Fore Play - Tiger’s Back (home and in video games) and Chris Bandi

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

The king of video games is back and in a BIG way. A one Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods just inked a new deal with 2K to bring back Tiger Woods video games. Frankie takes us on a deep dive into the history of golf video games, Riggs and Trent recount the time they spent living with Gary Player during The Masters, and much more. Then we are joined by country music star Chris Bandi (54:39) for almost an hour. Chris tells hilarious stories involving John Daly and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, the grind of coming up in country music, his experience performing at the Grand Ole Opry, and as always, much more!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Honda Classic Week. Then we've got match play, which Kevin Kisner will be defending chant because there was no match play. Then a couple weeks after that, it's the Masters. So we're getting real close. We got a great interview here with kind of an up-and-coming country music star who's kind of broken out very recently with a song that's got I looked at, million streams on Spotify alone. I think it's got 90 million total across YouTube and a bunch of other

streaming services. Chris Bandy, who's the man, he's a huge golfer, huge golfer. Got into it over the last ago. And man, we hear stories about the grind. He actually told Frankie to fuck off at one time because Frankie was talking about punk and how they just appeared on the scene and play in front of thousands of people. And he actually told Frankie to fuck off. Yeah. And I'm sure we're startling the audio listeners, the people that are listening through their earloves to the show, as opposed to just watching us on YouTube. Because if you're watching us on YouTube, you know that we're in a studio right now, Trent and I. Yeah, we are. You know what just feels like? What feels like that S&L skit where they talk about my sweaty balls? I don't know that one. Okay. I was going to say it sounds like

ASMR compared to some of the other podcasts. It does. That's a good point. Hopefully we are protruding your interlobes. Do you feel we are, and that's, that was a good word that you use, Do you feel like it's a delicate dance when you tell these musicians that you are not a musician? You just work at a like a media company. And all of a sudden you put this stupid pop punk band together and you guys sell at Irving Plaza. Because that's how he felt in that moment. Today was the first time I've ever done that. I thought you've done it in the past with other people because you do try to relate to them being like I've performed at Irving Plaza.

Yes. But I've never once like I've never posed the comment or the question in a fact, in a way that would actually make the person feel bad about. that they had to do a grind to get to the stage that I was just put on. Got it. You know what I mean? Today, the way I explained it, halfway through as I was like, oh, yeah, we played Irving Plaza. We played House of Blues.

We played all these places. He's like, dude, like, I just got done talking about how I couldn't even afford a Coca-Cola at the bar the night before and that I had to sleep in a room with five dudes and go from four-hour road trip. And I was like, yeah, we just kind of just tweeted out that we're going to be at the House of Blues and we sold it out. We're not even good musician. So that was super cocky, conceded, and actually made me embarrassed.

I actually think I said that during the interview. I felt embarrassed. When the people listen to the interview, they'll hear him say it. And he was joking, but there was a bit of truthness behind it, a bit of realness. And I'm the first person to admit that, like, that's bullshit that we get those types of things. And I think a lot of the things we do at bar school are in that same category. We just get to go play fucking Wolf Creek and we get to play Pebble Beach and we get to do all these things. And I honestly feel like I get a pit in my stomach half the time that we get to do these things.

So I think it's good to talk it out. Because I feel honestly, I feel embarrassed. I think they call it imposter syndrome. Totally. Yeah. Honestly, half the time I'm embarrassed. Because like I should not be playing fucking Wolf Creek. I will say you're kind of our resident music guy, though.

Like when it goes down that road and you're definitely not the last person to say like, well, I play the drums for this band. I feel like that comes out every time we speak with a musician who's also a golfer. Like that's just you never keep that in the pocket. Well, I wanted them to know that, you know, one of their people are on the show here, you know. One of their people. Now you're like, of their elk. This is getting a little ridiculous.

Well, I would have said that even when I was on the drumline in seventh grade going to Disney while playing in fucking competitions. Like, I didn't need to sell out Irvin Plaza with Robbie Fox and Rohn and PFT to say that I was a musician. I've been a musician since the womb, I feel like. John, you ever play any musical instruments? No. Riggs? No.

No, I did, like in seventh grade, I played the, I don't even know what I played, but it was kind of mandatory music, and I was the second to last chair. Okay. Yeah, I remember, I played the trombone, which is very fitting. Oh, my God, you are a trombone, dude. Yeah, exactly. That might be my new nickname. Did you just speak when, like, if you forgot your trombone, you go,

Oh. That's like when, you know how when the dogs end up looking like their owners? that's where you ending up being that instrument. Dude, the worst part was that I had to lug that thing, like to and from school, and I would take the bus every day and the thing's like six feet long, so just hold it and just like knock everybody in their knees

down the little bus ride. It wasn't my favorite instrument. I played a couple years, glad it's over. Yeah, I just remember like in middle school, maybe even before, I think it was elementary school. The music class, it was mandatory that you played the recorder, which I don't get familiar with that. But that was really as far as my musical talent went,

I just didn't have it. I don't have it. Yeah, same way. I think recorder was about as deep as I went. The entire interview is not that awkward. I promise just the moment where Frankie tried to compare himself to, you know, this Nashville, very successful musician who debuted at the Grand Ole Opry last year.

So listen to that. It's very good. It's coming up here in the second half of the show. Something that's not embarrassing is Owen's mixtures. I got our little can right here, the transfusion. It really is a beautiful can. Yeah. And we get it tweeted out us a lot.

It's transfusion Thursday. when you're listening to this. So do yourself a favor. Pour cocktail. Show it to us. Tweet it at us with the hashtag transfusion Thursday. You know, we'll pick the best one. You can win some stuff. It's very cool. People like winning stuff. And even if you don't win stuff, go get yourself some Owens mixtures poured in with your liquor of choice. And you've got yourself an elite cocktail, whether it's a paloma for Mr. Trombone over there, whether it's a transfusion for the rest of us, whatever it may be. Owens is your answer. They got great flavors. and a transfusion is my personal favorite.

That's why we put it in our own little can. It's got more and more stores. Every time we do this show, we work really hard to get it out there, distribution, the whole damn game. So go check it out. Amazon, you can get on Amazon, get it delivered to you very, very quickly.

Kroger's, all these stores have it. So big thanks to Owens for supporting us. And again, you just poured in with your favorite liquor. You got an awesome cocktail. It's very, very simple. Okay, Tiger Woods. We're going to start with Tiger Woods issued a A very brief statement yesterday saying that he has returned to South Florida.

He's returned home. He's recovered home. He thanked everyone for the support. You're welcome. And then he also thanked in a very, I thought, sincere couple sentences, everyone that took care of him in, you know, surgery and at the hospital of that. It can only be considered a very good side. I think it's three weeks now after the accident that Tiger Woods returned home to South Florida. J.T. kind of alluded to the fact that he's happy.

Tiger seems to be doing relatively well, all things considered. So a little bit of a sigh of relief, I would say that Tiger's back home. He's in South Florida. It appears surgery has gone well. I think infection was a huge issue that a lot of people were concerned about when you're doing the type of shit that was going on with his lower body. I think we would have heard about it if he had a really bad infection. I know these out of the woods fully yet, but it sounds like in terms of, you know, It sounds like in terms of your, you know, hopeful wishes it's going about as well as it could be considering what happened to Tiger's lower body.

I'm glad he's doing well. But these releases are taking years off my life. When I look down to my phone and it says Tiger Woods tweeted, it happened to us on the stream yesterday. We were streaming when this one broke and you just looked down to your phone. And we've talked about this before with these releases. I think it was when the crash initially happened. and it was his first release. You can't see what it says.

You just know that Tiger Woods tweeted and it's going to be like the fancy version of a Notes app. So you've got to open your phone. You got to open the Twitter app. And then you just got to hope that it's good news. So it clearly is good news now, which is great. But every time I see one of these releases, I just get very, very nervous. But it seems like everything's positive.

He's out of the hospital. That's got to be great for him back in the comfort of his own home. But yeah, it seems like things are on the up and up about as up and up as they can be for Tiger. How does it show up for you when you see it? Does it say like Tiger Woods pick Twitter? Because it's just a picture. It's, yeah, it says,

you have no idea what could possibly, it could possibly be when you have the phone lock. That's what I mean. I have Tiger Woods, I think he's the only person I have notifications on four on Twitter. So when he tweets, it goes right to my, it shows up on my front screen.

And it just says Tiger Woods tweeted and then it has Twitter picked all the random numbers that it gives to it. And I'm just like, all right, now I'm going to open it up. I'm going to put in my password here and I'm going to hope that Tiger Woods is doing okay. You're half expecting it to say,

like the first line to be like, I have decided to retire from professional. Like you're very, you're, you're, you're open to the fact that it could be horrific what you're about to read. Dude, 100% and you just brought something to my attention. That's how I'm going to learn when Tiger Woods retires because it's going to come from his mouth. It's going to come from his Twitter account. And I'm going to learn by looking at my phone and seeing it that Tiger Woods just tweeted a picture.

And I'm going to be like, oh my God, what is this? And one day, it's going to happen. One day it's going to be, I'm hanging it up. I'm done. You know what's fucked up is he maybe has. And this is a stretch. He maybe has five more of those tweets until maybe we see one of those. Because even if he comes back and he's healthy and all these things,

like he doesn't send out those types of messages very often. No. It's usually like a big moment in his life. So I'm saying like within the next five notifications that you get from Tiger Woods, you've got to think one of those is the retirement. So you think he's only got five big notifications left? So like five or last majors, five injuries, five something. Does he send out a notification for a major?

No, no, he'll send out, like, you know, great win at the master. It's like, I was at a great weekend. Right. It's only for big events, usually negative. Yeah. Is when he's putting these out. So I think five is right around the right number. And we got to hope that it's under five, honestly.

So, but you just said he's going to give a notification if he wins the master. So that's one major. Like, if he wins the open. Oh, but those are usually tweets or like a picture or something. Like that, that dark blue background with the dash tiger underneath it. He does a tweet statement. It's like, thank you to my support. I will be back.

We don't need any of those. And if we have five more of those, then we are on for a bumpy road ahead. Dude, he's given us the biggest range of information the last 10 years from those as anybody could. Oh, man. You should expect anything because literally, like when you open that up, he's given us everything with regards to those messages. I mean, one day, hopefully, that you got to, we got to prepare ourselves for one day, one of those. one of those tweet statements is going to say I have, you know, registered for it and planning to start in, you know, the farmer's insurance open at the end of next month. Thank you to my doctors are getting me to this point like that.

In theory, that will come in the next couple years. And when that does, boy, oh, boy, are we going to have a fucking field day on the internet and go absolutely crazy? You got to do everything in your power to hope that that really comes, to hope that's a thing because there's a chance that, like, like if if that never comes, then we're in a position where we will never really get a positive Tiger Woods tweet statement until he retires. Correct. Yes. We need.

Yeah. I agree with that actually. But you hope that it's just the first one. Right. Like he can't start getting trigger happy with these fucking statements. Like leave it to just the negative stuff and retirement. Like when we see that, we know. It's almost like when you see that notification pop up, you hang your head and you're like, all right,

this is something here. He's too private to have those tweets be everything. I mean, like, there's no way. He's way too private for that. Can we talk about some positive Tiger Woods news? Yeah. EGA, for. Hold on.

Before we, yeah, I want to, but three weeks in the hospital is a long time, which only to me just justifies how bad of an accident actually was. I mean, it must have been horrific. Well, it's just shattered both of his legs. Yeah. I don't know. That's just. I'm with you, though.

three weeks is a long time. Dude, like, family members that go to the hospital or something like that for something horrible, like a couple days where they have surgery is a long time. They're in there for four days, five days. Three weeks, dude. I guess it would be different if we didn't know how bad it was. Like, we knew it was bad.

