Transcript of #669 - Riley Green New

You hear that dripping? Oh, that's because we got a new merch drop, baby, that just went live. The Be Good to Yourself Scribble Tees, they sold out quick, so we brought them back. You guys like the design so much, we got socks on there to match. And we got the new Rat Con Tees, they're available. Them Rat Con Tees in pepper and emerald. That and a lot more at theovonstore.com. Uh, thank you for the support, thank you for being a part of our world. Today's guest is a country musician and songwriter from Jacksonville, Alabama. His new album, That's Just Me, is out September 18th, and he's currently on his Cowboy As It Gets tour. Just a reminder, you can watch video versions of our episodes on Spotify as well, if you didn't know that. I had a time with today's guest. I'm glad that he brought the humor Mr. Riley Green.

Shine on me and I will find a song I'll be singing. It's nice when I get home too, to get on a bulldozer or something and go clear. Man, that's the most relaxing thing in the world.

Is it?

Yeah, get on a bulldozer and go out there and start clearing a road. Oh yeah. And you don't realize how far you've been till you get all have to walk back to your car, you know, but it's just pushing trees over and clearing fields.

God, just— yeah, except the animals are like, here comes— look, we love his music, but this guy's—

yeah, that's, that's pretty fair. Of course, I'm, I'm making like a field. I'm going to plant some food for a man, you know?

Okay, so the— yeah, so some of it's just rezoning for them.

Yeah, that's all.

Yeah, all it is just— yeah, it's like, look guys, we're, we're kind of—

we're not going to put a parking lot or Kmart there. It's going to be like, you know, it's a field. Yeah, I'll leave them some shade trees. It's fine.

Sorry, man. Yeah, I'm acting like you're the bad guy.

I was like, you made me the developer on Fern Gully. It's like burning the woods down. Like, I'm not doing— I'm making it nicer. Like, I dug a lake, like, threw them somewhere for them to swim.

Oh, really?

Yeah, man.

Oh, God, that'd be beautiful.

You made me the man.

Yeah, dude, I freaking— yeah, I made you the bad guy.

You made me like the bad guy on the— what's the movie with the blue people?

Avatar.

Yeah, you made me that guy. It's like just destroying the forest, and I'm like making it nicer for the animals. Yeah. Yeah.

You're down there repurposing. Yeah, man. God, I got to get in prayer. I got to get in the word. I mean—

What you got to do is get on a bulldozer.

Yeah.

You got to come down there and get on a tractor. You figure your life out down there doing that.

Do you?

Well, what do you do? I mean, what is your thing that you say is your biggest disconnect from all this? What do you do?

I don't honestly—

See, that's the problem.

Right. I don't have an immediate answer. I would probably say, I would say, Probably working out or going for a walk, probably.

Okay, well, I— that's, that's definitely one of them, but like, you're still thinking about— yeah, you're still in it, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean, if I go for a walk with a good friend, it's— that's more like just kind of like contemplating, discussing stuff. But I agree, having some— having like— it's time for me to kind of like, uh, find some other outlets and stuff, you know. And I just got off a tour, and so that's like— this is one of the first times where it's like Well, who am I?

You know, what do I do with myself?

Oh, both of them. Who am I and what do I do with myself? Like, you know, not in a whiny way, but it just like kind of hit me like that. It's like, okay, so it's time for me to like kind of embrace some of those. But just so people know, I think we started in— you said you have like— you guys got a couple thousand acres down there in Alabama?

I bought— I've got 1,780 right now that all touches, but I bought it in like little pieces here. Every time I go down there, I'm calling my neighbors up, see if anybody wants to sell anything. But my granddaddy Buford's brother, my Uncle Bill, had some property that I grew up running around on. It was 141 acres and I bought that first. And then just since then I've grown it and it's just a never-ending project. I mean, you go out there, I'll go home and it kind of keeps me sane on the road too, because I'll be thinking about, man, when I get home, I'm going to take the D3 over here and clear this one field off or make this road around the outside of the property so I can go in here and I'm going to dig a lake over here. So you're just constantly creative because there's— I mean, everything you do is making the land more valuable, right? You know, so And you have a crew that does that with you? My dad and his brother used to frame houses. My dad was a carpenter and he's 70 now. So, I mean, they're both pretty old and kind of beat down.

So I let them work around the farm and just, you know, run tractors and all that. And they love that kind of work. And I got a couple of buddies I used to do construction work with that help me out out there. So there's always something going on. But when I get home, like, you know, when you get on a tractor like that, you don't have your phone. I mean, yeah, you forget about it, you know?

Oh, yeah.

And then going out there and you get caught up in what you're doing. And I've always enjoyed the kind of work where you can see what you did at the end of the day. I love that about construction work, but that's something you don't get in what we do. Like, yeah, there's a lot of accolades and big moments and highs out of it. But as far as like what we do never has an end. You never finished with what we're doing. Like, there's little things you say, okay, well, that went well, check, or go to the next thing. But like being on tour is, you know, my tour doesn't end. We just tour till holidays get here and people stop coming to shows and we start back around February, you know? So it's nice to have something that you can finish.

Amen. Yeah, yeah, having that justification, like, just like looking back, seeing something, the day is done, the sun, you know what I'm saying? Like, you can feel the evening coming in, you're like, okay, that's time. Yeah, I used to work on a, uh, on a soybean farm over there in, um, near like Vidalia, Louisiana, right over on the Louisiana-Mississippi border over there. And that was— those are some of the best days, man.

It was tough work, but you like— I still go back and frame a little bit with my buddy, build out, just to remind myself what it was like.

Yeah, dude, I just loved whether they had me painting or just like moving or just like cleaning spray rigs, just whatever it was, man, it was just something like, yeah, there was something real rewarding about it.

And you could also like, I could be hungover or whatever it was and be having a bad day and I could get through a day at work doing that. But this, you have to be happy every day.

Yeah.

If you got to at least act like you are.

Oh yeah.

You got to show up. I can't get on stage and, you know, be upset. I got to be enjoying myself because everybody's there to see me and they want to see that. So it's, it's nice to be able to go over and kind of cut loose on something like that.

Well, look, welcome to this podcast, dude, because I've spent probably a third of my life whining on this bitch about shit.

So I'll whine with you.

Yeah.

What do you want to complain about? Yeah, dude, I know one thing I'm going to complain about on this podcast. You have no coffee maker here.

Oh yeah, we don't have a—

I'm sending you one. There's only right here.

You were in my kitchen. Yeah, you saw. I don't have one.

I looked, I looked through every closet in your house. You don't have— there's not one here. I look through all your—

look, I ain't making coffee in the closet. I'm not doing anything in the closet, dude. I'm out.

Yeah, you're out.

I like women. But yeah, the last thing I'd be doing in there, dude, if I'm in the closet so long that I'm making coffee in there, it's been a while. Yeah, yeah, I guess I'd be— yeah, but sometimes you have a tough time picking out an outfit or whatever, and I just say outfit. Let's keep it moving.

Outfit. Yeah.

Um, shirt.

Yeah, picking out a shirt.

It really is a shirt.

What made you pick that one today?

I tried on another one. I took it downstairs. It was just— it was a little— felt a little more formal.

And then I was like, that feels right. I feel like that. I see. I took it like you wore that because I was coming. Well, I appreciate it.

I feel— this just felt right, man. Yeah, dude, you remember I saw you, uh, good to see you, man.

Yeah, so you know we're doing this interview backwards.

Thanks for coming. Yeah, yeah, dude, this is how it goes in here.

By the way, I'm Riley Green.

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, Riley Green.

This past weekend, uh, um, thanks for coming, bro.

I appreciate it.

Um, dude, I've been doing it for a while.

Yeah, we have been, and this is good, man. And, uh, I saw you— remember I went to your surprise party? You remember that?

Yeah, but I don't think you were invited technically. Yeah, I think you came in and got a piece of cake and left, honestly, is what happened.

Okay, that could be true. But I remember though, like, you weren't in this—

you—

I don't think it's a surprise party.

Yeah, I don't like surprises.

Yeah, I, I always, uh, because I walked in with your sister, somebody's like, you know, sometimes over there at Losers they'll be like, yeah, you know, it said Riley surprise party, you know, we gotta go.

Don't say sometimes like it happens a lot. That was one time that happened. Good point. Yeah, sometimes Riley's having a surprise party. No, and it'll never It's not gonna happen again.

But sometimes you'll be there and they'll be like, this is going on there. So we got all— so people will make like the mecca or whatever, the journey over to your bar, which is right next door.

Yeah. But you got to go in the back door. You got to sneak up the back way.

I'll come in the back. But you were heading in. So they're like, yeah, it's a surprise party. Don't say nothing. I'm like, I'm not saying nothing. I don't even know him that good. And then we all walked in and people were all surprised.

People thought you did. You were at my surprise party. It was true. I thought you planned the whole thing.

She thought I was in it.

I'll give my man—

I picked out the cake, you know.

Yeah, it was great. I mean, you ate some of it.

I took 2 pieces out. I took 2 pieces out.

Sounds right. Okay, this is no joke. You literally got invited to my podcast, my surprise party, last minute, walk in, take 2 pieces of cake, and leave. Yeah, that's what happened.

Amen, brother.

Yeah, that's cool.

When we got in there, I was like, well, shit, if he don't even want to be at a surprise party, then I'm going to get my— I'm going to head on.

I just don't need to be surprised to enjoy something. Like, for me, I don't get to see my family and friends that often. I'm traveling all the time. So if you gathered everybody, just tell me. Yeah. And we'll go over there and we'll do it. It's enough that they're there. Yeah. You know, I give my manager a hard time because I won an ACM Award in 2020, and they call me and they're like, hey, you need to do a Zoom with the label. And so I come— I don't have the computer, so I go over to their place and they got it all set up. And there's my president of my label and the vice president, everybody. And I'm like, I will be talking about. And then Keith Urban comes on, I was like, hey, Riley. I'm like, hey. He's like, you want to come to— what are you doing on August 8th or whatever? You want to come to the ACM Awards? I was like, yeah.

And why is he asking you?

Well, because he was the host, I guess. But my point is, why didn't they just tell me? And I could have been like, oh, like, surprised. Then there's all these articles about how Riley Green won an ACM Award and couldn't care less because I just was confused. Yeah. So just get, you know, don't— I can act surprised, right? But yeah, tell me about it.

Yeah, tell me a little earlier. If you tell me 10 minutes early, I'll just be like, yeah, I'll be like, oh yeah, that was good. I believe that you did.

How you looked when I got here, that was— that wasn't how you looked when I walked in. Oh, oh, you're kind. What about me and you trying to schedule this was really stressful for everybody involved? You know what, everybody on my team's like, so are you doing— I was like, hell, I don't know. I think we just said we should do this.

Well, we were supposed to do it. Here's what was happening. We did You and I decided we're going to do it.

Yeah.

Your schedule also got different because you now are heading out to L.A. because you're working on The Voice now.

Yeah.

So that started to happen. And then there was supposed to— we were supposed to have Conor McGregor was supposed to be on. And there was this looming moment where it was like, like, you pick—

no, pick me.

Okay. I didn't. His schedule was super tight. His schedule, you know, you can lie to me for the sake of this. Oh, I'd lie to you, but I'd just as soon tell you the truth. It's just right now it's easier.

Okay.

But there's just like a lot of little moving parts.

If he comes while I'm here, you're going to make me leave and come back another time. Yep. Maybe he'll bring coffee. Honestly, if he comes and realizes you don't have coffee, he might leave.

Bro, I didn't know you said this much stuff. I always feel like you're kind of a quiet guy, man. That's my bad read on you, you know.

I usually talk a lot when I got coffee, you know what I mean. I'll probably start fading here soon. What, uh, so you want me to do the interview?

What, uh, no, I got things.

Okay, I just, I didn't know if you like studied up or whatever.

Oh yeah, man, I studied up, dude. I got a good plan. I gotta look, yeah, I got a strategy ahead of me, you know. It's mild, but it is what it is, you know.

Listen, if you start to run out of stuff, just give me the—

All right.

And I'll—

Okay.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, dude. Yeah. If I need some help, I'm definitely— God, it'd be nice to get a little help from Raleigh Green.

Everything's good?

Everything's pretty good, man. What was I doing this morning? I was texting with John Pardi this morning.

He's like that, dude.

He's going out on tour. He interesting guy, isn't he?

I've been a big fan of him for a long time.

Unique voice. Like, everything's just kind of like an interesting guy.

He's— I always use him as an example when I signed a record deal and started having songs on the radio, I think the toughest thing to do is to be commercial enough that radio will play it and then also still unique and cool enough that it's a good song and not just cheesy. He's always done a good job of that. He's had a lot of, a lot of big songs.

