Drew Ryder Smith: A Singer-Songwriter's Journey to Success.

Brian (00:00:00) - Drew, You're very welcome. The concerts that made us it's fantastic to have you here now. Ryan, thanks so much for having me, man. I can't wait now to dive into your music and hear more about your shows and your gigs and everything. So you recently released your self-titled debut EP. Would you like to tell us a bit about it? I did, man. This is this is the first EP that I've ever released. I've spent years writing songs for other people, been really blessed to do that. Um, but I decided I wanted to. I still had plenty of things that I wanted to say and, and decided that I kind of wanted to say on myself. So I just started recording my own stuff. When it comes to music, you're very accomplished. I mean, you're a certified gold record songwriter. You are the author of the Before You Record Course, and you've had cuts by Randy Houser, Merle Haggard, John Snyder, to name a few. Why has it taken so long for you to focus on your own music? I.

Brian (00:01:05) - Brian, if I'm being honest with you, man, I think a lot of it has been fear based. I don't like admitting that. But when it comes down to it. I mean, I have done well as a songwriter and I am respected among my peers as a songwriter. And I think it's really easy to get comfortable with that and say, well, you know, I've done well with this. If I if I want to do something different and it doesn't go well, how are they going to see me now? You know, so I've stayed again, as badly as I hate to admit it, I've stayed in my comfort zone for years and I finally got tired of being in my comfort zone. There's just no way to grow if you stay in that spot. Yeah. And you know, the whole recording process then, for someone like yourself, so seasoned when it comes to songwriting, the recording, what goes into it? Uh, man, a lot of time. A lot of time.

Brian (00:02:10) - But it's. It's great time and it's time that I love. I would rather be doing that than just about anything in this world. The only thing, the only other thing that gives me that feeling is performing live. And it's man, you know, the, the prep. I even love the preparation going into it, planning it out and and I've learned not to take that part too seriously and to not get too heady about that. Um, for a long time I would especially you know when when producing other artists. I'd spend weeks, you know, planning for it. And I figured out, man, that, you know, once you get in the studio. If you'll just get out of the way and let the song do what it wants to do. Nine times out of ten, you can't go wrong with that. And for yourself. Then they kind to take a back seat to the whole recording, retake the lead and you record as producer yourself. Man. A little bit of both.

Brian (00:03:17) - With this EP I've been co-producing with with a guy named Russell Jackson here in Nashville. And Russell is a great guy. He's a good friend of mine, but he's a super talented guy and he and I have have played and arranged everything on this EP and Russell and I. We both have high aspirations and we're both music lovers and we share a lot of the same ideas things. You know, the music industry as a whole. Things have gotten records kind of sound slick now, super shiny. They're just they're so perfect. And Russell and I share the same idea that it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't need to be that way. And, you know, you listen to old Led Zeppelin records and you can hear all kinds of stuff in the background. Yeah, there's a lot going on with those. But those and those imperfections are human. And I think that we've taken some of the the human element out of out of records. And Russell and I decided that we wanted to keep the human element in there as much as possible.

Brian (00:04:33) - So that's also one the other day. To answer your question, best guess I told someone the other day, Russell and I keep each other out of trouble when I start to veer too far left. He he kind of reins me back in and I'll do the same for him, I think so. We've been a good pair so far. Yeah, sounds like it. And, you know, I can hear listeners screaming. Ask him, ask him. So your songwriting, where do you get your inspiration? And to take it a step further, how do you write a gold record? Uh, by pure accident. Really? Uh, man, as far as inspiration goes. You know, I try to get it anywhere that I can. Whether it's personal experience or, you know, I. I was at Starbucks one day years ago. I was sitting at Starbucks, and I had I went outside of their little patio area and there was a couple sitting at a table next to me that were breaking up.