We knew it was really bad. It would have been one thing if they had just said like, yeah, I mean, he went tumbling off a cliff at 85 miles per hour, but he just got a hairline fracture in his arm or something. Then it would have been weird if he, he had then gotten out three weeks later, but they were pretty up front,

I think, with how hurt he was. So maybe three weeks isn't that long. So who knows what a Tiger Woods hospital experience is like? It's not like your grandma and grandpa going to the hospital. It's probably has his own wing. He's probably doing a little bit of physical therapy in there, whether it's for his arms.

You know, he's getting moving. So like those three weeks, who knows, maybe they moved him to another area of the hospital to recover and just like hanging out. Maybe family was able to be. be with him. He did move to a different hospital during that stay. Right. So who like those three weeks to me are, that's just a very bland. Like he was away for three weeks getting recovered massive, almost near death experience car crash. I do want to bring up something that is very nice and warming to my heart and it should be exciting for all of us. It's that Tiger Woods is coming back to the video game landscape. I don't know really how to put into words how important this is for us, you know, in the golf media world, in the

video game playing world in the Tiger Woods fandom world. The fact that we have El Tigris, the man in red and black, the cat playing virtual golf again, being a character inside a virtual golf game is so huge. We never thought we were going to get this again. No, and they made a point in the statement to say that, yes, we're going to use his name. Yes, he's going to be in the game. He's going to be on the cover, all this stuff. But then at the end, they were like, he's also coming in as a consultant. Yeah. Which is huge. For anyone who's ever played any Tiger Woods game, knows that they're the best golf games that have ever existed. So you're now having the best consultant you can possibly have now join the 2K team. And the game is already great. Yeah. Like we play it all the time.

It's very popular. We've got the Barcelona Society that people play in all the time. It's like, it's already a fantastic game. And now they're bringing in the greatest, you know, video game golf guy they could possibly find. So it's, it's going to be fantastic. Let me, let me ask this. You think you can actually be Tiger in the newer versions? You think that's going to be part of it? So here, I want to, I want to dive and dip into this history of this video game really quick. Because I've seen, we streamed last night. There were a lot of questions about it. And I'm going to give my honest opinion on what I think is going to happen with 2K.

So the golf club was a video game. It was a very niche group of people that would play. Right. So like the golf club was out in, I think, 2016. And it was like a PC game. And everyone liked to use the builder, Butter's Bay, Nice Creek. Like they had this simulation community that loved to. You know, it's the same people like Zah.

Zah likes to get on these trains and the train simulator. And he likes to run trains from fucking, not run train. That's a second black. That's exactly. Zah likes to run trains. Zah just got a fucking, you know, that's a ricochet shot. He's a very big reason. You signed him up for something he's probably not.

He doesn't want to sign up for. He, he, he, he, he, what is the word? I don't want to speak for Zod. What do you, he, he drives trains. Yeah. He's the conduct. He's the conduct trains on their journey from, Boston down to DC. It's an insane thing. But there's this simulation community that loves to live

worlds in the virtual reality. So the golf club was one of those things. They had this course builder and, you know, they started to build a really big community. And then all of a sudden, it got really big to the point where I started playing the golf club 2019. I'm like, holy shit, this is a really good fucking golf game. I know you guys were talking about it. I had people over my apartment. I'm like, you guys have no idea. This is actually really. You can have you can hit spot shots. You can hit fucking, you can hit bump and runs. It's real. You can actually shoot a 97 on a hard golf course. It's like real golf. So 2K then slaps their name on this iteration of the game, PGA Tour 2K21. They didn't really do a long overhaul of the game. It's basically PGA tour, the golf club 2019, just repurposed with a new name, a little more licensing. They got JT on the cover. But it was one of those things where it's like, we want to be a part of this, but we're just going to put our name on it. We're not going to put a lot of money into it yet. Like, let's just see how this goes. Well, fast forward to now, I mean, Barstool Golf Society gets behind it.

You've got guys like the Apexhound and crazy connect. All these people are playing nonstop on fucking YouTube and Twitch. And it blew up like crazy. So now 2K releases yesterday or two days ago that not only are they getting Tiger Woods on a multi-year, massive mega deal apparently it's supposed to be. They are also acquiring HB Studios, which is this, which is this Newfoundland little as Newfoundland and, New Finland. New Finland's in Canada, right? British Columbia, yep.

Maybe not British Columbia, but they're this small Canadian studio that built this golf club game. They just got acquired from 2K. What does that mean? It means that 2K now owns the rights to this game and they have money to put into HV Studios. They are going to put so much cash into the development of this game because, let me tell you something, Tiger Woods is not putting his name on some bullshit, ranky-dink fucking organization. He knows that this

this thing has a lot, a lot, a lot. A lot of potential. A lot of potential. I couldn't think of that word. So I looked at my pal Trent there for help there. We got it. So that's just kind of the history of how we got here. HB Studios was this little fucking studio.

Now I think they have a lot, a lot of opportunity here to put good graphics in, to get more players. So I'll answer your question. I know this has been a long-winded fucking speaking. People are probably driving with the road listening to me talk this much. You sound good, though. The answer I want to give you, Riggs, is I do think now with this ability to put a lot more money into it, you will get players with the swing. So you will be able to play with Tiger Woods.

The one thing that people said they didn't want is a generic swing, right? Think about if you played Tiger Woods. And they just said, all right, we're going to make them look like Tiger Woods, but everyone's going to have the same swing plane. That would be horrible. You want Tiger to swing like Tiger. You want Bryson to swing like Brison. That's going to take a ton of time, money and like, you know, you got to get these guys synced up. I mean, think what NBA does.

NBA 2K gets each guy in their release and like the way they dribble the ball and like how they look running down. Kevin Durant like does the lanky run back like all that stuff goes into it. So I mean, maybe not next game, but the future of 2K is going to be. If you're a video game lover, you should be so fucking pumped up that this just happened. Like I'm genuinely excited. Dude, and it's legitimately brought me back to video games. Like if you took a break between, you know, if some of the golf video games, you were kind of like,

now this is getting too hard. This just isn't what it used to be for me. I was that guy. And then with PJ Tour 2K21, you know, I knew we were getting involved with it. And you had said great things about golf club 2019. And I was just like, I'm in. I'm going to try it again. And now it's, I genuinely love this game.

And so to have it now be put in a spot where they're going to pour a bunch more money into it. And it's only going to get better and better. You just got to hop on the train. If you gave up on golf video games a decade ago, it's time to get yourself a new system and jump back in because this game is going to be worth it. Yeah, now, I mean, they have the potential now to create a game and they have all the tools. They've, they've acquired everything you need to acquire to create a game that is a combination of the Tiger Woods game franchise where you have all the players.

You can play with the players. You've got the swings. You've got the with the graphics of today and with the courses of the video games today, where you can create courses, where there's thousands of courses in the game. because the biggest knock on a lot of the Rory game when that came out and a lot of the older Tiger games is that you're so limited in the golf courses that you could play. It'd be like 15 courses that you could play and that was it. And the beauty of the game now is, yes, it's extremely real and it is very fun to play.

But the courses almost dominate because you can scour through there. People create them, make them insanely realistic and you can play these awesome courses that people create. So if you can combine that with all of the incredible positives that were, how we grew up playing golf video games, which were, again, being Tiger Woods, like the charisma cutting to him, like walking down the fairway, the way he walks down the fairway, fist bumping his swing,

and they had all the other guys and how realistic their swings were. You have the chance to create the best, the best video game for golf by far that's ever been created. And I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do that now. Yeah. They really highlighted that Tiger said that he would be bringing his expertise to the game because,

like Tiger is one of those guys that he's just not going to put his name on something that he doesn't think is going to be successful and it's already a really successful product. So yeah, and the way you can tell and the listeners can tell that we're really jacked up about this is 2K is not on the sponsorship or ad ad read for today. Like this is not a fucking this is not a sponsorship read. This is just us being really big fans. And that's like as that's as genuine and real as it gets. So do you think it's a weird timing though for the announcement with obviously Tiger in the hospital? Do you think there's any like weirdness? to that? I would guess that they were probably going to announce it weeks ago and actually delayed it. That would be my guess. Yeah, I would assume that too. Because like what are the

odds that like they announced it the day he got home? Yeah. No, just just interesting. And like I don't know. My mind goes different places with that of like him signing on, weird spot for him. Obviously this deal has been in the works, I'm sure, for a year's time. But certainly interesting. Yeah, I bet too. I mean, knowing because we're in that world a little bit of announcing shit is like you have you kind of got to keep to certain schedules because you have other stuff to announce and you have things to work on. And like there's probably phases of things that they want to release over the next however many months or year to like hype it up that like they need people to know that tigers evolved. So I, you know, I would guess I would guess that they probably were ready to announce pretty close to when the accident happened and then probably. got to a point, like, all right, he's, you know, he's now going to announce it. He's going home.

We can announce it then. But, but, but yeah, I mean, ideally they wouldn't have announced it when he's got two broken legs and nobody knows if you're ever going to be able to play golf or walk again. Like, they probably would have rather it been when he was, you know, still a favorite or top 20 favorite to win a major. So, but yeah, I mean, these things, again, with the announcement, because somebody messaged me and was like, do you think that Tiger signed on to do the video game because of his injury, he's not going to have time now to play and I was like no these things take months and months to negotiate come up with so so yeah I would guess they have a lot of other things they're going to release and therefore they

probably were like we got to get this out pretty soon yeah there's no way that it could be timed up with the injury and like tiger being in a weak spot because it just takes I mean I'm sure to work with tiger or get somebody to sign off it's been signed off now for probably a couple months already and this was the release date especially Tiger Woods with a video golf game he was the king of video game golf games. So to get him to agree to this with a whole new partner must have been a massive deal, like a lot of meetings and a lot of convincing to be like, hey, you are known as the EA Tiger Woods.

What was the last one? 2013. So like we haven't seen this guy in eight years at least on a video game. And he's the biggest in golf. So like to get him to be like on a new team with 2K, that's not something that just happens, you know, like they're saying, within a week's spot. That's something that happened maybe years ago. I'm so fucking excited.

Oh, my God. I'm so excited for it. It's going to be incredible. And I think people do need to be patient with it because it's not, you know, you got to think that this game is starting from the ground up with like a new acquiring of, you know, 2K just acquired at HB. And I think there's going to be a lot of things people want. And I think it's going to be like a growing process.

But like the where it's going is going to be. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yep. Especially with the news comes out too. Oh, my God. Last time you went and played golf, ladies and gentlemen, and you were hungry on the golf course.

How many times does that happen, fellas? You know what it is? You know what the golf course does to me? There's a couple of places that when I step onto some place, and there's two places I'm thinking of. When I go into a movie theater, I have to have popcorn. I almost go to movie theaters just to have popcorn. When I go to a golf course,

sometimes I just have to eat a hot dog or something. You just get hungry. Like there's two places that just make me hungry, and one of them is a fucking movie theater. and one of them's a fucking golf course. It's a weirdest thing. I could eat a full meal right before a golf course. I still have to eat on the golf course.

You always get hungry in the course. Everybody does. You don't want to be out there frustrated. You get angry. It's very, very, very annoying. You got to have snacks in the bag and there is no better snack, ladies and gentlemen. Talk about Chef's Cut. Chef's Cut Real Jerky.

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I got different flavors right here. And I'm telling you, you're going to have a significantly better golfing experience. When you get this stuff, keep it in your bag, pull it out. Your playing partner is going to be impressed. You're going to be impressed.

It's delicious. And I can see Trent over there salivating at the fucking mouth right now. Well, it is a great golf course snack, but I'll tell you what, Chef Scott was nice enough to send me, and I'm sure you guys, a bunch of the beef jerky.

