Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 117: Allen Stone

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Andy spends more time than usual on his knees this week. Find out why on another exciting episode of "dude, what did you eat?!" And on the Interview Hour we welcome the One we hold in highest esteem: Allen Stone! Will Andy discover the secret to Allen's golden tongue? Ahri reviews the 17 pounds he's gained in quarantine. Plus: A special number from Shawn & Andee. Don't miss this one, y'all. It's EP 117, afterall. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new album, "Keep On Keepin' On" on iTunes Spotify  Feel something REAL and listen to Allen Stone www.allenstone.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Jameson Mangan Shawn Eckels Ahri Findling Andee "Beats" Avila Arno Bakker

Yo, Andy. It's Jameson, your shit show editor. I've been trying to get a hold of you for a few days. I watched the shit show pre-party and I learned that you got food poisoning in Mexico or something. Hope you're alive. Give me a call back. We got work to do.

See ya. Yo, Frasco. It's Ackles. Haven't heard from you in a couple days, man. I haven't seen any pictures of you with random dogs on Instagram. You alright? You dead? Call me back, brother.

Well, Andy, this is your doctor calling you back with your test results. I know you've been having some intestinal issues. It's not anything you feared. It's not an STD or any serious disease. You are just gross.

You have a disgusting lifestyle and you're unhealthy. You need to change that now. All right, and we're back. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How you doing out there? How you holding up through this one-year anniversary of the pandemic? We've been in our houses for a fucking year.

Well, kind of. For the most part, we've been in our houses for a fucking year. How's your head? How you doing out there? I know, you know, time flies when you're having fun or when you're depressed, whatever it is. Uh, just make sure you check on yourself. Um, can't believe it's been a fucking year, you know? And you remember in the beginning of this pandemic, um, they're like, Oh yeah, it's only gonna be two weeks. And we're like kind of setting ourselves up for two weeks.

And it kept on like going, oh, now it's going to be two months. Oh, now it's going to be six months. Now it's a fucking year. So just make sure you check on yourself when we go into these, you know, tunnel vision of just like, you know, surviving, you know, getting through this thing. You know, we're going to get through this thing. We're going to be different people. So make sure you check yourself and feel good about everything. So when you get out there in the real world,

you're not a, we are going to have PTSD. I know people aren't going to want to go out as much or they might go out for the first week and realize, oh fuck, I remember when shows ended at 10 o'clock during the pandemic.

I don't know how I'm going to do that. When shows get back and I'm playing those fucking 3 a.m. sets at the festivals, I'd be like, fuck, are anyone going to show up to them anymore? Because everyone's been going to bed at midnight. That's one thing good about the pandemic was you start getting drunk around 7 p.m. and you're in bed by 11. You're blacked out by 10.30. I mean, that's beautiful.

I'm still getting eight hours of sleep. I'm not pounding Jameson until 4 a.m. Then I got to have a workday at 9 a.m. So shout out to that. That's one thing good about the pandemic. Let's go. Let's go, big guy. Trying to bring optimism

into every shitty situation these days. I'm a guy who fucking, when shit starts going down, I start just marinating shit sometimes. I'm normally pretty optimistic, but when pessimism comes to me, sometimes I believe the pessimism, and I believe that's all it's going to be. So with that being said, um,

you know, I'm trying to take everything more optimistic, more with an idea that for the better, you know, because what's the point? What's the point of living in pessimism? I've been realizing that like in my head, if I'm just going to be pessimistic,

that just makes my body feel shitty. And that makes my fucking brain heavy. And like, why do I need to live like that? Why can we just like, all right, things are bad right now. Let's try to be optimistic that things are going to be good. The next movement instead of thinking, oh, it's always going to be shitty. We're always just going to be shitty. This is going to be shitty. And,'s it. But what's the point of that? We're just putting ourselves in prison with pessimism. We shouldn't do that. I think, unless you work better when you're pessimistic or you love better when you're thinking your chick's cheating on you. I don't fucking know. But the idea of happiness is the idea of optimism. I think, I mean, it could be different for everyone else, but I'm happiest when I'm optimistic. I'm not happiest when I think the world's going to end.

But, you know, tomato, tomato, I guess, you know, I can't judge, you can't judge someone for how they feel, but you could also change the way you perceive life. So let's start thinking pessimistically and start thinking optimistically that things are going to be better. Like, look, there's things are happening. Um, it feels like shows are confirmed. I saw like 10 or 20 fucking festivals confirmed. I'm like, what the fuck? That was quick. All of a sudden you get the one good word and all of a sudden, bam, festivals confirmed. Speaking of that, we have tour dates. I'll announce those later. But it's optimism. You can't dog optimism, even if they don't happen, you know,

at least we're trying, we're trying to be happy again. And that's, um, I'm going to clap to that too. Let's go. Let's fucking go. And that's what my conversation was with Alan Stone. We have Alan Stone on the show today. And, um, yeah, we talked all about that. You know, it's, it's hard being a musician and taking a year off and hanging out with your family. And now you built these relationships with your lovers that you're gone a lot, you know? So now they're going to see the other side of you, the crazy fucking person that makes you run away. And I feel for these guys having relationships, all these musicians who live their life for the road and now they're stuck and they're not

themselves and I get it it's it's got to be hard so I'm I'm here for you guys um everyone all those musicians out there who are dealing with the situation at home and you can't be yourself because you need to be on the road I feel for you man if you want to talk you know you could hit me up you know I'm your friend so let me know We could talk this through and we could, uh, you know, try to get that optimism back because that is the most important thing is the will to live, being optimistic that you want to live tomorrow because you can, if you want to. I mean, I get it. You get sick and stuff, but fight for it. Fight for optimism.

That's why we live, because we can be optimistic. Even if we're going through shitty things, even if we've been going through years and years of shittiness, if we still have hope that tomorrow's going to be good, then I think we could get through this depression and get through this. Don't let this fucking, this depression TKO you through a pandemic when everyone's going through it. Just remember that. Just got back from Mexico. It was awesome. I just got back from Mexico and that was a blast until I was a shit in blood and I got some weird bug and

the last three days of the trip and I just started cramping and I started dry heaving and I thought it was COVID and then I took a test and it wasn't COVID because you need to take a test before you fly back into America if you're traveling internationally. And then all of a sudden I was just, I was shitting blood and I thought I was dying. I'm like, oh my God, this is it. I'm going to die in Mexico.

Sounds like a Hunter S. Thompson story. And I was just like contemplating, contemplating, like fuck, fuck, fuck. Because I was going through this like weird couple weeks of just pessimism like I was talking about. You know? Some things that I wanted in life didn't really pan out the way I thought it was going to pan out.

And from that, I spiraled into a depression. And, you know, you can't always have what you want. So I was like, oh, fuck, I was already just marinating my own shit. Now I'm going to die in Mexico and whatnot. And so I flew back in town and, you know, was bedridden for two days. And at six o'clock I woke up, did the live stream for the shit show, which was awesome. By the way, we had Bayless with FaceTime, Brendan Bayless and, um, Nick or Lockie came there, give me some motivation and some, some Gatorade and we pulled it through. And, uh, and then I woke up this morning, it's Friday. I'm like, Oh, I feel way better, you know? And, uh, cause I got out of

that pessimistic, like I'm going to die. You know, I wasn't going to die. Well, if I was whatever, but I wasn't going to die. And I woke up and I felt good. And now I'm here doing a podcast. I wasn't going to die. And I woke up and I felt good. And now I'm here doing a podcast. So the power of optimism, the power of will, that's what's going to get us through. All right.

