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: So I'd like to welcome all of you to Tailgate Beers here with Ryan and Austin. Austin and Ryan. We have another Austin, Austin Williams with us today.
Super excited to. To have him.
Super excited to hear you tonight and watch you up on. On the cruising stage. First time?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: First time. Yeah, it's the first one for me.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: First time in Peoria, Illinois.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yes, it actually is. I've been. I've been passed through Illinois, but I've never really spent a lot of time here.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Let's just go ahead and get into it. So you've been. So you're a Tennessee boy.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah, born and raised. Yeah. Don't get more Nashville.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Other than the inner city guys, I guess, for sure.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: So you've been around songwriters all of your life?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Pretty much all my life.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: And what was that like? How was that engagement? How was that relationship building for to be a songwriter especially?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: I didn't really think a lot into it. So, like, I grew up playing baseball. And so, like, you know, some of the kids I'd play baseball with, and then even in high school, some of the guys I would play with, their dads, that's why they were here, you know, their dads have moved from Oklahoma or Texas or somewhere like that to write songs.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: So for us, where people are like, hey, you're from Caterpillar. You know, because we have Caterpillar in the area. A lot of people, their parents all work for Cat. Yeah, yours were. Hey, man, my dad's here.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Write music, songwriter. And it became just a. Oh, that's cool. You know, like kind of a thing. And my mom's godfather, he wrote the song Rambling man for Waylon Jennings. And then he had some cuts on Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, and he produced Farron Young and Ray Price and Gene Watson and owned a label in town. But, like, I didn't grow up thinking anything about it, you know, I grew up watching Merle Haggard a lot.
Somewhere in my dad's family, there's a guy named Albert Bromley, and he was in California and he met this kid out of jail, and the kid was Merle Haggard, and he let him open up for him, and Merle ended up being a thing. And I guess divorce happened. Instead of alimony, we got Merle Haggard tickets.
So I grew up that was just kind of normal.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: So it kind of didn't really. It wasn't really any different. That's just kind of all I knew. And then when I got into the Business kind of. It made it a lot, a lot easier because I had a guideline, you know, I had like this. What to prioritize and what not to prioritize. My mom's godfather, he passed away right before I started the journey. But I remember hearing him as a kid say, you know, great songwriters live forever and great singers are short lived. And so like I knew that kind of going into prioritize being a songwriter first and like, if the singing thing doesn't work out, you still have a job in town and just, you know, different when it comes to deals and all of that. Like, I just, I had kind of a guideline that not a lot of people had.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: What was the song? I mean, have you had a song that you've wrote on or been a part of? What's your biggest song you've been a part of?
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Right. So my favorite cut that I ever had was I had a song with Chase Matthews album.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: And which he's been a brother to me since I started.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Chase is a great.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: He's one of my best friends. So that one was cool. Getting to write that song with him and cut it.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: What song was that?
[00:03:18] Speaker B: It's called Moonlight.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: And then I've actually. My favorite cut. I don't know if I'm even supposed to say it, but I'll say it. I got a soap. There's like, I love old country music and I'm a big fan of like the 60s and 70s stuff. And the band Asleep of the Wheel.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Is cutting a song that. Or as of now, cutting a song that I was part of writing with Bill Anderson.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: So like, that was. That was beyond exciting. Yeah, that was a kind of cool moment. Like, is the song gonna go to radio or anything? Like, maybe not, but like, it's kind of just. I got to be a part of that. That care I get, you know, when that legacy's told one day I.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: How did that. How did that come about of you being.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: We were involved in that. I was a huge fan of Bill Anderson just growing up, a fan of 60s country like Whisper and Bill Anderson. And I had a friend and we. I was singing one of the songs he wrote. My friend, a good friend of mine, right. Was Bobby Tomlin, who wrote song One More Day for Diamond Rio. And he was like, man. He said, bill's one of my best friends. He said, why don't we all write together one day? And I was like, okay. So I think that's one of the few times I ever just fanboyed in A room. But we wrote a song is a really cool song. And then they called was like, hey, I think Ray Benson's gonna. Gonna cut the song. So I was like, yeah. So I'm kind of pumped about it.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: So going back to your songwriting and learning that from an early childhood, seeing that as you're growing up, you know, what, what, what is your.
Just as you said, right. The songwriter is gonna. Gonna stick around for a long time. I mean, what, what is your. Not to give any waste secret sauce, but what are you thinking through your mind when you sit down and think about a situation that you want to write song about?
