Unknown: When I look at all the good things in my life, there
was always something really bad that happened that that led me
down another path that's very true. So, you know, don't you
know if I'm if I'm stuck in a traffic jam and I'm late to an
appointment, I just I nowadays, I just go, Well, Lord, whatever
you just kept me from Thank you. Yeah, you know
I'm appreciative.
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 drain. John E Bozeman, here. Johnny B, we
are missing one guy, one guy that'd be Jay Harper. Jay's on
special assignment.
He's, he's out in like, he's, like, I'm jealous. He's out in,
like, Myrtle Beach, I think South Carolina, that's where
he's at. Yeah, he's doing his
he failed to tell me that part. I'm very
jealous. Or maybe he's not. I could be wrong. All of
a sudden, I'm not liking Jay. And I love Jay.
He's got his the game time Sports Network. Yes, he does,
and that's taking him away to and, you know, he's got he's, I
appreciate that because he's I do too, spinning plates.
He is spinning plates, and we totally understood. He said,
Man, I'm sorry. I would love to be there, but
tell him. Tell him. I'm sorry he missed me. I think, well,
I will, yeah. And before I get to introducing our guest, I'll
introduce the man that makes this thing happen, brother James
McCarthy.
Thank you, sir. James Patrick. James Patrick, the murderer,
yeah, last one of the other. I said, you know, when you say
your name like that, James Patrick McCarthy, it sounds like
a serial killer a little bit, because I don't know what it is
about serial killers, but they always have the three names,
okay, all right, you know, think about that. That's why everybody
believed David Allen co when he said that he killed the guy in
prison
who gives him the three names, though, is the media, or do they
refer to themselves like John Wayne Gacy? They refer to
himself that way?
Well, Bundy was just Bundy. Yeah. Let's see here. Jeffrey
Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer, I don't know what his middle name was.
Yeah, I didn't either, and I don't want to know his middle
name, no, be quite honest,
killed Kennedy was gosh. Why can't I think of his name?
Yeah, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, yes, yeah. He was
part of it.
Well, well, I think that the real killer is a three name
individual as well, the
CIA, yeah, or, or some people say George HW Bush, before we go
into that, we got a great guest today. I'm looking later. That's
exciting. But Scott Southworth, if you're not familiar with his
stuff, you need to get familiar, because this guy is one talented
cat well. And he Well, I mean, I mean you, you are a great
musician, great entertainer. And I love your website, because in
the bio, it says, I write songs. I like pi, I play, what is it?
Laravel, Laravel guitars. And I really like pi. I really so what
kind of pie Do you like? Yes, I mean, there's all of the above.
It doesn't matter.
Well, it does matter. It does matter. And I'm glad we're
getting to these hard hitting questions. Well, yeah, I want
to, yeah. It depends on the season. Like, in the springtime,
you can't come at me with a pumpkin pie. I'm not touching
it. Just like in the fall, I don't want lemon. Yeah, you
know, so it really depends, but, but I'd like to say I'm an equal
opportunity pie eater. It's just a matter of, you know, the right
the right time of the year, yeah, to enjoy, I understand,
yeah. See, I'm picky. I just like pumpkin pie, like you say,
in the right time of the right time of year, and otherwise,
chocolate pie, chocolate meringue or chocolate cream. It
doesn't matter either one. See, for me, it has to be chocolate
cream. Yeah, yeah. I like lemon. I can dig that. But yeah, that,
but no, I will try anything at least three or four times just
to make sure.
Make sure you make sure. Give me a little more just to make sure
I like absolutely, I'll test that one. Jury still out.
They're kind of dripping back in, so bring more Jim, how about
you which? What is your pie preference? I'm like you with
the chocolate pie, I could pretty much eat pumpkin pie year
round
and pecan pie.
Yeah, nice. All right. Well, this was fun, guys.
We'll talk cookie. Days. So we met. Now, we met during the W l
a c days, which is a radio station for those that are not
in the Nashville area. But you should know w l a c because it
it used to get out everywhere. Oh, yeah, historic, historic man
R and B, John R.
It was the first, the first station that reached had that
kind of reach, yeah, that played what they called Race music,
yes, you know, after hours.
In fact, Haas Allen, one of the DJs which I got to work with,
which I felt really, yeah, he worked in the station when I was
there, and he was really cool, because when he was on the air
on WAC, they all thought he was black, okay, and he was a white
guy, but he just he had black soul, and yeah, and he actually
told me this great story of producing Jimi Hendrix's first
record. And he, as he told the story, he said, I get him in
there. And he said, Billy Cox brought him in and said he he
put him on the session, and he said, all of a sudden he starts
playing all this wild, you know, making it scream. And he goes,
it's the talk buddy. He said, hey dude. He said, I just want
you to play rhythm. I don't want all that wild crap in there. He
said, Yes, sir. And so they get to doing the you know song
again. All of a sudden, Hendricks starts wailing. Haas
looks at the engineering, goes, take him out of the mix. Oh, so
he so Hendricks isn't on the first they took him out. I said,
Haas, what would have happened if you'd kept Hendrix in there?
And he said, I wouldn't be talking to you.
But anyway, that's where we first I
think, Well, I wasn't you had already moved on. I'd moved on
to tn. I moved here in 2004
Oh, well, that's true then, yeah, but so I've got it all
wrong. That's okay. Imagine that. That's fake news.
No. What happened? Well, I'm Joe Biden. I can't remember where we
met. Was one the news guy, W LH, Dan item. Dan item would have
Christmas Day cocktail party kind of a thing, yeah, and with
hors d'oeuvres, and then we'd all go in the garage and play
music, and I met you. You were dating your beautiful bride. Was
I dating glynith? Yeah, yeah, not gotten hitched yet, yeah.
But that's when I met you and and we just kind of have, have
kept in each other's orbit, you know, back and forth, here and
there and yeah and yeah. I just always enjoyed visiting with
you. And I've told you this before, but I loved it when you
were when you'd be subbing in on tn, oh, thank you. Just because
I I get bored with with non stop politic fire.
That's why we're doing this. Yeah, and the fact
that you would talk about anything, I've always really,
really enjoyed that.
