Welcome And Meet Bubba Wesley

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Welcome to Backstage Pass Radio, where we go beyond the music and get to know the artists behind it. Hey everyone, it's Randy Halsey with Backstage Pass Radio. Today I will be joined by one of the rising stars in country music. He has built a loyal following with his unique blend of country, southern rock, blues, and soul, earning multiple number one songs while carving out his own path in independent music. Today we're talking about his journey, the stories behind the songs, life on the road, and what's next in his exciting career that's just getting started. We will welcome my friend Bubba Wesley to the show right after this.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

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 Halsey.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Bubba Wesley, what you take it, my man? How are you? What is up? It is great to be here with you, man. I'm glad you're here, man. And I I think you what drove in from Brenham. Brenham Brennham? Brenham, Texas. Well, that's it's not that far away, but it's just far enough where it is far away.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

You know, it just depends who you're talking to because as a musician, uh this is one of those gigs that'd be like, hey, I get to go home and sleep in my own bed. Exactly. Uh, but no, an hour, man, you know, it's not too bad at all.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

And that's, you know, it depends on what time you hit the road on 290 getting to and from Brenham, but that's a pretty easy drive if there's not any traffic. You just 75 it hit the cruise control and you're there and seems like 30, 40 minutes, right? Yeah. I probably a little longer than that for sure. But it's it's a it's a pleasant drive going out to Brenham.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

It is, it is, it is. I uh I think that is probably you know one of the most scenic drives, especially like when the sun's going down. It's just a beautiful drive. Nothing much. It's uh I always tell people that Brynham's the uh town, the big old Metroplex between Houston and Austin.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

That's it. That's it. And it, you know what, it's it's grown so much over the years, you know. Brenham and I used to go to Somerville as a kid, and it just seemed like going from the Clear Lake area to Somerville, it was like a it seemed like a four-hour trip to get out there, right? Of course, the speed limit was 55 back in the day. And I could always say, Dad, are we almost there? Are we almost there? And it just seemed so far, but now Brenham is just like the outskirts of Houston for the most part, right? Yeah, it really feels like literally. Well, I'm glad you're here, man. And it's always nice to um get local artists in here and get to know you guys and and uh get to learn about the songs, what you do, that kind of thing, and then expose you guys to maybe a few more ears. That's kind of the goal here. So appreciate you being there.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

That's what uh matters the most, man.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

So yeah, well, I'll I'm gonna, yeah, my pleasure. And I guess I gotta give some credit and props where credit and props are due. But um, I guess if it wasn't maybe for Jesse Roach, I don't know that you'd be sitting here in the Crystal Vision studio, right? I mean, who knows? Maybe we would have crossed paths, but I asked Jesse, you know, hey, who who should I who should I be talking to? Like, I want to get some good local people. She's like, Oh, dude, you got to talk to Bubba Wesley. You'd love that guy. I love him to death. And I said, say less, right? Like, I mean, if you give me the recommendation, that's gold to me, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

That's awesome, man. Jesse is an absolute sweetheart. I've known her. Uh I've I knew her after the uh American Idol Days. Okay. But I was a fan of hers while she was on the American Idol Days. So man. Wow. Uh sweet, sweetheart, her husband, her old family, man. I've always uh had a great time playing some shows with her.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Yeah. Well, I got to meet Montana not too long ago, and I I didn't know him before um probably a couple of it's probably been a couple of months they played here in Cyprus. Uh they did a swap here in Cyprus. Of course I knew who he was, but I never got a chance to meet him. And she had been booking me out at uh uh the big easy uh crawfish place uh up by her in Huntsville. And just we never, you know, I never got to a path uh I I guess I never crossed paths with with Montana, but uh yeah, uh it was great to meet him, nice guy and everything. So yeah. Well, so you're calling Brenham home today, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Is is that correct? Brenham is where my wife is from. Okay. I grew up uh down south in a little town of Bolin, Texas by Matagorda Bay.

unknown 5:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

And uh, you know, it's it's kind of I always joke with people, it's like, you know, it's weird you graduate. I my wife graduated with probably like, you know, five, six hundred people. I graduated with like thirty. Wow, yeah, I was a wow, little bitty town. Um so it's it's just like night and day, you know, and I always told everybody it's like the biggest city I'll ever live live in is Lubbock, and that's where I went to school at in college. And uh and I moved to Burnham. I was like, the biggest city I'll ever live in is Burnham.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Yeah, and you know, we think about like my my neighbors across the street, the the mom and dad, they were both tech graduates, right? And then both of their kids just graduated from tech, so a lot of red raiders right across the street from me. That's great. Hey man, wreck them. Well, so was bowling where you were born, or did you just spend a little time there?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

So bowling, there's not a hospital there. It's literally like we have a stop sign and a blinking light. We don't even have a working light. Is there running water there yet? Um we dig our own wells, you know. I grew up on well water, so we had to dig our own wells out there. But uh so it's a little bitty town, uh, and it's it's you know, I would say uh probably from here, you know, two hours or so, hour and a half, maybe south, heading down towards the base city area. Uh, but I totally got lost. I'm so sorry, Randy. What was the question?

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Well, I mean, I just I I didn't know if you were born in bowling or if you just kind of moved there when you you got a little older. Is that was that the birthplace?

SPEAKER_03 7:00

I was born in Wharton, Texas, because we have a hospital there. So Wharton's nearest town, it's about uh 15 miles or so, 60 miles or so. Uh but bowling is where I was born and raised, as far as you know, being raised, went through high school, junior high, elementary school, all through bowling, Texas. Uh my grandparents um moved out there when my mom got married, and uh that's just kind of where we called home, and and they just kind of I lived there for forever. And now funny, ironically, my mom moved back to where she was raised, which is Tomball. So they're all up over in this area.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Yeah. Interesting. Well, I was a down-south kid. I was down in the Clear Lake area through through high school. I graduated from high school and went to school in Lafayette, Louisiana. Uh that's where I spent my college days. But as soon as I graduated high school, mom and dad bought a place out in Rose Hill in Tomball, and that's where they were for many, many years. They're right here in Town Lake across across Barker Cyprus from me now. But yeah, my brother graduated from Tombaugh High School. And and that's another what was a small town has turned large.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

So I'm gonna give away my age here. In 2009 and eight, I took uh summer classes at Lone Star College in Tombaugh. My family was out there, and I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna come up to Tombaugh for the summer, and I was leaving to go play baseball in college, and I was like, I'm gonna come take some summer classes while we're out here, and so uh moved over there and I remember Tombaugh then, and then I think I went and visited, you know, about three or four years after that. So this would have been early, you know, 2014 or 15 years. Sure. And I was just amazed. I was like, wow, yeah, things have just I mean, even 10 years ago now, looking at what Tomball was 10 years to now, it's just yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

I think when I was when mom and dad moved out there, I think it was the population was around 4,000. And the last time I saw a sign out there, it was like 12 plus thousand. So I mean, Tomball since the 80s has probably tripled in size. I would, I would get give or take, right? But it's gotten about three times the size it was when they moved out there.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Well, you know, it's like kind of like that whole area, Tomball, Rose Hill, uh Magnolia. It's just all squeezed together now.

unknown 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

Well, back in the day, you would think, God damn, Magnolia's the country, man. That's way out of town. But like I play shows at Lone Pine Brewery, it's like right, it seems to be right around the corner, right? Because Houston just keeps bloating. It gets seems to get bigger and bigger and bigger, right? And before long, Houston's gonna be buttoned right up to Brenham, right? I mean, of course, you got Waller in between and whatnot, but you get the point. Twenty years from now, it'll be interesting to see, you know, what the deal is.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

That's just the way life goes, you know. So I definitely uh I definitely see that happening.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Well, talk to me a little bit um what life was like pre-anybody knowing who Bubba Wesley was. Like what what kind of kid were you growing up?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

I was I was the outdoors kid. I've always been doing something. I was I was always involved in sports, and uh you know, honestly, I never even in envisioned myself being a musician because my whole entire life I was like, I'm gonna play baseball professionally, and you know, you got to guy that's all I did, you know, growing up was some kind of sports and and fishing. Uh my grandpa was was just the type of human that was always involved. He was always there, and he showed up for everything

Growing Up Outdoors And Athletic

SPEAKER_03 10:42

from top to bottom. That's awesome. Um, and you know, he was a musician himself, and so of course that that just stuck with me. Uh he had a different type of musician, you know, than I am, but uh he was a uh Tejano singer. Oh so he was he's well known in the Tejano music community, but I just I never caught that bug. You know, I I enjoy it. I think there's some bands that I kind of still follow, some friends that you know that I knew my grandparents that would come to our house and stuff growing up that I still stay in touch with, but it was like weird to to see. Like I went I I like to talk about this experience because it's always funny to me growing up. We were a kid and my grandpa was like, I have to go get an award. And I was like, For what? What do you what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Like, what award are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 11:31

And we went to uh Alice, Texas, and there's a Tahana Music Hall of Fame in Alice, and uh I was probably like 11 or 12, and we go there and I'm like telling my grandpa, I'm like, hey dad, I know all these people on the wall. He's like, Yeah, I know. And you know, he played accordion around the house and and guitar and stuff, and I just uh he that was the moment that made me go, Oh, he's a really he's he's a professional musician. Okay, like I he didn't play mu he didn't play shows or travel at this time, you know. He had kind of changed uh his career path, you know, in the 80s after you know my mom got really sick and he was out of state. So this was a story that was told to me. Uh he was out of state, my mom got really sick, and he came back and was like, okay, I think I'm I'm just I want to be a dad full time. And if you knew him and he just had a heart of gold. And uh so that was just the thing. It was always like, well, hey, what do you want to do today? He was that kind of dad, like that kind of father figure. And uh, so it was always like you know, something outside. Yeah, that was what we did. I mean, I don't even even growing up in my teens, I just can't remember a time where we were just all inside. No, like you know, the most of the memories that I can remember, I can remember us being outside. Sure. Uh going to Matagorda, you know, fishing Palacious. We have some family palashus, so we fished Pashus so much growing up in baseball tournaments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

Well, dude, dude, if you were in the house when I was a kid, it meant you were grounded, right? Because I mean, it was it was like a jail sentence. If your parents said, Randy, go to your room, right? You're in trouble. That was like a prison sentence, right? Because we were sun up to sundown outside, right? Never even came in to drink water. We just drink it out of the water hose, right? Yeah, that's just the way it was back in the day, right? Now you can't get a kid out of the house, right? Because they've got all the amenities here. They've got Wi-Fi, they've got games, they've got all the things. If you tell a kid now to go to their room that they're punished, they'll say, How many weeks you want me to stay in there? They don't care, right? So it's the times have like 180, right? Totally different now than when I grew up.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah, it's funny you say that too, because I remember a time that, and this is a a very, very vivid memory for me. I was getting grounded. I was grounded, and uh, you know, it's just I forgot what it's something at school, probably. And I remember just being in my room and my grandpa going to say you want to run to the store with me. Like, yeah, sure, let's go. And my baseball bag was in the backseat. I'm like, what's my baseball bag doing? He goes, Oh, yeah, I figured you want to go by the baseball field before we go to the store. It's like, oh, I'm not that grounded then. Okay, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Yeah. Well, is there is there um uh like Mexican Latino heritage in your family then? Okay, because you because usually white guys are not in Tejano, right? So it made me think, what made me think, I wonder if there's some Spanish or Hispanic dis you know culture, right? Yes, there is.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Uh so my mom uh was adopted by Hispanics, and so that's and my my dad, my birth dad, uh is Hispanic, Hispanic descent too as well. And so it's just kind of like uh one of those things that I I I get that a lot. There's like, oh, you're you're you're Hispanic, you're Mexican. It's like I I am somewhere down the line, you know, yeah, I am, and uh so I mean if you look at my government name, yes, I am. I took my grandpa's last name. Oh, did you? So okay. So it's uh it's it's funny because I just like have the whitest, the most Mexican name in the world. So everybody's like, well, where did Bubba come from? Right, and I was like, Well, Bubba was what I was called my whole entire life, you know, it was a nickname. It was a nickname that stuck with me. And I mean, dude, even to my pre-K teacher, like right when you first start learning how to write your name and stuff, uh, was also the person that that's how small of a town I grew up in, was also the person that babysatted me.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

And uh, she taught me how to write my government name and then Bubba. Yeah. And so that's just what teachers, oh, that's Bubba. Oh, my grandparents came around. Oh, that's so it just stuck with me, you know, my whole entire life. I think the only time in all of school that I ever wrote my real name, my government name was uh when state standardized test sta standardized testing, you know, state testing stuff. Yeah. Uh that's that's pretty much it. Yeah. Even when I was in college, people would call me by real name and they'd be like, you gotta everybody's calling you Bubba on the baseball team. Is there something else you go by? It's like that's the name I've been buying my whole entire life.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

That's almost like the name now. Like you don't, you don't probably get called the the government name unless you're in trouble for something, I'm sure, right? I'm never Randall until until I'm my wife is pissed off at me, right? That when Randall comes out, something I did something wrong.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

See, I don't even know. My I think if my wife was to call me that by my government name, she'd just be like, oh, that don't even roll right on the top, you know, because it's just like I've nobody's called me that and I think you know, might might be a few people that from my hometown that might say that name, but it's just like uh nobody ever calls me that name. Of course.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Well, do you do you remember like you know, looking back in that crystal ball, do you remember w when the music bug kind of hit you? Do you remember what age you were when you said, Man, this is it?