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Man, just pour your heart into it. It's kind of like there's not really like a process. It's kind of a. You know, I'm a huge believer and I say this because I talk about faith a lot and I'm a big believer. Songs are kind of given and they're not really written, you know, they kind of just fall out. You know, in a lot of days you have to work for a song and have to find it. But like, not everybody can just write a song.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: You know, so there's not. And there's not really a set process. It happens different every room. You know, I've had. I've had rooms where we had nothing to write about. We sit and just talk about life and the song kind of fell out of it.
So. Yeah, it's a lot different every time. There's not really a set standard way. Just kind of, you know, somehow get yourself in line with the song and just kind of get yourself in that place and just kind of pour your heart into it.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: And you're, you're how old?
[00:05:49] Speaker B: I'm 20.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Okay. And so you've been doing music now.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: For about three years, I would say.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: So pretty much straight out of high school.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I got. So I was. I was going to play college baseball and then decided that that was a dead end dream because that was too small.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Five, nine.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Not. Not the two phase.
Yeah. Well, I was looking, you know, I was looking at it like, you know.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: It'S not in your favor.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And then being undersized, it's really not. I was gonna go sit the bench in college for a few years, maybe play my senior year or something like that happens. All get a degree that I probably weren't going to use. I was like, yeah, I was like, so I might as well just cut out the middleman and go for this kind of music thing.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: So you bypassed college.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah. All together yeah. Thankful to Chase Matthew. He kind of got me out of.
[00:06:34] Speaker C: College, so I want to go to Chase Matthew next and talk about. So he's. He's a mentor of yours?
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Big mentor. He's kind of been in my corner since he was kind of one of the, one of the first guys to.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Believe in me and talk about that relationship and how that started or how you met Chase.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: So when I first got into music, I didn't really know what I was. I didn't really know how as many people as I knew. I knew a bunch of songwriters. I didn't know much artists, so I didn't really know how to get into the artist thing. I was like, I'm just going to sing for whoever will listen. So there was this little bar, had karaoke on Wednesday nights. So I'd go every Wednesday and sing karaoke and sing my songs. And finally they let me come in there and play a little cover gig at some point. And Chase, from the way I've heard him tell it, is he was sitting in the like the grill part of the bar and grill eating and heard me singing. It was like, man, that kid's kind of good. And then after, right after County Line Record come out, he played a hometown show and he DM'd me on Instagram to open up for him.
And ever since then we've just kind of been kind of off.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Great dude. He's played the festival two or three times. I mean, he's played in Taylorville, he's played Bloomington, he's played, he's played over in Iowa and he's played here multiple times. He did back to back, like sold out shows.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: That's sick. Yeah. What a live show.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Oh yeah, he does that water bottle deal. Yeah, he like gets all the water bottles up there and everybody has their drinks and next thing you know I've got some crazy footage.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: From the last time he was here. Just water.
But yeah, he's. He's a performer.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: He's a great performer. I mean, amazing.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: I think one of them he brought out like squirt guns on the, on stage at one of the festivals. I could see it, shooting them and yeah, he has a fun time.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I learned a lot from watching him. The way he gets the crowd involved in the show and makes them one with the show. You know, it's like they're. They sit there and it's like. Feels like not like you're watching a show. It feels like you're a part of the show and like you leave like, man, Kind of connected to the music after that.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Right. But even back to what you said, his dream. I mean, I have no college degree.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: You know, and. And to have be in this industry and you don't think of it that, you know, what you give up by not going to college or going to college and, you know, everybody's path is different. But watching Chase, too, what he came from.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: To where he's at now and again, where he still can go is pretty impressive, and that's pretty cool.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: He turned nothing into something. Yeah. And I think that's just a testament to his hard work and hard work in general.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Right. But you watch guys in music, too, that they stay together at a younger age, where all it happened was you open for him one day and then who knows, wherever he ends up at or where you end up at. And next thing you know, you're like, man, why are these three always on a tour together?
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Because they've been. They've been homies since day one.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Since the beginning. Yeah, for sure.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Cubs fan.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Big Cubs fan.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: Big Cubs fan.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Why the Cubs?
[00:09:20] Speaker C: Big Cubs fan.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: So I had.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Why the Cubs?
[00:09:23] Speaker B: So my great grandfather. Are you a Sox fan?
[00:09:25] Speaker A: I'm a Cardinals fan. So here.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: Austin. Austin here. So you get about 50% Cubs. Because we're two and a half hours from Chicago.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: We're two and a half hours.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: 50% Cardinals.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: I got you.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: So it's very divided.
[00:09:37] Speaker C: Small White Sox. Small white.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: There's not many of those. In general. There's just not many of those.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: There was talks of the White Sox going to Nashville. I don't know if you ever heard that, like, they met with Nashville to move the White Sox to Nashville.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: And, like, I.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Would you become a Sox fan?
