Colby Acuff: Whiskey Riff Country Music Madness Championship

[00:00:08] And now, for your Whiskey Riff Raff guest, standing at 6'2", and weighing whatever he weighs, the artist behind Handmade Horsepower, and speaking of, he's got a mane that would make a horse jealous, your 2026 Whiskey Riff Madness Champion, Colby Acuff. Woo! How's it going? The crowd goes wild. Is that awkward? The fan goes wild. Yes.

[00:00:38] No, it was great! I hope that was an awkward. I appreciate it, and my weight is more than it should be. Well, I didn't want to specify. I mean, you can ask an artist's height, but not their weight. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't matter to me. Living and breathing the Whiskey Riff champion. Against all odds. Yeah, against... A true Cinderella story. I wrote down all of them. Chris Stapleton, Red Clay Straits, Dierks Bentley, Whiskey Myers, Shane Smith, and Turnpike. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's start from the beginning. I mean, Chris Stapleton.

[00:01:07] Yeah, it got so out of hand, to be honest. Like, it was... We were on tour out west at the time, and obviously, when it got posted... Honestly, normally, I wouldn't maybe even interact with stuff, to be honest. But the fact that we even got seated made me so excited. And I was like, man, we can make all this funny meme stuff, and no one's going to see it. And then, obviously, a lot of people saw it. Mm-hmm. But when that started, I think...

[00:01:35] I just never thought I'd win the first one, or the second one, or the third one. But we just kept winning. So I was just like, oh. One of the things that did happen that was really funny is when we won, the actual... We won on... It was announced on Monday. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I woke up with a flu that morning. I was... My fever was like over 100, and I was so, so sick. And I just remember the internet, I could see the comments.

[00:02:00] I could barely even see anything, but I'm looking at my phone, and it's like, oh, Colby's awfully quiet today. Like, dying. Yeah. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to celebrate, but... Global timing, yeah. But the vans came through. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, and that's been on tour and stuff this year. That's been a big topic everyone wants to talk about. Oh, awesome. It's like, oh, I just kept voting and kept voting. And people are like, you know, showing up. And for the first probably, I don't know, two months of the tour, you know, we were getting

[00:02:29] big dunk that shit chants and things like that. It seems very organic and fun, so... Was the dunk that shit probably the slogan that stood out the most? Because, I mean, do you believe in miracles? Dunk that shit. Bend the knee. Bend the knee, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was... I kind of started running out of things, you know? I was like, oh, this is going to be a perfect month-long thing, you know? Like, if it went anymore, I might run out. But the dunk that shit is something that me and my band always... Like, it's like a thing that we would say every now and then, and it's actually from... I believe it's from a movie.

[00:02:59] I think it's from Anger Management. Okay. I'm going to send this guy to, like, a gambling rehab class. And they show highlights of people, like, missing lay-ins. And he's a big basketball guy and he freaks out and he's like, you gotta dunk that shit! You gotta dunk that shit! And so I just did it. That was, like, one of the very first ones that we did. And that really took off, so it was good. It was just a lot of fun.

[00:03:22] I mean, anybody that I've interacted with and talked to about it, it's like, just how you kind of took that and ran with it... Yeah. ...was obviously, I think, beneficial for both parties because I think it was, like, the most interacted with bracket that Whiskey Riff has ever done. So that's mostly thanks to your fans. Well, there was a... Yeah, I mean, it got so... I mean, by day two we had people making, like, custom printing shirts and bringing them to shows.

[00:03:49] You know, I mean, it got instantly very crazily out of hand. Mm-hmm. Which obviously I'm very thankful for. Especially because, you know, we were in the beginning of this album rollout and I was... I remember, like, in February, I remember we're laying it all out and we're talking through the process and I was like, man, March is gonna be tough because I have no idea what we're gonna post. We had no plan for March. But then this thing was just kind of presented itself and so we just followed it down the rabbit hole for a month. It was great. Lots of memes.

[00:04:19] Meme maker. Lots of memes, yeah. I made all those, by the way. Nice. That's another question that people have. They're like, so who made all those? I'm like... You're looking at them, yeah. This guy. Mm-hmm. And so when you're sitting down and, like, you basically are planning your content calendar, that's just you really doing that, like... Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I've tried to have, like, calendars and all... It just doesn't work. I just do it day by day. I just wake up, figure out what I'm gonna post. But, like, that we were on the road. Mm-hmm. And so I would be in the van just...

[00:04:47] I was crushing a monster, listening to, like, live shows on Nugs and just, like, making memes as they come out. But they got, like, in a way it got way harder because we started, you know, going up against people who are way in the vein.

[00:05:04] You know, once we started getting up against Red Clay and Shane Smith and Whiskey Myers and Turnpike, like, really kind of after Dierks, it was so much more in the vein or, like, even people I know, people I've gone the road with and whatever. Um, for example, like, Red Clay, I really struggled. I didn't know... I didn't wanna, you know, they're, like, my friends and I really like them and I didn't wanna cut to the bone too bad. But then they were, like, they posted the thing of, like, bend the knee.

[00:05:32] And that's when I got that whole other piece. It was great. They kind of teed it up for me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, it all, I don't know, it all ended up working out. And I wish we had some sort of, like, huge trophy. I guess maybe we should have had that prepared, but... No, I think it's so much more fitting. Okay. You know, it's like, what do you get? You get nothing. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, it's, I mean, that's about what it deserves. It's not like... Yeah, I mean, it's more of a, it's really a fan vote. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:06:01] It's an award, and it just, yeah, goes to speak to your fans and the excitement people had for a true underdog story. Yeah, yeah. And, like, really the whole, I mean, the trophy of it is just, like, the actual piece of it, right? Mm-hmm. Like, once you hit the middle of it, you start to really realize how great it can be. Mm-hmm. The other thing that I thought was great about it, like, more on an analytics side for us was there's always, like, right now, especially with the way socials work, is I feel like it's

[00:06:29] so much harder now, like, if you follow somebody, you might, like, all of a sudden never see their content again, which is a very strange situation. Oh, yeah. But one thing that we saw was that was actually a thing that was getting through to followers on, like, a massive level more than we have in a long time, which I found very interesting. Yeah. That is interesting. Yeah. I think it was just because people who followed me were sending it to people who followed me as well. Yeah. You know, and that was the shares and everything. But still, I mean, it was a good deal. And that is kind of a frustrating thing about social media now, is that, like, whenever I was

[00:06:59] first interacting with it, I guess whenever it first kind of came around, makes me feel old saying that, but it's like, you know, it was a time-based thing. It's like, as long as you posted it, you were seeing things kind of in chronological order. Right. Now it's like, things are all algorithm-based and I'm sure it's frustrating for an artist. I mean, if you want to really get in the weeds, like, I remember when this whole thing started, you know, for me, which would have been like 2020-ish, like, right in the beginning of COVID, it was all about listeners. It was all about monthly listeners.

