"Drumming to New Heights with Lauren Alaina": McCoy Gibbs: Ep. 189: The Rich Redmond Show

[Music] coming to you from Crash studios in Music City USA Nashville this is the rich Redmond [Music] show what's up folks yeah your iPhone your watch it's correct it's that time it's time for another hopefully always exciting episode of the rich Redmond show we talk about things like music motivation success it's our goal to make you Laugh Love learn hopefully it's highly educational hopefully it's delivered in a very entertaining fashion Jim we call it edutainment everyone say hi to Jim Jim McCarthy Jim McCarthy voiceovers.com hey guys co-producer co-host this guy Coes everything he's got actually it's your show. your. it's his it'syour show.co it's his podcast Network and Jim you've been doing some all sorts of producing you have like 20 25 podcasts I don't know how you do it you know you just do it yeah and you're and you got a new look today the Shawn Pelton had the newsy Hat get your papers right here my my my wife wanted to make fun of me for it but then she saw it on she goes it actually kind of looks good did you pick it up in a store is like an Amazon it's a Bonafide Boston scall it's a Boston Boston scall uh.com I believe P the car so listen man uh you know how I found out about it what our old friend Hal Bowman yeah I gota gota catch up with Hal have you guys been in touch I I every now and then I'll probably hit him up once or twice a year and say hello well he's keeping that's a friend of ours who's keeping the world safe for children education yeah and children that's right we're all teachers at heart look J we're going to get into this today and I'm so happy that this young man uh made time for us because driving to Spring Hill at 300 p.m. on a Tuesday is a major commitment he like yeah no problem because I have a huge list of drummers that I call personal friends that I want to get on this show but they have to be available when we're available so we just lucked out today today's guest of Florida native calling Nashville home since 2000 and he's been the drummer with the award-winning country pop recording artist luren Elena for nine years I'm talking about our friend McCoy Gibbs what's up buddy man I'm just happy to be here dude looking tall thin handsome there's like you're like a human um he's the opposite of me you're a human hang clothing hanger you know what I mean clothes just hang on you perfectly you Tower above the drums people are never going to miss you I'm sinking I think like this behind the drums well here's the thing about whenever you and I stand next to each other yeah it's kind of like uh the Dukes of Hazard the uh the General Lee car it's zero and one I'm the zero you're the one I was standing next to McCoy and I felt like 0.1 you know so but you know you hear that all it it's it's got to get old but there's not a lot of tall drummers you got like Chad Smith you've got maybe um who are some other guys that we could think of Chad Smith comes to mind Ronnie vucci I think with the Killer is kind of tall um here in town uh my God it's a short list Jim who's tall we're allend we're all ground Huggers I mean like look at Simon Phillips you know well it's also hard to tell how tall they are because we always see them sitting down yeah and I actually like to put the camera up three feet on the wall so I'm a low rider like so so but you sit even you sit pretty high I do I think it offsets there's angles there with when to be comfortable also I have like never taken a lesson so no one ever said you want this yeah angle at this point or like and playing match scrip you know staying so if I'm coming down on the drum to hit it where I want to hit it it has to kind of sit lower because my arms are longer but I'm also sitting higher so it's like it when I first started I mean the snare was probably below my knees or at thigh level yeah and then I gradually started to realize that okay if I like it's it's as you know it changes as as bring that mic a little bit closer there we go there what about the oery you guys over sit in at the Opry the Opry the first dozen times I played the Opry I dropped a stick in three songs I Dro cuz it's the the Angles and everything are very interesting two rides two rides it's a little ergonomically it's different we say but I mean you're not going to argue with with yeah with that because and it's just um first of all it's nerve-wracking when you first play yeah but it is very um unorthodox setup and the the different the space between where the Tom is and the snare coming up like I mean that's where it was I would be used to like and just hit that hit that rim of that thing there it goes well thank God there's a there's a you know a hydraulic Throne that's a great investment on their part speaking of being tall those early hydraulic Thrones I think they makeing one now never went tall enough for me they only got certain height so I had to like on my rider it's or backline Rider it's no no hydraulic Thrones only spindle Thrones now I believe DW jial I think they make a higher one now which is nice yeah yeah yeah now you were saying that this unbelievably is your first drum podcast appearance yeah it is I I uh I feel like as a drummer in this town I have a little bit of impostor syndrome uh because I didn't start as a drummer I didn't I wasn't like um you know from the age of five got behind the kit and like that was my thing in like but you're a musician's musician like you played Sach you played you sing yeah very musical family right yeah my dad uh was in a little folk Trio in the 70s called the rainbow shout out to the rainbow and this it's spelled b e a ux it's French for a boy it's so French they were so cultured um but it was the 70s they my mom and dad are hippies and like you know they they similar to the Kingston Trio Peter Paul and Mary that type of VO vocally um is where they excelled and they still sing to to this day together um they actually came to Nashville somewhere in the late 70s mid '70s I think um and through their their demo tape or eight TR whatever it was back then on Music Row and got they got a lot of NOS because the songs they knew their songs weren't great but several Studios offered them gigs as Studio singers wow because back then a trio of dudes that could sing so tight Harmony wise were like a synthesizer they they you know the Elvis and the Jord thank you Jordan um that was such a sound back then and they got offered gigs and they were like well you know I don't know like we want to be in the band and like two of them had just gone to Seminary and had some kids and like they were all kind of it was it was that Watermark moment or if you will where they're like this is where we kind of decide if this is a full-time thing and uh they all decided to kind of say you know what we love doing this but we're going to we're going to change direction and they decided to kind of all do separate things so two of them became ministers and one became a politician what cuz I got say your parents are your parents are are they still kind of like hippie-ish and and how are they like living in Florida so yeah what's funny is like uh you know they've always been in Florida my dad did become an ordained pastor and now he in the Methodist Church and he's retired now he was there for like I think almost 50 years of service to the ministry W and my mom was a teacher they actually met in Atlanta at a they were my dad's bam was playing and she was a cocktail waitress and so yeah classic there it is and um at the I don't think that bar is there anymore but it was even though they were you know in the hippie area they you know they're definitely like uh as a minister still work too like wild and crazy and all that stuff so uh when they decided to I guess settle down and change this New Path and my sister and I came along and then here we are and he all music has always been in our family he always sang um my sister is a doctor of Music she's the coral director at Florida Southern College so wow she's and she's probably and since she's done so many clinics and she's gone she's sang operas in Italy and she's traveled the world and singing and conducting and and she's the overachiever I like to say she went the education R I went the I'm just going to like hang from playing bars and make make some I mean you but you went to Belmont what year was that 2000 to 2004 2000 to 2004 so we're a generation of part so if I'm Generation X as am I I'm a I'm technically a millennial technically I'm an elder Millennial yes so you were born in the late ' 80s then 81 is the first year according to many Google searches 81 is the the uh that's my birth year is the first Millennial year okay and then to like 90 I think that's a really early Millennial year cuz I've heard like 83 84 mhm you know um I've heard anywhere from 81 83 to like' 9294 96 in there yeah but I'm an elder Millennial so it was that that weird like kind of midg ground of like we didn't have obviously didn't have computers when I was born um at least we didn't have uh home computers that is yeah cell phone the first cell phone my mom got was the big the big one that unfolded and like had the antenna and about the size yeah size of this yeah so anyway it was just a a weird uh era of there was no YouTube to look at to look up oh I want to learn how to play this and whatever so we slowed down records yeah that's right or I remember um recording songs off the radio like hitting play and record at the same time on the tape and then then we thought it was cool to like we had when CDs and burning CDs became a thing I could burn CDs to a tape or like a vice like take a CD and like come it just all those things of of getting music how you wanted it and um it was harder to figure things out which we made us more invested and increased our passion the video aspect really helps cuz I remember getting um I think it was like the video version of Rush Chronicles okay and they had a compilation of all Rush uh videos on there one of them was subdivisions and when he does the Crossovers the triplets on it that part I never realized what he was doing actually I kind of I did know what he was doing it was the the uh offbeat Bell of the ride symbol and the left hand and like you know that that part where seeing it you have no idea what he's doing until I saw I'm like that's what he's doing okay the first time cter bord released the under the table and drumming cuz Dave Matthews was the first band that like I was like whoa this is and that was in an era my senior year high school we did thing called grad night and it's where being in Florida every all the high schools send their senior class to Disney it's like this like 95 96 right uh 2000s when I graduated high school go and so they send them all to Disney like a lock in around Disney right and they have music played the Headliners that year were Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson yeah the only um band band that was there was a band called BB Mach back here baby yeah that song that they one and done right they played on a side stage no bigger than this room they play two sets I watched both sets was just enamored with it like that was the year of pop and just female pop and like there was no like real bands and the day of Matthews Band came along it was just different and I was like oh I'm going to go down this route really sophisticated jam band Yes right and I didn't really know like but they they did a good job of their records were so well put together but then see them live you're like oh my gosh they they stretch they and and of course Carter is a unique Beast you know Monster right so seeing I've never tried to emulate his drumming I've just been inspired by how he some his over the- barline fills and how he it uh interprets rhythms and poly rhythms and stuff yeah but the video aspect of that was the first time I thought oh he's playing a double parad dle on that on that part of this song I'm like oh okay that I can see it now and it's well I think it was the hueras on the Craig symbol Tom in the on Ant marching oh man that was the first song that that I became aware of that was that was his first big hit yeah so you were graduating high school and I was getting my master's degree at University of North Texas and and that was a great uh breeding ground because we would all be listening to like everything from pop radio to Fusion to going back and listening to bbop and big band and stuff and it was crazy so so that's our generation apart but obviously the music is in your blood you know you're starting you're seventh grade saxophone then you're learning guitars singing at 14 sang in church vocal ensembles you even played in the drum line your Junior in senior year but no formal lessons because we've been on tour together two times I forget the years yes 2018 I believe and this year we did some you did some dates on the highway Desperado tour and I'm side stage watching you you know I always for all the drummers I try to take photos I try load everybody up with a little some videos like hey Awesome by the way load it up you know stick it on your Instagram cuz it's really hard to get high production value even if we set up our GoPro when you have some movement it looks nice it looks totally Pro so I try to do that for the drummers on the tour and we actually snapped a photo the drummers of the highway Desperado tour and is it just me or is like I said the drummers were um 54 42 25 and 23 I was like there's some young kids if I mean it's crazy but I don't want to pass it yet though I'm you know what I mean I don't want to I want to keep that fire lit for another 15 years if I can MH amen um but anyways when I watch you play you have such a nice touch and such a nice feel on the instrument it's very natural it's really hard to believe but you know what maybe those lessons would have ruined it and that's an that's an interesting take for like because I always thought that like kind of touching on earlier The Imposter syndrome of you know I start on saxophone learn how to read music really enjoyed the me Melody could I use my ear more than anything yeah um great harmonies right I just from from a I was born with an ability to hear pitch like I didn't it's not like something I worked every day like no it's like it just it was like I hear a song on the radio and I could hear it and my dad obviously sang a lot of harmonies and my sister