Red Dirt Metal Takes Over: A conversation with Texas Hippie Coalition's Big Dad Ritch

Brian (00:00:00) - Big dad. Rich, you're very welcome to concerts that made us.

Big Dad Ritch (00:00:05) - Happy to be here.

Brian (00:00:06) - I have to say, it's an absolute honor. No. Oh, in my opinion, you guys are the greatest band out there at the moment. I'm really in love with your music.

Big Dad Ritch (00:00:17) - Well, I absolutely have to agree with you.

Brian (00:00:22) - I thought you might say that.

Big Dad Ritch (00:00:26) - You know, it's when I started many years ago. Um, I started the band. Uh, really? I became single, and I heard that if you had a band, girls would chase after you, so that worked out great, but. My main reasoning was that I could tell there was an appetite for certain kinds of music and. You know, we lost some, you know, some heroes, and we lost some great bands and that kind of music just wasn't out there for anybody anymore. And I just formed a little band just to see what would happen, you know? And then as we got to go on, I could tell that there was a hunger for it.

Big Dad Ritch (00:01:05) - And then, as you know, offers started coming in, labels started chasing after us and stuff like that. That's when I realized it wasn't just that people had an appetite for it or a hunger for it. They were actually starving for this kind of music. So I'm here to feed the masses, man. I got barbecue pits all over the place. Let me see. I got you see them barbecue pits right there, you know, on the grill. So we will like it.

Brian (00:01:33) - I like it.

Big Dad Ritch (00:01:34) - You know, some good old Texas barbecue flavored music.

Brian (00:01:38) - Sounds good, sounds good. I have to ask, though, you know, it's obviously your main audience is in America, but what is it like in the rest of the world? Do you guys have much of a reach outside of America?

Big Dad Ritch (00:01:51) - We actually do, and we do really well. And, you know, we get reports from the record label on streaming and stuff like that. And, you know, it seems like in Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Germany, we seem to do really well.

Big Dad Ritch (00:02:14) - You know, we do. We give out these family member patches and we do have a we do have a patch to remember there in Ireland. His name is Patrick. And he came all the way over to the States here to get patched in as a, as a family member, one of the high and mighty. Uh, so I guess we do have a little bit of reach over there. Where where you're coming from. It's my understanding you're coming from Ireland. Is that correct?

Brian (00:02:40) - Ireland. Ireland. Right down to south on the tip.

Big Dad Ritch (00:02:43) - Yeah. South side.

Brian (00:02:45) - Exactly, exactly. That's what my. Don't ask you actually. You patch in your fans. Where did that come from?

Big Dad Ritch (00:02:53) - Yeah. You know, we a long time ago the band when we started playing, we got these cuts. Uh, what you see, like a lot of bikers wear these kind of cuts. And we got them. And it really separated, separated us from other bands. So, like, we be at festivals like Rock Oklahoma or something like that.

Big Dad Ritch (00:03:14) - Remember actually at Oklahoma Chips, uh, Chip from Enough's Enough came up and said, this is the best looking band I have ever seen. He goes, look around, here he goes, I can't tell if these guys are in a band or if they work as a rigger or a stagehand. He goes, I can't tell them apart, you know? So he was like, so I you guys look like a band. He goes, I want to. He goes, dang, I just want to hang out with y'all, you know? So that was super cool. Chip say, he's a great guy. Um. Wonderful person, actually. But. As we did it. We didn't. We didn't sell the patches to the public. We only gave them out. And then we had a fan come to us, a young fan, and he was like, man, I, I want to wear those patches and I want to let the world know that you're my band and that you're the guy that I'm following.

Big Dad Ritch (00:04:08) - And this is the music I listen to, and I want them to know that. That y'all are my band. And he goes, I can't do that because I don't have those patches. So then we started selling the back patches to the public. But we have special patches that say family member on them, and that's what we give out every year. And, you know, it's turned into a great thing. We have a we have a family reunion every year in the month of April, usually around 420 somewhere in there. And we all get together. We provide food for everybody, we cook up some victuals and we all, we drink, we smoke, we, we, we have a merry old time. You know what I mean? Drink, smoke, be merry and eat barbecue. So sounds like that's what we have. Fun. So I know that right now there's only a little over 100 members because we own the number that we induct every year is not a set number. But I let the the family members are allowed to pick a few and then we put those up for a vote to the public.

Big Dad Ritch (00:05:15) - And then I also pick a few every year because some people are not as social as others, but they they may still contribute as much to the cause. That is Texas Hippie coalition. I just may not be as social as the others, so those we always be sure to honor them as well. I hope that that's a good question.

Brian (00:05:36) - It certainly did. It certainly did. It's a great a great initiative you have. And you know, you guys released the name Lives On back in April. How has the reaction been, especially when you're playing it live? I imagine it's it goes down very well.

Big Dad Ritch (00:05:52) - Man are, you know, are our crowds have grown, you know, 100 to 250 in certain markets. And we were already doing 400 to 500 people a night. And to some people out there, that may sound like a small number. You know, we're not an arena band. We're we're definitely an arena ready. We just it's been, you know, for us to move up to that next step has been has been tough for us.

