Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This was for the home team.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: This was for the home team.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: Welcome Tailgate Beers. We are here, Cruisins, Peoria, Illinois, Central Illinois. We are with our good friend Clayton Shea.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: What I'm gonna do, kick back in.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: We are very excited to have him sitting in with us today. Thanks for taking the time out. I. I know you just got off stage here at Cruisins and. And put on a heck of a show and, and people were excited and just acoustic show that I, I personally love an acoustic show. I, I will go anywhere and listen to acoustic show. So I, I appreciate that from you and again appreciate your time of sitting here with us today.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: I can't think of a better time to do this than right now. Honestly. This is the perfect time. I'm about five to seven drinks in.
Maybe he's counting. This is perfect.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Thank you for having everybody's over with Corey Smith.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: I have a slight bit of fomo, but I've seen him for the last two nights, so I know the show.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: We'Re gonna catch, we're gonna catch the end of it.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: So you're out traveling with with Corey and seeing all the countryside and open up for him. Tell us about that experience.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, so I was working with a publishing company called Sprockets out of Nashville. And Corey was kind of what you'd call flirting with Sprockets. Basically I was flirting with Sprockets. They put us in the room together, we wrote and actually what originally happened was I went out to eat with Corey, we got some Mexican food, we hit it off as people before we were ever in business together in any sort of way. And Corey and I just. We fuck with each other. We have. We're on the same wavelength. So I've known him about a year. It's probably been about a year since that happened. And I just hit him up and I was like, hey dude, if you ever have any shows you need an opener for, I would love to do it, especially if it's in the Midwest area. I can help move some tickets for you. And so he patched me in with Blake and Freddie, his manager and his day to day and his tm and yeah. So here we are. We did Cincinnati last night, which is fucking awesome. And champagne the night before on Thursday.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: No, I mean. And he's the salt of the earth. Been doing this for a long time. And he's played cruisins. You've played cruisins. And I mean, honestly, it's a great pairing of you guys. I mean, how you. Where you're at in Your career and where he's been. Honestly, he was talking today just about how he's in this. He's starting to co write more than he's ever done, in which I didn't know that he hadn't really dabbled in co writing.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Corey's a solo writer. All his stuff that you hear him play at his show, he wrote himself. And so in Nashville, the way it typically works is you got two to four, maybe sometimes five people in a room and everybody's contributing. It's an equal share kind of thing. And he's not used to that, so there's been some learning curve for him. But he's such a good writer that, like, when you're in the room with him and you throw out a line that he's excited about, you're like, oh, fuck yeah, let's go. Like, because you've heard his songs, he's good as shit, man.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: And I just been taking notes this whole time, man. Like, I'm trying to learn as much as I can from him.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: So on your, on your co writing stuff, I mean, how much of your week is spent have you been doing more of that? Have you been doing more solo shows? Where are you at in these past, you know, this past year and what are you looking at over the next year as far as writing versus playing?
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah, so I can give you a long answer, I can give you kind of a shorter version. And I'll give you. I'll give you an in between world. I'll give you an in between. So let's rewind back to 2023. I was. I had been touring a lot for a couple years. Every weekend, February through November, every, you know, out somewhere, eight hours away from Nashville, going eight hours driving to play to 700 people, mostly playing, like the club scene, where it's covers, it's 90, 90% covers, 10% originals. You sneak your originals in here and there to try to fucking just get them in because you have to. But people gloss over when you do it. And so I got to a point where last year I was just fed up with the COVID scene. I was getting to those shows and hating every fucking second of it, to be honest.
So I made a decision at the turn of the year. I'm not doing any more cover shows. I'm doing just originals. And so tailgate and Tallboys.
That would. That solidified it for me. I was like that. That is the threshold. That is what I. That is. I'm not doing shows unless it's like that. Unless I can play my original music to people who give a shit about what I'm doing. Because otherwise I'm gonna blink my eyes and 10 years later, I'll be doing the same shit.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Like, still just a cover band playing.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Out a fucking bowling alley to who knows who. So you make.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: You cut the cord.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: So I cut him out and, and meeting Corey too.
