Elevate Springfield featuring Robert Sampson: Elevating Through the Power of Music, Faith, Resilience, and Pursuing His Passion

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Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential.
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Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you.
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Along the way, we're going to bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating.
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We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield.
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Alright, let's go, Springfield.
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Time to 10X your life, your business, all of it.
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Time to crush those goals, time to get after it.
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Let's go.
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You are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast.
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Robert Farrell here, certified 10X coach, speaker, and mentor here to bring you actionable strategies.
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You bring the discipline and follow through.
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And together, we're going to Elevate Springfield.
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We're coming to you again from beautiful downtown Springfield in the Big Dog Construction Studio.
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Hey, we've got so much going on in Springfield right now.
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Make sure you are participating.
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Get out there, network with folks, be a part of the community, support local businesses, support local nonprofits, and let's go, we can all grow together.
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So, hey, another great episode for you today.
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We're gonna get right to our guest after the break.
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And we are back joining me in the studio now.
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Man, that's been a staple in the music community here for a while.
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Mr.
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Robert Samson, how are we doing today?
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How's everybody doing?
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Oh, I'm doing great, man.
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I'm doing, as my grandpa used to say, finest frog's hair.
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Hey, there you go.
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There you go.
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Good to have another Robert in the studio here.
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Let's go.
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Appreciate you coming down to downtown Springfield.
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When we talk, then you say, you know, finding your name is Robert.
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I said, hey, two Roberts can't be wrong.
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That's right.
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It's gonna be a good episode when you got two Roberts in the house, right?
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Right, right.
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So we're gonna talk all about what you do here locally within the music scene and everything.
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But first, let's learn a little bit about Robert.
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Tell me about your background, man.
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Well, I was born and raised in East St.
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Louis, Illinois.
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And uh I was born three months premature.
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So, you know, that's part of the reason why people look at me and they say, Oh, why are your glasses thick?
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I'm visually impaired.
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I attended the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired over in Jacksonville, Illinois.
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That's how I got in this area.
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So um when I started going to the school when I was seven, I was seven years old when I started the school.
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That's when I really started getting into music.
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But um I started playing piano when I was three years old.
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Really?
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So uh I was in foster care my entire life from the time that I was six months old to the time I was basically out of the system at the age of 21.
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And I'd been in 17 foster homes.
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I'd been abused a lot.
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Uh I always like to give God the glory because if it wasn't for God, I wouldn't be here.
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Because I went through circumstances that, you know, that would kill a lot of other people, and I still have my issues, you know, like everybody else does, you know, but I just feel so blessed to be able to do what I love, you know.
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Um I started playing piano at the age of three, and it was so interesting.
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I used to uh listen to a radio station out of East St.
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Louis called WESL.
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Okay.
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So every Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday, they'd have this blues and boogie hour where they would play blues stuff.
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And I remember I was three years old sitting on my bed.
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I can't tell you what song it was, but I heard this boogie woogie song on the radio, and I'm like, ooh.
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It was like a light switch went off.
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I like that.
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Yeah, it's like a light switch went off.
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So I was like, okay, okay.
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So I went into a living room where we had a piano, and I never touched it.
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I knew it made noise because my foster mother used to play a little bit.
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So I was like, I think I can play this thing.
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So I'm trying to climb up on the bench, you know, little bitty three-year-old Robert trying to climb up on the bench.
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Right.
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So she's always trying to get up on the bench, so she just kind of put me on the bench, kind of plopped me up on the plot me up on the bench, and I started playing what I heard on the radio.
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I start playing the bass notes.
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And uh, she goes, This boy is starting to play boogie woogie.
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And that's what started it all.
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So, you know, Boogie was with me from the very beginning, which I guess, you know, Boogie is a type of blues.
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You know, blues has been with me.
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I've been through a lot of stuff in my life, so blues has a special place in my heart.
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Latin gospel music have a very special place in my heart.
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Absolutely.
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So you just had that ear early on to where you didn't have to necessarily learn it, but from somebody you heard had that ear and you could replicate that on there.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I just had a natural ability and uh a God-given ability, is what I tell people, because it had to be instilled in me from somebody.
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I wasn't around my mom growing up, I wasn't around any of my siblings.
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And when we finally started getting to know one another, I found out that my mom played in a band called uh St.
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Louis Travelers, which was my family's singing gospel singing group.
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Oh, really?
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Well, then I found out just recently within the past oh month, month and a half, I found it that my mom used to uh travel on the road back in the uh 70s and 80s with a very famous gospel act.
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So she played guitar and she played a little bit of keyboard.
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I have I have five other siblings.
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I've got three sisters and two brothers.
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Two other brothers, and all of us play.
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Okay.
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All of us play and sing.
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My grandma played and sang.
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My grandma played guitar and sang.
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My grandpa was a preacher, he played and sang.
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I found out several years ago that I had an uncle named David, they call him David D, but his name is David Eckert.
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Um, he was a police officer in East St.
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Louis.
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Uh-huh.
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And uh he was also a musician.
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He had a hit called Goin Fishing Baby back in like the 80s.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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So I'm like, I know where I got this from the city.
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He's been the family roots then.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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It's it's deep in my family.
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So with your with your siblings, were they all with you through the foster care?
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Were you a little bit?
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We were all separated in different homes.
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Yeah.
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Um I stayed in a foster home, a couple different foster homes with my sister Roberta, but it was like in and out, in and out, in and out.
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Because when I was seven years old, I started going to the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired.
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That school was, if you know anything about that school, there's a lot of rich history at that school.
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The Braille Rider was invented at that school.
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Really?
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Yes.
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I was gonna say, no, I do not know much of the history there.
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So yeah, tell us a little bit.
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Oh, yeah, it's it's it's a great school.
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I mean, I started when I was seven years old and I graduated.
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That school, kids are allowed to basically go until they're like, I think right before their 22nd birthday.
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So I started late.
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I think when I started at the school, I started at first grade all over again because the school that I attended before that was in Godfrey, Illinois, you know, Lewis and Clark Elementary School.
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And I had so many problems trying to keep up with the other kids because I was visually impaired.
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They didn't know how to handle somebody with a disability, and they just pretty much stuck me in special ed because they were like, we don't know what to do.
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So stuck me in special ed, and I was behind the kids.
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I was six months behind the kids.
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And you know, school lasts for nine months.
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So you think I'm only one third of the way through the curriculum while the other kids are way past me.
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So they had some, they had a couple people from the Illinois School for Visual Impaired that were scouts at the time.
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They had uh scouts, so they heard about me, and so they came and basically just scoped me out for a day, looked at what I did in class and took notes, and then they realized, yeah, this is where he needs to be, is at the ISVI because of his visual impairment.
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And uh I started in the fall of 1987, and uh it saved my life.
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Wow.
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It because I I was always bullied as a kid because you know I didn't act like the other kids.
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I looked different than the other kids.
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I had kids making fun of me because they were saying, Oh, you don't have a mom and you don't have a dad.
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And it was always hurtful.
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But when I got to the ISVI, it was so different.
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It was so different because now all of a sudden I'm around people who understand visually impaired students.
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I'm around kids who are also blind and visually impaired like I am.
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So it made a massive difference in uh the way that I are perceiving the world.
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Oh, I bet.
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And you know, I always had a dream of becoming a musician.
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That was always my dream.
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I always wanted to do something with music because I I felt that calling on my life from the time I struck those piano keys when I was three years old.
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I said, this is what I want to do with the rest of my life.
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Hard to believe that a three-year-old would make that kind of conscious decision.
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But that's awesome.
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Yeah, but I said, you know, I really want to play music.
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And I had some people being naysayers.
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Well, you can't play music, you can't make a living at it, nobody makes a living at it.
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Right.
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I'm thinking to myself, oh, let's see this BB King or Clapped.
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There's a lot of them out there, you know, John Fogarty, all these other people.
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I'm just like things like these people made a pretty nice living for themselves playing music.
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At a young age, I was just kind of into all sorts of kind of music, and then I really started honing in at the age of about 10 or 11.
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I started getting into Creden's Clearwater Revival.
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Oh, yeah.
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Oh my goodness.
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Changed my life.
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And the reason I say that is because it got me into uh Creden's did a cover of Night Time's the Right Time, which is a Ray Charles song.
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Okay.
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It's weird how Creden's got me into Ray Charles, and Ray Charles didn't get me into Richard Charles.
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Right.
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So I was like, okay, okay.
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So then they also did a version of Good Golly Miss Molly, which was a little richer tune.
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So I started getting into a little Richard.
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So Creeden's really was the gateway for me to get into all sorts of different music.
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You know, and I just kind of snowballed from there.
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And then I was really not that much of a, I don't want to say I wasn't a blues fan, but I hadn't heard much blues until I got in my twenties.
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You know, and I I really started digging some of the old blues stuff that I heard in, like Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters, and I love all sorts of blues.