Big Dad Ritch (00:06:20) - As you can imagine, a lot of big, gigantic bands. They probably don't want to have a band that our live show was like a hockey game, you know, they just they don't want to go on after us. Even had Johnny Van Sant's brother come up to me after Lynyrd Skynyrd show went out and say. That's the loudest pop I have ever heard from an opening act for a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. He goes, it will be tough for us to peak where you guys peaked 6 or 7 times tonight. He goes, but we'll get it there. It's just that that's one of the best I've seen. And knowing that and knowing some of the greatest bands that have opened up for Lynyrd Skynyrd, it was it was a great thing to hear, you know, and and opening for Black Label Society, I never got to talk to the boss man. I always wanted to, but oh, man, people kept asking me, did you get a picture with him? And I said, no, but he took a picture with my mic stand.

Big Dad Ritch (00:07:21) - Yeah, I got that double barrel shotgun mic stand. And when I was leaving. His tour manager sound man. His every every hat that you could wear. Guy Moby. They call him Moby because he's a dick, man. Is he ever. But. You know, and you know, I understand it because my name is Richard, and Richard is. It's long for Dick. So we understand. Exactly. I'm the same way. I'm the same way. So. But the last night we were there, he was like, man, I'm so glad you're leaving, man. Thank God you are leaving. I was like, oh, man, this is a nicest thing you've ever said to me. And he said, man, you just you make my boss work too hard, man. You make my boss work too hard. And I was like, all right, man, that's that's cool, that's cool. It's a.

Brian (00:08:13) - Good compliment.

Big Dad Ritch (00:08:15) - Yeah, I took it as such.

Brian (00:08:17) - Yeah, yeah.

Brian (00:08:18) - And, you know, you guys, it seems like every day I'm seeing a poll saying that you're playing somewhere else. You know, you're constantly touring and as well with the podcast, I feel like I have about 25 previous guests who have supported you guys. Seems to be like a rite of passage for a band nowadays. To go on the road with you guys. What's it really like being in the band of outlaws? It's a is a constantly all go.

Big Dad Ritch (00:08:46) - It is. It is even though like we're it's down downtime right now, we don't leave back out on tour until November 13th. We're all working on our social media stuff, growing, trying to grow our social media, working with the release of the Hard Habit video, which came out a couple of weeks ago, helping to push it to have a second single and have a third and a fourth lined up in the coming year off of one album is amazing, so we're looking forward to just keep pushing. But you know, and read the the book The Dirt by you know about Motley Crue.

Big Dad Ritch (00:09:21) - I don't know if you read that, but it's a great read. And if any of your listeners out there that are looking to be musicians and try to work in the world of music, and it actually is called the music business, you know, so business is important. And that's one reason, I think, that some of my success has been, is that not only am I a songwriter, frontman and all around crazy. So be guess. Nothing against my mother, but I. If if you can't handle the business end of it, you're going to sink. Most definitely. So in that book it talks about the three cogs. There's a the cog that you start on. The middle cog in the upper cog and the upper cog are for bands like Motley Crue, uh, Judas Priest, um, new bands such as avatar and stuff like that. So that's, that's that upper cog. And then the middle cog is for bands that have made it to the upper cog and fell back to the middle cog.

Big Dad Ritch (00:10:22) - Like, you see a lot of bands like when we're out on tour, we could be in a venue where the next night there's a monster band from the past or, you know, but that's also for bands coming up and we just seem to be stuck on that middle cog. We haven't made it to the cog as of yet. We would love to. I mean, who wouldn't want to see that kind of who wouldn't want to see that kind of money? You know?

Brian (00:10:46) - Yeah.

Big Dad Ritch (00:10:47) - But, you know, we're stuck here on the middle cog and in this middle cog, these are where the, you know, these are where the workers are. This is where the labor is. And you better have a labor of love. You better love what you do, and I definitely do. And for men that have my back every night, they love they they love their work as well. We always tell everybody we haven't worked, we don't work, we play. So to be able to go out there and play and perform, uh, you know, almost, you know, we we tore.

Big Dad Ritch (00:11:18) - Probably about 25 to 30 weeks out of the year, and if we didn't do that, we wouldn't be able to support our families, our households and live the lifestyles that we do. As you know. There's so many different pathways to get your music for free. Um, it's just, you know, used to I remember seeing guys getting million dollar plus contract sign on bonuses to labels and getting major money. It just doesn't happen anymore. I mean, I'm sure it does to, you know, somebody like, you know, that's going to be as big as the next Taylor Swift or, you know, the next big thing. But yeah, but mean it's just in this world today, you know, rock and roll, that kind of money isn't being thrown around that I've heard of or noticed. You know, we're a we're lucky to see the resurgence of Pantera and Pantera touring the world again, the boss man jumping in there and helping out so much. And anthrax is drummer jumping in there.

