Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville - Whey Jennings: A Journey of Redemption Through Music and Faith

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Have you ever wondered how music and faith can transform a life bound by addiction? On this inspiring episode of Almost Live Nashville, we sit down with Whey Jennings as he opens up about his harrowing battle with drug addiction and his remarkable journey to redemption. Whey shares the pivotal moments that shaped his recovery, including the profound personal loss that spurred him to change and the unwavering support system that held him together. His latest projects, the EP "If it Wasn't For the Sins" and the upcoming album "Sleeves," serve as a testament to his resilience and his desire to help others facing similar struggles. Transitioning from personal battles to artistic evolution, Whey delves into the impact of his legendary grandfather, Waylon Jennings on his music and the challenges of maintaining artistic integrity in a commercial world. We capture the essence of live performances where the energy of the crowd and the blend of nostalgic and contemporary sounds create unforgettable experiences. Whey candidly discusses the complexity of the music industry, from navigating sponsorships to drawing inspiration without losing originality. His stories offer a unique perspective on the delicate balance between staying true to one's roots and embracing modern influences. Whey also reflects on the balance between his music career and family life, emphasizing the importance of leading by example. He shares touching anecdotes about parenting, underscoring how his actions influence his children and vice versa. His latest album, with standout tracks like "10 Day Run" and "Leaves," showcases his diverse themes and collaborative spirit. Through heartfelt narratives and powerful messages, Whey Jennings inspires listeners to seek a better path, demonstrating that personal growth and redemption are possible, no matter how daunting the journey. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind-the-scenes staff, have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment.

Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. Today we are joined by Wade Jennings, who will recount his courageous story of battling drug addiction and using his musical gifts to help others. We are proud to have him on our show and grateful for the motivational message he shares. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, man, I'm glad to be here. Yeah, it's really good to have you here. You and I met a few years ago at the National Palace during the CMA Music Fest. You were talking about things you were doing to get yourself back on the road again. So what have you been doing for new music and new projects to get yourself back out there, promoting what you're doing to all your fans.

Man, I've just been working at it really hard, man. It took getting sober and giving my life to God, honestly to start making any attraction, honestly. That's great. That's really good to hear. So what are the projects you're working on now and what path are you taking to get your latest projects and your new music out there so that your fans can hear what you're doing? I got signed with Dirt Rock Empire.

Okay. Once I got out of rehab about four years ago, I put out a project called if it wasn't for the Senate. All right. And it did really well. for the project it was, it was really good. If it wasn't for the sentence, one of my high stream songs. When I first got to rehab, it was really I wanted to just save the world. You know what I mean?

I wanted to let everybody know how I felt and how I got the feeling the way I felt. And I wanted everybody to know God like I know God. Okay. Turns out through the, through the ears, if you really have to meet people where they're at, you know what I mean? Because too much good news will turn people's ears off. So we put out another album, another EP, called Just Before the Dawn.

It had a little more of a darker tint to it. It was kind of the darker side of the gap of gospel. Kind of like, this is where I came from, this is how I got here. It ain't like I started here, and it's like everything's great. Sure. But I kind of really wanted to use my platform to help people who have been suffering from drug addiction, alcoholism, and stuff like that. You know, and so put out a song called Before the Dawn.

It was on a six-song EP. Okay. Which was a great one. We did three out of three videos for that, but just before the dawn did better than any of it. We put a strong message on the end of it about what hotlines the cost. You need help, room, recovery. And then after we put that out, it did really well. It's still streaming really well.

But I realized that you can't just aim songs at people who are suffering from drug addictions. Because the first thing I learned in rehab was, first you got to give your life over to God or higher power. Second, you got to have a strong support system. Sure. If you don't have a strong support system, it's not impossible, but it's very less likely to succeed. if you're doing it on your own with nobody showing you that they care and that they really want to be there for you. And I mean, even if you're not listening, that they're still there. You know what I mean?

Yes, yes. I'm putting out a song on this album. This is a full-length album. It's not an EP. It's called Sleeves. And it'll be coming out in August right before we drop the album. All right. I'm aiming it more as support systems to kind of show people the life of a drug addict and what we go through.

