November 29, 2022 • 39 mins
The road can be hard but it can also have some cool benefits. In this episode, Matt and I talk about how our road travels brought us amazing dates in New York and Las Vegas. Listen in for how a bad gig can lead to a cool experience!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown. And we are another installment in a
new series that my husband and podcast producer Matt and
I have been doing, road Stories. We've been telling y'all
a little bit about what our life was like in
the before times, when we were people who were on
(00:54):
the road all the time. So shout out to those
of you who are listening who know road life, whether
you are a person who travels for work or you
may be an artist that traveled like we did. So
we wanted to share with y'all a couple of perks
I would say that we've received from traveling on the road. So, hey, babe,
done some good times. Yeah, we got some good stories
(01:15):
to tell, Okay. So the first one that came to
my mind was we got booked in Vegas one year
to do a college gig. And college gigs, I was
about to say that it's one of my favorite gigs,
and then I thought to myself, is that true. It's
(01:39):
funny because people do ask me like, have you ever
DJ in Vegas? And I'd be like, well, like when
you think DJ in Vegas, you think and it's you know,
big room with pyrotechnics, and I've done that before, just
not in vague That's true. That's true. And college gigs
are kind of interesting because I done I've done two
(02:02):
types of college gig. I've done college gigs that were
related in some way to Christian colleges or organizations that
we're doing events for Christians who were in college or
college age. And then I have done your mainstream college
institutions that weren't faith based in that way. And there
(02:24):
are parts of it that I do really love. I
love college students as a crowd. I love talking to them.
Of all of the developmental stages from elementary school up
through college, college is my favorite of those. So I
do love it. But I will tell you there's always
a little something interesting about a college gig. Always. Yeah,
(02:49):
there's always something like when I did college gigs, and
actually Matt and I, right before we got married, did
a couple of my last like what I would say
is like mainstream college gigs together. When we went to Broward,
Florida area before we got married, we did some of
those gigs together, which still, for the reasons I said,
were a lot of fun. But when you're doing just
(03:11):
mainstream schools that are not in any way Christian related.
What tends to be tricky about those is those college
gigs and a lot of ways tend to be very
flat rate based, which I think we talked a little
bit about this, in the sense that they will say
here in as a flat rate, we're gonna pay you
to come to our school because we don't want to
(03:31):
deal with reimbursements afterwards. We don't want to be responsible
for booking flights or hotels. So you would really want
your college agent to think very hard about it before
they tell the rate to the school, because there could
be times that you thought you were gonna get paid
this much, and by the time you subtract yourself getting
(03:52):
there and where you're gonna stay, and what you're gonna eat,
you're like, oh, this isn't as much money. You learned
some hard lessons that way, definitely. Yeah. So I remember
when we had that gig in South Florida, one of
those last like sort of mainstream college gigs. I remember
that we drove down there and that was like a
(04:12):
nine hour drive. Why would you ever do a nine
hour drive to a gig because you can't afford to
pay to fly down there, and that's that's a hard part.
Nothing leaves you fresh to hit the stage like a
nine hour drive, big yikes. And then on the side
(04:33):
of our experiences in either Christian colleges or events that
were supposed to be for Christians that went to college,
that part was where a lot of checks just ended
up in a weird place. I feel like those college gigs,
there'd be somebody that was like over the chapel that
books you for this, and you know, everything went great.
(04:55):
You know, during chapel sometimes Matt and I would perform
together because we had our show we were doing together
that we talked about last episode. We performed together and
everything would go great. Students loved it, especially when you're
doing chapel at a Christian school. They're used to mostly
people who were coming there to drone on and on
or preach to them. They're just sleeping or the most
(05:16):
regular comment I remember from you doing chapels was wow,
way more people stayed awake than usually do. Like that
was like a big compliment, like what are y'all doing here?
That that's the compliment you're giving us. So everything would
go super great, and sometimes they would take us out
to lunch afterwards, or sometimes we'd have lunch with students,
(05:38):
which is like one of my favorite things to do.
But either way, there's that moment where you're walking away,
you know, if Matt had DJ, he's wheeling his equipment
out to the car. We're you know, packed up all
the merge, grabbing all the merge to leave, and there's
that moment where you're like, hey, um, there's there's there's
a lot of savvy ways and artists is trying to
find out how you're about to get paid. My favorite
(06:01):
one of choice was, hey, is there anything else you
need from us? Any other paperwork or anything like that,
because that would typically trigger their minds to be like,
oh no, no, We've got all the paperwork we need
from you. And then sometimes their minds would go, oh yeah, no,
and your check, I'm sure, my assistant senate, I'm sure.
I always like to ask, I go straightforward, So am
(06:22):
I picking up a check from you? Or is one
being mailed? And I want, like, I want y'all to
know a full disclosure that, for the most part, both
of our contracts do not do not uh not support,
but do not suggest that mailing is what you should do.
Both of our contracts suggest that if you're gonna mail
(06:45):
a check, you should mail it in advance, that I
have traveled to you and you have paid already. And
some people they gotta pay us as soon as we
get before we hit that stage taking us out for
a few nice lunches and at dessert time, let's know,
(07:07):
I bet my assistant mailed it. Or the most common
college one is see our school just started using a
new financing program. Was new, they would say, our school
just started using a new accounting system, new accounting. Really,
everything's really and disarract We just got a new accounting system.
(07:30):
And last time we were at your school, you just
got a new accounting system in the time. It ain't
that many new account in new accounting systems in the world.
I don't care use a spreadsheet. How many give a check.
So I'm going to tell y'all that college gigs on,
you know, the Christian industry side, we're very squirrely regarding
how you may or may not receive payment. And then
(07:51):
whenever someone said I bet my assistant sent it, narrator,
they did not. The assistant did not narrator. We are
going home and now having to chase down said check,
and it's always the check that you really needed, like
you were like, oh, this check is coming, and rent, mortgage,
(08:14):
whatever is coming, and it's a race to see who's
going to get here first. Yikes. It was always when
you really needed that money that it never came. But
the other times, you know, when you live road life,
you do sometimes have a time, especially when you're on
the road a lot, you know, in typically for us,
that busy time was that first quarter into second quarter
was like real busy, and then we might have a
(08:35):
couple of months in the fall. Obviously sometimes Black History
Month would be a very busy time for me. You know,
you'd have those vibes. So sometimes you would be on
the road long enough that you're just you're on the
road just depositing checks as you get them, so you
really are having something of a surplus until you get
home and then you have you know, time that you're
gonna be home and not get as many checks. Right,
(08:57):
So we experienced that part. But typic Cle when that
was happening was not when you needed that money and
those checks came just fine. It was the moment where
you really needed that money when they looked at you
and said, oh, man, isn't that the best pie in
this whole city? WHOA, I love that pie? They ordered dessert.
You know that check a coming. Yikes, they'll be like,
(09:19):
oh listen, right while you're eating that delicious apple pie.
They'd be like, oh, listen, it turns out we thought
we were gonna have to check for you today. For
our new accounting system, we have to fill out more forms.
And you know, it really for us just sounds like
wan want want, wamp wamp. You're about to be broke,
That's what it sounds like. What's funny is when they've
got the check. That's when they give you the firm handshake.
Here's your pamphlet or your packet that's got everything in it.