Oh, man, I appreciate that. Yeah, man, well, the same here.
I've loved your writing. I love your music. The big thing I like
about you is that it's hillbilly music, but it's got, it's
hillbilly with, with wit now, you're a great writer. Thank
you, man, you really are. Appreciate that. And tell us a
little bit about how you got into the music career and how
you got it going, because you kind of did it late in life. Did
you not well.
I mean, I did music all the time. I learned how to play
guitar when I was 17, and so not, you know, I wasn't playing
drums at five, like Reggie, but no, I started playing. My uncles
all played guitar, my mom sang. And so I was always around
music. Yeah, I started playing in bands and and I was soon as I
learned three or four chords, I started writing, writing things,
yeah, but it was never matching up to the kind of bands I was
in. I was in oldies, Rock Band, Little Richard type of stuff, or
or rock, or reggae or blues, but everything I wrote was country,
and that comes from very early exposure, when I was like, two,
three and four that I didn't really consciously remember
until much later in life. Yeah, and then I realized, oh man, I
was immersed in this stuff early on, because I couldn't figure
out what were the right where these songs were coming from,
yeah, because I'm, I'm playing, you know, squeeze my lemon into
the rooster crows for days and and I'm writing a honky tonk
song, and it's like, I don't know where that's coming from,
and it never matched any of the band. I was playing in till much
later, I'd walked away from music, and eventually, in San
Diego, I joined a country band. And while they were having a SIG
one one night with the porch door open, I was start noodling
around on an old song. And they're like, What? What's that?
I said, Oh, just some stupid thing I wrote. And they said,
well, keep going. And two weeks later, they're doing 1010, 12 of
my original songs, wow, in our sets. And so I'd been writing
country for years and had no idea, yeah, like I said earlier,
I'm not a smart man, so it took me a while to catch on, yeah,
yeah.
And you also had a great show on WAC. I remember the music road
show,
the accidental Radio Show.
Well, I was, I was having lunch with, with my buddy, hi, no, who
also sold, I sold radio at WAC and and we were both
songwriters, and we were both having lunch and just
complaining about how we couldn't figure out any access.
You know, we're on Music Row. Yeah, there's all these
publishing houses, or there used to be and and we, we just
couldn't figure out how to get in there. And I said, it was
very our gang little little rascals type of thing. I was
like, I know, let's do a show. I said, Well, we'll do a show, and
we'll interview these people and and so we thought about it, and
we kind of put an idea together. And then I said, When am I going
to do that? Because I was selling radio at night. I was
driving airport shuttles till like, two or three in the
morning. Wow. And then that was like four nights a week, and the
other three nights I was out playing any songwriter night I
could. Yeah, that's like, When am I going to do this? Forget
it. So I, I put the kibosh on it, and about two months later,
I was in my sales manager's office. Bill button. If you
remember Bill button, I remember Bill Scott. Come in here,
please. And and Tom peace, the program in there, great guy and
Tom. Tom said something that still sticks with me in a
meeting. Speaking of word salads earlier, he said somebody's
asked him about something. He goes it is what it was and has
been since the last time we discussed it.
That sounds like Tom, wow. You said
absolutely nothing. That's incredible. I am in my I'm in a
deep admiration.
He made a career out of that. Actually did, what a nice guy,
though, but we're sitting
there and they're they're complaining and talking in
Bill's office and and peace goes, we still got these two
hours that we got to fill on Sunday nights. What are we going
to do with that? I'll take it. And he goes, what are you going
to do? Just play your songs. I said, I like where your head's
at, but no, what about this? And and it was quiet for a minute.
And he goes, All right, you start in two weeks. And I go,
I've never been on radio. What do I do? And he goes, not my
problem. Wow. You start in two weeks. I go, Well, how do I book
again? My problem come in next week, I'll give you a 10 minute
tutorial, and off you go.
It's pretty much all you need. Yeah, that's it.
And so there. And so yeah. Then from there, we interviewed
anybody and everybody from Dolly Parton Little Richard, I think I
told you, Richard Rodney Crowell, Rodney Crowell and and,
and a bunch of rock, you know, producers and publishers and for
10 years, Vince Gill Ricky Skaggs, just, just, it was
incredible, yeah. And the thing that I learned out of all that
was, there's the stars, right but, and there's an arc of a of
a career for an artist. And at first we were trying to talk to
people right about here, yes, until we did a couple of those,
and they were just terrible interviews. You know, it's like
everything was great. Yeah, I love my producer. I love my
label. I'll have so much fun. I love everything about this. No,
I want to play record. I want to talk to people here, yeah,
because then we would get these real stories right. And, and so,
yeah. And I just learned that, you know, even if you had a
bunch of success 1015, years ago, chances are you got a
baseball cap, and you might be working at Home Depot for the
health insurance. Oh, you know, and, and it kind of helped me
calibrate how I wanted to treat my my songwriting and my
artistic that, that and during the commercial breaks, yeah, we
had a publisher in near, near when I, when I when I decided to
kind of head in a different direction creatively. And I said
during the commercial, I said, Okay, seriously, what are you
looking for? And he goes, super young, super hot artists
capability. Can do all their stuff on a computer, all their
demos on a computer, so we don't have to pay for it. And. Writes
with all the other young, hot, hit writers in town, and I sat
there and I go, No, no, no, no, okay, then, and it just kind of
helped chart me on a different path. Yeah, yeah.
And you did go down a great path. What got you going as far
as what you're doing now with the singer songwriter?
You know, I always sang my own demos because I'm cheap and and
I and I can mimic certain things. So I'm always like,
okay, whatever the song needs, that's the kind of voice I'll
do, yeah. But every, every year, I would use one of my budgeted
demos just to do a song that I like, just that I wanted to
hear, because it was 2006 2007 2008 that was the rise of bro
country. And, you know, the stuff that I wanted to hear was
that traditional, that that, you know, the pedal steel and the
fiddle and all of that. So I would do one a year like that,
just for me. And in 2016 I had enough to do a whole project of
just that. So I put it out just for the heck of it. You know, I
had done a couple of mishmash CDs, yeah, since moving here.
