The Rich Redmond Show

Coming to you from crash studios
in Music City, USA, Nashville.

This is the rich Redman show

what's up, folks? Yep, it's that
time it's time for another

exciting episode of the rich
Redmond show where we talk about

all things music, motivation and
success. We love this stuff. We

revel in it. We bathe in it.
This drives us. It informs us it

keeps us motivated. I'm really
excited about today's guests.

Usually, I have my partner Jim
McCarthy, Jim McCarthy.

voiceovers.com No Jim for a
very, very long time. He's doing

something life changing today.
He says I'm so sorry to miss

Jake, but I get them all to
myself. Today's guests. This is

I've been waiting on this one
for a long long time. Hailing

originally from Long Island now
calling Nashville home for the

last 11 years Real Time flies he
attended the University of Arts

in Philly. And upon moving to
Nashville in 2013 quickly

acquired a life changing gig
with award winning recording

artists Luke combs Of course I'm
talking about our friend Jake

summers. What's up, buddy? Go
good. How you doing? You like

wow, that was very dramatic drum
roll. So if you guys are just

listening to this, Jake is in
his recording studio. And I tell

him the neighborhood you live in
what is it North West Nashville?

Yeah, West Nashville.

I've been here in this area for

seven years now. Well, you're
smart you took you took your

money and you and you bought a
home and that's the American

dream right? Especially if
you're a drummer you you got I

tell the kids all the time you
got to be Boom shmack That that

beat that you hear a guitar
center the boom being basketball

good things bank. That's the one
that buys your home and I'm

looking at your studio it's all
out he muted out from our our

friend Mitch Zlotnik. What's up
Mitch, how are you buddy and you

came over it did my studio, you
know, I hammer in a nail and we

worked and we made the studio
look better and sound better.

It's a great product that that
Mitch learned a lot from him and

he does a fantastic job. And
he's gotten to do many drummers

around the country and probably
I don't know if he's on the

world yet, but it leaves the
country a lot of knowing that

guy. He's like, I mean, he is a
go getter. He's got like energy.

And, and we had it was good. It
was like, it was almost like I

broke out the gentleman's you
know, we had some like,

cookies and we had coffee and we
kind of made a day of it. Man.

That was that was really fun. I
think that was like, what, three

years ago already? Something
like that. Wow. Yeah, I think

so. Yeah, man. You didn't mind
that. He was like, Hey, I'm

gonna come back and do Rich's
coxae with you. I was like, of

course. Yeah.

That long. I was like, Sure.
Now, you said you were keeping

your dogs outside for this
interview? Well, how many dogs

got you got more than one, two.
Now, what's the what's the make

and the model of the dog? So

here's three years old. They're
both girls. She is a boxer like

a mutant boxer with like a hint
of lab. Okay, other one we

adopted. She's now one and a
half. We got her at seven

months. She is a Great Dane.

She came from a unfortunate
background. I'll say that very

important situation shows you
you're not a massive Great Dane,

which is kind of nice. So this
is like like we're talking like

Marmaduke we're talking like big
poops big food bills, big vet

bills.

Your vet bills aren't as bad as
you think. Just because

thankfully, they don't have to
go to the vet vet often. Food.

Yeah, yeah. From time to time,
but big poops can be Yeah, but

it used to it.

It reminds me of Chevy Chase and
Randy Quaid in the Christmas

movie where they're shopping.
And he's got has that gigantic

industrial sized bag of Alpo.
Dog food he puts on the cart.

Crazy. So let's get into it.
Man, this is so good to do this.

Because,

you know, you moved to town and
we quickly connected and did the

coffee and collage thing. And he
and you. You did this in such a

professional manner. You got
connected so quickly. How did

this happen? Where you moved to
Nashville and within one year,

you got a life changing
opportunity. Tell us what the

secret sauces? Yeah, I mean, as
you know, I think networking is

such a huge proponent in this
industry. And I think you I

think it's very hard to be an
introvert in our industry,

because you really have to break
out of that shell to meet people

and you can't be afraid to talk
to anybody of you know, any

genre or any type of background
background because you never

know where it can lead and you
know

uh

through going to nurse
University of the Arts, and one

of my former teachers there, he
knew and alumni here that he put

me in touch with her. Second
day. She was like, the second

day I was here. She was like,
I'm, you know, going to a party

on Music Row.

Do you want to call in the
essence? Sure, I'd love to. I

spoke to a bunch of people
there. What happened me a

drummer. Do you know Cody? Lepo?
Yeah, of course. He was there.

We were chatting. He said, I'm
playing downtown tonight. Come

sit in if you'd like I said,
Yes, of course. You know, as you

say, say yes. Whenever you can,
until you essentially don't have

to. I went sat and played two
songs.

A very inebriated bass player
had happened to walk in. I

walked off the stage. He thought
it was my gig. I said, I just

moved here yesterday. He said,
We're all just tuned drummers

for our group tomorrow come
audition I did.

About a half hour to an hour
later, I got a text saying, Hey,

you got the gig. I proceeded to
sit in for the rest of that

week. And the beginning of the
next week, I post playing

downtown full time.

Middle of my second week in
town, which I think is pretty

unheard of. And then

even to backtrack, when I first
came to visit Nashville, there

is a wonderful store in the
gorge called tooled hippies was

helping me and he was a drummer.

We connected he say, when you
come to town, let's get coffee

we did. About five months in the
town, he shot me a text and

said, Hey, I'm leaving this
group can be a great foot in the

door for you for touring. I
ended up doing the audition for

that got that gig the debt for
about six months and was like,

This is great, but it's not what
I really want to do to the max

of what I can, my potential can
be. Yeah. So I took a couple

lessons with Jim Riley.

Leaving this group and you know,

what should I do next? How do I
go about meeting more people?

And he said, Go to writers
rounds. I went to Tinder found a

Mondrian, there was around
quarter revival. I didn't know a

single soul there. This was
November 2014. And

a walk in and you've been there.
It's small. It's kind of grungy

when the cool a lot the tin roof
down on Demonbreun. Yeah, this

long, it's just a long room.
Now, Jake, I don't know if I

told you when we connected but I
used to be the drummer in the

house span there in the year
2000. Wearing my bowling shirts,

and playing for the sweaty
masses there. And it was with

this guy name. It was Henry and
the Seahawks. And his whole

thing is we play for four hours.
No breaks. I was like, Well, you

might not break. But I'm gonna
pay you when I want to be Yeah.

But anyways, yeah. So you go to
the tin roof and you're shaking

hands and doing the shaking
hands and I walked in. It's

like, I think a lot of this
industry at the same time is

timing and luck. And, obviously,
yes, hard work and

determination.

So I walk in, and I'm watching
this riders round, I'm in make

my way to the front of the stage
because of how crowded it saw

watch from the back. It's one
guy, the scroll in Jordan,

Elena, and then Luke. I didn't
know who any of them were. I

just went to meet people. And I
caught Luke's last song, which

was she got the best to me.

Back to music, guitar, sat it
down number I just went up and

talked to him afterwards said,
Hey, man, I really liked your

song and I love your voice. He
said, Thanks, man. You know,

what do you do? And I said, I
play drums. I went to college

for here and all that stuff. So
did my whole life. Did he care

about that part? I don't really
know. Obviously, he also likes

to tell the story a little
differently. But you know, I

definitely know that I would not
go and say Hey, buddy, you need

a drummer.

Hey, buddy. But he said I need a
drummer for a gig next week you

want to play and I said I'd love
to. So he sent me his material.

I was the first one to the
rehearsal. 30 minutes early with

all my stuff set up ready to go.

I'd also say it was slightly my
audition.

Did that did the gig couple days
later. And then we hung out once

a week, every week for the next
month, month and a half to get

to know each other's playing
video games and all that stuff.

And well, that is smart. A lot
of people don't think about

that. Like, like, the human side
of things. Exactly. You know,

it's like cool. You put one gig
together. But what are they like

off the gig? And

yeah, after that, I think he's
just writing for like, a month

or so. And then he called me and
said, Hey, I'd love for you to

be my guy full time. Do you want
to do this? I said, Yeah, I'd

love to. And that was, I think
still 2014 And so I did a gig in

2014. And then we were hanging
out a bunch and then we really

started to get going 2015

gone over 150 dates a year, the
usual

weekend warrior stuff. And it
was fantastic. And

you know, I definitely think I

have proven myself by I've not
missed a single gig since 2014.

