Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Interstate Batteries. Now, recently I had a conversation
Speaker 1: with one of my buddies. He's kind of a truck nut,
Speaker 1: a car nut, and he told me that Interstate Batteries
Speaker 1: makes from a technical standpoint, some of the best car
Speaker 1: batteries on the market period, hands down. Not only that,
Speaker 1: but they have thousands of retail locations all over the
Speaker 1: United States. So stop in to a local retail store
Speaker 1: ask the guy who works there about their car batteries.
Speaker 1: In hell, you might as well put one in if
Speaker 1: they're the best in the business. So Interstate Batteries dot
Speaker 1: com is their website. Go there, find out more information
Speaker 1: about the culture of the company, the batteries that these
Speaker 1: guys carry, or just stop into a local retail store.
Speaker 1: Interstate Batteries outrageously dependable. My name is Clayton Ukaman. I'm
Speaker 1: the host of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also
Speaker 1: be your host into the world of hunting the icon
Speaker 1: of the North American Wilderness. There fair we'll talk about tactics,
Speaker 1: gear conservation, but will also bring you into some of
Speaker 1: the wildest country on the Planet Chasing Fair. I don't
Speaker 1: know how much you guys are into, uh, like, modern television.
Speaker 1: I typically have not been, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people like pride themselves on not being into modern television.
Speaker 1: But then when you really dig down, you find that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that they actually watch and enjoy.
Speaker 1: Perhaps perhaps I've found myself in that category and I've
Speaker 1: been caught red handed because this week on the podcast,
Speaker 1: we've got a guy who's become a friend of mine
Speaker 1: that I like got named Cam Spinks. If you know
Speaker 1: that name, then you have recently been watching The Voice
Speaker 1: from NBC. The Voice. It's a television show. It's a
Speaker 1: singing competition. Cam Sphinx is from Alabama and he was
Speaker 1: at the Global headquarters this week. He's a big hunter.
Speaker 1: Cam is a big white tail hunter, turkey hunter, duck hunter.
Speaker 1: We had a really fun conversation with Cam about his
Speaker 1: experience being on this show called The Voice, and a
Speaker 1: lot about his hunting experience and his music. And this
Speaker 1: is just an all around fun podcast that you're gonna enjoy.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our buddies at Northwoods Bear Products.
Speaker 1: Northwoods makes commercial bear sense and we've been using them
Speaker 1: for years, years and there. If you're painting black bears,
Speaker 1: brown bears up in Alaska, it makes sense to use
Speaker 1: a commercial sense. I like their gold Rush, also use
Speaker 1: their powdered products, but they have all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: Check out Northwoods Bear Products dot net. Well, we're at
Speaker 1: the global headquarters Bear Honey Magazine global headquarters. This is uh,
Speaker 1: this is Cam Spink's first time to the global headquarters,
Speaker 1: first time in the global headquarters. Um Man, Cam, Okay,
Speaker 1: before I tell who you are, I've got to tell
Speaker 1: that you're gonna ruin my reputation. Okay, already are already
Speaker 1: told him this, So he's ready for it. You're gonna
Speaker 1: ruin my reputation because now everybody is gonna know that
Speaker 1: I keep my pulse on the pop culture. Okay, it's true.
Speaker 1: So Cam was on the Voice the Voice, and if
Speaker 1: you know what that is, then you're you've got your
Speaker 1: pulse on pop culture. My wife and I I'm gonna
Speaker 1: embarrass him. My wife and I have always we've sort
Speaker 1: of prided ourselves Cam, I'm not watching like mainstream television,
Speaker 1: and we have for years. Okay, good and this year
Speaker 1: I guess it was with like just COVID nineteen stuff.
Speaker 1: We Uh, the kids started watching the voice. I started
Speaker 1: watching and I got sucked in. Man, I got sucked in.
Speaker 1: And who was up on the screen And I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have known him, Cam Spins. So Cam was on the voice.
Speaker 1: And so what was wild was I'm gonna say all
Speaker 1: this before I even let him talk. He they saw
Speaker 1: in the voice. They do, they introduce these musicians, so
Speaker 1: the voices a well tell us what the voice is Cam.
Speaker 1: So the voices is a singing competition essentially, And uh,
Speaker 1: they do try to build up, you know, as far
Speaker 1: as the beginning of the of the show. Every season,
Speaker 1: you know, when they're introducing all the a different artists,
Speaker 1: they try to, you know, basically fit your whole life
Speaker 1: into a few minutes three people, a brief snapshot of
Speaker 1: of what you're about, you know, and so um that's
Speaker 1: what they did. And I have to say, I felt
Speaker 1: like I was a whole lot different than most of
Speaker 1: the other people on the show. You've You've You've took
Speaker 1: me to the point where when I saw his intro,
Speaker 1: I immediately said, I said that dude's a hunter. I
Speaker 1: said that to my wife, Missed. I said that dude's
Speaker 1: a hunter. And then I saw the picture. There was
Speaker 1: a little section of the video of you with a
Speaker 1: with a buck, like not alive buck, and and uh,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that guy's a hunter. I knew it.
Speaker 1: I held it for seon and then I went to
Speaker 1: his Instagram page and sure enough it was like full
Speaker 1: of hunting photos. And I was like, I knew this
Speaker 1: guy was a hunter. And and we we watched the
Speaker 1: whole season. You know, it came out like once a
Speaker 1: week for how long is it? I think it ended up? Um,
Speaker 1: I can't remember how many weeks it was. Probably they
Speaker 1: had to kind of condense this season to make it
Speaker 1: a little shorter than they normally would because of the Olympics.
Speaker 1: NBC the network also had the Olympics scheduled, and so
Speaker 1: we had a limited amount of time, uh, relative to
Speaker 1: a normal season. I think it was eight or it
Speaker 1: was like eight or ten weeks, I believe somewhere in there. Um.
Speaker 1: And I made it through. I guess probably half of
Speaker 1: those before I was eliminated. Um. But uh, yeah, and
Speaker 1: then the Olympics obviously didn't happen, and the show itself
Speaker 1: almost didn't happen, you know, it was. It was. It
Speaker 1: was an interesting, interesting season, unprecedented season to say the least. Well,
Speaker 1: so I get on his Instagram page find out my
Speaker 1: discernment was absolutely correct. Yeah, and then like I don't know,
Speaker 1: like even after that, like months after that, I saw
Speaker 1: his page again and I saw that he was in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: Which so the whole voice that were saying you from
Speaker 1: Alabama and that's exactly where you've grown up, that's exactly
Speaker 1: just moved to Northwest Arkansas, I did. I moved to
Speaker 1: Northwest Arkansas in April of this year, late April, um,
Speaker 1: I believe, no, no, no, it was the beginning of
Speaker 1: April because it was almost Turkey season, almost Turkey season, um,
Speaker 1: and probably not enough time for you to find a gobbler.
Speaker 1: Uh not for lack of effort, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that, I guess. But uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: had just come off the heels of an incredible season
Speaker 1: in Alabama and have some turkeys over there. We're covered
Speaker 1: in them, um. And so you know, we, my brother
Speaker 1: and I we had just an exceptional turkey season this
Speaker 1: this spring. And so I was like still really you know,
Speaker 1: hot on it, And I was like man, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go They're gonna kill a turkey and you and
Speaker 1: little did I know. The more research I did and
Speaker 1: the more miles I logged on all these management areas
Speaker 1: around here, I realized that, you know, it was about
Speaker 1: as likely as me killing a bull elk in one's
Speaker 1: West Arkansas. Just really slim. Uh, you know, but it
Speaker 1: sounds like you tried. That's cool. Yeah, I did. Like
Speaker 1: I said, it wasn't for lack of effort. I I
Speaker 1: went down to I went to the Weddington Management Area Oka. UM.
Speaker 1: I went to see. This is okay to tell because
Speaker 1: we always talked about how we don't talk about public
Speaker 1: hunting areas specifically, but if you're telling how there's no
Speaker 1: game there whatsoever, it's perfectly fine. Well everywhere um that
Speaker 1: there were no turkeys to be found anywhere on these
Speaker 1: management areas or at lea. I wasn't lucky enough to
Speaker 1: stumble across one, but I logged a lot of miles
Speaker 1: on Weddington, on um Lee Creek south down forty nine,
Speaker 1: and then also on the other side of forty nine
Speaker 1: at white Rock and um Man. Just not a track,
Speaker 1: not a feather, nothing, Man, I'm impressed that you. I
Speaker 1: mean you did to have found that all that country. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I I joined all these forums. I
Speaker 1: mean I was hell bent on trying to find a
Speaker 1: turkey up here. Uh. You know, like I said, the
Speaker 1: more research I did, the more people I talked to, um,
Speaker 1: the more I understood that if you want to kill
Speaker 1: a turkey in Arkansas, you need to go south or east.
Speaker 1: If you want to kill a turkey in Arkansas, you
Speaker 1: gotta go out of state. Yeah, absolutely, uh hear mains
Speaker 1: good man. Um. So, okay, so we've we've entered duced
Speaker 1: how I know that's what That's what I wanted to
Speaker 1: get and I want to uh man, I'm afraid if
Speaker 1: we jump into hunting, will never go back probably, So
Speaker 1: this is not priority. This, like the order of conversation
Speaker 1: is not about priority, because I think once we jump
Speaker 1: into hunt and we're just gonna talk about hunting. But
Speaker 1: so I want to go back to the voice, Cam.
Speaker 1: You are, are you a country music artists? I am.
Speaker 1: I'm a country music artist. I um. I've been writing
Speaker 1: and playing for about ten years now. Okay. I was
Speaker 1: in college and I was trying to find some way
Speaker 1: to not have to work really hard when I got
Speaker 1: out and I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: be a musician because they don't they don't look like
Speaker 1: they have to work. Uh, you know, a musician, a
Speaker 1: turkey hunter. I didn't know what I was doing for
Speaker 1: being perfectly honest, but no, I kind of dove in
Speaker 1: head first. I've always had kind of a knack for
Speaker 1: for music. I've always loved music, country music in general
Speaker 1: and in UM specific. But uh so I just you know,
Speaker 1: dedicated myself to it. Um So you did you know
Speaker 1: how to play guitar? Very little? Yes, Um, I had
Speaker 1: very limited guitar skills at that age. UM, but it
Speaker 1: always had a guitar around, you know, like probably half
Speaker 1: of college guys. But um so, yeah, I just started
Speaker 1: picking up guitar. Had some buddies in my fraternity that
Speaker 1: also played instruments, and one thing led to another and
Speaker 1: we started the worst band of all time. UM named
Speaker 1: the name of that project. You you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: Our mascot in the fraternity was a buzzard, and so
Speaker 1: we were. We were the backdoor Buzzards. The backdoor Buzzards.
