Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - Ep 356 Magoo

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Andy Frasco and Nick welcome rising bluegrass troublemakers, Magoo, to the World Saving Podcast for an interview that starts unhinged and then gets genuinely heartfelt. The conversation opens with tour-life, stories about the "rock band" era (opening for Buckcherry, shiny pants, chaos, ego, and bad decisions) before sliding into what really shapes musicians: sobriety, heartbreak, and the moments you realize you can't keep "sending it" forever. There's also an insane story about one of the members of the band getting attacked by a bear. Magoo gets into the turning points, festival misadventures, waking up in the wrong place, chasing the wrong people, and learning the hard way that the band comes first. From there, the episode dives into identity and craft: how bluegrass overlaps with metal and jam music, why improv is such a huge part of their live show, and how you translate that energy into a studio record without losing the magic.

I was in a rock band. Yeah. We were opening for Buck Cherry, touring. Holy shit, awesome. And you know what's involved with that. Like what? Cocaine and drugs. Yeah, tequila and blow.

Yeah. One night stands. Yeah. Sounds like the bluegrass scene, too, though, to be honest. And, like, coming out on stage with the shirt off and the shiny pants and just basically just, like, swinging dick. Hold on. You, like, had the whole outfit? Mm-hmm.

All right. And we're live, Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco, has your heads, has your minds. How is your New Year's going so far? Big show tonight we got Magoo. Big, this band's kind of getting some buzz. Hi, Nick, how you doing, by the way? I've even heard of them and they're a bluegrass band.

You don't listen to Bluegrass. You don't give two shits about bluegrass. No. No, that's fine. They're fun to rile up because their fans are so traditional. So if you kind of make fun of it. I like, we talked a lot about,

we talked about heartbreak. We talked about, I thought it was fascinating. They don't know struggle. We talked about, they got, uh, what a mammoth book that signed them,

got them on a big tour and they don't know any shitty shows yet. You know why? Because the manager's girlfriend was way into them. It's all you got to do is get a manager's girlfriend to like you. They did talk a little bit about, she said the bluegrass, this is a bluegrass scene a little bit about dating in the bluegrass scene. Oh yeah.

What's that like? You know what it's like. I guess we'll find out later in the episode. Yep. Yep. Well, you'll find that out. And then one of the guys got mauled by a bear, which was crazy. I know, but he said that, like, people were kind of make fun of him about it or something.

I know. He was on a show where it kind of made fun. They made him go into the cage with a bear. Why are they making, are they like... It's like fear factor. Fuck those. I fucked those shows. So fucking lame.

The guy got mauled by a bear. Got mauled by a bear. Just like, give him a hug and give him some money. let them call for a day, but that story's fucking insane. You get bald by a bear. And we talk about roots of bluegrass and being the identity of bluegrass and your audio. You're not going to want to miss an episode. And I try to convince them have beef with another young bluegrass band.

It's good for your brand. All right, guys, enjoy Magoo. And holy shit. Bye. This is a call to action. You guys love this podcast. This is your way to support us. Head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco and support the podcast.

It's five bucks a month. You're going to get extra podcast episodes, extra Nick episodes, Monday morning motivations. The whole nine keeps his podcast going because I love doing it and I want to just be part of this forever. We just need your help. So head over to volume.com slash Andy Frasco. Subscribe to our only Frasco podcast because without you, Nick will be on the street. And do you want Nick to be on the street? No. I don't want him to move into my house either. Okay, so either subscribe to this or Nick will be on the street. All right, bye. Here we go.

Everyone clap. Just clap, just clap. How are we doing, everyone? Wow. What a start to a podcast. We have Magoo on the show tonight. Magoo, who got arrested? What's going on?

Give me some dirt before we started asking you what your band's all about. Did any of us get arrested? Not this week. Not this week. Have you ever gotten arrested? Anyone like caught with drugs or... Jeez, bro, there's interrogation? Yeah, I'm calling your mom. I got to make sure what I'm calling your mom about.

I'm just kidding. You guys look like good guys. Where are you guys from? I don't know anything about you guys. Abby, at first let's, uh, let's, uh, everyone say their name, their birth date, how much they weigh. And what, and what is your last four of our socials? Well, I can already figure that out. Uh,

but, and, uh, your, uh, your, uh, your,

uh, good luck, let's start us off. I'm, uh, Dylan Flynn, uh, 816,

92, single, or not married. Let's go. About a hundred, 190 pounds. Great. Thanks for having us on.

