New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Kelce Tahoe Tales, Zac Brown on Sphere Residency, His New Album and Why We’re Pro-Nagging | EP 148

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

92%ers welcome back another episode of New Heights, brought to you by our friends at General Mills’s Favorite Cereal Brands! On today’s episode, Jason and Travis recap the amazing we...ekend in Tahoe. We talk about everything from the “Bacon Bet,” losing the karaoke contest to Ray Romano, how Jason won an MVP trophy for something other than golf, and Travis thanks the spectators willing to take one for the team. We also take a call about relationship advice from the Heights Hotline. As it turns out, this show is pro-nagging and Kylie might need a whistle.  And we’ve got an incredible conversation with Zac Brown! Zac fills us in on how he’s prepping for an amazing run of shows at the Las Vegas spheres, which music legends lent their talents to the new Zac Brown album, why Jason needs to get over his fear of sharks and go spearfishing, his approach to song writing, what life is really like on a tour bus, the benefits of giving kids knives, and so much more! For even more New Heights, check out our New Heights YouTube Membership! As a member, you'll get access to full episodes, bonus videos, badges, and other stuff that will make you stand out. You can also listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. ...Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowSupport the Show:  GENERAL MILLS: Don’t miss the limited-edition boxes of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, and REESE’S PUFFS cereal dropping in August…and catch all the Cereal Training Camp action all season long across streaming, TV and social. AUDIBLE: Sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com/newheights LIQUID IV: Squeeze the most out of your Summer with Liquid I.V. Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to https://www.liquid-iv.com/ and get 20% off your first order with code NEWHEIGHTS at checkout.ZILLOW: Zillow. Home just got real. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS 10287. For licensing information, go to http://nmlsconsumeraccess.org. 2600 Michelson Dr. Ste. 1201, Irvine, CA 92612, (888) 852-2212. Zillow Home Loans does not currently offer loans in New York. BuyAbility is a registered servicemark of Zillow Home Loans.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new heights early and ad free. Plus unlock access to exclusive episodes of the show. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today. Keep people and pets safer. Always keep your dog on a leash in public. Learn more at toronto.ca slash leash your dog. A message from the City of Toronto. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of
Starting point is 00:00:28 the gripping Audible original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the Grandview's shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in the supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you
Starting point is 00:00:50 as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. What I respond to is nagging. Please nag the fuck out of me. Tell me to get my lazy ass up and take the goddamn trash out. I like the nagging and I need it because I
Starting point is 00:01:09 get caught in my own thoughts and I forget to do things. I'm like, oh I'll get that later. I'll go do this. Big procrastination. I'll do it in an hour. I'll do it in two hours. It's the Kelsey way. And I'm constantly telling Kyla, please like just tell me to do these things and she's like, Jason I don't want to tell you to do these things. I'm like, I get that I don't want to tell you to do these things. And I'm like, I get that. I'm just like, you know, it's not going to get done unless you tell me to do it. Like, okay, you're right.
Starting point is 00:01:30 I should go do this. So I am pro nagging. If you have a spouse that is against nagging, you got a shitty husband. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls. A wonder show produced by wave sports and entertainment and brought to you by General Mills favorite cereal brands all of them wrapped into one. You know, you know which ones they are. They're your favorite. We're your host. I'm Travis Guns and my big brother Jason Kelsey out
Starting point is 00:02:02 of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Shout out to those Cincinnati Bear Cats. Yeah, one week closer to the cats taking on the Cornhusters at Arrowhead, baby. Subscribe on YouTube, OneDream Plus. That's what I'm talking about. Or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow the show on all social media, at New Heights Show with 1S. Jason, tell the people what we got coming up. We got another amazing episode for United Cups centers.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Not a lot of football to talk about right now, but we can talk about some golf because Travis and I were out in Tahoe. That's right. Lake Tahoe, California, the American Century championship. Well, we're on the Nevada side. We were on the California side for a little bit, but we're on the Nevada side for the most part. Is Edgewood in Nevada? Yes. That's on the Nevada side? I thought that was on the California side. We were on the California side for a little bit, but we're on the Nevada side for the most part. Is Edgewood in Nevada? Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:46 That's on the Nevada side? I thought that was on the California side. That's the west side. That'd be the side the sun sets on, Jason. I didn't pay attention to which side the sun was setting on. We're also going to get to another edition of relationship advice from the Heights Hotline. You guys have submitted some requests to for some reason have Travis and I talk about what we think a positive relationship looks like, which we will try and do our best. Hey, and we've got another incredible conversation coming with the one, the only
Starting point is 00:03:16 we've wanted to get them on for so long. We're so happy he's here. One of our favorites. We had a great conversation. We already had a... I don't know if you guys know that sometimes we... You'll see, we'll change outfits. It'll be fun. But you're not going to want to miss it.
Starting point is 00:03:32 He's fucking amazing. Looking very much forward to these shows he's about to put on, as well as the new album. So stay tuned for that. It is unbelievable. But first, we're going to start with what we always start with. New news! New News! New News! New News is brought to you by General Mills. That's right, parents of some of our favorite cereal brands. Yeah, let's dive right in. All right now, we've got some very important
Starting point is 00:03:57 breaking news from the cereal world. General Mills Cereal Training Camp is back. Oh, the squad. Uh the squad this year is bringing some uh serious heat to the breakfast table. As everyone knows, we had our moment in the cereal spotlight last year. Little Kelsey mix. Come on now. Yeah, let's see who's taking the snap this year. A little Cinnamon Toast Crunch guys. Justin Jefferson. Oh my god. Justin Jefferson. Oh. Oh my god, Justin Jefferson. Oh my god. This is the some of the greatest receivers ever played the game. I was ready to see some tasty touchdowns.
Starting point is 00:04:34 Me. I want to see some tasty touchdowns. Justin Jefferson, Ra Ra. There we go. It's crunch time. Okay, crunch time. They've pretty much taken the exact Kelsey mix but instead of it being Reese's Puffs they've gone Honey Nut Cheerios. I mean it's not a bad mix. It's not a bad mix. It's not a bad mix but I mean come on have some creativity guys. It's not the Kelsey mix. Kelsey mix that's a creative mix. This isn't that creative. We got to try it. We got to have this mix versus our mix. I want to have a side by side comparison. Should we do that on the pod? I think we should do it on air. I'm in. I'm down. The commercials fantastic.
Starting point is 00:05:12 You get three of the best receivers in the entire NFL. You're gonna have a good commercial. Exactly. Who's was who's? Do we have that information? The word on the street is that Justin is going all in with his own custom combo this year called Jeddah's Mix. Jeddah's Mix actually has, I think, frosted lemon Cheerios and cinnamon toast crunch strawberry. Well, now I'm very intrigued. Look at that. Oh, look at that. Look at that box. Oh, yeah. That's a really cool box. With the chain and everything. You already know he's chain swinging. He's icy. This is the coolest cereal box I've ever had, honestly. So there's two mixes. Correct. There's two mixes. And we should compare them to our mix. It's the only logical thing to do on this show. Yes. You know, wait, time out. It's saying here that it's
Starting point is 00:05:56 the exact same as ours. No, no, no. The difference on this first mix is that it is Lucky Charms, Sinatose Crunch and Honey Nut Cheerios. It's Absinthe Reese's Puffs. So it's different. They changed one cereal. All right. But then the Jeddas mix, which is, I mean, these are just new creations. He's gone into a different realm where he's actually being way more creative than us in inventing his own cereals. Frosted Lemon Cheerios, I don't think that's ever been a thing, right? Has
Starting point is 00:06:24 that ever been like a product that they've ever come out with? Never heard of it. I don't remember it. If it is, I'm sorry. I missed that one. Cinnamon Toast Crunch Strawberry. So you got lemon and strawberry along with cinnamon and frosted. I like strawberry lemonade. So maybe this hits. I mean, I guarantee it's going to be delicious. If they're, I mean, all right. They did send you guys boxes there
Starting point is 00:06:45 somewhere in your homes. Okay, well, we're gonna wait because we're gonna try all three of them on the same show, one at a time. And have our review on which one we like best. We know that Travis will participate in this food challenge, which I'm always excited for big fan of cereal. I can do cereal all day. mayonnaise flavored cereal kind of sounds delicious. That's disgusting.
Starting point is 00:07:07 We just invented another Kelsey cereal. Mayonnaise in milk. Mayonnaise in milk. That's what it'd be called mayonnaise and milk. Listen, all I know is that I've had it's like a mayonnaise sandwich. What else would you put? Well, like maybe have like some little dried tomatoes in there. You have your basically just having a mayonnaise and tomato sandwich. Is that supposed to be good? I mean, to a lot of America, I think
Starting point is 00:07:31 it is good. All right. Let's let's get back to this new news. If you guys can't tell, we're excited to try these mixes. I hope you guys are too. That does it for new news brought to you by General Mills' favorite cereal brands. All right now. And we'll be back to try some of the new creations in the coming episode. Yes, sir. Let's get to out of the house. We were out of the house this last weekend at the American Century Championship in Tahoe.
Starting point is 00:08:02 The lake up there in California and Nevada, splits right down the middle of the lake, the old state line. Is that technically Sierra Nevada? Is that what that is? No, it's Tahoe, Nevada. I think somebody said it was Sierra Nevada. I have no idea. Brandon, can we... Is that the Sierra Nevada area? What is Sierra Nevada? You want me to look up the mountain range?
Starting point is 00:08:25 This is so funny. We were actually on the California side the majority of the time. I thought we were. The golf course is on the Nevada side. You sure? I'm positive. I'm staring at it right now. So then how the hell were we on the California side? It's literally the Harris and everything is on the California side. No, you got this reversed.
Starting point is 00:08:47 No, that's other way around. It cares. Gotta be on the correct. I'm telling you right now. I don't need you to tell me. I know for a fact the Harris is on the Nevada side. I mean, all right here. Okay, I have a map.
Starting point is 00:09:00 Do we want to look at a map? I've been looking at the map stating this. So there's your state lines right there. South Lake Tahoe. You are in California. No good. It's keep going in there, bud. Keep I'm going keep going. What am I looking for? Keep going right there on the state line.
