The Dale Jr. Download - Tim Dugger's Long Road to the Grand Ole Opry

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives listeners a closer look into one of his greatest personal friendships as he sits down with longtime country music recording artist Tim Dugger. Over the years, Tim has become known as the “NASCAR guy”, performing as a musical guest at many NASCAR events and becoming synonymous with at-track entertainment. But his path to the stage originated from humble beginnings, traveling as a church singer with his sister, jamming at local music stores with older musicians and grinding for years on the bar circuit. Tim explains the first time he ever performed at a NASCAR event, it was in a very unofficial capacity: setting up in the free camping area at Talladega with a speaker and performing for anyone that would listen.Dale Jr. and Tim’s friendship stemmed from an Austin Dillon introduction, when Austin brought Tim along for a paintballing excursion on Dale’s property. After a few beers in the basement bar, the guitar came out and Tim showcased his deep repertoire of country music classics. Tim and his wife Tara would be extended an invitation to one of Dale and Amy’s Key West trips, and the couples have been close ever since. The interview covers Dale and Tim’s shared trauma from their childhoods, some hilarious stories from the road and shared adventures in Ireland. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And I got up there and I'm playing this show. I look over to the stage and this guy's like, come here. And I walk over, he's like, hey, the cops are here. And he wants you to announce that people need, girls need to put their tops back on. These girls are on top, like guys' shoulders, done got topless. And I walk over the cop and I was like, what now?

He's like, man, you can't. Sounds like the Buffalo shit. He's like, we can't be doing that up here. I said, whoa, I have the band stop. I'll give you the mic. You can make the next. announcement and then we'll go back to playing. He's like, hell, I ain't doing that. And I go, well, I ain't doing it. I go, that be the most un-American thing I could ever do. I said, so if you

ain't doing it, I ain't doing, I guess it ain't getting done. And we just kept going. And I didn't get asked back to Watkins Glen for like three or four years. The following is a production of Dirty Moe Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the guest segment here on Wednesday. And we've got a great show for you today. But first off, I want to welcome to the Arby's studio. Arby's has their new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets and we've got a great guest.

Tim Dugger is coming into the studio. Tim is a great friend of mine. He's a country music artist, Liz in Nashville. He's worked his ass off. As long as I've known him, at least, I don't know, 15 years or so, he's been grinding away, you know, creating content, creating music, creating, you know, this catalog trying to, you know, breakthrough and become this star.

And it's been a lot of fun to kind of watch that struggle and challenge. And I've been supporting him for many, many years. He plays a lot of NASCAR races, but he tours as well, goes all over the country, playing music. And he's played the Grand Ole Opry now a total of seven times. That's wild because I remember it just seemed like yesterday he played his first time there. And that was such an emotional experience for him because it's out of a dream for every artist to get that opportunity.

and he's been asked to come back six times now. So pretty cool for Tim. He's got a lot of new music coming out soon. A new single that I love, Won't You Like I Do, is out now on iTunes and all those places where you find your music. But Tim is a hilarious guy.

He is the best drinking buddy that you could have. His wife, Tara, is amazing. Me, Amy, and Tim and Tara, we talk every day. We are the closest of friends. So this means a lot for me to bring him in here. and let you guys get to know him just a little bit better. So thank you for listening, and let's get Tim in the room and get started.

Get the guests in the show and get started. The Coal Bear. We're doing this. I mean, we're going to talk for an hour. Tim Dugger on the Dale Jr. download. Yeah, glad to be here, man. Take that microphone wherever you want. I watch this on TV, so it's cool to be here.

You do. Yeah. You and Terry, your beautiful wife, watch y'all support what we do. Oh, yeah. I feel like when it's you and Amy, that's as close to you and Amy as it gets. That's the real deal. And I feel like when we watch it, we're like, oh, we're catching up. Then when we see each other, we kind of know what's going on.

Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. We have a lot of fun doing, bless your heart, and it's actually brought us closer together. But, man, I've wanted to get you here and talk to you. And want you to share kind of your story. I find it really fascinating. I've known some guys that play music and sang and met some different people over the years.

And I think, you know, when you're growing up as a kid, fan of different bands, you're all, you know, you see these people on TV and you see them in magazines and you hear about their lives and the drama and all the things going on and the rock and roll lifestyle and all that. And I think every kid at some point, like dreams of being a rock star. even sons of race car drivers.

Yeah. You know, being a rock star, I think especially, I think, for young males, is like, oh, shit, that would be badass, right? Yeah, I think it's the tension. Yes, it is. You get kind of use affirmation. If I could get, yeah. You have notoriety that comes with it and just people thinking you're badass, right? Just singing your songs.

And so I guess that's always kind of had me curious as to what that. lifestyle is like or what what those experiences like and as I've gotten older I've learned that it isn't all roses and the people that do it that do it really really well I'm are like god dang man this is a grind yeah or man I can't wait till this tour's over I can't wait till I'm ready to go home I miss this or I want to just be I just want to lay around you know and so it's pretty interesting because I, you know, I've got these, there's bands that I love and have loved for years. And you're like, when they're going to make another record?

Damn, it's been a couple years. Make me a f***er. Yeah. You know, I want some more music. Yeah, and if, you know, if it was up to me, like, I would record, I record a lot of demos. I would drop songs every month. I think you have to. Yeah.

But when you get record labels involved and everything, like, I don't have any control over that. Right. I have to ask permission to do everything. And budgets have to be approved. The songs have to be approved. And it might be one that I'm like, I love this song. And they're like, nah, we don't like that one.

And we like this one over here. So it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's frustrating. It's part of the deal. It's a job. Yeah. But the grind, I think, for me, I've not been on these, you know, long tours where you're, you know, playing four nights. back in the day, like, of my late teens, early 20s, and we were doing like college bar circuits.

And so we would play 10 to 2s. Like we'd start at 10 o'clock, 2, 2.30. No breaks. I'd never leave the stage at all. I'd usually want to sing every song. Or we'd play like, you know, at the floor, Bammon, play 7 nights straight 10 to 2. And you feel like a rock star then.

I mean, empty pizza boxes and, liquor and, you know, wild times. But, and then, and then you get where, like, when I had vocal cord surgery two years ago, like, you start getting, well, I need to not be hooping and hollering at the bar after a show and yelling and kind of slows you down a little bit. And you get older, it's still a grind. But for me, I never, like looking at, I was always a country music guy. I was what I was raised on.

It was always classic country music. So there wasn't, you didn't hear that rock star life. It was really more about the stories of the song that made me fall in love with country music. And I was, I mean, I was a little kid going, man, I sure feel, it'd be cool to get my heart broke like that. Man, that sounds like it's painful. And I don't know why. Like, I think I did too. Yeah.

I mean, you know, you hear a song and you're like, damn, you know, that's, well, I ever experience that. Yeah. Right. We were talking about it before the show the other day, about heartbreak. And I was like, I remember getting my heart broke and I put on Alan Jackson's gone crazy. And I laid in bed. And I told my dad, I was like, I'm dying. He's like, nah, you ain't died.

Dude, I remember, I remember I was boyfriend and girlfriend holding hands with this little girl. back when I was like 12 years old and she lived on the block where my mom lived and my dad's race shop. He worked out of the race shop that was Rouse in Canapolis. This old girl and she had a twin sister

and it was kind of the first crush I had and if she hears this she'll remember I met them or I saw them years later and we all kind of had a laugh but I had this big crush on her

and, you know, we walked the block every time I'd come into town and we'd go up to Derek Queen get ice cream and do all that silly stuff, holding hands and giggling for like, I don't know, it seemed like a couple months. It might have been two weeks. Yeah, you don't know.

But one day she wrote me a note that she didn't want to hang out with me no more and I rode home at the end of the night or day, me and dad are riding home. I begged to go to the shop with him, not just because of this little girl I had to crush on, but I wanted to go with dad and be around dad. I didn't want to be at home. And so we're riding home in the truck, and he's like, man, what's wrong?

And I just fell out. I was like, girl, she don't want to be. I really liked her, man. She don't want to hang out with me no more. I don't understand, you know? Yeah. And he was like, oh, crap. He's like, here we go.

He had to give me this talk. My next door neighbor, they had a trampoline. We didn't. And so we would, there was a barbed wire fence that separated our property. And we would climb through that barbed wire fence. And we were always allowed to go jump on the trampoline with her. And I would sing swinging to her, John Anderson swinging. He was singing.

Yeah. Oh, I was singing all the time. And it's funny because we were, we were, if I got things, I traded for things or whatever, like I, my earphones for my little tape player was like an old heronade. I only had one, so that's how I would listen to music. But I would sing to her and jump right. And anyway, my sister, like, caught me kissing her. And I was like, five or six.

She's like, oh, my God, I'm going to tell Mom and Dad, you're doing it. And if they catch you doing it, you're going to get a whooping. And, like, for 10 years, she's like, held it over my head. I thought I was really doing it. Like, whatever it was, me and her was doing it. But yeah, she would hold things over my head. But that was my first like, oh, yeah, she's pretty. I like that.

Yeah. So you are, you live in Nashville. You've been with Kurb for a while. You're writing songs. You're singing songs. You travel. You play music. You're in the music business.

when how does that process how do you how do you explain to somebody how you I know you were born in Alabama yep

rough childhood yeah it was you know do you relate to this the older you get and you become an adult is when you see things through a whole different lens

you're like you understand some of it and then you're like that's a little messed up Oh, yeah. Why the hell did you do that? Yeah. You know, how'd you move away from me?

Yeah. Right, you know, like, why would you leave? Yeah. I've done that with my mom. My thing was... I was... I was... Wait a minute.