[00:09:52] Speaker B: No. And, like, that's the problem.
I would probably go to some games, but no, I just. Probably at that point, I just go to the sounds game.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: I said it would have been like the Vegas deal. Because, dude, you look at Nashville. Nashville I've called is like the Midwest. Vegas. You literally get a rotation of all walks of life, people from all over constantly coming through there. So whatever team is there, you would have had on any given day, any amount of baseball fans that are like, yeah, let's go to a. Let's go to a Nashville. I kind of wanted to happen because I do actually feel bad for the Sox, just kind of lingering up there with.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: I think it's great for him. I love it.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: I just love it. So you said your grandfather. Great grandfather.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: So my great grandparents had a huge influence in my life. And I, and I. My parents were young when they had me, so like I grew up with all, like pretty much all of my great grandparents. So one was a giant Braves fan and one was a Cubs fan. And so I just kind of was like, the Cubs are my team because everybody else back home cheers for the Braves and I can't be everybody else.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: You and I have like the same story. So. My great grandparents were a huge influence in my life. You know, I lost, you know, my grand. Both my grandfather's really young and my great grandparents were massive Cubs fans, Democrats and Cubs fans. They were die hard on both. My grandmother on my mom's side was from Missouri, die hard Cardinals fan. And for whatever reason I went the other way. Yeah. But every single time we went to a Cub Cardinals game, we always sat behind the away dugout and I had every. Sammy Sosa's autograph, Sammy Sosa's jersey articles, like Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, like sign stuff.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: I would literally just come back and give it to my great grandparents. Balls with Mark Grace's autograph. All these people just giving it to them because I'm like, I don't know, I wanted them to be happy, but I wasn't. You know, I've never been anti Cubs necessarily. I've just been, you know, always a Cardinals fan. But it's funny how they can have an influence on you like that for sure.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: No, mine played definitely a huge influence, like everything I do because I mean my parents had me at 20, which isn't like crazy young, but so like. And my grandparents wasn't retired, so I just stayed at my great grandparents house like in the summers, like weeks at a time, you know, and I just like, I would kind of go to the farm with them or we would go to the creek or we would watch baseball or we would watch the race. I mean, you know, I just kind of old western movies.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: So do you make it a point to go to. Have you gone to any Wrigley games?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: I've never been to Wrigley.
I have been.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: What if your first time Wrigley is like playing Wrigley?
[00:12:20] Speaker B: I want, I want to throw the first pitch at Wrigley's like, big goal.
[00:12:25] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Let's make it happen.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of my big goal is to have the first pitcher Wrigley and I want, and I want to take BP at Wrigley and my dad throw it to me. That's like my.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: There you go. Go dude. That Would be. I can't imagine being able to even just have that experience of like being able to be to a certain point in your life where Chicago Cubs are calling you up saying, hey, let's throw out the.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah, like let's throw the first pitch. And then. Yeah, that would be name on the.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Back of the jersey. The whole nine yards. So you've never even been.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: I've been to like one major league stadium.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Really? And a big baseball guy.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Big baseball guy. Well, we got the sounds. And I've. I've always loved minor league baseball. I would so much rather go to a minor league baseball game.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: College. College.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: I've been to one college baseball game ever. And like. And I mean, I live like 30 minutes from Vanderbilt. Yeah. But I don't know, I just. I'm not. And I'm not. I've never been a huge watch baseball guy.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Really? I love listening to baseball on the radio. I do.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: I like.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: I like wood in the background in the garage, whatever you're doing, working on your computer. I do love the sound because that's the old broadcasting of that. What do they call it? Like color commentating of being able to paint that picture of what's happening on the field.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Baseball announcers are so great at it.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: And so baseball. Baseball on the radio is. I just. I don't know, like, I've always been a guy that I put the baseball game on TV and then kind of do whatever and just kind of listen to it on the tv.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Wrigley's. Wrigley's an experience, though. Wrigley Field is. I mean, that's a historic place. Great time to go. I remember I went up to White Sox, Cubs Crosstown Classic. It was like 1 to nothing, 105 degrees. Brutal game end score was like 1 to nothing.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: 7Th 17 stretch. I'd have found my way to the car.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: I'd have beat the crowd, which if you're not a drinker or if you're into it. But the one thing I would say about the Cardinals that's nice is growing up a Cardinals fan. You can go from this bar and walk across the street, down the street to wherever. Beer in hand.