Starting point is 00:09:20 You'll see Edgewood. Oh, you're in Nevada. There you go. We got it. We nailed it. And then Harris is literally right across the state line. I don't know if this is the most accurate line then, because I'm pretty positive that all those casinos are. Questioning Google Maps. Well, I'm questioning that when we were there,
Starting point is 00:09:42 they told us that all of that was there on the Nevada side. Golden Nugget is on the Nevada side. Bally's is on the Nevada side. Harris is on the Nevada side. Harris. No, I mean, not all of them. But yes, Harris is. Yes. Okay. Well, yeah, no, I guess you got to be right. You got to be right. That's why they're on the Nevada side, Travis. That's what I imagined. That's why I was talking about Nevada the entire time. in the Nevada side. That's what I imagine. That's why I was talking about the entire time. I can you get anywhere with this? I think you can gamble. Apparently we were just in
Starting point is 00:10:10 Nevada all week. We weren't in California at all, except for when we went on this lake. I should have trusted my gut. Oh, the blues, the water. All right. Keep going. We're keeping all of that in Lake Tahoe is in the Sierra. All right. Keep going. We're keeping all of that in. Lake Tahoe is in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. All right. Yeah. Okay. Back to your original question. Yes. It's
Starting point is 00:10:31 part of the mountain range. Oh, the mountains, the Sierra. All right. Yeah. The high Sierra Nevada region. Yes. Yes. All right. My bad. Yeah. We were up there at American Century. Shout out to Edgewood. Shout out to everybody at American Century. It's always one of my favorite events. Dude, it's so well run. It is very well run. Shout out to NBC for hosting it and making it the production and how big it is. And shout out to everybody that came out.
Starting point is 00:11:02 It's always fun to see all the fans and everyone go crazy over the people that we grew up watching and then having fun with them ourselves. I got a little update with my caddy, my good friend from my childhood, Patrick Bacon. He was not blue on Friday because he made his weight. The weigh-in was Thursday as soon as we landed, he looked at me. He's like, can we get this over with? I'm starving. So my
Starting point is 00:11:31 guy had been, he had been cutting weight and making sure he got his weight down so he didn't look like an absolute idiot. Carrying my bag is the blue man group. Not to say that the blue man groups looks like idiots. They put on a very unbelievable performance. And they look great while they did group. Not to say that the Blue Man groups looks like idiots. They put on a very unbelievable performance and they look great while they did that. But I don't think a caddy in the state of Nevada would look good as a Blue Man group. Now, Bacon, he absolutely killed it as always. And shout out to Bakes for making weight. Another bake, my guy Baker Mayfield.
Starting point is 00:12:03 Another bake my guy Baker Mayfield. Oh Had a little clip being interviewed Towards the end of the round by Keira Dixon our good friend at NBC and here's this clip just ask you about what club is in here. It should be paid TV to watch them back or back and forth. Dude, it's so true. And I turned to Baker. I was like, dude, this is the best when Travis is kind of struggling a little bit. Him and Baker can just have this like confrontational relationship where they're each shitting at each other. I think we should mic both of you up next year and put that as like a part of new heights. We'd have to cut the vast majority of it. But the stuff that would make it in would be gold. It is so funny. Listen to you go back and forth. It's top tier caddy and
Starting point is 00:12:51 player work. We're just trying to figure out what club to hit. And what the fuck the Greens are doing because even when bacon has the green sheet, he has no idea what's going on on the green. And the biggest thing that he loves to tell me is that it's like, if I was putting it, it'd go in. Like, why don't you help me figure out how I should buy this? He loves to tell me how how he would play the whole and how but he but my strengths are
Starting point is 00:13:23 completely different than his strengths on the course he Throws, we know you do it. Here's what we need to do next year We go in practice round bacon actually golfs Tahoe. He's done this before See, that's the thing if you put me in a practice round before I go out and have fun at Tahoe I'm shooting in the 70s the challenge with Tahoe is and have fun at Tahoe, I'm shooting in the 70s. The challenge with Tahoe is the amount of celebration that you have with all your friends
Starting point is 00:13:47 and the people that you see up there. And all of a sudden, you know what I mean? There's drinking games at the casino that night, and now you wake up a little hungover, and the first thing you do is have to get back onto the train because you just want to get back into a groove of feeling good and getting, you know, the dehydrated like shakes out.
Starting point is 00:14:05 Yeah. For those of you that don't know, we're not just playing golf. We it's a full fledged party pretty much every night. We saw our guy, Matthew Kachuk and Kachuk just won the Stanley Cup. He did second time in a row. What am I not supposed to have a few beers with him? I can celebrate with my guy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:21 Well, you weren't partner. You weren't teammates with Matthew. I was. And I just want to say he's also a reigning baseball champion. I think he won last year. Did you win last year? I don't remember if you won last year. No, we didn't win last year. Well, he won this year when I was on his team. And guess who was the MVP? 90% I'm gonna sucked ass at golf. I was Kyle Schwab on that fucking baseball. I was lead off. Home run right away.
Starting point is 00:14:44 I don't think he's been lead off this year. Maybe I can't remember. But I was fucking dialed in on that baseball game. I was preventing people from stealing, getting home runs, being very risky. And it paid off. Schwarber are kind of built, built the same. We have similar faces. I think we're both from Ohio. I'm a big fan of the schwarber vibes. Schwarbs. Can I get my trophy? Should I bring my trophy in? No. I'm a big fan of the Schwab vibes. Schwab's.
Starting point is 00:15:06 Can I get my trophy? Should I bring my trophy in? No. I'm gonna get my trophy. I had a feeling he was going to do that whether I said yes or no. Ha! I might not have taken home the trophy for the American Century Championship this week, but I did get the Oshas table 2025 most valuable thrower trophy.
Starting point is 00:15:26 That's right. Our guy TJ. Oh, she took it up. He took it up a level this year had trophies made for the back table at the Harris Casino where we have some fun back there, dude. I think this I think this is going to get it's going to get some legs. It's going to get some legs.
Starting point is 00:15:43 It's so much fun back there. And honestly, TJ and his buddy made like a video pumping up this year's like baseball game. Dude, it is fucking hilarious. Our guy, Miles Teller, was back there with you. I had my guy, Colin Yost, the Miz. We were over there fighting for our lives, trying to make some damn cups, man.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Oh, yeah. And shout out to TJ. It was a fun day. Awesome time. Not our best golf, but it was our best person out. I mean, we were we were killing it from an energy standpoint. I think everybody who golfed with us was like, man, that was a really fun day. So we as far as I'm concerned, that's a win. Nobody said they hated playing with us was like, man, that was a really fun day. So we as far as I'm concerned, that's a win. Nobody said they hated playing with us. Exactly. Yeah, tell me
Starting point is 00:16:29 I didn't win. I think I was like, Jason, you remember when you almost stabbed yourself in the eye with your tea? That was hilarious. Yeah, we, we lost the the karaoke contest. And it was a shame because we had a lot of fun up there. I thought we did good. We kind of screwed up the ending. I thought that band was done. You stayed up there. Either way. Yeah, no, that was on me. Shout out to Jay DeMarcus, everybody that plays live for us, as a bunch of Jim Oakes go up there and do our favorite renditions of our favorite songs.
Starting point is 00:17:09 But it was fun. Dad came up to us afterwards. He just saw Bruce Springsteen. Dad was very excited. The crowd, it felt like was into it. I don't know. The crowd felt like it was into it. Yeah, everybody seemed like they were enjoying it.
Starting point is 00:17:23 There's no chance we stood a chance when Ray Marmano is doing lose yourself by Eminem. I mean, you can't compete with that. How do you compete with that kind of offbeat, authentically bad Eminem rapping? I mean, you can't it but This way the clock's on the phone. Steps out of reality. Oh, no, no. He knows that he chokes. He shows that he won't. He doesn't try to. He knows he won't. He knows that he knows.
Starting point is 00:18:12 He knows that he won't. He knows that he won't. He knows that he won't. He knows that he won't. He knows that he won't. He knows that he won't. All right, all right, all right, all right. It's so fucking good.
Starting point is 00:18:20 I'd say it's just an epic send. He's good. You just have to, you got to give it to him. It's an epic send it's on a Unpredictive like unexpected unexpected like a motherfucker sent it. So, you know, listen, I think old-time rock and roll was great But that's an expected karaoke. So we got to come next year with a more unexpected song Something that is just like I can't believe these guys are doing we're so we're so versatile Jason I don't know if there's anything that's like what what would be unexpected that we go up there and like do like an opera like what
Starting point is 00:18:51 like what do you what would be unexpected? I don't know. I mean, Cisco, but thong song song song probably unexpected. Probably be. But at the same time, expected. You go my neck, my back by Kia. I would just do, ooh, ooh, Laffy Taffy would be a killer too. Laffy Taffy.
Starting point is 00:19:14 I mean, that's, that's expected for me from people that know me. They know I like that song. Oh my God. All right. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out next year. Either way, great job Ray Romano for killing it. Winning the karaoke.
Starting point is 00:19:26 Ray and his kids. The Romano family killed it, man. Big shout out to Pavelski. Joe Pavelski. Yeah, Joe. Yeah, Joe ran away with it with a big eagle putt on 18. Absolutely electric and shout out the big wood Baker Mayfield of Miles Teller, man.
Starting point is 00:19:42 We love you guys. Always a fun round when we get to play 18 with the boys man not my uh not my greatest performance yeah no I think I actually am getting worse at uh at the Tahoe in terms of like my my actual number Jason finished minus 51 it's like Cam Juergens I was just I'm a big Cam Juergens fan where were you last year I was minus 51 we were were just the first. Really? I was two spots higher because the field got worse, but Jason Kelsey played exactly the same. Yeah, not good, not good, not good.
Starting point is 00:20:16 But I'm going to put in time. I've been putting time in on Reddit trying to fix my golf swing. And we have a video of that, which I think my swing is better. Reddit isn't where you go for a golf swing though. That's the thing. But I think my swing got better. Either way, we're also going to be, Jason is also going to be taking lessons. And I'm going to come back. I did, I really think I'm going to be in the positive next year. How much you want to bet right now, next year I'm in the positive at American Century?