Incredible. Congratulations. And
that's a decade and you're gonna

get your watch

now, you're gonna

get used to Buddy, I don't know,
maybe you get a Casio. But um,

but, you know, the funny thing
is is that you changed your life

by having enough

confidence in yourself and
enough gumption and enough

follow through to take the leap
to walk the five feet over to

shake the guy's hand to
introduce yourself. And you also

you quickly got in there like,
Hey, I'm not a guy off the

street. I studied this. This is
my passion. This is my focus.

I'm putting I put in 10s of
1000s of hours. I think I could

be of a benefit to you. What I'm
impressed with him about is he

must have had a great feeling,
but he was willing to hire you

for a job without ever hearing
you play. Exactly. Well, I

remember. So apparently, the
bandleader the old bandleader

was there. And I guess he had
gone up there and said, Hey,

man, I found the drummer for the
gig and the guy goes, you're

just gonna hire some guy you
met, you don't even know if he

could play. He said, I have a
good feeling. You know, with

something probably along the
lines of that. And that's also I

do rehearsal. Because if you
can't cut it through the first

two or three songs, okay, well,
then they gotta go. But I did my

homework. I was practicing from
9am to 9pm. Every day till then,

you know, I had all my stuff
ready. I was there. So when they

got there, it's like, man,

he's good. He's ready to go. You
were over prepared, which is the

biggest thing. Yeah. And then I
think if you don't take that

chance to walk over to whoever
it may be, you don't know who

you're talking to, or that can
lead to or who they know. Then

you might miss out on an
opportunity. Yeah, it could be a

session. It could be, you know,

a songwriting type of deal.

Yeah, man. Well,
congratulations. That that that

is a thing where you had that
willingness to put one foot

forward and to shake his hand
firm handshake looked him in the

eyes. He had a great feeling
about you. He gave me the

opportunity and your way of
saying thank you was 30 minutes

early waiting on them to arrive,
you were over prepared. And next

thing you know, you've got the
gig. Here you are 10 years

later, never missed a show. I
still haven't missed a show

either. One show the day that my
grandparents died the same day,

I had to sub the show out and
it's a horrible, horrible reason

to sell out a show. But that's
the thing is you're you play

jetlag, you play sick, you play,
you know, it, the show must go

on. And that is that is a really
great thing. It's pretty wild. I

remember I was talking to my
parents.

Last year, my grandma is up in
age, she's 93 she's still

healthy. Be You know, you kind
of think about okay, like, am I

gonna get the phone call one day
about that. And I was talking to

my dad, and I was like, hey,
like, I know, she's up there and

age and all that stuff. And you
know,

I said I, you know,

would you guys want me to sub a
show? If that took place? He

goes, he said, No Work comes
first. Whenever that happens,

we'll plan that around. You
know, it's like, Ah,

interesting. Yeah. Apparently we
miss a lot, dude.

Yeah, oh, yeah. You know, I've
missed so many friends, weddings

and stuff, but they have to
understand as part of our

industry, I mean, my dad, with
what he did for work, he missed

a lot of weddings to being a
doctor, you know, he was on call

and all that stuff. So he
understands like Work comes

first. So I was gonna ask you,
what do your parents do? You got

a doctor. They're both retired
now. My, my dad was a doctor. He

was an OB GYN, and my mom was a
headhunter. So wow, I always

make jokes about headhunters.
Like I don't think our industry

works on hand, headhunters or
resumes or monster.com. Yeah,

there were headhunters out
there. The people that would go

after like, hey, this, this,
this corporation needs this

position filled, and they go out
look into scalp, scalp skulls

and find the right person.
Right. Yeah, you know, I kind of

find it. Interesting that with
the LinkedIn and stuff like, you

know, I know, we're both on
there and so are plenty of other

people like Mark showman and
stuff. And I'm like,

is Clinton really beneficial for
me? Well, I, I have never gotten

a job from LinkedIn, but you
might as well just be on there.

Right? Yeah, it's like, do I
really need to be on there? It's

not like, I feel like that's
more from the corporate world

than musicians. Yeah, you know,
jam card. Yeah, I like jam cart.

I was like, an early adapter. It
was. I like it a lot. It's um,

it's it's more la centric, which
is, you know, makes sense.

Because Elmo is it lives in Los
Angeles. But you might as well

be on there. Yeah, I'm on there.
And it's, you know, super cool.

Yeah. Don't put that anything
past you. Because what I like

about you is if there's
something to be had, if there's

some experience that needs to be
soaked up if there's some place

where you want to you

You throw your hat in the ring,
you know what I mean? You're

just like, oh, yeah, I'll be on
there. Oh, tick tock, I better

get on there. Oh, LinkedIn, I
should probably, you know what I

mean? And it's like, and that's
why I even saw how you have

developed your career, you do
look to people that are doing

what you want to do. And you ask
them and you say, what did you

do to do it? And then you either
do that exact same thing, or you

do something very similar to
like, like clinics, I was like,

okay, when I was out with like,
opening up for the Rascal Flatts

in the early days, Jim would be
gone every day doing a clinic. I

was like, How can I get my hands
on that kind of sit? How can I

get in there and you just do it.
And then you do the thing. And

now you got a twist, where you
bring in your bass player, Matt.

And

now the last two and a half
years and you know when he

crazy story about he and I
meeting, before he even got the

gig was via jam card. We got
coffee. We were talking music

and talking just life in
everything, just call me in the

right way. And then like a year
later, so he had played with our

bandleader. Now,

when he was like 15, Matt was
21. And we had no time now

auditioning guys is between Matt
and another guy.

And our bandleader called
probably each of us and he

called me and said, hey, you
know, we don't have time to

audition between these two guys
who do choose. And I said, Well,

I'm not choosing this guy,
because you and you and him have

a history together by playing.
But he and I got coffee, and we

really hit it off. And I just
think it'd be a good fit. And

that's how that kind of came to
be. And I was doing a clinic at

Denver for Denver percussion in
2022. And Matt was like, Hey,

where are you going? I was like,
Oh, I'm doing a clinic at this

drugstore. He goes, Oh, sweet,
like, I've done some as well.

Would you want to do it
together. And immediately the

light bulb went off in my head
of like, nobody else is doing

this. You never see rhythm
section clinics. And drums and

bass are the link to everything.
They hold everything together.

And I just thought

people can really benefit from
this man do their thing. It's

like, yeah, you can go on
YouTube and watch any buddy of

whatever caliber do their thing
but you can't ask questions

through YouTube, or Instagram or
Tiktok, or whatever. You know.

So I think doing these

is such an important thing to
benefit people of all ages. And

talk about the importance of
networking, playing to a click.

You know, for me, I talked about
open handed playing because

people are always like, Oh, you
playing a righty Kip that you'll

have Tanda said, yes. But I'm
actually ambidextrous. Because

my ride I play my right hand
where most lefties would play

with their left hand. Yeah, like
so I'm gonna fill you with Yeah,

like Simon Phillips or Carter,
but he actually is. Carter has

got two rides. But I'm like,
Well, I took my ride and put in

my lap. There's a huge hole
here. Yeah, the groove doesn't

change or sound any different.
When we play my hi hat here and

my ride here. I'm going to do it
because that's all I've ever

done. So do you really feel like
you're truly like God given

ambidextrous, or it's as a
result of times in the trenches

of you focusing in on saying, I
can ride with my ride? I can

ride with my left, you know what
I mean?

So I hit a golf ball. Do you
feel like there's one limb that

has a little bit when you break
out the stick control book? He's

like, little bit more smart?
Yeah, yeah.

Honestly, I feel like, in a
weird way, even though left

handed, I think sometimes my
right hand is better than my

left.

Yeah. Because, you know, I'm
always, for the most part, doing

a tune for my right hand
compared to.

I mean, they're definitely
equal. But I think just having

most of your back between two
and four with your right hand is

going to be your more
comfortable hand. Yeah, and I

mean, I'm exactly opposite.
Like, I'm the one who wakes up

in the morning going, God, I can
tell I played about 10,000

backbeats last night, because
it's the left hand it's like,

ooh, it's all tingly blue. But
I've seen you from side stage

pull the open handed trick.
Yeah, well, you know, What first

got me into it is like, oh,
first of all, you know, it's in

the Gary Chafee book. The new
breed is like a godsend. Like,

if you do that book correctly.
It's like, a lot of us at North

Texas back in the 90s. Yeah, we
had we had two high hats like

and so it was one that was like,
let's let's get two high hats

happening. Let's do the Gary
Chester book. And you do it. And

then I think, you know, back in
the day,

you know, Kenny with Mellencamp
was playing a lot of the same

beats over and over. But John
wanted him to reinvent the wheel

on every song so he tried the
openhanded thing to make it

sound like a little bit more
self taught and sloppy, which is

which is a great, that's that's
when I do it because I know that

my left hand is not going to be
as confident and detail oriented

with these fingers as the

Right, because the right so he's
gonna deem that getting that

getting Gaga thing, right? So
that's when I go to it but you

play very clean this way. And I
mean the idea of going to a

different hand on that blows my
mind like I would never do that

in public. I'm asking the cool
thing too is you know, like, my

setup is somewhat comparable to
yours minus the right hi hat.