You know, I know you moved, and we still went and saw you up in Virginia, but how the hell did you move? Now I'm a dad, and I'm like, I couldn't move to fucking other state for my kids, right? I'm like, explain that one. My parents were... When I was younger,

my parents were pretty rowdy. Hellraiser's... Party. motorcycles. It was, you kids go, like, to this part of the house, and there'd be other kids with us that their parents brought them over. And don't matter what you hear, you don't come out of this room. If we come in here to get you, that's cool.

But y'all don't open that door. And hell, you'd come in there, and there's somebody done shot a hole in the ceiling. Really? Man, they partied hard. And then about when I was like in, I was probably, third grade my dad got real sick of what um he had um his liver just went bad which is um he was an old truck driver a bunch uh i call them they call them like chain gang type tattoos homemade tattoos and um and just the pills and the stuff you do as a truck driver to to stay awake and party and uh and drive and

um so his liver went bad so when his liver went bad he didn't work and when you don't work I mean I was talking to some folks and things you don't kind of when you're a kid you're just like damn this is you don't put it together till you kind of get older but we were like hey you got you know we had to grow up pretty fast I remember like we went and got groceries from the church like pulled up whatever they put in the back that's what we ate and I mean Christmas came in trash bags because We didn't, I mean, he couldn't work at all. He was down to like 90 pounds and out of his mind and really about to die.

And he ended up getting a liver transplant and lived for a long time. So those were years I didn't have with him. And after he kind of got close to death and survived that and I got a little older, we really connected. And, you know, he was always, he wore long shirts, didn't want people. People see his tattoos, didn't want to talk about the rowdy days. Damn, he changed. Oh, yeah. And never drank another drop.

No shit. He didn't. And he was one of those beer in his hand all the time. Right. And his brothers, I think there was five or six of them. I mean, they were all rough. I mean, they were take care of business. I don't care how much trouble they get into.

So, yeah, when I'm around certain parts of Tennessee where they're from, I don't throw that last name around much because I don't know how many people probably still remember how how much hell they raised. Yeah. So your, when do you pick up an instrument? When do you start thinking about playing music? Why did you, how did that begin? Well, my, there was always music around. Nobody in my family was musical. But with my dad being a truck driver, he had all these cassette tapes. And, I mean, trash bags full of cassettes. I bet. Cossettes. And I've, for some reason, just got to listening to him. And it was, I mean, stuff from Ray Stevens to Red Sovine, a lot of trucking songs.

And he'd get, every time you bought so much oil, they gave you, like, a free cassette. So a lot of them was like, you could hear the promotion on that you put the cassette in and be like, Shell Roelah, Keepin the Truckers. And that'd be Ricky Skaggs. And for some reason, I just fell in love with it. And, of course, 90s country music was on the radio. And my first cassette, my grandma bought me, was a lot about living, a little about love, Alan Jackson. And I did not even know the song.

He was just sitting on a Harley. And I was like, this cowboy is sitting on a Harley. I want this cassette. Took it home. And in my kindergarten yearbook, I said I wanted to live in Nashville and sing at the Grando Opry. And in my eighth grade yearbook, I said the same thing. So I just, for some reason. When did you pick up guitar?

I wish I'd have picked it up earlier. I didn't start playing guitar until I was like 11 or 12. I sang in church up until I was about 13 or 14. And we would sing at all kind of churches. I mean, I've seen more wild stuff in church than I have in any bars. I mean, we've been in churches. I mean, speaking in tongues, that's nothing. I mean, I've been in churches where they have snakes and all kind of stuff.

But we would play. I mean, we had this old... Who's we? You're traveling around? Me and my sister. We were the followers of Christ. That was your name? Oh, yeah.

Holy s**. We wore a three-piece suit and we sang with these little tracks. Oh, yeah. We sang with these tracks. And it was, I loved it. And I still loved like Southern gospel music. Who took you around to do that? Your parents?

Yeah, yeah. My grandma at first, because when I first got into it, My parents didn't go to church. They're like, we ain't going to church, no matter if you're singing or not. How did you get into it without your parents? My grandma would take me. She took you. I'd go to church with her, and they put like out.

What of influence. Yeah. But you know, what's funny about her, she was, I mean, not as tall as that Rby sign, yeah. And mean as hell, like, away from, when she wanted to be. Like, she'd whip your ass in the parking lot and then walk in church. God bless y'all. How y'all doing? Like it was or she paints you in the middle of church and be like, be still.

But I love doing it. And then, but my heart was always on country music. So my sister's seven years older than me. She kind of went down a wrong path and got, got involved with some stuff. And so we didn't sing together anymore. And that's when I was like, hey, I'm going to do country music. So I'd start playing. You said that to yourself.

Yeah. And I started playing. Went to like picking houses. There was a place called. What is the picking house? Like just a bunch of old guys sitting around. Like when we went to, what's that place? Luke and Bach.

Pretty much like that. That with no booze because where I, my county I'm from. No booze. But in Lucanbach, there's a building and there's guys in there playing. You just walk in and sit down and there's dudes just freaking playing music. And you just sit there, grab a beer, drink, listen. Yeah, that's what it was. And people would bring like food and they do it every Tuesday night.

And then there was- How you learned how to play? That and my parents would drop me off at a music store. It was called Granddaddy's Music. When they opened, I was there. And when they closed, they picked me up. Because I would sit in there and there'd be so many people come in and out that played. And I might be playing with some guys that play bluegrass one minute.

You just kind of backing up? Yeah, I was just sitting there learning. I knew three chords and I just got better doing that. I took maybe three or four lessons and then I was like, all right, well, just, this was, it was free to go down.

You took a couple lessons? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's like I tried to pick up the guitar and try to learn how to play it and it feels impossible, like trying to figure out how to get your fingers to do everything they need to do.

Yeah, I mean. And it's a little painful. I feel like if I had to try to learn now, like it's even harder to learn things now, it would be probably difficult. But I was, man, I was hungry.

Yeah. I was like, I would play to like, like my hands hurt. Yeah. And like these old guys, they'd give you good advice and then bad advice.

Like what? If you're going to make it Nashville, you need to go out there and rub your hands on a tree bark. That'd get those calluses really going. And I'd go out there and do it. I bet. Yeah, I mean, just stupid stuff.

And everybody was, you know, the goal was Nashville. And there was, guys are in that area. And there's a lot of country music in the area where I'm from. Vern Gosden's from the same county. from Alan Jackson's from like 30 minutes away.

So the first like time I ever put a country band together, my parents helped me. We played at a V. Yeah. So you put a band together? Oh yeah. All right. So how do you, what do you go? I got a buddy at school and you're like, hey man, you play bass?

What the fuck? He did that. I tried to put a band together that was my age. And we played on the back porch and we played in our bar. Was it like in, uh, is it like in sling blitz? It was bad. It was, I mean, I was bad, and they were bad too. I was like, I need some guys that can play.

Who's the guy? Dole. Dole. Yeah, yeah. Dole's band. Dole sounded like the Grand Ole Opry compared to what we were doing. I mean, it was bad. And I'm like, man, it's going to be hard enough to play a bar with me singing at 15, 16 years old,

much less a band of 15, 16-year-olds, they ain't going to let in the door. So we just kind of word of mouth, put a band. together and it was hey well my parents would be like we'll give you a hundred dollars a person to play with him and we'd play for free um or we'd go hey we'll play for the door and we'd do like a five dollar cover charge and i'd be singing to nobody because nobody'd want to go in there and hear me um and that just kind of how it started going and about a year year or two into it I had a different band, and I always play with older musicians. And today?

Today, my band mostly is a couple years older than me. Still players a little bit younger, but yeah, I just, I've always kind of clicked with kind of people that's a little older than me anyway. But, I mean, my band was damn 30, 40 years older than me back then. But we got kind of going, and, I mean, we'd start packing the clubs. Um, it was, it was, it was a fun time. Were you playing all 90s music just covers? I mean, it was like Merle Haggard. Yeah. Uh, well and you didn't have your own, you didn't have an original. No, I didn't have an original song until I was like 16. Well, how did you, did you, did you write that at 16 or 15 or was this something you had, you know, you, did you write when you were 10, 11, 12?

I wrote a develop. I wrote a song called the guitar buying blues. Mm-hmm. Because I bought a girl a guitar and she broke up with me. Of course you did. Right after it. and I financed this guitar. I bought a girl an outfit for a job interview and then she'd dump me. Really? Did she get the job? I'd have no clue.

I'd got her ass fired. She got a nice outfit. I'd got her fired. She's stealing from y'all. But I, yeah, I bought this guitar. I played this place called Ten Shop and it's a four-way stop in Randolph County, Alabama. It's a little store, and they rented DVDs and sold gasoline. And I think I made like 50, 75 bucks.

And my girlfriend was with me. And I'm like, hey, there was a guy, Granddaddy's music had his little trailer up selling guitars. And I'm like, I'm going to buy you a guitar. So I went over there. Yeah, she said, will you teach me? I'm a baby, I'll teach you. Hell, I need somebody to teach me then.

But I went over there and I worked out a deal. I was like, hey, I'll pay you like $50 a week. And I didn't have any more shows. So I had to go get a job washing dishes at Gidney's Restaurant and Ronoco Calham. To pay off this guitar. To pay off this guitar. And she broke up with me. And I never asked for the guitar back.

And so I hope she sees it, knows how much hard work went into that $200 guitar. What's the first thing that you remember happening where you thought you had a slim chance? So I'll compare it to racing. When you get in a car and you drive a little bit, you'll have some good moments. Say I'm racing late models at Myrtle Beach or something like that. And I'm like, you know, there's some moments where you have a good night or whatever, but you're not sitting there going, that's the stuff.

