Unknown: Yeah, I wish we just had hung a little bit more out
there. Yeah, well, it's funny. You bring that up. Somebody on
your crew, like, well, into the tour, commented like, Oh, I
didn't realize you guys were driving yourself, like we were
still in a van. Oh, my, that's why I thought we didn't care to
hang out because, like, we weren't into it or something.
No, we just to keep up with your tour busses. We had to leave as
soon as we got off stage. 2021
you guys were in a van, and now there's seven CMAs, six ACM an
Entertainer of the Year, a Grammy you played on the new
record. You probably have an awesome drum tech. People are
throwing gear at you. They're like, here's a jacket. Kid.
Throw this jacket on, wear it on stage.
This is the rich Redmond show.
I was thinking, what should we kind of pivot and talk about
today? And then I noticed that you were wearing yet another car
hard shirt, but it's in a different color, olive green,
which is very you like it, right? Flattering, yeah,
it's good. I just go to the Tractor Supply and pick them out
some
I just wonder, if you both bulk, bulk purchase, where you have
one for every day of the week. The
thing is, it looks good. It's durable. Okay, check them out.
Tractor supply.com,
go to your local tractor supplying for
for sponsors, right as well. We're sponsorless right now. I
hear Tractor Supply
has money for that kind of thing. We could use some of that
money. And Tractor Supply, we'd love some of your money.
I was listening to some old episodes where we had, you know,
Angie and Kelly McCarthy rock were sponsoring things and and,
you know, you produce the ads, and there's some pro level
stuff.
It's like when in Wayne's World, when everything was sponsored?
Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, I just cracked open another
bottle of pure life water. Well, you stop, for some reason, I
have two open bottles next to me, and I opened up another one.
So pure life, for when you want purity in life, I
like how you're breaking the fourth wall and looking right
into the camera.
And so this is a new thing that we're trying to start.
Obviously, we have begun the episode of the rich Redmond
show. It's usually very exciting. We talk about things
like music, motivation and success. Those are the three
things that come up without fail. But today we, you know, we
have had the grant cardones on. We have had the Victoria Jackson
Bradley. We've had Bradley on which I read his book. It's good
the hard way, the hard way, lessons he's learned in life the
hard way. So you don't have to That's right. And so I've been
enjoying that with my morning coffee. And we've had on guys
like Huey Lewis, great stuff. But we people want to know about
drummers, because, you know, this is the songwriting capital
of the world, Nashville, Tennessee. Someone's writing a
hit song right now, but without that drummer to bake the cake,
to build the foundation, this is just poetry swimming around the
ether, swimming around the uterus. We make things happen.
So let's get into it. I'm really excited for this young man today
and hailing from Laurel, Maryland, apparently it's 20
minutes from DC, big city boy celebrating 10 years in
Nashville. I met him really early on. We were on tour
together in 2021 he is the touring and recording drummer
for the award winning country recording artist Lainey Wilson.
Look at this. Seven CMAs, six ACMs. She's a Grammy winner,
Entertainer of the Year, and this was all in under five
years. Our friend Matt Nolan, What's
up, buddy? Hey man, thank you guys for having me.
Yeah, thanks for coming. You were you're so punctual.
Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah, I live just a bit away from here.
You're in the Herm Exactly. That's what me Kurt and Tilly
used to call it, because we have rented and shared many a band
house in Hermitage and Donaldson, yeah. And we were, it
was great, because in those days we were flying so much, and
you're right by the airport.
It's fantastic on fly dates. Just there. It's a very quick
Uber ride, yeah, but yeah, it's part of town. It seems like more
and more cats are ending up in. But are
you in a band house, or are you all growns up now by yourself?
No, my
fiance, Fallon, and I have a house, all right, been there for
about four years, so it's great the transition away from band
house, living. Fiance,
congratulations, man, thank you. What do you guys? Is it like a
loose date or
no, we're set when we're we're inside a month now it's March 29
so
March 20 I didn't get an invitation, but no, rich Neither
did I. No, it's a thing, man. You know, it's like, I get it
because, you know, just call me Ross. I'm the divorce guy. I
believe in love. I keep getting married. But you've got to feed
these people. You've got to, you know, and God forbid, the cash
bar. I get the cash bar, though, because this is, like, you know,
bunch of musicians, hey, drunks, you have to
rock the cash bar. Her
rock to Casper. Give me some good apps. All right, nice. So
are you keeping it intimate? Yes,
you know, trying to keep it small, it ended up working out
to where we actually got a Saturday, nice. And
did you clear it with with Miss Wilson? So it was like, Hey,
we're not gonna add something. And have
to, yeah, here's the thing, the best of her ability, right?
You've been married while you were with Jason. Yep, you went
through a wedding. You're about to go through one. Do you invite
your boss? Is that? Yeah? Absolutely.
Invite your boss. Yeah, yeah, no.
It's like, you know, when I moved to Vegas in Oh, one I was
there three months before my wife and I got married, and my
boss was like, I'm not invited. I'm like, Dude, I just moved
here three months ago. I just met you. And he's like, I'd
still like to be invited. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'll think
about that next time. I'm 25 I don't know any better. Plus,
it's 2000 miles away. Awkward. Sure you're invited. If you can
make it, we'll have you. Hey,
you know what I gotta tell you, Jim, I'll tell you. I tell you
to invite Jason. I'll tell you off camera. Okay, I'll tell you
off camera. But there is a wedding happening very soon with
one of my students. And I have mentored this kid for like, 15
years. I did not get invitation,
like things that make you go, Hmm, what did I do?
Yeah, but did you invite Jason to your wedding? When you the
last married,
oh, with um, Cindy. Cindy tried to think what our marriage was
like. I remember the the
I mean, he hosted your engagement party at his house, I
would think that you probably invited him.
Dude, I'm blanking, man, really, yeah, I really am. Wow,
all I've got is your your student might have assumed
you're just busy. Yeah, because you're so busy, let's go with
that.
That makes everyone feel better.
Oh, my God, you know what? You know, I just, I think you're a
delightful guy. I have a little guilt, because when you were out
on the road with us in 2021 I think that I was still carrying
around this weird I had a rough time in COVID, like, mentally,
okay, and emotionally, as we all do, it was rough for me. And
some people were just like, Dude, it's fine, man. I wrote my
best songs during that period. I was great. It's like, Man, I
went through most of it in Los Angeles, and it was like a
zombie apocalypse. It was so intense and so strict, and it
just got in my mind. And so when we were getting back on the road
in 21 we were still scrubbing up and testing up. And, yeah, I
wish we just had hung a little bit more out there. Yeah,
well, it's funny. You bring that up. Somebody on your crew, like,
well, into the tour, commented like, Oh, I didn't realize you
guys were driving yourself, like we were still in a van. Oh, my,
that's what I thought. We didn't care to hang out because, like,
we weren't into it or something. No, we just to keep up with your
tour busses, we had to leave as soon as we got off.
2021 you guys were in a van, and now there's seven CMAs, six
ACMs, an Entertainer of the Year, a Grammy you played on the
new record. You probably have an awesome drum tech. People are
throwing gear at you. They're like, here's a jacket. Kid,
throw this jacket on. Wear it on stage.
Jacket. Yes, drums now, but not yet. You know, well, you're a
sonar guy. Hey, I'm with sonar, and happy to be they've been
great. They've been very helpful, nice, but, yeah, but
we talked about that yesterday on another episode, that sonar
is really going on the offense? Yeah, they're getting
aggressive. They're getting offensive.
So I've noticed, I'm not privy to any insider information, but
I've noticed some additions.
You know, KHS is, it's May it's maypex. KHS sonar, right? So, is
it one of your go to guys, Henry, go is Henry?
Is my, my sonar Artist Relations, okay, so I
know Henry, so it's the best I'm gonna text Henry right after
this thing. Let's because Henry and I were like, drinking
buddies at the red door for like, a decade, okay, when he
was working at innovative percussion.
Well, in a past life, you played sonar, right? I did for for a
decade,
right? Yeah. And I loved all the drums I had the I had the S
class I had the the lights, and I had the SQ twos rescue one was
SQ one, sq two, sq two. And I the only kit that I kept. I kept
the S Class kit, 22, inch kick, 1216, and I recorded that, are
you going to kiss me or not? 2011 Thompson square song on,
and it was so it's kind of like a little piece of country music
history.
What's their high line? Like, flagship Sq,
right? Is it SQ too? Yeah.
Well, this particular year, it's this Anniversary series. But,
yeah, ordinarily the SQ two
because, you know, Mercedes has an S class. And it's the
flagship of the brand, yes. So there's
another interesting
connection to Mercedes there. They made these drums in the 70s
and 80s called the phonic, sorry, the pharaoh manganese
snares, yes. And apparently they really had the same metal that
Mercedes made the hood, or admits out of really? Yeah, they
source the metal in the exact same place. I wonder if they
have a kinship. Well, other than both being German
by chance, looking for a, you know, one off guy to endorse for
a Huey Lewis and a news tribute act
that sounds like exactly what
they're that's what they're looking
for. Jim is in a Huey lose tribute band, and they are
playing may 28 at City winery. That's the city winery, and me
and about 10 other drummers are gonna have a giant like last
supper type table, that's right, and we're gonna drink wine and
eat pizzas and watch you sit there judge me and laugh. No
judging, but that's right, that's a tough book, man. He's
got this one song. It's 12 minutes. It's a 12 minute medley
with a bunch of pushes and figures, and it goes into Boys
Are Back of town. There's a 16 bar drum soul. And then he's got
to go back
into, like, a New Orleans, New Orleanian type of shuffle. Oh,
yeah.
