Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 323: Marc Broussard

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

In this episode of Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast, Andy and Nick talk with the legendary Marc Broussard about super fun topics like almost dying at jazz fest, panic attacks on airplanes, and getting dropped from your record label. We also have a brand new sponsor--Gardenista! 0:17 Introduction to Mark Broussard 1:18 Gardenista  3:37 Mark's Career Journey 4:21 Interview with Mark Broussard 5:18 Jazz Fest Dehydration Incident 7:12 Panic Attacks and Insights 11:00 Fear of Flying 14:39 Touring Australia 16:58 Meeting Music Legends 17:20 Early Career and Success 23:26 Writing "Home" 27:03 Family and Personal Life 37:01 The Atlantic Records Experience 42:18 Reflections on Record Deals 52:48 Staying Grounded in Music 59:45 Life Lessons and Legacy 1:07:31 Reflections on Personal Goals 1:09:28 Conclusion and Goodbyes FOLLOW/LISTEN TO ANDY FRASCO Bio Link: https://ffm.bio/andyfrasco Website: https://www.andyfrasco.com/ Store: https://andyfrasco.merchtable.com/ Tour Dates: https://www.andyfrasco.com/tour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andyfrasco Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndyFrascoBand/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANDYFRASCO TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andyfrasco Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4scyTeRfyqCWVATfPP7SGu Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/andy-frasco-the-u-n/396604446 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyFrasco Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B006WG8SE6/andy-frasco-the-u-n YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCLwhjKEWIzZD1O23MsaAPUA Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/andyfrasco Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/artist/5073038 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/5119076 Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/artist/andy-frasco-and-the-un/ARc7zfj9c7nb7jg Songkick: https://www.songkick.com/artists/5390528-andy-frasco-and-the-un Bandsintown: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/4960740-andy-frasco-and-the-u.n.

Wow, we're live. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. I'm with Nick Erlach. Hey, Nick. Hey, how's it going? How's it going? It's good. Mark Broussard. We just interviewed Mark Broussard. Handsome guy. Fucking handsome.

Really like his composite. I do too, I mean what a fucking story. If y'all don't remember Mark Broussard, hey Chris, play Mark Broussard, play that big hit he had when we were younger called Home. This was one of my favorite guys. He was chill as hell. When I was in fucking middle school,

it was Gavin DeGraw and Mark Broussard. Was Gavin DeGraw that's like, I don't wanna be your thing Yeah. Other than what I'm That's like that song I fucking hate. I liked his other stuff like Chariot, that whole Chariot.

Yeah, but that was his like hit, right? Yeah. Well, they all grew up. It was Maroon 5, Mark Broussard. What a funny. Fucking John Mayer, The King of the. Gavin DeGraw and Mark Broussard. I felt like Mark Broussard. What a funny. Fucking John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw, and Mark Broussard. I felt like Mark Broussard was like the outside, he didn't blow up like that.

Yeah, right. But he was the best one out of all. He's one of the, I thought he was the best one out of all of them. Probably, I'm not a big Maroon 5 guy. Yeah, so you're gonna love this interview. We're just gonna do it quickly. Gardenista, ooh. Oh, we're doing that. Here we are, Gardenista. We're just gonna do it quickly. Gardenista, ooh.

Oh, we're doing that. Here we are, Gardenista. Delicious. Delicious. I'm hearing. Grab a cocktail. This has green juice in it, people. Green.

I feel healthy when I'm drinking it. Anything green, as you know, is good for you. Anything green's good for you. Green Kool-Aid, Sour Apple, Starburst. Drinking the green water out of the River of Chicago. There you go. On St. Patty's Day. You get it. I mean, you get the good minerals.

But this is actually real green. It's real juice. Now with real green! Now with real green! Yeah, go grab it. Gardenista, it's my boy's company. I like the name. They're gonna be sponsoring the podcast.

They are our new sponsor, so shout out. Oh. And actually it's something I really like. You know me with my drinks, you know? You do love to drink. I do like to drink. I like drinks. But I've been liking cocktails more,

and this is a cocktail. Preaching the choir on that. I'm like starting, after we've been hanging out at the Yacht Club, I've been fucking loving a cocktail. Yeah? And I think I'm just getting older too. I been hanging out at Yacht Club, I've been fucking loving a cocktail. Yeah. And I think I'm just getting older too. I've always preferred them to a beer.

I don't need to be fucking smashing six shots anymore. I need to have just one cocktail. A shot is a cocktail, it's just a super fast cocktail without the mixer, right? God, I love when you're fucking smart like that. So hot. It's really what it is though, right? Yeah.

Yeah, so you're just enjoying it instead of. So head out, head there, go check it out, Gardenista. We love it. Dude, we love it. I haven't tried it yet, but I know I'm gonna love it because it's a drink and it's green. Yeah, and like they have different flavors. There's a spicy one.

There's a spicy tequila with green juice. There's a green juice whiskey who you think... Also it's different kinds of alcohol. Yeah, and a green juice vodka. So you'd think that, you know, Also, it's different kinds of alcohol. Yeah, and a green juice vodka. So you'd think that the whiskey and the green juice don't really work, but they actually fucking work. Whiskey mixes a lot better with stuff

than you think it does, I mean. Yeah, it does. Pickle juice? I've been realizing that. You ever had whiskey and pickle juice? Oh, I love it. I mean, I'll rip a Jameson and a pickle back like I'm drinking milk.

Clears the palate. Clears the palate. The pickle juice does. Hell yeah. But then you know, the OG, you gotta do the fucking green juice vodka. That one's just fire. That just sounds perfect.

Just fire. All right, so go grab that. I'm gonna see you drinking that at my new hotel in Colorado. And volume.com, head out. That's what we have Mark on the show for. We're talking about his career, which was fucking fascinating. Very interesting.

Dropped twice by two major labels. Also signed twice by two major labels. Also signed big record deals by both labels. You gotta get signed to get dropped. That's very true. Speaking of that, I love you on RPM, do not drop me. That's yours? Yeah, on RPM.

That's slow. Yeah, on RPM. That's slow. Yeah, very slow. Alright guys, enjoy Marc Broussard and we will catch you on the tail end. Yeah. See you later. Bye. Mr. Marc Broussard, how are you, sir? Hi, Andy. Let's just get right into it. I already like this guy.

What'd you find? We're getting right into it. What'd you find? We're getting right into it. What'd you find? Search on X for Andy Frasco. Ruby waves 555 five days ago. He's scum. Damn. He's scum.

They must know you personally. Weird, I went on that Trump website. I Googled Mark Bursard. They're like, we love him. We love him so much. That is X. What are you talking about? X.com, that's the Trump website.