Big Dad Ritch (00:12:23) - So I mean, it's it's a great thing, right? You know, I think Rex Brown is a living legend and feel is definitely I've always looked up to feel. He's always been an idol of mine and I'm, you know, sometimes I may try to steal something from him here and there, but I steal from everybody. It don't matter who it is. If I hear something that sounds good, I don't give a damn. I'm going to see if I can vocalize something like it. But, uh, you know, if thievery is a big part of the music business, so. I'll be stealing from everybody, but, um. You know, I am definitely think that if we didn't tour all the time, we would be struggling. Um, you know, I wish there were other avenues that make it to where we can spend more time at home with our families, but they're there currently. There are not.

Brian (00:13:15) - Yeah. True, true. And, you know, at this stage, I suppose I like diving into my guests history when it comes to music to see where you came from.

Brian (00:13:24) - So if you can know, can you remember your earliest musical memory?

Big Dad Ritch (00:13:30) - Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Easily. I've been a music guy since day one. I used to be my dad's DJ because we didn't have, you know, we didn't have Spotify. We we didn't have all the things that you have today that you can just touch something with a period of sort of ease. We had an album player that spun vinyl, you know, my dad didn't want to get up and walk over there and put the needle on the record, so he chose me to be the one to put the needle on the record. And I used to get up early in the morning every morning before they got up. I used to got up around 6 or 7, and I would go in there and I'd put records on, but I would take the speakers and aim them in at each other and lay down between them. And they had a little mark on there at three. And in that way that was on three.

Big Dad Ritch (00:14:16) - They couldn't hear it in their room where they were sleeping. And then in the mornings my dad would kick open that door and he'd holler, turn it up, boy! And that turn it up is always stuck to me. And then, of course, I wrote the song, but I. I remember like I was listening to, you know, people like Mac Davis, Steve Miller, um, a lot of great bands from from way, way back when, you know. And then my mom, of course, you know, she'd be playing Pat Benatar and stuff like that. So I would hear a lot of that stuff. But the first album that I ever bought myself was a Van Halen Women and Children First.

Brian (00:15:03) - And not a bad choice.

Big Dad Ritch (00:15:05) - Although my dad turned me on to great stuff such as Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie and top Lynyrd Skynyrd. Those are my fondest memories of listening to those. But I turned my dad on Van Halen and he was like, ooh, I like this band.

Big Dad Ritch (00:15:21) - Yeah.

Brian (00:15:24) - Oh, man.

Brian (00:15:26) - And, you know, can you pinpoint the exact moment then that sparked the desire to become a musician?

Big Dad Ritch (00:15:33) - I was probably. I was young, very young. I was watching the Johnny Cash show with my grandma and my papaw, and I told my grandma, I said, when I grow up, I want to be Johnny Cash and. She said, you can't be Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash. And she said, you always got to be yourself, son. You're always going to be yourself. And I said, well, then I'm going to be myself wearing all black all the time, just like Johnny Cash and I do it to this day. I still wear all black all the time. And I wanted to be Johnny Cash. Just. There's nothing more that I wanted to be. And then when I was 11, I started writing songs, which was kind of blowing my dad away. He didn't know where that was coming from. My dad was a songwriter, a lyricist, and I, he picked guitar a little bit, and I, I started picking everything up and running with it and.

Big Dad Ritch (00:16:28) - I started getting support from him and others, and one time we were had a band and we were playing in a garage and the police showed up and said that it was too loud. And we had to turn it off. We had to quit. And then they left. And when they left, my dad said, y'all go ahead and play. If, uh, if they come back and shut y'all down. I'll go to jail. And he did. He did. We we kept playing and they came back and they took him to jail. He's an outlaw, you know. I mean, he is a true he's a true outlaw. Uh, and he went to jail. And when he got to jail, one of his whole buddies was the captain up there and was like, Johnny, what are you doing in here? And he told him what he was doing in there. He said, Johnny, grab that trash can over there and go empty that trash can out in the back out there.

Big Dad Ritch (00:17:20) - And when you come back in, I'll get you out of here and going home. So he walked in and walked out. You know, I've always wanted to be, you know, in the music world. And music is my life. It has been since day one. I mean, I've heard my dad and my mom both tell the stories of me laying on in front of the. In front of the record player, with those speakers on each side of my ear. I've heard those stories my whole life.

Brian (00:17:47) - Yeah, yeah.

Brian (00:17:48) - I have to say, it sounds like you have the coolest dad ever. You know, I wish my dad was that cool.

Brian (00:17:55) - Man.

Big Dad Ritch (00:17:56) - My dad was so cool that when he found my stash of weed, he said, apparently you're smoking better weed than I am. Just like I took up, I took a little bud from you and smoked it with your step mama. And I just want to say thank you. Yeah. He actually used to tell everybody that if was half as cool as my dad, I'd be the second coolest dude on the planet.

