Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - Evan Honer Chose Music Over the Olympics

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Evan Honer discusses his beef with Luke Bryan, being a D1 collegiate diver, doing backflips, and more in this archived interview with the World Saving Podcast. Moving some old interviews to the new channel to keep our new subscribers updated on some of your best interviews. This episode is brought to you by JamCut.IO (https://jamcut.io/). If you're a musician and you're tired of making clips all the time, check these guys out! 👉 Subscribe for episodes every Tuesday and more

The man, the myth, the legend. Evan, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing great, man. How are you doing? I'm doing good, man. Before we get into what I want to talk about, how badly do you want to tell Luke Brian to fuck off? It's funny because I just did an interview with the Opry people,

and they're like best friends with Luke Bryan. I just made my grand old Opry debut. Oh, sick. Congrats, brother. I don't know. Thank you, man. I feel like I'm getting closer to like friends of friends of Luke Brian. And like I feel like one day we're going to like meet.

And I don't know. Maybe we'll fight or something. But I don't know. Right now I'm not too. I don't know. It was so long ago. I'm like, all right. It's fine for right now.

But yeah. Andy was wrong and you're right. So. Yeah. I love some good folk beef though, baby. You know, a lot of, you don't get a lot of beef in the folk scene.

So if you need another arm to help you, you know. You need a disc track. Yeah, we need a Luke Bryant disc track, Evan. First acoustic disc track in history. Yeah. It would be good. I think it would be good for the music scene right now to have that. It would.

Yeah, exactly. And you have the upper hand. Yeah. What, I mean, heard a little bit about your, you're from Southern California, brother? I'm from Arizona. I went to college in Southern California. Oh, where'd you go? I went to California Baptist University.

Cool. Was it to study? You're all the swim team, right? Or dive team? Yeah. Yeah, I was a diver. It was mainly for diving. We're a small D1 school.

And diving was the main reason why I went over there. So what happened when how, tell me about like, because it's really not a lot of money in diving. How do you become a diver? Like what's starting? You start out in gymnastics? Yeah. It's so confusing to me. Yeah, so, so, so, yeah, so I started gymnastics when I was nine, and I did that for about three years.

And then I did trampoline as well, and then I did cheer. And then the main thing that got me into it, because I was actually homeschooled my whole life, except for my junior and senior year of high school. So my junior year of high school, I honestly had never even thought of diving as like a sport or anything. but it was at my school and I was like I feel like I could be pretty good at that like I've had years of just flipping and stuff

so I tried out and I was just like it was just it came to me like pretty easy and I got a second at state my first year of dive so it was just like it was with trampoline and everything like that it was an easy transition sort of yeah been safer than trampoline else

yeah did you ever like did you ever get to drugs or anything or like couldn't allow it You couldn't allow yourself to do that or like get high and then do some fucking flip. They get tested. That would be so fun, dude. I was high at one practice and I was falling off the board and I, after that time, I never smoked or drank anything before practice. I did it once and I was literally just like, I was, I was literally just falling off the board. I couldn't do anything.

So after that, I was like, no shot. I can't do this. Some good weed. Yeah. I'm moving to Arizona. Well, it's like, well, you're doing like, create, like, it's so difficult. It's so difficult without any being impaired at all.

So, like, adding that was just like, yeah. What are the parallels of diving and writing songs? That's a good question. I think, for me, I think with diving, I would say sometimes I, I, I feel like I am not looking forward to, let's say, a new dive that I have to learn or a practice that's like 10 meters is something that I don't look forward to jumping off of and doing three and a half flips. Sometimes I dread it. And I think sometimes I would say that kind of correlates with writing for me personally. I'm never I'm not really one to like writing doesn't come super easy to me and I think sometimes I'm like it's like chipping away at a song a lot is like almost like very like dreadful to me and it's sometimes it's just not always easy for me and sometimes I'm like not looking forward to it almost but I know I have to do it kind of in that way I would say.

I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, I get it. Things that aren't, but diving comes natural to you, so that's easy to fine-tune it, but music doesn't or songwriting doesn't, maybe because you started so late in life? No, I would just say, like, certain, when I'm, like, learning,

I wouldn't say diving, it started easy with me, and then I got to, like, the highest level of diving, and that's where it got difficult. like learning the most, like the highest difficulty dives and stuff like that and like maybe just not looking, just kind of dreading it a little bit. And, um, and I think I'm someone and I watched a interview with Billy Joel and he kind of explained it the same way that he writes kind of where he's like, like writing is not like fun for him. And he, that's why he's made an album 30 years.

Yeah. So, I'm kind of in that way with writing. But it also depends on so many things. That would just be my example of trying to relate them, yeah. So what do you love about it if it's hard for you? What makes you keep doing it? I think that, I mean, everything that I have done that I have accomplished has been, like, extremely difficult.