That stuff ain't made. making it into the golf course, okay? That stuff is like it's, I'll tell you what, it's 95% gone already. Like, the only reason I still have a background right now is because I figured we were going to do a read on the podcast and I wanted to have some with me. Look how good that beef jerky looks. But it's so, dude, it's honestly so good. And like I'm saying, I'm going to have to re-up my chef's cup because the stuff that

I have in my apartment is already gone. Oh, fucking amazing. It's terriaki man. Oh, dude, it's just fantastic. I know you've been eating some of it too, Frankie. Dude, I legitimately gasped when I got home from our long trip. We got back from Vegas. I saw a big box waiting for me when I got home.

And I opened this thing up. And it was, I don't know, 10 bags of jerky. I'm four bags of jerky down. Like I have six bags left. And I tried everything. The zero sugar one, which I thought was going to be gross. It wasn't gross. It was fucking phenomenal.

I tried the terriaki one, the original. I mean, everything, like you're saying, no matter how many days you've had it, no matter how many days the bag's been open, it still tastes tender. It still has juice in it. It's the best beef jerky I've ever had. And I was never like a stickler on beef jerky. Like you go to a gas station or whatever,

you just pick up a stick beef jerky. It is what it is. Now I'm chef's cut or I'm nothing. They have set the bar for beef jerky. Couldn't agree more. Chef's cut real jerky founded by two caddies on the golf course who said, hey, we need to figure this out. We need a perfect snack, a little source of protein.

It's made in the U.S. of A. And again, you go to chefs cut real jerky.com. Use the code. It's one word CC4Play. CC4Play gets you 25% off. That chefs cut real jerky.com. CC4 play, you get 25% off. I'm not getting this stuff.

It's just delicious. I'm actually, you guys figure out something to talk about because I'm going to eat this real quick. Oh, anybody catch the Masters documentary on ESPN? I think you guys were streaming. So you probably missed it? No. Oh, you mean like the behind the greens one? Is that what it is?

no it wasn't behind the greens was oh they're releasing one that's coming out i think yeah i saw that that's what i didn't know if you were okay yeah i thought you were making a little joke because i mean the master came up with this incredible revolutionary idea to film them how they got the golf course ready and interview the superintendent and the fucking groundskeeper and all these people they're putting in the flowers they're interviewing the lady putting the flowers in on magnolia it's i gotta tell you frank that sounds like a good idea it's revolutionary yeah so pGA tour two days behind the scenes at the players championship. It's kind of like behind the greens. That's the joke we make. Dude, I will, can we send out a C&D? We always get C&D. Can we send out a fucking C&D? I want to talk. I want to

send out a verbal C&D right now. Send out a verbal C&D right now. I want to, maybe I'll cut my fucking thumb and I'll put it my piece of blood on the bottom. This is war. I'll put a little smiley face in the blood with my nail. I mean, I'm not saying I'm the first person ever make a video about a golf course. I'm just saying that like I had never seen a video preparing for a golf court,

like a documentary style preparing for a golf course, but superintendents in the middle of the night. Beautiful drone shots. It's just, it is what it is. And you know, what is it? Um, imitation is this is the most, it's the most sincere form of water.

Yeah, imitation is the most sincere form of flattered. I fucked that. You were close. But I think, is the master's one that you're talking about rigs? Is that a different one? So the one that I saw, and I missed the first like eight minutes of it.

It was only 30 minutes. So maybe the beginning of it. They were doing flowers and shit. and that could be the same one. It was called the one in November. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, they, they, but it, it wasn't behind the greens. I mean, maybe there was a small section of it, Frankie,

so you, hopefully you can sleep tonight with your little chefs cut beef jerky, all curled up in bed. But they had a lot of behind the scenes footage of the champions dinner where like Tiger and like Markham, like couldn't find the dinner. And they were like, because it's in a different room. It was actually amazing. Oh, this is must watch stuff. It was must watch stuff.

I saw a 30 second clip. It says the one in November and it's these people putting in flowers all along the drive in. And I'm like, oh, okay. That might have been, that had to have been in the beginning when I just missed it. But it was like, it was all of the lead up to basically to the masters. It didn't even cover like the actual tournament. Like they kind of ended it right when it started and like when the shots were hit. But it was all about like the lead up to it, preparing for, you know, the one in November and how different it was.

It was cool. And Tiger was obviously the defending champion. So there was a decent amount of like behind the scenes tiger content in there. There was Cameron Champ coming in. And like it was his first master. So they had him like coming down at Magdalia Lane and doing like the temperature test and answering the questions about like not like not having had COVID symptoms in the last 14 days just to get like past Magnolia Lane, which was interesting. So just kind of the whole concept of them showing footage behind the scenes.

Augusta is always going to be really cool. So guys, check that out. I want to see that. It sounds a little bit like the experience that you and I had with Mr. Gary Player, where remember when we were driving with him to the Champions Dinner? Like that, it just sounds a little bit like that. And I obviously love access like that. And I want to see more like that.

So this sounds like a must watch thing, especially Tigers more involved. Yeah. It probably doesn't get talked about enough, Trent, that you and I rode and drove down Magnolia Lane with Gary Player dropping him off at the Champions Dinner the masters. Some of the coolest video I've ever seen was that. Like when you showed me that I could not believe it. Dude, I remember we yeah, we were just sitting in the back seat while they drove him and to drop him off at the champion center. Like it's it feels like it happened a hundred years ago and it kind of did. But it was it was we stayed in the same house as him.

We worked out on the front lawn with him. We ate dinner with him. Listen to him tell stories. If you haven't watched those videos, you should. I would imagine they're on the four play YouTube channel, you're going to have to scroll a little bit. I guess you could just use the search bar. And you could, you know, as a modern human being, I would do that. Otherwise, you're going to be scrolling for a while. Yeah, I would do that ESPN one sounds great. But there's also some Mr. Gary player footage that we got. By the way, the reason Frankie just disappeared and if you listen to us on a podcast, you're not going to care about this at all. But the low battery thing popped up in the right

hand corner there and him and I both froze because it's hooked up to the whole machine here. And if that goes dead, then we go dead. So Frankie's trying to figure out a charter situation. But to put a pin in that, I do want to watch that Masters documentary. I would say probably a top, probably like one of the first two or five videos that we have ever put on our YouTube page, I think, were those Gary Player videos. We just spent, I think we put like an hour's worth of videos out of like a part one and a part two of us just spending Masters week at Gary Players out.

Didn't when you first showed up? Didn't he like do leg kicks or wasn't he just like doing some workout and making you guys do it too or kind of embarrassing you with the amount of pushups he could do. Didn't he greet you with something like that? I can't remember. All I remember is pushups involved for sure. We definitely got a workout, but that was like the next day, I think. But the one thing I do remember about getting there, and Riggs is definitely going to remember this.

We got there and we could not find the house. We were putting it into the GPS and it was not showing up and we were doing circles on this road. And at one point, one of us said, are we sure that this is real? like we were thinking that Riggs had been strung along by a stooly who was like, let's make these guys think that they're going to spend a master's week with Gary Player. We'll make it all very official. We'll make them fly down there. We'll make them rent a car.

And then they'll go out there and we'll put an address of a house that does not exist. And there was a 10 minute stretch in that car where we were going to have to call our boss, Dave Portnoy, and say, we got strung along. We're not actually spending the weekend with Mr. Gary Player. there is a few minutes worth of footage in that first video where you can see the fear in my face that I 100% believed at the time. Trent, I blew it. I got duped. I got trolled. Of course, we're not going to Gary, fucking Players' house. Why would we be going to Gary Players' house? We're in Augusta. And there's, because the address, his guy gave me was just off by like a couple numbers.

And, you know, if it was like 1257 was the address he gave me, there was 12. 56 there was 1258 and there just wasn't a house at 1257 it was like the fucking train in harry potter like like nine and three quarters or whatever it just wasn't a thing and i was like trent the house doesn't exist the weekend doesn't exist it's over like it's just over man and then he called us was like yeah i just gave me the wrong address it's here and we rolled up and gary player was like eating berries at the fucking in the kitchen or something it really does speak to how preposterous the premise is that we were spending the weekend with gary master's weekend with Gary player. Luckily, we were not duped. And yeah, we had, we had a delightful time. He is

obviously a fantastic. All things considered, I mean, even since I've been on the podcast and Lurch, like, that's the craziest thing four plays ever done. Right? Probably. Well, we dropped him off at the Champions dinner. We drove down Magnolia Lane. He had to get past securities wearing his green jacket. He was wearing his fucking great. You guys sitting in a car, driving down Magnolia Lane, dropping off Gary Player. Not some whole hum see you later, Mr. Gary player. You slept at his house. You slept with Gary Player like in the same house.

Yep. And you dropped him off at the Champions dinner at Augusta National Masters week. Yep. In his green jacket. In his green jacket. That has to be crazy. That has to be at Augusta. Yeah.

It would be crazy if you were at Mr. Gary Player's house in July. And you're like, oh, look at this fucking green jacket. But you guys were on fucking, you guys were there. Yeah, we were fully. probably the number one thing for place ever done and it came together last minute close what's even close speaking with tiger meeting tiger yeah okay uh yeah it's yeah but i mean gary play i mean the guy hits the ceremony opening t-shot of the masses every year my argument is that we were sleeping five feet away from you can hear him snoring at night rick sat down with jack i mean that's pretty

yeah that's a big one oh shit true that's a big one's a big one but i would say those are probably top three you know meeting tiger but like he's number one dude the fact that you're driving down Magnolia Lane, which nobody on this earth really gets on. You can't get a hard to go on that. Right. We're doing it during Master's Week. My point in all this is that like people can meet Tiger Woods. Jack Nicholas has done interviews before.

I don't know that anyone's ever slept in the same house as Gary Player during Masters week, ate breakfast with them, had berries, did workouts, talked about all his stories, probably sat around a fire, whatever the hell you guys did. Yep. Then drove him down Magnolia Lane and dropped him off. like he was a fucking school child, getting ready for fucking school at the Champions dinner during Masters week.

I don't know that that's something that like one of our competing, competitor. One of our competitors in the space. You know what it is? I'm eating one of these fucking mints right now and stuck in the back of my tooth. That's something that like competition can't replicate.

You know what I mean? Like everything else is like, that's, all right, that's the golf world. You can make golf video. can interview a person. You can't do that experience ever again, ever again. That's as crazy as it gets. That's as crazy as it gets.

Dude, he returned from Champions Dinner that night and joined us at dinner with his son Mark Player and told stories about what happened that the champions there. That's like that's he did, yeah. 10 minutes after he got back from dinner. That's crazy. What were you guys doing when he arrived? Were you just watching TV, like just being morons? Like, were you like, like properly?

with like a tie on? Like what were you doing? Greek Gary Player? You got to realize his son, Mark, is Mr. dinner host guy. He just lives and breathes to run the Gary Player brand, the Black Knight brand. So he's always inviting over like VIPs

that they do business with and like telling stories. So we basically have like mini Gary Player hosting us at dinner at Gary Player's house, telling stories the whole night. So then actual Gary Player wearing all black coming home from the Champions Dinner. joined us, grabbed another bowl of berries and sat down and just told stories for like

an hour. Me and Trent, our jaws were just on the floor. Like, how in the literal fuck are we here right now? What'd you guys do? Like, what'd you guys do that week? What do you mean? Like, so you guys put up the video with him, right? Like, we went to, we, they gave us passes. Yeah? Went to the next. No, no, no. Here's what happened. I think we were there early in the week. And then we flew back to New York when the tournament started.

And then we like, we just covered how we normally would cover it. We were there earlier in the week. Yeah, and we went in for the par three contest, and right when we arrived on scene at the part three contest, Tony Fino got an ace and then fell right in front of our faces and like broke his ankle and half. That was that year. That was a bad one. The heats, remember this?