Speaker 1: We won't get into that, but uh, that was our name.
Speaker 1: And we played basements, um, and that's about it in Birmingham.
Speaker 1: In Birmingham, Yeah, we were in Birmingham. UM. And so
Speaker 1: that was my first project. And then once I got
Speaker 1: out of college, I was at home, UM, working for
Speaker 1: our our family company and UM still doing music. UM,
Speaker 1: you know, still progressing, and I had some I met
Speaker 1: several other people that ended up starting another project with
Speaker 1: more legitimate project. We actually played gigs, you know, we
Speaker 1: played at bars and things like that. And what was
Speaker 1: the evolution of this name? Oh man, we kind of
Speaker 1: dumbed it down for that when it was just the
Speaker 1: camp Spinx band against my will, I wanted to come
Speaker 1: up with something creative and cool, but which we did
Speaker 1: later on. We ended up morphing into uh, camp Spins
Speaker 1: in the fifty eight, which that's the first two letters
Speaker 1: of our tag. I d s in Alabama for the
Speaker 1: county that we lived in, and all four of us
Speaker 1: were from the same county. So it was camp Spins
Speaker 1: in Theft, which I thought was pretty neat. UM. I
Speaker 1: wish we could. I wish I could still have a
Speaker 1: band called the fifty eight. But anyways, uh yeah, So
Speaker 1: then that project kind of phased out and I think
Speaker 1: that was. I think that one was. I remember exactly
Speaker 1: what it was. I moved to Nashville. I was in
Speaker 1: Nashville for about three years, um pursuing music writing. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a writer. I didn't want a tour.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be an artist and want to
Speaker 1: do any of that. So I wanted to get a
Speaker 1: public publishing deal and just write songs. That's all I
Speaker 1: god to do. That way, I could, you know, so
Speaker 1: do you could get up in the morning and go
Speaker 1: to work and then by you know, three or four
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, I was fishing somewhere, you know. So,
Speaker 1: so you that's one of your strengths, then absolutely, I
Speaker 1: would say, in in the entire musical spectrum, I would
Speaker 1: say that, um, my songwriting is what I think is
Speaker 1: my biggest strength. Um. Now that that's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because I mean, what I learned from watching the Voice
Speaker 1: is that it's like, I mean, like really top end
Speaker 1: musicians vocally, it's not necessarily about like what you've written
Speaker 1: or done, because I mean a lot of these people
Speaker 1: would I mean, like some of them weren't even really
Speaker 1: in band. I mean, like Todd Tilman, was he not
Speaker 1: having my good friend, Todd Boy. Me and Todd hit
Speaker 1: it off a lot because we're both from the South,
Speaker 1: and uh, this is the guy that this is the
Speaker 1: guy that ended up winning and actually eliminated me from
Speaker 1: the competition. Um, earlier on, it's because you had a
Speaker 1: Travis Trip song. Oh, don't get me started on that.
Speaker 1: Don't get me started on that. My My point is
Speaker 1: that you have a you have a strong voice, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. And I and I do. I think I
Speaker 1: have a pretty good voice. Um, but I'm definitely more
Speaker 1: proud of my I think I'm a lot more proud
Speaker 1: of that. Um. Just you know, it's there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people out there with great voices, but I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a lot less people out there that can
Speaker 1: write a great song. UM. So yeah, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: little more proud of that for sure. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: a different craft for sure. Yeah. So what happened to Nashville?
Speaker 1: Did it not work? So? Um, I was awfully green
Speaker 1: when I moved up there. Um, and it wasn't what
Speaker 1: I expected early on. And I kind of kept telling
Speaker 1: myself like, Okay, they you know, they call it a
Speaker 1: ten year town for a reason, you know. Um, and
Speaker 1: So okay, man, we're gonna have to get down to
Speaker 1: why they call it a ten year town, because that's
Speaker 1: generally how long, uh, it takes for you to be
Speaker 1: successful in um or at least most people if they
Speaker 1: get if they find success, they could could if you
Speaker 1: you give it ten years, and if you're not where
Speaker 1: you want to be in ten years, then moved back
Speaker 1: to Texas. Willie Nelson didn't have a number one hit
Speaker 1: until he was in his I want to say, thirties,
Speaker 1: which you think about that that's pretty crazy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that I went to Nashville
Speaker 1: when they were young. Um, it wasn't what they thought.
Speaker 1: They left years later, came back and found success. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of people like that. Um, But I have no
Speaker 1: desire to go back. I'll tell you that. I well,
Speaker 1: for people like me, um, having grown up pretty rural,
Speaker 1: um you know, kind of walk out your back door
Speaker 1: and go hunting kind of rural. Um, it was tough
Speaker 1: living in a city like that and just getting acclimated,
Speaker 1: which I did and I got used to it. Um,
Speaker 1: But I just it's such a tough industry on top
Speaker 1: of having to change my lifestyle that much. That wore
Speaker 1: me down. Really, I assume you had to like work
Speaker 1: a normal job. You're trying to do ye my bills.
Speaker 1: I was a chim law on technician by trade while
Speaker 1: I was up there. Um, and then when you drive
Speaker 1: through Nashville and you see like, just like normal people working,
Speaker 1: could you assume that some percentage of them are trying
Speaker 1: to a large portion of them everyone that um is
Speaker 1: a waitress a waiter dream Yeah, Oh yeah I would,
Speaker 1: I would say, um, a half. Yeah, it's kind I
Speaker 1: was kind of token. I was insuing that is there
Speaker 1: are um so many people up there trying to to
Speaker 1: cut their teeth in the music business and having to
Speaker 1: work you know, jobs to pay the bills on top
Speaker 1: of it is a grind. It's a hustle, and um,
Speaker 1: it wore me down a lot quicker than it would
Speaker 1: a lot I guess millions of other people that are
Speaker 1: they're trying to do it. But I had I had
Speaker 1: a great job, you know, available back home, and so
Speaker 1: I was tired of being broke and discouraged, and so
Speaker 1: I moved back home. I guess that was in two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen. I want to say that I moved
Speaker 1: back home fifteen or six might have been two thousands sixteen. Actually, Um,
Speaker 1: so I get back home and I just go to
Speaker 1: work for the company, um real estate and land development.
Speaker 1: That's what we did. We basically build neighborhoods and build
Speaker 1: houses and sell them and you know the whole nine. Um.
Speaker 1: But so I started working, but I was still doing music,
Speaker 1: you know. Um So that's when Camp Spins in Theft
Speaker 1: was formed. It was a lot of the same guys
Speaker 1: from the previous project before I had moved to Nashville.
Speaker 1: Kind of ill probably yeah, They're like it was just
Speaker 1: a matter of time. Been waiting on this call for
Speaker 1: a couple of years now. But but no, we had
Speaker 1: a good run with that one. We probably played together
Speaker 1: for maybe a year or two, I can't remember. And
Speaker 1: um then at that point, I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: nobody in Nashville wanted to buy my songs or no
Speaker 1: publishers wanted to sign me for X reason or why reason.
Speaker 1: So you know what, I'm just gonna start cutting all
Speaker 1: my songs and putting them out myself. Uh So That's
Speaker 1: what I did, and that's what I've been doing ever since.
Speaker 1: And now I have some guys, um a couple of
Speaker 1: guys from Alabama, a couple of guys from Nashville to
Speaker 1: play with me. Uh, and they just backed me as
Speaker 1: Camp Spinks. It's just, you know, that's what it is. Um.
Speaker 1: There's no like set band. We might you know, filter
Speaker 1: through several musicians at at each position. You know, it
Speaker 1: just depending on what's available, um, which is not a
Speaker 1: lot right now given the times. Uh. I've always said,
Speaker 1: especially lately, that I'm glad that I um have other
Speaker 1: skills and other trades that I'm good at, because if
Speaker 1: I were a full time musician right now, I would
Speaker 1: be kicking myself because you are not playing and I
Speaker 1: probably won't be playing much for the foreseeable future. So UM,
Speaker 1: thankful that that I know how to do other things. Um.
Speaker 1: But that said, the dream is still So you started musician, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you started. You started, You're already writing your own music.
Speaker 1: You started recording your own music as cam Spax. And
Speaker 1: then so take me to what made you want to
Speaker 1: try it? For the voice? That's um. Actually that's how
Speaker 1: they found me. They asked you. They the Voice is
Speaker 1: very diligent about scouting great talent. There's a very small
Speaker 1: percentage of people that make it to the show. That
Speaker 1: we're a product of those big you know, cattle calls,
Speaker 1: those big public tryouts. You know, a lot of it
Speaker 1: is you know, you get an email from a scout
Speaker 1: and they're like, hey, here's this song and we we
Speaker 1: really like it. Would you be interested in? Okay, no,
Speaker 1: and uh an audition for the voice and so that's
Speaker 1: how they contacted me. Yeah, it was pretty cool, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. Um, I had always kind of sworn off
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I was like, Nah, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do just like they're gonna you know, they're gonna dictate
Speaker 1: your every move the whole time, Like it won't even
Speaker 1: be that much fun like but the But I reluctantly
Speaker 1: I agreed to go to Atlanta for a try out
Speaker 1: for some of the producers, and um, by the end
Speaker 1: of that, they were like, we want to fly you
Speaker 1: out to l A and um, you know, have you
Speaker 1: continue on the on the process of getting on the show,
Speaker 1: And so you know, I said, what the hell, let's
Speaker 1: do it. So I flew out California and ended up
Speaker 1: making it onto the show. Um all the way, and
Speaker 1: so I spent um how many people originally are on
Speaker 1: the show, like from like the first episode, I would
Speaker 1: say from the first from the first episode, Um, I
Speaker 1: want to say, so the number of people that had
Speaker 1: a blind audition, which is when they turned their chairs
Speaker 1: or they don't, there was probably I don't know, fifty
Speaker 1: six people. Okay, so they have narrowed down that small
Speaker 1: of a number before the first episode. Okay, So but
Speaker 1: fifty or sixty people get a blind audition on television, yes, okay, so,
Speaker 1: but they don't they don't show all of them. And
Speaker 1: then there's also or they show like little snippets or
Speaker 1: you know, the guarantee that they show your actual alternation
Speaker 1: because maybe you know. I'm let me describe the way
Speaker 1: it works. Because so there's there's four big chairs that
Speaker 1: are that are on a swivel. Have you seen it?