And I don't like to brag, Jim, but they sold upwards of 910,
copies each. That's something is,
but I put more than we sold.
But I put this album out and and I woke up the next morning and I
and every morning, I started getting emails from different
places in Europe saying, Oh, we love this. It's on we're, no,
it's on heavy rotation. This is getting played, and there's a,
we're doing an article, and we're doing a podcast, and are
not a podcast, but, you know? And I was just like, what, what
on earth is this? Wow. And it turns out, I found these little
pockets in Europe of ears, yeah, that that were hungry for that
style of country that wasn't cover songs. Yeah, that was,
that was originals and, and so I started touring over there, and,
and, and it's great, because I can go and and be a hillbilly
rock star and and get treated really cool, and go play for
1000s of people, and then I come home, literally in as I played a
festival in Norway, 1000s of people and and there, and the
front row, the several layers of the front row, are younger
people singing my lyrics. So they, they, they're familiar
with, Oh, wow. And I, and I fly home, and the next week, I'm
playing a little art festival here in Spring Hill, and it's in
a coffee coffee joint. So I start to walk in, and they go,
Oh, no, no, no, no, you're playing outside. Okay, so I set
my little thing up outside and and I'm playing to my wife, two
kids on a swing, their mom on a bench, smoking a cigarette
saying, Bobby, don't push your sister so hard. And, you know,
and that's, that's the coolness of it is, I can go and play, you
know, like, like, I'm something, and then come home and and go
back to my day job and play for little Bobby and and his very
dizzy sister. So I love it, but, but I get to play my own stuff
and so. So to answer your original question, I it was
just, I always sang my own demos. So when I had enough for
a whole album, I said, Oh, and, and, honestly, I was planning on
doing a couple other projects, but then that took off, and I
said, look, it's what I love to write. I'm just going to lean
into this. And I have, for the last 1011, years now, been, oh
yeah, been having the time of my life and making, you know, I
don't quit my job. It's not anything like that, but compared
to when I was beating my head against the wall trying to write
for radio, you know, I can, I can have some fun and make a
little money and play my music for people that want to hear my
stuff. And I think what the show taught me is the idea that if
you're in music, you're rich beyond your wildest dreams is
usually not the case, right? You know, there's the garths and the
dollies and the, you know, the biggies, but that's rare, but
that's a percentage of a percentage of a percent, right?
Of people that ever get to that level, right? So once I saw
that, I go, well, then I just want to play what I want to
play, and I'm having a great time.
Well, it comes across good. Oh, it really does, because your
music, it makes me happy. I mean, I just love your videos,
especially the grandma used to honky. Granny used to honk you.
What a great video with Dallas.
Moore, man, yeah. Man. Have you met him? I have not never got to
meet him. What a trip that guy plays something like 315 shows a
year. Wow. And I mean, just in a van, running around night after
night after night. It's, it's, I could never do that. I would not
want to do that. No, I'm with you. I like to be asleep on the
couch by nine o'clock at the latest, but, but i What a great
artist he is, and a fun songwriter to work on that with.
Well, you also, what was it? Middle finger first? Yes, yes. I
think I heard, did you play that on Matt Murphy show on I might
have, yeah. I think you did, because I listened to that
interview that day, yeah, and when you played that song, I
thought that should be the national anthem of Nashville
drivers everywhere, exactly,
exactly, no. And I don't know there was a gal that worked at
Clear Channel in traffic, a young girl, and she came up to
me one day years ago with that idea. She goes, I have an idea,
and we tried to write it, but I wasn't, I wasn't old and grumpy
enough to write that song, yeah, and I, and I held on to it for
probably 1012, years, wow, until I was out at a cabin near I live
out in Marshall County, and I was at a cabin where on
Tuesdays, these guys all get around and and smoke and drink
and play guitars and complain yeah and and one night, they
were just on a tear, and they're complaining about everything.
And I just started cataloging it all. And I got home, and I was a
little tipsy, and I I found an interview with with Sammy Hagar,
interviewing Mellencamp, yeah, and, and at the end of the
interviews, Hagar says, So what pisses you off? And melon camp
says, everything. And between them, that and the middle finger
first, it just, I said, oh my goodness, there it is. Yeah.
Just was able to put it all together in just an hour or two.
And, and it's, it's a fun song. Oh, it is. People love it. You
know, I love that. You said, what I do makes you happy,
because what I focus on more than anything else is, you know,
so many people are wanting to preach one way or the other, yes
and and I want everybody to like my music. You know, I have very
dear friends that I hang out with on a regular basis that
have no idea how I vote. It's like, I vote, I donate, and I
shut my pie hole up, and yes, and I play music because I want,
I just want to be, even if they're only listening to one
song, if I can take their mind off the fire hose of information
that we're all bombarded with for three and a half minutes.
Yes, that's awesome. And if they come to a show, that's even
better.
Well, see, that's why I think music has always been about
that's why I've never, you know I like, I've always liked Steve
Earle's music, but I can't take going to his shows because I
don't want to be preached to.
Well, you know what I think, though, is they, if you look at
that generation, who were there? Who were they looking up to the
birds, right? Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary. And that was a time
when we had one news source, right, six o'clock, you know,
Walter Cronkite, right? And so I think that that the music being
a voice was more important than now, when we're in 24 hour news
cycle and yes, you're just bombarded every minute of the
day. Your Facebook posts that you see, your, your, you know,
yeah, your, your Tinder profiles, Jim, just everything
you see. Grinder, no. All right, it's a party.
But, you know, I mean, let's get it straight. All
right, you can't escape it now. So yeah, for me, and if someone
really feels the need to be a message type of artist, God
bless them, it's just not my choice. I just want to, yeah,
take your mind off it and give you a smile
Well, and that's what I like. And as far as protest songs go,
I don't mind the songs. It's, it's the on stage constant,
right? Yeah, when they get into a political speech, right? It's
like, that's not what I came here to do. I came here to get
away from all that, yeah,
because half of the artists, if all they did was sing their
songs. Now, you can't hardly understand a lot of their their
singing anyway, so I wouldn't know, you know if it was a
protest song or not?
