The Joe Rogan Experience - #1987 - Jelly Roll

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Jelly Roll is a singer, rapper, and songwriter. Look for his Hulu documentary, "Jelly Roll: Save Me," on May 30, and his new album, "Whitsitt Chapel," on June 2. www.jellyroll615.com

the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day have a cool conversation and nobody's gonna feel fucking weird we're all misfits yeah we're all fucked up i can say fucked up shit you'll say fucked up shit we'll joke about it you know it's like where if i go on fucking like do a billboard interview, you know what I mean? I gotta be like super like, you know, yeah, this was a G to a D chord. And I thought really hard about that song, you know, where I can be like, yo, he's in there fucking off and got drunk and wrote it, you know?

But there's something interesting about that too. Like if you're talking to like a legit musician, I would imagine as a musician, it's fascinating just to have those kinds of conversations too. But like for me, like if i have a choice i want to talk to comics it's like my favorite pods of yours are when you're with the homies mine too yeah yeah i feel like that's when i i get real insight and i feel like i'm watching y'all's green room like when i watch you and a couple comedians you really are do a pod i'm like yo i

bet this is what's happening in the fucking green room. Oh, 100%. Well, you can go to the green room tonight. I'll show you. It's essentially the same thing. It's exactly the same. Yo, went to Mitzi's finally. It's beautiful, right? God, dude. And what an ode to her, man.

How fucking gangster. Just cool. You know what I mean? I told Tony this last night, drunk 10 times. It was this thing that was like, I wish musicians musicians would i took a page from y'all so i bought 200 yonder bags right and now on tour my deal is if you come back before the show we'll take pictures we'll do whatever you want to do if you come hang out after the show we're locking everybody's phone up nice yep because i just want to fucking be present i want to be able to smoke to fucking be present. I want to be able to fucking smoke a joint.

You know what I mean? I just want to be able to be us. And that's all I seen in there last night was just a bunch of dudes being dudes. Yeah. But about what they do, you know? Well, you know, the thing is about everybody that hangs out in Mitzi's, they don't even, their phones are in their hands and they don't use them. They were so used to just putting them down.

The hang is so fun. Yep. And they don't use them. They were so used to just putting them down. The hang is so fun. And there's a sort of a philosophy through the whole room that gets enhanced by the fact that the audience has their phones in a bag. Like you don't see phones everywhere. You don't see people just constantly on their phones. So people could just hang. Right. And then you're also talking to interesting people, which is more interesting than the shit you're looking at on TikTok. Yep.

It's fun. And we're all present. Yeah, we're all present. No, it was awesome. It's just weird that we have, like, one of the things that I've realized about podcasts is I've spent so many times, so many hours talking to people, just having a conversation. And the only way is because I never look at my phone because it's locked up. Like, it's off. It's off to the side.

You're right there. We're sitting here with headphones on. So we're hearing each other's voices. It's like you got to almost like put yourself in that sort of an environment to have conversations like this, to really be able to hang out and really be present. Exactly.

And I love this too, because your podcast has done wonders for, especially artists, because we don't have platforms to really do this, to really come sit down. Like the first time I got to hear Stapleton talk for more than three minutes was on your podcast. I'd only heard radio soundbites from Stapleton ever. Right. You know what I mean?

So it was cool to like actually dig into who Stapleton was. You know what I mean? So that like shit like that is like everybody you've had on this podcast music wise as a musician we only get these little soundbite excerpts that a fucking publicist kind of rehearsed them

and said this is what we're looking for in this interview you know yeah no I is this the Joey Diaz yeah it's the Joey Diaz are we smoking the cocoa

that's the cocoa that's laughing gas I love you Uncle Joey god damn you gotta meet Uncle Joey you and Uncle Joey together would be like two black holes colliding.

Oh, dude. He brought me on his podcast earlier this year, and it was the fucking best. Oh, that's awesome. Listen, he called me one day out of the blue, Joe, just to hype me up. Really? Just to be like, yo, fucking Jelly, I just called to tell you I was just listening to your shit. And you're the fucking, God damn it, you're fucking Jelly Manilow. You just fucking squeeze them ass cheeks together, baby, and you keep fucking singing. And singing and god damn it you're taking over you'll be in arenas in six months

jelly yo six months jelly jesus christ and i was just like dude i'm sitting in a parking lot like i can't believe uncle joey's on the phone right now and i'm just gas dude i thought i called the label afterwards like god damn it we're fucking i mean i was fucking i should have recorded he's the ultimate hype man yeah the ultimate hype man yeah he don't want nothing but to lift you up he wants to lift everybody. No, fucking. That's why in the green room we have this quote in neon that says, Get it together, bitch.

That's what Joey would tell everybody. Right before you go on stage. Get it together, bitch. Let's go. Right. Fuck these motherfuckers up. Let's go. Let's go, Joe Rogan.

He'd get fired up and you'd get fired up too. It was cool. Last night in the green room. So I went to kill Tony. Yeah. First of all, what a fuck. I've seen it on YouTube a thousand times. But in person, un-fucking-real.

It's such a great show. It's hard. It's like you know it's really not scripted. Yeah. But it feels like it because it gets so fucking out of hand at times. You're like, there's no way this wasn't rehearsed. I'm telling you. But you're watching it unfold.

Every week it happens like that. Tony's the master. wasn't rehearsed. I'm telling you. But you're watching it unfold. Every week it happens like that. Tony's the master. He is so sharp. He's so sharp. He's so good at being a host of one of those shows. I mean, that's a hard gig. Oh, and the best part was they had a couple dudes come up and just eat absolute shit. And that was the funniest part.

Oh, dude, because the banter that came from that was like fucking insane. And then him and David Lucas. I watched the show damn near just for that since it came to Austin. When him and David Lucas go after each other, I laugh harder than at any other time in life. They're so quick. No, it's like two. You think they grew up together.

Yeah, well, they basically did doing comedy together. But they're so mean to each other and they both laugh. Like when David gets Tony, Tony laughs. When Tony gets David, David laughs. No, it's so genuine. And then afterwards, they'll do a play by play in the fucking green room and talk about it. I got to watch it. When you said this to me, I'm like, ah! That was the best.

And I thought you were going to say this, but that was the good. It was everything. We did that last night. I went in last night and told Tony what I thought his best part. I was just drunk enough to act like a coach. I was like, this was the five best parts. This was my drunk enough to give Tony a review of his fucking show. What a douchebag. He likes it.

He likes it. Bro, he loves you, and he's very happy that you were there. I was on the phone with him on the way over here. Oh, dope. He was telling me how cool you are. I was joking with him. I was like three drinks away from being like, Tony, the biggest podcast of my life is in like 13 hours, dog.

You're just sitting in here. He's like, can't you give me something to talk about? I was like, motherfucker, I'm three shots away from making you come too. I was like, fucking shit. He would come. Yeah, I thought I was going to walk in and sneak in and sneak out and just see the show. And then Dave was like, come to the green room. Let's have a shot.

And that's where it all went south. It all goes south with those guys. It goes south all the time. I have to have nights where i'm only drinking water i have to like otherwise you know you're gonna prematurely die yeah no dude it was it's wow listen and carrie is that her name yeah oh my carrie and diamond dog you talking about heavy hands i'm talking yeah they give you a healthy poor i call that the poor of the Lord. It was a, I'm talking, every time she, I was like, God damn, Carrie, sweet, please, man, I got shit to do.

She's a veteran. No, she is OG. She knows how to dose you up properly. No, for sure. And they know how to hydrate you. It always came with the water. Right. I was like, look at this.

And it was so nostalgic. People were just in there smoking cigarettes like an old speakeasy. You know what the move is? After you do a night like that, get yourself a vitamin IV drip. I did. I got two this morning. That's why I'm over here sweating now. There you go. Sweating like a Hebrew.

That's the move. Just pouring out on me. Yeah. But God, it was so much fun, dude. Yeah, it's a great place. It's a lot of fun. It's beautiful. It really is.

It's like we were talking, that's what we were talking about on the phones today. Tony and I talk about it like three times a week. I can't even believe it's real. Oh, dude. The culture. It's a culture. Yeah. It's a. Tony and I talk about it like three times a week. I can't even believe it's real. Oh, dude. The culture. It's a culture. It's a real scene. I promise you, Tony said this, and I didn't realize it until he said it afterwards when we were leaving.

He was like, nobody was in that room talking about bitches. Nobody was in that room talking about money. They were in there talking about comedy. They were all in there just like kind of ragging on the show and reliving it. It was just cool, man. Yeah, it is cool. The only other time I ever seen that that was cool was Josh Wolfe used to do this weekly thing at Zaney's in Nashville. And I would swing by all the time.

That's a great club. Dude, first of all, I love Dorfman to death. He's a great guy. Both him and his brother. The Dorfmans are awesome. Yeah, they're great. Shout out to the Dorfmans. Yeah, shout out to the Dorfmans, baby.

I worked for those guys for like fucking 25 years or something crazy. God, dude. They're fucking salt of the earth. That club is so good. It's such a fun club. It's perfect. It's like a perfect size club. It's a perfect club, dude.

It really is. Can't get better. The way the side door to the little green room. Straight up the steps. It's just, it was awesome. And all those headshots. The headshots. The old ones that are all signed to Zany's.

Richard Jenny. Yes. I saw the Richard Jenny one. I'm like, God damn, look at that one. It's like fucking 85 or some shit. Yeah. I wouldn't watch Josh up there, right? Josh Wolfe would, that weed is fucking fire, Joey.

That's real shit, Joey. And I brought some weed, and that's some weed. Joey's not playing games. I'm like, Jesus Christ. If Joey Diaz is going to put his name on it, it's going to put you in orbit. He kept telling me, he's like, Joe, I got to get you some of this. I was just like, yo, I'm like, Jesus Christ. If Joey Diaz is going to put his name on it, it's going to put you in orbit. He kept telling me. He's like, Joe, I got to get you some of this. I was just like, yo, I'm in, man.

Joey showed up with duffel bags. Jesus Christ. He did, right? I'm not exaggerating. They were duffel bags. It's an animal. I got to go see him. We missed each other in Jersey last time, but I'll be up there again this year.

He was here. It was the most glorious 24 hours. God, that's awesome. Just being around him again. He's the best. I've never laughed. There's not a single human being who's ever done stand-up that made me laugh harder than that guy. Y'all roped him into moving down here yet?

Is he comfortable? Not yet. He loves New Jersey. He's the king of New Jersey. Right. We went to New Jersey, and we went to this beautiful Italian restaurant. All the people that work there Yelling his name out and the all the the bar staff people are talking Spanish to him. I'm like he's never moving

He's the king of New Jersey. It's like if that guy moves into your neighborhood, you know how happy you'd be. Mm-hmm Jesus Christ God, so he's he's basically, you know and his daughter loves it there and he's got a great community But we want to just fly him out here anytime he wants. I'm like, Joey, just tell me. Tell me on Wednesday you want to come here on Thursday. We'll set that shit up. We'll do whatever the fuck you want. You can call me.

You get picked up at the airport. We'll take care of you. Yeah. Like, anytime you get a fucking wild hair across your ass, I'll have someone pick you up at your house in a truck, drive you to the airport. We'll take care of you every step of the way. Just want to make it easy. You make a phone call,

I'll take care of the rest. I keep saying, man, I need to quit hitting this weed, dude. I'm going to start getting goofy in here. Then we bust out the fungus. Let's go! Yeah, let's go. Where is that? Oh, shit. Uh-oh. Oh, shit. Uh-oh.

Oh, danger. What do you got? Is it tequila? What is that? Oh, no, okay. Is it a chocolate bar? I don't fuck with chocolate bars because I don't know the dude who made them. I'm weird about that, too.

Just get me straight. Like, I've done edibles before, and they are inconsistent. You know the edibles that we used to get in California in the early days when it was medical? Oh, yeah. There'd be some hippie making it in his bathtub. Oh, for sure. You have no idea how strong these things are. It's just a guess.

50 milligrams. Listen. 500 milligrams. Oh, dude. That's the same problem we had with dabs initially. When I first started dabbing, we didn't understand the propane game or, you know, the butane or any of that shit. And I think about, when I first started dabbing, I didn't realize you had to let the nail cool down.

So I was just, the redder it was, I was like, it's ready. I was scorching myself. I was just throwing dabs on a fucking scorching red. And I thought that I was coughing because it was so good. I was fucking killing myself, Joe. You know what I'm saying? I was like, this is the shit. You're smoking a forest fire.

It was horrible for me, dude. You smoked his fucking pine cones and shit. I didn't fucking know. We were all the way in Tennessee. Nobody hipped us in that shit. But the dab thing is too much. And the pill thing is too much. These fucking kids on the THC pills.

There was a dude that I used to be friends with that was a jiu-jitsu guy. He was fucking too smart for his own good. And he figured out how to convert convert thc into a pill form i don't know how he was what he was doing off the weed whether it's key for whatever it was and he gave me some and i'm like how many should i take and you know i forget what the number was but i took whatever he said and i was so high that people became two-dimensional like you became a like a billboard and i could see their soul like hiding behind the i could see their persona as like a shield that they put that they carried around to the world it freaked me out i was so high you have no clue how many milligrams i have no idea he doesn't know

either bathroom special it was probably a plus. It was very high. I heard, and you would know this, the real number, but I heard anything over 500 is where it starts getting. It gets very weird. You can hallucinate. 100%. Well, here's the thing about- Because I took like 600, 700, and I felt like I might as well have been on shrooms. Marijuana in an isolation tank is as heavy as any drug that's out there short of DMT.

Marijuana in an isolation tank, edible marijuana in an isolation tank, once you get into that 500 milligram realm where you're just like, go schizophrenic, you get in that water and you just float and you're in total darkness and you just see things. You see the fabric of the universe. You see intertwined

galaxies that look like a ball of yarn all spinning together. It makes me want to do it. There's something, and I was watching one time, I was in a plane. I used to love to do edibles and get on airplanes.

My favorite thing. Because if I'm going to get on an airplane, my thought was always like, let's get obliterated. Me and Joey would take like stars of death and then get on airplanes. It was so scary. That's a different kind of de-gaff though, Joe. Yeah. I'm with that wild shit, but I'm not taking no edibles before I get on a plane. That's the way to go because you're not going anywhere.

You're not going anywhere. You got to deal with it. You got to sit in that seat. I like getting drunk on planes. I like getting drunk on planes too. That's cool. Because you never realize, you know you're getting bubbly, but when you land, you're like, oh no, I've got to deal with it. You've got to sit in that seat. I like getting drunk on planes. I like getting drunk on planes, too. That's cool, because you never realize. You know you're getting bubbly, but when you land, you're like, oh, no, I done got fucked up up here.

Yeah, with comics, when we get drunk on planes, just sitting next to each other, just drinking and talking shit, it's so fun. It's basically like being at Mitzi's bar, but we're in the sky, you know? We've done a bunch of podcasts like that. We did podcasts on a plane. Really? Yeah, yeah. We'd take an edible before the podcast and then get on the plane. And then we'd be on the plane and just bust out an iPhone. And just, iPhone's really good, man.

Or any Android phone, if you get recording. The fucking microphones are pretty good. Good enough. And then it's kind of fun that people know you're actually doing this on a plane. Right. Like the, you know, the stewardess would come over and talk to us, and we'd say, hey, we're doing a podcast. This was back before the podcast was big.

Nobody, you know, it wasn't that entertaining to people. Nobody was, like, staring at us. So we really got away with it. We really just hung out. No one gave a shit. They thought we were just having a conversation, because it seems like it, because you are. It is.

I've always watched them. So I was telling Tony last night, I don't listen to music that came out after 1980. Really? Very much. I'll listen to know what's happening, but not enough to be influenced. Really? Does that make sense? What is your main go-to shit?

If you're in your car. So I'm a mood guy. It's kind of how I write music, too. I'm a big James Taylor guy, Jim Croce write music too it's like i'm a big james taylor guy jim croce that singer songwriter movement of the 70s and like late 60s early 70s that's my shit yeah like seager's probably my favorite rock artist of all time you know so uh jim croce though man i mean his story just everything he did in such a limited amount of time his his one he still has one of my favorite quotes,

if you dig it, do it. If you really dig it, do it twice. He just had this too cool for school, didn't give a fuck kind of thing. You're familiar with Croce, I'm sure. Don't mess around with Jim. Oh my God. You're a pool player. Fuck yeah, you know that, right?

You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old, old Ranger. And you don't mess around with Jim. Bro, that song is the shit. I need to hear some of that right now. Let me hear some of that. Pull up some Jim Croce. Pull up that song.

Yes, sir. That is a great fucking song. Dude, you know what I loved about his writing style, Joe? Woo! Watch. Come on, baby. Who's writing about shit like this still? Just want to start.

Barry's got his bombs. Big Jim Walker, he a pool shooting son of a gun. Just look at him, dude. You're talking about a dude who just looked like he didn't give a fuck. You know what I'm saying? He looks like he's as high as me and you right now. Oh, my God. Look at him.

Come on. What a song. You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the whole long range. And you don't mess around with Jim. Doot, doot, doot, doot. God damn, that's a jam.

Oh. Because that reminded me of like, he wrote a song. This is what I've loved about him. He wrote a song about the roller derby queen. Oh, wow. Did you ever hear this? No, no, no. Pull up Roller Derby Queen right quick.

Oh, wow. This is going to blow your fucking mind, Joe. I'm sure. He wrote songs about the weirdest situations, like getting beat up and his guitar stolen from him in box number 10, or about a pool shark shark or a bad drug dealer named leroy brown like he wrote these just crazy fucking like where do you even come up with this shit but he had this one it's a visit i fell in love last Friday evening With the girl I saw on the ballroom TV screen

But I was just getting ready to get my hat When she caught my eye and I pulled it back And I ordered myself A couple of more shots and beers The night that I paid the Willow roll A derby queen Around and round

All around and round Needed some woman That anybody ever seen Down in the arena Five foot six She's 5'6", 215. Could you imagine 5'6", 215? He said she was built like a refrigerator. That's the shit he was writing songs about in the 70s, dude. How fucking dope, how much dope are you smoking to be like,

nobody's ever wrote a song about the bitch that does roller derby. Well, a whole lot of Rosie. Yeah, right. A whole lot of Rosie's about a big girl, too. Yeah. Come on, give me some of that. Give me some whole lot of Rosie. That is the fucking jam.

That's crazy that you know these records. Most people I bring up Jim Croce. We named my dog, one of our dogs after Jim Croce. His name's Croce. My wife calls him Chachi. But that's how much of a Croce dude I've been. I was such a pool fanatic that any song with pool in it got me. Yeah.

I don't know why. That's why you see me light up when I was like, yeah, you fucking pool player. He was a pool shooting son of a gun. But also, that song was like, man, I remember that song from my childhood. That was a great fucking song. There's just some certain songs that just, like, there's just the way the person put it together and the way it just reminds you of a time. You know, like, you think about that song.

Like, that song brings me to that time when he was writing it, you know? This is it. A whole lot of Rosie. This is the best big girl song of all time. Come on, man. Because this motherfucker could sing. Who the fuck has a voice like that? It's all in his tone.

I mean, he's talking. He's just talking. Yeah. This is like rap. Oh, yeah. And exactly small. 4, 2, 3, 9, 56. You can say she got it all.

Come on, baby. That's how we should have started this fucking podcast, Joe. Yeah, baby. That's how we should have started this fucking podcast, Joe. Yeah, baby. Curing my hangover. Never had a woman. Never had a woman like you. Doing all the things. Doing all the things you do.

Ain't no man with style. Ain't no baby started. Ain't no skinny bones. But you give me all you got. We're living 19 stone. 19 stone. That's 13 pounds times 19. Whole lot of woman. Whole lot of roses.