Starting point is 00:20:42 I bet you, do you want to bet? I just hit bacon with which was the bet I if I don't do it, I have to do a show in a painted in blue. Yeah. Okay, what happens and if I win it's how much money? I don't like winning money that don't do money. What do I get? If I win, then you have to do the show in blue. I'm so in you're not Not wait You're not getting it all safe. Just playing bogey golf and I'm gonna be in the positive
Starting point is 00:21:16 I'm gonna be sending you blue bang group Photos all summer all winter for an entire year. I am so fucking in on this. I cannot wait to be in the positive next year. I fucking can't wait. A 50 point swing, a 52 point swing. I'm not even worried about it because I see the shots I hit.
Starting point is 00:21:35 I see the shots I hit and then I see these other jamos in balls. I fucking know that I am better than these guys if I just try and I'm gonna fucking put the work in I have Nothing else to do Travis Okay, you're still playing football. There are other things for you to worry about. I have nothing else going on I have unlimited time to get better at this sport. I'm going to be positive I can't fucking wait. This will be the greatest swing of golf.
Starting point is 00:22:07 It's going to be like my swing of GPA when Brian Kelly, so one year at Cincinnati, I realized this probably shouldn't say this, but I realized I was probably never going to go into the corporate world. And I had this thing in my head was like, I'm either going to go play in the NFL or I'm going to become a coach. So these classes are kind of useless. Like I don't know what I'm going to marketing classes where I'm either going to go play in the NFL or I'm going to become a coach. So these classes are kind of useless. Like I don't know what I'm going to marketing classes where I'm not going to go work in the marketing field. So I got, I just stopped going to class and I failed a bunch of classes. And for a quarter at Cincinnati, I had a point,
Starting point is 00:22:37 I think it was a 0.6 GPA. They told me, Jason, they said, Jason, it's really nice. You won't be able to play football this year. If you don't get this thing back into the positive, you'll be ineligible to play football. And that's when Brian Kelly at the next reporting of the end of the semester or the end of that quarter, he said, and in the biggest improvement in GPA that I've ever seen, Jason Kelsey went from a 0.6 to Dean's List. I got a 3.8. Nice.
Starting point is 00:23:08 Because then I started going to class again because I was like, oh yeah, I probably still need to play football. This would be the second biggest comeback of my life if we can get into the positive next year. And I think it's going to happen. I say we just bring new heights to town and just get a houseboat. Have some fun reporting, maybe grab some guests while we're out there. Don't try and set up all this shit to distract me from being in the positive.
Starting point is 00:23:32 I already know what you're fucking trying to do. I'm just saying. I think it'd be fun. I'm going to be in bed by 10pm. Actually, I'm not because I'm still going to go to Osh's table because I got to repeat as the MVP ultimate thrower. I'm going to win most valuable thrower again, and I'm going to be in the positive You know how fucking hard that is this guy's fired up. We also found out I mean I found out I've never tried to snap a football or basketball between my legs. I'm really proud of this dude
Starting point is 00:23:59 You were fucking pumped That was third or fourth. I think the first one electric. I did the first one fucking around. I was like, oh, wow, I could actually make this thing. This is that is very makeable. And this is right in the hot spot of my golf round. Hammy look good right there.
Starting point is 00:24:24 Well, it was tight. I'm just glad you know, I almost pulled my hamstring again, looking between my legs. That thing is still not healthy. It's like riding a bike, Jay. It's like riding a bike. I actually got my hands on the side and gave it a little flick so it had that little backspin going on like I was doing a potty shot. Potty shot, yeah. We're talking about that will Chamberlain. That's right. All righty. Trab, you also made some buckets. scripts. You shooting lefty
Starting point is 00:24:46 See these yeah, the right the right-handed jump shot isn't as smooth anymore. I got a labor. Yeah I think it's the AC the AC has the one so you just converted to left-handed like that's something that everybody else can do buckets buckets. Oh my gosh. That was good. That was very good. That was fucking butter. That was so good. Selective. That's impressive. Shout out to Mr. Turnbull for getting me to use my left hand as a kid and all the right shoulder surgeries I've had. I've just naturally been using this left arm for all the fun shit. Yeah. So I know how to throw a baseball and right left handed all that good shit. Either way, phenomenal time as always in Tahoe. Yes, sir. Championship. Very excited to come back next year. We're invited. I don't know at what point they stop inviting you if you're
Starting point is 00:25:36 that bad at golf. But no, no, no, it's not about the golf. It's not about the golf. No, it's not about the golf. Isn't the whole thing about golf? I think we know. Yeah, kind of. How many fans can we hit with golf balls before this? Just from a liability standpoint like else, we can't. Did you catch one this year? I hit. Yeah, I did. I you've hit somebody with like. Drives or like two irons before.
Starting point is 00:26:01 I haven't hit anybody with a drive. OK, I went off a tree and I hit a guy in the neck this year. Sorry. But blame the tree, not me. I caught one thin and hit a lady in her foot. I did. I mean, she saw it coming right at her though. There was no reason she shouldn't have got out of the way, which by the way, thank you for getting in the way because that was no way I was saving bogey and she didn't stop that ball right there. So that was a big thank you. To anybody who's at the American Central Classic, if you think you can take it, you know, if you're at bat and you, you know, think a walk like getting guaranteed first base, especially you just kind of sit there and you just let the ball hit
Starting point is 00:26:36 you, right? You get a free pick. If you think it's coming in with a relatively low like speed, you think you could take it someplace outside of the head and be okay? Do the celebrities of solid. Just take it and let the ball be closer to the field. Because otherwise hitting them trees are hard. So I'll take one for the team. If I'm there, I'd stick my ass out and let one of those balls hit me. I mean, you get a pick. Well, that too. Yeah. I don't know if that's worth it, but maybe it is. Yeah. See you guys next year. Hopefully.
Starting point is 00:27:08 Yeah. Thank you. Thank you to everybody up there. And that does in fact add to the house. Let's do some Heights Hotline. Yeah. Very in on that. Heights Hotline is brought to you by Audible. Nice. Right. If you're sick of reading, just listen. All right. Let's pick our favorites from this list. We got, can girls propose dating apps, first date ideas, getting a partner to do chores. I like that one. I like that one.
Starting point is 00:27:35 Let's do four. Four, four, four, four. I like that one. This is like the worst one for me to do possible. All right, good. Do your fucking chores. Hi, that's Jake and intern Brandon. Also, Thomas and Jason. Also, okay. advice question I have for you guys. ultimate parenting question I actually think is how do you gentle parent your partner and or husband spouse spouse, whatever, into doing chores in a respectful way. Like what motivates you?
Starting point is 00:28:13 How has your wife and or significant other gotten you to do something without nagging? My name is Audra. I am 30 from Washington. Would love to hear how you guys have handled that. All right, the flag will fly. Let's go from Washington. Yeah, there we go. I'll say this. I think that what I respond to really well is nagging. Please nag the fuck out of me. Tell me to get my lazy ass up and take the goddamn trash out. I don't like if you tell me to take the
Starting point is 00:28:50 trash out, I'm not gonna be like, Oh, I can't believe she's telling me to take the trash out. I'm like, Yeah, you're right. I should be doing that. Okay, I'm sorry. I like the nagging and I need it because I get caught in my own thoughts and I forget to do things. I'm like, Oh, I'll get that later. I'll go do this. I'll do it in an hour. I'll do it in two hours. It's the Kelsey way. We think a lot about shit that kind of doesn't really matter,
Starting point is 00:29:12 but in our mind, we wander. We wander into possibilities. And I am constantly telling Kyla, please just tell me to do these things. And she's like, Jason, I don't want to tell you to do these things. And I'm like, I get that. I'm just like, you know, it's not going to get done unless you tell me to do it.
Starting point is 00:29:27 Like if you're like, Jason, I got a bunch of trash bags. Can you please take them out? I'll take the trash out and I will have zero. Like I can't believe she's making me do this. I'll be like, thank you. Okay. Yep. You're right.
Starting point is 00:29:38 I should go do this. So I am pro nagging. I think nagging is a great thing to do. If you're have a like a spouse that is against nagging of things that he should be doing, you probably should you got a shitty husband. I'm I don't know what you want me to say. Like if he's already had things that he's supposed to be doing, and he's not doing them. He's not you telling him to do a fucking job. I like coaching.
Starting point is 00:30:00 I've been coached my whole life. I want people to tell me otherwise. I need that. I need that coaching. I need, I should be better. We're coachable guys. I acknowledge Jason should understand when there's full trash bags on the fucking kitchen floor that I'm supposed to pick them up and take them outside. But sometimes Jason says, I'll get to that later. I'll get that in a couple of minutes.
Starting point is 00:30:21 If you have a spouse that is, that is, you know, grew up on sports, a big, you know, big believer in being coached. Yeah, just get a whistle. Get a whistle. Snap them out of his fucking is his thought process. Not like I like this idea. Not in everybody knows a whistle in like somewhere like a house is like an alarming thing. Like what the fuck is this? It's like yo trash. Yeah, I told you about for three times son. It's your ass over there. Get the trash. Yeah. And a lot of times just the first time you just tell me it's there. That's the the cue to me
Starting point is 00:30:56 of like, okay, Jason, do your fucking job. Take this goddamn trash out. Yeah, that's not your job as a spouse at all. Get a whistle. I wouldn't be worried about being nagging. Now, if you're nagging about things that you shouldn't be nagging about, then yeah, that should probably get a little annoying to the husband. But if it's this is things that he her boyfriend or whoever you got going on or I don't know what your situation is lady. But I think that I mean, I don't think it's nagging when you just remind somebody that they should be doing something. I say this though, I have never ever and I will never ever tell Callie to do something
Starting point is 00:31:33 around the house because it's like, I don't know, she does enough. So it's like, yeah, if something doesn't get done, it's like, yeah, well, I should be helping out on this. Tell me where that can do because I am worthless unless you tell me that. Oh, man. That was great. Thank you. Thank you for the call. Get a whistle. I like this whistle idea. I really do. I'm getting a Kiley a whistle.
