Opening And Meet John Gentry

SPEAKER_01 0:45

From the heart of Willis, Texas comes a voice that blends grit of honky tonk with the soul of Texas Country. Hey everyone, it's Randy Holsey with Backstage Pass Radio. My guest here in the Crystal Vision studio today is an Army veteran turned rising artist, and he's carving out his own lane with songs that echo the legends while speaking to today's listeners. Today we're pulling back the curtain on his journey, his sound, and his story. So stick around and we'll talk to my man John Gentry when we return.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio, a podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. From chart-topping hits to underground gems, we explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a casual listener or a die hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melody. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Holsey.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

John, welcome into the studio, bud. It's great to have you here. It's a pleasure to be here, Randy. Yeah. It looks like that guitar you just pulled out of the case is almost brand spanking new. How old is that thing? Oh, actually, I got that back in March. Did you?

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Yeah, it's uh it's the newest uh addition to uh my obscene obsession of getting guitars. I had a lie about this one. I had to say, well, no. She's like, what is that? And I said, Well, I said, it's a gun. She's like, No, it's that's shaped like a guitar. I said, Yeah, no, it's like you know, one of them Tommy gun cases you see in them old Al Capone movies.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Well, you know, we talked a little bit before hitting the record button, and it's like, you could never have too many, man, you know, and all the tone woods sound so different, you know, not one of them sounds alike. So it doesn't hurt to have a little variety around, right? That's true, that's true. Well, how's life up in the big city of Willis, Texas? I I'm guessing that's where you drove in from, right? Yeah, that's true. And the and the traffic was wonderful too. Absolutely wonderful. And so is is this is this where you were born and raised, or did you find your way to Willis sometime later on in life? Talk talk to the listeners a little bit uh about Willis and and how and is if has it been the whole time of your existence that you've been in Willis? Uh I've lived in Willis since I was about 15.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Okay. Um my my movement in my childhood has been uh it's it's been a little while. I mean, I've lived in Tennessee, I lived in North Carolina, I was born here in Houston, you know, and uh moved to Tennessee when I was probably three, moved back when I was seven, and lived in New Caney, Porter area and South Texas in the valley, and eventually uh by the time I was fifteen made it back here into Willis and lived there until I went to the Army.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Well, Willis is like uh I was just out there for a baby shower. I think it was out off Calgary Road, and uh Man, Willis is a lot bigger these days than it was, you know, 30 years ago. I remember having a friend that lived in Willis thirty years ago, and it was like a one-horse town back then. I remember blockbusters.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Right? I remember when Cody Johnson used to stand in front of the old Kroger and play his and play his guitar for tips.

90s Influences And Great Guitarists

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Sure, sure. Wow. Well, thinking back in time a little bit, was there an artist or a song uh that made you kind of think, man, this music thing might be for me. Can you can you jog your memory a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 4:27

There's a few of them that I can bring to mind. Uh Vince Gill being one of them, uh Colin Ray, Travis Trit, Joe Diffie. Yeah. I mean, Vince Gill is probably right there in my top two. Vince Gill and uh Travis Tritt probably right there, and and Colin Ray's right there on the cus with third and second. Vince Gill is just one of those singers. It's it's you hear them and it's it's just unmistakable. Oh yeah. You know, from pocket full of gold, uh, you know, when I call her name, it's just it rose up from bluegrass, you know, kind of like Zach Topp did, you know, and I wish I had that kind of background. I mean, I'd be a much more refined player. Yeah. And uh those are the type of people that I've looked up to my entire my entire life, my entire career as a musician, as a singer, just from sitting in the back of the car at five, six years old, you know, singing anything that pops on the radio. You know, those are the type of people I grew up listening to. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Well, you know, you you listen to guys like Vince Gill and say, man, what an angelic voice. I mean, that's a guy that can sing the phone book, but he's as he's equally as great of a guitar player as he is, as he is, you know, uh a singer. And and I think there's a you know, over the years you see players, right? And I and I I'm never talking down about you know the Allen Jacksons and the George Straits because they're they're they're wonderful in what they do, but the the guitar was kind of a second thing to them. It was almost like this um pacifier, if you will. They played it, but they didn't play it. They they played it, then they sang. But you know, you get top shelf guitar players that are country singers, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Jerry Reed, like some of these people that are on another planet uh from a playing ability, right? And and Vince Gill is one of those guys.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Well, I mean it takes it from you know, from an incredible singer. Like you can't take that away from any of them guys. They're they're just outstanding uh singers and musicians in their own right. But you take a guy that's an incredible singer and then put a guitar in his hand, and that guy can make magic with it. Yeah, it takes it from a great show to something that you're gonna remember for the rest of your life.

