Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 272: Molly Tuttle & Chair Throwing Guy

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Such vile threats over Mayor McCheese? It's just a little comedy, guys! GATEKEEPERS beware. Denver's own Sherriff Nottingham is coming for ya. All your chairs are belong to Cody. And on the Interview Hour we welcome one of the First Ladies of Bluegrass; multi-instrumentalist singer, Molly Tuttle! Not just a virtuosic guitarist, her expressive vocals and ability to blend traditional bluegrass with contemporary influences makes her really stand out amongst the cream of the crop. Plus: she's on tour all over the place and probably in a town in near you. And guess what... now you can see a cool dog by the name of Denzel should you choose to watch this episode *exclusively* on Volume.com... now in color!  Generally speaking, we are psyched to partner up with our buddies at Volume.com! Check out their roster of upcoming live events and on-demand shows to enrich that sweet life of yours. Call, leave a message, and tell us if you think one can get addicted to mushrooms: [phone]  Check out our new album!, L'Optimist on all platforms Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out our good friends that help us unwind and sleep easy while on the road and at home: dialedingummies.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Arno Bakker Shawn Eckels Cody Nottingham

Now, a message from the UN. Like a little baby talking about death threats Death threats Over Mayor McCheese You all need to calm the fuck down It's just a little comedy You ain't quick enough for Andy's comebacks Ketamine makes you tired Better get some rest before my boy lights you on fire Talking about death threats Over Mayor McCheese Speak for my boy, lights you on fire Talking about death threats Death threats

Over may you make cheese You all need to calm the fuck down It's just a little comedy We're talking about death threats Death threats Internet chill please You all need to calm the fuck down It's just a little comedy

We're talking about death threats Over mayo, make cheese You all need to calm the fuck down, it's just a little comedy You all need to calm the fuck down, it's just a little comedy A little comedy. All right. And we're live. Andy Frasca's World Saving Podcast.

What a week to be a Bluegrass fan. We got Molly Tuttle. Molly Tuttle's our interview, but we brought someone in. Lil Ruckus. I'm very excited for this interview. I got multiple calls saying he needs, he's from Denver.

He needs to be on the show. He was at the Billy String Show throwing chairs out of people. We have Cody. How you doing, sir? I'm doing wonderful, Andy. Cody. You're a legend in our book. Nottingham.

What a great last name. Cody Nottingham. Like the sheriff of, we got to do it for the people. I'm a man of the people, Andy. I'm a fucking man of the people. So you're more like Robin Hood than the sheriff. Yeah, yeah. I'm the opposite, but I'm from the area, right?

Yeah, exactly. So for the people who haven't seen this video, there were a line of people with chairs, right? Waiting in line. I think the biggest question is, is a lot of people don't understand the ghost chair mentality and what it's for. So I think if I explain what that is and then what the problem

with it is will help people better understand. So everybody knows how hard it is to get tickets to some of these big shows and for bands that are blowing up. I mean, it's difficult, right? And so getting tickets is one thing. And a lot of them are general admission. And so with general admission like pit or lawn,

you have to get there early to get your spot. Now you add on the fact that there's early merch. And with merch, there's limited posters. And so then there's limited foils and there's things. I am a poster collector. I am a avid music fan of genres all over the board. I probably have over 500 show posters. But Billy Strings is your god.

Billy Strings is my fucking man crush right now. I absolutely fucking love him. I was shit-faced at Telluride in 2018. And I saw this name, Billy Strings, on the list. And it was in the middle of the day, right? Because it was before he had blown up. And I was like, who the fuck is Billy Strings, right?

And then I saw him at Telluride and I was like whoa who the fuck is billy strings and so i've been obsessed i i literally have been telling everyone and anyone all the time go listen to it but so yeah well it wasn't me it sure as fuck was not me i promise you it was not me i don't know if he wasn't big yet in 2018 he had a pretty quick 2018 he wasn't i really think it was covid that blew it up but with all all that came like this fury of fandom. And so what happens is because there's like these merch lines and general admission lines, you got to go and get in line before the doors even open, right? So like doors will open at 630.

Some of these motherfuckers are coming at midnight the night before. The fuck is wrong with people? But so here's the fucking thing. It's like, if they came at midnight and some dudes are hardcore, they sleep in line and they're there. They bring tents and shit. Dude,

they'll bring hammocks. Like they're getting a new iPhone. Worse, dude. Like sneaker drops, like all this. They are there and they are committed. And for those dudes,

fucking props to them because that shit is hard. Yeah, they stay in there. I appreciate the hustle. They are there. The shit that I don't like and what caused this was some motherfuckers will come and drop a $5 Walmart chair. Oh.

And leave it there. And leave there and then not stay there. And not stay there. They don't have one person of their crew there. They don't have anything. That would piss me off. They're colonizers. They're colonizers.

They're 1,000% taking advantage of the situation. They think that they have left their marker of an empty chair and now it's theirs. For me, I would come. I live two miles from Red Rocks. They would leave it at midnight. Go home and go home.

That's not fair. That's not part of the hustle. What happened with this was I got to Fiddler's Green at 8 o'clock. Because I live here, I had to drop my girls off at school and then I came immediately after I had dropped them off. And there was already 20 empty fucking

chairs in line. Oh my god. There was one dude. What, at 9am? At 8am. Almost 10 hours before door opened. Jesus. There was already 20 chairs there was only one dude in a chair and he had two chairs next to him so if you watch my video you'll see that i like pass by this dude yeah because he's respect well you respect his hustle they at least have one guy they're holding people don't understand they're ripping on me in the internet for us oh

you passed one dude i asked that guy i hey, you want to take you and your homies' chairs to the front? You're the only dude here. You're first and last. You're doing the work. You're doing the work. He's like, no, man, I'm good. I told him, I was like, I'm going to fucking throw these chairs. He's like, get after it, bro. Hell yeah.

He's got to be more pissed than you. He's been the one sitting there looking at these empty chairs for eight hours. Here's the fucking problem is the complacency. He's been the one that's sitting there looking at these empty chairs for eight hours. But here's the fucking problem is the complacency, right? Like, he didn't want to do anything. And there's so many of us in this scene that fucking hate it. Yeah. We hate the empty chair.

We hate, like, the bully pulpit. There's even people that do, like, fake fucking lists, right? Like, oh, Joe Schmoe's number three in line. Well, really, Joe Schmoe's your best friend, and he's fucking blowing lines. He's doing ketamine in his trailer. Yeah, and he's not even your best friend, and he's fucking blowing lines. He's doing ketamine in his trailer. Yeah, and he's not even fucking doing anything, and he's not there, right? And then the worst part is those guys are also the ones that go buy the limited posters,

like the foils and the uncuts, immediately. They don't even... How many can you buy? How many posters can one person buy? So the smart bands put a limit of one per, but it doesn't fucking matter because now what I do is I find all my dirty whoop friends and I say, hey, I'm going to buy you a $50

ticket. You're going to come in with me. And so now when doors open, we're coming in and we're going to rush. It's a fucking racket, dude. It's a thousand percent of racket. And then what happens is they buy these fucking posters and they take a picture and they're immediately waffling or selling them for five, ten times the value.

