March 19, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Dallas Alexander, who grew up in a tiny town in Canada, spending his childhood outdoors and dreaming of hockey. As his junior hockey career came to a close, a chance encounter in the oil fields introduced him to the JTF 2 Special Operations Force. Intrigued by this elite unit, Dallas embarked on a journey within the Canadian military with the goal of joining their ranks.
After successfully completing the rigorous selection process, he found himself integrated into JTF 2, where he was drawn to the sniper unit and quickly became a tier 1 sniper. Dallas and his team gained international recognition for achieving the world’s furthest sniper kill shot during a mission in Afghanistan.
After serving in the military, Dallas discovered a new passion for music. The energy of live performance captivated him, and he is now channeling the same focus and determination he applied in his military career into songwriting and performing. We’re excited to share he has released his first album, along with his debut single “Adios Amigo,” which features a music video that commemorates his remarkable experience as a sniper. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that spans from the battlefield to the stage!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-answer-is-yes--2903418/support.
After successfully completing the rigorous selection process, he found himself integrated into JTF 2, where he was drawn to the sniper unit and quickly became a tier 1 sniper. Dallas and his team gained international recognition for achieving the world’s furthest sniper kill shot during a mission in Afghanistan.
After serving in the military, Dallas discovered a new passion for music. The energy of live performance captivated him, and he is now channeling the same focus and determination he applied in his military career into songwriting and performing. We’re excited to share he has released his first album, along with his debut single “Adios Amigo,” which features a music video that commemorates his remarkable experience as a sniper. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that spans from the battlefield to the stage!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-answer-is-yes--2903418/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We hope that through these stories.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You can learn to create your own destiny by saying yes.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Along the way, join us.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
As we explored the new series, governing topics such as passion, integrity,
and art work. I'm your host, Jim Riley, and I
hope you enjoyed these interviews as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I believe that everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Has an important message work hearing. Hey, welcome to the
Answer Yes Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I've had some
great guests on recently, and the list just keeps getting
better and better and better. And today I've got Dallas
Alexander on the line. Hey, buddy, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing good. How you doing today? Good?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm following your travels on Instagram. I suppose that's what
we all do these days. You were in Texas yesterday
driving last night. Here you are Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, that's right, Texas and Santa See.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Dude, I love it. I thought we'd get something out
of the way real quick, and uh, that is this
is going to help clean out all my followers. If
I got any bad ones. You've been very proactive. You've
been very proactive on your social media last couple of
days about your feelings on on what I don't know,
tariffs and things that are happening in Canada. And it's like,
(01:27):
I'm appreciative of your point of view, I guess is
what I wanted to say, and thank you, you know,
I mean, I just I'm obviously from Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I spend a lot of time in the US, playing
music all the time here in Nashville, and.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I just think it's absurd. We've gone through so much.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
With our current government and people just keep falling into
this trap like, oh, they're putting it on the news,
I better pay attention. The last thing we need to
worry about is what another country is taxing like our
own countries taxed, like about the ass It's insane and
be people are getting up set up. I'm like, we
(02:02):
got a whole bunch of other things to fix before
we worry about someone else making a business deal with
us from another.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Country like yeah, yeah. And then I think one of
the other comments was about your new prime minister's election process.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That was rather interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
The whole system is just man it's crazy. This is
why I spend time Tennessee and Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I love that, more appreciative for that. And you know,
I have a lot of great Canadian friends, and I
think that, you know, what we see in the news
isn't a good representation of the people that live and
work there.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
And oh it's a horrible one. I say that about
the news in general. I say that about social media.
I just did a post about this. Like, you know,
everyone thinks like the other side of their opinion is
it's just whack jobs. It doesn't matter if you're on
the left or the right. You think the other side
is just like these insane people who don't know what
facts are and blah blah blah, two different groups working
(02:55):
in different truths.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We too, are constantly I'm all over the US, I'm
all over Canada.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Everyone I meet, like, with a huge, huge, huge percentage
of that ninety nine point nine nine nine nine are
just good people wanted to like figure out life, try
and do their best and be nice to others, mostly
listen to good music, whatever they think that is, and
like that's it. Like the internet makes us think the
world is way crazier than it is. So I just
(03:24):
challenge you think it's that insane people are that I've lost,
put down your phone and like, go talk to people.
You find that most people are just really Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I love that coming from the road literally because you're
out there touring. I often talk about in business, especially
when things got wacky well the last ten years, about
racism and everything else. I said, hey, just what are
your own truths? What do you know in your own
neighborhood down the street, like you said, just good people
out there. Let's have a beer, Let's have a coffee,
let's hang out, let's listen to good music. That's my truth.
(03:55):
You know, it was crazy up here and you were
just hearing Kallaspell playing Black Rifle. Coffee Company was awesome.
So we have a local rodeo. It's called the Brash
Rodeo Series. It happens at the Majestic Arena. Well, during
the middle of covid Or towards the beginning, they had
a full house, no masks on, actually no offense. There
was like four people from Canada that had masks on
(04:17):
out of like you know, six hundred and I know
that because the MC called them out and said, where
you guys from? Canada and they're like, yeah, we're from Anyways.
You know, I went back to the school board. I said, look,
you guys are trying to mask up my kids, but
there's an entire arena right down the street of cowboys
with no masks on, Like what is our truth here?
So anyways, thanks for having a voice, not only in
(04:38):
music and in your background, but also just for some
of the things that are popping up that are just
so wacky.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, I mean, I just there's a lot of people that, like,
you know, they say, if you're in music, you probably
shouldn't be saying this or that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I I try to be as open minded.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I've headed with stuff as possible.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I think there's value and just pointing out some things
and passing along some things that I think about.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And I'm sure I lose some fans.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, but that's all right, cost of being honest. Right, Well,
let's get to know you a little bit. I know that,
and understand that you're in the military or you were
in the military, and I love you. Know, maybe you
can start pre military, how you grew up, where you
grew up, and then why you got into the military,
and me I know you had a nice status there,
very appreciative of what you did in the military. Then
(05:29):
we can roll into music if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Canada,
like northern Alberta along the Alberta's Sketch from border, little
indigenous community. It's called the Meji Settlement, sort of like
a reservation in the States. Yeah, tiny little place, free
to run wild. I played hockey my whole life. I
(05:51):
thought that's what I wanted to do, Uh, just play
professional hockey. And then after junior hockey it was kind
of decision time. So I was going to go played
pro hockey somewhere, which I probably could have played maybe
a semi pro or a European league or something.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I wasn't going to go to the NHL.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And then that's when I learned kind of about this unit,
well sort of about the military Canada, which I had
no idea about it, and then about this special operations
unit that we had. I learned that working in the
oil field, like after my kind of last junior year,
and then I just my focus switched immediately.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I was like, Wow, I want to go do that job.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It sounds really hard. It seems badass, and it wasn't
much more than that. I was like, I think I
would be good at you know, killing bad guys.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Sounds like that's what they do.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And it was kind of this young man adventure and
some ego and all of this stuff sounds like a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let me go to find out. And I just remember
my focus shifting like so fast from hockey. It's like,
this is what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It reminds me of Willie's Distillery here in Montana and
this on Towna. They make a product called the Devil's Brigade.