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I love everything from the basic Delta stuff all the way to the electrified Chicago sound.
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Oh, sure, sure.
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You know, it's all great stuff to me.
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And I like all sorts of music.
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I like 50s music, 60s music, you know, 70s, some 80s.
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I get stuck on YMG and it's like I know every word, almost every song that comes on YMG.
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But then somebody says, hey, can you play this song?
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I know the words, or I can't play it.
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Play it.
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I've listened to it for Yeah, that's my musical journey is just kind of really interesting.
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You know, how I got into different genres of music and getting into different instruments.
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I play 16 different instruments.
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16?
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Yes.
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Wow.
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I play a little bit of pedal steel.
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So you gotta tell us some of those because I can start naming them off that I could guess probably at the top five or six, but then I don't maybe the next 10 you might have to tell us.
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Yes.
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And I want to plug right quick the album that I have called uh They Call Me Lefty Preacher.
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And I'll get into that, why I got how I got that nickname, how I got that nickname.
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Yeah.
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Um when I when I decided I wanted to record that album a few years ago, it sat on the shelf.
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I recorded the album.
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It sat on the shelf for almost two years before I even did anything with it.
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I had recorded it and didn't even master it, didn't get it mastered or anything.
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Um I had it recorded in Jacksonville, Illinois at a little little private studio, and I took all my instruments with me.
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Like, not all of them, but a majority of them.
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I had my keyboard, I had an organ keyboard, a Leslie, I had uh three different guitars, my bass guitar, my banjo, uh, my acoustic guitar.
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I just had all sorts of different instruments, but I play lap steel, I play a little bit of pedal steel, not that great at it.
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You know, it's kind of one of those instruments that it takes a long time just to get bad.
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Sure.
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You know, I play saxophone, I can play baritone sax, uh alto, tenor, you know, soprano.
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I played all those growing up, actually.
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I was a saxophone player growing up.
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So at some point I played I played all of them in a different band or jazz band.
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Because they're all they're all I mean if you can play one, yeah, you can pretty much play just like uh my sister Roberta plays clarinet, and I knew I I don't tell people I can play clarinet, but if I can play saxophone, clarinet's just Oh yeah, yeah, you get that.
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Oh yeah, yeah.
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But I don't tell people I play clarinet because I've never touched one.
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So I'm not gonna tell people that I play clarinet.
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But uh Yeah, I play piano and organ and drums, percussion.
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I play a lot of different percussion instruments.
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Banjo, I got a six-string banjo at home.
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I play a little bit of mandolin.
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Do you have an absolute favorite?
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My two favorites, well, three favorites are organ.
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Well, I'm glad it's backtracked.
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My four favorites are drums, I like bass, I like guitar, and I could I classify organ and keyboard in the same kind of category.
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Sure.
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So those are those are my favorites.
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Okay.
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You know.
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Did you uh at the school, did you guys have a band?
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Did you play in a in groups, or was it all outside of school that you were learning all this stuff?
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Oh, it was at school because see, school, the ISVI is a residential school.
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So it's a lot like college.
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They have dormitories and such, and the kids stay home.
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They stay at the school for a while, then they go home on break, stay at school for a while, go home on break.
00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.039
You know, it's it's a college kind of atmosphere.
00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:45.440
Yeah.
00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:56.080
And um I had uh several of my friends, and I remember all their names, like growing up, my best friend in the world was uh Jason Meeks.
00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.480
He's passed on, and I miss him every day.
00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:06.799
So there was Jason, there was Chad Morrison, Nick Sharp, Craig Humphrey, Clint Murphy, and then myself.
00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:11.919
And a lot of time we would rotate like different musicians sometimes, and we called ourselves Apollo.
00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:19.039
And the reason we called ourselves Apollo 13 was one day Nick, Nick and I, we toted our guitars everywhere on campus we went.
00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:23.120
I mean, we were just like if I was in the bathroom, I had my guitar.
00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:28.080
If I was doing homework, which I should have been doing, I was playing guitar, you know.
00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:34.159
So I was always, you know, more driven towards guitar at that time.
00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:36.799
And Nick and I just we played together all the time.
00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:38.879
We were never caught anywhere not singing.
00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:39.279
Sure.
00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:48.080
We were singing the songs that we were singing chorus, we'd be singing our own arrangement that we'd be creating, and we just had a lot of fun.
00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:56.000
And we called ourselves Apollo 13 because one day Nick and I were sitting there jamming and he's playing guitar, I'm playing guitar, and we're playing, and I broke a string on my guitar.
00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.919
I said, Houston, we have a problem.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:14:59.840
And as soon as I said that, I was like, you know what?
00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:01.039
I think that'd be a great day for a band.
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:01.759
He goes, What?
00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:04.080
Because at that time Apollo 13 was a thing, the movie.
00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:04.320
Yeah.
00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:08.080
So I was like, I said, Well, we should call ourselves Apollo 13.
00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:13.279
Like, and that kind of began the whole that was the first band I ever.
00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:23.919
We played every talent show from basically 1992 to about when Nick left to go to the Tennessee School for the Blind.
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:25.200
So it was about three years.
00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.360
We did the talent show three years in a row.
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:28.480
That was fun.
00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.200
Oh, I still got the recording of our first talent show.
00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:34.320
And we were doing the song uh traveling band by CCR.
00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:36.559
Because we I got Nick into CCR.
00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:39.440
He just knew Billy Ray Cyrus in 90s country.
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:40.399
That's mainly what he knew.
00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:47.519
But like I got him into CCR and we played traveling band, and I mean we thought, boy, you thought we were playing Carnegie Hall.
00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:49.759
I mean, we we were so excited.
00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.639
And me and Nick were actually just talking on the phone yesterday.
00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:55.200
I said, Man, you know, we really thought we were hot stuff, man.
00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:57.519
I said, he said, yeah, we did, didn't we?
00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:59.360
I said, yeah, we thought we were something.
00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:04.240
I said, you know, Nick, I still got the recording of our first performance when we did traveling band.
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:05.759
I said, it was awful.
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:08.879
Oh my goodness.
00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:12.720
We started out slow, but by the time the song was over, we were double speed.
00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:13.200
Oh, okay.
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:19.840
So I'm like good to see where you where you started and where you come from, man.
00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:20.639
Absolutely.
00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.799
Yeah, we've uh come a long way in he plays music.
00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:26.720
He doesn't do it for a living, but he plays music.
00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:28.399
And he lives down in Nashville.
00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:31.679
And my friend Chad, he does music every once in a while.
00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:34.240
He does stuff like in studios, does mastering and stuff.
00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:37.120
So yeah, we're all into music some way or another.
00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:48.240
And out of all of us, I'm the only one that actually pursued a music career because before I started playing music in the early 2000s, when like 2001, I was working at a gas station as what they call the lot guy.
00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:50.080
So basically I was the janitor.
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.559
It was my job cleaning the pumps, make sure everything.
00:16:52.720 --> 00:17:00.960
And I remember one day uh some people that took over the place wanted their family to work there, so uh I just went on ahead and just relinquished my job.
00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:08.079
And I remember sitting at breakfast with my friend, and this was back 2003, and I told my friend, I said, Man, I don't know what I'm gonna do now.
00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:11.279
I said, he said, Man, he goes, You're a great musician.
00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:13.519
He goes, Why don't you pursue a mu music career?
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:16.079
And I said, Yeah, but that takes this and that, this and that.
00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:19.519
He goes, he goes, D you've got more excuses than you've got reasons.
00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:21.599
You knew he goes, you need to flop that man.
00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:27.119
Yeah, stop making excuses and and and come up with reasons why you want to do what you want to do.
00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.119
And I'm like, okay.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:30.640
So that flipped that switch then.
00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.640
And then so in the early 2000s, I had a band.
00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:41.440
It wasn't, I don't call it my band, we were just a band, and we called ourselves bootleg.
00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:42.799
We were all young.
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.000
I mean, I was, oh gosh, 21, 22.
00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:53.680
The guys in the band were like 18 and 19, and we play bars, and their parents would have to come to the bar because you know they were underage.
00:17:53.920 --> 00:18:01.839
But we were playing a lot of stuff that people were just raising their eyebrows because they're like, these kids are that young, and they're playing like the doors and the course TCR.
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:02.160
Yeah.
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:06.160
And we were playing things like the Beatles, and we were playing all sorts of stuff.
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:10.240
People are like, these kids really got something special going on.
00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:12.559
Unfortunately, it didn't last a long time.
00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:18.960
Once we broke up as a band, I just started thinking, man, what am I gonna do now?
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:25.200
So I bought myself a keyboard that had a sequence that has a sequencer built into it, so you can do all the different parts.
00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:31.680
I learned how to play drums on the keyboard, and I'm not talking about programming drums, I'm talking about each individual key plays a drum sound.
