WEBVTT - #477 - Rascal Flatts Special Episode (They're Back Together!) 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:07.360 Ladies and gentlemen. We are experiencing technical difficulties. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:10.080 This is the Bobby Cast. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.480 Hey, welcome to episode four seventy seven. Let's talk about 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.520 Rascal Flats. So it's a special episode and we've had 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.640 these guys in over the past ten years and now 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:21.599 they're back together again, so we thought we'd kind of 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.840 walk down that trail together. Now. If you remember, they 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:26.760 were about to go on a farewell tour in twenty 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.760 twenty within COVID hit and they never got to go 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.520 out on the road and say goodbye because well they 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.640 were breaking up. And then they just went ahead and 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.360 broke up and decided they do stuff individually. So that's 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.239 what they did. So you had Gary who went out 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.960 and performed solo and did a Christian album, and he 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.159 had Jay who started a record label, and he had 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.640 Jodahn who took some time to work on his health. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.279 And so what we did is we went back through 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.120 the archives and a lot of this is from when 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.240 I was talking to them individually from the past decade. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.000 And I want to start first with Jada Marcus. Jay 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.680 has dark hair. He's one of the two cousins. Jay 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.240 plays what like bass guitar, he plays a little bit 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:08.040 of everything. He's super savant as far as music comes. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.280 But this is Jay talking about how Rascal Flats came 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:12.880 together back in the day, what Nashville was like when 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.440 they first started out, and he shared what he thought 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.280 the future of the band was gonna be, like, we'll 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.760 go to back to the beginning of the Flats or 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.040 Rascal Flats, not the Rascal Flats. So if everybody's listening 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.720 right now, I'll call him the Rascal Flats, dear God. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.560 So we're gonna we're gonna move past college. We'll get 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.560 back to that in a minute. You're in town and 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:38.959 you have a cousin that you guys weren't super close. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.600 We weren't growing up, but we lost touch, right, and 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:44.559 which is Gary? 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:45.319 Yeah? 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.720 And Gary had been winning some karaoke competitions. Yeah. 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.160 So I kept hearing grumblings back home when I would 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.720 go back for the holidays that hey, you know your 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.680 cousin Gary, he's been singing a little bit. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:01:59.960 And I'd be like, really, that's new. 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.400 And it wasn't that I was being mean about it, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.360 but I was following my own path and I had 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.240 the Christian band. And then somebody told me that he 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.600 was talking to a producer in La about doing an 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.560 R and B thing and that he and Jamie Fox 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.160 had spent some time together. My uncle had actually told 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.760 me that, and I was like, he knows Jamie Fox. 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.280 That's kind of cool. And it was lost on me 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.040 that again, he was talking about singing and doing a 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:26.560 pop thing. 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:28.519 And then my mom. 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.160 Called me one day and she goes, now, your cousin 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.800 Gary's gonna call you and you need to listen to 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.720 him sing. He's been winning some contests up here. He's 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:43.200 been singing in Ohio and oh yeah, and you need 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:44.359 to listen to him sing. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.080 I was like, Mom, are you kidding me? 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.919 The last thing I want to do is tell some 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.320 family member who I'm not really that close to anymore, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.280 you shouldn't try this. And she said, well, I've talked 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.840 to She called Judy Gary's mother, Jude Babe. They were 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:02.800 closer than sisters. 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:03.359 They still are. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.200 She said, well, listen, I've already told Jude Babe that 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:07.840 you're going to listen to him, so you just need 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.560 to let him come over there when he's down there 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:11.720 and sing for you. Well, he was on his way 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.880 to vacation in Florida, and he stopped by my apartment 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.600 in Brentwood and I sat down, and I believe, if 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.240 I'm remembering correctly, the first song he sang was One 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.240 Last Cry by Brian McKnight, and I knew it well 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.120 enough on the piano to kind of hack through it, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.160 and he just stopped me in my tracks. I mean, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.399 when he opens his voice and you hear that come 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:36.600 out of him, it's otherworldly. I mean, I describe it 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.960 in the book as all of these ingredients of gospel 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.720 and R and B and country rolled up into one. 