Agreed, man. He's— yeah, he's an authentic dude, man.

And he's just— I mean, I didn't know you put pictures up. People were talking about him.

He's an interesting—

I've got a picture of me opening for him in Mobile, Alabama at the Soul Kitchen from like 2000 and 2006.

Is that where you started? I know you started in Alabama, but at the Soul Kitchen, is that like a pop— is that a popular spot? I'm not familiar with it.

Uh, it's on Dolphin Street. I mean, yeah, it's, uh, it was like one of the clubs you come up playing, you know?

Got it.

It was a big deal for me to play it. I opened for Chris Cagle there, Corey Smith there, John Pardee, several people. And then eventually I got where I was headlining it and then moved to the Sanger and then went down and played at the Floribama.

And that Sanger's nice over there.

It is cool. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. You play that Floribama during, uh, spring break time?

I played Floribama forever. $150 a show, play for 4 hours, you get one free drink per break, and you play 45 minutes at a time. And I remember John McGinnis, that owns the Floribama, is a good buddy of mine, and he asked me to come down and play during spring break every day for 3 weeks. It was like Alabama spring break one week, LSU one week, you know. The LSU folks love it up there.

Oh, they love it anywhere, dude.

It's true.

Anywhere where something is fermented enough where they can make alcohol out of it.

It's fermented down there.

They love it.

I had to set my own tent up on the beach, and it was like I'd be in the shade for about an hour and then I have to move it, you know. Nobody down there listened to me, and I played every day from 12 to 4.

Wait, you'd play under a tent on the beach?

Like a, like a tent you camp with, like a, you know, a tailgating tent.

Yeah.

And I had to set my own speakers up and everything. I played from 12 to 4 every day, and then I would go back to the river house across the road where they would keep the bands. Band would come in and play that night, and I would go party with them. And I did that every day for 3 weeks and it about killed me. Damn, definitely took 10 years off my life playing that early shift. Well, yeah, then staying up all night too. I would like mosey down to the beach and get there in time to play at noon the next day.

Oh, I'd be partying down there, dude. Oh, I remember partying down there. We buried a guy in the sand. I don't know if he's still there. I don't— I haven't heard from him.

Kind of Weekend at Bernie's situation.

I mean, look, dude, I'll say this, he wasn't that great of a guy anyway. Yeah, to be honest with you. And I'll know that and I'll tell his daddy that. But yeah, we've had some— I mean, who didn't have some times down there?

Pretty epic stories down there. I broke a guy's arm one time, arm wrestling in the floorbound.

For what? Just for fun or for money?

No, I mean, I didn't do it on purpose and it wasn't for money. I was playing a show and I took a break and I go over on the side and these guys were like, man, you're a pretty big old boy. Let's arm wrestle. And that's for whatever reason. That's what we grew up doing. Yeah, my dad and his brother and all them. And I beat 2 or 3 guys and they were like, man, we're going to get somebody to— and they brought this dude over. He was probably 40. You know, and he's all jacked up and somebody videoed it and his arm just snapped.

Oh yeah. Was that a popular video that went around? I'm trying to think. I remember seeing that.

You can— I mean, like, we can show you right now, right? Let me— oh, there you go. You got to listen to it though.

Oh, come on.

You gotta have the sound up. 3, 2, 1, go!

Oh my God, bro, stop, dude. That's enough, man.

Sorry, how do you find that so fast, huh?

I don't know, bro. We got it.

It's on the internet.

Oh my God, dude.

Yeah, I love that movie Over the Top, you know? Yeah, he turned his hat around, he was serious about it.

Oh, that was a movie. I forgot about that film, man. That was a good one. Um, you mentioned John Partee. What about Red Clay Strays? Did you come up around them? They were always out there a little bit.

I mean, I was already here, I guess, by the time they were kind of touring around Alabama. But yeah, uh, it's always a good sound when you hear somebody's name or a band, and then you keep hearing it over and over again before they've gotten to a place where they're really recognized, you know, on radio and award shows and all that. Now it's awesome because they've made it there. Yeah, they're winning awards and what a cool thing.

The town that you grew up in, what was that? How big was it? Jacksonville. I know it.

I don't know how many people. I mean, there's a college there. When the college was in, I think it was around 8,000 when I was going to school.

What college was it?

Jacksonville State. Yeah. But it was— I mean, it was a really small town vibe. The school wasn't in. And I grew up in a community right outside of there called Pleasant Valley and Williams Community. And this one flashing light, one store called Green Store. E.L. Green runs the store. He's 94 years old.

Still there.

Doesn't charge tax. Yeah. He just guesses what everything costs.

Oh, I love that.

Bring Snickers up there. He'll be like, it's $2. And next day it'll be $2.50, you know? But all my granddaddies and their brothers used to go out and play dominoes in the morning before work. We'd stop in there and— school hadn't changed much either. Look at that. There's E.O. right there. You got a picture of him.

So was he related to you?

Probably. Look at this dude.

Probably.

That guy's a legend.

No way. That's him.

I saw him yesterday.

Dang. I want to go see him.

Come on. My dad said they bought their basketball shoes there. They played in Converse All-Stars. He sells Converse All-Stars.

And those shoes are horrible to play in.

Oh, it's like begging to break your ankle.

And you slide, you just slide everywhere. I don't know how they did it. They must use a different type of— maybe some type of turpentine.

I'll tell you what, old Benny the Jet Rodriguez using things though. You know who that is? Remember on Sandlot, the guy that jumped the fence? Oh yeah, he put those, those black ones. There he is.

What'd he put on, man?

This— hey, your man is quick.

He's crushing.

This is easy to do an interview like this. Oh, he's just saying anything.

Oh yeah, look at those. What are those?

What were those?

Something Flyers or something? PF Flyers, bro. PF Flyers were a real shoe, no doubt. We had those ones that would— remember when those shoes came out that would blink or whatever?

You talking about light-up shoes?

Yeah, and everybody would just call you like a queer all the time.

Did they say that?

What? Yeah.

Why would they say that?

I don't know, because your shoes were dang blinking. I, I get it a little bit. Or people like, your feet are gay or whatever.

I've never— well, I don't guess I had any. Those were probably expensive shoes. I probably— my parents wouldn't buy me those.

Were your parents— what were they like growing up? Pretty strict over there, or what was it? What was it like? I mean, it sounds like just a good small town environment. It sounds like a real kind of American Southern environment.

Yeah, there's a lot about where I grew up that kind of looks like a movie, like going back in time, you know. I'll bring people down there and they'll be like, man, it's really like this, you know. Uh, my dad built houses. My mom was a schoolteacher. Uh, I never got away with anything. Mom caught me anything I ever did. Pops built houses for a living, and I used to go out and work with him when I wasn't playing ball. So I tried to play any sport I could to keep from having to work. I was really lucky.

My—

all four of my grandparents lived in the same town, so I saw my grandparents every day. So I was really close with all them.

That's awesome, man.

Yeah.

And do you think that's what led you to, uh, writing Grandpas Never Die? That's just a lot of like— that's a lot of influence of why Grandpas Never Die.

Uh, my granddaddy Buford loved country music. He'd sit around with the old Epiphone guitar when I was a kid, and we'd sit around and kind of play and we ended up turning his parents' house, my great-grandparents', into a music hall. And on Friday nights, all these old people would come out there and play and tell jokes. And I'd sit around and watch how they made chords and learned how to play like that. But yeah, that's my granddaddy Buford. And my granddaddy Lyndon was a big fisherman, golfer. So I'd hang out with them every day. And I wrote the song about him as a tribute. And then, of course, it became a big hit for me. And I ended up putting both of them as co-writers on the song.

So, dude, that's awesome. Writer credit for it, bro. They must have felt— I mean, they must be so proud, huh?

Yeah. My granddaddy Buford died in 2010, so he didn't really get to see me, you know, like, have any real success. I was kind of starting out with music, but my granddaddy Lyndon got to come see me at the Opry. My grandma Nancy did. My grandmother Lola Jean's still alive, so she's probably cutting grass right now. She loves it.

That's awesome. Yeah, man, I missed— I definitely miss things about like that at home, man. Dude, what if grandpas never did die? You ever think about that? Like, because there would be some side effects of it. There would obviously—

okay, so everything in that song, there are side effects too. There's a— if every road was named Copperhead, yeah, it'd be really hard to get anywhere, right? Really confusing, you know? Yeah, that's a good point. Coolers never ran out of beer, people would alcohol poison. Yeah, people would be—

yeah, and then they'd be out on the roads.

High school home teams never lost, everybody'd be 500 at the end the of the season, you know. So there are problems. Like, if you want to just pick apart the songs that I write, we can. But no, I wish Grandpa Never Died is—

yeah, it's— first of all, it's one of my favorite songs. And second of all— but no, I do think, like, yeah, if they never died, first of all, what would never— inheritance would never start. That'd piss some people off.

Yeah, but only people with rich grandpas, right? But— because, I mean, I, you know—

but even if you had a shitty grandpa, if he had $50, you knew you was getting a little waterfall.

Yeah, but grandpas always give you a little walking around. A lot of them.

But that other pocket— some of them, my grandfather only reached into one of his pocket. I knew in that other pocket, that's where it was.

Oh yeah, my granddaddy always had a $2 bill that had—

yeah, that was popular—

had a picture of Bill Clinton blowing a whistle on it. It was not real, but he'd give me that.

But he'd give you that?

Yeah.

That's a good idea, giving fake money to children.

Yeah. Um, well, you know, it keeps them out of trouble.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. What if grandpa was— trying to think of just some other interesting facts.

Grandpa's never died.

Just like if they never died.

Um, so a positive I think would be the, the things that I do miss about that generation was like they were hard workers.

Yeah.

You know, I always say I was kind of the last generation to like work with my dad. Like my buddies didn't, but like, you know, now, I mean, I don't know that people get out of high school and college and really have to bust it anywhere. You know, there's a certain amount of like work ethic that's lost a little bit. Well, yeah, I think, and also a lot of the trades.

I mean, one thing like we've had Mike Rowe on here a few times, and he talks a lot about how there's not enough, um, viable tradesmen right now. Like, there's jobs, there's just not people that can fill them that have the skill sets, you know.

Yeah, we could be working and we're just talking. Yeah, you know.

Yeah.

And also, I thought Mike Rowe lived in my house for most of my childhood. My dad watched Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch every day. Oh dude, he's in there.

He's a— yeah, listen to his voice, it just, it makes you feel like you got to fill out a job application. Every time I hear Mike Rowe's voice, I'll fill one out online. Yeah. You know, I'll buy them, just buy a second Quickrete or something.

Just, just in case.

Just, yeah, I just feel like something could happen.

See, that's what I'm talking about though. You go down to Alabama and you get up and you're like, man, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to build a little pen and buy some goats. And then you just go to the store and buy— you make a list and you make it happen. And then you go and you dig the holes and like, you're not thinking about anything else when you do that. Yeah.

Oh dude, I think there's like I do think with society sometimes we took a very errant path out into existence, and I think there also became a greed. There's this— greed has a lot to do with that. I think when somebody wants to keep leveling up, but I think we will look back at some point, or generations in the future will look back and be like, man, we were missing out on a lot of the things in life that really mean something.

Well, yeah. I mean, it's social media that's caused it. The amount of comparison you have to somebody else.

Yeah.

Also, let's talk about how I mean, you were talking like a couple of grandpas now about the younger generation, like, man, these kids now, they don't, they don't know, man. They don't know what it was like, you know? I mean, like when I was growing up, I had a phone. It didn't do anything. Yeah, you could call if you wanted to send a K, you had to press 6, 7 times, you know, like it was tough. And I have social media or anything now. All they've known is— and I remember people I thought were rich growing up.

Oh yeah.

But now everybody seems rich. It was like a handful of people that had money in my town. I was like, man, that's big time, you know?

Oh dude, if somebody had a garage, dude, we had this one kid, Jeremy, and he—

it's always Jeremy—

he got a garage and we were like, look at this motherfucker, you know? We couldn't believe it. And but then dude, 2 days later we're over there just doing the door up and down and running back and forth.

Oh, it had an automatic door?

Yeah.

Oh, that's wild.

He got the real deal, dude. But yeah, man, dude, what was I reading the other day? That the first 911 call was in Alabama. Did you know that?

Domestic dispute?

It could have been domestic. I think it was people, two people fighting over a baked bean recipe, probably.

I mean, I don't know, but they didn't get it. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, they're sealed down there, brother. Oh yeah, try to get a recipe in Alabama, I dare you.

They wouldn't. The government wouldn't unseal it.

That's on our watch. Haleyville, Alabama, 1968.

There you go.

The very first— we started it. We launched the standard across the United States.