No, I mean, and to me, those are great protest songs anyway, that
if you can't really, right? Yeah. You can't, well, it's
like, Steve put out one called the revolution starts now. And
it was around the time that Ron Paul was running, yeah, and Ron
Paul made it a revolution. And I thought, well, the song works
for him. It works that way. So you don't have to, you know, put
it in with that, that that genre, but you just write great
stuff. Thank you that I love. And the one that I really fell
in love with was cicada enchilada, okay, because I love
and I wish Jay Harper were here, because Jay is from Louisiana
area. Oh, and he would have loved that. I mean, he loved
that tune, yeah, because it's got such a Cajun flavor to it,
well.
And that was from listening to talk radio. I was on a drive. I
was listening to, it was it Murphy, or it might have been
Brian, I don't know. It was somebody on tn, and they were
cicadas were coming out, yeah, and they're like, is it cicada
or cicada, and they're talking about it and, and, what, what?
What's the point of them? What good are they? And, and I'm
driving, and I said, Oh, cicada enchiladas. And that made me
laugh. And so I kind of fleshed it out. And then I reached out
to my buddy les Kerr, who's also from the Gulf, yeah. And he
does, he just had his he does an annual, 34th annual Mardi Gras
concert at the Bluebird. He does every, every year, yeah. And I
said, Hey, I need this to sound like, like a Cajun song, so kind
of like a Zydeco in a way, yeah, yeah. So I said, I said, I need
someone that has that sensibility, yeah, and so he
came in and wrote it with me.
I was really shocked when I heard Jay, because he's such a
master at voices, and he comes out with that Louisiana twang. I
was like, because that I try to do voices as well as a voiceover
artist, and that's one of the dialects I cannot get. Oh, it's
tough. Yeah, it's tough, but he does so well, it's natural with,
oh my gosh, yeah.
Well, and you would not know, because Jay has that
quintessential broadcast radio broadcaster voice.
He's got a great voice. Yeah, I can see why he has so many
plates in the air, because the guy's so good. That's great.
Yeah, he's got great voice. That's that's a part
of the country I always wanted to explore more. I was just
telling my business telling my business partner this morning
about it. I said, you know, I just feel inexplicably drawn to,
like the bayou and, yeah, the basin area.
Well, they're an interesting group of people. When I went
down there for one don't go down in July and August. Yeah, it
takes your breath away. But the people down there are, it's just
a different vibe, a different breed. I mean, they're and plus,
I went to some Alcoholics Anonymous meetings down there,
and you talk about wild, because in those meetings, they tell
their stories of, you know, they're, they're tough times
with addiction. And you know, I've done them in several
different towns, but none like down there. It was like, wild,
Wow, are you still alive. It's a fun I'd like to spend more time
down there. I like to go down there again, because I really
did enjoy my time down in Louisiana.
Have you seen?
Oh, what's his name? The actor from American pie with the
eyebrows. Oh, Eugene Levy. Eugene Levy, have you seen his
reluctant traveler series on Apple TV?
I think I've seen. I've know of it. I don't think I've seen it.
It's a great
series, but there's one where he goes down into the bayou and
spends time, you know, at a crawfish boil and and just
really immersing himself with those with those folks. And you
could not have two completely different types of people, yeah,
but it's, it's, it's a great, great series.
Yeah, I've taken, I've taken, like, I had to do a lot of work
down in Baton Rouge, and it's just introduced. I just love
going down there. It's, it's very run down. The
infrastructure is really run down. But you get into those
areas with the hanging Spanish moss and that iconic look of
that, you know? Oh, it's gorgeous, yeah. And I'm like, I
wish my wife was here with me, you know. And taking all I would
always go through New Orleans, because at the time, I didn't
New Orleans, New Orleans, I've never been there before, so
always drive through it and across the lake, Pontchartrain
bridge, yeah, because I'm like, that, that just, that is just
absolutely staggering. It's amazing. You're in the middle of
that thing. You can't see land, no, that's so cool. It is cool
when
you're driving into those areas where you have the Spanish moss
and you're getting into the swampy areas, yeah, put on
Neville Brothers yellow moon album, because that's just. It.
It just like a little soundtrack drivers that area.
Yeah, I remember going through downtown New Orleans on the way
back from a job that we were doing there, and I would always
just take that little jaunt out there. It's so scenic, you know.
And we went, I had to go to the bathroom, so we pulled off and
found myself right across from Cafe Le Monde, and they had
music. It was a Saturday morning, I want to say, and
there was all sorts of stuff going on, music and everything.
And you hearing that authentic New Orleanian jazz. I'm like, I
just want to hang out here, but I can't 10 hour drive to get
back. But, man, it was, I just want to go back and hang out.
Yeah, now it's, it's a it's a fun place. I met Aaron Neville
once. I got to go backstage at a show of his right after we got
married. Sorry, Neville Brothers and my wife's never gonna listen
to this, so I'll tell a nice embarrassing story. We, we had
been married maybe a year, and a friend of ours went to school
with Charles Neville, so got us all backstage, and I was a big
Aaron Neville fan, big Neville Brothers, period. But I got to
meet him, and I introduced myself, and a his voice is so
low when he's talking, yeah, you know, which is weird because
he's up there when he's singing. But I said, I said, it's so nice
to meet you. And he's like, I said, you know, my wife and I
his very first morning after, we danced in the shower at a yellow
moon, and my wife just goes three shades of red. Yeah, she's
mortified that I would say that she turns around and won't face
him and and he just sits there till she turns back around and
he goes the morning after what she leaves, she's out. We got
out in the audience, and she's so mad I can't believe you'd say
that you've humiliated me. And she was so angry. And before
they did yellow moon, he goes this one goes out to my shower.
Dancers. Oh. Ah,
that's right, I was a hero for at least 10 minutes.
But yeah, so that's my, that's my little Neville Brothers. But
yeah, great, great CD to be listening to while you're
driving through.
Keep that in mind. Yeah, man, one of these days we'll get down
there. Yeah, that's we ought to do. We ought to do a road trip.
Hell yeah, Scott, do some remotes. Yeah, yeah. Remotes
always work. Yeah. Radio remotes are going wrong.