[00:07:26] And I remember like having my very first, you know, conversations with labels and they're like, well, you're not, your listenership's not where we want it to be. Or I didn't, you know, it wasn't where I wanted it to be. And then, um, you could, you know, post on TikTok, especially in the early days. And you could see like a great one-to-one of like, oh, I found this artist. I'm going to go listen to his music. Whereas now, you know, then I, well, then it actually shifted to followers. It went from monthlies to followers. And when it shifted to followers, that was a tough time because there was definitely

[00:07:54] moments where I was losing some vestful slots. People had more followers than me, but my consumption numbers was like six X what theirs were. That's crazy. Yeah. Not that the followership was, uh, was more, but just like that. That's how people were choosing to fill lineups. I mean, yeah, it's how the industry has always worked in one way or another. But yeah, like it just switched on a dime all of a sudden.

[00:08:18] And from, you know, uh, 2022 to 2023 to 2024, all of a sudden now they didn't like, they're not even asking you what your ticket sales were. They're not asking, they're just asking for, they're just looking at the follower count and they're just doing that chronologically. But then I think the socials, like the, the powers that be just found so much more value in virality. And so like the algorithm now, like if you look at your analytics, when you post almost always, it's going to be a 20, 80, no matter how many views it gets, it's going to be 80%

[00:08:48] of non followers because they're always just trying to give it to a new batch of people who don't follow you. Um, which I think is frustrating because now what's, what is the metric? How many views your videos have? Or I don't know, like now it's a little bit up in the air, hard to wrangle down. I also think of like how many people, like the normal person follows like a couple thousand sometimes. Like how do you even see all that? Like how many people are creating? How many people like, you know? Yeah.

[00:09:17] But like you think about it, like people honestly, I mean, I bet people are on their phone five, six hours a day scrolling. Oh yeah. I mean. For us, probably longer, but. Yeah. I mean, most weekdays I'm not doing too much. So yeah, I mean, but yeah, the, but so much of your content that you're getting on your phone is not from who you follow anyway. So it is, it is interesting, but yeah, like, I don't know. It's a lot. It is a lot.

[00:09:44] And it's getting to be where even like music, um, I think shows, you know, obviously social visuals, but they're all just like very saturated. There's so many artists and so many things to say and do and whatever. It's just, I think it's like overwhelming for people. And we've talked to artists, uh, before and they've talked about how it feels kind of overwhelming to have that as another thing that they have to keep up with, which I'm

[00:10:10] assuming like it, it always seems like whenever I see your stuff that you're putting out, you're having a lot of fun with it. But I know that, you know, at the basis of things, it's still like you're having to do this to kind of support the other thing. Yeah. I mean, I don't mind making content. I really don't. But I do. I just don't like the way that I guess the algorithm works. Yeah. Like for instance, you know, I like on TikTok, I have like 150,000 followers.

[00:10:38] If every day I could post a video that went to 150,000 people, it'd be fine. Oh yeah. But that's not how it works, which is bullshit. Yeah. To be honest. Yeah. Um, I think your very first test batch should be the 150,000 people that follow you or whatever, however many people that follow you, that should be the test batch that gets the original post. Yeah. Like that, how does that make sense to me? You know what I mean? So I don't know.

[00:11:05] Um, but yeah, content, it's a whole nother creative thing. It's like cooking music, content, all those things. I don't mind doing all of them, but the discouragement of like posting something that you think is good, that doesn't get to your ideal audience. They want to see things from you. You can't reach them. So who am I making this for? Right. And it's also, I mean, I'm sure there's times where it can be frustrating because cooking content, music that all takes time.

[00:11:34] So it's like, what, what do I need to be spending my time doing the most of what am I going to be rewarded for the most? Yeah. More time into it. Yeah. But like, that means that I'm spending all my time creating, which is good. You know, I don't see it. It's hard for me to see that as a negative, I guess. But like, once again, it's more just the discouragement because I truly believe that artistry and confidence are just the same thing. They're just the same word.

[00:11:59] Like the artist is a very confident person who, you know, I mean, 99% of the time I act like a complete dumbass, you know, like I have no shame. But that being said, like, if I'm going to spend all this time doing these things and you know, I think this is good or funny or whatever, and I want to put it out, like, I just would like it to go to the people that, you know, have already asked to see it versus me trying to then build my account. Like, cause let's be real.

[00:12:25] Like, I don't, like, I don't aspire for like, you know, the biggest thing on the planet. I mean, I'm a big believer in like, enough is enough, you know, and like, I have a, I have a pretty good, you know, I, I get to make music for a living. I've been doing this for a while. I have fans, you know, I'm not like selling out big, big shows or anything, but it's sustainable. And if it can get a little bit bigger, then we'll be really like gravy train biscuit wheels, baby, you know, but.

[00:12:54] We're going to get into the music definitely. But another piece of content that you have made is Finn and Feather. Yeah. Which I would love for you to just talk about how that came to be. And yeah, just, you know, it's one of those things where, cause obviously I was a guide. Well, maybe not obviously, but I was a fly fishing guide before I played music. Um, and it's always been something on my mind to like, you know, I grew up watching a lot of fishing videos and hunting videos.

[00:13:24] And I just always thought that that would be a cool thing to give back to, especially because I think a lot of the hunting and fishing media space is so kind of tells maybe the wrong narrative sometimes. Um, so my goal was just to essentially go hunt and fish with these guides and these outfitters and let them talk about the resource that they work every day. And I just be a client for a day. It's great. I just go fish and hunt.

[00:13:54] I don't have to do too much. Smart. Yeah. Um, but it's worked out really well. And, you know, last year I think we put out, well, we, we put out seven out, but we have six more in the hopper. So, you know, while it is kind of a side project and maybe it's not getting, you know, as much attention from me personally right now, we're also rolling out this album and all these other things, but definitely expect more Finn and Feather videos to come out.

[00:14:20] And truly it's just a, there is a lack of maybe respect knowledge. Maybe it's a culture problem. I don't know. I think it's like anything though. People are just in general, maybe a little upset with the situation for hunting and fishing right now. And so everyone gets arguments about it. But I think the reality is, is like, we're all looking for a common goal and we should

[00:14:47] listen to these people who, you know, are on it every day and give them a platform to say what they want. Yeah. I think that's smart. So that, that's kind of what you were saying whenever you, you thought that the stuff that already existed was kind of pushing it, the wrong narrative or a misunderstood. Yeah. I mean like, for example, like in hunting or duck hunting, for example, cause that's really what the whole show, like the hunting side of it's all about duck hunting.