I don't know if that's good or bad. Like, things were kind of getting a little rocky down there. Like, look, we got to figure out a way to get help over here quicker. Or it could have been, dude, it could have been just, look, somebody's like, you know, there is a guy over here just hugging his sister in like a— in the worst way.

Nice.

You know, I mean, there's just— hey, yes, officer, there is a man over here I mean, and he is just hugging his sister.

Yeah.

I mean, I just don't know what that— I mean, that 911 call could have been anything, you know?

Honestly, what would that hug have to look like? You're sitting over there just crushing the heater.

Yeah.

In Walmart parking lot. You see somebody hugging, you know, their brother and sister, you go, that's a little too long.

Yeah. Yeah.

Honey, give me the phone. I'm going to call this in. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be out-of-towner that called it in. I'll tell you that.

Yeah, it would be.

And it wouldn't be somebody from Louisiana. I'll go ahead and tell you that too. Louisiana, Mississippi is not making that call. No. They'd be like, hey, these people People are stealing our style.

That's what they would say, bro. They're stealing our—

smoking a cigarette, holding a baby. Yeah.

Oh God, dude, I remember, and I've told this story, but we had this lady, Miss Robin, and she was like our teacher. She was like our, um—

she sounds like a teacher, Miss Robin.

Oh yeah, good call. And she was, uh, damn, finally cooking me today, man. Uh, and she would, uh, well, the other kids would do nap time, right? But I didn't really believe in nap time. I just wanted to get busy and get at it.

Yeah, I got that. I was ready to get to work.

I was probably like Yeah, even as a kid I was like, what are we fucking doing? We're barely— nobody's doing shit. We got to take a break from that.

You get old and realize nap time was for them, not for you. Oh, you know what I mean? That was their break.

Dang.

Lay down for a little while. Yeah, you need a nap, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I'm gonna hit this heater. And that's what she would do though, Miss Robin, though. She knew I didn't sleep and we had similar hair, and so she would come and kind of hit me with her foot, and that meant I could go outside. And she would and, uh, she'd light up a cigarette and, um, and I would just lean on her car tire and she would just tell me about her smoke and look at you. Yeah, just, she was just, just, and she would just tell me stuff about her husband or something, Roger, and he wasn't doing shit.

Yeah.

And she would—

most Rogers aren't. Yeah. Hey, listen to this, this, this is all—

I don't know why I got the last today, but I'm glad I do, man. Thanks for coming in.

You know, thanks for having me. And yeah, we'll get some coffee coming shortly. The— you know what bothers me? When—

what bothers you, Riley? Because I bet it's a lot.

Well, one thing that really bothers me a lot, how do you look at a baby and name it Roger? Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like, my granddaddy's name was Buford. How did you look at a baby and say, that's Buford, that Buford right there? You know what I mean? But in the South, like, think about you're playing with the kid when he's like 10 and you're another kid. You're like, Buford, get over here. Like, that's wild.

Oh yeah, we had a fella named Fremont by us, and people thought he was rich or whatever, or gay, just because his name was like real high-end.

Rich or gay, people thought. One of the two. Did his shoes light up?

Uh, they did not.

Did they roll?

Oh, those wheelie shoes, those are the best. I mean, you saw a kid doing that, that was a little after my generation. So I feel like, I don't know if we had those. I would see kids have those. They had the Reebok pumps, remember those? People would pump those shoes.

I like the Reebok. I feel like I've always judged my shoes and clothing, as in like, would the version of me that doesn't wear that kick the ass with the version that did? You know what I mean?

Wait, say it one more time.

So like, the version of me that wears wheelie shoes would get his ass beat by the version that didn't, you know what I mean?

Oh yeah.

That's why I make decisions in life.

And then you go with what you're like, that's not for me. Yeah. Got it.

Yeah.

What's the worst, uh, what's one of the best or worst bar fights you ever saw out there?

Copies and then ask that again?

Yeah, for sure.

Hell yeah, we're about to get into a different gear now.

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I ain't been on a podcast where they can look up stuff you're talking about in a long time. I guess they did it on Bustin' with the Boys.

Yeah, those guys are cool.

That's nice, man.

Oh, it's nice, man. I mean, look, it's been— I mean, one of my goals this year is to try and learn more stuff and get a little bit more involved in kind of what's going on, like, in the universe. Since I'm not torn, I have a little bit more time to absorb some things and, and just to want to do that, you know.

It's like how far Pluto is from Neptune, or just like, I guess, like, more social things.

I think, no, just consume more, like, different types of artists' work, right? Different different films, just absorb more stuff. So it's like I have more things to like think about and talk about.

I can comprehend that. You're probably like me in that I don't listen to as much new music as I used to before I got in this world. Not necessarily because I'm burnt out on it, and not really because I'm like, I don't want to get, you know, drawn to something that's going to influence me to be like that. I just, I don't know, I just, I think I'm busy and don't pay attention to it like I used to. I don't have a passion for it like I But I mean, like, you don't probably watch a lot of stand-up, or— I mean, yeah, isn't it weird that you get removed from it when you're in it? You know, I feel like— I feel that way with me.

That's a good point. Yeah, you think you're in it, so there'd be— you'd be in more of it.

You just got so much of your own stuff you got to be concerned with that I don't—

yeah, there's a lot that goes into it, especially once you get to touring. And like with podcasting, like, I'll sit and watch through every single episode. Like, I was up last night till probably 'cause I was like, you know, 11.

Watching yours.

Putting notes on an episode, like giving notes and like, you know, stuff. And like, 'cause sometimes we'll say stuff where it's like, "Oh, we can't leave that in." You know, "We just can't." Like sometimes we'll say stuff that's slander, that's like, you know, it's like you gotta check through or send it to an attorney. Like there's just different things you gotta do now. And so yeah, there's a lot of, I think there's a lot that goes into that. Did I hear you say that you don't have a computer?

Yeah. No, no. I mean, I certainly didn't. They got me one during COVID to do like Zooms and stuff. And I remember my managers had me set up on this Zoom interview with the radio station. It didn't— they were asking me to go to like speed.com or something and see what my bandwidth was. And I didn't have internet at my house and they couldn't believe that. Damn. Yeah. When I go home, it's a, it's a disconnect from it, you know? Yeah. Except when I do like photo shoots or, or interviews or something down there, you know, it's, it's nice. I've started steering people that way because every time I did a shoot We'd like rent an old truck, we'd go out to some farm somewhere and stand in front of a bunch of cows. I'm like, man, I got all that in Alabama. Let's just do it down there.

So yeah. Do you have— do you run into a lot of like ex-girlfriends and stuff around home? What's that? What's that energy like? Because I'm sure you had a girlfriend at some point.

At some point I've had a girlfriend.

Yeah, it's, uh, I'm glad you brought that up, uh, because you seem like a guy that's—

yeah, that would have a girlfriend at some point in his life.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, you're right about that.

Thank you. And we just had to switch our coffee into some different cups.

Um, that was for the people watching.

Yeah.

Okay, okay, dude.

And yeah, you— so you just said something that's kind of interesting. Oh, Tony, hell yeah. Hope he's— hope he's good.

Yeah, Vivian's cup.

Well, Tony used to drink. He'd— he'd passed. He did HIV.

Had— damn.

But we washed it.

RIP. Not a lot.

He didn't have the big case. He had something light, but a lethal case all the same. He caught it in the spring. Yeah, you know, so you don't get the head— you catch that winter hiv, baby, it'll climb up your legs.

Um, starts at the toe.

Yeah, start, and then it comes looking for you, dude.

That's how you get that little horrible thing to talk about.

It is. We're joking, obviously.

No, no, yeah, I know. If people haven't figured that out by now— they thought we were being serious when you explained the coffee thing. That's like, that seems like something a serious podcaster would do.

Well, you have to remember that some people can't see it, some people just listen. Half of our audience is just listeners.

Are you gonna gonna want to watch this one.

So, so yeah, half our audience is just listeners, so it's like you got to kind of explain stuff sometimes.

It's like we just do a cut and we swap chairs. I'm like, hey, we're right back, we had to swap chairs, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, you gotta move this plant. You can do it for a different plant in here, dude.

One time I got so high and, uh, taking pot in California. Yes, I was absorbed. I was doing— yeah, I was smoking weed. And, uh, I called down to the— I got back to my room, it had been a long day. I called down to the front and I said, somebody 'Put a bunch of plants in my room while I was gone.' And they're like, 'Excuse me?' And they're like, I said, 'Somebody— there's a bunch of big plants in there.' Said, 'Somebody put a bunch of plants in my room while I was gone.' And they came up and it was just the regular plants that had been— I'd been in this room for a week and I just had never really noticed them, I guess.

Okay. That's really fun for me because I had a thing when I first got a tour bus. I'd been touring for several years, but I was driving to shows or whatever. So there was such a big, that was a huge moment.

Oh, it's a relief.

And I took a buddy of mine out on the road with me to kind of help me, whatever he was doing, assistant, whatever you want to call it. And I had this thing where when I was drinking, I would take all the plants from the lobby of a hotel and put them in my room. And when I say we had a blast, I was partying back then. I got after it, so as they say. And I don't know where that came from. I never wanted to steal anything and I would always take it back, but my room would just look like a jungle. I would take any potted plant I could get. Furniture from down there.

Just wheel them in. Now, how would you guys get them in there?

We just— I just go to the downstairs and pick them up and kind of like, you know, you see on like cartoons where they walk behind the thing like it was covering them, you know? Yeah, it was a real silly thing. I remember being in Mobile, we played Mardi Gras down there, which is where Mardi Gras originated, by the way. Uh, thank you. Yeah.

And, uh, somebody asked for— somebody probably called 911 because shit was getting weird down there.

Don't do that. Get hit with a moon pie down there.

Yeah, but this moon pie started down there, didn't it? Where the moon pie started?

I don't know where the moon pie started. Here we go.

Uh, where'd they start? Let me— before you move on, we're gonna hold that thought.

Tennessee. Let's go. Chattanooga.

Oh wow.

The Windy City.

The moon pie originated in 1917 at the Chattanooga Bakery in Tennessee. You know Mountain Dew started in Tennessee.

Did you know Appalachian coal miners wanted a snack in their lunch pails and that was how it started?

God, I'd love that. Wouldn't you love that? You've been in a mine all day.

They requested a filling treat as big as the moon.

Did they really?

I just knew that. I didn't read that.

They requested a filling treat as big as the moon. That's it.

That's why it's called a Moon Pie.

Who wrote this? This is—

you know, there's made-up stuff on the internet. Did you know that? I figured that out last couple of years. People can just say whatever they want, put on the internet.

We never figured that out. We'll just look it up and say it. Yeah, we don't really test anything.

Well, you can just— you can just say whatever.

You can like Oh, nowadays you can say whatever.

What I've found is all you have to say before you say whatever you want is, "Get ready with me." Yeah. If you say, "Get ready with me," you can say whatever you want after that. Doesn't have to be true. I found that out. Did you see that? There's videos. They'll say, "Get ready with me," and they just make up stuff.

Well, it's gotten bad too. It's like, "Get ready with me for my nephew's funeral," or whatever. And I'm like, "What? Why is that, dude?" You know, it's like— or they're like, "Oh, get ready for me while I cheat on my spouse," or whatever.. And sometimes it's just like, this shit is not helpful to people.

That's— hey, well, hold on a second. No, you're right. But there is a— there's a world where a get ready with me, like if you did it to go do something, that'd be interesting. I mean, you might be putting makeup on. The actual get ready part's going to be pretty slow.

Right.

You're going to be putting your clothes on. Right. But explaining where you're going.

Yeah. Saying where I'm going. Get ready with me, guys.

Do they do like a to go fishing?

That'd be good.

Get ready with me to go fishing and then talk about what lures you're going to take and stuff.

Oh yeah. Talk about my rigs.

Let's do a good old boy. Get ready with me. That's not a— I like that.

It's not a bad idea.

It's not a great idea.

It's not a great idea.

It's not going to— we're not going to get any endorsement deal.

Yeah. Who would watch it though?

Swimbait.

You'll get a lot of women watching it, dude. I think.

Yeah.

And I'll get their friends, you know.

That's right.

And that's fine. I think that's okay with me, dude.

You know, I just thought of it. You kind of remind me of Brink. Brink.

Who is it?

You know the movie Brink?

Uh-uh. Bring it up.

Maybe it's a combination of the good guy and the bad guy. Oh, you see what I mean? Those two guys together, that's kind of—

that's a man on the right.

Yeah, and he's the bad guy, man. Look, immediate like hate when I look at him for me because you saw—

you saw this movie.

Yeah, but I think there was a little redemption at the end. I think he like helped somebody up after you push them down or Brink.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm sorry, I can't believe you haven't seen that.