Next week on the shit show, we have a great episode, actually. We have Tim Heidecker from Tim and Eric. We have Benny Bloom from Lettuce. And we have Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. I've been loving the support y'all have been giving me on the shit show. Thank you guys so much. We've been working hard on it. Nick, Jameson, the whole crew,

Schwartz trying to sell his show, everyone. We're all working hard, and you guys are loving it, so thank you so much for being a part of that. Watch it next week. I have some shows coming up actually. In April.

Crazy. I have Birmingham on the 7th, which isn't sold out. Go grab your tickets if you're in the South. Come on, Birmingham. Let's get you. Let's get, let's pack that bitch. Then we have Conway, South Carolina,

like near Myrtle Beach on the 9th. That's not sold out either. That's a drive-in show. Let's pack that bitch. Then we have Conway, South Carolina, like near Myrtle Beach on the 9th. That's not sold out either. That's a drive-in show. Come on, get out there. I mean, I think there's still like half capacity left. Then we play Swanee. We're opening for Umphreys McGee on the 10th. That's sold out.

Then we're going back to my new mecca, Charleston, South Carolina on the 11th with the band. These are all shows with the UN, guys. This is not just me having a backup band. This is with the boys. We are going out there to see you, southern states. Charleston, that show sold out. Maybe we might add another show.

I don't know yet. And then Fayetteville, Arkansas. I yet. And then Fayetteville, Arkansas. I am coming back to Fayetteville, Arkansas. It's been a minute. That show isn't sold out yet. I was surprised it didn't sell out that quickly. So if you are in the Fayetteville area, go help me sell that bitch out

because I haven't been back in five years and it'd be nice to sell it out. I know it's a college town and people move on from college towns, but if you moved on from Fayetteville, go back, go visit your alma mater and go see Frasco and the boys and let's sell that baby out. And then a couple maybes, there's a couple shows that might happen. It might get a Little Rock show in there and it might get a Springfield, Missouri show in there, but don't hold me to it yet. They're still working out the negotiation,

but keep that on the radar too. But yeah, we got a week of tour and then we are going to announce a summer tour as well. So it's slowly coming back, guys. You know, we made it. We made it through this fucking bullshit. I'm going to clap for you guys and all of us because we did it. The vaccine's kind of working and, you know, we made it. A year in our heads.

Isn't that crazy? I think that's crazy too. But like I said in the beginning, optimism will save us. Optimism will keep us alive. Optimism will keep us happy. So with that being said, I hope you enjoy this Alan Stone video. Uh, Alan Stone video. See, I'm still like kind of delusional and like weak. I don't even know what I'm talking about from this fucking gut problem I had. Enjoy this Al Stone podcast. He's a great dude. It's the first time I met him. I've always wanted to meet him. He has such swag and whatnot. And we kicked it off right away. I mean, he was going through the same shit I'm going through. So it was super sweet and it was super heartfelt. So I hope you enjoy this and I'll leave with this. How deep do you want your dreams?

How deeply do you need them in your life? If you need them bad enough, don't give up on them. Even through a pandemic, even through a divorce, Give up on them. Even through a pandemic, even through a divorce, even through someone, you know, maybe your boss fired you and it was your dream job. Don't stop until you see those dreams come to fruition into your real life and outside of your dreams.

And that is when we will find happiness. And that's why we strive for optimism. Because to be optimistic that we will fulfill our dreams is why we live. So go out there and fuck shit up. All right, guys, enjoy Alan Stone, and I'll catch you on the tail end. All right, next up on the interview hour, we have Alan fucking Stone, y'all. Chris,

play some Alan Stone for us. Alan's dope, man. He's a songwriter. He's from Washington. He grew up in the church. His story's pretty fast. I don't want to ruin it for you. Great songwriter, worked his ass off to get where he's at. And now he's just kicking ass and he's got all these live streams, got a podcast. He's making new music. He's an all in all good guy. We share a lot of similarities. And I think you'll dig it. So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy Alan Stone. That will not entrap me Darling, all I ask is you consider me Consider me Consider me Consider me Won't you consider me

Consider me Consider me consider me consider me won't you consider me if you're looking for somebody who don't judge you from your past

and focuses on only things that help to make it last if you're looking for somebody who put up with your shield and fight fire with fire without burning you will be oh if you want real attraction on your skin we fashion someone to set your spirit free someone that you're obsessed with and that you feel blessed with

baby all I ask is you consider me consider me consider me consider me won't you consider me? Consider me, consider me, consider me Won't you consider me Baby, don't delay I will find a way And give you everything

If you consider me And any time of day I'll be there right away Swearing on my grave If you consider me Ooh, darling Alan motherfucking Stone. What's up, big dog?

What's up, man? How are you? How you doing? How's, uh, where are you at? I'm in Spokane, Washington. I'm up in the Pacific Northwest right now. What are you doing up there? Is that where you grew up? Yeah, I grew up just about an hour and a half from here,

an hour and a half north. And me and my wife live in Spokane now. I was in Seattle for many years, and then it got a little too expensive for my artist budget. I feel you, dog. Balling on a budget, big dog. You know what I'm saying? How's it going? Tell me about it. What's quarantine like

for Alan Stone? You know, it's been... That's a whole diatribe of answers, I think. It's been amazing. It's been difficult. It's been, um, I've learned a ton. Um,

I think prior to the pandemic, I was on a little bit of autopilot. It was like write a song, hopefully compile a record, get all the packaging and album songs situated, put out the record, get in the bus, go tour for six years. Come home, see your wife for a week and a half, leave, live your relationship through FaceTime, you know. And I'd been doing that for like 12 years and so this pandemic really shook up that I wouldn't say it was monotony because it there wasn't it was fun it was a blast and I love that lifestyle and I'm privileged to enjoy it

but it I had to come off that like mechanism whatever that was and go okay how am i going to make a living now and it forced me to learn a ton, what'd you learn? Well, I jumped into production. So I've been doing, um, quite a few live shows. I started a podcast called how good's this, which is like a full production situation. I started a, another show, which is called live at the lodge. We're like 40 episodes deep we yeah i love it i've been watching it man you got fucking personality big dog i i've been watching i love the boy band

one you did too that shit was funny as fuck dude you guys are so good it's just like it's beautiful thank you man i appreciate you checking that out yeah so we've we've done a few of those as well which are like specials we did a allen Stone variety show back in October of last year. Then we were like, why don't we do a Christmas special? That would be fun. Me and my best bud wrote a little script, 30 pages. The idea was that Santa Claus had lost his job to Amazon Prime. pages the idea was that like santa claus had lost his job to amazon prime and so he and so he um