Speaker 1: Code you pop culture? I can't believe you. Just for
Speaker 1: somebody for TMZ on the side. So there's there's basically
Speaker 1: chair the backs of these chairs are faced towards the stage,
Speaker 1: and and then there's in these chairs are these four
Speaker 1: really famous people? I wouldn't have known you any of
Speaker 1: them work except for Blake Shelton, John Legend, Blake Shelton,
Speaker 1: John Legend, Kelly Clarkson Clarkson and yes, I shouldn't say this,
Speaker 1: but I had no idea who he was. He's a
Speaker 1: brother good. I like that. They were like, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know because that kind of like there was an
Speaker 1: episode where they filmed us like all reacting to finding
Speaker 1: out who he was, because at that point in time,
Speaker 1: they was there was only three judges from the previous season.
Speaker 1: They're bringing on a new one and I was supposed
Speaker 1: to be this big surprise, this mystery, and when I
Speaker 1: found out who it was, I was like, uh, I'm
Speaker 1: missing something, you know. Okay, I knew who he was,
Speaker 1: but Toby is always I think he's always dreamed of
Speaker 1: being in a boy band. So basically it is so
Speaker 1: so a musician comes out and performs, and if the
Speaker 1: this person in the chair likes what they hear, essentially
Speaker 1: they spend the chair around and if they don't like it,
Speaker 1: they don't spend their chair around. And they're trying to
Speaker 1: gather teams. So everybody's got so anyway, basically a blind audition,
Speaker 1: like if you get if a chair turns around, that's
Speaker 1: like a good thing because some people play and no
Speaker 1: chairs turned around, and if that happens it's bad. How
Speaker 1: many people turned on your I had to it was
Speaker 1: Blake and Kelly. Those two turned yeah well too, I
Speaker 1: know the lingo now that was the two chair two chair,
Speaker 1: two chair turn, two chair turn. That's right, and those
Speaker 1: are the two that would turn for country. And I
Speaker 1: was the only UM country male on the season, was
Speaker 1: the only one Todd. I think Odd was Todd was
Speaker 1: kind of a hybrid. Todd could do whatever they wanted
Speaker 1: him to do. He's just an incredibly talented vocalist too.
Speaker 1: They could have thrown like a you know, a BIG's
Speaker 1: song at him and he could have or a rap
Speaker 1: song and he probably could have done it, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just his his talent is pretty limitless
Speaker 1: in the vocal department. So um, I think um they
Speaker 1: kind of felt the lack of country in there, so
Speaker 1: they you know, kind of eased him over a little
Speaker 1: bit in that lane as which um, honestly I didn't mind,
Speaker 1: especially when I got to hear him sing that Travis
Speaker 1: Trip song because it was incredible. Uh. I love that song.
Speaker 1: I love Travis Trip, and I think Todd did a
Speaker 1: great job with it. So I was I was glad
Speaker 1: to see that they were kind of you know, nudging
Speaker 1: him over into the country, kind of letting you take
Speaker 1: that space. Yeah. So okay, So you you go, you
Speaker 1: go to l A and you do the blind audition,
Speaker 1: you get chosen to be on uh Blake's team, so ba, Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you picked Blake? Yes? Did you pick the song yourself? Um?
Speaker 1: What was it? Wave on Wave? Right? I will pat
Speaker 1: green wink and tell you yes? Okay. Was that the
Speaker 1: same song that you would have sung for the producers beforehand?
Speaker 1: Or was it a different song that is not what
Speaker 1: I would have chosen to sing. Had I had a
Speaker 1: autonomy over that? Yeah? Well, I mean like whenever they
Speaker 1: sent you to email and you did the first thing
Speaker 1: where you sang no. Actually, the songs that I sang
Speaker 1: for that, what did I sing? Um? Oh? Man? What
Speaker 1: did I sing? Question? Um? I think I think I
Speaker 1: sang an old Day, like an older David Nail song,
Speaker 1: which a lot of them probably had no idea what
Speaker 1: it was. But it was kind of a ballad country
Speaker 1: song called the Sound of a Million Dreams. That was
Speaker 1: one of them. And then another song that I played
Speaker 1: was Midnight Train to Memphis by Chris Stapleton. That was
Speaker 1: another guy. Uh just big Stapleton guy. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: That's always a favorite of mine to play. And so
Speaker 1: so okay, so you you get on Blake's team, and
Speaker 1: then so how far? How far did you go inside
Speaker 1: the competition? So I made it to what they call
Speaker 1: the knockout rounds. So I guess that would have been
Speaker 1: my um, the third round, I guess, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I was extremely proud. My my goal going in was
Speaker 1: just my first goal was, all right, let's just try
Speaker 1: to make it on the show officially, let's try to
Speaker 1: get a blind audition, whatever happens after that, whatever. And
Speaker 1: so once I got um a blind audition and I
Speaker 1: made it to that point, I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I want to make it to the live rounds. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to sing live. And that's just
Speaker 1: after the knockout. So my knockout was against Todd. And
Speaker 1: if I'm being perfectly honest with you, as soon as
Speaker 1: I found out I was paired against Todd, I should
Speaker 1: have just packed my bags because I knew that that
Speaker 1: was probably the end of the road. Um, But honestly,
Speaker 1: if I had to lose to anyone on the whole thing,
Speaker 1: I'm glad it was him. Um. We became good for
Speaker 1: is and we we've we stay in touch. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so I made it to what they call the knockout, right,
Speaker 1: so that would have been like half of the people gone,
Speaker 1: that's done. I think I guess that would have. Um,
Speaker 1: so yes, after the knockouts, I think seventeen people remained
Speaker 1: out of the initial Um you know, I guess each
Speaker 1: each person had how many did they have? Was it
Speaker 1: ten per teen? Was forty of us total? Something? I
Speaker 1: think it was something like that. And so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I probably made it about halfway through the competition. Cool.
Speaker 1: So what what was your overall impression with the whole deal? Honestly, Um,
Speaker 1: it was great. I it was a big time commitment
Speaker 1: and that was my only Uh yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask you about that. Yeah, that was the only bone
Speaker 1: I had to pick with the whole process of everything.
Speaker 1: Is it just I mean, you know, you're over you're
Speaker 1: over in l A for X amount of time, uh,
Speaker 1: and then you're on TV for two minutes. You know,
Speaker 1: just the big disconnect between you know, you're there for
Speaker 1: a month and you do all this filming and prep
Speaker 1: and wardrobe and you know all kinds of stuff like that. Um,
Speaker 1: legal social media. Every year you're in meetings and stuff,
Speaker 1: but then you have a ton of downtime as well,
Speaker 1: and so, um, you know, just Alabama boy out in
Speaker 1: California twiddling his thumbs, you know. And part of that was, Um,
Speaker 1: I think I was there in well, I was there
Speaker 1: in January, um, which uh uh duck season and the
Speaker 1: rut and the southern part of Alabama. And so I
Speaker 1: was a little annoyed about that, you know, but you know,
Speaker 1: how annoyed can you be when you're getting the opportunity
Speaker 1: to be on national television singing. So I kept my perspective,
Speaker 1: but you know, I just I couldn't believe that it
Speaker 1: took as much time as it did, as much of
Speaker 1: a time commitment. Um. So that was the only that
Speaker 1: was the only adverse, uh takeaway that I had. The
Speaker 1: entire process, Um, the way they treat you, I mean,
Speaker 1: state of the art, I mean just class. You know,
Speaker 1: it was it was great. I mean I have nothing
Speaker 1: bad to say about the show or the way it operates. Um,
Speaker 1: it is a show, and you have to keep that
Speaker 1: in mind when you're a part of it, um, and
Speaker 1: just kind of swallow your pride every now and then Um,
Speaker 1: but I kind of I I anticipated that going in,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't too big of all, what did it?
Speaker 1: What will this do for your music career? Is it
Speaker 1: gonna help you? Well? Yeah, my goal, uh, my over
Speaker 1: overwhelming goal, my overarching goal for the for deciding to
Speaker 1: do it, um, was just to kind of put myself
Speaker 1: out there and get some exposure. Good, you know, get
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a fan base. Look what
Speaker 1: it's magazine podcast from the global Hey mom, we made
Speaker 1: it okay, Um, but no, it was just to kind
Speaker 1: of get more of a following. I thought that if
Speaker 1: I could get you know, people's attention one way or
Speaker 1: another on a large scale like that, and direct them
Speaker 1: towards my original music, that you know, some things could happen. Um.
Speaker 1: And then of course, uh, the season couldn't have been
Speaker 1: at a worse time in in history. Um. So they
Speaker 1: had to finish the show like on Zoom calls. It
Speaker 1: was it was, it was, it was um strange. Uh.
Speaker 1: And at that point, you know, I'm just a spectator.
Speaker 1: I'm no longer on the show, but I I finished
Speaker 1: watching the entire season. You'll watch all my friends, um,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I have to say I'm kind of glad
Speaker 1: that I got eliminated when I did, because those were just,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it was a little awkward, and I'm
Speaker 1: just glad I didn't have to go through that part
Speaker 1: of you know, setting up in your living room and zooming.
Speaker 1: You know, I just I'm not cut it. I'm not
Speaker 1: really cut out for the whole uh, you know, relying
Speaker 1: on technology that much. So I I uh, I'm obviously
Speaker 1: I would have liked to have continued on the show,
Speaker 1: but I'm thankful that I didn't have to do it
Speaker 1: in that way. Yeah. Yeah, Well, um, so are you
Speaker 1: uh are you still like pursuing music pretty heavily? Yes? I. UM,
Speaker 1: my plan post show the whole time was, um, as
Speaker 1: soon as it's over, let's start putting more music out.
Speaker 1: I had released, Um, I think I put out maybe
Speaker 1: ten or twelve songs before the show, and uh, I
Speaker 1: think it was maybe a week and a half ago.
Speaker 1: We finally put maybe two weeks ago. We put out
Speaker 1: some more. We put out three more songs a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and then I've got another one coming
Speaker 1: out this week actually on Wednesday. UM, and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put out a song a month until songs. Just
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a cool way to maintain consistency
Speaker 1: and um, you know, just keep your audience intrigued a
Speaker 1: little bit. You know, people they don't like to pay
Speaker 1: attention to things for too long these days where they're
Speaker 1: paying there, you know, they get distracted by something else.
