wellRED podcast - #46 - Lee Bains III (Of Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires)

Episode Date: December 20, 2017

Can't tell y'all how exciting it is that we get to interview some of our absolute favorite people and fucking heroes on a weekly basis. This week is certainly no different as we sit down with singer/songwriter/political activist extraordinaire - Lee Baines III of Lee Baines & The Glory Fires.We discuss the current political climate, growing up in the south, and what it will take to get back on track. For everything Lee Baines III & The Glory Fires, check out http://www.thegloryfires.comFor tickets to see the wellRED comedy tour and to subscribe to our newsletter : wellredcomedy.comand check out a great deal from our sponsor this week at getquip.com/wellred - That will get you a great deal on a Quip toothbrush so you can join us on our journey to make our teeth not shitty again! 

And we thank them for sponsoring the show. Well, no, I'll just go ahead. I mean, look, I'm money dumb. Y'all know that. I've been money dumb ever, since ever, my whole life. And the modern world makes it even harder to not be money dumb, in my opinion. Because used to, you, like, had to write down everything you spent or you wouldn't know nothing. But now you got apps and stuff on your phone.

It's just like you can just, it makes it easier to lose count of, well, your count, the count every month, how much you're spending. A lot of people don't even know how much they spend on a per month basis. I'm not going to lie, I can be one of those people. Like, let me ask you right now, skewers out, whatnot, sorry, well-read people, people across the skew universe, I should say. Do you even know how many subscriptions that you actively pay for every month or every year? Do you even know? Do you know how much you spend on takeout or delivery,

getting a paid chauffeur for your chicken low mane? Because that's a thing that we do in this society. Do you know how much you spend on that? It's probably more than you think. But now there's an app designed to help you manage your money better, and it's called Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions,

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So I was like, I should know Spanish. I'll learn Spanish. and I've just been paying to learn Spanish without practicing any Spanish for, you know, pertinent two years now or something like that. Also, a fun one, I'd said it before, but I got an app, lovely little app where you could, you know,

put your friend's faces onto funny reaction gifts and stuff like that. So obviously I got it so I could put Corey's face on those two, those two like twins from the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movies. You know, those weren't a little like the Q-ball-looking twin fellas. Yeah, so that was money. What was that in response to? What was that a reply gift for?

Just when I did something stupid. Something fat, I think, and stupid. Something both fat and stupid. But anyway, that was money well spent at first, but then I quit using it and was still paying for it and forgotten. If it wasn't for Rocket Money, I never would have even figured it out. So shout out to them. They help.

If you're money dumb like me, Rocket Money can help. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney. dot com slash well read today that's rocket money.com slash well r e d rocketmoney.com slash well read and we thank them for sponsoring this episode of the podcast they're the what up well redders it's the cho sitting here at the house with the dog enjoying this christmas break dates as always well read comedy.com spelled just like the podcast w e l l r ed comedy

com. Like I said, we're on a little bit of a break here in December, but start in January, we're going to go right back out, hit San Diego, Los Angeles, then we're off to do some dates in Arizona, Texas, and of course, you know, we're everywhere. We've also added a lot of places next year that we have never hit before. We're going to be in North Dakota. We're going to hit Hawaii. We're going to hit Maine. Sign up for a newsletter on well-readcomedy.com. You'll be the first to get those dates. You'll be the first to get promo codes for tickets that nobody else will get. And a lot of times they sell out

just on our promo code. So, you know, make sure to do that. It's a really cool thing. This week's episode features one of my favorite singer-songwriters, one of our favorite singer-songwriters that's in the game today. Lee Baines of Lee Baines

and the Glory Fires. Go to thegloryfires.com to see where Lee's going to be when he's going to be near you. You can pick up his CDs, you can pick up merch, all that good stuff. he's absolutely tremendous and also an interesting guest on the podcast that I know you're going to love.

He's a southern boy just like us and we are cut from the same cloth. And that cloth, of course, was then used to make a sleeveless t-shirt. This episode, the dates at least, are brought to you by our new friends at Smokey Boys Grilling Club. That's the smokyboys.com. You can go on there and grab their brand new hogrub, which, essentially, Smoky Dust hog rub is based on a recipe that dates back to the early 1930s. This guarded recipe was graciously passed on by a relative of the beloved originator, Uncle Tuck, who was known far and wide for his tasty barbecue.

So grab that hog rub. Also grab some of their t-shirts. Check out the website. They do demonstrations all over. You can pick up the hog rug in person at Elders Ace Hardware in a Dayton, Cleveland, Udawa, Walden, East Brannard, Ringgold, and my hometown of Chickamauga at Sigler's Craft Beer in East Braynard, and it finds gas in Fort Oglethorpe. Or if you're someone that's not near any of those places, like most people in the world,

just go to the smokyboys.com, pick up some hoggrogue, pick up a t-shirt. I've been told it's going to be a collector's item. So enjoy this podcast with Lee Baines from Lee Baines and the Glorifiers, and check back with us every Wednesday. sign up for the newsletter. Buy the book, The Liberal Redneck Manifesto, and hug your family. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, all that good stuff.

We love you. Ski-you. Well, well, well. Are we going? This one time I was emced back years ago and I was emceeing at Siteswears Comedy Club in Knoxville like two weekends a month

and one of those random weekends. The guy, the headline, I'm not going to say any names or nothing, but the headliner brought a dude with him to middle, which happens pretty regularly. And so I'd never met. What does that mean? The middle's open,

and I act. Okay. So at a comedy club, and also our show is similar, except for that Corey is not an MC really other than he hosts the show. But we all do almost the same amount of time. I do a little bit more, but it's still pretty equal.

Right. At a typical comedy show, it goes MC, who usually is a local that lives around there, works at that club a lot, and the MC will do, usually less than 10 minutes, you know, between 5 to 10 minutes. Yeah.

