Speaker 1: Mike and I were talking about really good episodes that
Speaker 1: people may have missed if they've just subscribed to the
Speaker 1: Bobby Cast. I'm gonna go back. I mean it's been
Speaker 1: a while. I mean the episode was one seventies seven,
Speaker 1: so it's been over a hundred episodes. Ago, we talked
Speaker 1: to Jada Marcus from Rascal Flats on how the Flats
Speaker 1: was really formed. They're all these urban legends and his
Speaker 1: faith so it's a really great way. And you know,
Speaker 1: Jay now has his own record label, and I think
Speaker 1: those guys will eventually go, well, we should just play
Speaker 1: we just get back together, do it again. Yes, I
Speaker 1: know they're not that they've broken up. They're not together.
Speaker 1: I don't know what their official status is right now. Um.
Speaker 1: And I know Gary pretty well. Um, And I just
Speaker 1: think eventually, even if it's two or three years from now,
Speaker 1: they go, let's just do it again. You know. And
Speaker 1: Gary and Jay they were in a video together recently,
Speaker 1: their cousins, So I want this is a great His
Speaker 1: book Shotgun Angels had just come out, so he stopped
Speaker 1: by the house when we talked about that too. But
Speaker 1: this is Jada Marcus from Rascal Flats in case you
Speaker 1: missed it. It's a really great episode. Check it out.
Speaker 1: Trying to get a nut, trying to I'm the ultimate squirrel,
Speaker 1: always trying to get a nut. Me too, buddy. And
Speaker 1: it's a book you name it. Episode one seventy seven
Speaker 1: with Jada Marcus Rascal Flats. Um. So we're talking, we're
Speaker 1: about to start saving us off the air because, uh,
Speaker 1: it's tough to sell books, especially when it's not what
Speaker 1: you're known for. Because that that's been my thing, is
Speaker 1: that write a book? Like what what? What was Bobby?
Speaker 1: What does Jay know about books? And so yeah, you
Speaker 1: have to kind of go out and rehustle. You do, Wait,
Speaker 1: musicians can write. I read exactly, Yeah you do. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm always up for a new challenge, though I'm I
Speaker 1: think you and I are wired more alike, probably than
Speaker 1: we know. I love to work like idle time does
Speaker 1: not serve me. Well. I can't sit around and you know, spin,
Speaker 1: I'll start spinning out about the silliest things if I do.
Speaker 1: You know, is it I'm sort of deeper? Um maybe
Speaker 1: psychological thing that we like to work, Like are you
Speaker 1: trying to prove? Who are you trying to prove? Something?
Speaker 1: To yourself. I think if you read part of that book,
Speaker 1: it would be my dad. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of me that feels like I never quite lived up
Speaker 1: to what he expected me to be. I guess that
Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on me, which I used
Speaker 1: as fuel early on in life, but it still fuels me.
Speaker 1: And for me, it's been like I grew up in
Speaker 1: pretty close to poverty, and so it's like trying to
Speaker 1: prove to yeah, to everybody that so I wish my
Speaker 1: Idol time. My my itchiness with Idol time was just
Speaker 1: because I do love working. But I think I've convinced
Speaker 1: myself I love working because I'm trying to prove it
Speaker 1: to everyone that I can make it. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: that I have a little bit of that in me too.
Speaker 1: It's like when you whenever you have some success and
Speaker 1: you celebrate it, you don't celebrate it and live in
Speaker 1: the moment long enough because I go I gotta do
Speaker 1: I gotta do more, because I haven't done it, I
Speaker 1: haven't done enough yet. I gotta get back after it
Speaker 1: and go back out there and do something good again.
Speaker 1: And a lot of I like to try to prove
Speaker 1: to myself too that I can take on new challenges
Speaker 1: and have some degree of success with it, you know.
Speaker 1: And I guess I'm just wired that way. I am
Speaker 1: truly a workaholic, There's no doubt about it. I think
Speaker 1: it drives my partners crazy sometimes, partners in all capacities
Speaker 1: or you're talking about in the band, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about in the band, meaning you're always wanting to do
Speaker 1: what well. I always want to go. I mean, if
Speaker 1: there's money on the table, dates, let's go get it.
Speaker 1: If there's work to be done, let's go do it.
Speaker 1: And Gary, I wish I had a little more him
Speaker 1: in me, because he loves to go out to the
Speaker 1: farm decompressed. I mean, he could stay out there for
Speaker 1: big chunks of times and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: We're just wired differently. So to exist in the same band.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm like, I don't I don't think I can
Speaker 1: sit around for five months. I gotta do something any
Speaker 1: but write a book. How long out of the book?
Speaker 1: Um start to be a seed in you, I think
Speaker 1: years ago because I kept I keep journals, you know,
Speaker 1: I like keep notes of things so I can remember them.
Speaker 1: And I started keeping notes when Rascal Flats did our
Speaker 1: first radio tour literally that long ago, because I wanted
Speaker 1: to remember certain things in certain aspects of what we
Speaker 1: were doing. And I always thought, someday we may have
Speaker 1: a chance to write a book out into the future,
Speaker 1: sometime when this all comes to whatever close it's gonna
Speaker 1: it's gonna look like. And so I started keeping notes,
Speaker 1: and the more that I did, the more I started
Speaker 1: to reflect on my life, just myself and and really
Speaker 1: reflect on all of the things that transpired to get
Speaker 1: me here to eventually meet Joe do on one day
Speaker 1: and then Gary come to town and us do what
Speaker 1: we have done. And it started to I started look
Speaker 1: at and go, maybe there are some people that can
Speaker 1: like be inspired by some of the crap that I
Speaker 1: went through, and maybe they can find their own hope
Speaker 1: to forge ahead and to get up, dust themselves off,
Speaker 1: keep moving forward. Because you know, a lot of times
Speaker 1: we see our favorite entertainers, actors, musicians, whatever they are,
Speaker 1: you see the culmination of a lot of uf and
Speaker 1: a lot of hard work that got them to that point.
Speaker 1: You didn't just end up on American Idol one day
Speaker 1: by accident. You went through a lot of things to
Speaker 1: get you there. I didn't end up in Rascal Flats.
Speaker 1: I went through a lot of crap and a lot
Speaker 1: of hard stuff to get me there. And I think
Speaker 1: people deal with the same things you and I have
Speaker 1: done with, and they deal with the same adversity, the
Speaker 1: same tough times, and sometimes you want to quit. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were many times that I wanted to throw the
Speaker 1: towel in and move back home and just forget the
Speaker 1: silly dream of music career. And I didn't. I found
Speaker 1: some ounce of hope here and there, some friend or
Speaker 1: some text or some something that would happen just in
Speaker 1: time before I would give up, to help keep me going.
Speaker 1: The name of the book. Let me shout the book
Speaker 1: out here. Everybody knows you, but uh Jada Marcus of
Speaker 1: Rascal Flats. It's called Shotgun Angels, My Story of Broken
Speaker 1: Roads and unshakable hope. And it's funny you mentioned all
Speaker 1: the crap that you go through, because and the first
Speaker 1: book I wrote, I had to kind of relive some
Speaker 1: of that stuff which I just kept compressed for so long,
Speaker 1: just pushed it down inside, and it was tough to
Speaker 1: not just acknowledge it, but to kind of kind of
Speaker 1: dredge it all back up and relive it. To be
Speaker 1: in my form of accurate about it, and did you
Speaker 1: go through that at all? I went down. I joked
Speaker 1: the other day that I had a bottle of Vodkas
Speaker 1: sitting right by the laptop because I'd have to shut
Speaker 1: it and take a break sometimes. And when the stuff
Speaker 1: comes spoiling back up to the surface and you do
Speaker 1: relive it, if you're an emotional person at all, you
Speaker 1: feel those emotions all over again and how you felt
Speaker 1: when you were living through that. And that was one
Speaker 1: of the things that I didn't expect. That kind of
Speaker 1: caught me off guard a little bit that I would
Speaker 1: actually go back into it so deeply, but I definitely did,
Speaker 1: And there were times and I just id take a
Speaker 1: break from it. I stepped away and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I can't believe that still affects me
Speaker 1: as strongly today as it did, you know, thirty years ago.
Speaker 1: It's wild to me. As I was reading, I didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to finish it, and I might be
Speaker 1: read the whole thing, and he pulled out some parts
Speaker 1: for me to read. Um, the the how you guys
Speaker 1: got together. It's very interesting to me. I think we'll
Speaker 1: start there, and then I want to go back to
Speaker 1: the Christian Band in the scholarship. There's a lot again
Speaker 1: stuff that and I felt like we've known each other,
Speaker 1: at least semi socially for a while. I had no
Speaker 1: idea a lot of the stuff which is interesting, just
Speaker 1: on the music side of things. And so we'll go
Speaker 1: to back to the beginning of the flats or Rascal Flats,
Speaker 1: not the Rascal Flats. So I, for everybody's listening right now,
Speaker 1: calling the Rascal Flats, dear God. So um, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna move past college. We're gonna back to that
Speaker 1: in a minute. You're in town and you have a
Speaker 1: cousin that you guys weren't super close we were growing
Speaker 1: up but lost touch, right, and which is Gary? And
Speaker 1: Gary had been winning some karaoke competitions. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: kept hearing grumblings back home when I would go back
Speaker 1: for the holidays that hey, you know your cousin Gary,
Speaker 1: he's been singing a little bit. And I'd be like, really,
Speaker 1: that's neat um and and and it wasn't that I
Speaker 1: was being mean about it, but I was following my
Speaker 1: own path, and I had the Christian band, and then
Speaker 1: somebody told me that he was talking to a producer
Speaker 1: in l A about doing an R and B thing
Speaker 1: and that he and Jamie Fox had spent some time together.