(09:42):
See you later, Go feed yourself. You you're bringing up
a good point. But when they're taking you out and oh,
you're gonna love this restaurant, that's the first red flag
and oh they've got the best. If they insert the
name of pie or cake, that means that they're gonna
feed you, gets you real full and then be like, hey,
(10:03):
and I would like to give bring back something that
we talked about in a previous episode, shout out to
the time of the merch table, okay, because these moments
you had some cash in hand, so that way you
could eat something on the way home or when you
got home, if you needed to hit that grocery store
or whatever it is. There was some ways that you
(10:24):
could make it work. So you know what, Thank God
for the merch table. Okay, Shout out to that that's
true about the merch table, especially because we would have
runs of events that we would have happened sometimes where
we would do like a bunch of colleges in the southeast,
for example, So we might go on a run for
almost two weeks that we weren't home, but we were
(10:46):
driving two different gigs and stuff. And so if you
hit that one gig where you were like, we thought
we were going to get a check there and we didn't.
But maybe we sold five hundred dollars of merch. That
five dollars is gas in the gas tank of yo car,
or Heaven help you if that's a rental car. Bless
your heart. You know that's cash for you to eat
food in between. So shout out to the people who
(11:08):
buy merch at artist events because you're helping for when
the venues don't pay. So this first perk that we're
talking to you all about in Vegas was a college gig,
was a Christian college gig, which I remember. The event
itself was actually a good time. I just remember leading
up to the event. The event itself was on February,
(11:30):
and right as we were getting ready to book our
flights and stuff, they were like, Hey, we really need
to have a meeting with y'all so we can just
go over the event logistics. You know, is it possible
for y'all to fly in on the fourteen and there
are some holidays or if it falls on my birthday
or Matt's birthday, that like, if they want us to
(11:51):
fly in, I'm like, nah, because we don't want to
spend our birthday or our anniversary or something in some
town in middle of no place, no but Vegas on
Valentine's Day. Okay, okay, And we didn't even know like
what our plans were gonna be or anything, but were
you know, Valentine's Day is important to us as a couple.
(12:14):
Neither of us are people who, for the most part,
are very big on posting a lot about Valentine's Day.
I tend to feel our anniversary is more of my
time that I might want to share on socials. But
Valentine's Day is still very important to both of us,
even though our anniversary is when I post a picture
of us, which very interestingly is when I get the
(12:37):
most likes. So I just really might switch my account
over just to be his pictures of Amina, which I understand.
And then um, my birthday, I would say, our birthdays
we post about each other. I'll say on my birthday,
that's the one time of year I log in the Facebook, boy,
because then your mom and dad and their friends and
(12:57):
people from way back then they also happen birth He's
just getting a little life. Also, I noticed this last
time because I haven't been on Facebook in a long time.
You can only like so many comments for me posts,
and one day I remember how many. But Facebook pop
dump said you've reached your limit. I said, well, we
have reached our limit. Loll back out of Facebook. I
(13:20):
reached my limit in more ways than one with you, Facebook,
and I'm mad big facts. You know. So we love,
we love a good Valentine's Day, But I was like,
Valentine's Day in Vegas could be kind of interesting. Sure,
we'll come in early. So we booked our flights, flew
in that morning. Oh my gosh, this just occurred to me.
(13:42):
Another amazing Valentine's Day story. But I'm gonna come back
to it. I'm okay. So we fly in, go in
for the meeting, and I'm not really sure what to
expect of the meeting because it really depends how produced
the event is, how intense that meeting is going to be.
Sometimes they're saying come in early because is they want
Matt to go ahead and load in his equipment, They
(14:02):
want us to sound check, they want us to rehearse.
This could be anywhere from a ten minute meeting to
taking like an hour or two, depending on what the
situation is. So we don't know. I always think the
intro meetings are kind of funny, like when it comes
to me, typically it's going to be okay, before anything starts,
we're going to need some music that's you. And what's
(14:25):
funny is in some spaces most most of the time
i'd say, you know, the Christian spaces, they'd be like,
so we're gonna have you up there for like fifteen minutes.
Is that going to be okay? I'm like, yeah, like
I do four hour sets on the regular, fifteen minutes.
I bet I can come up with fifteen minutes for
your crowd. Okay, So it says that's usually way is
(14:46):
here is the place where nothing's happening. That's you man,
got it. It's like in there. That's how you know
that a lot of folks who are at these types
of like especially these types of white evangelic events, are
not people who party, because that's the only way they
can think that a DJ works in a space is
(15:07):
they're like, Okay, we're gonna have fifteen minutes of worship
music that are just gonna play in the house, and
they we're gonna abruptly cut off that music, and that's you.
That's fifteen minutes. And then you're gonna abruptly stop playing.
We're gonna abruptly turn off your volume so that somebody
can come and play guitar, which is totally gonna take
all of the energy out of the room. It's like
(15:29):
it's like they're like, all right, we want people on ten.
So it's like, I got you, give me two turntables
and a microphone and a crowd. I'm gonna have y'all chanting, clapping,
let's go and I'll do it. And sometimes there's like
pre uh, some like production going on. They're like, all right,
we want you to count backwards, count them all down,
get them all just so we'll be like three two one,
(15:52):
and then some guitar comes in. It's so en cyclimactic, y'all,
Whereas like, now, what Matt's DJ stuffs are like, it's
like he's d jaying out a place where people actually
came there to party, So fifteen minutes is like no time.
You know, he's deejaying there for four hours, taking people
(16:13):
on this whole journey. So that would always make us
laugh when they would be like it's fifteen minutes going
to be okay, and he's looking at them like, what
do you mean fifteen minutes? So, like the pre meeting
is usually just a bunch of me going yeah, yeah,
that sounds good, that sounds good. I got you sure, yep.
So we go to the meeting and I really don't
remember what we talked about at the meeting for this event.
I just remember that it was over very quickly. It
(16:35):
was like a twenty minute meeting, and we were both like,
so there's nothing else y'all need from us. They didn't
want us to load in or anything until the next day.
So we were like okay, and they were like, yeah,
just go like enjoy the day or whatever. So Matt
and I looked at each other like what we were like,
let's hurry up and leave before they think about something
else that you So we left, and I think we
(16:57):
weren't staying at what would be like your traditional Vegas hotel.
I think they had a staying in kind of like
a place where it was more like condo like, and
so wherever we were staying, they had a little like
program or something where they sometimes had discounted tickets two shows.
So we get back to the hotel and we're like, man,
(17:19):
we're in Vegas. What should we do. So we like
look through the packet from whatever this condo place was
and find a little thing in there that was like, oh,
you can, you know, call this number and go this
website whatever it was, and you could get discounted tickets
to see the Beatles Love And I was like, oh,
that would be so perfect, you know. And I think
we had packed some like clothes because at this point
(17:42):
of both of our careers as far as us doing
college and high school events. We were wearing track suits
and sneaks. You know, this is this is not a
dressed up environment. But I think we had both packed
something just in case we decided to like go out
to dinner or whatever. And we were like, oh my gosh,
I cannot believe we're about to go see the Beatles
(18:05):
Love doing the Beatles Love for a discount. Y'all like wow.
So we went and it was one of my favorite things. Beautiful.
It was absolutely stunning, like the amount of audio that
they had of like the guys in the studio talking
(18:26):
through things and stuff. And you know, I just recently
watched through the Beatles documentary that's had on Apple Plus
back in December. I had COVID and had to quarantine
off from you, so I had nothing but time and
watched the longest documentary, and it took my brain back
(18:47):
to us sitting there watching and listening, and then of course,
at the same time that you're hearing these guys talk
about this music they're gonna make or these to us
never been heard before clips, and then you're also seeing
performers pull off the most amazing things and the most
beautiful lights and you're like, how did we get here? Man?