[00:15:10] But like, I think people maybe nowadays like the sport because they, they have seen so many videos of people killing and stacking ducks and like, oh, it's just all about how many ducks you can kill, how many ducks you can kill. And like, that's why everyone's so mad because they're like, well, we're not killing that many ducks. Well, yeah. Like a pretty fun part of it is shooting a limit. Like I get it. You know, that's, that is a fun day is when you go in and you shoot a stack of birds. It's awesome.

[00:15:38] But that's not why I love duck hunting. Cause I was sitting in a duck blind when I was five years old with my dad at sunrise, watching the birds work, learning how to call, working the dogs. There's like so many other factors that I care so much more about the process. Yeah. Then it's, I mean, it's like an art form in itself or like with fishing, you know, one of the models we have at Finn and Feather is like, no one gives a shit how big your fish is. We just want to do it again tomorrow. Like I, I don't care. Catching big fish is fun. Catching a lot of fish is fun. Going fishing is fun.

[00:16:08] Like it's, it's all a piece of it. Right. You know, but this, the, the whole like trophy thing is it's hard cause it doesn't lead the sport anywhere. And also leads back to like the social media issue again. Totally. That's where everyone's comparing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's where I think the culture thing maybe is a little off. Um, you, you start really riding that line between like killing and hunting or catching and fishing versus conservation.

[00:16:37] And like this, the whole other piece of it that makes it good for tomorrow is kind of thrown out the window when it's just all about, well, how many days in a row can I go kill a limited ducks? You know, it was just kinda. Well, it's, it's interesting, you know, not an, it's interesting. And it's also, I think very fitting that you care about that process because it's so very clear that you care about the process of making music and connecting with your fans.

[00:17:02] And I know last year, uh, whenever you released, uh, Enjoy the Ride, that was I think number five on Whiskey Riffs albums of the year. Mm-hmm. Yes. Um, so obviously there was a lot of great, um, response to that album. And then now you're rolling out another, uh, album that I already said in an announcer voice, uh, earlier in the podcast, uh, Handmade Horsepower, which I believe will be out by the time this episode drops. Yes. So we can talk about it as, yeah, well, I mean, I would talk about it anyway. Yeah. Talk about it however you want.

[00:17:32] Um, but I mean, that's, that's another thing. I guess you keep a pretty good pace of about an album every year, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. There's a little bit of layover there too. I mean, I think this is my, I think it's the seventh record in six years or whatever. So there's a little bit of a rollover there, but yeah, I mean, this whole year is about a rebrand for me. Mm-hmm . It's like, it took me, I left the label and then it took me probably, uh, a year and a

[00:18:01] half to actually figure out like what I want the rest of my career to look like. And in a way I, I kind of want it to look like that there's no rules and that we can do whatever. I'd rather be known as a creative, I guess, than I would as a talking head or something else to that degree. So, um, but yeah, this whole record is kind of planting the flag in the sand or drawing

[00:18:27] the line of sand, planting the flag, whatever you want to say, um, of just maybe what to expect out of us kind of in the future. Going back to that, I don't know, rock and roll, but also seventies outlaw sound, trying to find, you know, that little piece of magic. Yeah. And you had previously said, I think that you, uh, wanted this project to be the one that you were known for. Do you feel like you delivered with handmade horsepower in that, in that goal? Yeah. Yeah. Sonically for sure.

[00:18:53] You know, whether or not that happens, I don't know, but I know that we'll be playing these songs for a long time because they're fun to play. They're great. It's, it's fits the thing that we want to do. And I don't know, I think in general, I mean, this might be a hot take, but I think in general, the, the front facing stuff of country music, I believe is getting lamer every day to be honest.

[00:19:17] Um, which, you know, come at me if you disagree, but I just think in general, like it's, it's getting to the point now where, cause I remember as a kid, I grew up on a lot of stuff that my parents listened to, which was like Elton John, Waylon, Willie, weirder things, the outsides of the genre. And so like when I came into, you know, being in middle school or high school, I started gravitating towards things that were way counterculture, like green day and fallout boy,

[00:19:47] like all this punk stuff really early on. Um, but then I found Sturgill and Turnpike and these other outer lying things in country that I just loved, but country music, it's like anything. If it doesn't have counterculture and that counterculture isn't celebrated, it becomes singular. And inherently I think singularity is lame. Yeah. Well, it's, it's, we've had such like a, a rollercoaster doing the podcast because especially like last year, it was just like country music's at its peak.

[00:20:17] It's what it felt like, you know? And then it kind of feels like we're on the come down right now, which is kind of weird. It's just so funny because, you know, technically this year is country's peak. Yes. Like we just surpassed hip hop or whatever. But to me it feels like, yeah, I'm like, I feel like the bell curve is this. Um, and I just saw a graph the other day in a post that it was celebrate. It was talking about how country had surpassed hip hop because to me right now, I feel like

[00:20:45] rock and roll is going to be a black hole that consumes every genre here pretty soon in, and I could not be more excited about it, but rock in the graph was at the very bottom. And country had just kind of gone up a little bit over hip hop, which to me, that tells me that we're about to see the, the old switcheroo. We just had a Dexter and the moon rocks in here and we talked a lot about that. Um, but there's, there have been a couple of bands like in country music that have always

[00:21:12] been kind of doing rock, like whiskey Myers, who's going to be in Nashville tomorrow night, which I'm not excited about. Um, but so it's like, they've, they've always been doing it. So I'm wondering like if that's going to like put them up even higher than they already are because like they're already at a pretty high level or if it's going to just kind of like do the inverse for the smaller bands. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, that is a tough, I don't know. Like that's where you're like, I don't know. I can't see the future that way. But something that I have been saying

[00:21:40] is like in country music, in the outlying things, we have people like Marcus King, unbelievably talented and great songwriter shreds bands. Awesome. I mean, it's truly probably one of the best things in music, all genre right now. The fact that he isn't like selling out stadiums and stuff tells me kind of all I need to know. Yeah. Not always the best is

[00:22:08] going to. It should be. Yeah, it should be. And like, I remember though, way, you know, maybe 2011 on like maybe till 2020. I remember that if you listen to country music, because it wasn't cool in the early two thousands, especially. And like, you know, you grew up on like Tim McGraw and Toby Keith and all these things. And maybe as you get a little bit older, you're like, eh, I don't know, I'm looking for something different. And then, you know, if you were a person who fell in love with Whiskey Myers or Sturgill, Metamodern came out or, uh,

[00:22:38] Turnpike and you found Diamonds and Gasoline or Ryan Bingham, any of that stuff, you kind of, you found something cool to latch onto and something that you grew up in. So there was a nostalgic piece of it, but it was cool. There was the listener. There was extremely critical. Like I remember in college having large, large debates about why country is cool and showing people those songs. But I don't