Speaker 1: My uncle had actually told me that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: he knows Jamie Fox. That's kind of cool. And it
Speaker 1: was lost on me that again, he was talking about
Speaker 1: singing and doing a pop thing. And then my mom
Speaker 1: called me one day and she goes, now, your cousin
Speaker 1: Gary's gonna call you and you need to listen to
Speaker 1: him singing. He's been winning some contests up here. He's
Speaker 1: been singing in Yeah, and you need to listen to
Speaker 1: him sing. I was like, Mom, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: The last thing I want to do is tell some
Speaker 1: family member who I'm not really that close to anymore,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't try this. And she, while I've talked to
Speaker 1: she called Judy Gary's mother, Jude Babe. They were closer
Speaker 1: than sisters. They still are. She said, well, listen, I've
Speaker 1: already told Jude Babe that you're gonna listen to him,
Speaker 1: so you just need to let him come over there
Speaker 1: when he's down there and sing for you. When he
Speaker 1: was on his way to vacation in Florida, and he
Speaker 1: stopped by my apartment in Brentwood and I sat down,
Speaker 1: and I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, the first song
Speaker 1: he sang was One Last Cry by Brian McKnight, and
Speaker 1: I knew it well enough on the piano to kind
Speaker 1: of hack through it, and he just stopped me in
Speaker 1: my tracks. I mean, when he opens his voice and
Speaker 1: you hear that come out of him, it's otherworldly. I mean,
Speaker 1: I describe it in the book, is all of these
Speaker 1: ingredients of gospel and R and B and country rolled
Speaker 1: up into one. I had never heard anything quite like
Speaker 1: it before, and it had an immediate, identifiable personality to
Speaker 1: it that was just shocking to me. And we kept
Speaker 1: talking over the next several weeks, several months, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta move to town. It's never gonna
Speaker 1: find you in Columbus. And he was. He was struggling
Speaker 1: because he had a great job, he had debt, he
Speaker 1: had bills, he'd already forged a life for himself. And
Speaker 1: he called me one day and he said, that's it,
Speaker 1: I'm coming to town. I can't do this anymore. And
Speaker 1: if I don't do it, I'm afraid I'll regret it.
Speaker 1: For the rest of my life. And he lived on
Speaker 1: my couch. I had a one bedroom apartment and he
Speaker 1: lived on my couch and we played everywhere we could,
Speaker 1: and when people would hear him, the reaction was just undeniable.
Speaker 1: You could see it in their faces. They were like,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this guy is up there singing Merle Haggard,
Speaker 1: but singing like r and b licks in it. And
Speaker 1: now if you turn on country radio, you hear a
Speaker 1: whole host of singers that were touched by him and
Speaker 1: influenced by him. And that's a testament to what his
Speaker 1: gift was and what he was able to bring to
Speaker 1: this town and build upon. So you guys are playing
Speaker 1: shows at Printer's Alley a couple of nights a week,
Speaker 1: a few nights a week and doesn't even exist anymore.
Speaker 1: The place we played it was a fiddle and steel
Speaker 1: guitar bar, and I I think it's a boutique hotel now.
Speaker 1: So you're going and say, hey, GARYL we're gonna get
Speaker 1: a gig, just the two of us. And how do
Speaker 1: you get that gig? You go up and say, hey, guy,
Speaker 1: here's the tape. What's that? I'll tell you. So the
Speaker 1: guy playing up on stage. We'd go in and hear
Speaker 1: him sing, and he would let us sit in and
Speaker 1: do a song. The owner was in there one night,
Speaker 1: Allison was her name, and Greg Perkins. They owned it together,
Speaker 1: and she walked over and she said, would you guys
Speaker 1: want to do a night here? And Gary said, I
Speaker 1: don't even live here full time. I'm just visiting on
Speaker 1: the weekends. She said, if you guys will do a
Speaker 1: couple of nights here a week, I'll fire him and
Speaker 1: give you his gig. The guy that you were singing,
Speaker 1: and the guy that was letting us, the guy that
Speaker 1: that helped you. That's how cutthroat Nashville is. And and
Speaker 1: we so we left and we talked about it, and
Speaker 1: I said, do you do you want to do this?
Speaker 1: And then that that's I think that's around the time
Speaker 1: he called me and said I'm moving to town. Let's
Speaker 1: take that gig and see see what happens. And he
Speaker 1: was the two of us sitting beside a cigare a machine.
Speaker 1: I had my keyboard and he had a mike, when
Speaker 1: I had two mix and we sometimes there were two
Speaker 1: people in there, sometimes there were twenty, sometimes there were forty.
Speaker 1: But slowly, but surely, we we started to build a
Speaker 1: following that would come in and see us, and then
Speaker 1: the owners came to us and said, we're thinking about
Speaker 1: buying the other side of this building, knocking down the
Speaker 1: wall that separates the two putting a stage together. Would
Speaker 1: you put a band together? And I knew a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys from various bands, and I was sitting in
Speaker 1: with and Gary and I were friends with a circle
Speaker 1: of buddies that were great musicians and had been playing
Speaker 1: in different places with them. So we put a band together.
Speaker 1: And so you're playing with Shelley right at this time
Speaker 1: to write like as your main you can play with
Speaker 1: Shelly right. You're playing keys? Yeah, I was. I was
Speaker 1: your band leader. Okay, so you're running the band, you're
Speaker 1: playing keys, and you had hired a guitarist, which was Jodan.
Speaker 1: And so when you're putting the band together, is that
Speaker 1: when you bring jod on in. No, he didn't start
Speaker 1: playing with us right away. Guy named Shane Sutton played
Speaker 1: with us. Fantastic player, fantastic singer. And we were playing
Speaker 1: down there for probably several months, and then I get
Speaker 1: a call one night and Shane says, man, I can't
Speaker 1: get out of bed I've got the flu. I've got
Speaker 1: a fever, and I'm sorry to do this to you,
Speaker 1: but I can't make it tonight. It was on a
Speaker 1: Monday night, and I thought, oh, no, what are we
Speaker 1: gonna do? I know who can play this. I know
Speaker 1: who can do it. I'm gonna call Jodan. I called
Speaker 1: him up and said, hey, what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 1: And he's like nothing, I'm just sitting around. I said,
Speaker 1: let's let's uh, let's play tonight. You want to? You
Speaker 1: want to sit in with us? I said, I've been
Speaker 1: telling you about my cousin anyway I want you to.
Speaker 1: I want you to hear him and meet him in
Speaker 1: real life. And I've been telling you know, Gary about
Speaker 1: Jodan how talented he was. And so we pull up
Speaker 1: at the club and Jodan sitting in his guitar amp
Speaker 1: up and he's up there tuning up. Gary looks at me,
Speaker 1: he goes, who is that? I said, no, out man,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to tell you this, but Shane's sick,
Speaker 1: and he goes, are you kidding me? This guy isn't
Speaker 1: gonna know a thing that we do. We gotta play
Speaker 1: a little three am and if this sucks, I'm out.
Speaker 1: Of here, you can have this by yourself. And I
Speaker 1: was like, Gary, please, like, just give him the shot.
Speaker 1: He would barely even speak to Joe Don. It was
Speaker 1: so funny. He was so frustrated. And I understand. See
Speaker 1: Gary was getting up at four thirty am to throw papers.
Speaker 1: So we finished in the club at two. He slept
Speaker 1: right to work and he go right right to work
Speaker 1: throwing papers. So I understood his frustration. But then we
Speaker 1: got up there together and the first song, I think
Speaker 1: we played it on one of your shows. The first
Speaker 1: song we ever played together was Church on the Cumberland
Speaker 1: Road by Shannondah, and we hit that first course man,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what happened, but it was just
Speaker 1: we all knew immediately. We looked at each other like
Speaker 1: that is good, and we've got to have more of that.
Speaker 1: So Shane, that Rigel guitar players the name right, He
Speaker 1: basically Wally pipped and Wally played first days for the
Speaker 1: Yankees forever. And while he got hurt, nothing, he didn't
Speaker 1: do anything wrong. And he got hurt, and here it
Speaker 1: comes Loue Gary, who's gonna fill in. And then here
Speaker 1: it's now the Lue Gary world. I know what does
Speaker 1: Shane say about that? Shane Shane still a buddy of Arrish.
Speaker 1: We still see him out playing with different artists and
Speaker 1: playing guitar. But he you know, he obviously gives us
Speaker 1: massive amounts of crap for us firing and basically you
Speaker 1: never I had to call him and tell him he
Speaker 1: couldn't come back, and that was really awkward. I was like,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna go ahead and stick with Joe
Speaker 1: don But I think anybody that heard us sing together,
Speaker 1: and he would definitely tell you this to God, that
Speaker 1: there was a special uh chemistry in a blend that
Speaker 1: we had that was not common what was happening in
Speaker 1: Nashville at that time? Though you got you three or
Speaker 1: now you go, okay, this might be something, but what
Speaker 1: was like the environment like because you guys cut through
Speaker 1: so hard because you were so different. Now you kind
Speaker 1: of created where everyone else has gone, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like you're that different. You guys have opened these
Speaker 1: roads up for a lot of artists nowadays. At the
Speaker 1: time who was popping around town where you're where, They're like,
Speaker 1: you know what, You're not like them. We don't know
Speaker 1: if this canna be a thing quite yet. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Nashville was was pretty safe back then. I mean there
Speaker 1: were glimpses of pop in music. I mean you had
Speaker 1: your South sixty fives and your uh forget Marshall Dillon
Speaker 1: was around, but they were definitely trying to be five
Speaker 1: guys that danced and we're bringing trying to bring the
Speaker 1: boy band vibe over the country music and it really
Speaker 1: wasn't resonating because they didn't play instruments. It was it
Speaker 1: felt no offense to those guys that were trying to
Speaker 1: make a living and do something, but it felt contrived, honestly.
Speaker 1: And we were fans of bands that were really great
Speaker 1: harmony bands like Diamond Rio and Shannondoah at the time,
Speaker 1: and the Eagles were a huge influence on us. So
Speaker 1: that's that's really what we were trying to do, was
Speaker 1: bring elements of what we loved about pop music, but
Speaker 1: still great authentic harmonies and the songs, the meat on
Speaker 1: the bone of the songs with something to say in
Speaker 1: a different way. It's really what we tried to hone
Speaker 1: in on and and may the foundation of of what
Speaker 1: we were. We weren't even really trying to be a band.
Speaker 1: We didn't set out to do that. I wanted to
Speaker 1: produce and write and help Gary get a record deal
Speaker 1: so that I could try to be a record producer
Speaker 1: and be successful in in that way. I had already
Speaker 1: done the artist thing and we know how that turned out.