sings really well so in the cars on road trips we'd sing so that nice that just innate ability to to listen for other things things other than the melody or things around the melody and like yeah um has had come out a lot in playing saxophone and like improvising that played in the jazz bands played Alto tenner Berry all of them um like Lisa Simpson right there you go yeah my sister got an acoustic guitar for Christmas one year and I got insanely jealous and because it was the coolest instrument like who doesn't want to play guitar right sure at the campfire yeah like in the Barbie movie I'm gonna sing at you right now at you and so did you see the Barbie movie no yeah yeah yeah yeah I thought I was thinking Jo Ryan gos gosh so good crazy but um so I just I wood shedded the guitar like I took my Dad's guitar which was a steel string my sister got a nlon steel string wasman guitar would sneak in his office grab it and get he had this little camp song book of like everything from like Kumbaya to like uh old Beetle songs or like folk songs things like that and I would just learn how to play these songs and most of the songs you would hear in church at like church camps and stuff and then the internet came around and tablet Shir came around you could say I want to learn how to play you know crash by dve Matthews and says you where to put your fingers and I just wood sheded that stuff and then you take your guitar to like a little party and all of a sudden there's girls sitting around the like wait I'm gonna sing at you it worked for Billy Joel yeah I bet CU he told that story I saw him at Yukon uh he was like an evening with Billy Joel but was all like songwriter stories type thing and he was talking about his high school um development and getting into his early teenage years and he always could play classical piano and stuff like that and he said I would get invited to these houses looking the way I look you not being the most popular kid in school and inevitably in some of these houses where I grew up around would there would be a piano so I just kind of go there by myself and get into my thing and I'd look up and there'd be a girl watching MH and I would get into it even more and more dramatically and I look up there would be three girls watching like and then before you know Christy Brinkley is my wife oh my gosh the Uptown Girl herself I me you I would say that again I don't want generalized but that is a motiv I guess attention in general is a motivator like oh wait I'm doing something that is garnering attention female attention was good for for me like it was obviously a little motivator when you're in high school middle school whatever but I also just wanted to be better and be good at it and like and like and I started a band and um you know in high school like it's a crap shoot like who's going to be able to play drums and who's going to be able to play bass and we play lockin and then like we rehearsed to that my dad being the minister we rehearsed in the youth room at the church and we used their their kind of janky PA system and then it was just a lot of fun we saved up money and bought a little powered mixer and like we're we went on tour with my mom's Minivan and yeah I just just like you look back on those times and you understand that that's really where like you really cut your teeth a little bit but you also like it's where you learn that P you have to have the passion for it like you know Dave Gro what does he say he says you know get in the garage and and fail being in a band be mess up go out and play gigs and fall on your face and be a band think about any of those bands like from food fighters to you two like how how did four Dudes from Ireland or four guys were like like just that just became like what are the chances of all those four guys in the same city or the same town are meeting at the stars aligning and then all of a sudden that is it because that's been the original membership member line for forever it's the same kind of insane odds of one little hopeful sperm cell breaking through whatever it needs to break through it's that kind of like the odds are so stacked against yeah three dudes from Seattle sh killing heavy metal just I mean like I I I had forget who the interview was uh it was some record executive or might have been one of the artists in one of those hair bands that said they were just uh on top of the world White Snake or one of those like Sony or whatever label they were at boom that was there when you walk in the lobby of Sony and La it was boom it was White Snake above the door cover blah blah he said literally one like whatever when there's a janitor taking the photos down and when never mind came out or whatever it was he walked in like two weeks later it was everything had changed it was Nirvana it was grunge it was like you go to JC P catalog it was flannels it was part of the reason that it was overnight oh I mean and it just boom Martin sails through the roof Alis James was up there not not not poison you know it was just it it just changed everything but Dave girl was you look at those videos the shirtless dude he had totally had a concept of how to play the drums in a rock and roll band like he he had like a a doctorate in playing rock and roll drums and when you when you solo his drum tracks so focused and just mature the velocity behind like there's there's a video that circulates it's the good and the bad of the internet but the good is this video like he's just playing and he's he's playing this and and his his six tlets around the kit and all every note like if you were to actually like look at the track I bet the the waveforms are so like cuz he's just so evenly spaced yes and like the velocities are perfect they're it's just it's fantastic and to this day he says I he says I don't practice but he's the kind of guy like you know he'll he'll show up at at DW or some event or something and he's got to jump up on the drums perfect example him playing um that tune with Tom Petty on Saturday Night Live just owning it oh my God I did not know the story behind that until again it was on one of those like interviews um and he they like Tom asked him to do that like kind of last minute yeah and he he saw him play and like dude you want to come and play J you know like and he said yeah and and just slayed it I mean cuz that's he knew Tom knew like he knows this feel he's going to slay this and then that same tenacity and passion and focus and natural god-given ability he takes over to the guitar and then his singing style it's like not only did he change rock and roll once he changed it twice at the highest level and they're the last rock band on the world there's a there's a exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about that it's a very small one at least last time I was there that talks about his transition from Nirvana the Kurt Cobain tragedy and how he had to rebuild the the pieces and like and then say all right I'm gonna just you know I've heard that uh what's the someone getting the best best of you is about that situation kind of about almost as anger towards like why did you have man like why did you have to die yeah and I mean it's it's we all go through grief in different ways and obviously you have to express that so um but we're I mean just thankful for him and like all those the the influences he gave us and like and and he's still being a standup dude and still touring and like when the broken leg when he was on like that I saw that tour when it came to Nashville on the throne of guitars and everything just he's just I think he's kind of like a beacon of light in this world because you know he still like hangs out with his mom he loves his mom and and then you know he he did a week hosting filling in for Chelsea Handler on her show when she Jim did you ever see that I heard of it Dave girl wearing a a pearl snap you know western shirt five nights in a row hosting a comedic television show and had never done it before in his life and crushed it he's just a personal dude like and um you know he's one of those kind of uh ambassadors of Rock right now that we have and I'm glad that they're still going yeah me too man so the music's in you you end up at Belmont you get you're a music business major who are your teachers at Belmont at the time so I did I did one music class it was a basic music theory class everything else was business um copyright law publishing wow got your textbooks uh yeah I do oh I have my audio textbooks I don't and I have there's a copyright La book copyright law book that I still have um but I had two audio engineering classes and then like a music appre or it was like a music production class where like um you had to do projects like all right everybody take a song from the 60s uh and I want you to tell me what instruments are on this track what you know blah blah blah who's sing it give give us like all the liner notes and tell us what you hear and he said this is going to be great for your ear but it's also going to ruin music for you forever because now if you do this for just a semester now you hear a song on the radio you're going to be like oh I hear a guitar I hear mandolin I hear steel I whatever um but it was also good to to all these things it's so funny as you say all these things that start to happen for a reason and and the skill set that you start to build because at the time I was not playing drums yeah I went to college not a drummer I just love the fact that you've been playing drums for a relatively short period of time and you're doing it at the highest level and a on major tours I was your typical Late Bloomer like I just didn't I got to so after the band high school and I was like man we got a thing got connections here I'm going to come to Nashville blah blah blah I get there freshman year I'm just like holy poop like everyone is so good they can sing really well they play guitar way better than I do what is my Niche it's not saxophone even though that's cool like what is my Jim and I both wanted to play sax phone yeah I started out playing sex phone I I I still I grabbed the horn out of the attic the other day and like I was cleaning stuff out and I was like I mean my omur is torn I can't hold a note for more than 3 seconds cuz it's just it's hurts but I was like oh wait that's it's actually kind of still fun you know yeah yeah but uh so it was one of those things where like I needed to find my Niche and at Belmont you know you're just kind of figuring it out Belmont was the perfect place for me to figure it out um I wasn't competing against these musician actual like drummers and like I wasn't doing commercial drums I was doing kind of figuring out my own thing but getting a business degree yeah smart so I started like I still had the drum line background I played drum line in high school for a couple last last couple years just cuz I got bored with saxophones I'm going to do something cool like drummers are cool let's try that you know but but what how did you handle the pressure of of getting that super insanely clean double stroke rooll together because on the snare line you got to match with the 10 other guys and so I played teners first okay and those that was actually a little more forgiving those those are like the pinstrip heads as opposed those Kevlar heads that are just like you know I had a nice it was and you play with Mallet so it was like a little bit I kind of and that actually helped Melody wise because I could kind of hear you know I could hear as a far and read the notes a little bit but I also he that interpret that as with my ear yeah um I really enjoyed the teners and like you know got pretty good at it enough to like play and be drum Captain there in high school and then audition for the Vandy drum line because Belmont didn't have a football team that's smart and got into the Vandy line and that was big college football Vandy was awful but they were still like SEC football man like and so I got big school with a small school I was went to a small school but I got big school experience with big football games the perk of being in the marching band is you got to play in the basketball band and the basketball band was drum set and like you know inside oh man just playing we will up here oh manop and it was so much fun I I remember seeing videos of me random videos of me playing back then and how bad my Tempo was and feel was but my hands were so clean CU I've been playing marching band for like everything was g g g you know but then like like you're rushing through a fill to like get because you know it's exciting whatever but that's how I kind of started to say wait I might like have something here how did you tame your Tempo if it was like cuz cuz I think that I had tons of technique as a young man but probably not you know I wasn't necessarily focusing on that until I started doing gigs and people started yelling at me hey kid you're rushing you're dragging or you're too loud or like we grow so much from being yelled at you know what I mean and and so if we if we can Embrace that we can grow and then also the you know um the expectation of playing with clicks which has probably had started to rear its ugly head very very much so when you were started to play the drums I fortunately I I every time I was in an ensemble atmosphere as a drummer it was with people that um were either friends or was a like marching band where it wasn't super high intensity like get this ride or you're out yeah because I would have probably quit if it was that I I definitely respond more to like hey no it's F you know quite there but like you know like it'll be if you don't get the gig that's your that's your feedback yeah and so what I started doing is before any that came about or any risk of that it was I would go Belmont had these music um rehearsal rooms in their school music on the basement just individual rooms Pian and some of them and like where you sit down and you just pract those guys had to practice girls had to practice a lot so like they had you could sign up sign in and like you go to your practice time I figured out that at the end of the day from like they closed at midnight but usually from like 10: to midnight the drum room was always vacant I would just like walk down there and look and nobody's there and I'm not a school music student so I kind of felt I didn't want to go I wouldn't want to take away from anyone's time yeah so I