Chancey Williams

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Purple haze in the canyon, that's where I long to be with my sweet You didn't know this must be your first movie. Chancy W Oh hey this brings takes me back to the beginning. What does the W stand for? Uh wild.

Chan- come on now. Yeah. Chancy wild? Yep.

They knew. What part of your life was that? That sounds like a different part of your life that we're probably not supposed to talk about. Yeah, I can't talk about that.

The days in Laramie. Mhm. The days in Laramie. My college days.

I went to college for 7 years. You really No, but yeah, but that's not fair. Didn't you get a master's degree? Yeah.

Yeah. So I went for 7 and a half years if you count my internship. Yeah, but isn't that normal? Oh no, you did one extra year, right?

Or what? For school what? No, I went I went 7. Well, you know, 5 undergrad and 2 master's degree, yeah.

But isn't a master's degree normally 2 anyways? Yeah. Yeah, I got that done on time. So the bachelor's degree was the one you Yeah, it was called rodeoing.

Didn't go to all my classes. Were you weren't a bad student. I don't even see you being No, I was good at college. There's ways to be good at college like I would go the first week and sign up for like 30 credit hours, you know, you're supposed to take like 15 a semester.

And then the first week go to every class and you figure out which like professors were fun and nice and not a-holes. And the ones that were a-holes and you just drop all those classes so it makes your semester a lot easier. That was probably a different time too in Laramie, wouldn't it? It's Has it's changed a bunch since then, hasn't it?

Yeah, I assume. Yeah. Yeah, I assume like I live on campus basically. I live right across from the school in Laramie.

I have a house there, but Yeah, dude, college was awesome. I got good at it. It's fun. Yeah.

I don't know these days like I think for kids that know what they're wanting to do, you know, like I don't know if I used to tell everybody they should go to college cuz it's tons of fun. And I think every kid from like small town should go to college for like a year just to get out of your hometown. Just from small towns? Well, all towns, just to meet new people and learn how to socialize with other people, but I don't know if you want to be a bronc rider or a singer or something maybe and you know you're going to do that, I would just get started on now.

Like I wish I would have I'm glad I have a master's degree. It's fun to talk about in podcasts and stuff, but you know, if I knew I was going to like seriously end up just as uh you know, music as a profession, I'd have started sooner and like probably like went to Nashville or Texas somewhere and dug in. Rather than going to school. Yeah.

Like you wouldn't have gone to school for some type of like music something. I don't know. I mean, part of me thinks like what if I would have went to Belmont, you know, and just not to like I mean, you learn some things, but all the connections, all those kids that go to Belmont learned and meet out of being in Nashville in the scene. Like the whole industry is ran by a lot of people that went to Belmont.

I know, I was just talking to a couple dudes that have recently signed big major record deals and like one of their biggest frustrations it's like kind of across the board what I hear from all of them is they're like, "Well, man, it's like I got to get this I get this like marketing team that is a bunch of like 21-year-olds that just graduated from freaking Belmont that think they like know everything about the industry and then they're all like barking at them." That was like all of their unani- like across the board that was their number one complaint. Well, in that town, you know, it's a small town, everybody knows everybody, so somebody that you graduated with from school down there probably works at some label or some management company or some booking agency, so it's all about who you know, and so back to what I was saying, like if I'd have known I'd have done music, maybe I'd have just spent more time in Nashville earlier. Not that Nashville's the cure-all to it, but it is kind of the center where most of the music business happens.

It's such a double-edged sword cuz like you built something so big in Wyoming and regionally in Colorado and where you're at out there and you maybe wouldn't it might not be as strong if I think I think I'd have still done what I did out west, you know, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and everything west, I just think I'd have spent a little bit more time focusing on like writing and relationships and stuff in Nashville. When did you really start going there? Was that when you like kind of went to go cut that record with Yeah, so I moved down there to do an internship for my master's degree. I worked for TKO Artist Management and Showdog Records.

It was Toby Keith's record label and manager, TK. And so just met a lot of people and while I was there I did my first record. I didn't really have a band anymore, you know. What year was that?

Uh 2008-ish. Yeah, 2008. So Toby wasn't touring super hard at that point, was he? No, he was.

That's when he had like Big Dog Daddy album out and they were cutting new albums. They were touring hard. It was cool like see that side of it. I knew nothing about the music business when I went out there.

I got a band in Wyoming. That was eye-opening to see all the inside stuff. And y'all were y'all were grinding though. Yeah, I Well, at that point, so like so I had a band, started the band in high school just, you know, for fun, but I was rodeoing, so went to college to Casper College on a rodeo scholarship.

So, that was the main thing. I was just I was just going to ride bucking horses, but kind of had the band as a fun thing. So, we'd pick up It was a good college job. We'd play the bars around the tri-state area.

But, you know, I wasn't really focused on that. It was just kind of for fun. And then, uh What was the question? How you ended up.

Well, y'all were grinding at the time. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, so the history of that. So, we were going pretty good.

Nick and Joe, my two original members, um Nick became a pharmacist. And Joe had quit. So, then we hired another guy named Gabe Springsteen, which is Wyatt's brother. So, we were all playing, me and Nick and Gabe and Travis, our old drummer, were playing.

Then Gabe got in a car wreck on the way to one of our shows. No [expletive] Yeah, so it was like Wyatt's brother. And we'd never met Wyatt yet. That was Wyatt's brother?

Yeah. So, And so, Wyatt's your guitar player now? Yeah. Wyatt's been with me since the So, that point in time, you know, the band kind of disbanded.

So, Nick became a pharmacist, Gabe had passed away, and it was just me playing bass and our old drummer. So, I moved to Nashville to do that internship, and so I was just kind of on my own. And then, while I was in Nashville, I did that record, Honky Tonk Road, and I cold-called Wyatt. I'd met Wyatt basically at the funeral.

I said, "Hey, man, I'm going to start touring out west again and put a band back together. You want to be my lead guitar player?" And he was teaching school in Denver. He was like, "I'm in."

He's been with me ever since. Yeah, those crazy times. Like, Gabe played piano and guitar, that green guitar that Wyatt plays was uh actually in the car wreck. Gabe was borrowing that guitar from Wyatt.

It was like pretty heavy, but like they had like cut that guitar out of the car, but not a scratch on it. That's crazy. At the show last night cuz y'all were playing in Denton last night at the Yeah. North Texas Rodeo and uh if you didn't if you didn't remember, thought I'd remind you that.

But anyways, uh I was standing there with my wife watching y'all play and uh Wyatt took a solo and he had that green guitar on. I didn't I didn't know that. Yeah. And I was like I was like, he always has the he's got the coolest freaking guitars.

She was like, that's my favorite one that he's had cuz he's got like a few that he rotates. Yeah, those are uh Stone Tree Guitars. talking about that guitar last night. Yeah, there's a guy in Wyoming where he's moved away from Wyoming that made all those guitars.

His name's Scott Platts, but it was Stone Tree Guitars, but he's made guitars for Steve Earle and Watson and all those guys, but he actually that guy used to play in Wyatt's dad's band. No kidding. it's super tight that circle of guitars and the meaning of that. But yeah, so that's So basically when I moved to Nashville, I didn't really have a band.

You know, we had a band. Then I moved back, hired Wyatt. Joel, my original guitar player, came back and was going to fill in for the summer. You know, we're just kind of rough sounding, but and then I met Brooke uh in June of '08.

So her and Wyatt have been in the band the same amount of time. And Brooke came and auditioned and has been in since Wyatt, too. Wyatt's been in like 1 month longer than Brooke. Did you I don't know.

It might be too hard to choose. They're so different, but did you did you want to rodeo professionally? Yeah, I mean, I did. I think the I think after I moved to Nashville, like loved music more than rodeo.

And I was still rodeoing. I would go to some, but it was, you know, like Chris LeDoux song "Riding for a Fall." Like I didn't really want to be there. I was just kind of going to go, you know, I rode in Denver, so I pro rode a little bit after college, you know.

I think the last place I rode was Denver at the stock show. But, you know, like, rodeo is one of those things, like, if your heart's if you don't want it Oh, gosh. like, you're wasting your money. Especially in the Well, yeah, in general, but yeah, especially in a rough stock event, cuz you have the physical ramifications of not being in it, either.

Yeah, so Like, at least if you're just team roping or something and Like Yeah, and you can do that for fun. Like, you can team rope a long time uh in your life till you're older, you know. But, rough stock, if you're not if your head's not in it and you don't want it want it, that's I and I got that way. I was just kind of getting bucked off and just kind of going.

And then I was picking up, too, so I was picking up some rodeos as a picket man and riding at some and then trying to play music and it was just too many things. I think I was kind of mediocre at all three for a while there, so wasn't riding broncs as good as I should have been. Was picking up a lot, loving it, but it didn't really pay that good. And we're just kind of playing music on the side and my dad just said, "Hey, you should pick one and do it really good."

Mhm. So, was that was that after you'd gone to Nashville, you kind of Yeah. Or you weren't rodeoing at all what by the time you went to Nashville? No, I was still rodeoing in Nashville, yeah.

okay. Not a lot, but And so, is that a moment that like it kind of got your attention more where Yeah, I just I just thought, like, when I was in Nashville and being in Toby's camp and stuff and seeing you know, it's as you know, it's a super crazy game, the music business. Like, if you're the best rock writer, you win the most. If you're the best artist or work the hardest, you're supposed to be it's like any other job, you should succeed more than other guys that aren't trying harder, but the music business is different than that.

It's whoever gets the luckiest or knows somebody. I mean, you still have to be good, but well, maybe you don't have to be good, but Yeah, it's so definitely weird, but that I mean, that's part of the magic of it is that it's just opinions. Right. And that's what we what we've just done our own thing.

But yeah, the choice between riding broncs professionally further and uh music was hard. Like I still miss the thought of getting on. Like if God could guarantee me I wouldn't get hurt I'd go get on one today. Sure.

Like if I had a pass that you will not get injured at all, I'd go get on five today. But you know, you haven't been doing it, you're out of shape, you could break your neck and it could change your life. Yeah, even if you are in shape and been riding and I mean, [expletive] happens. Yeah, let's just you know, the rodeo thing's crazy.

