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So how much of a relief is it to have the album done? You've been working on this for a, huh?

Yeah. It would be a relief if I got a chance to chill out. I just, I just kind of mixed it, mastered it, mastered it again. That took a little while, and I was supposed to go on vacation. I was going to take a trip and go chill out and think about it. That didn't end up happening. So I just turned my phone off for like two or three days, and then it was, let's go talk about it and break it all down. It's a relief it's finally done, but it just kind of kept going. So I haven't had a chance to chill on it.

Those breaks are important, right? Those just vacation breaks just shut your brain off. Breaks, yeah.

I really wanted that. One.

Of those margaritas, I needed it.

I just wanted to go be by myself, just camp out in the woods by myself.

Really?

Yeah, just be completely solo and just chill out. I just made 40. I just wanted to go chill out and go, wow. Reflect and be like, wow. This 1st 40 has been pretty cool. What's going to happen in the next? And it was like, boom, New York City tonight show Questlove looking at me, I was like, this is not what the plan was.

Sometimes you got to force the plan and all those other people. You have a lot of people to make happy.

Absolutely. But I'm also excited to do it. Sometimes if I get too comfortable, I get comfortable just being comfortable. Right.

And then nothing gets made.

Yeah, I kind of like to get out there and get the nerves going, blood going a little bit, get out in front of folks and figure it out.

Yeah, well, that's a little bit of a vacation from the creative process of making it, right. Because the process of making. I know you were locked up. Yeah, you lock yourself up. You do it. When you do it, you go all in.

Well, I think I still care about this shit. You can tell. I really care. People are like, what the hell are you making a whole album for? It's about singles. I'm like, I still like listening to a full record, putting a record down, having the needle scratch the thing and playing it, and then flipping that other side and seeing what's happened. I still like listening to a record from top to bottom.

If there's anything that I've ever learned, it's that do what you like to do. It doesn't matter what the trend of the business is, just fucking do what you like to do. You like albums? Make a fucking album?

Yeah, sure. And so, yeah, that's what I did. I was locked in. A lot of it was by choice, too. It was like, I just love being in a spot. I built a studio. I was like, well, why not fucking use it?

Yeah.

So that's what I did kind of to a fault. My wife was like, you got to get out of there. Trying to hang with you, get me out of the house, socialize me and stuff. And I was just locked in, just nerding out, trying to make noise, organized noise.

But the end is beautiful. The end result is beautiful.

Thank you.

There's so many layers to the music, man. I got it last night. They sent me a link, but then the link needed a passcode, and I could have get a passcode, and then last night, they sent me the link. So while I was writing last night, when I came from the store, I listened to the whole album.

Awesome, man.

There's so many. The music, the sounds, like right off the bat, there's so many layers. You could tell. There's so much thought into it.

There's a lot of smoke in the air, a lot of mescal, a lot of flowing. Yeah. And there was nobody saying. Usually for me, people expect a certain thing. I have talks. I don't know, strings on the album. Stay away from singing falsetto stuff because your core fans don't like it. And I was like, I just don't give a fuck. I didn't care. It was in the middle of COVID so everybody was locked down, and I was just like, my phone was down. Nobody was talking to anybody. I got weird, man.

That is so crazy that anybody is around you that gives you that kind of advice.

Well, it's folks that are in the business, and I guess people. I've been told that I'm a hard act to put on a shelf. You don't know where to put me. So they don't know how to market or sell this confused kid who plays power chords and listen to Nirvana, who also loves Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre, who thinks that thelonious monk is one of the baddest dudes on the planet, who wants to play harmonica like Sonny boy Williams, and they're like, what the fuck are. It's a weird time. Just people want to be able to call, you know? So they tried to do the whole next Jimi Hendrix thing, and that didn't really work out. I kind of rebelled on that. And they're like, oh, fuck. Now know. So here we are. You know what I mean? But there's no reason not to try shit. All my favorite artists tried shit. I mean, that's why Prince unapologetically Stevie wonder. That's also why I like hanging out with you motherfuckers. Because you all just be trying shit. You know where the wall is when you hit that motherfucker, you go, oh.

Well, the thing about our thing is we have to do it in front of people. So it's me stoned in front of a computer going, oh, this is so crazy. Writing shit out, putting it on my phone, and then going, all right, let's see what other people see. How it comes to life. But you can create all kinds of magic alone. That's a different thing.

Well, I might think it's magic. And you never know. I think it's magic till the thing drops. So we'll see what happens. But, yeah, I feel good about it. Thanks for listening, man.

Oh, my pleasure. You know, fan dude, I don't owe you a thing. Kicks off our fucking night almost every night at the mothership. When we get in that green room, we get in that green room. We want to get things popping. I don't know, you. A thing is a fucking. That's a work of art. It's just classic.

It's just kind of a rude.

It's awesome.

Fuck y'all. I'm here.

Yeah, it's awesome.

It's awesome. Yeah. But congrats on one year, man.

Thank you.

One year. Yeah.

It's crazy.

That's awesome.

Flew by. It feels like we just opened.

Y'all been doing it, man. Bird on the street. Y'all are taking over. It's game changing.

It's fun.

For real.

We got so many guys moved here now.

Oh, I know. They're my neighbors now. Way out in the country.

Well, that's the smart way to live, man. I tell everybody, I go attack it from the outside. Like Tony Hinchcliffe. He likes living in the city. I'm like, that's great. And everything like that, but you're going to go crazy. You want to be outside, get that balance. When I lived in LA, I lived way outside of LA, in the hills with coyotes and mountain lions and shit. I'd worry about hawks, those like, the things that I would think about. I'd like just that quiet. Just quiet. And then get into the crazy and.

Then get back to the quiet choice.

The way you're doing. It's perfect. Live in the country. Just relax when you get outside. Drink a cup of coffee on your porch, man. You're just chilling. Just birds and shit. Beautiful grass and trees.

I've become such a fucking nerd, bro. I've been sitting outside and walking around my house. I've gone to the camera store. I spent way too much money on camera gear trying to capture the perfect clip to send National Geographic of the mexican eagles in my backyard.

And I'm just sitting eagles.

I'm just sitting out there with the crazy zoom lens, quiet stalking, trying to get this shot. Yeah, I spend way too much time out there, but you got one of.

Those big crazy nature lenses.

I'm that guy. I think I might quit music and try and get a gig doing that. I get off doing that.

What a cool looking bird.

Yeah, man.

Got a two pay or something on crested Caraca.

Yeah.

Is that how you say it? Caracara. Caracara.

Caraca.

Caracara. Mexican eagle. What a fucking beautiful animal.

Yeah.

You have those in your yard?

Yeah, there's a family of, like, three of them. They swoop down and hang out all the time.

I had a hawk try to sweep in on my chickens the other day, the chickens in the backyard, and all of a sudden, the chickens start going, flopping their wings and running around. I look them. This is hawk circling.

You got to watch out for those motherfuckers. I saw a hawk soup up a kid, and I didn't think about that when I moved out into the. This is on video or something. I don't know if this was fake, probably eagle. But I was like, I didn't even think about having to look out for that in the country, because hawk came down and swooped up, or swooped down and got one of my chickens right in front of my boy. He was like, five at the time. He's like, what is that? I was like, whoo. That's the world happening. That's nature.

That's how it goes down in the real world.

Exactly.

Not this weird thing that we've constructed.

To insulate ourselves from it and think that we're the most powerful. I mean, when you sit out there and you see a hawk swoop down and grab another sizable animal and just take off with it, you're like, okay, it's not that safe. I mean, I walk around out there on my property, and there's been a couple of times where I've almost stepped on a rattlesnake. My wife and kids just stepped over a rattlesnake getting out of the truck right there in the driveway, and it was a little baby ratlers. They had no idea. I looked down, stomped on his head. I was like, you don't have to think about crazy things like that. Going fishing. My daughter caught a water moccasin.

Oh, shit. Fishing line.

Yeah, she was all excited. Daddy, I got a snake. I was like, yo.

Not that one.

Not that one. That is not the one you want.

Wow, on a hook.

Yeah, on a hook. It was like one of those little. Like one of those little kid poles. It's like Elsa or one of those little princess poles reeling in cottonmouth.

Wow.

Like nothing country.

No, they bought on the line like that. They'll attack bait.

I didn't know that either. Yeah, so come get some of that if you want to step out of the city.

Yeah, I love it, though.

Yeah, I did, too. I love getting into the madness. I don't want to hate on it. I love wandering around downtown with the camera, popping into certain spots, and I check in on you all, go to the blues spots and catch the madness and got to excite myself, shake it up a little bit and then just take it back home and get the zoom lens out and nerd away.

But it's a good balance of different things. And if you want to go see, like, live shit, this town is so good for that, man. There's so much live performance going on. There's so much comedy, there's so much music.

It's great. I like seeing the musicians watching the comics and the comics watching the musicians. I like that.

I love watching music because I have no talent. I love watching a thing where I have no talent in. I've never played anything, so I watch them just like you're doing magic up there. Like, look at these guys doing magic.

I brought a guitar for you. And at least we're going to teach you how to play an E chord before I get out of here.

Okay, I'll try.

Yeah, I'll try it.

I've never even tried it.

Well, that's the problem.

Is that the problem? No, the problem is. Here's the problem, okay? I know my brain. I have a dangerous brain. My brain can't get to interested in things because then it's all in and then it's like fuck eating. Let's do this all day. So I've learned through all my years how to keep that wolf in a cage and not to let it out. So that's why I don't play golf.

Got you.

Because I'm addicted to pool. It's a real problem. I could play, like, a hair under professional speed when I'm on, when I'm really on. I've been practicing for several hours. I ran three racks the other day. Three racks in a row.

That's big.

Four and a quarter inch pockets. Yeah, see, that's the problem. I'll get like that with music. I would get like that with anything. I'd get like that with golf, for sure. I see Jamie. He's a full on junkie. He's a full on junkie. He's got a simulator out there. And I'll come here, and when I pull the car up, he's driving balls into the simulator and mapping it out on a fucking computer.

Obsessed.

Obsessed with his club speed. He's got a fucking killer drive, too.

You, like, set up to the whole sensor thing? I don't have all that yet. It's coming.

I've got some cool stuff on the way, I think. I've watched it get you, though. That's what's interesting. Like, when we first met, you were not into golf. How many years ago did you get into golf? When we got here. When we got to Austin.

Yeah.

So four years ago. So in four years, he's become a stone cold junkie.

Gotcha.

So is Henchcliffe. Stone cold junkie.

Ron White.

Ron White's a junkie. He also caught a lot of people. Whatever the pandemic did, the golf bug went around.

It was the only things you could do then. That's not when I was playing.

But it seems to me like it's one of those things that once you do it and you do it and you start getting better at it, you just fucking love it, and then everybody becomes an addict. I know very few people who dabble in golf. A lot of people, they'll play pool a little bit here and then, but they don't get, like, fully addicted. Golf people get just addicted.

I don't get that. I'm scared of that, too. I get that now. Understanding your own brain. I don't gamble.

That's it.

I don't play golf, any of that, because it's over for me.

Yeah.

It's already a problem with these stupid cameras. My wife is like, you're not a fucking. What are you doing?

But yet you are. Yeah, you are. You are whatever the fuck you want to be.

I'm obsessed.

Yeah. I don't like people telling you what to do. That drives me nuts when I hear people telling you what to do and giving you advice on music. Just shut the fuck up. Everybody shut the fuck up and just market whatever he does.

Right? I did it. You sell it. But the thing is, it's not people telling me what to do. It's meetings and suggestions.

Right?

So I'm translating it as people tell me what that is.

What it is.

Suggestions.

It's as much as they can do, as much as they can tell Gary Clark Jr. How to make music, they're going to give it a shot. Well, you know what I'm saying? It's just annoying. Exists in comedy, too. They're always telling comedians, do this, do that, dress nice, do this, do that. Stop talking about COVID Stop talking about this. You lose 5% of the audience when you do this, and 10%, shut the fuck up.

Yeah, I was in a conversation the other day in New York talking about a set list. You should put this in this order and do this. And I was like, you know what? Y'all talk about to. I'm leaving this conversation. I'm gonna go up on the roof, I'm gonna put some smoke in there, and then I'm gonna do my fucking show. Chill out. You know?

Shut the fuck up. Telling you how to do a set.

Funny. It's a funky. It's a funky.

Know, they're all like, Gary. Yeah, they're all like that. TV was like that when I was on news radio. It was maddening, because here you have this guy, Paul Sims, this brilliant writer from the Larry Sanders show, all these amazing cast members. It's incredible writing staff. And then you have the network. You need a wacky. Know. He needed this. You needed know. We need to have a hot girl that Dave's interested in. There was always something like, stay the.

Fuck out of this. Stay out of.

Yeah, but they can't help themselves.

Yeah.

And you have to listen to them because they're the executives. They're the people that have the money.

Right. Okay. And you love doing the art.

Exactly. So it's this weird relationship. That's one of the best things about comedy, is you don't really have that relationship with anybody anymore. We used to have it with TV, but now that's all gone.

Yeah, you guys can do whatever you want. I was telling a couple of guys, when I show up to the comedy spot, you guys are nice enough to give me free drinks. And so I take advantage, and then I start to going off, man, you guys are the real fucking rock stars. You could just do whatever the hell you want.

Nobody could tell you shit. You just go.

You just go. But, I mean, it is true. You guys got a freedom in a creative space to say whatever you want at any time. That's cool.

It's inspiring, it's fun, especially at that place, because that place is made for us by us. It's all ours. We're the only ones who own it. Nobody owns it but us. Everybody else has to listen to us. That's never been the case. It's always been. There was an owner and the manager is hired by the owner and they give you the rules. So the rules are now, like, I go in the green room, what do you guys think? And everybody just starts giving off opinions. I think this, I think that. I'm like, okay, we'll do it that way.

That's cool.

We all agree. Okay, we'll do it that way.

That's amazing.

So because of that, I would be able to just have it like a real safe haven. It really is like a mothership because everybody there goes and travels and does the road, but they come back home to home base, they come back to the mothership.

That's how you build the community. That's a prime example.

Yeah. And it's just like everybody who comes here is looking for that too. And so then when they get it and they realize, oh, this is real. This isn't just like, everybody wants that. Oh, I wish there was a place we could go all just hang out together and every night just do shows and everybody's creatively inspiring everybody. And then once you actually have it, you're like, oh, my God, it can be real. It can be real because we had it a little bit at the store. We had it a lot at the store in LA, but we also had owners who were great. We had managers, we had Hollywood agents would come. There was always people's managers hanging these. There's a lot of other stuff, know? And then there's also the Hollywood feel, which is a different feel, because what percentage of those people out there in the audience are in the business? Like a giant chunk? At least half. At least half those people out there in that audience are actors or writers or producers or executives or someone who does something that has to do with the business out here. It's just folks.

Yeah, it's just folks. Yeah, it's better that way.

It really is. People who just love the shit.

Yeah, it's just fans, just comedy fans who just have all kinds of different jobs, all kinds of different things they do with their life, and they just want to come out and have a good time.

It's awesome.

Yeah. And it's magical.

It's very cool.

