Episode 2: Travis Fields - The Professor of Shred

WEBVTT
00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:16.399
Hey, and welcome to the Live Screen Holler Podcast with your host, me, David Banjo Barnett.
00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:19.120
And let's get down to Holler and see who today is.
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:21.199
Come on, join us.
00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:24.879
Take this seat, have a sit down, and let's get going.
00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:40.560
Hello, friends, neighbors, and all the folks out in Podcast Land.
00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.280
Welcome to episode number two of the Five String Holler Podcast.
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.399
Thank you all so much for your support with episode one.
00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:54.240
We now got us a brand new Facebook page you can go follow and share with your friends.
00:00:54.479 --> 00:01:01.359
You can find us on all your streaming platforms such as Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and others.
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:07.519
Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is one that I am super excited to have on the show.
00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:14.159
I've known this feller ever since I stepped into his classroom as a high school student almost 20 years ago.
00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:16.239
This guy wears many hats.
00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:28.640
He's a killer guitar player, singer, songwriter, teacher, mentor, podcast host himself, and a dad, and above all, he is one of the best men on the planet.
00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:33.840
He just released his new album, Next Last Resort, that we will talk more about.
00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.000
Please make welcome my good buddy Travis Fields.
00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:39.680
That's a heck of an introduction.
00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:40.480
Thank you.
00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:43.120
Buddy, thank you for coming on the podcast.
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.840
I can't I can't believe you're sitting here on my podcast.
00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:46.959
This is just so great.
00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.519
I I I'm thrilled about it myself.
00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.519
I'm I've been looking forward to it.
00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:58.879
Oh man, I tell you what, you are absolutely one of the finest musicians in the county, one of the finest people I know in the county.
00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.280
And uh a lot of folks look up to you now.
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:03.439
They're gonna dig this when I really believe.
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:04.560
I know I sure am.
00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.439
Well, I appreciate it, and I'm I'm I'm glad.
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:08.719
Oh yeah, man.
00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:09.280
Yeah.
00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:11.280
Like I said, you got a new album out.
00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:15.360
We want to talk about that a little bit first, you know, because we gotta we gotta promote that new album.
00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.879
We want people to listen to it, get it out there in the airwaves.
00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.800
Uh it's a new album, uh Travis Field's uh Next Last Resort.
00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:24.719
Where can people find this record, man?
00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:28.240
Uh a lot of the same places that you just mentioned for your podcast.
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:37.759
Uh Apple Music, um, also uh Amazon Music, YouTube music, um, uh Spotify, definitely.
00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.680
Um I think that's most of the streaming platforms it's on.
00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:46.560
But if you listen to a different streaming platform, I'm sure it's on there too, because it distributes to all of them.
00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:50.240
Um so yeah, just about any streaming music platform will have it.
00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:52.240
Good deal, good deal.
00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.879
Folks, make sure you check out that record.
00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:55.759
That is a good album.
00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:57.840
He put his heart and soul into that.
00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:03.840
Wrote the songs on it, and we all know when you write songs that come straight from the heart, they hit the hardest.
00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:05.199
Yeah, I think so.
00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:06.159
Absolutely.
00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:13.280
That is definitely one thing uh about songwriting is when it's personal, it really sticks.
00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:15.360
Well, I think people can tell.
00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:23.919
I think people can tell when music's honest, and I know I can, and I know you can too, because uh, you know, you said that I was one of the finest musicians.
00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.520
I uh I consider you one of the finest musicians I've ever known.
00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:31.039
Oh Lord buddy, I just sum around, I don't do much of nothing.
00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:42.960
Well then we're in the same boat, but but no man, I mean I if if you listen to a song and and sometimes it hits in the it hits you in the feels and it's like, man, I've been there.
00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:43.840
Heck yeah.
00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:45.439
You know, I know what that feels like.
00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:55.599
Or when, you know, in the good moments, or even if it's in a brokenhearted moment, whatever, when you feel it, when you hit that and it's like, yeah, I needed to hear that.
00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:01.120
You know, you can tell so that somebody's been where you've been, and I think that means a lot more to people.
00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:07.680
And to me, that's the ultimate compliment is for somebody to say, you know what, man, that that song touched me.
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.360
Uh, I've been there, you know, and it really got me through some hard times.
00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:17.439
And so I mean that to me, I don't care if it ever makes a dime as long as it helps or or means something to somebody.
00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:18.160
Right.
00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:26.720
Well, I tell you, it's uh it's kind of why I guess why one of my favorite singers in the world is old George Jones, is because he lived everything he sung.
00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:26.959
Yeah.
00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:33.600
And you can tell it when somebody such as yourself writes something like that that you lived, you can hear it.
00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:34.319
You can tell it.
00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:35.439
You can tell it.
00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:43.360
Well, so on this podcast, you know, you're one of to me, you're one of the East Kentucky legends, I call it.
00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:46.160
You're just one of these guys that you're a great musician.
00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:51.279
I've known you since you were my teacher, and after all these years, we're still friends.
00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:53.199
You're one of my favorite people in the world.
00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:57.120
But a lot of folks, you know, they kind of they they want to know about you.
00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.680
So I I want to go back to childhood.
00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:00.160
Okay.
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:06.800
So tell us about growing up and like when music kind of come into the picture.
00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:07.519
Okay.
00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:27.839
Uh well, growing up, even as a as a young fella myself, uh as a child, I've looked through the photo albums with my mom and stuff, and and beyond the memories that I even had, she had pictures of me holding guitars and stuff like that when I was two or three years old, and and just packing them around.
00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:32.000
Um so I there was always a musical instrument in the house.
00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:35.120
Um, but now neither of my parents played anything.
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:36.879
They both loved music.
00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:40.720
Uh my mom always listened to music, always.
00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:44.800
And usually it was loud, and you know, you could hear it all through the house.
00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:54.800
So, you know, and I I even found it some of my earliest memories are the melodies and things I'd hear, and it would be like those stuck with me.
00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:11.040
And so, growing up, like I said, that I always had that, and she and I were watching music videos one night, and uh the poison video for Nothing But a Good Time came on, and this and their guitar player, C C Deville, changed guitars like five times in the video.
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:18.399
Had all these flashy, cool-looking guitars, had graphics or neon colors, and I was like, I won't be that dude.
00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:20.319
I'm gonna be like that guy.
00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:22.160
And they were like, Really?
00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:24.399
You know, you want to learn how to play?
00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:25.680
And I was like, I do.
00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:34.560
So uh they did that when I was eight or nine years old, I think nine, they bought me a little service merchandise guitar to learn on.
00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:43.839
Um, but now going back even further, um, some of my earliest memories, too, uh being five or six years old, my dad's half-brothers would come by the house.
00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:49.279
AO and Wid Fields, also well-known musicians in the neighborhood.
00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:50.399
Yeah.
00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:52.879
I know we'd banjo player, yeah.
00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:56.000
Yes, my dad's half-brother.
00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:56.879
Didn't know that.
00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:59.439
I know we'd yeah, absolutely.
00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:12.720
So yeah, they're all, I mean, they all played music, and I in my mom's family, my papa, uh, one of the deals he made with me was that if I learned how to play, he'd give me one.
00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:14.800
Give you a guitar?
00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:15.680
Give me a guitar.
00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:16.160
Wow.
00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:16.800
And he did.
00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:20.240
Uh when I learned how to play, he gave me a Martin D35.
00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:23.920
And uh, yeah, I'll never forget that.
00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:24.639
Wow.
00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:27.920
And so, yeah, I mean, I was surrounded by music.
00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.680
But now as a kid, uh, they were impressive.
00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.519
Yeah, I got it, and I could enjoy the music, but that wasn't rock and roll.
00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:38.079
I mean, that that wasn't what I was interested in.
00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:42.800
So I didn't know that the fundamentals for both, you know, it was all the same.
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:47.360
So, like what what was what was playing that you and mama was listening to?
00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:53.680
Like what some of the bands, some of the stuff you remember her playing around the house, blasting it and having a good time.
00:07:54.079 --> 00:08:04.240
You remember, I don't know if you've ever seen this or not, you're probably too young, but there was an album set that came out that used to be advertised on Infomercials called Freedom Rock.
00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.519
Um, and it was just an album set of of classic rock songs.
00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:11.040
She would play those.
00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:13.839
Uh, I remember Smoke on the Water being on that.
00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:17.360
Um crap, I can't even remember all of them.
00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:21.120
Uh Santana's Black Magic Woman was on it.
00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:25.360
Um and my dad was a big Bob Seeger and Leonard Skinnard fan.
00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.240
So he always had that playing in the car.
00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:34.399
And, you know, it was no surprise that though those were kind of where my interests would be.
00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:35.519
Right.
00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:38.559
So yeah, they always had music like that playing.
00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.440
Um mostly the classic rock band.
00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:44.080
So that explains why you're a big Leonard Skinnard fan.
00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:44.559
Yeah.
00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:59.919
One of my favorite things that ever happened, I I think the best thing my dad ever gave me, besides that guitar for Christmas, um, the only thing I remember being any better than that guitar was the he had found he drove a truck.
00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:01.600
He drove a coal truck.
00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:05.840
He had found the Skinnard tape in it, live from the Fox Theater.
00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:07.679
It's called One More From the Road.
00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:08.240
Dang.
00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:10.000
And he gave it to me.
00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:17.120
He had it in the truck, and he'd listen to it, and I f he I went for a ride along with him, and it was like, man, I love this.
00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:18.879
He's well here, take it home.
00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:28.159
So I took it home and I'd sit for hours, rewind and play, rewind and play until I learned pretty much every song on it.
00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:32.799
And yeah, I mean that was that was a life changer for me.
00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:33.600
Wow.
00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:38.320
So live at the Fox Theater was scanned, was that that moment.
00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:39.279
That was it.
00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.600
That was the moment that changed.
00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:47.759
Cause everybody's always that's why I was on my last episode, you know, I was talking with uh uh Brent.
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.759
Everybody's always got that moment that's like a a ha.
00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:52.639
Mm-hmm.
00:09:53.440 --> 00:10:00.159
It's that make your ear perks up and something hits you and it lights a fire underneath your hind end and you cannot stop it.
00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:00.639
Yep.
00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:02.480
So it was live at the Fox Theater.
00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:03.759
It was Leonard Skinner.
00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.879
I could feel that energy, you know, from a good live show.
00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:08.320
Was that the original band?
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:08.799
Yes.
00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:09.360
Oh.
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.559
Uh it was recorded the year I was born.
00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:16.240
So yeah.
00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:18.399
How about that?
00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:19.600
Yeah, that's interesting.
00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:20.480
That is.
00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:28.000
It was recorded in 1976, and I was born that year, so that's amazing out there.
00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:32.639
I mean that's dag on if that don't give you till bumps, I don't know what will.
00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:39.679
Alright, so what age did you start learning to play the guitar?
00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:49.759
Somewhere uh in the I think ten, I guess, would be when I actually f started uh really trying.
00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:53.519
Um I kind of thumbed around on it when I first got it.
00:10:54.799 --> 00:11:08.399
And we kinda it's the thing about my dad, he worked all the time, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, so they didn't know a lot of people, and my papa was busy, so they really couldn't give me any lessons or anything.
00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:15.519
So we really didn't know how to, you know, turn me or g get me to uh some lessons to learn.
00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:27.919
Well fate intervened and my dad had a rental house and one of the tenants was a really good guitar player, and he played rock and jazz and that kind of stuff.
00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:28.720
What was his name?
00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:29.840
Wynn Whitaker.
00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:31.120
Wynn Whitaker.
00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:36.960
And uh my dad asked him, said, Would you be interested in teaching my son?
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:38.480
And he did.
00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:41.600
He agreed to it, and I'll never forget it.
00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:51.919
Uh he had this little purple notebook that he made for me that had this big narrative in it about how playing guitar is like playing anything else, like playing a sport or anything else.
00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:58.159
You have to put your time in, you have to be dedicated to it, and you have to be serious when you do it, or it doesn't take.
00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:00.000
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:04.960
And so I remember reading that I can I I can see it in my mind right now.
00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:13.840
And so, and then every other lesson, every lesson that we did he would have written out prior to so that I can take it home with me and study it.
00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:16.480
And so I I started learning from him.
00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:23.519
I took maybe six months worth of lessons from him, and then he moved away.
00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.279
And so into guitar lessons.
00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:29.759
Well, at six months' time though, what did he teach you?
00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:36.559
I mean, was it just basic chords, or did you know you said he was a jazz player, and most of them jazz guys, man, they know that neck up and down.
00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:37.519
He did.
00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:43.600
Um taught me a lot of scales uh and how to apply scales to certain things.
00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:44.000
Okay.
00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.039
And then he also showed me a lot of chord theory.
00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:55.919
Um, you know, and I thought that that's probably been the most beneficial thing is showing me all the the you know the different positions for chords and things like that.
00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:59.519
So yeah, I mean he he really opened my eyes to a lot of things.
00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:08.399
So in other words, I guess what I was getting at is he gave you within that six months' time, he gave you the tools to for you to take off.
00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:09.200
Yeah.
00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:10.000
Cool.
00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:14.799
Because all I needed at that point uh was that skinner tape which I got.
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.840
And by that time I knew what I could do.
00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:25.200
And so I'd I sat down and I learned them as close as I could, you know, knowing what I knew.
00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:26.480
Right, right.
00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:32.799
And so, yeah, I kind of just started ear training after that, and I never did take another lesson.
00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:35.120
Play playing by ear.
00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:37.279
That's I think that's how mo that's how I done.
00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:41.279
I know it's most of the guy most of us around here, I think it's how we did.
00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:41.919
Yeah.
00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:43.840
I never knew any formal theory.
00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.879
Maybe that's where he was gonna go if we would have had more lessons because he did know it.
00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:50.960
But uh, we just never got around to that.
00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:52.720
Yeah, I never did that.
00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.440
I didn't learn no theory stuff till I got older.
00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:56.159
Right.
00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:15.600
And I'm still hey, honestly, the most theory I've ever been taught has been through talking to the miscrint from the Bitterpickle Podcast, uh my buddy Brian, and uh another buddy, Levi Codle, has has shown me some chord theories and things like that, some different theories that I didn't know.
00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:23.600
So, yeah, that's and I'm 50 years old, so I know I went one time, I think my first studio session I done.
00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:32.480
I walked in the door, this guy wrote uh wrote me a chart out, and it had one, four, and five, and two M and two star and all this.
00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:35.360
I'm like, buddy, what what what is this?
00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:35.759
Yeah.
00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:39.840
And he looked at me and I thought he's gonna he turned pale as a ghost.
00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:42.879
And I'm like, I don't know how to read this.
