The Rich Redmond Show

Unknown: Kind of got out of
style, and there are so many

nutrients in organ meats that we
need.

Fiber. Fiber, yeah. Fiber, yeah.
Nowadays. Fiber, a lot of people

eat the placenta, whoa, after a
birth of a baby.

Oh, my God. But who people eat
it? I never hear I mean, that's

a lot of nutrients. There

are tons of tons of nutrients in
the holy cow, geez, buddy, you

look like a freaking character
out of a zombie thriller. But

when you're done, I don't

know if I would do that. We
definitely have to, you know,

pop it in some olive oil. This
is the rich Redmond show. What

is a is up, folks? Yep, your
iPhone, your watch, your clock,

is correct. It is that time.
It's time for another exciting,

always exciting, I hope. Episode
of the rich Redmond Show coming

to you from beautiful Spring
Hill, Tennessee. We talk about

great things like music,
motivation, success, whatever

comes up in the room. Lots of
drummers. Drummers are the

heartbeat of this city. Without
a great drummer, I mean, a good

drummer can take an average band
and lift them to heavenly

heights. A bad drummer can take
a superior band and just make

the whole thing tank. Now, I'm
lucky that I'm talking to my

good pal who is a great drummer.
He doesn't get to do it all the

time, but he does have a gig
coming up at the city winery.

He's gonna be playing in a Huey
Lewis tribute band. Jim

McCarthy. Jim McCarthy,
voiceovers.com when is the gig?

Jim, it is may 28

at City winery, and it's the
heart of rock and roll. Dude.

I'm so proud of you because
mentally, like, law of

attraction wise, you basically
just said I'm gonna play drums.

I'm gonna be in

your BEN, yeah? And the guitar
player

was in my is in my BNI chapter,
and someone connected me to him,

and I invited him in. He became
a member, yeah? And the first

time I met him, I said, Well,
just be prepared that I'm gonna

be your drummer.

Nice guy, yeah, real nice. I
can't wait to come cheer you on.

I've never seen you play a gig
as a

first and the last time for
everything. No,

no, you're they're gonna love
you. And you've been doing the

immersion technique that we
always talk about, which is, you

play along to the music. You
make your little charts, if you

want to, but for the most part,
you're driving around, you're

working out, you're living the
music. Every time you're in your

car, you're listening to it.
Yep, you're air drumming. So

it's going to be part of your
DNA. So I'm excited about that.

Now, before I introduce today's
guest, I'm so excited about it.

You wanted to talk publicly
about my incredible lack of

knowledge about sports ball.
Yes, sports ball. Now, by the

time this episode comes out,
somebody will have won the Super

Bowl, that's right. And who are
you? Sports ball or the Super

Bowl? Sports ball. Sports ball,
yeah, I don't know if we could

say the Super Bowl.

Why not? This the awesome bowl?
Let's just refer it as that.

Yeah, yeah. It's all the
different copyrights they have.

But the the Eagles and the
chiefs are playing,

yeah? Those are like two
superpowers. You know, they

always have been with celebrity
quarterbacks that have the

girlfriends in the public eye.

Well, there's a Travis Kelsey
being on the Chiefs is dating

Taylor Swift. And, you know, I
wouldn't be a bit surprised if

there's a proposal coming
Sunday, which means that the

Chiefs have to win, and it's all
rigged anyway. So

rigged, yeah, what is this
about? Conspiracy Theory, guy?

Look at the past games with, you
know, several chiefs instances,

and the way the refs call the
game is questionable,

interesting. They can control
the narrative and the outcome of

the game by certain calls. Well,
we're gonna open we're gonna

open up this conversation to our
guest today. But the most

exciting thing about Sunday for
me is I've checked what's on the

menu for our hosts, and one of
these things is this creamy.

It's like a chicken dip. It's
like this creamy. It's my

favorite thing. So I'm going to
be just by the bowl of that all

day long,

right? Because you give yourself
permission to eat badly at Super

Bowl. Heck,

yeah. No breakfast, no lunch,
just going in straight for the

it's almost like a second
Thanksgiving. Yeah, okay, let's

get to

this. Because this guy, I mean,
I would be, I wouldn't have a

career in Nashville, because
this guy was so nice to me in

1919 97 when I moved to
Nashville, this gentleman had

already been here four years,
hailing from Houston, Texas,

calling Nashville, Tennessee
home for 33 years. He is an

amazing drummer. He's been
playing with his artist, Dirks

Bentley for the same amount of
time that I've been playing with

Al Dean, 26 years. He's played
on two number one songs, two

Grammy needed nominated
projects. Dirks Bentley over 20

number one songs. We toured
together back in the day. We got

a lot of stories to share. Our
friend Steve misomore, What's

up, pal? Thank you so much for
having me, dude. Thank

you so much looking great in
that Dolce and Gabbana. Thank

you, nice buddy. Some goat or
deer died for you. Some

animal gave his life so I could
look good.

Hashtag, cool. And everybody
should know that you and I are a

long time DW endorsers you got
the hat on today. A hat on,

yeah, yes. I love dw, yes, yeah.
And you're a maple mahogany guy,

right? Um, actually,

Maple gum. Recently I am. I do
have two maple mahogany kits

too, as well as maple kit. Yeah,

my session kit is a maple
mahogany but for the most part,

I'm always just a standard 1980s
technology off the shelf, shelf,

Maple drum

guy you cannot beat maple
shells, straight up, just maple,

yeah, however, Maple mahogany,
which I've seen some of the

stuff you've talked about, yeah,
especially for live touring and

all that, is a front house guy's
dream,

birch. Birch is not good or no.
Birch is

great too. It just Maple is
maple just has the power the

mahogany in it just kind of
tones it down. Just a skosh,

just a little bit because

mahogany, I think, was export
back in the day, Pearl export,

that was the primary wood they
made, um

exports, a lot of entry level
kits back in the day, like my

first Yamaha stage drum set. I
forget the last stage custom was

Philippine mahogany, which is
kind of a very affordable wood,

yeah, but it's got a lot of snap
and attack to it, you know,

yeah, it's still

a good sounding wood. But

again, birch are great sounding
kits. The Opry did have a birch

kit for a long time. It was a
Yamaha recording company. It was

a birch kit. That was a birch
snare. I remember that was like,

I love it was a good sounding
kit. I

love me some recording costs,
but let

me Can't you just tune a drum
the sound? Make it sound

amazing, no matter what,

for the most part, unless it's a
crazy bad out of round Yeah, old

drum, or even the

bearing edges are off just a
bit, yeah? Maybe

so. But the thing about dw is
that particularly, their true

tone, their the lugs on there
are, there's a higher thread

count, yeah? So you can really
get things dialed. And just the

way that they have their build,
you cannot mess up a DW drum.

Yeah, I've never heard one where
you cannot just you hear the

beat frequency, you can tune it
up just like that. They

put the let, the note letter on
the inside of

the still tone. Tap them and
yeah, freaking crazy. Yes.

It's like a polite suggestion.
Yeah, it's not that this

is where have you ever, like,
tuned him to the I

have to say, I have not. I've
experimented

with but unfortunately, your
intervals necessarily aren't

gonna be Yeah, what you write,
you know aren't gonna be there,

but, yeah, but I don't do that.
Yeah, I

think it was Terry bazio. I read
in an interview one time he

talked about the musical note
intervals that he had on all his

times. I'm going, Are you
serious, like,

a chromatic kit, right? Yeah.
So, well,

he's from another planet. Yeah,
you played on his kit right over

there, yeah, at dw, and I've sat
behind it is, it's just, where

do you begin? I can't, he does.
Yeah,

you work your way left to right
somehow, yeah? But I get

to left and like, Okay, that's
good.

It's basically like playing a
piano that is drums

right, times 10, right, yeah,

yeah. Our friend Victor Salazar,
you know the drum was for

Chicago. Yeah, he's very much
inspired by Terry, and he has a

Terry bazio inspired drum set.
So have you ever,

yes, I have played on that kit
live a long time ago, went to

Victor's place. Yeah? And yeah,
he's got that kit. And, you

know, God, that's about all I
could. He goes, have as much

fun. There's two kids, yeah, I
think, Oh,

he's got spokes and he's got,
like, trash can lids on a remote

high hat. Yeah, he's that guy.
Now, it's funny, um, there's,

there's a kid named Wayne
Wilburn, and he was Terry's tech

for the longest of time, but we
went together at school,

together at Texas Tech
University, and then when he got

out of school, he moved to
Austin, Texas. At the time,

Terry was living in Austin, and
I think Wayne was working as

either like a sous chef, or he
was making sushi or something

with a Sue sound. And Terry met
him at this restaurant and said,

Hey, kid, you want to so he
traveled the world with Terry

for decades, and he had tuned
those drums every day, wow, set

him up, yes, very early. That
would

be an interesting YouTube video
to watch, to watch the guy.

That would be great time lapse
and speed it up. Like, yeah,

sure. Like, Portnoy

needs to do that for his kid
that he's touring with. He has a

monster. He's going to be here
Monday, apparently. Oh, and

you're going to see him. I am
nice. You were invited. Jim

likes the Dream Theater, yeah,
yeah. I like, you know, the

occasional girl in the audience,
you know,

wow, ouch. We're a rush guy.
Were you? I

love rush, but it, you know, I
was more of a police guy, I

know, yeah.

But as of in their later years,
I believe rush had a much

heavier female presence in their
audience

when they started adding the
news.

You ever see that the College
Humor with Paul Rudd and the

other guy, Jason

Sudeikis, not so DECA. Jason.
Um, born that.

Jason Bourne, yeah, but anyway,
it was the same guys from, I

love you, man. Oh yeah, nice.
And they go backstage to meet

the band, and I think Jason eats
Neil's sandwich. Jason Siegel.

Siegel, that's right. And that's
when they go, you know, the the

modern day war today is Tom soy
and Getty's looking at, did you

just say Tom soy? That's what
you say. Like, I don't say that.

He goes, Yeah, you do. It's a
very you've now, you've never

seen

the link. I have not. I really
got, I don't think I've

seen this is a brilliant film.
He is. He really is, yeah, yeah.

I really enjoy his movies.

Yeah, that Neil gets upset
because they ate his sandwich. I

did not, I've not seen this.
Yeah, yeah. And it basically be

like, I think, I think Neil even
says, as they're walking back

off stage, which probably never
happened, because I think Neil

just bolted all the time, yeah.
He says, You know, I think I

counted five females in the
audience,

the only one now, Jules Thomas
loves rush. You know the DW

educational director.

Oh, yeah. Okay. She Yeah. She
loves rush, man. Have you seen

the documentary? Which one
document? Yeah, it

was, How many were there from
the latest one? There was one in

2011 2012 and my wife and I
watched it. She kind of humored

me because we were talking about
it where I worked, and I'm like,

I gotta get around. You know, it
was called Beyond the light at

stage. And I asked Courtney,
hey, you know, do you mind

watching this? And she goes, you
know, if you want to watch it,

let's put it on so we watched
it. She said, you know, that

didn't make me a fan of the
band, but I have a deeper

appreciation for what they do.