Brian (00:05:34) - They were like actively in the middle of their breakup. And so, I mean, I was within earshot. You know, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but they were loud enough that, you know, I could hear them. So I picked up things from that. And so that being said, I pick it up, you know, anywhere that I can get it I love. You know, when somebody says, uh, you know, when, when, when they have a, a line or even a cadence to something that they say, I try to pick up on those things. As far as writing gold records, man, if I knew how I did that, I would. I'd have hundreds of them. Sometimes you just get lucky, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe in a couple of years time, you know, I can ask you that question again. You'd be like, Oh, yeah, Which one? There. Out of the hundreds. There is. I hope so.

Brian (00:06:26) - And you know the record then. What do you hope listeners get from it? Mirror, I hope. I hope what they get from it is, is that they want to they want to go buy more copies of it and and that they can't wait until the next stuff comes out. Outside of that, man, I think I just hope that they appreciate the musicianship in it. I hope that they hear the imperfections as human. Um, and obviously any artist and writer wants the listener to relate. So I think if they can do any of those things, if they could feel something, you know, any of those things, then I'm happy. I often say for more so a performance side of things, you need the imperfections, you know, it's kind of what makes it, you know, there's no point in going well when you're going to show you don't want to go and listen to a perfect recreation of the the song or the CD. You know, you want the little imperfections. It makes it and it's the same.

Brian (00:07:32) - Then when you're listening to a record, you don't want this super, super polished. Like what you hear on the radio was like 99% a pop, you know? Absolutely, man, that, you know, that sound was kind of cool for a minute, but, um, but it's, it's, it's almost robotic, you know, after you listen to so much of it. And I've found myself going back and listening to pre 2000 records, you know, before everybody was, um, quantizing everything and putting all the beats just perfectly on a grid. And I just love that stuff, man. There's something about it to me that subconsciously mean I don't. I don't think it's even a conscious thing. Brian I think subconsciously there's something in our mind and in our ears that recognizes that as being human and being a real moment. Yeah, it has more feeling, you know, the Polish stuff just it doesn't cut it when it comes to feeling. And so. For sure. Yeah.

Drew (00:08:37) - And at this stage.

Drew (00:08:38) - So we'll dive into your early musical history, you know, to give the listeners a sense of where you come from. So if you can, can you remember your earliest musical memory?

Brian (00:08:49) - My. The earliest musical memory I have is of watching the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on Austin City Limits. My parents had recorded it on it, came on PBS here in the States, and my parents had recorded it on a VHS tape. And I would watch that thing over and over and over. And their song Fishing in the Dark was huge at that time. And. Well, I don't know what I'm talking about. You can still play that song in any bar for any one of any age. And people go nuts over that song. It's a huge song in the States. But I watched that thing over and over and over. I must have worn the tape out on that old VHS. And there was just something about that that I. I resonated with. And I wanted to I, I didn't fully understand what was going on, but I knew that I wanted to be part of that.

Drew (00:09:54) - You obviously must have grew up in a very musical household, and there was obviously lots of support for music at all Master.

Brian (00:10:01) - My parents were great. They. My mother's side of the family, they all play. And seeing my father's side, not so much. And there's really nobody on that side of the family that plays. I've got a cousin that plays some guitar. He's pretty good. But other than that, you know, they all just went to work for a living. But music was always on. In my house I was an only child. And when especially when we were in the car, my parents had music on. Or I don't remember them ever having the radio off.

Drew (00:10:37) - You know, a few years later. And I often say when you get to your teenage years is when you really find what you like when it comes to music, you know, and you're kind of it's like you find your community as well. You know, in high school, you find like minded people.

Drew (00:10:52) - So what sort of music were you being exposed to and how do you think it, you know, molded you into the musician you are today?

Brian (00:11:00) - Well, I grew up on so many different things, from John Prine to Steve Earle to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton to Guns N Roses to Nirvana. You know, so from the singer songwriter folk guys to hair bands and then everything in between. So by the time I was a teenager and got into high school, the punk rock era was was really happening. Or I guess new punk. They changed these genre names all the time. I can't keep up too much, but yeah, but guys like Blink 182 were huge when when I got into high school and I fell in love with those guys and was really influenced by that sound. But then by my late teens, I was back to. I started I, I knew that I wanted to write country songs. So as much of a love as I had for that. And that was I had a little band when I was a teenager and we played punk stuff.