00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.640
I'm talking about learning to play drums on the keyboard.
00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:44.400
So I learned how to do that, and uh I soon learned how to take up bass, and uh, before too long, that's all I would do, sit at home and record this stuff and put it on a little three and a half floppy.
00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:44.960
You remember those.
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:46.000
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:47.119
Oh yeah.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:53.440
So what I would do was I would take the songs and I would because each disc would only hold 10 songs.
00:18:53.680 --> 00:19:05.920
So I would do British invasion stuff, and it was all like British stuff, and then I would do classic 50 stuff, and I had several discs of classic 50 stuff, and one day it just dawned upon me, I'm doing all this.
00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:07.839
Why can't I just become a one-man band?
00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:20.799
So I used to record those tracks, and then when I got and play, when I started going out and play, I would take the keyboard with me and I would put the discs in the keyboard and I'd let it play the backing track while I played guitar to it and sang.
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.400
Then I got to the point to where I started recording my own vocals.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:30.559
I got a little bit better equipment, I got a better keyboard, and I just kept progressing with what I did.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:37.599
And eventually it just became, you know, something like I'm I've played so many places doing this one man band thing that I do.
00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.240
I play here in Springfield every other Wednesday at Full Gensies.
00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:44.960
Y'all that y'all, y'all that don't come to Full Gensies every other Wednesday, you're missing out.
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:45.519
There you go.
00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.279
Every other what time's that on every other Wednesday?
00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:48.720
Six o'clock to nine o'clock.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:49.200
Okay.
00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:53.200
So when's the next one, just so we know which every other Wednesday is coming Wednesday.
00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.079
This coming Wednesday, which will be May 13th.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:56.480
Yes.
00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:56.799
Right.
00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:57.599
May 13th.
00:19:57.680 --> 00:19:58.799
So every other Wednesday from there.
00:19:59.119 --> 00:19:59.200
Yes.
00:19:59.440 --> 00:19:59.920
Okay, cool.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:00.240
Gotcha.
00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:01.599
Six o'clock to nine o'clock.
00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:12.079
I want to give uh Sandy and John Fulgenzi a big shout out because uh it was really cool that they allowed me to come in and and another guy I want to give a big shout out to who actually got me in there was Terry Young.
00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:21.039
He's the guy that got me in there playing, and uh one of the guys that uh I really look up to is uh Al Kitchen, because he kind of does like the one-man band thing too.
00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:25.519
When I look at how he's gr gathering a following, I admire what he does.
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:29.119
And uh being a one-man band is not as easy as a lot of people think it is.
00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:30.319
I don't think it's easy.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:34.880
It's actually a lot more difficult, it's actually a lot more difficult than in a band.
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:35.200
Uh-huh.
00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:37.519
Because when you're in a band, all you gotta do is learn your part.
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:37.920
Right.
00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:40.319
You know, when you're a one-man band, you have to learn all the parts.
00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:41.519
Every part, yes, exactly.
00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:47.200
And then you gotta take that and say, okay, I don't want to play this song just like the record.
00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:53.359
Some of them I'd play just like the record because it's so good, it's like trying to alter it just wouldn't work.
00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:53.839
Right.
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.000
You know, like a down on the corner, for example.
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.359
Trying to alter that in any kind of way would just be heresy to me.
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:08.720
So, you know, I try my best to get things close when they need to be, but I also try to keep an open mind and say, hey, how can I take this song and make it my own?
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:09.119
Right.
00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:17.680
You know, and it's that interpretation that keeps me really wanting to do what I do, you know, being able to interpret something differently than you hear it.
00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:19.440
My mind does that in my sleep.
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:26.480
I'll I I turn on the radio every night when I sleep, and I can hear music when the music is playing, I can hear it in my sleep.
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:33.279
And, you know, I don't like bragging because I'm not a braggart, but you know, you ever heard the expression where people go, Oh, I can do that in my sleep.
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:33.599
Yeah.
00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:35.920
Literally, I can write music in my sleep.
00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:38.079
Wake up and then I came through, yeah.
00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:42.160
Yeah, and I have to run down to the studio and write stuff down or record it.
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:42.640
Uh-huh.
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:49.839
And I just it's gotta be a God thing because I just don't understand how I'm even able to do that.
00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:58.160
Like I'll hear something and the words come to me in my sleep, or the melody will come to me in my sleep, and I just go, I gotta go, I gotta go record this.
00:21:58.880 --> 00:21:59.279
That's awesome.
00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:00.559
Yeah, it's It's fun.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:01.279
It's a lot of fun.
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:05.279
So your career started in early 2000s and you've been doing it ever since, right?
00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:05.599
Yes.
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:06.000
Okay.
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:06.240
Cool.
00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:11.519
So when you're out performing, like this, this right here, you said this is all original music.
00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:12.559
It's all original.
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:12.880
Yes.
00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:13.920
All original blues.
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:14.240
Yep.
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:19.680
So when you're out performing, do you do a blend of covers and originals, or what do you typically do?
00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:21.119
Depends on the crowd.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:32.799
The difficult part with being in an area like this is if you're playing all original music, you got to play to an open-minded crowd that's going to enjoy just originals.
00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:33.200
Yeah.
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:33.440
Yeah.
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:34.559
You know, which is hard.
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:35.759
It's difficult.
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:46.240
But I find that if you play mostly covers and stick a few of your originals in there, I play also at the Route 66 Mother Road Diner, the one on South Sixth.
00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:46.559
Yeah.
00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:47.599
Just down the road from you.
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:48.240
Yeah.
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:50.880
I most of the crowd down there are older people.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:53.759
So I try to stick to the 50s and 60s music, which they love.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.279
And I love it too.
00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:04.000
So we when I play that stuff, sometimes I'll throw some of my songs in that I've written that sound more like that 50s or 60s style.
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:04.799
That makes sense.
00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:05.119
Yeah.
00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:12.079
So that way it blends in, and there's nothing more gratifying than when you see somebody get up and dance to the song that you wrote.
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:15.519
You know, it's like, wow, they dig what I'm doing.
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:19.119
It's a labor of love because, you know, this is what I do for a living.
00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:21.119
This isn't just a hobby for me.
00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:21.519
Right.
00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:22.640
This is my occupation.
00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:24.799
Well, do you ever get tired of playing?
00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:29.599
I said, Well, the time I ever get tired of playing, that's when I'm going to hang it up and call it quits.
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:29.759
Right.
00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:31.200
I play in nursing homes.
00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:32.960
I played in so many nursing homes.
00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:35.920
I play a lot of, there's a few of them I play here in Springfield.
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:37.519
I play some in Jacksonville.
00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:42.960
And I love playing in nursing is almost better than any other place because those people are so appreciative.
00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:47.119
You know, they they're they're I hate to put it this way, but they're a captive audience.
00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:47.519
Right.
00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:49.839
You know, but they don't get much in nursing homes.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.359
When I play that 50s music and 60s music, and they absolutely just love it.
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:54.880
Oh, as I say, I bet they do love it.
00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:55.680
No doubt about it.
00:23:55.839 --> 00:23:57.119
And I love making people happy.
00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:58.880
That's my EMO to play music.
00:23:58.960 --> 00:23:59.200
Uh-huh.
00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:04.400
The money is the money is secondary, but making people happy is what I love to do.
00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:05.920
I love to see people smile.
00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:07.279
I love to hear people laugh.
00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:08.720
I love to see people get up and dance.
00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:10.880
I just love to people see people enjoying life.
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:21.279
Because we live in a world now that's full of so much hate, full of so much strife and pain, and it's like, man, I just want to see people forget about their problems for a while.
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:22.960
I love that.
00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:28.880
And that's I was just about to ask you, how do you feel like you elevate your crowd and your your clients that are out there?
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:29.839
And it's that.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:31.200
I mean that's how you do it, man.
00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:32.880
You got to make people happy.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.200
Making people happy makes me happy, which in turn, you know, it's it's a cycle.
00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:42.079
When you can make people happy and they make you happy, it's it's a continuous flow.
00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:44.079
You know, it's a like a it's a cycle.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.000
You feed off them, they feed off of you.
00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:46.960
Absolutely.
00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:55.119
Over the years performing any songs that just almost always hit that everybody everybody loves that song when you play that thing.
00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:57.119
I'd have to say Cool Jerk, Do You Love Me?
00:24:57.200 --> 00:24:57.680
You know about it.
00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:58.240
Do you love me?
00:24:58.400 --> 00:24:58.640
Oh, yeah.
00:24:58.720 --> 00:24:59.039
Oh, yeah.
00:24:59.359 --> 00:24:59.759
I won't.
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:03.039
And there's a few of them Twisting the Night Away by uh Sam Cook.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:03.440
Uh-huh.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:03.839
Yeah.
00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:08.240
Any song that talks about a dance that's up tempo, yeah.
00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:09.039
All over it.