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.440 I'd never heard anything quite like it before, and it 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:51.360 had an immediate, identifiable personality to it that was just 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.360 shocking to me. And we kept talking over the next 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.240 several weeks, several months, and I said, you know, you 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.560 got to move to town. It's never going to find you 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.840 in Columbus. And he was struggling because he had a 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.680 great job, he had debt, he had bills, he'd already 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.400 forged a life for himself. And he called me one 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.320 day and he said, that's it, I'm coming to town. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.720 I can't do this anymore. And if I don't do it, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.760 I'm afraid I'll regret it for the rest of my life. 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.920 And he lived on my couch. I had a one 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.159 bedroom apartment and he lived on my couch, and we 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.280 played everywhere we could, and when people would hear him, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.000 the reaction was just undeniable. You could see it in 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.920 their faces. They were like, oh my god, this guy 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.400 is up there singing Merle Haggard, but singing like r 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.240 and b licks in it. And now if you turn 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.240 on country radio, you hear a whole host of singers 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.400 that were touched by him and influenced by him. And 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.760 that's a testament to what his gift was and what 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.280 he was able to bring to this town and build upon. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.440 So you guys are playing show as a printer's alley 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:53.480 a couple nights a week, few nights. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.440 A week, Yeah, and doesn't even exist anymore in the 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.479 place we played, well was it? It was a fiddle 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.080 and steel guitar bar, and think it's a boutique hotel. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:02.760 Now. So you go and you say, hey, Gary, we're 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.279 gonna get a gig, just the two of us. And 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.520 how do you get that gig? Do you go up 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:09.920 in to say, hey guy, here's the tape. What's that? 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.200 I'll tell you so the guy playing up on stage, 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:14.800 we'd go in and hear him sing, and he would 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.680 let us sit in and do a song. The owner 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.080 was in there one night, Allison was her name, and 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.160 Greg Perkins. They owned it together, and she walked over 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:25.600 and she said, would you guys want to do a 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.760 night here? And Gary said, I don't even live here 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.560 full time. I'm just visiting on the weekends. She said, 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.360 if you guys will do a couple of nights here 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.159 a week, I'll fire him and give you his gig. 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:37.120 The guy that you were singing, the guy that was 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.440 letting us, the guy that helped you. That's how cutthroat 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.719 Nashville is, you know. And and we so we left 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:46.760 and we talked about it, and I said, do you 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:48.400 do you want to do this? And then that that's 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.200 I think that's around the time he called me and said, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.840 I'm moving to town. Let's take that gig and see 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.400 see what happens. And it was the two of us 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.919 sitting beside a cigarette machine, and I had my keyboard 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.640 and he had a mic when I had Mike's. And 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.800 we sometimes there were two people in there, sometimes there 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.040 were twenty, sometimes there were forty, but slowly but surely, 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.279 we started to build a following that would come in 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.640 and see us. And then the owners came to us 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.960 and said, we're thinking about buying the other side of 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.240 this building, knocking down the wall that separates the two 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.000 putting a stage together. Would you put a band together? 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.159 And I knew a bunch of guys from various bands, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:25.840 and I was sitting in with and Gary and I 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.480 were friends with a circle of buddies that were great 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.960 musicians and had been playing in different places with them. 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:33.120 So we put a band together. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.680 So you're playing with Shelley right at this time too, right, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:39.480 like as your main you can playing with Shelley right. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:40.200 You're playing keys? 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.080 Yeah, I was your band later. 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:44.960 Okay, so you're running the band, you're playing keys, and 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.240 you had hired a guitarist, which was Joe Done. Yeah. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.800 And so when you're putting the band together, is that 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:51.800 when you bring Jo Donne in. 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.320 No, he didn't start playing with us right away. A 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.440 guy named Shane Sutton played with us. Fantastic player, fantastic singer. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.920 And we were playing down there for probably several months, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.080 and then I get a call one night and Shane says, 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.839 man I can't get out of bed. I've got the flu, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.280 I've got a fever, and I'm sorry to do this 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.520 to you, but I can't make it tonight. It was 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.400 on a Monday night, and I thought, oh no, what 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.840 are we gonna do. I know who can play this, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.760 I know who can do it. I'm gonna call Joe on. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.280 I called him up and I said, hey, what are 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.360 you doing tonight? And he's like nothing, I'm just sitting around. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.760 I said, let's let's uh, let's play tonight. 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:30.120 You want to? 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:31.480 You want to sit in with us? 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.040 I said, I've been telling you about my cousin anyway 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:35.440 I want you to. I want you to hear him 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:37.680 and meet him in real life. And I've been telling 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.520 you know, Gary about Jodawn how talented he was. And 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.920 so we pull up the club and Jodahn's sitting his guitar, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.160 lamp up and he's up there tuning up. Gary looks 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.480 at me, he goes, who is that? I said, well, man, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.280 I didn't want to tell you this, but Shane's sick, 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.000 and he goes, are you kidding me? This guy isn't 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.160 gonna know a thing that we do. We got to 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.520 play at all three am and if this sucks, I'm 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.480 out of here. You can have this by yourself. And 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.920 I was like, Gary, please, like, just get him the shot. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.400 He would barely even speak to Joe on It was 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.360 so funny. He was so frustrated. And I understand. See 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.120 Gary was getting up at four thirty am to throw papers. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:15.200 So we finished in the club at two. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:16.560 He slept right to work. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.560 Yeah, and he go right to work throwing papers. So 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:19.760 I understood his frustration. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:22.760 But then we got up there together in the first 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.800 song I think we played it on one of your shows, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.160 is the first song we ever played together was Church 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.200 on the Cumberland Road by Shannondah, And we hit that 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.400 first course man, and I don't know what happened, but 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.840 it was just we all knew immediately. We looked at 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.840 each other like that is good and we've got to 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:38.640 have more of that. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.320 So Shane that original guitar players the name right. It 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.680 basically got Wally pipped, and Wally Pip played first Bays 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:46.920 for the Yankees forever. And while Pip got hurt nothing, 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:48.920 he didn't do anything wrong. I know he got hurt. 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.240 And here it comes, lou Gary was gonna fill in 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:56.080 and then here it's now the lou Gary world. I know, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:57.440 what does Shane say about that? 0:08:57.960 --> 0:08:58.320 Shane. 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.360 Shane's still a buddy of ours. We still see him 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.600 out playing with different artists and playing guitar, but he, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.360 you know, he obviously gives us massive amounts of crap 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.440 for us firing and basically you never I had to 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.160 call him and tell him he couldn't come back, and 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.440 that was really awkward. I was like, I think we're 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.320 gonna go ahead and stick with Joe don but I 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:19.920 think anybody that heard us sing together, and he would 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.040 definitely tell you this too, God that there was a 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.120 special chemistry in a blend that we had that was 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:27.360 not common what. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.319 Was happening in Nashville at that time? Though you got 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.560 you three or now you go, okay, this might be something, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.120 but what was like the environment like because you guys 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.120 cut through so hard because you were so different. Now 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.120 you kind of created where everyone else has gone, so 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:43.880 it doesn't seem like you're that different. You guys have 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.840 opened these roads up for a lot of artists nowadays. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.120 At the time, who was popping around town where they're like, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:51.439 you know what, You're not like them? We don't know 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:52.640 if this is gonna be a thing quite yet. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.040 Yeah, you know, Nashville was pretty safe back then. I 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.800 mean there were glimpses of pop in music. I mean 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.160 you had your South sixty five's and your I forget 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.240 Marshall Dylon was around, but they were definitely trying to 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.880 be five guys that danced and were trying to bring 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.959 the boy band vibe over to country music, and it 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.520 really wasn't resonating because they didn't play instruments. It felt 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.240 no offense to those guys that were trying to make 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:24.199 a living and do something, but it felt contrived, honestly. 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:25.280 And we were. 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.400 Fans of bands that were really great harmony bands like 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.280 Diamond Rio and Shenandoah at the time, and the Eagles 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.640 were a huge influence on us. So that's really what 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.840 we were trying to do, was bring elements of what 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.600 we loved about pop music, but still great authentic harmonies 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.480 and the songs, the meat on the bone of the 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.360 songs with something to say in a different way, is 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.840 really what we tried to hone in on and make 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.840 the foundation of what we were. We weren't even really 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.840 trying to be a band. We didn't set out to 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.880 do that. I wanted to produce and write and help 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.280 Gary get a record deal so that I could try 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.240 to be a record producer and be successful in that way. 