Brian (00:12:09) - We were a punk rock band, but my heart was just always into country. I grew up just south of Nashville and I just felt like that was a natural. I'm more naturally gravitated to the country genre as far as writing, so I kind of I swayed back and forth, but I've always listened to a little bit of everything, and that was certainly no different in my high school and teenage days.

Drew (00:12:38) - Yeah, yeah. And a bit of a hard question considering where you live, but growing up, what was the local music scene like and how does it compare to today that has a changed much.

Brian (00:12:52) - Yeah, for sure. So I grew up between Nashville and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Muscle Shoals was, you know, for years the hit recording Capital of the world. They were they were known for, you know, Aretha Franklin records and Rolling Stone records and huge in the R&B influence. And that sound and. So to grow up between a music Mecca like that and a music Mecca like Nashville, where I grew up, the music scene was really just whoever was playing your local bar on Friday or Saturday nights, there really wasn't much of a scene.

Brian (00:13:42) - I saw more of the the Muscle Shoals music scene. My dad and I used to go down there and listen to live music. And those guys were great and they're still down there. Don't that scene really hasn't changed much. Really? Yeah, but. But Nashville. Nashville is definitely changed. I mean, Broadway just in the last, I'd say 6 or 7 years, Broadway in downtown Nashville, which is a historic site. The live music theater has changed so much. There's so many more bars now. It's corporatized and. It's they're all playing the same stuff and they're playing it as loudly as they can. And one of the biggest changes I've seen, though, Brian, is that some of these bars in downtown Nashville, um, some of these, quote unquote honky tonk bars. On the weekends at around 10 or 11:00, they they bring in a DJ. Right. Right. Hip hop and rap. And it's a really it's a really strange thing, man. It's really, really weird.

Drew (00:14:58) - Yeah. That's not something I would expect to see in Nashville in a million years. Like.

Brian (00:15:03) - No, not at all. Not at all. So it's changed quite a bit.

Drew (00:15:09) - Yeah. And you know, the music coming out of Nashville nowadays, from a European point of view, seems to be completely different to the country from even 20 years ago. You know, it seems so commercialized and so almost country pop. What's your take on it?

Brian (00:15:28) - Um. You know, I. At first it was. It was kind of disheartening. I think, you know, I've been writing songs for a living for 13 years now, man. So when it started changing over into the Pop, I was already a member of the industry, a professional member of the industry, and that was the kind of stuff that we were, you know, expected to write from our publishers. That's what they that's, that's what they want you to write because that's that's what makes money. That's job security, you know, And and I wasn't I wasn't too hip on it.

Brian (00:16:11) - But at the same time, you know, man, all of this is so cyclical. Mean, bellbottoms are back in the US right now.

Drew (00:16:20) - Yeah.

Brian (00:16:21) - You know, everything comes back around eventually. And so in the past few years, I think that we're, we're starting to get back. To that that more of a 90s country music sound thanks to guys like Luke Combs Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen, Cody Johnson is another one. These guys are putting out music that sounds more like 90s country music and it it actually has. Really great lyrical content. It's not just trucks and beer and hanging out at the creek and Daisy Dukes and all of that stuff. The a lot of the music that's coming out now by these guys really has some pretty strong lyrical content, you know, and, and thank God, man, because I'm ready for it. And I think that, you know, with guys like Luke Combs and Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson and Morgan Wall and all those guys that I named, I think with them having such great success, it just proves that people are still hungry for that.

Brian (00:17:35) - They're hungry for lyrical content. They're. You know, everybody wants to kick back and relax on the weekends. We all enjoy that. And so, you know, a good party song, a good Friday night party song will always have its place. But I think when it comes to country music, country music fans still want great lyrical content, something that goes beyond truck beds and riverbanks and cold beer. Yeah, definitely.