It was the one that had more of
a personal insight into them as

people, as players. It showed
where they came from, and all of

that kind of I thought it was
amazing. I was a huge rush. Was

that the one where they was in
high school

at the end, they're all sitting
at the table getting hammered,

probably, yeah, they're all
freaking just

sloshed, yeah, I just remember
it was just really, really, it

was well done. It was like, well
deserved.

The one that they did for the
very last tour was interesting

as well, because it really goes
into, like they shut everything

down because Neil was just done,
yeah, he says, You don't

realize, you know, going into
being 60 years old playing this

music, it's a marathon. You
know? It is so physically

taxing. Your hands hurt, your
feet hurt. And he was more

interested in mapping out the
next motorcycle route to the

next show.

That was his happy place. I was
Yeah. And now, you know our

buddy, Chris stanky from Sabian,
um Jules, his husband is was

very close personal friends with
Neil, so they spent a lot of

time together. Mad respect. I
mean, that's a lot of music

coming from three people. Oh
God. And to think that Walter

Getty could play all of that
business

and doing vamps on the feet. I
mean,

that's five way coordination,

yeah? And they see they all seem
like such cool dudes,

yeah? Especially Alex seems
really funny. Yeah. You know, we

were actually

doing an episode of this show
with Cole Cole Marcus. Cole

Marcus. And that's the day we
found out Neil died. It was

during an episode I was doing my
executive producer thing,

looking stuff up on the internet
and whatever, while you guys

were talking. And you see my
visceral reaction of finding

out, yeah, I'll never oh my
gosh,

jeez, buddy. All right,

we had his bus driver. Neil's
bus driver was our driver for a

sub driver for one weekend. So
naturally, I sat up in the

front. Was asking him questions,
and he would drive his

motorcycle and the bus driver
would follow him, but he just

would ride his motorcycle to the
to the gigs or to wherever they

were going, Yeah, and he had the
bus and he would just follow

him, yeah,

and then he'd somehow have to
sleep. At some point. He must

have a strange schedule,
because, you know what I mean,

because usually, like, you're on
the bus, yeah, sleeping, yeah,

you know.

Well, he would have to, you
know, I guess it was a guarantee

of him getting to the gig.
Somebody had to tell him, yeah,

you know, totally, where's Neil?
I don't know, somewhere between

Oregon and Seattle. He was
crossing between Montana and

Idaho through bear tooth pass.
I'm

not a motorcycle guy. I don't
trust myself. I have you ever

ridden one? Not very scary, very
scary. I mean, like to dress

like I ride motorcycles, right?
You know what? I mean, same. But

I think that I would, if I got a
motorcycle, I would go 20 miles

an hour.

See, I got it out of my system
early. I was an early teenager,

my father bought us, uh huh,
well, oddly enough, a Honda

Odyssey. But it wasn't known
then as a minivan. And back

then, it was a dune buggy, like
it had a roll cage and

everything, big old off road
tires, and you sat in it had a

steering wheel. It was called an
Honda Odyssey. And then the

successor to it was the Honda
Pilot. Oh, same thing, same kind

of engine and everything. And
part of that, my father was very

good to us. He bought us a it
was a 1984 200 CCC, CCC, cc

motorcycle, dirt bike that
actually I learned the concept

of manual clutch and stick shift
on that motorcycle. Wow. Wow.

And I wrote it off road, and got
my father did it, to get it out

of our system so we wouldn't
have a street bike

faster speed manual, five,

five. But it was, you know, with
the gears. It gave you the

concept of how a clutch works,
because you had to, you know, do

this and everything. Your clutch
was on your left hand, and you

did that kind of a thing, would
then go through the gears that

way, like a slam, pretty much,
yeah, yeah.

Sometimes me and my wife like to
take, we have a 2009 Honda

Element, still owned an element,
yes, and we have, it's a fight.

It's a stick. Sometimes we like
going to, like a nice restaurant

in it, just to see the valet
kids go,

what do I do? Yes, instant
security. You see, we

see the kid jump in, and often
he jumps out, yeah, and he goes

to somebody else, like, there's
always one guy, the older guy,

the older guy, older guy. And
he's like, Yeah,

I own four of those. And they
were never had the stick, but

over the years, and it was, you
know, $20,000 or less, a great,

reliable drama. Why

did they stop making them is, is
I cannot? I mean, it's so

stupid. They're amazing. They
and you can, yeah, they're just

ours. Is still incredible. 200
200,000 over 210,000 something

like that. Awesome. Yeah?

Those vehicles that it was
deceptively large, yeah, the

seats out of it. Yeah, you
could, you could fit, like

another car in

there, and practically can hose
it out just to, just to clean it

out. My so Carrie and my wife's
a florist, a wedding florist. So

has in the past. We have a van
now, but it was like we had it

in the past. Have sometimes
packed that thing up full. Yeah,

of stuff, yeah, hey, man,

wedding florist, that is
lucrative. Yeah, because

General, just, I mean people, I
mean, well, yeah. I mean, if one

little bouquet like get, well,
is $150 and then they add the

text, I'm thinking about the
amount of flowers that

are about one 800 flowers. That
kind of a stash. She does, my

wife just does carry an just
does weddings and events. And we

used to have a floral shop by
Kroger in Providence in Mount

Juliet. Yeah. And did that for
about five or six years, and she

just kind of realized it retail
is difficult. It's so difficult

doing that kind of thing. So she
loved, she loved, she loves the

one on one with the bride. She
loves being able to meet the

bride and the mom and make that
vision, her the bride's vision,

come to life. That's the goal,
the entire goal. And in that

process, it's done very, very
well. So she's usually booked

out a year and a half. That's
weddings are kind of booked out

that far. But she's booked out
she can work as much as she

wants to. So

is it a thing where, like, they
design it? So she has a

relationship with a vendor.
She's got to go get the flowers.

Pretty much still, she'll have a
meeting with the with the bride,

and figure out, sometimes they
have an idea, sometimes they

don't, sometimes they'll have a
look book or some sort of idea,

even if they don't have any
idea, Karen is like, what's your

favorite color? Let's go from
there. And then Carrie Ann will

kind of mock up or come together
and say, Okay, this is a kind of

bouquet we can do. And what your
budget? If it's too much, let's

figure out. Let's figure out a
way to make it

work for you. With dandelions
are in your more of your budget

range,

that would be more my budget
clovers Clovis,

how long you crazy kids? Been
married?

20 years, nice. 20 years has
passed, yeah?

So really, kind of like right
after we were all doing because

you and I, here's the deal. I
want to go back to Barbara's,

but we were on the road
together, so you're, you're

talking to a younger Jason l
Dean Dirks Bentley and Miranda

Lambert all coming up together.
So playing like nightclubs,

fairs, three quarter basketball
arenas, and we either opened up

for you on some things, or we
would do things where we would

take turns as headliners, kind
of a thing. And we were, at the

time we're doing somewhere
between 180 and two, 200 chosen

the year would have been oh
60708, something like that. So

oh six would be coming up on 20
years. So you guys got married

right around that time,

2004 Yeah, yeah. Wow. Nice. Good
for you. Actually, remember,

remember, you know, actually,
you know, here's this funny

story as last year, maybe a
couple years ago, we were

sitting in bed and watching TV,
yeah, and we were both kind of

like, and I just realized, I was
like, it was June, like, the

10th or 15th, or something like
that. And I was like, Oh my God.

And she's like, what? And I was
like, our wedding anniversary

was, like,

two weeks ago. That's awesome.
We both forgot, right? And so

we were like, oh, you know, we
went to Laughlin table last

week. It's, it's our favorite
place. Lachlan tape went to

Laughlin table. And I was like,
and I was like, well, let's just

count that as they were like,
okay, yeah, that's how you

marriage. Well, you

got to do something special for
this year. That's what my wife

and I did for our 20

we bought a plane. Okay, forget
Barbara.

Tell us about this. You know.
Because we were talking and

burning through this, this great
concept of you, obviously your

world class Dr, your career
drummer, when he started flying

airplanes, flying

airplanes started in 2013

All right, so Dirks flies, yeah,
and we've both. Both are like

aviation nerds, and talked about
he got his private pilot's

license in in college, yeah, but
he hasn't flown in a long time.

So when he made he started
having the kids started coming,

he really was starting to get
that desire of being able to get

back to the gig quicker. Our big
get home from the gig quicker,

and was able to buy a Cirrus.
And he offered me the

opportunity to go ahead and get
my private pilot's license too.

So I was like, absolutely. So I
got my private also with the

spirit that you would sometimes
be put to work, to fly the band

home, to fly the hand home. Yes,
no,

there would be FAA regulations
and sort of safety issues. Okay,

we did not, all right, so, yeah,
I was flying, and then lo and

behold, last year, it just kind
of made more sense to purchase a

plane. Her name is Charlene, as
I told you earlier, since 1981

152,

wow. 1981

plane, right? No,

well, yeah, 40 something you're
considering a legacy plane. Yes,

you could play, you could change
out all the engines.

It's got a, it's got a fairly
recent engine in it, and you can

change out other things. Got
good bones. So it's got good

bones because she's a beautiful
plane. A lover. Yeah? So much

fun. So much fun to fly. Yeah?
So me, my wife, we've gone to

Chattanooga, and we've, we've
flown a little bit, and the idea

is just to be able to fly to
Atlanta, see the god kids, or

fly down to Huntsville, or see
friends, or, you know, within an

hour flight kind of a thing, and
have fun.

Who are you God kids? To

Paul Hart. Paul and Allison
Hart. Do I know Paul will? He

used to be an engineer, actually
at I worked with Paul back in

the station, okay, all right.
And he got out of the music

business, right? He got out of
the music business and they

moved. They live outside of
Atlanta, North East of Atlanta,

and that he works for a company
that does data acquisitions for

construction. That's as close as
I can explain it.

Data acquisition. Isn't that
what Elon Musk is doing right

now? Probably. So let's open the
front lines and see what you

think. Yeah, one 800 I made

a political joke. Guys, oh my
gosh, great guys. Is the first

time for everything. So I
remember Paul Hart now, now

speaking about Sony, Sony tree.
This is kind of like, like a

linchpin in your story. This is
a, it's just like, if you have a

book that's a dog ear, you're
dog earing that page, because

that's how you met Dirks, right
through Sony tree. No, not

through Sony tree. Actually, he,
uh, he was playing down on

Market Street, on Second Avenue.
Yep, that's a, it was a club

right Market Street. Yeah, it's
still there, is it, but it has

been shut down for years. And
then after the bomb, I'm not

even sure what happened when you
were in the Christmas Day bomb

and Christmas, I think there was
some damage, but I'm not sure. I

don't really remember I played
it. We even played there, huh? I

played there in the corner
Market Street is a little tiny,

yeah, never had, never had
before. It's crazy. But he

called and was like, I do
bluegrass and 5060, shuffles.

And I was like, at the time I
was playing, it was post

Barbara's, and I was playing,
like, at Legends and a few of

those places that played country
music, yeah,

legends and Roberts, how much
for the drummer in the window

too.

So I was like, Absolutely, I'm
there. And so he went to these

great players on that tiny
little stage there with the TV

above you. And he would bring in
his pa at a big, wide his truck.