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.760 I'd already done the artist thing, and we know how 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.240 that turned out by the book, but it sort of 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.880 had no aspirations to do another artist thing. I wanted 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.840 to kind of forge a different career. But the more 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:18.839 we had a following and the more we sang together, 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.400 it just felt like it was evolving into that. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.959 Let's rewind. I grew up Pentecostal for a while. My 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:26.000 grandmother was Pentecostal. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:26.480 You did. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:31.520 Yeah, scary you know it's for me that when they 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:33.440 would speak in tongues that scared the crap out of there. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.839 I know me too, And so I remember going and 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.880 my grandmother who adopted me for a long time, and 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.160 she would speak in tongues in church, and it never 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.600 became something that I was just like, oh this is 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.360 I was always scared by it. Yeah, this that there 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.000 was so much passion and love in a Pentecostal church, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.960 no doubt the most by the way of all of 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:58.520 you know, my time of of you know, being really 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.000 in the fabric church. That was that was the closest 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:02.880 I'd ever seen church. So as much as I'm like, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:04.959 that scared me, it was also I'd never seen a 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.320 close knit group like the Pentecostal Church. What was your experience, 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:08.800 because I know. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:10.480 That's that was a big part of your life, much 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.320 the same I was scared to death. They always told 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.240 you to bring your friends to church, and I'd say 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.600 to my mom, why would I ever scare want my 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.559 friends to see what lunatics you guys act like when 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.520 you run around and speak in tongues and jump all 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.400 over the pews and everything, And I was never You know, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:29.760 this is the truth, though I have to say it, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.600 I was never very very comfortable in that environment because 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.520 it wasn't the way that I believed that I needed 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.520 to express myself and my beliefs. I was, yeah, and 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.560 it would, and it always troubled me a little bit, 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.520 but I admired the fact that people were so dedicated 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.920 to it. And You're absolutely right, there was so much love, 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.880 so much. I've always felt like I was surrounded by 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:54.839 a family of people that would do anything in the 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.920 world for me, even though I may not have agreed 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:59.640 with exactly how they went about it. 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:00.080 You know. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.240 So for me, I'm glad that I went through that 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.199 because it laid a really deep foundation. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.199 For the groundwork for my faith later on in life. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.800 And I had to really figure out what I believed 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.880 and why I believed it, because I knew I didn't 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.720 believe a much of that stuff that I was exposed to. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.760 And I'm not saying that it wasn't real. It was 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.160 real for them, whatever that was. But I had to 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.480 deconstruct my belief system and figure out why I believed 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.000 what I believed and not just because I was indoctrinated 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:29.000 with it when I was a kid. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.880 And so you start to play music, but you're playing 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.160 Christian music. Now why Christian music? 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.240 Well, I wasn't allowed to listen to quote unquote secular 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.439 music when I was a kid, you know. I couldn't 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.800 listen to Kiss and ac DC and until later on 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:47.720 in life, like a lot of the kids were listening 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.600 to that. So I went turned to bands like Petra 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.360 and Milon Lefever and White Heart and bands that were 0:13:55.920 --> 0:14:00.720 rock but were using a positive christ centered message. Those 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.360 were my influences. And so going to church and believing 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.720 in God myself and believing in Christ myself I started 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:09.679 to write a lot of that kind of music, and 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:11.800 the more I wrote, the more I really got into 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.160 that and felt like maybe that was what I was 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.400 supposed to do. And when I got to college and 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.360 I was working at the studio there on the campus, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.040 I was doing all kinds of demos and having my 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:26.760 roommate Neil sing the demos, and I was mailing them 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.240 to publishers to try to get a songwriting deal. And 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.640 I got a call from Benson Records one day, Don 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:36.680 Cook at Benson Records, not the Country, Don Cook the Koch, 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.520 and he said, I love your band. We'd like to 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.560 bring it to town to talk about doing a record 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.720 on you. And of course had to tell him we're 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:46.480 not a band. I was just trying to get a 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:46.880 pub deal. 