You feel like, oh, I can compete a little bit here? That's, that, if I do that, I'm going. I'm going all the way. I think when I finally I went my my oh damn kind of like I could actually make this happen

is probably like a race at Michigan where I ran in top 10 in the Bush race in 97 that was that was like so compare that to the moment in your life when you were like you had this original song and you recognize that somebody had connected to it. That's the best part about music is, I mean, even over this past weekend when we were

playing, it's to see people singing a song that just was on an EP from six years ago. Yeah. But I guess my first, I became a big fish in a little pond around the bars where I was playing at when I first started out. Where was this? In Bama? Yeah, no. So there was no, I mean.

In Alabama? Yeah. It was right across the Georgia line. So it was LaGrange, Georgia, Newtown, West Point, a little bar. You lived down there? Yeah. So we'd play probably like four or five different bars and worked them every month.

Did you finish high school? I did. Did you go to barely? Did you take any technical college or anything? You want to hear something funny? Territ just. Of course. We had a trade school.

And I was like, I got to get out of this. high school because if you signed up for trade school, you could leave at noon and go over the school bus over this trade school that's like five miles away. And then other schools went there. So there's like four schools and they, so you didn't see people you didn't see every day. And so I went over there and I signed up for forestry. And I'm in there and I'm like, dude. I'm like, I don't. Forestry? Yeah. I'm like, I don't give a damn about none of this. So I'm in there for about two weeks.

I said, I ain't doing this. So I went to my guidance counselor who actually still comes out to shows if I'm playing in the area. And she came to my dad's funeral and she's always been supportive. And I was like, I was forestry. I didn't even know what this was, but this tree stuff ain't for me. So I did cosmo. I was like, which is going to have the most girls? I went to cosmetology.

I was the only dude in there. And it was awesome. I mean, the little perm machines, I know how to work those. Oh, it was great. And then a couple of my buddies found out I did it, and they tried to get in the class. Oh, my God. And I went and ratted them out. I was like, oh, they're just trying to come in here for the girls.

They don't really care about it. You can't let them in because I wanted the whole class to myself. That's hilarious. Yeah. But going back to the moment where I thought maybe I could do this, we'd take trips to Nashville. and man, we would stay in motels that were like $150 a week. It was bad. I mean...

That sounds good. I mean, they were rough, though. I mean, I had my own little kit where you friezed and you wore flip-flops in the shower and everything. But I had to bring you on toilet paper these motels. One time we opened one of the rooms and the mattress was gone. And we went around to the first. front desk and we're like, hey, the mattress is gone out of this room. And the guy's like, oh, shit, they've done it again. I guess they're still in mattresses. Oh, my gosh.

But I, you've been here. I've saw you there. The Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville. Now it's Lick Combs Bar. Big ass bar. I mean, nice PA, big light show. They would do a singing competition. and you sing with a Nashville band, really badass band, and you got to do three songs. Oh. And my parents put me in it, and I won.

And I was like, oh, man. Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. So you go to this bar and you're competing? Yeah. Against how many? Probably 12, 13 people. Holy shit.

And I... How do you win? Crowd reaction? I don't know what it was. I didn't think I had a... Because I had never won a singing contest. Have you been in singing contest before? Yeah, and my area.

And you lost? Yeah. Well, it's funny. I finished second one. And then, like, three years later, I was judging that same competition. Oh, which was great because I could say, hey, probably winning this thing isn't the best thing for you. Yeah. If I'd have won, I'd have probably been, oh, look at me.

It was, it's, I've always kind of been, I felt like, and I'm nowhere near one. where I wish I was in my career. It just seemed, you know, the old Tracy Lawrence song, every time I make my mark, somebody paints the wall. That's how my music career has been. I feel like we were like really getting going and COVID happened. I had some really great stuff happening. But I went back to the Wild Horse, I won that competition, and I was like,

oh, this is, and then my parents put me in. Wait, wait, wait. So you get done singing, and somebody comes up and says, you're the winner. No, they come up on stage. We're going to announce the winner. And they announce you. Yep.

Did the crowd react? Oh, yeah. And what did you say? I mean, I didn't go up there and give it. No, but I mean, like, what did you think? Like, fuck, dude. No, I was shocked. I was like, well, I thought it was a fluke.

I was like, I'll never win another one of these. This is. What did you sing? Do you remember? I sang, don't rot the jukebox. And I think chiseled in stone. Wow. Chislet in stone is tough one.

That was my go-to. man. I can see you singing don't rock the jukebox, but chiseled in stone. Yeah. Well, so then they put me in like a different competition, and it was at the Nashville Palace, which is kind of near Opry land and all that.

And if you won that contest. That sounds like a place out in the middle of the desert. This was old school Nashville with the Nashville Palace band, Randy Chalmers. used to work here. What did they call that? That sounds like a little buddy rancher. Yeah.

Well, I mean, but it ain't. The happy endings there was just winning a contest. But they would do it. On Tuesday night, you'd enter the contest. You'd play with their band. And if you won, you got to front the band on Friday night. Yeah.

So it was your show then, you know. And I won that one. And that's when I'm like, okay, I can do this. Go back to front. the band kick off with Chisselman Stone. Who starts with a song like that? You know, who kicks off a show with a song? How do you start with that?

Swear to God, Vern Gosden's at the bar. No, that. Comes up on stage. Let me show you how it's done. Oh, damn. And smoked it. I bet. And pretty much put me in my...

Also, what a little prick of me. Easy now. No, no, Verne Gosson. I'm the prick singing his song. No, Vern Gosson. No, Vern Gosson. Blank. me around here. He's one of the goats.

He's on Mount Rushmore of country music. Wait, now you're a prick for singing his song? I think that's kind of an add-a-boy, a pat on a back. Yeah, but not when he's there. Well, you didn't know he was there. I know, but still, I'm like, I cringe that I did that, but it was a great memory. But I think one of those contests... Now, any time

after that, when you went into a bar and started singing a cover, did you check the room? No, that was about the only... Hey, uh, and Hope Allen Jackson ain't here. We're about to sing Chattahoochee. Or just I'll say, Alan Jackson is going to be here later. Y'all should hang around.

Is Alan here? Because I won't do Chattahoochee. That would be a great thing to do. Before I do this, we'll make sure he's not here. Because that's a real prick move. Yeah, I don't want to be a prick again. But, yeah, that was winning those two contests because you were in Nashville. I mean, Nashville seemed...

You weren't living there yet? Mm-mm. I didn't move to Nashville until I got a record to offer to me. What year was this? 2012. All right. So how does the record deal get offered? So, you know, the NASCAR connection, I grew up about 45 minutes from Talladega.

And when I was not playing clubs or whatever, the campground kind of near the interstate, I would go over there and set up a little speaker and play acoustic, try to sell CDs, give away CDs. And I had some songs that was... You were going to the NASDA. NASCAR race, unannounced, unconnected. Didn't know a soul in racing. Right. Setting your shit up and just playing. Yeah, yeah.

That's fucking cool. Yeah. I didn't know anybody in racing, didn't know anybody in music hardly. But in Alabama, we don't have pro sports teams. Of course. Wait a minute. You don't have, you don't have pro. No.

But you got lots of college. So it's NASCAR and college football. I mean, Talladega is, when it was. when it rolled around when I was a kid and still is, it was a damn... It's badass. It was the deal. Everybody wins.

Still is. And so I was like, man, you know what? I'm playing all these clubs and I'm packing them out, but on a good night, I'm playing for 100 people, 150 people. If I can go over here and plan this campground, I might can play for way more people than that. So, I mean, no, didn't know anybody, did it. Just set up, plug the speaker

and started singing. And it was actually after, I don't know what year it was. Are you by yourself? Just me and a guitar. Trying to imagine it. My dad. Are you inside the track or free camping? Free camping. Hell Hill. Kind of that of that area. And that's where

the party. It is. The free camping outside Talladega is really where the shit goes down. Oh yeah. That's they talk about the boulevard and inside the track. That's tame. That's organized. compared to what you see on the outside. I told you about my uncles being rowdy. Well, one of them went with me.

I did that for like three years. And one of them went, and there was this lady who would give you a jello shot if you showed her your privates. Wow. Yeah. That's kind of backwards. Yeah, yeah.

I know. I mean, she was in it for, you know. Usually it might be a guy going to show me your booze. I know. That's what I'm saying. Well, this lady's like, I'm going to. No, you want a shot. You're going to show him.

But my uncle went and did it. She had a damn line of men. And you showed your thing, she gives you a jello shot. He did it. And then he got back in line. And the second time up,

she goes, I don't need to see it again. She's like, I'll just give it to you. That's hilarious. That's the kind of fun and games that have over there at the free camping. Maybe don't go to the free camp. Yeah. I'm sure.

I mean, she was an older lady now. She's probably not allowed now. She's probably retired from that if not. But, I mean, it was just, you know, it's a culture shock too. I mean, it gets rowdy over there. Sure. But I played some of those races for free and just un-soliciting, just going out there, setting up a speaker.

And I met a guy after one of the races. It was the race that you got wrecked. You and Jimmy Johnson got wrecked at the same time. Oh, God. It's a terrible night. Terrible day. And I'm at an Oxford, Alabama. This guy comes in with RCR stuff on. And you know this about me.

