Ben Burgess

[00:00:00] All right, we've got Ben Burgess here. And we were just talking about we're on Zoom here and Buck the Killer is your Zoom name. So can you can you tell the fans a little bit about that story? Because that sounded really interesting.

[00:00:29] Oh, yeah, this is you know, you see that video where that guy's like, man, I'm just doing hood rat shit with my hood rat friends. Like, you know, we used to think we're cool and do a bunch of dumb shit when we were young.

[00:00:39] Ended up in an old man's backyard. He didn't like us very much. So he fired off his he fired his shotgun off in the air. Right. But we wanted to say it was at us. And so I didn't get hit with nothing.

[00:00:50] But they thought they heard the fence get hit. So they call me Buck Lucky. And here I am, man, with a with enough air in my lungs to sing about it. Where are you at right now? And are you in Tennessee or Texas? I'm near Wheatfield in Virginia.

[00:01:08] I just went off to talk to y'all. I'm headed to somewhere to go play with the Warrensiders. Can't remember the name of the town. Charlottesville. Okay, College Sound. Does that yeah, that sounds right. I guess he's from West. Yeah, that's where Grady Smith is from, I believe.

[00:01:27] The YouTube. Yeah. Yes. I just pulled over. I think I'm in front of a fire, a firehouse right now. My old man was a fireman. So anytime I see a firehouse, man, I'll pull up. So I talk to some firemen if they want to. I love it.

[00:01:39] I live across the street from one in Chicago, and they always are just like chilling in the front, like playing football and stuff. And people come by with their dogs and and just I don't know,

[00:01:51] it seems like a fun job aside from the whole like half to fighting fires and risking your life shit. But like, it seems like nice. They're all just hanging out, cooking and grilling. So I used to live in Chicago with West at times, a roommate as roommates.

[00:02:06] And then over the years, you know, we lived all over the place. But in Chicago, if you've been to a Cubs game, there's a fire station right outside of the bleachers. And those guys have it best because they the girls just want to like come by.

[00:02:21] Then they're just like, and I feel like most of their calls are going to be for like drunk related things. Right. So they send the fire truck drunk girl, got her head stuck in a fence or some shit like that. It's usually not.

[00:02:34] It's usually not like hopefully not like actual danger. But no, that's that's cool to hear. Dude, I've been listening to your album. I got I got myself a new truck, so I've been excited to just drive it.

[00:02:46] And your album has been playing on repeat for a while here. And it is you have a very, very unique way of some songs are like I am like, man, this is Texas country music or more traditional.

[00:03:00] And then you'll do something that sounds maybe a little like Morgan or whatever. And is that just always how you kind of approach your sound? It's like it seems super authentic, but it's very kind of I don't want to say all over the place, but it's very unique

[00:03:16] in that regard, in a good way. I appreciate that, man. I mean, as a as a creator, you know, y'all know, you know, y'all creating a brand. Y'all want to do something that's, you know, we're reinventing the wheel.

[00:03:29] But like the wheel fucking works, you know, it's like a square wheel is not going to get you down the fucking highway. So you got to make it your own. And I think, you know, as a creator, that's what I'm trying to do.

[00:03:40] So for you to say that, man, that just means we're we're hitting some of the marks that we want. You know, we want to be able to to say it. You know, everything's kind of been said. The chords have all been played before.

[00:03:52] But, you know, we're really focusing on saying something unique and honest. You know, a lot of our policy when we're writing is like, yeah, that might be a cool title, but like what what are you going through right now?

[00:04:03] So, you know, a lot of the songs that we ended up cutting were, you know, they're all true stories and they all really run true and felt like shit. We got to put this out because we've never heard it that way because it said that.

[00:04:15] So I'm I'm glad you said that, man. We're trying to, you know, not copy too much and just be old school or new school, but somewhere in the middle. Speaking of songs being true, I started taking notes before we started and I had this in mind.

