Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Tyler Rich - American Country Singer/Songwriter and Animal Rescue Enthusiast

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Welcome to another episode on The Radcast! In this episode on The Radcast, host Ryan Alford talks with Tyler Rich, American Country Singer/Songwriter, and Animal Rescue Enthusiast. Tyler talks about the people he admires and his influences to love country music. He shares the most difficult problems he's had as a musician and his inspiration to write his own music. He shares how he started from doing guerilla street marketing to building his own network and social foundation. Ryan and Tyler also discuss the importance of believing in your own brand and having the confidence to market it. Tyler also talks about his love for animals and how "Rich Rescues" started and more…Tyler also has a quick take on RAD or FAD trending topics;Instagram ReelsKanyeDolly PartonCountry Hip-HopJake PaulLearn more about Tyler Rich: https://www.tylerrich.com/about. Follow Tyler on Instagram: @tylerrich and twitter @TylerRichMusic.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In those early stages, we would, I would print out like these little cards, almost like business cards. And I just had my picture. And on the back, it would say, download a free song. If you follow me, here's the link, basically. And I would, like, DM these links out to download a free song on Reverd Nation. Once you go to a label, when you're on a major label, in a label like Universal or Big Machine or Sony, is going to put out your first single on country radio. And that's the first thing you've ever done.

It already kind of comes as like a facade to, like, give it a little. really dig into it. Whereas if you've already really built grassroots with people and you have a network, a social network and a foundation already, people believe it more. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. Hey man, if you've been checking my playlist. If you've been, if anyone that knows me, they know I'm a country music guy. So I'm going to get as many country music stars as I can. And I got my favorite guy right now, Tyler Rich. What's up, brother? What's up? Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, man. I was excited. I was like,

I'm going to DM, Tyler. I know you're busy. You're back on the road. We'll talk about that. But loving the newest hits, which we'll talk about. And it's like, damn, I'm going to get this guy. I know you've got an interesting journey. Just, just, just soon. Super thrilled to have you on the show. Thanks, man. I'm excited. It's different than the normal type of podcasts I do, so I'm excited about this. Cool, man.

Well, let's just start down the road. We'll get into some of the latest hits and all that stuff, what's going on today. But I do want to just talk about your journey and your background and all the nitty-gritty for kind of coming up and building a career and country music and everything behind that. So maybe let's just start down that road. Yeah, man, so I'm born and raised a little town called Yuba City, California. A lot of people always like, California, man, why do you like country music? Usually people that say that have never been to actual California.

They've only been to, you know, Disneyland or L.A. and whatnot. Where I grew up is one of the agriculture capitals of basically the entire West Coast. So I was raised around country music and farming and all that stuff. Just fell in love with the songwriting of country music when I was a kid. and pretty much, you know, anybody in my age range of 35, so we all had, you know, from like Brooks and Dungarth Brooks, George Stray, Alan Jackson, all that kind of stuff to really suck us in. And then being from California,

I was also a massive fan of every other genre of music because I was surrounded by, grew up pretty close to the Bay Area, as soon as Bay Area hip-hop to rock. You know, Metallica was from there. Def Tones was from Sacramento. Pop Roach was from Sacramento, all these places I grew up around. And so I had all these, like, really cool influences growing up.

up and dove into guitar and bands and all that stuff when I was in high school and then my early 20s and then all of a sudden, you know, guys like Keith Urban and Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney and all that stuff. When I was departing from the band I was in and it was just going to be me and my guitar and I was going to be a singer songwriter, I was like, what do I really want to do? And country was like just that obvious like, I want to write songs about where I grew up, what I grew up around who I grew up with. And the ex-girlfriends, I can't stand. You know, and like all these, like, realistic stories where I grew up and whatnot.

Your favorite beer and, and, yeah, the lawns and used to mow. Exactly. You know, and country sets you up so nice to be as honest, painfully honest as you want to be. You know, and my uncle that taught me how to play when I was a little kid, it was always a country. You know, it was just him, myself, two guitars, him and a couple friends, their guitars. and we would just sit around for hours playing music. And so that's really when I fell in love with the song and country songwriting.

So, yeah, I just graduated after doing music. It was all I went back to school and got a degree in economics for some reason, crazy and off the wall. Yeah, perfect match with country music. Yeah, I know exactly. I think I needed something to get my mind off of this thing. I'd been chasing for so long and take a break. And so I went back and I finished.

and then when I was done with that is when I moved down to L.A. from, I graduated from Sacramento State, and I moved to L.A. to do this singer-songwriter thing and started writing a bunch of songs down there just alone for the first time ever. And then we got into producing pretty quick and put a couple just independent tracks out. And this was probably like eight, nine years ago at this point, because time is just now, especially after COVID, I'll see friends now. And I'm like, hey, what's up? I haven't seen you like a year. And like, oh, man, it's been like two and a half. That would make sense because we have like a year and a half gap in the entire world. But so, yeah, probably nine years ago now, we put out a couple independent songs. This is right when Spotify wasn't even the thing yet.