Well, say we could get you, you play some gigs down there. We'll
go down and do a podcast right there. And Barney
mentioned Reggie earlier, yeah, he's a troubadour.
Well, and I have some, I got some new orleans friends that
are musicians that, there you go, yeah, I'm a drummer. There
you go, here, I won't, I won't. Yeah, what kind of drummer?
I'm also a musician.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive, right? Okay,
good to know. Yeah, Dan, item watches this. He'll be after
both dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. Dan, did you ever see
his horn band? Yes, I did. Boy, that's something else, right?
And he, you talk about a guy that he can play and sing
anything that dude, yeah, he blew me away. My the probably
the best moment I've ever had as far as music went was they
played the exit in was when he had the, he's with the Billy
Joel Christie's X, Christie's X, what a great band. Well, they
the guy that usually did the Billy Joel part wasn't there. He
was sick. Oh, no. So they were playing anything they they
wanted to. So they start. They played Highway to Hell. Okay?
And I just got a divorce, and I was in the crowd, and the lady
I'd taken with, she goes, you sing that. Why don't you get up
and sing it? I said, I can't do that. That's she goes, now, go
on up. I bet, yeah, everybody wouldn't mind. And so went up
and sang the last part. And, man, the crowd went crazy. That
was a
great band. They were great band.
But Dan's been an air. I mean, he's just a phenomenal guy. He
is. I really miss him being in. He was a good news I mean, you
talk about a good radio guy and a good musician. He had both
going on
well and and at W LHC, you know, back when it was clear channel,
not I Heart Radio, but no heart when I started, when I started
at W, L, A, C, that the newsroom had, like, 1213, oh yeah, it was
a huge newsroom. And, and, of course, every Christmas and
twice a year they'd have the, you know, the, what do you call
them? The layoffs, the Yeah, the cleaning of the house, the
cleaning of the house.
I got let go. It was week before Christmas. Yeah, that was,
that's kind of what they did, yeah, well, that's what they do.
It all of them, because my last one was a week before Christmas.
Well, tis the season. Yes. Is
good luck with future endeavors.
Yes, we wish them. Well, yeah, that's why I love to was the
emails. You know, they always put out the email future
endeavors. So and so has been let go. He's on to future
endeavors. We wish him well. PS, if you see him around the
building, please call the authorities.
Well, in Dan's office was a picture from a Christmas party
with all of them together, Sullivan and, and, oh gosh, I
could, if I thought hard enough, I might be able to remember all
their names. But and, and he had, he had put X's on all their
faces, until it was just him, and then he made it look like
one of those motivational posters, yes and teamwork. As
long as we stick together, nothing will ever go wrong. Just
him is the only one.
There was a picture of him like doing this. Yeah.
I thought that was brilliant.
That's the thing. Is, like, you know what radio really thinks of
you? It just says it right there in those letters, we wish you
well in your future endeavors. If they're in the building
again, call the cops. Yes, because we know you're nothing
but fragile, emotional, little, puny humans.
Well, I remember when I went to get my last check at W, L, A, C,
yeah. I went, I went down, and then they kept me in the in the
lobby, in the lobby, and they had somebody watching me
like I was toy, giving you the stink eye. Yeah, remember toy,
the little lady that worked in the front desk? Yes, you messed
with her.
No, you did not. But they also sent somebody down to watch me
while they were going to bring my final I thought, What am I
gonna do? I'm not gonna do anything.
So I was an anomaly. When I quit radio. I quit. I was starting my
own little business, yeah, and and I was still doing my weekend
show there for another year or two, and so I was the only
person I ever knew that didn't have somebody walk me out. I
didn't have security. I kept my key card and I just, I grabbed
my stuff and said, got to say goodbye to everybody and walk
out and and my Yeah, people were like, I've never seen anybody
get to leave that way. But since I wasn't doing anything else in
in the the media world, yeah, they were just like, and I was
still there on Sundays, doing my Music Row show. So they're like,
All right, that's me too. I guess I'm an anomaly as well.
Look at us unicorn. 17 years in the business, I never got fired.
Wow.
Well, you know, when I was what was interesting about WAC was,
after Phil had left, I did a talk show, and then they moved
me to the morning to a morning show, and they seemed real happy
with the morning show, but, but right after we started the
morning show, I get called in, And I'm told that in June May or
June, that I'll lose my job. Oh, but they said, but if you can
hang in till then, you know, we'd appreciate it, no problem.
So I knew for months that my ending was coming in June, May
or June, I can't remember what month, but it was hilarious,
because every time I'd walk in, you know, like you said, there
was, like, a million people in the in the newsroom, yeah, and
it'd be early in the morning, and I'd come in and go, dead man
walking. But I knew, I knew it was coming, and so that was very
interesting.
Well, radio what it's a fun world. It really is. I'm glad I
did it. I was, it was all completely accidental. I would
have never planned it, yeah, but it, it led me down a lot of
directions that, you know, I would not be out there as an
independent artist had I not gotten that, that sales gig,
yeah, and been in the office that day and and it's just all
all the pieces just kind of come together, you don't? I tell my
kids, you know, whenever something is happening that you
think is probably the worst thing ever. Yes, just relax.
Because when I look at all the good things in my life, there
was always something really bad that happened that that led me
down another path that's very true. So, you know, don't you
know if I'm if I'm stuck in a traffic jam and I'm late to an
appointment, I just I nowadays I just go, Well, Lord, whatever
you just kept me from. Thank you. Yeah, you know
I'm appreciative.
Yeah, I mean, that's, see, I think too many people look at
life, you know, life's supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be
a party. No, life is tough. Life is hard, but like you said, it's
not fair. No, it's not fair. It's tough. But like you said,
you know, from bad times. Times, good things will come.
Good things will happen. Yes, if, unless you look at
everything as, Look what just happened to me, right? Look,
Look what just happened to me. Now it's just okay. What? What
does that mean? What's out there, right? But what do they
say? They say we don't we didn't do this because it was easy. We
did it because we thought it would be easy, exactly. And then
here we are.