Just sitting the show up. And then kind of in between. And usually, yeah, their younger comments just get started or whatever. And then they bring up the feature or middle. That person goes up and does 20 to 25 minutes. And they get done. The MC goes back up and brings up your headliner who'll do 45 minutes to an hour. Okay.

And a lot of times, especially nowadays, headliners will bring their own feature middle with them. Sure. Because they have pre. You don't want to get to a place if you're like a clean comic and you get to somewhere where they booked your feature and the feature is just talking about dicks and buttholes all the time or whatever. So like for those types or vice versa or the opposite. So, you know, people bring their own features a lot. So I was at side spliters and Sky brought his own feature and it was like the Saturday of the weekend.

So I've talked to this dude some, whatever. But it's like Saturday night, last night of the weekend, I come in. The headliner is nowhere around. the features just sitting back there where all the comp where you know there was like a booth for us in the back of the room right i walk up and he's like hey man how's it going i was like ah you know pretty good i mowed the yard today you know whatever just kind of lounging around you got down and ready to do these shows and you know go on uh what about you how's it going ah pretty good pretty good broke a 12 year sobriety today oh fuck i can't like i now know who you're

talking about oh i don't fuck I barely knew this dude at all. You know what I mean? And it was one of those moments. Yeah, he was on tour or whatever. It was just like, I was like, ah. Super heavy. I got to go check on.

And I literally was like, yeah. Man, you believe the Seahawks this year? It's crazy. Like I just changed this. I had no idea what to say. But, yeah. So it's always, you know, it can be awkward and I will make it more so getting into that subject.

But in case, y'all are listening, wondering. who this third voice is. It sounds like Drew got a whole lot cooler. He's just not here right now, although he'll be back shortly. He's handling some business. That's Mr. Lee Baines. Lee Baines.

You're from Alabama, right? Yeah, Burmainehan. Lee is from Alabama. He's a genre-bending musician. It's been around for a while. And I first, like, I actually heard some of, like, I found out about you before

D-reconstructed and all that Which I'll see we'll get to And I don't even remember how I don't remember if it's Pandora or what But whatever the album was With like Opelika And Reba and some of those jams on it And so you've evolved a lot

I think artistically But outside of just the music We share a lot of common ground in that You're this Southern boy who don't fit the mold of what people expect you to be in the world that you operate in, too. So, like, in the music world,

you are the polar opposite of, like, you know, whatever. Take your pick of radio country people or whatever, that type of stuff. Sure. And you never really fit that classic mold. And also, you've been very open and talked a lot about stuff that's important to you or you think that's important about the South,

you know, instead of just singing about trucks and backroads and that kind of thing. So obviously, I was a fan of all that for those reasons for a while. And then this is the first time you and I have formally met. Yep. But you and Drew have known each other for a little bit now. Yes.

How did that happen? Tell us, how did you meet Drew in the first place? Well, it's funny. And thanks for giving a shit, man, because I love your stuff and have felt, you know, very, like a lot of empathy with the shit you say. Yeah, well, likewise. Thanks, dog. But Drew, you were talking about our first record. and we had a different bass player and guitar player on that album

than we've had on the last two. And the guitar player, funny enough, went to college with Drew. Oh, okay. So I assume that's how you found out about our band. I'm not certain about that. What's up, everybody? Is that true? Wortley, yeah.

We were just talking about how y'all met in the first place. He went to college with my wife. Oh, I thought. And I think me too, but I don't remember. But y'all didn't know each other. He was a freshman, I was a senior, and he transferred, right? He left Marrable. He went to Alabama, yeah.

But I knew who you were because of Chuck, Reese and the Bill Southerner. Okay. Your album on there. Right. And that year, I think it was 2014 or 15? 14, yeah, when it came out. The list that year, it was great, but it had very little rock and roll on it, as I recall. And I remember being blown away specifically by Company Man and Dirtrack.

Thanks. just fucking blown away. Yeah. And so I was super into it. Tell them the name of that album. You haven't said it. Wasn't that D Reconstructed? Yep, D reconstructed.

Reconstructed. Did. De reconstructive. Yeah, adjunctive. So, I was into it and I was telling everybody about you. Oh, that's funny. At some point, Robbie Champion. Yes.

Who's from Alabama? Yeah, and she. I'll be knowing Robbie. Yes. You know Robbie? She comes to our shows in D.C. Well, that, I know Robbie from Matt, because they're, but I guess they went to camp together or something. That sounds accurate.

And then also Marrival. Right. A. Marival, right. When she, like, realized or whatever that I was a fan of her, she was like, oh, like, she mentioned, I know those guys are know who they are. Did you know Matt Wortley? I was like, I kind of remember him. Yeah. Well, I met Matt at a wedding.

Okay. And a Roman's wedding who plays in, not, I won't say the best band in Knoxville, but the best rock and rock and whole band in Knoxville, the Burning Hermans, because the best band in Knoxville, Sky Marshall, were big fans of theirs. He played with the Burning Hermans at the wedding that I was at. Oh, no way.

And he got up there and jammed with him. I met him, and I was talking to him, I was telling him I was a fan of yours or whatever. Robbie, at that point was like, oh, yeah, you guys should meet. And she was like, I met, didn't she meet you at a wedding? Well, we saw each other at Wortley's wedding. But I met her. We played a show in Baltimore. And she came up from D.C. years ago.

As I recall it, she was like, I need to, I talked to Lee, and Lee's got this new thing. And she sent me a post you had made about good old boys. Oh. You were that post you made? You were like looking for other people. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. I don't remember.