I've watched it over years and everybody knows this, but like those kids, those bronc riders, bareback riders, and bull riders that are 21, 20, are hungry and like they have no fear. You know, once you get a little in your 30s, you maybe broke your leg or your arm or something. You hesitate a hair. And that's the difference between those guys these young kids are being 90, 91 every weekend.

If you're 35 and you've broke your arm before, there's a moment in that ride where you hesitate. Cuz like and that's the difference between being 90 and 85. Sometimes. You say in the moment you can't be thinking at all.

Those young guys are so hungry for it. And the caliber of horses and bronc riders and bareback riders has come up so much since I rode. Like it's unbelievable. Those bronc riders like the bronc riding's the top 40 could go to the NFR.

And if you watch the standings, it changes every week. So somebody that was 20 last week is now 10 this week, but that guy goes from 10 this week, next week he's back at 20. So, if you're not drawing the right ones at the weekends toward the end of the year here, and you're not 90, you ain't winning any money. It's crazy.

But, How do you How do you think the horses have changed? Like I've heard the interviews from them old-timers, you know, there were there were these type broncs back when I was riding and even before I was riding, there just wasn't as many of them. So, like there's more horses that are, you know, 23-point horses now than there ever was. Like back in the day, say like the Billy Etbauer era and stuff, there were these type horses, but there was only a few around.

So, if you drew them, you were going to win. But, now it's getting where there's a whole pen full of 22-23 for point horses that And cuz like I said, all those guys are riding as good as each other, whether it's like, you know, Zeke Thurston or Brody Wells or the Hay boys, all those guys are capable of being 91 or 90 every weekend. It's just who draws the black tie or whatever horse is the one there, you know, so, yeah, I guess I don't think it's really And I would say the bronc riding there's the style and the way those these young guys rode has evolved. You know, I can't put my thumb on it cuz I'm not really in the rodeo scene anymore, but they've gotten better.

You know, and it's probably back to like if you watch or listen to those podcasts of Casey Field and stuff, the way they are starting these bronc riders and bareback riders when they're young. Like we were getting on [expletive] You know, like anything that people the neighboring ranchers had that buck, we would get on and it doesn't teach you any good habits. But, nowadays these kids Well, yeah, you still don't to expect. Well, and the Wright boys are good example of that, too.

You know, Cody started those kids getting on the right horses young. Like so you learn all good habits along the way. And those guys are obviously some of the best ever. I'm not saying that would have changed how I rode.

But like we were we didn't know anything. We were getting on What and your but did your dad ride broncs? Yeah, dad rode broncs and barebacks and you know, dad won Cheyenne 1971 the rookie bronc riding. He won the high school national finals or second in the high school national finals in San Antonio in 1969.

So like dad rode rodeo hard but um Well, then what was his So his dad So my grandpa Charlie's name was Wildhorse Charlie. His name was Charlie Williams but they the Crow Indians from Montana named him Wildhorse Charlie cuz they used to bring him horses to break. So my granddad and my dad and Uncle Don and their sisters, you know, were poor. Everybody was poor, right?

But so they were just horse breakers day workers, you know, my grandpa Charlie just worked for folks. You know, and so did dad and Don but uh yeah, they called him Wildhorse Charlie. The Crow Indians named him that cuz they claimed there wasn't a horse that could buck him off. They would bring him horses down from Montana to break.

So that's yeah, it's cool. I got a song called Wildhorse Charlie. I've never put out yet but I will Why haven't you put it out? I don't know.

It's just the way putting music out is. I don't know. Oh, you just haven't like gotten around to it. it out at one point.

I just haven't hasn't been in the lineup recently. Yeah. What did So what did he actually do for a living? Grandpa Charlie was just a day worker.

He was. Okay. Like Starting colts and day working and Yep. Herded sheep for people.

Yeah. But dad always said he never really wanted to, you work for the oil field or none of that. He's like, "I ain't doing that." So, pretty much poor, like Yeah, you know, well, not and they were poor.

Dad talks about it like I mean, you know, everybody's families were poor, but like Dad says he remembers when he was a kid, he had one pair of pants. So, like uh if they had to go somewhere decent, my grandma, we called Gram, would like wash hand wash them and then dry them in the oven. Like, that's how He's like, "I just had one pair of pants, and if we went somewhere, Mom would like wash them in the bucket and dry them in the oven." Wow.

Like, okay, that's pretty poor. Was it Was that still What part of Wyoming would that northeast corner of Wyoming, Moorcroft. Yeah. So, my grandpa Charlie had 13 brothers and sisters, and they homesteaded Their dad homesteaded in Wilsall, Montana, which is in the valley there where Livingston's at.

And somewhere along the years, they decided all of them moved down to Devil's Tower. They had a homestead down there, kind of a post at the base of Devil's Tower. And then, I don't know why they left like that Livingston Valley's great. So, originally, the Williamses are from Montana.

And then, everybody moved to Devil's Tower, and then everybody moved back to Wilsall but my grandpa. So, he stayed in Moorcroft. So, that's where our family came from. Okay.

Yeah. And then, so your dad, though, started What was some of the first work that he did? So, Dad was a ranch hand for ranchers. He worked for a guy named Bob Winandy, north of Moorcroft, 60 mi.

I mean, it's the middle of nowhere, 60 mi from any town. And was just a cowboy. He worked out of high school for the Kindred Cattle Company out of Sheridan. If you've ever heard of the Kindreds, they had a huge ranch up there in Sheridan.

Dad worked for them in high school, and then Dad college rodeod a little bit, and then came and worked for Win Andy's. Worked there 8 years. Him and my mom got married. And like the house they lived in up at Win Andy's didn't have a uh bathroom.

They just had an outhouse. I mean This ain't that long ago. This I think they got married in 1972. no kidding.

Yeah, mom was like Okay, I guess I'll go out and be your wife on this ranch, but So then dad worked there 8 years, then he quit and then moved to Moorcroft and worked for a family called the Robinsons. And uh I was born there and lived there till I was four. Quit them, and then had the opportunity to buy 23 acres just down the river where we live now. And uh it's pretty cool success story of my folks like Dad was just a ranch hand.

Mom got her teaching degree, so was starting to teach kindergartens in town in Moorcroft. And then Dad was just sick of working for somebody. You know, he was a ranch hand. He wanted his own place.

He finally got this 23 acres where we live now and was like, well, I'll just work for the oil field or something to make it work. I just don't want to be a ranch hand anymore. Or I got to have something of my own. Yeah.

And then the ranch that borders that 23 acres around the lake came up for sale and he was able to buy it. You know, it took him a long time to buy it most of my life, you know, growing up. They paid on it, but he made it work. I always tell folks my parents made it ranching with only ranching.

You know, most ranches are either inherited oil, coal, gas where we're from. I mean, there's some sort of extra income that makes ranching work. We have none of that. Like we had Dad just ranching.

All the income we had was ranching and mom's uh school check being teacher. So they did it really the hard way. And then Dad ended up buying two ranches that way. Yeah.

Uh is was it always sheep? Yeah, sheep and cows both but mostly sheep, you know. Yeah. Dad would had ran partners on the sheep deal with the guy named Sam Stenson that moved to Miles City.

He sold his share out to Dad and which is the reason we got to lease that ranch that we had and then ended up buying it. Oh, yeah. It's pretty crazy. I had never gotten to really see the uh the sheep deal.

Yeah, when you came out we did the Yeah. That was I just really had never been around that. We don't really have that down here. Well, and then even just the vastness of uh cuz I don't I don't have like a ton of connections with a lot of like the big West Texas ranches and stuff.

And so a lot of the stuff like here like down I-35 and stuff is a lot is just like smaller, you know. So even just going out there and seeing I just the vastness of the the thing. Some of these Texas ranches, you know, I don't know huge history about them but they're huge, right? And it's Yeah, there's like a small few of them.

Yeah. Yeah. I looked up the other day we played in Dalhart one time and they had that XIT Ranch back in the olden days. It was 3 million acres.

Yeah, it's crazy. It's just it's So it's hard to like wrap your mind around it cuz there's a ranch for sale in Wyoming right now, the Pathfinder Ranch. And it's 915,000 acres. How big is that?

Mhm. I can't even put my mind around it. So I looked it up, it's bigger than Rhode Island. So if you think the XIT in Dalhart, it's three times that.

It's three Rhode Islands up there. Unbelievable. Yeah, it is crazy. Yeah, especially What did they say XIT was 30 miles wide by 200 miles long is how much they had?

Yeah, I don't know Granted, it gets pretty it gets cold up there, too, but I don't think it gets cold like where you're at. That's uh That's one of the saving graces of Wyoming, you know, with everybody moving out west, is we have the cold. And like Montana is getting a lot of people moving in. And Montana and Wyoming are super similar, you know.

Eastern Wyoming and Eastern Montana are the same and Western Montana and Western Wyoming are the same. Mountains, plains. But Montana gets the cold, but it doesn't quite get the wind and the hard cold like we do. I know that is weird.

I wonder why that is. I don't know. The Wyoming wind is hardcore. So, you know, if it's 20°, if it's 0°, it's 20 below or 30 below with the wind.

That's how your song goes, isn't it? Wyoming wind is pretty hardcore. We don't mind it cuz if you grew up in it, it's like you guys down here in the heat. If you guys can take it.

Like so it's hot today. It's insane. But we the winters up there keep the tourists out. You know, and it keeps people from moving in.

You know, if you Well, hey. We were just talking about the South Dakota thing. Like you guys just played like a week ago there. And we were there like I don't know, maybe a month ago.

And it was 140°. Yeah. And you said it was insanely hot and humid when you all played there. in Yankton a few days ago, South Dakota, and it was the hottest I've been all summer.

Dude, it was hotter than Denton, Texas. So, this idea that like if you're up there, it's like but the summers are so nice. Granted, that was pretty out of the ordinary, right? Yeah, and if you get East River in South Dakota, it's more farmland and stuff.

And I think that's why it's the humidity's there. And you know the Missouri River, but So, you get the winters and you get Well, 100° summer. West River, South Dakota, you know, and all of Wyoming and Montana doesn't get the humid. So, it's not that bad.

