Rick coming to you from crash studios in Music City, USA,
Nashville. This is the rich Redmond show.
What's up? Rock and roll. Yep, your iPhone, your clock, your
watch is correct. It's time for another exciting episode of the
rich Redmond show where we talk about all things music,
motivation and success. We love these things. These are things
that drive us, inspire us. I interview a lot of singers.
There's some comedians, but hey, this is a drum show. I love
talking to my drum brethren and sister in it's a fraternity.
It's a sorority. We love it. We lift each other up. This is very
exciting day, because this young drummer has just been taking the
world by storm, hailing from Mount Washington, Kentucky,
since 2021 has been the touring drummer with the award winning
country rap Kingpin, Jelly Roll. I'm talking about our friend
Cody ash. What's up? Cody
yo mines, dude, it is so good, so so good to be here, man, I, I
could not be more grateful and blessed to to be asked to come
on the show. Man, you, you have, you've been, uh, you know, you
know a lot of lot of drummers. I'm sure you know it, but like,
you know you, you're an influence to a lot of drummers
and and myself included. And you know, I've, yeah, this is, this
is awesome, and I'm glad that we've created our own
friendship. But like, this is, I'm not the, I'm not the guy
that's going to play cool bro. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm very, very,
very grateful. Yeah, you, you're, you're, you're a legacy
drummer. Man, you're, you're, your name will live in infamy of
of drummers, and it's just, it's very cool to be here with you.
Man, I'm honored to consider you a friend. So this is awesome,
likewise, man, and congratulations on all your
success, brother.
Thank you. Man, it's, it's, it's, it's been awesome. It's a
blessing, man. It's been a, you know, it's, it's been a grind
for years and years and years and a lot of tears and busting
and kissing. And, you know, whatever we're doing it, you
know what I'm talking about, though, and you know, so many
times there's this, you're in a room and you just gotta be
quiet, even though you don't want to be and you gotta be nice
to people that you don't want to be nice to sometimes. And it's a
lot of, there's some kicking you gotta do to get to it, you know.
But
well, you know what you're, you know, you're just a likable guy.
I remember last year we will. There's a story, I think,
because we met each other at the red door, the infamous red door
where I have mixed business and pleasure for many, many years. A
couple of years back, and you were nice enough to introduce
yourself. You're like, I'm playing with this cat named
Jelly Roll. I'm like, Oh my God, that's so cool. And then couple
years later, this guy is, like, one of the biggest things on the
planet. So incredible. But when, yeah, last year at the CMT
awards, I was playing this house band, and we got to, like, you
know, kick it a little bit. And we were on the same Southwest
flight, almost of the entire music industry on this flight
back to Nashville. I hope this plane doesn't go down, right,
yeah, uh, Billy give or was it Billy Gibbons, one of the ZZ Top
Yeah, yeah, one of the ZZ Top guys was on, was on that flight
too. And, like, Hardy and, like, you know, that was such an
awesome flight, dude. That was a party.
You're up and down the aisles. You're visiting with everyone.
You're high fiving people, you're kissing people. You're
doing the thing I'm like, This guy is gonna, like, he has
kicked the door open, and it's probably going to stay open for
a very long time, because you can play, man, I've seen you
play with Jelly Roll. And then when I got to do a deep dive,
and I got to see some of your drum covers and stuff you're
doing Nickelback stuff, you're doing some some like you did the
little NAS song, little, you know, and it's like, you're,
you've got some serious modern day, I hate to say gospel chops,
but I mean, you have some serious like hand foot
combinations, plus you're in a bunch of metal bands, so you got
the speed on the feet and stuff. So really, really cool style. So
I'm like, but this guy's personality, he's approachable,
he's larger than life, he's friendly. Never forgets a name.
I mean, you are gonna be doing just fine in this industry.
Thank
you, dude. That's, that's, that's, that's crazy to hear you
say, Man, that's, that's amazing. I couldn't ask for
anything more. And, like, I mean, I feel like you really,
you know, you really nailed my personality, because I'm, I'm
very, I'm a very big personality, dude. Yes, I could
be loud, but I'm also, like, a little something pretty like,
self aware of, like, when I'm if I'm being too loud, and then I
gotta tame myself down. But, yeah, man, I just, I love
meeting people, and I love talking to people and like, I've
just never been like, even when I would, like, fill in for bands
or like, anything like that. You know, I've just always been even
like, I would fill in for. Bands, and I wasn't even in
their band, but I was like, Okay, how can I help these
people, like, get further? Okay, I know I'm not in their band,
but how can I help promote them? And I would, like, Go stand
outside at their shows and like, like, I would play their set,
I'd be filling in, I'd play their set, and then I'd go,
like, hustle their CDs, or like, hustle their merch, or like, try
to meet people and be like, Oh yeah, I'm not their permanent
drummer. But like, you got, you need to listen to these guys
like they're incredible. You want to buy a
CD, and they're like, You should be, you should be their regular
job, dude. I'll
just be hustling for like, anyone I could and like, but
also, I was through that, I was able to make like, my own
friendships and like, you know, create like relationships with
people that you know, even, even if I, even if I don't see them
or like not able to talk to them like, I hope that they still
took like, if they hear my name, they still like, took a good
memory from like, even if it was one interaction, you know, like,
because one one, it only takes One interaction for someone to
like, decide whether they're gonna like you or not. You know,
like, it's because, if that first interaction is bad, the
odds of you ever being creating a friendship or anything with
that person is is very unlikely. But, yeah, I mean, I just, I try
to like, I'm not perfect. I've, you know, I'm a I'm a sinner,
I'm I'm a, I'm a human, you know, and so sometimes I have my
bad days. And I'm sure there's people that I've, you know, come
in contact with accidentally, that just caught me on it, not
the right day, and I maybe fuss about something, but, you know,
I hope to, I hope, if I ever do running those people, I can have
that conversation and correct that wrong. But, you know, and
it's just, I just, I love meeting, and I love talking to
people, and I love like, we all just, do you, we just all have
so we just all have a different story. And to, like, really, you
know, listen to someone, and to, like, really understand you can,
you can, like, learn something from just about anybody, you
know, I'm saying, like, even, even you can apply that and you
can apply that lesson into just everything that you do. Like,
there's so many drummers that I feel don't realize that. Like,
even if you I feel like some drummers really compare and
contrast, like, oh, I can do that, or, like, I'm able to do
that, or this, you know, so and so they, like, won't deep dive
into a drummer, because they feel that they have nothing to
learn from them. But like, but the thing is, is you can take
something away from any, anybody. And like, not only, not
only drums, but like, just in life in general, like, there's
a, you know, there's probably a guy out here that I could go
learn a life lesson from that has experienced something
different in life than I have. Like, I learned, I learned
lessons from my girlfriend all the time. Like she, you know,
she's lived a different life than I have, and she's, you
know, even though she's a little bit younger than me, like she's
experienced so many things that I, like, have never come in
contact with and you know, so there's just, I think there's
just, there's something that you can learn from everyone. And
even, like I said, even with drumming like you, even if you
feel that like you can play what another person's playing, or
like whatever, like, we're all so different and think
differently, like they may approach a fill differently than
you do. And like, you can take that and learn from it and roll
with it and create your own thing. Like, there you can just
take something from everyone, but, yeah, I love talking to
people. Man. I love, I love, I love, I like, I like talking to
people a lot. Yeah, you're
definitely a people person. It definitely shows and you're just
stealing stuff from people left and right, and putting in your
bag of tricks. And I stole some stuff from you today. Man. I was
watching some sort of a interview for Zildjian or
something, and there was a ticker on the bottom with the
transcription of all your fills. And I was like, I was like, I
was I was okay, that's what he's doing. Otherwise, I'd have to
really slow it down. But I'm a good reader, so I read it. I was
like, oh my god, I'm going to put that in my back pocket. So,
yo, I think, I think that was my interview with Dan Kirby. Yes,
bro, I don't know if you guys know each other, but I
definitely have to link y'all man, he is awesome. He's He's a
dude from Australia. He plays for, like, he plays with, like,
a lot of different people, and he's just an awe. He like, does
stuff for Diligent Australia and everything. And he's just an
awesome, awesome dude to talk to, but he, he is actually the
one that transcribed all of that and, like, put it on paper. And
because I've been wanting to do that for a really long time, but
I don't know the forms to use for that, so he did it. And I
was like, Yo, this is thick. Yeah,
no. I mean, people are going to be stealing from me. Now, it's
written out. It's for all time, but I'm just talking to you. I
get the real a sense of just how important music and drumming is
in your life, and just how hard this has been, because I'm
looking back much like me. You know, you're in the fifth grade
band, and then I believe correct me if I'm wrong, but you did one
year in the marching band at. University of Louisville, and
there was all sorts of bands. You had your first, I think your
first concert was Molly crew, and you got your first drum set
at 14, and then you're touring the world with a metal band.
What was, what was that band? What was that experience like?