00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:09.279
Yeah.
00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:10.240
Oh, yeah.
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:13.519
I love seeing some of these elderly people just get up and dance.
00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:18.799
When I play at the uh Mother Road Diner, they will dance from first song to last song.
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:21.599
It doesn't matter how slow it is, it doesn't matter how fast it is.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:22.400
They get up and dance.
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:26.400
I'm like, wow, I hope I when I get that age and I've got that much energy.
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:28.079
Still getting after it for that long.
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:29.359
Yep, absolutely.
00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.759
You said you we were talking before we went on air here.
00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:33.279
You also do private events.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:33.839
Yeah, I do.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.440
I do, I do weddings and birthday parties.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:39.359
I even do corporate events if need be.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:40.480
And I have done some corporate events.
00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:41.119
Oh, okay.
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:41.440
Yep.
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:42.240
Very cool.
00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:46.559
And like I said, I love 50s and 60s music, but blues is my main thing.
00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.359
I've got my own blues band, uh, the Robert Sampson band.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:50.720
I've played with a lot of different people.
00:25:50.799 --> 00:26:01.759
I've played with Mary Joe Curry, I've played with uh Brandon Santini, I've played with uh James Armstrong, I've played with David Lumston, a lot of a lot of local blues people I've played with, you know.
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:07.039
And most of the time it's uh uh uh keyboards because it's it's really hard.
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:15.599
Guitar players nowadays are a dime a dozen, but it's really hard to find a good keyboard player because a lot of people, when they learn to play piano, they just don't stick with it.
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:16.000
Right.
00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:21.519
When they're when kids are young and they learn to play, they just kind of get to the point where they're like, yeah, this doesn't interest me anymore.
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:25.039
Almost like a gateway to the next entry in uh instrument type of thing.
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:27.119
It seems to move up to something else.
00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:27.519
Yeah.
00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:31.359
I hear more people go, man, I wish I would have kept up with my piano lessons when I was a kid.
00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:32.720
I hear that time and time again.
00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:33.119
Uh-huh.
00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:34.480
I was like, oh, it's never too late.
00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:34.880
Yeah.
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:38.000
I was like, yeah, as long as you're breathing, it's never too late.
00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:38.640
Absolutely.
00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:40.960
That's what I try to tell people all the time.
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:43.599
It's never too late to make something of yourself.
00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:48.160
I thought in my twenties, I was all washed up, and that's a young age, you know, in your 20s.
00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:50.240
And I thought, man, I've hit a brick wall.
00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:53.200
And how'd you push past that brick wall?
00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:58.000
I just have to think about the people that I want to make happy and the music that I love.
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:01.519
And sometimes I get in this funk where I'm like, man, I'm playing the same thing.
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:05.519
I don't want people to think that I'm getting old or just getting tired.
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:10.720
I don't necessarily reinvent myself, but I constantly try to improve myself.
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:11.200
Yeah.
00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:11.920
That's what it's all about.
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:13.359
Yeah, and that's elevate.
00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:15.119
You know, that's that's what it's about.
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:16.480
You know, you got to rise.
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:21.599
You know, I had to rise above some terrible circumstances in my life that I thought I would never be able to rise above.
00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:29.119
With the help of the Lord, and I'll I'll keep saying that, with the help of the Lord, that's the only way that I could elevate myself.
00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:35.119
You know, I had a lot of people in my life giving me a push, saying, you can do this, you can do this.
00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:39.200
But I also had people that were like, you can't do this and you can't do that.
00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:46.799
I'll tell you what's very strange is the people that were supporting me didn't push me as much as the people that were negative towards me.
00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:51.359
So that's the hardest thing in life is to be able to take a negative and turn into a positive.
00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:51.519
Right.
00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:56.400
It's like, so how do I take, you know, the old expression, how do I take lemons and make lemonade?
00:27:56.640 --> 00:27:59.359
You know, and I think to myself, you know, prove them wrong.
00:27:59.599 --> 00:27:59.839
Right.
00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:08.240
Well, and you you look at athletes, some of the greatest athletes ever had that to where like Tom Brady in football, best quarterback ever.
00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:10.160
He was drafted way, way late.
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:12.640
So his whole career, he's like, I'm gonna show him.
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:13.599
I'm gonna show him.
00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:17.039
Even Michael Jordan, you know, didn't get picked for a team early on in life.
00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:17.839
I'm gonna show him.
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.400
And it's not, it's not that I want to show him like, oh, I want to show them how arrogant I can be.
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:28.799
It's like, okay, if people are saying that I can't, I'm gonna show them that I can take that apostrophe T and throw it out.
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:29.519
Right, exactly.
00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:31.839
Because I can't turn a can into a can.
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:33.359
No doubt about it.
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:34.000
Love that.
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:34.559
Love it.
00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:40.880
A lot of times, those naysayers, those doubters around you, yeah, can be fuel if you use it the right way.
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:42.079
And that's the hardest thing.
00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:44.720
And that's the thing I want to tell everybody that's listening.
00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:47.599
You can always turn a negative into a positive.
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:51.039
It just depends on what you want to do and where your brain's at.
00:28:51.279 --> 00:29:01.039
It's so easy to let things get to you and people go say negative things to you, and it's so easy for it to just be interpreted as negative.
00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:06.480
But that's the thing I've tried in my life to try to interpret things differently than a lot of people do.
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:09.920
Because I play music that's some of the music I play is twice as old as I am.
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:12.640
I just have always been what they call an old soul.
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:15.920
I've always liked to do things the old-fashioned way, work hard.
00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:19.039
You know, your dreams don't come true if you don't work for them.
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:23.359
And, you know, that's why somebody goes, Oh, you ought to go on American Idol, you ought to go on The Voice.
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:24.640
I said, I don't want to.
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:27.599
I said, because I don't want instant overnight success.
00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:29.519
I want to work for what I have.
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:37.839
And I'm not saying those people haven't worked, those people that are on that show haven't worked for what they've got, but I'd rather plug away and work that my way up the ladder.
00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:41.920
Because the thing I learned is the quicker you go up the ladder, the farther you have to fall.
00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:45.279
And as you go along in life, evaluate your steps.
00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:48.960
You know, and um I evaluate my steps every single time I record something.
00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:50.640
I'll I'll sit there and I'll record something.
00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:52.000
I'm like, I don't like it.
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:58.480
And I'll erase it all over again, and then I'll start all over again and I'll erase it all over again.
00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:03.519
I mean, there's times when I've been 16 hours on a single song without a break.
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:04.240
Wow.
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:06.400
Yeah, that's I guess that's just a perfectionist.
00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:08.799
Yeah, dedication to your craft, man.
00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:11.759
And sometimes what I have to do is I gotta step away for a minute.
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:12.720
And that's another thing.
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:18.559
Some people just, you gotta sometimes, if things become overwhelming, step back and look at it from a different light.
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.440
Say, if I record a song and I say, man, I'm getting tired.
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:25.920
I can't, I can't even keep my eyes open, I'll say, Let me go to bed.
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:28.880
I'll wake up in the morning and listen to it with fresh ears.
00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:33.440
Because you'll be amazed at what how different things sound when you listen to it with fresh ears.
00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:36.799
You know, because sometimes you get fatigued and things just don't sound the same.
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:38.720
Your brain's not processing things the same.
00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:39.759
Same thing in life.
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:44.319
You know, sometimes things get to where you just gotta step back and go, I gotta just take a break.
00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:50.640
I gotta take a break and I gotta look at things from a whole different point of view and come back to it.
00:30:50.799 --> 00:31:00.160
And then I can say, okay, maybe this decision I made here wasn't exactly the best, you know, and the crazy thing, and I love this elevate spring field.
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:10.640
I love the whole elevate, I love the whole elevate thing because sometimes to elevate, you have to go down and then back up and then down and then back up.
00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:12.799
It's never just like an elevator.
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.680
An elevator just doesn't go up, just go up, up, up, up, up, because that's called an escalator.
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:19.440
Yeah, a lot of times it's not linear.
00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:21.440
Yeah, you have these dips and pops.
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:25.200
And one more note on the the naysayers out there.
00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:42.880
What we talk a lot about in 10x is if you're if you're not garnering some naysayers, if people aren't saying stuff like that, you're probably not doing up because people only say that when you are challenging the status quo or challenging what can be done or challenging their thought process.
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:47.279
So if you don't have a few naysayers in your life, you're probably not quite pushing hard enough.
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:52.799
And that's the thing nowadays, you know, is nowadays you have a lot of people that have their thoughts.
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:54.640
They have their thoughts and what they think.
00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:59.359
And anything outside of their own thought process, they just get they they they've built a wall.
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:07.119
God gave me a vision one time, and this doesn't just apply to, you know, uh being a Christian like I am.
00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:08.799
This also applies to life.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:13.119
God told me that every blessing that I give you is another brick.
