Episode 5 - George Birge

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Do you want something? You got drinking? [00:00:01] Speaker B: I'm good, man. [00:00:02] Speaker A: So, anyways, that's kind of cheers, by the way. Oh, yeah. Cheers. [00:00:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. Glad to be here. [00:00:08] Speaker C: We won't take up too much of your time. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Let's have some fun. [00:00:11] Speaker C: We'll jump on here. We've got just some questions and just kind of conversate and talk and learn more about you and us and all that kind of stuff, so. Yeah. Welcome to Tailgate beers. Austin and Ryan here. This is Austin. I'm Ryan today. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey. [00:00:29] Speaker C: We've got a special guest, George Burgess, with us today. He's playing, guys, he's playing cruisins tonight, and he has very graciously taken some time out of his afternoon and his downtime to come hang out with Austin and I on tailgate beer. So, first of all, thank you. [00:00:47] Speaker B: Happy to do it, man. [00:00:49] Speaker C: Welcome to Peoria Cruises. [00:00:52] Speaker A: What do you think so far, Peoria? [00:00:53] Speaker B: Hey, man, it's finally the weather's cooled off a little bit. The sun is shining. We got a little workout in the park lot this morning. So far, so good. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the perfect type of hot, too. Not. Not too. Not too hot, not too cold. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:07] Speaker C: It's just getting to that point where, you know, start to think about fall. Breaking out a hoodie at night. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:12] Speaker C: You know, campfire, sitting around a fire and having a few beers. [00:01:17] Speaker B: We played out in Wisconsin last night. We opened for Luke Bryan, and that was the first time where you could kind of feel, like, the weather change. And so, like, they had, like, fire pits, like, out all the way across the lawn, so there was, like, open bonfires going, like, playing, and, like, everybody was out in their flannels, and everybody's just crushing beers, and it was the rowdiest show we've played the whole tour because everybody wasn't out there just sweating their ass off. It was, like, cool. Everybody was hyped that fall is coming in, and it was. I think this weather is the perfect country music weather. Yeah. Football, flannels, bonfires, and country music, man. What else you want? [00:01:51] Speaker C: Since you mentioned it, you're going around with Luke Bryan and talk to us about how that show's going, how that tour is going, and being on tour with him. [00:02:00] Speaker B: It's been really cool. I did not know Luke. Luke, before we started this tour, he had reached out, just kind of hearing my music and seeing what we had going on, which I was super flattered by. And obviously, he's been, like, larger than life, right? He's had so many hits, and then with the American Idol stuff. And he's not just a country star now. He's a tv star. And it's a, you know, we've done some big tours, but the first day of that tour, you show up and it's twelve buses and twelve semis and bomb dogs sniffing your stuff on the way in. And it's like, you know, usually even we were out with Sam Hunter, Parker McCollums, and stuff. Like, they give you a laminate, but you kind of keep it in your pocket. You show it when you have to, and like, they're like, hey, we made Florida Georgia line wear the laminate around their neck every minute of the day, and we're making you wear it, too. And I was like, all right, fine. So I've got my name tag on when I'm out there. But they've been amazing to us. Luke came over and had me come up on the bus with him the first night of the tour, and we ended up hanging for an hour and just, you know, shooting the breeze and had a ton in common. Golf, cigars, tequila. It was really cool. And then he was like, you know, you want to come up on stage with me? And I, I said, well, yeah, of course. And he's had me up on stage every night of the tour. Now we sing. This is how we roll together, which is pretty cool. And, I mean, he's just sold out shows every night, 20,000 people. He's been kind of rotating some of the openers. We've been lucky to be a mainstay on it, but Ella Langley was just out there with us this week, and she's a pistol, man. I love her. Her music's unreal, and we've become fast friends. And so me and Ella went out and sang with Luke last night, but been out there with Chase Beckham, too, who I'm a huge fan of. Luke has good taste. It's been great openers out there, and we've had a blast on the tour. [00:03:33] Speaker A: Ella just played. Ella just played, like, what, a week or two ago? [00:03:37] Speaker C: Yeah, three weeks ago. [00:03:38] Speaker A: She just had her first cruisins appearance. [00:03:40] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. [00:03:41] Speaker A: So we've had several first. [00:03:43] Speaker C: So you mentioned golf. I know golf was a big part of you growing up and was a big golfer, going to college, playing golf, still play a lot now. [00:03:55] Speaker B: It's my favorite thing in the world to do. You get to be outside, you get to be with your buddies, you know, gives you an excuse to start drinking beer before 10:00 a.m. if you have to, you know, but, uh, it. The last year has taken off like a rocket ship for me. And be with that becomes more responsibility, you know, like radio interviews and meet and greets and, you know, making sure the band and crew are firing right and press and all that stuff. And so that has ended up being a bigger job than I realize. And of course, that's everything I've prayed for. But I didn't realize that, you know, downtime is not really a thing that you have much anymore. So I have my clubs on the bus and I try to play probably once or twice a month now. I used to play like every day, but it's a very good problem to have because a, you know, we're, our stuff is flying in a way that I've never could have even dreamed of. And b, when I do go play, we're getting invited to play the wildest courses I've ever played in my life. So that's. [00:04:46] Speaker A: What's the caliber. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Oakmont out in Pennsylvania was pretty insane, and it's a top five course in America. They play the US Open there every couple years, and fingers crossed, we'll knock out Augusta here in the next twelve months. [00:04:59] Speaker A: That's a dream that everybody has. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Pebble beach has been awesome. Awesome. You know, I've gotten to play a bunch of cool ones. Yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker A: What was. I don't even know. What college did you go to for golf? [00:05:08] Speaker B: I went to University of Texas. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Wow. [00:05:10] Speaker A: And that was a, that was something you golfed from a young age and wanted to go play golf or just, it just kind of started where you're like, man, I could actually take this. [00:05:18] Speaker B: I can't even really explain it. Just like a freak thing. I. Dude, I was a baseball player and had been my whole life. That was my sport. That's what I wanted to do. And I was like a. Okay baseball player. You know, I was, I was on the team, I was a starter, but nobody, like, I wasn't like a d one prospect or anything. You still got the dream exactly right. [00:05:37] Speaker A: I got, I got some d. Three letters. [00:05:39] Speaker B: Exactly right. [00:05:40] Speaker A: I got the community college sending me letters. [00:05:42] Speaker B: And then at 15 years old, my buddies were like, hey, man, we're gonna go play golf this summer. You want to come out? It was between, I guess, sophomore and junior year. And I was like, yeah, let's go. And so I went out and played golf. And I had never swung a club in my life before. And I beat all my friends and they were like, no, you're better than you realize. That this, like, you should mess with it. So I spent all summer playing, and I got addicted to it. And then, like, I made the JV team my junior year, ended up quitting baseball, which is insane. I just loved golf so much. And then by senior year, I made varsity. And then second semester, senior year, I was the number one player on varsity. And then I ended up walking on to ut my freshman year of college. It was an insane ride. And I was playing in a band and playing country music all at the same time. So it was, like, just never slept. Just doing what I love, man. I was either in a bar playing guitar or on the golf course hitting golf balls. But those are two of my favorite things to do still to this day. [00:06:33] Speaker A: So I was going to ask where music fell into that. At what age you started messing with music? [00:06:39] Speaker B: I was always in my blood. I mean, growing up in Austin, it's a really cool town, right? You got music everywhere, right? And so I think the obviously my biggest influences of the, like, Texas music gods were George Strait and Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan were all around you. But, like, more recently, like, in seeing guys make it on, like, a commercial and national level, like, I saw Eli young band make it, and I was like, man, that's really cool. And I felt like they did a really good job of toeing the line of having, like, songs that you could, like, put on at Tailgate and jam and listen to, but also had, like, some depth to the music. Like, even if you break, even if it breaks your heart, like, what unbelievable song. And so guinevere, man. Like, that whole jet black and jealous album, just, those guys were like, holy cow, this is what I want to do. But again, it's like telling somebody you want to go play quarterback in the NFL. It's like, yeah, I want to get a record deal and have a song on the radio. Yeah, good luck, man. Go for it. Yeah. And so I kind of just, like, quietly chased it. Like, learned how to write songs, learning how to put on live shows, and, you know, I did the golf team. I went to college. I got a job right after college for about two years. Like, I did all the things that I was supposed to be doing. I just didn't really love it. And so this whole time, I have a band, and I'm writing songs, and I'm just kind of playing on the weekend, so I'm not even touring. It's just I'm only playing in Austin. And we started a little residency at a band called. At a bar called the Rattle Inn, which is not in Austin anymore. But at the time, it was like a 300, 400 cap room, and it was just like this rowdy little honky tonk bar. And everybody knew, like, Friday nights, we were going to play from ten to 01:00 a.m. and it just started selling out every time we played it. And I was like, all right, we've kind of got something going here, guys. And I'll never forget, big record label flew in from Nashville, sauce play. We had a record deal offer the next day, and it went from like a pipe dream to like, holy shit, like, we have a record deal and we're moving Nashville. I quit my job that week. My wife and I packed up a u Haul and drove to Nashville. [00:08:28] Speaker A: So were, at that point, were you playing a lot of covers? Were you playing your own