Unknown: For me, I would go and do the teach the lessons, and do
the clinics and stuff. And, you know, I have another friend who,
you know, they a lot of friends, get their real estate licenses
and stuff. But, I mean, this thing blew up for you, and I
remember, you know, learning about you and going, Wait, can
you do it a website for me? Now, was I a handful? Am I a tough
cuff customer?
No, right? No, I don't think so. You're just, you do a lot,
right? So it's just, they're trying to get it all in there.
There's always stuff coming from different angles. But no, you
weren't. The most difficult clients for us are the ones that
don't care, to be honest, like the ones that are like, I don't
just just do some they're always the hard ones, because you can't
get any information out of them, right? So it's like, you end up
kind of trying to chase them down all the time. I prefer a
client that's going to be like, Hey, I have a thing I want to
do. We love that.
Yeah. Adam, just between us. I pod this on his mic down. He
can't talk.
He's actually pretty easy.
This is the rich Redmond show. He
you know, I always thought that, you know, mule town. I was like,
it's be at the bottom of my website, you know, powered by
mule town digital, or designed by mule town digital. I was
like, why the heck would he call it mule town? I mean, what is
that all about? Turns out that Columbia, Tennessee, is mule
town, literally. And now that I live in Spring Hill with Jim and
Jason Aldi and everybody that's moving here is like, You're
right up the street, yeah. And you guys are growing fast too.
It's booming down there. Man. There's a really cool there's, I
forget the name of it, but there's a cool like Mom and Pop
coffee house that I went to that had killer chicken salad
sandwich. And that's how I judge the quality of all Coffee House
culture chicken salad. How is that chicken salad sandwich? Was
it Buckhead? Was it that Buckhead? Yeah, there you go.
Good spot. It's a great spot. Yeah, like strong coffee, and
they're friendly, and there's a nice seating area.
Have you been to Bruno's yet? I have not been there. Who knows.
Remember we went, Yeah, went a couple of times.
Yeah, we had Italian sausage. We're long overdue. Is it on the
square? It's it's in the apples, essentially. Okay, but where
boomers music used to be? Yes, your old Boomer.
You talked to Boomer? No, no, I don't know Boomer. Boomers.
He's He's cool. Man, I caught up with Boomer the other day. You
know who's guy who wants to meet him is Zorro.
Oh, Zorro. Zorro is back from each Zoro.
I actually took some lessons from him way back in the day.
Man, it's cool. Man, it was really cool. He's, he was super
nice guy, like, great, greater, great player. Yeah, he's great.
He's back. And he had, he posted on Facebook that he has this, he
came up with this prayer, you know, because he's a Superman,
yeah, oh, yeah. And I thought it was, like, just so apropos,
because he was saying, you know, hey, I'm in the fall of his
life. It's like, Am I in the fall, buddy?
Well, I mean, if you consider that we're born in the spring,
and the series of seasons of life are measured typically in
20 years. So the fall would be our you know, year one through
20, or spring would be year one through 2020, through 40 is a
summer. 40 through 60 is fall? Or is it autumn? Autumn? Yeah,
yeah. And then the winter is fall, is
when you fall and break your hips.
Now, Jim, for the people that are just listening to this, and
I think the majority of our audience housekeeping, first,
it's been a minute when I was well, the part of the
housekeeping is the fact that you shave your beer. Shave your
beard off, I did, and you got this soft Connecticut baby face.
It's very it's very exfoliated because of the beard. Yeah, and
I'm liking the way the shadow is hitting because it's hiding the
chins. I love it, but that's the one thing I was I was afraid of,
because typically, when I shaved my beard off and when I had the
bald look, yeah, I looked like a human thumb. And I just, you
know, I think with the hair, it makes a big difference, Yeah,
buddy. And, you know, I look, I look less old, yeah, than I did.
No, my beard was completely freaking white. You're looking
suave. Thank you. Suave. Trying to drop the pounds to lose the
chin.
Well, I love it now, now, now you are behind a little bit on
your promise, because you said you were gonna a little bit you
were gonna lose 50 for 50 by 50, right? Yeah, that didn't that,
but I'm just gonna keep riding you. And because you're gonna,
you can lose, you know what, 51 by 51 I think that'd be great.
Go back to your body for life. Look, with the protein pancakes
and all that stuff, you
know, I you know, it's just eating. It's the damn IPAs.
Yeah, I blame the IPAs. I was
gonna try to build and bring some of those peanut butter and
jelly things you like, the
the mixtape, yeah, which is actually at aubrey's in Spring
Hill. Except when you and I went, they were out. They were
out. Suck. They had paper crowns, though, which is a great
Are you familiar with Zool beer Adam. It's, oh, man, good stuff.
They're coming to town. They actually, I believe, they have a
partnership or bought southern grist brewing. And Zul beer will
now be distributed here in Nashville.
Don't you love it when every guest says, Have we started?
That's very common a podcast. So this is the thing you you hide
this. Start of the show from your guest. It's a
very I gotta say, Dude, I saw a video of you. You just got back
from the Northeast,
and I was playing other music. Holy moly, fun, right?
You were giving it your all, pal. Well, thanks. Holy crap.
What kind of a band was that? Was that like a Rubik's groove
type of talent band?
Okay, really quick. We're gonna tell everybody what Adams
accolades are, but in the house today, Adam Silverman, What's
up, buddy? He made the trip from mule town, and we're so excited,
because he's a drummer. He is a, at this point, almost a
commercial farmer, business owner, web designer, owner of
mule town digital he's he's designed two websites for me
over the year, the second iteration of richremond.com and
the current iteration, I like saying iteration, iteration,
iteration of richremond.com You're world class at what you
do, buddy. I'm so excited to shine a light on on what you do
today. We originally met when you were an opening act on the
Jason Aldean toward Lauren Elena 2013 which means we know have
known each other
12 years. Wow. Yeah, that's wild man, 365
times 12. That's 1000s of days. Yeah, you know, crazy. So I'm
really happy that you're here. Thank you, because I want to
talk about all things and catch up. But no, Jim, I was up in the
city, I was up in Long Island, and I was up in Connecticut, and
then, you know, to me, a vacation. His toes in the sand
drink in the hand. You never have to, you know, you just do
nothing. You shut off your devices, crystal clear water in
lieu of that, we were like, Let's go up and visit all these
relatives, cousins, second and third cousins, aunts, uncles,
nieces, nephews that we never get to see. We did it in Long
Island with Kara's people. She's still there two days with my
people in Connecticut. Ate all the Greek food, all the Italian
food, was nothing but carbohydrates. I'm so proud of
myself. I only gained two pounds. So I'm gonna work that
off this weekend with some high intensity training right off.
And in the process, I got to go play some some different music.
And it's, you know, it's exciting to occasionally play
some different music. Some different music. So I played
with this band called Acadia, and they're one of the best
bands in Long Island, and they invited me up. They said, Learn
these four songs. So we did come on, feel the noise medley going
into Twisted Sister. We're not gonna take it. Then, of course,
you're in Long Island, so you gotta do you may be right by
Billy Joel, that's right. And then I love New Wave synth rock.
So we learned, let's go by the cars. It was so fun. Did you
actually rehearse these or do you just play them off the top?
Now, when I charted them out and I stuck them to the side of the
monitor, and they were so impressed that I took the time
to actually learn their medley, and I was like, of course,
you're inviting me up to play. You know, they're all really
great players. The saxophone player plays in Debbie Gibson's
band, and all the drummers that come through. There's like two
or three iterations of the band, you know, because it's a
working, corporate type band, so they got to have two or three
drummers in the mix. But the current drummer was this guy
named Frank. And I said, Hey, Frank, are you Italian? But he
goes, Well, let me just tell you this, My last name's got a
million vowels, and I'm from New York, so, yes, I'm Italian. So
we just had a great time. I'm telling you, you're up there the
pizza off the charts, right? We did it in the city, yep. And in
Connecticut, you throw stone, amazing. And there it is, yeah.
But the problem is, is that, ah, it's just a lot of
carbohydrates. It's a carb heavy culture. It is, you know, yeah.
Now the other housekeeping is that you want to have everybody
know about the rich Redmond show.com it's a podcast page
that gets forwarded to bruceredman.com thanks to the
gentleman who's sitting here today and his entire team. But
we have merchandise. We now have hoodies and hats and shirts and
the iconic coffee mug, and you enter the code fall 25 for 25%
off all merchandise. There you go.
It's amazing. I think it probably in November, it'll be
like Santa 25 or something, so you could stock up on your gift
giving.
Yes, everybody loves the but I will say this guys, this coffee
mug we have learned the hard way. It's got this kind of
raised almost like Braille. You know? It's like, who was the
blind girl that hid during the war?
There might have been more than
one. Was she blind?
Was she deaf? She was she talking about Helen Keller?
I don't know Anne Frank and Frank. Anyways, I don't think
she was deaf. She might have been blank. You might have been
thinking of Helen Keller. I'm sorry,
guys, really mixing up my my historical figure.
This is why we do music. You do
know I'm 41% Jewish, right? Hey, buddy, you could be all, I mean,
I give you a license to do that.