Boy two crashes ride China
China. Yeah. Gotta have that

even though our bandleader hates
it

be No, it's got to be all the
you have a Luke loves it moocow

Yeah, that's Luke comes over.
And where's the hell out of that

damn thing. There is finally a
small crack in it that my tech

pointed out last week. And I was
like, let's just use it till it

breaks. Is it the holy China?
Yes. And mine still has the Chad

Smith logo on it. Dude, it so
pull that off the road and save

it. I'm going to Well, I'm not
going to send it to Stankey

because I know he'd probably
lose his mind.

Just to hold on to it. That is
the greatest Chinese symbol ever

invented. I think it's amazing.
I have never heard a Chinese

symbol. Sexier that has that.
Tell. I told Chris. Chris stanky

is our a&r guy at Sabian. For
you kids that are looking for

endorsements.

Oh, Chris has email addresses
Chris.

It's telling you as phone number
is you know, it's the best

sounding thing China symbol on
the planet. I mean, I just I

love all their symbols. I use
the complex line. Yeah.

I've only broken

two or three of them out of the
I think what they came out in

2020. Since then, I got them on
SNL for the first time, which

was super cool. And then yeah,
my high hats other 15 inch big

cup complex hats, which I love.
Yeah, on as sounds so good. And

they're thin. But they hold up,
they're very durable. And they

cut in but they also get it get
in and out of the music quickly.

It's, it's, you know, going back
to the open handed stuff, yeah,

you can crash here, you can
crash here. And, you know, I

learned this from you. You got
to play to the back of the room.

The people who are in the upper
deck, you got to make them feel

like they're right in the pit.
So it's like, the bigger the

motion, the more silly you look,
the better. Upper Deck is a

polite more polite way of saying
cheap seats but

there's actually no cheap seats
in the world and nothing is

cheap in the world. Forget it.
You know, if you're gonna go see

a concert, you know, that stuff
is still pretty robust and then

you got to pay for your parking
and your babysitter and then

you're you're live. You're gonna
be drinking 18 bucks a pop.

Hey, it's just money. You can't
take it with you. Right?

When somebody tells me they said
you never see

a moving truck behind a hearse.

That's funny, but I'm drinking
out of my I'd hit that coffee

mug today. I thought I'd give
Dave a little love here. Bassam

Richard the rich Redmond mugs
are all dirty. They're all in

the in the dishwasher. So Dave,
we love you, man. Keep the

thing. We love the warts and all
approach. It's a great podcast,

right? I listen to I listen to
it. You know, I've never been on

it. Well, Dave, check this. You
know, Jake wants. He did a whole

Nashville series and I didn't
make it either. I didn't make

the cut. Oh, well. It's upon
Dave. You can now it's alright.

I was on a very early episode
like 12 years ago. That's cool,

though. He's been doing it for
that long. He knows integrate.

He's the OG he really is. Okay,
so this openhanded thing. Where

did where your teachers doubling
down on this? Who are some of

your teachers list? Those guys
offer us? Yeah, um, so it's a

you definitely know. Some of
them. Or probably all of them. I

know. PacSun right. Action.
Jerry Brown. Never met Jerry

Brown. Be you know who he plays
for right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dom Femi Bolero guy rest his
soul and peace.

John for Vicki whenever DOM was
out of the country, I liked and

Mark de Gianni the Gianni De
Tutsis. The Gianni, I moved here

and I took a couple lessons with
Riley took one lesson with Ben

Caesar just for the heck of it.
And I took a few Murphy. And

yeah, I still like to kind of
have the

tweaking lessons of like, hey,
what do you think I can improve

on type of thing. And the last
two are with Kevin and the first

one was great. And then the
second one was just like Hey,

can't get the tweaker just to
like, see what you think. And he

was like, Dude, you're good. I
was like,

okay, yeah, it's I always want
to get better and grow my

playing but it's like, I feel
like the fun

non

practical things you want to
work out at home, you can't

really use for the gig.

But I'm always trying to get
better in some regard of like, I

saw this guy

on one of the social media pages
and he was just doing like, left

kick, kick, left kick, kick,
right kick, right kick kick. And

was like, oh, you know, like I
could, if I worked it up to

speed. Use that in my soul for
this year, which I have. But

just little things like that.

What is your soul this year?
Does it come over a vamp is in

the middle of the song to the
guys leave the stage? So we do a

medley and my solo comes after
our keys player singers dropped

his Jupiter. And it's kinda
like, we actually my solo Cana

kicks, the tempo of Dirks
Bentley's, what was I thinking?

So I solo and then our other
guitar player, I kind of at the

end of my solo, build up into
Luke then announcing him into

that song, or that tempo. And I
get like a pretty decent solo,

decent amount of bars instead of
like one v one type of deal that

we've been doing the last couple
of years. And yeah, not easy to

do that. Like it's like, oh, you
solo for a bar? You You're

trading with the bass player,
and it's every other bar, and

you can't really

grow a solo by doing that, like
solo groove, solo groove. And

it's like, yeah, what about just
building the idea? So I'm glad I

finally I get to like, do like a
full solo. Heck, yeah, man. I'll

have to see that I have to come
out and see you guys. Because

now we were on tour together.
2018. And that was fun. What's

the deal with like, you know,
Luke's always telling you to

take your shirt off, and you're
like, Yeah, boss.

Are you still doing that? Yeah,
it's kind of become a thing.

I've done it though. I did it
both times last week, just for

the encore. I did it. The last
couple shows. Yeah.

Sometimes he was just like, we
didn't we were in Buffalo a

couple of weekends ago. And it's
freezing cold. So he had some

mercy to long sleeve shirts, a
sweatshirt. And then one of our

buddies Brothers is the long
snapper for the bills. And he

was like, Hey, you got to wear
his jersey.

He's number 69. So I wore it.
And then now I have it at home

because I had him sign it and
all that stuff. Super good,

dude. And Luke was like, Hey,
will you take your shirt off for

the encore? And I was like,

yeah, for you. Why not? And our
keys player did it as well. But

if you really want to last with
my nipples, I mean, so they

could do that already,
unfortunately, but.

But our keys player did as well.
And he doesn't play that much.

So he's up there doing like
this. Keep him warm. And um, you

know, I'm still playing a little
bit, so I'm fine. But uh, yeah,

it just kind of has become a
thing. I love that. Yeah.

Well, things are great. And it
seems like you guys have a

really nice camaraderie with the
band. Like,

it's great. It's really like a
family. It's like, it really is

your I Am I crazy and saying you
see these guys More than you see

anyone else in your life. I
mean, really like friends, blood

family, especially you with the
number of dates you guys are

doing. I mean, you had a huge
world tour last year, where

you're going to Australia and
the UK and the Nordic glands and

like you're all over the globe.
You know?

How many shows you guys do it?
How many shows you guys think we

did like 65? I think that's
manageable. But it's when you

get when when you start crossing
international waters, it gets

more time consuming very much
when you're gone for like three,

three and a half weeks at a time
and all that stuff. Yeah, this

year, I think we're only doing

it's 13 weakens of the actual
tour. And we're already almost

halfway through. Wow, we're
doing I think a couple of

festivals. And that's kind of
it.

Totally like,

the Hertie are 335 shows of the
year, which is not that at all.

Yeah. So like, last year, like
our first like real light year,

so we have off every holiday so
we've off next. Not this

weekend, but the weekend after
for more Memorial Day and then

we got like a couple of weekends
and then we have off after so

far for about two and a half
weeks. Hmm, so fine. I lay dude.

No, I bad buddy. I'm telling
you. It's like, it's so crazy

that you got what? How old? were
you when you got the job? Like

24? Yeah, 24 We were both 20
Well, he is 24 I'm like a couple

of months.

Older than me. He was. You're
such a young buck buddy. Such a

young buck. We're about 24 Now,
you know he's 34 and I'm gonna

be 34 And the day before your
birthday, who got to do a double

E Oh, yeah, I'm down. That's so
cool that you that we have a

birthday a day apart from each
other. And then my buddy Eric

How big is like a day or? I
think he's on the 27th so your

24th I'm 25th He's the 27th My
brother

Are Jason is the 23rd Well, no,
I'm actually the day after you.

