Speaker 1: None of that ever happened. What it was was a
Speaker 1: friend of mine mentioned one day said hey, dude, I
Speaker 1: think I could get you an audition, And in that
Speaker 1: conversation I said to him, hey, I heard Food Fighters
Speaker 1: are looking for a guitar player. And he actually did
Speaker 1: wind up getting my name thrown in the hat. Episode
Speaker 1: three eight five. Chrish Shifflet solo artists but also lead
Speaker 1: guitars for Food Fighters, punk rock veteran. I mean, the
Speaker 1: guy has done at all. I think we could have
Speaker 1: done two different episodes, one of him just talking about
Speaker 1: the music that he likes and creates, and one of
Speaker 1: him just talking about Food Fighters. I mean, it's funny
Speaker 1: to hear him talk about the difference in touring, like
Speaker 1: when he's by himself versus when he's with Food Fighters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are crazy difference? And how one of them is
Speaker 1: wildly rich and one of them is a solid artists,
Speaker 1: you know, still trying to make it, figure it out.
Speaker 1: I really like Chris Shifflet. Um. I liked him more
Speaker 1: than I thought I would. Not that I didn't think
Speaker 1: I would like him, but usually when guys coming from
Speaker 1: l A or New York, they just feel a bit different.
Speaker 1: Even if not purposefully. I thought he was awesome, didn't
Speaker 1: he was really nice, just like chill walked in because
Speaker 1: you don't know he's he plays hundred, hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of people with food Fighters, like he's one of the
Speaker 1: faces of food Fighters. So I thought I was super
Speaker 1: cool that he came over because he was playing a
Speaker 1: show in town at the Rhyme and with it, BlackBerry
Speaker 1: smoke got him. So he's got a song called Blacktop
Speaker 1: White Lines just came out here to the go ahead
Speaker 1: you had that and he recorded it in Nashville. He
Speaker 1: wrote it with Jared Johnson of Catalect three and John
Speaker 1: Osborne and brothers Osborne, and so we talked about a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff including food Fighters, growing up in California,
Speaker 1: his family, and you know, just life as a dad
Speaker 1: and also as a rock star. So you can follow
Speaker 1: him on Instagram at shifty seventy one. Michael was your
Speaker 1: biggest takeaway from this interview? I love every time we
Speaker 1: talked about the punk rock stuff, like that's what I
Speaker 1: knew him for, like before food Fighters. So you did
Speaker 1: not I didn't know if you knew him before or
Speaker 1: you learned that he was in those groups in the past.
Speaker 1: You know the band he was in no use for
Speaker 1: a name. I've seen them live before before, like after
Speaker 1: he left the band, but one of my favorite bands
Speaker 1: growing up. Really yeah, dang, you really were into it then? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was awesome, Like food Fighters are one of my
Speaker 1: favorite bands of all time, so it was super cool.
Speaker 1: Here he is Chris Shifflin. I'm just genuinely interested in,
Speaker 1: for example, you and your career, Like I have just
Speaker 1: been a fan of different things that you have done.
Speaker 1: So people come to my house when I'm really interested
Speaker 1: and we'll do an hour and then this gets put
Speaker 1: on in a lot of places. This lives as a
Speaker 1: podcast that does you know, seven figure streams. Then I
Speaker 1: put it on other shows. So the answer is, it's
Speaker 1: a lot. And sometimes I I got I was at
Speaker 1: the doctor a little bit ago because I got a
Speaker 1: signis infection, which you know when you get something here
Speaker 1: or here and you have to even saying because you
Speaker 1: know you're doing your stuff now. It's like a ball
Speaker 1: player having a hurt ankle. Yeah. I don't think people
Speaker 1: realize how much like one year, because you know, I've
Speaker 1: historically been the guitar player in a band for most
Speaker 1: of my you know, adult play in life, and when
Speaker 1: I'm out doing my own shows, even this week. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm doing one show this week. I'm just coming out
Speaker 1: here to play at the rhyman Um and that's the
Speaker 1: only gig. But like, both my kids were sick this
Speaker 1: week and all week long leading into this, I was like,
Speaker 1: don't I know. I mean, that's the life that I live,
Speaker 1: is where I'm always worried I'm gonna get sick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think it's where the germophobe part of me started.
Speaker 1: I you know, my I've come from a very humble
Speaker 1: upbringing and so I have to show up to work.
Speaker 1: I always had to show up to work. So I
Speaker 1: was like, if I get sick, I can't work, and
Speaker 1: if I can't work, and I still deal with a
Speaker 1: lot of that now. But to answer the question, um,
Speaker 1: I'll like you and that's why you're here. Otherwise, you know,
Speaker 1: we didne at the studio for ten minutes and a thing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's I probably do this. I do a
Speaker 1: sports show just audio wise, thirty hours of ont in
Speaker 1: a week, which gets to be a lot to why
Speaker 1: I don't lie that much because I can't remember right,
Speaker 1: or I would I would just do some I thought
Speaker 1: my forty five minute podcast than I do like once
Speaker 1: every you know, two weeks was felt like a lot. Well,
Speaker 1: it is, it is. You know. I'm like a marathon
Speaker 1: runner though, so you would train all the time. That's
Speaker 1: what you do. You go when you do it. You know.
Speaker 1: For me, I was thinking about you when I was
Speaker 1: coming over here. Um. And my point was, I left
Speaker 1: the doctor a second ago, and um, I have nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with me, except like a week and a half ago,
Speaker 1: I had a sinus infection that had developed from a
Speaker 1: cold and I just couldn't get rid of this, like
Speaker 1: this last lingering cough thing it just stay stays for
Speaker 1: like a two months, right, And so I go and
Speaker 1: he says he had nothing wrong with you. It's just
Speaker 1: one of those where you're bronchial stuff is all ye inflamed.
Speaker 1: And so they put me on this little machine and
Speaker 1: you're like, it's like you're smoking a clear pipe of
Speaker 1: health and like foam steams coming out of it. And
Speaker 1: he says, you're gonna be a little like light headed
Speaker 1: and jittery when you leave this, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: all right, I left it just legitterious crap. So I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure that was my point here. Hey, so let's
Speaker 1: go first. It's super cool to have you here. Just sink.
Speaker 1: I'll geek out on that part for a minute. Just
Speaker 1: super cool to have you here. UM been a big
Speaker 1: food fighter guy, well always like my whole life, and
Speaker 1: so I've known and when you become a big fan,
Speaker 1: you start to not be a fan of just the
Speaker 1: songs or just the lead singer, but how the different
Speaker 1: entities came in and developed. And so I'm very familiar
Speaker 1: with your story and super cool you're doing your thing now,
Speaker 1: and I would definitely wanta talk about the fulfillment there
Speaker 1: and just the life that you've lived. And as I
Speaker 1: was kind of getting ready for this and thinking about
Speaker 1: you were coming, I spent the last week in California.
Speaker 1: I went over and hosted some um red carpet stuff
Speaker 1: for the Emmys and just some whatever, and I lost
Speaker 1: track of what day it was, meaning was that Tuesday
Speaker 1: or Wednesday or Thursday? And I live in a space
Speaker 1: where I've got to know what day it is all
Speaker 1: the time because I'm on the air Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: and I'm touring and traveling. I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: wonder the lifestyle that you have lived, traveling so much,
Speaker 1: did days even matter for the most part, you know?
Speaker 1: I mean I think that there was a time, maybe
Speaker 1: when I was younger, when I just didn't pay attention
Speaker 1: that much to what day of the week was. And
Speaker 1: did a Wednesday matter versus a Friday? Well, it matters
Speaker 1: when you're you know when it when you're in a
Speaker 1: band and and um, and you gotta play on a
Speaker 1: Tuesday night somewhere, you know, those are always like the
Speaker 1: weaker gigs, you know. And I'm thinking more like before
Speaker 1: I was in the food fight, like when I was
Speaker 1: I was in a bank called Nicks for name, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you pay attention to that sense. But I think, like, uh,
Speaker 1: having kids, and I'm and my kids are pretty grown now,
Speaker 1: so it's been a long time. But that that made
Speaker 1: me turn back into like a Monday, you know, paying
Speaker 1: attention to to Monday through Friday little bit more. In
Speaker 1: that sense. It was tough for me because I live
Speaker 1: on such a regimented I have to, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty regimented to I mean, to be honest, like
Speaker 1: in order to do like because like I got a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of balls down there at all
Speaker 1: all the time. So my life is pretty compartmentalized, and
Speaker 1: it kind of has to be. You know, I gotta like,
Speaker 1: I gotta be. I gotta be dad first thing in
Speaker 1: the morning, I gotta get my kids off to school,
Speaker 1: and then I gotta get Then I have like a
Speaker 1: few hours where I can sort of do the stuff
Speaker 1: that I need to do for me. A big calendar guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, like everything in Oh yeah, I know, a
Speaker 1: dent or I just you know, asked shame my manager.