Chicago, gotta throw it out. Cannot leave the bar because in Illinois you can't be walking out down the street. In Missouri, you can walk anywhere you want with a drink in your hand. So that was. That's a pro.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: But yeah, he's a big Cubs fan.
[00:14:38] Speaker C: My whole family is Cubs fans and we watch it games almost every day. I usually have the Cubs Games on last night, they threw the combined no hitter.
They're, you know, trying to get up there this year. They're struggling. We got a little bit of hole to dig out. Yeah.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's just. I think at this point, it's just we just kind of learned the feeling of being a Cubs fan.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: You know, we just.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Always next year. Yeah, always next year.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: It's like being a fan of the Tennessee Vols, you know, except now it's paying off. But.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: So what else? What else in your downtime or what? What in your life, like right now when you're not on the road? Because I know you guys got the U haul trailer out there. You're driving on the road. It's not like you're in some tour bus or something like that. What's your. You're grinding right now. You're probably doing everything you can. What is something you do outside of music that just. I mean, you absolutely love big outdoorsman hiking, hunting, fishing.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: I love, like, I love the kind of peaceful aspect of, you know, being in the woods.
Whether it's sitting in a deer stand and, you know, there's nothing else. You hear nothing else but the birds and the squirrel. That sounds like a grizzly bear running through the wolf.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: They sound like. They sound like a full blown bird coming.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Yeah. You look over squirrel.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: So are you a buck?
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Judging by maybe your hat. I mean, you're a bigger duck hunter than deer hunter.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: I love to duck hunt.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Is that what you grew up as a young age doing?
[00:16:07] Speaker B: I started. Got into it when I was probably seven. Right.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Me and my dad. My dad had a friend that duck hunted and so he took me on his first duck hunt when I was like seven. Six or seven somewhere right in there. And ever since then I've been hooked. So, yeah, duck hunt and turkey hunting. And then I grew up, you know, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, anything. We could.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Any. All of it.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: All of it. Anytime we could be in the woods, we were gonna.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: What? I mean, I would. I think I know the answer, but what's like the favorite cooking as far as hunting?
[00:16:38] Speaker B: I was.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: What are you cooking up as far as a recipe?
[00:16:41] Speaker B: I would say probably the back strap of a deer. Yeah. Probably doesn't get much better. No.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Guys I used to work with that would like see like a fresh deer on the road. I mean, they're literally getting out and they're gonna cut off.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: I don't know about all that, but.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: No, but seriously, I mean, these guys were the type that Were like, dude, that thing just got hit. Ma'am, are you okay? All this stuff, you know, I mean, this thing just happened. I know a guy, it's like he's, he's cutting it out right there, you.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Know, however you can eat.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I wasn't on that level, but yeah, we both, we both duck hunt and we love it. And what areas down there are you going to?
[00:17:21] Speaker B: So, like, you know, like at home, we don't have ducks. Really? You get your local wood ducks that you kind of kill early in the year, then you get, you get one good weekend a year at home. But I grew up, we had a lease in Missouri.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Like Sykeston area.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: How far, how far would drive is that?
[00:17:37] Speaker B: About three and a half hours, four hours. So it wasn't too bad. But we kind of grew up going up there every year and, you know, spending a lot of time in a rice field. But I got hooked at an early age and it's just kind of stuck, so. And that's the cool thing about is music. It's kind of getting to go on some hunts and, you know, building relationships within the, within the hunting industry and what's about. Yeah, try to, you know, try to put your foot into that hunting industry.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Have you, have you met anybody or gotten to go on a hunt with. With another songwriter, artist that. I mean, because I know like Langston. Langston's got his property of hunting.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: I've actually never, I've never been on. I've never been hunting with another artist. Really? I'm so like, which. Me being 20, everybody kind of hangs out and stuff like that and I don't ever hang out. I'm kind of a. I'm kind of the young the kid.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: This podcast, even in tailgate beers is something that, I mean, I'm calling it tailgate beers, but if you sat in a duck blind and the conversations that.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: You have, oh my goodness.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: About religion, politics. I mean, I started hunting with a guy that was 72 and had floaters in his eyes. And I'm like, you know, he talks super loud. Was super like loud because he has bad hearing. I'm like, done. I'm like, shut up. They're literally right here. What's crazy is the dude had such bad floaters, he switched from being right handed to a left handed shooter. Could still hit 90 out of 100 clays and would be the first one to pull up and hit all three of his shots. But he's got floaters and stuff and is talking loud as hell. But when it's ready to shoot. He's popping there and he's back down. Boy, guys, did you guys see that? And then he's back on and talking about again. Just. We'd have these moments where it's dead and, you know, we're talking, you know, your faith, family, religion. What do you think about politics? Like, just everything.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: So many things talked about in Duck Bond.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: So that's why I relate this in the turkey woods.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Like, you know, just kind of like. I mean, my story about getting saved, I mean, happened turkey hunting, you know, and it's just like, it like the outdoors and it's like. I know there's so much peace. You know, I think that's kind of the big word that I always bring back to is just peace. Yeah, it's kind of a separation from music. You know, we. Especially in this industry, we hear so much sound every day, and it's always loud. I mean, this show tonight's gonna be loud, and it's so nice to just separate from that and just kind of, you know, focus on you for a little bit and just kind of, you know, want you, you and you and God out there, you know, just kind of bringing it back down and just kind of finding peace in the silence. You know, a lot of people, it's either you're either scared of the silence or you find peace in silence. And when you can find peace in silence, it's.