Speaker 1: And so if you're giving them something on a consistent basis,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a date that they can look
Speaker 1: forward to for something new, I feel like it could
Speaker 1: be cool and refreshing. So um, that's my plan right now.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, trying, um scratching and
Speaker 1: fighting trying to get back into the live music scene,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's just our hands are tied right now.
Speaker 1: I've managed to to land a couple of things, um
Speaker 1: and uh, but you know, like I said, we're still
Speaker 1: just severely limited on what we can do playing live music.
Speaker 1: So just waiting on all that too to pick back up. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, between between all the current events over the
Speaker 1: last several months and in history, it's been a pretty
Speaker 1: terrible time to be a musician in my opinion, So
Speaker 1: um wild, like I said, it couldn't have happened that
Speaker 1: at a worse time for me and everyone else that
Speaker 1: was on the show trying to you know, take advantage
Speaker 1: of the momentum that you get from that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, because if we could have kind of hit
Speaker 1: the ground running right after the show, right after I
Speaker 1: was eliminated, you know, you know, probably a different story
Speaker 1: probably would have had some a little bit of momentum.
Speaker 1: Has it helped with your songwriting and all? Were you
Speaker 1: able to, like song like, do some songwriting with other
Speaker 1: contestants that might have done it, or I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I'll level with you, I've never been great at writing
Speaker 1: with people. Um. His new album is called Leave Me Alone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought that was just effect for the time, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: but no, I um, you know, like I said, I
Speaker 1: spent years in Nashville doing that and and um, first
Speaker 1: for one reason or another, I just I didn't love it.
Speaker 1: And some people are like that, you know. Um, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't that long ago that people wrote all their
Speaker 1: own songs, you know. So UM, I just I don't
Speaker 1: spend a whole lot of time doing that. I never have.
Speaker 1: I kind of reached a point where I realized this
Speaker 1: isn't my strong suit writing with people, co writing, um,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just I'm not gonna, you know, spend
Speaker 1: a lot of energy trying to make that happen. I
Speaker 1: still do it from time to time, not gonna lie. Um.
Speaker 1: Have you ever written a hunting song? Yes? I have. UM.
Speaker 1: Actually Father's Day this past weekend, I wrote a song
Speaker 1: called I Got It from my Daddy. Um, and it
Speaker 1: talks about deer hunting and in the first rifle that
Speaker 1: I had and stuff like that. Um. And I think
Speaker 1: there's been other songs where I've kind of slipped it
Speaker 1: in little nuances and stuff references. Um, I do a
Speaker 1: lot of Over the years, I've hunted a lot in Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and so I write, Um, I've written about parts of Kentucky. Um,
Speaker 1: you know I love I love that state. I love hunting.
Speaker 1: That state is gorgeous. Um. Good friend of mine has
Speaker 1: a farm out there, and so we go every year
Speaker 1: at least a couple of weekends. Oddly enough, he gets
Speaker 1: a lot of ducks really in Kentucky. Yeah, oh man,
Speaker 1: we smashed up. And what's the So I could give
Speaker 1: like a spiel about like hunting in Arkansas? What's I
Speaker 1: really don't know a lot about Alabama other than just
Speaker 1: like hunting in Alabama. Other than that high deer numbers,
Speaker 1: it's classic kind uh delta type, bottom land type hunting.
Speaker 1: But but I don't want to I'm not just talking
Speaker 1: about deer hunting, Like, what is it? What is it?
Speaker 1: What is it like to be a hunter in Alabama? Um?
Speaker 1: Being a hunter in Alabama is I mean we really
Speaker 1: never run out of anything to hunt. Um, you could
Speaker 1: hunt your round if you wanted to. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: Alabama is the most as far as animals are concerned,
Speaker 1: we're the most bio diverse state. UM. I want to say,
Speaker 1: if we're not, we're in the top few because UM,
Speaker 1: our terrain is so we have a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: You know. We have the beaches, we have, the lowlands.
Speaker 1: We've got we've got a lot of swamps and rivers
Speaker 1: and wetlands. We've got, um, we've got some mountains I
Speaker 1: would southern apple. Actually we've we've got some some high
Speaker 1: country UM. And it just offers a lot of different
Speaker 1: game UM. So I mean, obviously, probably the most hunted
Speaker 1: thing in Alabama is going to be dear followed by um,
Speaker 1: probably followed by turkeys. We have a lot of turkeys.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of turkeys in Alabama, there's certain parts
Speaker 1: whether it's not as much, but you know, just like
Speaker 1: any other place. Um, there's higher densities in certain places.
Speaker 1: But um is there a five bird bag limit. And
Speaker 1: that's another thing about Alabamas. We can kill five turkeys
Speaker 1: whoa and a lot of people do it every year.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of turkeys. The population replenishes. Some of
Speaker 1: the Western guys don't know how you know. I was
Speaker 1: out in Montana hunting with some of those guys and
Speaker 1: there's a essentially a five bird limit in Montana, but
Speaker 1: you gotta kill them in different parts of the states.
Speaker 1: And uh, and turkey hunting is not that big a
Speaker 1: deal out there, so like guys don't hunt. But for
Speaker 1: the Southeast, a five bird limits, I mean three, that's
Speaker 1: a ton of turkeys. We've never been able to high
Speaker 1: bag limit that was ever in Arkansas was a three
Speaker 1: bird bag limit in the nineteen eighties. There's people that
Speaker 1: go back and forth, um with wanting to get it
Speaker 1: lowered back down to three. And I think it probably
Speaker 1: would be wise after this past year because you had
Speaker 1: so many hunters that were home that weren't at work.
Speaker 1: The numbers I would not be shocked if we killed
Speaker 1: twice as many birds in Alabama this year as we
Speaker 1: did the year before, UM statewide. I haven't, like I said,
Speaker 1: I haven't checked harvest. I think I heard that almost.
Speaker 1: It is statistics so many And like I told you,
Speaker 1: like I mean, we had the My brother and I
Speaker 1: had the best season of our lives. And then we
Speaker 1: have kind of a group of buddies. There's about seven
Speaker 1: or eight of us that our hardcore dedicated turkey hunters,
Speaker 1: and I mean maybe one or two of us didn't
Speaker 1: limit Wow, you know, I mean we're responsible for twenty
Speaker 1: or thirty dead turkeys, just five or six of us, UM,
Speaker 1: and we weren't alone. Like I said, was it was
Speaker 1: a just a hell of a season down there this year,
Speaker 1: and so I would not be surprised the early season two,
Speaker 1: Yes we do. We do it starts on of March. Yeah, Man,
Speaker 1: if you hadn't listened to this guy, Mike Chamberlain, the
Speaker 1: Wild Turkey Dock they call him on Instagram Wild Turkey Doc.
Speaker 1: That's that's his name on Instagram. He's been on Landing
Speaker 1: Legacy podcast with my Buddies up there Missouri. He's been
Speaker 1: on Ronella's podcast podcast Steve and uh wild Turkey doc.
Speaker 1: I think he's from Alabama or somewhere in Georgia, and
Speaker 1: he uh, he is is the best that I've heard
Speaker 1: at describing why, or maybe he's just the only guy
Speaker 1: we've listened to long enough. But talking about how these
Speaker 1: early seasons are super hard on turkeys, it may not
Speaker 1: make sense. I mean, just rationally, you're just like, killing
Speaker 1: goblin hurrikey on March fift is the same as killing
Speaker 1: the goblin turkey on April twenty. But he describes the
Speaker 1: the pecking order and the lack. He talks about a lack,
Speaker 1: which is like a group of turkeys and how their
Speaker 1: social hierarchy works. And basically by taking out this dominant bird,
Speaker 1: it screws up a lot of their breeding. I would assume, yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: taking one out early like that, obviously you know he's
Speaker 1: not gonna be breeding any ends, you know, And he
Speaker 1: was a dominant one. And if I'm not mistaken, the
Speaker 1: hens can um you know, they can breed multiple turkeys,
Speaker 1: and then their bodies actually can select the fertilized eggs
Speaker 1: that are the eggs that they want to fertilize. Something
Speaker 1: crazy like that. And so a lot of times. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're killing all your mature birds early in the year,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be crazy to assume that you're gonna have
Speaker 1: some hands that don't get up something. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I could see that. So so turk so deer huns
Speaker 1: big deer hunts, big turkey hunts big. Now there's no
Speaker 1: bear season in Alabama though, No, there's no, not to
Speaker 1: my knowledge, I don't think there there's not. There's about
Speaker 1: there's not. But there are animals that I enjoy hunting
Speaker 1: that you can hunt year round. You know, you're going
Speaker 1: on hogs year round? Um we um? Now are you?
Speaker 1: How are you hunting hogs? You go out there in
Speaker 1: the field and shoot them running dogs? You know, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends that grew up in Florida
Speaker 1: that would run dogs, And I didn't grow up hog hunting.
Speaker 1: And when I got to, you know, got to know
Speaker 1: these guys pretty well in college just hearing them talk
Speaker 1: about it down there, completely different art, you know. That is, um,
Speaker 1: that is some intense stuff. You know, lost a lot
Speaker 1: of dogs. Um, you know, not hard to do when
Speaker 1: you're doing that. But no, and I've not done a
Speaker 1: ton of hog hunting, but you could do it if
Speaker 1: you wanted to. And then you know, any kind of
Speaker 1: nuisance animal that you can think of, there's always something
Speaker 1: that you can go and hunt, always, always, always, but
Speaker 1: big in Alabama. Um, what else? Dove hunting is big.
Speaker 1: A lot of dove hunters in Alabama as well. I've
Speaker 1: been to several shoots in Alabama, any and George as well.
Speaker 1: There's parts of the South where little patches where there's
Speaker 1: just an incredible dove hunting. And we do a shoot
Speaker 1: every year at at our farm. Um, but we just
Speaker 1: we actually just acquired some new land, my dad did,
Speaker 1: and he was texting me this week and he was like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have the dove shoot of all dove shoots
Speaker 1: this year because there's he said, it's you know, we're
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the summer and I'm looking at
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of doves already here and we haven't
Speaker 1: even we haven't planted anything, we haven't thrown any seed,
Speaker 1: we haven't done anything. They're just here. Yeah, and um,
Speaker 1: so we're anticipating a big shoot. Um. Black River is
Speaker 1: that in Alabama? Is that a well known black the
Speaker 1: I think there's a Black Warrior River. Black Warrior River
Speaker 1: or a section of the Warrior River, that's the Black Warrior.