You know, it was like, it was really guerrilla marketing still. You know, I had to, which I know is pretty what this podcast is really about is like the business out. Man, in those early stages, we would, I would print out like these little cards. I was like business cards. And it just had my picture. And on the back it would say, download a free song if you follow me, here's the link, basically.

And I would like DM these links out to download a free song on Reverb Nation. And I would go to festivals, and I would go to front of the lines of any shows I was playing, and I would just hand out these cards, hand out these cards trying to spread my music. And then it eventually got me to Nashville, and then the rest kind of just happened from there.

But that's the nutshell version of how it kind of started and what got me from California to the East Coast. Interesting journey. I mean, it's like, I know every past, every, you know, it seems like hit artist or whatever, every journey is different, but it's definitely a different path. It seems like every other one I've heard is like move to Nashville with the dream in mind or something like that. But I know, I know California pretty well and knowing how, you know, some of the rural country, it's a huge state, like, you know, and how, how popular and how it kind of did originate some of,

some major artists and things like that and country and things like that. So not that shocking, but what do you think the, the biggest challenge for you, like, you know, through that journey? Is it just like, I don't know, you don't seem to lack confidence,

but like it seems like the journey for artists, especially is like when you're trying to get that fan base and trying to kind of get the machine rolling or something. I mean, talk about just some of that, some of those just challenges. and things you struggled with or that you feel like you've kind of pushed through on. Yeah. The biggest struggle always is,

what you said about confidence is important because that's the number one thing you have to get no matter what. Because if you don't believe in your brand or believe in yourself and what you're selling, because I mean, I'm an artist, I'm a musician, but I mean, it's business more than anything in the world, you know. You have to believe in it and what you're selling. And it's so crazy important because when you're trying to tell somebody to listen to your music, and they sense any sort of hesitation or like any sort of like they get like I mean if somebody tells me hey man well you check up my music and I have like even a 5% inkling of like this weird vibe from this person like but want to yeah so that is super important obviously but as far as going back to that grill a marketing thing man it was it was so important in those early days of getting those that core early on because you want somebody you want people that are passionate about your your progress and your journey.

You want people to be like, man, I was there, and I'll give you a perfect example of this. Like, I was there when it started kind of thing, right? So you think seven years ago, eight years ago, I was at Stagecoach, which is a massive country festival, 100,000 people in Southern California. Yeah. And I used to walk around with those little cards I was talking about,

and I would hand them out. I'd take like 3,000 in the festival, and I would walk around, and I would just tell people like, hey, I'm playing next year. They would let me promote ahead of time. Here's a free song. And it was a lie. I was never playing next year.

You know, but then you got 3,000 people. I like it. You got 3,000 people now. They're looking at this card being like, hey, I've never heard of this person. Next year, we could be the only one singing this guy's song. Let's check it out. You know, there's a pride and an ownership that a fan can get from that. And then so now flash forward like five years later.

So in 2019, we played stagecoach finally. And we had, I think they said 12,000 people at our stage. we were closing the XM stage and 12,000 something people, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you know, midday slot, but we had a massive, massive following. That's a lot. And I told that story on stage about walking around with those cards. And I said, were any of you out there one of these years

that you got one of these false advertising cards, right? It wasn't false. Your year was off. And if you believe it, it was not. Hey, I tell people, you say that things in marketing, as long as you believe it, and you're going to manifest that it wasn't false. Yeah, and it never wasn't true that I wasn't playing next year. There wasn't even a lineup yet, you know, so in my mind, I was going to play next year. Exactly.

Because none of us knew yet, you know, and so. How many people raise their hands? Some people raise their hand? Dude, not only did they raise their hand, but so many people lifted that card up in the air. No shit. So people had, like, saved them, right? And so, like, that's just like a little thing that. just shows like how one little interaction could go such a far away.

And ultimately, like, our biggest thing is making sure we grow in each city. You know, like, I don't really play certain markets as much as I play other ones. And we just played a show in Columbus, Ohio, a headlining show two nights ago. And we were just looking at how many people were coming. And the crowd was massive, and we were just super excited. And I looked at the guys backstage, and I said, man, three years ago, we headlined in this city two blocks away and we sold 12 tickets

you know and uh and then we were about to play the show and you walked out and we played 75 minutes and the whole crowd massive crowd was singing like every word to every song and it's crazy because you can play a show you know a week ago that might not been that good but as long as where you have been before continues to grow and every time you put it

a new song more and more people are listening as long as you can visibly see it then you know you're in the right direction. Well, Greenville, South Carolina needs some Tyler Rich, you know. I agree. I agree. I know. So we'll start the fan club here specifically with this podcast.