[00:04:31] And then I looked at a bunch of the fan questions that came through and a lot of them had the same question. And it was it started a band, a true story. And if so, which I think it is based on what you just said,

[00:04:43] who is the artist that stole the girl? Oh, shit. I can't say it, man. I can't say it because it's going to be what I have to tell you. After we I'll tell you boys when this is over, OK?

[00:04:55] OK. But now I went down in Austin, Texas, man, a long time ago. Shit, probably 2008, nine. So there was an artist back then that was pretty funky, man. And he pulled up in my lady at the time.

[00:05:13] It actually pulled me into the show and was talking with him on fucking my space. I think it was back in the day. And it was like, yeah, he really likes you and wants to

[00:05:23] and wants you to come on the bus and rap to him and all this stuff. And we hung out for a little bit and then they disappeared. And I got blackout drunk and my buddies reminded me of it the next day.

[00:05:34] They they actually got the real story about what went down after that. I think it got pretty dark, but we got a really good song about it, man. My buddy, Chris LaCourte had the track pulled up and I was like,

[00:05:47] I got the I got the song for this man. I got the title. Started a band, baby. It's definitely better than the Keith Urban one. The Urban Rap easily started. It's definitely a better song than now. No, you don't get it. I'm here.

[00:06:05] Years ago, it was hard to be. Now, I mean, I did like my show real quick was one question. I started asking people that nobody's going to answer one day. Somebody will. Who's your favorite? Or your closest friend that makes music, whose music you hate the most?

[00:06:21] Will you ever will you do you ever do you have a friend that like is in this business with you making music and you guys bust each other's balls about I don't like you? Is that a thing or does everybody pretend to like everything?

[00:06:33] Because what we notice in Nashville is everybody kind of pretends to like everything. Is that they are asking the tough questions, man? I don't expect anybody to answer this one anytime. Well, I'll answer. I'll answer it right now because we're very close

[00:06:50] and we've actually had some success before together. But Mr. Good Time, Nico fucking Moon. All right. Now my only beef with him is that all he does are happy songs. And I said, Nico, just because you got some nice teeth, man, don't mean you got a smile on.

[00:07:08] So true. What happened to that? I went far enough back. I was like, oh, you were doing that before. Like the whole like it's just like, whoa, like it's just like in your face, like look at my teeth. Like that used to not be the thing, you know.

[00:07:25] I'm with you on that. Like if everything is always happy, it's yeah, I mean, he's got that song like no sad songs and it's like just sad songs make me happy, man. That's our motto over here. Yeah, we have a bunch of the sad songs.

[00:07:40] Happy thing over here. Sorry, Wes, you're going to ask something. I was going to say like a guy that I like personally met a handful of times. We've had him in the office twice is Walker Hayes. Don't like his music at all. Sorry, buddy.

[00:07:55] But great guy, you know, like nice dude. Good family man. Like. There's a this is like the part of the business that's crazy for us is like we got to a point where, you know, we grew the team and had like, you know, success and whatever.

[00:08:09] And it's like you just meet everybody. And it's impossible not to let the human element kind of affect things where it's like, like, well, maybe we don't like the song, but we're like, man, this this dude was so nice and such a good dude.

[00:08:25] And hey, I wish him the best type of thing. But like, you know, it happens a lot. But then you also meet the phony people, which you seem like our favorite people are the authentic ones.

[00:08:35] And we can already tell, you know, you're you're not a phony in any way. But there are a lot of those. Right. And when you started starting out, you know, getting some traction,

[00:08:45] you know, the label and the songs and you were I mean, you have some crazy history writing songs. What was it? Lil Wayne, I saw and some Martin Garrix tunes, all kinds of crazy stuff.

[00:08:55] So when you started kind of going on that up and up, is that hard to navigate? You know, who is it? Who has my best interest? Who's a phony fuck? Who's this? Who's that? That's that's you know, that's the the chessboard in this whole game,

[00:09:11] you know, is is find your team. And honestly, that's why it took me so long to put out an artist project is because, you know, I got screwed over in my first publishing deal when I moved to L.A.

