WEBVTT - #177 - Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts on how the Flatts REALLY formed, his new book, and his faith. 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:01.880 All right, about to hop into a Bobby Cast with 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:04.840 Jay de Marcus a Rascal Flats. Hope you enjoy this. 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:06.200 Hes got a book coming out. I do want to 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.680 mention a couple other things. First of all, um, we 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:14.280 have our whole layers of of podcasts. By the way, Mike, 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.160 I gotta text from somebody else that's about to come on? 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.720 Does she sign? I think they're we're very soon to 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.440 announcing a new podcast on being able to announce that. Yes, Um, 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.479 also have a very good for you as it. Thanks 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.280 for the opportunity, right, um. Yeah, So we're got doning 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:32.840 out the new podcast on the network, and I guess 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.199 we can't yet, can't yet, But Caroline Hobby's podcast get 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.760 Real is doing fantastic and it's always been great and 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:41.520 I'm just glad that we can finally shine a light 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.599 on it and let you go wow. Because she had 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.000 on Taylor Young, Brett Young's wife. It's a really good 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.400 one where she's like they broke up and she had 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.479 to watch Brett Young get famous six years and he's 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.280 like he's like he's out gotta go anyway, not as 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:58.279 quick as that, But you shouldn't listen to that it's 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.920 called Get Real with Caroline Hobby and it really is 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.920 a fantastic podcast. Kelly Henderson has a podcast called Velvet's 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.560 Edge and you know, she just had a big hit 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.560 on that that very cavalry show, which was good for her, 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:14.960 and she brings people on from that show onto our podcast, 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.280 so you can check that out. Um, I'll mention that 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.319 we the Raging Idiots are going on tour starting uh. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:23.200 I don't know when you hear this, but I will 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.160 be all summer off fall, but Raging Idiots dot com. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.400 We're bringing out Walker Burrows from American Idol, the red 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.880 haired kid who was really good playing the piano, look 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.600 like Harry Potter and Emma Klein. And then, um, you 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.080 can always check out Amy's podcast Four Things with Amy 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.640 Brown really needs no introduction. If you love Amy, you'll 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.880 love the podcast. Dude, what's her latest episode which she 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:42.520 talks about, Oh, she has the Q and a one 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.280 up today which she does every Tuesday. She answers people's questions. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.840 And then the last one, Um, she had on the 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.240 guy from the Indiogram talking about like the is that what? 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.280 Dave Heywood was like, what's your indiogram? Now? Yeah, don't 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:55.560 you be able to come in here talking about that? 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:57.160 I need to remember what mine is. I think mom 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:02.160 is the three with the Yeah three watch three be 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.760 like super douchy with small weener and I was like, yeah, 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.680 thats um. So there's that. And then if you're into sports, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.640 check out The Sore Losers with Lunchbox and Raymundo and 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.320 produce ready as they put up a new show like 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.400 four times a week. That being said, there's this one 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.160 we're about to get into. Is there anything I'm forgetting? 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.280 I think that covers it. Yeah, coming up on this show. Um, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.600 I believe we have a Jude in the Lion podcast 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:30.520 coming up, possibly in the next week or so. Morgan Evans, 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.760 that's true. Who I Mike and I were talking off 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:35.079 the end of the day. I can't believe he hasn't 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.680 been on yet. I've talked with him about the podcast 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.079 about ten times. Morgan Evans, who has um Sometimes you 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.800 gotta kiss somebody, you know, uh he uh. He's a 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.720 big listener, so shout out Morgan Evans. And he's also 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:48.960 a friend, which I guess is why I didn't feel 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:50.280 like I had talked to him on the podcast. I 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.480 talked to him in real life. Um, so yeah, he'll 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:54.600 be on two and um yeah, we're trying for some 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.399 other ones. How's the have we Uh, Lauren Dagos gonna 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.800 come by, not not this week or next week, but 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.640 probably next month. Yeah, probably next month. And Belliray stars 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.440 working on you, buddy. I know, how hard does it get? 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:08.840 Maybe the little Nozak stuff got him because it was 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.040 too busy right now, but maybe next month too, we'll 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.040 be here. That being said, tell your friends about this 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:14.680 if you don't mind, go back and check out any 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:16.680 of the library of podcasts. And yeah, here we go 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.480 with Jada Marcus from Rascal Flats trying to get a nut, 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.560 trying to I'm the ultimate squirrel, always trying to get 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.720 a nut, me too, buddy. And it's a book you 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:33.280 name it, Episode one seventy seven with Jada Marcus Rascal Flats. Um, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.080 so we're talking, we're about to start saying us off 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.440 the air because, uh, it's tough to sell books, especially 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.760 when it's not what you're known for. Because that that's 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.560 been my thing, is that write a book? What what 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.280 what's Bobby? What does Jay know about books? And so yeah, 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.440 you have to kind of go out and rehustle. You do. Wait, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.240 musicians can write. I read exactly, Yeah you do. I 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.920 mean I'm always for a new challenge, though I'm I 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.480 think you and I are wired more alike, probably than 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.080 we know. I love to work like idle time does 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.280 not serve me well. I can't sit around and you know, 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.360 spend I'll start spending out about the silliest things if 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.520 I do. You know, is it some sort of deeper, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.880 um maybe psychological thing that we like to work? Like? 