Remember this from the office? What the hell is going on? This is our office. This is the fucking bar school, $500 million company. The fucking heat rattles inside these studios. And these studios are where the money is made. Right. Like this is where the fucking big ass podcast record their audio. Got part of my take right next to us.

Yep. Yeah, call her daddy behind us. I mean, these things are rattling like someone's panhandling for cash out here. And it's funny because it happens all over the like the floor in the building and it happens out where the content people sit. And we've all just accepted it. It just happens. I said that today. I was sitting in the office and said, are we just going to accept that noise?

Because it was crazy to that. Yeah, it's loud. But it's obviously more. It's bigger in here because we are. recording an audio show. It's like a gnome is standing somewhere in the corner and just hitting a gong. Bain, bye. We're all just like, yelp, that's the office.

It's, we've been in this, this is the new Barstall office. We've been in here for years. I love it. I love it. It's the Barstall different. How many years has it been? How long ago was the old old, maybe two, two, bro? About two years.

Yeah, I bet two years. Is that right? I mean, I think it was, I think it'll be two years in May. That would be my guess. Um, I got to give a shout out to this guy. Well, I got a couple shoutouts to give before we get to this guy. One is we did our whole Deb-B classic recap, and I didn't shout out P-O-B, Pat O'Brien,

who's a Dallas area golf instructor coach, amazing guy. We're the nicest people on planet Earth. He was our fourth that day when it was Trent, myself, and Frankie and P-O-B playing. He gave me a little tip, a little, like, swing tip that made me play so much better the rest of that trip on Friday night at dinner when we were playing together. and I said to him, I go, you know, P.O.B, you hit the ball really well today. He's like, thanks. And I said, what was, what was kind of your swing thought today just because you hit it so well?

And he's like, Riggs, come in the other room with me and gave me like a full little rundown, down to the point where somebody got a picture of he was like down on one knee looking at like my little, my positions with my arms and help me out big time. So big shout out to Pob. Another one to 12 year old Pete is turning 13 this week. So believe it or not, and this has happened before. were in Barcelona history. I think 15-year-old Steve is like a fucking 25-year-old accountant now,

but he still gets called 15-year-old Steve. But you won't believe it, 12-year-old Pete from Pioneers to Frankie and I have both played against now. He turns 13. So happy birthday to 12-year-old Pete. We'll still call you 12-year-old Pete, though. That's the 15-year-old Steve. 15-year-old Steve is now 19, I think.

And 12-year-old Pete will always be 12-year-old Pete. So happy birthday to 12-year-old Pete. And, you know, now maybe you guys have to have another match where you lose to a 13-year-old. Maybe each year he beats you in a match and you lose to a 12, 13, 14, 15. Well, that's okay. Before we go down that road, you know, you decided to play him and he gave you nine shots and you barely beat him in a extra-old. Coming from Mr. Strokes, like, yeah, like I played the game of golf, the way golf has been fucking curated with strokes. He's a better golfer than I am.

And I beat him on a level playing field. I beat 12-year-old Pete. I'm just clarifying that as long as you admit that he's better than seven strokes and nine, yeah. My thing going on was, I was like, am I better than nine? I think it may have been nine. But listen, I, you know, I took him to a playoff. There was no strokes on 17, 18 or the playoff. I beat him straight up and I fucking look down on him on 18.

I said, I just beat you, a little boy. He's blending everything. There was no strokes on 17, 18 or the playoff. You got nine strokes before that. Yeah. Yeah, talk that shit, Frank. kids like a three handicapped like what are you supposed to do he's incredible no he's really good rigs has played him straight up and lost you basically said no you're better than i am

out of the gate so i'm not playing that match i'm going to play the stroke game yes and i moved him back too i think riggs you played him at like 6200 yards i played him at like 68 with nine strokes anyways 12 real pete started 13 happy birthday 12 real p you will forever be obviously 12 year old p And then the last one I've got is this guy on Reddit, one of my favorite things I've ever read. This guy just posted on Reddit and it's going kind of like Reddit viral. It's got, you know, tens of thousands of likes. All he did was just started a Reddit thread. And he just wrote, after 32 years of golfing, I finally made my first hole at one.

I don't have many people in my life. So I wanted to share it with Reddit. And that just, when I saw that, I just laughed out loud that this guy gets an ace. He's so happy about it. He knows he's got nobody to really share it. So he just logs into Reddit. And he says, I know there's people on this fucking Reddit thing. And I'm going to tell somebody about my own one.

So I appreciate the shit out of this guy. And big congratulations to that guy. Congrats to him. But there's also a little darkness in that statement. A ton of darky. A ton of darkness. You know, I'm happy for him. I'm very happy for him.

And I'm glad that the community on Reddit is congratulating him because he deserves it. But there's a little bit of darkness in that. I would assume that he got an email from Reddit. You know, sometimes you write things on Twitter. and Twitter emails you like, how are you doing? Yeah. That's happened to me after Islander games before where I'm like, I just don't know if I want to do this anymore.

And then Twitter emails you, like, how are you doing? Do you really? But it's obviously automated, but like somebody said, we saw this tweet. Yeah, we're going to respond and make sure this guy's okay. Totally. I actually thought you were making that up. I didn't, I've never gotten one of those.

Oh, man. Your Islanders tweets must get so dark that they're like, we got to check in on. I've gotten multiple. I'm going to tell you, I don't know how automated those are. You might be the only guy. No, dude. No, people have gotten. KSC's gotten was a lot.

So, yeah, that happens. I'm surprised you've never seen that. You're missed at Twitter. Yeah, but I'm not like all that negative really. Yeah, that's my brand. But yeah, shout out to that guy. And honestly, half more than half of doing things in the world is so that other people can see it. Right.

So like, this guy just wants people to know that he got a whole one. That proves that point where this guy's nameless. This guy doesn't have a name. It was like, user 6, 3, 1. No, but he got hard on reading all like the great job. Like, where was it? How long was the whole? He just needs people to know that he did it because like, why else got it?

36,000 up votes. Yeah. That's, that's what he was going for. And you know what? I applaud him. Great job on a whole one. And great job on getting that clout. I saw our boy Hardy got a hole in one the other day.

Oh, yeah. We talked about that on the interview coming up. did we before you jumped in yeah we did a mention where do we ever say where it was where it happened in Tennessee I thought I saw on his I think he tagged where it was but I can't remember the exact spot but he's a good player and we obviously we do get into that a little bit with Chris but he he's very into into it so it doesn't surprise me um having a getting an ace is um it's pretty it's pretty cool it's kind of it's kind of like sex and you really want it to last a long time.

Yes. And I mean, if you've got an ace, you want the ace to last a really long time, right? Dude, I saw you. We just want to keep making aases. We watched you reach for that segue and just like try and pull it out of the corner of your brain and it happened. I'm fucking proud of you, man. That was awesome. Do you think I did it?

If you watch the video version of this podcast, and I don't know if we were on the ads on the video version of this podcast, but he looks, he just looks for it. He's looking inside of his brain and you nailed it. Okay. appreciate that. Well, guess what? Most people have tried different ways to last longer, Trent. Roman's going to be your answer, Roman swipes. They're fantastic. They're the secret to longer lasting sex. Roman swipes are a clinically proven way to last longer in bed. They're effective. They're easy to use. They're fast acting. They do not require a prescription. And again, you don't want to be that guy that finishes early and gets made fun of. You don't

want to get laughed at. You want to be able to go to Poundtown for a long time, as long as you possibly can. Roman Swipes, you're going to help with that. Come in discreet, unmarked packaging. and yeah, that's right. And you go to get Roman.com slash four and you're going to get your first month of swipes for just five dollars. That's why we both made that sound. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Larch, you look uncomfortable during this ad read, I will say. I think Taddy could be my help to the Roman of helping me last longer because you gave a yes early. When you were looking for that, that's going to help me last a little longer. And then just that little extra segment that you added on, I think, you know,

with that Roman, I think I'll be able to be able to, will the last for a lot. How long did the Roman Empire last? Oof. Rich? Hmm. I'm going to say... Can I throw out a number before you say it?

Yep. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to say the Roman Empire lasted. Now, I could be way off here. I'm going to say the Roman Empire lasted a thousand years. So I'm going to say, I think Trent just looked it up. My guess is from...

somewhere around 70 or 80 BCE to around 280 or so 300 AD. So I'm going to say it's around 350 or 400 years. Okay. So I googled how many years, how long did the Roman Empire last? And I just went to the frequently asked questions on the Google machine. 1,000 years. No. Frankie Borrelli.

Exactly nailed it. That's what I'm seeing right here. Are you fucking kidding me? That's a congratulations on a great guess. Holy shanky. Do we have like a years range there? Began in 753 BC and lasted for a thousand years. That's what it says.

So whatever a thousand years after 753 BC is. I'm going to take it. I'm sure there's a lot that goes into that. Like when did they actually have their control, their reign? Like where does that start? Is there a guy named Roman? that just started it, right? God.

Julius Caesar, the whole thing. Amazing. That's amazing. I was going off Caesar Augustus, which was like 63. I'm just looking up this right now, which was like 63 BC. So I think you could get technical, but Frankie, I mean, you nailed a thousand years. A thousand years. Fucking nailed that.

Well, if we're going to go off that, then Roman swipes, man. That's a long time. Yeah. A thousand thousand years. You might get sick. of you by that point. Thousand years, yeah. So I think I was, they're saying that Caesar Augustus was the first technical Roman

emperor. So I was looking at, um, you're trying to pathetically back into an answer here. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you wrong. I'm talking, I said Frankie was right. I'm trying to give people an accurate historical date. What was your guess rigs? You were throwing numbers and letters at me and I kind of, my eyes, didn't know what was going on. Oh, three.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Which I, which I, which, uh, which I was just off by. So good job, Frankie. Congratulations. Well, I needed that win because I don't know where this is going.

I'm assuming it's going before we talk to Chris Bandi, which by the way, I don't know how much of the audio we're putting in from right when he got in, but I definitely called him Chris Brandy. And now we almost have to keep it in because if you listen to right when he pops into the show, I said, what's up, Chris Brandy? And then I saw, I was just like, that's just the wrong name. The weirder thing might be saying the full name to,

him. Really weird. I got super nervous. He popped in. It was just Trent and I was talking about the flowers in the room that I was in. Oh, yeah. The audio is going to change significantly when you get to this interview as well. Oh yeah. We should warn people about that. But yeah, there was a moment where we almost had another Brian Baumgartner situation where it was Frankie and I, Frankie was talking about the roses in the room that he was sitting in. And then Chris showed up and luckily Riggs showed up in under 10 seconds because we almost had another another. Another. I said Chris Brandy for sure, dude. Well, I'm glad that you, I'm glad you caught it now so that people will not laugh when they hear it and think that, you know, you were wrong because you're right.

By the way, if we're doing, if we're doing that, I want to be sure because I'm not, I'm not a classic rock guy. Are we sure that knocking on Heaven's door? That's a Guns and Roses song. That's going to make sense in the interview. Knock, knock, knock on Heaven's dog. That's going to make sense when you listen to the interview. but I said that and then I started thinking about it

and I was like I hope that's right because people, if there's one thing people get mad about it's saying a band is known for a song when they're not known for that song. Guns and Roses, baby. I think it's Guns and Roses. Is it a Bob Dylan song? Who has the original though?

I feel like Guns and Roses. This is what I'm talking about. I think it's Bob Dylan. Jake from the clouds, give it to us. Jake from State Farm. I looked it up. All I did was type into Google knocking on Heaven's door

and it says song by Guds and Rose so I don't know I'll take it So if you're gonna tweet at me Mean things about who wrote the song No one's gonna say it was originally a Bob Dylan song Because have you been on the internet For a hour

It was it was written by Bob Dylan back in 1970 It's a it's a guns and roses song Dude I'm telling you I know I just I'm not a classic rock guy So I don't I don't know And I would know On the internet Frank is an all-time long.