[00:23:04] know if I'm necessarily seeing that in the country consumer today, but I am seeing it in rock and roll. Yeah. Where they're like, oh no, you should really listen to Turnstile or you should really listen to the Benz because of these reasons. Um, or like Dexter and the Moon Rocks. There are really cool pieces of it, but it definitely feels like it is either rock and roll or it's like in this mainstream light. Mm-hmm. And whenever you said, uh, you know, the front facing things that you're seeing are lame. I can't

[00:23:30] help but wonder. And I just wonder how you see it, uh, from an artist perspective. It's like the front facing stuff. I felt like used to be pushed by radio. And now I don't feel like radio is as prominent as far as how people discover music just because, you know, that's not how people consume music as much anymore. Right. But why is it that the front facing stuff is still breaking through? Is it, is it just an algorithm thing again? No, I think it's, I think this is the piece that is the hardest. And this is kind of the

[00:24:00] same thing I was talking about with Marcus is that it's just, it's being celebrated. Mm-hmm. Which I, it's fine. Like, like that's, if that is what the thing is going to be, then that's all right. You know, I'm not saying that it's wrong. I'm just saying that is not what I do. And so as an artist who is in this space and I've been here for, I don't know, six, seven years now doing this thing, watching that, that not be as celebrated as a whole, I mean, shit, it's not like, you know, we all get

[00:24:26] together as like the fringe artists and we're like, man, it's going great right now. Or like, you know what I mean? We're, we're not doing that thing. We're all sitting around going, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll just get into another bracket or something. Yeah. Like, yeah. And I, and I, you know, it's not a complaint and I'm not trying to be cynical about it, but I do look at the

[00:24:50] future right now as being extremely exciting because I think rock and roll is really exciting right now. Mm-hmm. But it looks to me at least like there is a path. Mm-hmm. There is something there to grasp onto. Um, and it's not a problem and I don't really mean to be mean, I guess, when I say that the front-facing things are... No, I don't, I don't think it's coming off as that. ...lame. I just don't, I don't find the interesting piece in it, but it is being celebrated so that, yeah.

[00:25:19] Yeah. Yeah. There you go. It's just, it's a very interesting perspective as an artist, one, and then an artist with your like independent career and how it's changed over as well. Yeah. I mean, no one's ever going to be able to say that we didn't do it our way. Yeah. Sure. But yeah, I mean, and I don't, I don't know. I was having this conversation yesterday. I don't, and I don't find it discouraging. That's like the other piece of it.

[00:25:44] Um, I just, I mean, a piece of my brain loves to solve problems or, you know, find solutions. And I don't know, sometimes it's like maybe the thing that you're looking for like doesn't exist within the thing that you're in. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it might be somewhere else, which is fine because I don't really think that even, I don't even know, you know, we are a country artist group. But I don't even know if like genre can really hold us in too bad.

[00:26:12] Yeah. And I'm really looking forward to the new album because I love, you know, that kind of rock sound as well. And it's always nice when, you know, your favorite artists mix it up and doesn't do exactly what you're expecting from them. Yeah. Yeah. And the people that are looking for something like that, you know, we're not that hard to find when it comes to that. You know, we, I think the people that know who we are and the people who consume our stuff, they're always excited for the next thing because it's always different. Um, and we're, you know, we're always going to be doing something different or weird or outside.

[00:26:40] And I've taken a lot of pride, especially this year in like, you know what? Okay. Like if we're going to be like the black sheep and like live in East Nashville and do that whole side of things, we might as well do it. I'm, I don't think that like, another piece of it I think is I talked to a lot of people who, um, you know, are on the outside and they don't live in Nashville. And they're like, well, I don't really want to move to Nashville because like for all the reasons I just said.

[00:27:09] Mm-hmm. And my big thing is like, yeah, well, the, the scene for us can't exist if we're not all here. Like there, if there's no scene, then we're all isolated. And then that's what happens. I mean, the reason, I mean, Music Row and downtown and the labels and they all do a really good job because they have a scene. They all like take each other with them and they build themselves up and, you know, they do that really, really well. And it's cool in that way. Um, but we need something like that as well.

[00:27:38] So I always try to encourage people to move here because if we had a scene, then it would inevitably get bigger. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And another thing that I noticed, I'm sure anybody will notice is that, uh, handmade horsepower, all caps, every song, all caps. That's intentional because you're trying to, is this like, is it a frustration thing or is it, you're trying to make that a loud message?

[00:28:04] Every single song that comes through, what's the, what's the idea behind it? Yeah. It's just loud. Yeah. It's in your face. It's loud. It's, um, you know, I don't know. I mean, I, I would say like it was in a group chat and it was like, Hey, should we do all caps or not? And I'm like, yeah, let's do all caps. That's kind of how that decision came to be. Um, I wish I could say it was a super artistic thing, but yeah, I, I wanted it to be loud and in your face. You know, it's the handmade horsepower thing. It's, it's a pride on the fact that obviously it's made by humans. It's not like an AI bit, climb tree.

[00:28:34] Um, but it is, it is supposed to be loud. And really the whole goal of it sonically was, I didn't want it to sound like you're traveling backwards in time and listening to a 70s song. I really wanted it to sound like something that was familiar, but very new. And so the analogy for me is always like, it's a trip that's sideways a little bit in time where you can't really put your finger on where, you know, these things.

[00:28:59] But we inherently, you know, made it sound old, but with like newer melodies, maybe a little stronger guitar presence or things like that. Yeah. And you just played at the basement East and you played some of those songs and the crowd was definitely into it. How have you seen, you know, the tour this year be a little bit different than years past? Well, I mean, the way we've set up the, the set list this year has been like in the front half, it's like, okay, like we'll play the hits. Here's some time breeze. Here's some when I see you again.

[00:29:29] And it's a little bit more of like that bluegrass side, the mountain music, if you will, that we've done for a long time. And I still think, you know, this is still a side of mountain music. I'm just seeing the landscape change and I want to be a part of whatever is going to happen next. And I love that sound as well. So I'm totally willing to jump into this. And then the second half of the set is the future. It is rock and roll and loud shit. And it's a little unhinged.

[00:29:57] And we, you know, we're trying to tell our message in the second half and it's been great. You know, we kind of turn into like a little bit of a rock and roll jam band in the second half. It's 30 minutes of straight music. There's no talking. There's really no bullshit that comes along with it. And I don't know. I've just been loving it. I love that. Yeah. I unfortunately didn't make it to the show. I think I was out of town or something. I feel like I'm always out of town. It was a Friday night in Nashville. I was like, if anyone is in town.