But Wy- like I said, Wyoming's got the wind. Mhm. Which we don't mind. Like I said, if somebody comes out in July that wants to move out there, they love it.

They just, you know, Wait till February. I'm so curious. You and I have talked about this a few times Uh and I just there's definitely different like styles and just general vibes of Cowboys in Texas I think just cuz it's such a big place. Like even if you go to East Texas Southeast Texas is so different than the Panhandle and then West Texas Cowboys are still a little bit different than the Panhandle.

Um Just even the way just their kind of general personalities and stuff change pretty dramatically but what I've always loved about Wyoming and I haven't spent as much time in Montana as Wyoming but what I've like always appreciated the most about it is like why you and I hit it off so quick is it's like you guys just don't have as much of this it's probably ego and you guys don't take yourselves quite as serious even though you're doing the same work. Yeah. And but there's just not like this I can't quite put my finger on it cuz I go back and forth so often. I always love teasing my Texas friends cuz like Texas is huge so anytime I wear a cowboy hat somewhere in the United States someone's like you're from Texas and ain't no Cowboys in Texas.

Yeah. That's me teasing my Texas friends and I don't mean that cuz there's some of the greatest hands ever but I don't know I just think it's the without pissing anybody off I guess the Cowboys of Wyoming just we know what we are. We know we're as good as we are or not as good as we are. We're not trying to put on a front to anybody and sometimes when we're traveling places Texas and other places included it's almost like they're trying to prove to you how much of a cowboy they are and like we don't we don't really care.

Like we're not it's not like a rating system of how good of a cowboy you're like There's people in Wyoming that brand different than we do a county away. Not that their way is different or better than ours or ours is better than theirs. We just do it this way. They do it that way and it's like not really judgy.

But I feel like I wonder if it's just as simple as like there's been such heavy branding on like For sure. the state of Texas The cowboy hat thing it's like they have got to live up to it. We're Well, and ironically it's always it's a lot of people that actually kind of aren't really actually that cowboy themselves. are the ones that do it.

Yeah. The real cowboys you never hear from. They don't say it ever. They're not typically it's so funny like the defenders of cowboys end up being people who aren't like really cowboy.

And I've always like been confused where I'm like I appreciate Yeah. you like waving the flag and being like no. That's not cowboy. I know.

But like you I don't think you know. You aren't one so how do you actually know? everything, you know. The best football player is not telling everybody how good he is.

He's just quiet. And like so the You'll know the real cowboys when you see them. They don't say much. They're not judging other people and you know with social media that you know the bigger it's gotten the western world they everybody eats themselves alive.

Somebody will post a video of say it's us of us breaking a cold war craft or something that you'll have 75% of the comments like well, that's not how my granddad did it. I don't we don't do that in Texas and we don't do that in Arkansas that way like we don't care. It but like the western world need we need to get on the same page. We're all in this together.

Like everything for the western way of life is good whether you brand this way in Texas and we do it this way in Wyoming. All these comments back and forth you're like, "Oh, that's not how we do it. That's not how we do it." Who It should be more flattering, too.

Like the idea of somebody wanting to just Like a girl just want loving all the outfits and being able to get dolled up like that. And then there's girls that are like, "Ah, she just you know, she just fringes out or like Western influencers ruining the way of life." And I'm like, "Good heavens." I'm like, "Look at her out Like take it for what it is.

That outfit's like a piece of artwork." Right. That thing is like worth like a lot of money. There's a lot of people that built it and made it.

see it from the Western world uh we see it also like I'm sure maybe this happens in other worlds, too, where people are Hey, no. Look, it happened in hip-hop. Did it? Well, for sure.

Like the idea of being authentic and genuine, really from the streets. Like you're actually rapping about where you came from. Right. And then it got to such popularity and like everybody wanted to be like what whatever.

I mean, I'm I sound like an idiot. Gangster rapper type of I mean, I don't really know much about that world. Right. But you would hear like the arguments about like, "Well, he ain't real.

Like he ain't really from the streets." Right. Like they had it because it gets to such a level of popularity. And then you get I mean, there's a little bit of truth about like keeping some like real authenticity to it because it does get so popular and then it gets so watered down where like, "Okay, now everybody's a gangster from the streets."

Like, "No, you're not." I know. You're from Grapevine, Texas, you know. Well, yeah.

And we've seen that in country music, you know. Yellowstone hit. Uh Big Sky hit and cowboys are on TV a lot. Now everybody is you know, wearing a cowboy hat.

I know. And like I don't care about that. I think if everybody wants to wear a hat and boots, I think it's great. What I don't like is when people are like overly trying to compensate their legitimacy of their cowboy upbringing by like telling you about it all the time.

Like for years in music I didn't I never told people like in interviews I wouldn't bring up my bronc riding career cuz like cuz my friends and my colleagues are still going to the NFR. I can't be like oh I was this big old bronc rider shoot I rode awesome. And I have to look my friends in the eye that have been to the NFR three to 10 times like Hey Williams why don't you tell us about your bronc riding career? You know Yeah.

To me it's You have like real friends that would make fun of you. Yeah. Yeah. Well cuz I'm friends with real cowboys.

Yeah. Like I don't want to get too cocky in interviews and be like yeah I was this big old bronc rider and I was I had a great career. I was happy with my career. Made the college finals a couple times.

You know. Rode like [expletive] there. But that was about the extent of it. But like some you know artists get this platform that they get branded as maybe a cowboy or something and really lean into it and like I don't know man.

Just be you. Like you don't have to tell everybody how great you were or and back it up just if you be you like the truth comes out. a lot of talking at that point. And to me like I love just finding out cool things about people.

Like if you're just telling people a bunch of cool things about yourself it's And maybe that's what music is. Maybe guys like you and I should not be in this industry. Like maybe fabricate not fabricate but like embellish more stories like I don't know I feel like I like to be humble about my rodeo career just cuz like I said I don't want to look you know Zeke and Chad Johnson and all my friends that are still riding broncs in the eye and be like they'll be like I seen this interview here. Talking about how awesome you were.

We rodeod with you. Yeah it's accountability. Or 62 a whole bunch. Yep.

Yeah. So You know. just burning it. I just like to be like I did it.

Here was Here's the amount of work I did in rodeo and now I'm a singer, you know. That's what it's what it should be. Yeah, I mean you know, and we go home and ranch in Moorcroft and we still do things cowboy way, horses, and we have sheep and cows and we ranch that way, but it's not like all the time. Yeah, every time we've been in Nashville together, we usually just stand in the corner and we just have our little hats on and try not to fight people they're like, "Are you guys real cowboys?"

Oh, dude, it's non-stop. Oh, I don't even I can't even I've My new answer has been uh They're like, "Are you a real cowboy?" I say uh "Less than most and more than some." There you go.

I like that. That's my new That's my new phrase. Cuz it's like, what level are we talking about here? Right.

I'm from Decatur, Texas. So, it's like in terms of rodeo cowboys, like I can swing a rope and like drink a beer and like Right. ride a horse halfway decent and like I could I could go like catch some steers, you know? Like But I'm going to be dragging my rope around like most of the day.

And Yeah, that's like me. Like And like cuz in this area, like I mean it's just world champions and Like so, if somebody's like, "Do you rope?" and I'm like, "Uh no. No.

No." Right. No. Like I consider myself a decent hand, but like a lot of my friends in northeast Wyoming are cowboys.

Yeah, but see I've never See like and then I've never had the opportunity to like all the same, you know? I can do certain things and they can do certain things, you know? It is what it is." But I'm like There's Like I said, there's no rating system.

Like, "What do you rate on your cowboy scale?" Well, and like what are we actually talking about? Cuz like I like haven't really had the opportunity to like really go cowboy. Right.

And there I mean there's a ton of dudes that I know that rodeo and are like badass, but like they don't freaking That's the thing. It's again the Western world eating each other from the inside. It's like you know. Can I rope like Trevor Brazil?

Absolutely not. No. Yeah, no. You can't.

He's the best ever. But can I can I ranch cowboy better than X bull rider or bareback rider over here? I don't know. I've never seen him ranch.

And those are two different types of cowboys. Yeah. And does that really even matter? Yeah, I know it is.

You know, like Cuz there's a part of me, too, though, that when somebody is like bumping their gums and isn't really being authentic to who they are, it bugs It does bug me a little bit. Those are the ones that bug me cuz you know that immediately when they're telling you how much of a cowboy they are they're already not, in my opinion. Oh, yo, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like all those guys in the PRCA that I'm friends with not one of them's ever telling everybody how good they are.

You know. And those ranch hands that are out here on the plains of Texas or the plains of Wyoming aren't telling you how awesome they are. It's the guy that you see at the bar that's telling you how good of a cowboy he is. Like that guy's not.

Well, see, there could also be I've been around some dudes that are about as cowboy as they come, and which is a phrase that also I don't know if I'm totally comfortable with. Uh and I just I just I that. How else would I say that? They're as cowboy as anybody.

As it gets. As cowboy as it gets. Yeah, that's a What did you say the first time? I don't think I want to repeat it.

But I'd appreciate you putting that on a shirt. As cowboy as they come, Jared Morris. We could work with the spelling on some of them words. Well, I mean, you would know.

You are from Wyoming, you know, so You mean the cowboy state? Well, no, I was actually thinking the Brokeback state, but No, they filmed that up over the ridge in Montana. No, they didn't. Yeah.

I thought they was a Wyoming deal. I would have to look into that. Yeah, well, don't Google image it. I'll never look that up.

Yeah. I mean, we're the cowboy state, the Lone Star state. So, what was I What I was going to say is uh I know some guys that are as cowboy as it gets. And they're douchebags still.

Like they'll sit there and talk like all the time. You know what I mean? So, it's like there is like a line of just like are you a douche or not? Right.

That's what it boils down to here. Are you a douche? A little bit. I mean, It's probably in every industry.

100% man. And I think there's just cool, man. Yeah, just chill. Like chill out, dude.