And, you know, that it's not all just like this horror story. It is a horror story, but there is also these highlights in it of happiness and love. Sure. I think that's really good. So are you trying to tell you a story of what you went through and how you got there so that you can get them listening to help their lives? I just want to help people. Because you got to realize I spent 27 years addicted to drugs and didn't even realize there was another path. You know what I mean?

Yeah, sure. I was like, this is life. I thought the whole world was on drugs. and it was just this was the thing to do. It was sex drugs and rock and roll, man. I had a bad moral compass back then, and it wasn't something that I seen coming, honestly. It was like it started out that the drugs were fun,

and I was hanging out with other people that was doing them, and then women became part of the equation, and then, you know, you had all together and it just turns into a cycle of just immoral lust, and it turns into this bad situation. So what got you to the point where you finally realized that things just had to change? Well, I had a thing, man, that I just went through a lot of relationships, and I did a lot of cheating, and it never really affected me.

This woman, Pennsylvania, that was just different, and I loved her, and I cheated on it. And whenever that happened, I felt it. I never feel it before, I felt it then. It felt like I really lost something, not to make any light of the women of my past, But, you know, we've all got that one day. It's just who we're destined to be with. She was my one. I thought I lost her.

Was that the point where you had to change? My manager had been begging me to go to rehab for years. She had never given up on her, but she had begged me to go get help. She told me, if you got clean and you really honed your craft, you would really blow up. And I said, if I quit doing drugs, it's going to ruin my career, you know? Sure. And I couldn't have been further from the truth. I went to rehab, I spent 28 days in rehab.

during COVID. A lot of people say that COVID was a horrible thing, and it is killed a lot of people. But for me, in my life, it gave me a chance to fix me, to work on me. It gave me a chance to see God face to face and to see him work in my life. Oh, that's good. People say, I hear people talking my whole life about being reborn, and I always thought they were just like crazy or something. It's literally like being reborn. I feel like I'm a completely different human being inside the same body. I mean, that's not even, don't even take that lightly because it's true. I don't eat the same things.

I don't drink the same thing. I don't watch the same movies, listen to the same music. It's all different. Yeah, you evolved. Yeah, I guess so. But I feel like I'm on a pass and I feel like I'm on a path that I can help somebody. I've got this platform. It's not like this Morgan Wallenside's platform, but it's a platform that people are listening

to me on. Yeah, that's really good. I really want to let people know who I was and where I came from and where I'm at today and give people a choice of how to live their lives. Because a lot of people are just living their lives the way they've always known how to live them and don't even realize it's another way. It doesn't matter what size platform you have. It only matters that you have a platform where you can communicate with people and ultimately

help them. With the platform that you have, if you can touch one person every now and then, then that is all worthwhile and that is a tremendous success. It is. It really is. Kind of why I've joined with this mobilized recovery. It's like a mobilized recovery tour. And I'm going to be going to Las Vegas and Virginia.

We're going to be performing and speaking, telling about my story and the path I took, and maybe touching a few lives and process. Recovery is not easy. It's just not. Sure. But it's possible. Absolutely.

Very possible. But it takes God. It takes the support system, and it takes willpower. Yeah. And it takes people like yourself getting out there, talking and ultimately exposing yourself to them. People don't realize how difficult it is to get up on a platform like you're doing.

Talk about the things that you've been through, the challenges you've had and really didn't appreciate some of the things that you had, but you found a way to change. And now you're showing them how you've changed. And that's exposing yourself to another level. I think that's just tremendous thing you're doing. Now you add if you can reach just a few people, it can make a huge. huge impact on their life because they see that what you've done, what you've gone through, and now they say, you know, if he did it, so can I. That's a great thing. That's the goal.

You know, it's just, people say it's brave. People say it's, that, and you know, but what it is, it's needed. It's something you have to do. You cannot hide your past. You know what I mean? No matter how hard you try, everybody, they say everybody's got skeletons in their closet. My closet, it's one wide open, and I laid everyone in skeletons out there. It's like, This is who I was, and this is who I am. This is all there is to it. You can go back in your past and change it. You can damn sure change the path you're on in the future you're headed for it.