[00:30:26] But I haven't had a chance to listen to any of the songs except for the ones that are out like right now because we're recording this earlier than when this episode is coming out. But please tell me that Dead Man Tell No Tales was inspired by like a Pirates of the Caribbean binge or something like that. Yeah. So kind of. So like when we were talking about the rebrand this year, there was actually something I saw about country artists or American artists in general.

[00:30:54] It's this really funny take where it was like in America, it doesn't matter what genre you're in. You're either a cowboy or a pirate. But that's like how these things break down. And I was like, you know, what's funny is I'm not a cowboy at all. And we've always referred to our band as like land pirates. You know, we show up in our janky ass fucking van and trailer and we play a show. We burn it down for a night and then we get in and we leave. Go to the next one. Go to the next one. You know, and we are like pirates in that sense.

[00:31:25] And so when I saw that, I was like, oh, we're totally pirates. And so I wanted to start leaning into that piece of things. And so I had a title written down, Dead Man Tell No Tales. Yeah. The funny thing, though, sonically, that song is like pretty much based off of like Willie. It's like if you took every Willie song and just like press it into one, it's kind of this song. Yeah.

[00:31:47] And it's a story song about a guy who, you know, essentially just like he's in and out of jail and he like gets into a gambling thing and a knife fight and all these things. But his thing is he'll take it to the grave because Dead Man Tell No Tales. So anyway, that's kind of that song. Story behind it. Just had to ask. It's great. Love the title. Yeah. Yeah. It's very fun. And are you writing with, you know, the same people that you kind of always have or are you mixing it up for this album as well? This record I wrote all by myself. Completely by yourself.

[00:32:15] My first all by myself record since I think Honky Tonk. So, yeah. Yeah. It was important to me, especially with some of the content that I was writing. It's very like against the grain here. Obviously, like lipstick on a pig is literally just a giant fuck you. But the reality is like I had to do this on my own.

[00:32:41] If I was going to do this big rebrand and, you know, make this kind of record and do all this stuff, I just felt like this creatively for me as an artist for growth. I just felt like this was my thing to do. So that's what I did. Do you feel like even when you like something as simple as like watching a movie that it's all just like kind of content getting ready to like help you song right later? Depends. Sometimes. Yeah. It depends on if I'm feeling creative.

[00:33:09] Like inspiration can come from anything. But it's only if, you know, because there's 10 songs or I guess 11, but really 10 on this record. And I wrote all of them. I wrote, well, five of them in June. And then I wrote another, I guess, seven because a couple didn't make it. And I wrote seven in the month of October or November. We cut it in December. Okay. Because I don't know. Sometimes I write. Sometimes I don't.

[00:33:39] But there's no reason to try and force it. I'm not good at that. And with Lipstick on a Pig, that seems like that was a cathartic writing process. It also feels as though it would be a very cathartic playing process. Like now you get to play that song and it could be one of those staples that stays with you throughout your career. Like that's something that you love, right? Like that's the F you that you gave to everything that you've experienced and everything that's happening.

[00:34:05] And now you get to do that like on a, well, not a daily basis unless that's how you, you know, sing in the shower or something. But every time you step on stage, you can do that. Yeah. It gets a very mixed reaction. I think the reality is for me, it's just like, man, I, like my, I guess, media of expression should always be music.

[00:34:28] And so I find it strange that it's okay for me to like make a video about it where I'm like, hey, what's going on with country these days? But if I write a song about it, it's like, whoa, dude, what are you doing? It's like, no, that's, if I'm, if we're all thinking it and we're all talking about it, why the hell shouldn't we sing about it and express about it? Because that's kind of, that is the medium. And I, I would hate for it to be taken as like, well, everybody that does this thing is wrong. Cause that's really not what I'm saying.

[00:34:58] But I don't think anybody who works in this town is like, oh yeah, man, like the system, it works so well. Damn, this thing is not broken. Like, yeah, everybody knows and they've known for years and it's okay. But like someone should write something about it. And it happens to, I think it's the catchiest one you put out. Like it gets stuck in my head all the time. So happens to also do that, which is great. Yeah.

[00:35:22] I mean, it is a great song along with that, but yeah, I just, I think the, the creative process for this whole thing was trying to find out where I fit in Nashville. And the answer was, I don't. So I should do that. It's pretty easy. And when you say, you know, mixed reactions from that song, like where are you, where are you hearing? Obviously, I'm assuming your fans love it, but it's like you're hearing from other places that it's like, whoa. You know, like you said.

[00:35:47] Oh, you know, it'd be like an example would be like all of a sudden we are in this rock side of the set and people are like, what's going on here? Because like if you were only following along through, let's say like If I Were the Devil as a record and maybe you missed the last few years or like, let's say you were there for Devil and then you were there for Pines.

[00:36:08] You're expecting in like an entire set of Americana, slow songs, whatever, you know, which we've never really done. But you might be expecting that if you've never seen our show. And then you get like 35 minutes of just getting your face melted off and people might be like, what the hell is going on here? But I think maybe that's the whole piece of it that is so fun for us is we can do both. Surprising people. Yeah.

[00:36:33] And like, you know, my mom will be like, oh, you heard anything bad about lipstick on a desert? So your mom is the next review. She can't do that. She definitely can. She's sometimes, you know, she's like, what are you doing? I don't know. Do you get a lot of DMs from like fans and just also sharing their opinions as well? Yeah. I mean, I think. Well, yeah, especially with this. I mean, I think. This is something that.

[00:37:03] I hope, you know, for me that this is a little bit of a. I don't mind if it's a weed out record. I know that sounds bad, but like for the people who maybe they're like, oh, this really isn't for me. I miss like the that early softer stuff. That's fine. But like you can still listen to that. But this is where we're going. And I think this for me is a way easier thing to get maybe some new people on board.

[00:37:29] But the people that get it, which is I would say like 97 percent of the people who listen to me already are super stoked. And we did that. We released the first edition vinyl like three weeks ago. We sold sold them out. It's very small group of people that could get them. But in there we left. I wrote them two letters. And the first one is like, here's listen to this before or read this before listening. Read this after.

[00:37:56] And we gave them an opportunity to essentially write me a letter back. Although we forgot to put the envelopes in there. A little bit of a logistic problem. But a lot of people ended up just going and getting stamps and DMing me and asking me where should I send the letter. And they're just writing back handwritten reviews essentially. So I'm like critique it. Tell me what you want. And most all of them have said that this is their favorite record by far that I've come out with, which is good review from fan. So I feel good about that.

[00:38:24] And what a cool way to get that feedback rather than the instant feedback that the Internet offers. It's like people can actually sit down, think, write down what they're thinking. And choose to send. Yeah. And then seal it up and send it off. Yeah. Yeah. And we did a couple things on purpose with this record. One, it's the shortest record I've ever put out. It's 31 minutes. So it's short. You can sit down and listen to the whole thing basically on your commute to work. I wanted that to be a preference. Like everything is so long now.