It's just, you know, it's its own thing.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: There's even something of, like, one of the. One of the places I used to go hunt. I mean, we. You know, these phones nowadays, I mean, it is a safety thing of, like, being able to get ahold of something if something were to happen to you, something like that. But, you know, you get bored and what do you do? You scroll you every time, you know, you get on one of the spots. I had one of the things I loved about it. I mean, I had no cell service.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: That's the best zero.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: So at the end of day, what's crazy is I ended up just. I always took my phone for, like, pictures and stuff. However it got to a point where even if I forgot it, like, thank God.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Great, Great.
I have one spot like that. It's like close to a dam. We have like 1800 acres of river bottoms that kind of butt up to the dam.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: So hear the water running.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Oh, that. And the barge is barging through.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Oh, there you go.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Phone does not work at all. It's great.
[00:21:23] Speaker C: So Austin and I, we told you before, we Started the podcast. We're both dads and coach baseball together. And we've been out there with our sons and actually my younger daughter too, just out there in a duck blind. Goose. Goose pit, you know, just out there hunting. And they love it. They love it. So that's something certainly that, that we enjoy and get the solstice out of as well. Let's go to music.
Let's go to music. So somebody goes to an Austin Williams concert for the first time, right? You're playing at Cruisins, Peoria, Illinois, Central Illinois. What can they expect when they show up and see you?
[00:22:05] Speaker B: They can expect a lot of me just being me. You know, I'm every night on stage. My goal is just to be myself and allow somebody to either, you know, enjoy, you know, enjoy being me. With social media being a big thing, you know, that we just like kind of, you know, your personality shows every day. And a big thing that I try to preach a lot is like, you know, people are going to fall in love with you for you or if you put in on an act on stage, you know, you kind of got this Persona on stage, you know, do.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: You feel like that's a. Do you feel like that's a poll that you've had to fight at times of the Persona? Because I've seen it. I've witnessed it on all. All of us deal with it. All of us deal with it in life in general. But I do feel like when you're on stage, whether it's an act, whether it's an act or however it is, I mean, I don't know if you felt like a battle of, like, man, I just, I just want to be me.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: But I feel like I get, I've never, I haven't. But I know a lot of guys that have just because I've always went into. People are going to fall in love with you and they're either going to fall in this, you know, this applies to relationships or anything, but people are going to fall in love with you. And you can only keep up an act for so long or you got to become the act one of the two. And if you can make people fall in love with you for you, you'll always just be you and you never have. You can always just be yourself. And that's kind of a. It's kind of a really cool thing, just getting to walk around and be me every day and, you know, like it. And the people that don't like you for you will weed out of your life. And it's Perfect. It's exactly what you want. So, yeah, every night I just. I go up there and I be me on stage, and I'm going to talk about things that I believe in on stage. And, you know, I'd rather. I'd rather be rather be hated for who I am than love for who I'm not. But, you know, we're going to. We have a lot of energy, and we just have a good time. You know, if I can. If I can step on stage and make everybody in the room forget about, you know, the problems going on outside of that room, I did my job. Yeah.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Oh, 100%. And I think. I think that's the other part is when people show up, I'll be the first one to say too. You know, we book all these, you know, bands here. We do the festival. I did not know you until we booked you.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Personally. And I listened to a lot of music, for sure. Okay. Not saying I hadn't heard a song here or there, but, you know, Wayne hears some, I'll hear some. You know, we get them from different people. Wayne will book them, agents will pitch. Agents will pitch, you know, different things to us or however it happens.
But, I don't know. The thing I love the most as a fan side of it is when I show up and I don't know. I don't know what to expect. I don't know what I've got coming. And then you leave a fan. You know, I told the story a while back of just going to different concerts for one artist.