Absolutely. So what led to the song that you're releasing? How did that all come about? Well, me and a buddy of mine, West Ship, who's also in recovery, were sitting and writing songs. We've written quite a few songs together. He'd come up to his wrists. He started it out.

He's like, you think he said it was pulling down his sleeves in July. And I was like, that almost flows right. I was like, how about he's pulling down his sleeves in mid-July because it just flows better, you know? And we sort of worked each line out like that. We both put in 100% of our feelings to create 100% of a song. And it's really a dark song that I really hope people hate because it's a true story that's horrible.

Even though it's a little bit on the dark side, does it still have a silver lining in it so that people can see that they need to change? It does. At the very end, there's a small glimpse of positivity. It's a story of somebody who was really far gone on drugs and just met this girl, and he brought her into a drug addiction, and they get really deep into their drug addiction, and then it gets really ugly. To very end, there's a small glimmer of hope. I don't want to get too much of it away.

Sure, sure. I get it. It's really a shocker. It's truth, man. you're not going to have a happy ending when it comes to drug addiction. You're going to have the best outcome you possibly can. Right. But not all of it's going to be happy. You know what I mean? Yeah, sure.

There's going to be lost. There's going to be hurt. There's going to be pain. There's going to be lies. There's going to be all these ugly things that hopefully become acceptance, forgiveness, or overcoming, you know. Yeah. It's kind of like an alcoholic.

They can go through the rehab and they can make their lives better, but they still have to fight that demon every. single day because they're still ultimately, unfortunately, an alcoholic. So even though this may be a dark song, you're still giving them a glimmer of hope. You're showing them that there's a pathway to a better life. And when someone truly believes there is a better way, you're giving them an opportunity and it can happen. They can. It's never too late is the thing about it, no matter how ugly it gets. Even if the whole world melts around you, if you're still alive, you can make the decision to change your life. And you can really do good afterwards. I mean, the things that

I've been able to accomplish in my life after hitting rock bottom, in a short period of time, and all it took was becoming 100% independent from anything. I quit smoking cigarettes. I quit smoking weed. I quit drugs. I quit alcohol. I quit gambling. I even quit eating pork. I started eating right and going to the gym and drinking water. I quit drinking pop. I mean, it's just been this ongoing evolution of life and just forget. call them this beautiful thing. I've got all my kids home. I've got a beautiful wife. I live in a pretty decent little neighborhood. I'm not like over here in Beverly Hills or nothing, but I live in a decent neighborhood and my kids. I feel good about my kids playing outside. I mean, I've heard a lot

of people say they're just trying to survive. And in a lot of sense, I used to say that too. And the thing about it was all I was really trying to do is get high. Surviving is easy. Surviving while you're getting high, ain't that easy. Absolutely. Good points. It's really on the personal decisions you make. Anything's possible. Happiness is definitely possible. You just got to quit feeding your addiction and start feeding your children. That's it. Yeah, that's great. So now you're going on tour, and I think you have some other fairly well-known people going right along with you. Is that right? Yeah, there's a lot of big names on it. I don't have a list that in front of me. I know Melissa Utheridge is on it, Danny Trejo, and quite a few others. You'd be surprised the lives that addiction has affected. And that's what makes this so important to me. Is it every night I ask

people. Do you know anybody who is suffering from drug addiction or are you suffering from drug addiction yourself by show of needs? And literally every hand in the room goes up. That's a problem, man. That's a huge problem. Yeah. Yeah. No, me, especially these days, drugs ain't fun no more. Back from drugs per centricene, they were like, hey, let's go party, drugs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but now what we're looking at is we're looking at a bunch of broken homes and drugs that are full of fentanyl and killing people regardless of used to, you could die of a heroin overdose. You could die of a cocaine overdose. Now you can die of a weed overdose. You can die of an overdose of anything anymore. It's all got fiddling. Right, right. And it's scary, man. I got kids running around

out here. I don't want my kids getting killed because they want to go to a party and do something stupid that I'm guilty of doing myself at that age. Yeah, learn from you mistakes. Yeah, but it's scary, man. It's scary. And I got six kids. So that's just, statistics of that is a horrible thing. So I'm out here just begging and pleading people to please say no to these things, man. It's just there's so many other things you can do to feel good. Exactly. Like, hell, I jumped up an airplane a long ago. I never had a drug movie and so like that. That was crazy. There's a lot of things you can do to fill the way that people are trying to feel just by throwing something in their body. You know what I mean? Yeah. Go out there and experience