Really? That much? Oh, dude. How much are Billy Strings posters going for? So, Billy, I love you. I just want to say that first. I've made thousands of you. No, to be perfectly honest, I've probably only sold a handful of posters. What I do do is trade

some of my other posters for posters that I want. A few years ago, Billy had great posters. And I feel like the last couple of years, the quality of the art and some of the posters aren't as strong. So the value has definitely gone down. I also think that COVID money went away. So people didn't just have endless funds to just blast away. Cause like you could get like one of the more head foils. There was only 35 of them.

I had to sell one to somebody because their framer ruined it and they couldn't find another one. And I got a thousand dollars for that poster that I paid $70 for. Let's fucking go. That's pretty sick. It's basically like baseball cards. People really sell baseball cards. There's a million things like this. For sure. And so that's

what fucking sucks. Do you kind of have this weird feeling in your stomach when you're selling a poster? So that's why I try not to sell them. So for me, what started this, before I even did the chair tossing, I was shit-faced in Asheville. Well, actually, let's start the

real truth. A couple years ago, I was at Renewal Festival, and I was waiting to buy merch. And at Renewal, which is Billy's Festival in Buena Vista, it should be Buena, but Colorado's fucking weird. So it's Buena Vista. Exactly. And I was waiting in line to buy my posters, and they were only

allowing 10 people in, and then they would have to walk 50 or 100 yards to a table and then they were rolling their posters and putting them away and being the fucking idiot that I was I was scoring them like an Olympic gymnastics judge like 1 through 10 like oh fucking great job you got a 10 oh my god

they're rolling yeah like how fucking like a gorilla roll be like Jesus Christ that guy just fucking ruined that poster really oh you can do that with a roll oh dude you're good at rolling and like a well I mean

we smoke enough weed we should roll right yeah but what about when you're all fucked up what was the worst roll you ever done oh dude well

I've definitely gorilla gripped some things the worst it's called gorilla gripping oh dude yeah when you just oh like because it bends it a little bit

yes because it it bends it and then once you have a bend or a fold in a poster, it's really fucking hard to get over. I did something in a... There's a very famous poster artist called Chuck Sperry.

I did a tutorial in his group where it's called boning, but you can use like a silver spoon and you can use heat to warm up the poster and then the spoon to kind of rub out some of the blemishes. You can't do that shit on a foil. The second you roll the foil or crack it, it's done. It's fucking over. The value is gone. It's like losing your virginity.

It's over. Yeah, there's no coming back. There's literally no coming back. And so the worst one, I've definitely grilled a grip to flu, but on purpose in Asheville, I had watched all these dudes and I was like, what if somebody was so fucked up one time that they just came and like folded their fucking poster and put it in their back pocket?

Because all these dudes want to go and sell it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so for me, like how great would it be to like rub it in their face, be like, fuck the $500, this is my poster, I'm going to do with it what I want. And I fucking did it. Were they pissed? The world was on fire. This poor girl had absolutely

no fucking clue what was going on. I buy my poster. Play the video. The folding one? Do the folding one first. I think this one's only 38 seconds. 38 seconds.

So you're walking up here. Same hat. Fucking. Oh my God. Yes. She's like, what are you doing? She's going, do you need help? Do you want to put this into my tube?

It's not even a good fold. Oh no, it's not. And she's like, what are you going to do with it? I'm like, put it in my back pocket, of course course and this fucking girl's in shock i walk away i throw this motherfucker in my back pocket i walk into pit and i am gone just disappear into the crowd and my phone starts blowing up and all my homies hold on like what videos already so the video is out video is out somebody else had taken it they post this one wasn't even posted by me. Oh, okay.

It was somebody else had taken the video of watching me. Oh, my God. And then, because I had talked about doing it in line, but they didn't know if I was actually, because I was just, I'm a fucking clown, right? Like, I joke that my spirit animal's Chris Farley. So, like, I'm just this goofy dude. And I was talking about,

oh, I'm going to fold this fucking poster. And so this dude videotaped me, posted it on his Facebook, and posted it in one of the Billy Strings bits. And you're basically doing like a fuck you to the people selling it. Yes. What I'm saying is this is my fucking poster. I can do whatever the fuck I want with it. And it doesn't matter what you think.

And people was not having it. These fans are fucking addicts. They're so entitled, they're entitled to your poster. Yes. So I was getting messages like, do you know how much that is? Do you know how much that poster is worth? 70 bucks. And I'm going, who the fuck cares?

Yeah. Right? Like I can do with it. And they're like, you didn't do that. You didn't actually do it. So then I took a selfie of me holding the folded poster in the middle of pit right before the show. And one of the girls behind me in line waiting to get in for pit.

I had told her, cause she's like, she didn't have money and blah, blah. She's like, Oh, I wish I could buy a poster. I was like,

I got a folded one. I can give you. And she's like, what? And so I gave it to this chick. It blew up the fucking, the Billy group went crazy. And then what happened was,

Oh my God. It's like a cult, dude. Do you want to speak in tongues? Yeah. I like the girl that took the folding one and didn't care. It says a lot about her. She's so amazing. What she ended up doing was she took it, brought it home to her condo,

fucking thumbtacked that bitch to the wall. Folded to the wall, thumbtacked. Shout out to her. Yes. To me, actually. I'm pretty sure her name is Lauren. Her boyfriend reached out to me after the chair flipping. But Lauren still got the poster. I told her, you're never allowed to sell it because I was like, this is going to blow up.

If you sell it, you got to sell it back to me. Otherwise, you can't fucking get rid of it or hold on to it. I don't see a cooler collectible in a flat poster. What's that picture of you just burning it down? Oh, dude. So the internet is...

Fiddler's green. The internet is undefeated. So that was my maniacal laugh. Were people truly offended when you were throwing the chairs? So not when I was throwing it. I think it was such a shock for people because I don't think people realize how fucking big I am.

And they're not going to fuck with you. You're a good 6'3 or something, right? Yeah, I'm 6'4, 300 pounds. I'm a big motherfucker. Oh, there's the folded one. Okay. So that's up on. So here's the best part.

I love that. The artist, because I was afraid that the poster artist would be offended that I did that to his work. The artist, I don't remember who it was, but he sent me a message on Instagram and he goes, hey, buddy, I'm going to fold a night one and night two and mail it to you. And I was like, don't fucking do that. Do not do that. Don't ruin any more stuff. Exactly. I was like, I'm a collector.

There's early merch. I already had night one, two, and three. This was a second night three. So you already had one. Yes. I already had one and I told him that. And I explained it. He's like, oh, that's fucking cool. Holy shit, you are a legend, dude. It was super cool. I want to go with you and troll people. Oh, dude, let's do it. Let's

fucking go. I'm going to ruin people's day. I love that. This trolling is brought to you by volume.com. We are in the volume.com studio out here getting the fans a... They need to be heard as well. We always hear about the musicians, but we never

hear about the people in the fucking trenches. You're out here... Ruining other people's experiences. Your kids probably don't even know your name because you're out here at 6am. When are you going to get them in on the trolls? You got to use these kids to train people. Oh, dude, you better be like...