Oh yeah, we're, we're, we're. Hey Mark, how we doing buddy? How are you buddy? I'm good, I'm good. First of all, we gotta get right back into this. What happened at Jazz Fest? Severe dehydration was the diagnosis. Holy shit, like what, give me your sentence, like what was going on? Were you overworking? Jazz Fest overworks

everybody. Man, it started raining right before we went on and then it got hot, like real hot, and first song in, like if I just had to push at all, if I had to push vocally at all, it felt like I was about to pass out. And so first song in, I pushed a little bit and during the guitar solo I go over to my guitar player who's also my tour manager and I say, I think I'm about to die. And he's like, what do you want to do? And I said, I don't know. And every song after that, anytime I was pushing hard, I felt like I was about to pass out. Oh, my god, dude. It took everything in me to make it to 40 minutes. It was an hour set, but I made it to 40 minutes. And I knew that the last few songs on the set list

were gonna require me to push really hard. And so I said, yeah, I gotta call it. And I immediately went backstage to the people at the check-in desk backstage, and I said, I need to be evaluated by medics. Medical came over, the EMS came over, you know kind of asked me what my symptoms were and I told them what was going on and they were like, ah we think you're just a bit dehydrated. So I tried orally hydrating for the next three hours or so backstage and I still felt really

off. Went to the medical tent, got some fluids and an IV, and immediately felt a thousand times better. Holy shit, dude. That's the story. Oh my God, so. At least it ended well. Damn, you, yeah, panic attacks. Like when you're going through that thing,

your brain starts telling you you're dying, you're dying. Like how do you like, how do we convince our brain that we have to like check everything? But like, it's also fucking scary, dude, because you don't want to die in front of people, or maybe that's how you want to go, you know? I don't know, I do not want to go on stage. Unlike Colonel Bruce Hampton, I do not want to go on stage.

I want to go peacefully in my sleep. But I am really grateful for panic attacks because the handful that I've had over the years have given me pretty solid insight into what my wife goes through on a daily basis. She's suffered from panic attacks for the entirety of our relationship. And for years I didn't, like I really didn't think it was a real thing until I had my first panic attack and I was like, oh my God, this is what this girl is going through.

So, you know, on one hand they suck, on the other it gives me the kind of perspective that I need to be as compassionate as I can be for my wife. Right, what about, did you drive your ass to the hospital while you're having a heart attack? I go, what happened? No, so I've had, every panic attack that I've ever had,

or at least prior to Jazz Fest, was on the red-eye flight from Los Angeles. I would finish up a tour. We'd be going crazy for two weeks on the West Coast. I'd finish the tour, finish the show in Los Angeles, drive straight to the airport, jump on a flight. And once that flight takes off over the Pacific Ocean and starts to bank really hard to make it back onto the land, I would freak out.

Freak out greatly. Me too, dude. It was one time, yeah, it's a terrible, awful thing that happens. There was one time I thought I was good, because at some point I thought it was psychosomatic know I thought I'm just having these things on this flight every time I leave the West Coast and at one point I was sitting next to my drummer my then drummer who was also my tour manager at the time and I'm 45

minutes into the flight and I'm thinking I'm great. And all of a sudden I look up to call the flight attendant and all of a sudden the tunnel vision comes in. Oh, he calls her over. She brings this basket of snacks and whatnot. And, uh, I remember saying, what is that? Like looking at this basket of snacks, I just said, what is that? It's a, it's not a fun feeling. saying, what is that? Like looking at this basket of snacks, I just said, what is that? Oh my God, dude.

It's not a fun feeling. And the first time it's ever happened on stage, I've had a few events on stage over the years. There was a show that we did outside of Atlanta years ago where my vision got all weird and it looked like I might be having a slight stroke. But having those kinds of events on stage is never fun, for sure. What is it about flying that makes you become fearful?

Well, I think it's the law of averages, to be quite honest with you, you know, the more you fly, the higher the probability that something bad will happen. Yeah, fuck, don't tell me that. And that's always fresh on my mind. I'm still really low. Still really low.

Still super low. I just got out of my fear of flying. It's still way lower than a car. Yeah, true. Yeah, obviously way lower than a car. But nonetheless, the law of averages states that, you know, at some point, the chances of something happening are higher than not. I fly a lot. I fly more than most, as we all do. And yeah, I used to love it.

I used to sit in that chair. I remember Louis CK had a bit about flying and about people getting pissed off when they didn't have wifi and how miraculous it was to be in a chair in the sky. I used to love it. And now I fricking hate it and now I freaking hate it man. That's so weird you said that because I just got an alert from Twitter that says

the reason why you actually passed out because you're beating off in your... They're like where am I? You finally just came and you finally relaxed. I was thinking the snacks thing. I've definitely looked at a big basket of snacks and been like, what is that? But for different reasons. What I have a problem with with flying is the control thing. I'm not in control.

What about you? Is it a control thing? No, I don't think it has anything to do with that because I have no desire whatsoever. In fact, I flew in a buddy of mine's Cessna not to, about a year ago, we went to a hunt and lease in Arkansas. And as he's accelerating on the runway,

he's like, hey, grab that joystick on your right. I ended up taking us in the air and I hated it. I hated every single moment of being in control of that fucking thing. I feel like La Bamba, dude. Or like when you're driving the van and there's 10 people behind you watching you drive. It's the worst.

It's the worst. It's the worst. I have no problem relinquishing control. There was a flight, a red eye that I took from Portland a few years ago and I popped 100 milligram gummy right before we got on. I didn't realize it was a hundred and I ended up fainting and urinating myself. Sick.

That was not fun. That's not fun. So yeah, no, no, no, I'm done with the gummies. I'm done with the weed in general. Yeah, even on flights, man, like sometimes, like I used to eat gummies and I just took one that was way too strong and I had the biggest panic attack. Every time there's turbulence at a two mark,

I would write these letters to myself, like this is it, I'm dying. And I'd write these like goodbye letters every time there's turbulence. It's just a speed bump. Just a speed bump in the sky, guys. I know. But I'm more scared about flying over water.

A goodbye letter to yourself? I'd write goodbye letters to myself, hopefully that it goes into the cloud that people could see it or something. I don't know. So it's to them. Well, it's like a goodbye. Yeah, flying over water is never fun. Tell my mom I love you about that. Okay. I just did the Australia trip for the first time.

How was that? 17 and a half hours on the way there from Dallas to Australia. And I didn't sleep a wink. I didn't sleep at all. Just like, cause of nerves, like you're just a nervy, like anxiety or. Just cause I couldn't fucking sleep, you know, I'll binge watch. What's the show it's called the day of the Jackal. Really good show, by the way. What about, um, how how does, how does like, were you like sugarman or like, you know, you'd never been there and all of a sudden you're there and you're just like a fucking huge success. They've been waiting for you to come.