life. Go out there and take the kids to the skating room. Go to out to the movies. Go to the movies. go hiking, do all these things that life has to offer and you lay the drug down. I'm telling you, these things make you feel so much better than the drugs ever will. Oh, yeah. I really got to get people to see this. Absolutely. That's a tremendous goal. So you're using music to expand and tell your story. How is this working for you? Not only within your family, but with the people that come out to see you at your live performances. Well, the thing about it is that here's what you got to do. You got to realize, like I said earlier, too much. Much of good news will shut people's ears off.

You got to meet people where they're at. So I look at my show as like a math problem or a puzzle or some sort. People came to party, first and foremost. They've been working all week. They want to come and have a good time. Have a few beers. Hang out with their friends and have a good time. And I'm going to give them that.

And I'm going to make sure everybody's having a great time. Right. And then I'm going to let them know me a little bit. I'm going to praise God from that stage. I'm going to have every hand in that place in the air. And then I'm going to tell them about my drug addiction. And I'm going to sing about my drug addiction. and I'm going to party a little bit more,

and then I'm going to go back, and I'm going to sing about God again, and then I'm going to party some more, and then I'm going to lead out with sending people on feeling something. That's one thing about my show. My show is not solely entertainment. It is very entertaining, and people love it.

Anybody who's ever been to one of my shows has come to my membership and thanked me because they needed that. I don't know how to explain it. It's very easily explained by anybody who's been to a show, but to hear me explain it makes me sound like I'm full of myself, If you come to my show, you're going to stand up, you're going to sit down, you're going to laugh, you're going to cry, you're going to praise God, you're going to love your neighbor, you're going to go home happy wanting more. That's the way my shows are.

It's not all just my music. I do some of my grandfather's music. I do some, you know, Skinner, I do some. Here, it's just depending on how I was feeling that night. Okay. I do a whole bunch of me and a little bit of other things I like. Sure. It depends on what the mood calls for.

I let the crowd be my set list. I can usually feel what they're needing at that point in time. Yeah, absolutely. So now you brought up your grandfather. For people that don't know you, Waylon Jennings is your grandfather. Yeah. So how has his music impacted what you do with some of your shows?

Well, his sound has always been my favorite sound, man. That whole rocking country groove with that, you know, driving bass line in it. That's what I think of when I think of country music. I'm not just saying that because he's my... my grandfather saying that because that's the sound you know what i mean yeah for sure and you're not the only one that says that that's the sound that's what people who love country music or want to hear that sound and i have tried to make that sound my own i'm not saying i'm just stolen that song that sound but i have evolved that sound somewhat if you listen to 10-day run just came out you can hear

that sound it's not that sound but it's damn close to that sound and it's like it's something that i feel like people need because back when they had that sound they were able to blow off steam in a way that wasn't violent they were able to have a good time and they were able to love one another it just felt good that was life back then yeah nowadays it's hard to find something to make you feel good the only thing is that i can see out here one i can see a lot that's going to make you feel good but i see a lot that's heading in the wrong direction too but i'm not going to say anything bad about anybody i think that everything everybody's doing is artistic and it's great. But I believe we're in a time that people need to start heading away from drugs.

And buy drugs, I mean drugs and alcohol because alcohol is a bad drug. Oh, yeah, it is. It's hard. It's a hard puzzle to crack in this world because you got music and then you got the music business. Yeah, for sure. What is the music business? What supports the music business? Sponsorship.

What kind of sponsorship? Alcohol sponsorship. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's really hard. It's like it pays the bills, but it also creates a problem. So how do you navigate through that? It's a hard thing.

I love what I do for a living, and I love what is allowing me to live this for a living. But I really need people to start using wise judging on a lot of things, because a good time is great. Yes. But it can turn bad easily. People have got to really understand when it's turning bad. Right.

And, you know, stop it. Yeah. That is just so true. Your grandfather had a sound that was truly his own and gave you a sound that you could evolve into. So did you take his sound and try and use it as an influence to create your own music so that you still have something fresh and new, but with a little nostalgia to it? Well, somewhat, but I don't just do that with his music. I do.