would just sneak down there if you will and like it was right across the courtyard from my dorm and I would just put the headphones on they had a CD player there and the first two records I learned to play to were Vertical Horizon everything you want nice um and tonic's lemon parade oh and it was just that's a debut record from tonic love it just very simple pop rock acoustic rock drums and um I actually had a lesson a little bit quote unquote lesson it was really more of a like hey I want to meet this dude Ed to I think it's to it could be talk yeah it's Ed to yeah Ed to another Conan who plays with the dubie brothers who was in vertical right he was the drummer on that record and and so I just dove into Vertical Horizon got the running on Ice live record and got their early stuff that was just them and Acoustics and a drum machine and like Matt scannel and Keith Kane I think are the two guys that started it Matt might live here Matt he might um another another ironic kind of I I think I made it moment was Vertical Horizon open for us at a open for Lauren at a festival recently like couple last couple years so it was kind of funny but full circle yeah um anyway that's how I learned to play to Tempo yes because records most of the records were on a click and I just and it also taught me like you know because I didn't grow up influenced by like the Neil PS of the world and those guys that would just and the like I was because I didn't start playing drums till like I was in my 20s so like I didn't have that oh I got to learn all these notes it was more like I want to play to this record and make it feel good and that's kind of where I started and it developed just a very a meat and potatoes if you will but also listening and hearing as as an instrumentalist as well complimenting the melody and like playing in and out of the click and like being able to like you know on top and and behind and things and learning all that just playing to records and that's they also a singing drummer which is like you're a Phil Collins or a Stan Lynch and ster Copeland did some background vocals and all that kind of stuff and that's like your your third limb fifth Lim it's like a fifth limb so so Jim you know McCoy is like playing with Ableton tracks he's got got four body limbs going and he's singing yeah so well makes it makes sense have you tried singing and drumming before though Rich um yeah but I'm such a bad singer that's not a gift right but you know as far as a background VOC it's almost like you want to like you want to do something with your Kick Drum that is it's it's completely different from the rhythm of the vocal mhm yeah and then you're throwing in Pitch that you have to nail what about like Dean Castronovo well well he's just a singer singer my goodness I mean you got Don Henley Phil Collins like the main guys that are like but you you think about Don Henley and his drumming and I think he's a great drummer and Fant obviously he's not gonna he's the hardest song He's not going to winning drum offs right but but that voice oh my go oh my gosh and just his ability to play because he's the one that wrote The Melodies and or one of the ones that wrote those Melodies he's interpreting what he wants and it's perfect for the song Yes um and just how those things recorded and then of course Phil I've got some of Phil Collins big band stuff and it was like his swing and like like that was really fun to listen to and his son is kicking it too Nick Nick Collins he's like in a fusion band with uh um Luca's son you know it's like all the sons of like Superstars and they have like a fusion band and he did a clinic at pesic last year and we got to I got to see his clinic and then we got to smoke cigars afterwards and he's just like it's in his blood man you know and the sing the singing thing is just because it comes so natural there definitely the one I will say one one of those moments where I remember getting some criticism it was really just it was constructive um I was doing a soundcheck I think with my one of my former bands hot Shel R yeah and um at the rutage when it was a music venue and one of the more um I don't abrasive sound persons people there he uh he was but I I I say abrasive I also I also mean he's very like he tells it like it is we'll say transparent because at the end of the day he was right I was playing and then I started singing and he was like hit the dad gum thing he like oh you're one of those I was like what does that mean hit like as soon as I started singing he noticed that my volume went down and he could tell because he's right there behind the was that Frank sass yeah yeah yeah got we lost him we lost him man I he one of one of the best like but his reputation preceded him because he would take he did not he told you what he thought M and I that I was old enough at that point to appreciate that take that and and and ever since then I mean that's all it took was one well time constructive criticism to say oh I had not because how am I supposed to know that I'm just feel I'm just singing and when I'm singing your ear completely goes to Melody and the druming becomes automatic like I know these songs even if it's kind of syncopated and I'm singing that melody or the harmony or whatever yeah I don't realize that now I'm playing 10% lighter but he can tell because he's not getting the same it's maybe it's not hitting his gate the same way or whatever Frank you're one of those I can hear him saying that man and like he would say hey we're going to sound check just don't say anything but one two please he was like say anything but check one two 3 so I started that's when I actually started using different thing anyway and I tell people whenever they I got a test a mic tell me what you had for breakfast yeah exactly I started like just uh speaking old like ' 80s rap tunes like The Fresh Prince of bell ER or something like that you know just to get something on the mic but and then after the gig when when like uh we finished and I we were talking about you know video games and like he was just the cool he was a salt of the earth dude that just was there to give a damn was busted yeah yeah so anyway U the singing part I actually attribute a lot of my consistent work to because if I get called for a gig downtown usually they know I sing and I can sing 10 to 12 or 15 songs on lead but you're adding that third part or if they don't know I sing I'll be sitting behind a band at a Broadway gig or something and they'll hear that third part coming they'll be yeah where did that come from and it's so it's taking one of your strengths and and and marketing it like oh man I I've I've and what one of the more um kind of uh like I another I've made it moment or a very rewarding moment personally was when I got an audition with love and theft was my first like real audition yes in and like that that I really kind of wanted and they opened for us in 2008 yeah oh wow I start I played with them 2013 and 14 right before Lauren and um it was uh it was wonderful to go in there study the songs I went on YouTube and looked at the live performances too like I did De prep and wanted it and like went in and just like and I felt like I I was like if I don't get that then somebody else really deserves it yeah but I didn't sing on that gig and they hired me anyway so that was a that was something that was like oh was validating as a drummer to say okay you brought whatever you do as a drummer is something valued here and not just saying I never sang on that gig and there's a they're a vocal group too and I was like okay so you did get some experience playing on Lower Broadway and are you still doing it from time to time uh it's I would say more than time to time like Lauren's off for a couple weeks I'll I think I have 12 shows in the next two weeks 12 a wide variety of bands or do you have a couple of like there's Benchmark bands there's one artist Nam is sha G uh she's very kind of uh she calls it y alternative country nice it's uh it's kind of like the female version of that Zack bran like uh thing and she's fantastic voice got a little grit to it a good writer um and so I've been playing with her for since Co really right after Co her drummer left town and like I just kind of snuck in on some of those shifts and then she's been I've been her her first call guy for a while and it's great because what are the rooms that she plays so she plays Whiskey Row a lot um afternoon shifts Whiskey Row Bar Stool a little bit at KAS Roo where Miranda's Place yeah and it man I'll tell you what there's no other place in the world that you can go down to you know play for three at half hours on a on a Wednesday afternoon or Thursday afternoon make a few hundred bucks and sleep in your own bed and like do if you wanted to you could play a double and like add to that or like and or if not you just go you know you kind of made your day couple hundred bucks yeah right isn't an amazing a couple 100 Buck crazy it's more than it's more than that I don't know if I should like I mean she averages you know if it's UNC to talk about money here but like do it works it all man like we we because these kids are coming and the classic um the question is do I play Lower Broadway or not I'm like do it all kid here's the thing is that kind of is it necessary do you is it a uh like a right of passage it's a way to be seen it's not I don't think it's necessary I do think for musicians it is it is for me it was a great place to cut my teeth cuz I played there right out of college like after college I was I joined hot shell R and like was doing that they were doing their thing we're kind of we kind of like figuring that out on the side I was like making a little cash that back then it was little cash and I needed it though I needed that experience behind the drums because I was not great back then I was just hanging on for dear life and I needed that and I again I play with friends that were like okay how does Check Yes or No start and like you know he come off the mic and tell me okay okay I can play that and so it because you can't go wrong with Badoo yeah yeah I didn't know any of those songs I listen to the country so anyway I Eddie Bears you know it's like amazing oh my gosh so I would say that Broadway for me and and still is a relationship that I will continue to play because the couple hundred bucks is now three to 400 bucks a shift and there's some guys that at play at Kid Rocks that's like massive bar where you pretty much constantly have the tips running and they'll make they'll break they'll break ,000 a night in just a three and a half hour shift that was like heard of 21 20 years ago when I did it we I'd go home with $8 oh no there's times I went home and like the only the only I I got thankfully got free food at the bar and then went home for like 10 or 10 or 12 bucks after gas and parking whatever at on Tuesday night at Paradise Park you go downtown tonight to to Broadway it it would look like an old Saturday night you know back then oh my God so another another uh Kevin BAC moment 6° is that you and I are connected in such a way that remind me of your relationship because this gentleman gave me a beautiful quote in the book uh my book making it in country music is he your uncle Mr John Hamlin he is my uncle okay so John hin if you guys don't know is a kind of a uh iconic figure in the Nashville music industry and he's very connected to CMT and he was very involved with 60 Minutes as a producer and he managed hotell Ray yeah so tell us and hotel Ray were you you were the drummer in the band yep but now where was Jamie the so Jamie was the little brother of the lead singer you know Ryan and Jamie follows yeah Jamie was the guy Jamie was like just the little brother that was always hanging around we loved having around he was cool like just hung around just wanted to be with his brother and like his brother's in a band like that's cool right so um but so I actually brought JN in and that like because i' been like right out of college I literally was like okay I'm starting to learn how to play drums and I'm I think this could be something that I can do and I literally just went to the bulletin board in the school music and was like like let's see here um what's this here's an ad like this is says I want to like looking for drummer looking for drummer looking for drummer Drummer wanted right drummer wanted and I pulled two tabs one was uh singer songwriter with production team looking for drums to fill out blah blah blah so I went to that it was Ryan it was Keith Keith fall Kei the first one I pulled off and um and the only reason I was there was I was showing because it was It was kind of in the summer I'd already graduated I was showing my buddy Belmont because he was thinking about going there so I just pulled pulled the number off called Keith and he said yeah I'm just I'm looking for for my son blah blah blah uh here you know I'll send you what's your email I'll send you the songs and here's the address next week come play play these two songs for us amazing perfect well I pull up to their house in really nice brenwood neighborhood like Castle the entire basement which is probably the size of this like the first floor of this place is a studio studio and I'm like oh okay like I mean green as I could be and like and of course I'd been in studios Belmont thankfully had the experience so I was a little bit less of like okay act like you've been there moment and I was prepared and and like learned the songs they were really cool like they had a kind of a rune five Vibe with a little bit pop rock I mean you played the drums on those demos that I learned I got I got to get a copy of that early stuff that's crazy you know I actually I'll let you know if I find it I'll send them to you I have CDs I have some old CDs of songs that I learned okay and um anyway I learned the songs I played they're like yeah sounded great we'll we'll give you a call and like so before I knew it they were bringing me over and it was just me and Ryan yeah in this little tracking drum room with him on acoustic cuz he needed to learn how to play with drums and we had to click there and I was holding my own and I felt good I wasn't trying anything too crazy just playing the songs and then there was a few iterations of bass and guitar Jeremy Davis of per Moore was one of those they were good Ryan and Jeremy were great friends y um and uh a guy named