Yeah, I was looking. I was, we were basically looking for people to kind of organize with at shows, you know, different people who were, you know, trying to do what all are doing, essentially. you know and um yeah just to like collaborate with that shows and she like that well you know ravi i don't want a fan boy or whatever but yeah i mean we do a thing that i think that we might be able to do something with him with so she set us up or whatever on the yeah just like via facebook she was like you guys should get together and then i went and hung out with lee in atlanta you came to a show at that it was like a collective right yeah it was two shows yeah i went to the one at um wonder

Root, which is, which is, uh, no longer. And then we went to, uh, and you did the one at laughing skull to, yeah. That one at Wonder Root was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. That was a night and I was just talking to Corey about this. I don't know if I've told you all this. Is that in like kind of a basement? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Of this like, uh, I don't know, like building with art all around the outside of it. Yeah, that's the one basement. Remember I've told you before that that, the best show that I had at the Red Clay Festival or whatever. Yeah. That's where it was.

Oh, really? Oh, cool. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was Andrew Michael's show, so we'll shut him out. He put me on it, and it was, like, a weird mix of, like, hipster kids. That's not there anymore? And, like, social is that kid.

Oh, that sucks. Well, it is there. The building's still there, but they're having to move, Wonderoot because they're fixing to turn it into condos or whatever they'll. Well, I loved it because, and you may have had a different experience with the red clay thing, but it was, like, their quote, unquote, natural crowd that night. And I loved it because. it was like this really diverse group of like hipster liberal progressive kids but they didn't

take themselves too seriously and I know that because I came out right of the gate like you're going to like me you're going to judge me because I have an accent fuck your art on this wall it's all stupid there were punch lines but like I was like let's see how this goes I went like I opened with somebody I went upstairs to use the bathroom and uh god damn you aren't getting away with calling some shit art in here or whatever right yeah yeah yep and they la and they were cool with it. They didn't take themselves too seriously. And those are my favorite kind of people, really, who are, you know, just very over.

I don't know what the right word is. Woke, but like not so woke that they hate everybody who makes jokes or whatever. Exactly. Yeah. I had a great show that night. And I was happy because I was fanboying a little bit, Lee. I was like, man, if Lee sees me bomb, that's going to suck. No, I'm like that.

If I'd seen you, bomb, you would be one of many, many artists that I love who I I've seen BOM, but play a great fucking show to, you know what I mean, that nobody gets. Yeah, it happens, for sure. How did that go? You reached out, you know, I reached out to you. I said maybe we can get something together. We never got anything that we could figure out together. But how did it go?

Did you, did your attempt to, you know. Oh, oh, yeah. I mean, we've gotten together with different, like, organizers in different cities where we play. and, you know, have folks speak at shows. And, I mean, our last show in Birmingham, we had some folks from hometown action come out, which is like a new nonprofit that's, like, trying to organize small towns around Alabama

to fight for, like, progressive policies that are, you know what I mean, that are just kind of common sense working people issues. You know what I mean? It has a lot to do with, increasing wages, with accessibility to health care, education, stuff like that. Things that they all should, should, by all rights, be all about. Exactly.

Which is not the reality sometimes. Exactly. Yeah. I've been to a few of your shows. It seems like that kind of thing or that side of what you do is very important to you. Yeah. Has it always been that way? I would say, yeah, somewhere like latent, you know what I mean?

but over the last several years, I feel like it's like come more and more to the forefront. I've become like more and more explicit about it. Just for context, for people, these lyrics and you guys should look up his music are very explicit in where he stands politically, but as if that weren't enough and you were doing plenty already by putting them records out,

in between every song, Lee gives 35-second sermons that buddy i mean you could save my soul with him i'm all about it i'll never forget that time me and cori saw you at the knitting factory in brooklyn sober because we both had early flights i don't go to rock and row show sober is that what it was we had early flights yes i for the life of me earlier i was like i seen lee it was one of the best god damn shows i've ever seen and i was sober which i don't know fucking why on earth i was like it was one of the best shows i've ever seen definitely so i've never seen a show sober and i did and i couldn't figure it out so thank you for i thought

I was like trying to get my life back together or something. That didn't make any goddamn sense. So thank you, Groot. That's hilarious. Went on one particular diatribe, if I can call it that, about Angela Davis. Oh, yeah. There was a young woman in the front who was African-American, and I say that that, because it's relevant in this case, because of who Angela Davis is, if you guys listen out there

and you don't know who she is, look her up. And I saw this young lady have charts with you. During that diatribe, she was getting into it. But then you played the song, and you got that on the floor. Remember you had that wireless guitar that night. It wasn't wireless. No. Yeah.

We walked the tightrope. Hell, yeah. It was so fucking cool. And she didn't know who you were. Right. She had come in from the middle of the knit and like, I mean, you want, you converted her. I watched you stick with the preacher thing. I watched you convert her and it was really, really a beautiful thing.

Oh, damn, dude. That's, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. The question, though, you said it's been the last few years that it's been that explicit. with it. Yeah. It's what, I mean, why? Well, I think it's, I mean, from what I've heard y'all talk about on your podcast and in your,

in your comedy, like, I think it's a similar process where the more that I found myself trying to, like, reclaim myself and where I'm from, you know what I mean? The more I had to deal with the politics of that. You know what I mean? Because for me, it's like they're so bound up in one another. For one, a lot of the reason that I felt growing up, conflicted with who I was and where I was from, had to do with the way that we govern ourselves down here.

You know? And then at the same time, I started to see that a lot of the tension I felt between who I am and what I thought I was supposed to. to be or expected to be was political. Like the reason that people hear your accent and assume something

is political. There's like political machinations behind that. You know what I mean? That's true. Other than dumb. Right. I was going to say I think I honestly think that the first thing that enters a lot of people's minds

that aren't from the South or don't know anything about it when they hear the accent is is dumb. But like, yes. But it's a specific type of dumb. Yeah. It's like ignorant and regressive dumb. Like, it's all kind of rolled up into the ball together, I think.

Right. I mean, yeah, it's definitely, I mean, I always felt the same way. But I had a problem with, and I don't know if you did or not, but part of my whole reconciling who I am and where I'm from process was that for a long time, because of what we were just talking about, the biggest chip on my shoulder was in that direction. meaning towards people who weren't from the South who like assumed things about me. Right. Because of my accent.