Have you had that?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I have a bottle of it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, Just the story behind that reminds me of
the Canadians and the Americans getting together to create the
Devil's Brigade. And he trained in Helena and a bunch
of you know, ruckus guys, you know, getting ready to
go off to war. And apparently they were one of
the most dangerous troops in World War Two and one
of the most by the Germans. You know, so pretty awesome.
So when I think about your venture in the military
(07:26):
coming from Canada, I feel like the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, it was great. We worked with the US guys
a lot. Yeah, with your Adelta dudes quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And I trained a few times with your seals out
of the gym beach and I never deployed them.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But yeah, and rangers and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We're always hanging out overseas or doing stuff together and
it's a great partnership.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah. How long do you serve and what was it?
What was it like getting out, I mean transitioning back
to civilian life.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, about seventeen years. I got in.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You have to do two years in the regular military
before you can try out go on selection for our
special operations unit.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I joined the.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Infantry, did my two years, but in all the required
paperwork and requests, and did all the testing to go
on selection, somehow miraculously passed selection, and then equally miraculously
passed the assault course just like I think it ended
up being about ten months something like that, just learn
(08:32):
all the skill sets, baseline of everything where you can
get to the unit and start doing the real learning.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So yeah, got in.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Two years and a bit doing like basic training, and
then the two years in the battalion that had to
run a selection, and I spent the rest of my
time just about fourteen years in our Special Operations Unit
JTF two and most of that first two years I
think I was squadron and the rest of it I
was a sniper. In the very tail end, last year
(09:05):
and a half, maybe two years, I moved to like
a surveillance true.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, well, compliments to you. You do not look old
enough to have spent seventeen years in the military, especially
in the type of service you gave. So, hey, you
got some good jeans in you.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, all right, that's my half indigenous sides.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah, Well, we certainly appreciate your service, no matter
what country you were serving, for doing what was right.
So coming back to civilian life, and I think I
understood somewhere. I heard that you started to play a
little music while you were in the military, you know,
dabbling around. So that's is that where that began for you?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah? I was like, I mean, I'd always loved music.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I sang sort of in a high school band with
some buddies, played like alternative rock stuff. They were really
good musicians. It's like, oh, these guys might actually meet musicians. Hey,
I just it was never something I I thought would
be a thing, especially after you know, we did that
for a year or two and kind of played a
couple of gigs at school and that was that was
(10:08):
kind of it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I never really learned to play the guitar.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I ended up buying one when I was twenty or so,
and my whole goal when I got it was like,
I want to learn so that I could sing a
song at the campfire because it was such a big
part of our community, and like a good friend of
mine his family was all very musical and they would
pass the guitar.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Around and the fiddles and people are singing.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I was like, one day, I'm going to be able
to grab that guitar when they pass it and play.
So so that was kind of my first goal of
buying guitar, and I just ignored it because the job
was really busy.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I was deploying all the time.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And then in twenty nineteen, I was like halfway to
the end of August, so I just got into the
fall like again, my folks, but the unit was kind
of changing, becoming not really a place that I loved
as much anymore, and I remember my focus changing just
like before, from hockey to special operations. I was like,
(11:03):
I'm going to be a songwriter. So I started doing
that and I went to as many open mics as
I could, and then once I could learn enough songs
that you know, I had to play for three hours
at a pub or whatever, I just started emailing and
calling and harassing every bar that had live music until
they booked me. And yeah, I was playing like sometimes
four or five times a week, and then I would
(11:25):
pack up gostally, go to the back to work the
next day and shoot guns and do all that stuff,
and pack up the drive down to the next pub
in some town, set up and play.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I was really trying to. I mean a lot of
my favorite musicians growing up, I heard them talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That, you know, playing a million bar rooms and sometimes
they played to nobody, and sometimes it's packed m hm.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Times it sucks, and sometimes long hours.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But just figuring out how to play in front of
people and be outside of your comfort zone, I think
it's a big one.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And so that you know, that's kind of a big
statement right here. You're going from military kind of a
tight unit. I'm sure all of a sudden you're playing
on stages in front of strangers. That's a complete one
to eighty from your lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Oh, well, I've said this before, even after my military service,
and this is like overseas deployments, going to war and
jumping out of airplanes And the scariest thing I'd ever
done was the first open mic.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I was terrified.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, yeah, what was your inspiration for some of the
songs that you wrote? And I know that's kind of
a generic question a lot of people like to ask,
but you know, your songs seem to hit a heart
string in terms of the titles of them. I think
it goes back to your roots, you know, growing up
on the res and then your military and then who
you are today. Is that where that comes from? I
(12:48):
mean pretty fast a.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Lot of them. I mean I kind of draw.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
From, you know, like any song, right, different parts of
your life and growing up where I did such a
huge part of who I am. I think it really
like it made it instilled the love for just freedom
and adventure into me from as soon as I was
a child, I was allowed to just go roaming force
(13:13):
I'll see you guys on Sunday on weekends and just
go sleep in the woods or whatever. And I kind
of I've definitely kept that, you know, that want for
just freedom and adventure, so that played a big part
of my life.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And then yeah, I mean I've yet to write a
hockey song gigantic role in my life. Maybe I will.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And then the military, Yeah, I kind of drop from
all that stuff, and you know, trying to navigate that
and growing up out of the country and mixed between,
like because I wasn't I wasn't fully indigenous and I
wasn't fully white. We're called metis or like a half breed.
So I would be like track and field fighting with
the Indian kids because they thought I was white, and
(13:56):
then fighting with the white kids because they thought I
was an I just remember being in so many scraps
and I'm like, where do we belong here? But I
had a good group of friends, like in our tiny
little community and stuff. But yeah, so I kind of
draw from all of that when when I'm writing, just
sort of try to remember how how I was feeling.
(14:17):
For me when I play these songs, I'm like, it's
so visual every time we played all the time, times,
night after night night, and it still just takes me
back to like exact locations.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And things that I'm writing about the feel, and.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I think that's one of the things I love the
most about music. I do a lot of running myself
runner pastures and stuff and listening to old music. It
always takes you right back to where you were when
you heard that first song. And I was curious that
if that happens with an artist, and obviously it sounds
like it does.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I mean for me, it does.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
It's like this time travel every single time, Like when
I play Audios and Ego, I'm back in Iraq and Moslam.
When I play Child was Lying in the Settlement I
grew up in.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Just see it fe Yeah, I love that song, by
the way. I heard you play it for the you
know in my mind the first time I heard it
here in Callispell, but I might see you've been promoting
it recently. I'm curious what kind of backlash are you
getting for that song from from the more liberal minded
people that you know?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I mean, I think the only real backlash that ever
happens is just people upset in the comments section.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
And again it goes back to my point of like, like,
no one, I've invited tons of people you want to
discuss this coming to my show.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, I'll talk to you, but obviously no one comes
to my show and confronts me on a problem they have,
So it just ends in the comment section, really, and
for me, I don't care.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think that it's either that or we've had I mean,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You could kind of call it backlash, and this is
just an overarching I think it's people's assumption of my opinions,
and we have had venues that just will not allow.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Us to book there or come play shows. Kase Extremes,
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Know, I told you before we hit record. I am
a strong supporter of our military and our first responders
are law enforcement. My dad was a sheriff, my grandfather
was World War Two, my dad was Vietnam. They both
talked me out of going into both military and law enforcement,
(16:24):
but I try to do whatever I can. I don't
think that people understand the magnitude of the commitment of
law enforcement, first responders and our military and what you
actually go through on the front lines. You know, I've
been robbed at gunpoint three times. I could imagine that
happening every single day in your life.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah, or like some version of that. Yeah, Yeah, I
mean I try to I try to remember that too.