Jonathan Ferrari who's a songwriter now and he was he played guitar really good guitar player wrote with Ryan too they had a good relationship then we kind of settled then then they met I don't know how Nash and Ryan met but Nash over Street and Ryan met at some point and they just clicked cuz Paul over street is is Nash's father so Paul wrote like think my tractor's sexy and if you say nothing at all it's kind of like Nick Collins's band it's all like Superstar children it kind of was and then you got then randomly Ian kegy Phil Keg's son pops in and it's a fantastic musician and so here I am like hey guys like I just want to play drums it's really cool but it was a lot of fun they were super they were really cool but we were they were about four to 5 years younger than me and so I was working full-time and like driving to Franklin almost twice a week to rehearse and and they were just you know writing songs and kind of living their lives which is you know is what it is yeah um and we did the whole we went to New York did showcases and so like when I remember talking with my uncle at a family reunion thing and I was saying this band I was in I let him listen to a couple songs he was like I wonder if they'd be interested so I that he met with Keith and Ryan and they liked what he had to say there's a wasp in here W is there oh yeah well don't agitate it well he was up on the crown molding there so he's far away oh sorry guys let me know if he's coming I'll let you know all right and he's about to sting you rich don't look behind you yeah stay very still so so you recommended John to manage them yeah I brought JN in he wanted to hear we wanted to meet Ryan wanted to hear him live because John always he worked in done I mean he did 60 Minutes for years and done stories on YouTube and the Rolling Stone several times and um I believe Prince and I want to say but then like uh also like Bobby Bowen and Kobe Bryant and like and he's The Mastermind behind the crossroads concept and C CM yes and so this is way before the C the Nashville was on his radar he just wanted to manage a band he'd always love music but he can't carry a t in a bucket he just knows how to he's great with people he's good at what he does as a producer yes he worked at ESPN he's done the whole thing so he came in and wanted to be involved and it just was really really great to have him there um it didn't work out for me in the being in the band which at the time was devastating but now I get it and um and they because they we had done several um trips to New York and showcases and had some signed some deals that fell through and so I signed a record deal and then it didn't fall it fell through because this reason this guy signed this deal and so it just kind of was it it never quite hit and then they they took about you know two years off and during that two years of like trying to figure out what they wanted to do they they parted waves with me and then Jamie the little brother who had been practicing his butt off and like had been playing he kind of slid in there and like was playing more and they just went with that and it was I'm I'm happy for him and they had had a great ride a couple years later when they had a massive hit so there was there was a record deal and what was the hit it was like a hot AC Tonight Tonight Tonight catchy as heck now is there is are they still a thing uh they got back get they broke up they got dropped got broke up got back together I'm not sure that I think Nash is were producing a lot out in La Ryan is still writing and playing he got a little country deal I think he's got a more stuff going on right now I think he's might have a little duet going on I remember that he tried to make a go of the country thing yeah uh I do not know what Jam's doing I think Jamie like I'm uh and Ian Ian left the band right after like tonight tonight kind of started to dip he just was I think he wanted to do his own thing um and that's pretty much all I see I haven't seen many of I saw a Keith and um his wife recently my gosh recently a couple years ago adri Adrian thank you yeah and uh saw them recently and um but they're all they always they're always very nice to me very respectful to me and like I I had so much experience in that studio with them yeah like getting those hours because we recorded any songs that were written after he played on them we we played um he wanted the band to track and I had so much experience just getting in the studio learning how to play with the click and what Phils worked and Keith really gave me constructive criticism on on like I would hit a Phil he's like that's what I want that's the Beatles Phil I'm looking for that's the kind of thing yeah and um when before there had been some producers that he had brought in that just didn't I was like I don't I'm sorry I don't respond to this like you know what do you want me to do like I'm you're not paying me to be here I'm doing my best you know kind of thing yeah and so anyway I learned a lot and I really appreciate those days those years of of of getting to where I am now that is amazing and so now you're with Lauren and she's a she's award-winning she's like a a a survivor of the um American Idol you know Fortress and you know my relationship she's just such a nice person and she's so talented it seems like we went we've gone back I'm looking trying to hear at my notes um my kind of party tour uh Jason Luke Bryan She was out with us yeah and then she did dates on the High new neon neon tour 2018 which seems like a lifetime ago and then dates this year on the highway Desperado tour 2024 now the mic Party tour in 2012 that was a young man named Adam Silverman now do you know Adam did he pass the torch to you I've never met Adam or was there somebody in between there what what I think happened is so after the after that tour with Luke and Jason um she decided to take a year off to get vocal surgery she' had nodes on the vocal cords and she'd actually had them on idle but she had some poor management advice and they were like no you got to push through you got to push through well management just wanted to kind of like capitalize which I get she really needed to take some time off yeah and so she finally did and got the surgery healed the right way did all the vocal rehab the right way and came back stronger than she was before and the whole time was just writing songs and so Universal kept her they didn't drop her at that point they were like all right we're going to stay behind you we're going to keep you around and so then when she was ready they were like let's get a band so all those guys in the previous band ADAM included were like yeah we're you know we're obviously doing other things so she had auditions and I was not a part of that either I didn't even get I didn't get a call I didn't even know was happening I was with an artist named Chase Bryant at the time okay how how long did you that about a year nice uhhuh and then um when that kind of faded as well I like uh I was a free agent was playing with a band called striking matches they were doing some European and stuff like oh yeah they did a TED talk too yeah they did a Ted X talk I saw that Sarah and Justin two're fantastic musicians like my first Red Rock show was with them opening for train was amazing like I mean talk about a watershed moment there too like yeah I love train I love red rocks oh my gosh the best so anyway um so I was kind of a free agent and I got a an email from one rich Redmond at like 2 in the morning which I thought was hilarious but I was up of course and I see the the email pop through it says hey uh got your name from I think said Adam but Adam must have got my name from someone else because probably the the drummer who got the gig um Phil Lawson who was Kelsey was with Kelsey for a long time now he's doing now he's playing with post Malone in that in that group okay and so so he took a he had he had a had to a a family event or a wedding or something he had to be in so he needed a sub for one of those dates because he had gotten the gig with Lauren and um it was he like hey can you do July 28th with Lauren Elena and San Diego and yeah I said I responded like sure can like cool so like 2 3 months ago this is this is about 6 months in advance I say two three months solid two three months go by I have not heard anything from anybody not your fault obviously you just you said you can do it cool I think I may have got an initial like response from management that said glad to have you we'll send you material like whatever I mean week week and I'm like okay what's going on here and haven't heard anything not no flight it's getting like less than a month out no flight information no like anything and I'm turning down like work because one I wanted to follow through on my on on my commitment that to because I mean you're the one that re essentially I'm thinking I want to make I want to follow through for your reputation as well because I'm not I mean it's you make those decisions as you make them I wish had been more Hands-On that I'm not your fault it's not your fault but just the the the the clout that you brought to the table was one of those things that I wanted to make sure that I it's like you know what I I'm doing this I you know I'll stick to this so sure enough a couple weeks later I get the material we get a date get theol it all happens I I auditioned which meant I basically went played a live show well it was um I went to sir I think or maybe soundcheck and with Tico the band leader Tico Hernandez we love Tico the best the best and he's it was him the computer with the tracks and me and we just played through the set and he was like all right sounded good and it was his birthday for crying out loud bless his heart awesome and and like I want to say that two days later no it was something else but like uh it was his birthday the night so we had a birth party to go to and so then yeah I got on a plane a couple days later played the show and they're like all right great job if we need you again we'll call you years go by well and then so I just kind of went home thinking you know what if something were to happen to that guy that drummer like this would be a pretty cool gig like she's up and coming the whole thing like I really enjoy the group and it was just a lot of fun yeah and sure enough about two weeks later I was kind of in talks with a few other things that were coming through like hey can you do this tour this tour and then her management calls and says we're doing a radio tour it's six weeks you know it's Monday through Friday it's kind of opposite but we're you know blah blah here's the rate blah blah blah and I was like yeah I'll do it and then now the rest is history it's six you know 9 years later n years and it's it's crazy I mean she's such a talent she sings so great such a nice person she's like the duet Queen man like I'm looking at here Dustin Lynch Laney Wilson Cory Ken John party Kane Brown Hardy there's probably more rasal flates in there I think she did one with Jason even but it wasn't a single it really so can you do some of these songs in this how do you do it in the show so we do almost all of them the the Dustin Lynch one through some political stuff with Stu she's not she's on like you'll hear some versions with her on it and some with McKenzie Porter on it so we've decided not to do that one but all the other ones we we kind of do um uhe who sings the other part well so she'll sing both like on wha ifs wha ifs is the big one she'll sing the verses because on the wha ifs the feature she kind of did some adlibs and just sang on the chorus so any of those adbs are call and response I will sing the other part but it's like it's kind of rolls reversed a little bit on the John party one she sings both verses and um the we're just just going to in be doing the Cory Kint one we just got word that we're going to start learning that one you know put that one down to learn it'll excuse me it'll be in the set so uh she typically we we might change the key up or down a half step depending on where she needs to go and she'll just sing both wow okay I didn't know that now it's very interesting because like I said she is so good and she's been around since 2011 the debut is 2011 Wildflower and you could tell that sound has changed since then it was a little bit more traditional a little bit more there's some more like a lot of ganjo fiddle a little bit more you know you know um kijah sounding you know what I mean and then it just just gotten Slicker and Slicker and then she's got the 90s ladies thing and it's just like disco so stylistically you are all over the place man what's funny is when I was in high school and like learning music and like country was like the devil like it was like e country it's like I we had a band trip to Dollywood my senior year and I walked around the whole place with like finger just being a dup a doofus like I mean come on like who does that but that was just you know just being a kid I guess and come to find out I've made my living plain country and uh my senior year in college it was I'm sorry my freshman year in college um they do Belmont does This Thing Called best of the best showcase so every year they have little smaller showcases and the best of those showcases plays at the end of the year at the Ryman all right so it's a really cool opportunity for college kids to play a nice professional like a world round venue yeah and they bring a headliner in every year usually someone connected to Belmont somehow and that year it was Brad Paisley yeah and it was just him and a guitar and I swear like I was up I was sitting IID played uh at I played earlier i' played saxophone and with this gospel band that won the gospel showcase so I got to play my first time playing the Ryman was on tener saxophone which is hilarious yeah so I play saxophone I go up and watch the rest of the show and Brad comes on and just like what he would what he was able to translate with his voice and just a guitar as good as he is I was like oh I get it now duh like open your mind bro like this is this is a very viable art form and genre of this and like he was just so good yeah and so I kind of changed my perspective and so Flash Forward to like playing drums in country like obviously Jason's got a got his Niche and he's Nails it like there's been some imitators try to come up but it's just you can't do it like