Um, Cortland bills, um, born January 15th, 99. 99. 99? 99.

Yeah. Okay. I'll be 27 here in a couple days. Great. I'm glad I got sober before 27, so I won't make the club. What happened? Why did you decide to go sober? Center, a little too hard, bud.

Like what? What do you mean? Going to your shows for a few years was a part of it. Living in Denver. Yeah, well, I lived in Austin. But I would go down to Hoolene and Backwoods and just whatever, work stuff that I can be involved with. Did you ever have a moment in your life?

What was the moment in your life when you realized you had to slow it down? Senator entirely too hard in Moab at the Electric Honey Festival when I got stranded. You went to a festival called Electric Honey? Dude, it was ridiculous. What is it?

You played it? It was a band thing. So, yeah, what happened? Where were you? How much would you take? There wasn't much that wasn't ingested. like heroin? No, it was mainly festival stuff.

Like what, catamine, Coke? Pretty, just the whole variety. But yeah, it was a rough one. And then I had to go play a show and then everything was shining and... Hold on, hold on. You did every drug and then said, let's play a show. Well, yeah, we had to go play a show the next day.

Oh, next day. Yeah, the next day. So you stayed up. Well, I woke up in Salt Lake City from Moab, Not entirely sure how I got there. Okay, wow. Yeah. Were you guys piss at him that he was like that or no?

I mean, he said he was making it back to the hotel the night of electric honey after the show. Uh-huh. And I was just like, there's no way you're getting back to the hotel. Oh, you didn't drive. You stayed at the festival. Yeah. Yeah, we took the van. There was a girl.

Oh, you got late. No. Okay. It's a long story. Well, we got a whole hour. Let's talk about it. What happened? We can talk about another thing.

There was a, it was a girl that I liked very much that just so happened to be a lesbian. Oh, oh, man. So did you take drugs to cope with that dealing with that? Pretty much. Oh, man, so you're heartbroken. I was heartbroken. She had me go follow her around for like an hour and a half looking for the girl that she had a crush on with that. Oh, that's not fair.

Yeah, that was pretty upset. Did she knew you liked her? Oh, yeah. Oh, what a B-I-T-C-H. And once I told her I wasn't going to hang out with her anymore, she goes, but you're still giving me the plus one to winter wonder grass, right? Typical bluegrass girl, dude. That is the most bluegrass girl thing I've ever heard.

Wow. And she's still after she broke her heart. She still asked for that plus one. They do that. Those bluegrass girls, they do that. Okay, so you're stranded. We'll get to everyone. I'm very curious with it.

You're stranded now. You followed this girl around. And then you finally said, I can't take this anymore. It's breaking my heart. What did you do after that? I woke up in Salt Lake City. Okay, Moab, the Salt Lake City was four hours.

So how did you get there? I woke up in the back of that girl's car. So she did get me to the gig. Oh, that's nice of her. She broke your heart, then she drove you to the gig. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

I got a clap for that. that's actually pretty respectful. So there's good even So what did we learn from that situation? Get in the van and go to the hotel after the show. Even how happy the festival is, you stay with your brothers

and you get the fuck out of that festival if everyone else is going out of the festival. Exactly. Well, that was a great story. Thank you for that. What is your name, sir? My name is Eric. Eric Hill.

Okay. Born November 19th, 1990. I like how we're still doing the boarding. I like this. Thank you. Um, uh, born in San Antonio, Texas, born there. However, raised in upstate New York. So I actually say I'm from upstate New York. Okay, great. Yeah. Um, what's, uh, how'd you join the band? What's your story? Uh, well, me and, uh, brother Dylan here. We started the band with Dylan's uncle, uh, who was the original bass player. How old is he? He's 61. Oh, my. God, I got to meet this guy. Is he on speed dial? Could we talk to him? We can call Paul. But he's in, I think he's in, yeah, Bangkok. So I don't know what time it is there.

I bet he'd answer. Yeah, he might answer. So why? So you met Paul. What made him leave the band or what not? Well, he could maybe speak to this a little bit more, but I think he wanted to retire, really, was what it came down to. just wanted to be fully retired and travel the world.

And that's that, that's pretty much it, yeah. He's been traveling the world ever since. That's great. How do he pick Bangkok? I mean, he's been everywhere. He went to the, he's been in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand.

