The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Scott Hayley, Country Music Star Interview

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

Scott Hayley, Country Music Star Interview Scotthayley.com

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show, friends. We certainly appreciate it. And now, a man who loves dogs more than he likes cats.

It's just a personal favorite of people. If you like cats, it's fine with me. But that's my thinking. I don't know what that means. I wrote that just off the top of my head. It makes no sense. But that's the fun part of it. It's funny.

And if it's not, well, then it's stupid. And that's funny, too. Anyway, guys, thanks for coming to the Chris Vas Show. I just think I just laid the foundation of our whole podcast down. Be sure to share with your family, friends, or relatives. Go to goodreads.com, 4SXChrisVoss, youtube.com, 4SXChrisVoss, all the crazy places we have on the internet. We have a legitimate country music star on the show with us today. We're going to be talking about his life, some of his influences, what he does, how he does it, and some of his life journey.

Scott Haley is on the show with us today. He's going to be talking to us about his amazing journey. Hello, Scott. How are you doing there, buddy? Hey, man. I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me, Chris. Thanks for coming.

We certainly appreciate it. Let me spit out your bio here so we can lay a foundation for everybody here. His earliest influences, I don't know why I'm talking in the third person. He's now broken the fourth wall. He's in the show. But his earliest influences were Billy Ray Cyrus and one of my favorites, rock legend Sammy Hager. What a god, Sammy Hager. Coming from hardscrabble upbringing, his parents pulled together money to take him to see Billy Ray Cyrus live in concert.

This life-changing moment inspired him to dedicate his life to country music. Never afraid of hard work, he built a promising career at the West Texas Oil Fields as a directional drilling consultant. After 19 years of making a living with his oil company, he turned his hard hat in to finally pursue his dream of playing country Texas, country music specifically. And he has several hits, such as Facebook Jail. I think I've been in that hit. Overserved. Zombie Town. I think I've been in that one, too.

Truth About Texas. He's taken his country music to music fans all over the world. Welcome to the show, Scott. How are you? Man, I'm doing fabulous. Thank you so much for having me. Fabulous, man. I love your whole mantra there.

So give us a.com where people can find you on the interwebs and get to know you better. Here's some of your music. scotthaley.com. There he goes. scotthaley.com. You can find you on Spotify and all those other places. Let's just do some of your music earlier today. Oh, awesome. Thank you for listening to it there you go so you've been playing country

music since you were nine years old yeah yes it's a yeah uh you're singing in the chef if singing in the shower counts i've been playing music since i'm nine well this is pretty awesome uh you just got off a tour in ukraine we'll talk about that some more in a second. And then you are planning a tour here in America. Tell us a little bit about your upbringing. Let's talk about where you came from, what grew up, and how that shaped you. Kind of an interesting story.

And some of it's encased in your life or your song, The Life I've Lived. Yes, sir. You know, I come from a very humble beginnings. My mother was 14 when I was born. And, you know, she made the decision to keep me, you know, when she was pressured to not keep me. And, you know, she put her faith in God and, you know, she decided to have me and she did her best to give me one of the best upbringings possible. And, you know, I'm forever grateful for that. You know, we're very poor when I was young. They worked very hard to become successful people. I lost my real dad to suicide when I was eight years old.

My stepdad, Tim, he stepped in and done an amazing job at becoming a father figure. They gave me a very good life growing up. I'm forever grateful for that.

There you go. That shapes you in a lot of ways. I mean, the suicide and being, I can't remember what they call it, but I think there's six people that are most affected by a suicide, usually in every case. And it makes a difference in our life and changes it. It sounds like you went through a lot of challenges in childhood that maybe shaped you and shaped what's going into your music.

I would say nearly every song I write, uh, some of that inspiration from my, my father's suicide, uh, is instilled in those songs. Yeah. Um,

you know, it's, uh, suicide is awful. Um, you know, and, and anybody that has to deal with it,

uh, at some point you're going to have to pick a direction. You're going to have to let that terrible tragedy drag you down in life, or you're going to have to let it build you up. And remember it. Remember the pain. And use it as an example to do some sort of good. And at the very least, keep others from committing that terrible act. Definitely.