That's, for me, the absolute best thing that came out of the pandemic. Number one, moving here. Number two, being able to set that place up.

Yeah. As a fan, I think that's one of the best things that come out of the pandemic, too. So cheers to you, man.

Thank you.

One year.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, indeed.

Yeah, it's exciting. We thought about doing one somewhere else, but I was like, you know what? We really should do one. We should do one for, like, the summer in Montana. Just find some fucked up town in Montana, have people fly into it. Just do a mothership in Montana.

Montana would be amazing. I love Montana.

Montana is amazing.

Montana. Yeah. That would blow up.

Yeah. Tony's like, don't fucking do it. Don't go to. I'm not going to Montana. I'm like, come on. And Duncan was like, I'll get a house in Montana.

Let's go.

Montana is beautiful. Duncan's thinking about doing mushrooms, stare at the stars.

I'm with Duncan on that. I'm with that 100%, so, yeah, that'd be cool. You're thinking about expanding? Possibly.

That was the only thought. Just buy some land in Montana, some weird town Montana, and just put a mothership up.

Drop the mothership in the middle there, see who comes. It'd get interesting, man. Montana.

Yeah.

It's got some funky, cool folks out there.

It does. But you also have a lot of people that travel. That's what's interesting, too. That's one of the things we found out about this spot. It's not just, like, people in Austin that are coming to these shows.

Yeah.

It's people traveling from all over the world. So it's almost like a little Vegas residency type deal.

It's become a destination.

Yeah.

That's about us. Yeah.

If you could do that to a small, funky town in Montana, if you only had, like, 120 seats, you could get a lot done.

Make it better. Yeah, well, I'll be there. I'll be out there trying to learn how to fly fish, and I'll drop in on you.

Flyfish is kind of fucked up because they let those fish go most of the time, which is a little weird.

The hippie in me gets that.

I get that, too. But the hippie in me says, well, why catch them then? The hippie in me is like, you're just fucking with these fish. You're just trying to get the juice. That feeling that you get when you catch a fish.

Yeah.

That wild feel.

I'm guilty.

Me too. I've done it. I've done catch and release, especially bass fishing. Yeah, I mean, everybody catches and releases.

Absolutely. I got a little spot out of my house, and we catch and release every now and then. Filet them up, catfish or whatever, fry them up and stuff like that. But for the most part, just hang with my kids and learn how to be patient. Teach them how to just chill out, wait for something I know.

When is the fish going to bite?

Yeah, when is the fish going to bite? When you shut the fuck up. Chill out. But, yeah, that's my next quest that I'm probably scared of, because a buddy of mine, Jacob Skiba, he's a guy I worked with in the studio, producer, engineer. While we were recording, he went out and has gone on a couple of fly fishing expeditions, and he's kind of. So he's like, you got to come out there with me. And I'm like, yeah. And then next thing you know, I quit playing guitar, and I'm the guy fly fishing with the big zoom lens out there in Montana, waiting for the mothership to open.

Yeah, that's the thing, is when people say that they get bored, I'm like, how can you be bored? There's so many things to do. There's so many things to do in this life.

Absolutely.

There's so many things to get interested in. How could you be bored? To me, it's like my problem is the total opposite. I just can't have more things that I'm interested in.

Yeah, I like to get to a feeling where I'm bored or feel like I have time to be bored because I can invest my time in certain things, like photography or gave me an outlet to go chase something down. And for better or for worse, I feel, like, fulfilled, like I'm learning a new skill, I'm challenging myself. I'm never satisfied. There's so much to know, there's so much to do. But I'm like a hands on guy. So it's like, if I'm bored playing guitar, I'll try and figure out something on piano. If I'm bored playing piano, like, I have bagpipes, I don't know why I have bagpipes, but just in case I get the time to get bored, maybe I'll figure out how to play bagpipes.

Yeah. Just weird shit. Well, it's something about learning a new thing that excites a part of your mind that doesn't get excited any other way.

Sure.

Because once you already know how to do something, then you're just kind of practicing that thing that you already do and you're very comfortable with. It's a normal thing that you do, but when there's a new thing, it's like, how does this work? What's this lens? What happens when I turn left? Oh, shit.

Yeah, right.

And they're like, okay. What is the aperture? What does that mean? What's exposure time? So at nighttime, you set it different, and then you start getting into the books and into the weeds. And I got, like that with archery. I nerded out hard archery. So I know so much shit about archery, but there's so many layers to that. Like, there's people that, like my friend John Dudley. I'll talk to him about that. I don't even know what the fuck he's talking about.

Right.

He's talking about torque lean and torque setting bows. And, like, what? Torque tuning what?

My brother in law is really into bow. I think I hit you up. And when I was over there in Australia, he was like, oh, hit up Joe and ask him what kind of bow he's using. But, yeah, he's really into that. My mom's real into archery. Really? Yeah. I'm going to put you out there. My mom doesn't mind being in a smoky room. She started playing drums, and she's into archery now.

Wow.

She's out here getting it.

Playing drums and shooting bows and arrows.

Fuck, yeah. It's really badass.

That's badass. Wow. Yeah. Archery is an addictive thing, too, because at the moment when you're aiming at the target and you're at full draw, it's impossible to think of anything else. It requires so much concentration that the world goes away, and you have this insanely narrow focus. The insanely narrow focus is the place where you want that arrow to go. And all these different things have to be in order. Your scapula has to be aligned. Your elbow has to be high. Your right arm has to be pulled back. Your left arm has to be locked and stabilized. You have to release your hand. So you're just pushing with the palm of your hand. No movement of your hand whatsoever. And then you have to relax the shoulder somehow while extending fully. And all the while, you have to fight anxiety. You don't want to pull it quick. You want to make sure you just get it locked in there. So when all that is going on, there is nothing else in the world. I got a lot of things on my mind. I'm too busy. I'm too this. I'm stressed out. I just go out there with some arrows, and then within 20 minutes, I feel great.

My only time to think about other bullshit is while I'm walking over to the target and get my arrows.

Yeah.

Pulling the arrows out and then back to what I was doing.

Start sprinting to that motherfucker.

Yeah. If I could just keep firing, never have to go get the arrows, there would be no thinking at all.

I get that. I can kind of relate that to playing guitar in a way in order to kind of a precision that your hands got to work in sync and coordination, and you got to be precise with it or else it kind of all falls off the rails and you can't really think about anything else. It's not like you can be on the phone and play guitar. You can send emails back and forth. You can't really be in conversation with people. You just have to be locked in to execute.

Yeah.

And you know which shots are better than the others, you know which chords are played stronger than the others. You know which notes are going to sting, you know what I mean? It's like, that's the note. Bullseye, motherfucker. Yeah. I can kind of relate in that way. It's like flow state check out. You got to be there. You have to put in 100% or else you're not going to be great.

I think that's a lot of things in life. I think there's a lot of things in life that people gravitate towards because I think there's a great value in having a thing that takes the rest of the world away. That thing could be golf. Look at this. For Jamie, it could be anything, whatever it is. But there's a real value in having a thing that takes the world away.

I think my name would have been had a lot longer rap sheet if I hadn't found guitar at a young age. I think just being lost, confused.

So many people out there. Yeah. If I hadn't found martial arts, God damn, I have no idea what would have happened to me. It was the only thing that I had ever done that made me feel like I wasn't a loser. I was like, all of a sudden I found a thing that I know that I can do, and if I just go all in. So that's why I have this problem with addicting, getting addicted to things, because that was like the first one that I really got really addicted to, and then it just sort of transmuted. It changed just the way I interact with everything.

Did you have a good experience off the bat? Did you notice that you were like a winner immediately.

Not immediately, but pretty quickly.

That was kind of draw you back for it.

I understood it. I understood distance. I understood how to hit things hard. And then it was the exciting thing about it. There's moving targets. They're moving at you. You're moving at them. Solving this puzzle of human reflexes and instincts and flinching at them and fainting them, getting them to react, and then gaging what that reaction is going to be. Different ways to set things up. It's like, it's so multilayered and multifaceted. And when you're young, you're so fast, you can move so quick. And you learn so quick, too.

Sure.

So you see instantaneous reward, because if you're learning something while your body is growing, it's the best because your body grows into these movements. So your body has a built in way of doing these things literally from the ground up. Once you're a grown man and you try to teach a grown man, like, kickboxing, it's like, okay. You're just, like, so accustomed to doing certain things with your legs. You get these grown ass, 30 year old man legs, and I'm going to try to teach you how to throw a spinning back kick.

Yeah.

I was like, okay.

Yeah. That's why I haven't signed up yet.

It's worth doing it just for fun, though.

Sure.

And that's another thing. Like, when you're doing that, you ain't thinking about if you're sparring or if you're doing jujitsu training. You're not thinking about anything else. You cannot think about anything else. You're just fully locked in to this thing that you're doing.

Yeah, that makes sense, man. I wish I'd grown into my body while playing basketball because I'm six foot four and a whole waste of space. I have no skill. I have a 15 foot jumper that I'm pretty confident in, but I have no handles. I'm like, it's a waste. People ask me, you play basketball? No. Didn't get that. And I tried, man. I tried. I had friends who had the shoes where you could build your calves for jumping, and I was out there doing. I had those walk around weights and all that shit. Yeah, I was really trying to get there, man. Got no hops, no court awareness. It just wasn't my thing, bro. I'm like a deer in headlights on the basketball court. It's embarrassing, bro. So I try and get out there with my kid. Now he plays basketball, and I'm struggling my knees are popping.

40 year old reality.

Yeah. Damn. That wasn't my forte. But, hey, you can't be everything.

No, you cannot be everything. And if you try to be everything, you'll be nothing.

I agree.

Yeah. You got to pick lanes. Sure, you can have a couple of lanes, but you can't have too many. Each lane will take away from the resources that that other lane has available.

I agree. That's why I try and tell my wife all the time. I can't focus on that right now.

Yeah.

Trying to stay in my lane.

People, though, don't have to do that. Don't understand it. Sometimes people come to me with business stuff, and I'm like, I can't talk right now. I've got shit going on.

Sure.

I'm busy. Let's talk about this when it's absolutely necessary and never a minute before that part.

Yeah, say it again loud for the ones that didn't have the volume up.

Yeah, eventually we could talk about this, but not now.

Seriously, man, they'll try and talk to.

You about important shit right before a show. This is so crazy that you're doing this. You don't even understand what you're doing.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. That's one of my biggest issues with doing shows. And there's like some sort of business element involved, because when you're out just on the road with your touring crew or whatever, there's not those conversations. It's not those talks. Everybody kind of gets it. Reads the room when you have folks to come in and go, hey, I was thinking about this idea with this company. The tour manager comes in and goes, five minutes, and it's like, I'm trying to get my monitors on, I'm trying to form my voice, and they're just selfish.

Yeah, you're a captive audience.

Yeah, it's like, man, get the fuck up.

I finally got you alone. I want to talk to you about this cryptocurrency.

Yeah, right. Yeah, no, thanks. But, yeah, it's part of it, I guess. It's weird and kind of funny, if you think about it.

It is kind of weird. What's all these different personalities are interacting with each other. You have the creative personality, and you have all the business people and the people that are support team. It's an OD relationship. Whenever you mix business and art, there's just two totally different mindsets.

Yeah, it's north and north.

Yeah. That's why people get real suspicious if an artist gets real business oriented, starts opening up a bunch of businesses and gets all businessy people are like, oh, what are you doing? I want you to be an artist.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, that's what I like about you, dummy.

Yeah, that's what I like about you. I like that you don't know anything.

I like that you're out there just being wild. Have a good fucking time. Have a bunch of people that do that shit for you, man. Don't get involved.

That's the scary part, when they start saying, don't worry about that. Just be an artist, motherfucker. I'm going to be at your office tomorrow early in the morning. Let me see that spreadsheet. What's going on?

Yeah, well, that's a story as old as time. The artist that's been ripped off didn't even know they were getting ripped off.

Yeah, it's definitely true. There's things that I've had to learn in the business not to get into too much, but, yeah, there's definitely things that you aren't looking for or looking out for. And people don't necessarily tell you because you're not able to be in those rooms to have those conversations, so things kind of slip by you. It's like you and your homies trying to figure this out. It's like your boy who's an attorney who went to UnLV but doesn't know anything about entertainment law. It's like doing your contract. It's like, oh, you know what I'm saying? It's like, yeah, so there's just things that you got to figure out, but you just got to keep your eyes and ears open and ask questions.

The worst one is when someone has a legit manager, and then their friend is like, bro, I could be your fucking manager. And you're like, yeah, man. You're like a brother to me, man. I trust you.

Right?

Yeah, that one goes sideways 50% of the time.

That's it.

50. You got a one out of two chance of that thing going completely sideways.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so many guys go that way. Mike's managing me now. I got a new manager. Yeah, it's my wife. My wife's management. Like, what? What are you doing? Get a professional.

Yeah.

Get somebody who knows what the fuck they're doing.

Absolutely, man. All that bro shit. Things start to get funny. Yeah, that relationship starts to get funny.

But, yeah, that's also how dudes develop entourages.

That's a wild one, man. Speaking of entourages, I had to just tell my dad has gone crazy.

Oh, no.

I love my pops, but he shows up to my shows. And this dude all of a sudden is sitting courtside at spurs games. He shows up to my shows with, like, 30 folks, 30 deep. He's got a table at the moody theater. He's living his best life. He's just squattered up around town. People talk to me about him all the time. My dad is out here getting in in Austin, Texas. It's pretty funny.

Wow.

But, yeah, he's like, my pops is a superstar out here.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's good. He's having a good time.

Just having fun.

Yeah. Enjoying it. It's definitely enjoying having a kid who's known around town.

Yeah, that's good. Oh, man, he must be so proud.

Yeah, he's getting a little bit ridiculous showing up 1015 deep. Hit me up. Hey, man, can you get me into this? How many people you got? A couple.

When Dave rolled, when Dave Chappelle came to the mothership, he came with three SUVs. He had, like, three Escalades filled with people.

Where do they come? How do you fit anywhere?

Oh, man, he's got family, he's got friends, fellow comedians, musicians. He just travels for people. He loves it. It's like a party everywhere he goes.

I get that.

Yeah, I understand that he has it managed well. He has good people with him. He knows what he's doing, but it's like, the way he's got it set up is pretty fun. It's all just every day is a good time. Get an IV. Vitamin IV trip.

Yeah, I was around for that. I was around. Yeah, I was definitely around for some of those fun times. Scoot. Hanging with that crew.

Yeah, but that's a dude as an entourage. That's entourage.

I get that. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. I could never be that guy. I like to roll solo. I like to just kind of be on my. I can make my own decisions. If I want to pivot, go left, I can go left. If I want to go right, I can go right.

Yeah.

Don't necessarily have to. Maybe that's selfish of me and kind of a lone wolf.

No, it's probably smart because it gives you time to think. I think the problem with Dave is he's so famous, he can't be. It's just, he can't just show up somewhere all of a sudden. He won't be alone. There'll be a giant crowd of people.

Oh, my gosh.

They just go crazy.

Absolutely.

Can't believe you're real.

I get that.

Can I take a picture with you?