Whole lot of roses. I loved how sloppy it was back then. Oh, fuck yeah. Raw. Raw. Music just had like a slop to it. Just the way he talked, you know? Oh, yeah. That's all tone, man.

That's what I love. Don't tell your story. It's just exactly. It's right. Don't tell. Not a woman I know. You know, just right there. When it comes to loving. That's probably how loud he really sang. Yeah know what a motherfucker that guy was god damn he

was a motherfucker that is a powerful what is 19 stone is that 260 pounds she was bigger yeah she was bigger than the roller derby queen i want to see her and the roller derby queen have a celebrity death fight 266 she Choose 266, bro. He said she was 4'9", though, didn't he? I don't know what the fuck he said. He was just yelling out numbers. He was yelling out dimensions. 4'2", 5'9", 56.

What are you saying? Isn't there shooting at anything? Is that like 30? What was that like? There was a thing back in the day. It was like 34, 22, 36 or something like that. It was like the perfect proportions of a woman. Oh, yeah.

Nelly said it in a song, but I don't ever remember it. What is that? Yeah. He says, 4, 2, 3, 9, 56. Jesus, you're just making up numbers. What is he saying? He was freestyling. He was freestyling.

He was feeling it. He was doing some fucking Black Keys shit. He was working a bit out. He was freestyling. He was feeling it. He was doing some fucking Black Key shit. He was working a bit out. Just jazzing it. He was working a bit out of Kill Tony. He's like, I'll figure it out. Dude, I love a good song story. Jamie turned me on the culture wall.

Jamie said, you got to hear this song. He goes, this is like you. You got to hear this song. This is like your kind of song. Kate McKinnon. He played Kate McKinnon. this song he goes this is this is like you you gotta hear this song this is like your kind of song kate mccannon he played kate mccannon that fucking guy is so oddly talented the fact that he was 21 when he wrote that song played that fucking song the fact that this cat is 21 years old no culture and he's got this kind of there's like a... How many lives did you live before this one? Because this is not 21 years of Earth that gives... Now give me the

real one. He does it differently in the acoustic. I really like the version that's on the album. It's one of those where the album version is better than the acoustic. Yeah, well, the acoustic's great, but the album one is perfect. It's got a, well, the acoustic's great, but the album one is

perfect. It's got a darker tone. I would love to hear it acoustically, but this is the shit. 21 years old. Raven is a wicked bird. His wings are black as sin.

And he floats outside my prison window marking those within And he sings to me real low He's held to where you go For you didn't murder Kate McCann Come on, man.

It's Johnny Cash vibes. Yeah, for sure. It's like Johnny Cash Western. It's like he absorbed it all. I mean, I want to know like what, he doesn't do podcasts but I would love to sit down with that dude It's like Johnny Cash Western. It's like he absorbed it all. I mean, I want to know, he doesn't do podcasts, but I would love to sit down with that dude and go, where'd you get all that?

Where's all that coming from? Are you just, is this life? Are you just a fucking freak for that old shit where you just absorbed it all? Did you listen to every Waylon Jennings record that's ever been made? Did you listen to Merle Haggard from the that's ever been made did you do you know did you listen to Merle Haggard from the time you were two where the fuck are you getting this and the crazy thing is it's so it's so nostalgic of that but with this obvious like western Texas twist to it like I love that like distinct Texas sound of that like old like

western music you know I think it's what makes Zach Bryan so polarizing. His music's so incredible, but it's so raw. It's so Western. It's so fucking just, you know, it's like just so, ugh. I didn't even know he was polarizing. It just sits right in front of you, yeah. Is he polarizing? Like, in what way? Well, I think he's polarizing in the fact of, like,

he just did his first awards show, and he was the second biggest streamed artist in country music the last two years. He's kind of like culture, like a dude. You know what I mean? Like, this dude's literally doing whatever the fuck he wants. He was selling out amph streamed artist in country music the last two years. He's kind of like culture, like a dude. You know what I mean? Like this dude's literally doing whatever the fuck he wants. He was selling out amphitheaters, Joe, pulling up in a 12 passenger van with his homies and putting up a backdrop and just playing. He didn't bring a light.

You know what I'm saying? He just showed up like he didn't know. He's just like him and his boys were just out fucking making music. He tried to. I don't remember what I think. I don't know. He's a Marine or whatever branch of the military he was in. He was doing,

had like 700 million streams, Joe, and was still in the military. Like they had to come sit him down and go, hey man, this is a conflict. You know what I mean? Like you're fucking like,

you're like one of the biggest artists on earth. You've got to fucking, you got to go. You know what I'm saying? It was like, he's fucking you know i've never talked to the guy but i'm fucking a huge fan of his he's super genuine he's a really nice guy i talked to him on the phone and then i went to see him uh when i seen

you on stage yeah he played up there he tried to get me to say yeah no my favorite clips he walked over and said you want to sing and you were like like, fuck no. I love that song, too. His concert was amazing. No, it's incredible. He's so genuine. There's something about people that are genuine that it just comes out in their music. And you can't fake that. And you have that. Yeah, thank you.

You have that. Thank you, brother. I say it's real music for real people with real problems. The first song I ever heard of yours was Need a Favor. And I was like, holy shit. God, thank you. Holy shit, dude. That's a fucking song, man.

That's a song. It was funny, man. When we were working on the record, so the album I'm fixing to drop is called Wits at Chapel. And I think it comes out June 2nd. Shameless plug on the biggest podcast on earth. But the record Need a Favor I was like

so can I tell you this story? It's a bit of a story but it's fun to tell so I had wrote like 100 songs last year and I didn't feel great about any of them to be honest the label liked a few and was trying to pick radio singles

but I just didn't have no conviction about it Joe and my daughter at the same time had found her way into this little back road church in the middle of nowhere about a country where we live she kept asking me to come and you know i have a tumulus relationship with the lord so i wasn't you know sure how i'd show up but i was like you know what i'll go and i went dude there's 100 people a little back road church you know 20 of them were kids that went to high school with her. And around the same time, I caught this little motherfucker smoking pot. Right?

She's 15. She's doing 15-year-old kid stuff. And I was like, buddy, you won't believe it. About your age, I started making these same decisions. And I was going to this little bitty church in Antioch. I tell her the story of this church. She don't believe it. So I take her to this old church. It's still there.

It's called Whitsitt Chapel Baptist Church. And that night, riding home with with her I didn't tell nobody but in my mind I thought that's the album I'm writing like fuck every song I wrote I'm writing this album I called Zach Crowell he produced every Sam Hunt song ever you know one of the biggest producers in town I've known in my whole life he's here with me right now and uh I said dude I want to write an album called Going to Church and I just, I want to write an album called Going to Church. And I just kind of want to write this kind of journey and just kind of A to Z it and write a real project. And Zach was like, I'm in. He's like, well, why don't you just call it Wits at Chapel? So that's how we ended up doing Wits at Chapel. So when Need a Favor came into

the fold, I was like, what's worship music for sinners sound like? Like, what is a motherfucker like me? You know, because, you know, when you're in church it's holy holy you were great i was like i don't i don't necessarily feel that way so how do i feel you know what i mean and then it was like only talk to god when i need a favor you know and i was like we got to build it with a choir and big production i want that old stomp clap you know that old church feel and i want to bring like that vibe of that church you know into the into the and the whole thing is wanted to bring, like, that vibe of that church, you know, into the album. And the whole thing is the whole album is built on that vibe of, like, there's fire and brimstone. There's everything you go through on a Sunday morning worship service.

Have you ever been to a Sunday in the South worship service? They're going to convince you you're a horrible human at some point. You're going to hell. And then at the end, they'll hit a major key instead of a minor one finally and go, but there's hope. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, how do I write that? You know? Man, well, I've always been a fan of those preachers.

I love the way they captivate an audience. Even if they're crazy. Even if they're talking nonsense. No, for sure. There's something exciting about watching some dude preach the word and just yell it out. Just on fire. On fire. So I'm going to send you a link to the album, but I got a preacher throughout the whole album doing that, Joe. That tied the record together.

Oh, wow. So the album starts with this dude like, and by the grace of God, we were saved. And it just drops the first song. It's cool, man. That's amazing. I got nerdy, dude. I went like old school, dude. I went like back to the 90s.

I was in the studio like we were just getting high and coming up with shit. Beautiful. Yeah, it was so much fun. It's probably the most fun I've ever had writing an album because it's the first time I've sat down in a long time and wrote an album. Instead of just writing a bunch of songs and then picking an album. You know what I mean? I was like, no, I'm right. We're going to sit down and write an album.

So that just came out of the blue, inspirationally? Yeah, I just wasn't. Just felt like something to do? Man, I'm going to get all the way real. I didn't understand what was. I had commercial success for the first time in my life. And I didn't know how to deal with that. So you do what everybody does in that moment.

I'm sure you may or may not have been there in your career early, where you chase it then. You're like, oh, my God, hold on. I can be. And I realized that the songs wasn't sounding like Jelly Roll no more. And I was like, no, I'm doing the thing that people do where they fuck their career up. I was like, I'm not doing that, man. So you think that that's just a normal trap that happens to everybody that gets success and they don't want to fuck up that success?

So they try to make a formula for what they think the people liked about their early shit? Yes, yes, 100%. Or they chase whatever the poppy record was or whatever the record that did the most, so it's like, how do I write another song like that? So I was coming off of a hit that I, the one I gave you the plaque for, Son of a Sinner,

was my first radio hit, like hit hit. And I was like, I didn't know how to come out of it because I didn't write the song for radio. I wrote the song like I wrote every other song. But then you start thinking, oh, I can write songs for radio. And I had fucking 70 radio songs. Like, fuck, I'm not. You know, it's like, no, man, I just need to, I need to do what got me to radio. I need to do what Jelly Roll does.

And I was like, I know what it is. I'm going to get back in my foxhole and write me a fucking album, dude. You know what I'm saying? That's beautiful. I took it off Music Row. We went back to some little old back-ass studio in the backwoods, and we wrote it kind of like we wrote all my early shit. I feel like it's like every level of success that you get,

you're presented with a unique problem that you haven't seen before, and it's up to you to just figure it out. Just figure it out. What are you doing this for? And I think that applies to everything. I know it applies to comedy. It definitely seems to apply to music. I think it probably applies to everything.

Figure out what you're doing it for. Why do you like to do it? I know you have to make a living, but once all that's taken care of, what are you doing it for? You should be doing it for the love of this thing. Whatever this thing is that you do, you are a love-spreading machine as a human being.

Right. Whether it's your love of carpentry, whether it's your love of electronics. What is it? What's your thing, man? Right. Everybody's got a thing, but not everybody finds their fucking thing.

That's the problem with this world. So people get trapped in something that's not their thing, and that's what they are now. And they don't ever get to express themselves in a way that would make them feel good. Well, for me, I always call it the why. And it's like what you said, even with the music. And that's what happened with those 70 songs. When the why comes down to, oh, this is catchy or this is a good song, I'm past the point of like, I i want to help people joe like my music has always

been therapeutic my music has always been for people what got me into music was my mother so my mother was a woman who struggled with extreme mental health issues and drug addiction and she would she would come downstairs and she'd throw a record on and she'd light a cigarette at the table and dude I would watch

the house change like brothers, sisters cousins coming from across the street at the table. And dude, I would watch the house change. Like, brothers, sisters, cousins, coming from across the street. We knew a little tight neighborhood.

Poor people, you know? Neighbors coming over. Her friends start flooding the house. And she held court. Joe, I would watch our kitchen turn into a nightclub. And she'd start telling stories.

And listen, we didn't have Google. We had to believe the bitch back then. Right? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? So she would be like, James Taylor wrote this about his drug-addicted mother.

You know what I'm saying? Or something to play fire and rain. Or she'd be like, Bette Midler wrote the rose about, and we're just like all captivated. And then she'd play the rose, and we're all crying in the kitchen together. And it's like, and I didn't understand cause I'm a kid. Right. But something changed in her when the record went on is how I looked at it. I didn't know

anything about drug addiction, anything about schizophrenia or bipolar or any of this stuff. She was dealing with her manic depression back then, what they called. I didn't know any of this. I just knew that this lady never fucking leaves that room. And when she does, it seems like the music does it. So I spent my whole life writing songs for her. Right. I was like, I kind of indirectly was like writing these songs for the addicted and the broken. You know what I mean?

Because that's what I was seeing. Yeah. So it's like I found purpose in the music. You know what I mean? Because that's what I was seeing. Yeah. So it's like I found purpose in the music. And like I tell people, if I was going to do it for money, like any sane fucking comedian or musician, I'd have quit 10 years ago because I wouldn't. I didn't make any for 15 years. You know, if I was doing it for money, I'd have quit forever ago and got a job. I just knew that it was always helping people. You know what I mean? It's like the music was all because i seen how it helped my mother and i knew the power of music and that to this day like when you first bring up music i'm like i'm a mood guy it's like

you know you know how i feel about what i gotta go listen to like yeah to this day if i'm going through something in life i'll grab a joint go hop in the pickup truck and tell my wife i'll be back and she knows what i'm doing i'm just gonna go listen to music for an hour and smoke a joint i'm gonna come back and sort through this shit but it was something about that that made me want to write songs for purpose you know what i mean it's like real music to just try to get i i understood the power of it you know funerals like how many i probably lost my first friend when i was like 11 i remember every song they played at the funeral that day you know does that? Like, these are the moments in my life that stuck out to me, was like the impact of music. And then I went on to write Save Me, which I've been told by multiple funeral homes is their most requested song of the last decade.

Wow. You know what I mean? Which is really sad. It hurts me, but it makes me feel so good that that's there to help somebody in that moment. Yeah. it hurts me but it makes me feel so good that that's there to help somebody in that moment yeah so for me if i'm listening to a record joe back to your why it's how to start it right it's like if i'm listening to a song or i wrote a song and the why is like it's just cool fuck that song man like who is this exists for you know what i mean like what am i doing now sometimes the answer is just as simple as like yo we just need a party record that's cool too but just make sure you have a why and if the why is money you got the wrong why and this song will never fucking work anyways

you know what i mean and that's how it's always worked for me which is like i was telling you out there i want to tell you the story about how my music changed i was doing dmt we were up in iowa and i had done no we were in uh nebraska We were at a KOA truck stop. I'm in a camper. We're driving one of them big campers, right? We just toured with ICP. I'd been on like, oh, dude, I did three tours with ICP there. Oh, fucking awesome. It was the one, dude, listen, I played at the Gavin and the Juggalos one time, Joe.

Listen, and from stage, I seen a girl getting her back blown out on the fence, getting fucked. I'm in the middle of a set. People to this day, I'm on Good Morning America, and they're like, what's the wildest, talking to the people from Good Morning America on the phone, they're like, what's the wildest thing you've ever seen in a show? I was like, a girl getting fucked at the Gathering of the Juggalos. I was on stage and she was just getting their brains beat out. They were

over there filming and whooping and cheering and all to the music. It was fucking incredible. So I'm doing DMT up in fucking this camper and I start tripping mushrooms and i'm coming out of my dmt thing and i'm in that afterglow state and in that moment i went the music's being packaged wrong it was this weird moment where i was like i'm writing these super dark songs but then i'm putting a cartoon picture of myself on the cover and I'm shooting you know what I

mean like it just it just hit me I was like I'm writing the right songs I'm just writing them over the wrong chord progressions and I'm dressing it up the wrong way changed my whole life Joe wow so what was it about the trip that made that apparent to you? I wish I, dude, I don't know what it was. We wasn't even listening to music. I was just sitting at that KOA, staring up at the stars. You know, I'm getting 60 bucks a night or something or a hundred bucks a night. I mean, I'm playing, you know, dude, I mean, it's 10 of us.

I mean, it's, you know, you know the story. We've all been there. So we were like struggle bussing. And I was just having one of them vulnerable moments in life where I was like, am I fucking doing the right thing here? Like, am I tripping? How much longer am I going to try to push this square through this circle? You know, and I looked up and I was like, God, what am I doing wrong? I know my heart's right. I know that my only other choice in life is criminal. That's all I've ever done, Joe, is music and crime.

That's the only two things I've ever known. You know, so I'm like, I don't have any qualifications to do anything. You know, I was like, what am I doing wrong here? I know the music's right. And it was just all, it was almost like it was that easy from years of trying to figure it out. It was like, you're just writing over the wrong chord progressions. You're writing the song, you're writing the right songs. You're just writing them wrong. Wow. What do you think that is what what is happening i wish i did i was hoping you're gonna give me the answers i've been wanting to talk i think if i had the answer you should walk out and never trust me again yeah well because i learned about dmt on this show whoops right well if i change my fucking life they're doing legitimate studies now in the UK where they're doing a drip.

So they're doing an IV drip with a long release of DMT. So it stays in your bloodstream for hours. And these people are having these experiences that are repeatable. They're going to similar places. They're going to the same place. They're reporting these contacts with entities they're reporting these experiences that are it's odd it's very odd because no one does it in long doses you do it in this 10 to 15 minute dose

and it's so overwhelming that the moment you get a chance to it's so hard to relax in the middle of all of it and just accept it and just be empty and let them show you things it's so hard that you you a lot of people wind up with this like tense conflict where you're in conflict with the overwhelming nature of the experience so you're you're trying to control it in some sort of way or you're trying to deal with it and you just gotta be able to ah you just gotta be able to do that and if you can't do that it's gonna be a fucked up ride yeah but these people are going through all that and then they're getting to ah and they're staying there for hours and hours what is that i mean i don't know if that's a hallucination. That's the simplistic reductionist view.

If I was a person who is a cynical academic who's never fucked around with drugs, I would look at that and I'd go, well, this is really simple. It's interacting with your visual cortex. It's some sort of a hallucination. Your imagination is producing these results. But, man, it doesn't feel like that. And I really wish people would have more of an open mind about what this is because I have a feeling it's the root of humanity. I have a feeling it's the root of all religious experiences.

I have a feeling that it's the root of compassion and love. And I think it separates us from the more primal aspects of our beings. And it does it in a very tangible way. And it did it with me. And I'm sure it did it with you. And it does it with a lot of people that go and have either ayahuasca experiences or DMT experiences. These things that you should probably call ceremonies, even though it sounds – ceremonies are a ridiculous word. But it is kind of like you're in a religious experience.

And that might be what God is. That experience when you – there might be layers and that might be what God is. That experience, there might be layers and layers to that until you eventually get to God. And I don't know what these people are doing. They're doing this long-term IV drip thing, but you literally might be opening up some sort of a wormhole to heaven, as bonkers as that sounds. I know you're going to be one of the first people that'll figure it out. When you do, please let me tag along. I will not figure it out, but I will talk to whoever figures it out. That's what I'll do. Yeah. But if you find the drips, let me know. Save me a seat for the drips.

A hundred percent, bro. We're going to travel together. Yeah. We, we did it. We did a bunch of that, um, on that tour. And to this day, if I'm really dealing with something, I can't figure out my own. I'll take some shrooms and go to the lake. Like to this day, if I'm really dealing with something I can't figure out my own, I'll take some shrooms and go to the lake. Like to this day, I just kind of count on that stuff to kind of recalibrate me and set me back, especially artistically sometimes or when life's getting overwhelming. There's such a humility and humbling that comes with that. You just realize how much you don't fucking matter. And how much – it's not even that you realize shit don't matter. You realize you don't matter.

It's also when your ego gets squashed, you realize your ego is the source of almost all the fear and anxiety. Almost all of it. Once your ego gets squashed, which is what the trip does initially, especially, it's like you don't even exist anymore. You're just like, oh. And then you can see things, what they really are. Like, oh, my God, we're a part of this insane soup of molecules that literally goes on forever. And no one understands it. No one understands even the parameters of it. It's all guesswork.