And Jim doesn't play all the time, you know what I mean. But
he's getting back into it, yeah, first very,
very first day. Yeah, we're three months out from it.
Hey, so you're not, um, you're not a girl. So I can ask you how
old you
are, correct on both fronts. I'm 36 Okay,
yeah, because the girls don't like that. So 36 that is a great
time. I would say it's a great time in a man's life, I had a
great time between 36 and like 46 great, great window, great
things were happening late. It was very enjoyable time. So
I agree, Work Life has been good. Home Life is great, yeah,
you know, enjoying some things that have come from all the hard
work up to this point, yeah, you know. So, yeah, it does feel
good.
36 is going okay, soak it up. So before you connected with Laney,
you spent some time with Maggie rose. I love her. Them vibes,
and then the Morrison Brothers Band. Tell us about that,
because I have some experience with the Morrison Brothers
Band. Do I not? You do?
Yeah, the Morrison Brothers Band was a country rock band my
brother now we're in, and that was a band we moved to Nashville
with. And for those of you listening, I first met rich. We
were writing songs. This is, I don't know how much of that
you're still doing. I'm not personally doing a ton, yeah,
but yeah at that time, yeah and yeah. So we got introduced and
met on a songwriting appointment. That's right. So,
yeah, that was,
that was really so it's fun. We got to go back and maybe find
the song we wrote that
day. I'm sure, if I look hard enough, in these old drop boxes,
I could probably pull it
out. Yeah, I'm wondering if there's a iPhone recorder demo
I do. And I remember you brought your, your hand drum, yeah, your
Jim Bay, yeah, that was the percussion on the work tape. I
love
it because you can make it sound like a kick and a snare and it
and then once you get that, that iPhone recorder out, it
compresses it delightfully, yeah, you know. But yeah, no,
it's, I would say it's hard to keep both of those worlds alive,
you know. So I had my publishing deal for five years, and my
buddies, Curt and Tully, you know, Curt and Tully, they kind
of kept going with it, yeah, and I asked to not up my deal again.
But you're at a point where you don't, man, you don't need a
deal. You can just write great songs and you have great
relationships.
Yeah, I would say where it's where it's ended up is I
wouldn't want a publisher to feel like they didn't have my
focus. And now, yeah, while there was a time in my life
where I was aggressively pursuing a publishing deal,
yeah, it doesn't seem offhand like a publisher would feel like
they were getting the most of me well, because you only have
three days a week to play with. Yeah, we still write, you know,
situationally, it makes sense. And we, we've written with Laney
here and there, you know. Well,
that is really smart, because either that or you're writing in
the room next to her and she hears something she likes you
like, hey, yeah, come check this out.
Yeah, I wish that would have more often. But she doesn't seem
to be pressed for good ideas. They're, yeah, they're flowing
right now, yeah, you gotta, you gotta muscle in to get her
attention when it comes to songwriting.
So all these great experiences you guys have done all the you
know, the Grand Ole Opry gotta do that you got tonight. Show,
Kimmel today. Show, Good Morning America. Dallas Cowboys,
Thanksgiving Day, I think we did some sort of thing like that.
Fun. I was really upset that they didn't have turkey for us.
They had chicken, fried chicken. No,
no, we had turkey. Yes, because you guys are, you
know, great. ACM, CMAs, people, choice words. Any good memories
here? Favorite, green rooms. Favorite. At situations.
Oh, I don't know the green rooms. I'm sure you know it.
They all look the same. Every loading dock looks the same. I
know, you know,
we don't really see Jim was like, you haven't seen Mount
Rushmore? I was like, I have, no, I haven't seen the Grand
Canyon.
I haven't personally been to the Grand Canyon. I have personally
been to Mount Rushmore once. Yeah, but yeah, there's
certainly some performances that stand out. Yeah. But yet, the
minutia, the daily stuff, it's crazy, how it does kind of run
together. Now, what
do you do to keep your sanity? Are you like a are you workout
guy? Are you a reading guy? Or you go find a local coffee shop?
Guy, definitely
find the coffee shop. I try to stay in a practice routine. It
just seems like a thing that you can occupy amounts of time on
the road, yeah, working on the hands, the pads and constructive
way to to waste time,
yes, so you don't get into death, scrolling and all that
kind of stuff. It
happens. Yes, I'm aware that, you know, there are better ways
to keep your mind. I
mean, I'll do it. I'm like, oh my god, yeah, here's an hour.
What am I doing? Yeah, yeah, sucks,
yeah. I should get into some kind of workout routine though.
You know, well,
you're just naturally lean,
yeah, I thought you were about to say strong. You're
naturally lean. And thank God I didn't wear that jacket today,
because they have the same jacket. Was that, right? Yeah,
just throw it on. It works. Man, this
is always faithful. Yeah? I was thinking the same thing.
Does Carhartt make a
jean jacket type thing? Of course, definitely they make
it's a canvas, yeah, it's durable. Now,
what's the deal with that company? Is it like a Dickies,
kind of like work wear. Is that how they started? Durability.
You
want to go out, you know, work on the ranch, yeah, do some
electrical work, get up on ladders and crawl through
addicts. This is the clothing to wear. Car hard at Tractor
barrel. Tractor barrel.
Tractor barrel. Let's get
hybrid advertisers. Let's start a store called tractor barrel.
Well,
we had, we had Eric Pritchard on the show, you know, Megan
drummer, and he was talking about getting barreled, you
know, by this getting barreled thing. He loves Cracker Barrel.
Okay? He goes around and he eats at all the Cracker Barrels in
the country. And he takes a signed eight by 11, and he has
him framed, and he puts them on the walls at all the Cracker
Barrels,
okay? And they're in black and white. That's
awesome. Do people not stop you? They're like, Oh, sir, what are
you doing? He goes, No, I just make sure that there's like, a
little empty space on the wall kind of away from folks. And I
just, he has one of those, those stick them things, the two sided
tape or whatever. It isn't nice. So smart,
the closest I think I've done in past bands. You know, remember
when Starbucks used to sell CDs? Yeah? You know, sometimes you
happen to leave five or six in there.
That's really smart, but, and it's but, it's got the but they
couldn't run it through the register. No, obviously not. It
was just for grassroots marketing, you know? Yeah,
whatever happened? Happened? Ah, that's smart. So are you
Starbucks guy? Because there's a Starbucks right there. It
happens to
be the closest coffee shop to my house, you know, meow. Oh, yeah.
Did they get because I'm always Mitch Rich
has noted that the cup says meow and there's a cat face drawn on
it. I have no idea what that's about.
I don't know. Maybe there was a girl that was thought you were
meow.
Hard to say.
So you're always, did they do that on purpose? By chance
get your name wrong? Yeah. Well, I have a friend, Stockton, hell
big, and he is an instructor, a drum set instructor, at the
University of North Texas, and he used to tour with Maynard
Ferguson. Oh, no. So there's an on campus Starbucks, and what he
does every day, it's his viral post that he puts on, and he
just takes a picture of the different names he gets. He goes
to the same place every day, and they have never gotten his name
right. Stockton, really interesting. No, it's like, you
know, stick man or stock you know, it's, it's always wrong
every day. So,
wow, yeah, crazy. It's, I don't know what. I don't get Starbucks
enough for them to screw up my name. So you're always Mitch
nine times out of 10. I met you. How do you get Mitch from rich?
I understand the obvious, yeah, but ruh and muh,
unless I'm a mumbler, I don't know.
I think it's part of like the game within the game is they're
going to put something other than your actual name on. It's
like thing no matter what. Yeah,
it's like putting a picture up at Cracker Barrel. Now, I guess
you know, it's going to become like an internet sensation of
some sort virality,
yeah. Now I was looking here that you went to Loyola in New
Orleans, and I was thinking to myself, well, maybe that's the
connection with Lainey, because she's from Louisiana, too.
She is. She's from northern Louisiana,
and the way that state's shaped, it's not all that close to New
Orleans. Yeah, yeah, I think she did like that detail that we've
spent time there and appreciated
it. Yeah, did the whole band get hired as an ensemble? No,
I. No, definitely not. We kind of came one by one, huh? Who?
Who's the first to be hired so Aslan, the guitar player and the
band leader. He's been playing with her since before she was
signed. They were playing bars together. Nice. I didn't come
aboard until 2020. She had recently gotten a record deal.
My brother was the year before me, Tommy, our bass player, was
the year after me. He also did some subbing. So yeah, it was
kind of one by one. And then we have the fantastic sav Madigan,
who plays, really, any stringed instrument, anything with a
strings are bought off. I love those guys. Yeah, she's been
with us for over a year now, that's awesome. So yeah, we're
up to five piece backing band, and
you guys don't have a dress code. You're allowed to be as
hip and crazy as you want. All
we've ever been told is, you know, look fitting, yeah? So the
sky's the limit. She doesn't usually dress down on stage, no,
as you know, it's an event, yeah? So it can be a high bar,
yeah? But yeah, no, they've it's not like a dress code or
anything.