SPEAKER_03 16:55

I I can I I can remember the first time that I was intrigued because it's a like one of probably one of my earliest memories. But now as I'm older, I can look at pictures and stuff that we have and uh know that my grandpa put me on a drum set before I could I mean as soon as I was walking, I was behind a a drum set. And so there's a drum set picture of me and diapers, and I'm sitting on a drum set with headphones on, and it's like a n early 90s acrylic clear see-through drum set that I just trying to reach around and and you know, beat on these this drum set, and my mom and my grandparents always

Family Roots And Finding Faith

SPEAKER_03 17:38

said like that was just something that always drew your attention. Yeah, like you were always drawn to music, you were always you know, involved in it, and uh you know, I really wasn't you know involved in uh any kind of out outside music. I didn't do choir, I wasn't in the band or anything. I did band in high school, you know, but um um I before that to that point, I was never it was all sports, you sports and fishing, you know, and I at home my grandpa pulled out accordion. Oh well, I want to see how do you do that, yeah, you know. But I was more intrigued, I think, by drums and guitars than I was by anything else.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

That's interesting, man. You know, because I've talked to a lot of people. I think I'm 145 episodes into the show. It started back in 2021, and it's interesting how eclectic the the musicians are. Uh I wouldn't say rare, but there's more musicians that are non-sports figures than there are that were, right? So you and I are that anomaly where like I spent 17 years as an official in professional hockey, right? And I was always a always a baseball player. So hockey and baseball, like I played all of those sports. I I wouldn't say I'm a sports nut, but I was an athlete, right? And and a musician. So you and I are kind of poured out of the same mold because we have that love for sports, we played it, but there's some that just didn't, yeah, it was just they didn't do it, right? Maybe they were game play, you know, gamers or whatever. It's it's just interesting when you sit across the table from someone, you say, Well, Bubba's a pretty big man, you know, he might have been a football player back in the day, right? And then you find out Bubba never even played sports. It's like, what, man, I just shattered my whole image of you, right? I thought for sure you were like a football player, but you never know. You never know what people did back in the day, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:30

And you know, it's funny because when people go, Well, what do you do now? It's like I'm a musician. They're like, Oh, what else do you do? It's like, no, I'm a musician. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

It's like I'm a musician. Yeah, yeah. I wake up and I do music. Oh, you really are a musician. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Uh, but yeah, man, it was it was uh growing up was you know, and I played in church. So I I I would play drums uh as soon as they realized I was good enough to handle the worship service. So I was probably about 10 or 11. I was about my son's age, I would think. So when I started playing drums in church, but that was that was really it. You know, I played drums all through growing up, through high school, and then and when I was in high school, my grandparents uh changed churches because the pastor that was you know the pastor that was a pastor there for a long time, he was getting older, and they were gonna change who was gonna do the preaching and pastoring of the church. So uh my grandparents changed churches, and I'd started going to this uh you know, like a like a Wednesday night service at this other church with a lot of friends of mine that were going there from school. So I went there and my grandparents like, oh, I'm gonna go one day. And so one Sunday they went with us and they were just like, wow, I really enjoyed that. Yeah, that's cool. Very different service. And so that when I we moved churches, I didn't play in the band because they had I mean, dude, they had a top-notch band. Oh, yeah, worship. Worship is always in worship, power team. Yeah, you know. So um, and I never even I never even asked to audition or I never even asked to get involved with the church music, you know. I think at that time that was just one of those points of my life where I was so busy with school, and I I I literally, if you think of something that an extracurricular in high school to do, I was involved in it. Yeah, you know, I was involved in everything from student council to any any kind of sport. And uh so I just I was always church though was one thing that my grandparents were very like every Sunday. We don't care what's going on, we're going to church. Yeah. I really love that they uh were absolutely very much a good idea. That's great.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

That's a good foundation though. You know what I mean? Like I I've gotten away from the church and I don't get much into the religious stuff anymore, but it I grew up in the church as well. And and and even though you kind of I guess you you get older, you start questioning things and and all all of the things about r religion. But um I I think it's a great foundation um because I think most Christians are good people, right? You know, there's some there's some dirt bags, but there's dirt bags everywhere, right? You're not you're never gonna it doesn't matter if it's church, sports, what whatever, right? There's always gonna be a bad apple in the basket, right? That's gonna tarnish what people perceive as good. You know, you we think at church we think is you know all good people go to church. Well, there are some bad ones too, right? Absolutely. But but I believe that's a great foundation for kids to have, you know. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

I think any kind of faith, um you know, me specifically is Christian faith for me. Uh I know exactly what you're talking about when you're talking about people behind closed doors. Uh my my father, my birth father, was a Televangelist. And uh yeah, man, behind closed doors. And now I I don't, you know, to be honest with you, and this is something serious, so everybody listening, yeah. I uh I I don't I don't know where he's at or what's going on in but I know he's not of uh uh a faithful man, you know, and uh I've watched him still from a church, I've watched him and it you know, you're a kid and you're just kind of like, Man, what's going on? And you know, my grandparents have always been there and and uh they took me out of that environment, you know. So it's when I was nine years old, they were just like, Hey, you're coming to live with us. Yeah. And that's pretty much the life that I really remember. Uh, but I did battle my faith, man. I I've been one of those people that have 100% battled my faith. And and to be honest with you, from the time I was about 21, 22 till about five years ago, I lived a very different life than I do now. You know, and uh battled faith and and I just now looking back at it and now knowing with a sober, clear mindset, looking back on my life, I am so grateful for everything that my grandparents, you know, absolutely. And so I I do one hundred percent believe that having some kind of faith background in in a kid's life is very essential uh to you know maturing and growing over.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

No, I I don't disagree with you at all. Um Yeah, in in fact I concur 100%. Um I like I said, I spent a lot of time in the church, and then I guess as a as a late teenager, early twenties, you just kind of drift away from it, right? Because now now you're working, right? You're you start working, you get busy, then you then you get married, and then it's like you know, I I know that you should always make the time for those things, but sometimes we'll use any, I guess, um what word am I looking for? Scapegoat that we can to not go, right? Oh, I'm I had a it was a long week. I just want to relax on Sunday, I don't want to go. Then that that's probably how it all started with me, just you know, got other things to do. Well, you gotta get your priorities straight.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

I heard that, man. 100%. I just uh and just uh touch on that, uh I just I'm that type of person that I don't feel that maybe your church is for everybody. Yeah. I I think the faith and and the religion can touch millions and millions of boys and everybody on this planet Earth's life and be positive in every single way. Uh but you know, there's people, and I'm one of those people, and my wife is she's gonna hear this and go, gosh darn it. I know you and I battle about this because she is a a Sunday church church grower. I am one thousand percent believe in my faith. I one thousand percent will join you in any church and have a prayer with you on the street anywhere. Uh but I just feel like there's some people that maybe just oppose the church for some of the things that the church stands for. Sure. You know, and I know this isn't a religious podcast, we don't have to go there, but I just that's just I think that uh if you believe and you have a faith and you know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, that's all you need to do.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

You're you're right, you're right. Um but at the end of the day, you know, I I think we hold Christian people that go to church we we hold them to another standard. Like they're they're m more human than we are, but at the end of the day, we're all humans. We all make mistakes. So it's I think it's magnified when you know uh a priest touches a little kid or steals some money from the tithes or whatever, right? But at the end of the day, they're humans, just like you and I. And we can't sit here and say that we never made mistakes. I I can, I mean, we can do a whole podcast on the mistakes that I've made in life, right? I suppose. So yeah, we won't even go we won't even go down that rabbit hole, right? But you know, you you spoke of uh your granddaddy um having you know doing the tejano thing and whatnot. Is that the only true musical person that was in the family, or did anybody else dabble with instruments, or is it just him?

SPEAKER_03 27:00

In in our household, in our close family, yeah. That was kind of on you know, my dad's side of the family, my birth father's side of the family. They uh there was some musicians, uh, but they weren't they're they're not touring musicians, they weren't like like my grandpa was a professional touring musician, and there was people that played instruments on on uh my birth father's side of the family, but uh just everything 1000%, man. I owe to my grandpa that was

First Instruments And Learning Guitar

SPEAKER_03 27:29

I mean, I remember having a knee surgery in high school, and I'd played guitar, I'd played drums, and I had a freak baseball injury and I tore my knee, and I remember asking my grandpa's like, hey, I want to learn how to play guitar. And we had this little old school, I I think it was like a PV, you know, copy of a strat. I don't think I'm trying to think of the model name of it. I think it was like a T T 45 or something like that. And uh he had it in the house and he's like, sure. And I remember him putting new going to buy new strings, putting strings on there and tuning it for me like the day after my surgery, and he was like, Here, you want to play it? I was like, Yeah, I don't know anything. He was like, Well, this is a G, and this is a D, you know, and taught me the G C D, man. That's the bass of guitar. Those are the cowboy chords right there, right? And he's like, and I was telling him one day, like I was messing around with it for about a day, and I was like, I would really like an acoustic guitar though, so I can hear what I'm playing. Because it's kind of hard, you know, just have an amp, and then it's just loud, and then I can't move out of bed to adjust the same, you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

So it was just one of those things. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

And he was like, Yeah, all right. And I remember he went to the local music shop in Wharton, Texas, and it's not even there anymore. It was a music shop called Collins Music Center, and there's like two of them left, you know, uh in El Campo and Lake Jackson. And but he went to Collins Music Center in Wharton, Texas, and bought me this blue Johnson or Ventura. It was a blue Ventura acoustic guitar. And uh he brought it home, man, and I played that G C and D. And I think by the end of the week I had G C D A E, you know, and all the other, you know, it's just one of those things that I'm I've never really honestly been a big TV person.

SPEAKER_05 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:12

And that could be, you know, what we were talking about earlier. Like we were always outside, we were always doing something, we're always going somewhere. And uh I think that had a lot to do with it. You know, I just I just wanted to play guitar.