he and his elves like bought this terrible bar and santa was trying to like bring back christmas cheer but all of his elves are just like derelict alcoholic fuck-ups and they end up hosting a party for amazon at their bar in order to save the bar from you know the seven months of back rent that they owe because of the pandemic and interspersed in between this like fun uh fun plot was christmas songs you know me and like two of my best buds step Day and Zach Clark we all did some Christmas tunes and and sold that as a thing to like my fan base and was really surprised that how people responded to it and so we're like well let's do like a Valentine's Day one you know and made up another script the idea was like a washed up boy band called round

and third reunites for for one night in the name of romance and and uh frosted tips and hair gel were you into that stuff when you were a kid did i say what were you into that stuff when you were a kid i was into r&b for sure not boy bands like we're the the show that we were doing we're kind of taking the piss out of like the 90s caucasian boy band yeah and we sang all these like my favorite r&b songs like usher and brian mcknight En Vogue, these tunes that I really grew up on. But the plot is like, interspersed in between those songs is this story of these like ridiculous middle aged men who used to be in a boy band. And so we're taking the piss out of the boy band thing a little bit to to like wink you know humor is kind of like my my crutch that i try to lean on as often as possible to make

people interested in me but you know it's fun man because you know it's like it's a blessing in disguise that this quarantine happened you know it sucks that we're fucking broke as fuck and you know but i'm but in a way we're doing things we always wanted to do when we were kids. Like you said, you're into comedy, you're into, uh, you know, having, having fun with it and not taking life so seriously or taking music so seriously. What you were talking about before, like, were you burnt out of just doing the grind a little bit and like you needed to change it up a little bit? Yeah. I didn't really understand how burnt out I was until I spent like a month at home. Like I haven't spent more than, yeah. Usually over Christmas holiday, I'll do like December and a little bit of

January. But even then, you know, if something pops up for somebody's holiday party, you know, some company wants you to come and play their Christmas party, you'll jump out for a weekend during that month. It's like the touring thing is nonstop. And I thank God, right? Because touring is like, that's how we maintain rent nowadays, right? Prior to this pandemic. So, but I didn't realize until I was about two months at home. I'm like, Oh shit, I've been doing 300 shows a year or 300 dates on the road for the last 12 years. I don't know what it's like to cohabitate with another human being in the same home. Like learning that adjustment with my wife was like, what is this? You know,

like this is absurd. Um, it's like she's got to like fall in love with a different person, you know, instead of a FaceTime, you know, I know we were talking about it the other day. We're like, our relationship was built on two independent lives living parallel. And even though we lived in the same home and had dogs and had a house and had like a life together, our, our relationship was actually built like on these parallel platforms

existing at the same time, but in different places. And so when you bring that together and you're like constantly in like each other's circle, it can be amazing, but it's also like, after six, seven months of it, you're like, well, wait, this isn't what I signed up for. I signed up for like, okay, see ya. You go on tour for three months. I'll miss you. And then when you come home for two weeks, it's awesome because we've missed each other and then you go by tour for three months. I'll miss you. And then when you come home for two weeks, it's awesome because we miss each other.

And then you go by and then I have my own life. And so there's been a ton of adjustment, but ultimately amazing. Like at the end of the day, I feel like this has been one of the best years of my life. Is longing for something important to you? I think so. Yeah, I think the human experience is one full of contrast.

I think in order to understand and feel life to the fullest, you have to contract, you have to compare and contrast, you know, like light and darkness is just the absence of each one and um, grief and grief and joy. Like the only capable understanding ability that we have is like when you feel both of them heavily, like when you feel grief, you understand joy. When you understand joy, you felt grief. yeah, those, those, um, those emotions are, I think really just incredibly connected. You know, it's good to long for something that's different than the thing you have right now.

So, yeah, I totally understand. I was like, so what were you longing for when you were burnt out? Being home. Of course. You know, like i think um i it's interesting because there was a few years there where i got really really burnt out but it was because i was like i mean i was burning the candle at both ends and the middle what year was this you know that would have been like 2013 to 2017 was just like yeah you know just you're on the road you're drinking too much you're drugging too much you're not sleeping you're you think you're invincible you you pay no mind to what you're putting in your body this was my experience i put pay no mind to what i'm putting in my body and then combine that with

um playing you know 200 shows a year your body just like can't handle i mean your body can't handle just partying that much period let alone like trying to maintain singing well each night, you know? Oh, I bet. Especially how you sing. It's crazy. Yeah. So those four years I got, toward the end of that 2017, I was like, all right, I gotta read, I gotta like readjust. And I put the drinking aside while I was touring. I gave up the, the drugs um what were you taking i sleep

oh just kind of anything that was thrown at me that wasn't yeah like in the needle form yeah you know it's like if i if i want to tie one on i'll tie one on you know yeah um so i gave all that up and and then started working on my mental stuff, you know, meditation and breathing exercises. Did you go to therapy? really really beautiful um books and and ideas that led me down a path which i'm not fully there right like i'll have a cheeto puff every once in a while but don't get it but but at least preparing for a tour and and trying to maintain during a tour you know you got like 45 shows where you're singing hard every night. There's maintenance that has to go into that.

And so I've got that down pretty well now. But yesterday there was some time where... How about you, man? I mean, you cruise, you tour your tail off. Yeah, man. I've been doing 250 shows a year for the last 13 years too. You know, doing coke and fucking randoms and you know just doing the whole thing and you know it burnt me out to a point where i wanted to quit did you ever have that feeling or did you knew you're never gonna quit

you just needed to you know how to take a break yeah that's interesting i definitely like hmm that's weird i don't know if i got to a point where i wanted to quit i got to a point where i was so pissed off at like everything that was seemingly happening to me that i was that i to me that I was, that I was miserable, but I was able at the time, I think I was going through enough bullshit at the time to like direct this energy towards like, Oh, well it's that that's making me feel it's, it's the suits it's label people. It's whatever, you know, like whatever I could manage to be mad at to like let let a little air out of the

balloon but in reality i was just burnt out i was not taking care of my body like the same shit happens to everybody in this industry and it's really how you you it's how you see it and how you receive it is i think deeply connected to how to like this in your mind and your spirit and how you navigate this industry because i think the industry can bend you over and fuck you in the ass or it can make love to you and it's literally the way that you're positioned and the way you see it i think yeah i agree with you with that because like um you know maybe it's like you thought your career was going to be a different in your brain through this path. You thought you're going to be on a different track. And when you finally hit reality that we're not, our expectations are going to kill us, you know, then we got to stop taking the booze.

Then we got to stop. I'm having this conflict with my manager right now. Like we us, you know, then we got to stop taking the booze. Then we got to stop. I'm having this conflict with my manager right now. Like we're, uh, you know, I expected one way that my career was going to be, and it just didn't turn out the way that I thought now, who knows if it could happen next year, could happen five years. But, uh, the understand that, you know, all that hard work isn't for nothing is you know it's a it's a it's a blessing in disguise you know that's why like when you do all these things when you play every night when you fucking and some maybe some shows were fucking 10 people at and you thought it was gonna be sold out and stuff it's just we lose the confidence in ourselves that we're why are we doing all this fucking work? You know, was that for you as well? Yeah, man, I've,

I've been deeply connected to results for many years of my life. And, um, I've been blessed to be around enough people who are connected to process in their cultivation. in their cultivation. So my wife is a jeweler and she makes rings and necklaces and just, she's a, she's a, an incredible artist, but she's, um, she loves doing it. She, she doesn't do it for the money. She's never made a ton of money doing it. She's never sold high dollar situations. She doesn't have an enormous following. She does it and her position with it is the joy of just creating something from scratch.