I texted him a few months back and I was like, hey, dude, you know, I want to help move some tickets and I want to. I want to come out and play a 45 minute set as opposed to a three hour set of covers to people who actually give a shit. They're buying tickets, coming out to hear the original music. So, yeah, that's, that's, that's what my. Where my head's at. It's. This last year has been lots of writing, lots of recording, building. Basically, I have a whole new batch of music coming out. This last Friday, I put out my first single of the new batch of music. I'm super excited about in that year's time too. I also really honed in on who my influences are and why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's like, you know, I've been in Nashville for six and a half years and something's got to give. You know, you put out music for a long time when you first moved to town thinking like, will people like this, Will this go viral? Will this further my success? And at some point in time, you have to start thinking about what scratches the itch for me. Right. What makes me happy to write about, you know, what makes a difference.
[00:06:32] Speaker C: And there's so much more I want to dive into of just exactly what you said there.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: That was a lot.
[00:06:38] Speaker C: Yeah, no, no, that's. That's absolutely amazing. And I want to back it up a little bit because you're. You're a local boy.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: 35 minutes.
Canton, Illinois. This is, this is, you know, home for you.
You know, Bloomington, which we've mentioned before with, you know, ISU and went there, used to play a lot there. Kind of, you know, making your rounds in Bloomington. Talk to us about how that got started within the ISU campus and building a little bit of crowd and getting to rub your elbows with some of those artists as they came through.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah, so I went to college at ISU and I graduated in 2015. And I had a band at the time. We were a funk rock band, which doesn't move a lot of tickets, believe it or not.
And so I was playing at a club called Six Strings Club there in.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: What was the band name?
[00:07:33] Speaker B: Halfway to Wasteland.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: That's a great name.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: It's kind of sick, but I started playing open mics at six Strings.
And the owner of six Strings was like, hey, dude, you're fucking good. We got to get a band around you. I was like, I have a band. We're a funk rock band. Book us. He's like, no, it's not gonna sell tickets. And I was like, what I gotta do? And he's like, you gotta start playing country music. Weirdly enough, being in, like, rural Illinois, where in Canton, at the time when I was graduating, country music was kind of taboo. Like, it was like, if you didn't listen, like heavy rock or metal, you were lame, basically. Country was not cool at the time in Canton. And believe it or not, really. I know, isn't that weird? It was like the certain select crowd listen to country music, and I, like, dabbled in it. Like, I played like, chicken fried and like Friends in Love places in the set and stuff. But my band would, like, take a break when I do that, and I'd be just me.
And so I was like, you know what, dude? I don't really care. I love music so much. I just want people to enjoy it and have a good time. So I'll play whatever. I don't give a shit. So I started playing country music. The owner of six Strings joined my band. We found bass and drums, and we started playing all the good nights, all the times. So, you know, like, what's the Coliseum? U.S. cellular Coliseum right there in Bloomington. Anytime there would be a national act coming through, we'd play that night. And it would be fucking balls to the wall in there. That's where I cut my teeth. And I was like, okay, I fuck with country music. You know, I love the storytelling. I found things within country music that I loved about other genres of music, the harmonies. I am particularly drawn to the country rock side of things.
And so that's what I've really been diving into a lot lately is like, how can I find ways to bring my, like, 90s 2000s alt rock influence into country music? So I've been writing that kind of stuff a lot lately.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: What are your, like, biggest influences when you look at that, like, 90s alt rock met whatever rock, whatever music you're into. I mean, what do you. What do you. What are you influenced by Sometimes, man.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Anything that makes me feel something first and foremost. But, like, I listen to anything from Creed to Google dolls to matchbox 20 to, you know, three doors down, lifehouse, all those bands, like, I guess the butt rock genre is what they call it.
My influences are all the fuck over the place, but that section of music had a major impact on my life. And, like, anytime I hear that shit, I'm like, just taken right back to why I got into music originally.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: So somebody the other day at Cruisin's War was playing nothing but three Doors Down. Fuck, Somebody is obsessed with this. I love. I like three doors down. I'm a 90s kid. But then what's crazy is even I'm like, God damn. Like, how many songs does 3 Doors down have? We've been up here for 30 minutes. And I mean, it hasn't stopped. But you do forget, like, dude, they. They played. They have some bankers for days.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: They have enough to tour the rest of their lives off, off of without having had a hit in the last two decades.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Which is wild to think about.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: It is wild.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Like, they can keep touring and headlining and playing massive shows, and they haven't had a hit in the last two decades.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's like at Iowa, with Shine Down. And I love Shinedown. I think all of us grow up at some point. Even if you didn't know it, you liked Shinedown, but then you're sitting there listening to this show, you're going, fuck, I forgot about this one. Oh, man, I forgot about this banger.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: So I have a cover of. Do you remember the song Broken by Seither?