He still has the same truck pull
up there and all that. And then

Carrie Ann would come, would run
the tip jar, or his girlfriend

at the time would run the tip
jar. And any it's really good

players. And it was just great.
It's just great country music,

yeah, and mostly bluegrass. Now
the Sony tree thing. How that

happened? Yeah, I had a part
time job working at Sony tree in

the tape room. I worked
originally on a project that was

you would take the archives. You
would take two track, two inch

or a quarter inch tape, two
track, reel to reel, yes, and

you transfer that to digital
audio tape, to that tape, and

then catalog and stuff. So this
is like listening to old demos

from the 70s. What a cool job.
It was amazing. You're

being paid to be educated about
the history of Nashville, 100%

and

they used to have also, they
used to have it in the tape

room. They had a wall full 1000,
like 1500 to 2000 records. So

anything that they'd ever gotten
a cut on over the years, they

got a copy of it. Just pull out
an album and listen to stuff.

And this is at the time I was
working at barbers, when it was

like nine to three in the
morning. A lot of times I would

at three in the morning come
back and do tape order,

sometimes just till like six in
the morning, just just to come

back and like. Listen to more
listen more tunes, and I'll

listen to old country. It was a
huge education on traditional

action, you know, traditional
country music. So yeah, your

shuffle is good. It was there
for a while. It's kind of

gone away. Well, no one playing
a damn shuffle. But I remember

when I met you in 1997 at
barbers. Let me just tell you

this, the scene was Pat
McDonald, Lee Kelly.

Oh, my God, Lee. Lee Kelly as
matter, if I got to give a shout

out to Yes, he was the one that
recommended me to Dirks, because

he had played with Dirks down
there. And Lee Kelly was like,

You got to call Steve misomo.
He, like, he's more cut out for

this. Yeah. Lee wasn't, I don't
know if he wanted to do the gig,

yeah, but yeah, I've told Lee
too. I was like, Man, I owe you

a beer.

Yeah?

So that's just that our
generation, Pat McDonald, Lee

Kelly, me, Jim Riley, we're
going down to Barbara's, which

is in, which was in printers
alley. You had to walk down the

stairs. And there they had music
seven nights a week, 365, it was

a real scene. Dudes playing
country music, and you were

always on the drums. And so Jim
Riley and I come with our

diligent shirt and our pagers.
He's

gonna deny this, but he because
he has denied it before, but I

swear to God, because it is
burned into my brain. When he

came down to barbers, he had
long, curly hair. Yep, you you

knew? Yeah, you guys fanny pack,
right? A fanny pack with a

zillion shirt Yep. And came in,
and I was like, in between the

break, I was like, I'm guessing
you're a drummer. And he's and

he's so nice, and we met right
away, and he was kind of, he was

into his North Texas State, so
he got up and played and stuff.

Was playing on the thimble
stands and playing on the way,

yeah, it was crazy. Oh my god.
It was crazy.

It was hilarious. He's like,
here's my showcase, here's my

shot. Yeah,

here's my shot, right? But He's
amazing. He's incredible drummer

today, even, and, and once he
kind of figured it out, but it

was, it was fun because we were
living together. You guys didn't

you guys were roommates, yeah,
for a while. And then,

you know, he, he played on lower
Broadway, and then he got the

chestnut cake pretty early on.
But you were so nice. You know,

you were just a nice cat. You're
like,

oh yeah, call me on a good day.

It's like, I'm really not that
nice.

Come on up. So you just let
folks sit in Sure, yeah, kind of

part of the thing and stuff.

And sometimes it worked,
sometimes a day Fowler,

sometimes it didn't. Oh my god,
I thought about that name, Rod

Jensen. Rod Jensen, yeah, he was
in Dirks band, yeah, the first

six years. He had

a yeah tenure with you guys
who's in the band now?

Well, I don't even know their
names. I don't really wasn't

Robbie Harrington in the band
for a while. Robbie Harrington

was in the band for a while, but
now it's Cassidy season beyond

base. That's right. Cassidy and
Tim surgeon, who has been in the

band for 18 years. We did Pam,
tell us together. He did the

Dixie Chicks. He's Skaggs for
years. Great music, great funny,

funniest guy in the band. So dry
Dan hors on fiddle and guitars

and stuff like that. A band
leader too. Charlie warsham,

that's right, because we played
this for a few years now. Ben

helsin, who also Skaggs, played
in Skaggs as band, yeah. Am I

missing anybody? No, I think
that's it, yeah. And then Dirks

Bentley on acoustic. And

then your drum tech, is it still
Jay BJ

Abner, I was doing drums and
bass.

Wow. Now, where did Jay go? He
got into, more into Road,

managing a production. You got

into, yeah, I don't know he
think he's, I'm not sure who

he's out with right now, um, he
got in. He was Production

Manager with us, and then he
left and went to, I can't, I'm

not sure you

remember Miranda's early band.
There was a the drummer, Keith

sabrosky. Remember Keith was
with Miranda, and then, because

he was in a, he was in a pop
rock band, I forgot what it was,

nine tails, or that one hit, is
the story of a girl, that one,

and I thought he was alive for
man, but he just, I just, I

don't, yeah, he,

you know, changes, not for
everyone. Were changes, yeah,

there were changes. Everybody to
you, there's gonna be some

changes made, and you're
actually, yeah, everybody ended

up getting, you know, being
having about 20 number one

songs, yeah, if not more. This
is incredible, yeah. Well,

thanks for letting me sit in
with with my fanny pay. It's

kind

of crazy. This is you've done
amazing. And also, too, I wanted

to give a shout out to you. I've
always wanted to tell you this

because you, thank you to you.
Thank you to you. This is

already getting weird, isn't it,
you are singly responsible for

putting national drummers on the
map. Wow, I think yes. If they

had to say, well, who did it?
Well, rich Redmond drop that

mic. Who's Who's told you that
before? Boom, yeah. So thank

you. Well, thanks. I met him

back in the day when we did a
lot of that, and I guess I had a

hand in helping you, I

would say, because Jim was
always like, shout from a

mountain top all the world, you
exist

and get all the video content
out there. We did, like, a

couple of videos where people
thought you were a comedian. Oh

yeah. People were like, This
guy's a drummer, or is he a

comedian? It's like, you know.
No, take it as a, you know, it's

one of those things that, you
know, you got a lot of shade for

it, but, you know what? Who
cares? You just

got to persist. And you got to
there's only one you right?

Every every snowflake that falls
to earth, this is crazy. That's

proof of God, every snowflake is
different. Yeah, that's crazy.

Yes. How many different ways can
you make a snowflake? You can

make them the red. You can make
them blue, either way. I mean,

cheese. I

got a little political there for
a second.

Oh, my god, wow. This is good.
Jim, you're next. You know,

good. Here are my thoughts on
abortion. Is that a billboard?

Did you get that from Bill not
bill burr. It was, oh gosh,

what's his name? The other, the
other, yeah, is that Bill Burr?

It was silver, yeah, it was, it
was another shouting

comedian. So one of the I

got, what's his name, it

wasn't Sebastian maniscal. Edit
this

later, the guy, the guy who got
canceled for a season,

oh yeah, it was Louis

CK. He touched himself, yeah, he
said he started out

as act, yeah, I'm

in Toronto and but I thought it
was Bill berth. I don't

know that I heard Louis CK do
it, and I thought that was

hilarious.

My wife surprised me one a few
years ago with the pre pandemic,

with a great surprise. She goes,
we're going to Boston. She goes,

I'm not going to tell you what
it is. I was like, Okay, let's

go to Boston. And we love
Boston. Boston's amazing. And I

thought, you know, I'm kind of I
was like, I don't want to be

surprised. I want to be
surprised. I don't want to try

to look it up and spoil it or
anything like that. Although I

did see that sticks was playing
in town. I was like, well,

that's that'd be kind of cool.
Yeah, I was a huge sticks fan.

Was a kid and Todd, what's up?
And, and, yeah, is amazing. But

so we got to Boston, and she had
surprised me. Every year they

have a comedians at the garden,
the gadgets comedians or

something. It's a fundraiser,
obviously, yeah, and I'm gonna

forget David, Dave Chappelle.
No, not Dave Chappelle, but from

up there. He just is in a I'm
gonna forget the name. I cannot

believe in forgetting this name,
but I just remembered the story

a bunch of comedians from up
there, and a night packed house

in the garden. We got they
messed up our seats, so now we

got third row seats. Nice. It
was unbelievable. And I thought

that's what Bill Burr said,
because he was like, that is,

well, let's, well maybe, let's
calm this down. But no, you

could, you're but we saw CK in
Toronto, and so he could have,

maybe it was that. So I'm your
memory, I bet is better than

mine. I remember seeing it on,
like, one of these Netflix

special kind of things that
popped up. I'm like, I'll check

it out. And I probably watched
it for about five minutes until

I bailed out on it. But that's
how he opened it. There might

be that might that's kind of his
style. Total dark suitcase just

comes right out. Yeah. But the
thing in Boston was so amazing.

It was I had never laughed so
hard. Laughter is such good

medicine. And when you're third
row, you are in grave danger of

being picked on. We thought, so,
yeah, fortunately, it was, it

was, I mean, it's so, I mean,
you know, it's the garden. So, I

mean, you're just so many
people. I mean, you guys went

there, right? Have you played
there? No, no, not the garden.

Have you you guys talking about,
you're talking about the Boston

Garden, Boston Garden, TD
Garden, the Boston probably 10.

We did it. We did the Boston
Strong concert with Harold Smith

and Boston the band, the band.
It was crazy. Another favorite

Carol King was Steve Gadd under
rums, who, Yeah, that guy and

Gad we trust, well, well, man,
that is I, man, I appreciate you

saying that dude is, uh, I'm
glad that we all benefited,

because Nashville is a it is
right up there with New York and

LA as far as, like, a beautiful
musical community, and as far as

the drum culture, like we are
thick as thieves, and we really

do lift each other up and
support each other, we do. We

do tell ourselves that drummers
run this town, that we're the

only people we tell but yeah, it

all starts with a song. But
unless you have that beat to

bring it to life years, I mean,
it's poetry, just

leave it on paper.

So no drums, just simply poetry.
Well, it

really is. It's from a guitar
town, strictly guitar town into

everything, yeah, yeah. And that
song that's really cool. Well,

songwriting town primarily,
yeah, but that's something fun

for me. And I'm sure you've seen
this too, or asking you if

you've seen this as well.
Probably for me, in the past 12

years, the playing level
everybody is good, yeah, you

know when they're out.

It wasn't like that when he came
to town, though. No, really what

my

experience was, uh, was a lot
different. There was, like,

because I came, like, coming
from Houston to here, when I was

in high school, I would sneak
into clubs with a fake ID to see

Herman Matthews play. I

was gonna ask you about Herman.
Yeah, and so for those that

don't know, Herman did his stint
with tower power. He was. He

was, he was a Houston drummer. I
think he lived in Austin for a

while, and he's been an Angeleno
for a very long time. Yeah,

but he's, uh, he's incredible.
And so I used to sneak into

clubs, and he was so nice, and I
could groom him and stuff, and

yeah, answer questions and stuff
like that, yeah, um,

but, uh, what's I saying? We're
talking

about the quality musicians in
Texas, okay,

okay, yeah. There were the
quality, the musicians, the

musicians, oh yeah, when we
first moved in town, sorry, when

we first, yeah, when we when I
first moved to town, there's a

couple guys you could go see
that were really, that were

good, that were really, really
good. I remember Ricky guy named

Ricky Sawyer that used to play
down at the bullpen lounge.

