#2085 - Charles Wesley Godwin

[0] Joe Rogan podcast, checking out.

[1] The Joe Rogan Experience.

[2] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

[3] What's up, man?

[4] Pleasure to meet you.

[5] What's happening?

[6] Pleasure to be here, Joe.

[7] Thanks for having me. Listen, my honor.

[8] I love your music.

[9] I got introduced to you by Duncan.

[10] We were in the green room of the mothership.

[11] And Duncan goes, you got to hear this.

[12] And he puts on family ties.

[13] And I went, damn, that's a good fucking song.

[14] And then we played Q Country Roads.

[15] And then we just got on a roll.

[16] And then, like, the whole night, we played your music.

[17] Hell yeah, dude.

[18] It was fucking awesome.

[19] He was telling me that, you know, he showed my music to you.

[20] He said, normally you don't like his recommendations.

[21] Well, he'll go a little emo on you.

[22] He said that you dug that, and I was like, holy shit, man, isn't that something?

[23] Duncan was really cool.

[24] I was like...

[25] I was at Apple Studios in Nashville doing, like, this live session thing with them when he, he messes me on Twitter and asks me to be on his podcast.

[26] And, like, that made my, my freaking week.

[27] I was like, holy shit, Duncan Trussell likes my music?

[28] That's so cool.

[29] And then we were doing his podcast, and then afterwards, he's like...

[30] Yeah, man, I showed your music to Joe, and he really liked it, too.

[31] I was like, fuck yeah.

[32] So, yeah, shout out to Duncan.

[33] I appreciate him doing that, man. No, Duncan's a man. He is one of the most unusual people that I've ever met my life.

[34] There's not another one like him.

[35] yeah he's cracking me up yeah he's a one of one yeah that's a one of one when he moved here i was so happy because he was he uh went to ashville because you know he grew up in ashville and uh he moved there and it was just you know during the pandemic you got bleak there you know the jobs were all dried up everything was fucked everything closed down and you said crime was crazy it's like ashville is like per capita in the top ten of uh crime in the country Oh, holy shit.

[36] I mean, I might have made that up.

[37] No, shit.

[38] Let's see if that's the fact.

[39] I'm pretty sure Duncan told me that.

[40] But he's like, dude, there's so much fucking crime.

[41] It's everywhere.

[42] Everyone's on math.

[43] Your Duncan impersonation is way better than mine.

[44] But, uh...

[45] We recorded the album there.

[46] Oh, no shit.

[47] We were there for two weeks last January.

[48] And it's like sleepy this time of year.

[49] I guess their tourism is at its lowest in January.

[50] And, dude, I loved it.

[51] It's gorgeous.

[52] I love the town.

[53] And, you know, I don't know.

[54] It had some homeless and stuff like that.

[55] But damn, I didn't know that.

[56] I went back in two, I think I did a gig there in 2015 or 16 somewhere around then.

[57] I was like, God damn, what a great town.

[58] Just a perfect size, not too big, you know, cool, artsy, beautiful scenery.

[59] You know, it's like the mountains.

[60] Yeah, I dig it.

[61] We were at the, uh, we played the orange peel, um, like four or five weeks ago.

[62] And it felt like a hometown show.

[63] Yeah, that's awesome.

[64] That's a stronghold there in the mountains.

[65] Duncan grew up there, and he said when he was growing up there, there were so many cows that had magic mushrooms in their shit that the farmers started putting some sort of antifungal thing in the cow's food so that it would repel the fungus from the cow shit.

[66] I was like, how satanic?

[67] Yeah.

[68] People were going out in their meadows trying to harvest those bad boys.

[69] He said it was everywhere.

[70] What is this?

[71] It was up around April, so about a year ago.

[72] What does this have to do with Epstein?

[73] That's just a picture that's on the...

[74] Oh, I was like, what are you saying?

[75] Touristown, Asheville, rocked by violence in the wake of defund police movement, rolls out plan to combat crime spike.

[76] Yeah, so there was a big ass crime spike.

[77] Damn.

[78] Yeah.

[79] Yeah, he said it was crazy.

[80] He said, but that's the saddest fucking shit about, like, small rural communities is when everything dries up, there's nothing.

[81] There's nothing there.

[82] There's no other jobs.

[83] There's no other place to go.

[84] If you have a small population of humans and they all live together, if the industry dries up, if businesses shut down, if things go under, like everyone's fucked.

[85] Like, people are so reliant.

[86] Yeah, that's happening in my hometown right now.

[87] What's your hometown?

[88] Morgantown, West Virginia.

[89] And it's, you know, it has its ups and downs.

[90] And right now it's definitely in a bit of a down.

[91] We had a big pharmaceutical company that was based out of West Virginia called Mylan.

[92] And the founder passed away a little over a decade ago.

[93] So then when that happens, you know, it goes into folks that didn't build it themselves.

[94] And they ended up selling to an Israeli company.

[95] And once that happened, they shut down those headquarters in Morgantown, where it had always been.

[96] I think that was 1 ,200 jobs and a town of 26 ,000 people in the city limits.

[97] So you imagine how many people that affects...

[98] Oh, everybody.

[99] And the big circle.

[100] Then COVID.

[101] Oh.

[102] Which that happened during COVID.

[103] So then you all said COVID.

[104] So, you know, our main street, it's called High Street is, you know, it's like one third closed down and used to be all open.

[105] Fuck.

[106] Did you ever see Roger and me, the documentary?

[107] It's a Michael Moore documentary.

[108] It's the first one that he did.

[109] It's his best one, I think.

[110] And it's about Flint, Michigan.

[111] And it's about what happened when the car manufacturers all moved out of the country.

[112] And it's the saddest fucking documentary, man. It's just they just up and pulled the factories just so they can make more money, having people work for cheaper.

[113] And the whole town just collapsed.

[114] Collapsed.

[115] It's just, it's so sad.

[116] One of the saddest things is a lady that has a sign says bunnies for pets or food.

[117] Right.

[118] Damn.

[119] Yeah.

[120] You want to think that like you're committed to selling bunnies as a pet.

[121] You know, imagine that little puppy.

[122] We're showing Jamie's getting a puppy at French Bulldog, and Jamie trying to con me into taking one of them.

[123] It might have worked.

[124] It might have worked.

[125] I did a dirty trick.

[126] Yeah.

[127] I sent a video of this puppy to all my daughters and my wife.

[128] So we might have a puppy.

[129] Yeah.

[130] And it was definitely like Jamie knew that was going to happen too.

[131] It seemed like...

[132] But he didn't know that.

[133] I waited.

[134] He waited a little bit.

[135] He didn't know that.

[136] But the moment I emailed it to the daughters, I was like, they're going to fucking go crazy.

[137] But imagine...

[138] What's that?

[139] On to what you were saying.

[140] There it is right there.

[141] Holy shit, man. Rabbits, pets are meat for sale.

[142] That's something you don't see in the U .S. every day.

[143] It's a dark documentary.

[144] Look at her.

[145] She's skinning it right there.

[146] Like she's on alone.

[147] Yeah, and she kills it right there, too.

[148] You know, she's holding it and cuddling it, and then she snaps its fucking neck and cooks it.

[149] It's just, you would imagine those puppies, they're like, Jamie, if they said you could keep this as a pet or you could eat it.

[150] Dude, you see it in Flint.

[151] We play there once a year, and our shows are great and the people are great.

[152] But, man, compared I see all the towns across America, and that one's different.

[153] They haven't done jack shit to fix that water either.

[154] I don't think they fixed that water at all, have they?

[155] I don't think so.

[156] Remember when Obama went there?

[157] That was a long time ago, man. That's two presidents ago.

[158] I remember seeing videos of people lighting it on fire.

[159] Well, that is from the, that's fracking.

[160] That's from that movie Gasland.

[161] And that's, that's different.

[162] Did I get fooled?

[163] Yeah.

[164] Well, they might have did it in Flint too, but there are places in the country where you can light your fucking tap water on fire.

[165] Unreal.

[166] Yeah.

[167] And they say there's been some of that that existed even before fracking.

[168] It's kind of confusing, because you don't know how much the fracking industry is like, oh, that's always been here.

[169] Do you not concern yourself with this?

[170] Yeah.

[171] This is no longer an issue.

[172] This is a little bit of contamination, but look on the bright side.

[173] Yeah, you never know.

[174] Just take tap water and fuel your car and, you know, use it as a candle.

[175] Yeah, you can never take, you know, when somebody's business is at stake, you got to kind of, you got to get some different points of view on those types of things.

[176] Yeah, it's very difficult to know what the fuck is actually going on.

[177] But overall, it seems like fracking does a lot of fucked up shit.

[178] Updated, it says they've got their lead levels below the federal threshold for like the six or seventh year in a row.

[179] Oh, okay, but what does that mean?

[180] What's the federal?

[181] I don't like that.

[182] Right.

[183] I don't like that term.

[184] Federal threshold?

[185] Still in there, but.

[186] What it mean, wouldn't it?

[187] How much would it cost?

[188] Think about how much money they spent on Ukraine.

[189] How much would it cost to provide every family in Flint with a filtration system, like a real hardcore filtration system that provides them with absolutely clean water?

[190] I guarantee you it wouldn't be $1 ,000 ,000 ,000 billion dollars or whatever we've sent over to Ukraine.

[191] Yeah, it'd be a lot less than that.

[192] It'd be a lot less than that.

[193] But not a goddamn thought of it, not a conversation about massive filtration systems.

[194] Like, there's a way to do this.

[195] We've got to provide every family.

[196] It's a small, it's not that big.

[197] Mm -hmm.

[198] Yeah, I mean.

[199] There's just over 40 ,000 households.

[200] Yeah, that's not that big, man. Wow.

[201] That is not that big.

[202] $1 ,000 apiece.

[203] Yeah.

[204] How much is that?

[205] I'm just guessing, like, if it was $1 ,000 apiece, that'd be pretty easy.

[206] I feel like it probably used to be way bigger than that, too.

[207] You know, that's not, that's not much bigger in Morgantown, you know, with all the car industry stuff that used to be there.

[208] It wouldn't surprise me if they had hundreds of thousands.

[209] Have you ever seen videos of Detroit from the 1950s and 60s?

[210] Yeah.

[211] Yeah, it's like Boomtown.

[212] Detroit was one of the biggest fucking most wealthy cities in the world.

[213] In the world.

[214] Yeah.

[215] And now you got trees growing through houses because the houses have been abandoned.

[216] Top Gear, that show they went there.

[217] I think it wasn't Top Gear at the time.

[218] I think it was when they did the other show, did it for Amazon.

[219] Who was that called when they went over to Amazon?

[220] The...

[221] oh i know what you're talking about i forget what's wrong but what they did was they bought a house for like five hundred dollars and you know they were like hanging out in this house while they lived while they were staying there it's like You get a house for 500 bucks?

[222] I looked into that one time.

[223] It's a little bit of a loophole.

[224] When you're buying it for 500 bucks, at least the way it was when I read it, you're making a commitment to get it up to code within like seven days or something like that.

[225] You have a very limited amount of time.

[226] You don't know if you have to, but yeah, so you're spending $60 ,000 on top of that to get it up to code.

[227] Oh, really?

[228] Like you're buying it for $500, but you're making a commitment to fix it.

[229] You get a house for $60 ,000?

[230] But I also did, I think Mike Epps just fixed up a whole block of houses, not there, but in Gary, Indiana, or outside of Indy.

[231] No shit.

[232] Shout out to Mike Epps.

[233] That's awesome.

[234] Just like that, just like he bought a bunch, bought the whole block.

[235] Fuck, yeah.

[236] That's awesome.

[237] I heard Detroit has a bunch of manufacturing space.

[238] It's kind of a good opportunity for somebody.

[239] If somebody's got, you know, something that they want to make, it's kind of a good place to go and get after it.

[240] I think the last time we were there, we opened for Zach at one of those theaters there.

[241] But we were kind of chilling around downtown.

[242] Yeah.

[243] And it seems to be a little bit on the up and up in some parts of the downtown.

[244] They're by the baseball stadium.

[245] You know, and compared to years past, like, you know, a while back when I'd been there before, it seemed like maybe it's taking a turn for the better.

[246] Yeah, there's a little bit of a resurgence.

[247] There's a resurgence of, like, small businesses being established there.

[248] I know Shinola's out of there.

[249] You ever heard of that company Shinola?

[250] Yeah, American watches.

[251] They make watches.

[252] They make a bunch of different stuff, leather goods, cool stuff.

[253] They make, like, really good, like, messenger bags and...

[254] That kind of shit, like real cool American -made stuff.

[255] So, you know, that's nice.

[256] It's nice that things like that are happening where people do recognize.

[257] And if you drive down there, there's so much area that is available, there's so many buildings that are just completely abandoned.

[258] The windows are all shattered and covered spray paint and graffiti, but the bones are still there.

[259] Yeah.

[260] You know, if somebody wanted to rebuild it.

[261] Yeah, if you got a good idea and want some manufacturing space, that'd be a good spot to go.

[262] Back in the day, during the, you know, the car boom, like Canton, Ohio, Detroit, Toledo, Flint, there was a lot of, like, folks from the mountains that were moving up there and getting those jobs.

[263] And I think that was the hillbilly highway is like that where that term comes from.

[264] And my grandparents were one of those.

[265] They moved up to Canton, Ohio, and my granddad was working for Ford.

[266] And the place where we're from in West Virginia is super country, like very rural.

[267] I think there's 4 ,000 people in the county now.

[268] in Pendleton County.

[269] And there was this local guy.

[270] I can't remember his name, but my great -grandparents had an old store and where you could kind of go and you get your boots and your milk and your eggs and everything in this one little general store.

[271] And it was a hangout too.

[272] And this guy was like coming in the store.

[273] He's like, I'm going to Detroit.

[274] I'm telling you all what.

[275] I'm going to get a job.

[276] Head it up there.

[277] And he's talking about it for months and months.

[278] And then finally he's like, I'm going.

[279] And he gets in the car and goes.

[280] Everybody's like, there he goes so -and -so.

[281] And then two weeks later, he rolled back into town.

[282] He never made it.

[283] He couldn't find his way.

[284] He couldn't read, you know, wasn't able to read a map well enough and just gave up and turned around and ended up coming home after two weeks.

[285] That's hilarious.

[286] Just gave up on that dream.

[287] Boy, imagine people today trying to use maps.

[288] Isn't that funny that, like, being able to read a map kind of went away.

[289] Yeah.

[290] When I was a kid, not a kid, when I was 20, well, first of all, when I first started doing stand -up comedy, I would use one of these things, like a legal pad.

[291] And I would get a phone call.

[292] you know and they'd go hey we got a gig for you and uh here's your directions you got a pen i'm like okay and you're like okay you're gonna take the 405 to this to that to the dine to the fucking you're gonna take a ride on this road go two miles down the highway you're gonna find a building like wow oh my god and that's how we did it so i used to have like a folder where i had the directions to all these different road gigs that were written down And that's how I got around.

[293] And then when I came to California, I got a Thomas guide.

[294] I was like, wow, I'm in the fucking future.

[295] You know, I got a whole book of maps.

[296] And everybody had a Thomas guide.

[297] And I remember first time Bill Burr visited my house.

[298] He had a Thomas guide.

[299] He figured out to get to my house with the Thomas guide.

[300] I gave him the address, and he showed up with a fucking map book on his front seat.

[301] Unreal.

[302] Those are different.

[303] Now, you know, when I was a little kid and on our family vacations, my brother, my older brother would be like he would read the map and like give the directions to usually my dad was driving.

[304] But yeah, by the time I started like working, you know, thank God for that GPS.

[305] I can't imagine doing that like trying to find my way because hell, I mean...

[306] First time I had GPS, it was like 98, something like that.

[307] 98 or 99.

[308] It was like a CD -ROM that you stuck in the CD player.

[309] I had a little flip -up screen.

[310] I thought like, this is the shit.

[311] I had an Accura NSX, and the little screen would pop up, and you put in the CD, and it was only for Los Angeles.

[312] Yeah.

[313] And it was real slow.

[314] It was real slow and shitty, but I was like, dude, I'm in a James Bond movie.

[315] Yeah, 98, that's some top shit right there.

[316] This is Mission Impossible.

[317] Look at this.

[318] I'm fucking following the directions on it.

[319] I had a little thing that sat on the roof that was like the GPS thing that would, like, read the sky, and then it would somehow another communicate with this map that was on my screen.

[320] Damn.

[321] Yeah.

[322] Do you ever miss gigs back in the map days when you're, you know...

[323] I was pretty good at it.

[324] Pretty good at it.

[325] Yeah, I was pretty good at it.

[326] And they were pretty good at giving solid directions to retarded comedians.

[327] Yeah, that's the thing.

[328] It's like reading that map and the type of folks that are comedians and musicians are, you know, are...

[329] We're not the most capable always.

[330] We're real similar.

[331] Musicians and comedians always seem to like get along real good.

[332] We have like real similar sort of just sensibilities.

[333] Yeah, dealing with a lot of clowny shit.

[334] A lot of clowny shit, a lot of fucking irresponsible, impulsive people, a lot of substances, a lot of chaos, a lot of fun, a lot of rebels.

[335] You know, you don't pursue that dream if you've got, you know, a law degree and, you know, a future with the firm and, you know, everything's lined up and you got your 401k a lot.

[336] It's like, you got to be a wild person.

[337] You gotta have a screw loose.

[338] A hundred percent.

[339] Somewhere, there's gotta be a screw loose or, you know, there's some major, some major issue, whether they express it or not.

[340] But that's how the great stuff comes.

[341] Like, look at jelly roll.

[342] You don't get a jelly roll.

[343] With a guy who's had like a perfect education and a well -rounded lifestyle.

[344] You don't get that beautiful, amazing, soulful music and that incredible human being.

[345] You don't get that out of that.

[346] And I don't know them, but, you know, just listening to him talk.

[347] I don't think...

[348] Even 15 years ago, jelly roll could be who he is now.

[349] Right.

[350] If it would have happened earlier because he kind of jokes about, you know, like best new, he got the best new artist of the year and he's like 39 or whatever.

[351] And he was kind of joking about that.

[352] But, you know, for him, the time, that is the right time for him.

[353] Yeah.

[354] And, you know, it's just everybody has a different path.

[355] It aligned perfectly where a guy like jelly roll, especially in country.

[356] right we see a guy like jelly roll with face tattoos and like gold teeth and shit like what yeah that guy yeah 20 years ago you'd never yeah never see that but you know times are different in a good way and a lot of good ways in country music a lot of great ways in all music in art in general it's like these communities are sort of colliding with each other and you're getting these sort of interesting mixtures of people Mm -hmm.