(19:30):
H that was amazing. I think I ate a steak
that night. Also, Oh, I forgot about that though, because
we went to Like I wish I could remember which
restaurant we went to, but I remember you had steak,
and I remember I had Chilean sea bass. And there
are a few dishes in the world that, for some reason,
when you eat that, you're like, and now I'm a
rich person, and Chilean sea bass for me, I think
(19:52):
it's a Chilean part. Yeah, it's like and now like
I'm wealthy, Like it was like Forest Park sea bass
be like yike, or if it was like Lake Sea bass,
then automatically now you're like, yikes no, but Chilean sea
bass you're like, oh, yes, here I am. I there
other types of um. I feel like yes, because I
feel like bass pro Shops is telling me that there
(20:16):
must be a lot of more like generalized bass. It's
out there, and really, truthfully, Chilean sea bass could be
also very generalized. But because we don't live in Chile,
it sounds like we having something. Because maybe people from
another place would be like Forest Park Sea beast. They
might like I think that's a vibe either way. It
(20:38):
came in parchment, y'all. Um, Wow, I was rich for
twenty minutes. Remember the candy shop we went to. Oh
that's right. It was like a fill up your own
bag of candy. Please when I tell you we went
in there with no concept of how much was too much?
You don't want to see two people like us in
there while And because it had the way the little
(21:01):
things were made, it was like you put a bag
up to it and then it had a lever where
it just starts candy and ten year olds in that thing,
just like please, I'm pretty sure. We got back to
the room and I was like, it was like I
just lost myself for a minute in the candy store
because we go back to the room and I was like,
why did I pick this candy? Like for what? I
never eat this? What was I doing? Very little life,
(21:23):
very exciting time. So that Vegas. That was us in
Vegas having an extra almost twenty four hours before we
had to go work the event the next day. That
was an amazing perk, fantastic. I also would like to
bring into the chat our anniversary because we have been
people that because we were on the road a lot,
(21:45):
and I think where we were financially at that time too,
we couldn't really afford to take a separate vacation. We
couldn't afford for many years to travel and say here
in we're just gonna take trip for personal reasons. We
couldn't afford to do that. So we were always looking
for how we can get a gig, either near the
(22:09):
place where we wanted to go, or sometimes it was
the opposite way. A gig came in close to our
anniversary and we were like, can we make that word?
Can we figure it out? So a gig came in
in Florida and it was very close to our anniversary.
I want to say it was maybe like two days
before or something, and we were like, oh, do we
(22:29):
want to take this gig? And then we were like yeah,
because there are definitely some gigs that we said yes
to because it was near an anniversary, a birthday of
Valentine's We're like, oh, we could go to somewhere we
could not have otherwise gone to at that time. For sure, Yeah,
because at least it's like if you're there for a gig,
the gig is helping pay for you to travel there
(22:51):
the gig is helping pay for a part of your
lodging or whatever. While you're there, might be a dim
might be some perdium, might be the table or something
to help you get gas to get wherever. And then
sometimes you would have this huge, wonderful moment where you
would actually get a check, bless your heart, before you
(23:12):
left the gigs, so then you could put that check
in the bag and then have money to add to
your personal account. Right. But sometimes they didn't go like that.
I thought you was gonna get that check, and then
you didn't, and now you're like, well, we're out here,
now we've got to figure it out. Sometimes I would
try to psych our bank account and be like, I
don't even want this check as a way of trying
(23:33):
to will them into paying us on time. But man,
I don't even need to care about the little check.
I ain't even looking for that check. But I'm very
much looking for that check. But when that check didn't
come up, like I was looking for, sad. So we
had a gig it was. There were a few things
about the gig that we took right there near our anniversary.
That number one I'm pretty sure we never did again.
(23:55):
And that we had concerns about, but we were like,
we accept this because we're trying to see what we
can make happen here. This was a youth event, and
this was this was towards the end of our time
doing youth events, because I think we both got to
a point where we were like here and we are
people who we don't want to be doing youth events anymore.
(24:17):
We're we're not we're not built for that life anymore.
So this was a youth event. I also want to
bring into our conversation today that this youth event was
a lock in. Oh man, what we're big? Yikes. And
for those of you who grew up in church settings,
I really don't know any other setting outside of church
(24:37):
where students were doing lock ins, do you? M M.
I can't think of any other organization. It's like, here's
what we want you to do. Let your kids come
and drink mountain dew all night. An your child who
you struggle to entertain, please drop a bunch of them
(25:00):
off with me and let me entertain them all night.
What's the worst that could happen? Yikes? And I want
to particularly speak to this because when Matt I got married,
Matt was a youth pastor at a church where they
were doing an annual locking. It was my fault. That
was my fault. I'm the one who brought that back
(25:21):
the people. The dude who was there previous to me,
He's like, what are you doing? And I was like,
I don't know. The pastor like what are you doing?
And I was like, but it was It was fun.
It was fun. And also because I am an extrovert
and I'm cool with being around people seven and my
goal has always been just to stay a little more
(25:41):
random than the middle school age kids, and so that
kind of kept me ahead of the wave. And so
I was like, all right, so if we're gonna be
running all night, I want you to be trying to
catch up with me. Let's go. The wild thing is
it would never fail that the next morning, after I've
been up for twenty four hours with your kid, somebody
(26:03):
was going to text me be like, hey, can you
bring my child home? So not only are you asking
me to hang out, well, I guess I asked for.
I did ask for. I'll take that part. But you
were like, I think it's a good idea. Let's drop
my kid off with this dude over here and a
whole bunch of kids. What's the worst go wrong? But
then be like, you haven't had any sleep? The best?
(26:25):
Would you drive my kid home? Like like, once, I
remember we were dating through one of those lock ins
and when you shared that would be I was like,
say what. But then once we got married, and it's
like we now are in the living in the same household,
and I'm watching in general how much you're giving to
(26:47):
the kids and everything. And now I'm like, I'm checking
in with you, like throughout the night and whatever to
see how the lock in is going. And now I'm
just hearing how exhausted you are. And now you don't
got the whole church straightened back up, done, got everybody out,
except now there's three two or three students just lingering
here and you are either texting calling the kids texting
(27:12):
calling trying to find out this that where their parent
is finally here from them after you waited an extra
hour to be like, oh, I'm sorry about that, my
phone died. Can you just go ahead and drop some
and so off? And I'm like, so you want my
exhausted husband have been even with your kid all night? Okay?
So I just want to give you all. That's the
idea of a little bit of how a lock in goes.
(27:34):
I grew up in church with lock ins too, But
Matt always laughs because our our youth staff was not
playing you just gonna go to sleep, You're not gonna
be They really were afraid of us having sex in
the building, to be honest, and so at a certain
point they just separated everybody and they were like the
boys over here, the girls over here, and they basically
(27:58):
had two or three very earn moms pacing the whole
lock in like you're gonna go to sleep, you've been
you know. So that was my lock in experience. So
why two people who knew how a lock in could
be agreed to be the talent to perform at said
lock in is is literally because we wanted to be
(28:19):
able to afford a little anniversary trip. So y'all, we
went to this gig and we were the performance before
the kids. Because part of a lock in is like
there's a certain amount of time that the kids just
get to go and just do whatever the activities are.
They get to go play basketball, play board games, just
(28:39):
hang out. So we were the thing they had to
sit through before they got to go have fun. The
way they had the room set up, I remember it
was standing room only. I don't recommend that for when
Matt and I are performing together, and I definitely don't
recommend it when I'm performing alone. Had they just invited
Matt to deed, Matt got that you can. You can
(29:02):
do standing room but spoken word and BJ, I feel
strange DJ. And when people are just sitting down, if
it's just me, if if we're like taking them through
a program performance, that's all right, but it's just me,
I'm like, no, yikes. So these kids are in suburban wherever, Florida.
(29:23):
They are staring at us like we are green from
another planet, like and we are literally the color green,
and we are not from Earth. We are from some
other planet that they don't know about. These students arms
are crossed. There's literally either a scowl or there's like
(29:47):
I just don't understand what I'm looking at. That was
our audience for forty five minutes. For forty five minutes, y'all.