stuff? You were. [00:08:32] Speaker B: I think that was a blessing of Austin was like, original music was just kind of the thing. Like, most places you go, like, if you start a band, your cover band, right? You're playing other people's songs. But, like, I think everybody was, because it's such a creative town, everybody was, like, always encouraging you, like, they wanted to hear the original songs, which is not the standard everywhere. And so I started with original music, like, started writing original songs by, like, you know, twelve years old. And they were horrible, right? They were horrible. But the more you write, I love. [00:09:03] Speaker A: Music so much, but then I'm like, I couldn't, I don't, I don't know. I've never tried to write music. I. [00:09:08] Speaker B: The first thousand songs you write, just put them in the trash. They're just, you know, and. But it is what it is, right? You learn how to connect with people. You learn how to tell stories. You learn how to, like, polish the bigger idea into a more digestible, three minute, you know, concept. And that, that was what it was for us growing up in Austin. It was like writing these songs and then go play them in front of a crowd. And some of them are turds and some of them land. And then the ones that land, like, how do you make them better? And that was the best education I could have ever gotten without knowing it. [00:09:38] Speaker A: How did you, how did that record company come to, like, know you were there? I mean, or did you reach out. [00:09:44] Speaker B: To somebody, a local dj that did not own a country station in Austin, but owned a country station in Virginia beach. And he owned, like, the rock station and the alternative station in Austin. I was playing golf one day and, like, randomly got paired with him and just like anybody else I was like, hey, man, I got this band. I got this demo. I pulled a burn cd out of my golf bag and handed it to him. And he. You could tell he, like, rolled his eye. I was like, cool. Like, whatever. But he called me back the next day, and he goes, I can't tell you how many burn cds with demos I've gotten on it. And he's like, you're the first person I've ever called back. And he was like, I think you have something here. And so he ended up sending that to Scott. Borchetta had a big machine records in Nashville. They flew down, saw us play in Austin, and we had a record deal, like, instantly, man. Having never played any other town but Austin, I didn't know what a co write was. I'd written all my songs by myself at that point. I didn't know what a publishing deal was, a record deal, anything, man. I was green as new grass, if I'm being honest. It was way too early for me to sign a record deal at that time just because I didn't have my shit together or any, like, semblance of my shit together. But it's what got me to Nashville, and it was kind of what taught me, like, how this industry works. And, like, I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought Donald. Donald Passman's everything you need to know about the music business, basically, mandy and, dude, I have fallen in every bear trap you could possibly fall in along the way, but somehow managed to stay standing. And now, you know, I've got a great team around me. We just had our first number one cowboy songs. My single right now, it's flying. Just went top 20 this week, hopefully number one before the end of the year. And we're on the biggest tours that you could ask for. We're on a tour bus. We're doing headlining stuff. It's going crazy. It's finally like, the door opened, and now it's cooking. Cooking, yeah. [00:11:28] Speaker C: Good for you. So I been to Austin, down to 6th street a couple of times, actually. I lived in San Antonio for love that town. Oh, yeah. [00:11:35] Speaker B: I've always said, if things knock on wood, keep going. Like, they're going, I will buy a house in San Antonio day. I love that town. [00:11:42] Speaker C: I loved it. I was there for about four years. I was military, so I was stationed. [00:11:45] Speaker B: God bless you, man. [00:11:46] Speaker C: I loved it. You go to Austin every once in a while and party down on hang. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Out with your hippies? Absolutely. [00:11:51] Speaker C: Absolutely. So I've experienced that, that big music area, obviously going down there and listening to a lot of live music. Talk to us a little bit about the story behind beer, beer truck trucks. I've heard it before, but I'd love for our audience, too, to kind of talk about how that came about and how that all happened. [00:12:12] Speaker B: It was just a lightning in a bottle moment. And I think the best lesson that I learned from that is you can act like you have a plan or think that there's some recipe to success, but at the end of the day, you're just waiting for your moment for the door to open. And it happens in the most unlikely of ways. And so, basically, I was on a writer's retreat with Clay Walker. I was down in Galveston, Texas. He had taken a liking to me. I asked him to help him write his new record. And so we were writing some songs together, and he was like, man, you got to do this artist thing. And I was like, I just, you know, I had had some scar tissue from my old band, Waterloo revival, which, you know, I love those guys, but it just was kind of a failure launch situation. We got in the record deal, we gotten the chance, and nothing really ever took off. And it was just hundreds, thousands of nights in a van and trailer playing empty bars, and just. It didn't work, you know? And so I was like, I just not in a hurry to do that again. And he's like, man, there's