00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:44.799
Yeah, I don't know what this is.
00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.960
And uh he said, Oh Lord, so how you gonna?
00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:50.080
I said, just let me listen.
00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.720
So I'd listen to it like one take, and then the next take I'd put my part down.
00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:59.600
And at the end, he's like, you done good, but you need to learn how to read charts.
00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:01.679
So, yeah, all that theory stuff.
00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.840
I didn't learn it until I got older.
00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:04.159
Yeah.
00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:05.679
Yeah.
00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:15.039
Well, and I think that's a lot of it's because anybody who have that we have access to in our area, anybody they're just as ear-trained as we are.
00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:20.639
Well, that's why I told that's why I talked about too, and I talked about this with you before and a bunch of people.
00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.720
When I was learning how to play the banjo, YouTube wasn't around.
00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:25.440
No, sir.
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:26.720
God I wish it was.
00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:27.279
It wouldn't.
00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:30.320
Like YouTube hadn't even it it hadn't become a thing.
00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:45.360
So like the only thing I had to go by was what I saw on TV or what I saw from some of the home trained guys around here until I figured out, you know, what was right and what was wrong, and then I was able to teach myself.
00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:47.039
But I mean, Ebbs, it's hard.
00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:47.519
Right.
00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:49.039
That's a hard road hole.
00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:50.080
It really is.
00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:54.559
Because, like you say, we didn't have all the technological things.
00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:02.320
Because I mean, it's just like right now, people ask me all the time, uh, will you teach my kid how to play or whatever?
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.799
It's like I'd be glad to, but YouTube can teach them for free.
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:08.159
You know what I'm saying?
00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:08.559
Right.
00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:22.960
And and really and truly, i uh uh to this day, if I need to learn a song quickly, somebody mentions like my my bands mentioned, hey look, we need to do this song or whatever, can you have it ready by Saturday?
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:24.159
I'll go to YouTube.
00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:24.799
Alright.
00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:25.840
And I'll watch it.
00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:26.960
Yeah, I'll learn it from there.
00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:28.480
I still listen to the recorder.
00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:29.279
Oh, I do too.
00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:34.480
I do, but now like with you know, with pedal, still guitar, learning, learning licks and stuff like that, YouTube.
00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:36.159
Yeah, that's where I go.
00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:36.799
Yeah.
00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:43.440
Yeah, I mean, can you imagine what it would have our learning process would have been like had we'd had access to it?
00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.320
I'd probably been able to play more than two chords.
00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:47.600
Yeah, me too.
00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:48.960
Me too, buddy.
00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:50.080
I seen it.
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:51.759
I seen him do it.
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:56.320
Oh, so you you learn how to play the guitar.
00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.480
Uh of course, Mr.
00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:00.639
Whitaker taught you quite a bit there.
00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:02.559
Six months worth of really good lessons.
00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:03.600
Yeah, they were really good.
00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:07.279
Motivation from that Fox Theater live recording of Leonard Skandard.
00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.079
When did you get when did you get your first band?
00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:16.640
Well, I was Or better yet, when did you start meeting people that wanted to put together a band?
00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:23.119
Actually, I never met the weird thing is, uh I I'm a shy kid.
00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:25.759
Uh I'm a shy adult.
00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:29.119
Uh, but I didn't know anybody.
00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.599
Because in my school that I went to, nobody actually played.
00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:35.839
So I was the only one.
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.119
Where did you go to school at?
00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:37.680
Letcher.
00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:38.799
Letcher elementary.
00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:40.720
So you were still in elementary school.
00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:41.920
I was in middle school.
00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:43.119
Middle school, they call it.
00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:43.839
Yeah.
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.480
Um I by the time I was 13, my dad, like I said, he drove a truck.
00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:59.200
Well, he got laid off, and so a couple of um him and another buddy that he worked with, whose name was Daryl Sparkman, uh formed a trucking company together.
00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:02.480
They bought him a truck and hauled independently.
00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:12.000
Well, during this process, my dad learned that Daryl had a boy, Daryl Jr., who also played music.
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:18.880
And had started a little band and wanted to and had invited me to come hang out and jam with him.
00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:19.920
Right, right.
00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:28.240
So I go, and being the shy kid I am, I stand behind a nice rafter in the basement so that I don't have to be seen too much.
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:33.440
And I plug my stuff in and um what was you playing at the time?
00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:42.160
At the time I had a Kramer XL3, um kind of a cheaper mid-level guitar.
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:43.200
What color was it?
00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:43.839
It was red.
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:44.240
Red.
00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:47.680
Had a black pit guard, had two single coils and a humbucker in it.
00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:53.839
Um and I had a it was a quantum amp covered in gray carpet.
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:55.119
Quantum.
00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:56.400
I don't think I've ever seen one of that one.
00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:03.440
They were a musician's friend early on, that was their particular, I guess, sponsored brand.
00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:06.319
I think I seen a quantum multi-fX pedal one time.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:06.880
Mm-hmm.
00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:08.559
Seems like I saw that.
00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:14.559
But that they this little amplifier, I mean, it was a small one, but it was decent enough.
00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:16.960
I think it was 35, 40 watts or something like that.
00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:20.160
He could hang with a uh a band if need be.
00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:20.640
Mm-hmm.
00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:26.720
And so I plugged all that in and was kind of feeling it out and watching them.
00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:31.599
Um and they uh Daryl was a big Guns N' Roses fan.
00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:33.920
So what year was this?
00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:35.519
God almighty.
00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:37.359
Uh let me think.
00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:41.440
Ninety one, ninety, ninety-one, okay.
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:42.160
Something like that.
00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:42.720
Okay.
00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:47.839
And uh so I started just kind of following them and jamming along with them.
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.680
And they asked me to join the band.
00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:53.279
So I did.
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:55.759
And we called ourselves Speed Limit.
00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:57.200
Speed Limit.
00:19:57.920 --> 00:19:59.200
And uh That's cool.
00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.599
Yeah, we learned a bunch of songs, 80s hard rock metal songs.
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.519
And we even uh we learned some dance type songs as well.
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:08.559
Right, right.
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.960
And so we started playing the local areas.
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:17.200
Uh a lot of the our favorite place and the place that liked us the best was Cornitsville Fire Department.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:20.160
And they would host dances every weekend.
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:21.039
Right, right.
00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:25.119
And so we'd go and play for these dances every weekend.
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:31.039
And and uh, you know, for a kid making thirty-five, forty bucks a weekend.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:34.160
Sitting on top of the world, I was on top of the world, man.
00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:35.920
I'd hit the big time, you know.
00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:38.720
You remember who else was in this band beside you and Daryl?
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.839
Me and Daryl and Alonzo Holbrook played drums.
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:43.200
He was from Line Fork.
00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:43.440
Uh-huh.
00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:45.359
Not Line Fork, Leatherwood, I'm sorry.
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:50.480
And Todd Hall, I also think he was from uh Leatherwood.
00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:57.039
And uh Todd he wasn't into it as much as the rest of us was.
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:04.160
So he would sometimes ghost us at a show on the board or wouldn't show.
00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:07.920
And so we uh Daryl and I made a pact.
00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:10.000
It's like, man, let's learn the bass.
00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:11.519
We'll learn the parts that way.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:16.559
By now, if he screws us on these gigs, uh one of us can play the bass.
00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:17.440
And cover each other.
00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:18.160
And cover each other.
00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:18.960
Well, yeah.
00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:24.079
And even we could swap out halfway through and whatever we play while and you play while.
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:27.359
So then that's how I learned how to play the bass.
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:31.200
Is learning how to keep up for yeah.
00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:32.559
Cover for somebody.
00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:33.440
Cover for somebody.
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.079
That's kind of how I learned to play the bass, too.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:38.960
Maybe that's how we get forced into playing them things.
00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.720
Yeah, it is out of necessity, man.
00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:41.599
That's where it is.
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.480
That's why that's the same reason I learned how to play drums.
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:53.440
Is because sometimes you couldn't trust the people to show up or even uh uh uh find people who's interested in doing.
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:54.400
That's true.
00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:55.359
That is true.
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.119
I've I've experienced that myself quite a bit.
00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:02.160
Eh, that's the way it goes.
00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:03.359
You gotta pick up, move on.
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:03.920
That's right.
00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:08.079
And you know, the only albums, and I I heard a a friend of mine say this the other day.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:12.799
He said, when I was telling him about the album, he doesn't know me very well.
00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:14.559
He's a recent acquaintance.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:15.119
Uh huh.
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:20.799
And uh he said, Man, did you perform these songs on this album all by yourself?
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:22.240
I was like, Yeah.
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:24.799
He's like, Man, why didn't you lead with that?
00:22:25.279 --> 00:22:29.200
He said, I would have been so much more interested had I known you performed it all.
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:38.880
He said, 'Cause he said, I just assumed you'd hired some kind of studio band or something like that to play these songs while you played uh your solos and sang on them.
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:40.880
I said, No, man, that's all me.
00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.119
Um I said, I learned how to play the bass, the drums, and all that stuff.
00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:56.400
I said, mainly because I wanted to have people at my disposal at any time I wanted to, and that's the only way I could do that is to do it myself.
00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:03.039
So, just for the record here, we'll put we'll put another plug in for that new album, Next Last Resort.
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:10.640
If you go, folks, go find that record, it's on Spotify, Apple Music, all the places you can stream music.
00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:16.559
Just know that this man right here played all the instruments and done all the singing on that record.
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:17.599
Yes, sir.
00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:18.960
And that's a good album.
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:20.000
Seriously, take it out.
00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:20.960
You won't regret it.
00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:21.440
Thank you.
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:22.079
I appreciate it.
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:22.960
That's kind of like me.
00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:29.119
That's why I bought that drum set you see over there, is because I want to do some demos and stuff of songs that I wrote.
00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:43.839
And I've got band in a box and my laptop, and it's it's a good tool, but dang, you spend an hour trying to figure out what numbers and how many dots to put in that little box to get them drums to do what you want.
00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.519
When you could easily figure it out, I'd just like I'll do it myself.
00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:48.160
That's right.
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:49.680
You can perform it yourself.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:58.000
And that's kind of the reason I did that too, is because you know, you can't always I'm impatient in some ways.
00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.599
And I'm impatient on that.
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.240
If I've got a song idea, I want to get it down.
00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:03.200
All of it.
00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:08.240
I don't want to just record a part here and wait for somebody to come put their part on or whatever.
00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:09.759
I want to do it right then.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:13.200
While the inspiration is with me, I'm gonna do it right then.
00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:15.759
And so that's kind of why I learned how to do it that way.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:20.079
Because you can't always have people at your disposal to do it when you want to do it.
00:24:20.559 --> 00:24:22.000
Don't like drum machines.
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:22.720
Like drums.
00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:24.000
Like drums.
00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:28.720
Oh Lord, I love a good inside joke.
00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:39.599
So, this band, uh Speed Limit, y'all must have done it pretty good because I saw your mom commenting on their little ad last night that you had a mastered version of Sweet Child of Mine.
00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:40.400
Yeah.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:46.079
Um, like I said, Daryl was uh a big time Guns N' Roses fan.
00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:47.920
And he was he loved that song.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.920
And man, he put a lot of time and effort into mastering that song.
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:54.960
Um I never played the first lead note in it, he did.
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:57.200
I always played the rhythm in that one.
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:00.720
And and that's kind of what I said to him.
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:09.039
He called me the goat on that thing, and he he often does compliment, but now he is an amazing guitar player himself.
00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:15.359
Uh and if you ever look him up on his page, he does some covers, Guns N' Roses and Slash covers.
00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:16.640
He's he's amazing.
00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:17.359
Nope for no.
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:21.519
If you say he's amazing, then I that's a good enough word for me.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:22.079
He is.
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:22.880
He's amazing.
00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:24.480
I take your word for that.
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:28.480
Daryl, we're gonna be watching you out there, buddy, if you listen to this.
00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:31.599
Yep, and we're planning a jam, me and him trying to get back together.
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:33.039
And yeah, we're gonna try it.
00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:34.160
That'd be great.
00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:37.920
Just if nothing else, for just the old time's sake, just to kick it around, you know.
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:39.039
Man, stuff like that.
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:51.440
That's that's stuff like that is is to me, I think it's awesome when you go back and get with folks that you start, you know, started playing with years ago, and if you ain't played together in a long time, man, that's that's pretty cool.
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:52.160
It's fun.
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:53.359
Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:56.559
Yeah, yeah, you get to reacquaint yourself with it, you know, one another.
00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:00.880
So was that the only band you played with like through your high school years?
00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:04.880
Yeah, I actually didn't even play with them through most of the high school years.
00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:08.400
We managed to go to I think maybe sophomore year.
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:08.880
Right.
00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:12.319
And then everybody kind of split off and started doing their own things.
00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:12.720
Okay.
00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:14.079
You know, you know how it is.
00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:20.640
When life gets serious, you know, when you start driving and you know, you start having to think about college or whatever you're gonna do.
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:24.880
And then sometimes them uh funny things we call women get in the way.
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:25.920
Some of them, yes.
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:27.759
Some of that happens too.
00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:31.200
And then yeah, that that that complicates things some.
00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:34.079
But did you still like the soul through high school?
00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:35.039
Do you still keep playing?
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:35.759
Oh yeah.
00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:37.680
Yeah, I never stopped playing.
00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:44.319
Um and it but it really it was never a formal thing when I was in high school.
00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:47.279
Mainly I just kind of played with friends.
00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:52.480
Uh I'd go jam with a friend or I'd spend and this is no lie.
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:58.640
My dad used to have to run me out of the house, run me out of my room, because I would practice for hours.
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:01.519
And that explains why you're as good as you are.
00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:03.200
Well, I don't know about that.
00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:05.359
But uh he would run me out.
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:06.880
And he used to make fun of me.
00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:09.839
He said, Look, he said, I need grandkids.
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.480
And he said, You ain't gonna get none out of this guitar.
00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:16.559
I said, Well, that's probably true.
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:24.079
And he's like, you know, get out there when you know your buddies are going out with lay with girls and doing all this stuff, and he's he said, Well, don't you go live a little?
00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:26.000
I said, To me, man, this is living.
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:27.839
I don't like girls, like Les Pauls.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:29.279
I like Les Paul's.
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.960
So I know you said you started up, you had like a little uh Kramer there earlier.
00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:38.079
So did you upgrade for our gear heads up there?
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:40.799
I mean, they they want to know what what you're playing at the time.
00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:46.559
In 1992 for Christmas, uh my dad bought me an upgrade.
00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:47.039
Uh-huh.
00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:50.400
Uh they they had started the trucking company, like I said, and it was doing pretty good.
00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:51.039
Right, right.