Who is this opener? Who is. Who is this other person? I just heard, and this is like my new favorite band ever, for sure. And that's best feeling on a fan side. And again, no, it's. You just don't feel it on the artist side as much.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: I love the feeling of, like, when we're playing for a bunch of people who don't know who we are. It's great.
[00:25:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Well, it's a chance to talk to somebody that you've never got to talk to.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: You know, and here, you know, at the end, you play a song that maybe they connect with mid show, and you, you know, you have a lot of people that listen to the songs and they connect with it through their something, but it's something else to watch them connect with it in front of you.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Oh, for sure.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: And, you know, and that's kind of the. Goes back to, like, the kind of. My pat on my back to myself as a songwriter, you know, is.
Is, you know, you Watch them connect with the song right in front of you. Watch that. They just put the dots together and how that applied to their life. And you're like, that's. That's. That's why it's all worth it. That's why traveling in the Yukon and a U Haul trailer is worth it.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: What has been your favorite, like, venue or, like, I don't know if you've been on a festival venue. What's the most memorable? We're like, dude, this is the forever and ever. Like, I won't forget this Myrtle Beach.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: House of Blues, hands down. I opened up for Kid G. He sold it out. I think there was like an hour line at the merch booth after the show. That one was fun.
That one was definitely fun. I'm sure. I'm guessing that this one's gonna join that category tonight for the sole fact of it is the first headline show of the first ever headline tour.
Tonight is tonight.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: I did not even. I did not even know that fact.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: Hell yeah, dude.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Tonight is the. We've played one other headline show ever in Iowa.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: I fucking love that for you.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that's.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: So, yeah, this is the first. This is the first headline show, the first ever headline tour.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Will you meet? I don't. You don't have a meet and greet?
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I'm gonna do an after at the merch booth. I do a. Yeah, I try. I try to meet every. You know, it finally becomes a point where you can't meet everybody for free just because of time, you know, time limits. But until that time comes, I'm going to shake every single hand in the building if I can do.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: It means so much people. And it's. Again, we all live a different life where you don't know what other people are going through. But I think in a music side of thing, it is crazy. It is creepy and crazy all at the same time. But it's nuts how. It's how much it means to some people. And, like, it held on. Like, it made them hold on when they couldn't hold on anymore. It got them through a tough time. And again, I'm somebody who loves music so much that there's albums I know were a certain period in my life that it means a lot that that.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Album was put in your life for a reason. And, you know, that's kind of like, I said this when I played the Opry for the first time. And when it comes to music, you know, most musicians, they eat, sleep, and breathe music because they love music. And to be honest, Music was never my dream. And I could. I could. Honestly. I love music, and I love writing music. I wanted to be a baseball player. That's all I wanted. I wanted to. I wanted. I wanted. I wanted to be. I wanted to. I wanted to be a baseball player. I wanted to play college baseball. I wanted to get a business degree, come back, either sell insurance or I wanted to be a high school gym teacher and coach high school baseball. That was my.
That was my aspiration in life.
And that took a 180. And so music is like, I love it, but it's not.
I could take a leave. Music. It's what music does to people. And playing a part in somebody's story and having a chance to kind of shine some light on somebody's day, that's what I love. And, like, I could sit music down tomorrow and find another way to do that, but it's kind of been laid out for this to be my way to do that, you know, so that's kind of the part that I cling on to and I absolutely, like, adore, is being to come out here every night and talk to somebody after the show, and they're saying, hey, man, I'm going through something. And you can sit and talk to them and, you know, and just kind of share your own story with them and just let them know that maybe they're not the only one going through that situation. And so that's kind of my. That's my Klingon. When it comes to music, it's not really the. Really the song. So I think, you know, that's scary because music's so powerful. It can make somebody feel the wrong way that you don't want somebody to feel, but it's kind of just, you know, that's my love.
[00:29:03] Speaker C: So what's your favorite song that you've written? Somebody. That one that you love playing on stage? Love playing live. That your favorite one?
[00:29:11] Speaker B: I'm gonna say the wannabe Saved record.
It's probably the most meaningful for me, and it's kind of. It's my story, and I was going through a lot, and so it was my story. And I've watched it connect with so many people, and it was a testament to. I said no to the song coming out. I told them they couldn't put out because there's a flip in the bridge where it talks about, you know, not wanting to be saved. Because if you had to choose, you know, if you had to choose between an addiction or sitting the addiction down and picking up a Bible, it's a whole lot easier to just keep going with the addiction, you know, It's a whole lot easier. And so, like, it's that thought of going through, but there was never any hope. And I was like, I can't put out a song without hope. And the bridge in the final chorus in the song where it completely flips on its head, I wrote it down in two and a half minutes.