Speaker 1: I want to say, um, but no, I'm not familiar
Speaker 1: with the Black River Alabama. I'm I'm going deep into
Speaker 1: the archives of my mind remembering the there used to
Speaker 1: be in like Outdoor Life and some of these magazines
Speaker 1: there was there would always be Alabama white tail hunting
Speaker 1: like this little like black and White ad in the
Speaker 1: national magazines. It would be like Southern Alabama white tail hunting.
Speaker 1: And I want to say it was like black something
Speaker 1: like black. I just I wondered if I threw that
Speaker 1: out there, if you'd be like, oh, yeah, probably black belt,
Speaker 1: black belt, black belt. Yes, So the black belt is
Speaker 1: that's it. That's it. The black Belt is a strip
Speaker 1: of extremely fertile agricult a trull land across it kind
Speaker 1: of runs um if I'm not mistaken, it runs um,
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit east to west, kind of
Speaker 1: swooping north in South Alabama. And we I grew up
Speaker 1: hunting the black Belt pretty much my entire life. That's
Speaker 1: where you're gonna kill the biggest deer in Alabama without question,
Speaker 1: on a consistent basis. Like I said, it's just extremely
Speaker 1: extremely fertile ground. And anytime you're hunting your agg you know,
Speaker 1: on a large scale, the deer naturally just gonna be
Speaker 1: bigger because their diet is you know, that much better. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's yeah. As far as white tail hunting in Alabama, UM,
Speaker 1: getting that black belt, that's your best bet for sure.
Speaker 1: Is there a lot of public land in Alabama? There is?
Speaker 1: Fortunately for me, I've never had to hunt a lot
Speaker 1: of public land, UM, but I live near um several
Speaker 1: different National forests and management areas, and it's it's popular.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of hunters on it. They see a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure. But every year, you know you can,
Speaker 1: you can. You know, bet your last dollar there's gonna
Speaker 1: be some stomp down good ones killed off of it.
Speaker 1: Because you know, when you've got a massive land that
Speaker 1: big and that many people putting pressure on it, you know,
Speaker 1: just statistics, you're bound to have a couple of really
Speaker 1: really good ones killed. Yeah. But I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is compared to other states, but I know, um
Speaker 1: that there is. I would say there's a a fair amount,
Speaker 1: if not an abundance of public land in Alabama. If
Speaker 1: you want to hunt in Alabama, you can hunt in Alabama.
Speaker 1: There's there's nobody saying I just have nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to do what you can
Speaker 1: do it. What's your what's your favorite hunting in Alabama?
Speaker 1: My favorite hunting definitely in Alabama. My favorite hunting is
Speaker 1: definitely white tails. Um, just because I don't know, I
Speaker 1: guess i've it's it was my first hunting. It was
Speaker 1: the first hunting that I did. Like legit, you know,
Speaker 1: we've shot squirrels off the back porch when we were kids,
Speaker 1: you know, but as far as uh like in any
Speaker 1: kind of structure to it. UM, just grew up deer hunting.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I didn't care for a turkey. I didn't
Speaker 1: care for a duck. I didn't care for any of
Speaker 1: it outside of white tails until I was much later
Speaker 1: in life. Um, which I kind of kicked myself for
Speaker 1: now because the stuff, the land that I had access
Speaker 1: to back then, and all the turkeys I probably could
Speaker 1: have killed. You know, I just what an idiot I was.
Speaker 1: But um, but no, definitely definitely deer hunting. And then yes, yes, um,
Speaker 1: I primarily bow hunt now the older I've gotten, UM,
Speaker 1: I definitely still rifle hunt. Don't get me wrong, but
Speaker 1: I've definitely leaned more over into archery the older I've ut.
Speaker 1: And you see, because you know, I've just spent so
Speaker 1: many years and had such so much success with a
Speaker 1: rifle that you know, naturally you want something challenging. So um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I've I'm definitely more of a bow hunter now.
Speaker 1: But if it gets later in the year, you know,
Speaker 1: and a lot of our land is a lot of
Speaker 1: land in Alabama is hard to bow hunt, um because yeah,
Speaker 1: well there's well there's that, but then on top of that, UM,
Speaker 1: I want to say, a little over seventy of the
Speaker 1: state is is uh timber land. It's like like woods,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that is thickets that you just
Speaker 1: can't bow hunt, you know. Um. It's not like in
Speaker 1: the Midwest, when you can pattern. You know, you can
Speaker 1: literally physically put your eyes on that deer and nowhere
Speaker 1: he's betting and nowhere he's feeding. You can't do that
Speaker 1: hardly in Alabama. It's just it's too dense the terrain
Speaker 1: two dents um, and so we rely a lot on
Speaker 1: trail cameras as far as bow hunting is concerned, we
Speaker 1: rely heavily on trail cameras um and uh, just creating
Speaker 1: openings in thick areas like that to give ourselves a shot. Um.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that a lot of the
Speaker 1: land that I've been fortunate to hunt, there's the timber
Speaker 1: industry is huge in Alabama. We were we rely on
Speaker 1: pines a lot, and so I love hunting and clear cut.
Speaker 1: They come in and cut all the timber, you know,
Speaker 1: and you've got this this massive acreage um where a
Speaker 1: deer feels really really comfortable, you know, a year or
Speaker 1: two after that timber is cut, but you can still
Speaker 1: see him. Um. So I mean, that's one of my
Speaker 1: all time favorite things to hunt is a uh maybe
Speaker 1: a two two year cutover because like I said, this
Speaker 1: year they'll bed in it and they just I mean
Speaker 1: they stand up and you can see them and they
Speaker 1: feel completely hidden. They have no idea. That sounds like
Speaker 1: an old Jackie Bushman trick. Yeah, oh man, Jackie Bushman's
Speaker 1: from Alabama, from South Alabama, man, you describe, and hunting
Speaker 1: clear cuts is a lot like southwest Arkansas, where I
Speaker 1: grew up doing quite a bit of hunting wheat. So
Speaker 1: I grew up in the mountains, but we would drive
Speaker 1: to the good deer numbers a little bit further south
Speaker 1: out of the mountains, and it was it was a
Speaker 1: lot of timber country, a lot of pine plantations and absolutely, man,
Speaker 1: you climb up a thirty you know, a pine tree
Speaker 1: with no limbs for us, the climbing stands, tickty clock,
Speaker 1: ticknty clock. Climb up there, sit there and watch a
Speaker 1: big cut over. It's so much fun. It is so
Speaker 1: much fun in the rud as well, like just watching
Speaker 1: those racks bounce around out there. Those it's I love
Speaker 1: it so much. But yeah, and we're in recent years
Speaker 1: of of I've really taken a liking to duck unny
Speaker 1: and even more recently than that, Turkey's I did not
Speaker 1: become a hardcore what I would consider a hardcore turkey
Speaker 1: hunter until maybe five years ago. Okay, yeah, well man,
Speaker 1: if you're in a good turkey population, you can learn
Speaker 1: a lot about turkey hunting. Yeah, because you can work
Speaker 1: a lot of birds, mess up a lot, and it
Speaker 1: not affect you around here. You mess one up, you
Speaker 1: mess one up, you maybe your season is over for real.
Speaker 1: But so you're started in a good a good place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very uh, very friendly to a turkey hunter down there.
Speaker 1: We had a friend, one of my best friends. His
Speaker 1: family has a big farm in south south of Montgomery,
Speaker 1: um um, towards like Auburn. Not far from Auburn, maybe
Speaker 1: thirty forty minutes outside there, but um big family farm. Beautiful,
Speaker 1: absolutely one of the prettiest places and wildlife rich places
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Um and free. Years and years we
Speaker 1: hunted that place and we did not turkey on um.
Speaker 1: And we would go deer hunting all throughout the whole
Speaker 1: season and we would see just I mean fifties sixty
Speaker 1: seventy at a time, you know, just these massive wads
Speaker 1: of turkeys. And so one year we were like, we're
Speaker 1: gonna turkey hunt this year. You know, We're just gonna
Speaker 1: try it out. And so, I mean, I think maybe
Speaker 1: a dozen of us went down there and over three days,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many turkeys we kill. It was incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean we would have you know, groups of six
Speaker 1: and seven long beers coming in attacking the I mean
Speaker 1: just the kind of turkey don't you dream of, you know,
Speaker 1: attacking the decoys, fighting each other. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: incredible turkey hunting. And Um. After that, I was hooked.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely hooked after that, you just said something
Speaker 1: that is totally off topic. But this is kind of
Speaker 1: the way we roll. I guess, um, I've never it's
Speaker 1: and along. I don't know that I've talked to somebody
Speaker 1: in Alabama in a format like this. Auburn and Alabama,
Speaker 1: how does this work? Well, first, I'll say, Um, I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm a die hard to my core Alabama Crimson
Speaker 1: Tide Fanum, honestly, is it is? It is? It is?
Speaker 1: Where where are the colleges? So in relationship to say
Speaker 1: and let me let me yeah, my so my history
Speaker 1: is there's one Division one school and the whole state
Speaker 1: of Arkansas, University of Arkansas. So everybody's a University of
Speaker 1: Arkansas fans really easy and there's no yeah, no kid,
Speaker 1: no kids. Our football teams, yeah, exactly, We're good at that, buddy,
Speaker 1: We'll run from absolutely. Yeah, we're we got a football team,
Speaker 1: but as good as our turkey hunting. Uh So, No,
Speaker 1: we have no professional teams and we have one Division
Speaker 1: one university. So it's like everybody's a razorback friend. So Alabama,
Speaker 1: we've got several Yeah, the two big ones, Abama and Auburn. Um.
Speaker 1: So Alabama is just west of Birmingham, a little bit
Speaker 1: south but a little mostly west, so it's college college itself.
Speaker 1: And then Auburn is kind of southeast towards Georgia, not
Speaker 1: far from the Georgia line. Really a lot of big
Speaker 1: Alburn fans in Georgia lots UM and then uh so,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're not too far from each other. Um,
Speaker 1: the colleges aren't that colleges. I mean they're probably support
Speaker 1: the population base. I mean, there can't be that many
Speaker 1: people in Alabama. Um, there's not. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: if you are in Alabama, you gotta pick one of them.
Speaker 1: And so you got half the state that's Alburn fans,
Speaker 1: the other half is tid fans. And then you have
Speaker 1: all these outliers that might be like a U A
Speaker 1: B fan, like university I went Birmingham, or university that's
Speaker 1: not a division. Yeah, maybe he's like Division one double A.