Yeah, you're not required to wear bell bottoms. No,
I would say encouraged, but not, not required, very difficult to
play drums. Yeah? It would totally get stuck. Yeah, it's
happened. It really inopportune times before. Oh, I hate that.
Yeah. So
she is speaking of all the engagements going on. She just
got engaged
two days ago, apparently. Huh? She did. It was last week. Yeah.
So are you expecting to get invited to
hers? I'm not sure you know it's, it's, it's, whatever it is
we we invited her to ours. Said, Hey, I understand there's 1000
reasons why this might not work for you, and that's fine. Yeah,
did
you use maybe some Catholic guilt in there? But you know,
we'd love to see you there, but we get it. Yeah, do what you
need to do. He's
doing impersonation of his
my mother, his mother. Yeah, my mother used to do that, gotta
rest your soul, gotta rest your soul. And I could actually say
that. It makes sense now, but there's a my mother was the kind
of person that would be like, Oh, where you going? We I grew
up in the Northeast with a cigarette in her mouth. Where
you going? I'm gonna go out. You know, I could be telling her,
this is the best thing that's ever gonna happen to me. I
imagine this event is going to be played in the scenes you see
before you die. You know how you see your life flash before your
eyes? I anticipate this event to be one of those things. This is
going to be so monumental. And I've been so looking forward to
it. Oh, good, because when you get back, we got something to
talk about, sort of God, we had to ruin it, yeah? So you could,
you know, it's, it's effective, right? For people who don't know
that they're being, you know, Rick rolled, Catholic style,
Catholic girls, little Frank
Zappa. So what did your parents do? I'm sure they were
supportive. Yeah, very
supportive. Neither were musicians. Both music fans,
yeah? Dad had a big record collection. Mom always had the
oldies station on. And at the time I was growing up, that
primarily meant we were listening to music from the, you
know, late 50s and 60s, yeah? So Motown, Memphis, Muscle Shoals,
you know, little Mary wall, wall of sound. Beatles, all of that.
Yeah, British invasion. That was, that was always on when we
were riding around with mom. So it was really their listening
and their enthusiasm for what they listened to that this music
thing must have emerged from my brother and I Yeah, so what
you're so with your brother? I mean, you probably had some
family bands pretty early on, we
did. We struggled to find some guys that live nearby to play
with. But once I got maybe, like, late high school, and we
were starting to drive each other around, we found some guys
and started, yeah, playing at coffee houses and, you know,
church events, whatever we could find, yeah, you know, we would
go well out of our way to play music in front of people, yes,
and continue to do so for many years.
Yeah, I love that, and I love hearing about that, because not
to sound like the Get off my lawn guy, but I usually say one
thing per episode that sounds like, Get off my lawn. But, you
know, the crazy kids now they're like, learning just how to DJ.
And it's like, I like the idea of, like, just being passionate
about a musical instrument and doing and working on this craft,
and then finding the people to get into a room to do the thing,
and then you're like, Yeah, play the school prom. Heck, yeah, you
know.
But no, that's, that's the attitude, right? Whether we were
under rehearsed, whether we had one too few people on stage,
whether we were too novice to be really executing the music in
the set, like when you're that age, it's just get me in front
of people with the drum set I'm there.
Yeah, there's something about when you add that audience into
the room, it just, it just. It gives it purpose, and it
focuses, and it's like, I'm sending this out to you, baby.
Would you do that? You'd actually identify somebody?
Would you play to somebody I like to
like? Do you pick people out? Yeah,
every once in a while, yeah, yeah, you definitely do. I've
seen you do it, yeah,
you pick people out. And that way, you know, everybody in that
area kind of feels special, right? Because they're
like, Wow, he's really focusing. Who tell you my ticos Torres
story? Um,
is this when he was playing with a screwdriver in his hand
instead of drumsticks or what? I don't know, what? What story?
What? No, there was one time where he didn't have drumsticks.
Did you have a drum? I think he was auditioning for the band or
something, and he picked up, like, two wrenches or something.
I had a guy. We had saw, we saw Bon Jovi at Mandalay Bay, yeah.
And because of my connections in radio on this particular tour,
Bon Jovi had like, side stage access, where they would platoon
people up and they got to hang out for about 20 minutes on
either side of the stage and watch the band up close. And
John would come by and high five people and stuff, and Courtney
and I got to go up there, and she was in front of me, and she
wanted to she was a huge fan of Jon Bon Jovi. And if you
mentioned this, she'll point to her arm and shake. This is where
He sweated, right? But the whole time, like I was just watching
Tiko play, and he and I just locked eyes. And it's like, one
of those things where you kind of look at somebody like, hey,
and you kind of need to look away. And you're like, he just
kept looking at you. He was like, just lasers, just burning
holes through the back of my
head. Something must have been going on in his brain. He was
kind of just kind of looking in that direction. He was probably
thinking about what he was playing, I wouldn't take it
personally. Oh,
I didn't take it personally. It was just kind of off putting,
yeah, which, you know, something I need to do is get off putting.
Oh, Jim, give us. Give yourself a good I mean, these are dad
jokes to the extreme. I think you have a you have a doctorate
in and bad jokes waiting for it. Do you know our buddy Tony Mora?
He's like, a great session drummer here in town. He's been
here 30 years anyways, right up the road in Franklin, he's got,
he was the first cat in Nashville to take his garage and
turn it into a world class recording studio. Okay? And
like, he was in mixed magazine, and all these producers in
Nashville were, like, they had it out for him, and they were
sending them, like, mean messages, Hey, man, you're
ruining things for people that he just was a visionary. He saw
that. That's where it was going. Yeah? Jon Bon Jovi recorded
vocals in his studio
last week. That's a good reason to reach back out to the haters
and be like, what were you saying? Yeah?
Because, you know, as these as commercial studios are
demolished, yeah, it's not a big deal to have somebody, a
celebrity, go to someone's basement, right, to record
something. Yeah, it's very common,
because it's like, now they're getting so more access
accessible, yeah, you know what I mean, yeah. I mean, but then
again, I'm biased, because I've been around celebrity for a
majority of my professional life. Yeah, you got to get used
to them here. You know, you actually put your pants on one
leg at a time, but
when you do make gold records, yeah? Hey, do you have a place
for you to kind of make some noise at the house, or they do
little recording? Yeah? I have a converted garage. That's
what you did, yeah? So is it completely soundproofed?
No, no. The exterior walls have been modified so that hopefully
it's not so obvious what's going on,
so the doors don't go up, or if they do, it's just another wall
in front of it. I
wish, yeah, it wasn't a massive space to begin with. So there
are very obvious things that most studios do that we were
just going to lose too much square footage on but yeah,
reducing the amount of volume that leaked out into the
neighborhood seemed like a useful and a polite idea.
There's got to be a level of forgiveness from neighbors if
it's during the day. Yeah,
yeah, they're all pretty cool. We're close with our neighbors,
and the house closest to that room, there's folks that rent
that. So really, we kind of lucked out. If they had a
problem with it, I'm not sure they could really affect much.
That's good, but no more lucky. You know that everybody's just
cool. Everybody's looking out for each other.
More than anything, it's more of like
it's sending a smoke signal out into the universe. Come rob me.
You know what I mean,
exactly, exactly. So it was important to us to be a little
bit more discreet about it. And I can hear two other musicians
on our street. I mean, so you're never far,
Alex, I heard the first Garage Band the other day across the
street in my neighborhood. Yeah, it was a guitar it must have
been a kid with his drums and a guitar player just having a
ball. Now, that just warms my heart.
It really does, because that's what that's where we came from.
That's where I came from. Yeah, man, no, in a garage totally.
And you know, those guys play if, as long as they can decently
play it's not annoying, yeah, you know, yeah. So I'd imagine
that even if it's loud, but hearing somebody play their
instrument tastefully, you don't really mind it, yeah, I wouldn't
think so. You know, yeah,
yeah. And as long as it's not gratuitous, you know, I'm not,
I'm not banging away at midnight or strange hours, or six in the
morning, you
know, you know, 10 to 6am is kind of when I want to practice
my blast beats. That's a
fantastic time to practice. My favorite time to practice, yeah,
the way home life is right now, that's not the routine I've
ended up in. Oh,
you know, Sepultura hour at 4am
how many dates are you guys doing these days?
This coming year? I think we're shooting for 75 ish the last two
years. No, sorry, the last four years, it's been considerably
more. Yeah, the year we were out with you guys, we were somewhere
up near 150
and it was like 180
then 150 again, in last year was 120
but the 100 something was in a van. You guys went to the bus in
2022 right, yeah,
that sounds right, yeah, I believe so. So
that's when she really kind of hit. Was around that time. Yeah,
we
had our first, I say we she had her first big hit while we were
on the road with you guys. Yeah? Because I remember the moment we
found out it went number one. We had a cake. And I remember there
was guys from yours band and grew and they're celebrating
just eating, eating all the cake. Yeah, I remember I offered
someone I was walking around. They were like, invite all the
guys. And I was like, Hey, do you want you want cake? And
somebody thought I was making a reference to something else.