Songwriting Fueled By Emotion

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Absolutely. And that's why those guys are at the level that they're at because they're really, really good at that. Um walk me through um the songwriting process for you. Are you uh are you a music or lyrics first kind of songwriter? Uh talk to the listeners a little bit about your process or if you even have one, because let's just face it. I mean, a lot of songwriters don't have a process. They just when it hits them, it hits them, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:15

That's that's kind of the way I lean. I have such I have the weirdest process. Everything that I write personally, like uh that I've I've ever came out with on my own, has been entirely emotionally charged. Um I it it'll it'll spontaneously come to me at one point in time, or you know, if I've had a certain kind of day going on and I hear a song, I'll I'll hear just this this rhythm or this sound in my head, and all of a sudden it'll just it'll start flowing. And and that's just kind of the way my process is. It's not I can't, I'm not one of those guys that can just lock the door, sit down, turn the lights down low, and sit on a table and pump out five or six songs. Yeah. That's just it's impossible for me. My mind, I can't even sleep half the time. My mind just wanders. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Well, and I think you're you kind of hit the nail on the head because they've had many songwriters that are very structured and methodical about their writing. At 10 o'clock every day, they sit down and they write, right? And then there's there's others kind of like yourself. When it hits you, it hits you. And it's more organic, right? It's not forced. It's just whenever, you know, whenever you feel something, right? You write the thought down and then you come back to it, or whatever the case may be.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Well, I have it I have a great example uh for that. Uh for one of my my second song that I ever wrote was called Hope. And uh it used to be on all the platforms. The only way you can find it right now is on Apple, currently, because uh I was with a previous production company, decided to take all of them down. Um but the the big the the way the front part of the song goes goes, uh I see you in the morning when the starlight meets the sun, and I know by the grace of God that my day has just begun. He brought me you on angels' wings, but the truth is with you, I don't need a thing. And that if that doesn't speak uh somebody's in love, then that's that's I don't know what does. And that's that's the way I wrote that song, and I envisioned it was it was it was really a daydream uh visioning you know, seeing uh your your woman you love standing at at the bed and you know white dress on, and you know, it's just it sounds like a music video coming to mind right now. Of course. Right. But that's that's what I mean when emotionally charged. That's you know, heart that's but that's country music. Sure. Heartbreaking love songs. Of course. And drinking. Three chords in the truth.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Oh my god. That's true. Well, how do you know? So you write a song, you you you pour a lot of labor, you pour a lot of love into it, you come back, you change some words, you change some music, then you think it's done. For John Gentry, when do you when do you know a song is done for the final time? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

I will probably pick and pull out a song until the until the minute we're cutting it. Um I I'm my own biggest critic. Just like most singers and songwriters, we're so hard on ourselves, and it's it's uh uh an unforgiving truth, you know, an unmistakable truth, you know, that we will uh be harder on ourselves than than than the listeners who are perceiving the song and the way they they feel it is coming out, you know. It's and it's never good enough. Never good enough because you know when you cut it, you know, and it could be out for months. You're like, oh man, I should I should have done this.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Hindsight's always 2020, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:44

I've done that so many times. I'm like, man, this would have been so cool if we put it there. What if a fiddle had been playing here? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

You know, and but do you think you could I I I don't want to put words in your mouth, but can you overwork a song? Yes. Yeah, I I to the point where wait, it was it was great the first time, and now I've mucked with it so much that now it it was never like it as good as it was originally. Do you think there's some truth to that?

SPEAKER_03 11:10

A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I've started writing a song and and uh I've been I'm probably a month into it, and I have force fed this song so much that uh by the time by the time I'm at that point, I just like I stopped stopped messing with it. I eventually came to it, you know, a year later, I had to rerun it. Because it just uh I got to where I hated it. You know, and if you get to a point where you're hating something you're writing, you know, you need to put the pen down.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Sure. Well, you know, you're a young man, and um there's an old four-letter acronym, and I'm I'm sure you've heard it. Um it's called KISS, K-I-S-S. And the acronym is Keep It Simple Stupid. Okay, right? Have you ever heard that in your life? Right? So my I I think my point there is I think we try to add this and add that and tug on this and tug, and it's like just keep it simple, right? And sometimes the simple is the best format, I think, right? So I think that that goes back to you can overwork a song at nauseum to where it's like it was great the first time. Like now I've just done so much to it that it just it doesn't have the same feeling anymore, right? You can work the emotion right out of it. Yeah, well, you talked a little bit about reworking Mr. Lonely. From a writer's standpoint, are you more of a standalone writer, or do you prefer standalone writing to co-writing? Or is there one that favors the other?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

I have very little experience co-writing. Uh that Mr. Lonely song was my very first co-write, and wasn't it was a good experience, you know. Um it actually didn't start off that way. It was kind of like, uh it came the lyrics came to mind, and I was like, hey, Kenny, what do you think about this? And um I said, this this to me kind of feels like uh more of a 90s vibe at the back end of the song. And he's like, you know what, I like that. And he's like, let's let's collaborate on that, let's fix up the words a little bit, and and you know, we'll run with it. And it was I I've heard I've heard horror stories about stuff like that, you know. Uh people people get their feelings hurt sometimes when something's already written. Yeah. And uh, and and I totally understand why. Um I can totally understand why, you know, uh people put a lot of heart and soul into something they write, and then when it finally goes on the paper, you know, it's uh yeah, and somebody goes in and tries to fiddle with it, it it could be like calling their baby ugly, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