00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:59.119
And so he bought me an um, which is now a classic, an uh uh Ibanez RG 570 in purple neon.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:27:59.599
Ooh.
00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:02.960
It was it would change colors, it was kind of like a chameleon color.
00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:06.000
And then he bought me a Marshall half stack.
00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:08.240
Um you remember what what amp it was?
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:10.720
It was the Marshall Valve State VS 100.
00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:11.279
Wow.
00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:12.880
My brother still owns that amp.
00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:14.960
Well, I'd say it's at least it's still around.
00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:15.759
It's still in the family.
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:17.920
I forgot you do have a brother named Brian, don't you?
00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:20.799
And so uh he plays too.
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:21.440
Does he?
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:21.839
Mm-hmm.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:22.400
Wow.
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:30.559
He would watch me play or whatever, but because you know how little brothers are, he didn't want to me to show him anything.
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.920
Yeah, he went to impress he wanted to impress Big Bro.
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:34.559
Yeah.
00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:42.319
So when I'd leave, I'd hear my stuff fire up, and he'd be in there playing my stuff.
00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:44.240
But he'd be he'd be playing it.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:44.799
That's good.
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:48.720
And so yeah, he learned how to do it kind of by watching me a little bit.
00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:50.319
But yeah.
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.960
Um I upgraded that equipment.
00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.359
Like I said, he dad got that for me.
00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:58.079
So I used that for a long, long time.
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:04.160
And then when I started college, I started buying my own guitars.
00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:11.680
Um I'd play some uh little gigs or whatever, just solo things, or I'd go jam with friends or something like that.
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.119
We'll make a few bucks.
00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:28.319
I'd save it all up, and then in the summertime I'd raise a garden and help in the garden, and we could sell the corn and whatever I made off of selling corn and stuff like that, I'd save it and I'd put it toward buying another instrument.
00:29:28.960 --> 00:29:41.039
And so uh I would say probably about the second year of college, my dad said that he would help me get a les pa because I I wanted a les pay.
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:50.319
I had to have one because you know, as as a Skinnard fan, Gary Rossington was my favorite member, and he played a Les Paul.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:54.720
So I was convinced that that's what I had to have.
00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:02.640
And so there's a a company in Florida called the Guitar Broker, and they dealt primarily in vintage instruments.
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:13.039
And he had found a 1984 Gibson Les Paul Silverburst that still had the PAF stickers on the pickup rings.
00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:17.519
Original hard case and all that stuff,$820.
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:19.519
Oh Lord.
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.559
So we bought it, you know, and I got that thing.
00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:26.559
And I play you remember it.
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:27.920
I do remember that guitar.
00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:28.640
Do you still have it?
00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:31.039
I do not, unfortunately.
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:32.240
Wish I did.
00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:34.079
But it happens, it happens.
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:35.920
We all have we all pitch fits.
00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:37.039
Life happens.
00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:40.799
Sometimes you gotta have money, sometimes that's the only means of getting it.
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:43.279
Yep, I've been there a few times.
00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:51.920
So, uh, yeah, that that guitar, and I started playing a little more seriously, a little more professionally with a band called Full Tilt.
00:30:52.640 --> 00:31:00.559
Uh was Jesse Mullins and uh Sergeant Lee Hodge, who taught uh JR O T C at Whitesburg High School.
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:04.960
And Chris Stanley, Clyde Stanley's brother was the drummer.
00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:06.960
Uh Jesse Mullins makes lemonade.
00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:07.440
Yeah.
00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:08.480
Okay, cool.
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:10.319
Yeah, I know Jesse and D.
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:13.599
I actually played on I played banjo on one of their records.
00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:14.240
Okay, yeah.
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:15.680
One time when I was in high school.
00:31:16.400 --> 00:31:18.319
Well, when probably when I first met you.
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:18.640
Yeah.
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:20.000
It's been a few years ago.
00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:24.400
So it was you, Jesse, Sergeant Hodge, and Clyde or Chris Stanley.
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:25.279
Chris Stanley.
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:26.240
Chris Stanley.
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.039
Wow.
00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:30.480
And we we did a lot of gigs out and about and things like that.
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:31.759
We played some in Pieful.
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:33.759
We played some everywhere really.
00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:35.279
Was you playing clubs?
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:36.079
Uh yeah.
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:37.440
What kind of clubs?
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:40.480
Uh we played at the Big Eye once.
00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:44.880
Neither know he noticed all I said only once.
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.640
And uh I neared to go in there, but I remember the big eye.
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:51.359
My dad don't my dad don't live too far from where it was at.
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:52.000
Okay.
00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:53.039
I remember the building.
00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:53.200
Yeah.
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:54.000
Had an eyeball.
00:31:54.319 --> 00:31:55.200
Had a big eye on it.
00:31:56.880 --> 00:31:57.359
Yeah.
00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:00.960
And then uh we played a lot at the American Legions.
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:01.440
Uh-huh.
00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:01.839
Uh-huh.
00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:04.319
You know, so a lot of my stuff smelled like smoke.
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:11.039
Son, I that red telecaster over on the wall, I gigged it heavily in the clubs in the college years too.
00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:12.000
I went through that.
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:18.480
I uh used to go play um steel and guitar both.
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:23.039
Uh a lot of times they'd uh Jimmy Tolson, you remember him?
00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:23.680
I do.
00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:30.319
Uh he's passed on and gone home as well as Bill Stacy, who's a very special friend, played bass.
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:30.559
Yeah.
00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:34.559
But they would get me to come down there, they had a house gig at the Hazard RFW.
00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:35.920
And it was really cool.
00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:36.880
I learned a lot.
00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:38.000
Because they played everything.
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:46.960
They played country, they played rock, they played, you know, I I played I got an education because I played all kinds of different, you know, types of music.
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:48.880
You know, it was a fun time though.
00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:49.680
I did too.
00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:59.599
And a lot of the my best experiences, that now that I look back at it, has been and um the some of the ones I'm most thankful for was the ones that got me out of my comfort zone.
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:08.880
Well, and that's why, you know, playing the clubs and the bars, I mean, it's it's sometimes it's it's work because you're playing four or five hours a night.
00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:10.079
At least four, usually.
00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:16.160
But now you talk about uh a good place to hone your chops right there, you are because you're playing everything.
00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:21.599
It is, it's a good place for that because as a cover band in a place like that, you have to cover all the ground.
00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:22.160
Yep.
00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:23.599
And I do remember it.
00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:28.559
We were playing swing songs, we played country songs, we played all kinds of different songs.
00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:31.279
And another one, I know you know Mr.
00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:32.319
Fred Campbell.
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:33.680
Oh Lord, yeah.
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:35.920
And uh they live not too far from me.
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:37.039
Yeah, Fred and Alice.
00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:38.160
Oh, yeah, Fred and Alice.
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:39.759
I'm hoping to have them on the show too.
00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:41.839
Yeah, they watched me grow up since I was a little boy.
00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:42.880
That'd be great.
00:33:43.119 --> 00:33:49.039
Because I I ended up going over there and jamming with them some because they were looking for a guitar player at times.
00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:49.440
Uh-huh.
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:53.279
And they they were thinking that maybe I could possibly do that at times.
00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:56.880
But now I I I had little interest in doing it.
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:04.400
But I'm awful thankful that I did go and jam and and at least try to learn those things because I'm a better player because of it.
00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:05.599
Oh, yeah.
00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:09.599
Anytime you step out of your comfort zone, play a new kind of music, it pushes you.
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:18.000
And it teaches you something you didn't know or hadn't even it kind of sometimes opened my eyes to stuff I didn't even realize that was still relevant to what I did do.
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:18.639
Mm-hmm.
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:20.639
And so, yeah.
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:25.519
Especially for me, it was a strengthening of that right hand.
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:31.440
Oh, bluegrass rhythm guitar players, man, they got a right hand from uh it's stout.
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:36.800
People can talk about James Hetfield from Metallica all they want to, about how strong his picking hand is.
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:40.079
I'd put it to any bluegrass guitarist up against him.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:41.119
I would anybody.
00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:47.519
I mean they they do uh uh it and you know I used to have this con I've had this conversation with quite a few people.
00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:55.599
Um and I'm not saying this because I'm not I'm a bluegrasser, you know, of course, uh, but I play other stuff.
00:34:55.760 --> 00:34:58.559
But you know, I was a bluegrasser first, I always will be.
00:34:58.800 --> 00:34:59.199
Oh yeah.
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:09.199
But I was talking to a guy one time down there in Pigeon Forge that um he ran some of the theaters, music shows.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:13.519
And uh he asked me what I play, and I said, Well, I'm a banjo player.
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:16.800
I said, but I play guitar, you know, steal guitar and all this other stuff.
00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:20.239
And he said, Oh dude, you get a job down here easy, no problem.
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:21.519
I said, Really?
00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:23.199
He said, Yeah, because you play bluegrass.
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.679
I said, Why bluegrass?
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:30.480
He said, You can take a bluegrass and and give them anything and they they could they can play it.
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:31.280
That's true.
00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:38.639
He said, All them guys on what stage, and he pointed to the stage that I think it was at uh country tonight or something.
00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:44.559
He said, That cat's a manlin player, that cat's a Dobro player, one of them's playing electric guitar, one of them's playing bass.
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:52.639
He said, All them guys are bluegrass players, said you could take and give them it, throw anything at them so they can learn it and replicate it, so we don't have no problems.
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:56.639
He said, If you, you know, and I was like, Well, you know, that's I don't guess.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:00.880
I believe that's true, and I don't believe that the converse is true.
00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:06.639
I don't believe that you can take a rock guitar player and give them anything and they can do it.
00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:07.360
Really?
00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:22.079
I don't think speaking from this rock guitar player, I know that I struggled uh with bluegrass, and sometimes I struggle with country and stuff simply because it's just not it's just not in, you know what I'm saying?
00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:23.280
I'm just not that familiar with it.
00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:30.639
I always told people too, you know, if you try to force yourself to play something that you don't like to play, it's never gonna turn out that good.
00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:31.920
No, you're right.
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:34.880
Um sometimes you have to do out of necessity.
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:42.320
I know some bands I work with, I've had to learn songs that I just don't care for, but you have to learn them for the show.
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:42.960
Sure.
00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:43.760
You know.
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:46.320
I've been in that shape many times.
00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:49.440
Um in some bands I've been in, I didn't like anything.
00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:50.000
Really?
00:36:50.159 --> 00:36:51.840
Yeah, and it's just Wow.
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:59.599
I'm just doing it to because I I just doing it to help somebody out, or doing it because uh makes a little money here and there.
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:04.800
Some I mean it's a good thing about you, you're good hearted, you'd like to help people out, you know.
00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:08.079
That that's that's what separates you from other folks.
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:14.880
Especially in music, you you go out of your way to help some of the pickers out around here, and I know they sure appreciate you.
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:21.039
Well, I appreciate them, and it's I don't know, I feel like it's the least I could do kind of contribute.
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.239
Well, hey man, I I think you contribute quite a bit.
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:26.639
So, where'd you go to college at?
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:27.840
Went to Moorhead.
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:32.800
Um I went to Hazard Community College for two years and got my associate's degree there.
00:37:33.519 --> 00:37:37.199
And then I went to Moorhead to finish my bachelor's.
00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:49.840
Um I also got a master's from Moorhead, and then uh five years later I went and had to renew that uh counseling certificate uh at University of the Cumberlands.
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:53.199
So I I attended a couple master's level classes there.
00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:54.239
Right.
00:37:54.800 --> 00:38:09.440
So when you when you went to Moorhead, did you know that you wanted to be a school teacher, or is it something you kind of like, you know, went back and forth on or you know, really and truly, uh I didn't really know what I wanted.
00:38:09.679 --> 00:38:17.199
Um I just figured I I looked around and I was trying to see what the people I admired did.
00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:24.960
And unfortunately, you know, what I didn't take into account was my own personality.
00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:28.880
I didn't take into account what would make me happy.
00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:38.320
I I took into account what seemed like the best deal to make money and and still have some free time.
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:44.639
So I looked around, I knew uh that I wasn't a coal miner.
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:46.000
You know, I wasn't gonna do that.
00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:50.400
I knew that I I probably just I wasn't physically geared up for that.
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:51.119
Right.
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:59.119
So I thought the people that I admire most were my art teacher, Richard Smith, and my English teacher Sue Hall.
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:04.960
And I said, uh, you know what, they get summers off.
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:08.719
I said, looks like their job ain't too awful hard.
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:11.039
So I said, I'm gonna go that direction.
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:20.960
You said Richard Smith, I still uh uh think about that story you told on your podcast uh about him on hung sleeves off the red star bridge.
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:22.639
That's the same one.
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:23.679
That's him.
00:39:24.480 --> 00:39:25.840
We were close, man.
00:39:26.079 --> 00:39:31.360
And I said I at one point at one point too, I didn't know whether I was gonna be an art teacher or an English teacher.
00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:32.079
Right, right.
00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:34.400
Because I kind of wanted to do both.
00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:46.400
And like I said, I went to there to to get a teaching certificate, and I th really thought that teaching was way different than what it actually is.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:47.039
Right.
00:39:47.280 --> 00:40:01.440
And so when I actually got into teaching and started teaching, it was quite a shock to me because in your teaching classes and things like that, people tell you that kids really want to learn and that they're all eager for you to show them all this stuff.
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:03.199
It's really not like that.
00:40:05.199 --> 00:40:06.480
It's really not like that.
00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:20.719
And so it took me some adjusting, and as a shy person and kind of reserved person, it took a lot for me to step out of my comfort zone and and be the kind of teacher that I felt like they deserved.
00:40:21.039 --> 00:40:21.679
Right.
00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:28.559
But yeah, it it was a it was a difficult path, but it it's one that I've not regretted.
00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:29.360
Right.
00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:32.079
Well, I say I wouldn't have known you.
00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:33.280
That's true.
00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:33.920
You know?
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:34.639
That's true.
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:35.519
I'll never forget it.
00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:38.800
I so like where was your first job teaching?
00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:40.239
My first job teaching.
00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:43.119
What uh what Mary, what year did you start teaching like?
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:43.840
2000.
00:40:44.079 --> 00:40:44.719
It's 2000.
00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:46.719
So you started teaching in 2000.
00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:48.880
So, like, where was your first gig at?
00:40:49.199 --> 00:40:58.480
Um I was at first working uh for LKLP uh for a company or for a a program called Facts, Families and Children Together Safely.
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:05.039
My job was to talk to social workers and find out the this family dynamic.
00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:07.119
So the the kids had been taken.
00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:11.440
My job was to go in and see assess what was needed to get the kids back.