Both of my daughter's pregnancies were announced from Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I have brought them. My youngest daughter went to dead and company at six weeks old. Hell yeah. Music is part of our life, and I tell them there is a healthy way to introduce your kids

to music and live music and shows, right? And there's a time and a place. The Billy scene's a little different, so I only bring them to Renewal because it's an outdoor festival. Why is it different? The Wooks. The Wookery. Is it just... How do these Wooks afford these high tickets? The Wookery.

That's all they do. How do they do it? I just told you. They fucking buy a poster and they flip it. They flip it, yeah. So they can go to the next show. And then they're locked in. Yeah, we're just fucking bootlegging our own shit. And that's what it is. But what you start doing is creating a following. You can go and depending on which poster artist you're using,

some people will literally just show up for the poster. Right. And leave? And then bounce. Fuck yeah. Yeah, they'll pay $50 for the ticket. You're making $250 profit. Yep. You don't have to watch Bluegrass. I'm Fuck yeah. Yeah. They'll pay $50 for the ticket. I mean, you're making $250 profit. Yep. You don't have to watch bluegrass.

And it's part of Jesus. We got Molly Tuttle on the podcast tonight. Just a reminder Nicholas, we have Molly Tuttle. Can I toss him instead of a chair? That'd be awesome. It's my job. But yeah. So for me, what all this

was in the poster folding and throwing a chair is I'm trying to stand up against some of the bullshit that's being created in our community. Right. And I'm trying to bring a conversation and show a little bit of a different way for us to do things. And like, I roll with a crew and, and what happened? Cause people are like, well, what if he has to take a piss? Well, guess what?

I got five of my homies with me. If there's six chairs and one of them's fucking empty, that's not getting tossed. That's not the problem here. That's not the problem. It is the people that just drop and disappear. And then they feel it's the entitlement, right? It's, oh, well, I deserve this.

And it's the same thing with the rail. These fucking rail riders are like... I drove here eight hours drunk last night. Cool, loser. Get a night cool and then somebody like some young fan or some new fan wants to like come up they're like oh it's ga let me get to the front of the rail yeah and these fucking rail riders like get out of here they're a thousand percent gatekeepers it's such bullshit they're literally keeping gates they're keeping gates but for me it's like fuck that dude like spread the love give those kids say like hey i'll give you one song

go fucking ride the roll for one song and then get the fuck out of here. That's the way that you should do it. You are a fucking saint. There needs to be more fucking fans like you. There are. The people, the little percent who are the gatekeepers who are ruining it for a lot of these

fans that are just like... They're the minority. They're the minority. But the problem is people aren't a 6'4", 300-pound islander. Exactly. So they don't know how to hire you to come to our shows. I know you probably don't like my music, but I'm just going to have you come. Andy, don't fucking lie. I do love your music, okay?

And for me, what it is is it's like try to build it the right way. I definitely agree that I was a little aggro with the chair tossing, but I was trying to prove a fucking point. You've got to prove a point. That's how wars start. A little bit of aggression in the beginning. Why didn't you just walk to the front of the line and drop the chair at the front of the line? Because then the chairs would still fucking be there.

Exactly. So for me, what I wanted to do in that moment was say, fuck these chairs, which has literally become my motto. You're a fucking saint. Fuck these chairs. Fuck those chairs. Fuck those chairs. Fuck those people. And if they had something to say... This man's like half-baked.

Fuck you. Fuck you. You're cool sitting there in that chair. Fuck you. I'm out. Yes, 100%. Let's fucking go. Did anybody try to fight you or anything?

No, it's going to fight us. Nobody said shit. I mean, there are a fuck ton of keyboard warriors. And I will say some of you motherfuckers said some good shit. They are funny sometimes. Other motherfuckers went after my wife and kids. That was not cool.

I get shit talked a lot, and I'll go after them too. Then they start calling me f***ing shit. I'm like, alright, now your true colors are shown. And then it's like, okay, oh, you're a fat fuck. Oh, I never knew that. Oh, really?

How? Wow. Am I big? Right. Cause they got offended because they're one of the fucking gatekeepers. Yeah. And that's why what's funny is, is people are like,

Oh, did anybody say anything to you? And what I tell them is they're not in their chair. What the fuck are they going to say? That's true. Nobody is there to say they're at work. So no, they didn't.

They're sure as fuck. Not at work. Not at work. They're doing something. That shows what mind state i'm in about these people but but that's where for me it was like and even if i did have a confrontation it would have been an opportunity to have a constructive conversation to be like hey what the fuck so you're out here getting every poster dude it is it is my i I said, I have over 500 show posters. Yeah, but he's doing it in a

legit way. I'm a fan. I have 120 Laker jerseys. I get that. But this is your last moment to say what you want to say to the fucking gatekeepers. You're on. What I want to tell people is to share the

fucking love and share the experience. If you get extra posters, sell it to the guy that couldn't get one for face. Get it into the hands of the fans. Stop trying to make a fucking dollar. This is a feeling. We love music because how it makes us feel. Let's stop trying to capitalize it and turn it into some entitlement issue. I know that, and Billy says, hey, I respect the hustle.

And I do too. But for me, I really truly feel that we can do better. Do better. And my last thing I will say is, fuck those chairs. Stop the dick from the back, chairs. Yeah. All right. Enjoy Molotov.

This rant was sponsored by volume.com. As he's like saying like, fuck corporate media. This rant was fun. You're like, I'm sorry. All right, guys. Enjoy Molly Tuttle. Cody, that was a breath of fresh air. You're the fucking man. Hell yeah, dude.

You're going to be our inside source. There's like people who are like in like moles. Yes. Okay. You know how there's people who are like moles? Yes. You tell us what's going on. I'm a big motherfucking mole. Usually moles are anonymous, so he has to be something else. He doesn't need to be anonymous.

They won't know. Just the Packers hat. Just the guy's head talking about us in a bright yellow hat. Well, thanks for doing this the right way and not fucking... Thanks for helping spread the right message. Dude, we got you. We appreciate it.

This is a community, bro. Come on, people. Get a life. So get a fucking life, gatekeepers, and fucking... It's okay. Let everyone enjoy it. You can't just like hoard your favorite band.

Let everyone enjoy your favorite band. Billy Strings is not your girlfriend. Billy Strings is not your girlfriend. Yeah. Everyone else... Okay? Yeah. I know you probably masturbate to him

when you're alone in your mother's basement, but stop game keeping our friend. All right. Enjoy Molly Tuttle. Bye. Wow. I got so jacked up on that interview with the chair throwing guy.