this thing called TikTok, and you gotta try it out. And I'm like, clay Walker's the last person I would ever think to tell me. I gotta get the last reason I could ever guess to tell me to get on TikTok. But we had finished writing for the day, and we were going back to the room to get cleaned up before we all went out to dinner. And I'm in my room, and I'm like, man, whatever. What could it hurt? And so I downloaded the app, and I have no following. I've got no, you know, nothing going on. And. But I click on the first. I click on a country music hashtag because I was like that. This is what I like. So let's see. And the first video I see is a girl making fun of country music. And she kind of had made this, like, half witted song of, like, you know, country music ain't nothing but beer, beer truck, truck girls and tight jeans. And I. It made me laugh, and I was like, she has a point. But I was like, it'd be funny if me as a songwriter could take that and show her that I could, like, write a whole song. Out of it, right? And so I took that hook and I just said, oh, you mean something kind of like this? And I just kind of freestyled a verse and a chorus that was kind of like a love story about a guy from the country and a girl from the city and how they think about each other, but, you know, may or may not get back together. And it was just what I would normally do about any, like, song title is like, try to create a story and a picture around it. And so I did that and I posted it, and I think I had six followers at the time. So I'm thinking this is one of exactly, or at least like Clay Walker official with two ls or something like the wrong one. I was like, you know what? I had zero expectations. And we went to dinner, and 3 hours later, we came back and it had done about 3 million views in 3 hours. And Clay's like, dude, I told you. And then all of a sudden, next day, it's like, record label, record label, record label, all blowing up my phone, asking for lunch. And that was it. It was just like all of a sudden, my whole world changed. And so we ended up signing a deal. You know, I ended up doing, like, some big national tv and radio stuff. And it was actually Bobby Bones who had me on his show to play beer, beer truck, truck. And he asked me, he was like, well, hey, man. He's like, do you have anything else? And I had written mind on you and half thought I was going to give it to Jason Aldean. At the time, I was on hold for Jason Aldean for his new record, and I was like, okay, whatever. This is my shot. I'm on the biggest radio program you could ask for. He's asking me if I got anything else to play. I'm just doing it. And so I played mind on you on the Bobby Bone show. It went viral. The record labels getting a million calls from all these stations being like, hey, this has to be your single. And they ended up singling mind on you. And that's was like the, the rocket ship for me. It ended up being the most added song in America, country radio, the week it came out. And a year later, it was my first number one. So from a crazy joke tick tock video to one song in the country. Yeah, exactly. [00:15:44] Speaker C: Did you know, so the, the lady that had posted that, so he made her a co writer on that stuff. [00:15:51] Speaker B: I did. If you look on there, two writers on beer, beer truck, truck, me and a girl named Erin Chambers. I reached out to her and she was actually really cool. When I reached out to her, I was like, hey, you know, I wanted you to know what I did with your video. And she was like, I used to love country music, and I got away from it, and, you know, but this gives me so much nostalgia from, like, what I used to listen to. And I found out she's an elementary school music teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I was like, well, I'm gonna make you a writer on this song. And she actually texted me a while back, and she was like, you know, I love country music now because I'm getting royalty checks in the mail from your. [00:16:27] Speaker A: I know we only have so much more time, but do you keep track from, like, years of writing, almost like a playbook? Do you keep track of those things that you wrote even though you said, throw them in the garbage? You have a notebook? Do you have a archive of things, or do you just. If it sticks, great. If not, you, you've thrown it away. [00:16:44] Speaker B: I have a folder that stays, like, rotating, and it's. It's basically just. The title is, like, GBC songs I like, and so it's like songs for myself that I want to keep into consideration for an album. And so it's like, as I'm writing, if it's something I like, or even moderately like, I'll put it in that folder and I'll listen to it kind of on loop every now and then, and songs will either grow on me or I'll be like, I had rose colored glasses on that day. It's not very good. And so it's like, if it. If I listen a couple times and it's a skip, then I'll take it out of the folder, and if I listen a couple times and it's a winner, it'll stay in there and it'll kind of go to the top of the list of stuff I want to cut. And then my publisher, which is, like, for those that are not in the industry, like me, that had to read a book on how to even function in this world, those are the people that kind of pay you to write songs and then exchange, they own a percentage of your songwriting. They obviously have, like, the big master folder of songs I've ever written, which I'm like, do I have to turn in all these? Because some of them really suck. It's like, it. I equate songwriting to going fishing. You know what I mean? It's like, some days you're going to catch a minnow, and some days you're going to catch a whale, it's like, you got to throw a line on the water every day. And so that's kind of. Of my. But I'd rather just turn in the whales. Like, I don't really want anybody to hear the minnows, but, yeah, so the folder I keep is the stuff that I'm really excited about. But then my publisher has, like, everything I've ever written. [00:18:06] Speaker A: Sick. [00:18:06] Speaker C: That's awesome. [00:18:07] Speaker A: Well, I wasn't sure what people do with. Honestly, I didn't know if people keep. [00:18:10] Speaker B: Like, just a big old box. Yeah, right? [00:18:13] Speaker A: Cause you do. You have. You'd have to spit all this stuff out forever. And then finally wait, maybe combine these, maybe you get inspiration, go back to it. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Well, I think we're in a really interesting time now, too. Right? Like, I think based on your level of notoriety, you have to put out a digestible amount of music. Right. Like, I have some success. I have a number one song. I have one on the way. I have a pretty big following right now. And so it's like, I can put out a bit more music at a time and have earned the attention span of a listener to listen through ten songs, you know, whereas, like, when I first started, it was, like, one single at a time. Now, Morgan Wallenae, the most famous artist in the world right now, can put out 30 songs, and he's earned enough respect that people will sit there and listen to all 30 of those songs. I'm not on that level yet. Right. And so it's like, I have to be really considerate of how much and what I put out, because there's only a certain attention span for your listener that you've earned. And. And I think that's also, like, when it comes to singles, right? Like, Jordan Davis couldn't put out bidirt as his first single. Right? Like, he had to come with it singles you up, which is, like, easy and tempo and easy to listen to. And then, you know what? My world spins around and, like, a little bit more, like, universally easy listening. And then as you earn that notoriety, you can put some more depth in your lyric because you're getting a more in depth lyric listen from your listeners. And so it's like, I think that's how you grow as an artist, and that's what I'm really focusing on music wise as well. I think you can look at Thomas Rhett, too, and the way that he's kind of grown as an artist in the storytelling. Chase rice. And the way he's grown as an artist in the storytelling and it's like, as you earn a more respected listen from your fan, you can dig more in as like, a writer and in the music you put out and how much music you put out. [00:19:59] Speaker A: So great perspective. [00:20:00] Speaker C: Absolutely. So we want to, again, thank you for the time and your team. Thank you for carving out a few minutes to sit down with us today. It's been fun learning more about you, and I can't wait to see you on stage tonight. So again, cheers to you. [00:20:16] Speaker B: Cheers, guys. Thanks for having me in. Yeah. Honored to be part of the podcast. [00:20:21] Speaker A: I have one question to wrap. Wrap it up. I'll wrap up with each one of them. And if you can't answer it. All right now, if you don't know, I do want you to think about it. You're jumping out of a plane. You can only take five albums with you the rest of your life. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Wow. [00:20:34] Speaker A: What do you listen? And again, if you can't name it, you know, I just want you to think about it. Maybe you can respond back later with us, but sure. [00:20:41] Speaker B: Smoke rings in the dark. Gary Allen, Jet Blackton. Jealous. Eli Young, bandaid. Golly, something Jason Aldean, either away desperado or maybe even earlier, like, you know, something around that night train era. Golly, there's got to be George Strait in there. But see it again. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Are you gonna stick to all country? [00:21:05] Speaker B: Do you go, okay. I mean, I'll mix in some, like, drake every now and then, and I'll mix in some John Mayer every now and then. I. But outside of that, I'm like only country. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, it's always an interesting thing to think about. You can listen to for the rest of your life, you know, cuz albums you don't listen to today, like, I'm listening to something right now, I'll never probably touch again later on. But that Gary Allen album you can. [00:21:29] Speaker B: Pull out, it's like you find a song and then you just listen to it on repeat over and over again. Yeah, absolutely. [00:21:36] Speaker A: Absolutely. Albums burn a hole in it. I look at albums as like chapters of my life. Like, I can tell you, like, which I listen to a variety. But I mean, there's a three days grace album I can tell you was like my freshman year of high school. I can tell you that breaking Benjamin was like this genre, or Gary Allen was, you know, a certain section. [00:21:52] Speaker B: And I will say outside of, like the country realm, like mute, like pre game on the bus or like if we're working out or whatever, like I'm hype music, like big x to plug. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, no, I like asking. I think it tells a lot about somebody. And should I? It. [00:22:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Thanks. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Appreciate it, man. [00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you, guys. [00:22:11] Speaker A: Congrats tonight on first play of cruise. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Let's go. Appreciate you guys. Absolutely.