Sorry. You're the 26th Okay,
yeah. And then Eric How big is

the 27th? So it's it's not so
all this Leo's running around

there. You know who else is a
Leo da ru Jones? You know, I

still haven't met him. What's
that? I still haven't met him.

Oh, you got you got to meet him.
Yeah, he's he's nice man. He's a

well, you know, the thing is, is
that he makes me feel lazy. He's

always working with some DJ over
and you know, playing some plays

over on the east side, or he's
doing a sweet. He's always doing

so it's actually our bass player
in our doing a Sweetwater

clinic. November 7. Yeah, yeah.
So what should be cool? That'd

be great. Man. We want to have
you guys.

Awesome. That's nice. It's nice.
When when your reputation starts

to precede you, you put in the
hard work and you create this

great product. People enjoy it.
And then before, you know,

instead of you having to make
phone calls going, Hey, I'm

going to be in town you want to
they call you and say, I see

you're coming to town. Can we do
something? Which is great. I

mean, we actually have often
they're like we are, when are

you guys free? And we're like,
well, we're free this time. But

for all the other clinics that
we do, when we get our schedule,

pretty much like a year out.

We're immediate, like we started
calling for this year in

November last year, we call we
make all the calls and all that

stuff. Which I mean it's putting
the work in, but it's worth it.

Totally. Yeah. You're an
educator. And you're also a

recording drummer, you're
sitting there at your place

right there. The tracks come in.
And you engineer yourself. Yeah,

I use Pro Tools. And I just
essentially send raw drums like

I've tracked in the song right
after this.

I'm coming over to play
percussion afterwards. Am I

doing shaker temporary and on
your track are more than welcome

to

I got plenty, you know I got one
of those who makes a big fat

snare drum I think I don't know
if they still make it that

Brooklyn Lager shaker. It's in
that Brooklyn Lager can but it's

a shaker. Oh, wow.

I'm gonna take a precaution. So
I have a bunch of their shakers

and then ice. Yeah.

But doing that after this, and
then I teach from home, I teach

people overseas, I actually
teach the drummer who is in the

Luke combs tribute experience. I
love it. You know, you've made

it when that happens, because
there's an owl Dean. There's

several LD attributes, right?

What do they call it? Al Dean
unhinged or I forget what it is.

But But yeah, I've never met the
drummer from the band. Have you

seen the guy who obviously does
the part of ElDeen in Vegas

tribute? He has the same exact
tattoos as Jason which blows my

mind. Oh, that's a commitment.
I'm like, how far is this? Like

this guy went full send. I mean,
I would just paint them on or I

don't know. Jeez, like maybe
henna tattoo them on but like

fully them is

your branded for life. Well,
also he could probably walk

around Vegas and go like hey,
I'm ElDeen and he gets

preferential seating and
restaurants and such. You know

what I mean? You never know.

Little scheme. You're right
there. That's crazy. So what

about the gear? You and I share
a secret? not so secret. It's

not a big deal. How I love
Yamaha recording customs. We

both love them, but you're
playing crabby out all right.

Yes, I joined Krabi auto
December of 2022. They've been

fantastic.

I absolutely love their drums. I
think that they are truly pieces

of art. And they really can be
furniture if you just set them

up in your house.

All solid shell drums even if
you do stacks, like I have a

snare drum here at the house
that it's on the outside. It's a

black paint, but to Cherry
inlays and in the inside is a

maple cherry and walnut stack 30
degree bearing and it sounds

fantastic.

My kit though is a walnut kit,
hybrid edges with cherry inlay

in the hoops of my kick drum or
walnut inlay.

And it just sounds amazing. Have
you had trouble getting backline

crabby autos in the in the major
markets or, um, do they know

that they're not everywhere? So
we just did a charity event. It

was Matthew McConaughey. Hey,
Jack Ingram and Mac. I think

it's Mack Jones and in Austin,
in Austin a couple of weeks ago

and I told our production
manager since I didn't think

Krabi Otto would probably send
me a kit for that one off which

to them and I understand doesn't
make sense to ship a kit of that

price range for a one off. So I
just told them whenever we have

a one off

Because we still put our logo
head on it and it has Krabi Otto

on there or just kept btw kid
because I'm with them. I'm with

DW for penulisan hardware. Nice.

Perfect and you get to hang out
with Chad Cramo right and

kibbutz in Nashville sometimes.
Yeah, if he's in Nashville. I

think he's in town now from my
buddy told me, but uh, I don't

try to like hit him up too much.
I know he's busy. He's still

constantly doing sessions. Yes,
man. He's in LA. He's in New

Orleans. He's all over the
place, which is awesome. I'm so

glad that he's still constantly
going, you know? Yeah. You know,

I want to, I'd love to one day.

If he and or the producer would
let me just watch him do a

session one day, just be a fly
on the wall. Because of how many

things he's done. I'll just ask.
Just ask him and I'm sure

sharing you stop.

Yeah, the cool thing about being
a part of Krabi, Otto has their

factories in town.

And my buddy who works there
just sends me he sent me a

picture today. He's like, hey,
what do you think about this?

It's right over nolensville road
there. It's right near forks.

Yeah.

And it's cool to be able to like
say I'm a part of this. Yeah,

they're a smaller company. But
they're very boutique. And one

of my buddies was like, why
would you sign with them? Like,

because they make amazing drums.
Then it Yeah, I was just it was

more finishes. You could do
whatever you want. You can get

them painted? Oh, yeah. You can
get rats. Anything you dream of

they can do? Well, it's good.
It's it's, you know, a cool

thing. Yeah, you know, everyone
thinks oh, it's just wood whip.

Okay, it is solid shell wood.
But

but you can get like, if you
want to do like a walnut maple

walnut, as a hybrid, or you can
do say you wanted a, my buddy

just sent me this maple kit. But
the top layer was black and the

bottom layer was black. So it
was like black paint, maple,

black paint. And it's beautiful
with the two with maple inlay on

the rent on the hoops of the
kick drum. And then on the kick

drum itself. Were two more maple
inlays. And it just looks

fantastic. Nuts. Well,
congratulations, man. It's like

the BMW drums. Everybody's
making great stuff. I feel like

you know, the like, you know, dw
is the Audi of drums, and

everybody's just making great
stuff. You know, I mean, it's,

you can't really go wrong, you
really can't go wrong. So we

were talking about your open
handed thing. And developing

that. And we're talking about
your education component, you

being an educator. So eventually
everybody will make their way

over to Dromio. And I'm super
happy and proud of you in

January, you went up to dremio.
They fly up there, they take

care of you, they feed you they
put you up, it's they're great.

And it's a world class facility.
You did some teaching, and then

you're getting some viral views
on this video of you hearing

Gojira for the first time. And
it did a great job. They

wouldn't they they play it for
you. You get to chart it out,

and then you get to play. Right,
right. Yeah, it was cool. I

mean, I think with them doing
that segment is such a unique

and cool way to show drummers
that the humanity of drummers

Yeah, yes, the the humanity and
kind of even somewhat humility

of the fact that like, I never
heard that band before. When I

heard that song, a there were no
drums in it. It was drumless.

And it's essentially make up
your own part. And I thought,

well, if I was in the studio
recording this and I only had

two or three takes that Vallely
gave me, well, I could have done

a third, but they were like,
Hey, you're good after two? And

I'm like,

Okay.

But you kind of think, how would
I play this? How would I

approach this? And it's like, I
always in my head, think simple

is better. And

the chart I made was as fast as
I can make it. And then I was

like, You know what, I'm not
going to look at my chart. I'm

gonna listen to the song and see
what comes out. And

I like to hear in there. Look at
the comments of what people are

writing, for the most part,
people like it, you know, and I

think for the people who don't
like it, they're probably

sitting in their mom's basement
saying, Well, how'd this guy do

it? Exactly. Jake. Exactly,
buddy. You know, you can't let

that stuff get to you. But oh,
it was kind of like the, like

the band is? Is the band goes
Jira, or is it another band and

it's band is called Gojira.
Okay, and I forget the name of

the song. But, I mean, I think
that means Godzilla. I love

Godzilla when catching up on all
the movies. And I think it's

Gojira which is just Godzilla. I
believe I'm gonna probably get

all sorts of hate mail. You're
wrong.

But no, it's like, you know,
there's like, it was like really

quick.

Like, like, really? So you could
you could get on the X hat. You

could try to Thomas Lang all
that stuff up. But I like

usually you're just like

let everybody do the heavy
lifting and lay down the boom

shmack And it was great.