Starting point is 00:31:51 I'm gonna start getting it for my kids too. These little like... The girls are just use it as a toy. They'll be like, oh nice. We are allowed to make obnoxious noises in the house. That's right. Well, no, I'll shut that down real quick too. But they they're so bad like ADHD, right? Our whole like the way TV is set up, games, all this stuff is set up to like these kids are on like crack nine times like all day. They're just like boom, boom, boom. They're sugar all day. You know how many times I have to tell them when I'm talking to them, look at me and they'll look at me for a second. I'll start talking to them. They'll start to avert their eyes. Right here.
Starting point is 00:32:29 Look right here. Do not look away. I am fucking talking to you. Stop it. Stop this right now. If these little shits, I don't know. I don't know what kind of medication they're giving these kids today. I'm giving them the Ed Kelsey medication. Look at my goddamn eyes when I'm talking to you. Boom, lock in, bow, stop hitting your sister. You hear me? You do it again. You're going on the stairs. All right. Where are we at? I don't know where we went with that one. Thank you for that. That does it for a Heist Hotline brought to you by Audible. And let's get That does it for a Heights Hotline brought to you by Audible. And let's get to our convo with the man, the myth, the legend, Zach Brown, baby.
Starting point is 00:33:12 Yeah, baby. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, General Mills' favorite cereal brands. Remember when we crushed it with the cereal training camp last year? Oh, yeah. Well, this is wild. We actually got to create our own cereal, the Kelsey Mix. I don't know if you guys had it. It was out there.
Starting point is 00:33:28 I've signed a bunch of those boxes, seen a bunch of people that had it. And if we do say so ourselves, I think pretty successful. I thought it was pretty damn good. I still enjoy the mix myself, actually. What's your current go-to cereal? It's always Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. I mean, it was, it always will be. That's what I'm going to. Are the girls in on Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? They like Reese's Puffs, for sure. Nice.
Starting point is 00:33:50 We were huge Ciro fans as kids. We had our own mix last year and we're passing on this mix making to some new playmakers this year. Justice Jefferson, Amon Ra's St. Brown and Jamar Chase are bringing the end zone energy straight to your breakfast table. Yes, sir. Starting this August, you'll see the stars lighting up boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios and Reese Puffs cereal. And not only that, Justin's not messing around this year. He's got this insane Jedis mix that combines Frosted Lemon Cheerios with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Strawberry available for a limited time only. Be sure to score them is a mix that combines frosted lemon Cheerios with cinnamon toast crunch strawberry available for a limited time only.
Starting point is 00:34:26 Be sure to score them all at your local grocery store this August. We got to talk about this elite romance collection audibles stacked with. So we're doing romance. Yeah, audibles got I mean, the past couple weeks, we've been doing some self awareness. First of all, audibles got what you need in any category. They got a bunch of books on there that you can listen to. But yeah, we're talking a little romance. What's your favorite romance novel, Jason?
Starting point is 00:34:53 I'm not gonna lie, I've never read a romance novel. Harry Potter is very romantic. I guess everything kind of has a little bit of romance in it, but... I'll round that. I'm not against it, I've just never done it. There's a lot of unmatched romance novels out there on Audible. You want hysterical stuff with Dukes and Carriages? Boom, got it. Need a billionaire CEO who's absolutely crushing it in a boardroom? They got that too. What about a hockey goalie who scores your heart? That is something I could get behind. Once they said hockey, I'm in
Starting point is 00:35:18 now. And if you can't find any of these regular romance novels amusing to you. There's so many others. There's a whole world of romance on Audible where we're talking dragons and magic and the whole nine yards. I do like dragons. The options are endless. You'll be cracking up with these rom-coms from Lily Chu and Ali Hazelwood. Need something with a little fantasy?
Starting point is 00:35:42 Sarah J. Maas. Rebecca Yaros and bringing their A-game. You already know about Bridgerton and Outlander. Straight up legendary status. If you're into romance novels, I love you. I mean, Audible is the best. Let's be honest. You get to listen to it. A lot of things you're doing, whether you're driving in the car, working in the kitchen, working out. There's tons of times to get whatever genre you want. Audible is where romance fans are listening. Sign up for free, 30 day trial, and get your first romance audio book free.
Starting point is 00:36:12 That's right, you can listen to people falling in love for free. Visit audible.com slash new heights. There's more to imagine when you listen. Yo, it's your man Nick Cannon, and we are back with a brand new season of We Playing Spades. And to the left of me is the best of me, when you listen. and better than ever. That's right. So make sure you hit the Subscribe button on YouTube. They gave us our own YouTube channel. It's Lee playing Spade. Bow bow bow bow bow.
Starting point is 00:36:49 Spade. Our guest today is from Lumpkin County High School in Georgia. He's a two time Academy of Country Music award winner. Two time. A four time CMT award winner and a three time Grammy award winner. Best new artist country collaboration with vocals and best country album. Yes, sir. You know him from his hits colder weather toes knee deep a little bit of chicken fried. I just call it chicken
Starting point is 00:37:20 fried. I don't know why it's in there. Is that it? Please welcome from the Zach Brown band, Zach Brown himself. Yeah, baby. We got him. We got him. Thank you, fellas. My dog. It's so excited to have you on. Likewise. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you giving us the time, man.
Starting point is 00:37:38 And a football guy. Yes, sir. I'm a football guy. That's right. Can you let the people know that don't know the story of your football journey and how you got into music real quick? Yeah, for sure, man. I started playing football when I was five, like Pop Warner Leagues.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Damn, yeah. Down there in Georgia. I played 11 years till I moved up to Dahlonega. You know, I played in South Forsyth and Mashburn growing up and then like one of my favorite movies of all time is the waterboy. Come on. So when I moved when I moved from South Forsyth up to Lumpkin County and started playing ball there like South Forsyth had
Starting point is 00:38:20 like great facilities great everything. When we moved up to Dahlonega man, it was like the waterboy. It was like, there's no grass, no grass on the field, like you're running in dirt clay, you know, dirt devils like running laps. Oh, gosh. And so I only I only did that for for a couple years in that kind of scenario. But you know, as far as music goes, man, music was my first love. I was like two, three years old, like hearing jingles on TV, singing along with
Starting point is 00:38:49 everything. I was the kid that like my brothers were like, shut up, stop singing, you know. And then I started playing guitar when I was about seven. And I carry my guitar every day is school with me every day to football practice. But it was great because when I got into high school, I'd sit around and play for the guys. And that kept them from rubbing being gay on my balls and stuff, too. So everybody else that was freshman getting Hayes, but I could play some King Floyd and sit around with him.
Starting point is 00:39:16 And so it kind of kept me out of trouble. That's epic, man. It's actually killer. We got to hang out with this guy more. That's awesome. We got to keep him happy. We got to keep him happy. You know what I'm saying? We got to hang out with this guy more. That's awesome. We got to keep him happy. We got to keep him happy. You know what I'm saying? We got to keep him happy. Keep him real comfortable. Dude, that's absolutely epic. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:33 Did you start on guitar? Is that the first instrument you took to? That's the first one. Yeah. I mean, I was about seven and I was just found my love, man. Anywhere I was, if I had my guitar in my hands, I was at home. I was comfortable. Hell yeah. The guitar's been a really good friend of me for a lot of years. My dad played a little guitar around the campfire. I would go to hunting camp with him and his buddies on the weekends, every other weekend during hunting season. And then my brother, he was 21 years older than me. My dad was older when he had me. I was like the last hurrah. But my oldest brother was 21 years old.
Starting point is 00:40:05 Hell of a hurrah right there. And he got me into like 70s music and got me into bluegrass and like, so all of that like big singer songwriter era from the 70s, like James Taylor, Jim Croce. Oh, hell yes. So cool, man. Shane Fogelberg, Gordon Lightfoot,
Starting point is 00:40:21 like to the Eagles, to Pink Floyd, to the Allman Brothers, to Steve Miller Band. Yeah, Pops has some taste. I wanted to say this. I mean, I'm a huge fan of your music. I'm a huge fan of your albums and the music that you've produced, went and done. But one of the things I love about going to one
Starting point is 00:40:37 of your shows, to be honest with you, is that love of music really comes across. At each one of your shows that you do live, you have like different musicians come out with you guys. You're doing songs that I've never heard. It's the best man. You could tell that you guys are actual like lovers of all these genres. It ain't just country. It ain't just this specific spotlight. You're very, very talented, man. I've always loved those shows.
Starting point is 00:40:59 Pulling in covers from left and right and everybody gets a chance to be the lead singer and have the moment, man. It's so cool. It's one of my favorite shows to tell people to go and see man. Actually I think that leads us into our next segment, a little new news. Okay, alright. Good transition. There's a good transition right into this because you got a new gig out in Vegas that we want to talk about. We start off every new news segment by hitting everybody with the new news call. It's not going to go well. This is not going to happen.
Starting point is 00:41:29 This isn't going to go well, but Jason usually starts it off, then I hit it, and then our guest hits it. All right. We have tried to harmonize. Travis and I, we cannot harmonize to save our asses. We can't. I watch the guys.
Starting point is 00:41:43 This is the only music, he's the only music talent in the family. There is a bit of like a delay. So you're the musical expert. Normally we'll hit it with like a new news is like the melody or the chime. Okay. What is the best way to try and harmonize this? If we were going to try and do it. All right. So if you want to get a triad, which is a three notes in a chord that harmonize, it's something like this. It's like one so whatever you end on the last note. So one, three, five. So if one it was is holding down the one one's holding the three ones holding the five, we're gonna have some three part
Starting point is 00:42:18 harmony. All right. I made that sound so you hit me the one what's the one what am I hitting it? So if we went like new news, and then like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,
Starting point is 00:42:34 I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to go there. I got a big okay. Let's see if we can do it. Come on. Okay. New news. New news. You did it. Hey, that was good.
Starting point is 00:42:57 That's what I'm talking about. Travis is right on the third, man. He's got an ear too, man. That's good. Come on now. I got a little bit. Let's go. I just needed somebody to actually help me out with that. That was fun, man. Thank you for that, dude.