Because you're saying it was a grind, it was a hustle, I can
imagine, especially if it's a do it yourself situation. You're in
bands, you're
like, it didn't even start, like, it's Yeah. So I, like,
started in metal when I was, like, coming into it, like, back
in like, 2009 I joined my first metal core band. We didn't
really do anything, we, we, it was just, like, bunch of friends
that just got together and, like, whatever. Like my first
band ever was, was a hair metal band called bullet when I was a
sophomore in high school, and we all did the makeup and all that
good stuff, like tease the hair, and it was a glam band.
It was a glam Yeah, it's
a glam band now. So my first band ever was a glam band, and
we were not a cover band. We played originals. We wrote
originals, like we just were 15 and didn't have money to go
record it, you know, and our parents were, like, thought it
was just a phase, so they didn't want to put money to go. And
obviously they didn't know anything. None of our parents
were involved in music, so they didn't know anything about
recording or how to go about it. So we just never did. We just
played shows we won, like, a battle of bands, whatever. And
then that fell apart, you know, just high school kids grow apart
and become a senior, and I joined this, this we me and my
friends make this heavy band, and didn't really do anything.
But through that, I playing, that's when I got introduced to
the local scene. That's when I figured out that bands, like,
there was local bands I like, didn't know that existed,
because I thought that any band that played on stage was, like,
a really, was just a big deal. And so like, you know, I'd go, I
started going to these local shows, and I'd, you know, be in
a room with like, 100 150 kids, and just seeing bands playing.
I'm like, Oh, this is so cool. I wish I could do this. And yeah,
so through that, I ended up joining this band. There's a
couple bands in between, but then I joined this band, oh
kingdom, and they that was my first band that I ever toured
with. We were, we were like a metal core band, and I booked
all of our tours. And with the help of, like the first tour, I
had help from someone else. But beyond that, it was like I
booked all of our tours from 2011 to 2016 and we were in a 15
passenger van. And, you know, I slept on the bottom bunk. And,
yeah, dude, but
you got some skills together where you had to, you got to
plan a budget and when loading is and what the mileage isn't
get all the routing, and make sure you get somewhere to soap
and so
at that, I will say, Oh, crap, I'm sorry. Um, at that time I
didn't know anything, yeah, no, I have my, my, my, god, my
little, uh, it's a, it's a cap. It's like a little diamond cap.
All right, okay, I, like, accidentally hit it and it
popped out. But no, so we I didn't really know anything
about that. I was just mad young. I was like, I think I was
18 or 19, and not knowing a single thing than what I did. I
just knew that I need to contact venues and promoters and other
local bands in different cities. And I didn't, I knew I wasn't
going to make money. I was like, I just want to get on the road,
like, whatever. Let's just get our name out there, because I
thought that's what we had to do. So booked all these tours,
and, you know, did some fun stuff. It was my funnest memory,
some of my funnest memories, man, like, you know, we didn't
know we were doing. We were just young and, like, we just would
save up money to go on tour and then come back home and work and
then save up money and go
on debt, come back in debt, and you're like, what am I gonna
Yeah, yeah.
And, well, you would just be stoked if we, like, made, like,
sold, like, $100 in merch or something, you know, say it was,
we were in a van, and we were just, you know, we were just
doing it. The drives were ridiculous, and it was crazy,
but it was so fun. Like, I wouldn't take that back for
anything,
but you're managing now, right? I mean, so you got some skill
sets. You're managing. I've learned.
I've learned a lot more so, so, so I'll tie into that through
the story. But so through Oh kingdom, I started getting
noticed because we were touring, and other bands were hitting me
up to fill in. So it's like, oh, this is a perfect opportunity to
like, promote my band. And so we I started touring with these
other bands, but was selling my band CDs and their band CDs to
like, just try and like, get everyone's name out there and
get my name out there in the same time. And so through that,
I ended up doing my first like national tour, where I went to
Canada and did full us with this band called Siler, and I was
filling in for a band called beyond the shore. So it was
beyond the shore, and Siler and we did, like some northeast
states, and then we went to did Canada be on the shore, and so
on and so. Forth. Well, through that, I became friends with this
band called Siler, and over the next three years, I was filling
in for other bands and still touring without kingdom. And
then in 2016 I was filling in for this band called
picturesque, and we were on the way home from a US tour that we
just did, still in a van, still still in the van. Um, this is
2016 still in the van, and get a call from Siler, and they're
like, Yo, can you, what are you doing next week? Can you come do
the show? And I was like, Yeah. And they were like, What do you
want for pay? And I was like, Hey, I don't know. I've never
been paid before, so I don't know. Like, I don't know what to
ask. I was like, honestly, in my in my head, I was like, this is
an opportunity to get to the next level. So I was like, You
know what? Don't pay me. Just cover my gas. I'll drive to New
York and we'll play this show. So sure enough, got home,
learned the songs, drove to New York, played the show, and then
drove back home, and then they asked me to do it again. So I
went and did the same thing again. And I was just like, I'm
going to show these I'm dedicated, like I want them to
ask me to join. And then they asked me to do a tour with them
in July of 2016 and then it was that tour that they were like,
Hey, we're, we're going to add you to the band, but as like a
permanent fill in. So I was a, I was a part of, I joined silent
in 2016 as a permanent fill in, became an official member in
2018 but we did, like, that's when I got in promos and stuff,
or, you know, whatever you want to call it, and so through that,
I did, like, a lot of my extensive touring with them.
That's where I went to, like Japan and Europe and Australia.
Puerto Rico did, like, multiple us tours. But sadly, there was
just never, never any momentum behind them. And then there was
like a up with with the label, like, really, the label they
were on, really dropped the ball. And it kind of just, you
know, the guys had been doing it for a long time. So there was
just kind of like this weird energy where it was like, you
know, they had been doing it for like, eight or nine years, and
it was just kind of, I felt bad. It was just a weird situation,
but I wasn't ready to stop. So I was like, I'm going to do
whatever I can. And so then covid hit, and obviously
Nashville wasn't really shutting down, and Kentucky wasn't really
shutting down. So I was like, this is my opportunity to like.
So I started going to Nashville a whole lot because I picked up
this band called Devil's cut, and we were the guy that we were
recording with in Columbus. Ended up getting hired by jelly
to work out of his studio. And so I was going down, me and
Devil's cut were going down to write and record songs and doing
it like the Nashville way. Because noone in metal is was
doing it the Nashville way at that time. Like, no one in metal
was, like, going out and, like, riding with dudes in Nashville.
And I was like, This is what they need. Like, this is what we
need to do. No one's doing this. Let's do this country rock
thing. Like, I'm going to help you guys out. No one's doing
country rock like this was before Hardy started putting
breakdowns in his songs. Uh, Lakeview was just coming out
like they were, they were, they were way ahead of it. They just
haven't got the love that they deserve yet. But anyways, yeah,
so that that led me into managing, but I picked them up,
and I was going to Nashville all the time. And through that,
that's when I started going to red door, which is when we met.
And because I was like, Hey, that was told I was hanging out
with Jake summers from and then I was, do you remember Kenny
Dixon before he passed? Yes, of course. I was oh, yo, oh, my
god, Rich. I completely forgot to tell you this, bro, I forgot
to tell you this. Kenny was my introduction into country. Or
it's not, not into country. I grew up in Kentucky, so I was
around country, but he, Kenny Dixon, was the reason that he
was my first time ever going backstage to a country show to
do like that networking. And so it was on your all's tour, Kane
was direct support for you guys. Yes, I
believe it was 2019
Yeah, it was, it was 2019, and Kane was direct support for you.
Was, it was fall. It was a month before he passed away. Yeah, um,
so unfortunate, so unfortunate dude. It killed me when I got
that news, because me and him had just created a friendship,
and it was it, dude, it killed me to find that out. Like, but
he, he, like, I started, like, networking with all these
different drummers that I didn't know were in the country world,
but also knew who I was for metal. So like, miles from Cody
Johnson, Kenny Jake summers, uh, taco with Morgan. Like, yeah,
um, all those dudes were, like, already following me, and I had
no idea, and I was like, Oh, Like, I need to, like, talk to
these guys. Like, these guys can, like, help me give advice
on what I need to do, sure, because I was turning 2627 and I
really.
Makes sense to not go in a circle, but to be like, you
know, CDE, you know, whatever it is, so on and so forth. Like to
go just like this, but instead of a going, because if you went
like this, your hands wouldn't be able to, like, go in a
circle. But the fact that it's staggered, it helps, like, with
the movement, which is like, whole crazy thing to think
about, that someone was able to come up with that concept. But,
dude, yeah, so so that going there, I ended up meeting, like,
a lot of, like, college percussion, people and stuff,
and kept in contact with until my my freshman year of college.
Well, I ended up getting asked to join the intercollegiate
steel band my freshman year. So which is basically like the
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and I think Northern
Kentucky University all get together and bring their steel
bands in. They, like, choose two to three people out of each of
their percussion groups, and they bring them into Eastern
Kentucky, because Eastern Kentucky has, like, the steel
band, whatever, and we all just do pieces and we put on a show.
But through that, I ended up meeting all these juniors and
seniors at college that knew all this and they took me into their
dorm, and I stayed with them and that, and it was a whole
percussion. It was only percussionists and only
drummers. And so they introduced me to gospel chops dude, which
is where I got, in fact, which is where my whole idea of
drumming changed, because at that time, all I knew was metal.
