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Circling The Drain is a show about the current state of the music and radio businesses as well as culture in general!
Hosted by John E. Bozeman and Jay Harper along with Jim McCarthy as Co-Host/Executive Producer.
John has had a storied career in music and talk radio, most notably as the Executive Producer for the late and legendary Phil Valentine.
Jay also has has a long career in radio as Announcer, Play-by-Play, Voice and On-Camera Actor. He was also an Artist Rep for MCA records.
Jim McCarthy ALSO has had a tremendous career in radio since 1996 and has since brought his consulting/producing skillset to the podcast world.
Circling the Drain is produced by ItsYourShow.co
Unknown: That was one of them
times I was in a dressing room
in Galveston one night, and the
oaks were like 20 minutes late,
and I walked - I'm in the
dressing room by myself, and the
bushes walked in, and I
entertained them for like 15
minutes by myself, which was
wild. I had so many questions I
wanted to ask about different
things, but I didn't. Did
you kill Kennedy?
He knows who did.
Welcome to a podcast about music
and entertainment. Before it all
goes down the disposal, this is
Circling the Drain.
Hey, welcome back to Circling
the Dray, and of course, Johnny
Boseman, Johnny B here, Jay
Harper over there.
I wasn't sure it was really
Johnny B. Are you not wearing a
Waylon Jennings shirt? Oh, Jay,
single way I can tell it's
really you these
days, you know, you know better
than all right. Well, good to
see you, Johnny B, and good to
know it's really you. And, of
course, James Patrick - I keep
referring to him. I just think
that's a great name, James
Patrick. It's nice and good,
Karthy. Good first names. Yeah,
yeah,
I could be on the news. James
Patrick, for your 6o'clock
nightly night holy news,
or you could be a morning guy,
James Patrick.
Yeah, almost like always, always
heard your porn name was
your first and middle name. What
would be your porn name? Mine
would be Chip Terry. Wow,
mine would be kneel down,
I think I might add a rap edge
to it, and be warm pee
or big pee, yeah, big D, yeah,
and I don't mean Dallas, but
before we venture off into
really craziness, which we will
anyway, but I've been looking
forward to getting this guy on
for quite a while now, but he's
always working, he's always
working, but we found some
downtime, you know, this guy, he
has been around for a long time,
you know, his father, William
Lee Golden from the Oak Ridge
Boys, but this cat, he is one of
my favorite singers. I will go
down in history saying this.
He's one of my favorite
entertainers. Chris Golden has
joined us. How you doing,
brother?
Doing great, Johnny P. It's
great to be with you today. You
too, Jay.
All right, Dave, great to meet
you. I can't believe it's, you
know, I've been kind of around
you for years, but never had a
chance to meet you. So, it's
cool.
Well, we're gonna have a good
time today. Maybe we'll get to
know each other.
So,
yeah, we may be scared of one
another. Who knows? But no, he's
award-winning. If you ever get a
chance to go see Chris live, I
would suggest you do so. He
plays everywhere, in fact,
churches everywhere.
I do that too.
Theaters,
yeah,
you name it. This guy will show
up, and I mean, you will be
entertained
every invitation, an answer to a
prayer, big time.
There you go, my brother. But he
comes from a very, very rich
musical family. And were you
born in Alabama?
I was. I was born in Brewton,
Alabama, it's a little.on the
map down there, right? You know,
it's really close to the Florida
state line.
Yeah,
about 70 miles south of Pence of
Montgomery and about 40 miles
north of Pensacola, Florida.
Yeah, in fact, I think you're
close to where my father was
born. He was born in a little
town called Boothton, which is
no longer there. It's called
Booth now.
Wow, but the ton went
away. I think a ton of working
left at that time.
Well, the actual community that
we grew up in was called
Dixonville, and it's.. it is on
the state line. So, my
grandfather had the last farm,
actually it's the first farm
south of the airport, and the
last farm in Alabama, so the end
of the cotton field is Florida.
Yeah, and my dad was born right
there on the state line, and
my.. I interviewed my
grandmother before she passed
away, and you know about the
places that she had lived
growing up, and in her 90 years
she had lived in four or five, I
think it was five different
homes, but you could see one
from the other. She never moved
out of that quarter mile circle
there. So the dad was born on
the backside of our family farm
on the Florida line, you know,
like the right by the road, and
the middle of the road is the
Florida line, so you could
literally throw a rock over it,
you know? When you were five, so
that's where we come from. This
don't let this city big city
accent fool you,
but you know
there's something about that red
Alabama clay, I mean. Some great
talent has come out of Alabama.
Yeah, well, down there is kind
of where the white sand makes
the red clay. All the creeks and
stuff are just solid white sand.
It's beautiful down there, so
sort of where the white sand
makes the red clay. And red clay
roads, white sandy banks, you
know.
There you go. Does your dad
still have the house on, was it
Oeno Island down there.
No, I think he lost that in the
second divorce.
Happened to all of us, brother.
Yeah,
I hate that, because that half
sounded so cool.
It was, it was,
in fact,
I saw it from, from a distance.
It was a frame, real
well. No, not that. That one
wasn't. It might have had a
little bit of an A-frame to it,
but it had - it was kind of a
built-around one big main room
kitchen, and then just four
bedrooms off to the sides, but
you know, like everything down
there on stilts and a deck out
back. And he had about 150 foot
pier. We used to go at the end
and watch the dolphins come by,
it was great,
tough life.
Yeah, had Kenny Staper was a
neighbor, and he come over
sometime, the sneer, yeah,
pretty cool. Yeah,
so the whole family, all of you
guys seem to have followed in
your dad's footsteps, because
your brother Rusty and you both
got into music.
Well, you know, it was something
that Dad, my dad, and his sister
got their start. Music's not
something that just started with
my dad. My great grandfather,
who had been my dad's
grandfather, he was a holiness
preacher, and he played the
fiddle, and he had a radio show
called The Old Country Church
Hour on W EBJ in Brewton,
Alabama, and my dad and his
sister Lynette, she played the
mandolin, piano, and acoustic
guitar, and she taught my dad
how to play and sing harmonies,
and when they were kids, you
know, but I think dad would have
been 10 or 11 years old, they
would go over there on Saturdays
and taped the radio show, and
they got to be, they were
featured singers on the radio
show when he was just a kid. So
my mama's side of the family
too, she's one of eight brothers
and sisters, and they all played
instruments and sang, they all
played piano, guitars. My
granddaddy on my mama's side
played the fiddle and and the
saw, when he brought that saw
out at Thanksgiving and
Christmas, you knew it was gonna
be a party, anyhow, man. But
yeah, so all everything I know
about the saw, I learned anyway.
He would bow that would bow the
saw. They all played instruments
and sang, and so whenever they
sang together, it's like, you
know, a lot of family - every
family get together on both
sides of my family always wound
up around the piano when it was
over. After the meal, they'd all
get together and sing, and
that's just the way it was, man.