I forgot to talk about our sponsors. Volume.com, guys. Yes. The best live stream company in the business. Volume.com, guys. Yes, the best live stream company in the business. Volume.com for all your live and content needs. If you're a creator, if you're a music creator, comedian, actor, we need to take the power back. These social medias are gatekeeping. I know very similar to what we were talking about, but they're gatekeeping content. And we need to take the power back, get our stuff on volume.com,

get all your stuff on volume.com. And if you're just a person who just likes to hear live sets and content, head to volume.com. All your favorite bands are on there. You might as well see what sets they have of your favorite bands. And then podcast fans, Andy Frasco page., page, we need to get all the likes. I'm about to announce our Patreon. We're going to basically do it for free, but you have to,

the people who are, who liked the page before we announced the Patreon gets it for free. Yes. Um, so head to volume.com slash Andy Frasco, hit that like button before we announced the Patreon. So you are dialed in to see what all this extra content we're about to announce. It's going to be amazing. I'm really excited. Alright guys, enjoy Molly Tuttle and I'll

catch you on the tail end. My heart is sad and I am lonely for the only one I love When shall I see him? Oh, no, never Till we meet in heaven above

All right. Molly Tuttle, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? Wow. Rock star. Just out here, just kicking ass for a good cause and writing great songs. It's an honor to... I don't think we've ever met. Or maybe we've met once, but... I saw your set at Hogs for a Cause like a few years ago.

Oh, God. And I saw you running around and it was awesome. Oh, yeah. But I don't know if we met. Maybe we said, yeah. But I don't know if we met. Maybe we said hi or something. I don't think we officially met. No. Well, let's get to know each other right now.

Yeah. I met your dad. I actually sat in with your dad. You did? When did you sit in with him? It was during... I was doing a show with Steve Pultz and your dad. Oh.

Yeah. Tell me about Palo Alto. You grew up out there? Yeah, I grew up in Palo Alto. My dad kind of moved there in the 80s. He grew up on a farm in Illinois, had a bluegrass family band growing up. My grandfather played the banjo.

My grandpa was a farmer and a huge bluegrass fan. They'd go see the Grand Ole Opry. They'd go to bluegrass festivals all over Illinois. And my grandma didn't play an instrument, but she was like a taper. We still have all her old cassettes of bluegrass festivals they'd go to. So she would tape everything. And so they loved bluegrass. And so my dad grew up playing and then moved out to the Bay Area because he kind of wanted to just get a change of scenery, get off the farm.

And he loved David Grissman, who was out in the Bay playing a lot. Tony Rice was out there and he thought that would be exciting. So he ended up stumbling into a music store in Palo Alto and they needed a banjo teacher. So for up until just a few years ago, he was teaching at Griffin String Instruments. It's a music store and they have these little rooms in the back where there's music teachers who go in and teach private lessons and some group classes every day. So he was doing that six days a week up until the pandemic when they stopped having teachers to kind of expand the space in the store.

And now he teaches online. But yeah, it's kind of like a random roundabout way to have grown up in Silicon Valley, but play bluegrass. And people are always asking me that. But I feel like I have to explain how it all came about. Yeah, my mom's a big music fan. She doesn't really play um music but she loves um bluegrass and roots music and that's how my parents met do they stereotype you like ah she's

from silicon valley she must be a rich girl you know like did you ever have to deal with any of those stereotypes but um yeah i do i kind of have to like to do a disclaimer. My parents are both teachers. I'm not going from millionaire family just because I'm from Palo Alto. I understand it's a very privileged place to grow up, though. Yeah. And I don't know. It's very passive-aggressive in California. I grew up in Southern California, but I went to school in San Francisco.

I always felt like it was very passive-aggressive about how they approached feelings and stuff. Were you picked on when you were a kid at all? What was your childhood like? It was funny because I grew up... I lost my hair

when I was a kid, alopecia. I wear wigs now a lot my hair when I was a kid, alopecia. And I wear wigs now a lot. But when I was a kid, I never did. So I found that California, people are so open. Everyone is open with their feelings almost in a passive-aggressive way. Exactly. People are always commenting. People would come up to me like, honey, I'm praying, no, I'm praying for you. I get that down South, but like, you know, just

trying to like have this connection with me as a small child, but like also making so many assumptions about me and just feeling free to kind of like say whatever and like, you know, say it in like a positive way, but still making kind of the same assumptions that I get anywhere. And then I remember taking a trip to like the East Coast when I was a kid and nobody, like, nobody bothered me about it. It was like just in California. I was like, I was constantly getting people coming up to me. Yeah. What's your take on judging a book by its cover? Yeah. Well, I think kind of going through that experience when I was younger just made me a lot more, at least trying to be aware of when I do that myself, because,

you know, I can't blame people for assuming anything about me, because I'm sure I've done the same thing with someone else. But it does try to make, made me like take a step back and really just kind of notice when I am judging someone based on their appearance or I hear someone um want to question it a little bit more and just be like you know we shouldn't we know someone's whole story um and you shouldn't really make assumptions based on what someone looks like yeah or like uh yeah I think what fucked us sorry'm cussing. I don't know if you cuss. I think what screwed us is social media. We have six seconds to judge someone's post. Right.

So we do that. We look at it. Oh, I get it all. And we move on. We move on. We move on. Maybe this ADD culture is reassessing how quickly we shoo things away or not. Yeah, totally.

Yeah. I know. I feel like it just, it's so gratifying in a way to just see one picture and like make a snap judgment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think about this too, because reading your story or the notes I have, it kind of feels like Partridge Family in a hair. Where you guys were a family band.

Did you fall in love with it or fall in love with music? Or were you forced to play it in the beginning? Tell me those first couple steps of you really deep diving and falling in love with songwriting and deep diving and falling in love with guitar. Yeah, I loved music as a kid. I remember being really little and just hearing my dad play and wanting him to play me the same songs over and over again. And I just loved listening to music. We'd have jam sessions or my dad would have friends over and they'd all play and I just loved listening to music. We'd have jam sessions or my dad would have friends over and they'd all play and I was always really interested in it. I tried to play the fiddle, but I don't think I ever had the attention span for that instrument

because when you first start playing, it sounds horrible. At least it did when I first started. So I didn't take naturally to that. And then I tried some piano lessons, but didn't love. I had like kind of a strict teacher who I didn't really love. And then, um, finally I asked for a guitar and then one day my dad brought home this little baby Taylor from his music store where he was, where he worked and, um, just started showing me simple chords casually. And that I really took to, because I liked that. It felt more like just this fun activity I could do with my dad.

And and yeah, I don't know. I just I knew I music was kind of like my big passion as a kid. I loved listening to music and playing it. And then my younger brothers, I think, saw me playing and made them want to do it, too. So then we all started playing together once we got a little older and and had played for a couple years um and then also my dad had some students who were the same age as me and my brothers we'd like get together with them make little bands play at like the local pizza parlor down the street and that was always really fun too it felt like i had my friends at school and

then i had this other life with these other friends right I was never into like sports or any other extracurriculars so that was kind of like my only thing yeah were you um was it easy for you to um like have friends or were you a homebody or did you like being alone more or like being with the family what was what was your personality like when you're a kid I always always had a couple really close friends. So I feel like I always had a best friend. I was never someone who was super gregarious in a big group setting. But I would have these really close friends I'd hang out with all the time. So I was social, but not like a social butterfly.