Speaker 1: I forget entirely and then he's called me, like, dude,
Speaker 1: you get on that interview or what. Um yeah, no,
Speaker 1: like you know, especially if if we're in the middle
Speaker 1: of like food fighters stuff, you know, then that's gonna
Speaker 1: take up. That's that's a big that's like your whole life,
Speaker 1: you know. So you're trying to fit these things sort
Speaker 1: of in the margins here and there side. Now, I
Speaker 1: I gotta be. It always drives me nuts when I'm
Speaker 1: dealing with people who are like living living loose. You
Speaker 1: know that that aren't fairing attention that I'm talking to
Speaker 1: you musicians, yeah, really mean creatives, Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, where you're like, dude, I got like forty
Speaker 1: five minutes right now, like, we gotta go. It's been
Speaker 1: hard because I do a lot of different things, and
Speaker 1: none of them great. I do a lot of things
Speaker 1: pretty well. But Ryan Seacrest, who I became friends with
Speaker 1: that worked on American Idol for four seasons, working with
Speaker 1: the contestants on picking songs, how to sing, that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. I was on camera for four years there
Speaker 1: working with them, and he said to me once, he said, hey, look,
Speaker 1: people have to learn to respect your calendar. I was like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean. He goes, if you say you
Speaker 1: gotta go at four, you leave it for and they'll
Speaker 1: never again question it. And so I then because I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask you how you're juggling this, because I
Speaker 1: do want to get and have a lot of things
Speaker 1: that to talk about about your new project. But I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, that's pretty good. Like it's president, we
Speaker 1: have a meeting. I gotta go at three. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: show up on time, and then I gotta go at three. Okay, sorry,
Speaker 1: I gotta go, and they'll never question you again. Now,
Speaker 1: when you got a lot of money, like Ryan, I
Speaker 1: think it's a little easier to walk out of that,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was great advice and with what
Speaker 1: you're doing now, and can I Mike, we have a
Speaker 1: clip of black top white lines please. So you wrote
Speaker 1: this song with two of my friends, which is pretty
Speaker 1: freaking cool, right on? Yeah, John too. I mean those
Speaker 1: are like my dudes. I love them, and when I
Speaker 1: hear you, they are great dudes, like just as humans,
Speaker 1: the best great musicians. And I gotta say Jaren was
Speaker 1: like really knocked out, knocked it out of the park
Speaker 1: producing this record. Well that's what I was going to
Speaker 1: ask about the production of it because when I hear this,
Speaker 1: because I'm big Catalect three, Like, I grew up in
Speaker 1: the South, so I grew up being kind of forced
Speaker 1: and then eventually loved like real Southern rock but also
Speaker 1: soul um southern rock, the tone, guitar tone a bit,
Speaker 1: and when I hear this, I can deaf only here
Speaker 1: some of that jarring production influence. Well, that riff, the
Speaker 1: riff in the main riff of this on that boodle
Speaker 1: that is Jared all day on. He came into because
Speaker 1: we were gonna get together, right and we're doing it
Speaker 1: over zoom because it's like during the lockdown or whatever,
Speaker 1: and and before we jumped on there, he was like,
Speaker 1: hey man, you know it's a cool with John Osborne
Speaker 1: joints like yeah, of course, um John find nervously waiting
Speaker 1: like okay, man, just let me know if he lets
Speaker 1: me into this, it's cool. Does not probably, But I
Speaker 1: was stuked. Yeah. I was like, you know, made it
Speaker 1: made it that much better and um, but Jarren brought
Speaker 1: that riff into it, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: then we kind of wrote the song around that. Mike,
Speaker 1: we hit that again. So when you're putting out and
Speaker 1: you're the face, now that's you, just I mean it is,
Speaker 1: that's you. Now, it's just your name, it's yours. No band,
Speaker 1: by the way, I mean, do you have a band?
Speaker 1: But it's you? Yeah, you know. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: the reason why I didn't do that for a very
Speaker 1: long time. Um, when like when I was a little younger,
Speaker 1: intentionally even stuff that was basically like a solo project,
Speaker 1: Like I had a band called Jackson United that was,
Speaker 1: you know, legitimately a band here and there, but with
Speaker 1: a bunch of different lineups. And then I was when
Speaker 1: I first started doing some kind of more like Americana
Speaker 1: flavored stuff. Um, I had a band called Chris Shifflett
Speaker 1: and the Dead Peasants, and I just found like every
Speaker 1: time I would go to make a record, every time
Speaker 1: I would go to do some shows, it would always
Speaker 1: be different people because you can't really keep a full
Speaker 1: time band together. When you're in a full time band,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it just doesn't work. Uma
Speaker 1: salary just to hang and yeah that's that that that
Speaker 1: ain't an option. Um. But yeah, so I finally just
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, like grudgingly just make it
Speaker 1: my own name, you know what I mean. Like, but
Speaker 1: but it's interesting because with each record and then with
Speaker 1: each like tour, like you know, groups of shows video,
Speaker 1: you do have these moments of like you know, like
Speaker 1: the group of musicians that played on my new record,
Speaker 1: it's consistent for the most part, all the way through,
Speaker 1: you know, all ten songs. There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: change here and there, um, and all those cats make
Speaker 1: a massive impact. So it's like you just it's like
Speaker 1: it's like having this little mini band relationship for a
Speaker 1: couple of sessions, you know. Yeah. And I guess my
Speaker 1: point was saying, it's just you as okay, Dead Peasants,
Speaker 1: It's still you I mean a lot of artists. Tom
Speaker 1: Petty had the Heartbreakers. We could go through all the
Speaker 1: people who had great bands with them as well. But
Speaker 1: this sound that you're making is just you. This is
Speaker 1: just your sound. Now. Jack White can do and we
Speaker 1: can go through all the different versions that he does,
Speaker 1: but and they all have slightly have a different sound.
Speaker 1: It could be Jack, but this is just you. And
Speaker 1: so you have to decide who your presentation of you
Speaker 1: by yourself, what that set, what the phone is that?
Speaker 1: Do you think about that? Are you just like man,
Speaker 1: let's just make some music and see what happens. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think about it a little bit like one of
Speaker 1: the first conversations we had when I asked Jared if
Speaker 1: you would produce um produce this record was was we
Speaker 1: had the conversation about like kind of pushing me into
Speaker 1: an unknown territory or you know, sort of sonic territory.
Speaker 1: That was that was maybe a little uncomfortable or something
Speaker 1: I hadn't done before. And like this first song was
Speaker 1: definitely definite. We definitely went there. What sonically because it
Speaker 1: sounds so natural because I know those guys that I
Speaker 1: know you, but what sonically to you, I don't want
Speaker 1: to use the word hesitant. But what sonically to you
Speaker 1: made you kind of weighed in a little slower because
Speaker 1: you weren't that a custom? Is that the is it
Speaker 1: the tone? Is it that the Yeah, it's just maybe
Speaker 1: an overall gloss on the whole thing or so, I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know what I mean. It's it's probably
Speaker 1: more in my head than anybody else likes. It's funny
Speaker 1: because as a musician you tend to just overthink everything.
Speaker 1: I know I do. I always do um and overthink
Speaker 1: how it's going to be receiving all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: So um, and the song is not out yet, so
Speaker 1: I guess we'll find out pretty soon by the time
Speaker 1: said when says it'll be okay, cool cool um yeah.
Speaker 1: So uh, but you know, the response so far in
Speaker 1: the little snippets that I put up, like, there hasn't
Speaker 1: been one comment on my Instagram that's like this sounds
Speaker 1: like a radical departure for you, you you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I think that's stuff that like we think about
Speaker 1: more than anybody else. I think most people just listen
Speaker 1: to music. They just take it as it comes, you know,
Speaker 1: Do I like this or do I not? Does this
Speaker 1: make me want to dances and making me happy does
Speaker 1: make me say, I don't think most people sit there
Speaker 1: and think about production elements and all that kind of
Speaker 1: you know, that that that maybe the musicians think about
Speaker 1: in the difference between this type of you know what
Speaker 1: roots the Americana sound is versus a slicker, more kind
Speaker 1: of like you know, radio friendly, you know, all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. I just don't think people the average
Speaker 1: listener just doesn't care. And they don't. And when you
Speaker 1: said gloss, I don't you know this is me and
Speaker 1: you I've heard that song a bunch. I don't really
Speaker 1: hear gloss as as that's not either a compliment or
Speaker 1: it's not it's nothing except I don't hear gloss. I
Speaker 1: just hear like a like a pivot, a slight pivot
Speaker 1: that feels like the narratives a little more honest, interesting,
Speaker 1: And again that's just there's no real definition of art.
Speaker 1: But it feels like like your your narrative feels a
Speaker 1: little grittier. And I don't hear gloss at all. Well,
Speaker 1: that's that's good to hear. Maybe gloss was the wrong word,
Speaker 1: but like I mean, but you know, like, um, I
Speaker 1: do think that this record, when you kind of add
Speaker 1: it all up, it's got like and I feel like
Speaker 1: like an edge closer. This maybe with every solo record
Speaker 1: I do, which is more and more kind of all
Speaker 1: of my musical influences represented the big ones at least,
Speaker 1: you know, the Stones and whatever Bad Religion or Jawbreaker
Speaker 1: or something mixed with you know, Merl Haggard and Bucko,
Speaker 1: and you like, it's kind of all in the in there.
Speaker 1: Give her the Eagles is easy, top whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just kind of it's all in there.
Speaker 1: You ever have be so influenced? And I'm not And
Speaker 1: this is not the same thing as because I'm a
Speaker 1: comedy and I definitely don't still jokes on purpose, But
Speaker 1: there are times when I write things that are similar
Speaker 1: to other people because we have like minded sensibilities and age.
Speaker 1: So this is not that type of question, but it's
Speaker 1: do you ever feel like you're so influenced by an
Speaker 1: era of the Eagles and you've written this song and
Speaker 1: you're like, man, I just hear like seventies Eagles so
Speaker 1: much that I can't stop hearing the Eagles from the seventies,
Speaker 1: not specifically a song, but like you were so encapsulated
Speaker 1: by whatever that motivation was when you wrote that song
Speaker 1: that you're like, man, this might be a little too
Speaker 1: much Molly Crewe. Yeah, I mean, I guess, but like
Speaker 1: I kind of seem feel like it's usually the opposite.