And knowing that, I think, you know, nothing that is worthwhile is easy, I feel like. And for me, I think maybe I'm putting on too much pressure on myself and I'm creating pressure in my head that's creating me to be like, oh, this song's not good. Like, when am I going to write a good song in my head, you know? And I think just really at shows and like seeing how my words have affected people, people and how it has helped them. Definitely keeps me going.

And just like the idea of wanting to get better and just push myself to like create the best art that I can. Yeah. What is in your definition what a great song is? That is, I don't even know if that's, I don't even know if that's possible to answer. Like, I would say like, like. Like a song that I wrote a great song or like just in general. In general, what you think is a great song that you put on such a high pedestal with your own music.

I would say, I mean, I focus on the melody first. Just a singable melody and a lyrics that put me in the place of what the writer is trying to, like, create. if they're trying to create some type of scene, or if I connect to the song and, like, actually, like, resonate with the song. I think that makes a great song if I just, like, fully connect to the song, which doesn't happen that often, honestly. Yeah, it's got to be, yeah, I'm the same way, man. What are you saying?

Yeah, what would you say, yeah? I don't know. I think something, I'm a lyric guy, and I like melody of two. I like a good hook, but to make it my favorite song, it has to be a good hook and lyrics that make make me fucking feel something I haven't before or like someone that relates to.

I think one thing that I think is I don't know if you feel the same way is I think that the way the delivery of the way the song is sung, I think someone could have the best lyrics, the most poetic lyrics, whatever, but if they're

not sung in a good melody or like good delivery, I honestly would not even process the good lyrics to me. It wouldn't come across. Do you feel like that? Same way. The same way. No, he's a vessel. Yeah. 100%. I agree. So what was the first song you wrote?

Do you realize, oh, I'm actually getting pretty good about this, and I could tell Luke Bryan to fuck off. I'll say it for you, Evan. Don't you know to talk that shit. I'll talk that shit for you, Big Dog. I'm a fan of you. The opinions of me and your friends. You're not represent him owner.

Allegedly. allegedly I need you there when I I got you I'll be right behind you I'm your bodyguard He's about to be your manager If you can tell you

You country You country cuck Luke Brian Luke Brian you fucking country cuck But yeah what What was the first song you wrote Did you feel like God I'm feeling

I'm finally understanding this Yeah I think So the first song That I wrote Was how could I ever and that was the first song. I honestly didn't really believe in myself

until a lot of people started believing in me before. I wasn't sure about the song. I posted it, so I was posting on TikTok for like two years just like covers and was just eating shit completely. Like no, like nothing was happening at all. And I posted my first original of me just singing along in the car and like it got like 50, thousand likes. And that was like the first thing that gave me like confidence to be like,

okay, maybe the song is actually good. And yeah, I don't know if I ever like, it's hard to realize it for yourself. I guess I kind of needed, and I don't know if that's a good thing or not, I guess I kind of needed like a couple people to kind of just put that belief in me. And then I started to realize it for myself. And that would probably be with how could I ever. Yeah. What about, because you were starting to get a lot of, I heard about you, I, when that song, I don't know shit about cars.

Yeah. What happened there, bro? It was like the same thing. You just put it out on a TikTok video and it got, that thing got fucking huge, dude. Yeah. Yeah, that was my, that was like my one, like, that was a, like, a moment for sure. Yeah. I was I was just I was tired of writing like super like depressing songs I feel like and then I

I started with that and yeah I think I don't know that the idea I just grew up with so many people around me that were like talking about cars all the time and I just like never really cared about it honestly um and I don't know I thought I thought it was cool I thought it it could maybe like some people like maybe could think it's stupid but I was like okay this is this is interesting this is kind of weird and I just like as soon as I wrote it I was like I was just going to do a video and I remember I just did like one take which is normally like not me I normally do like a ton of takes and I just posted it and that was like my most viral video it's so funny the songs you think of that are the throwaway songs are the songs that

fucking blow you up. Every single time. I don't understand. I'm going through that right now. I got a song that didn't make the record and I have now fucking Zach Brown and Snoop Dog writing, recording it. I'm like, this song is fucking cheesy. It'll work for it.

Why do you think that's a thing? Like, why? I think because we're overthinking it. I think we're just overthinking music and we don't realize that, the things that people relate to are the stuff that we don't have to like really put too much thought about

but it seems less manufactured sometimes and like more from the heart too sometimes I hear that about every song like everyone who's like the songs have just come out so quickly like it out of your head are the ones that fucking blow up yeah that's so true I literally yeah I don't know shit about cars

was literally like me almost freestyling like one like when I was writing it the chorus was pretty much freestyle like I never do that. And it, and it was just like, I was like, all right, this is, this is good, I guess. I don't know, but that's, it's so, it blows up. Yeah, it was, yeah, it's so, it's so crazy. I wish that, I wish that happened all the time. Yeah. But, but also if it did, then you wouldn't put it in the work. It's not.