[00:09:23] They put me in it and basically they had a clause in there to where I couldn't get out of it until I had a certain number of cuts on a major label. Right. But I had to have a certain percentage of,

[00:09:37] you know, cuts, right, because if we were all writing a song, we'd have thirds of a song. So they wanted me to have something like 400 percent of my own publishing released on a major artist on a major label in one year

[00:09:56] to be able to go into my next deal and get another round of rent. And once I got to L.A., I'd write a song 50 50, me and a producer or three of us, and I'd have 33 percent. And then by the end of it, once they got another producer,

[00:10:10] two other writers, the artist, I have like ten fucking people on eight percent of a fucking song. I'm like, how am I going to get in this next? Thomas, right? Have a song with like 17 people on it. Yes. He sampled that war song.

[00:10:26] And I think that anytime you sample something, doesn't that pull in like ten of them? So you can your piece can become diluted. And, you know, it it fucked with me, man. It messed with my head.

[00:10:37] And, you know, as a creative, like, you know, we're all sensitive, man. And it can and then when you are fucked off on something, for lack of better words, you know, you it shows in your art and your creativity and your output.

[00:10:54] And so for sure, you know, it took me a while to rebound from that and and to find my own team. And and that just happened to be big loud, man. And, you know, I got to get in with, you know, guys like Morgan Wallen

[00:11:07] and Hardy and Ernest, like in the beginning of their careers and, you know, and to build with Joey and Seth and Craig over there like. They were my guys before we ever dreamed any of this stuff. So, you know, having that team is is really everything.

[00:11:25] How did you kind of get started coming from Dallas, right? And then you kind of did a little of the six street stuff in Austin and then you end up in L.A.. Like what is that was kind of the thought and how did that whole journey

[00:11:38] kind of take shape? Because not a lot of I don't and for the most part, most people don't try the L.A. thing and then end up in Nashville and have success at it. So kind of how did that all come to come to be?

[00:11:51] They don't. You know, it was my best friend I grew up with, man. Colin Roberts, I call him Robbie, aka Cadillac. Shout out to Robbie. I fucking love you, man. You changed my life. But he was he went to school at a company called Media Tech,

[00:12:07] I think, out of Arlen Studios in Austin. And that's where fucking Sublime recorded Sublime. I think Bradley OD'd on that carpet in there. Stevie Ray, there and all this. And he goes, hey, man, I'm going to school. I'm getting 83 hours of recording time in a major studio.

[00:12:25] You should come out and record your songs. That's right. I said, oh, man, I don't know. I'm about to start a moving company. And like, you know, my girl at the top, like we're going to move in and we're going to have some babies.

[00:12:36] I'm just going to flip houses. And I'd probably even be I'd probably have more money, actually, if I would have stayed there now. Fucking crazy. Like houses were like forty thousand dollars. It's about a thousand dollars now, like four hundred. Anyway,

[00:12:52] moving there and writing songs and they were fucking terrible and nobody liked them. And so we ended up just doing cover songs. But I started writing with a producer out there named Sean McCarthy. Shout out to Max Star. And he had beats. And I started writing over those.

[00:13:09] And that's what got me the Jonas Brothers cut. And then that sent me to L.A., which got me into the terrible deal. And but it made me think of this guy. We call him Black Milk.

[00:13:22] He was a black guy that had a and I don't actually I can't remember his real name. I think it was Will, but he was from Chicago. Anyways, he would like he for some reason he could lactate. So he would he would squeeze this like milk

[00:13:38] out of his nipple. So we called him Black Milk anyways. Shout out to milk. Oh, shout out, Black Milk. Black Milk. Man, this is my favorite pockets of all time. But when I moved in, because he was one of the roommates in the house

[00:13:58] I moved to when I went to L.A. And he'd been in the game for a while and he'd written with like. A bunch of people and I said, man, what's your you know, what do you have advice for me?