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:13.199
I remember you tell me about this.
00:41:13.440 --> 00:41:15.760
And so about the old lady in the refrigerator.
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:16.159
Yeah.
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:17.039
Yeah, I remember that.
00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:19.599
She packed that refrigerator up there by herself.
00:41:20.159 --> 00:41:23.599
But yeah, I mean, I met some amazing people that way.
00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:34.480
And so I did that for about three months, and then in September I got the notification um that Letcher High School was gonna hire an English teacher.
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:38.880
And that just so happened to be my field of study, so and it was my old high school.
00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:40.159
Opportunity arise.
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:41.760
Opportunity knocks.
00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:47.599
So I go on and and I interview, and uh of course they hire me.
00:41:48.559 --> 00:41:59.840
Um what I what they didn't tell me was that the class that I was to start with had run off six substitute teachers because they were so rough.
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:08.960
So you you know what I've always thought of you as one of them teachers um what's the movie?
00:42:10.559 --> 00:42:15.119
The movie with with the fella, he played s Selena's daddy and Selena.
00:42:15.840 --> 00:42:23.920
If he plays this movie where he's a teacher and he comes to school and it's rough, and these kids, he straightens them out and they do it good on state testing.
00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:25.840
Is it called the substitute?
00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:28.480
No, that's the one's got the army guy.
00:42:28.559 --> 00:42:28.880
Yeah.
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:37.280
No, uh, dad gummit, but you always struck me as that kind of person, like you you were caught you were the the fix it guy.
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:43.679
Well, it I know well I know the movie you're talking about, I can't think of the name of it either.
00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:49.840
But yeah, uh, you know, I'm the kind of person I was raised to never give up.
00:42:50.159 --> 00:43:01.280
And regardless of whether you like what you're doing or or regardless of whether you like the situation or not, you give it two hundred and ten percent and and do your best to come out as good as you can.
00:43:01.599 --> 00:43:04.159
And so that's kind of the way I always approached it.
00:43:04.639 --> 00:43:10.159
Is regardless, you know, the kids deserved uh everything and the best that I could give 'em.
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:11.280
Stand and deliver.
00:43:11.599 --> 00:43:11.760
Okay.
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:12.559
That movie.
00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:13.440
Yeah.
00:43:14.159 --> 00:43:14.719
Yeah.
00:43:14.960 --> 00:43:17.280
So that's kind of the way I always approached it.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.559
So you went in there and just straightened the kids out and got them on the right path.
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:40.079
Well, yeah, and and you know, uh and I'm not bragging, uh, but that group that I started with, and then for three and a half or four of the years that I was there before we consolidated, my kids had the strongest test scores in the district.
00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:42.480
I swear you were watching that movie.
00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:43.440
I have seen.
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:45.679
Because it's just like what you're telling me.
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:46.400
Yeah.
00:43:46.880 --> 00:43:47.679
It's cool.
00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:48.480
Yeah.
00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:54.960
Well, I tell you what now, I've had a lot of teachers, and I just go ahead and tell you, I mean, you know how bold I am.
00:43:55.119 --> 00:43:55.760
I don't really care.
00:43:55.840 --> 00:43:56.880
I speak my mind.
00:43:57.039 --> 00:43:59.679
You know, I went to Electro Central High School from 2000.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:02.559
2008, I think, to 2011.
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:07.920
And I had good teachers, you know, but for the most part, they didn't care about me.
00:44:08.159 --> 00:44:09.440
I didn't feel it.
00:44:09.679 --> 00:44:10.800
I mean, they just didn't.
00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:15.360
I there's you know, there they wouldn't they just didn't strike me.
00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:20.159
I feel like they just wanted to run me through the meal and just get me out the door.
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:23.039
But, you know, when I walked into Mr.
00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:26.400
Field's English class, it was a whole different vibe.
00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:32.960
Cause here I am, this guy, and he starts talking, and you guys get to know him over the next few months.
00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:35.840
I'm like, this this is a good dude.
00:44:36.159 --> 00:44:38.480
This dude right here, he really cares about us.
00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:39.519
And you did.
00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:40.239
I did.
00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:40.800
You did.
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:41.920
You actually still do.
00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:44.800
You actually cared like where we was going to go in life.
00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:47.199
Like I I really felt that from you.
00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:48.159
I do.
00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:54.320
And and that's why I tell everybody to me the best teacher that I ever had was Travis Fields.
00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:56.960
And I'll stand by that to the day I die.
00:44:57.039 --> 00:44:59.039
I mean, that just that's bottom line.
00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:00.320
I appreciate that.
00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:01.599
More than you know.
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:16.000
I know when I when uh I walked into there, you know, he was my homeroom teacher too, and I walked in there first day of school, and heck, you know, he was all freshman, we was kind of, you know, a little nervous.
00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:22.800
And one of the Bubs was sitting there looking at me, and he said, What do you think about this teacher?
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:24.719
I said, Well, I don't know.
00:45:26.960 --> 00:45:40.079
And uh Travis at the time, you know, had real black hair and he had a goatee and haircut that kind of reminds you, like in the movie, like pick like characters that play like devilish characters.
00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:46.159
Have that like goatee and the haircut, and the Bub looked at me and said, He looks like the devil.
00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:50.400
It's like the complete polar opposite, too.
00:45:50.639 --> 00:45:51.920
I mean, it's as crazy.
00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:54.400
I was like, nah, I said, I don't think he's like that, you know.
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:56.559
But I mean, I had some devilish teachers.
00:45:56.639 --> 00:45:59.199
I can tell you some stories in the orchid.
00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:04.480
But no, it you you really made a I can remember the stuff I done in your class.
00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:06.079
I can remember it to this day.
00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:19.119
When I took you the first year, first freshman year when I had you, um I remember we read The Outsiders and done a report over it.
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:22.960
Then we read That Was Then This Is Now, which is sort of like the unconfirmed.
00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:25.440
Yeah, the unconfirmed follow-up.
00:46:26.239 --> 00:46:30.559
And then when I took you again junior year, we done the Romeo and Juliet thing.
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:31.519
I remember it.
00:46:31.679 --> 00:46:37.199
Because it you showed you showed the newer movie with uh Leonardo DiCaprio.
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:38.800
Yeah, that movie made me dizzy.
00:46:38.880 --> 00:46:39.760
It was so fast-paced.
00:46:39.920 --> 00:46:40.559
Oh, it is, yeah.
00:46:40.719 --> 00:46:44.159
Yeah, it's like you know, I never trying to watch it.
00:46:44.559 --> 00:46:46.079
I was like, I got I'm getting motion sick.
00:46:47.199 --> 00:46:48.480
It kind of is like that, yeah.
00:46:48.719 --> 00:46:54.480
You know, but yeah, I I that's why I say you you you left such an impression on me.
00:46:54.639 --> 00:46:59.280
I can remember the stuff I've done in your class, and I've been out of high school since 2011.
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:05.039
Not saying you're old, but you know, I am old but that's what she said though.
00:47:05.199 --> 00:47:06.960
That's what she she did say that many times.
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:07.519
Many times.
00:47:07.760 --> 00:47:09.760
Cry back yesterday.
00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:14.800
But you know, to me that's the ultimate compliment.
00:47:15.039 --> 00:47:19.199
You know, it's just like having somebody, you know, digging you song.
00:47:19.760 --> 00:47:22.079
That's the ultimate compliment to me.
00:47:22.239 --> 00:47:30.719
Is to have somebody feel like you cared or make somebody feel like, you know, that you did them some good.
00:47:31.199 --> 00:47:35.360
You know, that's the ultimate compliment for me as a teacher, and in the same way as a musician.
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:54.559
I I sold this C D uh to a young man that I taught years ago and he had sent um a video of himself singing to that song on the way home, or to one of my songs on the way home.
00:47:54.880 --> 00:48:02.880
And again, i if he had never paid me a dime, that's all I would have ever wanted was to see him vibing and enjoying that song.
00:48:03.119 --> 00:48:05.440
You gave me a C D too when I was in high school.
00:48:05.519 --> 00:48:06.239
I've still got it.
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:07.599
It's in a paper sleeve.
00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:07.920
Yeah.
00:48:08.239 --> 00:48:09.119
Black and white picture.
00:48:09.199 --> 00:48:09.360
Yeah.
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:16.159
I've got it down to teaching, new teacher.
00:48:16.719 --> 00:48:20.159
Uh what what were we doing musically around this time?
00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:24.639
Uh I was with a a group of guys uh called the Pure and Simple Band.
00:48:24.880 --> 00:48:25.199
Uh-huh.
00:48:25.679 --> 00:48:26.480
And yeah.
00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:34.480
Uh we we played primarily classic rock songs, uh, a lot of Leonard Skinner, John Mellencamp, that kind of stuff.
00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:37.360
And we primarily played festivals.
00:48:40.559 --> 00:48:42.400
We preferred that atmosphere.
00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:53.920
None of us were really into the bar scene or the clubs because after a while, you know, when you work and after a while the bar the the club scene kind of doesn't really appeal to you.
00:48:54.079 --> 00:48:55.760
You don't really make a lot of money there.
00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:58.400
You make a lot better money at festivals.
00:48:58.559 --> 00:48:58.800
Right.
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:05.199
Plus, you know, you don't leave smelling like smoke and and with you know second, you know, lung cancer.
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:13.599
But so did you would did you help form the Pure and Simple Band, or was you just a hired hand or uh Mike Wright and I kind of started it together.
00:49:13.840 --> 00:49:14.800
What year?
00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:16.320
Lord have mercy.
00:49:16.559 --> 00:49:23.840
Um I want to say somewhere in the 94, 95.
00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:26.960
Because that's the first time I ever saw you play.
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:27.679
Mm-hmm.
00:49:28.320 --> 00:49:30.719
So you started this before you started teaching, right?
00:49:30.880 --> 00:49:31.119
Yeah.
00:49:31.280 --> 00:49:32.159
Oh, cool.
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:32.719
Yeah.
00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:35.760
And I was just kind of playing with them through that time.
00:49:36.159 --> 00:49:43.920
Um, I was also, you know, you had mentioned um, you know, we had talked before when we were talking about this podcast about my wife.
00:49:44.079 --> 00:49:48.719
Um, my wife, Candy Fields, was also a beginning teacher at that time.
00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:49.280
Oh.
00:49:49.599 --> 00:49:57.920
Uh, she and I met in high school when we did a program where we tutored uh uh young elementary kids.
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:02.800
And I but at the time, she was seeing somebody, as was I.
00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:10.800
Uh we were kind of we kind of hit it off kind of friends, but she was seeing somebody I was too, and they just so happened to be cousins.
00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:18.159
So at any rate, uh it comes full circle back to the Pure and Simple Band.
00:50:18.400 --> 00:50:27.679
The first show I ever played with them was Battle of the Bands at Mountain Heritage, and this is probably 95, 96, something like that.
00:50:28.880 --> 00:50:30.000
And she's there.
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:37.679
Alright, so she was there and she approached me, asked me how I'd been doing since we'd you know last seen each other and things.
00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:47.840
And so we started going out, and we dated all through college, and um we got married our first year teaching.
00:50:48.239 --> 00:50:48.639
2000.
00:50:48.960 --> 00:50:49.519
2000.
00:50:49.840 --> 00:50:50.239
Wow.
00:50:50.639 --> 00:50:52.000
So yeah.
00:50:52.800 --> 00:50:55.920
Um so yeah, she started teaching the same time.
00:50:56.159 --> 00:51:01.119
She was a little bit before me, because I was still working for LKLP when she was a teacher at the vocational school.
00:51:01.280 --> 00:51:03.840
She taught the computer skills and typing skills.
00:51:04.159 --> 00:51:05.840
I remember she taught me typing in high school.
00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:06.719
I remember that.
00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:07.360
Yeah.
00:51:08.159 --> 00:51:09.360
Yeah, she did that.
00:51:09.679 --> 00:51:14.159
And in 2003, my first son was born.
00:51:14.480 --> 00:51:17.119
Um, his name was uh Andy.
00:51:18.239 --> 00:51:25.039
And so he was uh he was first, and then two years later, my son Aiden was born.
00:51:25.440 --> 00:51:31.280
Um and so the music kind of took a back seat back seat uh while they were still little.
00:51:31.519 --> 00:51:32.719
You had to step up be dad.
00:51:32.880 --> 00:51:35.679
I'd be dad, which I I wouldn't have traded it for anything.
00:51:35.760 --> 00:51:36.719
It was worth every second.
00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:42.239
No, I from what I see and from what I've been told, you you both of you raised uh two fine young men.
00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:43.280
They're good boys.
00:51:43.440 --> 00:51:43.679
Yes.
00:51:43.920 --> 00:51:47.280
They sure uh not mistaken, Andy's the HVAC man, right?
00:51:47.440 --> 00:51:48.000
He is.
00:51:48.239 --> 00:51:50.239
And he's the one that traps and hunts a lot.
00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:52.079
No, well, he hunts a lot.
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.159
Uh my youngest one's the one who traps.
00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:54.800
Oh, really?
00:51:54.880 --> 00:51:55.119
Yeah.
00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:57.199
So that's where the the bones come from?
00:51:57.360 --> 00:51:57.519
Yeah.
00:51:57.679 --> 00:51:58.400
My youngest one.
00:51:58.880 --> 00:51:59.440
Wow.
00:51:59.679 --> 00:52:00.159
Mm-hmm.
00:52:00.639 --> 00:52:04.239
Yeah, he's the one that likes to trap and you know, that kind of thing.
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:04.960
Wow.
00:52:05.199 --> 00:52:07.840
Yeah, he's uh that's what he's actually doing right now.
00:52:07.920 --> 00:52:09.760
He's in college as a biology major.
00:52:09.920 --> 00:52:15.280
He wants to be in the forestry conservation, that kind of fish and wildlife thing.
00:52:16.239 --> 00:52:22.960
I swear he got that long hair, you know he reminds me of who's that Fabio.
00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:24.000
Yeah.
00:52:24.719 --> 00:52:25.360
You know?
00:52:26.320 --> 00:52:31.199
And I have a picture of me standing in front of the blue the bluebird cafe in Nashville.
00:52:31.280 --> 00:52:31.599
Uh-huh.
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:33.519
My hair's every bit as long as his.
00:52:34.239 --> 00:52:36.480
And we we could pass for twins.
00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:37.119
Kid you?
00:52:37.280 --> 00:52:37.760
Yeah.
00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:40.239
But like you showed me that picture one time.
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:44.960
But now, yeah, Fabio is a pretty good description of it.
00:52:45.599 --> 00:52:46.800
He's a handsome fella.
00:52:47.360 --> 00:52:49.760
Um yeah, he's a very popular guy.