It's, um, yeah. All right. I just want to be sure that. And all of this is going to, it makes no sense to the listener right now, but it will when you listen to this interview. Okay. That makes,

please are coming to get you. I can't believe that that office has such bad audio that the heater bangs in the background and we can just hear the sirens. Right. Rick and I are almost listeners right now about how bad the audio is with the like the little gnome hitting the metal pipe and now police going by. Can you imagine? imagine that this is what happens in these studios. It's crazy. Are we still doing the podcast right now?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell if we were using my throw to the interview or if we were still doing the pod. I think we're still doing the podcast. Do you want me to throw it to the interview? Yeah, yeah, you're better at it. You could throw it. No, why don't you throw it to interview? No, no, no, I want you to do it. Everybody wants to. No, no, no. Say, come on, Trent. Live from that. And now coming at you live, no, I wish I hadn't done that. I didn't want to do that. No, no. Say coming at you life. Also, it's not a lot.

Now, please enjoy. Say a previously recorded. Now, please enjoy this interview with Chris Bandy. How is that? I feel like this is also staying in here. Just enjoy the interview. It is. I'm on a fluffy pink chair.

Look at this thing. Oh, Chris Brand. What's up, man? What's up, gentlemen? How you doing? How's it going? We're doing well. I was like, why do we have an extra person in here as I'm talking about?

I may have come on a tad too early. That's okay. You've got me and Frankie here who we don't have, we've waited on our third. Oh, here you. I was going to say, I saw y'all with your interview with Kevin, I guess Brian. So I know how it goes if it's just you two in a room. Luckily, Riggs is here now. So we can actually start the real shot.

Oh, God. What's up? boys happy wednesday chris what up look at that rowback that thing's fire i know man i had to wear something green today st patty's day this is uh i think this is all i've got i like it looks good looks a almost a little christmasy all right it is this is the uh the masters their limited edition masters pressing okay i dig so i've never been to augusta this is the closest i'll probably ever get to augusta uh man that place is sick i don't think they're going to let us back. We talk about them a lot.

How you doing? How is that? What, Nashville? Is that where you're at? I am in Nashville. Yeah, it's been, it's been raining for what feels like a week straight. So I'm hoping the sun peaks out sometime this week, but you can never be sure. April, May, March is a crap shoot. So it's either going to rain for the entire three months or It's going to be sunny, and it looks like we're getting the rain part of it. I will say I follow, you know, a lot of people, a lot of you guys that live out in Nashville and all the videos, people can't help but post when they're out of the golf course, and the weather just looks fucking miserable.

It's a little soupy. It's a little soupy right now. I don't know if you saw Hardy just had himself a hole in one the other day. Dude. So I was in the car maybe two days ago. and one of his songs popped on and is a banger. And I just, I texted it to him real quick. And he was like, thanks, man,

I'm real jacked up and playing a ton of golf. And I looked this morning and he had great. So I was like, yeah, you haven't played it. He has been playing. Man, he's a, he's a great golfer. I think he's like a five or a six. Dude, we played, when you played all those, all those guys down in Nashville, they, he was their ringer.

He, like, out of nowhere. And we're like, who is this guy? And why is he so good at golf? Like, he was fantastic. And I don't know. did he even hit his driver out there? He's usually a three wood guy. He was just pulling his three when he roasts.

It's it like low hard. It's a piss missile, man. It goes like 300 yards. Yep. If I hit my three wood like that, I probably wouldn't play driver either. True. No, shit.

He was like grinding over the putts too. I remember he was like, he was tiger. He was going like 360, stalking him. And he was scaring the whole lot. He's a good player. He is.

He is. is I've only played, I think I've played with him twice. But I'm, man, I started playing golf in 2019. So I'm pretty new. My first golf experience was a buddy of mine invited me to a web.com proam. So my first time ever playing golf was in a proam with Harry Higgs and people that are on the tour now. and I remember I think that's when I know that's when I caught the bug I was so bad awful terrible and I'm just the kind of person that can't be the worst in the room at anything I don't need to be

the best but I can't be the worst so I remember when I got home I went out I started getting lessons I bought a brand new set of clubs the ones that I brought to the pro am were I bought it like played against sports. They were like Sasquatches that were 12 years old. And yeah, ever since, it's like three, two, three times a week I'm out there playing. You like the OG Nike Sasquatches? That's what you're doing? Oh, yeah. That's what I had, man.

But my buddy, he called me and he said, hey, we're going to the Bahamas for four days if you want to come play golf. I was like, you can tell me we're doing anything in the Bahamas for four days. I'm probably going to go. So it just happened to be golf. Was it like the squareheads on those Nike Sasquash? Remember when they had those? Yeah, I mean, that's what they were. That is what they were.

The worst sound of golf clubs ever made is what contact was made with those things. It was like metal hitting fucking pavement. Yes. And I never got that sound because I never hit them flush. So I had a lot of toes, a lot of hazel rockets. But, yeah, that was the first. time. And I think I didn't start out terribly. I grew up playing baseball and hockey. So like hand-to-eye coordination was always kind of there. So I think I started at like a 20 handicap and got it down to

about a 13 now, which is trending in the right direction. Yeah, I was going to say because you're St. Louis guy. So baseball and hockey, that's all we got. I'm saying it is. It is. Yeah, you're St. Chuck, right? St. Chuck, baby. Right off. Dunbell in 70. Okay. Yeah, I grew up in Chesterfield, so not too far from you, right across the river. Oh, yeah. Dude, they got the Top Golf now.

I got a huge Top Golf over there in Chester. I know. I haven't been yet. I don't get home as often as my mom and dad would like. But, and then now, I think they finished building it right before COVID hit. So I'll get out there. We've got one in Nashville as well that we'll go to and have a good time at. Top golf's insane.

I remember the first time I saw Top golf. I kind of laughed and was like, it's funny. Like, it's decent. Top cough is massive. People go, like, there's lines. You got to reserve it days in advance. Top golf's insane. It's nuts, but it's also so frustrating because you'll go out there as, you know, a golfer.

You think I should crush this. And you'll have somebody that's with you that's never picked up a golf club. And they're just draining it in that first red hole, just picking up points consistently. And you're like, fuck this, man. your club down, get out of there, start drinking. They'll just like dribble one off the thing and they'll be like, oh, I make contact. And it bounces and rolls into like the, you know, the 10-pointer and you're like, you're like, don't you fucking kidding me.

I just said a four-iron mat, barely missed. Furied. It is. All right, we're in the middle of the interview now. I think we're probably going to put all this in. If you're okay with that, Chris? That's perfect. We're joined now.

Lurch has jumped in. He was probably slinging drones somewhere. So I hope it went. Do you sell any drones, Lurch? That was actually a VR call. So virtual reality training for those officers, but nonetheless, pretty good. Hell yeah. So Chris Bandy, up-and-coming country star, he's in Nashville.

He had his debut at the Grand Ole Opry last year, which I want to get into. But huge golf guys, you can tell. So as soon as I jumped into the Zoom, we almost had a Kevin from the office situation where I saw Frankie, Trent, and Chris were just talking. But it's going smooth thus far, I would say. Well, Trent is there in the office. And then we have limited space somehow in this half a billion dollar company office. There's no rooms to record podcast.

So I'm in a closet right now with just a million roses. So Trent and I are doing like a whole buffet of bits. I'm like, oh, it's the roses. Then Chris just joins. I was like, oh, no. Oh, no, here we go again. And it was that awkward intro. Into it.

I think y'all played it off very well. Dainty little Frankie with some roses behind them. He only got to taste. of it. Luckily, Riggs joined, I'd say within 10 seconds. Yes. In office, Brian Baumgartner got five to 10 minutes of it, and it was a nightmare. What was the question, Frankie asked him? Wait, what was, oh, about the universe, the ever-expanding? Yes, he had no idea how to answer that. And I'm glad that I didn't get that question because I would have no idea what the hell you're

talking about. What do you think about the ever-expanding universe, right? Like, people say, people say, People say it goes on forever. I walked myself right into this one, didn't I? It gets bigger and bigger, and it expands. So my question to Brian was, what is it expanding into? And I think that kind of broke his brain. I think it limitless space. It's got to go.

I don't know. Keep in mind, this question has broken the brains of the smartest, like, physicists in the history of the world. So now you're asking fucking normal guys that jump on a golf, guys probably not going to get great answer. No idea. I have no idea how to answer that question. I need to visit Denver or something before I can even start talking about it. There we go. Yeah, that's a good idea, real good idea.

So Chris, obviously, you know, your musician, the world for the last year has been shut down very little or no shows. What are you kind of what's the vibe right now with the Nashville crew for, you know, of you that kind of make your living going on tour and doing shows feels like a lot of the company or the country is reopening or getting closer to reopening. So what's sort of the general vibe on doing shows like and natural? Honestly, these last few months it's been really hopeful. We've seen dates come onto the calendar. We're getting back out. We're on tour with Matt Stel right now. So we kind of, we were on tour with him last year when the world shut down and we're just kind of picking it up where we left off last year.

And it's been awesome because last year we had no idea when we would still confirm shows, I guess, like throughout the entire year. We had shows through December that were, you know, we were closing those contracts in June, July and stuff like that, knowing that kind of they were going to fall through. but now these shows are actually playing out. We're getting to travel, getting back onto the road. I think this summer is when it's going to be, I mean, balls of the wall, full touring. I think probably late summer, maybe August, September. But everything's hopeful now. We know that shows are being booked.

We're signing contracts. So it's a lot more hopeful this year than it was last year. Dude, there's going to be just a ton of pent-up energy, right? Like, people are excited to get out. I'm sure you're fucking sick and tired of just sitting inside and like playing music for yourself. Those Instagram lives. You can only do so many Instagram lives until you're burnt out. But, you know, we played a show back in St. Louis earlier this year.

And that was our first show in 10 months. And like you said, people were. so pumped to actually go out and have that interaction and see other people and see live music that we sold the show out. And I don't know if that was my doing or just the fact that people wanted to get the hell out of their houses. Dude, I feel like you could play anything and you'd get a standing ovation. Like anything, everyone's just going to go nuts. It was funny. My buddy that was playing guitar for me, because we hadn't played in 10 months. I was like, I'm going to screw something up. I'm going to forget the words. I'm going to forget something. And he's like,

they don't give a shit if you mess up the words, if you did anything. They're here to hear music and they haven't done that in 10 months. They're all shit-faced out there right now. You haven't even walked out. They are not going to remember this at all. I was like, all right. Yeah, I guess you're right. Protecting my family is my number one priority,

but I want to do it safely in all capital letters, safely. People at Taser believe that safer self-defense is better self-defense. That is true. That is true. We're supposed to walk around with like guns. Do you imagine if we're walking around? Like, no, trying to protect your family, trying to be smart, trying to be safe, trying to have a little self-defense.

The answer is the taser strike light, which is a rechargeable, high-powered flashlight that can repel an attacker through its electric stun feature. Frankie, what do you got in your hand right there? That's it, baby. I think that was close enough. I think that's close enough, man. I don't want to, I mean, this thing's, this thing is really locked and loaded. I got it in my hand.

It's got a nice girth to it. everything about this taser strike light is something that I want in my possession. It's something I want in the females in my lives in my life's possession. Because, you know, it just keeps them safe. It keeps them feeling like, you know, nothing's going to happen to them when they're walking down these dark alleys and they're going to their cars. And even when I'm going to my car, I got a feminine forehead. Like someone sees me, they're going to be, what's that going on? Like they're going to approach me.