Big Dad Ritch (00:18:26) - You know what I mean? That's how cool he was. And he was a little guy to look like. Kind of looked like Sam Elliott meets little Joe Cartwright. You know, he's. You know. At one time we were both dating women the same age. Just that were the same age.

Brian (00:18:44) - Oh God, you have to, like, make a movie about him or something.

Big Dad Ritch (00:18:49) - He would deserve it. He would definitely deserve it.

Brian (00:18:52) - Yeah, yeah.

Brian (00:18:53) - And you know, the podcast is called Concerts That Made. So I have to ask, as a concert goer, what concerts do you think have made you?

Big Dad Ritch (00:19:03) - You know, first of all, the first concert I ever went to was actually Tom petty, right? It was a great show. Wonderful show. Absolutely loved it. But later on in life I seen. Warlock. Anthrax and Crocus. And I was like, man, I got to be doing this. I have to be doing this stuff. And then like the ones that just, like, stupidly impressed me like crazy.

Big Dad Ritch (00:19:34) - I went to go see Corrosion of Conformity and my favorite band, clutch. Well, Pentair is my favorite band, but you know, we've been without them for so long. But clutch I've, I've actually seen Pantera about 30 times and now I've, I've seen clutch about 32 times. Uh, so I've also played with clutch probably 3 or 4 times one night that we remain support for them. Uh, on the last day of the Mayan calendar, uh, we called it the the last. The last show on Earth.

Brian (00:20:12) - Various.

Big Dad Ritch (00:20:13) - Um, but clutch. Uh. Ever since I seen him with silk, I was like, oh my gosh, man, this band is there's something and I even I right? My songwriting styling changed. Like I knew that I no longer had to make total sense when I was singing and that if I wanted to, I could make up words. And I've seen them when we played that show with them. And I said. I'm sorry, man. If I turn into a leg jumper over here, it's just because I'm so excited.

Big Dad Ritch (00:20:56) - You're one of my biggest fans, and you know, I don't want to go crazy on you and freak out on you or anything, so I'm just going to ask that you sign these few items here for me and I'll get away from you so I don't embarrass myself. And we were at a junket where we were doing a media junket, and I was walking by and I had said something when I was talking to him, I said, you know, I would, you know, I would turn into one of those guys that held on to your belt loop. And when I was walking by, I didn't see him, but I started feeling something that was holding on to my belt loop on my right side and was like, what? Did I get snagged on something? Turn around and look. And there's Neil. He's got he's got his finger in my belt loop holding on to it. And I thought that was hilarious. And then I seen him. Drummer. Carolina Rebellion was the show. And I.

Big Dad Ritch (00:21:51) - I walked up to him and I had this barbecue sauce of my own. It's called BBQ and Crazy Barbecue. Uh, and I went up and I gave him both a bottle and everything. And then I started hugging him. And, I mean, like, I'm hugging him, like their family that I haven't seen in a couple years. You know, man was squeezing on love and all them. And that's how I'm walking away. I stopped and I said, hey, guys, I'm so sorry. I just went off on a hugging binge and just hugged y'all to death and a big old bear hug, you know, and said, man, I'm so sorry, you know? And I turning around, there's just two women there. And they're both like, big dad, big dad, you know, and they want me to sign their cowboy hat they had on cowboy hats, actually, and they wanted me to sign their cowboy hats. And everything was like, turn around. I was looking at them and they're both looking at me and they're smiling.

Big Dad Ritch (00:22:38) - They're laughing. They're laughing pretty hard. And then I walk away. And these two women ended up being their girlfriends or their wives, one of the two. And I was like, oh man, I'm so glad I didn't say anything. Like, you want to go over to the tour bus?

Brian (00:22:52) - Yeah. You know.

Big Dad Ritch (00:22:53) - But I'm sure that's why they were smiling and laughing because that was their womenfolk. Uh, but just love clutch, man. I got a million stories about them, you know? Um, it actually broadened my mind when it comes to lyrical content. Neil is just. He's he's impossible and mean. Impossible. Spelt with a bull at the end. Bull. Impossible.

Brian (00:23:19) - Oh, man. And you know, for any listeners that are unlucky enough to not have caught one of your shows yet, maybe the listeners here in Ireland, what exactly are they like? Because there seems like one hell of a party.

Big Dad Ritch (00:23:35) - Man, we keep it so peaked up like we keep it on point.

Big Dad Ritch (00:23:41) - We keep it on high energy the whole show. I do try to break it down for a song or two here and there, you know, pick the right song to let it come down because I can see the wear and tear on the audience. I can see the audience becoming exhausted by, you know, three quarters halfway through. So I need to back off of them a little bit and give them a little chance to to breathe. But we try not to. I forget the band that we just played with not too long ago and they were going on after us. They were the headliner and he'd come up. He said, man, you don't, you don't give them a chance to rest, man. He goes, you're like a UFC fighter. And you just come out and just pound, pound, pound, pound, pound. He goes when you're done, man. They're their asses are whooped. He goes, we're going to we're going to let a 30 minute break. We're going to let 30 minutes go by before we go back out there, man.