60% then 60% Silverman, man
McCarthy, yeah. Who to know? Thought,
yeah. Did you do the 23 me thing?
41% Jewish on my mother's side. Go figure she was Yeah. She was
like, yeah. When you get back, we'll have to talk, yeah, yeah,
you're gonna have some fun, huh? You're going out to have a good
time. Yeah, I'm gonna have probably the best time of my
life, pinnacle of life, event that I've really looked forward
to. Oh, good. When you get back, we got something to talk about,
mother.
Oh, my God, God. Rest her soul anyways. This, this mug is not
dishwasher safe.
Adam's like, I need to leave.
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Adam dudes. So you started as a drummer, you're still a drummer.
You're still a drummer, once a drummer, always a drummer. You
have a home studio. You've toured, you've recorded, but
when what made you decide to start the, you know, the digital
marketing and the web design and all that kind of stuff, yeah,
I honestly it was being on the road. I just, I don't sit still
very well, so I would get extremely bored between shows,
right? You know how it is, you're just kind of somewhere
doing something, yeah? And I decided, I was like, Well, I've
always been interested in computers. And I had worked for
a web hosting company while I was, when I was in my early 20s,
when I first started touring, I'd come home for the summer
and, you know, they'd let me, you know, sit in and be customer
service and all that. And so I was just into it. And so I
started learning, while I was on the bus, I would just plug, you
know, back in the day, I was like, the USB Wi Fi plug, you
know. And I would sit there and just, you know, go through books
and launch course, learn coding, learn how to do it, yeah,
did you use front page?
No, I came after. Front Page was starting to go away. Back then
it was kind of like it was before WordPress and all that,
though. So I mean, you know, it was back when people were still
building, like, their own custom content systems and that kind of
stuff.
And well, before front page, it was GeoCities. GeoCities, I
don't remember that really. Yeah, I use frontpage way back
in the day to build some websites, and it scared the hell
out of me to hit that publish button, because it was like, if
I hit this, the whole world's gonna see, yeah, it's all, no
one's gonna know. Yeah, no, they won't. Nobody's gonna see this
thing. But front page was, you know, it was popular. It was
popular, but so not user friendly. Yeah?
We used to have like, this disclaimer at the company I work
for, like, we don't do front page. Everybody would call and
be like, do you guys do front page? And the guys were like,
no,
what was the other big one that came out that was like, like,
after front page everybody it was a Mac product that went or
maybe Adobe, but it was, like, a really go to and everybody
wanted to learn to use it. It was like, Oh my gosh, the
learning curve on it was so steep.
Well, like, you know, because Wix is still around and
Squarespace is so
easy now, yeah, those are ways I know what you're talking about.
And I can't place the name. I just remember it being like, oh,
that you can, you know, because you had to have, like, a
programming background do these things. Most people that wanted
a website don't, didn't have that, yeah. So there was, I
can't, really can't. There was Adobe Quark dream there was,
like, dream weaver,
yeah, that's what it was, yeah,
Gary, right. That's
a good one. So you just, you dove in head first. Some guys,
you know, spend their time on the road. Like, for me, it was
like, you know, the devil's playground is all that idle
time, right? So I was like, for me, I would go and do the, teach
the lessons and do the clinics and stuff. And, you know, I have
another friend who, you know, they a lot of friends, get their
real estate licenses and stuff. But I mean, this thing blew up
for you, and I remember, you know, learning about you and
going, Well, hey, can you do it a website for me? Now, was I a
handful? Am I a tough customer?
No, right? No, I don't think so. You're just, you do a lot,
right? So it's just, there's all, get it all in there.
There's always stuff coming from different angles. But no, you
weren't. The most difficult clients for us are the ones that
don't care, to be honest, like the ones that are like, Oh,
just, just do something. They're always the hard ones, because
you can't get any information out of them, right? So it's
like, you end up kind of trying to chase them down all the. Time
I prefer a client that's going to be like, Hey, I have a thing
I want to do. We love that.
Yeah, Adam, just between us, I find it is on his mic down he
can't talk. Was he really that tough?
He was actually pretty easy.
Well, the first, the first one was, you know, I didn't even
really have as much going on, but that second one was, like,
really wanted to, you know, to make, you know, put the speaking
in the forefront, because that's kind of where I'm gonna go in
the next 15 years, as far as what I want to crank up. And
it's like, oh, by the way, I do this acting thing. So the reels
gotta be on there. And then every time I would get a new
reel, you'd have to load it up and like, Oh, my God. But
unless, how many employees do you have?
I believe now we're up to 11 full time. It's amazing. So
yeah,
I mean, that's a lot of responsibility. Do you ever feel
a weight of that, like, Oh my God, we've got to do well,
because these people are depending on me for food.
It does. Yeah, that's been like the hardest adjustment of going
from, you know, like freelancing and just having clients on my
own to building up the company, is you really are responsible.
And as the company has grown, a lot of our clients have come to
be very dependent, like we're their primary source of income.
So it's not just my staff, but also these other people's dreams
and their businesses and their families. And sometimes when I
think about that, yeah, it does. It's, it can be a heavy burden.
You know, there's, yeah, there's a lot of, I'll try not to think
about it. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah.
He's got, you know, multiple businesses. He's got employees
and stuff, and it's like, whoa. Sometimes he's got a super
stressful, I'm like, what's going on? He's like, Oh, just
the weight of the world. You know, pretty much, you know, I
mean, right, wow. But you do have a mission statement? I love
that. It's to help businesses think bigger, move faster, and
build something that lasts. I love that was, did that come
along easily, that that mission statement?
Yeah, I mean, just because, like, really, when I started the
business, I was working for so many different agencies, and I
always felt like they just didn't follow through, right?
It's like they would do the thing the client asked for, and
then turn them loose, and the clients coming back on, well,
what do I do now? I got this website, I don't know what to do
with it, and I didn't like that. I felt like, there's got to be a
way to get these people's websites online and then, you
know, help them market and help them grow. And so we really say
that we're like, at this point, I would say mealtime digital is
like a growth marketing company. People come to us when they've
kind of hit a plateau, or they're ready to start a new arm
of the business, or something like that, and they're just
like, we want to grow this thing. It's doing X amount of
money. We want to do this much more. And that's where we that's
kind of our sweet spot. So you create custom email campaigns
and such marketing, SEO and PPC management and email marketing
and social and, you know, all the things that we do to, you
know, help them get their you know, help them promote
themselves. Because a lot of these businesses, if they don't
have an internal marketing director, gets left to the
owner. And you know how it is, the owners running around, doing
10,000 jobs. And the last thing they want to think about is, you
know, what email am I going to send for, you know, Thanksgiving
holiday or what am, you know, how am I going to engage these
clients to buy from me? Again? They don't have time to think
about that, you know.
Yeah, so I'm just trying to think how you would advise 11
people to do their job in the most efficient, effective
manner. Do you have? Is it one? Is it 11 one trick ponies? Or is
it 11 people with that do a little bit everything?
It's that, it's more that we do have some specialists on our
team, like our development lead Jonathan, like, that's really
what he does. He just codes all day. Yeah, our designers kind of
bounce back and forth. But, yeah, a lot of our team wears
lots of different hats. You know, we'll go from strategy to
execution, and it's the same crew that's doing the work. You
know, it's amazing.
Well, everybody you know, who are some other clients that like
that are model home sites?
I would say, Well, we, one of my favorites that we've released
recently is a company called sport aid. And they are, they
sell ADA items like, you know, they started out doing racing
wheelchairs, and then they've grown into all the ADA, you
know, they do catheters and, you know, medicine fun, but you
know, it's like, it's interesting, though, because
those people literally rely on them, right? Like, without that
stuff, they can't, you know, their wheel goes out on a
wheelchair, and it's like, I can't go anywhere, yeah? And so
we that site took us about two years to conquer, and then we've
got another one right now. It's like, in the hunting space, it's
called tetrahering, and they do these really cool custom in ear
molds, like musician molds, but for hunting. So they've, like,
got these algorithms programmed in where, when you're wearing
them, you know, you can hear like the ducks moving or flying,
but when you shoot nothing, so it's like a protection, but it
also, like enhances the experience for these guys, and,
you know, for people that hunt legitimately, that's like a way
of life, right? Like they but they tend to not protect their
ears. And so by the time their grandfather's taken the
grandson, they can't hear Wow, because they've been shooting
with, you know, a bullet shoved in their ear, out in the, you
know, out in the field. And so this company is really, they've
done a lot of research tying like hearing loss into.
Alzheimer's and that kind of stuff. And so the mission really
is to try to prevent that in hunters, you know, to prevent
that progression of disease by protecting their hearing, which
is, you know, as a musician, you know, can't hear, you're in big
trouble. So do you have some hearing loss? Have you been had
your ear checked? I have. I'm one of those weird ones that
doesn't have any loss. Yeah, since I was a kid. I my parents.