Drew (00:18:03) - Something I found surprising this year especially, and I think it shows how it's coming back into the forefront is normally you would never hear country music on, you know, the national radio stations in Ireland and if you did it might be, you know, someone text in requesting a Garth Brooks record. Well the last couple of months, you know, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen are on the radio and it's the national radio. It's not like the country station or whatever. And it's it's actually shocking, you know, because anytime you turn on the radio on the car here, it's pop music and you're just your ears just become accustomed to.

Drew (00:18:45) - That's all you're going to hear. So when a country song and a new country song pops up, it's like, hang on a second. What's this? This is interesting. You know.

Brian (00:18:58) - That's great, man. I love hearing that, though. I love hearing that.

Drew (00:19:02) - It's interesting, though. It does come back around, you know, and we'll dive into your concerts. First off, concerts you've attended. What concerts have made you?

Brian (00:19:14) - I guess the first the first concert I ever went to was a Nitty Gritty Dirt band concert. And probably because I had fallen so in love with their Austin City Limits performance and used to wear out that VHS tape, I guess my parents probably thought, Well, we'll just take him to a concert. They were really great about that. They took me to a lot of concerts when when I was a really young age, you know, my my partner's daughter, they just went to see Taylor Swift two nights ago. She's ten. And that was her first concert.

Brian (00:19:46) - And I think my first concert was probably 4 or 5, something like that. I was young man. And they came back, you know, last night. And they were they were both they were both so excited to tell me about the concert, but especially especially the little one. She was she was so excited. And it was the first time she'd ever seen anything like that. And I remember that feeling. I still get that feeling when I go to a concert. It's still you get that adrenaline rush, you know, and and the anticipation of waiting on it to start. And, you know, as soon as you hear the downbeat, the whole crowd goes crazy and you're just filled with this energy. But yeah, I think New to Gritty Dirt band Foster and Lloyd. Uh, I've seen Steve Earle. Um, I've been to a lot of rock concerts. Lynyrd Skynyrd. Just a ton of different people, man. I've. And I think. I'm not sure that I can I can pinpoint one in particular that, that, that made me.

Brian (00:20:54) - I think that they have all. In one way or another shaped me. I think. I think you get something from from any concert that you see. I think you carry it with you.

Drew (00:21:07) - Yeah, definitely. Definitely. What makes a good show for you? What has to happen for you to walk with? And yeah, I'm going to remember that for a long time.

Brian (00:21:16) - Man performance. You know you because you and what I mean by that is when you can tell and I feel like the audience always knows, just inherently, somehow an audience can tell when when the artist has given everything they've got to that crowd. You feel it, you know, just like the artist feels the energy coming back to them. You feel it from the artist. I think that's the greatest takeaway from from a show is, is feeling, feeling all of that energy, but also being so exhausted. You know.

Drew (00:21:56) - That's it. Exactly. And for any listeners that haven't caught one of your shows, what can they expect? Try give them the full experience if you can.

Brian (00:22:07) - I'd go watch somebody else.

Drew (00:22:09) - Right.

Brian (00:22:11) - There's better places to spend your money, folks, man. You know, I do different kinds of shows Right now. I'm mainly doing acoustic performances and been traveling around. I just did five shows in Virginia a couple of weeks ago. I'm headed to North Carolina this weekend, and all of those have been acoustic performances. And I love those because I it's it's easier for me to make it feel like an intimate performance. I love that. I also love performing with the band. That's great as well. But that's a totally different kind of energy. So for anybody that catches me in the next year or so, I'll probably mainly be doing acoustic performances, but just intimate and. I like for it to feel like friends are hanging out.

Drew (00:23:01) - Right? Right. Yeah. And how do you work on your on your performances? How do you work on your stage? Friendship?

Brian (00:23:09) - I don't.