And I was like, oh yeah. Like, if it's not double bass or,
like, if it's not this, well, it's, it's, it's whack. But then
I saw gospel drumming, and I my whole world completely changed,
and my whole outlook on drumming changed and and I just, I became
obsessed, like I started in incorporating gospel chops into,
like, metal and then, like, because of my country
background, I just already had that and, like, but yeah, so So
I did, I did March. That's when I got really introduced to,
like, a bunch of the different rudiments and so on and so
forth. Because I was only really taught basically, like, the
basic, basic rudiments at high school. And that's no, that's
nothing against, like the band teachers or anything. It's just,
there's no funding for music at that school there. There wasn't,
there wasn't. But now, I
mean, your hands, dude, I'm just saying, like, there's not a lot
of metal guys, a lot of lot of metal guys will focus on their
feet, you know, China, halftime, you know what I mean. And their
hands are okay, but you, you have, like, an extreme control
over your accent and your unexpected your unexpe notes
are. That's what everyone should strive for. Is very, very close
to the head. So there's that rolling motion, there's that
percolation. Very good, very good hands, man, you know, open
strokes, it's great.
That means a world that you notice that because the amount
of time, and honestly, I need to get back on it, because I feel
like I've I'm going to say something very real to you right
now. I feel like I've fallen we've been so busy that I
haven't got to like, you'll, you'll, you'll probably
understand what I'm about to say. We've been so busy that I
haven't got to just be with myself and my drum kit. And I
can't tell you how long I haven't been able to, like, sit
down and learn new things, and I like, and like, just be with my
drums in in so long, and I feel like it's kind of like held me
back, almost to a sense where I would sit for hours could and
the reason, sorry, I'm bringing this up because what you just
said means a lot, because I used to sit for hours and work on
stick heights. I would sit and be like, I would go off of a
scale of 369, 1215, so it'd be like, you know, three would be
like your lowest of lowest ghost zones. And I'd do like, I don't
know, a minute of it, and then I'd go to six and do a minute of
that. And I'd go to nine, and then I go to 12, and then I go
to 15, and then I'd go, I'd go to the right hand, or I'd go
back down, and then I go to the right hand. And then I'd do them
together, and I would that one exercise alone takes every bit
of like, 15 to 20 minutes. You know, I'm saying, if you do each
one for a minute, yeah, and, and, dude, I spent so much time
on that because I really, really wanted to pride myself on ghost
notes. Because the metal drummers that I looked up to at
the time, I still look up to, I still think they're the most
incredible drummers ever, but the that I looked up to, they
all had really good ghost notes. And I was like, I want to be
like. Like, on that level. So I, like, did everything that I
could to like, be to like, get my notes like that, also like
marching band as well, because we had to do stick heights for
marching band. But yeah, yeah, I marched my freshman year at the
University of Louisville, and then my band started touring.
And I went to my marching band instructor, and she said, she
said, Good, bless her soul. She
usher them. It's also them. You gotta choose.
Yep, she was, she was like, yeah, if you miss a game, it's a
letter grade. And I was like, Okay, I'm going on tour.
Awesome. But so, but yeah, man, yeah, I, yeah. I did a lot of I
did quite a bit of schooling, but I wish I could have got into
marching band sooner. But like I said, my my high school was so
not oriented for anything with music they like, just didn't
give a so I was like, I was like, I wanted to play football
and March, but my coach was literally like, No, you have to
choose. You can't, you can't suit up for the game and then
not be in the locker room at halftime, because you have to go
march and put on a show or whatever. I was like, I could
just not do the show. Like, can I just do the competition? He's
like, Well, what's the point of being a marching band if you're
not going to do the halftime shows, like, you want to play
football, or do you want to do this? And I was like, Dude, I
want to play football. Like, you know, saying, like, yeah, no,
but obviously, inevitably, we see where, where I was meant to
end up, I hope. But I
always think about journeys and decisions in life, because I was
thinking like, you know, I kind of discovered I was never really
like an athlete as a young kid, I discovered my inner athlete
later in life, because I was so focused on the music thing. And
I was always, you know, in the last decade, I got really
interested in acting. I was like, what would have been cool
if I had actually done that in high school and developed some
of those skills. But I was just so, so hyper focused on music,
just like you, you've been focusing on this thing for a
very long time. And usually when you get this life changing
opportunity, a life changing opportunity like playing with
jelly. It usually comes down to relationships. Is that what
happened? How did you get the job? Um,
so how I got the job with jelly was, was literally, yeah, bring
it. Bringing it back to where I found out that, you know, a
couple of these country drummers were already following me. So I
reached out, and I was like, Hey, let's get lunch and like,
because my whole thing, my whole life, has been networking and
creating relationships, even, even if nothing comes of the
relationship, like just having that relationship and doing the
introduction in general, is so so, so important, man. Like,
even like, so important. You know, like, like, not that no
one is more important than any other person. But like, like, no
one's above anybody. But, but create. You know, when you meet
someone and networking and creating those relationships is
like so vital to like, anything that you do in life, you know
saying, because you never know who someone knows, and you never
know like, what someone is capable of doing like, you don't
know if like, they'd be willing to help you, or so on and so
forth, but it's like, you don't go into meeting these people
expecting that they're here to help you. It's just to create
the friendship and to create the relationship and like, that's
the most important part of it. But, you know, when I saw that
these drummers who were playing for artists that I was listening
to were following me, I just, I just never thought, like, you
know, when I thought country, I was just like, oh, they, you
know, they get hired in like, you know, they're they
interchange like, they don't ever have the same band. And
then I was like, Oh, wait no, they do have the same band. They
just put the promotional focus on the artist, yes, and, and I
was like, So that's what I found, you know, found out all
these drummers. And so I like, hit, you know, talk to Kenny
Dixon. And then, like, I hit Jake summers up, and we happen
to be in LA at the same time, and I went and met up with him,
and we got lunch in like, 2019, and, and I was like, dude, like,
you know, not to like, be that guy. I was like, but what I was
like, how did, how do I get into this? Like, what do I do? And he
brought up a conversation that he had with you, yeah. And he
was like, bro, when I met rich, he was like, rich literally told
me he was like, the best decision that you could ever
make in life was, is to move to Nashville. Like, if you're
trying to make something happen, so on and so forth, like you
have to move to Nashville. And he was like, I think that he was
in because was it, I might get stories picked up, but you used
to live in Ohio.
No, I'm from Connecticut, and then grew up. Okay, maybe Texas,
but yeah, okay, maybe,
maybe if it was Jake Finn or Jake,
yeah, Jake grew up in
Long Island. Okay, I got the stories. I got my stories mixed
up then, but he told me. He told me a story about how what you
told him something like Jason moved to Nashville, or Jason was
like, there in. Basically told you, like, Yo, you have to move
here, or we got to find someone else. Or maybe that was like,
Jake summer story that Luke was moving to Nashville, and, like,
he needed to move there, or he was going to have to, like, find
someone else, or something he was basically just was, like, I
said, I It's been years since he told me the story, but I just
remember it, the the basis of it being like, Hey, do you gotta be
here, man? You got we have our job because we had to move to
Nashville. Like, if you want to get there, you have to be there.
Like, if you want to be in it, you have to immerse yourself.
And I never thought of it like that, because my whole life, I
had always thought of like, if I, if I want to be a part of
something. I have to immerse myself in it. But I never
thought of like this, a city, as a place that you had to immerse
yourself in. Like I thought of like people in groups and like,
if I wanted to be in metal, I had to listen to metal. I had to
know everything that was metal. So that's what I thought I was
applying the country, but it I was, I wasn't applying it
correctly, because being in Nashville and going out to those
bars is so important. It for, like, the networking and all
that stuff, you know, saying, so it was like, I because so
talking to him and him being like, Yo, you know, you gotta
move to Nashville, you know. And you know, he told me your story
that, or, you know what you had talked to him about, and then
he, you know, was telling me his story, and, like, what he talks
me about. And he was like, basically, at the end of the
day, he was like, Yeah, you just gotta move there, you know,
like, it's just what it comes down to, really, I
mean, when I met you, I immediately followed you, you
know what? I mean, it's like, I looked, I immediately looked you
up and followed you, you know, and and then we reconnected. A
couple years later, you had done the thing. You had changed your
life, man, this, this amazing life changing opportunity came
along,
but getting but, but getting into the jelly camp. It was
literally just like, like I said, that studio that the
producer worked out of that Devil's cut was in. He worked
out. He got hired to work out a jelly studio for jelly. And it
was just like a weird instance of like fate, like colliding,
because it was like I had known that producer Since 2015 and
then all of a sudden, and he only did metal and rock. And
then all of a sudden, he comes to Nashville one time, and meets
jelly, and jelly says, I'll move you down, work out of my studio.
And so he starts working out of a studio, and they and then it
just so happens, a band that I manage, he's their producer. So
we're, we just go to Jelly studio all the time. And through
that, I met like his, you know, his, some of his management and
his security, and some of his friends, and, you know, so I
became friends with all them, not meaning to just creating
relationships like I just, I, you know, because, like I said,
I didn't know who jelly was. I just knew that he did music and
through that when, when it was time for him to need a drummer.
