Josh Weathers

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

Purple [Music] in the canyon. That's where I [Music] can't believe we got it done, dude. We actually did it. We've been trying to do this for a while.

I know. I've been knowing you for since I started in music. Really? Pretty much.

Yeah. Like the first time I met you was in New Mexico. Mhm. At that LJT festival thing, but I think I had just put out my first music then.

That record's cool, man. And you were so friendly. It was rare. It was quite refreshing.

That's funny. Yeah. I remember you uh we talked out at your van. Well, okay.

Yeah, it was the van. The van. I didn't like invite you out to my random van. It was approp It was an appropriate van.

You won't touch my puppy. Touch Did I have my dog with me? No. Oh, okay.

I thought I would. No. Uh and I'd met Bubba before that. I met Bubba and then so I got to see Bubba play and he was kind of doing multi-instrumentalist stuff with you.

Is that when you just snaked him away from me? Right then. Yeah. Right then.

I decided in my heart that someday I'll steal this guy from Yeah. Yeah. No, but Bubba was busy doing like his own thing also. It was kind of like Has he slowed down on some of that?

I think so. I mean, well, I'm keeping him pretty busy. Yeah. Y'all are playing a ton, huh?

A lot. How do you are you still are you trying to write a bunch or are you just focused on Yeah, I'm writing more now than I have ever ever. Yes. We got I got a publishing deal last year and so that I mean you kind of have to and part of the which I like that part of it.

It's sort of like cuz if it was up to me I could just play shows forever cuz I love entertaining more than probably anything else. But, you know, I've come to realize that the songs are the thing that's going to outlast me being on stage. So, the best ones possible. Was that a realization?

When like when did you come to that realization? Well, I mean, the older you get, when I was younger, I used to write as a means to just I need songs to play, right? And I don't want to do like cover band stuff necessarily. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And that's like lucrative business these days. Huge. Huge. We were in Muscle Sholes, Alabama uh yesterday, two days ago, and we uh we went to Muscle Scholes Sound, which is like dope old studio, you know, in Muscle Scholes.

They made so many awesome records. Seager recorded every like almost every record there. Bob Seager. And uh there was a Bob Seager tribute band that was cutting there that day from Canada.

They were on tour. Like they're making like real records and they were making a record at Muscle Scholes. At Muscle Scholes. How interesting.

I thought it was dope. I was like, can I just I want Dude, would the uh would the lead singer Did he look like him too? A little bit. Really?

That if he could actually sing like him, I find it hard. He probably does. Do you think so? Yeah, cuz that's actually one of my top three favorite voices of all time.

What's your favorite Seager song? Okay. It's changed over the years, but the first one that really got me was Main Street. Yeah, dude.

With that, that's that Muscle Scholes. Just the rest of the fuzz. The rest of the podcast is just you and I looking at each other doing a falsetto going guitar solos. Yeah, I love Bob.

That's my favorite one though. Kind of slow. He's a Well, and the melody, see that guys like that are what make me want to write great songs. Um cuz like Bob, you listen to that song.

The melody is that I remember standing on the corner midnight trying to get my courage on. It's like, you know, I used to stand outside. Yeah. Uh he I think I find him to be incredibly underrated.

He had a massive career because he wrote great songs, but he wrote most all those songs or co-wrote them. Yeah. Not old time rock and roll, which was like maybe the biggest hit. That was pitched by the guys from the Swampers.

Pitched him that song. House Band of Muscle Scholes. Yeah. Well, so but then they kind of co-wrote together, I guess.

Or what do you mean pitched it? Uh they had recorded oldtime rock and roll for another artist and were like, "Seager's got to hear this song." Okay. And so they pitched the song to him and Yeah.

history was made. But they made a deal with him. They like I think I think the Swampers uh because they opened the Muscle Shaw Sound, the band from Fame Studios, which was like Mustang Sally, Land of Thousand Dances is like all the, you know, really cool Wilson Picket stuff and all the soul records that came out of Muscle Scholes. They left fame and started their own studio.

That's when they, you know, I mean, Muscle Scholes exploded in the 70s. Everybody made records. They had a They had an invoice ticket on the wall that was from the Rolling Stones when they recorded Brown Sugar there. Pretty cool.

See, but why would you Mike's and Mike's nodding over there cuz he's like, "Yeah, he took a picture of it." Oh, yeah. It's incredible. But it's curious to me why uh so Seager owns all of his masters supposedly.

Yeah. So he owns the music, which is not true for somebody like the Stones or like a Johnny Cash or something like that. So I find it interesting that people don't really talk about him quite as much from like a songwriting perspective. I don't know why.

I think maybe Well, I think it's because they don't have big industry people behind him. He owns all of it. Yeah. So you don't get this like constant push from the industry like, "Hey, he's in my top five favorite of all time."

Is he really? Easily. Oh yeah, me too. And I But I don't ever hear anybody talk about You know why too?

Because like in the be in his like his career went through several different phases, but like before Night Moves, Bob Seager could sell out could sell 15,000 tickets in Detroit, you know, and then he go before his big before night moves because he had a he had the Seager I think it was called the uh what's it? Seager sound system. Seager he had a band where he did that song uh Rambling Man was like his first regional hit. I just went and listened to his first record the other day.

The from Seager System or whatever. Well, I don't know if it's called I've never heard of the Seager System thing. See, that's when he was like playing organ in his own band. Really?

I mean, rambling man. I got the ra that So that But so his first album though as Yeah. Rambling gambling man. Mhm.

In like 1969. Mhm. So and that was like a regional hit. Yeah.

And so he had kind of built this like regional that record right there. Yeah. That's like Yeah. Rambling Gambling Man.

Yeah. And there's some songs in there that Yeah. The Bob Seager system. Okay.

Yeah. Inter That's so weird that I just I just went through and listened to that whole thing the other day. Well, that so be before Night Moves. I mean, he could sell 15,000 tickets.

He could literally sell an arena out in his hometown and then he would drive 100 miles and couldn't sell 15 tickets. It sounds like a lot of the cats regionally around here. Yeah. And we're It's just now starting to happen.

Yeah. Where we're like we're going to another state and selling 100 plus seats, you know? It's like, oh man, it's like it's happening. Or we're getting booked at like, you know, we're playing rodeos and a thousand people show up after the rodeo and they know our songs, which is wild.

Yeah. And you've done it long enough too that I'm see it's interesting like some nowadays you can you can get such quick attention um so quickly from Tik Tok and so young right without talk about this well no without putting in a ton of work and some people get jealous of that right like oh that must be nice to blow up so quick I've never been jealous of that or envious of that um because you have no perspective on the work it takes to get there. I It's gonna You're gonna have to put the time in at some point. Uh that's Yeah.

And it's have something that last something, you know, over the course of time and you're going to have to put it put the work in like and it's easier to put that work in on the front end because if you've already had massive success and you feel the ride up is way is way easier than the ride down. And if you have that ride down and then you're realizing how much work you need to put in. Well, the thing I think will be the telltale uh for a lot of the guys that have popped off on TikTok and are like smoking right now is hopefully they have a maturity where they understand like I mean Gar Brooks doesn't get played on radio anymore. George Strait doesn't have number ones anymore.

We're talking about the two biggest of all time. There's going to come a time when you're on the other side of it and maybe you're selling a theater and not an amphitheater. You know, could be maybe they just stay on top and that may happen and that's amazing and uh but have you experience what it feels like to play for nobody? Literally drive hundreds of miles to load in all your gear.

I mean, I was just We played in Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday. Sunday. No. What day is it today?

Today is Tuesday. Today's Tuesday. Are we supposed to say that? Probably not supposed to say that.

Probably ask the financial. She would know what day it is. Yeah. Y'all the only ones in here with a real job.

Uh we were we were playing in Little Rock, Arkansas on Sunday and I recounted the first time I played in Arkansas which was I think was in maybe Hot Springs and it was for the bartender just when did you say it was? That's it. That was 15 years ago. Oh, okay.

Okay. You know, but it was like for the bartender. That's it. And the door guy walks up, sorry, bro.

And this is what he said. He was like, "Joe Diffy's playing at a tractor pull in town and everybody's down there." Sorry, man. We normally have some folks in here.

But you're really good. Yeah, we really enjoyed it. You're really good, man. We played four hours.

Well, I was thinking maybe you guys could have us back or something. Ooh, no. I don't Yeah, maybe not. I don't know about that.

But that was the old days, dude. We'd play four hour nights. There were times, too, like when we would load into clubs and we'd stay there and play three, four days in a row. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

We'd do that pretty regularly. It's more like comedians at that point. Yeah. I mean, that's just do a week of, you know, like we'd stay at one place and play all week and try to build something.

Mostly cover gigs. Uh, no, we were playing original songs, too. Okay. But I did learn a lot of cover songs.

I mean, played a lot of weddings, play a lot of birthday parties. Kids today will ask me that. They'll say like, you know, what do you think I ought to do? you know, like, well, you need to write songs.

You need to like be your own artist, and you need to, you know, it's going to take you a while to know who you are as an artist. I'm just now figuring it out. You think so? Yeah.

I feel more confident now in who I am or what I want to, you know, do. Do you think you could have gotten there without doing a lot of the cover stuff? No. No.

Because and that's part of it is like I tell kids I'm like just go play weddings. Get a band put together. Learn a whole song book full of songs. Learn wonderful learn the best songs of all time.

Learn all those songs and then go entertain people who don't want you to be the person entertaining. Seriously. I mean excruciating. Yeah.

It's brutal. But you learn real hard. You learn real quick how to like engage a crowd that doesn't care. They didn't buy tickets to see you.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. What a funny dynamic uh that you learn how to deal with. I've always I've always said it was like dating.

You got to learn how to date a crowd. Like before you ever get married, you got to learn you got to date somebody. And there's that awkwardness at first where like especially this is my theory uh with women. There's a lot of like if they know you're like super into them, they're a little like, okay, there's like there's a there's a it's like the whole and can't call them within the first 3 days, you know, cuz then you seem a little desperate, you know?

So, like being in front of an audience, there's feels like there's that dynamic. If they know that you want them to like you too much, then they're like, "Oh, no. I'm not really into it." But if they if they trust that if you were just alone on that stage without them, you'd still be doing your thing and having a good time.

there's something kind of like but you don't want to be come off like a jerk and pretentious right you still it's but it's tough there's a little distance there I think you only can learn from and you have to just learn by doing but if the first time you got on stage there was just like thousands of people that already knew your songs and they just love you it's a hard that's a totally different world I mean that's they're going to be having podcast someday those cats are going to be having podcast someday of telling you how they navigated that world cuz that's a totally different thing I mean Way different. Way different. It's probably even weird. I would be curious.

Is it weird to because you played so long for kind of more of the love of it and uh you weren't getting a tremendous amount of attention. Is like how weird is it to then now you do get a lot of Is there a part of you that kind It's kind of hard to believe in a way and you're just like, "Oh my gosh, this is happening now." Yeah. I mean, I don't know.

I'm just extremely grateful for it. You know, that'd be the hardest part to me if I if it happened overnight would be like, how do you have a sense of gratitude if your only experience is nothing but love and adoration from the jump, right? like from the very get-go you are extremely popular and uh how do you how do you be like can't I mean I think the awe of it you know they're always going to be struck by the awe of it because like what did I do to get this what did I do to I just wrote a few songs put them on TikTok I met a kid I met a kid uh a few months ago and he got signed after his first video he ever put on TikTok. The first video he ever posted just got him a record deal.

And it wasn't just a T90 record deal. We're talking about a record deal. Yeah. Big dogs.

Yeah. And he's got, you know, he puts a single out now. It's a million streams in a week. Yeah.

It's like what? And I'm talking to this kid. He's 18 years old. I'm talking to him like, "So, man, what do you what are you like?"

He was playing before us and I'm like, "So, you've been working hard? Like, you doing the Tik Tok thing? You getting after it?" And he was like, "Yes, sir.

Yes, sir." He was real like humble about it. And then, you know, he like drops that he's playing Red Rocks. And I was like, "Wait a minute."

And he's like, "Yeah, yeah, I got a record deal." Yeah. Yeah. I got management.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just like, "Holy cow, dude. Teach me."

No kidding. Seriously. Yeah. But even from a spiritual perspective, it's interesting that people like to think of quick and easy success, even if it's just like in business, um they like to think of that as a huge blessing.