[00:14:08] And he said, man, just go through every door that opens. It's like if a door fucking opens and it's for writing for a kid on Disney, go right for it. And, you know, that's that's really the sauce, man. You know, don't give up.

[00:14:25] You're perfecting the craft little by little, even if it's you're forcing your brain to kind of which we have to do. Here as a business, right? It's like. Stop. No, this is not my thing. This is for this. I got to like change my brain and boom. Yeah.

[00:14:41] Find a theme or whatever. Like that's interesting because I don't know. I don't know if we've talked to anybody was that had that writing kind of history where when you say like when I look at you and hear you every other word out of our

[00:14:54] mouth or if our mothers listen, they're always like, you guys say fuck a lot. You're saying fuck a lot. And it's like, oh, I got a cup for the Jonas Brothers. It's just like, oh, would not expect that if you didn't know anything right on its surface. So.

[00:15:10] I mean, yeah. How did a lot of the songwriters are like, did it get to a phase in Nashville where it became I don't want to say like formulaic or too easy, where it was just like what was really standing out?

[00:15:25] It was like everybody was kind of trying to do the same thing. This is not so much writing. I don't know. How do you stay on that? You make an amazing ballad about murder like Hardy and Lainey Wilson just did five years ago. That shit ain't getting played.

[00:15:39] No. You know, so I mean, you got to just kind of stay with your stay with your kind of gut, right? And what you do. You know, part of part of going through different doors and trying to figure out

[00:15:52] what's going on is like, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. Part of going through different doors and going through your own thing is you figure out eventually like what fuels your fire.

[00:16:05] Obviously, you got to pay bills. So it's like this hybrid mix of like, what do people like? What's true to you and unique? And then what can pay the bills and and what people are going to consume?

[00:16:20] You know, because there's a lot of, you know, door guys in Nashville that you got to get through to to get something going. And if you can get it to their standard and and push it forward.

[00:16:32] And I think where I've found success and I think some of the boys have and ladies to, you know, Hayley Witters is doing it her way, doing her songs and like it's unique and it's working is she's figuring out what really matters to her and and

[00:16:48] what she can bring to the game that's her, you know, so that we're not just writing songs for Florida, Georgia and for, you know, Luke, Brian and Blake. And it's like you can only do so much when you're writing for them and you're

[00:17:01] holding so much originality back, you know, that those people are hard to fucking relate to, man. They're fucking superstars. And Blake has a house in Malibu. Like, come on. Oh, he came a long way from Oklahoma, man. And along that way, I think he became really unrelatable.

[00:17:22] And so writing for him, we have to hold back a lot. And it turns into a PG-13 movie. You know, when it should be rated R, man, because that's real life. Well said. Yeah, that's I've never heard it really expressed that way, but I feel

[00:17:37] like that's pretty pretty articulate when have you gone into a right ever where you're kind of like have immediately hit it off with someone that you didn't necessarily know before? Because like sometimes you just show up in Nashville for people who don't know.

[00:17:52] There's like, you know, you're a songwriter. You're like, hey, you're writing with your publishing company's like, hey, you're writing with so-and-so today and you just got to somehow fucking make magic happen with two strangers in a room.

[00:18:03] And have you ever had a moment where you're like my worst nightmare? But holy shit, like this is that because then it's like 10 in the morning. It's not like you can like start cracking beers and stuff. Or maybe you do. Maybe I maybe you do.

[00:18:16] I don't know. Sometimes, you know, I was just telling somebody I went to the NWP, the national publishing thing yesterday, and a lot of songwriters were there celebrating like gold, platinum, multi-platinum songs.

[00:18:32] And so I got to see some of my old friends and I ran into Ben Hayslip, who's part of the Peach Pickers, and I saw Chase McGill there and they were one of my first sessions in town. I'd never fucking met them.

