Episode 20 - Austin Snell

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This was for the home team. This was for the home team. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Hey, welcome to Tailgate Beers. Hey, it's Austin and Ryan here. We've got our special edition. It's Christmas. Ho ho, ho. Welcome to Tailgate Beers. We're sitting down with a good friend of ours, Mr. Austin Snell Austin. Welcome to Tailgate Beers. [00:00:41] Speaker A: What's up fellers? How are y'all? [00:00:42] Speaker C: Two Austin's make it, right? [00:00:43] Speaker B: That's right, that's right. Gotten right in the middle of you here. [00:00:46] Speaker C: I know. [00:00:47] Speaker B: So, first time in Peoria? [00:00:48] Speaker A: First time, yeah. [00:00:49] Speaker B: What do you think? [00:00:50] Speaker A: There's not much out here. I didn't. I was just telling him earlier. I didn't know there's a city out here. I thought it was just all cows. We found it. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Corn fields, bean fields. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Yeah, you guys got it going on out here. [00:00:59] Speaker B: That's. That's not. Not a horrible place. This is where I kind of grew up and you know, too far from here. So it's. It's a lot of fun. [00:01:06] Speaker C: I need to learn more history really. But like, I mean give like some, some. Well, you have a lot of manufacturing, so we had like caterpillars headquarters were here. Komatsu State Farm, Maui. Jim sunglasses headquarters are here. Not in Maui. Yeah, and yeah, a lot of farming. Pabs Blue Ribbon was here one point. This used to be like a run of a lot of Al Capone mob stuff from Chicago. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Oh, shit. [00:01:31] Speaker C: So would run through here actually, like even the bar across the street, which is now a Cruisin's Ducks. That was kind of a hideout and speakeasy type stuff. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah, y'all got it all pretty cool. Got it all. [00:01:43] Speaker C: I don't know enough. Richard Pryor's from here, Sean Livingston's from here. I know any other famous people from here, but. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Oh, I got. So since it is a Christmas edition, we didn't do our little cheers here. Let's do a little cheers air. Cheers just start off here. Since it's Christmas edition of Tailgate Beers here at Cruisens Farmington Road, West Peoria. Austin's playing here tonight. Looking forward to seeing you on stage tonight. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Been looking, looking forward to it for a while, man. We've played a couple tailgates now, which actually no, we played one and we missed out on the second one because the rain. We got rained out that day and so I've been waiting to come back, dude. Been waiting. [00:02:16] Speaker C: But you have last year. Last year was not your first one, was it? You played a side stage in Bloomington. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. So we played Bloomington the first year and we played the side stage, and then we did the one in Michigan with Bailey. [00:02:29] Speaker C: Yes. And then. And then last year you did. Was your main stage play in Clinton, and then you're gonna do a main stage play in Bloomington. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Right. And then that one got canceled. Was it Bloomington? [00:02:39] Speaker C: It was Bloomington that got rained out. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:41] Speaker B: So what are some. Some. Some Christmas type of activities that. That happen for you and your family around. Around this time of year? [00:02:49] Speaker A: Christmas activities? Dude, I always knew what I was getting for Christmas. I would go open up. Dude, I would open up my presents every year. I'd, like, unwrap it, like, super strategically, and I'd undo the paper and, like, the tape or whatever, and I have a whole roll of tape behind me and I just like, look at what I got and tape it back. And so I knew every year what I was getting. So that was a tradition for me. Other than that, dude, we just. I don't know. I'm from a small town in Georgia, so we just hung around the house. We didn't have much to do. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Was it. Was it. Was it this cold on Christmas? I mean, you're used to being like freezing weather. [00:03:24] Speaker A: It gets cold in Georgia. I mean, it gets down to the 30s and 20s, but I mean, I've lived kind of everywhere now. I live in Nashville now, but I mean, I lived in Northern California for a minute, In Charleston for a while. Texas for a while. Texas gets cold. [00:03:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:36] Speaker C: I got just some insider information that you actually are a Grinch at Christmas. You don't like Christmas? [00:03:41] Speaker A: I like Christmas. [00:03:44] Speaker C: I could have wrong information, but I was. [00:03:46] Speaker B: We got some signs flashed up over your shoulder over there earlier when we just. We're just talking and I got an earpiece. [00:03:53] Speaker A: No, dude, I like Christmas, bro. I like it. [00:03:56] Speaker C: I'm actually a funny dud about all holidays. I can't stand any Hallmark holidays. I think it's overdone. I'll say. I'll admit it. I'm a Grinch about what's wrong with. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Christmas, dude, I don't know. [00:04:04] Speaker C: I think it just gets blown out of proportion now. It starts damn near in middle of November. I'm turning 36 on Monday, and I've got people going, well, what do you want for Chris? I don't want, like, stop asking me for lists. It's not what it's about. [00:04:15] Speaker A: I will say I'm not a fan of decorating for Christmas. I like giving gifts and getting gifts, but, I mean, Allie over here had our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. [00:04:24] Speaker C: Oh, one of those. [00:04:27] Speaker B: So it's like a fall tree? It's like a fall tree. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I've got a. I've had a fall tree up for a month, and now it's turned into a Christmas tree. After Thanksgiving's over, I guess officially, the. The book changes. The page change. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Do you go back to. You go back home, stay for a while? [00:04:42] Speaker A: We did for Thanksgiving. [00:04:43] Speaker C: Okay. [00:04:43] Speaker A: This year for Thanksgiving. So my parents live in Canton, Georgia now. I'm from Dublin originally, but they moved up there and we went down for. For Thanksgiving, and I think they're gonna come up to Nashville for. For Christmas, so we live downtown. Right now we're trying to get out of downtown, and I need a. I need a house out somewhere. Not in the city for sure, but. So this will be our last Christmas. Hopefully downtown Nashville, because. [00:05:07] Speaker B: So presents you got from Santa, were they wrapped? Were they unwrapped? Were they same wrapping paper as. As your other gifts? [00:05:15] Speaker A: We had to reuse wrapping paper. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:17] Speaker A: So we couldn't afford new wrapping paper every year. We just reused the old stuff. So were they, like, tied to the Santa presents? Weren't unwrapped. [00:05:23] Speaker B: Unwrapped. Okay. [00:05:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But we got other stuff too. [00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:26] Speaker A: Reused the old shit. [00:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I've always wondered that. It's kind of a topic Austin and I have talked about previously. [00:05:31] Speaker C: Mine weren't wrapped from Santa. [00:05:33] Speaker A: No pressure. [00:05:35] Speaker C: No. And I had a balcony so where our rooms were, we could sneak out and look down to see everything in the morning, but. [00:05:42] Speaker A: Gotcha. [00:05:43] Speaker B: So I know that Air Force vet. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:46] Speaker A: It's been a while now. I got out in 2020, joined right out of high school, joined the Air Force, worked on planes for about four years and traveled all over the place and got out. [00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I joined 2 or 99. 99. That's when I joined airport. [00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:01] Speaker B: Air Force. What'd you do with security forces? [00:06:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:06:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. [00:06:05] Speaker A: So. [00:06:05] Speaker B: So my last four years, though, I was a Phoenix Raven. So I just flew around, jump out of. Out of the plane when we land in obscure places, post security. [00:06:14] Speaker A: And so you probably enjoyed your job then. Most of the security, like the regular security forces, they all hate it. [00:06:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was combat arms, too. [00:06:24] Speaker A: Same with maintenance too, though. All the maintenance dudes hated their life. [00:06:26] Speaker B: What did you work on? [00:06:27] Speaker A: C17s. [00:06:28] Speaker B: Okay. I flew on a lot of C17s. [00:06:30] Speaker A: Big old trash cans. Yeah, I had a good time. I met some cool people. A few of my friends still come out to the shows now. Yeah, I think that's the coolest part about the military is just meeting cool people that never go away but gave us. It was, it was a lot. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I did 10 years and I enjoyed it. I was, I was medically retired, so I didn't have a choice but to get out. But. But yeah, no, it was something that certainly the experience has lived. [00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't regret it at all. So when I went in talking to the recruiters, I went into the recruiter's office and I talked to an army guy, talked to the Marines and I was trying to get an Army Ranger contract when I went in the army and I had a big knee surgery my junior year, so I couldn't get a waiver for that. So I was like, well, fuck this, I'm going to the Air Force if I can't do this. And went to the Air Force and tried to be attack P. And then I'm blind as shit. So that didn't work out either. So I was, you know what, I'll just work on planes, I guess. [00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:18] Speaker B: I knew some of the instructors for Tac P. There was a part of the indoctrination course. I was in San Antonio for four years and knew some of those guys down there. But yeah, just combat jumpers and all those guys too. [00:07:32] Speaker A: We worked around. We worked around a lot of them. They're all pretty stand up dudes, most of them. [00:07:37] Speaker B: And you were in California out there? [00:07:38] Speaker A: Yep. Travis Air Force Base. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Travis. I knew some guys over at Travis Alka. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Travis they call it, once you go, you never get out. Everybody hates it out there. [00:07:47] Speaker B: So what did you take from that experience? And I mean, you probably have been to different countries and all that kind of stuff and seen, you know, a lot of different places. What have you taken and been able to utilize now? [00:07:59] Speaker A: And yeah, I always, always tell people that. I feel like a lot of people move to Nashville and some. Most of the dudes are young, like 18, 19, maybe 20. And they moved to Nashville and they like have never lived in a city before. So like they get introduced to this huge like thing, like, and everybody's doing the same thing. Everybody goes out and parties on the weekends. And I did all that while I was in the Air Force. Like, I like, we would drink every other day and so I feel like I got a good sense of work ethic for sure. And when I moved to Nashville, I was just ready to make music. I knew I was there, I knew what I wanted to do, had a plan and kind of just put my nose down. And did it. So I think that really is what I got the most out of. [00:08:37] Speaker C: When did that plan. I mean, was that something in, like, high school where you're always doing music? [00:08:42] Speaker A: No, I never ever, like. I mean, I always, like, watched, you know, went to concerts and, like, thought it would be cool to do it. Like, it looks sick, but I never at any point thought that would be me. I actually. I picked up a guitar when I joined the military. I was still in tech school in Charleston and bought a guitar and was just really bored. You know how tech school is. Like, you're sitting, like, you go to class at, you know, six in the morning, you get off at four. Maybe you have a run after class or whatever. And other than that, you're kind of just on your own. And so I was sitting in my dorm room just bored as absolute turd, and bought a guitar and started learning covers. And I would, like, send covers to my mom. Like, I would learn a song and send it to my mom, and she'd always say, you should post these on Facebook for our friends and family to see. And I would always say, no, I'm not really trying to do all that. I'm just trying to, like, kill time, really. And she talked me into posting a video. I forget. I think it was, like, a cover of simple man or something. Something crazy. And people liked it. So I started doing that as a hobby. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Like. [00:09:43] Speaker A: Like, if I, you know, wasn't working, I had some off time or whatever. I'd go and learn a new song, post it, and then I got bored with covers and started writing my own stuff and doing the same thing. And about that time was when TikTok came along and people were kind of really starting to push their career. Like, on socials. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Yep. [00:09:59] Speaker A: And which was great for me because I was nowhere near Nashville, but could get, like, in touch with people in that community and in that industry through social media. So I was just writing songs when I had off time and putting them on TikTok or Instagram and kind of just built, you know, a little bit of a following that way. And it kind of just became more of, like, a passion than a hobby, like, pretty quick. And got out after my four years, moved back to Georgia for a year, and I told my mom, I was like, I think I'm just gonna move to Nashville. Like, I was like, what else do I have going on? Like, I can go, you know, maybe work on planes for the rest of my life, but I don't want to do that. And she's like, you know what? Why don't you try it? You always have a place to come back to if it doesn't work out. And so I did it. I moved out in 2022. You're home 27. [00:10:45] Speaker C: Okay. [00:10:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Moved to Nashville in 2022. Got an apartment with three literal, random roommates. Like, it was, like, on an app. Like, you go on this roommate app. It was literally like Tinder for roommates. Like, you, like, swipe right or left on, like, people, like, potential roommates. And moved into an apartment with two dudes that I had. No. I'd never met him before, and I think we ended up hating each other. It didn't go well, so it's almost. [00:11:13] Speaker C: Like getting a random. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it literally was. Yeah, absolutely. It was like that, so. Except we're paying a lease together. [00:11:19] Speaker B: But I'm starting to see a pattern, though, because your roommate in tech school, you guys didn't get along very well, did you either? [00:11:25] Speaker A: We hated each other. That's why I picked up a car, because we hate each other so much, and our, like, room was just split in half. [00:11:32] Speaker C: Is he a good roommate? Is it him? Is he the problem? She's not listening. [00:11:37] Speaker A: She's talking to yourself. [00:11:38] Speaker C: She's here. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Is he. [00:11:40] Speaker C: Is he the problem? She does not. Okay. [00:11:46] Speaker A: I keep it clean. [00:11:47] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, I agree. I saw. Kind of saw that there was a. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Pattern starting to form. [00:11:52] Speaker C: So on the. I guess on the clean, you know, aspect of roommates, to kind of switch it up, we kind of do something. This can kind of be our surfside segment. When you shower, do you use a washcloth loofah, or just straight loofah? [00:12:17] Speaker A: I'm a loofah. Yeah. [00:12:19] Speaker C: Have you ever been a washcloth person? [00:12:21] Speaker A: No. Before the loofah, I was just straight up hands, brother. [00:12:24] Speaker B: Really? How often do you get a new loofah? [00:12:27] Speaker A: Every. I would say every few months, maybe. Every few months. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Okay. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah, we keep it. And he was using my loofah. [00:12:38] Speaker C: But you didn't know it for a period of time. [00:12:40] Speaker A: No, no, I didn't know. [00:12:42] Speaker C: That's gross. Yeah, I. My whole childhood. [00:12:46] Speaker A: Your washcloth guy. [00:12:47] Speaker B: We were. [00:12:48] Speaker C: A bunch of us coaches were standing around, and I don't know how it got brought up, but somehow somebody goes, oh, yeah, Austin uses a washcloth. And I'm like, don't you. No, no, me. [00:12:58] Speaker A: Oh, you. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:58] Speaker C: And all the coaches like, no. No one uses washcloths. I'm like, I use a new washcloth every single time. Like, what do you want? [00:13:04] Speaker A: People get a clean one Every single. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Time it's a towel, brand new towel, and a brand new washcloth. [00:13:09] Speaker C: I mean, every shower, not like I buy a new one every time I wash all that stuff. But I'm like, right. We called my mom in Nashville when we were on a podcast with somebody and my mom, like, everybody's getting mixed signals. Like, even Andrew called his mom and his mom told him a completely different thing. We were like, what the happened in our childhood? [00:13:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:28] Speaker C: Because I'm like, I didn't know people didn't do that. [00:13:30] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's like my hold up with washcloths is like, I didn't. I used. I've used them before. But like, the idea of having just this like, moist washcloth just sitting in the shower and you just pick it up and use it. No, no. [00:13:43] Speaker C: A new one you say, right? [00:13:44] Speaker A: So you get a dry, fresh one. [00:13:46] Speaker C: We go, it's dirty. I wash it. [00:13:49] Speaker A: You throw it away. [00:13:50] Speaker C: Oh, God, no. Jesus. I mean, dude, I run a concert business. Money is. Money is tight. No. So that was a funny question that I don't know how it came up. So now we've asked it a couple different times, and I think Ryan's even got another one of like, you know, pineapple on pizza. What is your verdict on that? [00:14:09] Speaker A: I mean, you can eat whatever you want, brother, but I don't do it. [00:14:12] Speaker B: I'm not a fan of warm pineapple. We've said it several times. But, yeah, I'll eat pineapple, but just not warm pineapple. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm also just not a big pineapple guy in general. So. [00:14:19] Speaker C: So next year you've got a tour or you're going on tour with Brantley Gilbert. Brantley Gilbert. And that starts. So you got a couple months off here after a couple more. [00:14:30] Speaker A: This is actually, I think the last show of the tour, the Still Bleeding tour. And then we go to Arizona next week and then we're off until of February. Brantley tour is the first thing we do next year, so that'll be nice as of right now. [00:14:44] Speaker C: And who all's on that? [00:14:46] Speaker A: It's going to be me. I think it's Travis Denning and Brantley, and I think Travis Denning and Pton Smith, who is the. Yes, he's on it too. And then there's a rock band that's on it. I forget who they are. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah, Peyton Smith's Tailgate Beers. [00:15:03] Speaker A: He's been alum. Yeah. I've never met him. I've seen him play. Me and Ali have seen him play in Nashville a couple Times. And he's good. He can rip a guitar. [00:15:12] Speaker C: Yeah, he came in when we rented that Airbnb. I think you were gone. Or you might have just ignored my text or. I don't know. I think I saw you out. We knew you were coming here, so I wasn't gonna ask you to, like, do the podcast, but we had this whole setup, this whole setup in an Airbnb, and we were there for a conference, but then him and I also ran some podcasts, and Peyton came on and. Yeah, that was an. That was a awesome one. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's a good guy. [00:15:34] Speaker A: He's got a. Yeah, I don't know much about him. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got a good. Good. [00:15:37] Speaker A: I know he can rip a guitar, though. He's. Dude, he can play these. [00:15:40] Speaker C: Everybody's story so far. It's so funny how everybody has either gotten to Nashville one way or another, how they got found, what brought him to doing music? [00:15:48] Speaker A: Well, it's cool because everybody has such a different, like, way about going and doing what they want to do. Like, I mean, you have people that go to Nashville and, like, their parents help them move there, and, like, it's just, like, they've always did music their whole life, and it's like, okay, it's time to go to Nashville now. Some people just pick it up randomly and it works out, and, like, it's just everybody. Like, there's not one set path to, like, making it happen, and it's crazy. [00:16:12] Speaker C: And on that topic, going back to your move to Nashville, how was the signing or the label? How did that come about? So you moved to Nashville. You get your weird roommates that didn't get along with you. What happened? Like, what was the very first. Like, holy crap, I think, yeah, I'm noticed. Or how'd that conversation go? [00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, so. So when I moved to Nashville, like, obviously, I. I didn't even know if I wanted to be an artist at the time. I. I knew, like, I love writing music. That was, you know, a passion of mine for a long time. And I moved to town, and I was like, I could just be a songwriter or I could be an artist. I had no clue, really. But I moved to town, and then I think literally my second day there, I posted, like, a story on Instagram of, like, just moved to Nashville, had no clue, like, how to go. Like, didn't really know anybody. And Kenny, my guitar player, they. Him and a bunch of roommates had a house in Hermitage. And one of them that I'd known for a while through socials had reached out and they're like, yo, you just moved down, like, come right with us tomorrow. And I'd never co written before. I'd just written by myself, went over there and we wrote a song and like kind of just got involved in that whole crowd and you know, a bunch of the dudes that kind of just. We all kind of came up with like Wade Davis, you know Wade. It's just like a whole big group of dudes that kind of move to town around the same time. And I feel like that's kind of a normal thing. Like these, these people kind of move to town around the same time. Maybe they're all kind of from the same part of the country or whatever. Yeah, like most of us are from Georgia. There's a lot of people from Georgia and Nashville. I don't know what it is about. [00:17:38] Speaker B: It, but we've heard Georgia mentioned several times. Yeah, you know, Corey Smith, Lily and. [00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah, but so we kind of just had this big ass friend group of guys that just were all writers or guitar players or bass players or drummers or what, and just started writing with those dudes and did that for a few months. And I kind of moved to town like knowing that if I was gonna do the artist thing, like it had to be something different. Like I didn't want to do like what everybody else was doing. Like I didn't want to be the next guy, like putting out this, you know, wanting to sound like Morgan Wallen or whatever. I knew that if I was gonna do the artist thing, like I had to find some kind of different sound that was mine that I felt like was authentic to me and kind of just was experimenting for a year. And we wrote Excuse the Mess, Me, Christian Yancey and Presley Aaron and just posted on TikTok, like any other song that I would write and it blew up, like went viral. So I was like, hey, we got something here. [00:18:35] Speaker C: Do you think you got pushback on your sound? Because I don't think you're like that rockish. Especially some of the earlier. [00:18:41] Speaker A: They started out more rock than it is now. Um, I would say personally, um, I mean, speaking specifically on the album, like, the album we just put out has literally, I think everything under the sun on it. I mean, it's got all of my influences, I think, cohesively in one album. [00:18:57] Speaker C: So you think you've gotten more country over time? [00:18:59] Speaker A: I think so. I mean, I think I've just like been able to like hone into like what I want to sound like and like Obviously the rock thing for me was cool. I grew up on rock, so like, like. And it wasn't really being done a whole lot at that time. You know, I had to really do the artist development thing while also being an artist at the same time because I put out Excuse a Mess and everything went crazy. And like, I went straight into playing shows, like recording albums and projects and still really didn't know what I wanted to do and like what I wanted to sound like or what I wanted to talk about and have kind of just spent like the last year just honing in on all that stuff. [00:19:34] Speaker B: So is it true that you didn't have not been on stage until you moved to Nashville? [00:19:38] Speaker A: No, I played one. I played one bar gig in Dublin at a place called Company Supply and it's like a bar restaurant thing. And I paid. I played like 20, 20 minutes. Didn't get paid for it, just did it for free. And that was the only show I ever played before Nashville. So good for you. Again, just a bunch of like, like learning a lot of new things all at one time because I, you know, was just figuring out how to play shows, had to figure out how to do that. And also talking to the labels is a whole another like the industry alone is like its whole thing and writing and finding new people to write with and stuff like that. So it's just been a year of growth for me. And this year I feel like it's kind of just me, you know, that's what my sound is now. So. [00:20:20] Speaker B: But do you feel like artists these days? And we've kind of had this conversation with a few other artists too, but they almost have to be a social media influencer. Know the ins and outs, you know, learning algorithms. [00:20:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Just to be in the know. [00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:37] Speaker B: To get your face out there. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I always tell people, like, playing music is my part time job. My full time job is social media. Like I have to like, you know, we got to post 2, 3 videos a day and like you gotta sit down and you know, figure out new ways to like capture people's attention because there's so many people doing the same thing now. And I feel like when TikTok first came around, like not many people were on that train yet. And so more people were like, you know, able to stand out on that platform. But now so many people are doing it and everybody's kind of realized that that's like the way that you have to do it now. You have to find a way to stand out. So like it's Just, that's a whole. [00:21:10] Speaker C: What are you gonna do if it goes away in January? I just saw a new story today. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Dude, there'll be something else. Yeah, there's gonna be something else. I hope it does. Dude, I'd rather just focus on one platform, like post my reels on Instagram and like not have to worry about transferring over from like. Because like Instagram is so much more of a follower based thing. Like, if you build a fan base on Instagram, those people are going to see your videos when you post them or see your pictures or whatever. On TikTok, it's like, I mean, I have almost 400,000 followers on Tik Tok and I post a video and it goes out to the same amount of people every time. [00:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:42] Speaker A: You know, and I could get a thousand views or, you know, 500,000. It just depends on what picks up and. [00:21:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:49] Speaker C: So do you, do you have a question you want to go with and then we'll wrap it up with another surfside segment? [00:21:54] Speaker B: No, I think the social media influencers, something that I find fascinating. Just, I mean, even from the podcast perspective and yeah, trying to do that. And we post something once a week at this point there for a while we were doing twice. [00:22:07] Speaker C: Two. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Two podcasts a week. And even that is just crazy with creating them. Yeah, we've got Jordan behind the scenes over here. Quick shout out to Jordan and, and. But I mean, doing all the stuff. [00:22:19] Speaker C: And, and Pat and booty. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's just one of those things, like you have to do what it takes to do what you really want to do. You know, like social media is by no means my passion. Like, I could not care less. You know, social media. I just want to play music. And a while back, like you could do that. You could go to Nashville and the way to do it was you go play the bars and hope that somebody's listening or you know, talk to the right person and like network and know the right people and like, it eventually helps out. But nowadays it's none of that. It's like you have to be social media first and the rest kind of comes in behind it. Do you start. [00:22:50] Speaker B: I know you've been in the Midwest here and I think you were in Ohio here within the last couple of days as well. Columbus area. And you start to see some of the same faces going to your shows and kind of following year round. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Dude. Yeah, and that's the crazy part is like we'll, we'll go to these shows and like I'll do meet and Greets at every show. And if we don't have, like, an actual, like, VIP thing, well, I'll go out after the show and hang out at the merch table. And you would not believe how many people were coming up. And, like, yeah, we've seen you, like, seven times this year. And I'm like, dude, how are you traveling that much? Like, why are you traveling to come see me seven times a year? Right. And a lot of that. And then a lot of people that see us open up for other people. Like, we were on the road with Aldean this year, and we were playing for 15, 20,000 a night. And to see the people that, like. Because we didn't get much time on that tour, like, we'd go out and we'd play 15, 20 minutes. And so the people that are coming back out, and they're like, yeah, you didn't get enough time at the Aldean tour. So when it comes to you play a full set, it's pretty cool. [00:23:44] Speaker B: That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Austin, I know you have your burning question here. [00:23:48] Speaker C: Yeah, no, and I. Dude, I appreciate you doing this, man. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Absolutely, bro. [00:23:51] Speaker C: Salt of the Earth guy. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Y'all have been, like, from the. I think tailgates is my first big festival I ever played. [00:23:56] Speaker C: And I just think knowing there's just genuine people and there's people in this business that I don't know, I just. I've always gotten a good vibe of you and the Raise Rowdy guys and all that stuff. I don't know. I feel like are in a different category. But I love this question. It's always been a question that I ask people. It's a good party question of getting to know who somebody is and your past. Because I also feel like albums are a chapter of my life, to give it a sense of urgency. Buddy of mine spun it this way. One time, you're on a plane, it's going down, You've got a parachute. You have access to every album from your childhood, and you can only take five to listen to for the rest of your life on a deserted. I have album somewhere. Yeah. [00:24:34] Speaker A: What album I'm gonna do for sure. Three Doors down Away from the sun. [00:24:40] Speaker B: It'S the first time. [00:24:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I burnt a hole in that cd. My dad, like, showed me Three Doors down and all the rock bands and stuff. [00:24:47] Speaker C: And you can probably say the year. Like, I know certain albums. I'm like, I was a freshman in high school. Yeah, dude, I know exactly the time. Yeah. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah. I had this little, like, you know, like the little mobile, like, CD players. Oh, yeah, I had one of those, and I just shoved in my back. [00:24:59] Speaker C: Be mowing the yard too much and it, like, skips. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Three doors down, Away from the sun cd. I've taken that one. I'm taking Jason Aldean. I'm gonna take the My Kind of Party album. Yeah. [00:25:13] Speaker C: He's headlighting Clinton, Iowa. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Is he this year? [00:25:17] Speaker C: So that one's gonna. [00:25:17] Speaker A: He's such a good dude, bro. He's awesome. Let's see. [00:25:21] Speaker C: We went through all of his albums one night, me and Ryan and I. Dude, he has so many fucking. [00:25:26] Speaker A: So many hits. Right. And even seeing his live show, it's like hit after hit after hit after hit. [00:25:31] Speaker C: Another fun fact. He was the first artist to get. What was it, over a million downloads for ringtones. [00:25:38] Speaker A: I believe it, dude. She's country was my ringtone at one point when I had, like, my little flip phone and I couldn't buy the song on. On the little thing. You could buy, like, your ringtones on. So I would just play the song over the speakers and I recorded it. [00:25:50] Speaker C: On my phone and they made it your ringtone. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Ringtone. I'm taking Jason Aldean. I'm taking literally any. I would say any Nickelback album. I'm taking the Nickelback album with Rockstar on it. Okay, so that's what three. Got two more to the water. I'm taking. I'm taking. I'm taking Chief album. Eric Church. Absolutely. Damn. What's the last one? [00:26:20] Speaker C: We're skimming the water at this point. [00:26:23] Speaker A: I'm taking the Carter 3. [00:26:27] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Got a little variety in there. I love it. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Yep. That's my five. [00:26:31] Speaker C: We gotta wrap up, though. [00:26:32] Speaker B: Yeah, no, definitely. We thank you for. For joining us, Tyr. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Thanks for having me. Tailgate beers. Thanks for the sweater too, bro. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:26:38] Speaker A: We appreciate it. [00:26:39] Speaker B: Are you dog or a cat person? [00:26:40] Speaker A: Definitely a dog. My team's a cat dude, though. He's got three of them in the house. [00:26:44] Speaker B: You got a bulldog? [00:26:46] Speaker A: We got a bulldog. The bulldog's in Georgia. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Okay. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Because we live in an apartment. [00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:51] Speaker A: And so potty training a bulldog was not doable in an apartment. Yeah, but we have a golden retriever, too. [00:26:58] Speaker B: I seen you post a picture probably on Instagram with the bulldog. [00:27:02] Speaker C: Ryan does all the research, by the way. [00:27:04] Speaker B: I commented on there. You should just bring him with you. He said you were going to miss him or something along those lines. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:27:08] Speaker B: And so just bring them with you. [00:27:10] Speaker C: We'll. [00:27:10] Speaker B: I'll watch them while you're up. [00:27:11] Speaker A: And, hey, dude, if you want to watch him, brother, we'll bring him. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So, again, Tailgate Beers, West Peoria Cruisin, Farmington Road. We want to thank Austin Snell for sitting down with us. Looking forward to. To see you on stage tonight, spending some more time with you. Air Force vet. Love it. Love all of everything about you. And. And again, thank you. [00:27:32] Speaker A: Absolutely, bro. Thank you. [00:27:33] Speaker C: Cheers. [00:27:33] Speaker A: Cheers. [00:27:35] Speaker C: Oh. [00:27:38] Speaker A: This was for the home team.