When they bought me my first snare drum, they bought me, you
know, those big gun headphones that sit on my head. I never
really stopped wearing them, you know, just I didn't like that,
that hi hat, man, it hurts. Are you a pasty guy? No, I'm a
saving guy. Thanks to you. You switched me. I got you. You did,
yeah.
Man, save a few bucks. See,
with great power comes great responsibility. It's like, you
know, it's like, if I see somebody playing the wrong
brands,
you really did. You were like, Hey, Adam, what do you think
about I remember we weren't very far into the tour, and you're
like, how do you feel about Sadie? And I was like, well,
your symbols sound great, you know, love them. And you're
like, maybe you should talk to them. Wink, wink.
You know, it's almost like they should be sponsoring
Mr. Furley over there.
Well, dude, I love that. And that is just, I mean that that
you said five or six years you guys been around, so it was
either 2020 pandemic or was 2019 right before,
yeah, I think it was right before pandemic, you know, yeah,
that's right. It was right. It was literally, I think, right
before
it, because I was spending a lot of time in sunny Los Angeles,
and I think we designed the entire site over the phone, yep.
And I'd be like, guys, it's 9am here, and you guys were like,
off to the races. And I people were, you were like, did you go
through that earthquake last night? I was like, what
earthquake? Like, I never even felt them. But people were like,
yeah, it was a such and such and such rector scale. And I was
like, my god, no, I didn't feel I slipped right
through it. You never had any earthquakes all that time you're
out there, but
you just sleep right through Yeah,
only when I visited.
So, so that's fantastic. And then, well, tell us about your
roots as a professional drummer. Remind me where you're from.
Originally from Westminster, Maryland, so like 40 miles west
of Baltimore area.
Oh, yeah. So crab cakes. Very much,
crab cakes. But is it Baltimore or Baltimore?
Well, I guess if you're from there, I say Baltimore, but I
think Baltimore is that reserved for the actual residents of
Baltimore? It is, yeah, like, they, you know, my favorite is
always like, Tuesday. They say it like, instead of Tuesday,
it's Tuesday or Wednesday. And I'm like, it's a very Midwestern
thing. It's, yeah, apparently, a big Maryland thing
too. Voldemort sounds like something from Harry Potter,
right? Oh, gotcha, yeah. So do you still have roots there?
Yeah, my my mom and dad and my brother and, you know, wife and
niece and nephew are all still up there. So, you know, we get
up there, you know, once every other year. So I've got little,
well, no, that's a little bit more two boys that are seven and
eight just a year apart. And so, you know that 1213, hour run is
that your wife is still there? Her people know she, no, it's
all my family. Oh, hurt my brother's wife.
And, oh, your brother's, yeah, yeah. I thought you mentioned
your wife. Like, that's interesting. I heard
that too there. That's nice. So, so you so you like, I mean,
that's the thing with Connecticut. I got up there and
I was like, Man, this is really charming. And then the, you
know, the leaves are going to be changing colors, and you can get
to the water, and, you know, just every strip mall has got a
world class, you know, pizzeria or Greek restaurant. You're
like, this is, yeah, I can, I can live here because the roots
were there.
Salutation is, what do you want? Hey, that's right.
Hey, fuck you. Have a nice day, right? You know? But New York
is, like, you know, we had somebody that we looked like we
were come up off the subway. Kara got Cara's in New Yorkers
20 years. She lived there in the city, 20 years, and so she but
she just got turned around for a second, and this very nice lady
was like, Where are you going? Let me help you. Someone
stopped, yeah, it was a thing that's awesome.
It's different, yeah, because typically they're like, you
know, oh yeah, let's do it. Let's get them really turned
around. Yeah, you want to go north to Harlem, yeah, okay. I
actually went there in 2018 Yeah, and took the family. All I
could spend was maybe two days in New York City, and I was
done, yeah. But we'd come up to the, like, a corner, and I'd be
like, where, how do you get down to that World Trade Center? We
gotta go check that out, not put on, like the rubber band, and
you'd see these people, like, you'd see some people that
wanted to help, and then you'd see the other people like, oh,
we could totally screw this opportunist,
opportunist, interesting Jim pranksters. The bagels I got,
they got my the vegan smear on there. Yeah, the tofu smear half
it ends up on the plate because they put too much on it, and you
go to bite into it, it's just oozing out the sides. Yeah,
guys, they should save money and not put so much fear on this.
Use less profit margin. Profit Margin out.
It's something in the water. It really is. That's the thing. I
mean, it's the food up there. Is so great. The people are not,
yeah,
we're losing two. Listeners on the East Coast picked up, but we
went to, like, a late night diner, and we just had an
amazing experience, like it was, it was unbelievable. And the
fries were like McDonald's french fries, and they were
thin, thin McDonald's steak fries, fantastic. Did you have
with gravy and cheese on them? No, that's for the Canadians.
No, that was my meal of choice back when I was 18. Chocolate
milkshake geez, Jim. I know I could digest that son of a bitch
in five minutes. It's incredible for foodies, I guess. Man, you
know, I had a burrito today, the Cali burrito. Have you ever gone
there in the shopping center, right next to Publix? Ah, it's
really good. Thanks for the invite. Look at this guy. It's
crazy.
You get taco breath on the microphone. Wow.
So when did you get into the drums? Were your parents
musicians?
No, ironically, neither of my parents did any sort of music.
It turns out that my dad, at retirement age, decided to take
up the saxophone. He's actually pretty good at it. My
grandfather was big piano and organ guy. I just remember, you
know, you're in school, and it's like, you got to pick, you know,
we're going to do an instrument picking. So I wrote down, you
know, I want to play drums. And I remember they the teacher
coming to me and saying, Well, we have a lot of people that
want to play drums, you know, we'd like for you to play the
viola. And I literally went home crying, you know, to my parents,
like, they want me to play the viola. I don't want to play, you
know, I really want to do the drums. And so my parents were
like, look, he's been taking, you know, drum lessons. Like,
why don't you let him play a little bit? Yeah, you know. And
so, of course, you know, I already knew how to read at, you
know, third grade I was, do you know? And they're like, Oh,
well, he knows how to read all the drum parts. Like, maybe he
should play drums. And so they switched me in and and that was
it. I carried that little, you know, the Ludwig snare, the
educational combo I used to haul. We were literally, like a
half a mile dirt road to the bus stop, and I would just haul that
sucker, drag it, whatever I had to do to get it to school,
because I was going to bring it home, because I wanted to
practice. And so it just, it started there, and then, I
guess, in high school, I figured out, hey, I can get girls with
this whole music thing. So then I got really
into it, you know. But who so? Who are your favorite drum set
players?
Oh, man, geez. I mean, growing up in Baltimore, I listened to
Dennis Chambers from, you know, very early on. Was definitely a
huge influence, because he would show up randomly in Baltimore,
at wherever, and with some funk band, and you see him, and
you're like, oh my gosh, like,
at the time, well, I think his first big gig was like, I think
he was one of the many drummers in the lineage of P funk, yes,
and you know, but see, we're you and I are 11 years apart. So how
about that John Schofield record? Blue Yeah, that
was the one. And he had that he I had the cassette, you know, of
the drum instructional video of him. It was a Hudson music, yes,
yes. And I literally wore that thing out like it just
eventually there was no tape left in there
was the stuff you'll never be able to do no matter how hard
you practice volume.
But actually, Adam has those, has those, has those hands and
chops. I mean, you were, when you were with Lauren Elena. I
mean, you play, yeah, man. I mean you were, I was like, damn,
but this guy's getting away with murder. But, I mean, but you
know that? You know, boom, got doomed, dude, god, dude. 32nd
notes on the left, oh yeah, it's the bottom, the bottom, skiffle
man, when I got older, and I go back and I see these clips of
this now, you know, on Instagram and stuff like that, it, it's
the you realize, like, how talented they all were, right,
as, like, Gary Granger was playing bass, and John
Schofield, and you're watching them, going, how in the world,
like, there's so much sound coming out of That crew of I
guess it was like, four guys, and you're just like, no tracks,
no nothing. They're just playing. And it's, it was, how
many times
did you go to like, when they would have like, a riff, like
Dennis would go off and to start soloing, and the rest of the
band is just like, you know, boom, you know, all together.
They're, they're, they're hitting the one. I always like
one,
right? I always feel bad for for guys in Fusion bands that have
to play some insane rhythmic ostinato while somebody is
slicing it
crazy, you know what I mean? And that's,
that's actually, there's actually some of that stuff on
that record, that blue matter record, and I thought that was
one of Schofield best bands. And then he had, he had another band
with that record, loud jazz, and it was Omar Hakeem.
Yep, that stuff is so ancient now it's like 25 years old.
Man longer over older than that. I know it's crazy. Yeah, that
was the 90s. I want to say maybe even the 80s,
yeah. And I learned that, you know, Dennis always had a super
colorful shirt button up on, yep, all the way up the long
hair, you know, oh yeah, and then a completely stoic upper
body with just arms flailing everywhere, you know, octopus
mode. Compared to my slouching and sweating and grunting, he
was, he just, it's all right here, man, he was, yeah,
incredible.