Speaker 1: But the book, but it sort of had no aspirations
Speaker 1: to do another artist thing. I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: forge a different career. But the more we had a
Speaker 1: following and the more we sang together, it just felt
Speaker 1: like it was evolving into that, let's rewind. Um. I
Speaker 1: grew up Pentecostal for a while. My grandmother was Pentecostal.
Speaker 1: You did, Yeah, scary and you know it's for me
Speaker 1: that when they would speak in tongues, that scared the
Speaker 1: crap out of me too. And so I remember going
Speaker 1: and my grandmother who adopted me for a long time, UM,
Speaker 1: and she would speak in tongues and church and it
Speaker 1: never became something that I was just like, oh this
Speaker 1: is I was always scared by it. Um. This that
Speaker 1: that there was so much passion and love in a
Speaker 1: Pentecostal no doubt the most by the way of all
Speaker 1: of you know, my time of of you know, being
Speaker 1: really in the fabric of church, that was that was
Speaker 1: the closest I'd ever seen church. So as much as
Speaker 1: I'm like that scared me, it was also I've never
Speaker 1: seen a close knit group like the Pedocostal church. Um,
Speaker 1: what was your experience, because I know that's that was
Speaker 1: a big part of your life, much the same I
Speaker 1: was scared to death. They always told you to bring
Speaker 1: your friends to church, and I'd say to my mom,
Speaker 1: why would I ever scre want my friends to see
Speaker 1: what lunatics you guys act like when you run around
Speaker 1: and speaking tongues and jump all over the pews and everything,
Speaker 1: and and I was never and you know this is
Speaker 1: the truth, though I have to say it, I was
Speaker 1: never very very comfortable in that environment because it wasn't
Speaker 1: the way that I believed that I needed to express
Speaker 1: myself and my beliefs. And it would and it always
Speaker 1: troubled me a little bit. But I admired the fact
Speaker 1: that people were so dedicated to it. And You're absolutely right,
Speaker 1: there was so much love, so much Um. I've always
Speaker 1: felt like I was surrounded by a family of people
Speaker 1: that would do anything in the world for me, even
Speaker 1: though I may not have agreed with exactly how they
Speaker 1: went about it, you know. So for me, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that I went through that because it laid a really
Speaker 1: deep foundation to for the groundwork for my faith later
Speaker 1: on in life. And I had to really figure out
Speaker 1: what I believed and why I believed it because I
Speaker 1: knew I didn't believe a bunch of that stuff that
Speaker 1: I was exposed to. And I'm not saying that it
Speaker 1: wasn't real. It was real for them, whatever that was.
Speaker 1: But I had to deconstruct my belief system and figure
Speaker 1: out why I believed when I believed and not just
Speaker 1: because I was indoctrinated with it when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: And so you start to play music, but you're playing
Speaker 1: Christian music, Now, why why Christian music? Well, I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to listen to quote unquote secular music when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, you know. I couldn't listen to Kiss
Speaker 1: and a C. D C. And until later on in life,
Speaker 1: like a lot of the kids were listening to that.
Speaker 1: So I went turned to bands like Petra and Milon
Speaker 1: Lefevre and White Heart and bands that were rock but
Speaker 1: we're using a positive christ centered message. Those were my influences.
Speaker 1: And so going to church and believing in God myself
Speaker 1: and believing in Christ myself. I started to write a
Speaker 1: lot of that kind of music, and the more I wrote,
Speaker 1: the more I really got into that and felt like
Speaker 1: maybe that was what I was supposed to do. And
Speaker 1: when I got to college and I was working at
Speaker 1: the studio there on on the campus, I was doing
Speaker 1: all kinds of demos and having my roommate Neil sing
Speaker 1: the demos, and I was mailing them to publishers to
Speaker 1: try to get a songwriting deal. And I got a
Speaker 1: call from Benson Records one day, Don Cook at Benson Records,
Speaker 1: not the Country, Don Cook, the ko c H. And
Speaker 1: he said, I love your band. We'd like to bring
Speaker 1: it to town to talk about doing a record on you.
Speaker 1: And of course had to tell him we're not a band.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to get a pub deal. But
Speaker 1: so as you're deciding where to go to school, the
Speaker 1: the these these folks come to you and say, if
Speaker 1: you'll go to school here, we'll pay We'll actually pay
Speaker 1: you away your debt, we'll pay your carpet. Like they say, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna write you about three thousand dollars, but always yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that, we're gonna pay if you come to
Speaker 1: school here and perform with the band that was at school. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so this this guy was known for hand picking the
Speaker 1: best musicians at the school and putting together a recruiting ensemble.
Speaker 1: So this this particular group of kids would be four
Speaker 1: singers for musicians, a couple of other road crew and things,
Speaker 1: and they we traveled on a on a tour bus,
Speaker 1: and um, we went around the youth camps, convence youth conventions,
Speaker 1: We went around the churches. We went around the camp
Speaker 1: meetings and going in Pentecostal church. I know, you know
Speaker 1: what a camp meeting is. But we would sing and
Speaker 1: then we would talk about the school, and so we
Speaker 1: try to recruit kids to come to the school. We'd
Speaker 1: go overseas. I had the opportunity to see a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of the world at a very young age playing
Speaker 1: with that group. But as long as you played in
Speaker 1: that group, you could keep your scholarship, you could keep
Speaker 1: going to school. And that's kind of what my job was.
Speaker 1: So a lot of these kids that would go home
Speaker 1: for this summer that wasn't me. I toured my all
Speaker 1: of my summers in school, and Neil and I were
Speaker 1: dear friends we became dear friends, and lo and behold
Speaker 1: we ended up in East West together and here is
Speaker 1: uh the number one song from East to West, Prince
Speaker 1: of Peace. How long has mit you heard this? Oh?
Speaker 1: My lord? Probably years? Probably now as I was doing
Speaker 1: my research about East to West that I look like
Speaker 1: they were more than one lead singer. We both we
Speaker 1: both shared lead, both were doing the lead. What's that
Speaker 1: sort of dynamic when you have dual lead singers. Well,
Speaker 1: it worked well for us because I played bass and
Speaker 1: keys too, and then there's no doubt Neil did the
Speaker 1: lion's share of the lead vocals. And I would take
Speaker 1: a verse here or there, and you know, and and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and and maybe sing one song
Speaker 1: on the albums I would sing. So it worked really
Speaker 1: really well because I cared, you know, I was such
Speaker 1: a musician and muso head that I wanted to like
Speaker 1: play everything I could and play a lot of it
Speaker 1: on the record, And so I was content to let
Speaker 1: Neil kind of shine and do his own thing. And
Speaker 1: he was a fantastic singer. But it worked well for us.
Speaker 1: Here is welcome to the next level from East to West.
Speaker 1: When you can hear those Mr Mr and go West influences.
Speaker 1: Can't you definitely cant here that era? Yeah, when you're
Speaker 1: in a Christian man, do you get girls, Yes, but
Speaker 1: they've got to be Christians. I was just kidding, but
Speaker 1: at you know, like do you girls like are they
Speaker 1: just are they like? Hey, band, guys, we'd like to
Speaker 1: have fellowship. I mean, let's go to Bible stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like yeah, No, It's definitely not like it is in
Speaker 1: country music or pop for sure, but there are girls
Speaker 1: that are hanging around, you know, there are It's funny
Speaker 1: that you know, you're you're dull lead singing and that's
Speaker 1: such a funny question, and you're still going. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm content with playing because I think that's a big
Speaker 1: part of why again, from the outside looking again, why
Speaker 1: Flats has been able to be so wonderful is that
Speaker 1: you can sing, but you're actually okay not being the lead.
Speaker 1: When I stand next to somebody that sings like Gary
Speaker 1: does every night, it's like, what's the point? I love
Speaker 1: to sing and I but I love singing harmony with
Speaker 1: him because I feel like we have something unique and
Speaker 1: he's you know, it's like anything he sings is better
Speaker 1: ten times better than anything I would come up with
Speaker 1: and that's okay. I think one of our drinks is
Speaker 1: we realized what gifts and strengths we all three individually
Speaker 1: bring to the table and we try to lean on
Speaker 1: those with each other. And Uh, you're right. I am
Speaker 1: okay because I get to sing beside one of the
Speaker 1: greatest vocalists I've ever had the privilege of being around
Speaker 1: every night. And that's a treat, you know, for me.
Speaker 1: I would listen to the Google Dolls and they had
Speaker 1: this bassis and these things like one or two cuts
Speaker 1: every record gets so annoyed, like trying to be Johnny
Speaker 1: Resume be the lead singer. You know, I'll get it's
Speaker 1: rare that there's a band. Um. I'll give you a
Speaker 1: couple examples, but they do different things. Lincoln Park had
Speaker 1: two singers. They had uh, Mike Shinoda and they had
Speaker 1: Um Chester Bennington. Chester would be the vocalist straight and
Speaker 1: Shea would be like the rapping bear naked ladies that
Speaker 1: Stephen and Ed and Stephen was the big singer and
Speaker 1: Ed was kind of the rappi guy, which Steven got
Speaker 1: kicked out of the band for the whole thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you guys ever talk about that in flats were like,
Speaker 1: you would do you songs. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: that annoying guy. It's like, oh, okay, we know the
Speaker 1: bass player sings too. But I will tell you when
Speaker 1: we played the clubs, you know, we don't have to
Speaker 1: play five hours a night. So we passed around the
Speaker 1: lead vocals a lot more often back then, because it's
Speaker 1: a lot to ask Gary to sing five hours a
Speaker 1: night in in smokey barbers. Back then, you could still
Speaker 1: smoke in the bar rooms, and so we did sing
Speaker 1: a lot more. But I saw the value of having
Speaker 1: that lead vocalists established, and the sound that he had
Speaker 1: was so identifiable and so great that it wouldn't it
Speaker 1: just wasn't that important to me to have a song
Speaker 1: on the record where I sang. Now, Joe Don and
Speaker 1: I have sung verses here and there on some songs,
Speaker 1: but I just don't think it's that important to either
Speaker 1: one of us to like, oh, look at me, I
Speaker 1: can sing a lead vocal too. I love bands that
Speaker 1: have multiple lead singers, by the way, I mean the Eagles,
Speaker 1: I mean Lady Annabellum. I love that they all sing.