what Jason does and what you guys do as a band cuz you I mean come on like this is Jason Aline but the sound is all of you guys you all bring your you bring your flare you bring your own personality and it you can see it and Jason I from what I can tell he wants that like and and that creative control yeah I mean sure he's got the ultimate word but you guys each bring your personalities and it's worked so well slightly Democratic which is nice yeah and so that's I think if you're if you're going to choose that's what you want like yeah I I just want to have some creative input these aren't my songs I didn't write these songs but if I say hey what if we took this course this intro like twice as long to this whatever like and so it's cool to be a part of a band with Lauren that lets us do that yeah and the drumming is really just pop rock drumming now who are some of these guys that are on the records is it the is it the lones in that era of guys or is it is it like the Jerry Rose and the miles mcferson or who's doing the jobs I know that on the roadless traveled record it was a lot of Aaron Sterling oh gotcha I want us and then there's a few other ones that I've at and I can't can't remember and she's giving and you and and she and Tico are giving you the ability to um McCoy it up a little bit yeah yes and like there's some there's some stuff like she's recording with Jerry um um with um Joey Moy Joey Moy thank you yeah her new producer with B loud yeah so so Jim he was the guy Joey Moy is the guy that is kind of like the brainchild behind Nickelback and then he took some of that production Savvy and used it with Florida Georgia Line oh so you can picture like a bombastic pop it's very large midi drums oh yeah and and so the the studio aspect of it like learning those parts and I you know it's it's been great to like yeah if if I don't play exactly like the record neither Tico nor uh Lauren are like what the heck in fact sometimes it we kind of it's nice to put our own little and Tico is the same way like he'll you know there's been a couple of times where like on ladies in the 90s the song You reference like it's very like it's just four on the floor 16 yeah like but there's this weird in the production there was this weird like almost slightly swung like ox percussion track with a straight like it was very when it's when it's produced It lines up it's great yeah pulling that off live with the tracks doing one things so we kind of dumbed that down a little bit like straight forward so things like that to make it more live accessible and she lets us do our arrangements and she also was very involved in some of the arrangements like hey we cool like she's more of a musician than she gives herself credit for yeah she thinks she's just she do a little acting too huh acting writes books I mean she's a Renaissance woman of of All Sorts she's like newly married I met her husband yeah uh we were hanging out what's that venue with the on the water there that was the golf the with yeah shoot anyways we were there and we and I got to um hang out and get to know Tio a little bit better and we just like we're it was just one of those smelled roses days yeah um and we wanted to hang out afterwards that night and it was like oh we got to Elvis out Canada yeah we've been to Canada a lot this year and it's very aren't you overdue for it well and and what's nice about it though is that everything has been a private flight so like we go to the airport and you follow a flashlight and you don't have to go through any kind of it you just get on the plan and there's a lady and she's like can I get you something it's like this is what like Entourage I saw the story the other day yeah you have to post it right no no no no it was actually from Jason Jason put I don't want to be the guy that's like taking a picture of me like getting on a private jet it's like I'm just trying to drink in some of the fun um perks of the world without like having to tell everybody do you see me enjoying some of the fun perks of the world that is the Jin Z or Gen X and Millennial in us like Elder Millennial that I I'm so bad at socials like because I just who like who really cares like it's almost like an arrogance of like you want to know what I'm doing today here's what I'm doing who I you know you know Greg I did I did an article on Greg Morrow for modern drummer magazine and I had to really sell him hard and Pitch it to him he goes who's gonna read this I said tens of thousands of drummers that subscribed to this iconic magazine that's been around for 40 years and you're you're like the feature story he's like he's so a Shucks here's the thing guys I'll tell you right now is all Shucks that I think if you don't take advantage of it now you're going to regret not doing it down the road have to do it that's a really good point honestly because it's happening now I've met a lot of celebrities in my life that I regret not grabbing a picture with okay you know MH and it's at the time I don't want to bother them I don't want to do this I don't want I don't need to be that it's like I met Queen Latifa one time she was sweet just a sweetheart and I got you want to get a p i don't want to put you out you know yeah I got to give it to my friend Jim Riley over the 20 years he was Rascal Flats always snap the picture and he's got the pictures there have been so many professional athletes and actors and musicians backstage never get never I I just yeah I get not wanting to be that guy but if they offer it like she yes I would definitely do you mind taking a picture it's not like you know you're coming up to them with the camera and going hey you're asking if they say no not a problem I completely appreciate it and they've got to there's a certain level of of Fame celebritism that when you're at that when you're at a show um you kind of almost expect it yeah a little bit and I would think that if I am the Queen Latifa in that story or the or you know whoever the celebr if I were you guys I'd be H hiding I'd be branding myself by hiding a pair of sticks out in the audience somewhere let me know who finds it tag me in the in the photo and every night that you're on tour let me know where you find the Paar sticks hey now the current drummer in train did something like that he left a pair of drumsticks right at a venue for me and he goes I'm trying to do this new Drummer commity thing it's great so he took a picture of kind of the area where he hid it in this venue like great and he goes now when you find it you take those and then leave a pair of your sticks for someone else that's coming through the venue I was like Co fun cute idea so I went to go look for it it was like there's like this Shelf with cob sticks sticks were gone man somebody somebody got somebody got them man but I thought it was kind of like a like a like a a sweet thing another guy that was always really good about getting the photos um you know our friend Zoro you know and he you know the original drummer with a new edition went on one of the original drummer with Lenny kraits a dear friend of his childhood friend we're going to get to connect he's going to finally get to see me do my Jason Aline gig that I've been doing for 25 years he's coming out Lincoln California which is a suburb of Sacramento gonna come my friend zoro's gonna come out and see me play hang with him we're gonna hang he's got a whole Entourage coming you know it's good it's so there's such a leniency in our organization they're so good to me because I have so many guests you're that you're the one you're like tico in our camp the guy it's kind of you know I never get on the guest list for some reason Tico is stop TI is a people person of the highest order I've never like I've never met anybody like him and and it's like I I respect it so much because he genuinely just is because it's fascinating our job we travel I've I mean we can't I can't tell you how many people I've met every airport I met I'm walking around I'm thinking on all of all the people or whatever it's like all these people have their own individual stories and how did they get here and you realize through that through this profession and he has mastered this getting people to to he disarms the conversation disarms the room and then you can just get to like where you're from what do you do and all of a sudden within a within every third person he meets there's probably some one or two degree connection with it's it's unbelievable he was at PRS guitarist recently right so I was you know following him um and uh I don't know who the president of PRS is oh Paul Reed so here's Paul Reed so Paul Reed Smith you could tell he's jamming with too in a photo and you could tell that Paul is having the time of his life he's got this ear to ear grin he it looks like he's got this pose and he's like he's doing some Chuck Berry lick or something and Tio's just like and they're just laughing he's just a nice guy when whenever you just go on a tangent with somebody you realize after you meet so many famous people they really do put their pants on one leg at a time you know ex they do they that's right but but I mean when that happens like when we were in the studio you were recording with uh one of the albums with with Jason yeah you know he and I were actually in the green room just hanging out and I'm like I'm like I something came up about my HOA and I got an email I go gosh she oh man I I said you I said crazy question do you ever s serve on the board of your HOA he's like man I can't stand HOA and we started talking about HOAs yeah those was the most random everything he's a great he great conversation he's a Salesman dude he is a Salesman of sales people he's he's he makes you feel like you're you know he wants you around yeah you know totally um so some of the gear you play dude we have to do it for the drum yard Let's Do It Let's Do It um so I had your Brands down here you've got gret the big these are all big boys dude Gretch Remo zil and Vick worth those are like the like you know just some of the most heralded brands so for the kids that are always Emil in me and you I'm ready for an endorsement I think how do I do this so did what did you go to n did you pit yourself did you put an EPK together did you meet people organically how did it happen um we have a you know Paul Allen guitar player yeah tin finger Orchestra like I mean he's talk about Talent like drums Bas guitar like he's fantastic and he's been a a good he actually played with Ryan for a very short period of time he came out to like kind of see and he was like I think I know what this is I I'm going to go make money cuz yeah anyway so Paul and I developed a good relationship and I kind of was really green to the industry and I would like he he he would just he kind of wi Wing a little bit and we go out to a storage unit and I would play We he had drum kit set up we kind of play we'd go grab food bab burrito or something and then go to his storage unit and just like hash around a little bit and like and I was so intimidated by that because I'm not a drummer's drummer like I'm just kind of like you know oh that's cool what did you do that oh it's just like a par bro dude you play the song which is what so many train drummers have trouble getting to right again flash kind of ties into the fact that I didn't learn tradition I just learned listening to records so that's how I thought that was gone you I like that so with that whole thing I I literally just uh we met and he was like Hey you come to what are you doing these dates in in January I need you can be my tech for winter n and um I was like okay cool so he I shedor guitars whatever he was with at the time and I got a little got he got my credentials and everything and we went we went out there and split the hotel room and the whole thing and like it was I mean I would gosh that was probably 200 I mean it could have been 9 10 11 like somewhere in there even earlier than that maybe like it was a long time ago yeah and I just I saw Josh free play in the L one of those Lobby shows at the you know there two the hotels that are right in front of the convention center and there's those they have those Lobby shows and I was like I I think that's Josh F and he was playing with just some little like it was just amazing so and speaking of Paul Reed Smith uh he took us up to his freaking hotel room where he had a bunch of his like project amps and he brought like 20 10 10 guys there I got this one in he had a separate room for like his like amp and you know so it was just seeing that and so that was my initial but n is so overwhelming like but did you pitch yourself did you go to the folks at Gretch and you're like hey guys Paul was very encouraging I just didn't have any I felt like had anything to offer like I'm just kind of playing Broadway I'm playing an AA trailer game like country bars and casinos around the Midwest like I mean I'm I'm professional I'm touring and I'm making money and making living the exposure quoti wasn't there yet yeah I mean I knew I didn't have much to bring to the table uh and this is before social media really is what it is now so um Soul tone symbols was the one that I went to First and like just kind of said just kind of got up the nerve to talk to him and their their a whole vibe was for the working drummer you know and I was like well I'm the definition of that so I basically went to them and um and developed to relate just started talking to him and I got the info emailed him and got some symbols and uh and it was great and then as that kind of got the initial like crap out of this like okay get the get the Jitters out and then uh when I got I emailed Gretch because I got the info from the Gretch contact there from n and I emailed them and said hey this what I'm doing and they're like they the first uh response was well you know we're not hiring we're not taking on any artists now but you know cuz hold on to your information right I didn't have anything going on so maybe a year later is when I got the gig with L theft and then I then I got to the point where I was a little more bold with it and again this is 2013 so still very early on in the in the whole scheme of things of like internet and um social media and I got the gig and we were on we were opening for mcra that whole summer we had TV shows lined up you know today show all fun stuff and all that stuff I actually had some ammunition and I went