Speaker 1: I want to they're like a step below, Like they're
Speaker 1: not like that, Like they're not in UM, they're not
Speaker 1: in like what is it? What is what am I
Speaker 1: looking for? Well? SEC the southeast, so they're not in
Speaker 1: the SEC. They're in lesser conferences, but they do play okay,
Speaker 1: Division one, Okay, every year. Um, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a little bit geographic, but then again
Speaker 1: it's not so. I mean you you can have you know,
Speaker 1: Auburn fans that lived just outside Tuscaloosa and Bama fans
Speaker 1: that lived just outside All. Okay, what are the I'm
Speaker 1: breaking this down because I know it's this is so
Speaker 1: complex that you, being so deep inside of it, gonna
Speaker 1: have a hard time explaining it. Okay, Um, so I
Speaker 1: mean is it uh it does one school represent something
Speaker 1: the other school doesn't represent? Uh? Yeah, you can say
Speaker 1: that Alabama represents winning and all. I knew this was
Speaker 1: too complicated for him. No, no, no, it's uh I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, Uh the stereotypes, Uh that might put it
Speaker 1: in a little more perspective and things that I can
Speaker 1: actually agree with on a certain level. Um, Tuscaloose is
Speaker 1: a bit of a trashier town than Auburn. Just I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna lay that out there. I'll admit it. Auburn
Speaker 1: is a much nicer Alburn is a nicer area, There
Speaker 1: is no question, and it is. If I had to
Speaker 1: choose one of those schools to go to, I would
Speaker 1: go to Auburn um based on several different things. Um.
Speaker 1: But um, so Auburn fans have it in their heads
Speaker 1: that they're the more classy. I mean, from my perspective,
Speaker 1: they I think they think that they're kind of up
Speaker 1: at a little bit. Um. And then Bama fans are like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we know we're kind of rugged, but who cares? You know.
Speaker 1: And Auburn there season and is a success if they
Speaker 1: beat Alabama. Alabamas season is not a success unless they
Speaker 1: win the national championships. So their goals are different. Um.
Speaker 1: And I'll just to lay the statistics out there. There's
Speaker 1: no category in football, Um, no significant category where Alabama
Speaker 1: has not been more successful than Albert. You've got more
Speaker 1: national championships, we've got more SEC championships. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: is Alabama like the best bowl? More Bowl appearances, more
Speaker 1: Bowl victories? Were But from what you're saying, that's not
Speaker 1: even a question. Is that? I mean, is there which
Speaker 1: is better? You can't question numbers, facts or facts Alleign
Speaker 1: fans have if it needs to be defended, it doesn't
Speaker 1: legitimately need to be defended. It only needs to be
Speaker 1: you know, defended. When you're talking to an Auburn fan
Speaker 1: who just I mean, I can't look at numbers and
Speaker 1: deduced that one school is better than the other at football.
Speaker 1: I feel I just feel like this is bad for
Speaker 1: the state, such a division. It's it's good and it's bad. Um.
Speaker 1: You know it's bad because, I mean, it's bad for
Speaker 1: a number of reasons. One it criminal acts have been
Speaker 1: committed as a result of this rivalry, uh, and continue
Speaker 1: to be committed, I'm sure. Um. But then it's also
Speaker 1: good because a little banter, a little struggle, a little
Speaker 1: bit of tension is is healthy. I think a rivalry
Speaker 1: makes it so much more fun. Yeah, especially rivalry is Alabama.
Speaker 1: So if it's that close and in the same state,
Speaker 1: which I just can't relate to, I mean deep down
Speaker 1: to Auburn fans, are they rooting for Alabama if they're out?
Speaker 1: Because that now I know. I don't like college football.
Speaker 1: I don't watch it. I don't pay attention to it.
Speaker 1: But I said at the beginning of this and admitted
Speaker 1: all everybody that I keep my finger on, I keep
Speaker 1: my pulse on pop culture. Okay, Now, my dad loves
Speaker 1: college football, and so as soon as the Razorbacks are out,
Speaker 1: which is always very early, he is just going for
Speaker 1: SEC guys and so and I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like whatever. So he you know, he wants Alabama
Speaker 1: to win. He if Auburn was in the National Champion,
Speaker 1: he wants Auburn to win. So so if if if
Speaker 1: Auburn's out, are the Auburn guy's rooting for Alabama? Um,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's probably a higher there's probably a
Speaker 1: majority of them that are not really so they're just
Speaker 1: like they're like a lot of them have the same
Speaker 1: mentality towards us that we have towards them. I hope
Speaker 1: that Auburn never wins a football game. That you're one
Speaker 1: of those guys, absolutely all right, they never I hope
Speaker 1: they never win a game ever. But I hope we
Speaker 1: get to play them or I don't. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't wish any ill will towards the actual players or
Speaker 1: the school itself. But if they never want another game ever,
Speaker 1: it would throw me to death. Man see from Alabama
Speaker 1: and he's rooting against his his his Alabama teams. Okay, good,
Speaker 1: well you've explained it to me. I'll put it to
Speaker 1: you this way, just to put the rivalry in perspective
Speaker 1: for me, personally. Um, I dated a girl that family
Speaker 1: had auburn fence in it and it was a point
Speaker 1: of debate. It was a discussion, yes with my family.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, oh yeah, it's I mean, I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to get some clarity on this for a while. So
Speaker 1: now understand, Well, just you know, to sum it up, Bama,
Speaker 1: good bad, it's that. It's that, got it, got it? Well,
Speaker 1: what are your plans for this fall? What are you
Speaker 1: gonna do. I've got a couple of duck hunts planned.
Speaker 1: I got one I'm going I'm going duck hunting in
Speaker 1: Kansas for the first time. I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 1: I've never hunted dry fields and so we're doing that
Speaker 1: for the first time this year. Um, really excited about that. Um.
Speaker 1: I've got another one planned for South Louisiana duck hunt yep.
Speaker 1: And what we're gonna do some red fishing two while
Speaker 1: we down there, a little cast and blast, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I'm probably I'm in the process of trying
Speaker 1: to lock down some kind of private land here in
Speaker 1: northwest Arkansas, just so that I'm not bored out of
Speaker 1: my mind when football doesn't happen, because I don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen, you know, and not that I would.
Speaker 1: So back home, I could just go hunt and then
Speaker 1: come back home and watch the you know, it was easy.
Speaker 1: I could do it all. But here, I don't have
Speaker 1: anywhere local or anything close outside of public land um
Speaker 1: to hunt. And so I'm trying to find something because
Speaker 1: I mean I even hunt midweek hunt, you know, to
Speaker 1: hunt the lease. There's not many. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of leases in this I've discovered. I've discovered and that's
Speaker 1: another big difference between here and in Alabama. There is
Speaker 1: there is a plethora of land that is leased every year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know why. I mean, and
Speaker 1: it's probably, I mean, I'm probably it's just I don't
Speaker 1: it's just not prevalent. I mean, people just don't think
Speaker 1: about I've actually we're gonna think I'm crazy. But I
Speaker 1: I have the on X app on my phone and
Speaker 1: so I can look up, you know, property owners and
Speaker 1: things like that. So I'll just be pruising through the map,
Speaker 1: find the property owner, find there you know, Facebook or
Speaker 1: you know, anything I can find. And I've reached out
Speaker 1: to several people about you know, potentially leasing their land
Speaker 1: to hunt, and it's it's like they've never heard of it,
Speaker 1: you know, up here it's incredible, Like just you want
Speaker 1: to do what you know. I was like, no, I
Speaker 1: want to give you money so I can hunt your
Speaker 1: properties to come on and hunt to give me money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been a little bit of that, you know. I've
Speaker 1: just some just some some people that at least verbally,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh yeah, man, I mean, we'll see how
Speaker 1: that goes when they realize how crazy I am. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, we need to put a greenfield there,
Speaker 1: and uh, what do you think about putting some summer
Speaker 1: crops over here? You know, like and they're like, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Man, I don't even have a tractor.
Speaker 1: But it's that's That's one thing that's been a little
Speaker 1: eye opening too, is um acquiring uh private land up
Speaker 1: here to hunt is is a challenge, Yeah, but still
Speaker 1: chomping away yet. I'm fair something if you speak the
Speaker 1: ground enough, you'll you'll come up with something. You'll come
Speaker 1: with So you're so, I've got those duck hunts lined
Speaker 1: up um late summer. I got several dove shoots that
Speaker 1: I plan on going to UM and then obviously I can.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take I usually, um, around Christmas and New
Speaker 1: Year's I take a big block of time right there,
Speaker 1: um and do a lot of hunting. Whether that's you know,
Speaker 1: ducks deer um in Alabama, that's we I mean, it's
Speaker 1: where you go back. Yeah, I'll I have plans. I'll
Speaker 1: probably so the way of the year will go more
Speaker 1: than likely is I'll be in Kentucky beginning of September.
Speaker 1: Then it's then it's oh, yeah, my brother killed a
Speaker 1: pretty nice one up there last year with his first
Speaker 1: velvet deer, beautiful probably eight point really pretty. Um, So
Speaker 1: we do a lot of uh we both hunt there
Speaker 1: every year the beginning of season. Uh. Then we'll shoot
Speaker 1: doves mid September, late September on in October. Well, then
Speaker 1: season opens here October one correct, well fourth fourth Saturday
Speaker 1: in September. So it'll be like so somewhere and there,
Speaker 1: I could you know, by then hopefully I'll have something
Speaker 1: or a good friend of mine has a family farm
Speaker 1: in Mississippi that also opens the beginning of October archery season.
Speaker 1: So I'll either you know, be hunting here or there
Speaker 1: one of the two, and then season comes in in
Speaker 1: Alabama October archery season. Um, and from then on out
Speaker 1: I'll be there'll be a lot of traveling back and forth.
Speaker 1: That's what it's looking like because, um, you know, even
Speaker 1: if I did have some land here to hunt, I mean,
Speaker 1: I would still be going back and forth Alabama just
Speaker 1: because it's such a I've got a great resource at
Speaker 1: my disposal down there and plenty of land hunt and
Speaker 1: so have you ever had it out west? Any any
Speaker 1: of the big game out with I wish. I've been
Speaker 1: talking to um, one of my good hunting buddies about
Speaker 1: I mean, this is forever. We talked about it every
Speaker 1: year and we never do it. Was like, Man, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go out west, Um, like Colorado or Montana or something.