Cause I'm broken when I'm open and I don't feel like I am strong enough.
Amy Lee. Amy Lee from Evanescence.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: We've been friends for a while and, you know, I know I need to do better at times, but I'd say the one thing that could throw it over the top is I get no Clayton Shea. You know, pre release songs. I have no I've Been slipping.
I get no Clayton Shay.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Hey, I'll. I'll put you in demo jail after this.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: You know what demo jail is? Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll put you in it.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: I love it. I feel like I'm a decent critic. I think I'm pretty. I think I'm pretty honest when people send me stuff. If I'm like, you know, what do you think? I'm not just gonna be like, oh, Clayton. Oh, dude, it's so good.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: You need to stroke my ego, dude.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: No, I won't. I'll just. I'll tell you what I think, and.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Let'S take 10 minutes or so and we'll after this we'll.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: As much as you're sitting here saying I don't want play covers, dude, there's some great cover Mitchell just did. The Goo Goo Dolls.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Cover of. I think it's Iris.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: I text him, I'm like, I'm obsessed with this.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: To be clear, there's nothing wrong with covers. They are important in their own regard.
It became a four letter word for me for a while. You know, going out to those shows where I'm. I'm packing a van full of guys and equipment and driving eight hours to play to people who don't give a fuck.
That's when cover became a four letter word to me. And it got dirty for a little while. But it's important, dude.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: It's.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: It's. You don't get into music without those. Cover is just a term for influence. It's like that's the music that got you in interested in the first place.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Right. So this is going to sound crazy.
For instance, we all know Luke Combs.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: This is going to sound nuts. But one of Luke Combs best songs that he's put out, at least top five is.
Well, is Ed Sheeran's Dive.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: That I think is one of. I mean, Luke Combs crushed it. Ed Sheeran's amazing.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Well, metrically even. Fast Car and.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Okay then Fast Cars is another one. But I'm saying those two covers. Yeah, he did a great job and rejuvenated that to a whole new level.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: And I think even.
What's her name that actually.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Tracy Chapman.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean even she's like, this is nuts.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Well, it was bigger than it even went for her, I think too.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: When did you. You've talked about this before.
When did you make the choice to say fuck it, I'm going to Nashville.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah. It had to be 2015 for me because I was going to ISU and I was studying to be a clinical counselor and that was what I saw.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: What does that do?
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Basically a therapist, you know, somebody who talks to you about your problems. You know, I loved. I was so interested in that. And I also, for the record, I loved school and I was to toot my own horn, really fucking good at it. I had straight A's. Well, okay, let me back up through community college. I did not do well. I was on. I was on academic probation.
Well, I came. So I moved out on my own when I was 16 and I went to college immediately out of high school and I was just fucked off for a year and I had like, nothing but Ds and Fs. So I was on academic. I had like a 1.2 GPA after my first year, and I just fucked off completely. I skipped classes. I was like a part timer. But after that I was like, oh, I have to actually try at this. And then I found psychology, and I was interested in that, and I was like, okay, there's something I care about here. So I went to school at isu, and from then on, I got nothing but straight A's. I think I had a. A couple of B's and maybe one C throughout that, but I think I graduated like a 3.8 or something like that.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: When you see the end result of what you want to and you're passionate about it. Yeah, I mean, I do think that makes the big difference when you're sitting here doing like. Like, for me, it was always like, biology. Like, I could give two shits about whatever. I don't see what I'm going to use this for. When I don't see that I was.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: A horrible chemistry for me that I don't ever.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: When I don't see it, I'm like a horrible student. And.
But when you actually are like, oh, my God, I'm passionate about this. I can see what I want to do with this. But.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: But at what age did you say, hey, you know, I'm really enjoying this music, songwriting. Yeah, all of that.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: So 2015 is when I graduated from college. That had. That was nine years ago. So I was. I'm giving away my age here. I was 22 at the time.