So. Oh, Dennis chambers. Dennis was a huge one, and then I got,
you know, I was really, really into, like, you know, Primus and
that kind of stuff, you know. No, I was not. No, you won't
find me on a bus again. I don't think so. Your touring days are
behind you. Yeah, I definitely think so. I didn't travel well,
you know, in having done it for, I did it for, I guess, 1516,
years, and at some point I realized I was really fighting
myself. You know, I loved the drumming part so much, but I
disliked the rest of the part of the road. I just didn't like the
travel. And so my grand idea was, well, I'll just go home and
be a studio player. And then I realized that that market was
going to change because everybody started having home
studios, and it was, it was just going to be different than what
I kind of dreamed of. And so I, you know, kind of started making
that pivot. But yeah, I always tell people, even if, like, my
favorite artist in the world was like, oh, I want you to go out,
I don't know that I could handle being out there, you know, yeah,
it
just so it's a sleeping in the bunk, and the 23
hours, yeah, yeah, you know. And when I start, it was like, the
music, the playing for everybody, made it worth it,
right? Because you just get this huge rush, and it's so much fun.
And all the other musicians that we were always out with were
just so talented. So I would just sit there and watch
everybody else play, and it was just, I loved that part. But
everything leading up to, you know that six or seven o'clock
start time, I just couldn't, couldn't fill the hours. Yeah,
and then, of course, I met my, my now wife, and how'd you guys
meet? We met actually at a therapeutic horseback riding
center, actually called saddle up. It's up in
the old Hillsboro Road in Franklin
therapeutic. So good for the mind and body, actually.
Well, it's targeted at children that have just like autistic
children or ADHD or, you know, I mean, everything you can
imagine. And I knew nothing about horses. I was just going
through a really hard lifetime transitioning from being on the
road and and I thought, well, you know, I'll volunteer in
between. And so I randomly decided to volunteer at a horse
farm. I didn't know anything about horses, like zero, and I
showed up there, and my now wife, Heather, was the trainer
and the equine director of the farm. And so they sent me.
They're like, We don't want him with the kids, like, let him go
do manual labor kind of thing, you know. And so they shipped me
out there to Heather, and we started cutting down trees
together. And that just, it just went from exploded now to
romance, yeah, now we're 1010. Year wedding anniversary was in
May.
So, oh, Congrats, buddy. And I think now all this time, I don't
think I've ever met your
wife. I don't think so. Yeah, no, she. Guys live down here in
Williamsport, Tennessee, Williamsport, so just kind of
out the Natchez Trace, basically, Oh, wow. On a farm,
it is a farm, yep,
which would be my next question.
Make you're making hay while the sun is shining. That's right.
But I mean, you know? And then there was a rough period there
where there was a fire, yep, yep, yeah, and you're still in
the same place.
Yeah, we're still Yeah. So we had an unfortunate incident with
our oven. My wife, she bakes a lot of bread, and she wanted to
bake bread. We've been on vacation, so she's like, well,
I'll just run the oven through the cleaning cycle. And
something went wrong in the ovens computer, and it wouldn't
stop heating. So it went from 400 to 500 to 600 and then the
screen just said hot. And it was like, what it's lost was it
electric. It was a gas oven. Oh, and it eventually melted the gas
line and then exploded. And so it it exploded. It took our
house about 15 minutes to pretty much burn all the way down. It
was just such a big fire. But I had built my drum studio, and a
three car garage kind of separated from it. And so after
the house fire, we renovated that. And so we live, you know,
in the in the drum studio, yeah, literally, yes. So my drums
went, my drums went. We finished the downstairs. They went down.
The family went to the upstairs part. And so, yeah, so we, we
were able to get back onto the farm pretty
quick. But, yeah, yeah. So how does that work?
I mean, he got the, he got the money from the insurance. Oh,
yeah, well,
I mean, there's insurance, but I mean, also manufacture defects,
you know, it we pain and suffering, all that stuff.
We pursued it about as hard as you could pursue it. And just
turned out that most of the lawyers we talked to felt like,
you know, you're going up the against these huge corporations.
And they were just going to say, well, the insurance gave you
money like the part they don't tell you is all the time it
takes, right? That's what it was. It was, it was rough on the
business for about six months where I had to, you know,
basically I couldn't go in, you know, because I just had phone
calls and meetings and insurance this and claiming this, and
writing all our stuff down. And it was, it was a, it was a long
road, and then Morgan, and Morgan
shows up at your front door. That's
who, I mean, is that, you know, you'd figure that somebody would
just take it on contingency.
We tried them all. We tried about probably called 50 law
firms, and they were all like, well, it's, you know,
ironically, hard to prove right, because it burns itself up, so
there's no real evidence, like, we could have done something
wrong. And so, yeah, how long ago was it's been? We just had
our two it's just been two years,
just now. So like, you should have filmed it or something.
Like, you know, this, I can't turn this thing off. Yeah, it
was, it was scary.
Oh, you guys are okay, yeah, it was my stepson, Trey, was in the
basement, you know, asleep in our little pub down there. And I
went, I'm like, where is he, you know? I was like, well, he's
down the basement. And, you know, when I went into the
basement, I mean, you could see fire in the ceiling, you know,
there was, it was just like, oh, like it went from it's smoking a
lot, to Oh, no, what it was, you know? I mean, just like that.
And, of course, we're in the country, so the there's no fire
hydrant right there, so they had to, you know, truck water in.
And it was an ordeal. Man, oh,
country living. Man, wow,
is there. What can we ask? What the manufacturer was so we can
avoid them.
I probably shouldn't say that, Magic Chef. I probably magic.
Yeah, don't buy magic.
Well, we, you know, we went to go rent a car yesterday from
enterprise, which is usually one of the more expensive, you know,
firms. There's companies usually on the higher side. It's not
budget, it's not, you know, it's usually
higher. I feel like they all run together now, well, aren't they
also owned by renting
cars is a total shit show, and something always goes wrong, and
someone is always unhappy. But they were like, we're pretty
much out of, like, you know, mid sizes and Bubba Buck compacts.
They gave us this little shoe box smaller than a Honda Fit.
Was made by, manufactured by Mitsubishi. And I was like, wait
a minute, Mitsubishi makes stereos and washers and dryers,
not cars. They do make cars. They do make cars, but not
anything you want to drive. And we tried to, we pulled out. It
was like, just like the most miserable experience, just
trying to get 711 and so we turned around and turned it back
in, and there was all hell broke loose. In many ways, we ended up
getting a Nissan Sankara.
What was the Mitsubishi made? Like? I mean, yes, that's
every girl in high school had that car. Man. It
was a single goes, a derivative of something else. It was like
Mitsubishi and they, I believe Isuzu was part of that moments,
but they had, like, SUVs and all sorts of stuff,
so I guess they're still around. But this wasn't one of their,
you know, better
problems like Ship Model.
Yeah, it was the Mitsubishi skateboard. Anyways, you but you
would have been better with an E bike.
Kiss Mitsubishi goodbye for a sponsorship.
Well, so, so now, how do you, how do you go from, you know,
just living out in the country and you guys have a fondness for
horses, to having a farm?
Well, so my, my mother in law, ran a horseback riding business
off of our farm that we now bought, you know, we bought the
farm from them, and so Heather kind of left her job at, you
know, saddle up, and decided she wanted to do her own thing as
well. And so we, at a given time on our farm, There's between 35
and 40 horses there, and we're running on, oh, we, we take care
of probably four to 500 acres, and then run on another four to
500 so it's a pretty big, expansive thing. But, you know,
I love that she does it because people come out there that are,
like, really having a hard time with stuff. You know, people
tend to go to horses when they're struggling or, you know,
something's going on. And we have a lot of artists and
politicians and all the things that come out, and my wife just
takes them riding. They ride down to the duck River, and they
hang out down there, and to clear their mind, yeah, it's
just like, yeah. It's like, a peaceful way to just kind of
Yeah, just get out of whatever it is that they're in, you know.
I mean, I'm definitely afraid of horses. Well, you know,
honestly, a lot of people that come out there are, they're
like, I don't know, this could be scary. And then after they
work with my wife, with the animals for a little bit.
They're like, Oh, I think I, you know, I think I'd try riding.
And so we get to do a lot of that stuff. And what I realized
very quickly be, you know, being on the business side of it, you
know, I don't train the horses. Heather does all that. But I
realized that the most expensive thing we do is make hay and or
buy hay. And so you've always got to be worried. Is someone
going to have it? Can we get it trucked in? What if there's a
drought and we're fourth on their list and we don't get it?
And so we kind of have, like, an uncontrollable variable. And so
after the house fire, I had always been dreaming of, like, I
wonder what it'd be like to learn how to do this. And so one
of the neighborhood farmers that's been doing this his whole
life was like, hey, if Adam buys a, you know, tractor, he can run
with me. Like, I'll teach him how to do it. I'll show him all
the different tricks, and, you know, how to work on the
equipment and all that. And so I've been doing it for the last
two years now, and I love it. It's just very, you know, it's
like my Zen space. You're just kind of on a tractor. You're
going four or five miles an hour, just kind of rolling
through the and there's no. One there. There's nothing to do. I
just listen to books and listen to music and make hay. And you
look, yeah,
you listen to the rich Redmond show. Just talked about this
with Johnny Rabb.