SPEAKER_05 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

And and I just that's something that day in my brain, I was like, you know what, I can't play drums. I don't feel like watching TV all day, and I'm gonna be in this bed other than physical therapy for the next two weeks. Figure it out. Yeah. You know, so I he bought me that guitar and that was it, man.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

That was the uh that kick that was the kickstart.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

Yeah, I didn't even know I could sing at this point. That was never, I mean, I might have sang around the house, but nobody ever's like, hey, you sound great. That was never something that popped up. Uh, but I could hear, hear myself, you know, and uh that wasn't that didn't even ever come until later. I think the first time I ever put put a song together from my grandparents, they were just like, Oh, you sing. I'm like, okay. So it was like that kind of shocked. They got everybody was shocked.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Yeah. Well, I remember as a as a kid, even though I was a sports kid, um, I I would I took piano lessons forever and I wanted to play, you know, like you my my mom and dad never had to say, Randy, now you didn't need to sit down and practice today. Like, I just wanted to do that because I genuinely had a love for the music at a very young age. And uh Yeah, I mean you never had to tell this guy to pick the instrument up and play it, right? I just that was in my blood for whatever reason. I think you it's either in your blood or it's not, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:44

You know, and that's that's yeah, that's very true, man. And and that's one of those things, too. It's like, what's your surrounding like? Like who's who's around you to instill this? Because that's what it is. That and it's so funny that you say that because even though now you have YouTube and you can see and learn all this stuff, having somebody in your family that plays or shows you, or if your family gets together on holidays and shares music with each other, that is like almost like a rite of passage. Like, you know, I joke with everybody, like my kid fishing baseball. Like my son is my splitting image to the T, and that's what he wants to do. But music, not interested. Yeah, my daughter, that is gonna be my musician. Yeah, how old is the son? He's 10. He turned 10 a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

But you know what? There's there's hope though, Bubba, because my oldest son, Brandon, I don't think he showed any interest with all these guitars. I mean, all throughout this just this is just one room of them here, right? But I don't think he had any uh desire until he was like had to have been in high school. Like he had to have been 15, 16 years old. But he's he's 20 times the player I am. And it's like he learned that within the last 10 or so, 12 years, or however long he's been playing. I've been I've been tr stabbing at it for 30, 40 years now, and I still suck for the most part compared to what you see on YouTube. You see these eight-year-olds just doing all the Eddie Van Halen stuff, and and Brandon, he's he's yeah, he's 20 times the player that I am. But I think there's so much elasticity in a young person's brain, they absorb and learn. And I think as we get older, you know, there's that old adage, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You've heard that all your life, and there's a lot of truth to that. It's like I think all the time, well, I'd like to go back to studying music for the piano because that's where that's my roots, the piano, and I can read because I took from a classical teacher, but I just don't think I have the patience to sit down and and try to reacquaint myself. And I I I think about it and then I talk myself out of it. So it's uh that's interesting. But were mom and dad always supportive of of the music? Did they say, yeah, man? Did they encourage it? Because a lot of parents don't. They're like, dude, put that guitar down and go mow the grass. Like they don't they don't care that you love it and then you might make something of it. But I didn't know if your parents were oh man, you know, the the rah-rahs, go get them bubble like my grandparents.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

I was raised by my grandparents. Yep. No, dude, they were they were the absolute best. That's awesome. They still to this day, my grandma, she's still alive, and and then uh she's she was at my show last week in Conroe or two weeks ago, the July 3rd, that was our show in Conroe. She was they drove up from Tombaugh to Conroe to come watch the show. So if I'm around, they'll come out and check the shows out. They're very, very I supported my mom. She's uh the caretaker for my grandma, and she's at any event that I have local that around local to Houston. Sure. Yeah, they're there, man. They're still 1,000% supportive. And that's so you know, my mom shares my stuff with everybody. So it's and it's great. My brother, he's the same way. You know, my brother's very supportive about what we do. Didn't catch a music bug, you know, he took the military route. Sure. Um, and yeah, man, it's they've always, always, as one thing, I've had my whole entire career that I've been doing this, man. I've had the most supportive people around me. I've had the most supportive camp around me. And uh even when I was battling, you know, my own addiction, I uh still had a camp of hope of people around me, man, that never gave up on me.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

Yep. They never gave up. You got you gotta have a good street team, man. You know what I mean? Like you got you gotta have when when you're doing all the dumb things and making all the dumb decisions, there you you have to surround yourself with smarter people, right? There's just no two ways around that. Come on, Randy. I'm always the smartest guy in the room. No, that is 1,000%. Yeah, yeah. Because it let yeah, we're not gonna go down that rabbit hole, but I did my share of dumb shit too, right? Um, but I was always surrounded with a good family, came from a solid family, had solid friends, and you know, we can go out and do dumb things, but we'll always come back to what's right because that's what was instilled in me and and probably you. Like, I don't know how you were brought up, but just by talking to you for 20 minutes, like I can tell that the grandparents were a huge influence and a positive influence on your on your upbringing, right? They were everything, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

They were everything I got in my life, you know. They I owe it all to them, man.

SPEAKER_04 35:31

This this is cool. This is cool, and I'll tell you why it's cool, because I'm expecting my fifth grandkid next week. And you saying that about your grandparents made me think, man, I I hope my grandkids say the same thing about me, right? That's all you can hope for, right? For sure, for sure. Like I hope at I don't know how old you are, but I mean, even if you were 40 or 50 or 60, it doesn't matter, but you always want your grandkids to say, Man, I owe it all to owe it all to Grampy. He's just he was a cool dude, man. And he always yeah, but um, you know, you walked in, you're you had a guitar in tow, and I can't stand to see a guitar just sit on the stand. So I was wondering if you would maybe pick something for the listeners, man, and uh share, share your gift with them. That would be super cool. I would love to.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

We're gonna do uh one call.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Oh, you'll now you can do one uh called Feel So Good.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

You want to talk about an hour later.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

We'll come back and talk about it. I'll let you jump over there on the stool and get set up and then play through it, and then we'll uh we'll have the listeners um you know basically hear all about the song. And it's one of the newer songs that you have outright. Okay, great, yeah.

Live Performance Feel So Good

SPEAKER_01 37:01

I get to thinking that maybe you ain't leaving within the night. I've been watching you still dance for long. I'm gonna ask you to dance. Can you play myself? I just need to make fun of I wanna feel so good. I gonna stop to the mother just loving all you mm so hey, let's need to play me something slow and then I just need to need getting a play me something slowly. I'm gonna feel strong.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

That was a tune called Feel So Good. Bubba, great song, man. I love that. I appreciate it. Nice job, nice nice execution. Your voice sounds great in this room, too. I like that. That's a great room. Yeah, thank you so much. Uh tell me about the song, man. I guess you just released that this year, did you not?

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Uh so Feel So Good came out last year, and it was one that just I sat on this song for probably like 10 years, to be honest with you. I wrote it about 10 years ago, and it it stemmed from a crazy nut in College Station, Texas. And I I I introduced the song this way because I'm one of those singer-songwriters, like when we're doing shows, I do my best to try to tell everybody that even the people that are there, and you know which people really know what song I'm

The Wild Night That Wrote It

SPEAKER_03 41:58

talking about, because as soon as I start introducing it and they understand what it's about, they'll start cheering, like, Oh, I know what song that is, you know. So it's really cool. This is one of those songs, and uh I just introduced this one that the same way it got written. Um, I'm that friend in the friend group, and I know that y'all, y'all listeners can't see this, but Randy can. That by my size and stature, I'm the guy that always stops all the bad stuff from happening with everybody else. So my buddies were surrounded uh that I surrounded myself with at the time. Uh, and I still do to this day, they're still great friends, chase the wrong girls at a place in College Station, Texas called Hurricane Harry's that is not there anymore. Um, but I got kicked out three different times that night um from trying to stop one fight from happening. Uh but yeah, that and I was you know, funny story, my buddy ended up dating that girl for a few years, but it was uh it was that a story that came from, you know, just trying to have a good night and make everybody feel good. And I just wrote it from a point of view, which would obviously be his point of view. Uh, but that's kind of where uh that whole song came from. It's just a crazy night in college station, Texas.

SPEAKER_04 43:15

Is this so so why so why does it rear its head 10 years later? What happened? Did you just suppress it? You didn't think it was good enough at the time? Like what what was your thinking behind it, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:25

Great question. So I'm in the middle of working on a record when that song came out. And there's another record that it came out on, other than the single that you hear and that you it's known for, as a single. But I put it on another record in 2021 called A Small Town Loser. And that record I was not 1,000% happy with. I was rushed to do it, if that makes sense. It was right during COVID. Uh right right actually while we were cutting it, COVID happened. While we were in the middle of the week that we were in the studio, that was when COVID hit. And so the mix and mastering of that took like two years to get back. And so by the time I got it back, I'm like, hey, I recut it again. COVID's over. I just got my, you know. It was just and it it was the reason it was brought up is because I was in the middle of this record, I wanted to put out an EP. And I had like four songs, and I was two that I was working on at the time. And I just went into this big, you know, rabbit hole of old material that I had. And that's one of the ones that that came and popped out. You know, and I think the beat I had for it and the way I played it was completely different than that record. And then I I sat at home with it, and my wife was like, Oh, I really like that. That's a really good. It's like, I'm gonna play it at a few acoustic shows and see what happens. So I pulled it out at a few acoustic shows and then the shows are over, and everybody's like, was that original song that you sang? The one about feeling good feels, you know, whatever. That's how they it was introduced from people that are listening. I'm like, yeah, that's original one. Like, oh man, I'd love to hear it again. So I'm like, okay, I gotta cut that song. And we ended up releasing it for a single, what's a top 20? That's my first uh top 20 in Texas music. So it was really cool, man, to uh my second top 20, I'm sorry, second top 20 in Texas music. Uh but it was really cool to see people relate with a song that you wrote, you know, 10. Now that song was written, you know, 13 years ago. Yeah. Yeah, 13 years, yeah, 12 years ago. I wasn't even I didn't even cut my first record. You know, I didn't even cut my first record and I wrote that song. So yeah, sat on it for a long time, man, and that the writing and the lyrics and everything about that song just resonated not only for the record, but for my life at that time. Yeah. And it was that record was full of a lot of uh real lyrics. And what I mean by real life lyrics is it's not a uh that record was not commercial at all. And I it was purposely written and and I cut it that way on purpose. Um excuse me, just because that was what I was going through at that point in my life, and uh I was like, I have to put something on this record that's commercial, you know, that has some kind of upbeat song in it, because there was not an upbeat song, like a really fast tempo song in there, and that happened to be it. So I put it in there, and then you know, to be honest with you, that really changed a lot of my character, I would say, and as far as like what people started relating to me, oh you got a really soulful voice. When if you listen to anything pre-2023 of mine, it's a lot more on the rock side than on the country side. Interesting. Not that I didn't have the same influences or that anything changed. I mean, there's songs that I'm cutting now that are coming up next year that I wrote 13 years ago. Yeah, the music was completely different, but the lyrics are still the same. I still feel the same way about the song, but the style of music that I'm enjoying, and I'm noticing that our fan-based and my brand of music is enjoying a lot more, it's completely different. Of course. So now we go, I'm even having I'm sitting in a songwriter's room the other day and I'm writing with the two guys, and both of them go, Hey, what else do you got from like 20 years ago? And I'm like, God, Jesus, 20 years ago, I was in high school. That's rude.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Yeah. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:28

You know, so it's just like I'm digging back more into stuff that I wrote a long time ago that I thought, this is nothing, you know, this is not then you know that's one of the songs that I I gave new life to, man. And I think it gave new life to me.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

You you know what I I have to share this with you, and and and please do take this as a compliment, right? I I uh you had text me and said, These are the two songs that I'll play. And I said, Well, I I listened to a lot of your stuff over the last couple of weeks just to kind of get familiar with it and whatnot. But I I kind of honed in on the two that you mentioned, and when I heard this one that you just played, I'm like, man, I like that. But I I it's gonna be interesting to see how he pulls that off acoustically, right? Like I just because you hear it with the band, and you you know it's not predominantly acoustic guitar that you're hearing in the songs. But first of all, I have to preface what I'm gonna say by saying, I'm an acoustic guy. Like I'm not I'm not an electric player. I mean, I've got electrics in here. I'm I'm 100% acoustic guitar guy, right? That's what my duo is. We're acoustic. Um, but I love that probably better than the recording. That's just my personal preference, right? Like I could sit and listen to that all day long, right? So kudos to you. That sounded great in here, and it's nice to hear a raw voice, you know, based on, you know, I sat and listened to you on Spotify. That's one thing. But to see uh the artist three feet away in the raw, right? No, no fabrication of anything, it's just you and the guitar, right? Yeah, and it's always nice to hear that, man. And I love that.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

So I was like, it's all right, man.

SPEAKER_04 49:16

It's okay. I can't just not I came like if I'm going to the lake today, just hanging out. I I didn't say, but there's a dress code you're gonna have to uh acquiesce to when you come up. I never told you that. So you look perfect for what we're doing. Yeah, so I'm glad to be here. I did love that, and thanks for sharing that with the listeners. How often do you find yourself? I you you kind of gave it away because you said you were in a you know basically a writing session or whatever, but the question is, how often do you find yourself writing like during the week?