That was whenever I was. I had my diploma in my hand and I had set up myself for going to graduate school and being a clinical counselor. And I had, like, my professors, a couple of them who were like my mentors. And I went to them and I was like, hey, I love school. I love the direction I'm headed. But I also really love this music thing. And a couple of my professors at the time, I'll give them credit for this because I probably wouldn't have done it had they not said this, but they were like, hey, chase that. Because you can afford basically to fuck up right now. You're young. Yeah, you can always come back to school. And so I was like. I saw all these bands coming through Six Strings in Bloomington, all these Nashville guys who were just miles above, no offense to any cover bands locally, because there's nothing wrong with COVID music, but miles above and beyond those cover bands locally. And I was like, that's what I gotta Do I always use the analogy of if you want to be a marine biologist, you have to be by the ocean or by the water? Same thing with music. If you want to excel at what we're doing here, it's like, you gotta get where that is the hub of music. And so it's probably around 2016 or 17 that I opened for a band called Blackjack Billy, and I kept in contact with those guys. And over the years, as things went on with music in the local scene, I kind of hit a bit of a glass ceiling with COVID music. And I was like, I got a. Something's got to give here, basically. So I was like, I'm moving to fucking Nashville.
And I cashed in on those. Those relationships. I hit up the Blackjack Billy guys, and they're like, hey, learn to play bass. Come tour with us. So I went out on the road with him in 2018, learned. It was like an apprenticeship for me. I learned a bunch that year on the road with them, and I basically learned what I wanted to do myself as an artist by doing it with them. I saw the big stages, I saw the catering, I saw the meet and greets. I was like, that's. I fucking. I gotta do that myself.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: So what was.
What's been the highlight? What's been the Mount Rushmore? The best thing that's happened to you since you've been, you know, in Nashville. You moved down there. What's something you're like, man, I'll take this.
They'll take this to my grave with me. As far as, like, this something that I'll never let go of. That was a highlight.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Two things, two times come to my mind.
The first time was 2018, boots and hearts Music Festival in Ontario, Canada. We played to 30,000 people, and it was religious. Like, I'm getting chills just right now, just talking about it, because I was playing bass for a band that I didn't write any of the music for, but to hear them sing the music back to us in a way that was deafening. Like, I pulled my ears out because I wanted to hear it, and I was deaf. After the show, my ears were just ringing. I got off stage and I went and called my best friend. I was like, dude, do you hear this crowd right now? He's like, I hear it, buddy. I hear it.
That was, like, the first time. I was like, this is what fucking matters is original music.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: So that. That first. And I'm not just saying this next one because you're here.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Shout out Brooke and them at Boots and Hearts for. Yeah, for doing that for you.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I'm not just saying this next one because you're here, but tailgating Tall Boys was huge for me too, as an artist.
This year was a turning point for me where, like I said, I decided to cut the COVID gigs out and dive headfirst into the original music.
That side stage slot. I had a lot of people there that knew my music, and I had a similar experience. Not quite to the same scale as Boots and Hearts, but a lot of people there that were singing my music back to me, and it made me feel like an artist. So that solidified my decision to plunge headfirst into what we're doing moving forward.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Dude, I love that for you. And I've texted you, we've talked about it, of how much that meant to us, how much that meant to the family of our core group of friends and stuff. But, yeah, for us, we're all about, dude, cruising to the main stage and watching our friends and people we care about get to that point. That's. It means a lot that those are. Those are your two high points not to switch topics. What's, like, the most embarrassing fucking thing that's happened of you since you being an artist? We were like, man, that was. That was a rough one because I know, like, stand up comics, even stand up comics go places. And like, dude, I bombed. I walked off. It was bad. I wasn't prepared. I was drunk. I was. Whatever it is. What's a moment where you're like, dude, that was one that I'm like, that hurt.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Well, having played a million cover gigs in my life, I have developed a skill for playing very drunk.
I'm not particularly proud of it.
There's been so many times, Broadway in Nashville, that I don't remember playing, that people were like, oh, I saw you last night. It was great. I was like, I was sick.
I can't think of a particular time in general, but, you know, you're never proud of times when you don't remember playing.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: No, I don't even know what that's.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Dude, I've played so many gigs to nobody. It's like. But those. That's what builds you into somebody who appreciates it when you get it. And I think that. Not to knock anyone who's, like, making it through TikTok or whatever, whatever way you get to where you need to be, but I think that's one thing that those guys are lacking is the boots on the ground, you know, grassroots, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps when you just played to five people.
There's something that they don't have whenever they get to that big stage is the appreciation for what you have when you get there, when you have people that are.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: I mean, we've had people come through cruising and I mean, they're looking at us going, I'm tickled to death that there's a hundred people here. Yeah, that's what. That was my goal.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Then we have other people that are like sending messages. Hey, we sold it out yet? I was like, you're at 56 tickets.