Speaker 1: It's the thing that you think, you're like, Wow, it's
Speaker 1: a little close to the bone, you know, like maybe
Speaker 1: maybe that's you know, a little too much borrowing, a
Speaker 1: little too much influenced. Is like then other people hear
Speaker 1: it totally differently, you know, because I think that's a
Speaker 1: big I think that is a big part of music.
Speaker 1: I think we're all borrowing from the people that we
Speaker 1: grew up listening to or whatever, or even just the
Speaker 1: current stuff, and but then you put it through your
Speaker 1: filter and it becomes this this different thing. You like
Speaker 1: being the front guy, You like singing. I do like singing.
Speaker 1: Let me ask it again. You love singing? You know,
Speaker 1: I can't. I came a singing late, you know, versus
Speaker 1: playing guitar. I mean I would, I it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's an interesting question because it's something that slowly I've
Speaker 1: gotten more and more comfortable doing, and even in writing,
Speaker 1: used to sort of view writing the lyrics and stuff
Speaker 1: is almost kind of an afterthought and and whereas that's
Speaker 1: more like front and center to me now as when
Speaker 1: I'm when I'm writing. But um, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: I would love to someday be able to sing with
Speaker 1: as much ease and sort of like, um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: just the kind of like not even thinking about a
Speaker 1: thing that I feel like I do with guitar playing.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm there as a singer, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I still gotta like work at it,
Speaker 1: but I like it and I enjoy it, and it's fun,
Speaker 1: you know that. And it's fun to like to even
Speaker 1: just playing live, like to see what kind of works
Speaker 1: and doesn't work, and putting a show together and and
Speaker 1: and putting us interacting with the crowd. You know, it's
Speaker 1: that weird thing that like he it's hard to even
Speaker 1: put your finger on, you know, sometimes you just feel
Speaker 1: like you're so connected to the crowd, and sometimes you
Speaker 1: feel like there's this wall between you and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And and it's trying to like, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes after shows like oh did that feels so good tonight?
Speaker 1: You know wh I was why I was that spark
Speaker 1: there with everybody in and at the bar or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And have you found a
Speaker 1: difference and exactly that the cinement you're making there? Have
Speaker 1: you found a difference in being the front guy and
Speaker 1: technically how your stage is set up? Meaning if I
Speaker 1: do comedy music, I can't wear ears because I have
Speaker 1: to hear laughs. Right, if I'm doing just music music
Speaker 1: and we're part I have to wear ears so I
Speaker 1: can hear. And so there are for different reasons monitors versus.
Speaker 1: Have you found that being that guy up front now
Speaker 1: technically you maybe you've had to rethink how the stage
Speaker 1: is set up or how it's technically coming to you. Well,
Speaker 1: I am a recent in ears convert, so you were
Speaker 1: you haven't wear ears forever? No, I was earplugs for
Speaker 1: a long time, but I'm just sort of recently started,
Speaker 1: especially with ear plugs with sound. You're saying, well, like
Speaker 1: like those moldy places, no with no sound, which is
Speaker 1: which is the worst thing for a guitar play. It
Speaker 1: tikes out all the high end. It's annoying, but you
Speaker 1: can still here, Oh you can still hear. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: it's like you know those moldy ear plugs that they're
Speaker 1: little ear Okay, you gotta talk, take it down for
Speaker 1: me level. I'm done with this. So I wear ears
Speaker 1: to do my radio show because it's also visual. But
Speaker 1: you can't see they're not they're not the molded ears,
Speaker 1: but they're plugs. But I can hear everything. Now you're saying,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to straight ear plug. Why would you plug
Speaker 1: your ears to save my because I spent so do
Speaker 1: you know how many years I spent in little garage?
Speaker 1: I hear you hear the symbols right here, Like I
Speaker 1: remember I went to go get my hearing jacked, like
Speaker 1: probably fifteen years ago, and uh, it's not too long
Speaker 1: after we first started having kids and the doctors freaking
Speaker 1: me out. He's like, yeah, you don't care now, but
Speaker 1: you know when you're my age and you can't hear
Speaker 1: your grandchildren or you know, you're gonna care. And I
Speaker 1: was like, get me the thickest ear plugs I possible,
Speaker 1: but no now, and now I use any ears. You
Speaker 1: know like what you're talking about, And for God, that's
Speaker 1: the greatest thing ever for for singing it your sounds
Speaker 1: like and you don't blow your voice, don't blow your
Speaker 1: voice sounds. It just sounds like you're singing in your head.
Speaker 1: You know it's the best, So okay, you gotta help
Speaker 1: me out on because I was never really comfortable with
Speaker 1: with with loud monitors on stage. And how do you
Speaker 1: hear the the base are you? Are you just running
Speaker 1: like a metronome and you're I mean, what are you
Speaker 1: doing if you're playing with ear plugs? I'm not getting
Speaker 1: I'm dumb right now, Chris. You know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You're overcompensating and just turning your amp up. That's what
Speaker 1: you're doing. So it probably amounts to the same thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you can still hear, well, you get there's the
Speaker 1: fancy mold of ones that have like little different caps
Speaker 1: where you can bring it down ten dB. But but
Speaker 1: in the plugs that you're wearing, well, the ones that
Speaker 1: used to wear Yeah, yeah, I never even heard of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you started playing guitar. What age do you feel like?
Speaker 1: You're someone who music came to I don't think there's
Speaker 1: a such thing as easy, but more naturally? Did you
Speaker 1: understand it quicker? Um? I wouldn't say that. I think, um,
Speaker 1: I was lucky that I grew up in a family
Speaker 1: of musicians. You know, both my older brothers played and
Speaker 1: played really well, and we're like really good. By the
Speaker 1: time I ever picked up a guitar, which was probably
Speaker 1: a little daunting, and I was a terrible student. It
Speaker 1: wasn't really like a guitar student. I would just never
Speaker 1: really practice what I was supposed to practice and all
Speaker 1: that sort of thing um and like, you know, this
Speaker 1: was like the early nineteen eighties, so and I was
Speaker 1: listening to people like in Babe Almstein and stuff. So
Speaker 1: I would I remember, like everyone would talk about, oh,
Speaker 1: you have to take classical guitar lessons because that's what
Speaker 1: Vay did or that's what Julie john Roth did, all
Speaker 1: these guys that we all looked up to. And so
Speaker 1: I was a little kid and I would go take
Speaker 1: classical guitar and I could not figure out how that
Speaker 1: connected to like the Ozzy Osbourne records. I was like,
Speaker 1: it just didn't make any sense, and so I just
Speaker 1: wouldn't play it, you know. And it wasn't until it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I started playing in bands in high school.
Speaker 1: That's when I started. When it started to when I
Speaker 1: started get like, you know, more fluid, But what's classical
Speaker 1: guitar I know classical piano, but what do you learn
Speaker 1: at a classical guitar lesson? I didn't learn anything. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are you supposed to learn? Do you learn? Like,
Speaker 1: are you supposed to learn how to read music? I
Speaker 1: could never really do. And like you know, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of finger style, you know, like you know beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's almost like almost like a level of discipline that
Speaker 1: I just I wasn't recognizing in the heavy metal music
Speaker 1: that I was listening to. I couldn't figure out how
Speaker 1: that became that, and I just wanted it to be that.
Speaker 1: You know, as you have two brothers that are both
Speaker 1: playing guitar, how come you gting get stuck with the bass?
Speaker 1: Usually they Yeah, my brother Scott, my first my brother
Speaker 1: Mike started playing guitar. Then my brother Scott started playing bass,
Speaker 1: so he was like a he got it, ok he did,
Speaker 1: But he also just you know, took my brother Mike's
Speaker 1: guitar and figured out how to play that thing better
Speaker 1: than than all the rest of us, you know, so
Speaker 1: he kind of did it. All you get drums, you're handsOn.
Speaker 1: If they just give you drums, all, yeah, Well I'll
Speaker 1: tell you because my older brothers were guitar and based respectively.
Speaker 1: My first choice was piano. I was gonna be a keyboardist,
Speaker 1: and then my mom even bought me a piano, and
Speaker 1: then I never I didn't take those lessons either, So
Speaker 1: it just eventually I just had to pick up the guitar.
Speaker 1: It just had to be that, you know, that was
Speaker 1: that was the air. It seemed like the guitar player
Speaker 1: in in all those bands was always the person that
Speaker 1: I was drawn to. Born and raised in California, like
Speaker 1: beach California, Yeah, Santa Barbara, like surf California. I mean
Speaker 1: I actually came to surfing kind of late. You know,
Speaker 1: we're a relative to a lot of other people. But um,
Speaker 1: but I mean I grew up at the beach anyway,
Speaker 1: so skateboarding and what a book you I'm a little
Speaker 1: embarrassed to admit that when I was a kid, I
Speaker 1: was a boogie boarder. It's a sponger, is that the
Speaker 1: thing on your knees, not not not on your knees,
Speaker 1: but like, you know, the more a boogie you know.
Speaker 1: I just I grew up in Arkansas, so I don't
Speaker 1: have any I don't even like the beach because I
Speaker 1: don't get it. It's only because I was never around it,
Speaker 1: like my friends who grew up either going on vacation
Speaker 1: to beaches or they love it, and I'm like, I don't,
Speaker 1: what do I do? I just sit there. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: eventually you pick up a surfboard and then it opens
Speaker 1: up that whole tarn a c L. Yeah, i'n't even
Speaker 1: skiing because I'm afraid to go tearing a c L
Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, I'm tearing everything that's it could happen.