So, music came pretty easy for
us, but I gotta say, man, I was
blessed this past Monday, just a
couple of days ago, of being
invited to sing down at the Opry
House for the Inspirational
Country Music Awards,
yes sir,
and they named me their musician
of the year, and a lot of those
folks know me as a singer, but
my lot, a lot of them may not
know, is I play most of the
instruments on the records that
I do. Oh yeah, but when I got up
there, it just kind of hit me, I
thought, well, man, I probably
wouldn't have been standing
there, you know. First off,
without the good Lord and my
family, but my brother, Rusty,
God rest his soul, when he was a
little boy, he saw the Beatles
on TV. He wanted to be Ringo, so
he started banging on Charlie
chip cans and pots and pans
until they got him a little kid
of drums and kind of a cheap
kit, and to see if he would get
serious with it, and before long
he was about 11 when they, he
got a set of Rogers drums, and
and he got good enough to go out
on the road with the singing
Rambos, which I don't know if
you know Dottie Rambo, I mean,
you know, she was the most
prolific songwriter, her and
Bill Gaither ever in gospel
music. So he was out on the road
with them when he was 13 years
old. Then he played with them
for a little while, went out
with the Oaks at 15, playing
drums, and he saw Elton John on
TV, and he said, "Man, I want to
play piano, so he taught himself
to play piano, and
he
was playing second keys with the
Oaks, but he went out with Larry
Gatlin playing on his records,
and, and in concert when he was
17. So, all that being said, you
know, Rusty was trying to be
like Ringo and Elton,
yeah,
and I was just trying to be like
Rusty, yeah. Was trying to play
stuff just to keep up with him,
and I remember one night we were
fighting over the drumsticks. He
was four years older than me, so
he usually won those deals, but
I probably.. I'm sure I showed
out and was crying, you know? I
was.. I was a big powder of our
family. Some things never
changed, maybe. But anyway, I
was, I was pouting, and my dad
took me up to the bedroom, and I
thought he was gonna whip me,
but he pulled out this guitar
case, and he had a guitar, and
he said, 'Hey, man, instead of
y'all fighting over these
drumsticks, and you fighting
over the same thing, he said,
maybe if you learn how to play
something else, y'all can play
together, and you then you won't
be fighting
it, or
move, and that was
my dad, right then and there,
taught me three chords, and I
remember the first song that he
taught me was Home on the Range
of All Things, it's a cowboy
song, you know, three, and he
said, with these saying three
chords, you can do, you ain't
nothing but Hound Dog, you know,
it's home on the Range to Hound
Dog, and that's kind of where
the guitar thing started for me.
Wow, and I was probably, I think
I was in the third grade, and I
taught myself how to play guitar
from that, and from looking at
books and the little chord
charts of where to put your
fingers and
the Mel Bay books,
yeah, or actually just song
books, you know, they would have
the, they would have the written
music, but a lot of times it'd
be guitar tabs over it with the
little dots where the fingers
went on the frets, and that's
how I kind of how I learned how
to play, and and I remember in
the third grade I did a little
show in school, and I played
piano, played guitar, I played
drums, and I did a ventriloquist
act, and my brother Rusty drew
the posters for it, and he had
them all over the school, you
know, third grade show I was
going to be doing, and I've
stayed with the rest of it, but
I dropped the ventriloquist.
Remember that was it? I forget
who, who the.. they had a record
album for this thing, and it
was.. they.. it was a Jimmy
O'Day or something like that.
Yeah, like you know, they would
say, you know, instead of saying
the B, like Johnny B,
yeah,
it would say use the letter D,
and it's like, you know, the Doy
daughter basket doll, just keep
doing it over and over, you
know. It took me a lot of years,
but you know, then it finally,
it finally hit me when I got a
little older. They were on an
album, I couldn't see what they
were doing. They were actually
going, the boy bought a
basketball, it sounded just like
it. It's good thing you got out
of that business.
I did. I got out of.. did I
never could get my D's.
Well, you and Rusty, I mean, you
guys played music a lot
together. I remember, in
fact,
I've told this story many times,
but I played a gig when I was
trying to be a musician, be an
entertainer, but it was this
little club called, I think, it
was the Music Row Club, it's on
Music Row,
yeah,
and I think Alan Cartier may
have owned that place,
I don't remember,
and Buddy Jennings, Waylon's son
did the sound, I remember that,
yeah,
but you guys, I was a night that
you guys were playing,
was it the Golden Spear?
I
think the
Goldens,
it was the Goldens, I think.
Okay,
and and you guys were so nice
because you know we had to, we
were gonna have to set up around
your stuff because you were the
main attraction, we were just
opening, but the way you guys
were so nice because you told my
guys, you said, 'Hey, man, use
our stuff if you want to, that
way you don't have to set up
yours. And most, most, you know,
most headline acts don't do
that. Yeah,
well, I don't know, anybody
could be any harder on drums
than I was. So it's like you're
not gonna hit them any harder
than I am, bro. Go for
it. How many enemy instruments
do you play?
Whatever's left,
because I've seen you do, I
mean, I've seen you drum, I've
seen you play piano, and you
play guitar,
mandolin,
yeah, everything,
and the saw,
right?
I can pull out the saw if I have
to,
and ventriloquist if asked,
right?
I've been blessed, man, it's
just I'll try to play anything.
You know
what's the most obscure one that
you play? Mouth harp, maybe.
Oh, well, anybody do that. You
just got to be careful with the
teeth on that. I don't know,
man. I don't know. I don't play
a lot of wind instruments. I do
play harmonica. And stuff like
that, but you know, Forrest read
instruments, I never, and you
know, trumpets and you know
saxes and stuff like that.
So, do you ever read music, or
you just all Nashville number
system?
No, sir, I don't read, but I, I
do know the Nashville number
system. Oh, yeah, had to, had to
learn that pretty quick,
right?
Yeah, but I don't read, never
did learn how to be, you know,
and I, that's what I, I've said
it a lot of times, only God
could take a boy up to Flunk
Band in high school and say,
'Hey, man, I'm gonna make you a
music guy,
God thing,
yeah, it is a God thing. So,
how did you get Nick? I didn't,
you know, a lot of people around
Nashville, and especially people
that have been here for a long
time, will remember Golden Spear
well. You'd have to be here for
a little while. It actually
started with when I got out of
high school. It was the boys
band,
yeah,
and my brother Rusty. It was
Greg Gordon who sang with the
Imperials. He also, he sang lead
with the boys band, Steve
Sanders, who at one time took my
dad's place with those boys, he
was in that band, and my brother
Rusty, and they were putting a
group together, and I wound up
playing drums with them for
about a year and a half, they
were going to take a year and a
half, they were going to take
about a year off, and they went
out to Caribou Ranch, signed to
deal with Electra Asylum
Records, and back then it was a
pop album. This is before
Wrestler's Heart. It's a pretty,
you know, I'm saying all that
because I just saw Larry Stewart
a while ago. Oh,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
my buddy Larry, we played
together some. I got to play
drums with those guys for
a while.
He brought that
first season, and, but it was
kind of before that sound became
popular in country music. What
we were doing was a little too
pop for country and a little too
country for pop, but it was
called the boys band, but it
wound up being on, you know,
released on the pop charts and
stuff, and it was, yeah, we
thought it was country compared
to Blondie, and some of that
stuff, but back then, you know,
they played a wide variety of
things on rock and roll radio
and pop radio. Yeah, they would
play anything from, you know,
Journey to the Eagles, and, you
know, the Eagles stuff at Sound
Country.
Yep,
that was
more country than anything on
country radio right now. I mean,
Ben Gile wanted to join a
country band, so anyhow, man, it
started out as the boys band,
and we recorded an album at
Electris, I mean, at Caribou
Ranch in Netherland, Colorado,
and did that for a little while.
I wound up playing with a group
from Canada called Cedar Creek
for just a little while.
Yes, we're tall, though.
And then we came back to the
started doing the Golden Spear
thing, and it was more of
Americana rock and roll kind of
thing, Tom Petty-ish, and we
still had a lot of country
influence because we had that
three part harmony going even
with Golden Spear. We went down
to Muscle Shoals, we tried
kicking every, you know, we'd
write five songs, go record
them, try to get a record deal,
you know, pass. They didn't,
Nashville didn't kind of quite
know what to do with us, and
sometimes, you know, that son of
one of can be a strike against
you for in certain circles,
and that
drives me crazy, because I've
met so many, so many kids that
have come from, you know,
country, like Robin Young, you
know, Farron Young's son, he was
a great talent,
a man, you know, we're so proud
to have been still making music
and all that, but we, during
that time, we went to Muscle
Shoals. I was mainly the drummer
at that time. I sang a couple of
songs in the show. We went down
to Muscle Shoals, and we went to
their B room, Roger Hawkins and
David Hood, who were the two.