You know, where's my heart? It was a very successful trip. It really was. In fact, I hired a keyboard player from Australia to play with us for those shows. A guy named Clayton Doley. His brother recently went viral. I forget his brother's name. Lackey. Lackey Doley. What a name. He plays Clavinet. He plays like a whammy bar Clavinet. Oh yeah like George D. He went viral for doing that. Yeah. But Clayton killed it. I mean he absolutely destroyed it for us. He was probably the best keyboardist that I've ever hired. What are the crowds like over there? They like punk rocky, like kind of like Europe

crowds or they more like American crowds or like what? Man, we did a show on a Monday night and as Monday nights go, it was pretty mellow crowd in Melbourne. And then we did a Wednesday show in Sydney that was a little bit better attended and a little bit rowdier. And then we did Byron Bay for a couple of nights. So yeah, I mean, for going over there for the first time, it was a massive success.

Yeah. Tell people about Byron Bay. I've heard so much about this festival. It sounds so rad. It's like, it's a blues festival. Man, they put us up at a resort on the beach. Sick. It was not quite White Lotus level,

but pretty fucking nice. Yeah, I bet it. And then, you know, it's like any really popular festival. You got 20,000 people in attendance. You know, you do your best to kill it as best you can. And we had two shows. I did get to meet, I ran into Steve Lukather at the resort. Oh, nice. He's the best.

I read his book and I thought his book was fantastic. So it was really nice to run into Steve Lukather. Yeah, man. I used to record at his studio, Stakehouse. That was my first ever record. And his son is my age. So I always thought he was like a Nepo baby, but actually- What's the son's name? I forgot. What's his name? I don't know. He's a musician. I always thought he was a Nepo baby,

but like I grew up in Calabasas where I think everyone's a Nepo baby, but he was actually pretty fucking nice. He was actually really nice. And Lugather's awesome in that. And Lugather seems like a cool motherfucker. I never really got to kick him. He's cool in that Yacht Rock documentary.

He's a bad boy, first of all. The motherfucker plays his ass off. Right to my ass. Dude, he's a right ass. He also went to, like him and the Pecaro brothers went to high school together. Holy shit. It's three of the baddest motherfuckers on planet Earth

that just ended up in high school together. It closed my mind. It's crazy. I wanna talk about the early career, Mark. I know a lot of people know who you are, but for my fan base, you're one of the, that first record, you and Gavin DeGraw were my first songwriters that got me

into just writing soul music. Tell us about how it was a fast, it was a fast, like everything seemed to be happening so quickly during that record. How was that? What, tell me a little bit about that and who you signed with and like what happened?

And it just felt like that shit happened so quick when it was five, lightning in a bottle. Yeah, it did. So I came in on the last bit of the wave that John Mayer kind of created for us singer songwriters. John Mayer kind of created for us singer-songwriters. It was me, John, Jason Mraz, Gavin McGrath, and a handful of others that kind of came in on that last wave where record sales were still a thing. I got started because of a woman that was from my hometown here in Lafayette, Louisiana,

but who made her bones in the music business. She, as a swan song, sort of, came back to Lafayette to open the first sushi restaurant here in town back in like 2000. And I graduated high school in 2000. I kind of left the scene here for a little bit. And then I got a call from a guy named Ross Dupre and said, hey, come open for this band of mine in Lafayette. And I just kind of opened for the band with a chronological order of the songs that I had written. Where was the show? Meanwhile.

Sailor Moon or the Moon Palace or what's it called? No, this is a venue called the Bank back in the day. Cool. She was at her restaurant up the road, Leah is her name, and all of our employees were saying, you got to go check this kid out. She missed my set, she ended up showing up late. name and all of our employees were saying, you got to go check this kid out.

She missed my set. She ended up showing up late. I took her out to the park a lot and played three songs that I had. She gave me her phone number and said, give me a call next week. And, uh, I called her up and she said, I'm flying you to Los Angeles. She flew me out to Los Angeles on January 27th of 2002. And she had the kind of stroke to call up guys like Lenny Warnaker and Tom Wally, Gary Gersh on the way to their offices and say, Hey, I'm hoping to come by.

And they were like, yep, come on by. We literally would show up unannounced. I'd play them the same three songs that I played for her. What songs were they? And a song called The Wanderer. I remember that. I don't remember what the other songs were, but I didn't have anything more than that. I had no product.

I had no ticket sales history or anything like that. So that trip ended on February 3rd. The night before I was to fly home on February 3rd, I called my mom and dad to tell them how cool the week had just gone. And my mom says, by the way, your ex girlfriend called, she wants you to call her. So I call my high school sweetheart and she tells me that she's pregnant for her first child. Hold on, hold on. Jesus Christ. Yeah. So I immediately think that Leah's going to lose interest in pursuing anything further. How old were you? I was 20.

Oh my fucking God, bro. I was 20. Oh my fucking God, bro. And I get home, I'm assuming that I'm gonna go get a job on an oil rig somewhere, marry the girl that is about to have my first child, and play music on the weekends like my dad did. Oh my fucking God. Did it break your heart?

Tell my parents. Yeah, I mean, you know, nobody bit. Like when I got home, Lenny Warnaker and Tom Wiley and Gary Gersh and all the people that we met out there, they said, hey, he's talented, but there's nothing there. Like we don't have any real history to base signing him on. So he's gonna need a little more history. So nobody bit on that trip.

I figured, I'm gonna get a job offshore. I called up Leah and said, hey, thanks for the trip, but my dad is gonna produce a record for me. And she says, okay, let's do it. And ended up founding a record label specifically for me, sending down a guy named Marshall Altman to produce my first EP. He produced that subsequent album as well for Island Def Jam. But by the time my first EP came out in September of 2002, I was, you know, we

moved like more than a thousand people through the building and Island Def Jam had sent down an A&R gal by the name of Diana Fragnito to come and see that show. I was already signed to a management firm out of New York called Brickwall and the rest is kind of history. I was signed to Island Def Jam pretty shortly after that. And Karen Crowe came out. We sold maybe 300,000 records.

I was on tour with Maroon 5 because management had favors. So my managers at the time had co-managed John Mayer, who had given Maroon 5 an opening slot. Maroon 5 an opening slot and so Maroon 5 owed them a favor, gave me a shot at opening for them and we were off to the races. Okay I got a lot of questions of when the, on the off of the races. When you're making this record with Home on it and another Rainy Day in Georgia, it's at the song called... Long Night in Georgia. That's my fucking, that is my song, Mark. That I fucking, oh man, I hear you.

I'm like, damn, this guy must get some pussy, dude, cause that song is fucking. He does, he's got a four kids. He's got like, yeah, he's got a hundred kids over here. But- He's got proof. Home was that huge hit, right? When you were recording that, did you feel, did you know that was gonna be a hit like that?

Like, tell me the process of Home. Man, so Home was a song that my father actually originated. My dad is a really gifted guitar player, and he had originated an instrumental version with that guitar riff that he called The King of the Blues years prior. The day that I wrote Lonely Night in Georgia in Nashville, I wrote it with a buddy of mine named Dave Barnes.