So I would get all, you know, whipped up into a fervor over that. Yeah. And I realized after a while that like what I was coming across as was like way more of an apologist for the South that I needed to be because, you know, I was because I wasn't racist or homophobic or whatever. I'd be like, you know, man, that's bullshit. It ain't like that. You don't know what it's like or whatever, but that comes across is saying that. that that doesn't exist and all that shit doesn't exist or that it isn't real and that's not the case at all

like i realized that at some point and you know tried to i don't know just be more fair or even handed about the whole thing because i live out in california now and i still absolutely absolutely have like a big uh you know a healthy chunk of that about you know don't judge me motherfucker that right sure going on. Sure. But while also just trying to be as upfront and honest about the problems the South has and shit as I can. Yes.

And that's so hard to talk about with people who aren't from here. It's like it's so much more complicated to me. For sure. Yeah. Like I was having a conversation fairly recently with somebody out there in L.A. about it's been there for years and years and is originally from New York and just has lived in L.A. for 35 years or whatever. And I was, I said something about it was something I say a lot that we're talking.

about, of course, we're talking about, you know, institutional racism and all this. And I said something like, you know, it annoys me that people treat that like a southern problem when really it's an American problem, like it's a problem in this country.

And it's really a European colonial problem. Really? Really. Really. Like, do you really believe that kind of thing? And I said, I was like, I mean, you lived here when Rodney King happened. Right. You know what I mean? Like, yes, really.

Fuck yeah. You know, when y'all act like it's just us, that takes the focus on the problems all in the fucking entire rest of the country. Exactly. Whippin'boy, you know. Yeah. But that one particularly, I'm always, this is what I always say to a white person from outside of the South. I go, well, don't ask me.

You're right. I don't know. Right. Go ask a black person from here in New York or Connecticut or wherever I'm at the time. Right. And then they won't because they don't want that answer. You know what I mean? Yeah, dude.

And that don't make the South rights. Right. You know what I mean? It's just like a matter of, well, we're tired of being the example because, A, it's not good for the South of the region. But B, it ain't helping black people. Yeah. No, that's why they're making Midwesterners and Westerners to be able to separate themselves. Right.

Exactly. It allows them to not deal with the problems that they have in those parts of the country, too, if they can just redirect it all to us or whatever. And then nothing ever happens. Yeah, instead of maybe looking at us and what we're, you know, because the thing nobody ever talks about when they're making these grand statements is that the South is by far the blackest part of the country. Right. I always bring that up. Yeah. And so it's like, then if you, instead of looking at the South and saying, okay, here is a glaring example of a problem that we have.

So we need to look at ourselves and how does this, how does white supremacy come up in our neck of the woods? Like people just want to say, man, that, they're. fucked up down there. I'm glad we're not like that. You know what I mean? And how does, yeah, how does that improve any kind of situation? I'm already going down that road and sounding exactly. I was talking about sounding earlier as being super apologists or whatever. No, I don't think.

But like they, you know, fucking John Oliver said on his show, when he was talking about the current state of segregation in the U.S. and how it's still very much real thing, he's like addressing his crowd. And he says, and I know what you're thinking, oh, thanks a lot, Texas or thanks a lot out, you know, the South, of course. And he said, well, actually, statistically speaking, the South is the least racially segregated part of this country.

The most racially segregated area in the country is the metropolitan New York City area. Based on the school systems and stuff, which was the metric they were using. And we talked about in our book about how, like you said, we had, the

blackest part of the country is the South. And yet, when you look at the stats of like, you know, race riots and racially motivated police brutality incidents and all those types of things as compared to the other parts of the country right you know when you level them out it's actually there the incidences of it are higher right outside the south than in the south when you take into account the you know the ratio of black people to white people or whatever but that none of that shit ever right you know gets considered or talked about yeah and i yeah i don't know and i mean

on that tip like I'm so excited right now like I live in Atlanta and there is I don't know like when we you know Drew and I went to that women's march when he was down here and uh first time we hung out we went yeah yeah and I've you know I've been to a bunch of you know black lives matter rallies and moral Monday rallies and stuff like that in Atlanta and um it is marked by we're organizing and political movements in Atlanta are beerheaded by people of color and particularly black folks, you know what I mean? And that's the case in Birmingham. It's the case in Jackson, Mississippi. You know, it's like if you want to look at the most left radical, you know, mayor in America, it's in Jackson, Mississippi. You know what I mean?

And it's like, that is so exciting. And it's like, you know, no, but we don't talk about that political potential in the South. You know what I mean? Like there have always been these, or Angela Davis is from Birmingham, Alabama. Like, we don't look at these, this potential for progressivism in the South. We just look at the potential for reactionary right-wing politics. That's another thing, like, because I totally understand how on the one hand, if you're somebody that lives on the coast and you're, you know, super liberal or whatever, you can look at the South right now.

And like, by the time people hear this, by the time people are listening to this, everybody's going to know what happened with the whole Roy Moore thing. But as we're recording this, we don't know what's going to happen. We don't. It's Tuesday. But, like, it's easy to look at that type of. stuff and think that things are like as bad or worse right now than they've been in a very long time or whatever but like you said there's a whole lot of examples to the contrary to that you know about if you live or spend a lot of time in the south but it don't it never i feel like

it's both at the same time it's weird i feel like i really feel like we're on the precipice of like being able to turn a huge corner in the south it's like a generational thing or whatever yeah and I think that them being even louder and more insane and everything on the other side right now is a direct response to like they know that. They can feel that. And that's why they're as whipped up as they've ever been is because they know that that's on the verge of happening. I agree with you, man.