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Less work for Frasco means happy band. All right, bye bye. What about, okay, so what about your parents? Are they pissed that you quit school to fucking, uh, become a songwriter? Did you graduate? What was that part of like? Are they supportive? No, yeah.

Not. Yeah, they, my parents are, have been supporting a hundred, like everything I've done, whether it's sports, music, anything. They've supported me all the way through. I did actually, I graduated college and I had, thankfully, I had a full ride with diving. So I was considering junior year of high school, I was like, all right, if I get 100,000 month of listeners, I'm going to drop out of school. And I got to it and I was like, hi, guys.

I can just finish like a couple more months of school. But so. So in high school, that first single came out? No, a college. College. So, yeah. Yeah. That's wild.

And that was two years ago. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 23. Holy shit. Doing backflips and doing bad flips and probably just. getting late all the time. This guy has a great life.

California. This guy's just living in Cali. So, damn, you're so young. So this is your first tour? So, yeah,

so my first tour was actually my junior year of college. When me and my friend, Andrew Montana, just posted, like, I had, we had a couple

thousand followers, and he was already making a drive down from Tennessee to L.A. So we were just like, let's just try to like make a tour out of it. So we just posted like, who will let us play at their house? And we got, I think it was eight shows in like four, maybe 12 days or something like that.

I can't remember. And it was awesome. I was playing at houses just with like a horrible PA setup. And one show we played in Memphis. showed up and that was like one like an actual venue that we had and nobody showed up and then my friend got robbed oh my that'll happen in Memphis yeah Memphis don't fuck around no yeah and literally before that we were saying our one goal of tour was to not get robbed in Memphis and it and it happened that was like my first that was like my first actual tour and and then the

falling year. I did an opening slot for Liam St. John. And then this last February, I did my first headline tour with full band about a month. And then this fall, we're going on our second one, which is like about two months, which is pretty terrifying, honestly. Why, the bigger rooms? Bigger rooms. I'm more scared of how I, so my first tour, like, honestly, we, I got so sick. Six shows in. And the whole band was sick. We were all like so, so down bad.

Like, we were all struggling. And I had to take, like, steroids for my boys. Whoa. Fuck. And the second to last show, I just got sick for, like, two weeks. And I don't know if I was just like, I don't know if I actually had something. It was actually the tour. I just want to stay healthy.

and I know, I don't know if that's completely possible, but I want to stay healthy. I want everyone in the band to stay, like get along for two months, which I just like, it's a long time. Yeah. Two months? Yeah, I don't know.

Two months? Yeah. What about, yeah, how do you? I got some advice. Yeah, you need to build up that tour immune system. Yeah, tour immune system. You need to wear condoms. Yeah.

Can't be in HPV on the road. Even on stage. Calm the drinking. down to a couple. Do you guys drink or party or anything? Do you guys do that? A little bit. Not, if I have a show the next day, I won't drink. I won't get drunk. I won't. I'll wake up with like no voice. So if I have a show the next day, I won't get drunk. We drink like, we have like a shot, like a shot of whiskey before each show. And some of a, I mean, some of them will go out and like, and I'll stay at home. But for the most part If I know that I'm playing a show the next day, I don't drink

How many shows a week are you doing? Roughly, yeah, it's pretty much like The most we'll do in a row is three And then we'll have Yeah, like, yeah, we'll go like three on maybe And then a day or two days off One and then two But it's, I don't know the number of shows

but yeah, probably around five shows a week, I'd say, yeah. So you're getting famous now, Evan. We need you out there healthy. Young, good-looking. You're young, you're good-looking. Don't let these. Pure athlete. I've been doing 250 shows a year for like 15 years,

and I think the first 10 years was just me fucking just doing blow and party and fucking everything. And it did build my immunity up, but it got me sad and got all the band fucking hating each other. So you need to maybe build a base of like, even if like you see your boys partying, you got to like, held them accountable for,

for the, like if they're going out five days in row, I mean, you're going to start selling out tickets, bro, you're going to, I mean, how's the tour doing?

It's probably almost sold out, right? Yeah, it's a majority of the, the headline shows are either sold out or low tickets right now. This is exciting. See, you guys are going to be fucking high on the hall.

Happy for you. It's like, it's going to be fucking amazing. And it's like, so just don't take, don't have it come, get in your head too much. Just, you know, you're, you've got an athlete's totality. You should be fine. It's more of like stressing you get sick. When you stress you get sick, then you actually get sick. Try to enjoy it.

Yeah. Enjoy this. Yeah. I want you back flipping into fucking backstage, bro. I want you out there throwing, hell yeah. Yeah, I do backflip. You got to remember. You do?