Starting point is 00:43:09 A musician to help me out. Exactly. Not your brother. All right. Well, let's get into the new news. Jason, go ahead and hit him. So the new news is, Zach, you're starting your Love and Fear residency
Starting point is 00:43:19 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The first two weekends of December, 2025 2025 as well as you guys have a new album coming out Love and Fear which is going to release night one of the Sphere residency. Wow that's all this is announcing July 15th. Am I correct? That's perfect. Perfect. Dude congratulations this is epic. How exciting first of all I'm assuming you have but have you been to a show at the Sphere? I've been to every one that I can make it to. I've been to five shows so far.
Starting point is 00:43:50 Just seeing what's really working and what maybe could be done a little bit better or you know, just the way that it's utilized in the building. But so for the last like three years, I've been looking for something to do. I've been looking like to create a spectacle. To do something where the production's so big. Because if you think about a couple moments, like when Pink Floyd came out with the wall, and they went on tour with it, and their production was just massive. It wasn't just like a little video thing in the middle. It was like all the way stretched around. Or when the Eagles came back with their Hell Freezes Over tour, it revived everything. So this is like,
Starting point is 00:44:24 this is my baby. This is what I've been working on. And so like a year and a half of trying to figure out what the spectra was going to be, my agent, Rob Light was like, you need to see this place in Vegas that they're building. And so I went to see it while it was being constructed. And I was like, this is the home for the spectacle. And so we've been working on it for 14 months already, making all the content making everything and it's like it's literally like making a movie as well. Hell yeah. That's putting the story together writing this album,
Starting point is 00:44:52 threading it together, having a real story inside of it. We filmed a 40 piece orchestra, we filmed a 20 piece choir. Lots of stuff, man. I've been a stuntman. I've been jerked around on stunt wires and drug across the ground and thrown up in the air. And it's, uh, it's going to be, it's going to be wild, man. But this is like the greatest canvas for creativity that's ever been made. The sphere.
Starting point is 00:45:16 Four, they have to measure the video in acres. Yeah. There's four acres of video. I knew they had to create like a new bite. Like there's I forget what the bite is, but they had for the amount of data. Well, it's not a terabyte. It's another one. It's like something.
Starting point is 00:45:36 Yeah, the amount of data that's going through that thing just at one moment, right? Well, it's exponential when you go from four to eight is exponential and then eight to 12 and to 16. So sixteen K video is all. So, it takes a month to render thirty seconds of sixteen K video. A month. Whoa. For one computer. It's nuts. That's crazy. But everything's gonna get faster, you know, the computers will get faster over time and kind of catch up but this but right, this is like a Marvel. Like this is like a three billion dollar video audio system crazy thing. It's insane, man. I love that you're a student of the game too, man. You're like, no, I want to go see what's capable, how I can make this thing the best when I come in here. That is it. That's how
Starting point is 00:46:18 you know it's going to be an amazing show, not just because of your catalog and how amazing your music already is. But I can tell right now how excited you're getting that this is going to be a masterpiece, man. I'm fucking. My baby, man. A lot of people that might know our songs on the radio, like our band is a hard one to understand until you see it live.
Starting point is 00:46:35 So y'all have seen it. So we love the curveballs. We love we love throwing things in that nobody would ever expect. And then over the years, we've done some some really cool stuff with costuming and black lights and like huge like inflatable things and things like that. But this is our first masterpiece is our first time to really, really lay our our nuts
Starting point is 00:46:54 out there and just self funded. So we had to pay for making everything completely ourselves rent the venue and be off of touring because you have to the contract you can't tour so it's like right missing the whole year of touring so I did a little spring tour which is like an off in smaller markets you know like like in Maine and New Hampshire and and around everywhere but we're staying out of major markets you know when this gets announced I pulled every favorite from every human that I know that's a part of a company or part of everything like, hey, we need we need some help. So I'm hoping everything comes together like we got we got a new song with Snoop. Oh, let's go. That's on this album and that's getting ready that'll that'll be
Starting point is 00:47:38 released to Oh, I can't wait to hear it. Yeah, it's called Let It Run. And that's that's that's gonna be awesome. Like so July 20, we're filming the music video for that one. And then I got a song with Dolly on this album. Hell yeah. Are you kidding me? Yes. She murdered it, man. I sent her the song. Let's go. And I was like, I just want you to sing whatever you feel like. And I
Starting point is 00:48:00 sent her several songs. And she was like, this is the one. This is the one that I want. She said, don't you give that song to anybody else, honey. We got us a big hit here. Yeah, good. But she got I got back, you know, the stem of her vocals of her singing on it, man. And it was just like chill bumps down in my toenails, man. She's just absolutely murdered it. So there's some great surprises on this record. I'm super proud of it. I produced this album it. So, there's some great surprises on this record. I'm super proud of it. I produced
Starting point is 00:48:26 this album myself. Hell yeah, man. And it's we're doing all independent. So, there's no labels. There's no, it's just all betting on ourselves this year and just pulling every favor. So, I appreciate you guys letting me talk about it
Starting point is 00:48:39 on New Heights. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me, man? It's a **** honor, dude. This is awesome, man. I cannot wait to go check this out. So I tell you, I'm keeping it in the holster. I haven't gone to the sphere yet, dude. I'm fine. This is my first experience, dude.
Starting point is 00:48:51 Travis knows this because I saw YouTube when Trav played in Vegas, the Super Bowl. And this is what it had just started. And I'm like, dude, the opportunities with this place are wild. Like the visuals and the way they kind of did it, like the first half of the show was very, you know, it's crazy. It's like a lot of patterning things and it's kind of very trippy.
Starting point is 00:49:14 And then the second half of the show, it's very scenic. And then all this, it feels like you're outside. So it's nuts. Like at one point, I remember just looking around and like, dude, it feels like we're at an outdoor venue and we're inside. That's how, that's how crazy the technology is. And I can't wait to see what you guys do with that thing. That's going to be awesome, man. Cooking it up. Congratulations. How many shows, how many shows is this residency? Do you know? Well, we're, we're going up for sale with four and as those sell out, we'll
Starting point is 00:49:43 be adding more. So, you know, depending on how everything goes, hopefully we'll be able to come back later next year and do another batch up and do another round because they got a big, some big releases and stuff coming up that are coming in in February, but it'll be December and January. Man, I'm so excited. It's a lot though, from like crazy wardrobe
Starting point is 00:50:02 to the choreography, to where we're moving, to how we're interacting with the screens. There'll be parts where we're moving, how we're interacting with the screens. There'll be parts where we're actually able to like, you know, if I can like literally lift my hand up and take and move a giant wave up behind me on the screen to the, you know, what it's, it's wild. Yeah. This is insane, man. Wait till you check this place out. This, that venue, there's nothing like that thing in the world. I think they're building another one like in London or something like that. Yeah, that's London and Dubai.
Starting point is 00:50:27 A couple other spots, man. But it's nuts, man. And yeah, you want to talk about toes in the water, ass in the sand. You're going to legitimately be looking in that. I don't know. I don't know what you got planned, but it's going to be epic. Yeah, man. Yeah, it's going to be great. Yeah. Stoked to have you guys. Congrats it, brother. I can't wait to fucking
Starting point is 00:50:46 get out there and see you do your thing and see the masterpiece you put together. Yes, sir. So you started your music career. You were playing bars or how'd your music career jump off? Yeah. So I started playing at coffee houses when I was like fourteen. So I was playing, I was playing because you couldn't really be playing in bars and stuff when you're that young. I started playing in coffee houses, but I was in choir since first grade. So music programs in schools is a big deal, man. It's huge, man.
Starting point is 00:51:16 That's really where it was reinforced for me, learning harmony, learning vocal arrangements and stuff started when I was in first grade. Then then as I got up in high school, you know, I was playing coffee shops and a couple of different buddies of mine, Kurt Thomas, I was playing with him and my buddy Radford Wyndham that I went to high school with. And then as soon as I graduated from high school, I went straight to West Georgia. So that's where I went to college. And then I started playing in bars. So I got a gig at like the Taco Mac, like playing, you know, backup for a dude for like a hundred bucks
Starting point is 00:51:49 playing guitar for him. And then I started like singing. They let me sing every once in a while and they're like, oh wow, he can sing too. So, so I was, I was hustling bar gigs. And then, man, I, I never graduated from college. I took off to go play. I got a gig in Panama City.
Starting point is 00:52:05 Me and my drummer took off. We had, I sold my life insurance policy. My dad had bought for me. I bought a like a old 78 Dodge Good Times band, like Bubble Windows. Oh my God. Oh yeah. Dude.
Starting point is 00:52:17 Yes. Oh yeah. And so, you're living the dream. Yeah. In my mind. Hell yeah. Me and my dog, I had a Jack Russell puppy at the time. I think I was 19.
Starting point is 00:52:29 We took off for Panama City and me and a drummer, we were playing as a two piece. So we just set up drums and guitar, but we got a gig. Oh yeah. So we were down there playing at this place called Joey's, and we were, we'd play out on this deck and we auditioned for the guys, but our first auditions was six nights a week, six hours a night for 150 bucks a night. Oh my gosh. So stoked.
Starting point is 00:52:52 We've been like setting up at some dudes, daiquiri shack trailer that he's selling like, you know, stuff out of anybody that would give us a power outlet to plug in. So then after that, when I, when we left Panama city, we did that for a few summers. And then what I figured out is I could go to a sports bar that didn't have live music. And I'll just tell them, I'm going to come in and play for free. And let us and let us have the door once we start bringing people in, then let us just take so it didn't cost them anything. So like, you're betting on yourself,
Starting point is 00:53:19 you're like, we're going to get people in here. Yeah, we created a we created our own business model. Because if you go try to get a gig somewhere where people already do like in Nashville you can make I mean 100 bucks a night is a decent gig in Nashville but we would go to these sports bars and we play there every week so after a couple months we'd have like two or three hundred people coming in on a Wednesday night like college towns and then we're making three to five bucks at the door so we were making like 12-15 hundred bucks so I could pay a good drummer I could pay a sound man and then we were making three to five bucks at the door. So we were making like 12, 1500 bucks. So I could pay a good drummer. I could pay a sound man.
Starting point is 00:53:47 And then we did that. We rocked that circuit for seven years. Yeah. Playing like three nights in Panama city, two nights in Birmingham, two nights in around Atlanta. And we did that for like 10 years, man. So 10 years of grinding five, six nights a week. And I was playing anything I could play.