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:51.400 But so as you're deciding where to go to school, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.560 these folks come to you and say, if you'll go 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.760 to school here, we'll pay We'll actually pay you away 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.240 your debt, we'll pay your carpet. Like they say, hey, 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.720 we're gonna write yourchther three thousand dollars otherwise, yeah, something 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:03.360 like that. We're gonna pay you if you come to 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.320 school here and perform with the band. That was at school. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.360 Yeah, so this this guy was known for hand picking 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.560 the best musicians at the school and putting together a 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.600 recruiting ensemble. So this this particular group of kids would 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.920 be for singers, for musicians, a couple of other road 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.840 crew and things. And we traveled on a tour bus 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:30.360 and we went around to youth camps, youth conventions, We 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.920 went around to churches, We went around to camp meetings, 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.440 and during a Pentecostal church, I know, you know what 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:37.800 a camp meeting is. But we would sing and then 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.960 we would talk about the school, and so we'd try 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:41.600 to recruit kids to come to the school. 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:43.200 We'd go overseas. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.120 I had the opportunity to see a whole bunch of 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.400 the world at a very young age playing with that group. 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.920 But as long as you played in that group, you 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.440 could keep your scholarship, you could keep going to school. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:55.840 And that's kind of what my job was. So a 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.440 lot of these kids that would go home for this 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.360 summer that wasn't me. I toured all of my summers 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.160 in school, and Neil and I were dear friends. We 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.080 became dear friends, and lo and behold, we ended up 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:10.080 in East to West together. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:12.200 I look like there were more than one lead singer. 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:14.640 We both we both shared leads. 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:15.800 You both were doing the lead. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.400 It worked well for us because I played bass and 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.120 keys too, so then there's no doubt Neil did the 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.880 lion's share of the lead vocals. And I would take 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.280 a verse here or there, and you know, and that 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.120 sort of thing, and maybe sing one song on the 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.440 albums I would sing. So it worked really really well 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.600 because I cared, you know, I was such a musician 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.640 and muse o head that I wanted to like play 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.560 everything I could and play a lot of it on 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.240 the record, and so I was content to let Neil 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:45.920 kind of shine and do his own thing. And he 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.680 was a fantastic singer. But it worked well for us. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.320 I think that's a big part of why, again, from 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.280 the outside looking again, why Flats has been able to 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.440 be so wonderful is that you can sing, but you're 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.320 actually okay not being the lead. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:03.960 When I stand next to somebody that sings like Gary 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.800 does every night, it's like, what's the point. I love 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.080 to sing, and I but I love singing harmony with 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.159 him because I feel like we have something unique and 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.720 he's you know, it's like anything he sings is better 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.160 ten times better than anything I would come up with, 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.520 And that's okay. I think one of our strengths is 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.400 we realize what gifts and strengths we all three individually 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:25.919 bring to the table, and we try to lean on 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.359 those with each other. And you're right, I am okay 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.320 because I get to sing beside one of the greatest 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.480 vocalists I've ever had the privilege of being around every night, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.080 and that's a treat. But I will tell you when 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.120 we played the clubs, you know, we'd have to play 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.640 five hours a night, so we passed around the lead 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.919 vocals a lot more often back then, because it's a 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.480 lot to ask Gary to sing five hours a night 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.240 in smoky bar rooms. Back then, you could still smoke 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.960 in the bar rooms, and so we did sing a 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:54.480 lot more. 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.800 But I saw. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.560 The value of having that lead vocalist a stab and 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.399 the sound that he had was so identifiable and so 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.119 great that it wouldn't It just wasn't that important to 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.000 me to have a song on the record where I sing. Now, 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.720 Joe Don and I have sung verses here and there 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.199 on some songs, but I just don't think it's that 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.440 important to either one of us to like, Oh, look 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.600