Did they play music? Like your close friends? Yeah yeah some of them did i remember like one of my best friends in middle school we would get together every day like anytime we had an off period or during lunch we would just run to the band room and we were playing just like green day rancid rage against the machine we were into like rock stuff and or like finding songs on youtube and trying to learn those so it was different from what i was playing like with my Rage Against the Machine we were into like rock stuff and or like finding songs on YouTube and trying to learn those so it was different from what I was playing like with my family but yeah I'm still on to have a best friend who I got to play music with yeah and like it's nice to have

your own life you know like I like I read your story like you're you're making a duet record with your dad at 13 like this is crazy Molly this is like did you feel like you were that comfortable on the guitar was your dad saying we should make this or like was that like are you like you and your dad are just so close that it was just like you just loved writing music together yeah we were always playing together and it was definitely my dad's idea to like make a little album together because he was I think it was like a fun project for him to get you know he like ordered mics on ebay he learned how to engineer and he would just kind of lay down like a rhythm track and then I would come in and do my part and sing and it was fun yeah I really enjoyed doing it we just did it like at home and um it was cool

like I haven't listened to it in a long time i'm like kind of scared to hear what it sounds like are you like that are you like i'm like that too i don't like i do not want to listen to my first couple records i'm like i don't even want to go back to those memories of puberty like definitely that was such like a cringy time yeah what did you not like about yourself during puberty oh i didn't like um a ton of stuff i didn't like you know i feel like i nitpicked how i look obviously the not having hair became like a bigger issue then because i was like well i was wearing hats all the time at school but i kind of want to start wearing wigs but i didn't want to just show up one day with a full head of hair and be like yeah you know it was scary um I didn't like that I felt a lot of I felt a lot of like social anxiety which I I still have but I've kind of like worked through

it but at the time it was like kind of overwhelming especially like in a group or like talking to boys I liked or whatever it was just i had a lot of um just feeling self-conscious about myself socially why do you think that was i'm like everyone in my family is or a lot of people in my family are pretty reserved and i think it's like partially just that and then um partially just like feeling uncomfortable at that age right right yeah like an instant in it was like i could if people knew people were into like playing music at school and then they knew that i played guitar that was kind of how i could like still make friends and feel cool yeah it's it's weird how how we departmentalize social anxiety because now look at you,

you're playing in front of hundreds, thousands of people. How did you get to that point from social anxiety to getting on the stage and being comfortable? Yeah, that took a pretty long time. I think I was early on, I remember feeling pretty comfortable playing on stage, but it took me a long time to feel comfortable engaging with the audience, being expressive on stage and telling stories, telling jokes. That took a lot longer than I feel like as a kid or growing up, I could stand on stage and play a song, but it was hard to really, um, do much more than that performance wise, I guess, if that makes sense. Yeah. It's, uh, yeah, it's so fascinating how we just like turn that. Cause like, are you still like, what about when you're in crowds of people not on stage? You still have that anxiety of, uh, like, I don't want to, you know, like that angst of not really want to talk to people? Or have you let go of that fear?

I feel like I've kind of let go of that. Well, one time I do feel like that is like, if I smoke weed, I get that. Me too. I can't smoke weed anymore. I can't do it in a crowd. That's the one time I still feel that way. Give me an example. Do you have a story of one time you smoked weed and then walked into the crowd and just like kind of froze

um there was one time i took an edible at a festival so we played like an early set and then we had a late night set at like 11 p.m yeah and i took an edible in between and then someone asked me to sit in with them and i said yes yes, and I had forgotten I'd taken it. I thought it was like going to be super mild. So I just kind of completely forgot and agreed to sit in with someone. It was not mild at all. And I was like having a total panic attack on stage. Oh my God.

My band escorted me. So usually I feel like if I sit in with someone I'd hang out and like say thanks or like thanks for having me afterwards I was like freaking out and my band was all watching me in the crowd they knew what was going on so they were laughing and that made me even more paranoid so they like walked around me like bodyguards to like we were in a sprinter and I just lay down in there for two hours because I couldn't be around people and I texted the person I'd sat in with and said that I felt sick oh my god he's like he just walked out like they're like they're probably like what the fuck this rock star doesn't even say bye she says just like walked out beast out but you're really like losing your mind dude I can. And now I would never do that. That was years ago. And I was like, never again.

That was absolutely horrible. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing. I, I didn't know how much edible I ate and I had to walk on stage and I had like, I felt like I had a heart attack.

I was like having a heart attack. I'm sweating. I was having a panic attack. Yeah. And like, you don't really like, did it start coming on right before you got on stage or like right when you got on stage? That's when it came on.

It was before too. Like we are kind of hanging backstage ready to go on. And I was like, oh, that's the worst. I can't even talk. That's the, I would, I would, I would, I would, yeah, that's, that will, that will retire me for any edible. Definitely learned my lesson there. Tell me about your relationship with your brother you know you guys are still close and all or does he still play music or what's what's

your relationship like with them yeah sully still plays his band aj lee and blue summit um they are playing all over the place so aj is someone we grew up playing with we were like it was like a family band plus aj so that was always confusing people we called ourselves the tumbles with aj lee which is like not a very good name but it was very self-explanatory with aj that's what it was called with aj lee we just she's a great singer mandolin player we met her at a festival and just kind of started playing shows and then it was going so well we started like booking booking festivals and stuff around when I was 15, 14. And so she now has her own band and my brother plays guitar in it, Sully. And so, yeah, he's out.

We like cross paths. We'll both be at Telluride Bluegrass Festival this summer. I see him out on the road. And then when we come home for the holidays or if I'm visiting California, I'll get together with him. And I love playing with him. He's great. He's such a great guitar player. And then I have a younger brother, Michael, who played mandolin in the Tuttle band.

And he doesn't play all that much anymore. He kind of went the more practical route of going into the tech scene. So easy. A real job. It's so easy to do that, right? When you're living out there. Yeah, totally. It was definitely a lot more he really wanted to

have some job security and me and Sully were more like, let's see how it goes. Do whatever. But yeah, he's great. you know, do whatever. Yeah. But yeah, he's, he's great. He still plays mandolin and he has started playing guitar

and entering contests on guitar, which he's had fun doing. But yeah, we play sometimes. Is it, is it competitive between you guys at all? Or like, do, is he like, how do they, how do I, I don't know how to say this.

Like if my brother or sister was in the same career I was, I would either be like kind of competitive or kind of angry if they get successful over me or whatever. Is there, is there any of that kind of animosity Between the siblings Like friendly competition To be the best you can be I don't think so I've never felt that way towards My brothers I know when we were growing up They would have like little contests

Where they would try to like play faster than the other ones Both of them ended up being able to play extremely fast But it was like Like kind of a very unmusical way to play together where they'd both be like playing the same song just trying to play it faster than the other one it's like no one's listening to each other the music's all about listening doing the opposite of listening to the other person you're trying to play over them um so that was kind of funny but i don't feel like we get super competitive and i saw like my brother did a interview with i think it was bluegrass

today which is like a bluegrass um website and it was so cute he kept saying how i was like his guitar inspiration growing up and i was like oh did he ever tell you that? No. He's proud. It's public knowledge now. Publicly stated. That's sweet. Did you message him and say, why didn't you tell me earlier?