Big Dad Ritch (00:24:38) - So maybe we, you know, I've been one of those guys that wax the most in my whole life. You know, I'm just a whack a mole, whack a mole, whack a mole, whack a mole, and, you know, and that's that's helped. I've been successful that way. So I don't I haven't tried another way since. Yeah.

Brian (00:24:53) - Don't. There don't change perfection.

Big Dad Ritch (00:24:56) - There is another way.

Brian (00:24:58) - That.

Brian (00:24:59) - Said don't change perfection.

Big Dad Ritch (00:25:02) - Oh, yeah. Thank you, thank you.

Brian (00:25:04) - And you know, out of all the gigs you've played, is the one that sticks out as maybe the most perfect experience you've had.

Big Dad Ritch (00:25:12) - You know, opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd. And having them come out and say what they said to us, the back, you know, the backup singers, the females coming up to me and giving me a big hug and telling me how happy they are to see a real man in the music world. They were afraid that they were gone, and that they were so happy, and that they considered me a real man.

Big Dad Ritch (00:25:34) - Well, you want to talk about a boost to the ego right there, and the fact that what Van Zandt had said, it really inspired me. But there's something that we do at the end of every night, and we take a bow. And when we bow, I say, this is a little something we do. Stole it from Motley Crue. But the first not that we ever done that was in Reno, Nevada. And something about the Lynyrd Skynyrd tour is that we got kicked off after our first show, I said. I wrote this song because I killed a bitch. And. It's a song about having killed a woman and the person that she was with, and put them in the bottom of a river. And so when we got off, they told me that they couldn't be talking like that. It was disrespectful and that I was going to be off the tour. They were going to discuss, I could go on to the next town, which was Reno, but I may not do the show.

Big Dad Ritch (00:26:47) - So how I was so depressed about it. I was so upset about it. I called my mom. Listen to me when I tell you this. Every man, no matter how young or how old, when he's put in a predicament that is a stressful on the brain, he's going to call his mama.

Brian (00:27:05) - Oh, yeah? Yeah, definitely.

Big Dad Ritch (00:27:06) - Right now he going to call his mama. God bless. My mom is. Rest in peace, mama. But. I still talk to her. I don't know if she's listening. She didn't always listen, but. I called my mama and I told her and she said. A long time ago, son. Before you were born. I drove to Cleveland. And. I mainly went to see Lynyrd Skynyrd, who was opening for The Who. And when I got there, they came out and said that Lynyrd Skynyrd would not be on the bill. Due to the fact that the Van Zant, that was the singer, then he had done something that they viewed as disrespectful and that he was kicked off the tour and he would no longer be on that tour.

Big Dad Ritch (00:28:02) - Leonard Skinner would no longer be on the tour, she said. So Leonard Skinner was young at that time. They had maybe one album, I think, she said. And she said, look at what they became. So maybe you've done the right thing. Same as they'd done the right thing. They stood by their roots where they came from. And maybe you're a little bit more Lynyrd Skynyrd now than. Leonard Skinner. It is. And I mean it just warmed by heart, warmed my soul made me feel so good. And that next night they came up to me and they said, can you refrain from saying that? I said, we won't even play that song. We'll do a totally different song. And so they let us stay on the tour. And boy, I prayed hard on it too. So I, I went out there and I decided that I was going to tell the audience my story that I just told you about how I called my mama and all this stuff. And I want you to know that place went crazy.

Big Dad Ritch (00:29:08) - They went nuts when I told that story. And they and then we we played a song catch up. But throughout the night, at least 5 to 7 times, there was a peak. And that peak probably was equal to or close to Skinners Peaks. And that's when Van Zandt said that to me, and I mean that night. As we were, we come off stage and he says, hey, I've never seen a pop like that at a Leonard Skynyrd show for the opening act. He goes, I want you to do me a favor. And I was like, anything, thank you for letting me back on the bill. Will do. I will do anything that doesn't that doesn't mess up my moral compass. I'll be happy to do it, you know. And he said, well, go back up there and do one more song for him. They deserve it and you deserve it. And we went back up there. We turned around. I was like, yes, sir, willing on my way.

Big Dad Ritch (00:29:57) - And he said, hey, and when you're done, give them a bow. And we have done that battle every single night since then. And that night I said, this is a little something we do stole it from my fucking crew, and we've done it every night since. So that's you know, I know it's a repeated story, but that's I just can't. That night just meant the world to me for so many different reasons, as you can tell, as it comes in from so many points on the brain that I will never forget it and the story never tires telling, I promise you.

Brian (00:30:35) - Yeah, yeah. Oh man, that is one hell of a story. And you know, there's so much energy in your gigs. How do you get ready? How do you psych yourself up? And then afterwards, how do you kind of wind down?

Big Dad Ritch (00:30:49) - You know, beforehand. You know, I, I really just try to get myself mentally stable to where I know how the night is going to go in my head, like preparing for a fight, you know, which, you know, left to jab.