And then I get the every now and then, dude who plays guitar, who's like, man, I've been watching you for. Since I was a kid. Or the really drunk older lady who wants to kiss on me, hanging out, waiting for some to go food. Or my. That's my interaction. That's good.

That's a good level of interaction. Yeah, certain level. Like a Dave Chappelle level. I think it becomes unmanageable. I was having a conversation with Cat Williams about that. I asked him to come to the club. He's like, I don't do clubs. Guys are getting nervous being around all those people. Like, they're too close to me. I was like, you got too famous. Yeah, you got too famous. He has to have an entourage.

Yeah, I get that. That's a perspective that I don't know anything about.

Yeah.

I'm just speaking from a dude who. A small community of music folks. I can move around.

It's perfect.

Yeah, it's pretty good where you're at.

Perfect.

I know it's good, but I want these people to buy millions and millions of records and fill up arenas at the same time. Right, exactly. I think I've kind of fucked myself. I was like, I should have gone like the gorillas router, like, daft punk or something like that. Where you're in a mask, you could just show up anywhere.

That's true.

Right?

Gorillas can just hide.

Yeah.

Kiss had that forever.

Sure.

I remember when Kiss took their makeup off.

Everybody's like, what year was that?

Like, the think.

Yeah, I think it was the 80s.

It was kiss unmasked.

I couldn't imagine. Oh, my God.

They used to be able to go around town, so they would go out, and I remember Gene Simmons was dating Cher, and he would go out, but he put a bandana on, like he's during COVID times.

All right.

Yeah. So we almost got a picture of him. So there's, like, half blurry pictures of someone's side of their face with their hand up. That's all you got to kiss.

That's cool. I kind of miss those days of that mystique comic for it.

Is that really great?

Yeah.

See how he's wearing the bandana? That's how you used to go around town. He used to wear a bandana. You know how ridiculous that is? It's 1980.

Yeah.

I was, like, going into high school when they did that.

Oh, damn. What a crew, man.

They didn't get the love that they deserved because people had already thought it was corny to have makeup on for some reason. They didn't have real hit records that were, like, their songs didn't play on the radio that much. If they played on the radio, it was rare.

You don't think so? Well, I kind of grew up kiss being a household name already.

Yeah, well, they were huge. They sold millions of records, they sold out arenas, but they weren't getting love on the radio. It was just fans. And there was a thing that were like, people would be embarrassed to be a kiss fan.

Really?

Yeah. You'd be embarrassed. Other kids would make fun of you.

Why?

Because you like those idiots with makeup on. What the fuck is wrong with you? Like, bro kisses. The shit.

That doesn't even seem like a thing now.

Now it's not. But you have to realize, like, in the 1980s it was a thing, right?

Yeah.

People would mock you if you're in a kiss.

Damn.

And then they became cool again. They became cool again somewhere in the 90s when they started going on tour again with makeup.

Right.

So they were going to do, like, one last final tour, they decided, but that was bullshit. They just kept going.

Everyone does a last tour. Last.

That's those marketing guys. I'll tell you what, Gary, this is your final tour. This is what I'm to going say. It doesn't have to be your final tour, but we'll sell it as your final tour.

Yeah. We're going to milk the shit out of this.

People are going to love it. Very excited to go see the last time. Gary's going to become a photographer. He's just really gotten into photography, and we're going to have to respect that.

We're going to have to respect his wishes.

But this is his last tour.

Gary, don't quit.

Don't go into pictures.

Don't go photography, Gary, don't do it.

So kiss came back in the. Went to see him with Kevin James. Me and Kevin James went to the kiss. When they came back, we were like, this is amazing.

Is that in Hollywood?

I think it was. I think it was in LA.

I must think we saw him in LA.

It was incredible. It was incredible. With the makeup on, all the shit fire, man.

Those guys really turned rock and roll into, like, entertainment.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? It was every single aspect of the show, from the costumes to the pyro, the timing, the crazy antics, and then selling it, like this big, huge thing with the merch and dolls and the crazy shit. It was like they made it known that kiss was a fucking thing. And they had the fans, I guess, to push it.

They had a 1 hour long TV show.

I don't know where.

It was like, a movie. Like a made for TV movie. It was Kiss and the Phantom of the park. And in the middle of it, like, three quarters of the way into the show, the fucking power went on at my house. I was like, no, I can't believe.

I can't believe it.

Shut off. The power. Shut off. I was like, this is so fucked. This is kiss in the Phantom of the park. It was like a real corny made for TV movie.

How long were you waiting for this?

Well, when you were a kiss fan, first of all, you had to find out from, like, the newspaper. How did you even know? Or you had to read the TV guide. Like, what? Kiss has got a movie, and it was maybe the dumbest movie that's ever been made. It's pretty dumb. It's so dumb. And look at this. It's so corny. I might have to go back and watch it now. It's so corny. It's literally so ridiculous. It's so bad.

So they're out here whooping ass. What are they? Fighting crimes.

They were superheroes. They became superheroes for a while.

I did not know this.

Easy, cat man. They are serious.

They've got guns. This is ridiculous.

Oh, it was so ridiculous. It was one of the dumbest movies that's ever been made.

My favorite shit to watch is the dumbest shit.

This is so dumb. It might have been made by the Chinese. They might have done it to subvert american institutions. They might have done it to try to ruin young minds and just lower the standards of what is acceptable to the point where they could invade.

I mean, that's a power move for sure.

That's what they're doing right now.

That's a power move.

That's what they're doing right now with TikTok, man. I firmly believe that Russia and China are just fucking us sideways.

I'll tell you right now, man, I've been having conversations about music and sharing music, and the way to be on is TikTok. It's the way to get everybody to this crazy, fucked up, weird place. It's nasty in there.

Well, it's something that people are not designed to manage. They don't know how to manage it. They don't know what that experience is. It's new to the human anatomy to have some thing that you're staring at that you keep in your pocket that carries 20 hours of battery life and just flipping through things all day long, just giving a little tiny drip of dopamine every time. Not much. Just enough to keep you interested. Just flipping through that fucking phone all day long. It's changing the way people view things. It's changing what's acceptable.

Yeah, absolutely. I've noticed that. It changed me when we were sitting down for a little while because I was just in my phone. That was the only way that I was getting information. I wasn't hanging out with people.

Yeah, it changes your anxiety levels.

That's what I realized. It changed my anxiety levels. I was not sleeping. I was drinking a lot more than I normally would just because I was, like, overthinking shit.

Yeah, that was COVID, too, though. The isolation. I'm not saying that this is what they did, but if you wanted to do that, if you wanted to turn a population into a bunch of cowards, one of the best ways is to isolate everybody. Isolate everybody, get them scared, give them one solution to get out of this thing. Everybody else against that solution is the enemy. And they're going to stop us from getting back to normal.

Oh, absolutely.

And you could do that through social media, especially through Twitter, better than you can with anything. And it's a weird way to get information. I broke my phone once. I was in Hawaii with my family, and I dropped my phone. It just started making phone calls. I would go, look at this. I was showing my wife. I go, look at this. I hang up, call someone else. Hang up, call someone. Just calling people wouldn't stop calling people. So I had to shut it off and I had to get a new phone, but it took three days for the phone to get there. So for three days, I had no phone, because every time I turned my phone, I would just start calling people.

Yeah.

So for three whole days, I had no phone. And I was like, ooh, I feel so much better. And then part of me was like, you know what? Fuck phones. You just have a phone and have nothing. Nope, nope. Went right back to.

Yeah, yeah.

Right back to Instagram, right back to Twitter, right back to YouTube. Right back to Google.

I know.

Right back.

I know. I did the same shit.

One person sends me a meme. Oh, shit.

Yeah, it's over. Yeah, it's over. Yeah, you're back in the game, man.

Someone sends me a funny video, I got to sign back up for Instagram. All right, let me see this. Oh, shit.

Yeah, I got your same problem. I got your same problem. I have to consciously just leave it.

Well, I have one phone that has nothing on it. I have one phone that has no apps, doesn't have anything on it. So if someone sends me, I got to send a link to my other phone.

Nice.

And most of the time, I don't click that link.

There's the hack.

That's the hack. It at least has cut me back about 30% for sure. 30% of paying attention to shit. Unless someone says, you have to seize this. This is insane.

Okay, I could use that 30%.

Yeah, I'll use my 30% now.

I'm going to use that. Yeah, for sure.

That way, also, you can cut down on the amount of people that have your phone phone. You got your phone, then you got your phone phone. The phone phone is like, this is the one that 20 people have. That's the way to go.

Yeah, I was doing that for a while when I lived in New York. I was doing that, and then I was wearing skinny jeans, and I couldn't do the skinny jean two phone thing and my wallet and my keys. It was ridiculous.

You didn't accept the fanny pack in your life.

Well, look.

The satchel.

I showed up with the satchel, I'm converted.

Satchel is the artist version of the fanny pack. The fanny pack is saying, I don't give a fuck. I'm a nerd. I'm a loser, I don't care. I do not care.

I'm not ready for that yet, Joe.

Well, in Texas, you see people carrying fanny packs. A lot of those fanny packs have guns in them, especially those big ones.

Oh, yeah, I know where I'm at.

There's a reason. You see that dude with a fucking bass pro shop hat and a fucking flannel t shirt on, that guy with that fanny pack, don't try origin boots on. Yeah, that dude. There's something in that. That's a heavy fanny pack.

I just see them cats and I just go, yeah. Hey, howdy. Good day.

That's why I see people out here getting. I saw some dude getting road raids the other night at south by southwest.

Bro.

Bro, this guy jumped out of his car, ran to the car in front of him, started yelling at the driver. I was like, do not do that, sir. I do not want to watch you get shot.

They got to be from out of town because you can't do by. Yeah, yeah, you can't do, bro. No, you cannot.

No, it goes south too quick.

People don't fuck around.

They don't fuck around. And they also don't know you. They watch too much YouTube, too. They're watching too much Instagram, too. They're seeing all the fucking riots and craziness and people getting pulled out of their cars. Everyone's seen those videos of someone getting fucked up in some sort of a road rage situation.

Any sense of a threat? People are hair triggered, like, real quick.

Road rage in particular, because everybody's. People don't understand. I've said this ad nauseam, but I'll say it again. When you're in a car, you're hyper alert because you're going fast. There's all these things around you, and you always have to be ready. So your brain is at a seven already. So when someone cuts you off, it's like, motherfucker. That's why on the street, if someone gets in front of you on the street, it means nothing because you don't have to worry about crashing.

Sure.

There's no fear of this person stepping in front of you. It means nothing.

Right?

Like, I have no worry that I'm going to crash into this man in front of me and we're both going to die.

Right.

But when you're in a car and some guy changes lanes in front of you, like, motherfucker, dude, what are you doing? Bitch, you roll down the wood?

Are you.

Fucking idiot. And then you see him at the stop sign, you jump out of your car. Oh, dude, don't do it.

Yeah, I'm guilty of. Yeah, I'm yelling at people in my car.

As long as you stay in the car.

Yeah, I will motherfuck somebody with the windows up.

Yes. That's fine.

Normal, normal behavior. And then I get to the light and I just give them a look like, you know, I saw what you did. I'm just acknowledging that I'm not down with the bullshit.

Yeah.

I just want you to know that I saw you. I don't want no problems. Right, but just check.

Come on, man.

Check. It's a.

Come on, man. And if it's a reasonable person, that person's like, what the fuck did I do that for? Yeah, if it's a reasonable person.

My favorite, though, is when they just keep looking.

Yeah, yeah.

I know you could feel this. I know you could feel this.

Well, it's interesting watching the Texas culture get invaded by the California culture. You can see it in how they drive.

Yeah.

People that are cutting people off and rushing to nowhere. You see it in how they drive.

I notice it. I avoid certain streets based on that. I'm like, where the fuck did y'all come from, man?

Well, that was south by southwest. South by southwest.

Basically.

Like, la comes to.

I. Yeah, I stayed away for the most part. I had a couple of events during south by. But I love my city, but that shit has just gotten crazy, man.

Those festivals are nuts.

It's wild. Yeah. I used to have this one parking spot that people thought was a handicapped spot, but it wasn't. It was, like, right on the line. And I figured this out from years of spending way too much time wandering around on 6th street. And I remember one year they took that spot away and I was driving around for, like an hour and a half looking for parking. Fuck this place, man. This ain't my city no more. I love you, Austin. But, yeah, I was like, oh, man, the game has definitely changed.

While we were driving to the club last night, we looked up. We saw five skyscrapers being built. There's five skyscrapers being built right now.

I know all those folks who are building all this stuff. I know them. They're like my neighbors and shit. So they're like, come blow the city up and then come back to go.

Back to the country. But there's so many apartment buildings being built.

It's happening.

Yeah, it's wild. I've never seen the city grow like this.

I haven't either, but I think it was inevitable. I think it was just one of them things.

What's too good? Well, yeah, it's just too much of a gem.

I blame you a little bit.

A little bit. I'm responsible. I know I'm responsible for at least 20 or 30 comedians.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Which is amazing because that's my favorite shit. It's you guys being down the street and come hang. But, yeah, the city has grown in a way that is somewhat unrecognizable to me. Like, everything that I kind of grew up on, grew up with is all my spots I used to hang out in are gone now. And so I was saying something to my old man the other day, and he was like, man, shut the fuck up. He's like, I've been here my whole life. And what do you think that I think? What do you think that I've seen? It's just change is inevitable. If you look at pictures from 1836, it's not the same spot, right? You know what I mean? It's what's happening right now. It's a crazy time to be a part of it and see it up close because I'm watching my little town, seeing familiar faces. All of a sudden. It's like this new energy. There's new folks around. There's new business. There's a new business sense here. It's cool and funny and funky. It's just change happened. I'm in the middle of watching.

Yeah, I was hanging out with Elon at the very beginning of the pandemic when everyone was scared to be inside. And I was telling him my plans to open up the club and all that stuff. And we were just talking about Austin. He was like, Austin's going to go supernova. Yeah, he was right.

Yeah, he was right. Called it.

He called it. But it's still manageable. The traffic is nothing compared to LA, man.

I like it. I like that there's new shit here in the city that I grew up in, and you're looking for some excitement. It's like, it comes to you. You don't have to go look for it. Just get in my car and come see some new shit. It's exciting for me. It's all my favorite stuff happening around here, too.

I think it's overall good. And also I think that the people that are moving here are embracing this new life they're embracing. It's a new city, it's a new vibe, new way of behaving. People are more friendly. I think people will adapt to that. When people move to an environment, they adapt to that environment. They move to this town, they sort of take up the energy of the town. And this town already has, like an established energy.

Yeah. I'm still concerned about the driving, though.

Because they're getting aggressive.

Yeah, different.

They drive different. It's a little different.

Yeah, it's a little different. You move to a place that you love, the energy. I suppose it takes a little while to adapt. I'm just watching it happen. I'm watching it happen. It's cool to me, the tech people.

I worry about more than anybody, because they're not artists. Like the tech people moving here, what they've done to San Francisco, those wacky.

Woke ideas, I'm not even thinking about that.