We've got a national audience pretty growing ourselves, but Greenville, South Carolina needs some Tyler Rich. We'll come back to that. Maybe we'll get you down here for some kind of benefit or something like that. We'll figure that out. So talk to me, man, Tyler. Talk to me about talking to Tyler. rich, country music, artist, writer, superstar. I'm going to give you all the accolades, brother.

I like to praise up my guess. But talk to me about maybe the biggest difference. I think there's a perception with country music of, okay, the way careers are grown, move to Nashville, you've got to sign with the label, you've got to do it this way. Like, you know, not everyone listening maybe knows the business of country music, but maybe talk to me about like the reality of it and maybe the perception of some of the business. of growing and becoming, you know, a star artist? Yeah, it changes every year, you know, the process.

You nailed it when you said that, you know, that's like, well, you said earlier also, you know, so many people say, oh, I left and went to Nashville first and built it from there, whereas then I chose the route of building it from my home state first and then going to go into Nashville, but there is the conception that you need to move to Nashville, where L.A. is the Nashville of the West Coast. You know what I mean?

It's like, you move to L.A., you think you can do anything entertainment related. And I realized pretty quick I needed to actually live in Tennessee. It's like being in politics and refusing to move to D.C., being an actor, not living in L.A., you have to be in Nashville for country. And so I learned it pretty quick. But, you know, they say you move Nashville, get a publishing deal, then get a record deal. And then spend forever, figure out what's the perfect song to release first, take that to radio. And that has been the machine that works every single time, as long as you have the right song, you have the right team, et cetera. In this growing age of streaming services and constant just content at your fingertips,

no matter what it is that you want immediately, that is changing. And there are a lot of artists I'm seeing that are absolutely just crushing independently because of stuff like Apple and Amazon playlist and Spotify playlist. And there's just a discovery aspect that there never was before. And if you make it on Hot Country, on Spotify and you are unsigned and you're getting a million streams a week or something like that from that. That is massive awareness on your product, right? Your song.

And so it's interesting to watch change. Now, in my timeline, my situation, that was not even an option in my mind or even in reality. You know, like I was very set on my, I need to get this record deal. And then we're going to take. So country radio is still. the biggest radio format of any genre, whereas in people that listen to other genres don't necessarily listen to the radio

as much anymore as country consumers do. Country radio is everything to the country audience still. So in order to get on country radio, actual charting country radio stations, you have to have a record deal. And so if you don't have a record deal, you don't have a promo team that's pushing your stuff to country radio.

And so it's just become like other genres, man, you can do it is the long, you can do it without a label for a long time. Country, I would still, my number one form of advice is go get yourself a record deal. But get the right one. Even if it's an independent one, even if it's small, you need a radio promo team because country radio is the spark to every career still currently. That was validated by one of the, the biggest self-made country artists that was on our show

a few weeks ago, Coffee Anderson, who did Country Ever After, who's been 100% self-profess promoted, never labeled, but he even admitted, and he just signed to get on country radio starting like next year, that that's the avenue. You know, he's done really well, he's made good money, maybe not, I mean, millions and millions and millions, but a very comfortable, really nice lifestyle, you know, through other channels, but even he said, and it doesn't surprise me because that genre of country music, the people, that, I don't know, down home, good country music people just still listen to the radio, still trust the radio, still love the radio, the DJs and everything else.

That's just with a staying power, hadn't it? They get off work. What do they do on their way to dinner or their way home? They just turn on country radio. They don't open their phone and figure out what they want to play on a playlist. They don't, and, you know, like, so that's here, a large chunk of your demographic. And, yeah, with coffee and like so many other artists, especially either like Texas artists, I mean, people just crush, you know, and they can, there's people that aren't played on

country radio that'll sell out massive auditoriums all over. across the country, and they don't need country radio to do it. But if you're wanting, so for instance, we'll be put on the list for opening slots for tours, you know, and like, hey, Tyler's available, this person's available, this person's available, and then you'll get, like, I just went through this with our headlining tour that is on the West Coast. It starts four weeks from tomorrow. And so when we're looking at openers, they send these press packages. You look at their streams and you look at all this stuff.

But when we get submitted to things, we just got submitted to a few for next year. There's a number one criteria that must be matched, and that is that you have a current song climbing on country radio. And if you don't, you're just not going to get big tours, unless you're an anomaly. There's outliers to every situation. But if we're talking, like, status quo, like, run in the middle, like, what's going to happen? You need a damn song country radio. And you do that, you need a damn record deal. and I love my label.