And whoever showed up, his drummer showed up and didn't
really, you know, cut, you know where you know he wasn't cutting
it for what was needing to be done, yeah, you know, for what
he was about to do. Because I had like, met all those people
on accident over the past year, just by happenstance. They all
had, like, followed me and seen my drum videos, and they're
like, Yo, you gotta call. You gotta call him. Like, and so
after about 10 people being like, Hey, call Cody. Call Cody.
Was like, Alright, get this kid down. Like, shut up. Just get
this kid down here, you know, from what I from what I heard,
but yeah,
because you have some killer, well, highly produced, very well
shot cover videos where you where you play tunes, and, you
know, blow over them a little bit. You showcase your your
chops and your ability, and that those,
I like to have fun with those things. Those are all colleges
for my entertainment and like my fun. And I, you know, I, I'm,
I'm happy and blessed if like anyone like that people see them
and like love like, like it, you know, say like that means more
to me than anything, because, like, there's no reason I should
be taking a Daniel Bradbury song and doing just chopping over it,
like, it's just so fun, man, but I think that's what it should be
about. I think it should just be like, you ain't having fun with
it. Man, like, why are we here? You know? Like, why? Yeah, so
that's a calling card. Man, it's
a calling card. That thing exists, and people are like,
Well, what does it look like? What does it he look like? What
does he sound like? How does he play? Boom, there you go.
Yeah, yeah, dude, those, those videos, changed everything.
Like, so much for me to be honest. Like, my channel is not
big, you know, saying, I think I only have, you know, well, I
mean, okay, to some people, this might be a big number, but, you
know, compared to, like, the goal that I'm shooting for, you
know, compared to other people, you know, I only have, like,
10,000 subscribers, but, you know, I'm very grateful to even
have 10,000 subscribers. You know, we're always shooting to,
you know, be better and grow and so on and so forth. But, you
know, I don't have the biggest channel in the world, but you
know, the people that do subscribe to me, like. Watch my
videos like it means so much, and it just do, just because
it's just fun, man, it's, it's so cool. So it's awesome like
that, anybody can, can gain inspiration from it, or anything
like that, you know, because it's just me in the studio with
my buddies just having a good time. Yeah, that, you know,
that's all I want to do, man. I just want to have fun and make
people smile. And if I can, if I can influence, or, you know, or
do something that, that someone's like, Oh, that's cool,
you know, what is that? Like? That's, that's all I could ever
ask for. You know,
now you're doing that, man. So you so jelly gets you down. You
get come to Asheville.
And, um, he says, So, well, no no. So he, Jelly had his people
call and, dude, this story, this is the craziest part of the
story. I'm sorry. I love doing these things, man. I'm sorry if
I'm annoying, dude. I can talk all day.
No, it's great. No, I just think it's great to learn how you the
thing came about. So it was relationships. And, yeah, so
it was obviously relationships. And finally, these people were
all coming to jelly and telling him, and he was like, alright,
we'll give him a call. So it's a Wednesday night. I'll never
forget this dude at this time, I was bartending to Wednesday
night. I got off early. I don't know where I was mentally, but I
decided to get hammered. So I got hammered. And it's 3am and
I'm sitting at this bar, um, speaking, I bet you'd
be a great bartender. But I was thinking, like, I've never had
that job, but you gotta have a personality, you know you gotta.
I love bartending, dude. It was so fun.
I bet you cleaned up, bro, cleaned up.
I also, like, didn't give a when I was bartending. Bro, like,
bartending taught me so much about respect and taught me how
disgusting some people in this world are to be. To be
completely honest with you, sure i What do you know? What do you
mean? What
do you mean by that? The respect, like the Oh, dude,
just like, you know, just the when I came in contact with so
many people that when I would, you know, I was bartending, they
wouldn't treat me like a person. They would treat me like I was
serving them. And I was like, and granted, yes, I am serving
you drinks, but I am not below you. You know I'm saying, like,
you don't know what the I do. Like, I'm here for. I'm here
because I like doing this like, and so just people would, like,
there were some people that would just talk down to me, and
I would just be like, Yo Who are you talking to? Like, you think
I'm not going to talk back to you. You You think that because
I'm behind this bar, that I can't come out from behind the
bar, like I'm right here buddy, you know, or like I was not
scared. You can ask, bro. You can ask any, anybody that
bartended with if someone had a tab and didn't tip, I would, I
felt, I would feel so disrespected that I would
literally take the check and put it in their face, and I would be
like, hey, is there an issue? Did I not were your drinks not
good? Because you were telling me your drinks are, were good
all night? What's is there an issue? Why? You know, you know,
this is how I make my I make $2 an hour. Yes, I chose this job.
But you know, I chose this because I get to interact with
people. You're not going to run up a $220 tab and leave me three
bucks. I was like, You're not that cheat dog. Like, that's not
cool. Or I would be like, I'd be like, hey, was your service not
good? Like, I felt we had a really good repertoire. We were
nice. I would I've made your drinks a little bit stronger.
Like, was this cool? Why are you why are you stiffing me? Did
something wrong, you know? And
so what would they say? Well, what would, you know, they
would just, they would be stunned that I would even say
anything. Yeah, they'll be like, I'd be like, what? Well, what's
good, what's going on, like, or what's, you know, they would
literally just be so. And it wasn't me trying to bully people
into giving a tip, it was me trying to call disrespectful
people out in front of other and, like, in front of their
friends, to let them know that, hey, you're with a Or like, Yo,
you're like, your friend sucks. You
know, nothing worse than a bad tipper, bro, like, Dude, I
call, I call my friends out if they tip bad. You know, saying
if I literally, and there's been so many times I'm sorry I love
this conversation, bro, because I'm so I'm so on it, dude. But
there's literally times that I'll be sitting with friends, at
at a at a table, and we'll get up to leave, and I'll look at
all their checks, and I'll see what they left, and see if it
was like, you know, that's probably, you know, not the
right thing, but like, I want to make sure that, like, if someone
is serving us that, like, that's an hour of their time to make
money, you know I'm saying, and if, if we all run up a $50 tab,
and you guys Tip two bucks or three bucks, like, Dude, come
on. Like, bro, we make enough money to where we don't need to.
Like, don't disrespect someone like, dude. I. Man,
like, we're here to ever, ever tip less than 20% even,
absolutely, absolutely, I'll let them know that they can improve.
If they suck, I'll be like, hey, this was not good, but I know
that this is how you make a living. So there you go, yeah,
and it's in the you know? And, like I said, I'm not perfect,
man, there's sometimes that I like, I'll have service. And I
have to be reminded that, like, hey, you know what? This person
may just be having a bad day. Yeah. And like, in my saint of a
freaking woman is there to remind me of that sometimes,
because I get I get pretty flustered, pretty easy, if,
like, I feel disrespected or misunderstood and and so like,
she'll calm me down sometimes. But I've never not, I've never
not tipped anyone. You know, I'm saying like, I'll always put it
in the circumstance of, like the table. There's been multiple
times where I've, like, covered for other people. Like, if I saw
that their tip wasn't good enough, I'll like, I'll go back
to my check, and if I tipped like, 20, I'll change it to 40
or something, just to make sure, like, the table is
mathematically, like, worth the hour that that server just put
into it. Like, interesting. I'm very, yeah, I'm very big on on
tipping, like, I hate the the whole not tip culture, like,
it's so it's such a it's so, you know it now, now, if we're in a
circumstance where, like, the employees are making 15 to $20
an hour, and then they wanted to, yeah, yeah. I'd be like,
alright, this, you know, this is a little different. But like,
the servers that are making, like, two bucks, bartenders that
are making two to five bucks, like, no, come on, man, like,
it's that's just, it's a respect thing. But, you know, I would
just call people out. And sometimes they change it,
sometimes they get mad, sometimes they try to get in my
face. And that would just never work out. And, you know, just
like not that we would fight, but you know, they just ended up
getting, you know, pushed out because, you know, you're not
going to mess with me kind of thing, but I'm not going to
fight any. I'm not going to lose my job over you, but also, I
won't hit anyone unless I'm hit, and then, yes, unless they
touch, like, you know, a family member, like a girl, then or a
friend. I'll fight for a friend before I'll fight for myself,
yeah, yeah, but I can relate, but, yeah, man, so I'm sorry,
sorry.
Oh, so you're going, so you're doing, so you're doing this on a
Wednesday night, yeah? So Wednesday night, I
got off work 3am I'm hammered. I get a call from the producer,
Bayless, and he's like, Hey, how would he know the jelly roll
song? Because I was like, Uh, I don't know. I went through him.
And he was like, Do you know him or not? And I was like, Oh,
dude, it's rap, yeah, sure, whatever. Like, and this,
because this was before, like he was fully into country. And I
was like, Yeah, sure, whatever. It's rap. I'll just, you know,
do, just learn the beat and I can just play over it, whatever.
And he's like, Alright, cool. And then put the phone down, and
I get another phone call from the guitar player, from Siler,
because they were, happened to be in Nashville, recording with
the same producer. They were like, riding with that producer,
and he's like, Yo How well do you know the jelly songs? And I
was like, dude, Bayless just called me and told me this why.