Speaker 1: That is, it's dangerous you are. And then there's the sharks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that doesn't scare me. I've done shows on that geo
Speaker 1: and those animals. I'm all good, We're good. I'm doctor
Speaker 1: doo a little, I'm freaking doctor doodle at out there.
Speaker 1: Then hit me, I can't tarn a c L with
Speaker 1: a shark. Well, tear my head off and I won't
Speaker 1: even know it. You have two brothers. Do you have
Speaker 1: any other siblings? Um? I have a step brother who
Speaker 1: was who was around a lot to music at all. Um.
Speaker 1: He played a little bit, but not real but he
Speaker 1: was more of a musical influence just because of what
Speaker 1: he was listening to and and you know, just bringing
Speaker 1: that to it, mom and dad were they together? They
Speaker 1: were not? And did you know I didn't know my
Speaker 1: dad at all? My left So did you know your
Speaker 1: mom and dad? Yes, so my mom and dad were together. Uh,
Speaker 1: we lived. I was born in Santa Barbara. My dad
Speaker 1: got a job out in Maryland, so we all moved
Speaker 1: out to Maryland. So when I was real estate, do
Speaker 1: you move all the way across yeah? Yeah, And then
Speaker 1: my parents separated. My mom moved back to Santa Barbara.
Speaker 1: So then there was a few years where we were
Speaker 1: bouncing back and forth, like we'd be in Maryland for
Speaker 1: a little bit, then we come out to Santa Barbara,
Speaker 1: back and forth until like until my mom finally got
Speaker 1: custodied of us full time. And then my dad stayed
Speaker 1: out there. And you know, sadly now because my dad
Speaker 1: passed away when I was you know, around twenty eight
Speaker 1: or something, and I never lived in the same town
Speaker 1: as him again from the time when I was after
Speaker 1: after they split, Yeah, and he moved back to California eventually,
Speaker 1: but he was a couple of hours up the coast.
Speaker 1: So have you ever did the drive across. No, But
Speaker 1: there was a funny story where my um We didn't
Speaker 1: know this because you know, we're just little kids. But
Speaker 1: when when we figured out after the fact, when when
Speaker 1: my dad like officially lost custody the office, he's fine,
Speaker 1: like all right, everybody get in the car, going for
Speaker 1: a drive, and we drove, like to like St. Louis
Speaker 1: or something, so yeah about halfway or like what are
Speaker 1: we doing? Your mom? Was she musical and in her
Speaker 1: love that you listened to a lot of music. My
Speaker 1: mom had what I thought at the time was the
Speaker 1: worst musical taste in the world. Some of it, in hindsight,
Speaker 1: not so bad. But she would do this thing like
Speaker 1: she bought this Anne Murray record and there was like
Speaker 1: one whatever the hit was at that moment, and she
Speaker 1: would just play it over and over and over. But
Speaker 1: if it wasn't and Murray would be like, you know,
Speaker 1: stuff that like now I can appreciate, like James Taylor
Speaker 1: and Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that. But now we
Speaker 1: got more of the music stuff from my dad. My
Speaker 1: dad had kind of hip taste, hip as in rock metal,
Speaker 1: not at all like hip like this is the Beatles,
Speaker 1: this is Bob Dylan got I know, even like you know,
Speaker 1: when I was when I was in the seventies. I
Speaker 1: remember him listening. He would listen to like almost nothing
Speaker 1: but Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley and stuff that we
Speaker 1: weren't you know, like I didn't. I'm not gonna pretend
Speaker 1: that I liked those records necessarily, but but it was
Speaker 1: on in the house, and you know, it just kind
Speaker 1: of seeped in and stuff that you sort of you
Speaker 1: grow up a little bit and you go, wow, that
Speaker 1: was better than you know, the Wasp records we were
Speaker 1: listening to or whatever. It's your oldest brother's interest and
Speaker 1: how good he got a guitar? Is he the reason
Speaker 1: that your other brother and yourself were in music or
Speaker 1: were in music? Yeah, pretty much. I mean it all
Speaker 1: started with him. He was the first one that got
Speaker 1: a turntable and got some vinyl and you know, and
Speaker 1: we all got hooked. So what's what's what's his deal?
Speaker 1: Was he a good artist? Does he still play? Is
Speaker 1: he does he alive still? He's a yeah, he's oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he's going. He's a guitar teacher at the shop Jensen
Speaker 1: Music in Santa Barbara that we all grew up taking
Speaker 1: lessons from man. That's how you know he's good I know,
Speaker 1: and when he got I mean, he's done that for
Speaker 1: a long time now, but man, being a guitar teacher
Speaker 1: made him like a million times better and he was
Speaker 1: already real good. It's like studio like session players here
Speaker 1: in town because there are get our players, are instrumentalists whatever,
Speaker 1: and they go on the road, they play all the
Speaker 1: big shows and it's like, oh cool, you play guitar
Speaker 1: for him, and then you meet somebody's like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: a studio session player for oh you're good. Like there's
Speaker 1: a there's a real difference in and no offense to
Speaker 1: you because you're obviously awesome. But I'm saying these technical
Speaker 1: guys who can look at a chart here in Nashville
Speaker 1: and go, all right, I'm gonna do three sessions today,
Speaker 1: We're gonna walk into this one. Got it all right?
Speaker 1: But it's crazy. Oh yeah, no, I know because some
Speaker 1: of those cats have played all my records and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's humbling to say the least. What about writing,
Speaker 1: because obviously you've written songs in all capacities, but now
Speaker 1: for this project, did you write different? I don't and
Speaker 1: that's really not a good question. But sonically it's a
Speaker 1: bit different. You say you're challenged the writing side of
Speaker 1: the same feeling. Well, a lot of these songs were
Speaker 1: written during the lockdown, so it was it was just
Speaker 1: a strange moment in you know, in life. Um so
Speaker 1: something probably about it's probably about in songs that were
Speaker 1: co writes with other people. And even that was a
Speaker 1: little bit different and kind of weird because you're doing
Speaker 1: it over zoom. Um, you're not just like sitting in
Speaker 1: a room with your friends. But um, but then, but
Speaker 1: just the writing process for me probably not much different. Um,
Speaker 1: but the process of making the record was very different.
Speaker 1: It was over time. So by the once we got
Speaker 1: to the end, because we recorded in three different sessions,
Speaker 1: once we got to that last session, it was sort
Speaker 1: of clear, uh, like the kind of the elements that
Speaker 1: that needed to be there that weren't there yet, and
Speaker 1: that's what we were kind of aiming for. So we're
Speaker 1: sort of going through I'm sending Jared little home demos
Speaker 1: and stuff and trying to figure out, you know, what
Speaker 1: songs we should we should jump in there and record.
Speaker 1: Why here though, I mean obviously Jared John but why here?
Speaker 1: Why Nashville? Why are you basing this whole thing here.
Speaker 1: Um well, I made my last couple of records before
Speaker 1: this out here as well. Um And you know, for
Speaker 1: if you're making like kind of roots Americana country tinged music,
Speaker 1: can't really can't really go wrong making it in Nashville.
Speaker 1: You know your isn't your podcast based like Americana country?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe kind of less so now, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was the That's been the main focus
Speaker 1: of it. If you who were your musical I don't
Speaker 1: want to say heroes because when people ask me that question,
Speaker 1: I tend to answer a lot cooler than I really feel.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say who do you? Who? Do you
Speaker 1: listen to a lot even now? And it can be
Speaker 1: old music because a lot of stuff I listened to
Speaker 1: his stuff I loved years ago, especially when I'm trying
Speaker 1: to relax, not a big new music guy, whenever I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to chill, who over the past twenty five years,
Speaker 1: will you still put on and just go like, man,
Speaker 1: this is some good music. I'm just gonna drive somewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Um year, Well, like that first sun Volt record is
Speaker 1: a huge one for me, you know, and when that
Speaker 1: came out, that was really like that record was one
Speaker 1: of my big introductions into like, you know, back then,
Speaker 1: I think it was just called All the Country, but
Speaker 1: what you know, we all know is Americana or however
Speaker 1: you want to look at it. Um. That one never
Speaker 1: gets old to me. Um especially, I mean, I just
Speaker 1: have like these vivid memories because it was really the
Speaker 1: singer in my old band, Tony Sly was the singer
Speaker 1: of this band No Use for a Name, that I
Speaker 1: was in, and he was into all that stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: and he would always bring an acoustic guitar on tour,
Speaker 1: and so we'd be driving down the road in our
Speaker 1: van and he'd be sitting there, you know, strumming sun
Speaker 1: Volt songs and Whiskey Town songs and you know, the
Speaker 1: will Coast I was gonna Tupelo and all that, you know,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um, he's the one that turned me
Speaker 1: on all that. And then through that I found you
Speaker 1: know whatever, Steve Earle and listen to Williams and even Merle,
Speaker 1: Haggard and Buck and all the you know, I just
Speaker 1: kind of worked my way back. I was just about
Speaker 1: to go to Wilco when you said it yet a
Speaker 1: cute Well, those first couple, you know, the first couple
Speaker 1: of song Vote actually the first couple of Wilco records.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, I could never get for those records. What
Speaker 1: about is a kid? What did you love at sixteen
Speaker 1: years old? Sixteen? Well, okay, so I when you know,
Speaker 1: when I first started going to shows, I mean I
Speaker 1: was listening pretty much just like heavy metal was with
Speaker 1: the music of the day. And and then there was
Speaker 1: this this change that happened. We're around like eighty four,
Speaker 1: the glam rock things started cooking up in in l A.