00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:21.119
So you can either take that and build a wall between you and me, or you can take it and pave a road to heaven.
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:23.200
So I look at that in life.
00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:27.440
Every experience we go through, like the old song says, another brick in the wall.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:30.160
I mean, that's literally what that's what that's about.
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:31.519
That's what that song is about.
00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:36.400
You know, I feel that every situation is another brick.
00:32:36.640 --> 00:32:45.200
I can get mad and use that brick to chuck at somebody or hurt somebody, or I can take that brick and say, I want to use this to pave a path to my success.
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:47.759
There's been times in my life where I was building up a wall.
00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:54.079
And I can't I can't sit here and lie to you and say that, you know, sometimes I remove those bricks out of that road and start trying to build a wall again.
00:32:54.799 --> 00:32:58.319
But you know, that's when we need people to come around and ground us.
00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:08.559
But to have friends, to have friends and family and people that love you, that are there, that accept you for who you are, you know, that's part of elevation is people accepting you for who you are.
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:19.200
All this stuff sounds philosophical, but it it leads to everything in life, whether it be music, whether it be whether you're a doctor, whether it be you're a cab driver or whatever you do in life.
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:26.000
You know, you gotta have goals, you gotta have something that says, this is who I am, this is what I want to become.
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:28.160
Because being stagnant is horrible.
00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:28.480
Right.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:29.279
I've been there.
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:36.000
And having those gives you that motivation, that drive, that action, and have those actionable steps to be able to pursue it.
00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:37.440
It is not easy sometimes.
00:33:37.519 --> 00:33:45.279
I mean, sometimes, like when I first moved to Jacksonville, I knew I wanted to be a musician, but the first thing that I did is I went around to bars listening to different bands.
00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:47.759
I w I was watching the crowd, I was taking mental notes.
00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:50.079
Hey, this song went well with these people.
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:51.599
Okay, they like this kind of music.
00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:53.039
Okay, this song's not so hot.
00:33:53.200 --> 00:34:03.119
So I was looking at the strengths and the weaknesses of like a lot of people, and it wasn't I wasn't judging them at all, but I was just like, I was taking notes so I could say, okay, this is where I have to start.
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:04.480
I have to study first.
00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:08.000
I can't just jump into it with both feet and expect it to work.
00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:09.840
You got to study, you know.
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:11.679
Like I said, I play different styles of music.
00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:12.400
I study.
00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:14.639
I study different styles, like blues.
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:21.440
I have studied blues, I've studied gospel music, I've studied all sorts of things, you know, because I'm involved with the Illinois Central Blues Club.
00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:22.480
You've heard of them, right?
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:22.800
Yeah.
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:23.119
Yeah.
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:25.119
I do what's called the blues in the schools program.
00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:28.719
We usually do it in February, but I teach kids about blues music.
00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:33.199
I teach kids about where blues got started, what started it.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:33.840
That's cool.
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:35.840
The different elements of blues.
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.800
I'm not saying I'm the smartest person in the world when it comes to blues, but I've studied it and I went through it.
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:42.000
I went through the blues.
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:46.960
I I've been through the struggle, the pain, not knowing where my next meal is going to come from.
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:54.639
And to transcribe that from basically living life to music, that's what the beauty of blues is.
00:34:55.280 --> 00:35:07.440
Being able to transcribe real life experiences into notes and making everybody understand how you feel through a bend of a string or you know, or playing the piano or your voice.
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:07.920
Yeah.
00:35:08.079 --> 00:35:09.360
That's what's amazing to me.
00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:10.239
That's powerful.
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:10.559
Yeah.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:11.360
Powerful.
00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:16.480
And uh you were asking me earlier uh about the lefty preacher thing.
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:18.000
Yeah, that's what I was just about to ask you again.
00:35:18.079 --> 00:35:20.159
I was like, why you why they call you the lefty preacher?
00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:20.559
Okay.
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.679
Several years ago, um, I was playing in St.
00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:29.840
Louis uh with uh they got a a big group of musicians up in Chicago.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:31.760
They call themselves the Blues family.
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:36.000
So these guys are guys that have played with like very famous people.
00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:37.440
We're talking Muddy Waters.
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:45.119
I I hate to refer to people as B uh B or C listers, but they're but basically guys that have played with a lot of famous people.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:46.800
So they got their little group.
00:35:46.880 --> 00:35:54.320
And one year when I went to the Ill uh one year when I went to the International Blues Challenge down in Memphis, I was representing the Illinois Central Blues Club.
00:35:54.480 --> 00:36:02.079
I met this guy from Australia, and he was friends with it took a guy from Australia for me to make friends with people that are in my own state.
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:02.559
Right.
00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:04.400
So his name is Jay.
00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:07.440
He calls himself Jay Moon, Moondog is what he calls himself.
00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:07.920
Okay.
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:15.440
So we met down at the Gibson, at the Gibson guitar factory in Memphis, and we were just playing together and we kept a contact.
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:21.519
He comes over to America during the summer because when it's summer over here, it's winter over in Australia, it's winter.
00:36:21.679 --> 00:36:26.159
So he comes over here during our summer and he's friends with all these guys.
00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:29.760
He goes, hey man, I know that you live in Jacksonville, Illinois.
00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:31.280
That's only about two hours away from St.
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:31.760
Louis.
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:33.119
Would you be willing to come down?
00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:35.840
He goes, because I'm going to be staying with some guys up in Chicago.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:36.880
We're coming down to St.
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:38.480
Louis to do like a three-day thing.
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:40.079
Would you be willing to come down to St.
00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:40.960
Louis and play?
00:36:41.119 --> 00:36:42.880
And I said, What do you guys need me to play?
00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:45.599
They said, Oh, guitar, keys, whatever you feel like you want to play.
00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:46.400
I said, Okay.
00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:49.440
So that's when I when I went down there and I played with these guys.
00:36:49.519 --> 00:36:50.480
I met Ed Nisi.
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:52.239
He's played for a lot of people.
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:58.800
I eventually met a guy by the name of Robert Stroger, who is a famous blues bassist that's played for a lot of famous people.
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:01.039
And uh I call him Pops.
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:03.039
And he's a really good friend of mine.
00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:06.400
And saw a lot of these people when I met them and I started playing.
00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:08.400
We were playing at a gig one day.
00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:11.039
Uh I think we were down at the Oyster Bar down in uh St.
00:37:11.119 --> 00:37:11.440
Louis.
00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:14.320
We were playing, and I'm sitting there just jamming on my guitar.
00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:17.199
So I play left-handed.
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:17.760
Okay.
00:37:18.079 --> 00:37:21.760
So I'll try to explain this so it doesn't get confusing because it confuses me sometimes.
00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:24.239
I gotta stop and say, okay, how do I do this?
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:27.599
I play left-handed on a right-handed guitar.
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:41.360
But if you look at the way that a right-handed guitar is strung, if you're looking right at the guitar from left to right, your uh low string will be left, and you're as you go, as you go from left to right, your string gets smaller.
00:37:41.519 --> 00:37:44.159
So if Bris is playing right-handed, they're playing like this.
00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:46.719
Well, I play left-handed, so I strum with this hand.
00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:53.039
So that this the hand you strum with is the is the hand that they classify your playing as.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:53.440
Okay.
00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:04.320
So I I would think they would be the hand that you fretted with that they would consider, you know, your, you know, whatever hand you are, but whatever hand that you're you know, you're using the pick or strumming the strings with.
00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:10.719
So I play left-handed on a right-handed guitar, strung backwards and up upside down.
00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:12.159
Sort of like Jimi Hendricks did.
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:16.400
Jimi Hendricks would flip his strings around proper for a left-handed person.
00:38:16.559 --> 00:38:18.400
My strings are still strung right-handed.
00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:21.360
So basically I just take a right-handed guitar and I just flip it over.
00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:24.000
And then I play it, I play in open tuning.
00:38:24.079 --> 00:38:29.360
So if you were to play, say, an E-chord in the first position, that's the way I tune my guitar.
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:33.280
So not only is it upside down and backwards, but the tuning is completely different.
00:38:33.519 --> 00:38:36.000
So it's just uh very, it's a very odd.
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:43.119
They tried to give me guitar lessons back in back when I was a kid in my teens, and I remember the guitar teacher going, I can't teach him anything.
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:43.679
I don't know.
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:51.440
So what he would do was he would come and he would he would just basically play something, and I basically just play it back to him in my tuning.
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:53.920
And that's the only way that I was able to really do anything.
00:38:54.159 --> 00:39:02.719
And I eventually just had to learn all the guitar licks and how to play all that stuff, just literally by, you know, by trial and error.
00:39:02.880 --> 00:39:06.159
Because I I at the time when I was growing up, there's no such thing as YouTube.
00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:06.400
Right.