It's all these legal pads where these psycho smart dudes are writing down computations. And they're looking at these images that are billions of light years away. I mean, it's all even what are limited ability to observe the known universe. But there's the capacity of knowledge that had to be moved all together in synchronicity to create these fucking telescopes. All the citizens. And that is just scratching the surface. all together in synchronicity to create these fucking telescopes. All this shit is insane. And that is just scratching the surface. Oh, yeah. There's so much out there.

I've went through so many of those wormholes. Recently, I finally got to watch on the bus the other night that Graham Hancock. Oh, yeah. The Netflix doc. Oh, it's amazing. It was insane. I never really scratched it. And I just knew his name.

I'd seen clips. And I was like, fuck it. We're sitting on a bus stone. That's the coolest thing about the bus. We'll sit there and catch up on all that shit. Graham Hancock is the man. He was one of the first real guests I ever had on the podcast. Yeah, he flew in.

We ate pizza, and then we did a podcast together. He had just flown in. He came right to my house. This is when I used to do it in my house. When I had it in one of my spare bedrooms, it was me and Duncan and Graham Hancock. Because I read his first book, Fingerprints of the Gods, in like the 90s sometimes. And everybody was like, that's nonsense. You're into that pseudo-history shit.

And I was like, this guy's got like really good points. Like I think he might be onto something. And his whole journey from being this guy who was maligned to being a guy who has a Netflix series. And all these archaeologists are complaining. But, hey, look what he's doing. He's showing you archaeological evidence, you psychos. There's something to this. It's like the dude that comes in and crushes it.

And because he crushes it so much, you realize how much other people wasn't doing their job. Like when you hire a new tour tech or something and he comes and kills you're like damn that other dude sucks that's why they're mad at him they're like oh fuck we've been blowing it exactly exactly yeah they're all they're all kind of humiliated by this guy who's not an archaeologist who's discovered this very clear and distinct pattern and this pattern seems to indicate that civilization is far older than we think it is. And there's likely been some interruptions. We were knocked into the Stone Age.

And then when he got together with Randall Carlson and all of the archaeological evidence lines up with all the evidence of the impacts. Is Randall the guy that was with him that has the beard? Yeah.

Always has a laptop? Randall's amazing. He's the best, dude. He's the best. I met that dude in georgia i was in atlanta and i was doing what's the funny bone or the punch line the punch line atlanta right yeah it was a punch line so i was doing the punch line and uh after the show this dude came up to me and he was talking to me about asteroid impacts and sacred geometry i'm

like what the fuck do you do me and him this conversation, and he started talking to me about asteroid impacts. And he was telling me that he thinks that that's what resets civilization. I was like, what? How long ago was this? Long time ago. This was a long time ago. I love the idea of you just being at a bar after a show, and a guy's just whining at you about fucking asteroids. Yeah, I think this was like 2005 or some shit.

Yeah, it was a long-ass time ago. I think, I'm pretty sure it was pre-podcast when I first met him. That's me and him? Yeah. What is that? Oh, that's like 2007 then. It says nine. It says nine?

2009, yeah. Is that the first time I met him? I don't remember. God, am I off by that many years? Well, you also, you know how this shit works, though. They might have uploaded this. No, I think that's correct, though. It looks right because of my beard, because I grew a beard when Evan Tanner died.

It was still 2008. 2008. That's right. Okay. Yeah, there's a dude named Evan Tanner. He was a UFC champion, and he was a very interesting guy, very interesting guy. And he would do these things that he would go on a walkabout, you know, to try to find himself, just to just go alone in the woods.

And he did one in Death Valley. And heat stroke apparently affects your ability to, literally you can't think straight. So he couldn't figure out where the water was. He just couldn't figure out where it was. Cause like, I don't know, I've never had heat stroke, but the way it's described, it's like, it doesn't matter how tough you are.

Like, your brain doesn't work right. Like, your memories aren't good. You can't walk right. Like, you're about to die. Yeah. And then he died. And Death Valley is, I think it's the hottest spot on Earth, right? Yeah.

What does it get to? It's right outside of Vegas, right? Yeah, yeah. The hottest recorded I think we hit was like 130 something yeah so uh evan you know so just a very interesting guy very very tough guy too and a great fighter and we all loved him and so so that was like right around that time that's how you remember from the beard yeah man he was an interesting dude when an interesting dude winds up dying in a way that's unfortunate and preventable like that it's like man he would have been cool to have around

you know he had like a very different take on why he was a fighter and like he was like trying to find himself through this you know and there's there's certain guys it's like there's authenticity that comes through in music and it comes through in everything man it comes through in music and it fucking comes through in everything man it comes through in fighting too it comes through there's certain humans that are just so authentic that when when they're out there you just want you want the best for them you want to see them fight you know and uh when you you see people like that in life that's the one of the beautiful things about today is that you get exposed to so many more inspirational and fast any people to be a young person right now and

To have all these different stories you got your culture walls out there you got you you got Zach Bryan You got all these different human beings you got all this music from the 60s and the 70s and the 80s and there's so much To influence you and it's at the tap of a, it's in our hand. Anytime you want. Why go to sleep? Your parents aren't paying attention. Stay on YouTube. You'll be on YouTube till four o'clock in the morning. You got to get up at six.

These kids don't give a fuck. At all. And the thing about it is it changed our business on its head. Like on our head. And everybody was so against it at first. Napster. Yeah. They were so, but they were so like, I never forget having a conversation with a distributor that said, well, let me say this first of all, I would like to say though, I don't want to breeze over. I'd like to take a moment because I know it means a lot to his family. I'm sure to say rest in peace to Evan Tanner. I'm sure you bringing that up means so much to their,

to that family alone. And that's awesome. Then that alone, his story will live forever because of this. And that's also what's cool about the era we're in. Right. You know what I mean? Is that forever we'll have that clip of Joe Rogan getting emotional,

talking about his friend, Evan Tanner, because you've seen a picture of you with a beard that makes me want to cry with you Joe cuz that's that fucking awesome I don't want to I don't want to breeze past that cuz that's cool as fuck there's well there's something about like commentating on fighters where you have this this crazy connection with them where you want them to do good in life. You want them to, you've seen their soul.

When you see two dudes going to war inside the Octagon, they're exposing every fiber of their being, especially if it's a tough fight. All the quitting you shows up. All the excuses show up. Everything shows up. The will, the courage, everything, whoever you are, it shows up. And you get to know these people. And you get to know them as a fan, too.

And I think that's one of the things that people love about fighters. So you get to see the actual whole human being. There's no place to hide. Yeah. I think we relate to things. We connect with things that we either relate to or things that are so like around us that we could never understand it. Yeah. So for me, for a fighter, it's like I respect the fact that I could never imagine getting down into a diaper, getting into a ring with a pair of oven mitts, a pair of oven mitts, Joe, and fucking trying to kill another man for north of 15 minutes at times.

You know, that just concept to me is fucking insane. You know what I'm saying? It's like. Well, it is insane. I just could never wrap my head around that. I was talking to Tony last night about, I feel that about comedians. Like, me and the musicians were in the green room shooting the shit with Tony, and I was like, we got something you don't, Tony.

We can bail each other out, or we're going to bomb together. I've bombed before and looked back at the band and just smiled like, well, we're bombing. It's happening. You know what I'm saying? It fucking sucks. You know what I mean? But when y'all bomb, oh, you could hear a fucking mosquito fart. I could have heard a mouse piss on cotton last night a couple times after a dude just threw up an egg.

Well, those are hard sets. Those kill Tony sets because those guys are going up. They have one minute and you got one minute and you didn't even know you were about to go up until like 10 seconds ago. They pull your name out of the hat like Mike Wilson. Oh, shit. That's me. Oh, my God. And then you're up there and you're like, you're talking too

fast. Your heart's beating too quick. You thought it was 60 seconds, but it was 20. Yeah. And then your joke, you forget one of the punch lines like fuck yeah yeah it was fucking awesome though but but tony's so good at like making fun of those moments and i've seen people bomb and then come back and do well i have seen a guy last and i'm sure tony said i could talk about it i seen a guy last night bomb and then tony punched his shit up in real time.

And it was the funniest thing I've ever seen in human. I pissed myself a little bit. I tinkled myself. I was sitting. I was. I was the obnoxious dude on the balcony laughing so hard that the balcony kept laughing because I was still laughing. Everybody had moved on in the club but me.

And I just couldn't get over fucking him going up and just being like, listen. And he would tap on the. I don't want to blow his whole shirt. I'll watch that. Because it's coming out on YouTube. I want to watch that one. That's good. I'll watch that one.

I'm excited. But this one's worth watching. It's fucking great. They're all worth watching, man. It's the best show. I fucking love that show. Yeah, we watch them on the bus pretty religiously. I come in on Monday nights when I'm free.

I come in and check it out and watch. It's just to sit down and watch. It's so fun. No, dude. It's a hang. It's such a weirdo extravaganza, too. The weird energy from all those open micers on the stage. They had a kid with Down Syndrome

get up last night, Joe, and kill. And then the guy that came behind him did not, and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Was it Jared Cleaver? I don't remember his name. Jared Nathan, rather. Who's Jared Cleaver? Jared Nathan. Jared Nathan is the guy that's always on

Ahsan's thing. Him and Ahsan always do those Instagram clips together. Yeah. Jared Nathan's hilarious. We're huge comedy people on the bus, man. We watch all the specials, all the pods. Because I don't listen to music. When I'm in album cycle mojo,

unless it's like 70s music, because I'm already drawing so much from that shit anyways. You know what I mean? Do you have a playlist that you listen to before you perform? Do you ever listen to – I got that from Cat Williams. He said that once. He was doing this interview. He said, I have a playlist of music that I listen to before I go on stage.

I was like, ooh, that's a good idea. Anthony Smith told me he's got one for his pre-fight too. He's got the same playlist. He said he puts his headphones on. It's the same playlist. Because I had a song in it. That was the correlation, how we met. Oh, that's cool.

Which was super cool. And he explained. He's like, yeah, I listen to the same playlist for the last four or five fights. I create new playlists every time. Whenever there's a new energy shift, it's what I listen to, a full playlist. And that's crazy. We'll listen to outlaw country music. I love outlaw.

You know, I was a kid. My mama played this for me and this is when I knew I'd end up doing country music. The first time I heard it. Looking for trouble and I found a son right down the barrel of an old man's gun. And I was like, this is a fucking country song? I was like, ain't living long like this.

Ain't living long like this, oh my baby. And I was like, holy't living long like this. Ain't living long like this. Oh, my baby. And I was like, holy shit, this is gangster. Outlaw Country was the original gangster rap. Oh, for sure. For sure. 100%. Well, listen, hot take.

Subterranean Blues by Bob Dylan was the first rap song ever. Ooh, I've heard that. You ready for that argument? Listen to this. What's Subterranean Blues? Which one is that? You pull it up right quick. I'm in a basement

Mixing up the bed of men I'm on a pavement Thinking about the government Oh, yeah. Tell me to say rap. Oh, that's the one with the signs. Yeah. Yeah.

John is in a basement Mixing up the medicine I'm on a pavement Thinking about the government. A man in a trench coat, bad job laid off. Says he's got a bad call, wants to get it paid off. Look out, kid, it's something you did. God knows when, but you're doing it again.

You better duck down the alleyway, looking for a new friend. A man in a coon skin cap and a pig pen wants $11 bills. Do you want a guarantee, honey? Yeah. Hmm. Now, I'm sure there's something that dates back before this that can be as a tip to hip-hop, but to me,

it was one of the first songs I heard that I was like, yo, this was like early rap. Kind of like early rap. Did you ever see, what is the oldest rap music? We played early on did you ever see there's what is the oldest rap music we played that on the podcast before it's these dudes from like is it the 50s 40s Jubilaires these guys. Have you ever seen this?

Look at these dudes. Oh shit. Come on, man. God, dude. 1940 what? Crazy. What year was this, Jamie? I don't know the specifics. It says active in the 40s and the 50s. Wow.

Yeah, never knew. Like I said, I knew it came from, you know. This is incredible. Yeah, because a lot of the melodies and stuff in music came from this era. It really came out. A lot of the melodies still to this day, the real soulful melodies, came from the slave spiritual songs. What is the other one?

Would they put it through a color filter? Yeah, they just colorize the filter. How dare they do that? How dare they do that? And add it a beat. Oh. Oh, that's an 808 though. Oh.

Hey. Shout out to Basic on YouTube. Oh, this is good. It is. Keep it going. Keep it going. Keep it going. Make it to your playlist. I like it.

B-A-S-S-I-C. Basic on YouTube. Fuck yeah. I like that. So that must be the earliest rap, right? Oh yeah, for sure. That's coming straight out of like...

I bet they probably had some stuff that felt real rapist back in them old churches too, man. When them preachers would get to going over the music,

you know, or over the organ. I bet a lot of that stuff was just the start of the early rhythm of that shit, right? For sure. Yeah, a lot of people's

introduction to music I'm sure was at church. I'm sure. Yeah, a lot of people's introduction to music, I'm sure, was at church. Sure. You know, when you go back to old music, there's similarities like in old music, old literature, old comedy, old movies. You're in a time machine. Like, it's hard to put yourself in that time to appreciate what it was like But like Robert Johnson like if you can listen to some Robert Johnson Like what year we talking?

With the Robert Johnson recordings because I think there's only a few but this motherfucker was so good at the time That the rumor was that he sold his soul to the devil that was the one they did the netflix doc on then right robert johnson dude yeah he wasn't there was it was that not the one that did the devil or something i don't know if they did yeah i'll check but there was a doc about it that was always like i mean that was how people talked about it yeah because if he's the one i remember the story was he disappeared for like a year they said and came back like the best guitar player ever right wow I swear there was this story of this guy that was like he disappeared and that's when they said he met

the devil and made a deal and three days over 19 1936 he recorded 29 songs wow god dude that's like little 36 of working Jesus Christ back when they were singing in the can. San Antonio. Oh, shit. He did it in San Antonio. I think he did it a little bit in 31 also, but the main thing that everybody knows, I believe, is this album, the complete recording.

Yeah. Dude, play some of that for me. Give me some of that. So the thing about listening to this dude is you've got to kind of put yourself in 1936. You know, even the idea of an electric guitar all these things are alien right amplifiers are alien these are all new things like what are these things and you got this dude that everybody's like how like how what do you and it is these people that come out of these situations

and emerge and everybody sort of like learns from them and now these kids of today they get you they get him

they get Johnny Cash they get fucking Casey and the Sunshine Band they get a soup of influences this guy what did he have

he had to yeah listen to some of this so that you gotta know influences other than other musicians. I went to the crossroads. Fell down on my knees. He's singing about meeting the devil. I went to the crossroads.

He leaned into the rumors, didn't he? He's doubled down. Fell down on my knees. He leaned into the rumors, didn't he? He's doubled down. You know what you can hear distinctly? It's the pain of that era. Yeah. You say you put yourself in that era. I'm not much of a historian, but I can hear the pain. Yeah.

And that texture, that soul. So this is the 1930s, so this is post-Depression. Yeah. And this is also the South, and it's not even 100 years since slavery was abolished. Yeah. So you're dealing with Jim Crow and just the stains of hundreds of years of oppression. Just in the culture, in everything. You just hear it so clear.

And so the horrible thing about horrible things. Yeah. Oh, boy, dark gonna get me here. Dark gonna catch me here. Wow. Oh, this is awesome. I'll be listening to this for the rest of the month now. See, this is the shit I want to be inspired by working on the album.

Oh, boy, dark gonna get me here. old boy dark gonna get me here damn god dude yeah we're we're so fortunate that we have the the access to those to all these different things like instantly and you get to think about it like i don't even think we can imagine living at that time i don't if you took a person from 2023 and you put him in that time just it would feel like torture you'd be like what is this right you guys don't even have any madison yeah what the fuck is going on you don't know what's going on you have no idea you have no internet have nothing. You're about to go into World War II. You don't even know. Even getting records, when they stopped

selling CDs, Joe, this is how long I've been doing this. So, a buddy of mine calls me and goes, we had an distributor we use out of Memphis called Selecto Hits by the Phillips family. They've been putting out records for 50, 60, 70 years.

He said, you need to hurry up and get you a trade card at best buy because they're they're fixing to disappear and i'll never forget this phone call joe i said hell it sounds to me like we need to be figuring out what's next if we're fitting to fucking disappear don't sound like i need to be rushing to get on a shelf that's fixing to go right you know and i i felt like the guy screaming the sky was falling right i was like i'm telling y'all like as soon as they called me with spotify and everybody was like early early uh itunes was cool because you still got the same dollar per download you would for a cd sale in the store but when spotify and i'm coming remember

how many people held out initially, all these major artists held out, like we're not letting Spotify play it. And I just had a feeling that once this thing converted to here and you could listen to music anywhere. Cause when I was growing up, it was even worse when you were growing up, probably.

But when I was growing up, you had two choices to listen to music in the car or in the house, or you could bring a boom box outside but wherever you took music you had to carry a physical thing to play it you know what i mean it was it was like a chore you know you even had to buy two cds or one for the house you know or you'd scratch the shit out of them we'd have the cases going down the road and that's the only time we could consume music dude my daughter listens to music all day. That's all I hear.

She cleans her room, I hear music. She's downstairs cooking scrambled eggs. I got a 15-year-old. She's downstairs cooking scrambled eggs, Joe. She's fucking got her little cell phone sitting right there playing. And it's so cool to listen to it go from Ariana Grande to Coe Wetzel.

You know what I mean? And then I watch it go from Coe Wetzel to Cardi B. And then it swings into like a Prince song. You know what I mean? And then I watch it go from Coe Wetzel to Cardi B. And then it swings into like a Prince song. You know what I mean? I'm just like, fuck yeah. Way to fucking go. Because when I was a kid, dude, if you showed up to school in a Metallica shirt, you better not show up in an Eminem shirt Friday, motherfucker.

You know how that was? You were tribal by music. You know what I mean? It's like, no, music identified you. You were tribal by music. You know what I mean? It's like, no, music identified you. Her generation, she's got Ariana Grande shirts, Taylor Swift shirts, fucking Cody Johnson shirts.

Beautiful. Yeah, she's all over the place. Well, it's like you'd be stupid to deny there's all sorts of cool shit out there. Only be a Metallica fan. Get the fuck out of here. Only be a heavy metal fan. And that's how it was. Oh, no, you're a metal guy. You can't, you know.

Oh, for sure. Like, when I first started listening to country, a lot of my friends were like, what are you listening to? Like, why are you listening to that? I'm like, what are you talking about? This is great music. Great music, man.

It sounds great. Yes. I enjoy it. Yes. You know, I'm not going to pretend I don't enjoy something so I fit into a tribe. Right. That just seems so stupid.

Yeah. And you're missing half of what life is all about. God, dude. I appreciate all music. That's kind of where I lined up in the music world anyways. I was the youngest of four, right? So by default, I never controlled the fucking radio. I never one time in my childhood got to determine

what was getting played in any room of the house. So I just learned to deal with whatever I was listening to, you know? And because of, you know how brothers and sisters are, none of them wanted to be alike. So I had a sister that listened to nothing but rock music. I had a brother that listened to nothing but rap music. Another brother that listened to like singer songwriter shit like our father. You know what I mean? Like we had all these different, my mother listened to this kind of music. Daddy listened to this kind of music. So every car I'm baby Jason, I'm just sitting in the back seat, you know, pimping to whatever we're pimping to you know and that's i think why

my music ended up going from hip-hop into rock and into i know i've had a hit at i've had a billboard chart on all three genres right because i was so influenced by this shit for so long anyways like i just fucking love the concept of music i love the idea of i went to lollapalooza 97 at starwood amphitheater joe dude wow let me remind you it was snoop dog prodigy tool corn right and i'll never forget watching snoop dog go on and then Prodigy and then Korn. And I remember thinking, this is the coolest shit I've ever seen. And this is 1997, so keep in mind Snoop Dogg is snooping. This is like primetime Snoop Dogg, right?