I was like, what's going on? And they were like. He was like, Do
you know him or not? And I was like, Yeah, dude, what's up? And
he was like, Alright, you're probably gonna need a phone
call. And on the then I was like, okay, so I just they had
Bayless had been telling me that he was trying to get me to drum
for jelly for like, the past five months before that. So I
just didn't think any other, like, whatever. It's another one
of those phone calls. And then the next morning, I also worked
at a e cigarette shop, a vape shop at the time. So I was
bartending at night and working at the vape shops in the
afternoon. And so we it's 10 in the morning. I just opened the
store. Customers are coming in. I'm helping customers. I get a
call, a phone call from a 615, number, and and it was, I was
like, Yo, I have to, like, take this call, and I, like, pause
the customer. I was like, this is really important. Like, life
changing, important. And so I answered it, and they're like,
Hey, how fast can you be in Nashville? And I was like, I'm
at work right now. When do you need me behind? They were like,
we need you as soon as you could be here. And they were like, how
fast can you be here? I was like, I could be there by seven.
And they're like, perfect. So then hung up, and I was like,
All right, so I checked the rest of the customers out, and I
called my buddy, and I was like, Hey, man, I gotta close the
store. Can you come cover for me? Like, I gotta go to
Nashville. And he was like, What the And I was like, yeah. Like,
this is a big favor. Please help. And he was like, yeah. And
so I literally, I walk out, I locked I closed the store up.
The owner. Ever sees, is he going to kill me? Love that guy,
but lock the store up and I leave and then pack my drums and
I drove to Nashville. My buddy ended up showing up to cover the
store but, but I left before he got there, and I drove and
packed my drums up. Of the Nashville got handed 18 Songs to
Learn on my two hour drive. And this is the best part,
obviously, getting learn, getting handed 18 songs to learn
in a couple hours is it's awesome. Yeah, it's impossible,
it's hard. Yeah, it's that's stressful, as you know,
especially if, if you have to, like, learn them to go rehearse
that night, and then you have to play them two days later, like,
so I'm driving, I'm stressing. I get near Nashville, I call them,
I'm like, Hey, where are we rehearsing? Where's the spot?
And they're like, change of plans. Jelly wants to go to
dinner. It's like, what? And they're like, Yeah, Jelly wants
to go do like, a pre tour dinner. And I was like, or like
a pre year of shows dinner, whatever it was. And I was like,
Dude, I just got handed 18 songs, like, we need to
rehearse. And they're like, Yeah, we're gonna go to dinner.
And I was like, alright, so I show up, and I happen to sit
next to Jelly at the at the dinner, and that this was, like,
our first time, like, kind of really hanging out, yeah, and,
and I'm so, I'm like, you know, just kind of like tapping and
like shaking. And he puts his hand on my shoulder, and he
goes, You look nervous, Bob. Oh, he's like, are you okay? And I
was like, Hey, man. I was like, listen, I really want this gig.
I just got handed 18 songs. I don't want to lose this gig.
Really need to rehearse, but we're at this dinner, and he was
like, You need to loosen up a little bit. And he's like, Can
we get a round of shots of tequila? And he when the waiter
brought in the tequila, he goes every time you drop these off.
He was like, go ahead and put in another order. So it was he'd
drop them off, and then 10 minutes later, there'd be
another round of tequila. Oh my, 10 minutes later, there'd be
another round. We end up getting hammered once again. And then at
3am they're like, rehearsals at nine in the morning next day.
And I was like, What the I'm like, I'm not gonna make this
somehow. I made it. No one else made it. No one else was there
at 9am it was just me. So I set up, and I was like, alright,
well, I guess I can go through these songs. I set up and I was
going through the songs. Everybody showed up around 11,
so we practiced. The first time we all met and practiced. We
practiced from 11am to 4pm and then we had to load the trailer
up and drove that night to go play a show for the first show
we all played together was for 7000 people, and we only had
like, five hours rehearsals on 18 songs that we might play. So
how did it go? It was sick.
It went, I mean, it went about as good as it could for that,
those circumstances, you know, like, I mean, we showed up and
we just had to, like our the guitar player was the only one
that had been with not Jack, but the other guitar player, Casey.
He was only one that had been with jelly for like, years and
years, so he knew all the songs. And so we basically just had to,
like, cue off him for that hour set. And it was, it was crazy,
but dude, it was, like, nerve wracking and unsettling, but it
was so fun, dude. And yeah, I guess, like, that
was kind of your audition. Your audition was a live gig, and the
hang more importantly than any Yeah,
thank you for saying that, dude, yes, 100% Kelly was
like, get this guy here and have him sit next to me and let's see
what his liver is like. Let's loosen this guy up. But he had
faith that you could play the drops, but, yeah, that would
have freaked me out, because I'm such a over prepare. I'd be
like, I gotta write, I gotta write out 18 charts. I gotta
have the tempo I gotta. But you were just like, we're doing
this, and we'll get through it.
And this was, you know, and this was before I really learned a
system that worked for me as far as charting, um, because I had
never had to chart before, you know, saying, like, when, with
the metal songs, I would just, I would get, like, a week heads up
and it, and I could, I can learn, uh, you know, eight metal
songs in a week. Like, that's not, that's cake, you know,
saying, like, I can do four or five songs a day like that, you
know, and then just perfect them throughout the week, um, with,
as far as, like, metal songs, but with, with country and,
like, doing covers and stuff like that. I never knew how
people learn things so fast. And that's when going to Nashville
is when I found out about the number system. And so I started
doing all this research on the number system, and it still just
wasn't like, I was like, I get this for guitar players. I get
this for like, other you know, whatever. I was like, but I
don't know how this correlates to drumming, and it just what
wasn't like sitting in my head, right? And so I was like, I have
to figure out a system to where I can learn songs fast that
works for me, right? And so I ended up, like, coming up with
with my own system in it, and it, I've got it. I've pretty
much got it. Down now to where I can listen to a song five times
and be able to go play it essentially, but with the way
that I like write it out.
So you write like, like intro eight bars versus seven bars.
The stop on the first, the eighth measure, that kind of
stuff, yeah.
So in my Yeah, in my notes section, I'll do, I have this,
like a, a pre written out thing that says Like. It says, like,
Intro v1 free, one c1, post, v2 pre, 2c, two post, bridge. So
like, breakdown thing of like, what a normal song would be. And
then I'll listen to the song, and I'll write out every measure
of everything. So it's like, intro, four bars, first 116,
bars. Chorus, eight bars. Post, two bars. First two, eight bars,
you know, so whatever. And then, and then I'll go back and listen
again, and I'll listen for like stops. So I'll be like, or I'll
listen to like, what like, if the whole song is on the snare
drum, or like, if it does like rim clicks, and then snare drum,
and then goes back like, I'll notate like, rim clicks, snare
here, bring snare in, back to rim clicks, so on and so forth.
And then I'll notate like, and then I'll go through for the
third listen, and I'll notate stops. It'll be like, stop on
the three of measure four, you know, PA or huge choke on two of
whatever. And so you write, you write
it out in the English language, but not musical notation,
yeah, yeah. And it's like, you know, obviously, like, a
shortened, shortened English language to where I can, like,
just go through, like, if I have to, like, like, no joke, Dude,
we got handed a similar situation two days, three days
ago, before we played Billy Bob's last night, we got handed
20 songs that we might play, like, because, because they were
talking about how artists might show up to come do like, a
karaoke thing. And they're like, You need to learn. Here's all
the artists that might show up, learn these hit songs, and then
if any other artists show up that we're not prepared for,
learn these 15 cover songs, or these 12 cover songs, like, you
know, like a Garth Brooks song and, like, can't you see? And
like that, like, just normal bar songs. Learn all of these, just
in case we don't know their song. Or, like an artist shows
up that we don't know we didn't rehearse for, or something. And
so
this is Billy Bob's, like, hey, stop by. Or, you know, like,
yeah, yeah.
So it was like, all these, these we got, got told that all these
people might stop by. So we went and looked at like, what their
biggest songs were, that we could go whatever, and we like,
I had to. I notated 20 songs out in this one tab that we might
play and but that was like, did they show two of them did nice.
So Lady, lady Wilson showed up and we got to play her song.
Smells like smell like smoke, which is, oh god,
she's so great. She's so real and genuine and sincere and
talented. Yes,
dude, she bro. We, we locked, we locked eyes while we were
playing. And she's like, so intense on stage that it was
like everything made sense as to not not only like, is she just
an incredible woman in general, but like, the way that she works
and moves and like interacts on stage, just completely checks
off everything as to why she is what she is, dude and that,
like, in that aspect, and, like, also her personality and her,
like, just her as a human, really, like, it just explains,
like, why she is such a an entity in this world bro, like
she's Yes, she's awesome, and she's been nothing but car. We
got our hair done together one time by accident. Okay, we, we
because I dyed my I dyed my hair blonde, and I went to, oddly
enough, do you know? You know? Do you know who actually McBride
is? Who's it? Ashley McBride?