Remember, oh yeah, our Johnny. We had Johnny Rabb on for like,
a two hour episode. It was nothing but comedy, and he was
talking about how he has a lunar turn.
It turns on a moon. It says, instead
of a zero turn, it's like, so,
which is probably the one that I would buy. But I just call my
friend Caesar, and he cuts the grass. We were
talking about things you would do if, you know, maybe you
didn't have to play the drums, maybe, maybe,
if you'd like, just didn't want to play the drums, or you
couldn't play the drums or, and that's tough thing. I should I'd
probably be in show biz, you know, I'd probably be somewhere,
like, with a and action, you know, I'm gonna do something and
like, and five four, like, be backstage with a headset mic or
something. I don't know.
You do realize that? I think that AI is gonna replace a lot
of that, you know, but I'm not sure how that's gonna affect
podcast,
but, but, you know what? You know what? Well, Jim is a big,
you know, obviously, he's a big proponent of podcasts, and he's,
he's taken a bite out of that new media thing. But I have
visited a lot of newsrooms in the morning where you go to
like, you know, the percussive Art Society will hire me to go,
like, talk about the percussive Art Society. And you go into the
newsroom and you expect to see all these people there. And
these are computer, robot controlled cameras. Like, no,
there's no cameraman anymore. Wow. Or women, yeah, it's crazy.
That is, I don't like it weird. It was very Orwellian.
Social media will become even AI influencers are coming down the
pike. Yeah, you mean they're going away, they're going to you
can literally use AI to generate a personality and build a whole
social media ecosystem around them at this point. And you
know, if you have something, you're onto something. You know,
you can make it something whatever entertains people.
Yeah, did you
hear about this thing? Whereas Spotify is actually creating AI
bands to to to sway the algorithm away from real
personalities and real artists, so they have to pay them
even less. Oh, yeah. So that's what, everyone needs less money,
right?
Yeah. Because right now we're making such a fraction. What
about fraction of a penny
a songwriting business? You know, the AI is a co writer at
this point with that. I mean, well, how is that going to look
for the industry
here? Well, I think a lot of people claim that they're not
using AI, but, I mean, what a way cool way to potentially kick
start a song. Yeah. And, you know, when I was writing songs
professionally for five years, my thing was I would always come
in like, I'm a title guy, so I would come in with a title, and
everyone be like, Oh, Revan, that's slick. And then we're off
to the races, you know. But you don't even have to do that
anymore. That's interesting. It's really crazy. So okay, so
you're making, you're making your own hay, and you're
learning how to do all this stuff. That sounds like a really
hard, long day, but now I guess you can, you know, you're at a
point where your business is kind of like rolling as you
could just like, delegate, yep. I mean, you're not coding.
No, I don't code anymore, only when our coders are out for some
reason, right? I'll jump in and look at stuff. But, yeah, it's,
it's a lot like that the business has kind of gotten to
the spot where I'm more, like, visionary and, you know,
studying what's happening, you know, like, especially in the AI
space right now, you know, I just, my job is really to kind
of keep the the mission and the vision of the business moving
forward, and make sure that the staff is good, you know. And
then when you've got good team members, they just, you know,
they run it, you know, I, I have to be kind of told what they
need me to do at this point, you know, a lot of time, like, do
you guys need me to do anything for you? And that sometimes they
have stuff.
But dude, that is, you're
the boss, man, you're the undercover boss. Do you have
weekly meetings and stuff?
Yeah, oh yeah, yes, yeah.
What do you guys talk about?
Chris Farley, question, you remember when you were in the
Beatles?
Remember that when we said that the love you make is equal to
the love you take? Is that true?
Meeting? Meetings. Also, the beautiful thing about it is,
this is the American dream in the sense that you know your
business is practically running itself. You you know you have
these henchmen, and you're like, go, go to work and decide make
me money for my castle. And then at some point you can evaluate
the business and sell the business. And then you're in
deer in Florida or California with palm trees.
Well, you know, it's funny, I've been offered multiple places
have come been like, we, you know, we want to buy this
business. And at first I thought, These can't be
legitimate, but I started feeling those calls just to kind
of see and they they were legit. Like, you know, agencies tend to
get acquired pretty rapidly. But once I figured out that people
were doing that, I decided to go the other way, and I started
acquiring other peoples. Because what I learned was, you know,
when an agency gets up to that five, $600,000 a year mark, it
starts to stretch the owner out into places where they're not
comfortable. And usually, a lot of times, that's when things
start to go downhill. Interestingly. Clients get
frustrated, and growth stops. And so I kind of build
relationships and look for agencies that are in those
boats. And a lot of times they're coming to me, going, I
got to get this. I have 50 clients. I don't know what to do
with them anymore. I got to get out of here. Like, how do I give
them to you? So I don't you know, because if you just cut
them loose, you could be in lawsuit Haven Right? Like, you
know, knocking people's websites offline and stuff like. That's
very bad way to go.
So basically, orphan customers exactly, you're buying up their
customer list. Yep. I mean, do you feel like if they're coming
to you? Obviously you have the leverage, yep, because they
probably haven't done their research in terms of a multiple
on EBITDA.
Well, you know, most agencies, strangely, as they get bigger,
you know, they get exponentially worth more money, right? Those
smaller agencies don't really typically have anything in place
except for the customer list, right? They don't have a staff
or a specialty, or, like, even the way that they do things
we're not going to follow. We're going to do it our way. And so
yeah, we come up with, like, what's a fair number for those
those customers, sometimes we'll kind of, like, put the agency
owner on our staff for three or four years, and they kind of
live in the margins of what their clients produce. And so
we've done it a couple of ways, but I kind of went the opposite.
I'm like, I don't really want to sell, but I do want to start
buying, and that turned out to be a good growth
avenue for us. That's so smart man, the
mentality of a drummer helps you be a business owner. Because I
found it to be the
case multitasking. I think, well, actually for me, I think
it's the opposite. I think it i The my ability with drumming
kind of came from repetitive practice, you know, it didn't
happen. Like, people like, oh, did you just sit down and play?
I'm like, No, I was terrible. Like, I couldn't hold the sticks
right. My left foot didn't work. My right foot, you know, it was
a, it was a really big learning process. Repetition results for
100% so I think from drumming I learned it's like, persistence,
you know, I persistently stuck with it, and I kind of got over
the, you know, the homes, yeah, 100% it's ironically. Do you
know Matt billings lead? Of course, Matt and I went to high
school together.
I did not know that. So, ladies and gentlemen, Taylor Swift's
drummer, you know, he could probably get pretty good seating
at restaurants, I'm sure. But Matt, here's the deal. Matt's
not the kind of guy who's actually going to ever drop,
wouldn't know ever Taylor, just upstart girl,
yeah. But so Matt was he, I think he was, like, maybe two or
three years ahead of me in high school. So when I, when I got
into high school as a freshman, you know, we're doing, like, the
Jazz Ensemble thing, and I didn't know how to use the left
foot yet, right? Like, I still, I'm doing the, you know,
everything but the left foot, you know. And that's like, you
know, he's the older kid, and, you know, great player. And I'm,
I'm just following him around high school. Like, how do I be,
like, this guy? And I just remember him sitting down being
like, You got to get the left foot to work. You know, you're,
you don't use your left foot. I'm like, well, so I'd sit there
and watch how he, you know, and that's how I learned about
Primus and learn, you know, he basically introduced me to all
that. But I remember him telling me, like, I just practice all
the time. Like, if you want to be good at this, you know,
you're a freshman in high school, you want to be good, you
got to practice. So that that started, you know, from ninth
grade on, I was, you know, I do two, three hours a day all the
way through college, just working on stuff,
wonderful, and it worked out great. But I have all these
years being friends with both you guys. I did not know that.
Yep, I don't think I've ever seen you guys in the same room
at the same time.
No, we, in fact, since high school, I've only seen that
once. We had a lunch at like, Qdoba, I guess, up in Brentwood,
like, when he was transitioning from, oh geez, ladies, yes, when
he in 2008 Yep, when he left them, that's we had lunch. And,
like, I had just started with Lauren, yep. And, you know, we
were just kind of talking about the industry, and it was really
neat to catch up to him. And then when he got the Taylor gig,
I was like, this is the coolest thing. Like, I love just
watching that happen. You know, it was so cool.
Sweet justice. Because I remember, see, because lady, a
and and us, we were on tour together in 2008 for the CMT
tour, gotcha, and I got to watch him every night. I was like,
this kid's sharp. And he's like, really, you know, he's straight
shooter. He's gonna do a great job. Then he was let go for just
a very strange reason. Strange reason that I didn't I was like,
that sucks, yeah. And then boom, months later, yep, boom, yeah. I
was like, there you go.