Drew (00:23:10) - Right.

Brian (00:23:11) - I really do. Naturally. You know, I don't know if it's that.

Brian (00:23:16) - I think it's just, you know, just going out there and and just playing your songs and being real with people and. And and. I think the biggest thing I've taken, you know, even though I've been writing songs full time all these years, I have been performing. But mainly, you know, in Nashville. And one of the one of the great takeaways, I think, from all those years of experience with that was, um. Was how to read a crowd, write and know what they want or know what they're anticipating or know when they're not feeling something or when they are feeling something and giving them more of that.

Drew (00:23:58) - You know, you've opened for so many notable performances, including Merle Haggard at the Ryman. When you're sharing the stage with, you know, guys like that. What do you learn?

Brian (00:24:12) - Oh, well, for me, I learned that. That I'm pretty much a nobody.

Drew (00:24:19) - Right?

Brian (00:24:21) - You watch a guy like Merle Haggard perform. You know, I. But, you know, that's a that's a tough question, man, because there's so much that there's so much that you gain from it.

Brian (00:24:33) - It's not even. That you're not even fully aware of. When it happens, you don't go, Oh, that's a cool trick. Or Oh, that's I think it's just watching the experience and getting the experience that, like I said earlier, it stays with you. You know, there's something about it. And every artist is different. And I think one of the things that you learn from a guy like Merle Haggard is just how to be real on stage. And nobody, you know, for the most part, nobody cares about your political views or your religious views or any of that. They're just there to hear great music and great performances of great music. And so if you give them that, everybody, there's a good chance that everybody leaves happy.

Drew (00:25:20) - Yeah. At the end of the day, everyone just wants to share an experience, a musical experience with everyone, you know? Yeah. And out of all the gigs you've played then is probably is the moral haggard one. But out of all the gigs you've played, is there one you revisit over and over again?

Brian (00:25:37) - No, that one.

Brian (00:25:38) - That one was amazing. It's hard to beat Ryman Auditorium and it's hard to be. It's especially hard to beat Ryman Auditorium with Merle Haggard. Yeah, Yeah. So I still think about that one a lot. And especially now that Merle is gone, you know, it's. It's those experiences that you look at later and you go, man. You. I can't ever get that back. That will never happen again. You know, he's. He's gone. Um, all I've got are the memories of that. And I think that that helps me going forward by knowing that any performance that I do, I'm not going to get it back. Sort of just make it the best that I absolutely can.

Drew (00:26:26) - Yeah, that's a that's a very good way of looking at it, actually. And to flip it around, not to get too negative now, but is there a gig experience you've had that you would say is the worst experience and how did you deal with it? Without naming names, of course.

Brian (00:26:42) - Man. You know, there's been a couple of gigs that I didn't get paid on, uh, that were, uh, that's, that's never fun. And it's always a surprise. Yeah. Um, and in those situations, you know, you can, you can only make so much of a, a scene about it, you know, because it's, you know, for me for a long time. And I'm glad I didn't handle it too negatively. But at the time, performing was just something I did just for extra income. Well, now that's becoming part of my living and and it's and I have a team behind me and you know you know, actually putting out music. So it's performing with a purpose. So, you know, something like that happens. Now you've got to take the high road. And that's really hard to do, especially if you get screwed out of money. But that's that's probably been some of my worst experiences were a couple of gigs where they. Oh yeah man, sorry we didn't we forgot the checkbook or you know, or we can't do cash tonight, can we? You know, can we send it to you later and that sort of thing.

Brian (00:28:01) - And you know that you're never going to see that money. So.

Drew (00:28:05) - Yeah, definitely. Definitely. That's it. And how do you handle life on the road?

Brian (00:28:13) - Man. I'm to be honest, I. I haven't been on the road in years until recently. And and it's so I'm getting used to it again. What I'm figuring out, Brian, is that I'm not as young as I used to be.

Drew (00:28:25) - Right. Okay.