to him and told him and and then S I was I was I remember crafting that email and I got a I got a text from my buddy Vince who he was an in he was instructing and stuff and he had a relationship with Vic fth Vince romanelli yes yeah yeah the another mayor of Nashville just the best and he was like I think it was Ben at Vic fur at the time was looking for more um uh country artists to to to bring on their roster and I was like you know what I just got this gig and so Vic F was actually the first one which in there in in kind of led to a zilligen relationship and then I I emailed Kim at KCM music at the time which is what Gretch was under yeah now Remo is a big fish that is hard to get it's nearly impossible how'd you do that I think I've just grandfathered in honestly so long ago um because they also it was kind of there was kind of like a little familial relationship there and I used I used the name dropping of hey I'm with Vic and Vic for like you know looking this and and it's been and I mean the Remo relationship is I I I just get a discount it's very rare to get things for free these days um I get I get an allotment of sticks for free but it's not you know it's fantastic and everything's just kind of discounted so yeah we're going to kill this amount of trees for you but um so I guess it was just gradually I got in kind of at a time where endorsements were a little more accessible and I just happened to get to the right time and I was able to kind of promote myself just enough without lying being like Hey we're doing this and this and this and say I you know and they and they said yes and that kind of led to a few other things you know what I'm Blown Away by that you put an ambassador on your snare drum and it makes it through the entire show multiple shows what's on the toms ambassadors as well uh Toms are vintage emperors nice a little warmer why an ambassador on the snare I just think I get more like CU my snare is a little drier it's that hand hammered chover brass um I've always it's an ambassador X so it is a little thicker than I think a traditional Ambassador right Ambassador X okay yeah it's a little thicker um I just I really like how it feel I get like the tone of the drum can come out more I'm not choking off you know the way I play you know like I guess it just feels you know and yes I do go through heads a little bit like it does they start to lose their I have to go a little quicker I guess as far as just losing there like once every 3 days or so or no I mean it's more like I guess well CU if only playing like 35 minutes or whatever it can last you know six shows nice or but I I actually don't change my heads I probably should change them more front of house guy probably like me to change them more right but again even with a discount they're kind of expensive and um uh I do snare wise though I do try to keep one that's on there that's decent and it's not now in opposition here's a business question m doing what you do is that money come up you have to pay for the heads or is that kind of a business expense for the artist so I I I have not um I I pay for for my stuff okay um you know yes I'm playing that par because the drums that I use with Lauren stay on a trailer they stay on the on the on on in my trunks on a trailer and I haven't played that kit other than with her in probably eight years well that kit I got actually I got that kit on the tour with you guys that first time right it I got delivered and brought it out and the first it's show was Madison Square Garden with the when Jason sold it out and it was like yeah that was pretty awesome but so that kit has been pretty much played exclusiv with Lauren since then and that was 2018 I believe um so you know I don't I I I just I just use them I buy them myself I have not thought about even though I'm using them for her I think my gear is my responsibility the computers and like the tracks and stuff that's hers like she pays for that stuff that we use on stage but I think like that I I'm I'm comfortable with with uh with my own PCH purchasing my own heads and sticks and here's another dorky business question uh are you a W2 with her or $ 1099 a W2 and it's it's a per gig thing so we're not salary yet but we I I don't mind show cuz it's you work you get paid right um but it's nice when they take their FICA out for you and I do appreciate the W2 CU um I was thinking from tax deduction and as a self-employed musician that has really helped me get I bought a house in 2006 and bought another one in 201 and got a construction loan coming like it's it enabled me to have some consistency to say here's what yeah I mean I'm claiming this x amount of cash from Broadway and stuff but I also have this on paper and you boom that's text and it's like you can see it here it is one last thing we wanted to maybe touch on was you're um you did a lot of playing in house band was it for the CMA Awards the CMT Awards what there's a c involved there's one of the uh alliterations or you know those things the cmts country music uh Television Awards um the story of that is hilarious but John Binger right uh John Binger is band leader and I get a call from John and in again I think this was like 2014 and he's like hey I got your number from John Hamlin I need a drummer like they they were switching from the Mavericks the maver of the house band forever and they either they whatever happened there I did not know that they that year they switched and they wanted a different house band um and they called John to put it together nice younger you know hip looking the whole thing and he called me for it and it's like live television are you you know have you done anything like that and like in the back of my mind I'm thinking no I have not I'm scared to death of it I do not know what is involved here yeah I'll do it yeah you know one of those first and very uh I'm glad I said that because there's a part of me that says just say no if you're not ready to say no at least you're protect like you don't you're not going to bearish yourself but then there's that moment that you're like no I can do it I'll figure this out and you you throw yourself in the fire and you got out and then I was in it for eight you know eight years and we would you know every time I had to take one year off when Lauren had a weekend of her headlining tour and I had I couldn't do it that year um but other than that it's been every year since yeah and then what are your responsibilities are you you're backing up artists on kind of like modified condensed arrangements and then are you actually going to commercial as well bump yeah we at the first few years we did bumpers live and then they decided to pre-record them bumpers yeah and then we did we there's like a little side stage the Nationwide side stage or the Ram side stage you know the sponsored side stage of the upand cominging artists that are not on the like the main feature and they do like a freaking chorus or Verse Chorus like something very 45 seconds thing as you go out to Commercial and then we bring them back in and so yeah we learned like six usually six artists and we learned and then they started learning the whole song because we did the whole song for like internet content so you do the little bumper and then you do the whole thing and we' pre-record it and the whole thing so the the the the nerve-wracking thing is it is live we are the we play we are playing live and we hear that like in my ears I would hear the truck counting down from commercial we would make notes as to which like where I should need to hit space bar to start our click and start our tracks if we had them and it would like I would say at at 5 seconds because then that we would start right away we'd be able to get out right in time for the for the you know for the MC is that something that someone had to teach you or just instinctively know do it I just did it and like I I took to it really well and like I just my mom is a actress and she did a lot of theater work and there's just Just moment there's just these moments of like timing that I do feel like come naturally for me yeah um like when Lauren's introducing a song and she goes on a tangent and I'm like and I can tell when she's about to wrap it up but obviously if she says here's this song and then you hit spacebar and it's like one two seems like forever oh my gosh so it's like blah blah blah blah blah one two here's the song about and it's in like there's a there now Grant it's never it's sometimes not perfect but when you get it within it's it's man it was the first show was I was so nervous but when it landed and we were done it was just again so rewarding right it's just um and I'm just very grateful for to have that because you always sounded great yeah do you and then you know you learned how to read music annotation from playing the saxophone so do you have your own version of drum charts I do I I it's mostly just like you know going on I don't there's some great software out there now that I haven't uh really had some practice with but I literally just kind of put a title on a Tempo and how it starts and then put like an intro and like space it out so where I can look glance at it yeah the kick and snare patter pattern and then sometimes the number of bars I really rely on my I really rely on listening to the songs ad nauseum sometimes to get those parts but if I if I think I'm going to really need to remember that it's like okay starts with boom boom or like four on the floor kick or a big hit on four before the Hulk band comes in and I we can notate that with accent marks usually on a computer then throw them on an iPad and have it there if I need it and I can back and forth well it's a good skill set it says you had less than 48 hours notice except for Cole swindell's drummer and play their 90 minute set for 30,000 people headlining at the Barefoot music Festival so so you had to have charts I did I did iPad paper iPad and um so yeah I was on the I was W with Lauren on on on the bus with Lauren like we we just and I get a call from Chris maror who's fantastic dude great player he's but I think he's Cole's band leader he's been with that Cole since the beginning and he's having a baby and he's like man we're close enough that I don't want to risk it I was thinking next week I could start cuz he had he had them lined up for the the Red Zone if you will but this was a little peripheral date and he was like man I just don't feel comfortable leaving town can you do it and it was Tuesday and the first show was Thursday yeah and I was like it was one of those moments the same thing with the CMT call I was like I I need to say no because all those dudes are my friends we toured with them actually it was Cole Jason Cole that year 2018 Cole swindell's first headlining tour of like hockey arenas and basketball Arenas and then you guys in the summer and then them one of our best years touring honestly because we had the great catering and like it was great Lord marar and so I was like I I said No at first and then Within like 10 I saw I I talked to Tico and he was I was like we can do with the dates lineup and we were playing in in Buffalo or something or I could get there that the logistics would work out nice so for me to get to that and I was like you know what I called him right back I was like I'll do it I'll do it send me this let's let's make this work yeah and again from you save the day you're the hero yeah I mean and because I love those dudes like Joel and Clint and and Josh and like uh Adam Cunningham has sub he's a bass player he's come and played with us when our BAS player had had a baby one time and I mean Cole is the nicest dude in the world and like their whole crew and everybody it was just so nice to like be acknowledged for that and um uh our Lauren's assistant is engaged to uh Cole's assistant tour tour manager Cody and so like it was it was the best situation that I could Sigman uh Cody Alexander sorry I'm popping the mic I'm getting all excited I know it was the so literally I get the call I get the music I'm in the gym listening to it I'm making I'm making my charts at first it helps you retain a little bit and then but to get there there were no flights or anything I had to take a city bus from Manhattan to Jersey over like 900 p.m. me and actually our front of house and our production manager because he was the stage manager it's another serendipitous thing and which made it so he was the stage manager for the Barefoot Festival this is a massive Live Nation Festival this is like a in Wildwood New Jersey on right on the beach he was asked to be the stage manager that week so yeah had a travel partner so we got we took the same bus and like uh city bus a city bus cuz it was the only thing that could do to get me there and then he had a hotel room in Wildwood and so I just and it was one of those rooms that had like it was two separate rooms in the one room was like a sweet style so I had a room to go to we we we we bust to somewhere and then we had to take an Uber for like like an hour Uber that was like 100 bucks from the bus station to get to Wildwood and then I basically went he had to be up early thankfully our sound Che or like wasn't until like 10: a.m. so but he had to be there like 7:00 a.m. so I get up I get the runner from Cole Cole's Runner picks me up from the hotel I get there and I sit down and and like we do a sound check and like we hit a couple songs and like because Johnny our production manager was the stage manager he kind of like you guys can have a couple extra minutes if you want and we we hit a couple songs and Joel hutzell guitar player he was like are you good you want man I'm pretty good and I just remember on that bus listening listening listening listening just absorbing absorbing it and just like focusing so much because and like making certain making all the notes I needed and then like reducing that and then listening the day of and the day of and then I made one mistake that was nobody noticed except for the band yeah on one of the endings it wasn't there was no train wrecks and like and then that's the first show just again Wildwood like 30,000 people headlining this Festival largest show I've ever played for as the F and I was just like and you just kind of a huge sigh of relief and like you came through for your friends you know and your people that and and it's very rewarding as a it was it came at a time where