We'll figure it out. Like if you know Yeah. We will figure it out. But yeah, every time we've been in Nashville, almost every time I've been in Nashville, I've gotten into It's funny I've watched Nashville evolve.

So, when I was working for Toby down there, like I'm a sheep herder from Worland, Wyoming, and I went to Nashville, it was the biggest town I'd ever really lived in other than I mean, Laramie. It's not a big town. So, I always you know, I wore my hat everywhere, kind of like I would if I would Like I don't like wearing my hat out in Laramie, but if I go to the bar or something, there's an event going on, I wear my hat. So, nights in Nashville when I first moved there, I'd just always wear my hat.

Maybe I'd meet another cowboy. It was like the only hat in town. And I mean, all the time people would ask me about like, "Where'd you get that hat? Nice hat.

Where'd you get that?" I don't know. It's what I wore growing up. It's kind of how I dress.

And you know, over the years it's evolved. Yellowstone hit, now we go there, and it's just hatville. Which again, cool. You know, it's a putting eyes on the cowboys and the western way of life.

I think that's good. It's just a lot, like And you've seen it like I have that's evolved in a in country music, you know, and I remember, you know, we're putting cowboy music out fighting against the bro country. These guys are as bro as it gets, you know, I mean, the skinny jeans, all the things, which to each their own, those guys made a lot of money doing that, but even like some of those bro guys now are wearing cowboy hats. You're like, that's where it starts to bug me.

You're like, what? Cuz it cuz it does like I which is I think what makes the cowboy thing like people feel so strongly about it. Right. If somebody was representing to be a bro country snapback hat guy, Right.

there's no depth to it. So, nobody gets mad. Nobody calls out somebody being in off Like you never heard somebody going like, "You're not real bro country. That's not the way we wear snapback around here."

I mean, maybe those people exist, which is just that's a totally other You forgot to take your sticker off. You can leave it on, I mean. I'll leave it on. Yeah.

You leave it on or off? I'm confused. think it's just in this world there's such depth and such roots to it. Right.

And it's so like woven into the fabric of like American culture that like people really So, it's a double-edged sword like And that's where I'm I like people that dig in. So, like Post Malone's a good example of it. People ask me all the time like, "What do you think about Post being in music?" I like, "I think it's great."

Post didn't just come out and start making country music just to sell a some CDs or sell some streams, but like if you look earlier on, he was doing stuff with Vince Gill and Brad Paisley before he was this Post Malone now, but I was just in Fort Worth. I said Post came in and wanted a pair of boots, like a real pair of boots at Finoglio's, and so Post has really taken on this he respects and wants to learn about the cowboy way of life and the western way of life. So, people like that I like. I don't like the guy that just because it's trendy bought a hat and wear it just to maybe fit in with what's happening on country radio.

you know what It's not even like it really bugs me. I almost kind of feel bad for them. Yeah, cuz there's like there's a part even if it's a you know, you go out somewhere and it I go to the stockyards now and it's starting to look like Nashville. Like stockyards in Fort Worth.

Right. And like every girl is wearing the same white boots. Like and it would be the same. a pair of those?

It would be the well, too, but it's a kind of different. Yeah. Well, one's a little bit paler, different color. Yeah.

Uh so there's like it's to be the same way as like I've always thought it was goofy like frat guys like all dressing the exact same. I But you could even say I mean, shoot. Like you could go to a rodeo and like all of us kind of look the same, you know. We do.

I'm going to be in a Canadian tuxedo. So, I guess in any walk of life. Huh? What are you talking about?

But I guess the difference would be like are you going to Oh, I didn't even notice you. Are you also got the tennis runners on? I did that for you. That's strong.

That's a strong move. The tennis shoes with the starched jeans, that's your look. Well, you got to watch out for that cuz that's going to bring some hate. You wear white socks, too.

to bring some hate. Little toe point into the camera. They can't handle that. A cowboy toe point?

Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. See, you got to be tough, dude. You got to be cowboy.

You got to be Don't be uncool. You can be uncool, man. You got to be tough all the time. But I can't I can't do the white boots, dude.

I just I don't know. It's tough cuz like every people just doing I guess I feel bad for people that never make a decision their entire life of whether or not they like something for themselves. You know, cuz they're like most people are so worried about like just fitting in. Yeah.

what where they're at. And I There's actually like a lot of people that I get along with really well that I don't have really anything in common with them. Like we don't even have a lot of the same beliefs, but there's a sense of just authenticity and genuineness that they have that they're like they're just being themselves that I can like really appreciate. For sure.

Even if I have got friends in Nashville that aren't cowboys at all or want to be. And like we're closer than some of these friends that are trying to be cowboys. Exactly. I'd rather go hang out with these dudes that are just bros that like hanging out with us.

Yeah. And like me for me and I don't know it's it goes back to just the being authentic. I think I think fans and uh people today because of all the social media presence, everybody's on the internet all the time. And people have gotten really keen at seeing through what's fake and what's not.

You see it a mile away. I can be on TikTok and like well, that was set up. And you know, like even these like accidents that happen like they set that up. Yeah.

So people can tell if you're real or not. I think the fans if you're not real, it might work for a second, it might work for a couple years. Like oh my god, this so-and-so is just like this and this and this. The longer your story's out there the longer you have to keep backing it up and if it does the math doesn't add you're like wait this is this is not great stuff.

Yeah. Cream rises to the top. For sure. I've told my band that forever, you know, we've been doing music a long time, but you know, it's also taken us a long time to learn to play music.

Not to play, but to learn the business and how to you know, there's no music scene in Wyoming. Like Texas we learned a lot of stuff we do from all these Texas guys. Fortunately, you know, like Casey Donahew, Aaron Watson, Stony, Abbott, all those guys and when we were starting we would open for it like Grizzly Rose and we didn't know [expletive] from Shinola. We were up there opening for these guys playing 90 minutes of covers and we didn't know how to put on a show cuz we had nothing to compare ourselves to when we started the band.

We were just like I didn't know anything. I was a rodeo cowboy that kind of learned to play guitar. Started a band like, "Where do you plug this in? What is this for?"

So, I mean, we've had to learn everything literally from the bottom up and never had we never had the opportunity to go out to Austin or these places in Texas that or Fort Worth that have a music scene and watch other young bands like, "Oh, that's cool." Yeah, or like got that gear? What's that for?" competitions like in every city like every week, you know.

Like Wyoming's the least populated state. So, we didn't know anything. We didn't know what we were doing. So, that's what's taken us a while, but uh I've told the band that for years, you know, every time we've had a lot of great moments in our career, but you'll see some TikTok star now blow up.

You know, it's you know, as an artist everybody's like, "I don't care." It frustrates you a little bit, but there's nothing you can do in my opinion as an artist that's out of your hands. You got to put blinders on and what we do is what we do. That doesn't affect how anybody else does anything else.

The only thing that affects us is what we do, but I always tell my band like, "Hey, the cream rises to the top." You know, if we continue to do what we're doing put out good music not everybody's going to like it, but the ones that do will like it and that's good. So, I you know, but at the end of the day I want when the dust settles I want to tell people that I did it the honest way. I didn't I didn't lie to one fan.

I didn't fabricate some story to tell my fans to make me a little bit bigger. I'll sleep better when I'm dead knowing that like, well, we only got to here, but I did it the honest way. You know, but or it blows up and we still did it the honest way. It would suck to wake up every morning and look in the mirror and be like, "Oof, I got to put this image on and go tell these fans, here's who I am.

This is what I came from. This is my upbringing." Like, and if it's all a lie, oof, that'd be a little hard to stomach every day. really do I really do have a hard time understanding like what the point of that is.

Just to be famous? Yeah. Just to make money? I don't know.

And maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe we should Well, yeah, you were talking about embellishing the stories more. Like, I've started to notice more now that I do like more I ta- have to talk about myself more. When I listen interviews from other artists, I'll hear them describe like how a song was written or like some of these are just different little stories here and there and I'm like, like I one hit me the other day.

It was Bon I was watching Bon Jovi. And John Bon Jovi? And John Bon Jovi. Oh, okay.

Cool. Yeah. Why I call him John? Yeah.

Uh he was on Howard Stern and he was asking him like how some song was written and he had like this very definitive like I was on this beach on this day and like the sun was setting here and like my wife came over here and then I saw her and then like I played this chord and it like made and I it was like this elaborate you wonder, right? remembering and like I don't remember I man, there's like maybe one or two that I remember like right where I was when I like maybe got an idea or something, but like I don't know those types of details. And so he's selling it. Make no mistake, it was it was it was TV worthy.

It's all like social obviously as we know social media has changed the music business, but it's all these things to embellish, like Okay, but that come out, like, so-and-so-and-so's son, and then it like gets all this trendy stuff, you know, it's obviously not true, but somewhere somebody in some label group is like, "Hey, we should put out this rumor that Jared and Chance are brothers from Well, other mothers. other than other I don't know. The thing things like that get traction, and I assume the artist most of the time doesn't have anything to do with that, but these the viral things happen. So, that's kind of embellishing stories, right?

Just It's lying. Just to get your face out there in front of more faces. It's a lie. It's a lie.

Like, telling a story that's not true Right. is a lie. That's they call that a lie. So, I have a hard time with that part of the industry, because there's stuff I sniff out that I'm And then I have to I have to use words like, "Be authentic."

When really all I'm saying is like, "Dude, just don't lie about who you are and where you're Well, then that goes back to facing people after you do these interviews and podcasts and you've said a big lie and then having to go face these people. Like, if I lie about how my family started ranching and my rodeo career and all this stuff, go home to see my brothers next week and my parents will be like, Yeah, good luck. "Seeing your podcast, a little embellished." I'm like, "Oh."

I have to do it for to make myself big, you know. F that. Where do you think you got that from? I don't know, man.

I just like integrity? I think having awesome friends growing up that bully you and call your call your [expletive] out when it's not right, you know. If you're, you know, that's goes back to every kid should go to college. Cuz that, you know, first year of college you're trying to be all cocky and stuff and saying things ain't true.

You got your buddy over there and be "He's full of [expletive] That's not right." And you're like, "Okay. Yeah. I don't know."