They were part of the Mount
Rushmore of Muscle Shoals and
rhythm sections, really, Barry
Beckett was coming to Nashville
and producing Lori Morgan and
some other people like that, and
Roger and David kind of wanted
to do a little bit of a dip
their toe in that thing, that
production thing, for a little
while, so we went down there,
they sort of took us under their
wing and taught us how to make
records, muscle show style, and,
and that education I wouldn't
take anything for, but we went
down there, and we had about 35
songs that we had written at
that time, and we went into
their bee room, and we just
recorded everything like a live
show, we went down it, so they
could hear what all we did, and
out of those 35 songs, we picked
three to re-record, and it
happened to be all three that I
was singing, and they said,
"Man, it's got a little bit more
of a country influence to it.
You live in Nashville, you got
country roots, you know, gonna
take a little. Bit of the edge
off of some of the guitar sounds
and make it a little more
palatable to Nashville Radio,
and that wound up leading to our
developmental deal that we had
with CBS at the time, and so we
wound up recording an album for
CBS, my brother and I. What my
man Rusty actually with Golden
Spear, we dropped, you know,
went from Golden Spear and Mark
- it was Mark Spear we had grew
up with Mark in the gospel world
too, and it was a type thing
that Mark said, "Man, this more
country direction wasn't really
what he was into at the time. He
was the singer and one of the
main writers, lead guitar
player. He hung with it for a
little while, but he came to us,
and he said, "Man, I want a
divorce. So we had, we just went
with the Goldens that time, and
me and Rusty had actually sort
of split at the time. Rusty was
doing some things with Dee
Murray and playing with another
group here in Nashville, and I
went over to Memphis and
recorded some things together,
brought it back and took it to
CBS, who we never did do a deal
with CBS with the Golden Spear
Goldens thing at that time, but
I was bringing the stuff to CBS
as a solo act, and I had
recorded some things over there
in Memphis. Three songs with
Larry Client Crane from John
Mellencamp's band. Kenny
Lovelace played fiddle on it.
He, he's with the killer, you
know? He was, he plays guitar
with him, but he's a great
fiddle player. And Michael
Rhodes played bass, and I played
the rest, I think, between me
and Larry Crane from
Mellencamps, man, and brought it
over there, and we got a deal
that day, and they said, you
know, what we've got like a
dozen guys on our label right
now, would you think about doing
a group, and I said that would
just kind of been nine months
ago that we sort of went had a
group together for three years,
it broke up, and I said I would
not, and groups break up, but
families for life, and I'll do a
thing with my brother.
Yeah,
I'd love to, you know, because
he was writing some of the songs
I was recording anyway, and
said, you know, we've been a
team since birth, and families
don't break up, so I'll do
something with my brother, and
that's how kind of the Goldmans
got back together.
Well, you guys were really good
together, you and Rusty. Well,
you just had a great sound.
He was the rocker, and I was,
you know, he was. I sang more
about Mama and Home, and he sang
more about stoned on love? Yeah,
he was the rocker man.
He was man.
He was a
force.
Boy, anytime he was on stage, I
mean, I've never seen a dude. He
just comes alive. He would come
alive on stage.
He had
kicked that piano stool, and oh
yeah,
he would give it his best Elton
Jerry Lee ever. He was there to
put on a show, but you know, we
all come from a long line of
look at me.
Yeah,
you know,
well, and I love that. You guys
see, I loved when your dad put
together this group that had
come out just a couple of years
ago, after Covid, really around
Covid time,
yeah,
and didn't he, that's that was
the whole impetus for that was
that he got tired of watching,
you know, the negative stuff on
news, just sitting around.
Well, man, I'll backtrack just a
little bit on that golden still,
so whenever we, you know, we did
an album for CBS Records, and
then the classic National Story,
you know, Sony comes in by CBS,
and we're one of 20 people that
get cut, so we wound up without
a deal for a while, but we had a
great live show, and we were
playing, we had Halsey Company
booking us, and you know, we
were playing every fair and
festival in the country, man. We
did all the farm maids and all
these big, you know, 10 act, you
know, sweat fests that they have
out there. We did all of those,
and we had a great live show.
That's the thing that kept us
going, was our live show, and
TNN people would see us, you
know, on doing the Ralph Emery
show. We used to beg them to be
on there, but they finally
figured out we loved to
entertain, and they called us a
lot to be on there, and you
know, we'd go to Independence,
Kansas, and people would, you
know, they, they had seen us on
TV a bunch of times, we had
videos and stuff, so that kind
of kept us going until we wound
up over at Capitol Records, and
has wound up Blake Chancey
produced that album, and I
thought it was kind of cool,
because Ron Chancey had produced
our dad. Yeah, so it was the
second generation Blake used to
come out and run sound for us,
and there he was producing us.
The Dixie Chicks and all these
other people, you know, and so
during the time where we did our
first album was the during the
time that we were in the studio
and Dad found out he was not
going to be with the Oak Ridge
Boys anymore, they had decided
they were going to try to cut
too big a limb off the tree at
the time, and so there wasn't
social media and stuff like that
going on, but the phone was
ringing off the wall. So we
said, "Hey, man, why don't you
come to the studio with us? And
he did. We got him on a couple
of songs. Whenever we went out,
we were taking photos for we
were trying to keep him away
from telephone and love on him
and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, he come, our Alan Messer
was taking all the photos, and
he was taking, so when the
record company got some of these
photos back, some of them had
dad in them, and they said, Hey,
man, what's going on? You know,
we signed this signs you and
your brother and now your dad,
that's not, you know, and if I
had any inkling, a lot like I do
now, you know, when you're 26
years old, yeah, we'll do
whatever you say, yes
sir.
Now I'd say, well, that was
then, and this is now, and we're
gonna be like, the, you know,
we're gonna cut, he's a golden
too,
yeah,
and we're go out, we would have
probably, you know, done that if
I'd, but what wound up happening
is he recorded for Polygram, we
recorded for a different label,
Capital, and at one time CPS,
and we had separate booking
agencies and management, but we
toured together, so what we did
is, like, you know, we got to
work twice as much that way.
Whenever dad would get a
booking, they'd, you know, our
agents knew each other, and
they'd say, "Well, hey, for I
know the little scratch, you can
get this up and come and ban on
the, you know, Capitol Records.
They got a single out doing
pretty good right now, and so,
you know, we would get to open
the show, and then he had come
out, we'd take a step back, kind
of like the band did with Bob
Dylan, and that's that was sort
of our model that we used, it
was kind of a one two punch,
yeah, so we did that for a long
time, whenever we would get
booked, we'd say, hey man, you
know, for an extra little
scratch, you can have this
legendary Oakridge Boy, you
know, William Lee Golden come
out with us too, so we toured
together,
yeah, but
we recorded separately to go
full circle back to what you
were talking about, as during
that pandemic that was the first
time that we had ever recorded
together, other than the, you
know, him being a guest singer
on a song, kind of a background
vocalist on song, or whatever.
So this was the first time we'd
ever been in the studio and
recorded, and we wound up doing
34 songs.
Oh yeah, and they were fun. I
mean, they, they did a lot of
covers that were really good,
like I loved your version of
Take It Easy and the Eagles. I
loved your version of Southern
Accents.
I'm pretty
sure I
still, in fact, I made you sing
that at a church.
You did well. It was that last
verse about Mama praying. It
kind of pulled it all
off, Rusty. I mean, I usually
don't like to hear people do
covers of Bob Seger, but man, he
nailed Hollywood nights. Oh,
God,
he sure did, man. And you know,
it was a lot of cover stuff,
because whenever we first got
together and started doing it,
it was gospel songs. Dad wanted
us to do these gospel songs.
Some of them we didn't even know
that it was songs of his
childhood, and we learned all
those and sang them, and then it
kind of turned into he wanted to
do some old time country stuff
with, you know, some Chris
Christofferson, and just some
old, old, old tunes, and yeah,
stuff like that, we didn't
really, you know, and then it
kind of wound up being it
started out as one thing and it
sort of just kept evolving, we
thought, well, we got enough
gospel songs for a gospel
record, now this is old time
country stuff, now let's do
something a little more southern
or rock type of stuff, so we
wound up doing three albums
together there and a ton of
videos, and yeah, man, it was a
lot of fun, and we're still, as
it went on, my kids came on, you
know, they've all got records,
and
oh my god, they're talented,
ain't they?