We were at that lunch, and he was kind of telling me, you
know, just, you know, it hurts you get let go for really no
reason, you know, we just want to try some other things, or
whatever kind of deal. And it was funny, because he's like,
but I'm so glad that you're just starting, and you're on the ride
and enjoy it and all the things. And I just remember being like,
you're going to be good, man, like somebody else is going to
pick you up. It's going to literally, like, not maybe two
months later, I saw online, you know that he's with Taylor
Swift. And, I mean, I teared up, man, I was so happy. That's a
real friend with her.
Long time? Yeah, I would say, I mean, let's, let's 16 years.
Wow. Yeah. And she takes care of her people.
From what I hear, Well, yeah, here's $100,000 tip. Don't spend
it all in one place. Or do go for it.
Do we ever have him on
No, the reason why I haven't is because it's, you know, I have
to. He's very careful about the PR.
He does, yeah, yeah, there's, I did reach out to Tim Alexander,
and he did get back to me, promise, yeah,
another hero, man. Yeah. He's good, though, sailing
the sea of chi. I love what he's doing now. He's doing like,
inspirational type, like almost like thought leadership type,
stuff, really, yeah, it's really and I noticed it, and I said,
Hey dude, kudos to you. I really love what you're doing. Love to
have you on, yeah, might have to be a virtual but I said, if
there's any time you get to Nashville, let us
know. Yeah, he's I remember commenting on one of he posted
something not long ago, and it was very inspirational. And I
said, Man, you're still inspiring me. It's had probably
25 years since I first heard of Primus, and I'm like, you're
still inspiring me. You're not even with the band anymore. And
I'm still like, wow, that was, that was a really cool thing
that he said, you know, and it's applicable to anything you do,
really, you know,
it's like the next thing for artists. I want to say, well,
it's
getting crowded to space. Yeah, you know, you got me and Kenny
and Shulman and Sandy, and now you got Tim, and it ain't gonna
stop. It ain't gonna like, you know, it's just not gonna
stop. But you can be inspirational, pal. You just
gotta, you just gotta do it, man, thanks. Awaken the beast
within. Well, you know, the funny thing is, is that, you
know, Adam and you and I haven't talked about this over the
years, I'm so blown away by you that you're doing such different
things. You know, I do a lot of things, but they're so amuse
adjacent, but, but, you know, every anytime I would like post
my motivational speaking things on my socials, there's about
half of my audience that's like, ah, we want to see you play
drunk. Well, I want to see you play Amarillo Scott. And why
does it
work for Tim and not for you? Though, I don't know. It's a
good question. Did you hear that in person or just in
the comments? What just, you just, they don't, just the
clips. Don't perform well. Yeah, they just don't, because people
see you.
You've got great ideas, you've got good you're very you inspire
a lot of people without, I guess, saying anything. No,
okay, by your actions. Oh, absolutely,
I have to walk, right? Yeah. I mean, I just, I don't know too
many drummers that don't know who you are or follow you, you
know what? I mean, almost everybody's, Oh, yeah. Rich is
amazing. Like, I think, as you've done, you've been able
to, even though, like, the Aldean music, it has changed.
But I feel like you've reinvented the way that you play
more than one time. Like, how you, I see it, how you play now,
versus how you did when we were on tour. It's, it's matured, you
know? It's, it's, I mean, you were always fantastic. It's just
different, less crashes. Maybe that's what it was, two crashes
here and two
crashes there. And that's a nice model, because you got your ride
here, right? You might have a little effect splash right
there, maybe a China here, and you get four crashes. But now
I'm just at the I just two, just right here. When are you gonna
get the stack? Oh, I gotta ask my friend Chris at Sabian for a
clap stacks, right calling him the clap stack. That you can't
call it a clap stack. What are they calling it? It's like an
effects stack.
Okay, they did the thing with Portnoy, the max stacks,
the max stack. But then, but then our buddy Trevor Lawrence
came out with the clap stack with, with Istanbul, or whatever
his company with, and then a lot of companies came in, and
that's basically they bent the symbols over, like, saddle, yes.
But everybody came in and pilfered, and so that's Trevor's
thing.
Is, like, people love the sound of that, because that could be
the hit down,
yeah, but you know, what's even better on that China,
full on China, like a 20, like, what do you I
think I have plenty for 22
still with a third man, just friggin
dog thing. Well, you know, I think 30 inch high hats.
Yeah, that's definitely you're in CCM world there, if you're
going with a 30
inch, oh, this is another thing, like, we're just like, trying to
connect all the tissue, because now, at this point, you're such
a complicated human organism. But you were talking about your
influences in drumming, and then the fact you were playing with
Lorena land, and that's how we met, doing this awesome arena
tour. And she would go out, and she would sing the Kelly
Clarkson song with Jason every night, and which was an awesome
thing, but you did a decade in the CCM world. Yep, for those
who don't know, that's contemporary Christian music,
which is a lot, which is mostly created and marketed and based
in Nashville. So you got word records, you got, so some of the
some of the highlights would would be like your newsboys,
your sonic floods, your Kevin Max's, your now what your band
was? 33 miles,
that's right, yep, I worked with those guys for, oh geez, it was
probably close to 10 years. Really, are they still at it?
Actually, I do think they're doing like some sort of reunion
get together. I've started seeing some things online. About
that they might be doing that, but they were very rascal flats.
Ish, right, it was, it was that very like early, 2000s you know,
harmony, three part harmony, um, everything, you know, really
tight. And that was kind of around the time that I started
listening to rascal flats, and, you know, listening to Jim and
Riley and, you know, just going, oh, like, because I didn't know
much about that style, you know, I was all tool and Primus and,
you know, how crazy can I be, yeah, and when I started
listening to, you know, a little bit of country music, and it
really played over into that space. And so, yeah, I did that,
and then I kind of took a little bit of a break from it, and I
was in between artists. And that's when, you know, the whole
thing with Lauren happened. And, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, what was your experience in that genre? Like, how did you
did you guys travel on a in a 15 passenger van? Or was it a
Winnebago, or was it a bus? Or was
it, it was a conversion van? And, you know, we would all, you
know, draw straws for who had to do, you know, the two to six
shift kind of thing, you know, that was the worst. It's like,
how many Red Bulls do I need to survive this? But no, like, the
music was fun, the touring was fun. It was hard to make a
living there, you know, it's just that markets and not the
same size as, you know, country or, you know, pop or whatever.
And so it was, it was challenging. So I had lots of
other jobs, you know, while I was doing that. But, you know,
it was a great experience. Did you get to record? Do you have
somebody to work with these guys or No, I never did any recording
with those guys. You know, all my recording has primarily just
been, you know, in my home studio. So would they use like
Scott Williamson or Steve Brewster? Yeah, I can't remember
who I think Lonnie Wilson might have played on some of it. Yeah,
I know they worked with like Nathan knuckles and those kind
of guys, and so I can't remember who played the drums. Always
great records, though they the record sounded great.
Is the phone gonna ring for the reunion? Hey, come up and play a
song or two. I don't
think so. I think they're probably in the assumption that
I don't have time. Yeah, which, which probably would be true.
Wow, man. Plus stuff. There's a lot of stuff. It's a lot of
stuff. Okay, so back to the farm. You're like, now, do you
have like, is it like, is it like, old McDonald's, like, with
a pig and a cow and a chicken
and no, we are all horses. So all horses? Yeah, I don't, we
don't have any, I mean, a barn, cat, dogs and horses, horses.
That's it.
Now, can now what's like, do you do some stud farming there where
it's like, let's make a million dollars on this horse kind of a
thing?
No, but my wife has bred. She decided she was gonna, I'll put
this in air quotes. Go into the breeding business, right? So, as
you can imagine, I now have five horses that we produce that she
will never sell. So basically, she just increased. Well, I
mean, it's my fault too, because once the you know, you see him
be born, get emotionally attached, and then they like
imprint on you, and you've got this humongous, 1500 pound, you
know, Friesian horse that wants to, you know, have her head in
your pocket, kind of thing. And it's like, how do I sell this
thing to someone? I don't know if they'll take care of her, or
they could turn around and sell her to someone else. And so the
breeding side of the business did not take off. Only
horses.com,
there you go. What? What is? What was the thing that Russ
Miller came up with? It's only drums.com Did he? Is that a
thing drums? It's only drums.com or drums only.com it's one of
those. It's gonna be the next drumeo, kind of, who I can
maybe like a, maybe it's like a marketplace, you know, we'll
find out what Russ does. Russ has always got his hands on
something giant vendors and inventions and educational
products. And I should have done all of us, drum only podcast.
We're sassy and we're crafty and we're scrappy, all the all the
ease.
Just, just visit the Music City drum show, and you see the
inventions? Yeah. I mean, just tons of
you have you hit the drum show yet? I have never gone. I really
want to go.
It's the biggest in the United States in under five years. Is
it crazy? Is it up in the it's at the fairgrounds? Okay, yeah,
so bring your gun. Well, yeah. And it's funny, because,
I mean, everything's at a conversational level. There
interesting. You can have very common good conversations at
this volume. Well, I'm
joking, you can't. It's actually
going to be even better for because next year, they're gonna
have a quiet hall where and then they're gonna have the insanely
loud, the crazy, the white noise
Hall, the quiet Hall, I believe, will be for the
educational events podcasts and people that are selling books
and such, you know, seminars, the seven clinics, yeah,
performances, yeah, do the thing. What's your favorite
food?