When you know, meeting people are talking to people and.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's like anything in life, just a different path you
don't fully know, you know. And I gave this example
the other day, you know, like someone that grew up
addicted to drugs or on the street or something. Even
if they turn it around, there the perspective on life
that they've gone through them, it's really hard to know
what that is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And I think that's the same for first responder and military.
So I try not to be like, you don't know
what it's like.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You know what I mean, Give some, give some some
kindness instead, because it is like a job. I mean,
I can only speak from my own experience, but we're
gone all the time, training all the time, deployed all
the time, and it just it kind of turns you
into a little bit of a different type of personally.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I think, yeah, yeah, well I think when I think
about that in terms of what it must be like,
because again I didn't experience that. But when I hear
a song like Audios and Ego, I look at it differently,
you know, I look at it and this is a
powerful song. Maybe maybe it's not only a great song,
but an outlet or a way to express some things
you know at a time in your life. So I'm
(18:02):
appreciative for it, and I was curious what kind of
response you were getting out the market.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
No, the response has been great, honestly, the I think
I have a following that is like just really supportive
in terms of music and online, really great people for the.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Most like for the most part.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know, there's an odd thing I'll postow up, yeah
in the comment section, but I always try if something
crazy like that happens and a post is getting a
ton of attention and it's in a negative way, I
try to again to a poster of mind people that
even if you know this will be like two sides
fighting in my comment section, and I'm like, yeah, this
is just let's remember that most people are.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Pretty Yeah, hey, let's let's come to a show and
have a beer together. We'll have a good time. At
what point did you transition from just doing as many
open mic nights as you could to really that singer songwriter.
I heard you talk about being a songwriter and being
in some rooms with some great people and really going Okay,
this is is a profession now and I'm going to
hit the road as a professional.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Well, I mean from the day I retired, I was like,
this is the only thing I'm doing. Don't have a plan,
b this is all of my focus. You know that
goes into anything professional. I was going into this, and
so it was really the day I retired from the military,
I was prepping for that. I was playing as many
bar shows as I could. I was writing songs as
much as I could on my own, trying to learn
(19:26):
what it was and what it meant, to get better guitar,
better at singing. But yeah, once I retired, I ended
up coming down here to Nashville, you know, not too
long after, maybe five or six months after I retired,
and do some ticket and shows and small places and
just trying to switch from you know, bar gigs to
actual shows, songwriter nights or concerts.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Ended up going on tour across Canada with a guy
Naed Gored Bamford. He's a big, big country star in
Canada and helped this immensely. Signed with his management.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Company and they they still do a lot of the
management stuff for me.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Then I just started coming to Nashville as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And learning this town to meet people and songwriters, and
I mean I moved through.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So I've been actually rather impressed with your integration into
a lot of the larger influencers that we all see
on social media. I believe you're on the Sean Ryan
Show not too long ago. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's
kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So cool.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, he has a big, massive following, and it's really
cool that, like, not only is he has.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
An awesome podcast, he's a great dude. He just like
it opened so many doors.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
It opened a lot of people up to like, oh,
let's check out his music too, So it brought a
lot of people, like you know, who would have been
there to follow a different past career into what I
was doing.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Now. Yeah, it's been very valuable. Yeah, an audience he has,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, it seems like and again this is another area
where I'm appreciative to see it unfold, is that there's
a number of veterans that are very prevalent in not
only the media, but in social media as well as
kind of in the narrative that's happening around the country.
And I love that, you know, between Andy from Black
(21:18):
Rifle and you know, kind of his crew and yourself
and Sean Ryan and and all these people coming in.
I mean, we have two vets that are in the Senate,
one in the Senate, when in the Congress from Montana
we got Tim Sheehey, who I spent a lot of
time with him last year.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
What what is that? I mean, what is happening in
that world of vets that that's rising to the top,
because I hope we get a lot more of that.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
I think it's like in a way, continued service. Now
some of it is also capitalizing on like a previous
career to help you with your new endeavor. Yeah, and
like I mean, some people don't like to say that,
but it is in fact you get it respect, you know,
for being in the military.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
You serve and gave stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
And I'm like, you know, some people go about it,
especially coming from special operations. There are some just like, well,
don't say anything.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I'm like, too bad.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I'm like, that was a huge part of my life.
I'm going to use it in the next round. It'll
be in music, it'll be a songs. I'll tell stories
about it. So I think there's that you kind of
have something that people respect.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It took some vetting and hard.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Work, and there's characteristics that you know, make you into
a person that can serve that way. So it's almost
like we're doing this thing now and we've sort of
been through this vetting, but you can kind of probably
trust us more than just an.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Average business scammer. But then I think it's a continuation
of service.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like you know, all the guys you just mentioned are
doing amazing things for their communities and for spreading the
word on certain things, and just like so it's just
like this continuation of service, but in a different way.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, well, I think I'll say publicly you share it
with you friends. As a father of two daughters and
a wife and you know, had not served. I'm so
appreciative of everybody stepping up, you know, when I when
I look at somebody like Tulsi Gabbard, you know, practicing
jiu jitsu yesterday on her social media with her niece
or something like that, kicking some butts, like that's the
(23:18):
kind of person I want work, you know, serving for
this country, you know. And so anyways, I love the
network of people that you're involved with, and I'm appreciative
for it, and I'm glad that you're seeing some results
from Sean Ryan show. I hope you get a few
more followers from this show. Let's just transition back into music.
Where do you see your career going or how does
(23:38):
it explode? And I asked that from the light of
back in the day, I did work with the Canadian
I spent four years on tour with Michael Bubla. When
I was I was the vice president of Cuttle one
Vik and we sponsored his tour and I got to
travel with him and get to know him really well
and his team, and I watched how that progressed from
kind of where you're at today, you know, selling tickets
in a small venue. And I remember Bruce Allen up
(24:02):
there in Canada, Goes Jim, he did Slandon and Journey
and all these guys. He says, one day we're going
to sell out the Staples are and I'm like, really, okay,
we'll see what happened, you know. So where do you
see your career going?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I try it so for me, I look at it
more as I have a guiding light.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't really have check porns.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
So like for me, I want to be the best
guitar player, songwriter and vocalist I can, and I want
to continue to grow towards that, like just forever, and
I think along the way, like I work really hard
on the business side of it and touring, branding and.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
All of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I just I try to stay open to things and opportunities,
and I just I mean, I love what I'm doing
and where I'm at right now. So it's I just
I don't have any metric where I'm like, oh, once
that happens, yeah, I made it because, like, I've had.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Some very cool experiences. We played with an artist, we
played with.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
An open form written with and like my mom called
me that my song is on the radio.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And I was driving down here in Nashville, uh, just.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
West of the city, like a few weeks ago, and
I was going to like a photoshoot thing for some
content and my song came on as I was driving,
and I was like, hey, that is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Beyond cool.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So there's just all kinds of stuff like that where
I love it and I wouldn't almost wouldn't even wanna.