Oh my, you are, you are very
blessed, they really are, man,
your daughter, my gosh,
yeah, she's great, man,
yeah,
she's so proud of my kids, and
it's like just another
generation. I always tell
people, man, they passed me a
long time ago. I remember when
Elijah was in, like, the sixth
grade, man. He, Ronnie McCrory
from the McCorrys, he called me
on the road one time. He said,
"I just want you to know, man,
I'm I'm pretty jaded musically,
but I just saw your. Son singing
a school play, and cried like a
baby.
He said he has got it, man.
He does,
and he's had it for a long time,
and Elizabeth's the same way.
Yeah, so they passed me a long
time ago.
Well, it just gives you hope
that the family name is going to
continue on in music.
I sure hope so, only if they
want to do it, you know. And I
got three kids, one of each, and
they are all three are extremely
talented, very talented. Elijah
plays a lot of instruments,
Elizabeth plays fiddle and
guitar, and she comes out and
plays and sings with me. If
she's going to be joining, we
just did four days together down
in Florida, and then came up
here and did the Opry House
Monday night. She's going to be
joining me. We're opening for
Skaggs next week, and
yeah, I saw that.
Yeah, so it made a lot of fun,
man. She's comes with me. I
thought, if I'm gonna be opening
for him, I need a
fiddle.
And the great thing is, he's got
all dudes up there? I got a
country princess coming out,
dude. She is a pretty little
girl, man. Well, I gotta tell
you, too. I gotta tell the
story. Here is that my wife, for
her birthday, she said, I want
Chris Golden and Marie, his
wife, to come have dinner with
us, and I said, you know, that's
cool, and she told me that they
were coming, and I really didn't
quite believe her. I thought,
yeah, I don't think that's gonna
happen, but on the day of her
birthday, I'm sitting there
watching an Elvis movie at home,
and there's a knock at the door,
son, a gun, there's
Chris Roust about, oh, it's one
of my clambake,
but we also found I couldn't
believe my wife was giving you
all this Elvis memorabilia.
I know it,
man. We could have sold that.
Well, I don't. On
a music room, and, man,
everybody loves Elvis.
Oh, you're not kidding.
Yeah,
I love Elvis. So,
man, that did you see the new
one, the bass thing?
I want to see that. I haven't
seen it yet. It
was awesome. It was great.
Well, see, I loved Chris,
because when Glennon was giving
him all of this, Elvis, he was
like a little kid. He was like,
I begged her not to give. Well,
you don't want to give
this away.
You don't want to give this away
to me. She goes, "Oh, I do. You
know,
she loves
away.
She loves Chris and Marie, and
so albums, he's going, going,
get this out to the car quick
albums,
cars
get
to see Elvis as a kid, man,
Elvis came to the quartet
convention and the municipal
auditorium in like early 70s, he
used to come there, and you
know, watch the gospel groups,
and I had heard that, you know,
he had offered the Oaks that
background gig at one time, but
they had a lot of stuff going on
themselves, but he would come,
and they built this special
little thing for him to sit on
stage, where it was almost like
a booth that nobody knew who was
behind the booth, where he could
almost sit on stage and watch
them. He watched my brother play
drums, and we used, you know, we
knew we knew that that municipal
auditorium and the board
memorial building, we knew all
the back out, you know, we were
little backstage kids, so we,
you know, we grew up backstage,
we could get around any of them
buildings and just ran amok the
whole time. But I go out to the
Oaks at the time, they had this
I Love the Oaks stickers, and I
was going plastering them on
everything. I had a roll, I had
a roll of them, had a roll of
these stickers, and I'm just
going, putting them on all over,
all over the hallway, and
everything. I heard the crowd
just, and I went to go get a
Hershey bar, and I was a little
jubo. I had heard this, you
know, I come running in there to
see what was going, what was
going on with chocolate all over
my mouth, and they said Elvis
just walked across the stage,
it's like, oh man, I missed
it,
but he was there. We were in the
same building, but I didn't get
to see
that building, baby.
Yeah, you know, some of my
heroes during that time were
like Glenn Campbell and Kenny
Rogers, and I remember when the
first edition came to came to
the municipal auditorium. We
were up in the balcony. It was
sold out at the time. They were
huge, man. My brother Rusty
gets, he had the little fringe
coat and the little, you know,
Brian Jones striped bell bottom
pants, and he goes, they go to
get popcorn. Rusty says, I'm
gonna go back there and make
candy and. Band, and everything,
and so the guy that was with us
that night, his friend came back
to where we were sitting, and
they said, "Where's Rusty? He
said, "Well, he said he was
gonna go meet the band, and so
we went right backstage. He
never came back to
the city,
and that particular night they
were given a car away. It was
like, I don't know if Bob, you
know, Bob Friendly or somebody
was sponsoring the concert, so
they, they had a, you know, keep
your ticket stub, and we're
gonna give out a car halfway
through the show. They get the,
the big barrel that they spin
with the, with the tickets and
the names to draw the winning
names. We're gonna bring out our
little buddy Rusty to draw the
weird ticket on stage with them,
you know, he's like 12,
that boy was meant
around, he wasn't scared, he
looked like he belonged with
them, because he had the, you
know, yeah, a little hippie
outfit, it was awesome,
yeah, now he now on his own, he
didn't play Dubai a lot.
He went over there, there was a
some cousins of ours through
that, through marriage, they had
a, they had a place over there,
they had a, it was a, they had
American food, American drink,
and American music going on at
this place, and he would go over
there and do these three month
stints, and come back for a
little while, and go back and do
three months, and they had
offered that to me at one time,
but I had it paid insane money,
and I had three kids, just like,
man, I'm not gonna be gone three
months any anywhere, yeah. You
know, I want to come home, and,
but he went over there, he did
that for about four or five
years.
He's quite
popular there, wasn't
he? Was yeah, front page stories
and all kind of stuff.
Yeah, gosh,
yeah. So before it was over, it
was just like the, you know, him
coming out on the stage with
Kenny, you know, you're talking
about Elvis. My hero was Glen
Campbell, and I used to lay it
in front of that TV and watch
that Glenn Campbell, good.
Oh man, yeah. And you know, when
the Mother's Brothers had their
summer replacement show,
yeah,
it was the Summer Brothers
Smothers show, and it was hosted
by Glenn Campbell, and I was
like, you, I mean, he was my
idol, and I got to work with him
when I was at MCA, and got to be
around him, and I won't say know
him, but you know, got to hang
with him a little bit, and that
was, that was so cool. Well, I
mean, the most talented musician
guy that I've ever been around,
a player's player, a singer,
singer. He was a great host,
yes, actor, funny guy. He was a
man. I remember I got, you know,
blessed to be able to be on
shows with him too. Every time I
was running, I'd say, man, I
just want you to know you're the
guy that got me hooked on
hairspray,
and we thought it was Marty
Stewart.
You got me a hooked on
hairspray. Started out with a
couple of squirts and worked my
way up to a half a can a week.
Well, we brought up Jim Halsey a
little while ago. My dad got
involved with Jim Halsey, and
they had a radio station in
Tulsa, KTOW, and when the Oaks
came out, Jim, it was a
requirement for everybody at the
station to go to these parties
that they would have for the
because they were trying to
break the Oak Ridge Boys with
country music, but one guy I got
to hang out with a lot with my
dad was Roy Clark, and I know
that he worked a lot with the
Oaks, but what a great talent.
Oh, and
what a great guy. My God, I love
being around that guy.