Remember that the stockyard?
Yes. Go watch him play. I go

watch Mike Kennedy play. Mike
Kennedy guy, rest his soul.

Yeah, and there wasn't that many
places after that that there was

a few guys, the guys that, the
guy that played at skulls,

Johnny,

Johnny Hyland, not to our player

he played with, I can't believe
you get his name. This happened

with, played with paycheck.
Yeah, he had a really, his right

hand was absolutely incredible.
Used to do a lot of jazz stuff,

yeah, I think back today. But he
played at skulls. He was like a

regular skulls,

Rainbow Room is also, for those
that don't know, if you haven't

visited Nashville yet, we have
this thing called printers

alley. Barbara's was in there.
Skulls Rainbow Room was in

there. And I think it's been
revamped, and it still exists.

It's supposed

to be an amazing restaurant, but
now it's been there. Supposed to

be, yeah, supposed to be really
nice. And

also there is the bourbon Boogie
blues, urban street, yeah,

Bourbon Street, right? Is that
still there? That's still there,

still there. Multi Level, funky
place with live music. 365 man.

I remember when they just first
opened up, yeah, down there. And

we go, like, on our breaks and
go see them play, and their band

come down and, yeah, see us play
too. Remember Eddie Dunbar? Oh,

yeah. I thought that whole, that
whole incredible era, yeah, this

was the 90s guys. I mean, you
moved her here during the gone

country boom. And then in 97
when Jim and I moved here, it

had started to die a little bit.
It's it felt, it felt a little

bleak. Everyone was grabbing at
straws, yeah. And then in the

early aughts we got the faith
hills and the Martina McBrides

and Faith Hill was the 90s.
Just, uh, well, yeah, you're

right, you're right. Um, but
just the drums, the Shania,

just, it all started getting
turned up, you know, started

getting bigger drums. Bigger
drums. Lonnie Wilson, Brian,

yeah,

but I'll say, as a drummer,
watching it from afar, because

right around the time you guys
came to prominence with Dirks,

was oh five, yeah, right, yeah.
So you've been already, you

know, free

and easy, right? Is that the
first song goes a lot of

leaving.

Left. What was, I think it was
the first hit? What was it?

Lincoln,

yeah, lot of leaving. Was

the first release, though, that
was no,

no. I was like, maybe third,
third single, something like,

because we,

we, we both did the George
straight tour, opening for

George

Amber Dotson. We played four
songs. I remember

you and me talking about
Kennedy's kid, yep, and we had

to play Kennedy's kid. Like,
it's just different. Just got to

sit down and make it happen. You
can't. I mean, it's not going to

be set up the way you normally
say. You don't. You can't move.

Nothing that's got to be, is he
a high cedar because that's,

I don't remember.

We just, I think he allowed us
to raise or lower snare drum. I

don't even remember. I don't
think I just sat down and

played, yeah, it wasn't that
hard, actually for me back then,

just because sitting on, sitting
when you're when you're

clubbing, when you're gigging,
when you're just freestyling,

you're sitting behind all kinds
of stuff all the time, so you

just kind of got to make it,
make it work, yeah? But I

remember both of us talking,
going, Wow, I don't even

remember what it was that was
crazy, either. It was nothing

that was crazy.

It was all it was all arenas,
and we got to do four songs, and

you guys got to do, I think 45
Amber Dotson. She was supposed

to be the next big traditional
country gal,

Sony tree actually, that's
right, she was a Sony tree

writer, as a matter of fact. But

who was the Leanne Womack kind
of persisted and kind of beat

her out of the position. Yeah,
yeah.

Amber Dodson, I have not thought
of that name or heard that name

in years. Boy. She was

really good. She really was
really, really good. You guys

really. She had the big hair,
the big Texas country hair. He

also was in that band. It was,
uh, it was Jason's band, yeah, I

was, yeah, it was, you guys with
Gary Morse. She was basically,

oh, sorry, me, Kurt Tully, Dave
ristrom from the steel player,

from Luke Bryan, okay, forever
and ever. Now Travis toy is

doing it, yeah, but yeah, that
was the bad, my God, I can't

even thought about that crazy.
That is awesome that I just

grabbed that. Wow. He was

right around the time in oh five
we were in Vegas, because I was

in radio, and we started toying
around with an ocean, like we

started looking in Easter to
easterly to start moving back to

where we were. From but we
didn't want to go back to

Connecticut, so Nashville came
up as an option. Yeah, and

Courtney and I, at the time, we
took a vacation to go to Tampa,

and because Nashville was on the
table, we started listening to a

lot of country music. Yeah, and
at CMT at the time that was in

heavy rotation. Was that song?
Maybe that's why I'm confusing.

A lot of leaving left to do was
that you playing on that video?

Play on in the video? Yeah, we
shot, I remember we did, shot

the video at antones in Austin,
right? That

like it was a motel.

Well, one of the scenes maybe,
so, yeah, yeah. I don't remember

you look like, remember we did
antones? I remember that was

kind of

neat. It looked like Sebastian
Stan playing the drums, sure.

Yeah, Bucha. I've had, I've had
a few looks,

but I remember thinking as a
drummer, going, these guys are a

lot more rock than anything,
yeah, you know. And that's what

it really appealed to me. And
then, of course, we saw hicktown

Come out, yeah? And I said to
myself, Oh my gosh, I can play

this so much better. Totally,
totally,

whatever. I mean, I have

witnessed it. I'd say that in
tongue in cheek, but, yeah,

just, but it was, it was really
like, and Dirks was a huge,

like, driver of our love for
getting into country, good. We

so enjoyed that song, good. And
he seemed like such a cool like,

he seemed just like a nice guy,
yeah? And he's, literally,

he's the same as what you would
imagine, what you see in

interviews and stuff like days,
yeah,

he is just a nice dude,
approachable, you know, it's

like, for a bunch of side guys,
he didn't have to remember our

names. You know, he's the kind
of, like, Rich. What's up,

buddy? Doing? Hey, I like the
shirt, but I like your shirts.

He was

kind of like an early version of
you where he did that, and he

knew that the politics of it
would benefit him, like he would

remember his people's names and
stuff like that. Apparently, he

was working at the Opry. He was
a grinder.

He worked at tnn. Did he
actually at the same time I was

working at Sony tree, the
Nashville network folks? Yeah,

and he was doing similar kind of
things, like archiving and that,

I'm not even Yeah, he did some
archiving type stuff, I'm not

sure. And he would always sneak
in over the opry to a point to

where they were, like, they
contacted his boss over at tnn

said, Look, we love Dirks, but
he's been sneaking onto the he's

been around too much, right?

Interesting. Get this guy here?
Yeah. It had to be is, yeah,

remember, yes, yeah. I mean,
that makes sense. It's almost

like, you know, a lot of that,
that Dirks beat on a lot of his

songs, is that Waylon four on
the floor thing, yeah, cutting,

cutting. But it's, like, just
served up with like, a lot of

muscle. So he's like, the new he
took over that groove.

He did. He really did. Yeah, I
mean, that was Steve Brewster

that did the heavy lifting and
all those records. And Brett

beavers was a producer at
station West. I think station

West, yeah. Luke wooden, I think
he might have CO produced that

too, engineered it and, and
that's all that, and that's

still there, yeah. JT, corn
floss, yeah, um,

he was a guitar player on all
that stuff. Jim, fantastic

session player, yeah. And I, I
was lucky enough to do a couple

things, not on Dirks and stuff
outside of that, and just yeah,

just amazing. And, um, but they
that team, that team, just,

yeah, there's they. They had the
dirk sound at that time dialed

in. Yes, really, well, really
fun, really good. And now

you're at it just, just this
beautiful part of your career.

We're talking about, hey, we do
50 shows a year. You guys

probably do around 50 shows a
year, and it's in a compressed

period of time. It's not spread
over 12 months. So you can do

other activities, and you could
plan your spring breaks and have

a little bit of a life and not
just be No, can't make the

graduation, no, can't make the
wedding, no, can't make the

funeral, because we're just we
did man years

you probably have. We did, like
220 days might have been the 300

days on the road was the record,
was the record, I think, yeah,

and I think we did, or we did
the longest stretch. We did 41

shows in 45 days. I mean the
longest, the longest shops run.

But I mean you guys too. I mean,
it's like everybody, kind of,

that's what I don't know about
nowadays. But, like, back then,

that's what you did.

I don't even know you have to do
it. Now, it seems like people

like, I'm not going to mention
names, but everybody knows who

they are. They just went from
their first single to maybe by

the fourth single. They're
playing sold out stadiums. Oh

yeah, because of Tiktok, because
of social media. Social media,

you could, you could affect a
larger group of people in a

shorter period of time. Whereas
back in the day,

technologically, we had flip
flops, we had the CMT message

board, and we went out and we
played every rock club, we

played every county fair, we
played every state fair, we did

the half basketball arenas. We
just played and played and

played and you did two shows on
Sunday. Yeah,

you know, it's been awesome. But
Jason did the same thing. Is

that Dirks would spend at least,
you know, even if we were doing

a festival, maybe only played 45
minutes or half an hour, he

would spend an hour and a half
signing autographs. Wow, like at

that, you know, you go to the
table. He saw you. Saw the value

in it. Yeah, absolutely, he knew
he knew what. We

actually went to the opry the
first time to see him. Oh,

really, our first time at the
opry was reason why we went was

because of him, yes, and it was.
Trace. Adkins was playing there

too at that night. And a couple
of it might have been Little Big

Town and stuff like that, but we
wanted to go see Dirks. Yeah,

nice. How'd

we do? Fantastic. It was a lot
of fun. It's funny because I

think back to my days in radio.
There was a radio show called

Opie and Anthony, and they had
this bit, and they were kind of

racy. They were blue, where they
would listen to top 10 or 20

country music listings at the
time and try to guess what the

song was about based on the
title. It was a very funny bit,

yeah, but they taught Dirks was
on the charts at that time with

one of his songs. And they're
like, Who is this guy? It sounds

like he could be a character
that Arnold Schwarzenegger

plays. I am Dex Bentley.

Like, holy crap. That really
could be character. I don't

know. I thought that

was Dirk, Dirks digler, dux
Bentley, Dirks Bentley and Dirk

people need,

yeah, wow.

You know it's a testament, it's
a testament to your, you know,

your the quality of your
drumming, and who you are as a

person that you've had this job
for since day one. Yeah, you

know what I mean, it's like. And

I think he's probably a very
loyal guy. I

would say it's a reflection on
him. Yeah,

not to take away your great I
knew what I saw you in that

video. Like this guy, he's a
freaking monster,

all your kind, he's but Dirks
is, he's just, he's just so much

fun. He just, it's just, you
know, and there's and there's,

there's been rough times too,
but, I mean,

we've just kind of made it, made
it through and all that, but,

but everybody in the band, this
band, particularly, I mean,

Charlie's the newest member, I
guess, really, and then Ben, but

for the past 10 years, and it's
just so much fun. There's really

no other way to put it. It just

it needs to be fun, right? I
mean, that's a big perk of our

industry. So tell us about the
alter ego hot country night.