And then after we get off stage after just trying
to perform our guts out to a crowd of people
who did not want to hear it. The church people
had the nerve to be like, y'all are welcome to
(30:09):
stay and hang out. Huh. Um see, we got to
get back our manager has us going to uh We
were like, oh no, first first of all, First of all, um,
we want to stay hang out at a youth lock it? No, okay, exactly,
(30:31):
don't make me. Don't rope me into this. I don't
want to do this. Can you hand me the check
and then I'll give you the answer, because we try
to get that check for real, for real. So we
had booked in advance a like beach condo. I remember
it was like literally right on the beach. We could
like walk downstairs out of our little condo. Um. So
(30:53):
this was the only reason we endured this entire thing,
so we could leave that youth event. I think we
stayed in whatever the hotel was, um that they had
booked for the night, and then we drove to our
little beach condo and we had a few days on
the beach and we got to see the Dolly Museum.
And there are a very small number of art museums
(31:13):
that are dedicated to one artist, and so the Dollar
Museum is one of that small number. And to get
to see Dolly's work in person. That was worth it.
It was worth it, I think, if I remember correctly,
I had just gotten this monkey tattoo on my arm.
Oh my gosh, and I it jogged my memory. We
(31:34):
are talking about us going to the beach, because I
remember I had it wrapped and I had to like
get some sort of like I think we had gone
to a grocery store and I got one of those
plastic bags and I just wrapped around it and I
had to try to hold my I had to try
to hold my arm above my head because I'm going
to get in the ocean. But so anyways, never get
a tattoo right before going to do a lock in,
(31:57):
right before going to the beach. However, the Ali Museum
worth worth it, totally worth it. And y'all, my husband
loves the beach, Okay, I have. I have been to
the beach way more times than I would have if
we were not together. So when we could on our anniversary,
I like to see if we can go to a
place where there's a beach because I know he loves it.
So it was hilarious seeing you, like, I don't care,
(32:18):
I got this tattoo I'm getting in the ocean, even
if I have to hold my arm all the way up. Bonus.
At the Dolly Museum, they were having an mc es exhibit. Yes,
it's a fantastic visual arts one of my favorite artists.
Not even realizing you grow up by a sketch pad.
It had a picture of one of mc escher's works,
(32:41):
probably on the front of the sketch pad, and you're like,
oh my gosh, this is that artist, and you're starting
to see more of their work and how he didn't
you know? And you're like, I still to this day
have a T shirt I got from that trip. It's
one of my favorite prize possession T shirts that I owned. Yeah,
and we have a print to y'all, like, this is
probably going to help us because we would get like
(33:03):
prints and different things from places and just never like
get them frame to put them on. You got to
get that had been a decade ago, very nice piece
that we still haven't put up in the house. So
let's work on that. Um. Okay. One last perk that
is very relevant because we are still in a pandemic
(33:24):
currently is I got booked to host a podcast, to
host a limited podcast series and I had to go
to New York to record When did I have to go?
Y'all February of so many things that I did not
know at all. We're about to happen in life. And
(33:45):
Matt wasn't supposed to come with me. The organization or
the company that had asked me to do it, they
had money for me to fly there. They had a
certain rate they were going to pay me, and to
Matt and I were like looking at our budget and
we were like, I think we need to splur it
and you should come with me. And the hotel was
very nice where we were staying. Yes, you can see
(34:06):
the Statue of Liberty across the water like from the room, like,
oh wow, that was a nice view. It was amazing.
So we decided, I think I had to be there
two days. So they were providing two nights, and then
we decided to pay for ourselves to stay in additional
two or three nights. Because remember they put us in
a room, and then like we could in the room
(34:26):
and they put us in so we had to like
get our stuff and move into another room. It's right
to move it to us, all bless our hearts, we do.
We could with our with our resources at the time. Look,
so one of the things normally, I first of all, y'all,
I'm a big New York person. It is one of
my favorite cities to visit. It is very much a
(34:47):
mojo city for me. I just always leave that city
with so much clarity. I've talked about that a lot
on the podcast already. So New York it's one of
those places like kind of like l A. It's like
there's like literally a thousand things that you could do
if you're there for two or three days. And I've
traveled there enough to know that it's better if you
have two or three days. It's almost better to pick
one thing that you're like, this is what we really
(35:09):
really have to make sure we do, or two things,
and that's it, because if you pick ten things five things,
you're going to totally overwhelm yourself. So my one thing
was I really wanted to go see a Broadway show
because I don't think you and I had been to
a Broadway show together. I had never been to a
Broadway show. That's the only one I've ever been to.
(35:29):
So yeah, so that was my one thing. And then
r I p for Century the Store because that was
always my second thing that I'm like, I want to
see a Broadway show. I want to shop at Century one.
It closed during the pandemic, so that was our last
time going in there to shop, and we would all
you always go in there, you'd always find something really unique.
(35:50):
We'll bring it back to Atlanta and where the people
will be like, what is the shirts? What shirt? Jeans?
What's this? You know I'll still get comments. My favorite
thing that would always happen every like a couple of
times we've been to New York together and we went
to Century is because it's so big, you would go
your way. I would go my way, and there's no
way to be like yo, this this, this, You're just
(36:12):
coming out with just arms full of clothing. And it
never failed that it would be something that I thought
was so fresh, and then you would see it on me.
You'd be like, oh, where'd you get that? And I
got it from Century twenty one. You're like, oh, okay,
and there's something that my wife always lets me know
(36:33):
that something may not have hit the mark, and she'll
be like, oh, I can kind of see where you
were headed with that. In other words, you have not
arrived at accept the location. What you gonna do with
this with this uh sweatshirt. Yeah, I'd be trying to
just you know, be affirming of the journey. You know,
(36:55):
I'll be trying to just give my husband some good
affirmations regarding the jury. Me. Maybe the journeys more important
than the destination. Well, maybe you're trying not to break
my spirit to please please. So our Broadway pick was
(37:16):
Tina on Broadway, which is the show about Tina Turner's life.
Adrian Warren was starring in it. When we went to
see it, oh, y'all, what an amazing show. And we
actually saw it after Adrian Warren had injured herself. She
was wearing boots like her I don't know if it's
(37:37):
her ankle, her foot. She had injured herself to where
she was wearing a boot and she still killed it,
killed it. It was so good that by the end
of the show, it's like they do their bow. They
did the found things, and they come back and did
an encore and everyone was up on their feet clapp
and singing along as if we were watching a Tina
Turner concert. It was incredible. And once we left there,
(38:03):
I think we had a few more gigs, both of us,
and then we did our last gig in Dallas, and
the flight home in March was when we were seeing
all of the like shutdown conversations happening. So we got
home promptly found out we both had COVID in March.
(38:26):
But during all of that time quarantine and especially like
all that time in general, what that was for so
many of us. I was so glad that we splurged
a little bit and stayed in New York a couple
of extra days and went to a show because it
took so long for Broadway shows to be able to
come back and for people to start going back to
(38:49):
travel to New York as far as like tourism and
stuff was concerned. So for us being people who love
to see performers on stage, that gave us a little
something to hold onto that we got a chance to
see that show and experience it. So shout out to that, babe,
that was a good time, good times, and uh shout
out to us going to get a frame for that. Okay, yes,
(39:11):
that thank you all for helping remind us to do that.
We're going to work on that and try to post
on our social media and our stories or something on
i G when we finally get that m C s
R piece up. Well, this has been great talking to
you all about road stories and more road stories to come.
See how soon. Her with Amina Brown is produced by
(39:44):
Matt Owen for solover Fee Productions as a part of
the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with I Heart Radio.
Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and
review the podcast.
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to a new episode of Her
with Amina Brown. And we are another installment in a
new series that my husband and podcast producer Matt and
I have been doing, road Stories. We've been telling y'all
a little bit about what our life was like in
the before times, when we were people who were on
(00:54):
the road all the time. So shout out to those
of you who are listening who know road life, whether
you are a person who travels for work or you
may be an artist that traveled like we did. So
we wanted to share with y'all a couple of perks
I would say that we've received from traveling on the road. So, hey, babe,
done some good times. Yeah, we got some good stories
(01:15):
to tell, Okay. So the first one that came to
my mind was we got booked in Vegas one year
to do a college gig. And college gigs, I was
about to say that it's one of my favorite gigs,
and then I thought to myself, is that true. It's
(01:39):
funny because people do ask me like, have you ever
DJ in Vegas? And I'd be like, well, like when
you think DJ in Vegas, you think and it's you know,
big room with pyrotechnics, and I've done that before, just
not in vague That's true. That's true. And college gigs
are kind of interesting because I done I've done two
(02:02):
types of college gig. I've done college gigs that were
related in some way to Christian colleges or organizations that
we're doing events for Christians who were in college or
college age. And then I have done your mainstream college
institutions that weren't faith based in that way. And there
(02:24):
are parts of it that I do really love. I
love college students as a crowd. I love talking to them.
Of all of the developmental stages from elementary school up
through college, college is my favorite of those. So I
do love it. But I will tell you there's always
a little something interesting about a college gig. Always. Yeah,
(02:49):
there's always something like when I did college gigs, and
actually Matt and I, right before we got married, did
a couple of my last like what I would say
is like mainstream college gigs together. When we went to Broward,
Florida area before we got married, we did some of
those gigs together, which still, for the reasons I said,
were a lot of fun. But when you're doing just
(03:11):
mainstream schools that are not in any way Christian related.
What tends to be tricky about those is those college
gigs and a lot of ways tend to be very
flat rate based, which I think we talked a little
bit about this, in the sense that they will say
here in as a flat rate, we're gonna pay you
to come to our school because we don't want to
(03:31):
deal with reimbursements afterwards. We don't want to be responsible
for booking flights or hotels. So you would really want
your college agent to think very hard about it before
they tell the rate to the school, because there could
be times that you thought you were gonna get paid
this much, and by the time you subtract yourself getting
(03:52):
there and where you're gonna stay, and what you're gonna eat,
you're like, oh, this isn't as much money. You learned
some hard lessons that way, definitely. Yeah. So I remember
when we had that gig in South Florida, one of
those last like sort of mainstream college gigs. I remember
that we drove down there and that was like a
(04:12):
nine hour drive. Why would you ever do a nine
hour drive to a gig because you can't afford to
pay to fly down there, and that's that's a hard part.
Nothing leaves you fresh to hit the stage like a
nine hour drive, big yikes. And then on the side
(04:33):
of our experiences in either Christian colleges or events that
were supposed to be for Christians that went to college,
that part was where a lot of checks just ended
up in a weird place. I feel like those college gigs,
there'd be somebody that was like over the chapel that
books you for this, and you know, everything went great.
(04:55):
You know, during chapel sometimes Matt and I would perform
together because we had our show we were doing together
that we talked about last episode. We performed together and
everything would go great. Students loved it, especially when you're
doing chapel at a Christian school. They're used to mostly
people who were coming there to drone on and on
or preach to them. They're just sleeping or the most
(05:16):
regular comment I remember from you doing chapels was wow,
way more people stayed awake than usually do. Like that
was like a big compliment, like what are y'all doing here?
That that's the compliment you're giving us. So everything would
go super great, and sometimes they would take us out
to lunch afterwards, or sometimes we'd have lunch with students,
(05:38):
which is like one of my favorite things to do.
But either way, there's that moment where you're walking away,
you know, if Matt had DJ, he's wheeling his equipment
out to the car. We're you know, packed up all
the merge, grabbing all the merge to leave, and there's
that moment where you're like, hey, um, there's there's there's
a lot of savvy ways and artists is trying to
find out how you're about to get paid. My favorite
(06:01):
one of choice was, hey, is there anything else you
need from us? Any other paperwork or anything like that,
because that would typically trigger their minds to be like,
oh no, no, We've got all the paperwork we need
from you. And then sometimes their minds would go, oh yeah, no,
and your check, I'm sure, my assistant senate, I'm sure.
I always like to ask, I go straightforward, So am
(06:22):
I picking up a check from you? Or is one
being mailed? And I want, like, I want y'all to
know a full disclosure that, for the most part, both
of our contracts do not do not uh not support,
but do not suggest that mailing is what you should do.
Both of our contracts suggest that if you're gonna mail
(06:45):
a check, you should mail it in advance, that I
have traveled to you and you have paid already. And
some people they gotta pay us as soon as we
get before we hit that stage taking us out for
a few nice lunches and at dessert time, let's know,
(07:07):
I bet my assistant mailed it. Or the most common
college one is see our school just started using a
new financing program. Was new, they would say, our school
just started using a new accounting system, new accounting. Really,
everything's really and disarract We just got a new accounting system.
(07:30):
And last time we were at your school, you just
got a new accounting system in the time. It ain't
that many new account in new accounting systems in the world.
I don't care use a spreadsheet. How many give a check.
So I'm going to tell y'all that college gigs on,
you know, the Christian industry side, we're very squirrely regarding
how you may or may not receive payment. And then
(07:51):
whenever someone said I bet my assistant sent it, narrator,
they did not. The assistant did not narrator. We are
going home and now having to chase down said check,
and it's always the check that you really needed, like
you were like, oh, this check is coming, and rent, mortgage,
(08:14):
whatever is coming, and it's a race to see who's
going to get here first. Yikes. It was always when
you really needed that money that it never came. But
the other times, you know, when you live road life,
you do sometimes have a time, especially when you're on
the road a lot, you know, in typically for us,
that busy time was that first quarter into second quarter
was like real busy, and then we might have a
(08:35):
couple of months in the fall. Obviously sometimes Black History
Month would be a very busy time for me. You know,
you'd have those vibes. So sometimes you would be on
the road long enough that you're just you're on the
road just depositing checks as you get them, so you
really are having something of a surplus until you get
home and then you have you know, time that you're
gonna be home and not get as many checks. Right,
(08:57):
So we experienced that part. But typic Cle when that
was happening was not when you needed that money and
those checks came just fine. It was the moment where
you really needed that money when they looked at you
and said, oh, man, isn't that the best pie in
this whole city? WHOA, I love that pie? They ordered dessert.
You know that check a coming. Yikes, they'll be like,
(09:19):
oh listen, right while you're eating that delicious apple pie.
They'd be like, oh, listen, it turns out we thought
we were gonna have to check for you today. For
our new accounting system, we have to fill out more forms.
And you know, it really for us just sounds like
wan want want, wamp wamp. You're about to be broke,
That's what it sounds like. What's funny is when they've
got the check. That's when they give you the firm handshake.
Here's your pamphlet or your packet that's got everything in it.
(09:42):
See you later, Go feed yourself. You you're bringing up
a good point. But when they're taking you out and oh,
you're gonna love this restaurant, that's the first red flag
and oh they've got the best. If they insert the
name of pie or cake, that means that they're gonna
feed you, gets you real full and then be like, hey,
(10:03):
and I would like to give bring back something that
we talked about in a previous episode, shout out to
the time of the merch table, okay, because these moments
you had some cash in hand, so that way you
could eat something on the way home or when you
got home, if you needed to hit that grocery store
or whatever it is. There was some ways that you
(10:24):
could make it work. So you know what, Thank God
for the merch table. Okay, Shout out to that that's
true about the merch table, especially because we would have
runs of events that we would have happened sometimes where
we would do like a bunch of colleges in the southeast,
for example, So we might go on a run for
almost two weeks that we weren't home, but we were
(10:46):
driving two different gigs and stuff. And so if you
hit that one gig where you were like, we thought
we were going to get a check there and we didn't.