You know, the thing about artists is they usually are really great at transforming pain, suffering, challenges and cathartic times we go through in life. And they turn into valuable art that we can use to realize that we're not alone in the world and that, hey, here's a way through the darkness and we can inspire other people. And a lot of people do that through their art. Right. Well, I'm known as a party animal, the life of the party, and most people would never know this.

And I don't know if I've ever even said it, but I can only write sad, painful songs. You know, I've got a lot of happy songs. I didn't write. I had to have a co-writer. I got a guy named Paul Cook. He partners up with me on nearly every song. And he's the king of cheese. You know, when I combine my powers with him, we can write a happy, cheesy country song.

But me personally, I mean, I can't sit down and write an upbeat, happy song. I mean, there's something. I'm a happy person. But there's something deep-seated in my subconscious that, you know, that's where all the pain and everything comes out is whenever I'm actually writing music. Probably where a lot of emotion resonates and what that is. And emotion comes through in art. I mean, that's the great thing about art.

You know, and not everyone can write, you know, Journey songs about fluff and love and cutesy stuff. You know, I mean, I love Journey. But, you know, I remember, I think it was What's-His-Face, the lead singer of Metallica, he wrote something about, you know, the music they write. I'm a big Metallica fan.

And he's like, you know, we write about darkness and depression and, you know, kind of dark thinking and different things, but, you know, people find that cathartic and, you know, we don't write fluffy, pretty songs, but we write songs that help people inspire them in fact if i'm angry mad or or i've got something you know i'm i'm bent about i can go listen metallic and it you know kind of takes the piss out of it it kind of like you know that headbang you're like you know and

then you feel better and you're like I don't want to kill everybody now. I think I'll be fine. You know, if you had a great day at work and you got a promotion, you don't go get in your truck and listen to Metallica on the way home. That's true, yeah. But if somebody pissed you off at work, there's a pretty good chance you're going to play Metallica. And you're going to play Metallica. Anger, misery. I've always said that music is God's language to the heart.

That's how he speaks to it. We've got something if we're angry. We've got something if we're sad. We've got stuff we can listen to if we're happy. If we just need to be uplifted, we've got gospel music. There's a song out there for every single feeling. There is. You said feeling. I was going to say. In fact, well, you said feeling.

I was going to say don't stop believing my journey. Anyway, there's a feeling song. I probably can't think of one. So you do a lot of what you term as Texas country music. What's the difference there? Is it very ZZ Top-ish or what's going on? You know, I guess I've been coined that. If I had it my way, I'd be up on the stage rocking Metallica-style music. You know, I love rock.

Any more depression, maybe. Well, you know, when I'm driving down the road, I'm listening to rock. I mean, that's my thing. And if I could, I'd be a rock star. But if you hear the way I talk, it don't go over very well. I'm just a little too redneck to pull off the rock. But yeah, I mean, country music. Maybe there could be a Texas Twain Metallica.

I don't know. Yeah. What do I know? Well, you know, Life I've Lived, one of my recent releases, it's a rocked-up country Americana. I don't know what you call it. Here in Texas, they call it red dirt because they don't know what the hell to call it. It's rock and country, which is the same thing that ZZ Top was doing. It's evolved over the years.

There's been so many different acts. When I was young, it was Cross Canadian Ragweed. You know, these guys, they were some, you know, they were actually out of Oklahoma. They were just a couple of rockers, but they attracted the country people. So the Honky Tonks would bring them in and they had this, they just somehow the term red dirt come about. And it was Cross-Canadian Ragweed, The Great Divide, Pat Green, Reckless Kelly, which Pat Green was more country, but the other three,

it kind of started this entire movement, red dirt movement. And now it's evolved into the Coe Wetzels and Giovanni and the Hired Guns and Whiskey Meyer. And if you go back, you listen to those three guys that i just named uh you go back and listen to zz top it's actually all very close yeah in fact a lot of it you know is rooted in the blues i mean that's the thing about country music it's got a really close root to the blues and you know when i grew up there was always kind of this great divide of rock and country but over the last 20 30 years or so i've been alive for a long time damn

it um is uh is uh you know there's a lot of crossover that's gone on you know where music passes from back and forth in fact i think dolly parton's working on a rock album evidently right now i can't wait to hear that i can't wait hear that. I hope she dances to rock when she does it because I've been a big fan of her. Upper part. No, she's a wonderful woman and brilliant artist. It's kind of interesting. You go on this journey. You're writing songs.