She really loves the process of making jewelry. of making jewelry and being, you know, faced with somebody like that and seeing how much joy she brings to the studio every time she goes there. I was like, okay, maybe I'm approaching this art thing wrong because I was completely connected to results. Like once I started seeing a little bit of result, which was like, Oh dude, there's like 30 people at this show. You know, like I sold, like I sold 14 t-shirts. This is, you know, and the money starts coming in and you really get connected to, I did personally, not everybody does, but I got connected to the results. Like my identity was formed within the capacity of, of, okay, I'm

going to put out this record. This many people are going to connect with it. Then I'm going to get the late night stuff. And then I'm like, all these results are going to come. And that's where my importance is going to come from is how big my name is on the festival flyer. And how many shows of the tours, oh, we didn't sell out in San Antonio. We never sell out San Antonio. This is, you know. Yeah, bro. Expectations. Exactly. Expectations. Exactly.

Expectations, results. And you base, I was then basing the art off of those results. And so when I wasn't maintaining the results I thought I would get or I thought I would see, then the art was shit. To you? Or you just saw your numbers going down? No, I mean, like, that's how I defined. My numbers have always pretty much stayed the same. Like, they've kind of grown incrementally.

I had a relatively big jump, like, in 2011, going from, like, nobody knowing me or giving me a gig to getting gigs but i've always pretty much maintained like the same the same size i've never really grown in enormous capacities um but because during that like phase 2013 to 2017 because there wasn't this like immense growth everything i created during that time frame for a while i was like this is shit because the results aren't what i want them to be it wasn't how much joy i had in the studio making records with like some of my favorite musicians of all time it wasn't the experiences i got on tour learning to it was like no unless i've got that extra comma in the bank account unless we move sizes of venues next time i come

to this market unless i get the cameo or the feature from whoever whomever unless i get don't get tagged on this fucking one probably if don't get Andy Frasco's podcast Bro Yeah I get it And it's just a mind fuck Do you think Yeah it's fucked up And do you think it's because

The things that we do to get away Hence music or hence singing And we turn that into Our livelihood It changes the perspective Of why we livelihood, it changes the perspective of why we're doing it in the first place. Like we forgot that, oh yeah, I did this because I was sad

when I was a kid or I did this to get away. We forget that when we have a, you know, I don't know how long you've been with your wife, but like when we start getting, making it a business and making it what we want to do

for the rest of their life that we forget that we did this in the first place because we love it totally yeah we i mean i think art and commerce i think you nailed it right on the head there andy it's like art and commerce are these really odd things that like never really used to coexist until like the last i'm gonna totally make up a number right now so please don't you can go fact check me folk who are listening there's no fact it hasn't been around that long 250 years maybe 300 i don't know they used to be like the kings and queens and they would summons the artists and pay for them to do art yeah and then the artists would go and do the art and then it would be for the kingdom right and then at some point it was like

oh we can sell these to individual people and then when mass communication started coming about right with the recorded sound and then it went from like, it fractured and everybody could consume art. Everybody could consume music and books. And not that art and commerce shouldn't mix, but I think that as an artist, you've got to do your best to be really delicate about that relationship. And I think the more you get tied up in the results and in the numbers and in the in the ego really it's kind of like it's a it's a shadow of the ego um it's a yeah it's a mind fuck man it's it doesn't i don't think it it doesn't help you continue to create art from like a positive place um i think it just yeah i don't know my experience with it just robbed me of

you know the joy that i get when i actually like play music yeah and it's you know it's amazing because like you know you look at your track record and look at your resume and it's it's pretty amazing versus how we think our track record is in our head you know so if we take that out you know it's that's the hardest part about this is do are you um are you competitive oh yeah so like when you see your homies starting to pop off and stuff do do you, does it, does it kind of like drive you to like, does it, does it, it makes the ego say, I need to put something out right away or how, how do you deal with competitiveness through art? Yeah, it's super interesting. That's such a good question, man.

Cause I grew up playing, I don't know. Did you grow up playing sports? Yeah. Yeah. Basketball, baseball, the whole nine. Yeah, me too. And, uh, for a long time, like I thought I wanted to, you know, like most young kids, like we want to play dreams we, my folks, we, we called it white man's disease. You know, like my vertical, my vertical leap. Two inch vertical, Alan Stone going for the white man's disease. Thanks dad. Um, the, uh, what's interesting is though I, I miss, I don't play sports like in team form anymore.

And because I think I have a competitive nature and people, I think, especially men are naturally inclined towards some sort of competitive perspective. I think women have it too. Um, I find myself bringing that into places where they don't belong. Like art is so, art, like music is so subjective and arbitrary and translucent. And like, it's not a thing that should be judged upon by merit,

like, or excuse me metrics right because it's there's so many things it's not a meritocracy by any means true um and so to judge it as one i think is is kind of ridiculous however i've found myself many times like you know bringing that competitive nature and that competitive spirit into art. And I think it really kind of robs you of your best asset within art, which is just like there, you can't compete in this thing because you can aspire and you can be inspired to maybe shed a little bit more or learn the specific tune or,

but, but competition specifically i think um i don't know maybe some somebody might tell you differently than me because i think that nature probably has worked out well for somebody before uh but for me personally it's funny i will i'll look back on old videos like prince like prince and mich and Michael Jackson had like this hatred towards each other for many years. I didn't know that really. Well, I think it was coming from Prince.

Like, I think Michael was just like, whatever. Michael Jackson. Yeah. But Prince, there's all this video of Prince, like taking digs at Michael Jackson,

you know, like, Oh, send those to me. And it's hilarious. It's like, dude, you're Prince.

What are you, what are you worried about like there's plenty of space there was obviously plenty of space for prince and michael jackson to coexist but prince man felt he felt that need to like yeah to compete and um yeah how does it present present itself in your life like do you you you said you like kind of find yourself comparing it to homies. Yeah. I think it's competitiveness is what burns us out.

Hmm. You know, why are we on the road 200 days a year? Cause we want to have a better lifestyle, which at the end of the day is like, we have money, but we can't spend it with the people we love. Cause we're on the fucking road.

You know what I'm talking about? So's like yeah we like it takes so much to make that type of money and you can't even share it with um the people that you're you know doing this for and i think yeah with that idea um i think um it comes quicker I think burning out becomes even quicker. Because, you know, like you said, like we're not guys who fucking make, you know, bangers on the radio or we're not the guys who, you know, we'll get some AAA love, but like, you know,

we're the guys who are going to fucking work and we're going to sing our asses off and we're going to entertain the motherfuckers. We're going to entertain D'Kipsy, Kentucky and wherever the fuck else you're going to put us because weers. We're going to entertain D'Kipsy, Kentucky and wherever the fuck else you're going to put us because we love what we do. You know, it's like... Shout out to D'Kipsy.

But like in all seriousness, if we took out the competitiveness, do you think we'd get burnt out? I think you... I think that it... Yeah, I think it's... There's so many dimensions to that equation. Like, uh, I think if you alleviate competitiveness, then that, that would help.