I had to call the session short because I had to make it to Atlanta to go open for Martin Sexton. My dad drove up from Louisiana, I drove over from Nashville, and my dad was my accompanist for that show. I remember getting to the gig, meeting Martin for the first time.

I was a huge Martin Sexton fan at the time, and I was so excited about playing him this brand new song called Lonely Night in Georgia. And so I play it for him, but it was missing a bridge. We played Atlanta that night. We played Birmingham the next night. We get to the gig in Birmingham and I see him working on a yellow legal pad backstage and I said, what you, what are you working on?

And he says, I think I got a bridge for that song. I think it's singing for me. I fucking love it dude. And he sings me the bridge and it's obviously perfect. The next day we're, my dad and I are driving back home to Louisiana on Interstate 59. And I don't know, not far out of Birmingham, he says, hey, remember that guitar riff thing that I got? Bum, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,

yeah, so yeah. He says, what do you think about this? Rolling down the road, going nowhere, guitar packed in the trunk. And he kind of looks at me goofy like that. And he was kidding around, but I thought it was one of the coolest things that he had ever done. And I didn't want him to know how cool I thought he was at the moment. That's actually weird though too, because your dad is a musician.

You're starting to pop off. Was there like this tension between or jealousy of you a little bit? No, no, my dad is a really good dude. He realized pretty early on that I had surpassed the things, I mean, he got off the road when my oldest brother was born back in 1978 or whatever.

He had only ever really done cover band kind of stuff when I was growing up. So, you know, he realized pretty early on that I had kind of blown past what whatever he was able to accomplish in his life. And it was done with no jealousy whatsoever. He was always very, very supportive. He's a jazz head. He loves instrumental jazz. I mean, I heard Chick Corea almost every single day in the house. Sick.

He's got a couple of George Benson signature guitars hanging on the wall. And I got to walk in the door with a George Benson cover of my song, a song called Coming From the Cold that Georgia ended up covering back in, I don't know, 2006. So yeah, my dad's always been very, very proud. Okay, so wait, did he get points on the song? Yeah, oh yeah.

Okay, just making sure. No, he makes... All right, let's clap to that. You're a good guy, Martin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So no jealousy. No jealousy, no jealousy. Sorry.

But my question- No, he makes a few thousand dollars on that song every year because somebody inevitably on either The Voice or American Idol covers that song every single season. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so, all right, now you're hoarding this beautiful, like, damn, my dad made this fucking, this is crazy.

So you're like kinda playing it loose, like, hey, that's not bad, man, that's not bad, that's not bad. But you know in your head, this song is a fucking banger. So tell me the process now. Now, what's in your head to record this thing? Well, I'm in the studio. We're at a spot called El Dorado in the valley. Yeah.

And there's a song that I absolutely hate on the album called Where You Are. And the label fucking loves this song. Fuck. It always goes like that. Why does it always go like song. It always goes like that. Why does it always go like that? It always goes like that. They're like, this is the first single and I'm like, no it ain't. Home is the first single.

Home is definitely a much better representation of what I do and they're like, no, where you are. So they're sending out people, you know, they're sending out their regional radio reps, picking up program directors, whining and dining them. And my regional radio rep is bragging about this song, Where You Are, all fucking night long. They show up to the show and we just refuse to play it. I fucking love that. Oh yeah.

I fucking love it. I remember doing morning television in New York City. It was a national TV We were supposed to play home and where you are. Yeah, and We play home Everybody from the record label is there my managers are there. I can see them all through the glass And as we come back from break Where was it? I Was like ABC. Oh, oh like oh shit, I don't know. It was like ABC.

Oh, oh. Oh, like, okay. Oh shit. They're watching me like, watching the surgery. Yeah, yeah. There's our little man playing his song while we make money for him. Yeah.

Ha ha ha ha. Playing the wrong single. Playing the wrong single because he's outlaw. We play home and then we go to commercial break and we come back from commercial break and the anchor's like, and once again, here's Mark Rusard with Where You Are.

And as she's saying that, I turned to the band, I said, play Rock Steady. Yes, that's a great song. You sure? I said, play Rock Steady. That's a great song too. And I remember the downbeat of Rock Steady. I see all the label people and the managers

all peeling off one by one. They're just getting the fuck out of there. Oh no. I think I would play it a little differently nowadays. You know, I would play the game a little differently maybe, but back in those days, it felt like I just needed to assert, like just to let them know, like, you don't have the power over me that you think you do. Whether or not that was a good idea I don't know but... Do you think they lost steam after you did that?

They definitely lost steam. 100%. Understatement. All the accountants didn't like that song. Yeah, they didn't like that. But Home was a pretty big hit, wasn't it? Yeah, so it was, but it was a follow-up hit that didn't have that real promo push that Where You Are did. It was sort of a, you know, a last ditch effort to try and salvage that album. Oh man.

Again, I would play it a little differently nowadays. I would too. It's like, that's the thing, like, you know, like I'm play it a little differently nowadays. I would too. That's the thing, I'm having these label calls and I know, even with the radio team, I thought this one song, Try Not To Die, should have been where they put all their money into. And he's like, no, we should do crazy things. And in my heart, I was like, I know this, Try Not To Die, I've had viral videos on this throughout the whole process. And I kept my mouth shut just to be a good player.

And now we blew our fucking radio money on this song that didn't get steam. So like how, I think you're right on that. And you do have to stick your gray on as an artist. But like how hard is it, these guys are These guys are fucking the egos, you know? No one knows your music better than you. Right, or you, how do you wanna approach your music? It's like, but also you were young as fuck, Mark.

And you probably didn't like authority. You're probably a badass, you know? Wants control unlike the airplane. Unlike the airplane though, Mark. Yeah, man, it was, you know, first of all, my management team back then, I was with a management firm called Brick Wall Management, which the name says everything.

Brick Wall Management. That's hilarious. You ain't getting nowhere. You ain't getting nowhere. And they were definitely very authoritative. They definitely had their opinions. Neither one of those guys are musicians at all, but they had very strong opinions about music. Uh, that is really never a good scenario.

None of the people at the record label. I mean, look, Lior Cohen signed me. He signed me twice. I signed with Lior at Island Def Jam, and then I signed with him subsequently at Atlantic Records. And in both instances, Lior's influence over the process was nonexistent until the record was done. And then he had like massive opinions about how things should go.

Do you like that process? I hate it. Every, come on man, every single record deal goes exactly the same way. You ask the artist, you ask the artist in the first six months of the deal, hey, how's it going? And they all say, oh, it's great.

It's fantastic, I love it. You ask them a year later and they all say, oh man, we're looking for the exit. Yeah. We're looking for the exit. How many? They all go the same way. Yeah, so how many record deal was the Def Jam one?