Oh, of course, yeah,
yeah. So Ashley McBride, her stylist does has worked at a
salon in Nashville, and that's who I go to to do my hair. Well,
I was sitting in the chair getting my my hair dyed, and the
girl that's in the booth next to her, her name's Cassie, does
laney's hair. Yeah, and, and so Laney walks in and me and Lainey
had already known each other just because we had, like, done
so much stuff together and and I was like, What the is he was
like, What are you doing here? And I was like, Yo, I'm getting
my hair done. My
locks died. Man,
literally just sat there and got our hair done together. It was
like, that was like, a really funny, like, fun. Moment for
her. And I think that was, like, that moment, like, established
mine and her, like, friendship, which was, like, super cool.
I saw some, uh, some short haired pictures of you, maybe,
like, in a video, like, four years ago. I'm like, Oh yeah, I
usually clean cut buddy. So when did you decide to, like, grow
like, uh, you know, do the mullet man?
Um, yeah, dude, I used to be clean cut and skinny and
handsome and all kinds of stuff, dude, it's crazy. Yeah, then I
just then I discovered I really love pizza.
Who doesn't? It's the perfect food. Even the Red Baron is
good, man. Come on, yeah,
um, yeah, I man, I actually had a mullet my whole um, all
growing up. Yeah, there's, um, photos of me in elementary
school all the way up until probably about, like fourth
grade, that I had a mullet, like, for a really long time.
And then obviously, you know, my parents were like, I think we
need to cut this. And so I cut, you know, got my wallet cut and
rocked rock short hair for a while. And then when I got in my
hair in eighth grade, eighth grade through junior year, I
had, like the long, swoopy emo cut hair. Oh, no, actually,
sorry, no, in the into college, damn I I had long hair in my
hole. I did cut it once in high school for football. It was a,
it was a hazing thing for freshmen. I forgot about that.
We were at football camp and they made all the freshmen cut
their hair into Mohawks. That did happen for good. I
had the Dave weckle 1990 mullet, bro, the VO five mullet, you
know? Yeah,
yeah. Um, let's go, dude, yes. So I actually had long hair,
besides that one time that I cut it that I had to cut it for, for
football, I had long hair my whole life. I actually had to
stop playing baseball because I refused to cut my hair any
shorter than what the coach wanted. That was crazy, and he
made me quit, basically, but, but, but then, yeah, so I got
into, like, my junior year of college, and that was when I got
into my junior college, and that's when I cut my hair short.
So I had short hair for a while. Then I got it, like, cleaned up
when I got in silent because I was, like, trying to, trying to
find out, like, who I was, or, like, what my image like, what I
wanted my brand to be, or my image, or whatever. And, and
then, yeah, so then when probably around, I think it was
covid Actually, because all the barbershops shut down. And I was
like, dude, if I'm going to grow my hair. I was really into,
like, the whole satirical movement of, like the pit viper
thing, like the pit viper glasses, and, like, America and
all that stuff. And I was like, dude. I was like, You know what,
I haven't seen in a long time, I haven't seen a mullet. I was
like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna grow a mullet.
You're like me and Morgan Wallen, come on,
dude. Yeah. And it was, well, you know, just happened to be
that time that he was getting known for his as well. Yeah, um,
still haven't met that dude. Um, gotta, I gotta meet that guy.
But I'm sure it'll happen. Yeah, if we've been in, I can do,
we've been in the same room so many times. And just, I've, you
know, I just, I'm never that guy that wants to, like, press,
someone like that, you know, saying I don't want to, because
they got that. They get that all the time. So I'm just like, No,
it's hard for me to even do it to Jason too. Like, bro. I it
took me. It took me a long time, because there was a lot of times
that me and Jason were in the same room that I was like, Man,
I just, I don't want to bother him, bro. I was like, He's just
so many people are talking to him, and I just don't want to be
I don't want that memory. I don't want to be part of that
memory. I want, like, I want to be like, oh yeah. Like, I met
jelly drummer, and we had a good time. And so I got that chance
at at Jelly CMA after party at last year at Miranda's bar on
Broadway. And Jason and Brittany showed up nice and, and I got
to, because they lived down in where they live. And and I got
to, I also used to live in that town. And when I'm when I first
moved to Tennessee, and, and I saw that they did something for
Christmas in that town at the gas station that I used to like
fill up at. And so I got the opportunity to tell them I
really just wanted that was my introduction to them. And
meeting them for the first time was I went, I went up to and I
was like, hey guys. I was like, I played dress for jelly. I just
wanted to say what I thought what you guys did for Christmas
was really, really cool. I was like, I thought, I thought that
was so nice and so genuine. And so I got that. That was my
introduction to Jason and Brittany was getting to, like,
thank them for what they did, for that, that community,
because they they didn't have to take the time out of their day
to do that. And I thought that was so nice. And so. Kind and so
that that was cool to like, that was cool that that was my first
interaction with them. And yeah, the last, last time I ran into
Jason, not long ago, I forgot where we were, but I don't know
if it was the iHeart awards or where we were, but I
decided side stage at the
CMT awards. Yeah, yeah. CMT awards. And I ran into him,
wait, no, the iHeart Country Awards, or was
it the iHeart country festival that we were just at in Austin?
You guys, yes, that's what I'm thinking about.
That's what I'm thinking about. Yeah, you guys, we were walking
off and you guys and jelly and jelly, and Jason were all, like,
in the circle, whatever, like talking, and I was walking by,
and I, like, tapped Jason's shoulder, and he turned around.
He goes, Oh, yeah, what's up? And I was like, obviously, like,
new way cooler. He's like, Oh, tell me how you doing. But I was
just like. I was like, dang. I was like, That's cool, man.
Like, yeah, you know, to, I like to, I could be wrong, but I like
to think that that interaction last year, you know, maybe he's
he, he remembers me from, oh yeah, you know, saying, like,
totally Yeah, man, little, little things like that. But
yeah, it just, I haven't had that situation with Morgan yet
to where, where we've been in a room where he's not, where he's
not getting hounded, and I'm just like, I'm not going to, I
don't want to bother. Well, that's the
thing, man, that's what the kind of things like, you know,
working in a vape shop or bartending and just living your
life teaches you how to read a room. You know, that's so, so
important to this career. So you get the job, and what is, you
know, what is it like to what is your relationship? Does he have
certain things that he expects from you? What is he like from a
drummer? It seems like the band, it looks like there's six guys
on stage. It seems like you guys have a great rapport, I
think, man, dude, we are just so we're just so different. We're
just such a weird group, man, like we, our whole band is from
Warped Tour, just about, well it, it was, it was until we've
grown like but everyone before we added like new members, it
was just a bunch of metal dudes on stage, like Casey the guitar
player, there was a metal dude, Jack, the other guitar player
was in a band called Sleeping with Sirens. Alex, our bass
player was in a band called conditions, and he also played
with Sleeping with Sirens. I was in a band called Siler. I was a,
yeah, I was in Siler. And then our guy that was running our in
ears at the time, Mark, he was in a band called a mirror, and,
like, all these just like heavy bands, and so we just end in our
front of house, and tour manager, he he did like, he did
like Good Charlotte. And he did this being called, he did a
Paramore. He did this band called 68 like he done like a,
you know, saying, like, we're all just like metal dudes, and I
don't, man, I don't think I chilly. Just doesn't have, like,
an expectation. Yeah, you know, does that make sense? I don't
know how to explain it. He like, it's not that he it's not that
he doesn't care. He cares very deeply. It's that he like, he
just wants everyone to have fun. Like, if, obviously, we can't go
up there and just royally up but like, he wants, he just wants us
to be having fun up there.
That's, that's the culture of the band, is this, yeah, and
having fun
Exactly. And he wants, like, I'd say the biggest thing is that we
have to read him sometimes, because he'll call audibles like
that. He calls audibles all the time. Every show there's an
audible like no joke, every show is an audible. I
bet the lighting and video guys hate that. Oh, they despise it.
They hate it a lot, yeah. But he, yeah, he calls, calls
audibles on things. So like, I think the only thing that he
it's unspoken, but I think he expects us to be on our toes,
but it's like, unspoken, if that makes sense, like he's not come
to us and be like, You guys need to be on your toes and be
prepared for what I call out. Like he's not that. He's not
that kind of guy. He's like,
just, he's the you need to loosen up guy here. Tequila
coming. But, yeah, the only reason I ask is, is, uh, the
only reason I ask is because, you know, some artists have
these kind of, like, idiosyncrasies, where it's like,
you know, Cyndi Lauper never liked the drummer to play the
ride cymbal. Or there, you know, other people are like, Hey, you
gotta pull the bass drum beater out of the just weird things,
uh, his, uh, his only, I guess his thing is, is if you are not
sober, or if you're drinking at that time, you can't refuse a
shock.