Yeah, that scares the shit out of me because there's a lot of them. I mean, look at that giant ass fucking building that they built. That's a Google building, right? Or a Facebook building. Which one is it? Which one's the sale? That cool sale. Google. They put a giant ass building right on the lake.

I don't even know if I noticed that.

It's a giant ass building right on Caesar Chavez. But then they just fired, like, 15,000 people. So I think that place is mostly, like, vacant.

Do they just overshoot?

I think they overshoot. That's it. That's a dope building. So I think they overshot and I also think the reality is AI is coming, and there's so many people that are working in tech that will not have a job in five years.

Right.

The job will be nonsense. That would be like asking a person to make steel beams in his backyard with a fucking hammer and a pot. No. Why would we do it that way? That's a stupid way to do it. We have steel mills. Stupid. Why would I let you make your own girders? That's dumb. Sure, it's dumb. It doesn't make any sense. What we can do now. AI is going to be able to do better, more efficiently, much quicker, cheaper. No hiring people, no worrying about insurance or any of that shit that you have to worry about with people, 401K plans. All that shit's gone out of here. And this is something that Andrew Yang was talking about when he was running for president. And I guess it was 2020. He was talking about that, and he was right. He was right that there's some things that are happening. Was that 2020 or 2016 with Andrew Yang? I don't remember. 1616. And he was very concerned even back then. So this is eight years ago. He was saying, like, AI is coming. And that's why he was pushing for universal basic. Sorry, 20. So that's why he was pushing for universal basic income.

He was saying, look, there's going to be so many people that there are no jobs. If you're a truck driver, you have ten years. In ten years, everything will be automated. There'll all be those giant electric trucks. They'll all be run by a computer. They'll never get in accidents, and they never get tired. And then you never have to worry about them doing meth and picking up hookers, going crazy, falling asleep at the wheel. Come on. Driving into a fair, that's what makes.

The best cops episode.

That's a world that truck driver world. Yeah, that's a world of wild folks.

Well, we tour on busses and we got to fuel up in the same places where they do. And yeah, it's a funky world out there.

It's a funky world a lot of dudes on amphetamines doing 1213 hours runs. Just wide eyes, huge pupils, just listening to fucking conspiracy theories on the radio.

We had one of them drive us.

Did you? Yeah.

Crashed the bus.

Oh, no, really?

Yeah. Well, not crashed the bus, but kind of ran the bus into. He ruined the bus. He was all doped up and super drunk.

Oh, no.

And we didn't realize he was going through any of this type of stuff. So we were leaving a gig one night, and sure enough, he pulled the bus, crash it into the gate.

Oh, no.

Had to grab this motherfucker.

So he was fucked up at the gig.

Yeah.

So he got fucked up while the show was going on.

Yeah, I guess he'd just been going for, I guess maybe a bender. We had a couple of days off, I think, in a certain city, and dude was just gone. I guess he just got into it and said, fuck it. He just hit the fuck it button. Fuck all this shit. I don't care.

Yeah, that's a danger, right? Because you're just trusting this dude and it's not. You're going to drug test him every day.

No, he's a driver.

You trust him. He's a professional.

Yeah. He's got a resume. People have recommended him for years and years and years.

He does his job, you do your job. How you doing, Frank? I'm going to sit down the bus.

Yeah.

Meanwhile, Frank is just gone.

We didn't. We didn't.

Frank is on coke and tequila.

Yeah, I've been at the hotel lobby bar just going after it all day long.

Wow.

Shows up. Hey, ride's here.

Oh, boy. And he's like, I got this. Yeah, I got this.

We just met him, I guess, at the wrong time. Yeah.

You could have caught him a month earlier. Everything would have been fine.

Been cool. Yeah.

It's a balancing act for a guy like Frank.

But I think about those truck drivers, man, and bus drivers who drive at all funky, weird times at night.

It's a lonely life.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a lonely life. If you have a family, too. You're sad.

Sure.

Your family's at home, 12 hours of driving to get back there, and then you're only there for a little while. You got to go back again.

Yeah, man. That's what kind of has been my problem with touring. The way we've been touring is being gone multiple times for long periods of time during the year.

I only did that once. I only did the month thing once. Me and Charlie Murphy and John Heffron, we did this bud light real men of comedy tour once. Well, we did 22 dates in 30 days. And we're just out basically every night. Wake up in a hotel room, where am I? Where am I? I forgot where I am. And after that, I was like, I'm never doing that again. Tom Segura, that crazy fuck, he'll do like 60 dates in a row. He'll be gone for two months where he has a show almost every night, and he's just going all over the place. The name of his tour was, I'm coming everywhere.

Brilliant, brilliant.

Brilliant, brilliant. But that's what he was doing.

Yeah, literally everywhere. Yeah, everywhere.

Everywhere.

I get that. I would love to do just weekend fly dates, do stuff like that, but I got a whole band and production, and my band is getting bigger, and so I've got to do it, but I've decided this time I'm just going to bring my family with me and just have them grow up out on the road instead of.

You did that for a while, right? You took your son when you were in Europe.

Yeah, I took him out there.

That's got to be a great experience for him.

Yeah, it was great for him. That little motherfucker just. He didn't want to play guitar, though, until he saw slash, I think I told you, he's like, man, I think I'd rather have them come out and hang with me this time.

Yeah, that's safer. It's, like, more fun. You don't get as sad and lonely, and they don't feel weird, and for them, it's an experience. Like, wow, I get to see what dad's doing. It's crazy. Instead of just, like, facetiming them, right? Yeah.

And picking up weird lingo from their funky ass friends at school. What the fuck did you just say to me? Yeah, you just call me breath now. You're coming with me.

Yeah, my kids started saying cap and no cap. I was like, what do you say? What does that even mean? Do you know what that. Where'd that come from?

I don't know.

I don't know either.

Times are changed.

Times are changed. But, yeah, that's a better way to do it. But it's a different thing with a band. You got a whole band. You got a bunch of other people. The crazy thing, we were just talking. I was talking to Shane Gillis, and he was talking about his experience hosting Saturday Night Live. And he's like, Saturday Night Live only pays you $5,000. It's like, you host it for a week, it's $5,000. We're like, that's crazy. But then I talked to Pat from the black keys, and he was telling me, he's like, you want to hear it? Even crazier. He was like, when you do a late night show, it costs you money because you got to fly everybody out there. You got a band, you got hotels, you got this. You got that. It costs you $50,000 to do a late night show?

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I just did that a couple of times. Yeah. Catch me on such and such. Yeah. Watch them shits, buy the album. Yeah. It's funky. Like the whole promo thing to do late night television.

How effective is it now?

Debatable. I don't know. I don't know how effective it is. It's not what it used to. I don't think so. From my experience, the TV promo, like, certain ways that were, I guess the only way to move are not as. It's not moving the needle as much. Maybe it's just for me as my personal experience, I think it's for everybody, but it's not really moving like it used to. But it is still important in some capacity. I don't understand know, but I'm a fan, so to go play the Late show with Letterman, to go play the Tonight show, that's a dream to me as a kid. I love to be able to do that, to be able to step in that building and play Saturday Night Live, do whatever it's like. But you're investing in something when you're not really quite sure on what the return is.

Right. But still you're doing it because you just want to do it. It's a cool milestone.

Yeah. And also, in a record business, you got to be everywhere, right? You got to do that and also be your own promotion on social media, which is a wild thing. And people are leaning on TikTok. I mean, I have meetings with folks about what's the plan? What's the strategy? What are we doing? Well, we got to get traction on TikTok. We got to do this. So I caught myself a couple of times doing some goofy ass shit for TikTok, and I'm like, I don't like this, man. This doesn't feel good to me.

Right?

Yeah, it feels horrish. It's not in my character. It feels fishy, it feels reachy. It feels gross. It's like, well, this is kind of what's happening in the business. And I'm like, well, I don't know if this is. And these are these debate. Well, this is where it's going. I'm like, that's why I'm going to go be a fucking photographer. It doesn't feel like it should feel to me.

Right. It doesn't feel authentic.

Not at all.

Yeah.

And everything is. You can't film sideways anymore. Everything's got to be vertical for the algorithm. What the fuck are we talking about?

Right?

Let's talk about some music. I feel like James Brown in it.

Isn't it weird the shape of the phone dictated the way you hold it?

It's wild to me. And that's what we're talking about in music business meetings.

That's funky because remember before TikTok became huge, Andrew Schultz had that thing that he was doing on Instagram. It's like, turn your phone sideways. So he was telling everybody, hey, turn your phone sideways. They turned their phone sideways, and then he had it that way.

Simple, right?

Simple, yeah, but now it became all about the reels, and you got to be able to flip up from one reel to the next. So now it has to be vertical.

And then it just keeps you going. It keeps you going. It keeps you going. It keeps you going. It keeps you going.

What's going to happen if those foldable things get adopted by everybody? Because I went into a rabbit hole last night, I got into foldables because I have one. I have a Z fold, flip four, whatever the fuck it is.

What is that?

Never used it. It's a Samsung foldable phone. I was like, this could be great. I'll be watching YouTube videos, much larger. But then you're carrying this brick around your pocket and it folds. It's weird. The whole thing is weird. But eventually, I know a lot of people that have adopted those because they don't want to take a laptop with them. So they have to answer an email to open up the fold. So they can have a laptop set up basically in this ten inch or eight inch thing. They got this little thing and then folds it, and it's the size of a regular phone. So what are they going to do then? If that becomes, like, if Apple releases a fold phone, that's when it's going to take off. Because right now, only Android phones have that now. And that's only, like, a certain percentage of the people, especially, like people that, like, most of the social media platforms, are made better on iPhones. Like, the apps are better, they're optimized for iPhones. If they start doing an Apple foldable phone, I wonder if it'll be a different thing. Now you have to hold it sideways because everybody's doing sideways.

Know, that's beyond.

Oh, but that thing is if a thing organically becomes viral, like, if you have a song that you put out and organically becomes viral, there's no better promotion. There's nothing better.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because everybody can share it. I go, oh, check this out. I'll share it to friends. They'll share it to their friends. They'll put it on Instagram, they'll put it here. They'll put it there. They put it on Twitter, and then next thing you know.

Yeah, but you never know what that. You never know what it's going to be, right?

You can't. There's no way to know. Yeah. Vegas.

You have no idea.

Yeah, it's a lottery. It's crazy. Like, some things hit and you're like, how? And then other things don't hit. And you're like, how did we miss this one? There's a song that we play all the time. Can't play it anymore because of YouTube. Now we're on YouTube. This is dude, Johnny Thunder. He wrote this song, I'm alive from 1969. You heard this song, bro? We'll cut it out. We'll cut it out. Jamie, play this song. We'll cut this out so that people. YouTube. Just go look up Johnny Thunder. I'm alive. This is a 1969 song. What the fuck did they do to Johnny Thunder? How did that happen? What did they do to Johnny Thunder?

I've never heard that.

How did he not become a superstar?

That's everything right there.

It's everything.

That's rock and roll, baby.

It's amazing. And it's 1969.

That is.

And Johnny's not with us anymore. He's gone. Cover song.

How did you find that?

Brian Simpson. Brian Simpson came into the green room, was like, dude, you got to hear this fucking song. It was just written by someone else.

Wow.

Written by someone else by Johnny Thunder. Yeah. It's also on a, like, Mountain Dew commercial right now.

Wow.

1968. It was released. It's in a Mountain Dew commercial. Mountain Dew has been listening this podcast. Guarantee.

Thank you for sharing that, man. That was incredible.

How good is that song?

That's like hearing Hendrix for the first time, right?

That's a superstar. That's not just good. That changes your feeling. Your skin gets goosebumps.

Yeah, I was going through it. I was going through a lot.

A thousand times. I still go through it. It's powerful. That guy should have been a superstar.

Damn.

Johnny Thunder should have been the fucking man.

That's like my new shit.

Is this another one, Tom Jones? Oh, this is the other version. The other version sucks.

Oh, I'm cool on this. No disrespect, but.

No disrespect.

I want the other version to be resonating.

That other version is fine if I didn't know that Johnny Thunder existed. But the thing is, if a guy can make a song like that, if Johnny Thunder can make a song like I'm alive. How is he? I feel like you just got to get the right songwriters, the right people with him, and you got a fucking superstar. How did they fuck that up? If I heard that once, if I was like a music producer or an executive and I went to see this guy live and I heard that, I'd be like, sign him. Sign him. He's the one, man. Twice. He's the one. That dude's out there. He's out there. And no one knows. No one knew. And this is. We found this Bob Dylan quote before, I think. What did he say? Bob Dylan, who heard Thunder's I'm alive on radio, was asked for Rolling Stones John Winter that year if he was impressed by anything in the rock music scene and pointed to the song. Never heard of it. Huh? Well, I can't believe it. Everyone I've talked to, I've asked them, and they've heard that record. It was one of the most powerful records I've ever heard.

It's called I'm alive by Johnny Thunder. Well, it was. That sentiment truly expressed. That's the most I can say. If you heard the record, you'd know what I mean. Yeah. Meanwhile, no one fucking knew. Oh. Samsung used it in 2015. Samsung using their advertisement for the Galaxy s six Edge in 2015. It was also used in the soundtrack the 2018 film american Animals. Since the 1960s, Sunders has continued to tour internationally, but has regularly appeared on luxury cruise ships.

Wow.

In the Caribbean and elsewhere. He's dead though, right? No. I thought he wasn't around anymore. Gil Hamilton. His name is Gil Hamilton. He's 91 years old. Wow.

Okay.

I was under the impression someone told me he wasn't around anymore. Bro. Let me tell you something that don't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. That's like a comic. Like Kennyson doing that thing about starving children ad on television. You ever see that bit? Kennyson had this bit about starving children on TV? Like, you're at home just making your food sitting down in front of the TV and Sally Struthers is on TV. Won't you please help?

Yeah, right.

And he goes, instead of sending these people food, send them something like me. Someone's going to go there and go, hey, we just drove 5000 miles where your food is. And we realized that the only other recording that he might have, that or there might be a few more, but it's doing a children this nursery rhyme he was convinced to do, like his first thing as Johnny Thunder.

Loopy loop. Now here we go.

That's interesting. Edit that out.

Don't hit quite.

No, that doesn't hit the same. No. I'm alive was the song. You just need to get the right songs with the dude. But if he could do that, you got magic. It's in a bottle now. You got to figure out how to. What's the formula? Get some writers, get some really good songwriters. Sit down with that dude and let him go.

Yeah. Sometimes you just catch one. Sometimes you just catch a wave and you just go, man. Yeah. And you keep trying to chase that thing, and it's just never the same.

That is the craziest thing. The one hit wonder. That is the craziest thing. Because sometimes those hits are bangers, right?

Yeah.

That's just one.

Absolutely something. You just catch it.

I feel like if Johnny Thunder knew the right people, he would have been huge.

He needs a better PR team or something.

But even Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone was talking about him, and that wasn't enough.

What year was that article 90 60 or.

I'll see if it was that year.

Wow. It was that year. Yeah.

Wow.

I don't know. Was that a race thing?

Well, Hendrix popped. There was. James Brown popped. It just doesn't make sense that that.

Guy is that good.