I don't know. Like, it's the different perspective of different people's expectations of what you're thinking you're gonna do. And it's a tough one because again, there are people that are on whatever platform you choose.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: That they're using it. And. Great. You have that following. But do you have these bases that are gonna come to every show that are gonna sing every word back to you, and you gotta, you know, leverage that any way you can.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: We were talking about it earlier, me and Wayne and Corey, about like building something over time to where you have. For example, last night in Cincinnati, I opened for Corey and it was probably a 800 cap room and there's probably 400 people there, but it was all Die Hard Corey Smith fans that have been watching him play for two decades.
And I sat back by the sound booth for his set and people were walking by and stopping and being like, hey, you are fucking awesome to me. And I wasn't sitting back there for that reason. But I would not have wanted to play for any other crowd because those Die Hard fans, they're gonna latch on and they're gonna be lifelong fans as opposed to like a flash in the pan artist where somebody's trending. I won't say any names, but somebody's trending and they're going to see them because they're trending. That's different to me.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: But we've all gone to a concert. We just talked about this on the podcast. One of my favorite things is when I've gone to concerts, I am a music lover of all genres. I love rock probably the most.
I have gone because of a Corey Smith, let's say.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Shown up, get there. I don't know who this fucking Clayton Shay guy is playing. Whatever. Here we are.
Leave a complete fan.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: That's the best feeling for a fan.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: I'm all about that.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: When I'm like, I showed up for this band. I already have the two openers that I'm obsessed with.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Never heard him before, ever. One of them that comes to mind is I went to my buddy who's a die hard music fan, loves Run the Jewels.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: If you've ever heard.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Never heard of them.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Amazing. You'd love them. I like them too. But whatever my buddies like, hey, let's go to Chicago, see him. They're opening for Queens of the Stone Age.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Oh, fuck yeah.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: Which are. Which is a dream for them. It's the only time they played together. Yeah, I mean, I was again. I was a 90s kid. I'm like, I fucking love Queens of the Stone Age again. Not something I've ever burned an album down doing. Yeah, Cliffy Biro open for him. Banned out of, like, Scotland. Never heard these guys ever in my life. I was left that place. I'm like, these guys were amazing. Left a huge fan. Listen to that CD a ton. And hell, even when I left after Queens of the Stone Age, I'm like, dude, they got so many good hits. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just leave there like you left an impression on somebody. And for you, I mean, that's got to be where you've got Corey kind of teeing it up a little bit. And you're like, man, I just played to 400 people. And hopefully, I mean, at least 400 of them were like, hell yeah, Clayton J. Dude, we got. We got to look this guy up, you know?
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Well, you got. You have two jobs as an opener, and one is to pump the crowd up so that the headliner comes in to a warmed up crowd. But two is to convert those die hard fans into your fans also.
And the money doesn't fucking matter to me. I don't give a shit what he pays me when I come out here. He's been taking care of me just fine. But the main thing I wanted from this was make sure that people are set up for him to come on and make sure that I can convert those lifelong Corey fans into Clayton Shea fans. And last night and tonight were both amazing shows for me personally. They make me feel slightly emotional because I got into this. I don't give a fuck about if I ever get famous or rich. If those happen along the way as a byproduct of the path, that's great. But I just. I feel so compelled to write music that makes a difference and that people care to listen to and come out and see me play at a show eventually. I would love to be doing it on the full band scale on big stages, but I'll take these 45 minute opening slots any day. Over a three hour full band show where I'm playing a bunch of college kids that don't give a fuck, you know what I mean? Because it just matters so much to.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Me at that point. You're just like background noise.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: So what's on the horizon? What's, what's, what's coming up?
[00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah, there's lots of new music. Man, I've been writing so much over the last year. I've got a lot of music I care a lot about. I just released a song this last Friday.
Not yesterday, the week before.
That feels like a good kickstarter for the new batch of music that is very much me, authentically.
That feels like it matters, feels like it's different than what I've ever done. I've put out 11 singles and to be brutally honest, along that path there was a lot of thinking about like what would trend, what would be viral. Does this sound like Morgan Wallen? Does this sound like whatever? And I just stopped giving a fuck about that and thinking more.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: It's got to be tough to. Not.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Because there's a lot of people in this industry that you can scroll through Instagram or TikTok and see a million Morgan Wallen carbon copies, but you don't.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Think that back in the day people were like, is this Johnny Cash? Is this.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: They've done it since the beginning. Since the beginning of time. Since the beginning of the music. Yeah.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: So what is that song? Mind of Its Own, right?