[00:38:54] Like and I get it. Like during COVID, yeah, give me 36 songs to listen to. During COVID, yeah, make an hour or a three-hour movie because I got nothing going on. But we're still in this delayed thing out of that where for some reason movies are still three hours and records are 100 songs or whatever. And it's like, nah. Let's go back. Let's make things shorter. Let's give people a chance because I'm, you know, I mean, I don't care who you are.

[00:39:21] A lot of songs, nine, 10, so on, bottom of the record. They're not seeing much. So let's make it short. Let's make it consumable. Let's give something that, you know, people can enjoy as a whole, as a unit. And I'm trying to essentially give this record away as many times as I can. I gave it to them on vinyl. I sent out songs to ticket buyers, all the singles before they even knew that there were singles coming out essentially.

[00:39:51] We have some other things coming up very soon. Actually, I'll just, I can talk about it now because it'll come out later. But we made a whole movie for this record. And so there's a 31-minute short film that plays with the entire record. So like right now, if you go on YouTube and look up Handmade Horsepower, Colby Acuff, and you want to listen to the whole record, it'll be a movie that plays the whole record versus like just the album cover that plays the whole record essentially.

[00:40:22] But I gave or I will be here in a couple days. I will be giving that whole movie, the entire record. I'll just be giving it to people via an unlisted YouTube link in five days. So if you bought a ticket this year, if you bought merch and we have your email, if I can get this to you, I'm going to send it to you and you'll get the record. And where's your inspiration to do this come from?

[00:40:50] I mean, I just think this year the motto is like do everything opposite. And there's so many, like so many things that people don't know, obviously. But like, you know, people don't give away. Like I think people don't realize right now, probably, unfortunately, one of the least valuable things that an artist has right now is their music. And it's essentially free already.

[00:41:20] Like between the songwriters and people who own the masters and the labels and whatever else. Like, unfortunately, the thing that holds little, no value right now is actually your songs. And so I thought about that and I said, you know what, you're right. So if it's free, let's actually give it to them for free four or five times before we do anything. But let's make it fun and creative and like let's go ahead and lean in. Like you might as well.

[00:41:45] And if the people who really care about this thing just end up caring about it even more, that's really all I'm – that's what I'm looking for. And giving value to something that maybe nowadays doesn't have as much value. And so people listening, that means if music isn't worth a lot, go buy tickets, go buy merch to really support your favorite artists. Or listen to the music all the time. Yeah.

[00:42:07] You know, there's still plenty of money to be made on streaming, but I just feel like – you know, a piece of it is like, man, you write a 30-minute record. But you have to somehow promote it within a 30-second video or better yet, a 10-second video. So that is also where the movie comes into play. We're like, OK, let's have this massive long-form piece of content that we can break down as we choose and kind of have fun with it.

[00:42:34] And then when they actually want to go consume it, they'll just watch this whole thing and then they also get to listen to the record. Yeah, multitasking opportunity. A little double entertainment. Are you starring in it? Yeah. That's what I figured. Yeah. Yeah. Me and my creative director wrote it, and it's really funny. It's kind of like if The Big Lebowski was in No Country for Old Men. And so it follows me as playing this kind of like degenerate piece of shit guy.

[00:43:04] We shot it just outside of Vegas. So like everything is out in the desert. But like all of the canvases and pretty much anything you've seen up until now, all those videos, that's all pieces from the movie. OK. Got it. It's that kind of vibe. Awesome. That sounds super exciting, yeah. And is any of the inspiration to kind of give the fans music from Sturgill, who also did something kind of similar this year? Yeah.

[00:43:30] So, I mean, before any of that happened, when I started this rebrand thing, I was starting to think of modern artists that obviously I really like, but also that have done things differently and been celebrated. And really, I just kind of kept coming back to Sturgill because he's kind of the only guys who's really done that, really. There's a few guys, you know, like there's some against the grain guys, but not like that. And then the other thing I realized with Sturgill is like, God damn, this guy's got like a monopoly on this thing.

[00:43:59] Like no one else is doing this thing. And why? Because I don't know. So I'm like, well, we can do that. Like we're just dumb enough where we can kind of take maybe some pieces of what he does and maybe we can just do it with a different little twist and maybe just more. You know, we can because I think he. The thing with Sturgill that I love is he does things differently, but he doesn't. Give more than he needs maybe sometimes.

[00:44:28] And I can because he doesn't have to, but I can and I need to. So I will. And so I can just kind of be on that little section of things. But yeah, I like. I hope that I could be known for, like I said, being a creative, being different, doing those things. That would be the thing that I would like to have taken away. Yeah.

[00:44:52] And earlier whenever you said that, you know, the show might startle some fans because it's like you're just playing straight rock music for 30 minutes and you're not talking. It's like that immediately made me think of Sturgill because that's something that he's really good at. Some people get it and some people don't. Yeah. And I really appreciate it. Like I like when an artist stands up and tells a story or like a background on the song or something. But then it was also like whenever I saw Sturgill that one time in Nashville, I looked down at my watch. I was like, he's been playing for an hour and a half. He hasn't said anything.

[00:45:22] This is awesome. There's just something. There's a component of it. I think for me what a big piece of it, too, was I was, you know, trying to figure out where I wanted to go with this whole thing. And we played stagecoach last year and Sturgill was direct support for Jelly Roll. It was super interesting. You got 90,000 people there, you know, ready to go. They're all in line. You know, I don't know how many people are there to see Sturgill. I don't know. I mean, shit. Stagecoach, like, who knows?

[00:45:51] Could have been 20,000 people that knew who he was and 10,000 were there to see him. I have no idea. I was there. I was in the pit, third row. Rock on. But, like, when he came out, he just mailed it in for, like, the first six songs. And he could tell. I think he could tell that, like, maybe people didn't know. So then he just kind of stopped caring, I think. And he just. Then they just ripped and just went and went and went. And there was a piece of that for me where I was like, you know what? Hell yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:21] Like, there's. It's so hard because so much of this industry now is every day you got to wake up and prove yourself of, like, why you're worthy to be listened to. It's the only non-benefit of, like, the gatekeeping going away. Is that now you, like, there's no critique or there's no person to be like, okay, this is why this is good. It's just people are like, I like it or I don't or whatever.

[00:46:47] And so a little piece of it of, like, well, I don't have to prove shit to anybody. This is what we do. He wore his own merch on stage. No light show. You know, they just played. It was cool. It's like the most primal version of what it is. And I think for me as an artist, it's very inspiring. Maybe as a consumer, you know, I can get it. It's not the most entertaining thing in the world. But I get what he's doing. Well, and it's if you're a fan of what's happening or the artist that's on stage, I think it does connect in a way.