That feels like. That's transcendent music. That transcends everything, that transcends culture. That's something that everyone will listen to.

Maybe it was a little ahead of its time.

How could that.

Because.

Doesn'T it sound like a hit?

It sounds like a hit now.

God damn. It had to sound like a hit.

Back then, but it probably sounded like, what the fuck is that coming through the radio?

I don't know, man. If you listen to peace Frog, that's like the same time with the doors. There's, like, a lot of wild, funky music that comes from back know.

Did that hit radio at the. I don't know. I don't know. Some things are just a miss. One of my favorite artists who I think doesn't get the light that they deserve is a guy called Arthur Alexander. And this guy was, like, americana, songwriting, blues, country, all of know.

Never heard of him. I've never heard of him.

Great songs, great songwriting. Cool funky voice.

What's the song we should listen to?

There's a song called Anna. There's a song called go with him.

Try. Go with him. Let's try that one. Just cut it out again. Yeah, that song's a flex. Think about what he's saying.

Go ahead.

Total flex. Go with him.

Go.

If he loves you more.

Hey, I love you.

But if he loves you more.

Cool.

That's a flex. I know girls like that. That's a very needy girl, and she's never going to be happy. And you just have to say, hey, whatever you want to do.

Yeah, go ahead.

I think you're awesome. Whatever you want to do. I think you're awesome.

Nasty, though.

There's some that you just can't hold on to. Yeah, you have to recognize that it's true.

That's the blues right there. Yeah, go ahead. There's another one, too. Sugy Otis. I don't know if you know sugar Otis.

No.

Yeah, man. Sugar Otis was one of them guys. He's like psychedelic rock, funk, soul dude, kind of. I found these guys on the same trip. My budy Jay Moeller, who was touring with me at the time, was listening to this stuff, and it was just, like I said, psychedelic. Ahead of its time. I think maybe 69. 71. He put out a record called inspiration information. And it's just like, maybe a chocolate couple of bowls. Sit back and you're a great artist, but not as powerful as John Thunder. Like that I'm alive is.

That's a classic. Damn.

Yeah. Man should be eldest.

Do you get this mostly just from other artists that just tell you about stuff?

Yeah, a lot. Yeah. That's kind of why I like to move around a little bit. I'm still old school. Hang out at the bar. Yeah, you know. Hey, what are you into? I've been checking this out. Check this out. I still go into record stores and just go ask. What do you all like? What are you all listening to? Just turn me on to something. I don't care. So they'll be like, hey, try this. So I'll try it. And either I love it or I don't, but I'm just curious.

Well, those bar conversations are underrated.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

They're the best. They can be the best or the weirdest.

Yeah.

It's all of it. It's an experience. Wow. That's what you had going on in there. I'm sorry I asked.

My problem is I go to bars and everybody wants to talk to me about conspiracies. They want to corner me. Yeah, tell me about the government.

I bet. Do you shake out of it?

Sometimes. Just get in. Just jump in with them?

Oh, yeah.

Let's go. What do you think they're doing? How come Trump didn't release the Kennedy assassination files? That's the big one for me.

Yeah, I got a couple of people around me who get in deep with that, and my brain hurts. I have to get out.

That one's crazy.

Smoke break for me.

They killed the president.

Absolutely.

And they got away with it. And one of the guys that probably killed him was on the Warren commission, Alan Dulles. He's probably one of the guys involved in the whole conspiracy. There's so many people involved in that conspiracy, they wanted him gone.

See, I don't follow that.

You don't want to. Don't do it.

Yeah, that's probably one of those things. Golf earth.

Yeah, it's worse because it affects everything in the world. And you realize that the world is run by psychopaths.

Yeah, I don't know if I want to know all of it.

Well, it's like a balancing act. You should probably know a little bit.

Of course.

Just so you don't get sucked into the bullshit, right.

Absolutely. Like I said, I got folks around me who keep me kind of in the loop a little bit.

You need a dedicated conspiracy analyst.

Just one.

It can't come from.

It's just one source.

Just one dude is just scouring the.

Yeah, well, if you find somebody, send them my way.

Alex Jones. I'll send him your number.

Just call him up and just let him go for what's going on.

Gary, this is a very scary time. If you do go too far down that rabbit hole, though, there's no end to that hole. That hole goes to the beginning of civilization. That's what's terrible.

Absolutely.

The idea of what human history really is versus what human history, what actually happened and what actually motivated all the things that happened. It's fucking terrifying.

Well, yeah, I heard what you've been talking about a few pods ago, about the real history of kind of going deep into that. It kind of blew my mind. I was like, okay, yeah, there's things that I've heard about but never really gone deep into or done research on.

You don't want to. Yeah, don't go down. Just bar talk is fine. Let someone spit it at you at a bar. You go home a little freaked out, you get too deep into it, it'll ruin your life.

Yeah. I remember being a kid in bars. There's a few guys in particular who. I don't know why they found that talking to me about this stuff was the thing. I guess they were trying to get the message to the youth. But I remember in these smoky bars and going out back or standing out front and these guys telling me about all kinds of crazy things that I'd never heard of, and they're coming after you, or they're doing this and such and such. They did this, and I'm like, I'm 15. Like, I have to get up and turn in a school project tomorrow. I don't know what the fuck you're talking.

What are you doing at a bar at 15?

I was playing shows. Really?

At 15?

Yeah, I was playing shows.

When did you first start playing live?

98. I was 14. Wow. Yeah.

How did that happen?

Well, I was in a boy band with my buddy Robbie. We were going to be R and B superstars, we thought. Then he moved to France. My friend Eve was playing guitar. We did a talent show in 8th grade, won, like, $25, and we were kind of hooked. Went to a blues bar for her 15th birthday. Played at a blues jam, like an open mic. And they invited us back and we just kept going. I started booking gigs pretty soon after as a teenager as like, this duo, like the Gary and Eve show. And it was like, me and this girl playing blues. Wow. Yeah, 14. Yeah, 14.

Wow. What do you have to be blues about when you're 14?

My girlfriend left me for the lifeguard that she was working with during the summer named Raul. Yeah, that was my first, like. All right.

Isn't it crazy that we dismiss the pain of the youth? But the breakups when you're 14 are the hardest ones you ever experience in your life.

Yeah. You don't know what to do.

You have no idea what this is.

Yeah.

All of a sudden, your world's gone, right? It all ended.

And everybody in your world knows that your world is gone.

Yeah.

Walking through the hallways. Look at that sad motherfucker.

She's with Mike now.

Yeah. And your boys are telling you, man, we just got such and such tongue kissing over there by the gym. Right. You just got to sit and take that math test, go through it.

Meanwhile, she don't feel nothing.

Nothing at all.

She's gone.

Out of there.

Bye.

Yeah, out of there.

I don't want to be with you anymore. Bye.

But somebody told me when I was a kid, what do you know about singing about the blues? And you really don't know anything? Or at least I didn't when it came to just how complex people are, how big the world is, right? Certain struggles, like your little bullshit, doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't carry any weight compared to this. Compared to that.

Right.

But, yeah, man, that still hurts, man. Yeah, that still hurts.

People take their life. They take their life and they get broken up with. At 1415 years old, they take.

That's true.

That happens.

That's true.

Crazy. Your whole life's ahead of you. It's such a mistake.

We definitely lost a couple at a young age because of just emotionally being broken.

Yeah. Especially if you're already fragile.

Sure.

Maybe this is the only thing that you ever had in life that gave you happiness, was this girlfriend, man. Yeah, that's a lot of people. Like, they were depressed, and the only thing that gave them happiness is the love of another person. And you thought you were going to be with that girl forever.

Forever.

This is it. We're going to have kids. We're going to be together forever. No. Six months later, she's tongue kissing behind the barn. Some other dude's fingering.

No, no. She likes it.

She likes it. She loves it. She's so excited. She doesn't think about you at all.

Not at all, God damn it. Not one bit.

Get over it, Mike.

Yeah, sure.

You'Re alone in your room, listening to sad songs in the fetal.

Positions, curled up, sad and shit.

But if you can come out on the other end of that, you'll understand. And then the next time it's a little easier. The next time it's a little easier, and then you get it. And then you write a song like that, like, if he loves you more, go ahead. Because there's some ladies that you will run into in this life that you are never going to hold on to. If you can't accept that, maybe you can. Ten years from now, maybe they'll change, and you'll change, and you'll meet up, and it'll be better. But right now, she's on a path, and you got to let her go. I love you. You're great. But if he loves you more, Tata for now.

Tata for now. Enjoy it.

And that's a flex. That song's a flex.

That kind of is, yeah.

If he loves you more, go ahead. It's a good flex, too, because they don't know what to do with that one.

They don't.

Oh, my God.

They don't. How did he say that?

He said if he loved me more, I could just go with you.

Shook it.

And then that guy's at home. The new guy's like, that bad motherfucker. I can't believe that's what he said to her. He has it forever now.

And now he feels stuck.

Because eventually, this newness that comes from this new relationship of the guy who loves her more, eh, of going to fade into, like, why are you always leaving your shit laying around? And how come you're always late. And you said you were going to call five. You didn't call till 630. What happened? What's this? What's that? Let me check your phone. And then next thing you know, she's thinking about that dude who said, look, if he loves you more, I love you, though. And then she calls him. What are you doing? Nothing. Great to hear your voice.

You know where I'm at. You know what it is?

I still love you. Yeah, but some dudes could have used that advice. Like, if he could give that advice to a lot. That's a strong move in certain circumstances to preserve your sanity.

Absolutely.

Because just because some people are fun doesn't mean you're supposed to be with them forever.

That part is very important.

Very important. Just because you have a good time with someone doesn't mean they should be your one and only. Because that might ruin everything.

Absolutely. I agree.

All no dudes who've got just hitched to the wrong caboose and they lost everything. Their life fell apart. And a big part of it is the complex interaction between two people. And some people, just the combination of you and them is not good.

Absolutely.

It'll ruin everything.

I agree. I've had those. This is fun.

It's a lot of fun, but that's it.

This is dangerous.

Yeah, but the dangerous ones are sometimes the most fun. Unfortunately, for a short amount of time. You don't want him raising your kids.

Not at all. Not at all. No.

Yeah. If he loves you more. Tata.

For now, out of here. This thing is falling apart.

Cigar? This is a real one, man. This is from Havana.

Yeah, it is.

You could tell?

Yeah. A buddy of mine, we went to London. Well, actually, my tour manager, Daniel, we were hanging in London. Had a few days off to just hang. Started hanging in the cigar lounges. Yeah, I've been kind of hooked ever since.

It's one of those few places, like a barbershop or like a bar, where guys can get together and just talk.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sit around, shoot the shit, smoke a stogy, talk some shit, have some laughs. It's fun.

Yeah. So it's kind of been my new thing. I'm trying to get off these cigarettes, too, if I'm being honest. Yeah, man. I got to do it. Got to do it.

You don't want to die that way.

Just a sad. I said I would never smoke. Speaking of heartbreak blues, man, I was sitting during south by southwest, pissed off all these motherfuckers in town, and I saw this girl that, you know, into, and she was hand in hand with some other dude walking down the street having a good old time, and this person I was sitting next to, I was like, give me one of them smokes.

Next thing you know.

Next thing I know, here I am.

Yeah. It gives you a wild head rush, though.

Yeah. It is the tingly feeling, fingers and toes and stuff.

The excitement of your central nervous system. The brain gets fired up from a cigarette.

Yeah.

Different than any other form of nicotine. Like, different than cigars, different than zins. Different than anything.

Well, it's not just tobacco.

Yeah, but even if it is, like, one of those natural spirits is what they're called. American spirits. Yeah, it's just tobacco, but even those. But if you get, like, menthol or something like that, it's like, fuck is happening here.

Yeah, I got to quit that shit.

How many smoking?

I only really do if I'm having a conversation before a show that I don't want to have.

Oh, really? So it's like an anxiety thing.

Yeah. Like before, like TV or before something like that.

That's not too bad.

No, it used to be maybe a half a day. A half a pack a day. Nothing crazy, but I used tobacco and roll them up in my herbs. Yeah. So I'll get my tobacco that way. But there was a while where I was doing, like, a pack a day and sometimes maybe more just stress. I think getting in this entertainment business and eyes on you and pressure and all that type of shit is just, like a nervous thing to just remind myself to just breathe, take a moment, and just chill out.

Also, there's something about the cigarette that gives you some weird relief. It's just like a head rush thing that you get out of it is like a weird little escape valve.

Sure.

Like a release valve.

Just right. Yeah. When I don't have them, though, I don't really miss them, so that's kind of good.

That's very into. I got into blunts from Charlie, Charlie Murphy when I was on that tour with him, because he would only roll blunts, and he's like, it's the combination of the nicotine and the weed. I was like, oh, my God, he's right. It is good. It's a better combination.

It's good.

That's a good combination. Like, pre show combination. There's nothing like a blunt.

I'm right there with you.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. A blunt and some music.

Let's go, man. We've been getting hyped up to Stroh. Elliott does it for us every time he's a member of the Roots crew, the legendary roots crew, and he puts out these albums. May I?

Yeah, get in there.

He puts out these albums where he mashes up, like, old school music and his big, fat ass funky beats and sub sounds and stuff. And that's been the stuff that we listen to backstage. That's our hype music.

Do you have a hype soundtrack?

Yeah, we did for a while. It goes anywhere from, I guess, Rolling Stones to Strow Elliott to Anderson Pac, you know. So it's kind of all over the place. Kind of get everybody who's got their certain types of music in the mood, know, keep the crowd hype and keep them interested. Yeah, stuff like that. But John Dee's backstage. He's the guy. John D's on keys. He's part of the Kill Tony band, plays on the road with me. He's always got the Bluetooth speaker, and he's always jamming something unapologetically. It doesn't matter how close we are to anybody. He's like biggie, loud as fuck. Walking to the stage, through the office at the venue. But, yeah, we have a good time back then.

But there's something about that, like walking with the music, walking into a place, bringing the music with you.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's the Buffalo, New York in him, though, too. Big boombox, unapologetic. You know, Tim's on New York hat. Nice. Don't give a shit, but, yeah. What do y'all listen to backstage?

Well, when we do arenas, I always make a point to walk into. I'm your boogeyman. Casey and the Sunshine Band. I'm your boogeyman. That's what I am. Like, when we're getting ready to do a show, when we walk into the arena, it's always, I'm your boogeyman.

That's your walk on song.

Yeah.

Nice.

And if we're getting a police escort to the venue, it's protect your neck. It's always protect your neck.

That's a flex. Yeah. That's what's up, man. What's that feel like? I've only had a police escort opening the Rolling Stones, and I was like, damn, this is so tight.

It's bizarre because you're driving through a crowd that's there to see you.

Yeah.

The first time I ever realized what was going on was I was with Ian Edwards and we were doing a show in Dallas at an arena, and this is, like, one of the first arenas we did. And as we're driving, I go, what is all this fucking traffic? This is ridiculous. We got to be there in a half an hour. And then I go, oh, they're here for us. This is our traffic.

Wow.

And then we start laughing like, this is wild. Wow, this is our traffic.

Y'all did that?

Yeah, we pulled up to the venue. I'm like, this is bananas.