[00:18:47] We sat down and a lot of times I tell people this, I'm like either I'm going to knock it out of the park with you the first day. And that'll probably be the best song we ever write together, because for some

[00:18:59] reason I got this bait shit where if I'm in with somebody I don't know, I'm like I'm going to show the fuck up and show the fuck out and turn up. And we wrote a song called Small Town After All.

[00:19:12] And I think Rodney Aikens is about to actually put it out. I think he just went in and cut it and is about to put it out. So we were all together celebrating and we're like, dude, that was our first

[00:19:24] session. So sometimes it's magic and sometimes it's not. And I think it forces people to be on their A game. That's awesome. I was double checking a couple of your fan questions, but we saw a few hangout sessions you had with our guy, Cole Wetzel.

[00:19:46] Is we've said it a million times, he's the hardest guy to keep up with ever. He's got a little better. He's told us recently he woke up from a nap at two o'clock and was drinking wine. He goes, I just need to do our three o'clock.

[00:20:03] How fun is it? How fun slash exhausting is it to be on the road or do shows with Cole? Because that guy is just full throttle. You know, I actually just recovered and I've been off the road with him for about two months.

[00:20:20] Dude, like, you know, I've realized that I maybe can't start drinking at 11 in the morning and then not go to bed till 11 the next morning. I lose my voice really easy. And, you know, those guys have been together for like 12 years.

[00:20:37] So it's a it's a family affair, man. And so every night is like family feast and they're all sitting at the table and it's just like, you know, food is everywhere, everywhere. It's it's a celebration. And I got caught up in it, man.

[00:20:52] And I got I got hurt, man, probably by like the fifth show. I was like, boys. I maybe can't stay up to the sunrise with y'all, but they understood that, you know, they they support me and they man, they really took us under their wings, you know,

[00:21:07] being new on the road and obviously having a writing history with Co. You know, we were coming up with a lot of ideas and I got to hear a bunch of his album before he put it out. And I mean, he's so like.

[00:21:23] It's like he's true rock star, like like what's the set to on the podcast and then but man, like the sweetest guy we probably ever met and then the night one of the nicest. So it's a authenticity again.

[00:21:37] You know, it's like we've had so many experiences within like the Nashville bubble where it didn't seem to kind of have that same authenticity and pose that guy that I mean, it's just I don't know.

[00:21:50] It's a lot of fun. But yeah, to your point, how old are you? You don't 37. All right. I'm what am I, 33, 34, 34, 33. I start paying attention. So we're kind of all similar. Coe's younger than us. Yeah, he just turned 30.

[00:22:10] Right. So he's getting to that point where those hangovers can start slowing down a little bit. Those hangovers, you can't deal with them anymore. You got to like look at you got a beautiful head of hair.

[00:22:20] Like you got to worry about that hair a little a little more, a little less about the hangover. I'm losing it, mom. Am I losing it? Oh, I shave. I shave my head now. Like I just got the receding hairline started. West got good head of hair.

[00:22:35] I think mine's. I don't know if I started to wonder if this is like a rubber. Did I shave my head? A kid moved successful business was fucking around so much trying to how do I put my hair? This that's a receding hairline.

[00:22:52] Like I go, hey, I can grow a beard. I'm just going to shave this fucking head and I want to try to look like X. I don't even know who the fuck I was looking at out there.

[00:23:02] I'm trying to think of somebody, but, and I go, I get 20 minutes before we started. I was upstairs shaving my head, taking a shower, got the music playing, kind of dancing around in my underwear. It's beautiful. I've got to go set an appointment, go get my haircut.

[00:23:18] You guys got to do that shit. So, well, the thing is too, and I, and I do that and then I put a hat on right afterward, so it's like, what's the point? Well, it looks like he's trying to be a hockey player. Yeah.