Speaker 1: We're gonna public land hunt for elk. Like that's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do, and we've just never done it. It's hard. Um.
Speaker 1: The hardest thing for us is always scheduling timing, you know, um,
Speaker 1: because you don't want to go and do it by
Speaker 1: yourself at least I don't. Uh. But um no, just
Speaker 1: for one for whatever reason, Man never made it happen. Um.
Speaker 1: I got a real good friend that lives in Alaska
Speaker 1: and hunts like crazy actually killed a giant and I
Speaker 1: mean a giant brown bear a couple of weeks, like
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. Oh my god, you're sending me pictures.
Speaker 1: But anyways, Um, he's been trying to get me to
Speaker 1: come up there and hunt with him, and is just
Speaker 1: another thing I haven't been able to make it happen.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's always been the all these like destination
Speaker 1: type hunts stuff like that. Um, that's always been the
Speaker 1: When I've got the money and I've got the time,
Speaker 1: that's the first thing on the on the docket. That's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do, you know. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of guys in the Southeast that that,
Speaker 1: you know, like growing up in the town I was
Speaker 1: in from in Arkansas, there was a group of guys
Speaker 1: that always went to Colorado. But it's a pretty small group.
Speaker 1: I would say now that number of people, it's like
Speaker 1: I feel like it's way more like I feel like
Speaker 1: it's much more common. I guess just in the age
Speaker 1: of information being spread so much and on AX podcasts
Speaker 1: and you know, information just going, people are kind of
Speaker 1: emboldened to be able to jump in their trucks and
Speaker 1: drive out west. But anyway, I don't feel bad. I
Speaker 1: didn't start hunting out west probably five years ago. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just stayed. I prided myself and never have been
Speaker 1: killed a deer outside of the state of Arkansas. And
Speaker 1: and that actually is true except for Manitoba. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've killed a deer outside of Arkansas except for Manitoba, Canada. Um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so it's cool, you know, I if you
Speaker 1: don't know, you would you don't know me very well, cam.
Speaker 1: But I love local hunting, like because it's really easy
Speaker 1: to look at television and all this stuff that's like
Speaker 1: far off hunting and and you know, adventure based all
Speaker 1: this backpack hunting and be like, oh man, I wish
Speaker 1: I could do that. But we got this incredible hunting
Speaker 1: right here close to our house, and that can be
Speaker 1: just as epic, just as fun. Never just stated it,
Speaker 1: but I guess we kind of have a similar mentality
Speaker 1: in that regard, because I mean, I've killed very few
Speaker 1: deer outside of Alabama, but the ones I have killed,
Speaker 1: especially in the last maybe seven or eight years, have
Speaker 1: been within minutes of my house, and so there's a
Speaker 1: lot I loved it. There's a ton of value in that.
Speaker 1: There really is. And and don't get me wrong, I
Speaker 1: love traveling and hunting and and we've done that extensively
Speaker 1: the last seven years. But my best hunting is like
Speaker 1: within a mile or right, you know, right here at home.
Speaker 1: I don't doubt it. And uh and and it's not
Speaker 1: best because I killed the biggest animals. It's best because
Speaker 1: I got to eat dinner with my family and jump
Speaker 1: in the truck and drive down the road and hunt
Speaker 1: for two hours or or or you know, whatever the
Speaker 1: situation would be. But but uh no, that's cool, man.
Speaker 1: I just wondered if you've been out west any Yeah, sure, wish,
Speaker 1: but but no, I, like you, I find immense value
Speaker 1: in and I guess what you call local gum. And
Speaker 1: that's what most people do. I mean, most people don't
Speaker 1: don't have the liberty to travel that much, but just
Speaker 1: most people don't. But but it is more common than
Speaker 1: it's ever been. And it's because I feel like it's
Speaker 1: just because I've just spread of information, and you know,
Speaker 1: it just like kind of intel, you know that maybe
Speaker 1: you didn't have the twenty five years ago. It's interesting, um,
Speaker 1: how certain components like that technologically have maybe increased the
Speaker 1: number of hunters. But um, if I'm not mistaken, the
Speaker 1: state of Alabama has seen a pretty consistent decline in
Speaker 1: the number of hunting licenses. And I imagine that's probably
Speaker 1: not just you know in Alabama, UM, just the technology age.
Speaker 1: Kids don't grow up doing it like they used to. Um,
Speaker 1: there's just been a pretty significant decline. Um and I
Speaker 1: know that, um it East in Alabama, they've there's a
Speaker 1: few things they've done to kind of incentivize things like that,
Speaker 1: but um, it's still it's it's you hate to see it,
Speaker 1: but you kind of love to see it. It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of a catch twenty two. But um, well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just cure. It's interesting to me how some things,
Speaker 1: like you said, it looks like there's more people doing
Speaker 1: it when the numbers are actually saying that there's fewer people,
Speaker 1: right right, right. Well, you know, we we talk a
Speaker 1: ton about hunter recruitment, we really do. I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of times are are mission and kind of what
Speaker 1: we're doing here. I mean we're talking a ton about
Speaker 1: hunter recruitment, and and it's it's a bigger deal than
Speaker 1: just you know, just going to a hunting area and
Speaker 1: being less people there. I mean, yeah, I I see
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Like it could be like sweet, I
Speaker 1: got this place to myself. But the long term is
Speaker 1: so much more significant from funding. I mean, when we
Speaker 1: nerd out about this stuff, and you know, the hunters
Speaker 1: are funding conservation, you know, license sale are are funding
Speaker 1: state state groups. You know, we we've got a whole
Speaker 1: podcasts that nerd out on all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But but to your point, we I think we have
Speaker 1: the infrastructure to have a new wave of hunter recruitment.
Speaker 1: I've heard some people say that they feel like COVID
Speaker 1: nightteen stuff is gonna cause in general hunter recruitment to
Speaker 1: go up. Now. I know it did during the actual
Speaker 1: quarantine because people weren't working and they had more fruit. Right,
Speaker 1: But there's a there's two ways of thought. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like some of the people that are further disconnected
Speaker 1: from wild game as a as a protein source are
Speaker 1: gonna see the COVID nineteen thing as a deal to
Speaker 1: stay away from wildlife. It started with wildlife and humans.
Speaker 1: This this started as a wildlife human interaction eating interaction.
Speaker 1: So it's like, so people that are super disconnected that
Speaker 1: really have no reference might say, Man, this is even
Speaker 1: more reason not to go in the woods, not to
Speaker 1: you know, stay away from all that. The people that
Speaker 1: are more connected to whether meat comes from, they're a
Speaker 1: little bit more educated on where it comes from. I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna push them the other way because you know,
Speaker 1: somebody eating an undercooked bat is not equivalent to us.
Speaker 1: It's not even in the same ballpark as us going
Speaker 1: out and harvesting a deer, harveston a bear, harvesting a turkey,
Speaker 1: cooking and our processing that. I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just in a different playing field, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of hard for I kind of want to dig
Speaker 1: into the science of why it is. I know that
Speaker 1: it is. I want to dig into the science of it.
Speaker 1: But I think it's gonna push some people to, man,
Speaker 1: I better know where my meat comes from. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be taking any guesses of where my meat
Speaker 1: comes from. So that's the bigger picture of what is,
Speaker 1: you know, because no doubt this stuff has changed the
Speaker 1: planet for like for good. I mean, like this is
Speaker 1: like you know that you've all we've all heard it said.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is like nine eleven type stuff. You
Speaker 1: know that the Earth just forever was changed after this. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that's what's happening, and it's it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see. I I hope that it pushes people more
Speaker 1: towards you know, responsible outdoor recreation to gather protein and
Speaker 1: hunting numbers increase. You know, everybody go to Alabama and
Speaker 1: kill all camps turkeys. Honestly, if if you let me
Speaker 1: hunt with you, I just like seeing them. Uh well,
Speaker 1: uh man, Cam, thanks for uh you know, I almost
Speaker 1: had you bring your guitar. I wanted. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: if we hadn't really thought about it, I guess you know.
Speaker 1: I I hated to ask you to do that because
Speaker 1: I you know, I just didn't didn't know if you'd
Speaker 1: be comfortable with that or not. But I wish I had. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. We can do a live concert if fewer
Speaker 1: situations that I'm more comfortable in than that right there,
Speaker 1: that Gus sitting in a tree stand. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely would have done that. That would have been great. Well,
Speaker 1: what we might do is uh definitely working. Tell us
Speaker 1: how people can find your music and find you on
Speaker 1: social media, music, hunting life in general. You know, you
Speaker 1: can check me out on Instagram, at camp spins, uh, Facebook,
Speaker 1: camp spins, Um, you know, all the all the normals. Um,
Speaker 1: but I would say, uh, musically, if you purchase my
Speaker 1: music is available anywhere you purchase your music, or if
Speaker 1: you're a streamer, you know you can pick it up
Speaker 1: on Spotify or you know any other big ones iTunes, Amazon,
Speaker 1: literally any music outlet known to man. I think my
Speaker 1: music is available on just search camp spins and I'll
Speaker 1: be there. What should what? What? What song would you
Speaker 1: tell him to go listen to? If you're an outdoorsman
Speaker 1: and you like and you like to hunt, I would say, um,
Speaker 1: go listen to Got it from my Daddy. I wrote
Speaker 1: that for my dad, Um about kind of the main
Speaker 1: things that he's instilled in us over the years, and um,
Speaker 1: kind of the things that he introduced us to baseball
Speaker 1: as a kid. He was always our baseball coach for
Speaker 1: years and years. And then hunting, you know, obviously goes
Speaker 1: without say um and there's some there's some clever little
Speaker 1: lines in there that'll make you laugh too. But um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's as far as of songs that mean
Speaker 1: something to me, I think that one's up there at
Speaker 1: the top somewhere. Um. I love that song, love that
Speaker 1: song a whole lot, um, but so I would check
Speaker 1: that one out. But honestly, if you just like, you know,
Speaker 1: well written country music, just listen to my whole catale. Man.
Speaker 1: I got some I got some pretty good stuff in there.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily uh A lot of it's not what
Speaker 1: you would hear on country radio. And I'm think I'm
Speaker 1: kind of proud of that, if we're being perfectly honest,
Speaker 1: I think the radio suffers a lot at its at
Speaker 1: its own expense, but not playing um, what I consider
Speaker 1: to be more sophisticated uh country music. Right on sophisticated
Speaker 1: country music. I like it. I like it. Um. Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's where people can find you and then go
Speaker 1: and go check out all your music. Yeah you're yeah.