Speaker 1: I love that, you know, we can go back to Chicago,
Speaker 1: Peter Sitter and Bill Champlin and you know Terry Cat
Speaker 1: when he was still alive. So there is a merit
Speaker 1: in that, I think, and we could certainly sing a song,
Speaker 1: but it's just never been that important to us. Today's
Speaker 1: technology makes it a lot easier for a lot of
Speaker 1: things because you're connected. Yourself phone is connected to your tablet,
Speaker 1: your tablets connected to your smart TV, and they're all
Speaker 1: connected to your WiFi. But it may take only one
Speaker 1: week clean and all those connections for criminal to get in.
Speaker 1: That's why life Block identity theft protection adds the power
Speaker 1: of Norton Security. While LifeLock uses proprietary technology to detect
Speaker 1: possible threats to your identity like your info for sale
Speaker 1: in the dark web, Norton Security helps protect up to
Speaker 1: five of your devices from online threats like ransomware, and
Speaker 1: if there's a problem there, dedicated agents will work to
Speaker 1: fix it. Of course, no one can to prevent all
Speaker 1: identity theft or cybercrime, or monitor all transactions at all businesses,
Speaker 1: but life Flock with Norton gives you more protection for
Speaker 1: today's connected world. Join now get ten percent off your
Speaker 1: first year had to life flock Dot com into the
Speaker 1: promo code bones. That's promo code bones for ten percent
Speaker 1: off your first year lifelot dot com Promo code Bone.
Speaker 1: So how'd you get ready today? To shower, brush, teeth,
Speaker 1: wash face, style your hair. I'm ask him because it's
Speaker 1: a proud member of Dollar Shave Club. I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you that no matter what you do to get ready,
Speaker 1: Dollar Shape Club has everything you need to look, feel
Speaker 1: and smell your best. If you want to clean mouthain
Speaker 1: fresh breadth right, the intense peppermint flavor of Dollar Shaped
Speaker 1: Clubs toothpaste will wake you up and last a surprisingly
Speaker 1: long time. They're hydrating body cleanser, smells awesome, skin tells
Speaker 1: you right after you shower. But hope, showering and brushing
Speaker 1: your teeth are just part of how you get ready.
Speaker 1: But no matter how you do, Dollar Shaved Club has
Speaker 1: everything that you need. And I haven't even mentioned their
Speaker 1: razors and shaved butter that everybody knows them for, including myself.
Speaker 1: Right now, you can get a Dollar Shape Club Starter
Speaker 1: set for just five dollars each. They got a shower set,
Speaker 1: a toothpaste, a toothbrush set, all their famous shape butter,
Speaker 1: the razor, any of those sets just five bucks, and
Speaker 1: it's the best way to try out their amazing products.
Speaker 1: It's a great gift after your starter set ship at
Speaker 1: a regular price. Right get your today dollar shape Club
Speaker 1: dot com, slash bones, dollar Shaved Club dot com slash bones.
Speaker 1: You know. For me and I related with the first
Speaker 1: part of your book as it starts, because I've just
Speaker 1: I've been at the right place a few times, but
Speaker 1: I've been at that place when it's the wrong place
Speaker 1: many many, many times. And when you just sit there
Speaker 1: and go, man, just can't wait for my shot one day,
Speaker 1: one day, one day, and you know, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'll give you an example, um, because I
Speaker 1: think your book starts with with a really great story
Speaker 1: about just life in general. Um, just a recent example.
Speaker 1: I've been working on Idol now as a mentor, and
Speaker 1: you know, I have you know, I'm on every episode,
Speaker 1: have a bit parts. But that's Luke and Katie and
Speaker 1: Lionel Show and Ryan Show and I come on and
Speaker 1: I'm on tift minutes two hours, which great a great
Speaker 1: look for me. But Ryan got sick and they're like,
Speaker 1: it's fifteen minutes before the show starts. We need somebody
Speaker 1: to host the show, Bob, we need to host American Idol.
Speaker 1: And I'm like great, Like for fifteen years, I've been
Speaker 1: just waiting for this shot, right, wait and wait, and
Speaker 1: you know, you read the news next day and it's like, wow,
Speaker 1: this guy lucked out. He got I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: I've been in the wrong place so many times, like
Speaker 1: ten thousand times, nothing's happened. And I find and then
Speaker 1: but because of that that one look I got where
Speaker 1: Ryan got sick. Now a lot of these doors have
Speaker 1: opened up because I got a stage and I was
Speaker 1: able to do relatively well. And and your book starts
Speaker 1: with the dude get It's like a dude get six
Speaker 1: snow storm. He's stuck in a snowstorm. Yeah, and you can't.
Speaker 1: He can't get there, so you you sing. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: owner of the the venue said, I've got a house
Speaker 1: full of people and no artist. What are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: Can somebody go out and like do a few praise
Speaker 1: worship songs and explain our situation? And I said, I
Speaker 1: got a keyboard, like I can go out and sing
Speaker 1: some songs. And you know, miraculously enough they stayed and
Speaker 1: we ended up doing about an hour, you know, and
Speaker 1: it was one of the first legitimate times I thought, well,
Speaker 1: there's opportunity meeting preparedness, like I had practiced my whole
Speaker 1: entire life for that one moment, really, and I was
Speaker 1: a nervous wreck. But you know how those things go.
Speaker 1: You feel confident in your ability and your skill set
Speaker 1: enough to go. I'm a nervous wreck, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: overcome and suppress these nerves so I can go to
Speaker 1: go out there and do what I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: meant to do. And I even say that in the book.
Speaker 1: There was a moment where everything slowed down. I took
Speaker 1: a deep breath and I was like, yeah, I'm in
Speaker 1: my element. This is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? I felt the same way. It was
Speaker 1: like White, I have to one a fifteen minutes. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: no time for rehearsal. But about a third of the
Speaker 1: way through the show, I went, oh, like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is a big deal. But this is what I've been
Speaker 1: waiting to do, Like I've worked to get here, and
Speaker 1: my skill set is that too? Good on the prompter,
Speaker 1: good to the people I know. I know Luke and
Speaker 1: Lionel really well know Katie a little bit so I
Speaker 1: can talk with them, and well, forget the prompter. You're
Speaker 1: good on your feet too. More importantly, yes, you know
Speaker 1: the prompter could go dead, and I'm quite sure you
Speaker 1: could carry the whole show by yourself. And that people,
Speaker 1: It amazes me too, because I've I've done a little
Speaker 1: bit that I've done some acting, and I've done a
Speaker 1: little bit of podcasting and hosting some things here and there,
Speaker 1: and I co host the Tennessee Miss Tennessee pageant with
Speaker 1: my wife for the past twelve years. And people don't
Speaker 1: appreciate how hard it is to get up in front
Speaker 1: of a crowd, especially live television, and have to stretch
Speaker 1: and fill in blank spaces while people are screaming into
Speaker 1: your ears what's coming next and what you need to
Speaker 1: talk about next? And I have to say, even to
Speaker 1: this day, you and I don't spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time visiting with one another, but you're one of the
Speaker 1: best set and I've ever seen, and and and and I.
Speaker 1: You know the future is only gonna get brighter for you. Man,
Speaker 1: you're scratching the surface getting older. I'm older than you.
Speaker 1: You know, your wife, though I like your wife a
Speaker 1: lot he's only been super kind to me. She's awesome.
Speaker 1: So she hasn't come through yet with finding me a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Every time I see he's like, I want to set
Speaker 1: you up. Never not once. Well, you know you need
Speaker 1: to um start a Christian band. Apparently I don't need
Speaker 1: this any more. Bad get a girl pregnant, then you
Speaker 1: get kicked out of that said Christian band. So okay,
Speaker 1: that was the first story that I and for me
Speaker 1: when I wrote my first book, I just wonder what
Speaker 1: they were gonna run with, because you send it out
Speaker 1: to people, it's clickbait, and you go what clickbait? Well
Speaker 1: they create and yours was said, you gotta go up
Speaker 1: pregnant and so at the gap, you're gonna prebay at
Speaker 1: the gap you met the gap, although that had been
Speaker 1: a great Ye, that's the clickbait at the gap inter gap.
Speaker 1: Yeah in both Yeah, that would have been true. That
Speaker 1: would have been true. Uh, so many places that could
Speaker 1: go uh yeah, that was you know, people people have
Speaker 1: said to me, it's hard to believe that you had
Speaker 1: sex one time, and there's no reason to make that
Speaker 1: story up. It coulduced as easily say we had sex
Speaker 1: a hundred times. And I ended up getting pregnant with
Speaker 1: the same result. But it is the truth. It was
Speaker 1: one time condom broke. My life turned around in one instant,
Speaker 1: and everybody that had anything to do with me in
Speaker 1: my career at that point in my life, um, most
Speaker 1: of the people. There were some great friends that stood
Speaker 1: by me and supported me and loved me no matter what.
Speaker 1: But most of the people, some of whom had jobs
Speaker 1: because of my career scattered. I got dropped by my
Speaker 1: record label, management, booking agency at all, just went away.
Speaker 1: And I say this, I believe all too often people
Speaker 1: that call themselves Christians kill their wounded instead of nursing
Speaker 1: them back to health and making sure that they're okay.
Speaker 1: And that's what pisces me off so much about organized religion.
Speaker 1: It's so judgmental, and it's so easy to cast a
Speaker 1: stone at somebody when they've got a million problems of
Speaker 1: their own and they battle millions of demons themselves. And
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to write the book for us
Speaker 1: to say there's a different side to being a believer,
Speaker 1: and being a believer doesn't mean that you're perfect. It's
Speaker 1: actually quite the opposite. It's admitting that we're all flawed
Speaker 1: human beings that need help. I don't believe any of
Speaker 1: us are meant to live through this life alone and
Speaker 1: handle all of this crow by ourselves. You know. It's
Speaker 1: almost that their strength and vulnerability, you know, the same
Speaker 1: thing that you're saying right there, like we think that
Speaker 1: the right thing is to be the right whatever right means.