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Mind of its Own. Yeah.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Where did that come from? Like how, how did that come about? And where does that rank as far as, you know, some of your last ones you wrote. I mean, I'm assuming. I don't know who you wrote that with. Was it all you? Was it co wrote.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: It was co written with my buddy Jordan Rager, who's a good buddy of me and Corey's. We both, we all three write together and then my producer Andrew Capra, who's a fucking student. It feels different in the regard of like, it feels like I wrote that song because it was what I wanted to talk about, selfishly.
And this year that I've taken off from releasing music, I've also been reading. It's so lame. I've been reading like a lot of self help kind of books. Like Rick Rubin. You familiar with Rick Rubin? He's a producer and Rick talks about releasing music that serves you first as the artist and music that you would release if there wasn't another human on the earth. But you felt so compelled to release it that you had to put it out because it felt like you had to get it out of yourself. So that song, Mind of Its Own, the work tape we did, lived in my car. Every time I got in the car, I just. I felt like I had to put it on and just listen to it. So eventually I was like. I started hearing production to it, and I was like, I got to fucking record this.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: So that Rick Rubin, I watched one about, grew up a System of the Downs fan, you know. Have you ever seen that video about how. What is it? Chop Suey or whatever their main song is, how they got to this.
This lull. We're like, what do we do about this part of the song? They're trying to figure out the lyrics of what to do. And Rick Rubin was just, hey, go over there, pull any book off the shelf and just read me the first line you come to.
So, like, pull it off. And then that there. That. One of the main parts of that song ended up being what they opened up. And, like, she tells that story all the time. Like, there was no thought behind it.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: It was just crazy because I've never written that way before in my life. Like, I obsess about lyrics. I'll sit in a room with three guys and beat them to death about getting the lyrics right. We'll sit there for hours and hours. But he talks about, like, fuck, I'm drawing a blank. Now, the main band, he worked with, Rick Rubin, where they would go out and record on, like, the top of a fucking mountain.
Red Hot Chili Peppers.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: Wow. I can't. I can't believe I didn't think of that.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: But he's wrote. He's wrote with it a ton of different people.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So they would go out there and he'd be like. Just go out there and make noises. And they'd be like.
And they make. The one, like, syllable would line up and like, oh, let's keep that. And they kept that, and they just move on. And they wouldn't think about it. And that's. They've all been fucking hits. Like, it's insane.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: But that's the part two is I. Again, I haven't wrote. We talked about this before. I haven't wrote a fucking song ever in my life. But I can imagine that at the certain point you get the writer's block, anything like that, and it. Dude, you have to just stop giving a shit and just hopefully put out that eventually something clicks. But what is going to catch people's attention Nowadays, God only fucking knows.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: God only knows what is going to grab somebody's attention. Because there's some shit where I'm like, this is what's selling out a room. And then there's times I'm like, I can't believe this isn't selling out a fucking room.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: That's why, at the end of the day, as an artist, what ultimately is the common denominator is what scratches the itch for you. And what if everything else was taken out of the equation? Success. Who listens to it, who doesn't? All of that was gone.
What still makes you feel something like, that's. That's what I'm reaching for. So that's what every single from here on out is going to be for me, is something that serves me first. And if people with it still after that, that's amazing. But it has to be something that I'm in love with first. So.
[00:32:23] Speaker C: So what other. What other hobbies do you have outside of music?
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Golf, for sure. I'm. I'm a terrible golfer.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: So you need to be around for some of the cruisins. Golf outings. We've got some golf outings around.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: I'd love to. I'd love to.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: I think you've heard some stories earlier today that might entice you to come back for those.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah, my best round is a 90. That's my best round I've ever shot.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Best part about cruising outing. I don't think anybody keeps score.