It's got to be a cool feeling.

It's pretty wild. So the police escort is to try to get you through that.

Of course.

We don't get swarmed or miss the show. Or miss the show. Yeah, but there's just so many people. It's just something about doing shows with that many people. It's totally different experience. It's so alive. It's so music. Like having a green room playlist, I learned from Dave. Dave used to come to the comedy store, and he had two boomboxes, and he'd have them synced, and he'd put one on one end of the bar, one on the other end of the bar. He had ones that had, like, led lights. They would glow and flash and shit. They brought the party, and he was like, this is my socializing. So I always just have music with me everywhere. I'm like, that's the way to do it. Because we would just hang out in the green room and just talk. But talking with music going on is way better.

Absolutely.

Yeah, way better.

That's right. When I saw Dave at the Moody center recently, he had the glow lights going on the Bluetooth speaker. The whole vibes going, yeah, he puts.

Red light bulbs in his green room.

Right?

You go in his green room. It's not like bright white light, like, flooding light. It's like the soft, cool speakeasy vibe.

I respect that, man. It sets up the vibe. It brings the club energy to, like, a fucking arena.

He gets it.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

He set it up right. It's the way to do it. It's the way to do it. And if you're touring a lot, I saw that with Tommy Lee once too. I went backstage. I got a story. My friend John Ralo was Tommy Lee's security guard. John Rallo's big, giant dude. And he goes, hey, man, can you meet Tommy? Tommy wants to talk to you about something.

Like, okay.

So I go to the show, catch the show, meet Tommy, and Tommy wants to fight Kid rock. Tommy's like, I want someone to train me to fight Kid rock. I was like, what? What are you talking.

Yeah.

Because they were both just squabbling over Pamela Anderson. All right, so he wanted to fight Kid rock. So he was like, seriously coming to me to ask me how he could get a fight set up with Kid Rock, and he wanted to get trainers and all these different things involved. I wanted to tell him, I think Kid Rock will fuck you up. Kid Rock is one of those wild Detroit white boys. You don't want to fuck with Kid Rock.

I absolutely would have to agree.

You don't want none of that. No. Listen to me, Tommy. That's a mean dude. That's the dude that shot up Bud light and cost him $26 billion.

He shot the shit out of that beer, didn't he? He went crazy.

It cost them so much money. They would have never lost that amount of money if Kid Rock didn't shoot that man. That just watching those bullets, every time those bullets hit that beer, that was like a billion dollars.

I don't know how many times I watched that on repeat. That was good.

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. You don't want none of that, Tommy.

No, just go.

Stay away from that dude.

Just sit down.

If he loves you more than me, Tata.

For now, just Arthur Alexander, that shit. Big dog.

Yeah. Learn how to just let it go again. Same thing. Some gals, you never really have them. You just got to accept it. Enjoy your time. Enjoy your time with them.

Exactly.

But don't go having a cage fight with Cade Rock in front of the world.

What's up with everybody wanting to fight in public?

What is up with that? It does seem silly, right? Well, I think some people are just like, they don't have any money, and someone comes along and says, hey, you want to do a celebrity boxing match? And you're like, all right, they're going to pay you a million dollars now. You got money. So you're just like, I'll just do anything because you don't have nothing going on. So there's people like that. Didn't Aaron Carter fight Lamar Odom?

Oh, I believe so.

Lamar Odom is like 10ft tall.

Yeah.

Aaron Carter looks like he had never worked out a day in his life, and he's been living on a steady diet of pills.

Yeah.

He'S not with us anymore, right?

No.

Yeah, that's the thing. If you get famous when you're young. Good luck. Good luck, good luck, man. Nobody. There's like three people that have ever gone through being famous when they're young and not been crazy.

Yeah. I don't understand that. I don't understand that. It's fucking sad, man.

It's robbed childhood for other people's entertainment.

It seems like when you're a kid watching other kids on TV, it seems like a good time, right? It seems like, oh, yeah, I want to do that. That'd be amazing. And so it's been kind of strange to watch these young folks kind of go through it.

Well, the ultimate is Michael Jackson. That's the ultimate. That's the ultimate. That is the greatest worst story ever told. When you see young Michael Jackson, when he was with the Jackson five, when he did like, ABC and they were doing that stuff on TV and he's dancing and singing, he's the lead and he's the little kid that, oh, my God.

Killing the best.

Oh, my God.

This clip in particular is the one that got me into wanting to be.

A musician in the Ed Sullivan show. And how old is he then?

Ten, maybe 1169.

Jeez. 1969. Oh my God, so good. Oh my God, he was so good and he was so little. And then he became so crazy because he just never had a real life.

Yeah, it's sad to see it's crazy.

But it's just that, it's that old expression, the star that shines twice as bright, lasts half as long. And then in that circumstance, to have that much talent and that much success and that much love, when you're a baby, he's a little baby there.

He's eleven.

He just turned eleven.

I couldn't imagine.

He's a little, tiny little fella. He's up there just bolting out beautiful songs, and then the rest of his life is just chaos.

I didn't realize that. I think as a kid I was such a huge Michael Jackson fan, probably like crazy kiss fans, that I didn't realize everything that was happening.

Nobody knew. Nobody knew back. I mean, back then there's no Internet, right? And so if it wasn't Barbara Walters didn't talk to him about, like, why do you have so many kids over your, like, there would be no conversation, no one would.

Don'T. What do you think that is? Just like a sense of powerlessness, not having control.

There's a bunch of factors. You never face real adversity like a normal person does. You're never not loved. And I think people have to learn how to, you learn how to get people to like you by, you realize, like, oh, if I'm a nicer person, it feels better for me, it feels better for them, it's good for everybody. And then one time I wasn't nice and then I felt bad and I went home. I got to think this through. And now people don't like me.

Shit.

Hit. I'm sorry. And then you get better, and it's like a process of learning how to interact with human beings that's completely subverted by fame, where you don't ever have to prove yourself. Not only do you not have to prove yourself, you're loved above and beyond a regular person. So you're treated like you're like a God, like royalty as a child, and everyone around you is kissing your ass, and everyone around you is giving you advice, and everyone around you is trying to take your. And then you've got women, and you've got networks, and, you know that guy, the colonel that was with man. Those kind of characters that are running your life behind the scenes. Elvis is another case. Too much fame. Nobody had navigated those waters before. It's too much.

I remember being young and people trying to approach me for deals and stuff. I was always weary of those folks just because of the stories that I heard. And my mom was my manager for the longest time, was helping me with printing up CDs and doing a real ground work family, my little sisters boxing CDs and helping fold t shirts and do all that. It was a real family thing. And folks started coming around and saying, hey, we could help you with this. We could help you with this. And I was just always like, no, I've heard so many stories of that. So I was really scared of the business and wanting to even pursue it or the idea of fame or any of that. I was just like, no, I don't want to deal with that. Whatever comes with that, I don't think is really me. So I'm kind of fortunate that I didn't really move around in that kind of scene until I was 27.

How old were you in, like, numb? How old was that?

I was mid twenty s? Twenty five? Twenty six? Twenty seven.

That ought to be when things started getting weird, right? Like bright lights, big city.

Yeah, all that. But I was a grown person, so I'd had experiences where. Yeah, I think if had that happened to me any earlier, it would have been a little bit different.

Oh, yeah.

But, yeah, it was strange. Just how life can kind of flip people's perception and perspective of you. Kind of flips the whole world. People, you know, kind of look at you different, and it's like, yeah, whoa, that's weird.

That's when it gets weird. People have known you for years now. They get nervous around you. Like, why are you nervous around me?

Yeah, right. It's like a dog chill. What's up?

Yeah, I'm the same dude.

Yeah. Remember you crashed in my house six months ago?

Don't you think that's why a lot of famous people hang around with other famous people? These are the only people that are going to understand what it's like to be weird.

Yeah. I was talking to Tony the other day, and he was like, man, you need to get out more. I was like, I know. He's like, you need to be with the folks who get it. Yeah, I know. I've just been a hermit in this studio trying to get it right.

But, yeah, dude, come down to the mothership any night you want. Come hang out.

I'm definitely going to.

It's a great hang. I know that green room cleans the soul.

Yeah. I missed you a couple of times. I've been there, but, yeah, it's definitely a vibe. I have a good time every time I'm down there, but, yeah, it's true. You got to be able to hang around like minded folks who kind of the weirdos. There's a different perspective.

Yeah, you got to be around other weirdos. And it also is like, you feel like you're okay. Like, oh, I'm not that fucked up. I'm just like, these people. This is a different kind of person. Yeah, they get it, right? All my friends know me. They get it. We're all just different kinds of weirdos.

Absolutely.

But it's a special kind of weirdo. A weirdo who makes stuff.

Right.

Yeah. Weirdo is always creating things, and then people go to see those things, they listen to those things, they hear those things, they watch those things. It's a different life.

Completely.

You can't hang out with accountants. They're not going to get it.

It's funny. Like going to kids birthday parties.

Yes.

I don't know what I can't say here. I know.

I never know what parents are going to ask me about because too many parents listen to the podcast, which gets real weird.

Right.

They want to talk to me about guests and conspiracies and shit and some parents. I took ivamectin, too.

This blowing out birthday candles.

There's a lot of dads want to talk about UFC, which is.

Yeah, yeah.

That's easy.

Yeah, that's cool. Hey, man, that was really cool when everything was shut down to go to the UFC with you guys. That was fun hang. Never. I realized how intense that was without the crowd. Yeah, it's wild building.

Yeah.

Like hearing somebody get kicked in the face in a quiet room. That shit hits different it hits different.

It's my favorite way to see it. To this day. I like to see fights at the apex. The apex in Vegas, like, where we went, it's just like, there's no crowd. It's incredible.

It was cool.

And then when we went down there, everything was totally shut down. So they were, like, world class fights. Like, right now they do at the apex, still have world class fights, but a lot of times it's like, guys on the come up, guys who are making their way through the rankings, and they'll have, like, contender fights and good fights. But there was world championship fights in that arena. Like, Francis Ngano beat stipe Miocic in that arena.

I was there for that.

Yeah, that was crazy.

Yeah.

When you see Francis hammer fist an unconscious man after he knocks him out cold and then fucking drops a bomb on him and just walking around the cage, and there's no one there but us. Yeah, there's, like, 20 people in there.

That's incredible.

It was amazing.

Hearing the coaches talking back and forth, language, all that kind of stuff.

What a weird time, too.

Right?

Even when you went to restaurants, like.

Wow, we're in a restaurant.

Yeah, we're sitting down inside. This is crazy.

Through the mask on, we still had.

To walk in with mask on, and they'd take it off and sat down. It was so stupid. As long as you sit down, you could take your mask off. Oh, when you go to the bathroom, you got to put your mask back. Okay, whatever. I'm just happy to be out.

Yeah. Hell, yeah. Me, too.

Yeah. The COVID bubble days were strange, but, yeah. I'm so happy the UFC did that. They kept the sport alive.

Yeah. Are y'all doing the sphere out there?

Yeah, they're doing an event at the sphere for Mexican Independence Day.

Amazing. Have you been out there for that?

I have not. I've seen it. I've drove by it. It's incredible. I mean, they have it look like the earth. They have it look like space. They put designs on it. The whole outside is a giant screen. It's an incredible building.

That's wild.

And they're going to make a show that uses the sphere. Dana said he's only going to do it once, do one show there, because it's too crazy. But he wants to do a show there just because it scares the shit out of him, because it's so challenging.

Well, of course he has to, but.

You imagine watching highlights on the ceiling.

That'd be crazy.

The ceiling is filled with a giant screen that shows you replays that would be incredible.

Yeah. I can't even imagine because it's blown my mind when I see video of the band, you two in there, it looks crazy on your little phone screen. I couldn't imagine what that was like, being.

Burt went. Burt Kreischer went and saw you two there and he said it was insane. He said it was insane. It's like, it's the greatest show I've ever seen in my life. I was crying because it's like accentuated by the building itself. It's the only time where a building makes the experience way better. Like, way crazier.

Who came up with that idea?

Good question. Super rich dudes. Because it costs some insane amount of money. How much does this fear cost to run? It's something bananas.

Like just for one night?

Yeah, just for one night. Like every year. It's fucking hundreds of millions of dollars just to run it.

I wonder what else is going to be in there.

Just music, I guess. I guess you could have the rodeo. You could have whatever you want in there.

A rodeo would be fucking nuts. That would be wild.

That would be wild. The rodeo with all the highlights on the screens. But to be able to watch fights like that, have the highlights on the ceiling, that's probably the best way to do it. If they could keep doing it, that mean if it works, and then they decide, you know what? Fuck it. We're going to keep doing shows here. I want to go to one.

Yeah, I want to go, too. Just to see.

Yeah, the one that's on Mexican. When is that one, Jamie? September, I think right now. Yeah. That's going to be nuts. That is going to be a nutty experience. I think that's September 16, right? Am I correct? Sounds great.

Okay. Hey, September 16. Hear that, touring squad? Let's end up.

Let's end up in Vegas.

Night off. Yeah.

How long are you touring now? Are you from here? When the album's out, are you going to just go?

So we're doing a US leg, just kind of jump kick things off in May, and then we're going to do Europe. August, September, I think. I try not to look, but I'm sure dates will fill up in between. Once it starts going, it starts going, but, yeah, just for now, we're going to be doing the states in May. We're doing some stuff with Eric Clapton down in South America.

Oh, wow.

That's always cool. Yeah, that's a lot of people coming out to 60,000, 70,000 folks.

Wow.

So we're going to get to jump in front of that and make some noise for a little bit, bro.

They came after Eric Clapton hard during the pandemic.

Oh, yeah.

They came after him because he said that he got injured by the vaccine and they came after him hard.

How dare you?

How dare you, you piece of shit.

Right?

They tried to find every terrible thing he's ever said his entire life out of context. Stick it in front of everybody.

Folks came after me. It's like, what do you think about Clapton doing that?

Well, the crazy thing was he got injured by the vaccine, and they were mad that he was. And it was like a coordinated effort to attack him because he was going to cause vaccine hesitancy by telling the truth.

Right?

Now we all know it's the truth, so now no one's mad at him anymore for that. But it was like during that time, they were trying to destroy Eric Clapton.

Yeah. If you brought anything, you said, anything, you're kind of out of there at that time.

Yeah. That must have been wild for Eric, because his whole life he was mean. He was an icon.

Yeah. I mean, he still is. Yeah, he still is.

But to have that experience happen, like, all of a sudden he's attacked, like, the LA Times and all these different newspapers were just coming for him. I was like, this is crazy to see. He's telling you he got injured by experimental medication that the whole world is being forced to take. You don't think you should listen to him?

Yeah. Looking back, it seems absolutely absurd that somebody's telling you the truth about this thing that's affecting the whole world. And they go, no, he's a piece.

Of shit and an antivaxxer.

Yeah. And look at this. And you did this. You did this. Let's pull this up.

What did you say in 76?

Yeah, man, wild time.

Wild times. But we got through it.

Yeah, we did.

I don't think it'll ever happen again.

You don't think?