Big Dad Ritch (00:31:04) - You know, what am I going to do? You know, am I going to the body and come into the head? I'm just I'm going through all those different things in my mind, you know. I don't drink. You know, most people think I probably, you know. I mean, I do drink. Drink, Jim beam. I love bourbon, but mean like not show not. I do not drink. I do not drink before I go on. And I do smoke, but I don't smoke until. Like about two hours before I take the stage. I won't smoke anymore after that, and I just get prepared, you know, I got some young guys in my band and they always tell me like, man, you're just going crazy all over the place. You know, I'm film. I'm twice their age, you know? And they're just like, you know, you know, you make us want to go double time because we don't want you to outwork because, you know.

Big Dad Ritch (00:31:53) - So that's good. And I love going out there. I always tell everybody that I'm the ass kicker and taker of names. So I'm here to kick ass and take names, you know what I mean? And I always let the crowd know, uh, tomorrow somebody's going to ask you. What in the hell happened to you? And I won't be sure that they tell everybody that they went and seen. Texas Hippie Coalition and the Band of Outlaws kicked their ass. That's what I want them to say. Think they got their ass kicked? So, you know, it's it's pretty crazy, but, uh. I. I really just try to drive forward as hard as I can. I've always been a guy to give more than 100%. Everything I do, relationships, music, any job that I ever had, you know, wanted to be be the best at it, you know? So that's definitely me and the after the show, um, I like to wind down a little bit. I do smoke, I wait a little bit, I don't smoke immediately after.

Big Dad Ritch (00:32:56) - I like to wind down and then I'll have my meals. I don't eat before I go on stage and I just kind of chill, man. Sometimes I, you know, I can't watch anything because my brain is going so crazy. You know, my energy level so high, it could be 4 to 5 hours before I can wind down, you know what I mean? Imagine playing in the Super Bowl and and how long it's going to take you to come down from it, especially if you won. Uh, so for me, it is. The wind down is tough. It's hard on me, you know what I mean? Because I just can't get down. But. I. Definitely. Sometimes. You know, a lot of times me and the guys are talking, we're hanging out and smoking or whatever, but sometimes I'll, I'll just my brain is just too overworked. It's going to sound crazy to a lot of people out there, but I just play PlayStation.

Brian (00:33:52) - Right?

Big Dad Ritch (00:33:53) - I just go on and I just, I just play Sniper or Fortnite or something, and I just go start killing people, you know, or, you know, not killing people.

Big Dad Ritch (00:34:02) - But yeah, killing Fortnite players.

Brian (00:34:09) - Oh, man. You know, it's it makes sense, though. It's a good way to just switch off the brain and just enjoy and relax. You know almost going zombie.

Big Dad Ritch (00:34:18) - Sometimes if you're you, you know, if your mind's super preoccupied with one thing just to go, you know, to watch a movie, it can become distracting. But to play a game, you know, doesn't use too much brainpower.

Brian (00:34:35) - Yeah, exactly. That's it, that's it. And you know, you guys give off the image of, like, being one hell of a party and you know how to have a good time when it comes to being on tour. What kind of antics do you guys get up to? Any wild stories you can share?

Big Dad Ritch (00:34:54) - You know, we're always having fun. That's one thing about this group of guys my guitar player called pole piece of character, man. He said cut up and he is always doing crazy stuff, you know, like you'll never know.

Big Dad Ritch (00:35:08) - Like he has a little hat that he wears and has, like a little spinning thing on top of it. It's all different colors and he'll wear it and he's got a he's now he went and bought a sword one day and he came in. He was like, do you think it's crazy that I bought a sword? So I just smiled. I didn't say anything, you know? And then I went in and I bought a sword, big old gigantic barbarian type sword and put it around my back. And I had it standing up like this. And I walked in and everybody was sitting there and I said. I was just walking around the neighborhood here and I was wondering if. Anyone fancy to swordfight. Everybody started dying laughing. I couldn't believe I went and bought a sword like that. So we're always doing crazy stuff. But, you know, we mess with other bands, a lot of bands on tour with us that like us, you know, we'll do stuff to them. Um, send a girl up to them, tell them that, um, she was with one of their band members back in.

Big Dad Ritch (00:36:09) - Oh, let's just say one of the band members back in Lubbock, Texas, and she's pregnant, and she needs to talk to them. Boy, it'll scare the crap out of. You know, we usually we'll go check their calendar and see a town that they might have been in, you know, stuff like that. But, you know, we don't get real crazy because when we like, everybody drinks a little bit. Uh, my drummer doesn't drink or smoke or anything. My bass player drinks a little, doesn't smoke chord drinks a lot, doesn't smoke. And then Nevada, he drinks a lot and smokes a lot. But I usually don't drink on the road. I might like, you know, the last show of the week, knowing that there's no more shows for 3 or 4 days. Um. I may drink then, but, you know, our our antics are usually just us clowning around, having fun with each other. You know, it's we mess with other bands now and again.