Speaker 1: By the way, it was um but yeah, right? So
Speaker 1: so the only sex are one time Connor broke? Did
Speaker 1: you know immediately the Connor broke? I knew it. I
Speaker 1: knew it broken. You know, we're getting down in the
Speaker 1: weeds here, Yeah, we are, we are. Did you have
Speaker 1: the pop? Well? I I realized after we had finished,
Speaker 1: and I freaked out so badly. She she left. She
Speaker 1: didn't want to anything to do with me. She was like,
Speaker 1: you're freaking me out. This is so weird. It's not
Speaker 1: like that these things don't happen. It's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: I said, you don't understand. And I was really freaking
Speaker 1: out because I'd made a commitment to myself and and
Speaker 1: the that's trying to do it the right way. I
Speaker 1: was gonna wait till I was married, have have sex
Speaker 1: on the wedding night, do the whole thing that you're
Speaker 1: taught to do when you're a Bible believing Chris. And
Speaker 1: then I wanted that was important to me and I
Speaker 1: failed in that. But this much the first time I
Speaker 1: have sex ever. Though well during while I was in
Speaker 1: the Christian band, though I definitely lived when I was
Speaker 1: trying to stand for you know, but when you're in
Speaker 1: the Christian band, like like, would you have sex with girls?
Speaker 1: No good for you? I did before. I mean when
Speaker 1: I was in college, I went through a phase where
Speaker 1: I lost my mind. But when I when I was
Speaker 1: in the Christian band, I was very good about and
Speaker 1: I dated a girl that was in a that was
Speaker 1: a Christian artist too, so it was easy for us
Speaker 1: to help keep each other in check and make sure
Speaker 1: we didn't cross those lines that we couldn't, you know,
Speaker 1: we wanted to. But that's a good though, because I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer, and if you surround yourself with the
Speaker 1: best people, then you do make the best decisions. So
Speaker 1: if you have her with you, and they doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be this one even instance, but if if she's
Speaker 1: a good influence on you, it makes you make good decisions. Ah,
Speaker 1: you go to college, you said you lose your mind
Speaker 1: in college a little bit. Yeah, I definitely was one
Speaker 1: of those kids that had been sheltered a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I always and you know, I tell the story
Speaker 1: about my mom and how she struggled as a single parent.
Speaker 1: I always tried to keep my nose clean as a
Speaker 1: as a teenager and as a kid growing up, because
Speaker 1: I saw what my mom was doing to make sacrifices
Speaker 1: to make sure our life was good. And so I
Speaker 1: didn't do a whole lot of partying in high school.
Speaker 1: I didn't, you know, I kept my nose pretty clean.
Speaker 1: I did have sex when I was seventeen with my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: but I felt really guilty about it and never did
Speaker 1: it again. But then I got to college and I
Speaker 1: was around a whole group of like minded people like
Speaker 1: the party a little bit, started hanging out with some
Speaker 1: you know, pastor's girls, or when they when they get
Speaker 1: out of the nest, they like to get out and um,
Speaker 1: you know, test that newfound freedom. And there were moments
Speaker 1: that I'm not proud of. I went through a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, um, what, what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 1: Debauchery in college. I think we should shout out your
Speaker 1: mom real quick. Because you do mentioned that single mom
Speaker 1: work two jobs and to put you in a Christian
Speaker 1: private school, like you're broke and she's working to put
Speaker 1: you in school, which showed what she valued for you
Speaker 1: are a kid, and I mean that's a not even
Speaker 1: just a clothes on you, but also make sure you
Speaker 1: get into a Christian school. I know it was remarkable
Speaker 1: now when I look back on it, and you know,
Speaker 1: not until later on in life did she tell me
Speaker 1: how much money she would have left in her wallet
Speaker 1: or how much food we would really have in the
Speaker 1: pantry that she was going and how in the world
Speaker 1: am I gonna make this last through the weekend? Living
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck. Somehow, some way it all came together,
Speaker 1: and she would she told me stories that's unbelievable about
Speaker 1: boxes of groceries showing up on our front porch and
Speaker 1: she would not know where they had come from. Things
Speaker 1: like that that I had no knowledge of until much
Speaker 1: later on in life. You know, it's wild you say
Speaker 1: that because for me growing up, we that we I
Speaker 1: finally figured out who it was, but it was the church.
Speaker 1: They would drop off Christmas presents and food and the
Speaker 1: p t A because you know, my mom or my
Speaker 1: grandmother when she was just raising me and my little sister.
Speaker 1: They would know, they would drop it off and we
Speaker 1: would get to eat. Or I remember once for Christmas,
Speaker 1: I got a color by Number paints. It was only gift.
Speaker 1: I got the whole year color by Number paint set
Speaker 1: and I painted it was the stupidest duck, but it
Speaker 1: was the best duck ever painted like it was my
Speaker 1: Christmas gift. And the church brought it and left it
Speaker 1: at the door with a bow on it and didn't
Speaker 1: say who. Well, I we found out it was a church.
Speaker 1: But it's funny you say that because a lot of
Speaker 1: those stories zoo Man, and I think those have lasted
Speaker 1: with me to how I tried to treat people too.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it has for you, like if
Speaker 1: that's left in impression with you. Definitely, it definitely makes
Speaker 1: me think about the way that I treat people. But
Speaker 1: it also I think has allowed me to live in
Speaker 1: the moments and the life that I've been able to
Speaker 1: live and appreciate it to a deeper level too, maybe
Speaker 1: than some others would, because I wake up every day
Speaker 1: and this is no joke, thanking God for the chance
Speaker 1: to do what we've been able to do for nearly
Speaker 1: twenty years now, which is almost in heard of too
Speaker 1: in this day and age. But I really don't take
Speaker 1: it for granted because I feel so blessed, far beyond
Speaker 1: what I ever imagined I would have been and it
Speaker 1: and it's not lost on me how hard it is
Speaker 1: to make it in the music industry. You see it
Speaker 1: all the time, how many people come to this town
Speaker 1: every single day hoping for a career in the music business.
Speaker 1: And I'm just so grateful to be able to look
Speaker 1: back on all I have been through, but to know
Speaker 1: that all of that was for a very necessary reason,
Speaker 1: and now on the other side of it, I can
Speaker 1: really look at it and go thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you God so much. Mhmm. You talk
Speaker 1: about being twenty years in twenty years and to to
Speaker 1: maintain a level of success for that long, But I
Speaker 1: look back at like your first let let's play your
Speaker 1: first thing over here, let's let's go back, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's go, let's do I have the whole thing here,
Speaker 1: let's do uh. These days before the video was shot,
Speaker 1: as you right, you that are well? You thought you
Speaker 1: had a heart attack. Yeah, I was dealing with panic
Speaker 1: attacks pretty badly in my mid to late twenties, and
Speaker 1: I would have them periodically, but this one was a
Speaker 1: really bad one and I thought I was having a
Speaker 1: heart attack. So I drove myself to St. Thomas and
Speaker 1: I spent most of the night there. But this is
Speaker 1: also right before the video, Right before the video shore, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I called our manager and said I don't think, I think,
Speaker 1: and he was like, yeah, it's a bigger deal than
Speaker 1: what you think to just move a whole entire video shoot.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I'm exhausted. I've been at the
Speaker 1: hospital all night. They've been in blood tests and I
Speaker 1: don't think I can make it, and he goes, come
Speaker 1: in as late as you can, but please do your
Speaker 1: best to be there because we we we can't move
Speaker 1: these times. And I showed up and sat down beside
Speaker 1: Allison in the makeup chair. And that, by the way,
Speaker 1: is your wife. Now, as the book says, she wasn't
Speaker 1: getting listen. I'm oppressure a little bit about this because
Speaker 1: you sit down in a makeup chair as you go,
Speaker 1: and you're tired, and you've had a heart attack slash
Speaker 1: panic attack the night before first video. You sit down
Speaker 1: they're gonna make you pretty. And there she is, and
Speaker 1: what do you say? I said, Hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: She's like fine, nothing back, like playing tennis by herself.
Speaker 1: I'm like, she doesn't have a ring on the or
Speaker 1: take it off with the video. It's exactly right. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll try again. Where are you from, Jackson, Tennessee? Again?
Speaker 1: Playing tennis by yourself? Nothing? No lab back? Where are
Speaker 1: you from? Oh COLUMBUSO? Oh, I'm glad you asked. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there, like working so hard, you know,
Speaker 1: Like so if have you heard the song before? And
Speaker 1: she's like, I don't really listen to country music. I
Speaker 1: think I heard one of your songs like called waiting
Speaker 1: for Midnight, Like, well, actually it's Praying for Daylight. A
Speaker 1: really big fan, I can tell. So uh is she was?
Speaker 1: She was not cold? But stand office, you know, And
Speaker 1: now looking back, I understand why. But as the day
Speaker 1: went on and the longer the weights were in between
Speaker 1: each setup and each take, we started to talk and
Speaker 1: I really really enjoyed her company. Let me stop you
Speaker 1: for a second, but stand office because she was engaged, right.
Speaker 1: I just didn't know that. I did not know that.
Speaker 1: In my defense, I did not know that. And so
Speaker 1: you guys are shooting the video and you're getting to
Speaker 1: know each other and you're you're you're feeling a vibe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, all I know is I like being around her.
Speaker 1: And she was hot. She was hot. I mean she
Speaker 1: was really hot. She just you know, um, And so
Speaker 1: I would go find her. I would seek her out
Speaker 1: and I'd sit down beside her. And she was mildly
Speaker 1: annoyed by me, I could tell. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of quick on my feet and funny and make
Speaker 1: people laugh. And I started to make her laugh some
Speaker 1: and well, she's not impressed by the music thing. She
Speaker 1: could have cared less. Absolutely could have was hired to
Speaker 1: be in the video. You guys here they are Nashville
Speaker 1: signed ba bam ba boom. This is nothing. Huh. She
Speaker 1: could have cared less. I'm telling you, it was amazing.