Now something goes viral, gets gajillion views and there's a
way more attention.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That's obviously great, But I love the process of it.
I love.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Small tickets first, and then some bigger stuff and then
some sellouts, and then you go back and you're like,
there's like ten people here, and then it's a thousand people,
and you know, I like getting to experience all of that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It's funny. As a consumer of music, you always look back, go, man,
I wish I would have saw them win. Right. My
wife and I she's she was a big fan on
a John party and we saw him at some Honckey talks,
you know, ten twenty people, epic shows up in La.
We went to La show, there was like one hundred
and fifty people. And now it's like, Okay, he's playing
all the big tours. You know. Same thing with Aaron
(26:16):
Watson who's not on a label, but he's selling out
big shows out of Texas, and it's like, man, I
wish I would have saw some of these people win.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
So I'm fortunate I got to see you at Black Rifle.
Thanks for them for having you.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Heh.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, I'm excited to come back to Montana and we
went to Wyoming was super cool.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah. Hey, let's not get too far away without talking
about sell you at Roberts Bar, my favorite place in Nashville,
getting some blooney sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, we get stopping there every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I mean now that I I live here, or at
least spend a lot of time here, I don't really
go to Broadway yeah much because it is very crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, like the strip in Vegas.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, it's like I'm guessing if you gets your at
those bars every night, paying seven times a price for
a cocktail, and we'll coming in and out. But Roberts
is kind of its own thing down there's what we're doing.
I think it was, Oh, Billy Strings had just played,
and I guess he booked out the upstairs, so my
fiddle players, we've got to stay here. He's going to
(27:17):
come and play a song on the stage. So I
was like, you don't have to twist my arm to
stay in Roberts. So we get yeah, two dollars beers
and fried blowing sound.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. What I love about the place is
that the tourists and I am when I'm there, obviously,
but they just walk by. You know, it's the last
place they want to go, that place, and right the
music's music's too good for them. They want to go
to one of the big name bars. So yeah, I
like to settle in and enjoy some music there and
coming through the back.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Anyways, I always appreciate when people discover that place. You know,
we've been going for a while. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I love it there. It's one of my favorite
bars here and it's definitely my favorite bar. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, awesome. What's next on the tour? Where you next?
Anything exciting?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Uh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I just got back from from Texas for a couple
of days, play the show and did a podcast some buddies,
and then I'm in town this week writing some meetings
and whatnot to podcasts, and then my bend comes down
and we head to Colorado for a show on the
twenty second Mexico and then back down to Texas for
(28:24):
a few Exarcanada back to Nashville.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, we got a nice little tour coming.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And you traveled with some other artists. I know, I
saw you. Riley was you were?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Riley Anderson yet great artist, wonderful exposure for him.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, and he's such a good songwriter too.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We became friends here in Nashville, and it was a
few trips after I had already known him.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
He was just chatting with like a couple of guys
in vand saying that he plays bass, like we actually
need a bass purer.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
So we went on tour together and he would open
the shows in Canada and then played as for us,
and then we'd do like full band a couple like
his own songs. So it was like cool exposure for
you know, and the people that came out to us,
who was this guy? And I's got a bunch of
new fans because he's so damn good. So it was
it's been really cool. He's gonna be on now the
(29:16):
next few runs with us. We're doing that one I
just told you about them. Were doing a big probably
thirty thirty to forty show across Canada thing and it
made him in July.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So yeah, we've got a bunch of more shows together.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it's funny. I bought the tickets to your show here,
and uh my wife was actually stalking him because he
had some cool hat. So the second we arrived, I
gotta go talk to him. I gotta figure out where
you get that hat.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
At oh rased it was his raised rowdy hat.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Raised rowdy. Yeah, She's like, I gotta go figure that out. Anyways,
I thought that was funny. But tell me he needs
a few more songs on Spotify. Man, I got to
hear more of his music. I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, he's got so many killer songs. I think that's
the next thing, is to get more music out.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah. Well, I felt like it was added value to
your show. So I'm glad that you were touring with him.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I know interviews can be a little bit dry sometimes
for those that are listening, But Dallas has some awesome
music on Spotify. I've been enjoying it. It's been my
playlist in the gym.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Not today.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I've been listening to drop Kick Murphy's and I have
not had my Guinness pint yet. I waited till after we.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Man, you get have done it right here. I'm happy
with that.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I kind of felt bad when you booked today because
I'm looking at like, well, I'm going to be in this,
you know, working, but you know, I don't know. He's
a musician. He might want to be at the bar
or something.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, I'd never even thought about it. I was just like, hey,
I'll be right back from Texas.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I got only a few days before we take off,
and they're all kind of jam packed. But I have
in my schedule, buddy of mine is playing, you know,
Saint Patty's show, a bunch of my friends. They're all
going to be playing at one of my very favorite
bars here. So don't worry, I mean, I won't worry
about you going to get something tonight?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Ay before I let you go. You're married, right? Family?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Four kids and I'm actually engaged. But we've been engaged
for so long and I called him half the time fiance.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
As we'll pull the triggers and how many kids for
four kids? Okay, Well, congrats for being on the road
and for having a supportive wife. I think I heard
you say that's his sister in law that tours with
you or your sister in law.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Ye, my sister in law tours with us.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah. My brother in law was my first sniper TL
in Iraq when I deployed as a sniper. So like
we got to and this I'm really building, trying to
build it as a family business as much as I can. Anyway,
Like my older son's starting to play guitar. They've come
on tour and neither work merchandise and play a couple
of songs on stage and stuff. So the goal is
(31:38):
if you actually go back to the goal whatever that
long view like vision.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I have of where I want to go. I want
to have like a business full of family moving on.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
There you go, nothing better. You know what happened in
this country when we stop getting away from the family unit.
You know, we're pushing our kids out of our houses
and go off here and go off there. We homeschool.
My two girls are nine and eleven. We both my
wife and I work from home. We're marketing and we
spend as much time together as we possibly can. We
(32:08):
were just talking before I got them, Like you think
we could take the kids to the bar to get
that pint together? Like, do you think it's okay? Like
you know what.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
We've brought my little ones into Roberts here a handful
of time. It's just awesome.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Sit down and I want to listen to good music.
Kids can come in the daytime, yet a stroller in there.
They both love music. Yeah, man, I am. My whole
plan is all of that, keep everyone together as much
as possible. Selfishly, I want my boys to be on
tour with me if they want to.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
They're both going to be mechanics. The older ones who like.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I just told them like, whatever your job is paying,
I'll pay you more to come on to her if
you want to. I am not saying like you must
stay beside me much. You know you got to get
out there to find adventure too, as young men. But
if you want to this job off the stands.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Make sure they're decel mechanics so they can fix the
RV when you're busting down the road. Yes, sir, hey man,
I'm just I'm pleased that you said yes to the show.