as a performer I was kind I kind of needed that little win MH um and the next night it was a whole weekend so like I played the next night well it got rained out very similar to our show um on the weekend that we did that got rained out and shortened up so we all had to do like acoustic sets and you guys played full band Yes we Cole ended up doing an acoustic set so like I had to kind of there was no tracks like like Joel counted each song off so I had no rails anymore it was just me knowing the songs and Joel would go in the TalkBack and count the songs off for me because he knew kind of where they were that was awesome and we play the songs and I had like rods we just used the normal kit everything because everything was miked they lost because of the rain they lost some of their gear so they couldn't play their electrics oh boy we got through that show that was another win because they're like you got to be adaptable you got to be able to to have the be the ability to do that and then the third show was normal and we played it great and it was just I mean it was so awesome to be able to do that it's awesome yeah awesome I love see because he because he has a musical mind and you're responsible and you hold yourself to a high standard and you can make the drum charts you got to experience the Kenny arof lifestyle you know city bus to an Uber to the festival to playing on someone else's drums getting it done being the hero lives for that oh and I had I didn't have my uh I I had like generic ears cuz my other ears were on the like it was one of those one of those moments where everything just was was against me but it all worked out and it was fantastic I had the generic $100 sure in ears on Saturday Night Live with Sean Pelton watching my every Note 3 feet behind me remember when we had to do Saturday Night Live after the Vegas shooting uh we had no gear and so it was like I had stock $100 like Dollar General in ears you know what I mean Humanity sound like you're listening to your mix thr you know 2A radio it is crazy so um so this is where we kind of go for the uh the fave five Jim I'll let you ask some of these questions the F five color oh okay what's your favorite color go favorite color uh favorite color is red actually nice dude I love red bro yeah I I I appreciate the the slightly darker a garnet if you will yeah but he's very precise yeah I mean if you're make it a Mojave Sunset have you ever had some some red drums cuz you your drums are white I had a red sparkle drum when I first kind like the bright red sparkle and also a Gretch kit that I found on eBay for like 600 bucks the first Pearl export was the red color oh man yeah the sparkle was just the red rap it was just a red RP yeah I remember think like our high school one of our high school like jazz bands had that same kit in the back of the you know the and then for some reason it just you could never get it tuned well I could never tune well as you know was it an export it was an export yeah yeah I think any yeah like the composite shells they weren't real wood they were just like press board why they were priced the way they exactly like the Remo did you ever get to play a Remo acousticon kit in the in the 90s it was basically the wood droppings that fell to the floor from making drums oh like U sawdust and they would they would basically wood glue GL these together and that would those were Tam drums were like that too for a while they had like corkboard seemed like the interior was made out of cork yeah you know jeez T you don't hear about t drums a lot it's all the metal guys charlie bante LS those guys they did make a move 10 years ago to the Country Market and so we've got like you know Jeff Marino and some of those guys doing the thing they're great drums I have the my pedal I play downtown is the iron that's a Workhorse it's funny because I mean uh from a branding perspective DW uh before they were a drum company I remember even when they started uh building drums and getting more emerged into the drumers market and becoming a high-end you know BMW esque brand if you will they were more of a hardware company known for their pedals right and uh then they started making drums which it's kind of like until it was like McDonald's making steak you know it's like okay you know okay I I kind of and then all of a sudden it just caught fire and it become known for both right yeah uh T did the same thing I mean with that that pedal became ubiquitous St class oh man yeah I mean I think I bought it at a necessity and I I mean I I think it's 10 years old at least yeah Rock and sock same way have Rock and Longevity on those amazing one of the screws kind of came loose I when I carry my stuff downtown Broadway it's like symbol pack then I have a backpack that I sling around the front that's got my pedal attached to it and my sticks and ears and micr and some like extra Felts and stuff and then I carry my snare and carry my throne and just like a pack mule just running but it's keeps me in shape but it's also like the it's it's taking a beating and it's still really just sounds great and it looks still looks great I mean it's it's awesome yeah yeah yeah I was just asked to host the DW Factory day for the fifth time oh and it's always on a Saturday in September and I can never do it of course but it's so sweet that that tell them all they ask no I would be I'd be introducing Terry basio and Brendon Buckley and Jason I have some I can't do it but I have somebody that is so would would do it for a kit cuz they're like Rich we don't want you to play we just want you to just you know we want you want your personality coost I have my co-host who I never invite out to shows or bring up on stage I got to do this for him on stage buddy come up and you can play hick toown Let's Do It come on we'll make it it's not public record I I yeah we'll make and it's on I'll play hick down yeah I'll freaking kick its ass yes you will if I'm there I'm close I'll Cowell I'm going to T it turn it a hick Village oh durka derka hey what's your what's your favorite drink we probably shared one am my like alcoholic drink well you can go there because they more fun um you know that's a great question um what kick are you on right now what kick what kick are you on a Jin kick actually oh yeah weird right well we went to Scotland um a couple years ago I like did a headline tour UK tour was awesome and it was grueling cuz we you know it is what it is but it was really fun like I'm just the kind of person that loves that like I will carry my gear up the stairs and play for 200 people in this stinky Club in Glasgow Scotland thank you and sweat my ass off and play like and and just because that's I don't know that's how I grew up that's how you did it that's how you like that was rock and roll if you will yeah so I and even in my 40s I back my day back in my oh that's that's why I tried blood sausage it's literally sausage made with blood um it's it's fantastic I loved it that was my nickname in high school oh yeah oh gosh blood sausage blood sausage I don't want to hear that story but um I'm traditionally a vodka based drinker so like Moscow Mules are really good or like just Bakka soda lime you know something but like um to honestly the drinking is slowed down these days but like uh I stick you know Tequila I'll shoot tequila chill tequila is great ni um that's I guess if I'm on the road and like out of the bar so white Liquors very good good for your waistline because you're you're healthy fit Guy what's your Fitness thing um so my that first 2013 my first major gig love and theft open for m and I think I was barely 30 years old and if like maybe 2930 so again I was a late bloomer like I just like I was five or six years behind than that kind of like eightball if you will and so I just kind of it was my not until I was 30 till I got on a big tour like that well mcra as you know is a fitness just fiend and so that year was the that was the two Lan of Freedom tour yeah he actually didn't have the semi that year it was he had the one bus on the bay he had all the gear that coming out of the Bays nice and he had a personal trainer SL security guy there so every day was like a crossfit day for him and he would I mean 4 hours he would wake up but my first day on that tour flipping tires and sledg Hammers and I get off the bus the first day in Birmingham or not was near Birmingham that that Amphitheater that's in Atlanta or um in Alabama that's greens Greenwood or Greenwood or something like that yeah anyway it doesn't matter I get off the bus and he's at like 9:30 a.m. I'm trying to catch catering before it's put you know the breakfast is down he is coming back from his morning run with chains around his like shirtless chain massive chains around his shoulders the band on the little running shorts and he's just run the entire bleachers of this Amphitheater in the morning and that was his first workout of the day right then around 1:00 he gets no he would get the gear out and him and his band would and anyone who wanted to and he invited us out to do this little kind of semi CrossFit like okay this station we're going to do shrugs and then here's this little ladder climb blah blah blah do a run and we'll kind we do three circuits of that and we'll change it up so he was running the workout man hitting the tire the whole thing and he's out there involved like giving us instruction like I remember at one point when he invited us out so it was me and Stephen and ER from 11 fft and our bass player and like we all just kind of started doing it and it was fantastic because I had mcra as a personal trainer One Summer and it's great it set in these kind of examples of like okay it was the time of my life where I needed that little like oh you have to take care of your body now because if you do want to be doing this 15 20 years later you'll end up looking like me well so Jim get the splash trust me there's way worse I know um but no it's it's one of those things where I do have a lot of like you know genetic uh blessings as well predisposition right um but I also didn't want to be skinny fat or just out of shape or just not feeling great like cardiovascularly not great or whatever yeah and and we're drummers man it's such a physical the way you play the way like you you're it's a full but and you play 90 minutes and you're whole like you're playing and if you don't take care of yourself it will hurt so when I met you well I met you a long time ago but when we're on tour together in 2018 I'm 200% in better shape than I was then mhm that year I was just kind of like big beard traveling too much lived half the year in Nashville living on Southwest Airlines and um just and then I just decided that whatever I was going to do I was going to do it every day yeah so the consistency yeah and we saw saw you guys do like the first day we rolled up this last tour like out there like doing your workout like it's even 20 to 30 minutes of just some little circuit it just at our age it just like it really really helps to get and like we toured with Blake Shelton for almost a year and they play basketball every day and so it's just something he gets out there and it's it's Blake he's not you know he's not your he's not a typical athlete by any means but he's in good cracking you up the whole time oh he's in he's in good shape for his for for like he's he's he's super tall too he's like just a little shorter than I am so I have to guard him of course like you're gonna and his drummer Tracy is a fantastic basketball player he's like his daughters are playing like he's he's a good athlete and so we one time we were in Sacramento we played at the Sacramento Kings Arena and they us use their practice facility we decided to do uh full court for about 5 minutes and then we're like it's and I was like okay I could just run down there and like Blake's like okay um let's just do half court that is funny so it's it's funny that and your guys play pickle ball and like it's really cool to see that like if you you can make it aart and make it a band thing it's a it's a community thing it's a bonding experience and it it's good for you no I like that my band is like please play pickle ball with us I'm like no you guys are insanely overly competitive um and I get a th% more benefits of having me against some weights or you against you essentially me against me then being yelled at for screwing up a shot because that is exactly what would happen because they why don't you just play golf then golf that's you're against yourself in golf oh yeah but it's also a ridiculous it's a money pit of frustration yeah yeah i' I've just good enough now where I can like not embarrass myself and it's it's a it's actually a pretty good networking thing oh yeah I've played with like hey if they need a third or a fourth and this like on the certain tours and you're oh [ __ ] I'm playing golf with some pretty you were a speed skater for cred out loud he'd be able to keep up and pickle is that true he was I I did for a brief time I I experimented with some athletic things in Connecticut in my you know when I was 8 nine 10 11 um you ever see this guy roller skate no he's amazing pretty good like a like a I'm bringing some BL out next time man he's amazing like a disco roller skater it's a but still that that you could like play hockey or something I mean and skating is very good for you like you good for the abs and legs yeah heck yeah I think I'm doing good just to go get your your weights and cardio in every day call it good um Jim yeah favorite food trying to involve Jim in the favorite five what's what's your favorite food how are those coming what just text me these things food or dish um man so many good ones I will say like the every time I get this question or that question comes up which food like it's not a style my mother's squash casserole I mean it's this like Southern she's very Southern Southern cook from Mak Georgia which is where she's a Georgia Peach and U in fact I when she was sick uh very close to where we toured with you guys and I went down to like I was driving from Nashville to Tallahassee and I would at one point the Atlanta route was a little quicker anyway I went through mon I picked up some Finch's barbecue and brought some for Jason and he like because that's a very it's a making staple you're a very thoughtful person you gave me a gift today it incredible thank you I mean of course like