No, I was actually talking. I can't remember who it was one of my friends the other day, but they made a similar point in which it was, I know it seems like it's just as bad as ever was and that there's so many of these people and because of Trump and he's riled these people up and because of Roy Moore and all this support. It seems bad. But all that is, if you think about it, is just those people dying

and before they do, they're kicking and fucking screaming and they're not going quiet. But they're dying, and they know they're dying, and they ain't going quietly. And that's, you know, again, it sucks for right now, but that's also a really cool thing to think about. You know, watching them burn forever. Totally. That's, and it reminds me

and you, as a Georgia boy, you would know, like, it reminds me of Lester Maddox, you know, who was elected as Georgia's governor after integration. You know what I mean? And I think he was... Yeah, exactly. It was like a last gasp of like white supremacist, like segregationist. And I think he got voted out and Jimmy Carter got voted in. I think so it's like it swung, you know. And it's like that's, I don't know, man. It's like I'm with you. I'm with you all. I feel like we're, I feel like we're fixing a turn of corner. Or we certainly have the potential to.

Well, that's the thing that's most appealing to it. I know that you have had your own boughs with religion and we don't have to get into it. But I've talked a lot about my own on the podcast, and I know that you're back in church now. And that's the only thing about church that still appeals to me is that those people have to go to hell. Oh! I wanted to ask both you and Trey to comment on something specifically because I know I've talked with Trey about it. And you just, you know, I opened the questioning with this of like, that, you know, why do you do it?

Why do you talk about these things? But talk about as an artist, both of you, and I'll let you start trade just because I know where you're coming from, so I can ask a specific question. You've talked a lot about, you know, your stand-up is for your own personal stuff and your social commentary and whatever else, but your videos is where you really focus on politics and it reaches a wider audience and blah, blah, blah.

Do you feel, I know you do, so let me just say it differently. Talk about that pressure you feel on the one hand to talk about it because it's the most obvious thing and it's important to you. And on the other hand, to be an artist who has other things on their mind and heart to get out there. Yeah, it's really weird for the first time ever having this like, and you know, I obviously have a part of me that can just say like, oh, but don't worry about that. Do what you want to do and everything. Sure. Which I know is true, but still I feel this like, depending on what the issue is or what happens everything, I feel like a genuine obligation to.

cover or talk about certain things because it's like I know that it's like expected of me which is weird but also and but most of the time though yeah I genuinely care about that thing and have an opinion that I don't mind sharing and whatever else but then when I get on and so yeah the videos that's one thing because I don't you know I can do those whenever I want and I can make them about whatever I want and they're kind of political by their very nature and that's all fine with me but yeah on stage yes there's plenty of times where I will and I'm doing some of this lately where like something funny will happen with just like with my wife or something. It's just like a funny story about our marriage. Yeah. And I want to talk about it because I think

it's funny and I'm a stand-up comedian but then I have this thing where I'm like, yeah, but people, you know, that ain't why people come to see me or whatever. Wow. Yeah. What I find though, because this happened genuinely organically, like that story, the thing with my wife I'm talking about, I do talk about it

on stage. Yeah. And as I did it over the months, like on stage, the point it's at right now, by the end of it, it's very explicitly political, like extremely explicitly political. And I just did that like by my nature. So on the one hand, like it's a, it is a big part of me. And I kind of do get pulled in that general direction, but it's still weird to feel these like, I don't know, feel like I have these other expectations or whatever that

so specific. People say to all three of us a lot. Not, not like all the time, but we get it frequently enough after a show to all three of us that we didn't talk about Trump as much as they expected or like it all or whatever. And they usually like when anybody brings it up, it's because they're disappointed in it, the fact that we didn't. But we, you know, we don't, we want to talk about other shit. Hey, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, y'all. Ski-you. What's up, guys? It's the show. We're going to take a little.

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Like, we're still all talking about the shit. The shit that applies. Yeah, that applies to that. Sure. Society and our culture and all that. Sure.

You know what I mean? Yeah. In a more broad sense. Right. We're not up there just talking about like his policy decisions, whatever, you know, if he had any. Right. But like, yeah, it's a weird. It's a weird thing having to like navigate it instead of feeling like before, for years and years I could just literally do whatever the hell I wanted.

Yeah. It didn't matter as long as it. And man. funny and I still think as long as it's funny enough it still is fine I know that it's fine but yeah it's a weird thing I imagine that's a tough thing to and I've sort of that's kind of all hypothetical to me like I've why wonder well because I feel like we you know I mean we have a pretty small audience you know what I mean and so and it's I guess I haven't really felt much pressure like to do one thing or not do another thing or whatever.

That's interesting because one thing I was going to ask is... We're pretty Bush League, you know? No, no. But do you get accused, have you ever been accused of pandering? I think what Drew, I think what was getting at is like he knows from being a big fan of years going to your shows and stuff that the following that you do have, like, those people, you know, have some expectation of what it is that you talk about and sing about and stuff like that. Right.

And so, but is that just you and who you are? And so it's going to continue being that way. Do you ever feel like you want to do something a little different or silly or whatever? Yeah. But I don't, you know, that ain't my. Well, I'm thinking of like I heard God on the last record. Okay. That one's about your wife, isn't it?

Am I getting the names wrong? I heard God. I'm trying to think if that has to do with her. No, that one's one of the few that doesn't actually. I blew it. I'm not one of the few. but no but yeah i mean there's nothing like super necessarily explicitly i don't know man i mean it's like i'm really drawn to art i guess where i mean i guess like where where the personal

is political you know what i mean and that that's something that i'm drawn to a lot and like songwriters and writers in general and shit where um you know or comedians too i mean like i feel like Bill Hicks and like Richard Pryor. Like those are examples of people who can talk about something very personal, but in that personal moment, all these political systems are working. You know what I mean? I'd like to think that all three of us do a version of that.

But there's still some people that, again, because we're not like, do you see what Trump said this week? Right. It's like. Like that whole thing. Yeah. You know, they're still like, well, what is this? What is this?