Yeah, right. Life will keep
you down and keep you there. If you let it, nothing will hit as
hard as life. It's not how hard you can hit. It's about how hard
you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Rocky Balboa outside the restaurant. I thought I came up
with talking to his son. That's a great that's a great scene,
and
it's so true. It is true. And in fact, I'm thankful to because
when I got started in radio, I started working for my father,
and people think when you say that, Oh, well, you know you got
it. You know, it was easy, yeah, not with him. I mean, you would
think the guy didn't believe in me, because he Well, he was, he
stuck me at, you know, my first gig was nine at night till six
in the morning, playing country music. There you go. And I
almost got the impression that all through my time working with
him, it was just constant, knocking me down to see if I'd
get back up, yeah, yeah. Let's make it as hard for him as
possible, and if he can take it, you know, then
he was, he was being a dad, yeah. He was,
yeah, yeah. I think we are. And by the way, your your podcast on
your dad's was super interesting. Oh yeah, I really
enjoyed that one. But, you know, I think we are harder on our
sons, probably because we see ourselves and want to help them
not do the stupid things we did right, forgetting that our dads
saw the same thing and how we responded to them, trying to
tell us what to do, yeah? So, you know, it's just this vicious
circle, but I think we're inclined to be probably harder
on our sons than our daughters.
Yeah, I think you're right, yeah.
I think I call that cosmic humor. You know, it's supposed
to be that way. Yeah, that's supposed to be tension.
Yeah, there is so back to you. Oh, and your career. More about
me, let's talk about enough about me. Let's talk.
But you've got a new project you've got coming out. It's a
live album
I do, and it's, again, a complete accident. You know, I
am the Forrest Gump of indie music, because I just kind of
end up somewhere and something good happens, yeah. But I this
last Thanksgiving weekend, I was clearing out my Dropbox account.
You know, I got all these folders and figuring out what I
wanted to get rid of, and I found a file that says, Scott
live. And I go, I don't even know what that is, and I look
and it's from a show, a sold out show I played in East Tennessee
in 2022 Yeah, the sound engineer that ran sound that night
recorded every microphone and amp separately and had done a
mix where and you could hear the audience, their their their
engagement and their, you know, hooting and hollering and
talking back to me and stuff and and he sent it to me in two
files. It was two and a half hours of of a live show. I'd
never listened to it. I'd never even i I'm sure when he came I
must. I don't know what I was doing, but I was like, well,
I'll check that out later. And I never did, but I was like, holy
cow, I got a, I got a live album here, because I'd been wanting
to do that right now as AI is becoming more and more prevalent
in music. Yes, everything is getting much more polished and
and perfect. And I said, Man, I really want to record something
that's raw. Yeah, and thank you. I've been talking to different
producers, and it's gonna cost more to do that than it would to
produce a studio album just because of the degree of
difficulty. Wow, as they're saying this and this, it's,
geez, I don't want to spend more money. I'm trying to spend less
and but so to have this drop in my lap, I'm like, holy cow. So I
sent it to my mastering person. She mastered the songs and, and
I'm, I'm in it probably 15% of what I would normally pay for a
full CD Project. Wow. And, and it's fun, man. I mean, it's, you
hear the audience coming back and forth with me, and, and the
BAM was sounding great. And it's, but there's no my guitars.
Was like, are we going to punch in? Are we going to add, are we
going to fix? I go, nope, nope. This is us, baby. Make it real.
This. Is what we sound like when, when you come to catch one
of our shows, yeah, and, and so I'm pretty excited that's going
to come out April 10, and, and
that's going to be fun. Well, you sent me a couple of cuts,
and, man, they're good.
I mean, for just and I think had I known I was doing a live
album, I would have been all stressed out, and I would have
been making a lot more mistakes. Yeah, I had no idea he was
recording it. That's even better. Yeah. So it's and I
talked to the guy, told him that I was going to do this, and he
goes, he goes, Oh man, the last time you were here, that last
Friday show was killer. Like, oh, cool. And he goes, I have
all of them. Wow. So there may be a whole series of live albums
coming out from me. I'll just keep sending them to you. He was
really happy that I'm doing this. I got to buy a mistake
dinner or something next time I see him. Yeah, no, yeah,
because they do sound good, man. The catch you sent me, yeah,
they were really good. Thank you very. Quality is good, yeah?
And the band was, was in a great mood that night. We were just
loose, yeah, you know, and when you're in a room, so that night
was 2022 when the guy introduced me, he said, You know, last time
Scott came in here, he sold out in like five minutes. It was
like the quickest sellout we'd ever had, yeah, but the last
time I'd come in was in 2021 right after covid. Yeah, and,
and I told him, I said, you could have booked a charcoal
briquette and it would have sold out in five minutes. And the guy
didn't miss a beat. He said, I tried for the briquette, but he
was already booked. But yeah, man, it's a great little room
called the station in Lewisville, Tennessee. It's,
it's, it's about the size of the bluebird cafe. It sits about 100
people. Oh, neat. But man, they are all there to listen, yeah,
and to be part of the show. And it's just, it's a hoot. It's a,
I don't think I sent you, I didn't send you the parody song
today. No, I don't think so. All right, I'll send you that.
Please do later. Play it. I don't think you want to play
this. And it's not on the it's not on the album. It's, it's a,
it's a deep cut that will never see the light of day,
except all that stuff sees the light of day, and I should
probably
deny it now as a an entertainer, yeah, one thing that drives me
crazy, especially if you go into a small town and you're in a
club, it drives me nuts when I'm trying to watch The person
singing. I hate the talkers. When I look at I look at an
entertainer, kind of like a preacher. You're not going to
sit and and talk all through the guy's sermon. That drives me
nuts. Does it drive you? I mean, especially if you can hear them
on stage.