So I signed with Island Def Jam at 20, we made Karen Crow, then the entire C-suite left, Lior and everybody under him left. That's what was happening, right? Because of the digital era? Yeah. They were just firing everyone left and right. Yeah, so LA Reid lost $100 million at Arista Records

and then subsequently becomes the CEO of Island Def Jam. Fuck, doesn't make any sense. He comes in on my sophomore effort. We made a really great album, I thought, but he said that it was too urban and he wasn't gonna put it out. So he shelved it. I asked to be let out of the contract.

They acquiesced without letting me take the record that I just recorded. And- They shelved it? You didn't- They shelved it. You couldn't buy it back? Did it ever come out?

Like is it still shelved? No, no, it was still shelved it? You didn't buy it back? Did it ever come out? Like is it still shelved? No, no it was still shelved. I ended up re-recording a few of those tracks but the plan was to go back into the studio immediately because I was like three years out from the release of Karen Crowe and promoters were like, hey, you don't really have anything to promote. We don't necessarily want to book you. So the decision was made to go into the studio and record a covers album. And that was SOS 1. I remember that.

I was in negotiations with Concord who had just purchased Stax at the time. And they were planning on a big 50th anniversary re-re just purchased Stacks at the time. And they were planning on a big 50th anniversary, re-release of Stacks as a label, and I thought it was a perfect match. But I finished that album before inking that deal. I turned the album in before we inked a deal and, uh, the, the CEO, uh, says, you didn't do anything different. These arrangements are exactly like the originals. And the whole goal that we like had,

because I had such a young audience at the time, I wanted to showcase these wonderful covers that had kind of shaped my career, had shaped my life. And I wanted to try to do it exactly the same way as the originals. When he heard how similar they were to the originals, he backed out of the deal at the last minute at the 11th hour. What the fuck? But Vanguard picked it up sight unseen.

They didn't even want to hear the album. They were just like, here's the money, let's go. And they gave me a one-off deal. And then the story that I got from the CEO of Vanguard was that he was at a, like a CEO golf tournament and he was in one of the break rooms with a mutual friend of ours, a guy named Rick Krimm, who runs VH1, who I've known from the beginning. And Rick is asking him, hey, what's like working with Broussard? And he's like, man, I want to sign him to a subsequent deal. We only got him for a one-off on this thing, but I really want to sign him to a subsequent deal.

And Leor Cohen walks in and overhears this conversation and immediately calls Business Affairs and says, drop the paperwork. So he was now in Atlantic. He had signed me again at an Island Def Jam. Now he's at Atlantic. He overhears this conversation and calls a Business Affairs on the spot. Oh my god. Damn, you got sniped. And gave me. Oh, damn. You got snipe. You got snipe. But it worked. Yeah. But it did.

I got a massive record deal from, from Atlantic. They gave me, basically they gave me a million and a half dollars to come over there for two records and a pub deal. Oh my God. Okay. So looking back, did Atlantic now let's go into the Atlantic years. How was it? Tell me. Terrible, man. We sold 17 albums complete.

Oh, brother. In fact, my A&R guy, so I made a record called Keep Comin' Back for Atlantic. That was my first project. And then I made a record, a self-titled album that I still think is one of my best. It was produced by a dear friend of mine named Jamie Kenny, that sophomore album for Atlantic. And Atlantic dropped me after that second album and started managing Jamie Kenny.

They were like, we like the album. We don't really like the guy singing the album, but we really like the production on this thing. Damn. Damn, you've been burned, dude. I ran into my old A&R guy from Atlantic, and he told me that on that first album, he brought it over to Lior's house and put it on the record player.

He said that he and Lior sat on the couch listening to that album, he brought it over to Lior's house and put it on the record player. And he said that he and Lior sat on the couch listening to that album and Lior stared at him the entire, for the entirety of the album. Wow. And as soon as it was done, Lior says to him, I'm never getting involved in A&R again. That's hilarious. Jesus fucking Christ. So when you get these advances, that's fucking nuts, dude.

What? I mean, like now the second time the labels burned you. So now like, how do you keep going? I mean, like you got the money. More importantly, we spent every ounce of the budget for the first project. The second advance, I ended up opening every ounce of the budget for the first project. The second advance, I ended up opening an investment account with about $150,000 that

we had left over. I had a buddy of mine from middle school that was a junior broker at a local investment firm and he called me up and said, man, I got this guy that I'm working for that's a genius. Oh, fuck. Here we go. If you've got anything to invest, you got to come over. And so I gave the guy, uh, $150,000 in January of. Oh wait.

Oh no. Yeah. By, by June of Oh eight, the entirety of the money was gone. And by September of Oh nine, I was sitting in a meeting with the U.S. attorney and the FBI. That guy ended up doing about 10 years in prison. Whoa. For securities fraud. Did he get any restitution payment?

Yeah, I still get checks from him. The grand total at this point is probably about $12. Oh my God. Yeah, because they can only take it out of the income he's making. He's been in jail. Hold on, hold on. Mark, go back to this million and a half record deal. You're living on it, right? You're living on that money too, right?

Or did you spend all that money? Not really, man? Not really man not really because I had massive amounts of deferred what do you call it like debt debt yeah so like Leah I still owed Leah money yeah I owed my my manager's money, I owed my business manager money because they had all deferred commission. Commissions. Yeah, they had deferred it for years. And so I didn't really have much left over after a million and a half.

I literally had $150,000 left over. So you paid everyone off though, so you were debt free. I was debt free. So why were you deferring deferring if you don't mind being personal about this? Why were you deferring all the commissions at that time? Like do you have a problem spending money or dis? No, I just didn't have any any money for those first five six years crazy Do you know I jumped on a tour bus way too early? Yeah Crazy, dude. You know, I jumped on a tour bus way too early. Yeah. Like my advice to bands these days is stay in the fucking van.

Right. As long as you can stand it, stay in the fucking van. Right, right. I had, you know, I had a big crew. I had front of house guy and a merch guy and a tour manager and a, you know, guitar tech. I had a much more expensive operation than. Then I could afford for all those first years

because I was faking it right until I made it, you know what I mean? Right. You know, I was paying musicians three hundred dollars a week. And they were calling me every fucking week saying, bro, this ain't going to work. We got to fix this sooner than later. So yeah, there was a lot of debt early on. Oh man. So looking back at it, should you have signed that deal with Vanguard? Yeah, the Vanguard deal was one of the better deals that I ever did. You know, truth is, right now, I would do a record deal for either 30 grand,

so just enough money to make an album, or 10 million dollars. I mean, I'm the same way, bro. Like, these whole, these million dollar contracts, these two million dollar contracts, I think that's when they start fucking you, you know? Yeah, it's bad because what ends up happening is that there's so much pressure to succeed.

And if the bean counters don't see that success, if they don't see that kind of success right away in those first couple of weeks of sales, they pull the plug on that promotion budget. But if you take 30 grand. That's fucking crazy. Then they guarantee another 50 grand worth of promotion. That's like a rounding error for some of these record labels.