And I'm going to be like, don't. you know dude this thing's fucking shit man don't know i just want to say i just want to feel i don't feel a weight to it yeah oh yeah what it's got a good weight to it doesn't have a good way this thing's very i want this to end of certain way so bad no way i will no i'm gonna down i'm putting it right in the middle listen this thing's not this is not a toy all right so right for you know talk to us about what this thing really it's serious business this is your company yeah that's the consumer grade model so that i mean that's for personal protection right i mean if you want to get somebody who shouldn't be close to you away, that thing will do the trick.

Exactly. I don't think much more needs to be said. If you're going to, you want to stun somebody and have them keep their distance. That's an incredible. What will happen to a person if I do? What would happen to Trent if I do this to his neck right now? I actually have never tested that device out. So I mean, I don't know.

Okay. So let's find out. No. No. Can I do your arm? Absolutely. Through your shirt. Do you shirt.

Absolutely fucking not. really, no. We shouldn't do that because honestly, it probably works. That's why it's a good product. I know it. I know it'll work. It works. The taser strike light is available without a permit in most U.S.

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It looks like something. It looks like something that would be in Batman's belt. It's legitimately. It's so well made. And it's got the black and yellow, which I think is why I'm thinking about Batman. It also just has a lot of Batman qualities to it. But the fact that this thing could go in like a regular,

just regular person's purse, like as they're walking out of a movie theater and they could repel a bad person with just the touch of a button. This is a quality product. Yeah. It's a quality product. It's really cool. And it's got a flashlight on it.

All right. Cool. pacer.com promo code 4 gets you 15% off. Doing a lot of characters in all walks of life right now, like in all different with sports and music and movies that, you know, in 1918, I think that was a spine flu. Then the Roaring 20s came right after that, which is some of the best times of having parties and people just wanting to go out

and live life. And everyone's saying now, it's like, you know, it's 2021. It's kind of our own version of like the roaring 20s. Absolutely. A little history lesson from Frankie. Wow, Frankie history. Yeah, I just dropped a few dates. Well, yeah, I mean, 1918. I always remember that because isn't that the year that the Titanic sank?

And then also that's the year, the last year that the Red Sox had won the World Series before 2004. This is a Wikipedia. There's no way you had that off the country. You don't have to fact check this. A live fact checker. 1918 is a number that all Yankee fans know because we used to chant it at every game like 19 18 there was a fucking year though you knew a lot about that year and i'm pretty sure it was the year the titanic was either built or sank i got i got i got two i got pretty sure the titanic sank in

1912 yeah i got two fact checks for you frankie i think you said the swine flu is 1918 it's actually the spanish flu i'm glad so i don't know all this so i don't know all this and then the titanic sank in 1912 what oh fuck i thought the i thought the swine flu was when i was in college yeah yeah that was like You might, you're off by about a century. I would say that the, I think World War I ended in 1918. So that could be a big, that could be a big one. Maybe that was it. Maybe that was it.

Definitely the Red Sox, their demise was in 1918. I know that's about that. The point still stands that you just made a great general historical sort of comparison. There were some facts that were, there were some minor details, some, what is it? Mundane details? Hey, one for three isn't bad. No. No, it's not.

No, it's not. That's a good batting average. If this were like a college paper and your main thesis, then you just go back and fact check those couple things. But your thesis remains strong. Correct. There are people that listen to this. And as I was confidently saying those words, they're like wrong, wrong, wrong. And then just all three just wrong.

So, Chris, another thing. was the Grand Ole Opry, your debut last year. Walk us through that, because I mean, I'm sure you're nervous, you're excited, something you dreamed about forever, walk us through what that debut was like. Yeah, man, it was, that is the pinnacle of all country music. I mean, when you move to town, that is the stage to play. And I remember I got the call and my manager told me, hey, we booked your Opry debut.

and I think my heart just kind of sunk into my stomach. I didn't even know when the date was or anything, and I was already so nervous. And we did it February 25th of last year. So everything was as normal as could be. My family came down. My girlfriend's family came down. My drummer who grew up every Saturday,

listening to the opera with his grandpa. His mom and dad came down. So we kind of made a family affair of it. And it was, I remember when we showed up, everybody was so thankful. We did a whole YouTube segment debuting at the Opry type thing. And I remember everybody was so thankful that I was there. And I was like, why are you thanking me?

Like, I'm nobody. I'm thanking you for letting me like come enjoy this and do this. And everybody was just so welcoming and so nice that it kind of took the nerves away for a little bit. But I remember going backstage. and like walking out to the stage. And there's this circle that is right in front of the microphone that everyone you could ever think of that is played or dabbled in country music has walked out to.

And I remember they said my name and I was walking out there and I did not want to walk into the circle until it was time to walk out there. And everybody kept telling me just to enjoy it and take it all in for what it's worth and just breathe, which I think I had a, tough time doing that day. But I remember walking out there after they said my name, and I'm pretty sure everybody in the first two rows could just see my heart, like, pounding out of my chest. And so I walk out there, look at the circle, look at the crowd, kind of take a deep breath, and walk into the circle. And it was funny because all those nerves just kind of went away.

I don't remember any part of playing, but I do remember all of the nerves just walked out or just went away. I looked at my drummer. He kicked it off. And the next thing I remember we were, we were walking off. Man. That is awesome. Yeah, you weren't, I'd be curious, like, I feel like when you're really, really good at something, it's less nerve-wracking. Like, we were talking about, who was the pitcher from the Dodgers we were talking to

about this? Rural? What's the name? Walker Bueller. Bueller. It was Walker Bueller, who made the point of, like, nervousness level. is actually like a result of the math between your actual ability and your nervousness level. So he was like, if you're really good at something, but you're also really nervous,

you're actually not as nervous as if you're pretty nervous, but you suck at something because then you have every read. So it's like we talk about on the first T a lot, whereas like you have a horrible golf swing and you're pretty damn nervous. Well, then you're really nervous because you know, yeah, it's going to emphasize that. Right. Right. So I'm always curious, like for somebody, you know, doing something. that is the pinnacle, the peak. You don't want to mess it up. Always curious how nervous you actually are in the moment or right when you get ready to go or if you're pretty confident

because that's probably the reason that you're there. See, that one I was, I was very, very nervous. But like a regular Friday night, Saturday night show, that's what we've done. I've done that for the last 10 years. So that doesn't really get me. But just the fact that this is like the church of country music. And all of these people are die hard country music fans, that's where it's like, you can't screw this up. They're going to throw tomatoes at you. Is it, how different is that performance from your typical performance in terms of just like even logistics and vibe, right?

Like when you're playing at a bar or even like at a smaller venue, you kind of have your routine, everything's done. How like different is the actual act of performance? at the Grand Ole Opry versus your typical performance. Night and day. Night and day. So I was lucky you're allowed two players from your band. So I brought my drummer and my guitarist.

But everyone else is an opera musician. They learn your songs literally, I mean, 20 minutes before you go on. And there's such good musicians that they don't mess up. They know everything. They know the hits. They know it. to a T. And so it was, it's always weird playing with somebody new because, you know, I know that these guys are professional. They've been doing it for so long, but you're still

thinking like, oh, man, are they going to screw something up? Are they going to come in at the right time? Are they going to do something? So it was that. And you run through it one time, and they're good to go. And it's just, yeah, it's night and day. There's no, there is chilling backstage, but the whole time you're sitting there, like, shit in your pants because you're about to walk out to this you know like I said the the church of country music so I'm excited to play it again um but I will never forget that that first time doing it yeah there's not like you can't mix around the song at all right like no you can't add riff you can't like extend a song like if you want to do a little breakdown and get the crowd into it

like they're not going right so you got to kind of play it as long as it's me yeah You start and stop. I mean, there's no, no ad living, no improv at all. You forget the words. You're on your own out there. Man, that is so nerve-wracking. It's, it's in my, like you said, yeah, you could chill beforehand, but it's almost like when you give a best man speech,

everybody's hanging for like the four or five hours before the reception after the ceremony. They're all having a good time. And you're just over there like, don't fuck it up. Don't fuck up the whole wedding. Come on, man. That is exactly, it's like imagine, I mean, this might be a bad comparison, but imagine you walking out to the first tea at Augusta with a gallery there. I mean, it doesn't matter how many times you've done it, you still have nerves. You're still going to be nervous walking out there.

Nerves make you feel alive, I will say. Exactly. You get that adrenaline rush. That's why I bet on sports. Exactly. Riggs was talking about a best man speech. I remember I was a justice of a peace one time for my buddy's wedding. Oh, boy, is that nervous.

Just, it's very funny because, like, at one point I looked at my best buddy. I was like, now you have the ability to, like, kiss your bride. And, like, having that power, like, there's little jokes that you can make about it. But certainly before, there was, like, some pressure on the family if they thought it was the right decision that I was doing it. And I was stepping up there, like, I need to nail this thing because I could be in a bad spot. and I have to hang out with everybody after. So I need to make sure that we're on point here. Did you nail it?

Yeah, I nailed it. And actually got a compliment from the groom's mother. And like I was, as soon as she gave me that, I was feeling good because she was like whispering to the grandma like, I don't know if Ben should do it. And I'm like, oh my God, Miller, who's my buddy? I was like, how did you put me in this situation and not have all family buy in? Like I was also part of like the grooms party. So like they're all drinking before we go.

I'm like, dude, I want water. I want coffee. I need to be on the ball for this whole experience. Yes. You get the shots afterwards. Oh, yeah. They were flowing after that. Then we were dancing, having a good time, and we're on cloud nine.

But until then, it was a sober party. Yep. Chris, can you talk to me about a man enough now? I kind of, it's an absolute banger. And then all of a sudden, it's like, it's this song that propelled you into this world, isn't it? Like, I mean, you look at it. the downloads of the screens.

I mean, it's, it's way up there. It's skyrocketed. Is that something that, you know, like, just talk to me about, like, how it got to that point and, like, now how you're following that up as your career goes on. Yeah, so we, there's a saying in Nashville that three minutes can change your life. And that completely changed my life. I wrote that with two, two of my best friends in Nashville,

Jason Massey and Jason Duke. And we were, I moved to Nashville, maybe, I mean, a year before we wrote that. But I never wanted to do anything outside of music. So when I moved to town, I was out. I had built connections with bars that I played when I was in college. So I could go either back to St. Louis or go back to Oxford, Mississippi, where I went to school. I'd call them up and be like, hey, man, I need to pay rent.

Can I come play Thursday through Saturday? And they'd let me come down, make money to pay my rent. And then I'd come back to Nashville and write and just try to do that. So I was traveling. I was gone almost every single weekend when I first moved to town. And I got lucky I got to meet the Jasons. And I was thinking about a girl that I dated in college that I made a lot of mistakes while I was dating her. I was just a dumb-ass kid and thinking if we had met a little bit later in life,

if it would have worked out differently or if we would have still broken up. and I brought that title, Man Enough Now, into that right. And it was one of those songs that just kind of fell out in the room. And I think we were done with it, with an hour and a half. And I think the longest time it took in the room was trying to figure out if we say shit or not, because we knew that radio wouldn't play a song that said shit in it. And we put it out. And at the time, we were playing all these shows,

but didn't have anywhere to send people other than like, hey, go check us out on Instagram or Facebook. and follow us. So we knew that we had to get some music out into the world. And we put it out with no plan really other than just have people listen to it after we played a show. And people started listening to it. They started streaming it. They started sharing it with their friends, coming to shows with signs that said, like,

man enough now and requesting it and yelling it at back at us and singing the song with us. And it was that was that launching point of knowing. that it's working. Because, you know, we had played four-hour cover gigs for three years, and it was kind of getting redundant. And this is the first time where people are actually wanting to hear our songs and sing them back to us. And yeah, it was, it completely changed my life because it got me my publishing deal,

which meant I got to call my mom and dad and say, hey, I'm getting paid to write songs and take a little stress off of them, not thinking I was just bumming around anymore. got me my record deal. And so it completely just, it didn't really open the door. It kicked the door in for me, which was incredible. It's almost like being a rookie on tour and stepping up to Augusta National winning the fucking green jacket, like just winning the masters, right?