Oh, what a blessing. It's like, yeah, we just been so blessed that it just happened so quick and like, you know, I just got so lucky, I guess. Yeah. Um, oddly enough, it's like if we were thinking that God is like blessing us in that way.

If you think about that from like a being a parent, I don't have kids, but I can imagine if I had kids, I would not want to just give them everything easy and quick. I would I would want them to learn how to earn something because it builds character and integrity and perseverance and all those attributes. Yeah. So, it's always a little weird for me to think that as human parents, we would do that for our own kids, but then if we're like child of God, God would not do that in the same way.

Like, he wouldn't want you to earn it. He wouldn't want you to like build character and perseverance. Well, what's to say that the character building is not going to be on the other side of it? Scary.

Yeah. Be careful what you freaking pray for. For sure. Yeah.

Well, you might be building character. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

You think the blessing was on the front end? I mean, my I mean, I've had those experiences with my son where it's like, that's really what you want to do? Yeah, that's what I want. Okay.

Okay. And then lesson learned on the other side of whatever that was. Oh. Oh, well, I kind of told you that was gonna happen, didn't I?

Yes, sir, you did. Yeah. As I've gotten older, my prayers have changed. I didn't get saved till I was like 26, so it was still later in life, but uh even since then, my prayers have changed pretty significantly.

And because I just don't even trust that I know what I need, you know? So, it's like for me to just like pray for stuff that I think I want and need is bizarre. or now it's just like, man, I don't want to I don't want the thing that I don't need. So, just kind of like let it happen the way it's supposed to happen, you know?

Cuz I don't even really trust my own intuition. You know what's funny is uh the things I'm experiencing now, like getting to write songs with Steve Warner and all these things I'm experiencing now were things that I had laid down a long time ago. I had just I had just realized like that is not going to be for me. Interesting.

Yeah. I mean, I had just sort of like given up the idea that like, okay, I'm not going to be in Rolling Stone. I'm not that's not going to happen. So, Lord, what do you want me to do?

What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? H And that was probably a continuous prayer, but like how long ago do you think generally speaking that happened?

where you kind of uh it's probably five, six years ago, I thought like, okay, if I'm going to have a career in music, I'm going to have to do it a certain way. I'm going to have to build a certain way because the things that I prefer, this music I love is not popular. It's not what's on the radio. It's not and I don't even know how to go about obtaining something like that, you know?

I but I just sort of like surrendered my whole life and career to God. Like whatever you want me to do. If you want me to be on staff at a church and be a worship pastor, I can do that. Whatever you want me to do, you take me there.

Tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it. But see, it's genuine. You doing that.

It's not like you at peace with it. Yeah. It's not like could do the same thing and then really get what they really want. You know what I mean?

Yeah. No, no. I mean, I had I genuinely like I'm fine to do whatever you want me to do when I got saved. I mean, it was the similar situation like when I was in my I was probably 30.

Really? Mhm. How did I guess Yeah. I didn't know.

Maybe 29. No kidding. It was later. Yeah.

I mean, look, we grew up in Texas, right? So Oh, bro. Yeah. So I mean I would have considered if you I would have checked the box as a Christian my entire life.

Yeah man. You went to the church of Christ with granny on Sunday morning. Are you in church of Christ? Yeah.

Sunday morning, Sunday night. Mondays was ladies Bible study. I still went with her to that and I went and sang hymns with her at the old folks home you know. But my like church life that was it.

If we went to church it was to like a church of Christ. And there was a season of our life where we were kind of like cheers you know Christmas and Easter. We were we that's when we went to church and because you want to be a good person. Yeah.

And it's great that there's it's woven through the fabric of our society culturally and regionally and stuff like that comes with a lot of positive things, but also it comes with a lot of like deception. I heard a sermon. Yeah. It was like about a year before I got saved.

Uh I was actually driving on I35 right by the where 380 and I35 cross and uh it was by John MacArthur. Yeah. And uh who actually just passed away y recently but he's like one of my favorite pastors but it was a sermon called saved or selfdeceived. Mhm.

And he was just talking about the idea that like you know you claim this one thing. It's basically are you about it or do you just talk about it, you know, and you claim this one thing, but then your life has pretty much zero examples of saving faith. And it was it was quite profound cuz I was always one of those people that I'd like I'd talk about it. I'd love to like get into the debate about it.

Yeah. But I wanted to be right. Yeah. And I didn't actually really care about I wasn't even I was just wanting to be right and I was just raised that way.

So this is right, you know, but then like I was just dead on the inside. I didn't even actually care about the person. I'd leave the conversation and even wonder like, do I even really believe what I just told them? Yeah.

You know, like I didn't really care. I see. I was so far away from God when I got saved that I didn't even have those conversations. Nobody had those conversations with me either.

I mean, it was like What did that look like? You said you're so far from God. Well, I mean, I was never like a full-blown heathen. You know what I mean?

I wasn't out like cheating on my wife and doing drugs like I that was not doing that. I was drinking a lot back in the day. You were already married. Yeah, I was married.

Uhhuh. I've been my wife since she was 15. I was 17. Was she high school?

We met rodeoing at high school. Boy. Oh, she rodeoed, too. Mhm.

What did What did she She did everything you could do. And then she rodeoed Weatherford for a year or two. Okay. In college.

Okay. Goat tying. She mostly like went to go tie. Yeah.

But um was she saved when you all got married? Yeah, Katie was always a lot better person than me. Okay. Still is.

She's the saint. You know, people get they give they crown me with all this nobility and I'm like it's her, you know. Um but uh So, how long were y'all married before that? Well, my son was born.

my son was probably a year or two old. When Cooper when Cooper was born, um there's something just happens when you become a parent, you know, like you and maybe not for everyone, but you know, you're like, man, we got to have like a church life. I want my kids to grow up around good folks. I don't need them growing around growing up around all these rock and rollers all the time acting a fool.

And so we started going to church and that was all my wife like she I would I didn't know how to lead us in that sort of like finding a place for us to go. The first church we went to, we went for uh went to a church called Grace Church for several years. The day we went in, sat down, the message just split me right between the eyes and I was like, you know, I'm giving my life to this. We were also a part of like the first the first time Uh-huh.

Whoa. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty divine, dude. What was like the essence of the sermon?

Do you remember? I don't even remember. Okay. I just remember the way it made me feel, you know what I mean?

Did it Did it make you feel guilty? Sure. Convicted. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and we were also part of a company. We were part of a business.

We talked about it earlier, Advocare. We sold health and wellness products because I, my wife, I was not making a great living playing music. If you can imagine playing bars and clubs six nights a week for 150 bucks a gig plus tips, you know, I did that constantly for several years, a long time. Um, and so she had found this other business to like make money on the side.

It ended up being very lucrative. But I met several people in that business that were like they were just the dudes were real. They were like real men and they had like real character and integrity, honor, valor, all these things that are very attractive to a man, right? Not like in a gross way of I'm not saying that.

You know what I'm saying? Like it's like something about the essence of these dudes is like I want what they have and then you just follow the fruit to the root. The root was Jesus. That was it.

It was pretty simple. Yeah, man. I mean it changed my life. Being around them changed my life.

Yeah. They helped steer me in how to like lead a my family. Yeah. What do you think were some of the major changes that you saw in yourself and I know they're gradual and they continually happen throughout the course of your life.

Oh yeah. My life has been through seasons, you know, for a long time. Uh cuz you were like So you were boozing and just kind of Yeah. ruckus.

Yeah. Yep. Uh I mean I quit drinking for six years. Yeah.

I mean didn't have a drop of alcohol. I didn't um you know my mouth around women was one way. My mouth around men was one way. Right.

And that was a thing that changed over the course of that time. You know it was like I watch these guys be the same guy around a group of guys as they were in front of a group of ladies. I was like I recognize that about them you know. Um, not to say I ain't loose lipped these days here.

You know what I'm saying? But, um, yeah, there are some things that typically people like to and they get frustrated about the Christian thing cuz a lot of times people think it's about who you are in front of people and like this kind of thing that you put on. Yeah, I do. And uh, often times I find some of the things that change the most about me uh, are just things that nobody would ever nobody would ever know.

You know, it's those silent thoughts. It's the sure the affections that you have for certain things, the feelings you have about certain people, anger, jealousy, resentment, like sometimes those things are just private and you never know they're happening. Sure, you might be nice, you might not curse, you might not drink. You might seem like a charitable person.

You like all these different things that are kind of just signaling, hey, look at me. I'm good. Yeah. You know, but then on the inside there's just a dirty world going on.

You might do all those things and actually have a relationship with God that is more profound than the person that seems like it. Very ironic. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Cuz I've met some guys that we met a cab driver one time actually. He was a runner at a music festival. He was from South Africa and he talked like a biker, bro.

I mean, but he talked like, you know, South African accent. He talked like this, you know, and he uh that was a pretty good like a sailor boy. But he was like, "Josh, I want to tell you I'm a prayer war." Yeah.

And I want to pray for you. And I was like, "Yeah, okay." And we got out of the car and he's like, he prays for us and it was like heaven coming down, dude. Yeah.

But he was Yeah. And because everybody's I've realized like those things don't make you agreed. And then but then there's also the side of Christianity where it's like I can act and do whatever I want and there is definitely which is also not true you know cuz like if you're feeling no conviction for the grace thing that's not healthy and then there's the legalistic grace that's unhealthy and it's a constant balance of trying to find where it's what's healthy and what's not. But I think at the end of the day like lordship is what will help you understand if Jesus is the lord of your life.

He's not just your savior. He's the lord and savior. Right? When Jesus is the lord of your life, he's not necessarily in the trunk.

Cuz Jesus is sort of like he's like the spare tire in the trunk a lot of times. Seems like, right? everything's fine as long as everything's cruising. But when I have a blowout, that's when I need Jesus.

No doubt. Right. But if Jesus is or he's in the passenger side, he's like, I'll ask Jesus where I need to go when I need to go there or how I need to get there or what I should be doing or what do you what's your will for my life? Those kind of things.

If you get to a point where Jesus is now in the driver's seat and you're in the passenger seat, your life looks a lot different. It's a lot different. Yeah. Or just to dig deeper into your analogy or he's not in the car.

He's not the spare tire. He he's on the road like waving. Well, yeah, but then you get the blowout or whatever. You're like, "Where are you?"

And then he pulls over to help you. And the only way you're going to continue forward is if you like allow this person to Yeah, that's true. change your tire, you know? Then maybe I don't know.

But I don't know. Do we let a stranger then just drive our car for us, too, you know? Well, that's true. I mean, it is relational.

Like, you know, it's funny though. We're talking about it like there's so many different characteristics of what could be deemed a Christian and we get really like I've heard you talk about it on podcast and I've heard and even now you were talking about uh we're talking about there's so many different movements of Christianity in the United States and even around the world but I've spent enough time in nations that were not founded on biblical principles and you get to those places any Christian is a friend and it's like it's a great feeling actually like any Christian brother or sister you meet some of the disagreements start to seem pretty petty pretty petty. Yeah. Yeah.

Cuz it's just there's so much evil around. Yeah. It this the principles that you know I don't have a I don't have an issue with like denominations. I actually think it's a beautiful thing that we can find, you know, almost like a almost like a color wheel.

Not everybody likes red, you know what I mean? Not everybody likes blue. Some people operate a certain way and you find the place. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that.

I think God is in all those things. I think denominationalism is when we say if you're not red and you're blue, you're going to hell. I'm like it gets that's when it gets like okay this is like unhealthy because if a red and a blue go to a place where there is no red or blue red and blue become friends real quick. Yeah.

You know. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been to those places and it's gnarly, dude.

Where are some of those places? Well, India is one of those places. 2% of the population is Christian. You know the nation is founded on Hinduism and a cast system, you know.

And I have tons of Indian brothers and sisters, dude. But culturally they do not value everybody the same. Correct. Yet they're all more or less the same color.

Isn't that funny? Like it does. It goes beyond race. It's like it's just a human nature thing where we can we value humans.

It's wild, dude. And there, you know, the cast system and is uh based on your last name, generational, who you are, who your parents were. Yeah, it's pretty rank classism. I have no problem saying like I don't I don't I don't there's certain cultures that I don't like.

I have no problem saying that. Like American culture specific or Western culture would be something that I would promote more. It has nothing to do with race or anything like that. Yeah.