Yeah, having roots and accountability, I think is important with developing character. My biggest one is my rodeo one, man. Like, I loved riding broncs, and I was decent, you know. High school finals, college finals, cool.

I'm proud of that myself, but like I have a [expletive] load of friends that are really, really, really good bronc riders. And they'll watch things like this. And I don't like Hey, hey, hey, bro. Hey, fortunately for you, nobody watches this.

See, that's what bullying friends do. Well, see, it's actually hilarious that we're using the word bully and friends in the same cuz in today's day and age, you would never consider your friend being a bully. But like Well, you have you seen the trend where it's like bring bullying back or whatever? my roommate Rob have been saying that for years.

We're like, "Dude, bullying's what made me what I am." Well, have you seen the ones now? It's like the counter to it where it's like I'm just All right, I already failed at not giggling at it. Cuz I'm I empathize with it cuz I've bullied pe- I got bullied, I guess.

And then I bullied other people, but there was like in different in I guess intent matters. And the And so but anyways, my point was like I see these like counter ones now that are like "Bring bullying back." And it's like, "Yeah, tell that to my 12-year-old self who was stuffed in a locker naked with wrapped in fruit roll-ups or whatever you know, whatever it is." And I'm like, "Good heavens."

You know, it's like something really heavy. Right. And I'm like, "I don't really think that's not when we're saying like bullying, that's not what I'm talking about. Like picking on the handicapped kid is not what I'm talking about."

Right. I'm going to beat that dude's ass. For the record, we're not saying we should go bully kids, but it's teasing your friends. Yeah, just like holding up holding people accountable.

Like you can't just And like even nowadays where it's like everybody's got some condition. Like everyone thinks they're autistic. Like that's just turned out to be just like a phase. to gluten or something like It's like, dude, come on.

Agreed. If you are autistic or gluten allergenic, whatever. Or both. Or both.

That'd be really bad. I'm telling you what made me who I am is older friends that I was hanging out with. My you know, I rodeos with my brother and his friend Tony and Daryl and Woolsey, these guys that were older than me and I was you know, I could tend to be a little cocky when I was younger and uh they put me in my place Yeah. bullying me.

I mean Teasing, bullying but like it made me you know, I was 17 going to rodeos with these guys that were like, you know, 24, 23. Yeah, so you got it. Yeah, but And I was you know, I was a little cocky when I was younger, you know, I won state twice in wrestling. So I was like a scrawny tall guy.

I was like I got a little cocky after high school. Well, and also if you were chirping and somebody came after you like you could defend yourself, too. Yeah, but like it took Daryl and those guys that were older to be like, hey, be cool, man. Yeah.

And I was like, yeah, be cool. I feel like that's just part of growing up. You can't just like bump your gums and not expect But bull like bull like true bullying, that's not that's not cool. no.

No. Just to be mean to somebody for doing it in like a mean way for sure. That sucks. Don't do that but like if you're doing it to help your friend out, be like, bro, you have BO bad today.

Actually, that's very nice. Right, but like nice thing to do. If you don't have those type of friends, if you never leave your hometown and that goes back to like every kid should go to college so you meet friends that are just kind of blunt with you like, dude, you look like [expletive] you smell like [expletive] You're going to try to get any chicks, you got to do this, this and this. And I'm like, "Oh, really?"

So, Dude, or just watching your buddy fail like he just totally bombs like going and hitting on a girl at the bar. Like and you make fun of him. I mean, I'm sorry. That's just part of that's part of it.

That's part of it. And it's growing thicker skin. I There's a huge element of it that if you find want to find a way to like have your feelings hurt, you're going to find it. Or if you can use it as a little bit of fuel.

I don't even know if I've I'm sure I've told this story on here multiple times, but when I first started playing like I had some pretty ruthless cousins and uh some family members. And uh they would goad me into playing like at family reunions. Oh, yeah. And just I come on, play you [expletive] you know, like the whole thing.

I mean, like it was, you know, and uh I'd play. Oh, 100% dude. Those were they were low booze, though. Oh, were they?

They for sure they were mean booze. Not just playful. And they'd stop me like in the middle of playing it and be like, "You suck." You know, they're like, "Don't ever do that again."

But they like get me to do it and it I mean, sure it made created a little elements of stage fright, but the second I had like had something I'm like, "I think this is pretty good." Yeah. And then I play it for them and they don't stop me. Yeah.

And they're like, "All right." It's just random. Kind of begrudgingly like they're like, "That's pretty good." It dude, it made me better.

I literally that reminds me of the story literally called one of our good friends. We were like sound checking somewhere and we tried out new song cover song at some point and they come and say, "Dude, don't ever play that again." Okay. But you need that honesty.

Dude, what's the meaner the meaner thing to do is Like let me play it in front of a crowd. Yeah, go play in front of a crowd. I remember him coming back and say, "Don't ever play that one again." So, is that bullying?

No, that helped me. Exactly. Like, "Okay, you can't really pull that one off. Thank you.

Maybe it was you think it was just the delivery? They're like, "No, no." No, no, like the whole thing. Like the whole thing was All of it was bad.

Like every bit of that was bad. Dude, we had a lot of those moments. Like we I think I still I will I still do. Well, we just like I said we grew up not knowing anything.

We started this band. And progressed and you know, different members over the years and not knowing how to put a show together. How do you play 90 90 minutes. Of our own stuff?

Like they don't know any of our stuff. How do I how do I make that interesting? Yeah. Write good songs.

Oh, wait, what? So now I can just magically write good songs, okay. This seems hard. It is.

But all those things uh you learn, I guess. Hindsight, I wouldn't have traded it for anything, you know, we've like my band right now is the best band I've ever had, like band and crew, everybody's like it feels pro finally. If somebody would have told me 5 years ago, "Hey, we want to give you a record deal. Think you're ready."

Looking back now, I'm like, the F we were ready. We were not ready. Even 2 years ago, 3 years ago, I don't think we were ready. Well, I feel like and I might say this again in 5 years, like we weren't ready with that podcast with Jared, but I feel like my band our team management, booking agent, like everything's in place that hey, put us up with anybody.

Like I wouldn't be embarrassed to play in front of anybody. Yeah, y'all rip, dude. Well, I just we've learned things, you know, like the right covers to do. If you put covers in your set, you know, like we Well, and a lot of people don't fully understand like touring nationally, being able to put together an act in a set that like is going to be able to translate.

Cuz you can get real niche with certain areas and they We can play at Cheyenne Frontier Days and they know all of our stuff. Yeah. We can also play at, you know, Missouri State Fair and they don't know they've never heard of us. Yeah.

So, you know, we've never had a viral hit or a radio hit or anything, you know, we have a good following of uh you know, good amount of people, but you get in front of a crowd with, you know, 10,000 people that's out of our market that's, you know, in the east, deep into the east side of the United States. That's where you got to kind of adjust your set a little bit like, you know, maybe we should throw a couple covers in here tonight like they don't know Fastest Gun in Town and Cowboys and all this stuff. And they don't also come from a part of the world like as people know, most of my songs are super cowboy focused. Not really farmer focused.

Little bit rancher, but mostly just cowboy stuff. So, if you get east of the Mississippi, you know, they don't really understand our culture as they do in Texas or New Mexico or Montana or Wyoming. So, those guys, if they've never heard us, they'll still understand my lyrics. But, if you get east of the river, they don't know what Fastest Gun in Town means or, you know, some of these rodeo cold beer.

There's like, "I don't know." Yeah, they're not on the scale with which Right, for sure. They understand it here, yeah. So, You have pockets, but Yeah, so, you know, we've learned things over the years of how to, you know, when a show matters in our backyard like Cheyenne or something, let's give them everything of ours.

Cuz that's what they came for. We have I have seven albums out. Um we get other markets where they don't know us, let's throw a couple covers in that, you know, that we feel like we do good. Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah. Dude, that's crazy, too, that you freaking got to work with Toby. Yeah. That's so insane.

That was a super cool experience. So, that How long we got? Huh? Can I tell the story?

Yeah, you can do whatever you want. You want to get me out of here? All right. Action.

Action. It's action time. I know that I'm the big time movie star now. Well, you got your name on it.

Yeah. Yeah, thanks for signing it, right? Yeah, that's a post that's a What are these called? Does anybody know what these are called?

I'm a big time actor and don't even know it. It's a post P, Chancey W. Yeah, I don't know what they're called. J- Jared Morris Vibe Podcast JMMVP.

J'aime pas. P All right, so what was what was the You were about to tell me about freaking this about hanging with Toby and working for working for Toby? That was a super awesome experience. So, the story is kind of long cuz how it starts, but it goes back to me being in college.

So, I went to grad school and when I got my master's I had to do an internship in my master's degree is in public administration, which typically entails like going to work for a non-profit or going to work for a senator going to DC or something. I had just had enough of college and political science and I was like, "Ah, I don't want to do that." So, my department head at the University of Wyoming said, "What do you want to do?" I was like, "You know, I have kind of want to pursue music a little bit.

I have this band and he's like, "If you find anything in Nashville, I'll sign off on it." I said, "Okay." I called Will LeDoux, Chris LeDoux's middle boy, and Will and I grew up together as friends. Will's great.

The whole family is great, but I called Will. I said, "Does Chris's old manager do internships?" Cuz this is at the time when Chris had already passed away and he's like, "Yeah, he does. It's His name's TK Kimbrell.

Uh they do internships, so he hooked me up with them and I flew down for an interview and said, "Yeah, I'd like to come down and intern to finish my degree." And they said, "Sure, we'd love to have you. We've never had anybody fly in for an internship where you work for free, but you're hired. So I If you're dumb enough Yeah.

You want to work for free? Yeah, and you flew down here? Yeah. But I just I really wanted to go to Nashville and see the scene and live there for a second.

Yeah, but holy I mean you're going to work for Toby. Yeah, and so, you know, TK Kimbrell also managed Toby Keith. So, everybody's like TK and Toby, but yeah, TK Kimbrell was great. He managed Chris.

He managed Sawyer Brown. Oh, so TK Yeah, so TK is the manager. Yep. Okay.