But I think also you gotta like, you gotta get sleep and you gotta exercise and you gotta like eat good food occasionally. And you gotta like lay off the booze maybe a couple nights. Like I think there's a lot of equations towards living in an RV, traveling around with like middle-aged men. And like, I don't know many people. I think about it quite often. And I love the guys I tour with.

Like the guys I tour with are absolute legends. They're sweethearts but like when i think about you know we were in our early 20s it was like oh if i can just if i can just be on the road like when i was working busboy jobs in seattle i was like i just give me 30 shows a year give me as far as nevada and i'll be satisfied right you have like this glowing perspective of what touring and the road life is and then you get on the road and just like anything you settle into something yeah and you go well if you're able to pull back far enough away from me like what am i doing i'm 35 fucking years old and i'm hanging out a pilot a pilot gas station smoking a square yeah

it is halftime at the endy fresco interviewer welcome back to review i'm your host, Ari Findling. This is the review for the year-long coronavirus pandemic. A big fuck you to the coronavirus from Ari Findling here. It has been one year. Literally nothing has happened. The months have lasted days. The days have lasted months. Somebody told me it was March. I said, how can it be March? It was March last fucking month. If you have done anything in quarantine, mazel tov. Okay. I've done shit except for gaining 17 pounds. If you learned how to cook good, if you learned how to play the

guitar, good for you. If you learned how to make your girlfriend cum, mazel tov. This shit needs to be over. Sign up for your vaccines if you qualify. Wear your fucking masks. I am so sick of being in this goddamn apartment if it lasts one more month into 2021. I literally feel like I'm repeating myself. Did I not do this review, this exact same review, seven months ago, and nothing has changed? Just fucking stop it. Wear your masks. Take the vaccine.

Please. For my personal well-being. I'm going to kill myself if this isn't over. So just wear your fucking masks! Do you feel safe when you're running? Do I feel safe when I'm running? You know, like the idea of moving.

The idea of always being in a different place. Do you feel more comfortable? But then you also said something interesting like you settle in. So maybe like those first two months of quarantine were fucking tight. You know, you're making love with your wife, fucking having a kid or whatever you're doing. And then it just gets real that this might be it. I don't know.

I managed to keep myself really busy. I think my friends and people close to me probably tell you that I have like a little hint of OCD kind of ADD. So I managed to just kind of, I can't sit still very well. Um, so I think constant movement. Yeah. Like I'm kind of cut out for that path. Uh, maybe a little bit easier than most. Um, so yeah, I think I am kind of comfortable running, but I mean, just like anything, man, like I tell folk that regardless of what you do and how much you love what you do, there's going to be a portion of it that you just can't stand.

I just think that that's the plight of the human experience. Like I love making music. I love playing shows live. I hate trying to convince people to buy my stuff. Yeah. Same here. I hate marketing. I hate, I don't like being a boss. I don't like being the guy that people turn to when something goes wrong. I'm like, hey, what's up? What are we doing?

It's like, fuck, you think I know? I don't have any idea. It's true. And these are things that I didn't think of when I was like, yeah, I want to be a musician. I want to be a solo artist. I want to stand in front and sing. When was that? When did you have that? I want to be a musician. I want to be a solo artist. When did you have that dream? I want to stand in front and sing. When was that?

When did you have that dream? I want to know about your childhood. Like, why? Why this? Yeah, so I grew up, my folks were ministers, and so I grew up singing in the church since I was real young with my folks and my family and our community.

And then I picked up a guitar, I think, when I was like 10 and started strumming, you know, the GDC-like worship tunes and started leading worship in my church real young, 13, 14. I grew up in a real small town north of Spokane called Chouyla. It's about one stoplight. Were you religious? Or were your parents religious? Yeah. Yeah. I was very, very religious growing up. Parents still very much so, um, cut from that, that ilk. I have a brother who's a minister, so we're very much like deeply rooted religious family. Um,

and then when I was 18 and like my aspirations to play for the Utah jazz kind of pithered. Stockton can do it. I can do it too, dog. Yeah. Stockton's a Spokane boy too. So we were like, uh, so yeah, i think i had always had aspirations to just do something special was really what it was like i don't want to go and do the safe route i've always been like adverse to what is safe i want to try like the extremes and i want to try the different thing and i had enough positive reinforcement for the music thing growing up, like from 14 to 18 to be like, I think I can be a songwriter, you know?

Yeah. And so that was kind of right when the MySpace thing hit and the, and people started like getting their music out, distributed online in some small capacity. The independent musician thing was relatively new at that stage, but the possibilities of doing it without having a top 10 radio hit and making a living seemed more possible than potentially like previous generations might've seen it as. Did you think you were going to go into Christian rock? So I like went, it's funny. I went to,

I graduated and my trajectory initially was like worship pastor. That was sort of my, my angle. And so I went to a Bible college called Moody Bible Institute in, that's in Spokane. And, uh, I did a semester and I was like, I had like a kind of a, well, what I would call a come to God moment, which was like, Oh shit. Like, I don't believe this yeah were you taking drugs like alert no i didn't start smoking or doing anything until like

a couple years into my 20s so this was like this was 18 but kind of learning the you know growing up as a pastor's kid and in a minister's home, like the safest route, the easiest route, the best route is just like, and, and growing up in a community as strong as a church, if you have a great experience and you have great communities, like it's amazing. Everybody looks out for each other, wonderful families. You stay out of trouble. you like manage to get good grades

like like now as a young father i looked at the way i was raised and i was like oh yeah that makes sense like totally like tell them about this make-believe thing that like makes them want to do right stuff fuck it i'm down let's do it. Let's make, what is this, a dinosaur? There's a dinosaur in the closet. If you don't do what's right, fucking dinosaur's coming out, breathing fire. It's coming for you. I totally get it.

So then you turned 18, what happened? So I turned 18 and kind of started slowly really diving into what would lead to be like alternate perspectives on religion. You know, I think for so many years, I just, that was what was, that was like when you're raised in the church, like that's, especially that ingrained in the church. That's just what it is. And so to have like an experience in Bible college,

that's like, wait a minute. Like I've first and foremost, I've never questioned this. I've never questioned like what has been told to me, which I think is really important for anybody raised in any ideology, even like secularism and liberalism, like question the stuff that's just been passed down to you, recycled knowledge, because, um, it's, it's a good mental exercise and it's, it's a good mental exercise. And it's, if it's actually how you feel, you'll just be strengthened in those ideologies and beliefs.

And so I began to question it and it led me down a path of like, yeah, I don't think I'm a, I don't think I'm a Christian. I think I subscribe to a lot of these wonderful tenants towards leading a healthy, wonderful life. That's great, but they're not mutually exclusive to this one book. I mean, that's just human beings living in communities for thousands of years realizing that, oh shit, if I steal from my neighbor, I'm going to get stolen from. thousands of years realizing that oh shit if i steal from my neighbor i'm gonna get stolen from um and so that yeah for a moment i got real bitter i was like real fuck this i can't believe like you didn't tell me you didn't you didn't teach me the history of constantine and the Nicene Creed and all, you know, got real kind of like angry at your parents? Did you get angry

at your parents? Yeah, I did. I, I never, like, it wasn't to the point of like sitting him down

and like, hey. Yeah. Fuck you, dad. Yeah, fuck you, dad.