Yeah. Oh, really? do? Yeah, I do. Tell me about it. What's the vibe? It's like on stage? Yeah, so it's during, how could I ever, I take my guitar off and then I have an extra drumstick,

and then me and my drummer, I'll go like, dun, dun, dun, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, and then back flip, and then, and then give away the stick. What a fucking lead. Do you have a girlfriend? What's going on? You married yet? I do have a girlfriend, yeah. Yeah, girlfriend. Okay. You religious?

I believe in God. Yeah. I have a relationship with God, yeah. So what's, uh, so that, is that why you went to a private school, like the Baptist school? Or were you religious your whole life or are your parents strict about that? Or was that more of a scholarship? Um, it was kind of both with the scholarship. But, yeah, I grew up, um, growing, going to church, uh, my whole life, my whole family. family as a relationship with God. And I, I, like, the last couple years, I just haven't been stoked about going, like, just the system of the church and whatnot and, like, how that works.

Right. And so I think that, like, that just put, like, a bad taste in my mouth was just, and I think that happens for so many people is, like, They have a bad experience with a person or a church, and then they blame God, kind of. And it's like, I mean, I was definitely doing the same thing. I was kind of blaming God, like, inherently. But, I mean, it's just like the people around there. So I'm just like, I'm just not, I don't mess with just the system of the church. Like, kind of, it's just like has just, just let, it will just let you down, like, whatever. What were you blaming the big man about?

I think one thing that I was just confused about, and I have a song about this, it's called Brother. My brother has, when he was 18, he basically just started having like crazy delusions and stuff. We didn't know what was going on. We were just like, what's happening. And a lot of it was all like spiritual based. like the stuff that he saw was like were like demons and um and he would always say like this word

that just like haunts me i don't even remember what the word was it would be like god be with me or something like that that just like haunted me um when he was having like these episodes and stuff so he got um he has schizoaffective and he his whole life like the most and i honestly like Anyone you meet that has met him will say, like, the most, like, the nicest and the most spiritual, like, closest to God person you've ever met in your entire life. And then he gets this horrible mental illness that... Crazy. That just, like, leaves him, like, nobody would understand, nobody could understand, like,

possibly understand what he's going through. And I just found that crazy Like how It's just crazy how that That's how God lets That happened to someone that was literally following him His whole life Like did everything dedicated his whole life to him

That with other things On the church and stuff like that But that was definitely one thing that Maybe challenge it and stuff like that Right Yeah it's like My question is for believers is like, if you believe in God, do you believe in free will?

Yeah. So what's the difference? I believe that God gave us free will. I think, so what is your question exactly? So like if there's a path for you. You don't think. If there's a path for you. I think of better words, like predestination.

Freestination, not free will. If you believe in God, do you believe in predestination? I think, well, I think, I know, I know, I think God is all knowing. So I think he knows what's going to happen, but I don't think that it's, like, I don't think that it's, like, I don't think that it's, like, it's his planned. It's not his planned out for you. I mean, he knows what's going to happen. and maybe you, whatever, you die at 25 or something like that. And I think he knows everything, but it's not like, it's just kind of whatever happens.

That's a really tough question. I guess I don't really know the full answer to that. Yeah, I don't either. I mean, no, I don't think anyone does. Full odds have been tackled for 3,000 years. You don't need a nailed on the Andy Frasco podcast. Yeah. Right now, first time, you're hearing it first.

Philosopher Evan Hunter. Revolutionary. No, but it is fascinating to me when I think of religious people and to think about, like, are you in control? Or does your brain have control? Or is it just someone telling you this is the course that it needs to be in? Yeah. It's kind of like being a vessel when you're a songwriter.

Like, you don't know when these songs come out, right? Could be God playing these songs. Could be. Could be. Yeah. I do think that the universe definitely plays a part in that for sure. What about women coming into your life, Evan? You're a handsome man.

You got a girlfriend. Thank you. A long time. I mean, this is going to, I bet the women are flocking out of your DMs with all your sensitivity. Yeah. How do you pray that God keeps you sane with being loyal to everybody? I have a great girlfriend. She's still in Arizona right now. I think it's honestly having a girlfriend on tour is really good for me because in the past, like my previous tour, I would maybe go out with someone. And then I end up not sleeping at all. I wake up tired. And it's never a good thing. I always regret. it, honestly. It's always like, you always regret it in some way because you don't get sleep.