But maybe we sold five hundred dollars of merch. That
five dollars is gas in the gas tank of yo car,
or Heaven help you if that's a rental car. Bless
your heart. You know that's cash for you to eat
food in between. So shout out to the people who
(11:08):
buy merch at artist events because you're helping for when
the venues don't pay. So this first perk that we're
talking to you all about in Vegas was a college gig,
was a Christian college gig, which I remember. The event
itself was actually a good time. I just remember leading
up to the event. The event itself was on February,
(11:30):
and right as we were getting ready to book our
flights and stuff, they were like, Hey, we really need
to have a meeting with y'all so we can just
go over the event logistics. You know, is it possible
for y'all to fly in on the fourteen and there
are some holidays or if it falls on my birthday
or Matt's birthday, that like, if they want us to
(11:51):
fly in, I'm like, nah, because we don't want to
spend our birthday or our anniversary or something in some
town in middle of no place, no but Vegas on
Valentine's Day. Okay, okay, And we didn't even know like
what our plans were gonna be or anything, but were
you know, Valentine's Day is important to us as a couple.
(12:14):
Neither of us are people who, for the most part,
are very big on posting a lot about Valentine's Day.
I tend to feel our anniversary is more of my
time that I might want to share on socials. But
Valentine's Day is still very important to both of us,
even though our anniversary is when I post a picture
of us, which very interestingly is when I get the
(12:37):
most likes. So I just really might switch my account
over just to be his pictures of Amina, which I understand.
And then um, my birthday, I would say, our birthdays
we post about each other. I'll say on my birthday,
that's the one time of year I log in the Facebook, boy,
because then your mom and dad and their friends and
(12:57):
people from way back then they also happen birth He's
just getting a little life. Also, I noticed this last
time because I haven't been on Facebook in a long time.
You can only like so many comments for me posts,
and one day I remember how many. But Facebook pop
dump said you've reached your limit. I said, well, we
have reached our limit. Loll back out of Facebook. I
(13:20):
reached my limit in more ways than one with you, Facebook,
and I'm mad big facts. You know. So we love,
we love a good Valentine's Day, But I was like,
Valentine's Day in Vegas could be kind of interesting. Sure,
we'll come in early. So we booked our flights, flew
in that morning. Oh my gosh, this just occurred to me.
(13:42):
Another amazing Valentine's Day story. But I'm gonna come back
to it. I'm okay. So we fly in, go in
for the meeting, and I'm not really sure what to
expect of the meeting because it really depends how produced
the event is, how intense that meeting is going to be.
Sometimes they're saying come in early because is they want
Matt to go ahead and load in his equipment, They
(14:02):
want us to sound check, they want us to rehearse.
This could be anywhere from a ten minute meeting to
taking like an hour or two, depending on what the
situation is. So we don't know. I always think the
intro meetings are kind of funny, like when it comes
to me, typically it's going to be okay, before anything starts,
we're going to need some music that's you. And what's
(14:25):
funny is in some spaces most most of the time
i'd say, you know, the Christian spaces, they'd be like,
so we're gonna have you up there for like fifteen minutes.
Is that going to be okay? I'm like, yeah, like
I do four hour sets on the regular, fifteen minutes.
I bet I can come up with fifteen minutes for
your crowd. Okay, So it says that's usually way is
(14:46):
here is the place where nothing's happening. That's you man,
got it. It's like in there. That's how you know
that a lot of folks who are at these types
of like especially these types of white evangelic events, are
not people who party, because that's the only way they
can think that a DJ works in a space is
(15:07):
they're like, Okay, we're gonna have fifteen minutes of worship
music that are just gonna play in the house, and
they we're gonna abruptly cut off that music, and that's you.
That's fifteen minutes. And then you're gonna abruptly stop playing.
We're gonna abruptly turn off your volume so that somebody
can come and play guitar, which is totally gonna take
all of the energy out of the room. It's like
(15:29):
it's like they're like, all right, we want people on ten.
So it's like, I got you, give me two turntables
and a microphone and a crowd. I'm gonna have y'all chanting, clapping,
let's go and I'll do it. And sometimes there's like
pre uh, some like production going on. They're like, all right,
we want you to count backwards, count them all down,
get them all just so we'll be like three two one,
(15:52):
and then some guitar comes in. It's so en cyclimactic, y'all,
Whereas like, now, what Matt's DJ stuffs are like, it's
like he's d jaying out a place where people actually
came there to party, So fifteen minutes is like no time.
You know, he's deejaying there for four hours, taking people
(16:13):
on this whole journey. So that would always make us
laugh when they would be like it's fifteen minutes going
to be okay, and he's looking at them like, what
do you mean fifteen minutes? So, like the pre meeting
is usually just a bunch of me going yeah, yeah,
that sounds good, that sounds good. I got you sure, yep.
So we go to the meeting and I really don't
remember what we talked about at the meeting for this event.
I just remember that it was over very quickly. It
(16:35):
was like a twenty minute meeting, and we were both like,
so there's nothing else y'all need from us. They didn't
want us to load in or anything until the next day.
So we were like okay, and they were like, yeah,
just go like enjoy the day or whatever. So Matt
and I looked at each other like what we were like,
let's hurry up and leave before they think about something
else that you So we left, and I think we
(16:57):
weren't staying at what would be like your traditional Vegas hotel.
I think they had a staying in kind of like
a place where it was more like condo like, and
so wherever we were staying, they had a little like
program or something where they sometimes had discounted tickets two shows.
So we get back to the hotel and we're like, man,
(17:19):
we're in Vegas. What should we do. So we like
look through the packet from whatever this condo place was
and find a little thing in there that was like, oh,
you can, you know, call this number and go this
website whatever it was, and you could get discounted tickets
to see the Beatles Love And I was like, oh,
that would be so perfect, you know. And I think
we had packed some like clothes because at this point
(17:42):
of both of our careers as far as us doing
college and high school events. We were wearing track suits
and sneaks. You know, this is this is not a
dressed up environment. But I think we had both packed
something just in case we decided to like go out
to dinner or whatever. And we were like, oh my gosh,
I cannot believe we're about to go see the Beatles
(18:05):
Love doing the Beatles Love for a discount. Y'all like wow.
So we went and it was one of my favorite things. Beautiful.
It was absolutely stunning, like the amount of audio that
they had of like the guys in the studio talking
(18:26):
through things and stuff. And you know, I just recently
watched through the Beatles documentary that's had on Apple Plus
back in December. I had COVID and had to quarantine
off from you, so I had nothing but time and
watched the longest documentary, and it took my brain back
(18:47):
to us sitting there watching and listening, and then of course,
at the same time that you're hearing these guys talk
about this music they're gonna make or these to us
never been heard before clips, and then you're also seeing
performers pull off the most amazing things and the most
beautiful lights and you're like, how did we get here? Man?