Well, it does sometimes, but
I'll tell you, the time that really drove me crazy was when I
saw Merle Haggard's last show with the Ryman. Yeah, and there
was a couple of knuckleheads behind me talking at the top of
their lungs. And I'm like, I you really paid money to Yeah, talk
through Merle, through Merle Haggard. But I was at the
listening room once, and there was some, some well known hit
writers, and they were trying to play, and it was a loud room,
yeah. And they started getting mad, and they're like,
chastising the audience, telling them to be quiet. And and then
Kathy Mattea got up after that, and it got quieter, yeah. And
then after that, this little old lady, I mean white, tightly,
tightly shorn, tight haired and maybe four foot nine, comes up
on stage all by herself. The guitar looks like it's as big as
her, and she starts. I learned the truth at 17 that love was
just oh, it was Janice Ian, wow. You could have heard a pin drop
in that room. And that's when I realized it's not for the
audience to shut up. It's for me to give them a reason to shut
up, and so that so, so when, when I when that does happen to
me? Yeah, my, my challenge is to engage them. So I do a lot more
sing alongs and get them to where they're they're having to
yell out and sing out, and that hopefully gets them a little
more engaged. Now, Merle Haggard shouldn't have to do that. Those
knuckleheads should have just shut the Shut the heck up. But,
but when you're playing in a bar, in a little room, it it's
up to me to give them something to shut up for, yeah, and if I
don't do that, then, you know, it's on you. It's on me. Yeah,
it's on me. But I, you know, I did tell you a story. I did have
to tell one of my friends to hush up in a very unpolite way
just the other day. But again, that I probably shouldn't even
play in that room. It wasn't a good room for what I do. Yeah?
So you live and learn. Yeah. You know, true. My My daughter is
just starting out as as an indie artist, and she sent me a video
of her. She has her little solo acoustic amp, and she's playing
at a bar, at a bar in Knoxville, downtown Knoxville, on a Friday
night with just solo acoustic and I felt so bad for because
all you hear is everybody talking, yeah, she's singing as
loud as she can. And it's like, well, those are those. We all
have those nights. Yes, we do. And it's what do you do with
that? Yeah, do you curl up in a ball or do you? Do you find
another way to do it.
So find another way to do it. That's what you got to do, yeah,
it's all learning, as you know,
yeah, it is so good for her. I'm I told her the other day. I
said, those are the gigs you remember, and that you'll laugh
about down the road, and those, that's where you get your scars.
Well, exactly. And how brave of it is it of people to get up and
sing? Yeah? I mean that that takes a lot of guts, yeah, a lot
of determination. And like you say, it's all learning as far as
how to get a crowd engaged.
And, yeah, yeah, you just got to figure it out or or don't. And
who is it? Aaron, the guy that used to be in stained Aaron, oh,
oh gosh, that guy, yeah, that yeah, that
Aaron guy, that Aaron guy, yeah, he gets so mad, he'll sit he'll
just start yelling and cussing at the audience just to shut up.
Oh yeah, and, or, I saw Mellencamp do that recently,
really, yeah, starts yelling at people. It's like, you know,
their attention, your attitude towards it's kind of refreshing.
It's, I call it the concept, be them centric, like, you know,
it's about your audience. Make it about your audience, even
whether social media, whether it's a radio show, it's always
about your audience. And by proxy, it becomes more about
you. But it's still, from your point of view, has to be them
centric. That's what feeds you back. That's, it's an
interesting way to put it, because, I mean, when we had the
E spaces thing, and Neil and Kayla went up and sang, that's
what was happening. There's people chattering, yeah, not
giving full attention. I mean, here you got some, you know,
Smash Hit Songwriters, and you know, Neil's voice is you can
sing like a bird, and it's like they're just chatting. And it
was very frustrating from an audience because you're trying
to listen, right? Yes, you know, but at the same time, like,
well, you know, you got a point, yeah? I mean, yeah, yeah. I like
the accountability aspect of
that well. And even in the like, when I saw Tom Petty, you know,
first, I was a little annoyed, but, you know, the crowd was
singing with all of his songs, sure. Old crowd, sure. And I
thought, Well, I came here to hear Tom, yeah, but then I got,
kind of got into it, because I thought, you know, this is cool.
It's a shared experience. So I started singing, yeah. So it's
like, yeah, this is there's nothing wrong with this.
No Man, No and, and I like, what you just said, Be What did you
say? Be them centric. Be them centric. So when we started the
Music Row show, haino And I said, our motto has to always be
little us, big them, yes, little and I'm that way on stage, too.
Little, little me, big you. I want to, you know, I want to
bring you into the into the show. And I think that's that's
important, yeah, because I know me, I'm not that interesting.
I'm pretty boring, so I'd much rather make it about them.
Well, you're in good company here because we're boring
or nerd, but you do it well, thank you. Yeah, we're real good
at that. Aaron Lewis,
Aaron Lewis, there you go. I'm on the outside. Great. And his
country stuff is killer. It really, really is but, but, man,
you just can't, you can't cuss out an audience because, you
know, you're no longer to be
quiet well. And two they paid to get in. Yeah. So yeah, I saw
Justin towns Earl me rest in peace. And I thought he was a
really talented kid. I really liked him, but I saw a video of
him on stage. He was talking, and this guy was yelling at him
to, you know, saying, yeah, and, man, he tells him f off. And I
thought, man, no, you don't know. Yeah. You don't tell the
audience to go,
yeah. I mean, you know, no,
yeah, we, we played one night in San Diego, just in my, my, my
cover country band that I, that I came across years ago, and
there was nobody in this bar all night long. It was the first
time we'd ever played in this bar. Nobody knew who we were,
and it was like three guys. At the bar. Had just talked through
our entire thing, four hours, yeah, soul crushing. And
finally, near the end, I said, Guys, what do you want to hear?
Play an Elvis song. Okay, so we did suspicious minds, and we
finish. And I said, Ah. And he goes, not that one.
There you go. Oh, there you go.
Now I you know my buddy, Phil Valentine, who I will love till
the day I die. But you had a great story about seeing him
overseas of all places. Yeah. Tell that story,
yeah. And I think it was
that one of the tours I did that was coinciding with Harry and
Megan's wedding. I think go around that time I think he did,
was that the one, okay? So he's
always taking those solo trips to Europe, yeah, where you just
have a ball,
which I didn't know. I didn't know he used to do that. Oh,
yeah. So, so I'm, you know, you get off the plane and you got to
go through customs. And I, you know, that's one thing that
surprised me, is how long it takes to get through customs,
yeah, when I started touring over there. But so I'm in line
and and, you know, it's like a Disneyland line right, snakes
around and around, and coming towards me is Phil and and I
said, Excuse me, are you Phil? And he goes, yes,
yes. And
I said, Oh man, hey, I'm Scott. I live in Nashville. I've been
to a couple of functions with Johnny and Dan item, and I just
named off some of the some of our mutual radio friends, yeah.