It kind of fell. I just. As fast as it. Fast as it could come out. And so every time I hear the record, for a long time I couldn't listen to the record.
And every time I hear the record, I'm just like. It's kind of that testament of songs are given, not written. And like, everything's gonna, you know, play out. Exactly. I posted one video. It did like a million views in like a couple days. And I literally just posted the wavelength.
I screen recorded the wavelength, posted that, and it blew up the song.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: It's amazing with social media, was it on Instagram or TikTok or tick tock? Tick Tock?
[00:30:43] Speaker C: You were reluctant to get on TikTok.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: I was. Priscilla Block got me on Tick Tock.
[00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: I remember people talking about YouTube in the same sense back in the day. It was, well, all these kids are coming out with these YouTube videos blowing up and they're getting record deals because of YouTube.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: I think Justin Bieber was like a YouTube sense that, you know, there's people that have that on. And then what's crazy is then it was a little bit of Instagram. And then when Tick Tock came into the new thing of.
I mean, it's a great way to get found for people and it's a great tool, in all honesty. But hey, at the end of the day, Tick Tock artist get found on TikTok, YouTube. You got to still get up on.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Stage, improve yourself, Gotta get on stage and sing it every night.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: And songwrite and I mean, it's. It's only a stepping stone to get you to that.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: It is. It, you know, it gets you kind of that bass layer. But then, you know, it's still, you know, just like it was. You know, everybody complains about it and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, you know, the ones that work the hardest and the ones that's meant to make it awake, whether. Whether Tick Tock or not, you know, like the. The ones that's meant to make it, make it for sure. And so, yeah, I mean, I kind of. I was fortunate enough for use it as kind of that stepping stone.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Whether you got found in a bar, whether you DM somebody and happened to see it, whether you got found on TikTok, I mean, you're the one that still has to.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: You know, you still got it. You still got to put the work. You still got to put the work in.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: If you were, you know, on an airplane, jumping out, going to a deserted island for the rest of your life, what are the five albums that you're going to listen to the rest of your life?
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
Oh, I don't know. Five albums. Let's do. I'm going to do artist. I do five. Can I do five artists?
[00:32:24] Speaker A: If not, you can follow up and send me what you think the albums are and give you time to think. But it's a good exercise. If you want to say artist.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: I mean, trying to think. I mean, artists would definitely be there. Would be. Merle Haggard would definitely be. Keith Whitley would be in there, George Strait would be in there.
Marty Robbins would probably be in there. And then probably Johnny Horton would probably be the fifth one. Wow.
That would probably be my five artists. But I'm trying to think of my favorite record because I loved so many of them from all of them. I probably can't.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: It's tough, dude. I mean, when I go through the exercise, for me, what I listen to every day, what I listen to every day does not reflect my top five. I mean, you know what I'm saying? It's so crazy.
So, for instance, it's very popular right now. Oasis is one of my favorite bands of all time, now that they're coming back out and the brothers are together.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: So for me, like, it's always been Oasis live at Wimbley. But I also love Counting Crows and I also love, you know, matchbox 20.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: I've been on a sexy red kick.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: Personalities of what you know, what you like and what you know. I don't know. What are you gonna listen to? You could. I love this album right now.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: I love this. But what's crazy is, four months from now, it's not gonna be what I'm listening to over and over and over.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Like, I listen to the album, like new albums. I listen to it for a week straight and then I sit it down. Yeah.
I will say, though, that Dangerous album might have to come to the album. I had to come to the island with me.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean. And again, you go. You go. Some of those where you're like, man, I. I love this.
[00:34:15] Speaker B: That first Taylor Swift record was great. I've thrown it out there. That first Taylor Swift record was great.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Definitely. Definitely could be, you know, a top. Top seven, you know, and that's where even I feel there's ones where I'm like, dude, I don't. I mean, if I gotta listen to the same over and over and over for the rest of my life, I'm. I might have to throw this in the bag too.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. It's a definitely artist. I could come up with any. I could definitely go. Those five. I could probably go and listen to those five.
[00:34:44] Speaker C: It's a lot of classic country, type of.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: I love old country.