They thought it was code for something. I was like, No, we
literally have cake. Would you like some? I was like, Man,
you've been hanging out with with yours band too long. Most
people mean, do you want a piece of cake?
Yeah, cake has a different meaning, though, I guess,
anyway. But yeah, it was, it was a steady climb from there, you
know, I was around the first times we noticed people starting
to sing along. And then when we started noticing people singing
along to songs that hadn't been radio singles, nice, you know.
And you just start observing this evidence that things are
kind of coming together. Yes, you know, and we're all
it's more fun when they're singing along.
It does. But I mean, and you know, that's as well as anybody,
um, when the songs are doing good and the albums are doing
good, and hopefully the record label and management are feeling
like things are going okay. It takes the pressure a little bit
off of what you and I do. Yeah, you know, it's, it's not unheard
of for various people or things to get kind of, I don't know,
assessed as part of the problem. Yes. So yeah, it's great when
things are just going, going
smashing. Well, yeah, our sing along song. Back in my days with
Connecticut, white bread Jim was the every episode, the esteemed
crowd favorite, what's up your butt? That was the Sing along.
Oh, I'll tell
you what's up. My butt just went to go get to my physical today,
and I told the guy, no,
I'm not even sure how much that was made up. No,
that's not made up at all. Okay.
We were going half and half. He played kind of like an early rap
rock band in Connecticut, okay, yeah. They were like, I guess
you could, you could probably say an early version of what
Limp Bizkit became, yeah, okay, yeah. People still love that
stuff they do. I could never, ever see at the time, like, I
can't, how are we ever going to play arenas with this kind of a
band? Yeah? You know, the songs that we had were absolutely
disgusting, but
you would have had to tour relentlessly, and you would had
to get the support of a label, because all that machinery has
to come together to
never would have had we were way ahead of our time. Yeah, it
never would have happened in 94
Well, it's good for you to think to yourself, hey, we were, we
were first on scene. That's right, we were too early.
And it's still people still like, you know, some of the fans
still like, going back and it's on YouTube. You can listen to
all the songs. Yeah.
I mean, when we say that, when we when we cut hick town, it was
drop de tuning, and I'm riding on crashes and slamming rim
shots. I'm like, I don't know. Man, this sounds dangerous. I
don't know if people are gonna like this. And now it's, seems
polite,
you know, Well, Jim, I was gonna say that genre got a little bit
of a shot in the leg. You know, in the last couple years, it
might be time for you guys to, you know, consider a reunion.
Reunion, yeah, it's
actually been discussed. And my wife is like, you dude, the kids
can't see you up there. You know, you were 18 at the time
when that, when you did all that. Wow.
Jimbo, 18 year old. Jimbo, Body for Life. Jim,
we had a bunch of songs. Fat Bo cornhole, ukopia, gosh, can I
even say the one that's about now, why not? Your chin is my
ball. Rest. That was a I was that was our ballad. That's a
great place for him. Yeah. Oh, it's really nice.
I really don't see Laney cutting these, but
Well, actually, that ties into this next thing I'm seeing. Did
you play on the wiggles new album? I
did not. Okay, no, wait
a minute, what? There is another Matt Nolan. He's a symbol
designer.
There's, yeah, there's a handful. There's the symbol
designer Matt Nolan, who makes some unbelievable sounding stuff
interesting to not talk to him or played any of it in person.
Yeah. And then there's a another cat in town. Matt knows a
keyboard player and a songwriter, yes, yeah. And
we've, we've had to get to know each other over the years,
because we've ended up with each other's checks before. Oh,
really, no, yeah. And there was a time where we were both
playing for people on on Broken Bow, yeah. And so, you know, you
gotta mystery
is hit music, right?
The reason why I asked about the wiggles here is Laney is
featured on their next album. Oh, wow.
Wiggles surprised me. No, I didn't have anything to do with
them. Laney
is doing an incredible amount of collaborations. I mean, she's
singing with everybody. He's like, Jelly Roll, and it's a
hardy or, you know, I mean, just all the cats. And then do you
guys do some of that stuff live, where you put some of these
voices on track?
We've never put voices on a track. We do usually play at
least a few of those in the set. And she just sings the whole
song. This past year, yeah, she just did a medley of all the
duets, and it was during her solo acoustic moment, wow. So
yeah, she just, you know, that's smart, rearranged the things to
make sense, just
her. That's good time for you guys to go pee. If you want to
go pee, great, great time to use bathroom.
I love that. And then every once while, I've been lucky these,
these people would, you know, happen to be in the same place
at the same time and come up and do it with us. And that's which
is nice, because in a short amount of time, your resume has
exploded, because now you have performed with Jelly Roll. You
have performed with all the cats, man, you know,
technically,
yes, it feels like it's, you know, kind of a by default, but
yeah, technically, yes, it's great.
Hey, man, you know, I this the what we had a whole episode
where we kind of were me and Travis McNabb were just totally
riffing on, like, when can you claim someone and put them on
your resume and say, like, look at is there? Is there another
Matt Nolan that has played with Jelly Roll? And the answer is
no, and, and you were on that stage, and you deserve to be on
that stage, and you provided the serious backbeat for that guy to
do his thing. That's going on your resume,
dude? Yeah, it depends on what the situation is. It has before
it doesn't always, yeah, I like that.
Now tell me, when did you did you get formal training, like,
you know, reading, music, rudiments, all that kind of
stuff. What they were in the school band? Yeah,
I had a brief foray with the school band, like, you know,
third grade or so. Played trumpet for a couple years,
great. And, like, Grant, like Greg Bissonnette plays the
trumpet,
does? Yeah, yeah, that, that didn't take, you know, and I got
out of the organized band stuff for a while. Got back into it in
high school, this time, percussion, yes, but yeah, I was
playing drum set on the side before that, yeah, and that,
that always held my attention. But by high school, it was like,
Cool. If you want to play in the jazz band, you got to play in
the other band, yeah. And that means you need to be able to
read. So started working on that.
Does that help you with your you ever scribble out some little
charts to help you get through something last minute? Yeah,
absolutely.
I wasn't much good at it, and by the time I got done school, I
was a decent reader. Yeah, yeah. It still comes in very handy.
Page
38 of the syncopation book, that one, you know, well, I'm just
assuming that, you know, Johnny vodakavich at Loyola would be,
you know, pushing you and your reading and all that kind of
stuff.
Yeah. So the way it worked, when I was there,
you usually studied with Johnny, like, your junior and senior
year, and it was a guy named Wayne Moreau. You took lessons
with freshman sophomore year, and he was more of the technical
instructor, and he would make sure your your reading was up to
a certain level, yeah. And if you held the sticks poorly, like
I did, you'd get an earful about that once a week. Yeah. By the
time you were with Johnny, it was like very stylistic approach
related stuff. We did a lot of listening. We did as much
listening as we did play to
the history of New Orleanian music. Yeah, and you know, it's,
there's a lot of specific things about the New Orleans style, but
somehow, it's not super technical. You need some
technique to play that, that material, but, you know, then
you throw it away, not like a very, I don't know, classroom
oriented kind of thing. You learn by watching guys and
hearing guys do it. So the most I ever got from Johnny was
sitting right next to him while he's playing, yeah, you know.
And
then would you take advantage of that, that environment, and go
down and. To watch her and Riley and, of course, Stanton and
yeah,
saw her in three or four times. Whenever he was playing with his
group or with somebody at snug Harbor that was like the
intimate jazz club in town, he would usually start the show
with a tambourine, and he would his band would be on stage
playing. He'd walk in from the back playing tambourines. And
there was times where he would take a solo on the pipes, you
know, on the wall, behind the scenes, smart, slick,
like that. Slick, did you become friendly with Stan
I met Stanton a handful of times. We're not buddies, but
I've seen him play, oh man, I don't know, probably 2030, times
with now that I think about it's been way more than that. And
I've probably seen galactic 20 times, yeah, yeah,
all the time. He like, is part owner of tippity is, I think
I know I heard they, they made sure that that place stayed
open, and that people learned the history that club. And,
yeah, yeah. They've been really great to music in that city. I
love New Orleans.
Incredible place to visit. I don't know if I would live
there, but yeah, it's
awfully hot and humid for a lot of the year. Yeah and yeah.
Weather wise, you're you pretty much, you can count on some
hurricane, yeah, shuffling. Do you
ever have the fried alligator? Yeah? Oh, yeah. It's just like,
tastes like chicken, yeah, little tough can be Yeah,
I had that for the first time in Baton Rouge. Yeah. Now is a
baton rouge or Rouge.
I've always heard Baton Rouge rouge, because I've heard it
like
Bruges with a hard G bat in Rogue rogue. But with Baton
Rouge, I did a lot of filming down there for a dealership, and
it was always kind of nice, because in the afternoons,
probably during the day, you'd always have like, a pop up
thunderstorm, yeah? And then it would clear out, you'd get that
kind of post thunderstorm sunset during the spring, typically.