[00:23:30] It's still a dream at 33 years old. I'm going to walk on to the Blackhawks. I might make the team because they're that bad. Man, I think it's all about accepting, you know, the thing about the age and shit is

[00:23:42] just like, you know, man, we earn these gray hairs and like, oh yeah, I got some. I'm trying to be proud of that, man, because, uh, you know, a lot of people that I've talked to that are, you know, in their forties, which I'm getting close

[00:23:54] to, man, they're like, fuck man, I just wish I was younger and I'm like, yeah, but we fucking worked our ass off to get here, man. And, and you can't make that shit up. You know, and you can't take that from somebody either, man.

[00:24:06] Now some of these young bucks that catch it like wildfire, you're like, yeah, yeah, but you haven't proved yourself. So, you know, for the OGs, man, we, we've earned a lot of these gray hairs and, um,

[00:24:18] I think we should, we should walk around proud no matter how the fuck we look, man. We are. This is from stress. Shading my head off. We're running a business. Stress, dude. Y'all got a hell of a business, man. I'm a big fan and y'all are making waves.

[00:24:32] I'm excited to see where y'all go with the future, man. So I'm glad I got to sit down and chop it up. Yeah. Big more things. I'm going to help. Yeah. We're going to be in Chicago.

[00:24:41] I think for the role models tour, man, you gotta hit me up and, uh, and come in and check it out, man. Yeah. Do you have any Colorado dates coming? I'm in Colorado. No, I think, uh, I think that you look like a Colorado guy.

[00:24:54] You look like a guy I would see walking down the street, smoking a joint. Look, I love a hike, man. Like I love fucking nature, dude. It's like Colorado women are beautiful, man. Uh, we, we got down in a grand junction. I really love that town. Oh yeah.

[00:25:12] Yeah. Nice. That's probably where I'll, where I'll go when everything goes to shit. So are you single? Uh, yeah, I'm single. You know, she might be less. She might listen. I got a couple of ladies.

[00:25:26] Um, and they, you know, they know they're not the only ones, but I got a couple ladies. I love yourselves, uh, if you are, but, um, yeah, man, I'm, I'm single right now. You know, honestly, boys, I'm, I'm ready.

[00:25:42] I'm at a time in my life when I am ready to settle down. Are you the site? Which one of the two? But now I'm on the road, man. And, um, you know, it's, I thought I was just going to live the rest of my life

[00:25:54] writing songs for other people and sitting out, you know, in my backyard and shooting birds with a BB gun, but now I'm on the road. So, you know, I think it's, it's changing the way my life's looking and I think

[00:26:04] it's going to change the lady I get my life. So, um, if there's any single ladies out there that, uh, that want to roll with a rebel who ain't going to be home all the time, holler at me. Whoa.

[00:26:17] I love it for you, for you to actually make that transition to a recording artist and a performer, like was that difficult or frightening? Or was it like kind of a lifelong dream or whether you're kind of just like, fuck it, I'm going to do this myself.

[00:26:33] What was kind of the approach? I mean, well, I'm myself. Motivation is very fucking low. Okay. I had a gym membership. Fucking money. Like I'm just my, my self motivation is tough and I feel like I thrive on being around other people and working with other people.

[00:26:50] That's why I love co-writing songs and, um, and hanging with cats like y'all, man, cause that's how we come up with ideas and we come to realizations. Um, you know, it's all three of those things, terrifying, um, fucking mind

[00:27:03] numbing and what I've always wanted to do, you know, it just, the pieces had to line up and, you know, it kind of reminds me of what black milk was saying. You know, you go through every door and you stay patient, stay calm, you know,

[00:27:16] good things come to those who wait. And, um, that's how you get something. That's worth something, man. If it comes overnight like that, man, it's probably not worth shit. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. The climb, right? That's yeah. It just would, who wants to go viral?

[00:27:33] And then it's like the lottery. Yeah. Like the lottery winners and they just go bankrupt within a year because they just get money. And it's like, it's not, you didn't work for the money. You just, you just got in.

[00:27:44] It's a whatever, but somebody who's obviously been blown up quite a while in the last few years, uh, your buddy Morgan Wallen and we got a note here that, uh, you were at his first day. I'm showing Texas. Uh, what was that last weekend? What was that like?