Kimbrell's the manager and he you know, managed you know, a bunch of great artists. Uh he's one of the most powerful/best managers in town. Like TK was great to me. So, I interned at TKO in the mornings and they said, "You know, the record label's upstairs.

If you want to intern at the record label in the afternoon, you can too at Show Dog." Which was Toby's label. So, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm here. I'll be doing something."

So, interned there for three or four months, I think. And then uh TK's company said, "Hey, you know, you want to stay in Nashville and uh work for us, you can." So, I hired on. I was like, "I'm here.

I'll just I felt like I wanted to stay in Nashville a whole year." And uh I knew I wasn't going to live there forever. Just I love Wyoming, but yeah, some of my jobs working for Toby was it was being with Toby a lot. So, when he was tracking records and singing in the studio, he'd come to town and initially somebody else would drive Toby.

So, he'd fly in on his jet, private airport, you'd pick him up, and just kind of stay with him three or four days until he flies out. And that guy quit, Brent, and said I said, "Hey, you're going to drive Toby from now on when he comes in." I said, "Okay." And you know, I grew up as a ranch kid.

You know when to shut the F up and when to talk. So, like, you know, they gave me the speech of like, you don't be that guy. I was like, hey. So, I was just like super respectful, picked Toby up first time and did my thing and Toby really kind of got to like me just cuz I was respectful, you know, the cowboy way of being quiet, talk when they ask you to talk and be quiet when you're supposed to be quiet.

So, yeah, we I would got to sit through those recordings and they were tracking albums, just a fly on the wall. I'm just sitting there going like, holy [expletive] And this is before I tracked before I did Honky Tonk Road. So, this is before I ever did a big album or a real album. I'm just watching this like Toby Keith recording an album is freaking crazy.

And then, you know, became where Toby like really liked me, called me Wyoming and I would just be respectful to him and drive him wherever he needed to drive. And his wife, Tricia, was great. The whole family, I mean, great people. And I when I moved to Nashville, I still had my rodeo van.

It was an old '95 Chevy van, you know, big conversion van that we rodeoed out of and I was parked I was dro- I was dropping TK off one night at Lowe's at the hotel cuz they were Toby was going to go to the BMI Awards. He was getting honored with uh Willie Nelson. They were going to do a song together. So, I was supposed to drive somebody, but not Toby.

I roll up there in the van. Toby's like, whose van is that? TK's like, it's Chancey's. He's like, screw this limo.

Let's take that van. No way. Yeah, so TK gets in, Toby, Jason, security guard. I mean, Toby's whole entourage.

I'm like, holy [expletive] Like, Toby's in the van. I've got my cowboy hat on, Wyoming plates, right? So, we go to the BMI building and we're in line to get to the red carpet and it's just, you know, black SUVs and limos and this red and white '95 Chevy van. And the parking people are like think I'm just a hillbilly that's lost their turn like direct me out traffic.

TK is like stay right here. We get to the red carpet and Toby Keith cracks the doors like hey honk the horn. Toby Keith rolls out of the soul van. So yeah, they go to the award show.

Toby does his deal with Willie and when I came back to pick him up they kind of had us pegged like all the pop it felt like I was in a movie. All the paparazzi was like in front of the van and TK's like run them. It was over. And he was serious.

Like TK is a great manager. He's like run them over. Beep. I was like I can't.

Dude I'll kill somebody. Excuse me. Damn. And uh So like I think the van thing kind of bonded me and Toby even more after that.

He just treated me so great. And you know I was living in Nashville. I didn't know one person. Like I went down there I didn't know anybody in Nashville.

It was lonely. I come from Wyoming where I know half the state. I was like oh man I don't know if I like it down here. So years go on I quit down there and moved back start the band and we were playing around Wyoming and we were playing at Cheyenne Frontier Days beer tent and had got done.

And it was like 2:00 a. m. and I went back to the hotel room and uh the hotel phone rings. I pick up the hotel phone and they're like hey we have Toby Keith down here.

I'm like I was kind of alcoholed up. I've been drinking. But after you drove? No, this is this is like we were playing in Cheyenne.

Okay, we'd already come home. Yeah. The hotel phone calls like we have Toby Keith. I was like [expletive] put him on.

He was like what are you doing? Get down here. We just flew in cuz Toby was playing the main stage the next day. Okay, so I throw on my boots forget to put socks on.

I just was such in a hurry and he's like, "Hey, let's go cruise around in the van." It's like 3:00 in the morning in Cheyenne. He gets his Jason was driving. We're driving around Cheyenne.

Run out of beer. So, I was like, "Let's go get some more beer." I'm like, "Yeah, it's They don't serve beer in Wyoming after 2:00." And then I already had enough.

And Toby was like, "I know where there's beer. Jason, go to the airport." So, they go to private airport and just key into the tarmac and just nose the old van up to the Toby's jet. Toby's got whiskey and you know, stuff on the We uh we partied.

So, did you all just hang out on the jet? Yeah. All night. Everybody's sleeping on there.

Me and Toby were up drinking. And all I could think too was I didn't have any socks on cuz I had left in such a hurry. I just put my boots on. I'm like, "It'd be weird to ask Toby for a pair of socks."

"Bro, you uh you have any extra socks on you?" Did you ask him? No. Oh.

But that night I did. I was like uh I you know, I was feeling pretty good. I was like, "Hey, I just threw it out there. I was like, 'You know, if you need help singing Should've Been a Cowboy tomorrow, Cheyenne, I've been there.

I've been practicing it for all these years.'" He's like, "Be there tomorrow." I was just kind of joking, you know. He's like, "No, be there tomorrow.

Come up and sing with me." 20,000 people in Cheyenne, you know. gosh. So, I was like, "Holy shit."

So, I you know, woke up in the morning and texted Kirk Malloy, his agent, who's now my agent. I'm like, "Hey man, was Toby serious about last night?" He's like, "Yeah, he's always serious." So, I was like, "All right."

I just showed up. He's like, "Just come to the show early and we'll figure it out." you had never played uh Frontier Days at that point. we had opened for like Merle Haggard and a few folks there before with my band.

But like, I'm fixing to go sing Toby Keith's biggest song that made his whole career. Yeah, like in my backyard of Cheyenne in front of 20,000 people. Like don't screw this up. Yeah, and make them a mistake.

I mean, you know, like typically when an artist pulls on like another artist smaller than them at a certain point in the set, it's usually at a spot where maybe they know the crowd won't be that into it at that point. But the second you pull somebody on stage, everybody cheers, it kind of gets them re-engaged. But they don't use their biggest song for that. that all the time.

There's stars in country music and there's superstars. Like Toby was one of the superstars, you know, it's like Tim McGraw's, Toby, Keith Urban, like there's those guys that are the superstars. How many of those superstars let their intern come sing their biggest song of their career? None.

I mean Yeah. know any of the other guys. But Toby's like, "Yeah, come sing Should've Been a Cowboy." Call me out.

So like, he didn't tell me where or what to sing. Just called me out. Like Wait, so you were you were side stage? Yeah.

Uh who'd you have with you? Just me. Just you? And I was up there with Curt Motley, who's Toby's agent.

Yeah. My agent now and uh Curt's like, "You look a little nervous." I'm like, "Yeah, I am nervous. I'm very nervous."

Yeah, Curt. Yeah. And Micah was Toby's background singer. She's the greatest.

She's like, "Are you going to do so great?" She's like, so I'm like Ooh. So I went out and sang with Toby, you know, it was a memory that I'll have forever cuz Cheyenne's my backyard, my favorite rodeo, sang with Toby Keith, Should've Been a Cowboy. Like felt like a dream.

And uh Yeah, then years went on, you know, stayed in contact with their camp and Toby was great and then the one of the coolest memories of Toby that I still have on my phone was I was singing the Opry and Micah is also background singer there and she's like, "Hey, let's send Toby a picture." This like not long before Toby passed. She's like, "Let's send Toby a picture." So, we send Toby a picture from Micah's phone and she's like, "Hey, this one says hello."

And Toby writes back, "My oldest son." Mhm. I was like, "Oh." Mhm.

Which I thought in the moment was super cool. I was like, "Oh, man, that's cool. Toby called me his oldest son." You know, and then couple months later Toby passed.

So, I like kept that picture. I was like, "Holy shit." You know, like just that, you know, not that just that he thought that much of me. I was just I was just an intern that kept my mouth shut that did my job and he respected that.

No doubt. Yeah. Toby was the greatest man. That's so cool.

you know couple years before that we got to go out on tour with him for about five dates and it was so fun. Where did y'all play there? Let's see, we did like uh did one in Billings, did one in Sioux Falls. A few out east.

What years would that have been? It'd been like 20 three, probably. Yeah, 2023. Yeah.

Yeah, it was awesome. You know, and just we were first of three. It was us and Colt Ford and Toby. But the fact that Toby was like, "Yeah, I have a chance to come out."

And he told the van story one night to the whole crowd in Sioux Falls. He's like, "Oh, William showed up in his van." He's like "Drove me to the award show." Like it's on We have it on YouTube, but it's just I've met a We've opened for a lot of art bigger artists and, you know, 98% of them have all been great, but like nobody's that down to earth.

You know what I mean? Like all through the years people will ask me, "Yeah, how cool is Toby?" Like you see him on stage or TV, he's kind of this tough guy. He's like the greatest.

I was like, "If he was here right now, he'd be drinking beer with us." Yeah, but it but Yeah, he wasn't like necessarily maybe like a softy. Like he's probably going to cut up and give you a hard time and Oh, dude, they're the they're the kings of pranks. Cuz I cuz I've definitely noticed when big artists get pegged as like kind of being a jerk or oh, he's kind of full of himself and that or like, you know, whatever kind of intense or mean looking or something.

It's like, well, are you kind of soft, too? Like you kind of got intimidated and got your feelings hurt by them cuz that's not totally their fault. very kind to all of his fans and to everybody in his camp. Yeah.

But also like don't cross Toby. He's for one huge. And like, you know, he always rolls around with security guard, Jason, uh, was a Marine and you didn't mess with Jason, but you know, that was for a reason. Toby could handle his own anywhere cuz everybody's like, "Why does Toby need a security guard?"