It can be, absolutely. Yeah. But you know, some of them, some a lot of songwriters, while they may not want you to change the words of what they've written, um, I I think that if an artist cuts their song, like they want to hear their version of it, like they want to hear how they interpreted it. I could sit here and talk to you for four hours straight, at least, about songs that were written. Um, and and I can think of one, one just popped into my head. There's an old song called Blinded by the Light, rock and roll song that was that was done by Manfred Mann's EarthBand. And a lot of people have no idea, but Bruce Springsteen wrote that song. And the Manfred Mann's version was their interpretation of what Bruce had written. And it just it's just so much better from a production standpoint and how it's played. And that's what I'm talking about. We could go on and on and on about I guess portraying the song how you envision it without changing all the words up to it, right? So, you know, I think there's a little of that, but um, I think I think if the original writer is certainly cool with that, then you know that that's a cool thing, right? Because I mean he could have easily said, nah, nah, don't change the words to my song, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Well, you know, and the way I went about it was uh the words that that we came up with together uh you know after the fact was it it meant the exact same thing. It was just in your own words, yes. There was no there was nothing emotionally or or nothing that was being said that didn't come out as the same meaning at the end of the year. For sure which which I think is what helped.

Perfectionism Co-Writes And Simple Songs

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah, of course. Well you released, and I'm probably off on my on my counting, but you correct me where I'm wrong. I think there was what four or five songs that you released last year. Talk to the listeners about the songs that you currently do have out. Uh am I right on four songs or was it five? Four releases last year. Okay. Can you talk just high level about each one of them?

SPEAKER_03 16:06

Okay, let's see here. We have uh we have uh Raining Inside was a good one uh that I really personally like. And to me, it it come uh the beginning of it came out to uh sounded like kind of like a Shenandoah song with all the mandolin and everything. So I was like, man, this sounds so cool. I was super excited about it. And then uh around here, you know, was another song that uh my buddy Kenny had had come through with, and uh that came from a more personal level from when he was uh starting off in his younger artist days and kind of beating down the doors, trying to find venues and and trying to you know just live it up in a small town, you know, nothing nothing going on. Then you have uh Mr. Lonely, and then you have uh I Love What You're Doing to Me. Uh those came out at the same time. And then Raining Inside and uh Around Here came out the exact same time. Okay. Both with uh probably within a couple months of each other.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Were all of those recorded at the same place, or did you go disparate places?

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Every one of them the same place, every one of them recorded in probably what feels like uh uh a hall closet. Um probably about about a five by eight bedroom out in Navasota. Really? Jody Jody Bartula's house, uh uh Cody Johnson's fiddle player. Okay, uh super nice guy. Uh caught him when uh he was just soft to her. And uh, I guess Kenny and him have been playing for together for 15, 20 years. So he's like, hey, uh got a recording studio there, maybe might be able to help you out a little bit and see if we can't get some good songs out of him. Sure. So all the fiddle and piano and everything you hear on there, that's that's Jody.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

That's pretty cool. And and I think a lot of bands do that. There's a lot of going into the studio, there's a lot of stuff done at home studios. Uh you know, you can get a pretty good production out of a home studio these days where you couldn't do that probably 20, 30 years ago, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Yeah, that's true. Um there's nothing wrong with going to a full-blown uh blanket studio, I guess uh what I would call it, because it's got bells and whistles for everything. Yeah. You know, there's nothing wrong with it. And if you got the money to do it, by all means go for it. Of course. Uh you go to Nashville right now and record a song, you're probably gonna pay out the the out the wazoo and empty your pockets to do so, but you're probably gonna get the same pr same or similar production from somebody who has the same knowledge doing it out of a water closet, you know.

Live Performance Raining Inside

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's all in how it's done. Well, I guess since the the guitar stool and the the guitar are still a little warm from the last song, you mind jumping in and maybe playing another song for the uh the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio? Absolutely. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

The sun's out this morning, and it's shining down on every house on this blank it says children are playing with smiles on their faces, not a clown inside and see. There's something on the home in my home, it's raining Everyone around me is driving happy something stone It's running swan and full for the game grateful taste, but only God for given me hope that's a bright sound in the storm in my table in the end just when I can swim out and strike it starting again stones when I came to stores blue wind and took all the things this house had a killing down these walls, and I came for kill It's raining inside.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Talk to the listeners a little bit about where the idea from this song came from, John.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Raining Inside was just it came from a part in life where it just, you know, you you feel your heart just kind of enveloped in some hard. Heartache and and and pain and sorrow. And then you know one moment leads to the next, and it just everything seems to be tumbling down on top of you. And it just it's anybody who's had a broken heart, anybody who's who's felt that kind of pain can kind of understand what I'm saying. When every you know, when when things roll downhill, it just it goes all the way to the bottom and doesn't stop, you know. And then eventually life gets better.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