He's just trying to see as many countries as he can, I think. So, yeah. It feels good to have a younger band, per se. I don't know how old you are, sir, but. We haven't gotten to me. We're almost there. So when you started the band, was it hopes of like doing it or was it just for fun or tell me a little bit how you started and how you wanted to kind of evolve with the band? Yeah. I mean, I think there were always hopes of doing it. I think we were starting the band to like actually be a band and not just like have fun and play, you know, brewery gigs here and there. We wanted to try and actually be a band. But I had a full time job up until this June, a corporate job that I finally quit.

And June, finally quit it? Full-time musician. Let's go! I like that. Let's go, boy. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. There was always that, like, balancing of like, yes, I want to be a musician,

but also I'm trying to look out for, like, my livelihood and not be, like, totally broke and poor. But, yeah, the goal from the beginning was always to be, like, a legit band and try and make it. Were you guys ever running from anything before to make you feel like you feel comfortable, more comfortable with strangers than with people? that you've known for 10 years? I sure as hell it was. I was in a rock band. We were opening for Buck Cherry, Torrin.

Holy shit, awesome. And you know what's involved with that. Like what? Cocaine and drugs. Yeah, tequila and blow. Yeah. One night stands. Yeah.

Sounds like the bluegrass scene too, though, to be honest. And like coming out on stage with the shirt off and the shiny pants and just basically just like swinging dick and hold on you like had the whole outfit oh my god what was this band called it was called core hell yeah I think

that's kind of awesome I think they're still playing I joined them when I was 15 but yes that was the running away that was the tour bus experience the were better than everyone kind of mentality that came along with like that rock world

did you ever have a reality check Oh yeah I went through a divorce Really? Yeah I was married and everything Oh man Yeah and it was You get lost

And then like You know your grandparents call you And you have no idea how to act Who broke up with who Um Wife just ran out one day She just packed her bag and left Oh man I'm sorry to hear that

Dude it's you know Do you feel like you have abandonment issues Because it's the same thing that happened During the During the girl that you were chasing Who wasn't interested didn't you? No, I just was dealing with the wrong people, wrong

people, wrong time. That's good. And it's amazing. Some people don't find that out until they're 80 years old. People like get in a marriage and don't want to get out of it. Like, it takes a lot of power to realize I'm not comfortable here and I want to move on, hence why you didn't want

to be in a hair metal band. Now you're in this band. A lot of people just stick into situations. You guys ever been in situations you stuck in a little longer than you should have? I'd say everyone on the planet probably has. Which one do you remember? I try to forget them.

That's the hard part. Like we're going to, if we just suppress things, they're always just going to sit there. And like as musicians, we've got to like let it out. You know, like, I have a hard time because I suppress things too. And I'm like, it doesn't do anything for me.

I just kind of like, kind of like either like put them away and then I'll just like do drugs or one night stands or just stay on the road or. But that doesn't really do anything. It just kind of just puts a band-aid over an open wound. We got to figure out how to heal, right? So I got something for you. You help me with one of your shows.

Let go of that time in my life I was just talking about at Winter Wondergrass. I think two years ago you were on the main stage and you played smoking dope and rock and roll. Uh-huh. And I remember like a full-on release of that whole time in my life in that moment. Well, thanks, man. Thanks for listening. Yeah, man. and I was hanging out with who is Dylan's amazing partner now, Becca.

I remember looking at her and just crying and being like, hey, I think everything's going to be okay. And I give her a big old hug. And then I was like, this is the world that we're supposed to be. That's what I'm talking about. This is the life that we're supposed to be loving. Thank God you guys all went through your shit so you guys can have these four guys together fucking rock and rolling.

I mean, it doesn't take fucking 10 years of, like you said, doesn't take. doesn't take 10 years of relationship to fucking know someone feel like you've guys known each other probably for 20 years, right? Shit, after spending the amount of time in the van this summer, I can feel that way sometimes. I bet from the silence of time not talking in the van. I'm like that too. I'm like, do not fucking look at me. It's 2 p.m.

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so grab cardinista and let them know frasco and jason's huge hog sent you all right goodbye enjoy the interview was the whole were you guys all wanted to be bluegrass artist or was this something you guys kind of just rolled into uh i was always a jam band kid electric guitar cool yeah fish dead uh I didn't really start learning bluegrass until

COVID 2020. And that's when I had like all the time in the world, obviously everyone did. So I hunkered down and studied Tony Rice and Billy Strings and Norman Blake and, you know, kind of really found my love for bluegrass and was like, okay, this is really cool. I think it blends all my favorite things about music. And that's when I shifted gears away from the jam band thing. But now we are a jam band anyway. So it's all, it all comes full of circle.