(19:30):
H that was amazing. I think I ate a steak
that night. Also, Oh, I forgot about that though, because
we went to Like I wish I could remember which
restaurant we went to, but I remember you had steak,
and I remember I had Chilean sea bass. And there
are a few dishes in the world that, for some reason,
when you eat that, you're like, and now I'm a
rich person, and Chilean sea bass for me, I think
(19:52):
it's a Chilean part. Yeah, it's like and now like
I'm wealthy, Like it was like Forest Park sea bass
be like yike, or if it was like Lake Sea bass,
then automatically now you're like, yikes no, but Chilean sea
bass you're like, oh, yes, here I am. I there
other types of um. I feel like yes, because I
feel like bass pro Shops is telling me that there
(20:16):
must be a lot of more like generalized bass. It's
out there, and really, truthfully, Chilean sea bass could be
also very generalized. But because we don't live in Chile,
it sounds like we having something. Because maybe people from
another place would be like Forest Park Sea beast. They
might like I think that's a vibe either way. It
(20:38):
came in parchment, y'all. Um, Wow, I was rich for
twenty minutes. Remember the candy shop we went to. Oh
that's right. It was like a fill up your own
bag of candy. Please when I tell you we went
in there with no concept of how much was too much?
You don't want to see two people like us in
there while And because it had the way the little
(21:01):
things were made, it was like you put a bag
up to it and then it had a lever where
it just starts candy and ten year olds in that thing,
just like please, I'm pretty sure. We got back to
the room and I was like, it was like I
just lost myself for a minute in the candy store
because we go back to the room and I was like,
why did I pick this candy? Like for what? I
never eat this? What was I doing? Very little life,
(21:23):
very exciting time. So that Vegas. That was us in
Vegas having an extra almost twenty four hours before we
had to go work the event the next day. That
was an amazing perk, fantastic. I also would like to
bring into the chat our anniversary because we have been
people that because we were on the road a lot,
(21:45):
and I think where we were financially at that time too,
we couldn't really afford to take a separate vacation. We
couldn't afford for many years to travel and say here
in we're just gonna take trip for personal reasons. We
couldn't afford to do that. So we were always looking
for how we can get a gig, either near the
(22:09):
place where we wanted to go, or sometimes it was
the opposite way. A gig came in close to our
anniversary and we were like, can we make that word?
Can we figure it out? So a gig came in
in Florida and it was very close to our anniversary.
I want to say it was maybe like two days
before or something, and we were like, oh, do we
(22:29):
want to take this gig? And then we were like yeah,
because there are definitely some gigs that we said yes
to because it was near an anniversary, a birthday of
Valentine's We're like, oh, we could go to somewhere we
could not have otherwise gone to at that time. For sure, Yeah,
because at least it's like if you're there for a gig,
the gig is helping pay for you to travel there
(22:51):
the gig is helping pay for a part of your
lodging or whatever. While you're there, might be a dim
might be some perdium, might be the table or something
to help you get gas to get wherever. And then
sometimes you would have this huge, wonderful moment where you
would actually get a check, bless your heart, before you
(23:12):
left the gigs, so then you could put that check
in the bag and then have money to add to
your personal account. Right. But sometimes they didn't go like that.
I thought you was gonna get that check, and then
you didn't, and now you're like, well, we're out here,
now we've got to figure it out. Sometimes I would
try to psych our bank account and be like, I
don't even want this check as a way of trying
(23:33):
to will them into paying us on time. But man,
I don't even need to care about the little check.
I ain't even looking for that check. But I'm very
much looking for that check. But when that check didn't
come up, like I was looking for, sad. So we
had a gig it was. There were a few things
about the gig that we took right there near our anniversary.
That number one I'm pretty sure we never did again.
(23:55):
And that we had concerns about, but we were like,
we accept this because we're trying to see what we
can make happen here. This was a youth event, and
this was this was towards the end of our time
doing youth events, because I think we both got to
a point where we were like here and we are
people who we don't want to be doing youth events anymore.
(24:17):
We're we're not we're not built for that life anymore.
So this was a youth event. I also want to
bring into our conversation today that this youth event was
a lock in. Oh man, what we're big? Yikes. And
for those of you who grew up in church settings,
I really don't know any other setting outside of church
(24:37):
where students were doing lock ins, do you? M M.
I can't think of any other organization. It's like, here's
what we want you to do. Let your kids come
and drink mountain dew all night. An your child who
you struggle to entertain, please drop a bunch of them
(25:00):
off with me and let me entertain them all night.
What's the worst that could happen? Yikes? And I want
to particularly speak to this because when Matt I got married,
Matt was a youth pastor at a church where they
were doing an annual locking. It was my fault. That
was my fault. I'm the one who brought that back
(25:21):
the people. The dude who was there previous to me,
He's like, what are you doing? And I was like,
I don't know. The pastor like what are you doing?
And I was like, but it was It was fun.
It was fun. And also because I am an extrovert
and I'm cool with being around people seven and my
goal has always been just to stay a little more
(25:41):
random than the middle school age kids, and so that
kind of kept me ahead of the wave. And so
I was like, all right, so if we're gonna be
running all night, I want you to be trying to
catch up with me. Let's go. The wild thing is
it would never fail that the next morning, after I've
been up for twenty four hours with your kid, somebody
(26:03):
was going to text me be like, hey, can you
bring my child home? So not only are you asking
me to hang out, well, I guess I asked for.
I did ask for. I'll take that part. But you
were like, I think it's a good idea. Let's drop
my kid off with this dude over here and a
whole bunch of kids. What's the worst go wrong? But
then be like, you haven't had any sleep? The best?
(26:25):
Would you drive my kid home? Like like, once, I
remember we were dating through one of those lock ins
and when you shared that would be I was like,
say what. But then once we got married, and it's
like we now are in the living in the same household,
and I'm watching in general how much you're giving to
(26:47):
the kids and everything. And now I'm like, I'm checking
in with you, like throughout the night and whatever to
see how the lock in is going. And now I'm
just hearing how exhausted you are. And now you don't
got the whole church straightened back up, done, got everybody out,
except now there's three two or three students just lingering
here and you are either texting calling the kids texting
(27:12):
calling trying to find out this that where their parent
is finally here from them after you waited an extra
hour to be like, oh, I'm sorry about that, my
phone died. Can you just go ahead and drop some
and so off? And I'm like, so you want my
exhausted husband have been even with your kid all night? Okay?
So I just want to give you all. That's the
idea of a little bit of how a lock in goes.
(27:34):
I grew up in church with lock ins too, But
Matt always laughs because our our youth staff was not
playing you just gonna go to sleep, You're not gonna
be They really were afraid of us having sex in
the building, to be honest, and so at a certain
point they just separated everybody and they were like the
boys over here, the girls over here, and they basically
(27:58):
had two or three very earn moms pacing the whole
lock in like you're gonna go to sleep, you've been
you know. So that was my lock in experience. So
why two people who knew how a lock in could
be agreed to be the talent to perform at said
lock in is is literally because we wanted to be
(28:19):
able to afford a little anniversary trip. So y'all, we
went to this gig and we were the performance before
the kids. Because part of a lock in is like
there's a certain amount of time that the kids just
get to go and just do whatever the activities are.
They get to go play basketball, play board games, just
(28:39):
hang out. So we were the thing they had to
sit through before they got to go have fun. The
way they had the room set up, I remember it
was standing room only. I don't recommend that for when
Matt and I are performing together, and I definitely don't
recommend it when I'm performing alone. Had they just invited
Matt to deed, Matt got that you can. You can
(29:02):
do standing room but spoken word and BJ, I feel
strange DJ. And when people are just sitting down, if
it's just me, if if we're like taking them through
a program performance, that's all right, but it's just me,
I'm like, no, yikes. So these kids are in suburban wherever, Florida.
(29:23):
They are staring at us like we are green from
another planet, like and we are literally the color green,
and we are not from Earth. We are from some
other planet that they don't know about. These students arms
are crossed. There's literally either a scowl or there's like
(29:47):
I just don't understand what I'm looking at. That was
our audience for forty five minutes. For forty five minutes, y'all.