It's just like always not the best idea. So having a girlfriend on tour is honestly great because I like, I just, I go straight back to the, no distractions. Yeah, I go straight back to the green room and then I go back to the Airbnb and I get sleep, more sleep. And yeah, that's, I think I, that's one thing that I think I, that's one thing that I think I, I did learn early on that it's not worth it at all. What do they say that in the religious game? Not today, devil. Not today, Satan. We will not be using your flusy women to distract me from the art I need to make

and the love I need to make with my girlfriend. Women are the devil. That's fascinating, man. This is why I think everyone needs to be, have the discipline from being an athlete. to be on tour. You don't have that discipline. The devil inside everyone is going to come out. If it's drugs or some kind of discipline from something.

You need discipline to do this. Yeah, discipline. Because everyone's going to be kissing your ass all the fucking time. Especially you get more successful. No one's going to tell you no. You have to tell yourself no. Maybe that's the, that's, God, that was actually smart. Yeah.

That was really good. I put that. split that. Because it took a hard. Wow, I'm smart. But it took me fucking year 15 to finally realize. He seems like he might be a little better decision maker than you.

Everyone in their generation are way more fun. I know. Gen Z doesn't party. I like it. They don't party. Gen Z doesn't party. They don't drink as much. That's for sure.

I do. Yeah, it's definitely not like what I've seen in the movies with like, you know, the bands in the 80s and the 90s. I definitely don't think that's really going on as much as it was. I've been on the road with a couple bands. Nobody's really like doing Coke in the green room that I've seen.

Maybe I'm on the wrong side of music. No, you're on the right side. No, you're on the right side. You're on the right side, brother. You don't need come here to live, Evan. You're doing fine. Do not ruin that skin. Do not ruin that skin and that mustache, baby.

You'll be, you need sleep. You know who I saw you've been hanging out with who's actually. actually like one of my favorite fucking guys. I want to hear a lot about Jesse Wells. I knew you're going to say that soon as you're Matt motherfucker.

The guy who talks about fendon and he's like the best he's like Oliver Anthony if he was like a really good songwriter. Couple questions. He's either 55. He can't even put, I'm sorry,

you can't put Oliver Anthony in the same category. A way better version is Jesse Wells. Jesse Wells is on a league of his own, dude. Is he 55 or 20? Yeah. he's 31 or 33 I can't remember what a fucking gee that guy that

dude such such a sweet guy um honestly I was nervous to hang out with him I was confused why he like hit up me and like wanted to just like hang out and stuff um are you in Nashville too but yeah I'm in Nashville yeah I just moved out here like three months ago oh cool so what was that vibe like you hits you up you were already watching his videos or what yeah i mean i like yeah i i've been i've been watching his videos um i was just the the speed at which he writes these incredible songs that i could i personally could never um come up with or like it's just like almost in a different language for me as far as like writing it like i i couldn't you know it's just not like he is a generational talent i think in songwriting that but he's been a

round for a long time. I don't know if you know that he's been playing in rock and roll bands. I remember he's like emo band. He had an emo band. I have nothing but good things to say about Jesse. He's so nice. He's so clever. He's so

funny. He's just a genuinely, like a genuinely nice guy. He's been around for a while and he just, and then he decided to start doing these videos just in the forest and

yeah that started going really well for him and yeah it's hard not to root for him he's such a good guy yeah do you think Luke Bryan would have something to say

about Jesse Wise I think he would say I think he would say vocal I think he would like I think he would try to shit on him vocally or something I love his voice he was a great voice

I know he was a great voice he's a great voice he's a great guitar player. And obviously his writing is phenomenal. And like harmonies and stuff, like, he's just a really, it's always really nice to hang out with someone that's like in the music industry that's really, really good at their craft. Oh yeah. And I'm like, I wouldn't say I'm like, I'm not like there yet for sure, but like hanging out

with someone that's like so good at harmonies and such a good guitar player and like knows like enough theory to like, you know, whatever. I just find, I like appreciate that. Right. And Jesse Wells is just like, he's just a beast. This is why I think is so good. This is so dope. You're moving to Nashville. This is the best move you ever made, I think. Just to be surrounded with that many

talented songwriters, you're just going to get better and better. Especially how young you are already. Are you doing a lot of songwriter rights with like a bunch of people or like has your management set you up with that? Are you writing with a bunch of people? I have been doing that recently a lot more. And

I like it, but I also want to, so this past week, in these past two weeks I've done more than I ever have, like the amount of co-writes and stuff, which I think is good, but I also, I want to have more time. I want to have a lot of time to write songs on my own, too. I think it's good for me personally to, have a couple

co-writes and then get back to to like solo writing which I'm still just kind of figuring out because I do I love co-writing and most of the time

I've been really enjoying the songs that come out of it but there's just like solo writing is like very special to me too so I'm trying to figure out like a good balance with that you're like the thing of the co-writes is like

going to school. Yeah. Yeah. Even if the songs suck. My last record I did, you know, we worked with Brent, you know,

Brent Cobb at all? Yeah. Yeah. Brent's my favorite. And then like Aaron Rattley. I did my whole record in Nashville. Dude, Aaron is the best, dude.