You want to go see Billy Ray Cyrus when you're young. Did you keep writing? Did you want to go see billy reese cyrus when you're young did you did you keep writing did you keep playing uh practicing your music or you you kind of went on this career path where you went off to the oil fields well you know so growing up you know i mean i remember uh it's funny if i ever got mad at my stepdad you know i always get mad i'd have these dreams that my mom would divorce him and marry Garth Brooks. I'd wake up. I think he's still huge.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. There was one time where he was like the biggest artist ever in any genre. Yeah, and I mean, he kind of changed music. Some say for the better. Some say for the worse. I mean, I think he's a. I'm a huge Garth fan. Well, you wanted to be your dad,

so you got that. Yeah. But you know, it was... I had a friend named Tim when I was 9, 10 years old. I wouldn't go out to the playground. Everybody would be out there playing sports. named Tim, you know, when I was, you know, nine, 10 years old.

And I wouldn't go out to the playground. Everybody out there playing sports, you know, and we were, you know, we were playing country music stars. He'd be Garth. I'd be Billy Ray, you know, and we'd go hide out and sing songs, you know. And, you know, it was, you know, puberty hit and, you know, I wanted to chase girls. And I realized that sports was a way, a better way to accomplish that goal. And, you know, I went the sports route and, you know,

went to college and tried to play. I wasn't very good. I thought I was good in the class A school, but whenever I got to college, I realized I was not very good. But, you know, I always tinkered, tinkered with guitar, you know, sitting around a campfire. I'm still not a very good guitar player. I think I'm a good songwriter, but I'm a terrible guitar player. But, you know, I got into oil and gas, you know, following 9-11. You know, it kind of changed everything. Everybody was trying to get finance degrees. And I was class of 2002, which was the, you know, that was the year where 2001 was my senior year when 9-11 happened. And after that, it completely changed everything. You know, guys were, we were being pushed to go out and get

finance degrees. In my area, Rising Star, Texas. Peanut farming was a big thing. You either went into peanut farming or you went to college to get a finance degree. Well, following 9-11, the peanuts moved out, all the quotas were sold, and they moved back to New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. And then finance, obviously, shortly after that, we had the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, I might have got that backwards. But the real estate collapsed. And so that was out the window. You know, two hours west of me, you had the world's largest oil boom in the Permian Basin. And it was hard to turn away.

I mean, you could go make more money than any college degree would offer you. And so music definitely went on the back burner. And all the way, so from the time I was 19 years old until I was 36, never thought about playing music. And then one day what you decided to pick it up then? Yeah. You know, I've worked up into management and I just got to a point where I just wasn't enjoying life. There was just something missing. I had an amazing wife, an amazing son, but just something didn't feel complete. My blood pressure was through the roof.

I was up over 300 pounds. I was working all the dang time. It wasn't jiving in life. One day, at the time, I was on so many pills to keep my blood pressure down, keep my mood right, that I was just basically a zombie. One day, I decided to quit the pills. That was awful. Don't ever just stop taking a bunch of pills. Just don't stop, yeah.

That's why I never stop. Just don't stop. I'm just kidding. Sorry. But, you know, one day, you know, I weaned myself off all the medications I was on. Started losing weight. Lost a lot of weight fairly quick. And, you know, I just realized, man, this is not my life. So I had a 200, nearly $250,000 a year job,

and I just quit one day. I know that's the craziest damn thing you can think of. But yeah, I just quit. And on the way home, I thought, man, what am I going to do with my life now? And so I stopped at a pawn shop and looking around, just trying to kill time. And I saw them guitars and I said, I think that's what I'm going to do. So I bought one of those guitars and I got home and I told my wife, I said, I said, hey, I quit my job. She said, you what? Yeah, I quit my job. She said, what are you going to do? I think I'm going to start playing music. I didn't sleep in the bed for a long time.

