Fat Boys.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Hey, yeah, I got cool.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Ski was on my show.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
He is so dope, amazing, Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
I'm just so excited that I had that guy on.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
He's I used to watch the movie Disorderly is like obsessively.
I've watched that movie every day from all of my
life when I was a kid. But yeah, I loved
the Fat Boys, loved Run the MC and all those
guys from the Rigginning of course the Far Side. When
I started working with Trey from Farside, I was just
beside myself because I was and still am, a humongous fan.
But Yeah, worked with Daryl on some of his original stuff.

(47:31):
There were some covers that we did. It was a
project that I was working on that was kind of
a hip hop apro funk kind of project, and he
was generous enough to get involved and hang with us.
We were working with the same producer on stuff, and
we just ended up doing a couple of fun little
things together. He featured on a single for this project

(47:52):
that I was working on, and we just got to
hang and it was really cool.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
That's nice growing up, you know. Just loved the fat
Boy rund and see all them shits. Those were my jams.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yeah, buddy.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
On YouTube, there is a music video. I guess it's
a music It is a video of music. How about that?

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (48:12):
Currently right now it is at one hundred and eighty
million views.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
It is a song called Nothing Compares to You.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yes, oh I knew what it was because I don't
have anything else that has hundreds of millions.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
So, ladies and gentlemen, nothing Compares to You, which you
know as a Sheinad O'Connor song. It was written by
Prince and a bunch of years ago, Chris Cornell sang
that song on Serious. I don't know what for, but
he sang that song.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
It was on Lithium. It was for an live interview
and performance that we were doing on Lithium. Yeah. So
it was when he released his last solo record and
the single. We were all out promoting that single and
the first live performance we did in promotion of that
was that live interview and performance on acoustically on.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Serious now, ladies and gentlemen, he said, we because Chris
Cornell sings it. Sure, and he plays some guitar shure.
But about third of the way through, Chris Cornell just
says Keaton Simon's and then Simons just rips a guitar
in half. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Thanks man.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
So I don't need any numbers because I don't care.
But that video has one hundred and eighty million views.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Yeah, jeez, Does any of.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
That revenue get to your house? No?

Speaker 1 (49:31):
None of that revenue gets to me. All right, I know,
and that'd be great, but no, it's in that case. Listen,
if it was a video that like I made or something,
you know, But that's that's pretty far removed from me.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Well it's, I mean no, it's it's pretty far removed
from me. It's it's not that removed from you.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
I mean, I mean revenue. Wow, Okay, Financially understanding this business,
there's a very steep drop off that happens as soon
as you're not an owner or part of any of
the you know, foundation of the situation. I was there,
and I was paid for my time and for my appearance,
and I was compensated fairly and equitably under the circumstance,

(50:12):
No part of me would expect or anticipate any kind
of revenue share in some of that.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
Sure, no, I was just curious, but I totally get I.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Mean, listen, some people are very generous with that kind
of thing. My personal experience has been that, like, I
have contributed tremendously to a lot of other people's artistic
selves and projects, and they have not chosen to give
me additional kind of bonus compensation for those type of things.

(50:44):
But I've also never expected or wanted or asked for it. Sure,
it's always been a fine line. Do you watch South
Park or you south Park Guy at all?

Speaker 4 (50:51):
I'm not grown up, but I used to.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah, okay, so I am not a grown up and
I am a South Park guy. So there's a great
episode where Jimmy and Cartman co write a joke about
fish sticks, and it's actually Jimmy who writes the whole joke.
Carton was just there and he kind of tries to
take it. He starts talking about it as, oh, yeah,

(51:15):
this joke we wrote and our joke and our joke
is getting used by this and one of the friends
of the kids because Jimmy's like, well, actually, Krman didn't
really write any of the joke per se and one
of their friends that just give him half. Oh wow,
I could not agree more with that kid. Just give
him half because the bullshit that people undergo trying to

(51:38):
split hairs over PERCP. To me, if I write a
song and somebody else is there, I'm going to split
it with them because it's not worth the bullshit that ensues.
Would just go, this wouldn't exist without the circumstances, all
of the circumstances involved, and so I'm going to respect
and acknowledge them all.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
Well, I mean that makes sense because you kind of
grew up and around hip hop music. And if you
watch the Grammys or whatever, if a hip hop song
wins a Grammy, there's forty seven people that are credited
as songs.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Yeah, that's true. Most of them weren't even in the room.
I'll tell you. Yeah, that's that's unfortunately true. That's true
of most genres these days. Listen. Not to get too
crotchety about it, but there are a lot of label heads,
people on the business side who just have it in
their contract that they take a percentage of the writing
and the publishing also just so that they can have

(52:28):
additional sneaky revenue streams. And there are a lot of
songs and pieces of music that are written entirely by
a separate out of the industry entity brought in and
then everybody just goes to town and takes all their
percentage up and they're left with, you know, less than
ten percent of something that they actually created one hundred
percent of. So that happens more often than seventeen people