I appreciate you hearing your story and your service and
the music that you're putting out will support you. I
give you everything we can over here. I just am
trying to give back as often as possible. And I
(33:15):
think the message in all this is you can grow
up in a small part of you know nowhere and
not only serve your country but also become a musician
and do quite well out of it. So thanks for
saying yes to all those things and being here.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, it's perfectly literally any Confucius.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And by the way, you're pretty intimidating in person. You're
sitting there behind the camera. I've seen your phones. Like
I walked up to you. What are you like six two?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I've heard this.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, I'm almost six or five actually, like, damn, sort
of surprised if you know, we're just online.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And then needed person did not expect that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, then I was like, that's the kind of guy
I want serving in the military. Thank god we had
him right, Yeah, I guess. Hey, look, last thing, I'm
pretty famous for watching tour dates. So if I don't
see some mt behind some of those cities, I'm gonna
call you out.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I understand your next tour you're not coming through, but
eventually you want to see you back up here in
Montana because I don't like.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
To travel too far.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
We're already working on it, chatting with some people at
Montana and Wyoming right on.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Love it. Well, thanks for being on the show. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We hope that through these stories.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You can learn to create your own destiny by saying yes.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Along the way, join us.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
As we explored the new series, governing topics such as passion, integrity,
and art work. I'm your host, Jim Riley, and I
hope you enjoyed these interviews as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I believe that everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Has an important message work hearing. Hey, welcome to the
Answer Yes Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I've had some
great guests on recently, and the list just keeps getting
better and better and better. And today I've got Dallas
Alexander on the line. Hey, buddy, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing good. How you doing today? Good?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm following your travels on Instagram. I suppose that's what
we all do these days. You were in Texas yesterday
driving last night. Here you are Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, that's right, Texas and Santa See.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Dude, I love it. I thought we'd get something out
of the way real quick, and uh, that is this
is going to help clean out all my followers. If
I got any bad ones. You've been very proactive. You've
been very proactive on your social media last couple of
days about your feelings on on what I don't know,
tariffs and things that are happening in Canada. And it's like,
(01:27):
I'm appreciative of your point of view, I guess is
what I wanted to say, and thank you, you know,
I mean, I just I'm obviously from Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I spend a lot of time in the US, playing
music all the time here in Nashville, and.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I just think it's absurd. We've gone through so much.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
With our current government and people just keep falling into
this trap like, oh, they're putting it on the news,
I better pay attention. The last thing we need to
worry about is what another country is taxing like our
own countries taxed, like about the ass It's insane and
be people are getting up set up. I'm like, we
(02:02):
got a whole bunch of other things to fix before
we worry about someone else making a business deal with
us from another.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Country like yeah, yeah. And then I think one of
the other comments was about your new prime minister's election process.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That was rather interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
The whole system is just man it's crazy. This is
why I spend time Tennessee and Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I love that, more appreciative for that. And you know,
I have a lot of great Canadian friends, and I
think that, you know, what we see in the news
isn't a good representation of the people that live and
work there.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
And oh it's a horrible one. I say that about
the news in general. I say that about social media.
I just did a post about this. Like, you know,
everyone thinks like the other side of their opinion is
it's just whack jobs. It doesn't matter if you're on
the left or the right. You think the other side
is just like these insane people who don't know what
facts are and blah blah blah, two different groups working
(02:55):
in different truths.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We too, are constantly I'm all over the US, I'm
all over Canada.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Everyone I meet, like, with a huge, huge, huge percentage
of that ninety nine point nine nine nine nine are
just good people wanted to like figure out life, try
and do their best and be nice to others, mostly
listen to good music, whatever they think that is, and
like that's it. Like the internet makes us think the
world is way crazier than it is. So I just
(03:24):
challenge you think it's that insane people are that I've lost,
put down your phone and like, go talk to people.
You find that most people are just really Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I love that coming from the road literally because you're
out there touring. I often talk about in business, especially
when things got wacky well the last ten years, about
racism and everything else. I said, hey, just what are
your own truths? What do you know in your own
neighborhood down the street, like you said, just good people
out there. Let's have a beer, Let's have a coffee,
let's hang out, let's listen to good music. That's my truth.
(03:55):
You know, it was crazy up here and you were
just hearing Kallaspell playing Black Rifle. Coffee Company was awesome.
So we have a local rodeo. It's called the Brash
Rodeo Series. It happens at the Majestic Arena. Well, during
the middle of covid Or towards the beginning, they had
a full house, no masks on, actually no offense. There
was like four people from Canada that had masks on
(04:17):
out of like you know, six hundred and I know
that because the MC called them out and said, where
you guys from? Canada and they're like, yeah, we're from Anyways.
You know, I went back to the school board. I said, look,
you guys are trying to mask up my kids, but
there's an entire arena right down the street of cowboys
with no masks on, Like what is our truth here?
So anyways, thanks for having a voice, not only in
(04:38):
music and in your background, but also just for some
of the things that are popping up that are just
so wacky.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, I mean, I just there's a lot of people that, like,
you know, they say, if you're in music, you probably
shouldn't be saying this or that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I I try to be as open minded.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I've headed with stuff as possible.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I think there's value and just pointing out some things
and passing along some things that I think about.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And I'm sure I lose some fans.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, but that's all right, cost of being honest. Right, Well,
let's get to know you a little bit. I know that,
and understand that you're in the military or you were
in the military, and I love you. Know, maybe you
can start pre military, how you grew up, where you
grew up, and then why you got into the military,
and me I know you had a nice status there,
very appreciative of what you did in the military. Then
(05:29):
we can roll into music if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Canada,
like northern Alberta along the Alberta's Sketch from border, little
indigenous community. It's called the Meji Settlement, sort of like
a reservation in the States. Yeah, tiny little place, free
to run wild. I played hockey my whole life. I
(05:51):
thought that's what I wanted to do, Uh, just play
professional hockey. And then after junior hockey it was kind
of decision time. So I was going to go played
pro hockey somewhere, which I probably could have played maybe
a semi pro or a European league or something.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I wasn't going to go to the NHL.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And then that's when I learned kind of about this unit,
well sort of about the military Canada, which I had
no idea about it, and then about this special operations
unit that we had. I learned that working in the
oil field, like after my kind of last junior year,
and then I just my focus switched immediately.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I was like, Wow, I want to go do that job.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It sounds really hard. It seems badass, and it wasn't
much more than that. I was like, I think I
would be good at you know, killing bad guys.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Sounds like that's what they do.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And it was kind of this young man adventure and
some ego and all of this stuff sounds like a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let me go to find out. And I just remember
my focus shifting like so fast from hockey. It's like,
this is what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It reminds me of Willie's Distillery here in Montana and
this on Towna. They make a product called the Devil's Brigade.
Have you had that?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I have a bottle of it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, Just the story behind that reminds me of
the Canadians and the Americans getting together to create the
Devil's Brigade. And he trained in Helena and a bunch
of you know, ruckus guys, you know, getting ready to
go off to war. And apparently they were one of
the most dangerous troops in World War Two and one
of the most by the Germans. You know, so pretty awesome.
So when I think about your venture in the military
(07:26):
coming from Canada, I feel like the same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, it was great. We worked with the US guys
a lot. Yeah, with your Adelta dudes quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And I trained a few times with your seals out
of the gym beach and I never deployed them.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But yeah, and rangers and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We're always hanging out overseas or doing stuff together and
it's a great partnership.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah. How long do you serve and what was it?