Like your first year on tour, all of a sudden you have this massive, massive, massive accomplishment. It comes with all these signings and deals. And now all of a sudden your career is just, all right, let's go see if you can do it again. if you can win other tournaments. Other majors, you know what I mean? It's got to be so cool to have that already in the bag. Oh, yeah.

And it was awesome because people that, like, I kind of looked up to when I moved to town, they were seeing this success and they'd reach out to me and be like, hey, how are you doing this? Like, how is this happening? And I'm like, I had, to be honest, I have no idea. You're like three minutes, dude. It just, yeah.

It was just, it was just people, people liked the song. They kept listening to the song. and it all just kind of grew from that. And it was funny because, I mean, I was so broke when we put that song out. I remember specifically remember being at a bar in Nashville and checking my bank account on my phone to see if I had enough money to buy another beer. Like, I remember being that broke. And all of a sudden we put this song out and it completely changed my life. That's amazing.

I mean, it's the, it's the power of, like, of music, right? Like, you took this, you took this idea that pretty much every person in the world experiences. Right. Right. Right. I have the thought of like, man, I'm such a better, like, more impressive person now than I was at X point in my life. And like, even if you're, even if you're a guy or you're a girl, like, everybody has thought that. Yet, like, putting that and conveying that through music or through art.

is not easy to do, but if you do it well, it could connect with so many people. And that's like, you were able to do that. And that's just like, I'm sure at the time, you're just like, it's another side. We'll see you have it. But looking back on it, it's like I can look at it even and be like, it makes a lot of sense. Right. And it was one of those things.

Like, just like you said, it's the girls can listen to it and say, I dated that guy that was the dumb ass or. And then they know they get some satisfaction because it was nothing that they did wrong. They were just dating a guy who was a dumbass. A dumbass at that point in time. Or you're the guy. And I mean, I think every guy has had a relationship like that, where they just didn't take it seriously, did some dumb shit,

and it didn't work out. So both sides of the spectrum, and that's what really I feel like captivated everyone because they saw it from both sides. It's amazing to just. to talk to someone who's who's dreamt for something and then has like accomplished it and then hearing about the experience of realizing that you were accomplishing it, that like something was popping off. Was there like a moment where you were like, you know what? I think we're successful.

Like I think this is this is actually a real thing. I mean, when the, when I started seeing the shows that we were getting that I had dreamt about playing and the opening slots for these artists that it was putting me in front of such a better audience than we were doing. And when we didn't have to play four hours of our own cover songs, that's when I was like, okay, people are coming to hear us now as opposed to just coming to a bar on a Friday night to get drunk because that's the only bar in town, which was, that was when I first started to be like, all right, we were doing it. we're actually making it.

Yeah. Yeah, I could imagine just you're probably pretty sick of playing cover song at some point. Man, there's a time and a place for cover songs, but there, I mean, we were playing four hours a night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And the way, like, when you're starting out, you're driving. And it's the same for these web.com players. And I guess now, corn fairy players, I mean, there's no money in it. You're doing it for love of the game.

you're grinding it out, sharing hotel rooms with five guys, driving from city to city. So there is, I mean, that correlation between golf and music as well. And yeah, it was for a time that grind was waking up at 7 a.m., driving four or five hours to the next venue, setting up, playing from 10 to 1 or 10 to 2 every single night than waking up at 7 to do it. all over again. And the covers, it was awesome, but that's not why I got into music to play, you know, four hours of someone else's songs. Right. I'm sure all those experiences, though, you wouldn't trade them because now that you're on the other side of it, you've got to be so much more grateful for what's going on in your career now. Absolutely. And you learn so much doing stuff like that. When I remember one of our first, my first ever full band show was in St. Louis,

and it was at this place that I had played for three years at that point, but it was just all acoustic. So our first full band show, we get there and I'm like, we're going to, I mean, rock out. This is going to be awesome. My family was coming. I invited everybody I knew. We sold it out.

It was going to be the biggest show that I had played to date. We get there and we're loading in. And the guitarist that I had at the time, he hands me his guitar case. and he goes, we have a problem. And he hands me as a guitar case and I pick it up, there's no guitar in there. So I'm like, okay, this is interesting.

So I'm trying to figure out, we're calling every music store in St. Louis trying to figure out how we can rent one, how we can buy one. I end up buying a guitar for him to use that night. We get back. I take a shot. I'm like, all right, we're good.

Crisis averted. It's going to be awesome. We go out there. First song, crushes. sounds awesome. Second song, my drummer puts his stick through the house snare. I'm like, all right, we've got another problem. We'll figure this out.

I had planned on doing a couple of songs acoustic by myself. Later in the set, we bumped those up. He goes out to the trailer to try to get his snare. And I'm on my like fourth or fifth song and he hasn't come back yet. I'm thinking, what the hell is this kid doing? like where are we right now? He comes back and walks to the front of the stage and he holds up the key and it snapped in half. So the key to get into the trailer is snapped in half.

And I start, I don't know if anybody noticed this, but my face when he came and showed me that, it was, it was rough, man. I was, you could see how pissed I was. And all of a sudden, two minutes later, he comes running in with the snare, a buddy of mine, crack the lock. We got in, finished the show. But things like that, now I know what to do when something goes wrong. We know how to cover our bases when, you know, some adversity is, is thrown our way. But without that experience, I mean, I would have no idea what to do. It's so funny. Barstle sports is such a fucked up world and the fact we have a, we have like a house

cover band and listening to you. And we've talked to so many musicians about the grind. It was like, We put together, we have four idiots here. One guy plays the face. One guy plays the guitar. I play the drums. We have a battle rap champion who's our singer. And like we just showed up and we played cover songs. We sold out like Irving Plaza,

House of Blues outside Fenway Park. We were at like the blue note at Mizoo. Like every like listening to the grind that it takes. Like it honestly puts it into perspective just like like how hard it is just to get into those types of places. I remember when we were on one of the stages at Irvin Plaza, I looked around like, dude, like I had. I've been playing drums in my basement.

Like I never, I never even like thought to even do anything with music. And the fact that we have like people at a, at a venue where like Green Day played one day was like so. And on my level, it's so much smaller because that's not something we were pursuing. It's just something we were blessed with being able to do.

But for you, like I can't imagine that feeling of finally being able to like get into places and do and do shows where it's like, all right, like this thing's actually starting to rock and roll instead of doing bars and like you're saying, you're staying in rooms. with five guys and you're going four hours, five hours. It really just puts them into perspective how hard of a grind it is.

Because sometimes like even here, we take it for granted. Like, oh, we just show up and we just fucking play music. And then you got guys like you that are literally looking at their fucking phone to see if they have enough money to buy a Coca-Cola. Meanwhile, they're putting out a song that has 70 million downloads on fucking Spotify. They have real talent. It's just, it makes me feel like an idiot, to be honest. Yeah, first of all, fuck you.

But no, no, I mean, you know, it really is a grind. And the blue note in Columbia, we've played there several times. That's a, it's an awesome venue. But moving to town, it was kind of funny because I went to school at Ole Miss. And I was playing every single night, Monday through Saturday. They didn't serve alcohol on Sunday. So the bars were closed on Sunday. But every single day, I was playing music.

And we were packing bars every single night. So I thought moving to Nashville, I was like, I'm going to get a record. deal. I mean, I looked at it like, yeah, I know it's hard, but look what we're doing in Oxford. Move to Nashville and it's like no one gives a shit about what you did in Oxford, Mississippi. You know, they want to see what you're doing now. And so you kind of have to start that entire thing over. And I thought, you know, you'd be playing in a bar one day and, you know, a record executives, moms, grandmas, neighbors, sisters, cousins. girlfriend's friend was going to see you and next thing you know you've got a record deal.

I learned out that I learned very quickly that that is not how it works. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't, like you said, I would not trade the grind for anything because there's been so many memories and fun times and stuff that I wouldn't be doing today had I not done that. Totally. I almost wish we had the grind, like that feeling because like we just show up and then we leave. It's like that feeling of fucking, like actually accomplishing something instead of just getting it like, I feel like we got it handed to us. It's just almost mad we fucking did it.

Like I'm almost angry that we played those shows. Chris, you said something interesting earlier where you said music's the only thing you ever wanted to do. And I think that's important where you almost sounds like you didn't really have a backup plan. And if you want one thing, like that's a singular mind focus is probably the best way to accomplish it. Like if you would thought like, oh, if the music thing doesn't work, I'll go do something else. But to have it only be music, I think that's a. a big key in the success. Yeah, it's one of those things everybody kind of jokes that if you have a plan B, go do that.

Right. You know, because the grind is a pain in the ass. Like it's, it is a grind. I mean, there's nothing pretty about coming up in music. You miss weddings, you miss funerals, you miss all your friends, you miss golf trips with your friends. There's, my, my fraternity brothers go on a baseball trip every single year and I've missed every single one because we're we were playing shows and so uh if you can do anything else people say

to go do anything else but it's when you can't when you like i grew up i was the weirdo in in kindergarten when the teacher would ask you to draw what you wanted to be when you grew up people were drawing firefighters and doctors and you know policemen and mine was always like a rock star so it was it was something that i just kind of knew i wanted to do i had no idea how you go about doing it, but I knew that it's what I wanted to do. We were always into country, or did that kind of like become a part of your lifestyle as you got older? So my mom listened to nothing but country.

So when she was driving me to school, I listened to nothing but country music. My dad listened to like 90s pop and rock music. So I kind of had that. It kind of depended on who was taking me to school that day on what I was listening to. Then as, you know, every kid does. You hit an age where your parents listen to the shittiest music ever and you can't listen to anything that they're listening to. So, I mean, in St. Louis, Nelly. I had country grammar when I was like 10 years old. They knew absolutely knew every single word to country grammar way before

I should have. And went through a like Blink 182 phase, fallout boy phase. And then Dave Matthews, all that stuff. That was the first time I picked up an acoustic guitar was listening to Dave Matthews and like Matt Nathanson and stuff like that. O-A-R. and I remember I was riding home from football practice one day, and the kid that was taking me, he was a year older, and he would take me home from football practice, he listened to country music. And the song, summertime by Kenny Chesney came on.

And I was like, wait a minute, what is this? He's like, Kenny Chesney. I was like, this is country. This is not the same country that my mom was listening to, you know, driving me to school. I love this stuff. So ever since that day, it's been country music. and then, you know, living in Oxford, we'd have guys like Luke Bryan and Eric Church come through

and going to their concerts when the first time they'd come was 250 people, the next time, 500, then the third time they were selling the thing out. So, and I think I don't know if they have any music other than country music in Mississippi. So it was kind of what I was, you know, around at that point in time. And that's when I knew that Nashville was going to be the next move. And it was it was country music since I was a sophomore in high school. That's really interesting. How it all molds together.

Do you take that history of liking different music and put it into that one genre? I think so. I mean, unintentionally, subconsciously, I think we all do. And that's why music is always evolving. That's why you're always going to have the, that's not country argument. It's because we didn't listen. I mean, we weren't strictly locked into country the way that like a Garth Brooks or a Travis Trit were when they were growing up.