Eat well, and in the beginning,
you know when I heard that done

and

not done that, I thought, slice
and dice, but I knew that ride

pattern, I did a doughnut on it.
I took that from that corn song.

And I was like, Oh, well, Ray
does this here on this song.

This could kind of work here and
then go into the groove. All

right, Ray, great. My God, He
reminds me of like, like

Bissonnette because he goes to
these like drumming melodies

that he has, like, gotta, gotta,
gotta, gotta gotta gotta gotta

gotta gotta get those kinds of
things where there's like these

little melodies that will like
rear their ugly head all the

time. And they always work and
it's part of his sound. He's so

good. So these open ended as
well.

Yes, he's open handed. He his
his right on his right. Right

side. His Yes. Hi, hat. I think
he's got two hats. And he got

his signature that China just
straight up middle. Yeah. Which

I think is such a cool look.
Totally. But um, yeah, I mean, I

kind of heard when I heard that
song. I was like, Well,

I don't have a double kick pedal
setup. I didn't even ask for one

because I don't want to really
that Well, anyway, and if I

faked it, God knows how it would
sound. But

that was a good time. Yeah. Um,
I appreciate them having me. And

you know, I had Brandon out to
our show in Vancouver. Before

then, and he was a hey, what are
you doing? What do you have off?

We want to have you up here. And
I was like, sweet.

Got a great job, right? Oh,
yeah. And he's such a nice guy.

He's so nice. So approachable.
So good. He knows how to read

really transcribing. He's always
getting to copy those cool

styles goes to Chad Smith house,
and then he's doing the

interviews. He's a great host.

And he can I mean, he could play
with butter

to be able to do all these
different things and like, Okay,

how long did you practice like
this adventure seven full thing

for?

Because it's not a you could
just play that in a day. I mean,

I guess you can't really sat
there and practice it. But it's

like, you have other stuff going
on throughout your data, I'd

assume. And since play that
stuff is not easy. I remember

trying to play that when that
stuff first came out. I must

have been in like high school
when I was like, Yeah, my double

pedal stuff. Not that great.
Yeah, I had my on your kick. I

always I always have it up
there. It's like, ever use it.

At the ends of songs, you know,
floors and stuff. You know what

I mean? I think that
inappropriate unmusical double

bass use is is the epitome of
amateur. Right. So but it's good

to have up there because you
know, I'm from the

rock Ray Bissonnette Carmine
School of the falling rocks to

in the hands to feed for in the
hands to in the feed. I can I

can knock that stuff out. Matter
of fact, they the band gave me a

little drum solo this year
because I guess ElDeen was

reminiscing, looking back at our
wide open and more DVD that was

shot in 2005. And I had a seven
minute extended drum solo where

everybody left the stage. It was
very artistic. And he goes, we

don't want it seven minutes he
goes, but how about 45 seconds

of the most popular knucklehead
go to arena rock drum tropes. So

I said, Okay, so I did, I
composed the 45 second soul that

starts out four bars of like a
Foo Fighters tip of the hat to

the Foo Fighters, and then it
goes into a four on the floor,

and then it goes into kind of
like a bissonnet II thing. And

then he ends with a Carmine type
of thing and then with some some

Redman, you know, over the top
shome and stuff, 45 seconds, in

and out. That's awesome. And
that's how we're starting to

show this year and hopefully
we'll make it to the end of the

year. Sometimes we'll we'll come
up with things and we'll do for

about 10 shows and then like app
let's change it up for the rest

of the year. You know what I
mean? I remember when we were

out you guys like the first
weekend? I think it was your

encore you dies at a Bon Jovi
tune and the next night you guys

cut in I was like, That was so
cool. Why did we you know, we

weren't like the audience was
getting it like we're thinking

like, maybe we're old. I don't
think they're reacting to dead

or alive. You know what I mean?
We're like, These people don't

know, because there are the 30s
the 40s and 50 Somethings that

know dead or alive for sure.
There's the 30 Somethings that

may have done a deep dive or
just like classic rock, but a

lot of kids in their 20s Ain't
gonna know Dead or Alive from

which is crazy to me because
that song is

a song that I feel like
everybody should know. Everybody

should know Bon Jovi, even if
it's that one, or, you know, one

of the one of these other big
hits Did you watch the Docu

series on who? I'm not watching
you running to get around to

doing that? Check it out
because, well, I'm a Chico guy.

I always liked his, his muscular
playing is his sassiness he just

was a great fit for that band.
But it was so funny. He really

has an oral fixation because in
every shot of him he's smoking a

cigar or a cigarette. Oh
goodness. Yeah.

So, our photographer David
Bergman was Jovi's photographer

for 10 years before he got on
with us. Wow. Well, he's been

everywhere with them. And he's
got some great stories and small

world. Bon Jovi, and Luke had
the same birthday. Wow. What did

you see? Well, I don't know
who's doing your videos, but the

videos you load up to Instagram
and it almost looks like it's

like a robotic camera or
something. Because it's got

what's that? I, the videos I
post? Yeah. That's where the

GoPro was generous enough to
send me their max camera, which

is their 361? Well, yeah, you
put in the 360 mode, and then

you edit the 360 like making it
move and stuff after the fact.

Wow. But they were generous.
They liked what I was doing with

when I had my hero nine out and
they said, Hey, we want to we

love what you're doing want to
send you a max, what's your

address, so they sent me one,
which was

kudos to them. Thank you. And I
tried to go pro.

At least one of the two shows a
weekend just to have content cuz

I think it's cool for people to
be able to see our point of

view. And I take a different
angle. So like, our, one of our

actual video guys, who tells
like, the handheld people, Hey,

cut here, cut here, all that
stuff. They have these arms

called Magic Arm. So we put one
up on my ride cymbal stand to

have it out in front of my kick
drum. So my GoPros facing me. So

I just edited a video yesterday
that I'm going to post today.

And then I have another angle
from Saturday show. That is I

just have like this like
gooseneck lamp that's on the

GoPro and have it on my right
crash and facing you this way.

And you could pull like, on when
you edit the videos, you could

pull it out, you could spin it
if you want, which I wouldn't do

because I think people get sick.
But um, but it's really cool

what they came up with. Is that
is that a like a proprietary do

you when you edit? Is it the
GoPro software? Or are you

jumping into the Final Cut or
something like that I use the

GoPro software I just do it from
my phone there's they have their

app called the Quick app. Nice.
You just go in there

you have to sync it to like your
GoPros Wi Fi I guess in a sense

interesting or and or Bluetooth.
And then once it links to that

you go to View media all the
media of whichever show or view

captured pops up. You click on
that and then you just scrub to

whatever song you want to

cut to and then you can then cut
however long you want. So I can

do a video and put on my YouTube
page of

trying to think of a song I
don't have on there yet.

What's your YouTube page buddy?
I think this is Jake summers.

And you load up all this
content? How many videos you got

hundreds? No, I think I only
have like 10 or 11 videos. I

haven't done it this year at
all. I need to get back to doing

that. You know what I haven't
done it too. And it's great when

you get the DM from people that
are like what's going on haven't

seen the footage and while
you're going to you're going to

record this year you get to do a
tour breakdown. You know video

they love those tour break the
kit break. Well I loved it last

year and mine hasn't changed.
God forbid if you don't do it

every year. I'm like guys, it's
the same setup. The only thing

that's different is the finish
of the drums. Yeah, I'm like

mine and the only difference so
I've been playing these

accouting custom metal snares on
the road. Yeah, I met that cat.

He's great Cooper. Great guy. So
my sides there is his 14 by six

and a half alloy Inconel snare
with a big fat snare drum on it

with the snares off, which I use
for the song one number away.

And then my backup snare is his
T six aluminum. And we've gotten

to become really close friends
and

we were talking August ish of
last year and he was I told he's

like, hey are using the same kit
for next year? I said yes.

Definitely not changing anytime
soon.

And he said how's the aluminum
work? And I said I love it.

Everyone does. He said I want to
make you in the same thing but

custom. So he made me like a
piano black aluminum one with

his 24 karat badge all the
snares that he's been generous

enough to give me have so now my
main snares is the black T six

one. And then my backup is the
other T six, which just looks

like a I guess a metal snare.
But

they're awesome. It's really,
really cool. And then he sent me

a 14 by eight stainless steel
which is at my house that was

made with Brandon net.

That's a big boy, but I love it.
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm playing their

snares. And you know, I tried
out.

I guess it was last year.

Probably Otto was generous
enough to also make me a 14 by

five and a half walnut snare
matching.