Everyone knows Aaron. Someone has mentioned Aaron and every interview I've done or something. Aaron is awesome. I wrote with him as well. I got to set you up with Steve Pultz. You know, Steve Pultz?

I don't know. Nashville guy. He used to date Jewel. He wrote that whole record. You were meant for me. I was meant for you. Retirement record. His retirement record.

But there's so many songwriters like that in Nashville. It's just like I felt like all the co-writes I did got me to a point where I feel comfortable mastering my craft. So like this is just going to make your solo writing even better. And you get to have fun with all these like. Yeah. Was it intimidating? Did you write a song with Jesse? So he actually

Before we hung out He sent me a song that he was saying I listened to your music and I wrote this And it's like such a good song A psychopath I love this guy and I wrote something I love this guy so what I'm so inspired by you

Like two hours before he's like Here's a song I just wrote after I listened to A couple of your songs And I was like what the hell This is such a good song It's like barely a year We ended up, yeah, he's like, so we just hung out and he said that he hasn't really experienced with co-writing at all. So, yeah, we just did a, we just jammed pretty much, did a couple videos.

So cool. Yeah, I saw some covers you get it. I'm like, it made me happy because you're one of my new favorite upcoming band or favorite upcoming songwriters. And then Jesse too. And then, because you guys have two completely different styles of how you guys write songs. Yeah. That's what I think it works. Yeah.

It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that song will release together or something like that. That would be cool. But it's a really cool song. So what do you like better? Playing solo or playing with a band?

I love playing with a band. After doing most of my stuff solo for like two years, having a full band is, there's just so there's so many things you can do there's so much energy you can bring and it's all like my friends from air

the whole band is from Arizona oh cool you got the homies on I was wondering about that yeah yeah it's not like it's not like hired guns from Nashville right that are like incredible musicians that are like already jaded and stuff like that like we're all

you know and we're all on the road like for the first time we're all experiencing it together. And, like, I think everyone just really appreciates it being, being on the road and, like, just this being their reality right now. I love, I love playing with the band. I'll do most of my set with the band. I'll have, like, an acoustic section for sure.

But, um, I, I love it. Fiddle players? What about you? The girl, the fiddle pillar? She's from, is she, she's from Arizona? He's, whoa. Yeah, we were, uh, she's badass, dude. Yeah, we, we,

She's so good. She's insane. We were homeschooled. We were both homeschooled. We went to like this co-op. And that's how we met. She was already just like a world-class violinist. Why'd you go to homeschool? It was my parents' decision.

I honestly, I didn't really like it. That's why it was the only one in my family to go to any type of public school or anything like that. I don't know, my mom just wanted to, she homeschooled all of us and that's like how she wanted to do it. And I think that was good for some of us out of two older brothers. But for me, I just, I wasn't a big fan. I think it was helpful for some things.

like, and I probably wouldn't have been able to do gymnastics. If I wasn't homeschooled and a couple other things. But I think I wasn't like the, I'm not like the biggest supporter of homeschooling. Yeah, I'm not either. It's like you're with your parents 24 hours. Yeah. You're like they don't have any other education other than like your parents' education. Socially too.

It just makes people very socially awkward later in life, I feel like. Yeah. You never get bullied. It depends on how you do it. Because you can definitely go that route, but you can also, if you do it right, like my family put us in sports and stuff like that and did that. And like there's homeschool like hangouts. But I will not lie.

Like a lot of my friends that were homeschooled were weird for sure. Yeah, that's the problem with the homeschool hangouts. Yeah. A bunch of homeschool hangouts. It was like so funny. hanging out with them and then hanging out with like my like cooler friends or whatever. Right.

Who became the drug addicts? The homeschool kids or the public school kids? I feel like the like a very small percentage of the homeschool kids became like really like really like hard drug addicts and then like most

of the my friends were just like in public school were just on like not anything crazy, you know? I feel like when you're out of that, out of the real. And that's what happened to me, honestly, like, I was out of the real world for so long. I went into school and I just like went crazy. And I think that's sometimes homeschoolers kind of that, that happens to them. They just go crazy for a second because they've just like experienced like this whole new thing. What's your idea crazy? I was just like in,

junior, I was like in high school, I was just like, it was, I don't know if this was popular in other high schools, but like, we were doing like Coke in high school. And like, that was crazy for me from going from never like smoking weed or like not drinking alcohol at all to like doing all that. So I just like that was, yeah, I just went like really like crazy and fast. I feel like kind of. Yeah, maybe that blessing in disguise. Now you're like, get it out of the way.

What if you got it to Coke when you're saying yes to all the time on the road? Yeah. Yeah. So I actually, I like God's plan on that one. Nice go.