Right. So either take just the tiniest amount of money that you can to make a record happen or take the entire bank. Yeah, so much that it doesn't matter if you fail. Yeah, so like, I mean, when you take that- So much that they can't fail. Exactly, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that's what I do mostly.

I get the advance so I can get that 80-20 split. Once you start taking that, unless you want them to buy the account, that middle ground is that, unless you want them to buy the account, that middle ground is that's where you get fucked. And that's how you get fucked. It's dangerous ground. It's very dangerous. Damn, and you did two of those deals?

Well, Vanguard didn't give me a million dollars, but it was a lot of money for them, and it was a really successful venture. You know, that, that SOS one project, uh, was extremely successful. Yeah. Atlantic, the Atlantic deal was, was probably the biggest mistake of my career. Well, you're young though, dude. Yeah, I didn't know.

And my managers were like, if they're offering you money, you take it. And more importantly, I had key man clauses on six executives at the Atlantic. Because Lior had left me at an island FGM, that was the last bit of negotiation. I was like, I want assurances that y'all aren't going to leave me in the lurch like you did last time. What do you want? Tell my audience what a key man clause is so they know what it is.

Sure, so it's a clause in the contract that says if these key players in the company leave or get fired, I get a check. And I had six executives to the tune of $100,000 on the claws. Lior Cohen and several of the other executives, head of A&R, the GM of the company, basically all the same people that had left me.

That's smart of you to do that. I'm thinking of a funny situation where you try to get them fired. You try to set them up to get fired. So you can get six of them fired. This guy sent the dick pic to me bro. Exactly. That's your dick. That's your dick. Dude, that looks like your dick Andy.

No, no, this guy sent the dick pic. The pubes are red. Um, okay, so it's kind of like a, it's like a trade clause. Like you know when a basketball player gets traded, they get 10% bump on their rate on their salaries. Okay, so these guys left, were they fighting for you to not get paid for those key man clauses? No, they didn't leave Atlantic. I was out of that contract

before any of those folks left Atlantic. It went so fast. So yeah, I never was able to pull that clause. Who told you about that? Who told you about like to put that in the contract? I've had the same lawyer for 22 years. There's a guy named Reed Hunter. And Reed is the kind of lawyer that,

like I've met other entertainment lawyers that were like, I never wanted to sit across the table from that guy again. Like we'd be in a meeting. It's awesome. And crack, like people would be cracking jokes and all of us are howling, laughing. And I look over at Reed and he's just stone cold. You need that in your lawyer.

Yeah. Yeah. I love my lawyer. Like the Terminator. So, um, okay. So SOS one does well. Ticket numbers. SOS one does really well. Ticket does well. Ticket numbers? SOS one does really well.

Ticket numbers are going great. Yeah, ticket numbers immediately explode. Going great again, we're climbing the ladder. And then I signed that deal with Atlantic and things just hit, I mean, we hit the skids hard. Were ticket sales still good? I mean, you're a great performer. Why, man, yeah.

No, look, it was going well. and then all of a sudden that Atlantic deal, just everything kind of, the bottom fell out. And I had to, I fired everybody. I kept my drummer and my guitar player. We went back into a van, into a rental van, and I fired Brickwall. I took one of the managers that I brought into Brickwall. I took him away when I fired Brickwall. And he oversaw the, you know, essentially the demise of my career over the better part of about four years. When I fired him, he took my years when I fired him

He Took my van because I owed him like 30 grand He was like hey you owe me 30 grand I'm gonna take your van instead Some fucking mafia shit. That's actually a good deal for you. I feel like Yeah, but that's yeah cool to fucking make money and go on the road, dude. It's like fucking gangster shit. Just from a financial standpoint. It's like petty. But luckily for, it was pretty petty.

But luckily for me, my brother, my oldest brother, who had started his career in the music business with me as a tour manager, was at that point tour managing a guy named Joshua Raden, who was represented by a manager that I had known for a long time because I used to work with Gavin DeGraw, a lady named Debbie Wilson. And I called my brother up and I'm like, hey, what's it like to work with Debbie? And he says she's the best manager I've ever worked for. Who? Gavin said that?

I called Debbie. My brother said that. Oh, your brother said that. By that point, she wasn't managing Gavin anymore. And, you know, Gavin's got his own reasons for why he let her go. I'm not sure they make any fucking sense at all, but that's the... Yeah, what's his deal? Is he cool? Is he kind of hot-headed? Like, what's the vibe?

He's one of the most ridiculous... He's one of the most ridiculous, he's one of the best singers I've ever been around. But I'll leave it at this, he fired the manager that brought him to success in favor of his former prison guard father. Oh my God. Okay, we can do the math there. Yeah, because his brother was in the band too, right?

Oh, and his brother would play in the band. I was on tour with them at the time His brother would play a guitar that was not plugged in. Yeah It's a problem that makes sense that totally makes sense. I want to get that Gavin was a fucking good player though Right. That was good. He's great. He's he's phenomenal guy. One of the first times I got to hang with him, I walked on the bus and he was really fit. He was very fit at the time. You can tell that guy was a pussy, dude. I was like, how do you do it, buddy? How do you stay so fit on the road? And he was like, oh, buddy, all you got to do is think about it. You just focus on the top of your abs

and focus on the middle and then focus on the bottoms. I kind of believe it. I kind of believe it. Oh, dude. Yeah, cause I thought- He's an interesting character. He is, he seems like a quirky. I almost had him on the pod

and I don't know, he balked out last second. But like, I went to his shows back when that, why, what, Chariot record came out. And that was when you were kinda poppin' too, right? That was like the, that was air. I was openin' for him and Maroon 5 back in those days. And funny enough, his crew had a signal for, if, if you were talking to a girl that Gavin had already

been intimate with that day, they had a signal. That day? Yeah, dude. He was pimpin'. Holy shit. He was pimpin', dude. Sounds like a... He walked like he...

Dude, he would, he would do hours long meet and greets after the shows just to find the one gal. Oh yeah, I heard all that. Romance to the dead. I love him, but he is one of the most unique motherfuckers that I've ever been around in my life. Yeah, and you can tell he's got a hog, you know? He's just got a hog.

You think everyone's got a hog. I think everyone's got a hog, I think everyone's got a hog. I guess it's all relative. Okay, so let's go back to this. You got some time with me, right? Yeah, so my brother tells me that Debbie Wilson is the best manager that he's ever worked for. I called her up. I had known her from the Gavin days. And I said, hey, I'm looking for new representation. And by that point, her nephew, Doug Shaw was working for the company.

He flies down here and he brings along a couple of guys from the West coast that he had done a co-management deal with. Priorly. And, uh, Doug is, he's, he's just kind of square. And so I didn't hit it off with him as much as I hit it off with one of the other guys and I ended up you know the other guy from the West Coast ended up being my day-to-day guy and their first order of business his first order of business for us was to book travel for us for New

Year's Eve to Aspen and we get two weeks out from the show and we got no travel and no accommodation. Oh yeah. Lafayette to Aspen is probably a fucking $3,000. Yeah. Especially last Sunday. Exactly. Exactly.