My kid with hybrid edges and and
a 14 by six and a half maple 45

degree like Johnny would have
made. And I tried them out, and

they are fantastic. But I just
think on the record, Jerry Rowe

has been playing metal snares so
I kind of got to do that. And he

likes I think Jerry is known for
he's so tall.

He plays an eight inch eight
inch drum like when I think

about eight inch drums, I'm
always thinking, well, it's

probably going to be an eight
inch from that. So that's tuned

like mud, but eight inch drums
can have a lot of beef and

attack as well. You know, he's
an incredible player, he

actually, couple months ago, I
guess they were tracking me sent

me a photo and he said, he said
Sorry, not sorry, guess you're

gonna have to expand your kidney
to three up and one down. And

I'm like, I love you. But damn,
and I hate you at the same time

right now. Well, yeah. And and
you don't have the balls. You

could you could just take the
macro rhythm and like break it

up between what you got right
now, which is fine. But yeah, I

figured with him playing on a
lot of the records, you guys

would be fast friends, like, you
know, like, Dude, I mean, I

remember there was one song
where there's not a lot of

little bass on Luke stuff. But
there's one song that we haven't

played in a while. And it's a
super cool, double bass part.

It's very quick.

And I text him I said, Hey,
like, how did you play this

part? You know, what is your
what was your footpad? And he

goes, he was just adrenaline.
Adrenaline on Mike was just

adrenaline Come on, like you
know that you had a specific

foot pattern or something like
that. But he's a metal guy. You

know, he could play everything.
But he loves metal music and

rock music. Yeah. And so does
miles and when and when I had to

do I had to do the taller fire
gig seven for Mark. He had some

really adventurous fills. I was
like man getting away with

murder miles murder. When you
subbed for more? Did you have

charts? Or do you just try? Oh,
heck yeah, you know me, I'm the

charkha I'd rather play with
perfection and not worry about,

you know how people go, what are
the charts, but now iPads can

make everything so
inconspicuous. But I still

haven't made the jump to be in
an iPad guide. Now right after I

talk to you, I'm going to talk
to our friend Brian Zack who's a

great, you know, all round
player. And he's like, swears by

the iPad. So I'll probably like,
you know, get him to help me

with the four score and
incorporating the metronome.

When it comes to I'm just still
old school. I like dead paper.

I'd like dead trees. I want
paper. I want to light on the

paper. I want to be able to turn
the page. And then when it comes

to metronomes I don't want it in
the iPad. I want a rhythm watch

or some sort of standalone
device whose sole purpose is to

create a collect it doesn't
receive phone calls or texts.

It's not doing double duty with
a chart. It's just a collect.

You guys use Ableton No, we're a
Pro Tools. Man. Johnny's got to

Pro Tools rigs running in tandem
back there. Oh, wow. Okay, so we

use Ableton, yeah, most most
people do because it's so

stable. We just use click, we
don't use any tracks we never

have. And we have two that are
simultaneous in case one

goes down. Yeah, actually. And
what is your click sound? What

is your click sound of
preference shaker. So like on

faster tempo is just quarter
note. And then on everything

else, it's slower. It's just
eighth note shakers. We tried

years ago doing like the eighth
note or quarter note shaker and

then doing like a cowbell and a
woodblock on tune for but it's

just like to kind of bizarre. I
know, shaker is beautiful back

in the early days. I don't know
we talked about this, when we

are using and Alesis sr 18. For
click, you can split the sounds

you could pan things. So I would
send the the band a shaker just

a shaker. And then mine had had
hand stuff like tambourines on

two and four. And I had a low
tuned conga.

So it was just more robust. That
was kind of fun to play with.

But now it's just shaker baby,
just a dummy shaker. We use the

Oasis sr 18. I saw one in a
photo one time like off to your

left.

So we still say 20

Let's say 19 now

and well that's where the shaker
came from. Because my band loves

the shaker. They would never
ever entertain the idea of using

another sound source. It would
be so weird because it gets in

the way a shaker. If you're
having a great day. It just

melts into the fabric of the
music like like like you're

playing with

a man like a Ron Powell or like
one of these, you know, heavy

percussionist cats, man. It's
crazy. Well, what else is what

else is happening that you want
to talk about or promote your

teaching? privately? You are got
your YouTube channel. You know,

you got your videos on your
Instagram. You're constantly

being nominated for country
drummer of the year. You're on

these huge world tours. Dude,
I'm so proud of you, man.

Congratulations. Yeah.

Really? No, you know, so we
covered a lot. I mean, it's

definitely been

For a while, fantastic ride that
you can only obviously dream of

and pinch yourself but it's
like, I don't think any of us,

especially myself and our
bandleader, and Luke, because

our bandleader has been there.
He joined fully a couple of

months after I did think the
three of us

ever really thought like, we're
gonna be headlining stadiums one

day, or we're gonna be doing SNL
or the Grammys, and it's like,

you

were there, we've been doing it,
which is amazing. It'd be doing

stadium stadiums two years in a
row.

I think it's always just a pinch
yourself moment, like the last

small venue we played was in
Paris last year. And I mean,

aside from like, the charity
event, but like,

our own show, was Paris was like
a 1200 person club and was so

much fun, feeling all the air
from all the instruments and

being so close to everybody.
And, like, you know, Luke's on

the thrust and some other guys
on are walking down the catwalk

and the thrust is huge. And I'm
just back here, like, rocking

out and like open our keys
players here and like our bass

player, sometimes right next to
me, and just having a great

time. And it's wild to think
about but you know, it's, it's

new, really.

unbelievable to see that
momentum from 20.

I would say 2015 Realistically,
to now. Yeah. And, you know, to

be able to tour with all your
friends is super cool, too.

We've got like, Jordan Davis out
on Saturdays, Mitchell Tenpenny.

Drew Parker, Colby Acuff, and,
you know, I know all the

drummers in those groups like
Jimmy's out with us Kyle's out

Jimmy Alcock. Yeah. And Kyle
Wilkerson. Yep. Jimmy and I were

just smacking on your pro logics
pad on Saturday before. Thank

you guys. You guys. Bottom.
Yeah. And

and, you know, I was like, hey,
like Jason Edwards from Pro

logics, call me right now.

It's a very small world, but a
very small world. I'm really

proud of Jimmy to we were on
tour last year together, and he

just sounds great. He loves an
athlete back there. He's just

doing the thing, man. It's
great. I think he told me that.

A lot of those symbols that he's
using currently are yours,

right? Yeah. I lent it to him
last year. And then I lent him

Maru. One day, he was in town.
And he was like, Hey, do you

want to go to forks? And I was
like, Yeah, let's go. And he was

looking at some ride cymbals and
he was like, What are you like?

And I was like, Well, I've been
playing the 22 inch HHF complex

ride. And I had, I think last
year, switch to the 23. And then

I have another 22 as a backup.
And as I do just come to my

house, I probably have more hate
saved than forks has in my

house. And I let him he's been
borrowing that 22 inch dried

since he was on tour with you
guys. And this year. We're on

tour together and I was like,
Hey, man, like, you still

digging. There? He goes, Yeah,
love. I said, Hey, I want you to

have it. Ah, I said, Yeah, dude.
I said, Please, I want you to

keep it. I have a backup.

So sweet. I forget what I lent
him because, because

at this point, Ma, it's the way
we play. It's probably all

toast. You know what I mean?
Because I did, I did give him a

ride. And I don't think he liked
it because he traded, he started

using the one that you lent him.
Jimmy, if you're listening to

this, I still need to get that
waxed denim jacket from your

clothing designer for an LA. So
hopefully I'll get a discount

there. But but, you know, man,
it's just incredible. And it

happens so fast. Like I feel
like the way the world works now

with social media and new media.
What usually takes a decade

takes five years now. I mean,
like that is a meteoric rise to

success look like through Tik
Tok. I'm buddies with the guys

from Bella Zimmerman's band. His
first full band show was at one

of the whiskey jams that we had
on our tour in 2022. And now

he's direct support from Morgan
Wallen. It's insane. What's the

drummer Mike? I met him in
Austin, Mike Miller, Max Miller,

Max Miller. I know Mike Miller
who's a drum tech with almost

Yeah, Alice Cooper right. Yeah.
Sorry, Mike.

One night at the jam session in
Hollywood that I always go to

poor Mike I was

I know we would do it at the
lucky strike on the corner of

how Hollywood and Highland it's
a bowling alley and they would

have rock jams there. And I
totally it Mike in the I was a

drumstick that and I mean, I
could have totally blinded the

guy. And I'm like, I'm so sorry.
He's like, Oh, it's alright. So

sorry, Mike. Still to this day.
very embarrassing, but but he's

fine. He's totally fine.