Speaker 1: And I was like anything that a younger me or
Speaker 1: any younger musician would use to, you know, to impress
Speaker 1: a young lady, you know, like, hey, look at me, Well,
Speaker 1: don't I look sexy when I play nothing? I mean nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of the night, we're talking
Speaker 1: I'm on a truck bed with her. I never on
Speaker 1: a tailgate. When I'm sitting there, like, I hate this
Speaker 1: because like after we wrap, I'm never gonna get to
Speaker 1: see you again. This is sucks. It's been really great
Speaker 1: talking to you. And she said, well, actually I'm I
Speaker 1: mean gauged. And I know that you didn't know that
Speaker 1: because it made me take my ring off. But I'm
Speaker 1: getting married in about a month or so, a couple
Speaker 1: of months whatever it was, four months, believe you say, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds about right. Yeah, And so I was just like,
Speaker 1: this is terrible. But she's been really really nice to
Speaker 1: me tonight, and she's talked to me and we've shared
Speaker 1: and she finally goes, can I go on your bus
Speaker 1: and use the restroom before I leave so I don't
Speaker 1: have to use the porta potty? And I was like, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'll take you up. So while she's in using the restroom,
Speaker 1: I pull on a piece of paper and write my
Speaker 1: phone number down and I handed it to her and
Speaker 1: I said, listen, I know you're gonna ask for this anyway,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna go ahead and give this to just
Speaker 1: like that too, you know, really cheesy, And she takes
Speaker 1: it and she goes. My daddy raised me never call boys,
Speaker 1: but if you want to get in touch with me,
Speaker 1: this is my number. And I just thought, man, who's
Speaker 1: going to give their number to somebody if there isn't
Speaker 1: a little bit of chink in the armor and armor there?
Speaker 1: So I kept calling her. She never called me back, honestly,
Speaker 1: and I ran into her at the Old Green Hills Grill,
Speaker 1: and I ran into her again at another restaurant. I
Speaker 1: forget where we were at that time. Was she ever
Speaker 1: with her fiance and she was never with him. She
Speaker 1: was with her mom and her grandmother and a and
Speaker 1: a friend another time, and I ran into her and
Speaker 1: I the second time, and I called her and I said,
Speaker 1: this is the last time I'll call. I promise. But
Speaker 1: if that isn't a sign that we shouldn't, at least
Speaker 1: like go to lunch, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: So let's just go to lunch. And we went to lunch,
Speaker 1: and honest to god, we sat there for five and
Speaker 1: a half hours. We met at noon when she left
Speaker 1: there at five thirty, and it was really like I'd
Speaker 1: known her my entire life, Honestly, it was so easy
Speaker 1: and so fun and natural, and you know, now we're
Speaker 1: old and sick of each other. But at the time
Speaker 1: it was I'm kidding. Have you thought that she never
Speaker 1: had a fiance and this whole thing was a no no,
Speaker 1: I know him? So uh the guys did just to
Speaker 1: break it off? Huh, Well it was you know, I
Speaker 1: think that I was more of the straw that broke
Speaker 1: the camel's back. It was headed that way anyway. And
Speaker 1: she she did tell me, she said, I need to
Speaker 1: sort my life out. I've had fun with you, and
Speaker 1: I definitely loved being around you, but I've got to
Speaker 1: make some big decisions and decide what I'm doing with
Speaker 1: my life here. And so she cut it, shut it
Speaker 1: down with me for a long time. And one day
Speaker 1: I got a call from her saying that she had
Speaker 1: told her dad she couldn't get married. And we went
Speaker 1: to dinner and we're never apart after that. Here we
Speaker 1: are fifteen years tomorrow. Is that right? Congratulations we got
Speaker 1: on your big anniversary. Well, we gotta leaves. I don't know,
Speaker 1: let's find someone ask him stop. You know how much
Speaker 1: kids cost, and you've seen my wife, you know how
Speaker 1: much money she spends. I need a gig on idol
Speaker 1: or something. Can you get me another judge spots off it?
Speaker 1: You know, I remember watching because I was over in
Speaker 1: Pop whenever you guys crossed over, Um so I was.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Arkansas. I was a die hard
Speaker 1: country family. When I went to Pop, I kind of
Speaker 1: checked out a bit because I was just consumed by
Speaker 1: what I was doing with my work, and you guys
Speaker 1: what hurts the most. It was a big country and
Speaker 1: then started to creep into my world a bit, right,
Speaker 1: So I remember watching you guys on Yester Dear. I
Speaker 1: suppose it was up for a daytime Emmy wasn't it
Speaker 1: performance on there? Listen? And I remember thinking, oh, I
Speaker 1: like these guys, because I mean I can remember it vividly.
Speaker 1: You know, yesterday was a sitcom and uh, they you
Speaker 1: guys like showed up and they were trying to get
Speaker 1: into your show and then you stole our limo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they got and you guys, but then you're all
Speaker 1: right riding together in the back of the car. That
Speaker 1: that's funny. That's I think my first like real moment
Speaker 1: of knowing who you guys faces were. I'm still dear
Speaker 1: friends with Liza Snyder from that show. We we forged
Speaker 1: a really great friendship from that show, and that's a
Speaker 1: favorite memory of mine. That was a fun shoot. It
Speaker 1: was about three days. Well, so you're making it over
Speaker 1: in country, but it's gotta be a whole different world
Speaker 1: once all of uh like like, oh yeah, boulders are
Speaker 1: falling instead of it was weird, man, when when What
Speaker 1: Hurts the Most was number one on UM Top forty radio.
Speaker 1: It was a moment that I'll never forget because we
Speaker 1: started getting calls to then go to which was unheard
Speaker 1: of back then. You it was a different time, not
Speaker 1: a lot of Like now you'll see a lot of
Speaker 1: country acts like Dan and Shaye and Florida Georgia Line
Speaker 1: and folks like that and a little big town at
Speaker 1: the A M A S and at the Grammys and things.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't that common back in uh, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. And we were getting calls to do
Speaker 1: those shows People's Choice Awards, you know, and it was like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is cool. This is beyond the scope of the
Speaker 1: c M as, the c M T s and the
Speaker 1: A c M s, which we love. But we were
Speaker 1: opened up and exposed to another whole a whole another
Speaker 1: war old. And I remember sitting on the floor of
Speaker 1: the American Music Awards with Gary and Gary sitting next
Speaker 1: to me, and he nudged me and he goes, would
Speaker 1: you have ever thought we'd be able to do this?
Speaker 1: Sit in this room with jay Z, Beyonce, Madonna, Lady Gaga,
Speaker 1: all of these people, And he said, I'm gonna lay
Speaker 1: something on you you haven't thought about. I said, what
Speaker 1: this was the year two thousand six? He said, We've
Speaker 1: sold more records this year than anybody in this room.
Speaker 1: And it stopped me in my tracks. And he wasn't
Speaker 1: saying it to be boastful or to like be you know,
Speaker 1: braggadocious about it. He was saying, can you believe what
Speaker 1: we've done outside of just being in country music? And
Speaker 1: it was overwhelming to me. I never will forget that night,
Speaker 1: in that moment that we shared during the commercial break there,
Speaker 1: which is the two of us, it was so cool.
Speaker 1: Did you guys get crap for being a mainstream success
Speaker 1: from any of the Nashville you know, hardcore country folks.
Speaker 1: Not really, No, not to be honest, we didn't. We had,
Speaker 1: I mean people, I felt like we're you know, except
Speaker 1: for the moment there when the song was released Murder
Speaker 1: on music Row and they talked about pop coming over
Speaker 1: an infiltrating country. It was a little bit of a
Speaker 1: movement there, but most people rallied around us and got
Speaker 1: behind us. And you know, there was a there was
Speaker 1: a batch of us doing something different, and Keith Urban
Speaker 1: and in Us and and Shadaisy at the time, and
Speaker 1: a few people that were putting poppy or elements into
Speaker 1: the country music. And I feel like they welcomed it,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, some of the critics, of course,
Speaker 1: derided us early on and we got a bad rap,
Speaker 1: but most of the people in the music industry were
Speaker 1: kind of excited that there was kind of a new
Speaker 1: movement coming along, you know. And Bless the Broken Road
Speaker 1: another song that crept into my life and then slammed
Speaker 1: into my life. I played it all the time on
Speaker 1: pop radio. Yeah. I mean, you guys are a full
Speaker 1: fledged not that you're not country, but you're a pop
Speaker 1: act at this time, Like it was just expected. When's
Speaker 1: that I'm talking about from my side, when's the next
Speaker 1: Rascal Flat song coming out? It's really cool to hear
Speaker 1: you say that, because I don't think a lot of
Speaker 1: people are saying that today, you know. I mean it
Speaker 1: was we We had that sweet spot where you're kind
Speaker 1: of in adell, you know, and you just sit there
Speaker 1: in it and soak it all up, because it seems
Speaker 1: like you have a moment in time where you put
Speaker 1: a song out it resonates with people, and you have
Speaker 1: your fingers crossed, and you put another one out and
Speaker 1: it resonates with people, and then you start to get
Speaker 1: scared that you're that you're gonna be in this spot
Speaker 1: to where you're never gonna be able to put another
Speaker 1: song at that resonates with anybody. And it was such
Speaker 1: a magical time for us. We had about ten years
Speaker 1: there that we're just phenomenal. And it's testament to the
Speaker 1: songwriters in this town too, because the songs we were
Speaker 1: able to get our hands on, the writers that were
Speaker 1: sitting in rooms writing for us, that knew what we
Speaker 1: wanted to say, how we wanted to sing it really
Speaker 1: had their fingers on the pulse of who Rascal Flats was.
Speaker 1: I can't thank them enough. The car song, which people
Speaker 1: know it as the car song, I actually know it
Speaker 1: from uh any money, no no, no, I WoT had
Speaker 1: the money it's it's not any money, it's um the
Speaker 1: original thing highway Tom Cox, Tom Cock, Right, that's right. Um,
Speaker 1: but you guys sing this. But this was never a single, No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't, but again it was played everywhere. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that movie was huge, huge, huge for us. And I
Speaker 1: remember going to dinner here at the Capitol Grill with
Speaker 1: um John Laster, who took us out and showed a
Speaker 1: storyboards of the movie, going, I've got this movie about
Speaker 1: these cars that talked to each other and saw the
Speaker 1: storyboard of cars storyboards. Yeah, and I really want you
Speaker 1: guys to do this um montage where he's on Route
Speaker 1: sixty six and he's driving and you're doing Life Is
Speaker 1: a Highway and looking at the storyboards and he's wearing
Speaker 1: a toy story shirt with Woody on it, and it's
Speaker 1: weird kind of you know, John is a sweet guy,
Speaker 1: but it's just kind of like, can we write a song? No,
Speaker 1: I really want you guys to remake you know, Life
Speaker 1: is a Highway like Chris Lado did it in the
Speaker 1: nineties and kind of made it a hit again. And
Speaker 1: are you sure we can't write a song? He goes,
Speaker 1: I really got a vision for this guy's if you'll
Speaker 1: see these cars talk to each other, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like wow. So we did it and one of the
Speaker 1: best decisions we ever made. First song we ever cut
Speaker 1: with Dan Huff, by the way, who's been on this
Speaker 1: show and as a dear friend. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: talked to Dan like three days ago, and Dan, if
Speaker 1: you go back and listen to an older show, if
Speaker 1: you're listen to this right now, Dan, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: how he would cut songs for like Paul Abduel or Uh.