And I'm like, you know, I said it's, it's kind of gloomy at
times. I said, but your sunsets are spectacular, yeah? And
they're like, oh, it's not because of, you know, the
environment. It's because of all the refineries, just like, you
know, putting stuff out into the the atmosphere. It makes the
sunlight list look really cool.
That is funny, buddy. Oh my god, yeah, I will say this. I miss
those cotton candy sunsets in Los Angeles. Man, my God, every
night
we get some spectacular sunsets here, though, you could get some
cotton
candy stuff here, yeah, but it's like, you can count on it every
night, craning Brontosaurus, palm trees, and then the most
beautiful cotton candy sky. And you're like, I don't want to be
anywhere else right now. Yeah,
yeah. We're on a hot streak right now with LA, it's rained
the last three times I've been there.
They may need it. Well, yeah,
but by all accounts, it's not common. Now.
Where were you guys playing out there? Did you I bet you guys
did a small little show with all the suits at The Troubadour. Do
you ever play there.
I played the Troubadour with Maggie rose one time. Yeah, but
this last Laney show was at the Greek first time there was
pretty cool. Man,
gorgeous. That had to be awesome. Man, it's great. Yeah,
I saw a blondie there. That's amazing. Yeah, it's like, it's
like, 10,000 people or something. It might be less.
It's comp some. It's a smaller Hollywood Bowl,
exactly, yeah, yeah. So the bowl is has become the bucket list
out there this year, our la shows at the forum. Ah, which is
really cool. The history there. It's, I might as well be called
the house that Fleetwood Mac built.
Yes, you know, we were all set there to play there the weekend
before, huh? Now the weekend after the Vegas stuff. So we
never did it, but maybe we'll do it at some point.
You know Jason, I'm sure he can, kind of, if he wants, whenever
he wants to, know, they'll make they'll make time, they'll
cancel the game, but they don't even play there anymore. What am
I saying? What's that the Lakers don't play there. Oh, now
where do the Lakers play? Buddy?
Get on the Google later. Crypto.com, arena, right? Yes.
Is it Staples Center? Unless,
yeah, yeah, formerly state. Crypto.com,
arena,
not catchy.
Crypto.com, I use them. That's not into crypto at all. You guys
get into
that? Not a ton, no, just a little bit about it, yeah, you
know. But I've never tried to buy or sell an NFT.
I've never done that. I've bought and sold crypto. Yeah,
no, yeah. I've got, I got into it back when in 2018 I think,
yeah. And it was like just jumping through hoops just to
get you had to go through like, three or four different levels
just to make a purchase, right? Yeah, we're still early, guys,
right? Well, I can't afford it. Bitcoins on sale, I know,
but I don't know if I mean How much for one whole Bitcoin right
now, 80 grand.
80 Some, yeah, 80
some. Something right now, but you can buy a Satoshi. I'm
looking it up. So a Satoshi is the are like the nickels, dimes,
quarters of $1 the subdivision. So they're called Satoshi
subdivisions, subdivisions, and there's 100 million Satoshis in
each Bitcoin. So you can buy a bunch of Satoshi stack those
sets, as they say, yeah, yeah. So you could buy a portion of a
Bitcoin and eventually aspire to be a whole coiner at some point,
because there's only 21 million of them, right? So,
ah, let me pay my taxes first and then see what happens. Hey,
hold out. You might not have to. I know. Maybe there won't be an
IRS. That'd be great, but I do want my Social Security.
Okay, I do. I mean, don't you? No
Man, No, I want it. I
hope you get it too, because we're all you know,
because you, I think you either have to pick your Social
Security, or if you have an income that exceeds it, you
can't have both. You got to pick one or the other, from what I
understand. So I'd rather exceed my monthly income. Well, I think
we all went, but, yeah, yeah. But as, like, it's not going to
amount to much by the time you get it, but it's like, hey, as,
like, a Hail Mary, I would love to have it as an option. Yeah,
you know. So tell us about this new record. Bro, you are on the
new record because I was listening to all the new tracks.
I'm like, everything is so tight and dry, and it's just a whole
different approach. I wonder who played on this. And I was like,
going through my idea of like, because I know how every session
drummer in Nashville kind of approach this thing and and
sounds. And
it's you, man, congrats. Thank you very much, man, and
be cool to yourself on the radio, right?
Yeah, that was a trip. It was a trip, I have to first say and
give a shout out to Fred eltrin. We love friends, and a lot of
what you're hearing may or probably is Fred playing yeah
and yeah, because of the two drummers thing, my
responsibilities song to song kind of changed around. And so
on one tune, it could have been a very Augs perk kind of role
for me. Maybe I was playing a kit where we ran it through
effects and so it was a dry kit, wet effects kit, yeah, thing.
And then there's five or five or so songs on the album where it's
two of us playing drum set wide open same time. There are five
specific songs on the album where our kits were right next
to each other, not baffled, so basically bleeding into each
other's mics, sharing rooms, all that kind of thing. So yeah, it
was great. That is
so fun. And and the snare drum choices. I mean, some of them,
like, and then some of them were like, like, it was, they're
cranked up. It had like, this nice overtone, and then sounds
like one of them was maybe, like, like, you know, your
little jungle snare that you have, like, super tight with
like, a jingly type thing on it. Yep, I
can think of exactly the one you're talking about. Yeah, the
precedent they've kind of said is more organic kind of drum
sounds, yes. So older, bigger kits with some muffling Tubby
kind of, you know, kicking toms, yeah, and then yeah, like a fat,
but, like, maybe slightly dampened snare thing, yeah. So
yeah. Jay
Joyce. Jay Joyce, so
that, so you do it at his place, yep. And, and you enjoyed the
process. It was like it wasn't one of these looking at your
clock, wow. Kind of a process.
Absolutely not. I mean, first off, the the material that she
kept bringing in, because we didn't, we didn't have these
tunes to live with for very far in advance, they, they sent us
some stuff. Yeah, you know, a couple days before that's
good, yeah? Because then you don't overthink it exactly,
you know, you don't want to come in with a too much of a road
map, because then it becomes this unlearning challenge when
somebody wants to change this thing, yeah? So yeah, it's
helpful to be slightly familiar with the tune, but not so much
to where you've already made decisions that are going to get
overruled, yeah,
but, yeah, man, no. Jay's brilliant.
Laney's amazing in the studio. She's one of those people who
really, really enjoys being there.
And she just, you know, she's like,
creatively, totally in the zone. You know, she's just
so nice and outgoing and enthusiastic and sincere. She
sings great. And she's, you know, got the whole image thing.
She just doubled down on that thing with the bell bottoms and
all that. It's like, as she's tender age of 32 right? I mean,
it's pretty incredible.
Yeah, it's really good. But so, yeah, to answer your question,
man, it's it was definitely not boring time there. Yeah, and you
know, the pressure's on. Not everybody has their their road
guys in there. So we, we definitely understood what we
had to do to to be invited to come back to the Father. Going
day, yeah, and it happened, yeah, well, next day. But you
get this because you've been doing this for quite a long time
with the band you to work with. Yeah, it's
very nice to do to wear both the hats, because then there becomes
a a pride and an ownership that it goes deeper. Because yes,
you're not just regurgitating Exactly.
It would be difficult to find somebody who cared more about
Jason's record yes than you do Yeah, and you're gonna play in
such a way that stems from that, you know, but at the
same time and, you know, and this musical economy and the
idea of having a steady job in the music business, you know, if
your only job is to regurgitate at a high level,
still pretty good. Oh, man, pretty good job. Yeah, no issues
there, yeah, you know, yeah, man, it's, well, that's cool,
and your parents
got to be super proud, because they can go crank up the radio.
That's my son, I guess so. It's my son on the drums. That's my
son's my two sons. Yeah,
my mom tells me when she sees anyone CMT, or when she hears us
on the radio, things like that. Yeah,
I will, my mom will call me. She's like, I heard your
tambourine on the latest trace Atkins song you were telling me
about. It's very loud in the mix, nice. It's like, you know,
it's like, I'm playing a tambourine on beat four. And my
mom is proud of me. So
now I got to bring up, you know, the obvious. Recently, we had
the Grammys, yes, yes, yeah. And, you know, Beyonce was in
the category that Laney was in, yeah, a lot of people. There
were mixed reviews and reactions. Let's say on, you
know, what had happened in terms of a little bit of controversy?
I guess you could say, Sure, what was her take on that? I
know we talked about it before the show, but, you know, can you
speak to that at all? Yeah. So
I saw her about a week before we didn't perform, so that those of
us in the backing band, we didn't go well, yeah? And she
told me she's like, you know, seems like Beyonce is gonna win.
And I was like, Yeah, you know, I mean, this is unbelievable
category. This year. It was Beyonce, Post Malone, Casey
Musgraves, Chris Stapleton and Laney. It's insane, yeah. So if
I'm not mistaken, well, let me just say things I'm I can feel,
uh sure about, yeah, all those people deserve Grammys, and most
of them have already won them, Laney included. So the company
in that category was like, kind of crazy, yeah. And so yeah, she
was like, I wouldn't get your hopes up. I'm pretty sure
Beyonce is going to win this. And she felt really good about
that. Yeah, you know, she's so supportive of this movement
that's been drawing new listeners to country music,
yeah? And diversity and women in country music, yeah, you know,
she's a really, really strong supporter of, you know, shaking
things up, yeah? And it it reaching people that it didn't
used to, yeah, you know. So
this is the music of the people. Modern country music is the new
rock and roll.