I don't know this actor, and sorry dude, I, I did it. I—

it—

this guy does look also a little bit feminine in this section, in this image, because he's wearing a neck— I think the necklace has a woman.

It's the lips. I mean, he's got—

yeah, never mind. It's a great point. The guy definitely looks kind of feminine in this.

Yeah, you don't have to— you don't have to tiptoe around that.

Yeah, I don't have to apologize, dude.

Yeah, he's gonna be way more offended if he wears light-up shoes than what you just said and looking thinner, I promise.

That dude will do a get ready with me, I feel like. And this character would do a get ready with me. That's fair to say?

100%.

Okay, good. Okay, good. That's what I feel like. But yeah, dude, that's got to be why—

I mean, like, I can't figure out what we've been talking about.

That's okay. This is what this whole—

okay, that's what this is.

I've been doing that for 10 years. Cool.

It seems like we start somewhere, we'll get somewhere, but it's rubbing off on me. I did the Brink thing and I don't know what we're talking about before that.

That's okay, dude. I'll tell you this, you've done a great job of just being yourself Managing things well, staying in control, confidence, and a lot of good humor. I didn't even expect it.

I was working on posture. I was hoping that was gonna come last night. Really?

There, do you want some good posture? I'll tell you where to go.

You're a funny guy, man.

I'm all right today.

I'm like, okay, today it's, it, uh, it's contagious, man, being around funny people.

Do you feel like, like, totally honestly, do you feel like, like, if I showed up at a music place, I would feel like, you know, I, I would sit there wishing I could do music. If you show up to a place where there is a comedy, do you feel like you have to be a funny guy?

No, no. Uh, but I think everybody wants to be funny.

Do you? That's a good question.

I mean, right, right.

Huh.

I feel like funny is probably the, the quickest way for somebody to like you.

That's fair.

Because, you know, when you see somebody, especially somebody that's famous, he's somebody that's famous, you're thinking, I was probably a jerk, you know, he's probably—

that is people's first thought.

You're a little self-deprecating, you kind of cut up, they go, oh man, he doesn't take himself too seriously. That's I feel like those are people I like.

Do you feel like people think that about you ever? Like, it's probably— especially if you're also a handsomer guy and a, and a popular guy, people probably gonna be a harder time about it.

You need to be real funny is what you need to do. Yeah, you know.

Yeah, you gotta be real funny.

Um, word of the wise.

Did you, uh— yeah, what was the best— what was one of the best bar fights down there? You tell me that. I don't know if I asked you.

No, we went into a complete Completely different rant after that. It's always girls. Girl fights are always way more serious than guy fights. I feel like, you know, and I'm always surprised too at the song they get in a fight during.

One of your songs?

Well, there's been a couple of videos I've seen of people like getting in a fight during I Wish Grandpa's Never Died. Oh, or I Got a Song Called Jesus Saves.

Yeah.

You know, and like, that's so— how, like, how do you emotionally Go to blows, right?

Like Jesus saves, but he better not save that bitch, you know? Yeah. And somebody just comes across and just— and the craziest part, people sometimes that are fighting, like, already will be in like a cast or something, in an arm cast or something. That's the kind of shit I don't get.

Yeah, like they just got out of a fight to come—

like they just got out of a fight and now they're just—

you know, I will venture to say this, I bet you the people that fight at bars bars or concerts probably do it often, habitual, you know what I mean? Those are the ones. It's probably not a lot of people, it's a handful of them that are just—

they keep doing it.

I had buddies growing up that liked fighting. Yeah, you know, they're like, that was— they go to the bar like they were gonna get in a fight, right? I feel like I got goofier, you know what I mean? I was always like, take my clothes off or like jump in a lake or something like that, you know? I don't—

right, instead of the fighting guy.

Yeah, I don't—

yeah, like, get ready with me while I go fight or whatever, like, that would Put an eye black on?

You're about to go kick somebody's ass. I'm about to go to a concert and fight somebody I've never met for no reason. Okay, now I'd watch that during Jesus Saves.

Get ready with me while I beat somebody.

What would you wear if you were going to get in a fight? Think about that. You get dressed for a lot of things knowing that there's a potential, maybe you meet a girl.

That's a good question.

So you put on something maybe a girl would like. I know what I would wear. Or maybe it's going to be hot.

Well, let me tell you.

You want to be comfortable.

I'll tell you right now.

So what would you do if you were going to fight?

It's a great question. Thank you.

Boots would look intimidating, but they wouldn't be as good for a fight as tennis shoes would.

I agree.

Roller shoes would not be good.

Light-up shoes might distract, but roller shoes might be good. Say if you're on a hill, hit the guy, and then you just activate them and you roll right downhill and you're home. You're back at the house, you know, if you had a strategy.

That would be good if you were going to run from a fight, if you were going to try to escape a fight. Like, you think somebody's going to kick your ass at this place you're going, wear roller shoes.

Yes, I gotta get out. Yeah. And like, you ain't leaving. And you're like, watch this.

You just watch this.

You just lift the front of your feet up.

That's what I'm saying. And but like, no, no other part of your body has to move. And you just look back and your hair is just flowing as you just— oh, that's cool. Honestly, I changed my opinion about this.

That would be nice. But yeah, dude, there's some chick out there, she's in an arm cast or whatever, and she has a dog. She says she does, but it's been taken or whatever. It's gotten by CPS.

And, uh, and Child Protective Services, it is.

They take dogs, huh?

They take dogs?

Oh yeah, they will. I mean, if you're not being a good—

so she says she has a dog but it's gone.

Yes.

She got a cast. Yes. I feel like I'm there now.

And she's like, get ready with me while I go over there, over to—

I'm getting my dog back.

Yeah, over to Snooker's Tavern or whatever, and I'm beating somebody's ass after dinner tonight.

Yeah.

And then she probably puts on nice earrings.

Yeah, I guess just so she can take them out, because that's intimidation right there.

That's a move, dude. Police—

honestly, I wish Yeah, I wish I had them just for, uh, would you ever wear rings? Ever think about this? Did you ever have your ears pierced? Me and you in the bar and we just disgruntled, you know, I mean, we're just disagreement. I don't know what it is, I can't even imagine because we're good old boys, but let's just say we, we're not about it. Same girl or something.

Yeah.

And then we're like about to go down like, are we doing this? And you're like, hell yeah. And I just—

and we're gonna fight each other.

Yeah. I mean, wouldn't that do something for You're gonna get her.

No, no, and no judgment or anything, but you're gonna get it. Like, I'm not— I would rather be like, you're gonna get her.

Okay, well, this is just a pretend—

okay, it's just a pretend thing.

Sorry. Yeah, you know what I mean? Okay, you're mad at me.

Okay, and you take your— and then you take your earrings out. I'm like, oh shit, he's about to go down. Yeah, he don't never take his earrings out, you know. He didn't even take them out when we went on the water slide after, you know, senior year or whatever.

See, now it makes it hard for us to be in a fight because we were hanging out senior year in a water slide.

That's a good point. But you didn't take your earrings out then, dude. If you're taking them out now, you mean you're here to beat some ass?

Yeah.

Huh. Yeah, dude, I think if I got in a fight— I thought about this now— I would wear a nice suit because the story after would be like, man, you see that dude in that suit beat that guy's ass?

He beat his ass in a suit. Yeah, that's cool.

And then he went to work, probably. And then he went to work.

See, I was picturing like a wedding suit, like a tuxedo, but you're talking about like a suit like you work on Wall Street.

I'm talking business suit.

Yeah.

Or just work on any street. Like some people, you know, people used to get dressed up a lot more than they do now. Think about that. Think about the fact that on a daily basis, every day, people would get like— people took a— like, uh, there was a lot more, I think, care and concern about how they looked. Bring up some images of people, how they dressed, say, 70 years ago.

I didn't grow up around that.

Uh, well, not for us.

I'm talking about two, maybe two generations earlier or something. Yeah, I mean, no, I think I feel like a person that dressed nice, who had a nice job when I was growing up, was like the bank president. He just wore a polo shirt with khakis. Yeah, you know, like my mom wouldn't let me wear that to church, and like, it was, that was fancy then, you know.

Oh yeah, but look at people dressed, I think, snazzy. Do you think that's true? Maybe I'm just kind of romanticizing it.

Well, I will go along with like the, the whole, uh, you know, like sweatsuits to the bar.

It's gotten— that's what I'm saying, it's gotten pretty casual.

It has.

Like, there's like, dude, there's ma— there's even men's shoes at Alo, at Alo, or whatever it's called. A-L-O. And it's crazy now, we're so dumb, it's A-L-O, and I don't even know how to say it.

What is it? Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

I agree, dude, what is it?

But Halo.

But yeah, I'm just trying to think, was there a bar fight that stood out to you over there? Uh, like, is there one that stood out? Because that much time at Floor Mamma, dude, that's a lot. So Floor Mamma was always a place you could get—

I never saw a lot of fights down there.

Yeah, you could get your stomach pumped and you could get a lot of splinters. It used to be a place you get a lot of splinters at.

It's good.

Yeah, like everybody in that bitch had a splinter, dude. If people were doing the stanky leg, 40 people would get a damn splinter in there.

There's a vibe about that place that's very, you know, beach bars too. We got a little more like Jimmy Buffett, laid back, let's all get along, have a good time.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's—

ah, that's good stuff.

It really is. I, I do remember I was— oddly enough, I was in Louisiana. I played at the, uh, Texas Club down there in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge, yeah. And, and I remember I was about to sign a record deal. I had somebody from a label down there, and I was horribly sick, like threw up before the show, like just trying to get through it. It's one of the, like, worst right before show sickness I've and somebody got in a fight during the last song. And I was like, hey, like, you know, y'all knock it out. And I couldn't get their attention. They were still like going at it. So they were close to the front. I took my guitar off and I poked the guy in the back and I was like, hey, let me play one more song and then we'll all go out back and just beat the shit out of each other. And everybody just cheered. The two dudes were like high-fiving, and then we went through and got the song done.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's what people— because some people just want to plan, you know. Some people just don't know how to— they're like, well, I guess we'll fight now. And it's like Yeah, you come along with a little bit of strategy for people, some people will follow suit. When a leader shows up, people will follow. That's what's kind of wild sometimes, even in an instance like that, I think.

Well, it's a little bit of like you go at somebody in a makai situation with a little calmness too. Okay, listen, you want to fight? Right. We can do it. It's fine.

Yeah.

Let me give you a little— I got this one more song.

Yeah.

Let me play this song and then back to the fight. And they're like, oh, that's reasonable.

Yeah.

Just be reasonable.

Yeah, be reasonable, dude. Um, what was I looking at? Oh, I saw you like— you, you do a good bit of hunting there.

Do you hunt—

do you hunt out on your property out there in Alabama?

I do a lot of turkey hunting out there. I usually go up north deer hunting.

What do you think about turkeys?

I think about them a lot.

You think they're one of the best birds or not? We had Steve Rinella on here.

No, the best bird to just in general.

Steve Rinella gave him top bird. He said he's a—

for what? Like, what's the What stipulations are you going by? They don't fly that good.

Yeah, I look, I agree with you. What I'm saying is he said they were the best bird, and I said, well, look, Steve, I just, I, you know, I begrudgingly kind of like supported him because he was going through it when he said it.

For, for, uh, just because we're so close to—

and there he is with one right there. Oh, he loves him so much. That one looks dead.

He's got to be talking about hunting birds. Like, I would think like an eagle is an easy win for best bird.

That's— Trevin, what do you think he said?

He said that bald eagles, despite being America's bird, they're scavengers, whereas turkeys are highly intelligent. They— their heads change color based on their mood. They do that?

Yeah.

So he was all about it.

Yeah. So, but then he's also deceasing them, so that's kind of an interesting concept. But he loves—

turkey's the most challenging bird to hunt. Yeah, by far. Yeah, I hunted turkeys for 2 or 3 years before I even got close to killing one. Really? Yeah. My dad didn't hunt. I kind of just taught myself how I was interested in it. And yeah, like, they're, they're tough, especially down those, those eastern birds down there. They're tough, man.

We went and hunted some Osceolas down in Florida. Yeah.

Yeah.

And it was interesting, dude.

It's a little different down there. So it's flat. You're hunting in the hills and mountains, you know, you got a bird that's calling, you're calling to him, you think he's right there, but he's two ridges over. He's not, you know, I mean, you got to know how the land lays and you think he's gonna pop right over top of the hill and he walks around the side and spots you before you see him. It's tough.

Yeah, I think maybe the place we went was a little bit easy. It might have been like sort of like a beginner's or like summer league or whatever.

That was you and, uh, Caleb? Yeah, Michael Waddell.

Michael Waddell.

Y'all were goofing off. I saw that.

They wouldn't even let me have a gun, so I thought that wasn't—

I get that.