And this is what I was talking about with the pandering question. Let me ask you. Let me say it a different way. There's also inside our industry, at least, there's a little bit of, you guys have cultivated people who agree with you. Right. And that's why they come to your shows. It's not because you're good at, you know what I mean? Like, there's a little bit of that.

Or there's a little bit of, like, is it that or whatever? Right. And so, you know, it's easy to say, well, you just don't let that shit get to you or whatever. But, you know, it can. Yeah. When your peers are, like, questioning openly. So are these guys legit or are they just getting a bunch of people who agree with them or whatever? Do you think about that at all?

Do you not give a shit? No, I mean, I wish I didn't give a shit. I do give a shit about stuff like that. But, you know what I mean? But honestly, I don't think it's not when it comes to that question because I haven't, at least haven't heard anybody say that. And if anything, I feel like are... You're being consumed in the South.

As soon as we stopped being consumed exclusively in the South. Because who the fuck could accuse you of pandering when you're... Well, yeah, exactly. Because, I mean, we'll drive a lot of... I mean, I feel like we would probably have more people in our shows every the years if we hadn't been harping on that shit. Absolutely. Now, and...

You know, but that's an interesting question. I mean, maybe in some places that does... That is more... Well, I guess, sure. Like, our general... politics are more popular in certain states than in Alabama, that's for sure. Drew talks about it on stage some, and he experienced it before I did because he moved to New York well before all this, but it is weird for me.

I know to go from, I mean, he's right, and it's true for all three of us, like starting in the South and doing the type of things we do, it was like, yeah, the opposite of pandering. Right, exactly. Yeah, it's confrontational. Yeah, I mean, that's seriously, depending on what we were talking about, it was, yeah, the total opposite of that. And to go from that to, yeah, we've got a show in San Francisco and they know we're liberals, it's a bunch of liberals and we're a bunch of liberal shit.

I see. It can feel, even though it's what we do and have been doing forever, it has a different, like, flavor to it. That's fascinating. It's weird. You know, it's like not the kind of thing you ever think about. That's interesting. So it's like weird for me having came up the way I did to ever be accused of measuring because, like, you know.

It's like, man, there were some nights where I was afraid I'd get my ass worked for sandwich. for saying this. Yeah. And that's totally, I mean, we felt like, I mean, there,

but that's a fascinating question. And honestly, it's something that I'm, I'm plenty neurotic, but that's one, you know, but that's, but that's one,

yeah, element that hadn't existed until now. But the one that gets me is when we travel outside the south, and we talk about this a lot, is how we can feel exoticized culturally. And that's, that's more of what we've run into

and like felt weird about, I think, particularly in Europe, and it's like, but also, like, I feel like just the further away from the south you get in the U.S., there is always that, there's that subtext. You know what I mean? Where it's like, you know, dance for us, cowboy or whatever kind of weird shit they have in their, in their minds. They asked us the weirdest questions. Really? You're like, how'd you get out? With no irony.

This lady asked Trey. and she was sweet. She ended up being very sweet, and she took me and Corey making fun of her very well. Right. She asked Trey how he got to college. Jeez. Yeah.

And then it's like, how do you even respond? Because it's like you want to crack a joke, like on the turnip truck, you know, or whatever. What I said was, I read books.

That's the answer that I gave her. Well, we have these things at Tennessee called high school. Yeah. Have you heard of an application? Yeah. Just like that kind of thing. But I always feel kind of obligated whenever we bring this up to say that, like, yeah, we do run into that a lot.

It's not right. When you look at, like, the percentage of people that come to our shows outside the South, too, like, this is a very small minority of people that do this type of thing. Totally. People are fucking awesome. And even some of these people are awesome, but it is just funny sometimes. Some of the perceptions they clearly have. going out. Yeah.

Maybe this is just white guilt talking, but sometimes white guilt comes from a true and correct place. You reckon? I feel like there might be, I feel like there might be some black folk listening right now who are like, oh, really? Do people try to make you dance for them? Right. You know what I mean?

Try to get you to be the token. And it's like, yeah, I know that that happens other people, but it is just wild to experience so viscerally. Well, and that's, I want to tell you this story. I don't know if you remember this, but we were doing Raleigh, North Carolina. and for the most part I've never even thought about it. But like at the end of our shows, we have people come up to us sometimes with tears in their eyes.

Just like, you know, I felt so alone. I just felt like I haven't had a voice for years and you've given me a voice and now I don't have to be scared anymore. Wow. Well, and that's awesome. That's powerful. And I always just think like, man, that's fucking powerful. But it's never like occurred to me how fucking ironic this is

coming from this blonde-haired white lady. Until we were in Raleigh, North Carolina, and our good friend Matt White decided to shout out to Matt White if you're listening. He's not, but shout out to Matt White. He's a black comic, and we let him do time on our show because he's a buddy of ours and he's hilarious. So he hung out with us at the meet and greet.

And so for the first time, I'm hearing these white women say this while my black friend is sitting there and dude, he was cracking me up because they're saying this and he's just sitting in the back going, uh-huh, yeah, word, oh yeah, oh no, they're giving you a voice. You don't know what that feels like.

Okay. And I'm fucking in the floor dime, but it's the first time I thought about that. I was like, man, we ain't shit. Right. I mean, that's, right. That's another part of the whole, like I was saying earlier, you could easily come off as more of an apologist for the South than you mean to. That's another thing is like, if you don't watch it,

you can easily come off as, you know, very like white man's burdeny kind of, like bitching about, you know, people judge me and it ain't fair and I'm profite, you know what I mean? Everybody thinks I'm dumb because of how I talk and it's like, Nobody wants to hear a straight white guy. Talk about being, you know, oppressed that way. Get ready for it. Which is fair. I predict just stadium tours for you.