There's always light at the end of the tunnel, right? Absolutely. Regarding musicians and people that you play with, do you have a permanent band or are you an artist that just picks people up along the way for shows? Can you speak to the listeners a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Well, originally I started off I had a full permanent band, and it lasted about a good year. You know, and then you get all that, all everything, all your ducks in a row, and everything becomes becomes down to uh down to a T, get it down to a science. And then like most bands, it's the hardest thing to keep together and it just falls apart for one reason or the other. This wasn't for a bad reason. My guitarist wanted to have a family, and I was not gonna be the one to stop him. I said, You go on, sure, right? Start your life, you know, young man, fresh out of the Marines, you know, and I I I try to at that point in time I tried to bring in folks that were military members, stuff like that, like myself, and you know, camaraderie that's hard to beat. After that, you know, I I I started to gain a lot of um friendships with musicians along the way, stuff like that. So I pick and pull uh from the from the crowd uh folks that I've met over time, you know, uh guns for hire, uh is what we generally call them, or at least that's what I call them. And you know, you you get your good ones and you get your bad ones. Um the unfortunate part is you know, when you when you don't have a permanent band, sometimes you find the duds that don't do their homework. Sure, sure. Uh, but that that's okay. It's learning lessons, growing pains. Now uh I officially have a permanent band. Again, um we're so we're starting to book uh at a booking agent now. That's weird because I've always done it all myself. So I don't know, I don't feel like I'm sitting on my hands right now. Sure. It's like uh I don't know if you've seen that uh that uh Will Farrell movie, I'm not sure what to do with my hands. Right. Oh, but yeah, that's what it feels like. So it's uh everything's starting to take motion and baby steps and uh got a really interesting call uh a couple months back. Um I got invited to come play out in Nashville at the beginning of February, so I'm flying out there January 29th and doing a cancer event for uh breast cancer awareness and stuff. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Well, you'll have to let me know who's on that bill. I've had a lot of Nashvilleans on my show, a lot of singer-songwriters out of Nashville, and it's it's interesting because you you get out to Nashville, and I I remember one guy I had on my show. He was playing uh Song Swap at the um I think it was the Nashville Palace in Nashville, and I was in there having a hamburger, and so it was just Sam and another guy, and they were just trading songs. I'm like, man, these guys, these guys are good. Like, and and I was really gravitating to the original music Sam Banks was doing. And I asked him after the show, I said, Hey man, you know, I got this podcast back in Cyprus, Texas, and I'd love to have you on the show. And when I started digging into this guy, I I didn't realize at the time when I saw him sitting up there on a stool that he was the guitarist for Craig Morgan for a number of years, right? And and it's it's funny um that the guy that he was song swapping with was Luke, uh was Luke Combs' piano player. And I'm like, you never know who you're gonna run into in Nashville. And I loved him for his music. And again, I I wanted to plug. I mean, Sam Banks is his name, his phenomenal uh singer-songwriter out of Nashville, but you you never know who you're gonna stumble into out there, you know what I mean? Yeah, uh, where's it? I can't remember the place.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I think it's called Music City. It's a bar out there. Maybe so. Um Tom Buller plays out there. Uh my cousin goes up there from time to time, and uh he's seen Gary Stewart walk in there, Vince Gill, uh Mark Wills, you know, he's just people just all all walks, just walk in there. And I find that really um I f I I I like that because it you know it it lets me know that people are still people. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Fame doesn't necessarily get to people's heads.

Humility Fame And Band Culture

SPEAKER_01 27:33

No, I mean there's some it does for sure, but there's some that stay humble, and that's you know, that's the best way to be. I think if if I gave any um, you know, that life advice to anybody, uh regardless of whether you're a professional athlete or whether you're a musician or just good and whatever uh, you know, a garbage collector, you know, just stay humble and and remember that, you know, and I've told this story at Nauseum, but I spent 17 years in professional hockey as an official, and I can still remember so many times players would come out of the tunnel and the kids would want to fist bump the players. And there were some of those players that just didn't want to do that. And hockey players are a little weird, and and with all due respect, because they're very superstitious and they don't want to break superstition. But what you have to remember, whether you're a hockey player or a guitar player, you were that little kid at one time that wanted to get the fist bump, right? So remember how it made you feel if the player didn't or the musician didn't fist bump you. Don't be that guy, right? That's that's the life advice that I would give as an old guy, right? Absolutely. And I don't think you would disagree with that.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