And then after we get off stage after just trying
to perform our guts out to a crowd of people
who did not want to hear it. The church people
had the nerve to be like, y'all are welcome to
(30:09):
stay and hang out. Huh. Um see, we got to
get back our manager has us going to uh We
were like, oh no, first first of all, First of all, um,
we want to stay hang out at a youth lock it? No, okay, exactly,
(30:31):
don't make me. Don't rope me into this. I don't
want to do this. Can you hand me the check
and then I'll give you the answer, because we try
to get that check for real, for real. So we
had booked in advance a like beach condo. I remember
it was like literally right on the beach. We could
like walk downstairs out of our little condo. Um. So
(30:53):
this was the only reason we endured this entire thing,
so we could leave that youth event. I think we
stayed in whatever the hotel was, um that they had
booked for the night, and then we drove to our
little beach condo and we had a few days on
the beach and we got to see the Dolly Museum.
And there are a very small number of art museums
(31:13):
that are dedicated to one artist, and so the Dollar
Museum is one of that small number. And to get
to see Dolly's work in person. That was worth it.
It was worth it, I think, if I remember correctly,
I had just gotten this monkey tattoo on my arm.
Oh my gosh, and I it jogged my memory. We
(31:34):
are talking about us going to the beach, because I
remember I had it wrapped and I had to like
get some sort of like I think we had gone
to a grocery store and I got one of those
plastic bags and I just wrapped around it and I
had to try to hold my I had to try
to hold my arm above my head because I'm going
to get in the ocean. But so anyways, never get
a tattoo right before going to do a lock in,
(31:57):
right before going to the beach. However, the Ali Museum
worth worth it, totally worth it. And y'all, my husband
loves the beach, Okay, I have. I have been to
the beach way more times than I would have if
we were not together. So when we could on our anniversary,
I like to see if we can go to a
place where there's a beach because I know he loves it.
So it was hilarious seeing you, like, I don't care,
(32:18):
I got this tattoo I'm getting in the ocean, even
if I have to hold my arm all the way up. Bonus.
At the Dolly Museum, they were having an mc es exhibit. Yes,
it's a fantastic visual arts one of my favorite artists.
Not even realizing you grow up by a sketch pad.
It had a picture of one of mc escher's works,
(32:41):
probably on the front of the sketch pad, and you're like,
oh my gosh, this is that artist, and you're starting
to see more of their work and how he didn't
you know? And you're like, I still to this day
have a T shirt I got from that trip. It's
one of my favorite prize possession T shirts that I owned. Yeah,
and we have a print to y'all, like, this is
probably going to help us because we would get like
(33:03):
prints and different things from places and just never like
get them frame to put them on. You got to
get that had been a decade ago, very nice piece
that we still haven't put up in the house. So
let's work on that. Um. Okay. One last perk that
is very relevant because we are still in a pandemic
(33:24):
currently is I got booked to host a podcast, to
host a limited podcast series and I had to go
to New York to record When did I have to go?
Y'all February of so many things that I did not
know at all. We're about to happen in life. And
(33:45):
Matt wasn't supposed to come with me. The organization or
the company that had asked me to do it, they
had money for me to fly there. They had a
certain rate they were going to pay me, and to
Matt and I were like looking at our budget and
we were like, I think we need to splur it
and you should come with me. And the hotel was
very nice where we were staying. Yes, you can see
(34:06):
the Statue of Liberty across the water like from the room, like,
oh wow, that was a nice view. It was amazing.
So we decided, I think I had to be there
two days. So they were providing two nights, and then
we decided to pay for ourselves to stay in additional
two or three nights. Because remember they put us in
a room, and then like we could in the room
(34:26):
and they put us in so we had to like
get our stuff and move into another room. It's right
to move it to us, all bless our hearts, we do.
We could with our with our resources at the time. Look,
so one of the things normally, I first of all, y'all,
I'm a big New York person. It is one of
my favorite cities to visit. It is very much a
(34:47):
mojo city for me. I just always leave that city
with so much clarity. I've talked about that a lot
on the podcast already. So New York it's one of
those places like kind of like l A. It's like
there's like literally a thousand things that you could do
if you're there for two or three days. And I've
traveled there enough to know that it's better if you
have two or three days. It's almost better to pick
one thing that you're like, this is what we really
(35:09):
really have to make sure we do, or two things,
and that's it, because if you pick ten things five things,
you're going to totally overwhelm yourself. So my one thing
was I really wanted to go see a Broadway show
because I don't think you and I had been to
a Broadway show together. I had never been to a
Broadway show. That's the only one I've ever been to.
(35:29):
So yeah, so that was my one thing. And then
r I p for Century the Store because that was
always my second thing that I'm like, I want to
see a Broadway show. I want to shop at Century one.
It closed during the pandemic, so that was our last
time going in there to shop, and we would all
you always go in there, you'd always find something really unique.
(35:50):
We'll bring it back to Atlanta and where the people
will be like, what is the shirts? What shirt? Jeans?
What's this? You know I'll still get comments. My favorite
thing that would always happen every like a couple of
times we've been to New York together and we went
to Century is because it's so big, you would go
your way. I would go my way, and there's no
way to be like yo, this this, this, You're just
(36:12):
coming out with just arms full of clothing. And it
never failed that it would be something that I thought
was so fresh, and then you would see it on me.
You'd be like, oh, where'd you get that? And I
got it from Century twenty one. You're like, oh, okay,
and there's something that my wife always lets me know
(36:33):
that something may not have hit the mark, and she'll
be like, oh, I can kind of see where you
were headed with that. In other words, you have not
arrived at accept the location. What you gonna do with
this with this uh sweatshirt. Yeah, I'd be trying to
just you know, be affirming of the journey. You know,
(36:55):
I'll be trying to just give my husband some good
affirmations regarding the jury. Me. Maybe the journeys more important
than the destination. Well, maybe you're trying not to break
my spirit to please please. So our Broadway pick was
(37:16):
Tina on Broadway, which is the show about Tina Turner's life.
Adrian Warren was starring in it. When we went to
see it, oh, y'all, what an amazing show. And we
actually saw it after Adrian Warren had injured herself. She
was wearing boots like her I don't know if it's
(37:37):
her ankle, her foot. She had injured herself to where
she was wearing a boot and she still killed it,
killed it. It was so good that by the end
of the show, it's like they do their bow. They
did the found things, and they come back and did
an encore and everyone was up on their feet clapp
and singing along as if we were watching a Tina
Turner concert. It was incredible. And once we left there,
(38:03):
I think we had a few more gigs, both of us,
and then we did our last gig in Dallas, and
the flight home in March was when we were seeing
all of the like shutdown conversations happening. So we got
home promptly found out we both had COVID in March.
(38:26):
But during all of that time quarantine and especially like
all that time in general, what that was for so
many of us. I was so glad that we splurged
a little bit and stayed in New York a couple
of extra days and went to a show because it
took so long for Broadway shows to be able to
come back and for people to start going back to
(38:49):
travel to New York as far as like tourism and
stuff was concerned. So for us being people who love
to see performers on stage, that gave us a little
something to hold onto that we got a chance to
see that show and experience it. So shout out to that, babe,
that was a good time, good times, and uh shout
out to us going to get a frame for that. Okay, yes,
(39:11):
that thank you all for helping remind us to do that.
We're going to work on that and try to post
on our social media and our stories or something on
i G when we finally get that m C s
R piece up. Well, this has been great talking to
you all about road stories and more road stories to come.
See how soon. Her with Amina Brown is produced by
(39:44):
Matt Owen for solover Fee Productions as a part of
the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with I Heart Radio.
Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and
review the podcast.
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