God's plan. God's plan. Yeah. It's like Drake. I like that. I like that. He's like, let's get this man

some Coke during high school years. Let him experience it. Let him know he hates it. Was it fun being the new kid, though, when you came from high school? I mean, you're all good-looking, athlete. You're the new kid in school.

How'd that feel? It was, I think I was, I was not, I was not very confident in high school. And I think I struggled for a little bit. But then I finally like kind of felt normal. The first couple months were pretty like, just really weird. Like everything was, it was quite different to see how homeschooling was, how different it was from homeschooling. I feel like the clicks and stuff

are actually real. Like the movies and stuff would always portray it as all these clicks. Right. And it's real, which I didn't realize, like, how real it really is.

So it was rough at first, but after that it was like, okay, this is good. I'm good now after like a month, a couple months. I know he tries to pick on.

of you're like, fuck off. I can do like a triple axle backflip. What are you doing? Like, why are you like such a being a dick? I can jump off a 30 foot thing. Yeah, without fear. Without fear. And do flip.

Yeah. You can't even jump off those things. You can't even jump off those things. You're going to punish you for smoking this weed. Yeah. I flip over that shit. I fly, dude. I love it.

Perfect comeback. Also, the Arizona, it's, I get why people do drugs because it's so fucking hot. Yeah. It's like, yeah. You can't go outside, go party. And you're closer to where it comes from. Yeah.

So damn hot. It's also really humid here in Nashville. Oh, it's the worst. Summertime's fucking horrible then, dude. It's like now it's getting nice. I feel like Arizona's just like in hell for longer. But there's definitely like a good part of Nashville that's in hell for a decent amount of time. Yeah.

Man, I could talk. to you. I love to hear about the youth. Me too. This is awesome. What about you tore your ACL or anything during a fucking gymnastics or you got hurt real bad one time? Scared you? No head hit. Honestly, I never have broken a bone. I never have tore anything. I have the only thing I do have, I had like a pretty bad back.

I just had like a bolds disc. Oh, fuck that. Yeah. Yeah. And that was like really, really bothering my senior year of college. And obviously diving is just like the impact from 10 meters is constantly going in. Yeah. That's what like made it bulge disk. One time in gymnastics, I hit my, I hit my dick on the bar so hard that I peed blood after that. What?

The pole vulture? Yeah. I know, that guy just had a hog. The pole vulture had just had a hog and got away of his Olympic dream. Do you see that? You might have a hug, too. You can tell his guy is tall, lanky. You might have a hug too.

He was whacking up. Conference diver of the year. Damn. He wasn't just a diver. He was the best in his conference. That's fucking insane. I saw you won every event one year or something. You want every diving event or something?

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. my sophomore and my junior year, I won the whack.

Were you looking at the Olympics as you're like, thank God I don't have to do this anymore? Or did you miss it? I mean, it was like, it's, I don't miss it as much as like, I guess I thought I would miss it. It was like my, that was my whole plan from the beginning, which is crazy to think about, like, my freshman year, my coach set me down is like, look, since I graduated in 2023, he was like, you should take a gap year and go for the 2024 Olympics.

And that was like my plan. Oh, you were that good. Freshman year. You were like, had a shot at the Olympics. That was like, well, that was at least Olympic trials. Like, I was, you know, Olympic trials are one thing. going to the Olympics are another thing. There's, I definitely had a good shot at making Olympic trials.

But, I mean, Olympics are the best two in the country. And there's like 30 or 40 people that make the Olympic trials. And then they only pick two? Yeah. Well, yeah, they only picked two, yeah. I can't remember if you asked me that if you answered this yet, but were your parents pissed when you quit diving? you're so good at it and you're like,

I'm going to be a fucking songwriter, mom, fuck you. That's my dad actually was like trying to convince me to take the fifth year. After I was like, because I was planning on it my whole four years of college and then like senior year, I was like, I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to go full into music. Because that one, you had that video, right? A hit. Yeah.

It was, yeah, I was right around that time. And my dad, my dad is, like, my biggest supporter now in, like, music fully, but he was also my biggest supporter in diving. He just wanted to, like, see me try for the Olympics. So he was just kind of, like, he was trying to definitely convince me to take the fifth year, but without, like, saying, like, this is what you have to do. Right. You know. suggestion. Other than that, there wasn't really anything that would make me, like,

consider it at all that I wasn't going to do it. I was just, music became something that it was just, I was obsessed with it. And diving was just, you know, slowly just becoming, ran its course. Lesser than music, yeah. Yeah, my brother was like, fuck you, dad. You want to battle the Chinese in this fucking thing? They have one every year.

I can't sell 3,000 tickets diving. I can sell out theaters doing this. Were your friends jealous of you? I bet they were, dude. I mean, you're popping off in college, dude. I didn't... I don't think they were...