And when that happens, that is the first thing the Internet is going to start singing, oh, great, another straight white guy trying to be woke so he can get points or whatever. That's holy. And that's just curious if you had dealt with that at all yet. Man, no, because, I mean, like I said, we just, I guess we haven't had that type of, you know what I mean success is a weird

that's a whole other topic but you know what I mean I think there's a part of it too though your fucking intensity it just don't leave a lot of room I don't think for people to question your motives in my opinion right yeah

and that's like you with the videos but it's different on stage you know what I mean yeah my intensity is different on stage that's definitely true that's true but also just like our persona's on stage

and the way we are on stage I don't know I just think that people feel a lot more licensed to like I guess question things then maybe with you Lee where I mean you're up there screaming about fucking I mean it's right I mean it's awesome well I mean yeah I am

screaming and shit in my videos and people have been questioning my authenticity since the job but that's some like but not whether or not you are liberal They question like, they think you're some liberal agent insider who's pretending to be a redneck. Oh, that's funny. No one's ever been like, oh great, another white guy coming to help us.

That is not happening. Well, but I think the thing is that it's, and I appreciate the fact that y'all are looking inward in this way, because I feel like that's super important to what we're all trying to do is like, but the difference, I think, between what y'all are doing and, you know, a lot of what you might see is like, quote, you know, liberal, quote, political comics or whatever, is that y'all are looking at yourselves and where you come from and trying to look at your complicity in this shit.

And like the fact that you all, that half of this conversation has been marked by, man, I really don't want to be a fucking apologist. I don't want to be, you know what I mean? Like, that's a process that a lot of folks don't go through. A lot of white people don't go through. They're just like, well, I'm right. Right.

And here you go. Yeah. And everybody needs me to save them, and here we go. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's like that that's what I think is, and you know, maybe it's like, and of course, being a white cis-hete fucking Christian college educated dude.

I'm glad you said. We can only be. With the gay faction of fans Trey has, it goes that way too. Sorry. Yeah. But it's like, I mean, of course, like somebody meeting our. you know, all of us, our profile can only be so oppressed in this country. You know what I mean?

Right. Without question. I don't want anyone listening to think that this is me feeling sorry for myself about this thing that's happening where people are questioning this about us and our authenticity. I just wanted to talk about it because it's something on my mind that I want to do with me. No, of course. But, yeah, I don't think I've been oppressed by anything except asthma. Right.

But I think the fact that we are, all four of us, if we travel to a certain place, we are going to, just by the way we talk, we are going to be marked by difference. And that is an experience that a lot of so-called white people in this country don't get. And that is a fucking infinitesimally small, uh, fucking portion of what a black person gets every day their fucking life. You know what I mean in America or an immigrant who speaks English as a second language or whatever. So it's like just the fact, I feel like, I don't know, that has helped me with the process of like, all right.

So then what is whiteness? What is, quote, Americanness? What is fucking masculinity? What are all these ideas? You know what I mean? Because for me, that was my very first, I think, taste of like, oh shit. Just being who you are affects the outside. outcome of different situations.

You know what I mean? And that's the first time, I guess, I felt that on a personal level. Right. And I've seen that in the lives of people around me. But it's like if people like us don't fucking call attention to our own privilege and power, then, you know, who the fuck's going to talk to a Roy Moore voter? You know what I mean? Because a Roy Moore voter isn't going to listen to the fucking, you know, liberal,

comedian from San Francisco who's just right about everything and never questions themselves in any way. You know what I mean? And why would they? Fuck that person. Exactly. Right. Exactly.

Well, in the next, we don't have a whole lot of time left I don't think. But so then tell us, Lee, with those problems you just highlighted, you know, pitch to our mostly Democrat audience, why Democrat socialism. All those issues. I was going to be facetious. One of the ways you and I first connected is that, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'll just say what I said to you,

and you seem to at least empathize with that. Right. I was like, I said to you, I don't think full-on socialism works. I think it's been abused every time anyone's ever done it, but I'm ready for something new in this country, and the reason that Bernie excited me is because he had some ideas to put some power and some wealth back into the hands,

of some people who I feel like have been exploited, but not in a completely centralized way. And I'm not saying you completely agree with me, but you were like, yeah, I get where you're coming from. Talk a little bit about that and when that sort of became, I guess, your outlook. Yeah. Well, I guess, man, I was like,

my dad is a huge, like, kind of southern political history nerd, you know. And he was, so, I mean, I remember growing up, up. I mean, basically the way he laid it out for me as I was growing up was like, once poor white folks realize that they're in the same boat as poor black folks economically and work to erase white supremacy, he didn't use the word white supremacy, but racism, you know, as soon as that happens, everything's going to change down here. And he's like, and that's the one thing. that people in power have always wanted to keep from happening. For sure.

Is to keep poor white folks from realizing the worst poor black folks have it, the worst poor white folks have it. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that's something that I guess I've been operating off of for a long time. And, you know, like I draw inspiration from, like what Martin Luther King was doing in his last years for the poor people's campaign in Memphis. You know, it's like he was celebrated in certain pockets of America,

if white America, for the civil rights movement. But after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and he started moving on to like, all right, now let's make sure that garbage men in Memphis get paid. How'd that go for it? That didn't work out great. You know what I mean? people didn't well and you know that's what he was that's what he was doing in Memphis when he got shot is he was he was organizing for garbage men there's

you know what I mean there's a few like examples of that type of thing where it's like it almost started to happen at certain times like I didn't know until a few years ago about this group it was called the the young patriots in Chicago in Chicago right was these Appalachian you know he's hillbillies white hillbillies who moved up to Chicago to work like a lot of people did and they got up there and like the group they were in, they wore Confederate flags on their jackets and all this stuff. Right. And they ended up aligning themselves or having an alliance with the Black Panthers.

Yeah, Fred Hampton got them going. Because they were united against this like systemic oppression they were both facing from the people with the money and the power and all that. And of course, you know, it ended up not going anywhere. It was washed or whatever. Fred Hampton got killed. Yeah. Yeah.