[00:34:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: But then I grew up with a mom. You know, my mom's 40, and she grew up kind of on that, you know, matchbox 20.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: You know, three doors down, like everything.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: That's my era, you know, she.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: She is a big fan of that. So I grew up with that. And then my dad.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Mom's got great taste.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And then my dad, you know, he's a big country fan.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Well, dude, I listened to AM radio for the longest time. I worked with 1290 classic country. AM was here, and I loved listening to, you know, those stations. But for me, I mean, yeah, I love Johnny Cash and I love Merle Hagar. I love some of those. But for me, it just. It never really fell on my. What would be my top. My top five, necessarily. But, yeah, everybody. It's. It's just so funny that when you do the test, what really sticks, you're like, man, if I have to get rid of all these other things, it's like the shirts in your closet. Yeah, Yeah, I love that shirt. I love that shirt. But if you're telling me I have to get rid of everything, I'm for sure taking these.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: You just go right back to your old favorites.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Every time.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: But, yeah, it'd probably a lot of classic country, for sure. I don't know. But then. But then I think about it more and I could sit and think about all day, like, should I take George Strait? And then should I take.
Because now I'm like, should. Should I take, like. Should I take like Three Doors down record? And then should I take a.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Do you add variety? See, that's the other part. See, now a 90s thing. Do you do classic country? A little hip hop?
[00:36:14] Speaker B: That's where I'm saying, do you throw like. Do you throw like that one City High album, they had that.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: What if you just go crazy that the only thing you brought was classic country and you didn't bring a hip hop. You didn't bring a newer one. You didn't bring Taylor Swift. You'll never hear Taylor Swift's voice again, ever.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, like, it's hard. I mean, you could throw little Goo Goo Dolls here. You could throw like Keith Whitley here.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Morgan Wal in there.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Because you're gonna be going through some up ups and downs on this island.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. You're gonna. Yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna. You're definitely gonna feel all the emotions at some point.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: So my last question, and it's a very serious question, Very serious question.
And I want to bring up 90s rap mashup. Sure. And my question is that one of the, if not the greatest 90s rap song that came out August 22, 1990. Just happened to know that off the top of my head didn't make the cut. Oh, and. And, and I'm wondering.
Vanilla Ice. Ice Ice, baby.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: Just didn't. Didn't make the 90s 90s rap mashup cut.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: So I grew up. I mean, I was no. 4, baby. Yeah. So I didn't even make the 90s. So you hardly made the 2000. Yeah. So my 90s rap influence was my dad. You know what he was a big fan of and he was a big Nelly fan and big Nelly fan. A big Master P guy. He was huge Master P guy.
But kind of hearing those influence. But I always liked the song. I could probably sing every word of that song. I could.
I come up with that whole 90s rap match up in like 20 minutes in my bedroom one night. That's awesome. And yeah, actually it's good. Good point we have to make.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: We didn't even touch on the mashup part. And I know we'll wrap up here, but the.
Have you seen Cooper Allen?
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Oh, for sure.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: With his stuff.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: So it's amazing here.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: And again, another person where we're kind of like, I don't know this thing. I mean, he does really great. And I don't really know a lot of his stuff. Yeah, he does his tick tock stuff and he's.
He crushed it here. He's crushed it. And then pulls three different people to throw out random shit and he mashes it up on stage right there. And it blew my mind.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Now let's go. Don't ask me to do that.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: And then he's like, yeah, I'm gonna be in the crowd.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Don't ask me to do that tonight.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: And then he came to the festival and again, he just killed the festival. And yeah, great dude. But that was another mashup person where I mean to do that is pretty, pretty cool. What made you want to do that? Like how'd that come about?
[00:39:03] Speaker B: I watched a video of Riley Green and he put I wanna be a baller shotgun then Colt 45 and then last Dance of Mary Jane into like a three song mashup radio show. What if I had.
What if I had like a whole like full length song to play at these cover gigs I was playing, man, I think it would go over great. And like most of people at these cover gigs were like 90s kids and they love that. Oh, I played that for years before we decided to put it on Tick tock. Yeah, I say years, like a year.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: You were 12.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Felt like yours.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: I played it my entire 20s.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: I played it through high school like because most kids mowed your ass or something like that. This school I just play gigs on the weekend.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: You know, get my 150 bucks for my couple hours.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Felt like I had a bunch of money. But yeah. So that was kind of.
It's kind of that one. So it was a fun one. Awesome.
[00:40:04] Speaker C: That's awesome. And well, we just want to take the time and thank you. Thanks for joining us. Tailgate Beers, Austin Williams. He's here at Cruisins tonight for sure and looking forward to it. Be fun from the sound check. It's going to be. It's going to be fun. It's going to be loud. It's going to be a lot of energy.
[00:40:23] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of fun. It's going to be fun.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: So I'm glad it's here tonight. First headline of the tour, first headline.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Show, first headline tour.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Been a pleasure.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Yep. Thank you.
[00:40:32] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Congrats man.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Thanks.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Thank you.