Yeah, but then the second part was, dude, uh, they—

what did you wear? You put camouflage on. You're like, you're going to the city pool.

I did well. First of all, they did not even send a fan letter or anything about what we were supposed to wear. They gave no directions.

They had some stuff for you.

Yeah, they had some stuff down there, and it was good, dude. We like— the food was great, we had a great time. But I agree, it was flat, so that's an easy place to shoot them. And dude, so we were out there and we maybe saw some or maybe didn't see some. I don't remember what happened, but afterwards we're leaving and there's like a couple— like, the game's over or whatever, it's like around 11 AM. There's a couple turkeys just hanging out in the ditch right? And like, you know, it's over. Like, we were over there hunting them and we happen to just see some over here. Yeah, it's like, you know, like they're in the locker room, the game's over, one of them has a towel around his neck, you know, when I'm texting his— texting his wife or whatever, he's not worried about it. Yeah, yeah, because one of them's taking his feet off, you know what I'm saying? Taking his wings off, he's just a fucking sparrow with a fucking morning job, you know?

We got him.

Yeah, yeah. And fucking, they're like, let's shoot him. I'm like, dude, the fuck? That's not fair, you know? Yeah, like, I just want to be a fair challenge. That's the thing sometimes with hunting I do like— I had a great time. I would like to go duck hunting is something I would like to do.

Um, I know a guy, but, uh, but that is a fa—

that's a fair— like, I just like a little bit more of a fair challenge, you know?

Well, you go out in the woods, like, in my farm with a call. First of all, you gotta figure out how to call. Yeah, you camouflage and you go out there and, like, try to kill a bird on your own. It's tough, you know, like, with no weapons. No, you could take a weapon. I just mean, like, calling one in is not the easiest thing to do. And then you almost have to get busted by one to know how well they can see, you know?

Oh, that's pretty good. Like, we'll have one sneak up on you.

Yeah. And turkeys, because they're not going to come in the way you want them to.

Yeah.

You go and you pick your spot, but he's going to try to come in where he can see you from as far away as he can, you know, wherever that hen is that he thinks he's going to see. Yeah, they kicked my butt for several years.

Yeah. Yeah, I saw that you call them. You do a call? Can you do it regularly? Can you do it right now?

No, I mean, I use a like a diaphragm, or I got a slate call, or what's a slate call?

You know, no, that's something. That one's fucking—

yeah, that wasn't— that wasn't good.

That's from Key West, I think. But let me try it one more time.

That's— yeah, that's pretty good.

It's pretty simple because the goal is you're trying to do it one more time. Yeah, that's better.

That's it. See how you use your chest? Yeah, that was good. Yeah, save your chest. That was good. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, that's nice, man. Dude, and when people get out there with those calls, I love guessing what birds— different birds. There's so many birds out there. It is kind of interesting how, uh how some birds you can hunt them, but so many birds you can't hunt them.

Yeah. How do you think that is? A these taste good kind of thing? Because I've never heard anybody that'd be like, a cardinal's delicious, you know what I mean?

Like, right.

Those birds don't have a lot on them. Turkey's got a lot of meat on them. Yeah. Dove and pheasant are obviously really good birds. Eat duck or good to eat geese.

Yeah.

You think that's what it is? You think that traditionally Indians, whatever it was back in the day, like started hunting birds that they ate, and they ate some robins, and then they were like, that's not good. And then we just adapted to that. These are the ones we're gonna hunt.

I bet you're probably right. I bet there was always also some pervert always eating a blue jay or whatever off on the side, like, look at this little weirdo.

I mean, because I don't think people eat like skunks either, you know, maybe Louisiana, but I mean, no, I mean raccoons people eat a lot.

My brother would kill raccoons.

Raccoons people eat.

He would put notes up at the church and see if people had any in their area. And he'd go get him or whatever. Um, but yeah, I guess that is a good point. You kind of eat whatever's the most plentiful because you also had to feed a lot of people. It's like, you're like, you know, if you're just out there hunting for one all day, it's kind of—

yeah, I mean, turkeys are from back like settler days. Yeah, you know, like that was— that's what it was like, the guy and turkeys that came over on the boat.

Yeah, and if you saw a fat turkey, if people like, hey, bring some lunch, and you bring— one dude brings a turkey and one dude brings a little nightingale or whatever It's like the dude eating the nightingale.

If they brought like a nightingale stew. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Yeah, you're like, that's a fucking weirdo, I think, making that shit all night.

Yeah, blue jay casserole.

Yeah, dude, that ain't—

that didn't sound good.

Some dude out there. Yeah, would it make him whooping crane omelets or something? What about some swan nuggets? Now them bitches sound good. You ever eaten swan?

You know, they also don't hunt a lot of real pretty birds either though, you know. I haven't eaten swan.

No, I'd have a little.

You would have a little?

Yeah. If you went to Thanksgiving, they had swan. I bet they— I bet the— I bet Trump's eating it.

It would look like on a silver platter, like with the—

Yes, if they kept the arch.

You got to make sure you keep the— Yeah.

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What do you got, earpiece in or something? How'd you know that?

Oh, he showed it a second ago.

Oh, that's how I'll start the show.

Oh, it is?

Little duck call.

Let's go! Let's go, dude!

I've never seen anybody catch that, catch the duck call. It's the— and I do it at every show. Yeah, people are there like, signs, throw me the duck call. They never catch it.

Well, I don't want to judge these people, but a lot of them could be women. That's— and that is judging them. I'm gonna take that.

What you said was exactly what you said you weren't gonna say. It was what you said you weren't gonna do. You haven't seen A League of Their Own? What the heck?

Yeah, I have, dude. He freaking—

maybe a dark call is hard to catch. Maybe the shape of it is not something they're used to. Maybe they're great catchers and there's—

you're kind of throwing— look like you weren't throwing it easily towards them, you know? I don't know. That's a good question, man. What, uh, You're on your biggest tour right now, is that true?

Yeah, every year it's a little bigger.

Has it been?

Yeah, it's been great, man.

What's the fear like about that? We were talking about this the other night, dude. You and I kind of had our first conversation the other night, about a couple weeks ago. Yeah, we're talking a little bit about just like when, like, as your career goes along, the pressure it feels like, like, you know, like what is the rest of your career going to be like and how do you try to shape that if you can?

Yeah.

And how do you try to shape yourself so that you're okay with however things go?

There's a certain amount of, uh, I've already accomplished way more than I ever thought I would. So there's a, there's a peace of mind in that. And, you know, there's also a little bit of, I'm guaranteed a certain career at this point, you know. Even if I never have another hit, I can go tour and, you know, I can make a living, support my family, whatever I need to do. So there's, there's peace in knowing that. But I think the competitive part of me, and like we talked about the other day, is— when I have a hit or win an award or whatever it is, I don't feel like, "Ah, I can relax now. I've accomplished that." It's really more like, "Okay, now I got to go do the next thing." I think I always say that I want to try to get as much out of the opportunities I've got as I can. Because what you're doing and what I'm doing is very rare, to be able to have the opportunities you've got and to be able to go and do some acting and stand-up comedy and have a podcast that's this popular and this successful.

I'm, uh, I feel pressure in that regard of just like, I want to go and be as successful as I can. But it's not necessarily a nervous thing, certainly not with the shows getting bigger. That's— that side of it is not a pressure thing because, I mean, the fans make it enjoyable. When you go to a show and you got a sold-out arena, if you're standing there excited you're there, yeah, it's easy, you know? Yeah.

Well, yeah, I guess with stand-up it feels like it's a— I can't tell. Do you lose— does the— does the venue lose intimacy with, uh, music? Because as it gets bigger with stand-up, it feels sometimes like, man, I wish I could connect better with these people. It's just the way it is. But I don't know if music is the same like that.

I did a stadium tour with Luke Combs, and that's too big. I feel like there's no way the person in the far back top row is getting their money's worth at a concert. And you also lose some sound too when you have to have two rows of speakers, one halfway through. That's wild. There's so much reverb. Reverb and bounce back. And then you think about how much of a pain it is to go to that show, the traffic to get in for a fan, and then, you know, to be able to find a place to park and all that. I just—

and then they charge in the park too, a lot.

And then you got, you know, the fact that it's also an open-air stadium, you got weather issues, and your openers are starting in the daytime so they don't get the, you know, the full effect of the lights and everything. And so arenas has always felt like a great place for me, and I and you still have an intimate show. You still feel close to everybody. You feel like everybody got their money's worth, but it's still, you know, 20,000, 25,000 people.

Yeah, yeah, I guess like, yeah, that intimacy— yeah, the intimacy gets lost, I think, at certain levels, kind of. And so you try your best, you try to figure it out, you know. Um, yeah, I guess it's kind of interesting as your career goes on, you're like, man, this has been interesting, it's been fun to have this experience. Yeah, and you want to keep it going, you want to like try your best, and you also want to challenge yourself too, because you got to evolve too. Like, I think your— does it feel like your music kind of has to evolve as you do with your life? Like, like, because, um, one time I sat down with, uh, there was this famous comedy manager and I sat with him and he goes, you know, at a certain point if you stay the same, your audience will kind of— they age, they'll grow older. And yeah, so you have to like also like— because it's almost a trap, like, I want to stay this, I want to stay this song, you know, like because if, like, say you get a first hit or something like that, you're like, well, I can't ever be different than this person, you know, the person that sings that song, because I may lose people, right?

You know what I'm saying? Does it make any sense?

Yeah, I think that the— what your guy said is a little bit not true in the sense of, you know, that may have been true 10, 15 years ago before social media was as relevant as it is. But now if you do something well, like your stand-up videos or your podcast or whatever, it lives forever. So the next generation And, you know, whereas when you had a song on the radio 10 years ago, it lived when it was on the radio and then it went off and that was it. It was over. It didn't live anywhere else. Now everything you do lives on the internet forever. So if you're doing something well, I would really, especially like up-and-coming artists, I would advise against trying to do anything too different. For me, what I always do is I try to make sure I've got songs on my record, every record, that are writing from the same place I started writing from, that are very me. And then I try to take a few songs and write that are a little stylistically different, just to kind of ease outside of my comfort zone a little bit.

But, but so you would— but so it doesn't mean like— so you're saying that you can change because the thing you did will still stay out there?

That's right.

So it's kind of a safe space to be able to kind of— if you're doing something different, like—

yeah, I just think you don't turn and run from something that was successful, you know?

And like with country music, you know, well, it's scary to do that for sure.

It is. Yeah.

And, and but then I guess I'm thinking like, do, do like— I guess I wonder sometimes it's like, yeah, do you try to stay that— like, do you try to make your I fit this certain time, you know what I'm saying? A little bit.

I'll give you an example. And I know you've done some acting is, you know, I imagine in your role you went into something that wasn't too far of a stretch from what you do and who you are. So I did Marshalls and like—

With Luke Grimes?

With Luke. It was great. Nice, man. And I didn't want to take a role that was crazily different. You know, I wanted something that I could ease into and introduce myself into that world and then kind of go on. That's how I am with music. Is I might try a song that stylistically is a little different than what I normally do, but it's not gonna be— I'm not going straight pop. You know, I'm not gonna do something totally different. I think melody-wise, I'll try some things out and see if it works. But keeping that familiarity in what you've done well for so long, I think is extremely important now. 'Cause I think the best thing you can be is different. Not necessarily from something you've done before, but from everybody else. You know? I mean, well, your standup and your humor on this podcast I don't know anybody else. I mean, in a weird way, Norm MacDonald, like the dry sarcasm of Norm. I always thought he did something that was so unique, and I don't know who I would compare you to, you know?

Yeah, I think you always kind of like— yeah, I don't know. I guess you want to be like— you want to try and like honor yourself as much as you can. I think with humor, it's hard to pretend to be somebody else. And I think with music, if somebody— if you pretended too much and some of it didn't come from a real authentic place for you, then it would kind of start to— you'd be able to see that after a while.

I think fans can tell. I think that—

well, I don't think you'd have a ton of— I don't— I think the longevity wouldn't be able to be there because, yeah, you're playing— if you— especially if you're trying to play somebody else's, uh, authenticity is really—

it's, it's so obvious now again because social media. I mean, 10 years ago you could have a song on the radio and people not necessarily know what you look like. Yeah. Now they know everything about you. My dog's got 150,000 followers on Instagram.

Have you really?

Yeah. I mean, people know everything about you. So if you're not authentically what you act like you are, people are going to figure it out.

You think your dog knows he has that many?

Yeah.

No way.

Oh man, that dude, uh, he— when the camera's on him, he's a different person.

What?

Yeah.

And where's he from?

Uh, I mean, he lives in Jacksonville, Alabama. He lives on my Yeah, he was in playing cards.

What the heck, dude?