Big Dad Ritch (00:37:05) - But this it's not really super crazy. We're very business minded. We're art, we're very guilt oriented. So we're always out to, you know, always tell everybody, I'm going to go out and claim the booty and take the booty home. And when I get home, make sure I get the booty.

Brian (00:37:25) - Good, good, good. And when you think of the future then and the evolution of the band, what would it look like in, say, five years time?

Big Dad Ritch (00:37:35) - You know, five years is a good scope. I think we have a strong five years left in us. I really do. Um, right now we are really climbing up when it comes to motorcycle rallies, bike rallies, festivals, stuff like that here in the US. We're really getting a lot of calls, getting booked at a lot of shows. Um, you know, as far as the count, when you get down, you know, they call us red dirt metal. Um, southern fried metal. So, you know, southern fried rock and roll, red dirt metal.

Big Dad Ritch (00:38:09) - So we're just kind of in that area where if you're looking for something like that, you don't have many choices. You know, that's what you're looking for. There's not a there's not a lot of them out there. Now, I will admit that there seem to be a somewhere in this in this area. There's a lot that area is growing when you're starting to see bands like them, Dirty Roses and just other. And that may be a little bit more leaning to the country side of it. But just those kind of good bands, you know, that are meant to be like that party band at the at the rally, the festival or something. You want to keep them interested. So yeah, I, I think that what you'll see is that we will grow to be one of those bands that will start to dominate that market because already see that we are I mean, when I look into next year and what we did this year, we played a lot of the major rallies. You know, we were in Daytona, we were in Arizona.

Big Dad Ritch (00:39:07) - We were we were in Sturgis for a whole week. Uh, you know, so we're going to Carolina rally this year. So and we're already set up for another rally in Indiana and one in Montana and one in Minnesota. So, um, a lot of these rallies that aren't as big as some of the other ones, they're definitely jumping on us. We're probably not only are we the band they want, but we also fall in their proper names. I got a couple of shows coming up with Jackal. Um, that are just rallies that have booked Jackal as the headliner, and that's his main support. So I think you're just seeing us start to fill in those holes that are gone, that we've lost those legends. You know, Leonard can. We can't play your round tops. Not going to play weird round. So they'll just hit hit those certain spots and take the big money and we'll hit every spot and take what we can get.

Brian (00:40:01) - Right.

Big Dad Ritch (00:40:02) - Which is really good right now. I don't want to I don't want to play it down like we I mean, we all make good money or we wouldn't be doing it.

Big Dad Ritch (00:40:09) - Of course, you know.

Brian (00:40:10) - True.

Brian (00:40:11) - And have to ask, how long or is it even on the cards that we might get you over to Europe at some stage?

Big Dad Ritch (00:40:20) - You know, we would love to get over there. We haven't been there in quite some time. We played Boss Pop way back in the day. Um, we played some in Belgium. Uh, Amsterdam. Uh, we would love to get back over there, you know? Um. I would love to get into Ireland and Scotland. My good friend and Danny from Nazareth would love to get over there and visit with everybody over there and the castle. Um, just, you know, I would love to make it happen. It just always depends on money. That's that's what's, you know, whenever, you know, we want to make X amount of dollars a week and the cost of getting over there and the cost of, you know, when you get there, you know, you don't have your tour bus that you have back home, you got to get a tour bus there.

Big Dad Ritch (00:41:12) - You take your merchandise over there. We cost a fortune. So you're going to get somebody over there to join you to sell the merchandise. And, uh. It is tricky, but I will do it within the next five years no matter what. Um, there. We have a lot of talks going on right now, and we're trying to figure out what's the best route for us, the best way. But we are in talks with a purchaser for Europe and. Hopefully we can come over there and hit some of those places that I named earlier like Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, France, Germany and of course we want to hit Scotland and Ireland as well.

Brian (00:41:57) - Hopefully, hopefully the epic.

Big Dad Ritch (00:42:00) - Maybe we can set up set up camp in Amsterdam and just.

Brian (00:42:05) - Go.

Big Dad Ritch (00:42:05) - Out every direction.

Brian (00:42:07) - Yeah, exactly. Wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't be too bad. But you're right as well. You know, it has to make sense for you to do it.

Big Dad Ritch (00:42:15) - You know it does, but mean.

Big Dad Ritch (00:42:18) - The thing about it is, is that I want to do it so bad. If I. If I could get to a break even point, I would do it.

Brian (00:42:24) - Yeah, I wouldn't be.

Big Dad Ritch (00:42:25) - I would make it a point, I think. I think we're probably I think we're probably close to getting to a break even point if these airlines would quit jacking up their rates so high. You know, my guitar players are going to have to bring their guitar. So, you know, so that's that's where you get put, you know, other stuff. We can have backline but you know it just it gets crazy when you start adding up the cost. You know ticket purchase round to round trip. So you know if everything works out with some of these. European promoters that are interested in us. If we can make things work, we're definitely going to make it happen, I promise you.

Brian (00:43:01) - Brilliant, brilliant. And before we dive into the last couple of questions, then future plans for the rest of the year that are set in stone.