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:51.119
Well, I'm glad you're doing good.
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:52.559
Is he the one that ministers to?
00:52:52.880 --> 00:52:53.280
Yes.
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:53.760
Okay.
00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:00.880
Yes, he's uh works in the ministry at college, and he also um tomorrow he preaches at my church.
00:53:01.119 --> 00:53:03.840
He'll be uh the youth preacher there that night.
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:06.079
He does it once a month, yeah.
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:07.039
That's great.
00:53:08.320 --> 00:53:09.119
Where'd he go to church at?
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:14.480
King's Chapel Church um in Whitco, uh pastored by Frank and Jeannie Adams.
00:53:14.719 --> 00:53:16.880
Oh Lord, yeah, I know Frank and Jeannie real well.
00:53:16.960 --> 00:53:18.000
Yeah, they're your neighbors down here.
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:20.960
They are well Frank uh Frank married me and Puss.
00:53:21.280 --> 00:53:21.840
Oh, okay.
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:22.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:23.119 --> 00:53:28.480
Frank is one of the Frank is like you, one of the finest guys you'll ever meet.
00:53:28.719 --> 00:53:31.360
I can't even believe he's got the nickname animal.
00:53:31.920 --> 00:53:32.239
I know.
00:53:32.400 --> 00:53:33.280
I like really.
00:53:33.760 --> 00:53:34.639
I thought the same thing.
00:53:34.719 --> 00:53:37.920
I was like, how I don't know how in the world you would have earned that name.
00:53:38.239 --> 00:53:40.400
Frank is just a he's a he's a sweetheart of a guy.
00:53:40.480 --> 00:53:42.079
He's just you can't you can't beat Frank.
00:53:42.239 --> 00:53:43.280
No, he's as good as they come.
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:44.480
Oh Lord, yeah.
00:53:44.559 --> 00:53:45.679
Well, you go to a good church now.
00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:47.440
I might have to come down there one night and go with you.
00:53:47.599 --> 00:53:48.000
Absolutely.
00:53:48.079 --> 00:53:49.039
You're welcome anytime.
00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:49.760
I appreciate it.
00:53:49.920 --> 00:53:51.599
I'll come get you or take you with me.
00:53:51.840 --> 00:53:52.320
Yeah.
00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:52.800
All right.
00:53:53.119 --> 00:53:55.199
I might have to take you up on that.
00:53:55.679 --> 00:53:58.719
So you and Candy are raising youngins.
00:53:58.960 --> 00:53:59.039
Yeah.
00:53:59.199 --> 00:54:00.559
Are you still playing pure and simple?
00:54:00.639 --> 00:54:02.079
A little bit between, you know.
00:54:02.480 --> 00:54:02.960
Here and there.
00:54:03.119 --> 00:54:05.679
Because I know uh Mike's got Mike had kidding.
00:54:05.840 --> 00:54:06.559
He did, yeah.
00:54:06.719 --> 00:54:07.679
You know, had a kid too.
00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:09.440
Same age as my oldest.
00:54:09.679 --> 00:54:14.559
So, I mean, you all were kind of the dads doing the band thing together, I guess you could say.
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:18.239
We didn't play as much, maybe a couple shows a year, three.
00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:18.880
Right.
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:23.280
Um, but as the kids got older, of course, then that freed us up to where we could do more stuff.
00:54:23.679 --> 00:54:24.320
Start picking back up.
00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:24.559
Yeah.
00:54:24.719 --> 00:54:29.519
Yeah, because I know when I when I first when I first met you, you was you played quite a bit.
00:54:29.840 --> 00:54:43.840
I mean you was you was doing a lot, which that was 2009 or so, so the the boys are probably older then and yeah, they were eight or nine years old by that time, and so they were, you know, able to primarily get around and take care of themselves.
00:54:44.400 --> 00:54:55.039
I think the first gig I ever watched you play was at um when that lady Ernestine had the f festival at the park, Riverside.
00:54:55.199 --> 00:54:55.760
Yeah.
00:54:56.079 --> 00:54:58.320
Pretty sure that's when I first saw you play it.
00:54:58.639 --> 00:54:59.599
Yeah, Riverside Festival.
00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:01.119
And I actually played it too.
00:55:01.519 --> 00:55:03.119
Yeah, yeah, you were playing that night too.
00:55:03.280 --> 00:55:05.280
I played the same save time.
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:07.920
You all played uh we played earlier than you guys.
00:55:08.079 --> 00:55:09.199
I remember that.
00:55:09.599 --> 00:55:11.519
It's crazy how stuff like it works out.
00:55:11.760 --> 00:55:12.159
It does.
00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:12.960
I mean, yeah.
00:55:13.119 --> 00:55:19.360
We've always crossed paths in places we played because some you'd be playing at a lot of the same places I would be.
00:55:19.519 --> 00:55:21.360
Yeah, oh Lord, yeah.
00:55:22.079 --> 00:55:23.519
It's like Blackie Days.
00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:24.639
We're playing there Friday.
00:55:24.719 --> 00:55:26.000
You guys play Saturday.
00:55:26.239 --> 00:55:27.920
Uh, don't catch your chickens.
00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:30.159
I'd probably be called, no, no, I can't play Friday.
00:55:30.239 --> 00:55:32.079
I think I gotta play in paints for Friday.
00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:32.559
Okay.
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:34.639
So, but yeah, I'll be there Saturday.
00:55:34.880 --> 00:55:36.719
God, they're gonna work me Saturday.
00:55:36.960 --> 00:55:39.440
I gotta play with the troubadours and Frednalis.
00:55:39.760 --> 00:55:41.599
I gotta help them out, of course.
00:55:41.840 --> 00:55:46.719
And probably more than likely, I'd say little Will Cottle asked me to play the Mandelin.
00:55:46.880 --> 00:55:48.239
I don't know, but I'd say you're right.
00:55:48.400 --> 00:55:53.280
I'd rather talk the little manline along, sit there and do my do my little chop things.
00:55:55.280 --> 00:56:02.159
Well see, and again, folks, you know, i I'm sure you're picking up from him what a talented musician he is.
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:02.719
Oh, Lord.
00:56:03.119 --> 00:56:07.039
He's a multi-instrumentalist and a master of all of them.
00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:11.599
So, I mean, a fantastic musician.
00:56:12.239 --> 00:56:14.639
It's an honor for me to be in his presence.
00:56:17.840 --> 00:56:20.559
Son, Lord have mercy, Trav.
00:56:20.719 --> 00:56:22.400
I'm just old fat guy.
00:56:22.719 --> 00:56:23.599
No, you ain't.
00:56:23.840 --> 00:56:28.159
Old fat guy overweight and can't see out of one eye.
00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:30.079
I picked the banjo.
00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:32.639
Don't keep you from it, don't keep you from picking, does it?
00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:36.480
No, thank God that that little incident didn't keep me didn't hurt my hands.
00:56:36.559 --> 00:56:37.840
I don't reckon it did.
00:56:38.079 --> 00:56:38.960
There you go.
00:56:39.679 --> 00:56:45.760
So uh you are one of them cats that you play with a lot of bands.
00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:49.199
Now, this actually is a new thing because I didn't do that always.
00:56:49.440 --> 00:56:49.920
Really?
00:56:50.159 --> 00:57:00.559
I know I know I know always, you know, for the most part in the past, uh, like I said, most of the time I saw you playing you and Mike was doing pure and simple.
00:57:00.800 --> 00:57:01.360
Good band.
00:57:01.440 --> 00:57:02.480
Y'all it's a good band.
00:57:02.639 --> 00:57:03.039
Y'all are good.
00:57:03.440 --> 00:57:04.239
It's a good cover band.
00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:05.440
I I love listening to you.
00:57:06.079 --> 00:57:08.159
I mean, you always all done a good job.
00:57:08.320 --> 00:57:08.480
Yeah.
00:57:08.639 --> 00:57:10.480
You got a barnett guy that played bass.
00:57:10.559 --> 00:57:12.400
I mean, you can't go wrong there.
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:14.320
I don't think we're related, but you know, hey.
00:57:14.559 --> 00:57:17.119
Well, I mean, the namesake does help, I'm sure.
00:57:18.079 --> 00:57:25.119
So, like when did you start branching out playing with these other bands?
00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:29.119
Well, it's kind of an interesting uh story.
00:57:29.280 --> 00:57:32.719
Uh, when my wife Candy passed uh in 2023.
00:57:33.039 --> 00:57:33.760
Yes, sir.
00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:41.920
Um I took two months off work and because it was I was married to her for twenty-two years.
00:57:42.159 --> 00:57:42.639
Mm-hmm.
00:57:42.800 --> 00:57:50.159
And so having somebody 22 years or something you don't really hear of anymore, let alone these people that you see that make it to 50 years.
00:57:50.400 --> 00:57:50.960
Right.
00:57:51.280 --> 00:57:59.119
I think twenty-two years that's a long time to be with somebody, and I'm sure it I never been in that position, but I'm sure it takes a lot of getting used to.
00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:03.599
Well, it does, because you're used to being you're used to functioning as a pair.
00:58:03.840 --> 00:58:04.400
Right.
00:58:04.719 --> 00:58:09.519
Uh for and that was twenty-two years of my life, and at the time I was forty-six.
00:58:09.840 --> 00:58:15.519
So that was almost half my life that I was, you know, p fun uh functioning as a pair.
00:58:15.679 --> 00:58:16.000
Right.
00:58:16.159 --> 00:58:20.559
So I really didn't know how to act as a as a single.
00:58:20.800 --> 00:58:21.679
You know what I mean?
00:58:21.840 --> 00:58:26.639
I'd kind of forgotten, and it's so weird that I kind of had to reform my identity.
00:58:26.800 --> 00:58:31.760
I kind of had to figure out who I was again, uh, just to be by myself.
00:58:32.320 --> 00:58:46.559
And so that's kind of what I started doing is and thank God these uh these other musicians I don't know if they sensed it or what, but they would ask me, hey man, you want to help us out?
00:58:46.719 --> 00:58:49.280
Uh would you be interested in playing bass for us?
00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:50.800
Would you be interested in doing this?
00:58:51.039 --> 00:58:52.320
And I was like, you know what?
00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:53.119
Yeah.
00:58:53.679 --> 00:58:54.719
You know, yeah.
00:58:55.199 --> 00:58:57.840
Because if I'm busy, I ain't thinking.
00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:02.639
You know, the m the less time I spent in my head, the better off I was.
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:15.599
And so I could say that because I know I I went through a bad breakup one time and uh I I was I worked heavily when I was a working uh as an ICU nurse.
00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:21.599
I mean, I I'd volunteer for every shift I could volunteer for, just keep my mind off of it.
00:59:21.920 --> 00:59:22.239
Yeah.
00:59:22.400 --> 00:59:24.079
And that's kind of what I was doing.
00:59:24.320 --> 00:59:37.679
And also uh to me, and I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but one of the s the the strongest part of my identity, uh who I r th thought of myself was the musician.
00:59:38.079 --> 00:59:38.480
Absolutely.
00:59:38.800 --> 00:59:51.360
And so to to rediscover myself or to be confident, you know, to re-establish my confidence in my identity, my the only way I knew to do it was to just submerse myself into what I loved to do.
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:55.599
And so that's kind of how I started playing with all these other guys.
00:59:55.840 --> 01:00:00.239
And so, yeah, I I play bass for uh Drake Brock and the Brockabillies.
01:00:00.480 --> 01:00:06.639
Um I play uh I played bass for Jaden Wright when he did his uh individual project.
01:00:06.880 --> 01:00:10.239
Um I I'm helping Mike Wright out with his blues band.
01:00:10.320 --> 01:00:14.480
I I've got all these, and I play in Diesel Foot, the hard rock and metal outfit.
01:00:14.719 --> 01:00:23.519
I play in all these bands uh because it it fills out all those aspects, you know, all the music that's in here somewhere.
01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:25.360
And Dalton, we can't forget about Dalton.
01:00:25.679 --> 01:00:26.559
Dalton, my God.
01:00:26.639 --> 01:00:28.159
I'm sorry, Dalton, I forgot.
01:00:28.400 --> 01:00:31.360
Dalton Moore helping him with his project as well.
01:00:32.079 --> 01:00:34.400
And so thank you, Dave.
01:00:34.480 --> 01:00:36.000
I didn't mean to forget Dalton.
01:00:37.039 --> 01:00:38.800
But you know, and it see there it is.
01:00:39.039 --> 01:00:41.199
There comes the complication in all those things.
01:00:41.360 --> 01:00:44.880
Well, like I said, you're uh out at the beginning of the show, you wear many hats.
01:00:45.039 --> 01:00:48.639
I do wear a lot of hats, and sometimes you forget which hats you're grabbing.
01:00:48.880 --> 01:00:50.800
Uh so yeah.
01:00:51.679 --> 01:00:54.559
But yeah, that's that's kind of how I got started doing all that.
01:00:55.280 --> 01:01:02.079
And it yeah, I mean it it did help me to recover uh from that and kind of reestablish who I was.
01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:02.880
Right.
01:01:03.119 --> 01:01:07.920
And you know, I had relationships after that.
01:01:08.719 --> 01:01:21.199
And again, I really think that that's what keeps me from from going it just totally bonkers is the the music.
01:01:22.079 --> 01:01:23.519
Music does that, man.
01:01:23.599 --> 01:01:25.440
That's uh it's the best therapy in the world.
01:01:25.599 --> 01:01:26.480
Oh god, yeah.
01:01:26.639 --> 01:01:35.280
I mean, I I personally I tell you right now, as many as many interests that that I have, if I couldn't play music, I would lose my ever loving mind.
01:01:35.440 --> 01:01:35.760
Absolutely.
01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:36.800
And that's the truth.
01:01:37.039 --> 01:01:46.639
I think honestly, if anybody ever really wanted to hurt me that or really badly or just cripple me completely, it's take away that.
01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:50.800
If I couldn't play music to listen to it or something, if I couldn't have it at all.
01:01:51.119 --> 01:01:53.039
Uh I I don't know what I'd do.
01:01:53.360 --> 01:01:55.280
I don't believe nobody can take it from you, Bub.
01:01:55.519 --> 01:01:56.400
I I hope not.
01:01:56.719 --> 01:01:56.960
No.
01:01:57.519 --> 01:01:57.840
No.
01:01:58.159 --> 01:02:03.920
But uh, you know, and like you said, it's like this in a a shameless plug.
01:02:04.320 --> 01:02:07.440
It's like the new album, Next Last Resort.
01:02:07.760 --> 01:02:22.320
I mean the song itself, Next Last Resort, which I'm particularly proud of, and the name of the album comes from the fact that being older and forced into being single, and you feel like people's last resort.