Full circle. From studying blue, what were we going to say? I was just going to say, I've always played blue girl. basically since I was a little kid. Oh, cool. Where are you from? We haven't got to you to yet. I'm just, I've been, I'm from Massachusetts.

What part? Central and between Western Boston. Oh, yeah. You don't have the accent. It comes and goes. Yeah? I don't know. Depends.

Are you racist? No. Why is everyone out there? They all love, they're all kind of a low-key race. I feel, I don't know where that comes from that reputation. I don't, I don't know. Maybe because I just hate the Celtics. I'm just putting, I'm stereotyping.

and you don't. Fair enough. It's just a joke. It's just a joke called me. Fair enough. No, but, so you have always listened to Bluegrass. Yeah, yeah, I grew up.

My parents were, you know, dead heads, and then Jerry died, and they were looking for something to do. So we started going to Bluegrass Festival. Cool. Yeah. Who were their guys after Jerry? Just everyone at the festival,

you know, Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent, Doyle Lawson, and anyone and everyone at those festivals. We would just go, every weekend, we'd go from Bluegrass festival, it's a bluegrass festival the whole summer.

What's the parallel between bluegrass and metal that you guys see? Gorman. Fast alternate right-hand work and fast tempos. I mean, it's almost like thrash, you know,

the subgenre of metal that you would compare it to. I don't know. Really just energetically they kind of go hand in hand. yeah i mean and the amount of like the amount of like time that like a metal guitarist would put into their craft you know is similar to the amount of time that like a bluegrass musician puts into playing you know like learning how the instrument works and learning how to play quick and precise

uh i think that's where you get like the similar feelings mainly is there freedom in metal as much as there's freedom in bluegrass um no because in metal you have a drummer in a player and like all the songs are sectioned out more precisely. In Bluegrass it's more like you have like your form and you can just play over the form if that makes sense. Right. Like your ones, your fours and your fives and your standard song forms. And there's a lot more improvving and metal you don't get as much improvving.

Like people are like writing their solos and keeping them sort of that way. Those are more similarities in jam music and bluegrass? then metal in bluegrass? Totally. Because of the freedom, you guys give yourself space to have freedom? I mean, probably

even when we try to keep our shows concise, like, at minimum, 60% of our show is improv. It's great. Like so much of the time, even whenever we're trying to, like, we're going to play bluegrass

tonight, boys, and then we look at each other and all of a sudden we're gone, and there goes 15 minutes of just whatever it is that, you know, So why make albums? If 16% of your money.

That what this was? Yeah. And also because a lot of people don't use nugs. A lot of people aren't going to buy tickets unless they have something tangible that they can attach themselves to a band with. So like, you know, Spotify or Apple Music, whatever they're using. Like they got to hear something, you know. I mean... They write some beautiful songs.

Yeah. The show is six. 60 minute improv, but the album's not. That's what I mean? Like, what's like your approach to making an album if your whole identity is 60% improv? Like, what's your approach on how to make a record? But, I mean, there's 40% of not, like, a lot of this identity is the great songwriting that these three here do. I have never written a song, but I feel very fortunate to play the songs that they write and

seeing it's incredible what they do. Yeah, I mean, I'm asking for myself. I think that's why this band is doing well. because a lot of bands are good at improv. A lot of bands are good at more of that. So this band just seems to have a lot of power in all those categories where we can stretch things out but we can play beautiful, you know, tight songs

and take you from one spectrum to the other. I told you that. I'm just talking about in general why we make records when no one's listening to records anymore. Yeah. I'm not attacking your band. I swear, I love your band. It's a good.

At least this upcoming album, we have our first full-length album, we do have some jamming in there, but it was pretty much like, okay, we're going to jam for this long, and we're going to trade some riffs, or you're going to peak at this time. It was planned out, but there is some jams and peaks and improv, which gives you a taste of what the live show is like. Cool.

Which is kind of like what I feel like, you know, the dead and fish used to do. They'd give you a little bit of a taste, just a nibble of what this is what it could be like if you see us live on the studio records. And I feel like that's kind of what we're, following. So tell me the difference between 16 years and what the difference between

playing music in Colorado is versus playing music in the South. Well, I started a new orchestra in fifth grade and my amazing mother she gave me so much shit because my uncle had a trumpet and she's like the music guy

called her, made sure she had a big enough car to transport the bass and she didn't even know I had signed up. So I was like, well, is that or the drums, Mom? I just I was a class clown, and me and my friend just thought it was the most ridiculous-looking instrument ever, like, let's just play that giant thing, you know? And it was a lot of fun, and I learned. And then I kind of became a, not a high school dropout of the orchestra, I should say.