Right, because I knew that like my parents were incredibly good hearted people who genuinely live their life like to the tenants of this beautiful perspective, which I think, man, I should, I think 75% of all religions, 75% of it is really great. Yeah. But it's that extra 25 that I think unfortunately disconnects us in these ideologies. It's the inability to see your humanism. It's the inability to go, I don't know. Yeah. Right. But like loving your neighbor, raising your kids in kindness and compassion, taking care of your community and being good stewards of the earth. Like there's so many good tenants of literally every religion we subscribe to, but it's the unfortunate, like we've got it right.

And you've got it wrong that one tenet is the fucked up that's the one that like ruins everything do you like not being told what to do yeah i'm real yeah i'm real yeah i'm super rebellious in that capacity like if somebody tells me to do something i'm like yeah cool yeah, cool. I'm not doing that. Yeah. So why don't we take that philosophy into our careers? We do that with everything else. We question everything else, religion, how we

were raised, but then we get put in our careers because we want it so bad. We just have someone tell us what to do. Why don't we question that too? How a new way of we doing our art. Yeah. I wonder sometimes if it's a, that's a great question, Andy. I wonder,

do you think sometimes that it's because we feel like there's some sort of gatekeeper still? Yes. A hundred percent. Cause like I grew up thinking that somebody one day, like I was going to meet one guy. I was told this story. I was going to meet one guy and he was going to open the door and change my life forever. And that doesn't exist. It absolutely does not exist. And it's just a really short-sighted way of explaining like the years and years and years and work and hours that go into these idols

that we love like it's like yeah dude clive davis came to a party showed up saw the artist was like hey we're gonna sign you up for the fame and fortune package you ready cool bam it's like for as many artists as clive davis signed and sent to the moon times it by 10 and many artists that you've never heard of that had shit careers yeah it's true like there's no you are the only gatekeeper in my personal opinion you are the only gatekeeper that especially nowadays maybe there was a time there was definitely a time where there was legitimate gatekeepers i think because creating records and art was just so expensive yeah but but now i don't think there's i don't think it exists i think you're your only obstacle towards creating a life that lives off art.

That's so beautiful to say because at the end of the day, the only one that's going to get in the way is yourself. It's so crazy because if we don't get burnt out, if we don't take things personally, if we don't take that lot... I look at Michael Jordan and Kobe.

I grew up in LA, so Kobe is my guy. The competitiveness, Kobe didn't really do drugs, but Mike was doing coke and fucking drinking and fucking partying and still executing. I think we look at that .003% a person who

have that brain capacity and we want to be that. When sometimes we weren't, you know, it's not in our genetics to, you know, only sleep three hours and go to the court at 4 a.m., you know? Maybe we want to do that, but like, it's like maybe you're born with two-inch vertical, you know?

It's like, it's all, we just, I think, I think it's the blame of celebrity, the love of celebrity, the love of celebrity. Like the God complex? Oh, yeah, the idea of a superhero. Well, what's interesting about that, too, is like, I don't think that, I mean, I would imagine if you got Michael Jordan in a room and had a few whiskeys in him, he would tell you that the way his life has been portrayed. About 50 percent of it is like actual. Yes.

And there's like another there's another portion of it that you have. We during quarantine watched The Last Dance. Like what an epic documentary. Yeah. i'm watching through that i'm like they don't interview his kids once yeah they didn't see interviews they don't interview his wife once yeah and maybe that you know like still incredible story but but there's so much more that happens in a human's life than their work and their job and their achievements and yeah like to to look at somebody like a kobe or jordan or lebron james or a wayne gretzky and you're like

wow look at them performing man that's so incredible but the vast majority of really talented athletes that i've had the pleasure of meeting their lives are boring. Yeah. Is your life boring? Do you think musicians like who has a more boring life? Athletes or musicians? I don't know,

man. I've, I've had the pleasure of befriending a few elite athletes, like NFL players, MLB players. MLB is different. H-sport is different, for sure, right? So basketball and football are incredibly more taxing than baseball. Baseball is like chess where you stand up. Yeah, it's true. Baseball is like chess where you stand up. Yeah. You know, you can, you can like, you can, I mean, just baseball is just a different sport.

And yes, of course you have to be incredibly talented to pull it off at an elite level, but well, like basketball, football, especially now basketball was funny too. It was like,

I'm watching that documentary about Michael. I'm like, it's a different game. Oh yeah just even between kobe's reign and jordan's reign like the scientific understanding of how the body heals the scientific engineering of shoes how you like training it's a it's a completely different world yeah those two things not that jordan wouldn't have competed in that ability and been just as good but like to compare the two is so interesting yeah it's like getting a record deal you don't see any dennis rodman's competing in the nba anymore oh hell no nobody can keep that shit up or like yeah are we going

for the things that celebrities get or are we getting are we taking that idea that whatever my art does that's what i want to be popular for does that make sense i think it think it totally makes sense, man. That's such a wonderful way to put it. Because we've seen this influx of human beings who are able to keep people's attention with incredibly mundane abilities. Yeah, yeah, no i think it was when the celebrity like opened up their life so that people felt like they were in there with them we started seeing a ton of people who were being paid attention to because of things that weren't um that weren't incredible does that bum you out for how hard you work for your career i did for sure i mean like there was a moment you know for god i for many years i went on this like tirade about like people using tracks during live shows and it was like we gotta use the real thing it's gotta be pulled you know no click no it's gotta i was like you know i was like the super vegan yeah right like like the annoying vegan right not just like yeah i just kind of like the way

it makes me feel no they're like listen the earth was not meant to maintain the capacity of animal sacrifice. It's like, bro, God, I don't have time for this right now. You know? And you become that person. I was that, I was that person. And it was really just like, it was, it was, it was kind of like background. It was just gross. It was just like really mean-hearted and mean-spirited and i couldn't see that like regardless of how people were interacting with music personally i couldn't see the joy that it was creating it was like no that's that's fake joy yeah that's not

that's fucking that's benny hill bro that's, that's fuck. That's Benny Hill, bro. That's fucking, that's televangelism right there. And it was like, dude, shut up. Like if people need to escape. Yeah. And,

and as long as the escapism isn't constricting other people's ability to escape, it's beautiful. Yeah. When you, when you made, no, constricting other people's ability to escape, it's beautiful. I'm trying to get deeper on that. So when you made your escape, let's call it music, your prison, what do you do now to escape? Yeah. Do we forget about ourselves?

Well, I think you got to find a way to adjust your lens. I think that's all life really is. It's like learning to look at things differently, learning to understand things differently, challenging yourself to perceive life in a different light. And so for me, when I got really close to like allowing music to put me in this prison, I was lucky enough to have people around me that helped me look at it a little bit different, helped me fall in love with the process, but also to like adjust the dream a

little bit. Yeah. Let's talk about that. How, how does one adjust the dream to make it keep going? Well, you just, you gotta follow your senses. I think, you know, for me, like I really in the last three or four years have found enormous joy in, in production and video. Um, and it's allowed me this new dimension towards connecting to an audience base that previously I had no idea how to do. Right. Like before I was like, okay,

well, I'm just going to, I'm going to sing as good as I can. Like, that's going to be the thing. I'm going to sing my ass off. I'm going to sing so good that people have to pay attention. Yeah.