I don't say, hey, I'm a singer. I'm never pushy like that. But a buddy of mine's like, hey, Tim sings, and he's written some songs that talk about NASCAR and stuff. And he's like, really? you got a CD and two weeks later I was at the winery having lunch with the RCs at winery yeah have a lunch with him and he called and got me booked at Atlanta and Talladega to play the infield show with a band with a band and all it was pretty

much Mike Dillon and Tina and Austin they just kind of really kind of started champion my music yeah and we did a we ended up doing a music video at with Wilkesboro. Really crappy song looking back at it, but we did it. And I was playing the, this snowballed in and started playing a couple of races here and there. And I was playing the fan zone in Daytona. And this was like the years like, like GT Vodka was doing.

Yeah. Branding and stuff around. And I get done playing. Mike Dillon calls me, he's like, hey, Mike Kerb wants to meet you. And I gave Mike Kerb a CD. And I was like trying to pitch that, hey, I've been to Nashville. I've been in Nashville. I've been writing songs.

That this is actually not just something I think I want to do. This is something I'm doing. And then about two, three weeks later, I get a call. And he's like, hey, would you come out and sing a couple of songs? It's Ronald Reagan Centennial. will you come out to California and sing at his library once you play three songs? So I went out there.

I don't have an offer of a deal or anything then. And I'm thinking this is my showcase. This is for me to kind of try to impress. So I go out and five minutes before the event starts, this guy comes up and goes, hey, could you kick us off with the National Anthem? Holy shi. Well, I got a free trip to California.

I'm fucking now. Yeah. This is going to be bad. Have you ever sang that anthem before? I had, but I mean, it's not for me. Yeah. And I'm standing there. I'm looking at the old Air Force One, and it's very, I mean, it's as cool, but this is going to suck.

I mean, that, I'm like, that Air Force One might fall off the jacks. I mean, this is going to be bad. So halfway through it, I'm like, this is awful. I get through the National Anthem, and I played three songs. and I had a song at the time that I'd recorded called God for a Day. And it just talks about if you were God for a day, what you do. You'd turn back time and old people wouldn't be old anymore. And Mike was there with his mom.

And it kind of touched the right fields. And he offered me a deal. Right there? About a week or two later. What's getting offered a deal look like? It was a phone call with him and the head of A&R. And hey, we want to do this and that. And at that time, though, looking back, I was real green.

And I needed to develop more. I didn't know enough about the music business. I thought once you got a record deal, buddy, you're in it. But getting a record deal is pretty much like getting a, a really good ARCA or truck ride. Right. You still ain't, you ain't made it. No, but you think you are because that's the,

you think about that. I got to get there. If I get there, I've made it. So what is the there, what is the really I've made it? Well, it's true. For a guy sitting here, say I'm a guy that's like, man, I just need that record deal. Tell me what I really need.

Well, I've not made it yet. I know, but you know enough. No, yeah. So I would say the biggest thing is you want to connect with people. But you do. Yeah. But you, is it a radio single? You want, radio is where it's at. They say today, you know, you get rumblings of radio ain't what it used to be.

And I, we're streaming or whatever. I feel like when you have a song on the radio, it changes everything. Why these guys can tour arenas and stuff is because they get played on the radio. And they have hit songs on the radio. And the music business change. I still listen to the radio. And I like when radio stations are not just playing the same 17, 18 songs. I got a station I listen to down in South Carolina when I go down there.

But it's all like, you know, 80s. I don't think radio is dead at all. And there's people in Nashville that. I think radio will always be popular in the same way that vinyl is popular. Yeah. You know, people love the nostalgia of turning on the radio and listening to a DJ. Yeah. And the local mom and pops or just the commercials and some of the little genes.

I still remember when I was a kid. Local car dealership advertisement, whatever. But that is the goal that you want to reach is to have a hit on radio. So when we met, you were just kind of beyond that moment? you know we've it's crazy there you were just beyond that right yeah there there's so much kind of yeah yeah i would just kind of gotten there when we met um but there's so much politics in it too uh the music business now and they want you you need 15 seconds now on social media to catch somebody and i mean there's songs

that are having success on tic tock and stuff that yeah the song hadn't even been written I know it. This clip is. Do it. I know. Yeah. There's this one guy that had this song, and this literally just happened. This guy, this guy was writing a song.

I think he's an independent artist, and the song's called Mr. Record label. And he's promoting, he's like personally creating these reels or these Instagram posts that are like 15 minutes or second. of this song. And this song is really catchy. And everybody's going, and he keeps posting a new reel every other day of the same sort of segment of this song.

And tons of people were like, damn, release this. When are you going to release this? This is great. When are you going to release it? And he's like, I'm soon, soon, soon, soon, soon. And finally, you know, he finally does release it, but it's like he inadvertently,

whether it truly took that long to get it, done or not, I'm sure it did, but it built this sort of suspense and excitement and it was so grassroots. Yeah. You know, it was purely a one-man band, you know, of him sort of doing this by himself. And then it went and got released. It got, you know, millions of streams all in the last like three or four months. Yeah.

And the thing is, I mean... And that happened literally from a 10, 15 second clip of this song, and it was a catchy too. Yeah. You got to, like, it's the name of the game now. You know, I, when we were, when I first started out, you posted on my space or you made a poster and put it on, you know, or put in the newspaper you're playing a show and try to promote yourself that way. And now it's all social media and there's people that are really good at it. I'm not one of them. I'm not one that's, I'm better, you know, I'd rather.

The traditional. I'd rather play live than sing to my phone. or talk to somebody in person then then then but that is kind of that's on me that I've not but I just I'm just from the old school way of of wanting to just write songs sing songs and it's easy music acting all that stuff it is show business but

it's easy to kind of fool people when you're just showing that this side of selfie on the camera and talking to it. I'm like, I'd rather just kind of be me and be, I've never been a trend follower or even musically. Like I try to record songs that I feel like fit me and suit me and write songs. But I think, going back to your question, I think the goals that I still have is getting

played on radio and getting on a tour. because that's another thing I would tell somebody. If you can get on a major tour, then you got this crowd that you're getting this artist's fans, and you can make them yours. And then radio is coming out to those shows. So you really can open that door. And that just takes from people champion you.

And I've had people, a lot of people champion me, but you just need as many as you can get, and those doors to open. Yeah. And the right time. Like, you know, it's no guarantees, but it's, you know, it's similar to racing. Like, you get a Xfinity ride with you or Gibbs or something. Yeah.

And you run good. Yeah. Door might open. You run like shit. You might not get a call again. That first impression. Yeah. We met through Austin, Dylan.

I had built a paintball course. in the woods by my house. We had old school buses. We had all kinds of obstacles and big towers to climb up in, all kinds of stuff. We had a deer stand you could climb up into. It's a long course. And you had a, you had a,

both teams had to start at each end and kind of move to the center point and you fought in the middle. And so it's really, really fun. It's a wonderful, It's a wonder we didn't get bit by snakes down in there. But I invited Austin and his brother to come. And he said, hey, man, I'm going to bring a buddy of mine. You mine.

And I'm like, I don't give shit more the barrier. You know, there's about 15 of us, I think. And you come, showed up. And we played paintball for a couple hours. And then we ended up all going up to the basement, drink beer and hang out. I don't remember much else about the day but I know that was

he introduced me and you said hey man it's my buddy Tim plays country music and you showed up I think showed up in boots yeah I well I wasn't you know it was just over there did you not know we were going to play paintball that day

I was visiting him I know but he didn't say hey we're going to play paintball and you were like maybe I need to take off my cowboy boots I went to his closet and he's a lot smaller than I am And I was like, I ain't going to be able to fit in this. And I don't want to just put on some basketball shorts and get my legs down. Dot it up. Yeah, yeah.

So that's what I had to play in. And that's what I played in. But Austin, you know, he's always, he's always been one that would try to like, hey, you got to hear Tim's music. Oh, yeah. And so I remember that. And I think once the, you know, probably on our eighth or ninth beer, maybe. the guitar came out and played a couple of songs. Oh, that's right.

And then we kind of mean you kept in touch. I got in the Madden League, which was showed me the different side of T.J. The commissioner. Yeah, yeah, the hierarchy, T.J. majors of how he runs his leagues. And we kind of kept in touch through that email and just, you know, talking shit. And I remember you inviting us to Key West. Yeah. And I'd never been to Key West.

I didn't even know where Key West was. Really? No. Well, you were going down to my house and I was taking, it was me and Amy and we were going to invite a bunch of couples. And I said, Amy, Tim, seems like it'd be a lot of fun to hang out with. I don't know Tara that well, but we should invite them down.

I don't know that Amy and Tara even knew each other yet. No, and Tara was not into it. She wasn't. She's like, I don't know. Y'all walked up to the front porch and almost turned around. Yeah. She's like, we're going down here. You flew all the way.

down there. Got to the door of the house and sat there and debated on whether to go in. Well, I wasn't a seasoned beer drinker back then. That blows my mind, too. Now, hindsight, if I had to do that situation again, I'd just show up pretty bust. But then, I mean, we were, you know, just, I wouldn't, I didn't know what drinking beer was until that trip. I thought I knew what drinking beer was.

I didn't know you just drink to you can't drink no more. And then you wake up and you just do it again. And what you do what's, but third day, we're going fishing. We're going on a boat. No, we're going to do that again. What we did yesterday. Yeah. And the day before.

You know, those bars? We're just going to start a little earlier today. You know, all those bars y'all went to yesterday? We're going to do that same thing again. Don't worry. You're going to see some fun stuff. Same bars. But I remember getting there and, well, she didn't want to come.

She's like, it's going to be awkward. We don't know all these people. And I said, if it's weird, we'll just leave in the middle of the night. We'll just pack up and leave. But we went down there and had a good time and probably hurt myself drinking a little bit. And I remember I was like, man, the beer was getting so hard to drink. I was trying to chug them with a straw, like just to keep going, keep fighting through. I don't remember that.