Yeah, folded.

Oh dang, bro, he lives like that, dude.

It's Carl, man.

Oh, he's handsome. And that's a, uh, Stogie. What's that dog called?

Uh, Stogie's a cigar. He is a Corgi and a Blue Heeler mix.

Oh, Blue Heeler, huh? Damn, he's Native American.

I don't know, probably.

Look it up. Blue Heeler. Are Blue Heelers Native American?

Uh, no. Do you know what? That's the most direct answer to anything I've ever seen asked on the internet. No, Blue Heelers are not Native American.

Native Americans, man, this shit might be fake.

I don't know if you've ever been like that completely wrong. That was crazy. Where did you get that from? I don't want to know.

Blue Heelers are Native American?

Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised. Look up what dogs are Native American. Some of them have to be, huh? How'd we get them? Dogs native to North America fall—

nah. Look up what type of people think dogs are Native American.

Oh, come on, bro. You're giving me a hard time.

No, no, seriously. I was curious about that. Well, will you look up what would possess a person to think a dog was Native American? Can we look that up? Hey, man, tell me about the active Do you enjoy it?

Yeah, I'll tell you about it in a second. I want to finish this conversation.

I think this conversation is done. You said that dog was Native American and no dogs are Native American.

How about this? Well, look up this. How about this? What dogs were owned popularly by Native Americans?

But it's changed so much since what you—

I don't think it has. I'm saying, okay, here we go.

Plains Indian dog.

Okay.

Uh, Salish Wool Dog.

Well, popular, historical, and in Chihuahua. Them little bitches were going back then.

Oh, remember the Taco Bell dog?

Yeah, I remember it, dude. But this— I'm talking about real Native American.

That's the first famous dog I remember.

You think?

Except for the one that has a cigar that asks questions at the—

oh, uh, oh, the—

you know what I'm talking about? He's not a real dog, so that— I guess that doesn't count.

That's a puppet. Yeah. Good point. Hey, look up—

ask what puppets are Native American.

Uh, can you look up what types of people think puppets are real dogs? Please.

That's funny. I like that. Oh, that's the funniest. I'm glad we got one funny thing today. Fine, you piggybacked off my funny stuff, but you really— you hammered it.

Finally. Finally. Well, we'll play Raleigh ball. I didn't know.

I forgot it was a puppet for a second. Okay, I will say that.

You didn't see the guy's arm?

You see a guy's hand in a sock acting like a dog long enough, eventually it becomes a dog to you.

Well, look, if I see a guy's hand in an animal, I freaking— I know what's going on don't seem right.

But you know, that was probably the Neshoba County Fair.

That was probably— yeah, shout out Hardy.

Yeah, but we all know that's why they run with those chairs at the front, you know, they want to see the show.

That's probably what the first 911 call was all about right there. There's a man with, uh, his hand up an animal over here. Um, but bring it back, those Native American dogs. I do want to know what they were, and I want to see a little JPEG of them, or a drawing probably. If you can see that, please. I'm serious, I would just want to know which dogs they were.

I'm going to get you a hand-painted, oil-based painting of a dog with just Native American things on it, you know what I mean? Like a bow and arrow with feathers and everything.

That's actually not a bad—

and a coffee maker.

Plains Indian dogs. American Indian dogs found across the Great Plains. These dogs were essential beasts of burden. They were used to pull burden. V-shaped wooden sleds called travois loaded with meat, household goods, and children before horses were introduced. Wow, so they used to use dogs to do like field plowing. Um, the Salish wool dogs kept by the Coast Salish tribes in Washington State and British Columbia. These small white fluffy dogs were sheared like sheep. Their thick wool was spun into blankets and textiles. Dang.

Read the next Which one?

The—

the xylophone.

That's it. Ah, the Xoloitzcuintli.

Welcome back to Puppy Talk. I'm Riley Green with my guest Theo Von, and I'm here also today.

We're so happy. We're going to look at the bone structure of a Xoloitzcuintli, and they are a Native American dog popularized by the Aztecs and Mayans. These dogs were kept as pets, guards, and physical heaters. Dude, imagine that.

I can't even imagine it.

What do you mean? You get the dog tonight.

It's hairless. Mexican hairless dog is a wild looking dog.

Oh, that shit ain't nothing. Look at that little bad boy. Look at the one down there.

I see, I saw him. I saw the one you're looking at.

Yeah, yeah, look at that little boss.

If you put him on that commercial with Willie Nelson playing, uh, You Were Always on My Mind, yeah, I would give the money, whatever it is.

You're always— he looks like he's got farm aids, dude. That thing has had a tough run And that was a pretty good joke.

That was really good. Made me close one eye for a while.

Like, yeah, I'm just joking. Shout out Willie Nelson and Farm Aid. Dude, I just saw Billy Strings this weekend actually. I went there with, um, him, Steven Wilson Jr., uh, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, uh, Lucas Nelson. They had a show in, uh, outside of Austin.

Lucas is great. Uh, Steven Wilson's so talented.

So talented. Man.

That's awesome. That's a— it'd be a cool thing to see.

Oh, it was just great to be over there, man. Um, how was the acting? Let me think. It was— there was just like a lot going on. It took like— I wish I'd have had more time to like work on the character, and I just had— we were wearing a lot of hats.

Yeah.

So when you're doing a lot of stuff, it's a lot.

Yeah.

And you think it's not going to be You know, we were—

I was on tour and we were filming in Park City, Utah for Marshall. So I was flying every week to Utah, playing 3 or 4 days or filming, then go play shows and fly back. And I feel like I didn't know enough about the character. Like, I was getting the script for like that day and I didn't know any of the backstory. So when I went and watched it, there were so many things I would have done differently if I'd known this about the character or that. And I, I would have really enjoyed it if I could have just lived in that world and filmed for a month, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah. Also, do you— it's really bothering me a lot just to think about if you knew that that picture of that dog was on there and you went on a dog Native American dog rant just so you could say FarmAids, because if that's the case, one, that'd be awesome, and two, how much preparation would that take? You know what I mean? Like, that would be coming into an interview. Don't worry about learning anything about the guy that's here, like me. You don't know any of my songs or anything, but if I can come up with a way to say FarmAids with the dog. That'd be awesome.

Yeah, I wouldn't— that's insane.

I don't know if I'd like the version of you better that did that or the one that just came up with it.

I don't know, they didn't. That's a good question, actually.

Either way, I like you.

That's a lot of thought. Well, thank you. Yeah, I've been sitting here hoping you would.

Uh, I just decided just now. Oh, I knew the coffee thing threw me off.

I knew the jury was out.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, what do you think? Like, so one thing you said a little while ago, uh, you said that like, like like achievements, right? Like they'll keep you going. But do you feel a lot of achievement? Like if you achieve something, do you really feel it, or does it feel like, um, like you don't strike me as the kind of guy that feels a lot of like, like that, sit there and relishes some, like if you, like something does happen to you, like you get an award, you get this certain thing, it's just like part of the thing.

Yeah, I, I think you get a little numb to it, especially when you're so busy, you know, you get a little, you don't really really, I guess for lack of better terms, sit back and appreciate it. I try to make myself live in the moment a little more, but for me, I look at a lot of the things that happen as like checks, you know. Not that I had the goals of accomplishing those things, but I'm like, man, when I, you know, ACM Awards or whatever it was, we won a couple of awards, CMAs, whatever it is, I'm more looking at like, okay, I got a performance that's got to go well. I need to, you know, figure out the song and make sure it goes well when it does. And I get the award and I got a little speech or something, I make sure that goes well. And then I'm like, okay, it all went well. And it's like a little bit relief, but not necessarily like a, I accomplished this. And also, that stuff's a little bit political, you know what I mean? The best song doesn't always win. And for me, I think I appreciate a lot more a sold-out show, like when fans are, are there and they're like singing a song that I wrote, and it like, I can tell it means something to them, there's emotion in it.

Like, that means more to me than an award. Yeah, you know.

Do you— yeah, I guess I'm just wondering, like, do you feel like you, like, you're good at like, uh, feeling pride for yourself, like that sort of thing, you know? Because that's something sometimes I've struggle with that. It's like, I don't think too much about it, but it's like, man, sometimes that is, uh, like if somebody's like, man, do you feel proud of yourself? I don't feel that a lot of times. Does that make any sense to you?

Oh, I think that— I mean, it does make sense. I think that you got to find things in your life that you do feel proud of yourself about. Like, for me, it's not musical achievements. For me, I feel proud about my farm. I feel proud that I, you know, could put my parents in a nice house, brought my dad a truck, or whatever. Those, like, I feel more for that than anything I've ever bought myself.

Right?

And like my niece and nephew sending me pictures, my sister, of them catching fish in my lake. Like, I'm proud of like that. And those are things that I know will last forever. And, you know, I mean, there's a little bit of songwriting pride. I think when I saw— when I write a song that, you know, I wrote by myself and it— I think it was good, it made me feel something, and when people relate to it, like, I feel proud about that. Uh, but that's a little short-lived. You know, like a joke that really lands. I think that you got to find things in life that you constantly want to be attached to, you know. For me, it's stuff like my farm and, you know, having a little place at the beach or something. My folks going down there, I— when people send me pictures of my beach house saying, man, this was nice, we had a great time, that's what I feel proud of, you know. Things I never thought I'd have.

Hmm. And where's that? I know you said— I think you said Panama City Beach, you got a place down there? There. Yeah, that was so funny, dude.

What did you say? You said that was my favorite thing about you.

Well, my favorite thing that I heard, dude, when somebody's like, man, I got me a beach house down in Panama City Beach, that shit just made me laugh. Was because what I remember of it from being in like, uh, high school and college, it was just a place where we were just trashed kids. Yeah, you know. So to like— so just to see a text or somebody like, we got a beach house down there. And I know it's a nice beach, I know the Gulf is nice, man. It's like there's not a part of the Gulf that's not even like, uh, built up now, man. It used to be so different.

Yeah. No, I'm in, uh, I'm right outside of Panama City and it's, it's a little quieter where I'm at. But yeah, now we all had our spring break trips to Panama City and it was rowdy.

Yeah. Um, right now you got, uh, I'm trying to think, was there something that you guys wanted to talk about that was specific? Oh yeah, I'm Raleigh, get ready with me. Uh, well, Raleigh gives me a hard time. Um, you got a new album that's coming out in September, September 18th, I think.

Yeah, uh, That's Just Me is the name of the album. Uh, I put 3 songs off the album out, uh, last week. A song called Go Again, uh, with a girl named Hannah McFarland on that song. A song called Think Is You Drunk, it's my new single at country radio, and a song called My Way Uh, there you go. And, uh, yeah, the album's gonna come. We're gonna put a couple more songs off the album out between now and then, but album will be out. It's 19 songs, comes out September. So hell yeah.

Do you feel any type of way about this album different than other albums? Do you feel— do you feel pressure to get— well, answer that question first if you don't mind. Yeah, what's different about this album, or what's kind of the same?

I think it's, uh Don't Mind If I Do, that record I think had a lot of different types of songs on it. I think that's something that I did well on that one. So I made sure this one was the same way. I got a lot of songs that sound like stuff I've written for years. Then I got a lot of songs that are a little different, you know, and I got fun beach songs, I got drinking songs, I got, you know, love ballads. And so I think that that's what I'm excited about the album is I think as a whole it's a good project. Project. Uh, but again, I try not to do anything too different in the sense of how I go about putting out music. You know, it's, it's always what I've done so far has kind of worked.

Yeah. Um, what about like in your, like outside of music life, outside of your farm and stuff like that, do you think, um, like you're a guy that probably has an easy time meeting ladies. Do you feel like, like settling down is in the future? Like, do you ever think about that? Like, well, you and I, we're both growing up.

Yeah, I feel like you, you know better than that because you're in world too, like, it's really not that easy to meet a girl when you're doing what we're doing. Like, I mean, I'm not gonna meet a girl at a show, you know. I mean, I'm, I'm confined to the back, you know, on a bus. And, uh, I'm not gonna meet a girl on Instagram, you know what I mean. And when you get to a place where people are, you know, it gets tough to know who you're meeting for what. And I always feel like if I met somebody that was like a fan, I feel like it would be tough for me to be like, you know, I would look at them like— you're probably the same way too— as I go in a bar and when people start, you get a little bit like, it makes you anxious. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I, I don't mind being the center of attention at like a show, or if I'm in a town, I'm playing a show and I go to a restaurant or bar down the street, but like, I don't like being the center of attention when I'm not supposed to.

That always makes me feel—

I agree.

I don't like to feel like if I went to another show and people were asking me for a picture and there was somebody else on stage, that would make me feel really, really rude, you know? So like a restaurant, it's not that people ask me for a picture bother me. It's just I don't want to be standing up causing a scene.