Roy was something, man, he was a
force too. Now he, he took the
Oaks to Russia before the Oaks
ever had a country record, they
were still a gospel group at the
time, and they had an exchange
program at Halsey, had kind of
put together with the State
Department, and they took an
exchange program, they took this
country music show over there,
but they had to do it in front
of the Russian consulate, or
whatever, you know, whoever's in
charge over there, they had to
do their show for them before
they were allowed to perform it,
and you know, they was a to
Canaan land, I'm on my way, and
they wouldn't let them say
Canaan, they wanted them to say
Disney, and they was like, no,
this is a gospel song.
Yeah,
we can't say Disneyland, we got
to say Canaan, because they
said, well, you know, they
didn't want them to use the word
Canaan.
Interesting. So, no religious
reference of any kind.
Well, all they really had at the
time were gospel records, so
they were trying to have an
exchange, so they just said, How
about that fair land? Well,
instead of Canaan, you know,
land, maybe to that fair land,
and
yeah,
so they made compromise on some
of that stuff, but Roy took him
over there.
Yeah, he did.
Yeah,
I remember that.
Yeah, wow, Roy was a force.
Well, and Jim Halsey was a
force. They, the Oaks had a
great manager in that man, he
was very cool.
He did, he saw him when they
were gospel, and he said, "Man,
you guys are three minutes away
from making it. You need a
country record, and if you can
bring that kind of energy that
you've got in gospel. But they
were hungry at that time,
because gospel would kind of,
you know, shunned them a little
bit. They were getting a little
too wild. And
well, I remember too when they
decided to go country, that a
lot of gospel groups were not
kind to them,
right?
I remember, like, they did a gig
somewhere, maybe I forget where
it was, but some gospel group
said something awful on stage.
Well, during that time, Johnny
Cash also had sort of took them
under their wing, and they were
getting to play out in Vegas,
opening for Johnny Cash, because
it was the Johnny Cash show, you
know. We had the Carter family
and the Tennessee three, Carl
Perkins, and Johnny was the last
one on stage, but it was like
they put a.. it was the Johnny
Cash show, and the Oaks at that
time were strictly gospel, and
all these people thought, well,
they're playing in nightclubs,
they're out there in Sin City,
doing that. Well, what they
didn't, those narrow-minded
folks didn't know that they were
singing "Jesus is coming soon"
on the strip, you know.
Well, yeah, what would Jesus..
well, into.. did Jesus not hang
out with the
junkies, whores, and thieves?
Yeah, I mean, that's that's how
they got you
inverted, those who needed a
physician,
exactly.
What was it like? When did you
realize you were growing up in a
family that was extraordinary?
When did you have that
realization,
man? And that part of the
country that we're from, my
granddaddy was one of 13
brothers and sisters, and they
are the my granddaddy was an
identical triplet, it was
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they
were Luke was the run of the
three, and I kind of knew it
from them, from the, you know,
from my southern, my, my farm
family roots are extraordinary.
People say, you know, like,
Dad's a hard act to live up to,
or whatever. His daddy was a
heart, was a man's man, and he
was a really hard act to live up
to, not just, you know, he had
so many friends in that
community because he would
always put himself last and then
kind of first, and so he was
actually the one that was the
hard one to live up to, but I've
always been proud of my heritage
and my roots, and far as you
know, the gospel thing, I might
have been when I was in
elementary school, when I
finally kind of figured out,
hey, man, this is kind of cool,
because you're around other
kids, it was just a natural
thing to mess with. My dad did
just a job, it was a, it was a
job, you know, and what's really
wild is back then, the Oaks,
they couldn't afford second cars
during that time, so that bus
would go house to house and pick
them up like a school bus,
that's nobody, they didn't have
an office to, you know, meet at
and leave your cars at, and for
the bus lot, you know, it's like
they would just, they took turns
driving it, and they all set
their song sound system up, and
my dad was a sound guy. He ran
it from the side of the stage,
and there was one man that told
me, about a year ago, I was down
in Florida, and he showed me
this old thing that he brought
that my dad had signed, and put
our home phone number on it, and
he said the day that I saw them,
that was their third show that
that day they had played a high
school that morning, like an
assembly, trying to get them to
bring their parents back for
that night, and then they played
a fair that afternoon, and then
went back to that same high
school to
play the show. Wow, are
they breaking down and setting
up equipment and everything?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh,
so anyway, you know, they worked
hard, but far as that deal, I
remember when I was in
elementary school, the bus, the
bus came to pick me up one time,
and you know, Dad and Dwayne get
out, and they coming down the
hallways, and none of them
teachers is like, I thought,
hey, man, you know they're
pretty special, and I've made me
feel so big, because you know,
then there are all these kids on
the playground, I get to wave at
them while I'm getting on the
bus, I'm going with these cool
guys that look like gangsters,
they look like good fellows back
then, they always had the suits
and the sunglasses. And the, you
know, the hair and all that kind
of stuff, yeah, they look like
good fellas, but yeah, man, it
was probably when I was in
elementary school, I knew that,
you know, the oaks were, and
they were just gospel at that
time,
right, right, right,
and by the time I got to high
school, they started having some
country success, and, man, but
it was always something, it was
just the family business, as far
as what that's what my dad did,
you
know,
and
pretty cool job. I
always tell people I was born
the son of a paper mill worker.
My dad worked at the paper mill,
and for about six years, and one
man, my brothers were little,
and he wanted had dreams of
singing, and my mom used to
encourage him, and they'd go
around seeing the different
groups and stuff, and he would
get had a little trio. My dad
built his own PA, he, you know,
put the wood together and put
the speakers in it, and the
grill cloth, and all that kind
of thing, man. He built his own
PA, and he really wanted to do
that. You don't think about
stuff like that, but my dad was,
you know, everybody knows him as
the mountain man. Oh, during
that time, he, he was working at
a paper mill and dreaming about
singing, and they, you know, he
had a microphone, and they would
have a little trio, and they
used to open shows for the Oak
Ridge Boys when they'd be in
that Pensacola, Florida, the
Panhandle area, South Alabama,
and stuff. They might get to be
on the same show with them.
That's how he kind of made
friends with some of them, and
said, "Hey, man, if y'all ever
get an opening, I'd love a shot
at it. And they said, "Well,
okay. And it wasn't - he
actually was telling them, "I
don't think the guy that you got
in your group right now fits
your image and on his job, he
because you know they had a
really cool guy named Gary
McSpadden, and Dad loved Gary,
and he thought he was cool, and
because he looked like Elvis,
and yeah, he was a great singer
too. But anyway, I know I'm just
talking in
circles. Hey, man, you're not
talking in a circle. We want to
hear these stories before they
circle the drain. Hey, full
circle, baby. And with gospel
music, did you, did you ever
experience the all-night gospel
sing-a-thons?
Yeah,
because a lot of people don't,
people, when they hear this,
they don't, they don't think it
was an all night.
Yeah,
I'm talking, it was all night.
Well, listen, man, I was.. it
was, you know, that you know
what I remember about it more
than anything, it was first time
I got to have coffee. Let's get
these little kids jacked up on
some coffee, like, how much
sugar and cream can I put in
here? No, this tastes like
chocolate milk. I want another
one more.
Well, the funniest thing ever
experienced one of these.. I
think it was in Hot Springs,
Arkansas, but I was playing one
of the
Passion Fest. Was it the
Passion?
It may have
been Passion Play,
and I don't.. I don't know if it
was that or not, but it was in
Hot Springs, and apparently
that's Eureka Springs, I'm
sorry.
Yeah, but what was funny about
this was apparently this woman
had brought her husband out, and
he was one of these that thought
it wasn't all night, and they
rarely take breaks, but they do
take some breaks, and I was
outside because I was already
done, and I was outside talking
to, I think it was some of the
planesmen, and this door just
flies open, and it's this
couple, and she looks just like
she's in heaven, having the
greatest time. He comes out and
goes, 'Ah, shit, you didn't tell
me it's gonna be this long. No.
those things were fun. Yeah,
they used
to call them sundown to sun up.
They have a
sundown to sun up.
Oh, they would,
you know, a lot of the times
when they would get that many
groups together. I think the
reason that they.. I know the
reason that they did the sun
down to sun up thing, because it
was, you know, and they didn't
have as many air-conditioned
buildings back then, so they
were waiting for the sun to go
down,
exactly.