[357] Yeah, you got Post Malone in the same country music, and covering Sturgel Simpson and stuff like that, and it's like, fuck yeah.

[358] Exactly, exactly.

[359] I watched his, sorry, the NPR Tiny Desk concert.

[360] Oh, I didn't see that.

[361] It's amazing.

[362] Dude, it's amazing.

[363] Did you see Scarface?

[364] No. Oh, my God, it's incredible.

[365] Incredible.

[366] Scarface from the Ghetto Boys did a tiny desk concert.

[367] Fucking amazing.

[368] Amazing.

[369] Amazing.

[370] Just like he did it.

[371] He altered the music to fit the vibe of this tiny desk thing.

[372] Are you a ghetto boys fan?

[373] No, I didn't listen to him much.

[374] Dude, when I was a kid, ghetto boys were shit.

[375] When I delivered newspapers, I'd drive around listening to ghetto boys.

[376] Yeah.

[377] Fuck, yeah.

[378] He was on here before talking about playing to a half million people?

[379] Was that one of them?

[380] No, no, no, no, no. That was Be Real.

[381] That was Be Real from Cyprus.

[382] I remember hearing that.

[383] I remember, I'll never forget that when he was telling that story.

[384] A half million people at a music festival.

[385] That was Woodstock.

[386] Yeah, half a million people.

[387] Someone stole his shoes.

[388] He was crowd surfing.

[389] Someone stole his sneakers off him.

[390] When you're playing a half million people and you lose your shoes, whatever.

[391] That's the price you pay for just getting to experience something.

[392] God, that's got to be crazy.

[393] How many people have ever experienced that in our life?

[394] I know, right?

[395] That's got to be nuts, man. That's got to be nuts.

[396] This is something nuts about just enormous crowds, but enormous crowds vibing to your music, it has to be crazy.

[397] That has to be really, that has to be so surreal.

[398] Yeah.

[399] There was a video that my bandmates were showing me from, I think it was like that 90s woodstock that might have been the same one, maybe a different day, but it was like Metallica or corn.

[400] I think it was corn.

[401] And...

[402] That sea of people is, it looks like a sea with all them like jumping up and down.

[403] Oh, wow.

[404] And the video is profound.

[405] Like, it, it was incredible.

[406] I don't know how to you, I can't believe nobody died in that with all those people moving.

[407] But Dave Chappelle and I did the Tacoma Dome once in, that's it.

[408] That's so crazy.

[409] Look at that.

[410] Oh, my God, it does look like water.

[411] Wow.

[412] Look at that.

[413] Wow.

[414] By the way, that's a really good way to get brain damage.

[415] I never used to think of that until I talked to my friend Mark Gordon.

[416] He's an expert in traumatic brain injuries.

[417] And he's like, yeah, you're not supposed to be bouncing your head around like that.

[418] I got to stop doing that.

[419] I do that in my shows.

[420] I need to stop doing that.

[421] I think it legitimately gives you brain damage.

[422] I'll start getting punchy and I never fought.

[423] Yeah, soccer players get it, man. Soccer players get CTE from head in the ball.

[424] A soft -ass ball bouncing it off your head over and over again.

[425] We'll give you brain damage.

[426] Yeah.

[427] Jet skiers.

[428] You get it from jet skis.

[429] Oh, yeah.

[430] Bouncing on waves all the time.

[431] Bang, bang, bang.

[432] You can get brain damage that way, which is nuts.

[433] Hard to believe.

[434] I need to start rethinking my life show a little bit.

[435] I do that a little too much.

[436] It's not like, you know, I just feel it.

[437] But, yeah, maybe I ought to stop doing that.

[438] Well, I was going to say about Dave Chappelle and I, we did the Tacoma Dome, which is 25 ,000 people in Tacoma, Washington.

[439] And we sold out the Tacoma Dome, and it was like the highest, we broke the attendance record.

[440] And we're backstage, and the crowd is just nuts.

[441] And Dave sitting there with a cigarette, he looks at me, he goes, Not a whole lot of motherfuckers get to do this.

[442] Yeah.

[443] Yeah.

[444] The percentages of people that ever get to experience that?

[445] No, it's so small.

[446] And you guys do it with just a microphone.

[447] That's great.

[448] Damn, I'm one of the least funny people you ever meet.

[449] So, like, seeing folks that can play an arena just because of your jokes and shit, like, and your ability to tell a story and the timing and the punchline, that's something I can never do, never, ever do.

[450] I have none of that.

[451] No talent for that at all.

[452] It's a thing that you either want to do and have to learn how to do it or you don't.

[453] But it's not outside of, there's a lot of funny people.

[454] They just don't do it.

[455] It's not a thing that it's, but it's a long journey.

[456] Like to get good at stand -up, it takes like 10 years.

[457] It takes 10 solid years of constantly performing.

[458] And every comic will look at a comic.

[459] Like, you did, like someone to tell you, like, how long has he been doing it?

[460] Two years.

[461] Like, see in eight years.

[462] Like, there's like a thing.

[463] Like, everybody looks at comics that haven't been doing it any more than 10 years.

[464] And they, how good is he?

[465] You know, what's he got?

[466] They got a good solid 15 minutes.

[467] Like, what happens?

[468] Does he fold up when, you know, like, what's his bits like?

[469] Do they have any depth to them?

[470] What's the timing like?

[471] Is there any misdirection?

[472] Is there any, like, what is the, what's the level that they're at?

[473] It takes so long.

[474] Take so long.

[475] But it's not like singing like you can either sing or you can't sing you know like you have a God -given voice like there's people that just can fucking sing man they can sing like they just have this a quality to their voice and they're just born with it.

[476] It's pretty amazing I don't have that.

[477] Yeah.

[478] Whatever that is.

[479] That's the whole reason I can do what I'm doing, because I didn't pick up a guitar until I was 20.

[480] Really?

[481] Yeah.

[482] So I got a late start, and, you know, I'm not a great guitar player.

[483] I'm still very much like an intermediate guitar player, but, you know, I was fortunate enough to, and I didn't grow up singing.

[484] So I just found out that I could sing in my early 20s.

[485] How did you find out?

[486] Like, what were you doing before you started doing music?

[487] So I was at West Virginia University and I wanted to play football, but I wasn't good enough.

[488] That I had no God -given talent to be good enough.

[489] And when you want something really bad, you know, that was like my first dream that died, you know.

[490] And once I let that go, I had all this free time.

[491] And I was like, I need to, because I've always hunted and fish, but when you're going to the class every day, you can't always, I need more things to fill my time up.

[492] So I was watching the Grammys in 2011 and the Avert brothers played.

[493] And then they played with Bob Dylan and Mumford and Sons.

[494] And I just remember watching them being like, man, that's incredible.

[495] Maybe I should pick a guitar up.

[496] That'd be something I can do productive in the evening.

[497] So that's how I got started.

[498] And then it was about a year later in 2012 when I actually could string some cores together.

[499] And then I started singing and then I started figuring it out.

[500] So you initially just started doing it just for fun.

[501] Yeah, yeah, it was just going to be just another, like, just something to get into and, you know, a productive hobby.

[502] You know, I was just kind of looking for some more things because since I gave up, you know, trying to play football, that just wasn't going to happen.

[503] You know, all that time I used to spend working out and trying to make that happen and it became free time because, you know, So I just had to try to fill that time up with something because I just didn't want to sit around and bullshit with my friends all the time.

[504] And so that's how I got into it.

[505] Was there a thing that made you realize that you could do this professionally?

[506] Was there a moment where you figured it out?

[507] Mm -hmm.

[508] I got, I had a very unique first gig.

[509] So I was on the, the Promise Scholarship at West Virginia, and that was this thing for in -state kids, if you had good grades, you'd go to school for free at an in -state university.

[510] So I was at WVU going to school for free because of my grades.

[511] and they had a study abroad program.

[512] And my junior year, I was like, I'd never been overseas.

[513] I was like, I'd like to experience that.

[514] So I went in to the counselor's office, and they kind of laid out some different options.

[515] And I got a finance degree at WVU, and there were four places I could go.

[516] There's Hartfordshire, England, Bamberg, Germany, Tartu, Estonia, and Hong Kong.

[517] So they kind of like were telling me all about the different schools.

[518] I ended up landing on Tartu, Estonia, as the place to go to.

[519] So I went over there and had brought my guitar and I just continued practicing a little bit in the evenings just for fun, but I had six flatmates.

[520] So there was no way that I could go anywhere and not be heard by them, you know, in our place.

[521] So...

[522] I was a little uncomfortable with that because I wouldn't used to people listen to me at all or singing in front of anybody, but I didn't want to, like, not play the guitar for half a year.

[523] So I kept doing it, and then when I was over there, we went to a show and one night there in Tartu, and there was this club, it was like a little, like, 150 cap.

[524] room maybe 200 and we go to the show and one of my roommates after I left had brought taking my guitar and after the show was done he ran up on stage and for some reason the mic was still on his name was Belom and he he ran up there and said Charlie come play a song I was like fuck No, no way.

[525] And then he got the room to start chanting.

[526] Charlie, Charlie.

[527] And then I'm like kind of calculating my head the pros and cons of like bitching out or just falling through.

[528] And I was like at this point it would be way worse if I bitched out and didn't go up and play one.

[529] So I went up and played like a song.

[530] Was it an original song?

[531] No. No, I hadn't started writing then.

[532] Didn't have any aspirations yet to do this professionally.

[533] What song did you play?

[534] probably country roads i probably only knew like six songs um and i was like shaking in my jeans just so nervous but i got through it and then i got a facebook message the next that was a friday so on monday i got a facebook message from a fashion designer there in town and she asked if i could play for her fashion show that friday And I said, yeah, sure.

[535] Hell yeah.

[536] She goes, can you feel 20 minutes?

[537] I'm like, I can feel 20 minutes, yeah.

[538] So I showed up, and it was at this, it's like this cafe with like one of those courtyards in the middle of the building.

[539] You know what I mean?

[540] You ever been in a place like that?

[541] And I had these two French doors, and they had the sound all hooked up, and a couple of my American buddies that were over there with me came with me, and they got me set up, and then it ended up being a lingerie fashion show.

[542] Is this it right here?

[543] That's it.

[544] Oh, Jamie found it.

[545] Oh shit, Jamie.

[546] Don't embarrass me. You're playing.

[547] Play it.

[548] Play it.

[549] No. Let me hear.

[550] No. By the way, this is a song you could fucking never write today.

[551] Yeah.

[552] Hey, little girl.

[553] Is your daddy home?

[554] Did he go and leave you all alone?

[555] Different times.

[556] I got a bad desire.

[557] Ooh, I'm on fire.

[558] What the fuck?

[559] That's my first gig.

[560] I made 150 Euro.

[561] Wow.

[562] And as they'd go in and out, they'd come out with less clothes on each time.

[563] What a strange gig.

[564] A lingerie fashion show.

[565] There's little kids there.

[566] People are hanging out.

[567] Like, fashion shows are so strange.

[568] Yeah.

[569] They're so strange.

[570] Yeah.

[571] So I made $150 euro for doing those 20 minutes, and I was like, this is the easiest work I've ever done in my life.

[572] I'm going to keep doing this.

[573] Wow.

[574] So when I came back to West Virginia, I started singing bluegrass music at WVU and bars and stuff around town and the state.

[575] Did you get any more gigs while you're in Estonia?

[576] I think I did.

[577] I think, if I remember right, I might have played at that cafe a couple more times, maybe, Max, but it was really when I came back to West Virginia where I started, like, you know, really gigging.

[578] So that gig that we saw right there, that gig, was the thing that started the spark.

[579] It started, yeah.

[580] Wow.

[581] What year was that?

[582] It was 2013.

[583] Wow.

[584] There it is.

[585] June 17th, 2013.

[586] Yep.

[587] Wow.

[588] Wow.

[589] Wow.

[590] Yeah.

[591] And that's how it began.

[592] And, you know, I sucked, you know, because mine, you know, I just picked up the guitar and I was just a beginner in, you know, in the whole business.

[593] And it took until 2017.

[594] Oh, Jesus.

[595] Oh, Jamie, you're embarrassing me now, bud.

[596] This is, you know, make me blush.

[597] No. Headed down south to the land of the park.

[598] Come on my way into North Carolina.

[599] Staring at the road.

[600] God, I see headlights.

[601] Come on, man. This is great.

[602] Don't be embarrassed.

[603] It's like if you were watching yourself at an open mic.

[604] Oh, yeah.

[605] Ooh.

[606] I've seen those videos.

[607] Yeah.

[608] So it took me until 2017, 2018 to find my voice.

[609] When did you start writing your own original songs?

[610] 2014.

[611] Okay, so after your first gigs.

[612] Yeah.

[613] Wow.

[614] Yeah, I was playing covers and singing like bluegrass and stuff.

[615] Had you had any ideas about writing songs?

[616] Had you ever written any lyrics or had any lyrics in your head or anything like that?

[617] I started trying to do it when I really made the decision that I wanted to do this.

[618] And I was like, well, you can't do it, you know, without writing your own music, you know.

[619] So then I started doing that and that was really bad for a long time, you know.

[620] Well, do you remember what your first song was that you wrote?

[621] I can't remember what the first one would have been.

[622] I remember the third one because the third one wasn't terrible.

[623] And it was actually one that I put it on the new album for, you know, just kind of, I thought it would be cool to put it on there.

[624] That is cool.

[625] So like mine.

[626] But, yeah, most of them were really bad.

[627] And, you know, started working on it and figuring it out.

[628] What is your writing process?

[629] Do you sit with a notebook?

[630] Do you just start playing the guitar and start singing?

[631] How do you do it?

[632] Yeah, sit with the notebook and that voice memo.

[633] And then when I'm out and about, though, that notes and voice memo app, I have them separate on my phone and I'll jot down ideas, hum melodies into it.

[634] And I try to stay pretty consistent with it and show up every day and put some thought into it in front of the notebook to get my stuff.

[635] And so do you wait for an inspiration to come to you or do you sit down?

[636] No, I'll sit down even if I got nothing just because if I do that, then I'll find myself maybe going a whole month without.

[637] You know, years ago I listened to Jason Isbell was given kind of.

[638] some advice on it and he said you know treat it treat it like a job like consistent you know show up to the notebook consistently show up every day even when you're not inspired and that'll it's kind of like making your own luck so speak have you ever read stephen pressfield's The War of Art I did yeah yeah I read that I think last year the year before Um, he sent us a box of those if you want one.

[639] Hell yeah.

[640] A signed copy.

[641] Fuck yeah.

[642] Yeah, he sent us a box of sign.

[643] I think I probably sold more of those books for him than anybody alive.

[644] It's a great book.

[645] It is.

[646] I don't remember who recommends it to me originally.

[647] I probably mentioned it on the podcast and I forgot who it was.

[648] But it's one of the best books in terms of like a practical guide to creativity because you really genuinely have to treat it like you.

[649] Like he considers it the muse.

[650] Like there is a muse and you contact this muse.

[651] And if you do it deliberately and you do it with respect and you do it every day, those ideas will come.

[652] And they do.

[653] They really do come like it's a muse.

[654] Like I think there's a reason why.

[655] Yeah, if you don't, and for me, if I don't show up to the notebook and put my time in and come up with a bunch of junk, I don't think I would have as many of the days where a beautiful line or a melody would just pop into my head.

[656] Yes.

[657] It's like you're just kind of laying, you're like paving the way for more of those sparks.

[658] Yeah.

[659] That's the same with comedy.

[660] I think it's the same with literature.

[661] I think it's the same with everything.

[662] Do you know the term museum comes from the term muse?

[663] Mm -mm.

[664] Yeah, that's what it's from.

[665] I had no idea.

[666] What a museum is, is a place where the muse's creations can be exhibited.

[667] I had no idea.

[668] Isn't that wild?

[669] I just found that out recently.

[670] But it makes sense.

[671] And there's quite a few words, apparently, that come from the origin of the idea of the muse.

[672] Yeah.

[673] But that's what a museum is.

[674] Make sure that's true.

[675] I'm pretty sure it's true.

[676] I'm pretty sure it's true.

[677] Makes sense.

[678] Totally makes sense.

[679] I mean, museum.

[680] What does it say?

[681] The Greek form museum meant the seat of the muses, a designated philosophical institution or place of contemplation.

[682] Yeah.

[683] Hmm.

[684] But it makes sense.

[685] You know, the muse, you address the muse, the muse gives you these ideas.

[686] You create these things and you exhibit them.

[687] Yeah, we were driving down from Dallas this morning and listening to Willie Nelson's autobiography.

[688] And he was talking about almost being like a mouthpiece for the gods.

[689] Like he was saying that all the songs, there's something, I'm paraphrasing, but it was like something along the lines like, All the music that he's ever written was in him before he was born.

[690] And it was just, you know, his task was to just connect with that, like what was already inside of him.

[691] He was saying that his grandmother, like, told him that all that music inside of him was, was given by God.

[692] It was, it was an interesting idea on it.

[693] It's a good way to look at it if you just think that there's an endless well of inspiration and creativity that's inside you that God gave you this thing and you just got to just keep working and get it out of you and then give it out to people.

[694] Yeah.

[695] And that train of thought helps you when you go, when you're in a rut, too.

[696] If you tell yourself, this is what I'm put here to do.

[697] This is what I'm meant to do.

[698] So I'm going to do it.

[699] Yeah.

[700] And, you know, I found myself in 2022.

[701] That was me. I was in a rut because just a lot of circumstances in my life and in my work life had new, new things in it, new pressure.

[702] that I was having a hard time writing because before I'd just been so free and didn't have people depending on me and all kinds of expectations.

[703] And just being reminded by my father -in -law about, you know, this is what you're put on this earth to do.

[704] This is what you do best.

[705] This is what got you to the show in the first place.

[706] Just do that.

[707] Don't worry about all the other stuff.

[708] You can't control.

[709] There's a lot of that with creative peoples is this sort of wrestling match in your mind about, you know, anxieties, what you desire, what you hope to happen, you know, where is it going, what's the future, how's it all going to unfold?

[710] Do I have, am I run dry?

[711] Do I have any more songs left inside of me?

[712] Yeah, you know.

[713] Am I going to lose it all?

[714] Yeah.

[715] Am I going to just start sucking?

[716] Am I going to fall off?

[717] Is nobody going to like me anymore?

[718] That's a big one.

[719] And that was happening to me. Yeah, and it was February 22.

[720] We got off tour and labels started coming into the picture for the first time.

[721] Before that, I...

[722] I never had to worry about that.

[723] And then I had a band that was dependent upon me. And they'd given up their jobs.

[724] Like, they'd gone all in.

[725] So they have, you know, their livelihoods were dependent upon it.