Oh, yeah, and that was fucking insane, dude. I remember watching Julian and Damian Marley on the second stage right and us sliding down the hill in the rain and i just remember going man if you can go from snoop dog to tool you know what i mean into corn and all these fans were the same people the same people that were acting all tribal at school were all here singing every word of snoop dog and every word of corn and right then i knew those lines were just going to get more blurry. And then the phones came out. You know what I mean? It's not weird now.

Like, I love the genre influences. I love hearing an 808 and a Morgan Wallen song. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a moment. I just fucking love that. I love that tip. When Zach Crowell first started producing them old Sam Hunt records and the first time I heard Break Up in a Small Town

and she would get down and you just hear that fucking pounding 808. And you're like, this is not country music. This is awesome. They have officially brought hip hop into country music.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I just think I love anytime people can tastefully bring shit together. I mean, that was one of the cool things about early hip hop too, was samples. You know, it fucked them up the cool things about early hip-hop, too, was samples.

You know, it fucked them up when it came to licensing, and a lot of people had to pay a lot of money because of that, because they had hits that sampled other people's music, like Vanilla Ice, famously, right? I mean, that was under pressure. And then he tried to dispute it. Which was ridiculous. It was the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life.

We're listening to the same thing. What? We all heard it. There's no way. If my mom could figure it out, you're fucked. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? If my mom was like, that sounds like the same song,

I was like, you're not winning, you know. But there was some great uses of sampling. There's like songs and rhythms and different beats. It was really interesting. It was an interesting thing that happened that sort of emerged from the hip-hop world of combining music to make a totally unique product that's arguably as good if not better than the original. They made some amazing songs with sampling. The sampling made the song better.

Oh, 100%. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah. It was fun, too. And it was also an homage to all these other things they were sampling. I mean, how many movies did they sample? How many times did people use Say Hello to My Little Friend in a hip-hop song? You know, I was telling Stan Hope, I told him I was sampling.

For about three years, I opened my show to a Stan Hope bit. So the stage would go completely black, and you would hear his bit about, yeah, a lot of people here tonight are counting on me for a good time that's why i drink booze i don't count on you for a good time i'm gonna have fun no matter what what if i get up here and i'm too drunk and i fucking blow it and i don't tell one funny fucking joke and everybody hates me it wasn't my fault you should have drank cocksucker whatever that bit was you know yeah i'm butchering it but it was the bit and we literally played that every night i got a joey i don't want to spoil it but i got it, but it was the bit. And we literally played that every night. I got a Joey, I don't want to spoil it, but I got a Joey bit on the new tour

that we're opening with. Nice. But yeah, I love it. Imagine it goes stack and you hear fucking Stanhope. And the best part is Stanhope was like, I'd fucking, why didn't I know this? And I was like, I think that's what makes it so cool. And I fucking did it for years.

I wanted to reach out, but I was afraid you'd want money or something. I'd have to pay whoever fucking had because it was one of the old albums, you know? That's hilarious.

Yeah, maybe somebody else owns it, right? Yeah, that's always the fucking one. It might be one of those things.

Yeah, that's always the sketchy part. I'm going to have to find out about the JVS sample because I'm going to put it on the next

record anyway. I'll ask. Well, you know Joe. Yeah, I'll hit him. I'm going to send it to him and be like,

yeah, I'll tell you which one off camera because I want it to still be a surprise at the show. Okay. But it's cool. It's a good Joe. Yeah, yeah, I'll hit him. I'm going to send it to him and be like, yeah, I'll tell you which one off camera because I want it to still be a surprise at the show. Okay. But it's cool. It's a good idea. Yeah.

The whole way of you're doing it, of just doing what you want to do, and just having a good time, it comes through in your music, man, your expression. It comes through. It's awesome. Thank you, man. You know Josh Adam Myers, right? Sure. I've got to tell you my Josh Adam Myers story. through in your music man with your expression it comes through it's awesome thank you man uh you know josh adam meyers right sure i gotta tell you my josh adam meyers story i went i played fremont street the day of the weekend of skank fest last year so skank fest is on just coincidentally

coincidentally oh boy skank fest is on this part of fremontont, and I'm on the middle of Fremont doing the stage, right? And we have literally, and I'm proud of this, by the way, we have the biggest crowd they've ever had at a Fremont Rocks ever. Like, literally, the mayor comes and meets us. Now, keep in mind that my wife, Joe, and I don't know what you know about her, but I want to tell you a piece of her story, too. My wife grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. My wife was a high-end escort her whole life. That's what she did when I met her. I was broke.

I was living in a 1996 van, literally didn't have a house. And this woman has, like, two condos and a few sports cars, right? She's, like, fucking bawling. It's so funny now the Internet, when I won these awards, are like, this bitch and a few sports cars right she's like fucking bawling it's so funny now the internet when i won these awards are like this bitch is a gold digger i was like i was the gold digger you know like this woman had so much money so the irony that we're sitting here meeting the mayor on fremont street and she's like holy shit we fucking did it because she's got a podcast and a huge patreon and she's just crushing on her own regard love you mama bear shout out to the dumb blonde podcast but um thank you for firing

up that that cocoa one more time at uh that laughing gas but uh and i'm leaving and i know skank fest is there so i'm ready to go i'm like we're going to skank fest i'm fucking almost blackout drunk joe i may or may not have been fucking with my nose. I mean, I'm having a Las Vegas night, right? And I haven't done this in a long time. I'm like off my shit. And they're doing the goddamn comedy jam at Skank Fest. So it's where Josh Attenmeyer does this music medley of funny, like,

and Shane Gillis is up singing like Megadeth. Yeah, comedians sing songs. Bro. And I'm crying, though. It's so fucking funny. Sam Tripoli brought me up, and fucking I didn't know the song we were singing. I'm just fucking drunk, drunk. And when Josh Attenmeyer gets off stage,

I look at him, Joe, and I go, I want you to open up my tour next year. I'm doing my first full arena amphitheater tour, and I want you to be my opening act. And I offered him money right then on the spot. I made the my first full arena amphitheater tour and I want you to be my opening act. And I offered him money right then on the spot. I made the deal right there drunk, Joe. Wow. I didn't talk to this guy for 10 months. I'm sitting in CAA's

office, right? And they're like, hey, did you look over the list of the one of threes? You know, that's the first, you know how it works. So I was like, did you look over your list of one of threes? I said, no, I've already got that figured out. I'm taking this comedian that does music. And they were like, what? I was like, yeah. I'm taking this comedian that does music and they were like what i was like yeah yeah i'm taking this comedian that does music i cold call him joe right i called him 10 months later sitting in caa not remember that sitting in

caa and i'm like hey josh is jelly roll he's like what's up bub i was like did you block that month two months off i told you to block off he said said, I did, and everybody thinks I'm crazy. I said, you're not, motherfucker. You're coming. He was like, you're shitting me. So right now, Josh Adam Myers is going to open up the – he's actually hosting it. So between each act, he'll come out and do 10 minutes of, like, comedy music shit with the band. And it's fucking – that's my favorite story to tell because Josh said – he called Steve Byrne, who's a buddy of mine, and Byrne said, listen, man, I don't care how drunk Jelly

was. If Jelly looked you in the eye and told you you're doing it, leave those two months open. Wow. Yeah, Josh was like, everybody thought I was a fucking nutbag. I've been turning down shows. Wow. And I gave him what I offered him that night. I can't believe you can remember it.

No, I remember the number vividly because when Live Nation told me what they'd give them, I was like, oh, this is going to cost me some money. Fuck. And I was a man of my word, though. I was like, yo, I'm going to eat it. Let's do it. Beautiful. Yeah.

It's one of them old school deals where the contract says something, but what we worked out is different. But that's my guy, man. I told him I was going to do it. And that's my fucking. And we're still going to do Skank Fest this year. We're going to fly in on that last Sunday and do it together. Because that night I got drunk and told Jay I'll play Skank Fest for free whenever. I hit Jay this year. We're going to fly in on that last Sunday and do it together. Because that night I got drunk and told Jay I'll play Skankfest for free whenever.

I hit Jay this year. I was like, yo, I didn't forget. I'm coming, motherfucker. Skankfest is a wild experience. It's the gathering of the juggalos for comedians. It is. It really is. It is fucking awesome. It seems so insane. They're singing Rob Zombie.

My favorite thing was fans all day called our group Gilly Roll Gilly Roll yeah best night dude that's awesome

it was so it was it was really cool and I'm excited to have Josh out too man I think he'll bring a whole different element to the tour

cause we're taking Ashley McBride's doing six or seven dates the Grammy award winning Chase Rice when I come to Texas we're here do you remember the date Jamie I told you September 21st I'll be here if you're in town I'd love for y'all to come out and I got three six mafia doing all the Texas dates the original group DJ Paul and Juicy J from the legendary rap group so this is this is big they were one of the first people that gave me my chance what an interesting

combination you know that that's that's such a fun thing like you were saying about kids today big. They were one of the first people that gave me my chance. What an interesting combination. That's such a fun thing. You were saying about kids today and about your taste and everybody's taste. You can mix up shit together and it works. Just somehow or another it works. It's fun. Josh Adam Myers. My best friend Struggle Jennings will be doing the whole tour. So me, him,

Josh Adam Myers. It's going to be fun, dude. It's going to be really big. I thought it was a cool way. me and him were talking about it, it's a cool way to bring comedy while keeping a music crowd entertained. Yeah, it's funny that musicians like to listen to comedy and comedians like to listen to music. Because we all fucking think we're funny. You know what I mean?

I haven't met a musician that doesn't at least have a couple of minutes of jokes that we can say on stage if we get in a cramp. Yeah. what i mean like we got a couple of go to get a quick cheap laugh cheap claps you know what i mean but just enough of it that we all think we're fucking hilarious well everybody could do comedy it's just you know if you could talk to people like you talk to me right now you could do comedy you just have to figure it out right but it's the figuring it out part that's it's weirder than it looks. It's like it's very easy to judge, too, because you're on the outside and you can talk to the idea that you work your stuff out in front of people is crazy to me. That's what I admire the most from comedians is like as musicians, we got a little cheat code. We get to go sit in a room and get really weird and like fuck up a thousand times before.

And nobody will ever know it because by the time we put the song out, you know what I mean? Yeah. We wrote 70 songs and picked seven and reproduced them 10 times. And it's like where y'all motherfuckers are like, you're just up there like, yeah, I thought this was funny in the car on the way here. Let's see how it works in front of 500 strangers staring at me. I think it's like everything you get accustomed to stuff like you know the problem with like going back to 1936 is that we're accustomed to 2023 if you lived in 1936 you'd be fine with it if you were a fighter you'd be fine with being a fighter it would be a normal

thing for you you've been always been doing martial arts. You're used to being in pain. You're used to getting punched and kicked and strangled. You'd do it. Just like if I was a musician, I would do music. You would figure out. You'd be a chess player. You would be a fucking whatever it is, man. There's things that people do where they figure something out, and then they become that thing, whether it's a soldier or a fighter.

And there definitely are people whose personalities are more aligned to certain types of occupations. But how much of that is chance? How much of that is your personality sort of evolved along with your obsession with whatever it is, whether it's music or comedy or martial arts or sports? People become like a sort of a conglomeration of all the other people that are around them too there's a lot of that so there's like this giant influence from all over the place well like i tell with my music because it's changed over the years the man changed i just drug the music along right like right as my heart and my spirit changed and my views about life and people and my spirit changed so the music

changed you know what i mean yeah so you know joe i don't know if you know this but i i spent most of my from 14 to 25 in jail yeah i do know that i spent like a ton of time at 16 i was charged as an adult for a charge. And what did you do? It was the first time I've ever actually talked about the charge. I just say it was a heinous crime. Admittedly, it was horrible. We robbed a couple of guys for some weed, but they called the police because we took some money and some stuff. And it was it was an armed robbery.

I mean, we went in there with a gun. I regret it every day of my life, Joe. You know, I mean, I was a kid. Now, I'm not making an excuse, but I would like to paint the picture that I literally did not have pubic hairs. I'm a 15-year-old kid when it happens, you know. And I still feel horrible about it. But because the state of Tennessee has a zero forgiveness policy for violent offenders, I've carried that unexpungable felony for 20-something years. It prohibits me from getting houses.

It's prohibited. It's put me in, I mean, life insurance, homeowner insurance is higher if I can get it at all. I can't get life insurance at all just because they have a, most of them won't give you a decent policy as a felon. Dude, I can't volunteer at the YMCA. The Young Men's Aian academy won't let me you know just um me and my wife just got turned down for a house i'm in a place in life where i go to buy my dream home guard gated community golf course man i'm crying joe they accept my offer everything's going cray i'm like this ain't be real they turn me around say no the golf course

won't let a felon be a part of the community you know know, and I'm a fucking, dude, I'm a 15, 16 year old. But the idea that there's just this one definition, this one solid yes or no, this is a thing. You have the mark on you. Right. And it's not an individual with individual circumstances. Right. That's so ridiculous. And that's not what a human being is supposed to be about.

Right. We're not supposed to be about a human being is supposed to be about. We're not supposed to be about that. We're supposed to be about understanding situations. And when there's a child that does something really fucking stupid and knows it forever, you don't think you could have done that? This is what I would tell the people. If you were in that same community, you were with those same influences. This was the reality that you were born into. You don't think you could have gone with those other kids that were gonna rob someone with a gun you could have don't lie to yourself you could have they're not unsavable human beings right and then that's why i focus all of my philanthropic philanthropic efforts with the juvenile at home you know we sunk a quarter million dollars into

there for my last hometown show i sold out my arena big craziest night ever you know fucking the hometown arena how big is it when you do the hometown it just hits different yeah you know what i'm saying when you're like oh no this is home you know what i'm saying like oh they like me at home yeah you know for me it's boston yeah yeah when you play the garden right yeah god crazy dude i just couldn't imagine the emotions of just like dude i fucking ate shit at this comedy club here. I fucking kickboxing and shit out here for fucking 20 bucks a session. And here I am standing in the fucking garden. Dude, I was sitting two blocks away from the juvenile I was in, George.

I mean, Joe. And I'm sitting there, Joe. And I went and talked to the kids before. I went and met them all. Spent Thanksgiving with them before the show. Fed them. And sat down with them and said look y'all I know a couple of y'all been here for a year or two just like I was building a studio in here and I'm building trade programs and I got y'all's back man we helped out with a lot of lawyers we put it we worked with the state now they're building a new juvenile that we're going to sink millions of dollars into and have an aftercare program.

I'm going to do so much for at risk youth in Nashville because my whole life changed in that it was the most. I look back at it and I talk about it so much that sometimes I desensitize myself for how traumatic it really was. I spent my 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th birthday incarcerated. Straight. Like, most kids are like, my daughter will inevitably, by the grace of God, get a car on her 16th birthday. You know, like the dream shit, you know, with the ribbon and shit. It's going to be a big moment.

You know, it's going to be fucking crazy, you know? But I got, you know, they didn't even give me an extra piece of cake for dinner you know what i mean like you know i didn't have a guard tell me happy 15th or 16th birthday you know what i mean you don't get a family visit like i missed high school completely i have i have i think i was in high school for like i think we actually pulled the records like six weeks. You know what I mean? And then the only thing that turned that shit around for me was Bailey. I was in the revolving door of the judicial system, in and out.

I knew I'd got a woman pregnant. I'm back in jail. She's pregnant. She hates me. We're not talking. I'm a bad human. She's right. I was a horrible human.

And I'm sitting in there, and that guard knocks on my door, May 22, 2008, Joe. D-4, it's count time. I say, what's up? He goes, you had a kid today. And he walked away. Whoa. Dude, it just, I still get emotional. It was like, I don't know what kind of, it was like a Damascus Road experience in the Bible.

Like, I immediately, Joe, was like, I've got to do something to change. I've got to quit this shit. Like I got to figure it out. Now I'm in the violent offender gang unit of this jail. There's a sign on the door that you can sign up for an education unit. Right. But nobody ever signed up for it because it's like checking in. You know what I mean? Like in jail, it would be like your boy told the jail stories that was in here with Bobby. So you understand the lingo. It's like they put you know what i mean like in jail it would be like uh your boy told the jail

stories that was in here with bobby so you understand the lingo it's like they put you on the door you'd sign up for the sheet of paper so they get you out of the unit or if you were scared you would sign up to get out of the unit i've been in there for fucking a year i mean uh fucking seven eight months six months seven months playing poker every day chilling and immediately jo Joe went and signed up for that education unit and got my GED. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew that I was dead set on not selling drugs ever again. Because once I caught that adult felony and went back home, I'm a felon. I couldn't get no decent job. I just went straight back to the streets.

I knew better than to rob people then. I didn't see no integrity in that. And at the time, I was foolish enough to think that drug dealing was a victimless crime. Right? So I was like, oh, fuck, I'll sell dope. And I got caught in a crack cocaine case. So when Bailey's born, I'm in there for a crack case. And I now see the victim side of that because fast forward, Bailey's mother ended up with a heroin addiction. And me and my wife ended up getting full custody of Bailey seven years ago. Right. So now I see the victims of these crimes now because it's my daughter. You know, I thought it was an equal

exchange of goods. You give me money for a drug, I give you a drug. All that started changing in my mind right then. Went straight, got the GED, came home, started selling mixtapes out of the trunk, Joe. Wow. I'm selling, I started a YouTube channel, my homeboy Chatty Bobby, Chad Arms, I love you forever.

Started me a Facebook and a YouTube channel while I was in jail because I called him from the education unit and I was like, look, we got to figure it out. I got a kid. I was like, because I had a really good dad. He was a hustler. My father was a great man, but he booked bets. You know what I'm saying?

He was kind of an old school gangster, you know? Old Marine, he ran his family's meat business that he took over from his father, booked bets on the side. I just kind of got early. You know, that's just where I'm from. It's just what it is. So I was like, I want to be a good father, you know? And to this day, of everything I'm proud of, every achievement, every accomplishment,

I am the most proud of her. This kid kicks fucking ass, Joe. That's awesome. She's fucking hilarious. She's a comedy nerd. She is a fucking, she watches the most. She's like most she's like she's into like dark dark comedy too like she is just a little funny motherfucker dude you know

what i mean like she's just she's been my best friend me and my wife had custody over seven years her mother sobered up i fucking kept selling these mixtapes out of the trunk you know what i'm saying i'm fucking i'm hustling i'm building the youtube channel i put up a thing called a 10 minute freestyle it gets taken down because I called my PO out. What a wild journey you've been on, man. Jesus Christ. Like, what a fucking movie. You know, it's like the opposite of the Elvis movie.

Like if Chad GPT. I'm going to get skinny later in my career. And then you get fat later in yours. That's hilarious. Like, you went from the worst situation possible, other than being in jail for life, to being selling out in arenas. It's wild. It's unreal, Joe.

Does it ever get overwhelming where you just can't believe it's real? All the time. How do you deal with it? Man, so I'm learning now to deal with, like, I'm learning to deal, I've finally gotten, I've really taken therapy serious. And it's kind of helped me with my weight. I've been losing weight recently. I've been taking my health more serious because I've always had a mental thing like this, just blockage of like just this overwhelming, this cloud of sadness, you know, but I find purpose in this. So it's like, as this starts

to work and as me and my daughters relate, I always felt like I wasn't going to be a good father. You know, now that you become a good father, you're like, man, I'm actually figuring this out. All of a sudden, dude, I told my wife recently, I don't think I really wanted to live until the last probably 20 months. You know, as my life came together, as me and my wife have just become my best fucking friend, dude. You know, you talk about a story, dude. We're talking about a crack dealer and a prostitute, dog. You know what I'm saying? They fucking figured it out, Joe.