They crush for me. We've definitely had our battles with country radio and our ebbs and flows and whatnot. But we're just like everyone else. We're in the fight every week getting it done. What is, I mean, I'm not asking you to smack the hands that feeds you, but since you just made that point, I am just curious, like a little bit of the, because I get it that you have the record label, they're promoing you, they're pushing you, they have the relationships.

I mean, business is still about relationships. and it always will be. But is it just purely, play my guy more, play my girl more, whatever, I'm saying guy universally, play my artist, artist, duo, group, whatever, more, more, it's just, it's just constantly trying to get more plays? Or is it more complicated than that? Pretty much, man. It's like, so you're at your record level, your promo team, I have seven, I believe, or so

people on my promo team specifically that work my songs. the country radio. And their job weekly is, yeah, connect, keep the connections going, talk about getting it added, and then talk about getting it flit more. It's such a process where they have to work together with other stations, too, to make sure that some that, like, you know, if my song is crushing in Spokane right now on the radio, they're going to start lifting it more because that means it's doing good for their listeners, their listeners want to hear that song more.

But if they go too fast and then someone in Greenville is going too slow, Then when it really comes down to the end and they're fighting to chase that number one song, it's already burnt out in this market over here. They'll come off the song because it's already hit the top of their countdown. So they have to at the same time time so everybody's working together at the same time. And business relationships are the number one. So you've got to think after a year. So my second single, once I got pulled from Country Radio, it did what it was going to do. Then we're figuring out, okay, cool, what's next?

about six months went by, we're getting ready, to ship the next song is what we call it, and then quarantine hit. It is now a year and a half. And then now we just ship better than you used to, my current single a couple months ago. But radio moves around so much. So it's like we could do Zoom Pog, Zoom hangs,

we could do all that stuff as much to meet new people that run these radio stations, but it's just not nearly the same. So now what we're doing is I'm actually flying out meeting these radio programmers and DJs again and getting to know because there's nothing bigger than the human connection in person.

We all got so used to, you know, being able to do this and the luxury of being able to do this, which is incredible. But it's just, there's nothing that compares to that human connection of, it's hard when you have, because even when you get a record deal, man, there's how many slots on a charting station

of 60 songs on a billboard or media-based chart, basically. So you think 60 can do like 500 or signs of major labels probably. Yeah, with how many songs? Yeah. So how do you get your song to be in that 60? And it doesn't just, it's not just about having a good song. There's like 17 layers of it.

What about the whole like now full album like versus singles? Like it seems like it's, there's never been a time more where there's more EPs and more, you know, like I've seen some of these guys that I like. and it's like they have like seven singles last three years and not a single album you know like i don't know what's that what's that all about man myself i'm 35 so for me me as a music fan i want to buy an album stream an album whatever yeah from front to back i truly believe in the art of yeah long it took me to decide the order of my album it was a long process and it had to do with the keys of the song. It had to do with the energy of each track. It had to do with the story

it's told from beginning to end. But unfortunately, fans just don't listen to music that way anymore. Super fans will. I mean, like the real diehards always will. So that is why I believe the album obviously will never die because super fans like the filler

songs. They like the deep cuts too like the sad bastard ones in the middle. You know, like all that, they love all that stuff. but it's a singles chasing game because at the same time you've got other fans everybody just content is so readily available and if some artists are putting out a new song every month and then I'm only putting a new song every four months fans are listening to the other artists and they're forgetting about me and so they want music as fast as they want Instagram posts and it's just this weird world we live in now that we're all getting used. to. I personally would love to, you know, we just, like in a week, it'll be a year since my first album came out, which sounds crazy to me because it feels like yesterday.

Yeah. And I would love to just track a new album and put it out. But, you know, realistically, like, probably going to do an EP and then maybe another EP and then those EPs together will be called album two, you know? Yeah. We all, I wish we all didn't even do the answer as to where it's heading and what it is. we literally have meetings and talks every month or so

about what the plan is and that changes every month because you're like well maybe instead of releasing one song we'll release three but then if we're gonna do that we might as release an EP but then you worry about

burning songs is what we call it so if I think I've got two no-brainer hit songs do we record them right now and put them out or do we wait a year to put the other one out because it takes a song

a year to go number one on country radio so do you release one hit a year and then 11, you know, or nine deep cuts just so that that one song, what do you do, right? Yep. Fascinating. I love it. This is the behind the scene stuff of the music industry.

People don't completely realize it go into it. And the complexity, you know what in our industry, like we've contributed to your complexity, which is all these channels, like, you know, Spotify and all, of course, the music playing distribution channels, but then social media. You got a million platforms. Let's talk a little bit about that. Like, I mean, how is social played for you, be it, you know, TikTok or Instagram? I know you're big there. That's where we met.