[726] And it was, it took me a lot of work to, to shake all that off and get back to like that, that, like, clean slate of mind of just writing because I love doing it.

[727] And that's what I'm put here to do.

[728] Hmm.

[729] Yeah, that if you can have like a mindset that you could call upon, like an understanding, a calling that's in your mind that you know, like no matter how much confusion there is, no matter how much doubt, things go sideways, you're not real sure, just stay on the path.

[730] Mm -hmm.

[731] Just stay on that path.

[732] And then you'll have those dark moments, but then you come out of it.

[733] And you're like, oh, I'm all right again.

[734] I'm all right again.

[735] Yeah.

[736] And once you've gone through something like that, it makes you a lot better on the other end.

[737] Because when you see it again, you're like, oh, I know what this is.

[738] Yes.

[739] I'm just going to keep working right through it.

[740] And we'll be fine.

[741] We're going to be just fine.

[742] Well, that's why I like heartache for teenagers is the hardest thing ever.

[743] You know, you get dumped when you're 15.

[744] You're like, the world is over.

[745] It's devastating.

[746] Yeah.

[747] It's fucking devastating.

[748] If I could go back and talk to myself as a teenage kid.

[749] Oh, my God, I have so much advice.

[750] Yeah.

[751] I would have so much advice, but I wouldn't listen anyway.

[752] My young me was an idiot.

[753] He wouldn't have listened.

[754] Yeah.

[755] I'm like, dude, you're going to be fine.

[756] No, I have to marry her.

[757] She's the one for me. I'm lost without her.

[758] You fucking idiot.

[759] You just listen to too many stupid songs.

[760] You're fine.

[761] Yeah, life is, you know, life is short, but it's also pretty long.

[762] And sometimes young folks, they lose sight of, you know, just how much time there is ahead of them for who knows what's going to come their way.

[763] There's a song lyric in that.

[764] Life is short, but it's also pretty long.

[765] Because that is 100 % true.

[766] Yeah, definitely a good theme for a song there.

[767] Yeah.

[768] Life is short.

[769] It really is very short.

[770] But it is fucking long.

[771] It's the learning process is long.

[772] Yeah.

[773] It's long.

[774] Just figure out life.

[775] It's a slodge.

[776] Every day.

[777] Every day.

[778] It's just like a little more information creeps in and gets sort of like...

[779] like accepted yeah written in i get it now okay now i really get it now i get it yeah and then there's some other little little aspect of life that comes around the next year and you learn the hard way on that one oh shit i didn't see that one coming yep yeah boy that's one of the things that is positive and negative about things like covid you know, like some major upheaval of everything where the whole world just gets thrown sideways.

[780] You're like, whoa, the negative, I mean, there's so many negatives, right?

[781] Loss of life, loss of businesses, everybody fucking at each other's throats.

[782] But on the other side of it and the other end of it, you're like, oh, now I kind of understand people a little bit better.

[783] Now I understand why character and discipline is so important in friends and people that you love, people that can hang in there and deal with things versus people that cannot adapt and just fall apart and then look for someone to rescue them.

[784] Yeah.

[785] And these things, you only learn them.

[786] There's only one way to learn them.

[787] You have to go through some shit.

[788] Yep.

[789] Yeah.

[790] Yeah, if you would have asked me in 2019, how was I going to get through and react to what ended up happened there in 2020, you know, I would have been bullshit in you if I pretended like I knew.

[791] You know, my wife and I, we had no idea until we went through it.

[792] Me too.

[793] Yeah.

[794] I've always had in my head this thought that things could go sideways.

[795] And I literally had an apocalypse truck built.

[796] I had a Toyota Land Cruiser built with a giant gas tank and all steel bumpers.

[797] And so I'm like, if something gets fucked up, I want something that holds a lot of gas that can go real far and I can drive over hills.

[798] Did you get like that U .N. like bulletproof plating?

[799] I didn't.

[800] I didn't.

[801] Because I figure like if it gets to that.

[802] you're kind of fucked if you're in a goddamn gunfight and you got rubber tires like you're kind of fucked no matter what dude this is a side note not to go too much to the side but i saw a wild video the other day of these two like armor truck guards in south africa oh i've seen that did you see that yeah that's wild They're trying to take over this guy's armored truck.

[803] How good were those dudes at keeping their shit together?

[804] They kept it together.

[805] And, you know, what was so rare about that video is like, it's just this stable camera on them where you're watching somebody.

[806] Like, trying to keep it together and keeping it together.

[807] Yeah.

[808] But this is it right there it.

[809] Yeah.

[810] This is, they've already got the bullet in the glass.

[811] You know, the driver, he's already fighting, you know, in his way.

[812] And then you got his passenger there.

[813] And now he's like, all right, like, you can see it on his face.

[814] He's like getting ready to go.

[815] Yeah.

[816] Wow.

[817] That is a crazy video.

[818] That truck ends up coming on the passenger side and shooting some more on that one, trying to ram the truck.

[819] Yeah.

[820] Yeah, these guys are trying to take over this armored truck.

[821] South Africa is wild.

[822] I was looking at this house that's for sale.

[823] I was just looking.

[824] I just enjoy looking at architecture videos for whatever reason.

[825] It's not looking to buy a fucking house in South Africa.

[826] But they had this house that's for sale in South Africa in Cape Town.

[827] And it's called the Iron Man House.

[828] And this house is...

[829] insane it's one of the coolest fucking houses I've ever seen in my life it's insane it's like Tony Stark's house oh yeah so on a cliff like they built this house that I mean I think it's like 20 million dollars which is insane in Cape Town South Africa you know and It's just overlooking this thing, but Cape Town is so riddled with crime.

[830] Like, to have a house like that in Cape Town, you're like, hey, here's where the money is.

[831] Look at that fucking house.

[832] Oh, my God.

[833] Bro.

[834] Is that the sickest fucking house you've ever seen in your life?

[835] That's insane.

[836] It's so sick.

[837] And it's like overlooking this water.

[838] That does look like the Tony Stark House, too.

[839] It looks better than the Tony Stark house is all just CGI.

[840] This is real.

[841] Does it come with that hot lady?

[842] This hot lady in her underwear.

[843] She keeps appearing in all these pictures.

[844] Like, you can have her.

[845] It's a good way to sell it.

[846] Yeah, yeah.

[847] She's in every picture.

[848] And then she would be here drinking, waiting for you.

[849] And then she'd be in her underwear waiting for you to fuck.

[850] Look at this video.

[851] Look at these photos, man. It's a fucking incredible house.

[852] But that part of the world is a wild part of the world.

[853] I mean, I was just in the British Virgin Islands.

[854] And one of the people that I was with was this lady was from South Africa.

[855] And she was explaining to us what it's like there.

[856] And she's like, you know, she's like, you know, my generation, it wasn't that bad.

[857] But now it's pretty bad.

[858] It's like...

[859] It's worse now.

[860] Yeah.

[861] Yeah, she's like the violence.

[862] It's just crazy.

[863] Damn.

[864] Yeah.

[865] Yeah, I...

[866] Some country music people tour there.

[867] Really?

[868] They toured South Africa.

[869] Kit Moore was there over the summer, and I mean, it looked incredible for them.

[870] But I don't know if I ever find my way there or not.

[871] It's like the elevated levels of...

[872] I guess if you live there, you just get accustomed to it.

[873] People get accustomed to everything.

[874] But there's elevated levels of risk there that just don't exist if you're in Austin.

[875] Yeah.

[876] But not necessarily, because 6th Street, where my club is...

[877] There's some fucking shootings there on a regular, you know?

[878] Yeah, we played a, I was opening for a show at all that, like, Blues Club downtown back.

[879] It was like during Cotons.

[880] Antones.

[881] Yeah, that's right.

[882] And there was a shooting that night, ended up being a shooting that night.

[883] Yeah, it happens.

[884] Like in America, well, shit, in the world, you're going to have violence.

[885] Especially, it seems like post -COVID, everything just got kind of, like norms sort of dissolved.

[886] Reality sort of shifted into this new strange place where things get, they're more heightened tensions and things are more bizarre, I think, than ever before.

[887] And I think you just get accustomed to that.

[888] And if you live in South Africa, I guess you just get accustomed to life in that vibe.

[889] Just dealing with that shit.

[890] Yeah.

[891] The people there, they'll have like barbed wire all over their fences and shit.

[892] Yeah, I can't even imagine.

[893] High security systems.

[894] I mean, I would imagine everybody has to be armed.

[895] Also, when you kill somebody, you get out of jail pretty fucking quick.

[896] That postorious guy?

[897] Dude, I saw that.

[898] He's already out.

[899] Damn, that wasn't long.

[900] He murdered his fucking girlfriend in like 2013, man. Yeah, if I were her dad, I'd be doing something about that.

[901] What year did he kill his girlfriend?

[902] 2012?

[903] Dude, it was like 10 years ago.

[904] Yeah, I think he did 11 years.

[905] Nine years?

[906] Nine years.

[907] He did nine years for murder?

[908] Dude, I got...

[909] For fucking murder?

[910] There's people I grew up with that are doing three times that for, you know, an armed robbery when they're 16 or 17, you know?

[911] How about dudes are selling weed or still in jail for the rest of their life?

[912] Yeah.

[913] I mean, that's one of the cruelest things about Colorado, when Colorado changed over and became legal and marijuana was legal in Colorado was the first state.

[914] There's dudes in penitentiaries that could look out their fucking window and see a weed store.

[915] That's...

[916] They're in jail for selling weed.

[917] That's a damn shame, isn't it?

[918] A parole board granted Pistorius's petition in November on the grounds that he had served half of his 13 -year sentence for murder in Steen Camp, making him eligible according to South African law.

[919] Jesus Christ.

[920] All you have to do is 13 years for killing people.

[921] Boy, there's a lot of people that are out there like, I think I'll kill that dude now.

[922] I'll do 13 years to get him off the fucking planet.

[923] There's a lot of people.

[924] And him out there wandering around.

[925] How many people out there are like, that's your daughter?

[926] That guy killed your daughter.

[927] And he only did nine years.

[928] Oh, it'd be a no -brainer.

[929] Look at her.

[930] She's so beautiful.

[931] Yeah, bud.

[932] Yeah.

[933] I mean, what the fuck, dude?

[934] He still says he's innocent.

[935] Yeah, he shot her.

[936] Look, he shot through a fucking door and killed her.

[937] You know, at the very least, he's guilty of reckless manslaughter.

[938] Like, what, you don't know what your target is.

[939] You're just shooting through a fucking bathroom door or whatever he was doing.

[940] Okay, yeah, I didn't know if my, I wasn't, like, relying on my memory too much, but it was a bathroom, too.

[941] I believe so.

[942] Like, an armed robber is in the bathroom?

[943] Was he in the bathroom?

[944] Was he in the bathroom?

[945] Was he shooting out of the bathroom?

[946] I don't remember.

[947] I feel like I thought he was in the bathroom.

[948] Yeah, that's what I'm kind of remembering, too.

[949] He was worried about something else in that.

[950] Yeah.

[951] Well, one thing you have to take into consideration if there's a lot of break -ins, if there's a lot of home invasions in an area.

[952] Look, where my friends in L .A. are telling me, like, I have friends in L .A. who used to be anti -gun.

[953] And they say, why do you want guns?

[954] And now they all have guns.

[955] And they're all terrified.

[956] And there's not all of them, but there's quite a few of them that have experienced break -ins.

[957] And one of my friends just moved to Portugal.

[958] He's just like, there's so much shit going down in LA.

[959] I don't know what to do.

[960] And I was telling him, hey, he moved to Austin.

[961] And then I hadn't talked to him for like six months.

[962] And I sent him a text message the other day because he loves Korean food.

[963] I go, bro, I found a dope Korean food spot in Austin.

[964] He goes, hey, man, I moved to Portugal.

[965] I was like, what?

[966] He's an artist, crazy dude.

[967] Hell of a move.

[968] I was like, what did you do?

[969] You moved to Portugal.

[970] It's amazing here.

[971] The food's incredible.

[972] People are so nice.

[973] Crimes low.

[974] I have heard that.

[975] Portugal is doing the thing where everything is legal.

[976] Yep.

[977] Is that right?

[978] Yep.

[979] They decriminalize everything.

[980] All drugs.

[981] They experienced a giant drop in murders, a giant drop in addictions, in crime.

[982] Yeah.

[983] Yeah.

[984] Look, you're not supposed to have things that people want to do illegal.

[985] It's unfortunate if people want to do things that are terrible for you.

[986] It is unfortunate.

[987] But the flip side is people are going to do it anyway.

[988] And if you make it illegal, then you're propping up illegal enterprises.

[989] Yeah.

[990] And I mean, if I'm just, you know, at the end of the day, I'm a musician.

[991] I don't know shit.

[992] But if everything was legal, somebody goes in and buys whatever drug, legally, they're probably not going to be laced with fentanyl.

[993] Exactly.

[994] 100%.

[995] Look, you would have more overdoses.

[996] You would have more deaths.

[997] Like if they just decided today to make everything legal, you're going to have a spike in deaths.

[998] There's no way around that in my eyes.

[999] But would you have a corresponding drop in fentanyl deaths?

[1000] I think you would.

[1001] So you would have a drop in accidental deaths where people just take a little molly.

[1002] They just want to go to a rave and just fucking dance and all of sudden they're dead.

[1003] You would have way less of those.

[1004] So that would drop.

[1005] But you're going to have people that are just addicted to drugs and they're going to overdose because of availability.

[1006] and you're going to have also people that try drugs that wouldn't have tried them because they're illegal and they don't want to they wouldn't know where to buy them they don't know anybody who's selling if you could just go to a store and buy coke like oh what's the fuss about let me try this cocaine out yeah and the next thing you know you're a coke addict and you've ruined your life that's possible too 100 % but You know, there's personal responsibility.

[1007] There's also education.

[1008] There's counseling.

[1009] There's a bunch of different things that can be set up to mitigate that.

[1010] And I think that's the better direction for society, better than propping up cartels.

[1011] We've got this fucking thing that's happening right across our border where there's immense organizations that have insane amounts of money because they've been selling drugs that are illegal in America.

[1012] Yeah, they're like warlords.

[1013] Yeah, legit warlords.

[1014] Yeah, some of those property owners down there, I don't know how they're dealing with that.

[1015] Bro, I was just watching this video today of this guy who lives on the border.

[1016] They're dealing with all these people that come across the border that are smuggling drugs.

[1017] And it's fucking dangerous.

[1018] He's like, you can't approach them, can't go anywhere near them.

[1019] You have no idea what they're carrying.

[1020] You have no idea who they are or what they're doing and who they work for.

[1021] And he's like, it's terrifying.

[1022] They're just traveling across your property with a backpack.

[1023] And you know, and you just got to just let it happen.

[1024] Yeah, and two years ago, I played a, I played a show down in San Antonio, and there was a rancher there at the show, and we were talking afterwards.

[1025] And he said, and this would have been like right around that time.

[1026] This had just happened.

[1027] So this is April 21.

[1028] He said one of his best friends, he's also a rancher, got a bunch of feds rolled up to their house one day and put him and his family on house arrest.

[1029] for two days without any explanation as to why.

[1030] And then two days go by and they say, okay, it's all good.

[1031] You know, we're so sorry for the inconvenience.

[1032] And the guy's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[1033] You can't just, you have, you get there has to be an explanation here.

[1034] And I guess, I don't know if I'm not getting somebody trouble here, but the guy's like, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but there are nine insurgents that had crossed the border and we, you know, just so happened to get them here on your property.

[1035] Holy shit.

[1036] I bet the feds were probably watching them.

[1037] And then when they decided to actually take them, it must have been on this guy's ranch.

[1038] Right.

[1039] So you got, I mean, you got your kid, your kids are out maybe doing a chore on the, on your ranch, on your own farm.

[1040] So yeah, you got thousands of acres or something and who knows what, what you could be running into.

[1041] Have you seen some of the recent videos of the lines, the migration lines moving, not just in Mexico.

[1042] They're moving from South America through Mexico into the United States.

[1043] I saw the ones from like a few years back, but I, dude, I've almost, like, tuned out.

[1044] The numbers are insane.

[1045] The numbers are insane.

[1046] The numbers are insane.

[1047] Somebody just released a graph that shows the numbers of illegal aliens over the last year in comparison to previous years.

[1048] So it's like, you see the graph, and it's like 2014, 2015, 2016, and it gets to 2021.

[1049] It just like, yikes.

[1050] There's more illegals have made it into this country over the last year, I believe, than are people that live in five different states legally.

[1051] Oh, my God.

[1052] Yeah.

[1053] I mean, West Virginia's got $1 .8 million on a real good year, maybe.

[1054] It's probably a little less than that.

[1055] There's a lot more illegal aliens every year coming into it.

[1056] I mean, what's the number per month now?

[1057] What's the fix for something like that?

[1058] Well, you gotta fucking have a secure border if you want to fix it.

[1059] It doesn't seem like they want to fix it.

[1060] Like AOC was on TV the other day doing an interview and she was saying, you know, she was calling them undocumented people and the way to do it is to give them a path to citizenship.

[1061] Well, how about you know who the fuck they are?

[1062] Because if you're a person from another country, say if you're in Europe and you want to come to America and become an American citizen, you know, you're an architect or whatever.

[1063] There's like a long, lengthy process.

[1064] And they only take a certain amount of people every year.

[1065] And you have to prove that you have a skill.

[1066] There's a reason why you should be here legally.

[1067] Yeah.

[1068] But if you want to do it illegally, they'll give you money.

[1069] They'll give you a cell phone.

[1070] There's people in Mexico.

[1071] What they're doing is, this is pretty wild because there's a radio station in San Diego that is a Mexican radio station.

[1072] This guy was on the Mexican radio station is explaining how we do it.

[1073] He's like, he's gone back four times that month.

[1074] So every time he crosses over, he gets $2 ,000.

[1075] He's gaming it.

[1076] So he's gaming.

[1077] He made $8 ,000 in a month from the federal government.

[1078] You almost like, what do you do?

[1079] You set up, because back in the day, you know, when there's, you know, I don't know everything, obviously, but like maybe the similar time in American history would have been the early 1900s.

[1080] And he had all those Europeans coming over on the boats to work over in the U .S. That's how my family got here.

[1081] Yeah, and everybody went through Ellis Island or somewhere like it where you go in and you got some sort of papers.

[1082] Yeah, it was pretty easy.

[1083] Honestly, they didn't really check.

[1084] At least, though, they got you, like, they got, at least they got a name.

[1085] Yeah.

[1086] And they...

[1087] Well, not even.

[1088] They kind of, people change their names.

[1089] Yeah, they change it right there if it was, like, too hard to pronounce sometimes.