I've never heard of.

No idea what you're talking
about. Hot Country nights.

What's to say about the what
can't you say it? What can you

say? Well, that 90 sounds so
great. Yeah. Well, we used to

yearn. Maybe is, I don't know if
that's a weird word. Yes, it's a

weird word. So I'll use it yearn
to play something other than,

like our normal show, including
Dirks, or like, you know, we'd

say, man, we should go, go back
to Robertson, but we can't do

any of those kinds of things
without the bar owner knowing

it, yeah, and wanting, they're
gonna make a they're gonna want

to sell beer, and they're gonna
advertise for it. They want to

splash it. So we decided that we
were kind of trying to figure it

out. And I think Cassidy and Dan
kind of came with the idea of

trying to, trying to play like a
VFW hall, maybe the one up on

Gallatin, yeah. And Dirks was
like, I want to play too. I'll

play acoustic. I'll just put a
cowboy hat on and be in the

back. And we're like, Cool.
We'll play, like, I don't know.

We'll figure it out stuff. And
Cassie, I think, was like, let's

do just keep it thematic and do
some 90s country kind of stuff.

I'm like, Yeah, that's cool.
That's cool. We all it's, you

know, wouldn't have to reverse
that much, you know. We'll know

all that stuff. And somehow it
evolved into it, because we're

always doing bits Anyways, on
the bus, on stage, anytime. It's

always bits, you know, so and
it's always about the bit. And

then it kind of evolved into
this, into the into what it is,

into costumes, and then we
started making a story around

it. And these guys are from
moose knuckle, Tennessee, and

they really wanted to back in
the 90s. They were gonna, they

were gonna be the thing. They
were so close back. They were so

close. And now they're making a
comeback again. And all that

John Osborne from was, was
playing acoustic guitar also in

the band, and it just kind of
evolved in there. And one thing

led to, oh, we played, we did
play the VFW hall there in

Gallatin. Yeah, several times.
In fact, Dirks would even bring

in, like, bought a bunch of
liquor, because they didn't

have, they had some. They had
kind of a bar there, yeah, and

they weren't doing that well.
And so he brought in a bunch of

his, his own liquor that he had
bought, and just said, Sell it.

You know, nice. The place was
packed. It was absolutely

packed. What was this man? 2000
Oh, 16, maybe. Oh,

wow, I'm not even sure. Now, is
Mary Hilliard still your

manager? Oh, yeah, okay,

guys, she has, yeah, she's
stuck. She's stuck around.

Mary's great love. Mary totally.
She's like,

the Knights are gonna, they're
not gonna, it's not gonna work.

Oh, well, kind of has, but no,
but the VFW hall was, was such a

fun gig. And the neat thing
about it too, is like, when you

walk in there, it's like, it's
smell like barbers, you know? It

has the cigarette, yeah? Kind of
but, boy, it was so cool,

though. It was so much fun. I
was loading in my own drums and

setting, you know, yeah, and the
whole thing and all that. But

then one thing led to another,
and then Dirks was able to talk

to the gang at Capitol, and they
got some money for us, and we

went and recorded a record. And
the songs were, were, some of

them were pitch songs, some were
the some were co written. Yeah.

Yeah, brilliant, brilliantly
done. Terry Clark was on it. I

have to go revisit this. I'm
ashamed of myself. Yes, it was

so, so so good. And like I said,
we had it teed up, and we did

Jimmy Kimmel. And Saturday Night
Live, we were on the radar. And

they were like, someday they go,
when you guys kind of get a

foot, you know, we definitely
would be interested in looking

at this. And we were going to do
Fallon and probably Colbert

also, and the pandemic hit. Oh,
and man, it just

so it's like a country version
of spinal tap. It's

totally cut. Yeah,

dude. Moose book, knuckle,
Tennessee. No. Do you have a

character? Who's your character?
Monte Montgomery? Yes, Monty

Montgomery. And you'll have to
go to

go to go to Hot Country
nights.com that's hot country

nights.com, and you can, and you
can see a lot of the videos and

the bits that we've done over
the years and stuff like that.

Do you wear like, like a, like,
a mullet?

He's not really a mullet guy,
but he's kind of matches his own

thing. Okay? Enigma, Douglas

Doug, Douglas son, you,

holy moly, terror, terror, yes,

he's from Russia.

Terry's from Russia. How do you
how do you say that last

name? It's just Terry. Terry.
It's just Terry. It's like

he can pronounce it. You
pronounce it.

See, you guys have created your
characters as a backstory, and

then, and then all the in
between, Song banter is off the

cuff.

Yeah, it ended up being like,
like, we we started to open our

shows, like, in like, as you
guys, yeah, as nights, like,

opening up whoever was the
opening act, and I'd sit in on

their kit. Yeah, what we do is
the amphitheaters and stuff in

the summertime, and are the bits
just, would we just, would kind

of just winging it, and then we
kind of Diego, that was good.

Let's do this and all that's
kind of still the way we do. So

now what we do on the on the
tour, I don't know what we're

going to do this year, but what
we have done is Dirks ends his

show, and then the we have a pre
roll that comes on, so in pre

roll video and all that. And
it's Lauderdale, John

Lauderdale, or Jim Lauderdale.
Jim Lauderdale, I'm sorry, it's

a take off on the 90s, Back to
the Future bit. So we take off,

and we're going back to the 90s,
and it's a whole thing, and they

got graphics and everything. And
then we come out amazing and and

we do H, O, T, C, O, U, N, T, R,
Y, K, N, I, G, H, T, yes. And so

we come out, we do that, and we
do, we do a medley of songs and

stuff, and there's bits and
everything. I've never seen you

guys. And then they, you got to
come out. I'll get you to, maybe

get you. And then we so. And
then we, everybody kind of hops

on stage and meet Monty is
unfortunately left there by

himself. So he stops and ends
the song we were playing fast as

you and then the lights come on,
and then Monty kind of goes and

gets kind of full of himself,
because it's because the crowd's

screaming and it's just him. So
he goes out and gets the

audience going, and yeah, and
all this and that, and gets them

all riled up. And then our stage
Mayor comes out and picks Monty

up and takes them off stage, and
that's and that's how the show.

And then Dirksen, like the band,
comes out, we'll as as us and

come out to it's really smart,
and who knows, and it'll

probably be a little bit
different this year. So you get

to double

dip your butt off there. Man,
yeah, double dip might

as well. It's, it's, it's kind
of funny. Pick her up. It's

like, I'm looking for the spinal
tab. That

was the single, the first single
that came out. It actually, it

started debuted at like 30,

yeah. It came out in 41 with
rock.

Travis true was on it. Travis,
he was amazing. He's absolutely

incredible. Moose shuttle, yeah,
we have, there's a dance that

goes along with that. Seriously,
there's a dance. Watch the

video.

The USA begins with us. That's

a phenomenally, unbelievably
great song, really, yeah, so

are they semi serious? Scared?

No, they scared that one scared
Fallon, right? Because they were

kind of like that was it was
just when it had me 2016 Yes,

I'm around there. Was that that
long ago? No, no, 20. How

racy and blue do you guys get in
these? Like, are you kind of,

like, Steel Panther level? Yeah,
that's

kind of the idea. Actually, not.
I think about that's where we've

seen Steel Panther a couple
times. And our bass player,

Cassidy, is, like, he was a huge
Steel Panther fan, right? And,

and he knows some of the guys in
the band, and so we went and saw

them, actually, at, uh,

in Hollywood one night. I used

to see him, house blues at
Hollywood. Always at the House

of Blues, right? Yeah, you know
what that is? Now, it's like a

giant glass condo, is it

really? Yeah, that was such a
cool place. So a lot of bands

play there. Some bands play
there, but that was kind of,

that was, that was part of the
inspiration, uh, thanks for

bringing that. Because I
actually forgot. I was like,

yeah, it was, it was still Steel
Panther. Was kind of like that

we wanted to sort of be. We're
not as adventurous, or it's not

as quite as edgy as them. But,
well, they

they get. They have the cover
fire of it being an 80s

throwback Hair Metal band, yeah,
you know. So we're the 90

we kind of covered that. The
latest one we did, actually was

a few years ago with Lainey
Wilson, called uh. We did a song

called harassment. And the bit
is harassment everything to me.

And Doug, awesome. The song was
great. And yeah, again, as radio

is like funny Dirks, but we
can't play this. Oh yeah.

Well, radio makes the best
decisions these days. Yeah,

right

now. Jim was in radio for a long
time, yeah, yeah, yeah. There

you go. Now, he's in new media.
It's

one of those things that, like,
the music business really has to

figure out what's next, because
radio is, man, it's dying. Well,

music

is gonna be the same thing it's
gonna be we got you to you're

gonna come see our show and
you're gonna buy a hoodie. Yeah,

right. I don't know what else we
could do.

Yeah. Well, you know, what was
interesting to me, not seeing

that. And Dirks is is a master
at those interviews and radio

people and bringing them back to
the shows, bringing them

backstage, making them feel very
welcome back there and all that.

And so he has a lot of
experience. But what struck me

was like some of the radio radio
stuff that we did with the hot

country nights and how automated
everything is, yeah, oh, yeah,

yeah. And I just that struck me
as just like, it's all pre

recorded they're gonna do. It's
just, there's really, it's not,

there's Live, which I, I don't
know why. I didn't expect that

with technology, but I was just
like, I just didn't realize it

was that much involved in that.

Well, I mean, sometimes it got
to the point right around when I

left. I mean, it was pretty
pervasive that you could, we'd

be listening to a radio station
and probably hear a guy that was

in St Louis that was trying to
pretend he was in Nashville.

Yeah, you know, that was the
voice tracking element. And they

started piling hats on us guys
and went out on it was basically

from 1997 when the FCC did the
federal Telecommunications Act,

which basically took the walls
down and allowed radio to be

treated like real estate.
Multiple companies can, or one

company can own multiple radio
stations in a market. And that's

when the beginning of the end
happened. Yeah, you know,

essentially. And you know,
people that were in the business

at that point were excited about
it, because they were like, hey,

I can you're gonna give me more
stations to produce or work for

great, more money. Oh, no, we
didn't say that. No, we're

giving you the responsibilities
in the hatch you're still

making. That's not what we play
more work for the same money,

same amount of money. Yeah, so,
and they started, they just

didn't invest in the next
generation of 10. Generation of

talent, which led to people like
doing podcasts and tick tock

Instagram reels. What we're
seeing today is the

entertainment mediums. Hey,
radio suffering.

Hey, Jim, do me a favor, man. I
got since I got these in ears,

in and it's like, right in my
inner cochlea. Um, can you just

bring the volume down for me,
just a little bit. Yeah, yeah,

thanks, buddy. So I love all
these stories. What's the tour

look like this year? 50 shows or
so later in the year, probably

something like that. Yeah. Have
you gotten your your PDF yet of

the tour? No,

we do. We were doing at the end
of this month, I think we're

going to Dominican Republic to
do a private party. Nice, yeah.

And then we're going to the UK,
the

C to C to C to C. You're gonna
do the oh two, London.

We're doing oh two. Yep, you did
the oh three. And go Dublin. I

don't know if we're doing Dublin
this time. We did Dublin before,

but I don't think we're doing
Dublin this island, Glasgow.