And I mean there's like there would be Indian people, there would be people from all over the world that would actually agree with that too. Like I actually really enjoy talking to some Africans too, like from Africa. Yeah. Um most of them that I've engaged with that live in the States now are just like so happy to be here and have such a perspective and thankfulness.

It genuinely is like I mean there are there are elements of American culture that you can look at and you go, man, that's a mess. Oh, definitely. But yeah, if on the whole though, any anybody who's like Yeah. I mean, but it's cultural.

It's not a race. I don't care what color. I mean, like could take the person who's like burning the flag in the middle of the street who, you know, lives with their mom and you take that person and I drop them off in the middle of India somewhere. They would beg to come back.

begging come back because everything you eat makes you puke and everything everywhere you go it's a shock to every sense I mean India is a wild place it's definitely the wildest place I've ever been really yo yeah this well so even but even uh religiously though but I love it you and I will say this I have I have friends now in India I have Muslim friends I have Hindu friends we can find a common around. You know, when we go when I go over there, we play cricket. We'll play cricket. We have cricket match with a whole group of Indian dudes and they're not all from the same faith background.

And it's like it's a pretty beautiful thing. Uh, and a lot of them go to our church over there now, you know, like they we've helped plant a church over there and they love it. They experience they the presence of God in these places and they know like something's here. Something's something about this.

Anyway, yeah, but so within Hinduism though that there's reincarnation. Yeah. Well, there's also like 300 million gods. Exactly.

Well, but if the foundation culturally is the idea that like this life really doesn't matter that much like in the sense of like well we all just be reincarnated forever. like there's like kind of wo the way I've experienced is like woven into it there seems to be a little bit less value on each individual life even from like a spiritual sense. Yeah. Like somebody dies it's not that big of a deal.

They'll get reincarnated. Well, it here's so I've had conversations like I was sitting in Delhi at the uh at the c the customs office or whatever getting paperwork adopted a little girl and so we're getting like her you know some paperwork or whatever had to pick it up and I'm sitting there with a Buddhist uh and this young man and he was there with his aunt who was a Buddhist monk like dressed from head to toe in like you know looked like a Tibetan monk and we just start having a conversation about faith. And I said, "So the Daly Lama, that's God to you?" "Yes."

Yeah. He's basically God reincarnated. And I said, "So explain to me reincarnation." And he's like, "Well, you know, he was like he was like, "My father was a good man."

He was a good man. And I said, "So what do you who do you think your father is now?" He's like, "Maybe he is the little girl that you are adopting." Yeah.

And I was like, "What about your mom?" She was terrible. She's probably like a bird or something. That's what he said.

Yeah. And the problem is like if you are reinc's where it becomes eternal. Okay. If you're reincarnated as a bird, what opportunity do you have for your next life to be any better than that?

It can only go like down from there. Yeah. You think there's no hell in that religion. Yeah.

Like what is a hell? Yeah. Well, what if the next time you're incarnated, you're not as good? Yeah.

You know, Yeah. And you have no opportunity to even write the wrongs. Yeah. It doesn't make sense.

You're a bird. You're not even consciously aware. Yeah. And so I You're a earthworm.

Yeah. And you know, people would probably hear me talking about this and it's it doesn't mean that I don't like those people or care about them. I'm just it's calling a spade a spade on what like what cultural norms and stuff that I prefer that I think seem to lead to the most value per human like how much do we value each human life and I have no I no problem talking about some of that stuff a lot of people shy away from it because then like race gets so quickly like inserted into it but you know like yeah it's just it's just different here. Yeah, it is different.

I mean, but it's different there, too. Yeah. You know, you go to you go to India, and I hate to keep using that as reference, but that's probably the place I have the most experience. I've been to Africa, but India uh when everyone is the same color and you've still found a way to degrade people.

Yeah. Boy, you're I mean, that's a whole another level of like uh Yeah. Or some of that stuff dehumanizing. stuff going on in China like I think what is it with the I mean I'm going to butcher this probably but I think it's like with the Mongolians or something up north or whatever.

There's like mass genocide going on in China with that stuff. I haven't even heard about that. But that doesn't surprise me because like they look like a little different and they're just a little further north and I'm pretty sure they're just there's a there's a there's an element in India where the north is more superior than the south. Like the southern Indians are like hillbillies and the northerns are you know and it's like the southern Indians are less educated you know they eat differently.

They eat with their hands. A lot of southern Indians eat with their which all Indians kind of eat with their hands but like you know the northern Indians will find a way to you know degrade the southern Indians. It's pretty interesting. I have a friend our place is in South India so like I'm ah little hillbilly down there where I belong.

I have a friend from Mumbai that like his family was from like a higher higher cast. He works in finance. Sharp dude. Y um I met him for the first time probably like four years ago or whatever.

He was he worked for like one of my best friends and then we ended up becoming friends. Uh and he came and stayed at our house for a little bit. Uh and when he when he came he brought a um they bring gifts, you know, so he brought a bunch of snacks and treats and stuff. But he brought a little Buddha.

Yeah. Right. Like the little statue Buddha thing and you know I was like okay you know this is this is interesting. Uh from my perspective you know I would I would probably avoid having some of that stuff in my house.

Yeah, I would. All right. So, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So, uh you know, but I'm like I put it in there like I put it on the mantle, you know, just like being respectful. And we hang out for like a couple days. Oh, this is actually really funny, too.

This has nothing to do with the actual story, but uh he's like I double checked with him. I was like, "Well, so you're like, "Do you eat meat or whatever?" And he's like veget he's vegetarian, right? So, he's never ate meat as Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, he's like religiously uh he's a vegetarian. Um me and my buddy were like, "Well, where should we go to dinner?"

And uh when the only we're in Decator, so it's like the only place that's like kind of like a nicer restaurant, I guess, would be Sweetie Pies, Ribe Eyes. Yeah. So we take him to Sweetie Pies, but we're like, "Okay, they probably have just salad or whatever." Right.

So he's sitting there ordering and uh he goes, "Do you have any, you know, veggie options?" And they're like, "Yeah, we have salad." Yeah, we have salad. And uh and he they he goes, "Okay."

Uh and they go, "What kind of dressing you want on And he was like, "I guess just like a ranch or whatever." And or just like oil and vinegar. And they're like, "Yeah, we have an oil and vinegar." And or they said, "Yeah, we have a bacon vinegarette."

Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah. And I even when they said it, it still didn't even like register in my mind.

And he was like, "Oh, no, no, no. Do you just have like oil and vinegar and so they had to like go find some for him?" And I was like, we were so embarrassed. He was so cool, too.

He like laughed about it, you know? He wasn't being disrespectful in any way, shape, or form. But I can't imagine going into his world and like eating some of the stuff that would be normal for them. I would a lot of meat.

Don't get it twisted. They do. Well, sure. They don't eat beef though.

There's not a lot of pork. I had so much respect for him to like be so out of his comfort zone and be so okay with it. He can't even We can't even find a restaurant that like You know what's funny is that it that well that um helped me a lot actually in just being like bold about my faith. uh because when you go to India and people go to temple they go to like a Hindu temple when they leave there it's very obvious that they did and like they'll have like three marks on their forehead or they'll and these jokers will be wearing a full-blown business suit and go to work like that unashamed of their faith it's just a part of who they are that's this is me I went to temple there but do they get some sort of positive attention I think I think that actually I think that actually the more bold you are about your faith in Hindu circles I mean the more the guys who are looked at as like the most radical um as far as like they're called Janes Janism it's like a whole Hindu sect right and they don't even wear clothes bro they don't wear clothes they beg and they believe in reincarnation obviously they wear these guards over their mouth so they don't happen to eat like a bug I mean it's wild dude but when they like there was one that spoke at parliament or something like that in India and it was like a big deal because he was most regarded like Gandhi I mean Gandhi's everywhere but he was so bold about his like well bold but also cuz like in Christianity if you're out showing the whole world how religious you are that's actually like the antithesis of what Jesus spoke about.

Yeah, it can. Well, don't get me wrong, like not like being the guy with a megaphone outside like shouting people down, tell them they're going to hell or just or I guess just like a heart condition of why are you doing it? Yeah, that I guess that's the essence of it. Why are you doing it?

Are you doing it just to show people how good you are or are you doing it because you are actually truly being like bold? Yeah. You know, like proclaiming truth out of love. Like those are two different things in my opinion.

Yeah. You know, cuz like even the idea of I've always been a little weird about like praying in public even. Yeah. And then cuz it just depends on like why are you doing it, you know, cuz like even Jesus talking about don't pray out in the streets like the hypocrites do.

Go in your room, shut the door, do it in private, you know. Well, I mean, I have no problem praying for people in public. Don't bother me at all. No, I know.

But I'm not saying it's But I know my heart my heart is not so that people see me do it. Exactly. That's irrelevant to me. Exactly.

And that's the boldness I'm talking about. Yes. The irrelevance of what someone thinks about my, you know, my faith. Yeah.

I don't mean necessarily like my You get what I'm saying? I do. Okay. Yeah.

I do. Yeah. I was so fascinated by this by this guy that I met cuz when he brought he brought that Buddha and then later that night we ended up talking about it. Yeah.

And what I really do appreciate about some other cultures though is um like especially like Middle Eastern uh specifically is how open they are to talk about religion and politics. That actually is something I don't love about where we're at. And I think it's part of the reason why we've kind of gone the direction that we have in some ways is cuz it got so like woven into society where it's like oh no don't talk about religion or politics. I'm like oh you mean the stuff that like matters every day.

Oh okay yeah let's talk about football all the time. that'll really help us, right? And then we wonder why like people don't know what gender they are or something. It's like, well, yeah, we weren't even allowed to talk about anything meaningful for forever.

So, anyways, I this dude was like so open to talk about uh you know, God and religion and stuff. So, we ended up talking about you know what I believe and I was explaining it was very foreign to him. He had never actually had anybody explain to him like who Jesus was, at least Jesus of the Bible, right? And like spell it out for him.

And then the idea of grace, like undeserved favor, there's nothing you can do to earn salvation, which was so counterintuitive to like everything he knew. Yeah. Um, and so, so I start asking him about what he believes. He says he's Hindu, right?

And, uh, I go, okay, well, why it might it might not have been Buddha. It was probably like a Krishna. It was a Buddha. Buddha.

It was a Buddha. So then you asked him like, why do we have it? So confusing to me. Well, because all gods are technically Hindu.

So get this. Yeah. So it's exclusivity of Jesus that will like push a like if a Hindu is very uh like a radical in their faith, right? It's they have most people in India have no qualms with Jesus because Jesus is just another god.

Another god, right? It's when you say no, he's exclusively the god. It's polytheist. He is correct.

That's when it's like all the others have to go away. He becomes the one you worship. Then it becomes like they have no origin. There's no origin story.

So they don't believe in like one central creator god that created all things, right? It's just it's always existed. Honestly, a lot of those questions are difficult. Like they don't really try not to go down that path.

It's just like we don't know like where it all came from. Well, it's very confusing have that many. There's a god for everything. Yeah.

So this gets way more confusing. And they flip-flop it cuz I go, "Okay, why do you brought me a Buddha though that like I don't I don't understand." And he just said, "Oh, you know, that's just something we do." It had no religious connotation to it.

It's like a good fortune. It was like, "Oh, that's just what we do. We just bring a gift for you." Like for him it had no spiritual religious connotation.

It just meant like just thanks for having me. Like it just peace and blessings. And I was like, "Interesting." So immediately I had a less of an issue with leaving the Buddha in my house.

Uhhuh. Right. Yeah. Cuz there was like a different intent behind it.

Yeah. Um and then so I'm like, "Okay." All right. So then we got we went down the rabbit hole of Christianity and like monotheism, one creator god.

And he goes, "Oh yeah, I believe in that." I'm like, "Wait, what?" And he was like, "Oh, yeah. It just doesn't make sense to me that there's like millions of gods.

There has to be like one that created everything, right?" And I'm like, "Okay, so but you're Hindu. You So finally when I unpacked it, it's basically he's just culturally Hindu, right?" Yes.

He's just raised culturally that way. Doesn't actually believe in it spiritually. Uh and then he was like open to the idea of like one. So it really it humbled me in a way too because I've tried to spend time like even before I got saved I studied a lot of different religions cuz I was trying to come up with every reason why I could live the way that I wanted to live and have no ramifications for it.

Uh and so I thought I had some things figured out and until you like really sat down and talked to somebody and figured out the nuance like of their life, I was like holy. I would have never I would have never guessed that's what you believe. Yeah. you just on surface value.