I was, you know, I wasn't, I was kind of more into playing Frisbee golf, smoking weed, and, you know, doing that kind of stuff. Frisbee golf kind of rules. It was awesome. Dude, I started playing it. It kind of rules. Well, North Carolina is like the epicenter of Frisbee golf. Oh, yeah.

Sales and shit. Yeah, I stopped playing out here because you throw your disc or release where up where I am. It's like your shit's down a ravine, thousand feet. You know, now I just, anyway. Oh, my God. How many fucking frisies have you lost? A lot. Are they expensive?

I don't do that anymore. Well, when you lose a lot of them, they are. Let's get you a fucking sponsorship. You're in a rock band now. Let's get you a fucking real deal. It was a whole time in my life. but anyway we can always bring back new habits

I got I started getting into bluegrass you know around end of high school and I'm North Carolina I went to school in Boone um at college uh App State you know right down the road

where Doc Watson still lived at the time App State is Boone Boone North Carolina yeah hour and a half north in Asheville depending on what route you take Did you guys get fucked up in the in the flood? Uh

It all depends on kind of what side of the river you were on, you know, and that's the crazy thing about it. I have friends that literally lost everything, and then, you know, some friends, you know, had a tree, like a branch fall on their porch, you know? That was what was hard about it, I think. It was kind of wasn't like a unilateral, you know. And side note, people are still suffering out there. Absolutely.

So whatever we can do to help Asheville and that whole neighborhood, even if it's a couple bucks, Let's still try to help that community because I think about my boys at salvage station and stuff and just keep keeping those guys in your hearts. But keep going with this. So, yeah, I mean, but I remember I saw, I still have this picture when I was in second grade. They did like, what do you want to be when you grow up?

And I did one side of the paper was a nature photographer because I was reading all the natural geographics. And the other side was a rock star. But I think I transitioned in college. to bluegrass because I'd always played the bass. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm sitting around seeing people picking and learning about all that culture and learning about the music. And I was like, man, I really want to get into this. You know.

You're a Colorado rock star. You got the best of both words. You got both pages, dude. So anyway, and then I guess I'll progress. I was kind of a nature person doing all the outdoor shit. And I went out to Yellowstone one summer And I ended up getting mauled by a grizzly bear Oh yeah, you're the man

Yeah And they made a movie about you, right? Or a TV show or something They were on Animal Plan They made fun of me a little bit Yeah Oh fuck those guys, why? It was a good show

But there's some classic liners out there They call me a seriously laid back dude I don't think you're pretty intense I don't know about laid back I told you that anyway So yeah they sent me home with a thousand dollar check In Boone, North Carolina, the little music store had an $800 base, and that's where I bought my first upright.

So that got me into, like, plain bluegrass. Damn, that fucking bear. I owe it all to her, dude. You got a tattoo, right? I got several bear tattoos. I got enough bear tattoos. I'm pulling the plug on that. We're done.

We're done with the bear. Okay. No, no, like, we're done with the bear? Are we done with bear life? What do you mean? You said, I'm done with tattoos. Bear tattoos. Like tattoos of bears.

Okay. But bear is still life. The bear is always going to be a part of my life. We played in Austin at the Mohawk, and there was a big, like, taxidermied bear right over him. Literally up a little show. And people were taking pictures.

Do you have, like, PTSD? Like, do you go out anymore out there? I mean, I'd be scared shit. If a bear fucking attacked me, I'm done. I'm moving to New York City. I'm going straight into the city, dude. Well, I feel way sketchering. York City.

Way more anxiety and PTSD from loud noises and stuff. But I don't know. It's kind of, you know, it was 2004, so there's been a lot of process, a lot of time, you know, it's... How big was it? But, I mean, I went out, you know, hiking and stuff. It's just kind of weird how it works. It's scenario kind of based, you know.

I mean, if I hear a giant bang behind me, like the jolt of, like, shock up my spine. But it's like, I'm not afraid. Like, you know, I go on the outdoors. I shifted more into like, you know, I'm not going on like 12 mile hikes, which is what I was doing back then. It was kind of like I was just the guy that went out and just, you know, like, just mound man by yourself. A handful of berries and let's go, you know what I mean? But now I'm like. No, for real?