You know what I'm saying? It's like me and her joke. The night I won those awards at the CMT, I grabbed her and I whispered in her ear. I said, bitch, this is the greatest trick ever pulled. Like, this is crazy. Like, I can't believe. I'm afraid I'm going to get arrested walking up there. Like, that's how I was thinking. You know what I mean?

Because I was like, there's no way that this happens to people like us. When I won the third award that night, you see the camera of me and her talking. I'm like, I'm definitely not winning this award. There's no way I'm winning. Because it was a big, big one, you know? And when I won it, I just bawled crying, of course. But it's just to come from where we came from. Dog, to sit here with you.

I love you, man. I know we just met, but I fucking love you, dude. You've helped me so much. You know what I'm saying? We laugh at you un-fucking-controllably, dog. You and all your homies. I have so many friends that have become friends of mine that are just because I was

fans and they were great that I met through this circuit of people. Schaub is the homie forever. You know what I'm saying? I'll always love Schaub. Schultz. Me and Schultz found each other because of my love. You know, we did the song in the middle of the pandemic and I had a publicist. I got fired my first publicist, Joe, and they fired me because I did a song with Andrew Schultz.

What? Yeah. I had a publicist for 17 seconds one time. I came and fucking hung out with Schultz and did a song and got dropped. What was the song? It was called Open Her Up. Now, this is the middle of the pandemic, Joe. Oh, okay.

So you had, this was perceived as being anti-COVID lockdown. I guess. Yes. It's funny. I said, I hope Grandma Maxine gets her vaccine so I can grab two bad blondes and tag team. It's hilarious. And they've dropped you for that? They dropped me, dude. Luckily, I got one now that fucking lets me be me.

Good. They don't get it. They don't get it. Yeah, me and Sol laughed about that forever. In the moment, though, that COVID fucking fever that everybody was in, the fever, mental fever, like anything like that where you couldn't even joke around about it. You can't even joke around about something like that. No. That's funny.

It was hilarious. Oh, dude, my verse said, I hope Grandma Maxine gets her vaccine so I can bag two bad blondes and tag team. I run fast as an athlete at a track meet. Yeah, that shit was so good. No, we just had so much fun, dude. And I got dropped. I called Shoals and said, I just want you to know. It was my first publicist ever, too, Joe.

I didn't get another one until I got the one I got now. I was scared of him. I was like, golly. That's hilarious. And I did it with a comedian. That was the best part. It's not like me and fucking Ernest or Hardy or Morgan Wallen cut the song together. It was like me and a comedian.

I wrote a song with a comedian that was a comedic song. Yeah. I don't know. I just fucking whatever. But yeah, me and Soles always laugh about that shit. That's funny. It's a funny song. It's just that was a weird time.

And it just happened. And it's almost like everybody wants to forget. Yeah. We weren't that crazy. Yeah, it wasn't that weird. I mean, we all understood the signs. You guys just got a magic trick pulled on you. It's sad, man.

My niece got COVID. I found out this morning. She's with my wife. My wife said, Kayla's got COVID. I said, shit, I didn't know it was still here. You know what I mean? It just seemed like it just kind of disappeared off my feet at least you know it's very mild for a lot of people that already have the antibodies yeah i didn't have a problem with it joe and listen i was covid's dream if you could write down a dream scenario for covid a fucking active drinker obese everything that comes with how I look is there.

You know what I'm saying? It's like the only thing I wasn't was old. And, man, my wife got dog sick. She works out three times a day. My kid got dog sick. My niece got dog sick. And I was walking around the house like, hello, everybody. I was running and dropping off soup.

I was fucking killing it. I swear, dude. That's crazy. Three times. Do you get sick normally? Do you normally get sick? I get some sinus shit every now and then. Well, you got to think.

If you're going to get a real stimulation of your immune system, I would imagine jail is a very good way to do that. Oh, yeah. Because you're around- A tour bus is the same thing. It's a submarine. Tour. Same thing.

Yeah, dude. Comedy clubs, same thing. Oh, yeah, for sure. We're all hanging around with so many people in such close proximity so often that your immune system gets tested all the time. Colds go around. When comedians get the flu, they use the same microphone. They give it to other people.

It happens all the time. Yeah. We were laughing about that last night, too, though, that y'all show up up just by yourself you just trust the sound man at the venue and everything yeah me and tony were talking about some shows and i got offered my biggest guarantee ever just yesterday and i was like no fucking way and tony was like i was like the difference is you'll fly and go pick up that money completely by yourself and i'm gonna take, 10 trucks, three managers, two fucking booking agents. You know what I mean?

Like it's going to fucking, you know, cause when you, when we got to put on an arena show, um, I love the way y'all did the arenas with Dave though. I thought it was a really cool way to put on a show, but keep the production minimal, but just make it a party. Yeah. It was, those were very fun. Those were always fun. Yeah.

That shit was dope. But the DJ to me was like, that's the move. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. For were very fun. Those were always fun. Yeah, that shit was dope. But the DJ, to me, was like, that's the move. You know what I mean? Yeah, Dave loves that. He just loves us. So, Guru brings DJ, too. It's dope. It's a party.

Yeah. Yeah, it's like, that's kind of back to why I brought bringing Josh on tour. I was like, how do we bring that? Because I thought about Lollapalooza again, right? I'm like, what do we, how can we, like, let's bring the circus to town, dude. I'm a sad clown, dog. You know what I'm saying? That's what I do.

I sing sad clown songs. Let's bring a fucking circus to town. Let's bring 3-6 Mafia. Let's bring a fucking comedian. Let's bring Waylon Jennings' grandson. You know what I'm saying? Let's do that fucking shit. Let's figure it out that way.

Yeah. We'll just go out here and have a fucking party every night. Yeah, I love it yeah it's kind of the fucking the the dream he's talking about dealing with the pressure too um and about this story being crazy abc news followed me from my red rock show last june to my bridgestone sellout in nashville in december thousands of hours of footage raw full-length documentary coming out next week on the Hulu 95 minute film I haven't seen a piece of it I seen the two-minute trailer and I cried like a baby but you talk about in the middle of this all happening like when we first because dude we came the 22 my first show of the year was a makeup show from 21, late 21.

But it was in March of 22, and it was at a 1,000 capacity club in Buffalo. And by the end of the year, we had sold out Red Rocks, the Bridgestone Arena, every hockey arena in the South. You know what I mean? And Hulu caught all this shit, Joe. Wow. And I'm nervous because it's an ABC News thing thing so I don't get to like make a note You know what I'm saying they're not gonna send it to me and go what do you think you know what I mean like I'm Gonna be watching it with everybody fucking May 30th, but I'm excited to see They were there for those moments that were just like the first time at Red Rocks

You know what I mean like the fucking the Bridgest Bridgestone, the Juvenile, the Kids, like this whole culmination of this shit kind of going the way it went, man. The last seven months have been the wildest I could have ever imagined. How could you even imagine it, right? It's past what I dreamed of, Joe. It's past what I dreamed of, man. I'm having to make new dreams. You know what I'm saying?

Does that make sense? My dreams were so small. So I kept it independent. And I still am proud of this, that I own 100% of my masters. That's awesome. Right? I have complete creative control of my deal. I got the best deal in Nashville history to this point.

But because I had a billion views on YouTube before I signed the deal. You know what I mean? So I'm coming with an already built business. You know what I mean? Right. And I come into this deal. Isn't that wild? It's crazy.

It's back to the internet. It changed our lives, dude. Changed everything. Fucking guys like me and you could just do what we love and hit upload and fucking it worked out yeah

you know what I mean it's like I'm dropping June 2nd we're calling it my debut country album I've dropped 39 projects and I'm dropping

a debut album that's how this game works you know what I mean but I'm the way the deal is structured out and the way I come to them and I'm like

yo just just let me like it's different than every other artist the way I come to them and I'm like yo just just let me like it's different than every other artist in town I just give them a record and go this is the record

you know like we're not I'm not playing no games you know what I mean like and it's the best thing and these people have changed my fucking life they found me a publicist

that was not afraid of me fucking talking about doing DMT with Joe Rogan you know what I'm saying like country radio gave me myan. You know what I'm saying? Country Radio gave me my first hit.

You know what I mean? My first actual big hit was Son of a Sinner. And this all happened when I dropped Save Me. Did you ever get to hear Save Me? Yes. Can I do a Jamie pull that up moment? Yeah. Just because this song is like,

the first 12 seconds was like when I found my voice. This is how I got the Shinedown tour. Brent Smith called me from Shinedown. And he said, I'm still a nervous singer. And he was like, it's one of the best vocal performances I've ever heard. And he's fucking, you know, Brent Smith to me is like top six front men in rock and roll, period. Let me have some of this.

Three. I just remixed this too with Laney Wilson. So the album version will be fully produced because this is acoustic and I have Laney Wilson on it. This is June 2020, Joe. Somebody save me Me from myself. I spent so long living in hell.

That's all you got to do, Jamie. But that's the one that did it. Every label on earth called me. And none of them understood what I wanted to do except for Broken Bow Records and BMG. Wow. Yep, John Loba got it. He didn't hesitate.

I wrote this, shot that, recording it, and uploaded it that day. all that i need something inside of me is broken i hold on to anything that sets me free i'm a lost cause baby don't waste your time on me i'm so damaged beyond repair I'm so damaged beyond repair. Life has shattered my hopes and my dreams. I'm a lost cause. Baby, don't waste your time on me. I'm so damaged beyond repair. Life has shattered my hopes and my dreams. So at this time, Joe, all these labels are calling me from L.A.

And they're trying to pitch me like as a pop artist. And I'm like, yo, I want to play the Grand Ole Opry. You know what I mean? I was like, we got a different thing going on here. I'm not who y'all think I am. You know what I'm saying? Like, I want to play the Grand Ole Opry. You know, pop is short for popular, right? The thing is

authentic is pop. It's popular. People love it. They love it. They just don't get enough of it because they were kind of spoon-fed nonsense for so long. Machine-created boy bands. There was just so much nonsense that was going on. Nashville did it too. I call it the Nashville

Build-A-Bears. And it's like so much nonsense that was going on. Nashville did it too. I called it the Nashville Build-A-Bears. And it's like, and these record labels would find the guy, didn't even care if he could sing. They'd be like, he looks the part. They'd get him somebody that would dress him up. Somebody would write him a hit song. They'd put the bear on the hat. They'd give the bear, the bear guitar.

They'd put the bear in front of a big country star and, you know, then the bear sings. It's kind of amazing that nobody has figured out how to do that with comedians. Just find some needy actor and teach him how to do stand up and write all the jokes for him and take half the money. No, dude, because it's like there's a thing where we got to connect to you personally from there. We got to feel like you believe what you're telling us. Yeah. Right. And I think we're going back to that in music.

Because, listen, let's talk about the 70s and me and you love so much. They wasn't the greatest singers. No. Like Hot Take. But they sung from the soul, man. And you felt like it was their story. Yeah. You know, so it's like then we went through an era where you just like the song always matters more than anything. It's got to be a good song. Yeah. But we went through an era where you just kind of it was just song. You didn't really there was an artist. That's once again why I think Zach Bryan, Hardy, Morgan Wallen, these guys in the country space that are really connecting big. You know what I mean is because these dudes are writing their own songs and singing their own pain and their own struggle and like you connect to the artist and their emotion. to the artist and their emotion. Like, dude, if I meet James, when I meet James Taylor,

I'm going to cry. Like uncontrollably sob like a baby because his music has done so much for me. You know what I'm saying? That's amazing. You know what I mean? Because I connect these songs to him in such a way. And they've meant so much to me. And they've done like, Fire and Rain has pulled me out

of the darkest moments of my life when i watched my father die our favorite song is fire and rain i watched him pass away a cll i'm in the room with him the last 90 days of his life the greatest experience ever to sit down with him every day when he's knowing he's dying i'm knowing he's dying and we're just sitting there fucking having cocktails and talking at the hospital 90 days and fire and rain just was like it helped me as recently as then i can tell you times it helped me when i was 16 times it helped me in jail when i was 22 time you know what i mean like this song somehow always finds me when i really need it like i can go to it like a you know like like an old old neighbor

that gives you some good wisdom you go knock on the door they'll tell you something like i can get alone with james tay Taylor and have that moment. I connect with him so personally in that way. And I think we went through an era where the artist and the music didn't connect like that. And now we're kind of sliding back into that era. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's just something about when Zach goes,

To you I'm just a man. You know, it's like just something. You just look at him and go, I fucking believe you, man. Yeah, I believe him. You know? It's like when you hear me belt out save me. You just immediately go, I don't know this guy, but fuck, I feel that. I believe him.

Yeah, you know what I mean? No, you're authentic as fuck. And so, Zach, it's a great time for that. People, that is a mainstream thing now it's not just some like weird niche thing that gets second looks at after the popular stuff right it's the most popular stuff for a lot of people and for it's it's just more nourishing oh you know showing it now too though the streams are like we're, too, though. The streams are like, we're seeing it happen. Like, Zach Bryan was top two biggest country artists on earth last year, streaming-wise.

You know, it's like, and the radio didn't, the single didn't go to radio until after. You know what I mean? It was just so, Morgan's, what Morgan's doing is just unheard of. I mean, he's the king of country radio right now. The king of country music period. I mean, that kid is just on fire, fire. And I don't know when this comes out, but I know you're listening, Morgan, and I hope your voice is feeling better and I love you.

Yeah, do you have to get some operation? I think they're just putting them on a real vocal rest before they try to cut. Oh, that's right, that's right. They'll try to cut on you. They're worried that, yeah. Yeah, they'll cut on you dead last. That's the singer's rule is don't let them cut on you unless you just have no other choice because that's so risky. How many people have ever had their operation? I think Jacoby, my boy from

Papa Roach did. I need to talk to him about it. He had one and man, that dude, he's a screamer. You remember Papa Roach? I mean, he really goes for it. And I think since he, whatever he went through with his voice, he got through it, whether it was a surgery or not, he's on the other side of it and sounds incredible. Every night and still can do five shows in a row and belt. That's great. That would be the scariest thing. I was telling you from the pod started that of all the unhealthy habits I have, I take the voice about as serious as I can. You know what I mean?

Like I hydrate the shit out of it. I get IVs every week. I do everything. My green room is really relaxed. You'll see it's a party. You know what I mean? Like I hydrate the shit out of it. I get IVs every week. I do everything. My green room's really relaxed. You'll see it's a party. I believe the green room's a party. You know what I mean?

And it should be. And I don't leave the green room or get weird before shows except for 12 minutes before I go on stage. I'll sneak to a corner and run a scale. But just little things. You know what I mean? But Morgan's also just, you know, he's working really hard, man. Doing four or five shows a week. He just little things, you know what I mean? Yeah. But Morgan's also just, you know, he's working really hard, man. Doing four or five shows a week.

He's the biggest artist on earth. I couldn't, I know what my schedule's like right now and I'm fucking like a gnat on a bull's ass compared to where Morgan's at in his career. For a guy like that,

it's kind of a balancing act, I guess. It's like you want to make hay while the sun's shining but also, you know, maybe it's just too many shows. Yeah. Maybe you just have to say for health's shining, but also, you know, maybe it's just too many shows. Yeah.

Maybe you just have to say, for health's sake, you can only do X amount of shows. And he might be figuring that out now. He might have just finally pushed his limit and been like, oh, man, I hate that the internet wasn't gentle with him. What happened with Miley Cyrus? She had a serious voice issue as well, right? I was just looking, yeah, she had vocal surgery in 2019. It said she had tonsillitis.

Wow. Oh. Oh, she still had her tonsils? Also had something with that. But yeah, there's like a list of people that have had vocal surgery. And like Adele had it. Yeah, Adele had it. Now, you know what?

I remember the Adele story because she debuted back at the Grammys. She sung at the Grammys that time. And everybody stood up and cried because there was a moment where like the world was worried that Adele wasn't going to be able to sing again. Right. It's a scary thing, man. My heart is with Morgan, not just because we're homies, but because, dude, if I wake up in the morning, Joe, and my voice just sounds something off, I panic a little bit. Like I have a small anxiety attack. Even if it's just because I haven't drank enough water or cleared the cobwebs or fucking up at the mothership with tony hinchcliffe and got blackout drunk whatever right you know

what i'm saying yeah you know it's like i still have a moment where i'm like hello hello you know i just know i don't sound right so i can only imagine man that dude's probably petrified right now yeah i can only imagine you guys have a very specific instrument you know that's part of your body it's crazy it's fucking beautiful and it's tiny yeah it's fucking i mean it's small you know what i'm saying when i see it on video because i go get scoped every three months i go get scoped every three months have you seen that it's because it's going to say it's just so interesting the different kind of sounds that people are capable of making with their mouth and their body and the way that the variation and there's some young boy who sung at this frequency that's like this insane frequency that's very difficult to reach. This young boy has this insane voice.

He was on one of those talent shows Chip see if you can you show us the video there watch this young boy. I mean, how old do you think he is? Guys gotta be eight 13 God. God. God. Insane. God! Insane. That makes me so happy.

This guy's crying. The judge is crying. Oh. And his eyes. So young. So young, but just so good. You just see it. That's incredible, right? Oh, dude.

I get to, what show is that on? Do you know, Jamie? I think that's America's Got Talent, right? Yeah. I'm doing the season finale of American Idol this Sunday. I'm getting to sing on it, me and Laney Wilson. And there's a kid this year on American Idol, Joe. His name is E.M. Tongi, T-O-N-G-I.

He did this James Blunt cover. I lost my father, and he lost his recently. And his father gave him a guitar and said, just whatever you do, it's just like one of those stories, you know, 18-year-old kid. But he looks like the most hawaiian kid ever he's like the most gentle face big dude hawaiian shirt flip flops little and he's playing a parlor guitar so it's not a ukulele but it's not a big guitar it's a parlor guitar and he's my size you know what i'm saying and i'm watching

and i'm hearing his story and he's got like the deep hawaiian voice too he's like oh thank you you know like like i have a samoa security security guard named Maui that talks like that. He's like, oh, thank you. And then he starts singing, and it's angelic. You got it by chance, Jamie? I definitely remember. The very first one he did or the one he just did? The very first one he did was called, I think it was James Blunt.

He did the – Yeah, it almost made me – Yeah, but I just want you to see this for a second. This has been so cool. I feel like we're just hanging out and showing each other music we like. We are. We're just chilling. I knew this was going to be cool.

This is fucking cool. That's the fun part about doing podcasts with people like you. You just hang out. Yeah, just chill. Just fucking hanging, fucking chit-chatting. Yeah. Yo, let me show you this other kid. Okay, he started off crying.

All right. Yeah, so he was just crying. Watch. Watch. Oh, before they turn off all the lights, I want to read you your arms, all your rhymes. Time has come. Oh, I'll tell you goodnight Close the door

I'll tell you I love you once more Time is gone So here it is I'm not your son You're not my father We're just two grown men saying goodbye no need to forget no need to forget i know your mistakes and you know mine Oh, God.

Holy shit. Crazy, right? Oh. Oh. I tear up every time, dog. I can only watch it once. Oh. Oh, my God. To grow me saying goodbye. No need to forget. No need to forget.

I know your mistakes and you know mine. While you're sleeping, I try to make you proud. So, Daddy, won't you just close your eyes? Don't be afraid. But you just close your eyes. Don't be afraid. It's my turn to chase the monsters away. Mm.

Choked up the whole time. Holy shit. How crazy is that, Joe? Holy shit. Oh, I'm sorry I did that to us, man. No, please. Holy fuck. He's just so good, man. That's so good.