Brian (00:28:27) - So when I was. When I was 23, man, I could I could go out there and and perform and then party afterwards and get up the next day and do it again. And it's not like that anymore.

Drew (00:28:40) - It is easy. No.

Brian (00:28:42) - That is easy. It hurts now, man. But I love it. I enjoy it. I think the hardest part is that, you know, I do have a family now. And before it was just kind of me out there and, you know, I was in relationships, things like that. But, you know, I got to I'm a pseudo stepdad now and and got to got a really great girlfriend and and so it's and dogs and all that so it's it's much harder to leave and to be gone now than it ever was.

Drew (00:29:15) - Yeah. Yeah. It must be near impossible. I often think to myself, if there was ever anything like that or you had to leave my family for for a couple of weeks, I don't think I'd be able to do it. It must be impossibly hard.

Brian (00:29:29) - It is, man. And it's, um. You miss a lot of things. You know, my kids into softball now, and their season just ended just in the last couple of weeks, I guess. But, you know, you miss those games and anything else that they're into, You know, you miss all that and you're you're really just getting reports from home by phone, which is not the same as being there.

Drew (00:29:58) - No, no, it's not. It's not.

Brian (00:30:02) - I think, you know, I just have to put my focus into. Into the greater good and the long term. My dad worked a lot when I was a kid. He was gone a lot. There were most days. He was up and showered and gone before I ever woke up to go to school and wouldn't.

Brian (00:30:29) - He wouldn't be home until it was about my bedtime. You know, So he. He worked a ton, man. And. Excuse me, he, he missed. He missed so many of those things. You know, and I know that that was incredibly hard on him. And I'm feeling that now missing those moments. And I. So I'm learning. I'm learning how to how to live with that and how to live around it. So I for me, I just have to kind of focus on. Okay, well, it's it's like this right now, but if I really plow and I really dig and really work, then it's not going to be this way in a few years.

Drew (00:31:20) - Yeah, Yeah, exactly. It'll be all worked. Yeah. Yeah. And as well I suppose, you know, it matters that it does have an effect on you. It's not like you're heading out on the road and you don't care. It's like, Go on. I'll see you when I'm back.

Drew (00:31:36) - It obviously does, you know, hurt you and hit you hard that you're missing all those things, you know?

Brian (00:31:44) - Yeah, man. I mean, even I'm pretty sentimental, Brian. But I think, you know, from Utah to artists and writers every day, so you know that we're. We're pretty emotional creatures.

Drew (00:32:00) - Yeah.

Brian (00:32:01) - And so if we take things harder than most people and so even things like, you know, my, my, my dog, man, every time, every time I come home, he's bigger and he's, he's just he'll be 15 months old or. Yeah, 15 months old this, this coming weekend. So these last 15 months have been his growing months, you know, And every time I come back, he's bigger and I just go, Oh my God, And the kid's bigger. And I just think, man, it's it's just all this happens so fast.

Drew (00:32:37) - Yeah, yeah, exactly. At those. At those. And we'll get back to your shows then.

Drew (00:32:43) - You know, your pre-show impartial ritual. The final moments before you jump on stage, what's going through your head and then afterwards, how do you wind down?

Brian (00:32:53) - You know what's funny, Brian, is I do the same thing pre-show that I do post-show. I want about ten minutes alone. Pre-Show and ten minutes alone post-show. Right. Pre-Show. I'd like to say a little prayer and just give the good Lord thanks for. For the ability and the opportunity to to do it. And I'd just like to just be quiet and be still. Um, another thing that I've found with that is that as soon as they if, you know, if I'm playing a bigger venue, if I'm not playing a sports bar or something. Not that there's anything wrong with that playing sports bars, but if I'm playing bigger venues like the Ryman Auditorium and things like that, having that ten, that ten minutes prior of just quiet and stillness, man, it really does something to. When you do walk on stage and you hear the crowd and you see the crowd, you know, it's it seems like it it.