We could have been bonding more. No, we had a family thread where my mom sent us all the articles. Oh, that's so cute. Oh, that's so cute. Oh, man. Tell me about your move. You moved to Nashville in 2015? all the articles. I'm like, oh, that's so cute. Oh, that's so cute. Oh, man. So what's, tell me about your move when, you know, you moved to Nashville

in 2015? Uh, yeah. So you moved to Nashville in 2015. What was that transition like? Did you have mentors helping you out throughout that?

Like, how was like, how was your band doing before you moved to Nashville or were you touring before that? Like, give me like the scoop right before you moved, youashville or were you touring before that like give me like the

scoop right before you moved you took the move to nashville yeah i wasn't touring a whole lot i was trying to get i would play like whatever gigs i could get i was just i didn't have a booking agent didn't have like a manager really and um so yeah when i moved to nashville it was kind of like starting from the ground up i had like you, played a fair amount just kind of around the Boston area and booked some festivals here and there. So I was trying and then I was also teaching music at music camps, go out and teach for a week. And I had some private lesson students to, you know, help me pay the bills. And I like I enjoyed teaching, too. So I moved to Nashville and

crowdfunded my first EP Rise that I made and then from there I started I think I got a booking agent after that so I'd been in Nashville for maybe a year or so before I really started um being able to tour and put a band together um so yeah it all kind of slowly built up um but when I moved to Nashville I felt like I knew people but I didn't like once I got there I was like whoa it all kind of slowly built up um but when i moved to nashville i felt like i knew people but i didn't like once i got there i was like whoa it's kind of hard to actually you know break in right the scene and you have to be super proactive about like going out all the time meeting new people following up when i moved to boston went to berkeley i felt like it was this instant kind of community that i fell into yeah i guess i was expecting that again, but we were no longer like in college and everyone was doing their own

thing. So it was harder. Took me a few years to really find my people. Yeah. What was, yeah, I didn't, I didn't realize you went to Berkeley.

So did you graduate or did you? Went for two and a half years. And technically I like, I did this thing called the artist diploma that my mom really wanted me to graduate. So this was kind of like a compromise where they have this program where you can, I did this thing called the artist diploma that my mom really wanted me to graduate. So this was kind of like a compromise where they have this program where you can, if you want to really just like go to music school, but maybe not get a bachelor's degree and get out there and perform instead. There's like a program they had at the time. I don't know if they still do it,

but it's basically, you can kind of choose whatever classes you want, stay for a couple of years, and then you get a diploma, but it's not really like a college degree. So I technically walked at graduation, but didn't complete the full thing. I'll clap to that. Let's go. Thank you. Let's go. I was talking to Kyle, too.

Kyle, I'm starting to get really close with Kyle. He was telling me I guess he lived in Boston too. Did you know him back then? I actually met him because he came to, I was at IBMA, so that's the Bluegrass Music Association they put on this week

where everyone goes to a conference-y thing for people who like bluegrass. I met him because my family was doing a showcase at it when i was a kid and you just basically you would just play in like a conference room of a hotel and hope that some booking agents or whoever would come in and see you and want to get book you for a gig um but kyle came and was like i'm a turtle and i play bluegrass so we met him that way um and then when i went to Boston, I think I

reached out to him cause he had gone, I knew he was at Berkeley and he was one of the people I knew in the Boston scene. So yeah, I connected with him once I got to Boston. Um, but he, I think he had already finished Berkeley. So I saw him around here and there. Um, and then, yeah, didn't. And then I think I moved to Nashville and then he ended up in Nashville too. So just kind of crossed paths with him for years um but i hadn't gotten to play with him too much until we started the band yeah it's so crazy how that like you were just like two ships passing in the night you both lived in boston you didn't really like kind of vibe with each other yet but like

then i didn't even know what that was even before that with the family band yeah yeah so i met him when i was a teenager i guess and then i guess i was still a teenager when i moved to boston and he just kind of like i think we maybe even played a gig or two together just at this local dive bar the cantab lounge in boston so i think i played with him here and there but like didn't didn't see him around all the time and then yeah just kind of wound up again both in nashville and that was the same with dom who's in my band he also went to berkeley i think a little before i did and he was kind of kicking around the boston scene then ended up in nashville bronwyn and i were both at berkeley at the same time and i think she's the only one in the band

who like finished the the full four years yeah it's so crazy how many how many musicians are coming from berkeley and like it's like everyone either had a year like no one's really graduated you know like and then when you graduate everyone calls you a nerd you know like oh man but it's just so fascinating then so you moved moved to Nashville, you're starting to get your feet wet a little bit. You started to get a booking agent and stuff. Who were like the people, like who are your friends that you're kind of growing your career with through those beginning years?

Yeah. So, um, when I first moved to Nashville, I lived in this woman's basement and her name was Nancy Cardwell. She was actually like the head of IBMA, but I was kind of far away from the people I was meeting. So I wanted to move to East Nashville.

Then I randomly went on Facebook and saw Billy strings posted. I just met him like briefly a couple of months before that. He was like me and Allie are looking for a roommate. Um, and so I moved in with them and that was awesome because it was like, not only did I get to you know see billy and then across the street was lindsey liu um and she was always like subletting rooms to other musicians there were always people crashing at either our house or their house so i went from kind of being far off and i was kind of like in madison but like

deep into madison where I'd have to get on like the freeway to get into town really. To all of a sudden I was kind of like in this central part where there were just musicians everywhere. So that's how I really like, suddenly then I could just walk across the street to like, they would have house concerts, bluegrass jams. Was Anders living out in Madison yet? I don't know. I don't think so I didn't know Anders until a few years ago So I'm not sure

Now everyone's moved to Madison At the time I was the only one in Madison It's like a little bluegrass cold out there now Like Vince Herman I know, now I'm like Dang, I should move to Madison All my friends are there now At the time Madison wasn't really where people were going.

Yeah, I think it like gentrified like recently, right? Yeah, and it's, I think it is kind of starting to get gentrified there. And then a lot of the musicians have kind of been pushed out of East Nashville. And then also there's like a few really cool places in madison like d's country these is great yeah so that's kind of brought people a lot of people so you you're living with billy and ally you had lindsey lou there too and this is how this is what i love about life you know and then kyle's now in love with lindsey it's just like i just love this whole this whole parallel of like when you find your people it's just like it's it sticks you know

and like so when did uh when so did billy start making money and then kick you out of the house or like what was that like when or did you like move out did you fall in love like did you get in a relationship? What was it like? Yeah. I think we all just kind of wanted to... I kind of wanted to get my own place. The house was falling apart. The day we moved out, it flooded.