Yeah, I will say one of the
coolest

things

since the beginning of this
whole ride and stuff, you know,

it's like, you look up the
people on stuff and I've told

you this 1000 times.

But even before me moving to
Nashville, I would get Modern

Drummer, and all stuff. I
remember seeing you on the

cover. And then, you know, you
just had this cool persona and

look, and you know, how your kit
was set up was super cool. And

you know, for you it's really
comfortable and which, you know,

and it looks awesome. And then
it was like, Oh, I forgot. I

remember it was like 20 things
like end of 2017. Yeah, the next

year, we're going on tour the
Aldi and I was like, Oh, wow,

this is really cool. I get to
hang with rich, like, as much as

I obviously can, because you're
busy too. And that was a cool

moment for me because I got to
watch you

every show from side stage. And
there was a couple of times

where I watched from out front,
I'd go back and forth to hear

how it sounded. Yeah. And I'll
remember obviously, watching the

size change, and you'd see me
watching you then you do the

open hand thing. I was like,
this guy, just doing everything,

and

beating the crap out of the
drum. I mean, beating the crap

out of the drums in, obviously
the proper way. And they sounded

amazing. And I remember that one
time I sat at your kit. And I

was like, man, years ago when I
saw this on Modern Drummer looks

so like, cool, and it still does
and comfortable. And I sat on a

go. I can't hit a snare drum at
all. And so I was like, Why are

you sitting on the floor man.

But it's hard to keep. It's hard
to teach old dogs new trips, but

yeah, we would. We had a great
time. And there was one night I

think we were in Raleigh, we got
rained out. Remember, it was

just Raining Frogs and we all
sat out and just smoked cigars

in the rain. It was a mess. I
remember I set my kid up for the

show. And then it was like, hey,
show's canceled. I had to tear

it down and pack it back up. And
then I don't remember when they

rescheduled that show. But now I
was like Okay, we're back here

and setting it up again.
Hopefully no rain. Yeah, way the

show and all that stuff. But it
was cool. Might be on the

hangout with all you guys and
kind of hanging out with you

guys till you guys like I said
great camaraderie. I mean, it's

really fun, man. Really, really,
really fun. And hey, I was gonna

ask you Who is your drum tech
now who's your drum tech. His

name is Joe Miller. He currently
out with RJ hail from hailstorm.

Oh, yeah. He's done. He's worked
with them. He's worked with

Blackstone, cherry. He's worked
with hunters.

to Kentucky guy. Yeah, he's,
yeah. So and he's a great guy

super, super hands on, which is
awesome. And he's always like,

Hey, you good, like everything
good. And very,

very onpoint with everything of
like, Hey, have the drums feel,

you know, and I remember the
first time we met. He's, uh,

hey, my job for you is to make
the drums. Sound and obviously

look good. Polishing the
hardware and the lugs. He goes

if they don't play well, that's
all I knew. And I said, You're

right. You're totally playing.
Well, that's on you. Well, that

makes sense. Well, it like
obviously he makes him look and

sound good. But if you know
playing wise, he's not the one

playing Am. I Am. Yeah, you
know, but yeah, he's awesome.

And you know, even though it's
our first year together,

we've gotten really close
quickly. And he's just a good

guy. And he fits in really well.
And he's always asking like,

hey, everything good. You good?
Anything you want change and

very on top of everything.
That's good, man. Is he is your

age. No, he's, he's a little
older, but

just really, really nice guy.
And he he actually knew some of

our other guys from Kentucky
prior to being on the gig, which

works out well and he's a good
hang. He's a really good fit.

That's a big part of it. I told
him Hey, and as long as this gig

goes, You're my gear. You're my
guy. I love it. Ah, that's music

to people's ears. So listen man,
you have received so much great

advice from all your teachers
from key figures in Nashville.

Now the year the cat you're 10
years in. We are what advice

would you give to someone? Is it
the same advice or is it new?

Something different?

I have a couple piece of advice
some actually learned from

college from Niven drunk
teachers.

One being 30 minutes

is technically on time. You have
to be 30 minutes early that will

be on time if you're on time
you're late. I think that's a

great one. No matter if it's bus
call

maybe not as much soundcheck you
know type of deal, but like, if

you're starting out, and you're
the drummer, obviously you have

to bring all your gear.

Make sure you have all your
stuff set up as soon as you can,

and ready to go. So nobody has
to wait on you. I think that's

huge.

Another great thing I learned in
college was don't suck. Don't

suck. You know, obviously be
over prepared.

If you were human things happen,
we make mistakes. Just continue

on with the song, you can't
start over. You just keep

pushing through. And don't think
about our next song or else

you'll just slowly put yourself
in a bad headspace and go

downhill from there. So don't do
that. And just be nice to

everybody. You know, it doesn't
matter who you're around don't

have any ego.

You know, that's the worst
thing. You can be the best

player. But if you have a
terrible attitude, no one's

gonna want to work with you.
Yeah. And always, you know, as

you said, always say yes to
everything until you don't have

to, you know, people need to see
you play on all facets. I was

playing

kohona wants to every Tuesday
night. Remember that bar south

on the membrane before they
close? Yeah, I played there

every Tuesday night go home. For
10 to 12 different artists, two

songs apiece. I wasn't getting
paid. I was getting free food.

And if I chose to drink free
alcohol, great exposure. Yeah,

but it's great exposure. I
remember one artist is like,

Hey, did you move here to play
Kahala? And I said, No. But

thank you for asking me that I
thought was very funny. But, you

know, I play with all these
people to network and to just

play because I loved it. Yeah.
And not everyone likes to go

home. I think percussion wise,
we can say it's so hard on your

back so hard in our back. But I
play it.

We do an acoustic band full band
song on Friday. So I played that

one time. And it's not it's not
as bad because I have that dw

pedal that's connected to it.

Which is we are using the box
kit or using some other

contraption. I'm just using a
cone from toca. Okay, I was

saying I have their kickbox
which is super cool. But I think

they just wanted something quick
that you could bring out. Yeah.

Perfect for it. So what is what
is your backstage warmup. 30

minutes to 60 minutes, Singles
Doubles to 45 minutes, I start

with full strokes. And then I
will do eight on a hand down to

one and back up. Now I'll do the
same thing but I'll add a double

at the end. So when you go to
one, you're just doing doubles.

And then I do pair diddles all
throughout paradores doubles,

triple pedals. My favorite
rudiment is a periodontal

diddle. I love doing that. Oh,
very useful.

And then flans flam taps not
just your finger technique and

see how quickly I can get it to
because as you know it gets in

your forearm and that's got to
be loose as well. Stretch. I

stretch my legs stretch my arms.
I'm hydrated throughout the day.

Watch what I eat as best as I
can. That desert people so it's

pretty good. So yeah, that
dessert table. You got to just

keep on walking.

You know me and Kurt had figured
it out like my guitar player

friend Kurt. I know Kurt, he's a
cookie guy. You know, he just

likes a nice, basic. i We don't
need a seven layer chocolate

cake and catering. It's It's
It's Wednesday night, right? I

mean, like who eats the dessert
like that on a Wednesday night.

We just have cookie, and I mean
or a bite of a cookie and then

trash. Yeah, that's fine. You
start doing instead of like they

had churros and Tres Leches
cake. And I had two small

churros and AAA shows cake. This
was after lunch. And then for

dinner. They brought in
barbecue. That was fantastic.

And they had this chocolate
fountain. And I was like, it

sounds like the Golden Corral.
It was amazing. And I had to

wait for cookies just dipped
into chocolate. Well, you're

young man. So what do you do?
And then what are you doing for

fitness? Are you just doing Are
you like a weights and cardio

cat guy? So I tried to x I've
been pretty consistent with it.

On the road when we get to the
venue. I'm off the bus bring

myself in the greenroom and I
just like to walk around the

venue. I try to get 12,000 steps
before the show, which I usually

do and I started recently
running the steps like just one

section going up and down. 10
times, right. Well Don't Tread

back. No, no, definitely not.
But I work out every day I'm

home to nice

because you have to be healthy
playing the drums. I don't want

to keel over and have a heart
attack or something like that.