[1090] Yeah, a lot of people did that.

[1091] Yeah, yeah.

[1092] My bass player's last name got, got fucked with a little bit, I think.

[1093] I'm sure.

[1094] Yeah, a lot of people's names got changed.

[1095] It was easy to come over here back then when my grandparents came here.

[1096] But, you know, that was the law back then.

[1097] This is not the law.

[1098] The law is that you're supposed to go through this process where they vet you and they find out if you're a criminal and they find out if you're a terrorist.

[1099] Yeah.

[1100] They're not doing that at all.

[1101] They're just opening the border and they're essentially buying votes.

[1102] Yeah.

[1103] They're doing this.

[1104] They're letting these people come in, and they're assuming these people are going to vote for the Democrats.

[1105] And it's wild.

[1106] It's wild that it's happening right in front of everybody's eyes, and most people aren't aware of it unless they see these videos.

[1107] Or like Elon was telling me that when you go there, do you really understand the scope of it?

[1108] He goes, it's extraordinary.

[1109] He just, you can't believe the numbers of people that are making their way across.

[1110] It's just insane.

[1111] It's just, and everyone knows about it.

[1112] So all these people that live in these, and I don't blame them at all, man. If you're just a regular person that was unfortunate to be born in a terrible environment and you realize if I can get to America, I can feed my family.

[1113] I get a job.

[1114] I can work on a farm.

[1115] I can, whatever it is.

[1116] I can work in a factory.

[1117] And we could live in a good way instead of being trapped.

[1118] in this hellhole in which we were just unfortunately born in.

[1119] Yeah, I get it.

[1120] Yeah, you're going to go for it.

[1121] Fuck, yeah.

[1122] If I was in Guatemala, 100 % I'd have a backpack.

[1123] Yeah.

[1124] 100 % I'd be on that fucking trek.

[1125] Let's go.

[1126] Yeah, if you get up here and get some work and send money home.

[1127] How many lazy Americans?

[1128] do we have in this country that just fuck off and don't want to do jack shit and they're just fucking meanwhile we got people walking here from Mexico yeah yeah you see it and that's the thing like back to the COVID thing man it it's like a flip -to -switch in a lot of folks heads from one end of that to the other with yeah you know I mean if you're not where you're at in life you know, that you're never going to get there half -ass in your day.

[1129] No. Wherever you happen to be, it might be the best idea to, like, give it your best.

[1130] Yeah.

[1131] And that's, like, or else you're just going to be a miserable fuck the rest of your life.

[1132] Well, that was one thing that happened to a lot of people that was good.

[1133] They realized that this job that they had that they hated that just went away.

[1134] Okay, you know, not only did I fucking hate this job, but I thought it was necessary because it was the only thing that I had, I didn't want to lose it.

[1135] But then they just fucking took it away from me. God damn it, I'm going to go for my fucking dream.

[1136] Mm -hmm.

[1137] And a lot of people did.

[1138] They went for their dream.

[1139] They started small businesses.

[1140] They got their shit together.

[1141] They lost weight.

[1142] A lot of people did a lot of very positive things when their back was against the wall.

[1143] And then a lot of people just went on unemployment.

[1144] And a lot of people never wanted to get on it.

[1145] I mean, I had friends that were in the bar business.

[1146] And they couldn't get people to work.

[1147] They couldn't get bartenders.

[1148] Because people were making more money being unemployed.

[1149] Yeah.

[1150] Taking unemployment.

[1151] And they would rather live like that.

[1152] They'd rather get that free check.

[1153] Mm -hmm.

[1154] Yeah.

[1155] And that was like, you know, I'm 31 and I released my first album in 2019, but I didn't get booking and management and stuff like that until even after that.

[1156] So COVID cut the legs out from me. Things were just starting to actually look a little bit legitimate in my life.

[1157] And COVID cut the legs out from under that.

[1158] So on the other side of that is really where, you know, I could have gone two ways.

[1159] And I went back on tour in the spring of 21.

[1160] And then I started taking my full band out with me and were a seven piece, including myself, and the summer of 21.

[1161] And I went broke in the fall.

[1162] Yeah.

[1163] Yeah, I couldn't pay my guys one week.

[1164] And I had my second album, which we made during the COVID year, went on pre -sale that next week.

[1165] And I explained to my guys what was happening.

[1166] And they stuck with me. And once I put the pre -sales up, then I got a little bit, you know, to keep paying them.

[1167] And we were able to keep working.

[1168] And then I was bleeding real bad in 21 and came down at one point in Bloomington, Indiana.

[1169] We played the Bluebird one night.

[1170] And I had just gotten a new day -to -day manager who's done a phenomenal job for me. But anyways, he had just gotten on the job and basically broke it down for me on the phone.

[1171] how much I was losing per month and was just saying, he was like, you're going belly up here.

[1172] This is over.

[1173] You have to cut half these guys, and even then, we're going to have a hard time making it.

[1174] And after that gig, we all sat outside in the alleyway, and I explained to them what was happening, and they all took half pay.

[1175] Damn.

[1176] So my guys were willing to go $50 a show.

[1177] Damn.

[1178] And they were in 100%.

[1179] They didn't have their jobs and stuff back home.

[1180] They were with me. Wow.

[1181] And they were game to go for that, which you can't live off that.

[1182] And we kept hanging on there for a couple months.

[1183] And then that second album came out in November.

[1184] And we gotten on the road with Zach Brian brought us out on the road with them.

[1185] And, you know, the album, it worked.

[1186] You know, the album, it did great.

[1187] And we made the most of our opportunity getting to open that tour for them.

[1188] And, you know, we made it.

[1189] The universe rewards that.

[1190] You know, it was that close to just, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have had money to even put in the gas tank.

[1191] But that's what makes the story beautiful.

[1192] The terrible stories you quit.

[1193] That's the terrible story.

[1194] You're sitting on the porch one day and you're an old man. You're going, God damn, I think I could have made it.

[1195] Those are the most bitter of people, man. Those are the ones that talk the most shit about other artists.

[1196] They talk the most shit about other people.

[1197] The people that just have these regrets, the failed attempts, they didn't go through the door.

[1198] They didn't do it.

[1199] They didn't take that risk.

[1200] They didn't just run.

[1201] They didn't just fucking suck it up and try it.

[1202] That's a scary thing.

[1203] But if you can get through that scary thing, that's a better life.

[1204] That's a better life.

[1205] The life of fear and the life of regret, that's a terrible life.

[1206] That life of wishing, I could have, the could of life.

[1207] That's the shittiest life.

[1208] Yeah, you don't want to be that.

[1209] God damn, you don't want to be that, especially when there was a spark, when there's some potential.

[1210] Yeah.

[1211] Like in the comedy world, when you start out as an open mic or you start out with a bunch of fucking mental patients and crazy people, because anybody can go on stage, you know?

[1212] And there's always like one or two guys that you're with or girls, and they got something.

[1213] They got something and some of them make it and some of them don't.

[1214] And if there's a hundred of them, maybe one of them will become a professional.

[1215] Maybe.

[1216] It's probably not even that.

[1217] It's probably for 500 open micers, one, it's probably not even that.

[1218] It's probably a thousand.

[1219] For every 1 ,000 open micers it regularly shows up, one of them will become a working professional.

[1220] Yeah, that can actually sell tickets.

[1221] But man, I have these fucking dreams sometimes where I remember these people that I knew that they had it, man. They had something.

[1222] They had something.

[1223] This is a girl that I dated when I was like 21.

[1224] It was like the last time I ever dated a comedian.

[1225] But God damn it, she was funny, man. She was really funny.

[1226] She was really funny.

[1227] And I remember thinking, damn, she's funnier than me. Like, she's funny, man. She's good.

[1228] Like, she could, she had something.

[1229] And it wasn't always, you know, you'd have these open mics are rough, like bad crowds.

[1230] Like sometimes you bomb.

[1231] Sometimes you do well.

[1232] But every now and then she would be on stage, she would catch that wave, and they'd be like, look at her go.

[1233] Look at her go, she's gonna do it, she's gonna make it.

[1234] She fucking quit.

[1235] I think about people like that.

[1236] I think about dudes that I knew that it just had it, man. There's this one guy that I knew from New York.

[1237] Remember the first time I watched him on stage, I'm like, oh my god, that guy's the next Bill Hicks.

[1238] Look at this motherfucker.

[1239] Holy shit, quit, disappeared, went away.

[1240] It's a hard road.

[1241] Hard road to go.

[1242] Fuck.

[1243] But that's the life of sadness and regret.

[1244] To fucking not ever go for it is the worst.

[1245] So that's like the universe gave you a little challenge.

[1246] Yeah, that one...

[1247] Man, I was losing sleep, bud.

[1248] It was about...

[1249] Yeah, it was...

[1250] It was like three -fourths of nights.

[1251] I was getting up at two in the morning and just...

[1252] God, I could imagine.

[1253] I was freaking out.

[1254] But, uh, you know, stretched out and...

[1255] And honestly, like...

[1256] I love my guys because they went through that with me. And they're willing to, like, stick in there.

[1257] That's beautiful.

[1258] Yeah, I'm planning on as long as they'll be with me, you know, that's awesome.

[1259] That's fine by me. We're going to do it until we're 90 years old, like Willie Nelson.

[1260] Yeah, fuck it, dude.

[1261] That's amazing.

[1262] Yeah, everybody loves, and if you can hear a story like that, if you're a person out there listening.

[1263] and you're not sure what to do and you hear a story like that, God damn it, go for it.

[1264] You might not make it.

[1265] It might not work out.

[1266] But if it doesn't, guess what?

[1267] Are you alive?

[1268] Can you breathe?

[1269] Can you walk?

[1270] Well, you can do it again.

[1271] Try it again.

[1272] Try it a different way.

[1273] Figure out what you did wrong.

[1274] And sometimes, and this is with me, because, like, you know, and even though it was a small thing, you know, I wanted to play football for West Virginia, and I wasn't good enough.

[1275] And everybody I grew up with knew I was trying to do it.

[1276] My hometown knew what I was trying to do.

[1277] And, you know, it was embarrassing, failing in front of all those folks.

[1278] But once you've done that once.

[1279] You know, there's almost a, you get a little, you like gain an advantage with having felt that before because you know what it's like.

[1280] So if it happens again, well, you already been through it.

[1281] Right.

[1282] So if you've never just fallen on your face before, you might be scared to do it.

[1283] Yeah.

[1284] You know, that's something that, you know, so if somebody chases something out there and it doesn't work out, don't view that as a bad thing, it may pay off later when you find the next thing.

[1285] Yes.

[1286] And you're not scared to go for it.

[1287] Yes.

[1288] Because you've already, you already went for it, this other thing back in the past.

[1289] So, you know, why not go for it?

[1290] Failure is very important because that feeling, that sucky feeling of failure is an amazing motivator.

[1291] Some of them, like, the big leaps that I've made in my career as a stand -up all came after bombing.

[1292] Like you bomb and you just like, I gotta get to work.

[1293] Like I gotta figure out what the fuck I did wrong, why that show went so bad.

[1294] I gotta buckle up and get better.

[1295] I really have to fucking focus.

[1296] I can't be lackadaisical.

[1297] I can't be lazy.

[1298] I gotta get after it.

[1299] Like that feeling, that horrible feeling, that's there on purpose.

[1300] That's there.

[1301] It's a tool.

[1302] It's like a motivational tool.

[1303] is there to let you know it's a sign it's it's a very important potent reaction that you have to this bad path you did the wrong thing you went the wrong way you took a wrong turn you fucked it all up you feel like shit right you feel like a fucking loser good it's because you are a loser like right right now you're a loser right okay get to work Yep, you can't be resting on those laurels, you know.

[1304] Yeah.

[1305] You just got to keep pushing.

[1306] One of, you know, a really valuable thing.

[1307] And honestly, I've been listening to this show.

[1308] This show fills a lot of time when I was, you know, on the road all these years.

[1309] And so I was like a 23 -year -old kid driving my old Highlander to gigs, and I listened to this show.

[1310] And there's, I can't remember exactly when, and it might have been multiple times, but you'd be talking with, like, fellow comedians about your all's come up.

[1311] And you were talking about getting the famine mentality out of your mind.

[1312] You know, you had to figure out that that's a toxic place to be at mentally.

[1313] Yeah.

[1314] Is letting other people's success, like, fuck with you or you being jealous about it and all that.

[1315] And I remember listening to that as a kid, and I hadn't figured that out yet for myself, but hearing that, and I was like, oh, yeah, that's smart.

[1316] Just be happy for folks and keep moving and focus on you.

[1317] And that was one of the most valuable things that I ever, you know, learned from somebody else was that, just to get that out of my head way back at the beginning and just have that, like, healthy mindset going into, you know, what is a decade -long crucible trying to make it in the music industry.

[1318] That's beautiful.

[1319] Is getting that just positive frame of mind where you're just working on you.

[1320] And if you see something good happen to somebody else, hell yeah, good for them.

[1321] It can be a positive thing.

[1322] When other people succeed and you have that jealous demon gets in your mind, you can turn that around and use that as inspiration.

[1323] but you have to consciously understand what's happening here.

[1324] And other people's success, that is not your failure.

[1325] That's their success.

[1326] And you could use that as fuel.

[1327] That could be inspiration.

[1328] And it could be entirely positive.

[1329] And especially if you know those people, the saddest thing to me is when there's a friend and one friend has something really big happen.

[1330] The other friend gets jealous and starts shitting on that friend because of it.

[1331] And it, You see it in comedy all the time, and it's a terrible mindset.

[1332] And there's the same experience could be approached in a completely different way, where your friend makes it, you're like, dude, fuck yeah.

[1333] God damn it, you did it.

[1334] This is incredible.

[1335] Holy shit.

[1336] You're killing it.

[1337] I'm so pumped, man, I'm gonna get to work now.

[1338] I'm gonna work harder.

[1339] I'm gonna carve my path now.

[1340] Now that I know that you did it, now that I feel that, that sense that I want that in my life, I wanna achieve that.

[1341] It can be fuel.

[1342] And that fuel is important.

[1343] It's so valuable.

[1344] And instead, people piss that fuel away as jealousy and bitterness, where it does you no good.

[1345] It poisons you.

[1346] It ruins you.

[1347] You're hoping for someone's failure.

[1348] It's such a terrible weakness.

[1349] It's a terrible weakness of character that so many people just give into.

[1350] And you don't have to.

[1351] The exact same experience where someone is killing it can be fuel for you.

[1352] Even if you don't like that person, like that's the highest level of it.

[1353] You don't even like a guy.

[1354] And you see they're killing and go, you know what?

[1355] They fucking earned it, man. They're out there kicking ass.

[1356] Maybe I don't like their personality.

[1357] Maybe they're just fucking, they're so focused on success.

[1358] They're kind of a cock sucker to other people.

[1359] But you know what, man?

[1360] Look, that fucking guy put in that work and now he's going to look.

[1361] I admire that ambition.

[1362] I admire that work ethic.

[1363] I'll embrace that.

[1364] I don't want to be that person.

[1365] I don't want to be that person.

[1366] I want to be a shitty person.

[1367] I want to be a nice person.

[1368] But I also want to be successful.

[1369] How the fuck do I incorporate this into my life?

[1370] I need this.

[1371] This is fuel for me. And to look at it that way, that's a way better way.

[1372] And it's the same exact experience, the same exact materials.

[1373] But instead of using those materials to, like, why not me?

[1374] Instead, you're like, fuck yeah, I'm now going to go for it.

[1375] It gives you positive energy instead of negative energy.

[1376] It's just a mindset that you have to embrace.

[1377] It was huge.

[1378] Yeah, and I think without that, I don't know if I would have made it.

[1379] You know what I mean?

[1380] Just those years, you have got to muster up all the positivity you can because you're not getting it, you know, from the bar, the restaurant, and the brewery and the cafes and sleeping in the back of your car, being broke, you know, folks coming up and telling you to turn it off.

[1381] I mean, I mean, shit.

[1382] You know, man. So, yeah, having that frame of mind get you through those hard times.

[1383] Yeah.

[1384] And the scene, you know, I came up, you know, and basically in the West Virginia music scene, there isn't much of one, and it was not that.

[1385] It was very much the famine mentality.

[1386] So I got help from certain promoters and venue owners, but other established musicians in the state, No. And when, you know, I recognize that at the time.

[1387] And I told myself, if I'm ever in, if I ever had the opportunity to, I'm going to do things differently.

[1388] And then once I started getting out there into the music world a little bit and actually playing some proper shows.

[1389] Man, I was blessed to get to open for very supportive people that helped me out and were happy to bring me on the road.

[1390] That's awesome.

[1391] And, you know, they wanted to bring the best show that they could.

[1392] And, you know, I never forget that.

[1393] And then I try to do that now.

[1394] Who's the first person that brought in the road?

[1395] The first legit shows that I got to play and open for somebody, you know, traveling and show to show with them was William Clark Green here out of Texas.

[1396] I did an East Coast run with them.

[1397] And William was super cool to me. And, you know, I was nervous going into it because these are some of my first, like, actual venue shows outside of my hometown that I ever played.

[1398] I've only done restaurants and bars before that.

[1399] And I remember one night, William was like, if you, he told the crowd towards the end of his set.

[1400] He's like, if one of you all, if you guys buy a piece of Chuck's merch, I'll give you a free CD, like a free sign CD or something like that.

[1401] So, I mean...

[1402] Oh, wow.

[1403] You know, I mean, I think I made like $700 at the merch table that night as a solo opener.

[1404] And, man, that was a good night then.

[1405] That's awesome.

[1406] Back in that day.

[1407] And then Ward Davis took me out with him for two years.

[1408] And, you know, that allowed me to get my feet on the ground and start building a good, loyal following.

[1409] And, you know, War...

[1410] Awards learned a lot of hard things, like a lot of things the hard way and shared a lot of experience with me, which has saved me, some hard lessons.

[1411] That's important.

[1412] Like someone who's a mentor that's gone through it already and can give you some advice?

[1413] Yeah, absolutely.

[1414] And then Zach Bryan and, you know, in Zach's way, just opening up his giant following to...

[1415] to us and letting us open, you know, three of his tours.

[1416] Oh, that's amazing.

[1417] You know what I mean?

[1418] And, and, you know, those three in particular, like, were huge.

[1419] And then, you know, I've opened for some fantastic people since then, like, those were the three that were like, you know, William was the first.

[1420] And then Ward was the, you know, Ward and Zach were the ones that I opened for the longest.

[1421] And yeah, it's nice to be in a spot now where I get to pick folks that are coming up that are really, really fucking good.

[1422] That is cool.

[1423] Get to bring him out on the road and having a show.

[1424] How do you find them?

[1425] Just the internet.