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Oh man. Are you constantly doing lyrics in my phone on the way here? No code. I I mean I'm gonna pull this out, and the listeners, uh viewers out there can't see it uh just because of we're doing this on a podcast, but like show you. This is like this is a line I put in my phone on the way here, and that's literally just lines and lines all on my phone. Wow. That's it. So you're you're constantly going. I'm constantly writing, man. There's because you find

Daily Songwriting Habits And Royalties

SPEAKER_03 50:21

inspiration everywhere. Exactly. Yeah. And sometimes like my wife and I watched this movie, and it's not it's my wife's a book reader. And I was sitting there going, This is such a great movie. I did not by the way that she described the book to me, I didn't expect the movie to go the same way. Uh, but we're a fan of one of the actresses in this movie. So we were like, Yeah, let's watch it. It's kind of funny. She's in this movie, you know, let's watch it. And by the end of it, I go, Hey, this is a great movie. But I got like four different songs flowing in my head right now. Like, I have to put this down. And she's she's like, hey, your leg's moving. Like, and I just tap, and I I'm just that that kind of like music. Music is literally, man, just it beats it. Like, I yeah, I'm just always moving like with music when I'm driving. My wife's like, you don't even listen to the radio anymore. And it's so funny because you know, like, hey, I did a I'm on the radio a lot. There's a lot of people that apparently love my music and see me on the radio quite a bit, you know, from 100 point through the bull to 106.1 out of out of uh Brenham and 99.9 out of college station. Those are the three major market radio stations in this part of Texas. Of course. And I've many a times got in my car and turned it on, and it's like, wow, that's me. That's me on the radio stations I grew up listening to. Now, older, when I'm older, now at my age now, I I find myself listening to podcasts and turning the radio off to write.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Yeah. Like that's how I write.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

I'm driving, you know, hey, we got like I play one of the I don't do many acoustic shows anymore, but one I that I still do to this day is one I've been doing for probably seven years, and that's playing the golden nugget in Lake Charles. Okay, you know? And when I make that drive, you know, once every other month, that's a drive that I make with the radio off. It's because that I know I got two or three hours. So if I'm I have something in my head, now's the time to put it put it to the phone, put it on paper, you know, and then the music could come later because there's a lot of people that goes with the chicken or the egg question does music come first or does the lyrics come first? Right. And 90% of the time for me, it's it's completely lyric-based.

SPEAKER_04 52:50

That's interesting because people, most people that I've talked to, it comes from a hook or a melody line. Yeah, right. That's where it all starts, right? And everybody's so different in their writing. I had Michael Sweet from Striper on my show, right? Lead singer for Boston for a while, you know. And and and Michael will tell, he's been on the show a couple of times, and he told me, I'm a structured writer. I go into my studio at 10 o'clock or whatever the time was every day, and I sit and write. But there's people like you that just drive down the street and get inspired. You don't have to have a blocked-out time on a calendar to write. And and I'm sure he catches inspiration at different times of the day, too. But some people are more methodical. And then I had Holly Knight on my show, who is Jesus, like, who has she not written for? She wrote Love is a Battlefield for Pat Benatar. She wrote The Best for Tina Turner. She wrote The Warrior by Scandal, which was a huge hit, you know, back in the day. She's written for Aerosmith and Rod Stewart. And it's like, where do all these ideas come from? You know, like I I've written a few songs over the years, but I don't I don't ever label myself as a songwriter, but but you guys that are able to not be lyrical airheads, right? That that can come up with this stuff is pretty amazing, man. It's pretty respectful that you can piece all this together and it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 54:11

I never even, you know, to be honest with you, it's funny because I still if somebody goes, What do you do for a living? The first thing out of my mouth is I'm a musician because I toured, you know, playing lead guitar before I ever decided to try to make my own record or try playing my own shows. And you know, so it's just like that's always in my head. But now people are like, Well, I want to hear what you got, what are you working on now? Yeah. You know, and then they're like yesterday, uh, we were talking about before I came on, I played a played a benefit down the road in Stafford, Texas, and somebody out there goes, Hey, play something new. Play something new you haven't played yet. And I I'm just like, Wow, what song do I play for y'all? Because what's the last thing you heard that you said was new? Because I to be honest with you, I probably write uh two to three songs a week, like completely. Wow. Um, and I've probably written a hundred songs that nobody's ever heard. And I've probably written a hundred songs that I've reused another song. Yeah, there's a hundred songs that were supposed to be three different songs that came into one song, you know? But I I keep a catalog of it, and it's just something, man. You know, people find their muse and and their release in a lot of different ways. Songwriting is mine.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

When when did you when did you wake like when did you wake up and say and consider yourself a songwriter? When did that come? Was that last year, 10 years ago, 20 years ago? When did you finally say, hey, you know what? I'm a songwriter. I I've written X amount of songs.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

Randy, by the way, I'm about to quote you uh on Facebook, okay, because this might be one of the best questions I've ever been asked in any interview in my career. My answer off the top of my head, right now, because that was probably one of the most amazing questions I've ever been asked, is I don't know. Okay. Uh if I had to pinpoint it and say, I can look at this and go, now I'm a songwriter, that would probably be the first time I received a BMI check or ASPEC, ASCAP check. The first royalty check I ever received on paper, because I had received royalty checks before for songs I'd written, but they are go through you know publishers and then I get a direct deposit. But the first time I got an actual hand check, and I'll never forget, I I was holding it in my hand, I looked down and it was like $80 and I go, Wow, that is so cool. I made $80 off a songwriting.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

I was like, what am I gonna buy with $80?

SPEAKER_03 56:43

Yes, you know, and this had to have been, you know, like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, probably. And I remember holding it and just thinking, like, wow, I'm I'm paid. I finally got paid the songwrite. Yeah. And it was weird holding the paper and knowing that I I do get a direct deposit quarterly, but holding the paper and actually seeing a check with my name on it, with my LLC, sure, going like, I am now a songwriter. That's probably the first time that I go. That made me feel some as a songwriter. So that's the first time I can go labeled as a songwriter.

SPEAKER_04 57:19

That's interesting because I, you know, this is this is Randy Holsey thinking out loud. Now, I love it. I I have I have a full-time job that pays my mortgage, right? I don't I don't lean on music to pay anything, even though at one time I was playing about 130 live shows a year, which is a lot for a part-time musician. But um it's um to to me, I would have almost framed that check instead of cashing it, right? Because that 80 bucks is not is not worth what that check. I mean, the check itself is worth more than the um denomination of money, is my point, if you understand where I'm coming from. 100%, yeah. Like that that would have just been the one that, okay, I'm never gonna like not cash a check, but that's the one I'm not gonna cash because that's when I feel like it all kicked off for me, right? That's Randy thinking. Now, musicians, and you get paid, that's how you get paid. Well, you need that money, right? You got to cash the check and put gas in the car to get to the next gig. I I totally get all that. But being in the shoes that I'm in right now, that thing would have been hanging on a wall in here somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

No, sarcastically, I said the uh what am I gonna do with $80? But to be honest with you, that's funny you say that because that $80 was like that was a lifeline. Yeah. The reason I even got that check was because I went in. That was the first time I learned more about the business side of things. And I went in and registered, re-registered properly all of my my you know, my canal licensing, everything that I needed to be an official songwriter. Yep. And that's when it happened. And I received a check pretty much like two two months after I did it all. And now, you know, I have this catalog of stuff that that gets released, and I put it on BMI. That's I'm registered with BMI, that's who does everything for me. And you know, anytime I got a question, I just call BMI. It's this guy, yeah, that's for whoever answers the phone that day in Austin. It's like, hey, got this question. And it's we dabbled into the uh cover song thing. So I'm always bucking those guys about something. But man, it's made it so easy these days. I mean, you got a dashboard, you can get in there and look at what song is making the most money, etc. So it's really cool to uh to see that, but looking back at that, how far that world of of writing and and how to do the business side of things, man, and just my short career has been night and day from when I started. You know, I'm still learning. Yeah, like you know what I'm saying. You always will be doing it right now, geofencing. It's like why why do you have to dig deep into geofencing? Guess what? Music is changing. Yeah, music is changing. So that's just the way it goes. And but pinpointing it to look back at that $80, man, that's that's something I haven't thought about that in a long time. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:16

I love that story. Well, you've uh you've had several songs that have, I I believe, and you correct me if any of my what I'm saying or my stats or my facts are not factual, right? But I think you've had multiple number ones, right? Um which of those songs made it to the top spots? What what were the number one songs for you that that made it to the top of the charts?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

The number one song for me had to be our latest number one, which was so good for me. Okay. And I would say that's my number one is because I was an actual writer. I wrote that song. Um the other two that went number one for me. Oh, I two, I'm two for two, so I've written two number ones, but the bigger charts that report to Billboard, there were three number ones. Okay. Um

Number Ones And Nashville Writing Rooms

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

but so good for me was the one that stuck out the most because that was one that you know just all the cards lined. You know what I'm saying? That's just one of that I met the guy that wrote Damn Baby, which went number one for me. Um was this introduced me, pitched me another song called Sweet that also went number one, and then I was like, dude, okay, I have two number ones that I didn't write. And those are my two biggest number ones that I've ever I have released. And I'm I'm not the the artist that goes, Oh, I'm just too good of a songwriter that I'm not cutting anybody else's songs because that's not not me at all. Uh and those songs were pitched to me at a at on vacation. Both of those songs actually were pitched to me while we were my wife and I were on vacation. And so when So Good for Me came about, I was like trying to find something. I was trying to write something, and I happened to be in Nashville for an awards, an independent awards show at the Grand Ole Opry. And the guy that was a writer on Suite, him and I communicated and I was like, hey man, I'm coming to Nashville. I said, I really need to write something with somebody while I'm there. Or I'm just gonna feel you know, I was there for an award show, but you go to Nashville, you gotta find somebody to write with. You gotta do some kind of music. And I I had a I had a showcase and and you know, I had a few other things going on, but I'm the guy that's like, I'm gonna go to Nashville, I want to write. I want to write with somebody. God, the amount of writers I could literally you could pick one off their street. But I wanted to write with this guy. His name is Kenneth Duncan, and he's written, oh man, for everybody from Florida, Georgia Lion to Kenny Chesney. So and I'm just like, hey, we really want to write. And I'm in Nashville. He said, dude, come to my house. And I'm I'm literally texting my wife, it's like, he invited me to his house. She's like, you better go. I was like, we better get two vehicles. She was like, no, we're getting one vehicle while we're in Nashville. I was like, okay. And I say that to say this. So I had my wife, my one-year-old daughter at the time, and both of my in-laws. And I was just like, How am I gonna get to this on time? And I already knew. I was like, how am I gonna get there on time? And I was so nervous. And uh I get there and I was just, you know, frustrated. I was running late. I was like 20 minutes late. The first thing he does when he opens the door is like, you're late. Like that's just I mean, and now that I know him and we're such good friends, we are amazing friends right now, and uh, and have been since we met. And our wives are great friends now too. Our whole family's just become acquainted like crazy. That's cool. I'm sitting there, he answered the door, he invites me in for a cup of coffee. We go to his room, his little studio where we're writing, and he's just venting. And I'm just like, oh my god, dude, you you feel the same way I do about my significant other at this moment, just because I'm just so frustrated. I'm 30 minutes late to one of the biggest rights of my my life at this point, you know. And and uh I was like, man, let's let's write a very upbeat, you know, in your face type song. He's like, Yeah, let's do it. And then he starts talking about this specific part of his life with his wife, and I'm like, man, you know, my wife's so caring and loving that way too. We end up writing a love song for we dude, we turned the left turn and and end up writing a love song, and I remember playing it for my wife in the car, and she goes, Wow, I didn't think that was something you'd write after the morning you had. You're in a little different frame of mind. Yeah, so I got back to Texas and we Zoom called and we're writing. We him and I, he's he's in uh Kansas, between Kansas and Tennessee all the time. So him and I ride a lot in Zoom, and we're zooming one day, just kind of making sure that this is where we wanted to go. That was the direction that we wanted to go with the song, and I'm finishing up, and he's like, Man, that's a single, bro. That's a that's one that needs to go. And I said, you know, I have to uh really, really be careful because you know, in Texas radio and the way radio is for the scene that I'm in, you want to make sure that you don't bore the radio DJs because as soon as you're boring, and I wouldn't say boring, you got to make sure that you're writing something that fits with what they want to play on the stage. And it's a slow song, it's not a fast song. And uh it's a summertime, you know, early beginning of the year, spring. It's people are releasing a lot of upbeat songs. And I think the same week that I released that, I was up against like Hudson Westbrook. I think Cody Johnson released a song the same week. So I'm against all these guys that are just you know top of the food chain in country music, you know. And I'm I just like, well, let's just see what happens, let's release it. Release it. And the first thing I get back from radio programmers and and my promoter is like, hey, they love it. Because my promoter really was like, You're gonna release a slow song right now. And I was like, man, I I really love this song. I just have a gut feeling it's gonna hit. And even the other writers and the my really close friends that are still in radio, I pitched to, and they're like, dude, you that's a great song. That's that's commercially something completely different than what every person that looks at business and goes, This is what we have to release, is releasing. I said, All right, let's take the chance. Well, we did, and it was Jesus, that thing took off like a rocket, you know. So um that's just one of those that has to sit at the top, number one for me because It was completely different than anything we had released at that point. And you know, there's a map, so to say, when you're you're releasing stuff, you know, you want to get it out on the schedule. That this was one that was just completely in the dark. Like, hey, let's do it. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it full speed. And uh yeah, man, that was it's a very special one.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:09