Starting point is 00:54:04 Anybody that people pay me for, like a bar mitzvah or a birthday party or whatever it was, man, I was, we were, we were hustling man and that's really, that's really where we learned to appreciate people, like every single person, the person cleaning the bar at the end of the night. So now they'd be the only person listening. And so I love that we cut our teeth doing it that way. And it wasn't just like overnight. We just became successful. We thought we were, we had our teeth doing it that way. And it wasn't just like overnight, we just became
Starting point is 00:54:25 successful. We thought we were we had our CDs and we went to Panama City really like we're gonna be big next year. Like it's, but 10 years later, we finally made the right album. We got it chicken fry was on the radio that took off and then I was able to travel on a bus after that and I could lay down and sleep while we're traveling. And I was back in the days when we were pretty rowdy, man. We were sponsored by Jägermeister.
Starting point is 00:54:47 It was like, you know, it was, it was wild. It was wild. That was my hustle, man. So we hustled like that for 10 years. And then all while we're traveling, writing together, being together. And a lot of my crew, man, from like seven years in, is still with me, you know?
Starting point is 00:55:03 It's like that album's like almost 20 years, 20 years ago, man, which is crazy because I don't feel any different, man. And I look in the mirror. I feel better now actually than I did then because I'm I'm running clean now. I eat clean. I exercise. I'm like on the program now but it's been a blessing. Yeager isn't in the diet anymore. No, no, no, no. I have my share, man. I had a great career. Yeah, I had a great. There we go. I had a great career. You had a great.
Starting point is 00:55:25 Here we go. I had a good run at it. Yeah, you're right. It does not feel like that long ago. The foundation came out. I still remember when Chicken Fried first came out. We were at Cincinnati. Travis, were you at Cincinnati? You were at Cincinnati. You were still in high school. I think I was just at the tail end of high school. Yeah. But I remember in I think Spotify had just like started to take off too. And I remember showing all these guys like, bro, have you heard this fucking song? Like this thing is like the dopest thing I've ever come up like.
Starting point is 00:55:54 And it was like the anthem for a number of years. I mean, in that whole album, in everything since then, you've just continued to kill it. But it feels like that was just yesterday, but it wasn't like that. I just had a whole NFL career and you're still releasing songs. It's looking at live shows. Well, at the same time, I'm a such a fan of you guys too, man. I watched, I watched the journey of you guys as well. So it's, it's much props. I know the amount of discipline it takes and, and, you know, I mean, you look lean now too, Jason. I'm trying. I'm still on, I'm still doing the alcohol, but I've definitely cleaned up the diet a little bit.
Starting point is 00:56:27 It's less though. It's less. I knew that there would be a day, you know, I was like, there'll be a day when it's time to, you know, put it down. And my warranty ran out when I turned 40. And I was like, you know, it was a couple of years before that when I decided, but I'm like, man, if I don't invest in feeling good, then yeah, because I love to, you know, I love to be out in the woods and on the water under the water. You know, spearfishing is my favorite activity in the world. Spearfishing?
Starting point is 00:56:51 Free diving. That's cool. So I do that all over the world. I want to be able to do that when I'm old. Well, it sounds like I need to be talking to you. Exactly. Yeah. I need some of this stuff. Yeah, this is great. But we can't just let spearfishing just slide by like this. Hold on. So how far down is like the furthest you've ever like, spirit like you'd like because you get down to like 50 feet, maybe even further. I don't like how. Yeah, I've shot stuff down at 80. What? Yeah, but I got homies, man. It's like my buddy Justin's my buddy Justin Lee. He's like my buddy Justin's, my buddy Justin Lee,
Starting point is 00:57:25 he's like my hero. Jason, imagine holding your breath and going down 80 feet. Travis, you know I'm a terrified shark. You know the number one thing to like get those sharks over there spearfishing, blood in the water. There ain't no fucking chance I'm doing spearfishing, but this is, I'm very jealous. They're there every time, man.
Starting point is 00:57:42 It's just part of it, man. I'm cringing. It's part of it. I'm pringing. It's part of it. And when you're in an area, when you start seeing sharks, you know, there's going to be other good fish around too. And then, but you got to watch their body language. It's like a dude in a bar. That's like kind of antsy.
Starting point is 00:57:55 He's like, you can tell if somebody's like spun up, you watch their body language, most times they're just chill, man. They're trying to get some bait. You know, I don't really, I don't spearfish where there's great whites very often where there's like things that are used to eating things our size. So most of like the Caribbean and the Gulf Mexico, like most places that we go and even in Hawaii, you know, they're not they're not eating sea lions and seals because that's what you look like in a
Starting point is 00:58:19 black wetsuit. So a great white would be a thing but you also have a you also have a weapon. So if they keep coming around and they and they have a body language that you don't like, then you just kind of you go down you you poke them in the nose. Yeah, well, I'm at them and poke them. And they're like, well, I know that's yeah, well, that's if you see them coming. They come up under you, you don't see them coming. You can tell Jason has a lot of dreams. He has a lot of nightmares.
Starting point is 00:58:45 I'm terrified. I'm very jealous though. That's so bad ass though. 80 feet. Yeah, I can make, I don't have a lot of bottom time once I get down, but like my buddy Justin Lee, who's my hero doing it, he can free dive 200 feet down and hunt something.
Starting point is 00:59:00 Free dive. Oh my gosh. It takes him a full minute to swim back up 200 feet. So he's got like his timer on his watch. And so I go with guys that are, you know, he can hold his breath like seven and a half minutes. Seven and a half minutes? So he goes down, chills for like five minutes
Starting point is 00:59:18 and then comes back up. He can, he can go down. Well, when you're exercising, it's a little bit different, but I think he can easily get like four minutes of bottom time. No problem. No way. But he's like, yeah, he's one of the greatest dudes ever, man. Great family, man. I'm working on my lung capacity. Yeah and and there's technique too, man. I've been doing it. I did it wrong for my first 10 years of doing it but the last the last
Starting point is 00:59:39 10 years I've been doing it. I've been going with him. I've been going with Cameron Kirkconnell. It was another guy but these guys are legends, man. They they hold a bunch of world records so dope but going with them has been a whole like life changing thing but dude it is an avatar world under there and there's no telling every time you go you see something that you never seen before aliens dude. Ali is you can't convince me is not do you have a fish that is
Starting point is 01:00:01 like I want to get one of these like what is your is your ultimate fish? You want to get spear fishing? One that I haven't I haven't gotten a marlin yet. Oh my gosh. And in Hawaii, I just have to be able to put in the time in Hawaii to be able to to do it to get a big blue marlin. That's on my list. I did get my big dogfish tuna, which was like my bucket list. Yeah, there you go, baby. Hang on. I'll show you a pic of this one. I was going to say she tastes good or what? Oh, yeah, they're delicious. They're delicious, but.
Starting point is 01:00:31 There's one. Oh, my gosh. Look at how monstrous that thing is. Oh, no way. Yeah, that's amazing. I don't even know how you even get something like that back up to the top. Shit. Well, they float a little bit, you know, you're that's so fucking badass. God damn.
Starting point is 01:00:50 I didn't I didn't mean to get off off topic, man, but that is so cool, man. That was very interesting to me. Thanks to our sponsor, Zillow. Let's be real. Who hasn't lost an hour or three dreaming about their future home? You know the drill. It's 11 p.m. You're supposedly heading to bed and suddenly you're deep in listings and imagining life in that craftsman style home with the perfect porch.
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Starting point is 01:04:09 authors, scientists, really anyone interesting, and have real honest conversations about life, success, failure, and everything in between. We get vulnerable, we get nerdy, and yes, I occasionally overshare. Me too. And I would say more than occasionally. But some of our favorite stories
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Starting point is 01:04:50 podcasts and subscribe to Armchair Expert on YouTube. So I've messed around with music. I played saxophone growing up. I'll mess around on guitar. I do not consider myself a musician, but I like messing around with music. What goes into writing a song for you? Is it, do you have like a process? Do you start with the melody? Do you start with like some type of lyric or theme? What's Zach Brown's methodology? Man, it happens all different kinds of ways. Sometimes it's a melody that you put words
Starting point is 01:05:23 to. Sometimes it's like a guitar riff that you're playing and you something kind of a sound or a melody pops out. Sometimes it's just like something that you hear. You'll hear somebody say something or you'll hear something that's like, that's a song. And so that can happen in the middle of the night. Like I can, I can literally wake up from a dream and like, and I got to write it down like right then, you might not work on it then, but, but just capturing it. And then for gotta write it down like right then. Work on it then but but just capturing it and then for me it's like really don't
Starting point is 01:05:48 not settling for anything because I can hear on the radio there's a lots of songs that you can tell it just they wrote that because it rhymed. Sure. You really don't want to mail it in. So I have songs like goodbye in our eyes is one of my songs. It took 11 years to find the right bridge for that song. So I knew it was good, but I didn't want to just throw something in there to get it done. Yeah, but some songs you write in an hour. Like it
Starting point is 01:06:11 just, it just like happens right. It happens fast. But the deeper like philosophical songs and really trying to put the poetry into it to make it poetic. There's lots of different ways to say something. And I love the collaboration of writing with people that are really talented too. And where there's collaboration of writing with people that are really talented too. And where there's no ego involved, where when the right idea pops up, whoever said it,
Starting point is 01:06:30 it doesn't really matter who said it. You both can agree, like, that's the one. That's the one we've been missing. And I used to be able to test them out live. I'd play at a bar full of people and I'd play a song and you could tell by how they reacted. But these days, because everybody's filming everything. yeah if you play a shitty version of the song that you just wrote the first time you play it it's on youtube and then it's out there like that song is released you
Starting point is 01:06:54 know yeah so you have to sit on them so like right now sitting on all these babies that I made for this new album for love and fear we released the first one a couple weeks ago I ain't worried about it as the new one new jam and then the then the one with Snoop's coming out next is called Let It Run. My kids are older. They're playing music now too. I'm sitting and playing guitar with my kids. Nice. That's awesome. It's fun. I got five kids too. So half the time I'm just there like I'm their house bitch and I love it. I'm taking them everywhere, going to their games, going to their events, doing their things. Like that's-
Starting point is 01:07:26 Sounds like a great dad, man. That's half my life. So that's priority one. And then after that is like being creative, obviously connecting with my band, writing songs. And then the rest is adventuring, you know, being in the mountains or under the water and exploring. But I've been so blessed to do what I love to do, man.