Be too wise to it now. Yeah, there's too many people that push back now that let it happen back then because they believed it. They thought two weeks to stop the spread, that'd be good. They thought all those things were going to be good. They believed the World Health Organization, they believed the CDC, they believed everybody. They believed in masks. They believed in social distancing. They believed in all that shit. We turned out to be bullshit. And now people know it's bullshit.

Yeah, absolutely. I remember going to Australia twice, we had to quarantine twice. Australia was police escorts. I was going there to do a film I went there to do Elvis and I was like, put us police escort to the hotel. Like military escort up to the hotel room and you're just there. They give you like, milk, sandwiches, juice, some fruits, like every day or whatever.

Can't go nowhere.

No, you couldn't go anywhere. And if you were to step out to put your trash outside, like, a military guard or police officer would be there with the weapon, like, turn the corner and just checking on you. I was like, yo, what the fuck, man?

Crazy.

Yeah. For two weeks, you had to be there.

How crazy is that? And you weren't even sick.

Wasn't sick, which is crazy. Nothing. And just 40 floors up in some crazy hotel, he can't go anywhere for two weeks.

The military making sure you don't leave your room. Yeah, that's what happens when there's no guns, when people don't have guns.

That's right. Yeah, that wouldn't.

People that have the guns is the army and the police and everybody else is unarmed. And people with the guns start pushing people around, arresting people for not wearing a mask outside, throwing old ladies to the ground and handcuffing them.

That shit is not happening in Texas. No, Gary. Damn. Teeth out. You said what, motherfucker?

Yeah. Shut the fuck up. But even in California, there was lines around the block at the gun store. It got sketchy. It got real sketchy. That was the eye opener?

Yeah.

For so many people seeing lines at the gun store for the first time, like, yo, this is getting real. This is getting real.

I heard about that.

Yeah, it was weird to see it in LA. I drive by Burbank in this gun shop that I know. It's a fucking giant ass line around the block, people trying to buy a gun.

Yeah, well, I got them problems down here.

No, there's no problems down here.

No, there it is. ID?

Yep. Here you go.

Here's your receipt.

Exactly. Good luck, sir. What's even crazier is that I could just give you a gun.

Oh, yeah.

If I have a gun, I'm like, gary, take this gun. That's your gun. Now we don't have to do any paperwork. No, nothing. Now you have my gun.

I kind of really fuck with Texas, though, a little bit.

I love Texas. Once you feel that freedom, and it's not just the gun thing, it's kind of everything. Once you feel that freedom. Except abortions. Once you feel that freedom, you're just like, whoa. This is how you're supposed to be. And then you go to California, you have flavored vapes. What are you doing? What are you doing?

I don't understand why that is.

They think it's going to stop kids from sucking on vapes if they're not flavored.

So adults can't have them.

Adults can't have them. You can't get flavored zins in California. I went to a gas station to buy some zins. I'm like, what flavors you got? They go, we don't have any flavors. I go, what? Yeah, California doesn't allow you have flavors.

Because it attracts kids. You think the kids are going to puff on the original version anyway?

Yeah. What are you talking about? They're still smoking cigarettes. That's so stupid.

Wow.

That doesn't do anything.

I don't get that. That'll make no damn sense to me.

It's communist. It's the government deciding what you can and can't do and doing it for your own good. And that's the slippery slope of communism. They'll do that with that. Next thing, they'll do it with your car. Next thing, they'll do it with your consumption, your carbon consumption. They'll try to get you to be on a carbon consumption tax. They try to get you to be on some sort of an app that shows how much carbon you're using, anything they can do to try to control you, and they'll do it under the guise of making it safer for others, just like they did during the pandemic. See how quickly they shifted from vaccines to climate change. It was a beautiful passing of the ball. It was like, run with climate change, run with CO2 production, run with stop eating meats, drive an electric car, run with that.

Right?

Yeah, that's true.

That's one thing after another.

It's just control. The number one thing about it is control. And then without a doubt, there's a bunch of people making money. There's a bunch of industries that are designed that function around this idea that you have to do certain things and they're going to profit immensely from you complying.

Yeah, you could kind of see that in the way that the city changed around here with the. They shut down certain spots. Mom and pop shots, spots kind of went and it's like, all right, get you up out of here. Make you comply a little bit.

Target makes more money.

Here we go.

Well, they crushed. LA is not. It is a shadow of itself. I always say that LA is like a girl used to date and she was really cute, and then you go see her now and she's on meth and she works for the cartel.

Damn.

What happened? Damn, that's La, you know?

Yeah. I haven't spent too much time out. Mean, I only go out there when I absolutely have to.

Sad.

I need to. I was just in New York. New York looked kind of euro. Now it's got all the cannabis shops up everywhere. Kind of comical. It is a little bit.

It was so illegal in New York for so long.

Yeah. You had to get it like super low key.

Yeah, man, you could get busted. There was undercover cops selling people weed in New York. Yeah, New York was weird with weed. Weird for the longest time.

It's not a problem at all anymore. No, it was really strange to be there. It's kind of like Amsterdam looking.

I'm kind of surprised that hasn't hit Texas yet. I'm surprised they haven't let legal weed here yet. It seems so stupid to stop people from doing something you know they're already doing is not hurting anybody.

Yeah, that's kind of my only beef with Texas at the. Yeah, as far as that goes.

Well, it's decriminalized air quotes here, so what does that mean?

Nothing. Just let me pull up to a store.

Yeah. Get a receipt.

Enjoy my day.

Yeah, I'll pay taxes. How about that?

Right?

You're missing out on billions of dollars in tax revenue, you dummies. Sure. Because in Colorado they were smart. They said, we'll tax it like 39% or something crazy.

And everybody's like, okay, no problem.

Yeah, go ahead, do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because it's so cheap in comparison to alcohol anyway.

It's a beautifully run business in Colorado. They figured it out. It's like going and buying a pair of shoes.

But for the longest time in Colorado, they had to employ mercenaries. They had to employ like fucking Blackwater type people to guard the cash because the banks wouldn't fuck with them.

Oh, yeah.

So they weren't allowed to use credit cards. So at any point in time, they had hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in cash around.

That's right.

And so they had to get a guy to take that cash to the bank. So they're basically like a scene from heat.

That's right. I remember going out to Venice beach at a certain point. It was a little funky out there.

Well, I used to go to this place called the Inglewood Wellness center in the. That was when there was medical weed in California. And all you have to do is go to a doctor. Go, I got a headache.

Yeah, here you go.

Oh, you definitely need this medicine. They were trying to hand out those things. It wasn't hard to get a medical license.

Not at all.

And one of the only dispensaries, medical dispensary, was in Inglewood. So we'd go down the hood to buy weed. And then the dude that sold me the weed got shot. He got shot there, like, a week after I was there. Two weeks after I was there. Oh, no. They robbed him and shot him. Because you had to pay in cash, and they had cash laying around, and everybody was scoping it, and they were watching. They knew what was going on, and he would have given them the money, too.

That's right.

They just fucking shot him.

That's right. Yeah. Wow. Time.

Okay. Time to go back to weed dealers.

Yeah, homie. Hey, man, you know, like we used to.

Yeah. The weed dealer thing is funny, because then you get those sketchy people in your life again. Those dudes that are willing to sell weed, those are always people that are just a little unbalanced.

Yeah. I've been fortunate that folks that used to hook me up are always cute girls.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

How'd you get that?

Just being me, bro.

Well, that's a way better situation. I used to deal with dude named Jake the Snake.

Well, there you go.

Jake the snake was my friend Eddie's buddy in LA. That's how we get our weed.

Yeah.

But he was always a weird dude.

It was always cool. Like cool hippie chicks.

That's perfect.

Yeah, that's perfect. Cool. Sit. Know, show you what the guy. You could try a couple of different kind.

Yeah.

Get on their bike or whatever the fucking. Get out of there. Bye. Sundress flowing in the wind.

Yeah. Fucking sunflowers all over their outfit. Yeah.

So I didn't really deal with too many shady characters, but the shadiest characters that I knew were the motherfuckers that I actually really knew that I grew up with. And I was like, yeah, I was warned about you, mother.

Yeah. When you have some dudes that are shady, when they're, like, 14, just a little shady, and then by the time they're like, 22, they're full shady.

Oh, yeah.

But you're still hanging with them.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of them. There's this magazine around here. I don't know if it's still here. It's called mugshots. And you can see whoever got arrested that day or that week. I've seen a couple of folks I grew up with on the COVID and I was like, yep.

Saw that coming.

Yep. That pans.

Yeah.

Yeah. But hopefully, Texas will come around and you can just kind of do what you want to do with that.

Yeah, I feel like if Republicans just embrace that, it would be a lot better for everybody. Just the people that don't want it, they're just ignorant. They just don't understand. It's stupid. It's a stupid thing to stop.

That's not being stopped.

Yeah, it's not being stopped. Also, you should probably fund some studies, find out why some people go crazy. Let's find out what's going on. Because everybody knows one dude who smoked too much weed who went schizophrenic.

Yeah, absolutely.

How many you know?

I know one in particular is a great, great friend of mine. And, yeah, I kind of feel semi responsible because he was this dude I'd known since I was in first grade. We played basketball together, we did all this stuff together and started rapping together, started playing music, making beats together, and I think one puff too many and listening to that slim shady Marshall Mathers album got him, bro.

Yeah. I know two dudes. One dude seems to have bounced back, but one dude's gone. He's gone. Well, actually, I know three dudes. I know one dude who bounced back, too. But the dude who I know will bounce back. He doesn't fuck around at all anymore. But at one point in time, he thought the government was listening to everything he said. He thought helicopters were flying over his house. He thought people were listening in the walls. He was going nuts.

Isn't that marijuana, dude?

Yeah, for him it was. And I knew him before that. I knew he was fine, but he was just waking bacon every day. It was every day. He was just getting obliterated. He was getting obliterated all day long, and I think he just fried normal life out of his brain.

Yeah, I've gotten stoned to the point of a panic attack, but I've always come back.

But when you come back, you feel better?

I feel a lot better.

Everything's going to be.

Yeah.

Some people don't come back.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. There's been books written on it. Alex Berenson wrote a book about it.

That's why I've never taken acid. My dad told me a long time ago, an uncle of his, or maybe took some good acid and never came back from it. So I've always been spooked, but, I mean, I have no problem with psilocybin.

But, yeah, psilocybin is more manageable, I think.

Absolutely.

Also, acid is being made in a bathtub by some grateful dead fan. Someone like, who's making that? Where are you? How did this get to me?

He looks just like Jerry Garcia.

Just circular glasses on tinted lenses. Just selling you the good stuff. I mean, there's only a handful of people supposedly in the country that know how to make acid.

How many people are trying, though?

Yeah, right.

That's the scary part for me. Yeah, it's like, oh, my buddy Billy just got him a little thing in the garage. Let's try it out.

Yeah, well, Ari was telling us about. They had these tests that they would do. These dudes were heavy partiers, and they brought tests with them so they could test all the different drugs.

Like when you say heavy party, like experimental. Yeah. Trying to go.

They were going out there. So they were taking Molly and all kinds of shit. And so they did a test on the acid they had. And none of it was acid. All of it was mescaline.

Really?

Yeah. They were getting these tabs, and they thought these tabs were acid. And they tested. There was zero acid in. It, was just mescaline.

So how do you get away with that?

You get away with it because people don't have tests. So you're just selling this stuff that masculine will make, you know, you think you're on acid.

Is it the same type of deal?

I haven't done it, but it's.

I'm scared of that, too.

I had a friend of mine that swears to God that he saw a dude in a window in Manhattan when he was on masculine. And the dude was like 400 yards away. And he could listen to every word that guy was saying.

Said.

He could hear every word he was saying when he was on masculine.

Like, through glass. And he just heard walls.

And he just was looking at the dude so he could see him. He was watching him, and he could hear him talk. He swears know, he's a financial. He's not a. He's not like a crazy hippie, right? He's a guy that, when he was in college, he took mescaline in New York City. And he was looking out the window. And there's a guy way far away. He was looking at him through the window. His window and that guy's window. Bomb. Bomb. Sounds of the city. Fuck you. Through all that watching that guy, you could hear him talk.

Is it some cross dimensional type shit?

Who knows? Probably. There's probably, like a frequency that you could tune into that we're all tuned into all the time. Sort of like when you know someone's talking about you and then the phone rings. It's them, right? Like, you know, they're thinking about you or, you know, something. People dismiss that. Oh, that's just chance. That's just luck. Maybe. Or maybe when you're just thinking about someone for no reason and then they call you, maybe there's some connection there. Maybe there's something going on.

Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. I have moments like that where I feel like that's the universe just universing, just trying to get you back to where you need to be.

Yeah, I think there's something to that. I think there's something to fate. There's some strange element of it that seems to be true. I think that free will is probably real. There's probably issues with these choices you make that determine how your life goes for sure. But there also seems to be some strange element of fate. Every now and then, things come along. You go, oh, my God, this is what I have to do. This is what I have to do. This is what I'm supposed to do. Absolutely. You might be resisted. You're like, God, I don't want to do this. But part of you is like, this is what you're supposed to do.

You can't shake it.

Yeah, you can't shake it. It's like the universe hits you with this frequency, this signal that lets you know this is the path you're supposed to take. And some people are way better at following that. Some people are really good at following that feeling.

How do you think you resonate on the scale of being good with that or not?

I'm pretty fucking good with that. Yeah. I'm pretty confident with that.

Good.

I know. Yeah, I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good with recognizing shady people. I'm pretty good. Pretty good. Not 100%, but I'm 95%.

I got you.

I'm pretty fucking good. I'm pretty good knowing which path to go, when to take a chance, when to just go. Like, when I moved out here, I moved out here in the middle of the Spotify deal, and they were like, what the fuck are you doing? I was like, I'm telling you, this is the place to go. I'm just going to do this. This is the thing to do.

Did you already see what's happening now?

No idea. No idea. Not a chance I would even have imagined that Austin would become like the comedy scene that it is now. I never thought that I just wanted to exist in a place where people weren't fucking with me. And then when I got out here and I realized people weren't fuck with me. And then Dave and I were doing those shows at stubs that reignited my desire to do comedy again. Then we started doing live shows at the Vulcan and then Ron White got fired up about it. And then I was like, okay, we got people out here now. And then other comics were moving here because you couldn't do any shows in LA. And they'd see us doing shows out here and they were like, hey, man, fuck this. I'm just going to go. And a bunch of them came and we didn't even have a club then. So then I felt like, okay, I talked these dudes into coming, like, now I have to just build it. And then we just did it. But it was just all following instincts. It was like, this is the path. This is what you're supposed to do.

How long did you think over this move?

Not very long. No. My instincts were to get out. When I saw those cop cars on fire on the ten, I was like, okay, I see where this is going. I got here just after the riots. Just after the riots, or La rather. I got there in 94 just after the riots, the Rodney King riots. And it was weird. Like the city had just recovered. So I remembered. And then I'd watched all those videos of the chaos that happened when the police lose control of the city and it just becomes madness. And I was like, oh, gotta get the fuck out of then. But back then there was no defund the police talk in LA. It was all, defund the police, defund the police. I'm like, okay.

Yeah. I was like, yeah.