But, you know, talk about, you know, the impact of social on your kind of trajectory. Yeah. It all started with socials for me. I mean, if you take it back to those little cards and guerrilla street marketing of like, follow me on this site and I'll DM you a link to a free download and all that stuff. and really, really blew up my Instagram to start this whole thing for me. I used to sit on, like, the stairs at the gym. I would sit on the stairs.

I mean, I would, like, sit on the stair machine and, like, walk for 45 minutes after a workout, just liking pictures from hashtags that were similar to me. Hashtag Sam Hunt, hashtag Eve Urban, hashtag whatever. Or if I knew I was going to a city and I saw, like, that venue the night before was a country show, I'd go and like the pictures that people posted. from that show to really start to blow up Instagram. When I did get my initial meetings with Scott Borchetto with Big Machine, the reason I got my meeting so fast is because I already had over 100,000 followers on Instagram,

but I didn't have a record due. And people always say, like, oh, I mean, how really important is that? And I'm like really important, not only because you've already created your own network, but like I've already, like I said earlier also, like once you go to a label and you're on a major label in a label like Universal or Big Machine or Sony is going to put out your first single on country radio and that's the first thing you've ever done it already kind of comes is like a facade to like people that really dig into it whereas if you've already really built grassroots with people and you have a network social network and a foundation already people believe it more

you know what I mean they believe you got your record deal for a reason and that there was already a demand and so ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding I've got to stop you right there, Tyler, because that is universal. I have this conversation. We work with personal brands and large, we work with some celebrities, different things like that. And that right there is universal, tremendous, like, recommendation, whatever, asterisk that.

That's going to be a highlight clip from this episode because people don't realize building your audience now for your personal brand or your artist, whatever your business is gives you leverage. And it gives you attention. You have built in. Brilliant for you recognizing it, but everyone listening, circle that one. Circle it. Circle it.

Yeah, man. It's so true, man. And so then, you know, just building it from there from all these years of just, like, everything, social media changes every day. And what's cool on social media changes every day, you know? So I finally caved and got a TikTok over quarantine because I was bored and scared, right? You know, I was like, man, we don't. we can't play in front of crowds anymore. We can't test new music in front of crowds anymore.

There's TikTok thing's blowing up. I'm not going to dance on it, but I'll try other things. And so what I took into my court for TikTok was like, all right, there's people that are on Instagram and TikTok, but there's people that are only on TikTok and don't even use Instagram anymore. And that is an entire market I'm missing. And so I was like, if I can't test out these new songs I'm writing, because I wrote so. so many songs. And I was like, if I can't test these songs out in front of a crowd to see if it gets a reaction, because we can't play shows.

What if I just do like little teasers, people love my wife, they love my dog, you know? And so it's like, me just showing the family new songs. And not even me playing it, man, just like turning up our stereo and being like, hey, here's a new demo. And a few songs really caught fire that way, including my new single, better than you're used to. And so that thing had a few million hits. It was the end of January.

And so we didn't have any plans what our next song was going to be. We didn't really know what was going on. And then the label was just like, oh my God, we got to release this thing right away. Let's do it. And so we dropped it on Valentine's Day.

And we just, and because of TikTok, all because of TikTok. An app that I literally wasn't going to download because of I'm 35 in my pride and I thought it was just for kids that dance on the internet. But there's so much more to TikTok than,

I mean, I get a lot of like my stock advice from TikTok. I get like all sorts of stuff from TikTok. Oh, yeah. like experts of every field now have channels. Yeah, man. And it's like, it's interesting. And it really is its own world.

And so, I mean, now you think of like something that started on TikTok as a teaser, literally just passed like 32 million streams that song now. And it's number six on the top 30 countdown on XM. And it's climbing on regular radio. And it's all from a TikTok post. And it's just, yeah. So I'm, I still hate. I hate TikTok, but I hate the pressures of TikTok, but I can't deny like this, you know, invaluable tool that it is.

Yes, I have a love-hate relationship. I'm in the business and I have a love-hate relationship with it, but it is very powerful. And, you know, hell, I'm blinking on his name, but I fancy like. Walker Hayes. I'm like, oh, God, I hear it every other time I've turned TikTok on now, or definitely last month. And now he's Applebee's got the commercial. So I'm sure he's banking. He's getting something for that.

I'm happy for him. I hear he's a good guy. He is. And I'm sure you know all these cats. But talk about some of your influences. I mean, well, I want to come back to some of the business stuff because it's really fascinating. You've been as enlightening as anyone we've had on the business. So I really appreciate that.