So even if you're taking
afraid, no, not, not that you can't, not that you can't,
sorry, i. He, he doesn't like, if, yeah, if you're now, he
won't do it to someone that's sober. He will never, he will
never make someone that's sober drink. And he will never, if
someone is not drinking, like, if someone's taking a break, he
won't pressure anyone into doing it. He might mess around with
you a little bit, but like, he'd be like, Oh, but he's not, like,
he won't press it on you. But, like, if I'm, like, drinking,
you know, like, if I'm like, this right now, and he walked in
with a shot, and I was like, Nah, man, I'm good. He he'd
probably be like, No, you're gonna take the shot. You know,
like, saying he'd, uh, like, I wouldn't get fired, or anything
like that's,
that's kind of a fun collection. Let
me okay, let me see, okay, hold on. I got a I got a story that
might help clear this up. My Okay, so there was one time. One
time is the only time it's ever happened. I partied a little bit
too hard and I accidentally overslept. Soundcheck and jelly
never goes to soundcheck ever. So that day he did, that day he
did, and so I overslept. Didn't mean to he was on stage, which
never happens. And we were I was like, Oh no, no, no. And someone
had to come wake me up, and someone come, got came and got
me. And I was like, oh And they were like, Yo jelly on stage for
sound check. We gotta. I was like, Oh no. So I ran out, and I
go on stage, and jelly is like, No, you can. He's like, just
stand over there. He's like, You go behind the drum tech table.
He was like, and he looked at my drum tech, Casey, and he was
like, Casey, come play drums. And I was like, and, and Casey
was like, Nah, I can't play drums. And jelly was like,
Casey, get behind the drum set. Now, like, Get behind the drum
set. And Casey was like, laughing about it, thinking that
he was like, Yeah, making a joke, because Casey, like, can't
really play drums, but jelly was dead serious. Jelly was like,
No, you like, Cody over slept. Go play Dr, I don't care if you
can't play drums. Go play drums. And Casey, my drum tech, was
just laughing it off, and, like, walked away and handed me the
drumsticks. Jelly has never let that go ever since it's been
probably a year now, and he's never let it go, ever that you
overslept. No, no, no, no, no, not me. He doesn't care that I
overslept. He doesn't care that I was like he what? He's mad.
He's mad at my drum tech. He didn't play drums when he told
him to wow. So now, every time he sees my drum tech, he's like,
I've been waiting for he's like, I've been trying to find ways to
get you fired. And it like, messes with them, like that.
That's amazing. Like there was they all play Xbox and stuff
together. They all play Call of Duty. So Jack, our guitar player
and jelly, were playing Call of Duty one time, and Casey got
into the chat, or whatever, however that works, and was
playing with them. Well, his screen name didn't have his
name, and jelly goes, who is this guy that's playing with us?
Jack knew, though, but jelly was like, Who's this guy playing
He's crushing like, go out. We need to play with this guy more
often. We need to get him on our team and and Jack goes, or he
goes, where are you from? Instead of screening, I don't
know what screening, he's like, where are you from? And he goes,
California. And he's like, Oh, what do you do for work? Like,
what do you do for a living? And Jack starts laughing. And Joey's
like, Jack, why are you laughing? And in case, he goes,
this is your least favorite person in the world. And he
goes, what? And he goes, this is your drum tech. And he goes, Oh,
what the hell. Get me the out of here. But like, being funny,
because obviously, if he wanted to fire someone, he'd fire
someone. But, uh, he just do. He just like, he never lets him
live it down. Like, he'll write like, mean little messages on
his like, and put it on his drum case. He's keeping the
he's keeping the gag going. So, oh, he, he can, he can set up,
break down, maintain tune, but he doesn't play.
He doesn't play. Gotcha, he can keep a beat, but he doesn't
play. Did you
hire him, or was he in the organization already? No, he,
he was one of my options. So he, like he came from so Jack, when
he was in Sleeping with Sirens, met Casey, my my drum tech.
Casey used to drum tech for a band called pierce the veil. And
then through that, he did another band called The Amity
Affliction. And then from there, he toured with Panic at the
Disco for, like, 10 years. He was a panic at the Disco's drum
tech and and then, you know, obviously panic disbanded, and
you. Uh, so he was looking for work, and this was about the
time that they were looking to hire a drum tech for me, and
which was my first one ever. So I didn't have anyone, because I
knew of other ones, like from the metal world. So like, you
know, I didn't want to, I didn't know. I just didn't know how it
worked. And no one came to me and was like, Hey, who do you
want as a drum tag? Basically, what happened was I got brought
him and another guy, and then I brought someone to the table
that I was interested in. And I guess they just went with their
they, like, looked at rates. And I'm just going to be real, Casey
was the only one we could afford, and because he was
willing to come down from his Panic at the Disco rate, nice
and, and I don't know the rates, this is just what, you know.
This is what I was told. They were just like, hey, like, this
guy's friends with everyone he's he's friends with people that
are in the camp already. Like, we know him. We've worked with
him. He's a great drum tech. Because I didn't know him. I
hadn't met him yet. He's either, like, he's a great drum tech,
great friend, great hang like, and he's in our budget, like,
let's hire him. And I was like, Alright, cool. And ended up
being one of the best decisions ever. And like, they were, they
were right, like, I I love that guy. Dude, I
love it. I love it when it works out like that. What's one of
your favorite songs to play in the show?
Um, right now, dude, our medley is a lot of fun. Um, need a
favor. Is probably my favorite jelly song to play. And then,
um, there's a song called the lost. I really like playing that
one, too. And then, son of a sinner need a favor the lost.
And son of a sinner, probably my favorite son of a sinner, gets
that. I get to have a lot of fun with dynamics. And that's like,
that's that, that's, that's like, a selfish one, that one's
just for me. I that's
when the audience is singing every word, and it's coming back
at you. It's Goosebumps. Goosebumps Central, you know, I
like, Do you know who? Do you know who Grady is? He played
with Ernest for a little while. Oh.
Grady Saxon,
not, not, not. Grady Saxman, great. Grady. Grady block. Grady
Brock, yeah,
yes. Grady block was the son of Billy block, who was a staple of
our community. Had this western beach show. It was like an
Americana show. So we lost some years ago. I'm assuming that
would be the that's who Grady Yeah,
I had no idea. Oh, that's crazy. Oh, yeah. So, well, so Grady
block used to play with Ernest. All right, played drums for
Ernest and bro, no joke, Dude, I'm so sad that he's not playing
with her. He's because Grady also is the thong writer too. So
he, I think he backed off of touring to to get because he
writes. He's a writer at big loud. So he, I think he took, he
backed off from touring with earnest, so he could, like,
focus on just writing. Yeah, but, dude, I have never seen a
drummer feel sorry, feel an accent music and be a part of a
song the way that that man did, that dude, that dude spoke with
his drums. I mean, he when he played drums, he talked, he
like, oh, my gosh,
dude, this is great. This is great to hear because I had kind
of lost touch a little bit with Grady, and when his dad was
going through, you know, his health issues, and he said, Will
you please keep an eye on my sons? And I was like, of course,
and they're both doing incredibly both Crusher. That's
great to hear, man. I gotta, I gotta look, I gotta look up old
Grady and Rico, oh,
dude. Well, he, he had a major influence on me with how, like,
he's the reason that son of a sinner is one of my favorite
songs to play, because the way that I was playing it before was
more in tune to the record. And then I saw him play it live with
Ernest. Because, you know, a lot of the the writers will, you
know, the songs that they wrote, they'll play them live. I saw
him play son of a sinner, live with Ernest, and I was
dumbfounded at how much better. He made that song, and I, dude,
I was like, I just took notes. I was just like, Okay. And he, one
of the things that he did, that I just never thought to do, was
he started with brushes, or, like, the wood sticks, because
it would like the whole. First part of the song is, like, a
little bit. It's like, subtle. It's lower, you know, where the
whole thing is just a build, essentially. So he's, like, just
really feeling out, like, with guitars, like, with these
brushes and like, like, the dynamic and accent, like, he
like, come up and come down to like, make parts like, make more
sense to be bigger. And then there comes to drop chorus,
where everyone drops off, and it's, it's just, you know, Jelly
singing. And he, or, you know, well, he was, Ernest was
performing it, but so Ernest was singing, and he put the sticks,
he put those down, and picked up drumsticks, right, and made the
end of the song huge. And I was like, Dude, I would have never,
ever thought in my lifetime to do that. Would have never
thought I was playing with drumsticks the whole time, but
the change in dynamic and how it like, made the song, bro, I
could talk about his drumming all day. Bro, he's one of my
favorite drummers. That is
so great because he's right here in Nashville, and I've known
him, and I just got pulled apart, I guess, covid and the
whole thing, it's been years.
He's a great, hey, he's a, he's an amazing, amazing hang too. I
like, I have so much love and respect for that. Shout out to
Brady.
Man, shout out to shout out to Grady. He might be maybe like
this point. Man, maybe like 28 or something. Man, at some
point, who knows
that's incredible. Yeah, so need a favor, son of a sinner in the
loss or my my tops,
killer, man, well, hey, I don't want to, I got to be respectful
of your time, because you're in Dallas, Texas. You got the ACM
hanging over
your shoulder. You're fine, man, I'm dude. I'm here. I'm
chilling. Well,
I gotta enter, I gotta interview Dennis Holt in 30 minutes, and I
gotta render the episode and all that stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Let's do this. Man, let's do this. Yeah, I want to ask you
the your Fave Five. And sometimes it's the Fast Five,
but it's not usually fast. What's your favorite color? Man,
favorite color.