What was it like getting out, I mean transitioning back
to civilian life.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, about seventeen years. I got in.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You have to do two years in the regular military
before you can try out go on selection for our
special operations unit.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I joined the.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Infantry, did my two years, but in all the required
paperwork and requests, and did all the testing to go
on selection, somehow miraculously passed selection, and then equally miraculously
passed the assault course just like I think it ended
up being about ten months something like that, just learn
(08:32):
all the skill sets, baseline of everything where you can
get to the unit and start doing the real learning.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So yeah, got in.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Two years and a bit doing like basic training, and
then the two years in the battalion that had to
run a selection, and I spent the rest of my
time just about fourteen years in our Special Operations Unit
JTF two and most of that first two years I
think I was squadron and the rest of it I
was a sniper. In the very tail end, last year
(09:05):
and a half, maybe two years, I moved to like
a surveillance true.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, well, compliments to you. You do not look old
enough to have spent seventeen years in the military, especially
in the type of service you gave. So, hey, you
got some good jeans in you.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, all right, that's my half indigenous sides.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah, Well, we certainly appreciate your service, no matter
what country you were serving, for doing what was right.
So coming back to civilian life, and I think I
understood somewhere. I heard that you started to play a
little music while you were in the military, you know,
dabbling around. So that's is that where that began for you?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah? I was like, I mean, I'd always loved music.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I sang sort of in a high school band with
some buddies, played like alternative rock stuff. They were really
good musicians. It's like, oh, these guys might actually meet musicians. Hey,
I just it was never something I I thought would
be a thing, especially after you know, we did that
for a year or two and kind of played a
couple of gigs at school and that was that was
(10:08):
kind of it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I never really learned to play the guitar.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I ended up buying one when I was twenty or so,
and my whole goal when I got it was like,
I want to learn so that I could sing a
song at the campfire because it was such a big
part of our community, and like a good friend of
mine his family was all very musical and they would
pass the guitar.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Around and the fiddles and people are singing.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I was like, one day, I'm going to be able
to grab that guitar when they pass it and play.
So so that was kind of my first goal of
buying guitar, and I just ignored it because the job
was really busy.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I was deploying all the time.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And then in twenty nineteen, I was like halfway to
the end of August, so I just got into the
fall like again, my folks, but the unit was kind
of changing, becoming not really a place that I loved
as much anymore, and I remember my focus changing just
like before, from hockey to special operations. I was like,
(11:03):
I'm going to be a songwriter. So I started doing
that and I went to as many open mics as
I could, and then once I could learn enough songs
that you know, I had to play for three hours
at a pub or whatever, I just started emailing and
calling and harassing every bar that had live music until
they booked me. And yeah, I was playing like sometimes
four or five times a week, and then I would
(11:25):
pack up gostally, go to the back to work the
next day and shoot guns and do all that stuff,
and pack up the drive down to the next pub
in some town, set up and play.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I was really trying to. I mean a lot of
my favorite musicians growing up, I heard them talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That, you know, playing a million bar rooms and sometimes
they played to nobody, and sometimes it's packed m hm.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Times it sucks, and sometimes long hours.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But just figuring out how to play in front of
people and be outside of your comfort zone, I think
it's a big one.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And so that you know, that's kind of a big
statement right here. You're going from military kind of a
tight unit. I'm sure all of a sudden you're playing
on stages in front of strangers. That's a complete one
to eighty from your lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Oh, well, I've said this before, even after my military service,
and this is like overseas deployments, going to war and
jumping out of airplanes And the scariest thing I'd ever
done was the first open mic.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I was terrified.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, yeah, what was your inspiration for some of the
songs that you wrote? And I know that's kind of
a generic question a lot of people like to ask,
but you know, your songs seem to hit a heart
string in terms of the titles of them. I think
it goes back to your roots, you know, growing up
on the res and then your military and then who
you are today. Is that where that comes from? I
(12:48):
mean pretty fast a.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Lot of them. I mean I kind of draw.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
From, you know, like any song, right, different parts of
your life and growing up where I did such a
huge part of who I am. I think it really
like it made it instilled the love for just freedom
and adventure into me from as soon as I was
a child, I was allowed to just go roaming force
(13:13):
I'll see you guys on Sunday on weekends and just
go sleep in the woods or whatever. And I kind
of I've definitely kept that, you know, that want for
just freedom and adventure, so that played a big part
of my life.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And then yeah, I mean I've yet to write a
hockey song gigantic role in my life. Maybe I will.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And then the military, Yeah, I kind of drop from
all that stuff, and you know, trying to navigate that
and growing up out of the country and mixed between,
like because I wasn't I wasn't fully indigenous and I
wasn't fully white. We're called metis or like a half breed.
So I would be like track and field fighting with
the Indian kids because they thought I was white, and
(13:56):
then fighting with the white kids because they thought I
was an I just remember being in so many scraps
and I'm like, where do we belong here? But I
had a good group of friends, like in our tiny
little community and stuff. But yeah, so I kind of
draw from all of that when when I'm writing, just
sort of try to remember how how I was feeling.
(14:17):
For me when I play these songs, I'm like, it's
so visual every time we played all the time, times,
night after night night, and it still just takes me
back to like exact locations.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And things that I'm writing about the feel, and.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I think that's one of the things I love the
most about music. I do a lot of running myself
runner pastures and stuff and listening to old music. It
always takes you right back to where you were when
you heard that first song. And I was curious that
if that happens with an artist, and obviously it sounds
like it does.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I mean for me, it does.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
It's like this time travel every single time, Like when
I play Audios and Ego, I'm back in Iraq and Moslam.
When I play Child was Lying in the Settlement I
grew up in.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Just see it fe Yeah, I love that song, by
the way. I heard you play it for the you
know in my mind the first time I heard it
here in Callispell, but I might see you've been promoting
it recently. I'm curious what kind of backlash are you
getting for that song from from the more liberal minded
people that you know?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I mean, I think the only real backlash that ever
happens is just people upset in the comments section.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
And again it goes back to my point of like, like,
no one, I've invited tons of people you want to
discuss this coming to my show.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, I'll talk to you, but obviously no one comes
to my show and confronts me on a problem they have,
So it just ends in the comment section, really, and
for me, I don't care.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think that it's either that or we've had I mean,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You could kind of call it backlash, and this is
just an overarching I think it's people's assumption of my opinions,
and we have had venues that just will not allow.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Us to book there or come play shows. Kase Extremes,
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Know, I told you before we hit record. I am
a strong supporter of our military and our first responders
are law enforcement. My dad was a sheriff, my grandfather
was World War Two, my dad was Vietnam. They both
talked me out of going into both military and law enforcement,
(16:24):
but I try to do whatever I can. I don't
think that people understand the magnitude of the commitment of
law enforcement, first responders and our military and what you
actually go through on the front lines. You know, I've
been robbed at gunpoint three times. I could imagine that
happening every single day in your life.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah, or like some version of that. Yeah, Yeah, I
mean I try to I try to remember that too.
When you know, meeting people are talking to people and.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's like anything in life, just a different path you
don't fully know, you know. And I gave this example
the other day, you know, like someone that grew up
addicted to drugs or on the street or something. Even
if they turn it around, there the perspective on life
that they've gone through them, it's really hard to know
what that is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And I think that's the same for first responder and military.