Starting point is 01:07:43 I know you guys have to feel the same way. Dude, you know it, man. Absolutely. You know it do what I love to do, man. I know you guys have to feel the same way. Like, you know, you know it's a wonderful country, man. You've got to work with a lot of artists. I mean, just to name a few, we got some here. James Taylor, Blake Sheldon, the Vichy, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, RIP, the legend who is like the one of your favorite artists that you've collabed with or one of your favorite collabs that you would love to do again or all of those are so weird because I was such a like
Starting point is 01:08:11 people that I was a big fan of their music. Same thing with with like football. Like you idolize somebody and then all of a sudden you're on the field with them. Yeah, it's crazy. Like yeah. And you climb on a stage and I'm like I'm singing a song with one of my musical heroes. So they're they're literally like Batman to me. Yes. Hell yeah. And so those moments for me have been some of the most surreal things, like playing on stage with James Taylor
Starting point is 01:08:34 was like, how did this happen? Dude, one of my favorite songs by you, brother. I don't mean to cut you off, man, but Jason introduced this one to me. I didn't even know it was it was a song overnight with uh trombone shorty shorty dude I was thinking of the exact same song I love I don't know where this R&B like super smooth song comes on it's smooth as shit yes yeah such a groove and you got the trombone back here going crazy dude that was one of my favorite collabs ever and it's just
Starting point is 01:09:03 the range that you have you can tell you like to you like to show your creativity like to show just your your enjoyment of music and everything like that man it's just so fun and i cannot wait to see i mean you said snoop dog i'm just like man you just keep coming with surprises man it's badass well i love that about snoop too man because he's always relevant. Yeah, always, always do that. He just keeps going, keeps stepping in keeps going. So so much respect for people like him that hold up their relationships and their vibe and like, everybody's stoked to see Snoop, man. Hell yeah. Yeah, you can't go wrong with Snoop.
Starting point is 01:09:37 It doesn't matter. So this this is this is definitely a, an herb theme song. And I was like, I gotta get Snoop on it, man. Do what's it like living on a tour bus? We never got to experience like life on the road. You talked a little bit about it with the van and like, what is that like? The first five years, we were on a 12 bunk bus. So there's 12 of us living on one bus with one bathroom and like one little spot in the back to, you know, to change or whatever.
Starting point is 01:10:04 Okay. Oh wow. You gotta learn how to kind of internalize your BS, you know, or whatever you're going through. Cause I don't know if y'all are like me, but some days I wake up and I'm like, I can hold all this shit up. You know, I'm like energizing.
Starting point is 01:10:17 And then some days you wake up and just your chemistry's off and like everything, you're just like a little bit, but learning how to like really live in such tight confined spaces. It's like being an Aztec or a Mayan where you're like living in one of those places it's like dug into the bank like stacked up on top of each other but you gotta you gotta learn how to like you know manage yourself and your own whatever you're going through and then holding space for everybody because like your drummer and your percussionist is
Starting point is 01:10:42 normally just walking around tapping on everything so they're just like middle of the night. They're tapping banging on things. So, for me, like having a noisemaker, a white noise, I use the white noise app but I use I also got a company called Deemer Box that makes these I was gonna send y'all some it's a it's a dry box like a Pelican box but it's got two silicone speakers in it. So, it's completely waterproof but it holds all your stuff in there. There's a battery charger for your phone inside. Oh, hell yeah. So, it's completely waterproof but it holds all your stuff in there. There's a battery charger for
Starting point is 01:11:05 your phone inside. Oh, hell yeah. So, I plug that thing in when I'm in a hotel or on the on the bus, I plug that thing in and I just that thing just rips like brown noise super loud. So, it drowns out. Everybody's like, yeah, here's
Starting point is 01:11:17 one right here. Oh, hell yeah. That's all you need right there. Yeah. So, that's all you need. Like when I'm traveling or whatever, all your gear goes in here. I'm about to say that thing keeps some beers cold or what dude?
Starting point is 01:11:30 So anyway, that's part of it, having the white noise and being able to drown everybody out is a big part of being able to sleep or if you're in a hotel and there's Ferraris going by, if you're in LA or construction or whatever it is. But the culture, man, it's all led from the top, man. You can't buy culture and momentum and you got to create it and you got to lead it from the top. And the people that I travel with and the people in my band are unbelievable
Starting point is 01:11:51 human beings first, and then they're incredibly talented. So you have to really learn how to like support each other and how to, you know, if you're having a rough day to kind of, you know, squash it a little bit, you know, kind of, there's a lot of emotions and 12 people in one bus. And then there's 12 of those, you know, squash it a little bit, you know, kind of, there's a lot of emotions and 12, 12 people in one bus. And then, and then there's, and then there's 12 of those, you know, there's 12 buses. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned playing with like your heroes. My first guy I ever snapped the ball to was Michael Vick. And that was like a moment when I got to the NFL, like, dude, I can't believe
Starting point is 01:12:20 I'm freaking playing with freaking Michael Vick. Like what the heck is going on right now? I'm snapping them all to this dude. So yeah, I know you've sung at all these venues. You've got all these musics and all these genres. But what's it like to sing a national anthem? Is it, how different is that? Well, normally as soon as you sing a word, you're hearing that word back like two seconds later.
Starting point is 01:12:43 Oh no. So it's before I did it with In-Ear, so the first time I sang an anthem, it was at a Braves game. I was 14. Oh no, oh man. 14. I was 14. That's crazy.
Starting point is 01:12:52 In high school and me and my buddy, Radford, we used to sing together. We did, we would sing, I would sing the bass harmony and then he would sing the lead. And as soon as you sing a word, you're hearing the next word back to you that you just sang. And so it's hard from that standpoint. There's a lot of echo. But once you kind of get past that, so now I put my, I have my inner monitors in. So now that blocks
Starting point is 01:13:13 out a lot of the wash. So, but man, I like singing it just kind of OG, man. I like just singing it, singing it up high enough where you can, you know, get up on the high notes, but not really like changing it a whole lot. And me and my band, we're doing some coming up here soon. Getting to sing four-part harmony with my band, kind of like barbershop style. I sang in barbershop full of tests all the way through. Let's go to court. Let's go. That's so fucking badass. Yeah. But I love this country, man. And there's a lot of people that I don't think really appreciate the amount of sacrifice that it's taken from for us to be able to have what we have here. And so we have a big mission supporting our veterans.
Starting point is 01:13:54 We got the camp that we built. It's actually right over there. You know, we do 34 weeks of veteran programs throughout the year and working with such incredible people, man, people that have real servants hearts and do whatever they're told so that we can keep our freedom and be able to pursue our dreams and live the American dream. We owe a lot to them. That's something every night we get a soldier to come up on stage when we do chicken fried and come out and do a salute and just remind everybody what you know, what a blessing it is.
Starting point is 01:14:26 Got a pretty good. All right. We got our last segment. We got to ask you don't have to answer these. You can tell us to, you know, fuck off. Yeah. All right. Here we go.
Starting point is 01:14:36 Is it true that you have 11 siblings? Is this accurate? You said you were the youngest. Yeah. Well, growing up, I had I had four stepsisters. I had two step sisters from my dad's side, two step sisters from my mom's side. I have two half brothers, two half sisters. And then from the time I was three years old, I've had brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws that have been
Starting point is 01:14:55 like parents to me. Like my brother, my brother David, he's actually my brother-in-law. But since I was three years old, he taught me how to ride a bike. He co-signed with me to get my first truck and trailer, like first loan I ever had. He was like, he's been a dad to me. I've been adopted and taken in by a lot of people over the years by a lot of different people. And yeah, so I don't have any that are full mom, full dad. So I'm the only one for my mom and my dad, but I grew up in the middle of all of them. So it's, you know, it's seven sisters and now I got four girls. I got four, four daughters.
Starting point is 01:15:32 Hey, I'm right there with you. Yeah, man. And a son. I got the son last. He's 11, but my girls are 14, 15, 17, 18. We're in a similar spread right now, but we're way, we got five, four, two, and we just got a newborn I've been there man. I've been there Table dude the change table is still sitting where right there It's still out it's Years later man Later, that's great. I can relate man, but it's beautiful and every every phase
Starting point is 01:16:04 It kind of feels like it might be wearing you out or whatever, man, you'll miss that the most. You got to just just like soak that in while while they're little man, because they grow up so fast. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. We were just on the beach today. It was a freaking trip, man. But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to being out of diapers. There's no question about that. I was brushing their teeth every night, like wrestling them down and brushing their teeth. Yeah. But that honestly, man, like that was hard. But I miss it. I miss all those things. I miss every one of those things that's that is like feels like a struggle at times. Just the the
Starting point is 01:16:38 Groundhog Day of all of the bath time, you know, it's nuts to throw it up. Every night is chaos. Like it I don't know how long it's nuts to throw it off. Throwing them all every night is chaos. Like it. I don't know how long it's going to take. It could be 30 minutes. It could be two hours. And they're like puppies too. You get you get them out of the water and dry them off and they want to take off. Dude. There's like little naked bodies running around the house like a aquarium. Dude, it's wild. But I miss I miss all those phases, man. It's such a blessing to get to be a parent
Starting point is 01:17:07 and get to be around for that. Absolutely. Back to a little bit of music. I want to know, who was your first concert that you went to when you were younger where you were like, oh yeah, this is what I want to do this. So I was 14. We had opened up for Sean Mullins and Matthew Kaler. They were like two guys that were like troubadours playing by themselves. And when I was 14 and I saw them perform live, I was like,
Starting point is 01:17:36 and I love music. I love to sing, but watching them play, and I was like, this is what I want to do. So same thing with the summer camp thing. I would go to summer camp when I was 14 at camp I was like I want to build one of these one day I want to build a camp and I want to play music and I knew that from the time I was 14 and that's a blessing because A lot of people have like four degrees and they still don't know what they want to do like I had a path like I knew what I wanted to do and I and so I was able to follow what I loved and
Starting point is 01:18:00 Then figured out how to you know hustle enough to make a living doing it So you got a camp too? What is it? Is it an overnight camp? Is there an age limit? What can we get on this camp? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could come, you could come counsel or drop in anytime. It's, yeah, so it's called Camp Southern Ground. Okay. And nine weeks of summertime, we have about 115 kids that come in to sleep away for a week at a time.