Well, and like, we half absorbed rock, you know, and pop got the
other half
Yes, you know, yeah, because, I mean, modern rock is kind of in
the shitter. I mean, we are. It's a rough period for modern
rock. I listen to the station, you know, the buzz or whatever,
and I'm trying to keep up with the stuff, and I can't tell the
bands apart. And it's just, it's just rough. I mean, there's,
where's the Stone Temple Pilots and the, you know, the sound
gardens, and it's, it's just a it's, it's in a slump, and we
have taken all the fans, which is a good thing. It
just evolved, yeah, you know, I mean, again, getting back to the
Beyonce thing, I could see what you're saying. And I love the
fact that she was like, you know, from afar, she was happy
for but it's so funny to watch the reactions when they called
out her name. Even she looked shocked, like, really, I'm
getting one for, for what I did in country and not my main
genre, okay, yeah, because that was her first time, she
ends up with both of them, right, right?
Yeah, big win. She's got
to, Yep, yeah, man, crazy. A lot of statues. I wonder where these
people put these statues, you know? I mean,
on a shelf, yeah, a shelf like you see behind us, that's right
there. That's
right, yeah. I think it usually happens in the order of trophy
and then shelf, right? You know? I think you end up putting a
shelf. The best place for that trophy to go. I don't think you
put it on a shelf that was already there. It's like where
Michael Scott would put his Dundies, right?
I used to have a whole shelf full of my awards. I have no
idea where my awards are now, at this point, I think they're in a
box in my closet.
Yeah, you know, I've been trying to downsize and do the Feng Shui
and just be a little bit more minimalist, minimalist,
minimalist. Remember when we interviewed Peter Stormare, the
actor and musician he played in a. And in Constantine, you know,
with key now, Reeves, he played Satan, and he was the guy. He
came down. He was like, covered in mud and and it was all in
white. He was all in white, which was not the obvious
choice, no, but he's the perfect pick for that. He was the
perfect pick. But he goes, he goes, I have no art on my walls.
I have very minimal furniture, eye heels. I don't even have a
junk drawer, so if he doesn't, but that's so hard to do. What
happens when you're looking for a stapler, when you're looking
for a scissors, when you're looking for, you know, some
pens, you gotta have some of this stuff.
Yeah, I don't think I could go without a junk drawer. A catch
all. It's a catch all. I would be pretty, pretty impressed
with, with Fallon and I if we could do without that. Yeah,
man, I don't know where we go.
Speaking of actors at the time of this recording, how about
Gene Hackman? I saw
that on the way here. They said it was a carbon
monoxide, like he may have been from a carbon monoxide. Was it
really because his wife and his dog went, they passed as well,
well? Because that would have to be, that makes sense. It does
make sense. You know, I have the carbon monoxide, but he was 95
years old. They had a great run, man, he probably would have kept
killing. I
know you're taken out by car with CO two.
You got to have the, the the alarms in your house,
we have them. Yeah, yeah, you that's terrible. They got them.
Yeah, yeah. I just
put the alarms in the house, the smoke alarms, where you don't
have to change the batteries for 10 years. They don't need
anything. They're not going to chirp for a decade. But when
that 10 years comes, the years, it's going to be like that
episode with Phoebe, where she's trying to stop the chirping fire
alarm and she can't figure out how to do it. Are they nickel
batteries or lithium? I don't know. I just had the handyman do
it. They're energized. Chris Swanson, if anybody's looking
for an amazing do anything handy man. Chris Swanson, now if
you're looking for a garage door, or if you're looking for
LED lighting, then you have to call Jim McCarthy.
That's right. That's right. But are they? Are they ever ready
batteries or Duracell? I don't
know, the finest that money can buy. This is the portion
of the show where I try to make it as boring as possible.
Oh, my God, you it
is tanking
so well, I should say too, like, if I'm the guest on here, like,
that's not a great sign of life for this. Well, it was great
while it lasted. No, the the good interviews you guys had,
we're all very grateful for. We're supposed
it was so good. We have to, we have to kind of balance it out
now, and that's my job.
Okay, you know?
Well, um, what was like? Oh, I was, I have still not gotten
around to watching any of it's all overwhelming. Yellowstone.
And then the 1533 or 1890
1883 1923
so she was acting on that show, and used to play drums too,
right? Yeah, on several episodes. Now, did you get your
were you able to get your sad card as an
actor? I was, well, they, they offered, we're in like this. In
between, you could,
you could have been Taft heart lead. That's the process where
the producers will say, hey, this kid, let's get him a SAG
card, and they just push you through the push the paperwork
through.
Okay, I'm not exactly sure, yeah, but yeah. But
if you, if there were willing to do that, and are still willing
to do it, you should get that card. Yeah? Because then when
you're in there, I was just a good thing to to maintain,
because you will be paid in a certain way as a SAG member. Are
you remember the union AFM
also a kind of in progress thing, but soon to be hard? Yes,
you might as
well just do that, because the thing about Tennessee, which
minimizes the power of the Union just a little bit, is the fact
that we're in a right to work state. Yeah. So I me, I think me
and Tully are the only union members in our band, but then we
say we have to go do the Today show. It's a union thing. You
get paid through the Union. But it doesn't mean that Tully and I
are the only ones that get everybody gets checked. Yeah,
because Tennessee is a right to work state, but then Tully and I
have to pay work dues. No one else does
okay. I thought they still had to pay their, their non member
dues. But you guys that are members, are the only ones. We
have to pay our memberships, and we have to pay our, yeah, our
work dues, so we end up coming out, but then if we die, we will
have a small funeral benefit fund, yeah,
which I've been told is rock solid again for
a while, and then we have a pension, which is,
that's what I was talking about. Yeah, the pension is that's hard
to get that dollar amount up. Let me tell you some of the old
school guys like Eddie bears, Lonnie Wilson, Chad Cromwell,
Greg Morrow, Paul, I'm these guys. They're gonna have an
insane because they were in the heyday of the velvet rope music
business, right? Guys like you and I were like, kicking and
clawing and scratching and, you know, the the phone rings
session. I. I'll be there. It's harder to add up, because it's
not twice a day every day, right? But those guys had twice
a day every day. God bless them. Yeah,
no, it's unbelievable, yeah. And it's a shame that there's not as
much of the recording, and therefore the, you know, the
union, yeah, work that's around. But
now, do you do people send you tracks? Yeah? Yeah. It's not
primarily how like it. For example, this last break we've
been on, I've been mostly in the studio, yeah, whichever studio
that happens to be, but yeah, people do send me stuff, and
it's good. We're all set to
now, don't under charge. Make sure you charge a good rate,
because you're worth it, right? Right? Because there's guys out
there that are under charging. And it's, yeah, it's a race to
the bottom. Man,
yeah. Pretty soon it's, I'll give you 20 bucks so I can put
my name once.
No, I'm telling you you are Lainey Wilson's drummer. You
deserve to your whatever rate it is. You deserve it. Thank you,
man, look at that. Say right, Jim, that's right. We're gonna
get these pay days.
Okay, so, Hey, Jim, why don't we do the Is it time for the Fast
Five?
Yeah, but they're no longer fast. They are never fast,
right? We can do we can switch things up on the fly and make it
the funny five. Well,
it's always funny.
It is it is funny. I have a bunch of funny questions in
front of me. Okay, then, then, why don't you try shaking it up?
Let me shake it up. Shake it up,
buddy. All right, we got the funny five is cereal soup. Why
or why not? Ooh,
I don't know. I tend to think, no, I'm struggling for to come
up with a reason to specifically back that up. I know there are
cold soups, I guess, yeah, it's not so much of a vegetable thing
cereal, and that's why it's kind
of it's a dessert, you know? It's a breakfast. I don't think
you can have
a soup, as if you leave it out long enough it becomes soupy. It
does disgusting. Well, because all everything dissolves in it
gross. How many? How many holes does a straw have?
Oh, crazy, right?
Yeah, that one really depends. Makes your brain, doesn't it?
That's like
those riddles that people you know post memes of that go
viral, and you're like, I don't know. I need a little more. What
do
you mean? There's two holes. Is there the two holes? Or
is there one long hole? Is a hot dog, a sandwich?
No, no, no.
Those are two different things you could be in the mood for
anytime.
What's the weirdest smell you've ever smelled?
He's on a tour bus all the time. There's a lot of smell.
The loading dock can be a little crazy. Yeah,
a wharf. We we blew up a fuse one time. We tried to replace a
fuse and put an incorrect one in a PA head at my parents house,
and we were rehearsed in the garage. Oh, and some, some of
those electrical smells can be kind of wild. Oh, yeah,
I don't know how many, how many questions did I ask? Three,
three. What's the funniest joke? You know, by heart? Oh, God.
I don't know if I know any funny jokes by heart. I'm
not to traditional setup, deliver, memorize this guy.
Yeah, I just try to be situationally funny.