Yeah, they done under the
football lights or the baseball
lights. Yeah,
but I had more fun. I mean,
gospel groups were fun. I really
enjoyed watching them perform,
and then hanging out with them.
When
I was in, I was like, I think I
was about two weeks before I
turned 15. I went and auditioned
for this little gospel group. My
mama was selling houses at the
time. This guy, he was singing
with the gospel group. I was, my
son plays piano, and so I played
piano, and he sang a song. He
said, 'Hey, man, we're... They
called a month later and said,
'We're looking for a piano
player, you want to come try.
It's like, man, I was only 14 at
the time. I wound up getting the
gig, and I, you know, I turned
15, and so between 15 and
almost, I was only about a year,
I guess, about one season, but I
went out with this little gospel
crew from Madison, and my dad
kind of warned. Me, a little bit
about it,
then
you know, I could make more
money on the weekend than you
know, just going out for a
couple of days, and my friends
could work on all through the
week.
Oh, yeah,
so I did that Southern Gospel
circuit for a little while,
yeah, and then I have come full
circle on that, and I circle in
the drain back, back to some of
it. Maybe I ought to move to
Australia and go the other way.
Circle
back the other way.
What was there any like a
prodigal son moment musically,
where you kind of veered off,
because when you grew up in the
heyday of the bands, and you
know, the 80s, and stuff like
that, especially I would, in
your teenage years, was there
anything that influenced you,
like that would surprise
somebody, you know, any hair,
hair bands, or anything like
that,
we were definitely a hair act
of
Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, that kind
of thing, and
say, man, we like that kind of
fashion, but you know, I
remember whenever they, the
label came to us, said, you
know, you don't look like you
sound, and they wanted us to
kind of clean up a little bit,
and during that time, we knew
that we were, our gig was up
with Capitol Records at the
time, but we wanted them to know
that we were a country act, and
so I had the idea. We had a song
called Little Piece of Land at
the time. We were sort of a
video act, and it was one that I
loved video back then, but I
took a home camera and did
pre-production for this thing
down around our hometown, and
then we went with, then we took
a skeleton crew down there with
us and filmed, tried to recreate
what I'd done with a home movie
camera with film, and you know,
videos just cost a lot more
because of film and developing
and this and that, so we knew we
were only gonna get one or two,
we didn't want to do a lot of
editing, so we were planning
these, I had all the shots kind
of planned out, but it revolved
around our home movies, so we
would go to the exact same spot
where that home movie was filmed
and try to line the camera up,
so it faded back in and out of
time, and you know all our home
movies, when we were little,
there's like chickens running
around our legs, you know, you
know, cattle and grandma
chopping wood and working in the
fields, and yeah, yes, sir.
Every, every, every, every,
every piece of video we have, my
grandmother, she's never sitting
still, she's gathering eggs,
she's hanging clothes on the
line, she's chopping wood, she's
feeding animals. She never got
to shelling peas, she's never
got to do anything other than
work, you know. It didn't seem
like
mine was smoking cigarettes and
drinking martinis.
Anyway, man, it was like we
wanted them to know that we were
country at the time, and far as
any kind of big moment during, I
don't know, man, we there's been
a lot of great ones.
What's one that really sticks
out in your mind, that, like,
man, that was fun, like, like a
file cabinet moment, and you
just kind of follow it away, you
know. You're always gonna
remember
it. He has tough questions,
hopefully they're good
questions.
They are what I felt like, what
was the.. what was the original?
Just,
just like you know, a standout
moment that you're like, "Oh my
gosh, this is.. I remember this
for the rest of my life. You
know,
I got to play for every
president one night.
Wow,
pretty, pretty incredible thing.
I was playing drums with
Alabama, and we did a thing down
in Texas. We had played the
inauguration for our current
president, the first time
around, we actually played the,
I think it was called the
Chairman's Ball. It was the
night before the inauguration,
actually, Steve Wynn and all
these busy all kind of wild
people there. I've been so
blessed to be around different
things. It's, you know, really
have been blessed to be around
certain circles, and you know
the thing is, is as a musician,
those kind of gigs, like with
Restless and Alabama, and this
and that, I did get to play with
the Oak Ridge Boys for 17 years,
but those other groups don't
hire you because of who your dad
is. You gotta be able to play to
be able to sing, play, and sing
with them. So I was proud of
that, being able to do that. But
we did a thing down out in Texas
called One America Appeal, and
there I was, man. I had this
little snare drum that my
brother found on the side of the
road. They were kids. My mama
was driving. My brother says, "I
just saw a suitcase on the side
of the road. We turn around and
go get it. It was between
Hendersonville and White House
at the time, I remember. And
Mama said, "This has got to be
somebody's room. So she took out
an ad in the paper, "Lost and
Found, and we put it in there
for three months, so this drum
just described it, what kind it
was, what color it was, where it
was found, what was in the case,
and that was our first real drum
that went with the little Jap,
sorry, the off brand kit,
yeah. Sorry, what the cheap
it was a Lud week, and we had
this little drum, and man, I had
put a set of drums together for
my nephew at the time, and I
gave it when I gave him that
drum to put together with these
other drums, it still had the
same head on it that we had when
we were kids, because we had
drawn little pictures on it and
written, you know, put an STP
sticker on the side. So I told
him, I said, 'Hey, man, you
still got that drum kit? when he
got a little older, and he said,
'No, I gave it to my cousin on
my mama's side. I said, 'Well,
man, oh, it's fine and dandy,
but if you're not playing them,
I'd like to get that little red
drum back, because it's
sentimental to me. That was my
first reel when I got, I put a
new head on it, put new wires on
it, tweaked it out, and I played
it, and that's the drum I took
to play on that date with the
Presidents.
A drum like that, you'd probably
have to get the bearing edges
redone at some point,
well, I never did, because it
sounded so good. Oh, that's
just.. I call it my honey boy,
and I've played it on, I've
played it on so many sessions,
it's just got a great warm sound
to it. And I wound up was kind
of a special moment to me to
look down at that little drum
and know that's the one I've
been playing since I was five
years old.
What it was,
it was a Ludwig,
well, or what kind of wood?
Maple,
I don't know, man. It's just it
was just a red sparkle
wood. It
was a 1964 I do know that it was
one of them, red sparkle woods.
Yeah, but man, I got to play
that for them, and that night I
got to meet, you know, it was
Clinton, Carter, Obama, both
Bushes, and
George
W.
We were all there together,
strategic. Got to talk to Lady
Gaga, stop and talk to me that
night. Oh, wow, it's pretty
cool. It was several of us
there, and it was I'd also
gotten to play the White House,
and been around the bushes
before, and that was one of them
times I was in a dressing room
in Galveston one night, and the
Oaks were like 20 minutes late,
and I walked, I'm in the
dressing room by myself, and the
bushes walked in, and I
entertained him for like 15
minutes by myself, which was
wild. I had so many questions I
wanted to ask about different
things, but I didn't. Hopefully,
you were.. I knew he was head of
the CIA. Hey, man, what about
did you kill Kennedy?
He knows who
did. Well, that had to be pretty
trippy, because George Bush,
George H.W. Bush, was a huge fan
of the Oaks. I know
he was, and then
the, the,
his son, man, I had gotten to
play the White House during
that, during that era too, and
that night I knew that the
presidents were gonna be there.
I was wearing the cuff links
that he had given us, you know,
he'd give my got a pair of that
with a presidential seal on it.
That's what I wore that night
anyway. Pretty, pretty surreal
moment for me. That was a, that
was a big moment. Yeah, mainly
because I'd heard later that
they don't, you know, the all of
them don't get together in this
very room, unless another one is
about passed away, is when they
all get together. So it was a
pretty rare deal for them to all
get together for something like
that.
Did they all mingle with each
other and all seem to get along?
Oh no,
like they
were still on two teams, man.