I didn't feel any jealousy. I think I had a great... Great group of friends around me that were, like, stoked and, like, knew all my songs and stuff like that. That was really cool. I just don't think I was friends with any like assholes or anything like that that would like in high school yeah if I stayed friends with those people they would be like just you know that way and like some like parents would say just very like

condescending things that are they that they know how the world works and how like what you should do but I had a great group of friends I had a small just like five, six people that would hang out that we were just like, they liked it and yeah, it was awesome. This guy's got it all going on.

I don't like it all going on. I don't like them. I'm just kidding. We want you to suffer a little bit, okay? You're in the music industry, you can't just have this easy route. No, but we're proud of you, bro. We're rooting you on, bro.

I'm been a fan of you for a while, and I think you're a great songwriter and you're even better person. I'm just, I'm so happy. I'm stoked to be, friends, bro. It'll be fun. Hell yeah. I'm honored to be here on here. It's been

awesome talking with you. I really appreciate it. Likewise. And then I know it's going to happen. If I see him before you do, I'll let Luke Bryan know that he's a piece of shit for fucking making you go go back to diving. Background character name. Yeah. Background character ass, Luke Bryan. That's a bad.

It's like, sounds like a dude from GTA. We were just talking about how all those country guys sort of have like, there's like only three names and they're all kind of sharing it. There's like two Brian's and a Luke. The Brian, yeah, there's a lot of Brian's. Brown, Brian, Zach, Luke. I try to live in Nashville. Not enough Jews.

I'm, you know, I'm Jewish. So it's a lot of. Everybody's working on Saturday in Nashville. Everyone's working on Saturday in Nashville. All right, we got to let this man go. He's getting on tour. He needs to hang out his girlfriend enough. So she's not pissed at him why everyone gets on the road.

If I was him, I'd want to go back to my life immediately, too. I would. no I'm having a great time I'm happy for you we're rooting you on we got one last question while you embark on this big headline tour

which we're fucking I'm gonna try to come when's the Bluebird show yeah oh sorry that that was in February oh fuck well he'll come back

Boulder is Boulder around yeah I bet you're in the Fox Theater or the Boulder Theater Fox Theater yeah I'll be there when's that September 2017.

Are you guys going to be on the road? I'm home. Okay. Yeah. Come hang out. If you guys need a place to crash, you crash in my pad. He's got a sweet place.

Got a, yeah. Eight or eight people? Yeah. Totally. If it's like at least part of the band. At least eight or at least six, yeah.

At least save you a couple hotel. Okay. Yeah. All right, buddy. Good luck out there. Be safe. I'm glad you got rid of your drug addiction. Yeah.

You never. You're one drug. You're one time. The dark side. I'm glad you still believe in the big man up there, even through the bullshit that is the church. I watch Jesus camping. Well, I like the way he put it. He says there's a difference between having a relationship with God and being religious.

Exactly. That's how it should. I don't say it. I don't say religious. I love how you said that. Good. That's good. This man's too smart.

23s. I'm big things for him. I could see him being like a congressman. Yeah. I can see you. No, you're too good of a person. You're too good of a person. No, no, no.

We don't need that in him. We need him writing hits. But he's got the, you know. Writing sensitive songs for the people and writing just silly songs like that car song that, you know, write them all. Pepper all in. And get out there and go, go kick some ass out there, buddy. Hell yeah. My last question.

It's an honor, man. Likewise, brother. My last question before you leave, I ask every guest to this. When it's all said and done, what do you want to be remembered by? when it's all said and done I just want to be remembered by someone that made

real art that's authentic to me and that hopefully has helped people in some way or resonated with even just one person yeah I think that's my answer He's like, I have so many years before I have to think about it.

Yeah, he's like, I got like an 80 years. Why you ask me this right now, brother? I'm 23. Well, keep the fight up, brother. We'll be ruined for you and have fun out there. And, you know, if you ever are in a rut or anything, don't be afraid to hit up, hit me up, man. You know, I consider you like a young Padawan and I want to help you however way. Do the opposite.

Even if you just want to talk, if you're lonely, you know. We're, there's all a group of us have been on the road since we are 19. So we want to help the young too. So we got you. Oh yeah. I appreciate you guys. Cool, brother.

All right. Have a great one, Ev. And yeah, good luck out there. Go fuck some shit up. Oh, yeah.

I'll tell that piece of shit, Lou Ryan, that he's a piece of shit for fucking even trying to belittle your dreams. Honestly, winning American had a little bit of curse. I know, but that's still,

send that to a fucking kid. He said go back to diving. Go back to die. Like, suck a dick, look, a diving minds. Am I going to go make money in the diving mines?

Dumbass? Yeah, what is this? Say blood diamond, dog, okay? Jesus Christ. All right, later, Ev. Later.