That's that's cool, you know. And I've talked to a lot of people about their songs and climbing the charts. And I remember one interview I did with a Texas troubadour named Sheik Russell, had him here, had him here in the studio. Him and his wife D came in, and uh we got to talk and and I I think I'm telling the story, right? So if Shake listens to this, hopefully I'm not butchering the story. But he had written a song called Put Yourself in My Shoes, and he Clint Black recorded that song, right? And he said his story was I watched it climb the billboard charts, climbing, climbing. You know, it was number 20, number, you know, 15, number 12. And he said, Man, it got all the way up to number two, and we were just like sitting there waiting for it to hit number one. And he said, But there was this one song, Dolly and Kenny had Islands in the stream, and it never got to number one. And he said, To this day, I hate that song. It was the only thing that kept him and him and Clint Black out of the number one Billboard song. Yeah, but that was you know great success. That's a hard one right there for sure. Well, what you know what what does it feel like to the artist when you have a song that goes to number one or even in the top ten? Like I I has I I I have to think that that's validation for you, right? Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

Absolutely, absolutely. The first time, my first number one, um, I thought was gonna hit on my birthday. I really did because we were like, oh my god, we're at number two. We're gonna hit number one this week. Hopefully. And man, we had pushed it, pushed it hard, and I I think I increased like we had 200, 300 extra spins, and I was like, this is it. We ended up getting second gainest greatest spin increase, you know, and stuff like that. But I got jumped the week of my birthday by a guy named Hudson Westbrook. So, you know, so it's like he went from three to one. I stayed at two, so it's a funny story, Sheikh Russell's story. He's like, he's stuck at two. And the week after that, we did hit number one, and I think I was excited because I was waking up, my birthday was on a Thursday, that's when the charts come out, and I was like, oh man, I'm gonna wake up today, I'm gonna have a number one on my birthday. What a what a week to have a number one, you know. Right, yeah, that would be cool. And nope, I didn't get it. But the week after we hit number one, and it was it was exciting. The month of May is you know, is always a special month. I got my first number one in there, you know, my birthday. Yeah, I've just was the validation is one thing. But I think what was really special about getting the my first number one it was that I had grinded so long. I had grinded so long, you know. It took me 10 years. I was I was 10 years to the date, like April of 2024. Uh 2025, sorry. That was my 10 year my first album came out April 2020 2014. It's April 2024. Sorry about that. Got all confused there. But April of 2024 was 10 years I'd been in the music industry, and May of 2024 is my first number one. Okay. So that was just, you know, it was it was amazing, man. It was amazing to see.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:28

As a as a writer, though, do you get this gut when you write a song that it's gonna climb the charts? Is there a gut or not really?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:35

Man, I wish if if that was the case, then maybe everybody'd have a number one if that was. I thought my gut was for several songs, you know, and I started pitching them and they're like, Yeah, dude, that's just gas. So like I I just buzzkill. I wrote one that got uh with a guy, two two writers out of Texas, and he goes in to cut a song, cut it in Nashville. Why is it Nashville? Get it get pitched to uh Mark Chestnut. So Mark Chestnut cut the song, and I was just like, oh my god, this is gonna be great. You know, maybe he's coming back and release it to radio, and I just, you know, he got sick, unfortunately. And uh and it just had never got released. But you know,

What Makes A Song Chart

SPEAKER_03 1:11:20

I that was one that when we wrote it, uh it was one of those unexpected songs. It's one of those songs that you know you're you don't expect it to do anything, you don't expect it. You didn't you didn't even expect to write a song. We were having a conversation on the phone about us getting together to write. And I was coming home from a show in Corpus, and we're him and I are on the phone talking about it, and he's like, Oh man, I'm just stuck with this line. And I heard he told me the line, he's like, I need a heartbreak. And I was like, Man, everybody's heart needs a break. And he goes, That's the that's the hook. And I'm like, man, that is pretty cool. Yeah, let's finish writing this, you know. And then, you know, I we used to start spitballing stuff off each other while we're on the phone. And I remember telling him, he was like, Man, you need to put something sad as Gary Stewart. He was like, I'm crying tears in this beer, listening, you know, to Gary Stewart. I'm like, that is too cliche. It needs to be sounding a lot prettier than that, you know. And uh so we ended up just spitballing stuff off each other. We put put out the song, and I was just like, man, that's a great country song. That was a great, great, classic country feel. And I was like, we need to pitch that to Zach Top. I remember just listening, and he was like, I remember him going, Oh, I think I heard of him. And I was like, No, no, no, Zach Top is like the big country guy right now. Yeah, I was like, There's no way I think we can get it in Kojo's hands. You know, and then you know, he goes to cut it in Nashville because he liked it himself. He goes to Nashville and he cuts it in Nashville, and then next thing you know, Mark Chestnut. Wow, okay, cool. Yeah, the song obviously has enough juice. Yeah, somebody like of that nature liked the song to cut it, but that was one that I thought was gonna just take off after they said Mark Chestnut picked it up, you know, and it didn't go anywhere. But I think I might cut it. That's one that's still on my back burner.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:18

Well, that dude had that dude had some good songs back in the day, right? Beaumont, I guess Beaumont boy, right? Beaumont, Texas, yeah.

unknown 1:13:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:25

There's a lot of guys from Beaumont. Yeah. Tracy Bird. Yeah. You remember Zona Jones? I don't know that name. So Zona Jones had a big song probably in the early 2000s. That was uh I can see you loving me too, two hearts, one love, that's us. And that was a big one. It's so funny because him and Tracy Bird are both attorneys now in Beaumont.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:45

No kidding.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:46

I didn't know that. So every time you come from Louisiana or going to Louisiana, you see uh they have a billboard together out there. Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:53

Wow, interesting. Well, is there one thing like you feel like a song has to have? I mean, this might be a dumb question, right? Is there is there an ingredient? Yeah, do you know that that a song has to have to chart? Do you think there's a secret ingredient? And then but then I'm second guessing that question. Okay, because if there was a secret ingredient and you know it, then everybody should know it, and everybody should have a number one hit. So I'm thinking it's hard to answer that question, but you you know, I think you understand where the question is.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:27

I know it's coming from where you're going with it. Absolutely. So to chart and to here's the one thing I'll say about this, because this is how I feel, and this is a personal thing. So I'm gonna say a business answer, and I'm gonna say a personal answer. Personal answer, I don't think a person's cre a songwriter's creativity, that is up to the songwriter. I don't think that a song needs some kind of specific something. I would never ever knock somebody's creativity. I don't like rap music, you know. That's just me. Yeah, but I'm never gonna knock the creativity. Sure. I enjoyed rap songs. I love listen to it, but I'm not gonna sit in a car for three hours and jam rap music. Right. And I'm not knocking anybody, so anybody listening, I'm not it I still listen to it too. Uh, you know, it is what it is, but that's my feeling on it. And it is, that's how I feel. Um, but I would never go, oh, that song just is absolute trash because that's somebody's creativity. Yeah, you know, as much as people I don't like rap music, I can't go, oh well, Biggie and Tupac. I mean, I'm just referring to these two because I saw I saw documentaries about them a few weeks ago because I'm a documentary guy now. But um I would never go, these guys are horrible humans just because of their songwriting. No, no, no, dude. They were preaching and they were preaching in their own ways, they were telling stories about where they grew up in their own areas. That's creativity that resonated with millions of people. You cannot knock that.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:01

No, because a lot of people come from the streets and come from those environments, right? Exactly. And they relate to that. It's relatable just like just like your stuff is relatable to many people too, right? Exactly. I mean, we can't we can't please everyone. Ricky Nelson wrote a song about that. You can't please everyone, so you have to please yourself, right? Called Garden Party. And I mean, there's a lot of truth to that.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:22

Harper Valley PTA, you know, there's you listen to a lot of those songs, yeah. But I I would never maximize creativity. And I don't think that a song to be a song, whether you're gonna release it or you're gonna hold it in your notebook at home or you're gonna keep it in your phone recorded that you sang to yourself, there's no special ingredient for it. No. And there shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:46

It's it's probably just a run of look, you know, once you get it out there, like it's either gonna, it's either gonna be adopted or it's not gonna be adopted, right? It's almost like a, you know, if you I remember an interview with Fred Couples one time, the pro golfer, everybody or or this guy was asking him, is it hard to get a hole in one? And he said, From the T to the green is all skill, right? That's me hitting the ball, putting the ball where I want it to go. Once it hits the green, it's luck after that. Because the undulation of the green can go anywhere, right? Yeah, so you write the song and you just have to put it out in the universe to see if it's gonna be acceptable. You know, you gotta let it, you gotta hit the green, right? But but from there, that it that song could go anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:33

You led me right into my business side of this. My business answer is exactly that. Uh in a different metaphor, of course. But yes, when you release, now there's like any other industry, uh, music is a 100% professional business. It is one of the business largest entertainment industry, music industry is one of the largest industries in the world. That's what some people don't realize. That's why they're like, well, why is Spotify so big? Why is Apple Music so big? Why is it because there's millions and millions of people around the world that all relate to something somebody put on a piece of paper and then somebody recorded along the way? And on top of that, we're talking about a market, the market I'm in is Texas Country, where radio is still alive and well and thriving like nobody's business. Uh Nashville is the same way. There's major market radio stations, country radio stations all over the United States. You will you cannot go an inch of this country with a transistor radio or radio in your car and not hit some kind of major market radio station. Absolutely. That's just the world we still live in. Um so, but once you get to that point, you can write a great song. You can think it could be the most brilliant song that you've ever written or anybody's ever written in the world. But when you get to a certain point where now there's a lot of hands in the pot that make you go, oh well, if you want to play it in this portion of the country or you want to play it on these stations, you're gonna have to pay us a certain amount of money. That's the realistic part of it. Yeah. Because that's real that's just how it goes. You know, now you might see a few guys like um oh my god, who's a guy about four or five years ago that went famous from that phone he shot on his Android in the woods? An Oliver Anthony? Oh yeah. You know, that's a different platform. That he got famous from a song that he wrote by putting it on YouTube. You know, and then you go, oh well then he cut the song and made millions off of it. And then he got a record label.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:52

He is one of the very few you want to talk about lucky. That is sure beyond luck. Like the day that he saw that song hit a hundred thousand views, he should have gone about a lottery ticket to see if the luck was still there, you know what I'm saying? Because that's so hard to do. Absolutely, and that has to be 1,000% organic. Do I encourage somebody to chase that same kind of organic in realness? You want to say yeah, because it can happen. The proof is there, but how hard is that to happen? Of course, very hard. Yeah, and the realistic part about that is it is unlikely for any of us to see it happen to somebody we know in our scene. I'm not like I said, I'm not saying it won't happen because it could happen. Unlikely is what I'm saying. It's very unlikely.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:40

Well, and then what you're saying carries over to the world of podcasting, too. I I read articles when I started the show, and it said when you're a year, if you're still going after one year, right? And you're getting more than 50 five zero streams per episode, you're you're in the top 50% of podcasts. Wow, that's awesome. And you think about that for a minute, you think about people that stream songs. Like I've seen your accounts, tens of thousands of streams, right? There's some artists with tens of millions, there's some with a billion streams. But the the point that I'm making is it it just either grows legs organically or it or it never takes off, right? And and and I think that writing a song, it's either gonna be adopted and people just fall head over heels with it. And it you're like, God, what I didn't see that much in the song, but I'm glad all these people see that in the song. And you never know, right? You never know where it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:39

You never know. You never know. And that's as such, I'm gonna use one reference just for this because this is funny. Um it it kind of touches exactly what you're saying. You never know when something's gonna hit. Like uh Bob Dylan wrote in the 60s, late 60s, early 70s, um, a portion of one of the biggest country songs that you know nobody knows. I know because I dug deep into their catalog, but if I say old crow medicine show, who do you who do you say? Oh, you go wagon wheel. Wagon wheel, yeah. I thought it's co-written by Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan wrote the uh Rock Me and Mama Like a Wagon Wheel, Rock Me Mama Anyway. That's a Bob Dylan lyric from he put on a little tape recorder.