I mean, it's not a good food, but I'm a big French fry human,
as long
as you're working out, okay,
so, being from Maryland, you've been out to Ocean
City, yeah, oh yes, Thrashers, yes, yes, those are the french
fries. Thin. No, it's like, they're like,
regular cut fries. But you have they're like, something about
them on the board. Well, I think they
put old bay in the in the oil. That's my theory. Be obey, yeah.
Like, Old Bay is like, like, a seafood season food seasoning
from Maryland. But like, everybody, you know, the
Chesapeake Bay, oh, area, and everybody uses Old Bay and, or
it could be big ass at woman Bay. Well, good, yeah, good.
That's a thing. But you That's every that's the secret sauce.
You said, That's my theory. But they're like, you know, they're
like, the boardwalk fries, you know, they're that, you know,
kind of more just like a potato. Oh, they're so good.
I don't, I don't remember ever having a cocktail with you what?
But if you had a What was your favorite drink? I don't drink
actually, I'm one of those weird people that you never did when I
knew you or anything.
No, I never, I, you know, even in like, college, I just didn't.
I did not like the taste of any you're practicing, yeah, and I
was, yeah, I just didn't like it. And it's funny. Now, like
being older, though, because I'll show up in places, oh, you
know, let me get you beer. I'll just have a coke. And they're
like, are you in a program or something? I'm like, I know,
isn't it funny? I'm not necessarily, like, nothing wrong
with that, whatever. Like, great. But it's always weird
that people just immediately if you don't want a beer, they just
assume you were an alcoholic.
They got some incredible non alcoholic beers. Now, I mean,
not IPAs too. Everyone's, every manufacturer's got a really
killer. They've really stepped it up. It's not, you know, oh,
duels are sharp, so that's what I remember as odules. Yeah? Not,
it not like you do not want to
drink that unless it's ice cold. Oh, duels, yeah. I mean, they're
actually, that's the more at the low end of non alcoholic beers
now,
well, I will say Adam that you really ought to drink more.
Thank you. You look like, You look like you'd be an IPA guy.
I've never tried one, but what would you? What would
you? So what is your not like? You know, what's your just the
thing you sip on all day long.
I mean, in the office, I do drink a good bit of coffee in
there, and I'm a Coca Cola guy. I can't do diet or any of that,
but it's got to be straight, straight up
nice, so you're getting your sugar. But
do you remember when Coke was like full, fully leaded? Yes,
you know,
it doesn't chemically. It's not as good. Now it's
not this is the one. This is better than Diet Coke because
the after it's a sharper aftertaste. So if you're gonna
have an aftertaste from the aspartame, which is slowly
killing you and rotting your brain. You might as well enjoy
the aftertaste.
Who's a show brought to you by the aftertaste of Coke Zero.
Look at
that little dude. That's right, Yoda. It's baby Yoda, no, that's
a baby Yoda, right, yeah.
Now, is that the actual Yoda as a baby? No, I really don't know.
I don't think so. You look like you're a Star Wars guy.
Don't tell me he looks nerdy.
I'm not saying he's you said it. I didn't ouch out loud. I'm not
saying I don't know you. You know. Okay, I'll just call back
to my script. Man, not at all. So no, and
I was gonna ask you who your favorite drummer was, but now I
know Dennis chambers, Tim Alexander, and how about that?
Danny Carey. I mean, yeah, still. I mean, like, but he get
he's in a band where he can shine like that, where these
tribal, melodic things are celebrated, yeah, but you know
the dancing time signatures, you know, non existent, that happens
a lot in instrumental music, but the fact that Maynard has got to
sing those melodies that go in and weaving in and out. It's
pretty
impressive. It is. I've always I saw them, I guess when I was
just in college and at the Baltimore arena, you know, and
it was like, I'd never really seen anything like that, because
it was, I mean, Danny was amazing, but almost like chamber
music, yeah, it really is. It was just they, they, they stay
together, you know, during these crazy time signatures and
transitions. And I'm going, how does someone that doesn't play
the drums follow that, right, right? Yeah, it was amazing.
Well, Mike Portnoy's challenge song, and drumeo was NUMA by
tool. I think it took him about an
hour, yeah, to
chart it out and get
it. I can't imagine charting that stuff. Adam, guess what?
Dude, I went to drumeo, and they gave me two challenge songs.
What were they come they're coming out. I can't say, oh,
okay, they're gonna become, they're big, they're gonna be
coming out. But they were waiting. So I went up there and
they hired me to create tons of new educational content, because
they're like, this guy, give him a headset Mike. He's, you know,
he's got the gift of gab. And so, anyways, we did two very
long days, so fun. And they're, they want to time it all. So my
challenge songs are, are released at the same time the
the new educational stuff comes out. I was like, which makes
sense, yeah. I'm like, Jared put it out. And they're like, No,
Jared wants to wait until and all, you know, it makes sense.
Totally makes sense.
I really love drumeo. I never, like, maybe about two years ago,
I finally was like, I guess I'm gonna subscribe to this and just
kind of see what's in it, right? Because it's a subscription. How
much I can't it's like, a couple $100 a year. I gotcha. And I
really enjoy it. And then I also, you know, Stevens deal,
the Stevens drum shed, that's good stuff too. Oh yeah, really
good stuff. Columbia, yeah, right there. He's awesome.
What's up, Steven? He was an early guest on our first year.
Was he really, yeah, so I, I never really did that online
entertainment. I always would just write my own charts, and,
you know, work through future sounds, and, you know, all the
different, you know, books, but those what? Where they chart the
songs out for you. Like, I just sight read all the time now, and
it's really fun, because it's like, the songs I don't really
know.
You know, you download the drumless stem, yeah? And then
there's a chart chart so you can you're killing two birds. You're
working on your reading and you're working on your time.
Feel, yeah. Does it vibe? Does it actually highlight along it
does. Yeah, it
has. They use this system in it like it follows the
transcription. And you can either do it with drums or
without, honestly, a lot of times, and that's for all
instruments now too. Yeah, they've got it drumeo Has it for
all the instruments. Yeah, TARIO piano and big CEO, because
they're voice museo or whatever. Now, yeah,
it's a media company, basically.
I mean, guys, drumeo, Jared,
Ryan, he wants us to be sponsored by them. No, no. I
mean, that'd be great. I mean, really, it'd be incredible. No,
I just gotta, gotta have the tough conversation. Gotta, gotta
try to get through the walls of stuff to get to Jared. Now he'll
take my email. What about your favorite pizza?
I'm a straight up pepperoni pizza guy.
Come on. But you got the grease on there? Do you soak it or no?
Yeah, I gotta wipe it off. Soak it a little bit. Yeah, yeah. In
recent years, I just thought that sometimes the grease is
just like, whoa. So we just rain on cheese well,
and it's Tennessee pizza. I don't know. Man, it's not the
same.
Yeah, Nellies comes close, very close to Where's Nellies? No,
you don't know Nellies, wrong? Right across from the crossings.
Okay, by the food loin. Interesting. The food loin, food
loin. They are the daughter of Joey's house of pizza.
I gotta, I gotta try all this old Nellies, because salvos gets
my money.
Frankie's is good next to Home Depot. Okay, still
haven't been to Frankie's, but because they have, like, a
little, nice, little seating area bar in
there. And there's another one that just came here from
California, he's, good, gosh, I can't think of his name starts
with an A until
Antonucci, that sounds legit. Antonucci is the one where you
go and you could get stuff to go because there's no seasoning.
Yeah. Used to be that. That place used to be belong to the
bread lady. Sarah Gonzalez,
yeah. So, Jim's got 20
years in Spring Hill. I was gonna say you've been in Spring
Hill a bit.
Yeah, 20 years. Oh, five, yeah.
So you're the mule town is based in or named after Columbia, but
you're even further out.
Yeah, my farm is in Williamsport Area, so out, you know, it is
off, like, kind of towards the Natchez Trace. You guys have,
like, grocery stores and such. Yeah, you know, because we were
like, 20 minutes from Columbia, gotcha. So, you know, that's
kind of where we do all our shopping and everything. And
when I when I named muletown Digital, I had just moved to
Williamsport, so mule town, to me, was very new. I didn't
realize that it how
many different businesses used it, and how like what it really
was. And it's funny, because people get online, they fuss all
the time, oh, there's mule town this, and mule town that. And
ironically, I'd say probably 80% of our customers are not in
Columbia, and so they don't, our clients don't really, they just
think it's interesting, right? It's like, mule town. What? What
is that? You know? And so we get a chance to kind of explain,
Well, that's like, our town is called mule town, but we don't
work a lot in mule town, so it works, you know, because I
debated, do I change it like there's a lot of mule town
everything? But yeah, our audience isn't really there.