And then I got i sang as best as i could and i got a little bit of attention and then because of you know how quick the world is operating now and moving now like there's a million other singers who can sing circles around me and so you you have to figure out ways to pivot yeah i guess pivot or you know for me i've just found so much joy in the cultivation of the story with music and the visual aspect of, of audio that it's actually bettered. It's like connected me back to the joy of music. And I think that it's really, it's really important to maintain that level of curiosity

curiosity for other things other than just your craft yeah um because i think they all feed i think they're all working the same muscles you know so if it's if it's painting if it's editing video if it's podcasting and conversations if it's building houses if it's editing video, if it's podcasting and conversations, if it's building houses or like whatever it is that is connected to cultivation, cooking, like dive into that with an abandoned regardless of whether or not you think it's going to better your career. Yeah.

Like just dig into something that flexes that cultivation muscle because i think it i think it does come back and fold back on itself and really stretch those muscles that we were stretching when we first we first boom catted on a drum pad you know yeah do you blame that on um just people always just categorizing people you know like uh the idea where you know you put oh this guy plays this type of music or this guy's an insurance man or this guy's a real estate broker you know and there's no there's no other room for anything else you know why is why do we have be only good at one thing is what i'm trying to ask yeah Yeah, I don't think we have to. I think that language is an interesting mechanism towards

communicating things that are so much deeper. I think a lot of the times it leaves short the reality of what we're trying to communicate. Oh, well, i sell insurance so i'm an insurance man like that's just our way of quickly telling people what it is we spend

eight hours of our day doing yeah every day you know but obviously insurance man is so much more than just an insurance man right like i'm sure he has loves outside of just low interest i don't know what the fuck is insurance he's got something but like yeah like people categorize like say oh he's just a singer or he's just yeah you know songwriter you can't do the the talk that you know the show and the video whatever it is whatever we put in our heads that don't free us from being exactly who we want to be, you know, cause it's all in our head. No one else is telling us this. It's just. Totally. Totally. I think it's, um, yeah,

that's so interesting because I think it comes back to that. Like we are our only obstacle nowadays. Like we've been, we are, we have been blessed so immensely to live in the era of human existence that we live in. Hopefully to God, we can hang on for another a hundred years. Cause this right now is so fucking tight.

Yeah. Like the internet is still kind of unregulated. The, you can get a fucking pizza to your door in like 15 minutes by pushing a button on a goddamn little think pad in your pocket. What the fuck are we doing? This is crazy, bro.

Yeah, I know. And why do we, yeah, I got to take a step back and enjoy life. You know, it's not all about work. It's not, it life. You know, it's not all about work. It's not, it's, it's, it's not all about work.

It's, I think, yeah, I think gratitude can go so far in just your mentality towards everything you approach. And that's another thing that I have really tried my best to like focus on is like bro like how fucking nuts is this like you and i we organize frequency we take different frequencies in the 20 to 20k range and we organize it on a timeline pattern based scale we reassess we didn't invent it we didn't invent audible hertz we just like take things that have been passed down and organize them according to what makes us feel good and then we put it out and other people connect with it without ever knowing us at all yeah and then we and then we hop in a gas powered a diesel powered fucking tin shell and and drive on concrete that's

been assembled for us like hundreds of years ago we complain that there's no fucking turkey in the green room? Come on! We're floating in infinity. You know? That's such a beautiful perspective. It takes this

idea that our art isn't the most important thing. It's living. Yeah, man. Yeah, I think it's really always beautiful if you can... It puts me in a good place whenever I can pull back far enough to be like, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

What are we doing here? Yeah, you know, it's like we're ADD, OCD. I'm the same way as you, Alan. I'm learning a lot. Like, we run very parallel lives. You're way better singer than I am, but, like, and you, like, had the balls to, like, you know, make love and come and have a baby and shit. You know, like, all that stuff, too. And that's pretty admirable.

But, like, how does an ADD or OCD dude enjoy the present moment? Oh, practice. Oh, and also, I was talking the other day on my podcast to this girl named Stephanie Powers, and she's the type of person that you look at and you're like, oh, there's somebody who has it all together like she just oozes like spiritual nirvana kind of out of her and she was asking me to describe my like spiritual journey and i told her well it's one it's a journey you have to like

put one foot in front of the other one foot in front of the other constantly and like just like anything i always feel like i'm in the deep end of a pool and my hands are tied behind my back and i'm jumping off the bottom leaping up and i'm barely getting my head over the surface i'm going and then i go back down yeah and that's like that's like my uh relationship with art like rarely do i feel like i've got it together i'm like oh i know exactly what i'm doing man this is gonna work baby we got this thing dude it's gonna look at this beat motherfucker this is hot This shit is hot, dude.

Same with spirituality. Same with my relationship with my close friends and family. It's a constant journey. Is it like that with your wife, too? Oh, yeah, man. I mean, we've been together for seven years, and we've had incredible times, and we've had fucking awful times you know like it's never been smooth cruising for me in any capacity and i think that why do you understand i just don't think it's the human experience i don't know anybody who's like that yeah i don't know anybody who's just like constantly good all the time. Like it seems to be like,

we're at the deep end of the pool jumping up, like trying to take a gasp, you know? Yeah. And, and so understanding and being okay with that failure really, I think it's like this year has taught me so much in that in order for me to learn how to do anything, I have to first fail at it a hundred times. And I would imagine with your podcast,

you started this thing four years ago. Like I would imagine you've adjusted it in a million different ways to try and make it better. Yeah. And it's, and it's even just like, even the little thing that I learned from life is just listening to people. Instead of just trying to take a conversation where you want to take it, hear people out. We're going in reverse a little bit about hearing people out. We're so divided in ideas and stuff that we forget to hear people out now and that's um what you know conversation taught me you know or intimacy you know call it intimacy i mean we're on a date right now bud we're gonna know it's going well i think so too i like you i think i

might have to shoot you some i'd be picking up the check tell you what you'll check you'll be getting a dick pic from Frasco in no time big dog can't wait baby hey you get some good lighting on that I want the key light I got you the selfie stick is a beautiful thing but you're right man

I know our time is up I know we didn't even talk about music but fuck it this is more important to me and to hear you go through something and you know what else is a thing I think it's like understanding

that being broke isn't the end of the world you can move back to Spokane I know you want to be in Seattle in your fucking condo with your Louis V sunglasses and matching a Louis V parka for the baby and shit. But it humbles us to know what's more important. It's building relationships with yourself

and building relationships with the people you care about so you could be in the most comfortable position to make the art that you want to make maybe yeah man that's such a good point i want to just really impress to you how cool it is to hear a musician say listen yeah because like so many moments in my life especially my music career i didn't listen. Yeah, same. I just played. I just sang.

I just did what I thought needed to be done, and I didn't listen. And the most incredible musicians I've ever come across are listeners first. They listen to what's happening around them. They listen to the emotion and the feeling of a room they listen to the drums and the bass and how they connect and um i think it's so important to be reminded to listen first yeah it's really cool that you've got that perspective well it's really cool that um you're doing that too buddy so thanks for being part of the show um really means a lot go check out your go check out Alan's podcast.