So I try not to be like, you don't know
what it's like.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You know what I mean, Give some, give some some
kindness instead, because it is like a job. I mean,
I can only speak from my own experience, but we're
gone all the time, training all the time, deployed all
the time, and it just it kind of turns you
into a little bit of a different type of personally.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I think, yeah, yeah, well I think when I think
about that in terms of what it must be like,
because again I didn't experience that. But when I hear
a song like Audios and Ego, I look at it differently,
you know, I look at it and this is a
powerful song. Maybe maybe it's not only a great song,
but an outlet or a way to express some things
you know at a time in your life. So I'm
(18:02):
appreciative for it, and I was curious what kind of
response you were getting out the market.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
No, the response has been great, honestly, the I think
I have a following that is like just really supportive
in terms of music and online, really great people for the.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Most like for the most part.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know, there's an odd thing I'll postow up, yeah
in the comment section, but I always try if something
crazy like that happens and a post is getting a
ton of attention and it's in a negative way, I
try to again to a poster of mind people that
even if you know this will be like two sides
fighting in my comment section, and I'm like, yeah, this
is just let's remember that most people are.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Pretty Yeah, hey, let's let's come to a show and
have a beer together. We'll have a good time. At
what point did you transition from just doing as many
open mic nights as you could to really that singer songwriter.
I heard you talk about being a songwriter and being
in some rooms with some great people and really going Okay,
this is is a profession now and I'm going to
hit the road as a professional.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Well, I mean from the day I retired, I was like,
this is the only thing I'm doing. Don't have a plan,
b this is all of my focus. You know that
goes into anything professional. I was going into this, and
so it was really the day I retired from the military,
I was prepping for that. I was playing as many
bar shows as I could. I was writing songs as
much as I could on my own, trying to learn
(19:26):
what it was and what it meant, to get better guitar,
better at singing. But yeah, once I retired, I ended
up coming down here to Nashville, you know, not too
long after, maybe five or six months after I retired,
and do some ticket and shows and small places and
just trying to switch from you know, bar gigs to
actual shows, songwriter nights or concerts.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Ended up going on tour across Canada with a guy
Naed Gored Bamford. He's a big, big country star in
Canada and helped this immensely. Signed with his management.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Company and they they still do a lot of the
management stuff for me.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Then I just started coming to Nashville as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And learning this town to meet people and songwriters, and
I mean I moved through.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So I've been actually rather impressed with your integration into
a lot of the larger influencers that we all see
on social media. I believe you're on the Sean Ryan
Show not too long ago. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's
kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So cool.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, he has a big, massive following, and it's really
cool that, like, not only is he has.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
An awesome podcast, he's a great dude. He just like
it opened so many doors.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
It opened a lot of people up to like, oh,
let's check out his music too, So it brought a
lot of people, like you know, who would have been
there to follow a different past career into what I
was doing.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Now. Yeah, it's been very valuable. Yeah, an audience he has,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, it seems like and again this is another area
where I'm appreciative to see it unfold, is that there's
a number of veterans that are very prevalent in not
only the media, but in social media as well as
kind of in the narrative that's happening around the country.
And I love that, you know, between Andy from Black
(21:18):
Rifle and you know, kind of his crew and yourself
and Sean Ryan and and all these people coming in.
I mean, we have two vets that are in the Senate,
one in the Senate, when in the Congress from Montana
we got Tim Sheehey, who I spent a lot of
time with him last year.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
What what is that? I mean, what is happening in
that world of vets that that's rising to the top,
because I hope we get a lot more of that.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
I think it's like in a way, continued service. Now
some of it is also capitalizing on like a previous
career to help you with your new endeavor. Yeah, and
like I mean, some people don't like to say that,
but it is in fact you get it respect, you know,
for being in the military.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
You serve and gave stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
And I'm like, you know, some people go about it,
especially coming from special operations. There are some just like, well,
don't say anything.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I'm like, too bad.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I'm like, that was a huge part of my life.
I'm going to use it in the next round. It'll
be in music, it'll be a songs. I'll tell stories
about it. So I think there's that you kind of
have something that people respect.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It took some vetting and hard.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Work, and there's characteristics that you know, make you into
a person that can serve that way. So it's almost
like we're doing this thing now and we've sort of
been through this vetting, but you can kind of probably
trust us more than just an.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Average business scammer. But then I think it's a continuation
of service.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like you know, all the guys you just mentioned are
doing amazing things for their communities and for spreading the
word on certain things, and just like so it's just
like this continuation of service, but in a different way.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, well, I think I'll say publicly you share it
with you friends. As a father of two daughters and
a wife and you know, had not served. I'm so
appreciative of everybody stepping up, you know, when I when
I look at somebody like Tulsi Gabbard, you know, practicing
jiu jitsu yesterday on her social media with her niece
or something like that, kicking some butts, like that's the
(23:18):
kind of person I want work, you know, serving for
this country, you know. And so anyways, I love the
network of people that you're involved with, and I'm appreciative
for it, and I'm glad that you're seeing some results
from Sean Ryan show. I hope you get a few
more followers from this show. Let's just transition back into music.
Where do you see your career going or how does
(23:38):
it explode? And I asked that from the light of
back in the day, I did work with the Canadian
I spent four years on tour with Michael Bubla. When
I was I was the vice president of Cuttle one
Vik and we sponsored his tour and I got to
travel with him and get to know him really well
and his team, and I watched how that progressed from
kind of where you're at today, you know, selling tickets
in a small venue. And I remember Bruce Allen up
(24:02):
there in Canada, Goes Jim, he did Slandon and Journey
and all these guys. He says, one day we're going
to sell out the Staples are and I'm like, really, okay,
we'll see what happened, you know. So where do you
see your career going?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I try it so for me, I look at it
more as I have a guiding light.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't really have check porns.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
So like for me, I want to be the best
guitar player, songwriter and vocalist I can, and I want
to continue to grow towards that, like just forever, and
I think along the way, like I work really hard
on the business side of it and touring, branding and.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
All of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I just I try to stay open to things and opportunities,
and I just I mean, I love what I'm doing
and where I'm at right now. So it's I just
I don't have any metric where I'm like, oh, once
that happens, yeah, I made it because, like, I've had.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Some very cool experiences. We played with an artist, we
played with.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
An open form written with and like my mom called
me that my song is on the radio.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And I was driving down here in Nashville, uh, just.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
West of the city, like a few weeks ago, and
I was going to like a photoshoot thing for some
content and my song came on as I was driving,
and I was like, hey, that is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Beyond cool.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So there's just all kinds of stuff like that where
I love it and I wouldn't almost wouldn't even wanna.
Now something goes viral, gets gajillion views and there's a
way more attention.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That's obviously great, But I love the process of it.
I love.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Small tickets first, and then some bigger stuff and then
some sellouts, and then you go back and you're like,
there's like ten people here, and then it's a thousand people,
and you know, I like getting to experience all of that.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It's funny. As a consumer of music, you always look back, go, man,
I wish I would have saw them win. Right. My
wife and I she's she was a big fan on
a John party and we saw him at some Honckey talks,
you know, ten twenty people, epic shows up in La.
We went to La show, there was like one hundred
and fifty people. And now it's like, Okay, he's playing
all the big tours. You know. Same thing with Aaron
(26:16):
Watson who's not on a label, but he's selling out
big shows out of Texas, and it's like, man, I
wish I would have saw some of these people win.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
So I'm fortunate I got to see you at Black Rifle.