And I I live by those same goals. Always stay humble, never forget your roots. You somebody helped you get there, whether it just be uh hometown fans and friends and family, somebody helped you get there along the way. And if being humble and kind and and and respectful and taking that moment and time just to shake somebody's hands, give somebody a hug. I mean, you know, that could that can make somebody's day from a really bad one where they were probably at their at their end of their rope into a fantastic one where it changed that that way, that thought process.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Right, that's right. And that there's a lot of truth to that. You don't know what people are going through. Everybody has a story at the end of the day, right? Absolutely. Uh well I I want to give you the platform to recognize the band that you have. Can you talk about the the boys or the girls, or maybe it's all boys, but you tell us, man. You educate us on who's in the band, where they're from, and what they play and all the good things, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Uh well that's funny enough. I haven't got a chance to really meet everybody yet. We haven't had our first session to uh to uh practice, so that's that's uh that's a work in progress. So this is fresh, right? This is very fresh. Okay, cool. Um the only one that I know personally right now is uh Kenny Jackson Jr. And I've known him for uh several years now. He's my lead guitar player and uh and you know helps and writes songs too. And I've known his dad, I've known his dad's band, uh Kenny Jackson Sr. That man, I I've never seen somebody like this. He can walk on any stage and pick up any instrument on that stage and be good at it. Yeah, yeah. And it it it hurts my feelings because uh sometimes because I'm like, I'm I'm I'm just an okay rhythm player, and you know, and this guy can over there and play the piano. Plays everything, right? Plays steel. I mean, and his his son Kenny uh Kenny Jr. He's just as good. Wow. Just as good. And it just some people are born with innate talent, and that's okay. And some people have to work a little harder. Uh but I'm super proud of the way uh everything's going. And I'm I'm proud to have met this man, you know, he's only a couple years older than me. Yeah. And uh we've we've got along famously, and he's helped me uh instill the band that I've got going on right now. Um and I I see a very bright future, you know, however quick or slow it takes to get there, but I see some good things.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Yeah, you just let it grow organically, like you you can't force a square peg into a round hole, right? You just gotta let things kind of happen by osmosis, if you will, right? And this new band will either jive or they won't jive, and you'll find that out quick. And there's an old saying, you know, win fast, lose fast, right? Absolutely. If you get if you get a couple of guys or a guy in the band that just doesn't fit, you you lose fast. You get rid of them and you go find the right one, right? At the end of the day. No, no harm, no foul.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

That was my hardest lesson was letting somebody go. Well, it's not fun. It's not fun, and it and I'm not one to sit there and try to try to rock the boat or anything like that. And I don't like hurting anybody's feelings, you know. But if somebody complains and and and and makes makes ripples in the water when you're trying to get everything crystal clear, it it's you gotta you gotta shoot them straight and sure be honest.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Well, you know, I it's funny how I'm I'm not a musician for a living. I'm a professional musician. I get paid to play shows, right? So I'm professional in that manner, but I make a living um with a consulting firm in sales. And a lot of times the salespeople are not doing what the salespeople should be doing. And if you if you sit and you think about that at the human level, you say, here's a guy that has four kids at home or two kids or whatever, and he's trying to pay a mortgage, but he's not getting the job done. The worst thing that you can do is keep them, right? And it's not a personal thing, but he has to go somewhere else where he thrives. In the seat he's in, he's not thriving. So you got to put him in the seat in which he thrives. And that requires hard conversation sometimes, right? And here's what happens is it benefits your company for doing it, but it also benefits him because he can go somewhere and flourish, right? Right. And and and and grow roots and blossom. And it's right butt, right seat, and it's no different than a band. You know, if if the it the band is a culture, it's a brotherhood. Like you said, you know, I might look for military guys, and that's a great mindset if that's the way you want to run it. But they have to fit like a culture before you can make magic in the music. If you have three people marching in this direction, but you have one renegade that wants to go in that direction, that's a dead end road for a band, right? It's it's like a marriage or a girlfriend boyfriend kind of thing, right? If you're not, if you don't both share the same interest and the same goals to a certain degree, it's gonna go off the rails eventually, right? And a band is no different. I'm preaching to the choir. I know you know all of that, but I think you would agree with that, right?

Day Jobs And The Music Economy

SPEAKER_03 34:13

100%. I I do agree with that. And you know, and like I said, there's growing pains. You don't know everything when you first start. And you know, and that doesn't just because somebody in uh early on in the band or doesn't agree with your thought process, it doesn't make them a bad person, it just doesn't make them right for you. That's exactly right. And just like you were talking about your firm the firm you worked at, you know, it it doesn't make that person bad for uh the company per se, you just might thrive in another position or something like that, you know. Uh I I don't I mean, I I do music professionally, but that's not what pay the bill pays the bills right now. I I mean I work in construction as a project planner and scheduler, you know. It's uh and I honestly I have a hard time thinking about ever quitting actually working, you know. Uh it I can't sit still.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

I I have my own thoughts around that, John, and I'll tell you, um, and and this is just my opinion, and I'm not I'm I'm not a real opinionated person, but I will say I got back out to playing professionally again in I think it was 2016 where I started playing out solo again. You know, I did the band thing back in the 80s, and then a time period, you know, I raised a family. And so I've been out five, nine years now, um playing in a duo now. But every show that I play, it reminds me that I'm glad that I have a day job that that has a 401k plan, that has health insurance, that has all of the things, because music is great and people that play it professionally and that's all they do, that's great. That's a great thing if that's what's right for them, right? There's no way that I could survive on what, you know, I mean, because let's just face it. I mean, unless you're unless you're out there making it, it's it's a it's a tough road, man. I mean, it's saturated, and you're not making copious amounts of money doing it. Now, I'm not saying you have to have a lot of money to be successful. I'm not saying that at all, but money does help.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Yes. My job pays the mortgage, pays everything that I put into music. Probably bought that guitar over there, too. That though every guitar I've owned has started off as a payment plan.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