But what are, I mean, who are some of your influences in country music, either, you know, in the past growing up, but and even now today? Yeah, my biggest one, which is a lot of people, so it's not unique, but Garth Brooks, I mean, it was, nothing, nothing compares. You know, it's like, obviously George Strait is the king of country. And I love George, and he really got me into it when I was eight, because I love the movie Pure Country that he was in. I just, that's how I found out who he was when I was like in first grade. But Garth Brooks, from just the singability, the songwriting, the stories he tells to his, as a performer. I mean, he's one of the most famous musicians in the world, and he still goes out and does dive bar tours and his stadium tours.

He's dripping in sweat when he walks off stage, and he's just my biggest influence as a whole all around. Also, as a kid, man, I loved Michael Jackson. And I used to watch his music videos like they were movies. Thriller is one of the reasons why I loved horror movies as a kid and still due to this day. Him as a performer, his just attention to DC. detail from everything from just every single drum hit to every light that shines on stage was all on his like crazy genius that uh musically nowadays i mean keith urban is my number one

from current country um i love old dominion their their songwriting their quirkiness everything about old dominion is a bumper sticker or a shirt that a dad wears a Daytona beach on you know on vacation you know like they take just uh everyday common phrases and turn a into the catchiest just like brilliant hooks you know I

I love John Mayer love love John Mayor Jason Marais you can hear a lot of like that Jason Maraz esque production in my music yeah

my stuff is country songwriting but production wise is very can be like beach feel good California you know

in the rhythm sections and whatnot totally I grew up listening I grew up listening to metal hardcore punk rock um I was in bands that had, you know, distortion so loud you couldn't hear the vocals, you know, for half our shows.

Food Fighters were my favorite rock and roll bands of all time. So, Slipknot. I mean, I listen to it all. I love it all. And I think, you know, because my mom and my uncle, I grew up listening to country because of my dad, I grew up listening to rock and roll. CCR is probably my top five favorite band of all time. Because of my other uncles, I listened to punk rock and metal. I just had the coolest influences growing up that introduced me to so much at such an early age

to keep what could easily become a narrow mind wide open. And I'm thankful for it, especially like we get to play music festivals sometimes. There are good music festivals that are all genre. And people would be like, oh, cool, so we're only going to watch an EDM at this festival. And I'm like, oh, cool, but what about like this hip-hop artist and this R&B singer? And what about this soul singer? You know, what about Alabama Shakes, man? Brittany and Howard's like one of the best of all time.

And so, yeah, I'm super thankful for not only my musical influences, but my family influences that got me there. I hear that Jason Maraz, now that you said that. I totally, you said that, and I was nodded in my head thinking about kind of the melody. Some of the tunes, I don't know what it is. I don't know if that California vibe, I don't know what it is, but that totally rang true. And Beat It was my first cassette tape single, Michael Jackson.

Oh, yes. Nice. I was nodding my head. and I was a Papa Roach guy too, like all that stuff. Like, I've been through all those things. We're close to the same man. I'm a little older than you, but similar influences, but love. Papa Roach.

Papa Roach is really cool for us because they grew up like 40 minutes from where I grew up. Oh, wow. And so when we were in high school, they would play like in grocery lot, grocery store parking lots in our hometown. But the bass player played the trombone. And they were just a high school band. to then all of a sudden, you know, like, then they get a record deal and last resort comes out, and it was just the coolest thing being local

and watching it happen from the ground up. What's, how have you been married? You're not, you've not been married that long, have you? Two years, the end of September. Is it September yet? No. Almost, like Tuesday, right, Wednesday? Yeah, two years, September 20th.

Great. I mean, how's that been? It seems like you'll have a great relationship, and seems like yeah yeah she um especially with her being an actor and our schedules being chaotic crazy we've since we've met we've always been long distance so whether i'm in l.A. with her she's in Nashville with me or we're just on tour on the weekends we've always made it work and we see we see ourselves more than each other more than we don't but all of a sudden you know we got married at the end of 19 and then um and we've been together for four or three or four years at that

point but then married it in 19 then immediately was the holidays then we went on our honeymoon January came back and then the world ended out of nowhere and then so we uh all of a sudden went from like super honeymoon phase for six months to then living together every minute of every day like a regular married couple um i can make a break you brother everybody i talk to is like cool so now that you put the marriage to the actual test like regular people how's it going uh and it actually made it sweeter You know, we got to know each other in a whole different way. Quarantine sucked for a million reasons, but it was really awesome at the same time because of that.

We binge-watched Netflix shows together for the first time ever. You know, we cooked dinners together and learned homemade meals and, like, all that kind of stuff. And very domestic for us, you know, now we're back to Taco Bell and Road catering. Yeah, also not so bad. That's cool. I'm assuming better than you used to's is it's got to be. something with your wife, right? Yeah, I mean, she's the ultimate muse man for everything, always.