[1426] You know, the internet, you know, hearsay.

[1427] And you just hear things about folks.

[1428] One guy that he opened a West Coast tour with this summer.

[1429] And this is like kind of that great example of just like having a good circle of folks that you're able to work with.

[1430] Wyatt Flores and why it can't be opening for me now.

[1431] Like, I mean, we did our last show together.

[1432] He was one of my openers at the Ryman.

[1433] And we did a shot after the second show.

[1434] And I said, now you got to remember this, bud.

[1435] And remember when you play Madison Square Garden the first time, you make sure you have me and the boys as your opener for that one.

[1436] Because, you know, just everybody's on their own timeline and why it's just, you know, his is going real fast.

[1437] That's awesome.

[1438] Yeah.

[1439] And it's great for him, man. That is cool.

[1440] And that is where that mentality comes in, that other people's success is not your failure.

[1441] It's beautiful.

[1442] It's just beautiful.

[1443] Yeah.

[1444] Yeah.

[1445] My wife and my kids are fine.

[1446] My band now, everybody's, you know, they're getting married, getting homes, and like, we're good.

[1447] That's great.

[1448] Everything's going to be fine.

[1449] We just keep doing our thing.

[1450] Exactly.

[1451] And the more folks that succeed, the better.

[1452] Yes, yes.

[1453] And the world needs more great music.

[1454] It really does.

[1455] There ain't nobody that's only listened to one person.

[1456] I always say iPod.

[1457] Nobody's got an iPod anymore, but there's nobody that's only listened to one artist on their Spotify or Apple.

[1458] It's probably a stalker.

[1459] You know what I mean?

[1460] Like, people are listening to a hundred different folks.

[1461] Maybe Taylor Swift.

[1462] Taylor Swift might have like one dude out there that only has Taylor Swift songs.

[1463] Going 24 -7.

[1464] He's got a Taylor Swift T -shirt.

[1465] He t -shirt.

[1466] He tucks his dick in his fucking underwear and stands in the mirror and pretends he's her.

[1467] There's a few people out there that might be on the list.

[1468] Yeah.

[1469] God, imagine being her security detail.

[1470] Jesus Christ.

[1471] I'd be interested to hear some of their stories.

[1472] I bet there's been some shit.

[1473] Oh, my God.

[1474] It has to be.

[1475] Like, there's, I mean, in the history of artists, there's only a handful, a small handful that have got to that Taylor Swift level.

[1476] That's the level where almost everyone goes crazy.

[1477] I don't even think you can count it on two hands.

[1478] I don't think so.

[1479] No. It's like there's Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Elvis.

[1480] There's like a few.

[1481] But she's in a crazy place, man. She's doing stadiums every night.

[1482] Every night.

[1483] Stadium, stadiums.

[1484] They sold out instantly.

[1485] Tickets go for astronomical numbers.

[1486] And then there's a stadium of people outside the stadium just trying to listen to the echoes of the PA.

[1487] Yeah.

[1488] That's something I've never seen.

[1489] Like you see some sold out stadium tours and stuff, but you don't see that.

[1490] Yeah.

[1491] Or like it's that overhead.

[1492] And then it looks like the Washington Mall outside of the stadium of folks is trying to hear like that like echo over voice from a half mile away.

[1493] Some of the first live shows that I ever saw.

[1494] I was a security guard at Great Woods.

[1495] Great Woods is this place in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

[1496] It's just like outside performance amphitheater.

[1497] And some of the first shows that I ever saw live, the first show I ever saw live was a Jay Giles band.

[1498] Maybe it was George Thorogood.

[1499] It was like George Thorogood and Destroyers.

[1500] And I think that was like the first band that I paid to see when I was a kid.

[1501] But then when I was older and I worked as a security guard, I worked for this place.

[1502] So I saw concerts all the time.

[1503] I saw so many different concerts.

[1504] And I remember one time I saw Bon Jovi.

[1505] I was working the Bon Jovi concert, and we were pulling the security truck up.

[1506] And as we were pulling the truck up, we got out.

[1507] And outside of the venue you hear, shot through the heart, and you're to blame.

[1508] You give love a bad name.

[1509] And everybody goes, wha!

[1510] And I was like, this is crazy.

[1511] Because it was one of my first nights on the job, and I was like, man. Hearing that pop for the first time.

[1512] That energy is insane.

[1513] It's insane.

[1514] The energy of a live show is something that's just...

[1515] Because it's not just...

[1516] You're watching the performance.

[1517] You're watching it with other people.

[1518] And they're all excited and you feel their excitement and everyone's happy and it's all...

[1519] Everyone's together and that fucking...

[1520] Yeah.

[1521] It's all together.

[1522] It's wild.

[1523] It's a beautiful thing, man. Oh, it's so beautiful.

[1524] Yeah.

[1525] Yeah, that's, uh, it makes, it makes the travel worth it, you know, to have that feeling where you got all those folks just like, they're all having that moment.

[1526] The travel's rough.

[1527] Together.

[1528] The travel breaks you down.

[1529] Do you do anything to keep the travel from breaking you down?

[1530] Do you take vitamins?

[1531] You take care yourself at all?

[1532] Yeah, yeah, I do.

[1533] I do my best, and I'm getting better as the years go by.

[1534] I run just about every day.

[1535] Oh, that's awesome.

[1536] Yeah, it's good for my cardio.

[1537] I enjoy it.

[1538] Good for your head, too, right?

[1539] Good for my head.

[1540] And then, yeah, I take vitamins.

[1541] There's a lot of vitamin D trying to keep my kids are in daycare.

[1542] Oh, my God, brother.

[1543] Their little disease factories.

[1544] Dude, I've been sick more in the last two years than I was the 10 years prior since my son first went in.

[1545] It is like a little petri dish.

[1546] I'm going to come out like a cockroach here in 18 years.

[1547] Oh, yeah.

[1548] You come out of that.

[1549] You're like, nothing gets you sick.

[1550] But, yeah, so I take vitamins.

[1551] I started doing AG1.

[1552] That's great stuff.

[1553] With the little droplets in it, too, a couple months ago.

[1554] Vitamin D, K2, yeah.

[1555] And...

[1556] I kind of like everything is the same except I don't I might that afternoon like I could take a nap I don't have that when I'm taking that that's that's the big difference I've been getting from that one the hard thing is the diet when you're on the road that's the hard thing yeah really make sure you eat clean just has a giant factor in whether or not you can recover Yeah, the discipline there after the show is a big part of it.

[1557] Yeah, the jack in the box, Burger King pull is strong.

[1558] Yeah, if I had perfect discipline, I'd look like an Olympian.

[1559] You know, I'd be pretty, you know, I wouldn't be that strong, but I'd be pretty rip.

[1560] But we're moving to the bus this year.

[1561] So this would be my first year in the bus, and I'm looking forward to that sleep.

[1562] Yeah.

[1563] I don't know if I could sleep that good on a bus.

[1564] I'm always worried about crashing.

[1565] Because the thing about a bus, if you crash, it's like, you're just falling on top of everybody.

[1566] It's like, you're not even strapped in.

[1567] It happens, too, man. Oh, yeah.

[1568] What was that woman's name, Gloria Estefan?

[1569] She fractured her back.

[1570] I think, yeah.

[1571] Serious accident.

[1572] Hardy had a, had a bus accident, I think, last year.

[1573] Oh, yeah?

[1574] And, yeah, I think, you know, he, uh, I think it was pretty bad.

[1575] Yeah.

[1576] It's scary shit, man. And you got to rely on that driver.

[1577] Stay awake.

[1578] Yeah.

[1579] And then who knows what kind of fuckheads are on the road doing stupid shit and crashing into things.

[1580] But we've been, I've been driving myself, you know, for the seven years and the, you know, with my dogs and then, you know, sleeping in a rollout mat in the back of my car, you know, behind venues.

[1581] And then the hard way.

[1582] Three years in the van with me and the guys and driving all day.

[1583] So, you know, this is the only way I see, you know, me being able to keep my health up for the rest of my life is getting that sleep.

[1584] Do you drink?

[1585] A little bit.

[1586] I cut way back this year.

[1587] You kind of got to.

[1588] Yeah.

[1589] Yeah.

[1590] I get into the 30s, things start like sticking to you a little bit more.

[1591] And I was looking at myself at, we went to the beach back at the end of May and I was looking at pictures of myself.

[1592] I was like, yeah, that's it.

[1593] I got to lock this shit down or it's getting away from me. Well, it's just the fatigue factor.

[1594] The difference between drinking and not drinking, like, how you feel the next day is so significant.

[1595] It's hard to ignore.

[1596] You know, it's hard to ignore that fatigue factor.

[1597] Like, you're poisoning yourself every night.

[1598] Yeah.

[1599] It's fun.

[1600] Yeah, it's great.

[1601] Have a few beers.

[1602] Throw a few shots back.

[1603] Woo!

[1604] Have a little party.

[1605] It's great.

[1606] Parties are fun.

[1607] But you are legitimately poisoning yourself.

[1608] And you've got to be aware of what the effect of that is.

[1609] Yeah.

[1610] And it's not good for the voice either.

[1611] You know, sometimes I'll do four headlines in a row.

[1612] And that's like Zach smoked cigarettes, like a chimney.

[1613] And I was like, how are you doing that?

[1614] You have this fucking incredible gift, this amazing voice.

[1615] And you're sucking on cigarettes all the time.

[1616] yeah he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a young boy he's a young fella one day he'll maybe maybe i don't know i mean maybe his voice will change with the cigarettes like sinatra's yeah you ever hear sinatra when he was young oh yeah yeah there's early the fifties like christmas songs and stuff it sounds strange strangely different it's like a completely different kind of voice Like when he got older, it was like this.

[1617] I did it my way.

[1618] But when he was younger, it was just like this insane voice, like this beautiful.

[1619] You know, he was arrested.

[1620] I have one of his mug shots out there.

[1621] You know, I have a whole collection of mug shots out there in the lobby.

[1622] One of them is Sinatra.

[1623] And he was arrested for seduction.

[1624] Yeah, I think he bangs somebody's wife.

[1625] The wrong person's wife, I guess.

[1626] Somebody to, like the mayor or something, like the police chief's wife.

[1627] That was listed on his rap sheet.

[1628] It was seduction.

[1629] See, that's true, right?

[1630] That's an old school law right there.

[1631] Here it is.

[1632] Seduction.

[1633] Let me explain.

[1634] The year was 1938, years before Sinatra would go on to star in his first movie or release his first single.

[1635] He was just 23 years old by today's standards.

[1636] Shocking that he spent any time in jail for his crime, even though it was less than 16 hours.

[1637] So during that time period, a person could be arrested for seduction, which was a charge usually given to a man who slept with a woman based on false promises are using some kind of lie.

[1638] Oh, interesting.

[1639] For instance, a man could be arrested after sleeping with a woman after a false promise of marriage.

[1640] Wow.

[1641] Reportedly, Sinatra's ex -girlfriend was his accuser.

[1642] Oh, so it wasn't a wife.

[1643] I was wrong.

[1644] Saying that he promised her marriage and then broke up with her.

[1645] He was...

[1646] You get arrested because you break up with a girl?

[1647] That's hilarious.

[1648] Yeah, Frank was willing to say anything to get in that night.

[1649] Right, the list of this.

[1650] However, it turns out that she was actually already married, which canceled out the charges of seduction.

[1651] That's why I thought it was someone's wife.

[1652] Even so, the state of New Jersey arrested Sinatra and charged him with adultery after learning that they couldn't nab him with seduction.

[1653] The charges later dropped after he paid a $500 bond.

[1654] $500 in 1938, that's probably a stiff bond.

[1655] That's a lot of money.

[1656] Back then, dude.

[1657] People buy a house for like $500.

[1658] Yeah, in Detroit, right now.

[1659] Right now.

[1660] Yeah, it's true.

[1661] Yeah.

[1662] I thought about that right as I said.

[1663] See if you can find some recordings of Sinatra from when he was young, because it really is crazy when you listen to the difference in that music, the sound of that voice.

[1664] And that's got to be like a lot of Jack Daniels and cigarettes.

[1665] I think the earliest I've listened to him is maybe the 40s.

[1666] If he was singing in the 30s there, I probably haven't heard that.

[1667] It's an incredible voice.

[1668] But it's so different.

[1669] It's hard to believe that it's actually Sinatra, because it sounds so young and high -pitched.

[1670] It's just a different, and it had so much range.

[1671] His voice had this incredible range that all got blunted by the cigarettes.

[1672] And then, you know, as he got older, it just became, I had regrets.

[1673] You know, like it just became almost more talking than the vocal range that he had when he was younger.

[1674] It just kind of adapted.

[1675] All the years of kind of like just playing night in night out too can take somebody's range away.

[1676] Oh, yeah, man. Vocal surgeries and stuff like that.

[1677] Oh, yeah.

[1678] It's tortures your throat.

[1679] He left 29 broken hearts.

[1680] That's different.

[1681] Yeah.

[1682] Putted in 29 parts.

[1683] Now there are 29 fellas complaining to their moms about the ladies from 29 bombs.

[1684] Wow.

[1685] Yeah.

[1686] What do we got here?

[1687] I've got you.

[1688] So this is the wig days.

[1689] I've tried so.

[1690] Strange times.

[1691] It is.

[1692] Looking right at the camera doing the handwork.

[1693] As you're saying.

[1694] Well, you've got to think back then, that's all new.

[1695] You know, being on television was new.

[1696] He's the fucking man right there back then.

[1697] There was no one on TV before him.

[1698] It was like how many years of television even existed before that?

[1699] Was it 10?

[1700] Yeah.

[1701] You know?

[1702] Yeah, it was like 15.

[1703] Maybe.

[1704] Was it the early 50s when those late shows started?

[1705] Oh, my God.

[1706] And if you go back and watch those, what's crazy is if you go back and watch those shows, especially like the late night talk shows, like the Jack Parr show and stuff like that, like that thing where you have the desk and then someone sits beside on the couch, they still do it that way today.

[1707] I know it.

[1708] They fucking never adjusted.

[1709] It's the same.

[1710] Weird.

[1711] It's weird.

[1712] Like, why are you have a desk?

[1713] Are you working?

[1714] Are you writing books up there?

[1715] Like, what do you?

[1716] Why do you have a fucking desk?

[1717] Yeah.

[1718] Why are you sitting in front of that desk?

[1719] And it's just like, that was the Tonight Show.

[1720] Ladies and gentlemen, hey, have a seat.

[1721] And he's got this guy sitting there at a desk.

[1722] And next to him, it's a couch.

[1723] Like, this is a bizarre way to do a show.

[1724] Yeah.

[1725] But because it was the way they did it originally, these uncreative motherfuckers just kept doing it that way forever.

[1726] And everybody does it that way.

[1727] Yeah, they still do.

[1728] The only person, like, Norm McDonald, man. Oh, yeah.

[1729] Fuck.

[1730] I'd sit there on YouTube and just watch like his late night show interviews where he's in that situation.

[1731] He turned that in like.

[1732] Yeah.

[1733] No, he was a man. A few people did it differently.

[1734] Arsenio Hall did it differently.

[1735] Arsenio Hall had like seats where they were sitting next to each other.

[1736] He did it differently.

[1737] George Lopez did it differently.

[1738] George Lopez just had like seats.

[1739] They just kind of faced each other.

[1740] Kind of like Letterman's like Netflix show that he does now.

[1741] Yeah, yeah.

[1742] Yeah, that's a cool setup.

[1743] It's a good set up.

[1744] The only problem is that way of talking to people, you don't really, it's too performative.

[1745] There's people there.

[1746] Like a real conversation, it's not the same when there's an audience.

[1747] It's a different thing.

[1748] Sometimes it's a fun thing.

[1749] Like live podcasts in front of an audience, they can be great.

[1750] But it's a different thing.

[1751] It's not the same thing that you get from just sitting in a room with someone having a conversation with them, which is the best way to talk to people.

[1752] Yeah.

[1753] Yeah.

[1754] You know, you're getting a little bit of the public persona for somebody if you're in a theater.

[1755] Yeah.

[1756] Doing an interview.

[1757] Yeah, I mean, and everybody does it different.

[1758] Like Be Real, who we were talking about before, he has a show called Hot Box.

[1759] Is it called The Hot Boxing?

[1760] No, that's Mike Tyson.

[1761] Mike Tyson's Hot Boxing.

[1762] What's Be Real's show?

[1763] Where he has this old, cool car that they've done up, and they've got cameras inside of it.

[1764] Smokebox.

[1765] And you get barbecued.

[1766] I mean, barbecue, the place you don't know what you're talking about five seconds ago.

[1767] And you're on this podcast just getting baked and you're stuck in this car with Be Real.

[1768] And those guys are, nobody smokes weed like rappers.

[1769] You ever smoke weed wrappers?

[1770] No. No, I can only imagine.

[1771] I was ice fishing with Jamie Johnson last week, and I was just trying to keep up with him, and he had me blasted there.

[1772] Yeah.

[1773] It can get tricky.

[1774] And I'm sure Jamie Johnson can hang in there, too.

[1775] He definitely can.

[1776] I'm sure he could do it.

[1777] But I tried smoking weed with, like, Snoop and Wiz Khalifa.

[1778] Oh, yeah, you're going heavy weights there.

[1779] Action Bronson.

[1780] Yeah.

[1781] Action Bronson did the podcast once.

[1782] We had to take a picture of all the blunts that were in the ashtray at the end of the podcast because it was so ridiculous.

[1783] Like, how are you alive?

[1784] Yeah.

[1785] Yeah, dude.

[1786] Some folks that are tolerance.

[1787] Might just post of this.

[1788] It's like this at the first 48 hours.

[1789] I was like how many blunts he has in this thing?

[1790] That's Snoop?

[1791] Yeah.

[1792] Oh, my God.

[1793] They're 40, 30.

[1794] That's so crazy.

[1795] When he did this podcast, he just, the whole time he's talking, he's just rolling blunts.

[1796] And he rolls his own blunts.

[1797] So he's sitting there talking in.

[1798] He's just like, we're talking about shit.

[1799] He's just rolling blunts.

[1800] Yeah.

[1801] He had a sound machine with him, had like lights and shit.

[1802] Like, oh, he's such a character.

[1803] Snoop's an original.

[1804] That's an original human being.

[1805] Everybody loves them too, man. Oh, my God.

[1806] How do you not love him?

[1807] He's one of the few people in the world where there's like a second grader that knows who he is and my mom knows who he is, you know?

[1808] Remember, he was doing that show with Martha Stewart.

[1809] Yeah.

[1810] And it was great.

[1811] Yeah.

[1812] Like, who would have ever thought that that teaming would work, that that pair?