Speaker 1: And there was a band from Europe called handle Rocks,
Speaker 1: and yeah, and so I discovered I got turned on
Speaker 1: a Hando Rocks right right at the end of them
Speaker 1: being a band, because they basically they had made a
Speaker 1: bunch of records. But then they put out their major
Speaker 1: label record, The Drummer Dies, and the whole thing falls apart.
Speaker 1: But as that was all kind of happening, we got
Speaker 1: my brother brought home that last record, and then you know,
Speaker 1: like with everything else, you sort of work your way
Speaker 1: back and get the other ones. But that record had
Speaker 1: a massive impact on the l A rock world, and
Speaker 1: all these bands started coming up, bubbling up, like you know,
Speaker 1: Guns and Roses and Poison and Jet boy Who from
Speaker 1: up North and Faster pussy Cat and Ally Guns and
Speaker 1: that whole thing. And this is like pretty early in that,
Speaker 1: like probably like eighty five, Fish started to go see
Speaker 1: those bands, and it really was like so I was, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was around like fourteen fifteen sixty in those years
Speaker 1: as that whole thing was kicking off. Um, I would
Speaker 1: go down. We were just going down and it just
Speaker 1: see my memories. We're just going down to l A
Speaker 1: all the time to go see those bands like the
Speaker 1: Troubadour and oh yeah, no, I said, Man, I started
Speaker 1: going to shows on about twelve or so. And then,
Speaker 1: and I look back on as a parent, helm why
Speaker 1: did my mama allow this to happen? How did you
Speaker 1: get where? Would go? And even before that, I was
Speaker 1: going down to see like you know, Keel and Armored
Speaker 1: saying all all that kind of stuff because they were
Speaker 1: all ages show. All the shows were all ages shows. Um.
Speaker 1: And then maybe somewhere in the middle of all that
Speaker 1: in really kind of like in high school, like where
Speaker 1: I grew up was just far enough away that there
Speaker 1: was no like rock and roll scene really and so
Speaker 1: if you were going to see live music, it was
Speaker 1: punk rock or was thrash metal or was something like that,
Speaker 1: you know, or something like weirdo college band at the
Speaker 1: at UCSB, And so it was just cool. That time
Speaker 1: was just cool because it was all this mix of
Speaker 1: music happening and you know, you're sort of getting turned
Speaker 1: on to all this different stuff. And like me and
Speaker 1: my I had this little tight group of friends and
Speaker 1: when we were into this thing that was happening in
Speaker 1: l A that eventually became very mainstream, but at that moment,
Speaker 1: you know, for there was like a couple of years
Speaker 1: there where it felt like it was like our little secret,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Your mom obviously didn't throw
Speaker 1: a fit or she didn't know you were going to
Speaker 1: these shows, But do you think it's because you had
Speaker 1: two older brothers blocking for you? Yeah? She she was.
Speaker 1: She was broken by the time I came along. She's
Speaker 1: given up. And did you guys ever, because the age
Speaker 1: if you were your older brothers, how much older than you?
Speaker 1: He's about seven years old, okay, in your middle brother
Speaker 1: would be how about five? Yeah? Okay, that's significant an age.
Speaker 1: But did you guys ever bond as brothers and have
Speaker 1: real true brother mo much over music? Oh? For sure?
Speaker 1: I mean where you're all cool with each other. Yeah, yeah, tons, tons,
Speaker 1: but sort of as we you know, as each one
Speaker 1: of us got to a certain age. You know, when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, just whatever my brother thought was cool,
Speaker 1: I thought it was cool. But would you ever think
Speaker 1: you were a cool at fifteen and be like, hey, fifteen, yar,
Speaker 1: will come with me. I'm twenty two, and our other
Speaker 1: brothers seventeen. Let's get in the car and go to
Speaker 1: a show that probably never happened. I mean, and maybe
Speaker 1: here and there, maybe more so me and my brother Scot,
Speaker 1: because me and my brothers got also, like you know,
Speaker 1: played bands together and stuff like, you know, like lived
Speaker 1: in l A together, and um, so that was probably
Speaker 1: a little bit more of that with him. But yeah,
Speaker 1: now we we all kind of broke off and had
Speaker 1: our kind of specific musical interests once we got to
Speaker 1: a certain age, you know. And and it is a
Speaker 1: funny thing because, like I learned so much about playing
Speaker 1: from my brothers, but we probably never sat down and
Speaker 1: had them go like, okay, here's how this lick goes.
Speaker 1: It was just kind of osmosis. It was just being
Speaker 1: in the room. Did you were you ever good enough
Speaker 1: to where the older brother would go, hey, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: It uh not when I was not when I was
Speaker 1: a teenager. No, you you know what I did. I
Speaker 1: did a few years ago we were making a document
Speaker 1: of food fighting documentary and and and I went back
Speaker 1: and found all the old like footage of my high
Speaker 1: school bands that I could get my hands on, you know,
Speaker 1: like the drummer in my band that played the ninth
Speaker 1: grade talent show. I had a video of that, and
Speaker 1: then you know, another person had a video this, and
Speaker 1: then and so I wound up cobbling together my ninth
Speaker 1: grade talent show, this club gig when I was in
Speaker 1: maybe tenth grade, and then a gig when I was
Speaker 1: a senior, or wouldn't when I would have been a
Speaker 1: senior um. And so it's just really over the course
Speaker 1: of like four years, and it's wild to see. It's
Speaker 1: like the first one, you can't even tell what we're doing,
Speaker 1: and so we're playing kiss songs. It just sounds like
Speaker 1: it's madness. Nobody's playing the same thing, you know, just
Speaker 1: total chaos. The second one, it's like songs, but it's
Speaker 1: really stiff and jan kee and not very together, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to play guitar, so all those and it's
Speaker 1: not really working, you know what I mean. And then
Speaker 1: by like that third one, we're like it's kind of Shredden,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's it's like you could see the
Speaker 1: evolution of just like because it was all we did.
Speaker 1: It was just play. You know. We were either playing
Speaker 1: keg parties or you know, bar gigs once we could
Speaker 1: sort of start to get him and or just rehearsing
Speaker 1: to my friend Luke's garage, or we just played all
Speaker 1: the time, you know. And the more you played, obviously
Speaker 1: the better he got. Yeah, and the more the more
Speaker 1: you played. I mean it's like the Beatles in Germany
Speaker 1: and they played clubs for twelve hours a night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course they got great. They had to. They wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been able to survive. They'll learn everything. You evolve
Speaker 1: really fast and then you just kind of hold steady
Speaker 1: for the next forty years. You rat Pack, did you
Speaker 1: play bass? I did play bass in rat Pack. Bass
Speaker 1: in a punk band? Is that consider punk? Would? Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah there that the edges blur for me a bit
Speaker 1: punk and thrash, well especially you know, I mean at
Speaker 1: that moment in time in punk rock, like like you know,
Speaker 1: rat Pack was was like a local punk rock band
Speaker 1: at Santa Barbar where I was at, but like they
Speaker 1: were also listening to guns and rows this and stuff,
Speaker 1: so you get a little bit of that. Nobody wants
Speaker 1: to admit that now, but there was. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of crossover. What's a bass player? What's the comment
Speaker 1: throw and a bass player in a punk band and
Speaker 1: a guitar player in a rock band because I feel
Speaker 1: like overplaying. I remember the guitar player in rat Pack
Speaker 1: one time and I was like, yeah, I was probably
Speaker 1: like six teams, so I didn't it wasn't really a
Speaker 1: bass player. But um I remember rehearsal him stopping us
Speaker 1: in the middle of the song, and it was like, dude,
Speaker 1: quit playing lead bass. It's not lead bass, it's just basse. Stop.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Did you take to bass pretty easily from
Speaker 1: playing guitar at the house? I mean, you're a kid now.
Speaker 1: I played bass like a guitar player. My brother plays
Speaker 1: bass like a bass player. It's a different thing. It's
Speaker 1: I tried to play bass a little bit, and again
Speaker 1: I'm not. I mean, I'm close as good as you,
Speaker 1: but not really, but not at all. But it's it
Speaker 1: feels like I'm walking with different legs to get to
Speaker 1: the same destination. It's like because you know, with the guitar,
Speaker 1: especially if it's like a rhythm guitar, but bass, it's
Speaker 1: like I'm having to play notes in places where I
Speaker 1: never even heard the note to begin with, and I'm
Speaker 1: setting things up, I'm building like tables for other notes
Speaker 1: to sit on, Like this is way too smart for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think like when I'm playing bass on like my
Speaker 1: own little demo or something, I just trying to play
Speaker 1: like it's like one of those real like less is
Speaker 1: more kind of guitar player. You can kind of be
Speaker 1: clacking around, floating above everything else and making a racket.
Speaker 1: But the bass, I don't know. It depends on the
Speaker 1: genre too, But it's like for most of the stuff
Speaker 1: that I'm doing, I'm trying to like like not just
Speaker 1: kind of like not fill every little nook and cranny.
Speaker 1: I'm music illiterate and I need to prove myself, so
Speaker 1: I'm trying to everything. I'm trying to tell every new
Speaker 1: But when I played long View the first time, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm good, I'm put it down after a
Speaker 1: green day and I was like, I'm good. I'm good
Speaker 1: at bass. I just mastered it. I'm good to go.
Speaker 1: So guns and Roses obviously massive, just in general in
Speaker 1: the eighties. And there was a story that I read
Speaker 1: about a friend of yours. Did he go an audition
Speaker 1: for Guns and Roses or tell you should know, my buddy.