So I called up Doug and I'm like, hey, this guy dropped a major ball. And he was like, oh man, I've been meaning to call you about this guy. Like I think it's a mistake that we did this co-management thing, but you hit it off so well with him. I said, Doug, I don't need a fucking friend. I need a manager. And we cut those guys loose. And ever since then, Doug has managed to help me write the ship.

And we've been growing ever since. So that's been about 12 years now. And things have been going ever since. So that's been about 12 years now. And things have been going quite well. How are you not jaded as fuck right now? Or are you? Or are you? I mean it's cool to be jaded. I'm not. I mean I'm a generally cynical person, but I'm not jaded. You know I feel very very grateful to have been able to make music for the last 22 years. To be able to do this as a job

and only this as a job for 22 years. My wife has not had to work. My kids have been in private school the entire time. It's a joy. Am I a rich man? No. Am I a superstar? No.

But at the end of the day, I get to make music for a living. Every time I show up for my job, several hundred to several thousand people immediately erupt in applause. It doesn't really get better than that. Do you ever, after having like a crazy weekend is people just kissing your ass and you go back home? No, you're back. And then you're back home.

You're like, just fucking, I'm the fucking man. Your wife's like, no, you fucking are. Get out there and fucking do the work. Mow the lawn, motherfucker. Mow the fucking lawn, Mark. Get to the ground. No, look, I will say this though. I made a record with Joe Bonamassa a couple of years ago.

Oh, sick. Joe's bass player is one of my best friends. He was my first sideman. And so arriving to the studio, we recorded at Sunset Sound. Getting to the studio and I mean, we crushed that album. We were going so fast that we actually had to pump the brakes because we were going to be done before our lot of time. I felt finally like I had arrived.

I was like, yeah, I'm with my peers. I'm holding my own. This is great. Immediately, I left that session and went up to a, a show called Sip. Songwriters in Paradise. Oh yeah. Buddy of mine. Well, he's got it in several locations, but this one was in Napa. And it's kind of a songwriter in the round show where you got, you know, three

or four songwriters that each take turns playing songs. show where you got you know three or four songwriters that each take turns playing songs and I was on a panel with a guy named Chris Gale Buda. Alright, go for it. You know Chris? That's our buddy. I want to hear your story before I tell you anything. My ego immediately was murdered violently watching Chris Gale Buda sing. So look I try to I try to take every opportunity I can to stay as humble as I possibly can because it's a real privilege to be able to do what we do for a living.

Well, no, no. We're cutting that out though, right? We don't go to Gelbuta. We're not gonna let Gelbuta hear any of that. I make all my records with Gelbuta. Do you really? Yeah. He's the fucking man.

He is. Uh, it's so fucking good. It's crazy. Just how, dude, you and him, I know more as a drunk hippie. Would you want me to connect you with him? Oh, I know. Oh, I got his numbers. I love him.

So why don't we go to Nashville together and write, write an EP together. I'm game. I'm fucking any day of the week, brother. No, I'm in dude, Mark. I don't understand. I'm together and write an EP together? I'm game. I'm fucking game. Any day of the week, brother. No, I'm in, dude, Mark, you don't understand. I'm not trying to be a groupie, but you're one of my first crushes, dude. I'm telling you, dude, you are, that record,

you and Gavin were my favorites, and Gavin's the reason why I play piano, you're the reason why I write songs. So I don't wanna- I appreciate that. You're the reason why I write songs. So I don't wanna- I appreciate that. You know, you really are a fuckin' talent. And full circle moment, when we got to play with each other at that fuckin' cave,

and I finally got to tell you how I felt, I felt like, cause now I'm like, how you feel when you're with Bonamasa is how I felt on that stage with you, dude. Like, and I don't wanna put that pressure on you, but. Man, look, I was blown away. I had never seen you before that day,

and I was fucking stunned, floored by the energy that you bring on stage. We should go on tour, dude. I think we should make that happen. I'm game. At least a weekend run. At least a weekend, let's see if you can deal with my crazy ass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll keep it chill here, okay? Mark say, we'll keep it chill here, okay? Markie, we'll keep it chill here, bro. But let's talk about this, I mean, I think this is the future of music, this volume subscription thing, the community thing we're doing. I'm doing it too.

It took me a year to fucking put my head around it and like see, but now that I finally, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid and I'm like, kind of, it is what music should go to next for fan bases. So what are you doing with your subscription? How are you feeling about the volume thing? So we just had our first broadcast last week.

I launched it with a concert with my dad. Awesome. Just to, to you know take it take it back to the to the to the beginning we're gonna broadcast a concert every month I think the fans are getting like a 20% discount on merch yeah getting some ticket offerings I'm not exactly sure if that's gonna be it I'm sure that we'll probably have more offerings as things grow and as things move on. But it's an opportunity for the fans to really get some privileged information. So like the next one that I already have scheduled with a dear friend of mine from here, Roddy Romero.

Essentially, I'm gonna try to get a guest, a buddy on every one of mine. You and I should do one. 100%, way down. Yeah, I'll come out to you or you can come out to me, but I wanna introduce my fans to my friends in this business. Because there are guys that I've been friends with for a long,

long time that my fans have no idea about. And I, I adore these guys. Uh, you know, a guy like Seth Walker, I don't know if you're familiar, but, uh, there's a, there's a group out of Winnipeg, Manitoba called the Brothers Landrith that I fucking adore. And I would love to be able to get Joey Landrith on the show. So I'm gonna just use the opportunity to grow it

and to bring in friends and introduce the fans to guys and gals that I really have a lot of affection for. I love that. And you know, no one really hears your story, bro. You have the craziest fucking story. You have the, you need to write a book about this, dude. This is fucking insane. There wasn't even rehab in there and it was still interesting.

No rehab. We didn't even talk about the drugs. No rehabs. Or alcohol. No. Were you an alcoholic or anything? We should just ask that. Do we have anything you got to? I am an alcohol for sure.

Oh me too brother, welcome home. Welcome home. You're in safe space here. But I do love Lafayette. I mean that was the first, Lafayette Lake Charles. We were popular there before we were popular in New Orleans. Like you know with the Festival Internationale. I think Lafayette is a great community,

and especially after Katrina, that's when everyone moved to Lafayette too. It's a special place, man. I feel like it's a place unlike anywhere in the country. Right. Where else? What other cuisine, what other culture have you seen from the United States that has been exported

across the planet? I've seen Tabasco hot sauce in every continent that I've ever been on. That shit has made like 40 miles this way. Crazy. I didn't know that. And my favorite sandwich in the whole entire world is Darrell's. Bruh. Dude. Darrell's. Interestingly enough about Darrell's,

there's not a single oven or stove in that place. Wow. Really? What's all steamed? All of their recipes are made in a microwave. What? Yeah. That's crazy, dude. My brother did IT for restaurants for years. Well, I can introduce you to a spot here in Lafayette called Pops Po Boys that I think has the best. And Old Grocers, is Old Grocers another Lafayette one? Old time grocery. Man, I love the grocery store with the sandwich. po' boys that I think has to bench. And Old Grocers, is Old Grocers another Lafayette one? Old Time Grocery.