Oh, really? Yeah, that That's
real, because you always imagine
you always hear, like, behind,
you know, when the cameras are
off, it's like professional
wrestling. They're all like, you
know, well, yeah, I can see that
to some degree. They were in the
same room, it was not very many
of them in there, but I've just
remembered that, you know,
Carter and Obama were standing
there together, and then the
Bushes were together, and then
Clinton was just.. he was
everywhere.
He was looking for interns.
What, but you know, George H.W.
Bush, Clinton used to hang out
with him quite a bit. Kenny
Buckbird, yeah. He, in fact, he
called himself I'm the black
sheep of the family guy.
Different problem child, I like
going to islands.
What's wild is, you know, those
got to go up there a bunch to
Kenny Punk Port, and Dad was
told me that talk about
something, so you know one of
his moments would have to be
sitting there in a sauna and a
nothing but a toggle with
President this
water's cold,
it's a little nipple,
like sausage
gladiator movies,
you watch gladiator movies.
When you played the White House,
did the Secret Service go over
your kit, and you know, check it
out?
No, sir. But the one thing about
that, that I remember, I
remember them, you know.
Honestly, I'm gonna let you on a
little secret. I'm a spoiled. I
never set my stuff up. I wasn't
there when they went through
everything, but I remember that
day they said, now listen, this,
you know, whenever you meet the
queen, you know you don't reach
out, you know you don't touch
the queen, right? You don't, you
just kind of bow to the queen or
the king or whoever, the
princess, whatever. There's a,
the president don't shake his
hand unless he puts this out to
you, you know, you don't shake
their hand.
Yeah,
you just, you know, so during
the show, man, he walks up on
stage, he's looking around. I
know we're on a podcast. I don't
know if these cameras work, but
soon as he went, soon as he
looked at me, and he kind of
nodded like that, my arm just
went.
I couldn't have
it. Did he respond?
Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Yeah,
didn't leave you hanging.
No, sir.
Gosh, there it happened to you
where you go to shake somebody's
hand and they don't see you, and
you're sitting, you're like,
like Don
Henley.
Yeah,
there you go.
I'll see myself out, or
Joe Biden shaking hands with
nobody.
Mitch McConnell moments, total
freeze.
What kind of.. what's your kid
configuration? What do you like?
Two up, two down,
drums.
Yeah, I'm a drummer. I'm a nerd
that way. Okay, man,
I got a hybrid kit. I got a
hybrid kit. I got an old, it
would be considered Master
Series now, but it was, it was a
Pearl Custom Shop at the time. I
wanted 10 by 1012, by 1214,
1416, 2222 So my kick is pretty
22 is
a pretty deep kick,
that's Alex Van Halen size kick,
that's my shells, right?
Oh my gosh, 22
shells, I got DW hardware, Lud
Wiggins, Rogers snare drums, I
got a Sabian ride, I got mine,
all crashes, I got Zildjian
hats, I got a Yamaha stool, and
I classed just total hybrid
kids. So,
basically, you're advertising to
everybody, especially the symbol
manufacturers. I am for sale, I
mean, an endorsement.
I was not endorsed by anybody. I
always went with what sounded
best, as far as, like, the, you
know, Zildjian symbols. I love
Zildjian, man. And, but I would,
I love that Sabian ride. It just
sounded great to me, and I'd
have to hear, you know, people.
It's that sound in my head that
I was chasing,
yeah,
from my childhood, mainly.
Yeah, which
were that, but I'm not beholden
to any company for, for that,
you know, I just went with what
sounded best to me at the time.
Maybe you get endorsements from
all of them. The symbols are the
ones that you got to watch, man.
Those are the.. I mean, he
couldn't freaking 1000s of the
symbols outweigh them, price the
drums sometimes, most of the
time.
Well, that's kind of why I went
with mine, all for a little
while, because I was going
through them, man. I was, go,
you know, I remember the old, in
the old days. Maybe I were just
younger, but it didn't seem like
I would go through symbols as
much back then. I would have the
same symbol for all these, you
know, till I.. we were opening
for Louisiana LaRue, and I guess
that guy's got it now. I left it
on stage, you know, but anyhow,
I was going through them with
the Oaks. I was going one or two
crashes a year, and it just
seemed like it was too much,
man. And then I started trying
these models. They had a two
year warranty on it, like if it,
you know, messes up in two
years, bring it back. Back, so I
thought, well, that's, you know,
at this rate I would have, you
know, I would be better ahead if
I tried those miles out, and I
wound up loving them, and it's
been way over two years, and
never, never, nothing ever went
wrong with them, but that's not
the, I don't know if it's a
different kind of metal they
started using than what they did
on the Vantage stuff, I don't
know if they started putting,
you know, yeah, making them
watering them down a little bit,
the metal, so I don't know,
I mean, to offer an awardee on a
symbol is just ludicrous, but I
mean it goes just as to show you
that they, the profit margins
and those things must be
massive,
yeah,
but how much does it really cost
to make one of them? I mean,
it's probably a lot of, well,
that's where that's my stupid
geeky business mind that goes
there, but you know,
some of them are hand hammered,
yeah, some of them are machine,
yeah.
So, if anybody ever gets it,
now, are you going to do any
more shows? Because you do these
great shows in Gallatin at the
Gallatin Theater. I love those
shows. Are you? I
sure hope so. The last one was
the, I think, the best one we've
ever done. The last one, and I
sure hope to. That started out
as an album release party.
Yeah,
had a new album out, and I
wanted to do an album cover, I
was looking for a small theater
to do with this album cover in,
and it was long and narrow, and
I had the little colored scone
lights going up. Palace
Theatre's the oldest movie house
in the state of Tennessee. It is
still operating. It's tiny, but
there's.. it doesn't seed as
many as it used to. The people
are bigger now. Did you know
that
spread them out a little bit?
Yes, we're Americans, we
land issue. Yeah,
I also like the Temple Theater
too. That was,
that's a great one too. And
we're talking about going up
there, but I've got the palace
reserved for this October.
Sometimes
awesome,
mid-October, I'll probably be
back down there with my family,
and we just call it family and
friends. And I used to have a
lot of friends come with me and
get up and do a song or two, and
I wound up being more of the
host, where I just kind of
bringing people out all the
time, but now my family has come
on so much that just like
featuring them a lot.
I don't blame you. They are very
talented, but
they are,
and you know, if you ever, you
know, if Devin O'Day has ever,
you know, God bless her, I love
her, but if she's ever, you
know, she can't do it, or you
know, bring you on like she does
sometimes, we'd be glad to do.
Yeah,
I think we could swing that.
What do you think?
I think so. Or, if Devin
wouldn't mind a couple of guys
being up there,
no, she'd love to be right in
the middle of, yeah.
Oh, I love her, man. She is a
sweetheart.
She is,
but I would suggest to anyone
that if you ever get a chance to
go see Chris, no matter, he's on
the road all the time. That's
why I had a hard time getting
him in here, because I had to
look at his schedule. The dude's
constantly on the road.
Well, I gotta keep it rolling.
That's right, baby,
gotta
keep it rolling. I got 478,000
miles on that vehicle
van. You can't give that up, can
you?
No, it's like a part of the
family now.
Yeah, you get sentimental about
the vehicles,
so whenever I turned over
300,000 miles, I had this song
out, and a video of this got
this van going through the
cotton fields back home, and
it's the song is called
Grateful, and it's mainly called
Grateful for the Road That Lies
Ahead, you know, it's the name
of this song, I'm grateful for
the looking back, I'm thankful,
and I'm grateful for the road
ahead, and you know, the one
upstairs. Anyway, I wrote, I
wrote Chevrolet. I knew that Ron
Chancey had some contact with
them, did all those like a rock
commercials with.. I thought,
man, you know, I'm gonna try
to.. I would love to be able to
do it, you know. I thought this
was just the best song for their
whole next 10 year theme, man,
of you know, turning the keys to
the old one in, getting the new
car, looking in the rear view
mirror, you know, whatever. And
I, so I wrote them, I sent them
that video, and I wrote to their
department, I said, you know,
try to make it like just like my
father and his father before
him. I'm a Chevy man, you know,
and I just went through this
whole thing. I travel the byways
and the back roads all across
America. I'm a troubadour, and
this is what I do, and I'd love
to, you know, be considered for
the consider this song. Said,
well, congratulations on 300
miles to show you how much we
appreciate you. We're gonna send
you a free oil change.