Speaker 1: I was searching some of your stuff earlier day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: find it, Cam Spinks, that's it. Call me what what
Speaker 1: you got anything else for? Cam? I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask a typical question, who are you musical influences? My
Speaker 1: musical influences? Over boy, that's the question everyone. You get
Speaker 1: it so often, But I'm so not pop culture. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that I needed to ask me this and
Speaker 1: that that's fair. Yeah. Um no, I would say, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I grew up on on nineties country and
Speaker 1: kind of southern rock. Um, you know, the the Guards,
Speaker 1: the Alan Jackson, the you know, all all your all
Speaker 1: your big time nineties. I'm not gonna sit here and
Speaker 1: tell you that I was like a huge Whalen fan
Speaker 1: or a big brol I like those guys. But that's
Speaker 1: just not what I grew up. When I grew up
Speaker 1: on good, hearty nineties country Joe Diffy, saw your Brown
Speaker 1: all that good stuff. Uh. And then on the on
Speaker 1: kind of the classic rock side, it was you know,
Speaker 1: Skinnered and Almond Brothers and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But then in recent years, um, kind of the more
Speaker 1: modern artists that I've taken a liking too, and and
Speaker 1: some of my music has been influenced by is like
Speaker 1: Jason is Bowl and Cody Jinks, a lot of these um,
Speaker 1: Tyler Childer's, you know, a lot of these Appalachia guys,
Speaker 1: Sturgill Simpson, another Kentucky guy, Stapleton. Um, just kind of
Speaker 1: the guys that are more edgy country, UM, that don't
Speaker 1: stick with the the mold of the Nashville mold. If
Speaker 1: if you will, Um, people that kind of do their
Speaker 1: own thing. I love that. Um. So yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say a lot of those guys, that's that's what I
Speaker 1: listened to, and that's what I not necessarily try to emulate.
Speaker 1: But some of it just comes out naturally. That's, you know,
Speaker 1: because those are the sounds I'm hearing so often. Um,
Speaker 1: you know that's kind of the stuff I want to
Speaker 1: incorporate in my music. So um, I feel like I
Speaker 1: kind of have my own sound, though, like I don't.
Speaker 1: I try not to sound like someone else. Is that
Speaker 1: that seems like it would be hard. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. It is a lot harder. Like let's say
Speaker 1: your your voice is your voice, you know, Um, you
Speaker 1: can't change that that much and sustain it. Um, you
Speaker 1: kind of gotta stay you kind of have to stay
Speaker 1: in your lane. Like your voice is gonna sound like
Speaker 1: your voice, and if it sounds like other people, then
Speaker 1: it sounds like other people. But if it doesn't, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's beneficial. Um. I've been told on multiple
Speaker 1: occasions that you know, you don't you just don't sound
Speaker 1: like anyone, and I always take it as a compliment.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that so um At least vocally, you know.
Speaker 1: Um So I would say, uh, that's where all my
Speaker 1: influences lie. And um kind of the the lane that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to fall into. That's good man. What about
Speaker 1: hunting influences? I think all of us. I'm gonna throw
Speaker 1: one at you that UM I hope you know who
Speaker 1: it is, Dan Fitzgerald. Yeah, all right, so Dan Fitzgerald
Speaker 1: the best thing you've said this whole podcast. And his
Speaker 1: son's name Guy right, yeah, sure is um So. I
Speaker 1: grew up on Dan Fitzgerald the core. UM. For the
Speaker 1: first several years of of learning archery. It was all instinctive,
Speaker 1: even with even with the little I had a psc
Speaker 1: bandit compound. I didn't have a site on it. Ever.
Speaker 1: UM I never killed Ado. I was like eight nine
Speaker 1: years old, you know I was. Back then it wasn't
Speaker 1: legal unless you were pulling thirty five pounds, and so
Speaker 1: I wasn't pulling thirty five pounds. But that's how I learned.
Speaker 1: I learned instinctively, and later on, UM I did get
Speaker 1: into instinctive archery for a short period of time. UM
Speaker 1: I had a long bow. I didn't even go to
Speaker 1: the recurve route. I went straight to long and um,
Speaker 1: I got fairly proficient with it. UM hunted with it
Speaker 1: several times, never had the opportunity to kill anything, but um,
Speaker 1: you know I had. There was a hunt where the
Speaker 1: buck was just a little further than I was comfortable
Speaker 1: with with that one, and I was like, if I
Speaker 1: just had my compound, you know. And so from then
Speaker 1: I kind of slipped back into the compound world. And
Speaker 1: and uh, but no, I would say, uh, Dan Fitzgerald,
Speaker 1: for sure, Tim Wells more recently, I love Tim Wells man.
Speaker 1: Uh And then you mentioned him earlier, Steve Ronella. I
Speaker 1: I could watch and listen to Steve Ronello for days
Speaker 1: and never get tired of it. What do you watch
Speaker 1: this stuff? Do you watch all of his I watched
Speaker 1: I watched, Yeah, I watched all of that. But then
Speaker 1: I've listened to his podcast a little bit, um, but
Speaker 1: mainly the stuff on Netflix. I just to be able
Speaker 1: to see it and and and hear it as well.
Speaker 1: It's just and the things he's been able to do,
Speaker 1: and then he cooks on top of that. You know.
Speaker 1: It's just that's another thing I love. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: eclectic glup group there, Dan Fitzgerald, Tim Wells and Steve
Speaker 1: and then and then probably the last big one. I'm
Speaker 1: a so keeping with the archery theme, I actually did
Speaker 1: my I did like a sort of a senior thesis
Speaker 1: in high school, UM on Fred Bear, big Fred Bear guy.
Speaker 1: At some point I'm gonna get some Fred Bear tattoos.
Speaker 1: It's gonna happen. Um. And you know, you can't talk
Speaker 1: about Fred Bear without talking about Ted Nugent. I love
Speaker 1: love Ted Nugent, his antics. He cracks me the hell up.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I think I've got a Ted Nugent
Speaker 1: for president. I love it. I hope he says Uncle Ted.
Speaker 1: I can't remember different president. But and then probably another
Speaker 1: guy that I really really really respect, not only for
Speaker 1: his for his efforts in hunting and stuff, but just
Speaker 1: his conservation efforts and his depth of knowledge of hunting
Speaker 1: in so many different cultures in different places around the
Speaker 1: world is obviously Jim Shaky. Yeah. I'm and that guy.
Speaker 1: If there was if there was one um hunter figure
Speaker 1: hunting figure that I could just meet and sit down
Speaker 1: and have a beer with, it would be Jim Sharkey. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: big Jim Sharkey fan. Yeah yeah, I feel like that
Speaker 1: guy did it. Right, Yeah, yeah, I have a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for Jim Shocky for sure. Yeah, yeah, those
Speaker 1: are my good group. Yeah. And then if you guys
Speaker 1: are if you guys have never heard of t K
Speaker 1: and Micael, how old you must be? Like exactly, my boy,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty. You're way younger than me. I'm thirty years old.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've assembled a Porto Pooper or two
Speaker 1: in my day, so I grew up on those guys
Speaker 1: as well. Uh TK and love it? Yeah, w W
Speaker 1: the water you see a piece upper where you don't
Speaker 1: see him? Oh? Good, love, it's good. That's good. What
Speaker 1: about the The Misadventures of Bubba? Oh my god, was
Speaker 1: it Jim Barney? Oh man, that's funny. Yeah, those were classics.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good man. Hey, thanks a ton for thanks
Speaker 1: a ton for coming out here and mean with us
Speaker 1: man anytime, anytime. It's it's been an enjoyable conversation. And
Speaker 1: and uh man, congratulations on you know. I'm always like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm conscious, I'm always consciously like perusing media trying
Speaker 1: to see a hunting figure in mainstream media. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what caught my even though they didn't say
Speaker 1: you were a hunter. But I knew you were a
Speaker 1: hunter even even then when we talking about that, well
Speaker 1: even to the point in uh and and part of
Speaker 1: Blake's deal that he did he had like some deer
Speaker 1: mounts or something in the back and behind him, and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I'll take it super mainstream outlet
Speaker 1: like kind of being okay with like a deer head
Speaker 1: Like that's I think that's a win. But now anyway,
Speaker 1: just congratulations on on you know, going as far as
Speaker 1: you did on the voice and just your career in
Speaker 1: music and stuff. And man, I really do wish you
Speaker 1: the best up here in Northwest Arkansan. I know you're
Speaker 1: new up here and getting my feet wet. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: But right on, any closing thoughts, anything you wanna, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm sure your listeners have heard it once or twice before,
Speaker 1: but I am thoroughly impressed with this room and it's decor.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, It's intriguing. Man. And like I said, having
Speaker 1: never been hunted before, I'm anxious to it too, to
Speaker 1: jump into that world as well. Yeah, just another thing
Speaker 1: that's spend my money on, you know, Yeah, another thing
Speaker 1: for my fiance to get mad about. Right on, right on,
Speaker 1: I'm sure y'all don't know anything about that. Well, now,
Speaker 1: pleasure to have you, and uh yeah, we'll stay in
Speaker 1: touch for sure, and yeah, check out check out camp spins,
Speaker 1: look him up, look up of music, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live.
Speaker 1: Heard that I've got an on F one Hunter Model
Speaker 1: sixty four, reading old cone or red paint three on
Speaker 1: the floor. People try to buy off me. I'll never
Speaker 1: sell at chess. I got it from my dad, somewhere
Speaker 1: in my close. It's my own baseball clothe the post boys.
Speaker 1: It's a warmer, but that game was my first love.
Speaker 1: I never got to play it past eight. And I've
Speaker 1: got the guitar and another dream. I got it from
Speaker 1: my dad. Got it from my daddy. I ain't scared
Speaker 1: to get a little dirty. My forehead is bigger than
Speaker 1: he used to be. I'm stopping in as the days long,
Speaker 1: and it's how I always be. And I got it
Speaker 1: from my dadsy, I got it from my daddy. That's
Speaker 1: a rifle in the corner two forty three. It's cute
Speaker 1: mount a white tail all across the southeast. Me and
Speaker 1: that gun and made some memory. Got a fashion for
Speaker 1: the great outdoors in me. I got it from my daddy.
Speaker 1: I got it from my daddy. I ain't scared to
Speaker 1: get a little dirty. My fold is bigger than he
Speaker 1: used to be. So then as the days long, and
Speaker 1: it's how I long. I got it from my daddy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: got it from my dadaddy, she