[00:47:17] Like, it's a very intimate, personal thing. Whereas, yeah, if you're trying to win people over, it might not be necessarily the, you know, the best move. But I still feel like there's a valuable component of, you know, like you've been talking about just being different, doing something different. Because everything, it's very easy just to fit right into everything that's happening. Yeah, and like, let's be honest. I mean, if there's 90,000 people there at Stagecoach and probably the majority of them, you know, we can pick through that lineup and figure out who they're there to hear.

[00:47:46] Is Sturgill being direct support for Jelly Roll? What is he going to do to win, you know, let's say 50,000 people that night who are there to see Jelly Roll to become Sturgill fans? From what he, what's in his bag? I don't know. Nothing. Like, he did the thing that he probably could have done the best to get the people who maybe were like, ah, should I even stay for Jelly Roll? I don't know. That person is like, oh, that's really cool. Yeah.

[00:48:15] That's, and that, you know, we've spent so much time over the last three years opening for people. That's, I've joked that it's like, oh yeah, Colby Acuff, like all-time opener band. That's like kind of been our thing. But I, last year when we were out with John Party, that was a piece that I was really thinking about. Because it was us, Jake Worthington, and John. And when people are there and they're like, I bought this ticket to see John Party. When Jake comes out, there's way more of a one-to-one there. You know, he's got the cowboy hat. And I love Jake.

[00:48:45] Super talented. Great writer. But he's got, he's got the Texas swing and he's got like the real country shit and like the George Jones thing. And it's awesome. But we go out there. You know, we're like, okay, we're like a little more, a little edgier, a little raw, you know, we're almost like a country punk band more than anything. And, you know, some nights we want them and some nights they were like, who the hell is this guy?

[00:49:09] But the nights where I can see the question marks happening in the crowd is really the funnest for me. Because then we just get louder and play harder and play faster. And it's like, all right, so who cares about this? And then you start to see the little pockets of people celebrating, which is great. You quickly mentioned Nugs earlier. And I kind of want to dive into that because I find that platform so interesting. And I'm sure you do too.

[00:49:34] If you go back and watch videos, people who don't know Nugs is like basically live performance archives. Right. And you guys are on there, correct? Do you ever go back and like look at where you were like originally on the platform versus what your shows look like now?

[00:49:56] Okay, so the way I would answer this is so we've board recorded every show we've ever played since 2023. And we just always had the archive recordings so that we can go back and listen to them. And it really wasn't until like maybe last year or two years ago I really started thinking about this. And I fell in love with Nugs.

[00:50:17] I love – I'm not like the biggest jam band guy, but I love bands that jam and like have that real live music mentality versus playing everything to tracks. And you're playing it just like the record every night. It's not – to me it's just not like a showcase of creativity. And so I started falling in love with these certain shows on Nugs and like really diving in.

[00:50:40] And the thing that I guess made it so tangible for me was it was like we might as well just put them all on there. So I went and started digging through our archives. And yeah, like not what's on Nugs but what I have access to. I'm like damn. Like we used to do things maybe this way. It was so strange. And like now the show is – it's still – our show has always been frantic because we're just playing.

[00:51:07] And we – there's a couple different ways to say it. But we have – we're just dumb enough to play it live. But we also – we're brave enough to do it I guess. And so if you hear a mistake or we do something wrong, congratulations. You are at an actual live music show. That is how it's supposed to be or at least that's how it used to be.

[00:51:29] And I want to give people access to it that maybe we're not coming to their town or like maybe it makes them more excited to go to multiple shows or whatever it is. And so we're just kind of starting our Nugs journey. But I really hope that it is a little bit of kind of the future of maybe how people even consume music. Because I think records are important. But like I was saying, I think albums are becoming decreasingly valuable, which is really sad.

[00:51:58] And I don't know how many times, you know, you think you like an artist and then you see them live and you're like, oh, wait. I like them way more than I thought I did. Yeah. Yeah, there's always like these big debates of like how should your live show be. I find it very hard to make a super tailored live show because I just feel like that's such a disservice to the song or whatever. And the adage of, you know, the people who show up to your show when we were a cover band way back in the day, we're playing bars and stuff.

[00:52:26] We were a good cover band because we never played the songs like how they were recorded. It was our version of those songs. And even though we're playing Colby Acuff songs at a Colby Acuff show, it's still our version of that song of how we've decided to play it and give it to the fan in a live setting. Yeah. You know, that's like our best interpretation of like what we want to do. So. Yeah, I'm obsessed with Nugs. Because I think it's just like the coolest thing and like having the archives of just like music for who knows how long. So much access.

[00:52:56] It's just really cool. It feels like it's just like a paradise for a music fan to dive into. Yeah. And I wish it wasn't. Because like right now, I mean, obviously it started with the jam band community. Yeah. And that's like it's always been that way. But for some reason, it's like it shouldn't be so tailored to this one group. I really feel that especially in country, I really feel like a country fan would enjoy that. Oh, yeah. You're just not going to get. I don't know.

[00:53:24] You have to have a very kind of certain band, certain live element to be on there. But I do wish that it was maybe a little bit more well known. I don't know. I think we'll get there. I think it will too eventually. I wanted to ask, this might be kind of an off the wall question, but obviously the news of the Super Bowl coming to Nashville. That's got a lot of people in Nashville excited.

[00:53:48] It's got a lot of people talking about, well, this is lining up for the country music Super Bowl halftime show. Absolutely. And like, how could you not? Like, it seems like that's just going to be, you know, there's no question, no debate about that. Two part question. One, first part, does it worry you, you know, as a country music artist, what that show might look like? And the second part is the fun part, I think.

[00:54:13] Let's say that whoever's in charge says, Colby, we need you to curate the Super Bowl halftime show for 2030 to showcase what Nashville is actually about. How would you set it up? Two part questions. I can repeat any part that you need. Or you can answer either of them. No, I mean, the first, I mean, I think the answer is the same for both questions. Like, in my mind, I don't think there's any shout out. I think it's Luke. Luke, Luke Holmes. I mean, I don't know how you, how would you not put Luke on the stage there?

[00:54:43] In my, in my, you know, small opinion. But I think obviously Luke is the 2030 halftime show. Do you think they go with just one person? Probably not. But I think it's, it's Luke and maybe then Luke can, you know, he gets to kind of look at it. But I just, I don't know how you don't put him on that stage. Which, I think that's a, that's a tough one.