Brian (00:43:08) - Anything you want to share or tell us about?

Big Dad Ritch (00:43:12) - Well, we're headed out to Florida for a week. We're actually going to be doing one of the shows with Queens Rock. Um, so we're going down there to do a week down there and just probably stay out, hang out in Florida while it's warm and have a little seafood. Uh, and then we've already started songwriting, some for the next album. Uh, the guys all know that I've reached out, and we usually write about 16 to 20 songs and then pick from those. Um, so I'm sure that I'll probably have 5 or 6 to, to pick out of the songs that are being turned in to get on to the next album. Um. We. We, you know, we always lean towards certain. Certain way, you know, of course we're always going to have a super heavy song. Like, keep name out of your mouth. Uh, and then we're always going to have a song that's kind of leaning towards that country influence like the name Lives on, but we have a few songs that are very leaning towards the country world that you may even see us be able to cross over in the country with, you know, um, my belief is that built For the Road, uh, is probably a crossover song already.

Big Dad Ritch (00:44:29) - I don't know what. I don't know what country radio stations would play it, but it's close. But we have another song called The Country Song, and it is a great song. It's beautiful from beginning to end. Musically, melody is just incredible. And the the lyrics to the song are just straight up pure thc just dripping, dripping THC. So and, you know, to already be writing and knowing that they probably won't even come out until, you know, October of next year. Possibly, hopefully.

Brian (00:45:04) - Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. And I suppose we'll dive into the last couple of days are a couple of random music questions, but I'm intrigued to see your answers. So if you could see any band or musician from history in concert for one night only, who would it be?

Big Dad Ritch (00:45:21) - Hendrix.

Brian (00:45:22) - Like the quickness in your response?

Big Dad Ritch (00:45:25) - Jimi Hendrix by me.

Brian (00:45:27) - I don't even need to ask why. And the next one. And so this is a bit a bit weird. If you had to spend 24 hours locked in a room with any musician from history, who would you pick?

Big Dad Ritch (00:45:41) - Adele.

Brian (00:45:44) - Again, don't need to ask why.

Big Dad Ritch (00:45:49) - She can sing pretty to me without any without any instrument accompaniment. And maybe I could talk her into doing something dirty in the dark.

Brian (00:46:00) - I like your style. And the. The final one. Saw what song would appear on the soundtrack to your life?

Big Dad Ritch (00:46:14) - Bang. The other ones seemed easy compared to this.

Brian (00:46:19) - Uh.

Big Dad Ritch (00:46:22) - You know, I don't know. I would want to be cocky and say that it would be something by kid Rock.

Brian (00:46:29) - Okay.

Big Dad Ritch (00:46:30) - You know. But. Um. It'd probably come down to a. Maybe Whelan's outlaw bit, you know. If not that. Willie and Waylon. You know that mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Most definitely. You know. I just. My life has just been. Strange, you know, growing up a chubby, fat ginger. Uh, you know, there's the brutality of people picking on me or bullying me. So one day my really good friend Sean Flynn said, you're bigger than all of them.

Big Dad Ritch (00:47:19) - You can look their ass so you don't have to take this stuff. So why don't you just fight back? And I was like, oh yeah. Why don't I just fight back? And then I just started whooping everybody's ass, and, um. I just. Sean Flynn is also the reason first kissed a girl that was on a field trip and I was catching crawdads and somebody said, what are you doing down there? I said, I'm catching. Crawl is I was trying to impress these girls, you know, look at these crawdads I can catch. And they said, John Flynn's over underneath the some kind of, some kind of thing that kids played on. He's over there kissing some girl and was like kissing a girl. I could be kissing a girl. I'm down in the water kissing girl. This. So I jumped up and ran off and grabbed a girl I had a crush on. I knew he liked me and we went off and started kissing for a little bit on that field trip.

Big Dad Ritch (00:48:10) - So yeah, Sean Flynn was a good influence on my life, but also talked me into skipping school. So bad. Influence was also only in the third grade. We skipped school, so. Yeah. Um. Such is life, man. I mean, you know. Don't just live it, love it. If you're not loving it, changing it, change how you live. Get it somewhere where you can love it for damn sure.

Brian (00:48:36) - Exactly. Best advice I've heard in a long time.

Big Dad Ritch (00:48:41) - Rock and roll.

Brian (00:48:42) - Big dad. Rich. It has been an absolute pleasure. This one, this last hour has been a personal favorite for me out of all the ones I've done. Thanks a million.

Big Dad Ritch (00:48:53) - Oh, man. My pleasure, my pleasure. Thank you so kindly. Being a descendant of Ireland is always good to hear. It's always good to hear that Irish tone and, you know, the Irish accent, you know. My dad is a proud man that he was. He would often brag about being Irish and Choctaw.

Brian (00:49:16) - It's a good mix.

Big Dad Ritch (00:49:17) - Choctaw, Indian. And I don't even know if we have any Choctaw in it, but as you can see, I'm pretty sure we got some.