Speaker 1: It's funny because that that thing. I should have never
Speaker 1: told that story um in an interview, because it didn't
Speaker 1: well yeah, so it's it's this funny thing that's become
Speaker 1: like like a internet that ever I know. But so okay,
Speaker 1: here's the straight I know. I was never in Guns
Speaker 1: and Roses. I never auditioned for guns and Guns and
Speaker 1: Roses never asked me to join the band. None of
Speaker 1: that ever happened. What it was was a friend of
Speaker 1: mine UM mentioned one day say, hey, dude, I think
Speaker 1: I could get you an audition for Guns and Roses.
Speaker 1: And this was in so this is right about the
Speaker 1: time when I joined Food Fighters, right and in that
Speaker 1: conversation I said to him, Hey, I heard food Fighters
Speaker 1: are looking for a good time. Our player could see
Speaker 1: if you can, you know, And he said, oh, I
Speaker 1: know somebody that worse than whatever, And he actually did
Speaker 1: wind up getting my name thrown in the hat when
Speaker 1: they were having auditions. So that's how I got how
Speaker 1: I wanted up audition in for foods. But um, but
Speaker 1: that was the like and my buddy Bill, he didn't
Speaker 1: work for guns or there was no official anything. And
Speaker 1: that was at a time when Guns and Roses wasn't
Speaker 1: even Guns and Roses. It was like accel and and
Speaker 1: you know it's like none of the original guys weren't
Speaker 1: it besides actual So yeah, let's just put that to
Speaker 1: bed right now. I never played in Guns and Roses
Speaker 1: and and I would have gladly played in Guns and
Speaker 1: Roses had anybody ever, right, especially if it was seven,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um. And I was also
Speaker 1: never a professional soccer player. That's another one of those
Speaker 1: weird internet rumors that I don't know, that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one, that one's following me. I wish I had
Speaker 1: been a professional soccer player. That would have been great.
Speaker 1: Like a couple of things myself. I was never an astronaut,
Speaker 1: that's right. I was never a brain surgeon. I don't
Speaker 1: have a massive wiener that people have heard about it.
Speaker 1: It's not that side. You're gonna keep that one. Alright, good,
Speaker 1: biggest crowd that you guys have ever played in front of?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I remember, and this was a long
Speaker 1: time ago. We played Rock and Rio two thousands in Rio.
Speaker 1: That's in Rio. Well it's funny, you asked, because they
Speaker 1: also did Rock and Rio in like Lisbon, but which
Speaker 1: wasn't in real But um, yeah, I know rock and
Speaker 1: Rio actually in Rio, and I remember at the time
Speaker 1: maybe somebody said it was like a hundred thousand or
Speaker 1: a couple hundred thousand people even big, and uh, get
Speaker 1: more nervous. It's gotta be still up there. Now, you
Speaker 1: get less nervous for that. You get less nervous for
Speaker 1: that because it's so big. It's just like you can't
Speaker 1: even see people's faces. What about your shows now? Way
Speaker 1: more nerve racking, especially if they're sparsely attended. Those are
Speaker 1: the most nerve wracking of all. Do you watch people's faces?
Speaker 1: I have a bad habit when it's my solo thing
Speaker 1: of of like getting distracted by watching people's faces, especially
Speaker 1: if like somebody's like looking at their phone, somebody's like
Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and still and somebody's like
Speaker 1: looking at their phone and like elbowing their friend and
Speaker 1: they're laughing, and all of a sudden, I start to
Speaker 1: think about, like, what's that I'm dealing and then I
Speaker 1: forget the verse that you know what I mean? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta figure out how to just tune
Speaker 1: the crowd out but stay connected, but tune them out.
Speaker 1: I drive myself crazy because if I I can't assign
Speaker 1: my feelings on to other people. And I've even been
Speaker 1: to therapy where I would go out and I'll do
Speaker 1: a theater of a couple of thousand people. I'll be doing,
Speaker 1: telling jokes, rocking it. If I see one person that
Speaker 1: looks like they're tired or yawned or get up, And
Speaker 1: it's a theater, so it's not only the environment where
Speaker 1: people get up, but if they get up, Like god,
Speaker 1: I'm a suck totally. And so I didn't have. The
Speaker 1: weirdest thing was performing, Like it's so easy to misjudge
Speaker 1: a crowd, but because I've assigned how what I think
Speaker 1: on them. If they're yawning, they must be like me.
Speaker 1: And when I yawned, I'm board. They may have a
Speaker 1: yawn disease. What do I know? The old classic yawn disease,
Speaker 1: and so what I would talk to my therapist about it.
Speaker 1: She goes, let me get this straight. There's I don't know,
Speaker 1: two thousand other people. They're having a great time, yeah,
Speaker 1: laughing their butts off. But you see one person in
Speaker 1: the third row that's like talking to their buddy or
Speaker 1: and that's the thing that triggers you to go, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm not good enough. Plus you immediately assume that the
Speaker 1: thing that they're talking about is something negative about you.
Speaker 1: That's the absolutely. It's like if two people are whispering
Speaker 1: around you, You're like, well, for sure they're talking about me.
Speaker 1: They probably heard that big penis rumor, and now so
Speaker 1: they know it's not true because I revealed it. And
Speaker 1: then here we are, oh yeah, and you know nine
Speaker 1: times out of town when you actually encounter because I've
Speaker 1: had that happen where the person you in the crowd
Speaker 1: that you think is not enjoying themselves, you'd like talk
Speaker 1: to them after the show and they're like, dude, that
Speaker 1: was the best, and you just have completely and you
Speaker 1: and I always gotta remember myself, like when I met
Speaker 1: a show, I'm not like in the rogued dancing and
Speaker 1: going you know what, I mean, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I try to watch fourheads. Yeah, that is now what
Speaker 1: I try to do. I only look at foreheads and
Speaker 1: listen back. I tell you what, dude, Having played in
Speaker 1: like punk rock bands in my younger years, it ruins
Speaker 1: your ability to judge a crowd forever because the because
Speaker 1: the bar was if there wasn't a big pit, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a good show. And so you get conditioned and
Speaker 1: I will never be unconditioned to that that, like the
Speaker 1: crowd has to be going insane for it's a registers
Speaker 1: a good thing and I always have, especially with like
Speaker 1: with my solo stuff, that like runs way mellower than
Speaker 1: punk rock. You know, even though a lot of it's
Speaker 1: like rocking, it's not that kind of rocking, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, it's and and at the no, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be sad they're not, and like they're in
Speaker 1: seats and stuff. So it's just not in it's it's
Speaker 1: it would be genre inappropriate. Was ever dangerous for you
Speaker 1: play and punk bands that young? Because I would be
Speaker 1: scared to go heat. Mike is a huge punk guy,
Speaker 1: goes to show still, It's like he's very valuable to me.
Speaker 1: He's like my main guy, yet he's in there freaking
Speaker 1: big in his neck broken, Like I don't understand, Like,
Speaker 1: I just feel like you would get hurt too. Um,
Speaker 1: like you're diving on drums, spitting in people's mouths. I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody ever actually spit in my mouth. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I remember one time and this didn't really
Speaker 1: seem like scary scary, but uh, but you do have
Speaker 1: moments like this, like where we were on tour. Um
Speaker 1: I was on tour with no used for name, and
Speaker 1: and we were in somewhere in Spain and we were
Speaker 1: playing and the crowd was really like going bananas, and
Speaker 1: it was packed club and there was like, uh, all
Speaker 1: the bouncers were lined up across the front of the
Speaker 1: stage and they were really man handling the kids. And
Speaker 1: so we got on our high arts. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: get that out of here, and you guys b and
Speaker 1: all the bouncers just kind of went like all right,
Speaker 1: and they all left and then we started playing the
Speaker 1: next song and it was just a complete stage vasion,
Speaker 1: like totally insane. But I'm sorry, guys, Okay, you were
Speaker 1: doing something after all. I get it. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I've seen stuff like that. I remember touring with with
Speaker 1: Unwritten Lawns and then we were down and when and
Speaker 1: when I was playing a band called twenty two Jacks
Speaker 1: and uh, and there was if I remember correctly, there
Speaker 1: was some some the bouncers were being pretty rough and
Speaker 1: one of them was standing like in the middle of
Speaker 1: the stage, like not like crouched down, but like in
Speaker 1: the middle of the stage while the while Unwritten Law
Speaker 1: was playing, and Scott, the singer front Written Law, just
Speaker 1: kicked him in the ass into the crowd and it
Speaker 1: was like that time I was scared because the bouncers
Speaker 1: wanted to kill everybody. At that point, I think I
Speaker 1: think we had to sneak him out of there in
Speaker 1: our van. Yeah, lost it see the record itself. So
Speaker 1: I don't know. Whenever you go, when you play these
Speaker 1: shows and now you're having and you've been listen, you've
Speaker 1: been doing versions of this for a long time, right,
Speaker 1: So it's not like this you're just going, I'm a
Speaker 1: solo artist now from a first time, you have different
Speaker 1: kind of incarnations of who you are. This to me
Speaker 1: is the first project like this that's just you. You
Speaker 1: can tell me I'm wrong, Am I wrong? I feel
Speaker 1: like this is the mode from what I've heard of this,
Speaker 1: it's way it's different sonically, and it feels like a
Speaker 1: way different you than I've heard through other versions. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd say that's fair. That's fair. Okay, So lost at
Speaker 1: see you're playing these songs? Are you playing I don't know,
Speaker 1: mostly songs from the new record? Are you playing any
Speaker 1: of the other versions? I don't know. What you do?