So if I'm the guy with my megaphone out on the street corner and somebody says, "Well, I'm Hindu." And you don't take the time to unpack that, you could just immediately assume a lot of stuff that like I Yeah. have totally wrong. Yeah.

I mean, I'm sat at a hospital like when we had to do like a well check on one of my daughters and I sat next to a Muslim couple that had just adopted and we all had they had we had all the same reasons for doing what we were doing. Uh yeah, it's just they believe Jesus is a prophet and I believe he's God. And it was I mean and I'm like how do how do I you know in your heart you're thinking like okay but if Jesus is the way the truth and the life like I got to get these people to Ironically there's some there's some Muslims who have more respect for Jesus than people that probably even claim to be Christian here. Yeah.

Like they hold them in higher almost higher regard in some ways. Yep. So yeah, and then you got people here that, you know, claim the whole thing and then they're uh, you know, you know, story's not over. That's the way I always look at it is like I would have been that guy.

I was the same guy. Me, too. Yeah, I was that guy. So that's why I feel I can't Yeah.

I can't I just assume like the story's not over. Some uh what is it? some plant, some water. Like all I can do is bear fruit and Well, you have especially recently with the whole stuff down in central Texas with the floodings and stuff.

That's the fruit for sure. And there's so much stuff that you've gone and done too that nobody knows about. Yeah. And time that you've spent down there.

Uh I mean, we had got to spend too much time cuz I've been on the road so much, but Yeah. There's been a lot of stuff that's Well, my wife has been working like tirelessly, non-stop around the clock since the fundraiser to make sure that, you know, just do what you say you're going to do. Do the right thing cuz it's the right thing to do. It's really that simple.

Just do the right thing cuz it's the right thing to do. Yeah. How much money did y'all actually end up raising? It was over half a million.

Like it ended up being over a half a million bucks. Holy cow. Mhm. And that So that was all from that live stream.

Yes. Well, that and the publicity that came from it the following day. That night was like $337,000, which you know, you guys had a lot to do with that, too. I mean, no, that's them.

They did it. Yeah. Yeah. But it was it came from people pitching in and chipping in on, you know, um my wife, the whole idea of a of a auction.

We were just going to do a live stream thing from my phone. Like I'd done live stream things during co and I just do a little concert thing from my phone. And uh that's what we were going to do. And I was like, we got to get the band in on this.

We were going to play a show. We're supposed to play July 5th at Green Hall and it got cancelled obviously because of the flood. So, I did feel like there's like there's a reason like I, you know, we're connected to this like we were supposed to be there and then we were going to the show was still going to happen on July 5th cuz nobody had realized like how bad it was yet and uh and then we were headed down there and we got to about Waco and they called us like no show's canceled. We're gonna they're going to close the whole city down, you know, by four o'clock.

everyone's got to be out of here. And so, okay, well, we had decided we were going to turn the Green Hall show into like a fundraiser. And uh that obviously was not going to happen. So, we were like, well, my wife, we were at dinner that night.

She's like, we should just do a live stream fundraiser and see if we can raise some money. And I'm like, okay. And then, you know, it evolved into, let's get the band involved. Okay.

Well, if we're going to do the band, then we're going to have to do like a full-blown production. And so that went through a different couple of different ideas and then it was just like I called the pastor of my church and was like, "Can we just use the main campus cuz you guys live stream every week from there." Yeah, of course. Of course.

And so we went the day of so that we decided to do this on Saturday night. We spent Sunday planning it and then we did it on Monday. And uh between Sunday and Monday, that's when this young girl reached out to Katie. She's like, "Hey, if y'all going to do a fundraiser, I'd love to donate some baked goods that you could like auction off, raffle off."

And Katie was like, "Okay, yeah, absolutely." And uh and then Katie was like, "She's willing to give us baked goods. I wonder what anybody else would be willing to do." So, she put a post out on social media and it just went gang busters, dude.

I mean, you saw some of the stuff that we were auctioning off. dove hunt in Argentina and uh you know two trips to Bise and you know I mean uh like zeroturn motors and I mean lawnmowers and like all kinds of crazy stuff dude and people just like yes take it oh you need two of them no problem we'll do two of them I mean it was like it was amazing we had so much stuff that we couldn't do it all in the live auction we had to do it you know on a silent auction on a separate site so all that had to be set up on between Sunday and Monday. And so Katie Chandra who works with our nonprofit and um Kim Kimberly Brian who works with me and uh several I mean several folks just all pitched in were helping like get it all together. Uh band guys wives were helping, you know.

Um and uh yeah, it just went it went off without a hitch. It was wild how easy it turned out to be. But yeah, that night was 337,000 is what and my goal was like 150 grand. Yeah.

Yeah. I thought I thought it was taking a lot of faith actually to believe for $150,000 cuz I thought who's going to watch this? Like nobody even knows we're doing this. We didn't get time to promote it at all or nothing.

Yeah. Everybody went, "Wow, dude. There's like a hundred,000 people watched it that night." Yep.

And a lot of folks I talked to watched it for four straight hours, which I mean, good for them. going to hang in there. Yeah, it went by really quick though. I mean, the band and I we had a great time and Yeah, you orchestrated it amazing.

Yeah, that and that was none of that was planned. None of it. It was all just uh Thank you. Yeah.

Um none of it was planned. It was just it was just right off the cuff. I mean, and that's how you know like the Lord was in it because it was like we could not have done something that well that I mean and just the sound we were talking about like the live stream audio quality was so legit and that was like we got there at 4:00 and we started at 7 so there was no time to like get you know like really dial it in like it was already kind of dialed and the guys that worked at church they were like I think this will work. Normally drums are in, you know, the ISO thing.

So we just miked everything up out there on stage, which is never the case. It was kind of like, I don't know how it's going. Then it sounds better than it ever has. Yeah, it sounded better than it ever has.

Almost like a little miracle. Yeah, it was a miracle, dude. It was miraculous. Maybe not quite a miracle with you playing.

It makes sense that that it sounded so good. Well, I mean, and you always have you have such good players around you, too. I've always just I have the same guys for 10 years. Yeah, I know.

Yeah, but they're incredible. Yeah, they're really good. So, on the back end of some of this flooding stuff. Mhm.

From what I've read, there's been some shady stuff going on. Yeah. Well, what's been your experience going down there? How much time have you spent down there?

I've only been down there for like a week. Okay. I mean, that's why I said we've been on the road a ton. Um, but we try to get as much done in that week.

I mean, now we're sending stuff down there constantly, and we've spent almost that entire half a million dollars. Yeah. What have you done with a lot of it? A lot of it was replacing.

Uh, a lot of people lived full-time in their like RVs. And, you know, if you lived on in the on the river in your RV, a lot of them were elderly people who, you know, paying $300 a month for lot rent, living in an RV, and they lost everything, literally everything they own. And uh and so we replace their home, the living space, fill it up with stuff. You know, my wife made a lot of trips to Walmart and Sam's Club, like pimping these things out, making sure they're full and then we haul them down there to them and they get a new house.

You know, we bought um trucks, tools, help, you know, get people back on their feet like with their business. you're like a handyman and you don't my tools wash away. Okay, well we I took a couple of different guys to Home Depot down there in Kurville and just was like, "What do you need?" They're like, "Oh, man.

I mean, just I'll settle for whatever you got." I'm like, "That's not that's not what I said." And it's like, "What do you want? You know, you want all Milwaukee tools?

You know, just pimp it out, dude. Let's go." And uh the guy wanted DeWalt tools, though. Oh, the Milwaukee.

What is he doing? You're like, never mind. Yeah, never mind. Uh, yeah, we just that kind of stuff.

So, it's that's very satisfying for us. I mean, you know, on the selfish side of it, it's like it's I enjoy the part of like getting to see it put into action. Yeah. But I think people love to hear where it went, you I and then we want to make sure and you know I've done some posts and my wife has done a lot of posts about like who's getting the stuff and where it's going just because we want to make sure that people know yes you sent the money in for that you know for that event but like it's being used.

Has that not been the case for a lot of the charities and stuff going on down there for Well, I mean, there has been some I've talked to several people down there, like firsthand, gentleman named Ray who lived full-time in RV park, and the day that I met him, he had been to like three different stations down there trying to get support. And the best that he was offered for support was a small lowinterest business loan. And that was with donated money from Okay. So from who's given a loan?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what nonprofits it is that are like uh cuz I don't have all the facts yet. Okay.

Right. I don't have all the facts. So before I do an expose, I'd probably want all the facts, but I just know that there are some huge organizations that are not like your you know people think Red Cross, FEMA and all that. No, it's ones that people are giving lots of money to and I've yet to meet a person that has been helped.

So you Yeah. You've gone door to you've talked to people. Yeah. I mean you've heard the stories firsthand.

Yeah. I mean my gentleman I met down there I won't his name's Luke. I mean, he lost his parents and they're not getting help. He's like, "I went out and filled our applications all morning and I got more hugs than anything else."

And we're talking millions of dollars down there. There's millions of dollars that's been donated to So, there's organizations just straight up stealing the money. Yeah. Now, I say that stealing, I don't know how it works.

I don't know how it works. Well, when your administrative fees and people take 90% of the income. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know how it works. I'm not sure who is doing what. But I will say that like there's a situation going on where I mean you can and you if you go down there and you start asking people who's helped you. I mean I went down there two weeks after the disaster and I was the first person some of these people had met that had from come from any organization.

That's would you say? One week after two weeks. Yeah. Two weeks after things are being cleared.

Like it looked different 2 weeks after, you know, than it did obviously. Like the first week was a disa. I mean it and it still looked like a disaster obviously when I went down there. I mean it was like wild.

It wouldn't be the first time there's been a natural disaster where then all the parasites come in and take advantage of the situation. It's happened all over the country and all over the world. Yeah. What I love so much about Texas is typically we're like we can be a bit abrasive and very direct, but it's like, "Hey, you do the right thing."

You know, you can call a spade a spade. Yeah. So, there's a huge part of me that wants to call just massive [expletive] on these organizations for doing this because that's just not the way we roll. No.

And at least that's not what I thought. Yeah. I mean, you know, you hear all the quotes about Texans helping Texans. You sure don't want to think it's Texans ripping off other Texans.

And seems to be the case. I mean, in my experience, uh, and that's all I can speak on is in my experience that I mean, the folks that we have that we have personally helped, we were the only people that offered any sort of assistance. I can't I cannot imagine. And I've spent almost half a million dollars in the last how long ago was that month and they're not getting help from anyone else.

So, I don't know where the millions of dollars is going. I don't know. But it better start going to some people pretty soon or it's going to get ugly. It's going to get ugly.

Have you is there anybody else that you've talked to that has the same suspicions? I mean besides the people in you know Kurville, Ingram Hunt, Comfort. No, I mean but anybody else that's like in some sort of powerful position to do anything. Yeah.

I mean, I've talked to uh I talked to a House of Representatives admin assistant, told her, "Hey, are you aware that like there's donated money that's being offered in loan form down here?" Like, we are. Yeah, we're working on that right now. I mean, like, people know it's happening.

It's happening. I mean, Ry, bro, Ry lost everything he owned. Everything was inside his fifth wheel RV that he lived in, you know, and the best that he was offered was a small business loan, low interest loan. And he's looking at me, he's like, "What am I supposed to do with that?

I don't have anything. I can't incur debt when I have nothing. I can't work because I don't have tools." Well, yeah.

And the money was donated. And the money was donated, which to me is just like that's the most criminal thing. Oh, 100%. Cuz it's people I mean, these are people in their most vulnerable state.

I definitely don't like the IRS, but I feel like this would be the one thing that I' it's like, let's freaking sick the IRS on these people. Figure out what the hell's going on. There's got to be some sort some sort of uh audit, some sort of something that can happen to help like what have been the major what have been the major charities down there? Well, I mean obviously FEMA, Red Cross.

Well, FEMA is not charity. Yeah. But I mean they were that's an interesting deal too. Like it's just the red tape around getting help is like is doesn't make any sense.

Insurance companies. So we've replaced a lot of these campers, right, that people were living in and they're like they're like, "Yeah." So the insurance company told me if it floods from below, there's nothing they can do. Only if it floods from above.

So, like if you get leakage from the top and it ruins your camper. Okay, we'll cover that. We can't cover it from the bottom. We can't cover your We can't cover the camper if the wheels come off the ground.