The original idea from that song is my little sister is just such a hard ass, and she is stubborn. She's the youngest. She's stubborn. She's extremely intelligent. She's a lawyer. She's always got the poker face on. And then over Christmas last year, or I guess, whatever, at some point last year,

I was having a conversation with her about her boyfriend that was just putting her through it. And she was crying. And she was like, I'm just putting so much in. And he's not giving me anything back. And in a normal conversation, I was like, you need to find somebody that's better than you're used to. She goes, I know, I know, I know. And always in conversations, I've probably said three things since we've been talking. And I'm like, oh, cool.

I'll remember to write that down because that's a cool song title, you know. Yeah, it is. So I wrote it down and the idea. And then a few months later, I brought it up in a row. room and usually how it works is there's anywhere from like two to four of us just hanging out chatting about different ideas and I brought it up and once we started writing the actual song you know I can't write a whole song about my sister like that like there's not enough that's too surface level so when I met my wife she was you know getting out of a relationship where she was extremely unhappy

and et cetera et cetera and so when I met her she was super jaded on love and didn't believe in it and didn't want to give it a chance and I had to be that person to tell her that like I can be better than you're used to like I can be that thing and so that was what sparked all the actual lyrical content but it's kind of cool you know my little sister you know that we got that out of that conversation of me trying to be the older brother when she's never really let me be because she's always so self-sufficient and but yeah that's cool that I think it's that I'll probably always it will all not only is it turned into a massive hit but it's uh you know it has that dual meaning it'll be special for you guys forever especially to her so that's awesome

Yeah, exactly. How's, uh, can you share? I mean, touring, like, anything that's, like, big coming down. I'm sure we aren't going to be able to, like, make releases before your promo tape or anything, but, like, is there anything that might be out there that people don't know or, like, anything coming up, like, next year or, you know, anybody huge, maybe you're opening for, that's opening for you, or anything, any of those details? Um, so next year is pretty much still all completely coming together.

Okay. Um, but we are, by headline and tour. is September 28th until October 18th. It's 18 shows over 21 days. Wow. All across California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Idaho. Boo, West Coast Tour. I know.

But that is, we're doing that. Buddy Shai Carter is opening that show. Wow. Then we have a week off, and then we go out with, Chris Lane. So we are direct support for Chris Lane from end of October, pretty much until middle of December. Then it's Christmas and then we are, and that will tour is for us through the south. We're not coming to Greenville, unfortunately. He might be, he's a Charlotte, Charlotte guy, so he will probably be hitting one of the Carolinas, I'm assuming. We're doing

Midwest and the South on that tour, doing some Florida stuff, doing like Tortuga Fest. Florida. Lots of really cool stuff. The rest of the year is extremely exciting. This is actually these next two weeks right here are going to be pretty. I'm going to try to drop some beerweight, get show ready again so I can gain in all back. Come head, letting tour. It'd be great.

I love that. Is it still, I mean, on tour, like, as we kind of conclude here, Tyler, is that is, I don't want to say rock style, rock star lifestyle, but like is it just kind of I mean 18 day 8th dating in 21 is insanity like you know but like is it just nuts well what's funny about that is that so usually on country they call country artists weekend warriors because we usually go out Thursday Friday Saturday come back on Sunday yeah leave on Wednesday play Thursday Friday Saturday come back on Sunday um whereas in rock bands and hip-hop art everybody else usually go on one tour that's like three months long and then they're off. I said they do it. One tour is like three months long. And so my agent hit me up when we were, because this headline tour is,

it's the fourth time rebooking it. I wanted to call it fourth times a charm, but we wanted to stay away from COVID puns. And so he calls me, he's like, hey man, instead of like a five-week tour, how do you think, how do you feel about three weeks?

I was like, oh shit, so we're losing like half the tour? He goes, no. So remember when you used to be like in a rock band, 15 years ago, whatever, and used to tour, like nonstop. How do you feel about 18 shows in 21 days? And so we are straight up like, it's going to be tiring, exhausting, rewarding, and freaking awesome. I wouldn't, you know.

You need to die. I show you have a content team. You got to document that shit. Like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like 18 and 21, like that's, that's, there's your, you know, big bold, like, you know, some more creativity around it, but like, that would be cool. Well, conveniently. So the tour is called 2000 miles, which is the title of my album.

And so that is 2,000 miles is basically almost the exact distance between Nashville and L.A. and from our two front doors. And so the entire time I was writing that first album, Sabina and my wife and I were going back and forward trying to see each other between 2,000 miles. And so that was like the no-brainer title for that album. This entire tour of 18 shows is almost exactly 2,000 miles in routing also. and so it kind of... I love it when marketing and reality come together. It just comes together, perfect.