[00:28:00] Cause that, I think didn't earnest have to fill in for his hearty, the injuries they had to deal with and hopefully the bus driver is doing all right, but. Um, pretty wild to see him kind of get to that point. Right. It was mind blowing boys.

[00:28:16] Uh, if I'm, if I'm messing up my words, just cause my mind got freaking blown in Texas, man, 48,000 people. Um, I've been going to Morgan shows man since 2015. So to, I like to like kind of be down. I like to be in the pit.

[00:28:32] I like to be in the middle and I like to be at the nosebleeds and kind of walk around and didn't sit in an empty seat and kind of just soak it up. There was no sitting, there was no empty seat.

[00:28:44] Um, people were standing and singing every fucking word, man. Um, you know, to see how far him and the boys have come, man. I mean, dude, I think, I think that's the making of a superstar in front of our eyes right now, man.

[00:28:57] I mean, that's to me, that's the next Garth Brooks. Um, I think his songs are just so good, man. They're just so good. And he only sang one of mine up there and I'm just, at this point, I'm just a

[00:29:11] damn fan and every word, I mean him and Luke Holmes, like for younger guys, like seeing what they're doing. I went to the Luke Holmes show here in Denver, uh, Broncos stadium recently. And you're just like, damn.

[00:29:24] And then you see like a guy like Eric Church kind of just so to speak, take Morgan under his wing a little bit after all the shit that went down. I mean, you know, it's says a lot.

[00:29:37] Cause I think some of these older guys, um, you know, they're saying like, okay, like let's, let's try to, yeah. The new wave country music has those waves. Right. And you're on that, that new wave right now. And it's cool to see, right.

[00:29:54] Have you met Eric or Morgan talked about that? Cause that's a, that's a really unique thing that I don't think anybody expected when we saw them golfing and shit, we're just like, whoa, what the hell? Like, where did this come from?

[00:30:04] Darius Rucker was looks like he was on an edible on the couch. Hanging out with them. Smoke dog, dude. Uh, he is a smoke dog, man. Um, but yeah, to see Morgan, you know, get surrounded by his idols, man.

[00:30:19] I mean, you know, chief is like his dude, you know, I remember first sitting in writing and talking with Morgan. I'm like, he's just talking about chief and he's talking about Eric and like how big of an influence he is.

[00:30:33] And you know, that's, that's really what we need in this industry is for, you know, for vets and for, you know, people that have paved the way to, to be the big dogs and open the wings up and show us how to do this because, uh, it's wild

[00:30:49] out there, man, you can get really lost in there and, you know, between the alcohol and the dremel and, you know, the women in addiction, man, it's, it's in the music. It's really easy to get lost.

[00:31:00] And, um, you know, we talked about that on living the dream with Morgan. Um, it, we gotta have that man, people gotta step up. And so I'm calling on the big dogs right now to step the fuck up, man, because that's what I'm trying to do.

[00:31:13] Even as not a big dog, you know, just as a songwriter and as a new artist, man, I, I want to help the next Morgan Wallen. I want to help the next Luke Combs and Ernest. Like I want to inspire them.

[00:31:24] I think, I think that's important, man, because, uh, I want to leave this place a little better than we left it, man. With some good music so that we don't have to go through what we had to go through for the last like eight years in country music.

[00:31:35] Shit. Who's a, who's your, like Eric church, you know, to Morgan's, uh, like Eric, like, who's that kind of hero for you where you're like, look up to, and you're like, man, this is my guys, my girls.

[00:31:48] This is like who I, I kind of idolize in this business. I mean, man, it's, I'm going to, I'm going with George straight, man. You know, living is George, man. He's really just set a standard, man. And been a good human.

[00:32:01] There's nobody that stopped listening to his music because he was a bad guy. There just isn't, I know people that have stopped listening to Blake because of what happened, Miranda, like, you know, people that cut them in half, like their fans. Oh, oh my God.