01:02:22.800 --> 01:02:26.719
Because it's like, you know, you're the um I am.
01:02:26.880 --> 01:02:31.599
I'm the type of guy who I would consider I'm the nice guy.
01:02:32.159 --> 01:02:34.000
And or at least I think I am.
01:02:34.239 --> 01:02:43.280
You are but uh I'm that kind of guy, and oftentimes the cliche is is that women seek the nice guy last.
01:02:44.880 --> 01:02:51.199
Because well, you know, I used to think it too at one time, but honestly, man.
01:02:56.639 --> 01:03:19.199
As many people many fish that are out there swimming around this big old sea we call eastern Kentucky My opinion, there's somebody out there that would absolutely like to have somebody like you because honestly, you're one of the you're you're you're a true gentleman and a man and a man in all s and all sorts.
01:03:19.360 --> 01:03:35.519
I mean, uh you know, like I told you, I know very there's very few people that I know that I would say is one is just a true stand-up person that I have no doubts about being an honest fella in this life, and you're one of them.
01:03:35.920 --> 01:03:36.639
I appreciate that.
01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:43.519
And I mean, it just uh I think you just it's yeah, you're looking in the wrong places.
01:03:43.840 --> 01:03:44.480
Maybe.
01:03:45.039 --> 01:03:46.239
You might be right, bro.
01:03:46.480 --> 01:04:00.400
And and you know, that it's like I said, the the album is about it's full of songs about relationships and things like that, and every song on it comes from a place, you know, like you say, it's it's heartfelt music.
01:04:00.639 --> 01:04:09.840
And so um the the song itself, Next Last Resort, comes from a really bad recent breakup that, you know.
01:04:10.239 --> 01:04:11.280
Those will do that to you.
01:04:11.440 --> 01:04:12.480
They'll do it to you.
01:04:12.639 --> 01:04:15.119
And again, it's almost the same situation.
01:04:15.199 --> 01:04:25.440
You kind of have to rediscover and figure out, you know, what went wrong or if you can, and and see, see if you can't, you know, be a little wiser and do a little better the next time, you know.
01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:28.960
So again, shameless plug for the album.
01:04:29.039 --> 01:04:30.960
If you want to go listen to it, I'd appreciate it.
01:04:31.119 --> 01:04:32.079
If you're not, that's fine.
01:04:33.519 --> 01:04:34.239
It's a great album.
01:04:34.320 --> 01:04:37.360
You plug at things as much as you want to, that's what this is for.
01:04:37.760 --> 01:04:40.320
It's to get your store and your music out there.
01:04:40.639 --> 01:04:42.639
Next last resort by Travis Field.
01:04:42.719 --> 01:04:46.000
It's on all your streaming platforms, Apple Music, Spotify.
01:04:46.159 --> 01:04:46.960
Please check it out.
01:04:47.039 --> 01:04:53.760
And the man right here, he's got hard copies that he will gladly sign for you and sell you if you look him up on Facebook.
01:04:54.239 --> 01:04:55.280
He's easy to find.
01:04:55.360 --> 01:04:56.320
He's not too hard to find.
01:04:56.559 --> 01:04:57.760
No, I'm not hard to find.
01:04:58.079 --> 01:05:05.599
So last year you took on a new thing that you uh uh never thought I'd do.
01:05:05.760 --> 01:05:06.800
Yeah, never thought you'd do.
01:05:06.880 --> 01:05:10.000
And I and I'm for one, I am a big fan of this.
01:05:10.159 --> 01:05:14.800
Uh being a a 10 plus year podcast fanatic.
01:05:14.960 --> 01:05:16.400
I mean, that's all I've listened to.
01:05:16.480 --> 01:05:18.000
For I don't watch TV.
01:05:18.079 --> 01:05:18.239
Yeah.
01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:20.000
I love these, I love these podcasts.
01:05:20.079 --> 01:05:21.440
I can't believe they have my own now.
01:05:21.519 --> 01:05:22.000
This is crazy.
01:05:22.480 --> 01:05:23.440
It's amazing, isn't it?
01:05:23.679 --> 01:05:28.639
But you you boys were actually the inspiration for this kind of give me the courage and the gumption to do it.
01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:32.000
So so tell us about you, uh, Mr.
01:05:32.159 --> 01:05:35.760
Uh Breeding and the big bitter pickle.
01:05:36.239 --> 01:05:36.559
Okay.
01:05:37.119 --> 01:05:43.119
Well, uh I used to uh I guess it's been close to ten years now.
01:05:43.360 --> 01:05:51.840
I worked at Whitesburg Middle School once before, um through a similar grant funded program uh called Gear Up.
01:05:52.400 --> 01:05:56.960
And I was a d a language arts tutor there, and Mr.
01:05:57.119 --> 01:05:59.599
Breeding had approached me at one time saying that.
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:02.639
He would like to try to do a podcast.
01:06:03.519 --> 01:06:07.679
So at the time, I was kind of scared of that.
01:06:07.760 --> 01:06:12.400
And I didn't really not only I I'm not necessarily scared, I just didn't know about it.
01:06:12.639 --> 01:06:14.559
And I thought, well, I don't know about that.
01:06:14.639 --> 01:06:17.519
You know, I don't think I'd want to do that, you know, that kind of thing.
01:06:17.840 --> 01:06:20.239
So I gave him some equipment to start with.
01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:26.400
I gave him some mics and or I gave him a mic and some cables and different things to set up and try to do it himself.
01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:32.159
Well, needless to say, when the grant ends, you have to jump ship and go somewhere else.
01:06:32.400 --> 01:06:35.280
So I ended up going back to teaching.
01:06:35.599 --> 01:06:39.840
And so he and I kind of lost that line of communication.
01:06:40.559 --> 01:06:50.719
So uh he approached me and I fake just so happy, you know, like you we talked about before, God puts us where we need to be sometimes, whether we want to acknowledge that or not.
01:06:51.039 --> 01:06:52.239
Absolutely, he does.
01:06:52.480 --> 01:06:59.920
And so I ended up back at Whitesburg Middle School uh a year ago, and Brian said, you know what, man?
01:07:00.079 --> 01:07:02.159
He said, I really need this.
01:07:02.559 --> 01:07:05.039
He said, I really want to do this podcast.
01:07:05.280 --> 01:07:07.119
And he ran the the idea by me.
01:07:07.199 --> 01:07:08.960
He said, it's just ranting.
01:07:09.119 --> 01:07:10.480
He said, Dad rants.
01:07:10.719 --> 01:07:13.840
You know, he's just just to get the get all this out.
01:07:14.239 --> 01:07:23.760
And he couldn't have picked a better one to do it because I'm gonna tell you, Travis is such a he's a he's a fine gentleman, he's he's quiet, he's he's well reserved.
01:07:23.920 --> 01:07:28.320
But now when you get him far enough, though, it is beautiful.
01:07:29.199 --> 01:07:36.639
In school, one of the most dutiful things I ever seen was uh we had a chemical mock chemicals field drill, I think it was.
01:07:36.800 --> 01:07:37.360
I think it was.
01:07:37.519 --> 01:07:40.719
And there was a boy in class and he he was acting a fool.
01:07:40.800 --> 01:07:43.280
He he was doing stuff he shouldn't have been doing.
01:07:44.639 --> 01:07:59.519
And you know, Trav don't get don't doesn't get mad at that much, you know, and he's sitting there and he told him to stop, stop it, you know, yeah sit down and behave yourself, you know, and of course this boy wasn't doing it.
01:07:59.920 --> 01:08:09.440
Finally, this big boom of voice comes to this little man said, if you don't sit down, I'm gonna kick your teeth down your cracks so hard you're gonna have to drop your pants to chew your food.
01:08:10.159 --> 01:08:14.239
And we all just kind of froze, and that boy just sit down.
01:08:16.159 --> 01:08:19.359
So when you get him a rant and a go, it's it's it's funny.
01:08:19.520 --> 01:08:20.319
I think it's funny.
01:08:21.199 --> 01:08:22.560
Well, it is funny.
01:08:22.800 --> 01:08:26.399
Uh, but you know, and he said, let's just do it, man.
01:08:26.479 --> 01:08:28.319
He said, You will you help me?
01:08:28.640 --> 01:08:30.239
And I said, You know what?
01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:33.199
I I happen to be in a situation, yeah.
01:08:33.439 --> 01:08:34.479
Let's do it.
01:08:35.039 --> 01:08:38.880
So uh, but I asked him, I said, you know, I don't know a whole lot about this.
01:08:39.039 --> 01:08:41.279
I said, but now he is, he's like you.
01:08:41.439 --> 01:08:43.119
He listens to a lot of podcasts.
01:08:43.520 --> 01:08:45.199
I had I had never listened to one.
01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:46.800
That's kind of how I'm doing this one.
01:08:46.880 --> 01:08:53.600
I'm just taking all the stuff I've listened to from the ones I've, you know, and self-guided myself on this deal.
01:08:53.840 --> 01:08:55.279
Well, I think that's the best way to do it.
01:08:55.760 --> 01:08:59.840
You know, and and again, I didn't have any experience doing that.
01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:01.680
So I didn't really know how to work it.
01:09:01.920 --> 01:09:17.680
But at any rate, it and and like again, God will intervene and he will put you in places without you ever realizing what you're there for until it's already, and then you all of a sudden it hits you and it's like, thank you.
01:09:17.920 --> 01:09:20.560
You know, because I didn't even know it myself.
01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:34.159
But at any rate, he put me back there at White Spring Middle School with Brian with this added with this idea, and just so happened that the technology folks had set up a podcast studio in his the room right next to his.
01:09:35.199 --> 01:09:38.880
And so it was like, I mean, the the door was uh just right there.
01:09:39.199 --> 01:09:40.159
Opportunity presents it.
01:09:40.560 --> 01:09:42.000
Opportunity knocks again.
01:09:42.319 --> 01:09:54.479
And so we start doing the podcast, and we recorded a couple versions just to see what what it would look like, and we both found them hilarious, and we we laughed about them and said, you know what?
01:09:54.640 --> 01:09:57.840
If we like them, somebody else might like them.
01:09:58.159 --> 01:10:01.359
So we we started doing it and releasing them.
01:10:02.000 --> 01:10:09.760
And I can't even remember the last time I looked, actually got a notification yesterday that we had had 5,000 downloads.
01:10:10.399 --> 01:10:12.319
And to me, that's a ton.
01:10:12.560 --> 01:10:13.279
That's a lot.
01:10:13.439 --> 01:10:14.079
That's a lot.
01:10:14.319 --> 01:10:17.359
I tell you, you guys, I I love the podcast, man.
01:10:17.439 --> 01:10:19.359
I'm a diehard listener to that one.
01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:31.920
I I can't tell you how many times I've been doing little things, uh, riding the mower or whatever, and listening to y'all and breeding or do something, and I'll be like mid-sip of like pop or tea or whatever and go flying out of my nose.
01:10:32.159 --> 01:10:33.520
He does it to me on the podcast.
01:10:33.920 --> 01:10:42.479
He's sitting there coughing and choking, about ready to die, and him just on there going, you know, doing his thing.
01:10:42.560 --> 01:10:45.279
But yeah, you you guys, uh you guys got a good thing going.
01:10:45.359 --> 01:10:50.239
I mean, you and a lot of people listen to that podcast, a lot of people enjoy it.
01:10:50.319 --> 01:10:52.239
Well, perfect example.
01:10:52.720 --> 01:10:57.199
A few months ago, when you all started talking about the Walmart delivery thing.
01:10:57.439 --> 01:10:58.079
Oh, yeah.
01:10:58.319 --> 01:11:00.880
I didn't know Walmart delivered.
01:11:00.960 --> 01:11:01.279
Yeah.
01:11:01.439 --> 01:11:02.319
I really didn't.
01:11:02.399 --> 01:11:02.880
Yeah.
01:11:03.119 --> 01:11:05.359
And you got you guys were talking about in your episode.
01:11:05.439 --> 01:11:07.840
I'm like, what are these Walmart delivers?
01:11:08.159 --> 01:11:08.319
Yeah.
01:11:08.479 --> 01:11:09.439
What are you talking about?
01:11:09.840 --> 01:11:12.560
So I get on the Walmart app and I'm like, hmm.
01:11:14.319 --> 01:11:18.960
And I order stuff that gives you the option to deliver, and I'm like, huh, how about that?
01:11:19.119 --> 01:11:19.359
Yeah.
01:11:19.600 --> 01:11:19.840
You know?
01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.079
So I have it delivered to the house, and the girl comes up, you know, brings my stuff.
01:11:25.199 --> 01:11:27.439
And I'm just out there, I'm like, this is cool.
01:11:27.600 --> 01:11:29.680
She said, You never used this before?
01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:30.960
I said, No.
01:11:31.119 --> 01:11:32.720
I said, I didn't even know it existed.
01:11:32.880 --> 01:11:47.439
I said, but uh, I was listening to the bitter pickle podcast, and they was talking about this, and she looked at me, she said, You the third or fourth person to tell me that you listened to that pickle podcast and it's and you use Walmart's online ordering thing.
01:11:47.840 --> 01:11:50.960
I said, Well, I said, that's where I heard about it from, you know.
01:11:51.199 --> 01:11:53.039
She said, I want to look at it and listen to it.
01:11:53.119 --> 01:11:55.520
I said, Oh yeah, I said, You you you know, you'd like it.
01:11:55.760 --> 01:11:59.760
But yeah, I mean, you guys, uh it's just it's a good time.
01:11:59.840 --> 01:12:02.079
I mean, I we made that a running joke too.
01:12:02.159 --> 01:12:03.920
We keep telling Walmart that they owe us money too.
01:12:04.720 --> 01:12:05.680
They owe you money.
01:12:07.439 --> 01:12:09.279
Because we turned people on to it, you know.
01:12:09.600 --> 01:12:20.079
God almighty, one time I was on my lawnmower last year on my big, my big John Deere, my zero turn, you know, and I was a cruise along, and you was on you was on a good one that day.
01:12:20.239 --> 01:12:21.359
You was on a good roll.
01:12:21.439 --> 01:12:22.319
I was proud of you.
01:12:22.399 --> 01:12:25.920
Yeah because uh you you just you made me proud.
01:12:26.079 --> 01:12:32.800
And you was talking about, you know, the dating when you was like, I don't want somebody, but somebody's been passed around like a gym town a locker room.
01:12:32.960 --> 01:12:38.239
When you said that, I took them, I slammed them bars on that lawnmower forward so hard.
01:12:38.479 --> 01:12:42.960
I was laughing and I raised the front end up dump popped a wheelie about 10 feet.