[1813] Yeah, back in the day, you'd never see that coming.

[1814] Well, perfect.

[1815] Works great.

[1816] She got done dirty back in the day.

[1817] They got her.

[1818] They got her and they put her in jail for the same shit Nancy Pelosi's made hundreds of millions of dollars for her.

[1819] Oh, yeah.

[1820] Yeah.

[1821] Like so many of those folks in Congress and in the Senate.

[1822] I wonder what happened why they went after her like that.

[1823] I wonder what the real story behind it was.

[1824] She must piss somebody off.

[1825] Uh -huh.

[1826] Yeah.

[1827] There had to be something.

[1828] Otherwise, it doesn't even make sense.

[1829] Like, why would you scalp her?

[1830] Why are you going after her?

[1831] Yeah.

[1832] Martha Stewart?

[1833] What, you don't like beautiful things?

[1834] Yeah.

[1835] Willie Nelson was saying in his book, he thought they came after him.

[1836] Look at her.

[1837] Still hot.

[1838] Look at her.

[1839] She looks great.

[1840] 2020, looking good.

[1841] Got a little Zempick or something.

[1842] Woo!

[1843] That's a thing, isn't it?

[1844] It's a dangerous thing to some people.

[1845] Yeah.

[1846] Some people that gives them, my friend Brian got horrible side effects.

[1847] It was like bedridden.

[1848] Like for some people, a certain percentage of the people, it affects them, affects their gut very badly.

[1849] Yeah.

[1850] They get all these gastro -intestinal issues.

[1851] And all you have to do is just not eat shit.

[1852] Work out.

[1853] And you could lose that weight.

[1854] You could just not eat shit.

[1855] Cut all the sugar out of your life.

[1856] You will watch weight fall off your body.

[1857] Yeah, there's another way to do it.

[1858] There's another way to do it.

[1859] Yeah.

[1860] But that's not what people want.

[1861] People want that quick fix, you know, especially if you're a weed smoker.

[1862] You're a weed smoker and you just want them.

[1863] All the munchies.

[1864] Yeah, you get the munchies.

[1865] Especially late night.

[1866] It's hard.

[1867] It's hard not to just fatten up.

[1868] Yeah.

[1869] Yeah, sometimes at home, man, I'll raid that pantry.

[1870] I'm sure.

[1871] You know.

[1872] It's hard.

[1873] It's hard.

[1874] You have to have healthy choices, like something that you can eat that you actually enjoy.

[1875] One thing is I really like doing, like, late night after a gig.

[1876] I like cooking.

[1877] I'll come home and cook a steak at, like, one in the morning.

[1878] I'm like, look, I'm a fucking grown man. I could eat whatever I want.

[1879] Like...

[1880] I just cook a steak right now.

[1881] Yeah.

[1882] Just cook a steak.

[1883] You're hungry?

[1884] Don't just go pour a bowl of fruit loops.

[1885] Make a fucking steak.

[1886] Yeah.

[1887] Like, let's eat something healthy.

[1888] Let's eat real food.

[1889] Let's have some vitamins.

[1890] Drink some water.

[1891] Let's do it the right way.

[1892] Yeah.

[1893] And that's another thing I'm looking forward to that bus is because, you know, we can stash some better options on there for after a show.

[1894] And, yeah, I think it'll, I think it's going to help.

[1895] They pulled over Willie's bus in Texas and arrested him.

[1896] Isn't that amazing?

[1897] When did they do that?

[1898] What the fuck?

[1899] I want to say it was like 2000.

[1900] Oh, that's fucked up.

[1901] Seven or some shit?

[1902] 2009?

[1903] When did Willie Nelson get arrested?

[1904] Might even been later than that.

[1905] It might have been 2013.

[1906] There was something crazy where the whole world was like, what?

[1907] 2010.

[1908] 2010.

[1909] 85 miles outside of El Paso.

[1910] for weed willie nelson yeah what are you a communist fuck yeah that's like that's like that's like butchering the texas longhorn like mascot or something it's so stupid too it's like the dumbest thing to arrest someone for like jesus christ how are we still doing this in twenty twenty four we're not really like it's decriminalized in austin but it's still illegal in the state of texas It's still federally illegal, even though it's legal in a bunch of states.

[1911] It's still federally illegal.

[1912] That's a thing in music is, you know, people will stop and dump it off, like, in the van and stuff like that.

[1913] Yep.

[1914] So stupid.

[1915] Kansas, too, is another one.

[1916] Well, there's a lot of states where when you go through the airport, they have a designated marijuana depositing box.

[1917] Like, so if you're traveling and you're going to fly into a state where it's illegal, you just dump it in this box, like in Nevada, they have that because Nevada has...

[1918] These, you know, weed dispensaries, they have stores now where you can buy it legally.

[1919] Yeah.

[1920] So if you're flying to the airport, you're like, all right, I don't want to get caught, dump it in this box.

[1921] And at the end of the night, I bet those people that were they raid that box.

[1922] Yeah.

[1923] Oh, yeah.

[1924] Of course.

[1925] Yeah, we're going to do Canada for the first time this year, and that was like a thing that our tour manager was telling all the guys, you know, make sure you get passports going now and, like, you know, make sure plan on, like, not having any weed when we cross the border.

[1926] Well, it's legal in Canada.

[1927] Yeah, but you can't cross with it.

[1928] Right.

[1929] Right, you can't cross with it.

[1930] But once you're there, I mean, you don't buy it there.

[1931] Why would you bring it with you?

[1932] Yeah, yeah, they got dispensaries up there.

[1933] Yeah, I remember when it was illegal in Canada and then all of a sudden I went there one year and it's like, oh my God, there's weed stores everywhere.

[1934] That's how it should be.

[1935] It should be illegal.

[1936] You don't like it?

[1937] Good.

[1938] There's a lot of things I don't like.

[1939] It doesn't mean it should be illegal.

[1940] You don't have to take it.

[1941] Yeah, I was kind of hoping back home they would have legalized it in West Virginia, kind of more at the front end of the states and made some of that money.

[1942] Yeah.

[1943] We needed that.

[1944] Yeah, that's the thing that's really crazy.

[1945] They're biting off their nose to spite their face.

[1946] Yeah, I missed out on it.

[1947] We could have been selling the people in all the border states there for a good handful of years and making good money.

[1948] Are you living there now?

[1949] Yeah, I still live there with my wife and kids, and that's where I go back to when I'm off the road.

[1950] You plan on living there forever?

[1951] I'll always have, you know, my family, we have family land that I'll always have my great grandmother's house.

[1952] So I'll always keep that.

[1953] And, you know, whether my wife and I end up splitting time maybe between there and somewhere else, that might happen.

[1954] But, yeah, I'll never leave that completely.

[1955] I feel like it's like in your bones?

[1956] Yeah, I love it, man. It's like my comfortable place in the world.

[1957] It's like truly, you know, I'm fortunate to feel that way about where I'm from.

[1958] That is very fortunate.

[1959] That's beautiful.

[1960] Yeah, not everybody does.

[1961] It's nice to have a place that grounds you too where you go back, you know, like I'm at home base again.

[1962] Yeah, I love it.

[1963] Especially for a guy like you that does the road so much and all the travel.

[1964] Yeah, I like my routine, my small town.

[1965] And, you know, I grew up with so many people I see around on the day -to -day.

[1966] That's cool.

[1967] And, you know, folks watch me grow up, you know, the older folks, and, you know, they know me. And, yeah, I get to go about my day -to -day life.

[1968] And it's all very, very normal.

[1969] Even in Nashville, it's not that, you know, because everybody's in music.

[1970] Right, right, right, right.

[1971] You got people that, you know, they want something from you or something like that.

[1972] Yeah, that's what I keep hearing about Nashville, that Nashville has become kind of a Hollywood light in a lot of ways.

[1973] Yeah, you know, and it's great.

[1974] I'm just saying, yeah, there's a lot of people in the music industry.

[1975] Right.

[1976] And if you're in the music industry and you're going to get people come up and ask you this and ask you that and.

[1977] At home, there ain't nobody in the music industry, so there ain't nobody that has anything to ask of me. Right.

[1978] It's just, that's where I'm comfortable.

[1979] Yeah, that's nice.

[1980] It's nice that someone's not trying to angle on you and just use you for something else or get to this to you or connect themselves to you or hitch a ride.

[1981] There's so many social climbers and so many people that, you know, they've got a business.

[1982] They want you to invest in.

[1983] Yeah.

[1984] And that's what when I met you, I met you the first time at Two Step In, that festival north of Austin back in April.

[1985] Yeah.

[1986] that was when Zach was playing yeah and I met you just real brief and like that was the last thing that I even wanted to come off that's why I was like real weird when I met you that first time because it's like hey man it's nice to meet you I don't want to bother you you know just because I can only imagine what you run into on the day to day so yeah it's just it's nice back home I don't I don't get that so much um so yeah it's Yeah, it's an unfortunate aspect of the life that I have, but it's this life is so, I'm so fortunate in so many ways.

[1987] I'm so blessed.

[1988] I'm so extraordinarily lucky that that's the complaint about that.

[1989] I mostly put it out there so people realize like that's what that, that's something that comes with this.

[1990] And just you should know.

[1991] And if you're on that path too, You're on the path to you want to be in show business.

[1992] You want to be in entertainment.

[1993] Or if you just want to be successful, I think, in any business.

[1994] Like, there's going to be people that they pretend when they're talking you.

[1995] They don't really give a fuck about you.

[1996] They're not having a real conversation.

[1997] They're angling.

[1998] They're just trying to work an angle.

[1999] They're just trying to, like, figure out a way to get close to you, to get your number, to get an email address.

[2000] They talk to you about this or that.

[2001] And some people are terrible at it.

[2002] They're just, like, right away.

[2003] Like, there's a thing that I love for you to invest in.

[2004] It's a new startup that's like, I love to show you a doc.

[2005] Like, no. Oh, bro.

[2006] Yeah, the currency of status.

[2007] Yeah.

[2008] It's a, yeah.

[2009] I had to have a conversation with this guy can't push and I go, hey man, I don't invest in anything.

[2010] I have zero and I don't invest in nothing.

[2011] I got nothing.

[2012] I have a guy who takes care of like financial stuff and as far as like me like investing in businesses.

[2013] I do zero of that.

[2014] I don't want to have nothing to do with that.

[2015] I don't want to, oh, you don't even have to think about it.

[2016] Well, I'll think about it.

[2017] I will fucking think about it.

[2018] If I give you a bunch of money and I'm going to attach to this company, I'm hoping you run it right.

[2019] Like, what are you crazy?

[2020] You don't think I'm going to think about that?

[2021] Of course I'm going to think about that.

[2022] Well, everything will be handled.

[2023] I don't do that.

[2024] I don't do it.

[2025] Sorry, not interested.

[2026] Yeah, that's tough.

[2027] Yeah, and some people just don't want to take no for an answer.

[2028] They just keep coming back.

[2029] And then you just kind of like, okay, I guess I need a new phone number now.

[2030] So do you got that.

[2031] I have four phone numbers.

[2032] Mm -hmm.

[2033] That's, I, it's, yeah, I'm thinking about maybe switching.

[2034] Yeah.

[2035] And again, you know, here we are, like, complaining about this stuff.

[2036] Listen, it's the smallest of things.

[2037] It's the smallest of things.

[2038] I always tell people that have too much work, I go, listen, man, the worst thing you can have is no work.

[2039] That's the worst thing.

[2040] To have too much work is so much better than have no work.

[2041] To be too busy is so much better rather than to wish that you were busy.

[2042] Yeah.

[2043] Yeah.

[2044] If you're too busy, you can back off a little bit.

[2045] You could take some decisions and go, you know what?

[2046] I'm wearing myself out.

[2047] I'm a slow down a little.

[2048] Do a little less of this, a little less of that, and you'll be all right.

[2049] Yeah.

[2050] There's something I was like I would kind of tell myself in the last handful of years, I would say yes to...

[2051] damn near everything because like what the story I was telling you about in 21 that's where I'm coming from so you know you say yes so that you get to that point where you can say no yes for the long term right and and finally this year like you know the the quantity of shows is going to dial back a little bit You know, I've already said no to some things that I would have dreamed of just having the opportunity to do in years past.

[2052] But, you know, it's more time, you know, with my wife and my kids and, you know, doing my best to find that balance with the babies.

[2053] Mm -hmm.

[2054] Do you take them on the road with you at all?

[2055] Cherry pick, some, you know, some good ones.

[2056] They were down here in Texas with me in October.

[2057] We did Green Hall and we did the Texas Motor Speedway before that.

[2058] And so they came down for that weekend.

[2059] They were in Nashville with me in December, but, you know, not all the time.

[2060] And, yeah, I'm trying to balance that.

[2061] Yeah, you don't want to wear them out either.

[2062] Yeah, I don't want to wear them out and just trying to have some normalcy and routine in their life and hopefully, you know, trying to navigate those waters.

[2063] Mm -hmm.

[2064] And, you know, with Samantha, my wife, like, trying to, yeah, trying to balance that.

[2065] Yeah.

[2066] There's, like, so many benefits to the life that you have, but then there is that, the time away.

[2067] Yeah.

[2068] Yeah, I've been gone hundreds of days a year for years.

[2069] That's hard.

[2070] That's hard.

[2071] Yeah, I mean, I've had these guys on that are WWE wrestlers, and not only they've gone hundreds of days a year, it's like some of them were doing 250, 260 days a year.

[2072] But they're also getting thrown on the tables 260 days a year.

[2073] They're getting pile -drived and fucking body slammed and, like, imagine that.

[2074] And then you come home.

[2075] Every Monday and Friday.

[2076] Yeah.

[2077] And then, like, you know, the two other ones in the week that aren't on TV.

[2078] Exactly.

[2079] It's like 52 weeks a year.

[2080] And you come home and you're beat up and exhausted and broken and your back's in agony.

[2081] Your knees are all fucked up.

[2082] And, yeah.

[2083] Yeah, that's another level.

[2084] Like, back to the, to the, like, pain pill thing, like, the knees and the necks and things like that.

[2085] Oh, yeah, all those guys.

[2086] And music, too, a lot of folks, the knees, necks, and backs.

[2087] Oh, sure, man. I mean, that's how we lost both Prince and Tom Petty.

[2088] Lost them, both of them to fentanyl, you know.

[2089] Yeah.

[2090] Sad shit, man. Just, and with Prince, it was just all that dancing, and apparently he had a fucked up hip for a long time, and he was in agony.

[2091] You know, and it just...

[2092] Doing all those moves, all those years, show after show after show after show.

[2093] Yeah.

[2094] I'm friends with Maynard from Tool, and he had to get a fucking hip replacement from stomping.

[2095] Yeah.

[2096] He's always like stomping on stage when he's singing.

[2097] Yeah.

[2098] It blew his hip out.

[2099] If I keep going with my neck, I'll end up having, you know, neck stuff.

[2100] I already got this thing that I lay on 10 minutes a day at the end after shows.

[2101] It decompresses all of it.

[2102] What's going on with your neck right now?

[2103] It's just head banging and stuff like that when I'm playing shows.

[2104] Right, but is it fucked up?

[2105] No, it's nothing serious now.

[2106] That's why, you know, maybe I need to adjust that.

[2107] How long are you in town for them?

[2108] I'm leaving tomorrow, tomorrow, or tomorrow morning, like later on in the morning.

[2109] What time in the morning?

[2110] What time is your flight?

[2111] 9 .30.

[2112] I want to see if I can get you into ways to well.

[2113] There's a stem cell clinic in Austin, and they'll take care of you.

[2114] They'll shoot you up with stem cells in your neck.

[2115] Hell yeah.

[2116] Neck problems.

[2117] I was trying to talk my dad into that.

[2118] My dad worked in the mines for 20 -some years.

[2119] Oh, wow.

[2120] And, you know, he's 70, 71 now, and he's feeling all that.

[2121] Is that where minor imperfections come from?

[2122] Yeah.

[2123] That was a great song.

[2124] Yeah, my buddy, Zach McCord and I wrote that for our dads.

[2125] That's a great song.

[2126] Yeah, both of our dads are minors, and that was for him.

[2127] It's great song.

[2128] Yeah.

[2129] Yeah, that work is fucking insane.

[2130] That works insane.

[2131] Yeah.

[2132] That's like when people, man, we want to talk about the hard life.

[2133] That's the hard life.

[2134] Yeah.

[2135] Yeah, when my dad was my age, from 27 to 30, he worked in 26 .5 inches of coal.

[2136] That's from floor to ceiling.

[2137] And it was for a small, so, you know, there's coal companies, and then sometimes there'd just be this guy that was a landowner back in the day that would get, you know, the right permits and stuff to be able to mine to see him a coal on some property you bought.

[2138] And that's what the case was with, you know, that job that he had there for three years was it was like for a small, like, private mine.

[2139] They weren't using roof bolts.

[2140] Oh, my God.

[2141] So he had cave -ins before where he was digging his way, crawling on his belly, trying to dig his way.

[2142] Oh, my God.

[2143] He did that for three years.

[2144] Oh, my God.

[2145] And he had cave -ins like that?

[2146] Mm -hmm.

[2147] Yeah, it's completely, I mean, that never fly nowadays.

[2148] But my dad started in the, he was born in 53, so he was started in the early 70s, and he went into the early 90s.

[2149] So he was at that unique time where there was still some of that old time stuff.

[2150] And then, you know, it was transitioning into the modern day mines, you know, today where it's just underground cities.

[2151] Like when he left, he was the long wall boss at federal number two for Consol.

[2152] And that was the biggest long wall in the world at the time.

[2153] And I mean, that mine, it stretches like over 100 miles underground.

[2154] You know, it's from Western County, it's like from Western Mon County to damn near the Ohio River.

[2155] Like, really?

[2156] Yeah, and that, and, and, and that's a small, that's small to compare to what people are doing now.

[2157] Really?

[2158] Oh, yeah, they got mines in, like, Utah where because of the elevation of the mountains, they can almost, they're like, they can drive in to a seam of coal and automatically be like, you know, already 10 ,000 feet underground because of the height of the mountain above them.

[2159] And then it's like 16 foot seams of coal and stuff like that.

[2160] Things have gotten, you know, the stuff that my dad started out in is just a thing of the past.

[2161] So when your dad was doing it, he was, would you say 27 inches?

[2162] 26 and a half, that's what he told me. And so you're just on your back chipping coal out?

[2163] No, they would have machinery.

[2164] They weren't doing that by hand.

[2165] So with machinery, though, you're crawling on your stomach?

[2166] Yeah, crawling on your stomach.

[2167] And then how are you getting it out?

[2168] Would have been conveyor belts or something.

[2169] Oh, my God.

[2170] Yeah.