There you go. Hey, however, you can get it.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

There are some magical websites that are specifically built for musicians and they help out tremendously, and that's how I've gotten all my equipment. Yeah. Um, but no, it it I've always said, you know, music does not pay the bills until it does. Yep. And Texas is actually one of the better places to have a music career because a lot of venues here do pay better. Nashville, you can do pay. Right. Nashville, you'll find somebody over there on the corner that'll play for five dollars. You know, that's an extreme exaggeration, but sure there's one, there's somebody on every corner there.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

And and it could still be like this. I I can't speak to this because I'm not a I'm not a Nashville musician, but a lot of the people that play in those clubs out there don't get paid like we get paid here. They they play for tips, right? And they play for exposure. They play for those two things, right? Nothing wrong for that. No, there's not at all. There's not at all. But think about it, if you go into a place here, right, and and music is a full-time job, and there's eight people in the place, and you make twelve dollars in tips that night. But tell me what mortgage you're gonna afford, right? It's you're not exactly it's gonna it's tough, right? Is my is my point. So I think the way you're doing it is probably the ideal way. It it's not gonna pay until it pays. And that's a great, that's a great mentality to have.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

I'm gonna set up a plan B, set up a firm, something, you know, uh you know, tell people how to do this and that, you know, uh I can't remember what it's called. Uh uh, but you know, that's that's what that's what I would like to do is set up something like that on the side because there's a lot of uh superstars out there, NFL players, basketball players, and and things like that that in their career retire and have nothing to show for because they spent all their money during their career time. That there's a lot of smoke smart folks like you know, Shaquille O'Neal who has built an empire.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

First one that came to my mind when you said that has so many interests outside of basketball, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Well, I mean, Taylor Swift is a good one. Sure. Uh I mean, I might not see eye to eye on everything. Her music uh specifically, she's not a bad writer, she's got a wonderful talent, she's amazing. You know, but outside of that, she is a force to be reckoned with as an entrepreneur. And there and young women should look up to her, yeah, you know, that as somebody to aspire to be like as far as building their own uh uh platform to stand on.

Army Infantry Service And Aftermath

SPEAKER_01 39:29

I agree with that 100%. And I'll say that I'm not a Swifty, right? I don't I don't buy Taylor Swift records, I don't badmouth Taylor Swift, but she's done something right because more people know her than know me, right? And she has a little bit more money than I have, too. So so more power to Taylor and anybody that and and even yourself that you know you're you're beginning the career and hopefully it blossoms into something where you know you you don't have to work another day in your life. I mean, there are those artists that that don't have to, right? So yeah, that's not a bad thing. That's not a bad thing. Well, I wanted to um maybe just change gears on you a little bit. You were in the military, the army, right? That's the branch that you were in. So, first of all, I mean, thank you for your service and the dedication to the country for sure. Thank you. How did you find your way into the military? Where do you come from a military family or did you did you play army when you were a kid and just wanted to be a soldier when you when you grew up? Talk to the listeners about that.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

I mean, I I have some uh some of my family members that were in the service, uh, but honestly, they did not they did not set that that aspiration or anything. Honestly, it wasn't aspiration isn't even the right word for it. I went and worked for the I I I went I left high school at 16, went to Job Corps in San Marcus, got a GED and uh and a trade. You know, a lot of young men go off and get trades, and if you go to college, a trade's a good thing to have. You know, but uh I was a got a machining uh trade in a CNC machining programming, and it just wasn't cutting it at 18 years old, didn't have the experience. So I went and worked for the prison, which a lot of folks around here do that Oldfield or prison. And uh about six to eight months into that, I'm just like, you know what, this ain't for me. And uh I just randomly stopped by recruiting office and got talked into whatever happened, and uh signed up and I went straight in the army during the height of the Afghanistan war and and uh front lines, no doubt. I was infantry. Um went in uh January of 2009 and uh June I was deployed.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Wow. So you went straight to Afghanistan from once you once you enlisted, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Uh I went yeah, I stopped my basic training in April, went to my unit for about a month uh after that, and was deployed, you know, right after.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Where was basic training for you in the Army?