Oh, you're like bear grills like that shit? Now I'm more like I got into rafting when I got out here because you could sit on a cooler. And you're with all your friends. You know what I mean? You play music. Work smart and not harder, big dollars. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you talk about him being scared to go back out there, but you got to watch the show. They literally stuck him in a cage with a grizzly bear. Just stuck him. Had him petting the grizzly bear. Yeah, I put my hand in his mouth and stuff. Are you fucking, these guys are assholes. Yeah, looking back when I would see the show of people, they're like, this is fucked up. And I'm like, it kind of is.

These guys, I'm going to talk to these guys. What show is it? After the Attack. I was the first, first episode. After the Attack. It's an hour long episode. the first half hour is this girl that got half eaten

by a mountain lion she got way more fucked up than me and they just put a mountain line with her too she was you know man fuck this show we're not giving this show

the time of day they gave her like a cub like she was she was too she was like uh-uh fuck this show but I was like I mean when else you're gonna be able to fucking pedigrissey

but you know like my bad McGoole I don't know if I should I'm gonna be in a bed called McGoole they had safety protocols that I don't I don't know if I should say.

I don't want to get sued by it. We'll play it or whatever. Oh, fuck them. Yeah. Like, the guy's son had like a cow prod behind his back just in case. I was like, oh, well, okay. Oh, like, you know, if this bear attacks you,

they're shooting the fuck out of it. The bear's name was Adam, but, um. What a regular ass name for a bear. It's ridiculous. I mean, you know, it's, wow. Yeah. Anyway, so that's how I got my,

my base and its life's just crazy like that. and yeah. Well, thank God you did because you couldn't have met these guys. It's wild, you know, and, you know, I think about it a lot. And, yeah, I'll twist and turns and just, I don't know, he moved out to Colorado.

And once, you know, got out here, people were like, you found out that you played bass. They're like, oh, want to jam, you know, all this. And all of a sudden, my mom rented a U-Haul and drove the bass out to Colorado and played in a bunch of bands, you know, a lot of band drama, a lot of bullshit. And here I am.

found these guys and I love a focused group and where we jam the fuck out and we're rocking out and it's just fucking fun as hell I'm so fortunate. I love it, dude. I lost the show. I was like, damn, these guys are fucking sick, dude. You're my favorite bluegrass band. I want to give a shout out to Paul

because kind of touching on like how new all this is, but it just feels really good like the vibe of the family of the Magoo, you know, the goo, you know, it's like, it's so prevalent there. You know, all of our families are coming out and know each other now. Like, I know all these guys' parents and our parents know each other. And it's just, it's really cool to like, you know, be the second base player.

But I'm not like, I don't feel like I'm replacing someone. It feels like I'm carrying the torch that his uncle literally like lit. So it's like, it can't get more family than that. You know what I mean? We love you, Paul. We love you, Paul. If you weren't in Bangkok right now, we'd talk. We'd call your ass right now.

he'd go, we're rock stars. I love it. Now, he's got the Boston accent for sure. No, he does. Oh, dude, I would love to hear a box accent in Bangkok. Does he, does he like, is he like a partier? No, no, he's been sober for, I don't know, 10, 15 years. In Bangkok?

Well, he, I lived on Nantucket with Paul work in construction for like seven years, I would say. Oh, do you know my bass player? Floyd. Yeah. Yeah, I've met Floyd. I used to fill in occasionally with buckle and shake. Oh, dude. What's so, dog?

And Lucy. Okay. Yeah, Lucy's crazy as fuck. Colin. I don't think Colin's playing with them anymore. Yeah. He's done it. Oh, nice.

That's fucking awesome. All right. Now to you, notorious GRS. I try to do D-I-G, but, you know, because you got the coozy. What did they call the coo? Sorry, that was a bad joke. Massachusetts, Bluegrass. who were your inspirations as a kid that, like, was it a family member that made you really fall in love with bluegrass?

I mean, you feel like you're the spark plug for this bluegrass for the band. So who was the one who inspired you? I mean, I don't know that I could say this one person. Like I said, we would go to Bluegrass Festivals every single weekend. And my parents, like, they just wanted to get rid of the kids. So they would put us in what they called, like, the Kids Academy at the festival. and they teach us how to play guitar and my sister learned how to play fiddle

and so I just started picking like what like Wormtown like which ones were they were you talking to like which ones were they the festivals? Yeah like in Massachusetts like you know Grey Fox and used to be Winterhawk

and Ossipe Thomas Point I don't know Thomas Pointe used to be a little one Pemmy Brandon Blistered Fingers like even we went to Delphist you know every festival we could

possibly go to we did. Great. Yeah. And then so I just loved picking and I loved bluegrass. I would just play the guitar all the time and I would sneak out out of bed at night at home and just go down and play bluegrass guitar. And then I became a teenager and

kind of unfortunately got away from it. You know, I've... How old were you? When I got away from it? Probably like 14, 15 maybe. Cool. Or 15, I would say. I feel like I just kind of allowed the everyone else's perception of bluegrass to influence me,

you know, because no one listened to bluegrass, especially if you're a kid in Massachusetts, you know? Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like, yeah.