That can be said about any musician. That's right. You know what I mean? They take their best influences, what has hit them the hardest, and they cut up in a little pieces, and they place it strategically throughout what they're creating and create something completely new. But that's just what it is. When you're creating a song,

you can take that song and find little pieces of other songs in it. Absolutely. A little bit of it is okay. Too much and you stole it. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, every time I'm working with a new singer in production, you have to get that fine line of influence so that it doesn't come off like you plagiarized

and copied their material. or copied their licks in the song. Exactly. Exactly. There's a difference between art and plagiarism. Yes, that is an absolute truth. So, yeah, I mean, it's okay to be influenced by other artists. Right.

It is not okay to steal from other artists. I agree 100%. But we're in a time now that there's so much music being put out. Right. That it's kind of hard for anybody to call that music 100% their own. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because there's only six strings on a guitar.

There's millions of songs out there. I mean, it's like, how much of it is really yours. Yeah, true. All it is, little, little tiny pieces of a bunch of other artists' stuff. You know what I mean? Yeah. And another great thing is when you surround yourself with musicians, they have their influences that has led them to where they are.

Then they listen to your song and play it with what you've got, with their influences. Then the magic happens, and you've got something that's just purely outstanding. That's the beauty of a band, man. That's what I love about a band. You put five people on a stage together to create five versions of one sound.

Right. And it turns into something beautiful. That's the magical part of it, man. What makes me enjoy what I do is that seeing the outcome of all the different influences and all the different humans that are involved in creating one song, you know? Yeah, the studio magic is just, outstanding. So how's the tour coming along and what are you expecting from that? Is it going the way

that you had hoped that it would? Oh, it's going great, man. I got all kinds of cool. We've been adding more dates every, you know, every few weeks. We'll get six, seven more days added to the tour schedule. But I like making music and I like being on tour, but I also like being at home with my family. So what we do is we get a bunch of shows and we plant them all around the country. You know, I mean, here, here, here, here, here, here. And we either drive and do a few shows and go home or we fly, I run a car, do a few shows and go home. But the thing about it is that I'm going home because I have all the way from a 3-year-old daughter

to a 20-year-old son, and I want to be a present father and husband. Being on tour on a tour bus is probably going to be feasible pretty soon whenever I can put my family on that tour bus with me. But right now, I've got to come home. Right, right. I do all I can when I can,

and I try to put out all the content I can. But I live for God, family, country, music, in that order. Sure, nothing wrong with that at all. So how does your family respond to the music you do? I mean, you've got a wide range of kids. They all have their favorites. They have different tastes of music, I'm sure.

How does that work with the new music that you're putting out to the music that your kids may like and the artists that they follow? Well, let's see, my oldest son loves my music, but he's a music lover. You know, he loves all kinds of music. You know, he could tell you every release I've ever put out. Nice. Daughter, she likes my music, but she's more into the pop country kind of stuff, you know, and all different kinds of things.

You know, she's a teenage girl. It doesn't really resonate well with teenage girls. My youngest daughter thinks I hung on the moon, you know, and my young son, he thinks I hung the moon, but he won't tell you that. They all got their different opinions about it. They all love their daddy. Yeah. But, you know, they're all different people, so it's just hard to gate, really.

I believe they love my music, but I think they hear it so much. get sick of it. Yeah. Yeah. I know the feeling. I've certainly been there. When I was out touring and recording, my kids heard it a lot. So I think they got sick of it as well. So I feel you pain. Yeah. You got to feel like when you're doing an album, they hear the rough draft. Right. They hear the album cut. They hear the mastered version. And they hear the video. And they're just hearing these songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over again before the public hears it even once. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's got to be hard on them, just as hard as it is on me. You know, it gets at a point where you get tired of hearing your own voice. Yeah. But not this album, though, for me. Nice. On this one, I can still listen to these songs, and it's been six months we've been working on this album.

And I just, I feel very strongly about this project. I think there's so much going on with it that it's hard for not to have something for everybody. We got addiction. We got patriotic songs. We got love songs. We've got funny songs. We've got trucking songs.