Oh, yeah. That'll do it. Yeah, but that's how I got back into it. Because in her head, she's going, yeah, that means groupies. Yeah. Got a meat-guarding situation there. So you decide to do this. How many albums have you put out or songs or singles?

So I know I put out one 10-song album. Okay. And if you listen to it, it's probably it sounds about like somebody's first album. But we've released, I can say exact four or five singles since then. And, you know, we're starting I'm starting to find myself in the music that I'm creating. I've got a great team around me. As I mentioned earlier, you know, Paul Cook, he's an amazing songwriter. But the, the, the one that's really making the change right now, he's a, he's a producer. His name's John Dan McBride. He, he actually plays in Aaron Watson's band.

And John Dan has been extremely crucial to, to what I'm creating now. We're able to work together. Excuse me. He's able to work with my style, you know, and create the instrumental music to match that style I'm looking for. And we're starting to find a groove. And with every song that we produce, it's getting closer and closer to that.

Awesome sauce. Awesome sauce. So now you kind of curve back a little bit when the Ukraine war starts out to oil. How does that all play in together? Tell us a little bit about that journey. How I got back to old? Yeah, with the Ukraine and the war. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Okay, okay, yeah. So music don't pay a lot. At least not starting out, right? Yeah. No, you know, we were doing really great. Got some big shows, you know, open for some major acts. Then COVID hit. And it just completely, I think I canceled, you know,

in one week I canceled over 40 shows. Wow. You know, I'm sitting there, my family's out by Rising Star, and I've got my little deer camp that I hide out over there. And it was the greatest place to quarantine. But, you know, I drank a lot of beer and didn't get a lot done. And I dipped a lot of snuff and smoked a lot of cigars. Some good music.

But, you know, I run out of money. And, you know, when COVID, although COVID wrecked everything, the one thing it didn't wreck was the drive for energy. So the oil field was still, it was still, you know, booming. And I said, you know, I'm going to go back and kind of tinker with that. So I went back and, you know, I'd done a little bit of consulting and got everything built back up, tried to go back into music, and just never had that same impact like it did before. I had a hard time getting the bigger shows. Once you get on a wave and you ride that wave for a while, if you jump off, it's hard to find another wave.

Yeah. Plus, there haven't been a lot of shows going on because of COVID. No. When some of these acts that were playing in bars and the bars before COVID, it cost them $20,000, $30,000 to get these guys in bars.

When they dropped their price down to $5,000 or lower just to play shows, there wasn't a big demand for me. Guys that are in that medium tier. So, I mean, to go play, we went from getting shows to where we could pay a band and put a little bit of money in your pocket to where you could pay your bills to barely being able to pay your band and put a little bit of money in your pocket, you know, to where you could pay your bills to barely been able to pay your band.

Yeah. And so it just wasn't, it just wasn't feasible to stay in music. Yeah. And, and so you, I mean, even now, I mean, I think the shows are just barely coming back. I know a lot of shows that have been rescheduled over and over again. And hopefully this is a year where everybody gets to tour. You know, I had the same thing where all my shows got shut down.

You know, the events that we go to like CS show and AB South by Southwest. Um, I watched a lot of money disappear from that. So I know the feeling. Um, so you, you just got done touring in, in Europe and I think you were tying that together with helping your brain in some way with the war. Yeah. So whenever, uh, I caught a bad case of COVID, uh, at the end of, uh, the end of 2021. And, uh, I had, you know, I've had it four times,

but this was the third time I caught it. I'd, I'd had a bad reaction with the, with, uh, some arthritis that I had. And it just basically I lost the ability to walk for a couple of weeks and it got up in my hips and, and, uh, you know, I spent a little, uh, you know, a couple of days in the hospital and, uh, and then I was immobile for a few weeks. And then, you know, for about a month I was walking on a cane. Well, I got, I couldn't see, uh, just my voice. It got, I mean, I don't know how it affected it just laying around so much. I don't know how it affected, it was just laying around so much. I don't know what it was, but it's, well, if I can't sing, I might as well go back to the old film. So, so I went back to consulting. Well, then I got the opportunity shortly,

this was right when Russia invaded Ukraine. You know, I had an old business associate hit me up and asked if I wanted to go help out with an operation consulting in Romania. I was like, where the hell is Romania? I still don't know where it was. Well, he says it's in Europe. So I look. I get on a map, you know, and I didn't know. I could have told you if it was in South America. What? I mean, I didn't know. But I get on a map and I look and it's just right there next to Ukraine.