00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:11.119
Uh they didn't have any Mel Bay books that, you know, that taught people how to play, you know, that way.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:13.920
So basically, you know, I was in Uncharted Waters.
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.440
You know, I was like, man, how am I gonna, you know, but I never second guessed myself.
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:18.639
I said, I'll learn how to do it.
00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:18.880
Right.
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:26.960
And I sit down for hours and hours upon hours and learn how to, you know, do things and it was very interesting.
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:29.679
Getting back to what I was saying about the lefty preacher thing.
00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:41.039
So I'm playing, playing, and I'm doing a solo, and I heard a guy in the front row, it was like a patio, and the guy in the front row was like, that guy's playing left-handed on a right-handed guitar.
00:39:41.199 --> 00:39:44.239
And he goes, Go on ahead, lefty, play it lefty, play lefty.
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:50.079
So then we started doing like, I think it was Stormy Monday blues, and I was singing, and man, I really started belting it out.
00:39:50.159 --> 00:39:53.760
And I started to sound like a and I and the way I was belting it out sounding like a southern.
00:39:54.239 --> 00:39:56.800
Oh, okay, getting into that preacher mode.
00:39:57.519 --> 00:40:00.960
So that's when the dude was like, Go on ahead, lefty preacher.
00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:03.760
And I'm like, I'm gonna use that.
00:40:03.920 --> 00:40:04.960
I like the sound of that.
00:40:05.599 --> 00:40:06.320
That's cool.
00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:09.840
And that's where the whole lefty preacher thing came from.
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:10.880
Okay, all right.
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:11.920
That's awesome.
00:40:12.079 --> 00:40:13.920
Well, tell me about the vibe of this here.
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:16.800
So, Robert Sampson, they call me Lefty Preacher.
00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:18.239
You got all your songs on the back here.
00:40:18.320 --> 00:40:19.679
Just tell me about the vibe of the album.
00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:24.880
Okay, so when I recorded that album, the idea was to take people on a trip.
00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:29.760
It was the idea was to take people on a trip to hear different styles of blues.
00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:31.599
We start with bad case of the blues.
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:32.000
Okay.
00:40:32.079 --> 00:40:34.079
So that's a very basic blues tune.
00:40:34.239 --> 00:40:40.400
It's very, you know, just acoustic guitar and like a little bit of like a little bit of bass in the background.
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:50.480
But what we did was we took a piece of we took a piece of plywood and we mic'd a piece of plywood, and I was stomping on the plywood, and that's the sound that you hear in the background that sounds like a bass drum.
00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:54.960
We mic'd a piece of plywood to make it sound like somebody sitting on a front porch, like down in the south.
00:40:55.199 --> 00:40:55.679
That's interesting.
00:40:55.840 --> 00:41:01.519
So yeah, so it it was designed to sound very basic, very Delta blues sounding.
00:41:01.679 --> 00:41:02.000
Okay.
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.159
Then we got When Grandpa Sang the Blues.
00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:06.079
Okay, when grandpa sang the blues.
00:41:06.159 --> 00:41:07.599
That one is a little more involved.
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:10.800
That one's got some some resonator guitar in it and stuff like that.
00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:15.760
And it's a true story about how I got into blues music listening to my grandpa.
00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:18.079
He used to sit on the porch when he lived in East St.
00:41:18.159 --> 00:41:18.400
Louis.
00:41:18.480 --> 00:41:27.840
He'd sit on the porch and he'd play guitar, and you'd see people from the neighborhood just come and flock to the front porch, and they'd sit on the on the lawn and listen to him play.
00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:32.880
And uh uh my grandma would just be sitting there right beside him and stomping her foot, you know.
00:41:33.119 --> 00:41:38.639
And that song is a true story about how I got into the blues because my grandpa was a preacher and played blues.
00:41:38.800 --> 00:41:39.119
Right.
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:39.760
All right.
00:41:39.920 --> 00:41:42.079
So then we got Roll My Sorrows Away.
00:41:42.559 --> 00:41:44.000
All right, that's a great one.
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:56.880
It's it's it's a little more involved, like there's drums and bass, and uh, and it talks about, you know, in my life, there's been days that I woke up and I just felt like I I was I felt the blues deep, you know.
00:41:57.039 --> 00:42:08.239
And I'd wake up and I'd grab my guitar and I just start playing, and it just eased my ease my mood because it starts off going, Well I get up in the morning, just before the break of day.
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:16.960
Well, I get up in the morning, just before the break of day, well, I play my blues and roll my sorrows away.
00:42:17.280 --> 00:42:17.599
Love it.
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:22.719
That's obviously what it talks about is getting up, playing, rolling your sorrows away.
00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:23.199
Okay.
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:24.960
We got walk out the blues.
00:42:25.119 --> 00:42:26.719
Oh, yeah, walk out the blues is a fun way.
00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:28.079
Just a funky little number.
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:32.800
Uh it talks about when you're feeling blue, getting up and just walking.
00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:35.599
Sometimes, sometimes you just gotta walk out your problems.
00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:44.079
You know, you just gotta get up and just, you know, one line in the song that says, I gotta walk out these blues because I won't let them be the death of me.
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:46.159
Saying, I got I gotta get up and do something.
00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:46.960
I gotta get moving.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:47.360
I'm gonna get it.
00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:47.840
Exactly.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:48.400
Yep.
00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:49.840
Land of milk and honey.
00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:59.199
Land of milk and honey is a song that was that I wrote that talks about basically my faith and how I believe in going to heaven.
00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:06.639
You know, because in the Bible it talks about that God gave the Israelites, his chosen people, a land flowing with milk and honey.
00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:08.079
And that's what it's talking about.
00:43:08.159 --> 00:43:12.559
It's talking about how one day I'll be back, I'll be in heaven with my mom.
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:14.639
You know, one day I won't have any troubles.
00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:16.719
I won't have any troubles no more.
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:20.960
I'll be in the land of milk and honey on God's golden shore.
00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:28.400
You know, part of the line kind of came from um the end part of uh uh the song they did at Old Brother Were Art Dow.
00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:29.199
Do you remember that song?
00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:31.039
Um Man of Constantoro.
00:43:31.519 --> 00:43:39.280
So one of the last lines they said is they talked about God's golden shore, and that's where I got that particular piece of lip from.
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:40.800
Very cool.
00:43:41.119 --> 00:43:44.639
And mind your own business, and then and you take care of you.
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:46.079
This song is fun.
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:48.239
This song is a New Orleans-based song.
00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:59.760
So as you can tell, as we're you know, talking about the songs, they're kind of progressing, kind of moving a little bit, sometimes west, sometimes, you know, uh sometimes uh north.
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:01.599
But mind your own business.
00:44:01.760 --> 00:44:06.639
That song I do out live because it makes a lot of people laugh.
00:44:06.800 --> 00:44:09.920
It basically talks about people that don't won't mind their business.
00:44:10.159 --> 00:44:11.039
Won't mind their own business.
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:11.519
Yes.
00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:12.079
Right.
00:44:12.239 --> 00:44:16.159
And uh if you don't mind, do you mind if I quote you some lyrics from the song?
00:44:16.239 --> 00:44:16.960
Oh, go for it.
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.480
So the first verse says, I used to know this woman in everybody's affair.
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:25.039
She'd tell you all about it and she wouldn't care.
00:44:25.199 --> 00:44:27.840
She walks six blocks just to gossip and talk.
00:44:28.800 --> 00:44:30.000
There's something she's got to do.
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:33.519
I said, Mind your own business and you take care of you.
00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:37.920
And then the chorus goes, Mind your own business, you take care of you.
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:39.039
You're gonna find out.
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:40.639
These words I say are true.
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:45.119
You got to quit your squawking, you got to quit your talking, telling everybody's news.
00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:47.280
Mind your own business and you take care of you.
00:44:47.519 --> 00:44:47.920
Come on.
00:44:48.079 --> 00:44:48.559
Get it.
00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:48.960
Yeah.
00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:49.840
There we go.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:45:04.239
And that's basically what it talks about is how people gossip and you know, and uh that that's that started because I used to live in an apartment building, and people, if they got whiff of anything, it would just turn into like a gossip fest.
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:05.920
Gossip fire going everywhere.
00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:09.119
Then we got hard hearing blues.
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:10.559
Hard hearing blues.
00:45:10.639 --> 00:45:11.360
Oh my gosh.
00:45:11.679 --> 00:45:13.760
I hate to say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:22.159
So one day I came home and I had some groceries in the vehicle, and I come up and I I told I I called to my wife.
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:26.000
My wife since passed, but I called her and said, Hey, I got some groceries.
00:45:26.159 --> 00:45:27.519
Can you help me bring them in the house?
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:28.800
No answer.
00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:31.679
I'm like, honey, went upstairs, went downstairs.
00:45:31.760 --> 00:45:32.480
I couldn't find her.