Yeah, I you know, I guess I try to get satire, sarcasm, that
kind of thing. But I'm a terrible joke teller. Tommy from
our band has he could go rapid fire right now, Tommy, he's got
a town he'd crush it. Oh yeah, I got nothing.
Let's see
toilet paper over or under, over has to be over. Yeah,
yeah. And my fiance is the opposite. So you can, you can
tell who changed it. We switch it back and forth. Yeah, it's
uh, over. You pull it down exactly.
But sometimes, what other way would you do that? Yeah,
sometimes you have to do the mullet with it on
the back. I thought you were talking about the wiping pattern
over. Jeez. That would be,
how do you
wipe? I hope the listeners understand that I understood the
question, because
it's amazing. Yeah, Jim's Jim treated himself to a bidet. Ah,
I don't know how I got this far in life without knowing about
that technology, that it's wonderful,
but he's using cold water. I would use hot water.
I don't think you want to use hot water in that. Yeah, warm,
warm, cold's fine, though, okay. It saves so much toilet paper.
Wow, I
can't believe we're going here. Favorite color are you just
reverting back? We're
gonna try really fast. You. Was gonna unpack
the rest of that in the future.
Let's say yellow. I got a yellow drum set on the road right now.
Yeah,
yellow. Yeah, nice. Okay, fast taxi. Yellow. Drink. My favorite
drink. Favorite drink, Topo Chico. Oh, nice coffee drink,
meat. So many cups. Favorite food or dish,
really anything with noodles, I'm there. Oh, yeah, like,
Italian food, Japanese food. And then,
what's the, what's the stuff where they break the quail egg,
and then, and then there's the noodles. And it's a, it's a hot
soup,
man, I'm not specifically ramen, ramen. Oh, okay, I've never had
ramen with a quail egg. I love ramen,
yeah. Well, you know, the egg breaks and the yolk kind of gets
put the egg in it, yeah, oh yeah. Favorite song of the
moment, or all time. One
that comes to mind is give me some loving by Spencer Davis
Group.
Oh yeah, I love that stuff. Oh
yeah, all the sounds on that recording work together in like,
the best way. Steve Winwood singing, he's like, 18 on that
track, he might not even be 18. Wow. He wrote it, sang it, and
played organ. He's killing
and I believe he might have a place here. Steve Winwood,
is that right? Yeah. I think I maybe have heard about
either that or his merch company is here.
What either lives here or his T shirts or
warehouse, bound to be true, okay, a favorite movie
of all time, or of the moment
of all time. We're tied between All the President's Men and
Moneyball, I will never, I will never turn either those movies
off from scrolling through channels in a hotel. One of
those is on all his
presence men. Wasn't that Dustin Hoffman, yeah. Dustin
Hoffman and Robert
Redford and Moneyball came up recently. Didn't
it? As somebody else mentioned Moneyball? Yeah. Recently, yeah,
yeah.
Great movie. I'm big baseball fan. And what happens in that
movie, the facts that it's based on, yeah, and it's crazy how
that is. Billy Bean basically taken over. The way baseball
managing happens now,
yeah, yeah. So are you the guy that memorizes all the stats and
all that stuff. No,
not so much. I try to keep current with our record and
who's who's in first and all
that, and then Pro or college Pro. Okay, because
I love watching college baseball, but college sports in
general, there's so many teams to keep track of. It can be kind
of
like Aldean is like college all the way it's like college
football, college baseball. Well, he also likes the Braves
and, well,
he's a big Georgia fan. Yeah, right,
see from Maryland. Maryland basketball was huge. We followed
that really close, and we still do. Yeah,
no. Now, who's your who's the baseball team that you like? Pro
Washington
Nationals, and they weren't there when I was a kid, we just
had the Orioles, and we had the Orioles while Cal Ripken played
for him, so that was great. But then, other than that, we always
rooted for DC teams, kind of over Baltimore teams, not that
there was a animosity, but once the NATs came back, and I
believe, oh four, yeah,
you know who I've got back into it I have a call with tomorrow.
Is Brett Saberhagen, hmm,
that name sounds familiar. It's a Moneyball thing, right?
No, he was a World Series pitcher, a World Series winning
pitcher from 1985
but Tully is in charge of his
He's on the board 501, okay, save his wings. You see me
wearing the hat every now and then. Yeah, yeah. Are you
interviewing him. They might be doing a podcast. Ah, look at
that. I got to meet them back in October. Wonderful people. Yeah,
I
met him at
at someone's wedding, yeah, yeah. He,
he's like, you go to meet that guy. And the first time we saw
him, he's got, like, really piercing, steely blue eyes. And
then you see him like in his element, which is this point is
in that, you know, the wine country of California. So he's
all into, you know, ranches and horses and stuff like that. He
dons a cowboy hat, man. He looks like the real freaking deal.
It's crazy. Wow. I
can't picture me on a horse roping and ride and us like, I'm
from Connecticut, you're from, you know, yeah, that part of the
countries.
I've been instructed to wear a hat plenty of times, but I have
never ridden a horse in my life. You
mean, as far as, like, in a video, put on the cowboy hat,
yeah, yeah, for whatever occasion, yeah. But you guys,
also, a
lot of you guys, wear that, those that those hipster hats,
those Silver Lake hats,
guilty as George, I
pulled up that picture of you. It's a side profile, and you got
the hat on. No, right? Yeah, like a Zorro had almost
I can't pull it off. I can't you guys crush it. I cannot do that.
Thank
you. I feel kind of like a fraud if I'm wearing a proper cowboy
hat. Yes, you know, because, yeah, that's like, it would
purely be a fashion thing. Yeah, you know, I didn't grow up with
rodeo. I did not grow up on a farm. I have respect for those
that did. Yeah, it was
the Indiana Jones had the fedora. Yeah, bring that back.
You could probably pull that off. There's
definitely guys doing it. Yeah? His was, like, leather, right,
something like
that. It was iconic. Yeah, it was, but it was, I've been doing
the Scally, wearing the Scally lately? Dead news boys. Oh,
okay, yeah, I'll either it's my third job of get your papers.
Yeah, selling newspapers. Read all about it. Yeah. I tried
that very briefly, because little George from little feet
used to wear them sometimes. And I was like, Oh, maybe I can get
away with that. Yeah, because you can. I don't think I ever
found one that looked right on me. You know, other people, it
looks really slick.
I got the extra large, yeah, my black one is an extra large, and
it fits my head. It's a little tight. But then I had to get the
XL for the two XL for the next one, because it was way too
small for the XL. Okay, because I have a two foot melon,
Jim, you're funny buddy. So giant head, little feet, does
that makes me think of Richie Hayward. Richie Hayward, fan,
huge fan, who's one of my heroes? Who are your other drum
heroes?
Richie Jim Keltner, nice.
There's so many you know all the jazz greats, specifically, you
know, Tony Williams and Elvin Jones occupy a lot of my
listening time. All the great you know, rock and roll
drummers, Ringo and Charlie and Keith and Bonham that is
so nice to hear, because we get no one dropping Tony or elvins
names in here.
Oh man, I'm still trying to figure out
what to do with the big, well, the big yellow kit that with the
black dot heads that Tony Williams played exactly such
power. Yeah, it was amazing. Man. He was rocking. Had that
fusion stuff, the that he did with exactly,
well, the fusion thing that accounted for a lot of our, our
listening for a long time, we were, like, specifically into
that. And then the straight ahead, the interest in that jazz
came a little bit later, yeah,
the Tony Williams lifetime that, yeah, oh my god. And then Elvin
is, like, again, he is like a bashing passionate. It's, he's
not soft,
no, definitely not. And it's, it's really emotional, yeah,
it's like, it's like, a trip thing when he plays. Man,
it's crazy, like you are in the motherland, like, when he plays,
it's insane. He's in touch
with something. Man, it's, it's unbelievable. But yeah, and
then, you know, gab procarro, yeah, all of James Brown's
drummers, Purdy, yeah, I spent some time in Muscle Shoals.
That's where my fiance's from. So, you know, Roger Hawkins,
man, yeah, Al Jackson from Memphis, like, I try to be aware
of all of it, you know, yeah,
I can hear all that stuff. And you let the microphones do the
work. You got a nice touch. Drums always sound great, you
know, you incorporate percussion, emulate the loops,
and you're one of the only guys I've seen in this genre that has
a China slash swish set correctly.
Well, there's some other influences there, Mel Lewis. Mel
Lewis and, I believe, John Riley and Peter Erskine both did the
swish there because they watched Mel do it. You know, because
you get no he Mel. So Mel would get so Jim. Mel Lewis was like a
great big band drummer, and he would play at the Village
Vanguard every Monday night. And his whole thing is he was a very
quiet, he was a quiet big band drummer, very, very mellow. But
he could drive all these guys. And then when it would go to,
like a solely section, which is like, say, you get all the
saxophones and they're playing, they're playing this whole
section in unison, he'd go to the swish, yeah,
yep, it's got this smoky, smoky sound. You got the rivets in it
too, yeah? 20 rivets in it. So
it's not like he's bashing it on the upbeats, like Carmine or
Billy goblin. He's because you're just kind of letting
it well. And I love the the more rock sounding China's, yeah, you
know, that doesn't seem to be the most fitting sound for for
laney's music, no. But the swish, surprisingly, like, if I
have room for it, there's not a gig I play that that is out of
place on. You can't use it too much. But, like, it's a really
dynamic symbol, whereas the other China's I've had, you kind
of got to pick your spot, and then that's what that moment is
about, you know? Yeah,
my China is the it's just fast white lightning, and it's, it's,
it's obnoxious, but, but it works in our crazy band,
yeah, I wouldn't say it's obnoxious. It does a different
thing, you know. And I got opportunities way up there
utilize that. You know,
it's the outfield thing. And I remember getting my first Wuhan
China. The year was probably like 1985 I'm practicing in a
garage with my band, and I'm just waiting, you know, Josie on
a vacation far away, Shasha.