Starting point is 01:18:24 Damn! Okay. And then the other 34 weeks out of the year, we do veteran programs. And then we do vision development for the corporations, stuff like that. But we got a 16 acre organic farm, farm to table, the kids learn how to pull stuff out of the ground and learn how to plant things. We've got, you know, big aquatic center over there. We've got zip lines. We've got all the things that camp happens. I had transformational experiences at camp when it was like a molded
Starting point is 01:18:51 little cabin with no air conditioning. But we built a university to do this. The buildings are wrapped in zinc. They're going to be there for a thousand years. But the difference that it makes in a kid's life, a kid that doesn't have a mentor and a kid that comes, we bring underserved kids in that are in the same group with kids that are on the spectrum, with kids from military families that might have lost a parent or had a parent dismembered in service. And then you have mainstream kids, which might have a poverty of spirit where they don't even know how to appreciate anything they have.
Starting point is 01:19:22 They have everything, they don't know how to appreciate it. So you mash them all together in one group and you help them through a week of like learning how to rely on each other and learning to be like an advocate for each other. Oh, yeah. And it changes lives. And that's that that's what I experienced as a kid. That's what we experienced, too, man. We are. I hear everything you're saying.
Starting point is 01:19:39 I'm just like, man, you're doing it right, brother. It's giving me flashbacks. Hell, yeah. And we were members, though. We remember those camps and all the different like social, economic and like racial, like the melting pot that we grew up in and getting out, getting the experience, everybody for who they are and their culture. Man, it's the best. We had a camp. Camp R was our overnight camp.
Starting point is 01:20:01 Growing up, I don't think you want to talk about no AC in the middle of the summer. The S cabins. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking mice and roaches running across my chest. The stories and the memories that you get them, but it was awesome. It just throw you in the, in the woods with a bunch of high school and college kids.
Starting point is 01:20:22 Like, like looking as your chaperones, man, is the best. I know, it's so fun. Zach, we learned you make knives. Yes, sir. How did this come about? How did this even start? So I fell in love with knives as a kid. My dad traveled with Coca-Cola for like,
Starting point is 01:20:38 I don't know, 15 years, and he would go to Mongolia and China and all these places, and he would bring me back a knife from all the places that he went. That's badass. And I started throwing knives when I was about four. So, okay. I got an indoor throwing range here at the house if y'all are making the G.A. I got a four-year-old. I could not imagine giving her a freaking knife to throw. That's amazing. Jason was stabbing kids with forks. Don't give them a knife.
Starting point is 01:21:00 That's amazing. Jason was stabbing kids with forks. That sounds like a true story. It was a sport. Technically, it was a sport. Doesn't count. Kentucky Fried Chicken spoon for thing. Yeah, that's right. I love knives. I was drawn to them just like as a kid. And then when I was 18, I love knives. I was drawn to them just like as a kid. And then when I was 18, I lived in a trailer in Carrollton when I was going to West Georgia. And my neighbor's granddad had a knife shop. And he was taking like old buck knives and taking apart and making them automatics, like making them switchblades. So that was my first experience when I was about 18, working on knives and being in his shop. And then after that, I just became friends with a bunch of other knife makers. And then so now I've got a shop here at my house where I make Damascus and I forge and
Starting point is 01:21:51 did you are dude that is so I want to hate you so bad. I can't even describe it. You and GA come on down. Come on now. I didn't know nothing about bladesmith and knife making sword making any of it. And I got, I am such a huge fan of the show Forged in Fire. And it's like, all I want to do now is go into a forge and actually make something with some steel. Like I would, that is the coolest thing
Starting point is 01:22:15 ever. We could do that. So Neil Kamamura is one of the Forged in Fire champions. Absolutely. Yes. And so Neil lives on our farm on Big Island in Hawaii. And his knife shop is there on the farm and forging with him has made me so much better, dude. He is an absolute animal. That is so fucking awesome, man. He's like half Hawaiian, half Japanese. I know exactly what you're talking about. I was I was trying to link up with him if we were going to go out to Hawaii a couple years ago because I'm like, dude, I would love you be staying in my place, man. Go, go do it.
Starting point is 01:22:47 Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. Neil manages the farm and his family lives there, man, but just salt of the earth people, man, that the people we have in Hawaii are just so you are just the lead. The guy that spearfishes, man. You know, that's, that's my Hawaii family. There's nobody better to learn how to forge from. I mean, I can show you, I could, I could, we can make something here for sure. But Neil, Neil's on another level, man. So that's, he's like my hero in knife making and forging. But I can show you, I did this basket weave one, hang on, let me show you. Oh, hell yeah. What can't he do? It is amazing how many things you're good at. This is three, three days of work to fold the steel into the pattern that kind of looks like a like a basket weave like that.
Starting point is 01:23:30 Oh, that looks so dope though. How freaking cool is that? That is so cool. That's fucking hard right there. And when you smash it all out, it comes out good, man. I learn a lot every time. So this is the step before that. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:23:43 And then you weld all that together and then you forge it together and then you draw it out and then you slice it and that's what makes those little tiles. And so making a mosaic is like an art man. And there's a guy Marek of Mamasi that I've learned a lot from that that guy is such a wizard at making Damascus sounds like you're the wizard man. My wintertime program man be able to go out and get in the shop and it's also cool because anytime I need to make something man, you know, you got some rebar You can make about anything that you need. That's fucking dope. Yeah, just freaking melt it down
Starting point is 01:24:14 As long as it's heartenable steel you get it done. That's awesome. Yeah, for sure for sure Quick question for you before we wrap with your brother. We got to ask we ask everybody what their welcome before we wrap with your brother, we got to ask, we ask everybody what their welcome to the NFL, to the music world, to the movies. What was your welcome to the music industry moment? Man, the first time that we played the CMAs, they let us play, and I was good friends with Charlie Daniels. He was such a sweet man, dear friend.
Starting point is 01:24:40 Yeah. They let us do our version of Devil Went Down to Georgia on the CMAs. Dude, I watched it live? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And I remember looking out and seeing like getting a standing ovation from like Chris Christopherson and all the other country artists that were there. And I just remember thinking like. Wow, because we just been humping bars, man, grinding, grinding, grinding
Starting point is 01:25:02 as everything took off, like I feel like some of those moments like on those shows where there's so many artists that are there together and they know who you are and you know, it's just a surreal, surreal moment. And then any night I still never get used to going out. Like, I'm literally I'm a servant when I'm at my house and I love it. I love it so much. And then when I step out on a stage, man, and those people are there, every single night that I step out there, it's not, I don't take that for granted.
Starting point is 01:25:32 Cause I remember what it was like playing to two people in a bar. I remember the journey, I remember the whole thing. But being out there where there's all these people that are singing all the words back, and I feel a big responsibility. I wanna be like like Willie man. I want to be as long as I can sing. I just saw Willie play in
Starting point is 01:25:48 Austin like a couple months ago. It was unbelievable. But just to like you know, I think the music gives us like this life force and if we can help somebody in one night to just have something they could put in their pocket for for a rainy day or to help to make music that helps people get through things like it's such a such an honor to get to to do that, man. That's my favorite part about it is just connecting and making people feel good. Yeah, well, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:26:13 You've you've you've done that, brother. I still remember the day I got to see you live, man. So can't wait to see how this fear goes. Can't wait to listen to the new album and appreciate you coming on, baby. 92% of Zach All right, that does it for our interview with Zach Brown man, dude, I Love this guy Fishing I'm not well, I'm definitely not doing that
Starting point is 01:26:39 But I am gonna go forge a blade in Hawaii. I guarantee you that Dude, I have always been a Zach Brown fan. And one of the reasons I've always loved him, we talked about it just a few minutes ago, but I love, you could tell how great of a musician he is and how much he loves music in every live show I've ever been to his. Like he embraces musicians in that area. He brings people on stage. He's doing different, like he's just the pinnacle of what I think. He's a show like he's just the pinnacle of what I think a great artist is. This is a guy that's always trying to get better, always trying to do new things.
Starting point is 01:27:11 I'm very excited to see what he's doing over here at the Sphere. Neal Bajer-Moderator You cannot wait, man. Jeff Sarris Dude, he's got all these other things going on too. Spear fishing, he's got a ranch, he's forging knives. It's got a fucking box that you charge. I mean, what the fuck? I think it's incredible the amount of things that this guy's got going on. And it was a joy talking to him. I hope you guys all enjoyed getting to know Zach Brown a little bit more. Yeah. And make sure you get to the sphere and check out his new album, baby. All right. That wraps up another episode of New Heights.
Starting point is 01:27:40 Thank you to Zach Brown for joining us on the show. Make sure you subscribe in YouTube to New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery Brown for joining us on the show. Make sure you're subscribed in YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Once again, New Heights a Wondery show produced by Waysports and Entertainment and brought to you by General Mills favorite
Starting point is 01:28:04 cereal brands. Every single one that you love is always going to be General Mills because they make the best. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week. 92 percenters, we appreciate you guys for tuning in each and every week and to our production and crew. We appreciate you guys making us look way better than we are.
Starting point is 01:28:24 So true. Follow New Heights on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to New Heights early and ad free plus enjoy exclusive episodes of the show by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple podcasts or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. I'm Jon Robbins and on my podcast, I sit down with incredible people to ask the very simple question, how do you cope from confronting grief and mental health
Starting point is 01:29:04 struggles, to finding strength in failure, every episode is a raw and honest exploration of what it means to be human. It's not always easy but it's always real. Whether you're looking for inspiration, comfort or just a reminder that you're not alone in life's messier moments, join me on how do you cope. Follow now wherever you get your podcasts, or listen to episodes early and ad free on Wondery Plus. How Do You Cope is brought to you by Audible, who make it easy to embark on a wellness journey that fits your life, with thousands of audiobooks, guided meditations and motivational series.

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