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:36.960
She was in the backyard sitting in the lawn, sitting in the lawn chair, smoking a cigarette, talking to one of her friends on the phone.
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:41.280
So I was like, I looked at her and said, you know what?
00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:43.679
You're giving me a case of the hard hearing blues.
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:45.039
And that's where it's like.
00:45:46.719 --> 00:46:04.559
It talks about basically how the person in the song, from a point of view, is trying to have a relationship with a person, but they can't have a relationship with that person because they talk about how they just won't hear, they won't understand, they don't, you know, comprehend.
00:46:04.880 --> 00:46:05.920
Story of the blues.
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:08.079
Story of the blues is a fun song.
00:46:08.159 --> 00:46:11.920
That is a it starts off with a very basic old sound.
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:17.920
Because the idea that I had was, you know, what if we start this song with just Wade in the Water?
00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:21.440
Because you know that's a public domain song because it's an old Negro spiritual.
00:46:21.599 --> 00:46:27.440
So we started off, and I told the guy that was doing the recording, I said, Can you add some record scratching and stuff to?
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.960
I said, I want this thing to sound like I'm in the holler somewhere.
00:46:31.119 --> 00:46:35.679
It starts on Wade in the water, wait in the water, you know, my God's gonna trouble the water.
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:38.400
And basically, that was the Negro spiritual part.
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:45.679
So as the song progresses, it basically not only tells the story of the blues, you know, a slave man in the cotton field singing out the blues.
00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:47.519
He ain't got no money, he ain't got no food.
00:46:47.679 --> 00:46:50.159
As the song progresses, it gets a little more livelier.
00:46:50.239 --> 00:46:52.079
And by the end of the song, it's like full electric.
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:58.639
So that's the idea of that song to take a that's the idea of the of that song is to take you on a trip.
00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:06.800
It's like the final trip to take you through all the blues from days of slavery to basically how it got electrified.
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:11.760
You know, so really it goes from about 1865 to about 1965.
00:47:11.920 --> 00:47:12.079
Okay.
00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:16.239
That 100-year stretch was of the evolution of the blue of blues music.
00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:17.360
Very cool.
00:47:17.599 --> 00:47:20.400
Then you got the title track, They Call Me Lefty Preacher.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:20.880
Yep.
00:47:21.119 --> 00:47:29.280
And basically that just talks about Yeah, it kind of tells the story, but it also, you know, it says they call me Lefty Preacher, I was born to sing the blues.
00:47:29.679 --> 00:47:32.480
They call me lefty preacher, I was blown to sing the blues, you know.
00:47:32.639 --> 00:47:36.400
It just talks and it talks about a I was born with a guitar in my left hand.
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:39.840
My mama said, Son, one day you're gonna be a big bad blues man.
00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:40.320
Okay.
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:49.840
So it just talks about my journey, you know, playing playing blues music and says I can play something soft and sweet or something to make you move your feet, you know.
00:47:50.159 --> 00:47:53.760
It just talks about, you know, the different blues stuff.
00:47:54.079 --> 00:47:56.880
And then we finish out with Born with the Blues.
00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:00.960
That is that is one of the most sentimental songs to me.
00:48:02.639 --> 00:48:20.000
Uh it's one of those songs where there's music, but I also speak in the song, and it talks about my struggles being in foster care, being in abused, sexually abused as a child, being beaten, being a lot of it goes back to that particular stuff that I dealt with in life.
00:48:20.239 --> 00:48:20.480
Sure.
00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:20.880
Yeah.
00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:21.360
Wow.
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:27.360
And it's one of those songs when I've played it, because I've been involved in the blues challenge in in Memphis.
00:48:27.599 --> 00:48:32.400
I think I went there and represented the Illinois Central Blues Club like eight or nine different times.
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:37.360
And in those eight or nine times that I represented, do you know anything about the about the uh blues challenge?
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:39.840
Well, I heard about Timo, I think, told me about it.
00:48:40.320 --> 00:48:41.280
Yeah, Timo told me about it.
00:48:44.079 --> 00:48:50.480
My my blues band, I I I got a group of people that I that play in my band, and we just kind of rotate and he's he's one of the guitar players.
00:48:50.719 --> 00:48:51.360
Okay, awesome.
00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:55.199
So Yeah, we talked about it a little bit, but other than that, I don't know a lot about it.
00:48:55.440 --> 00:48:59.440
So the blues challenge is the world's largest blues festival.
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:10.800
So it's a competition they do every year down in uh down in Memphis, and you basically just compete, and you the last day of the thing is a Saturday, and which is where when they have the finals.
00:49:10.960 --> 00:49:13.519
I'm a four-time world finalist in that competition.
00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:14.559
That's awesome.
00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:18.400
Me and another guy are the only ones that have ever been finalist in that competition four times.
00:49:18.639 --> 00:49:18.960
Wow.
00:49:19.119 --> 00:49:19.840
Congrats on that.
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:20.480
Thank you so much.
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:21.039
So cool.
00:49:21.679 --> 00:49:25.360
It's something I don't really talk about a lot because I don't like sounding like a bragger.
00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:27.039
That's an amazing accomplishment, though.
00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:33.039
But I'm very proud of it because you know it's uh it's something that, you know, only other one person I believe is done.
00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:36.079
Me and this other guy are the only ones in the entire world that have done it.
00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:36.800
That's amazing.
00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:43.280
And yeah, yeah, it's but I remember singing this song in the blues challenge because I did all the original material.
00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:56.880
And I remember when I sang the song, what really got me more than anything else is a guy come up to me who was one of the judges, and he had tears in his eyes, and he was crying, and he hugged me.
00:49:56.960 --> 00:50:00.960
He said, I've never had a blues song make me cry.
00:50:01.119 --> 00:50:01.440
Wow.
00:50:01.599 --> 00:50:07.519
He goes, I've never had something move me so much as that song that you that born with the blues.
00:50:07.840 --> 00:50:11.440
He's like, Man, that is just a powerful, powerful song.
00:50:11.679 --> 00:50:12.000
Wow.
00:50:12.079 --> 00:50:13.280
I'm looking forward to hearing it.
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:13.519
Yeah.
00:50:13.760 --> 00:50:14.480
I want to hear it.
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:17.199
So well, Robert, so much great stuff today, man.
00:50:17.519 --> 00:50:18.719
I loved hearing your story.
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:20.480
I appreciate the time, man.
00:50:20.559 --> 00:50:25.039
I I really appreciate uh you giving me the opportunity to tell folks what I do.
00:50:25.119 --> 00:50:26.880
And we might have to have you in again.
00:50:26.960 --> 00:50:29.119
We'll do a little live performance right here on Elevate Breaking.
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:29.679
I would love to.
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:33.119
Kind of like Timo he did one of his songs on the on the show here.
00:50:33.199 --> 00:50:34.079
So we might have to have you back on the show.
00:50:34.239 --> 00:50:36.400
By the way, Timo, you're doing great stuff, my friend.
00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:37.760
Keep doing what you do, man.
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:39.440
You you're doing great stuff, you know.
00:50:39.920 --> 00:50:40.400
Yes, indeed.
00:50:40.639 --> 00:50:47.760
And one thing I want to say before we get off the air is we musicians here in central Illinois need to support one another.
00:50:47.920 --> 00:50:53.920
It's very important that, you know, we show up to each other's gigs, that we, you know, just like you know, you say elevate Springfield.
00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:55.199
That's how we elevate each other.
00:50:55.679 --> 00:51:02.079
You know, it means a lot when you see your friends and your musical, you know, friends come to your gig and support you.
00:51:02.239 --> 00:51:03.840
This is not a competition, folks.
00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:06.880
This is it's about bringing music to the masses.
00:51:07.039 --> 00:51:09.199
It's about expressing yourself.
00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:11.920
And that's why, you know, I'm not down on any kind of music.
00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:14.239
There's other music I prefer more than other music.
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:17.599
But music is one of the great art forms.
00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:19.840
It's one of the last great art forms we have left.
00:51:19.920 --> 00:51:20.320
Yeah.
00:51:20.960 --> 00:51:26.639
That's why I'm saying people need to be creating more music instead of using AI to create the music for them.
00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:29.920
Music is so important, and I'm saying AI is good.
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:30.719
It's a good tool.
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:34.880
I use it once in a while just to give me some ideas about different structures.
00:51:34.960 --> 00:51:35.119
Yeah.
00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:38.400
But I have never released anything that was AI-based.
00:51:38.559 --> 00:51:47.599
And I'm not going to be down on somebody if they do use AI, but I'm saying if any way possible, it's a lot like when they talk about buy local, same kind of thing.
00:51:47.679 --> 00:51:47.760
Yeah.
00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:48.559
Same kind of thing.
00:51:48.719 --> 00:52:01.920
Support live musicians, support whatever genre you like, support that genre, support the blues, support classic country, support whatever it is that you like, and continue to help these people grow, because that's important.