unknown 1:22:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:21

You know, you can never find the song. Yep, Bob Dylan never recorded the song, but he wrote just enough of it to go, I'm a songwriter, and this little piece of a phrase that I put together made somebody else million. I mean, obviously his estate made millions too, but uh made another band millions of dollars. Absolutely. And then now, you know, you could carries on. Darius Rucker made the song more famous in the commercially. But the song had been cut, you know, 10 years, 15 years before Darius Rucker cut it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:53

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:54

And think about that part of the song that everybody sings as loud as possible was written 40, 50 years ago. Yes. That is crazy to think about. But that's how real it is in this scene and in this music industry that we live in. There's not, it's there's no AR guys anymore. Yeah, there's AR guys. But there's not a true artist relations that go, I listened to this song. This is a nobody songwriter from Houston, Texas. This is what you're cutting next. You know, you think about it. Chris Christopherson, how how did he get famous? Oh, well, I was trying to write for all these people, but I flew a jet on Johnny Cash's private property. Yeah, you did what? Yeah, I landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash's yard. Sure. And told him you're gonna cut my songs.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:40

You you just never know. You you don't. And I I'll tell you, Bubba, that I've had I've had some amazing artists on the show. In fact, I had I saw this girl playing on I don't know, TikTok or YouTube. And I said, Oh man, I need to get Kristen on my show. And I reached out, she agreed to do the show, and then I started digging into her.

unknown 1:24:05

And I'm like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:06

She she wrote um oh my god, I'm drawing a blank on the song. Stony LaRue made it famous. Oh, Down in Flames, right? Oh, okay. And Kristen Kelly. Oh, Kristen Kelly. Kristen Kelly. And I'm like, I play that song in every one of my shows. Like, I had no idea. I thought he wrote the, you know, he might have co-wrote, it might have been a co-wright, but Kristen was a writer. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, wow. And then there was another one. Brandon uh Brandon Jenkins. Brandon Jenkins was also a writer on the end. Yeah, and there was another one where I had a guy named Russ Ballard on my show, and uh he came in via Zoom from England, which is where he's he's from the UK. And when I started digging into Russ, I'm like, gee, this guy wrote the storyboard to my life. He wrote Winning for Santana, he wrote hit songs for America. I had the guys from America on my show, and I'm like, the unsung heroes, these are songs that I've sang to when I hear him on the radio for 50 years now, and I had no idea that Russ Ballard was writing these songs. I'm like, Jesus. This I'm talking to the guy that wrote the story that shaped me as the musician that I am. And it it was kind of like that that giddy schoolgirl moment where you're just like, wait, I need to pinch myself because I'm in front of a legend right now. And it's it's just so cool how the songwriters come up with the songs and bring them to life. And then again, with the charts, it's it's just an organic thing. Either people are gonna fall in love with them or or they're not at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:36

And that's very true, man. You know, you start looking at at, like I said, the business side of things, and maybe you can you have a song that's written so well that it just cannot be denied. But like I said, that's one of the very unlikely things. Like I've released songs of radio, and I was like, I don't think that song is gonna do anything. Yeah and and they go, That's it. That's what we were like, that's the one, like you know, and I've like I pitched one that is gonna be released next year. Um, and it is like I just didn't feel very strong about it. I pitched it to promoter, and he's like, Where have you been sitting on this song? You've been sitting on this, like, wow, is it really that good? Because like I sure, you know, my opinion. But like I said, and that's just the way the scene is, man, you know, where you go, okay, commercially, this is gonna do well. And unfortunately, and fortunately, both ways, yeah, I love to write across the board. So I'll write with anybody. But when I go into a write, I gotta go, am I writing this for me or am I gonna write this for a commercial? Am I gonna write this for radio? Am I gonna write this for a release? And 99% of the time I'm going, I'm writing this for a release. I'm gonna I want to sit here and I'm gonna write me a number one. Yep. But the realistic part about that is I got a thousand B songs, you know, B side songs and ten A-side songs, ten singles. Exactly. And that's just the way it goes. Absolutely. But I'm gonna write a thousand more and I'm gonna have ten more. Yeah, and then in 10 more years, I'm gonna write a thousand more and I'm gonna have ten more then. Then by the time hopefully I'm still on this earth, if God lets me have 30 A number one track songs. You know, and here we go, baby. We gotta agree. But that's that's how you build in this scene that's just part of the music industry, that the songwriting as a songwriter, because I know there's people listening that are just songwriters. Dude, you you pitch them to everybody. Send me an email, dude. And this is what people have done. And I've told guys I've come to shows like I read a song and back in 1995 or whenever. And I was like, man, I was in diapers in, but go ahead and send it over. I'd love to take a listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:40

And I listened, I personally, it might take me a week or two to get back to the writer, but I personally listen to every song because I just think about the people that gave me a chance.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:53

You know, you you you um you said something and and it it made me think that I guess people pitch to me as well because I'm forever getting emails, hey, I'm so and so, and blah, blah, blah. This is my single, blah, blah, blah, right? Will you listen to it and bring me into the show kind of thing? I guess that's a form of pitching in and of itself, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:15

But yeah, but you know, you know, too, what you do is something in the scene that a lot of people don't grasp onto yet. Because whether people realize it or not, overall in entertainment, podcasting is podcasting is on Netflix. There's people with recorded streamed live video podcasting, and that's what they did before they even got to the the video part of it. Right. But that's how Big podcasting is getting these days. So I tell everybody this too, as as just you know, all the young guys ask me, what what what can I do to grow? Call anybody

Podcasting And Building Fans

SPEAKER_03 1:28:58

up that has a podcast that has some kind of form of helping you get seen to a different demographic that you haven't been in front of because podcasting is completely demographic. Yeah. And I have you know jumped on a ton of podcasts and and done stuff before. And I'll get an email or I'll get a message on Facebook or Instagram. Really, a lot of happy to do social media, honestly. And it'll be like, Man, I heard you on so-and-so's podcast. I love that song. I'm a fan. I love the message you have. I searched who you are on social media now. And now I have a totally different respect and a totally different, you know, view, other than the one song I heard you play. Yeah. And now I'm a really big fan.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:44

Well, it's it's it's powerful, and especially if you can get on a show that has legs, right? You know, a lot of there's a lot of people just starting out, right? And they're trying to grow. And I mean, every podcast starts out that way, right? But you know, I I said in the very beginning, this is not going to be a half-assed show. I mean, I'm a musician, right? I do what you do, I don't make it a living, but I do what kind of what you do. Um, I get it. Like I play, I sing, like I I book my own gigs, you know, you you have people that do that, whatever. And I said, I think I have a leg up on somebody else that's not a musician starting a music type of podcast, right? Because I'm I've been in the trenches and I kind of get it, right? You know, yes, sir. The tough part of like trying to book yourself and you know, keep gas in the car, that kind of thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:34

Yeah. I mean, there's so many, and it's so crazy too, because yes, you are that everything that you said, one thousand percent is true. Then you get you try to break that down to people that go, Well, what else is there about music industry? Oh, you don't even know we're touching the surface. It's the iceberg. This is the creativity part of this industry, you know, is the songwriting. There's still so much more to it, man. But songwriting and everything that has to come with it is definitely the most fulfilling part. Yeah. Other than performing it. It's the most fulfilling part. Been like we talked about earlier, like I write in my car. I drive hours, and that's where I do my writing because that's what makes me feel more human. I mean, that's crazy to say more human, but this is my release, man. Yes. You know, I don't I don't go see a therapist. I don't do stuff. I know a lot of friends that do, and I'm not knocking anybody that does, but I'm just you pick up the guitar and write.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:26

You know, that's what you do. That's my release, man. Well, we we've talked a lot about writing songs, and I guess it kind of wet my appetite to to hear another song from you, if you don't mind picking up that guitar over there and playing me another one. I'm sure the listeners would love to hear that as well. Here's a very real one. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:04

After school, you that Derek Queen drive through then he passes back, yes, his mouth, and away we go

Live Performance Every Other Weekend

SPEAKER_01 1:32:30

using the stop by my foam's place where he keeps his back and a special pole and mama's gonna cook. Daddy's gonna tell all stories again. I can see my little best friend. Starts again. Every other week. I can see my little bus. After school.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:54

Talk to the listeners a little bit about the name of the song and and how it came about for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:58

So every other weekend is a very true story about my life, and it's uh it's a it's the vulnerability, man, as a songwriter, because that was that was a song, man, that I was I was sitting there, we were getting I was in a writing session, and the guy wrote that song with his name is Alvy King. And Alvy is oh my god, he is the I I joke with him, his last name is King, and I'm like, you're the king of one-liners, man. He really is. He he does a lot of drop rock, and if you don't know what trop rock is, it's just kind of like tropical stuff. Yeah, Jimmy Buffett stuff, and he is just fantastic, fantastic writer. And uh he's

Vulnerability On Stage And Co-Writing

SPEAKER_03 1:36:39

known in our area. Well, he's from Milano, Texas. But he's a coach. He was a coach and won a whole bunch of state championships. His boys won national championships in football and all kinds of stuff. Like he's a coach and he writes, he's an amazing writer. And uh, matter of fact, I gotta write with him next week too again. And he came to my house, and it was a summertime summer just started last year. Two years ago now. The song's written two years ago now. Um, came to my house and my son was there. He was like, Man, I know we're here to write an upbeat fall song. We were we're we're mentally prepared to get in there and start writing something for the fall. And we were talking, I mean, him and I were pitching back and forth stuff together. I had lines about football and hometowns, and you know, you you start thinking about what's big fall in South United States, and that's where my brain went. And he goes in, he's like, Man, I I really have this idea for this. I was pumping gas, and all I could think about is like you saying you can't write on the weekend because you have your kid every other weekend. And I was like, Man, that's that's cool. He goes, Yeah, but listen to this line. And he said, Summers are golden because we got time, spent all day together. I took him in at night, and I was like hit me so hard in the chest. Uh man, because I was reliving it. Yeah, I was literally living it when you we were talking about it. And he wanted to talk about a song. This is one thing I can say about the song. It's the only song that I've ever written in my whole career that when I was done writing it, I was in tears. I mean, we're two grown men, you know, sitting at a table writing and we're just in tears writing this because it was just so real. And and you're just so in the moment, man. Um that it it it hit. Everything about the song is I mean, I couldn't I couldn't be if there's another way to be vulnerable as a writer and as a human and as an artist about everything, that is somebody was to tell me, What's the most vulnerable song you've ever had? What's the song that describes you as a real person?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:48

I'd be like, here it is. Well, if you if your eyes well up with tears in any song, that means the song was well written.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:56

And I still have trouble singing that life. I do. Especially like, you know, we're in Montana uh at the end of June, and man, I'd been away from the house and he's at the house of my wife and my daughter, and and to let everybody get some more context about the song. Uh and my son, my 10-year-old, is from a previous marriage. I was married before my wife now, and uh his his mom and I are still still agree and we're still good with each other. She's a good she's an amazing mother to him, and and it's just like you know, that's just real life though. Especially as a as an artist, and uh he was here for the summer and I'm spending a week in Montana that he can't come to. Yeah, you know, and I remember just getting on stage and I'm just like looking at the set list, and I'm I always want to go to the talkback, it's like we can't play this one.

unknown 1:39:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:43

And you know, we were gone from the house like six days at that point. I talked to him right before I go on stage, and it's sold out, you know. It's crazy. It's my first time in Montana. I didn't even know people listen to me in Montana. That's interesting. You know, so it's like sold every table out in that place, and I'm about to go on stage and I'm just looking at the set list and I'm going, we can I'm gonna have so much trouble getting through that tonight.

unknown 1:40:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:05

And you know, it's like you never you don't expect to show up to a show that's sold out and see a six, four, three hundred-pound human cry, you know, singing a song on stage. And it was just real life, man. And that that is uh that was one that I I I I probably get choked up just introducing that song sometimes. Sometimes it acoustic shows I know are a lot harder for me to do that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:29

And I was so raw. Yeah, it's it's from the heart, it's straight from the heart song, right? Yeah, and there's nothing in between the heart and the and the person listening, but that guitar, right? That's the only thing. And it's it it does put the artist like yourself in a very vulnerable spot, but I think that's where it resonates, man. Just you and that guitar, like you can put drums and a rhythm section behind anything. Like I love bands like the next, like the next guy, but man, I'll take a guy on his guitar, a girl and his their guitar any day over over the full sound. Like I just love that. And I and I think that I think that in it it interprets so much better than a full band recording, even though I love that too. Like it goes back to your last song that you did. Like you you can listen to the stuff on Spotify, and I think just being live, it it it hits a different way than just listening to anything on Spotify, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:25