Speaker 1: He'd play guitar on them. Yeah, I know, she was
Speaker 1: even in the vocals and he'd be in the airport
Speaker 1: and go, I do they like that guitar? Laud brother
Speaker 1: be like, that's you idiot. I mean, the guy is
Speaker 1: so good and he's so humble, it's disgusting. There's not
Speaker 1: a kinder human being on the planet and he's played
Speaker 1: on I mean, you know a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know this. I'm gonna tell something on Dan. He started
Speaker 1: White Heart, one of the Christian bands that I was
Speaker 1: obsessed with as a kid. He was one of the
Speaker 1: founding members with his brother David, and so I followed
Speaker 1: him early on before he was even a session player
Speaker 1: in l A and playing on all those hit records.
Speaker 1: There was something special about his playing even in that band,
Speaker 1: that I knew that I loved and gravitated towards. So
Speaker 1: that's another great blessing in my life is to be
Speaker 1: able to come back around and work with somebody like Dan,
Speaker 1: have him produce our band and being his presence and
Speaker 1: watch him work. It's just something I never would have
Speaker 1: ever expected or dreamed either, you know. And now to
Speaker 1: be able to call somebody like him a true friend
Speaker 1: is just phenomenal with me. It blows blows my mind.
Speaker 1: You know. Was there ever a point with you guys
Speaker 1: you're three that you're like, this is probably it. We're done.
Speaker 1: When Lyric Streets shut down in two thousand ten, Um,
Speaker 1: we sat around in my man room and looked at
Speaker 1: each other and we're like, do we have anything left
Speaker 1: to say? Even? I mean, it's been a great tenure run. Um.
Speaker 1: We were getting ready to either quit or make a
Speaker 1: management change, and a lot of things were going to change,
Speaker 1: and we knew it and it was gonna be tough,
Speaker 1: and we sat around and considered whether or not it
Speaker 1: wasn't time to lay Rascal flats down, and I think
Speaker 1: after an hour or so of talking with each other,
Speaker 1: it was just like, it hurts me to think about
Speaker 1: the last time that I'll look over to my right
Speaker 1: and not see Gary beside me. When I think about
Speaker 1: that day, it makes me emotional. I don't know when
Speaker 1: that day will be, but I wasn't ready to face it.
Speaker 1: And to think about never making music with the two
Speaker 1: of them again. Boy, it's something that even though we
Speaker 1: were in twenty years and we love each other like brothers,
Speaker 1: and we've certainly fought like brothers before. I love those
Speaker 1: guys with all my heart, and we've done some things
Speaker 1: that a lot of people will never see or never
Speaker 1: be able to do. And we've been in the trenches together,
Speaker 1: and we know each other in ways that our own
Speaker 1: wives don't even know us. And to think about not
Speaker 1: having that anymore, I think all of us were not ready,
Speaker 1: and we were willing to stay together because we felt
Speaker 1: like we had more to say and more to do,
Speaker 1: and we still do. I don't know that it's going
Speaker 1: to come to a close anytime soon. I think we will.
Speaker 1: We will all three have things we want to do
Speaker 1: individually as we get older and have opportunities to, but
Speaker 1: I don't see us ever really going away and and
Speaker 1: having an official, quote unquote break up. Do you ever
Speaker 1: think about a sideband. I'm in one already, and it's
Speaker 1: tough to be in that one sometimes in the time
Speaker 1: that it takes in the commitment level, I thought about
Speaker 1: maybe doingside projects and things like that. I band that
Speaker 1: you're in, Why don't I know this? Or do I
Speaker 1: know this is a secret? No? I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm in Rascal Plants. In the commitment I was like,
Speaker 1: how do I not know? No, No, I I don't
Speaker 1: have I mean, I certainly love making music on any
Speaker 1: level and music by the way, Yeah, well, I'll opened
Speaker 1: up a Christian label back in October, so I've got
Speaker 1: artists signed there to that label that I'll be releasing
Speaker 1: records on. So that my time commitment there with that
Speaker 1: that new thing in my life is pretty substantial. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to make sure that's as successful
Speaker 1: as it can possibly be. And I want to continue
Speaker 1: making music and producing for other people. And I've had
Speaker 1: I've had the chance to do a lot of great things,
Speaker 1: and you know, uh, I'm at a really great point
Speaker 1: in my life now. To where I really really enjoy
Speaker 1: everything that I'm doing right now, and I'm not just
Speaker 1: doing it because I have to. You know, has Gary
Speaker 1: ever said how do they go do a solo record?
Speaker 1: I think Gary will do a solo record someday. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it will be. It maybe a Christian record.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it will be. And I think
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I think he should do a solo record.
Speaker 1: I think that if it's in him and something he
Speaker 1: wants to do, I would support that and in his
Speaker 1: aspirations and dreams one percent. Would you have seven years
Speaker 1: ago or do you feel now you're at a place
Speaker 1: where you're kind of comfortable with where the band is.
Speaker 1: You hit a big you came back, you hit it
Speaker 1: big again, You've had in the last few years. You
Speaker 1: had number once again. So it's a part of that
Speaker 1: because of all this success and now you feel a
Speaker 1: little more like we're stationed, like we're a thing. What
Speaker 1: id he to come? You know after Blessed the Broken
Speaker 1: Road and said, guys, I want to do it. This
Speaker 1: is quick solo thing, like like you see Boheman rapidly
Speaker 1: were like, Fred, you gotta do a solo record. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that didn't happen at all. With you guys, it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: I think that all of us appreciated where we were
Speaker 1: and appreciated each other and loved each other. And Gary
Speaker 1: was um extraordinarily gracious in the fact that he was
Speaker 1: in a band and and never put us in a
Speaker 1: bad issuing to go. I think I'm gonna go off
Speaker 1: on my own here for a little bit and and
Speaker 1: try it on my own, and and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: grateful to him for that. The flip side is it
Speaker 1: doesn't turn out well for a lot of people that
Speaker 1: try to leave a group situation and and and go
Speaker 1: out on their own. It's really tough to do. And
Speaker 1: when you've done it at a high level like we have,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you've got to realize you're
Speaker 1: coming out of your own pocket to pay for all
Speaker 1: the luxuries that you won't have anymore because you're virtually
Speaker 1: starting over. I think it's hard for some people. I'll
Speaker 1: look at you. Here you are with a book. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm all grown up, has the book to I've been
Speaker 1: a grind for you, it has been, but it's been fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've enjoyed being able to talk about my
Speaker 1: life and being able to celebrate my mother and tell
Speaker 1: my story from a different side. You know, I'm sure, um,
Speaker 1: maybe you deal with some of this too, But I've
Speaker 1: always I've always been you know, like referred to as
Speaker 1: the funny guy or the cut up in the band
Speaker 1: or the whatever, and and I wanted the chance to
Speaker 1: really tell some things from my perspective and and talk
Speaker 1: about my philosophies on life and hopefully people see another
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit deeper sign to me than just
Speaker 1: being the funny guy. Yeah, it probably you know, you
Speaker 1: get to exercise a bit of depth which people don't
Speaker 1: always come to the funny guy for. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels good, right Like, it feels like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like it's kind of like a real it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to dig up this stuff, and it's
Speaker 1: a lot. Even for me. It was tough to to
Speaker 1: re talk about this stuff. Um, But then you start
Speaker 1: to realize, which back to your very first point was
Speaker 1: there are people out there that are struggling with some
Speaker 1: of the same things that you struggle with that I
Speaker 1: struggle with, that feel like they're alone. And if you
Speaker 1: can see that, you you know, Mr Rascal Flats can
Speaker 1: do it and it had to happen to him and
Speaker 1: can deal with it. Then, um, then it happens to everyone.
Speaker 1: I think that's the point is you think about people
Speaker 1: when they're by themselves and the lights are off and
Speaker 1: the doors shut and they're behind closed doors. What kind
Speaker 1: of pain and hurt that people deal with on a
Speaker 1: daily basis? Will never know? And sometimes it's nice to
Speaker 1: know that somebody you know, or somebody you may look
Speaker 1: up to, or somebody you may admire, has gone through
Speaker 1: some of the same things. And look, here's how they
Speaker 1: have dealt with it, and here's how they have overcome it,
Speaker 1: and how how they still still deal with it. You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't go away. Um, hurt and pain doesn't go away.
Speaker 1: The older you get, you just learned a different skill
Speaker 1: set and you have a different bag of tools to
Speaker 1: deal with it. And that's all I wanted to do
Speaker 1: is just say, look, if you're willing to try therapy,
Speaker 1: and you're willing to try pills to balance out chemical
Speaker 1: imbalances and things like that, maybe there's another option. And
Speaker 1: maybe that option could be finding your own faith in
Speaker 1: God and finding your own relationship with him because you
Speaker 1: might find some hope and strength you you never even
Speaker 1: dreamed before. You say, your greatest blessing isn't the flats,
Speaker 1: It isn't even your family, but it's hope. Yeah. What
Speaker 1: do you mean by that? Well? I meant that hope
Speaker 1: was the only thing I had. Sometimes, before I had
Speaker 1: my family, or before I had the flats or anything,
Speaker 1: all I had was hope. And sometimes it would be
Speaker 1: the smallest little ounce of hope. It would be a
Speaker 1: friend that would call me out of the blue and go,
Speaker 1: I thought about you the other day. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to check in on you. You're doing okay. And it
Speaker 1: would blow me away because it would be when I
Speaker 1: needed it the most and least expected it. Or I
Speaker 1: would see uh sign of a on a billboard in
Speaker 1: front of a church that would be a scripture and
Speaker 1: I would look it up in the Bible and and be,
Speaker 1: you know, something that would give me like, hang in there,
Speaker 1: You're on the right track. I know you can't feel it,
Speaker 1: but you gotta stay the course. Sometimes it was my mom.