00:52:02.239 --> 00:52:02.960
No doubt about it.
00:52:03.039 --> 00:52:04.960
And come out and see Robert over at Full Genzies.
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:06.159
So this Wednesday.
00:52:06.480 --> 00:52:06.880
There you go.
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:10.960
Well, let's let's close out with these last couple of things, just like I always like to do.
00:52:11.039 --> 00:52:18.239
Let's give the audience a piece of advice, one on the professional side, one on the personal side to help them elevate their life or business.
00:52:18.719 --> 00:52:21.440
On the professional side, I say keep growing.
00:52:21.679 --> 00:52:23.519
Don't let yourself become stagnant.
00:52:23.599 --> 00:52:26.719
Don't let yourself become, you know, one-dimensional.
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:28.880
You know, continue to improve yourself.
00:52:29.199 --> 00:52:32.079
And I would say on the personal side, the exact same thing.
00:52:32.719 --> 00:52:37.280
Because it's it's not just a personal thing, it's professionally.
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:41.199
Because let's face it, personally affects professionally.
00:52:41.599 --> 00:52:48.000
So you have to make sure that you, you know, keep yourself level-headed and keep bringing joy to people.
00:52:48.559 --> 00:52:50.079
Just keep bringing joy to people.
00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:55.119
If there's anything I can say more than anything else, just keep bringing joy into people's life.
00:52:55.199 --> 00:52:57.039
And this is the reason I say bring joy.
00:52:57.280 --> 00:53:02.159
Happiness is what we call temporal, which means it's it only lasts for a while.
00:53:02.800 --> 00:53:04.320
Joy is within the soul.
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:06.320
Nobody can take your joy.
00:53:06.559 --> 00:53:09.199
People can affect your happiness, but nobody can steal your joy.
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:13.119
And I say don't let anybody steal your joy, no matter who it is.
00:53:13.519 --> 00:53:17.280
And then continue to live the best life that you can live.
00:53:17.519 --> 00:53:18.239
Come on.
00:53:18.400 --> 00:53:25.280
And is there anything we could do community-wide to help all of us here elevate Springfield and all the surrounding communities?
00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:26.719
Help each other.
00:53:26.880 --> 00:53:28.960
That is the biggest thing.
00:53:29.280 --> 00:53:34.000
Don't look down upon somebody just because they may be homeless or they may not have what you have.
00:53:34.239 --> 00:53:38.239
If you've been blessed with a lot, give a little bit from what you have.
00:53:38.559 --> 00:53:43.679
Because if you've been blessed with a lot, oh, there's a song we sing in my church because I forgot to mention that.
00:53:43.760 --> 00:53:45.119
I'm also a music minister at my church.
00:53:45.360 --> 00:53:45.760
Oh, nice.
00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:46.000
All right.
00:53:46.079 --> 00:53:46.320
Very cool.
00:53:46.639 --> 00:53:47.440
Spirit of faith church.
00:53:47.599 --> 00:53:49.920
So we sing this song when we get ready to do the offering.
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:52.400
It's a song called You Can't Beat God's Giving.
00:53:52.559 --> 00:54:00.480
And it talks about, you know, that you can't beat, you know, what God gives you because you can't outgive God.
00:54:00.639 --> 00:54:05.519
And when God gives you something, he expects you to take a little bit of what you give and give it to other people.
00:54:05.679 --> 00:54:08.480
Like I said, remember earlier when I was talking about the cycle thing?
00:54:08.639 --> 00:54:09.840
It's all about a cycle.
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:13.519
You know, we give, God gives to us, we give to the world.
00:54:13.760 --> 00:54:15.840
The world gives back to us, we give back to God.
00:54:16.079 --> 00:54:16.719
There you go.
00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:19.920
Well, Robert, man, I had a great time hearing your story, man.
00:54:20.239 --> 00:54:21.519
But thank you so much for having me.
00:54:21.679 --> 00:54:22.719
It's nice to have another Robert.
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:23.599
That's right.
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:24.400
That's right.
00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:29.199
So if somebody wants to learn more about you, maybe, maybe pick up one of these guys.
00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:30.639
Yeah, I have it with me.
00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:36.159
You can also look me up on Facebook under uh uh Lefty Robert Lefty Preacher.
00:54:36.239 --> 00:54:36.960
You can look that up.
00:54:37.119 --> 00:54:38.480
Look me up on my personal page.
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:40.480
I have a page called Music Man Entertainment.
00:54:40.559 --> 00:54:42.800
It's called Robert Sampson's Music Man Entertainment.
00:54:42.880 --> 00:54:46.880
If you look that up on uh Facebook, that's where I usually put my schedule.
00:54:47.039 --> 00:54:51.679
And you can always get a hold of me at Yamaha Keyboardman at gmail.com.
00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:53.199
I chose a short email.
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:54.639
Right, right, right.
00:54:54.800 --> 00:54:55.440
There you go.
00:54:55.679 --> 00:54:58.880
So if you guys want to get a hold of me, I'm always free for bookings.
00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:01.599
I also hire myself out to play with bands too.
00:55:01.679 --> 00:55:09.440
If there's like somebody needs like a keyboard player or a guitarist, can't promise you I'm gonna be what's right for your genre music.
00:55:09.760 --> 00:55:15.440
But if the fit works well, hey, I'd be glad to help anybody out the best I can.
00:55:15.519 --> 00:55:18.159
And uh I want to thank you for having me, man.
00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:18.719
Absolutely.
00:55:18.800 --> 00:55:19.280
It's been amazing.
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:22.320
When I reached out to you, I, you know, I just felt the warmth, man.
00:55:22.480 --> 00:55:23.599
I was like, man, that's awesome.
00:55:23.760 --> 00:55:26.880
I was like, this, I said, you know, because I found out about what you did through Timo.
00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:27.679
Oh, I okay.
00:55:28.159 --> 00:55:31.920
Yeah, and I was like, man, I'd love to get on that show and talk a little bit.
00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:33.199
I appreciate you coming by.
00:55:33.280 --> 00:55:35.440
I'm looking forward to listening to this.
00:55:35.599 --> 00:55:41.360
I love the the heart and soul that you put into all these songs, it sounds like, and just told your story through that.
00:55:41.440 --> 00:55:43.119
And I'm I'm really looking forward to it.
00:55:43.920 --> 00:55:48.320
If if any of you get a chance to come see me out live, please do so.
00:55:48.559 --> 00:55:51.760
Come up and say hi, shake my hand, give me a hug.
00:55:51.920 --> 00:55:53.599
Hey, I'm an easy-going guy.
00:55:53.840 --> 00:55:54.480
There you go.
00:55:54.639 --> 00:56:01.199
Well, we're gonna let Robert get back to Elevating Springfield, or the lefty preacher out elevating Springfield.
00:56:01.360 --> 00:56:01.679
Right on.
00:56:01.840 --> 00:56:03.760
But for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back.
00:56:04.079 --> 00:56:09.679
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Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody.
00:57:17.039 --> 00:57:19.360
Appreciate you making us a part of your day.
00:57:19.519 --> 00:57:22.320
Hey, don't forget while you're out on social, check ours out.
00:57:22.400 --> 00:57:26.320
You can check my personal one out at RobertFarrell at everywhere.
00:57:26.719 --> 00:57:32.079
Check out those Elevate Springfield pages, those big dog business coaching pages as well.
00:57:32.320 --> 00:57:34.159
Check us out over on YouTube.
00:57:34.719 --> 00:57:39.360
Give us a subscribe, give us a like or a follow on any of those channels.
00:57:39.519 --> 00:57:41.599
We would certainly appreciate it.
00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:44.480
So, hey, take what you learned today.
00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:48.000
You bring the discipline and follow through and together.
00:57:48.239 --> 00:57:49.199
That's right, y'all.
00:57:49.360 --> 00:57:50.960
We're gonna elevate Springfield.
00:57:51.199 --> 00:57:51.840
Be great.
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:56.800
When I first walked into Shudokong Karate Club, I was just looking for a way to get stronger.
00:57:56.880 --> 00:57:59.280
But what I found was so much more.
00:57:59.440 --> 00:58:02.320
Here we train in traditional karate, the real stuff.
00:58:02.480 --> 00:58:04.239
Passed down through generations.
00:58:04.400 --> 00:58:06.880
Every punch, every kata has purpose.
00:58:06.960 --> 00:58:10.639
I've learned self discipline, confidence, and how to protect myself.
00:58:10.960 --> 00:58:12.960
Not just in class, but in real life.
00:58:13.119 --> 00:58:15.840
It's not about being aggressive, it's about being prepared.
00:58:16.239 --> 00:58:18.800
This is more than a club, it's a way of life.
00:58:19.039 --> 00:58:20.480
Join us at Shudo Khan.
00:58:20.800 --> 00:58:22.480
Traditional, powerful, real.