I'm like, I don't know about all that. You know, and the more I thought of you first, I said no. And the more I thought about it, you know, I believe that, you know, I believe in God. And, you know, I mean, it's very coincidental that an opportunity like that would come up. You know, and I got to look at what they were going through and seeing that Russia, you know, Russia was now putting the squeeze on energy to the rest of Europe, cut the pipelines off. And, you know, Europe, that place gets pretty cold. I mean, it gets cold here, but it's cold there and it stays cold. Yeah.

They don't see the sun much in London. No, no. And, you know, Romania is not, you know, it's not a very lucrative country. You know, they just come out of communism in the early 90s. And, you know, they they they're making strides are wonderful people, wonderful, amazing people. But, you know, the the horrors of communism are not so easy to overcome. And, you know, I knew that they were going to have problems. And, you know, to go in there and help these guys, uh, drill for,

for oil and gas. I mean, that was, that's something that I felt led to do. So yeah, so I've done it and it was an amazing experience. Uh, um, so while I was there, I had some, some guys reach out to me and, um, you know, ask if I'd be interested in, in playing music. I was like, well, I can't sing anymore. Like, well try, you know? So, uh, just like I did. I was like, well, I can't sing anymore. I'm like, well, try, you know? So, uh, just like I did when I was nine years old, I got in the shower and tried,

you know, uh, you know, I got, I found out like, Hey, you know, my voice has gotten better.

So, so I went up to a music store in, in Macau and, uh, Romania and bought a guitar. And, um, you know,

uh, in the middle of that project, when I had days off, I went to Poland and played. Uh, And, you know, in the middle of that project, when I had days off, I went to Poland and played. I went back to work in Romania and finished that project. And then I stayed there for several months. In all, I was there for eight months. And, you know, we played a lot of benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Poland,

just played shows to the Ukrainians. And it was an experience that I'll never forget. It was an amazing experience. It was different, very different, very different than here. I would say that it changed my outlook on being a musician here probably forever. There you go. I mean, life experience is something that makes all the difference, you know, and some artists are shaped that way.

Jimi Hendrix didn't be huge until he traveled Europe, and I think there's some other vice versa of that where people came here and people went to Europe and came back and, you know, the stuff you learn and some of the flavors you did. So you did the tour over there, and how are you received in Europe? I mean, Texas country music is kind of, is it, you know, popular, well accepted over there? They like it?

Well, you know, for the most part, it was accepted, you know, very well. We played some big crowds. We played to some small crowds. Some people, I mean mean there's lots of times um you know you'd look off the stage and every eye was engaged i mean they were playing sometimes they had uh interpreters you know uh interpreting the words to whatever their language was uh especially in poland um you know i mean we were all over Europe, but Poland really sticks out, you know. Really? Yeah, that's a hidden gem.

If anybody, if they've never, you know, you don't usually hear people saying, hey, I'm going to go to Poland on vacation. I recommend it. But, yeah, but, you know, some places, it wasn't so well received. You know, they're like, this ain't my thing. This is a Yankee. This is Americans with the big burgers. Yeah.

That B.O. or something. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, a lot of these people, they,

they don't, they think that that cowboy hat is a prop. It's not real. They don't realize that that's, we really wear cowboy hats in Texas. Definitely. But they all think that every single one of us are walking around with six shooters sitting on our hips too. But there were several times. I mean, I've been asked, even here in the U.S., I've been asked to stay and take pictures or sign autographs.