It's like, "Cuz if Toby punches that guy, they're going to sue him. If Jason punches him, he's doing his job." Yeah. Yeah, so it was great, man.

It was which, you know, also helped me in my music career. So all those relationships I met through Toby have helped me in some way today. Like I said, Kurt Mosley's my agent that was Toby's. We were friends when I was an intern.

TK is one of the best managers out there. I've called numerous times over the years just for advice and he's told me yes and no on things. I remember I was young. Place wanted to give us a management/record deal.

We were pretty young and it I called TK and he's like, "Don't do it." And it was hard for young artists like everybody wants record deal. He was like, "Don't sign that. Tell them no."

Like okay. Thank God. Yeah. Yeah.

You look at some of these things, but yeah, so between like, uh, you know, Chris LeDoux giving us a break when we were young and Toby Keith, that's kind of helped me get to where I am today, you know. What was the Chris LeDoux break? What was that? even before Toby.

Like Chris Uh did I might remember didn't your dad Yeah, so like go to college with him or something? so Chris, you know, everybody from Wyoming knows Chris, you know, but like Dad and Chris rodeoed together at Casper College and a little bit there. Chris was a couple years older than Dad. But uh you know, they were friends.

So we're you know, growing up we just knew kind of Chris as Dad's friend. I didn't you know, you're too young to know music and stuff. And then uh we got old enough to know him. We're like, "Oh man, that's Chris LeDoux, you know, Chris is the king of Wyoming."

And you know, I say this in it every interview, no matter who comes out of Wyoming, me or whoever, Chris will always be the king of Wyoming. He is. Hell yeah. He paved the way for everybody to everything and you know, lived two lifetimes in half a lifetime, you know, Chris died I think when he was 55 or I can't remember that.

But you know, but Chris won the world in the bareback riding and then was very successful in music. Like that's two huge lifetime careers in a half of a lifetime. Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, aren't y'all the only two that have rode in Frontier Days and played? Yeah, and that's that, you know, that gets brought up a lot in interviews.

I love it, too, because you know, I mean, it's a rare stat. For one, there's not a lot of guys that have rodeod at that high level that uh have also played music at that high level. So yeah, for the two of us to both have rode there and played there is a cool stat to have with Chris LeDoux. It's so cool.

But when we were young, you know, we had this band in high school and we were playing these rodeos with Casey Neatly uh Casey had a rodeo every Friday and we'd go down and ride broncs. We went down to basically camp and drink beer with the Casey kids, but we'd ride broncs on the side. But Chris knew about us cuz his kids were the same age as us, you know, Cindy and Beau and Will were all kind of around the same age and so we knew him and we'd go out to their house and, you know, have a few beers after the nightly once in a while and get on the bucking machine and stuff and so we kind of got to been playing a few rodeos around and we were not good. Like we're high school band, like, you know, well, this at this point we were in college, still not good.

But uh I had called Peggy, I had called their house phone to get Ned's number cuz Ned was living in Nashville. And we were going to go down there for spring break. So I just called Peggy and I was like, "Hey can I get Ned's uh phone number? We're going to go to spring break in Nashville."

Is Ned the oldest boy or No, Clay's the oldest. Clay, Ned uh Will, Cindy. Okay. Beau, yeah.

But so we get I get Ned's number. I was like, "Oh, thanks, Peggy." And I was like I'm going to shoot my shot. I was like, "Hey, Peggy, how would like a band like us ever get to get into doing like opening stuff?"

You know, I didn't know how anything worked. Like again we didn't think about music. She's like, "Oh, shoot, well, Chris is right here. He's in the bathtub.

Let me put him on." So like Chris gets on the phone and he's like, "You know, uh would you like to open for us in Billings?" hold on. She said what?

Chris is in the bathtub? Yeah, she's like, "Chris is taking a bath." But she's like, "I'll put him on." I called their landline.

This is in the olden days. So this is Chris LeDoux sitting in his bathtub with one of those curly I assume. But Peggy and Chris were the greatest. Like Chris you know, I would see him at the high school rodeos and he'd be like, "Hey, how's the band doing?"

I'm like, "Well, shoot. We're awesome." We were not awesome. But like another example of a big artist like that just going out on a whim for a nobody, you know, like Chris is like, "Hey, would you like to open for us in Billings this August?"

I'm like, "Whoa, jeez. I mean, this would be the biggest thing we've ever done." Never mind, we're not that good. We weren't that good.

We thought we were. There's a recording somewhere of it which I'm trying to still bury out there. Yeah. It's not on the internet which is good, but We definitely wouldn't pull it up right now.

is just like, "Yeah, just He's like, you know, my guitar player and tour manager Mark Sissel will reach out." and He's like, "Just be there August 14th or whatever." I can't remember the date, but 2002. So we practiced our little set, you know, we had like 45 minutes and just I mean, just a bunch of covers.

I think we had like one original song, but played them all about a million miles an hour. Yeah. But I remember doing soundcheck and Chris walking out in the in the Billings in the Metra, they call it up there, listen to our soundcheck and I was like, "I just really want to do really good." cuz he went out on a limb and just let us open for him.

Yeah. And never heard us, but you know, his kids had heard us. I'm sure they're like, "Yeah, Chance's band playing out at Barneby and this and that." and Then I got off stage and Chris is like, "Man, looks like you were meant to be on stage."

I was like, "Really?" Maybe that's what made me want to do music. Whoa. Yeah.

I think it was one of those moments I go, "Maybe I can do this." Were you pretty unsure up to that point? I mean, I don't know. I didn't know what how to perform.

I was playing bass and singing for us and Yeah, that's the other one. Yeah. I played bass for the first eight years of the band, but I don't know. I just You know, I get compared to Chris a lot and I tell everybody in every interview like I did look up to Chris a lot.

He was a rodeo cowboy from Wyoming, but I never wanted to be Chris cuz like you mean you get compared? Just cuz of the rodeo thing. Um, and being from Wyoming, there's not very many of us. Um, and probably the sound a little bit like when we were rodeoing, we had all the Chris LeDoux tapes and CDs and that's all we listened to going to rodeos.

So like that had to mold my music mind of what I write about and I like Fastest Gun in Town and some of these songs I've put out uh, The Saint, you know, The Saint is a song that Chris could have done. But we didn't intentionally write it that way. It just kind of I think it's things you grow up with hearing. But I, you know, I've never wanted to act or tell anybody in Wyoming I want to be the next Chris LeDoux.

There'll never be a next Chris LeDoux. That was one and done. He's the king of Wyoming. See, what's really funny about that is like I like the spirit and the energy of Chris LeDoux, I'm just like obsessed with.

Uh, Second to none, man. and uh, I mean cuz I've dropped his name in a couple of my songs and I and I've always but I don't have that much in common like with him as a person necessarily. Like we just live different lives. Um, but just geographically where I grew up, like I've dropped his name in ways where I'm like even with my new music that's coming out, it's kind of it's definitely rocking.

It's got a rodeo rock thing. Right. But it also has like these kind of 90s grunge punk things going on with it, too, which like came after Chris. So but when Chris came out with his music, he was going for this he was coming out of like arena rock and the big hair band stuff.

So he was kind of the first guy in country that was doing like, you know, these like big rock songs but in the cowboy rodeo thing. And that hadn't been done before. I met Cindy and Bo and Will, like they weren't listening to country music. No.

They were listening to AC/DC. Like we'd be sitting at his nightly rodeos and be rocking rock and roll. I'm like, is this Chris LeDoux's kids? So he 100% identified like, wait, hold on.

The thing that the rodeo cowboys want to hear is like this rock and stuff. Um but like I don't sing like him. I don't like really sound like him. I don't like really write like him or anything.

But the energy and the spirit of it. Like I've told people I'm like, oh yeah, I want to like go for the Chris LeDoux thing. But geographically, that's different for me. Like when I say it to people, and I've never been compared to him either.

Uh so but when I say it to people, it they don't have like it's just funny that like you actually have you it's like you could be the next Chris LeDoux. But yet when you get compared to it, it's kind of a little odd. like I Do I like being compared to Chris? Sure.

Like he's one of my heroes as a musician. know if I was saying that. No, but like heroes like in cowboys and stuff was like my dad and stuff, right? But like in music is obviously Chris and George Strait and stuff just cuz like they were cowboys, but yeah, that I like being compared to it, but like I always tell people like, hey, don't put me in that category cuz that Chris there's a whole like in Wyoming and if you say Mhm.

somebody's like if you talk [expletive] on Chris or think somebody's better, like it's sacrilegious. I guess that's my point is down here just because of the geographic thing, when I drop like people don't like drop his name that much down here. Well, for you it's like Bob Wills and George Strait down here. Well, exactly.

Bob Wills is still the king. somebody says I'm going to be the next George Strait, that's like sacrilege. Nobody will. But if you say like, oh I really want to do that.

I want to be like the freaking next Chris LeDoux. Down here people would like, hell yeah. I love Chris LeDoux. Yeah.

And that kind of sucks, too, cuz like it's Well, if you think now like if Chris was still alive, like with this Yellowstone movement and all this cowboy underground type like real authentic stuff, like Chris might be as big as Zach Bryan right now. Like with because his stuff was so like real. Yes. Which is and like raw.

Which is kind of why do you think Garth copped it? Dude. That's the hot take right there. Live show and everything.

This is This is my take on was the first guy running around with a little headset? Yeah. Oh. This is my take on Garth.

Uh I think Garth was super smart befriending Chris, right? Cuz I remember when I was a kid at the fair and these little rodeos, Garth Brooks came out and was like you know, he's singing songs about rodeo and his you could tell he wasn't We were still judging cowboys back then. But like Garth wasn't super welcomed by the western world and rodeo people when he came out. Right?

He was like, "Oh, he sings He has a song called rodeo." And I'm like, "Psh." Lariats and this and that and like then Chris then Garth befriended Chris. Smartest thing he did.

Well, you know, Much Too Young made Chris and Garth both, I would say. Cuz that was like Garth's big hit. But he put a worn-out tape of Chris LeDoux in there. So, it kind of helped them both.