Glasgow be great. I know London.
And then, like, two other spots

too. Also, I love that towards
towards the end of March. I hope

we do that again. We did it in
2015 we haven't. It's been a

while since we've done it. Yeah,
in a while. So

that's fun. You like the
international touring? Sure, I

do. I haven't done

it. We haven't. We don't do very
much. We either do it's not very

much. Yeah, absolutely.
Especially going to London. I've

been to London one time,

like, in years ago, huh? Like
Indian food. Love Indians.

That's a great spot for

it's a great spot for it. But we
London's amazing. Glasgow is

amazing. It's, yeah, I mean,
you're immersed in a culture

that's an in a history that is
pre USA rivaled, yeah, just by a

little bit. Yeah, yeah. So I'm
looking forward to that really,

really great. Do

we mention I'm sorry I'm playing
around in the internet here that

you're playing the Ryman coming
up. We hot

country nights are opening up
for Sawyer Brown,

okay, amazing. I forgot about
that on the

Star Search winners. It's, uh,
September, yeah, September.

February 15. February

15, the day after. Yeah, yeah,
those guys are amazing too.

Yeah, we've done Joe Smith,
we've done some stuff. Yeah,

it's great. Well, their whole
they are still the same, and

they are still Mark Miller,
still killing it, yeah, and, and

they put on a great show, and
we're really looking forward to

it. And we're, yeah, we're
really

pretty stoked. Are you gonna die
with the sticks in your hands?

You think? You know, you gotta
hope so. Are you gonna do this

to the end? Probably, yeah,
sticks are a yoke. We're lifers,

or a yokes with sticks, right?
Well, yeah, a yoke

that would be bad on so many
levels. Yeah. Sorry,

quite a bit. Yeah. I tell
everybody, it's cool if I go out

that way, right? One too. Larry,
London, we are lifers. Man,

yeah. And then, you know, like
everyone you've got your, your

your your tracking space is that
your, is that your crib, your

when you know where you record
drums for clients and such. I

don't, I don't really, oh no. I
have it here on the wiki. It

says you have an Apollo with a
knee 1084 that's

gone. I have a

great little set of I had, like
three kids set up for practice,

novel, a little claret and like
Ableton and just kind of like a

John Glenn's kind of a set of
four mics, yeah, and practicing

the record and whatever, like
that. But no, I started to kind

of stick my foot trying to do
that kind of a thing. But no,

so what was it that turned you
off the the amount of time that

goes into the file management
and doing everything, or dealing

with clients that are like, Can
you do it again? And this time

do 18th notes on the high I had
heard already

enough horror stories, yeah. And
it was like, man, unless I,

unless I really want to do it. I
mean, I just Yeah, yeah. And

nowadays I'd much rather fly.
Charlene, yes, that's your

thing, taking

any other, any other hobbies or,
like, interest, like, you know,

no,

not really. I mean, wife love
going into town and going going

to restaurants, yeah, kind of
stuff. So

we lock on table. I'll see you
there. We're there. That's

great. Wood fired pizza. Man,
yes, it is such sexy

environment. Yep, if you got a
family

environment. If you go, like, I
mean, because we're older now,

we go on to four in the
afternoon. Oh, really,

the movie schedule. Well, you
guys right back out to Mount

Juliet. So, yeah, yeah,

I have to live in Nashville.
Yeah,

I'm adjusting because I feel
like I'm just outside of the

loop. Like, like, like, where's
Keo? Where's Keo tonight. You

know what? I mean, like, Keo

is out. I, you know, I'm a bit
of, I'm guilty of being a bit of

a homebody. Well, is it always
that way? Or probably has been,

actually, yeah, no, I don't know
that. I've, every once a while

go out and, well, me and Carrie
have been going out lately, and

we saw like, Daryl Hall, nice,
Howard Jones, if you, you know,

acts like that, or something's
going on the square horn or

something. But yeah, as a matter
of fact, we walked down printers

alley, and Barbara's is now a
pub. Yeah, it is a pub now it's

like a British pub, I guess. So
we're weird. That's on the list,

yeah, to go check out. Well,
that'll bring back memories.

Yeah, I know. I know. I don't,
yeah. I was like, I want to go,

but I got to be really prepared,
because the flood of memories

and stories and that kind of
thing, it's gonna, I think it's

gonna be for both of us. I mean,
you do? You remember Karen down

there, but she's a singer. Mike
came to town to be out, to be a

singer, and used to hang out
with us down at barbers. Oh my

god,

and let's get married pretty
much now, does she? Does she

still sing a little

bit? No, no, no. It's, it's all
flowers. Flowers. Yep, nice.

Well, that is so lucrative. It's
all flowers. We don't have kids,

and we, when we just hang out
with Toby and Baxter. Those are

your dogs. Yeah, one is a Baxter
is a German Shepherd lab mix,

and Toby is American Eskimo mix.
We did not gin. Gene test,

genome, Genome test, yeah, and
Toby yeah is American Eskimo and

Chow and a few other things like
that. Wow. Yeah, nice.

The only problem with the dogs,
you gotta walk them all the

time. Ours, we just let out the
back. Yeah?

We have, we have, it's called a
backyard, yeah? And we put

what's your favorite, most
mundane chore to do at home,

favorite

mundane to a problem of the
yard. Yeah, it's therapeutic.

Yeah, it is. But push, yeah,
like, a zero turn. Don't even

need a zero.

I've got a zero. I've got like,
eighth of an acre, yeah, zero

turn, and I have to fight my
wife in order to mow, because

she loves mowing too. I was
like, it's cathartic, yeah? Now

my mowing is vacuum. I'll
vacuum. It goes all the way back

to, like, I would help my mom
out. She'd be like, Richie,

before we go to the marching
band thing on Friday night, I

need for you to buy like, Yes,
mom. But

you know, you never mowed

a lawn. Oh, when I was living
with Curt and Tully all the time

in Donaldson and Hermitage, I
was the official mower because,

you know, we rented these band
houses, right? And you know,

they would never do it, man, I
had to do it. You know. What do

you do now? Can you imagine it?
Well, I tell you, Oh no. Now,

Caesar Estrada, does it?

Oh, yeah, it makes it a lot
better, because I have a beer

holder, yeah, nice beer holder.
Buds, ear buds, listening.

It's therapeutic. It is it
really is.

No, I might my guy. Hello,
Caesar Estrada. He's a nice guy.

Actually, he's a singer. He he
cuts my lawn. And I said, Hey,

his daughter wanted to take drum
lessons, right? And so I said,

Well, why don't we barter it up?
You know, I'll teach her

teacher, teach her how to do all
the money beats and get a good

sound on the drums. And, you
know, we'll trade it for the

lawn care. I. She he's paying
$30 an hour for a drum lesson.

I'm like, where, who is teaching
a drum lesson for $30 that's

what I paid back in the day.
That was $30 for a half hour.

And

I said, Well, hey, man, stay
stay on the course

$30 an hour.

It's crazy. It is crazy. I know.
I hope she learns. Back in

the early 90s, when I took drum
lessons from Gary fiander at

East Coast music mall, yeah,
yeah, he was $30 for a half

dollar minute,

yeah. See, things are not going
up in somebody's under charging.

Somebody started trying. That's
all right. Hopefully she loves

it and she becomes a wonderful
drummer. What did you study in

college? Man, did you get a
music degree? Yeah,

percussion performance, ntsu. I

went to Texas Tech, and then I
went to UNT North Texas day,

yeah, so me and Jim, Jim Riley
were there around the same time.

Yeah, okay, who else was I there
with? Keith Garlock. Oh, my god,

yeah, that guy. And got some
other really amazing. Everybody

went on to do great, great
stuff, man, you know, yeah,

uh, Stephen falls to State
University. They have an

amazing, quite amazing, uh,
commercial music program now,

yes, like top 30, but back then,
forget it. No, it was, it was,

yeah, it was jazz, classical,
yeah, that's it. And then you

figure out how to play the back
beats on your own head. Yes, it

was, it was all, who was the
teacher there at that time? The

head guy? Dr, Lawrence captain,
was our, well, we had a couple

guys, Barry Larkin, and then,
and then, Dr captain, who is, I

believe, is at University of
Denver. I think, yeah, I know

he's in Denver. I think it's
University of Denver. Have you

kept in touch with these guys?
And they occasionally through

Facebook, everyone small, but
not, not because I gotta be

proud. They're like the

guy. Yeah, guy did it. Yeah,
yeah. Now, you ever envision

yourself going back and doing a
little Q and A speech? Yeah?

There

was some talk about going back
to Stephen F and doing some so

we were going to get some guys
that you know kind of are in the

business. Me, Devin Williams,
songwriter, so we were kind of

all running buddies together
back then, but getting me and

him and all that to do kind of
that kind of a thing, kind of a

Q, a or you should do it. That
would be, it would be so lucky.

That'd be fun to have you fun.
Now,

what do you do to stay so, um,
height, weight, proportionate,

tall and lean.

Attic. You have a thing like I
do,

I go to the gym. I depends. I
was doing yoga for especially

during the pandemic, me, my
wife, were doing yoga just like

through peloton, yeah, on TV.
But we actually used to go, we

would go to the, go do yoga at a
local yoga place. So I got into

yoga for a few years. I did

hot yoga for a while, the last
30 minutes was tough. It's

tough, yeah, it's the 60 is
good. 90 is rough.

6060, is a max. I could,
couldn't do beyond that, but I

loved it is very good for us,
for me, for limp, being limber

and staying staying loose, yeah?
But either that or just just the

gym, yeah, Planet Fitness is
right down the street, so

you just do a circuit. Do you
do? You're like, you know,

today's back and buys tomorrow's
legs, just, just full body,

chest and try. Rose

again. Would you bench? Yeah,
yeah.

Ducks Bentley, over here, come
on. Yeah,

I get into fights all the time.
I'm kidding. No,

you know, you sound like you're
you've definitely got a ham

factor, you know? Oh, yeah. Is
that something else that you've

kind of explored with, you know,
using your voice, because you

kind of have it, you're
affecting your voice

occasionally. I'm picking up on
that a

little bit with the hot country
nights. Yeah, if you'll kind of

go through our back catalog of
stuff, we have some of the bits

and all that have included that
kind of kind of thing, character

voices, yeah, I hear it a little
bit, yep, just being, just being

stupid, I guess, fun. Yeah,
well,

you've always kind of taken care
of yourself. Because I remember

going back to that Amber Dodson
tour opening up for George

Street. We would do our four
songs. And you know, if bunch of

dudes in our second hand leather
jackets, we wanted to get into

trouble, you know, we wanted to
just at least get out into the

nightlife and have a cocktail
and, yeah, you know, night at

the Roxbury and you guys would
be in your damn jammies eating

cereal. Well,

that was me and Robbie herring
totally. I was like, You were

kind of like, Robbie and Steve
are eating cereal. You know

what's funny is Mike Kennedy
would, when we're out with

George Strait on that tour, too,
he would, I'd be like, going to

bed. Yeah, no. And he like,
nope. He come on the bus and

drag me. Like, get your clothes
on. We're going out. Nice.