But like, it's that type of thing that any time you see that even begin to materialize, it just gets, like, wiped out because people have this inclination, too, to point, I don't know, they never, they never, like, point up at the problem. They always point, you know, out. Even if it's not a racial thing, like, with this whole, like, wage suppression and all this stuff, like, you see people all the time, like, when the conversation is about fast food people. Right. You'll see some EMT or something.

It's a super important job, obviously. And they're like, you mean to tell me that somebody flipping burgers deserves $15 an hour when I make $13 an hour as an E&T in rural Georgia or whatever? And the answer is, no, man, that's not what we're telling. What we're saying is, you both deserve more than that. Yeah, exactly. And the guy who owns the fast food corporation deserves a shit power. lot less.

And then he makes for sitting on his ass all day. That's what we're saying. Yeah. We're not saying they deserve more than you. You both deserve fucking better. Right. From the, you know, the people at the top, but they don't, that's never where their eyes, you know, initially go. But it's interesting.

Yeah. And I think you're right. And I think people have been trained. I was reading on the way up here about, you know, there were like these couple of moments in Southern politics in the late 1800s with the popular. the People's Party, and then the early 1900s with the progressivist, you know, where you had, you know, in the early 1900s, Huey Long and Jim Folsom in Alabama. And these folks who were espousing socialist economics where they were saying, all right, we got to redistribute the wealth. Huey Long's program in Louisiana, I think was called Share the Wealth. I think that was the name of this program, you know, which LBJ's, you know, a great society grew out up, you know, FDR's New Deal, all that.

And it's like, of course, at that time, these folks and everybody in Southern politics were suppressing the black vote. You know what I mean? And that's the number one thing we have to acknowledge is that all these attempts at socialism and wealth redistribution in the South have been marked by white supremacy just as every other political, major political movement did. But I think in those instances, you saw. all white working class southerners saying pointing upward, as you said, and saying, okay, it's not the fault of this guy who makes less than me that I can't fucking own a house. You know, it's not the fault of my coworker. It's the fault of this fucking boss who doesn't pay me dick but has fucking 20 houses

or whatever it is, you know. So it has happened. There have been these moments where it's not. only kind of started to move that way, but we've had elected officials that in the context of their time, we're really pushing hard in that direction. And then I think the way that the Republican, well, first the Dixie Crats and then the Republican Party have just fucking doubled down on white supremacist policies. And, you know, these quote unquote moral issue, the anti-gay, anti-choice issues, it's like it's a way of continuing to do with.

what the machine did for so long, which is to pit working white people against working people that had it even harder than they do. Right. You know what I mean? Exploding the differences. Yeah. And fucking them all over. Right.

Right. I think for me, well, two things. I know that, you know, people from where I'm from, like my father-in-law comes to mind, who's, you know, a great dude. Yeah. You know, anytime you start talking about socialism or communism, you know, he gets very intense about it. Sure.

thinking Lenin. Like he's thinking 60 million people being killed because they don't want their wealth redistributed or whatever the case is. And I'm not, I'm not into that at all. Of course. When you hear that phrase redistribution of wealth, I think people tense up because they imagine a government, especially in the South, where the government's done this. They've come in and pay poor people pennies on the dollars for their land and forced them to give it up for their farmland or whatever. And that's what people are thinking. And I'm not for that at all.

What I am for is some acknowledgement of what corporations have become and do to people in the United States. And the reason that I'm leaning way more towards Democratic Socialists than Democrat lately is because that story you just told about the young Patriots. Yeah. If now in America something like that happened and you had that exact thing going on. One second, please. You had that exact thing going on where you had a group of. white working class people with their rebel flag patches. Right.

And the Black Panthers marching together. Conservatives mind would explode. Right. They would be so furious. Absolutely. And they'd be so scared. Yeah. So would many people in the current Democratic Party.

Oh yeah, big time. They would be wondering why the guy with the rebel flag, they would be trying to call them out for having it. And I'm not saying it's wrong to do that. Right. Of course, we're also talking about, this is the late 60s we're talking about, which is very different time. And that flag hadn't quite been ingrained to mean segregation because that's when it became that flag.

Right. But my point being is I feel like that group scares for different reasons both parties now. Yeah. And the fact that that group would scare both parties makes me go, oh. Exactly, dude. I definitely not going to ever be a Republican. And I'm going to keep voting Democrat in elections when that's who my choices are and I need to go that route. But I'm starting to lean more towards, well, what can we do about?

well that problem you just highlight it yeah no I mean I yeah where you say well as our listeners are getting quite used to the busier we get we actually have to wrap up because we have to go do a pre-show meet and greet with some lovely ladies nice speaking of capitalism that's actually perfect but Lee thank you so much for sitting down with us and I think one I want this to happen again and perhaps maybe you can play us something next time and we can get a longer hang because it's uh I hate that this has to be a short one sure but thank you for everything. No, man, thank you. But we will play a track of yours if that's cool. Yeah. And if it's not cool, Corey will edit what I just said. I won't do that.

I'll just be real confused. Play whatever you want. Okay, cool, man. Well, thank you, man. Thank you for the conversation. Thank you for taking time. All right, everybody. So, Lee Baines, check him out.

What's your website? Thegloryfires.com. Leegloryfires.com. The, the glorifers. And your gloryfires three? What are you on Twitter? Oh, Lord. I think it might just be at glory fires

Well, we'll have the link set up whenever we share this podcast And so go check him out on everything His albums are fantastic I'm a huge fan, you should be too So anyway, see you next time Askeed! Thanks boy

Thank you all for listening to the well-read show We'd love to stick around longer But we got to go Tune in next week If you got nothing to do Thank you God bless you good night and skew The Bopai's family feast Why is everybody suddenly family with Popeye's history table?

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