Yep. Like Garth befriending Chris was smart for Garth's career. Cuz it the cowboy world was like all right. If he's friends with Chris he can be friends with us.

Dude, it's a tale as old as time with entertainment and showbiz. man. Well, yeah, but that happens in like across genres and with everybody. Like you get large and you get bigger.

You get more authentic. in the rodeo world being friends with Chris LeDoux. Oh, no doubt about it. No doubt about it.

I don't know if that's right or not, but I've always thought, man, that Cuz if Garth wasn't friends with Chris and still putting out rodeo type songs, would the rodeo world have been like, "Shh, poser." Or now that he's friends with Chris LeDoux, like, "Oh, okay." Poser. When did you bring that back?

We do. That's the perfect term. It's just poser, and it doesn't have too much vitriol. Just a poser.

Yeah, so that's my how I got started Chris and Toby. Yep. That is so cool, man. Yeah.

I've been fortunate, man, to be surrounded by some cool people. Well, and it's turned into something really, really special. Um cuz I've gone up there and opened some shows now for you, which you were very gracious to let me to let me do that. So, they're a blast.

And it's just until you go up there and experience the people. Like we did the white trash bash in April at the Laramie in Laramie at the Cowboy. Mhm. Badass bar.

Yeah. The owners are so cool, too. Different owners than used to own it. Yep.

New owners are killing it, too. But the new owners, didn't they go to school there, as well? And you've known them for a while, I think. to school together, but yeah, there's The Cowboy is something special.

You know, and it's been good for a lot of years, but it kind of got, you know, every bar owner gets tired at some point, but these new owners are killing it. Yeah, so you How long have you been doing that white trash bash? Let's see. I think we figured it up last year, maybe 12, 13 years.

Yeah, so We started it as a half-a-ween, okay? So, like, my band loves dressing up for Halloween. You say it again. I'll get to it.

Okay. So, we used to take Well, we still do take Halloween. If we end up playing Halloween, take it serious, like, the right costumes, details, everybody goes to the nines on Halloween. One day we're like, "Man, I wish we could dress up a couple times a year, you know?

Like, what if we do half-a-ween, which is 6 months after Halloween, half the year?" Like, all right, so that would be around April. Okay? What do we do?

Let's have a theme party. You know, you have toga party, office hoes, and you know, there was all those theme parties like We need to do something that's super uh easy for everybody to dress up. Cuz we're not going to get a whole bar full of people in togas, probably. Maybe.

That'd have been fun. Like, what do we But you're like, it's pretty much the same thing. What if we just have white trash? Like, everybody can just dress white trashy.

Cut your sleeves off, put a mullet on, jean shorts, fake tattoos, oh yeah, missing teeth. Y'all go all out. Yeah, and so it was great. I mean, the thing is built into something crazy where it's just a thing.

You know, and during cancel culture, people are like, you can't call it white trash. I'm like, "Listen, I'm white trash. Yeah. I'm making fun of myself."

Yeah, jeez. So, that's a fun event, but Dude, I have How many of shirt like the There's a scene in the Wyoming, North South Dakota, Montana, that's like you guys's Texas scene that's hardcore that people know the music and They turn out, man. And they get rowdy. Yeah.

But in like such a fun way, too. Yeah. they're so engaged. Yeah.

And just I think it is it's so rural up there, too, that I think there's like people are so excited when stuff is going on. going on, especially in the winter. If there's an event, everybody kind of turns out for it. So, it's good.

I've never seen anybody in our like world, country music, folk, whatever you want to call it, Texas country, like I haven't seen anyone crowd surf. Oh, yeah. And I was never big into metal or anything like I don't they Mike, do they crowd surf at metal shows? Yeah.

Okay. Is that a thing? Dude, we started that years ago. You're the first guy I've seen and this happened twice now.

The first night I met you, you crowd surfed. Oh, yeah, in Sheridan. Yeah, we got it cuz you like invited me up there to do a song or something, and you just went out, and then I was just on stage. First time I met you and I'm just on stage like looking at all these people and there's like 2,000 people out there and I'm just kind of waving at you and you're just out there crowd surfing and I'm like I hope he comes back cuz I don't really know where the song's going.

You got to you got to you did it at White Trash Bash, dude, dude. And like there's like people like hanging from the rafters. I was like this is so fun. It's funny those places we play where people actually cut loose.

Like there's places we play where people will drink. People will enjoy the show but like I love those markets where people like get wild. Yeah, but they weren't disrespectful either. Like they were so engaged.

They weren't disrespectful. some places we play where people will be drinking and just like yeah. Yeah. But like I like those places where people kind of they haven't been to town in a few months they're ready to get wild.

to turn up. Those are fun places. I know, but even at that one like when you played you kind of have a down everybody has a little down part in their set might be acoustic and all that. Like the place was still turning upside down.

You played some ballads and they were still like in it. That's a that's a fun one. You should come do it again this year. Yeah, that would be We would freaking blow it out.

W T B But we can't we can't do any bigger. You already you've been doing it big for freaking Yeah. That's why I want people to like understand that like you go up there and like the shows I've played for I mean there's thousands of people. That one we did for New Year's too there's like 3,000 people out there.

Yep, that's a good one. Huge shows. Yeah, it's a we've done well in our market, you know, we've played that area. It's like I said again it's like the Texas boys have had their circuit.

We kind of got that up there and I think every artist will tell you that's the dream is to expand your geography and make what we have in Wyoming be that big in Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas and Georgia and like that's the dream. Getting that geography bigger. Just get the word out. Yep.

One White Trash Bash at a time. One White Trash I had a You have to. You like you dressed me for that one. I did.

Not like You like you Not physically. Well, yeah, yeah, I mean like you gave me Yeah. Yeah. I gave you clothes.

But like some clothes. Yeah, correct. Correct. I don't want to be out.

Yeah, anyway. Also, Brokeback is that's from that's Wyoming. Montana. Dude, I don't know the facts on it.

You have to fact-check me. I don't even know what that movie is. I don't even know what you're talking about. I've never watched the movie.

I'll send it to you. You have it on DVD? Well, I do private screenings every other week. You would.

It's a bi-monthly private screening that we do. I think I think that onset the stuff they did was in Texas. I think it was Decatur, wasn't it? It was Decatur, Texas.

It was it? Yeah, that was the Yeah. Well, then most of the screenwriting happened here. Yeah, where they actually wrote the script.

For sure. Yeah, that was us Texas boys down here. He pulled it up. It was set The story is set in Wyoming.

However, filmed in Alberta, Canada. Oh, there we go. That makes more sense. We should call Corb and have him verify this.

Yeah, he's got his shirt on. Hey Corb, uh they filmed a movie up there we'd like to have some questions about. Chance is taking a lot of heat for this. Yeah.

I'm looking dead in the camera. Chance is taking a lot of heat for this Wyoming Brokeback thing. I've looked on every map that mountain doesn't even exist in Wyoming, okay? Is this Wait, hold on.

It's not even there. I think it's a metaphorical mountain. Thank goodness. Dude, I love it.

Thanks for doing this. Hey, thanks for having me. I think you're going with the plan of like Are you going to do an album or release singles as we as we go? I've released a bunch of single I've released seven singles since an album.

So, I think the next move is put them with a few new ones and package that as an album. Totally. And then start doing singles again. I don't know.

Is the most recent one Pearl Snap Preacher? Yeah. Yeah, it's such a cool part of your set when you play that one, too. You do like a full bluegrass band.

Yeah. Upright bass. Yeah, Jay's awesome at upright. Wyatt never played Dobro till about a few months ago.

He's like, "Dude, that song's got Dobro in it." I was like, "I know." He's like, "I'll buy one." I was like, "Uh mm.

You can't just like learn to play the Dobro overnight." So, Wyatt learned one song. Yeah, that's what Well, actually two now. He's got Tin Roof, too, but like Wyatt kills it on the Dobro.

Oh, it sounds great. I know. He just like learned it up. What a cool part What a cool part of the set I know.

to be able to pull it down like that. And it's really difficult. special, man, and it kind of called for that bluegrass feel. Mhm.

And so we worked it up that way with another song, but yeah, Pearl Snaps been doing good. Video's awesome. My dad's in it. It's fun.

Yeah, and then the one right before that was Take One for the Team, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's fun. in that. Yeah, your boy was in that one.

Yeah. We had to cut a lot of stuff out of it, though. We did. Why don't you take one Take one for the team?

Yeah. Yeah. You got We had to cut some of your scenes. Yeah, we had to cut a lot of them, I think.

Unfortunately. It happens. With me, yeah, for sure, it happens a lot. That was mostly me.

Acting's hard. Not for you. Well, you've been in movies, too, now. Now you're like a movie star.

Well, one. What if I get cut from it? I've been telling everybody I'm in a movie and then I get cut. That'd be bad.

help you with that. Okay. I just got cut out of a music video recently. You did?

Yeah. Whose? Uh it's this guy um Chauncy. You didn't get cut.

You're still in it. Dude, you need to put out the hot dog I edited together this video of you making You got a hot dog toaster. Yeah, I got on TikTok, you know, they sell things. There's a hot dog toaster.

Dude. We Yeah. It's one of the Like I've never shown a video of somebody else. I got I know you edited it.

I'll put it out, I promise. I Well, no, even this the raw footage of you dog footage. The raw dog footage of you of you cooking those hot dogs. They haven't quite nailed down the science, right?

They're burnt on the outside but frozen in the middle. Yeah, you said You said they are I remember exactly how you said it. You said Yeah, they are unbelievably hot on the outside. On the outside.

They were just burnt. cold as hell. Cold as hell in the middle, yeah. So, if you like a bit of both of those, these hot dog coasters.

It was like a double Anyways, you need to post that video. Deal. It's the funniest thing ever. You need to do it over that clip right there.

Hot dog coaster. All right, well, y'all go listen to Chancey. He's a He's a good He's unbelievable person. Thanks for having me on, man.

Appreciate it. Same on the stage as off the stage. to be. And those are the people I like to be around.

Hey. Thank you, too. Keep kicking ass. Cow bros.

Cow bros. Cow homies. What that's what ET did. Edit that out.

That was