That's so good. I'm like. He's 18? He's 18 he's 18 dude i'm finna meet this kid this weekend and i'm literally to the moon about it holy shit is he good that's crazy i've already publicly put the word out to whoever has the contractual rights to him i want in it's what we were talking about man that's authentic i mean that is you just can't fake that there's no faking that no just real man just raw you feel every piece of it it takes you to a place oh my god it tells a story it takes you to a place yeah no man that's the voice too like oh my god and

you know it's coming from him oh yeah and you could hear the little times where you could hear the tears in his throat like that distinct sound of fucking them tears and that third dude losing my father was probably the hardest thing i ever went through as an adult so hearing this man music will meet you where you are man yeah music will meet you where you are. It also shows you another person in a way that's like, how are you going to see that guy in three minutes like you see him in that song? Yeah, ever. You know?

It's like you see a person with a beautiful voice and a beauty. Like, I don't care how crazy they are. If they're capable of that, we know there's some good in you. Whatever you are, if you can make a song that makes everyone happy, they will look past so much. They'll look past so much. So much, dude. They'll look past so much. Think about all the people still listen to Michael Jackson.

I still listen to R. Kelly. People still listen to R. Kelly. Hard take, hard take. And you know what I told somebody one day? I argued with him. I still listen to R. Kelly. People still listen to R. Kelly. Hard take, hard take. And you know what? I told somebody one day, I argued with him. I said, listen, man. And I might recut I Wish. I'm thinking about doing it, John.

I swear. Just because I'm not going to quit listening to the song if it doesn't exist. Like, that song did so much for me. Like, I know he's a horrible human. I watched all. I got all in R. Kelly tea. I watched every documentary twice. I couldn't quit watching it. I know he's a horrible human. I watched all, I got all in R. Kelly T. I watched every documentary twice.

I couldn't quit watching it. But I just, that song, I've just, I remember pulling out of funerals of friends who overdosed and died or were shot and killed. Chisel, one of my best friends,

died in 2020 right at the beginning of the pandemic. He was shot and killed and I remember leaving that funeral listening to I Wish. You know, and just like that moment. I'll remember that car ride forever.

You know what I mean? Like the rest of my life, I'll remember that car ride and what that moment. I'll remember that car ride forever. You know what I mean? Like the rest of my life, I'll remember that car ride and what that song did for me in that car ride. So it's like, I don't give a fuck if you pissed on a girl or not. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm listening to the song until somebody cuts it. Fuck it. Maybe I'll just recut it. What are we supposed to do, though?

Is there a, like, there's a lot of people like the Cosby show try finding that yeah you can't even find it anymore which is crazy for all the other people that were on the Cosby show but also crazy for us because I think you kind of maybe should be able to see that stuff yeah I think kind of like just removing it because you know the head guy's a crazy rapist. Yeah. I mean, should we? It's such a hard decision, man. I get the idea behind it, but it is real, and it is history. Like O.J. Simpson, he's always, what about those football games? We're supposed to ignore those?

Yeah. Like, can you watch those tapes? Are you allowed to watch the tapes of the guy who probably, maybe fucking, might have, maybe did did whatever. If he watches Twitter. Maybe did something. I don't know. Dude, R. Kelly's the one I struggle with the most because of that one

song. And it's like I'm just like, look y'all, you just don't know how much this song has done for me personally. When you're a 16 year old kid carrying a casket of a friend that got shot and killed, and this song hits you in that moment of your life, you just look at it different. You know what I mean?

You're just like, yo, this song has done insane things for me. And as many awful things as he's obviously done, does that negate the great things that he's done? That's the question. Are you allowed to listen to the great songs? Right. Or are we just boycotting it because it came from that i get it i get both sides yeah i do too but that one song man i'm hanging on to bro for me it's real talk yeah real talks that's the song real talk you know that's oh yeah oh yeah you talk about michael i got enough bullshit on my mind

real talk it's like for me with with Michael Jackson, it's human nature. You listen to human nature forever. You know what I mean? Like I just can't. God, it's just. God, that's a beautiful song. But maybe we'll get lucky. But here's the thing about Michael Jackson here.

That boy that you saw that was singing this insane voice, that very young boy, that is going to change. Right. That instrument's going to change and the sound's going to be different right now what michael jackson's doctor said was they had chemically castrated him and they kept him like a castrato they kept him with that voice i don't know if that's true right but that's what his doc the guy who killed him the guy went to jail for like anesthetizing him every night jesus man i mean he wasn't even sleeping he was just getting sedated it's the the nuttiest thing of all time yeah but i think he was gone i say that with singers all the time too though we had a um my daughter write songs and her best friend's name

is presley this girl's just turned 16 and can sing. It's unbelievable. I mean, it's like one of those just natural. I don't have the natural thing. I had to work really hard to learn how to sing. She's just like naturally got it. And when I was talking to her dad, I said, if she was a 15 year old boy, I'd be worried because his nuts hadn't dropped yet. So anything you're hearing from him, I don't know how that's really going to translate when he really goes through a testosterone style puberty. Right. You know what I mean? That voice is changing for sure where she's going to be pretty. You're getting a tone from her now

that'll be very close to her real tone. We're like that first kid we seen at 13. Now he can train his voice to always be able to sing like that. Oh, really? I would think that there's a muscle there he can work. He should be able to work up. I'm learning about it, though. I never took a singing lesson until probably two months ago. Right before I sang on TV at the CMT's, I went and met with a guy and took

two lessons because I was just nervous. I'd never, you know, the CMT's was like my night. It's the night I met you. Two nights, the night that I came up to the club. Yeah, you came to see Ron White. Yeah, I came to see, God,

he killed. Brian Simpson killed, by the way. But Brian Simpson, one of the jokes he told that night, I still think is one of the best bits

I've heard in a long time. Brian Simpson, he's an unstoppable force right now. Oh, dude. He's very funny. No, no. The WAP bit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's one of my favorite all-time bits. What is it? I don't want to. Don't mess it up. Yeah, we can't WAP bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's one of my favorite all-time bits. The, what is it? I don't want to. Don't mess it up. Yeah. Yeah, we can't.

But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, but that shit, it was, dude, I cried. Yeah. We talked about it. You know how you talk about stuff when you leave the comedy club? Like, that's all we talked about. But I go to the CMTs that Sunday night.

Big time singing on, you know, CBS performance. I'm up for three awards. I think I have a chance at one. I don't think the other two are possible. But we're just fucking, we're still in the place of like, you remember Ron White's old skit, we're not supposed to be here. That's like our whole thing in life right now. Like everywhere we go, it's like how the fuck did we end up here? Last night I was naive enough to think I was going to go to the comedy club and just leave.

And nobody would know me or want to hang out. You know what I'm saying? It's like fucking, you know. And I'm looking at Kill Tony like I fucking hate you at 145 in the fucking morning. Well, people were happy that you came in when Ron was here, too. Yeah. No, they were dope. We bought every mothership lighter you had.

I did, dude. I did. We bought like a hundred of them. We've just been passing them out. My bus is full of orange mothership lighters. That's hilarious. But I took a vocal lesson before that performance because I wanted to make sure I was- Just one?

I took two right before I took- How do you- Wow. But he was teaching me about the scale and working up and getting my range and stuff. You think you're going to continue to do that? Yeah. Yeah, man. That's a new thing you're going to do.

Yeah, for sure. I've been playing a little guitar. I've always played a little guitar. Now I'm playing a little piano. I just want to a little guitar. Now I'm playing a little piano. I just want to get better, man. I love this stuff, Joe. You can tell. I love it, dude.

It comes out, man. Like, you know, that's what we've been talking about. Authenticity is very, it's what we want. We all want it. I don't know if I'll put songs out for the rest of my life, but I can promise you I'll write them until I die. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Sure. There will come a moment where I'll write them until I die. You know what I mean, does that make sense?

There will come a moment where I'll feel like maybe my time to sing them is over, but I'll never quit writing songs. Like I will write songs fucking as long as my mind, you know how old people play tic-tac-toe to keep their mind sharp? I'll just be strumming a G, just fucking writing a melody. You know what I mean?

Like that's just, I don't know man, it tickles me. I know what it can do for people. people dude i've watched me and you sit here and laugh at the fucking roller derby queen and rosie and then cry to em tongi together in the same fucking couple hours you know what i mean like that's what's so cool about fucking music you know that is what's so fucking cool about music i have a spot playlist that i um, do you have a pre-show playlist ever since Cat put you on that? Yeah, I gotta put it out on Spotify. God, that's dope. I haven't released it yet. Yeah, let me sneak in

But it starts out with I'm Your Boogeyman Is this other half a joint? The Laughing Gas 2? This is how when we get into the green room as soon as we get in the green room, it's like it's time to go. That's it, baby.

Who's got the lighter? Ice cubes. Showtime, 30 minutes. 30 minutes. This is how we started off. It's just, it's time to party. Yeah. It's time to party.

I like to listen to, lately I've been listening to Zach Bryant of, which one was it? Open the Gates. Open the Gates, the one one on the bull rider Yeah Dude Oh yeah I'd like to listen to that one Right before I go up Ooh

Dude Ooh This one's This is an All of his shit is authentic But this one is like It's Deeply

Engrained In the rodeo Riders Fucking Widows And just God You ever listen to Cody Johnson No Deeply ingrained in the rodeo riders fucking widows. God. You ever listen to Cody Johnson? No. Cody Johnson is a cowboy cowboy.

He rode bulls. Keep it going. Yeah, play that pimping pimping. I want to hear this. Let's turn it down a little bit. I heard he died out of the shine with my mother's ring on your hand. I'll shine with my mother's ring on your hand. An old in your pocket said I'll love you till I die. I can hear the bulls are coming to claim that they've been hunting.

The son of a cowboy came to claim his daddy's right. I can't claim his daddy's right. And my baby, she's been crying at the thought of me dying. She knows there's no stopping a man and his foolish pride. So open the gates. I'm here to prove I'm better than my father was And where he came from too Open the gates I'm here to ride

To hell I go He's riding the bull that killed his father. Ugh. God, dude. Jesus Christ. It's like that Jim Croce shit. God, dude. Jesus Christ. It's like that Jim Croce shit. Like, who's writing that song besides Zach Bryan? Jesus Christ.

He's riding a bull named To Hell I Go. Oh. He's riding a bull that killed his dad. Fuck. Oh, my God. I love them old fucking rodeo records, man. Zach and Cody Johnson are the two that I think have done it the best. I got to get into Cody Johnson.

You got to, man. He's a Texas guy, too. I'm going to write this on my phone right now. He's one of the sweetest humans on earth, man. Give me some Cody Johnson. He's got a song called Dear Rodeo. Is this Dear Rodeo? I don't know.

Let's tell you, Kane. It was his big smash. Hold on. Will you play Dear Rodeo right quick? Because I think Joe, because this will touch Joe. So let me just give you a little back story because I love stories with songs. Cody Johnson has a documentary on Amazon Prime that is about his, he tried to go be a professional bull rider and he fell short, right?

And he wrote this song as a grieving to the rodeo. What's the name of the song? Dear Rodeo. Dear R rodeo. What's the name of this song? Dear Rodeo. Dear Rodeo. I'd be lying if I tried to tell you I don't think about you. After all the miles and the wild nights that we've been through. The Lord knows we had a few.

Dear rodeo, I'd like to say that I took the reins and rode away. Fucking heartbreaking. Wow. No regrets, no left unsaid. Just turn the page. Oh, but you know better, babe Between all those tattums and broken bones

The dream of a buckle I'll never put on I'm jaded Oh, I hate it But somehow the highs outweigh the lows And I'd do it all again Even though we both know Now the highs outweigh the lows, and I'd do it all again.

Even though we both know I'd still have to let you go. So dear rodeo. Wow. And it's got this crazy buildup. He did a remix with Reba McEntire. Wild culture, man. Whenever we were in Vegas, there was a bunch of UFCs and other things that I did in Vegas where the rodeo was in town. And you just see these bull riding motherfuckers walking through. They got a different kind of swagger.

Different kind of swag. They got that biter swag. Yeah, 100%. You know what I mean? That kind of just like, who fucking wants it? You just see it in their eyes. Yeah, they're riding bulls. That's not a regular person.

They're riding giant 2,000 pound angry animals with huge dicks and big balls that don't want you riding them. For sure. Don't want you at all. What the fuck are you doing? You're on my back? Why are you fucking with me? Imagine you can't believe a human would stand in front of you. Right?

You're a 2,000-pound wrecking machine, and this dumb motherfucker wants to ride your back? Yeah. Yeah, and the best part is when you fall off and try to hit him, there's another dumb motherfucker in clown paint. Just imagine how crazy humans are. Before I light my weed, I will admit publicly that your weed was better.

Do you have... We have more than Joey Diaz. I wish you had some more of that because I didn't get to bring the actual... I'm doing a cannabis company in Michigan right now called Bad Apple, but I couldn't figure out a way to get it because the bus was already here from Dallas because we was in Dallas for the ACMs two days ago. When you're traveling that much, man, the bus has to be comfortable, right? You have to make it your own.

You guys got it all set up for satellite and all that shit. I can't wait for you to come hang out on it. It's the crib. I got that Elon Musk satellite. Whatever that Elon Musk shit is, I hooked it up straight to the back of that bitch. So you can get internet. Oh yes. High speed. I play video games on there. Really? Yes.

I got the triple pop out so it gets fucking living room size in there. I live on that. You can play video games off of that internet? Yes. I spend a hundred and so it gets fucking living room size in there. I live on that. You can play video games off of that? Yes, dude. I spend 100 and probably 50 days a year on that bus. This is the least shows I will have ever done because I'm playing the biggest venues I've ever played.

You know what I mean? But it's like I'm normally like a road warrior. And even then, I'm just never at home. We're just always something. I think I'm going to sleep in my bed three nights in the month of May. The two of them were just never at home. We're just always something. I think I'm going to sleep in my bed three nights in the month of May. The two of them were just two nights ago. But that wild ride that you're on, like you could stay on it as long as you want and do it as crazy as you want, right? Right.

Yeah. And with you owning all your masters, you're in a great position now. No, dude. It's so exciting yeah i can't wait to nerd out about the business of it off camera it's been great yeah no i'm sure i mean it's been it's just been like i said my dreams were too small when i met with that record label joe they said what do you want i said well i'd like to be written about in my hometown newspaper because i've never been written this is like my request i got a billion youtube views and i'm like

and uh i was like and i'd like to play the Grand Ole Opry. And the reason I signed with that label is because it's the first label I met with. When I said the Grand Ole Opry, they didn't laugh at me. Like the people in L.A. was like, but we could get you a, you know, I won't say the artist's name. We could get you this artist's feature instead. I was like, I want to play the Grand Ole Opry, man. Y'all think, because they kept thinking I wanted money. I had a fucking billion YouTube views Joe I didn't need money I was fucking we were okay you know the Weiss podcast was bubbling like we were cool I didn't want your money can you

get me to the Grand Ole Opry and can you get my local paper to write about me because I'm trying to do some things in the community here but I'm fighting a lot of struggles you know and they were like no problem. Debuted at the Grand Ole Opry that year. Six months after I signed the deal, I stood on that Opry stage, boy, cried. You know how you got all the mug shots out here? Yeah. I wore, my Opry debut, I wore denim.

It said Music City Outlaw on it. And on the back was Jerry Garcia's mug shot when he caught caught with that heroin down in New Orleans. And he's just all Jerry Garcia-ed out, just smile and just fucking you know just jerry and out you know and i put that mugshot on the back for my grand old ifree debut dude i was like fuck yeah i'm bringing fucking i am bringing him with me i'm bringing the dead baby do you think that like I think now people like? redemption story now more than ever Yeah, I think people more aware of all the factors that lead to someone getting incarcerated now than ever and I think they're more

Understanding of the hopelessness of the system now than ever Right so when a guy like you breaks through and becomes a giant star after this crazy past, like that, I mean, that opens up the door for a lot of people. It opens up a door for a lot of people to realize like, it's not a death sentence. You can get your life together. And even though at this stage of your career, as crazy as it sounds, you're still getting turned down for living in the community. Yeah, no, I'm still, I got a meeting with our governor coming up shortly. Yeah, that's it. I got a meeting with our governor coming up shortly. Yeah, that's it. I wish it would show the back of it.

But look at me, that's me up there just, boy, I mean, that's the holy grounds, Joe. I'm standing in the circle of the Grand Ole Opry right there, man. First time ever. Wow. A rapper from Antioch. Dude, the story I said that night was I grew up 15 minutes away from there, but it took me 37 years to get there. You know what I'm saying?

You know what I mean? That's funny. Yeah. Wow. And that right there, ever since then, I told my label, Jonathan Lova, Joe Jamie, Adrian Michaels at the label, I'll never leave y'all, man. I'm with y'all forever. You were man of your word to me.

You know what I mean? That's awesome. And the deal's already fucking incredible. The deal can't get no better. You know what I i'm saying i squeezed the booger out of that quarter it's over you know what i'm saying i got all they're gonna give you know so it's like i don't know man i think the redemption too is just people like the relatability like drugs are different like we now know how pain pills have led to heroin addictions. Yeah.

Right? And that 11 people an hour overdose and die in the United States of America, Joe. They think that number will be closer to 14 or 15 by the end of this year. An hour overdose and die. I'm not trying to stand on no high horse here or start a war,

but I promise you, if 11 chipmunks an hour were dying in wisconsin it would only last a few days before people were out there picketing and protesting and trying to figure out how to keep the chipmunks alive for sure you know but we look at drug addiction or used to as a personal problem i'll just quit doing them right you know and we just were so we didn't have no compassion for you you know, and now we're starting to see that when I write these songs about drug addiction and the pain and suffering, it's a real thing now. Now people are like, yo, I feel that. Like, I feel that I relate to that. Like I know I had a song on my new album is called She and she was the life of the party could see the sunrise in her eyes before the cold November rain.

And if you only knew her smile, you never noticed she's in pain. And it's about a woman. My thing is everybody knows a she. Everybody knows a he now. When you hear that song, you're like, oh, no, I actually know her. You, like, relate to it in that way. And it used to not be that way. So I think that's another thing that redemption's coming around

is that it's gotten so out of hand. Plus, fuck, who doesn't want to see a guy win every now and then. This is a loser winning dog. I'm a loser fucking winning. You know what I'm saying? They let a fucking loser win. That's fucking awesome. I'm fucking smoking weed on the Joe Rogan show hungover. It's an American success

story. This is American as fuck. That's American as fuck. That's what America's supposed to be about for everybody. For everybody. But it's like that's American as fuck. That's what America's supposed to be about. For everybody. For everybody. But it's like that's the real problem. How do we make it way fairer? Right.

Hopefully I meet with the governor and I can figure out my felonies and hopefully I get a pardon from him. Well that would be beautiful. But more important than the pardon to me is I want to try to see a policy change in Tennessee about juveniles. That's my big goal, is that I think that as a juvenile offender, you should the felony should only stick with you the length of the sentence. So like even if you if you committed a murder, which is a heinous crime and you get 30 years and you go do your 30 years in prison because at 15, you can still come home at 42.

You know what i mean the kid should be able to have a path to figuring that out when he gets home you know what i mean besides just being stuck with this felony forever yeah like you said this can't be an end-all be-all this has to be a case-by-case basis 100 you know what i mean like and i just want to do like selfishly yeah i want to get my felonies expunged because i hate that i can only go bow hunting. You know what I'm saying? You know, I hate little things that are just like, fuck, that sucks that I can't do thousands of things.