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Basic training was for me, it was in Fort Benning, Georgia, Sand Hill.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Okay. How was uh boot camp? Is it is it tough? Like talk to the civilians out there, right, for just a minute.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Basic training then was different than it is now. It's uh the military has gotten softer. And and not to say that the military isn't still the military, it's just our younger generation coming in has gotten is is softer than you know, 80s, 90s kids growing up and even you know, generations before that, and we were raised by harder generations and they were raised by even harder ones. You know, it's just uh it's different. So you have to they have to go into it differently and then and baby step around people now. And um for me, basic training was um what we called high speed, high stress. So you learn all you can, but you're getting drugged through the mud every single day and and you're getting mass punishment for Joe Smoe over there screwing up, so he's screwed up, so everybody else is getting in trouble, which is not a bad thing. If you're going into something as as unique as the military itself, you have to rely on a team. Yeah. You have to rely on each other as brotherhood, sisterhood. You know, uh you you depend on each other. And if that individual is screwing up because he doesn't know his job, then it is your job as the as as his team member to square him away.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Well, what do they say, John? You're only as strong as the weakest link.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Yeah. And you being a military man, you would agree with that. I do. Because people die when you have a weak link, right? Or can die.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

100%. When you look in the rearview mirror, do you uh are you glad you went through it and and experienced that, or do you do you have regrets of serving?

SPEAKER_03 44:01

I have no regrets. It made me the man I am today. I mean, I it does not I did not walk away unscathed. I have my um I have my fair fair share of uh of uh hard times and uh trying to adjust and still to this day. I mean, you know, I came back uh I I got out in 2012 and it's 2026 and I still to this day have a hard time sleeping. Wow, I wake up at night and uh in a cold sweat sometimes and you know it's adjusting from especially in a combat related role, it's uh it's it's tough. And some people it's easy, some people it's not. Some people cope. In various ways. They drink too heavily, they go off and do drugs. Uh myself, um when I first came back from Afghanistan, I I I got into drinking heavily, but I uh I broke that habit when I got out um about a year or so. Uh I kind of got woke up when I got in trouble, you know, uh with the law and you know, drinking, driving's not a good thing for anybody to do. And life lessons, you know, lessons learned hard the hard way, and that's that that's a lot of country songs too. But it's an experience I would never trade for for anything.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Yeah. Well, I my apologies for for bringing any anything to the surface that um you you didn't want to oh no no you didn't want to come out with, but I think there's a uh I I've always had the utmost respect for the military, for law enforcement, and I think it's a badge of honor. Um I never served. Uh I have a brother that was a sergeant for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, and couldn't be more proud of him. And for the men and women that serve the country, like I I I just I have nothing but respect for for you guys. I and I and that's why I want my listeners to hear that, and I want to I want them to know about the military and things like that, right? It's not just a music thing, it's it's it's an everything thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Well, you know, you know, uh I I didn't say anything that uh that I didn't want to be forthcoming with. And honestly, it to me, any young man or woman who uh who aspires to go into the service needs to hear these things. I mean, it needs to understand that it it is not all flowers and rainbows, you don't just go in there getting a paycheck. You're not gonna walk away without uh your fair share of uh heartache. Sure. You know, and it's but it teaches you structure, it teaches you uh how to grow up, yeah, how to be an adult. Sure. And there's a lot of young men and women that need that structure. And I'm not saying, hey, go off and sign your life away right now because uh John Gentry says the military is a good thing. It's that's only my opinion. You know. Um but if you need that kind of uh value in your life, then go look at least go look at it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Would you say that the things that you learned in the military you still use on a daily basis today? Every single day. Every single day. Yeah. The structure of it, right? I mean, just being structured, like waking up and simple things, probably like making your bed. Now, some people get out of the military and don't make their bed still, but you know, some some people carry those traits through life. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 47:41

Uh 100%, 100%. I I think the biggest one that can that carried with me was um time management. Yeah. Time management. Uh and I hate being late. I absolutely hate being late. And and generally I would have been earlier getting here today, but uh, you know, thank things do happen. But um, but generally speaking, if I'm not somebody uh somewhere 30 minutes to an hour before time, I'm late. I I am late, I am upset, and uh, and and uh if somebody else caused that, they're gonna get an earful.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Yeah. Well, I could give you a hug for saying that because probably my biggest pet peeve on the planet Earth is people that are tardy. Like I don't waste people's time. I don't want people to waste my time. And I could tell that you there was something special about you when you picked up the phone and called me an hour before this interview and said, Hey man, traffic's crazy. I'm probably gonna be there right at one o'clock because that showed me that you respect my time and that you care about being on time. Absolutely and you don't think that it's telling a story, but it really told a story when you did that, right? Most people would just show up 30 minutes late and not whatever. But that drives me crazy. And I know in the military, you didn't just get to whatever when you wanted to. Like you got there when you were supposed to be there, right? Right, right place, right time, right uniform, golden rule. That is exactly it. Well, what what was your what was your MOS in the Army?