We listened to everything from JZ to the U's to Garth Brooks to Kanye West. I mean, we had everything on an iPad, literally right next to us. So subconsciously, all of that stuff kind of flows into everything that you write as an artist. To be honest, like, as a northeastern, like, listener of music, like, I've never really was into like the garth brooks like or the the heavy old school country music until like this new wave whatever you want to call it of like alternative country or or maybe like dark country you got

guys like colter wall and stuff like we're always talking about these different styles of music now where it's like holy shit like this is actually cool it's got a different beat it's got a little bit of a mixture between like this new school shit and the old school stuff so i really really am a big fan now of like your style of music and and that whole new way of the people that are now in National Now. I appreciate it, man. Thank you. It is, I feel like genres are going to go away because, I mean, you'll always have that hard line,

but they're kind of blurring so much, especially with features and all of this stuff. You could have the biggest pop artists with one of the biggest country artists where now music is at our fingertips where you don't have to be, like I said, locked into one certain genre. you don't you can kind of I like to write the music that I want to write and have people figure out what box it belongs in. I don't write a song to say this is straight down the road country music. I just want to write what feels good and figure it out from there. Yeah. I mean, I think that's what makes it yours too. Exactly.

Well, as I say, the one that sticks out of me is that didn't Chris Stapleton come out with that that song with like Bruno Mars and Ed Shearing. Yeah. Ed Shearer. That one was where it's like, all right, there's no, anyone can do anything at this point. If Bruno Mars, Ed Sheareran, and Chris Daibleton are all combined to put out maybe the best rock song of that year.

Oh yeah. It's the Wild Wild West. It really is. That's awesome, man. That's got to feel so freeing also because I would assume back in the day, people probably felt like they had to be conformed to a box, right? Like if you are an old school country artist, you're not going to do that because you're fan bases die hard there if you they're going to make what the hell is this now music's so much more

free it's like i almost want to see you take risks i want to see my favorite artist takes take risks all the time absolutely so man it's got to be awesome to be like in this it's such a new style of music that's got to be so cool to be in the in the in the thick of it yeah it's it's awesome and like i said though i still am rooted in country music so and i what brought me to country music in the first place was the lyrics and the storytelling and how true everything was. And so I do try to stick with that. But we can get a little crazy with production and stuff. Throw a, you know, 808 in there and see what happens. Have you, now that you're on like the backside of it and like past that grind where you're just out playing other people's music, have you walked

into a bar and heard your song being played? I have in Chicago one time. I think we were eating at one of the first places that we actually ever played and it came on the radio. I get pictures now. So this is the first time that we've gone to like terrestrial radio, which is awesome because I'll get texts from people that I haven't talked to in years. And it'll be a picture of them listening to their local country station and it'll be my song.

So that's always cool to see. I haven't had an experience where like I'll be driving and it comes on. but but i have heard it on the radio and stuff which is i mean it's pretty damn cool i see the smile on your face that's got to be just a crazy experience like i can't imagine what that feels like and then also the joy that it brings others because like when you see your buddy take a video and it's you on the like they're fundamentally enjoying that song and it's bringing for me music always just brings me to a place that of like memory that i had a good experience with for whatever the case and absolutely and that's the same boat i'm sure for

For them. For us, whenever we do something, we have to, like, put it out and be like, watch this. And for them, you could be driving to a fucking gas station. Someone else is actively going and grabbing it, putting it on their station, be like, hey, listen to the song. You can be in another state, another city. That's got to be such like a holy shit. First of all, how do they even have that audio? Like, I would be thinking, like, where, how'd they even get that?

And second of all, why are they actively playing it? I didn't ask them to. They're just doing it. Oh, no. We love every play that we can get. So play it as much as they want. But I remember the first time that I heard it on the radio. We had just left a radio station in California.

We do what's called like a radio tour. And we go meet because country music is still so relationship based. So we'll go out and meet program directors, DJs, and all of the people that work at these radio stations. And you'll take anywhere from three months to six months to do this. And we had just left a radio station in California. California. And we were driving to another radio station. And a song comes on. I'm like, wait a minute. I know that song. And I kind of turn it up. And I'm like, holy shit, that's my song. That's why I knew that song. So that was a pretty cool experience.

And this radio tour, we actually did the radio tour, September of last year through December. And a lot of stations, you know, wouldn't let us in because of COVID protocol and stuff like that. But I got to play a lot of golf with a lot of these program directors. And usually these meetings are very sterile. You'll go in, sit in a conference room, play three songs. Nice to meet you. Maybe go to lunch and that's your meeting. But getting out there playing, you know, 18 holes with these PDs and getting to meet them on a personal level as opposed to just stopping in and saying hi. I think, I mean, I had, I'd heard some horror stories about radio tour, and mine was incredible. I did, here's a golf story for you.

We were playing in North Carolina, and my radio rep is a terrible golfer. Awful golfer. He plays a very heavy slice. So he will line up about 90 degrees left of the target and just hope that it's going to come back. So we're off the tea. I'm probably 150 yards further than him on the left side, kind of by the cart path, left side of the fairway. He's in the shit over here on the right. And I'm thinking the green is straight in front of him. And I'm thinking, like, I'm out of harm's way over here. There's no way anybody's going to hit me. I've only seen him hit a five

wood, a driver, and a putter. There's the only clubs that he, that he'll play and he's probably going to get pissed that I told this story, but it's kind of funny. So I'm thinking, man, I'm out of everyone's way. I'm sitting in my golf cart, just looking at my phone waiting for him to hit. All of a sudden, I hear somebody yell. And as I hear him yell, I kind of turn around and the ball flies through my cart and hits me right in the chin. And I wouldn't recommend that to anybody. If you hear four, just hit the deck.

Oh, boy. Jesus. You're never out of harm's way. Because I'm the guy who slices off the tea, and I know that you just got to warn every single person within a three-mile radius that something bad could happen. Yeah, it felt like I was sitting at a bar and somebody just came up and sucker punched me.

And I think I was more surprised than anything, but I'm glad that I have this a little bit of padding. It bounced. I gave him a great lie. I'm not going to beat around the bush. but jeez do you have like a well

would you have like a bruise a welt on your face? Oh yeah it it swall up a little bit but you couldn't see anything it was uh you couldn't see like I could have been in the most pain I had a golf ball size welt right here and no one would have believed me because you couldn't see it

that's good you got to have a beard man beard goes right look I don't know how long have been growing that thing out man I think I started started growing it like late 2019. And I get, I get like it trimmed every couple of weeks,

but with quarantine, we can't go, I can't go get my beer trim because nobody will let you take your mask off. So I've kind of been trying to, uh, to figure out how to trim it myself. But I'm a little nervous that if I go, I'm going to go too far right one day and then,

you know, I'm going to even it out. And next thing you know, I'm going to look like Frankie. So you don't want that. That's the problems I have, you know, trying to even a mess.

How was, I love it. How seriously did you take the beard trim before your debut at the Granol opera? That had to be like nobody to mess that thing up. I went the day, I think I went the day before in case somebody messed it up that I could like get it fixed.

But I'm lucky I go to a guy that's right up the road who's been cutting it for, you know, and at that point, like six months. So he knew what I liked, knew how to get me looking good. So you're like, I was very nervous. I couldn't have a bad haircut, couldn't have a bad beard trim. I always thought about weddings.

Like, you want to get it on the day because your hair's never looked better than the day that you can haircut. But also you want that like 24 hour buffer where if something goes wrong, you may be able to go fly someone in or salvage it. Yeah. Get surgery. Fly someone in is an outlet. just stands on it. Just an absolute nightmare with a bad haircut. I need to fly my barber it.

Dude, when you get a bad one or when you get a good one, the day of a good haircut is the best day ever, right? It is. I'd actually say, I'd actually say the day after a good haircut is the best day. Because it's just a little bit. Like when you're, the day of a haircut,

it's like almost too pristine. You need like a little bit of a, like a little bit of growth and I think it looks great. Well, see, I have to go. What am I talking about? It was like math class for me. Like I could figure out how to do it when I was in class,

but then I'd get home to do homework and have no idea what we did. That's the exact same way I feel when I get a haircut. Like, they do it so perfectly that first time. And then you shower and try to recreate it, and it's never the same. So I'm with Frankie on this one. The first day is the best. Frankie's also got a decent head of hair, but he'll never show it. He wears a hat.

What are you sleep with a hat on? no I don't sleep the hat and I just have a feminine forehead we all know this but that's not I'm not the one being interviewed here really taking a hard stance on this one a little sensitive I have a feminine forehead whispering out is great funny like your your face in that room Frankie with the flowers and like the white background it's just yeah it sucks like I wish I had better coloring and lighting in here but It is what it is. It's draining me out. This ruins a nightmare.

I mean, there's flowers everywhere. Does it smell good? No, I think they're fake. Chris, any golf on the horizon? What's next for you? Yeah, man, I try to golf as often as I can. I joined a country club here last August, I think. And I joined because it was so hard to get tea times.

When everybody was working from home, they could do whatever they wanted. I couldn't get a tea time to save my life. So I was like, I need to figure something out. I joined a country club that's like 15 minutes from my house. And it's awesome because it's filled with songwriters, artists. John Daly and Kid Rock are members out there. So it's not bad company. I remember about a month after I joined,

I got invited to play in this tournament out there. And John Daly, and Kid Rock were on a foursome together. And there's a spot where four, five, eight, and nine kind of congregate. And so we had just finished putting on eight. John Daly's out there. He doesn't wear shoes when he plays. He'll come. He'll park his tour bus in the parking lot, sleep there, get on his cart, go play, go back to his bus and just hang out for like two weeks at a time. But he gets, he just drills one right down the middle of the fairway. And I think he says something like, I'm a fucking alien or something like that as he's walking off the T-box,

gets in his cart and goes, this is a par four. He goes, all right, boys, let's go make a two. And so seeing him play and just having that, you know, I've gotten to play a couple of holes with him and it's been incredible. Like that tournament, so they asked us all to play a couple of songs afterwards. And they put me right between Lee Bryce and Kid Rock, which I was like, thanks for that. And I'm playing, I get done playing my first song,

and John, who's sitting in the first row, having himself a good time that whole day, he kind of walks up to me, and I leaned down. He goes, play me a G. So I play a G chord. He goes, play me a D. Play a D chord.

He goes, play me an A minor. Play an A minor. He goes, play me a C. He goes, all right, keep doing that. So I keep playing that. He walks up on stage and starts singing, knocking on Heaven's Door. And I'm just sitting there like, this is the coolest experience I think I've ever had in my life. I was, I've had some pretty cool golf experience.

experiences that I have no business having on the golf course. And that is one of them. That song is as much his as it is Guns and Roses at this point. I swear every time John Daly goes to a bar and he gets up on a stage, he plays knocking on Heaven's Door. It is the fucking best. It's one of my favorite running things that happens on the Internet. If you ever see grainy bar footage of John Daly on a stage,

you can guarantee that he's played a knock-in-law. on heaven's door. And I was like a kid at Christmas. I mean, I was just sitting there loving every single moment. Now, I'll send you all the video. It's, it's hilarious. My face the whole time is just in awe. Yeah, we need that video. He's so good. I love that you just like listen to him verbatim. It's like, okay, those chords. Do that again on repeat. You're like, yeah, sure, jump. And then he just comes up and owns the stage and you're like, this is getting better moment by moment. Right. Well, at first I was like, shit, did I mess something up? Is he going to tell me to get off stage and uh no we just had a good old fashioned jam session that's great that is fantastic uh all right

chris well look man congratulations last year last couple of years been awesome we're pumped we got to get to a show i we've had you know enough musicians on now it's been enough quarantine for the last year we got to get to a show absolutely anytime boys we appreciate anytime this is great thanks for having me this was awesome thank you you so much. And hey, y'all come on down to Nashville and bring your sticks. We'll get out there. Nashville is overdue for us. I know we can. We played a match and then we left, but we got to get when Nashville is buzzing and at full capacity and rocking, we want to come to show, play some golf, do the whole damn thing. Absolutely. We'll get you all on a party tractor, visit Broadway.

It'll be a good time. Love it. Appreciate it, Chris. Good luck. Awesome, fellas. Thank you all so much. We'll see y'all soon. We'll see.