(52:53):
in a room collaborating together. You know, with hip hop,
a lot of the be like somebody will make the beat,
somebody will get the beat and bring it in the studio,
somebody else might add something to it. There's three or
four people who write verses for it, so it starts
to accumulate in a legit way. But then there's always
the president of the label or whoever who is also
taking a percentage and their name is on it too,

(53:15):
but I guarantee they had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
Yeah, that happens in Hollywood too. I guess sure there'll
be people who are executive producers and the people who
wrote or directed or started it or like I don't
even know who that person is. I've never met them.
I don't I don't know who. Absolutely happens all the time.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
There are ways to justify it and rationalize it, you know.
In that case, an executive producer in a film and
television project is typically responsible for funding or finding the funding.
So technically, yeah, that person. You wouldn't necessarily have a
project if not for that person's involvement. So I can
understand that as a label from a label head's point
of view. Also, they go, well, hey, we're going to

(53:53):
be releasing, marketing, you know, distributing all that kind of stuff.
But they're already getting paid for that.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
I mean, like to go back and quote John Hamm
from Madman, that's what the money's for. You are already
being paid for that.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
That's what the money's for. Yes, she was a little
thanking because that's what my money's for.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
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Speaker 5 (56:21):
Let's get back into.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
It, Keaton, We're up against it here, so I'm going
to ask you something right now, and if you say no,
I'll cut it out. But sure, dude, we didn't get
to even half of the stuff I wanted to talk about.
Can you come back at some point?

Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yes? Please? I love that. Yeah, there's too much to
talk about. Plus you and I feel could go all day.
So let's yes, let's do it. Let's do it. Continuation.

Speaker 4 (56:44):
I really feel like we could tell me about the
naturalchild dot org.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Ooh, the natural Child dot org is one of my
favorite things in the world. Jan Hunt wrote a great
book called The Natural Child, and it is a it's
an alternative, you know, ideology for child raising in child development.
You know, I think it's one of the most important things,
if not the most important thing in the world, because
you're literally educating people and teaching peace and understanding and

(57:12):
communication and patience and collaboration and so on. It's overth
from the very beginning. I feel like every parent would
benefit from checking it out. And I got to read
the audio for a couple of the books. I'm a
big supporter of that. I'm always trying to figure out
which charitable organizations and institutions to become involved with and

(57:34):
aligned with, and to me, something that has to do
with child development and anti child abuse and so on
is just about the best thing that anybody can do.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
My wife is a Master's prepared psychiatric nurse and has
been for quite some time, and she specializes in children's
behavioral health and children's circumstances and dealing with the things
that happen to kids and all that stuff. So I
wanted to make sure and bring that up. Everybody, go
check out the Natural Child. I'm sure there's a place
where you can donate and help out that organization. Oh yeah, you,

(58:07):
my friend Keaton Simons are the lead guitar player for
the Brett Young Band, and you guys are about to
embark on some crazy, crazy, wild wild tours. This episode
is not going to come out until May So for
all of May, Keaton and I guess Brett are going

(58:28):
to be in Australia touring all over the place in Australia,
and then they're gonna, I guess, take a little break,
and then in October they're going to Scandinavia. They're going
to be all over Norway, all over Sweden, all over Denmark.
And I want to say that last year you guys
went to Scandinavia as well, Like you guys go there

(58:49):
a lot. What's going on, man?

Speaker 1 (58:51):
The cool thing is country music. Modern country music is
starting to have more of a global presence, which is
very cool. It was kind of just an America and
thing for a long time.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Which is why Ed Sharance moving to Nashville from Irish
Ireland exactly.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
So it's starting to have more of a global presence
and success and fan base worldwide. Fantastic. We Brett in
particular is a favorite. He is one of the top
country artists in the global market, especially in Europe, especially
in the UK and Scandinavia. They love us, We love
them so every year for the last couple of years

(59:29):
we've been touring over there and it's amazing watching it
grow and grow and grow, having to add shows, move
into bigger venues, more fans, and man the European audiences,
they love music, they love live music, they love artistry,
they love creativity, like personality. They don't like a bunch
of shit that all sounds the same. They like real stuff,

(59:51):
and I love and respect them for it. It's always
been something that I've loved going to Europe and sharing
music over there. So working with Brett and having this
crescendo of success over there is great. And then Australia
is another one I've never been personally. Brett went with
a smaller ensemble and earlier incarnation of his live band
to Australia years ago, but it's been years. It was

(01:00:14):
like twenty sixteen or something, so now here we are
almost ten years later and we're going back. And cool
thing is I've been friends with Brett Ford just under
twenty years, only started playing with him about six years ago,
but I've always been a supporter, always been a fan,
and always been a friend, and I think he is
an amazing songwriter. One of the benchmarks to me of