You're the only mule town digital. That's true. There is
not another digital. Now, while I got you this is something that
we have talked about, SEO. SEO is very important, search engine
optimization, but it's also very pricey, very costly. And you
were telling me that someone say, like, like, a Tony Robbins,
what he probably pays per year to be listed as the number one
motivational speaker on the planet, year after year. I don't
have that kind of bread, yeah, but, but he's made the bread,
and he wants to keep making the bread, so he pours it back in
there. So, you know, so, like other people that you know, that
can see results on, say, $25,000 or does it have to be way more
than
that? Yeah, absolutely. The weird thing about search engines
now is, you know, with all the AI stuff entering in, and people
are producing content at massive scale, right? And the way that
it used to work was like, Oh, if you made content and then people
like, you know, they would link to it, and Google would go,
Well, this website's now got all this authority look at all their
links, and now that content has become so easy to manufacture,
they're having to change everything. Right? All their
algorithms are changing. And so when, if you're trying to rank
at a national level. It's extremely hard now, because you
just have to spend so much money to build out in a way where you
can actually show up, right? Because the guys that are there
have been there, and they're there for a reason, and so
unless it's a new search term that no one's chasing, they can
be really competitive. But. Local businesses like we work
with a lot of contractors and electricians and the you know,
those kinds of businesses, SEO is not as hard for them, because
it's got a location attached to it. So you don't have to be the
best plumber, you just have to be the best one in Summertown,
right? Or the best one in Spring Hill. Now, the big corporates
are still kind of squeezing their way in there because they
just have more money to spend. But it works really well for
those kinds of businesses, like E commerce businesses. Now you
pretty much have to pay your way. You know, you can't do it
with SEO for the most part. You got a bid on Google ads or meta
ads and that kind of stuff in order to get out there.
So now someone like me as a speaker that needs to do
business all over the world that is primarily booked through
bureaus and event planners and stuff. It's more difficult. It
is much harder. Now, can I double down and say, try to be
one of the top speakers in Nashville Metro, because so many
people are coming here for their corporate gatherings and stuff?
Yeah, much easier. Maybe that's the hang, maybe that's the
angle. Yeah, as soon as you put a location or, like, in our
world, you know, you can be like, a digital marketing agency
is very broad, but if you're like, we do SEO for
electricians, that search gets narrower, right? So there's less
search volume. Like, you're not going to have the same amount of
people looking for it month over month, as you would say, a
bigger, broader term, but they're transactional terms. If
you're looking for a plumber, you probably have a problem,
right? So it's, you're, they're not going to go look a bunch of
websites and not hire someone, someone's getting that money,
you know, someone's got a leaky HVAC system or something, right?
Yeah. So it's, yeah, being like local or having a specificity
takes your competition down. So it makes it easier to do.
Yes, wow. Hey, Jim, ask your
question. My question is different. What age do you wish
you could permanently be?
Oh, man,
I liked jeez, like that. For me, 33 years old was the easiest.
Isn't that crazy? Why do we pick 33 I don't know. It was just I
got a kid. I'm 33 baby dump down
middle the road.
Sorry, I don't know what? Yeah, I don't know why. It just felt
like that time was, you know, I didn't have little ones yet. At
that age, I was getting ready to but didn't have little ones. You
know, it was easier to recover from the gym. You know, it was
easier to you know? Now it's like, I get out of there and I'm
like, I feel pretty good in the next day. I'm like, so, so
world, like, yeah, you know, even doing it every day, it's
just I don't recover as fast. I can't run as fast. Now, you
know, as I did,
what's your routine in the gym? What are you doing? Like, high
intensity training, just a little time on the treadmill,
yeah?
Mostly weights machines where you like, freeze, I do mostly
just weights and then kind of like, walk at the end, you know?
So walk. I want to find I want to do Krav, Maga,
yeah, that would be, well, that's good, nice thing to have
in your back pocket. Kick some ass.
Well, it's practical fighting, yeah? You know, someone tries to
get up in your grill, and next thing you know, they're on the
ground and you're backing away. I told you,
yeah, told you, that's nice. It's nice to have some of that
that in your back pocket. Like my friend Sarah car deal. She
one of my students. She's like, a quadruple Black Belt. Well,
the funny thing is, I'll make a man. How does she do that and
still play the drums? Because, I mean, you get to break wood with
your hands, right? I know she's got to do all that kind of
stuff. And the funny thing for her last exam that she took,
there was actually groups of people simulating a street
fight, almost like a, you know, Jackie Chan movie, and they come
running at her, and she's got to take them down. It's like a
Hollywood film.
It's crazy. It's like The Matrix, yeah, that's wild.
Matrix two, I like to tell
Tully that Keanu Reeves is the most recognizable bass player on
the planet.
Well, the funny thing is, I think Tully is only followed by
Jason Momoa. He's probably very scrappy, totally. I guess he's
probably gotten into some scuffles here and there
throughout his life, but you can't really do that when you're
a professional musician. You got to avoid that stuff, because
your hands
are oh, we he and I get scrappy with each other, but then we say
nothing,
nothing above the you know, here, leave the face on.
I mean, I can't see you fighting
anybody. No, I'm a lover, yeah. Well, you guys like slapping
each other. Use open palm. Not anymore.
Reserved for younger days.
Many presidencies ago, I thought you asked your other question
about bands.
Oh, yeah, I could ask that. If you had to tribute a band for
the rest of your life, and that's the only thing you did,
what band would it be?
Oh, geez,
maybe it's Primus. Right? Yeah,
Primus might be highly
up there. Did you see the the episode with Getty Lee where he
does interviews bass players?
No, really, I've never seen that. Yeah, it's,
it's, was it like, five episodes or something? It was like, on
Netflix or something, yeah, it was on Netflix where Getty Lee
goes out and he interviews les Claypool, interesting.
And he's a farm guy. He's got, like, yeah, like, he mows down
trees. And stuff on his property,
Yep, yeah.
And who else it's? Robert Trujillo, yeah, as well as a
couple other people, incredible.
So yeah, I could see you being a great dad.
Man, yeah, man, I've got all boys, so that's definitely
interesting, heavily outnumbered in the house. But yeah, no, it
is a lot of fun. It's a lot of, you know, lots of sports and,
you know, that kind of stuff. And they're both really, all
three boys, work on the farm a lot, you know, one of them
usually rides in the tractor with me, and, you know, so they
know how to throw the hay bales, and they know how to take care
of the horses, and, you know, they've just grown up with it.
So, you know, they, it's, it's a lot of fun allowance. They have
an allowance. They work for iPad time. So we've, we've, they
both, you know, they love playing the iPad, the Minecraft
and all that stuff. And so they'll wait, you know, my
littlest one leave, he'll wake up in the morning. Hey, Dad, I'm
gonna go take care of the cat in the barn, but I want some iPad
time. It's like a 5:30am negotiation about how much you
know, time that's worth based on, you know, the job that but
you know, they, yeah, they're, they're tough, you know,
that's cool. Now, are any of them musically inclined? You
think
my oldest plays guitar? Both other little ones play the
drums, you know? But I've not really pushed it, you know,
that's probably great. I just kind of the drums are down
there, and I'll notice, you know, over the summer,
particularly when they're home with Heather, you know, I'll
notice my sticks have moved, you know, across the room, or the
headphones are on the floor. And I'm like, okay, the boys have
been in here, like they've been in here playing, but, yeah, you
know, I think in school, when they start doing music and
stuff, I bet one of them will probably want to do the drums,
you know,
nice. So it's great. Oh, my God, hey, so is it mule town digital?
It is, yeah, muletowndigital.com is where everybody should check
out your giant list of products and services and clients. And I
know I'm on my second website with you guys. Thank you for all
the great work. And I'm like, can you add this new product
and, you know, and you're just like, No problem, because Chris
is my guy. Chris is your guy, man. So, so what is like,
Chris's exact job title there? Like, so Chris is really, like,
our head of fulfillment. So he basically manages everybody that
does everything on the team. That's kind of his role. I love
that, man. Well, dude, thank you for, you know, making me look
like a total professional all these years, yeah, man, well,
you are a professional. And then how would people find you? Can
they find you on Instagram?
Yeah, I'm on my Instagram is just at Adam drums is my handle,
so I love it. I've never changed it. It's, did you keep it
updated? Like you throw some stuff on there? Yeah, mostly
these days it's my wife tags me in things. So I can just, you
know, push one button and it goes up there because I'm tear
I'm terrible with social media. Man, I'm sweet of her. It's
nice, man, she's like, I'll tag you in things so you have
something to post. That's basically
it, Adam, I learned so much more about you today that I just
didn't know. But I appreciate you, and thank you for what you
do for the community and everybody. Check out mule town
digital.com, that's our friend, Adam Silverman, man, thanks for
coming here, buddy. Thanks for the beach. Yeah, appreciate it.
Hey to all the listeners, be sure to subscribe, share, rate
and review. It helps people find the show. Jim, thanks for your
time and talent. Thank you, sir, Adam. Really appreciate it. See
you guys next time
this has been the rich Redmond show. Subscribe, rate and follow
along at rich redmond.com, forward slash, podcasts you.