And he's like, Oh, great to meet Jim. We chatted for a minute,
but the line's moving so it snakes back around, and we see
each other again, hey. And then it goes again and again. And
near the end, I said, I probably should have said high around
now, would have made this whole thing a lot less awkward.
Because, you know, we don't know each other. What are you going
to keep talking about?
So how is, how is the walk going to the end of that? Getting a
little bit of a crap in my right ankle. Yeah, you good. Can I get
you anything a little bit closer?
So yeah, that was Yeah. But what a what a loss for this area and
but, but, I mean, so many people still have so many great
stories, and yes, and great memories of him, and so that's,
that's, that's good stuff. But I'm, I'm happy I had that little
moment with them. And I've had a few of those. I had one with
John Prine, where we were, I was in the B section, he was in the
A section, and but we were at the same number, wow. And I
said, you're John, I'm Scott with the Music Row show. And he
said, on, on, W, L, A, C. He goes, I listen to that. That's a
great show, wow. And I said, Well, I'd love to have you on.
And he goes, No, thank you No, because we had started filming
him. And he goes, now, ever since my stuff, he goes, I
really don't want to be televised or filmed. And I said,
Okay, I can respect, yeah, but, but we chatted for a while, and
I just love those little moments. Dolly Parton held my
hand. Well, there you go. We did a couple of interviews, and then
after that, we started getting invited to her junkets. And I'd
gone into one where I just had shoulder surgery, and so I was
had one of those things on, yeah. She's like, Well, honey,
what happened to you? And I said, Oh, I was in the living
room dancing to backwoods Barbie, and you're a liar. And
so she held my hand for the rest of the interview, my other hand,
not, not that one. She held my hand. And so I can say, you
know, I've held Dolly Parton's hand. Well, I
hate to say but, you know, at the start of the show, I was
saying that I didn't know Jay was in, you know, sunnier climb.
And now this guy's held Dolly's hand. That's crazy. You know, I
loved, you know, I love Scott,
but you're feeling, you're feeling some anger, some damn
jealousy, right here. Well, you know what, if you had that
infinity gone,
get rid of me right now.
No, I wouldn't want that man. And, plus, if now you know we
were talking about Scott playing over in Europe and, and he does
play here, I do, yeah, you've got a lot of dates coming up.
Yeah, I don't know Nashville this is going to air. But yeah,
you've got several coming up in March.
And, yeah, go to go to the music, not the music bro show,
go to Scott southworth.com
so it's Scott southworth.com
Facebook is facebook slash Scott Southworth music. Instagram is
say howdy Scott X is say howdy Scott and Tinder is John Bozeman
and. Too, yeah, frackle, yeah, yeah, crackle. That sounds
interesting. It sounds illegal. Yeah, okay, and then Scott's
only fans site. Yeah, that's no, it's only fan and my mom's the
only one on there.
Yeah, did not see you going that way.
And if you go to Scott's website, you can meet the band.
Nice Scott.
But the new album coming out April 10 is called Scott
Southworth and the honky tonk anonymous band. Because, yeah,
first time I've recorded something with my band. I like
that name too. By the way. Good name for band. Well, it's
because members are always changing. So yes, they're there.
You never know who's going to be there. Yeah, that's most bands,
yeah. But how great is it that we live in Nashville and your
subs are killer? Yeah, right. So we're very blessed. We're very
blessed to be here.
Yes, we need a drummer. Let me know. Yeah, I hear this, I hear
this. Or if you
need a rhythm guitar player, you know guys sing
harmony with you. I can do good harmony. Have
you good what instruments are in the band?
Typically, for most shows, it's stand up, bass, pedal steel,
electric guitar and me, because the style of country I do really
lends itself to those days before they had drummers, right?
That said when I'm playing the honky tonk Tuesday at Eastside
bowl or an outdoor festival or something like that. Absolutely,
I bring in drums for to have that to fill up that larger open
space, and I just added fiddle to piano or anything. Nope,
nope, nope. And but what's interesting to me is my bass
player, my pedal steel player and my fiddle player are all
female, so it's Wow, it's it adds a different dimension, both
visually. And my daughter just recorded her first EP, and I
produced it, and we put she wanted mostly female musicians,
so I took a lot of my band and and then we got a couple others,
but it was a whole different feel in the studio too. And they
said, This is the gentlest session I've ever been in, but
it was still rocking, yeah, but there's just a different feel.
And it's a different feel on stage too, yeah. And, and their,
their approach to the instruments is, just a ton of
fun. So, yeah, well,
I see I've always been a big fan of girl bands. Anyway, yeah, I
always have been. I just
like those Robert Palmer videos, remember? Yeah, the girls, the
girls in the back, yeah, barely,
they didn't even show any emotion, yes.
What? What about the like the Iron Maidens? You like them,
the Iron Maidens. I don't. I've never, I've not heard of them. I
have not all
female Iron Maiden tribute band. Oh, wow, amazing.
There's a great female band here in Nashville called the Dead
deads. They are very good. You need to check them out. Yeah, we
can get them on the show sometimes. Let's do it, Scott. I
appreciate you coming on and hanging out with us today, and
gotta have you back, especially with Jay. You know, get Jay in
here.
Yeah, yeah. We could talk about all sorts. I'm I have an idea
for a book that I'm working on called Go windy without going
broke, because I like that. The thing that kills me about this
town is how many people will take money for very little
result, yes, and a lot of money, and really prey on those dreams.
So I being the cheap, you know what? That I've always been,
I've always found ways to do things that don't break the bank
or affect my family's budget. So that could be a whole nother
show.
And it's, I'm telling you, man, your your records are class. I
mean, that's, I mean, the the musicianship, the singing,
everything is just, it's superstar level. Thank you very
really nice of you. So keep up the good work. I will. I will
stay a fan. I promise.
I will continue to put the me in mediocre.
You've been watching this podcast. But anyway, we will be
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