[00:32:50] Speaker C: No.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I'm a hundred percent on that. Um, so I will say, like, music occupies about 95% of my brain capacity. I obsess about it. I. I am not a person who's good at doing things halfway, whether it be drinking or anything at all. Like, I go 100% into it, full send music. And then like the other 5% I have left is I watch golf videos on Instagram, I save them all. And I, like, before I go play, I'll spend an hour watching golf videos, like, thinking it's going to help my game or whatever. It never does, but ball still flies wherever it wants. That's right. You know, but the thing about golf that I love comparable to music is it feels like an incident, inconquerable task. It feels like something that I could spend my entire life doing. And you could be 60 and still be like, man, you know, my chipping is still not quite where I want it to be. I fucking love that. I love the Idea of something that I'm always going to be working at.
[00:33:53] Speaker C: I'll always work to be done. So Canton, growing up in Canton, what else? What's in Canton? What is there to do in Canton as you're growing up at teenage years? What kind of country stuff did you get into there?
[00:34:09] Speaker B: In Canton, there is nothing to do but drugs and fucking around in the woods and hanging out with friends. Really, to be honest, when I was young I got into a lot of trouble and I learned a lot of life lessons very early on that I'm thankful for because I think had I not, it could have happened at a much worse time for me.
So coming from a place like that, it's very humbling.
Not a lot of people make it out of a small town a lot of times. So going back there too, it's like time fucking slows down. I go back there, I see my friends who are all getting houses and getting married and having kids and here I am still a fucking 31 year old child basically. So I love going back there and seeing the hometown. But yeah, it's a small town. You come up with things to do to pass the time and to have fun and yeah, you get creative basically.
[00:35:15] Speaker C: And that's kind of the premise of this whole podcast for Austin I. We've talked about. You know, this is tailgate beers. You know, I grew up in Henry, Illinois, which is about 35 miles north of here. But it's the same thing, right? We would go out in the middle of a cornfield. You know, you take the waterways to get down to one tree out in the middle and we would lower our tailgates and. And you know, sit on the back and have a few beers out there.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: I grew up in me Metamora. I mean I grew up Friday night.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: You are enemies.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Yeah, Friday night. Yeah, we beat you guys ass every single week, dude.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: I will.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Every single week.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: Quick pause. When you guys would come to Canton, we would be like, who are these fucking grown ass men? Like you guys were eating something different than.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: And then what's weird is then we'd go play Sacred Heart, Griffin and playoffs and it was like a JFL team playing the Bears.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: That's what we were. See, Right.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: But that's what's weird is it's like, it's how it goes through that phase. But I did not play football. But yes.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: You weren't like a punter or anything?
[00:36:17] Speaker A: No, no, I was basketball and one year of soccer just for the fuck of it.
[00:36:25] Speaker C: He was a receiver.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Grass. Yeah.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Hell yeah.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: But what's crazy is those. That's what I grew up doing. And honestly, it is. That is the premise of this. And it's crazy for all three of us because I think we live very similar where even it, you know, I watch these kids now, even here, and, you know, people are fake IDs doing all this stuff. I'm like, dude, I just keep hounding my buddy's brother who is over 21, and we'd, you know, have, you know, get. Finally get him to go pick us up something so we could go and go out into the field and back roads, all that stuff. Like, that's what I grew up doing. Tailgate beers, Tailgating is what we did all the time.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: I wasn't trying to get into cruising when I was under 20. I was wouldn't even cross the river. I'm all the way back in some field. And to this day, like, those were some of the best times of getting around a fire, getting with people, whether music was being played, whether you're just having this. And this is what the premise of the conversation is of who knows where this conversation goes? Because when you showed up there that night and who knows what you got into, who knows what you used to drink. And yeah, that's, that's what I love about this podcast and just being able to have those conversations and, you know, see more about, you know, what's important to people, where you're at in your journey of what you're going through.
But yeah, we. We love it all. Small town boys, right here.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: I see we got some shots here. Should we take these shots?
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Yeah, there's. They're. They were warm when I poured them, and they're still warm.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Hell yeah. Can you microwave it?
Get it nice and hot for me.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Well, hey, cheers to you, man.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Here's to love you boys.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, here's a long career for you, man.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Thank you, buddy.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: Appreciate you always. Family.
Oh. Oh, boy.
Actually, that Jack Kind tastes cool.