But more important than me ever, I've had a felony for so long, whatever. But can we do something to help these future kids, man, where they don't have to go through this? Like, can we start making some decisions now? Can we start instituting rehabilitation instead of discipline into the juvenile system yeah like that's what the conversations i really want to have you know that's the shit i really want to talk about because when i was in there we didn't have a mentor nobody cool like me ever showed up and gave us nothing you know what i mean like it was discipline it was like jail i'm a 15 year old kid getting treated like a real prisoner and i know

what i did was wrong man i was 15 joe i Joe. I needed a hug. I didn't need a sale. I needed somebody to love me. I needed somebody to explain to me what a fucking pill addiction was. I needed somebody to, you know what I mean? This is what I needed. You know what I mean?

I didn't need that other shit. Sorry to go back on that fucking rant. But every time I think about that feeling. But that's important because you're the only person that can tell that story. Right. You know, that's your story

and it's an important story. And it's also a story where you realize like as your story and it's an important story that it's also a story where you realize like as you see yourself now a successful artist like you were always this person you could always achieve this thing that you've achieved why'd you have to go through hell like what right what what causes people to have to go through hell to before we all realize like how many people are going through hell why don't we figure out a way to manage this better why don't we figure out a way to help the people that are disenfranchised in a real way not just like like at a real like figure it out like there's

got to be someone if you had if you had a budget like billions of dollars. If you had a... Nothing even came out. That seemed like a fake joint. I think I might have tightened up up top. God damn. Looks like it ain't ripping. It was ripping, though.

All right, whatever. That weed taste. I don't need it. I wish they could taste this fucking pot. I know. It's ridiculous. What were we just talking about? The budget.

I don't remember my point at all. If I had a budget to go to the juvenile kids, I'd focus it all on trades. I think my idea was if you had a budget, an enormous amount of money that would go to a company that could figure out how to take all of the communities that have traditionally been very poor and crime-ridden and fix that, and you would get an enormous sum of money, like billions and billions of dollars, would be rewarded to someone who could engineer like an ethical, philanthropic venture

to rejuvenate all of the fucked up areas in this country. You know how much crime you would prevent? You know how much you could change the world? You could change the world? You could change the world. Yeah, for sure. If someone figured out how to do that and engineered that, you could try it in one city.

Try it in Detroit. Just move it into Detroit. For sure. Revitalize Detroit in some insane way. You could try it in one city. Try it in Detroit. Just move it into Detroit. For sure. Revitalize Detroit in some insane way. Watch it boom. Detroit used to be one of the richest cities in the country. It was huge. It used to thrive. During the big time days of

muscle cars. It's still my top four places to play in America, by the way. They're fun people. Michiganders in general. In the weed up there is fire. That's why we did our cannabis company up there first. Yeah. I wanted to go somewhere where you had the greenhouse. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Try to break the ground that way because, you know, this shit ain't coming off the side of a mountain anywhere left of Colorado most of the time. The thing about Detroit as a city that's really wild is you get to drive around and see these buildings that don't have no windows, just shells of buildings that used to be filled with people working.

You're like, well, this is like some Mad Max shit. Yeah. Like, it's very unusual in that respect, like that there's so many buildings that are like that. Yeah. No, it's a place warped in time. Have they cleaned any of that up? Yeah.

Did they? Yeah, I think they had a guy that, whoever. I don't think they should have. Dean Gilbert moved in. Yeah, who was that? Dean Gilbert, the guy with Quicken Loans. Yeah, I think they had a guy that whoever. I don't think they should have. Yeah, who is that? Dan Gilbert, the guy with Quicken Loans. Yeah, Quicken Loans. And a couple other companies that moved in there, like StockX is that big shoe company.

Oh, so they revitalized it. Yeah, they're bringing downtown Detroit back. Really? Is that the story that's happening, Jamie? So, yeah, I've seen a few tours of there where they're showing their plans for things. He's definitely not the only person in there. I won't put it that way, but he's one of the bigger ones that's a few other people moved into town to make a development i don't know i haven't been there i kind of wish they would leave the

fucked up buildings though yeah because there's something about them there's character to them there's character to them but it's also it's like this is this weird piece of history that i think destroying it i mean it's a it's not like the pyramids, don't get me wrong, but there's something historic about the remnants of the boom and then the bust. Right. There's something about this shell of a building that's like,

man. Yeah. I never thought of it that way. That it shows that, because that was the boom boom too. Yeah. Right? It's weird. Those buildings were weird when I was driving around and looking at them, is that what they used to look like? Before and after, yeah. What did they turn it into? A really old factory.

They turned it into a fucking- This is a rendering of what this place looks like. This is an article that says, what will Detroit look like in 2033? It'll look like a Chipotle. Wow. Everything looks like Chipotle there's something about like didn't

the Top Gear guys they went to Detroit and I think they bought a house for like $5,000 or something crazy oh yeah it might have been

less than that there was definitely a time period you could buy one for a couple hundred dollars god see if the Top Gear the Top Gear guys actually did it.

Yeah, they bought a house for like $5,000 or something. $2,200. It says, did they really? Let me see. Oh, did they really? Oh, is it like, did Snopes fact check them? This isn't Snopes, but it's like a Detroit blog asking. Oh, is it a lie?

Not quite. It's not quite 2018, but in 2009, this BuzzFeed reporter bought a house in Motown at the Life County auction for just $500. God. That was an auction house, which happens everywhere. It's still fucking insanity. $500. Right? $500?

Yeah. For a house. You can get a good old bag of laughing gas for that. I mean, how bad does everybody want to get out of that neighborhood? I mean, how bad does someone want to get out of the neighborhood? They'll sell you their house for $500. They bought on Top Gear, which that's a solid house. Not a bad house.

How much was that house? That says $2,200. $2,200. That is insane. So let's see the pictures. Claims instead. They claimed. Look at the house. Oh, that That is insane. So let's see the pictures. Claims instead. They claimed. Look at the house.

Oh, that's probably why. There's some holes in it. Whatever, whatever. Probably rats. It's kind of a hole. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's a lot of holes. But still, $500?

Yeah. Like, if you were a young single guy, you could sort that house out. Yeah, you could figure that out. Yeah. 100%. That's an old-ass house, too. Do you see the way they the this pre-wall board it has those slats and all that shit in between the slats see that that's an old ass house so what are the what's that era than the 20s probably yeah

that is 20s yeah well maybe that's not i had a building we've used on music row for years it was like a 1922 building or something and it was just big and just fucking concrete that just solid fucking concrete dog and all the rooms were kind of tiny and low ceilings but it was right on music row historic music row and it was right behind the bar losers which is where all the songwriters in town go to drink and red door so we i was like it's perfect it's prime primetime real estate, really. We'll just fucking turn this into multiple studio rooms and we go to the bar and get drunk and just like corral writers. You know, like, let's all go back down the alley to the spot.

That's the cool part. You ever been to that music row in Nashville? No, really not. So it's like a little circle and every label's there, every publisher's there. It's like, you know, whatever. And there's like a little strip of bars offside of it that we all fuck up. And you just, these dudes in town, these songwriters, I admire them so much.

I'm jealous at times. All day long, it's like just like fucking orgies of writing songs. They're just fucking each other. They're just going room to room. They'll do two hours in this room and then go down the street and do another one. And they're just fucking playing musical chairs and just writing songs all fucking day long. Wow. And then they go out when they write their last one at like five to the bar and then

they just talk about writing songs until they get drunk enough to go write another one at midnight. You know what I'm saying? It's fucking, it's crazy. And these dudes are coming to town like sleeping in their car to figure it out. So it's like, how long has that been around for i don't know when it actually started to be honest now i know that i guess as long as music's been happening in nashville you know i'm telling you being an artist in the town and writing your own

songs is still rare like it's still not a lot of artists that come out of Nashville, Tennessee that are actually in the room writing their songs. So much more of that happens. That's why I call it the Build-A-Bear. So much more of that happens than you know. You know? And these songwriters, dude. Now, I'm just like a fan of the grind. So I love writing with them.

You know what I mean? Because I just think it's fucking sick that they just, these dudes eat breathe slip shit fucking songwriting that's it you know what i'm saying wow it's kind of like last night like i watch dudes do comedy and then talk about comedy these dudes write songs all day to go to the bar and talk about the songs they wrote and play them for each other how many of them are there i'd say hundreds that actually have a publishing deal that are getting a draw every month and getting put in rooms. And I'd say thousands that are just in town trying to figure it out. Tens of thousands even maybe.

Wow. But there's hundreds who are actively somehow. Because it's like any other thing. You'll come in as a young artist and you've never wrote a song, right? Or you can write a song. You go to a publishing company and go, hey, look, this is something I wrote. And they go, okay, we'll give you $24,000 a year. we'll give you twenty three thousand twenty four thousand dollars a year we'll give you two thousand dollars a month as a draw

recoupable and then we'll put you in writers rooms for a 50 50 split of your publishing it's a horrible deal by the way the music business was meant to make everybody money but the artist it's fucking wild but when you're a fucking 20 or two year old kid chasing your dream it's an incredible deal it's fucking the it's the chance you know so you go ride out your first deal for two years and take it on the chin and write some hits hopefully and get in the right rooms and then you can kind of negotiate the terms going into term two you know what i mean but these kids are just coming in like just you getting picked my dude zach crowell huge comedy fan he's here with me now he um produced my album zach crowell

got his first publishing deal and drew i think 24 grand a year and like at that time of his life he needed it like he was counting on it like i remember a time where he was going to re-up his deal and he was nervous he was like yo jelly i don't know you know it's 15 years ago 12 years ago i don't know if they're gonna let me come back i haven't produced nothing they gave him one more year and he produced sam hunt's first album wow anyways he's wanting to have 30 number ones at country radio or something crazy fucking unbelievable guy but you know he was in a place where he doesn't look back at it bitter about the deal. But he's still, you know, because he's like, man, I needed that. But he still is like, you know, like every other artist.

Once you get out of it, you're like, damn, this system is fucked up, though. You know, the record labels are even more fucked up. You know how that works, right? They take, let's say, that's why I don't take money from labels. Let's say we have a 50-50 deal, Joe. And I give you a million bucks. And then I say, that's why I don't take money from labels. Let's say we have a 50-50 deal, Joe, and I give you a million bucks. And then I say, all right, cool. Now, every dollar that comes in, I'm going to take 50 cents of it as a record label because that's my 50 cents.

And then I'm going to put your 50 cents against the million dollars that you owe back. Now, I didn't go to school or nothing, Joe, as you know from my story. But that don't sound like a good deal, man. I don't know a lot about interest rates, but that sounds like a fucking 50% interest rate on money, dude. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, and that's why I stayed independent. I knew nothing, Joe.

I was uneducated. Is that a real deal? Listen, how about that's a good one? Really? It's fucked up, Joe. There are dudes in my town that are in 90-10s with the label getting 90 and them getting 10. Right now. right now, millions of dollars in debt to the label and giving them 30% of their show

money as well right now and had multiple number ones already. Holy shit. The business is wild, man. But there's also guys, you know, but the amount of times that that's crazy there's also guys you know but the amount of times that that's changed somebody's life it's such a weird game to play because from the label perspective now you look like how many times have they dumped money into an artist that didn't do anything that they just lost and tried you know what i mean that the label's already down and then this other guy

how many you know this a lot of these guys needed it that's why my deal worked out so great because i didn't really need the deal. You know what I mean? It was like this thing, like, I want to do, you know what, it's very nostalgic of you and Spotify. You didn't need the deal, but y'all were flirting around, and it made sense. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I didn't need the deal.

You know what I mean? And it's like, but we flirted around and met with everybody, and I met a company that it really made sense with, and it changed my fucking life. Country radio changed my life. 100%. The internet brought attention to it, and then country radio just sent it into the cast, you know, to somewhere totally different. Is country radio the last real influential radio?

I would say so. Because it's like, where's rock radio? I've had a hit on rock radio, too. It still moves the needle. But is that popular? How many people are listening to FM rock? 100% market dependent, I believe. There's probably a few markets.

You probably definitely know this, but there's a few markets where rock radio does well. But a lot of people are using Spotify or Apple Music. you have to get some of the playlists that's a whole different room well playlisting is the new radio new radio yeah and my my deal spotify every streaming platform has been good to me especially when i got with bmg because they have good relationships so once i started getting country radio and I started getting like playlisting, because here's another thing. Not everybody understand wants to take the time to curate their music. They want to find good music, but they don't have time to go find it or curate it.

And playlisting is a way around that, just like radio was. That's how you found music. Now, TikTok is a place where people find music. And first of all, we're in the golden era of all this shit, Joe, because you can find good shit everywhere. It's everywhere. Everything I touch on my phone just feeds me shit. You know what I mean? At a rapid pace.

So that changed everything. But once I started getting real playlisting and real radio love and started like when CMT, I swept that night. Fucking load the loser one, son. I won the big one. I'm back there. I night. Fucking the loser won, son. I won the big one. I started drinking before the last award, Joe. I was going to win. So I was sitting there with my wife. The first two had went by, and I was like, yo, I have no chance of winning this one.

So I'm not drinking. I'm drinking like this is what I tell people. I've never been on TV before. I was going to act like it. You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense? It's like I'm not too prideful to come in here walk around with jamie for 30 minutes going holy fucking shit you know what i'm saying

it's like i'm fucking i'm i'm enjoying the fuck out of this you know beautiful it's like i look forward to coming back next time just as a homie but the first time i'm walking here like this my fucking dude this is crazy i'm sitting in here you you know? But I'm in there fucking the night. Everything just starts changing, dog. And then we're fucking rolling, baby. And now we're doing American Idol. Finna drop a Hulu documentary and an album. It's fucking weird.

Whew. All in the next, like, 30 days. As long as you're just enjoying the ride, man. I'm having a ball. That's beautiful. Fuck, your club will tell you. They had to escort me out in a nice way, in a very friendly way do you don't know where you are kind of way breakfast yeah well no they said bettonia and them were still there when i left um the funny part was i'm the best part was

they escorted me out in a way that they could just tell i was lost i love your club it's a maze it's i know you get it but i i'm still second time there. Tonight, I hope I'll get the full gist of it. But when I popped in the green room last night when David Lucas took me there and I seen where it was, I was like hidden in plain sight. It was insane. You know what I mean? Everything about it is just fucking the thought of that whole place. Me and Zach Crowell left, and our first conversation was we're opening the Music Mothership in Nashville one day. Oh, that would be beautiful.

Just a place where like dudes, like singer-songwriters can come and just do their songs and kind of work crowds and fucking. Yeah, that's a great idea. Because it's so comic friendly. Like all of the singer-songwriter spots in Nashville are legendary, but because they're old school and legendary, they're not like comfortable. You know what I'm saying? Like when you play the legendary Bluebird,

you got to hope that the hair salon next door will let you use it for a green room. If not, Bluebird don't have one. At all. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? It's great, but it's like the most legendary songwriter spot in Nashville, but it's been that since the fucking 40s or whatever. So that's like the small clubs

that comics rely on those too. They rely on places that are like a 200 seat club yeah we do exactly so we do a lot of singer-songwriter nights in town where these dudes that write all these hits will go play them for the town kind of you know what i mean and it's like you know it's like this really cool thing that happens in nashville we still do like writers rounds where four dudes will set a stool up on a stage. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, there we go.

Writer's rounds. Yeah. And you'll just sit around in like that intimate of a setting, you know? And there might be one artist in there, but every one of those dudes have wrote multiple number ones. Wow. You know, it's so cool to see, man, because you'll just have a dude that doesn't look the part. And he'll be like, hey, I wrote this song. And, you know, and then he'll play Live like you're dying for tim mcgraw and

you're like holy fuck oh wow you know what i mean yeah it's cool it's really cool when you come to town we got to do it i got to go show you the fucking i would love we'll go to a writer's round they're fucking chill they're cool that's badass yeah beautiful and they're just all jamming it's just a bunch of dudes in there with guitars, and they're singing each other shit. We got this thing we do tonight called Bottom of the Barrel that Brian Simpson hosts. And the audience is right like a topic on a little piece of paper. Oh, shit. And then we put it in a whiskey barrel.

And you reach in and just grab a subject and just start riffing. Oh, shit. So it's all off and buff. Is that what they're doing in the, what are they called? We're doing that Little Boy tonight. In Little Boy tonight, right? Yeah. And you're in the Fat Man.

Yeah, I'll be in that one, too. I'm going to do the other one, too. Because that's one of my favorite shows. It's so fun. Stupid, stupid question, but I'm- He gets so silly. Yeah. It's just so silly.

Some of the, it's just very fun. Oh, yeah, because the cool thing about comedian fans is they're there for the humor. So they're trying to be witty, too. So they're writing topics, trying to stretch wild, I wild i bet there is but then there's some good ideas some of them are just like good subjects yeah you know it's fun they're good now people know what it is too so they're comedy fans that show up and they're they're interested in coming up with a funny suggestion to put in there i i hate to be the guy that always pair schultz hates when i do it but i always compare entertainment to comedy

because I see so many, I see more resemblances in comedy than I do any other area. Like I've done a little acting and I don't really see that. I see the art, I respect all art, but like even down to like the culture

that comedians create. Like musicians, real good musicians create culture before they create songs. You know what I mean? Because good songs come out of good culture.

Like I bet good jokes come out of good culture. You know what I mean? So it's like we have a, just one of the coolest things I'll think about forever now is me getting to show you what a writer's round was.

You know what I'm saying? Because that's our culture. Like for me, it's fucking like for you, it's like what I got to see last night at the club was the wildest shit I've ever seen except for a Josh Wolf show. You know what I'm saying? Because that's our culture. For me, it's fucking like for you, it's like what I got to see last night at the club was the wildest shit I've ever seen except for a Josh Wolf show. You know what I mean? Backstage, it's like that's how, but it's what y'all

do every night. It's y'all's culture. We just sit around and riff songs, you know? That shows that Kill Tony's a giant part of that culture because it's such a rare opportunity for people to get on stage. Some of them, the first time they've ever been on stage and they're on stage at Kill Tony.

They just have this wild idea that they can do it. They put their name in a hat. Yeah. The next thing you know, they're on stage telling jokes that they were telling themselves in front of their mirror a couple of nights ago. Yeah. In front of fucking 300, 400 people or something like that. And then hundreds of thousands of people download it.

Oh, yeah. Literally. And watch it on YouTube. So it's like, what a crazy spot to be in. And then you're getting roasted, and David Lucas is roasting Tony, and it's like, holy shit. It's a circus, man. And William Montgomery.

He's so funny. That dude is so fucking funny. It's just such a great show. I see him that night at the Ron White joint, and I instantly got him because he's so spazzy at first. You have to catch it, but I instantly was like, oh, I get it him because he's so spazzy at first. You have to catch it. But I instantly was like, oh, I get it. This guy's fucking great.

Yeah, I don't want to say his joke, but he has one of my absolute favorite jokes. I'll tell you later. I'll remind myself. But, yeah, we got a nice thing going on. It's fun. It's fun, and everybody seems to be getting better. It's really people are enjoying it. Yeah, man. Iron sharpens iron. You want to be a good dancer It's really, people are enjoying it. Yeah, man.

Iron sharpens iron. You want to be a good dancer, dance a lot. I think that's true. I think there's no other way. I mean, you need to do other stuff too. You need to write, you need to think, and you need to listen, you need to watch things and read things

and think about stuff a lot. But you've got to get up there all the time. There's no ifs, and ands or buts about it There's no other way to do it, and it's the only way as a comic you ever come up with new shit. Oh, yeah Same thing in songwriting will uh if I take some time off writing songs like between an album cycle I'll go back and get with the writers for a couple weeks before I even start writing songs that I'm gonna consider Just because for the for the fact that I hadn't wrote one in just 12 weeks sometimes I just know I'll go in the room stale but like Chris Stapleton said on your pod as a songwriter I'm always writing songs though I put three titles on my phone a day it's my rule

bare minimum sometimes more but even if it's just like a quick song title you know me and Jamie were talking about it sometimes I'll write a song from top to bottom me and Ashley McBride got to write on my album um she's incredible write a song from top to bottom. Me and Ashley McBride got to write on my album. She's incredible. And she writes from top to bottom sometimes, which I think is gangster. When you just pick up a guitar and go, where are we going? Hey, who's here? You know what I'm saying?