Speaker 1: It depends on you know, like the like, like if
Speaker 1: we're supporting somebody else and we have a shorter set
Speaker 1: library Smoke, for example, when you're opening for them, you'll
Speaker 1: play three three songs off the new record. Okay, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so two of which nobody will have ever heard,
Speaker 1: um and then what else? And then songs from my
Speaker 1: last couple of records. And then I put out a
Speaker 1: couple of songs just on my own last summer, So
Speaker 1: I'll probably play one or two of those. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a question of how you juggled that, especially when
Speaker 1: you were kind of not rebranding but just showing a
Speaker 1: different part of who you are music. Yeah, it's it
Speaker 1: can be challenging to try to, like, you know, because
Speaker 1: you want to just get up there and play everything.
Speaker 1: But you gotta you gotta trim it down. Well, you
Speaker 1: do double time and get double the songs in there,
Speaker 1: you go faster. Indeed. Yeah, well we'll just set the
Speaker 1: you know, the click track a little faster. Mike. I
Speaker 1: know you're a big fan. What's the deal here with you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I grew up on Fat Records, so now
Speaker 1: you all right on? No use for her name me
Speaker 1: first in the game games favorite bands growing up? Um,
Speaker 1: I think the thing I loved about me first was
Speaker 1: punk rock supergroup. Guys did amazing covers. If you could
Speaker 1: form a supergroup now, like with him, of your peers,
Speaker 1: who would be in that band and what kind of
Speaker 1: songs would you cover? Oh man, who would be in it? Now?
Speaker 1: Does it? Of I don't know. That's a tough one
Speaker 1: because me first and then Gimme's just kind of fell together.
Speaker 1: It was just like the you know, me and Joey
Speaker 1: were living in San Francisco at that time. We had
Speaker 1: just moved up there. Spike was working at Fat Records,
Speaker 1: Dave was was living there because he was still in
Speaker 1: r k L at the time, and you know, of course, Mike,
Speaker 1: you know it's bat Record so he was there. Um,
Speaker 1: so it just kind of came together without like any
Speaker 1: real any real planning. But I always thought it would
Speaker 1: be cool to make, like to corral a bunch of
Speaker 1: folks from out here and do a really super badass
Speaker 1: like classic country cover band and go play parties. But
Speaker 1: there must be like a hundred people that already do that,
Speaker 1: so I don't, well, not, I've never done that. Yes,
Speaker 1: that would be fun for me, but not not. Yes
Speaker 1: and no. The answer is yes, people do that, but
Speaker 1: not people that are superior at least I'm in theory.
Speaker 1: Or Okay, you say that, that's why I need a
Speaker 1: bunch of really good players to come make it sound
Speaker 1: really good. But like, like, how cool would that be
Speaker 1: to take like everybody that played on on my new
Speaker 1: record Coach play like you know, of just a classic
Speaker 1: classic country cover set somewhere. I think it'd be super
Speaker 1: I think, give me the analogy here. I'll set you
Speaker 1: up if I do. Obviously, I had a showing that
Speaker 1: GEO for a while on a small ish budget, and
Speaker 1: we had fine catering. It was fine. You know, we
Speaker 1: go out, we're all over the country on location. Fine
Speaker 1: good crew, fine American idol. Network best food money is
Speaker 1: awesome just a lot more time. But there's a difference
Speaker 1: in the two when you're doing you versus food. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that's probably similar. Well, if you need a visual, uh,
Speaker 1: send your camera crew to the Airbnb I'm staying at
Speaker 1: right now and that will clearly illustrate the difference. And
Speaker 1: if that doesn't make it clear enough, um, I'll drive
Speaker 1: you around in my van that we tour in as well.
Speaker 1: Is it a plus because that I say, I've said
Speaker 1: it before, not just here, you're here. I think the
Speaker 1: I think Food Fighters are the greatest American living band
Speaker 1: right now period, just because two things. One three lots
Speaker 1: of hits still relevant and the length of amount that
Speaker 1: the time you guys have been relevant, meaning you're talking
Speaker 1: about decades and yeah, I did an alternative based show
Speaker 1: for a long time. And to me, Food Fighters are
Speaker 1: extremely well respected and regarded and acculated, but still the
Speaker 1: most underappreciated band, one of them in music history. And
Speaker 1: I think up absolutely very much. So you can be
Speaker 1: but you can also be overrated and be awesome. Not
Speaker 1: Food Fighters, but I'm saying you can. You can be like, Wow,
Speaker 1: that person's overrated and they can still score thirty five
Speaker 1: a game and get nine rebounds. But the point is,
Speaker 1: I think because of a couple of things, you guys
Speaker 1: do not get the actual appreciation you deserve. Like some
Speaker 1: of the absolute greats of all time, I don't think
Speaker 1: you're great versus everybody, and I think great versus everybody.
Speaker 1: Ever at the duration of success they hits. You keep
Speaker 1: putting in the relevance. Now you put out a new record,
Speaker 1: Now it's still boom go. I'll tell you when you
Speaker 1: talk about the duration, it is funny because somebody posted
Speaker 1: um on my Twitter feed the other day. I don't
Speaker 1: even know when this. I think it was pretty early
Speaker 1: in me being in the band. It must have been
Speaker 1: like the first tour, some live clip and it just
Speaker 1: you just look at it and you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: we're kids were like, you know, but here was that?
Speaker 1: You think? Well, I mean, I joined the band at
Speaker 1: ninety nine, so it was probably like a clip from
Speaker 1: like two thousand or so, I don't know, and like
Speaker 1: I'm wearing like sleeveless. The thing that jumped out of
Speaker 1: me was I had cut off sleeve T shirt, which
Speaker 1: dates it from quite because I can't imagine I would
Speaker 1: be doing that anytime recently. But um removed Food Fighters
Speaker 1: from the conversation. Just just me and you're talking about music.
Speaker 1: Remove food Fighters. Name another American band that's got years
Speaker 1: of absolute greatness, just period. It could be from any time.
Speaker 1: It's a what do you do? Who do you put there? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're it's it's you gotta appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's amazing, and you just you know, when
Speaker 1: you're like in it and living at day to day,
Speaker 1: you sort of you know, I think one of the
Speaker 1: hardest things in life is to sort of be in
Speaker 1: the moment and appreciate it as it's all happening. And
Speaker 1: it's like you never really do. But when you look
Speaker 1: back over the length of time, you just look at
Speaker 1: like exactly what I'm saying, Like, I look at that
Speaker 1: video footage, dude, that was that was like several lifetimes ago.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't I wasn't married, I didn't have kids,
Speaker 1: and my son's in college now. It's like that's it's
Speaker 1: literally like it's it's a long stretch. When we look
Speaker 1: back at songs that you've written and they all come
Speaker 1: to my head and you know, music for me, if
Speaker 1: I hear a song that was a big part of
Speaker 1: my life at a certain point, I automatically kind of
Speaker 1: feel like that pointing and even for just a second,
Speaker 1: it's one of the cool things music or even smells of,
Speaker 1: like old food does, like oh my grandma used to
Speaker 1: cook that. Okay, I kind of feel that. But it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my, so you're one of the writers in the song, right,
Speaker 1: like you're writer on in my life. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know that's a that's like is that I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: claim writing, like you know, aren't you but aren't you on?
Speaker 1: Then you're on there where Yeah, I'm on that record,
Speaker 1: but like you know what I mean, like like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's dude, that's Dave, that's Dave's riff man. No, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the Riff's mean the song in general.
Speaker 1: But you we all we all played on it. But
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, But you're not do you
Speaker 1: get publishing for it? We're getting into the weeds? Um yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so but it's but at the same but that said,
Speaker 1: like I'm you know, like Dave is very much the
Speaker 1: writer and the and the has always lad the sort
Speaker 1: of creative vision of the band. You know, and I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't saying he wasn't. I just think
Speaker 1: that these songs and I was looking at through the
Speaker 1: notes with your name through on the publishing, So I
Speaker 1: just assumed I was on the publish any for sure.
Speaker 1: You know one of the writers there? Do you when
Speaker 1: you guys right? And I really don't have that many
Speaker 1: food fin questions, but you just put me on to
Speaker 1: another one. When you guys write, do you guys get
Speaker 1: in a room and just if you write, do it
Speaker 1: together or does he come in or do you come in?
Speaker 1: Or is it different every time? It's it's changed here
Speaker 1: and there over the years, you know, UM, And in
Speaker 1: the in the past, maybe we would we would spend
Speaker 1: more time, UM, like he would make it like record
Speaker 1: some demos. Then we would learn the songs and maybe
Speaker 1: we demo UM and then get into the studio. And
Speaker 1: then there's been times where you know, he just brings
Speaker 1: them in, we learned them in the studio and kind
Speaker 1: of piece them together as as we're going. UM. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a little bit of everything. Do you write.
Speaker 1: I used to get really hung up on demos, you know, well,
Speaker 1: like what what you know how the demo demo, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like you know and and that was well, that
Speaker 1: was the part I played on the demo, and I'd
Speaker 1: really try it. It's like I almost try to prepare
Speaker 1: less now to be more responsive and so you're not attached.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you prepare less, that means you're not married
Speaker 1: to that. The first time I ever sort of learned
Speaker 1: that was coming out here and making a record with
Speaker 1: Dave Cobb, which is like he even in that before
Speaker 1: I came out here for the first record I made
Speaker 1: with him, he was like, don't make demos, and I
Speaker 1: did anyway. I made it like a bunch of demos.