That's what I tell people. You know, we we have to post reels because we got to be content creators online these days, but of course, it's it doesn't capture what you feel when you're at a live show.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:33

No, in fact, I'll tell my wife Terry sometimes it's like, hey, I'm having this guy on the show, I want you to come listen to the song. She's like, Do I have to come in there to listen? It's like, yeah, because I have a video. I want you to see that because you know what, a picture's worth a thousand words, right? And when you can see the emotion of that person that's playing, it takes on a whole new meaning than just listening to the song, right? Yeah, that's just a random thing maybe it's just a Randy thing. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:58

No, Randy, I think you are 1,000% about that because even as an artist of somebody who's in the position to watch other people play, when like there's there's this is something that happens to me, man. I played a show, and before the show was was on, the artists that I was watching that night that was on the lineup, we were at a festival. I'm talking to him before, and he's telling me, he's like, Man, I wrote this song for blah blah blah, and we're just you know, we're in a green room, and there's like five other artists in there. We're everybody's out. It's a rotating door when you're in a green room at a festival, you know. And 90% of the time we all have our individual green rooms, but for whatever reason that day we had one massive conference room and everybody's just kind of in and out. And I'm talking to him and I'm like, Man, dude, I really love this song, blah, blah, blah. It's like that one's just one of those ones that it just hit me. He's like, Yeah. He got kind of like down. He's telling me why he wrote it and or why he sings it. And it was written because he actually was not a writer on the song and why, but why he cut it. And he goes in there and he sings it, and while he's singing it, I'm just like, Oh, this is why I love it so much. And it hit me watching him sing the song on the side of the stage because it made me go, I can feel more now about this song because he told me through his own emotion what that was about, and I personally know seeing it live than what it was for me listening to Spotify, Apple Music, around my car. You know, and I'd seen him performing it live before, but that that time I knew it was in the set list that night, and I I'm on the side of the stage watching, and I'm like, this It's a powerful thing. It just gives you chills, you know. I'm still getting chills, I'm getting chills right now, just talking about an experience that I had watched the show.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:37

Totally. Well, when you record, like you recorded um this this was a new song for you. Do you record at the same place all the time or do you do you change it up? Talk to the listeners a little bit about it. That's a good one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:50

Um, you know, I've been recording uh with Stormy Cooper Media out of Houston, and I've been with Stormy since my cashing out record in 2017. There was a time that I had to get an album out that I wasn't able to squeeze in the studio. And it wasn't it's just one of those things, man. I reached out, like, hey, I got two months to get an album together hoping that this publishing company and this label would pick me up, you know, because they were just like, What's next? Because you haven't released anything in you know, three years at that point. And oh it went through a divorce at the time, so it was just like you're asking me to put something together this quick and get it out. And

Studio Choices And Recording Comfort

SPEAKER_03 1:44:34

so that was earlier we were talking about like I'm trying to write for this record. I'm digging into stuff I had ten years ago because I was not at a place to write. I was not I was not at a place to cut an album. Yeah. You know, I had a lot of different stuff pieced together. But uh and I couldn't get into the studio with Stormy because they were booked up. So I cut with a guy at Austin. Um And they're great people, and I'm still friends with them, you know, but it just it didn't work out. It didn't work out for us. I was not happy with with the mixes and stuff, nothing against them. Like I said, it was very rushed, very, very rushed. Uh but I went back to Stormy for my next single after that. And it was like, okay, I really feel at home here. I know when I go in there, I know what to expect. When I they know how I work and I flow my flow of work is, and I understand how the engineer who's there, Will Bron, who's amazing, uh he and we work so well together. I cut Cashing Out record at Stormy Cooper uh Stormy Cooper Media in Houston. But my producer at the time, his name was Lyndon Hughes.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:40

Yeah, with the Wilder Blues Wilder Blues.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:42

Lyndon Hughes um produced my that record. It's a funny story. Here's an even crazier. My very, very, very first record I ever released uh was produced by Cody Johnson's band. Oh, really? So Cody Johnson's bass player Joey Prusky did all the artwork and was in the studio helping us cut it. Uh his drummer Miles Stone and I went to music school together, and I've known Miles for years, and uh Miles was uh playing the drums on the record. A few songs, and then Jody Bartula played fiddle on it, and his fiddle player, you know. So it's like I've known those guys, been around with them for so long. They cut that very first one, they helped me so much, man. Like just figure out I didn't I didn't have a plan. I just I paid a guy to come into a studio, you know, and and just go, what's next? You know, and so they I was halfway through the project and they were just like, hey, let us help you. Because it can be better, you know, you know, and of course, and it's great to have friends like that. Absolutely. And man, they came in and and just knocked it out of the park. And uh I went back and cut that other record. That was the same guy that I went back to uh and cut my small town loser record with. That just it was a different actual the studio part of it was different. But it was the same engineers and like you know, hey, we had one successful product that we all liked. Unfortunately, we didn't have a second successful product with them. We had a successful product in the fact that that is the best written record, I think, personally that I've ever had. Um but production-wise it wasn't. Yeah, but I've gone with with Stormy since been with them for since 2017. I feel so comfortable there. I do use another studio now. I use another studio to do demos. I do go in and track at a studio uh in Orchard, Texas, uh Remedy Box Studios. I go there to track. We have rehearsals there, you know, we do other stuff there just to kind of get ready. And and when we go in the studio, we're not wasting time. Absolutely. And I've been there.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:42

It's not a good place to waste time, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:47:44

No, no, no, not when you're paying hundreds of dollars an hour, you know, if that's the way that you get your studio time. But Storm I've been with Stormy for a long time. Stormy's cut all my stuff since um you know God, as far as I can remember, at least four or five years since after COVID and before COVID, but I'd cut with Stormy. So I love Stormy Studio. Everything about that studio makes me feel so comfortable going in. I know where you know where we work, we all work together. And I think that has a lot to say for I don't know if the right word is presence of the album, but when you go and you listen to album, I go and I listen, I go, Oh, I know exactly what I was thinking when I cut that vocal line. I know exactly what I was thinking, or where I was at, or what moment when I was cutting that. I can still feel when I listen to my songs what I was feeling in the studio because I was so comfortable there. I was so you know, I you know, it's just that's that's the way I think it should be. Because and you you don't get that kind of product everywhere. No, that's what I do want to be honest with the listeners, and you can attest to that. Like when you're not comfortable in a studio and you're going in there, it's it's it's you're spending thousands of dollars because it's not cheap to do. No, yeah. So I would say, man, be comfortable, but I've been with with Stormy and I I just love the aspect and the way that we all work together.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:08

Yeah. Well, you mentioned Lyndon and I did an interview with all of the guys in The Wilder Blue. I did that at Dosy Doe uh before a show one time and had Zane and Paul and all of them on the show, they were wonderful. Um, and of course I know Paul through Brie Bagwell. Oh, Breathieu. I love her birthday was this week. I texted her. Um yeah, how do you like as a songwriter though, how do you once you write a song? How do you know when that song's complete?

unknown 1:49:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:41

Like do you just know? Because I think a lot of people will write a song, then they'll go back and start dabbling and fixing and taking out and putting in, and then it becomes this whole you know, you're doing too much, right? Sometimes less is more. You know what I mean? Like when does Bubba Wesley know my song's done? It's time to record it. I'm not messing with any more lyrics or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:04

So I've done a lot of podcasts, Randy, and I just wanted to let all the listeners know that you've asked the best questions I've ever been asked. Ever. I love this. You don't know. It's it's really hard to know because like I said, I I went and dug a song out 10 years ago. And I mean, that I wrote 13 years ago. 13 years ago, I wrote that song, and we're singing it here today. You know, that's been that's been at the bottom of a notebook for you know 13 years until I cut it, you know, three years ago, two years ago. And you don't really know. I mean, there's many songs I have on my phone that I that are are done. But I'm not going to cut them because I'm still going, uh, it's still not done yet. You know, and I don't know what you think that's you overthinking it. Yeah, it could be.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:55

It could be.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:56

Well, and and it could be that some of them just have one verse, so you already know they're not complete, right? Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:00

But if you want to look at a song and go, it's complete, I have uh two verses. Let's just say how you structure a song. Structurally, I have the song done. I have the song ready to go, but it's still missing something. Maybe it's the music. Yeah, maybe it's the hook, maybe it's the line. Maybe I don't like that I decided to go. I wrote three verses before I got to the the course, and we're two minutes into the song. This is not the way structurally it needs to be for commercial. But if for my personal use, maybe I only need one course. Yeah. You know? So it is one of those things that that is all in the uh for lack of a better term, for lack of a better term, it's all in the eye of the beholder, man. Yeah. It's like how how do you think your song is done? You know, I think my song is done. Am I gonna release it? No, right, because there's still something missing for me. Yeah, exactly. But structurally, it could be done.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:00

As it relates to music, what's new and exciting for Bubba Wesley that you can share with the listeners a backstage pass radio? Anything new coming up that you can talk about? And if not, that's fine too. But just wanted to give you that platform to say, hey, this might be on the horizon, right? That people could look forward to.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:19

So I got a few things uh I'll touch on. First, on what I get to headline Green Hall, which is uh the pinnacle in Texas. It is the pinnacle, man. It's one of the it is the oldest dance hall or the second one of the oldest dance halls in Texas for sure, but it is that is like if you headline that, that's that's a really big deal for artists.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:40

That's like a rocker play in Madison Square Garden. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:43

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And um I I'm I'm headlining it September 3rd, man. The first Thursday of September, my first headlining show. I've played it before. I've been blessed to play. We

Next Steps Green Hall And Going Real

SPEAKER_03 1:52:54

opened for some uh artists up there, some friends of ours, but it is the first time that I get to go through the Willie door, you know, and which for the chicken door. There's a there's a door that that was Willie Nelson had a sold out concert, and they couldn't even get him to the stage because there's so many people there, and they cut a door in the back. If I'm not or had him go through the old chicken coop door. There's a whole story behind it. I don't know the whole line. I just hope I fit through the Willie door. Yeah, you will. So that's just suck in. That's so that's exciting. Uh I'm excited to do that. Um, and then man, the thing that I've been most excited for, and we kind of touched about this earlier in the podcast, um, is we got to be content creators, you know, in the today's world. And in December of 2024, I went and had a meeting in Nashville with the big label. And essentially the numbers we talked about weren't weren't there. It it turned out to be a complete no for us, and we walked away from it. And I'll never forget what I was told. I'm walking away, and they're like, Well, you're gonna be a legacy artist. You know that, right? If you don't essentially they were trying to push me aside, and it's like not doing it. They're like, You're gonna go back to Texas and you're gonna be stuck between the I'll never dude, it hit this. I can I replay this conversation in my head so many times. And the guy goes, You're just gonna go back and be stuck between the Rockies and the Mississippi the rest of your life. And he named all these artists off to me. He's like, they all sat here and they've all been told the same thing. And I was like, that's who you're referring to as legacy artists, and he was like, Yeah, they're legacy artists. I'm like, Yeah, you're right. They definitely have left their mark in the scene, they definitely are millionaires, and they definitely get to go home with their families every week. It's like, that's a legacy artist. I think I'm totally fine with being that. I don't have an issue with that at all. Sure. And my wife and I came home and we it put all of our eggs in that basket. Like, no, didn't have a clue what else to do other than we're gonna sign, this is what we're gonna do, and the next year is up to the management and whatever else we got going on. Well, it didn't happen that way. And we came home and I came back from Nashville like a dog with my tail tucked between my legs, just trying to figure out what am I gonna do next. And I'll never forget my wife going, just be you, just be real.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:18

And I was like, you know what, you're right. We've been trying to put on these hats that all these people have said we need to try, and I think I'm done with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:27

Well, I'm gonna tell you this, and the realest thing I've ever done in my life is the realest thing that I've ever done in my life. That was just be me. That was just and just be who I am, share, share my life with everybody, and man, we have seen our growth. When we at the end of 2024, I had 10,000 followers on Facebook. Now we're over 20,000.