How about this? You know, it's just like you're just fucking letting it land where it lands. Wow. That's fun. But more often than not, I've write from the perspective of like, yo, I got a concept. Here's my idea. So I'm always putting them on my phone, but I'm still dull when I get in a room if I hadn't done it in a while. You know what I mean?

If I hadn't wrote in six, seven weeks, dude, I'll feel it the first time I try to go write a song. Because one of my artist homies would call, hey, man, come help on the album. Because we do that. You know, we'll try to show up for each other. And I'll show up and just put on a laying egg the first couple days. You know what I mean? I'll just be in there getting stoned, wasting time.

You know, and then the third day I'll be like, okay, I got my timing back. We'll figure it out. So is it like a frequency you have to latch on to? Yeah, it's just there's like my dude calls it the egg on the spoon. So put the egg on the spoon, right, and then I'm like, I got a great idea. Me, you, and Jamie are the three writers in a room, right? We all agree it's a great idea. All right, cool, the egg's still on the spoon there.

Now we got to put a melody to it or start with a couple of chords. Well, we know there's only 12 notes in music. Finding the chords is easy. That's why Ed Sheeran just won that lawsuit. You know what I mean? You just start fucking with the chords. Okay, that chord progression's cool. Egg's still on the spoon.

Now we got to come up with a melody. Now we got to come up with the,. Now we've got to come up with the, how do we get the melody to this? Pre-chorus, first verse, intro, outro, keeping the egg on the spoon. And then the scary part is, even if we do our job in this room, we write a fucking banger, Joe.

We've got to hand the egg and the spoon to the producer. You know what I'm saying? You know, and now he's got to go in there. And sometimes he'll drop the egg, you know. Or sometimes the egg gets dropped somewhere early, you know. And then after that, it goes into how you're going to market it and put it out and stand out at a time where, you know, 50,000 songs a week are getting uploaded or something crazy. You know what I mean? The egg's still on the spoon.

It's fucking wild. We call it the egg on the spoon. And there's two different types of people doing it. There's guys like you who write their own stuff and then there's other guys that are writing stuff for other people and then other people are just performing only stuff that people have written for them yeah it's a different thing it's a wild thing it's a different thing right it's like um they're both great some great songs come from the other way. Right. Great, like all-time classics. But I like it when I know the person singing it wrote it.

Right. I like it. Yeah. That's what I like. Especially when it feels personal. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like I love that, yeah, I just love that anytime there's that.

But I'm cool either. I don't want to, I used to say this word before. It was a hot word. I identify as a songwriter above everything. You know what I mean? Like I'm always like when you if I'm at a grocery store and some sweet old woman goes, you know, what do you do? at you know what i mean like right that's what i think like i think we strip you down to your core you're a comedian yeah right the fact that all this other stuff works and you're great at it is cool but like at core i think joe rogan is a comedian like i look at jelly roll as a songwriter so i was i love what these dudes are doing in town it's just not for me to not sing a song i didn't write on now i have no problem bringing in another writer yeah it's like i like the fact that all kinds of different artistic people exist. And the idea of just the people that are like little hit squad people.

For sure. I think it's kind of badass. It's badass, Dave. It must be fun. Yeah, it's fun. The only thing is that sometimes it gets puppy millish. So they're like so writing for a certain thing that I have to be the guy in the room that's like, hey, man, y'all know that we can like every song. We were talking about somebody said I wasn't country country music which didn't bother me because they said

that about whaling and you know they said this about everybody who was ever big in the country of course there's certain people that are going to say that yeah right but i'm looking and i'm like you know no not one deer was skinned or uh shot or killed or fish was caught in any merle haggard song ever. Like, so if your barometer of country is I'm not talking about fishing, I'm going fishing with David Lucas tomorrow. You know what I'm saying? Fucking, you know what I mean?

It's like, what are you talking about? You know what I'm saying? I've been fishing since I was a kid. But it's like, you know, I more admired the side of country that was that outlaw shit. Like, when you play that Zach Bryan song and I play that Cody Johnson song, like, I like a song that nobody else can sing. Let me just put it that way.

No, I don't care. I would love to sing that Zach Bryan song, but I could never pull it off. He can only, I love that. I don't think anybody could have pulled off

Son of a Sinner. I don't think any artist in Nashville could have took Son of a Sinner to country radio and said, this will work. I think only Jelly Roll could have took Son of a Senator.

Only Jelly Roll could take Nita Favor. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, who else in Nashville of all my friends could cut Nita Favor and it would impact the way it impacts? Right. Knowing who you are. Exactly. Yeah.

Knowing it comes from you, too. It's just a different thing. That's the connectability with Bert Kreischer. Right? Is that you become so entranced with Bert and his family, and you get sucked into this little Bert hole, right? So it's like, fucking, I love Bert. That's my dude.

And you get sucked into this Bert hole, and then his jokes are triple funny because he's telling you a story of a character that you feel involved with over these specials. Right. You know what I'm saying? I feel like I've watched his two daughters grow up. You know what I'm saying? I feel like I've watched his two daughters grow up. You know what I'm saying? With these wild specials.

When I'm watching Razzle Dazzle, I'm like, holy shit, that's the same daughter that six years ago was here in her life. You know what I mean? That's just cool. You know what I mean? It's like this follow along that kind of happens. And that's that connectivity of shit that's like,

you know what I mean? Yeah. But I love it when an artist does, this is how much I love art, Joe. I love when an artist does the opposite. The Week weekend is one of my favorite artists of this generation man that dude's probably done three interviews his whole career didn't he just change his name back to like his actual name yeah i think he said he saw yeah he said that he said that he's wrote all he can write as the weekend so i don't know if he comes back as able that dude did some acid dude listen i'm telling you he had a Jelly Roll DMT moment.

He came out and was like, I'm fucking Abel. He probably had his John Lennon moment. It said The Weeknd starts using his birth name. I don't want to fuck this up. How do you say that? I think it's Tesfay, but I'm not sure. Tesfay? Abel Tesfay.

This is something I have to do. Yeah, I followed him from the beginning beginning i'm just a fan of his but he's the polar opposite of like nobody ever knows anything about him ever he said that he wanted to kill the weekend yeah okay well we're talking about it so he wins yeah yeah for sure that's it's ridiculous and i love him so much as an artist i'm anxious to see what happens next It's like when Prince turned himself into a symbol. Yes. You know what I mean? It's like, I want to listen to Come Out of Here Now.

You know what I'm saying? Like, this could be cool. Bro, I remember Prince, one of the first songs that I ever heard from Prince was Head, which is the craziest song. I couldn't believe somebody wrote a song like this. I know I had heard one other song, but Head was the first one where I was like, what is going on with this dude? Remember that song? Oh, yeah.

Dude, find Head. This is what, 85, 6? What year was this? 1980. 80? Yeah? 1980. 80? 1980. God, it's so funky, though. God damn, this is good.

I remember when we had attention spans, and we would let the intro just fucking fill a vibe before the song started. Baby, you were only made to be wet. You were such a sexy thing. Not the way you walk, the things you say. I was so much a lot. I didn't want you to be misled. But I got to have you, baby. I got to have you in my bed. Woo-hoo! Talk to me Oh my god.

I forgot about this. Love head. Till your love is red. Head. Love you till you're dead. And on the album cover he's wearing spandex. I mean, come on. He's in Speedos.

You're such a hunk so full of sp spunk, I'll give you a head. Dude. I mean, as the kids say, bars. Bars. Bars. You're such a hunk, so full of spunk, I'll give you a head. My favorite thing was he did the interview with the, I don't know, Dianne Smith or somebody, and they said-

Jesus Christ. It's crazy, right? And they and they asked him they said why do you wear heels to make you taller and he said i wear heels because women like heels i was like what a just fucking pimp he came straight off the vegas strip he was special nah man he was yeah that guy was Special. Yeah. He was very, very, very disassociated from everything, too. As far as like, yo, he lived in his bubble and made his music and was like... I love when people do that spacey shit, too. I think Wanna Be Your Lover was the first song I ever heard from him. I think mine was Raspberry Beret. Oh, that was good.

That was later on. But I'm older than you. When I was a kid, I would listen to Prince while I delivered newspapers. Did you ever get into Skinner? Oh, fuck yeah. Oh, dude. Dude, the guitar solo I maintain to this day, the guitar solo in Freebird at the end. Yes.

It might be the greatest guitar solo in the history of all music. It's so choreographed. And it was a different kind of a solo, man. It was just... That motherfucker was so good. He just made a sound. Oh, my God. Oh, dude.

If you're driving around in a 1969 Camaro and this is playing. Oh. And you back then, you had to hear it on the radio. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Here it is. Oh. I can't.

Look how happy those people are. They're losing their shit. Look how happy they are. Look, sunburn is fucked. Middle of the day. Look how happy these people are. Look at them jump around with their arms in the air. The whole crowd.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Holy shit This solo is just fantastic And this is live And he's gonna do it for the next four minutes It's gonna be longer now I swear

They were just jamming What a fucking song minutes. It's going to be longer now. I swear. They were just jamming. What a fucking song! Inconspicuous Confederate flag. Yeah, yeah, very low key. Jesus Christ. God. Just think about how much the world has changed since then.

Oh, yeah. In that way. You could never do that. Uh-uh. Look at the sunburn. Yeah. Yeah, that girl's going to have cancer when she's older for sure. She's on fire. Look at this motherfucker go.

And people are still just flipping's shit. Just lost in the rock and roll, man. From Florida, bitches. Oh, yes, yes. Jacksonville, dude. Woo! So I got a Skinner story. I hope I'm allowed to talk about it. I'm sure Ross won't mind.

They were filming a special for Skinner last year, late last year. And they called, and I got the invite to sing Tuesday's Gone with them for this special. And we had heard and knew from publications that gary rossington was getting dealing with some hard stuff you know so there was this kind of quietly unsaid like this might be one of his last specials you know he's the last standing member right and i go to do rehearsal with him and of course johnny Johnny's there. Johnny Van Zandt. Great guy. He's been singing with him, you know, 30 years, you know, however long, 30 years, forever.

Peter Keyes is on the keys. I know a couple of guys and I go meet Gary and he is the sweetest, kindest man, Joe. And he just keeps thanking me for coming to do this i'm doing a fucking skinner thing a tribute i grew up in the south joe this is insane for me you know what i'm saying this is like where i'm from jesus skinner you know what i'm saying in football somewhere you know they would fought for prime time television around us and i'm going to leave from rehearsal that day and i looked behind me because i heard some some feet shuffling and gary was chasing me to the door to turn around and go man i just can't thank you enough for doing this man this is so awesome that you took the time out it's just like fucking legend and i i talked to his manager and

his manager said is there anything you can do for us and i was like i kind of frankly i don't never ask but kind of want an autograph you know what i'm saying i was like but uh frankly, I don't ever ask, but I kind of want an autograph. You know what I'm saying? I was like, but he said, no, don't worry. He's already got something planned for y'all. So when I get to the green room the night of the special taping, there's a guitar in the green room signed by the band and Gary and a poster signed by Gary for my mother. Wow. Yep.

This is it. You are fucking wild Jamie It's scary to be honest This is the footage from it And I think, and I'm not 100% sure But I think it went on to be His last performance

Wow And the story gets even wilder They I don't know if I'm allowed to say this part They say can you come and touch up, like, just come, they want you to listen and see if you need to touch up a vocal, right? They just give you an option. They just, they just, you know what I mean? And I was like, all right, cool. Cause they were going to put it out and I just had to go approve

and they want you to approve it in person. And if you need to sing, they'll allow you to sing sometimes. Some specials won't't this maybe two inside sausage but i was going the day that gary was going to finish putting licks on their new record or some new music they were working on that's the day he died i woke up that morning to the news that gary rossington had died and i was fixing to see him at the studio in six three hours and uh his team hit me and said, we know just with Gary's spirit and energy that what he'd want for you to do today

is go down there if you have time. And I still went and I approved the vocal. He didn't have to make no changes or touch-ups. He just wanted to make sure I was cool with some stuff. And approved, you know, just approval shit, just respectful. And it was crazy, man, because Gary Rosington's guitar tech walks in, Joe.

And he looks over at the engineer, the producer. He's been working with Gary for 30 years or whatever, 40 years, however long he's been doing it. These guys, tight crew. Guitar tech looks and goes, I was tuning, I was stringing his guitar when I got the call for today's session. I was like, look, it might be a bad time to say this, but how poetic. Could you imagine being that dude? Talking about the greatest guitar solos ever written, guitar tech, and you find out he passed away while you're holding his baby?

You know what I'm saying? You know, just unreal. Like, what a way to go. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, dude, I mean, he survived plane crashes. You know what I mean? Like, synchronously. Yeah, dude, I mean, he survived plane crashes. You know what I'm saying? He went through some shit, dude. Skinner went through some shit, dude.

Yeah, they were fucking, you know, it's wild, man. So, that's dope. Hopefully that special comes out this year, because that was just a night I'll never forget. He was so sweet. And I hope it shows this on stage. I walked over to him at the end of Tuesday's Gone, Joe, and he's doing a solo and as soon as he finishes i just grab him by his shoulders and i kiss him on the forehead and i just hug him and i just whispered man you

have you you impacted me in such a way you will never know how much you've changed how i feel about music you know and i know that in my spirit that the last time i seen gary rosington i gave that man his fucking flowers you know what I'm saying I get teary-eyed again dude just talking about it just that I just because I felt like I felt it you know what I mean I got a show with Willie Nelson at the end of this month Wow crazy right I'm doing a

show with Willie Nelson yeah and we're launching our weed brand the same day Michigan bro you're doing a show with Willie yeah I think he's only doing like 25 this year or something. You almost had to win the lottery to get one. Where are you doing it? Where's it going to be? The Soaring Eagle in Michigan.

It's in northern Michigan. It's a casino outside gig right here at the end of May. Wow. Yeah, you got to see Willie before he goes, folks. Yeah, you got to go see Willie, man. Yeah. I want to see Trigger as much as I want to see Willie. That's what he calls his guitar, his Trigger.

He's had the same guitar all these years. Really? Yeah, and it's got a... Pull up Trigger if you don't mind, you got to see this, Joe. You'll love this shit. It's the wildest shit. It's where he... How he picks. It's got an indent where his fingers go inside the wood. And when they fix

it, they fix it around it. Right there is where he sets his hand. What? Yep. Wow. Yep, it's called trigger. The joke he's made is he'll quit touring when they can't fix trigger. Wow, look at that.

It's worn into his hand. Yeah, worn into his hand right there. Because that's how he went to pick that way. It's crazy, man. Wow. Yeah. I was excited to see the guitars. I got to see him once.

I haven't met him, though, so this will be big. Yep, it's us. My buddy Ernest. Look at that. Yep. Talk about Ernest. Ernest on that list is a Nashville boy, a good friend of mine. He wrote Son of a Sinner with me, and Ernest has had, I think,

eight or nine number ones he's wrote for other people. Just a big hit songwriter, Nashville boy. Imagine yourself at that low moment when they tell you you just had a kid. Imagine now you're on stage with Willie Nelson. Like, what a crazy dream. What a crazy simulation you're in. If the simulation's real, brother. Yeah, and I defied all, like, you'll see it in the doc, but it's like, you know, I had everything not going for me, even in the music side of things.

Like, I had to learn how to sing. I wasn't like, I don't come from a family. I'm the only songwriter of my family, right? Does that make sense? Like, there's no historic music. My mother just loved music. Right. You know, it's like, we didn't come, so I had to learn all this.

You know, because nobody would sign me at first, I had to learn the business. You know, I'm a kid that never, I got my GED when I was 24. You know what I'm saying? Before I got my GED, if you asked what my last grade completed was, I would have had to technically write down eighth. You know what I'm saying? I think it's the last one I passed.

I just had to figure all this. You know, my daddy almost quit one time, Joe. My daddy looked me in the eye and he said, why would you quit, son? He said, if you worked this hard to be a doctor, you'd be going to get your doctorate degree right now. You're two years away from being a fucking brain surgeon. He was like, you just had to go to a different college. And, man, that stuck all over me, Joe.

Of all the advice and one-liners, my dad was like one of them old gangsters that just had them quick one-liners, you know. And of all the stuff that he, that just stuck with me because it was like you can't run the time the fact that i didn't find success till i was 38 is just like you know it just is what it is you know what i'm saying it's like you know yeah but it's this is what always begs the question i would not want you to go through any of the things you went through but because of the things you went through this is because of the things you went through, this is what we get. Right. And it's an amazing thing. Yeah.

It's amazing when out of some horrible, chaotic situation, something beautiful emerges. And I don't know why we need that. Like, what is it about people? Do we need to fuck people up so they make amazing art is that is that a little suffer is that i mean is there other ways can you do it through sports i mean is there holding your breath is there some other fucking way other than torturing a kid's childhood to turn them into something talented because i don't know if it is man all of my friends that i love the most had

the most fucked up childhoods right you know and they're the most fun to be around the most silly you know and the most appreciative and you know it's like the world there's a sense of community amongst people that grew up in fucked up sort of environments but I don't want anybody to ever grow up like that I want people to grow up loved and challenged by things. I want things to be interesting to you. I want you to go after them not because you're desperate but because you're fascinated. I don't think it's mutually exclusive. I don't think you have to be fucked up to be great at something.

I just think oftentimes that's the case. And so I think one of the things like that young man, what was his name that sang that song on American Idol? E.M. Tongue. God damn. Man. Whatever that dude went through. Yeah, he lost his father. Oh, my God.

He tells the story right before he sings the song, but it's just so, man. I know, right? Just everything about it. That song is so good, right? Just everything about it. That song is so good, right? It's so good because that guy went through that shit to make that thing that we all can watch. Yeah. No, and just sings it just in the most painful. And it's just like I told you, like nothing about, I think he had the jelly roll factor of nothing about how he looked made me think he was going to sound like that. Right.

You had no idea what was coming. No, and then you just hear, and then you start listening to the lyrics, and you're like, oh, no, I'm fixing to cry. Oh, my God. Yeah. So good. E.M. Tongue, man, I'll tell him you're a fan. I'm going to see him this weekend, dude.

I'm like, I've already sent him a message a couple times on Instagram because I'm a nerd, but I'm like, dude, I'm a fan. Like, I'm coming to hug you. That's beautiful. Like, me and you are going to cry together. I'm going to meet you, too. Well, listen, brother, this has been a fun, fucking enjoyable, interesting time. And I appreciate you very much, man.

No, dude. You have a great story. You just give me the platform to share it with me. Yeah, but the story is great, man. It's such a good story. It's so important. It really is American as fuck. Yeah.

What you're doing right now is American as fuck. Thank you, brother. You can figure it out. I'll end it like this. Well, two things, if you don't mind, Joe, just give me some house cleaning before we go. I'd be remiss because, God, you know how big this is for me. Jellyroll615.com. I am going on my first Arena Amphitheater tour later this year.

There are still tickets available in select markets. I feel like the comedian at the end of the podcast. Where are you going to be at next week? They want to hear it. Please, jellyroll615.com you can find me on socials I'm pretty easy to get to there

and I will say this that music finds a way and I thank God that music found its way to you and I found my way to this room to have this platform

with your people brother thank you brother and thank you for this and I look forward to hanging with you tonight yeah i'm coming papa all right bye everybody thank you thank y'all thank you bye let's go baby joe i love you Bye.