Oh my goodness gracious. Well, yeah, the wheels came off the ground. They found it four miles down the river. Boy, is that not a bunch of attorney [expletive] huh?

It's a wild, dude. It's whack. Wow. It was wild.

Just criminal. Yeah. And man, I was hotter than a pistol. I mean, I know another lady who was issued she's just a citizen who jumped in to help and she rallied people with, you know, backhoes and tractors and all this stuff.

This is in Georgetown and she's offered a cease and desist from the from the county for helping people. They the county told her that she has to stop helping people. Why? uh because they can't get grant money to supplement people if the people have already been supplemented.

Yeah. Yep. That's for real, dude. That's for real.

I said, "You get him on the phone with me. Let me talk to him. I'll call whatever state senator I got to talk to make sure that this is not a problem. I'll get a lawyer.

We'll get attorneys." Yeah. Who would be the people within the county that I don't know calls that type of shot? I don't know.

Well, in what department in the county is that? I have no idea. I'm just telling you the stories that I'm hearing like on a regular basis. That's pretty whack.

No, that's the definition. And I said, you can't tell her. My wife calls me. She's like, listen to this.

And we've been working with this lady like providing campers for people that she's been helping cuz she knows residents firsthand. She's been there since the day it started. And uh and she's like, "Yeah, I got to cease and desist." Now, this was in a this was not in Kurville.

This was further up. Um but she's like, "Yeah, they sent they told me to cease and desist." And I said, "That what? You can't tell somebody you can't help people?"

That Yeah, that's correct. do that. You can't do that. So, tell them get a lawyer.

Don't whatever they want to do. I'm like, we're going to keep doing what we're doing. My wife cuz my wife, she's like nervous about it. I'm like, we're just keep doing what we're doing.

Yeah. It's illegal to help people. Yeah. Just tell them come at me.

Big daddy government. We'll do the helping you guys. Yeah. Yeah.

That's for real. And then but they but how long into the process did like after the flooding did that lady get the cease and desist? This is maybe a month after. Yeah.

So the government hadn't even No. Yeah. Unbelievable. Now, I'm sure that there are um several nonprofit I mean, I'm not trying to look like the patron saint of the Hill Country here because that's not the case at all.

We've been able to make a dent, a small dent in like the devastation cuz it is wild. It's when you go down there and look at it, it looks like scorched earth, man. It's just it's really gut-wrenching and like heartbreaking. And I'm sure that there are some amazing nonprofits that have been helping.

So I don't want to make it sound like Yeah. Well, but it shouldn't what you're saying shouldn't offend some other nonprofit that's doing what they say that they're doing. They should be Yeah. They should be like high-fiving me being like, "Yeah, somebody's talking about it."

Cuz there are some I know for a fact, dude, there's some whack ones down there. Are they ones that popped up just because of the flood or are these ones that have been around? I've never heard of them before. Okay.

But that doesn't mean anything. There's like psychopaths and sociopaths amongst us. You how you'd have to be sometimes. I think that just gets twisted, dude.

I mean, I will say if someone was right now to come up to me and tell give me $10 million, say, "Here's $10 million. I want you to go help those folks." Okay. Half a million is a lot of money.

10 million is a lot a lot of money, right? So half a million is enough for like my wife and myself and one other person. We can handle that. Mhm.

You know, $10 million. Okay. We're going to have to build some infrastructure to make sure that we're helping people efficiently. Efficiently and doing it well.

And we obviously have the means cuz, you know, so I do understand that there's probably a heavy vetting that has to happen to make sure that people are getting help, right? Uh and sometimes the people who are posing as victims can also be scoundrels too. Totally right. Um in our experience the victims were not the scoundrels.

It was they just weren't getting help, you know. Well, what could we ever do to like write the ship or I don't know. Like who do who do you who do you even approach or bring this to or I don't know. I mean I might see Abbott on next week so maybe I'll talk to him bark at him a little bit.

Yeah. I don't know. I mean I'd just love to have a conversation. I'd love to, you know, talk to some of these nonprofits that and find out like is there some what's the validity of these things that I'm hearing?

The thing is like I'm not hearing them from random people. I'm hearing them from people who have genuinely asked for help. That's the that's the bottom line. These people have genuinely asked for help and they're not getting it.

And now, you know, I mean, I talked to the lady who checked us out at the Home Depot when we bought a bunch of tools for this guy. She's like, I heard they're going to raise our taxes. Oh my. Yeah.

And I'm like, I wouldn't doubt it. Wow. I don't know how Oh my god. I mean, I'm I don't know.

I don't know. I It's hard to talk about it being that I don't have like the facts. You know what I mean? Like cuz I don't really want to I got no problems going after something if I know wrong is being done.

My understanding as it is right now is wrong is being done. So, I'd need to hear somebody else's testimony. You know what I'm saying? Well, fortunately, you got some right done.

Well, we just did our part. Do the right things is the right thing to do. We had we had the means to do it and so it was simple. Now, the rest of the money, the other 150,000 plus dollars was raised after the fact because of, you know, that live stream getting so much attention, then news media picked it up and things like that.

So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is incredible.

Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's And in my mind, see, this is what we're talking about, and I mean this genuinely, the media attention did not even cross my mind. Did not cross my mind whatsoever.

You mean the attention that would come for you personally or for the personally? Because So, I'd hate for it to seem like that was the case. Like I did it for the attention cuz that was not the case at all. Like I literally it was so far from Well, you also you also did it so quickly.

Well, that's the thing. I didn't have time to even go like, man, I wonder what could happen from this. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, we didn't even have time to think about what has the media attention personally been like for you? I mean, like I mean, I get a text from somebody from Rolling Stone the day after the fundraiser. I wanted to do a piece on this.

Okay. And it was a mention in, you know, uh, an article based about, I mean, an article on, uh, Texas artists that were doing stuff because I mean, think about how amazing that is, dude. I mean, what if all communities had a music community that just like rallied? If you just put it together like how much money has been raised by regardless of where it's going, okay?

Because the artist, I don't believe, had any ill intent. So, make sure that's known. Like, none of the artists, I believe, had any ill intent as far as like raising the money and where it was going. Probably could have done a better job of betting, though.

Well, I mean, you could only you could only do your you can only base it on what people are telling until you're down there. Yeah. You know, talking to the people yourself. You can only what can you do?

Yeah. you know. Um but um I mean the artist community in the state of Texas has raised so much money, bro. Think about like if that was the case anywhere else in the country.

I mean, what artist community has the means to do that? It's wild between George Strait, Robert O Keane, Miranda and Parker, Randy Rogers. I mean, all these cats like that just does not exist anywhere else that I know of. not in such a small geographic location that they're all like kind of in a similar genre and stuff like that.

Yeah. And all wildly popular. Yeah. Yeah.

Totally. It's pretty wild, dude. It is crazy. It's crazy.

Well, that's what I'm saying is like what's woven in the fabric of like Texans, I believe. And then so on the flip side of that, I think if any of those people found out that money wasn't being used Oh, they probably they probably there be a few that'd be hotter than a pistol. I'm sure you know a few. No doubt.

Maybe we need to call them. No kidding. They would be Yeah. just insanely pissed cuz those are not those are not uh weak individuals, you know, right at all.

Some tough cats. I know who you're I know who you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah.

That's so disappointing, man. But I'm so thankful. Something will happen. Yeah.

Something will happen. The wrongs will be writed, I'm sure. Yeah. If we stay after it.

Yeah. It is amazing though how quickly after disasters it's just kind of just bam. Yeah. Yeah.

And there's been stuff all over the country that's just sort of evaporated. Yeah. I mean it one thing Katie and I were talking about is like we want to make sure that we stick and stay with these people because what's going to happen when the media leaves and everybody stops talking about this is like dude you can imagine how alone in the world you'd feel if you lost everything. you're not getting any help and now nobody's even talking about it, you know?

That's a low down feeling. Yeah. The not to change the subject too much, but the one that really weighs on me is the freaking um the pedophile child trafficking stuff like all the Epstein stuff and all that type of stuff. Like the fact that stuff could potentially be happening and then it ain't no potentially, bro.

It's a hundred billion dollar industry. Well, right. And it apparently is way more um it happens a lot more under our noses than we would have ever realized. Like it just seems like it's kind of everywhere and like nobody really talks about it and No, not that much.

I mean, I would I would think that would just be on like everyone's number one thing on their radar. Yeah. I mean, my not to be sensitive. My faith in government is pretty dwindling when it comes to the fact that like I could get audited on my business that does not generate, you know, the kind of money that, you know, a sex trafficker is generating, obviously.

Okay. And they want to act like nobody knows where this is. Think about this. To my knowledge, the last that I heard, trafficking human beings and mostly sex trafficking, okay, has become a hundred billion dollar industry.

That's more money than the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, hockey. You take all the sports that are that we participate in the United States at the highest level. Their revenue that they generate does not come close to equaling what sex is equaling in this country. Okay.

And nobody knows who's doing what. But by God, Josh Weathers deduct something on his taxes. Exactly. I'm over here like pushing a pencil, making sure I'm being square on my You're going to get caught.

They're going to ding you for that $500. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

Give me a freaking It's a joke. It's a joke. So I'm like the only explanation to me is people in high places are getting their palms greased somewhere and evil things are happening right underneath our nose all the time and we just I don't know dude like I just think people like to live in a state of like no it's just not it's just not that bad it's not it's like at a subconscious level because anytime you bring up anything like this people it's just conspiracy and it's like well how many more of them do we have to have until there starts to be like a common thread where like clearly the powers that be are complicit with some pretty evil stuff. You know, if you just pay attention to banking, it's like every other month a massive international bank gets dinged for like money laundering and some sort of like almost like wire fraud basically.

That's what it is. And then they just pay a fine and go away. like HSBC the or uh yeah like the Hong Kong bank or whatever um Bank of China deal they got dinged for like a massive moneyaundering thing like they were helping the Mexican drug cartels and it's just like it just kind of gets like slides under. So you don't think that somehow ties into sex trafficking, human trafficking?

Of course it does. Absolutely it does. Of course it does. That amount of money is like you can't you can't move that stuff around.

Yeah, that doesn't go unnoticed. Yeah, exactly. You can't move that much money. You can't just there's not a room big enough to hold that kind of cash.

You know what I'm saying? It's like somebody's moving things around and people are turning a Well, I think I think I mean, dude, you the guy did you see the guy? No joke. Blaine, my drummer, was nextdoor neighbors with this cat.

Was next door neighbors when he first moved to Fort Worth. Blaine lived next door ne next door to this guy. And the dude Bla was like, "Man, he only saw him one time in the few years he lived there. He only saw him one time."

And the guy came over to his house and gave him a gift card to Walmart, like as a welcome to the neighborhood gift. And he was like, "The dude was strange, man." And he's like, "I just got these bad vibes." And he had like these like his front porch was caged in.

So you had to like go through a locked gate to get to his front door. Okay. This cat goes into a furniture store the other day. Blaine lived there, bro, 15 years ago.

Okay. And Blaine was like, "Cars would come in all hours of the night." Now, we didn't talk about trafficking like this 15 years ago. No.

No. It just wasn't I didn't even hear about it until that movie uh Taken or something. Taken out, right? Exactly.

Exactly. So, and even then that was just like such a That seems so far so far away the earth. Yeah. Right.

So, this he's like, "Dude, these people were coming in and out all the time, all hours of the night." Well, this guy shows up at a furniture and he was also on the predator list, right? So, he was already like he'd already been busted for something pedophilia or, you know, some sort of sexual deviency, right? And this cat walks into a furniture store and asks the guy about these triple stack bunk beds and says, "Do you think I could put three kids per mattress?"

And then he ordered he wanted to order like 15 of them. Something crazy. Google it. You'll see what I'm talking about.

And the people look this guy up and see that he's like pings on the predator list. So they immediately call the cops. Cops go and arrest this cat. So the furniture people were like, "That's weird."

Obviously. Yeah. They were so they were like distraught, right? Okay.

Well, that guy had been in that house living in our city in Fort Worth, Texas for 20 years. Just an absolute s. He had cages on like his outdoor like uh his uh like back porch. He had like these little balconies off the two top and he had cages around him.

How did nobody no for 20 years? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it gets really scary where that starts to just become too common and then it's just it's just way too prevalent.

Well, I lived down in South Florida for a little while years ago and um like on the west coast of South Florida and uh right when I was moving from there, there's a place called Bonita Springs. It's like north of Naples, Florida. Yeah. And really wealthy area.