[2171] And you're just in that entire enclosed environment.

[2172] Yeah.

[2173] All day long.

[2174] Yeah, I would be freaking out if it was that type.

[2175] Oh, my God.

[2176] And then you're dealing with cave -ins.

[2177] Yeah.

[2178] Oh, my God.

[2179] Yeah.

[2180] I had no idea that there's mines that are that big that are 100 miles.

[2181] Oh, yeah, they're huge.

[2182] Is there photos or videos of those mines?

[2183] That sounds insane.

[2184] I had no idea.

[2185] Yeah, like they'll keep, you know, from what I understand, I think we got mines that start in Western Mon County and go all the way to like Wetzel County.

[2186] Like over close to the Ohio River.

[2187] They're huge.

[2188] Wow.

[2189] And these massive ceilings and have lights in there and everything?

[2190] Yeah, I got, you know, lights and guys can, I imagine, like, pretty much stand up.

[2191] Have you seen those mines?

[2192] I don't know how to see them in it.

[2193] They've had fires in them since, like, the 50s?

[2194] Yeah, there's a town in Pennsylvania, I think, that, you know, there's like a before and after picture because ended up one, like an old mine ended up catching fire and the thing's still like smoking.

[2195] Toxic fumes.

[2196] Everybody had to move out of the town.

[2197] Yeah, like 50, 60 years later.

[2198] Yeah, it's still on fire to this day.

[2199] Just like, what?

[2200] Like, how much coal's in there?

[2201] Yeah.

[2202] The fires are too deep to burn and too hot to be fought effectively.

[2203] 250 years before.

[2204] What?

[2205] However, experts believe the fires under Centralia could burn another 250 years for the exhaust the coal supply that fuels them.

[2206] Wow.

[2207] The fires are too deep and burned too hot to be fought effectively.

[2208] That's insane.

[2209] Jamie, if you would, fact...

[2210] 162.

[2211] Wow.

[2212] Fact check me on, like, how long those minds can go.

[2213] I was just trying to figure out where should I check before?

[2214] Just be like, like, like, biggest minds in the world, longest minds.

[2215] Just make sure I'm not talking out of my ass.

[2216] Yeah.

[2217] Well, it sounds like...

[2218] Again, I'm a musician.

[2219] At the very least, they're huge.

[2220] And just, this is all that knowledge, this is my dad's knowledge that I'm trying to, like, spit back out.

[2221] Just make sure I'm not talking out my ass.

[2222] Yeah, what is the largest coal mines?

[2223] 10 ,000 acres?

[2224] Whoa.

[2225] That's pretty big.

[2226] That's Miles.

[2227] That's fucking huge.

[2228] 10 ,000 acres.

[2229] And it's a mine?

[2230] Hobat mine complex.

[2231] Holy shit, where's that?

[2232] West Virginia.

[2233] I just talked in West Virginia.

[2234] I'm sure there's the bigger ones in Colorado.

[2235] Do they have footage of that?

[2236] I mean, it's going to be a lot underground, so.

[2237] Yeah, but I'd like to see it.

[2238] I just want to see what it looks like.

[2239] 10 ,000 acres of mines.

[2240] Holy shit, man. That's incredible.

[2241] Yeah, they got some big ones out in Utah.

[2242] Alabama's got some big ones.

[2243] I think drama knows those.

[2244] I would have never guessed.

[2245] I would have never guessed they're that big underground.

[2246] Oh, that's a, there's strip mines there.

[2247] That's strip mines.

[2248] That's different.

[2249] That's the, like, underground coal mine footage.

[2250] It's a hard life, man. That's a hard life.

[2251] Yeah.

[2252] And in some places, it's the only thing that's available, certain parts of the country.

[2253] Yeah, it was a great opportunity for my dad.

[2254] You know, it allowed him to, to, you know, elevate himself economically in life.

[2255] Does he have lung problems because of it?

[2256] No. No, no, he was, I think, starting in the early 70s, I think they figured a lot of that out.

[2257] Oh, yeah?

[2258] Yeah, I don't think it was as bad then as it was, you know, back in the 50s and before.

[2259] Yeah, I don't think he has any, like, long -term issues.

[2260] You know, Sturgel has a lot of people in his family that came from that, too.

[2261] It's like there's, that is just a different understanding of hard work and of poverty, too.

[2262] I mean, the people that, that when those minds shut down, that's another sort of similar example, those minds, if they shut down, the whole town relies on those minds, and there's nothing.

[2263] Mm -hmm.

[2264] Yeah.

[2265] Yeah, you got ghost towns in West Virginia.

[2266] Mm -hmm.

[2267] You got, uh, did you ever read the book, Rocket Boys?

[2268] No. By Homer Hickham, and then they made the movie, October Sky about it.

[2269] Did you ever watch that?

[2270] No, what is it?

[2271] Dude, it's an incredible...

[2272] Let's just say you out here.

[2273] It's Bailey Mine.

[2274] Look that machine.

[2275] Holy shit.

[2276] There you go, yeah.

[2277] And what is, what causes coal?

[2278] It's vegetation and pressure over millions of years, isn't it?

[2279] Is that what it is?

[2280] Wow.

[2281] Wow, look at this fucking life, man. underground just using machines to cut out chunks of the earth that people are going to light on fire and then most people want to ban that shit anyway but meanwhile China we're just looking at how many like when people are talking about we gotta stop people from eating meat to save the planet bitch you need to pay attention to the world because most of that shit's coming from China there's more than a thousand coal mines in China Yeah, there's more tonnage of coal being mine now than ever before in history.

[2282] Crazy.

[2283] You know, it's...

[2284] Yeah.

[2285] Yeah, it's a complicated world with a lot of, like, really narrow -minded narratives.

[2286] Like, a lot of confusing things that people repeat, that they don't really understand the whole depth to what they're saying.

[2287] Yeah, you could close down all the minds in the United States, and that demand for that coal is still going to be there.

[2288] Yeah.

[2289] And it'll just get mine somewhere else.

[2290] Yeah.

[2291] That's not to say that maybe, you know, there will come a day where Cole probably becomes a thing of the past and isn't used anymore, but...

[2292] Probably, you know.

[2293] Once they run out of it.

[2294] Yeah, once they run out of it or, you know, they think of something better, but it's just, you know, it just isn't.

[2295] And then we're going to have to deal with earthquakes and sinkholes because we're going to fucking carve these huge fucking...

[2296] Yeah.

[2297] pockets out of the earth and things are going to collapse.

[2298] Yeah.

[2299] Yeah.

[2300] They, you know, at the end of the day, if that's not going to, that's not going to solve the world's problems if they just shut all that down in the U .S. overnight.

[2301] I watched a video of a coal mine collapsing in China, and it was horrifying.

[2302] My friend Tom Sagar and I, every day, we send each other the worst shit we find on Instagram.

[2303] It's, it's very traumatizing.

[2304] It's like, I'll show it to you on my phone after the podcast is over.

[2305] You're going to go, what the fuck, man?

[2306] Every day.

[2307] Every day we send each other car accidents, gunshots, animal attacks over and over and every day.

[2308] Every day is some new shit.

[2309] Yeah.

[2310] And one of them was this insane coal explosion.

[2311] This is it.

[2312] This is it.

[2313] So these people are working in this.

[2314] Oh, my God.

[2315] Yeah.

[2316] They just get engulfed.

[2317] Open pit coal mine collapsed.

[2318] Four people, injured six, missing 49 others.

[2319] Yeah.

[2320] Just 53 folks.

[2321] They're dead.

[2322] They might be missing.

[2323] They're dead.

[2324] Massive landslide.

[2325] Wow.

[2326] Yeah.

[2327] Wow.

[2328] That's mean, you're digging into the fucking ground and create instability.

[2329] Scary shit.

[2330] Yeah.

[2331] Yeah, that's insane.

[2332] Yeah.

[2333] The people want to stop coal mining.

[2334] Like, yeah, I understand.

[2335] But you have to understand how much of that is going on outside this country.

[2336] We detailed that yesterday.

[2337] We went to this sort of a deep dive on it.

[2338] Most of it is coming from China.

[2339] Most of it's China.

[2340] And then second place is India.

[2341] The United States is minimal in comparison to what's going on over there.

[2342] And they're not going to stop.

[2343] They don't give a fuck.

[2344] They don't get a fuck about what you say about the environment.

[2345] Like what?

[2346] Yeah, over there in Paris, like when they're all having that conference, like, they don't get a shit about what they're saying and those things.

[2347] Well, it's just crazy when they're talking about climate change.

[2348] And then they cornered Bill Gates.

[2349] Like, you fly here on a private jet.

[2350] Like, what do you?

[2351] It's like, yeah, I actually have one of the largest carbon footprints.

[2352] Like, So you're a hypocrite.

[2353] Like, what's your real angle here, buddy?

[2354] Like, you probably have a business that profits from people deciding to take a green angle.

[2355] And that's really what's going on.

[2356] He's trying to push plant -based meat and a bunch of other bullshit.

[2357] And that's why it's important for him to get that narrative out there about climate change.

[2358] Just like during the pandemic, he was heavily invested in MRNA vaccines.

[2359] And then at the end, he bailed, he sold all his shares, and then started talking shit.

[2360] Like, it wasn't as effective as we hoped.

[2361] Like, what about what you were saying in the beginning when you were saying it was really effective and then everyone needs to take it?

[2362] Remember that?

[2363] Why is anybody listening to that guy either, by the way, when it comes to public health?

[2364] You look like one of the least fucking healthy people alive.

[2365] Like, as far as people his age, he looks way older than he should look.

[2366] He's got a pot belly.

[2367] He looks like shit.

[2368] Yeah.

[2369] It looks like total shit.

[2370] Yeah, and that, I mean, that vaccine thing, that was, you know, I had to get that, I had to show that to play my shows.

[2371] Yeah.

[2372] A lot of people did.

[2373] In 21.

[2374] Yeah, and, you know, I felt like I had to do it in order to work.

[2375] A lot of people did.

[2376] A lot of my friends did.

[2377] They did it because they had to.

[2378] People were coerced, and then it didn't even work.

[2379] Then I ended up getting it.

[2380] Yeah, of course.

[2381] And, you know, it was fine.

[2382] It just, it was like a cold for a little bit.

[2383] Yeah, it wasn't what we were feared, what we're afraid of.

[2384] And then you realize, like, oh, there's a lot of...

[2385] there's a lot of motivation that they have to scare the shit out of you, because that's how you'll do it.

[2386] Remember in the White House?

[2387] This is during Omicron, which is like the most mild version of COVID.

[2388] It was basically just a mild cold for most people, especially healthy people.

[2389] And the White House put out a release that said, for the vaccinated people, you've done your job.

[2390] For the unvaccinated people, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death.

[2391] Yeah.

[2392] Where did that come from?

[2393] They're cunts.

[2394] That's what it came from.

[2395] You're a bunch of cunts.

[2396] Yeah.

[2397] And it's not even true.

[2398] It wasn't even true.

[2399] I mean, the number of people that are dying from COVID now, like the CDC is like, we need to get, people need to get vaccinated.

[2400] The COVID deaths are up.

[2401] No, they're not.

[2402] Go look.

[2403] They're really low.

[2404] They're super low.

[2405] And by the way, those people that are dying, they're in terrible shape.

[2406] They're not doing good already.

[2407] And most of the people that died even during the pandemic, they, they, it was some, some of the range of 90 % of the people that died had an average of four comorbidities.

[2408] Yeah.

[2409] Four things that were killing them.

[2410] And then COVID got them.

[2411] And then also there was the thing where the hospital had an incentive to say that, you know, so -and -so died from COVID.

[2412] Yeah.

[2413] Yeah.

[2414] Yeah.

[2415] When, you know, my friend's grandpa had some horrible disease.

[2416] And he didn't have COVID.

[2417] And when he died, he died in a nursing home.

[2418] They listed him as a COVID death.

[2419] And he was furious.

[2420] He's like, he didn't have fucking COVID, man. They didn't even test him for COVID.

[2421] But they listed him as a COVID death.

[2422] Get that money.

[2423] Yeah.

[2424] Exactly.

[2425] There was a financial incentive to list people as COVID deaths.

[2426] And that's how you inflate the numbers, and that's how you motivate people to take that vaccine.

[2427] It's wild, man. It's wild what they pulled off.

[2428] There's a lot of goofy shit.

[2429] And then that year, year and a half, two years.

[2430] Scary.

[2431] Scary would happen.

[2432] My wife and I talked about it, and we drew the hard line with our children.

[2433] You know, we weren't going to do that.

[2434] Good for you.

[2435] Yeah.

[2436] Good for you.

[2437] Because, you know, my kids were being pressured by some of their families' friends.

[2438] Like, their families, like their kids were getting it.

[2439] And their families were wondering why my kids weren't getting it.

[2440] I'm like, hey, man, you can go fuck yourself.

[2441] This shit's all totally experimental.

[2442] And by the way, the early data, very early on, it was shown that it's not dangerous for kids.

[2443] Both of my kids got it, and it was nothing.

[2444] I mean nothing.

[2445] They've had flus that knocked them on their ass, and this was nothing like that.

[2446] It was very mild for the kids.

[2447] Yeah.

[2448] Yeah, you get over it just fine.

[2449] What did Tim Kennedy say?

[2450] My kids shit it out in a day or something like that.

[2451] Dude, look, you know, obviously I experienced the backlash in the wildest way because I got healthy quick without the vaccine.

[2452] But they came for me in a way that was so stupid.

[2453] It was such a checkers move.

[2454] It was such a dumb move.

[2455] Like, because you're going after a guy for taking a medication that worked.

[2456] Yeah.

[2457] Like, by the way, it was one medication amongst many medications that I said I took.

[2458] And here I am, three days after this thing that's supposed to kill you, I'm 55.

[2459] I'm not young.

[2460] And but I'm healthy and I work out all the time and I take a lot of vitamins and I'm always fit.

[2461] And I got over it quick.

[2462] I'm saying, sorry, I can't make the dates.

[2463] It was about a concert that I was supposed to do with Chappelle.

[2464] We were doing shows that weekend.

[2465] I'm like, we got to move the shows.

[2466] Sorry, I got COVID.

[2467] I'm fine now.

[2468] Three days ago, I got it.

[2469] Yeah.

[2470] And then they, oh, he's taking veterinary medicine.

[2471] It's like that's when you get to see how corrupt the media is.

[2472] That they're all on CNN and MSNBC and all these different shows lying.

[2473] Straight up lying.

[2474] I didn't take horse dewormer.

[2475] I talk human Ivermectin that I got from a doctor.

[2476] Yeah.

[2477] A doctor that, by the way, they have prescribed that medication over, like, what, three billion times for who knows how many people all over the world?

[2478] It's on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines.

[2479] Big range of things.

[2480] Yeah.

[2481] And I imagine you got good doctors to.

[2482] I got good doctors.

[2483] I bet you do.

[2484] I got good doctors that are objective that really understand health.

[2485] Yeah.

[2486] And they're not just about injecting you as shit.

[2487] They're about staying healthy all the time.

[2488] I mean, I've been preaching the value of a healthy lifestyle, healthy diet, and vitamin supplementation forever.

[2489] So when I get sick, I get over it quick.

[2490] If I got sick at all, and the only reason why I got sick was...

[2491] I was out my friend John Showman, who's a shout out to my friend John, who is a pool queue manufacturer.

[2492] And I love this dude.

[2493] And he makes some of the best pool cues in the world.

[2494] And I was in Florida, so I got a chance to see him.

[2495] And we played pool till like fucking 3 .30 in the morning.

[2496] And I had like five margaritas.

[2497] That's why I got sick.

[2498] Yeah, we get that rundown a little bit.

[2499] And I was after a show.

[2500] So I did a show at an arena in Florida.

[2501] So people are screaming.

[2502] So it's like 15 ,000 people.

[2503] And I'm in the round.

[2504] And they're laughing.

[2505] So it's, ah!

[2506] So they just have COVID spray headed your way.

[2507] Getting rained on by droplets was a hot word there for a couple years.

[2508] And I was still fine.

[2509] I was still fine until I got drunk.

[2510] I mean, I was at the end of the night, I was pretty tired.

[2511] I was just beaten up from playing pool to 3 .30 in the morning.

[2512] And then we were drinking.

[2513] And the next day I was like, God, am I hung over?

[2514] I feel like shit.

[2515] And then it hit me. I did a show the next night with COVID.

[2516] No problem.

[2517] Killed.

[2518] Had a great time.

[2519] Yay.

[2520] See you guys.

[2521] And then on the way home was like, man, I feel like shit.

[2522] And then I called my wife.

[2523] I was like, I might have it.

[2524] I feel kind of shitty.

[2525] Then I woke up in the morning.

[2526] I was sweating.

[2527] I had a fever.

[2528] It was like got tested, got positive.

[2529] Got all the meds, got the IV vitamins.

[2530] The next day I was like, oh, feel pretty good.

[2531] And then the day after that, I made that video.

[2532] I was like, yeah, I'm all right.

[2533] Yeah.

[2534] And then they came for me. I was like, wow, you corrupt cocksuckers.

[2535] You don't give a shit about health.

[2536] If you did, you'd be saying, hey, look.

[2537] This guy who's not young, who got COVID and is not vaccinated, got over it pretty quickly.

[2538] So look, there's maybe it's not as bad as we think it is, or maybe it's not as bad as you're fit and healthy, or maybe there's some other options other than just taking this experimental medication that's never been mass injected into hundreds of millions of people in this country.

[2539] Yeah.

[2540] But no, they were all corrupt because they're all a part of this industry that was relying on the advertising revenue from the pharmaceutical drug industry.

[2541] And they were all in the pocket.

[2542] Oh, yeah.

[2543] They jumped in.

[2544] Dirty people, man. Dirty, dirty, dirty monsters.

[2545] Yeah, and they came for it.

[2546] And, you know, most folks around the country, you know, a lot of folks, they don't speak publicly on it, but they saw that and knew exactly what it was.

[2547] Well, he killed their credibility.

[2548] They're going for Joe and then just kept, you know, moved on and never tune in anyways to watch them.

[2549] Well, there's a lot of people now that will watch those news reports on things, especially medical things, and go, hmm, how much you tell them the truth?

[2550] How much you tell them?

[2551] How come you guys are ignoring all the deaths?

[2552] How come you guys aren't talking at all about the vaccine deaths?

[2553] How come you guys aren't talking at all about the all -cause mortality spike?

[2554] That's unprecedented.

[2555] How can we not talking about that?

[2556] Are you guys the news?

[2557] Are you guys some corporate mouthpiece for some company that pays you exorbitant amounts of money to push their shit?

[2558] Because that's what it seems like.