Thanks for them for having you.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Heh.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, I'm excited to come back to Montana and we
went to Wyoming was super cool.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah. Hey, let's not get too far away without talking
about sell you at Roberts Bar, my favorite place in Nashville,
getting some blooney sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, we get stopping there every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I mean now that I I live here, or at
least spend a lot of time here, I don't really
go to Broadway yeah much because it is very crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, like the strip in Vegas.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, it's like I'm guessing if you gets your at
those bars every night, paying seven times a price for
a cocktail, and we'll coming in and out. But Roberts
is kind of its own thing down there's what we're doing.
I think it was, Oh, Billy Strings had just played,
and I guess he booked out the upstairs, so my
fiddle players, we've got to stay here. He's going to
(27:17):
come and play a song on the stage. So I
was like, you don't have to twist my arm to
stay in Roberts. So we get yeah, two dollars beers
and fried blowing sound.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. What I love about the place is
that the tourists and I am when I'm there, obviously,
but they just walk by. You know, it's the last
place they want to go, that place, and right the
music's music's too good for them. They want to go
to one of the big name bars. So yeah, I
like to settle in and enjoy some music there and
coming through the back.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Anyways, I always appreciate when people discover that place. You know,
we've been going for a while. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I love it there. It's one of my favorite
bars here and it's definitely my favorite bar. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, awesome. What's next on the tour? Where you next?
Anything exciting?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Uh? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I just got back from from Texas for a couple
of days, play the show and did a podcast some buddies,
and then I'm in town this week writing some meetings
and whatnot to podcasts, and then my bend comes down
and we head to Colorado for a show on the
twenty second Mexico and then back down to Texas for
(28:24):
a few Exarcanada back to Nashville.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, we got a nice little tour coming.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And you traveled with some other artists. I know, I
saw you. Riley was you were?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Riley Anderson yet great artist, wonderful exposure for him.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, and he's such a good songwriter too.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We became friends here in Nashville, and it was a
few trips after I had already known him.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
He was just chatting with like a couple of guys
in vand saying that he plays bass, like we actually
need a bass purer.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
So we went on tour together and he would open
the shows in Canada and then played as for us,
and then we'd do like full band a couple like
his own songs. So it was like cool exposure for
you know, and the people that came out to us,
who was this guy? And I's got a bunch of
new fans because he's so damn good. So it was
it's been really cool. He's gonna be on now the
(29:16):
next few runs with us. We're doing that one I
just told you about them. Were doing a big probably
thirty thirty to forty show across Canada thing and it
made him in July.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So yeah, we've got a bunch of more shows together.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it's funny. I bought the tickets to your show here,
and uh my wife was actually stalking him because he
had some cool hat. So the second we arrived, I
gotta go talk to him. I gotta figure out where
you get that hat.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
At oh rased it was his raised rowdy hat.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Raised rowdy. Yeah, She's like, I gotta go figure that out. Anyways,
I thought that was funny. But tell me he needs
a few more songs on Spotify. Man, I got to
hear more of his music. I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, he's got so many killer songs. I think that's
the next thing, is to get more music out.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah. Well, I felt like it was added value to
your show. So I'm glad that you were touring with him.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I know interviews can be a little bit dry sometimes
for those that are listening, But Dallas has some awesome
music on Spotify. I've been enjoying it. It's been my
playlist in the gym.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Not today.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I've been listening to drop Kick Murphy's and I have
not had my Guinness pint yet. I waited till after we.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Man, you get have done it right here. I'm happy
with that.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I kind of felt bad when you booked today because
I'm looking at like, well, I'm going to be in this,
you know, working, but you know, I don't know. He's
a musician. He might want to be at the bar
or something.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, I'd never even thought about it. I was just like, hey,
I'll be right back from Texas.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I got only a few days before we take off,
and they're all kind of jam packed. But I have
in my schedule, buddy of mine is playing, you know,
Saint Patty's show, a bunch of my friends. They're all
going to be playing at one of my very favorite
bars here. So don't worry, I mean, I won't worry
about you going to get something tonight?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Ay before I let you go. You're married, right? Family?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Four kids and I'm actually engaged. But we've been engaged
for so long and I called him half the time fiance.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
As we'll pull the triggers and how many kids for
four kids? Okay, Well, congrats for being on the road
and for having a supportive wife. I think I heard
you say that's his sister in law that tours with
you or your sister in law.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Ye, my sister in law tours with us.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah. My brother in law was my first sniper TL
in Iraq when I deployed as a sniper. So like
we got to and this I'm really building, trying to
build it as a family business as much as I can. Anyway,
Like my older son's starting to play guitar. They've come
on tour and neither work merchandise and play a couple
of songs on stage and stuff. So the goal is
(31:38):
if you actually go back to the goal whatever that
long view like vision.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I have of where I want to go. I want
to have like a business full of family moving on.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
There you go, nothing better. You know what happened in
this country when we stop getting away from the family unit.
You know, we're pushing our kids out of our houses
and go off here and go off there. We homeschool.
My two girls are nine and eleven. We both my
wife and I work from home. We're marketing and we
spend as much time together as we possibly can. We
(32:08):
were just talking before I got them, Like you think
we could take the kids to the bar to get
that pint together? Like, do you think it's okay? Like
you know what.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
We've brought my little ones into Roberts here a handful
of time. It's just awesome.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Sit down and I want to listen to good music.
Kids can come in the daytime, yet a stroller in there.
They both love music. Yeah, man, I am. My whole
plan is all of that, keep everyone together as much
as possible. Selfishly, I want my boys to be on
tour with me if they want to.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
They're both going to be mechanics. The older ones who like.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I just told them like, whatever your job is paying,
I'll pay you more to come on to her if
you want to. I am not saying like you must
stay beside me much. You know you got to get
out there to find adventure too, as young men. But
if you want to this job off the stands.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Make sure they're decel mechanics so they can fix the
RV when you're busting down the road. Yes, sir, hey man,
I'm just I'm pleased that you said yes to the show.
I appreciate you hearing your story and your service and
the music that you're putting out will support you. I
give you everything we can over here. I just am
trying to give back as often as possible. And I
(33:15):
think the message in all this is you can grow
up in a small part of you know nowhere and
not only serve your country but also become a musician
and do quite well out of it. So thanks for
saying yes to all those things and being here.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, it's perfectly literally any Confucius.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And by the way, you're pretty intimidating in person. You're
sitting there behind the camera. I've seen your phones. Like
I walked up to you. What are you like six two?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I've heard this.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, I'm almost six or five actually, like, damn, sort
of surprised if you know, we're just online.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And then needed person did not expect that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, then I was like, that's the kind of guy
I want serving in the military. Thank god we had
him right, Yeah, I guess. Hey, look, last thing, I'm
pretty famous for watching tour dates. So if I don't
see some mt behind some of those cities, I'm gonna
call you out.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I understand your next tour you're not coming through, but
eventually you want to see you back up here in
Montana because I don't like.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
To travel too far.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
We're already working on it, chatting with some people at
Montana and Wyoming right on.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Love it. Well, thanks for being on the show. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Thanks for having me.
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