Oh, yeah. It was a good time. And I... Was that the trip where you fell down the stairs on the way out or was that a later trip? That was a later trip. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Steep stairs. Those stairs were not made for luggage and cowboy business. No, they were not. Well, I'm glad y'all didn't turn around and leave or sneak out in the middle of the night. But we end up spending... We end up spending, I don't know, the next decade going to Key West, at least annually, if not multiple times a year, and drinking and drinking. I wish I knew the number of beers I've drank in that town.

I bet it would shock me. That's a lot. It is. And. That's back when you would get back and you'd stay up until five, six in a morning. I know it. I mean, it was. I wish I could still do that.

Dude, you would be like, nope, music up. Yeah. And just sit there by yourself. If everybody went to bed, you just stay. Yeah. You and the iPad I thought that was normal It was not normal

I sat That's what would happen We would come We'd go race somewhere I'd fly to the beach I'd tell you get your plane ticket Get there You and you and Tara would show up

Me and Amy Maybe a couple of other folks And we'd go out And drink all day And then we'd get home And I'm like All right man I've been saving up I know yeah

Let's really get after now I'm at the end You're at the end I get back home I'm on, okay, now it's time to go to bed. Amy's upstairs going to bed, and I'm sitting there going, all right, man, I've been running half throttle. Now it's time to really go.

We're at the house. Now let's really, you know, dive in. And don't do shots because... Don't do any shots because that would derail us. You're like, you know what a shot does? You might as well just knock an hour off if you're going to take that shot. Yeah, if you take a shot, you're going to bed an hour earlier. Yeah, yeah.

And so, yeah, I would... We'd get home at, you know, midnight from, drinking all day or going out to the bars and stuff and then I would turn the damn stereo on because I had the stereo in the kitchen tuned. It was a system. Yeah. And I had my

iTunes curated and I was going to rock the fuck out and I'd turn on the speakers outside. I wouldn't even be out there. I just needed the music going and I would start playing music and I mean Amy's sleeping right above me. The speakers are in the ceiling right under

her bed. And she's like texting me going, turn it down. She's coming down the stairs. Golly, this is awful. Turn it down. And I'm going, I'm like complete ass-h-mode at that point. I'm like, hell, I'm on vacation. Oh, there's no talking to you. No, no. You're just like, that's how it's going to be. Y'all don't like it. Get out of the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of. We had, we had some good times. I, I, you're the reason I fell in love with it down there. And I just, I don't know just the vibe. It's one of the only places, if not the only place, that the only reason I carry my phone with me there is because, in case we run into a bar that has touch tunes. Yeah. Other than that, I can leave that thing on charge because I don't need

it. Yeah. So I took, I got another phone that had, I got a second phone and I still have it. And I still use it. But I got a second phone. I don't even know the number. I think you have the contact. Amy has it. Anybody that's kind of been down to Key West with me has this number. And it has touch tunes on it.

It has Apple music. It has nothing else. It has no apps. And when I go down to Key West, I will put my original phone in my bag. It's done. now I'm going to take this phone and I can text Amy if I need to

and if we walk into a bar where we can play music we can do that otherwise it's in my pocket I might have a bet nap or on there or something so I can place a couple of bets in the middle of the day just having a beer or two but there's nothing on that phone no email no one else can text me

it's called the love line and so it's called the love line because the reason it was just Amy on it and it was so good because we would go out and raise hell and I would get up in the morning and go, I ain't posted nothing on Twitter.

I ain't posted nothing on Instagram. I ain't texting nothing. No drunk text of somebody in the middle of the night. I ain't none of that shit because I can't. And, you know, it was just nice to get up and not have that guilt or concern about what you might have been doing on your phone in the middle of the night when you aren't, you know.

My dumb ass, I would selfie and then I got a cheers. Oh, yeah. I got to cheers the camera. We used to give you such a hard time. Yeah. You still do it. I know, but I've gotten better. I've gotten better.

He gets to drinking and he, we know, well, obviously because the beers is in, but he will video himself cheers in his phone. So stupid. And send it to us. Yep. That and when I'm really in my, I like to get drunk and then get my fills. And I will get home and I will turn on Armageddon. And I'll watch Armageddon drunk and cry.

Oh, like late night. Like when you go out to the. bars? Yeah. The scene... And you come home, watch Armageddon. Oh, my God.

The scene where he brings the little toy and's like, that's not a salesman, that's your daddy. Cry, cry. And Tara's like, turn Armageddon off. And I have it wide open. I actually have a YouTube link that only shows that scene and plays Ska Smith. Our dumb s ought to be going and climbing in bed. No. But we don't.

No. And I got to, you know, I got to prove to everybody that I'm still up. Yeah. everybody's in bed. That's what I do. And I've lost the, I don't, actually, no, I'm not going to lie to myself. I've not lost a step. You've not lost a step.

I think I'm in my proud. I have lost a step for two. You have a separate two. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I like it. I think we were in QS, what, a year or so ago, and we drank hard for two days. And me and you was at a bar.

We both ordered a rebel vodka and tried to get back on the horse. And we're like, ah. It just ain't happening. Let's just go to bed. And this is something a lot of people don't know about Dell, and I think this is great. I like, if I'm sleeping, I want it dark, cold, no TV on, no music. Well, if you room with Dell, you get an old race radio broadcast throughout the night.

I mean, you roll over, and imagine you're drunk, you got the Red Bull vodka anxiety that's kicked in, And it's like, well, 32 to go here, darling, went over there. No, no, no, no. You know, many Parsons here, you know. And I'm like, and then Del will roll over. And I'm like, hey, your dad's running 7th. He's like, yeah, he blows up, though. And he rolls back over.

And I'm like, if anybody could see this man sleeps NASCAR. And Tara will text me, how's it going? I go, oh, no, damn. I listened to the Die Hard 500 last night. and have anxiety and my stomach's hurting a little bit. I'm hungover. I know who won the $2,000 or the $19.82,000, R. Yeah.

And you know a del bit, man, at Barney Hall, he sure didn't know how to do it, didn't he? So, me and Tim, we'll stay at the marker, and it's right next to Schooners. Perfect. Because you're going to start at Schooners and you're going to end at Schooners. So you've got a short walk to the hotel room. And we'll just get a damn double and crash in the same room together. And so I will, we get in the room and I'll put on MRN classics. And I got a picking hole one.

We ain't listening to one from the 90s or 2000s. We're going into the 80s, maybe even the 70s. Oh, there's names that I've never even heard. I thought I knew NASCAR. And, dude, I'll turn it on real low. And it's usually Barney Hall. And he's like, Barney Hall here at Atlanta Motor Speedway, getting ready to start to trend

Atlanta 500 Benny Parsons on the pole Bobby Allison on the outside pole and it starts going through the and it's like dude it just puts me right to sleep it calms me down because I'm

we've been drinking raising hell all day and you go and you go you go into bed and you're like if you lay in bed you're like did I need to do that did I really need to do that today God I don't feel like like shit in the morning

you know Yeah you get I think you now, since you got the girls, you're like, I should be, I should be at home, I should be, you feel guilty for doing anything for yourself. You know what, one day's enough. I don't need to anymore. And so at Barney Hall, he calms me down. Yeah. It's, it's funny. I remember, I roomed with you and Amy one time, and I rolled over and Amy just looking at me. She's like, I've been watching you. I thought you were going to die like three times. Because you, you're snoring and the way you breathe.

He's like, I've been watching you waiting for you to die. And I get up and I'm like, nah, ain't dead yet. I walk right to the bar. That's a lot. That's my favorite thing now is to be at Schooners about eight or nine.

Yes. And the old OGs are there. I mean, the people that have the stories that, as one guy I was talking to him, he's like, yeah, I work at Home Depot, and I stock overnight. I get off the,

at six and I'll come park here, I sleep in my truck for two hours, be here when they open at eight, I'll drink till noon, then I'll go home and go to bed because I gotta go back in at six. Damn. I'm like that.

That routine is tough. Yeah, he does it seven days a week. Holy shit. He's like, yeah, you turn this place into a honky talk when you come in here. Yeah, because the music. Yeah, yeah.

Scooters is so much fun. Again, like, it's where you start, and that's where you end your day. And there's a lot of amazing bars down in Key West. And I've, I miss, we used to probably go six to eight times a year in the, in the peak of our, you know, having a house down there and everything. And I miss it. I think, you know, our mind and Amy's understanding these days is there's just, there's going to be a one Key West trip. Yeah.

And it's usually me and you, maybe Billy or a couple of the friends will go down there. And I think I'll do that until, I don't think I'll ever stop. I don't know why, but I got a connection to Key West, and I don't think it's ever going to be something where I'm like, you know what, I think I've been, it's my last one, you know? I think it's acceptable too. That town, you could be, you could be 80 and roll around there. That's right.

You can be any age, anything, anybody you want to be. And, yeah, it's not like, man, it's, here's the old guy walking into the bar. Yeah. What's he doing here? You know, and I judge people that go there and don't like it. Secretly, I'm like, I don't know about you. Yeah. Because you can sit at the bar.

There, I mean, there could be a Hall of Famer, NASCAR driver sitting there, a damn near homeless man. Somebody likes to cross dress, like, you know. Yeah, touch a singer. Yeah. And nobody bats a eye. Like, everybody is there for one. There's, I hardly ever seen any BS down there. No drama.