SPEAKER_03 49:14

I was uh what they call 11 Bravo uh infantry. I was uh rifleman and uh so front lines I was on the ground, you know, door kicking, doing all this, all the hard stuff. Um, you know, people people see movies about it. Uh and and ladies and gentlemen, don't believe everything you see because uh there's a lot of uh Hollywood stuff going on there, but uh it is much uh it's it's it's difficult. It's um my job was not the easiest choice that I picked voluntarily. Um you know, if I had any kind of advice for anybody, any young man and woman now going in, I would tell them to go into more of a technical field, something that's going to give them a career outside. Outside, yeah. Yeah, because it was not easy for me to find my my line of work when I got out.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

I was gonna ask you that, and it's funny that you even brought it up, but I was gonna ask you, did the MOS find you, or did you find the MOS? And it sounds like you found the M. That's what you want. I mean, you signed up for it. You signed on the dotted line, right? Absolutely. But but does the mil is that generally how it works with the military? You go in and say, I want to be a radar guy, or I want to be a a tech guy, or I want to, or do they say, Hey John, guess what, buddy? You're front line, man. I have my opinions.

SPEAKER_03 50:35

Um generally speaking, and you know, I if there's any recruiters out there, I don't really don't care. Um a lot of recruiters out there uh they they have to recruit, and I understand they have to bring young men and women in, got you. But uh be honest about what you're putting putting them through. You know, be honest, say, hey, you might not like this. Sure. You you might be more qualified and fit for this if they have the option, give them give them the option. Um and then it's not all the recruiter's fault, you know. Some some some of these kids they pick up uh and say, hey, I want to do this, I want to do that. I had options. Yep. I had options. I could have been a machinist or mechanic in the service, I could have done all that. Um I wanted to uh I was 18 years old and I wanted to sh fight for my country the way I saw was correct at the time. Sure, sure. Uh in the most honorable fashion. Yeah. And then by God, uh I did. Yeah. I'm proud of it.

New Music Social Media And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Well, that's great. And and I'm I'm proud that you served and you know, for for standing up for liberty and and protecting the country. Um again, I didn't want to go into a rabbit hole about the military, but I I love those outside conversations like that, right? I mean, it's uh for for civilian people, we don't know what it's like to be in the military. We I mean, of course, we see, you know, Fox News and CNN and stuff like that about the military, but we we don't know, right? We we see what the media tells us that we need to see at the end of the day. I'd rather somebody be well informed than than than ignorant. 100%. And you know what? There's there's never been anything but truth talked about on my podcast. I think there's probably some journalist or some media people that look for dirt that look for stories. I'm not that guy. Like let's keep it to the facts, let's talk about the subject. If the subject, or you know, if the if the facts hurt, then the facts hurt at the end of the day. But we're not going around fabricating stories and talking about people. That's not this kind of show, right? And I never wanted it to be like that. So thanks for sharing that about the military man. I really do appreciate that. But if we jump back on the music bandwagon, what's new? Is there something new and exciting for John Gentry in 2026 that the listeners of Backstage Pass can look forward to from whether it's a a show perspective or new music perspective? And maybe there's stuff that you can't talk about, but anything that you can share around um, you know, new new content, uh whatever, like talk to us about that, right?

SPEAKER_03 53:21

I'm I'm not the best at social media. I'm actually terrible at it. I hate social media, to be honest with you. That's Facebook, Facebook and Instagram, all that stuff wasn't really a thing. And we can go back to, you know, word of mouth, it'd be much easier and simpler. Um, but it does have its bright side. Uh it does help get things out there uh a lot easier than snail mailing emails. Sure. Um I do have a song that's gonna be coming out soon called uh She's a Cowgirl. And um it's gonna it's it's it's about you know how a father should raise a young woman to be tough and strong and true, you know. And I think it's gonna resonate with a lot of young independent women out there. And uh you know, I I can't wait to see, see what kind of form it takes over time.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

Yeah. Well, we look forward to that. Uh certainly let me know when that drops, and I'll try to get the word out on my socials. I I think that social media is a uh necessary evil. Unfortunately, I I curse it and praise it every day of my life. It's something that if you're in the public eye, like you and I are from you know, whether it's a musician or a podcaster, if if you're not public, you're nobody knows what you're doing, right? So that's what I mean by necessary evil. We don't like to do it. I don't like to do it, but we have to to stay relevant. So where can the listeners find you, speaking of social media, on the social media platforms? Is there is there one that you hang out on more than the others?

SPEAKER_03 55:00

Uh Facebook and TikTok are the ones I hang out on more. Um Instagram is attached to my Facebook, so whatever I post on Facebook will slide over there. Yeah. But uh generally, yeah, those two platforms are what I hang out on. You can find me under John Gentry under uh on Facebook uh and then john.gentry.cm uh cm on TikTok. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Well, excellent. Well, John, listen, man, thanks so much for coming all the way here. I know that was a a little bit of a haul from Willis, but it's uh this was fun. It's great to get to know you, uh hear the stories about you know your music and the military, and you know, keep in touch with new things that are coming up, if you will. I always sometimes will bring guests back on to talk about new projects, so stay in touch with me there.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

I absolutely will. That has been my pleasure being here.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Yeah, so you guys make sure to follow John on all of his social media platforms. I also ask the listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at BackstagePass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other, and we will see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries, and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring, and keep the passion of music alive.