(01:00:37):
an amazing song is that it can be performed or
recorded in any genre and there is an artist named Maulee,
who's a Hawaiian artist whose two biggest songs are in
Case You Didn't Know and Mercy, two of Brett's number
one hits done in Island reggae style, and they're hugely
popular and hugely successful all over the South Pacific and

(01:00:57):
in Australia and in New Zealand. It's almost all. We
got a whole other artist over there gaining fans for us,
so when we go over there, it's great. We had
to do the same thing, ad shows, increase venue sizes,
all that kind of stuff. So I cannot wait. I'm excited,
and I just got back from Guam, so I'm tired.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
I need you to tell me what you were doing
in Guam.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
We went to glam for MWR, which is morale, welfare
and recreation that the US Navy does. It's kind of
like the USO, but they have separate organizations for different
things to bring artists and people over to entertain and
kind of raise the spirits of the troops over there.
We were over there on the military basis and aircraft

(01:01:40):
carriers and stuff, just jumping in on a very cool project.
Company DEGGI. My friend Ari Nisman, a creator called Shock
and Awesome where we jump in and pop up in
various places. There was one time where they told the
troops that they were going to do a random drug
test and it was just us instead, and it all

(01:02:01):
culminates to like a live performance on a stage with it,
and we were expecting like five hundred people and there
were thirty three hundred people that showed up, so it
was a really great experience.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Wow, that's okay, Cash, Well, thank you for your service
to the people who give us their service. That's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
It's such an honor to be part of that. Like,
no matter what else you think or believe or what
your rest of your life story is, being there first hand,
one on one with them and their families over there
and being a part of raising spirits and bringing some
love and happiness over there is really really feels like
an honor to me.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
I love that it is an honor and I'm glad
you feel that way. So, everybody who's looking to go
check out Brett Young on tour in Australia or Scandinavia,
do I assume correctly that it is Brett Young dot
com or is.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
There some other where would they go brettyoungmusic dot Com.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
Brett Young Me, okay, great, Keat And tell everybody where
they can find you on social media, Yeah, because you
also do solo stuff. You don't just do music with
Brett Young. You also do your own stuff and you
do it all over the place, and I think the
best way to find out where is through social media.
So tell everybody where they can find you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Yeah. The best place for me these days is Instagram.
And my Instagram handle is just at Keaton Simons. I
got in early before any underscores or anything like that
were necessary, so it's just my name at Keaton Simons
and I'm on the other ones. But like my Facebook
got hacked, so it's not me on there anymore. Obviously,

(01:03:28):
I don't use Twitter anymore or whatever the hell it's
called now. TikTok's never been a thing for me, So
to me, Instagram is great because usually it's me reposting
stuff or just you know, watching reels like flipping channels
like we used to do with flipping channels on TV.
But if there's ever any information that is relevant or important,

(01:03:48):
I promise I will post it on my Instagram page.
Love it, and so you'll be able to know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
If you check it out, you'll see it fantastic. Keyton Simons,
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for taking the
time out of your busy day and your world traveling
music making schedule to hang out and let us get
to know you a little bit better on Fascination Street.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
It's a pleasure, bro, and I'm looking forward to doing
it again. Let's let's continue.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
Well, we one hundred percent will do it again. I
will keep in touch with you, dude, I'm sure I
won't talk to you again before you go on tour, man,
have a blast in Australia, and watch out for drop bears.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Dude, I don't even want to know what that is,
because it's like everything in Australia is trying to kill you.
Drop bears. Was that just a bear of the drops.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
Out of the sky and falls eat your face? Okay,
so so drop bears. It's how the locals fuck with tourists.
They go, oh, watch out for drop bears. And what
they mean is that koalas oh, who like seventy percent
of them have chlamydia, So they say koala bears will
just drop out of the trees onto you. That doesn't happen,
so they're just working with you. Watch out for drop bears.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
I'll watch out for the drop bears. So we have
an Australian in the band. I've got an insider. He'll
keep me safe.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
Nice. I hope he doesn't say crikey, not even once.
If he says criiky, then you better run.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Oh yes, If I hear craiky, I'm out all right.

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
Thank you so much. You have a great timent, have
a great tour. I will pleasure, thank you absolutely, my
pleasure to take it easy. Bye. Opening music is the
song fsp theme, written, performed and provided by Ambush Vin.

(01:05:36):
Closing music is from the song say My Name off
the twenty twenty one album Underdog Anthems, used with permission
from Jack's Hollow. If you like the show, tell a friend,
subscribe and rate and review the show on iTunes and
wherever else you download podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to

(01:05:59):
my YouTube channel. All the episodes are available there as well.
Check me out on the video at Fascination Street Pod
and TikTok at Fascination Street Pod. And again, thanks for listening.