We've got all these songs on one album. I really cannot wait for the world to just see this whole project. Three songs up so far, and they've all been different, and it's just going to keep getting different and different and different. I'm telling you, it's really something I'm very proud of it. So if you look back at all the projects you've worked on, and we as musicians always like to think that we're evolving and getting better. So do you think this project is maybe the best you've done yet?

Awesome. Yeah, definitely. There ain't no doubt about it. I put out some pretty good projects in the past. And I love all the songs that I've been involved with. You know, and I felt strongly about all of it. Being an artist, it's like looking at your own, listening to your own music. It's like walking up to a painting and it being right here. You know, you can't really see the forest of the trees. So you just try your best.

Absolutely. So with this one being so special, did you take a different approach when you started working on it and recording it? On this one, I took a totally different approach. Every other project I would put out, I was like, these songs are great, we're using them, put them out. I took a consensus on every song we chose, every song we were recorded, every single we chose, every single we chose, every step of the way I took it's just because

it takes the ability to raise the baby, and I believe it takes the ability to choose a song because your own opinion ain't worth nothing, honestly. Yeah, that can be absolutely true. Sometimes you get so close to the project that you're not really thinking objectively like you should towards some of the songs like one that you love, you'll take it to somebody and they'll go, well, you know, I kind of like it,

but it's all right. You go, I love it, but they don't, and then you have to retool. So I 100% get that. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we've got some really strong stuff on itself. And the benefit is yet to come, in my opinion. 10-day run is a rocking song. I love it.

It really hits home for me because it's a trucking song, and I grew up on trucking songs. Yeah, that's great. Leaves, I feel like it's going to be one of those that just jocks, everybody hears it. It's going to set them down and make them think. I don't want to talk too much about the songs coming out because you get to talking about things too much, too far away from them coming out. People get the same idea later, me sooner or later, and then they want up you over there.

And I want this to be as pure as possible. There's nothing better than putting four, five, six players in a studio, telling them what you want, getting that nice, clean, crisp sound. There's just nothing better when it's just that right. There ain't nothing better. I'm telling you. When we got in that studio, I was like, wow. I mean, I was sitting there talking to my producer.

I was like, how can anybody put out their best form of art if studio time is charged by the hour? Right. That's right. I mean, you got to get in there and get it done like that. Are you going to be charged after was it? But these guys, they went above and beyond for me, man. I went in there. We used more time than we should have.

they gave me more of their time than they should have. And they didn't, I'm telling you, they really believed in this album. I know it because they just really went above and beyond me. And that's just awesome. It was an amazing, it's been an amazing situation from the beginning until now, you know? It just really has. Yeah, yeah, that's so good.

Tell me a little bit about your fans. You've got your grandfather's fans that hopefully have followed you. You've got fans that have followed you because of what you've done here in Nashville. So do you have a wide demographic of fans? I really do. I mean, it used to be pretty well, you know, males over 30. Okay. But nowadays, I'm looking at my analytics, and it's like, it's more of a half moon shape.

Got some younger fans, I've got a little bit more as they get older, and then I've got a little bit less that it gets older than that. It's really been evolving in a beautiful way. And I think it's just really been reaching more and more people. Because thinking about it is, I'm an independent artist. If you look at it all day, everybody expects to hear Wail and James' grandson, the whole world's going to know you as spam. Yeah, sure. And that's just not the case.

My grandfather was on the RCA Records, one of the biggest record labels in the whole country, and they promoted the snout out of it. He had a ton of money behind it because he had this huge conglomerate record label behind him. I don't. You know what I mean? I'm an independent artist in a sea of independent artists. I'm not just the easiest person to find. But we've been making a lot of noise, and people have been finding us slowly but surely over the years. I'm really pleased with where I'm at in my career,

considering I haven't signed no deal with the devil. Right. I own my own masters. I've got plenty of good music out there. I'm able to support my family. And honestly, I don't want to be this super famous guy who's never gone. I wouldn't mind going a little bit further up the ladder. But if I don't, I'm kind of happy with who I am, honestly.