Now I'm the center of attention.

Yeah, I don't like that. So, you know, when you go— like, I'm not going to meet a girl at the bar. You've been to Loser's and Duck Blind with me, and we sit on the back deck away from everybody, you know, kind of hiding.

Oh dude, one night I sat out there by myself, uh, on Loser's back porch, and I was watching Netflix back there. Yeah, just watching two— I watched two episodes of something.

Yeah, well, no, it's, it's, it's tough.

Is It Cake, I think it was.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like if I could be in one place for a while, like live somewhere, that's another thing. I don't feel like I live anywhere. Got a house in Nashville and I stay there every once in a while. I got a farm in Alabama.

Have you always felt like that? Well, you must not. Your farm must feel like some type of way to you. But have you always felt like you didn't live somewhere? It's kind of interesting feeling, bro. I've never heard anybody say that and I relate to that 100%. I've never really felt like I lived somewhere.

Well, my farm is like, by the time I get there, I'm already thinking about I got to leave again. I'm there for 2, 3 days. That's not long enough to really get settled in. You don't really know which way to go while you're there.

There.

Uh, but no, when I was doing construction work, playing shows on the weekends, I'd be home every night. Like, that was— nah, that was— this always felt like home to me. But right now I just don't live in one place, you know. I'm flying to LA every week and on the road on the weekends.

And but if you think— if you keep it like that though, then you're pro— do you think that there's a possibility that something could change, that you could like, you know, meet somebody, start a family with that type of lifestyle?

No, just— but not the way it is now. Yeah, it, it's going to have to change in the sense of Well, you talked about you coming off tour and not knowing what to do with yourself. I've got to get to that point. I would love to try to get bored of being at home. I can't remember the last time I had a week off. I mean, maybe around Christmas. But I played shows until January— I mean, December 27th last year. So I mean, it's— if I could— and right now I could go take a month off. I could. But I just can't with everything going on and the opportunities I've got. I can't make myself do it. So I'm sort of like, like grind right now, keep my nose down, say yes to everything. And, and then in a couple of years, things will stop doing this and they'll kind of plane off, and I'll have this career. And I'll say, all right, I'm gonna play 40 or 60 shows a year. I might film a little TV show or a movie or whatever, and then I can have a life outside of it, you know.

But it's just tough to do right now.

But do you start to think about trying to— because, yeah, because here's the thing, like, there will always be— probably, I don't know if there will always be opportunities, but there's always like things you can say yes to, you know? Like, do— are you at a spot where you can kind of couture it a little bit more and kind of shape it how you want it?

I am. Are you still—

are you still in a space where there's a little bit of fear of like, fuck, if I don't do this stuff, you know?

The really fortunate thing I've got going on is right now my career is in such an upward slant that the things I'm getting asked to do, I can't say no to.

Wow.

They're hosting CMA Fest or being a coach on The Voice. I mean, you got to think, there's one country music artist that's a coach in the booth. I mean, like Blake Shelton, Reba's been on there. Like, it's, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And you got to think about all the people in country music that are so lucky to be where they are and have the careers they are, and they don't even have that opportunity. Yeah, you know.

So did you have to audition for that opportunity?

Uh, they met with me and, and I, I sort of told them that, you know, they were considering me. I sort of told them that I got what they wanted. You want somebody that's sort of funny, sort of dry, that cuts and, uh, they came to a show and I had a little Q&A with somebody beforehand and we cut up back and forth. And then I went on Jimmy Kimmel— Jimmy Fallon— and they got me on the couch and I— we had a little duck call moment, you know, that was funny. And that's how I got the job, you know, just goofing off doing this.

Yeah. Did it feel— does that feel like a— like, I don't know, I mean, it's just interesting because it's kind of a mainstream thing, but it's also a thing that kind of, like you're saying, yeah, like —like eternal, like it kind of makes you eternal in a way. It kind of puts you in a different perspective. It's very household.

Right. And it's very outside of the genre of country. So I would guess that most of my fans are country music fans. I can tell, and I could tell it from the first day of filming, I'm the least famous person as a coach on The Voice right now with the people that are fans of The Voice. Kelly Clarkson's been on it forever. Adam Levine's been on it forever. Queen Latifah's on it with me, and she's iconically famous. So the fact that I can tell I'm not as well known in that world only tells me how much I'll gain from it because it's putting me in front of so many different people.

Did you ask somebody, do I think this is— Oh, how fast does a chair go?

I mean, a little. About like you would turn normally in an office chair. Chair if somebody said, hey, look at this Native American dog, you know what I mean?

Get ready with me while I look at this Native American dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not—

it's just not gonna throw you out of the chair.

Yeah, okay, got it. If you had someone sitting on your lap, would it turn slower? You think it would turn the same amount?

I think it's got enough power you could have 2 people on your lap and it wouldn't change the speed. I think you go much over that, you're gonna ball bearings issue, I imagine. I don't— you know.

Um, what was the idea, dude? I remember we talked one night about this for a few minutes. You said you had a different idea for how the chair could work that would be interesting. What was it?

I can't remember. I think the chair should start facing the contestant. Yes. And then you turn away when you don't like it. Okay, now what would be tough about that is you're going to be looking at them. Yeah. So, you know, like, they're going to take it— it's personal. Personal. Yeah. Because the surprise when you turn, sometimes people don't look like they sound or it's not who or what you think it is.

Right. So there's a little more of a reveal there, but there'd also be a neat reveal if you turned away.

And you're sitting there and they're singing and they're just singing their little heart out. You're like, you know what I mean? You just turn and face. Because here's the thing. Yes, that would be awkward for a split second because you'd be making eye contact when you press the button and turn away, but then you're facing the other way. You're good. Problem with what we're doing now is I'm facing away, and then when I turn to them or don't turn, they still turn your chair, and then you got to explain to them why you didn't turn. Yeah. Oh, it's tough.

Have you guys started filming it? And do you have like total carte blanche on what you think? Like, do they— is there any like— are they intervening or is it—

it's, it's completely unscripted. Uh, they don't even tell you like what might be coming up next. We would do like 18 people a day, I think. And it's a long day. We get there at 9, leave at like 9 at night. We're done with the blind auditions now, but that was— it's not that hard to do because it is just this, you know, you're just cutting up. It does get tough to find new things to say when somebody's not quite—

oh yeah, dude, I could imagine that. It's hard to think of anything. Well, yeah, especially if you're trying to think musically.

There's only so many terms, you know, and I'm sitting here and I'm like, I don't want to say the same thing over and over again, but sometimes a lot of it of it is just nerves. A lot of it, I've heard people that are, you can tell, really talented singers, but they come on there and it's a very awkward thing. You got chairs facing away from you, the lights are on, it's on camera, it's on television, there's an audience there, and then they start singing and they're really winded, which is a nerves thing, you know, you can't catch their breath. And then by the end, they'll get it going, you know, but dang, it's a, it's a, yeah, I mean, it's people's dreams there, you know, and we're trying to make it fun and make good television out of it. But that— there's also a lot of really great stories that come out of it, I'm sure. I'm excited about getting to work with the artists and all that.

Dude, I was staying at a hotel. I went like whenever they had the freeze in Nashville, when everything got frozen or whatever, you know. Yeah. Um, I had been at the UFC that weekend and the freeze was like coming on Monday and everybody like wasn't sure what was gonna happen, you know, because you don't know if it's gonna be— how bad it's gonna be. And so I was like, well, I'm just gonna get out of town. I was like, I'm just gonna go to, uh— so I went to Hawaii for a few days, cuz I was like, it was like, it's not going to freeze there, right? Not going to freeze. There was one place that had good weather, so I was like, I'm out. And I went with like a security guy, so I had somebody to go with me, right? Cuz otherwise I was just going to be out there by myself. And he and I stayed at this place, and like, it was all like people that was like getting married or whatever, you know? And then just me and him eating like, like we had like 5 like romantic, like nice damn like candlelit dinners.

It's just fucking me.

Yeah, just me and him, dude. But your shoes light up. Did it, dude.

Get ready with me. Uh, no, his shoes didn't light up, dude. Neither mine did.

Okay, hold on. This is a game show. I don't want to do this on a side note, but what if you had shoes that were like a mood ring? Yes. So when you're fairly into somebody, think about how easy dating would be then. Shoes are just flashing red or green, I guess, would be like— and she's like, oh, he likes me.

And what if hers are like flashing, just not flashing—

and hers are just indifferent. No, you need a— like, really not into you needs to be a color red, probably, right?

Or hers start making that backup sound when big trucks back up. Yeah.

And she just starts moving. Yeah, yeah.

Oh God, we should have that, dude. We have freaking—

so however mood ring works is like the heat or blood flow, whatever. Your feet got to have the same thing. Yeah, 100%. Well, yeah, you might not be able to wear socks with them, but big deal, you know.

Some people say They say your feet like are like the, the hands of your leg.

Yeah, no, they say that. Yeah, dude, the hands of your leg is what— is that what you meant?

Yeah, the eyes are the brains of the face.

Yeah, from a visual aspect. Yeah, yeah, I mean from all of it.

Um, but no, dude, that's exactly what I'm saying. But no, I think the ears are the elbow of your head.

That's crazy. Come on, dude, think about it.

Nuh-uh, I'm not thinking about it anymore. What are we talking about?

Huh? I went on my shoe thing. You were doing good. Have you been here.

What was I— what, what, what— yeah, what were we talking about? It was pretty good. No, you were talking about, uh, look dude, this whole thing is we're just running a sting operation on the neighbors, okay? That's, that's all this is about. The— he's home. Yeah, he's home. Let's go. Um, no, I was just going to think what— yeah, what were we talking about? I want to get through that one idea. Did we get through any ideas on this?

You know, I've had a good time. Do you think that the guy back there knows what's— I mean, like, what's going on? Is he like, you were talking about this, dude?

He sat in here with so many types of people. Sometimes it's one way. I'll say this, Trevin, do you feel like you ever know how one of these conversations is going to go?

Never know, man. What bothers me about it is I feel like I should be able to retrace my steps to why I was talking about light-up shoes. Oh, you're going to dinner with your security guard? Oh, romantic dinner.

And this is what happened. So right next door, and they were doing the show that Luke Bryan is on.

Oh, the, uh, America's Got Talent.

America's Got Talent.

American Idol. American Idol. With respect.

And he even called it America's Got Talent once, and I corrected it. Really? Yes. But now other people are correcting me because I caught it from him. Yeah. But what I'm saying is, yeah, we're sitting there, and right there they had the show. Anyway, it was just kind of interesting because for 5 days we watched them tape this thing right there on the beach.

Beach. Yeah, you know. So was, uh, Luke was in Hawaii.

Yeah, it was nice. I got to see him. I got to meet him. Uh, wait, I met him before. Oh, we went fishing like a couple weeks ago at his place.

He loves to fish, hunt, golf, and drink.

Dude, I'll say this, he's one of the— what?

He does. He loves that.

What do you think he likes to fish, golf, and drink?

Fish, hunt, golf, and drink. He loves to do those things.

How do you know that?

Uh, he's wrote a song about it.

No, he didn't.

Yeah, it's called, uh, I think it's called Fish, Hunt, Golf, Drink.

And what else? And something else? No, no, just those things.

Oh, that's it? Yeah, you can play it if you want.

Is it good? It's called—

what kind of question is that? It's, I mean, it's country classic. I imagine— get ready with me while I listen to this. Get ready with me while I go fish hunt. Now what would you wear for that?

Fish hunt, golf, drink. Dude, I'd fucking—

you don't have to play it right now.

No, we don't play— just put it on here. We'll play in our imagination.

I'll play it in the car on the way home. Um, no, he, uh, he gave me credit for him writing that song.

Song. He gave you credit?

Or he blamed me, one of the two. Yeah, we did. Yeah, I don't even know that. He texted me and said that, uh, we need to get together, it's been too long. And he said, fish, hunt, golf, drink. Oh, nice, dude. So I was not there. I didn't write the song, had nothing to do with the song. I didn't even send the text. I didn't even say that's a cool text or you should write a song. I had nothing to do with it. So I want to say that while we're here.

Well, I'm going to read some of it right here.

Okay, we just— do me a favor, read it like stand-up poetry.

I have not heard this song.

Okay, well, so just, you know, like put a little feeling behind it, some passion.

Wake up coffee, camo, climb tree, wet line, 18.

So you said wake up coffee like you were saying like good morning moon or good night moon. You did it like that. That was cool. Go ahead, I'm sorry.

Wake up coffee, camo, climb tree, wet line, 18, fish hunt, Golf, drink. All fall, all spring, all summer long, I'll be living it up and living it on. A country boy's dream: fish, hunt, golf, drink. I like it. It's a haiku.