that's that's a love language I guess of mine but um yeah that it's a squash casserole two kinds of like squash and zucchini and then like little onions and some cheese on top lots of cheese of course and egg in there and just like it's the staple for Thanksgiving Christmas every time I come down there and of course I've never made it myself I don't want to mess it up but it's it's one of those things that I could have it at any time I love that oh yeah my mom's food oh I'll take it whenever yeah okay hey you at the top down you're on the pch in California you're looking at the Pacific Ocean tops down the this song comes on the radio it's one of your favorite songs man fate you're cranking it Connecticut white bread what's that Connecticut white bread that was Jim's band yeah how'd you know you know and this this you know it's something that just keeps rearing its ugly head in your life man because favorite song is a tough tough question for any musician singer um there's it's a rotating thing but let's see um could be because of the drummer it could be the lyrics it could be the producer it could be just the era of the song because it reminds you of something in your life I I will relate that that scenario that eloquently put was uh my my best friend from high school his name is Travis Pastak and he's has a great band now called because villains and he's actually he was a drummer in my band in in high school and now he started writing songs at college and so he's a lead singer and I've played drums for him now a few dozen times we've done we've done little little shows in New York and stuff and like done little quasi tours kind of funny but we're still really great friends to this day but was in his wedding and everything anyway we would he would he was a year older so he got his license first in high school in Englewood Florida Lemon Bay High School yeah my parents live in Port Charlotte bro oh you know yeah so there's that that stretch of Beach Road between like mannasota key and Inglewood Beach and it goes to middle Beach it's like all it's Slightly North of Port Charlotte I think yeah and he had he got the car it was the freedom you know you're in high school we would we jammed Dave Matthews band's crash record so probably a s a song from that record we'll just go with the opening one it's just so much to say that so much to say so much to say so much to say so much dude just that's probably because it it brings back that memory of that that you go back to that moment where two dudes like that musicians wanted to rule the world you know love it okay and lastly it's also very difficult favorite movie oh wow I'll go something you got to go with what's now okay yeah I mean I've got like you could go like Ace mature Pet Detective or the like all that stuff but I think re of the last more modern movies here's here's a better way to phrase that question because it's like you know a movie you could sit down and watch anytime no matter where it is in the movie oh man and you're going to there's a lot of those there's lot like that syndicated movies like Independence Day and all this but I think for me uh the second the The Dark Knight Batman's dark the second iteration of the trilogy the The Joker the uh what's his name uh Heath Ledger Heath Ledger's Joker I saw that movie in the theater four times and I don't see like yeah I that you know that's not something I do like that's the only movie I've seen in the in the theater probably more than twice wow and it just to me that's a perfect movie the way that it was set up being a Batman fan you know seeing the Michael Keaton ones and like the Tim huge Tim Burton fan we got a DC fan in the house Jim I mean I think like I grew up with the St with Star Wars and and like the superhero thing was was pretty was pretty big so that in fact I might watch that soon like Dark Knight just to me it being the second in a Trilogy it was the darker if you will one and it had those moments and then of course the Heath Ledger character I mean it perfectly done I mean all right rest in peace I mean like just you should have won an Oscar yeah I mean how it's it's one of those things where you you it sucks that like that that that's what did it like because just a method actor and like how dark that kind of can be who was the actress who played the um the female uh gosh not Vicky Veil it was the ACT what was her name in that one yeah uh do uh Kate no be in sale but um Boswell no um Gyllenhaal there was Magie jenal the love interest Katy Holmes the first in the first movie right the second movie was mag but joen Hall was like when he went up to her he grabbed her face and was so in character that she was actually getting so uncomfortable she was looking offscreen to the director for like what's he doing like you know and they left it in the movie yeah CU it's genuine fear it was it was genuine fear those like just he probably didn't tell her he was going to do it no no and like that's great oh man I it's just his and I think Christian Bale's great the way it was all Ed the whole the plot the whole thing was really really well done and so yeah that's probably one of my favorites great that's going to that that is cuz when it comes to Batman the darker the better like you know the entirety of of DC is dark it's it has a yeah like the Marvel verse DC thing the Marvel is more real Marvel's more relatable they gave it like for real as it can be for superhero movies like they gave it this more like anecdotal yeah you got all these you know near-perfect characters with Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent you know Superman is he's got one weakness you got Wonder Woman you got there's too much Perfection there in superheroes as we used to know them and I think it's a cultural thing but you know when when RDJ embodied Tony Stark what a flawed character yeah you know and that was the most endearing part of it cuz he there is obviously there's vulnerability there's spoiler alerts but that's what I love about it it's like that he can be defeated even the even the Demi God Thor was was flawed yeah had had his yeah had his weaknesses and right it's it's kind of yeah that's that's I've never thought about that too the the Jos of the DC vers Marvel in that light that's really interesting because I I think that's why they've been so popular as of hey back to Maggie Gyllenhaal um yeah where where this is becoming capes and hammers she's in Crazy Heart as the Muse to Jeff Bridges and crazy heart is it was like an indie it was very indish but it was it was almost like Jeff Bridges was um like an old he plays the old school country star that goes around and hires a band locally for all his gigs and he's just a drunk and just lost in his life I know I've heard the movie Colin Ferell is the new kind of gar Brook Jason Al Dean type I am the new guy yeah the hot new guy great film okay the list for sure well I think movies like again I was a Star Wars fan so the the the influence the creative influence that we have as creatives comes from all all things like movies to me was one of those I mean again seeing the Star Wars Trilogy for the first time like now we're talking the 1976 film right the papier-mâché and the small models that would like and the the camera that to me that's what was so like Lucas and Spielberg finding ways to make this massive movie look amazing with like models and just camera tricks they couldn't they didn't anticipate it being as big as it was couldn't have I mean and Lucas did say that the reason he made 456 before 123 is because he knew that the worlds and the galaxies and the the planets that he had just there was the he knew maybe Graphics CGI would get there but it wasn't there he had to do these with with what he had and man just like and John Williams I mean come on like the emotion behind all those the I still like The Melodies and he has like when when Vader is dying in Luke's arms and like the the the melon calliness of it like all that influences us as musicians as creatives and so you you kind of lose sight of that when we we so laser focused on learning the song and everything and then like when you really take a moment to breathe it's like how are you influenced and what's what are you about and you start to realize oh those are the things I love that you love that cuz uh the latest alien film Alien ramulus is the best alien movie since 1978 it uses not even aliens no it this it's so good it uses a guy suit it uses animatronics it uses Prosthetics it uses mat paintings it uses CGI every Technique we have to make horror and scii films was used highly effectively tons of tip of the hats to the previous films and it's scary as hell were you a Sam Remy guy yeah because it's it was this movie was directed by the guy that did the reboot of Evil Dead which is disgusting and terrify right is that Bruce Campbell yeah yeah and normally I'm not a horor guy but that but the suspense is different than horror like so I think I've not seen yeah gosh I can't it's been forever since I've SE the original aliens movies but I'm going to check that one out too oh that's for me alien and then sha shanger emption oh yeah that's one of those movies that comes on you have to watch it yeah and see all the clips so Andy defrain was like a bird that couldn't be caged he crawled through feathers were part to Bri crawl through 500 yards of of vile [ __ ] I don't I don't want to think of no no this is we always get our rating yeah we always get an our rating so uh people can keep in touch with you and follow you buddy it's McCoy gbs.edu but yeah know yeah I guess it's there I prefer the cute little bluebird I don't know why he had to screw it all up well that's that's another podcast totally Jim I don't know if he screwed it up any any closing statements Jim you have been extra quiet today but I mean when you spoke it was like EF Hutton EF Hutton is that a good thing remember the ads when when EF Hutton speaks people listen it was like a 1970s Law Firm well it's about damn time yeah yeah yeah no I just want to say I appreciate you having me and this is one of those really cool experience I I think you're the Jim I used to say what did you learn and like for me that was our signal to wrap it up this was just um you know the idea that you came in a different way and achieve the same results yeah and that I think that's what I have you know in a town where there's so many great players and had so many great personalities drums Guitar anything um I've stopped trying to be anything else but myself you know like because I've did just came in a different way like learned late blim or learned late like just kind of found my way and just showed up prepared and listen songs and played them and like are you are you gonna die with the sticks in your hand do you have other interests other like Hobbies or things that's a great question I'm kind of at that little a little bit of that you know you know Crossroads Crossroads if you will of of like you know I've got some whatever it's the real estate thing or the or playing I I mean I I would love to play till the wheels fall off I mean honestly I think that's thing staying in shape like you know so as long as Lauren has me I'll be there and if and there's other opportunities that come up I'd love to entertain those too and like but yeah I think that I'd love there's some things on that goal list that I'd like to to to achieve and if but like you got to you know got to keep just keep practicing getting better and yeah um yeah so I think because of the some of the things that have lined up well for me timing wise I have the the the fortunate opportunity to to do this for the next 15 20 years at a high clip and yes and what's the rest of the year look like for you guys we've got um a couple weeks off here I'm going to be in town and and and Woodshed a little bit downtown which is awesome I'm looking forward to seeing those fantastic players as well and playing with those guys and girls and then uh she's got I think maybe 20 dates here and there a few festivals and fairs um few opies she's an opery member so we do that as well and um but just nothing s like our our our our watermark for the year was was the tour with you guys was really fun and so um yeah then she'll take we'll we'll kind of wind down I'm sure we'll do some like the the Christmas tour the St Jude tours where we do the St Jude shows radio shows and stuff in December and that's always fun yeah and then have some holiday time off with the family and and oh we're gonna be doing the we're doing Halloween Thanksgiving and Christmas before we know it it's here I already feel like the the leaves are starting to change colors a little bit Jim here in Nashville yeah they're going to freaking burst into flames I know it is 100 degrees today yeah but yeah so it's it'll be a good rest of the year and a nice little balance of of in in and out of town stuff well give her a hug for me and that entire band too and I'm so proud of you and this is from Jim super happy for you yeah I will do that I will Jim thank you for your time and talent as always buddy thank you really do to meet you today meet you as well buddy yeah it's it's way we keep each other in each other's lives man cannot Escape each other yeah I'm telling you it's a great thing till the end we're definitely due for another guys night we do we almost had one tomorrow night with the Hagar concert that I'm going to I know that's you're gonna have so much fun there lover boy because we had Matt Fett on the show and then Jason Bonham so Jim is taking upon himself to go down there and represent and see the show I got a 10 o'clock bus call so of course you do of course I do hey folks here's the book making it in country music and insiders look at the industry it took a year of my life but really 50 years of my life to write the book picked that up Jeff Bezos will lick the stamp send the book right to your house so you can download it to your Kindle and maybe I'll do a read here on audable at some point but you got to buy the book folks buy the book it's a it's a what do they call it hard cover yeah it's a coffee table book all right and if you love the show be sure to subscribe share rate and review it helps people find the show and we'll see you next time we'll be here thanks McCoy so welcome thank you thank you this has been the rich Redmond show subscribe rate and follow along at richmond.com SLP podcasts [Music]