Yeah, and you're being fit
anyway. I think it's important

especially now the take my shirt
off here and there. You look

great. You look great and your
black shirt. People are always

asking rich Chris black shirts.
How do you get so many crisp

black shirts? What's that brand
it looks pretty good. I'm a

brand ambassador for this
company in LA called built by

basics. That's right. They'll
play bass so I'll you know

they've been very generous and
you know they make joggers which

I'm currently wearing. They make
boxer briefs, they make gym

apparel, they make long sleeve
shirt to this. They make waffle

shirts, they make all types of
stuff. And I just I was just

talking to my guy over there
over the weekend because she's

coming to our Friday night. So
fi show and I like to go on

their app and just kind of see
like, what new things they might

have and

they make really comfortable

thing and the logo is very
small. It's right here on the

bottom of the right side of the
shirt. So when they say oh for a

TV thing oh, you can't wear any
logos while the logo so small

you came to see it now they're
just looking for a graphic on

the chest. They don't.

But yeah, words are very
comfortable. Nice. Maybe they

want to maybe they want like a
like a Silverfox type model for

their. I can see no put you in
touch. I love it. I love it. You

wear V necks sometimes, right?
Oh, yeah. Like I like these make

those as well. I love the V's
man. That'll be my thing. I wear

the V's you wear the colors. It

works. Because I have to
coordinate sometimes with some

other friends like hey, you were
in those shoes. Uh, you and I

both on the same pair of like, I
had breakfast with my buddy

Larry aberaman right before
this. And he and I both have the

same pair of boots and we have
to like check in with you. We're

in the woods today or what you
know. Hey, listen, let's close

this out by doing the Fast Five.
It's never Yes. But it's really

more the favorite five. So
favorite color.

That's hard. I feel like I don't
always have a favorite color. If

I'd really choose one. Your own.
I would say black or recently

black because I wear a lot of
it. charcoal or

be like a light blue. I guess.
So cute. And how about how about

your favorite food you like?
It's like a certain dish a

certain ethnic. Oh, man. I mean,
I love pizza. If I can eat that

every day and not gain a pound I
would that are like, I love

Chinese food. Indian food. Yes.

can never go wrong obviously
with Italian as well. Yeah,

let's hit let's hit that Taj
Indian buffet. It's on Nolan's

Ville road. Now a couple of guys
were talking about that. It

starts I think it starts at 1130
or noon and it's just really

good Indian buffet. favorite
drink.

You know, recently I've been
doing a lot of tequila water.

very skinny. I you know, I did
that whole 30 diet in January

with my girlfriend and I
remember we went to go have

sushi and you're like I'm doing
the whole 30 Yeah. And he I lost

15 pounds from it. I feel great.
And I'd like to kill two cos

amigos is my go to look. I
thought you were you in Clooney.

I love it. I love it. So that's
probably my favorite drink. What

so that's your probably favorite
drink and then are you coffee

got your coffee carry? Yeah, how
much coffee and wait consumed

gallons rivers of coffee. I you
know, funny enough. I had made

coffee this morning. I didn't
have any. Because I've gotten

back from the gym and I had
showered and I've gotten coffee

with Steve mesomorph Hi, I'm
overdue. And Steve, we got to

get you on the show. Because
Steve was one of those guys way

back when we all had pagers and
fanny packs. He was nice enough

to let me and Jim Riley and Pat
McDonald and Lee Kelly and

everybody sit in because he had
the house gig at barbarous,

which is no longer there. And
anyway, Steve was up. So we just

got coffee, so I got my coffee
fix. They're nice. And I still

have coffee. My coffee pot is
probably cold by now so I'll

pour that out. But iced coffee.
Like a cup a cup of day. One

cup. Yeah, I told you kind of
Oh, that's great, bro. Drink it

black.

I used to not drink it black but
since the whole 30 thing I've

been drinking it black and
although today i i have a sweet

tooth so I gotta mocha. But

try to drink it black. So yeah,
one cup. I feel like if I have

three

I kind of get a headache. Oh, if
I do like I'll sometimes do a

second one later on the day on
the road from my kind of field

on will tire and I didn't get an
app and yeah, our band is that

we are cough Ontarians like we
are so easy to please we just

like look at when it comes to
bus stock. We gots to have the

strongest darkest French's
boldest roast coffee. And I mean

there's some days you're like,
Oh my God, you're on your fifth

cut like me and like I mean,
seriously, I go if I could do if

I do four cups sometimes I'm
like, I ain't getting a

headache. I'm getting the
squirts. Why? Especially using a

porter and Davies thrown that's
why I only try to have one cup

it's tactile Okay, these are
these are the last two. And

there's so hard and I understand
if you have to have multiple

answers favorites saw. Is there
a song that comes on in your

car? And you're like, top down
crank it up? It just keeps

coming into your life favorite
song of the week because of the

drummer because of the melody.
Oh man.

I have a couple is kind of a
man. You're Jake summers you can

have a cup.

Well, I guess I have to say it's
top up because my car doesn't

have a sunroof.

But

I've always loved

Oh, man.

I might have JIRA. Yeah, I still
actually need to dig more.

And then but I've always loved

can't stand losing by the
police. I love Stewart Copeland

the best. I love that does do
and then and then

it's either tween these two,

the pretender or

it's best if you buy the Foo
Fighters and those drum tracks

just nice. They're really hard.
And then

I think it's just something to
salvage with it but uh,

you know, come together by the
Beatles. All right.

And your left hand leads, so you
know, you could do it like rink.

But, you know, I love Ringo. I
think a lot of people kind of

like, like, Oh, why Ringo? Well,
she was the backbeat of one of

the best bands ever.

I mean, there's this thing
there's so many different fino

choices you choose Van Halen,
and Alex Van Halen. Holy smokes.

You're hot for teacher Sure.

I haven't even tried playing
that nor will I. But now those

are great choices man. Two Foo
Fighters tracks and a classic

police track before Stewart
started cranking up the snare

drum he had that kind of fat
back

you know?

In his hi hat work and Rod were
impeccable. It is I still all

that stuff. Favorite movie bro.

Oh man. See someone just asked
me this recently and I don't

think I have one. So I get a lot
of Stephen King you know

Shawshank Redemption. The Green
Mile Star Wars yaws Close

Encounters mines. Alien years
alien. Ridley Scott's Alien.

I've probably seen it 1000
times. I like more of the comedy

stuff. Not that I don't like the
horror stuff. But oh man if I

think if I had to choose

comedy.

So you're talking like Judd
Apatow. This is 40 knocked up

kind of a vibe. Are we talking
more like like calling brothers

Farrelly brothers?

Even like old Adam Sandler stuff
like waterboy that's a great

one. Yeah. Okay. Happy Gilmore.
Come on.

It's not even Judd Apatow.

stepbrothers Will Ferrell and
John C. Reilly. I saw you on my

drums. You were on my drums. I
think those movies are just like

classics. I saw a shirt that
said, author fucking Catalina

wine mixer.

That that's a great movie. I
love those shirts, those kind of

like kind of like pop, you know,
pop culture shirts, because

there's some really great
phrases on those. But they

always fit horrible in the arms
and stuff. You know what I mean?

So then you're tailoring a $30 T
shirt. Sorry, Urban Outfitters.

Yeah, that's probably a good
place to buy him. Do This was so

fun. And

I'm so thrilled and happy for
your success. Your parents have

to be so happy and are thrilled.
There was no plan B either,

which was nice. Yeah, Plan B and
maybe maybe do a little

teaching, you know, maybe you
know, but you're already doing

that. You know? Exactly. I feel
like you can do more teaching

privately and really

grasp someone's attention of
what they want to learn,

compared to teaching to a
roomful of students who are

doing multi different
instruments. Yep. Yeah. Man,

really, really enjoyable. What's
the best way for people to get

in touch with you if they want
to ask you a question or a troll

you? Um, my website is Jake
summers. drums.com. And it's s o

m m e r s? Yes. Correct. And on
there, there's a contact portion

on the website where they can
email me.

Instagram is Jake summers seven.
Those are probably the two best

ways to get in contact with me.
Yeah.

I guess tick tock. I don't
really know. I mean now, but I'd

probably say email and
Instagram, email and Instagram.

That is what the kids are doing
these days, man. Incredible. I

hope you guys have a fantastic
rest of the year. I know we got

to get together soon here and do
the thing. But ladies and

gentlemen, that is Jake summers.
10 years with Luke. Luke combs

man incredible man. Thanks for
joining us. Thank you for having

me. I appreciate that. Ken, to
all the listeners out there.

Thank you so much for listening.
Be sure to subscribe, share rate

and review. It takes 30 seconds
of your time and helps people

find the show. Until next time.
Hey, we'll be here. We'll see

you soon Jake. Thanks, man.
Thank you. This has been the

rich Redmond show. Subscribe
rate and follow along at rich

redman.com forward slash podcast

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