Always do that. Nice. He was
such a sweetheart. Mike

Kennedy, for those that don't
know he was, he had played live

with George Street for at least
20 years, at least, yeah. Now I

don't know exactly what
happened, but I believe he was

merging into traffic, and there
was a gigantic semi, and it was

just he didn't see it or

something. I don't know. That's
a tragic, yeah, that's tragic,

yeah,

yeah. God rests up on I 40. I
don't know how long ago was

that? A good 10 years, at least
six to 10 years. Yeah, something

like that. Yeah. Oh. Man may
have rough Yeah, yeah, as a

Yeah, as a big loss for the
drumming community, yeah,

because he helps so many people
too. He did. He would be like,

hey, Gabe, get up here and play.
He will, yeah, you know, Hall of

Fame. He used to play. Now the
Hall of Fame,

yeah? What was the 16th?
Remember the 16th avenue that?

Yeah, now it was a shoe store,
and now it's a bar or parking or

something.

It's a tower. Now it's gone. Oh
yeah, that whole right by the

the naked people circle, yeah,
right to the naked tambourine

people, yeah, it's that. That
building there used to be that.

That's right, so many different
oh my god, all right. Oh my god.

Do you like the

Nashville hot chicken? It's on
everybody's menu all over the

world.

I don't really, I haven't, I
don't say I don't like it, yeah,

it's too hot for me. Because I
got a sense of the stomach, I

can't imagine having the hot,
hot, hot chicken. It's like the

chicken. It's purple, yeah, it's
so seasoned. Yeah, I can't do

that. We used to do princes.
Remember princess? Oh yeah, the

real inspiration late at night,
yeah? And

we do that, like waffle house
became late night run, yeah,

Princess used to be, I forget
which one it was. There was

only, like those over on the
east side, right, yeah, yeah.

But that was, yeah, late night,
three in the morning after post

barbers kind of Yeah, kind of a
vibe, yeah,

so Jim, yeah. Should we do the
Fauci? What do you think? Go

ahead, hey, we're gonna go right
into it. Sometimes. You used to

call it the Fast Five, but it's
never fast. Favorite color,

green. So fast. Green, green
sparkle. Do you ever, ever have

a green, green sparkle drum set?

I may have like I had no, yeah,
no, I was with another company.

I might have had, like, bits and
pieces that weren't you with

Ludwig for I was with Ludwig for
a while, yeah. And I remember I

had a kit that had multi
different colors. And green

might have been, I might have
had a green

sparkle, yeah, they have that
kit that that it shows all the

colors, yeah. You know, it's
like, it was like, Yeah.

Speaking of Ludwig, behind
Steve, what do we have? Oh,

there's a

from LP that is a Alex Van Halen
commemorative cow bell that I

begged for from our friends at
Latin percussion, and I'm taking

it out on the road. Yeah,

and this is, we're giving it
away to a lucky listener. Is

that what you

said, No, I'm just just
showcasing it. I'm gonna, I'm

gonna take it. I'm gonna take it
on tour this year, because I

play it on maybe like four bars
in hick town. And it's not, it's

unmiked, but you will hear it.
It's allowed. They will

probably, I won't even get LP to
put a hot country nights logo on

this. You really should get a
commemorative hot country nights

cow, if they're out there LP. LP
needs one. If you're a DW guy,

you're you're grandfathered in
practically as an LP guy. He's

got to call our friend Jerry
Zacharias and Garris will

garrison. I need to know some of
those. I don't know anything.

That's right. That's right. I
was all playing. I had my my

trip book to go out and do my
yearly visit, and then all the

fires happened in Los Angeles,
and I was like, Yeah, let's,

let's postpone. I'm gonna

interrupt the favorite five.
Yes, Ma'am, did you guys read

the Alex Van Halen book?

Brothers, brothers,

I've heard of it. It's really
good. Yeah, I highly recommend I

will,

yeah, I don't want to pay for
Audible, so I'm gonna have to

just read it.

But you know, the thing is,
you're hearing Alex read it, and

he has these little moments
where HE CHUCKLES to himself,

which is so endearing nice. You
know, he's remembering these

stories as he's written them.
But you know, you could tell

he's also he has that intrinsic
recall. That, you know, you hear

these little emotional outbursts
that he has, which I think is

kind of cool. That's

very nice, because usually
producers of audiobooks will

just produce that stuff right
out of you. Yeah, you know what

I mean. It's nice that they kind
of just let it be warts and all,

yep, yep. That's interesting,
because, like, I was thinking a

hard copy book,

right? But I have it on the
shelf behind you. Yeah, it'd be

better to do the audible one,
though. Yeah, I like to, I like

listening to books myself, so

I don't think I've ever done
that really.

You know, experiment with it.
See if you like it. Are you

podcast guy by chance?
Sometimes,

yeah, you sound like you need a
podcast. Like you would, you

would be a good host of a
podcast. I'd

love to Actually, me and Dan
hokulter have talked about

having something like this. We
just start talking. That'd be so

easy. It's, it's Yeah, yeah. And
marginally funny, we can record

it on

the road and then batch them and
then just trickle them out once

a week.

Well, that would take, that
would require us, first of all,

get out of our bunks.

Stay in the bunks.

Yeah? Well, yeah, we don't even
put

a camera onto both of you. Like,
Hey, how's your bunk? Yeah, it's

down here. My bunks up here.
That's

funny. Now you got a favorite,
uh, food or dish? Mm. Hmm,

man, my wife made a pasta dish
the other night that was

absolutely incredible, like a
cream based thing, like, no

rose,

uh, red, red, red sauce,
chicken, stuff like that.

Nice, yeah, um, I don't not A,
not a specific one that I

absolutely but in Texas, they
did. I mean, unless we're at

Lachlan table, yeah, the chime,
cherry steak, no, the, oh my

gosh, I can't believe I'm
forgetting it. The chicken liver

pate. Chicken liver

Wow. No, that's why we go

there. It comes in little mason
jar, yeah, chicken liver pate,

and then the top of it is bacon
grease. Look at that much on top

of that, whoa. And then they
give you a plate, and it has

biscuits, not biscuits, chips,
not chips, bread,

those kinds of things like toast
and stuff like that,

yeah. And then on top of the
bacon grease, it's about that

lotion layer of a little bit of
a peach marmalade. It is unholy

cow.

It is un delicacy level. Here's
the

delicacy. That's our that's our
go to and

my effort of trying to find good
memories about my mom, she used

to make a liver pate. That
reminds me of what you're

talking about. I did. Wow. Jim,
interesting. Did you? Did you

partake? Oh,

yeah, when I was a kid, are you
a liver guy?

You know my mom was, and she
would give us liver for dinner

sometimes because she liked it
and tell us it was veal.

So, well, there's a whole
movement right now. We're, we're

all being highly encouraged to
eat organ meats, and if you are,

can't stomach it, take it in
pill form, because these are

it's kind of got out of style,
and there are so many nutrients

in organ meats that we need.

Fiber. Fiber, yeah. Fiber, yeah
nowadays. Fiber, a

lot of people eat the placenta,
whoa, after a birth of a baby.

Oh my god, but who? But people
eat it. I never hear, I mean,

that's, yeah, a lot of
nutrients, tons

of tons of nutrients in those
holy cow, geez, buddy, you look

like a freaking character out of
a zombie thriller. But when

you're done, I

don't know if I would do that.
We definitely have to, you know,

pop it in some olive oil, yeah,
crispy on top of risotto. Yeah,

fry it up. Oh, my God, they so
lock the table is kind of

adventurous, like that, where,
you know, you can get the bone

marrow, yeah, and that's very
good. I've done that.

What about your favorite drink

right now? It's probably a
Moscow Mule. Oh, we got that

yesterday too. Yeah? Who's our
guest yesterday? Travis McNabb,

yeah. Travis McNabb, yeah.
Travis likes his Moscow Mules.

Man, I'm with him, especially if
it's you gotta, you gotta have

the real copper thing for the
experience. You gotta have that.

Yeah, in the freezer. Yep, Fauci
in the freezer, Tito's. Yeah,

Tito's. This guy. Tito is so
popular now, this is

interesting. And it could be of
all time, or it could be, at the

moment, what would your favorite
song

be? It's tough, favorite song.
But, but what is there a

problem? What was I thinking?

Because it started the whole
thing, the whole thing, no one

has said their own song, their
own song. There's, yeah, well,

it's Dirks and Dirk or tan.

But, I mean, you know, from
that, yeah, I mean, that's,

that's, that's really hard. My
favorite song of all time, well,

my favorite, hang on, let's,
let's think you know

you're driving down the PCH, you
got the top down. Oh, that kind

of, that kind of, just maybe,
well, it takes you to a place

you you like cranking it up. You
like the production, you like

the lyrics, you like the sound.
Actually

be the opposite that probably
Willie Nelson more like,

ain't it funny how life, how
time slips away? Wow,

yeah. Or one of those hacker
tunes, like misery and Jen, oh,

yeah, oh, that's that would be
something that we could do

September, yeah, something like
that. I had the box set when I

moved to town. I got, yeah, I
got merle's box set at Tower

Records, and I and I dove in.
Man, we had

his bass player, Joe Reed,

Joe. Joe played with the fire
for like, six years, yeah. So my

story about Joe is that we went
in 1997 we went to, like, I

don't know, six or seven
countries together, playing for

the US military, yeah. So, like,
we were in like, Bahrain, we

were in South Korea. We were in
Japan. We were in Macedonia,

Iceland, yeah, yeah. We

actually had a breakfast about a
month ago. I need some like, I

need to see him. He literally
heard about his, his, you know,

he's adopted. He was adopted, so
he wanted to do and find out who

his father was. Yeah. Found out
his dad is one of the Marlboro

men. Oh, really, what from back
in the day the Marlboro Man,

like on the cover and all that
was the big his dad, his father

was the last one, yeah, that
actually ended up quitting

smoking, because he ended up
getting lung cancer and became a

big Roman anti, uh, cigarettes
and all that kind of thing. But

his story, yeah, I he should
have Joe on here, just to tell

that story. Really need to catch
up with your drums. Is the only

thing he's doing great. Yeah?
No, I know we have bass players

on here. Plays Leroy Parnell
and, um, he was doing some stuff

with Kevin mo also Joe.

He looks really healthy. It
looks like he's doing great.

Working out. He works out. He's

a big gym rat too, yeah? But
like, I'm, no, I'm not. He's, he

is, yeah,

that's, you know, it's the the
whole thing is, like, even if

you go just for 20 minutes, but
you do it every day, yeah, with

it and all that, be consistent,
totally. What about a movie? You

got a movie that it comes on,
you're like, sorry, Honey, I'm

committed. I'm gonna watch this
all the way through, Princess

Bride. Wow, that's a fun one

that could be my favorite. One
might have been, I don't think

you know what that means, yeah,

you kept my name is Antonio. I
forget his name.

My name is Montoya. You killed
my father. My father die.

There's

the cat. Yeah,

yeah. There's so many of them,
like, conceivable,

my daily, you know, my, that's
kind of darling. But I just, I

think it's a piece of, I think
it's a piece of art.

It is first one. And then for
me, probably my favorite movie

is gonna have to be rocky,
though, the original rock

Done, done that

just, you know, he directed. It
was

the first, uh, a statue for it
too. I think he won an Oscar.