But there, they would want asked to stay and take pictures or sign autographs. But there they would want me to dress up Western. If they didn't think I was dressed Western enough, they dressed me up even more Western. Really want me to stand there and take pictures because these people had never seen a real cowboy. There you go. Yeah. But yeah,

that was, that was just something I'd never seen before. You know, it, what one story, you know, there was a theme park in Gruszczadz, Poland, that I played a show at. And I stayed there for four or five days. We didn't have nothing going on. It was a great place to rest.

But these Ukrainians, and this says a lot about the people of Poland Ukrainians they would bring the fighting age Ukrainians they would bring their kids to Poland there would be these Polish families they didn't know each other they would leave their kids with these Polish families

go back and fight it's crazy and so this theme park was full of these Ukrainian kids. And I mean, you know, they'd see me and they're like, you know, they're at this Western theme park and they just love this

Wild West culture. And, you know, they would tell them, hey, this is a real Texan. Oh, well, they just come over. I mean, you'd think they'd just seen Brad Pitt. And, you know, so they come up. Oh, well, they just come I mean, you'd think they'd just seen Brad Pitt. And, you know, so they come up Oh, I you know, I didn't think this through, but I had my good hat, you know, my American Hat

Company hat. It was about an $800 hat. And them kids really wanted to take a picture. So I let every one of those kids take pictures in my hat. When I got it back, it looked like a floppy sombrero. But seeing the smiles on those kids, I mean, it was priceless. What an inspiration.

What an inspiration to make a difference in people's lives. I mean, that's the beautiful thing of what art and music does. It brings the world together. And sadly, you can't seem to bring the Russians and Ukrainians together. But, you know know i don't know maybe uh maybe something will happen to putin eventually but uh you know it's amazing how one guy can ruin like the whole world for everybody it is that that's the you know and throughout history you know i mean and that's uh even there you know i mean i heard a you know a lot of

propaganda you know if people people think propaganda died with the Nazis. It didn't. I heard a lot of it there. When are we going to learn from history that the truth is the most important thing? If you don't dig and find the truth, if you keep following these crazy conspiracies and these crazy ideas, we're going to continue screwing up as humans. Exactly. One of these days, we're going to learn that the world is flat. It's not round.

It's actually, no, hang on. I screwed that joke up. It's a triangle. It's not flat. Yeah, it's a triangle. It's not round either. It's a triangle. Screwed that joke up.

Way to go. So there you go. So what's the future plans here? Are you working on another album? Are you going to keep releasing singles, touring, et cetera, et cetera? Right now I'm releasing singles. Music has changed, and it's continuously changing. And nobody, if somebody could map it out and paint a clear and paint a clear picture of that, uh,

you'd find a billionaire. Nobody knows where it's going, uh, how to navigate it right now. It's, it's uncharted waters and, and we're all trying to find our way. I believe that releasing albums right now is just a waste.

Yeah. Uh, it's, you're, you're just burning off too much music. I mean, right now with, with,

you know, Spotify and all these streaming platforms out there, uh singles seems to be the best way to get the most bang for your buck. Yeah, that seems to be what the music business has been doing for the last few years, the last several years, is doing the singles release. And then maybe if something hits, they make an album, put it on an album. But for the most part, that's how people kind of consume music. It's kind of interesting. Yeah, and I've been torn on it. But I've started releasing singles, and I've started seeing my streams come back up.

And I'm starting to create a little bit more momentum. I had a huge setback, a very unfortunate tragedy. We had a tour set with my partner in the tour. It was Kevin Miller, which he had a character called Swamp Donkey, and he was killed in a tragic car accident two days before Christmas. So, you know, we've been dealing with that and trying to navigate around it. And I've decided to take some time, you know, to figure out a new path. But, you know, in the process, we're making strides there. I put together a band. I've got a new company, and I don't want to talk too much about that,

but I've got a new company I'm fixing to launch that, you know, fits right there into the music that I'm creating and the brand that I'm shooting toward. I'm gearing back towards my roots, which is rodeo. And we're going to be around. We're going to be around Texas. I'm going to keep making music. And I plan on coming back with a bang here soon. There you go.