But it's also kind of like, maybe you're just fatigued, like, when it's shoved down your throat. So, like, I thought about that, like,

like, when they were shoving down baseball down my throat, I used to fucking love it. And then I, I'm like, everyone's telling me what I was up, like, church, play pitch, you're like, fuck off.

I kind of quit. And then, you know, maybe, was it that kind of feeling? Like, you felt fatigue that you're just always doing as a kid and maybe you need to take a little break? I don't know. I mean, maybe, I think it was more just like being a rebellious teenager who, you know, not doing what your parents want you to do type of thing. Where your parents, like, took acid and stuff, were they more like straight edge bluegrassers? My dad.

Yeah, he trips mushrooms and stuff like that. and smoke's weed and all that. And my mom's pretty sober. Well, like I said, they were like deadheads. They love jam music. And then they found bluegrass. Nice. Yeah.

Sick. So while I was analyzing you, you didn't even tell me. I just fucking analyzed you instead of you actually saying the reason. Why do you feel looking back in retrospect, why you need to take a couple years off of bluegrass? I think it was just trying. to be someone I'm not. It was like trying to fit in with my, you know,

high school classmates and trying to be like cool. And that was really stupid looking back. You know, I wasn't being myself. Yeah. And then when college came around, I realized I was like, I want to play music and I want to get good at this.

And if I, you know, it's something I could do for my whole life. Right. You know, it's not like playing football or baseball or something. You can only do that so long. Do you feel like Billy Strings helped with like, uh,

being your own identity in bluegrass. I mean, Billy was a huge inspiration like he is for, you know, so many people. But I remember at Gray Fox, he was the artist in residence. You know, I saw him the first year when he had, uh, was Don Julin and the other guy, I don't know what his name was. And then the next year he had that four piece band. And then the year after that, that was the first year Jared joined. And Billy was the artist in residence.

And it was just, It was life-changing to see him just play with every single artist the whole weekend. I saw him play 50 times. It was amazing. I mean, yeah, I mean, I've known so many bands who he's helped identify because he's just unapologetically himself. And I think that's the most important thing in music is to be unapologetically yourself. Even if you want to play in a genre or even if you want to do anything in life, always try to be. unapologetically yourself.

The minute we stop doing that and we start losing that, it's like the same thing as suppression when we're talking about suppression, which I apologize I might have hit a nerve on a thing 20 minutes ago. But, you know, I'm the same way. Like sometimes we forget ourselves just because we're just trying to

fucking please what other people think bluegrass is. But you know what bluegrass is in your heart. And maybe it had to take a full circle to fucking have this fucking cool ass fucking rock I don't think you guys even rock people are fucking moshpain at your shows boys

but yeah identity is important and I could tell you guys are having your own identity you're not trying to be anyone else you're unapologetically yourselves and I'm just like if this is just the first year of what the fuck's gonna happen I'm stoked to see what fifth year is what 10th year is with the band so

keep crushing I want to do one last thing I want you all to take one person in the band and tell them what you like about them. One person needs. So you tell you pick one thing that you really love about each person.

Oh, wait. So this is a, this is a program of new bands. We're not going to be strangers right now in the van. You pick a band member to say what you like about them and then they're going to pick a band member too.

Okay, I'll pick Cortland down the end there. Kind of what you were just talking about being unapologetically yourself. Hell yeah. I don't think I know anyone in the world who is more unapologetically. themselves than Cortland. He's the man. He's a rock star.