01:12:44.000 --> 01:12:46.319
I mean, it's just you all are so funny.
01:12:46.479 --> 01:12:56.239
I mean, you you because I I've said it, you know, you you've got you, you're well reserved, and you got Breeding who's this wild, eccentric character.
01:12:56.399 --> 01:13:06.239
And it's almost like if you was a cartoon, Breeding would be the guy if you too was in the dark, and he'd be like, Oh, I hear some candles.
01:13:06.319 --> 01:13:11.359
And he'd get a piece of dynamite and light it, and then you'd be the one freaking out trying to get the dynamite and throw it away.
01:13:11.520 --> 01:13:11.600
Right.
01:13:11.920 --> 01:13:12.319
You know what I mean?
01:13:12.560 --> 01:13:16.000
You just you got that chemistry, you know.
01:13:16.159 --> 01:13:16.319
Yeah.
01:13:16.560 --> 01:13:19.279
But uh if folks listen, it's a great show.
01:13:19.439 --> 01:13:20.720
I I highly recommend it.
01:13:20.800 --> 01:13:22.800
You just like and they're and they're clean.
01:13:22.960 --> 01:13:26.560
They don't they don't cuss, no, there's no bad language.
01:13:26.720 --> 01:13:27.760
No bad language, nothing.
01:13:27.840 --> 01:13:35.840
It's a clean show, it's a funny show, and I guarantee you they will talk about something that you probably ranted about yourself.
01:13:36.479 --> 01:13:41.680
And it's called the Bitter Pickle Podcast, and this should tag it.
01:13:41.920 --> 01:13:46.479
Okay, I hopefully, so people will see it on the thingy, but absolutely.
01:13:46.560 --> 01:13:49.119
That's such a a good thing you guys are doing.
01:13:49.279 --> 01:13:50.079
I I enjoy it.
01:13:50.159 --> 01:13:51.520
I know I'm I'm a pickle fan.
01:13:51.600 --> 01:13:52.239
I'm pickle fan.
01:13:52.399 --> 01:13:53.039
Well, I appreciate it.
01:13:53.119 --> 01:13:58.399
We certainly is appreciate the support, and because we love doing it, and we have a lot of fun doing it.
01:13:58.560 --> 01:14:00.960
And you know Oh, you got a YouTube channel too.
01:14:01.119 --> 01:14:01.520
Yeah.
01:14:01.760 --> 01:14:06.239
Where you uh we uh poor poor Brian.
01:14:07.119 --> 01:14:08.399
Bless his heart.
01:14:08.720 --> 01:14:13.760
We did you know, and it's his a lot of these things are his idea.
01:14:13.920 --> 01:14:15.840
Uh like the crazier things anyway.
01:14:16.159 --> 01:14:21.039
The boy like needs to live in a bubble and maybe like five epy pens on standby.
01:14:21.359 --> 01:14:21.520
Yeah.
01:14:21.760 --> 01:14:25.840
Maybe a defibulated some insulin wouldn't hurt, just in case.
01:14:26.159 --> 01:14:38.479
Well, you know, like one of the popular segments that we have on the audio cast is we sampled various foods, and they're usually always very strange and or unique things.
01:14:38.880 --> 01:14:45.520
And sometimes they're wonderful, sometimes they're pretty cool, sometimes other times they're absolutely rancid.
01:14:45.840 --> 01:14:57.039
And, you know, you get to hear that reaction too, because we subject ourselves to all kinds of tortures for y'all sometimes just to be funny, and we do that on video too on the YouTube channel.
01:14:57.119 --> 01:14:58.640
We'll try a bunch of food.
01:14:58.800 --> 01:15:04.239
Um, and sometimes we did that bean boozle channel challenge, which I don't recommend at all for anybody.
01:15:04.479 --> 01:15:07.039
Uh bean boozle.
01:15:07.279 --> 01:15:08.079
Oh, it's horrible.
01:15:08.159 --> 01:15:08.720
It's horrible.
01:15:09.039 --> 01:15:09.760
It was great though.
01:15:09.920 --> 01:15:10.640
It was fun to watch.
01:15:10.800 --> 01:15:13.039
I'm sure I'll have to admit, it was fun to watch.
01:15:13.199 --> 01:15:19.680
Uh, because even the miscreant said he's I can tell the the minute he said the mentor had had enough.
01:15:19.840 --> 01:15:24.319
And he's he could see it in my face that I was just done.
01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:30.880
I got I got tickled, I got tickled, and y'all done them sodas, and he just mixes them all up in one big old thing and just drinks it.
01:15:30.960 --> 01:15:36.159
He's like that had to be horrible.
01:15:37.520 --> 01:15:41.279
But the guy I told the guy says he likes the taste of dirt.
01:15:41.600 --> 01:15:42.239
Yeah.
01:15:43.199 --> 01:15:44.560
He does admit that.
01:15:44.880 --> 01:15:50.239
And he ate a whole bag of uh of chips the other day that smelled just like dog food.
01:15:50.560 --> 01:15:54.239
And it tasted just exactly like dog food smells.
01:15:54.399 --> 01:16:02.239
Um he ate the whole bag and then later up chucked uh because he said it made him sick as I can or to.
01:16:02.960 --> 01:16:03.920
It's terrible.
01:16:04.239 --> 01:16:04.960
Lord mercy.
01:16:05.279 --> 01:16:08.560
But no, no, we have some fun and that and the podcast is clean.
01:16:08.720 --> 01:16:15.520
And it usually consists of a period where we rant about things, where we try some things, and then we play a game.
01:16:15.760 --> 01:16:17.680
There's usually a game on everyone.
01:16:18.239 --> 01:16:20.560
Um so you know, check them out.
01:16:20.640 --> 01:16:21.680
They're kind of fun.
01:16:22.079 --> 01:16:23.039
Absolutely.
01:16:23.359 --> 01:16:24.640
Absolutely.
01:16:24.960 --> 01:16:28.159
So what um what kind of guitars you play nowadays?
01:16:28.239 --> 01:16:31.920
I know the the gear heads are they they they want to know your setup right now.
01:16:32.000 --> 01:16:34.800
Like what what what we're jamming on, what kind of amps we use.
01:16:35.199 --> 01:16:35.520
Okay.
01:16:35.760 --> 01:16:38.720
Um maybe what kind of strings do you use?
01:16:38.960 --> 01:16:39.279
All right.
01:16:39.439 --> 01:16:41.680
Yeah, that's that's some people want to know.
01:16:42.000 --> 01:16:42.800
Yeah, okay.
01:16:42.960 --> 01:16:50.239
Well, on my acoustic guitars, uh, I use those uh Elixir, and Elixir makes a new one called uh tune.
01:16:50.399 --> 01:16:52.560
I've got a set on a couple of my boxes over at the end.
01:16:52.720 --> 01:16:53.359
I really like them.
01:16:53.520 --> 01:16:54.000
They're good.
01:16:54.159 --> 01:16:55.039
I really like them.
01:16:55.199 --> 01:17:07.119
Uh so any of you guys who like uh acoustic guitars and like some kind of a warmer tone in your strings and a coated string, uh elixir attunes are really good.
01:17:07.279 --> 01:17:08.800
That's what I use on mine.
01:17:09.039 --> 01:17:14.239
Uh I always uh for my less paws, I use my less paws a lot.
01:17:14.399 --> 01:17:21.119
Uh I have several les paws, but my favorites are 50s uh Cherry Sunburst standard.
01:17:21.359 --> 01:17:29.039
And I always use uh Ernie Ball uh regular slinkies on those uh 10 gauge.
01:17:29.359 --> 01:17:35.760
Um and I I primarily use that with either the Micrite blues band or the pure and simple band.
01:17:36.479 --> 01:17:48.239
Um because it tends to lend itself better to that type of music, and I use a magnetone M80 uh Super 59 half stack sometimes for the blues band.
01:17:48.399 --> 01:18:01.840
Uh for pure and simple band and for uh a lot of the harder stuff that I do, I use uh a Soldano SLO30 through a little uh PV tuba 12 with greenback, Celestian greenbacks in it.
01:18:02.640 --> 01:18:04.960
Um I really like that Soldano.
01:18:05.439 --> 01:18:06.399
Uh really like that ant.
01:18:06.800 --> 01:18:07.840
You're a Soldano man.
01:18:08.079 --> 01:18:09.199
I really like that ant.
01:18:09.760 --> 01:18:12.880
Um so I use it a lot.
01:18:13.119 --> 01:18:18.319
Uh when I do I don't and I don't really use a lot of pedals uh anymore.
01:18:18.479 --> 01:18:23.600
I use a uh a Vox Wall pedal special edition that got the Union Jack on it.
01:18:23.920 --> 01:18:31.199
Um I use a boss dimension C chorus and uh a phase 90.
01:18:31.359 --> 01:18:32.479
That's kind of what I'm using.
01:18:32.720 --> 01:18:33.840
What about Diesel Foot?
01:18:33.920 --> 01:18:35.039
What's the setup for Diesel Foot?
01:18:35.199 --> 01:18:36.560
Dieselfoot's a different setup.
01:18:36.640 --> 01:18:39.199
Um, it's mostly metal music, right?
01:18:39.359 --> 01:18:41.840
It's it's 80s metal, hair metal.
01:18:42.239 --> 01:18:43.840
Um who's in the band?
01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:44.319
Okay.
01:18:44.399 --> 01:18:46.479
Uh that's Andy Miranda on bass.
01:18:46.640 --> 01:18:47.039
Oh, yeah.
01:18:47.279 --> 01:18:55.199
Uh great bass player, um, Corey Branham on drums, uh, killer drummer, Mike Jackson on vocals.
01:18:55.680 --> 01:18:56.000
Oh, yeah.
01:18:56.640 --> 01:18:58.479
When it comes to metal vocals, there's nobody better.
01:18:58.640 --> 01:18:59.600
He's a good, he's good at it.
01:18:59.680 --> 01:18:59.920
He's good.
01:19:00.159 --> 01:19:01.520
He's absolutely good at it.
01:19:01.760 --> 01:19:05.680
And and I'm the only guitar player, so that's all of us.
01:19:05.920 --> 01:19:08.640
And for Diesel Foot, the setup is different.
01:19:08.720 --> 01:19:20.399
I originally started with a Splon uh made by Scott Splon in North Carolina, uh half stack, and for some reason it just didn't lend itself well to things.
01:19:20.560 --> 01:19:35.119
So I stopped using that and I started using a Marshall uh DSL 100, the the British made ones, and started using that half stack, and it was better, but practices were difficult because it had to be so loud.
01:19:35.439 --> 01:19:44.640
And so uh I other bands that we were playing with in all these venues who were interested in diesel foot were using what's called silent stages.
01:19:45.199 --> 01:19:52.640
So they didn't want loud guitar amplifiers, so they wanted modelers, digital modeling uh technology.
01:19:52.800 --> 01:20:00.800
So I bought a I didn't want to go full bore into it because I already had so much invested in everything else.
01:20:01.039 --> 01:20:06.239
So I bought kind of the middle of the road, I bought the headrush flex prime pedal board.
01:20:07.279 --> 01:20:14.960
I bought a bunch of extra models and things like that off the internet and uh different cabinet IRs and things like that.
01:20:15.199 --> 01:20:20.159
So I use that primarily uh to get my sound, and I program the set list.
01:20:20.239 --> 01:20:25.439
Whenever we can form a set list, I program a setting per set per song in the set list.
01:20:25.760 --> 01:20:27.439
So that I just click through them.
01:20:28.319 --> 01:20:31.279
So yeah, it's easy and convenient.
01:20:31.520 --> 01:20:36.720
Um and most of those, I'll have to admit, are Marshall-based type sounds.
01:20:36.800 --> 01:20:40.479
That's just simply what I gravitate toward, that or the Saldano.
01:20:41.119 --> 01:20:46.000
And uh even a Bogner, I'm using a lot of Bogner style stuff on these things.
01:20:46.319 --> 01:20:49.920
Uh for the guitars, I'm using um a Schechter.
01:20:50.720 --> 01:21:01.920
Um I can't even remember what model that is, but it's got the Sustainiac pickup in the in the neck, and I use it a lot to get controlled feedback and stuff like that on certain songs.
01:21:02.479 --> 01:21:03.279
Floyd Rose.
01:21:03.680 --> 01:21:04.560
Floyd Rose.
01:21:04.960 --> 01:21:10.960
Every guitar I use except for one in Diesel Foot is uh Floyd Rose equipped, yeah.
01:21:11.279 --> 01:21:15.359
Uh use a Jackson 7 string on a couple songs.
01:21:15.840 --> 01:21:18.880
Because we do some 90s uh alternative in metal too.
01:21:19.760 --> 01:21:21.680
So um I use that.
01:21:22.880 --> 01:21:38.319
And let me think I use um two or three, I use a George Lynch uh tiger model, guitars, yellow s yellow tiger, and I use uh a Desert Eagle ESP George Lynch model.
01:21:39.039 --> 01:21:41.359
Um so I use that a lot too.
01:21:41.600 --> 01:21:48.880
But needless to say, my rig and diesel foot may not have a lot of heavy stuff, but there's like five guitars.
01:21:49.119 --> 01:21:52.079
So I'll I'll have a bunch of guitars with me when I go to these shows.
01:21:52.479 --> 01:21:55.119
That's that's fun time, bring out all the gears.
01:21:55.359 --> 01:21:55.680
Yeah.
01:21:55.920 --> 01:21:56.079
Yeah.
01:21:56.319 --> 01:21:56.640
That's cool.
01:21:56.880 --> 01:22:01.520
And they're all kind of flashy, and one, and I I don't definitely don't mean to forget this one.
01:22:01.760 --> 01:22:06.399
My buddy Rob, uh, Robert Potter that works out here at KC Barnes.
01:22:06.640 --> 01:22:10.319
Uh I bought a skull and crossbones or a skull guitar.
01:22:10.399 --> 01:22:10.880
Yeah, yeah.
01:22:11.199 --> 01:22:14.880
And it comes white, you know, the the skull and bones are white.
01:22:15.119 --> 01:22:18.319
And he said he wanted to do something special for me.
01:22:18.640 --> 01:22:23.119
And so I just told him, I said, whatever you want, man, just do whatever you want to it.
01:22:23.359 --> 01:22:24.800
So I bought three of them.
01:22:24.960 --> 01:22:29.359
I bought three of those guitars and I gave him one of them, and I said, just do what you want.
01:22:29.600 --> 01:22:41.439
And so he gave it to me, and then if you look at my Facebook page or any of the music videos I did, it's the purple skull guitar in there, and it it's one of my favorite guitars.