We got probably a little bit of time left on this, but you're jumping out of an airplane, getting ready to go onto a deserted island for the rest of your life. Five albums you can listen to for the rest of your life. You're never gonna hear another album. You can only listen to five.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: So while you're thinking about that, Corey was in here, this earlier today, and he blew all kinds of holes in his, you know, jumping out of airplane. I have a record player in my back.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: He answered the question and then he completely fucked my whole thing up. He's like, so, oh, you're telling me I have a phone, but yet I can't do it? Like, how's this gonna work? Did I jump out of the plane with a seat? I'm like, just answer the fucking question. Like. But, you know, again, everybody answers it in different ways. To me, it shows a lot about people. I love asking. I think it's a good party question. So you went to school to do, you know, psychology, about, you know, counselor, all this stuff. I think it tells a lot about a person, like who you are, your depth, how much do you overthink? What do you think about?
I don't know. What's your variety?
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Influences?
[00:39:25] Speaker A: What's your influence?
[00:39:28] Speaker B: I'll say. My first two that come to my head are Tucker Beathard, if you're familiar with him, Tucker Beathard. So his King album has been like, my north star for my music moving forward. Ryan Heard has an album called Palago, which is islandy. That was. That's a coincidence.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Great album.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: So those two, off the top of my head, my influences, like I said earlier, are all over the board. So no would I know that I'm going to an island ahead of time. Is this something.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: These are the only things your ears are ever gonna hear.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Some. I'm Corey Smith. And you right now, right?
Yeah, totally, totally. So I would take the Beatles Abbey Road album with me. In addition to those other two.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Two more.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: I would take any. Any Jack Johnson album because it would feel like that that's the. That I grew up on, too. And then. So I got one more. Is that right?
I would take Creed. Human Clay.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Wow, that's.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: I just told him tonight. I just told him tonight that Creed's making that comeback.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. I mean, we can go on a deep dive on that one because they're getting bashed. But.
But, yeah, that's a great five.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Five super random. Super fucking random.
And I have so many more that.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Well. But now your brains. Mine always gets stuck on the fifth.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Fourth and fifth. I mean, there was a period of time where even for me, I'm like, dude, Morgan Wall and double album. Like, how can I not.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: You know, and then you start, fuck, that means I can't take this one. And then you're shit.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: And bonus album. Death Cab for Cutie plans. I don't know if you've ever listened to them, but I love those guys.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: So even one of mine was what I said earlier was mine always revolved around live. Taking back Sunday live in Los Angeles. That.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: I thought you meant live the band live.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: No, no. Well, no. Like, live music.
Live music is what I. Yeah.
Taking back Sunday live in Los Angeles, John Mayer live in Los Angeles, Counting Crows Live in New Amsterdam, Oasis Live, and Wimbley. Those are easily my top four.
Why they happen to be live.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Something about a live album feels different.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: The energy we talked about earlier. And, like, it's the energy, but it's weird that if that's what I have to listen to, I'm going. But then again, then I'm like, what about a Billy Joel album? What about a Johnny Cash? What about Gary Allen?
[00:41:58] Speaker B: I'm like, there's no. There's no end to the music I would take, honestly.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: But it shows the longevity of. I'm listening to this, and I'm burning my speakers down with this album right now.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: I won't listen to that shit a year from now.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: But guess what? I put that album in, and it's the same as it was a year ago, five years ago, 20 years ago, and I still love it to this day. You know, I don't know. It's just. Some of them stand the test of.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Time, so I should probably throw a Kenny Chesney album in there somewhere, too, because you're on an island. You have to.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: Right? But you're in, like, Want to kill yourself because you're on an island. You're gonna be like. I mean, you don't have Boot. We haven't even said.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: No one is sad.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: No one music.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: No one has ever asked me, is this, like, Pirates of the Caribbean where I'm gonna find the rum? You know, stock there. No one has ever said, can I.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Do a Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack?
[00:42:55] Speaker A: You're gonna have booze. Like, you're gonna be sober as fuck. Listening to Creed, wanting to just jump off a bridge.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: I mean, that's me most days, so nothing changes.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: That's so funny. Do you have a qu. Do you want to throw in a question here? I mean, we got Clayton now. I mean, this is your chance.
[00:43:13] Speaker C: Nope.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: This is your moment.
[00:43:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Me. Chock full of wild boar and potatoes and.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:18] Speaker C: It was. It was delicious.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: It was delicious.
[00:43:21] Speaker C: The Delmonico. I had Del Monaco for the second time in three days.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Shout out, connected. And Peoria.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:43:26] Speaker C: Knows. It was delicious, as usual, but. Yeah, no, that's. I don't. I. I don't have any more. I don't have any more questions.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: We appreciate you taking time to do this, man. Always great seeing you.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Likewise, buddy. Thanks for having.