He did. Did he win the Oscar for
Rocky? I

think so. Because yeah, good for
you. Sly. Remember that? Yeah,

and he

held his guns because all sorts
of studio people were like, We

want to buy the script. Someone
else can play. Yes, no, I'm

playing. Yeah.

So the backstory behind it's
good? Yep, you know

you understood the character.
Yeah, yes.

Totally agree. The assignment,
okay, Jim, ask your thing, your

question.

So if you had to, at any given
time, someone threatens you with

your life that you have to play
in a band, a tribute band of

some sort, for the rest of your
life, that's all you can do

playing the songs over and over
again. What's the band? Kiwi

Lewis,

really? I was just thinking when
you were saying that, that's

such a cool gig, I would not
even need a rehearsal.

There's a lot of flavor in that
music. It's amazing. It's

so amazing. And you remember
they had one of the fun is

totally off the they had a
record that came out back in the

90s too, called Plan B. You
remember that one? Yeah. Do you

guys do anything off of that? I

don't want me such a good
record. I gotta look. I mean, in

the actual tribute band, it's a
lot of the hits, yeah? For sure,

you're gonna

have to do the hits. Plan B was
kind of their, all their off.

They was, I was such a fan of
that, yeah? But,

I mean, it's not an easy band,

no, yeah,

horns too and all that. Right?
They

have a little bit of tracks, but
occasionally, I think they play

in Nashville, though. They
played at the Franklin theater

and they hired a horn section,
yeah? Nice. So, yeah, I've never

played with them yet, but that's

gonna be amazing. Yeah, that's
gonna be amazing. Yeah, I would,

I won't think I would ever, I
mean, if I had the chance to do

something like that, and the
situation were right, I was, I

don't think I would ever get
tired of doing that. Right?

I have so many different things
I've always wanted to do, like,

uh, the theme bands. You know,
you could do heavy, uh, hard

rock type of approach, but, but
like the Bon Jovi stuff journey,

but do it really well, yeah?
Because, I mean, I just that's,

that's my center. That's what I
would shut

it on, note for note, yep, for
the most part. For the most

part, yeah,

bass drum. Bass drum patterns
are messy, but yeah, other stuff

pretty much dialed in. Yeah. So

yeah, that's cool. Those are but
bands are really, really fun.

That's fun too. That I've seen
too, is that with with helping,

occasionally, I'll help Carrie
Anne tear down at the end of the

night, and sometimes the bands
are still playing, and the

wedding bands around, because I
did a little bit of that back in

the day. Me too. With Joe

Turner. We love the harmonica on
our show. Yeah, used to

play and do wedding band stuff
with him and and he was great.

And a lot of the wedding bands
nowadays are doing newer, like

current music and stuff, and
they're tight, yeah, dialed. I

mean, you're just like, my god,
dialed, really, dialed in good.

That's kind of here, really.
Well, I didn't know the quality

of wedding bands was that good.
The ones, yeah, the ones that

we've Yeah, that are out, yeah.
That's

kind of expected. Now, getting
back to what you mentioned

earlier, when I asked you, I
said, you know, the people that

when you came to town Weren't
you? All, but not, you know,

they're the people now are
better. You seem to play better.

Yeah, do you think that's
because of social media, though?

I mean, because they're seeing
more of an attraction to pursue

a musical career in Nashville
versus New York or LA? I would

say, I think

just, just in general, obviously
the Internet has, you know,

opened up that world to access
to a lot more people than it

used to, right? Yeah, and so
certainly social media. Is

there anybody on the internet
that you're following that you

you're kind of digging a lot of,
a lot of like, you know,

trickster drummers,

a lot of that. But I'm
entertained, right? There's some

guys that are doing some crazy,
man, there's this kid, there's a

band, and I cannot remember his
name or anything, but there's a

kid. He's probably maybe 11
years old or 10 years old. He's

as good as I've heard a drama,
and I'm not like not not just

flashy fills. He's got that, but
his pocket is absolutely spot

on. And now they put a band with
a bunch of kids, like, on, on,

my wife sent it to me the other
day. It was like, and they're,

they're all about the same age,
and they all play phenomenally.

Wow. You see that every once in
every few months, some kid

that's five years old is playing
amazing. And this kid I, I'll

have to look it up, but he is
absolutely the best I've seen at

that small age. Yes, the
evolution

of playing is interesting to see
since the internet, because you

didn't have that, that access to
all that information when we

came up, you know, we had to
slow the tape down, you know, I

didn't, I didn't know what Neil
was doing on subdivisions until

I saw the video, you know, the
when he did the the open

pattern, hi hat ride thing,
yeah. It's like, you, what the

hell are you listening to it?
You're going, what the hell is

he doing? Yeah. And then I saw
him actually do it in the music

video when he got there. It was
a Chronicles double VHS tape,

yeah. Thing with that was, I
guess, the companion offering

from the album, the best of that
they did. And to watch that

video, was like, oh, okay, I see
it. Now. I got really

good at just dropping the needle
in the record, really at that

time, because I was just about
the only way. And then I got me

my parents bought me for
Christmas the techniques tape

deck. I remember that, yeah, so
I'd stay up late at night. I was

supposed to go to bed, but I
headphones on and all that have

record pause and listen to the
radio, and just ready to ready.

So I had my own little mixtapes
with very few, if any, intros,

right? Because you always have
the intro cut off, and that's

what I would practice

the DJ talking it up to hit the
post. Yeah, right,

and you like Phil Collins,
right? Alex, guys were girls

twice

loved, yeah, Van Halen. What was

the first drummer? The first guy
that was like, That is awesome.

It would probably, I mean,
drumming wise, impacting that

way. It would probably be rush.
It would probably be Neil. Neil,

just from that standpoint, but I
was just a radio kid. Yeah, I

listened to whatever was on the
radio. I wasn't real big album,

album, rock album guy, yeah, you
know, I had a few things. First

one ever I had first one was
news of the World. Queen, News

of the World. So whoever was
playing on that, obviously, was

huge. Yeah, I remember Roger
Taylor. Remember tush, uh, fleet

with Mac. Oh yeah. Tusk, I'm
sorry. You know, you know that

the rumors just turned 49 did it
really? Did it really? Everybody

has a rumors record. Yeah,
everybody, believe me. You've

heard it.

Fleetwood Mac, burn. I got
burned out on Fleetwood Mac

because of the home of rock and
roll. I 95 Yeah, right. Worked.

They play a lot of it, yeah,
yeah. Constant. Fleetwood Mac,

yeah, I just don't get this
band,

don't, you know, don't push it
away. It's, it's, you know,

because, you know, Mick is such
a interesting, quirky drummer.

Why is it crash fill in a weird
place, it's gonna boom. Scott,

great. Jim, that's a good one.
If you could sing it, you can

play it. That's what I tell the
kids. This was such a pleasure

to have you.

One quick question, yeah, aside
from us, who is a real fun hang

in town, drummer wise for you,
gosh,

there's a lot of guys

who's a fun in him in town. Dude
a little

like clicky little bit, I

don't I'm not getting out kind
of a homebody. I do coffees with

some guys every so often, right?
I'm really proud of Jake

summers, yes, you know, because
he's when, when Luke was, was

just kind of Luke Holmes was
just start getting going, and we

go, and he'd ask questions and
stuff like that. And he's

killing it out there. He just

asked, he asked all the right
things, yeah, and then made

those things happen. He kind of
used, uh, you know, us, as a

blueprint. I guess you know what
I mean,

yeah. And DOM was his teacher,
his mentor, and all that. And I

tell you what, Dom was really
cool, because he did a, did a

congress clinic, yeah, in
Houston, at the drum keyboard,

guitar shop. And I was like.
Teaching and working there part

time, and he did a clinic, and
he's like, you know, follow your

heart. And, you know, he really
was very, very inspiring, and a

big reason to why I went, you
know what? I'm gonna go for it.

I'm gonna go ahead and move to
Nashville, yeah? Give us a shot.

Totally. Very cool. Yeah. Man,
yeah. Tom Fauci, man, God rest

his soul. Uh, anyways, very nice
to do this in a in a public

setting, because the last coffee
that we shared had to be six

years ago, which at least I

need to get out.

You know what I mean? I need to
get I do too. We'll do it

together, man, we'll get our own
click happening. You know what I

mean? We'll give Kevin Murphy
and Kia are run for their money.

Actually mentioned the key, or
Kevin, I'm sorry, Kevin Murphy

is also, well, Harris. He's
fantastic. He's a monster. He's

a monster. He's a beast. Great
player. And he is a he is fun.

We had a lot of fun out on the
road and all that. And actually,

he subbed for me in a bad time.
My mother suddenly passed away.

It was in 2014 and he, we were
out on the road, and he sub.

There's like, no problem. I got
this. I got you covered. Nice.

Yeah, nice. So I and I've toured
with him different acts. Now,

that's what the year, that's
what you want. And I don't get

to see enough of him, really.
Yeah, he's a good, he's a good.

Well, just open up Facebook and
you will see him.

Yeah, he's really good at doing
the thing, the social media

thing, I'm not. I mean, if you
open up my Instagram, you're

gonna see me, me and flying,
yeah,

yeah. Well, that's cool. That's
your, that's your, you know,

like outside drums, passion.

I'd be remiss also and say, you
know Jules also Jules drums.

Jules her last name I cannot
pronounce. I don't know that

I've ever known it, massia, M
ace, oh, my God, I don't know

her last Jules drums is her
handle. Oh, yeah, Instagram,

yeah. Phenomenal. Drummer, AC
national. Drummer, just moved to

Nashville. She's from New
Jersey. Yeah, and she's killer.

She's absolutely killer. I
haven't another one. Everybody

look at Jules drums. Jules
drums. And, yeah, another one.

Tucker Wilson, Jesus. Tucker's
Great. Jesus, he's good. He's

killer. He played on, on who's
he playing with?

He's a shark guy. God,

it's the dementia. So no, but we
just didn't take our privacy.

Didn't well, that guy, he's
Justin Moore. Justin Moore. He's

played their whole band, played
on the on the latest record.

He's killed. That's

me calling Justin short. That's
funny. I'm just a couple, maybe

a couple inches taller than him.
I kick sand on him on the beach.

Yeah. So fun, Steve, thank you
so let's get together. We'll see

you guys. Well, thank you for
some bone marrow at Lachlan

table. I love it. Let's do it.
We appreciate you, man,

congratulations on everything,
and thank you for helping me. 28

years ago, glad to do it. I
appreciate it. Glad I did. Jim.

Did you have good time. Oh yeah,
man, as always. Thank you for

your time and talent as always.
And I will ask the listeners,

hey, if you bought my book,
making it in country music and

insiders, look at the industry
and you love it, give me a five

star rating on Amazon, and then
maybe I'll reach out to the

folks at Audible, and I will
read the book so you can consume

it on your commute or at the gym
all that stuff. Also be sure to

subscribe, share, rate and
merch. You yes and merch, yes,

Jim, but wait by this time this
comes out, we may have merch. We

may have we're gonna have t
shirts, hoodies, hats. We're

gonna have mug, coffee mugs.
We're gonna have all the stuff

that's right. All right, thanks.
Thank you everyone. We'll see

you next time. Thanks guys.

See this has been the rich
Redmond show. Subscribe, rate

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