Very wealthy. Yeah. And there was this kind of strip mall thing that I sort of lived next to, but very nice stores and stuff in there. And um right when I moved, it came out in the newspaper that on the upper levels of this whole place uh they had it was basically like a prostitution thing.

So like all these old guys that lived down there, that's where they were all going. They knew. Yeah. Well, they were all going there because they did a sting and they caught like 50 of these guys or something.

Um, but like what do you think what type of women do you think are in there, you know, like in that area? Like you don't think that's sex trafficking? Yeah. Like those ladies ain't just out and about.

Yeah. Yeah. Like it was a it was so dark and these are just like retirees down there that were golfing and living in their gated communities and then they pop over there while cuz like the lower level was all like the nail salons and the hair place is very fancy and the upper so it's like yeah I'll go get your nails done with you honey and then they're going I dude I just it makes I got goosebumps like it makes my skin crawl. Well, and I mean, if you if you talk to like trafficking survivors, how they got into the world of prostitution, I mean I mean I but it's like it's the other side of the coin.

Yeah, sure. The traffickers are so evil for doing that to somebody, but who do you think's the one paying for the services? Yeah, it's equal. I mean, seeing something evil and doing nothing about it, bro, is pretty Yeah.

You're participating in it. You're participating in it. Are you kidding me? Yeah.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I just have never been around it. Like I've never even heard somebody talk about like I guess you want to go to this bro.

Yeah. Well, yeah. It's just like that's not the people I've been around. So maybe I've kind of I don't think that there's like a community for that.

That there's like they're all meeting at a Hyatt and being like where we going tonight? You know, like it's like it's all dingy dark on the dark web. Like there is a community for it. Don't get me wrong, because like child pornography is so prevalent.

It's like it's wild. the volume when they catch someone, you know, the volume of stuff they find on a device is like and bro, the stories I've heard because, you know, we worked in that world, too. The stories is like babies, bro. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just it's my babies. I don't mean I don't mean babies as in like in the affection sense. Oh, that's my baby.

No, I mean babies. Inconceivable. in incon which is kind of actually and you know where those babies come from a lot of times they're sold by their own family. Yeah.

Yeah. You know or a or a stepdad is the one who's running the business of prostituting this child. It's disgusting. It's like it's another like I don't know what the I don't know how you fix it, but I think if they brought back like corporal punishment and public execution, we wouldn't have to deal with so much of that.

Yeah. Or just Yeah. Or like truly kill them like almost almost. Yeah.

Just get Well, just get them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No, but No, cuz then if you kill them almost, then you got to pay for them to stay alive. True. Like if you're raping children, dude.

Yeah. Yeah. Your conscience is so seared. Yeah.

And like the evidence of any sort of like spirit, like the spirit of God inside of you is so muted, you know, whether you call yourself a Christian or not or whatever you whatever. Most wouldn't. Yeah. I mean, the redemption for it.

I mean, okay. But I mean I'm not uh in like a government sense like I don't think it's our responsibility to uh offer those people some level of redemption like they need to be they need to be gone and executed. I mean there's just a threat to humanity at that point. Yes.

Like a threat to if you're a threat to children you're Yeah. I mean I really I will even on the rape thing like I think rape like I think you have to need you need the death penalty for it. I think you need the death penalty for it. Yeah.

I can't I'm out on it. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's actually funny.

Um that the beginning That's a great It's actually funny. No. Yeah. The beginning of uh It's actually not actually not, but the beginning of our conversation was talking about how I said I love American culture and it's so great.

Uh yeah. And so that there's some seriously um depraved things that exist in our society and in our culture that we need to do away with, but it happens all over the world, too. Oh, dude. No, that's what I was about to say.

So, like even one of my he's turned out to be one of my good friends now. Um I had him on the podcast, too. And uh he's a songwriter and a musician. He's out of Nashville, but he's an ex sniper in the Canadian military.

He actually has the world record sniper kill. Nice. So he spent um years over in Afghanistan and stuff and uh the stories that he had about sex trafficking like out on the battlefield over there was just and he was trying to explain it to me where it was just like the evil that he's seen firsthand. It's just inconceivable I think for a lot of people.

Yeah. Uh, and they might and they might see maybe the aggression that he has towards certain people and maybe if they heard stories about some of the things that he did, they would perceive him to be kind of a monster maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe not a monster, but they wouldn't be able to understand how you and he's like, "Well, but you haven't seen what I've seen, right?" You know? Right. So, yeah, there's a lot of lot of stuff we need to work on and uh and take care of, but yeah, and I don't I don't know the best way to go about doing it.

And anytime that I've ever been remotely close to any stuff like that, I guess I just don't hang out in dark enough places cuz make no mistake, I would I would die for like a child that I don't know I've just never even been in those situations and been around anything remotely close to them. No, me neither. So, it's weird only on the side of like, you know, I mean, I've worked with people who kick doors down. Yeah.

Like, and they've seen it, you know. I've never seen it firsthand like that. Obviously, I would I don't know what I do. I don't know how the guys like I've read I've heard interviews with people uh like uh Jim Cavisel when he made that movie Sound of Freedom.

They made him they didn't make him they gave him the option to watch you know, some of the stuff that they find on these devices and to see like, do you want to see like this is what we do? And I mean, he was like, it's the most disturbing. So now Kavisil is of the idea that like kill him, just kill him. I mean, cuz dude, if you saw I mean, I can't imagine it.

I mean, just imagining it makes me so angry that it's like and I don't even know how people could like take a stance against that. I mean, I feel like everybody's kind of in the same boat. Like take a stance against like capital punishment. Yeah.

It's wild to me. Crazy. It's wild. Or we've now got like we've got people that are calling it like what are the minor attracted adults and things like that.

Yeah. Well, that's Yeah. Yeah. That's like do what?

Well, you go so far down these rabbit holes of like accepting everyone and everything's okay. Where do you draw the line? Yeah. You got to you got to draw it somewhere.

Yeah. And I think that's where that seems like where we'd all be on the same page. You'd think you'd think you'd think but there's but I would do I will say I would I think that those people who are advocating for that life today it's so small that like but it's just hush. It's sensational though too.

So you might see it in headlines a lot because it obviously gets a lot of attention. Correct. The reason it gets a lot of attention is because mostly everybody disagrees with it. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's tough, too.

Some of this stuff gets blown out of proportion. But I think that's even what I probably would have said 10 years ago. If I saw some article about sex trafficking, I'd be like, "Oh, well, but come on. That's just crazy."

Yeah. It's not. And then you start figuring out, man, this stuff is Yeah. way more.

My wife's been followed through Albertson's. Mhm. You know, cuz she had the girls with her. Yeah.

And she had my son in the in the seat here like in you know little seat you pushing kids around and the girls were on the basket like holding on the basket and there's some creeper dude just following her around the Albertson. She calls me she's like this guy's following me like I'll be there in 5 minutes just and then by the time I got there he was gone. These men that are like they're not men bro. No I know just monsters.

Yeah. Like where do they where do they come from? And like who had they just had no more like who do they come from? Who do they come from?

Yeah. And yeah, how did they not What was the family like when they were growing up? They didn't have any guys around them just if you even offered up any type of idea like that. They didn't just get the [expletive] kicked out of them.

Yeah. You just get your brains be Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, I'm uh I'm so thankful that I know you and I'm so happy that this you know, a lot of the success.

You want to talk about music at all? It's coming this way besides Bob Seager. Yeah. Can we pee real quick?

Can we do that? You've been playing a lot more, I've noticed. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh and I'm, you know, Well, cuz my new music is way more like blues driven rock and roll kind of thing. So, it's going to become a way more prevalent part of what I'm doing, which I'm excited about. But it's just but like last two years I've just been in the studio just nerding out.

So I've been playing a lot. So I just got more comfortable. You know I started listening to this morning that I haven't listened to in forever. The Black Keys and I was like a Black Keys nerd dude in the early days like the first record Big Come Up and Dick Freakness and all these records where they were just the duo with no heavy production.

But the new record they've just put out sounds fantastic. Unreal. Yeah. Uh Dan Hourback does all sorts of records for all sorts.

I'm like, when am I going to get to meet that guy? That dude, that would be a cool be a cool country record is to have That would be a cool one. Yeah, cuz he's really good at like melody lines, you know, like their songs always have those. Yeah.

Just riffy hookie stuff. Yeah. And you all you got to do is do that with a steel guitar or fiddle and now it's country. Yeah.

or like incorporate some of his cuz he's got that in he's got that flavor for that indie sound where it's like there's like cool like saturation and distortion he uses. Yeah, I think he actually that's a great idea. He could make a great like George Strait's first record. Well, I think in honor of me giving you that idea, I get to be in the room.

Of course. I mean there I just get to hang out. He uh if you do a record with Dan Arback, I'm going to be there. You might want to be there for the cop record, too.

Yeah, but that's too way too big of an ask, you know. Way too big of an ask. It's happening. It's going to happen.

I don't know, man. We'll see. He was very nice, though. That's got to be the coolest part of all the all like the new success.

Can I call it new success? I don't know. I guess I don't have to label it, but the new attention and stuff is like being able to get to work with people that you freaking That's just the coolest thing ever. It is.

It's been the most fun. I mean, some of these songwriters, the guys I get to write with now, uh, they were at the show. Are we rolling? Yeah, we are.

Yeah. Okay. We're always rolling. Okay.

Always rolling. Uh, some of the guys came out. We played Nashville last week and uh, Clint Daniels came to the show. Clint Daniels is he's a hammer, man.

He's such an incredible songwriter. He wrote Broken Hearts, Phil. Had a bunch of big cuts, big hits. Um uh but yeah, man, it's cats, they show up now and they're like friends and it's just it's awesome, dude.

That's been a lot of fun is building relationships with guys like that. Yeah. No, Steve Warner. I can, you know, text Steve Warner and he'll text you back and it's like the big one they're working on right now.

They're trying to they're working on a right with Vince Gil, which would be like, "Holy cow." Yeah. But I mean I know folks they is this management or your publishing company? Publishing company.

Okay. Yeah. That's got to been that had to have been a huge help. Yeah.

That's a crazy story too, dude. Because about 12 years ago, right after we played the main stage the first time at LJT, um we had like he gave us Friday night 7:30, like you know, great time slot. We got to play in front of several thousand people and it sort of created this like lore about the live show because it went so wild. The beer cans flying everywhere and we close the show with shout, you know, and everybody's going wild.

And where did you where did you say that was? Stevenville. Okay. Okay.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Larry Joe. Yeah.

Main stage. And so we walk off stage and this gentleman meets me coming off stage. That's kind of part of the God story, too, because I felt like in that moment, uh, right after that was like, I need to sit this down for a season, which is not the time you would want to do that, but I felt like in my spirit, you know, like in my knower, I think I'm supposed to be doing something else, which was a battle inside of me. It took me a month or so to like reason with it, you know, cuz I will always love you had just done the viral thing, too.

All that's happening at the same time. I walk off stage. This gentleman meets me and he's like, "Josh, you're a star, son. And I know what to do with stars."

And I'm like, "Okay." And he's like, "No, I'm going to give you my card. You Google me. Look me up.

Um, and we'll uh we'll talk later. I want to talk to you on Monday. I'm going be in my office in Nashville." I look at his card and it's got him named Tim Dubois.

This guy walks up to me and he's like, "You know who that is?" I'm like, "No, that's Tim Dubois, man. People win Grammys is what he said. They thank God their mama and that guy.

Whoa. And I'm like, "Oh no. Oh no." Well, this would have been 13.

A long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm like, "Uhoh."

As I'm feeling like this stirring to like set things down for a season, you know? And Tim, I talked to him several times. He came down to shows. He met my family.

He sent folks two shows from his office. Hey man, when are you going to come talk to Tim? Like because he was, you know, Tim was responsible for, I guess I should say that. Uh, he was a songwriter, started in Nashville as a songwriter and wrote like, you know, hits for Jerry Reed and Alabama and, you know, huge, huge songs.

And then he put Restless Heart together and like made that all a thing. Got them a deal. He wrote Bluest Eyes in Texas. Jeez.

You know, he wrote several of those songs and has producer credit on them, too. Like, if you listen to, you know, why does it have to be black on white? I mean, I love Russell's heart. Um, he's got producer credit on all that stuff, too.