There you go. And it would be great to see you touring on the road and doing events again. And I'm just excited. I just want life to be normal again. You and me both. Yeah. You know, boredom is something that I'm looking forward to. Definitely.

Definitely. I'm going to do that when I'm like 70 or 80. I'm just going to drool on a porch. I tell all my friends, I'm like, we better make some shit happen so that when we're sitting on the porch drooling down the side of our mouth, we at least have some good memories. We've got that going on. But people are like, but you drool out the side of your mouth now. And I'm like, well, I have plenty of head wounds. So there you go.

Everybody knows that on the show. Anything more we want to talk out pitch or talk about what you're doing? You know, I just released another song, Ghost on the Wall. You know, it's a song that I wrote, you know, about something that I was going through at the time that was very hard. But, you know, a lot of people have taken it different. You know, they represent it to other people that listen to it. It represents, you know, the people that they've lost throughout their life. And it's a reminder that, you know, be careful, you know, what you say.

Be careful about cutting people off and hurting people because one day you'll be a ghost on somebody's wall. How you want to be remembered is completely up to you and your actions. It's a good, sad song, but I encourage you to go out and listen to it.

We'll keep on releasing new music. Probably here in the next month, six weeks, I'll release another song. There you go. I listened to it earlier today, Ghost in the Wall. The guitar part's great. I love the intro. But, yeah, it did kind of remind me of different life events that I've had,

whether it was death or, you know, sometimes a girlfriend that I moved out. You know, you're kind of like, you know, in that space where you're like, well, I miss them, but I don't miss them, you know, that sort of thing. And so the ghost on the wall, you know, I remember my friend said to me, he goes, I go, man, you know, I keep thinking about her, and I know that this isn't going to work,

but I keep thinking about her, and he's like, you know, you've got her pictures around your house, you've got her stuff still in the house. You need to get all that out of there because that's a ghost. And so, you know, we're haunted by these ghosts in our lives, whether it's a past loved one who passed away or whatever. So, you know, it's a great song for that.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, the memories, in the end, all we have is memories. You know, some of those are painful memories, and they do. Memories, in the end, all we have is memories. Some of those are painful memories, and they do. They haunt us throughout the rest of our life. You wrote a song about Facebook jail. I think we've all experienced that one, I think, at this point. The algorithm is really crazy now.

I had a friend who, I can't remember what she wrote, but it was something completely innocuous. It was like a fact or something. And there was nothing egregious about it at all. It was like just stating a fact and she got suspended. I think I got suspended. I got suspended for something stupid recently.

You ever thought about writing any songs about Elon taking over Twitter? That seems to be a whole crap show. I have. I piss so many people off with that Facebook, Jill. So many people are like, yeah, oh man. You know, Facebook actually

shadowed me. I mean, if you don't think that's real, trust me. I believe it. That thing had 60,000 hit in the first week. You know, I mean, you know how many it's got? So two years later, it had 60,000 hits the first week, the video. You know how many hits it's got today So two years later, it had 60,000 hits the first week, the video. You know how many hits it's got today, two years later?

How many? About 63,000. Wow. I mean, they shut it down. I mean, anything I post, I had all kinds of interaction. I was looking up. I had like 60,000 weekly engagement, however that is. Man, I put something out and I thought it real good.

I was like, man, this right here is good. I'm going to get a lot of engagement on this. I'd have like two or three likes. Nobody was seeing any of my stuff. It was like that for about three months. I thought, my goodness. And, but yeah, it was a it was really, you know, I try to stay away from from I have my political views and, you know, it it pisses people off. So I try to stay away from it, you know, and Facebook jail was not meant to be political.

It really wasn't. I know if you if you listen to it, you'd probably say, yeah, that's be political. It really wasn't. I know if you listen to it, you'd probably say, yeah, that's pretty political. But it was really, you know, it was right after the election, and I mean, it was just, every time somebody'd say something, they were getting kicked off Facebook. I mean, everybody was throwing, and so and so's cousin was getting on.