Favorite color is purple.
All right, you would get along with my students. Sarah car
deal, everything she has is purple. Purple clothes, purple
drums. It is good. I like purple. It's
crazy. It's crazy because my favorite color is purple, but I
don't the only piece of purple. I own two pieces of purple
clothing. One is right here. One is the purple on this
Diamondbacks jersey. All right. Man, okay, black shirt, purple.
And then the other one is, uh, I got this, like, fishing, this
Columbia purple fishing shirt. But like, I actually look god
awful in purple. I don't look good in purple at all. But,
like, I love the color purple. But, yeah, so that's, that's,
what about food? Am I saying pizza is your favorite food?
Yeah,
pizza? Well, yeah, we'll put it at that. Pizza and Wings are my,
definitely, my top favorite foods, dude. I love it. Um.
What about um? Your favorite drink? Favorite drink?
Oof, um. I, I love a nice, crisp, cold water. But if not
water, I if we're going with soda, it's cheer wine and then
Dr Pepper, if we're going and then next to that would be
definitely some, some homemade mama sweet tea.
Okay?
She makes it to where it's like, it's like, because I like, half
and half tea, and she made the way that she makes it. It's
like, not overly sweet, but it's like, sweet enough to where I
don't feel like I'm about to, like, have a, you know, a blood,
something, you know, like, it's like that perfect mix of like,
it's, it's still sweet tea, but it's like, it's just sweet
enough to where it's not overbearing. It's like, yeah,
it's like, perfect mix.
Occasionally, I'll do the the Arnold Palmer. I'll treat myself
to that very refreshing but, yeah, if I'm gonna have water,
cold water. Oh,
love cold water, dude. I'm a big, big, big fan old water. And
if we're going alcohol, Kentucky bourbon, baby, and beer,
Kentucky
bourbon. So we're talking like Makers Mark, yeah, yeah,
honestly, dude, honestly, just any Burr. I'm not like a bourbon
stickler. I just, I love bourbon snob. No no. Whether it's like
freaking makers. Or it could be Kentucky, gentlemen, it could be
makers. It can be happy. It can be anything. I don't give a
Bourbons. Bourbon, to me. I mean, obviously summer aged
differently and go down a little bit smoother, but like it all
puts you in the same place.
I'm with you on that. Now, this is kind of hard, but maybe this
is something that comes on the radio. You're listening to it
all the way through, it just keeps rearing its ugly head, the
melody, the artist. You don't know what it is, but you just
love this is your favorite song. Man, favorite song.
Um, either, right now, it's
tough one, man, maybe I'm going. To change my questions.
No, I I can't. I'd say it's, I'll start it off by saying it
changes all the time, if I need to go of all of all time. Of all
time, probably same old situation, or um, sticky sweet
by Motley Crue. Oh, of all time, those will, those will probably
be it. But currently, dude, I, I have been of like, I can't stop
hearing um, ocean eyes by Billy Eilish. I can't I like it lives
in my head
daily. Now there's a daily, it's like an earwig, yeah, and
whiskey bit. But while does you whiskey bit? I'll say that by
Cody Johnson, are probably my, my other two
well, like Cody Johnson, man, I got to work with me. Nice fella.
That was
my favorite country artist of all time, and it, it just so
happens that that we know each other. Yeah,
it's a very nice guy like yourself. I told him to
his face. I was like, Hey, man, listen, I'm I know we're
acquaintances, and we know each other and stuff, but I'm just
going to give you this is my one fan moment. I was like, You're
my favorite country artist of all time, and I have a lot of
respect for you, and I love what you do, and I love your music. I
was like, That's it. That's done. You got it. You heard it,
and now we're back to just being we're just friends now.
Absolutely
appreciated that.
Oh yeah, he started dying laughing. He's, uh, he's a
really good dude. I mean, you know, he's a great dude.
Very nice, very nice guy. What's your favorite movie? Brother?
Favorite movie? Yeah, ooh, rock star, oh. Rock star, rocks. Rock
star with Mark Wahlberg and Moana, Moana. Moana has one of
my favorite movie soundtracks of all time. Oh, unreal. So does
you know frozen has a great, great movie soundtrack as well.
Yeah, I love both of those movies. Those are, those are
probably my top two movies. Yeah,
I like those Disney Pixar movies where there's a lesson to be
learned, and, you know, you're being entertained. And I'm
a huge Disney fan, yo. They got, they got a lot of heaters. Um,
that, bro, that new, that new movie. They, they just popped
out elemental, not the second one, but I haven't seen the
second one yet. But that that elemental one, was crazy. I
like, I cried, dude, that movie was so good. Are you
a sci fi guy like Star Wars? Planet games? No,
I couldn't get into it. I tried so hard to get into Star Wars,
and it just like never, just never clicked with me. Never
caught. I tried. I tried. I can say that I tried. I watched. My
dad took me to see it when I was young, and I did. I thought I
was just too young to understand it, but I liked that. I liked
watching them. What I liked about it was watching them fight
in the the little jets, or the whatever they were in. Yeah, I
guess that it was when Obi Wan was, like a young was young, and
he had his little like his bowl cut, his blonde bowl cut.
I mean, you're not, you're not even, you're not even old enough
to know the original Star Wars, because that came out like 76
bro. So
So then my second one, when I was in Oak kingdom, when we were
recording, and they found out that I had never seen Star Wars,
or that I had like that I'd only seen that one movie. And they
were like, Oh, we're going to watch it from the beginning. And
so they turned the first one on, and I ended up falling asleep.
Oh, my God. They didn't know because I was on the floor and
and so the movie was over, and I woke up, and they're like, yes,
what'd you think? And I was like, dude. I was like, bro, I
fell asleep. Man. I was like, this. I was like, I couldn't, I
couldn't get into it. Incredible, incredible. I really
like, what's, what's that? Inception, Inception. And I like
movies like that too.
Those are thinkers, man, those Christians that make you
like, think Shutter Island was like, pretty sick. I love, I
love, oh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,
sorry I've, I completely forgot to mention this one, um, the
baseball movie with Dennis Quaid.
Oh yeah, the
that's Field of Dreams. No, no, no, no, not Field of Dreams. It
was based in Texas. Why am I blanking on that?
Yeah, it's alright. Do we have to? We forgot to
take our ginkgo Bella today. That's, that's my, that's my
third favorite movie. Yeah,
we went to the field, field, rookie, the rookie, the rookie,
okay, yeah, yeah, man, the rookie, Dude, I gotta, I gotta
tell you what, man, that you've done a great job also on your
socials, because it's pretty much your the same handle, or
pretty much across everything, whether it's YouTube, Tiktok,
Instagram, Facebook, Cody. Ash drums, great job, dude.
Thank you. Thank you. It's
really, it's tough when someone's like, Yeah, I'm Cody.
Underscore ash drums 18. Like, oh God, you know what I mean.
I got, I didn't know, obviously, like, so I made all, I think I
made an Instagram in 2013 Yeah, and I want to say I made a
Twitter in like 2012 and I didn't know, like, I just didn't
know what to do. But I was just like, I guess I want everyone to
know that I'm a drummer, and I've got really lucky that that
name was, like, available, and Rachel, I was lucky that the
name was available on like, Tiktok stuff too. So Well, dude,
I gotta say we could probably talk three, four hours. We're
just crazy surface pub. I'm hoping that people were
entertained. How could he not be entertained by you? And I hope
that they check out your drumming. I hope that you guys
and jelly your success. This Meteor access just continues to
rise. Man. I'm so happy for you, proud of you, and hope to see
out there enjoy the ACMs in Dallas. Man, absolutely.
Man, it's gonna be a blast. I can't wait. I can't wait. Dude,
thanks for joining us. Man, Rich, thank you so much for
having me on. Dude, I can't wait for a round two.
Yeah, let's do it. We'll do it in the flesh and have a cocktail
together. Man, Oh,
perfect. Dude, I'm there. I'm in. You already know.
We'll make it happen. What borough are you living in? In
Nashville? What? What neighborhood? Where are you?
I moved out to Gallatin. Okay, all right, yeah, yeah. I live
out in Gallatin. I just moved there probably a month ago, and
we do. We've been so busy that all my boxes are still not
unpacked. Like, yeah,
bro, dude, it's really it's an incredible time for you right
now. And so just, yeah, enjoy it, and maybe occasionally
journal and write some of this stuff down. So
yeah, I need to, I think I was talking. I think was it you that
I was talking to about that? But, um, someone, we talked, I
talked about journaling was, I
mean, I wish I had, you know, I wish I had in the early days.
But anyways, big picture, I remember the big pillar moments,
man. So I'm really happy for you, man, and appreciate you
joining us,
man, dude, thank you for having me. Man, this is awesome. Heck,
yeah. And to
all the listeners, hey, we appreciate you guys tuning in.
Be sure to subscribe, share, rate and review helps people
find the show, and we'll see you next time. Thanks, Cody,
absolutely.
I'll see you later, Brother, be safe. Thanks, brother.
This has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and follow
along@richredman.com forward, slash podcasts. You.