He's great. So love you, buddy. Fuck, my man wore leather pants for years and had to hold his breath, like, I do not want to fucking do this just so it could be the tour buzz. This guy's a gangster. There's people looking for photos right now. How big is his dick? I know it's somewhere in there. I know the

the hog is somewhere in the leather. All right, you're up next. Who are you going to pick? All right, I'll keep going on the line. Eric, uh, something I like about you a lot. is how pretty much in any scenario, any circumstances, you never seem to try to find any reason to be too worried or too stressed out

and always have faith that the situation is going to work out, like on its own or with us as a team or everything's always going to get handled and always makes me feel way more secure about when shit's getting out of hand. I love that. See, this is awesome. Okay. I can tell this guy's a question.

quiet as this guy's probably has the biggest hog in the in the in the in the in the band this guy's got a hog on him you don't have to say it he is italian just wink twice if you do let's go clap it up thank you all right you're next big dog mr denton turner uh right from the start we have put a lot on your plate uh songs to learn learn this jam learn these time signatures learn this learn this learn that and you dove head first without even batten and i to learn all of our catalogs even before we brought songs to you. You even had songs learned already. Just your work ethic is unmatched

and very much appreciated. And, you know, we're doing this thing together, but we're only as good as the amount of work we're all putting in, and you're putting in a hell of a lot of work. So we really appreciate that. I'm going to fucking cry, guys. This is fucking awesome.

Wow. This is awesome. Fuck, am I up? Your last. God damn it. I was going to totally say that about Coraline. And then my next thing, I thought I was going to say literally what you said about Eric. You're calm, cool, and collecting this.

I'm just apathetic. I feel like I got to say something about Dylan just to kind of keep it. Yeah, keep it going to what I mean? But, I mean, all I can think about is just like the genuineness of our personalities of this band. And, I mean, Dylan, you're just as much of that as I see every day of like the way you dress, the way you uphold yourself, the way you speak, the way you're not afraid to express your values, like just in conversation.

From the moment I've joined this band, I've noticed that with him. You know, just the deep conversations have been from day one of, you know, of intergalactic travel and time and, you know, relationships. And, I mean, it's, these are everything that this, I talk about with this guy

or not even, I just hear him talking about how he feels and it can be anything from Rick in the grocery store and it's like, you know, all of a sudden he's telling me about a book or something. So, God damn it. Just kind of goes along with that, with this group, I feel like, you know. Oh, my God. Boys, it felt good to get that out.

Now tell me what you guys hate about each other. As we first started the interview. Well, we'll say one thing, too, along those lines, he's always like always ask about, you know, it goes both ways. It's not just like, this is how I feel. it's like, tell me what you feel about this, you know? And it's just a genuine care that feels.

Well, boys, you've said it all. Good luck on your adventures. I'm so proud of you guys. Totally interrupted the hate thing. No, I was just a joke. I don't want to hear it. You're too new to know what you guys hate about each other. You guys, give it a couple more years.

We'll do this interview in a couple more years. We'll get the dirt. But guys, keep fighting the good fight. It's fresh. It's new. Enjoy this ride. enjoy the happiness, enjoy the love.

But again, don't give a fuck, break some rules and have some goddamn fun, okay? Before we go, can I add one thing? Yeah.

I just, I think from the bottom of all of our hearts because I think this is kind of going to be a big moment for like a lot of our people, you know,

the fact that we got to come be on this podcast with you, man, we really appreciate you and everything that you do and all the love that you spread. I mean, like,

it's like a wildfire what you've been doing for the past few years and put in love in so many people's hearts, man. I appreciate it, bro. It helps people like us be able to have an outlet.

And I want to say to all of our Magoobers, like our real close. That's your fan base, Magovers? Yeah, I like that. To all the people that have been, you know, supporting us and been on this journey with us, like this is what we want to do with our lives and what we all feel like we were born to do with our lives is to be able to play music. And I want to say thank you to every single person who's ever been involved with anything that we've done,

they're so heavily involved. They spread so much love at our shows and on the internet and so on and so forth. And they're supporting in all these different ways. And just a major thank you to every single person who has been involved with our journey this far. God, you guys, this is fucking beautiful, guys. Amen.

Thank you. Okay, one more thing. We need to start, because as you're getting more famous, and other bands getting famous too, we need to start some bluegrass beef. I've always been saying like, you know. We need to, that's why we're going back to the fucking the B-I-G sweater.

Like, bring a little over that. What's that, what's that young band? Mountain grass, something? Oh, what are they called? That'd be too real. It'd be like, no, no, that's what we need. We got to do like a disc track of like Sam Bush or something. There ain't no disco biscuit bullshit.

We're going real. It's my life now, bitches. Oh, my God. Shout out to Barber. I hope you drank some water. We got to start. Moundgrass Unit, you're next. On the next episode of beef abroad.

On the next episode, on the next episode of beefgrass, Magoo versus Moundgrass Unit. Stay tuned. Thanks, guys. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks. That was fun, man.