Speaker 1: But then once you want to work tape, I mean,
Speaker 1: then just recorded in the iPhone the general rough. I
Speaker 1: think he would prefer you to just sing it in
Speaker 1: the room on an acoustic guitar and then but yeah,
Speaker 1: but what if you're write it's not here. I guess
Speaker 1: it's my point. You said don't make demos because I
Speaker 1: like that, and I liked what you just said there,
Speaker 1: because you can definitely fall in love with the demo
Speaker 1: and then anything that comes after you're just like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's not really what I felt when I
Speaker 1: wrote this original, but it's way more fun to be
Speaker 1: open to just kind of getting banged into something different
Speaker 1: when you're in the room. So if you right now,
Speaker 1: we just write something and recorded on your iPhone like
Speaker 1: in a voice note yeah, and then you know, to
Speaker 1: truth be told. I'll still go make it demno it
Speaker 1: in my studio, but I try not to get stuck
Speaker 1: on it. That's the lesson. Do your kids think you're cool? Um?
Speaker 1: Not to my face? Do you ever hear though? And
Speaker 1: it makes you proud that they've told somebody they're proud
Speaker 1: of you, but they won't tell you, but it comes
Speaker 1: back to you they are, Um yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's ever come back for me exactly. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: my like, my kids are great. I think like they've
Speaker 1: grown up with you know, they've they've grown up with
Speaker 1: a dad who has a really weird job, you know,
Speaker 1: and so they've been around that their whole lives. And
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's it's totally demystified. Like
Speaker 1: if if my dad had been in you know, heart
Speaker 1: or something, you know, and then I wouldn't have wondered
Speaker 1: all the things that I wondered about. What happens on
Speaker 1: the other side of them, you know, backstage door or whatever.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's I think it's an
Speaker 1: interesting thing. Like I think my kids definitely appreciate the
Speaker 1: fact that I get to lead this weird life and
Speaker 1: they get to, you know, lead a weird life because
Speaker 1: of it. Um. They they musical. Uh, they've all well
Speaker 1: I've forced them all to take lessons here and they
Speaker 1: them have a passion to do it for their life.
Speaker 1: My youngest has gotten really kind of into it now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he they all quit playing. My oldest wants to be
Speaker 1: a filmmaker, so you know, that's his thing, that's his passion.
Speaker 1: And and then my you know, they all played, but
Speaker 1: my youngest has now kind of come back to it.
Speaker 1: So we'll see. Do you ever practice? Do I? Oh, god,
Speaker 1: all the time? I know, not so much in terms
Speaker 1: of like practicing. I don't sit like I might sit
Speaker 1: there and kind of would shed on something specific. Um,
Speaker 1: but I'm being I just play all the time. Do
Speaker 1: you still love to play? I still love to play?
Speaker 1: You ever? Like, I just wish I had a guitar
Speaker 1: right now all the time. Yeah, And isn't that if
Speaker 1: you can move yourself from you, which is a hard
Speaker 1: thing to do. Isn't that kind of awesome that somebody
Speaker 1: who's done it through all different levels and stages and
Speaker 1: seasons of life like still has that thing that they've
Speaker 1: done and they still love doing It's so rare. It's
Speaker 1: it's so like, I'm thankful that I get to do
Speaker 1: what I do and still love doing it even though
Speaker 1: it's a grind sometimes. Are you thankful that you still
Speaker 1: love it? Totally? Yeah, Because there was a point, there
Speaker 1: was one point that I remember, and it was a
Speaker 1: long time ago now where I was kind of like
Speaker 1: not playing that much in the off season and not
Speaker 1: doing much, you know, and and and then um, a
Speaker 1: series of things happen to kind of like reignited that
Speaker 1: feeling in me, and I just never ever want to
Speaker 1: lose it again. And I know, for me, like even
Speaker 1: when you're not feeling like particularly motivated or whatever, I
Speaker 1: just play through it. Let's play, I just play. I
Speaker 1: bet it's it's almost at this point like that never
Speaker 1: happens because either either you're writing or recording or rehearsing
Speaker 1: or just sitting in my studio mess around with with
Speaker 1: amps and pedals and different guitars, and so there's just
Speaker 1: it's just always something. Are you on an eternal search
Speaker 1: for the right tone? Probably more so now than ever? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And do you know when you hit it or do
Speaker 1: you still question it even though you got it? I
Speaker 1: think he's still I think you you hit it and
Speaker 1: then you lose it and then you start looking for
Speaker 1: it again, or your or the you know what that
Speaker 1: is changes, or you hear somebody else and you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: how do you do that? You know? Why is the
Speaker 1: record called Lost to Sea? It's it's a part of
Speaker 1: a line in one of the songs. Yeah, any lines
Speaker 1: and these songs that are super personal because I did
Speaker 1: see a thing where you're like, it's a very personal
Speaker 1: record and that that means that is sure? I like that, right,
Speaker 1: everybody's trying to write personal stuff because that's what we
Speaker 1: have that's different than everybody else. But is there anything
Speaker 1: a line or anything that's in there? It's like, man,
Speaker 1: this is like a real personal and like, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I should even put that out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a couple. There's one of the songs. Um, you
Speaker 1: don't even have to highlight it now. I just wonder
Speaker 1: if that's ever yeah, I know there's a song on
Speaker 1: there that I wrote probably, like I don't even know,
Speaker 1: a long time ago, when I was going through some stuff.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah you So, yeah, there's It's it's funny because
Speaker 1: I don't think to anybody else would read it the
Speaker 1: way that I hear, which is why I don't want
Speaker 1: to ask you what it is. But it's just did
Speaker 1: you get in that place where you're like, man, this
Speaker 1: is something if but good for you? I mean you
Speaker 1: you hung in there? Did you pull any out? Though
Speaker 1: in the same way that was no, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they were definitely. It's a funny thing with songwriting
Speaker 1: because like there it's like I like it the more
Speaker 1: specific it is. But then you know, it's usually a
Speaker 1: lot of these songs wind up being like it's like
Speaker 1: ten different things that become one story. So the whole
Speaker 1: thing is kind of just fictional pale, but it's based
Speaker 1: on you know, it's like every line is like from
Speaker 1: something that that you experienced, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's real and it's just a story.
Speaker 1: At the same time. The most country song that you've
Speaker 1: ever written is on this record, I think, So, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's one. There's a couple of them. There's one called
Speaker 1: Dead and Gone um, and there's another one called carry
Speaker 1: Midnight Texas Queen. It's a lot of words. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of words. Did you consider just Midnight Texas Queen?
Speaker 1: A lot? I know? Name and songs and name and records.
Speaker 1: It's always kind of challenging. Do you write on the
Speaker 1: set list Queen? When we learn it? Yeah, now we're
Speaker 1: in that fun part where now I actually have to
Speaker 1: go in there and learn how to play my own songs.
Speaker 1: Everybody Chris Shifflet music dot Com go to on Instagram
Speaker 1: shifty seventy one. I saw that you're on TikTok now, yes,
Speaker 1: which well, I mean, can you talk about my kids
Speaker 1: thinking I'm cool? My kids roast me about my TikTok
Speaker 1: posts constantly. You're not. I didn't even roast me on there,
Speaker 1: like you're not dancing though, right, no dance, no dancing.
Speaker 1: But they're just like, oh my god, dad's please stop
Speaker 1: putting like the little like dancing cowboy boots or like
Speaker 1: the filter like nobody does that, Like I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's it's an option in there. It makes it look sparkly.
Speaker 1: What do you mean it looks like snow's falling. It's cool.
Speaker 1: The record is out in October. But when this airs, Mike,
Speaker 1: just making sure we're all black top white lines will
Speaker 1: be out. That'll be out. Um also quickly, you just
Speaker 1: want to just highlight a couple of songs real quick.
Speaker 1: Here is Long Long Year, here you go, and here
Speaker 1: is Born and Raised. I mean, I I hear like
Speaker 1: eighties Eagles, like because I love eighties. I mean that's
Speaker 1: the most complimentary way, Like that's what makes me feel
Speaker 1: that feeling. I yeah, where it's just like, ah, it's
Speaker 1: funny because something like that. That is exactly kind of
Speaker 1: what I was alluding to earlier, where in my head
Speaker 1: I'm hearing it like Steve Earle, but everybody else hears
Speaker 1: it like the Eagles. So it's cool either way, or
Speaker 1: what I said. You know what, Chris, they are the Wiggles. Okay,
Speaker 1: see exactly, all right, you guys follow Chris. You're out
Speaker 1: on the road. But what are you doing on the road.
Speaker 1: I know you're with black Berry Smoke here, but are
Speaker 1: you with them all the time? No, we're just it's
Speaker 1: a one off we got, you know, I got offered
Speaker 1: to come out and play open one off uh here
Speaker 1: and there. I just did a bunch of dates in
Speaker 1: December out on the West Coast and then I've got
Speaker 1: um a tour of the UK and Ireland coming up
Speaker 1: at the end of March. Um and that's and we're
Speaker 1: working on trying to figure out some other stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: watch Foreheads. That's it. That's gonna leave you. I'll leave
Speaker 1: you with a nugget. That's right, because obviously I'm your hero,
Speaker 1: So watch Foreheads. You learned from me. This is a
Speaker 1: big deal. Fee to be here, and it's actually the
Speaker 1: opposite of all I just said I was. We're pumped
Speaker 1: to have you. This has been a thrill for me.
Speaker 1: I hope you had a good time it. We just
Speaker 1: did over an hour and love and loved the music.
Speaker 1: Thank you, love the music. All right, there is Chris Shiffick.