01:22:42.720 --> 01:22:45.039
And it means a lot to me too, because a buddy painted it.
01:22:45.439 --> 01:22:46.560
Yeah, special paint job.
01:22:46.640 --> 01:22:46.720
Yeah.
01:22:46.880 --> 01:22:48.479
Yeah, I remember when that we done it.
01:22:48.640 --> 01:22:49.119
That looks nice.
01:22:49.279 --> 01:22:49.359
Yeah.
01:22:49.600 --> 01:22:50.079
Done a good job.
01:22:50.399 --> 01:22:51.680
Yeah, he did do a good job on it.
01:22:51.840 --> 01:22:54.880
And again, it touched me because he wanted to do it for me.
01:22:55.119 --> 01:22:55.600
Right.
01:22:55.840 --> 01:22:56.479
Yeah.
01:22:58.399 --> 01:22:59.600
Absolutely.
01:23:00.239 --> 01:23:03.039
So, top five guitarists.
01:23:03.520 --> 01:23:04.479
My top five?
01:23:04.720 --> 01:23:05.600
Top five.
01:23:07.039 --> 01:23:11.840
Um absolutely just every time you pick one up, you think of them.
01:23:12.399 --> 01:23:17.520
Number one would be George Lynch, uh, from the band Doc and Lynch Mob, that kind of thing.
01:23:17.600 --> 01:23:19.279
He was my number one inspiration.
01:23:20.319 --> 01:23:23.199
Um number two, Randy Rhodes.
01:23:23.920 --> 01:23:26.000
I was a big Randy Rhodes fan.
01:23:26.399 --> 01:23:32.159
Um number three would be Gary Rossington from Skinner.
01:23:32.319 --> 01:23:35.520
He was the one who inspired me to play a Les Paul, as did Randy.
01:23:35.680 --> 01:23:38.319
He was on the Fox Theater recording live at the Fox.
01:23:38.560 --> 01:23:39.119
Yep.
01:23:39.439 --> 01:23:46.000
Um fourth guitarist would probably be Jakey Lee.
01:23:46.479 --> 01:23:47.359
Also one of Ozzy.
01:23:47.520 --> 01:23:49.359
Is he the one who plays on the Ozzy stuff?
01:23:49.439 --> 01:23:49.680
Yeah.
01:23:49.840 --> 01:23:50.800
Yeah, I like that guy.
01:23:50.960 --> 01:23:52.399
Plays the Bark of the Moon, thanks.
01:23:52.640 --> 01:23:52.960
Yeah.
01:23:53.600 --> 01:23:54.159
He's a good picker.
01:23:54.319 --> 01:23:54.880
He's a good picker.
01:23:55.119 --> 01:23:55.520
Yeah, man.
01:23:56.079 --> 01:23:58.319
Um number four, that would be him.
01:23:58.640 --> 01:24:00.640
And five would be Hendrix.
01:24:01.359 --> 01:24:10.159
I'm a Hendrix fan too, so that live recording that he does of Machine Gun, I think it's in Madison Square Garden.
01:24:10.319 --> 01:24:14.000
There's a big long sustained note that he starts a solo off with.
01:24:14.479 --> 01:24:16.880
To this day, I don't know how he gets it.
01:24:17.279 --> 01:24:20.880
Out of a Stratocaster and and just a fuzz pedal on the Marshall.
01:24:20.960 --> 01:24:22.720
I still don't know how it gets that.
01:24:23.279 --> 01:24:24.880
Animal guys, they had tricks.
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:29.439
I don't know, the stuff I guess they figured out how to move their hands or whatnot, you know.
01:24:29.680 --> 01:24:30.159
I guess so.
01:24:30.239 --> 01:24:36.800
They knew right where to hold that note or whatever, but you know, it's it it to this day it gives me chills just to hear him do it.
01:24:36.960 --> 01:24:39.600
Uh so yeah, those are my top five.
01:24:39.840 --> 01:24:42.159
What about um albums?
01:24:42.720 --> 01:24:44.239
Top five albums.
01:24:44.479 --> 01:24:52.720
Everybody's always got them them, you know, very few records that you know absolutely of course one of them probably is gonna be the Fox Theater.
01:24:53.199 --> 01:24:54.079
That's gonna be number one.
01:24:54.319 --> 01:24:55.359
That's the one that lit the fire.
01:24:55.680 --> 01:24:56.560
Lit the fire under you.
01:24:56.640 --> 01:24:58.880
So it's Skinner Skinner, live at the Fox Theater.
01:24:59.119 --> 01:24:59.359
Yeah.
01:24:59.520 --> 01:25:02.720
One more from the road, I think is what it's called, but it's live from the Fox.
01:25:03.359 --> 01:25:09.760
Um number two would probably be Back for the Attack by Dawkins.
01:25:10.319 --> 01:25:13.840
I loved George's George Lynch's guitar tone on that.
01:25:14.079 --> 01:25:16.720
Still to this day, that's one of my favorite guitar tones.
01:25:17.520 --> 01:25:23.279
Um Blizzard of Oz, number three, uh, with Randy Rhodes.
01:25:23.760 --> 01:25:25.920
I liked it better than Diary of a Madman.
01:25:26.000 --> 01:25:27.600
I just liked the songs better.
01:25:28.399 --> 01:25:35.680
Um number four would probably be Band of Gypsies, that live album.
01:25:35.840 --> 01:25:38.880
Um I think it's at Madison Square Garden, number four.
01:25:39.600 --> 01:25:45.199
And number five would probably be Bark at the Moon.
01:25:46.319 --> 01:25:47.920
That's one of my favorite albums.
01:25:48.159 --> 01:25:50.079
No, sorry, Ultimate Send.
01:25:51.439 --> 01:25:52.800
That's my favorite.
01:25:54.560 --> 01:25:57.199
That's my favorite Jakey Lee Aussie album.
01:26:02.319 --> 01:26:05.119
So yeah, that's that would be my top five albums.
01:26:05.439 --> 01:26:12.720
Uh I mean I love music, so I mean, I could probably pick a favorite album from any artist that you mention, but yeah, for top.
01:26:13.520 --> 01:26:14.079
Those hit hard.
01:26:14.319 --> 01:26:15.359
Those are my go-to's.
01:26:15.600 --> 01:26:16.000
Right.
01:26:16.239 --> 01:26:16.640
Right.
01:26:16.880 --> 01:26:17.520
Yeah.
01:26:18.000 --> 01:26:18.640
Wow.
01:26:19.840 --> 01:26:22.960
Trav, man, it has been so great to have you on this show.
01:26:23.039 --> 01:26:24.399
I've enjoyed your stories.
01:26:24.560 --> 01:26:30.640
That this is what I love so much about doing this is just hearing the stories, how people get inspired.
01:26:30.960 --> 01:26:34.239
I mean, to me, this is pure gold.
01:26:34.720 --> 01:26:37.600
I mean, I've I've looked forward to this ever since you mentioned it.
01:26:37.840 --> 01:26:38.880
Man, I enjoy it.
01:26:38.960 --> 01:26:39.600
I really do.
01:26:39.840 --> 01:26:56.239
And I it just I I I like I said with this podcast, my goal is, you know, I want these people, these local hometown heroes, these legends we got around here like you and others, to have their time in the spotlight.
01:26:56.399 --> 01:26:58.000
They they they deserve it.
01:26:58.239 --> 01:27:05.439
I mean, you know, these most of these podcasts, you know, they want to they want to interview people like Vince Gill and things like that, and that's wonderful.
01:27:05.680 --> 01:27:05.840
Sure.
01:27:06.159 --> 01:27:06.720
I like Vince.
01:27:06.800 --> 01:27:07.439
Yeah, I do too.
01:27:07.760 --> 01:27:21.600
But man, there's so many people that I know of so many great musicians like you and others that even though you're not you're not like some well, you know what I'm saying.
01:27:22.079 --> 01:27:22.960
Not well known.
01:27:23.119 --> 01:27:25.279
You know, not but nationally nationally known.
01:27:25.600 --> 01:27:26.479
But you're well known to me.
01:27:26.560 --> 01:27:26.800
Yes.
01:27:26.960 --> 01:27:27.359
Around here.
01:27:27.600 --> 01:27:27.840
Yes.
01:27:28.720 --> 01:27:30.159
I just want to get that out there.
01:27:30.239 --> 01:27:30.479
Yeah.
01:27:30.640 --> 01:27:32.239
I just I just believe in that.
01:27:32.319 --> 01:27:34.000
I I it's just it's all good.
01:27:34.079 --> 01:27:34.720
It's good stuff.
01:27:34.960 --> 01:27:43.279
Well, I love this idea when you came up with it because I think it's a beautiful idea of just uh telling people about the people that are writing their own neighborhoods.
01:27:43.680 --> 01:27:52.800
Because we in this pocket of the earth here, Eastern Kentucky, we have some of the most talented musicians, singers, songwriters.
01:27:53.039 --> 01:27:56.079
And some of them, sadly, they don't they don't get to be heard.
01:27:56.239 --> 01:27:56.720
Yeah.
01:27:57.119 --> 01:27:59.279
I'm trying to put a little dent in that.
01:28:00.159 --> 01:28:01.439
Appreciate that for one.
01:28:01.600 --> 01:28:04.880
And I think, yeah, and and I think you'll do some good doing it.
01:28:05.119 --> 01:28:05.840
I hope so.
01:28:06.000 --> 01:28:08.000
Man, I I I've enjoyed this episode.
01:28:08.079 --> 01:28:15.520
I can't wait to listen back at this and get it out there tomorrow and and uh uh hopefully the people enjoy it and I think they will.
01:28:15.680 --> 01:28:18.960
Oh, I think so too. 'Cause you got a you got your own fan base.
01:28:19.680 --> 01:28:25.199
They're uh they're they'll they'll listen to this and they'll they'll they'll enjoy hearing how you started.
01:28:25.359 --> 01:28:25.600
Yeah.
01:28:25.760 --> 01:28:29.760
You know, knowing getting to know a little bit getting to know a little bit about Mr.
01:28:29.840 --> 01:28:30.319
Fields.
01:28:30.560 --> 01:28:32.880
Yeah, a little more than you might have known beforehand.
01:28:33.279 --> 01:28:33.760
Right.
01:28:34.319 --> 01:28:36.560
And maybe that might inspire them to play.
01:28:36.880 --> 01:28:37.439
I hope so.
01:28:37.600 --> 01:28:38.159
You never know.
01:28:38.319 --> 01:28:39.520
I hope I hope so.
01:28:40.640 --> 01:28:49.840
So just real quick going back over, this man's got a brand new album, Travis Fields, Next Last Resort.
01:28:50.079 --> 01:28:59.439
And they can find this album on all the streaming pla uh streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, am I leaving any one of them out?
01:28:59.680 --> 01:29:03.600
YouTube music, all yeah, just anything you any streaming platform will have it.
01:29:03.760 --> 01:29:08.560
And if you look him up on Facebook and you're like me, you like to have hard copies, he'll autograph you on.
01:29:08.720 --> 01:29:10.319
Yep, got a box full of 'em.
01:29:10.880 --> 01:29:11.199
See?
01:29:11.680 --> 01:29:14.880
He'll take an autograph you want, he'll send it right to you.
01:29:16.399 --> 01:29:20.640
And uh also check these boys out, the Bitter Pickle Podcast.
01:29:20.720 --> 01:29:23.920
As a matter of fact, I think you're going to record an episode of that after this thing.
01:29:24.319 --> 01:29:25.439
Just a few minutes, yes, sir.
01:29:25.680 --> 01:29:29.680
Lord, you have to get you have to get the old miscrint fired up, get him on a good rant.
01:29:29.920 --> 01:29:31.119
He is already fired up.
01:29:31.199 --> 01:29:32.399
I'm just gonna turn him loose.
01:29:32.640 --> 01:29:37.279
Sound like a wind up toy, just line him up and I'm just gonna let him go.
01:29:39.680 --> 01:29:42.399
Travis, thank you so much for coming, man.
01:29:42.560 --> 01:29:43.920
I really appreciate this.
01:29:44.239 --> 01:29:45.039
Thank you for having me, man.
01:29:45.359 --> 01:29:49.359
And uh hopefully I'll have you on again sometime, maybe have you co-host.
01:29:49.920 --> 01:29:54.720
Well, you know what I was thinking either that or I'd like for you to tell your story.
01:29:54.960 --> 01:29:56.399
Let me interview you.
01:29:56.640 --> 01:29:57.840
You know, we may do that.
01:29:57.920 --> 01:29:58.640
Somebody asked me.
01:29:58.720 --> 01:30:01.199
Somebody asked me that the other day, he said, When are you gonna do yourself?
01:30:01.279 --> 01:30:03.359
I'm like, well, you know, hard to interview yourself.
01:30:03.600 --> 01:30:03.920
Yeah.
01:30:04.159 --> 01:30:05.600
I mean, I can probably talk to myself.
01:30:05.680 --> 01:30:08.720
You'd probably haul me to the sideboard, but you know, I can I can, you know.
01:30:09.119 --> 01:30:11.039
We could use that on the on our podcast.
01:30:11.760 --> 01:30:12.239
You could.
01:30:12.880 --> 01:30:13.760
That's what she said.
01:30:13.920 --> 01:30:14.079
Yeah.
01:30:14.479 --> 01:30:15.199
Many times.
01:30:15.359 --> 01:30:16.000
Yeah.
01:30:16.239 --> 01:30:22.239
Folks, thank you for tuning in today, this episode of the Five String Holler Podcast, episode number two.
01:30:22.640 --> 01:30:27.119
And thank you all so much for the support that you've shown me and supporting the first episode.
01:30:27.359 --> 01:30:29.680
Be sure to share this one.
01:30:29.920 --> 01:30:35.600
Tell your friends, your family, your grandmas, your aunts, and your uncles about the five string hauler podcast.
01:30:35.760 --> 01:30:40.000
We've got a brand new Facebook page, 5StringHoller.
01:30:40.399 --> 01:30:43.600
Uh, Facebook.com forward slash 5StringHoller.
01:30:43.680 --> 01:30:51.119
We're on all the streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Amazon, just about everyone you can think of.
01:30:51.279 --> 01:30:52.319
And reach out to me.
01:30:52.399 --> 01:30:53.199
Let me hear from you.
01:30:53.279 --> 01:31:04.079
Let me know if you're liking the show, if you got an idea, you know, a good musician that I need to get on here and interview, a good songwriter, a good singer, you know, just be sure to reach out to me and let me know.
01:31:04.239 --> 01:31:08.159
But until then, folks, we'll see you next time up here in the holler.
01:31:08.319 --> 01:31:56.960
Woo-hoop, you can see.