[00:55:10] But, you know, also like Jelly Roll being from here as well. I'm sure he will make an appearance. But you also got bands like Kings of Leon. And you got, I mean, there's plenty of other people. But if it was up to me, which it's not. But I also feel like. In the hypothetical question though, it is. It's like, hey, you get to pick. I put Luke on that stage with Cody Johnson. And, you know, I would do it that way. For me. I think I'm going to predict.

[00:55:39] I think Eric Church is going to be in there too somehow. Oh, yeah. I would put Eric in there too. I think he was part of the committee that brought the Super Bowl to Nashville. So, yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. I think, I mean, obviously Tim McGraw is a legend. But I just don't feel like it'd be really fitting for him on there. Because he's also part of the committee that brought it here too. Yeah. I also just think like in sports world, Luke has done so much. And I don't know. I just don't see, I just do not see a world where that does not happen. In my opinion.

[00:56:08] It's also interesting to think like we're sitting here 2026 talking about the Super Bowl 2030. It doesn't feel like it's that far away. But at the same time, a lot can change in between now and then. So, it'll be interesting to see if it's like the decision making for that. And they usually don't announce the artists until, you know, I think later on in the year prior. But it's like, will it be a time capsule thing where it's like the biggest artists in 2026 somehow got shoot in? That's a good point. Yeah.

[00:56:36] Well, I mean, they might pick who it is though. Yeah. Like soon. Yeah. Versus later. Yeah. We already had an hour, which is kind of crazy. Is there anything else that you kind of want to talk about? Anything that you're super interested in? I mean, I know we already hit on fly fishing, all the music, Nashville, social media. It's all the fun things. We've covered a lot of bases today. I can't believe we've already done an hour.

[00:57:06] Me either. I'm like, I blinked and it's over. Yeah. I mean, I can talk forever. That's one problem. But yeah. I mean, anything. Any shows you're watching? Any movies you really like or went to the theaters to actually go see? Oh, well, I think my favorite movie of last year was actually Marty Supreme. Oh, I'm not sick. I went and watched it. You didn't like it? I hated it. Why? It was so stressful and awesome. It was so stressful. I don't like the anxiety of it. I love it. I just kind of felt like I didn't get to the point. Yeah.

[00:57:35] It was like an X-rated Forrest Gump. It was awesome. I loved it. I thought it was so sick and just interesting and cool. Um, but really since then, I don't know. I mean, I'll probably go see The Odyssey. We'll see. Um. Let me recommend Project Hail Mary. Oh, I went and saw that. That's a great movie. That's a great movie. Very good. Very good. Yeah, yeah. Very good movie. Loved that film. Um, that was probably the last movie I went and saw. Um. Shows. I just rewatched Game of Thrones with my wife. She had never seen it.

[00:58:04] So we did a watch through there. She liked it, which I was shocked. Um. Um. Yeah, I don't know. I've just kind of been writing and, you know, just living life. We've been on the road, too. Yeah. So there's that. I know last time we talked to you, we talked a lot about Idaho. Idaho came up a ton. And, uh, I think one of the viral clips that we had was talking about the moose and how many people it would take to bring it down. And so in the spirit of that question, I wanted to ask another one, I guess maybe to close the interview. Um.

[00:58:34] Let's say that Colby Acuff is asleep in Idaho. I guess you have a home in Idaho, I'm assuming. Yeah. So let's say you're asleep there. Bear is in the house. What's your game plan? A bear? You wake up in the middle of the night. What kind of bear? Whatever is native to Idaho. So where I'm from, all the bears are pretty small. Like the black bears, we don't really have grizzlies where I'm from. Um, so we have like these small black bears and I'm not really that afraid of them. Okay. So what's the game plan?

[00:59:04] Honestly, I mean, I guess you try and get it out of the house. Okay. You're not going to like go straight for a weapon? You're just like. I'd probably shoot it. Yeah. But like that was like the obvious choice. But I, yeah, I, the bears are pretty small. Like, I mean, in comparison. Yeah. And a black bear, I'm just not worried about a black bear. If I woke up and there was a moose in my house, yeah, I'd shoot that thing immediately. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, bears, if it was a grizzly, you just, I'd just lock the door. Mm-hmm. Don't.

[00:59:34] But you'd probably handle it yourself. You're not calling for any sort of authority to come. Actually, no, that never crossed my mind. No, that never actually crossed my mind. Yeah, no. Okay. I mean, all the other, I mean, all the animal situations I've ever had, yeah, mostly have been by myself in a situation where, I mean, there's not help for hours and hours and hours. Mm-hmm. But, I don't know. Yeah. The moose is the big bad out there. Then big cats, cougars and stuff. Got a lot of those. Are there elk, too? Yeah, but I mean.

[01:00:04] There's not anything. They're not really. They're huge, but they're not. Not like a moose. I just feel like Idaho, I think we talked about this. I don't want to repeat this exact same conversation, but it feels like a really cool state that not a lot of people know about. Yeah, it is kind of its own little thing. It's pretty wild out there, though. Mm-hmm. I don't know. It's like, I think I probably said this last time, but the way that it's set up right now is it's like most people don't know about it, but I think a lot of the stars are going there. Mm-hmm. That's kind of their thing.

[01:00:33] And then they're sending everyone else to Montana. Yeah. Got it. Dude, Montana is so great. Yeah. Don't come here. Go to Montana. Which is, there's more room in Montana. Go to Montana. Don't come to Idaho. Going to Montana Friday, so. Where are you going? Bozeman. Oh, good spot. Bachelor ride. Typical. Really? Yep. Damn, Bozeman's so crazy now. When I was a kid, Bozeman was like nothing. Nothing out there. I mean, it's just close to Billings, and Billings is the largest city in Montana. Yeah. But Bozeman was just a college town.

[01:01:03] It's colder than hell there. Where? I went last summer, and I was shocked by the bar scene. I was like. No, it's like. There's a direct flight. Yeah. You can fly from Nashville to Bozeman. You can't even do that to Coeur d'Alene. Hmm. You can't even fly to Spokane direct from Nashville, which is where I fly when I go home. Coeur d'Alene's on my list, though. I gotta go. Yeah. I mean, it is fun, but Bozeman is a way younger town. Okay. Than Coeur d'Alene. Okay. But I just can't believe how much Bozeman's changed. It's so crazy. It is night and day. Yeah.

[01:01:32] It's like Aspen now. I know. Wild. I actually haven't been to Aspen, and I lived in Colorado for years. I'm going to Aspen this year. For? Unannounced. It'll be announced probably by then. I have a fall tour coming up. Okay. Nice. So we're taking a pretty light summer and then doing another fall headline tour, and we'll be going to Colorado. Perfect. Awesome. So keep an eye out for that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. On that note, go buy tickets, go buy merch, and stream the new album. See ya. Thanks, Colby. Thank you. Thank you.