[2559] And if that's the case, somebody should probably step in and regulate you cock suckers.

[2560] Yeah, I was, I just watched the, uh, that, the Netflix short series on, a painkiller.

[2561] Oh my God, it's amazing.

[2562] I just saw that and, you know, that, you know, I affected West Virginia big time.

[2563] Mm -hmm.

[2564] But I didn't, you know, I, and there was a dramatization of, of kind of the bullet points of what happened there.

[2565] That was, yeah, there, it's a broken system.

[2566] Well, they're monsters, man. They don't care about death.

[2567] They care about profit.

[2568] And that is their business.

[2569] Their business is making money.

[2570] I mean, there's the people that make the medication, and their business is just to make effective medication.

[2571] They're scientists.

[2572] And then there's the people that are just money people.

[2573] And they're just their businesses to sell it and sell it as hard as they can.

[2574] And they're incentivized, especially the Sackler family.

[2575] I mean, that family is still not in jail.

[2576] Yeah.

[2577] How are they not in jail?

[2578] And they gave up $6 billion to try to avoid prosecution.

[2579] But then the Netflix special, the series came out.

[2580] And when that series came out, I believe there was a judge that put a hold on the decision to allow them to have immunity.

[2581] And they were like, hang on.

[2582] Hang the fuck on.

[2583] What did you do?

[2584] And when you see what they did, you know, I had Peter Berg on who made that series.

[2585] He's amazing.

[2586] And he explained it what they did.

[2587] And, you know, he went into even more depth, you know, like things that he couldn't cover in the series.

[2588] And it's terrible.

[2589] It's terrible, awful, evil, demonic behavior.

[2590] That set off a chain reaction that affected the whole old generation.

[2591] And so many people died, but the people that didn't die, how many lives are ruined?

[2592] In my family, I have people whose lives were ruined.

[2593] Multiple people in my immediate, in my close family, and my connected family, you know, I know many people who just got devastated by that shit, and they're still struggling to this day to try to get off of it.

[2594] You know, the kids that grew up in migraine, we lost, I think, one or two to a couple accidents, and then one to cancer, and then the rest are all as a result of that.

[2595] It's fun.

[2596] It ended up ODN.

[2597] Do you ever see, there's a real good documentary on Huntington, West Virginia.

[2598] I think it was called heroin.

[2599] no and it's just like falling around the fire chief of like Huntington and she's just going around just person this is just like a day in the life and she's just going from person to person you know oh dear apartment to house just either saving somebody or finding somebody too late just all day it's a it's incredible they did a good job of like showing the reality of it and what it does if you talk to EMTs that shit has happened all over the country All the country right now, still to this day.

[2600] And now, unfortunately, it's harder for people to get the real pills.

[2601] So now they're getting this cartel shit.

[2602] It's laced with fentanyl.

[2603] Yeah.

[2604] And they're all fucking dying left and right.

[2605] So many people are dying.

[2606] It's a parent's worst nightmare.

[2607] Oh my god, it's so scary, man. You know, at my comedy club, we had to start carrying Narcan, you know.

[2608] It was one of our security guys made an imperative to get Narcan to make sure that, you know, like we should have that on.

[2609] Yeah.

[2610] Fortunately, we haven't had to use it.

[2611] Yeah.

[2612] We haven't had anybody overdose during a show, but we did have a lady go into a K -hole.

[2613] She was taking ketamine.

[2614] There's ketamine for whatever.

[2615] There's fucking people that are recreationally taking this insane drug, which is a disassociative.

[2616] Can you?

[2617] I think so.

[2618] I think you get that on Amazon.

[2619] It's wild.

[2620] I don't know if they do it.

[2621] I'm pretty sure.

[2622] It's so potent, man. Get it like a vitamin.

[2623] And so they're doing like this nasal spray.

[2624] People are doing nasal spray.

[2625] And it's legal.

[2626] In some weird way.

[2627] Like, it's there.

[2628] I mean, therapy.

[2629] Getting chemotherapy.

[2630] You're just getting blasted with ketamine all day.

[2631] These people are, cat.

[2632] I know people that are claimed sober.

[2633] Yeah.

[2634] But they're in therapy and they take ketamine for therapy.

[2635] Like, bitch, you are not sober.

[2636] Nah, you just, you're, you're kied up all day long.

[2637] And they just party in a different way.

[2638] Woo!

[2639] So I have friends that love it.

[2640] They love it.

[2641] I'm like, get that shit away from me, man. John Lilly, the guy who invented the sensory deprivation tank.

[2642] Have you ever used one of those?

[2643] No. Oh, they're amazing.

[2644] We have one here.

[2645] I'd be interested to check that out.

[2646] By itself without ketamine, it's really great.

[2647] You don't really need ketamine.

[2648] But John Lilly used to do it with intramuscular ketamine.

[2649] So he would inject his thigh with a blast of ketamine and then lie down.

[2650] going to this other dimension and communicate with beings and, you know, it's like whatever the fuck happens when you take ketamine.

[2651] And meanwhile, people are doing this recognition, like, at a comedy show.

[2652] And out at a show.

[2653] And this lady just fell down and just blacked out in the middle of the show.

[2654] And it was like, what is she on?

[2655] What is she on?

[2656] And the boyfriend's like, oh, she took some ketamine.

[2657] Like, she's in a Khole in the middle of a comedy show.

[2658] Damn.

[2659] Probably while Duncan's on stage.

[2660] Which is ironic.

[2661] Man, I love Duncan's cartoon that he had there on Netflix.

[2662] I don't know how the fuck they canceled that.

[2663] Yeah, me and my bandmates like that.

[2664] Adventure Time, right?

[2665] Was it called?

[2666] Yeah, just like, he did a monologue.

[2667] Was that what it was called?

[2668] I can't remember what it was called.

[2669] No, that was not what it was called.

[2670] Adventure Time was like the same guy who did it also did Adventure Time.

[2671] The Night Gospel.

[2672] The Night Gospel.

[2673] Thank you.

[2674] Yeah.

[2675] Oh, my God.

[2676] Duncan's the best.

[2677] And the cartoon just follow his monologue.

[2678] Yeah.

[2679] It was great.

[2680] Yeah.

[2681] No, it's incredible.

[2682] He's, like I said, he's such a unique guy.

[2683] And when he moved, D .R. was so happy.

[2684] I was so happy.

[2685] And he's so happy, too.

[2686] You know, Austin's such an amazing place.

[2687] You made it like a, it's like the epic, it's like the center of comedy right now.

[2688] Yeah, we, when we built the mothership, that was the goal.

[2689] I never thought it would work as well as it did.

[2690] It was just kind of like, let's try.

[2691] Let's give it a shot.

[2692] You know, we're here.

[2693] I'm not moving.

[2694] I got out of California and I'm like, I'm not going back.

[2695] I got out of California early.

[2696] I saw the writing on the wall in May of 2020.

[2697] So the country shut down in March, and I was like, well, you know, two weeks, you know, flatten the curve.

[2698] And then when it was like a month later, I was like, what the fuck is going on?

[2699] I'm always distrustful of authority and I'm always distrustful of narratives.

[2700] I just, I don't, there's just too much bullshit in the world and I've read too many books.

[2701] Yeah.

[2702] I've been...

[2703] I was been exposed to too many conspiracies.

[2704] I went too far down the JFK rabbit hole and the 9 -11 rabbit hole and the fucking NDAA and the fucking the Patriot Act.

[2705] And I'm friends with Alex Jones, right?

[2706] So my fucking, my head is filled with conspiracies.

[2707] You know, with all this Epstein shit.

[2708] Alex Jones taught me about that a long time ago.

[2709] He's telling me about that.

[2710] And I was like, come on, man. You're telling me there's an island where they take elites and they film them having sex with kids.

[2711] Come on.

[2712] He was right about that one.

[2713] He was 100 % right about that.

[2714] He's right about most things.

[2715] Alex is just, unfortunately, he occasionally...

[2716] goes down the wrong road and he did with Sandy Hook and you know and so people always point to that but he's a human being you know people human beings make mistakes and he made a horrible mistake with that but he's right way more than he's wrong and he's right about all of this shit he was telling me about the world economic forum a long time ago I'm like what power do they have what are they gonna do and now you see these fucking people like you own nothing and you'll be happy like what Yeah, that European guy.

[2717] Yeah, Klaus Schwab.

[2718] We have a photo of him in the bathroom.

[2719] You've seen it?

[2720] That's kind of bad.

[2721] I haven't seen that, no. We've got a photo of him with the full Darth Vader garb on.

[2722] Like, what he's literally telling you what he is at every step.

[2723] He's talking like this.

[2724] It's like too much on the nose.

[2725] Like if he was a bad guy in a movie, you were like, that's too caricature -ish.

[2726] No one's going to be that obvious.

[2727] Dress up like Darth Vader, talking a German accent.

[2728] And then try to control the world and get everybody to give up their cars and eat bugs.

[2729] He's like a villain in a comedy.

[2730] Amazing.

[2731] You know, that goes back to like the Bill Gates thing, too, where he's jetting around.

[2732] But then he's preaching to you.

[2733] Yeah.

[2734] You know, you should do this.

[2735] You shouldn't do this.

[2736] Yeah, that doesn't apply to me, though.

[2737] He was preaching about health.

[2738] Those folks are a big fan of that, aren't they?

[2739] Yeah, they're a big fan of that.

[2740] Meanwhile, they were all eating meat.

[2741] Like, one of the reports of the people that went to this thing, they're at this conference, they're all eating chicken and steak, and they're talking about how people need to stop eating meat.

[2742] Like, what the fuck are you saying?

[2743] This is all bullshit.

[2744] Yeah.

[2745] This is all just control.

[2746] It's the Oliver Anthony song.

[2747] You know?

[2748] That's what it is.

[2749] He's a great example, too, right?

[2750] Like that guy's first gig that he ever did was in front of like 14 ,000 people.

[2751] Did it like a farmer's market.

[2752] Yeah.

[2753] Incredible.

[2754] Incredible.

[2755] The state fair, I think it was.

[2756] Like a farmer's market, something like that.

[2757] Yeah, I think it was like a farmer's market.

[2758] Yeah.

[2759] Jamie was telling me about that.

[2760] He said when he heard about that, he got over there to try to.

[2761] you know protect him from what he knew was coming his way yeah i helped him too i got him on the phone like early on he was like well people are telling me that i should sign this and say i go listen to me man don't sign shit don't say if they're doing that they're just trying to catch you when you're vulnerable they're trying to catch you when you're vulnerable and they're trying to lock you up some sort of a contract it's like well people are saying that if i don't act now no no no no no no no no no I go, listen, man, you got talent.

[2762] You're fucking talented.

[2763] You ain't got to do shit.

[2764] You're gonna be fine.

[2765] You got talent.

[2766] People love you.

[2767] You don't have to do shit.

[2768] You don't have to sign shit.

[2769] You don't want anybody controlling you.

[2770] Don't sign any kind of, for whatever they're, if they're giving you a million dollars or five million dollars, that means they think they can make 10 or 20.

[2771] And they're going to make it off of you.

[2772] More than that.

[2773] More than that.

[2774] And you're going to be the one that gets fucked.

[2775] Don't do it.

[2776] You're the one with talent.

[2777] You don't need anybody, man. You already made it.

[2778] You already got through.

[2779] People already realized that Richman from Richmond, Richmond, North of Richmond, that song is so goddamn good.

[2780] People heard that song.

[2781] They're like, holy shit.

[2782] Yeah, connected.

[2783] Connected.

[2784] Just a dude with a guitar.

[2785] When you got 10 ,000 folks that'll come see anywhere you're at, you don't need anybody.

[2786] You don't need nobody.

[2787] You don't want any weasels and vampires.

[2788] Like Zach's song.

[2789] Cold, damn cold vampires.

[2790] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2791] Love that song.

[2792] That's a thing, man, finding the right people to work with, you know.

[2793] Yep.

[2794] And it's honestly, it's one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle if you find good people to surround yourself with.

[2795] 100%.

[2796] And good people in the business aspect, too.

[2797] I've had the same manager since I was an open micer.

[2798] I have the same manager for 35 years.

[2799] It's amazing.

[2800] 34 years?

[2801] 34 years, I think.

[2802] That's best case scenario.

[2803] Yeah, I've been doing comedy two years when I met that dude.

[2804] Yeah, rather than having like the coked up manager that's like, Oh, don't worry about your taxes.

[2805] I'll take care of that.

[2806] Exactly.

[2807] Yeah, yeah.

[2808] Yeah.

[2809] You know, there's a wide...

[2810] You should invest in this company.

[2811] Yeah, there's a wide spectrum.

[2812] And if you find yourself with good people, man, that's half the battle.

[2813] Just having good people around you.

[2814] Yeah.

[2815] And, you know, it had been...

[2816] I can...

[2817] I just met all of a real brief backstage at the opera just one night.

[2818] Just said hi.

[2819] So...

[2820] I don't know him, but I can only imagine what came his way.

[2821] He's going to be fine.

[2822] He's a good dude.

[2823] He's a good, solid dude.

[2824] He's going to be fun.

[2825] Yeah.

[2826] I've hung out with him.

[2827] He went to the mothership, and when Tom Seguer was there, he went up on stage and performed in front of everybody, and they went nuts.

[2828] Hell yeah.

[2829] They went nuts.

[2830] It was beautiful.

[2831] It was beautiful.

[2832] No one expected it, you know?

[2833] Tom got off stage.

[2834] He was like, I'm going to bring somebody up and brings up Oliver Anthony.

[2835] He went, yeah, they went nuts.

[2836] He's fucking living it, man. It's happening.

[2837] What a dream.

[2838] I mean, this guy was like selling farm equipment, you know?

[2839] Yeah, like seven months ago.

[2840] Yeah.

[2841] Yeah.

[2842] And now he's a giant superstar, but he's a cool motherfucker.

[2843] He's a genuine, nice guy, and he's really gotten into the Bible.

[2844] That's what's really crazy.

[2845] This guy was like smoking too much weed, drinking all the time, wasting his life.

[2846] and then has this like epiphany of like giving his life to Christ.

[2847] And then within weeks, his this song comes out within weeks mm -hmm and all of a sudden he's fucking huge it's like he did this thing where it's it's so cliche it's like in the movie like i'm gonna change my ways and and and and then it all happens right after that like it's hard to know what to believe in but it's hard not to believe when something like that happens yeah tell me that's a coincidence are you fucking sure it's a coincidence because i'm not yeah i'm not sure Seems like he's kind of like a messenger, like something connected in him, like whatever you want to say, whatever name you want to attribute to it, whether it's God, whether it's love, whether it's the universe, whatever it is, something got inside of him and he changed his life and he changed his mind and then he started changing the world.

[2848] Yeah.

[2849] Yeah.

[2850] Also, you got to be aware of anybody that says they know there's nothing.

[2851] Yeah.

[2852] You know what I mean?

[2853] Yeah.

[2854] Like where...

[2855] You don't know there's nothing.

[2856] Nobody knows.

[2857] I mean, that's nonsense.

[2858] Nobody knows.

[2859] I mean, that's faith.

[2860] It's either faith or don't have faith, but nobody knows.

[2861] But also, like you can't dismiss positive experiences.

[2862] You just can't.

[2863] You don't.

[2864] Who the fuck knows what happens when you die?

[2865] You do not know.

[2866] And then when you think about like the history of the Bible.

[2867] And you think about the history of the human race, the human race was essentially almost wiped out somewhere around 12 ,000 years ago.

[2868] Well, these stories all come from before that.

[2869] These stories were all oral traditions.

[2870] They're so similar to like the stories of 6 ,000 years ago.

[2871] Like the Epic of Gilgamesh is so similar to the story of Noah in the Ark. There's so many stories.

[2872] They're just like, there's got to be something to this stuff.

[2873] Yeah, it's coming from something.

[2874] It's coming from something.

[2875] Somewhere.

[2876] And there's so many parts of it that resonate with people still in their core.

[2877] Like when they think about what, when they have feelings of love and companionship and they see beauty in the world and they have these moments, they say, God damn, I know there's something.

[2878] I don't mean to say God damn there.

[2879] But damn it, I know there's something there.

[2880] I'm connected to something.

[2881] There's something there.

[2882] Yeah, and, you know, I have faith and go to church, and I think it helps me, helps me navigate, you know, and I'm not, I'm not pretending to know anything, that's for sure, but, you know, I choose to, I choose to partake.

[2883] A lot of the people that I know that choose to partake and choose to behave in a way that, that is inspired by that live beautiful lives.

[2884] I think there's something to that.

[2885] Yeah, yeah, if you come from a place of love and just trying to, trying to be the best of you, you know.

[2886] Yeah.

[2887] Who's it hurt?

[2888] That's exactly, I feel.

[2889] Can we leave on one of your songs?

[2890] Sure.

[2891] Okay, let's, uh, which one?

[2892] Let me think.

[2893] Um.

[2894] Minor impressions or minor imperfections.

[2895] Let's leave on that one.

[2896] That's a beautiful song.

[2897] That's a beautiful song because we've been talking about minors.

[2898] Yeah.

[2899] Let's leave on that.

[2900] Can you play that, Jamie?

[2901] And we'll wrap this bad boy up.

[2902] Tell everybody how to get a hold of you, social media, website.

[2903] Yeah, Charles Wesley Godwin.

[2904] My website, Charles W. Godwin has everything anybody would want to find.

[2905] All the dates, all the social media, the albums.

[2906] Do you have any dates coming up in Texas anytime soon?

[2907] I think I'm down here with Luke.

[2908] San Antonio and August were playing whatever the football stadium is down there.

[2909] Oh, cool.

[2910] Yeah, I'm one of Luke Holmes' openers this summer.

[2911] I love that dude, too.

[2912] Dude, he's awesome.

[2913] He's awesome.

[2914] We played a show way back before he was even doing.

[2915] Keep playing it, man. Oh, sorry, Jamie, my bad.

[2916] I just kept rambling.

[2917] Let it go.

[2918] All right, we're going to leave you with this, ladies and gentlemen.

[2919] Much love to everybody.

[2920] Bye.

[2921] Nice for having me on, man. My pleasure.

[2922] It'd be three more hours until those halls are full, but long walls don't run on 9 to 5.

[2923] I didn't get it then every day that man would fight to punch the clock and make it home alive.

[2924] He's got minor imperfections to blame it on his roots.

[2925] Callous is on his hands caught us on his boots.

[2926] He's not one for conversation when there's word to do.

[2927] Papal said get paid in cash company scripts and news.

[2928] Them city folks would shame them if he let them.

[2929] But he's proud of his minor imperfections.

[2930] Years and by and I grew up his brown hair faded white.

[2931] He somehow picks up every time.