The pipe burst. The basement flooded. There was black mold in the house. It was just a little bit of like a... It was kind of just like a house you have like a bunch of roommates like a frat house but not forever yeah you don't want to live there forever so they wanted their own place he was just getting like it was it was small too like we had too much we ended up having way too much stuff for this house and so yeah it just made

sense i think we maybe lived there for like two years and then um and then i got my own place they got their own place we were all still i think around the same area but um yeah it just kind of came to its natural conclusion oh and then also i think the people who own the house wanted to like renovate it or something so and then that was the beginning sadly of people not living on that street anymore because then lindsey ended up having to move out so now i don't know if musicians live there anymore but it was great while it lasted yeah i bet and then when did you when did you meet sierra hall i met her when i was like 11 what um again at ibma so like i don't know my story it's crazy dude it's like nerdy thing but um yeah i met her they would have this thing every year that um like it was called kids on bluegrass and it was so much fun because they would just bring kids from all over the country um to the conference yeah and

you would kind of work all week, like putting together the show. And so Sierra did it. I did it. I met Sarah Rose at that as well. And like a bunch of people I'm still friends with Jared Walker and Corey Walker, the Walker brothers who Jared plays with billion Cori's in East Nash grass.

And so it was, I remember feeling super intimidated cause I, I felt like all the other kids were like already like pro level musicians. And I was kind of like, you know, still figuring out what I was doing there. Um, but yeah, Sierra was so sweet. Even as a kid, I remember she just had this totally like mature personality. It was like a total shredder. And yeah, I met her there and then we kind of kept in touch and became better friends once I moved to Nashville because she had been here for a while already.

I got a question about that. When you feel intimidated, what made you keep going? You could have just quit when you saw all these like, oh my God, look at all these virtuoso people. I never gonna be that way did you have like a mentor did your dad help you like kind of like stay to stick the path stick the path or did you were you always just strong-willed as a kid i think it just like you know it kind of it felt like i felt like giving up sometimes and then you know i'd kind of get over it and just be like well maybe if I just practice even more each day I could I could be like that someday yeah um so yeah I guess it just kind of it made me determined in a way and it showed me what was possible like

it was also really inspiring to see um kids my age who are so um advanced on their instruments and just already writing these wonderful songs and really just kind of like getting started as like a full-fledged artist at such a young age so it was pretty inspiring and i think it was good for me to see what like kids from all around the country were doing and get out of my bubble a little bit yeah it's humbling too you know like you're like like you're in palo alto yeah i'm i'm a badass out here i'm just out shredding this and then you come out to this ibma i'm like oh i know and all the like nashville kids are like the national kids like

you molly i've been doing this since i was four years old so this is very fascinating to me from 2015, you moved to Nashville You do the Kickstarter For the seven songs, right? And then a year later, in 2017 You got a record deal? Yeah, yeah Yeah So what

Those two years of your career Was it like very fast Like oh my god, everything's happening really quickly Or was it like Thank god, I've been waiting for this moment my whole fucking life What was it like in fast like like oh my god everything's happening really quickly or it was like thank god i've been waiting for this moment my whole fucking life you know like what was it like in your head you know i think it always like it did feel kind of fast and i but at the same time it was like it's always felt like this kind of slow build for me anyway like i just feel like i've been

kind of working at this since I started playing and like writing my own songs and um but so much happened in like that couple years when I moved to Nashville I think when I moved to Nashville I was like I don't know if I can do this maybe I'll be here a couple years and then I don't know maybe I'll just like end up teaching music doing what my dad did um but at least got to try. And then those couple of years, I was like, well, I think this is possible. I can make it. Yeah, and I felt so supported by the bluegrass community.

And all of a sudden, I was like, oh, okay, people are recognizing what I'm doing. Right. What was a bigger accomplishment for you in your head was being the first woman to win Guitar Player of the Year or winning a Grammy? It's so hard to say because they both happened at different eras in your life.

Yeah. I mean, the IBMA was so special just because it was like... I was saying I grew up going to that and I remember going to the award show as a kid and and that felt like the grammys to me i would see like my heroes like tony rice would be there um allison krauss would be there it was so cool and um and so then to feel like lifted up by that community from like beginning to go there when i was 11 to then winning the guitar player award it was like

this is such a dream come true um and then the grammys was incredible because that's like the whole music world i love that voted on by your peers and um so it was like the same feeling but kind of like you know expanded in a way what more felt like the illuminati the uh bluegrass ibma scene or the grammys like what did you like what when you see that bigger level of like uh i don't know if the i've been watching a lot of uh twitter conspiracies so maybe yeah maybe the illuminati thing is not the word to say but like what felt more culty like uh, uh, is the harder to get into like the IB, I, the bluegrass club or like the Grammy club?

Ooh, I think I would have to go with the IBMA. It's like, yeah, right. I was good. I was going to say the same thing. They're kind of cutthroat.

Like you got to get in with, it's like a, it's a smaller, smaller scene, I think. Yeah. Well, Nashville's kind of cultthroat like you gotta get in with it's like a it's a smaller smaller scene i think yeah well nashville's kind of culty like that like it's very i don't know like i love it you know maybe just because i'm jewish i'm like one of the only jews that go out there and hang out but i feel like i go out there and sometimes like it took me like five or six years to actually finally get accepted into the nashville community you know it's like yeah it's i feel it's very your town and i think that's true i'm nine years now so i'm

like what's gonna happen in my 10th year oh you're about to like drink lamb's blood or something but what keeps you uh keeps on what keeps you uh i have a couple questions for you And then I'll let you get back to your day off I know we both only have a couple days off In this world What keeps you inspired To keep being great Oh

I mean I think for me I'm like I know that I feel like my Music is I think with each album I make I'm more proud of it And I feel like I music is, I think with each album I make, I'm more proud of it. And I feel like I still have so much left to do. I love all styles of music and I want to really explore what I can do with my skill set. My guitar playing, songwriting, singing.

I kind of felt like this reset after the pandemic where before that I didn't really know what I wanted to do next and then I was writing all these bluegrass songs I was like I really want to make some music that is so true to the music I grew up listening to and like my where my roots really are and now I'm kind of back in that place of like I just want to explore explore different styles different sounds and so I'm excited for making something that's fresh and like different from my last couple of projects. And hopefully it's my best, best thing yet,

but I'm back in that songwriting space, which I love. Cause it feels like there's so many like endless possibilities. Yeah, totally. I was, I was singing, I was talking with Bill about that.

Like the difference between practicing guitar and being in the mindset to have invest like i don't know i believe in like this vessel opening when you're songwriting you know it's like sometimes it's not there and then when it's there like you have to absorb as much of it as you can you know yeah for sure so what's uh what are you writing about what do you think about in your head right now that's uh that you're talking about in your songs oh um a lot of kind of well a lot of my songs are inspired by you know kind of like different places i've been right now i feel like last couple songs i wrote were really had kind of inspired by like the southwest which i find is such a cool area of

the country and then also just being on the road having that like wanderlust that i've always felt of like loving to travel yeah um yeah i write a lot with my partner ketch um i love honestly he's my favorite person on the planet dude yeah and he's been on your podcast he was telling me oh he's so brilliant i like How do you keep up? I mean, you're a brilliant person too, but that man is crazy. I know. He never slows down. It's crazy.