Come on, give a guy a break.
Come on, I didn't want a new
van, I just. Wanted to be able
to sing a song, and I could have
been able to afford a new
band. Have you ever done any? I
mean, you got such a tremendous
baritone. I mean, it's the
family tradition there. I mean,
voiceover. You ever do anything
like
that? I have.
I would think so.
You know what's wild. Speaking
of Chancey, they had called,
they were doing this thing for
Hines 57 and they, they were
looking for a hillbilly voice,
and it was these two guys, mid
one was kind of midwest and one
was southern, and they
auditioned people in Houston,
Atlanta, and Nashville, and when
I went down there to audition,
they at first wanted Dad, Ron
Chance, he said, William Golden
is the most southern sounding
guy I know, but what it wound up
being, they were going to do
these live events with these two
guys, where we, they would go to
Talladega, they'd go to
Pittsburgh to the Three Rivers
Fest, see Sea Fest in Seattle,
we'd go to upstate New York to
the fair to look at Georgia
South Florida, we would go all
over the country doing these
events, and they said he's too
recognizable. People, nobody
will believe that this guy is
Jim Bruck, because they had to
use a different name, but I
needed something bad to happen
for me, and I needed something
good to happen for me in a bad
way, real man. I prayed that
night before, Lord, if it be
your will, please let this come
my way. And I went out to
Bradley's barn. There was Hoss
Burns,
oh yeah,
Charlie, Charlie Monk,
oh yeah,
all of these DJs lining up to do
this thing, because they knew it
was going to pay good and I
just, I kept thinking, how would
Andy Griffith do it? You know,
how good is some kind of
extra good.
Oh, and I started just thinking
about all that stuff, so bam,
before it was over, it was
nothing but it's a great taste.
57 I went out, I did that, and
we would go to these events, and
they would have a big booth set
up, and they would, you know,
cooking steaks, and they were
doing this steak sauce challenge
between a one and 57 and so my
partner was the writer, the main
producer on it. It would be like
you writing and producing it,
and then all of a sudden they
couldn't find anybody better
than you for the voice.
Yeah,
so the he wound up, he was just
doing the other read while they
were auditioning.
Yeah,
we'd get there, there were
people from Chicago, from the
Leo Burnett agency. He was from
Houston, he was the guy
producing it. And then you'd
have Heinz people from
Pittsburgh, and we'd all get
together at these big events.
They'd fly saying, and we'd be
at the Talladega. I'd say, can
you tell me who got the
checkered flag today? If this,
you know, you know who came in
first, or you know, I was the. I
was the color commentator. Hey,
my name is Jim Brook. What's
yours? And he'd say, well, what
do you do for a living? I'm a
school teacher. Well, see if you
can't educate me about this
steak sauce. That was my thing.
Now that you've mentioned that,
I'm starting to kind of.. hey,
nothing beats a great Heinz 57 I
did 93 of those with them, yeah.
Sam Elliott, you know that kind
of a thing. I mean, I come
across different jobs all the
time for voiceover. I, you know,
attempt to do them as best I
can, but
if you've got one, you think I
could
exchange cards before you leave.
Same
here. Hey,
now,
yeah, I mean, you know, I do the
voiceover stuff too, and you
know, I've got a couple of
agents in the specs, you know,
always either they want somebody
that sounds like Sam Elliott or
Morgan Freeman
or Trace Edgar.
Yeah,
there is a Sam Elliott sound a
lot out there. Yeah, I did this
one, Devin, that Devin called me
about, and said, "Hey, this
electric company's looking for
it, could be a pretty big deal.
And I learned the script, and
they produced it for me while we
were on. They were the guy was
on Zoom while I was recording.
Sure. Oh, wow. And he said,
"Man, can you slow it down just
a little bit? Can you get any
lower? So it was her, I told
him, I said, "Man, if we could
do it at like eight in the
morning, and I had done this
script, and I didn't get it, but
I was sitting there watching the
Super Bowl, and I hear that
commercial was like
that happens to me too, like I
auditioned for that, and they'll
say, you know, we want
non-announcer, that's that's the
thing, non-announcer, and then
you hear the fight, you see the
final spot, and the guy sounds
like the wait a minute, what the
hell,
yeah,
yeah, we call them pukers, yeah,
well, this one's, I think they
wound. Up getting the Sam
Elliott sound alike, because it
was locking, you know, sounded
just like him.
Can you pull off a Morgan
Freeman, Morgan Freeman? It got
us out of like an old man.
No, man, I pretty much got
one gear.
So, if I need a hillbilly,
I'm your guy. So many
applications, so many
applications.
What
tractor supply?
Well, tell your dad too, that he
needs to get the Goldens,
William Lee and the Goldens back
on the on the gig circuit, and
we need to see more shows,
you know.
Tell him Johnny B said that if
he doesn't do it, I'm gonna come
visit him.
I hit on it, you know, we took
some photos a couple of days
ago, and he got in some of them.
We were doing some with the
kids, and so, because we go out
and play and sing, I've just
done some solo shots. They do
solo things themselves, so we
were doing a big photo shoot.
They were going to be in some by
themselves, some with me, and
then it's like Dad was there,
and we got him in it on it, and
I just said, "Man, I, we sure
miss getting to do all that. I
wish we could do it some more. I
said, "I know these kids would
sure have fun with it, and he
said, "Well, I'd sure enjoy it
too. I'm sure you know, so
you got Michael Sykes, he can
play.
We're hopeful that we'll get
some more things going there.
Well, I hope so, man. I hope
everybody will check out your
site,
Chris golden.net I'm pretty easy
to find, man.
You are
on all the socials, and Chris
Golden, Chris Golden Muse at
Chris golden.net and out there
on bands in town. If you want to
keep up with where I'm coming,
and are going,
yeah, and go out and see him,
because I'm telling you, you,
you will enjoy it. This guy is a
great entertainer, he's a great
singer.
Got a brand new album coming
here in about three weeks, it's
called A Better Man, and our
Better Man, I wrote about half
of them on at this time got one
called Where My People Are that
I'm really excited about, and
it's just, I know I sing a lot
of songs about home and all, but
it's about where my people are
waiting, and you know, in the
third verse makes it to heaven,
so that's where my people are,
and that's where I want to go.
The further I get away, the more
I want to get where they are,
you know. Oh,
exactly. And I have to tell you,
your song, Home Man, that helped
me so much when I was going
through a rough patch.
Well,
and it, no songs ever made me
cry, but that one did. Yeah,
it's really good,
man. We all hit them little
patches, and look at you now,
I have to say, this guy on
Twitter, after I was let go, he
really put out something
inspirational out there to just
really touch me. Wow, he said I
would land on my feet like a
cat, said I was cool as a cat,
and I would land on my feet like
a cat.
Well,
very nice.
I think I've about used all mine
up now.
You can come back and see us
sometime,
man. That'd be a lot of fun. I
appreciate this.
Well, you're
always fun, and my wife loves
you, and your wife,
so I
love her too.
Oh, she's sweet. Yes, she is.
But definitely come back and see
us, and check out Chris Golden,
and you can check out Circling
the Drain too. Tell them,
absolutely, we're also.net that
would be Circling the drain.net
and of course, all the social
media platforms, the video
platforms on social media,
YouTube, Facebook, etc. Twitter,
you can find us there, and of
course, you can also find us on
all of the audio platforms,
Apple Podcasts, etc.
Thank you, Brother Jay.
Yes, sir.
Brother Jim, well, I'll be back
again. Join us here for Circling
the Drain.