Man, I love the grocery store with the sandwich. Old Time Grocery's got a great po' boy, but I think Pops personally has the best shrimp po' boy on planet Earth. It's just fried shrimp, arugula, tomato, and a lemon caper sauce, and it's fucking good. I trust you on that based on your accent. Yeah, I'm gonna come hang out with you in Lafayette, bro.

Let's write some music. Come on, bro. I'll come in. I'm gonna come hang out with you in Lafayette, bro. Let's write some music. Come on, bro. I'm coming out. I'm game. You know, what are you, are you working on anything? You're always working on music. What's your next mission? Yeah, so we've got an album in the can right now

that'll be out at the top of next year probably. It's another blues album that I tracked with Bonamasa and his crew in January. And then I'll hit the studio on June 16th with my guys to make SOS 5. That'll be out later this year. Holy shit, you got five of these now? Yeah, man. So I put out a record with Eric Krasno last September.

That's my guy. That's my guy. That we're still working on. And then I'm trying to put out more. What do you think of him as a producer? Last September. That's my guy. That's my guy that we're still working on and then What do you think of him as a producer? We've been talking about him producing an EP of mine Man, he's got such a signature sound with everything that he's ever produced. Right? And so the big takeaway from this album that I did with Eric was that it was Everybody says it's really you but but different. And I agree 100%.

I think Eric's signature is as much on this project as mine is. It was a joy to work with him, man. It was a joy to work with him. He's the man. I mean, he's so nice. He's incredible. He's such a man.

I think the baddest guitar player around too. I wanna know about Bonamasa. I interviewed him, I couldn't get a read on him. Is he pompous or is he cool? Oh I love him. I think he's one of the sweetest Most humble guys ever. Yeah, he I think he's Sort of surprised That he's been so successful

But he doesn't want he doesn't want you to know that right, right, right He doesn't want you to know that. Right, right, right. He doesn't want you to know that he's surprised by it. He's humble in the way that he's more than happy to give up his chair. So he's got a guitar player, Josh Smith, who's a motherfucking badass. And if the decision comes up that there's only one guitar player that needs to be on the track, Joe's the first one to get up. Right. He's not too arrogant that he's like, Josh, you go, I'm going to play this.

Yeah. That's wild. He takes direction really well. He takes criticism really well. Uh, he takes criticism really well. I think at the end of the day, man, look, I can't play the guitar like that motherfucker can. He's there's a bit of, I think there's a bit of, um, I don't even know what to say, like how to say it, but imposter syndrome a little bit because he's a New York, he's like a kid from upstate New York that is playing the blues.

But he knows his stuff, man. He's done his homework. He's got the catalog and you know, he's certainly got the fandom. Fans show up for him in droves. What I admire about him too is he's kind of like you. He's like he'll talk about the fucking industry. Remember that? He was like, yeah fuck this guy, this guy's cool, fuck that guy. You know I'm like damn Joe okay you really are the king of this castle aren't you big talk. Well he built it himself you know, he built what he has on his own back and nobody can take that away from him. It's killer.

So it's been a real joy to work with him. Again, my best friend is his bass player. He's literally one of my closest friends in the world. And so getting that kind of escort into the door there has been a beautiful thing for me and it's worked out quite well. I'm not necessarily trying to like steal his audience, but he's more than happy to let me get access to his audience. And so I'm very grateful for it.

Well, you're a fucking legend, bro. And whatever I can do to help too, I'm Team Mark. So let's fucking do this thing together, man. Let's ride. Wait, hold on. Let's just check this one more time. Andy Frasco. Let me check this one more time too.

Mark Rassard jacks off not only in an airport, but at Bonamoss' house. That scumbag tweet was my burner. That's me. Oh, it's not me. Master Deedles says, I heard he smokes mids. Terrible. Yeah, that's a thing. I heard he smokes mids, terrible.

Yeah, that's a thing. I don't even know what that means. Medium weed. I mean, I smoke shitty weed. I'm like, yeah, I don't wanna have a panic attack, okay? Fucking losers. Okay, all right guys, Mark, thanks for being on the show. You're the best, go follow Mark.

Go subscribe to Mark Broussard's. Only for us. Only Broussard's Only for us. Only, only, only Broussard's. Uh. And. Thank you. Thank you Andy. Thank you.

Appreciate it. What if your name was like Mark Aurelius? What if like you're actually not like Southern? We all know. I know your real name. I know your real name is Andreas Frasconopoulos. You know what I love about, everyone in Louisiana has great last names.

Poussard. French. Poucheaux, you know, like, I love that. French influence. That French shit, dude. We do have some pretty cool people down here. Sexy, I mean, it's sexy. I'm definitely coming out.

I guess I'll be eating down there. I love being the only Jew in Lafayette, it's fucking awesome, dude. There's a synagogue here, what are you talking about? There's one synagogue, just in case. All right, buddy, enjoy your day. I got one last about? There's one synagogue, just in case. All right, buddy, enjoy your day. I got one last question I'll let you go do your thing.

When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? I don't know, man. I want to be remembered by my kids as a good dad. I think, and my wife as a good husband. I got four kids, 22 boy, 19 boy, 18 girl, and 14 girl. And I just want them to remember me as a good guy. Damn, so you're 20, how old are you now?

43. Damn, so you're old as a 23 years old? Yeah. Remember he found out about her. Yeah, the ex-girlfriend. Is she cool or? Found out about her February 2nd, 2002. She's my wife now. Oh, that worked out.

They got married on the rock boat. They got married on the rock boat. Did you know that? On the rock boat, the Cougar Cruise? We sure did. Yeah, I had Ben and Ezra, Tonic, and Sister Hazel all at my wedding. Dude, that was the first cruise we ever got on.

Oh no, we opened for Molly Hatchet on the, on the, that was great. That was awful. But the Rock Bowl, they booked, they're like, Sister Hazel, man, for a band that's like, kept the business going off of just one hit, like that's someone to fucking look up to. It was a big ass hit though.

But like, it was a huge hit. It was a huge hit. That song actually fucks. I do love that song. That actually fucks. Yeah, I do love that song That song fucks Man alright buddy go get out there go have fun and laugh yet go eat it go eat a sandwich for us while we Fucking don't get any of that good food out here in Denver. No Everybody will do brothers. Love you buddy. Y'all be cool. Love you too. Later bud. Good to see ya Music