So, Tim was knew what he was doing. And then in the 90s, he worked for Clive Davis at Arista. started Arista Nashville, signed Allan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn, Radney Foster, Pam Tillis, you know, tons of people. He also wrote uh Nobody Answers When I Call Your Name, that Vince Gilune.

Yeah. So Tim was a stud. He was exactly what he says he was. He was like he knew what to do.

But that whole time that he was sort of like courting me, he kept telling me, "I got to get you up Nashville right my son. Got to get you up here right my son. son's killing it right now. Okay.

Like, you need to get up here and ride with him. And he's like, and Tim told me, he said, "I'll make you a deal. I won't make you cut anything you don't want to cut as long as you don't cut anything I don't want you to cut." It was kind of like, "Okay."

Yeah. Okay. It's kind of like just agree. And we're going to agree that best song wins kind of thing, right?

And eventually, I finally just called Tim and I said, "I'm sorry, man. I can't do this. I can't feel like I've got to God wants me to do something else with my life right now. And I don't I hate to tell you no, but I have to.

I have to. Whoa. He wouldn't ever hear that. No.

He actually he introduced me to his wife like two years later. He Honey, this is the only man ever told me no. Now that may not be true, but he did say that. Yeah, it's probably not true.

Yeah. Or I mean, it's probably true. Yeah. But he was very kind to me when I told him that.

He was like, "I respect that, Josh. And you ever need anything from me, you call me." And he was he was really kind. And uh then you fast forward, you know, what 12 years later.

Um I get connected with through Blaine, my drummer, with Barrett Babber. Barrett writes for a company called Seagale. And I'm like, this is after things start popping off on social media. And I'm my immediate thought was I need songs.

I need songs like right now, you know, and whether I've written them or not, I need some original material that I can put out. And so he puts me in touch with Barrett Babber. Barrett sends me some songs like we should write something too. So we're going to do like a Zoom write.

Then I got an email from a guy named JD Groover and I see at the bottom of his email address Seagal music. I'm like I think that's who Barrett work or writes with writes for or whatever how you say it. So I call JD. We get on the phone.

We're talking and he tells me, "Do you know who Chris Dubois is?" And I'm like, "Yeah, of course." And so I tell him the story about Tim Dubois, Chris's dad. And I finish the story and I'm like, you know, needless to say, man, it's just wild that I'm sitting here talking to you and you're asking me about Chris Dubois.

This is 12 years later. And then on the other phone, yeah, that is crazy. Who is this? And I'm like, who is this?

And he was like, this is Chris Dubois. And so JD, I guess at some point had walked into Chris's office and like handed him the phone. They're like, this. And so Chris was like, "Well, Josh, I mean, JD's been talking you up over here, showing us all your TikTok videos.

Why don't you just can you come up here at some point? Can you get up here and like we'd love to meet you?" I was like, "Yeah." And so that was in February and my kids had the end of February and my kids spring break was coming up, you know, a couple weeks later, March.

So, I asked my mom. I'm like, "Why don't we just take the RV and we'll just we'll just go up to Nashville and spend spring break in Nashville and I'll take all these meetings." Because I'd gotten several other calls from Nashville folks, too, and I'll see if I can write something while we're up there. And she was like, "Okay, let's go."

So, we went up, parked at the KOA out by Opry Land, and then I just Ubered or she took me, oh, we got a rental car. She'd take me into town every day and drop me off and I just walk Music Row and go to different meetings and talk with people and uh Yeah, man. I mean, but it was it was just from those Tik Tok videos, you just immediately got DMs from like major labels and management companies and Yep. Yeah.

I mean, I met which it's funny. I you probably do remember this, but I think before that happened, we probably talked on the phone like a year before that or something. And we had a I remember I was shoeing horses when I talked to you on the phone. We talked for like an hour or something and we were just kind of like mulling stuff over and you were like, man, I just like what do like what do you think about some of this stuff?

And I go, I don't know if you remember this, but I go, Josh, I was like, dude, you're there's nothing fancy you got to do. You just need to put a phone up in front of you and just play into it. And you're like, really? Hey, was that kind of like goofy or?

And I was like, Josh. Yeah. Then it was like a year later. Yeah.

Uh, one of my buddies texted me and they were like, "Dude, you see Josh Weather's blowing up." And I was like, I hadn't like necessarily seen it yet. Yeah. And then I went and looked it up and it was just crazy.

It was going nuts. And I go, "Thank goodness." Not that I'm taking credit for all your success, but like maybe like five I'll take 5%. You know?

Well, you know what's funny is I'd started that on Instagram and because I was going to do a live stream thing for New Year's and so I was going to do a live stream thing for New Year's and I was like, I got to figure out how to like operate this and get like a decent sound quality and then I saw this chick on Instagram I think her handle was like Liz Rose sings. Okay. And she just sings cover songs at her piano but it's all looks good and it sounds good. Well, she did a video one day of how she does it.

And I was like, I'm watching the video. I was like, I have all that stuff. And so that was it. I mean, then I set the stuff up, figured out how to do how I could do like a quality live stream with it.

And then I just posted a few of the videos that I'd done. And they got like maybe 10,000 views, which for me at the time, I had like 12,000. In general, it's a lot, right? So, I had like 12,500 followers on Instagram.

Didn't have a Tik Tok and it wasn't using Tik Tok at all. And uh a couple of those got like some decent views. And I was like, and then I did a Merl Haggard song on like December 23rd or something like that. I did Silver Wings, like just a verse and chorus because I'm like nobody wants to stick around and watch it for any longer than that.

You can't really do it any longer than that anyway. Mhm. So, verse and chorus and then um that one popped off. It like went crazy, you know?

I say crazy. It got like 50,000 views and I was like, I think I'm going to do this every day. I'm just going to do this every day. And what's the music I know best?

Uh '8s 90s country, which is so funny that I'm curious if a lot of the music that you love to play was not that. It was more like Heartland, Rock Soul type. Did that surprise you that's what you ended up kind of coming back to? No, because I really wanted to make um like country records.

Okay. Yeah. For a while now. And my wife for like the last 10 years has been like, "When are you going to make like some country stuff?"

What was keeping you What? I don't know. Because what you were doing before it seemed like it was incredibly authentic to yourself. Yeah.

Yeah, it totally was. Yeah. But um I don't know. I was just like I don't know.

I mean I don't know. I'm sure I had excuses as to why that was. Was there like an element of kind of like hitboy musician that like you wanted to play stuff that was maybe technically more difficult or something? No, not at all.

Because I've never been the guy who plays for the people on the in the wings. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Sure.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I've always been like, we got to make music for soccer moms.

Soccer moms buy t-shirts. Yeah. you know, like making music for musicians has never been that I've never been really interested in that. Okay.

Really, I mean, truly, that's just um But yeah, my wife was like, "We live on a farm. You rodeoed your whole life. Like, why are you making this like rock soul stuff?" Because that was the music that moved me, you know?

Right. Um which a part of that too is what really captivated me by you. I love when things don't perfectly line up, right? Yeah.

I mean, the first time I when I played LJT, I had a horn section. Yeah. Because my the way I perceived myself was I'll just be like the Delbert Mlinton of today, right? Delbert Minton was from board.

Delbert McClinton was like funk, soul, country. It was all these elements all combined. And so that's sort of how I perceived myself. And it worked well.

you know, Larry Joe, he loves that stuff. So, so he was always very inviting and welcoming to me and um but yeah, my wife was like, "If you just write some songs like these Cody Johnson songs that are happen like that's that I mean, she would say that stuff to me all the time. Why is Cody Johnson making country records? You're not."

Mhm. Like what's the deal here? And I was I would just be like, you know, this is what I do. And then for whatever reason, I just felt like after that Silver Wings video popped off, I was like, '8s and 90s country stuff is I mean that's my favorite.

If I'm just listening to music. Yeah, you just Yeah. I'm either going to listen to like, you know, Muscle Scholes stuff or I'm, you know, Mottown or I'm going to listen to 80s and 90s. I'm going to listen to Steve Warner, Russ, George Strait.

I mean, I've said it for years. George Strait's first record is my favorite record of all time. Straight country, top to bottom. Favorite record of all time and because it's funky.

Like it's country, but it's real funky. Like Down and Out and those songs are funky. And uh so yeah, I just But what a what a huge part of country music that doesn't really get uh a ton of love. People love it, but they don't even realize like I've talked about Merl Haggard, like some of the drummers that he used.

Um, yeah, they were doing like a lot of Mottown inspired like Yeah, that record back to the barrooms and stuff like that. Funky, dude. Yeah, I know. Yeah, but some popular country or what we would perceive Jerry Reed, bro.

That's some of the I'll show you some Jerry Reed songs that will like drop you flat, dude. You're like, this is not Yeah. Funky as hell. And then ironically some of the big country records that get popular or what people would perceive as like probably the most country stuff is actually closer to like a Nickelback record.

Yeah. Like dead serious like No, that is true. Yes. Yeah.

So anyways, I just find that to be funny. But then they might hear something that is like more funky and well ain't country. It's like uh well I don't know. It's probably more country than Yeah.

They just don't realize where it came from. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, that something that gets you gets you up moving and grooving. Yeah, dude.

I mean, that to me and then the stuff that I really loved like through the 90s was like Brooks and Dunn, you know, those songs like that's country with a kick. Like it had this rock and roll element to it, you know what I mean? Yep. And so that's the stuff that I'm like, that's what I want to make.

Some of the indie country that got super popular and blew up like the Sturgil Simpsons, Tyler Childers, that type of stuff. It's pretty funky. Very funky. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But uh yeah, my wife was So then it just simplified. Everything got simple and you're like, I'm just going to do this thing that I like and just make a video every day.

Yeah. Yep. And the funny thing was trying to transition that into like what was happening at the shows at the time because I didn't have the original material to support this character that I was building on Tik Tok. Even though Oh, and that was the Tik Tok thing.

Instagram was going gang busters. It's going really well. I'm up to like 50,000 followers on Instagram. I'm like, "This is killing."

My wife says, "Let me start you a Tik Tok." Starts a Tik Tok. In 90 days, I have 100,000 followers on Tik Tok. And so then I'm getting recognized as the '9s country guy.

Yeah. You know, so I like I was having to like figure out how did that make you feel? Oh, it's great. Okay.

Yeah. It didn't bother me at all. I'm like I'm saying I will always love you for the last 15 years, you know, still do it every single night. So like the being recognized for something as long as it's something positive is totally fine.

Yeah. You know um but yeah the 90s country thing the timing of it could not have been better. Honest is like a divine thing to that you know and then the fact that like I write songs now with Chris Dubois and part of Seale music. Oh yeah.

Being prepared for the moment too. Yeah. There was 15 years of 20 years actually. I've been doing 19 and 41 now.

Yeah. Because even these management companies and record labels and stuff are probably surprised um if they contact you just because they know you from TikTok, they're probably surprised that you actually have the goods to back it up because that's not always the case. Yeah, they are surprised. I mean, we were talking about that like the um first folks that called me from a label were asking me how I made the videos and I told them I just plug my plug the microphone into a mixer and the mixer out of the mixer comes a little cable that goes right into my phone.

I just record the video and sing it till I like it. And they were like, "No way. No way." And I was like, "No, I just do it every day."

And I'm like, and I'll forget sometimes. I'll be like, "Oh, oh, I got to go." Because people were like, "Oh, you just must sit down and make like 20 of them and then roll them out." I'm like, "No, dude.

I don't have I have six kids. I don't have time to make 50 videos in a day. I don't I don't have time to do that." It's like, I would just be out cutting the grass and be like, "Uhoh.

Oh gosh, I got to cut I got to get video out before the day is over." And I would literally just run into the house and I'd think about it on the way there and I'd be like, "Okay, well, I haven't done a Joe Diffy tune yet." Okay, well, I'll do I sit down, figure out welcome to Earth, Third Rock from the Sun. Okay, record and then just do it.

Um, so it happened very organically. I didn't put any money into it, sponsor ads, nothing like that. Just all organic. And I do think like I said the timing of it, you know, Zack Top had just that name started to just start happening.

Even though he'd been doing the similar thing that to what I was doing for a couple of years, like I'd started following Zack Top years ago when he was doing like covers. I saw I'd see it on Facebook every once in a while and I don't think I paid much attention to it until I saw him pop back up and I saw him do that song. There's the sun. There's the moon.