Yeah, you have to find that comfort zone as an artist. You also have to find that comfort zone as a human being with your family, being an artist. Exactly. It's like what are you willing to risk? Exactly. And you have to know what you can do and what you can't do and what the possibilities are for the outcome of that project. I always look at the worst case scenario. If I can be good with the worst case scenario and something better happens,

then I'm happy. But if I'm not good with the worst case scenario, then we have to make a few changes so hopefully that doesn't happen. Exactly. And it's tough as an independent artist. It's very tough. It really is. We try hard enough and you put your goals in the right order.

You just have integrity and faith in God, and you do the right thing and you don't lie. You know, that's my ordeal. It's I don't lie and I don't like people lying to me. Integrity is a big deal. If you have integrity, God's with you and he will be there to guide me along the way. Absolutely. It's kind of funny that you use the word integrity because a long time ago, when I first moved here, I had a friend of mine that worked at a publication that I really didn't want to,

want to become one of those people that had ads out to help her. I put an ad in. I said production with honesty, quality, and integrity. And I had so many people call on me because they just didn't know what integrity was in the music business. So you're right. Integrity and honesty is one of the most important factors that you can have in this music business. Because if you do something with quality, honesty, and integrity, you're going to get back what you put out there.

Exactly. That's the truth. I mean, if your goal is fame, then you probably... not going to get. If your goal is being able to support your family, if you have a righteous goal, you'll achieve it. But if you're in this for all the wrong reasons, even if you get it,

you'll probably use it to kill yourself, honestly. Yeah, you're right. That's why we've had several singers that have climbed the ladder really quick, but they've also fallen down that ladder real quick. They didn't know how to handle it. They hadn't thought it out. They hadn't prepared. You have to know what's going to go into this and

how it's going to affect your life. There really is, man. A lot of the smoking mirrors, man. People are like, they want to believe that somebody is going to just knock on their door, hand them a million dollars of the keys to a minority, and say you have made it. And that's just not the case. Absolutely. And you know how a millionaire stays a millionaire? He doesn't spend money, and he keeps making it. In order to do that, it takes a lot of time. You got to realize, do you want time with your family? Do you want time to smell the roses? Do you want time to enjoy your life? Or do you want parliament?

money. I want to have money to support my family. What I want. Yeah. And in the end, when you're gone, someone else spends your money. Exactly. Exactly. I think the key is, like we talked earlier, is finding your comfort zone, where you can be happy with what's going on in your

present world and the potential that you might have for the success. There's always going to be pitfalls and bumps in the road. If you're prepared and you're happy with what you're doing, those bumps in the road can be addressed and ultimately, doesn't put you in the ditch. That's true. I have realized as long as I've got good attention and a good

plan and a good heart, Aang's hat, you know? Yes, I agree. The devil's always going to come at you. Closer you get to God, the more the devil's going to come at you. But the easier he is the spot. You just really got to be good and be honest and be humble. You can't just get out there and say, I'm king of the world. That ain't the way this works, man. You are a human being amongst a bunch of human beings. Try to be a good one. Absolutely. Well, this has been great. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on. Oh, man, it's been an amazing time. I've loved it. Thank you.

Oh, absolutely. It's been great. So let's say you're in front of five to 10 to 15,000 people. You're putting on a show. What would you like to have people remember you by that have listened to your show in this podcast? I'd like to be remembered as a guy who takes your job seriously, takes your family more seriously, and takes your time to touch people. You know, that's just it. I just want to be known as a good human.

That's really all my only goal in life. And I want my kids to follow them to suit and also be good news. Yeah, that's a great statement. I saw something here a little while ago, and I can't remember exactly where I saw it. It was a father telling a son, saying, son, you've got to be good, watch your step. It's a long journey. And the son turned around, looked at him and said, well, I'm following you steps, so make sure they're good for me too.

That's exactly right. Yeah, we lead by example. I mean, I was raised as you don't. Do as I say, not as I do. And that just don't work. They're taking every step you're taking. So you'd be careful what you do. You kid right behind you.

Yeah, and especially in today's world. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that do as I say, not as I do doesn't work anymore. And I don't know if it ever did, really. They never did, honestly. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, this has been great. I've really enjoyed this.

Yeah, I did too, man. Thank you so much. The pleasure's all mine. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a Tony Mantor production. For more information, contact media at plateau music.com.