Speaker 1: A lot of times it was my mom going, you're
Speaker 1: not coming back home. You're where you're supposed to be,
Speaker 1: and you've got to stay there. You gotta stay the course.
Speaker 1: You gotta you know, dust yourself off, get back up
Speaker 1: on your feet, and keep moving forward. And that's what
Speaker 1: I mean about hope. My mom gave me that gift,
Speaker 1: and I didn't even realize she was given it to
Speaker 1: me when she was dragging me off the church three
Speaker 1: or four times a week. But it was in there
Speaker 1: and it took deep root in me, and I relied
Speaker 1: on it later on in life when things get really
Speaker 1: really bad. We're gonna end with this. By the way,
Speaker 1: you watch a game with Thrones, I don't you are you?
Speaker 1: Are you? You're your Thrones guy? Yeah, I try not
Speaker 1: to be the Thrones guy that yells about it all
Speaker 1: the time. Well, I know, and I feel so bad.
Speaker 1: I've given it like two shots and I've made it
Speaker 1: through like three or four episodes, and it's just so
Speaker 1: much to keep up with. Ye. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: watching a high school play sometimes in about medieval times.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure it's great, um, but maybe I need
Speaker 1: to give it another shot. But because a ton of
Speaker 1: people that I love and respect are obsessed with that shrip,
Speaker 1: I think it's a great It's not my favorite of
Speaker 1: my life, but I think it's the best TV show
Speaker 1: in my lifetime, and I think there's a difference. The
Speaker 1: best I think your TV show in my lifetime not
Speaker 1: my favorite, So I don't if I get to pick
Speaker 1: one that's not it. I caught one episode late one
Speaker 1: night called The Red Wedding or something like that, where
Speaker 1: everybody you know, that's the one there, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I could, Like, I don't think I
Speaker 1: can deal with this week. That one was a big one.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a lot um and you fall in
Speaker 1: love with the characters and they all die, right, like
Speaker 1: every single one of them. Listen, it's like fight club. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't talk about it. We don't talk about it's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a fantastic show. But you don't
Speaker 1: watch Thrones. What do you watch? Well, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: more on the that I'm on the shallow into things
Speaker 1: like I'm really into Ship's Creek right now on Netflix.
Speaker 1: You know, I matched with the girl that's on I
Speaker 1: don't know if I should say who it is, but
Speaker 1: one of the main actors I'm on these dating apps
Speaker 1: right and one of the main actors on the show
Speaker 1: I matched with on the dating app and a little bit.
Speaker 1: You gotta decide. Have you talked to her? Yeah? How
Speaker 1: about that? It's awesome. I'll pull up Earth and we've
Speaker 1: been talking about so I love that because the apps
Speaker 1: are crazy. Man, it's like instant out everyone. You can
Speaker 1: just it's like free, like even ten years ago, you know.
Speaker 1: With It's something we talk about all the time too.
Speaker 1: Don't you love how brave people are on social media
Speaker 1: when they get behind a keyboard, they can just get
Speaker 1: on there and just torpedo you with no repercussions. I
Speaker 1: think that people just want to be heard, and they
Speaker 1: find that the best way to be heard is to
Speaker 1: be the loudest and most obnoxious. It just bugs a
Speaker 1: crap out of me because it's your Facebook or now
Speaker 1: even though I don't look at the show face page.
Speaker 1: I I don't look at it. And I've almost thought
Speaker 1: about muting my Instagram comments because there'll be a hundred
Speaker 1: great comments and my personality is to zone in on
Speaker 1: the one guy that's being an ass, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and it will you send me over the edge,
Speaker 1: you know, and be like, dude, this is how I
Speaker 1: matched with. You have to say who it is. But
Speaker 1: we've been talking do you recog for the show. Of course,
Speaker 1: I do. Absolutely you watched the show, yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: and that's why when I saw I was like click
Speaker 1: the heart and then I was surprised at the came
Speaker 1: back and so yeah, she's that shows shot in Canada.
Speaker 1: Is in Vancouver. Um, I'm not sure where. If you
Speaker 1: were out in l A. You can just go up. Yeah, ups, creaks, funny.
Speaker 1: What else you're watching? Um, I'm a huge Walking Dead fan. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a question. Me to die hard
Speaker 1: with my favorite show for years. But I got I
Speaker 1: got kind of lost, and like I think I'm like
Speaker 1: a season behind and I don't know where I got lost,
Speaker 1: and I'm not super into catching up. The show is
Speaker 1: not the same with that Rick. It's really lost a
Speaker 1: little bit. And I gotta tell you, it almost lost
Speaker 1: me for good when they at the beginning of a
Speaker 1: couple of seasons ago when they my my buddy Michael
Speaker 1: Cutlitz was on there and they bashed his brains in
Speaker 1: with the baseball bat and then they with Michael cut
Speaker 1: let's play too, he played Abraham Oh oh yeah, red hand,
Speaker 1: And then they killed Glenn Off too and they like
Speaker 1: popped his eyeball out with the Baseball Man finally or
Speaker 1: the first episode whenever? Yeah, Yeah, Nigannigan a man. I
Speaker 1: love Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He's a fantastic actor. It just
Speaker 1: they took it so far because of the shock factor
Speaker 1: that they always try to do with that show, and
Speaker 1: you never know who's gonna die. And I get it,
Speaker 1: and I'm such a huge fans of the fan of
Speaker 1: the show, but it started to lose me a little bit,
Speaker 1: to be quite honest. Yeah, I when after Rick was gone,
Speaker 1: I just kind of got lost what episode I was
Speaker 1: and I wasn't just terribly horn to get back at it,
Speaker 1: you know. And I love Darryl, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that he's enough to hold the show by himself. I
Speaker 1: turned into a TV critic all of a sudden, haven't
Speaker 1: a um we all are at this point. Everything is
Speaker 1: so good? If it's not so good, and right up,
Speaker 1: our algorithm are human algorithm to what show we want
Speaker 1: that we just move on to the next thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't love Christley knows best. I've been on
Speaker 1: a bunch of those episodes of Todd. He's he's a
Speaker 1: buddy of mine. He wrote on the back of your
Speaker 1: book that he wrote the Hey, he's not a douchebag.
Speaker 1: Read the book exactly. He's not the jerk you think
Speaker 1: he is all of the time sometimes im You know
Speaker 1: what show I like is none One. I think that's
Speaker 1: a pretty good show on Fox. You the first season.
Speaker 1: She's not in the second season, but um, it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty decent. And we what we do is Allison. I
Speaker 1: just binge on some stuff every once in a while.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of what we're what else we're
Speaker 1: watching right now? Watch any of the Marvel stuff on Netflix,
Speaker 1: like The Punisher. I don't is it good? It's the
Speaker 1: best show to be Agents of Shield any good. I
Speaker 1: didn't get into all Right. I was never torn Away
Speaker 1: and he's a big You see the Last Adventures? I haven't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw the End Game, so it's amazing. I turn
Speaker 1: off Twitter when Game of Thrones ends because I'm on
Speaker 1: I at the same time and have to go home
Speaker 1: and look at it. But I'm avoiding Everything Adventures until
Speaker 1: I can watch End Game because it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: so freaking good. Let me tell you, I was amazed
Speaker 1: at how great it was. I mean, it was three
Speaker 1: hours and is that good? Huh, you don't know it's
Speaker 1: three hours. I mean it goes fine a blank, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: You know? I mean it really really does. Exacted about
Speaker 1: John Wick three have yes, me too. I actually love
Speaker 1: those movies. I think he read is my favorite actor.
Speaker 1: I've I've declared he's not my favorite because you can
Speaker 1: make fun of him, you can, but look at his
Speaker 1: body of work. Respect the body of work. So he's
Speaker 1: now America's favorite actor and mine. I love it. And
Speaker 1: you know what else, I gotta tell you, Cobra Kai
Speaker 1: is fantastic too. I haven't seen it. I know it's
Speaker 1: a YouTube show. You gotta watch it. Man, It's fantastic.
Speaker 1: What these guys have done with the storyline thirty plus
Speaker 1: years later, with these two you never see coming, It
Speaker 1: is really fantastic. Now. Billy Zapka, who plays Johnny, is
Speaker 1: one of my lifelong dearest friends. So I've you know,
Speaker 1: I've been a Karate Kid fanatics since the first movie
Speaker 1: came out when I was a teenager. But what they've
Speaker 1: done with the story and how they've taken those two characters,
Speaker 1: you would really really appreciate and love interesting. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: we've Here's the question I was gonna ask you before
Speaker 1: I veered off the last question. I ask him, if
Speaker 1: you could tell yourself, you give your your sixteen year
Speaker 1: old self one a little bit of advice from you
Speaker 1: right now? Would you tell him condoms do break? There
Speaker 1: and there? There you have it. Listen, check out the book.
Speaker 1: It's a Shotgun Angels, My story of Broken Roads and
Speaker 1: Unshakable Hope. How was how hard that subtitle to have
Speaker 1: and to come up with? It was? It was pretty tough.
Speaker 1: They wanted, Yeah, what was the first title of the book.
Speaker 1: Because I went to like nineteens, it was called something
Speaker 1: like um uh, hope, Hope in the Hope in the
Speaker 1: Forgotten Places or something. I mean, there were so many
Speaker 1: different variations of that. I was like, none of them
Speaker 1: made me happy. My co author, actually Timothy, came up
Speaker 1: with that because the two stories in the book about
Speaker 1: my folks and also the angels that ride shotgun next
Speaker 1: to you that you don't even know about. Look at this,
Speaker 1: You got a book, got a book. You play a
Speaker 1: couple of songs on the keyboards, got it. He's got
Speaker 1: a gift on the piano as occasionally funny things. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm glad he's Nobby. I'll tell you this guy. Ready,
Speaker 1: there's no Bobby and Bones. Thank god, Um, listen that Jay.
Speaker 1: Good to see you, but good to see you too.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. One on nine. Look at this?
Speaker 1: Have you every been ever? Be for hours straight? One
Speaker 1: on one? Hey, and it's just like Avengers in game.
Speaker 1: It didn't even feel like we were both die. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what happened in adventures. All right, listen,
Speaker 1: thank you, We'll see you the next time. Episode one
Speaker 1: seven seven. Everybody