Yeah, so my media guy, Rick, on tour that just documents our stuff nightly. He's going to do like a whole actual thing that we can release. It's like a documentary style of the whole tour. Taking my Husky out there, I've had the same dog for 15 and a half years. She just turned 16. And so we're taking her out to California to start the tour. And she's going to be out on the bus with us for the three weeks. and bring her back to here and then a week off before Chris Lane starts.

That one's called the Phil Then Boots Tour. We'll be dead by then, but happy about it. Yeah, exactly. Hey, good problems to have. What's the future? I mean, I know you're living it out. You've got the hits coming. You're writing.

You're living the dream. You're growing. I mean, you know, but is there, are you one of those that's like, I got this, I want to have this done, that done? Or are you just riding the wave? man I'm just riding the wave it's hard it's hard to plan for anything in this in this lifestyle

we wanted to buy a house we just bought our first house in Nashville so we're excited about that we're still moving into this this is my studio and so we're in the process of making this thing home right now kids are on the mind so that'll be like the next thing but as far as like music goes man we just ride the wave we're wise we just ride the wave

next week the seventh I'm going in to track a few new songs to be what's going to follow up better than you're used to. And we're starting album cycle number two. And so tracking with Jaron Johnson, who is the singer of Cadillac 3. And so it's going to be, he's producing the next batch of stuff. So it's going to be probably a little more rocking, a little more in your face. And so I'm excited about it. All my stuff has always been such as easy going country love songs and feel good stuff

that we're going to add a little grit to the party. And it's going to be cool. I like it. I love it, brother. You got time for a real quick, rad or fad. We give you one word. You tell us rad or fad. Like, as in, it's good to stay or it's just here for now.

Yeah. Some people interpret it as truly what they say, rad, awesome, fad. Yeah, not so great or however you want to interpret. But, yeah. Cool. First, Instagram, brief. Bill's, rat or fad? I'm rat.

Yeah, all right. Kanye. Kanye, who's now yay again. I'm going Kanye, rad. I think he's one of the greatest marketing influence. Like, his brain is crazy. Ding, ding, ding, ding, my friend. Dolly Parton.

Oh, come on. Rad, of course. I'm asking every cursory music, like, if someone dares his fad, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm going to like, you know, give the flush the toilet sound or something. I don't know what, but... That's a trick question. No.

Country, hip hop. Rad or fad? I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say fad. Yeah. I'm kind of on the fits. I enjoy it, you know, but like, I don't know if it's for everything and, you know.

I'm gonna say fad strictly because, and I do enjoy it as well. Like I've told you, I love all genres of music. I just, I love art. or I don't. It's never the genre thing. I just say bad just because I don't think it's ever going to go bigger than it already is. I think it just kind of lives where it's at. Yeah, it's kind of, I think we're seeing its heyday or its moment right now. And lastly, Jake Paul. Rad or bad? Bad. All right. Yeah, I give him credit for all the intention he's garnered. He seems to be able to be a pretty damn good boxer, all things considered. But, uh, yeah, I mean,

In the sense of this of this podcast, I would almost give them all rads because their marketing genius has got them to where they're at right now, all of them, and it's got them up to a point that, but it will be lasting? Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Hey, Tyler Rich, brother, I can't, I can't thank you more. It's been fascinating, kind of hearing your story, your journey, kind of hearing it firsthand. and really appreciate your transparency

and your honesty comes through in your music. And if you're out there listening better than you're used to, go download it. Spotify, Apple Music, anywhere everywhere. I know it's out there.

Where else can everybody keep up with all things, Tyler Rich? It's just as easy as that. Anywhere you type my name, if it doesn't show up, then I'm doing something wrong. Name is spelled very simple, T-Y-L-L-E-R-I-C-H.

Yeah, cool, man. And if you're on the West Coast, you know where to go find them. I might have to get out there. I'm going to be in LA next month. So maybe something will align somewhere where I'm on the coast. I'm going to come hear you, brother. Yeah, man.

I mean, if you're in the next month, we're all over. Yeah, cool. Yes, sir. Let's stay in touch, man. I want to follow your journey and really appreciate you coming on. Yeah, I appreciate your time. Thanks, everybody. Yeah.

We'll see you soon. Hey, guys, we really appreciate Tyler Rich. You know where to find him. He just told you better than you used to. It's awesome. Go listen to it. Country Radio. Play it more.

And you know where to find us? The Radcast. com search for all the highlight clips search for Tyler rich you'll find all the episode information from today and you know where to find me at Ryan Alford on all the platforms we'll see you next time on the Radcast