And I was like, "Bro, this is real country. This sounds like a Whitley song, you know." Anyway, yeah, I never really It wasn't It was on purpose that I was singing ' 80s and 90s country songs, but it was not on purpose that I would sort of be deemed with that title. Yeah.

With timing. Yeah. Yeah. It was totally divine.

And now I'm grateful that I have the years that I was not necessarily pursuing a career in country. Even though I think the last couple of records I made were probably more country than most of the country you hear on the radio. Yeah. Um Yeah.

I mean it just wasn't overtly branded that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And now it's very intentional. I go into these writers rooms and I'm like what are we thinking? I'm like I'm thinking uh cuz I love writing songs too. like it's become, you know, I've always loved it, but getting to write with some of the cats I get to write with now, it's a whole different It's like a master class.

Every month I go up to Nashville and spend a few days and, you know, write with David Lee Murphy, you know? I mean, sitting in a room with David Lee Murphy and he's just might be. Yeah. And he just cool as a cucumber, dude.

Like one of the coolest cats ever. And like they just don't even it's so easy for them, man. Like there are days that are harder. Like Bobby Penson, you know Bobby Pinson?

I have. I've met him a couple times. Yeah. Pinson's like, man, he's one of my sites the red door almost every night.

Not anymore. He's cooler now. He's chill. It was losers.

He was going to losers a lot, too. Yeah. But um yeah, Bobby Pinson, Chris Dyis, Chris is interesting, right? And Chris, you know, he just he's like the master of titles.

He's just got so many titles, which he's got a great exercise that he does. His dad is the one that taught him to do it. Chat GBT. No, no.

You write a title down. Write down a title and then you make a new title with one word from the previous title. And you just do that till you fill the page. And so you just got pages, pages of titles.

Isn't it funny that like some of the stuff you learned in English class like when you were a little kid about writing and stuff. There's some of those things that I use now. Yeah. And I wish they would have just used something more interesting because I'm so bored with like creative writing or something.

It was just so boring to me. Yeah. But I remember an exercise where you would just you if you had to topically write about something, you would just uh you just come up with single words that could relate to like just like come up with a bunch of synonyms. you just like write down a bunch of synonyms or you like write down a bunch of phrases that could directly tie into whatever title that you had, you know?

So, you could just like it's basically just brainstorming like um uh you know, vision boarding your creative ideas and stuff. And I just think it's funny that some of that stuff you were taught Yeah. ends up being applied later in life, but I was so bored with it early in life because they just didn't they didn't even know how to apply. You know what's funny is I did in one of those classes we had to do like a poem or something like that and I remember I mean you had to do like a paper explaining a popular poem or song and I remember I did the chair seventh grade.

Yeah. And I and I recognized then this is before I was pursuing anything in music some there's something unbelievably interesting about this one because there's no chorus. So, it's interesting nowadays too that um I don't find story songs to be as easily marketed nowadays. Like we live in a very well we live in a very meme culture.

Yeah. So even the way a song is writt like Zack Bryan's song Zack Bryan's songs don't typically take like an overarching storyline, right? Like there's no payoff in that sense. Yeah.

I'm not saying it's good or bad because I've actually explored with like writing songs that are a little bit more gono just flight of ideas. Yeah. and they might be standalone. Casey Musgraves kind of did it a little bit too.

Um where you could pull out a line everywhere and it would just sort of be like a profound thought just for the line, right? But then structured together in a song format. And I think that's more easily you can grab 5 seconds of any part of the song, put it over you getting dressed in the mirror, put it on TikTok. Yeah.

It's like a memeable moment, but everything's a meme right now, which I think has influenced the type of songs that are written. Mhm. Um cuz you it's hard to get across that whole story within a 5second video on TikTok. That's true.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But but those songs But then how do you What's that? Those songs still win.

Like they still just the story song the story songs. Those are my favorite. Agreed. We're talking about Main Street.

I mean that's a story song. Yeah. I remember standing on a corner at midnight trying to get my courage like the picture that gets painted. Those are the songs that I fall in love with.

Think about marketing that though right now though. Which part of Main Street do you pick? Even the chair like so you got to get like really clever with it. Yeah.

In terms of and I could probably see it like if you I mean you could literally Main Street would make a great music video. Yeah. And I guess my point is I think there's going to be a moment where it comes back to a little bit more storytelling. Oh well I think it's happening.

I mean look at Dirt Cheap. Mhm. That song smokes man. You know the Cojo song that and that's a great story song.

those especially if you're going to do 80s and 90s country if that's all having this rebirth. I mean those were story songs. Even Chattahuchi that's a story song you know like probably my favorite is uh Young Love by the Juds. Oh wow.

Yeah. Yeah. That first line, she was sitting cross-legged on the hood of a Ford filing down her nails with an Emory board. I mean like that I like I can see it, you know?

I love that stuff. Love that stuff. I've been writing some a lot of those lately. That's great.

I haven't up until Do you have Do you have Are you like have a whole record together yet or are you still I could probably put out two right now. Okay. With songs we've actually already tracked, but we're just kind of work waiting to we're rolling out singles because that's, you know, the game to play these days. Yeah.

And then, you know, talking to some labels about what that might look like. putting out a full length and we'll see what happens. How have those conversations gone? Is it I mean really only had one label.

I won't say their name necessarily right now cuz if it doesn't happen then it won't look like a knucklehead but uh it's been exciting. I mean it's been a lot very exciting. I mean, just getting to talk to I'll just say MCA Records, you know, having conversations with people at the label and thinking like, mind you, going back to the earlier conversation, we're like, I'd laid these things down. That's not going to be for me.

That's okay. That's okay. And now later in life, just even having conversations with labels and the LA, not just, you know, let's say just MCA, it's like that's the label George Strait's been on for the last 50 years, dude. That's the label.

When I looked at the back of Straight Country in my Gramps's truck, you know, he's the only cassette tape he kept in his pickup was Straight Country. And when I looked at the back of it, MCA was right there in the bottom lefthand corner, you know, and to think that like, you know, if it happens, it have to dude to be in the conversation. That's what I'm talking about. That's the magical part of it to me, you know, whether something shakes out there or not, I don't know.

But just the fact that it's like even in consideration is like I see God in it, you know, and I'm like, what is going on? Yeah. In my life right now. It makes me so happy you have so much perspective on it.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's what I mean. We were talking about earlier, the gratitude factor of it. It's like the fact that these folks are showing up at shows, you know, we're standing in the green room at the show in Nashville the other night, looking around the room and I'm asking, you know, Kim Wiggins, lady I work with a seagull, like, "Who's this?"

And she's explaining who these people are and I'm like, like, "What are they doing here?" Yeah. He's like, "I don't know, bud." You know, like, but it's pretty cool.

It's pretty cool. I mean, it's been fun, man. It's been a lot of fun. Last year and a half been wild, wild ride.

Yeah. And you're totally prepared for it. And uh it's just exciting to watch. Well, the thing that I know I know who I am.

I know who I'm not. I know who I don't want to be. I know. Which might be more important than knowing who you want to be because that can change.

Knowing who you don't want to be. Yeah. I know who I don't want to be. I've seen those horror stories way too many times.

I know the music I don't want to make. I know that, you know, uh and I know the music that I do want to make. And that music might change over the course of time because that's what it's kind of supposed to do. You know, even if you look at a career like George Strait, who's my favorite of all time, you look at the early George Straight records that transitioned in through the 90s, they he was able to like evolve as an artist and like stay relevant for such a long time.

We, you know, like I'm tripping out over lately that I just am like I've always thought they were great, but Aerosmith's like the greatest rock band of all time. Oh yeah. Yeah. I was just listening to I watched him play uh Dream On uh at the Howard Stern party.

Just plays it. Yeah, Stephen. He's such a stud, dude. Yeah, but I watched a documentary on Pump, the record Pump, which had like Love in an Elevator, which is one of the most amazing songs of all time.

And you just listen to them. Steven Tyler was like 42 years old when they made Pump. That was in like 1989. Yeah.

I guess I didn't even Yeah. So, you think he was 40 in 198 still looks like pretty good. Side note, like he still looks pretty good. Yeah, he dressed like, you know, he dressed like a wild man like your grandmother, but crazy wearing like wearing crazy.

My wife and I were actually talking about him the other day cuz it was like you can't, you know, he's good-looking, but there's something about him that's like he kind he definitely has some feminine attributes. Yeah. But for whatever reason, that made women even more gaga, right? Yeah.

So there is something about like a dude that can rock like to me the coolest person like coolest looking human on earth is Lenny Kravitz. I mean he's like 60s something. Lenny Krab's like 60 years old dude and he is a car. Well also being black just like has like a level of cool.

Yeah you're cooler. He's just cooler. Well but he's just like man such a stud. But we were just talking about uh I was talking to the band.

We were listening to Aerosmith records and like they were relevant for a long time, dude. '7s, 80s, 90s, 2000s. They were able to like transition to all those things and be like right in the middle of all of it for a long time. That's the coolest part about all this, man, is like when they made Pump or Permanent Vacation, which was like the first that had like Ragd Doll in it, you know, song.

Ragd Doll living in a movie hot. I mean, probably little cutie. I mean, so funky. That's why I like them, I guess, probably cuz they're so funky.

But, um, yeah, I mean, they were like broke when they made those records. They were like at the tail end of things and then they just wrote great songs and like got right back on top. Yeah. And then 2000s, they were like, "No, we can write soundtracks."

And they did and they killed it, you know? I love that stuff. Yeah. I love to see people's careers bob and weave.

And I and I it just yeah just you can't fake it for long if you are faking it. It's just I mean you should get better. You should get better. You should evolve.

You should be able to like it should be something that's true to you but also like it should be able to change with time. I mean Prince is one of my favorite artists of all time. Prince he changed a million times. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, you know, unbelievable.

They were different. Tom Petty in the 70s, Tom Petty in the 90s were two different things, you know. Yeah. Zezy Tops one that I've been listening to a lot of them.

That's Billy Given my numero uno. Yeah. And like if you go listen to um I mean the way the drums change and their approach to some of the songs and where he's singing at in the songs like register wise like that changed over time. Yeah.

I mean they were a tried and true like blues band first couple of records. Yeah. But then some of their stuff kind of got country funky too. Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you listen to the Tahos is like my favorite record of theirs. There's no hits on it. Yep. But it's so funky, dude.

And like it's not all just a less Paul through a Marshall. It's like there's a Strat in there. There's a telly in there. You can hear them.

That's pretty dope. And they were relevant for 40 years. Still are obviously, but I mean like they were putting out records, hits, you know. Yeah.

What's um what's your touring schedule like in like the next like month or so? Where are you guys staying at for the most part? Uh, we do 150 dates this year. Yeah.

So, I mean, August, September are wild. Really? Is it mostly all down here or what? No, no, no.

Like, this last week was Mississippi, Nashville, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas. Home. Home for two days. We do two things that are like private events this week.

This week's pretty chill. And then next week is Colorado, New Mexico. And then we go then the week after is all up through Kansas and back. And then I go to Nashville for a few days.

And it's pretty wild. I mean, it's like there's never a dull moment. It's moving and shaking all the time. Yeah.

I love Nashville, by the way. I love going up there. I love writing those songs and getting to spend time with those people and seeing how that all operates. It's its own thing.

Yeah. But you get to leave and go do your do your thing. Bingo. They were like, "So, you don't want to live up here?"

I was like, "I will." I said, "If George Straight didn't have to live here, I don't have to live here." I'm not comparing myself to George, but I'm just saying if what he achieved, you know, is feasible by not living here, that means it's possible. Yeah.

It's nice to go, but Oh, yeah. I mean, I love it up there. Mhm. So, well, killer, dude.

Well, I'm proud to know you. Thanks for everything that you do, dude. Thank you. Your story is inspiring for me specifically, so I appreciate it.

Well, appreciate you, dude. I can't wait to hear the new music. Yeah, I'll send you some stuff. Yeah, well, you've been sending me some.

Yeah, I've heard some. Yeah, you know, I sound impressed. Yeah, you've been sending me stuff. I'll wait for the next B.

Yeah, you know, I'm kind of the authority on uh what's cool, what's not. Yeah. No, dude, I love all your stuff. I've always been a massive fan.

Massive. Yeah. So, thanks for doing this, dude. Of course, bro.

Addios for having me. Yep. You got to do your sign off. What's your sign off?

Do you think didn't prepare that? Adios, amigos. There you go. [Music] And meow.

[Music] Sing the sweet melody. By.