And I loved how he supported the gun violence. And that was really important to me to hear him talk about that. I love what you guys are like Jay and Beyonce of Nashville. It's so cool to see. No. It's so cool to see. Thank you, wow. No, it's really cool to see what it catch-teaches you about love and life and growing and keeping a career around. I feel like just having a partner who really believes in you, for me, brings out the best in me. A lot of the songs we've written together are things that I wouldn't have thought were even worth writing about. Like, we went and visited my grandma

on her farm. And then we came back and wrote like my song Flatland Girl about like, my grandparents farm and I just never thought like, like now looking back, I'm like, that is a cool story and like part of why I who I am. But stuff like that. I feel like he pulls out of me in a way what's he teach you about songwriting um a lot i think he's like such a great lyricist and he just has like an endless flow of ideas yeah kind of helped me you know open up to that a little bit more like i feel like i kind of get in my head sometimes when i'm writing yeah i'm a little like i have to like think about it a lot he's more kind of like spits out ideas and verbalize system so

i try to do try to be more like that too because i think that's helpful oh my god to have a scholar like that on your corner to like just make you feel comfortable with like blurring out just like random thoughts because like you've lived a crazy life too dude You really have You're very inspiring Molly And I just want to Keep speaking out Keep speaking out

Keep being the person we all know you can be So what do you like better Playing guitar or writing songs I think playing guitar comes more easily to me. But writing songs is really where I'm like, I feel like a song can reach so many people. That to me is like what I resonate with the most, is like hearing a lyric or like a melody that I just love and resonate with.

or like a melody that I just love and resonate with. Guitar, definitely I feel super, like there's a few good guitar players I absolutely love, but I feel like songs are just universal and it kind of speaks to more people in a way. Yeah, totally. I was always thinking about that. What was your first moment you finally said, I feel like I'm a good songwriter? What was the song?

I think I've been like, I don't know. I've always felt kind of like self-conscious about songs. But then when I made my record Crooked Tree, I felt like there was someone I felt really proud of like that my song Crooked Tree that I wrote with my friend Melody that one I remember when we wrote I was like hell yeah I love this song isn't that song about alopecia too? yeah it kind of is

and she's had like similar experiences too growing up she had scoliosis so like her back was crooked and she had to wear a back brace in school and so we both feel like crooked trees and that was kind of the first song i've tried so hard to write a song about my experience with alopecia and that was the first one i wrote where i was like i'm really proud of this it's this is kind of like sums up a lot of why i think music is important why i i want to keep getting out there and playing shows and performing, spreading, spreading the message.

Yeah. And don't do it. If you're burnt out, you tell the managers and labels that you need some time off, Molly, we don't want you to burn out. I'm going to take my own advice as well. Yeah. We all need to take,. I tell that to Bill, too. I feel like he's really chilling out now. He's taking a lot more time off this year and stuff. Oh, that's great.

I'm really happy that he's doing that. He's worked insanely hard. Oh, my God. I was so worried for him the last two years. I'm like, bro, you are working crazy hard right now. Yeah. Yeah. But I think about that with you, too, Molly. I see you everywhere, too. You're out there in the streets just getting out now. Yeah. Yeah. But I think about that with you too, Molly.

I see you everywhere too. You're out there in the streets just getting out there. Yeah, the world. It's just so hard. The music industry just takes so much out of you. And if you're not willing to do all the work, they're just going to find someone else. And that's what I think is fucked up.

They just spit you out when you're done working. That's why we got to take care of our mental and take care of each other. Yeah, totally. We'll start our own cult, other. We'll start our own cult, Molly. We'll start our own cult, Molly. So I was always thinking this. What kind

of advice would you give a young person who has alopecia? Ooh. I think, well, I would just say don't be too hard on yourself. And it does take a long time. Like, people sometimes with alopecia will tell me, like, how did you get to be so confident with it?

Or, like, how did you become so, like, accepting of this? And I think, in a way, was fortunate that um it happened to me when i was so young i was three and now i'm 31 so people might think like i'm super i'm like totally fine with this but i've had no harrison for like 28 years i guess yeah it took me until my 20s to even start like you, you know, I went to therapy for a long time. I, I took like extreme baby steps of just like emailing someone and saying, like emailing my college roommates and saying like, by the way, I have alopecia. That was like a big deal to me when I was 19 or telling a close friend was super scary for a while.

Or telling a close friend was super scary for a while. And then I would just kind of like go somewhere by myself without wearing a wig like where nobody knew me. That was scary. So every kind of step I took, it gave me so much confidence, but it was like absolutely terrifying and hard to get myself to do. So I think like slowly chipping away at it, it doesn't have to be like a linear path. Like there's still, you know, days where I'm like, I want to wear a wig today to go to the grocery store. I don't want to like go out, um, without it. And I think that's fine too. There's no, there's no shame in any of it. There no shame in wearing a wig there's no shame in not wearing a wig um doing anything in between um but yeah and then just like having fun with it too yeah make

jokes about it be light-hearted have fun like it does open up more style oh yeah you can be whoever you want dude i just have this afro. I'm fucked. Halloween costumes are endless that you can do. Oh, my God. Yeah, you crush Halloween. Oh, I bet you crush Halloween. I bet you just crush it at Halloween. Yeah, so I think just remembering that there's a fun side to it, too. And it doesn't have to be so serious.

Yeah, we're always so worried about the things we don't have. We should be worried about the things we have Yeah, totally Molly Tuttle, you've been a breath of fresh air Thank you so much for being on the show Thanks for having me Hopefully we could hang out I'm in Nashville all the time

Maybe we could all catch a beer or something I would love that We won't eat edibles, we don't want panic attacks I feel very I'm glad to meet someone else who feels the same way. Oh, God, I will never, ever do it again. I had to call, I took, I had a panic attack, taking an edible. I had to call my friend just to, like, lay in bed with me and, like, just, like, I just, I just want you to check my heartbeat every couple, I'm, like, freaking out, dude.. I'm like, damn, we're strong.

All right, my last question, Molly, and I'll let you go. When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? Ooh, I think just my music. I hope people continue to listen to my music for, I don't know, after I'm gone. I hope it still kind of connects with people. Um, yeah, I love it.

Molly, keep doing, keep doing the Lord's work. Keep, uh, keep, uh, keep falling in love with my boy.

He's the best. He's the best. He honestly, he is the best. And tell him I say hi and, uh, keep the dream alive. And I'll talk to you soon.

Thanks. Yeah. Talk to you soon. Thanks. Yeah, talk to you later. Later Molly. You tuned in to the World Saving Podcast with Andy Fresco. Thank you for listening to this episode. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo and Chris Lawrence. We need you to help us save the world and spread the word. Please subscribe,

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next week.