You know.

I'm over here.

Yeah.

I was like, nah, we gotta keep. Fuck are you talking about? I need to call the motherfucking cops. What are we talking about? You cannot. That. That to me was like, all right, we've lost sight of. Can't everybody just do whatever they want whenever they want, all the time? Have it be their way all the time? There's got to be some order here. There has to be a line that it's important, please. Because this is all I know. If that goes away, then what the fuck you got chaos, and I don't want that. No, I don't think anybody wants that. Just before you. That's a crazy statement.

Yeah, well, the wildest thing is having those people now later call for more police since some of them got like, there's this one politician and she was like, let me be clear. My goal is dismantle and defund the police. And I was like, yeah, and then recently she got carjacked and pistol whipped. And so she's got blood pouring out of her head and she's like saying, we have to find these people and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. With what? With no police because you defunded the police. Like, what? Who's going to go get them? Are you going to go get him? That guy that pistol whipped you, are you going to go find him and take his gun away?

Right?

And say, you are going to go in a cage now to make the world safer? No, police do that, stupid.

Right? That's that part of the police, the important part.

Yeah, the part that keeps you safe, you fucking idiot. This idealistic perspective that so many people had, just such virtue signaling bullshit.

You don't even know what you're to get lost. I had to get out of there, man. I was lost in that shit for a while.

You hated LA.

What's that you hated, huh? I really hated LA. Not in, couldn't. I didn't know how to do LA. And the people that I resonated with in LA was comedians. I would just only hang at the store. Yeah, that was my social life, was that spot. And like another spot where my buddy would give me free drinks and I could smoke cigars down in the lounge. That was it. I didn't know how to really move around. I didn't understand how to mix and mingle in a music space. I knew how to hang with the weirdos, the cats who were just off and didn't take themselves too seriously. Yeah, but I remember very clearly when.

You moved back here.

Yeah.

Because I remember you saying, oh, man, this is so much better. This is what I like.

Yeah, I remember I met Ron White, or like, I was hanging with him. He's like, yeah, I'm going back to Texas and spend more time in Texas. And I remember running into post Malone out there and I was like, what's there to do in LA? He's like, I don't know, man. I'm getting the fuck up out of like, everybody that I was connecting with at that certain time was like, I'm out too. So, yeah, I was like, let's just go back to know and do that.

Yeah, you talking about how great it was to be back here and Ron talking about how great. Because Ron came first. Ron was the guy. Because when he was out here, he was out here before the pandemic. And I was like, you really love it there. He's like, I fucking love it. I love it. He goes, this is the best place, easiest place to fly out of. Fly anywhere in the country. It's in the like. It's like. It's a great fucking town. Everybody's cool.

It really is. It really is, man.

Gary, that guitar is just sitting there. That guitar is just sitting there.

All right, well, here we go.

You need to bust that guitar out.

How about if you. I'm gonna teach you.

Oh, we're gonna teach me. Hey, this is for you. This is a guitar pick that's made from mammoth Ivory.

Mammoth Ivory? Yeah.

That's from a mammoth. That's from my friend John Reeves.

Really?

Yeah. He's got a place up in Alaska called the boneyard. That. That thing that you have in your hand is probably 10,000 years old at least.

And you want me to fuck?

Yeah, that's yours.

Guitar?

Yeah, that's what it's for. No, you play with that. I got another one here if you break it. I kept a second one here.

Nice. Should I play anything?

What do you want to play? What do you feel like playing?

Oh, I don't know, man. Feel like. I feel like.

Do you feel like playing new shit or old shit?

Let's play some new shit.

Let's play some new shit.

I've never played this new shit like this with an acoustic. A little backstory on this guitar. I did an event for Joe Walsh Vetsaid, and he and his wife Marjorie gifted me this guitar. It's one of my favorites to play around with at the house. Shall I tune this thing?

Whatever you want to do, right? You tell me.

Oh, man.

Again, this is what I love about music. I don't know what the fuck is going on.

You know what? Well, I don't know either. We'll figure.

You tune it with your phone.

Well, there's a tuning app on my phone. I can just. So that way I don't have to bring a box.

How's it work?

Just here's the note, and it knows you set it to standard tuning, it'll get you right to where you need.

To be, and it's all just tension on the strings.

Tension in the strings will get you to the note you want to be at. So right now, this one is. The string is sharp, so you got to leave some tension. So the note goes down. So you're trying to get it in the green.

Say.

Ah.

It's reading the hertz, the wave frequency.

Wow. There you go. Too high or too low, and you.

Try to match the perfect.

And that's how you explain it, like a professional. Well.

Just trying to help he actually went to school for that.

Yeah, I didn't, and that's why I sound like an idiot talking about.

It's crazy. There's an app for that, though. That's amazing.

Yeah. This is one of my favorite things about having the technology for this is I can make music on this phone and transfer it over to files on my big rig at the studio and incorporate them into records that I'm making.

Wow.

What a time. Yeah, right? As much as I bitch about it, I use it all the time, so.

What a time to be alive.

Yeah. What a time to be alive, indeed.

Speaking of, what is it interrupted? Just self tunes.

Cheers.

Cheers.

One more time. Thanks for having me, dude. My pleasure. Thanks for hanging with you. We're going to get on that double date.

Let's do it. I'm free Saturday night.

Want to go on Saturday night? Yeah, absolutely.

Let's do it Saturday night.

All right. My wife's in town.

Beautiful. Let's go. Let's go. So many good places to go out here, too.

Yeah. That's one thing that I realize is I don't know shit. I've just been in the house and in the studio, so my time to come up and figure out what's going on in the world. That ship has sailed, my friend. Until the album drop day, I want to sleep for like a good day and a half. Turn my phone off.

What is album drop day? Which day?

March 22. Which is tomorrow. Tomorrow.

That's today as you're listening today. Oh, yeah.

Here it is.

Here we go.

So cheers to that.

Cheers to that.

I'm just going to go ahead and down this thing, okay? Because I feel right now, actually, nevermind, I'm not. So let's play some music.

Let's play some music, Carrie.

And then after this, you're going to learn an e chord, okay? Some new shit. It's called habits. While I talk about downing a glass of whiskey, savage that just can't break when I think about it, I start to shake it I've been feeling like this for a while it my quickest smile, close it I keep running a circle chasing my ten love lost my purpose I need some help I it good days I had I wouldn't trade it for the time that we had all all my life, you bright smile on the bright I keep running circle chasing my death I I'm surface 90 somewhere from the moment started gotta stay my tongue target I got everything I need more than I want, but it means nothing when you're gone I know nothing is for show I know nothing is for show nothing is for show I know nothing for. All right. Something like that.

How often do you do these acoustic.

That's the first time I've done it.

Oh, wow.

Figuring it out. Sorry if I didn't really sell it to you. There it is.

That's awesome. That's amazing. You did it here for the first time. All right, what do I have to do?

Can you pull up an e chord?

Like fingering? Yeah, finger placement.

Are you lefty?

No. Right handed?

Yeah. Guitars are supposed to be banged up a little bit. Don't be scared of that.

Okay, what do I do?

Yeah.

Oh, boy.

There we go.

Let me get one of these picks. I got one. How cool are these things?

It's amazing.

Which part do you hold? Do you hold the fat part?

The fat part? Some people hold the. It's kind of whatever, but this kind of gives me the sting that I need.

Okay, as far as tone goes, keep hitting this guitar. All right, so I'm putting this finger on the third.

Yeah.

And then this one on the fifth and this one right below that.

You got to slide them in the same spot.

Slide them in the same spot.

Yeah. They got to be in the right. What am I doing wrong?

Those two bars. Oh, tighter.

See if there's.

All three of them are in the same spot. You can't see that two of them are in the same spot. See that little spot there? They got to be in that little spot there. Yeah, I got fat fingers.

That's all right. Red Volkart is one of the baddest dudes to play a telecaster. And he got some.

Okay, I think I got it. I think I'm on the right one. No, almost three. That one. Right? Is that it? And now where do I hit it? Am I doing it right? Push it more down right here. Down this one. Like that one.

There you go.

Twelve stricken might not be helping the most, but.

Right there.

Right here.

Yeah.

Okay, you got to strum the strings.

Now you.

It's close. Pretty close.

There it is. Yeah. There you go. You're on your way to the best folk song anybody's ever heard. That's it. Crazy. E minor.

You can do a second chord. Just release one finger.

Yeah, just release the first finger.

Release your pointer finger.

Put it back down.

You go back and forth between two chords.

There it is.

Yeah.

Almost got a song album coming soon. Album coming soon.

Because. Yeah, this could get very addictive. This could be a real problem.

See?

This could be a real problem.

Right. It. I'm telling you, man, once I first played an E chord on a Fender Stratocaster through a Fender twin red knob, 1980s, 1990 Zamp. It was over for me. I quit caring about everything.

I could see how this could be very addictive.

You want me take it away?

Yeah.

Okay.

It seems like it would take forever to get good at too.

Now, I think with a guy like you, who's disciplined, a guy like you, like discipline is no problem, right?

Yeah, it's a problem. It's a problem that I have too much of it. It's obsession more than discipline.

Well, then you'd probably be good at that in probably about a year and a. Uh oh. And you'd be out here kicking ass. And I'd have to go sit down somewhere and I'd be settling into my photography job. Damn. Somewhere in Montana I might have to.

Learn how to play guitar. Man, that was fun.

Yeah, I get it.

I get it. Now.

Don'T think too hard about it.

But now I'm thinking too hard about it because I'm thinking about all the different positions on the guitar. We were listening to both Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Voodoo child, the different versions of it last night.

Yeah.

And it's like Stevie Ray Vaughn is the only dude that it doesn't offend me when they cover voodoo child. Yeah, voodoo child. Slight return. Hendrix 67, 68 was so fucking good, man. It's like anybody covering that is like, what are you doing? But Stevie put like his own weird flair on it.

Yeah.

And I'm thinking about all the different positions of the fingers and the sounds and the thing. And you are singing while you're doing that too. You're not just doing that, you're also manipulating your voice.

Yeah, but as far as voodoo child goes, who's engineered that? Was it Eddie Kramer?

I don't know.

With the panning and the psychedelic back and forth and the shaker.

Oh, my God.

It is otherworldly, man.

It's so good.

That right there is. You can't recreate that stuff.

Standing next to a mountain. I chop it down with the edge of my hand.

I gotta say, I got asked to do a cover, and I've always been hesitant about doing covers of Hendrix or Stevie. And I did it and I was like, yeah, there's a reason why I've never done it before.

Well, let me tell you something, man. I know that you and Suzanne were. I know you were either talking or actively tried to do a version of midnight Rider because I was there. How many years ago was that where you guys did that downtown in LA.

I don't even know.

It was a long time ago, almost a decade. Maybe somewhere around a decade ago, I brought my oldest daughter and we saw you guys live, and it was insane. And there was like a Monday night or some shit at midnight in some weird bar in downtown. What? It was like an alcohol company put that on, right?

Yeah, we were in business with an alcohol company, which we soon got out of because I didn't think that they really liked us. Why would you send somebody that much alcohol?

If you really like them, they like you too much. But they sponsored this thing, so it was a very small gathering of people. But you guys did a copy. You did a cover, rather, of midnight Rider. It was fucking amazing. Yeah, it was fucking magic.

I never played that song before. Suzanne was just like, come sit in.

She didn't play it before either. She had to read the lyrics off her phone.

That's right. So, yeah, we're trying to put something together. You got to cover that.

It was so good, man. It was so good because it was midnight Rider, but with your flair to it. This is from my Instagram. Can you play this dead ass? This one has got us flagged before. Oh, it had got us flagged before.

That's hilarious. It was so good, though. That was such a fun night.

Oh, my God. What a night. That was back when she was with honey. Honey.

Yeah. Damn.

That was a decade ago. Isn't that crazy?

I've been doing. He's a bad motherfucker, man.

What year? 20? 16. 16. Close to a decade ago. Eight years ago.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

You guys have to cover that.

Yeah, I think. Did we try? Did we do it? I can't even remember. We might have done it.

I haven't heard it. Nobody sent it. Oh, I haven't seen it.

Yeah, maybe it was a dream.

I think you guys were in talks. I remember Suzanne was saying you guys were going to do it.

I think we did it. I think we did it. But I think I did it in the middle of one of my sessions, I was in my mode, and I remember. I think we did it.

I feel like she said you guys were going to do it. I don't know.

It's done somewhere. It's done. It should be done. It's done. I think she has it. That's crazy. That I don't even know.

That is crazy.

I don't know what that says about my brain.

Do you have a lot going on? Yeah, that's what it says. Something that would be like a milestone. For some people, it's just like a part of everyday your life.

No, I'm pretty sure we did it, though.

I feel like she told me you did it, but I'm not positive. I felt like she said something like, you were going to do the music first and she was going to sing over the music. I don't remember.

I think she did the record. Damn, that's fucked up.

No, she had to do it with you.

No, I think she actually did the track as far as recorded with her band. Oh, really? I believe so. Dude, that's so crazy. That's just like a blank spot in my mind.

That night was a fun night. That was a fun night because that's one of those nights where you get to see something where very few people get to see know. Just like when we saw the fight at the UFC Apex center. There's no one there.

Yeah.

You get like. You're like, wow, I'm so lucky to be here.

Yeah. But Suzanne is a special artist.

She really is.

She's really kind of a, uh. I remember the first time I met her, she was doing honey, honey at this funky sessions thing in LA. And just the voice, man. Just the voice. The songwriting is like, she could play anything.

She plays violin.

Violin. Plays guitar, plays everything. We got cuts on this album that we're not releasing, but going to be used for something else where she plays amazing violin on some stuff, and she sings over. She's incredible.

She's amazing.

And I didn't realize when you work in a studio with her, you realize how genius she is. She's not playing around.

No, she's really good.

She's a studied.

I have a friend of mine who's a musician. We did an end of the world show on December 21, 2012, because that was when the Mayans thought it was going to be the end.

I remember I was watching. I was freaked out. I was ready to go with you all, man.

So we did an end of the world show, and I said, let's put together a real fun show. So it was Stan hope, joey Diaz, me. Honey, honey. I think Duncan was on the show, too. And so we did this show in LA, and my friend, who's a musician, he saw her. He goes, yo. He goes, that girl is fucking talented. He goes, dude, she could play anything. Look at her. Her voice is incredible. She plays a violin. This is insane.

Yeah, and she's a badass guitar player, badass writer.

She does everything. Yeah. And she's cool as fuck.

Absolutely.

She's so fun. She's so fun to be around. She's hilarious.

I feel like if shit went down and you needed her to squat up with you, like, she could throw.

Yeah. You want her on your side in the apocalypse?

Absolutely.

She'd figure it out.

Absolutely. Yeah. So much respect to her.

Yeah, much respect to her. Much respect to you too. Congratulations on the new album.

Thanks, dude.

It's beautiful. It's awesome. It's always good to hang with you.

Thanks for listening. Hanging it.

Thanks for the cigar.

Yeah, no problem. I got you.

All right. Let's go out Saturday night.

Let's do it. Let's do it.

Okay. All right. That's it. Bye, everybody.