Brian (00:34:04) - It, you know, shoot some steroids into that feeling. And then after afterwards, I like the same thing. I want to go somewhere and collapse into a chair and just be quiet for about ten minutes and just kind of absorb everything. And and and I think that's really important for artists. As I said earlier, you know, you don't get those performances back. And so I love to be able to take some time to absorb that and and make those memories stick.

Drew (00:34:40) - Yeah, you need you need, you know, and you need to let them sink in so you can soak up every bit of it.

Brian (00:34:47) - Yeah, for sure.

Drew (00:34:48) - Yeah. And when it comes to your music, then your music career, how do you measure success?

Brian (00:34:56) - Man. For me, it is longevity. It has become. I've always said. Uh, even before I got my first publishing deal. You know, I just want to be able to do this for as long as possible. I just want to stay in the game.

Brian (00:35:15) - I don't. I don't need to make millions. I don't have to make millions. If I do, that's great. But if I don't, that's great too. I just want to be in the game. And that has always been really important to me, staying relevant and staying in the game. But it's more so become that since I've accomplished some things like gold records and playing the Ryman and you know, and now, you know, finally after all of these years putting out my own music, I'm not really putting it out in formal form. Because, you know, years ago when when I was forming and touring, it was again, my my day job was a songwriter. So it didn't it didn't really matter if the shows were great or if I had a ton of em lined up. Um. You know, And now it really, really does. So it's crazy how it's all changed.

Drew (00:36:17) - Yeah. Yeah, just a bit. Yeah. And say 30, 40 years time, right? You're at the end of your career.

Drew (00:36:24) - You're on stage with the Zimmer frame. You look back, what needs to happen for you to look back and say everything I wanted happen.

Brian (00:36:35) - Honestly, man, I. I really. I think I'm there now. Really? Yeah. There's still more of it that I want, but man, I feel so. I feel so blessed to have had the accomplishments and the successes that I've had thus far. But if I died today. I'd be a happy guy, you know, with what I've done and what's happened with with my professional life and where I'm at in my personal life as well. I hope that doesn't happen today. Brian I'd like another, not another good 50 or 60 years. I think I got it in me, man. I think I think either way, when that time comes, when I look back, I think I'm still going to be proud of of all all the things that I've achieved so far. I'm not sure anything really has to change.

Drew (00:37:33) - Right? I think that's the best answer I've ever got to that question.

Brian (00:37:39) - Awesome.

Drew (00:37:40) - And before we dive into the last couple of questions, then, future plans. Any big gigs or anything happening you want to tell us about?

Brian (00:37:49) - Man, nothing huge that I can talk about yet. I've definitely have more gigs coming up and like I said, I'm going to be in North Carolina this coming weekend and some more stuff in Virginia later on. And but mainly just a lot more music coming out. The EP hasn't even been out a month yet and it's doing extremely well. We're all really excited about that and really happy about where it's at so far and but the, you know, recording and all that hasn't stopped. We've, we've got, we've got a lot of other music that's all but ready to go and we're just kind of riding this new EP right now but lots of new stuff coming out real soon. That's the biggest thing is just want to put out as much music as I can this year and really excited about doing that.

Drew (00:38:40) - Brilliant. I'm delighted here that I was going to ask earlier on is the second EP he already written or anything but and laser territories new music.

Brian (00:38:48) - Yeah yeah it's it's probably halfway done. Right right. Yeah. Yeah. It's so it won't be long until it's ready to go. As soon as I, as soon as I get off the road here in a couple of weeks we'll be working on that again. But I think realistically it'll, it'll probably be done in the next couple of months or so. I don't I have no idea what a release date is yet, but it's already written and at least half of it is recorded already. So yeah.

Drew (00:39:18) - Great. Chris And we'll dive into the last few then we'll start off easy. If you didn't work in the music industry, what do you think you'd be doing?