[00:32:18] Either article will post a Miranda thing. And then there's always, it doesn't even matter what it is. Miranda announces a new tour. Cool. Very run of the mill news for a Tuesday afternoon. And then fucking Blake fan is in there like talking shit like that, bitch.

[00:32:35] And then the other way. Yeah. The other way around. And then it's like Blake's a scumbag. Fuck him. And it's like, yeah. Like and these people are just hold on to that. So tight, like so hard to get a life.

[00:32:47] Yeah. But then the person, you know, it's the music, but it's the person. So I think, you know, we need to have role models out there that step up. And I think we've seen that with Church and Wallen. And like the result is incredible.

[00:33:03] Morgan is at the top of his game right now. I've never heard him sound so good. I've never heard the band sound so good. You know, and I think people need to people need to do that sooner, you know, because with, you know, great talent comes great responsibility.

[00:33:21] So I'm trying to keep that in mind as I go. So I get hit up by songwriters all the time. I try to respond to everybody and give them my two cents. So whenever y'all are ready to do a whiskey riff,

[00:33:33] songwriters, a panel or something, man, I'll jump on. Listen to demos with you. Probably fucking yeah, we what's it? We've had a few artists even just about us writing. I was like like. Eight years plus of. Nine, 20,000 blogs that we've done and social media captions,

[00:33:53] and I'm like, we got some fucking ideas for writing, but it's like I got my guitar right over here, man. Wesley's little guitar. Like we let's let's fucking do it. But before you go, my publisher, my publisher's calling. Oh, I got to go. That's all natural, right?

[00:34:09] It's like, hey, I want to write some. Let's write together, man. Come on. All right. Before we let you go, though, real quick, obviously the new album Tears of Size of Texas, amazing stuff. And then you're just touring for what are you going to tour for,

[00:34:26] you know, through this early December, then relax rest of the year. What's the plan? Yeah. December, I think, 14th is the last show with Coe and with Bones Owen. We're doing the NFR, the National Bull Riding NBR,

[00:34:41] National Bull Riding in Vegas, which is going to be really nice, man. I think I try not to cuss right there, mom. But I think, you know, that's going to be a good way to shut it down.

[00:34:52] And then we're pretty much taking the rest of December and January off. And we're working on the next album right now. We're working on the deluxe. We're working on writing new songs. And it's strange to put out a project that I've been holding on to for so long

[00:35:06] and then be like, all right, now go write a new song. Yeah, it is weird, right? It's like your baby almost. And you got to move on to the next one. And then you go back and like.

[00:35:16] Ah, I wish I did it differently, like three artists have always told us that what was that Cody Canada was when he was saying he's like listening to like old records. Oh, yeah. I mean, he basically recut his entire soul gravy record just to like

[00:35:29] I want to read it. He's like, I just grind in my gears for so many years. And he's just like, I wanted to go back and do it differently because I felt like forced to make it. So I can't imagine what that's like for you.

[00:35:40] But I mean, hey, Matt, you got a lot of fans and people were loving when we posted your your music, which we will continue to do. Appreciate that, fellas. I mean, music man. Oh, I sat with Trent Tomlinson the other day. If y'all don't know him.

[00:35:56] Oh, we know that. Y'all know that personally, but yeah. Y'all got to holler at him, man. But he's a you know, he's a great artist and a great songwriter. And I spoke with him the other night. We had a round together and oh, they're coming for me.

[00:36:13] He said, you know, I said, man, I'm so excited about the album. I just feel like it took forever to make. And he goes, man, but that means that you made it perfect and you ain't got no regrets about it. And he's right, man.

[00:36:26] Like I'm not looking back on any of it. I listened to it like two times on the drive and I'm like. Chef's kiss, man. I'm so happy with it and I hope the fans can relate, man.

[00:36:36] I'm excited to hear what people say and what hit me up about songs, man. It just it inspires me to inspire other people. Love it.