I gotta get on your podcast. Let me, uh, you interview me one of these days. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to. We'll schedule this week.

That cool. That would love it. Anytime you want, bro. And I'll give you my numbers. Like, let's just talk and just be friends, man.

I think, you know, you're not in this alone. We got to keep, we got to stop forgetting that we're doing this alone because we aren't, everyone's going through it. So thanks for being on the show. Yeah, man.

I got one last question for you, and I'll let you go back to your amazing life and stuff. Alan Stone, what do you want to be remembered by? Oh, my God. Well, as a good father and a good husband and a good friend. Yeah. as a good father and a good husband and a good friend. And, um, and yeah, maybe like fucking made a hell of a chicken parm. Let's go. I'm going to clap to that. Let's go big dog.

That's what I'm talking about. Make that parm dog. Make that parm. No, that's great, bro. Well, just being a good person, right? Yeah. yeah. The most joy that I get is in relationships. You know, that's, it was interesting, just one little period point maybe, or one last thought is that I was, for so long, we talked about this earlier,

so connected to the results and expectation in art and my work. And my friend the other day, my best friend has been living with us for the last like six, seven months. We've been doing all these projects together and he hosts the podcast with me. It's like, it's funny that you say that Al, that you're so deeply connected to the results because the only stories you ever share are from you experiencing the process

like all the stories you share about that one night in tennessee when you and the guys it was raining outside and you had to go on and the speakers were blown and or that one time in the it's like everything that you actually hold as a treasure is the process. So, so I think maybe, uh, yeah, focusing less on the result and really, uh, really digging into that, the treasure, which is the experience is, is the presence is the time that you, that you share share don't let it fade away because you're thinking too far out about the results being the moment do your best to be in the moment because that's what you're going to remember you're not going to remember how many fucking

commas you had in the bank account in 2017 like you're gonna spend that money bro everybody knows that too that's tight. That's some woke shit right there. You know, life isn't the results. It's the process. So that's what you're trying to say. That's beautiful. Alan Stone, it was lovely meeting you.

And I really hope we do it again, buddy. Thank you, Andy. I appreciate it. It's a blessing to meet you, buddy. So have a great day and be safe out there. You as well, Andy. All right, Alan Stone. Take well Andy Take care brother Blessings Later buddy

There you have it Alan Stone Wow that was That was dope You know Didn't know too much about him Besides him being a badass singer And songwriter

And to Just start that convo Heavy That's why we're on this show So Shout out to Alan. And all right, guys, we'll catch you after these words. Before we continue on with the podcast,

I want to talk about our new podcast partner, sponsor. We got a sponsor, people. Let's fucking go. Let's go. That's a boy. Zesty Hard Kambucha Seltzers is our new partner. They sent me a case of them and they're fucking good. You know, it was the summer of twisted tea and trulies for me, so I couldn't even look at a fucking seltzer for a couple months. And I was like,

ooh, fuck. I don't know if my stomach's ready for this. And then I realized it was a kombucha, which I fucking love, and there's booze in it. I know kombucha already has booze, but the hard kombuchas were bomb. They had this flavor called blueberry mojito. That was bomb. And one that I love was called recession-proof. That was pretty awesome.

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I don't know what that is. And 100 cals and 4-gram carbs. I mean, I'm down. You know, the only thing I worry about with, like, you know, carbonated drinks, sugary drinks was like all the carbs. And this doesn't have that many carbs and doesn't have many calories. So I feel not guilty drinking Zesty. So go check it out.

ZestyBev.com. They got a hard kombucha and they got a non-alcoholic kombucha. And the guy who owns the company is super sweet. I mean, he's a fan of the podcast, fan of the band. And, you know, I want to give him love. He's giving me love. So let's go get it, guys. Go grab some zesty beverages, some hard kombucha.

And if you're not drinking alcohol, they got the non-alcoholic kombucha. So go get your gut right with some kombucha from Zesty Beverages. Now, a message from the UN. Come down off your throne and leave your body alone. Somebody must change. And you are the reason I've been waiting so long. Somebody hold the key. Somebody hold the key But I'm near the end I just take up the time

Oh, and I'm wasted And I can't find my way home Ooh, ooh, ooh home Ooh Ooh Ooh Well I can't find my way home Ooh

Ooh Ooh Well I can't find my way home Well I Well, I can't find my way home Well, I can't find my way home Yeah, well, I can't find my way home And I ain't done nothing wrong When I can't find my way

Home, yeah All right, and there you have it. Thanks, Alan Stone, for the awesome introduction into your life. It was awesome to know you and get to know you and hope our friendship grows and hopefully we can play some shows together. That's it, guys. Hope you had fun this week. Like I said, go get them. Go conquer your insecurities. Go attack your vulnerabilities and stay optimistic because this is all we got, you know, life's short.

And if we can't be optimistic about the shortness of life, then we need to reevaluate because like I said, we don't have much time on this earth. And if we can't be grateful for every second we have on it, then it's a shame because it is a miracle that we are living. You know, think about it. You survived. There's 2 billion semen in your dad's balls. There's, I don't know how many eggs a woman has, but there's a bunch of eggs too.

And you made it. And you should be grateful you made it so you could see this beautiful earth, even when sometimes this beautiful earth is kind of fucked up. And that's okay. We got to know the bad to know the good and vice versa. So I hope you find solace in whatever you're doing. I hope you keep following those dreams, keep focused,

keep empowering people to do the same thing so we could all grow together as a community. I might take a week off next week, but if I don't, we have Kamasi Washington on the show. Big show, Kamasi, yes. Big show coming up with Kamasi. Can't wait to talk to him. Talk to him on Tuesday.

So we shall see if I get it in on time. If I don't, then we will skip a week, but, uh, I'll leave you with this. Um, stay focused, be powerful with your visions and, um, keep following those dreams. If dreams is love, go find that love. If dreams is making money, go make that money. You know, dreams is writing that great song or, um, being that great lawyer or whatever. Be the greatest you can be because at the end of the day, that's what we'll be remembered by. So be great, um, be inspiring and, uh, let's try to be optimistic, you know, seriously.

Optimism will win most battles, even when it's shitty outside. You know, it's snowing like a motherfucker this weekend. I thought I was going to miss my dance party, but we didn't. We're here. We made it through another week, another week of optimism. So be safe.

I love you. And I'll catch you next week or the week after. Whenever you hear from me. Because you'll hear from me a lot. All right, guys. Love you. You tuned in to the World Saving Podcast with Andy Fresco. Now in its fourth season.

Thank you for listening to this episode. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelone, Chris Lawrence. We need you to help us save the world and spread the word. Please subscribe, rate the show, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you're picking this shit up. Follow us on Instagram

at world saving podcast for more info and updates. Fresco's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfresco.com. Check our socials to see what's up next. Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain.

Also, the shit show has returned. Find it! We thank this week's guest, our co-host and all the fringy frenzies that helped make this show great. Thank you all. And thank you for listening. Be your best, be safe and we'll be back next week.

No edibles were harmed in the making of this podcast. As far as we know, any similarity to actual knowledge, facts or fake is purely coincidental.