Well, Billy Jackson, Facebook jail again, just to let y'all know. You know, just everybody, just the whole narrative was Facebook jail. Everybody was getting thrown, Facebook jail again, just to let y'all know, you know, everybody, it just, the whole narrative was Facebook jail. Everybody was getting thrown in Facebook jail. So me and Paul got together and wrote that song and it was meant to be humorous just because everybody was so pissed off after that election.

I think it's worse now. I mean, I see people getting suspended for nothing, like nothing. And you're just like, they'll post like, here's what I said. And this is, and you're like like they'll post like here's what i said and this is and you're like how is that offensive to anyone who reported that and uh you know i i think uh i can't remember what i got my last suspension for a couple days i there was like nothing like it was the most innocuous thing ever it was it was a joke and it had an lol on it too to indicate it's a joke because i've learned that i've got to put lol in those people are like are you being serious like no that people that's a joke that's why i wrote that and uh and so you you know i put lol or bwa hah on stuff and

i do that on purpose because i want the bots to go oh you know he's doing some comedy. And it's just that way. So, yeah, but maybe Facebook, I don't know how many employees they have, but losing the Facebook crowd maybe is bad for the career for music. It is. But, you know, we – I don't know how many listen to country music. Yeah. Just to add a little side note on that,

if there's one thing I can say about all this, and especially, and I know you see it, everybody sees it, whether you're far right or far left. Everybody, it just seems that everybody's looking for a reason to be offended. Yeah, it's real victimhood competition culture we have going on yeah it's just i feel like you know i mean people are uh they're so worried about finding something to be offended by that they forget to to find the small moments moments uh to make you enjoy life yeah uh but yeah it's it's a but yeah it's a you know cancel culture and uh the offended the the culture of the offended uh you know it's definitely it's definitely, it's made things very interesting.

That's for sure. Yeah. We, we really have turned into emotionalism, emotionalism society. We need to change that. We need to go back to logic and reason because I mean, that's what's created just about every problem we've had over the last,

uh, three generations. So, um, but the beautiful part is music brings us together And we can dance And listen and sing And go to concerts And enjoy music regardless of what our

Idiot beliefs are That we're working on We're a bunch of stupid human beings when it comes down to it I feel like When it's all over with Me too When it's all said and done and we meet our maker,

get to the pearly gates, or get our 57 virgins, whatever it is, we're all going to be in shock. We're going to say, man, we're a bunch of idiots. Yeah, I think that's what's going to be on my tombstone. Here lies Chris Voss. Complete fucking idiot. For one of my podcasts, honestly.

Well, it's been wonderful to have you on, Scott. Very insightful and exciting. I look forward to what you're building with your career and your music and stuff. Give us your.com so people can find you on the interwebs. Yeah, scotthaley.com. And thank you very much, Chris, for having me. I've enjoyed it. Thank you.

It's been fun to have you on. I look forward to having you on again when you come back and you're like, I sold 15 platinum albums. I don't know how it works. I've never done it. You probably won't even call us back, man. You're like, I'm platinum now, baby. Call me for music.

I'll definitely be back. If you'll have me back, I'll come back. We have a record of that now. There you go, man. I mean, it's great. It's good that you have the career. Thank you very much for coming on. Thanks to my audience for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com for just Chris Foss. Go to

youtube.com for just Chris Foss. And then you have a channel over there too as well, Scott, right? I do. I think it's just Scott Haley. There you go. There you go. And check him out on Spotify, the big old Spotify. We love Spotify. In fact, our podcast is on Spotify. So check out his music over there.

That's where I was listening to earlier today. And find enough stuff that brings us together. That's what 2023 should be. The thing where we get back to normal, well, instead of being so divided, we all get back together through music. Let's just hug. Let's just hug one another.

I do want to hug everybody, especially after I can't hug anybody for the last two years, but there's some people I don't want to hug. Can I punch some of those people in the face? Well, that's the thing. When we get back to where we can hug and throw punches and not get offended and not press charges,

not file sexual harassment charges for a hug, not file assault charges for a punch. That's whenever we're going to be back to be in the America that that was great. There you go. I love that. Thanks, Miles, for tuning in. Check us out on all of the interwebs. Share the show with your friends and family. Be sure

to be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time.