Brian (00:39:29) - Oh, man, I'd be homeless, right? Yeah, because I wouldn't know what else to do. I'm not. I'm not good at anything else. I have no idea. I can't see outside of what I'm doing. So there's really there's really no way for me to answer that. I have no clue. This is the only thing I can see.

Drew (00:39:48) - Then you know you're on the right track, I suppose. And if you could see any performer from history in concert for one night only, who would it be?

Brian (00:39:58) - Oh, man. God, that's tough. Uh. I got a few. Is that okay? Yeah.

Drew (00:40:04) - Yeah.

Brian (00:40:06) - I would. I'd love to see Elvis.

Drew (00:40:09) - Oh, yeah, of course.

Brian (00:40:11) - I would love to see the Eagles with Glenn Frey. I really so badly regret not seeing them before Glenn's very untimely passing. Those are the main two, I guess. Well, yeah, that. That would be it. I got to see Tom Petty, right? And, yeah, before he died. And I'm so glad that I did, because you just never know, man. He was a young man.

Drew (00:40:41) - Yeah, exactly.

Brian (00:40:42) - Just. Just early 60s, I guess.

Drew (00:40:45) - Yeah. You would never have expected it anyway. Yeah.

Brian (00:40:49) - So, you know, I don't think anybody saw that coming. So I really. I went.

Brian (00:40:56) - And when that happened, I really took that to heart and I went, man, okay, all of these, all of these concerts that I want to go see, all of these great artists and bands I want to see. I need to go see them because you just never know, man.

Drew (00:41:09) - That's it. That's it. Yeah. And the next one. So if you had to spend 24 hours locked in a room with any musician from history, who would it be?

Brian (00:41:20) - That that probably changes every day because I have so many that I that I would love to sit in a room with. Um. I think probably Tom Petty. Yeah, right.

Drew (00:41:33) - What would you hope to learn from.

Brian (00:41:36) - Anything and everything? I think I would shut up and I wouldn't say anything. And I would let him talk for 24 hours and I would I would take in anything that he had to say. But just some time with him, he was such a he was such a profound guy without without even trying.

Brian (00:41:54) - You know, he didn't I don't think there was ever a time that that that guy. Said, you know, I want to be known for being a profound artist on and off stage and on and off record. You know, it was he just wanted to make great rock and roll music. And he did. But he was such an interesting guy. So I'd love to spend time with him.

Drew (00:42:17) - Yeah, exactly. And he's one of these guys that it doesn't seem like it would be a hard 24 hours. You know, he doesn't, you know, there's some artists and musicians that kind of have this profile of their grumpy as hell or they're difficult. You know, he just seems like a nice, cool guy that you'd get along with.

Brian (00:42:35) - He, man, he seemed like he was just the greatest hang ever. You know, he could talk everything from football to politics and certainly tons of music, you know, but just a really great hang.

Drew (00:42:50) - Yeah, Yeah, that's what you'd want.

Drew (00:42:53) - And the final one. So what song would appear on the soundtrack to your life?

Brian (00:43:01) - Does it have to be superhero?

Drew (00:43:02) - It can be anything at all.

Brian (00:43:04) - Anything. Oh, gosh. Uh. I don't know, man. Highway to hell I don't know about. You know, I think. This is vain as it sounds, I think. A song of mine that's on the new EP called The Truth. It was the most honest song I've ever written. And every every ounce of it, every word of it, every note was all true. It all happened. And it was a a huge, life changing moment for me. I really a couple of years ago, man, I really had to go through some huge growing experiences. And and it was the most difficult thing that I've I've ever done. But I grew so much as a person and as a friend and as a son and as a partner and just every aspect of my life. I grew exponentially in ways that I didn't know that I could.

Brian (00:44:15) - And so I think it would be that. I think it would be the truth.

Drew (00:44:19) - Perfect choice. So, listen, Drew, I have truly enjoyed chatting with you. You know, it's been it's been a great hour. Thanks a million.

Brian (00:44:27) - Man. Thank you so much, Brian. Greatly appreciate you having us on.