Oh, my God, exactly. Man. Love some of the i. Like those 80s
stones records where I think Charlie was using that UFI. P,
yes, China symbol. Man, that thing sounds great.
Yeah. Have you seen the stones with Jordan live? Ever
I have we opened for him this year?
This is I would have opened with this. Nah. Man, I would have
been like, Hey, rich. Have you heard that we open for the
stones? So where and when was this? I
was in, I think June Soldier Field, Chicago. Laney
Wilson, that so cool. Did you go backstage and talk to the guys?
Didn't
get to talk to the guys, damn it.
But we did. We did watch them. The deal was they had a, they
had a closed off sound check, right? There wasn't supposed to
be people out watching that, yeah, so mysteriously, like we
all had, you know, things we had to accomplish on that main
concourse that looks out over the stage, they sound check for
their entire allotted time. This was the second show of a two
show run at that venue, and so there was little reason we could
see for them to be sound checking that day for two hours.
All this to say, like I get the sense they really like doing
this. They just like playing. They like playing. And they go
through so much material live. You know, maybe they had to bone
up on some stuff they hadn't touched in a while. But, man, it
was just magic watching them sound check, wow. And yeah,
Reggie Washington and Steve Jordan, man, we're just trucking
the whole time. It was crazy. What
did they used to say that the so it's Mick and Keith Richards
were left of the stones, right? Yep. Yeah. Players gone as well.
Yeah, Bill
Wyman is not usually touring with them, but I think there's
some shows here there that he pops up and does okay. And Chuck
Lovell was playing. He's been touring with them for like, a
really long time, but
the original bass player departed from the is, that is,
it was, uh, it was Darryl Jones for, like, was it 20 years? So
that's what I meant to say, Daryl. Would I say? Freddie
Washington, yeah. Sorry, it's Earl Jones, yeah. So,
well, hey, you know, Mick and Keith are left, and then Paul
and Ringo are left. I mean, yeah, come on. I see
what you're saying. A super band, yeah,
man, Beatles in the stones, dude, right, yeah. Chuck
Lovell was that keyboard player that I played that TV show with,
you know, with Paul Rogers and Leanne rhymes, oh, slash. And he
was, he was the band leader that day. He's the band leader for
the Rolling Stones for like, 30 years, yeah, if not longer, hmm,
crazy. I did not know that
small world. He sounded great man. And they just, you know,
like I said, it seemed incredibly sincere. What they
were up there playing, and they had Laney sit in for a tune. Oh,
my God. It happens to be like one of my all time favorite,
which one there's dead flowers off sticky fingers. Wow. You
know,
I was thinking that
she would do that. Um, think
of the tune right now, but it's always where a guest female
artist joins them on that song. Oh, interesting.
See, yeah, I'm not sure which tune
are you talking about. Gimme, shelter. Yes. Okay. I mean that
would make sense. That would mean
it totally makes sense. Okay, like
they even let Fergie up on stage to do that with them at one
point, you know, thought
they were doing like AC, DC. Oh,
God, what a great band. Yeah. Damn, incredible, incredible,
just like Jim Brewer bit, not a 16th note in sight. All just
praying to eighth notes. Just That's
right, yeah.
Awesome. You ever see the bit that Jim Brewer does like he
talks about parenting. He goes, he says, The only thing that
when you have kids is the music. You got to stop listening to
your music, and you got to listen to this awful music, and
it's like, sky is blue, yet.
He's like, bring buzz, buzz, buzz,
okay, I get it. And then Barney,
he's like, and these guys in these metal bands would be great
if they just did kids music, man. He's like, they would be
fantastic. You know, Angus Young and Brian Johnson from AC DC,
and like, you know, he starts doing it. You gotta watch it.
It's probably better. He is good. Yeah, you had to be there.
You had to be there. Totally,
hey, so 75 shows this year. Yeah, man, it's already
happening. Or is about two.
We leave for Europe in two days.
I love this one. We're catching everybody right before they do
the thing,
yeah. So then it kind of, we kind of kick off.
And so in Europe, are you playing like football stadiums?
What
are you guys doing? It's
pretty mixed. We're hitting a bunch of different countries on
this little run. We're there for about three weeks. And I think
the. The shows in the UK. I don't think that was the correct
thing. Some of the shows are part of a festival, yes. And so
I think rotating through the C to C thing, yes, yes. So we'll
be rotating through those with a whole lineup. Those would be
some bigger venues, yeah, but I have no idea what size this
place we're doing in Paris is, or we're starting in Zurich. I
don't know a lot of Paris to play country music. It's
awesome. Yeah? We kind of
show up in and observe how big she is there, you know? Yeah. So
it might be like 1000 cap one night and a real big one the
next night. It's a lot of fun. I'd love to
go to Paris. Man, that'd be amazing. I don't know if I'm
gonna do it on my dime, you know, but I mean, if I get there
on somebody else's dime, it'd be great. And you're definitely
gonna be able to get your noodles
Right, right? Yeah, noodles of all types, sure. Man's right,
dude,
I am just happy that I'm happy for you, and I'm proud of you.
Man, well, thanks
very much. And I want to be sure to say this, you know, before
you guys kick me out of here, first off, thanks again for you
guys having me, but rich especially, you know, thanks for
what you do for everybody. Oh man, thanks for what you've done
for me. You were somehow one of the first real cats in town that
I met, and I think you've basically found me. Everybody I
talked to who's coming up, they'll say, oh, you know, I
just talked to rich for the first time. Like, yeah, of
course you did. You know, you're a great connector of people. And
then, yeah, we all, we all owe you for that. And to your your
crew with Al Dean, the time we spent with you guys. For those
who have never really had a reason to interact with the
Aldean crew, they're the best, most professional group of
experienced pros you could ever meet. And so we learned quite a
lot spending that time with you guys. Well, thank you. And we
still say in conversation. We're like, well, Aldine and them,
they did it this way. Maybe we should look into that. Wow, it
had a lasting effect on everybody. Well,
I just got chills, because I really, I really feel like I
like I said, at that time, I was still kind of suffering
mentally, and I didn't feel like I showed up enough for you so
well, like, I said, Man, we were in the van most of that tour.
Anyway, I wasn't physically there for you to show up and
talk to. You know, well, man, I'm
just super happy for you, and I'm gonna try to get you this
full sonar deal here. Oh, thanks.
I'm cool on that one, man, there's some other stuff, you
know, you could help. Well,
let's talk about those heads. I would love a head deal. So do
you? Are you a Remo?
I've always played remote heads. Yes.
Chris Hart, we need to make this happen. Rich.
I can, I could use a DW deal, yes, yeah, man.
Well, let's see what this little tribute band does for you.
That's the CSI sting. Oh, I love that. Oh, very poorly timed.
Oh, man. Well, that is so sweet, man. Thank you so much, buddy.
Of course, I'm just like, I just love people coming in here, and
I just get to publicly say congratulations, and then, and
then, I'm proud of them, because this is not an easy thing to do.
Appreciate it. There's a lot of luck involved. But like I said,
I got some some really good advice, and I got to watch some
people who have some real pro level experience. So
Just promise me that now that you have the platform, that you
are going to keep helping the next generation.
I'm trying. Man, if anybody wants to talk about any of this,
I'm here, yeah. What's the
best way for people to find you? I check Instagram pretty
regularly. Yeah? So since you slide into your DMS,
yeah? Man, at Matt Nolan drums and whatever anybody's got out
there fucking help, I'd be happy to I
love it, man, thank you so much for being here, bud. Absolutely.
Have a great, great year, man, I can't wait. We're, I mean, we
don't start till, till,
uh, May, so that's awesome, man. I hope we see you guys out
there. I hope we get to do it again and do it right, without
the COVID. Yeah,
yeah. Jim,
yeah. Great kid, right? That's right. Jason, the friend of his
life, 36 years old, getting married. He's got a great gig.
That's right, it's awesome. Sounds
like a lot of fun, yeah, man, thank you. Man, yeah, it was
great to meet you. You too. Had a fun
week. Jim, we knocked out like four or five episodes this week.
No, we got like 500 of them in the can. We got them in the can.
We love it. Hey to all the listeners, we appreciate you,
guys and gals. Be sure to subscribe, share, rate and
review, and I am imploring you please give us a nice five star
rating. We know you're out there, even you trolls give us a
five star rating
that was people signed the show. All right, we appreciate it. A
great time. Thanks. Matt, thanks, Jim,
this has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and follow
along at rich redmond.com forward, slash podcasts. You