unknown 1:55:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:54

We've grown just this year alone, it's got over 5,000. But in all the numbers, something greater came from it. And as my wife and I one day, she was telling me the story about her friend at work, and she just asked us to pray for her. I was like, Man, Hannah. I said, you know, there's so many people that need prayer. I said, let's just put up this thing and ask people. They want prayer requests and see what happens now. It's two years ago in October. It's been going now. This year will be two years that we've been doing, and every Sunday we have an open prayer request, and my wife and I literally just get together and we pray over everybody that writes. And there's been people that reach out to us. I've led people to, you know, find salvation, which is never in a million years that I think that would be happening. Yeah. Uh but five years ago I turned my life completely around. I almost died, you know. Um got sober. Um been sober July 9th for five years. This year was my five-year mark. And uh I've now wanna become a sponsor. Now we're on stage every night, and I I prayed. I'll never forget. I I've I prayed and I share this testimony every night. And I feel if it's okay with you if I can share it with everybody. Uh almost died in Livingston, Texas, you know, five years ago. Almost lost my life in Livingston, Texas. I was on my way to show in Lufkin, and my guys found me and they said, dude, you don't look good. Something is not right with you. And I remember seeing a sign as we passed through Livingston and it said, Exit hospital, last hospital, 35 miles. And I told the guys, I said, Turn around. I said, Something ain't right. Y'all are right. I don't feel good. Something's not right. And I went in. As soon as I stepped out of that car, I I blacked out, and turns out that I was just drinking myself to death. I was my body was stroking out at 30 years old. You know, and I just sat and laid in that bed, and I remember them putting machines on me, and I just didn't know what to do, man. I was I was I couldn't see. I could not see. It was just black. That's what I felt like every once in a while you could see a light. I didn't know what was going on. And I prayed. Because that was all I knew what to do at that moment. And I prayed, and I just said, Lord, if you deliver me through this, I don't know what I can promise you I'm gonna do with my life. But I promise I'm gonna let everybody know you got me through this. And I got through it. And you know, and for for that first 24 hours, I just thought, oh man, was I really serious? Like, is this really gonna happen? Am I really gonna bring people to a faith that I've been battling myself for so long? And my grandpa's favorite chapter in the Bible is Matthew. And I was remembering a few weeks after he had passed, uh, I was reading Matthew. And Matthew 5.16 just talks about be a light. That's my favorite Bible verse to this day. And it I just feel like God turned me into that light. Because every night that I'm on stage, I glorify his name.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:11

I have an open prayer call at my merch booth after every show. And I tell everybody, like, you don't have to buy anything. You can come to me, you don't even have to pray with me. Just come to me and say, Hey, my name is so-and-so, pray for me. That's all you have to tell me. And man, you you would be amazed about the people that are just at shows that just need hope, that want a light. I had a lady, and this is my favorite story to date, and I've I've kept up with her and I've asked, okay, if we share these stories, and she said, sure. And I won't mention her name, that's one thing she said. We played a show in uh floor, Texas at Jaunty Floors out in Helotus, Texas. And uh this lady counted, she was in tears, and I could see her on stage as I'm talking, and I can see her at the side of the stage, and she's just bawling crying. She's bent over the f there's metal railings, and she's bent over the metal railing with her hand, and she's crying. And I am just thinking, man, this lady needed to hear this tonight. I hope I see her at the merch booth. When I get get off, there's a line at the merch booth, we go to the merch booth. I'm just talking with everybody. One person asked for prayer, prayed with them. She's in line. I can see her in line, she's at the very back. We get through, everybody, she comes, she's like in tears still. She was crying the whole time she was in line. And I'm talking to these people, and I think people are looking at her like, oh my god, this something's wrong with this lady. She gets to the front, she says she grabs my hand, she goes, Can I hug you? And I said, Absolutely. I give her a hug. And she goes, I want you to know this is the first time I've been out in six months. My husband passed away six months ago. And the only reason I came out tonight is because I I was in my house contemplating suicide. Well, I mean, dude, it still chokes me up to this day because it's heavy. Like, you know. I just did not know what to say or what to do in that moment, but I remember her going, God, is I'm listening to her. But in my head, I'm praying. Like, God, I don't know what to tell this lady right now. This is just something huge. Well, we she started following us. We I prayed with her. She started following us. And about a week later, she reached out, she said, I'm having a hard time. Can you pray for me? I said, Absolutely, we prayed for her. And I told my wife when I got home from that that trip and we start praying over her. Just my wife and I at home, and about a month later she goes, I don't know how to pray. She writes me and she said, I don't know how to pray. And I I wrote her back and I said, You know, I think that just has to come with what you want to say. Just make sure you started with dear Lord and it with in Jesus' name. Whatever you have to say between those two lines, just go ahead and say she said, All right. Two months after that, she wrote me back, and I hadn't heard from her in a while. And you know, every once in a blue moon, I'll try to get on Facebook and see you. She wrote me, she says, I joined a church and I gave my life to Christ. And it's like that. I don't know if the reason that I suffered with my own addictions was to help this lady find new life. But man, the amount of people that I've helped find sobriety now, the amount of people that I've helped find Jesus Christ, like if I needed to suffer to help these people out, I'm okay with that. Yeah. And I think that God has finally put me in a place where I'm truly touching lives. Like I'm doing something with my own life that, you know, at a point I didn't know if my own life was worth anything. Yeah. You know, so I I just, man, I just feel like the realness, uh, the organicness that we're growing online, the the lives that we're touching. You know, there's people that I don't even know that write me. There's people that I've never met, Randy, that are reaching out to me going, I know you don't know me, just pray for me. I don't know what I don't know what else I can offer you over over online other than a prayer and and some music, you know, but that's what people need. If that's the light that God's let me be or using me to be in a dark world, man, so be it. Here I am.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:35

You know, I I was gonna add thanks for the the testimony and and for and for being vulnerable. Um you know, I I know it's hard for a man to see another man get choked up. Like that, like we all have this this uh alpha male pride that we don't want to see that's you know, I don't want to show you my my soft side, right? But it I think it it I think it shows the character of of you, right? And I I think that you don't you don't hear this much in music. Like when you say, meet me at the merch booth, not to buy something, but let me pray for you. It it it shows what kind of person you are. And and my question

Sobriety Prayer Stories And Closing

SPEAKER_04 2:04:21

I was gonna ask you is to define success, but you've already defined it. Success is just touching people, it's not it's not about money. Money's important, it's a byproduct of of what we do, but you I already know what your success is, right? You you answered it before I even ask it, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:04:38

Uh I I think I was told uh I was in sociology class and I remember seeing it uh a thing in a book that we were reading, and it said success is opinionated. And I just always have thought about that, like what defines success? Yeah. And then you gotta dig deeper into uh success, success is defined by whoever wants it to find. Yeah. Because my version of success might not be your version of success. My version of success might not be anybody else's, and that's totally fine. Absolutely. You know, but um man, success is from the way I grew up and where I grew up and and how I grew up and the life that I've lived to this point and the life that I've put people through. You know, if uh this is God's way of saying I'm successful, I'm I'm here here I am, you know, I'm about it.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:27

Yeah, and I and I think this is um why it's important to not judge books by their covers, right? Because I think that I think that anybody can look at a picture of Bubba Wesley or a picture of myself and and pass judgment not knowing us, right? Like I think that guy, I think that guy is this kind of guy, right? Right, yeah, yeah. We all do it. We're human. That's a that's a human. That's our humanists, right? Absolutely. But it's nice to hear this side. And and I had no prejudgment before you walked in here. I didn't know what kind of guy you were. I knew you'd be a good guy because Jesse Roach said so, right? And and I trust her word, right? But it's it's this is nice, man. I I I appreciate you being here and and sharing those stories. Um they they mean a lot. And I think that that's uh I think that's what people love about the show is it's it's it's it's two artists talking to one another, and it's just it's just real talk, man. You know what I'm saying? It's not I don't know, it's not fabricated at all. It just it just happens, it's conversation between two people. And I had a guy on my show recently, and his his name is Earl Slick. And for the listeners that don't know Earl Slick, he he was the guitarist for David Bowie. Uh he played with John John Lennon for a lot of years. And he was in a a group called Phantom Rocker and Slick when the Stray Cats kind of broke up. Uh he played with those guys in the straight cats, but Slick was telling me, he said, Randy, uh, after we got done well to back up, I said, Slick, how much time do I have with you in this interview? And he said, Let's keep it at 30 minutes, man. I said, I know why he's telling me that, right? Because he wants an out. Like if I suck at what I do, he didn't want to talk to me anymore. I said, Okay, Slick, we'll get 30 minutes. I'll I'll be protective over your time. Three hours later, we're still talking and we get done. And he said, Man, you know, I have to tell you this. I've I've done interviews with Rolling Stone, I've done interviews with every public, I mean, global media outlet you can think of, right? I'm considered one of the top 50 side men in the world, right, guitar-wise, right? He's played with everybody in the business, and he said, that was the best interview with you that I've ever been a part of. And when you hear that, I it that may not mean much to a lot of people, but I'm a little guy from Cyprus, Texas that spun up a stupid podcast because I love music. But when you hear a superstar say that, right, that tells you you're doing something right. And whether they're a world-renowned musician like that, or they're local or they're regional, everybody's story is different, and I love all the stories. And this, these stories and whatnot are really what keep me going. And your feedback to me means everything to me. More than any dollar or ten dollars. Money doesn't even mean anything to me for this podcast. Just hearing those stories and the fact that you've enjoyed to talk to me and share your story means everything to me. So thank you for the compliments. Absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:58

I truly have. This has been a I I can honestly say, definitely one of my favorite podcasts. Yeah, I appreciate that. I sure hope that down the road you invite me back because I've had a blast.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:09

Well, I I've I've had knuckleheads back twice like Peyton Howie, so I don't I don't I have a problem bringing you back twice. Yeah, like I love Peyton. Peyton, I have uh have played some shows together and swapped some songs and uh she's one of my favorites just watching. I love I love Peyton Peyton. And yeah, super, super cool. But yeah, definitely, you know, when when new things come out, holler at me and we'll we'll we'll do something again. Where um where can the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio find Bubba Wesley on socials?

SPEAKER_03 2:09:43

Uh you can find me anywhere you can legally stream and download music. You can find me. Uh y'all just search Bubba Wesley, B-U-B-B-A-W-Y. Be sure you spell Wesley right, W-E-S-T-L-Y. Uh, because if you don't spell Wesley right, it pops up Bubba Sparks. And I don't sing booty booty rocking everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:03

So L Y.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:06

Uh Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Uh Snapchat is probably the most personal because that's when I get to uh actually run myself without somebody else, you know, screening it. I would get screening it, but it just, you know, there's other people that have to do the media for us. That's just the way it goes. But I want to let everybody know that is listening, and I tell everybody this, like, even at shows, like if you reach out to us, I promise I will get back to you. Sometimes it just takes me a lot longer, just because of the amount of messages that we do get sometimes, and um it goes through a few people to go, hey, you have a message you that personally you should respond to. So please, if you ever feel the need, man, to reach out, please reach out. I will offer as much kind of advice or or talking that I can. You know, that's just how I feel that you know I should be, you know, and that I feel like this is the way God has made my career go and and be, and I I enjoy it. I really truly enjoy it, man. And uh so man, just letting y'all know that if you do follow us, you it's gonna be uh what you see, what you get. You know, it's very authentic, very, very real for real life for me. You're gonna see a lot of pics of my kids and my wife and everything we do together on top of a ton of music. So please give us a follow.

SPEAKER_04 2:11:23

Well, I think that um you're you're where you need to be, Bubba. I think that um yeah, I just I mean that that's pretty much it. I think I think you're exactly where you're meant to be. You know, you're music is the universal language, and I don't think there's a person on the planet Earth that says that they don't like music. So you take that and you and you use it not only as your avenue to make money, but you're also touching people with that, and you're touching people with the testimony. So kudos to you, man. Thank you, brother. I appreciate this in mind. Yeah, I you know this has been fun. I I appreciate you being here sharing sharing your stories with the listeners. So again, thanks for driving in from Brenham. I know that's not right around the corner, but uh I wanted to get you on the good mics. Like we could have done a zoom, but this is great blast. It's it's it's more fun sitting with a human across from you because you you you build rapport with them real quick, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And um, and it sounds better on the good mics. So again, thank thank you for being here. I wish you um continued success. And uh for the listeners out there, make sure you follow Bubba and the boys uh on all their socials and also at BubbaWesley.com.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:41

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:42

Um on the browser of your choice. Make sure you bookmark that to keep up with all shows and all good things coming out for for Bubba and the and the team.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:51

Join the newsletter. There's a newsletter if you sign up to the website. Type your email in, you're gonna get newsletters that just kind of tell you what's going on in our life, our shows, the you know, uh merchandise discounts at shows. So yeah, please give us a follow.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:05

Absolutely. And I also uh ask the listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other, and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:26

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.