No drama. No fighting No arguing Nobody getting thrown out of the bar We used to probably Now I'm sure there's some videos on social media That would argue otherwise People are getting in some disagreements down there

But I'll be honest, you're right You don't ever see much And damn it we stay out past a wee hours Like nothing, they say nothing good happens after midnight or so far staying out late But in Key West it doesn't seem to know We're arguing

We're just arguing amongst ourselves And our group Like they're like man that group is bickering and then we get over it the next day. We had a few. Tim, what's your go-to bar? You're going down there the first bar you're going to. Scunners. Yeah. It's where you start.

It's where you end today. Do that one and we usually start there because Zendale wants raw bar and we can have a couple beers there and then. Scooters has got a tuna nachos plate that's bad a freaking bone though. So I mean, I kind of, but raw bar has got buffalo chicken or I'm sorry,

buffalo shrimp. The best buffalo shrimp in the world is at the raw bar in Key West. It's just insanely good. But the Kenny Chesney song when I see this bar, that takes me scanners. I like to go to the raw bar to eat, but I also like to drink there. It's got a pretty decent bar in it.

It's kind of a place for food. It's a little hot. It's a little warm in there. It is a little warm. But it's really authentic. And then I like Captain Tony's a solid can beer. It's always kind of a little packed. It could be a little busy.

I like Captain Tony's like on the way back. Yeah. Like when I'm really. Hank's. Yeah. Hank's is solid. Hanks or the old grunts. They used to be called grunts, but now it's called Hanks.

We're actually going to do a podcast kind of, you know, a year-end review, sort of a, you know, celebration, a year-in celebration, a Dirtymoe Media podcast at Hanks this year. I think Monday morning after Homestead or Tuesday morning. Sounds about right. Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the Imo Drink Some Beer T-shirt

that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymo Media.com for all the latest merch. One of the things I introduced you to Key West, you introduced me to Ireland. Yep. So you went to Ireland to get married. You and Tara had no connection to Ireland. Nope, not at all.

But you decided instead of having a traditional, you know, somewhere close by where all friends and relatives could attend, you're going to go to the cliffs of ore or whatever hell it's called. Cliffs of war. I like Cliffs of ore. Cliffs of ore. Yeah. A lot of iron ore over there. You went there and got married. Yeah.

You know, we started planning a wedding. and, you know, there was started talking to our families about a little bit, and just a couple wrong words, where it spooked us from that. You didn't find, you didn't feel supported. Well, I was like, you know what, it's, um, let's just go do this. Yeah, I'm like, it's saying about them.

And, and you know this about marriage. It's, um, it, it's just you and her in that, in that house. Yeah. It don't matter who says, I'm there for you forever. And that, yeah, there's friends and family that supports you. But it's between y'all two. You're the one that has to go through all the struggles, ups and downs and the good and the bad. So we're like, hey, I used, I think I brought up Ireland.

I used to look at a globe and look at Ireland. It looked really small. And I was like, I want to go there one day. I don't know why. Don't think I have any Irish in me or anything. anything like that. And so we looked into it and went. And I liked it then.

But during COVID, I would watch these live cams from all over the world. And I would look in Ireland and it was just nobody out. It was just shut down. And I'm like, the day they open up, I'm going to go. I'm going to go back there. And just because, man, it sucks to see that country. and what we remember it as, and I went by myself. That was the craziest thing.

So we talk to Tim and Tara daily. Like we have a group text with Amy, me, and Tim and Tara, and we talk every day. And Tim's like, you know, Tim's like talking about his flight or I'm on a plane or I'm doing, watching this movie on the plane, just in conversation. and we're like, oh, where are you all going? Terry's like, well, I'm at home. He's going to Ireland.

I'm like, who are you going with him? Nobody. And I'm like, you're on a plane, eight-hour flight to Ireland alone. Yeah, I've done it a couple times. Yeah. That's weird as hell. No, so Dale doesn't... People do that all the time.

Del doesn't believe... Just to go by yourself to raise hell? Like, he's not going there to meet anybody. He's not going there to see some friends. Dale doesn't believe in going in a bar and drinking alone. I mean, I can understand going down to the corner. He's like, I think that's weird. I can understand.

No, no, no. Would you go on a bar? Like, I could totally understand going into town and drinking some beers and, you know, just hanging out here where I live. But I'm not flying eight hours over the fucking ocean to have a three or four days, you know, solo fest. Man, what I like about it, and I've done this, I mean, I went to Poland earlier this year by myself. I've told Amy, like, man, I'm not. I might go to the beach house and just hang out by myself. And I always chicken out.

You end up taking somebody with me. Yeah. You need somebody with you. Because I'm afraid I'm going to get down in there and be like, that this sucks. Or you get drunk and the demons come out. Yeah, demons come out. Yeah, they come out. They come out when you're alone.

I remember I got in a, they called these little rooms in these pubs over there, snugs. And I damn, boy, I got in that snug and I got in my fields. And I put to put on my music. And the guy would open the door, and I'm like, No, they're getting us. And I'm not listening to Willie Nelson. And I'm like, I don't know what. I was like, I got to get home.

This ain't for me anymore. Yeah. And I just, there's something, being from a little town in Alabama, growing up with not thinking you're ever going to be able to go anywhere. And it just, I like being uncomfortable. and because it is uncomfortable to travel alone and go back to your hotel alone, eat, go eat lunch alone, go drink at a bar alone. But then just being a fly on the wall, observing and watching how people live

and listen to how they talk and how they feel about certain things. And I think it's pretty cool. And I mean, I've I've ran into people and drank with them. and hit bars, and I'm like, what are you doing here? And, oh, man, I just went through a divorce, or I just lost somebody and this and that, and drink all night, shake their hand, don't know their name, never got their number,

but that was a memory, you know what I mean? But I don't know. It's something I don't do much these days. I actually said back in January after I did that one, I'm not going to do it anymore, but I'm kind of itching to do it. That's the thing. Me and you are both the same in the way that we have,

I, you know, if everybody listen to this, if you can connect with it, fine, if you can't, if you don't understand it, whatever. But I think me and Tim have acknowledged that we both got some demons. Yeah. You know, and I got things for my childhood, my past, that, you know, just kind of suppressed all my life. and you got some things too.

And we've talked about it together. And I think we find that I think we connect in that way. And I feel like that when, you know, when we kind of see each other checking some boxes or some milestones, you get married, our wives becoming great friends, us become, we've kind of, we've tried to break up. Oh, yeah. We've had good little fights.

Yeah. And we've, but we've tried, I know, but there's been times, too, when we've just, we just went without communicating. Oh, yeah. We'll go, we'll go a couple months sometimes, you know, one or two months without him talking. Yeah. But I think, I just, you know, you eventually figure out or you eventually kind of realize, like, these are my people, you know, and are these, I don't, I, everywhere we go and you all aren't there, we think, y'all are the first people we think about. Like, man, I wish Tim and Ter were here. I bet Tim and Tara would love this, or we should come back with Tim and Tara.

And so, you know, that's kind of, I think that's been, that was the, we've been great friends, and I, and I really appreciate that. I think a lot of people would wonder outside of you, your, you know, my curiosity and your, your, your, your profession as a musician, I think the part, the whole purpose of having you on the show today is to, is to share, like the connection that we have. Yeah. And a lot of people I think, you know, and we've talked about it. We've talked about, especially like in the race, the race fans and the community and all.

A lot of people don't understand our friendship or how it came to be or what the, you know, I get a lot of people's like really thinks that you are, and you've always been supportive of me, but like that you are the reason that I'm, you know, gotten to playing races and stuff. And I was doing that before, you know, Now people know the real story. Yeah. But you've all, you know, and I've been able to call you about things and ask advice and

man, what do you think about this and that and just being able to trust. And when we're sitting at a bar, you know, drinking and just talking, just being able to really open up. I've always been very guarded. I grew up being told you, you don't, you know, keep your, you know, keep your walls up and don't let many people in. And it's something that didn't happen from the start. Like, it's just developed over the years.

But, yeah, you and Amy made a lot to us. And, I mean, I think of Amy as a sister. I mean, me and her taxes just as much as me and you. Yeah. And always kind of cutting up. But, yeah, it's, it's, you know, I grew up a fan of your dads and yours and a fan of racing. but when I see you like at work if I'm watching the race

I'm like the dell that I know isn't that does that make sense it's a part it's it's who you are but I'm like man the del I I know is we're sitting there we're catching up we're drinking beer we're setting up the blow up house in Charleston and drinking beer while the kids play

and yeah but yeah man And it's, I was, I've been kind of like, how's, how's this going to go coming over and being on here? I've always wondered, I was thinking too, like, when I, when me and Amy got married and we had kids, how that might change our friendship. Because me and you were always, like when we first met, I was in a relationship, but it was like, I don't know, my buddies sometimes came first or what I wanted to do, whether that was go drink. or hang out or it was always like I was a bit me me me me when me when I started when I started doing better in my relationship with Amy I started to having to do less of me and and and dial back my kind of party in wild ways yeah we can relate to we kind of can be selfish and you've done that as well yeah you know but then we you know me and Amy had kids too you know and I'm like I'll be honest like I'm you know

I'm sort of personally thinking like man is he going to only want to come around, you know, we're changing diapers. We got, you know, we got to watch our, we got to watch what we're doing. We've got to watch what we're saying. We've got to hold, you know, and now we're not, you know, not going to day, drinking all day. We're not going to the bar and spending it all night, 2 a.m. at the bar. And you still, you know, you're a good decade younger than I am.