It's got a little bit of the, like, the Caterpillar book too.

It's got a hit of the tizm.

Have you ever read, uh, children's books? Huh? Like, I mean, out loud, like for audiobook? You'd be great at that. Yeah, thanks, Man, fish, hunt, golf, drink. Fish, hunt, golf, drink.

I wouldn't mind that. I'm trying to think. Well, I don't need to be drinking, but fishing, I would love to go. I'm gonna take you duck hunting this year.

Will you really? Yeah, you just gotta like— I know that you're as bad as me about scheduling stuff, but I'm not going through management to do it, so I'll just text you and be like, hey man, I got these days.

You was a busy guy. You were down in Pensacola, you were going to somewhere else, Barbados or something.

What? Yeah, I don't think I've been to Barbados, man. I— yeah, well, I guess you didn't go. Saskatchewan.

Oh, are you going there? Yeah, she was making up names of ways.

Is that how you say it? No, that's a real place. Saskatchewan.

It's in Canada. No, it's beautiful up there. I've been up there. It's in, uh, is that next to— it's— what's the one next to Edmonton?

Is that the Big Apple? No, Edmonton. Yeah, that's what they— I mean, yeah, you don't know what they call it there, bro.

I didn't know you were so funny, dude. I thought you— I've been trying to you.

I was honestly going to tell you how funny I was at my birthday party when you just got 2 pieces of cake and ran out the door.

Dude, I didn't even want to—

you literally— I saw his back, he was eating cake out the— dude, I came to your party, you hated it. Seriously, thanks for coming. I'm out of here.

Thank you.

No, thank you for coming.

I left because you weren't having fun, dude. You wouldn't—

and also, no, here's the thing, you came to my surprise party and you didn't even want to be there. That's how bad it was. You were downstairs sitting by yourself and up in the back deck of losers and you're like, I'd rather be down there than in this room with these people in this celebration.

Dude, I was watching a series. I was on the third episode. Yeah, you know, it's like people are trying their best, you know. Not everything's gonna be just for you, Riley.

Well, you know what would be really fun, huh, is if you did a get ready with me to go to my birthday party, man.

I ain't doing all that shit, bro. You got me messed up.

Let's do one get ready with me.

You got me messed up.

I'll pick what yours is, you can pick what mine is.

We can't do get ready with me. Yeah. Uh, oh, that might not be a bad idea really if we thought of some good ones, dude. Wonder what yours would be, dude. Get ready with me while I'm— while I go be an asshole somewhere.

That's what I would pick, dude. I swear.

But what would you pick for mine though?

Get ready with me while I go to the pound and try to find a Native American dog, and I would bring like some sage or something with me. I feel like you would go to a dog park and be like, so is this a Native American dog park? Like, can— is there— or just all regular dogs? Or is there any dogs that are—

there's like a burial ground there or something? Maybe I would.

That's a talent to ask weird questions though, to be able to come up with them, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I guess. I don't know, man. I don't have a ton of— like, a lot of times it's just like, you know, we're going to catch up, you know. I know that you have a lot going on in your life, so it was— I was glad to get to catch up. And yeah, I mean, doing something like The Voice, it feels like a big change because it's like, um, you know, you have this kind of like, you're, you're a country musician, you're respected by people in that world, and you've had a lot of success in it. And, and then you kind of did something that's a bit more of a, like, a commercial appeal, which is awesome. And I understand, like, you're, you understand, and I understand, like, your perspective on it. And I don't know, I just think it's interesting, you know, it's interesting how things come along in life because some people probably say no to things, some people probably say yes things.

Well, the interesting thing about a career like we've got is you're kind of in charge of how successful you can be. I mean, yeah, things have to go well, people have to like whatever art you create, whether it's comedy, music, whatever. But like, if you don't go do the stuff, you're not going to get the opportunity. And I can't tell you how many things I've gone and done that necessarily on paper were not going to be beneficial or financially worth doing, but there was an opportunity there that led to something else that led to something else. That's how the voice was, uh, all the acting stuff that I've been able to do so far. And, you know, I mean, think about stand-up comedians. How many of them that are, you know, household names or been really successful only have done stand-up? They've all acted or been on some other platform— Saturday Night Live, whatever. Even the, even the, like, guys that were just great stand-up guys like Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle, and they all had other avenues after. I mean, yeah, you almost know Eddie Murphy better now for his acting, you know, and that's a great, great stand-up comedian.

So I bet a lot of you— yeah, I mean, I bet there's a lot of people that wouldn't know that he was a stand-up comedian. That's what I mean.

And if you didn't get your start on Saturday Night Live, that's kind of how you branch out and do something else. Because I feel like in comedy would probably be much worse because you have to come up with so much more material, whereas music, you can put an album out and tour for a year off of it and still play some of those songs for years to come. Yeah, but you have to be be a whole lot more creative regularly in comedy. But if that's all you did, that would get really monotonous after a while. You get tired of it. I got— the only time I ever got tired of music was 2014, '15, '16 in there, and I was playing the same club, same venues over and over again, playing the same songs. And it got to be where I just didn't look forward to it, you know. As long as things are growing and you can find other things—

like, was there ever a tour that you did that you got asked to go on that you just chose not to? Are there different tours that you get asked to do? How often does that happen with it with artists?

I've been really fortunate that I've had a pretty good touring business for the last 10 years, so I have to turn down some tours because I can make more money touring on my own. Plus, I feel like there's a little bit of— if you get caught in that opening act role, it's hard to get out of it. You never go— because, you know, like, what's open for somebody is great because one, you got guaranteed money. The venue— if it snows and the venue shuts down, you still get paid. You don't have to pay for production, cater, anything like that. So there's no overhead. Head and you get in front of new fans. So it's a great way to get some exposure. But if you don't go play your own show, you're not building a fan base, right? Because people have to be there to see you. So for me, I always— if I went open for somebody and played a stadium or an arena, I'd go back and play a club there, you know, after and try to get the most out of it if I could. But yeah, I don't, I don't do any real opening slots anymore, so it's nice.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh no, I mean, it's definitely nice. And sometimes I forget about the work that I have done. I forget about all the spots that I played I forget, like, I forget about all the time I put in on things.

So you get there and you remember something about the backstage, the green room looks familiar, like, I've been here. Yeah, happens to me all the time. Yeah.

Um, right now you have the Cowboy As It Gets Tour. Um, who's opening up? Who's working with you on it?

Justin Moore, Randy Houser. Oh, nice. Uh, a guy named Drake White, uh, Hannah McFarland, Mackenzie Carpenter. I kind of try to have a parade of of first, first of four and second of four guys and girls, just because I like having people out that, you know, get given an opportunity to get in front of a bunch of fans. Really fortunate that all these shows are selling out. We got big crowds and so cool, dude. Yeah, man.

God, I wish I could frickin sing, you freak. Sorry.

You're a pretty good turkey call, though.

Yeah, but all I'm gonna meet— Yeah, but I ain't meet— You know what I'm saying? What a turkey call.

I saw you sing my song. All you're going to meet is Ella. You sang it. Yeah, dude, I missed it. We did. We got there the next day. I think.

Oh, I thought you were there.

Winded out. We didn't get to play. I thought you were there.

Yeah, dude, that was great, bro. You tell me you're nervous. Yes, I was freaking nervous, dude.

That's such a— that's such a—

well, it was—

it's such an easy song in the sense of the crowd knows every word and the talking verses and all that, you know. It's a little easier to do, but I'll bring people up out of the crowd to do it sometimes.

Oh, you will? Yeah. Oh dude, that's cool, bro. Yeah, well, the tough part was like I knew the song, but then when you have a responsibility to do the words, you're like, you know, it kind of sets you like, all right, now I have like, I gotta do the response. Well, you start thinking about it, right? Yeah. And then, uh, the craziest part, this part was kind of funny. My, uh, my buddy, we wrote the call, the notes down, or the words on the cards. We wrote the words on the cards on a poster boards. And, um, and so he's standing there with him by the side of the stage just in case, right? Yeah. And then, but I didn't need them. I started doing good in my brain and I didn't need them. And so he starts shaking the card like he's getting pissed that I'm not looking at the cards.

He made these cards. Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, dude, I don't need them.

Yeah, you're here for— even happy that you didn't need them, right?

You should have just been—

it was a little selfish.

He should have been ripping them up and throwing them in the air or something, but he's sitting there like, well, yeah, yeah, you know, and just giving me like a bunch of grief or whatever, you know, just like a bunch of poster board grief or whatever. And so, yeah, I don't know, that was kind of a lot. Lot. But, um, oh, and then it was windy and my hat kept coming off, and I kept having a cowboy hat on. Yeah, I kept having to get it, and I was like, dang, I wish they made a really heavy hat, or could have went that route, a chin strap.

Yeah, come on, cowboy hat.

Come on, man, you think I'm gonna wear a cowboy hat with a chin strap on it?

Desperate times, man. Uh, I can't, I can't read lyrics. You're hilarious. And saying, you know what, wait, you can't what? I can't read lyrics I've got to just know it, you know, like a teleprompter or whatever. I can't. Oh yeah. And so if I look out in the crowd and read a sign or something while I'm— it just— I'll fuck— forget who I am. It messed me all up. I can't read anything. Can't look at anybody's sign in the crowd when I'm singing. Well, it's two different things.

Totally. I would rather know— I would rather just guess than be reading something, you know, just take my chances with whatever is going to come up in my brain.

But which could be anything. Time.

Yeah, which is kind of the best thing. Your brain is just like— sometimes it is. Yeah, it's like a glass of champagne, somehow a bubble just comes right up and that's a new idea or something like that. I love that. That's my favorite thing about being alive is just seeing kind of what comes out of your brain, you know? Yeah. And other people's brains. I think it's interesting. But yeah, man, it was— I felt lucky to get to do y'all's song. So yeah, I was happy.

I gotta see some clips of it.

He did good. I was happy to get to do it. Oh dude, once I got out there and, and realized that I could thing, it was over, dude. I was like, I was just— I was a singer.

We'll find one you can do with me and we'll— you come out to the show, we'll get you out to do one.

Yep, I like that. Get ready with me.

Get ready with me to go sing with Raleigh Green tonight.

There we go, dude. Um, you have your new album, it's out on the 18th. Yep, that's it, September 18th. That's Just Me. Um, you have 3 singles that are already out from it?

Yes, sir.

Excellent. And, uh, and the Big as It Gets tour— no, Cowboy as It Gets tour. Just wait on the slide, it'll be easy.

I'm Riley Green, and it's the Cowboy as It Gets tour in 2026. You know what this is like?

This is like, honestly, when you're having a rocky day at work and one of your boys shows up and helps you out.

So that's what this is. Oh, it's—

that's exactly what I'm saying. Yeah, that's exactly what this is. So thank you, bro. Yeah, thank you for showing up.

You know, if you ever need me to come in when you got somebody cool here that you're doing, I can just sit on the couch and, you know what I mean, just help. Dude, just come and do my part.

Yeah, dude, you're good at this, man.

You're really good at this. I watched your show this past weekend with Theo Vaughn. I watched it. I appreciate that, man. Say some creative stuff on here.

Yeah, we have over time, you know.

Sometimes it's not all going But man, if you sit here and talk for what, 2 hours, there's bound to be something funny in there.

Oh, there's fun stuff, man. I mean, I don't know, it's been interesting. Sometimes you find different things, sometimes you learn stuff, sometimes you don't learn stuff.

No, I enjoy that it's, uh, there's some seriousness in there, you know.

Oh yeah, I mean, sometimes you get a lot more serious. It just kind of depends, you know. I think I can't tell if it has to do with my energy or it has to do with the guest energy. It's probably just both of us and whatever's going on, you know.

Well, I feel like there's a lot of places where me and you are in a similar spot with life outside of our careers. Yeah.

Maybe we didn't talk about that enough. We did okay though. Yeah.

Well, we can do a real deep thing. We just share one mic and sit Indian style on the floor with just candles and do it. You know what I mean?

Oh, I know what I'll bring, my Indian dog with me.

If you can get your hands on one. Yeah.

There's one out there. There. Um, Riley Green, man, thanks so much, bro. Thanks for the music. Thanks for the entertainment. Uh, thanks for the entertainment today, dude. You're a funny guy, bro. I didn't realize that. And I know it's a weird thing to say to somebody else, but thanks for making me laugh. That's what I mean. I appreciate it, man. That was fun. And, uh, congrats on all the success. And, um, I'll have to get out there and check out, uh, one of the shows this year. Something— The Biggest It Gets Tour. You're going to some— you're going to some good spots. God, yeah, I'll be out there. Um, Riley Green, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, brother.

Appreciate it, man. Yep. Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be cornerstone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found. I can feel it in my bones, but it's going to take a little