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:22.320 Are you trying to prove? Who? Are you trying to 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.640 prove something to yourself? I think if you read part 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:27.760 of that book, it would be my dad. You know, 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.480 there's a lot of me that feels like I never 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.520 quite lived up to what he expected me to be. 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.479 I guess that put a lot of pressure on me, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.320 which I used as fuel early on in life, but 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.800 it still fuels me. And for me, it's been like 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.520 I grew up in pretty close to poverty, and so 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.400 it's like trying to prove to yeah, to everybody that 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.480 so I wish my idol time. My my itchiness with 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.880 idol time was just because I do love working. But 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.160 I think I've convinced myself I love working because I'm 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.600 trying to prove it to everyone that I can make it. Yeah, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:01.440 I think that I have a little bit of that 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.400 in me too. It's like when you whenever you have 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.680 some success and you celebrate it, you don't celebrate it 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.520 and live in the moment long enough, because I go 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.640 I gotta do I gotta do more because I haven't 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.200 done it, I haven't done enough yet. I gotta get 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:14.760 back after it and go back out there and do 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.000 something good again, and a lot of it. I like 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:18.680 to try to prove to myself too that I can 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.000 take on new challenges and have some degree of success 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.200 with it, you know. And I guess I'm just wired 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.400 that way. I am truly a workaholic. There is no 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.880 doubt about it. I think it drives my partners crazy 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.880 sometimes partners in all capacities or you're talking about in 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:34.880 the band, and I'm talking about in the band, meaning 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.920 you're always wanting to do what well. I always want 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.400 to go. I mean, if there's money on the table, dates, 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.719 let's go get it. If their work to be done, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.760 let's go do it. And Gary, I wish I had 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.000 a little more him in me, because he loves to 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.839 go out to the farm decompressed. I mean, he could 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.320 stay out there for big chunks of times, and there's 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.599 nothing wrong with that. We're just wired differently so to 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.760 exist in the same band. Sometimes I'm like, I don't 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.000 I don't think I can sit around for five months. 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.640 I gotta do something but write a book. How long 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:11.000 the um start to be a seed in you? I 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.800 think years ago because I kept I keep journals, you know, 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.880 I like keep notes of things so I can remember them. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.480 And I started keeping notes when Rascal Flats did our 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.160 first radio tour literally that long ago, because I wanted 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.440 to remember certain things in certain aspects of what we 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.440 were doing. And I always thought, someday we may have 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:31.560 a chance to write a book out into the future, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.719 sometime when this all comes to whatever close it's gonna 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.760 it's gonna look like. And so I started keeping notes. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.040 And the more that I did, the more I started 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.040 to reflect on my life, just myself, and and really 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.599 reflect on all of the things that transpired to get 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.840 me here to eventually meet Joe do on one day 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.080 and then Gary come to town and us do what 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.400 we have done. And it started to I started look 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.600 at and go maybe there are some people that can, 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.800 like be inspired by some of the crap that I 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.600 went through, and maybe they can find their own hope 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.360 to forge ahead and to get up, dust themselves off, 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.360 keep moving forward. Because you know, a lot of times 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.800 we see our favorite entertainers, actors, musicians, whatever they are, 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.520 you see the culmination of a lot of stuff and 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.240 a lot of hard work that got them to that point. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.760 You didn't just end up on American Idol one day 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:25.880 by accident. You went through a lot of things to 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.280 get you there. I didn't end up in Rascal Flats. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:29.720 I went through a lot of crap and a lot 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.040 of hard stuff to get me there. And I think 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.320 people deal with the same things you and I have 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.640 done with, and they deal with the same adversity, the 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.160 same tough times, and sometimes you want to quit. I mean, 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.280 there were many times that I wanted to throw the 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:45.760 talent in and move back home and just forget the 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.240 silly dream of music career. And I didn't. I felt 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.520 some ounce of hope here and there, some friend or 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.400 some text or some something that would happen just in 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.680 time before I would give up to how keep me going? 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:02.640 The name of the book let me shout the book 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.720 out here. Everybody knows you, but uh, Jada Marcus of 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.520 Rascal Flats. It's called Shotgun Angels, My story of broken 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.400 Roads and unshakable hope. And it's funny you mentioned all 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.440 the crap that you go through, because and the first 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.800 book that I wrote, I had to kind of relive 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.320 some of that stuff which I just kept compressed for 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.360 so long, just pushed it down inside, and it was 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.480 tough to not just acknowledge it, but to kind of 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.160 kind of dredge it all back up and relive it 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.640 to to be in my form of accurate about it. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:36.800 Did you go through that at all? I went down 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:38.559 joke the other day that I had a bottle of 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.640 Vodkas sitting right by the laptop because I'd have to 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.440 shut it and take a break sometimes. And when the 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.920 stuff comes spoiling back up to the surface and you 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.880 do relive it, if you're an emotional person at all, 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.120 you feel those emotions all over again and how you 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.800 felt when you were living through that. And that was 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.600 one of the things that I didn't expect that kind 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.679 of caught me off guard a little bit, that I 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.960 would actually go back into it so deeply. But I 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.120 definitely did, and and there were times and I just 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.120 take a break from it. I stepped away, and I 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.360 was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that still 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.640 affects me as strongly today as it did, you know, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.160 thirty years ago. It's wild to me. As I was 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:17.800 reading Um, I didn't get a chance to finish it, 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.200 and I might be read the whole thing, and he 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.120 pulled out some parts for me to read. Um, the 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.800 the how you guys got together, it's very interesting to me. 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:27.000 I think we'll start there, and then I want to 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.480 go back to the Christian band in the scholarship. There's 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.240 a lot again stuff that and I felt like we've 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:34.559 known each other, at least semi socially for a while. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:36.320 I had no idea a lot a lot of the 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.360 stuff which is interesting, just on the music side of things. 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.960 And so we'll go to back to the beginning of 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.520 the Flats or Rascal Flats, not the Rascal Flats. So 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.560 if for everybody's listening right now, call him the Rascal Flats. 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:53.600 Dear God. So, um, we're gonna we're gonna move past college. 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.320 We're get back to that in a minute. You're in 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.640 town and you have a cousin that you guys weren't 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.200 super close we were growing up, but we lost times 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:07.320 last time, and which is Gary? Yeah? And Gary had 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.240 been winning some karaoke competitions. Yeah. So I kept hearing 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.000 grumblings back home when I would go back for the 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.240 holidays that hey, you know your cousin Gary, he's been 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.200 singing a little bit. And I'd be like, really, that's 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.760 neat um and and and it wasn't that I was 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:25.960 being mean about it, but I was following my own 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.840 path and I had the Christian band. And then somebody 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.480 told me that he was talking to a producer in 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.440 l A about doing an R and B thing and 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.040 that he and Jamie Fox had spent some time together. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.480 My uncle had actually told me that, and I was like, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.840 he knows Jamie Fox. That's kind of cool. And it 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.520 was lost on me that again, he was talking about 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.600 singing and doing a pop thing. And then my mom 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.440 called me one day and she goes, now, your cousin 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.160 Gary's gonna call you, and you need to listen to 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.079 him singing. He's been winning some contests up here. He's 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.560 been singing in Ohio, you know, Yeah, and you need 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.679 to listen to him sing. I was like, Mom, are 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.360 you kidding me? The last thing I want to do 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.320 is tell some family member who I'm not really that 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:17.079 close to anymore, you shouldn't try this. And she said, well, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.760 I've talked to She called Judy Gary's mother, Jude Babe. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.400 They were closer than sisters. They still are. She said, well, listen, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.559 I've already told Jude Babe that you're gonna listen to him, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.080 so you just need to let him come over there 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.520 when he's down there and sing for you. Well, he 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.040 was on his way to vacation in Florida, and he 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.880 stopped by my apartment in Brentwood and I sat down, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.880 and I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, the first song 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.760 he sang was One Last Cry by Brian McKnight, and 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.760 I knew it well enough on the piano to kind 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.560 of hack through it, and he just stopped me in 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.840 my tracks. I mean, when he opens his voice and 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.320 you hear that come out of him, it's otherworldly. I mean, 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.720 I describe it in the book, is all of these 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.720 ingredients of God, spool and R and B and country 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:06.200 rolled up into one. I'd never heard anything quite like it. Before, 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:11.080 and it had an immediate, identifiable personality to it that 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.360 was just shocking to me. And we kept talking over 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.360 the next several weeks, several months, and I said, you know, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.800 you got to move to town. It's never gonna find 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.840 you in Columbus. And he was. He was struggling because 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.400 he had a great job, he had debt, he had bills, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.520 he'd already forged a life for himself. And he called 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.280 me one day and he said, that's it, I'm coming 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.600 to town. I can't do this anymore. And if I 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.400 don't do it, I'm afraid I'll regret it for the 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.680 rest of my life. And he lived on my couch. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:40.680 I had a one bedroom apartment and he lived on 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.520 my couch and we played everywhere we could, and when 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.760 people would hear him, the reaction was just undeniable. You 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:50.880 could see it in their faces. They were like, oh 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.760 my god, this guy is up there singing Merle Haggard, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.800 but singing like r and b licks in it. And 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.360 now if you turn on country radio, you hear a 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.480 whole host of singers that were touched by him and 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.040 influenced by him. And that's a testament to what his 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.200 gift was and what he was able to bring to 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.760 this town and build upon. So you guys are playing 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.319 show as a printer's alley a couple of nights a week, 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.680 a few nights a week and doesn't even exist anymore. 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:18.920 In the place we played it was a fiddle and 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.720 steel guitar bar. I think it's a boutique hotel now. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.440 So you go and say, hey, Gary, we're gonna get 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.520 a gig, just the two of us. And how do 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.960 you get that gig? You go up and to say, hey, guy, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.840 here's the tape. What's that? I'll tell you. So the 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.280 guy playing up on stage, we'd go in and hear 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.080 him sing, and he would let us sit in and 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.480 do a song. The owner was in there one night, 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.320 Allison was her name, and Greg Perkins. They owned it together, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.520 and she walked over and she said, would you guys 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.319 want to do a night here? And Gary said, I 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.560 don't even live here full time. I'm just visiting on 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.920 the weekends. She said, if you guys will do a 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.600 couple of nights here a week, I'll fire him and 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.839 give you his gig. The guy that you were singing, 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:58.480 and the guy that was letting, the guy that that 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:04.000 helped you. That's how cutthroat Nashville is. And and we 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.920 so we left and we talked about it, and I said, 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:08.319 do you do you want to do this? And then 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.160 that that's I think that's around the time he called 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.480 me and said, I'm moving to town. Let's take that 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.280 gig and see see what happens. And it was the 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.560 two of us sitting beside a cigarette machine. I had 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.280 my keyboard and he had a mike, when I had 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.560 two mikes, and we sometimes there were two people in there, 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.840 sometimes there were twenty, sometimes there were forty. But slowly 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.160 but surely, we we started to build a following that 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.560 would come in and see us. And then the owners 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.320 came to us and said, we're thinking about buying the 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.560 other side of this building, knocking down the wall that 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.720 separates the two, putting a stage together. Would you put 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.160 a band together? And I knew a bunch of guys 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.720 from various bands, and I was sitting in with and 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.320 Gary and I were friends with a circle of buddies 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.560 that were great musicians and had been playing in different 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.560 places with them. So we put a band together. And 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.720 so you're playing with Shelley right at this time to 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.120 write like, as your main right, you're play keys? Yeah, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.320 I was, I was your band later. Okay, so you're 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.400 running the band, your playing keys, and you had hired 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.920 a guitarist, which was Jodan. And so when you're putting 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.000 the band together, is that when you bring Jodan in. No, 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:14.800 he didn't start playing with us right away. A guy 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.760 named Shane Sutton played with us. Fantastic player, fantastic singer, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.240 and we were playing down there for probably several months. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.960 And then I get a call one night and Shane says, man, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.160 I can't get out of bed. I've got the flu, 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.640 I've got a fever, and I'm sorry to do this 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.880 to you, but I can't make it tonight. It was 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.760 on a Monday night, and I thought, oh, no, what 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.200 are we gonna do. I know who can play this. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.080 I know who can do it. I'm gonna call Jodan. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.640 I called him up and I said, hey, what are 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.720 you doing tonight? And he's like nothing, I'm just sitting around. 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.520 I said, let's let's uh, let's play tonight. You want to? 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.160 You want to sit in with us? I said, I've 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.800 been telling you about my cousin. Anyway, I want you to. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:56.680 I want you to hear him and meet him in 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.280 real life. And I've been telling, you know, Gary about 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.400 jod On how talented he was. And so we pull 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.280 up at the club and jod On sitting his guitar 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.520 amp up and he's up there tuning up. Gary looks 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.840 at me, he goes, who is that? I said him out, man, 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:12.640 I didn't want to tell you this, but Shane sick, 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.360 and he goes, are you kidding me? This guy isn't 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.680 gonna know a thing that we do. We gotta play 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.120 a little three am and if this sucks, I'm out 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:21.960 of here. You can have this by yourself. And I 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.160 was like, Gary, please, like, just give him the shot. 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:27.760 He would barely even speak to jod On. It was 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.720 so funny. He was so frustrated. And I understand. See 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.480 Gary was getting up at four thirty am to throw papers. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.560 So we finished in the club at two. He slept 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:38.880 and he go right right to work throwing papers. So 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.360 I understood his frustration. But man, we got up there 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.200 together and the first song, I think we played it 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.040 on one of your shows. The first song we ever 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.240 played together was Church on the Cumberland Road by Shannondah, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:51.840 and we hit that first course, man, and I don't 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.720 know what happened, but it was just we all knew immediately. 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.680 We looked at each other like that is good and 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.320 we've got to have more of that. So Shane, that 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.720 original guitar players a name, right, he basically wally pipped 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:05.879 and while he played far Spaces for the Yankees forever, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.120 and while he got hurt, nothing, he didn't do anything wrong. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.800 And he got hurt, and uh, here it comes Loue Gary, 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.600 who's gonna fill in? And then here it's now the 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.840 Lue Gary world. What does Shane say about that? Shane 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.880 Shane still buddy of Arrish. We still see him out 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.399 playing with different artists and playing guitar. But he you know, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.560 he obviously gives us massive amounts of crap for us 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.159 firing and basically you never I had to call him 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.840 and tell him he couldn't come back, and that was 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.080 really awkward. I was like, I think we're gonna go 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.400 ahead and stick with Joe Don but I think anybody 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.840 that heard us sing together, and he would definitely tell 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.719 you this to God, that there was a special, uh 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.240 chemistry in a blend that we had that was not common. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.399 What was happening in Nashville at that time. Though you 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.440 got you three or now you go, okay, this might 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.959 be something, But what was like the environment like because 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.400 you guys cut through so hard because you were so different. 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.960 Now you kind of aided where everyone else has gone, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.160 so it doesn't seem like you're that different. You guys 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.120 have opened these roads up for a lot of artists nowadays. 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.200 At the time, who was popping around town where you're where, 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:11.560 they're like, you know what, You're not like them. We 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:13.960 don't know if this can be a thing quite yet. Yeah, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.359 you know, Nashville was was pretty safe back then. I 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.280 mean there were glimpses of pop in music. I mean 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.520 you had your South sixty fives and your uh forget 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.560 Marshall Dillon was around. But they were definitely trying to 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.040 be five guys that danced and we're bringing trying to 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.000 bring the boy band vibe over the country music. And 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:37.000 it really wasn't resonating because they didn't play instruments. It 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.119 was it felt no offense to those guys that were 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.159 trying to make a living and do something, but it 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.520 felt contrived, honestly, And we were fans of bands that 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.480 were really great harmony bands like Diamond Rio and Shannondoah 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:53.600 at the time, and the Eagles were a huge influence 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.720 on us. So that's that's really what we were trying 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:58.880 to do, was bring elements of what we loved about 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:03.679 pop music still great authentic harmonies and the songs, the 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.399 meat on the bone of the songs with something to 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.560 say in a different way. It's really what we tried 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:12.280