And so like you still, I didn't want to take you out of that mode. You're still in that mode. I was in that mode at that age. I'm not going to tell you to do anything different. But I knew my life was changing. and I've enjoyed how y'all have my kids call you Uncle Tim when I say Uncle Tim's coming around

they know immediately what what that means and who you are and they love Tara to death and she's amazing yeah she's great with kids she's the best thing that ever happened to you yeah I think you know I don't know that me and you would still be friends if you weren't married to Tara

does that make any sense yeah because I would say we wouldn't be we would be friends, but we wouldn't hang. Yeah, probably. It makes it way nicer that y'all are a package deal. Well, because, yeah, I mean, could you imagine just me solo rolling in? Like, I don't do, I don't do the guys' trips anymore.

Like, the guys' trips that, I don't do the guys' trips that we used to do, but the guys' trips I do now is with, you know, the guys that, the boys, the guys that are married, the guys that are, you know, they got families, they got kids. They kind of, it's like I feel more comfortable around people that know what life is like today. Yeah. You know, some people don't understand like that, just like the solo trip to Ireland. I can't hang out with my single guy for him. But Tara is very, yeah, Tara is very pro.

Go, go do that. I know. You want to do that? That's what you should do. She hardly like tells me don't do that. and she really, I think she... I wonder if she's trying to let you get it all out of your system. She's hoping, like, eventually you're going to go...

I think she's like, yes, you're going to do it. Yeah. So go do it. But I hope that one day you're going to stop doing it. Now, I will tell you this. There, and it took me till this year to see this, um, whatever you're chasing in those... And I was chasing an escape.

I'm hours away. I'm on a different time zone. Nobody can get to me. Nobody can. Especially when my dad was real sick and there was, I mean, I was getting calls every, every hour. And it was the situation was, I'd be like, all right, this is what we should do. We ain't doing that. They're stubborn.

You know, they're very stubborn. So got to a point where you, you, the option, there's no options for you to help. And I'm like, if I'm going to be five hours away to drive, I can just be eight hours away to fly. And I can go escape life for a little bit and escape the stress of life and all this. But, you know, and we've talked about this too. You know, with kids, I don't have kids. And there are days where you're like, man, that kind of looks cool to be taking your kids to soccer, this or that. And then there's times where I see, I stopped that store today and heard a baby crying

its ass off. And I'm like, that don't sound fun at all. Like, so I'm still trying to figure it out. That part only lasts for a little while. I know, but I mean, I was a shit kid until now. I'm still, still am. Just have a girl. No, I'd need a boy.

Dude, no, you wouldn't, you do not. A little. Like, I want you to have kids. Like, I do. I don't think is everyone going to happen. I think you need to be a girl dad first. Nah. You need a couple years of girl dad.

feel like God would punish me. You do, boy does not need to be the first one. I don't know. It's, uh, I was a loss of my train. It's thought on that. I did too. But I don't, uh, I don't know. I'm, I'm, right now the focus is, you know, the music and me and you, me and you

are the same in, I was, I was, uh, I was going to say this. Me and you were the same in, we're the same type of person that needs something to look forward to. Yes. you, you talked about this is one of the biggest things going on between me and you. And I don't know that it's something we even need to fix

or it's worth trying to, I don't know if it's good, bad, it's not necessarily all that healthy, but I talk about this with Amy too and I'm like, how are you not like this? How is everybody not like this? But you and I, I was talking about that we have our demons, right?

And you need that trip. You need to have something out there in front of you that you're, like, living for. And I'm the same way. If there's not a thing next month or maybe it's way way farther out, even December or Christmas or whatever, right, if there's not this thing that I'm excited for, or I'm excited to happen or to come or to come to come to existence. Typically it's a trip.

Typically it's a it's not necessarily vacation, but it's like I'm going to go somewhere and I'm going to get to get out of here. Right. I'm going to get it. I get escape from. When you go run a race, does that give you the same kind of high? No. That doesn't count.

That's work. Yeah, but you're doing it now for fun. So it doesn't give you the same like. No. I need to go somewhere where I'm not doing anything, and I can crack a beer at any time of day without any judgment. And I need, yeah, that, I need to be able to look forward to that. When that isn't there, when I look at my calendar and there, there's nothing there,

like that sucks. And you're the same way. And I don't want to, I'm not trying to like wish my life away or like, man, I can't wait till this. I've learned that as a dad. You don't do that. You don't wish your life away. Like, man, I can't wait until she learns to do this or until she turns this age. I can't wait till Ila doesn't have to ride in the back anymore. She can ride in the pasture seat with me up front, you know, things like that. But, yeah, like me and you both have that sort of bad habit of needing to place something in front of us to be going toward

or excited about it. That keeps us happy. Without it, I've seen you, you know, get sort of, you get bugged out. And you're like, I got to get the fuck out here. Yeah. And that's when you'll do that, man. I just got a ticket. I'm flying. I'm going by myself.

Where are you going, huh? And I think really, now, playing live shows gives me a high. It does? It does. But when you're, when you've kind of almost, you've hit the top of this level. and you really want to get on this next level. So you're hitting your head on this ceiling. Yeah.

I mean, there's like when I go play the opera, hi. When I'm on stage, I'm as happy as I can be. When I'm riding and I have something I really want to write about, it's just the, you know, the grind. When the grind is, the trail gets long, like, you know, an old Western, it's like, I got, I want to escape.

And the best way to escape is to go somewhere where nobody knows your name. And it's, nobody wants nothing from you. Yeah. You don't want nothing from them. And you can just go be a fly on the wall. And, but it doesn't fix it. But it fixes it for, it fixes it for a minute. It's just a break.

Yeah. Let's talk about that. Let's, your, your career. So I think, um, You're not where you want to be. You said that. Yeah.

You're kind of hitting your head against the ceiling trying to break on through to the next level. And that next level is literally the level you've been striving for your entire life. It's that radio signal, single. It's the airplay. It's, you know, it's the push you talk about from your record label. You had a chance. You had, you put this record together.

a really good collection of songs. There was some good singles on there. Curb was ready to go. And then COVID hit, and it just kind of got shelved. Yeah. Right. And so since then,

you've still wrote, still creating original stuff, got some new stuff that you just recently put together. That's really good. So, like, you're, I don't know, as from my perspective, as a fan or as a listener,

you're making great music. I like the songs you have. I like the songs sound good to me. They sound, I hear songs and I go, I don't know why. It sounds like a song I would hear on the radio. It sounds like a song a lot of people would like.

I like it enough to want to hear it again. That seems like that would be the natural reaction for anybody who heard the song. Why can't the song, just pick any song. Why can't the song get traction? Why can't, what's? I don't know. I know that record labels pay for the shelf time, right? You don't just, now somebody could call in to a request hour or whatever and play Tim Dugger and poof, Tim Dugger's on the radio.

But that rotational play throughout the day is paid for by the record label, am I right? It's not really paid for, but it's. Well, you hear the same 12 songs. Yeah. On the hour every hour. Well, you got, you got labels. that are really good at getting radio play. Scott Bruchetta's team, they know how to have a hit on radio.

Where Kerb still has hits, I mean, our head of radio promo is one of my favorite people, and he is sitting there wanting a radio single. I just started working a year and a half ago with Michael Knox. and the way that came about, I go in the curb to have a meeting. You know, I released the Stars over Alabama album, but if you listen back to that album, I'm very raspy because I had a polyp on my vocal cords.

Okay. And so I got that removed, didn't talk for a month and couldn't sing for a couple months. I couldn't believe you did that. Dude, it was hard. Not talking for a month. It was hard. I had a little whiteboard and a little app

that I could talk into or type into. Hey, Tara, go get me some Harbys. But imagine an Australian lady voice, show me your boobs. He did that to Tara? Yeah. That's hilarious. But I, so I go have this meeting with... There's a robotic voice.

Show me your boobs. Please, it will make me happy. Very, very happy. But I go have this meeting with my head of a. NR, which my head and NR had changed, like people come and go. So when somebody knew, now you got to go build a relationship with them musically and everything. So I had a meeting, and I'm like, man, this meeting just seemed like just a bunch of air. Like, we ain't, we ain't doing nothing here.

So I leave curb, go out and get my truck. And if my truck could talk, Jason Aldeen comes on my phone. Such a good song. Yeah. Badass song. And I'm like, Michael Knox, I've met him once or twice. I got his number. I remember you doing this.

And I said, I'm going to text him. So I text him. Hey, man, Tim Dugger would be cool to catch up sometime. He called me. I hit in nowhere because I'm like, I ain't get shit to say to him. Oh, shit, you called me. Yeah. So I call him back.

And the next day, I'm in his office. And Michael Knox is produced every hour. Dean record from day one and runs a very powerful and established publishing company. The guy is in the game. Gotcha. And I go in his office and he starts playing me songs. And he starts telling me what he thinks. He knows a lot about me more than I thought he knew.

And we went to work. And I got it. Then you got to go to curb and you got to go, hey, I need approved to. to go work with them. I need a budget approved. You have to get all these hoops to jump through. How much is it? I would say...

What's the budget? I would say per song is anywhere, I'd say, from $10,000 to $15,000 a song. And that's about how much it is. But what was great about Michael is I've had hired guns before. I've worked with some amazing producers that I've looked up to. And I cut an EP back in 2015 with Keith Stigall,

Alan Jackson's producer. That was a dream come true. But I got in the studio and I go, well, it's got to have that Alan Jackson sound. But that ain't a Tim Dugger sound. You know what I mean? So you messed up. Yeah.

What song was on there that I would recognize? Hurstown it was on there. Hertz Don't. Yeah. Hurtson. Yeah. God, what a good song. Hertz Don't it is such a great song.

Oh, thank you. We're playing it live again. Why did you stop? We ended our show. It's a great soul. St. Louis this past weekend with it. But so Knox is like, hey, I, I, this ain't just. Hurdstone, it's 10 years old?

Yeah. God dang. We're old. We are. But Knox is like, hey, this ain't just, I don't need to do this. I want to do this. And this is what I want us to do. and with the goal to take that next step.

We have a song coming out on Friday. I really, really love. Which one? It's called Better Luck Next Town. And then I have an EP coming out in October of all these songs. And, you know, and Mike, my curb's been in here, and we have a great relationship. But I think as a company, they're trying to figure out how this new age of music is working. and you know you got a lot of you know

Mike's kind of up here and you got a lot of a lot of people below him that you kind of got to get through and I have some really great relationships at the label but I feel like we're in a really good spot you still need people to champion you I mean I have I have people at radio that right now wants or at they're asking for a single so I'm in hopes that that we can get that going

and I think I love... Let me ask you a way. Yeah. The song, this, you got a new song, won't you like I do. Yeah. All right. Is that on the new? Mm-hmm.

That is a, that is a single. Yeah. That is a, I'm not bull-h-h-h-h-you're, I mean, you're my friend, but you know me. I'm a fuck. I think that I'm some music. I'll send you what I think's great, and you're like, I don't know, man. Yeah. You know me, though.

I think I'm this like, I always tell people like if the racing deal didn't work out. You'd want to be an A&R guy. I wanted to be an A&R guy. And so I fancy me an Ayerford, you know. And so won't you like I do is a, is a, it's a one, it's a top 100 song. Easy. Yeah.

Easy. Why? What is the hold up? Like what does need, what needs to happen? Well, that's what, you know, when, what's the trick? When I got, when I started working Michael Knox. he knows it songs. I mean...

I know, but like, so do I. I know, he agrees. He's like, how does it get on the radio? How do you get this? It takes, uh, how do you turn that? It takes the promo team going,

we're going to go to battle for this song. We ain't going to take no for an answer. Why won't they hear it themselves and go, man, all right, I'm going to battle for themselves. It's just, I mean, are they hearing thousands of songs a week?

Yeah. Yeah. And you're just, you're in a sea. You're in a sea of songs and that's why, well, the easy answer is, is, like I said,

there's promo teams out there that can, you can have a hit song. That song is a hit with probably a different situation. Maybe not, not,

not pooping on my situation, but just like, I know, just like, you know, a car on the racetrack. That car wins a lot of races. So I know that there are people, there are,

you know, what if, what if some, someone like an Aldine said, hey man, I want to do that song. And you're like, you know, you're in this moment, right? You're, you're, you're, you got this song. You're putting it on this new release, this new album that's going to be coming out soon. You're hoping that that's the next album that's going to make this thing happen.

But what if somebody big, established name came to you and said, I want to cut that? If it's a song that I've written, you got to, you got to, you got to, You got to wait because now, if it's a song that I've wrote, you've got to weigh it out to go, hey, this would be, because there's a lot of songwriters that are out on tour with people that become. Because they've opened that door. Is that a way in? Yeah, I mean, I think it takes two, though. Because I mean, like, somebody just going, hey, I believe in you. I know, but like, we're going to do this.

That's the, that's the, that's the normal way that you hope it would happen. But, like, wasn't, I don't know, it was a hacker? Who was, Merle didn't write for people first before he was, who was it? It wasn't Merle. It was, who's in the highway, man? I mean, there's Chris, Chris Christopherson, I mean, he wrote for Johnny and for everybody, yeah. And so, but he eventually become a star. I mean, Chris Stapleton was right.

Chris Stapleton was the next guy I was about to mention. Huge songs before. But like, that's a lot of that. That's a, that, there's other, so is, I guess the answer or the question is, is there's more, there's different ways to get there. Of course, yeah. And that's why you. Would you totally, like, what you like to do is a great song, right?

It may be, it may be one, it may be the song that, that triggers the, the opportunity that you're looking forward to the next level. And there, you know, and there's no guarantees. I know, what, if a guy like, you know, Aldeen or somebody, just saying Alden, because he's connected to this dude that you're working with, if he comes. comes to you and says, man, I want to cut it. I'd be like, yeah, please do. Yeah.

Like, you know, how much ownership of that song do you have? I know you sit down and you write it with. Well, I didn't. That song, I just got. You didn't write it all. I didn't write it at all. And so that's another thing. I noticed that you're hardheaded and in the past, you were like,

ain't fucking nothing I ain't worked on. Everything that's going to be on my album is going to be something I have my hands on. And this one? This one, no. I didn't. You finally decided. I got, I turned the keys over. I turned the keys over somebody else.

But I do think I've written some of the best songs. You write fine songs. No, of my career this year that we just have sitting there. Well, you write fine songs. But I'm like, this guy knows hit songs. Why wasn't I listen to him? Why wouldn't I listen to his songs? Why didn't you do that sooner, though?

Why were you such a hard ass? Because I. You were so hard-ed. You're like, oh, Hank didn't do it this way. I'm not doing it the way unless Burrell did it this way I'm gonna do it like Hank Because you're young and you're stupid

You know and you're stubborn And you think if you could go back and do it all over again That you might have changed them If I could go back and do it all over again The only thing I would change would be Get myself more educated about the music business That's the only thing I'd change I'm and we've talked about this over drinks

you know, like, you know, a lot of people say, oh, man, you ought to hear some of the songs I get pitched because I play a lot of NASCAR races. And, but I still, like, I love that, you know, anytime that anybody's been like, oh, you're the NASCAR guy. I'm like, that's way better than being the American Legion guy or the guy down at Scruffy's Bar guy. Like, I think it's cool to be associated with a major sport, you know.

And building a, uh, you know, I was out at Worldwide Technology over the weekend, and I'm watching people sing songs that were just on an EP years ago. And what I've been able to kind of build through that, I'm very proud of. But, you know, you're like, man, I would love for that to be a piece of the puzzle, but not the defining. Not the defining, yeah. I know there was a point, I guess, maybe two or three years ago.

you were kind of pulling back a little bit because you felt like that you were only known mainly for your NASCAR connection. And you were like, man, I don't, that's not who I am. Yeah. That's not all I am. Yeah. And I mean, I, I know you're going to, I know you love NASCAR. Yeah. I know Marcus and you, great friends and you got a lot of great connections there.

But. Yeah, I love being able to do it. And it's, I mean, you go in and you get to see kind of how. I know the difference between how NASCAR works, how. SMI works. I've seen it from those angles. We didn't do anything with NASCAR this year. And just SMI and those tracks of, it's crazy like you'll see a lot of the same fans. Yeah. Which is your favorite Michigan, Talladega? You know, being from Alabama. Michigan's pretty rowdy. Routy.

The Bristol Friday Night Show, like we'll play that this Friday. Post race. Really? It's badass. I would, I'd say the one that surprised me, and I have a great story from it too, the first time I played Watkins Glenn. Oh, yeah. You know, being from Alabama, you think ain't nobody rowdier than us. Ain't nobody redneck than us. We are the P-1 of Rednecks and Hellrazers.

And I got up there and I'm playing this show. It's damn rowdy. I'm headlining it, and it's see a people probably, I don't know, five, six thousand people. And I look over to the stage and this guy's like, come here. And I walk over, he's like, hey, the cops are here. And he wants you to announce that people need, girls need to put their tops back on. These girls are on top, like guys' shoulders, you know, done got topless. and I walk over the cop and I was like,

what now? He's like, man, you can't. Sounds like the Buffalo shit. He's like, we can't be doing that up here. I said, hey, I have the band stop. I'll give you the mic. You can make the announcement. And then we'll go back to playing.

He's like, hell, I ain't doing that. And I go, well, I ain't doing it. I go, that be the most un-American thing I could ever do. And says, tell them girls to put their damn clothes back on. I said, so if you ain't doing it, I ain't doing, I guess it ain't getting done. and we just kept going. And I didn't get ass back to Watkins Glen for like three or four years.

Oh, my God. But I'm like, damn, dude, I'm not doing it. I'm supposed to be Mr. Good Time, and I'm pro-boob. I'm free the nipple. I ain't doing that. That's a good way to end this one. Tim, you're like a brother to me. I'm glad that you came to do this.

I didn't know if you would when I asked you to. But you mean a lot to me. You and Tara both. You're great friends. You've got a lot of fans that have listened to this show that I'll be excited to hear a little bit about your story, get to know you better. I know that people get to hear your music, but I don't know that they know just what a good time you are, buddy. I appreciate you having me on here.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming through, man. Let's go have some beers. Have fun today. Let's do it. All right. Tim Dugger on the Dell Jr. Download. All right, that was a lot of fun.

Awesome to have Tim here. Tim's a great friend of mine. and I know a lot of y'all know Tim. I don't think that you knew his story well enough, so I asked him to come on the show. And just a fun dude, awesome, awesome friend, and I'm really lucky to have me in my life. And so thankfully, we come through today.

So we're going to go have some fun and get out on a lake or do something fun around here while he's in town. But yeah, it's interesting to me, I think, to have known him as long as I have, I've seen him kind of try to, you know, work through this process of breaking through and getting to this certain level

in the music business. And I think he's still got a long runway and a lot of opportunity. And, you know, it happens when it happens. But I think that the potential in the talent's obvious. He's got a lot of great songs, a new record coming out soon. But there's a single,

available on iTunes that I really, really like, won't you like I do? Pretty badass song. And Hertz Don't It, you know, 10 years ago. It's crazy that's been that long. It's probably, probably my favorite Tim Dugger's song. But check them out. Appreciate everybody.

And thanks again for joining us here in the Arby studio. Don't forget about Arby's new Meat and Three Box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the Beats and we'll see you tomorrow. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.